Collection Showing: Miniatures
February 9, 2010
The Ziibiwing Center presents the “Miniatures Collection Showing,” on Sat., Feb 20. William Johnson, Ziibiwing Center Curator will be moderating the show on Sat. only from 10am-3pm. The Miniatures Collection Show will also be on display in the lobby Feb. 22-27. All show dates are free & open to the public.
The Ziibiwing Center gives home to an awe inspiring collection of miniature artwork. These miniscule objects attest to the patience, steady hand, and creativity of the artist. Horsehair baskets by the Antone, Juan, and Miguel families of the Tohono O’odham; black ash baskets by the Crampton and Red Arrow families of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan; and dental pictographs by Kelly Church of the Grand Traverse Bay Band of Ottawa & Chippewa Indians will be on display. Witness the delicate beauty of these remarkeable pieces of art.
Update
February 1, 2010
The ZCKids Blog (www.ZCKids.wordpress.com) will no longer be updated. At the end of this week, the ZCKids Blog will merge with this Ziibiwing Blog. Along with our adult information, this blog will also have fun pages with children’s activities like games, chatting, and interesting Anishinabe facts. Stay Tuned!
Anishinabe Fine Art, Jewelry, Crafts & More!
January 25, 2010
Check Out the Ziibiwing Center’s
New E-Commerce Site!
NativeDirect.com is an online retail outlet for Ziibiwing’s Commercial Services Department. Open since June 2009, the NativeDirect.com webstore houses Anishinabe fine art, jewelry, arts & crafts, apparel, books & media, logo merchandise, corporate jewelry, and much more!
The NativeDirect.com webstore consists of four local Anishinabe retailers operated by the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan. The retail outlets include the Dawe-Wi-Gamingoonse (Main) Gift Shop, Naanooshke Gallery, Jeemon-Aince (Slot Palace) Gift Shop, and the Meshtoonigewinoong (Ziibiwing) Gift Shop. Three stores are located within the casinos and the Meshtoonigewinoog Gift Shop is located within the Ziibiwing Center.
In addition, NativeDirect.com also sells Ziibiwing membership opportunities. There are a variety of memberships to choose from including Basic to Premier Levels. Some benefits of becoming a Ziibiwing Member include free unlimited year-long admission to the museum, 10% discount at the Ziibiwing Center Gift Shop and NativeDirect.com., the weekly E-Noodaagan electronic newsletter, upcoming events calendar, and much 
more.
Daily online discounts on specialty products are also available under the Specials Tab! This week’s special is on Soy Basic Candles. BUY TWO or MORE and RECEIVE 50% OFF EACH CANDLE.
For more information on Anishinabe Fine Art and Ziibiwing Memberships visit
www.NativeDirect.com or call (989) 775-4783
Sign your Kids up for the Anishinabe Performance Circle!
January 13, 2010
The Junior and Senior Anishinabe Performance Circle dance classes are starting up again. This 12-week certification program meets weekly on Tuesdays until May 4, 2010. The mission of the Anishinabe Performance Circle is aimed at promoting and enhancing positive self images of all children through the use of traditional Anishinabe arts (storytelling, dance, music, and language) and preparing our youth as leaders in a multicultural society.
The Senior Performance Circle targets youth 6-16 years of age with dance experience or graduates from a previous class. The Junior Performance Circle is for youth who are 3-16 years of age and at a beginning dance level. A child-parent commitment is needed for children 6 years & under to participate.
Overview, Sign-Up, & First Class • January 19
4-5:30pm – Senior Circle
5:30-6:30pm – Junior Circle
Click the link below for more details and to download the registration form:
http://www.sagchip.org/ziibiwing/promo/2010/jan/PCRegForm.pdf
Ziibiwing is Ringing in the New Year!
January 6, 2010
The New Year means a new beginning! What is your New Year’s Resolution? Would you like to become more educated, more cultured, or more diversified? Would you like to spend more time participating in family activities? Or would like to learn a new skill, such as another language or a craft? As 2009 closes, the Ziibiwing Center has many programs and activities to offer throughout 2010 to help make these resolutions a reality!
If learning a new language is something that interests you, than the Anishinabemowin Club is the perfect activity to attend. The Anishinabemowin Club meets January 13 and 27 from 5-7pm in the Ziibiwing Center’s Immersion Room. You and your friends and family can gather and learn the beautiful Anishinabe language for free. All club meetings include a potluck dinner. Please bring a dish to pass. Future meetings are held on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month. New members are always welcome!
If wanting to spend more time with the little ones was your resolution, then the Lil’ Language Warriors Club is a great activity to get involved in. The club meets January 14 and 28 (2nd and 4th Thursday of every month) from 4-5pm. Bring your 3-6 year olds to Ziibiwing for fun family Ojibwe language activities, games, and songs. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
Both the Anishinabemowin and Lil’ Language Warriors Club are free and open to the public. Please feel free to contact Yvette at (989) 775-4738 if you have any questions.
Keep checking in with us for updates on future events throughout the year. Events include workshops, collection showings, Music & Comedy Night, Art Market, Gift Shop specials, and much more!
Anishinabe Santa is coming to town!
December 10, 2009
Last Saturday, Anishinabe Santa flew in on his toboggan and landed on the roof of the Winter Lodge in the Diba Jimooyung: Telling our Story permanent exhibit. He came down through the smoke hole to see all the girls and boys and their families too!
He’ll be back this Saturday, December 12, from 10am-5pm ready for photos and dressed in an American Indian inspired suit. The kids can enjoy telling Santa their wish lists as well as making a candy necklace, coloring, and storytelling while your photos are being printed. You can even get a little holiday shopping done at the Meshtoonigewinoong Gift Shop.
Come see our beautiful set and backdrop that looks like a Michigan winter with a river, snow, birch trees, and beautiful sunset.
Hope to see you on Saturday and be ready to Smile for Santa!
‘Twas the Night Before Ojibwe Christmas
December 3, 2009
From: pas de deux (pas_de_deux@sympatico.ca)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.baltics
Date: 2002-12-26 13:16:28 PST
‘Twas the Night Before Ojibwe Christmas
By Tara Prindle
‘Twas the night before Niibaa-anamaíegiizhigad, when all through the wiigiwaam
Not an awakaan was stirring, not even a waawaabiganoojiinh;
The moccasins were hung by the smoke hole with care,
In hopes that Miigiwe Miskwaa Gichi Inini soon would be there;
The abinoojiinhyag were nestled all snug in their nibaaganan,
While visions of ziinzibaakwad danced in their nishttigwaan;
And nimaama in her moshwens, and I in my makadewindibe,
Had just settled down for a long biiboon zhiibaangwashi,
When outside the wiigiwaam there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the nibaagan to see what was the matter.
Away to the waasechigan I flew like inaabiwin,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the gibiigaíiganiigin.
The dibik-giizis on the breast of onaaband
Gave a shine like duct tape to objects zazagaamagad,
When, what to my wondering nishkiizhigoon should appear,
But a miniature toboggan, and eight tiny waawaaskeshi,
With a little old driver, so lively and wajepii,
I knew in a moment it must be Miigiwe Miskwaa Gichi Inini.
More rapid than migiziwag his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and biibaagi, and izhi-wiinde by name;
“Now, Bimibatoo! now, Niimi! now, Babaamishimo and Moozhikwe!
On, Anang! on Zaagi! on, Animikii and Wawaasese!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wiigiwaam!
Now Bimibide! Ipide! Ombibidemagad!”
As dry leaves that before the wiindigoo fly,
When they meet with BIA, mount to the sky,
So up to the apakwaan the coursers they flew,
With the tobaggon full of toys, and Miigiwe Miskwaa Gichi Inini too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the apakwaan
The prancing and pawing of each little inzid.
As I drew in my iniji, and was turning around,
Down the chimney Miigiwe Miskwaa Gichi Inini came with a bound.
He was dressed all in gipagawe, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with bingwiand and soot;
A bundle of toys he mangiwane on his back,
And he looked like a adaawewinini just opening his pack.
His ishkiinzigoon — how they twinkled! his inowan how merry!
His miskwanowan were like roses, his nose like a choke-cherry!
His droll little indoon was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as gichimookamaan;
The stump of a opwaagan he held tight in his wiibidaakaajiganan,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a miskwaanzigan;
He was full up on frybread with little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a wiigwaasinaagan of jelly.
He was chubby and wiinin, a right jolly old elf,
And I giimoodaapi when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his ishkiinzigoon and a twist of his mangindibe,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to gotaaji;
He ojibwemo not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the moccasins; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his ibinaakwaanininj aside of his nose,
And wewebikweni, up the smoke hole he rose;
He sprang to his toboggan, to his waawaaskeshi gave a whistle,
And away they all onjinizhimo like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him biibaagi, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Niibaa-anamaíegiizhigad to all, and to all baamaapii.”
The True Thanksgiving
November 24, 2009
I have never spent much time pondering the “true” thanksgiving. I thought I knew by logical deduction that Thanksgiving was actually the Fall Feast of the Wampanog People, who had taught the immigrants how to survive in the new land. To Native people the gifts of the Creator such as taking in a “harvest” is not complete until a ceremony of thanks to the spirits is done. That was all part of the teachings of survival.
The popular image of thanksgiving is a vision of a feast, which took place in 1621 after a treaty signing which gave the English permission to inhabit 12000 acres of land. This feast was not that of giving thanks but one of friendship.
But what is the “true” Thanksgiving all about. In contemporary times Thanksgiving is about this feast of friendship between the Native people of this land and the European Immigrants who first colonized the East Coast. In looking at this scenario there begins a current of pleasantry masking the actual events and crimes against humanity that followed good will and trust offered by our Native people. What part of history is not mentioned in modern times but is evident in the writings of the settlers? Let me offer some information and you may draw your own conclusions based on the words of the immigrants themselves.
The first information, which shows an official announcement of a day of Thanksgiving, took place in 1637. After a massacre as described by historian Francis Jennings regarding the tactics chosen by Captain John Mason of Connecticut. “Battle is only one way to destroy an enemy’s will to fight. Massacre can accomplish the same end with less risk, and Mason had determined that massacre would be his objective.” A tactic was decided upon and carried out by colonists from Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut. The massacre took place when the Pequot’s were in the midst of their “Green Corn Dance”. This is now known as the Underhill Massacre in honor of John Underhill who lead men from Massachusetts.
An unnamed Puritan officer present at the attack has written. “The Indians spying of us came running in multitudes along the water side, crying ‘What cheer, Englishmen, what cheer, what do you come for?’ They not thinking we intended war went on cheerfully.”
Written in History of the Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford is this description of the day’s events. “Those that scaped the fire were sliane with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run throw with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fryer, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and the horrible was the stincke and sente there of , but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for then, thus to inclose their enemise in their hands, and gave them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting and eminie.” This is how, when and where 700-900 Pequot elders, men, women and children spent their last moments.
The “first” documented Day of Thanksgiving was proclaimed by the governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony, John Winthrop: “The 12th of the 8th m. was ordered to bee kept a day o publicke thanksgiving to God for his great m’cies in subdewing the Pecoits, bringing the soldiers in safety, the successe of the conference….”
Warm Up with Soup & Culture!
November 10, 2009
Come help kick off International Week and try some international soups, yummy desserts and breads for $5.00 per person and see our collection of history for free!
The Ziibiwing Center and the Mt. Pleasant International Relations Committee (IRC) invite you to an afternoon of tasting and sharing of favorite international soups on November 14 from 2pm – 5pm. This multi-cultural event is a fundraiser to promote international relations and opportunities. The Ziibiwing Center will also be holding their collection showing from 10am – 5pm. The collection on display is often referred to as the “heart of our organization” and includes a vast assortment of materials that have been donated this year such as original family documents relating to land & family history, historic & rare family photographs, and North American Indian book collections.
The success of our collections relies upon the members of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan and the general public. The All That You Give We Hold in the Highest Regard: Community Donations Exhibit will feature recent and past additions to the Ziibiwing Center Permanent Collection.
Don’t miss your chance to appreciate the generosity of our supporters at this special one-day exhibition that is free and open to the public.
We hope to see you soon!
Spirit Feast
November 5, 2009
Come join the Ziibiwing Center at the Spirit Feast this Friday, November 6 from 6pm – 8pm. The Spirit Feast is an Anishinabe ceremony that honors our ancestors and the loved ones that have gone on before us. It is also considered a healing ceremony for those of us who are still grieving. This is a time to share the special food, photos, and stories of the one(s) who have touched our lives. As we draw close to Veteran’s Day, the Spirit Feast is also a time to remember our relatives who have fallen in foreign lands and may still remain there. A sacred fire will be lit for miijim (food) and semaa (tobacco) offerings.
People of all ages are welcome to partake in this gathering. We ask that all women wear long skirts. Please bring your feast bundles.
The Spirit Feast is free and open to the public.
