VERMILION RESERVATION- Brody Chosa squinted his eyes as he carefully stuck a needle through two layers of soft, tanned deer hide, sewing together a small medicine bag pouch. Bandaids were required at one point, but there were no complaints from Brody, or the other dozen Bois Forte community members who had joined the evening class at the Bois Forte Heritage Center.
Led by the museum’s language and cultural coordinator, Jessica Anderson Ojala, participants stitched together a small pouch to hold asemaa (tobacco) or cedar leaves, to leave as a gift for the great spirit to give thanks when harvesting animals, plants or other items from the earth.
“When you harvest, you put some tobacco down,” said Anderson Ojala. “So, you are always present with the great spirit.”
As participants finished their bags, they filled them with tobacco leaves.
“You should think good thoughts when you put your tobacco in,” the adults told the younger class members. “Don’t ask for something to be done. Just let the great spirit know what you are happy for. This is for gratitude.”
The class is part of a weekly series being led by Anderson Ojala, and they are funded by a grant from the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council. Ojibwe language is woven into each class. For this class, participants learned both vocabulary and grammar, such as bashkwegin for “leather/hide,” zhaabonigan for “needle,” and nijiitad for “my sinew.”
The classes are free and will be offered weekly through March. Future classes will include making dreamcatchers and beading. Participants included some families, along with a group of four teens who attend Mesabi East, and had learned about the class from one of their teaches and decided to attend. Information on the classes is available on the Bois Forte Heritage Center’s Facebook page.
Students learned how to separate the sinew into thin threads for sewing, and how to handle the deer skin. While the bags created were simple and unadorned, participants were given ideas on how to embellish them with beads once they were home.
The medicine pouches were timely with the start of deer hunting only days away.
“You should ask permission to use the land for hunting,” participants were told. “The tobacco is for gratitude.”
Anderson Ojala teaches Ojibwe classes online and these cultural classes in person. A graduate of Ely High School, she attended Vermilion Community College and then Bemidji State, majoring in Ojibwe and Indigenous Studies. She is now working on her master’s degree at the University of Minnesota in Moorhead.