6 GROUNDCOVER NEWS STREET MYTH Bear myths and cultural power For me, myths and legends are the glue that holds a culture together. Traditional myths are all about protection and self-preservation in the face of invasion and industrialism. I myself am Native American, a Kaska from the Northern boreal forests of British Columbia and the Yukon Territories. I have two traditional names: one is Gasakadani King Salmon, and the other is my warrior name, Kuleima Fire Woman. My father came from the Tahltan tribe, but I was adopted into a Presbyterian family. Later in life, I returned to my ancestral people and lived with them. So I am the perfect example of the effort to destroy an old tradition, to take a person out of her ancestral world and deposit her in a new one. But I’ve always preserved and reconnected with the old myths, honoring and following my cultural traditions. My grandfather Mike Johnny was one of the last great medicine shamans, a hunter and trapper who lived off the land his entire life, the same way my people lived for thousands of years. He worked as a mule-driver on barges on the river train up the Erie Canal, but he was also a famous bonesetter and healer. The honor for me has always been that he was a traditional shaman. During the invasion of Christians, the Catholic and Protestant churches CINDY GERE Groundcover vendor No. 279 tried to wipe out all the Native shamans in cooperation with the Canadian government. People don’t understand how devastating that actually was. Many shamans like my grandfather subverted them. Grandpa Mike shook the hands of the priests and said he wanted to be a catechist, but would still practice medicine in secret. He set up runners between tribes who would send secret messages when someone got sick, so that he could sneak out and heal those who were ailing. The Catholic church controlled everything and used religion to manipulate people, but the old Native myths survived even in the face of extermination. When my grandmother was 11 years old she went through the Great Disease, also known as the Spanish flu. Two out of seven families in our tribe died out AUGUST 25, 2023 Bear and babe. In her art, Gere often incorporates bear imagery. completely. There were full tribes that were wiped out. Our chief was smart enough to tell everybody to go to their separate hunting lodges, and everybody split during the pandemic and did as he advised. Religion was always about control, but what people call mythology was about people surviving in the face of religion by keeping traditional knowledge and wisdom alive. Grandpa Mike was called a Bear Shaman, since it was his totem animal. There were many myths and legends about bears. Some of the Native myths about bears came out of the similarity between human and bear bodies. If you strip a bear of its fur and its head and lay it out, it looks like a human body. That’s why they call it Brother Bear: it’s like a human being. So there are all these stories about animals and their similarities to humans. We had our trickster stories. We had Wolverine Man, which was similar to Coyote Man in other tribes. These sacred animal stories were passed down in our families for thousands of years because they taught people wisdom. Myths held culture together see BEAR MYTHS page 11 Mental health is health—and we’re here to help. TRISH CORTES — DIRECTOR 24/7 CALL FOR MENTAL HEALTH OR SUBSTANCE USE SUPPORT 734-544-3050 Brought to you by the 2019 - 2026 Washtenaw County Public Safety and Mental Health Preservation Millage washtenaw.org/millage
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