Hidden Transcripts in the Chippewa Treaty Rights Struggle: A Twice Told Story. Race, Resistance, and the Politics of Power

Abstract

After the Great Flood, Winneboojoo (half-man, half-spirit) found himself resting on a log with the other animals. There was no land to be found. Winneboojoo asked each animal to dive under the water to bring up some muck, from which Winneboojoo would make the New Earth. Each animal tried and failed except muskrat, who gave his life in the effort. Turtle offered his back to receive the spreading muck and in this way Winneboojoo was able to fashion the new world, which the Anishinabe call Turtle Island (North America). Contrast this creation story with the biblical creation story in Genesis, in which man is given dominion over the and Adam is told to name the beasts. In our creation story, animals are not subordinate. They are helpers, co-creators of the world. a distinction reflected in the words of Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe tribal member Nick Hockings. The rights that we have are traditional rights that go back, that extend back, that connect us directly with the earth. Hockings, a cofounder of Was-wa-go-ning, a spearing group that embraces traditional Anishinabe cultural values, told me, It's who we are. If you sever these webs that connect us to the earth whether it's the deer or whether it's fish or whether it's the timber or