Reviewer: Sharon Brunner
Marcie R. Rendon brings to life the voices of the Anishinaabe ancestors in “Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium.” She has made it her mission to let others know the Anishinaabe still exist, and their song can heard by those who listen. Rendon is a member of the White Earth Ojibwe and resides in Minnesota. The songs in this book take place at various tribal reservations and locations such as Minnesota. The time period is present day and the past of our ancestors. The main characters are predominantly the Anishinaabe with a brief mention of zhaaganash (white person). Rendon created song, created beauty, and she told the story of the Anishinaabe in a bold and honest manner that portrayed the various hardships the Anishinaabe endured for centuries.
Many themes exist throughout this beautifully written book. Mother Earth has taken responsibility to nourish the earth, protect it with a layer of snow and the winds provide cleansing. She abides by a mother’s instinct. Ghetto children were mentioned and how they are devoid of destiny. Many of our people suffered at the hands of those who ran the boarding schools. They suffered confusion, loneliness, and have lived under a drunken fog. Women have sacrificed dreams for future generations. Eagle dancers travel from this life to a truer reality. So much has happened to the Anishinaabe that their lives appear to be an illusion. They struggle from knowing about the peace of the past and the turmoil created by assimilation, dislocation and acculturation.
I am a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians (Sault Tribe) and I understand her need to get the word out about our people. The songs remind me of the songs I heard when I spent time at sweat lodges. The songs were in Anishinaabemowin. I am not fluent in the language but know some of it. My mother and some of her siblings were sent to the missionary boarding school in Harbor Springs, Michigan. My master’s thesis involved learning about the aftereffects of the boarding school experience for individuals who either attended a federal or missionary boarding school. The families suffered from domestic violence, alcoholism, poverty, and other problems. I was employed by the Sault Tribe as an education coordinator and tribal head start manager. I was an adjunct professor for a tribal college and served on a child welfare committee for 23 years for my tribe. These opportunities provided me with a first-hand knowledge of the hardships many tribal families face.
Rendon’s rendition of what the Anishinaabe face today and in the past provided a very moving and heartfelt reaction for me. Some of her poems such as on page 54 “Thunder Calling” addressed a nation that wages war and chills the souls of innocence resonated with me. Many tribal people lost their lives when the United States developed as a nation. She painted nature in such a poetic form when she described the mist rising off the lake, trees shivering, and spirits rising and reminded her readers that the ancient ways are not lost and of the importance of our grandmothers.
Many books exist that describe the hardships the Anishinaabe have faced. The book “Mother Earth Spirituality: Native American Paths to Healing Ourselves and Our World” by Ed McGaa, Eagle Man can lead the reader to a deeper spiritual life and how to save the life of our Mother Earth. The movie that comes to mind is “Thunder Heart” filmed in 1992 when I read this book. Val Kilmer and Graham Greene were two of the stars in the movie. Kilmer played a young mixed-blood FBI agent who was assigned to work with a skeptical investigator to solve a murder on a poverty-stricken Sioux reservation. When I met with a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) at Wounded Knee approximately fifteen years ago, he told me the problems described in the movie were still happening on the reservation. AIM members were being attacked and threatened.
Rendon summoned the voices of the Anishinaabe ancestors, and our future generations will hear the songs. The stories emblazoned as pictographs on birchbark scrolls are now celebrated in this well-written collection of dream and performance poems or songs. Rendon has written numerous works of fiction and nonfiction and has received Minnesota’s McKnight Distinguished Artist Award. Rendon’s literary work rings true for the Anishinaabeg. I recommend Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium for its powerful poems and because of the way in which the reader is asked to trust Mother Earth, to dream of a future of strength, and to hear the singing of our ancestors.
Title: Anishinaabe Songs for a New Millennium
Author: Marcie R. Rendon
