Marquette – June 7, 2011 – We were all in my SUV headed to work, and to drop off the kids at grandma’s. This was the first week of summer break.
“Another rainy day,” said my son JP. “Why does it have to rain?”
JP was upset because he wouldn’t be able to play outside at Grandma’s. Grandma doesn’t like wet kids tracking dirt all around her house.
As I started to explain why we all needed the rain, we saw some ladies carrying what looked like a totem pole.
I pulled over and took a couple of pictures, and I asked the ladies what they were walking for. They told me they were the Anishinaabe Women, also known as the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi. They are the caretakers of the Eastern Woodlands and Great Lakes. Anishinaabe women, as care-givers-of -life, speak for, protect and carry the water.
The water walkers started on Sunday April 10 in Olympia, Washington in Squaxin Island/Skokomish territory. The walkers, journeyed over 10,400,000 steps, carrying the healing and sacred salt water from the four points of the compass. They will converge June 12, 2011 in Bad River, Wisconsin. The water will then be united in Lake Superior, where the first Water Walk began.
As the Anishinaabe women walk, they sing their prayer to Mother Earth, in their native tongue. Every river, and lake they pass, they say a special prayer, and offer a gift of Semah (Tobacco).
*****I imagined, as they pray to Mother Earth, God say, “Let the rain come down. Let the water run. Drink my children and refresh your souls. Remember my children I provide the water for you to live, and let live. Do not waste what I give, for one day it could be all gone.” So I say to my son, “Let it rain”.
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