Wisdom Sits In Places Essays - Native American Tribes In Arizona

Wisdom Sits In Places There is a deep relationship between the environment and Western Apache people. The bonds between the two are so strong that it is embedded in their culture and history. Keith Basso, author of Wisdom Sits in Places expanded on this theory and did so by divulging himself into Western Apaches life. He spent fifteen years with the Apache people studying their relationship with the environment, specifically concentrating on Place-names. When Basso first began to work with the Apache people, one of his Apache friends told him to learn the names, because they held a special meaning with the community. (Cruikshank 1990: 54) Place-names are special names given to a specific locality where an event took place that was significant in history and crucial in shaping morals and beliefs. Through the use of place-names, the environment became a teaching tool for Apache people. Red Lake, the small town where I grew up, is an Ojibwa place-name. The area dates back 9000 yeas ago when the Stone Age peoples first inhabited the region that is now known as northwestern Ontario. These aboriginals were indigenous people familiar with the properties of the surrounding plants and wild animals. They lived along the waterways and treated their environment with respect and celebrated its bounties through their spirituality. (Web Site #1) According to Ojibwa legend, thousands of years ago, two hunters came across a very large moose standing beside a beautiful clear blue lake. The Hunters thought the moose was an evil spirit named Matchee Manitou and they tried to kill it. One of the hunters shot the animal with an arrow just wounding it. The grand and majestic animal escaped by diving into the water and disappearing forever. A large pool of blood colored the water red, masking the once beautiful blue lake. A creature so huge was never to be seen again. The hunters named the lake Misque Sakigon meaning Color of Blood Lake. Years later it became known as Red Lake. (Web Site #1) When I heard this story, 12 years ago, it came from the mouth of my fathers good friend, an Ojibwa man, named Henry Meekis. I still remember everyone sitting in front of him while he told the story. His passion for the story permeated the room and we were all captivated by it. The importance of place-name study lies in the light it sheds on the cultural history and heritage of the indigenous people. Many place-names in are drawn from Indigenous languages such as Apache Cree, Ojibwa etc. Researching place-names of Indigenous origin requires an understanding of Indigenous principles of naming places, of the application of names to geographic areas, and for each name the historical circumstances that have taken place there. Basso came to realize this can all become very challenging due to language barriers, he writes, I foreseen that my failure to pronounce the stubborn Apache place name would be interpreted by him as a lack of respect. And never had I suspected that using an Apache place-name might be heard by those who used them as repeating verbatimactually quotingthe speech of the early ancestors. (Basso 1999: 10) Basso describes place-names as a universal tool of the historical imagination and in some societies, if not the great majority, it is surely among the basic of all. (5) The Apache people associate places with events that have taken place in history. Basso describes many of these place-names in his book and each of the stories tells a tale of history and morality in connection with the environment. I found it extremely interesting that no dates were attached to the stories. I believe this is because time frames take away from the meaning of the story. Old narratives, in a sense, become less important because we think of them as old and out-dated. The Apache people gave places-names in order to inform people of there past, as well as to show respect for the land in which they lived on for so many years. Charles Henry, Bassos friends and Apache informant, describes his ancestors naming process, this place may help us survive. If we settle this country we must be able to speak about this place and remember it clearly and