Running Bear Camp and Native Medicines

10/17/2025

Running Bear Camp & Native Medicines

01/05/2025

09/30/2024

We are working on blessing many with our medicines.

08/02/2024

08/02/2024

07/12/2024

Beautiful words about Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass, scientist, professor, and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation:
“Sweetgrass is a really good name for it, and in our language, her name is Wiingaashk. In the Potawatomi language, Wiingaashk refers to that sweet fragrance for sure, that wonderful vanilla-like fragrance. But it also refers to the fact that it is a ceremonial, sacred plant for us, and a teacher.
It’s also a healing plant, and the way that it heals is so interesting. Ecologically, it is a healer of broken, open land. It’s a pioneer species that comes and binds up the soil with its rhizomes. But it’s also a cultural healer, a spiritual healing plant as well.
We revere that plant. We revere Sweetgrass, or Wiingaashk, for a number of reasons, but one of which is in our oldest stories.
Sweetgrass is understood as the hair of Mother Earth – that sweet, shining long hair. And just as we braid the hair of someone that we love to enhance their beauty, to care for them, as a real tangible sign of our loving and caring relationship with one another, our people braid Sweetgrass. It is a metaphor and a pragmatic representation of our care for Mother Earth.
That plant is a braid of stories, which are made up of three strands. One of those strands is Indigenous knowledge and traditional environmental thinking about plants from the Native perspective.
Another one of the strands is scientific knowledge about plants, and then there’s that third strand that makes up the beautiful braid.
The way that I think of that third strand is the knowledge that the plants themselves hold – not what we can learn about plants, but what we can learn from plants.”

07/01/2024

Busy harvesting

10/07/2023

The Art of Listening: A Conversation with an Elder

Have you ever noticed how an Elder listens to what another person is saying? They seem captivated by what the person is saying. They may not even make eye contact, except perhaps to glance ever so often with gentle curiosity, almost as if to say, ‘Tell me more’ or ‘What do you mean by that.’ If they make eye contact, they demonstrate non-judgmental neutrality.

They convey an expression of caring ‘on purpose.’ As we speak, they provide verbal encouragement, with the occasional ‘uh huh’ with a nod, or upon expressing surprise, an ‘oh’ is often followed by a series of enthusiastic nods. Upon understanding, they shake their head in wonder, often with a look of enlightenment, as if what we just said solved a world problem.

As we finish speaking, they pause and, after carefully considering what we’ve shared, they will often reflect what we said back to us to ensure it has been clearly understood. They may ask a question or two for clarification or summarize their understanding of what we shared. It is important to notice that they have not interrupted us nor waited for us to take a breath so they could jump in to offer an opinion. Instead, they give us their undivided attention and focus on our words.

Through graceful communication, an Elder provides one of life’s greatest lessons: the art of listening. When they speak, they often humbly ask questions, like, ‘Tell me, what are your thoughts on how you are going handle this?’ Within their important questions, they are teaching us self-reliance and self-respect. Upon departing from the Elder, one who possesses the art of listening, the feeling of being validated and heard resonates deeply within our hearts. We also leave with a significant gift to share with the next person who trusts us with their thoughts and feelings. As the gift of listening is passed from person to person, the capacity to honour one another’s spirits expands; thus, compassion blossoms.

kākithaw niwākomākanak (All My Relations),
kihci têpakohp iskotêw iIskwêw (Emily Jane Henry)
Ochapowace Nation

The featured picture is my uncle, the late Wilbert Henry, a gentle human - a true Elder.

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08/25/2023

To reach us for out traditional medicines email canadaguide@mail.com

02/20/2023

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