Miywasin Moment: The Seven Sacred Teachings: Courage – The Bear

By JoLynn Parenteau on September 20, 2022.

Courage, represented by the bear, is a sacred teaching explored in this Miywasin Moment series.--Series art created by JoLynn Parenteau

“When you are in doubt, be still, and wait; when doubt no longer exists for you, then go forward with courage.”

– Chief White Eagle, Ponca tribe, born c. 1825 – died 1914

In this series, the Miywasin Moment explores the Seven Sacred Teachings. Called the Tipi Teachings, Grandfather Teachings, or Seven Sacred Laws in other parts of Turtle Island (Native North America), these are values passed down from our Ancestors.

Indigenous ways of knowing are built upon seven natural laws, each upholding a virtue necessary to an honourable and balanced life. The tipi poles that form the structure of this traditional home each represent a value. In the third instalment, let us seek to better understand the Sacred Teaching of Courage, the antidote to Fear. In the Ojibwe language, courage is zoongide’ewin. In Cree, we say sohkitehewin.

The Turtle Lodge International Centre for Indigenous Education and Wellness at Sagkeeng First Nation in Pine Falls, Man., is a place for reconnecting to the Earth and sharing Indigenous ancestral knowledge, founded on the Seven Sacred Laws. The Turtle Lodge offers children, youth, adults and Elders the opportunity to come together in a sacred environment for traditional teachings, ceremony, healing and the sharing of the perspectives of the Original Peoples of Turtle Island on Mino-Pi-Mati-Si-Win – A Good and Peaceful Way of Life.

In 2021, Turtle Lodge supported Indigenous filmmaker Erica Daniels and the respected late writer and Anishinaabe Elder Dr. David Courchene – Nitamabit (The Original Way and One who Sits in Front) Nii Gaani Aki Inini (Leading Earth Man) to produce a series of animated YouTube videos about the Seven Sacred Laws.

Each sacred teaching is represented by an animal. In the series’ fourth episode, the Bear Spirit teaches a young Anishinaabe boy on a vision quest about the Law of Courage.

“Always do the right thing that is expressed from your heart,” the Bear Spirit tells the boy.

“The First People learned the vision quest ceremony from watching the bear fast while sleeping in the winter months,” explains Elder Courchene in the video series. “Many Anishinaabe ceremonies involve fasting. It is in ceremony where people seek the spiritual strength to be courageous enough to live their vision and to have the courage to love oneself.”

North Dakota wellbriety program Tribal Community Prevention’s Seven Sacred Teachings guide teaches that courage is the ability to face danger, fear, or changes with confidence and bravery. To have the mental and moral strength to overcome fears that prevent us from living our true spirit as human beings is a great challenge which must be met with vigour and intensity.

The guide explains that in this way, the Bear provides many lessons in the way it lives, but courage is the most important teaching it offers. Though gentle by nature, the ferociousness of a mother bear when one of her cubs is approached is the true definition of courage. Living of the heart and living of the spirit is difficult, but the Bear’s example shows us how to face any danger to achieve these goals.

Opportunities to practise courage show up in our daily lives in ways large and small. From forgiving others’ transgressions, to moving to a new city, making a career change, embarking on solo travel, beginning a new relationship, to taking the first steps to mend strained family bonds, this writer has learned bravery can be harnessed by sheer will.

This week, my family said goodbye to a loved one who bravely reached the end of a short health battle. My first real experience of loss, moving forward is a test of courage for which I have no roadmap. So to honour them, I am learning it is OK to get lost in the right direction.

Every culture in our world has their own way of dealing with the loss of loved ones. For the Haudenosaunee Iroquois, death is the natural transition from the physical world to the Sky World. After leaving the body, spirits ascend to the Creator’s Sky World via the Milky Way. If we speak to the stars, perhaps those gone before us may hear.

This Saturday, I face a different test of courage: taking the stage at the Esplanade to join the Pecha Kucha Night lineup of guest speakers. Like the Seven Sacred Laws, the Creator gave us gifts so we could give them back to others. Storytelling is my gift. So with gratitude, a small measure of bravery and perhaps even a song, I will share my journey of discovering my cultural identity, finding my place and purpose in the world, and like the Bear, leading with courage. Saturday night and in your everyday life, I hope you will join me.