Pimatiziwin - Sacred Life of the Great Spirit
According to Anishinaabe legend, Pimatiziwin (or ‘Sacred Life of the Great Spirit’), began on earth after the people descended from an area among the stars called Paagonekiizhig (meaning ‘hole in the sky’.) The seven laws of Pimatiziwin are truth, humility, courage, honesty, respect, love and wisdom; the people are helped to adhere to these laws by the seven clan totems. Pimatiziwin includes a duty to steward all life, land, air and water to ensure that the people will forever have everything needed to live well.

Turtle Island: When the Anishinaabe stopped appreciating their bountiful lives, and began warring and killing each other over territory and goods, Kitchi-Manitou caused a devastating flood (mush-ko’-be’wun’) that killed all of them except for Nanaboozhoo (a common figure in the Anishinaabe legends), some animals and some birds. After floating on a log for a long time in search of land, Nanaboozhoo announced to his swimming animal and bird companions that he would dive to the water’s bottom, bring back some earth, and from that create a new land with the help of Kitchi-Manitou and the Four Winds.

He tried, but could not reach the bottom. The others also tried, including the Loon, the Mink and the Turtle, but all failed, each one taking longer to try than the one before, and each one nearly unconscious from the effort.

Wa-zhushk, the little muskrat, was laughed at by the bigger animals, when he offered to dive down, and Nanaboozhoo chided them, saying that the brave muskrat should be allowed to try. After a long wait, Wa-zhushk re-surfaced. He was very weak, and he died soon after, but he held a bit earth in his paw.

The turtle asked Nanaboozhoo to place the earth on his back, then the Four Winds blew the earth, and it began to grow, until it became an island in the water. The turtle’s back holds the island, North America.

European Contact: The Ojibway, or Anishinaabe of Lake of the Woods, at first welcomed the traders, strangers far from their own society. They formed trading relationships that seemed mutually beneficial, but which proved deadly.

Many of the native people died from smallpox and other diseases from which they were not immune. The illness spread through contact with the Europeans, as well as by trade goods such as clothing and blankets. The sickness reduced many aboriginal populations by more than 50%. This devastation occurred across the continent.

Also, the Europeans brought guns, which the Ojibwa used to successfully fight the Sioux and Iroquois during the 1600’s, to take back control of lands lost previously. During the fur-trade explorations of the 1700’s, there were problems between the Lake of the Woods natives and the fur- traders that operated there, but generally both cultures co-existed in relative peace and prosperity.

By the mid-1800’s, Confederation, nation-building, railway-construction, settlement, industrialization and Treaty #3 changed that.