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Gookooko’oog: Owls and Their Role in Anishinaabe Culture Wendy Makoons Geniusz University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Over the last eight years, I have encountered Anishinaabeg1 who are terrified of owls. In some cases, this fear is so engrained in their consciousnesses that they are afraid to be in the same room with even the image of an owl. Some of these individuals declare that they were “meant to die” or that they “are cursed” when they see an owl. In one extreme case, I met a man who gave written notice to a hospital declaring that he was not to be resuscitated should he die during an upcoming surgery because he had recently encountered an owl in the woods. This was not the way my elders taught me to think about owls, and I began to wonder if I had misunderstood the teachings with which I had been raised. Perhaps, I thought to myself, these individuals were correct, and I too should fear Gookooko’oo, ‘Owl.’2 I began this research to learn more about Gookooko’oo and to try to understand the origin of these fears. From this research, I have concluded that Gookooko’oo is not someone to fear, and that those who fear this being only understand a small portion of Anishinaabe teachings about Gookooko’oo. Myths (misunderstandings) about Gookooko’oo include beliefs such as: this being is terrifying and evil; seeing this being is an ill omen that brings bad luck or even death; and this being only interacts with us in negative ways. In reality, Gookooko’oo is used by parents to scare unruly children, is appropriated by evil doers, is a messenger who can give us important warnings, is someone who helps those who have already passed on to reach the other side, and is someone who can be our benefactor. 241 1. Anishinaabe, or Anishinaabeg in the plural, is the self-definition of several Algonquian peoples. Since the cultures of these peoples have important differences, in this paper “Anishinaabeg” refers only to those peoples who speak the Ojibwe language. 2. Gookooko’oo is capitalized when referring to Owl, the spirit who represents all owls. 242 Wendy Makoons Geniusz While writing this paper, I encountered elders who were also worried about the misinterpretation of this being’s role in Anishinaabe-izhitwaawin, ‘Anishinaabe culture.’ Robert Swanson, an Anishinaabe man from Grand Portage and Special Projects Technician at the Grand Portage Museum, told me that his grandfather saw Gookooko’oo as favorable. He even smoked White Owl cigars because he saw the connection between Owl and Tobacco. Swanson also says that his wife, who is part Anishinaabe and also a member of a Northwest Coast tribe which has some teachings about how owls should be feared, teaches their grandchildren not to fear owls and not to fear the log carved to look like an owl, which they have by their woodpile. Dora Dorothy Whipple, an Anishinaabe elder from Leech Lake, and I have spoken several times on this topic, and each time she stresses that usually one should not fear Gookooko’oo, especially if one hears his or her normal cry. My namesake, the late Keewaydinoquay, who was an Anishinaabe medicine woman and an ethnobotanist from Lower Michigan, spoke and wrote about Gookooko’oo. From her writings and recorded class lectures on the subject, it is clear that one of Keewaydinoquay’s particular concerns was exposing the myth that Anishinaabe culture teaches us to fear Gookooko’oo. In Directions We Know, Keewaydinoquay blames the media for perpetuating such fears. She writes, “a few words should be interpolated about the much maligned owl. This is necessary because of considerable white literature on the subject and the use of owls on TV programs, making them a brooding symbol of death” (1985:31). Kenneth Johnson, Sr., Waasebines, an Anishinaabe man from Seine River First Nations Reserve sees that fear of Gookooko’oo, and other “superstitions,” control the lives of some Anishinaabeg. In an attempt to reach a wider audience than this academic paper will reach, Johnson and I are working on curriculum materials for Ojibwe language students which seek to correct misinterpretations that have been made about Gookooko’oo. Statements from these materials are used throughout this paper. MethodoloGy I used new research methodologies to learn about Gookooko’oo, ones which students and elders working with the Masters of Indigenous Knowledge/ Philosophy Program at Seven Generations Education Institute3 developed 3. Seven Generations Education Institute is nestled between Couchiching...

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