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Boreal Community Media

Nibi Chronicles: “The trees of our homeland”

Jan 25, 2023 11:25AM ● By Content Editor
Photo: “Birch bark makak that my great grandmother Elizabeth Anakwad made, along with her awl.” (Photo courtesy of Staci Lola Drouillard) 

By Staci Lola Drouillard - Great Lakes Now - January 20, 2023


The Ojibwe word for the paper birch is wiigwaasi-mitig—or Nimishoomis wiigwaas—Grandfather Birch.

“Nibi Chronicles,” a monthly Great Lakes Now feature, is written by Staci Lola Drouillard. A direct descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe, she lives and works in Grand Marais on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. Her two books “
Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe” and “Seven Aunts” were published 2019 and 2022, and she is at work on a children’s story. “Nibi” means water in Ojibwe, and these features explore the intersection of indigenous history and culture in the modern-day Great Lakes region.


To read the story, visit the Great Lakes Now site here. 
Boreal Ship Spotter - larger view here