Keewaydinoquay Pakawakuk Peschel was a scholar, ethnobotanist,
herbalistAn herbalist is:#A person whose life is dedicated to the economic or medicinal uses of plants.#One skilled in the harvesting and collection of medicinal plants ....
, medicine woman, teacher and author. She was an Anishinaabeg Elder of the Crane Clan. She was born in Michigan around 1919 and spent time on
Garden IslandGarden Island, Michigan is an uninhabited 4,990 acre island located in the Beaver Island archipelago in northern Lake Michigan. It is almost wholly owned by the U.S. state of Michigan and is overseen by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources as part of the Beaver Island State Wildlife...
, a traditional Anishinaabeg homeland.
According to her biography, she was born in a fishing boat en route to the hospital from Garden Island, which capsized shortly thereafter, and her survival was interpreted as miraculous.
Keewaydinoquay Pakawakuk Peschel was a scholar, ethnobotanist,
herbalistAn herbalist is:#A person whose life is dedicated to the economic or medicinal uses of plants.#One skilled in the harvesting and collection of medicinal plants ....
, medicine woman, teacher and author. She was an Anishinaabeg Elder of the Crane Clan. She was born in Michigan around 1919 and spent time on
Garden IslandGarden Island, Michigan is an uninhabited 4,990 acre island located in the Beaver Island archipelago in northern Lake Michigan. It is almost wholly owned by the U.S. state of Michigan and is overseen by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources as part of the Beaver Island State Wildlife...
, a traditional Anishinaabeg homeland.
Biography
According to her biography, she was born in a fishing boat en route to the hospital from Garden Island, which capsized shortly thereafter, and her survival was interpreted as miraculous. Her childhood name, meaning "Walks with Bears," derived from an incident where as a toddler she was left on a blanket as her parents gathered blueberries, returning to see her standing by bears, eating blueberries off the bushes. Her adult name
Giiwedinokwe, recorded as "Keewaydinoquay," means "Woman of the North[west Wind]" and came from her vision quest.
She apprenticed with the noted Anishinaabeg medicine woman Nodjimahkwe from the age of 9 and worked for many years as a medicine woman, at a time when her people had little access to conventional medical care and when conventional medical care failed to cure them, healing more than several patients deemed to be terminally ill. At the age of 57 she decided to study anthropology, realizing that people would listen to her more if she had a degree. She received a Master of Education Degree from
Wayne State UniversityWayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 350 major subject areas to over 31,000 graduate and undergraduate students...
, and had finished all course work for a Ph.D. in ethnobotany at the
University of MichiganThe University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a public research university located in the state of Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university, the flagship campus of the University of Michigan, and one of the top public universities in the world...
. She won the Teacher of the Year Award in Michigan in 1975, however her name is not listed on the Michigan Department of Education's list of past recipients due to the list's incomplete nature. She taught classes in ethnobotany as well as philosophy of the Great Lakes American Indians at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee where she was a professor in the 1980s, and lectured at many herbal conferences. She was consulted for many prestigious books, including several on Great Lakes indigenous plant use.
She lived in
Ann ArborAnn Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. It is the state's seventh largest city with a population of 114,024 as of the 2000 Census, of which 36,892 are university or college students...
,
MilwaukeeMilwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin and 23rd largest in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. Its estimated 2008 population was 604,477. Milwaukee is the main cultural and economic center of the...
,
LelandLeland is an unincorporated community in the U.S. state of Michigan. It was the county seat of Leelanau County from 1883 to 2008, when a new government center was completed in Suttons Bay Township, closer to the county's geographic center....
, and most notably at her heart's home,
Miniss Kitigan—Garden IslandGarden Island, Michigan is an uninhabited 4,990 acre island located in the Beaver Island archipelago in northern Lake Michigan. It is almost wholly owned by the U.S. state of Michigan and is overseen by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources as part of the Beaver Island State Wildlife...
.
She was the author of numerous books on herbs, Native American medicine and rare legends for children and adults. Keewaydinoquay founded the Miniss Kitigan Drum, a non-profit organization supporting the preservation and evolution of Great Lakes Native American traditions. Many referred to Keewaydinoquay lovingly as
Nookomis (Grandmother). The group has ties with established and recognized tribes in the area.
She was the subject of a fair amount of controversy, much of it stemming from her willingness to teach those of other than native backgrounds. She started doing this at a time when native people had just secured their abilities to openly practice traditional ceremonial rites and religious observances. At that time she said to critics that the time was late, and that people of good hearts and like minds needed to work together to offset the users and those that were actively hurting the earth. Some other elders at the time affirmed the wisdom of this, and later many who had earlier criticized her came to appreciate the wisdom of these teachings and proclaim them themselves.
She died on July 21, 1999 and was honored with a traditional
MidewiwinThe Midewiwin or the Grand Medicine Society is a secretive religion of the aboriginal groups of the Maritimes, New England and Great Lakes regions in North America. Its practitioners are called Midew and the practices of Midewiwin referred to as Mide...
ceremony on Garden Island. In March 2002, the Holy Hill Trust of Leland received a $11,520 Public Humanities Development grant for The Lifestory of Keewaydinoquay, Woman Between Worlds. The project includes researching the journals, work, letters, audio tapes, and oral teaching of Keewaydinoquay. The goal is to create a volume that shares a view of her working life as a teacher, including her photos, drawing, and poetry. The project will create a biography of Keewaydinoquay and offer a lecture series in the region.. The first volume titled
Keewaydinoquay, Stories from My Youth has already been published, and a second (focusing on her adult life) is being written.
Publications
- Peschel, Keewaydinoquay M. (1987) "Dear Grandfathers," excerpt from Truth Is Stranger
- Peschel, Keewaydinoquay M. (1998) Puhpohwee for the People: a narrative account of some uses of fungi among the Ahnishinaabeg
- Peschel, Keewaydinoquay M. (1979) "Directions We Know: Walk in Honor" in Miniss Kitigan Drum, Garden Island, MI
- Peschel, Keewaydinoquay. (1978) Jawendamowin Nah: Happiness in the Half-World?/My Reverend Grandfather Challenges Coprinus Atramentarius. Botanical Museum of Harvard University.
- Peschel, Keewaydinoquay. "The Legend of Miskwedo." Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, 11(1-2):29-31, January-June 1979.
- Peschel, Keewaydinoquay M. (2006) Stories from my Youth. University of Michigan Press
- Peschel, Keewaydinoquay "Nkomis" (1977) Mukwah Miskomin or KinnickKinnick "Gift of Bear". Miniss Kitigan Drum, Garden Island, MI
- Peschel, Keewaydinoquay "Nkomis" (1978) Min: Anishinabag Ogimaawi-minan / Blueberry: First Fruit of the People. Miniss Kitigan Drum, Garden Island, MI
See also
- Herbalism
Herbalism is a traditional medicinal or folk medicine practice based on the use of plants and plant extracts. Herbalism is also known as botanical medicine, medical herbalism, herbal medicine, herbology, and phytotherapy...
- Pharmacognosy
Pharmacognosy is the study of medicines derived from natural sources. The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines pharmacognosy as "the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical and biological properties of drugs, drug substances or potential drugs or drug substances of natural origin as well...
- Botany
Botany, plant science, phytology, or plant biology is a branch of biology and is the scientific study of plant life and development...
- Ethnobotany
'The study and culture of plants'.Ethnobotany is the scientific study of the relationships that exist between people and plants....
- Anishinaabe
Anishinaabe or Anishinabe—or more properly Anishinaabeg or Anishinabek, which is the plural form of the word—is a self-description often used by the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Algonkin peoples, who all speak closely related Anishinabe/Anishinabe languages.The meaning of Anishnaabeg is "First-" or...
g
- Medicine woman
- Native American
Native Americans in the United States is the phrase that describes indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of...
- Ojibwa
The Ojibwe or Chippewa is the largest group of Native Americans-First Nations north of Mexico, including Métis. They are the third-largest in the United States, surpassed only by Cherokee and Navajo. They're equally divided between the United States and Canada...