Blue Garter
Hello earthdivers!
Aadizookaan (sacred stories) and bimaadiziwin (life) share the word "diz" which comes from "odis." Umbilical cord. The stories connect us child to mother, child to mother back all the generations to Wenona herself, Wenona whose death transformed her into the land. Not just as physical being to physical being, though her body surely transformed into earth just as we all do, but she was also a spirit being so this transformation was also spirit in one form to spirit in another. And as geneticist Dr. Keolu Fox says of the Kanaka Maoli creation story which connects his people to the land itself, when he says that the land is his ancestor, that is a scientific statement. These stories not only connect us to our mother, but to each other and to life itself.
So these stories that we are visiting and revisiting, they are critical for how they help us find our way back to ourselves which is a very important part of lighting the 8th fire. And if you are not Ojibwe, if these are not your stories, that's ok too! Because these are the stories of Anishinaabe aki, our land. And if you're going to live with our lands and our people, then having a good relationship with these stories is important for you too.
It is winter, the traditional time for storytelling, and for a lot of people it's hiberation time like bears and other animals that curl up in their dens and take a nap. But I'm Caribou, and in the winter we are busy in the forests, digging through the snow and looking for lichen to eat. So let's dig in.
Today our rooting around beneath the snow has unearthed a love story. It's a love story like Twilight is a love story and by that I mean filled with power imbalance, deceit, and generally creepy behaviour.
Blue Garter is the second story in Part Two of the William Jones archive, page 22. It's quite a long story, compared to some of the others, so I'll tell a condensed version but please do read the whole thing because it's filled with details for you to wonder about, and to give shape to that wondering. You may want to right click to open it in another tab because we're going to be adding another story later on you can turn to when the time comes. This blogpost is about my own wondering, you'll surely find things to wonder about, details that will intrigue you or sound familiar to your own life.
There were two children, a boy and a girl who lived alone. We don't know why, but there are many stories in this archive that have a family or siblings living alone, or if not exactly alone then a little ways off from the rest of the community. The boy hunted game and killed rabbits, the girl gathered firewood and did the cooking. They had a very nice life until the brother, now a young man, told his sister that it was time for them to move on and live their own lives. The elder sister shrugged and said ok, but if you are ever in trouble, just think of me. The boy packed up his hubris along with other items and headed off for whatever fortune awaited him.
Every time he decided to make camp for the night, he would set down his pack and go for a little walk. When he returned to the site to find that it had been prepared for him. He wondered about this, and decided that it must have been his sister. One evening while he admired an admirable view with nobody to admire it with, he missed his sister and grew sad.
"Hey sad boy, why are you so sad?"
She was beautiful and she was not his sister. They sat and talked and he felt really seen, you know? He was smitten and before long he asked, she said yes, and just like that they were engaged. Of course she had parents. They always have parents. Presumably the boy and his sister did too, but we don't know anything about them. These parents tho.
She told him that he would have to meet her parents, but he should not tell them that he has met her. He is so smitten that he agrees to this arrangement and did what he was told. He went to the house, denied knowing Blue Garter, and agreed to complete a task in order to win the hand of a woman he apparently didn't know. Odd, but I suppose this happens.
One task became three, on three subsequent days. First he had to clear ten plots of land, then empty a pond until it was dry, and finally trim the branches of a forest. Each time with useless and inadequate tools that the father assured him were the tools he himself used to do these things. Every time the father left he sat down and had a good cry, and every time Blue Garter showed up, reminded him that he only needed to think of her and she would be there, comforted him to sleep, and completed the task.
"Don't tell my dad that I did it, make sure he believes you did." So he took credit every time, and the parents agreed that he could marry their daughter.
The young couple were sent off to a private room to get busy consumating the marriage and Blue Garter put some beans to jump in a hot pan while they escaped out the window. After some time, Blue Garter's mother was suspicious about what she thought were the sounds of a young couple "dancing" and barged in on them.
You can imagine her surprise. What surprised me was her anger. She woke up Blue Garter's father and said "Come hurry, wake up! Go chase after them! Bring home our daughter! And as for that man, kill him." She continued, "Very powerful is our daughter to do evil. You better take something with you." He took a stem of rice-straw and off he went.
Meanwhile Blue Garter warned her young man that if her father comes, there will be a wind; a great wind and black clouds overhead. And that's what they saw, so she turned them both into pines and the old man went past them, and then back home again. He told his wife he hadn't seen them, but he had seen the oddest thing. Two old pines, old to the point of falling.
You cotton headed ninny muggins, she said. That was them! You know how powerful she is to conjure things. Go back. So he did. This time when Blue Garter and her young man saw the black cloud she turned them into partridges. The old man started to call them, pss pss, and the male tried to go to him but the hen prevented him. The old man returned home and told his wife about this odd thing he had seen.
You idjit she said. That was them! She smacked him upside the head and said that if you wanted something done right you had to do it yourself and, taking some rice, off she went.
"This time it will be my mom," Blue Garter said, "because they are very angry. If you see a big thunderstorm coming that's her." And she was right. This time there were not only clouds, but lightning and it was coming fast. She turned them into mallards and the old woman called to them, scattering the rice. The drake would have gone, but the hen kept him back. They swam, then flew out to sea and that's where they are now.
Did you figure out who Blue Garter's parents are? The dark clouds, high winds. A thunder storm when mom is Really Mad?
They are Thunderbirds. Which makes Blue Garter a Thunderbird as well. This poor kid was no match for her and her power. And to make things worse, there's the matter of her name: Blue Garter. If you're like me you probably thought it was referring to a garter snake, which it is not. There are blue garter snakes, but they live in Florida and there isn't anything in this story about a snake being. In fact as soon as we realized that her parents were Thunderbirds we would know that she can't be a garter snake because Thunderbirds and Snakes fight all the time, keeping balance between two very powerful beings. Balance is very important. Keep that in mind whenever you are reading our stories. It's not about morality or why mallards fly south or what have you. It is about relationships between things, and maintaining balance across an entire web of relations. Balance is a very big deal.
About her name: Wujawasku-kaskitasapasun (hyphen added by me). Ozhaawashko (spelled here as wujawasku, if you say it out loud you can hear the similarity) could mean blue or green depending on the context. Ojibwe doesn't distinguish between blue and green as primary terms, if you wanted to be specific you could could say something is like a blueberry. Gashkidaasebizon (kaskitasapasun) refers leg garters, the strings that hold your leggings up because we did not wear floor length skirts in the woods around or north of Lake Superior. We wore knee length tunics with leggings to protect ourselves from brambles and whatnot. So she's wearing blue or possibly green leg garters. Which takes us to another story: Magic Paint (turn to page 330).
Unaman (Onaman) is a beautiful red ochre that is used to paint petroglyphs and other things. But it can also be used to work a specific kind of magic. Hunters use it to compel animals, something you may need to do if your family or your community is in great need, but because of the nature of this magic, a man could use it to compel a woman who didn't want him. For that reason there is counter-magic that women can use. The story of Magic Paint tells us that if a woman went along with hunters who were using it she should place cedar boughs on her legs, otherwise it will become difficult for her to walk.
Blue/green boughs held in place by a garter perhaps? Worn as protection because she herself was using this paint? Wanted to ensure that her legs did not become weak so it would be difficult to walk?
Powerful spiritual being, magic paint. This kid did not stand a chance. And to add another layer, they became mallards. Unlike geese, or partridges for that matter, mallards do not mate for life. They are seasonally monogamous, so they'll stick together for the mating and raising young together season, but then they're off to other partners which is neither good nor bad, but it tells us something more about Blue Garter's intentions and character.
At first the parents seemed a little controlling, but once we twig to who they are, and look at her behaviour our perception shifts. These are very powerful spirit beings whose existence is meant to protect humans, particularly from the water snakes who are also powerful spirit beings. So, if their job is to protect humans then why is she using magic paint to compel one? Because I'll tell you something else. Non-interference, not imposing your will on somebody, is a very important value in Anishinaabeg culture. Which is not to say that's how we live every day, but that's how we are supposed to live. And here she is, a powerful spirit being who is using magic to compel behaviour.
Maybe it wasn't her that the parents were protecting.
So now I'm wondering all kinds of things. I'm wondering what those tests were about. I'm wondering why she was so insistent that he not admit to her father that he knew her even though he was at their house and doing these feats. I'm wondering about the sister who also said that if he was in need he should just think of her. Was there no point at which he realized he was in trouble? What could she have done if he had?
I'm wondering about the strength of that magic paint if he could be persuaded by the father and then the mother to go nearer to them and had to be held back by Blue Garter. Early in the story he was the hunter, was he perhaps using the paint because he wasn't very good at it? He did seem awfully willing to let his sister, and then Blue Garter, do the work. And talking about Blue Garter, I'm wondering why such a powerful being would want, or need, to use magic to compel companionship from somebody as pitiful as a human. I'm wondering why the mother, these thunder beings, wanted to kill him, which seems a little extreme. Why not just break them up? And I'm wondering about the gender roles in this story the strength and agency of the women, the passivity of the men.
I have no answers. Just lots of questions. There are a lot of different things to emphasize and ponder here, things that may trigger memories of your own life or experiences, times when you were like the young man or the parents or even Blue Garter. Maybe you've been the sister who hovers at the edges of this story. It's the imbalance of power in this relationship that drew my attention, an imbalance that was exacerbated by the magic paint because apparently being a powerful thunder being wasn't enough. And I was also curious about my own desire to see the parents as controlling and Blue Garter trying to be free of them.
What was with this whole charade? If it was about leaving, couldn't she have just left any time she wanted? She seemed to come and go as she pleased, so why go through all this with the young man?
I don't know.
Maybe there's something in your life that will make sense of that.
Now is no longer the time for statements.
I do know that we don't talk about power imbalances often enough when we talk about social justice issues and the systems we live within. People will make inane comparisons between the actions of people resisting oppression and those who are enacting the oppression as if our actions come from the same place. They do not. Systems like child welfare, policing, and the capitalism they both exist to protect vastly outgun any resistance movement. They don't even need to use violence, it's just the threat of it that keeps people compliant and afraid to take action. I worked in child welfare for 16 years. No matter how genuinely I cared about my clients, tried to help where I could, they always knew I had the power to take their kids and there wasn't much they could do about it. So they complied.
Well, the ones who were inexperienced complied easily. The ones who had a lot of contact with us knew the limits of our power and were willing to test it. Which brings me to another point about power imbalances and what our perceptions and fears often shield. Yes they can do horrific things, we are seeing that in Minnesota. They can and they will. But there are also limits to their power and opportunities for courage if we stick together. The boy was alone, we are not. And there are Black, brown, and Indigenous people with decades if not generations of experience who can teach you the limits of power and the power of collective action. People who know how to survive the end of the world. (link takes you to podcast episode "An Emergency Dispatch from Occupied Minneapolis)
There are whistle blowers showing some serious weasel energy like somebody from the inside doxxing thousands of ICE agents. Neighbours coming together to protect the vulnerable in Minnesota and a New Hampshire bishop who is taking this moment very seriously and telling his parishoners that they best "get their affairs in order, to make sure they have their wills written, because it may be that now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies, to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable.”
There is a lot I don't know. But I do know that we're living in a time when very powerful institutions are using magic paint to keep us complacent and unquestioning, bread and circuses if you will. Starve us of resources until the only places we can look to for help are the very systems that are controlling us and causing us harm. Entertain us with circuses that reinforce how they want the world to work, who we see as heroes and who we see as a threat, circuses that reinforce a very particular way of being in the world. Late night talk show hosts who assure us that the architects of this moment are actually ridiculous and very funny.
Anishinaabe stories, Aadizookaan, offer us another way to be in the world, cedar boughs we can tie to our legs that will help us to walk well and with courage. They offer examples, cautionary tales, and a sense of wonder if we're willing to be curious. Be curious about your own stories, whatever they are. Don't accept the sanitized versions, we have our own as well. These stories from the William Jones archive are carefully collected from people whose clan responsibility is to carry stories and they were told to somebody who was a relative. They are not santized, they are often funny, and they are full of wonder.
Bamaapii.
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano. Written in 1977, it provides a very concise and oddly poetic description of centuries of Spanish, British, and now US exploitation and military control of Latin America. Trump's assertion that Venezuelan oil "belongs" to the US is rooted in historic beliefs and actions. Even Honest Abe felt entitled to the raw materials in Latin America. It only sounds ridiculous because he's the first president in decades to say it as plainly as this but Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, and others were equally plainspoken. Walter Rodney's How Europe Underdeveloped Africa tells a similar story on a different continent.
Indigenomicon: American Indians, Video Games, and the Structures of Dispossession by Jodi A Byrd is a wonderful book about gaming and how the stories that video games are nestled in reflect and shape the worlds we live in. Early in the book they say that "it doesn't have to be like this" and that while they "may not be able to provide a clear answer, [they] can point to what [they are] certain is the only path towards that future." I feel that way about Adisookaan and this blog. I may not be able to provide clear answers, but I am certain that they show us a viable path forward. I also appreciate the shift from "grounded normativity" which in Byrd's view is a kind of imposition, towards "grounded relationality" which I really like.
Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump by Spencer Ackerman details how every president, beginning with George Bush, took us further down the path to where we are now. Full of receipts and pairs nicely with They Knew: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent by Sarah Kendzior who, among other things, details every time the Democrats could have reigned in abuses of power and chose not to.
From the Miramichi Reader, which chose Bad Indians Book Club as one of their best nonfiction of 2025: “There is so much to learn here, so many starting points for dialogue, so many opportunities to clear space and grow. Patty Krawec emerges as a voice for the ‘bad Indians,’ all those pushed to the margins but refusing to be defined by them.” — Anne Smith-Nochasak
Order your copy of Bad Indians Book Club today in the US at Bookshop.org, and in Canada: Indigenous owned GoodMinds, as well as indie books which will show you which local bookstore has it in stock. Get it wherever you get your books.
Podcasts and Interviews!
The Radical Sacred
Missing Witches Part 1 and Part 2
Turning Pages
A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast
CBC's The Next Chapter
New York Society Library
Shawn Breathes Books
Book reviews!
In Windspeaker News
Featured by Poets and Writers as one of "best books for writers"
Featured by the Library Journal's reading list for Native American history month
Featured by Goodreads for Native American Heritage Month
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The Miramichi Reacher
I've Read This
Pickle Me This
Foreword
Reading Our Shelves
Red Pop News
On Our Radar: 49th Shelf
Ms Magazine's top 25
Summer Must Reads Toronto Star
CBC Books 45 Canadian nonfiction books to read this fall
One of the 100 Best Books of 2025 from Hill Times
My list of "must read books" for CBC on TRC Day, Sep 30 2025
An excerpt published by Baptist News Online.
Do you want me to zoom into your local bookstore or bookclub? Talk with you on your podcast? I can do that. patty.krawec@gmail.com For larger professional settings you can email Rob Firing at rob@transatlanticagency.com
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