STORIES AS MAPS AND MAPS AS STO
RIES: A NAVIGATIONAL EPISTEMOL
OG
Y
 
By
 
Ezekiel 
Choffel
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
A THESIS
 
Submitted to
 
Michigan State University
 
in partial fulfillment of the 
requirements
 
for the degree of
 
 
Digital Rhetoric and Professional Writing
-
 
Masters of Arts
 
2015
 
 
 
ABSTRACT
 
STORIES AS MAPS AND MAPS AS STO
RIES: A NA
VIGATIONAL EPISTEMOLOG
Y
 
By
 
Ezekiel Choffel
 
In this thesis, I develop a n
avigational epistemological lens in order to understand the 
pathways of navigating knowledge construction. 
Specifically, 
I am working with Native 
American and Indigenous scholars
 
in general, and three scholars specifically,
 
to develop this lens 
around four
 
main characteristics: history, land, story and relationships. 
 
This thesis is broken down into three content chapters, and each chapter focuses on one 

The Common Pot: The
 
Recovery of Native 
Space in the Northeast
 
to build the structure and foundation of the four characteristics. Chapter 3 

History of the Ottawa and Chipewa Indians of 
Michigan 
to better understand how history and lan
d functions in Native epistemology. Chapter 4 

Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country
, specifically considering 
the implications of story and relationships in Native 
epistemology. Together
,
 
these chapters offer 
a method of un
derstanding the ways that knowledge is constructed in an Indigenous context and 
provides a way to theorize and contextualize history, land, story, and relationships with in 
scholarly discourse.  
 
 
 
 
Copyright by
 
EZEKIEL 
CHOFFEL
 
2015
 
 
iv
 
 
TABLE 
OF CONTENTS
 
 
INTRODUCTION: 
PACKING OUR BAGS
.............................................................................1
 
 
A Note About 

Traditional

.
.
.
....
.................................................
.........
..............................15
 
CHAPTER 2
:
 
FINDING THE PATHWAYS TO KNOWLEDGE: A CONVERSATION 
WITH LISA BROOKS
................................................................................................................
17
 
 
Creating an Epistemological Lens
..........................
.............................
..............................27
 
 
Why A Navigational Epistemology...............
....................................
..
..............................35
 
 
What Happens Next 
..................................................
.......
...................
..............................37
 
CHAPTER 3
: 
WALKING IN MICHIGAN: A CONVERSATION WITH ANDREW 
BLACKBIRD
.............................................................................................................................
.38
 
CHAPTER
 
4:
 
 
THE STORIES WE TELL ARE RELATED TO THE GROUND WE 
WALK ON: A CONVERSATION WITH LOUISE ERDRICH
...........................................5
3
 
CONCLUSION: 
LEAVING WHERE WE BEGAN, THE STORY GOES ON
...................67
 
WORKS CITED
............................................................................................
..............................8
0
 
 
 
1
 
 
INTRODUCTION
:
 
PACKING OUR BAGS 
 
My Uncle Jim is an old Cree man who has called Michigan his home for his entire life. 
As a child, Uncle Jim was one of the primary father figures in my life. He took time to teach me 
ways of functioning in the world that made sense to me. He taught me how 
to be respectful to the 
land and to people, because for him they were the same thing. 
 
I struggled a lot as a kid. I never felt at home anywhere and my relationship with my 
extended family was strained to say the least. I was working to overcome several le
arning 
disabilities that made it nearly impossible to read and write, while learning how to deal with 
PTSD as a 10 year old. My Uncle Jim could see the internal struggles I was dealing with, but 
never treated me as a damaged good. He sought to empower me t
hrough teaching me ways to 
know the world on my own terms, but also ways to shape these terms into values and beliefs that 
looked for the strengths in the world around me. 
 
Often this took the shape of using the land as an example. Uncle Jim would take me 
camping just south of the Grand Traverse Bay, near the town of Manistee, Mi. During these 
camping trips, Uncle Jim would teach me lessons about life by asking me to watch how the land 
and animals dealt with their issues. At first it felt hokey, and I resis
ted. It felt stereotypical for the 


invest time in me. 
 
He taugh
t me to walk silently through the woods. He taught me how to fish. He taught me 
how to listen. He taught me different ways to remember where the rivers where and what they 
2
 
 
mean in relation to where I was and how to get home. He taught me how to listen to o
thers and 
the land because he believed that everyone and everything is speaking to us, if we know how to 
listen. 
 
Uncle Jim used the land as his teaching tool because he reasoned that the land could take 
my missteps far better than the humans in my family.
 
He used the land because it was something 
he knew. At the place where we camped, he had been walking the forest for 15 years before I was 
born and knew in enough det
ail a square 10 miles around our
 
camping site to show me beautiful 
places and ugly spaces where the land had been over harvested. He taught me how to get back to 
these places, so I could visit them myself. He taught me how to find basic nutrients and how to 
harvest food if I needed to, a
nd it was through this activity I began to understand how the land 
could teach me. 
 
On our fourth trip Up North, at 12 years old, I knew my surroundings and felt 
comfortable with the area around our camp site. I knew how to push my known boundaries by 
find
ing a landmark to keep in eyesight while I went further than I had before. I knew how to find 
the cedar swamp, locate the marsh where the beautiful purple flowers lived, and how to find the 
porcupine tree. I knew that if I got lost I just had to find the P
ine River to get home. Uncle Jim 
taught me ways of knowing the difference between the Pine River and the Manistee (If I came to 
a dam and kept going I was on the Pine or by throwing a stick out as far as I could into the 
current, the Manistee flowed much s
lower than the Pine in the area surrounding us). I had to 
remember if I went to the left or to the right from the reference point of Moss Pointe. I knew 
which way to go as long as I could see the water. 
 
3
 
 
I have told this story many times, in many different
 
ways, but this time, I will tell the part 
of the story that I have always left out. After following a familiar trail that led deeper into the 
woods, not to the water, I heard a deep consistent drumming that sounded like a snare drum roll. 
I left the path 
to find the source of the sound. I moved slowly and as quietly as possible because I 
knew from my previous trips in the woods that I rarely saw any animals and as soon as they saw 
me they were gone. But, I was focused on finding the source of the sound. 
 
I
 
looked up into the tops of the trees, getting closer. I began to hear a laughing type 
sound followed by the sharp Tat
-
Tat
-
Tat. When I was nearly on top of the sound, I stopped 
moving completely, having broken through to a clearing in the trees and knowing
 
I was exposed. 
I slowed my breathing and looked around. Perched on a fallen tree about 5 feet from me I saw a 
woodpecker that was more than a foot tall. I had heard Uncle Jim talk about these birds and how 
rare they were to find in this branch of the Mani
stee National Forest and knew I was looking at 
something rare and beautiful. 
 

, but as I tried to move closer i
t 

manual and figured out that it was a male Pileated Woodpecker who was at least 3 years old 

in fact he was looking right at me as if to say 

follow me

. Slowly
,
 
the bird flew a short distance 
away, waiting for me to follow. I moved closer, still trying to be as quite as I possibly could. 
 
He looked at me again as I got within four feet, turned to the tree an
d
 
issued a few sharp 
pecks and took off again, staying 
about eye level. This time the woodpecker flew further than 
before, into the surrounding trees, and looked at me. I was being examined closely, but not so 
4
 
 

agai
n, and the process started over. 
 
After what felt like an hour or so, we got to a small valley where a stream cut through to 
meet the river. I felt certain that in the process of me crossing the valley and getting up the other 
side the beautiful bird would
 
fly away. But as I crested the hill, I saw my friend 2 feet away this 
time, waiting for me. I looked around and the trees were getting older and larger than any area I 
had been with Uncle Jim or by myself, and I could see years of accumulated moss growth 
on the 
oak and beech trees. I could feel the air thick with more oxygen than I had ever breathed. 
 

until he stopped. Again we made eye contact and he flew off. No matter 
how many times he flew 
away, he would only go 5
-
10 feet away before looking back to see if I was coming. 
 
I had left the campsite around sunrise and could just make out the sun through the trees 
which showed me it was about mid day. I had been following my
 
friend for at least 3 hours. I 

 

 
stands of birch, through a CCC 
(Civilian Conservation Corp)
 
patch of forest,
 
and over another stream valley; moving at 10 feet 
at a time. As the sun started to distinctly head west, I could tell my trip was coming to a close as 
my woodpecker friend was starting to stay longer at the trees. I looked around and could see at 
least 7 
trees with woodpecker sized holes in them and knew that he had brought me to his home. 
 
I had been getting progressively more and more tired the further we went and decided to 
sit down for awhile. I tried to take in as much of my surroundings as possible, 
soaking up the 
scene of this small clearing that I would have never found without my friend. 
 
5
 
 


m which direction 

before dark. As my fear began to grow, my woodpecker friend flew down to a branch next to me. 
He was so close I could touch him if I wanted to. H
e looked at me and I looked at him and he let 
out his laughing cry, then he flew away, this time too far for me to see him. 
 
All the while we were making our trip, I had been thinking about my life and what I had 
lived through up until this point. I reflec
ted on my family and the ways I felt disconnected from 
them. I thought about my mother who had struggled to make her way in civilian life since the 
first Gulf War. I thought about my fears and who I wanted to be. 
 
While I was terrified of being lost, I rem
ember distinctly feeling more lost within myself 
than being lost in the woods.  I stayed in that clearing thinking for an unknown amount of time, 
reflecting on who I was and how little it mattered when I looked at the scene around me. I 
believe I began to 
gain a scope into the bigger picture of life as I sat there. I also knew I had to 
find my way home. 
 
I have always been a visual map maker in my brain. I started to think back to when I left 
the trail and where I had been. I knew that I was to the right of
 
Moss Pointe, which meant I had 

I was Northeast or Southeast of where I started, but knew that
 
the
 
river had to be somewhere 
near. 
 
I started in the direction
 
I guessed I had come and walked for what I would find out later was 4 
miles more away from where I needed to be. Further East and more North.  I continued to walk, 
6
 
 
looking for any streams or water of any kind, because I knew that if I could find water, I 
could 
follow it to the river. 
 
I kept my ears open and stopped every ten minutes or so to see if I could hear the sound 
of water running. I was getting, what felt like, deeper into the forest and losing my confidence. 
As I was starting to panic
, I looked a
round me to see if I could see anything that would help me 
find my way. In the distance I could see the sun breaking through the trees and started to head 
that direction. As I got closer I could hear running water, it was calling me home, telling me to 
fin
d the safety of its glass like sheen. I knew that I would be ok. 
 
I found a stream that looked promising; I just had to guess which way to follow it, to the 
right or to the left. At this point I had lost all of my orienting ability and chose to go right 
be
cause the trail looked like it was going downhill, which was also away from the river and 
further away from home. I had found what I was looking for though and continued to follow the 
pathways created by deer next to the stream. The stream grew wider and n
arrower at sudden 
intervals. Sometimes I had many feet of ground to walk on, other times a pathway that was less 
than a foot wide. 
 

attention to the current, which was clearly heading the opposite way that I was going. I had 
looked at the land, not the water itself. I had been walking the wrong di
rection for nearly an 
hour, always following the lay of the land, not the flow of the water. I listened to the sound, but 

sure why. 
 
7
 
 
Eventually, I came to a 
county road that ran parallel to the stream for a few hundred feet. 
I left my deer path and started walking on the two track road which eventually turned into a 
pebbled path. It was clearly getting darker at this point and I knew I was no closer to home th
an 
I was to knowing where I was, but I kept walking. 
 
My feet were sore and my arms felt heavy. I was half considering giving up making it 
home that day. I was sure I could use some of the foraging skills Uncle Jim had taught me if I 
absolutely needed to, 
but I was extremely terrified of losing the road again. I decided to keep 

was. 
 
At the end of the hour, I could hear cars in the distance. I knew that I was eit
her to M
-
55 
or M
-
37. If I was at M
-
55 I knew I could get home, if I was at M
-
37 I was going to have to guess 

guess correctly. 
 
I was walking very slowly at
 
this point and saw the M
-
37 sign as I came to the road. I 
guessed that I should go left and walked that direction for about a half a mile, when I realized 
that I actually knew where I was and had to turn around to head South towards M
-
55 because I 
knew I 

-
55 during my journey. I started walking South and made it to where I 
came out of the woods plus a half mile. I was getting extremely hungry and hating every moment 
of my life at this point, but I kept walking.
 
Eventually, I was picked up b
y a local sheriff who brought me the rest of the way home. 

pulled up to the property where our camp site was, I saw my Uncle Jim and his friend Kenny 
8
 
 
coming ou
t to meet us. After the sheriff made sure I was ok and this was for sure where I needed 
to be, he left. 
 
I assumed I would be in trouble, but my Uncle Jim just laughed. Uncle Jim said he was 

ld me that dinner was just about 
ready as we headed back to his camper. He asked if I had left the path, to which I said yes and 
left it at that. The remaining days of our trip I stayed relatively close to the camp site and made 
Uncle Jim promise not to te
ll anyone how lost I had been. 
 
***
 
I tell this story as an entry point to discussing the relationships I have developed with 3 
specific Native scholars (Lisa Brooks, Andrew Blackbird, and Louise Erdrich) over the last 4 
years. I have never shared the Wood
pecker part of this story because for a long time I thought it 
was foolish. I was afraid of what this would say about me. I was afraid of what my uncle would 
think of me, what you, reader, would think of me. But, as I started to work through 
understanding 
this project I realized the ways in which this fear was representative of the larger 
fear I developed around this project. I was afraid of talking about my orientations to these texts. I 

espectful enough or be able to 
situate the path I am taking in this document. Much as I was afraid of being lost, I was afraid to 
begin this writing. 
 
This project is my Woodpecker and I have to start where it all started for me: in the 
woods, with my uncl
e, willing to follow the woodpecker because I believed what I would learn 
would outweigh what I would lose. What I have learned has lead me to believe that 
understanding the history of habitation of the North American continent is at the heart of my 
9
 
 
resear
ch.  I am shaping this Navigational Epistemology in order to make sense of the 
positionality and land based ideologies of other scholars
 
(Lisa Brooks, Andrew Blackbird, and 
Louise Erdrich). In order to put the Epistemology into practice, I am providing an 
example by 
analyzing my relationships with the land and people of Michigan.  
 
I also have to create a map, with directions, in which my reader can follow my journey. 
In the process of writing this document and making revisions, I have realized that I have 
been 

neither will the map. What I would like to ask my reader to do here is to consider what follows 

campsite where my uncle and I 
started the hard work of orientating to the land, the place where I got lost and had to find my way 
home. 
 

for the following week. The introdu
ction represents this preparation as it is where the story 
begins for me. It is the story where I gained the scope required to anticipate what I would need to 
bring with me to survive for a week in the woods. It is also the context for the larger journey 
b
ecause it shows how I orient towards the land and have come to learn the importance of 
listening to the stories that the land has to share with me. This story sets the stage for the trip, just 

in the woods. There is too much 
to remember to bring and I always forget something, but here, I know that as long as I bring the 
essentials (in this case the experience and knowledge to follow and read the land) I will be ok. 
 
When everything is packed the
 
first leg of the journey is U.S. 131 North. This highway is 
the longest leg of the journey, much as chapter 2 is where the most theoretical heavy lifting 
10
 
 
happens. For 74 miles we will travel on 131, and it is on this leg of the journey where it is hard to
 
believe we will ever get to the forest. The sides of the road are covered with farm lands and 
shopping centers with sparse patches of tree, while on this leg of the journey we have time to 
reflect on the multiple ways that knowledge is constructed and kno
wn. Lisa Brooks, author of 
The Common Pot
, is the hardest author for me to work with and chapter 2 represents the process 
of finding my understanding of knowledge construction. Much as 131 North represents one of 
the major thoroughfares of Michigan, bringing the Northern part of the Lower Peninsu
la together 
and the foundational leg of our journey, 
The Common Pot 
shows me how to understand 
knowledge making
 
by looking at history,
 
land, story, and relationships as the necessary 
connecting threads to understand how I hav
e constructed this epistemology
. 
 
What my reader should know is: once we are 30 miles into our 131 leg (past Rockford 
and Cedar Springs), we could take any exit and still get to our destination. The allure of taking 
these exits and adding miles to the journey is always there for me beca
use of what I may see on 
the added distance. I mention all of this to inform my reader that there are other ways to get to 
the camping site, but I am focusing on one route, 
The Common Pot
 
and Lisa Brooks, to travel 
this leg of the journey because as a text
, there has been no other book that has provided me with 
such a wealth of possibilities. By acknowledging the multiple possible routes, I hope to imply to 
my reader the weight of importance this text has in my idea formation. There is an intended 
meaning b
ehind the possibilities of other routes with this chapter, which reflects the multiple 
meanings that I have made from this text.
 

land base
d
 
practice by considering the ch
aracteristics of knowing how knowledge is constructed 
and recognized. This chapter considers the meanings of defining Native space to understand 
11
 
 
larger implications of colonization and the ways that Native people know the land. It also 
considers oral histo
ries in the form of analyzing origin stories and the purpose of such stories in 
Native culture. It builds on ways of understanding the land by considering what it means for a 
Native author to create their own maps for use and analysis. This chapter looks a
t the ways in 
whi
ch historical and contemporary N
ative folks build relationships between each other and the 
land, and it considers the roles of the stories they tell to each other as a form of understanding 
land based knowledge.  These conversations build 
towards the development of four 
characteristics of what I am calling a Navigational Epistemology that I will use to analyze 
Andrew Blackbird and Louise Erdrich. These characteristics are: history, land, story, and 
relationships. 
 
As the anticipation grows 
as we see the first sign for West M10, Chapter 2 requires the 
reader to have faith that we will get beyond the farm land and shopping centers because once we 
get to W M10 we are halfway to the camping site, but the hardest part of journey is ahead. The 
roa
ds will all look the same and it is easy to get lost, which requires me to provide the best 
instructions possible to navigate from W M10 to N M37, or in this case, from Chapter 3 to 
Chapter 4. 
 
Chapter 3 specifically considers how knowledge is navigated th
rough history and the land 

History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians 
of Michigan
. This chapter is represented by W M10 in my directions to the campsite because of 
the flow of the land and the number of times
 
I have personally made preemptive turns, taking a 
different or all together wrong 
route
, to get to where I needed to go. This situation also reflects 

for my
 
reader to follow my path. 
 
12
 
 
W M10 serves as a major causeway between N131 and Baldwin, and has been under 
constant developme
nt since my first trip up North. T
he lands that Blackbird writes about are in a 
state of flux and development. He is witnessing the 
destruction of Native spaces, and guards the 
specifics of his knowledge to prevent further exploitation by white settlers. There is a distinct 
sense that Blackbird trusts his readers to either know the spaces he is talking about, and thus can 
follow his na
rrative as a map, or if they do not specifically know the places, provide enough 
context to understand the larger picture of his narrative and the impact of colonization on the 
lands of his people. The text as a larger whole is a conversation of understand
ing knowledge 
through the land with a historical perspective, which relates directly back to two of the 
characteristics of the lens developed with Brooks. 
 
What compounds this relationship is the additional histories added to the conversation 
when consider

businesses that have thrived and failed along W M10 since I have been making this
 
thesis
 
journey. In a sense, since I do not travel these roads often enough, I cannot provide many
 
specific landmarks by which to orient a traveler down this road, because I cannot know what is 
new and what is no longer there. There is a distinct lack of specific land markers throughout this 

s of settlements and sites of 
colonial interaction. As such, this is reflected by my conversations of knowledge being known by 
the land itself and the histories told and shared about these spaces. 
 
The story is different depending on the audience. If Black
bird was only speaking to 

provide specific locations for where the wild strawbe
rries grow during summer due to his 
audience
 
most likely already know
ing
 
where that is a
nd would know how to respect and treat the 
13
 
 
land. My navigation of this is in process and will most likely remain so for quite some time, what 
I am hoping to do in this chapter is discuss the ways in which Blackbird considers knowledge 
formation and recogni
tion of how knowledge is known in his 
History
. I am using the reference 
points of tens of signs that say W M10 as a means of navigation and claiming these signs 
represent meaning. After this chapter, we are more than 3/4
ths 
of the way to the campsite and 
r
eady to travel on my favorite leg of the drive, N M37. 
 
N M37 is my favorite part of this journey because it shows the types of environmental 
diversity Michigan can have. There are huge hills, which dispute Michigan as a flat state. There 
are swampy low la
nds where Red Winged Blackbird fly. There are thick hardwood forests that 
are new growth trees, representing the recovery and survivance of the types of trees that covered 
the Lower Peninsula. There are stands of Civilian Conservation Corps forests, with t
heir 
perfectly aligned pine trees that show how the land remembers human presence. There are rivers 
with clear waters, polluted waters, and dammed waters. There are lakes. There are homes. There 
are paths that lead to Lake Michigan, 30 miles away. To say t
he least, there is an abundance of 
what Michigan has to offer. 
 

Books and Islands in 
Ojibwe Country
 
represents N M37 because of the multiple ways in which relationships are 
formed and how these 
relationships demonstrate how Erdrich knows what she knows. Chapter 4 
considers the major characteristics outlined in Chapter 2 by looking specifically at story and 
relationships as a way of navigating knowledge. 
 
Erdrich asks her readers to take a journey
 
with her. Much like what I am doing in framing 
the rest of this project, Erdrich provides names for specific roads and builds path
s
 
for the reader 
14
 
 
to build relationships with her existing relationships. This is one of my favorite texts because of 
the ways
 
that knowing knowledge is expressed through the story that Erdrich weaves for her 
reader. Erdrich pushes on what Native space means in a contemporary context by drawing maps 
of relationships across space and time. She remembers her ancestors, but acknowle
dges this is an 
ongoing relationship that strengthens as she learns more of the Ojibwe language. She builds 
relationships with the land by relating stories of the people and places she visits along her 
journey. There are similar stories as to those related
 
by Blackbird in regards to Anishinaabe 
history of the Great Lakes, and through reflecting on 
these stories and histories, Er
drich maps the 
land she travels on. Each story, each relationship represents a hill, a swamp, a hardwood forest, 
of the 37 miles of
 
N M37. All of these features when put together represent what is seen and 
experienced on this road. There is such a wealth of knowledge that is shared in this text that on a 
first read it is hard to take in. 
 
Because Erdrich focuses so much of 
Books and I
slands
 
on building relationships and 
sharing stories, there is a sense that she is mapping herself in relation to the land in a way that is 
similar to that of Brooks and Blackbird, but distinctly its own. Erdrich relies on relationships to 
be the driving f
eatures of her map and the stories serve as the literal path she takes to get from 
point A and point B. These stories are the impetuous for the concept I am working on in this 
chapter: stories as maps and maps as stories. This idea grounds itself by lookin
g at ways that 
history and story combine to shape maps of meaning making and a method of understanding the 
knowledge contained in Native maps. To this end, each chapter contains a short narrative from 
my own experience in order 
to provide an example of how
 
Navigational Epistemologies
 
can 
work. All of these n
arratives are connected in that
 
they are maps to my learning and serve as an 
example of the epistemology and stories as maps and maps as stories. Considerations of the 
15
 
 
implications of this model are wher
e I end Chapter 4, looking towards the future and practice
 
of
 
an embodied approach to understanding knowledge; it is also where we turn west to the last leg 
of our journey. 
 
W M55 is the shortest leg of the trip, but is the leg that holds the most potentia
l. It is 
winding and full of steep hills that climb former river valleys. Much like the conclusion of this 
document, W M55 reflects on the roads we have been traveling for the last two hours, but holds 
the potential to take us to other sites of inquiry. Wh
ile I am asking that we take a right down 
Moss Road, W M55 could take us to Lake Michigan, or Manistee, Mi, or N M31. Metaphorically 
speaking W M55 represents where we have been and where this research could potentially go. 
The possibilities are shaped in 
the conclusion as are the reflections of the larger document. There 
are sites of known knowledge construction along the way, and this chapter is
 
designed to reflect 
this. I
 
ask the reader to first take the right turn to Moss Rd. and the campsite, but to al
so reflect 
on where W M55 could take us. 
 
As we set up camp and unpack what we have brought with us, I would like to leave the 
reader with a consideration of word choice that serves as an example of where I am approaching 
this research from.
 
 
A Note About
 

 
One of the phrases I use with consternation is traditional. After much thought and 
deliberation I have chosen to use 
traditional
, not as a move to situate all Native people in the 
past, but rather to imply the ongoing practice from histori
cal spaces to contemporary spaces. 
Additionally, using the word 
traditional
 
allows me to specify which sets of Native knowledge I 
16
 
 
am looking at and to this end, I use 
traditional
 
to differentiate between sacred knowledge and 

Native space, this differentiation is extremely important as a non
-
Native scholar looking at 
Native work because there are
 
things I am not meant to know and I want to respect that, but by 
looking at traditional ways of traveling the land and building relationships with the land, I am 
setting up a framework that has the potential to be used in multiple ways, one of which is 
ma
pping Native space in contemporary society. Here, specifically, the word traditional allows 
me to make the relationship to the past come to the present, by looking at how the methods of 
Native map making have had to adjust and change with contemporary pres
sures such as roads 
and farm land, but I am also able to draw connections with how the historic principles of Native 
map making still exist in a contemporary context. This situating of the past into the present is of 
extreme importance, to my scholarship, 
as it demonstrates the survival of traditional knowledge 
and establishes a well situated theoretical base to understand Native navigation of knowledge in 

tr
ansition the experience in the woods to the class room. 
 
 
 
17
 
 
CHAPTER 2
:
 
FINDING THE PATHWAYS TO KNOWLEDG: A CONVERSATION WITH LISA BROOKS
 
 
In the Spring of 2011 I was an undergraduate student at Michigan State University, in 
first year of a new major Profess
ional Writing and after successfully navigating the Introduction 
to Rhetoric course taught by Dr. Malea Powell, I still had questions and a need to spend more 
time with Indigenous/Native authors. I asked if I could take the graduate seminar that 
specifical
ly focused on Native and Indigenous Rhetorics in the Spring. While initially a little 
surprised, Dr. Powell was extremely encouraging that I pushed myself and my ideas by enrolling 

inar, but I was sure 
that the relationships I had begun to develop with Native Rhetoric were something I wanted to 
explore deeper. 
 
 
I wanted to learn to listen, I wanted to learn to ask the right questions, I wanted to move 
beyond critique of other schola
rs and find a way to make meanings from what was in the text 
rather than find holes. All of these ideas were the same insofar as they all lead to a process of 
synthesis that encouraged the ways that I learn best, but more importantly encouraged the idea 
of
 
learning to understand what I have known and have seen.
 
 
I sought to engage on a different level than I had before. I wanted to shape and learn how 
I made sense of the world around me. Admittedly, part of me believed that I could save myself by 
engaging i
n this work with everything I had, the marrow of my spirit. I believed I could find a 
space where I would be encouraged to engage in a way that held myself and other
s
 
accountable 

lity really struck 
home for me. While this narrative is not the place to dig deeper, which I will do later in this 
18
 
 
chapter, the idea that everything is related and it is my job to honor and respect these 
relationships was the framework that I had known to 
be right, but had received very little 
support in developing this idea in my life previously to this course. 
 
 
I threw myself amongst the wolves to see if I could hold my own. While a huge part of me 
expected cataclysms daily, I was too busy being in it to
 
let my doubts hold me back. I engaged 
my classmates, I engaged the authors, I engaged my instructors; learning to ask the right 
questions, learning the difference between hearing and listening, learning to synthesize rather 
than destroy. I had been lost i
n the process of internal colonization, and had begun to find a path 
that made sense through this course work. 
 
 

The Common Pot
 
was integral
 
an
 
part of this transition and path making. I 
had never seen an author weave story with map constructi
on in such an effective manner, save in 

had begun to learn from my Uncle Jim in the forest; that we are stewards of this land, that the 
relationship is recipro
cal; whether we want it to be or not. For me this translates well to the 
relationships that I build with other people. Building reciprocating relationships with people 
involves taking risks and putting myself out there and being aware 
th
at everyone else is
 
doing the 
same thing. I see my experience of taking this graduate seminar as one of the first steps of 
putting myself in relation to the field. 
 
 
This class was particularly important because it is where I learned that I have to read 
certain books three o
r four times to see the potential that can be built from the words within. It is 
where I learned that I was a builder of things: relationships, ideas, theories, houses. I learned to 
embrace this characteristic; while learning to listen to the words of scho
lars and peers to see 
19
 
 

this that I am consistently drawn back to Lisa Brooks and 
The Common Pot.
 

of history and the land of the North East
ern United States I saw the metaphor of the Pot
1
 

work and ask questions about what this text is doing and how it is doing it. I wanted to see what I 
could build w
ith text and the ideas within it. 
 
 
I noticed the ways in which Brooks grounded herself to her work and explained why she 
approached certain aspects of the writing. I began to see the framework for what this project is 
building. From Lisa Brooks, I am working with the Pot metaphor and questi
oning the 
characteristics of what this metaphor are and the ways that it can transcend metaphor to become 
the grounding for an epistemology. I saw the ways that Brooks talked about knowledge as being 
grounded to history, to the land, to story, and the rela
tionships people build. I wanted to build 
from this, an epistemological lens that would help guide my future research in understand land 
base and Indigenous cartographic methods. 
 
***
 
 
So what is the common pot and how does it shape meaning? More important
ly, how does 
the common pot relate back to maps and mapping practices of Native Americans in northeastern 
United States? According to Brooks the common pot is the metaphor used by Native authors, to 
invoke the larger sense of communal relationships between
 
Earth as a living being and the 


                                        
                    
 
1
 
Reference to the text specifically will be italicized, where references to the 
noun/metaphor/lens of the pot will not.
 
 
20
 
 



demonstrate and explain the multilayered meaning the pot holds. 
 
The pot is the land and its people, it is th
e vessel that nourishes and here I argue that it is 
also the means through which meaning is made across the ever changing dynamics between 
relationships.  More importantly, I am focusing on the 
day to day impact
 
these shifting dynamics 
play in navigating t
ribal relations, native/settler relations, land and human relations, etc...
 
which
 
is an ongoing process of learning and knowing. 
 
 
In relation to epistemology, the pot is, but not limited to, the known network of relations 
between peoples. The pot concept 
allows for theorist and map makers to acknowledge that lands 
exist beyond the scope of what they are able to map and know. It is the land masses that can be 
mapped and known, but further, the pot allows for changes in the landscape and the ways 
through whi
ch relations are made or unmade with the land. The pot serves as a reference point 
which allows mapping to happen by situating how and why relationships develop. 
 
 
Moreover, the common pot becomes an integral part in shaping this specific Navigational 
Epis

whatever was given from the larger network of inhabitants had to be shared within the human 

s
 
towards a particular orientation in under
standing the ways 
that land functions and can be represented, an orientation that considers changes and reciprocity 
between the people on the land and the land itself. I suggest that this orientation is also the site of 
meaning making where these seemingly
 
vague ideas of relationships become tangible ideas and 
practices.  
 
21
 
 
 

perspective, Brooks demonstrates that relationships are the starting point to further meaning 
making a
nd practice. Through understanding these relationships in a historical sense Brooks is 
also making the move towards contemporary importance. I am considering here the ways that 

are currently 
being taken and the forced colonization of Indigenous people and ideas continue. 
 
In contemporary society the capitalist need for land and control has become structurally 
engrained
,
 
and
 
Indigenous sovereignty and
 
ways of thought challenge
 
the
se
 
settler colonial 
values. As Indigenous Scholar and Decolonial theorist Linda Smith writes in her introduction to 
Decolonizing Methodologies

Decolonizing Methodologies
 
is not a method for revolution in a 
political sense but provokes some revolutionary 
thinking about the roles that knowledge, 
knowledge production, knowledge hierarchies and knowledge institutions play in decolonization 

 
In questioning settler colonial values by defining Native space, both Brooks and Smith 
are reclaiming the knowledge of the land by making space for Indigenous intellectual 
sovereignty by reminding readers that this land is Native and the spaces therein are defined by 
their relationships to Indigenaity.  To paraphrase Miami scholar Dr. Malea 
Powell in her 

major city or development that is not on what was once Native lands (387). This points toward 
the need for what Brooks calls the recovery of Native
 
space throughout 
The Common Pot.
 
The 
continuing pressures of colonization can be seen today in the shape of Congress selling sacred 
Apache lands in Arizona or the destruction of 
Mahnoomin
 
(wild rice) beds by way of 
contamination or housing developments in
 
Michigan. 
 
22
 
 
In relation to what the future of Native space looks like it is important to ask what aspects 
of historical knowing of the pot carry over to contemporary Native space and knowledge 
construction? I believe that it is the transition from historic
al context to contemporary
 
context
 
where the shift from metaphor to epistemology happens. The ways that relationships were 
constructed with the land historically have had to shift because of land loss and environmental 
degradation, but, still, at the heart
 
of these relationships are the ways of interaction with the land.  
Despite roads serving as the highways of navigation, in contrast to waterways, the tribal 
relationships survive and are continually practiced. Native people continue to find ways of 
passin
g on the beliefs of the pot that account for the changes in landscape and tribal/settler 
relationships. If these beliefs were not still viable and accessible, Brooks would not have known 
how to craft her maps for these spaces, nor would she have been able 
to have the conversation of 
relationships and implications with an eye towards the impact of the relationships on today.  
 
The network of relationships established in 
The Common Pot
 
shows readers how the land 
becomes
 
a
 
living breathing entity in the recipr
ocating relationships between Native people and 
the land, further by shifting from the metaphor of the common pot, towards a set of beliefs, 
Brooks establishes a base for an epistemological stance that can evaluate and understand the 
larger network of rela
tionships. This is a move that Brooks makes herself by considering 
historical documents and maps and analyzing their importance in terms of the survivance of 
knowledge and how these practices are still relevant today.
 
 
 
In the first chapter of 
The Common 
Pot
, Brooks begins to define Native space as spaces 
where Native people live/have lived and where there is
 
a
 
well tested and functioning relationship 
between the people and the land. Whether this relationship is centered around resources, or 
medicines, or 
related groups of people; the notion of Native space centers the understanding of 
23
 
 
relational accountability to the land (Brooks 6
-
11)
.
 

understand Native land through the lens of historical meaning and contemporary pract
ice. What 
this understanding looks like is an ongoing negotiation of settler colonial ideas/practices in 
regards to how the land is being treated today and what that means for Native folks who continue 
to have their lands taken by the federal government or
 

work as shedding light on how meanings are made with and through relationships with the land.  
 
Brooks builds on the Abenaki and Haudenosaunee stories of birth and relational webs of 

e connected not only by relationships but by a network of 
waterways, which people traveled by canoe and footpath from the southeast coast to the 

n 
relationships to the l
and, and
 
that these relationships are dependent on each other. The waterways 
would not have such significant meaning if
 
it
 

utilize these pathways. Similarly, the network of relationships between tribe members
 
would not 
be able to sustain their pathways of communication without the waterways to connect villages 
and communities. This network of relationships is in part where I begin to develop the ways 
through which the pot becomes more than a metaphor. 
 
These r
elationships are very real and there is a tactile sense of the implications of this 
reciprocal relationship in that humans are not the only actors in this relationship. This is a 
departure, at least to me, from the majority of Western scholarship on coloni
zation and land 
settlement, where the land is a resource, not a political actor with its own sense of relationships 
that can be acted on, or not. More importantly, understanding the relationship between water and 
communication or water as what brings commu
nities together drives further understanding of 
what is happening today. Questions that I am specifically considering while working with this 
24
 
 
research are:  What roles does water play in how people negotiate their relationships with the 
land, what can be l
earned by understanding the multiplicities of potential meaning water can 
have/represent? 
 
 
Similarly, within 
The Common Pot
, I see these questions as particularly relevant as 
Brooks begins the relationships she is constructing by first considering what al
lows these 
relationships to happen. The connection to the land and its geographical features inform the ways 

the connections between tribal members are shaped as we
ll. (15) This process of intertwining the 
Abenaki way of life with the land is evidence to me that land base can inform and shape the 
ways we know what we know and what we will 
know in the future. Within the f
rame work of 
this Navigational Epistemology, hu
mans cannot be separated from the land just as land cannot be 
separated from humans. As humans have blood bringing nutrients to different parts of the body, 
so the land has waterways that nourish the crops and fruits of the land. Waterways are orientation 
points to understand
 
the position of self and of a P
eoples in relation to the greater land masses 
around them. 
 
In 
The Common Pot
, Native space gradually becomes synonymous with the common pot 
as a metaphor, but here it is imperative that I push on this de
finition and consider the ways that 
the pot functions in describing the relationships between Native folks, colonial settlers and the 
land itself. 
 
The pot is
 
the way through which the tribes that Brooks writes about understand their 
relationships with all
 
of t
he factors that go into the pot. T
he pot also represents, in my research, 
the set of beliefs that govern interactions with other tribes, people, animals, and the land. In this 
25
 
 
way, the factors that make up the contents of the pot have defined ways of 
interaction that 
determine what is or is not respectful to the land and the network of relations. It is 
in 
this specific 
interaction, determining what is respectful or not, that I see the pot representing a way of thought 
and understanding where knowledge is actively made and interrogated, thus I claim, an 
epistemological stance.  In the following Haudenosaunee
 
creation story, I am particularly 
interested in the relationships between the Native folks and the water as a feature of land base. 
 
Waterways are central to my understanding of how the pot becomes more than a 
metaphor. Because of the importance water pla
ys in Native communities, 
it 
is an actor in 
developing relationships, both between people and the land. When considering traditional 
meanings in relation to contemporary context, I understand that water is central to developing 
ways of knowing and understa
nding my surroundings. For Brooks water is a means of 
orientation. When I consider origin stories in a pan
-
cultural way, water is at the core of 
ontological meanings across cultures and societies. More specifically, when working towards 
understanding Nativ
e space there are direct ontological implications, that inform a land based 
epistemology, when it comes to water. 
 
 
Brooks relates the larger importance of water to the people by telling the Haudenosaunee 
creation story of the Sky Woman:
 

falling from
 


to 

. Each animal dives to the bottom of the sea, 
g
rasping for mud. Each returns, g
asping for air, empty
-
handed. Finally, muskrat, 
it is said, dives deep down into
 
the water until he can go no farther, grasps a 
handful of earth in his paw, and rises to the surface. He gives up his life, but in his 

Woman in their wings and as they lay her 

seed she had carried from the Sky World and the earth is born. 
 
The story of Sky Woman emphasizes the primacy of water in the northeastern 
landscape. Sky woman enters a world of water and water beings from within 
26
 
 
whic
h the land emerges. The story suggests that the earth is neither solid nor 

(Brooks 2)
 

 
land 
base and to those who dwell there. It becomes extremely important to note when considering the 
function of a Navigational epistemology, that the Haudenosaunee maps are determined by the 
relationship of the people with the land. Brooks shows that unde
rstanding the relationship a 
people have with the land is the primary and most important relationship to understand when 
considering Native spaces. It is important to note that the relationships between Native people 
and the land are the first relationship
s that are addressed in this text. Brooks relies on the 
establish
ment of this interrelated frame
work to develop understandings of the relationships 
between native peoples and colonial settlers in this region. How do people move around their 
space? What rel
ationships are at play in this navigation? 
 
When considering, as Brooks supports, that the first relationship one must consider when 
understanding Haudenosaunee and Abenaki mapping practices, as a means of knowledge 
making, is how these people interacted a
nd were related to the land around them. It is necessary 
to note that within every 20 mile stretch of land there is a waterway to potentially travel by. It is 
reasonable to conclude that because of the extent of available waterways, native folks in this la
nd 
were oriented towards the water as an extremely important relationship to be maintained. 
 
The multiple possibilities for travel along these waterways becomes even more important 
later in this document when considering how information was shared between 
native 
communities and for understanding the evolving relationships with Native folks and European 
settlers. 
 
27
 
 

juices of the native and settler cultures. The waterways bec
ome the broth of the stew that is being 
created within this text. The Native people and colonial settlers are the meat, the animals and 
natural resources are the vegetables, but the land and its waterways are the literal broth that 
combines and puts these 
other elements into relationships with each other. Without the land and 
waterways, the flavors would not blend together; they would not be put in relation to each other.  
 
Creating an Epistemological Lens: 
 
What this analysis of Brooks has lead me to are c
onsiderations of what ideas from 
The 
Common Pot
 
are testable and relatable for my audience. To this end, I have determined that there 
are four characteristics that I can take away from this text and utilize as a means of 
understanding the w
ays in which Bla
ckbird and Erdri
ch construct and know knowledge. 
Conversely, these characteristics are discussed and developed after the analysis of 
The Common 
Pot
 
as a text as a means to understand the wealth of knowledge contained in this book and as 
a 
means to recreate
 
my process of understanding and coming to know the knowledge Brooks has 
shared with her readers. As I move on to looking at Andrew Blackbird and Louise Erdrich and 
the ways through which they construct ways of knowing knowledge the following characteristi
cs 
will help the reader see how these authors, as well as Brooks, construct pathways of knowing. 
The four characteristics are: 
 

 
Knowledge is
 
understood through history
 

 
Knowledge is practiced through the land
 

 
Knowledge is experienced through story 
 

 
Knowledg
e is built through relationships
 
28
 
 
Knowledge being understood through history is a thread that I am weaving through each 

introduction to 
The Common Pot

 
is at once an activity in which we participate, 
an Instrument and a map. It is a map of a network of writers and texts, as well as a process of 

and method of con
veying her ideas are rooted in the writing of histories, which she synthesizes 
into larger frameworks that draw connections across the Northeast. This synthesis is contingent 
on text that both discusses history as well as those texts which are historic. I 
make this distinction 
because Brooks discuses the types of documents that she found during research. Some 
documents were focused, much like Blackbirds, on relating the histories of the people/land 
(people sharing and crafting their own histories in written
 
form), while other documents were 
contemporary when they were written but have since become historical given the 200 plus years 
ago they were written. Brooks reflects on the nature of the latter specifically later in the 

d the power of writing early on, so when I started the research 
for this project I was not surprised to find that the bulk of early Native writings was focused on 

-
xxxv). This last quote demonstrates one specific way 
that 

that what she found in regards to historical texts supports and extends the information available 
to craft her own maps. Dr. Powell adds to this conversation 
in her article 
Rhetorics of Survivance
 

credence and urgency to reformist arguments and put a human face, one that could thus made be 
the object of pity and censu

29
 
 
demonstrate that when talking about Native history, it is extremely important to find and work 
with historic Native voices. 
 
The politics of the land during the early settler colonial period 
in the Northeast were 
highly contested with both Native people and colonial settlers exchanging information, but in 
un
even ways. Evidence for what the
s
e
 
contestations looked like can be found from Museum 
Curator and Author Mark Warhus describes European po
licies towards Native Americans during 
the colonial era in his 
book Another America: Native American Maps and the History of Our 
Land
:
 

with them as sovereign peoples, a
nd the colonial traders, administrators
, 
and farmers usually 


voic
es in any conversation dealing with history and land when developing an epistemology 
framed around Indigenous methods of moving with and on the land. 
 
To summarize, Brooks relates the expectations of the Native people to be of land use 
being equal and shar
ed, working within the larger context of the Pot itself; whereas the settler 
colonial governments sought power over the land and exploited the relationships built with the 
previous inhabitants of the land (Brooks 33). As this text speaks specifically to th
e reclamation 
of Native space, Brooks writes with history on her side, being able to look at past transgressions 
and provide ways to reclaim Native space that are directly in conversation with what has 
happened in the past. 
 
Similarly, knowledge being prac
ticed through the land is evident throughout 
The 
Common Pot
. In 

30
 
 

children, the beavers, a
bounded in the environment and played a similarly critical role in its 
maintenance. Their dams created many of the marshes that provided people and animals alike 

hum

 
(20). The role of the land and its inhabitants demonstrated the knowledge that Native 
folks needed to survive hard winters and build sustainable communities. By providing an 
example in everyday life, the lessons learned from listening and watching the
 
land gradually 
became a way of life and knowing. As land became a commodity through colonial interaction, an 
additional formation of knowledge was developed and known. This relates back to the previous 
ideal that early Native writing was highly concerned 

Algonquian land transactions were essentially diplomatic agreements concerning land use. 
Negotiation involved delineating territorial boundaries or common hunting areas with the goal of 
balanced accommodation 

as a theoretical object that can be owned or exchanged as colonial settlers saw the land, it is clear 
from treaty negotiations that Native people saw the land as having its own need for r
espect and 
stewardship that involved human interaction, but not human ownership
2
. In this way, practicing 
the knowledge of the land extends to understanding the ways colonial settlers interacted with the 
land and Native people as a whole. What this means i
s that land helped Native folks practice 
knowledge in multiple ways: how to survive winter, but also what was at stake in colonial 
interactions. 
 
                                        
                    
 
2
 
Scholars Dennis Woods, Benedict Anderson, and J.M. Blaut discuss the ways that through mapping and perceived 
boarders, land is theorized in a method that allows it to be abstracted into an object that can be sold,
 
owned or 
manipulated. These scholars help to understand colonial mentalities and the process through which settlers colonized 
and stole lands from Indigenous people.
 
 
31
 
 
Central to many Native arguments for decolonization, the land and the rights to access 
resources on traditiona
l Native spaces are at the heart of the matter and the main reason why I am 
considering land one of the major characteristics of a Navigational Epistemology. Anishinaabe 
activist and scholar Winnona LaDuke explains in a TedTalk 
Seeds Of Our Ancestors, Seed
s of 
Life
 

LaDuke goes on to explain that due to increasing urban development and pollution, access to 
these spaces of traditional foods and medicines is diminishing to 
critical levels.  The sites where 
the wild rice grows are sites of inquiry and knowledge making. To reinforce this idea, Powell 

making, where the past is brought 


In order to understand how knowledge is practiced through the land, it is necessary to understand 
the
 
i
mportance of the practice and
 
know how knowledge is made through material practice itself. 
 
Knowledge being experienced through story is one of the more complicated 
characteristics of the Navigational Epistemology that I am creating with Brooks. I am fra
ming 
story here in multiple ways, literal stories that tell of lessons to be learned which may or may not 
be literal translations (such as Sky Woman or the Great Beaver) and oral history as a form of 
storytelling to relate real events that have happened in
 


 
First Nations author and story teller Lee Maracle points toward the extreme importance 
of storytelling as a form of theory building (thus kno
wledge making) in Native culture in 
Oratory: Coming to Theory

maintains that theory is separate from story, and thus a different set of w
ords are required to 
32
 
 

 
idea than to show one. Yet
 
if you take the story out any school textbook the student is 

western understanding of story with a Native understanding of story. These ideas relate back to 
t
he King quote about stories being all we are in that stories are theory. Stories are they way that 

the experience of a culture in terms that children and adults a
like can see and know cultural 
markers
 
of
 
importance.
 
 
The Native people who interacted with early European settlers had previously used oral 
history methods to remember their history. It is because of this that much of the justification for 
considering 
Native people uncivilized was developed by European settlers. Even after Native 

European customs of land alienation and written deeds entered Native space, wor
ds on paper 

(35). This quote points towards the importance of oral customs within Native communities
3
 
and 
the methods of deal making amongst Native peoples. Treati
es would become stories that would 
be passed down and honored by Native peoples, as would the wars that lead to the need for 
treaties. Additionally, the use and function of origin stories to relate the history of a community 
becomes intertwined with the hi
story that is constantly developing. 
 
Origin stories provide a starting point, and as new stories are created they speak and point 
towards the origin stories, weaving a complex historical model that is continuously growing. The 
new stories are reliant on t
he origin stories for derived importance and meaning, much like the 
                                        
                    
 
3
 
This also points towards the importance of items such as wampum belts which were used 
to tell the stories of 
treaties and war. While I would love to discuss this at length, I do not have the space here to do so. if interested 
please read 
Wampum as Hypertext
 
by Angela Haas.
 
 
33
 
 
origin stories maintain their relevance by conversing with contemporary events. To use some of 
the imagery from 
The Common Pot
, the origin stories are the springs from which the people 
com
e from, but as the springs turn to lakes, rivers, and streams, the story continues. What I am 
not saying here is that stories only exist in an oral fashion or that the only stories that matter are 
oral, but that at the time of early contact with colonial s
ettlers, written text was not trusted, which 
speaks to the larger network of relationships developed between settlers and Native people. As 
this text is centered on the writing of native people as a means to re
-
write the history and re
-
tell 
the story, of c
ourse written texts are important in the formation of storytelling. 
 
Much of the initial thought and planning around relationships began with Shawn Wilson. 
In 
Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods
, Wilson (Scottish and Cree) lays the 
foundation
 
for understanding how relationships function in indigenous research. Wilson states in 
the forward to 
Research Is Ceremony

epistemology is that relationality (relationships do not merely shape reality, they
 

What this quote demonstrates is a linkage back to Maracle, and more importantly a vital point of 
connection between readers and the stories that build relationships with authors. Wilson is setting 
the framework to understand how stories
 
build relationships and how these relationships are 
reality. Much like Brooks described the actors within the pot as those who were aware of the 

between the read

relationships is difficult at first because there are distinct intentions that relationships involve and 
as scholars we are often told what the author intends is/may not 
be the most important part of a 
text. But, much as most people have experienced, there are one sided relationships, reciprocated 
relationships, failed relationships, successful relationships, etc. that serve as everyday evidence 
34
 
 
of the interconnectedness o
f relationships. Knowledge is built through relationships and in many 
ways this is the most important characteristic of this Navigational epistemology. The varied 
application of the word relationships, as demonstrated by the authors cited here and many mor
e, 
serve as the compass or orientation for the navigation of knowledge and Indigenous rhetorics.  
Story in the form of history about and with the land is what this entire chapter is about. It is why 
I have shared my narratives throughout this document and 
has been one of the most critical 
features of development as I have moved forward with this project. 
 

enacted distribution of resources, equality between community members 
and the 
interdependency inherent in the network of relations, but it also emphasized the role of human 

-
emphasize, the network of relations 
involves all actors within the larger framework of the Pot. I
t is the people and how they steward 
the land, it is the medicines and where they grow, it is the food and how they nourish, it is the 
water and the life it brings, it is the animals and knowledge they bring, it is the land and what it 
holds. The idea shar

in essence this means that the methodology needs to be based in a community context (be 
relational) and as to demonstrate respect, reciprocity, and responsibility (be accountable 
as it is 

people, but also explains to whom and what they are accountable towards. The network of 
relationships, whether between Native groups or Native groups and colon
ial settlers, followed 
steps of relational accountability as described by Wilson. Thus the conflict that Brooks is writing 
about is the contrast between the actions of the Mohican people (deemed savage and uncivilized) 
and the European colonizer (deemed pu
re and civilized
)
. This conflict is further put into 
35
 
 
juxtaposition when considering the process and effects of industrialization in contemporary 
Native space. The possibility of building knowledge and the practice of traditional relationships 
with the land
 
and the beings there are shifting as there are less lands and less relations to be had. 
 

they brought with them ideas, behaviors, and materials that could potentially disr
upt or even 

part of relationships in this world is not. What this means in regards to the construction of Native 
space and the process of knowledge making is 
that it takes conscious effort to understand the 
ways in which relationships are formed and maintained. Equality may or may not come into 
play, or may be considered in a macro sense in that everything balances out in the end. The 
reason why I am pointing t
oward this characteristic so heavily is that it is through reflection and 
interaction that knowledge is built through relationships. It is an active practice. The 
relationships happen and develop either way, but it is up to the community or individual to t
ake 
time to see knowledge in these interactions and know what the knowledge means. It is also an 
active work to understand how that knowledge is known and what it means to be aware of it. 
 
Why a Navigational Epistemology: 
 
I am calling this Epistemological
 
lens Navigational because it sets and describes possible 
methods of traversing knowledge. Knowledge is not a stagnate thing and as new information is 
acquired, new pathways have to be made to relate old information to the new. By utilizing the 
four charac
teristics, I am providing a potential starting point. More specifically I am providing a 


hat what I believe to be 
36
 
 




 
At the heart of this epistemology are relationships and the ways that they inform and 
build knowledge. As stated previously, relationships serve as the compass or orientation, and 
with a compass or directional orientation it becomes ea
sier to navigate and know the world 
around you. I ask my readers to remember the story I opened this document with. 
 
Had I had a sense of which cardinal direction I was heading or a compass, I would not 
have gotten quite as lost and once I found markers to
 
orient to
,
 
the path got easier. This 
Navigational epistemology provides specific markers to orient towards. Each characteristic is 
asking the reader to position themselves towards a specific concept to understand knowledge 
while in an Indigenous rhetorics
 
framework. Much as I described the pathways to get pretty close 

understand knowledge by navigating experiences (both lived and historical), spaces, and 
relationsh
ips. 
 
Additionally, I am using footnotes through the body of this text to draw and build on 
these relationships. Each discussion of a characteristic will have a footnote that specifically 
names scholars and authors whose work has impacted this project.  In
 
Chapter 3, Walking In 

Chapter 4, The Stories We Tell are Related to the Ground We Walk on: A Conversation with 
Louise Erdrich, I tap into Wilsons concepts of Re
lationality and Relational Accou
ntability by 
including both foot
notes, but also citations of folks I either know personally and have wor
ked 
37
 
 
through this project with o
r folks whose writing has been extremely impactful. Both of these 
moves are to build the 
network of relationships across the ideas contained in this document and 
as such, I encourage my readers to engage with the scholars that I d
o not have space to elaborate 
here
. 
 
What Happens Next: 
 
 
In the following two chapters I will use the Navigational
 
Epistemology to discuss 
knowledge and the relationships that exist between history, land, story and relationships. I 
consider knowledge construction through history and land in relation to Andrew Blackbird and 
story and relations
hips in relation to Louise
 
Erdri
ch. All four characteristics do indeed exist in 

 
 
 
38
 
 
CHAPTER 3
:
 
WALKING IN MICHIGAN: A CONVERSATION WITH ANDREW BLACKBIRD
 
As we crested the last hill 
that lead into Harbor Springs, Mi, I began to realize the depth 
of history in these lands. I realized that despite 13 years of living in this state, I still had much to 
find and learn from this land. I reflected on my travel companions, Michael W. and Dr. 
Malea 
Powell, both of whom have been my main support network while living in East Lansing, and the 
ways of knowing that I have learned from them. Malea has helped me continue the teachings my 
Uncle Jim began when I was a kid, a steady belief in the process
 
of learning that has to be tied to 

willingness to engage with me I have learned how to look for teachings that come from the land. 
This process is imperfect, but 
feels natural to me. It is ongoing and something that I continuously 
have to check because I know my pathways into this knowledge, however real to me, possess the 
potential for appropriation. What I have learned from Michael is to approach everything with 
an 
interest that is open and willing for engagement. In a way, let my actions be the testament of my 
engagement and willingness to learn. 
 
I am not writing this as a testimony of my authenticity, but more as a way to engage and 
reflect on the epistemological lens that I am building for this project. Given the history of 
Harbor Springs, reflection is critical in trying to understand orientatio
ns in this space. Much of 
the land, it could be argued all of it, in Harbor Springs is contested Odawa land that due to 
multiple loop holes in the federal governments litigations and treaties with Native folks is no 
longer held by the Odawa people. 
 
39
 
 
Malea 
related a story to me that an Odawa tribe member outright bought the land of 
Harbor Springs as a way to maintain an Odawa presence on the land, but because he was a 
Native person he was unable to hold the deed to the land. In essence, the federal governmen
t 

recognized in a court of law. 
 
Walking the land and seeing what exists now is extremely important to the development 
to this project. Lisa Brooks describes in her introduction a brief overview of the miles she 
traveled to create the maps in 
T
he Common Pot
, but more importantly is the wa
ys in which she 
related the miles walked as tactile way of connecting with the land she was writing about, the 
land of her ancestors. While Harbor Springs is not the land of my ancestors, it is in the place 
that I call home, Michigan. It is the land that A
ndrew Blackbird called home. 
 
Going and doing on the land of one of the authors I am trying to understand and work 
with is one of the ways in which I can engage in an ongoing relationship to the history of the 
lands I call home. More importantly, however, 
is the ability to see, feel, and breathe the colonial 
history of these lands as a way of understanding the pure weight of history. In many ways, this 
project is about survivance and continued recovery, but Harbor Springs and Andrew Blackbird 
help me to und
erstand why these concepts are important in the first place. In developing an 
epistemological lens with which I engage these scholars, I am br
inging focus to the spaces
 
they 
are writing about. For me, the North Eastern United States is not a land I can tra
vel to at this 

Canada, I am unable to. 
 
40
 
 
That is not to mean that Harbor Springs is a consolation destination. What it means is 
that I am testing my lens on the lands tha
t I call home, in the place where I have invested myself. 
I can engage with Blackbird on a level that feels tangible to me because I have spent many hours 
on the same land that he is writing about. My future focus will be the Great Lakes region and 
this tr
ip is where I am beginning to develop my relationship to my work. I am specifically 
drawing attention to the works in Broo

T
he Common Pot
, where 
she describes the miles she walked, the historic sites of meaning making, and how
 
physically 
visiting these places confirmed and expanded the information she had come to know through text 

with the author, developing a relationship with the la
nd he saw and lived on, to better 
understand the impact of colonization on the Odawa people. My focus is primarily on the present 

am able to navigate what I kn
ow and how I know it. 
 
Blackbird is difficult person to understand. He was the last chief of the Odawa people, he 
was highly educated in both the traditions of the Odawa and western educational systems, he 
married a woman of English decent, he fought for U
.S. citizenship for the Odawa and Ojibwe, 
and was the Postmaster of Harbor Springs.  He was an author of multiple texts that address 
colonial and Native relations and served as an intermediary between Native folks and U.S. 
military forces in Michigan. He s
ought to further his education through western educational 
forms, while at times bemoaning the Odawa influence on his ability to speak. He walked from 
Harbor Springs to Ypsilanti, a distance of over 200 miles, multiple times for varied reasons. 
Blackbird e
mbraces aspects of assimilation but this embrace is only on the surface. He 
41
 
 
demonstrates that he is willing to do anything and everything to maintain the lands of his people 
by advocating for citizenship for Native peoples in Michigan. 
 
It is hard for me t
o understand fully the history of this land that Blackbird called home as 
it is equally hard to fully understand the man and author. In the beginning stages of developing 
this project, Blackbird greatly influenced what I was interested in because he is the
 
only scholar 
I 
was 
directly working with to understand the impact of the Dawes Act. In short the Dawes Act 
served as assmilationist bill to mainstream Native Americans into U.S. culture and citizenship. 
While extremely problematic, the most important piec
e of understanding in relation to my 
research in regards to the Dawes Act is the ways in which traditional Native Spaces (lands 
specifically here) where parceled out and quantified. What this actually means in terms of 
understanding the land base in Harbor
 
Springs is that through the Dawes Act the majority of 
Native people were moved from one space to another and because of Native American status 
these people were not allowed to hold the deeds to lands that had been traditional summer 
hom
es for centuries be
fore contact
 
(Blackbird
.
)
 

members only. The irony of this colonization is hard to miss and further brings home the reason 
why I had to visit Harbor Springs. Tradition
al lands that once were home (and probably still are 
in some cases) to traditional medicines are no longer accessible to the Native folks who still live 
in Harbor Springs. What potential knowledge this land holds is owned and restricted by people 

 
how to build a reciprocating relationship to the land. 
 
My relationship with Harbor springs is developing. 
 
***
 
42
 
 
In the 
History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan
4
,
 
Andrew Blackbird 
describes the methods in which Native peoples traversed and bu
ilt relationships with Northern 
Michigan. He also describes the ways in which Native people oriented themselves to the land 
before and after contact and colonization. I am particularly interested in the period in which 
Blackbir

 
he
 
is writing in a transitional period in which the Odawa 
people were actively losing their lands and pathways of assimilation seemed to be one of the 
only options that would allow the Odawa people to remain in their homes. Blackbird is 
consciously aware 
of the outcomes of forced migration, acknowledging the potential death of 
50% of the Odawa during the period of acclimation (Blackbird). 
 

Native map making practices becaus
e of the navigations of information and space/place actively 
happening. Blackbird is crafting his history into a dynamic map with different features that are 
reliant on what time of year the reader is attempting to read the map. This is not a clear map and
 
throughout this chapter the quotes have been selected for a dual purpose. First, they are quotes 
that support and build on the importance of history and land as features of knowledge 
construction. Second, they demonstrate the ways that Blackbird is buildi
ng his map. What I have 
provided here is an attempt to mirror this style, to layer the meaning in multiple ways as 
Blackbird does. 
 
Blackbird is his own cipher, which is to say, he is his own key to understan
ding the map 
he weaves. He describes
 
all of the 
pieces one would need to create the map (times and names) 
                                        
                    
 
4
 
The names Ottawa and Chippewa are used by Andrew Blackbird in his
 
text. I use the names Odawa and Ojibwe as 
the traditional names for these two groups specifically. The Ottawa are referenced as Odawa and the Chippewa are 
referenced as Ojibwe in my words. I make this move as a means to acknowledge the history of these pe
ople and to 
call them by the names they self identify.
 
 
43
 
 
but it is through his orientation to these things that he crafts his map. I may tread the same land, 
visit the exact same places, but my understanding of the map/land will be different because I 
can
not see the places where the strawberries grew wild or where whitefish ran so thick you could 
simply reach your hand into the water and grab one. In 2015, it is possible to find wild 
strawberries and I bet there are still whitefish to be caught, but after 
100 plus years of 

with a no trespassing sign. 
 
The ways in which Blackbird has coded his map preserve the memory of what was once 
abundant in Michigan. To think th
at Blackbird was not aware of how this map was coded would 
be a disservice to the memories and meaning contained here. With time I could recreate 

History
 
contains all of the pieces necessary to do so, but here I want to 
focus on th
e relationship Blackbird creates with space and time. Blackbird is building a map that 
is actively weaving Native Space and time together in order to preserve the memories of this 
land, but to also provide a way for contemporary Native folks to build a rel
ationship to lands 
surrounding Harbor Springs. 
 
As stated in the 
History

 
were the summer homes of 

were the summer places. This history
5
 

generations and as a direct conversatio
n with colonization as a structure. 
 
                                        
                    
 
5
 
History here is a complex idea. It is both colonial history and Native history. When considering the larger impact 

ary to consider both sides. I have 
made a few biased assumptions as to what the dominant/colonial model of history has taught, and as such I am 
focusing on Native history and the words of Andrew Blackbird. Here I am building on the work of Roy Harvey 
Pearc
e (
Savagism and Civilization: A Study of the Indian and the American Mind
), Jodi A. Byrd (
The Transit of 
Empire: Indigenous Critiques of Colonialism
), The Vine Deloria Jr. (
Custard Died For Your Sins
), Malea Powell 
44
 
 
He is lamenting the loss of the land his people have lived on for generations, but equally 
importantly, he is describing the process in which these lands made meaning and how that 
meaning has to shift now that they have
 
been colonized. He is building a map of resistance and 
survivance for his people, while crafting a map of broken alliances with colonial powers by 
describing the process of restriction the Odawa faced during the late 19
th
 
century. Blackbird is 
also buildi
ng a map of future resistance by describing and demonstrating the importance of 
education in the face of land loss and the ever increasing difficulty his people will face in the 
future. 
 
Blackbird is situating this history in what was a contemporary contex
t for hi
m. T
his 
history is a reflection of what happened and what will happen in the future. When I originally 
started working through the ideas of this project and meanings made from Blackbird, I thought I 
would focus on the few references to birch bark w
ritings and signal tree markers as a means of 
geographical navigation, but after going to Harbor Springs I realized that I had missed some of 
the point of my research. I am developing an epistemological lens in order to develop other 
projects in the future
, but one of the most important goals of this lens is to understand the context 
in which knowledge is made and navigated. 
 
Blackbird has strategically kept important parts of his story hidden. It is unclear if he 
wants his map follo
wed. Given the time in w

 
narrative was written, one possible 
reason for this would be a misuse of the information or potential disrespect to his homeland. But, 
it is clear that Blackbird needed to share this information for future generations by providing 
evidence
 

                                        
                                        
                                        
                                        
                                   
 
(
The Rhetorics of Survivance
), and Debora
h Miranda (
Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir
), and many others including 
Qwo
-
li Driskill, Robert Warrior, and Andrea Smith. 
 
45
 
 
foot of my inheritance, he thought to him I should be the slave. Ah, never, never! I would sooner 
plunge the dagger into my beating heart, and follow the footsteps of my
 
forefathers than be a 

the ways in which they gained their homes. It is important for the Odawa as a way to remember 
and continue to practice their ways of b
eing, though so much of the lands and situations have 
changed. 
 
The fears of appropriation and disrespect are real for Blackbird. At the time of his 
writing, Native people were considered second class citizens of the United States who needed to 
be assimila
ted and civilized. Blackbird addresses these ideas with irony and sarcasm as he 
describes the Odawa society before colonization. Additionally, Blackbird left behind a map of 
his people. Where they lived, how they practiced their beliefs, and what they woul
d (according to 
Blackbird) need to do to survive. 
 


n
 
a number of writings by different 
men who attempted to 
give an account of the Indians who formerly occupied the Straits of 
Mackinac and Mackinac Island, (that historic little island which stands at the entr
ance of the 

7). From this framing, it is clear that Blackbird is setting up this chapter to fra
me history 
from a Native perspective. Similar to Brooks and Erdrich, Blackbird grounds his writing in the 
cu
stoms of his people, refuting in
 
subtle ways the accounts of the colonizer in relation to the 
lands he has known and the history of the Odawa (Ottaw
a) and Ojibwe (Chippewa). He goes on, 


(Blackbird 7). What Blackbird is sayin

46
 
 
people shaped by colonial settlers, there has been no account from the Native perspective. He is 
not re
-
writing history here, he is contesting that the histories that do exist are wrong. That the
 
knowledge being shaped and shared about the Odawa and Ojibwe and the lands they call home 
are misleading in regards to the societal structures and means of life. As a Native person writing 
about Native people and Native space, Blackbird is drawing a compa
rison between the colonial 
history of these people and lands. It is with subtlety that he refutes the histories shaped by 
colonial governments; it is with irony and sarcasm that Blackbird contrasts the ways in which the 
Odawa and Ojibwe have lived and the 
history that is told by colonial governments. 
 


with the Ten Commandments, 



level of 

History
 
as a means to provide 
credence to why this text is being written in the first place. It is a move to demonstrate what 
aspects of life and land that European settlers are missing in regards to Nati
ve people and Native 
spaces. 
 
Much as Brooks discussed European settlers being in the pot, whether they recognized it 
or not, Blackbird is contrasting the treatment of Native people/space by European settlers to what 
they claim to believe, suggesting a sub

lends credence to why Blackbird is writing this history, to tell Native history from a Native 
perspective. Throughout the first chapter, Blackbird contrasts the ways of life of the Odawa, 
before an
d after permanent settlement of Europeans. 
 
47
 
 
What this initial foregrounding does for Blackbird is provide a method of discussing 
history that considers relationships between humans and land. Blackbird grounds his telling of 
histories directly to the land a
s a means of connecting the people with their spaces. Blackbird 


raspbe
rries and blackberries that they fairly perfumed the air of the whole coast with fragrant 

the abundance of food and land as metaphor for how the Odawa a
nd Ojibwe people lived before 
Europeans settle
d
 


-
gaw
-
naw
-
ke
-
zee 

 
the wa
ys Blackbird understands
 
the 
knowledge of his 
people 


my people wer


Blackbird is expressing a sense of loss of knowledge and connection to the land through 
E
uropean settlement. 
 
Blackbird is constructing a map of time and colonial interaction, based on the transitions 
of colonization in relation to traditional Odawa knowledge. By putting himself in relation to the 
land
6
 
and the experiences he has had to those 
experiences of the Odawa as a whole, Blackbird is 
                                        
                    
 
6
 
While Blackbird and Brooks have been the most influential authors to discuss land in the process of this project, 
Anishinaabe scholar 
and activist Winnona LaDuke (TedTalk: Seeds of Our Ancestors, Seeds of Life 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHNlel72eQc
 
) , Cherokee Scholar Kimberli Lee (Cultural Rhetorics
 
Conference Panel  2014), Mvkoke Poet Joy Harjo (
Crazy Brave
), Potawatomi Scholar Robin Kimmerer (
Braiding 
Sweetgrass

developing understandings of land and how i
t applies to Indigenous studies.
 
 
48
 
 
providing a view of both what has been lost and maintained. He contrasts the method of 
interactions between Native people and settlers in chapter 2. In describing the settlement after the 
murder of a Chippe
wa (Ojibwe) man by an Ottawa (Odawa) man over fishing nets, Blackbird 
discusses the means through which these two closely related groups settled their dispute. After 

tended 
from a point near Sleeping Bear, down to the eastern shore of the Grand Traverse Bay, some 


tes in terms of land and 
knowledge is the value placed on hunting grounds, but also that through settling the dispute in 
this way, both the Odawa and Ojibwe avoid war and death. This further contrasts with the 
approach of war taken by European settlers, an
d works to affirm Native knowledge as, at the 

 

History
 
progresses, this 
becomes more and more apparent. In regards to the history of Mackinac Is
land Blackbird writes 

-
called, who writes about the Island of Mackinac and 
the Straits and vicinity tells us that the definition or meaning of the word Michilimackinac in the 


Blackbird is relying on his knowledge of the Odawa language to show how he knows the history 

th
e Ottawas, which was some time before America was known as an existing country by the 

people in Michigan. Initially, I read this idea as Blackbird conferring his kn
owledge in relation to 
that of the European settlers, but what this really means is that Odawa knowledge is not 
49
 
 
contingent on European knowledge and is known through the traditional practices of the Odawa 
people. This is extremely important when considerin
g the time frame in which this piece was 
written and the contrast of civilized and uncivilized. The history of the land, through Blackbird, 
has multiple ways of telling. It is through the stories of the Odawa and Ojibwe that Blackbird 
makes meaning and und
erstands the knowledge of this place. 
 

our
 
traditions, 
although this may be considered, at this age, as a fictitious story; but every Ottawa and Chippewa 
to this day believes it
 

here is clear that Blackbird is navigating multiple versions of the history of the land. This is 
exceedingly important when considering how Blackbird is using history and land to kn
ow 
knowledge, because it situates this knowledge in a specific culture and time. This relates back to 
how Brooks uses the origin stories of Sky Woman and the Great Beaver, in that the Native 
people stand their ground in what they believe to be true, despit
e colonial understandings of 
history. Further, when considering the method of relating this story, it is taken as history to the 
Odawa and Ojibwe people. In the chapter that follow
s, I will discuss the ways Erdri
ch utilizes 
similar stories to weave a netwo
rk of relations that incorporates history as a way to tie these 
authors together and draw connections between how knowledge is navigated through history. 
 

the land, b
oth where the Odawa have been and where they are at
 
the time of
 
t
his writing. Further, 
Blackbird demonstrates the process of navigating the knowledge of his people as connected 

scover
y
 
of the 
American continent by the white people, the traditions of the Ottawas say they lived along the 

50
 
 
Through the oral traditions of the Odawa, Blackb
ird knows that the Odawa did not originate in 
Michigan. This scope 
of time works to discursively
 
dismantle notions of colonial history, but 
speaks more to the importance of traditional Odawa knowledge. Through this history, Blackbird 
is able to describe an
d build connections with the Ojibwe people through the network of 
language relations. Blackbird is utilizing the similar language structure and home lands between 
the Odawa and Ojibwe to demonstrate one of the ways that history and relation
ships are tied t
o 
the land to experience
 
knowledge. What this means is that through relational networks 
knowledge was shared and know
n
 
across cultures. This becomes additionally important when 
considering this is a history of the Odawa and Ojibwe people. Blackbird demonst
rates this 
connection as a means of knowing knowledge through relational networks, and it is through this 
relational network that I understand why this text serves as history for two separate, but related 
groups. 
 
One of the most complex relationships that
 
Blackbird addresses is between the Native 

comparatively few living in the State of Michigan, trying to become civilized and to imitate their 
white neighbors in a

drawing a contrast to the small number of Native people at the time of his writing and the 
number of people he historically knew lived on these lands. Additionally, this quote highl
ights 
the types of changes the relationship with colonial settlers has brought to the Odawa. The 
colonial language of civilized is used again to reflect the process of colonization and the changes 
it has brought. But what draws me to this quo
te is the way 
Blackbird uses
 
language to 
demonstrate how he navigates knowledge in relation to colonization. The relationship with 
colonial settlers is not a choice for Blackbird, but he is using this relationship to confirm the 
51
 
 
process of knowing the history of the lan
d and his people as the same process as navigating the 
knowledge of th
e land and his people. This 
will have greater implications when I discuss Louise 
Erdrich in the next chapter, but directly relates back to how Brooks uses history and land to 

ative space as a means of knowing knowledge. 
 
Where I will end this chapt
er is with a discussion of 
B

 
as a 

what ought to be, for 
the same god who created the white man created the red man of the forest, 

(98). When I first read these words what I believed Blackbird was calling for was
 
assimilation. 
Through this project however, I realize what Blackbird is asking his people to do is to put 
traditional Odawa knowledge in relation to colonial knowledge as a means to better know the 
knowledge of their people. Through his text, Blackbird is
 
crafting an argument that demonstrates 
how traditional Odawa knowledge is as robust as Western knowledge. He draws his readers (and 
his people) back to the land and the ways Odawa tell their history as a way to combat notions of 
Native people being uncivi
lized. More importantly, Blackbird is providing a map for the Odawa 
people to know the traditional knowledge of their culture. Yes he is arguing for colonial forms of 
education, civilization, and Christianity, but these devices are suggested as a means of 
survivance, rather than assimilation. Blackbird is calling for the Odawa and Ojibwe people of 
Michigan to understand their traditional knowledge in relation to colonial knowledge through 
means that will additionally allow Native people to function in a col
onized world. This is a map 
that can be read in this text. This is map
 
that in some ways, Louise Erdri
ch follows in the next 
chapter. Not all of Blackbirds delineation of space and history can be followed as a map, but in 
this chapter (chapter 12) Blackbir
d provides a map of survival. That this map comes near the end 
52
 
 
of this text is telling because in order to get to these ideas, the reader must travel with Blackbird 
through the Lower Peninsula and navigate colonization through time and place.  
 
 
 
 
53
 
 
CHAPTER 
4
:
 
THE STORIES WE TELL ARE RELATED TO THE GROUND WE WALK ON: A 
CONVERSATION WITH LOUISE ERDRICH
 
When I first read 
 
Books and Islands
 

gotten a root canal 3 hours before we left. I was riding with my close friends Ben and Lena, who 

the bac
k seat, face numb, I began to fall deeper and deeper into the story that Erdrich was 
weaving. I saw the Perkins where she and her family met up for a meal. I started to draw 
connections between the ways my class practiced their conversations and food pract
ice and how 
Erdrich described the meanings food had in her family. I had my friends there to help me talk 
through connections I was making between Erdrich and other Native authors. I started and 
finished the book on the drive from Lansing to St. Louis. Thi
s text was fresh in my mind as I sat 

decolonial practice of being where I think and do.
7
 
I was just a baby in the field of Rhet/Comp at 
this time, but I felt my R
het/Comp story begin in earnest on that car ride down to St. Louis with 
Erdrich 
as my traveling companion. Erdri
ch had helped me know knowledge through the 
relationship she had built with me through her text. 
 
As a child, I would escape into the worlds bui
lt by authors, spending hours in space or 
Middle Earth. I was a trouble maker and my mother was a recovering army vet with PTSD. We 
struggled to survive those early years, but I made it through by reading. It became hard at times 
                                        
                    
 
7
 

The Darker Side of Western Modernity
  
under the Decolonial options section for a further 
explanation of this concept.
 
 
54
 
 
to separate what I was rea
ding from real life and to help me understand the world better, I 

 
As I made the transition from fiction only to frequent works of non
-
fiction I found that I 
was still entering different worlds and views with the non
-
fictio
n, but that there was a greater 
sense of empowerment and ability to change myself. I brought this method of reading with me to 

started that first graduate seminar. 
 

the world. Not a path of least resistance, but a path that takes into account what obstacles I want 
to move over, through, or around. Every time I read 
Books and Islan
ds
 
I feel that Erdri
ch is 
talking directly to me, asking me to be a part of her history, to travel the lands she has. And 
while this works for awhile, I always come back to the idea that there are some things that I 


genocide or have those memories tied by blood.
 

language buried deep within me, trying to come to the surface to be remembered; to be spoken. 
As a s

experience is confined to a one generation, maybe two. 
 
I sometimes struggle with conversations of survivance because I worry that as a non
-
Native person looking at Nativ
e work I will frame my discussions in a way that shows Native 

engaging in trying to understand this as an idea/concept, I see the ways that Erdrich speaks to 
this an
d provides a method of understand Native space in a contemporary context. I think back 
55
 
 
to the hours I have spent with my Uncle in the Manistee National Forest, consciously learning 
the ways we are related to the earth. I think of the views of relational ac
countability I have 

 
I have been developing this project for 3 ½ years, but so many of these ideas I have been 
working 
with 
my entire life. There have been moments where I have
 
tried to describe to my 

you are looking at maps right? Did Native Americans make maps? Are you looking at old maps? 

 
Books and 
Islands
 
is always the example text I suggest if these people want to know what 
I am doing. I have had 8 copies of this book, 6 I have given away, 1 I lost, and 1 that I keep safe 
because it was given to me by a friend and mentor. 
Books and Islands
 
sticks with me, but more 
importantly, I want it to stick with those close to me. I want to know if my family sees reflections 
of themselves and the family dinners we used to have at my grandparents house before my 
grandmother passed away. I want know if m
y family feels tied to this land the way I do. 
 
***
 
 

Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country
 
as method 
of understanding how Erdrich understand
s
 
and builds her own relationships with traditional 
Ojibwe knowledge through st
ory and relationships. I will focus on the ways Erdrich uses story 
and relationships as a means of Native cartography in order to investigate implications for a 
Navigational epistemology. 
 
56
 
 
What Erdrich offers in informing the Navigational Epistemology that
 
I am shaping here 
is a look at the complex negotiation of contemporary and historical colonization. Erdrich builds 
on the context of Blackbird and shows how the weight of history informs contemporary practice 
while sharing narratives that are directly tie
d to the land and the people who have and do live 
there. She also, like Brooks, is aware of her relationships to the land and demonstrates a way of 
accountability to the places she tells about and the people she interacts with. 
 

Books and 
Islands in Ojibwe Country
 
is a fascinating narrative that first 
brought home the importance of story in Native tradition to me.  This text, as a story, creates a 
map of the land and a map that creates a way of understanding the story. The concept of storie
s 
as maps and maps as stories is extremely important in understanding the Navigational 
Epistemology because this it works directly towards de
-
stabilizing western notions of 
cartography. In western cartography, maps are crafted as objects and understood as 
only in the 
abstract, representing features of the land.
8
 
In this text, Erdrich prompts readers to begin to 


nce the writing or drawings that those ancient 
people left still makes sense to people living in Lake of the Woods today, one must conclude that 

(Erdrich 5
-
6). The storie
s of the land become locations on a map, just as the histories of the 
                                        
                    
 
8
 
While I will not be discussing Western mapping practices specifically in this 
document, I briefly use this example 
to draw importance to Erdirch and the ways I understand her narrative in relation to Native mapping practices. J.W. 


 
and Walt
er 

The Darker Side of the Renaissance 
both provide particularly useful critiques of Western mapping 
practices as cartography refers to power.
 
 
57
 
 
Ojibwe people are stored in this land, waiting for someone who knows how to read the land to 
know the story
9
 
and the knowledge. 
 

ving space with story. Erdrich 
is defining Native space as any space in which she moves. Erdrich brings the Pot with her. The 

knowledge through the stories of the Ojib
we and t
he lands of her ancestors. Erdri
ch interacts 
with contemporary colonial pressures in a way that actively acknowledges the past and navigates 
these spaces with her stories and the traditional stories of the Ojibwe. To demonstrate this 
navigation of 

along a highway that was expanded from a road that was once a trail, an old Ojibwe trade route, 

 
Brooks described pre
-
colonial Native mapping practices as
 
a
 
series of stories and 
anecdotes that not only described the land itself, but also what could be found on the land and the 
types of relationships the people had with the land. Erdrich balances both story as a form of map 
making as well as giving specific d
irections in order for the reader to follow her map. I c
ould 
visit the places that Erdri
ch does in 
Books and Islands
 
by following her story, and/or the road 

th
ey are two separate maps, but I am drawing attention to the fact that there are multiple ways of 

 
This multiple layered meaning reflects how 
                                        
                    
 
9
I am using story as a sort of a catch all to refer to a prevalent theme of utilizing multiple storied 
form in the larger 
academic discourse in Native studies. They can be origin stories as show with Brooks, or they can be personal 
narratives as shown with Erdrich. The upshot here is that authors such as Malea Powell,Thomas King, Joy Harjo, 
Leslie Marmon Si
lko, Lee Maracle. Andrea Riley Mukavets, Louise Erdrich, Lisa Brook, Andrew Blackbird and 
Shawn Wilson all use story to convey meaning. More specifically, these authors use story to convey knowledge as it 
relates to history, land, and relationships. There 
are many other folks (both Native and non) who utilize story in their 
scholarship but the previously mentioned authors are who I have built my relationships with and I am talking with in 
this document. 
 
58
 
 
Blackbird tells his history. There is a history of the Odawa and
 
Ojibwe, there is a history of 


 
is
 

shape one text. For Erdrich, 
it is her history with the land, her relations, with contemporary 
colonization, and the story of the land. For both of these authors and Brooks, all of these stories 
are related, all of these layers form one cohesive structure. Erdrich makes sense of this 
through 

What this quote also does is acknowledges what happened after we leave Blackbird in the late 
19
th
 
century and is Erdrich acknowledging the difficulties of
 
maintaining a pathway for knowing 
Ojibwe knowledge. The beauty and hardships help readers understanding the relationship 
between the dual mapping system. 
 

context as a Na
tive person traveling on colonized land. This is a level of audience awareness that 
drives the purpose of this text as act of resistance as well as a means to leave something behind 
for her child that she is writing about. As Blackbird explained, removal o
f the language and the 

Books and Islands
 
is an act of resistance because all of the pieces are included to follow the map, 
but the reader has to sort thr
ough them themselves. It is also an act of resistance because the map 
contained within the narrative provides other Ojibwe a means to know and visit traditional sites 
of Native space and knowing. There is a distinct relationship between the ways Erdrich te
lls her 
story and Blackbird tells his. Both authors are seeking ways to pass on the information they carry 
in their body. Both authors are actively working to understand the ways they have been 
59
 
 
colonized and what this colonization means for the future gene
rations. Both authors refuse to not 

 
Erdrich understands that in a contemporary context, the need for Native space is as 
important as it has always been, if not more so beca
use of what has been lost in terms of land and 
traditional Ojibwe practice.  Given the historic removal of people and language from Native 
spaces, Erdrich provides the reader, in this case me, a way of knowing what were traditional 
Native spaces and a mean
s for regaining/maintaining them. She uses road signs and towns as 
signifiers to her story and as a way to build relationships with her readers. I see this as a means 
of remembering the history but also being conscious of those who may not known or remembe
r 
the traditional ways of navigation. 
 
By using contemporary/colonial features to signif
y the route she is taking, Erdri
ch is 
contrasting her navigational system to that of Blackbird, but the systems are not 
mutually 
exclusive because Erdri
ch names the riv
ers and lakes, providing in many places both the colonial 
name and the Ojibwe name. As the previously mentioned quote stated, many of the roads that 
have been paved and expanded for colonial exploitation were once Native pathways of 
navigation (Erdrich 14)
. In this way, Erdrich is reclaiming these pathways and demonstrating the 
process through which she knows traditional Ojibwe knowledge through history and the land. 
For a long time I thought that Erdrich was doing this to describe the dual worlds she lives
 
in, but 


Additionally, it is through this method of naming 
that 
Erdrich
 
is talking with her audience and 
showing us the way she is carrying the Pot with her, claiming that all spaces she travels are 
Native space because of the knowledge she is carrying with her. Erdrich is conversing with 
60
 
 
Blackbird, asking what he saw educati
on bringing to Native people and spaces, asking if this is 
what he meant. Blackbird is asking Erdrich how she was able to know the traditional lands of her 
people despite having so much of them taken away by the Federal government
.
 
One of the ideas t
hat st
icks out to me about Erdri

language is used in telling this story. Erdrich acknowledges
 
that she is an ongoing learner
 
of the 
language, which is in contrast to Blackbird who was a fluent speaker. Both authors give the 
Na
tive name of specific places every chance they get. Erdrich specifically provides the Ojibwe 

used in this text as a means of resistance to colonial powers.  Bu
ilding on the concept of 

were truly there in my heart, both the point of victimization and the point of resistance becomes 
clear. The value of resistance is the rec
laiming of 
the sacred and significant self

relationship here is that through including the 
Ojibwe
 
language Louise Erdrich is reclaiming part 
of her own identity and through relating this reclamation in story she is showing a method of 
experienci
ng the traditional knowledge of her ancestors. 
 
By integrating Ojbiwe into her story, Erdrich is further staking the claim that Native 
space is where she is. That is not to say that this is unique to Erdrich, but that, in a larger sense, 
Native space is wh
ere Native people are, where Native languages are spoken, and where Native 
practices are practiced. Erdrich asks her readers to address and understand what colonization has 
done to Native people and to remember that all of the lands of the Great Lakes were
 
once Native 
lands and the land holds this memory. More importantly, Erdrich use of Ojibwe as a statement of 
existence, 
is 
a way to say that Native people never left these lands and are thriving in these 
spaces. Lisa Brooks reflects on 
Books and Islands 
in
 
the acknowledgement section at the 
61
 
 
beginning of 
The Common Pot
, reflecting on what it means to use Native languages in 
contemporary scholarship as a means of reclamation of Native space and a method of survivance 
for Native culture (xxi). Additionally, An
ishinaabe and Chaldean scholar Andrea Riley 

What Riley Mukavets is adding to this conversation is healing powers that stories hold, 
contrasting colonization w
ith traditional ways of knowing 
the land. The difficulties 
occur when 
trying to navigate and make sense of what has happened as a means of going forward and 
remembering the genocide of Native peoples and what that history means today. Like Erdrich, 
Riley M
ukavets understands stories as a process and a means to experience the knowledge of her 
ancestors, thus furthering the importance of story as a means of knowledge construction. By 
connecting her story to the 
Ojibwe
 
language, Erdrich is offering her struggl
e as a means to heal. 
 
Erdri
ch demonstrates that Native people have always and already navigated this land, that 
while there are Native people alive, they will be traveling the waterways, making meanings from 
the relationships they have built with each oth
er, the land, and colonial powers. By framing her 
story as a Native person writing about Native people, Erdrich is describing and embodying what 
survivance means. By providing a way for other Ojibwe to retrace her steps, Erdrich is also 
providing ways for 
future meaning to be made. Erdrich knows what she knows through 
generations of practice and adaptation. Erdrich reflects on the history of the lands she travels, 

f 
alterations that would forever shift the economic, social, ad spiritual balance of Ojibwe life in 

see the ways that Native people have responded to these cha
nges. They are still moving, they are 
still harvesting their medicines, they are still marking the land with their story and building their 
62
 
 
histories. Erdri

she is one among
 
many other Ojibwe navigating contemporary space as a Native person who 
remembers her history and the lands of her people. While I will reflect later in this chapter on the 

s call him by 
name), here what I want my reader to understand is that Erdrich is showing us that knowledge 
needs to be continuously experienced to be known and understood. She has to maintain the 
relationships with the land and retell the stories in order 
to know the knowledge that is contained 
in them. With
 
each journey and telling, Erdri
ch is strengthening her understanding of this 
knowledge and is opening up herself to know more. 
 
Similar to both Brooks and Blackbird, Erdrich tells an origin story, but E


daughter and Erdrich has provided a way for Rita to know her traditional places. Erdrich is 
weaving her story so that Rita is an active actor wit
h the land. Examples of this can been seen 


that until it does, t

the land and the spirits that the Ojibwe believe exist in the land, but this relationship is more 
complex because Erdrich is not only saying there is relationship between Rita 
and the spirits, but 


spirits is one way that Erdrich 
is demonstrating a process of experiencing traditional Ojibwe 
knowledge additionally Erdrich is demonstrating one of the ways through which Ojibwe people 
can remember when they have forgotten or remember what can never be forgotten. This is a 
63
 
 
story of deal
ing with colonization. This is a map of healing and survivance through the passage 
of knowledge from one generation to the next. 
 
In 
Books and Islands
, Erdri
ch begins building a web of relationships
10
 

in 
T
he Common Pot


this case the Lake of the Woods in Minnesota and traditional Ojibwe lands in s
outhern Canada); 
they are familial relationships between the author and her daughters; they are relationships that 
are developed through necessity and survivance.  Most importantly, this story is a means of 
understanding the ways in which traditional knowl
edge is practiced today. Riley Mukatvets 

---
 
to learn about my relationships with the women, my research, 
or myself. In this re
-
telling moment, I realize that at the center of this dissertation is a story about 
how relatio

traditional knowledge and people, she imparts on the reader what Riley Mukavets explains in 
relation to her research. 
 
Erdrich
 
explains that she is a learner
 
of traditional 
Ojibwe knowledge and one of the 


to helping people. He is a one
-

Tobasonakwut, 
Erdrich
 
explains one of the methods she learns traditional Ojibwe knowledge. 
                                        
                    
 
10
 
The majority of the scholarly framework for underst
anding and building the section about relationships stems 
from the scholarly work of Shawn Wilson. Equally important though are the relationships I have built with my 
Uncle Jim (demonstrated through my stories) and Malea Powell (still scholarly, but of the
 
mentor and instructor 
variety) because these people have helped me find my own path of understanding what it actually means when I say 
that all things are related. Other scholars who have since informed a theoretical understanding of relationships are 
Kat
hleen E. Absolon (Minogiizhigokwe) in her book 
Kaandossiwin: How We Come to Know
, the poetry of Qwo
-
li 

Indigenous Caucus (specifically Lisa King, 
Andrea Riley Mukavets, and Gail Mckay).
  
 
64
 
 
This character is one of the most important characters in terms of Erdrich building a set of 
traditional 
Ojibwe knowledge because she is actively engaging with the lessons he passes on, 
which both people pass the knowledge to Rita. 
 

one person. That is a relief. For if
 
to describe one is also to describe the other, I am set free. Both 
are so vast and contradictory and full of secrets that I both despaired of and was delighted with 

the 
connective relationship between Tobasonakwut and the land. By stating Tobasonakwut is the 
lake and sharing the level of knowledge contained in both as full of secrets, the reader begins to 
understand the immenseness of traditional Ojibwe knowledge. Thi
s quote also shows one of the 
ways that traditional Ojibwe knowledge is shared and known: through human interaction and 
established relations between a teacher of knowledge and a learner of knowledge. 
 
This process of building knowledge through relationshi
ps is tied to the land, again, with 
the idea Erdrich relates to her reader,
 

lived near the lake was essentially made of the lake. As the people lived off fish, 

water and water plants for medicine, they were literally cell by 

to him, 
the creator is the lake and we are the waves on the lake. 
Tobasonka
wut 
shows the place in the heaves 
from which the creator descended. Their origins are 
familiar. The cosmology is on the surrounding landscape, in the stars, in the 
shapes of the rocks and islands, and in the mazinapikiniganan, the paintings that 

34)
 
Here, Erdrich is building on the ways the relationships exist and relate traditional Ojibwe 
knowledge through human interaction and remembrance of story. This also relates to the 
process of remembering traditional Ojibwe histories by using paintings an
d reading the 

65
 
 
extremely important, for they express relationships, usually between a human and a 
supernatural being. Wavy lines are the most impressive, for they signify d
irect visionary 
informat
ion, talk from spirit to spirit

 
 
Erdrich is reclaiming a traditional way of building her relationships by tapping 
into the stories of the past. Anishinaabe scholar Kathleen Abs

quests
 
and knowl
edge searchers are all around us
.
 
Indigenous peoples have always had 
means of seeking accessing knowledge. Yet, indigenous searchers are usually caught in 
the context of coloni
al theories and methodologies

colonial met
hod of building relational knowledge, and is in essence moving away from a 
singular context of colonial theory and methodologies. These paintings demonstrate an 
additional way that relationships are formed and understood. Knowledge, in traditional 
Ojibwe b
elief, is known through conversations between spirits. These relationships 
inform human interaction and ways of knowing the land through bonds that transcend the 
physical world around them. 
 
While these are only a few of the relationships that 
Erdrich
 
spea
ks to, in understanding 
the ways that Erdrich knows knowledge through the land, history, story and relationships they 
are the most important for me to understand and work with. Through understanding the function 
of these relationships to Erdrich in 
Books a
nd Islands
, I see and understand the ways they inform 
E
r

 
map construction and better understand the idea of stories as maps and maps as stories. 
The stories of these relationships are one demonstration of how history is tied to the land and 
through these stories knowledge can be experienced and built. 
 
66
 
 
Erdrich 
helps readers to understand the history of colonization and develop ways of 
knowing how traditional beliefs have lived on and adapted. The continuation of practice in both 
the past and present is evidence that the Navigational Epistemology, as developed wi
th Brooks, 
is at work throughout 
Books and Islands
. While not specifically mentioned, the common pot is at 

people, and colonization. 
 
What Erdrich adds specifica
lly to this mix, and to understanding how the Navigational 
Epistemology can be used, is the engagement Erdrich creates with her readers. The conscious 
ways of navigating contemporary and historical colonization, while maintaining traditional 
practices of r
elationally navigating the land, demonstrates how the contexts for the 
characteristics can and will change, but that the characteristics of land, history, story and 
relationships remain vital to knowledge creation.   
 
 
 
67
 
 
CONCLUSION
:
 
LEAVING WHERE WE BEGAN, 
THE STORY GOES ON
 
Stories are maps and maps are stories, what this means is that maps are everywhere in 
Native discourse and each map looks different. Some maps show the tree line and mountains, 
others show the route between peoples; there are maps of rela
tionships to the land and between 
Native folks and the creator. Each of these maps have different characteristics, but one common 
thread between them all is that they tell a story. Sometimes this story is about one person, other 
times the story is about a 
group of people. 
 
The future of this journey can take many shapes. I would like continue this work and 
focus it by shaping a comprehensive methodological text of Native cartographic practices that 
looks specifically at relationships with the land and how t
o map said relationships. I want to 
create topographic maps of these relationships using global information systems and oral 
histories together. I see this future project as a way to provide a decolonial option for 
cartography. 
 
I also think that there is 
a lot of potential to attempting to map out origin stories, finding 
the overlaps between Native cultures and working with communities to build maps of their origin 
stories. This project is slightly more problematic as many of the sites of origin are consid
ered 
sacred sites, which I would not feel comfortable mapping without an established relationship and 
permission, and even then I would still potentially feel uncomfortable. One alternative would be 
to work with specific communities to learn what their car
tographic practices look like and 
finding places of overlap so the community could make their own map. Ideally it would be great 
68
 
 
to teach any community who wanted to learn how to map, but that would mean I would have to 
learn how to map, myself. 
 
I would l
ike to eventually work with Native communities and see if there is a need/want 

preserve and pass down meanings of geographic sites as well as a family buil
ding tool.
 
All of these previous examples rely on one thing though, which is me learning how to 
create multiple kinds of maps. This project is a written map of my relationships and ways of 
knowing what I know, in addition to this however I would like to be
 
able to learn how to create 
GIS maps, pictograph maps, story maps, and any other kind of maps that have the potential to 
show relationships. 
 
***
 
I would like to close this document in the same location we began; in the Manistee 
National Forest considerin
g relationality and relational accountability. On my last trip to the 
woods with Uncle Jim, we tried to recreate the pathways I took fifteen years earlier when I got 
lost in the woods. Throughout my life Uncle Jim has been there whenever I felt lost and he
 
has 
often helped me find my way again. This has been true throughout my educational journey as 
well as learning to deal with the complex relationships I have with the rest of my family. 
 
I knew that end of our experiences up North were coming, and I wante
d to share a part of 
my path that Uncle Jim had started me on. By going back to my origin, the place where I got 
lost, I wanted to express my thanks to Uncle Jim for always helping me find a path way home. 
 
69
 
 

 
progressed to the point where he 
could no longer trek the distance from our campsite to Moss Pointe, but on this day, he told me 
he wanted to see something he had never seen before. I knew that our path would be slow going, 
but earlier on this camping tri
p I had begun to retrace my trail with the Woodpecker. While I 
still kept this part of the story to myself, I wanted to walk the land where I began with my Uncle. 
I wanted to show him what I saw and how I saw it. I wanted to let him know how I had come to 
understand the knowledge he had shared with me over the years. 
 
What was equally important about this specific trip in the woods was that this was the 
first time when walking together that I was in lead. I pointed out which trees I used as markers 
and shar
ed what kinds of birds I had seen along the path over the years. This was the first time 
that we walked together where I did the majority of the talking, telling Uncle Jim stories from 
college, working through understanding the complexities of a thirty per
son family that had been 
slowly disintegrating since the passing away of my grandparents, and talking with Uncle Jim 
about his health. 
 
He let me lead the way through the fiddlehead ferns. We walked slow and had to stop to 
let Uncle Jim rest every fifteen minutes or so. When we paused, we talked about the land we had 
seen together and the histories we shared. We talked about our relationsh
ip and stories we had 
built together. He told me of the first time he had come to this section of the Manistee National 
Forest and the time he caught a world record white sucker fish. I told him of the changes in life 
and the ways I had come to learn how t
o deal with my depression. I tried to tell him how 
important he was to me and how much I valued the lessons he had taught me. 
 
70
 
 

small stand of Cedar trees a quarter mile 
away from our campsite. We always stopped at Cedars 
when we found them during our walks. This stand of Cedars had trees that were five feet around, 
some of the largest I had found in my explorations, I asked Uncle Jim how old he thought they 
were, but he s
at in silence, deep in thought. 
 
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his inhaler, though we had been taking it easy 
it was clear to me that this walk was taking its toll on Uncle Jim. I asked if he wanted to go 

I am proud of you, Zeke. You have had ten million 
reasons to not be doing what you are, I am glad you have found at least a few reasons to keep 
going. I wanted to share with you the meanings I found in the woods when I was a boy, and I see 
that you know th


 


of a chance because after he said this, he 

 
Earlier the previous day I had come this way and knew that the hill lead to a deep 
tributary ravine that lead to the
 


ready yet to lead the way.  I knew that this would be the last time we were in this place together
 
and I wanted to learn what I could with the time we had left on this land. Uncle Jim has a rough 
exterior, which has disconnected him from the majority of the family we shared, but I have 
always found ways to learn from what was there rather than looking 

71
 
 
listening to his stories, I had learned to listen to the land. By seeing the ways Uncle Jim acted, 
despite his words, I had learned to build respectful relationships. 
 
Instead of leading the way up the hill, Uncle Jim said we should
 
walk together. As 
always, he treated me as an equal, listening to my stories as I shared them and telling his own. 
When we reached the top of the hill we had to pause again so Uncle Jim could catch his breath. 
We sat there together on a fallen Cedar and l
isten to the sounds of the forest around us. We 
could hear the constant movement of the water below, calling to us to follow the stream. In the 
background I could hear the laughing call of the pileated woodpecker, reminding me of the 
journeys we had togeth
er. 
 
After a few minutes of rest, Uncle Jim asked me where we should go next, do we go to the 
river or take a right and head east and follow the stream. I knew that if we went to the river we 
would have to go down the steep bank to get to the water, which 
would take Uncle Jim thirty 
minutes to climb back up and multiple hits on his inhaler. I also knew that the walk back up the 
hill would be the last thing we did before we headed back to the campsite. I wanted to keep 
going; I wanted this time together to l
ast as long as possible and said we should follow the 
stream by way of a deer path that ran along the crest of the valley. 
 
After ten minutes on our new path, we both heard the deep knocking of the woodpecker 
close to us and we stopped moving to see if we 
could see the bird. Streams of sunlight broke 
through the canopy as we stood surrounded by fallen and growing trees. There were dead 

skins. I thought back to Bro
oks and Blackbird and the histories that had been written on tree skin 
as Uncle Jim tore off a strip of bark and stuck it in his pocket, revealing the peach colored 
72
 
 
underside. I started to say something and Uncle Jim held his finger up to his mouth and the
n 
pointed just to the left of a huge upturned tree. 
 
There on the visible part of the giant root ball sat a fifteen inch talk pileated woodpecker, 
its crimson head in bright contrast to the surrounding green. For the first time we had seen this 
bird togeth
er. On our last time together in these woods we saw the bird that had lead me on my 

seventeen years ago, following a woodpecker in the forest. I thought about where 
I had been and 
what I had learned over the years; the ways that I have marked my history and how it is shared 
with this land and my uncle. 
 

we saw it. Uncle Jim smiled a


 
Before I could reply, he started walking again, finding the path left by the deer again, 
heading east and following the sound of the stream. Down below, in the valley, t
he patches of 
marsh grass were deep green, looking like little islands amongst the clear flowing stream. Every 
fifteen minutes we had to stop and sit which provided many quite moments to listen to the wind 
through the trees and the constant sound of runnin
g water. 
 
The forest around us was beginning to change, with the trees getting older and shifting 
from pine, cedar, and birch to oak and beech trees. We kept following the stream and the valley 

y hills. While still twenty feet 
down, the stream also had grown deeper but narrower, running faster and the ripples of the 
current could be seen from where we were standing at the top of the valley. At our next stop for 
73
 
 
rest I asked Uncle Jim if we were g
etting close to the source of the stream and if he thought we 
could find the spring from which the water started. 
 
He told me that if we followed the stream until there was no valley we would get to a 
marsh where we could find the source if we looked hard 
enough. I wanted to find the spring, 
which I referred to only as The Source from then on. I could tell Uncle Jim was starting to get 

because I knew this was 
the last time we would be together in the forest. So I waited until Uncle 

 
My mind had been relatively clear and in the moment up to this point, trying to soak in 
every
thing the forest had to show me. But now when we started to move this time I was thinking 
about time and memories Uncle Jim and I had built over the years and how much of them were 
centered on this land. I learned how to move in the woods because of him. I
 
learned to listen to 
my surroundings, which taught me to listen to those around me. I learned to read the land with 
my Uncle Jim, and had grown into an adult with him. I knew I could never repay him for the 
lessons I had learned from him, but also that I 

and always to try to pass more. 
 
After two more stops in silence, I asked Uncle Jim if he wanted to try to find The Source 
with me. His breathing heavy and coming in rasps, said he wanted to head home and 
get to his 
nebulizer. He told me that The Source was my journey and that I should come back to this place 
tomorrow and get him some spring water to use for our afternoon coffee. 
 
I looked around to find some form of landmark to remember this place by and U
ncle Jim closed 
his eyes. I thought I could use a leaning Beech that extended over the valley and almost touched 
74
 
 
the other side, but decided to make my own mark in a fallen tree to be on the safe side. As I bent 
down to work my pocket knife into the fallen
 
tree we had been sitting on I could hear Uncle Jim 


 

walk through the woods for about half a mile we will get to one of the DNR paths runs east from 

 

een walking for at least a 

 

been heading steady east for most of it. Since we start
ed heading north and then turned east and 


 
I closed my eyes and thought about it, recreating the map of
 
our walk in my mind and 
comparing it to the trail I knew Uncle Jim was talking about. He was right, though I remained 
impressed. 
 
We turned right to cut through the woods, not really worried if we kept a straight line as 
long as we kept moving forward. Th
ere was no path and the going was slow, but we gradually 


to DNR trail
 
and we kept moving on. In the distance there was a clearing that Uncle Jim said 
75
 
 
was the trail, but just as he said this he came to a complete stop and pointed straight ahead of us 
but up into the trees. There, standing, at the top of a dead tree was a Gre
at Horned Owl. 
 
We started to move closer, trying to be as silent as possible, and made it within ten feet of 
the tree. One of us stepped on a branch and the owl flew away. We were both smiling, 
appreciating the beauty of the bird and also the luck we had 
at seeing a Great Horned Owl in the 
middle of a bright sunny day. As we passed the Owl Tree, the trail came in to view and we 
headed home. 
 
The next morning, after breakfast and a couple cups of coffee, I started to look for things 
to use as trail markers 
when I made my way back from The Source. I found a bag of zip ties and 
fifteen red Solo cups. I grabbed a handful of the ties and seven cups and packed them into my 
backpack. Uncle Jim asked what I was doing and as I explained, he thought it was a good ide
a. 
He reminded me to bring my pocket knife so on the way back I could cut the ties and bring home 
my trash. I chuckled at the reminder as my pocket knife was the first thing I packed. 
 
I then grabbed an empty Poweraid bottle and headed out for the DNR trai
l. I tried to find 
the spot that we had come out the forest the day before and took a sharp left when I thought I 
had found it. I walked back through the pathless trees and after fifteen minutes or so of walking, 
I could hear the stream in the distance. I 
was surprised at how much quicker the journey went; 
now that I kind of knew where I was going and that it was just me by myself. I tied the Solo cups 
with the ties in 20 yard distances to mark my way back to the trail.
 
When I got to the stream valley, I sa
w that I had went too far down the DNR trail and 

East, turned North into the woods and had to turn right to begin following the valley upstream. 
76
 
 
Now the height of 

a foot above the stream. In the distance I saw that the side of the valley I was on quickly turned 

 
marsh of The 
Source yet. 
 
I decided to jump from one side of the valley to the other, a small distance of three feet, to 
remain on solid ground and continue my path following the stream. The trees quickly faded away 
and I was soon surrounded by tall grass
es to my left and a straggling tree line to my right. The 
marsh I had avoided had quickly given way to a sparse stand of cedars and I was in shade as I 
followed the stream between the grass and trees. I could tell that I was getting closer to The 
Source, b

 
 
After twenty minutes or so, the stream became lost in a sea of grass, blowing in the wind. 
There were little pathways of water here and the ground was getting soggy, the mud leaving
 
a 
dark black line on my shoes as I kept moving. I saw a singular tree on a small mound of earth, 
tall and weathered, bright grey in the sunlight. I started to make my way toward the tree and the 
higher ground the tree would provide to see if I could find 
The Source. 
 
At this point I had to jump from bits of ground to avoid the water and the path was slow 
going. Gradually I got closer to the tree and when I finally was able to jump to the mound of 
earth that held the tree into the ground I decided to take a
 
little break. While I was sitting 
beneath the tree, I could hear water flowing from somewhere around me. When I had reached 
the marsh and the stream broke up in to smaller tributaries I remembered I had stopped hearing 
the movement of the water and its re
turn caused me to look around. 
 
77
 
 
At the base of the mound of earth I was sitting on I could see where the tree roots met the 
water. Between the roots and where the earth broke away, water was moving from the mound, 
bubbling up through the roots and into the pools of slowly moving water. T
he Source looked like 
the flow of water when you put a hose in a swimming pool and direct the nozzle at the surface. 
Constantly moving, providing the water for the stream I had followed. 
 
I jumped down from the mound onto a small muddy island, my shoes sin
king just past the 
sole. I took my backpack off and pulled out the empty Poweraid bottle. My jump had muddied the 

for the waters to be clear. Once clear, I dip
ped the water bottle into the pool, as close as I could 
get to the bubbling surface. Once my bottle was filled, I reached my hand into the pool and filled 
it with water. I brought the water to my mouth and felt the cold but sweet flavor of The Source. I 
st
ood there watching the water move for fifteen minutes before I started to move towards home, 
listening to the sounds of the marsh, noting the deeper sound of this moving water versus the 
stream that I had followed. 
 
Since I no longer needed to follow the s
tream to find The Source, I crossed the bank to 
my right, away from the tall grey tree, and cut a straight path toward the cedars I could see in 
the distance. When I reached them, I turned right and began retracing my steps home. The jump 
across the stream
 
was a little more difficult this time as I had to jump from the lower side to the 
higher side, but I made it. 
 
On the way back I let my mind clear and focused on the sound of the water, letting the 
stream bring me back to my first Solo cup. The journey ba
ck felt too short and part of me wanted 
to stay by the side of the stream, but a larger nagging part of me wanted to go home and get 
78
 
 
some lunch. As I cut down the ties holding the red cups to the branches I had secured them to, I 
thought about the beauty o
f The Source and how lucky I was to see such a sight. I wished Uncle 
Jim had been with me and we had gathered the water together, but knew that I was carrying a 
piece of that place with me to share with him. When I got back to the campsite I poured the wat
er 

I knew he would be back soon.  
 
Shortly after the water came to a boil Uncle Jim came back. I started to tell him of the 
trip I had taken as I prepared his c
offee for him. We sat around the fire, drinking our coffee from 
The Source talking about how we would always carry part of this land with us now that we had 
drank the waters. 
 
While I have returned to this part of the Manistee National Forest many times si
nce our 

and there are tens of NO TRESPASSING signs along the border of the private land and the 
national forest land. When I look back at this journey is see the
 
trip to The Source as when and 
where I began to understand that I know knowledge through history, land, story, and 
relationships. I have lived my own history here, finding myself in different ways over the course 
of my life. I have learned to listen to th
e land, respecting the beauties I have seen and walking 
the miles of trees. I have shared my stories of what I have learned here and have brought my 
stories of daily life to this place to be shared with my Uncle. I have built a lasting relationship 
with my
 
Uncle Jim that helps me to understand and know the world around me. 
 
My journey to The Source was the first steps in the journey of this project. It is was when 
I began to understand myself as a map and the mapping of  my story. This narrative is a 
79
 
 
recurs
ive one. It is always beginning just as it is always ending. There are new meanings with 
each time I tell it. There are new locations on my map each time I remember the story. I have 

have this land with, but it 

(2).
 
 
 
80
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
WORKS CITED
 
 
 
81
 
 
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