Living the Thirteen Moons; Introduction

Aanii, Boozhoo. Caleb Wazhusk n'diznikauz.

Hello, Greetings. My name is Caleb Muskrat.

I am a Missisauga Anishnaube-nini (Missisauga Ojibway Man) from Hiawatha First Nation. I work as a wilderness skills instructor, as well as an Aboriginal-Archeological Liaison for the Williams Treaty First Nations. I have been accepted at Trent University for the Foundations of Indigenous Learning, and will be pursuing a B.Sc. in Archeology, and if I play my cards right, a Masters in the same subject. I also will be following along with Dan Longboat's programs, which focus on Traditional Indigenous Education and Health, plus Sustainable Agriculture. My passion is for the knowledge of my ancestors, and with that came a big lifestyle change as of New Years of this year.

At the beginning of 2012, I began a diet called the PaleoDiet, which helped me to lose more than forty-five pounds of body fat, and that -plus walking- has gained me twenty-odd pounds of muscle mass. I sleep better now than I ever have, and my joint pain is next to nothing (other than my back, which I am sure will never go away for us humans). However, the PaleoDiet has one problem in my eyes. It is not realistic to my ancestors' way of life, on either continent. You see, the PaleoDiet was made by people who were neither archeologists, nor ethnobotanists (let alone Paleo-Ethnobotanists), The developers of the diet were not mndful to the fact that legumes, grains and members of the nightshade family were consumed all over the world long before the advent of agriculture.

So, with that problem, I decided to take the PaleoDiet, and mix it with more ancient knowledge. As a member of the Anishnaube People, we have what is called the Thirteen Moons Calendar. The story goes that Nanaboozhoo noticed that a turtle had thirteen plates on her shell, and in that moment, decided that there would be thirteen months, or moons. Now, with modern western culture, there are only twelve months. But our calendar goes by moon phases. In each moon phase, the month is measured by twenty-eight days.
There are three hundred and sixty-five days within a year, so does a thirteen month/moon calendar, with twenty-eight days per month really work?


Actually yes. Twenty-eight days goes into three hundred and sixty-five days, Thirteen times.. like this..

365 divided by 28 = 13

Math, it is never wrong.. at least my computer's calculator isn't.

Now, what would the names of these months be? Obviously my people did not name them after Greek deities, or even after their own spiritual beings (Mnidoo or Manitou depending on your dialect). So what would they name their months? Being a people who lived off of the land, and in tune with their environment, the months/moons were titled after what was most available during those seasons, or what was most common in activity or in food. What's that? A calendar based around food? Why yes!

Now, the Anishnaube people have a very broad range, and of course, each area would have different things available in regard to food. And I want to make it clear, not everywhere was each month/moon titled the same. For example; July here in the Rice Lake region is called Miskomin Giizis (or in some dialects, Giizoonh). Miskomin is the name for Raspberry (Misko = Red, min= fruit/berry), and Giizis/Giizoonh refers to Moon. So July is in this region, the Raspberry Moon. However, in Manitoulin Island, July is often called Miinan Giizis/Giizoonh, which is the Blueberry Moon. Why the difference? Because here we have a huge variety of the raspberry family, and throughout this month/moon, they all ripen. Common Raspberry,  Purple-flowering Raspberry, Common blackberry, etc etc. We don't have blueberries here, whereas in Manitoulin Island, they do. Seasonal and regional differences will happen.

So, what exactly is Living by the Thirteen Moons? Well, it is exactly what my Anishnaube ancestors did. Each moon provides different foods, or different important activities. As a person who focuses a great deal of his life on traditional skills, and traditional teachings, it is a no brainer for me to try to emulate this.

I am a firm believer in your genetics having a big say in what you should or should not eat. The Indigenous people of Canada have a rate of diabetes three times higher than the rest of the population of this country. Our heart disease rates are also sky-high. Now compare how we used to eat, to the current diet of many First Nations communities. Health professionals, anthropologists and common sense is all saying this folks, it is not just my opinion.

So what will this blog page be? It will be me, each month (or week) writing about what I am doing to return my body to the traditional diet of my ancestors. No wheat, no dairy, no refined foods. I will also be talking about some traditional skills involved in the thirteen moons, such as; food preserving the old way, and making gathering tools (baskets, digging sticks, etc,) or hunting implements (bow, arrows, fishing spear, etc) for the harvesting of those wild foods.

Hope you enjoy my personal experiment. If you feel like joining along, let me know your results, research or anything else in the comments section.

Baamaapii,

Caleb Wazhusk