Papoose Research Paper

When I was younger my mom would always refer to me as her “little papoose”. I remember this one time I asked, “What is a papoose?” All my mom replied with was, “You.” At that point in time I never understood what she was calling me. In fact, I always assumed it was her way of teasing me. Then, at the ripe age of twelve I traveled to Michigan to visit my dad for a summer. It was at this time I understood what it meant. As a child I realized I happen to be Native American. That is to say, I never grasped the concept of what being Native American was, but that is what my parents told me I was. My view on who I was a human being changed that summer in Michigan. It started with a humid day and wind that occasionally blew by to refresh my perspiring body. My grandma put me in a flowing skirt and dress shirt that day because we were going to a place that required dressing for our heritage. Even though I had not had a clue what my heritage was, I did what I was told. We traveled
to a man’s house, which my grandma called the spiritual guide that had many people I had never met before. Yet, I felt a connection flow through the room like I knew I was meant to be there in that very moment. Apparently, my dad and grandma had taken me a local sweat lodge.
We could not go outside until six because the warriors of the tribe had to get the fire going, so until then the people congregated while I settled with the idea of all of us sharing the same blood of our ancestors. Once we were outside there sat the magodadamuk, which is what we call the native sweat lodge in my tribe’s language. It was made of old military tarps and next to the lodge sat the fire. The fire was surrounded by stones from the shores of Lake Michigan. To begin, the first part of the ritual is called the water ceremony. During the water ceremony we are praying to what my people call the “Great Spirit”. We all line up before the fire and are blessed with sage. Sage is wafted from our feet to our heads and then in front of our faces as a blessing. We need to be in our purest and most vulnerable state before entering the lodge. This means releasing our bad thoughts and bringing only good thoughts into the sacred
place. Then, once we got inside there is the hot stones and cedar leaves that cover the ground of the magodadamuk. The spiritual guide has a bucket that contains cedar water which he pours onto the stones to make a smoky mist. My people believe that the sparks that fly along the mist is the spirits of our ancestors while they are trying to talk to you. No one person sees the same exact thing. After the smoke lightens up every person that is circled around the fire says his or her prayers. The first prayer is for our ancestors, the one for the other people of the world, and lastly a prayer for you. After someone pray he or she gets passed a ladle of sweet water, or cedar tea, to which he or she takes one sip then passes it on to the next person. Next, we all sing songs and chant the words our tribe to the “Great Spirit”. There are four rounds of this which last an hour each. The ceremony should have made each tribal member sweat out the impurities and cleansed his or her thoughts. Finally, the ceremony ended and the spiritual guide told me the whole time we were in the magodadamuk that he was praying to the “Great Spirit” to send me my tribal name. He got an answer. My Native American name when translated means “little eagle woman”. I have never felt an energy rush through me other than when I felt an acceptance into the tribe. I am a papoose. I will forever be my mother’s a young North American Indian child. Through this experience I hope to bring diversity to Knoxville’s college campus and to bring honor to those who have shaped me into who I am today.