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KEEWAYDINOQUAY - "Woman of the Northwest Wind" by Mitig Dan Creely Jr. Kee and I were sitting quietly for a moment at my kitchen table early Sunday morning February 19, 1995. We were gazing out the window at the 12'' of snow that had swiftly and dramatically fallen since the end of the T.E.A.M. Conference the evening before. It was the second of her many visits to present workshops at our annual gathering. She reached into an old medicine bag she carried and slowly pulled out a complete canine tooth from an adult black bear,which she gently placed on the table in front of me. I gazed at it for a long, long time. Finally, she leaned forward and whispered, "You can pick it up and look at it if you would like." She spoke deliberately and slowly to make sure I listened to the teaching. "This tooth is much like all situations in life. There is more than what is merely exposed on the surface." So too was Keewaydinoquay "Woman of the Northwest Wind." Kee said, "The life of people is like the
path of the Sun, starting new each morning in the East and traveling West
each night. When man becomes worn and tired, his physical self is given
back to Mother Earth in gratitude for her nurturing." Keewaydinoquay
Although her physical body will no longer be present, her spirit and her teachings will continue for eternity. Her family, her hundreds of spiritual grandchildren, and the thousands of people she encountered during her lifetime, carry her teachings and her simple but profound message that "love is the most powerful force in the universe and balance is the key to life." Kee would often say, "There is no death, just a change of form. Death is the other side of life, a big cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Nothing is ever lost. Change is the sacred means in which we move toward our potential." Grandmother Kee, as she was called by the people and students that knew, loved and honored her, was an Anishinaabeg Elder of the Crane Clan. Anishinaabe means "The People Who Came From Where The Sun Rises." Kee's teachings were based on the traditional teachings of her people. As a young girl, Kee apprenticed with a venerated medicine woman named Nodjimahkwe. This medicine woman began Kee's education in natural healing. In her most recent book Puhpohwee for the People, Kee wrote this acknowledgement. "To my HerbMother, Nodjimahkwe, I am obliged for many fine gifts, the greatest of which is a belief in the nobility of the human spirit. In a world fraught with the uncertainty of change, danger, and sorrow, and the ignorance of extreme prejudice, this woman managed to maintain, in splendid isolation, as truly a scientific an attitude as if she had been university trained." Richard I. Ford, Director, Ethnobotanical Laboratory, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, August 1997, wrote the following foreword for Puhpohwee of the People about Kee: "Keewaydinoquay is a multi talented woman. She is a teacher, a curer, a champion of woman's issues, a role model, a scholar and a botanist... Her work is inspired and makes most other so-called ethnobotanical studies of cultural groups pale by comparison... Keewaydinoquay speaks with a special voice. It is both authoritative and humble; it is a voice of the ages that echoes her ancestors' teachings and says, "This is not for me but for all of you." Her work is a monument to a lifetime of careful observation and listening to others a generation removed from her." Cindy Bloom, an herbalist and a student of Kee's wrote, "Her teachings came from a place deep inside her heart and spirit. To know the plants and their medicine was to be taught their very essence. They were gifts from Mother Earth to be cared for, respected and honored. She instilled in her students not only the beauty of all life but how humble we must walk among all of creation. In learning traditional ways, there is a great responsibility that goes along with accepting their knowledge." Kee received her Master's in Education from Wayne State University and completed her course work for a Masters. in ethnobotany at the University of Michigan. She taught in the Detroit School system for many years, taught for two years in New Zealand, and finished her career in Leland, Michigan, where in 1975 she was awarded the "Michigan Teacher of the Year." Nan Giblin, the acting dean of the College of Education and a professor of Counselor Education at Northeastern Illinois University, interviewed Kee to discover how she integrated culture and experience into her classroom to make learning meaningful. Nan shared the following pieces from her article published in Counseling and Values, April 1998, Vol. 42, pp. 226-232: "Kee was a firm believer in the value of experiential education for the students. Kee was still a teenager when she began her teaching career in a one-room school house in Glidden's Creek, Michigan. Lacking sufficient instruction in "proper" teaching techniques, she simply turned to experiential education procedures in which she had participated as a child in her native village. According to Indian tradition, the way to learning is through doing. Nature shows the way to truth, and the role of the teacher is to guide the students through exploration of nature. Kee discussed Bucky the Fawn, and how one year he became the core of the curriculum. One day there was a terrible forest fire and Kee had to take the children into Glidden's Creek to protect them from the fire raging all around them. They saw a mother deer and her baby floating downstream toward them. The mother was dead but the fawn, cradled in her front legs, was still alive. Kee and the students rescued the fawn and named him Bucky. Bucky became the school mascot and the focus for 'real life' experiential lessons. Mathematics centered on calculating Bucky's weight, and how much he needed to eat. This led to nutrition lessons about what he needed (and what foods children needed to eat) to become and stay healthy. Bucky's bodily functions became the focus for animal and human biology lessons. Bucky sat in class with the students and even played baseball with the students. He did so well he was usually the first one chosen. "You should have seen him run the bases."He even participated in the nativity scene at the Christmas pageant. Kee believed experiential education brought problems to life for the children. For example, when faced with a rather dull and difficult problem in the geography book about the rate and manner in which water falls along the continental divide, Kee took the whole class to visit a local farmer who lived at the highest point in the county. Each student poured water at that spot and watched it run off either side. Each child instantly got the concept and will probably remember that demonstration for the rest of his or her life. Kee's official teaching career lasted 34 years and was always based on respect for her students, respect for nature, and teaching through experience." Kee always believed in field work in the truest sense of the word. After a fifty year absence, she returned to Garden Island where she spent two summers inventorying the native plants for a research project. After that long absence, upon stepping foot back on Garden Island, she knew she had returned to her heart's home. Garden Island, the traditional land of her people, now became her summer residence. She was recognized by the Elders as a very young girl and singled out as one who should be trained to preserve the old ways of her people, both as an herbalist and as a leader of ceremonies. As a young girl, she saw canoes as far as the eye could see, along the shore of Garden Island as the people gathered from all over for the summer solstice celebration. One year, the elder, Bezhigiwehre, who stood at the rock for the people came back with the solstice message. He walked deliberately through the crowd, and placed his hand on her head saying, "...someday you too will stand for the people." This was almost blasphemy, since no woman had ever stood for the people. Returning to Garden Island provided an opportunity to, once again, participate in the summer solstice ceremony. For the next three years she went to Solstice Point. There were no canoes. There were no people. There were no ceremonies. The traditions were not being kept. With great fear and trepidation, she reintroduced them, preserving the ways of her people and the land they live upon. She has been quietly doing this for over twenty years since she returned to Garden Island. She taught others on the island by mainly being with them, sharing actual experiences, and offering knowledge when she felt the time was right. When a boat left the island, Kee would stand at the edge of the rocky beach with both arms raised above her head and say, "Remember you carry the seeds of the future." Nan Giblin stated, " her teachings come from the northwest, the direction of wisdom, and from her heart, a place of truth. Through stories, songs and her example, Keewaydinoquay shows us the path to peace." A few years after she had returned to Garden Island she heard a man make what she considered a very derogatory statement. He said, "There are no more self-suficient Indians!!!!" She took this as a personal challenge. So she decided to spend the next winter on Garden Island. Garden Island is located thirty miles out in the middle of Lake Michigan. However, she had one mishap before her adventure started. She was waving goodbye to the last group of visitors to the island that summer and was paddling her canoe to shore when a wave caught her sideways. The wave flipped her out of the canoe but she caught her leg on the gunnel and broke it. Unable to get back in the canoe she dragged the canoe and herself to shore. She set her own leg at split rock, then dragged herself to her uncle's 100 year old cabin, doctored herself, then stayed until November when some deer hunters took her off the island. The woman who runs Bodacious Beads, in Des Plaines, Illinois, met Kee on one of her visits to Chicago and stated, "It was really delightful to meet Kee. She is one tough old broad!" I commented, "That's an understatement!" I was visiting Kee, at her home in Leland, in May, 1997. Her house was a constant flow of people, phone calls, and letters from all over the world. The only time she would be able to have any quiet time to read or write was late at night when all the "younger" people were exhausted. One evening a person stopped by to visit and she introduced me as her grandson. I listened to their conversation and waited for a few hours before the person left. When the front door closed, I gently asked her, "Nokomis (grandmother), what does that mean that I am now your grandson?" She turned and looked over her shoulder with a twinkle in her eyes and responded, "Oh! I am glad you asked. Follow me into the kitchen. My refrigerator is leaking and I need you to fix it....." Bimadisiwin means "living life to the fullest." Kee often used this word to describe how we should lead our lives. She certainly modeled this for those of us that were fortunate to spend a few moments with her, and also to fix her leaky refrigerator. For those few moments I say "Michi, Michi Miigwaej" (thank you very, very much). If you would like to purchase Kee's books, or manuscripts you can contact: Carol Mello at #414-389-1693, or
The following poem was written by David Morris, a young man in his early twenties, on July 13, 1996, after spending one week on Garden Island with Kee. Grandmother Kee When I walk down the beach I feel your spirit. |