Anishinaabe Quotes

“Perspective. Storytellers tell their own stories. They don't mean to. They let their life experiences and ideas slip in between the bits and pieces of history that have come to them. There are so many versions among us, of this first woman, this mother of Manaboozhou, Nanabush, our goofy, loving, mixed up teacher and hero. They are all valid. They are all real. They are all traditional. None of us knows them all by heart. We take the parts that we need and understand. These are the stories that we share with our children. In a sense, that makes us all a little bit like Winona and Epanigishimoog. We are the creators of the Anishnabe generations who come after us. I like that responsibility.”
― Lois Beardslee, Lies to Live By

“She just said nothing. Nothing. She let the silence between them fill the air. Unlike other people, Omakayas had noticed, silence did not make Old Tallow uncomfortable.

Now the warrior lady simply stood and smoked her pipe. The smoke drifted serenely in wavering fangs from each corner of her mouth. She was thinking.”
― Louise Erdrich, The Game of Silence

“The card has a black bird graphic and unfamiliar words: Gaagaagi Noodin. The back of the card lists a cell-phone number and an e-mail address, and there's a handwritten message: Lucy, come home where you are loved.”
― Angeline Boulley, Sisters in the Wind

“You can change my name to Misho Abe. ME-show is short for Mishomis. It means 'Grandpa.”
― Angeline Boulley, Sisters in the Wind

“And what does the bah mean when she calls her Lily-bah?"

"It's a suffix added to a person's name after. they pass away." He speaks softly. "It means they aren't in this world anymore. They are something beyond who they were here.”
― Angeline Boulley, Sisters in the Wind