Just as the Anishinabeg saw the sun as a symbol of the
fatherhood of man, so they saw in the earth motherhood. A woman, by a singular act
with a man conceives and gives birth to new life. Thereafter she must sustain
the new life.
In a similar way the earth responds. With the coming
of spring and the warmth of the sun, the earth conceives and gives birth to
flowers, grasses, trees, and food bearing plants. She then nourishes them. As a woman deserves honor and love for her
gift of life, so does the earth deserve veneration (worship) .In honoring the
earth through prayer, chant, dance, and ceremony the Anishinabeg were honoring
all motherhood in a special way.
The love and respect the Anishinabeg felt for the
earth was perpetuated in the pipe of peace ceremony. The first whiff of smoke
was offered to Kitchi Manitou; the second to Mother Earth. It was an integral
part of the ceremony without which the ceremony would have been incomplete and,
therefore, void. Such was the way in which the Anishinabeg publicly
demonstrated their dependence on the earth and veneration for the primacy of
womanhood.
Nor did the veneration for the earth end with the
breath of smoke. There was yet another tangible way in which the motherhood of
earth was venerated. In the pipe of peace smoking ceremony the four orders of
life and being were represented: earth, plant, animal, and man. The earth,
whose elemental substance was rock, made up the pipe; the plant, tobacco, was
the sacrificial victim; the animal, symbolized by feathers and fur, was
appended to the sacred pipe. Man was the celebrant. The rock was strong and enduring. Plant beings, animal beings,
and man come to an end, but the earth lives on. Mother Earth continues to be bountiful, sustaining all beings.
All else changes; earth remains unchanging and continues to give life. It is a
promise to the future, to those yet to be born.
There is in addition to constancy in Mother Earth,
generosity. This attribute is acknowledged in prayer and ceremony. A mother
begets a child. She nourishes it, holds it in her arms. She gives it a place on
her blanket near her bosom. A woman may give birth to many children. To all she
gives food, care and a place near her. To each she gives a portion of herself;
to each she assigns a place in her household. No child by virtue of priority of
birth or other attributes may demand for himself more than his brothers or
sisters. A mother gives equally to all her children, from first to last, from
strong to weak. All are entitled to a place near her bosom in her lodge. Her
gift does not diminish but increases and renews itself.
Similarly is the earth bounteous. Her mantle is wide,
her bowl ever full and constantly replenished. On the blanket of Mother Earth
there is a place for hunting, fishing, sleeping and living. From the bowl comes
food and drink for every person. All young and old, strong and weak, well and
ill are intended to share in Mother Earth’s bounty and magnanimity. The principle of equal entitlement precludes
private ownership. No man can own his mother. This principle extends even into
the future. The unborn are entitled to the gifts of the earth, no less than the
living. During his life man is but a
trustee of his portion of the land and must pass on to his children what he
inherited from his mother. At death, the dying leave behind the mantle that
they occupied, take nothing with them but a memory and a place for others still
to come. Such is the legacy of man: to come, to live, to go; to receive in
order to pass on. No man can possess his mother; no man can own the earth. Men
and ages linger, and then pass on. Mother Earth remains whole, indivisible, and
enduring. With death ends ownership and possession. Men do not outlive the
earth; earth outlasts man.
As beneficiaries of their mother’s care and love,
children are obliged to look after their mother in her illness and
decrepitude. Men and women owe their
lives and the quality of living and existence to Mother Earth. As dutiful and
loving children, they are to honor Mother Earth. The most suitable and fitting
way of expressing this affection is by rendering in song and prayer the feeling
of heart. Because they love her, they avoid harming or injuring the earth. The
debt of life must be acknowledged from the heart and mind.
Mother Earth gave life; she takes it back. In pain,
sickness, and in sorrow a child turns to it’s mother for relief and
comfort. A man or woman in suffering seeks
repose upon the bosom of mother. They do not go to the father but turn to a
woman for solace. All beings do this. Plants in dissolution bend before they
collapse on the soil. Animal beings
stricken by arrow or at last overcome by age lay down upon the ground. Men and
women recline upon the earth in the final moments of life. It is then, as in
birth, that children are closest to their mothers. Symbolically then, and in a very real way, men and women give
their lives back to Mother Earth. Interred in the bosom of Mother Earth with
only their personal possessions, the dead find rest, and in time become part of
and one with Mother Earth. At birth a man receives his life from his mother; in
death he gives up his life to Mother Earth.
The Anishinabeg loved the earth, the soul-spirit of which was beauty,
bounty and peace.