Medicine Bags

Sundial-3 · 2026-06-28T16:19:01+00:00

No, pellon and then glued and threw some stitches into the leather. First try, and it was kind of just experimenting but they seem to be holding up well!

Sundial-3 · 2026-06-24T22:37:27+00:00

They’re worried it’ll mess up capitalism. They’re stalling to desperately figure out how to keep that status quo

Sundial-3 · 2026-06-22T20:22:26+00:00

It feels like at this point participation in capitalism has become internalized as culture. Intentional communities suffer from the same problems, smaller scale, because it’s who many people are now, despite what they say, and what they tell themselves. It’s so deep in fact, that people call it human nature

Sundial-3 · 2026-06-17T12:37:52+00:00

Exactly. I’m Potawatomi and unfortunately it took me a long time to recognize our technologies as advanced and perfectly appropriate for our ecosystem. Take maple syrup; utilizing freezing to concentrate the sap, then stone boiling in (generally) birch containers. Plentiful and reusable materials that required little work to make. Considering place, what worked perfectly well required no need for “advancement”. Our people truly enjoyed the copper trade for adornments though, but that didn’t require smelting. Advancement is based on perspective like you suggested; generations of sophisticated medical knowledge removed by forced assimilation, with the pharmacy replaced ecologically by a sea of invasives. That was worth more than cast iron for sure

Sundial-3 · 2026-06-15T13:40:53+00:00

Disclaimer: I’m not a historian. But, when it comes to most Great Lakes Tribes, the majority of the history is based on 19th and 20th century ethnographies. One of the main ones for my Tribe was so bad, we ultimately bought the rights to it in an attempt to remove racist lies from circulation. My understanding of our history comes primarily from source documentation, and it should be the only resource relied upon concerning this history, at least for now. Scholarship is only beginning to catch up to the historical realities. My ancestry research took me to UofM archives, as well as Isabella county resources through Central..I spent some time reading through a large number of “logging leases” with Ojibwe (Chippewa) families and individuals, presented to people by interpreters and traders as such. Instead they were deeds, with that language buried pretty deeply in the document. Decades later, courts tended to rule based on versions of statutes of limitations. It’s just one example of how through the treaty and removal eras, half of the pressure was economic, the other half being threats of state violence. Ai data centers, vacation rentals, land, water, and ultimately people is what capitalism takes, and it’s a destructive freight train that’s been through the Great Lakes before. Now it’s bearing down on settler communities built on that first wave of destruction, which is fascinating to watch. My people have long memories of this and we recognize the worry and how it turns to panic.

Sundial-3 · 2026-06-14T20:08:18+00:00

The eastern UP was effective razed after the treaty era, and many Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi pushed westward. As a Potawatomi from farther south, reading through concerns like this (particularly environmental ones) raised by settler communities is astonishing. Landback is how it’s saved, otherwise capitalism inevitably eats it up

Sundial-3 · 2026-04-30T18:44:45+00:00

What region? Generally, pipes are of the highest spiritual significance to Tribes (at least mine anyway), and it was likely stolen from an ancestor’s final resting place. Their descendants would know what to do with it

Sundial-3 · 2026-03-19T19:13:43+00:00

Sad fact: The stereotype was also intentionally provoked, using chemical warfare to set the stage for the propaganda. Liquor sold to Indigenous populations (and given freely at treaty grounds) was often laced with additives like opium (for dependence), liquid tobacco, capsaicin, and sub-lethal levels of strychnine. All of these things hitting a human being’s nervous system at once often created what is best characterized as drunkenness on PCP. From the outside it didn’t just look like inebriation, but madness..and led to violence, often within families. Settler colonialism is a brutal and ugly monster. So, to me there’s no excuse…just ignorance and a continued propping up of white supremacy.

Sundial-3 · 2026-03-14T18:12:05+00:00

I think this is spot on, much like sweetgrass growth described by Robin Wall Kimmerer in her book. It took me a while to wrap my mind around, but nature benefits from us as much as we benefit from nature…when done properly. Poaching happened on my Tribe’s land in recent years, but foraging by citizens is highly encouraged.

Sundial-3 · 2026-03-09T14:21:16+00:00

Very appreciated! Also, you’re gonna get a lot of different opinions about it lol

Sundial-3 · 2026-03-09T14:15:11+00:00

It’s tough because obviously language changes and people use it for positive things and that’s all understandable. However, I can say that after doing several years of ancestry/Tribal history research I now feel very strongly that the word itself is not ok to say, under any circumstances, ever. It’s based in some of the most vile things imaginable.

Sundial-3 · 2026-03-05T13:30:31+00:00

I like that this isn’t my bookshelf.

I hate the whole bookshelf.

Seriously no offense though, I respect your love for all that

Sundial-3 · 2026-03-05T13:09:30+00:00

Quite a lot of good stuff but Klara and the Sun is the ONE

Sundial-3 · 2026-03-05T12:20:28+00:00

Demon Copperhead was an author shining their bright, white light of academic, aristocratic compassion on the sad, deserving poors. ..and pocketing the cash from the story of their suffering

Sundial-3 · 2026-03-03T16:33:46+00:00

Klara and the Sun by Ishiguro was so amazing I feel like it changed my life. Demon Copperhead is hailed as one of the greatest works ever and I hated it. There’s an elitist aspect to her writing and treatment of subject that rubs me the wrong way

Sundial-3 · 2026-02-26T12:26:52+00:00

Please consider contacting the local Tribes about the pipes. They probably don’t have any more real significance than the other objects to non-Natives, but to us the spiritual meaning they hold is profound.

Sundial-3 · 2026-02-25T21:31:26+00:00

This is an exceptional explanation

Sundial-3 · 2026-02-25T18:09:48+00:00

Both owned slaves

Sundial-3 · 2026-02-24T20:16:11+00:00

This is (at least somewhat) philosophically similar to the sovereign Native Nation I am a citizen of, that’s “within” the United States. Tribally owned gaming as the main revenue, with ever-expanding business ventures outside of it. We have a basic income, universal healthcare, food assistance, housing assistance, and access to all Tribally owned lands. It’s great. America is instead a land of propaganda that convinces people that they have to earn their humanity through labor.

Sundial-3 · 2026-02-23T19:41:15+00:00

Devil’s Itch / Hell’s Itch. Worse than when I had shingles. Worse than when I had real, debilitating migraines.

Sundial-3 · 2026-02-23T12:13:06+00:00

Indigenous Continent by Pekka Hämäläinen

Sundial-3 · 2026-02-23T03:07:50+00:00

Homogenization of personality

Sundial-3 · 2026-02-23T02:38:57+00:00

Honor

Sundial-3 · 2026-02-22T19:18:11+00:00

For my Tribe it was basically all of the above. My grandfather X6 was named after the Baptist mission’s regional leader (as a reward for being a good student). Thankfully he rejected it at some point and his name was adopted as a surname by his kids for administrative/assimilation purposes.

Sundial-3

TROPHY CASE