Medicine Wheel Teachings
It's a love story
Conversations with Grammi
Marjorie Mackie
1939-2019
How the Medicine Wheel Healed Grammi
GRAMMI: The Medicine Wheel was one of the greatest gifts I ever received in life. Being in Saskatchewan...when I was growing up in Saskatchewan, our family were called 'half-breeds', and that whole feeling of being a half- breed, it was that we were really something awful, like evil and terrible and not fit for humans. We were always so ashamed. In fact, one time I came in to my mom and said, “mom, Darlene called me a 'squat'”, which meant 'squaw'.
ME: You thought it was 'squat'.
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GRAMMI: 'Squat'. I was crying. So, I mean that life was around us. I don't know how it got there or who brought it there but there was always this thing wrong...it was just wrong.
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So anyhow, its how awful I felt about being a half-breed where ever we went in situations. In Saskatchewan there's a high group or high percentage of First Nation people, and they were people who are out in the streets and drunks and stuff. Well that’s where I would see them. They were the prostitutes…just the whole thing that made half-breeds or 'Indians' was the word, that was so hurtful. And to me, it [Medicine Wheel] is the most important thing, ever, ever, ever.
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ME: I think so too.
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GRAMMI: Cause when I received the MW, there were two parts. I became a person then. For the first time in my life, First Nation people would hug me, they'd say 'our people say this' and I was included in 'our people' and ‘cause I was always so far away from being able to be accepted by people. And the foster home and all that situation added to it because it meant I knew that we didn't deserve any people...we weren't worth it.
We had kids shopping days in Kilburn Hall [orphanage] and my brother and sister and myself were never given a home...nobody ever. You know we all had our best clothes on. We had to wear them for that day and I smiled and smiled at everybody that saw us and I tried so hard to be acceptable, but at the end of the day, you go to bed and you know you're not and I used to cry.
So, when the Medicine Wheel was taught to me, it was quite simple in the beginning. And it was so direct and clear for me that I had these two gifts that was given to me, and I became a person then. I started working with the Medicine Wheel as my inner self and that's where I did my work, because the wonderful part about the wheel is that everybody has it if they want it. It's right within your own self of where you think your soul or your heart or whatever word you use to describe where that is...the cathedral, people have called it so many things. Anything that means sacred and powerful. Of course, I use Creator, the maker of all things...the best one I ever heard was, 'He is so great that He is without a name.'
Situating Grammi's Teaching in Time
The following is a conversation between my mom, Sandy Coolidge and I. We are discussing the time at which, the Medicine Wheel became my grandmother's primary therapeutic tool.
Mom: Well, I think it was about 1978 when Grammi went to NADAP, which is Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program.
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ME: Where is that?
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MOM: They were training native alcohol and drug counsellors. And it was in British Columbia. They would get together as a group in Vancouver and different places because it was groundbreaking.
ME: What year was this again?
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MOM: I think it was 77/78, somewhere in there. Grammi sobered up in 1976, so it was probably 77. It was a group of ‘natives’, or ‘Indians’ at that point, they were called, ‘Indians’, ‘Native’. So, then she was sober and an alcohol and drug counsellor in Oliver, and Louise Gabriel approached her and asked her to be on the board of this new treatment centre that they were trying to get together. It was an Indian alcohol society. So she got on the board in 78/79.
ME: Well I know that Round Lake opened in 79 because that was the same year I was born.
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MOM: Exactly. So she was hired as part of the first set of people that were in there. And the historical setting at that time, for Aboriginal people, or ‘Indians’ at that time, I mean, in 1960 was when ‘Indians’ were allowed to vote in the federal election; The white paper had been introduced in 69; Residential schools were still in full force; Native women were still losing their status as soon as they married a non-Indian man, a non-status man. Status wasn’t even an issue, I mean you were ‘Indian’ or not. They weren’t even ‘Indians’ if they married a white man, you know, they were white women, considered that way.
Grammi grew up in a time where because of the Metis, or the
‘half- breed’, she didn’t fit in either culture. She could’t fit in the white, she couldn’t fit in the native. She wasn’t white enough, red enough, whatever. So, when she discovered, (I don’t know when she came across the teachings of the medicine wheel, but it was very early on), it was like a light bulb moment for her. It opened her world up because it combined her race and the white race. She realized that she had gifts, that who she was, was more than just one or the other.
ME: Right. They both made her feel more whole than anything.
MOM: Exactly. Exactly. It also just opened up this whole treatment tool for her. She was working in Round Lake, she was dealing with, I mean the people that were in there were mostly alcoholic. Drugs hadn’t been a big issue at that point.
ME: Sedatives maybe, but that’s about it.
MOM: Yeah, yeah. And maybe weed, but I don’t know. I don’t remember. When I worked in there, it was mostly alcohol. And they were people, they were raw. They were fresh from the residential school. American Indian Movement was, we were singing American Indian Movement songs at all our gatherings at Round Lake, you know, it was fresh.
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ME: It was right in the middle of it. And it was groundbreaking, really, because it was the first, well I don’t know, I can’t say it was the first anywhere, but it was one of the first, at least of treatment centres that believed that culture was the treatment, that culture itself was the treatment. I don’t know of any other ones, it was, you know, the twelve steps, but it was never about culture. ‘Cause that’s even their motto, “Culture is Treatment”.
MOM: That’s right, exactly. And the culture at that time, was a conglomeration of all types of culture because people, language had been lost, traditions had been lost and people were just getting in touch with the realization that it was okay to be ‘Indian’. ‘Native’, ‘First Nation’, whatever you want to call it.
ME: Starting to relearn your culture.
MOM: And starting to reclaim the protocols, back in those days, were very much influenced by, I think, the church. It was pretty extreme. There was a lot of oppression against women. Native women were still losing their status, they weren’t even people, really, technically. I remember being told that being on your time was being dirty, women were dirty. The Influence of the residential school was still so prevalent. People were colonized and…
ME: Sick and angry.
MOM: Yeah, and addicted and stuff, so Grammi started developing this workshop, this medicine wheel workshop. There was influences, I think, from Tony Stickle, Phil Lane Sr., Lee Brown came along a little later, Gerry Oleman, there was just different people that were there at that time and she started to gather the gift, she realized that every nation had its own kind of specialty, so food would be buffalo to the Cree, but it would be, maybe whale whale to the Inuit. So, she adapted this thing, created this thing so they could create their own medicine wheel within themselves. I remember her saying something, that its like walking with a glass of water and walking in balance is about not losing any of that water. I don’t know what that one stuck out for me. But she talked about the gifts and the elements and how the elements are within us.
ME: I know that Grammi always says, she’ll say, when she’s talking about something, like the tree represents honesty and the eagle is the keeper of the gift of vision and she’ll say, but you can put whatever works for you in there. She’ll always say that you can exchange them. If someone’s from the east coast, they might have different animals over there and they can put those in instead.
MOM: The medicine wheel is completely fluid. It’s flowing and its adaptable in different ways and in different places.
MOM: But the way that I’m writing it is the way that Grammi teaches it and the way she’s always taught it, with the same things she’s always taught it with.
MOM: Yeah, like sweetgrass.
ME: Yeah, I want it the way that she does it. I understand that its fluid, but these are her teachings. And some people might perceive some of the teachings as being colonial and with a European influence, so I need to address the colonial part. I think that it does have a European influence because Grammi’s got European heritage.
MOM: And its in the english language, and treatment, in and of itself is a European concept. You can’t not have colonial influence.
ME: Well in treatment, in terms of alcohol and drugs, the only reason why there is treatment, or a need for treatment for Indigenous people, is because of Europeans and because of colonization.
MOM: Well everybody was colonized because there wasn’t really a concept of being colonized and decolonization yet.
ME: I mean its been fairly recent that, I mean Lee Maracle, she wrote, I Am Woman several years before she was even able to get it published.
MOM: Well and look at Emma Laroque. I remember reading in Robyn’s class, one of her books, and thinking ‘holy shit, man’, because it was so out there. All the protocol that had been imposed through colonization but masquerading as tradition.
ME: And that’s what I noticed about the native female writers, I mean the men in general don’t really write like this. Its the women that are challenging everything, because they are challenging native ideas, they’re not challenging white ideas or western ideas. We already know western ideas are skewed. They are challenging the adoption of these ideas that are being claimed as tradition and they’re not. Because even if your think about the elders now, there’s nobody alive now that were taught the real traditions.
MOM: They’re all adapted, just like Bill’s mom, “if I’d had a sewing machine, I’d have used it.” I mean, first contact, “these pots are so light. We’ll give you this and we’ll take these pots to cook with, instead of these rocks." We’ve adapted traditions and cultures and practices.
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A Glimpse into the Medicine Wheel
COLOURS & GIFTS
GRAMMI: And so, we begin at this part of our circle with the Red people. Why we do the red, of course, is because its First Nations and Aboriginals of the world. The keepers of the earth that have been there for centuries, centuries, millions of years.
ME: Indigenous people of every continent.
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GRAMMI: [Nodding] Every continent. Every place somebody had to
‘discover’ our people. And right away they made a whole lot of conclusions. Boy they never knew anything of the story and very few people ever knew the story. (Dr. Maddess knew). So that’s the beginning with the Red people. And each direction has a colour and a gift. So, I’ll just do the colours now. Red. Yellow would be the Asians or Orients.
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ME: And that includes people from like the Republic of India, right?
GRAMMI: Yes. And probably Polynesia as well.
And the black and the blue represents the Black nation or African population. And the White people, the Anglos.
ME: Anglos. European?
GRAMMI: Yeah. We just say white people. I guess it’s part of the culture or something.
Okay, then we are given a gift. Red, Yellow, Black and White. And we’re each given a gift.
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ME: Red people have the gift of vision.
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GRAMMI: Which means, behind...to see things coming, know that it’s coming, expect things to come because whatever you perceive with, some people can’t see the consequences of their actions, so they don’t even really put it together that when they put something in place, they don’t see the end, and the consequences that might happen to people.
I was thinking residential schools and all that. There’s so many.
So, their gift is the gift of vision. To see. And that’s the best because… People hearing that something or someone is going to come across the ocean one day, and be there with us. And they knew it would happen. They had no idea, the consequences of that.
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ME: Well actually, it reminds me of when we went to that, when mum and I went to that gathering. Lee was there and he talked about how they [the Red people], knew that the people were coming. They knew that all the colours of man were coming, and that’s why they had the corn in different colours. And I can’t remember exactly what the story was, but that they had this corn that they were preparing to welcome these different colours of man that were going to be arriving. So, they were actually getting ready for them as their guests to welcome them and stuff.
GRAMMI: Well, he’s worked with it so, him and I used to work together, we’d go out and do workshops. So, he knows a lot about me and I know a lot about him, as far as how we believe. So, um. These prophecies are really good
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GRAMMI: And the Asian, the yellow. They were given the gift of time. They’re a very ancient colour. And they have been...they have quite a holistic approach, they have a holistic way of living and they’re ancient. Those people who live on the Nile…
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ME: Egyptians.
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GRAMMI: Egyptians yeah! They’re, they’re ancient, and they didn’t travel like that, but they knew so much. This is a very rich culture, and we borrow from the Buddha, the teachings of Buddha.
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So, we go over here to black. And the gift is the gift of reason. I remember that was my first question. I asked the person who was doing the wheel, I asked, “Black? Why would it be black?” Because I was thinking of uh, Sammy Davis Jr., and they were anything but reason, they were…
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ME: They were celebrities.
GRAMMI: They overtook the world with things like Jazz.
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ME: Yeah, jazz and blues.
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GRAMMI: So, the gift of reason, I didn’t see that because celebrities are
sort of, irrational. But that's because celebrity is all I really saw. Anyway, what it is, is that they have been enslaved. Everybody, every other nation enslaved the black people. I wouldn’t say that our people thought that way, but other cultures did.
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ME: WelL, I think a lot of aboriginal people and black people were enslaved at the same time.
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GRAMMI: Oh absolutely. There’s a lot to these, we’ll do it as we go around and around. And the gift for the white people: the gift of movement, or specialization. Remember in the power of words, of what it means. It means discovery. It means…
ME: Progress?
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GRAMMI: It means uh… Oh, here I’m thinking of different names. Guy who started the electricity.
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ME: Um, inventions?
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GRAMMI: Yeah, they specialize to just take it out of the air and make a wire and have it travel! And people could pick up the phone and travel so far away… So that was the gift of movement and how much we use it. So, it means… really, it means a lot of technical excellence. Well, we’re all using it today but we also know it’s a more global development than that.
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ME: Yeah, and especially now with the internet.
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GRAMMI: Absolutely. Everything. That gift, a lot of people have contributed to it.
So then see what made me so deeply involved with the medicine wheel as I have, instead of being a ‘half-breed’, I had two gifts. That didn’t make me twice as good as anybody. But a half became one. And that was the biggest, that was the biggest gift I’ve ever had inside, to think…
ME: About your worth.
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A Glimpse into the Medicine Wheel
PRINCIPLES & SYMBOLS
GRAMMI: Faith. Faith is represented by the mountain. Because the mountain comes up from Mother Earth and it’s strong and sure. Faith can move mountains; it’s a belief for a lot of people. If you have
faith, you don’t have doubt, and that’s the thing we’re talking about here, it’s the principles. Yes, it’s a representation of faith. And so, over here of course is a tree, and it represents honesty. It is to be honest. There is nothing as honest as a tree. We know when the wind comes along and moves a tree? And as I’m telling you one sentence, I might change my mind that I’m gonna tell you this, or I’ll teach you a wrong teaching. I can be telling you honestly, and then just switch like the wind changed my mind. And that’s how we lie. We lie to save ourself or guard our self, or we don’t wanna be belittled by saying we know this or that and you know.
Look at faith and look at honest. Those are very difficult to accomplish. In fact, it’s working with us every day. Every day we have our faith. Every day we have our honesty. And how we do it, whether it makes us a healthy individual, or an unhealthy person.
GRAMMI: [Drawing a braid of sweetgrass] This is representative of kindness with a braid of sweetgrass, but it can be with sage, or it can be anything that the people in the area consider as their sacred root.
ME: Like cedar in the west coast?
GRAMMI: Yes, in the west. And it’s everywhere. It’s always giving. It’s the stuff that always gives and asks nothing back. And yet people abused it for many things. Those are the principles. And the fourth principle is sharing. Sharing is to give. To give to others. Sometimes it’s money. Sometimes it’s food. Sometimes it’s a good bird. Sometimes it’s whatever it is. But when you’re thinking of these, what is really important about the principles is, when you’re working with faith, what do you- what happens when you start thinking about faith? What’s the other part of faith that you’re thinking about? And I will put it this way, for every action, for every action, there is an equal and opposite…
ME: ...reaction.
GRAMMI: So, when you’re working with faith, you’re working with the opposite. What is the opposite of faith?
ME: Fear.
GRAMMI: Fear.
ME: Doubt.
GRAMMI: Doubt, that’s right.
Doubt is a good one. Well, like that thing the other night that was on TV. I mean I was just really, holy, yeah, I’m just a fallen Christian. If only I could send them $52 each month for the next year...
ME: You’d be saved!
GRAMMI: I’d be saved! [Laughter]
GRAMMI: Just about fell for it. But I checked everything because I knew, you know, that’s another scam.
And this is where, here’s the honesty here. You’ve got a relationship with somebody, and a friendship and all that stuff. And then you hear your friend is telling people, you’re this, you’re that, and here the person you were having faith with here and they become dishonest and telling rumours about you that hurt you as a person. And why are they doing that? So, then you find the boundary for this friend. And you back off, and you don’t have that friend as honestly as you’d like a person. And so, you limit what you give and you set a boundary. Use boundary often because people see it as a word that describes things pretty quickly. And I don’t think people are used to saying, well if I do this, then that is a boundary. It is one of our real primary considerations when having a friend.
ME: And boundaries are really like a healthy thing.
GRAMMI: Absolutely.
ME: They’re really necessary, in every part of life.
GRAMMI: We make ‘em healthy by putting limitations on some things. Like all the ten, ten sins?
ME: The what?
GRAMMI: The ten major sins of the world.
ME: Oh yeah, seven, seven. There’s probably ten now though.
GRAMMI: Oh, I have ten!! [Laughter]
We’re showing what represents the principle. These principles, mountain – faith, tree – honesty, braid or smudge – kindness, and sharing is the animal. Now we talk about animal. Sharing, represented by an animal. This doesn’t even look like an animal… [Referring to the animal she drew]
ME: Sure it does! That’s not an animal you want to hunt though, ‘cause you’d starve.
GRAMMI: That’s a deer really, so we’ll give him one hump. [Laughter]
GRAMMI: And so, the four-legged. The four-legged give themselves, and that’s a big one on how you treat animals. I know in the culture, of any Aboriginal group, or Indigenous group, that they have an animal that is sacred. And we have in our self, a sense of an animal that represents our sacredness. I just love to watch those animal shows because I learn all the properties of animals, and how they are, and they include our dreams, they include everything. And how we honour the animals, I think it’s really a strength of a culture, because they use animals, they still use animals for fields, and they’re to respect animals.
ME: As being part of the sacred circle.
GRAMMI: Absolutely.
GRAMMI: So see this is for sharing. These represent the basic principles of life. Now how it works is, you have faith, honesty, kindness, and sharing. What a wonderful person that you must be. Because you have them operating fully in your life. And how quickly it can change is…I’ll, I’ll tell a friend a lie. I’ll lie about a friend of mine, and I’m being dishonest to this friend. And then what have I got? I have kindness, but not really. I’m sharing to everybody the wrong information about that person. I have faith, and obviously, I don’t have much faith with that friend of mine. So, then what happens? Well, if I told my friend a lie, I have to go to that person and tell them, "hey I’ve been telling people this. I told them this about you. Which was something that I shouldn’t have done because I’m being dishonest, and I’m sorry that I did that." And I might lose a friend, but I gain back my principle. And I start over, you know? And so, then it works again.
ME: So then it gets back into balance.