Teaching stories, part 11

"FOOTPRINTS OF THE WOLF" 

Updated: September 7, 2026

Boozhoo,

Today, we learned that the descendants of our ancestors, the Anishinaabeg from Michigan, are growing more concerned about the situation affecting a crucial aspect of their heritage and culture: Ma'iingan, the Great Lakes gray wolf. 

In December 2012, after Michigan state politicians rushed a "lame duck" bill through the House and Senate, Governor Snyder signed legislation into law that would designate wolves a "game species" and authorize NRC (Natural Resources Commission) to establish a wolf hunting season.

The Native nations of Michigan, who are among the most vocal opponents of the proposed hunting season, are determined to block this legislation that has passed in December last year. Not only do they believe that there is a direct parallel between the eradication of wolves from Michigan and the decline of its Native populations, the proposed hunting season touches a legal nerve as well since a treaty signed in 1836 implicates that the state has a legal obligation to give the Ojibwe and Odaawaa "tribes" an equal say in the management of the wolf and other wildlife species. By joining the Humane Society and other wildlife advocates in a petition drive, representatives of these Nations try to put the issue on a statewide ballot in 2014.

The Keep Michigan Wolves Protected campaign had hoped to gather 225,000 signatures by March 27. To date, they’ve gathered almost 254.000!

The proposed harvest for the Michigan hunting season is said to be 47 wolves: 21 wolves from Wolf Management Unit  in Western Gogebic County, 18 for WMU B (portions of counties in the Western Upper Peninsula), and 8 for WMU C in portions of Luce and Mackinac Counties in the Eastern UP. A total of 1,200 people (!) have been licensed to participate in the hunt taking place in three Upper Peninsula zones.

November 15, 2013, was the start of the wolf hunt in the state's Upper Peninsula. The season runs through December, unless the maximum kill of 43 is reached beforehand. 

Michigan, however, is not the only state that faces aggressive, systematic hunting of the grey wolf.

As the recent delisting of the wolf by the US Fish and Wildlife Service has been met with support by several major hunting groups and northern politicians, the delisting of an endangered species exactly in a region proposed for an aggressive minerals exploitation seems to be all too convenient for the Great Lakes mining corporations. Tribal governments of  the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota as well as the l854 Treaty Authority and the GLIFWC tribal leadership, representing eleven Ojibwe "tribes" across the three states, oppose the delisting, and meanwhile in Minnesota, wolf sanctuaries have been created by Gaa-waabaabiganikaag and Miskwaagamiiwi-zaaga'igan (White Earth and Red Lake reservations).

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Wolf harvesting in Minnesota

February last year, a friend of mine who is an artist posted something on my Facebook wall that instantly grabbed my attention. She informed me about the dire future facing an estimated 800 wolves residing within the borders of Wisconsin State.

Republican state lawmakers, the message said, are moving ahead with a plan, called Bill 411, that would let people use weapons and hunting dogs (no, there's nothing wrong with your eyes) to hunt grey wolves. The move comes less than two months after wolves were delisted as an endangered species in Wisconsin. 

The bill is aimed at promoting an annual hunt four and a half months of the year using traps, guns, and any type of bow. It is aimed at night shooting, running dogs and using traps on the wolves. Both state residents and non-residents may be issued a license; the bureaucratic term designated to the kill is wolf harvesting.

When my artist friend tells me something I usually pay attention - after all, she is a descendant in a 500-year line of Ojibwe chiefs -, but this time her message really raised my antennae. These are the words she wrote on my wall: 

The wind remains, the sky remains. 

Let us not upset the balance of nature by man's intervention.

Of course, my friend is absolutely right. If we treat honorable and useful creatures like the wolves like this, we might as well kill the wind and the sky.

The wolf is not only a crucial part of the ecosystem, but it has also served as an elder brother and teacher to humans throughout history. Thus, it deserves our respect and protection, and should certainly not be hunted down by dogs.

 Nor should it be shot as if it were a common target or trapped like a muskrat.

And all this for causing local hunters "problems" to hunt for raccoons, coyotes, bobcats, and bear?

Strongly endorsed by a local hunters' lobby? They criticize "the anti-humanist green movement that sees wolves not as the large predators they truly are, but as symbols of their admiration for nature"? Supported by Tea Party-related bloggers who claim "aggressive wolves...are targeting humans as prey" and argue that "wolf hunting has been hindered mainly by those who lack an understanding of Nature"?

Come again?

"Aggressive wolves targeting humans as prey"?

"The anti-humanist green movement"?

"People who have no conception of Nature"?

Give me a break.

Who's the agressor here and who's the prey? These recreational, so-called "hunters" should have a talk with the Native Americans, who have lived in the area and dealt with nature and wolves - sometimes very aggressive wolves - LONG before their European ancestors first arrived to take over the place.

They should have consulted them first.

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In the beginning of time

"In the beginning of time, the Creator made Anishinaabe, the original man, and his brother Ma’iingan, the wolf. 

Together, they walked the Earth naming all of the other creatures on the planet.

There came a time when the Creator said the two must live apart but warned that whatever happened to one would happen to the other. 

To this day, the wolf howls in mourning for the loss of his friend, Anishinaabe."*

There is an old and honorable Anishinaabe aphorism that says: "Our people and the wolves are the same. What happens to the wolf, happens to us." Like the wolves, Ojibwe Anishinaabe communities have struggled throughout the centuries for survival. The health and survival of the people have always been inseperably linked to that of the wolf. Therefore, technical terms used by state officials like "wolf harvesting," "population caps," or "minimum viable poulations" are offensive to Ojibweg people - to them, these phrases sound as if they pertain to their own demographic situation or the future of their own communities

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Many traditional stories of the Anishinaabeg relate of the important role that MA'IINGAN, or "He Who Makes Strange Noises," has played in the lives of the People since the beginning of times. To this day the elders of various Ojibwe communities tell stories that link Ma'iingan to Wenabozho, or Wiisagejaak as he is called in the northern country, who is also known as Original Man, a beloved semi-supernatural trickster and benefactor of the Anishinaabe Peoples. In fact, according to oral history, it was the Great Mystery, called Gichi-manidoo, who sent the wolf to keep Wenabozho company while walking around Creation.

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He who walks the Earth

So important is Wolf that he even plays a role in the creation of the earth, as AKI-BEMOSED: "HE WHO WALKS THE EARTH."

When GICHI-MANIDOO, after a big flood that once swept the planet, was re-creating the earth on top of the back shield of a giant Turtle, he ordained Wolf to run round the circumference and spread soil that Muskrat brought up from the bottom of the sea. Thus Wolf enlarged the land until Turtle Island (North America) had gained its present form.

One story relates how Wenabozho, the original man, who at one time longed for companionship, adopted Ma'iingan as his brother. Since then, the two brothers had many adventures together tricking one another. Both had the power of shapeshifting; this means that they often transformed into any animal or human form. Although it was Wiinabozho who was the most daring and imaginative of the two, it was Wolf who often guided Wiinabozho and taught him valuable lessons of wisdom.

"So, First Man and Ma'iingan walked the Earth and came to know all of her. In this journey they became very close to each other. They became like brothers. In their closeness they realized that they were brothers to all of the Creation. When they had completed the task that GICHI-MANIDOO asked them to do, they talked with the Creator once again. GICHI-MANIDOO said, "From this day on, you are to separate your paths. You must go your different ways." 

"What shall happen to one of you will also happen to the other. Each of you will be feared, respected and misunderstood by the people that will later join you on this Earth."

- Quoted freely from Edward Benton Banaise's "The Mishomis Book" *

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So this is how big this land will be... 

Another story linking Wolf to the creation of the world was told by George Peequaquat of northern Saskatchewan. It was taken from the book  'Bits of Dough, Twigs of Fire' by Nick Johnson.

"This is a story about Wiisagejaak we call him. He walks throughout the land. He wasn't too pleased with himself. This earth of ours, flooded, he called the muskrat to dive down to get a piece of earth. So really the muskrat brought some for him. He dried it and blew it. After he blew it they were on an island. The next time he blew it he couldn't see across or how big the island was. And again he blew it, he made a wolf. Then he told him to run around to see how big our land was. He was away for four nights, then he came back, then he said this land of ours would be too small. He blew it again, the earth. Then he sent the wolf off again to run around it. Now he was away for four weeks this time, that wolf. He said the earth was still too small... So again he blew the earth. Then finally after fourteen years he got back. He was a very old wolf after fourteen years of running. So this is how big this land will be, that's how he finished."

Stories like the ones above reflect how much humankind is indebted to the wolf. The stories also shed light on how much the ancestors were aware of the humanlike characteristics of wolves and the social, basically non-violent personalities they possess.

Now they wish to kill our four-legged kin simply because his presence ruins their cherished hunting enjoyment? Do they intend to do this under the veil of night, using firearms, traps, and hunting dogs?

Once this dreadful scheme to "harvest" grey wolves is sanctioned, it won't take long before the footprints of humans are the only trace remaining on Earth's surface. And according to legend, whose companionship did the Original Man Wenabozho seek when he felt alone? 

Exactly.

 

* Source: Lansing state journal

* Benton-Banai, Edward. The Mishomis Book: The Voice of the Ojibway. Hayward, WI: Indian Country Communications, 1988.

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So, please join the cause

Wisconsin WOLVES - STOP Senate Bill 411 and click here.

Keep Michigan Grey Wolves Protected: click here.

Read the article in Indian Country about actress Jessica Lange urging Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton to suspend the state-sanctioned wolf hunt. 

Miigwech.

P.S. Good news! A new wolf bill has been heard by the MN Senate Environment and Energy Committee on Tuesday March 11, 2014. Authored by Senator Foung Hawj, Senate File 2256 introduced a new wolf management plan with updated requirements to protect our wolf population. In a week that brought news of the aerial gunning of wilderness wolves in 2 western states, we're happy to share progress in MN. 

Read Senate File 2256: http://bit.ly/1dDfvWs

See also:

White Earth Land Recovery Project

2018 updates:

Gray wolf harvest in Wisconsin update 2017/2018: The gray wolf in the western Great Lakes region is currently on the Federal Endangered Species List. This listing status limits the state of Wisconsin's management authority including the authority to hold a wolf harvest season.

June 2018: Rule to Allow Hunting Could Doom Rare Red Wolves in eeastern North Carolina.

September 2026 update:

President Trump signed an executive order on Friday September 4, directing the Interior Department to assess whether gray wolves should lose their endangered-species protections. Donald Trump just signed an order that could kill off the last living wolves in America to smooth over his own beef scandal. Here's the setup. Ground beef hit a record of about $6.89 a pound this summer, roughly 57% higher than five years ago. Voters are furious. Midterms are coming. So what did Trump do? The day before he paused tariffs to flood the market with 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef, he met privately with Joesley Batista, co-owner of JBS, the Brazil-based meatpacking giant positioned to profit most from the move. While your grocery bill climbed, JBS booked $131.7 billion in revenue and $2.4 billion in profit. Ranchers were livid at the import flood. So now comes the apology tour. And the sacrifice. Buried in Friday's orders is a directive telling Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to strip Endangered Species protections from gray wolves and Mexican wolves, and to lean on states to make them easier to kill. Sit with that. Every one of those roughly 300 wild Mexican wolves descends from just seven founders. A creature we nearly wiped off the earth, clawing its way back, now offered up as a political trophy. And wolves are not just another animal on a list. They are a keystone species, which means whole ecosystems hang on them. When wolves vanish, deer and elk explode in number, strip the land bare, and everything downstream suffers, from the songbirds to the beavers to the rivers themselves. Bring the wolves back and the land heals. That is not sentiment. It is biology. Killing them off does not just erase a species, it unravels the web that species holds together. These animals are not the problem. Wolves take a rounding error of livestock compared to what drought, corn prices, and Trump's own trade chaos are doing to ranchers. But a wolf can't fund a Super PAC. A wolf can't buy a meeting in the Oval Office. So the wolf gets the blame, and the billionaire gets the beef. In the room Friday, Trump even suggested ranchers can already shoot protected wolves. They can't. He just said it, casually, like the life of a wild animal is a rule you invent on the fly. This is what desecration looks like. Something wild and irreplaceable, something that took decades of patient work to pull back from the void, bargained away to paper over a scandal of his own making. Conservation groups are already promising to meet him in court. 

They should. Because a country that will shoot its own wolves to protect a billionaire's margin has lost something it may never get back.

Source: The Other 98%

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Jewelry shown on this page:

• Bawaagan / Spirit Helper - sterling silver, turquoise & red coral belt buckle by ZhaawanArt.
• Mikinaak Miinawaa Ma'iingan / Turtle And Wolf hair slide by ZhaawanArt.
• Aki-bimose / Ogichidaa Gikinawaaji`owin (“Walks the Earth / Mark of the Warrior”) - sterling silver, gold, turquoise & red coral bracelet by ZhaawanArt.  

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Illustrations and jewelry photography by Zhaawano Giizhik. Jewelry by ZhaawanArt.

The jewelry shown on this page serve as storytelling tools and are not available for purchase.

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> Read part 12 in the Teaching Stories: The Cycle of Life.

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About the authors/artists:

Simone McLeod (her traditional name is Aki’-egwaniizid, which is an Ojibwe name meaning "Earth Blanket") is an Anishinaabe painter and poet, born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1962. She belongs to he Name doodem (Sturgeon clan). Simone, who feels special kinship with her mother's people, the Azaadiwi-ziibi Nitam-Anishinaabeg (Poplar River First Nation) of Manitoba, descends from a long line of Midewiwin seers and healers and artists. Her artwork has been appreciated by several art collectors and educational and health care institutions from Canada, as well as by art lovers from all over the world.

Zhaawano Giizhik, an American residing in the Netherlands, was born in 1959 in North Carolina, USA. He has Anishinaabe heritage, with the doodem of his ancestors from Baawiting (Sault Ste. Marie, Upper Michigan) being Waabizheshi, or Marten. As a writer, non-commercial artist, and jewelry designer, Zhaawano draws inspiration from the oral and pictorial traditions of his ancestors. In this pursuit, he sometimes collaborates with fellow artists. He worked on several art projects with Simone between 2012 and 2017.

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