fire,” he reminds them. “That’s our job, especially we men. In our
way, there is balance between men and women: men are
responsible for caring for fire, and women are responsible for
water. Those two forces balance each other out. We need both to
live. Now, here’s something you can’t forget about fire,” he says.
As he stands before the kids, I hear echoes of the first teachings,
when Nanabozho received the same fire teachings from his father
that my dad is passing on today, “You must always remember that
fire has two sides. Both are very powerful. One side is the force of
creation. Fire can be used for good—like on your hearth or in
ceremony. Your own heart fire is also a force for good. But that
same power can be turned to destruction. Fire can be good for the
land, but it can also destroy. Your own fire can be used for ill, too.
Human people can never forget to understand and respect both
sides of this power. They are far stronger than we are. We must
learn to be careful or they can destroy everything that has been
created. We have to create balance.”
Fire has another meaning for Anishinaabe people as well,
corresponding to the eras in the life of our nation. The “fires” refer
to the places we have lived and the events and the teachings that
surrounded them.
Anishinaabe knowledge keepers—our historians and scholars—
carry the narrative of the people from our earliest origin, long
before the coming of the offshore people, the zaaganaash. They
also carry what came after, for our histories are inevitably braided
together with our futures. This story is known as the Seventh Fire
Prophecy and it has been shared widely by Eddie Benton-Banai and