by Rosemary Brown
According to the article “Anishinabe N’Oon Da Gaaziiwin: An Indigenous Peacemaking and Mediation Nexus,” UNDERIP or the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, reaffirms their right to identity and culture and their right to “dispute resolution processes that understand their culture”. This article also points out that several TRC calls to action call for cultural competency and skills-based training in conflict resolution.
Furthermore, while traditional peacemaking processes varied, they all contained the common elements of “spiritual laws, traditional medicines, ceremonies, teachings and songs, and the circle.” The article then describes a hybrid approach to decision making and conflict resolution, drawing on both Indigenous traditional and western approaches.
This provides a context for our last selection in the Settlers Book Club:
Akak’stiman: A Blackfoot Framework for Decision Making and Mediation, co-authored by Reg Crowshoe and Sybille Manneschmidt.
Reg Crowshoe, from north Piikani in southern Alberta, grew up immersed in the Blackfoot language, ceremonies, and culture, although he also attended residential school at times. He runs the Sun Dance, Thunder Bundle, and other ceremonies, and is committed to the preservation and teaching of Blackfoot ways of knowing to Blackfoot youth and non-Indigenous institutions.
Sybille Manneschnidt has worked with the Piikani for over twenty years. She is a psychologist, health consultant, and a sessional instructor at the University of Lethbridge.
Akak’stiman begins with a brief overview of Blackfoot history up through the early twentieth century, and then briefly describes the social structure of the Blackfoot, starting with the family and extended family, discussing relations between men and women and adults and children. Traditionally, families came together in different hunting and gathering bands based on kinship, and when the bands gathered in the summer, they formed the tribe. Many Blackfoot also became members of tribal societies dedicated to purposes such as warfare and internal policing.
Summer gatherings were important for settling disputes, arranging marriages, and engaging in ceremonies to restore balance among people and with nature and ensure the survival of the tribe. Central to these ceremonies were ceremonial bundles such as the Sun Dance Bundle, the Beaver Bundle, and the Thunder Pipe Bundle. There were society bundles and individual or personal bundles. Ceremonial bundles were always held by both male and female bundle keepers who were held in high regard within the tribe. Bundles consisted not only of the sacred objects they contained but the teachings and songs that accompanied them. The origin stories associated with these bundles are shared and bundle items are described.
The book moves on to describe the Blackfoot circle structure used in these different ceremonies, accompanied by diagrams showing the position of circle participants. It explains how the circle structure can be adapted for use with western health, child welfare, and business systems, often based on different worldviews and values. Blackfoot circle structure emphasizes the involvement of the community in decision making and the use of the talking stick to maintain non-hierarchal relationships. The goal of the circle structure was to reach solutions agreed upon by all participants. Western systems for child welfare, health, and business are often hierarchical in nature, excluding the community and relying on outside experts.
While short, Akak’stiman offers insight into Blackfoot ways of knowing, being, and decision making, enhancing our appreciation of the culture of the people on whose lands we live, work, and play. The book contains many photos as well as diagrams, and describes how the Indian Act transformed traditional leadership, and how traditional methods of ensuring health, well-being and childcare were supplanted by Western systems. Although published in 2002, It also demonstrates how Reconciliation can be enacted in a meaningful way.
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