North Dakota Native American Essential Understanding Number Two is about learning and storytelling. It states, "Traditional teaching and the passing on of knowledge and wisdom was done through storytelling, song, ceremony, and daily way of life, often incorporating specific gender and age specific responsibilities. These continue to be some of the best modes for learning for both native and non-native learners."
In this episode of Dakota Datebook, we'll be listening to Demus McDonald, enrolled member of Spirit Lake Nation, talking about the lesson of bad medicine on the tongue.
Demus McDonald:
Woke up. I could hear a woman hollering at my grandma. I came out of the bedroom and my grandma was sitting on her bed. That lady was standing there. She was giving my grandma heck in Indian. She said, "If it wasn't for my brother, you wouldn't have no money. You would have nothing." That lady wanted money, calling her down. And so I came in there and, in Indian, I said, "You're going crazy over money." I said, "Go on, go on home," I said. They left.
And I turned around and I asked grandma, I said, "How come you didn't say nothing?" And she said, "Sit down. I'm going to tell you something." She said, "Well, you know people that use bad medicine," she said, "They can make you sick." She said, "They put it in their mouth, on their tongue, and they come and they argue." Said, "If you sit there with your mouth closed, then it won't go in. But if you open your mouth and argue back, then that bad medicine comes in and makes you sick. But if you sit there with your mouth closed, it's got no place to go. So that person, it goes back in them. So that's why I didn't say nothing." So there again, that was another lesson. Like I said, every day was a lesson.
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If you'd like to learn more about the North Dakota Native American essential understandings, and to listen to more Indigenous elder interviews, visit teachingsofourelders.org.
