Native American Heritage
 

I have some native American heritage in my family from Kentucky and there's this thing that's been passed down every other generation. It's a mantra or chant or something like that (I don't know what to call it) that someone says to stop someone else from bleeding if they're bleeding a lot. I know that the rule is that it can only be passed down every other generation and the gender has to switch. My great-grandfather taught it to my mother, who has it written down somewhere. I don't know it myself, but if I have a boy, then she's supposed to teach it to him, who will then teach it to his own granddaughter and so on. I just think it's a really interesting tradition.

Really cool. :smile: Do you know what happens if someone passes away and can't pass it on?

No, but my great-grandfather had eight kids. There's still plenty of people to pass it on!

So why don't you ask you mother or other older people in your family? I do think that indians (you can not say this in the US...?) are more connected. Ask about it.

Member of the Ojibwe-Anishinaabe
 

Boozhoo! I'm a new member to SF who's enrolled in the Lac Courtes Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe and I'm knowledgeable on native healing techniques and my own tribe's culture. I am happy to answer any questions if any are interested. I should let you all know that we don't have shamans or a concept of shamanism. We are simply medicine people and most of shamanism is just incorporating our ways under an umbrella term for all. It's good info to know if you are interested in either shamanism or native medicine because there is a big difference. :) Blessed be all!

Ahh, I don't know how my previous post ended up posting here. My mistake. I apologize. I'm new and learning. I don't know how to delete it...but anyway, hi! This tradition your post speaks of is very interesting. I have never heard of it.

Hi rosiegirl,

So your Ancestor’s bloodstopping skill came purely from your Amerind side?

Interesting.

You are not a mixed Amerind-Finnic person?

It is just, because bloodstopping was/is one of the most typical skills our (Finnic) Shamanic healers had/have.
It is a spell, a kind of a “poem” you recite.
I have got the spell (somewhere), but the skill (beyond the spell) has to be transmitted from the Healer to the Apprentice who is showing talent for it for the poem/spell to actually work.
Skipping the generation and gender – I think that might be right for us as well – thanks for the reminder.

The old versions of our spells did not have Biblical references, but because the Russian Orthodox Church & Native (Shamanic) beliefs mixed quite harmoniously in the past – the newer versions of the spells did sometimes refer to the Bible verses.

Of these bloodstoppers I have got accounts from my contemporaries, but the skills to shape-shift into a bear or a wolf (with the bare bones of how to do it) is something the old people only talked about.

Couple of links about these:
https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/4447.htm

http://www.historyinanhour.com/2014/...per-peninsula/

*

What you have to remember is different tribes have there own way of Healing and they do not always share it.it is normally taught in the tribe some tribes are willing to share a few things but not all.


Namaste

sacred songs
 

This is true. My great-granddfather (Seneca) used to know many sacred songs that he could not share as they were specifically taught for certain ceremonies and situations. Once, at a family picnic when I was 18, my uncle began singing a sacred song as a joke. It was a beautiful sunny day. As he began singing, out of the blue!, thunder clouds rolled in out of nowhere and it began pouring and thundering. It was probably the most amazing thing I ever saw. He immediately stopped singing. Few minutes later, it stopped raining and the sun came right back out. That taught me to treat sacred songs with reverence.