Episode Three

Gaamiinigooyang – “That Which Is Given To Us”

“These animals and the plants and everything else, their spirits feed our spirits·you know if we don’t have the fish, if we don’t have the deer, if we don’t have the plants to feed us spiritually we are no longer Anishinaabe.
--Gerald White, Leech Lake Ojibwe

The traditional Anishinaabe-Ojibwe subsistence lifestyle is based on the cycle of the four seasons. This lifestyle reflects the Ojibwe worldview where the individual is dependent on the group, the group is dependent on nature, and nature is dependent upon the supernatural for survival. For centuries, this web of interdependence maintained a balanced relationship with all living things, in a sustainable economic system.

Episode Three: Gaamiinigooyang – “That Which Is Given To Us” describes the traditional Ojibwe survival system through numerous interviews with historians, tribal leaders, and elders; combined with visually stunning dramatic sequences of the four seasons’ traditional economic cycle. Key interviews are powerfully illustrated with archival photographs, documents, maps, and historical film footage.

Travel from the times before contact, through the Fur Trade period, which introduced European concepts of personal profit, land ownership, and debt. This episode traces the damaging effects of treaties and land loss on the very survival of the Ojibwe; the economic reforms of the 1960s and 70’s self-determination; and contemporary court decisions which have re-affirmed reserved rights to practice traditional hunting, fishing, and gathering. Many of today’s Ojibwe people are experiencing a renewed economic sovereignty through new sources of financial stability including gaming, tribal businesses, and individual entrepreneurship.