Every Step: A Healing Circle

This video from the Ogichidaa Storytellers series centers on the Healing Circle Run. In 1989, the Anishinaabe Solidarity Relay began as a response to the resounding racism and hatred directed towards Ojibwe people throughout the region at boat landings and other communal spaces. The animosity that spilled into communities, schools, and churches created great hardship for Ojibwe communities and their harvesters.

Today, the Healing Circle Run continues to connect Ojibwe communities across Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Through collective running, walking, and prayer — it provides healing and relief. The annual event also serves as a reminder to both participants and observers of the commitment, efforts, and resiliency of the tribal nations that have survived decades of trauma.

Ogichidaa (“warrior”) Storytellers, supported by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC), shares the struggle of the Anishinaabe (also known as Ojibwe or Chippewa) to retain treaty reserved harvesting rights throughout the ceded territories of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. This series for students in grades 6-12 includes six videos, each with educational materials containing lesson plans, enduring understandings, essential questions, vocabulary words, and extension activities.