It Consumes What It Forgets

Authors

  • Carter Meland University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent/03/tm.346

Keywords:

Native American, Anishinaabe, Ojibwe, Windigo, cannibalism

Abstract

This essay offers a reflection on what the wiindigoo is in Anishinaabe thought and experience, exploring it's cannibalistic impulses particularly as a presence in educational institutions and the contemporary fossil fuel economy. It explores this presence in the northwoods of the Anishinaabe homelands and as a presence in the experience of the author's family life. It explores the ramifications of forgetting one is a human and what sort of compassion it takes to face this destructive spirit without submitting to it.

Author Biography

Carter Meland, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

CARTER MELAND teaches American Indian Literature and Film courses for  the Department of American Indian Studies. He received his Ph.D. in American Studies with a thesis that  examined the role of tricksters in the works of contemporary Native  novelists. His academic work has appeared in journals like American  Studies, Studies in the Humanities, and Studies in American Indian Literatures. His fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals including Yellow Medicine Review, Lake, and Fiction Weekly. He also blogs at http://the-long-one.blogspot.com/. His debut novel, Stories for a Lost Child was published in 2017 by Michigan State UP.
Old Meets New - Brent Learned. ©Brent Learned, reproduced with artist's permission.

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Published

2017-12-06

How to Cite

Meland, C. (2017). It Consumes What It Forgets. Transmotion, 3(2), 137–149. https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent/03/tm.346

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 2 (2017)

Section

Creative-Critical

License

Copyright (c) 2017 Carter Meland

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