One of the important features of Blue Street Prophets is the coffee hour. This is an open thread intended to generate a safe feeling of community.
Welcome to Twosday Teatime (also known as the Coffee Hour for those who prefer the other drink). This is an open forum to discuss about whatever is on your mind or what’s going on in your life.
We haven’t done a roll call for a while and so let’s do it again. This is the chance for people to introduce themselves, tell a bit about their background and their interests.
I use the name Ojibwa. That’s a tribal name. We actually call ourselves Anishinabe which means “first people.” In Canada, where my people are from, we are called Ojibwa which means “all puckered up” and here in the States we are called Chippewa which some people say means “fast talkers.”
I am a traditional ceremonial leader, which means that I get asked to conduct things like sweat lodges, pipe ceremonies, weddings, funerals, house blessings, gun blessings, motorcycle blessings, and so on. In modern religious terminology this would put me into the box of pagan and animist.
I posted my first diary here on March 11, 2009. I also post a lot over on Daily Kos and Native American Netroots (I’m listed as their Senior Historian). When I was asked to join the Front Page crew I was asked to write about Native American issues and comparative religion.
With regard to comparative religion, I teach a number of college courses, both credit and non-credit, which deal with comparative religion. Perhaps the most interesting of these is the Honors Seminar on the origins of language and religion. I also teach continuing education courses on Comparative Religion, The Islamic World, and Native American Spirituality.
One of my functions as a Front Pager is to promote diaries from the side to the Front Page. As a part of this, I also recommend to diarists over on Daily Kos that they cross-post here. I have also created a Street Prophets group over on Daily Kos in order to group diaries together which deal with various aspects of religion, spirituality, and politics.
Enough about me: it’s your turn. This is an open thread.