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In front of the Minnesota State Capitol, Native community members and allies gathered to start the morning with a song about traditional tobacco. Tobacco is regarded as a traditional medicine in Ojibwe and Dakota tribes. The word for traditional tobacco is asemaa in Ojibwe, or caŋsasa in Dakota.
“It was our first gift that was given to us for prayers, and that’s what we use when we want to pray or make offerings,” said Suzanne Nash, a program operations manager with the Indigenous Peoples Task Force, the organization that hosted the gathering.
As community members and allies stood in a circle, they held their hands out to receive an offering of traditional tobacco. Participants then dispersed to offer the traditional tobacco to the earth by placing it in various intentional locations on the Capitol grounds.
An official proclamation read by Adam Savariego, the Native American affairs coordinator with the governor’s office, marked Aug. 11 as Traditional Sacred Tobacco Day.
“Whereas American Indian, Alaska Native communities have maintained their knowledge, values and cultural practices connected with traditional sacred tobacco as a medicine for spiritual, emotional, mental and physical guidance and healing,” Savariego read.
The day also recognizes the anniversary of when the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 was signed into federal law. Before then, Native Americans were federally prohibited from using traditional tobacco for ceremonial purposes.
Pam Gokey, youth services manager at the American Indian Family Center in St. Paul, remembers attending the Gathering of Nations Powwow in New Mexico after the act was signed.
“I stood in there. I didn’t dance; I just stood there. And I felt pride,” she said with emotion. Gokey was in her 20s at the time. “I think about it, how lucky we were able to come together in that one arena, and to smudge and to offer that tobacco.”
Gokey says she feels happy to be able to gather at the Capitol and to talk about Native communities’ traditional medicines. She feels particularly excited about introducing youth to traditional medicines.
“I’m so happy to see our children out there, our little ones that are out there that want to learn, and they truly do want to learn,” Gokey said.
Despite the repeal of the federal prohibition of traditional tobacco usage in ceremonies, the historical trauma left widespread impacts on Native populations. When traditional tobacco was prohibited, communities were restricted to the only option available: highly addictive commercial products.
According to the Minnesota Department of Health’s most recent legislative report on tobacco use prevention, 36.9 percent of Native Americans adults smoke commercial products compared to the overall 12.9 percent of adults in Minnesota.
Nash highlighted the ways in which she believes the commercial industry entices young people to pick the product up.
“It’s really important to know that it's those flashy colors and those, flavors: watermelon, grape, bubblegum [that] attract youth. And the tobacco industry targets that next generation,” she said.
Richard Gates participates in youth programming with the Indigenous Peoples Task Force. The 18-year-old says that while learning about traditional uses of tobacco, he also learned the dangers of commercial use.
Gates stood in front of everyone and read a poem he wrote about traditional tobacco. A line read, “If you take care of our medicines, it will take care of you.”
“I’m using it as like a prayer to talk to my family members, talk to mama up there, you know, my mama. Talking to my family member who has passed. That’s how I’m using it right now, for my family protection,” said Gates.
The atmosphere at the Capitol was one of hope and determination. Nash says that while there is historical trauma linked to the use of tobacco, she isn’t sure if she wants to claim it.
“When you begin to work with that tobacco, you will begin to heal the trauma, because the tobacco will do the work,” she said.
Indigenous Peoples Task Force announced the launch of a new website and youth podcast aimed at educating people about traditional tobacco.
Chandra Colvin covers Native American communities in Minnesota for MPR News via Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.
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