Winter
The winter solstice
The winter solstice is the first day of winter and the shortest day/longest night of the year. The winter solstice…“It is a time for rest for a lot of the animals and for the plants," says Wilfred Buck, an Elder from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation. “It is time for the people to replenish their spirit. It is time for them to dream."
Resources
- Ask an Elder: What the winter solstice means in the Cree tradition
- Glooskap & the Winter Giant – An Abenaki Legend, shared by Dallas Guss, NVSD Indigenous Education team (NVSD log in required)
- Iroquois Winter Stone Game, shared by Dallas Guss, NVSD Indigenous Education team (NVSD log in required)
- Ojibwe tales that can only be told when there's snow on the ground
- Winter Solstice Presentation, shared by Brandi Price and Johanne Nielson, NVSD Indigenous Education team:
Recommended Reading
- Baseball Bats for Christmas by Michael Kusugak
- Chi-Jean and the Long Winter
- Coyote Christmas: A Lakota Story by S. D. Nelson
- Fox on the Ice by Tomson Highway
- Métis Christmas Mittens, by Leah Marie Dorion
- Mouse Celebrates the Winter Solsticeby Terri Mack
- Wild Eggs: A Tale of Arctic Egg Collecting, by Suzie Napayok-Short
- Wintertime by Terri Mack