The Bear Clan

It's 3 a.m., the clock, sitting on my nightstand reads. Why can't I ever remember what happens at the end of my dream?

"I know! It is because you wake up!" said my friend Sally.

Is it only 3 a.m.? What are we doing awake? Let's get up and raid the refridgerator. There is chocolate ice cream!

Several years later it is 3 a.m. and I am having the same dream over and over again with no end. There is a large black bear and I see a couple of cubs. I am standing there watching.

"I think you are one of the cubs," says Jonas.

Growing up I thought we were the eagle clan. I didn't know my sister thought we were the wolf clan. We were having a conversation with our younger brother and he said, "I talked to a medicine man and he said we are bear clan!"

"That explains my recurring dream" I shouted to both of them. In our Anishinabe culture, we are all part of a clan. That means that we will be related to others in our clan. There are certain duties we are responsible for when being a part of a particular clan.

"What do you mean? asked Terri. A recurring dream? Did we talk about this before?"

Haven't I mentioned this to everyone in the world? I very seldom remember my dreams but this one is the same and never ending.

Tator piped up and said, "You never told me about that dream."

Well, where do I start? I have had it since childhood and at one point I asked the Creator to take it away. My dreams were taken away but not this one. This one I have over and over again without an ending. I guess asking to have dreams removed meant this one froze in time.

With your news brother, it finally makes sense if we are bear clan, I was with my relatives in this dream! And I would like to get my dreams back. One medicine woman told me what to do, but it didn't work. I guess I will have to ask the Creator, as long as I am sure I want them back.

Maybe the creator already knows I am not ready to have the dreams return.

It isn't a problem to not remember my dreams. Someone told me we all dream and just not remembering them isn't such a big deal. In our culture dreams always seem to mean something though and people are always asking me what their dreams mean.

For some reason that dream scared me as a child. I'm not even sure why. I am a big girl now though and should be fine with any or all dreams I encounter. What do you two think?

"I say let's do it!" said Terri, and Tator said, "I'm ready, let's go! Yes! Let's ask right now. Where are your medicines? Let's fill sister's pipe, do a smudge, and ask for the return of your dreams. We can and should do it right here and right now!"

The very next morning I awoke at 3 a.m. terrified! As I was telling Jonas that I had a dream that there was a man in the woods with an ax ready to kill people and 3 unsuspecting kids were walking right towards him, then I woke up!

"Wait this sounds so familiar. This story went around our community when we were just kids. Remember we went out there to check it out one night? Do you remember what happened? I remember it definitely kept us out of the woods!" Jonas explained.

I don't remember what happened that night and I don't want to hear what happened that night as I shook my head yes, to answer his question. I did not remember. Do I really want my dreams back? It may be too late now!