Daniel N. Pelletier (Megisa Magawa Tick) is Métis of Ojibwe and French heritage. He carries his teachings from Northern Ontario. He’s the owner of Bear’s Den Native Crafts at the Gibraltar Weekend Market. This is a teaching that Daniel, in his words, had shared with me.
Handmade buffalo hide drum
Front (right): The drums are made with buffalo hide. You can see the vertebrae of the drum right here, of the buffalo.
Rear (below): The design of the drum came to me in a dream. This is how I string my drums. If you look at the back of this one, you’ll see that the drum is strung differently in a circle as opposed to an X or cross shape. When I make the drums, I leave the string on here. That’s what I call the umbilical cord of the drum, which takes part in the feasting of the drum after.
— Daniel N. Pelletier
Drum stick (left): These drums come with a drum stick. There’s four medicines in here. You’ve got the tobacco, sweet grass, cedar, and sage.
The tobacco will represent truth and honesty. When I’m praying and making these drum sticks, I pray that whoever owns these drums can sing from their heart, be true and honest to themselves, walk in a good way. The tobacco and the sage represents sharing. I ask that they can share those songs with people from their heart and do things. Sweetgrass, kindness. Reminding to be kind to themselves and to others. The cedar represents strength, which help them find that inner strength to walk that good path because it’s much easier to walk on the dark side than just walk on the good side.
— Daniel N. Pelletier
Feasting the drum
First, you lay tobacco on the drum and you will pray, whatever your teachings are. We always say that you pray with your left hand because it’s closest to your heart.
You pray to the creator first and ask creator to feast that drum. Then you face the east. Now, my teachings is that the eastern doorway is a new beginning, that new life. When I pray to that eastern door, I ask that eastern doorway to give new life — the spirit of that drum.
Then I pray to the south and to the west. The west is the ancestor doorway. That’s when we go to the spirit world. We come from the east, we go out to the west. Then you ask an ancestor to give a voice to this drum.
Then you pray to the north. That’s the healing doorway. You’re going to offer your tobacco and you put it facing the northern doorway. Then you pray to mother earth and you give thanks to the buffalos who gave their life. Then you put that tobacco all over and then you let it sit there for seven days.
Then you would take that tobacco and then you would make yourself a small little tobacco tie. This is where you come in with that umbilical cord and tie the tobacco. Then you’ll take the drum outside with the rest of that tobacco. I go back up to a tree somewhere that I feel comfortable with. I give thanks again to the four directions for feasting that drum. Then you put that tobacco down by the tree.
Then, only then, you hit the drum. You hit it in the four directions, and that’s the wakening of the drum. What you’ve done is you’ve birthed it, and then you’ve woken it. Then it’s ready to be played and taken care of. Now, these drums, they’re not like an ornament. They’re more of a thing that’s alive.
— Daniel N. Pelletier
©Daniel N. Pelletier, 2022. All rights reserved.