NAFPS Forum
General => Frauds => Topic started by: WINative on February 16, 2024, 09:17:23 pm
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This woman has long been seen as a fraud and a predecessor to Margaret Noodin at UW-Milwaukee and an Ojibwe impersonator.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keewaydinoquay_Peschel
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Hi Win, did a quick look see, went back 3 generations. All white. Her mother is from England in all censuses. So that a dead end. Her father is Canadian. Looked only at his relatives. They are all white and from Canada, Michigan, England and Prussia. I went as far back to 1830's.
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Hi Diana, I appreciate that and I seen a interview she did:
https://www.newspapers.com/article/traverse-city-record-eagle/22288664/
"Her mother, described as an English lady till-the day she died, spent her first nine years in England, She fell in love with Keewaydinoquay's father but, they weren't allowed to marry because her grandparents felt Indians and Christians shouldn't mix, Keewaydinoquay said.
Her father told his; parent "he was white on the top" Traverse City Record-Eagle of ancestral history including a-grandfather who was an Anglican priest, a mother who was Indian looking but learned to say "God save the Queen" in her first breath, and a grandfather who practiced the Indian Midewin religion."
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She hes been mentioned once before in this foum:
Keywaydinoquay Pakawakuk Peschel was an Anishnaabe professor who did many studies on herbal medicine. It's kind of a strange claim, saying she was [Susun] Weed's adopted grandmother. She passed on 11 years ago, but seemingly Weed did not know that.
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I looked again at other relatives all white. Oh, and sorry her father is from Michigan and the grandfather is from Canada. Looked the up in the Canadian census 1861 and 1851. All white. I'll do a little more in depth search tonight.
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She hes been mentioned once before in this foum:
Keywaydinoquay Pakawakuk Peschel was an Anishnaabe professor who did many studies on herbal medicine. It's kind of a strange claim, saying she was [Susun] Weed's adopted grandmother. She passed on 11 years ago, but seemingly Weed did not know that.
Seems she spawned a group of Non-Indian followers who still follow her lead and claim Ojibwe and lecture on Indigenous culture.
Keewaydinoquay founded the Miniss Kitigan Drum, a non-profit organization supporting the preservation and evolution of Great Lakes Native American traditions
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Here's Margaret's marriage license with her parents names. And the 1920 Census. As you can see they are all white. Also all their neighbors are white.
Margaret Moorhouse Cook
in the Michigan, U.S., Marriage Records, 1867-1952
Name Margaret Moorhouse Cook
Gender Female
Race White
Age 34
Birth Date abt 1918
Birth Place Ludington, Michigan
Marriage License Place Wayne
Marriage Date 17 May 1952
Marriage Place Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, USA
Residence Place Detroit, Michigan
Father
Wesley J Cook
Mother
Sarah E Moorhouse
Spouse
Gerhardt C Peschel
Margarat Cook
in the 1920 United States Federal Census
Name Margarat Cook
[Margaret Cook]
Age 1
Birth Year abt 1919
Birthplace Michigan
Home in 1920 Scottville, Mason, Michigan
Street East State Street
Residence Date 1920
Race White
Gender Female
Relation to Head of House Daughter
Marital Status Single
Father's Name Wesley J Cook
Father's Birthplace Michigan
Mother's Name Sarah E Cook
Mother's Birthplace England
Name Wesley J Cook
Age 39
Birth Year abt 1881
Birthplace Michigan
Home in 1920 Scottville, Mason, Michigan
Street East State Street
Residence Date 1920
Race White
Gender Male
Relation to Head of House Head
Marital Status Married
Spouse's Name Sarah E Cook
Father's Birthplace Canada
Mother's Birthplace USA
Name Sarah E Cook
Age 40
Birth Year abt 1880
Birthplace England
Home in 1920 Scottville, Mason, Michigan
Street East State Street
Residence Date 1920
Race White
Gender Female
Immigration Year 1887
Relation to Head of House Wife
Marital Status Married
Spouse's Name Wesley J Cook
Father's Birthplace England
Mother's Birthplace England
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Seems she spawned a group of Non-Indian followers who still follow her lead and claim Ojibwe and lecture on Indigenous culture.
Keewaydinoquay founded the Miniss Kitigan Drum, a non-profit organization supporting the preservation and evolution of Great Lakes Native American traditions
The quote is from her Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keewaydinoquay_Peschel
I will quote the whole paragraph:
Keewaydinoquay founded the Miniss Kitigan Drum, a non-profit organization supporting the preservation and evolution of Great Lakes Native American traditions. Many referred to Keewaydinoquay lovingly as Nookomis (Grandmother). The group has ties with established and recognized tribes in the area. She was the subject of controversy, much of it stemming from her willingness to teach those of other than native backgrounds. She started doing this at a time when native people had just secured their abilities to openly practice traditional ceremonial rites and religious observances. Kee said it "broke her heart" that she could find no Native peoples interested in learning about their own culture, and she offered her teachings to non-natives as the only way of preserving her heritage. She said to critics that the time was late, and that people of good hearts and like minds needed to work together to offset the users and those that were actively hurting the earth. Some other elders at the time affirmed the wisdom of this, and later many who had earlier criticized her came to appreciate the wisdom of these teachings and proclaim them themselves.
I couldn't find much about the non-profit Miniss Kitigan Drum, except that they are listed as having published a number of printed works, from 1977 and well into the 1990s: Publisher: Miniss Kitigan Drum, St. James, Michigan. (https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=Miniss+Kitigan+Drum)
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Thanks Diane I wonder how she created this Ojibwe fantasy and who she was connected to that helped her?
According to her biography, Keewaydinoquay was born in a fishing boat en route to the hospital from the Manitou Islands, which capsized shortly thereafter, and her survival was interpreted as miraculous. Her childhood name, meaning "Walks with Bears", derived from an incident where as a toddler she was left on a blanket as her parents gathered blueberries, returning to see her standing by bears, eating blueberries off the bushes. Her adult name Giiwedinokwe, recorded as "Keewaydinoquay", means "Woman of the North[west Wind]" and came from her vision quest.
According to Kee, she apprenticed with the noted Anishinaabeg medicine woman Nodjimahkwe from the age of 9 and worked for many years as a medicine woman, at a time when her people had little access to conventional medical care and when conventional medical care failed to cure them, healing more than several patients deemed to be terminally ill.
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I couldn't find much about the non-profit Miniss Kitigan Drum […]
I found this. At this URL, an article can be downloaded:
https://ojs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/ALGQP/article/download/356/260/1122
Keewaydinoquay: Anishinaabe-mashkikiikwe and Ethnobotanist
[By] WENDY GENIUSZ University of Minnesota
Papers of the 36th Algonquian Conference, ed. H.C. Wolfart
(Winnipeg: University of Manitoba, 2005), pp. 187-206.
From the time she was in graduate school until the end of her life,
Kee worked to build the Miniss Kitigan Drum, an organization dedicated
to teaching and maintaining Anishinaabe knowledge. She describes the
role and purpose of the Miniss Kitigan Drum (cf. note 9):
The Miniss Kitigan Drum, Inc. is the extended family of the Miniss
Kitigan Band of the Amikogenda Islands in Lake Michigan. By now
we are a pretty mixed lot genetically, and the roles we live out in the
dominant society are a contributing network across the entire continent.
The one thing we have in common is our determination to walk
the Sun Trail according to the ancient ecologically-orientated philosophies
of the Anishinaabeg (Native Americans of the Great Lakes
Regions).
Kee described this organization as dedicated to maintaining physical and
spiritual balance by teaching the ancient philosophies of the Anishinaabeg
and by maintaining an encampment where members can continue to
"learn and renew." While teaching at the University of Wisconsin she
started a Milwaukee branch. Through monthly meetings, teaching workshops,
and a summer retreat center, this nonprofit organization teaches
Anishinaabe philosophy and knowledge about plants. Kee taught Anishinaabe
philosophy and knowledge about maintaining and using plants as
food, medicine, and for construction through the Miniss Kitigan Drum
(Geniusz; Simonsen). When I asked Warber if she, too, was involved with
the Miniss Kitigan Drum, she told me that one could not know Kee and
not be involved with this organization because of her dedication to it.
Through Miniss Kitigan Drum, Kee also produced "Mukwah Miskomin
or KinnicKinnick: 'Gift of Bear'" and several other works.
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Garden Island is almost wholly owned by the U.S. state of Michigan and is overseen by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) as part of the Beaver Islands State Wildlife Research Area. It is accessible by private boat. The Native American (Ojibwe language) name for the island is Minis Gitigaan, which has become Garden Island by direct translation. Wikipedia citation
So, sounds like Margaret Peschel created her own tribe based off this islands name?
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Garden Island […] The Native American (Ojibwe language) name for the island is Minis Gitigaan, which has become Garden Island by direct translation.
Wikipedia citation
So, sounds like Margaret Peschel created her own tribe based off this islands name?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_Island_(Michigan)
No direct answer found to that question by googling Minis Gitigaan or Miniss Kitigan.
Except for some info in my quote here:
I found this. At this URL, an article can be downloaded:
https://ojs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/ALGQP/article/download/356/260/1122
— Read the quoted part of that 2005 article carefully.
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Here is one of her apprentices continuing her legacy and her namesake-Wendy Geniusz, and her mother Mary Geniusz was the direct helper of Margaret Peschel. I bet their not Native either.
Geniusz, who is Cree and Metis on her mother’s side, got her name, Keewaydinoquay, from the indiginous medicine woman who taught her mother.
https://www.spectatornews.com/arts-life/2019/09/teaching-through-tea-and-troubling-history/
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… Wendy Geniusz …
AKA Wendy Makoons Geniusz: https://profiles.laps.yorku.ca/profiles/geniusz/
Dr. Wendy Makoons Geniusz is an Indigenous woman of Cree and Métis decent. She was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but her Cree family comes from the Pas, a Reserve in Manitoba. To honour her Ojibwe namesake, Keewaydinoquay, Geniusz was raised with Ojibwe language and culture. Before coming to York, Geniusz was Professor of Ojibwe Language at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where she taught for 14 years.
Since childhood, Geniusz has worked on Ojibwe language and culture revitalization projects in Indigenous communities throughout the Great Lakes Region. All her publications and research focus on creating decolonisation tools for Indigenous language and culture revitalization. Geniusz is the authoress of: Our Knowledge is Not Primitive: Decolonizing Botanical Anishinaabe Teachings, the editor of: Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do is Ask (by Mary Siisip Geniusz), and the authoress of the Ojibwe plant name glossary found in that text. She is the co-editor (with Brendan Fairbanks) of Chi-mewinzha: Ojibwe Stories from Leech Lake (by Dorothy Dora Whipple).
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This is the brother of Mary Lynn Shomperlen (Robert) Geniusz, so her parents were George and Mollie Shomperlen.
https://www.jsonline.com/obituaries/pwix0563482
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Here's a Mary Geniusz biography likely written by her daughter Wendy Geniusz.
https://notablefolkloristsofcolor.org/portfolio/mary-siisip-geniusz/
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This is the brother of Mary Lynn Shomperlen (Robert) Geniusz, so her parents were George and Mollie Shomperlen.
https://www.jsonline.com/obituaries/pwix0563482
Clicking your link only redirects me to https://www.jsonline.com/ — However, I found a similar obituary:
https://www.echovita.com/us/obituaries/wi/south-milwaukee/russell-george-shomperlen-16886394
Russell George Shomperlen Obituary
He was predeceased by : his parents, George Shomperlen and Mollie Shomperlen; his son Jon Russell Shomperlen; his sisters, Sue Leather and Mary Lynn Geniusz (Robert) …
I think this is a case of mistaken identity. I cannot find anything anywhere to support your claim that Mary Lynn [Shomperlen] (Robert) Geniusz is the same person as Mary Siisip Geniusz.
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I am not sure if you answered your own question by seeing the obituary but here is another obituary for Mary Lynn Shomperlen's husband Robert Geniusz'z mother- Lucille Geniusz and clearly supports my last post of Mary Lynn Shomperlen's family.
Here is the copy in case people cannot view it again.
eniusz, Lucille (Nee Sipowicz) 99 years young, born June 6, 1910, in Sokolka (Russian occupied Poland). Christmas Eve 1916, fled disorder of WWI with her beloved mother Michaelina (1881 - 1937) and dear brother Zigmunt (1903 - ?) to join her father Michael (1878 - 1952), who had immigrated to Detroit 6 years earlier. . Swept off her feet in 1937 by Edward Stanley Geniusz (1913 - 2001), she married and settled in Milwaukee. Became the loving mother of Edward Tom Geniusz, Edwardine Michelle (Allen K.) Charnow, and Robert Myles (Mary Lynn Shomperlen) Geniusz. Later the delighted and loving grandmother of Wendy Makoons (Errol) Geniusz and Annmarie Fay Geniusz (husband Stephen Bockhold).
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/jsonline/name/lucille-geniusz-obituary?id=3194775
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Mary Lynn Shomperlen Geniusz is white. Looked at her parents especially the mother. All Dutch in the Canadian census and her grandparents are buried at The Pas, Flin Flon-Northwest Census Division, Manitoba, Canada. This this was taken from Find a grave. Again I went back several generations and all white and German, England and
Dutch.
Here's a Mary Geniusz biography likely written by her daughter Wendy Geniusz.
https://notablefolkloristsofcolor.org/portfolio/mary-siisip-geniusz/
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Thanks Diana I suspected it since they were spawned from a notorious fraud in Margaret Peschel and makes sense they would try to do the same things. It does in fact look like Peschel created her own tribe based on her fantasy.
I looked at Margaret Cook Peschel's family also on FamilySearch.org and indeed all her family are from England and most were recent immigrants. If you can post more of those records I would appreciate it since that's all anyone wants to see for proof is their census, marriage, and death records.
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Mary Lynn Shomperlen Geniusz is white. Looked at her parents especially the mother. All Dutch in the Canadian census and her grandparents are buried at The Pas, Flin Flon-Northwest Census Division, Manitoba, Canada. This this was taken from Find a grave. Again I went back several generations and all white and German, England and Dutch.
This is all so confusing by now. Dutch, German, English, what about the Polish connection? According to WINative's link Mary Lynn Shomperlen Geniusz's mother was "Geniusz, Lucille (Nee Sipowicz) … born June 6, 1910, in Sokolka (Russian occupied Poland)". But according to the biography linked to, written by Wendy Makoons Geniusz, Mary Siisip Geniusz's "mother was born at the Pas in Manitoba". Is this a blatant lie, then?
This statement from the obituary supports WINative's claim that the two Marys are one and the same person: "Later the delighted and loving grandmother of Wendy Makoons (Errol) Geniusz".
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Mary Sisiip Geniusz also went earlier by the spelling Mary Seeseep Geniusz:
https://www.neiupeacefire.org/copy-of-the-children
The only other reference that spelling turned out was a visit to Greenland in 2017, part of an "Ice Wisdom" gathering.
Wendy's book, Our Knowledge Is Not Primitive: Decolonizing Botanical Anishinaabe Teachings, says this:
https://books.google.com/books?id=__ChEAAAQBAJ&lpg=PR12&pg=PR11
The late Keewaydinoquay, a mashkikiwikwe (medicine woman) and ethnobotanist, was one of my first teachers of anishinaabe-gikendaasowin (anishinaabe knowledge). She identified herself as ajijaak (Crane) Clan. She led Midewiwin ceremonies and trained oshkaabewisag (apprentices) to continue her work as a medicine woman and spiritual leader. Keewaydinoquay was born in 1918 (Tanner, pers. comm.).1 She said that she spent much of her childhood in an anishinaabe village on Cat Head Bay, which is on the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula in Michigan (Tanner, pers. comm.; M. Geniusz, pers. comm.). At approximately nine years old, she was apprenticed to Nodjimahkwe, a well-respected mashkikiwikwe in her village (Keewaydinoquay 1989a). As a child, she was one of only five children in her village who was not taken away to boarding school, giving her the opportunity to visit with and learn from all the elders in the village, many of whom greatly missed their own grandchildren away at school. She says that by the time she realized the great extent of knowledge that these elders and Nodjimahkwe had taught her, it was too late to thank them. She decided that sharing this knowledge with others would be the next best thing, and so she spent much of her life doing that (Keewaydinoquay 1991a). She founded the Miniss Kitigan Drum, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching anishinaabe culture, in one effort to preserve and teach this knowledge. Keewaydinoquay was also an ethnobotanist and taught courses, beginning in 1981, on philosophy and ethnobotany at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Keewaydinoquay n.d.a). She held several formal academic degrees, including a Bachelor of Science degree from Central Michigan University, which she received in 1944, and a Master of Science in Biology degree from Central Michigan University, which she received in 1977 (Keewaydinoquay n.d.c). She also completed the coursework for a Ph.D. in biology with an emphasis in ethnobotany at the University of Michigan, but she was unable to complete the required exams to begin writing her dissertation (W. Geniusz 2005, 193).
1 This date comes from a letter that Keewaydinoquay's mother wrote as the date of Keewaydinoquay's birth in a letter she wrote to her own father, Keewaydinoquay's grandfather (Tanner, October 14, 2004). A copy of this letter is in the possession of Helen Hornbeck Tanner.
Wendy Geniusz then talks about the biography of her mother (Mary Geniusz), but I can't quite tell when she speaks of her mother and when she speaks of herself in the third person.
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The Margaret Cook Peschel story gets much crazier. This is excepts from the attached pdf about Robert Gordon Wasson who appropriated the psilocybin mushrooms from Maria Sabina a Mazatec Indigenous woman under funding from the CIA which later illegally tested psychedelic drugs on military and prisoners.
https://fungimag.com/winter-2015-articles/V8I4_Wasson_LR.pdf
In 1957, Wall Street banker Gordon Wasson wrote a feature article for Life magazine about eating psilocybin-containing mushrooms in Mexico, thus inaugurating a global interest in magic mushrooms, so-called.
Because of his devotion to entheogens and also because he was known to have rather loose purse strings, he attracted acolytes not only among ordinary folks in search of a high, but also among scholars. Enter a woman from northern Michigan named Margaret Peschel. (AKA Keewaydioquay)
In 1976, Gordon visited her on Garden Island in Lake Michigan, where she had been living a hermitlike existence. The next year he visited her again. This time she gave him several dried Amanita muscaria to eat.
Probably due to his wealth, Wasson had a certain amount of clout at Harvard University, and in 1978 he helped Kee get a book entitled Puhpowee for the People published under the auspices of Harvard’s Botanical Museum. She published a second book called Muskwedo about mushrooms.
In 1978, she claimed to have eaten this mighty mushroom for shamanic purposes for the past fifty years, which, if true, means that she would have begun eating it at age nine.
Wasson got Kee a gig at a 1978 conference on psychoactive drugs in San Francisco, where she told a rapt audience that the sacred quality of A. muscaria.
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The Margaret Cook Peschel story gets much crazier. This is excepts from the attached pdf about Robert Gordon Wasson
Wow, a well-researched paper... In sum, she made up stories about traditional usage, and her own lifelong usage of mushrooms — which don't grow there. She attached to them songs recorded in Siberia. She knew how to manipulate Wasson and get over his skepticism and feed him what he wanted to hear.
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Wasson … in 1978 he helped Kee get a book entitled Puhpowee for the People published under the auspices of Harvard’s Botanical Museum.
I found a 1998 edition of this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Puhpohwee-People-Narrative-Account-Ahnishinaabeg/dp/1879528185/
Puhpohwee for the People: A Narrative Account of Some Uses of Fungi Among the Ahnishinaabeg
Hardcover – January 1, 1998 — by Keewaydinoquay (Author), Keewaydinoquay Peschel (Author)
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 5 ratings See all formats and editions
Keewaydinoquay is an Ahnishinaabe herbalist & shaman who, in her childhood, was apprenticed to the famous Ahnishinaabe herbalist, Nodjimahkwe, thus falling heir to the traditional knowledge of the plant world among her people. The native peoples of America actually believe that there is an herb to meet every possible need. The word PUH-POH-WEE is an old Algonkian term that means "to swell up in stature suddenly & silently from an unseen source of power." It is particularly suitable when referring to fungi. The Ahnishinaabeg can find a potential PUH-POH-WEE in their ancient cultural heritage. This is a book about the harmony of tribal life in which Keewaydinoquay weaves the medicinal uses of fungi with tales from her own life. Keewaydinoquay is well-known in medicinal circles & tribal organizations in the Lake Michigan & Lake Superior area, also having connections with institutions interested in the anthropology & history of that area."
The Margaret Cook Peschel story gets much crazier.
I certainly agree! Now I hope that a competent scholar will review all her writings for the obvious falsehoods, e.g. this one:
Kee’s writings suggest that red-capped A. muscaria —A. muscaria var. muscaria — virtually blanket Ojibwe country, but the opposite is true: they hardly occur there at all. In western or southeastern North America, yes; but not in northern Michigan. It would appear that Kee had read ethnographic studies like Waldemar Bogaras’ The Chukchi of Northeastern Asia and borrowed information from those studies without bothering to consult any distribution maps (or their equivalent) that might display the locations of several varieties of A. muscaria.
You might wonder where she obtained the dried specimens she gave to Wasson. Probable answer: either from one of the doubtless many dealers in psychotropic substances who would have hung out on the Ann Arbor campus in the 1970s or maybe from a West Coast acquaintance via the U.S. Postal Service. She would not have collected those specimens on Garden Island, however.
Since Wasson found the use of A. muscaria in virtually every nook and cranny in the historical woodwork, Kee would have been only too glad to inform him that the Ojibwe used the mushroom, too. For what better way to gain the attention of the Shining-From-Afar-Man than to seize upon the supreme object of his interest and inform him that your own people also believe in the potency of that mushroom, indeed drink the urine of its partakers? In fact, Wasson got Kee a gig at a 1978 conference on psychoactive drugs in San Francisco, where she told a rapt audience that the sacred quality of A. muscaria is passed on through urine, a drink of choice among her own people.
My boldings. Quote from: https://fungimag.com/winter-2015-articles/V8I4_Wasson_LR.pdf (https://fungimag.com/winter-2015-articles/V8I4_Wasson_LR.pdf).
I read that book decades ago, and many other anthropological articles and books from Siberia about active ingredients of Amanita muscaria being distributed to other people via urine (and even to reindeer eating snow that had been urinated upon).
I include a couple of lexical articles for background information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Gordon_Wasson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Bogoraz
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Robert Gordon Wasson had also manipulated Maria Sabina and stole the secret of their mushroom ceremony. Which was also manipulated by the CIA for their own purposes. A trail of liars and manipulators.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Gordon_Wasson
It was the curandera María Sabina who both allowed the Wassons to participate in the ritual and who taught them about the uses and effects of the mushroom, after Wasson lied to her about being worried about the whereabouts and wellbeing of his son, as the ritual was traditionally used to locate missing people and important items.[12] Sabina let him take her picture on the condition that he keep it private, but Wasson nonetheless published the photo along with Sabina's name and the name of the community where she lived.[13] Though he faced no consequences for his deceptions, and indeed, profited greatly from the knowledge he gained from her, Sabina was subsequently ostracised from her community as a result of his actions, and her house was burned down after she was briefly jailed, her son murdered, and she eventually died in poverty
Wasson's 1956 expedition was funded[8] by the CIA's MK-Ultra subproject 58, as was revealed by documents[5] obtained by John Marks[16] under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents state that Wasson was an "unwitting" participant in the project.[5]
The funding was provided under the cover name of the Geschickter Fund for Medical Research (credited by Wasson at the end of his subsequent Life piece about the expedition).
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Sparks, I have no idea what you're talking about. I only looked at Mary Lynn Shomperlen. She married a man by the name of Geniusz. I didn't look at his side of the family, only hers. There is no Polish heritage that I could see. Her mother's maiden name is Blain. I think you're confused
Mary Lynn Shomperlen Geniusz is white. Looked at her parents especially the mother. All Dutch in the Canadian census and her grandparents are buried at The Pas, Flin Flon-Northwest Census Division, Manitoba, Canada. This this was taken from Find a grave. Again I went back several generations and all white and German, England and Dutch.
This is all so confusing by now. Dutch, German, English, what about the Polish connection? According to WINative's link Mary Lynn Shomperlen Geniusz's mother was "Geniusz, Lucille (Nee Sipowicz) … born June 6, 1910, in Sokolka (Russian occupied Poland)". But according to the biography linked to, written by Wendy Makoons Geniusz, Mary Siisip Geniusz's "mother was born at the Pas in Manitoba". Is this a blatant lie, then?
This statement from the obituary supports WINative's claim that the two Marys are one and the same person: "Later the delighted and loving grandmother of Wendy Makoons (Errol) Geniusz".
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Sparks-Lucille Geniusz was the mother of Mary Shomperlen's husband Robert Geniusz and also Wendy Geniusz's grandmother. I just used her obituary to verify it is the same Mary Geniusz and her maiden name since you questioned a mistaken identity.
Mary Lynn Shomperlen Geniusz is white. Looked at her parents especially the mother. All Dutch in the Canadian census and her grandparents are buried at The Pas, Flin Flon-Northwest Census Division, Manitoba, Canada. This this was taken from Find a grave. Again I went back several generations and all white and German, England and Dutch.
This is all so confusing by now. Dutch, German, English, what about the Polish connection? According to WINative's link Mary Lynn Shomperlen Geniusz's mother was "Geniusz, Lucille (Nee Sipowicz) … born June 6, 1910, in Sokolka (Russian occupied Poland)". But according to the biography linked to, written by Wendy Makoons Geniusz, Mary Siisip Geniusz's "mother was born at the Pas in Manitoba". Is this a blatant lie, then?
This statement from the obituary supports WINative's claim that the two Marys are one and the same person: "Later the delighted and loving grandmother of Wendy Makoons (Errol) Geniusz".
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Since Peschel passed 25 years ago, the main thing to look at is how her distortions or falsehoods have been passed on. Miniss Kitigan Drum don't seem very active. The most recent mention I found of them is for 2018 and records in 2014 show zero income.
http://www.nonprofitfacts.com/MI/Miniss-Kitigan-Drum-Inc.html
I did find a mention of them clearing nature paths, but not much else. Of course I'm not in the local area, so those who are likely know much better what they're up to.
Geniusz certainly needs to continue to be looked at, and Peschel's works in ethnobotany need to be at least reexamined if not dumped.
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I agree, but also think some of the concerning things about Peschel is that she is still viewed as an Ojibwe or Anishinaabe elder and medicine woman or expert on plants. You google her name and she is still widely respected and should be publicly outed as a fraud, even if it took 25 years. People are still citing her work, and there is a plaque in her honor on the UW-Milwaukee campus and this also concerns the idea of universities continuing to hire Frauds, particularly at UW-Milwaukee. Her protege Wendy Keewaydinoquay Geniusz also needs to be exposed.
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I think Margaret Peschel was a very dangerous person and delusional and it seems her followers are as well, preaching the Gospel of Keewaydinoquay and romanticizing her story into a fictional story of her life. The Miniss Kitigan Drum Inc. is literally a church, so what are the preaching? Is Kee a God now?
Her followers all consider themselves Ojibwe it seems and experts on Ojibwe and Native culture and are continuing her legacy.
They are listed on the last page of this attached paper by the biggest supporter Wendy Geniusz.
PERSONAL INTERVIEWS
The Ojibwe names are vision names as spelled by Keewaydinoquay;
they appear here at the request of their bearers.
Ford, Richard I. (Director and Curator of Ethnology and Ethnobotany, University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, Ann Arbor), 21 October 2004.
Geniusz, Mary Siisip (one of Kee's oshkaabewisag), 2004.
Heqet, Barbara (one of Kee's informal students), 8 October 2004.
Macklem, David (one of Kee's oshkaabewisag), 7 October 2004.
Podgorski, Cheryl (Aukeequay; one of Kee's oshkaabewisag ), 22 September 2004.
Simonsen, Lynn (Ningwiisiisis; one of Kee's oshkaabewisag), 10 October 2004.
Tanner, Helen Hornbeck (Senior Research Fellow, Newberry Library, and a personal friend of Kee's), 14 October - 30 September 2004.
Warber, Sara L. (Mikawa; Co-Director, Michigan Integrative Medicine Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), 22 October 2004
https://ojs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/ALGQP/article/download/356/260/1122
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Sparks, I have no idea what you're talking about. I only looked at Mary Lynn Shomperlen. She married a man by the name of Geniusz. I didn't look at his side of the family, only hers. There is no Polish heritage that I could see. Her mother's maiden name is Blain. I think you're confused.
Sparks-Lucille Geniusz was the mother of Mary Shomperlen's husband Robert Geniusz and also Wendy Geniusz's grandmother. I just used her obituary to verify it is the same Mary Geniusz and her maiden name since you questioned a mistaken identity.
Yes, I was confused! The case of mistaken identity was mine. At a quick glanze, I mistook the statement in this quote to mean that Lucille Geniusz was the mother of (Mary Lynn Shomperlen). Now I realize that her being mentioned in a paranthesis means she was married to Lucille’s son Robert Myles Geniusz. I apologize to everyone who was confused by my post!
Geniusz, Lucille (Nee Sipowicz) […] Became the loving mother of Edward Tom Geniusz, Edwardine Michelle (Allen K.) Charnow, and Robert Myles (Mary Lynn Shomperlen) Geniusz. Later the delighted and loving grandmother of Wendy Makoons (Errol) Geniusz […]
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/jsonline/name/lucille-geniusz-obituary?id=3194775
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Peschel's book, Keewaydinoquay, Stories from My Youth, published by the University of Michigan, is still in print, and the blurb at the publisher's site presents it as factual:
https://press.umich.edu/Books/K/Keewaydinoquay-Stories-from-My-Youth2
In the captivating art of the oral tradition-told in the author's own voice-Keewaydinoquay, Stories from My Youth brings to life the childhood years of a Michigan woman of both Native American and white. Presented here with the clarity and charm of a master storyteller, the words of Keewaydinoquay contain layers of understanding, conveyed by both what is said and how it is said. The values of the worldview that she shares with us are ones that resonate on far more than just an intellectual level.
The stories span generations and cultures and shed a rare light on the living conditions of Native Americans in Michigan in the early 1900s. They recount Keewaydinoquay's education in the public schools, illuminate the role Christianity played in Native American culture, and reveal the importance of maintaining traditional customs.
Keewaydinoquay was one of the very few Native American women who was steeped both in the ancient folkways of her people as well as erudite in the American university system. Ultimately she wove her native tradition and university learning together into a unique perspective that helped people understand the importance of nature and the human spirit.
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Here's a Mary Geniusz biography likely written by her daughter Wendy Geniusz.
https://notablefolkloristsofcolor.org/portfolio/mary-siisip-geniusz/
Wendy Makoons Geniusz also wrote about Keewaydinoquay Pakawakuk Peschel in the same place:
https://notablefolkloristsofcolor.org/portfolio/keewaydinoquay-pakawakuk-peschel/
Photo courtesy of Wendy Makoons Geniusz, with permission from the Miniss Kitigan Drum.
Native American (Anishinaabe), Ethnobotany
Keewaydinoquay Pakawakuk Peschel (1919-1999)
The Aadizookaanag, our ancient stories and teaching spirits, are living beings. Keewaydinoquay’s storytelling clearly demonstrated the veracity of this Anishinaabe teaching. As she told stories, deep, “booming” voices of the Aadizookaanag echoed through the room as she spoke through her hand drum.
Raised in an Anishinaabe village on Cat Head Bay, on the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, Michigan, Keewaydinoquay was approximately nine when she began training to be a medicine woman under Nodjimahkwe. She also learned from other village elders. By the time she realized the extent of the knowledge that she had learned from them, her mentors had already passed over. Sharing this knowledge was her means of thanking them. Keewaydinoquay was a long-time educator, having taught in Michigan public schools for over 40 years before earning a MEd at Wayne State University and beginning doctoral coursework in ethnobotany at the University of Michigan. She later taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and founded the Miniss Kitigan Drum, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving Anishinaabe culture. She said that she did not know her birth year, although census records suggest 1918 or 1919. She wanted people to understand that records of Indigenous births were not always made. She also taught that Anishinaabe people do not speak of “death.” Instead, we describe “passing over to the other side.” Keewaydinoquay passed over in 1999.
Puhpohwee (1978/1998), her most widely available publication, is an eclectic combination of materials related to fungi, including stories, teachings, medicinal and culinary recipes, and Keewaydinoquay’s drawings. In an interview, Keewaydinoquay explained that she wrote the original monograph after finding an academic article on mushrooms in a dentist’s office:
It said we Native Americans hate them, never use them, won’t walk near them, and don’t even look at them. Scholars were quoted. I read it in disbelief. I wrote a letter disputing the article. A reply came back asking, “How do you know?” I wrote back saying that I am an Ojibway and a medicine woman.
A Harvard mycologist came to visit her, and she eventually published the first version of Puhpohwee. She later expanded it into a book edition (1998) containing more information and illustrations. When teaching, sharing one’s own lived experiences of working with knowledge, or sharing those experiences of a close relative or mentor, is crucial to Anishinaabe cultural protocols. A person without such stories is not reliable. Throughout her writings, Keewaydinoquay shares many stories of working with the knowledge she describes. As with the oral stories told in our communities, her stories are memorable and include specific instructions.
Among her works of interest to folklorists are:
Puhpohwee for the People: A Narrative Account of Some Uses of Fungi among the Ahnishinaabeg / Keewaydinoquay. [Second edition] (1998)
Wendy Makoons Geniusz
Click to view extensive bibliography
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Lois Beardslee posted a comment critical of Margaret “Keewaydinoquay” Peschel on a blog, “Singing to the Plants.” I was going to share the interesting comment on Peschel’s NAFPS thread but then noticed inconsistencies in Beardslee's own claims of Native American ancestry. […]
Source: "Hallucinogens in North America" Singing to the Plants - Steve Beyer's Blog on Ayahuasca and the Amazon
Direct Link: https://singingtotheplants.com/2008/02/hallucinogens-in-north-america/
Archive Link: https://archive.ph/9DGIO
The quote is from a new topic: "Lois Beardslee, Author & Artist". The blog article linked to is entirely about Keewaydinoquay Peschel and R. Gordon Wasson (recently discussed here in this NAFPS thread).
Hallucinogens in North America — Saturday, Feb 16th, 2008 — Sacred Plants, Shamanism
In the preceding two posts, I have argued that there is little convincing evidence that shamans outside the extended culture area of the Upper Amazon have ever used hallucinogens in their shamanic work; and, in the immediately preceding post, I argued against the belief that shamans in Siberia used the fly agaraic mushroom Amanita muscaria for shamanizing.
There is also, I believe, little evidence for the shamanic use of psychoactive plants or mushrooms among the indigenous peoples of North America. As among the Khoryaks, non-shamans may attempt to emulate shamans by using psychoactive plants or mushrooms that shamans themselves do not use. For example, among the Chumash and other indigenous peoples in south central California, it can be important to acquire a dream helper, not just for shamans but for ordinary people as well: falcon helps gamblers, bobcat can help hunters, otter can make one a good swimmer, roadrunner helps midwives. Sometimes a dream helper appears in an ordinary dream; this is especially true of shamans, whose powers first appear in dreams during childhood. Conversely, to obtain a dream helper, common people rely heavily on Datura, which plays only a marginal role in the acquisition of shamanic power.
There are similar problems with the claimed fly agaric use by shamans among the Anishinaabeg — often called the Ojibwe — of the Great Lakes area. The claim, first put forward by R. Gordon Wasson in 1978, rests entirely upon the testimony of a single person, an Anishinaabe herbalist and university-trained ethnobotanist named Keewaydinoquay Peschel. She claimed that she herself had been initiated into the shamanic use of the mushroom, and had herself used the mushroom three to five times a year for the past fifty years. She prepared a birch bark scroll containing a legend of how the mushroom came to the Anishinaabeg, which, Wasson said, evidenced its shamanic use.
There are some significant problems with this claim. There is no description of fly agaric use in any detailed ethnography of Anishinaabeg shamanism. When she first met Wasson, Keewaydinoquay apparently was living a solitary and unhappy life, spending much of her time alone on an isolated island; in any event, it is difficult to say to what extent she was, at that time, integrated into Anishinaabeg culture.
Further, Keewaydinoquay admitted that many Anishinaabeg were in fact strongly opposed to the consumption of fly agaric; indeed, her own revered teacher of herbalism, a woman named Nodjimahkwe, apparently knew about the mushrooms and prohibited her student from eating them. Moreover, versions of the legend told by other Anishinaabeg differ substantially from that given by Keewaydinoquay, including versions that prohibit the eating of any mushrooms at all.
Indeed, the mushroom legend itself, even as retold by Keewaydinoquay, contains little that would connect its use to shamanizing. The story tells how the Anishinaabeg discovered the mushrooms, and points out that those who use the mushroom are happy and pure, while those who do not are worried and unhappy. Although the mushroom reveals the supernatural and other knowledge to those who use it, the story provides no reason to believe that those who reportedly used the mushroom were shamans in any sense.
Further doubt is cast on the claim by the fact that Wasson and Keewaydinoquay were, apparently, lovers, or at least enmeshed in a highly charged personal relationship — one that seems, from her letters, to have been deeply important to Keewaydinoquay. And both derived ancillary benefits from this relationship: Wasson helped Keewaydinoquay obtain a doctorate in anthropology, a teaching position, and the publication of her writings on ethnomycology by the Harvard Botanical Museum; Keewaydinoquay gave Wasson an apparently idiosyncratic account of Anishinaabeg hallucinogen use that happened to be consistent with his theories. In the absence of confirmatory evidence, it is probably fair to view this account with caution.
There are 11 Responses, pro & con (2008-2014), including the one that is quoted in the Lois Beardslee, Author & Artist thread (http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=5682.0).
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Direct Link: https://singingtotheplants.com/2008/02/hallucinogens-in-north-america/
Archive Link: https://archive.ph/9DGIO
[…]
There are 11 Responses, pro & con (2008-2014), […][/quote]
Here is another Response, with an interesting link:
Reid Kaplan says: — November 4, 2014 at 8:44 am
I am not sure why I am rejoining an old controversy from which I have nothing to gain and which does not hold any interest for me any longer. But I certainly would like to set part of the record straight. I was a friend of Wasson’s for a very long time, a period which included the entire Kee episode. I was then a graduate student in Anthropolgy at Yale, and it happened that Claude Lévi-Strauss brought our attention to a portion of the Jesuit Relations which described Amanita muscaria use by the shamans of the Anishinaabeg. Hence, my involvement in the project and, moreover, that excerpt shows that Kee was not the sole source of this information. I must certainly assert that the statement: “the fact that Wasson and Keewaydinoquay were, apparently, lovers, or at least enmeshed in a highly charged personal relationship” is entirely false, or, if such strong feelings existed, they were entirely one-sided. In fact, Wasson was so distressed by his experience when he went to the island the first time, that he told me he could never go back there again. So, he asked me to investigate there further, as the account in the Jesuit Relations had not yet been verified, or rather, fully examined. My account of what happened is on a tape that you can hear at http://www.dstretch.com/Kee/index.html until, or unless, it disappears as most things on the web do. I told the simple truth to the audience in San Francisco. I hold no opinion about its shamanic character. I am astounded that it could be thought that Wasson and Kee could be “lovers”. It was utterly out of character for an old and infirm man, suffering from recurring strokes, very upset at the encounter, and totally absorbed in the life of the mind, could behave that way. It is, in fact, disgusting to claim that, and whoever started this canard should be deeply ashamed. She was an “informant”, pure and simple. That he helped her in her life was only normal generosity – or, if you prefer, reciprocity.
One thing about the mushrooms I ate on the island that has never been told, and has bothered me since, is that it was so dark at the time that I could not see what the mushroom was; I could not identify it. I suppose that will make the skeptics happy. Actually I hope that this entire subject will be consigned to the dustbin of history. I want no more part of it.
This is the content of the link in the quote:
Gordon Wasson, Reid Kaplan, Keewaydinoquay Peschel speaking about Miskwedo (Amanita Muscaria)
These tracks were taken from a tape given to me by Paul Freeman of San Francisco. A friend of his (Norman Woodbury) taped this at the conference "Hallucinogens in Native America" held in San Francisco 9-28 to 10-1, 1978. I think this tape is fascinating and want to make it available to others.
Speakers on this tape are Gordon Wasson, Reid Kaplan, Keewaydinoquay Peschel.
The tracks are below.
Track 1. 20:06 Introduction, Gordon Wasson
Track 2. 21:50 Keewaydinoquay and Reid Kaplan 1
Track 3. 21:53 Kee and Reid 2
Track 4. 12:46 Story of the Scroll
Track 5. 6:34 Story of the Brothers 2
Track 6. 24:54 Use of Miskwedo stories
Track 7. 18:19 Old Hunter and other stories
Track 8. 18:06 Reid's experience
GordonWasson
Information on Gordon Wasson:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Gordon_Wasson
http://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms_article5.shtml
Keewaydinoquay Peschel
From the Publisher of
"Puhpohwee for the People: A Narrative Account of Some Uses of Fungi among the Ahnishinaabeg"
Author: Keewaydinoquay Peschel
Keewaydinoquay is an Ahnishinaabe herbalist & shaman who, in her childhood, was apprenticed to the famous Ahnishinaabe herbalist, Nodjimahkwe, thus falling heir to the traditional knowledge of the plant world among her people. The native peoples of America actually believe that there is an herb to meet every possible need. The word PUH-POH-WEE is an old Algonkian term that means 'to swell up in stature suddenly & silently from an unseen source of power.' It is particularly suitable when referring to fungi. The Ahnishinaabeg can find a potential PUH-POH-WEE in their ancient cultural heritage. This is a book about the harmony of tribal life in which Keewaydinoquay weaves the medicinal uses of fungi with tales from her own life. Keewaydinoquay is well-known in medicinal circles & tribal organizations in the Lake Michigan & Lake Superior area, also having connections with institutions interested in the anthropology & history of that area. She has a Master of Education degree from Wayne State University. She is the only resident on Miniss Kitigan in Lake Michigan, where some hundreds of her people once lived. (Miniss Kitigan is the northern-most island of the Amikogenda archipelago.)
Keewaydinoquay Peschel was born around 1919 and died on July 21, 1999.
Other information about Kee:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keewaydinoquay_Peschel
A list of her books from Amazon.com
A contrary view of the material on this tape:
http://singingtotheplants.blogspot.com/2008/02/hallucinogens-in-north-america.html
Open http://www.dstretch.com/Kee/index.html to listen to the tapes.