Makinsinwaabigwaan - The Lady Slipper
The flower adorning the lid of this basket is known as the Lady’s Slipper flower, or makinsinwaabigwaan in Anishinaabemowin. This flower grows across most of North America and is used medicinally to treat indigestion and inflammation (Densmore, 1928). This flower is referenced among the People of the Three Fires, the Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi, in the Story of the Lady’s Slipper, which tells of a sickness striking many residents of a village and how a woman travelled through a snowstorm to retrieve medicine from the next village over. In the process, she lost her moccasins and her feet were bloodied, leaving marks in the snow from which the lady-slipper, or moccasin flower, sprouted (Retha Weiss, 2005). The lady slipper box symbolizes both sacrifice and healing, as the woman sacrificed her safety to heal her village.