Manitonquat (Medicine Story)
Assonet Wampanoag elder, philosopher, storyteller, poet and lecturer
Manitonquat (Medicine Story) is a storyteller, an elder and a keeper of the lore of the Assonet Band of the Wampanoag Nation of Massachusetts. Author of ten published books and a former columnist and poetry editor with the internationally acclaimed journal Akwesasne Notes, he has also edited Heritage, a journal of Native American liberation. He continues to develop tools for creating a more humane society based upon teachings of the elders of the First Nations and the explorations of his camps under the designation The Circle Way.
Manitonquat has spoken to peace conferences and groups on 3 continents, was the keynote speaker at the United Nations observance of the 50th anniversary of Gandhi’s assassination, directs prison programs for native spirituality, advises a nature school, and, with his wife Ellika, Circle Way workshops and annual international family camps in 10 European countries and the US.
Comments about Manitonquat from gkesedtanamoogk, Wampanoag elder and teacher of Native Studies at the University of Maine:
"The work that You have been engaged with over the many years---raising Communities in centered humanity--spirituality--is really at the Heart of the Sacred and the greater promise for the future. …maintaining a People’s History is both a fine art and an evocative response to the incoherence, tyranny, and cynicism of modernity.
“Manitonquat is one of the Wampanoag Nation’s leading national treasures.”
by Manitonquat
Non-fiction
Return to Creation – A Survival Manual for Native and Natural People
Ending Violent Crime – A report of a Prison Program that is Working
The Circle Way (available through the order form (pdf)) – How to Start and Use Circles for Many Purposes
The Original Instructions – Reflections of an Elder on the Teachings of the Elders
Changing the World – A Vision for Achieving a Truly Human Society
Have You Lost Your Tribe? – The Paradise on Earth Now Under Construction
Fiction
Children of the Morning Light – Legends of the Wampanoag
Granddaughter of the Moon (available through the order form (pdf))
Wampanoag Morning – Stories of Life before the Invasion
Poetry
Grandfather Speaks
Birch Cottage
Editor
Heritage – Journal of Native Liberation, Issue # 3
Talking Stick
Recordings
Tales of the Eastern Woodlands – Algonquin
Tales of the Eastern Woodlands – Iroquois
The Song of Creation – Wampanoag
Maushop Tales – Wampanoag
The Singing Stone – A Play by Ellika Linden
Native American Poetry
Ellika Lindén
Is a Swedish writer of children’s plays, who also directs them, creates scenography, posters, and puppets and has often performed them in Scandinavia. Earlier she toured many countries with a Swedish theater group, studied mime with Marcel Marceau in Paris, and worked in children’s television in Stockholm. Since 1985 she has been a partner in marriage and in directing The Circle Way workshops and camps with Manitonquat.