Living With the Land

Program Description

“Living with the Land,” means more than the universe… more than the earth and skies…. “Living with the Land” covers medicinal plants and their uses, Indian History, ways of life, hunting, fishing, foods, clothing, gatherings, stars, storytelling, Indian games and so much more. This talk is an exciting look into the past, as artifacts are brought into the audience’s view. Louise sings an Indian song now and then, and has lived in the old ways.

Presenter Bio

Louise Ogemahgeshig Fischer is Anishinaabe Indian, and a cultural and spiritual leader as well as an artist. An elder from the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe, Chippewa) Tribe. Louise has been a speaker for Humanities Montana for over 20 years, traveling to many parks, museums, schools and other places throughout the state. She is an artist and a drum maker and has created well over 150 drums. She leads sweat lodge ceremonies and talking circles for the VA at Fort Harrison, helping out the PTSD Veterans. Louise has traveled to many states to do sweat lodge ceremonies for the Veterans, the VA staff, Tribes and other groups (in the past these ceremonies and other like ceremonies were not allowed. Since then, laws were passed to ensure that Indian people could do these types of ceremonies). For an exciting adventure into the past, present and future.

Louise is an artist and mural painter and has shown at the Museum of the Plains Indians in Browning, MT. and the Holter Museum in Helena. She painted a wall mural at St. Peter’s Hospital in the smudging room and has painted plaques in the state recreation site near Helena, called Devil’s Elbow, for the Lewis and Clark Bi-Centennial.