Well-known in the powwow circles throughout Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, Larry Amik Smallwood was also a renowned storyteller, expert on Anishinaabe culture and teacher of the Ojibwe language.
“I like to say he was a modern elder,” said Michael Migizi Sullivan Sr., Native American studies director at Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe College in Hayward, Wisconsin.
Sullivan worked with Smallwood on the book Plums or Nuts: Ojibwe Stories of Anishinaabe Humor. In a recent What We’re Reading interview, Sullivan noted how Smallwood stood out from other elders.
“We have a lot of our elders that teach us about harvesting and spiritual practices and our more traditional way of life. Amik was really, really versed on the modern stuff and how we talk about that in a good way.”
Sullivan was in sixth grade when he first met Smallwood. “I had a real interest in language, and I think he sensed that about me. When I was older, he really took me under his wing with language stuff and helped whip me in the shape,” explained Sullivan.
The book came about as a result of Sullivan and Smallwood’s work on the Ojibwe People’s Dictionary, a collaboration between several Ojibwe language teachers and the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. Sullivan would record Smallwood providing Ojibwe pronunciations for the dictionary.
While recording, ever the storyteller, Smallwood would want to tell a story. Sullivan recounted, “So I'd let him tell me the story, and they were always real short, funny, sort of punchline kind of stories. He got the idea after doing probably seven to eight of them.”
According to Sullivan, Smallwood said, “You know, we should type these up and get them into a book, a funny book.”
Smallwood would tell his stories, Sullivan would record, and they’d both work on the translations. The book was intended to be in Ojibwe and English. They were nearly done with the recordings and translations when Smallwood passed away in 2017. It took some time to regroup and get started again, but Plums or Nuts: Ojibwe Stories of Anishinaabe Humor was finally published in 2023.
Sullivan noted that there had been an “overwhelmingly positive” response to the book. Because of the recordings and work they’d done they were able to play Smallwood’s voice during readings. Sullivan explained, “He had a real signature baritone, a real grumbly kind of voice. That was a treat–him telling stories with his voice. And so everybody got to hear that.”
Learn more about Plums or Nuts: Ojibwe Stories of Anishinaabe Humor (Bagesaanag Maagizhaa Bagaanag) by visiting the Minnesota Historical Society Press. You can listen to the audio storytelling from Larry Amik Smallwood while you read the along with the book on the Ojibwe People’s Dictionary.
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