The Record Speaks: Nanaboozhoo and the First True Testing - “We Were Sitting Correctly, But Not Living Correctly”
Updated: Aug 12
“He sees that the people still know the motions, but some are no longer carrying the heart of the teaching.
“We were sitting correctly, but not living correctly"
Before we can understand this teaching, we must first understand who Nanaboozhoo is.
In many modern retellings, Nanaboozhoo is introduced simply as a teacher, a wanderer, or a tester of people. Yet the oldest records preserved within the Midewiwin tell a much deeper story.
In the Miskwaabik, the Copper Records, Mi-chi-boozhoo appears before humanity enters physical existence. He is described as the first spirit fashioned by the Great Spirit and is later joined to the first man formed from spirit and earth. This first man eventually names himself Mide, declaring, “I am kindness,” and asks that his descendants follow the path of his heart, Midewiwin. The Creator accepts this request and establishes Midewiwin as the good path for the people.
Read the Red Copper Plates, the original Genesis:
For those who carry these teachings, this means something profound. Nanaboozhoo is not merely a teacher who appears later in the story of the Anishinaabe. He stands at the beginning of that story. He is Mide, the First Man, the original carrier of the Mide Path, and the ancestor from whom the people descend. When he appears in the later Records, he is not simply instructing strangers. He is returning to his descendants. He is our first father coming back to see whether his children are still walking the path that was established in the beginning.
This understanding changes the way we read the story of the First True Testing.
At this point in the Record, the lodge has already been restored. The people know where to sit. They know how to gather. They know how to speak in order. The outward appearance of the community is strong. The circle is functioning. The fire burns in the center. Anyone looking in from outside would likely conclude that everything is as it should be.
Yet when Nanaboozhoo enters the lodge, he sees something others do not.
As the First Mide, he understands that teachings can survive in form long after they have begun to weaken in spirit. He sees that the people still know the motions, but some are no longer carrying the heart of the teaching. The lodge remains standing, but the life moving through it is beginning to stiffen. The people are preserving the structure, yet they are becoming less attentive to the relationships that give the structure meaning.
“The danger was not that the people had abandoned the teaching. The danger was that they believed the form of the teaching was the teaching.”
Rather than giving a lecture, Nanaboozhoo chooses another way.
He begins interrupting people.
He speaks when others are speaking.
He moves around the lodge.
He ignores the expected order.
Again and again, he disrupts the flow of the gathering.
The reaction is immediate.
Some become irritated.
Some become angry.
Others withdraw from the circle.
The attention of the people shifts away from the fire and toward the disruption itself. Hidden frustrations begin surfacing. Emotions that were already present suddenly become visible to everyone.
What makes this story so powerful is that Nanaboozhoo never actually creates the imbalance.
He reveals it.
The impatience was already there.
The frustration was already there.
The weakening of the circle was already there.
His actions simply bring these things into the open where they can no longer remain hidden.
“A teacher does not always bring a lesson. Sometimes a teacher reveals the lesson that is already present.”
This is where the story becomes more than a story about a lodge.
Many of us know what it is like to preserve appearances while losing the heart of something. Families can maintain traditions while losing relationship. Communities can maintain ceremonies while forgetting their purpose. Individuals can speak the right words while drifting from the spirit behind them.
The Record suggests that this is how forgetting usually happens.
Not suddenly.
Not dramatically.
Quietly.
Gradually.
One small step at a time.
This lesson echoes the oldest teachings found in the Miskwaabik. When Mide (Adam) and Ode'imin (Eve) departed the Garden, the central issue was never merely disobedience. It was forgetting relationship with the Creator and attempting to walk independently of the original path. The struggle that begins in the Garden continues throughout the Record. Again and again, humanity drifts from what was given. Again and again, teachings are provided to guide the people back.
The First True Testing is one example of that larger pattern.
Nanaboozhoo is not testing whether the people know the teachings.
He is testing whether the teachings live within the people.
There is a difference.
A person can memorize teachings.
A person can repeat teachings.
A person can even defend teachings.
But the true question is whether those teachings continue to shape how a person walks, listens, speaks, and relates to others.
Eventually Nanaboozhoo stops disrupting the gathering.
He moves to the center.
He sits quietly near the fire.
He does not explain himself.
He does not identify who failed.
He does not accuse.
He simply becomes still.
As the people sit together, something begins to happen.
The anger settles.
The frustration softens.
Reflection replaces reaction.
Gradually the circle returns.
Not because someone imposed order.
Because the people themselves begin seeing what had been revealed.
After Nanaboozhoo leaves, the teaching finally emerges.
One person observes that if a single interruption could disturb the lodge so deeply, then perhaps the lodge was not as strong as they believed.
Another realizes that teachings are not proven when conditions are easy.
Then comes one of the most important statements in the entire Record:
“We were sitting correctly, but not living correctly.”
That statement reaches directly back to the heart of Midewiwin.
Mide did not ask his descendants merely to preserve forms. He asked them to walk the path of his heart. The way of the good heart cannot be reduced to position, protocol, or appearance. It must be carried. It must move. It must live within the people.
“The lodge remains healthy when the fire is alive at its center. The people remain healthy when the teaching is alive within their hearts.”
Perhaps this is why the story remains so relevant.
Every generation faces the same challenge.
Every generation inherits teachings.
Every generation inherits ceremonies.
Every generation inherits responsibilities.
Yet every generation must decide whether it will simply preserve them or truly live them.
The First True Testing reminds us that the greatest danger is not open conflict. Open conflict can be addressed. The greater danger is believing everything is healthy simply because the outward forms remain intact. Nanaboozhoo, our first father, enters the lodge to show his descendants that what is hidden must be brought into the light before it can be healed.
And that is the enduring lesson of this story.
The first Mide does not return to condemn his children.
He returns to help them remember.
Mii sa go.
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