Yahawzhowaa: Yaa-Haa-Shaa-Waa, Sacred Origins, and the Language of the Midewiwin Lodge

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Yahashawa and the Language of the Keepers

Why the Name Matters

Across the continent, from one family to another and from one region to the next, traditions of a Great Peacemaker have endured. Among these traditions are recurring phonetic forms of a sacred name preserved through oral transmission: Yaa-Haa-Shaa-Waa.

When reviewing the modern Anishinaabe language, which in many regions has evolved considerably from older speech forms and incorporates numerous colloquial expressions, the phonetic sounds Yah-Haaw-Zha-Waa remain recognizable and meaningful elements. Interpreted together, these sounds can be understood as conveying ideas such as "one who moves forward smoothly", drawing from the zhooshkw- root associated with smoothness or a gliding movement.

When the emphasis is placed upon the concept of zhawenjige ("to be compassionate" or "to show compassion"), the same sound sequence may be interpreted more symbolically as "one who awakens compassion", "one who stirs mercy in others," or "one who brings forth compassion." 

While the spellings vary between communities and recorders, the sound itself remains remarkably consistent. This preservation is significant not merely because it echoes the name that the Angel Gavri'el (Gabriel) declared should be given, Yahashua, but because of what that name means. In the ancient Hebrew tongue, Yahashua carries the proclamation, "Yahweh Saves" or "Yahweh Is Salvation."  Thus, the name is not simply an identifier. It is a declaration of purpose, a testimony of mission, and a witness to the One sent to bring peace, deliverance, and reconciliation. Critics often dismiss such connections by claiming that neither the name nor its constituent sounds could have existed within the sacred traditions of the Americas. Yet this objection arises from a misunderstanding of the Midewiwin Sacred Language and the manner in which sacred knowledge is preserved.

The issue is not whether colonial scholars, missionaries, or linguists recorded these sounds in their writings. Too often, they observed through the lens of conquest rather than preservation. The question is whether these sounds survived within the living memory of the Keepers who carried the teachings from generation to generation, despite various forms of near absolute genocides of culture, language, family and faith.

According to the Midewiwin Root Record and the Anangokaa traditions, they did. The Sacred Language was never merely a collection of words. It was a vessel of memory, teaching, and witness. Its roots were not random syllables but living containers of knowledge through which sacred truths were preserved and transmitted. Sound carried meaning, and meaning carried remembrance. Through this system, teachings survived not only in stories and ceremonies but within the language itself. For this reason, the continued presence of the root sounds associated with Yaa-Haa-Shaa-Waa is understood by the Keepers not as coincidence, but as evidence of a sacred memory preserved across generations, bearing witness to both the name and the mission of the Great Peacemaker.

The Root Record states:

"The Language of the Keepers is preserved within the Midewiwin Tradition."

It further teaches:

"The Sacred Language is not the common language. It is another dimension of the language."

Thus, when a Keeper hears a sound, the Keeper may hear far more than a word. The Keeper hears roots, teachings, and relationships preserved within that sound.

The Name Given From Above

According to ancient tradition, the name of the Great Peacemaker was not invented by parents, tribal leaders, priests, or kings. His name was declared from above before his birth.

This is significant.

If the name originated from a heavenly messenger, then the meaning carried by the name is more important than the later spellings used by different nations and languages. Languages change. Pronunciations change. Alphabets change.

Sound remains. He was called by Heaven to be named Salvation and Strength, Yahoshua.

The remarkable observation preserved within the Root Record is that the sounds commonly heard in the name Yahashawa already exist as living roots within the Sacred Language of the Midewiwin.

The Root Language preserves:

YAA – HAA – SHAA – WAA 

These are not imported sounds.

They are preserved roots within the Forty-Nine Sacred Roots of the Root Record. The Rainbow Language Key of original language given by Nanabush:

The Meaning of the Roots

The Root Record identifies these sounds as follows:

• YAA (32) = Messenger, Carrier of Messages

• HAA (36) = Covenant, Sacred Bond

• SHAA (12) = Sacred Voice, Thunder, Authority

• WAA (5) = Light, Revealer of Truth
  

The Root Record further teaches that meaning flows from the first root to the last root, and that four roots create a narrative rather than merely a concept.

Therefore:

YAA → HAA → SHAA → WAA

becomes:

Messenger → Covenant → Sacred Voice → Light 

Or expressed as a complete teaching:

The Messenger of the Sacred Covenant who carries the Sacred Voice and brings Light. 

The Language of the First Teacher

The Mamuwini record teaches that the First Man, Mide, named creation according to the nature, purpose, and action of each thing. Names were not arbitrary labels. Names reflected truth. Names reflected function. Names preserved memory.

The record explains that the First Man:

"decided to name all things based on how they exist and in what they do."

According to this teaching, sound and meaning were originally joined together.

The purpose of a name was not merely identification.

The purpose of a name was revelation.

A true name revealed purpose.

A true name revealed responsibility.

A true name revealed relationship.

This same principle is present throughout the Forty-Nine Sacred Roots. Each root carries a teaching, and when roots are combined, larger teachings emerge.

Thus when a Keeper hears YAA-HAA-SHAA-WAA, the Keeper is not hearing random syllables.

The Keeper is hearing a teaching embedded in sound itself.

What the Critics Miss

Many critics focus entirely on external language comparisons.

They ask whether a particular spelling appears in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, English, French, or another recorded language.

The Midewiwin tradition asks a different question.

Do the sounds exist in the Sacred Language?

The answer is yes, and in the original and oldest language maintained in the Americas:

YAA exists. 

HAA exists. 

SHAA exists. 

WAA exists. 

Not only do they exist, but they possess preserved meanings within an organized root system that the Root Record identifies as the foundation of the Sacred Language.

Therefore the claim that such sounds never existed on this continent is not supported by the Root Record itself.

The sounds exist.

The roots exist.

The teachings exist.

The relationships exist.

And they remain preserved today.

The Witness of the Keepers

The Root Record teaches:

"The untrained hear words. The instructed perceive teachings. The Keeper perceives relationships."

To one person, Yahashawa may sound like only a name.

To a Keeper, the same sound unfolds into a sacred teaching.

The Keeper hears:

Messenger.

Covenant.

Sacred Voice.

Light. 

The Keeper hears a Messenger sent with a Covenant.

The Keeper hears a Sacred Voice carrying authority.

The Keeper hears Light revealing truth.

This is not because the Keeper is forcing meaning into the sound.

It is because the roots already exist within the Sacred Language itself.

Conclusion

The purpose of this discussion is not to prove that every nation pronounced the name identically.

The purpose is to demonstrate something much more remarkable.

The Sacred Root Language of the Midewiwin still contains the sounds associated with the name. He was given a name whose sounds preserve an ancient message reaching back to the foundations of sacred language itself.

Those sounds are not empty.

They carry preserved meanings.

Within the Root Record:

YAA-HAA-SHAA-WAA

unfolds into:

Messenger of the Sacred Covenant, Sacred Voice, Light. 

Or:

The Messenger of the Sacred Covenant who speaks with Sacred Authority and brings Light. 

Whether one approaches the subject through history, spirituality, ceremony, or language, one fact remains:

The sounds are here.

The roots are here.

The teachings are here.

The language still lives.

And when a Keeper hears the name, the Keeper still hears the teaching hidden within its sound.

The sound YAA-HAA-SHAA-WAA was not only heard on this continent; it has echoed since the beginning of human life, preserved within the original language teachings of Nanabush and carried forward by the Midewiwin. It lived in the ancient roots of language, in the memory of the Peacemaker who walked among us, and in the promise of restoration through a return to the beginning.

The original 49 characters of language upon the American continent, and now found marked in many locations upon stones and objects and associated with red ochre: