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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] I found another one to add to GAIA and Pachamama: Gitchi Manitou

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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] I found another one to add to GAIA and Pachamama: Gitchi Manitou
  • Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2025 21:32:07 -0700



On Thu, Sep 4, 2025 at 9:23 PM Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com> wrote:
On Thu, Sep 4, 2025 at 9:18 PM Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com> wrote:
Native American Legends: Gitchi Manitou Gitchi Manitou is the great creator god of the Anishinaabe and many neighboring Algonquian tribes.
The name literally means Great Spirit, a common phrase used to address God in many Native American cultures.

Native American Legends: Gitchi Manitou

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Gitchi Manitou is the great creator god of the Anishinaabe and many neighboring Algonquian tribes. The name literally means Great Spirit, a common phrase used to address God in many Native American cultures.

As in other Algonquian tribes, the Great Spirit is abstract, benevolent, does not directly interact with humans, and is rarely if ever personified in Anishinabe myths-- originally, Gitchi Manitou did not even have a gender (although with the introduction of English and its gender-specific pronouns, Gitchi Manitou began to be referred to as "he.") It is Gitchi Manitou who created the world, though some details of making the world as we know it today were delegated to the culture hero Nanabozho. "Gitchi Manitou" (or one of its many variant spellings) was used as a translation for "God" in early translations of the Bible into Ojibway, and today many Ojibway people consider Gitchi Manitou and the Christian God to be one and the same. 

Kici Manito Osakihin

Translates from Algonquian languages to mean "Great Spirit, I love you" or "Great Mystery, I love you". The phrase is composed of two main parts:

Kici Manito: Also spelled Kitchi Manitou or Gitchi Manitou, this means "Great Spirit" or "Great Mystery".
It refers to the creator or supreme being in the religion of many Algonquian-speaking peoples.

Osakihin: This means "I love you" or "you are loved". In one document, the phrase is transcribed as "Osakinin" and appears on a flag alongside "God Loves You".


--
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
lfljvenaura@gmail.com







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