When the crows gather, the maple sap starts to run. Aandeg Biboon (Crow Moon) some call it, or Onaabaanigiizis, the hard-crusted snow moon.

Reposted from The Bemidji Pioneer

Written By: Winona LaDuke | 11:00 am, Mar. 24, 2021

The time of the coronavirus pandemic, when we were collectively forced to slow down and take a breath. When we could see the crows gather and the swans return. I am glad I saw them. They are right on time.
Just before the maple syrup time begins is the Ojibwe New Year. There’s time on the land and time on the clock; those are different. There’s what’s called Indian Time — you are waiting for the sap to run, or the wild rice to finish parching. Then there’s the time that your flight used to leave, or maybe a Zoom call coming your way. That’s a different time.
There’s time on the land, I think of as the Creator’s Clock.
Giiwedinong, now, is the time when the swans return — waabiziiwag bi azhigiiwewag. They are coming home, by the thousands, nestling into cornfields on the Ponsford prairie, the Hubbard prairie, coming home to the lakes they will grace for the months ahead. Some tough birds. They fly to open water; no need to wing it to Florida, they gather just where the ice is gone.