r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/MelanieWalmartinez • Sep 01 '26

Video Students get smudged by indigenous elders for peace and blessings throughout the year

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u/Sudden_Buffalo_4393 Sep 01 '26

I’m 1/2 Native, didn’t live on the Rez but “lived” on the Rez and went to school there. Never saw anything like this. I think it’s awesome and would have 100% taken part. My mom was basically doing this at our house anyway.

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u/InvidiousPlay Sep 01 '26

Apparently these practices are very different or non-existent depending on the specific tribe.

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u/CornToasty Sep 01 '26

Sorry, what do you mean by 'didn’t live on the Rez but “lived” on the Rez?'

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u/ThatHoFortuna Sep 01 '26

Probably they had a lot of family there and hung out a lot. And carried a card which said they did for shopping, reservations don't have state sales tax.

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u/Sudden_Buffalo_4393 Sep 01 '26

Like the other response said, I was there every day of my life through friends/family, I just lived in a house not on the reservation.

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u/CornToasty Sep 02 '26

Ah gotcha, thanks.

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u/Shinjitsu- Sep 01 '26

My MIL is native but only brings it up when it's relevant to her. She hasn't lived on a rez in decades. Our last apartment she insisted on saging, which was odd but honestly it felt like her trying to purify it of me. Regardless she's been cut off. The whole thing makes me feel weird about smudging, despite my partner and kid being native. 

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u/ThatHoFortuna Sep 01 '26

Same kind of situation I had. My grandmother was native but I never really inherited any of the culture because she was a murderous alcoholic. I have some beautiful woven baskets in storage that she and her family made on the rez back in the 50s and 60s that are probably worth a lot, but I never put them up in my house because I have really mixed feelings about it.

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u/average-eridian Sep 01 '26

My MIL (but my wife's stepmom) is native too, and she has saged our house before. My wife is half but didn't get to grow up around her culture much, so I think she appreciates things like this a little bit more.

I have weak lungs and I cough like crazy if I'm around for saging, so they do it when I'm not around so the smoke can dissipate and they make jokes that something inside me must be pissed about the sage and that's why I cough so much. Lol