A Dryden family is trying to ensure a family member they lost is honored in a traditional Anishinaabe way.
Everett Dylan MacKinnon-Ottertail and other members of his family will be talking with members at the City of Dryden today to try to keep a traditional Gravehouse on his late sister’s plot at the Dryden Cemetery.
MacKinnon-Ottertail originally outlined in a video he posted to Facebook the problem he was facing.
The gravehouse is an Ojibwe tradition, it's only up for 5 years to house the spirit for it's journey to the afterlife. A…
Posted by Everett Dylan MacKinnon-Ottertail on Wednesday, November 13, 2019
The post garnered a lot of attention as he outlines that officials from the City have requested that the Gravehouse has to be taken down due to by-law violations related to it being a potential hazard for machinery and obstructing maintenance.
MacKinnon-Ottertail in an interview says all he wants right now is to make sure he can get this done for his sister, but he would also like to start a movement for more traditional burial methods to become accepted at municipal cemeteries.
He also states that the Gravehouse itself is not intrusive as its size keeps it within the plot that they have and it also has designs from family members to remember their loved one.
On point he also brings up is that they are willing to re-design it if the City really wants them to, but they do not want to remove it completely.
Another point that MacKinnon-Ottertail makes is that the Gravehouse is only up for around five years to house a spirit until it reaches its final resting place.
He goes on to add that they wanted to have her in Dryden since it is a place that was important to her, but also have a Gravehouse since she was very much in touch with her Ojibwe culture.
In a Facebook comment on the video’s post, MacKinnon-Ottertail states that they are meeting with officials from the city to try and figure something out and he hopes this will all be resolved within the week.
