Jennylee Olesek of Sault Ste. Marie (seated) at the Ghost Feast with (from left) her daughter, Margaret McPherson of Sault Ste. Marie, Christine McPherson of Seattle, and grandchildren Cindy and Gordon Brazil of Sault Ste. Marie. At 103 years old, Mrs. Olesek said this is the fourth Ghost Feast she has attended with the Rickley family. “I am saying a prayer today for my grandmother, my husband, and my sons,” she said. The spirits of departed loved ones and long-ago ancestors are nourished when a family comes together and shares food and tobacco with them through a ceremonial fire, according to tribal belief – and at the same time, family ties are renewed for another year among the living. Nourishing and honoring the spirits of the dead was the focus of two traditional tribal Ghost Feasts hosted Saturday, October 24, by the descendants of Deward Sr. and Mabel (nee Moses) Rickley of St. Ignace. The Ghost Feast is also a celebration of Native American culture, and this year, honor songs were offered to the ancestors by a group of native drummers at the feast at the McCann Street tribal building.

Keira LaPonsie, two months old and the youngest member of the Moses family, sleeps through her first Ghost Feast, lulled to sleep by the drumming, says her grandmother, CeeCee (nee Moses) Holmes. Keira, held by family friend Carol Conguy of St. Ignace, is the daughter of Ricci and Michelle LaPonsie of St. Ignace. The gathering begins with a small ceremonial fire, while inside the old school cafeteria, food is being laid out for a feast. Dozens of dishes, including a variety of meats, meatballs, pasta, potatoes, breads, salads, cakes, cookies, and pies are made by the family and offered along with traditional native fry bread, a favorite food cooked on the spot. Outdoors, prayers are offered and samples of the food prepared for the meal are sacrificially burned to feed the spirits of departed family members, their only opportunity for such nourishment, according to the custom.

The Moses family’s roadside stand at Pine River, where they made and sold Native American baskets in the 1930s. A handlettered sign reads “Indian Baskets for Sale Here.” The girl at right is Mabel Moses; the others are unidentified. (Rickley family photograph) “The spirits get hungry through the year, so you have a burnt offering in the fire to nourish the spirits for another year,” says Russell Rickley, whose family hosted the gathering. “You use tobacco, too. They don’t have tobacco over there and they want it. The nourishment and tobacco goes up with the smoke.”

The surviving children and grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Rickley prepare the meal and plan the gathering in St. Ignace each year, a tradition that goes back many decades in the Rickley family. This year, several siblings organized the meal at the McCann Street site, while a sister-in-law, Bunny Rickley, also hosts a feast at the home of her daughter, Kathy Peterson. Relatives and friends travel back and forth between the two feasts during the evening, paying their respects to the family’s departed loved ones, as well as their own, and sometimes offering a prayer.

Siblings of the Rickley family host a Ghost Feast to honor their departed loved ones every year. Pictured (from left) are siblings Judy Watts, Darlene Brown, Ron Rickley, Christine McPherson, and Russell Rickley. Surviving siblings are Russell and Ron Rickley, Christine McPherson, Judy Watts, Darlene Brown, and Diane Grant. With the Ghost Feast, they are honoring their parents, their brothers, Deward Jr., Gerald, Roger, Robert, John, and a nephew, Ron Jr. Their relatives, the Moses family, also host a Ghost Feast each year. This year, the Moses feast will be Saturday, November 7, at 5 p.m. at the same site.

At right: Deward and Mabel Rickley on their wedding day in 1940. He was 24 years old, and she was 21. They had 11 children. Mr. Rickley worked as a tender for a bricklayer. (Rickley family photograph) Years ago, the feast was held in the Rickley home. No formal invitations are issued, but the tradition is “you just tell people about it,” says Russell Rickley. If they want to honor the family’s dead, they will come if they can. This year, friends and family have come from Sault Ste. Marie, Cheboygan, Petoskey, Indian River, Engadine, White Lake, Washington, and Tennessee as well as St. Ignace to enjoy the Ghost Feast.

At this Ghost Feast, the drum keeper is Jeremy Joy. His drum is called Little Thunder.

Drum keeper Jeremy Joy (center) brought his drum, Little Thunder, to the Ghost Feast. “This is what I love to do, sing for communities,” he says. Mr. Joy, a member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, is joined by drummers “White Wolf Man” Gilbert (pictured in foreground), Glen Joy, Glen Joy, Jr., and Tony Grondin. A freshman at North Central Michigan College in Petoskey studying art and communications, he has been drumming for three years. Mr. Joy, originally of Cheboygan, is a member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi. He got his drum at a powwow in Kinross.

“I got it from a man who was making them. He was watching me and he felt I was able to take care of a drum, so he offered me one,” he says. “It is comparatively small, but it has a big sound, so I call it Little Thunder. In the tradition we were taught, we treat it as if it was a grandfather. So we name it.”

At right: Years ago, family members of the Moses and Rickley clans made and sold baskets at the Indian Village store in downtown St. Ignace, and often posed for photographs there, like these. The people are unidentified. (Rickley family photograph) Mr. Joy is joined by drummers Glen Joy of Petoskey, Glen Joy, Jr. of Indian River, “White Wolf Man” Gilbert of St. Ignace, and Tony Grondin of St. Ignace. They offer several tribal honor songs while people eat and visit nearby at the long banquet tables. At all times, a dozen or more people form a circle of onlookers around the drum group.

At a table nearby, the family displays modern pictures of the family with old photographs of Mr. and Mrs. Rickley and a roadside stand where family members sold handmade Native American baskets in the Pine River area in the 1930s. They also sold the baskets at the Indian Village store in St. Ignace. Baskets made by Mabel Rickley are on display today at the Ojibwa museum downtown, Ron Rickley points out.

At the fry bread station Veronica Rickley prepares to cook her second batch of the traditional favorite food, a simple bread cooked in hot oil. The recipe is not divulged. Guests have already devoured a large tray full of the treat. “They don’t take it easy on this,” says Mrs. Rickley. She is joined by a niece, Misty Pranga of White Lake, the daughter of Judy (nee Rickley) Watts. For 12 years, Russell Rickley hosted the gathering in his home, but the event outgrew the space. The family usually feeds about 150 people.

“It really is too much for one person to do,” he says, “and it got too big for my house. Years ago, my dad had a stroke and had the use of just one arm, and he put it on by himself. It is a big project but we still do it. A lot of good happens from these events. I once saw an eagle fly through the fire smoke. They are next to the Creator and they represent a lot of strength.”

Another positive result of the feast is that it can heighten a person’s interest in tribal spiritual matters, he says. He recalls a local teacher who had attended the feast for years and when he became ill, he asked for a tribal ceremony at his passing.

“He found something here he liked, and he asked for a pipe carrier to be at his own service,” Mr. Rickley recalls.

Christine (nee Rickley) Mc - Pherson says she has also seen positive results of the feast.

“It really brings the family together,” she says. “It’s all goodwill, with no evil thoughts. This has been a reconciliation point. If people want to re-enter the family, if there has been an argument or rift, this is where they do it.

“We try to teach our children to do this. One day, we will be gone and we will need someone to honor us.”

The indiginous ceremony honoring the ancestors, she believes, was probably blended with Christian influences over the years as a way to keep the tradition alive.

“The Jesuits were here to Christianize the natives,” she says, “and for a time it was illegal to openly practice your ceremonies. So people put it alongside the Christian holiday All Saints Day. It’s a similar idea, feeding the spirits. No one has told us these things, but it’s what I think.”

Many worldwide cultures have similar customs, including Mexi - co’s Day of the Dead. In many churches, All Saints Day honors not only saints, but those who have died in the congregation. It is celebrated November 1.

The Rickley family will continue to honor her parents and other ancestors this way, Mrs. McPherson says.

“This is a thing that we’ve had all my whole life. My mom and dad always did this and we’ve kept it up,” she says. “All of the food is homemade, and the family makes the food. We make what our family members really liked. My mother told me to remember our loved ones who passed on – always. And that’s what this is about.”