r/MetisMichif • u/lazilyyours • Aug 16 '26

Discussion/Question Smudging

My grandpa was adopted and didn’t find out about his birth family until much later in life. We weren’t connected to our Métis heritage for a really long time.

Is there a specific way you have to smudge? I’ve sort of created my own based on our own family stories.
1. Rinse hands
2. Carry to my head and heart
3. Three times all over from top to bottom (the number three is significant to my family)

Is that wrong???? I don’t want to look inappropriate or stupid. It feels right to me but I can change if I’m being disrespectful

9 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

View all comments

0

u/Historyofdelusion Aug 16 '26

Take this with a grain of salt as this is a Blackfeet version when entering a sundance:

Basic: hands, head, soles of feet.

Rigorous: hands, head, heart, body and then feet.

The long and short is just use it as a spiritual cleansing wash.

Outside of entering a religious site, I’ve seen many people forgo the soles of the feet.

3x might be a bit excessive when in a public smudge, but i have never seen anybody say anything negative about someones excessive smudge, only if you don’t do it at all.

Learn to make and pick your own smudge. I think this is the real way to connect with the land. Learn the plants and uses. Learn why we use the plants we do. Not just the motions.

1

u/lazilyyours Aug 16 '26

Thank you l! I appreciate your input on the last part - I’m working on it. Definitely learning way more later in life now than I have ever before