cecaahkwa kiilhswa

Peewaalia weehkikihkatwe ‘Peoria Lunar New Year’ begins with cecaahkwa kiilhswa ‘Sandhill Crane Moon’. During this month, cecaahkwaki ‘Sandhill Cranes’ begin to migrate back through Inohkinki ‘Illinois homelands’ from their wintering grounds in the south. Inohkinki is in what is now called the state of Illinois and parts of the surrounding Great Lakes region. Today Inohkinki also includes our previous reservations in Kansas and our current reservation lands in Oklahoma. The majority of cecaahkwaki migrate through the western halves of Oklahoma and Kansas during cecaahkwa kiilhswa, with smaller numbers migrating through the eastern halves of these states. About two kiilhsooki ‘moons/months’ later, they will begin to nest and breed in the marshy wetland areas of northern Inohkinki and other northern regions of the US and Canada.