The friendship of a Prophet

Grand Chief Midegah Ogichidaa Addresses the General Conference in a Moment of Historic Witness

In a moment marked by solemn gravity and deep symbolic weight, Grand Chief Midegah Ogichidaa stood at the pulpit during the annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ, having been personally invited by Joel Gehly, President of the Quorum

Of The Twelve Apostles; High Priest Of The Church Of Jesus Christ therefor Prophet Of God.

His presence was neither incidental nor merely ceremonial. It represented a deliberate and conscious opening of space long reserved to an Indigenous voice carrying ancestral authority, moral courage, and living memory. The Prophet Of The Church Of Jesus Christ, and Grand Chief Midegah Ogichidaa, Jessakkid, High Priest Of The Midewiwin therefor to the O'Jiibwaay, Prophet Of Gichi Manidoo.

Perspective.

The Church of Jesus Christ traces its priesthood authority to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and through his First Counselor and senior High Priest The Prophet Sidney Rigdon, forming the foundation of its restored ecclesiastical lineage. It was within this lineage-conscious setting that Grand Chief Midegah Ogichidaa was invited to speak, making the moment not only historic, but doctrinally significant. To the O'Jiibwaay of the Red Bear Band, Midewiwin prophecy.

Speaking on behalf of the Red Bear Band, Grand Chief Midegah Ogichidaa brought with him more than prepared remarks. He carried the weight of nations older than the institution itself nations whose governance, spirituality, and law predate the modern era. His formal attire bridged contemporary authority and ancestral responsibility. The feather he wore was not symbolic decoration; it was a sign of prayer, duty, and continuity.

His address did not seek permission, nor did it ask for recognition. It spoke from Indigenous courage courage shaped by centuries of endurance, dispossession, survival, and moral clarity. His words were measured, composed, and resolute. In that moment, the pulpit became more than a place of doctrine; it became a meeting ground between parallel authorities one institutional, one Indigenous each carrying its own lineage of responsibility.

Observers did not witness confrontation, but witness-bearing. Chief Midegah Ogichidaa did not diminish the sacred space he entered; he expanded it. By standing there, he affirmed that reconciliation does not arise from silence, nor from erasure, but from the willingness to hear voices long excluded from formal councils of power.

For the Red Bear Band, this address stands as a marker in time a declaration that Indigenous leadership does not wait to be acknowledged by history, yet will step forward when called. For those present, it served as a reminder that courage does not always announce itself loudly. Sometimes it stands calmly at a podium, speaking truths that have waited generations to be spoken.

Through it all, he found a friend. High Priest to High Priest. Brother to Brother.

From the Southwest to South America. To Missouri.

And into the Nephite Record.

A President who knows it is true.

A Chief who carries it within his blood.

This was not merely a speech.

It was an act of witness.

It was courage spoken plainly, carried faithfully.

When it was over.

MIDEGAH.

Was,

O'JIIBWAAY

the prophecy