Ojibwe religion

Ojibwe religion is the traditional Native American religion of the Ojibwe people. It is practiced primarily in north-eastern North America, within Ojibwe communities in Canada and the United States. The tradition has no formal leadership or organizational structure and displays much internal variation.

Central to Ojibwe religion are powerful spirit beings called the manitouk. These come in various forms, each of which has a different relationship to humanity. Among the most prominent are the animikeek or thunderbirds, who bring storms and are generally helpful to humans, while the Mishebeshu are underwater and underground serpents whose activities are often harmful. In Ojibwe religion, a successful life is one that has secured the support of powerful manitouk, often through the provision of offerings like tobacco. Ojibwe religious practitioners undergo vision quests as a means of establishing a relationship with a manitou that becomes their guiding patron; prior to the 20th century, almost every Ojibwe male undertook this vision quest when they reached puberty. Another important aspect of Ojibwe religion is the midewiwin, a society whose rituals engage with the manitouk to oversee healing.

One of the Algonquian-speaking peoples, the Ojibwe originally lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. In that context, relationships with manitouk were deemed crucial for securing food supplies. Early contacts with Christian Europeans came in the 17th century, when several Roman Catholic missions were established among Ojibwe communities. The 19th century saw the arrival of Protestant missions and the ultimate restriction of many Ojibwe people to reservations. Here, the Ojibwe were exposed more heavily to Christianity and many elements of Ojibwe religion, such as the midewiwin and puberty vision quests, declined substantially. Encouraged by the American Indian Movement, the 1960s and 1970s saw revitalisation efforts to revive Ojibwe traditional religion. In the late 20th century, Ojibwe practices were increasingly influenced by other Native American religions, especially those of the Lakota.

Definition and classification

Map highlighting the distribution of Ojibwe people at the time of European contact

The Ojibwe are an Algonquian-speaking people. Together with the Odawa (Ottawa) and Potawatomi nations, they form a confederation called the Three Fires. The term Ojibwe was adopted as a collective noun in the nineteenth century, and probably derives from the Algonquian word ojib ('puckered up'), often interpreted as a reference to the puckered seam on the moccasin shoes traditionally worn by Ojibwe people. The alternative spelling Ochipwe has also resulted in the Ojibwe sometimes being called the Chippewa, especially in the United States. Many Ojibwe refer to themselves as the Anishnaabeg, although this term usually also encompasses all Algonquian-speaking peoples, and some members of the former group prefer Ojibwe over Anishnaabeg.

Ojibwe religion has been described as an aboriginal religion. As Ojibwe culture is traditionally orally transmitted, the religion has no textual canon. It has no dogma, and there is therefore variation in its belief and practice. Many of its rituals have changed over time, with adherents open to adapting their beliefs and practices in accordance with dreams and visions. Native American religions more broadly have always adapted in response to environmental changes and interactions with other communities, with the Ojibwe having adopted influences both from other Native American groups and from European Americans. Ojibwe religion thus no longer exists in the form practiced by the Ojibwe when they were a hunter-gatherer society prior to European contact.

As with Native Americans generally, among the Ojibwe religion is a fully integrated facet of life and culture. Many Ojibwe prefer to describe their traditional beliefs and practices as "our way" or "our way of life" rather than as a "religion." Ojibwe people generally tend to a holistic view of religion. Ojibwe traditional worldviews closely resemble those of other Algonquian-speaking peoples. The Ojibwe's religion is particularly similar to that of the Odawa people, although they also share many religious and cultural elements with groups like the Potawatomi, Menominee, and Cree.

Many Ojibwe combine traditional religious activities with involvement in Christianity, usually Catholicism, equating the Christian God with the traditional Ojibwe figure Kitche Manitou. In some cases they have adopted Christian beliefs and figures and inserted them into the traditional Ojibwe cosmology. Others will remain committed to just one of the two religions. In the Ojibwe language, there are no indigenous words synonymous with the English language term religion. Two Ojibwe terms have sometimes been used in a roughly similar manner; namhwin or anamiewin denotes something like "prayer" and is used to describe Christian religion, while mnidooked, meaning to venerate the mnidoog or manitouk, is used to describe an attitude and action associated with traditional Ojibwe religion.

Beliefs

The Ojibwe do not traditionally draw a dichotomy between the natural and supernatural.

Theology and the manitouk

In private, hunters and fishermen sought the patronage and the pardon of the manitous (mysteries) who presided over the animals and the birds; and medicine men and women invoked the mysteries to confer curative powers upon the herbs that were used in their preparations. In public, the people conducted rituals and ceremonies to foster upright living; petitioned Kitche Manitou and the deities for blessing; or offered thanksgiving for game and abundant harvest.

— Ojibwe writer and linguist Basil Johnston

Ojibwe religion has been described as polytheistic. It maintains that human existence relies on maintaining relations with powerful beings, the manitouk or manidoog (singular manitou or manidoo). These have been described as "spirits", or "spiritual beings", while the scholar of religion Theresa S. Smith called them "the power beings of the Ojibwe cosmos". The most powerful of these manitouk were the four winds, the underwater serpents, the thunderbirds, the owners of various animal species, the windigo, and Nanabush. Beyond these, there are a wider range of less powerful manitouk.

The manitouk are often visually portrayed on mide scrolls. They are also regarded as having metamorphic abilities to change into various forms. Like the traditionally hunter-gatherer Ojibwe, the manitouk are believed to often move around frequently, sometimes according to prescribed paths or the seasons, or other times in an unexpected manner. An example of a manitou moving in a prescribed pattern is Ningobianong, the evening star. Manitouk act according to their own needs and desires; although their motivations are similar to those of humans, they possess far greater power. Ojibwe may interpret events in the world around them as caused through the actions of manitouk. Human relationships with the different manitouk vary, with some being viewed with affection and others with dread. Some manitouk can harm humans, and those deemed particularly dangerous, such as Mishebeshu or the wendigo, are termed matchi-manitou (evil manitou).

Humans can build personal relationships with a particular manitou. Historically, Ojibwe youth were expected to undergo a vision quest around puberty with the intention of establishing a relationship with a particular manitouk, who would become their guardian for life. Ritual is a key means of interacting with manitouk. In turn, manitouk can assist humans by providing them with success in hunting, in war, or in overcoming sorcery. Ojibwe tradition teaches that the manitouk can communicate with humans through dreams and visions, the latter thus considered of great importance among Ojibwe people. Via dreams, manitouk can bestow gifts of healing or power, historically often a skill in hunting. For this reason, manitouk are also referred to as pawaganak (dream visitors), especially among northern Ojibwe. If a person encounters an unwanted manitou in a dream, they will sometimes scrape their tongue with a cedar knife.

Kitche Manitou, Nanabush, and the Four Winds

No one manitou is believed to rule supreme over the others. Its name meaning "great manitou", Kitche Manitou (Gichi-Manidoo) is the creator being, but is deemed largely uninvolved with human affairs. Often referred to as the "Master of Life," the figure is not traditionally gendered. Kitche Manitou is believed to send messages to the Ojibwe through eagles, whose appearance and movements may be interpreted accordingly. Sometimes symbolised by the sun, in one traditional interpretation, the sky is the hand of Kitche Manitou. Since the introduction of Christianity, many Ojibwe have equated this figure with the Christian God. The historian Christopher Vecsey suggested that the name Kitche Manitou may have actually been coined by Christians and, highlighting the lack of references to this figure in early sources, suggests that this notion of a supreme Ojibwe creator deity was a Christian innovation. Conversely, John Cooper argued for the existence of such a creator divinity among northern Algonquian peoples prior to European contact, and by the late 20th century many Ojibwe believed that Kitche Manitou had been part of their pre-contact aboriginal traditions.

In some stories presented as the messenger of Kitche Manitou, Nanabush is the culture hero of the Ojibwe. A figure prominent in the cosmologies of various Algonquian-speaking peoples, his name exists in various forms across the Ojibwe, including Nanabozho, Nanapus, and Menabojes, while he is also called the Great Rabbit or Great White Hare. He is often presented as the son of a human mother and a manitou father, the latter often identified as the West or North Wind. In Ojibwe lore, Nanabush taught humans to hunt and fish, discovered wild rice, and invented snow shoes. At the same time he was a trickster, one capable of being greedy or cruel. According to one belief, Nanabush traveled west to escape the arrival of European settlers, with some Ojibwe claiming that he now forms the Sleeping Giant rock formation in Thunder Bay harbor. Although an important figure in Ojibwe mythology, Nanabush rarely served as a personal guardian and was not often given offerings.

The four winds are manitouk that live in the four corners of the world, and are named Waubun, Zeegwun, Ningobianong, and Bebon. They are sometimes perceived as four separate entities, and at other times as part of the same being. According to Ojibwe mythology, they were placed in the cardinal directions by Nanabush. Ojibwe have historically sought to influence the four winds to act to their advantage, for instance by preventing them from blowing too harshly in summer, thus allowing Ojibwe to fish safely on the lakes, or by encouraging a harsh north wind in winter, thus hardening the crust of the snow, thereby making it easier to hunt deer.

Animikeek

One of the most prominent group of manitouk are the animikeek (singular animiki), the thunderbirds or thunderers. Among northern Ojibwe, as well as among Cree people, they are also sometimes called pinesiwak. Thunderbird beliefs are not unique to the Ojibwe and are found among many Native American groups, being particularly prominent among Sioux communities. They are traditionally perceived as resembling eagles, although they also take on human form, sometimes with wings, and exhibit human-like social organisation. Ojibwe tradition holds that the arrival of the animikeek is signalled by thunderstorms, a phenomenon common across the northern Great Lakes from late spring through to winter. A common belief among Ojibwe is that they as a people experience thunderstorms more frequently than any other group.

In Ojibwe lore, the La Cloche Mountains are among the places where the animikeek nest

Thunder is seen as a form of communication from the animikeek, one that is sometimes intelligible to humans. Some Ojibwe relate that they can differentiate the various individual thunderers by the sounds that they make. According to Ojibwe tradition, the animikeek fly across the sky to hunt their enemy, the underground for underwater manitouk, whom they then devour. Thunderbirds are generally regarded as coming from the west, although among northern Ojibwe groups they are instead said to come from the south. The animikeek are deemed to live in nests atop mountains, including the La Cloche Mountains and Mount McKay near Thunder Bay, with various Ojibwe claiming to have seen these nests, made from large stones arranged as shallow bowls. The animikeek live in family groups, with young thunderers sometimes behaving in an unruly and destructive way with their lightning.

The animikeek hurl lightning bolts down to kill serpents, but are also thought to cast small spherical thunderstones to the ground, which then offer people protection from the power of storms. If a tree has been struck by lightning, Ojibwe may search the base of it for such stones. Ojibwe often show respect to the animikeek by calling them grandfathers; they will often give offerings to them when hunting fowl. Christian Ojibwe often equate the animikeek with the Holy Spirit, using their image in place of that of the dove, which in Christian iconography traditionally denotes this form of God.

Mishebeshu

A rock painting of a canoe alongside Mishebeshu, painted on Agawa Rock along Lake Superior

Another prominent manitouk is Mishebeshu, a term that denotes both a singular mythic being and a plural term for his manifestations and associates. Although the name "Mishebeshu" literally means "Great Lynx", the entity is typically portrayed not as a cat but as a monstrous serpent, usually with horns, thought to dwell primarily in water. Vecsey suggested that at some point in prehistory, these my have been two separate entities, later conflated into one.

The best-known portrayal of the figure is the pictograph at Agawa Rock on the north shore of Lake Superior, created prior to 1850. Copper is believed to come from Mishebeshu's body, especially his horns. There is unending strife between the thunderers and Mishebeshu, with the former hunting and eating the giant serpents. There are also rare accounts of the Mishebeshu proving victorious in these clashes. According to one Ojibwe story, all snakes come from Mishebeshu, being created when he was struck by lightning long ago.

The Ojibwe traditionally fear Mishebeshu, displaying an attitude different from the caution and respect accorded the animikeek. Mishebeshu are dangerous, although not evil; they are responsible for causing stormy waters and thus pulling people to their deaths in rivers and lakes, for turning the ground to quicksand or swamp beneath people's feet, and for stealing infants. According to lore, Mishebeshu can travel between different lakes via a network of subterranean tunnels. Many Ojibwe have avoided going near certain lakes, especially in summer. When they do need to cross the water, for instance to fish, they will often propitiate him. Offerings to him are principally of tobacco, although historically he was also offered copper and sacrificed dogs.

Stories involving the manitouk were historically only told in winter, when the waters were frozen. This was because it was feared that discussing Mishebeshu would encourage them to emerge, which could prove dangerous to the storyteller. Also for this reason, Ojibwe often avoid saying aloud the name of Mishebeshu, instead referring to him with descriptions like "that monster" or "the big snake". There are also 19th-century records of some Ojibwe building their beds in trees in belief that this would help prevent them dreaming of the underground Mishebeshu. Despite the threat Mishebeshu posed, he could act as a person's guardian and provide them with medicine, although only the most powerful or daring Ojibwe healers turn to him.

Other manitouk

Winter is characterised as an old warrior manitou, Bebon, while summer is the younger manitou Zeegwun, and the two perpetually struggle over a maiden. Various manitouk serve as the masters of different natural entities and species. The owner manitouk of large mammals that the Ojibwe traditionally hunted, such as bear and deer, have been an important part of Ojibwe religion; propitiating these entities was necessary to ensure hunting success. Other manitouk were the owners of particular locations, such as pools and waterfalls.

Windigo are anthropomorphic cannibals who threaten to eat humans, representing winter and the starvation it could bring. The windigo was once a human, but ultimately transformed after devouring his family. In Ojibwe lore, a person could become a windigo if they were gluttonous, if they had been cursed by a sorcerer, or if they had received a windigo as their personal guardian. As they are seen as threatening, Ojibwe often believe it necessary to kill a windigo and there are various recorded accounts of people battling windigo or killing people they suspect are transforming into one. Algonquian peoples like the Ojibwe regard cannibals as a particular danger because they are obsessed with consuming without regard to kinship or thanksgiving. The windigo is sometimes deemed to possess human beings, something other manitouk rarely do.

The Paagak or Pahkack is a flying skeleton in Ojibwe lore. The Memegwesiwag are hairy dwarf manitouk deemed to live among rocks or in the cut banks along rivers.

Mythology, cosmogony, and cosmology

Ojibwe mythology is passed down orally. It displays similar motifs and themes to the stories of other Algonquian peoples, although also has distinctive traits, like a particular focus on hunting. These myths can be flexible and adapt to changing situations; they have absorbed influences from other Native groups and from Christians, changed through the aesthetic preferences of storytellers, and been informed by Ojibwe people's personal visions. Many Ojibwes have regarded their sacred myths as a literal account of history, although knowledge of them reportedly declined over the 20th century, by which point some Ojibwe recounted them only "hesitatingly and with embarrassment". Ojibwe traditionally drew a distinction between ordinary stories about living humans and sacred stories about the manitouk. In the Severn River area these were referred to as tipacimowinak and kanatipacimowinak respectively, although among the southeast Ojibwe they have instead been referred to as dbaajmowin and aadsookaan. Mythical narratives were sometimes recorded on pictographs, serving as mnemonic devices to help people recall them.

The traditional Ojibwe cosmogony is a version of the Earth diver narrative. Among the Ojibwe, this cosmogonical story exists in various different forms although with some common features. These stories typically maintain that there were once the Aadizookaanag ('original people') who went naked and did nothing; Kitche Manitou then sent them a messenger to teach them various things. In some versions this messenger is Nanabush, although in others he came later. Nanabush then went hunting with the wolves, one of whom was his grandson Chibiabos. After water serpent manitouk killed Chibiabos, Nanabush slayed the head serpent. They pursued him, seeking vengeance, and so he climbed atop a tall tree on a mountain. They flooded the Earth to reach him; Nanabush then sent a muskrat to dive to the bottom, collecting soil, from which Nanabush formed a new Earth. Some modern Ojibwe regard this cosmogony as a literal account of their history; they reject archaeological and genetic evidence indicating that Native Americans descend from prehistoric Asian migrants.

In accordance with this myth, traditional Ojibwe cosmology holds that the world of humans is an island surrounded by water. This island was formed by Nanabush and the earth divers after a great deluge. Ojibwe cosmology also includes belief in a multilevel cosmos with different layers ruled by different manitouk. The hierarchy of these layers nevertheless varies among different Ojibwe religionists. Above humanity's realm is that of the thunderbirds. Beneath the Earth is an underworld where the dead ultimately go. In some accounts, the underworld or a certain layer of it are the reverse of the Earth. This cosmology is marked by the four directions which are the abodes of the winds and their tutelary spirits, the thunderbird manitouk. Each quarter has its own colour: east is yellow, south is red, west is black, and north is white. The directions, and especially the four cardinal points, are highly meaningful in Ojibwe cosmology.

Spirit and afterlife

There is some variation in the details of Ojibwe belief regarding human identity. Like many other Native American groups, they have traditionally believed that a human has multiple souls. One of these was based in the heart and was responsible for animating the body and for providing a person with their intelligence, memory, and consciousness. The other soul was capable of separating from the body and going traveling, especially during sleep. This traveling soul would help to guide the person, for instance if they were hunting. Among northern Ojibwe, this traveling soul was called the òtcatcákwin. In the 1980s, Christopher Vecsey noted that most Ojibwe had adopted the Christian belief in a single, unitary soul.

According to Ojibwe religion, upon bodily death the person's first soul went straight to the afterlife but that their traveling soul became a ghost and remained near the grave for a while before proceeding to the afterlife. In Ojibwe lore, the afterlife realm was generally believed to exist to the south or west, situated either on a level or above the realm of humans; it was not an underworld. According to tradition, it is ruled over by Nanabush or by his wolf brother. Non-human persons would also go to that afterworld following bodily death. To get to it, the spirit must cross a river on the back of a snake. If they fall into the water, their spirit is destroyed forever or they are transformed into a fish or toad. In the afterlife, spirits dance and thus produce the northern lights. Knowledge of this afterlife has been attributed to ghosts who communicate with the living or from people, often those comatose or seriously ill, who ventured to the afterlife but returned.

Vecsey noted that, by the late 20th century, many Ojibwe, including those who were not Christians, had adopted a Christian-derived idea that there were separate afterlives for those who had been good and bad during their lives. Traditionally, Ojibwe traditional belief was that humans would be rewarded or punished for their actions in their current life, rather than in an afterlife.

Spirits of the deceased will rarely have the power of manitouk. Some Ojibwe believe that spirits of the deceased may appear to them in animal form; ghosts might appear as owls.

Ojibwe tradition maintains that the soul or life force is vital to defining a living thing, with its outer appearance being incidental. Metamorphoses is therefore deemed viable and Ojibwe myth and belief is full of accounts of metamorphosis between various animal and human forms. Lore teaches that both manitoukand certain humans can change their outward appearance. This contributes to an Ojibwe mistrust of strangers, as the latter are regarded as potentially not being what they appear to be.

Animism and other-than-human-persons

The scholar of religion Graham Harvey noted that the traditional Ojibwe view of the world was "pervasively social," regarding it as "a community of persons (not all of whom are human)." In traditional Ojibwe cosmology, animals, plants, some stones, certain locations, clouds, the sun, moon, and stars can all be thought of as animate "persons." They are all perceived as having intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, and the ability to speak, with the traditional Ojibwe worldview emphasising the similarity, rather than the dissimilarity, of all beings. Drawing on his research among the northern Ojibwe, the anthropologist Alfred Irving Hallowell termed these "other-than-human persons." Harvey described this approach as animism, by which he meant "efforts to live well in a world which is a community of persons, most of whom are 'other-than-human'."

In Ojibwe religion, humans are regarded as being equal to these other-than-human persons, rather than being innately superior. They are thus not viewed as having a privileged or unique status in the world. Ojibwe religion typically perceives a sense of kinship between all living things, with all persons being viewed as kin; Ojibwe people sometimes refer to other-than-human persons as relatives with terms like "brother", "grandfather", and "grandmother".

The Ojibwe traditionally display an attitude of respect to the world that impacts their interaction with it. When hunting, Ojibwe were expected to treat their prey in a specific manner; when bears were traditionally hunted in the spring, Ojibwe hunters would ask them to leave their dens and offer an apology for killing them. Cruelty to animals would bring retaliation. Smith described the Ojibwe as existing "within a world of interconnecting relationships", a world in which the different persons of various kinds sometimes collaborate and sometimes come into conflict.

Morality and gender roles

Key to traditional Ojibwe life is the attempts to live well, or bimaadiziwin. Hallowell described this as denoting "life in the fullest sense, life in the sense of longevity, health and freedom from misfortune". To ensure this, a person must build respectful and reciprocal relationships with powerful manitouk. Dealing with life's hardships quietly and with equanimity is deemed admirable, while complaining or whining is frowned upon. Sharing what one has is an important value, while hoarding is discouraged.

The traditional Ojibwa worldview understood greater complexity than the binary between good and evil introduced by Christianity. Smith argued that Ojibwe traditional views did not revolve around a binary between good and evil, but instead saw things in terms of "balance and imbalance, control and chaos". A person's bad behavior, referred to as madjiijiwe baziwin, can result in them being punished with misfortune or illness. Madjiijiwe baziwin can include being greedy and refusing to share, displaying excess pride, misusing one's power, murder, mistreating animals or plants, disrespecting or neglecting the manitouk, or displaying cruelty or sexual perversion. Historically, revenge was a key means of keeping intra-and inter-community harmony, reflecting the myths of how Nanabush established social balance by seeking revenge for the deaths of his family members.

Menstruating women are regarded as possessing an uncontrollable and dangerous power. While menstruating, they are prohibited from dancing at powwows, or from stepping over animals, especially those being prepared as food. Prior to European colonisation, the Ojibwe observed clear gendered divisions of labor, with men as hunters and women as the gatherers and preparers of food. Elders are accorded status, prestige, and power in Ojibwe communities. A person comes to be regarded as an elder not necessarily by age, but because they are perceived as living right, displaying wisdom as "sober, quiet, thoughtful, and respectful individuals".

Practices

George Catlin's illustration of an Ojibwe Snowshoe Dance, from 1835

Many elements of Ojibwe life feature ceremonial aspects. Ojibwe rituals, whether individual or communal, facilitate and maintain relations with the manitouk. Ceremonies represent opportunities for different kinds of "person" to interact. Vecsey noted that Ojibwe rituals have historically been concerned with hunting and food gathering and that they lacked "the ornate, formalised pomp" found among many agricultural Native American communities.

Prayer and offerings

In Ojibwe religion, tobacco, cedar, sage, and sweetgrass are considered sacred plants. Sweetgrass and tobacco rituals are practiced routinely. Cedar and sweetgrass are deemed to have purifying properties. Ojibwe people will often tie sweetgrass around their settlements, for instance onto medicine wheels or onto the rearview mirrors of their cars. Tobacco is considered suitable as a gift, either as an expression of thanks or of supplication, for manitouk or human elders. Ojibwe people may burn tobacco during a thunderstorm, usually in front of a wood stove, atop an oven or in a smudge pot, both to thank the thunderbirds for the rain and to supplicate them in the hope that it will prevent lightning from striking the home. They may also bury tobacco outside their homes to propitiate the thunderers.

Sage is used for prayer, but also burned for purification or tied into bundles and given as offerings. When collecting sage, Ojibwe will often request permission to do so from the plant.

Drumming, singing, and dancing have all played a role in traditional Ojibwe ritual.

Pipe ceremonies

An Ojibwe pipe bowl and stem, made circa 1885

Pipe ceremonies include offerings to the four directions. These take place before various events, including meetings, powwows, and weddings. Tobacco was also smoked during trade and political negotiations to solicit the aid of the manitouk at those times.

Sweat lodge

Before attempting contact with the manitouk, Ojibwe religionists have often fasted and cleansed themselves in the madoodiswan sweat lodge.

Vision quest

Historically, Ojibwe youth reaching puberty would engage in a vision quest. This required fasting and going into isolation to attract the attention of a manitou who might agree to be their guardian. Those seekers proceed to try and elicit pity from manitouk. A manitou who agreed to become a person's guardian would protect and guide them for life, in turn expecting loyalty, respect, and offerings. An individual was not regarded as a complete person until this relationship had been formed. Individuals repeatedly reported journeys then undertaken with their guardian manitou; one Ojibwe was reported as having travelled underwater with a giant turbot while another described flying through the cosmos on the back of an eagle.

Historically, the vision quest was expected of men but not of women, who were believed to already be complete because of their ability to create life. There were nevertheless some women who did undertake the rite. Once a youth had undertaken it, they were sometimes given a new personal name, which they may then keep secret. Smith found, in late 20th-century Manitoulin, that the vision quest had not been pursued at puberty for at least three generations. Ojibwe adults had nevertheless continued the practice at other times in their lives; Dreamer's Rock was for instance often chosen for the purpose.

Further rites

There is a mid-19th century report of an Ojibwe woman going nude at night, dragging her best garment around her cornfield.

Prior to European contact, a common means of disposing of the Ojibwe dead was to wrap them in bundles and place them in the branches of trees. After European contact, the Ojibwe adopted the practice of burying their dead, with archaeological excavation suggesting that they typically did so after the bones had been defleshed. There are accounts of the Ojibwe, like the Menominee, erecting gravestones over the graves of their leaders, on which pictographs illustrate important scenes from the deceased's life. Respect is accorded to bones as the most durable part of the body.

Healing

Medicine plays a key role in Ojibwe religion. According to traditional Ojibwe medicine, illness is often caused by a foreign object entering a person's body, often placed there by sorcery. Traditional healers are termed Mashkikiiwinimiwag or Nenaandawiiwejig; the former derives from the word mashkiki ('medicine'), the latte from nanandawia ('to administer medicines'). They are believed to possess the power to use certain herbs for treating particular ailments, something revealed to them by the manitouk.

Prior to performing a healing ceremony, some Ojibwe healers would fast to purify themselves. They might then use smoke to beseech the manitouk for help, with singing and drumming then employed to ask the manitouk for help in determining the cause of the sickness. When using the herbs for healing, these healers will also offer songs and tobacco to the manitouk. Many Ojibwe healers will combine traditional remedies with Christian prayers. The family of a sick person will also offer food to the manitouk as a display of gratitude to them. One method employed by some Ojibwe healers involved sucking through a small bone to draw the sickness out of the afflicted person. Healers claimed that this removed a foreign body from the victim, which would then be placed in a dish for assembled people to see.

Charms are often placed on a baby's tikanagan (cradleboard) to protect it, including a twine spider web that is believed to catch harmful things approaching the infant.

Divination

Several forms of divination have historically been recorded among the Ojibwe. These have included scrying by looking into water with the intent of finding lost objects or locating game; scapulimancy, by examining the cracks and burns of bones placed near the fire, and drawing inference from them; and drawing interpretations from the way a body trembles. Another method of divination, used for determining the course of war parties, involved rolling stones across smooth ground and interpreting their movement.

Ritual specialists

The earliest written sources indicate that, by the time of European contact, the Ojibwe distinguished different types of people who had received powers from the manitouk. These individuals served as healers or as ceremonial leaders who helped to keep the universe in equilibrium. Some individuals are deemed to have received multiple powers. English-speaking European observers generally referred to all of these ritual specialists with the genetic term "medicine man" or sometimes with its Ojibwa translation, mashkikiiwinini. Over time, these terms have become increasingly popular.

Those deemed to possess power from the manitouk and who could practice medicine were important to Ojibwe bands. Michael Angel noted that historically, those who obtained supernatural power often accrued "socio-political power" in Ojibwe society. Various ritual specialists also served as ogimaag, senior males in the nomadic band; English language observers often translated ogimaag as "chiefs". Those who were believed to possess special powers were expected to use it to benefit their band as a whole. Those possessing such powers have been respected but also feared; fear and hatred have particularly been reserved for those specialists deemed to have misused their powers. They are thought possible of stealing or disrupting a person's soul to generate sickness, with babies being particularly vulnerable.

Attending the ogimaag in Ojibwe bands was the oshkaabewis or "ceremonial messenger," responsible for a number of civil and religious functions, for instance serving as the pipe bearer in ceremonies. The Ojbwe have no ritual clowns like the heyoka found among Sioux groups.

Powerful ritualists are also thought capable of animating otherwise inanimate objects or of transforming one object into another, such as charcoal into bullets.

Jiisakiiwiniwag

A sculpture in the collection of the Wellcome Trust portraying an Ojibwe Jiisakiiwinini sucking out sickness from a patient

The ritual specialist most commonly recorded in historical accounts was the Jiisakiiwinini (plural Jiisakiiwiniwag), sometimes called a djessakid. These were usually male, although some post-menopausal woman could also take on the role. Their abilities came to them through visions, after which they could engage in rites that summoned spirit helpers before communicating with them through singing and drumming. Their powers to translate the messages of the manitouk are regarded as a gift from the animikeek.

In the Ojibwe language, the Jiisakiiwiniwag's ceremony was called Jiisakiiwin, although in English it came to be known as the Shaking Tent or Conjuring Lodge ritual. This is a rite found among several Northern Algonquian peoples, although also has similarities with ceremonies among other Woodlands and Plains groups, such as the Lakota yuwípi wičháša. It is considered a powerful ritual and one that can bring harm to those who perform it and their family. For this reason, children were often prohibited from pretending to be Jiisakiiwiniwag.

The Jiisakiiwin was interpreted as facilitating two-way communication between humans and manitouk. It was typically performed for a specific reason, often to find a cure for an ailment, to gain knowledge of enemy movements during war, to locate game, to find lost objects, or to protect the community from imminent windigos. At times it was performed not to contact a manitouk but to conjure the spirit of a dead person, if their past conduct is causing problems for their descendants, or to conjure the soul of a witch, to urge them to stop their harmful actions.

Prior to overseeing the rite, the Jiisakiiwinini would often undertake a sweat bath to purify and strengthen themselves. The ceremony takes place in a tent, which may be erected by the Jiisakiiwinini with the help of their assistants. The ritualist would often approach the tent at sunset; many community members may have assembled around it. After singing to summon them, he might address the manitouk and remind them of their obligations to humanity. The Jiisakiiwini's arms are then bound and they crawl into the tent, where they may kneel or lay on boughs.

The tent will then shake and animal-like sounds will come from within it, presented as evidence for the manitou's arrival. Although they are believed to have arrived, the manitouk do not possess the Jiisakiiwinini. The noise and shaking will be followed by silence, after with the Jiisakiiwinini reveals that the spirits are ready to be asked questions. Questions asked often revolved around requesting a cure for sickness, assistance in finding a marriage partner, and help in finding game to hunt. The ritual specialist will then respond with the spirit's answers. Tobacco will often be offered to the spirit, sometimes being passed into the tent. There was often an atmosphere of levity, with those outside bantering and joking with the spirits inside. The ritualist will subsequently appear untied, suggesting that he has been untied by the spirits.

Midewiwin

Main article: Midewiwin

An illustration of a midewiwin ritual first published in 1891

The Midewiwin is a major rite in Ojibwe religion, through which practitioners seek assistance from the manitouk. In English, the midewiwin society is sometimes referred to as the medicine society or grand medicine dance. Some of those who joined the society were sick and hoped that their involvement would bring healing. Both Waabanowag and Jiisakiiwininiwag could join the Midewiwin.

Various different myths are offered about the origin of the midewiwin, presenting it variously as a gift to the Ojibwe from the Bear manitou, Otter manitou, Shell, or Nanabush. One version maintains that the underwater manitouk created the midewiwin and gave it to Nanabush to appease him after they had flooded the earth. By the late 20th century, it was common for Ojibwe people to believe that the mide society had been a part of their ancient ancestral traditions. European American historians have typically not accepted these origin stories as literal accounts. Scholars of religious history argue that only emerged after the Ojibwe's contact with Europeans.

Which manitouk is considered the chief of the mide varies; claims have been made for the bear manitou, otter manitou, Nanabush, and the miigis shell manitou. Among contemporary Midewiwin, Kitche Manitou is generally regarded as their patron. It has four to eight levels of initiation. Initiates pay a fee, historically in goods but later in currency, to join the society.

It was common until the early 20th century but considered rare by the end of that century.

Historically, the turtle manitou was often seen as the patron of the shaking tent ceremony.

Bearwalkers and sorcery

Ojibwe people may attribute ill health to sorcery, and thus seek out a medicine man to assist in dealing with the problem. Ojibwe may hide their cut hair, blood, saliva, or faeces to prevent it being used to cause them harm, reflecting the belief that such material holds an intrinsic connection to the person from which it came.

Misfortune is often attributed to bearwalkers, who are believed to fire hairballs into their victims. In Ojibwe belief, bearwalkers can change the form of their traveling soul but often take that of a bear, hence their name. For this reason, any animal encountered is seen as a potential bearwalker in disguise, while they are also thought to be visible as lights in the night. Ojibwe lore maintains that successful people in particular generate envy among others and thus become targets for the bearwalkers.

History

Prehistory

Around 1200 CE, the hunting culture to which the Ojibwe belonged emerged in the conifer forests around the Great Lakes. Prior to European contact, the Ojibwe's subsistence relied heavily on hunting and fishing, supplementing this diet with foraged plant sources. The Ojibwe lived in small kinship groups, each an extended family that was politically autonomous, although they met with other groups for specific occasions and exchanged members for marriage, ensuring regular contact between different Ojibwe groups. It was only following the European encounter that the Ojibwe developed a common identity, and by the 19th century they were beginning to perceive themselves as a nation or tribe.

Encounters with Christianity and colonialism

An 1861 painting of an Ojibwe group by the Dutch-born Canadian artist Cornelius Krieghoff

The earliest written accounts of the Ojibwe were produced by Europeans in the 17th century. The Ojibwe's earliest encounters with French colonists were probably around 1610, as French trappers pushed west in search of beaver pelts. Encounters with Roman Catholic missionaries followed, with Ojibwe first encountering Franciscans in 1622 and the Jesuits in 1641.

In the 1670s the Jesuits established a mission at the Sault, with a sparse Roman Catholic missionary effort continuing through the 18th century. New Roman Catholic missions were created on the Earl of Selkirk's Red River Colony in 1815, with the 1820s seeing more concerted Roman Catholic proselytization efforts among the Ojibwe. The 1820s also saw the formation of Anglican, Methodist, and Presbyterian missions to Ojibwe communities, particularly those in the United States and southeast Ontario. There was much competition and rivalry among these Christian missionary groups; Roman Catholics were generally more tolerant of Ojibwe cultural practices like family feasts and mourning customs than their Protestant rivals.

As Christian missionary influence grew over the Ojibwe, so did Ojibwe opposition. Many resented that Ojibwe land was being parcelled off for Christian missions and that Indian annuities were also being directed to fund them. Various historians have argued that the Midewiwin may have emerged as a revitalisation movement in response to European-American expansion, offering an alternative worldview to that of the Christians and a means of resistance to it.

An Ojibwe man photographed in 1918

European-American society put increasing pressure on the Ojibwe to abandon their traditional religion. Some Ojibwe who converted probably sincerely believed in Christian teachings but others likely converted to receive gifts from missionaries or to secure alliances with Christian Europeans. Others may have felt that Christianity possessed greater healing power than their traditional religion, or drew upon both Christianity and their established custom, for instance regarding Jesus as another manitou. In some cases, Christian elements were incorporated into the Midewiwin ceremonies, although more broadly the Midewiwin society increasingly had to operate underground and saw its numbers dwindle. Fearing that it would die out, some Midewiwin members informed European-Americans about its practices so that they might write it down.

European colonisation brought substantial change for the Ojibwe. By the 1870s, Ojibwe in both Canada and the United States were predominantly living on reservations, with government policies dedicated to transforming them from hunter-gatherers to settled agriculturalists. In the 1870s, President Ulysses S. Grant's policies in the U.S. placed missionaries in charge of Native reservations, resulting in greater success in the conversion of many Ojibwe. By the late 19th century, the Ojibwe in southeast Ontario were largely Christian. Christian organisations, often supported by the government, established boarding schools in which Ojibwe children were acculturated to European cultural norms and distanced from their traditional culture. The traditional puberty rite died out while many other religious customs declined.

Revivalism

Ojbwe people taking part in a powwow at the Grand Portage Indian Reservation in 2009

By the mid-20th century, Christianity had reached all areas inhabited by Ojibwe.

Writing in the 1990s, Smith observed that Ojibwe religion had undergone "a great revival". The Woodlands style of art, associated with the work of Norval Morrisseau in the 1960s, often featured traditional myth in its imagery and contributed to this religious resurgence. Various Ojibwe sought to recreate the Midewiwin, relying on recorded accounts of the practice to do so. Many Ojibwe have interpreted this cultural revival as a fulfilment of the Seven Fires prophecy; the Seventh Prophecy had recounted a rebirth of the Ojibwe people and a return to their ancestral ways.

In 1968, several Ojibwe Natives founded the American Indian Movement (AIM) activist group. AIM soon gained a Lakota focus as its members sought the guidance of Lakota religious leader Leonard Crow Dog. The sweat lodge ceremony practised by Lakota groups have since spread widely among Native Americans. The scholar of religion Suzanne Owen noted that she had seen Ojibwe people using the Lakota term mitakuye oyasin (all my relations) as a means of encapsulating Native American perspectives on life more broadly.

Reception and legacy

Smith noted that many of the Ojibwe she encountered saw their traditional religion not as a culturally bound system but as something that might contribute to a new world philosophy. One Ojibwe, Wa’na’nee’che, for instance taught sweat lodge ceremonies to people in the United Kingdom during the 2000s.

Christian missionaries have often perceived the manitouk as demons. The religion of the Ojibwes has attracted less academic attention than the traditions of some of their neighbors, in part due to the absence of any 19th-century revivalist movement under a clear leader, something seen in certain other Native communities.

References

Sources

• Angel, Michael (2016). Preserving the Sacred: Historical Perspectives on the Ojibwa Midewiwin. Manitoba Studies in Native History. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. ISBN 978-0887556579.
• Crawford, Suzanne J. (2007). Native American Religious Traditions. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education. ISBN 9780131834835.
• Feraca, Stephen E. (2001). Wakinyan: Lakota Religion in the Twentieth Century. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9780803269057.
• Hallowell, A. Irving (1964). "Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior, and World View". In Stanley Diamond (ed.). Primitive Views of the World: Essays from Culture in History. New York and London: Columbia University Press. pp. 49–82.
• Harvey, Graham (2013). Food, Sex and Strangers: Understanding Religion as Everyday Life. Durham: Acumen. ISBN 978-1-84465-693-6.
• Hultkrantz, Åke (1980) [1967]. The Religions of the American Indians. Translated by Monica Setterwall. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-04239-5.
• Johnston, Basil (1990) [1982]. Ojibway Ceremonies. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803275730.
• Landes, Ruth (1968). Ojibwa Religion and the Midéwiwin. Madison and London: University of Wisconsin Press.
• Morrison, Kenneth M. (2000). "The Cosmos as Intersubjective: Native American Other-Than-Human Persons". In Graham Harvey (ed.). Indigenous Religions: A Companion. London: Cassell. pp. 23–36. ISBN 978-0304704484.
• Morrison, Kenneth M. (2002). The Solidarity of Kin: Ethnohistory, Religious Studies, and the Algonkian-French Religious Encounter. SUNY Series in Native American Religions. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. ISBN 9780791454053.
• Owen, Suzanne (2008). The Appropriation of Native American Spirituality. Continuum Advances in Religious Studies. London and New York: Continuum. ISBN 978-1441185303.
• Smith, Theresa S. (2012) [1995]. The Island of the Anishnaabeg: Thunderers and Water Monsters in the Traditional Ojibwe Life-World. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-3832-9.
• Vecsey, Christopher (1983). Traditional Ojibwa Religion and its Historical Changes. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society. ISBN 978-0871691521.

Further reading

• Brown, Jennifer S. H. (2018). Ojibwe Stories from the Upper Berens River: A. Irving Hallowell and Adam Bigmouth in Conversation. New Visions in Native American and Indigenous Studies. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-1496202253.
• Bunge, Nancy (2024). Converting the Missionaries: The Wheeler Family and the Ojibwe. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-3031517792.
• Densmore, Frances (1979). Chippewa Customs. Minnesota Historical Press.
• Johnston, Basil (2001). The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the Ojibway. Minnesota Historical Society Press.
• McNaly, Michael D. (2009). Honoring Elders: Aging, Authority, and Ojibwe Religion. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231145022.
• Pomedli, Michael (2014). Living with Animals: Ojibwe Spirit Powers. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1442614796.
• Treuer, Anton (2021). The Cultural Toolbox: Traditional Ojibwe Living in the Modern World. Minnesota Historical Society Press.