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'Anishinaabe traditional beliefs' cover the traditional belief system of the Anishinaabeg peoples, consisting of the Algonquin/Nipissing, Ojibwa/Chippewa/Saulteaux/Mississaugas, Odawa, Potawatomi and Oji-cree, located primarily in the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada.

Contents

''Midewiwin''

Migration story

Common medicinal plants and their uses

Other ceremonial acts and beliefs

''Aadizookaan''

Nanabozho stories

The Song of Hiawatha

Spiritual beings

Other stories

See also

References

External links

Bibliography and further reading

''Midewiwin''

Main articles: Midewiwin

The '''Midewiwin''' (also spelled 'Midewin' and 'Medewiwin') is the Grand Medicine Society of the aboriginal groups of the Maritimes, New England and Great Lakes regions in North America. Its practitioners are called ''Midew'' and the practices of ''Midewiwin'' referred to as the ''Mide''. The ''Midewiwin'' society is a secretive animistic religion, requiring an initiation, and then progressing to four levels of practioners. A particularly powerful and well-respected spiritual leader, who had reached the forth level of the Midewiwin, was called a ''Jaasakiid'' or ''Jiisakiiwinini'', also known as a "Juggler" or "Shaking-tent Seer."

Migration story

According to the oral history of the Anishinaabeg, they originally lived on the shores of the "Great Salt Water" (presumably the Atlantic Ocean near the Gulf of St. Lawrence). They were instructed by seven prophets to follow a sacred ''miigis'' shell (whiteshell) toward the west, until they reached a place where food grew upon the water.^[1] They began their migration some time around 950,^[2] stopping at various points several times along the way (most significantly at ''Baawitigong'', Sault Ste. Marie, where they stayed for a long time), and splitting up into a number of subgroups. Eventually they arrived at the wild ricing lands of Minnesota and Wisconsin (wild rice being the food that grew upon the water) and made ''Mooningwanekaaning minis'' (Madeline Island: "Island of the yellow-shafted flicker") their new capital. In total, the migration took around five centuries.²

Common medicinal plants and their uses

★ ''Asemaa'' (Tobacco)

★ ''Nookwezigan'' (Smudge stick)

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★ ''Mashkodewashk'' (White sage)

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★ ''Wiingashk'' (Sweet grass)

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★ ''Giizhik'' (White cedar)

Other ceremonial acts and beliefs

★ ''Jiingotamog'' and ''Niimi'idimaa'' (Ceremonial and Secular Pow-wows)

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★ Sun Dance

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★ Jingle dress

★ Sweatlodge

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★ Seven Grandfathers

★ ''Oshkaabewis'' - A ceremonial assistant to the ''Midewinini''.

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★ Drumkeeper

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★ Firekeeper

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★ Pipekeeper

★ Dreamcatcher (Native American)

''Aadizookaan''

Traditional stories told by the Anishinaabeg are the basis for the oral legends. Known as the ''aadizookaanan'' ("traditional stories," singular ''aadizookaan''), they are told by the ''debaajimojig'' ("story-tellers", singular ''debaajimod'') only in winter in order to preserve their transformative powers.

Nanabozho stories

Main articles: Nanabozho

'Nanabozho' (also known by a variety of other names and spellings, including ''Wenabozho'', ''Menabozho'', and ''Nanabush'') is a trickster figure and culture hero who features as the protagonist of a cycle of stories that serve as the Anishinaabe origin myth. The cycle, which varies somewhat from community to community, tells the story of Nanabozho's conception, birth, and his ensuing adventures, which involve interactions with spirit and animal beings, the creation of the Earth, and the establishment of the Midewiwin. The myth cycle explains the origin of several traditions, including mourning customs, beliefs about the afterlife, and the creation of the sacred plant ''asemaa'' (tobacco).

The Song of Hiawatha

Main articles: The Song of Hiawatha

'''The Song of Hiawatha''' is an 1855 epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow based on the Nanabozho stories. Longfellow credited as his source the work of pioneering ethnographer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, specifically Schoolcraft's ''Algic Researches'' and ''History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States.''

Spiritual beings

In the ''aadizookaan'' many '''manidoog''' ("spiritual beings") are encountered. They include, but not limited, to the following.

★ ''Aadizookaanag'' (singular ''Aadizookaan'') - Manifestation of the traditional teachings, often seen as being the Muses.

★ ''Animikiig'' ("thunderers", singular ''animikii'') also called "thunderbirds" (''binesiwag'', singular ''binesi'')

★ Aniwye is a skunk spirit and was the first skunk to be given the smell by Nanabozho when he was starving.

★ ''Bakaak'' is a flying skeleton. He is in this form for committing an act of murder and this is form of punishment for that act.

★ Earth-Mother, aka ''Nookomis'' - "Algonquin legend says that "[b]eneath the clouds [lives] the Earth-Mother from whom is derived the Water of Life, who at her bosom feeds plants, animals and men" (Larousse 428). (8) She is known as Nokomis, the Grandmother." Also known as ''Omizakamigokwe'' ("Throughout the Earth Woman") or ''Giizhigookwe'' ("Sky Woman").

★ ''E-bangishimog'' - The west wind, ''manidoo'' of ultimate destiny. E-bangishimog is considered to be the father of ''Majiikiwis'', ''Bapakiwis'', ''Jiibayaabooz'' and ''Nanabozho''.

★ Elbow Witch

★ ''Gaa-biboonikaan'' - Bringer of winter.

★ ''Gichi-manidoo'' is the father of life, "The Great Spirit, the Supreme Being"

★ ''Jiibayaabooz'' - "Spirit Rabbit" who taught methods of communication with the ''manidoog'' through dreams, vision quests and purification ceremonies. He is the "Chief of the Underworld."

★ ''Majiikiwis'' - Eldest son of ''E-bangishimog'' and brother of Nanabozho in the ''aadizookaan'' but was casted as the father of Hiawatha in The Song of Hiawatha by Longfellow.

★ ''Mandaamin'' - Maize manidoo

★ ''Memegwesi'' (or variously as ''Omemengweshii'', ''Memengwesi'', ''Memegweshi'', etc.) - usually described as a hairy-faced river bank-dwelling dwarfs, often travelling in small groups, appearing only to those of "pure mind" and often to children.

★ ''Mishibizhiw'' (meaning "Great Lynx"; also known as ''Mishipeshu'') is a horned panther living in the waters, often associated with copper. While not strictly evil, Mishibizhiw was greatly feared, and often said to cause drowning deaths.

★ ''Mishi-ginebig'' (also known as Mishikinebik) is a great horned snake, a powerful underground manidoo that was the guardian spirit brings that brings wisdom and healing.

★ ''Mizaawaabikamoo''/''Ozaawaabikamoo'' - Rock manidoo

★ ''Nibiinaabewag/niibinaabekwewag'' ("Watermen"/"Waterman-women", singular ''nibiinaabe/nibiinaabekwe'') are mermen and mermaids

★ Wemicus is a trickster spirit.

★ ''Wiindigoog'' (singular ''wiindigoo'') are giant, powerful, malevolent cannibalistic spirits associated with the Winter and the North. If a human ever resorts to cannibalism to survive, they are said to become possessed by the spirit of a wiindigoo, and develop an overpowering desire for more human flesh.

★ ''Wiisagejaak'' - Crane manidoo, also known as "Whiskey Jack"

★ ''Wiininwaa'' - A woman entitled as "Norishment" who became immortal through ''manidoowiziwin'' (the process of taking on qualities of a Manitou); daughter of ''Nookomis'' and mother of Nanabozho.

Other stories

★ Aayaase (also known as "Aayaash" or "Iyash")

★ Shingebiss

See also

★ Native American mythology

★ Abenaki mythology

★ Blackfoot mythology

★ Lenape mythology

References

1. Benton-Banai (1988), pp. 89-102
2. Benton-Banai (1988), pg. 102

External links

★ The Culture and Language of the Minnesota Ojibwe: An Introduction Schneider, Karoline

★ Text to the "Ojibwe Prayer to a Slain Deer"

Bibliography and further reading

★ Blessing, Fred K., Jr. ''The Ojibway Indians observed''. Minnesota Archaeological Society (St. Paul: 1977).

★ Barnouw, Victor. ''Wisconsin Chippewa Myths & Tales and Their Relation to Chippewa Life''. Univ. of Wisconsin Press (Madison: 1977).

★ Benton-Banai, Edward. ''The Mishomis Book: The voice of the Ojibway''. Indian Country Communications, Inc., and Red School House Press (Hayward, WI: 1988).

★ Densmore, Frances. ''Chippewa Customs''. Minnesota Historical Press (St. Paul: 1979).

★ Hoffman, Walter James, M.D. ''The Mide'wiwin: Grand Medicine Society of the Ojibway''. Lightning Source Inc. (Minneapolis: 2005).

★ Johnston, Basil. ''Ojibway heritage''. Columbia University Press (New York: 1976).

★ Johnston, Basil. ''How the birds got their colours : Gah w'indinimowaut binaesheehnyuk w'idinauziwin-wauh''. Kids Can Press (Toronto: 1978).

★ Johnston, Basil. ''Tales the elders told : Ojibway legends''. Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto: 1981).

★ Johnston, Basil. ''Ojibway ceremonies''. McClelland and Stewart (Toronto: 1987).

★ Johnston, Basil. ''Tales of the Anishinaubaek''. Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto: 1993).

★ Johnston, Basil. ''The Manitous: the spiritual world of the Ojibway''. HarperCollins Publishers (New York: 1995).

★ Johnston, Basil. ''The bear-walker and other stories''. Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto: 1995).

★ Johnston, Basil. ''The star man and other tales''. Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto: 1997).

★ Johnston, Basil. ''Mermaids and Medicine Women''. Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto: 1998).

★ Johnston, Basil. ''Honour Earth Mother''. University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln: 2003).

★ Jones, William. ''Ojibwa Texts'', vol. 7. Collected by William Jones. Truman Michelson, ed. Leyden, E.J. Brill, Ltd. (New York: G.E. Stechert & Co., 1917-19).

★ Warren, William W. ''History of the Ojibway People''. Minnesota Historical Society Press (St. Paul: 1984 [1885]).