Ojibway Culture - Part 3

Ojibway Culture

Most Ojibwe lived in the northern Great Lakes
with a short growing season and poor soil.
They were hunter-gatherers who harvested wild rice
and maple sugar. Woodland Ojibwe had no salt to preserve food
and generally mixed everything with maple syrup as seasoning.
They were skilled hunters and trappers
(useful skills in war and the fur trade). Fishing,
especially for sturgeon, provided much of their diet
and became progressively more important in the northernmost bands.
As a rule, Woodland Ojibwe rarely used horses or hunted buffalo.
Dogs were the only domestic animal and a favorite dish
served at their feasts. The Ojibwe used birchbark
for almost everything: utensils, storage containers, and,
most importantly, canoes. Coming in a variety of sizes
depending on purpose, the birchbark canoe was lighter
than the dugouts used by the Dakota (Sioux)
and other tribes. Birchbark was also used to cover their elliptical,
dome-shaped wigwams. When a family moved,
the covering of the wigwam was rolled up and taken along
leaving only the framework.


(Birchbark Canoe)

Summer clothing was buckskin with fur outer garments added for winter.
The men wore breechcloths, but both sexes wore leggings.
Moccasins were the distinctive puffed seamed style
that gave Ojibwe their name. These were often colored with red,
yellow, blue, and green, dyes made by the women. Long,
cold winters were spent confined inside their wigwams
also allowed time to add intricate quill and moose-hair designs.
The Ojibwe often passed these times and entertained
each other with stories, an art for which they are still renown.
Generally, men and women wore their hair long and braided.
In times of war, men might change to a scalplock. Ojibwe scalped,
but as a rule they killed and did not torture.
Like other Great Lakes warriors, there was ritual cannibalism
of their dead enemies. Polygamy was rare.
Their social organization was based on approximately
15-20 patrilineal clans which extended across band lines
and provided their initial sense of tribal unity.


(Ojibway beads)

According to their tradition,
and from recordings in birch bark scrolls,
they came from the eastern areas of North America,
or Turtle Island, and from along the east coast.
According to the oral history, seven great miigis (radiant)
beings appeared to the peoples in the Waabanakiing
(Land of the Dawn, or Eastern Land) to teach the peoples
of the mide way of life. However, the one of the seven great miigis
beings was too spiritually powerful and killed the peoples
in the Waabanakiing whenever the people were in its presence.
The six great miigis beings remained to teach while
the one returned into the ocean. The six great miigis
beings then established doodem (clans)
for the peoples in the east.


(Turtle island)

Of these doodem, the five original Anishinaabe doodem
were the Wawaazisii (Bullhead), Baswenaazhi (Echo-maker, or Crane),
Aan'aawenh (Pintail Duck), Nooke (Tender, or Bear)
and Moozoonsii (Little Moose), then these six miigis
beings returned into the ocean as well.
If the seventh miigis being stayed,
it would have established the Thunderbird doodem.


(Crest of the Anishinaabe people)

Most Ojibwa, except for the Plains bands,
lived a sedentary lifestyle, engaging in fishing, hunting,
the farming of maize and squash, and the harvesting
of Manoomin (wild rice). Their typical dwelling
was the wiigiwaam (wigwam), built either as a waaginogaan (domed-lodge)
or as a nasawa'ogaan (pointed-lodge), made of birch bark,
juniper bark and willow saplings. They also developed
a form of pictorial writing used in religious rites
of the Midewiwin and recorded on birch bark scrolls
and possibly on rock. The sacred scrolls are complicated
with a lot of historical, geometrical, and mathematical
knowledge communicated through the many complex pictures.
The miigis shell (cowry shell) was also used in ceremonies,
and this shell can only be found from far away coastal areas,
indicating a vast trade network at some time across the continent.
The use and trade of copper across the continent
is also proof of a very large area of trading
that took place thousands of years ago,
as far back as the Hopewell culture.
Certain types of rock used for spear and arrow heads
were also traded over large distances. The use of petroforms,
petroglyphs, and pictographs was common throughout
their traditional territories. Petroforms
and medicine wheels were a way to teach
the important concepts of four directions,
astronomical observations about the seasons,
and as a memorizing tool for certain stories and beliefs.


(Ojibway wigwam)

The Ojibwe people and culture are alive and growing today.
During the summer months, the people attend jiingotamog
for the spiritual and niimi'idimaa for a social gathering (pow-wows)
at various reservations in the Anishinaabe-Aki (Anishinaabe Country).
Many people still follow the traditional ways of harvesting wild rice,
picking berries, hunting, making medicines, and making maple sugar.
Many of the Ojibwa take part in sun dance ceremonies
across the continent. The sacred scrolls are also kept
hidden away until those that are worthy
and respect them are given permission to see them
and then to interpret them properly.

The Ojibwa would bury their dead in a burial mound;
many erect a jiibegamig or a "spirit-house" over each mound.
Instead of a headstone with the deceased's name
inscribed upon it, a traditional burial mound would typically
have a wooden marker, inscribed with the deceased's doodem.
Due to the distinct features of these burials,
Ojibwa graves have been often looted by grave robbers.
In the United States, many Ojibwa communities safe-guard
their burial mounds through the enforcement
of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

Several Ojibwa bands in the United States cooperate
in the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission,
which manages their treaty hunting and fishing rights
in the Lake Superior-Lake Michigan areas.
The commission follows the directives of U.S. agencies
to run several wilderness areas. Some Minnesota Ojibwa
tribal councils cooperate in the 1854 Authority,
which manages their treaty hunting
and fishing rights in the Arrowhead Region.

~Whitewolfe~

The Ojibway Indians - Part 2

The Ojibway Indians - Part 2

The Ojibway tribe is scattered throughout the Dominion
and embraces several branches, including the Ojibways proper,
Missisaugas and Saulteaux.

The name of the tribe has been spelled in various ways,
as Achipoes, Outchepoues, Otchipwes, Ojibways,
Ojibwas, Chippewas and Chippeways. The term Ojibway,
signifies "pucker", derived from the peculiar pucker of the moccasin,
or to "roast till puckered up",
reffering to the inhuman method employed by this tribe,
as well as others, of burning the captives taken in war.
Some writers have sought the origin of the Ojibway,
and indeed of numerous Indian tribes,
from the lost tribes of Jewish history,
a solution more satisfactory to their own minds
than to those of their readers.
When the white people first came in contact with the Ojibways,
early in the seventeenth century,
they found them inhabiting the south-eastern
shores of Lake Superior, especially in the vicinity
of Sault Ste. Marie. This does not, however,
appear to have been their original home,
as their traditions assert that,
long before the advent of the white race,
they were living as the salt water in the east,
probably on the St. Lawrence.



Henry Warren, a native Ojibway,
relates a tradition which he heard in a speech
delivered by one of the native priests
wherein their religion is symbolized
in the figure of a sea-shell,
and the migrations of the people recorded.
(from A.F. Chamberlain, "The Mississaugas")

"Our forefathers were living on the great salt water
toward the rising sun, the great Megis (sea shell)
showed itself above the surface of the great water,
and the rays of the sun for a long period
were reflected from its glossy back.
It gave warmth and light to the An-ish-in-aub-ag (red race).
All at once it sank into the deep,
and for a time our ancestors were not blessed with its light.
It rose to the surface and appeared again on the great river,
which drains the water of the Great Lakes,
and again for a long time it gave life to our forefathers
and reflected back the rays of the sun.
Again it dissappeared from sight,
and it rose not till it appeared to the eyes
of the An-ish-in-aub-ag on the shores of the first great lake.
Again it sank from sight, and death daily visited
the wigwams of our forefathers,
till it showed its back and reflected
the rays of the sun once more at Bow-e-ting (Sault Ste Marie).
Here is remained for a long time, but once more,
and for the last time, it disappeared,
and the An-ish-in-aub-ag was left in darkness and misery,
till it floated and once more showed its bright back
at Mo-ning-wun-a-kaun-ing (La Pointe Island),
where it has ever since reflected back the rays of the sun
and blessed our ancestors with life, light and wisdom.
Its rays reach the remotest village of the wide-spread Ojibways.



Mr. Warren relates another tradition reffering to the same matter,
only in another form: "There is another tradition told
by the old men of the Ojibway village of Fond du Lac (Lake Superior)
which tells of their former residence
on the shores of the great salt water. It is, however,
so similar in character to the one I have related
that is introduction here would only occupy unnecessary space.
The only difference between the two traditions is that the otter,
which is emblematical of one of the four Medicine Spirits
who are believed to preside over the Midawe rites,
is used in one in the same figurative manner
as the sea shell is used in the other,
first appearing to the ancient An-ish-in-aub-ag
from the depths of the great salt water:
again on the River St.Lawrence: then on Lake Huron at Sault Ste.Marie:
again at La Pointe: but lasly at Fond du Lac,
or end of Lake Superior, where it is said,
to have forced the sandbank at the mouth of the St.Louis River.
The place is still pointed out by the Indians
where they believe the great otter broke through"



According to tradition,
the Ojibways separated into different bands,
some traveling toward the south and others westward
and northward on the shores of Lake Superior,
while the main body remained in the vicinity of the Sault.
It is evident that a large band of them must have entered Pigeon River,
on the north shore of Lake Superior,
and traveling westward become scattered widely throughout Algoma,
locating at various points in the Thunder Bay
and Rainy River districts, where their descendants still remain.
As they became known as the Bois Forts, the "Hardwood or Timber People",
they must have lived for quite a long period in these districts,
having entered Manitoba and the North-West Territory.

(From the book, Canadian savage folk the native tribes of Canada)

~Whitewolfe~

Simple and honest words......

Simple and honest words......

"The traditional Hopi spiritual elders say
that we have not learned our lessons
in the past from our use of technology.
Technology is now having a world of its own.
We are using technology to accumulate wealth and power.
We are now using technology for the wrong reasons.
Technology is now out of control.

Hopi elders say that developers only see money,
profit and gain from Mother Earth.
For one thousand years the Hopi have grown corn
in the desert and offered eagle feathers
to the spirits giving thanks.
The Hopi say that we come from Mother Earth
and we go back to Mother Earth when we die.

Native Americans have great respect
for Hopi spiritual leaders, because the word Hopi
means peaceful people and Hopi are praying for harmony
and balance Mother Earth. Hopi spiritual elders
believe they are caretakers of Mother Earth
as do most Native Americans who follow their traditions."

I hope you all find this way,
the way of inner balance....

I learned so much from the Hopi,
we can go two ways, both ways are okay,
but one way, the wrong way end soon....

I found for me the right way, and its so easy...
I hope many people starts to think about this simple,
honest words......

AHO
~U-ne-ga-wa-ya~