Midewiwin

Did You Know?

• The term Midewiwin is sometimes translated as 'The Way of the Heart' due to the body-part medial de' meaning 'heart' in the Anishinaabe language.
• Whiteshell Provincial Park in Manitoba is named after the whiteshell (cowry) used in Midewiwin ceremonies.
• The Midew society is commemorated in the name of the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Illinois.

Origins

Among the Anishinaabeg, the Midewin is commonly attributed to Wenaboozho as its founder, while the Abenakis ascribe its origin to Mateguas, who bestowed the Midewiwin upon his death to comfort his grieving brother Gluskab. According to historian Michael Angel, the Midewin is a flexible, tenacious tradition that provided an institutional setting for teaching the world view of the Ojibwa people. Walter James Hoffman recorded an account from the Mille Lacs Indian chief Bayezhig, who stated that in the beginning, Midemanidoo created the midemanidoowag, first making two men and two women who lacked thought or reason.

Midemanidoo then made them rational, paired them, and from them sprang the Anishinaabe. Observing that people were subject to sickness, misery, and death, Midemanidoo decided to provide the Sacred Medicine to prevent their extinction. He communed with four lesser manidoog, who consulted with the four wind manidoog and agreed to ask Gichi Manidoo to communicate the Mystery of the Sacred Medicine to the people. Gichi Manidoo then sent the Sun Spirit, in the form of a little boy, to instruct the people.

Medicine lodge

The midewigaan, also called mide-wiigiwaam when small or midewigamig when large, is known in English as the Grand Medicine Lodge and is typically built in an open grove or clearing. It is a domed structure with a width-to-length ratio of one to four; Hoffman recorded such structures measuring about 20 feet in width by 80 feet in length, but modern lodges for small communities may be as small as 6 feet by 24 feet. The walls of smaller mide-wiigiwaam are made of poles and saplings 8 to 10 feet high, wattled with short branches and twigs.

In communities with 100 or more participants, the midewigamig becomes a permanent ceremonial building that retains the same dimensions but may have vaulted ceilings rather than a dome. The jiisakiiwigaan, or shaking tent, is similar in construction but is a round high-domed structure typically 3 feet in diameter and 6 feet in height, large enough for two to four people.

Ceremonies

The Wiikwandiwin begins with a review of past events, a prayer, and the smoking of the pipe by the heads of the doodem, and is held in mid-winter and mid-summer to combine healing powers for revitalization. Other ceremonies include Nitaawigiwin (birth rites), Waawiindaasowin (naming rites), Oshki-nitaagewin (first-kill rites), Makadekewin (puberty fast rites), Wiidigendiwin (marriage rites), Bagidinigewin (death rites), and Jiisakiiwin (shaking tent ceremony), conducted by a seer known as a jaasakiid.

Teaching objects

The Ojibwe used birch bark scrolls, called wiigwaasabakoon, to share knowledge across generations. When employed in Midewiwin ceremonies, these teaching scrolls were known as Mide-wiigwaas. According to 19th-century accounts, a group of elders safeguarded the scrolls in secret spots, recopying any that were badly damaged and storing them underground. The scrolls were deeply sacred, and their meanings were not freely shared. The Ojibwe also created some of the earliest river and lake maps on birch bark. Teaching stones, referred to as Gikinoo'amaagewaabik or Gikinoo'amaage-asin, could take the form of petroglyphs or petroforms. One large birch bark roll was reportedly used at Mille Lacs for five generations, while two others, discovered hidden in Ontario's Head-of-the-Lakes region, were carbon-dated to roughly 1560 CE plus or minus 70 years.