Ojibwe religion

Ojibwe religion is the traditional Native American religion of the Ojibwe people. It is practiced primarily in the northeastern 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 supernatural beings called the manitouk. These come in different 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; historically, 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. 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, where they were exposed more heavily to Christianity. 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[edit]

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

The Ojibwe are an Algonquian-speaking people.[1] Together with the Odawa (Ottawa) and Potawatomi nations, they form a confederation called the Three Fires.[2] The term Ojibwe 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.[3] The alternative spelling Ochipwe has also resulted in the Ojibwe sometimes being called the Chippewa, especially in the United States.[3] Many Ojibwe refer to themselves as the Anishnaabeg, although this term usually also encompasses all Algonquian-speaking peoples.[4]

Ojibwe religion has been described as an aboriginal religion.[5] It has no dogma,[6] and no textual canon.[7] Ojibwe religion is not dogmatically codified and there is therefore variation in its belief and practice.[8] Many of its rituals have changed over time,[9] and the religion no longer exists in the form practiced by the Ojibwe when they were a hunter-gatherer society prior to European contact.[10] Native American religions more broadly have always adapted in response to environmental changes and interactions with other communities.[11]

As with Native Americans generally,[12] among the Ojibwe religion is a fully integrated facet of life and culture.[13] Ojibwe people generally tend to a holistic view of religion.[14] Ojibwe traditional worldviews closely resemble those of other Algonquian-speaking peoples.[15] The Ojibwe's religion is particularly similar to that of the Odawa people,[16] although they also share many religious and cultural elements with groups like the Potawatomi, Menominee, and Cree.[17]

Many Ojibwe combine traditional religious activities with involvement in Christianity, usually Catholicism, equating the Christian God with the traditional Ojibwe figure Kitche Manitou.[18] Others will remain committed to just one of the two religions.[19] In the Ojibwe language, there are no indigenous words synonymous with the English language term religion.[13] 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.[13] Many Ojibwe prefer to describe their traditional beliefs and practices as "our way" or "our way of life" rather than as a "religion."[20]

## Beliefs[edit]

### Theology and the manitouk[edit]

Ojibwe religion maintains that human existence relies on maintaining relations with powerful beings, the manitouk (manidoog).[21] These have been described as "spirits",[22] while the scholar of religion Theresa S. Smith called them "the power beings of the Ojibwe cosmos".[4] 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.[23] Beyond these, there are a wider range of less powerful manitouk.[23]

Manitouk act according to their own needs and desires,[24] reflecting similar motivations to humans but possessing much greater power.[25] The relationship between Ojibwe people and different manitouk varies, with some being viewed with affection and others with dread,[25] for the latter’s actions sometimes proving harmful for humans.[26] Manitouk deemed particularly harmful to humans, such as Mishebeshu or the wendigo, are termed matchi-manitou (evil manitou).[27]

The manitouk are entities with whom humans can build personal relationships.[28] Historically, Ojibwe were 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.[29]

They are also regarded as having metamorphic abilities to change into various forms.[30] 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.[31] An example of a manitou moving in a prescribed pattern is Ningobianong, the evening star.[31]

Traditionally, the manitouk are seen as the ultimate source of hunting success for the Ojibwe and thus of their main food source.[25] Ojibwe tradition teaches that the manitouk can communicate with humans through dreams.[32] through which they can bestow gifts of healing or power, historically often a skill in hunting.[33] For this reason, manitouk are also referred to as pawaganak (dream visitors), especially among northern Ojibwe.[34] If a person encounters an unwanted manitou in a dream, they will sometimes scrap their tongue with a cedar knife.[35] 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.[36]

#### Kitche Manitou and Nanabush[edit]

No one manitou is believed to rule supreme over the others.[25] Kitche Manitou is the creator, but is deemed largely uninvolved with human affairs.[37] In one traditional interpretation, the sky is the hand of Kitche Manitou.[38] Since the introduction of Christianity, many Ojibwe have equated this figure with the Christian God.[31] Kitche Manitou is believed to send messages to the Ojibwe through eagles, whose appearance and movements may be interpreted accordingly.[39]

Nanabush is the culture hero of the Ojibwe.[40] 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.[41] According to Ojibwe lore, 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.[42]

#### Animikeek[edit]

One of the most prominent group of manitouk are the animikeek (singular animiki), the thunderbirds or thunderers.[43] Among northern Ojibwe, as well as among Cree people, they are also sometimes called pinesiwak.[44] They are traditionally perceived as resembling eagles,[45] although they also take on human form, sometimes with wings.[46] Thunderbird beliefs are not unique to the Ojibwe and are found among many Native American groups, being particularly prominent among Sioux communities.[47] Ojibwe tradition holds that the arrival of the animikeek is signalled by thunderstorms,[47] a phenomenon common across the northern Great Lakes from late spring through to winter.[48] A common belief among Ojibwe is that they as a people experience thunderstorms more frequently than any other group.[48]

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

Thunder is seen as a form of communication, one that is sometimes intelligible to humans.[49] Some Ojibwe relate that they can differentiate the various individual thunderers by the sounds that they make.[35] According to Ojibwe tradition, the animikeek fly across the sky to hunt underground or underwater manitouk.[50] Thunderbirds are generally regarded as coming from the west,[51] although among northern Ojibwe groups they are instead said to come from the south.[52] The animikeek are deemed to live in nests atop mountains, including the La Cloche Mountains and Mount McKay near Thunder Bay.[53] They live in family groups,[54] with young thunderers sometimes behaving in an unruly and destructive way with their lightning.[54]

Along with their lightning bolts, the animikeek are believed to cast small spherical stones to the ground, thunderstones, which then offer people protection from the power of storms.[55] If a tree has been struck by lightning, Ojibwe may search the base of it for such stones.[56] Ojibwe often show respect to the animikeek by calling them grandfathers.[57] 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.[58]

#### Mishebeshu[edit]

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.[59] 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.[60] The best-known portrayal of the figure is the pictograph at Agawa Rock on the north shore of Lake Superior, created prior to 1850.[61]

Mishebeshu is deemed responsible for pulling people to their deaths in rivers and lakes, and also turning the ground to quicksand or swamp beneath their feet;[62] he is also associated with stealing infants.[63] The Ojibwe traditionally fear Mishebeshu, displaying an attitude different from the caution and respect accorded the animikeek.[62] According to lore, Mishebeshu can travel between different lakes via a network of subterranean tunnels.[64] Many Ojibwe have avoided going near certain lakes, especially in summer.[65] When they do need to cross the water, they will often propitiate him.[66] Offerings to him are principally of tobacco,[67] although historically he was also offered copper and sacrificed dogs.[68] Only the most powerful or daring Ojibwe healers turn to the Mishebeshu for guidance or medicine.[69]

According to one Ojibwe story, all snakes come from Mishebeshu, being created when he was struck by lightning long ago.[70] Copper is believed to come from Mishebeshu's body.[71] There is unending strife between the thunderers and Mishebeshu,[72] with the former hunting and eating the giant serpents.[73] There are also rare accounts of the Mishebeshu proving victorious in these clashes.[74] Stories involving the manitouk were historically only told in winter, when the waters were frozen. This was because it was feared that discussing the water manitouk would encourage them to emerge, which could prove dangerous to the storyteller.[75] 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".[75]

#### Other manitouk[edit]

Winter is characterised as an old warrior manitou, Bebon, while summer is the younger manitou Zeegwun, and the two perpetually struggle over a maiden.[76]

The windigo was once a human, but ultimately transformed after devouring his family.[77] In Ojibwe lore, being a glutton can turn a person into a windigo.[78] Algonquian peoples like the Ojibwe regard cannibals as a particular danger because they are obsessed with consuming without regard to kinship or thanksgiving.[79]

### Mythology[edit]

Ojibwe mythology is passed down orally.[80] Ojibwe traditionally drew a distinction between ordinary stories and sacred stories, the latter dealing with the manitouk.[75] 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.[75]

The traditional Ojibwe cosmology is a version of the Earth Diver narrative.[81] Among the Ojibwe, this cosmological story exists in various different forms.[81] Some modern Ojibwe regard this cosmogony as a literal account of their history, rejecting archaeological evidence for Native American groups descending from people who crossed into North America from Asia via the Behring Strait.[82]

### Cosmology[edit]

Ojibwe cosmology includes belief in a multilevel cosmos with different layers ruled by different manitouk.[38] The hierarchy of these layers nevertheless varies among different Ojibwe religionists.[83] In traditional Ojibwe cosmology, the world of humans is an island surrounded by water.[84] This island was formed by Nanabush and the earth divers after a great deluge.[85] Above humanity's realm is that of the thunderbirds.[31] Beneath the Earth is an underworld where the dead ultimately go.[30] In some accounts, the underworld or a certain layer of it are the reverse of the Earth.[30]

This cosmology is marked by the four directions which are the abodes of the winds and their tutelary spirits, the thunderbird manitouk.[86] The winds are sometimes perceived as being four separate entities, and at other times as part of the same being.[51] The four winds are named Waubun, Zeegwun, Ningobianong, and Bebon.[87] According to Ojibwe mythology, they were placed in the cardinal directions by Nanabush.[51] The directions, and especially the four cardinal points, are highly meaningful in Ojibwe cosmology.[3] Each quarter has its own colour: east is yellow, south is red, west is black, and north is white.[86]

### Animism[edit]

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)."[88] In traditional Ojibwe cosmology, animals, plants, objects, the sun, moon, and stars are all thought of as "persons."[89] They are all perceived as having intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, and the ability to speak,[90] with the traditional Ojibwe worldview emphasising the similarity, rather than the dissimilarity, of all beings.[91] Drawing on his research among the Ojibwe, the anthropologist Alfred Irving Hallowell termed these "other-than-human persons."[92] Harvey described this approach as animism,[93] by which he meant "efforts to live well in a world which is a community of persons, most of whom are 'other-than-human'."[94]

All persons are viewed as kin,[15] with Ojibwe sometimes referring to animal species like bears as relatives with terms like "brother" and "grandmother".[95] The metamorphosis of animals and humans is a recurring theme in Ojibwe myth and legend.[96]

### Morality and gender roles[edit]

Key to traditional Ojibwe life is the attempts to live well, or bimaadiziwin.[13] To ensure this, a person must build respectful and reciprocal relationships with powerful manitouk.[24] Dealing with life's hardships quietly and with equanimity is deemed admirable, while complaining or whining is frowned upon.[97]

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".[98] A person's bad behavior, referred to as madjiijiwe baziwin, can result in them being punished with misfortune or illness.[78] 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.[78]

Menstruating women are regarded as possessing an uncontrollable and dangerous power.[99] While menstruating, they are prohibited from dancing at powwows,[9] or from stepping over animals, especially those being prepared as food.[99] 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.[100] Elders are accorded status, prestige, and power in Ojibwe communities.[39] 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".[101]

## Practices[edit]

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

Ojibwe rituals, whether individual or communal, allow for relations with the manitouk.[102] Ceremonies represent opportunities for different kinds of "person" to interact.[94]

### Prayer and offerings[edit]

In Ojibwe religion, tobacco, cedar, sage, and sweetgrass are considered sacred plants.[103] Sweetgrass and tobacco rituals are practiced routinely.[104] Cedar and sweetgrass are deemed to have purifying properties.[35] Ojibwe people will often tie sweetgrass around their settlements, for instance onto medicine wheels or onto the rearview mirrors of their cars.[39] Tobacco is considered suitable as a gift, either as an expression of thanks or of supplication, for manitouk or human elders.[39] 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.[105] They may also bury tobacco outside their homes to propitiate the thunderers.[103]

Sage is used for prayer, but also burned for purification or tied into bundles and given as offerings.[106] When collecting sage, Ojibwe will often request permission to do so from the plant.[106]

### Pipe ceremonies[edit]

An Ojibwe pipe bowl and stem, made circa 1885

Pipe ceremonies include offerings to the four directions.[86] These take place before various events, including meetings, powwows, and weddings.[86]

### Vision quest[edit]

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.[29] Those seekers proceed to try and elicit pity from manitouk.[99] A manitou who agreed to become a person’s guardian would protect and guide them for life, in turn expecting loyalty, respect, and offerings.[107] An individual was not regarded as a complete person until this relationship had been formed.[108] 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.[107]

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.[109] There were nevertheless some women who did undertake the rite.[109] Smith found, in late 20th-century Manitoulin, that the vision quest had not been pursued at puberty for at least three generations.[110] Ojibwe adults had nevertheless continued the practice at other times in their lives; Dreamer’s Rock was for instance often chosen for the purpose.[111]

### Healing[edit]

Medicine plays a key role in Ojibwe religion.[102] Many Ojibwe healers will combine traditional remedies with Christian prayers.[112]

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.[113]

### Ritual specialists[edit]

The jessakid has been called a "conjuring shaman".[50] Their powers to translate the messages of the manitouk are regarded as a gift from the animikeek.[50] Those specialists deemed to have misused their powers are often hated and feared by their community.[78] They are thought possible of stealing or disrupting a person's soul to generate sickness, with babies being particularly vulnerable.[114]

The Ojbwe have no ritual clowns like the heyoka found among Sioux groups.[115]

### Midewiwin[edit]

An illustration of a midewiwin ritual first published in 1891

The Midewiwin is a major rite in Ojibwe religion.[116] It was common until the early 20th century but considered rare by the end of that century.[109] 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,[36] although scholars of religious history argue that only emerged after the Ojibwe’s contact with Europeans.[36] 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.[117] One version maintains that the underwater manitouk created the midewiwin and gave it to Nanabush to appease him after they had flooded the earth.[117]

Among contemporary Midewiwin, Kitche Manitou is generally regarded as their patron.[118] It has four to eight levels of initiation.[119] Initiates pay a fee, historically in goods but later in currency, to join the society.[119]

### Bearwalkers and sorcery[edit]

Ojibwe people may attribute ill health to sorcery and thus seek out a medicine man to assist in dealing with the problem.[120] This is often attributed to bearwalkers, who are believed to fire hairballs into their victims.[120] In Ojibwe belief, bearwalkers can change the form of their traveling soul but often take that of a bear, hence their name.[120] 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.[120] Ojibwe lore maintains that successful people in particular generate envy among others and thus become targets for the bearwalkers.[26]

## History[edit]

### Prehistory[edit]

Around 1200 CE, the hunting culture to which the Ojibwe belonged emerged in the conifer forests around the Great Lakes.[121] Prior to European contact, the Ojibwe's subsistence relied heavily on hunting and fishing, supplementing this diet with foraged plant sources.[122] Each Ojibwe extended family was politically autonomous although the exchange of members for marriage ensured regular contact between different Ojibwe groups.[121] It was only following the European encounter that the Ojibwe developed a common identity as a people.[123]

### Encounters with Christianity and colonialism[edit]

The earliest written accounts of the Ojibwe were produced by Europeans in the 17th century.[124] The Ojibwe's earliest encounters with French colonists were probably around 1610, as French trappers pushed west in search of beaver pelts.[123] Encounters with Roman Catholic missionaries followed, with Ojibwe first encountering Franciscans in 1622 and the Jesuits in 1641.[125] In the 1670s the Jesuits established a mission at the Sault, with a sparse Roman Catholic missionary effort continuing through the 18th century.[126] New Roman Catholic missions were created on the Earl of Selkirk's Red River Colony in 1815,[127] with the 1820s seeing more concerted Roman Catholic proselytization efforts among the Ojibwe.[128] The 1820s also saw the formation of Anglican, Methodist, and Presbyterian missions to Ojibwe communities, particularly those in the United States and southeast Ontario.[129] There was much competition and rivalry among these Christian missionary groups;[130] Roman Catholics were generally more tolerant of Ojibwe cultural practices like family feasts and mourning customs than their Protestant rivals.[131]

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.[132] Others may have felt that Christianity possessed greater healing power than their traditional religion,[133] or drew upon both Christianity and their established custom, for instance regarding Jesus as another manitou.[134] As Christian missionary influence grew over the Ojibwe, so did Ojibwe opposition.[135] Many resented that Ojibwe land was being parcelled off for Christian missions and that Indian annuities were also being directed to fund them.[136]

European colonisation brought substantial change for the Ojibwe.[137] 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.[138] 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.[139] By the late 19th century, the Ojibwe in southeast Ontario were largely Christian.[139] 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.[140] The traditional puberty rite died out while many other religious customs declined.[141]

### Revivalism[edit]

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.[142]

Writing in the 1990s, Smith observed that Ojibwe religion had undergone "a great revival".[143] The Woodlands style of art, associated with the work of Norval Morriseau in the 1960s, often featured traditional myth in its imagery and contributed to this religious resurgence.[144] Many Ojibwe have interpreted this cultural revival as a fulfilment of the Seven Fires prophecy;[145] the Seventh Prophecy had recounted a rebirth of the Ojibwe people and a return to their ancestral ways.[10]

In 1968, several Ojibwe Natives founded the American Indian Movement (AIM) activist group.[146] AIM soon gained a Lakota focus as its members sought the guidance of Lakota religious leader Leonard Crow Dog.[147] The sweat lodge ceremony practised by Lakota groups have since spread widely among Native Americans.[148] 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.[148]

## Reception and legacy[edit]

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.[149] One Ojibwe, Wa’na’nee’che, for instance taught sweat lodge ceremonies to people in the United Kingdom during the 2000s.[150]

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.[151]

## References[edit]

### Citations[edit]

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76. ^ Smith 2012, pp. 47–48.
77. ^ Smith 2012, p. 122.
78. ^ a b c d Smith 2012, p. 105.
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88. ^ Harvey 2013, p. 130.
89. ^ Morrison 2000, p. 26 sfnm error: no target: CITEREFMorrison2000 (help); Smith 2012, p. 59.
90. ^ Morrison 2000, p. 25. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMorrison2000 (help)
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92. ^ Morrison 2000, p. 25 sfnm error: no target: CITEREFMorrison2000 (help); Smith 2012, p. 7; Harvey 2013, p. 125.
93. ^ Harvey 2013, pp. 123, 126–127.
94. ^ a b Harvey 2013, p. 126.
95. ^ Vecsey 1983, pp. 62–63.
96. ^ Vecsey 1983, p. 63.
97. ^ Smith 2012, p. 179.
98. ^ Smith 2012, p. 106.
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101. ^ Smith 2012, p. 180.
102. ^ a b Vecsey 1983, p. 5.
103. ^ a b Smith 2012, p. 72.
104. ^ Smith 2012, pp. 32–33.
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106. ^ a b Harvey 2013, p. 133.
107. ^ a b Smith 2012, p. 56.
108. ^ Smith 2012, pp. 55–56.
109. ^ a b c Smith 2012, p. 63.
110. ^ Smith 2012, p. 57.
111. ^ Smith 2012, p. 31.
112. ^ Smith 2012, p. 35.
113. ^ Smith 2012, pp. 151–152.
114. ^ Smith 2012, p. 134.
115. ^ Smith 2012, p. 67.
116. ^ Harvey 2013, p. 121.
117. ^ a b Smith 2012, p. 185.
118. ^ Smith 2012, p. 186.
119. ^ a b Smith 2012, p. 41.
120. ^ a b c d Smith 2012, p. 37.
121. ^ a b Vecsey 1983, p. 8.
122. ^ Vecsey 1983, pp. 8, 10.
123. ^ a b Vecsey 1983, p. 11.
124. ^ Vecsey 1983, p. 7.
125. ^ Vecsey 1983, p. 26.
126. ^ Vecsey 1983, p. 27.
127. ^ Vecsey 1983, p. 28.
128. ^ Vecsey 1983, pp. 28–29.
129. ^ Vecsey 1983, pp. 30–32, 36.
130. ^ Vecsey 1983, pp. 36–37.
131. ^ Vecsey 1983, p. 39.
132. ^ Vecsey 1983, p. 52.
133. ^ Vecsey 1983, p. 53.
134. ^ Vecsey 1983, p. 56.
135. ^ Vecsey 1983, p. 46.
136. ^ Vecsey 1983, p. 47.
137. ^ Smith 2012, p. 28.
138. ^ Vecsey 1983, p. 18.
139. ^ a b Vecsey 1983, p. 50.
140. ^ Vecsey 1983, p. 42.
141. ^ Vecsey 1983, p. 57.
142. ^ Vecsey 1983, p. 51.
143. ^ Smith 2012, p. 27.
144. ^ Smith 2012, p. 34.
145. ^ Smith 2012, p. 10.
146. ^ Owen 2008, p. 35.
147. ^ Owen 2008, pp. 35–36.
148. ^ a b Owen 2008, p. 54.
149. ^ Smith 2012, p. 194.
150. ^ Owen 2008, pp. 47, 83.
151. ^ Angel 2016, p. x.

### Sources[edit]

* 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.
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* 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.
* 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.