Midewiwin
The Midewiwin or the Grand Medicine Society is a religious society of some of the Indigenous peoples of the Maritimes, New England and Great Lakes regions in North America. Its practitioners are called Midew, and the practices of Midewiwin are referred to as Mide. Occasionally, male Midew is called Midewinini, which is sometimes translated into English as "medicine man".
Etymology
Due to the body-part medial de' meaning 'heart' in the Anishinaabe language, Midewiwin is sometimes translated as 'The Way of the Heart'. Minnesota archaeologist Fred K. Blessing shares a definition he received from Thomas Shingobe, a Mida of the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation in 1969, who told him that "the only thing that would be acceptable in any way as an interpretation of 'Mide' would be 'Spiritual Mystery'." Fluent speakers of Anishinaabemowin often caution that many words and concepts have no direct translation in English.Origins
According to historian Michael Angel, the Midewin is a "flexible, tenacious tradition that provided an institutional setting for the teaching of the world view of the Ojibwa people". Commonly among the Anishinaabeg, Midewin is ascribed to Wenaboozho as its founder. However, among the Abenakis, Midewiwin is ascribed to Mateguas, who bestowed the Midewiwin upon his death to comfort his grieving brother Gluskab, who is still alive. Walter James Hoffman recorded that according to the Mille Lacs Indians chief Bayezhig, Midewiwin has its origin as:This event is called Gwiiwizens wedizhichigewinid—Deeds of a Little-boy.
Associations
Mide societies keep wiigwaasabak that preserve their teachings. They have degrees of initiations and hold ceremonies. They are often associated with the Seven Fires Society, and other Indigenous groups or organizations. The Miigis shell, or cowry shell, is used in some ceremonies, along with bundles, sacred items, etc. There are many oral teachings, symbols, stories, history, and wisdom passed along and preserved from one generation to the next by these groups.Whiteshell Provincial Park is named after the whiteshell used in Midewiwin ceremonies. This park contains some petroforms that are over 1000 years old, or possibly older, and therefore may predate some aboriginal groups that came later to the area. The Midew society is commemorated in the name of the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.
Degrees
The Mide practitioners are initiated and ranked by degrees. Much like the apprentice system, masonic degrees, or an academic degree program, a practitioner cannot advance to the next higher degree until completing the required studies, experiences and ceremonies required of that degree. Only after successful completion may a candidate be considered for advancement to the next degree. Of course, from Anishinaabe perspective, there is no level system that can equate to Native Way; it is a projection of thinking. In other words, it is only a general representation in English of complex abstract ideas in Anishinaabemowin.Extended Fourth
The accounts regarding the extended Fourth Degrees vary from region to region. All Midewiwin groups claim the extended Fourth Degrees are specialized forms of the Fourth Degree. Depending on the region, these extended Fourth Degree Midew can be called "Fifth Degree" up to "Ninth Degree." In parallel, if the Fourth Degree Midew is to a doctorate degree, the Extended Fourth Degree Midew is to a post-doctorate degree. The Jiisakiwinini is widely referred to by Elders as the "highest" degree of all the medicine practitioners in the Mide, as it is spiritual medicine as opposed to physical/plant based medicine.Medicine lodge
''Midewigaan''
The midewigaan, also known as mide-wiigiwaam when small or midewigamig when large, is known in English as the Grand Medicine Lodge and is usually built in an open grove or clearing. A midewigaan is a domed structure with the proportion of one unit in width by four units in length. Though Hoffman records these domed oval structures measuring about in width by in length, the structures are sized to accommodate the number of invited participants, thus many midewigaan for small mide communities in the early 21st century are as small as in width and in length and larger in those communities with more mide participants. The walls of the smaller mide-wiigiwaam consist of poles and saplings from high, firmly planted in the ground, wattled with short branches and twigs with leaves. In communities with significantly large mide participants, the midewigamig becomes a formal and permanent ceremonial building that retains the dimensions of the smaller mide-wiigiwaam; a midewigamig might not necessarily be a domed structure, but typically may have vaulted ceilings.''Jiisakiiwigaan''
Design of the jiisakiiwigaan is similar in construction as that of the mide-wiigiwaam. Unlike a mide-wiigiwaam that is an oval domed structure, the jiisakiiwigaan is a round high-domed structure of typically in diameter and in height, and large enough to hold two to four people.Ceremonies
Annual and seasonal ceremonies
- Aabita-biboon
- Animoosh
- Jiibay-inaakewin or Jiibenaakewin
- Gaagaagiinh or Gaagaagishiinh
- Zaazaagiwichigan
- Mawineziwin
- Wiikwandiwin —performed four times per year, once per season. The Wiikwandiwin is begun with a review of the past events, hope for a good future, a prayer and then the smoking of the pipe carried out by the heads of the doodem. These ceremonies are held in mid-winter and mid-summer to bring together people various medicines and combine their healing powers for revitalization. Each Wiikwandiwin is a celebration to give thanks, show happiness and respect to Gichi-manidoo. It is customary to share the first kill of the season during the Wiikwandiwin. This would show Gichi-manidoo thanks and also ask for a blessing for the coming hunt, harvest and season.
Rites of passage
- Nitaawigiwin —ceremony in which a newborn's umbilical cord is cut and retained
- Waawiindaasowin —ceremony in which a name-giver presents a name to a child
- Oshki-nitaagewin —ceremony in which a child's first successful hunt is celebrated
- Makadekewin
- Wiidigendiwin —ceremony in which a couple is joined into a single household
- Bagidinigewin —wake, funeral and funerary feast
Miscellaneous ceremonies
- Jiisakiiwin —ceremony conducted by a Shaking-tent seer, often called a juggler in English, who would enter the tent to conjure spirits and speak beyond this world.
- Bagisewin —custom at the end of a wedding ceremony in which the bride presents wood at the groom's feet as a wedding present.
- Ishkwaandem-wiikwandiwin —A ceremony performed by women who took a piece of wood out to the bushes to offer it to Gichi-manidoo, and brought something back as well. This ceremony represents the woman as Mother Earth who asked for blessing from Gichi-manidoo so that the home would be safe and warm.
Teaching objects
Teaching scrolls
Called wiigwaasabakoon in the Ojibwe language, birch bark scrolls were used to pass on knowledge between generations. When used specifically for Midewiwin ceremonial use, these wiigwaasabakoon used as teaching scrolls were called Mide-wiigwaas. Early accounts of the Mide from 19th-century books describe a group of elders that protected the birch bark scrolls in hidden locations. They recopied the scrolls if any were badly damaged, and they preserved them underground. These scrolls were described as very sacred and the interpretations of the scrolls were not easily given away. The historical areas of the Ojibwe were recorded, and stretched from the east coast all the way to the prairies by way of lake and river routes. Some of the first maps of rivers and lakes were made by the Ojibwe and written on birch bark."The Teachings of the Midewiwin were scratched on birch bark scrolls and were shown to the young men upon entrance into the society. Although these were crude pictographs representing the ceremonies, they show us that the Ojibwa were advanced in the development of picture 'writing.' Some of them were painted on bark. One large birch bark roll was 'known to have been used in the Midewiwin at Mille Lacs for five generations and perhaps many generations before', and two others, found in a seemingly deliberate hiding place in the Head-of-the-Lakes region of Ontario, were carbon-dated to about 1560 CE +/-70. The author of the original report on these hidden scrolls advised: "Indians of this region occasionally deposited such artifacts in out-of-the-way places in the woods, either by burying them or by secreting them in caves. The period or periods at which this was done is far from clear. But in any event, archaeologists should be aware of the custom and not overlook the possibility of their discovery."