The Ojibwaby Joshua Valdez and Daniel Benveniste

The Beginning • The Great Spirit Gitchimanito created

anyhting and everyhting

• The sea’s flooded the Earth, and all of Gitchimanito’s creations were cast below the sea

• The muscrat pawed at soil before all else, from this the scrap the world was created

• The Ojibwa rose from the sea and headed East to the Great Lakes

Overview• The Ojibwa live in the

Great Lakes region up into Southern Canads

• Third largest Native American group

• 4 groups, the Salteaux, Plains Ojibwa, South/East Ojibwa, the Chippewa

History• Aquired firearm as well

as disease from Dutch settlers in 1600’s

•Heavily involved in early fur trade with Europeans

•Challenged by American industry in 18th century

•On reservations by late 18th century

Settlements •Nomadic

• Traveled in bands ranging from 50-300 people

•Moved with sesons following games

• Lived in Tipis

• Southern Ojibwa had permanent summer villages, small gardens

•Winter fishing spots led to the gathering of bands, opportunity for rituals

Kinship• Bands made up of

exogamous clans

• Kinship terms define relationship

• Patrilineal

• Arranged marriages, polygamy possible

• Some cross-cousin marriage

Political Organization

• Prior to European contact, the Ojibwa recognized no powerful chiefs

• As fur trade continued, ruling system of chiefs, assistant chiefs, and local council established

• Power obtained by personal feats

Belief System•Ojibwa recognize no

division between supernatural and natural world(Sun, wind, Great Snakes, Thunder Bird)

• Exhaustive knowledge of environment needed in order to control it

• Failure to honor plants and animals gathered lead to retribution of the individual

Growing Up•Children educated

through myth, song, and dance

• Before age of seven children instructed by women and elder

• Boys at age seven start to become instructed by adult men in hunting and fishing

•Girls continue to be instructed by women in domestic life

Growing Up Cont.

• As boys became older, they were encouraged to fast in order to facilitate dreaming

• A boy is designated his guardian spirits through dreaming

Belief System Continued

• Category of persons include themselves “Anishinabe” and the supernatural

• Supernatural beings known as “our grandfathers” play large role in Ojibwa culture

•Myths told of the “grandfathers” please the spirits, and in turn they make life for the people good.

Religeon• Very individualistic

• Based on dreaming, fasting, relationship with the “grandfathers”

• It is while dreaming individuals can interact with supernatural beings

• Blessings and gifts of knowledge received in dreams

•Obligations given by spirits, violation leads to public confession

The Shaking Tent• Ritual performed in

order to receive information from spirits not attainable through dreaming(loction of loved ones, treatment of illness)

• A barrel-shaped tent is created by lashing together poles and draped with skins, canvas, or bark

• An audience assembles after dark as a diviner enters tent and calls spirits though songs and drumming

Shaking Tent cont.• The diviner summons

his own “pawaganak”, or guardian spirits

• The arrival of the spirits is evident when the tent starts to shake and sway

• The event is made more impressive as the diviner in the tent is already bound in rope

The Midewiwin• The Grand Mystic Society

• Society of healers, heal using plants and herbs designated appropriate for individual cases by the “grandfathers”

• Aspiring Mide priests must go through an extended apprenticeship

• In initiation ceremony participants go into a trance with a magical white shell in their mouths

Midewiwin cont.• Illness believed to

be the retribution due to misconduct toward the “grandfathers”

• The healers interact with the spirits in order to attain vast medicinal knowledge

Exchange

• The Ojibwa practice general reciprocity

• The failure of individuals to share and give gifts results in punishment by the spirits

The Ojibwa Today• In 1950’s government

urged Ojibwa to move off reservations and assimilate into urban society

• The urbanization of Ojibwa rustled in a loss of culture and tradition, “This whole in our heart”

• Currently own a number of tribal casinos

Pijibowin• “Pijibowin” refers to the poisoning the Ojibwas environment

• As infrastructure in America developed, fishing locations and Ojibwa land was destroyed

•Oil drilling was a major upset

• As of late the Ojibwa have been able negotiate with Exxon in order to preserve the land