There are extant among the Ojibwa Indians three classes of mystery men,
termed respectively and in order of importance the Midē´, the
Jĕs´sakkīd´, and the Wâbĕnō´, but before proceeding to elaborate in
detail the Society of the Midē´, known as the Midē´wiwin, a brief
description of the last two is necessary.
The term Wâbĕnō´ has been explained by various intelligent Indians as
signifying “Men of the dawn,” “Eastern men,” etc. Their profession is
not thoroughly understood, and their number is so extremely limited that
but little information respecting them can be obtained. Schoolcraft,[5]
in referring to the several classes of Shamans, says “there is a third
form or rather modification of the medawin, * * * the Wâbĕnō´;
a term denoting a kind of midnight orgies, which is regarded as a
corruption of the Meda.” This writer furthermore remarks[6] that “it is
stated by judicious persons among themselves to be of modern origin.
They regard it as a degraded form of the mysteries of the Meda.”
[Footnote 5: Information respecting the history, condition, and
prospects of the Indian tribes of the United States. Philadelphia,
1851, vol. 1, p. 319.]
[Footnote 6: Ibid., p. 362.]
From personal investigation it has been ascertained that a Wâbĕnō´ does
not affiliate with others of his class so as to constitute a society,
but indulges his pretensions individually. A Wâbĕnō´ is primarily
prompted by dreams or visions which may occur during his youth, for
which purpose he leaves his village to fast for an indefinite number of
days. It is positively affirmed that evil man´idōs favor his desires,
and apart from his general routine of furnishing “hunting medicine,”
“love powders,” etc., he pretends also to practice medical magic. When a
hunter has been successful through the supposed assistance of the
Wâbĕnō´, he supplies the latter with part of the game, when, in giving a
feast to his tutelary daimon, the Wâbĕnō´ will invite a number of
friends, but all who desire to come are welcome. This feast is given at
night; singing and dancing are boisterously indulged in, and the
Wâbĕnō´, to sustain his reputation, entertains his visitors with a
further exhibition of his skill. By the use of plants he is alleged to
be enabled to take up and handle with impunity red-hot stones and
burning brands, and without evincing the slightest discomfort it is said
that he will bathe his hands in boiling water, or even boiling maple
sirup. On account of such performances the general impression prevails
among the Indians that the Wâbĕnō´ is a “dealer in fire,” or
“fire-handler.” Such exhibitions always terminate at the approach of
day. The number of these pretenders who are not members of the
Midē´wiwin, is very limited; for instance, there are at present but two
or three at White Earth Reservation and none at Leech Lake.
As a general rule, however, the Wâbĕnō´ will seek entrance into the
Midē´wiwin when he becomes more of a specialist in the practice of
medical magic, incantations, and the exorcism of malevolent man´idōs,
especially such as cause disease.
The Jĕs´sakkīd´ is a seer and prophet; though commonly designated a
“juggler,” the Indians define him as a “revealer of hidden truths.”
There is no association whatever between the members of this profession,
and each practices his art singly and alone whenever a demand is made
and the fee presented. As there is no association, so there is no
initiation by means of which one may become a Jĕs´sakkīd´. The gift is
believed to be given by the thunder god, or Animiki´, and then only at
long intervals and to a chosen few. The gift is received during youth,
when the fast is undertaken and when visions appear to the individual.
His renown depends upon his own audacity and the opinion of the tribe.
He is said to possess the power to look into futurity; to become
acquainted with the affairs and intentions of men; to prognosticate the
success or misfortune of hunters and warriors, as well as other affairs
of various individuals, and to call from any living human being the
soul, or, more strictly speaking, the shadow, thus depriving the victim
of reason, and even of life. His power consists in invoking, and causing
evil, while that of the Midē´ is to avert it; he attempts at times to
injure the Midē´ but the latter, by the aid of his superior man´idos,
becomes aware of, and averts such premeditated injury. It sometimes
happens that the demon possessing a patient is discovered, but the Midē´
alone has the power to expel him. The exorcism of demons is one of the
chief pretensions of this personage, and evil spirits are sometimes
removed by sucking them through tubes, and startling tales are told how
the Jĕs´sakkīd´ can, in the twinkling of an eye, disengage himself of
the most complicated tying of cords and ropes, etc. The lodge used by
this class of men consists of four poles planted in the ground, forming
a square of three or four feet and upward in diameter, around which are
wrapped birch bark, robes, or canvas in such a way as to form an upright
cylinder. Communion is held with the turtle, who is the most powerful
man´idō of the Jĕs´sakkīd´, and through him, with numerous other
malevolent man´idōs, especially the Animiki´, or thunder-bird. When the
prophet has seated himself within his lodge the structure begins to sway
violently from side to side, loud thumping noises are heard within,
denoting the arrival of man´idōs, and numerous voices and laughter are
distinctly audible to those without. Questions may then be put to the
prophet and, if everything be favorable, the response is not long in
coming. In his notice of the Jĕs´sakkīd´, Schoolcraft affirms[7] that
“while he thus exercises the functions of a prophet, he is also a member
of the highest class of the fraternity of the Midâwin--a society of men
who exercise the medical art on the principles of magic and
incantations.” The fact is that there is not the slightest connection
between the practice of the Jĕs´sakkīd´ and that of the Midē´wiwin, and
it is seldom, if at all, that a Midē´ becomes a Jĕs´sakkīd´, although
the latter sometimes gains admission into the Midē´wiwin, chiefly with
the intention of strengthening his power with his tribe.
[Footnote 7: Op. cit., vol. 5, p. 423.]
The number of individuals of this class who are not members of the
Midē´wiwin is limited, though greater than that of the Wâbĕnō´. An idea
of the proportion of numbers of the respective classes may be formed by
taking the case of Menomoni Indians, who are in this respect upon the
same plane as the Ojibwa. That tribe numbers about fifteen hundred, the
Midē´ Society consisting, in round numbers, of one hundred members, and
among the entire population there are but two Wâbĕnō´ and five
Jĕs´sakkīd´.
It is evident that neither the Wâbĕnō´ nor the Jĕs´sakkīd´ confine
themselves to the mnemonic songs which are employed during their
ceremonial performances, or even prepare them to any extent. Such bark
records as have been observed or recorded, even after most careful
research and examination extending over the field seasons of three
years, prove to have been the property of Wâbĕnō´ and Jĕs´sakkīd´, who
were also Midē´. It is probable that those who practice either of the
first two forms of ceremonies and nothing else are familiar with and may
employ for their own information certain mnemonic records; but they are
limited to the characteristic formulæ of exorcism, as their practice
varies and is subject to changes according to circumstances and the
requirements and wants of the applicant when words are chanted to accord
therewith.
Some examples of songs used by Jĕs´sakkīd´, after they have become
Midē´, will be given in the description of the several degrees of the
Midē ’wiwin.
There is still another class of persons termed Mashkī´kĭkē´winĭnĭ, or
herbalists, who are generally denominated “medicine men,” as the Ojibwa
word implies. Their calling is a simple one, and consists in knowing the
mysterious properties of a variety of plants, herbs, roots, and berries,
which are revealed upon application and for a fee. When there is an
administration of a remedy for a given complaint, based upon true
scientific principles, it is only in consequence of such practice having
been acquired from the whites, as it has usually been the custom of the
Catholic Fathers to utilize all ordinary and available remedies for the
treatment of the common disorders of life. Although these herbalists are
aware that certain plants or roots will produce a specified effect upon
the human system, they attribute the benefit to the fact that such
remedies are distasteful and injurious to the demons who are present in
the system and to whom the disease is attributed. Many of these
herbalists are found among women, also; and these, too, are generally
members of the Midē´wiwin. In Fig. 1 is shown an herbalist preparing a
mixture.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.--Herbalist preparing medicine and treating
patient.]
The origin of the Midē´wiwin or Midē´ Society, commonly, though
erroneously, termed Grand Medicine Society, is buried in obscurity. In
the Jesuit Relations, as early as 1642, frequent reference is made to
sorcerers, jugglers, and persons whose faith, influence, and practices
are dependent upon the assistance of “Manitous,” or mysterious spirits;
though, as there is no discrimination made between these different
professors of magic, it is difficult positively to determine which of
the several classes were met with at that early day. It is probable that
the Jĕs´sakkīd´, or juggler, and the Midē´, or Shaman, were referred to.
The Midē´, in the true sense of the word, is a Shaman, though he has by
various authors been termed powwow, medicine man, priest, seer, prophet,
etc. Among the Ojibwa the office is not hereditary; but among the
Menomoni a curious custom exists, by which some one is selected to fill
the vacancy one year after the death of a Shaman. Whether a similar
practice prevailed among other tribes of the Algonkian linguistic stock
can be ascertained only by similar research among the tribes
constituting that stock.
Among the Ojibwa, however, a substitute is sometimes taken to fill the
place of one who has been prepared to receive the first degree of the
Midē´wiwin, or Society of the Midē´, but who is removed by death before
the proper initiation has been conferred. This occurs when a young man
dies, in which case his father or mother may be accepted as a
substitute. This will be explained in more detail under the caption of
Dzhibai´ Midē´wigân or “Ghost Lodge,” a collateral branch of the
Midē´wiwin.
As I shall have occasion to refer to the work of the late Mr. W. W.
Warren, a few words respecting him will not be inappropriate. Mr. Warren
was an Ojibwa mixed blood, of good education, and later a member of the
legislature of Minnesota. His work, entiled “History of the Ojibwa
Nation,” was published in Vol. V of the Collections of the Minnesota
Historical Society, St. Paul, 1885, and edited by Dr. E. D. Neill. Mr.
Warren’s work is the result of the labor of a lifetime among his own
people, and, had he lived, he would undoubtedly have added much to the
historical material of which the printed volume chiefly consists. His
manuscript was completed about the year 1852, and he died the following
year. In speaking of the Society of the Midē´,[8] he says:
The grand rite of Me-da-we-win (or, as we have learned to term it,
“Grand Medicine,”) and the beliefs incorporated therein, are not yet
fully understood by the whites. This important custom is still
shrouded in mystery even to my own eyes, though I have taken much
pains to inquire and made use of every advantage possessed by speaking
their language perfectly, being related to them, possessing their
friendship and intimate confidence has given me, and yet I frankly
acknowledge that I stand as yet, as it were, on the threshold of the
Me-da-we lodge. I believe, however, that I have obtained full as much
and more general and true information on this matter than any other
person who has written on the subject, not excepting a great and
standard author, who, to the surprise of many who know the Ojibways
well, has boldly asserted in one of his works that he has been
regularly initiated into the mysteries of this rite, and is a member
of the Me-da-we Society. This is certainly an assertion hard to
believe in the Indian country; and when the old initiators or Indian
priests are told of it they shake their heads in incredulity that a
white man should ever have been allowed _in truth_ to become a member
of their Me-da-we lodge.
An entrance into the lodge itself, while the ceremonies are being
enacted, has sometimes been granted through courtesy; though this does
not initiate a person into the mysteries of the creed, nor does it
make him a member of the Society.
[Footnote 8: Op. cit., pp. 65, 66.]
These remarks pertaining to the pretensions of “a great and standard
authority” have reference to Mr. Schoolcraft, who among numerous other
assertions makes the following, in the first volume of his Information
Respecting the Indian Tribes of the United States, Philadelphia, 1851,
p. 361, viz:
I had observed the exhibitions of the Medawin, and the exactness and
studious ceremony with which its rites were performed in 1820 in the
region of Lake Superior; and determined to avail myself of the
advantages of my official position, in 1822, when I returned as a
Government agent for the tribes, to make further inquiries into its
principles and mode of proceeding. And for this purpose I had its
ceremonies repeated in my office, under the secrecy of closed doors,
with every means of both correct interpretation and of recording the
result. Prior to this transaction I had observed in the hands of an
Indian of the Odjibwa tribe one of those symbolic tablets of pictorial
notation which have been sometimes called “music boards,” from the
fact of their devices being sung off by the initiated of the Meda
Society. This constituted the object of the explanations, which, in
accordance with the positive requisitions of the leader of the society
and three other initiates, was thus ceremoniously made.
This statement is followed by another,[9] in which Mr. Schoolcraft, in a
foot-note, affirms:
Having in 1823 been myself admitted to the class of a Meda by the
Chippewas, and taken the initiatory step of a _Sagima_ and
_Jesukaid_ in each of the other fraternities, and studied their
pictographic system with great care and good helps, I may speak with
the more decision on the subject.
[Footnote 9: Op. cit., vol. 5, p, 71.]
Mr. Schoolcraft presents a superficial outline of the initiatory
ceremonies as conducted during his time, but as the description is
meager, notwithstanding that there is every evidence that the ceremonies
were conducted with more completeness and elaborate dramatization nearly
three-quarters of a century ago than at the present day, I shall not
burden this paper with useless repetition, but present the subject as
conducted within the last three years.
Mr. Warren truly says:
In the Me-da-we rite is incorporated most that is ancient amongst
them--songs and traditions that have descended not orally, but in
hieroglyphs, for at least a long time of generations. In this rite is
also perpetuated the purest and most ancient idioms of their language,
which differs somewhat from that of the common everyday use.
As the ritual of the Midē´wiwin is based to a considerable extent upon
traditions pertaining to the cosmogony and genesis and to the thoughtful
consideration by the Good Spirit for the Indian, it is looked upon by
them as “their religion,” as they themselves designate it.
In referring to the rapid changes occurring among many of the Western
tribes of Indians, and the gradual discontinuance of aboriginal
ceremonies and customs, Mr. Warren remarks[10] in reference to the
Ojibwa:
Even among these a change is so rapidly taking place, caused by a
close contact with the white race, that ten years hence it will be too
late to save the traditions of their forefathers from total oblivion.
And even now it is with great difficulty that genuine information can
be obtained of them. Their aged men are fast falling into their
graves, and they carry with them the records of the past history of
their people; they are the initiators of the grand rite of religious
belief which they believe the Great Spirit has granted to his red
children to secure them long life on earth and life hereafter; and in
the bosoms of these old men are locked up the original secrets of this
their most ancient belief. * * *
They fully believe, and it forms part of their religion, that the
world has once been covered by a deluge, and that we are now living on
what they term the “new earth.” This idea is fully accounted for by
their vague traditions; and in their Me-da-we-win or religion,
hieroglyphs are used to denote this second earth.
[Footnote 10: Op. cit., p. 25.]
Furthermore,
They fully believe that the red man mortally angered the Great Spirit
which caused the deluge, and at the commencement of the new earth it
was only through the medium and intercession of a powerful being, whom
they denominate Manab-o-sho, that they were allowed to exist, and
means were given them whereby to subsist and support life; and a code
of religion was more lately bestowed on them, whereby they could
commune with the offended Great Spirit, and ward off the approach and
ravages of death.
It may be appropriate in this connection to present the description
given by Rev. Peter Jones of the Midē´ priests and priestesses. Mr.
Jones was an educated Ojibwa Episcopal clergyman, and a member of the
Missasauga--i.e., the Eagle totemic division of that tribe of Indians
living in Canada. In his work[11] he states:
Each tribe has its medicine men and women--an order of priesthood
consulted and employed in all times of sickness. These powwows are
persons who are believed to have performed extraordinary cures, either
by the application of roots and herbs or by incantations. When an
Indian wishes to be initiated into the order of a powwow, in the first
place he pays a large fee to the faculty. He is then taken into the
woods, where he is taught the names and virtues of the various useful
plants; next he is instructed how to chant the medicine song, and how
to pray, which prayer is a vain repetition offered up to the Master of
Life, or to some munedoo whom the afflicted imagine they have
offended.
The powwows are held in high veneration by their deluded brethren; not
so much for their knowledge of medicine as for the magical power which
they are supposed to possess. It is for their interest to lead these
credulous people to believe that they can at pleasure hold intercourse
with the munedoos, who are ever ready to give them whatever
information they require.
[Footnote 11: History of the Ojebway Indians, London [1843(?)],
pp. 143,144.]
The Ojibwa believe in a multiplicity of spirits, or man´idōs, which
inhabit all space and every conspicuous object in nature. These
man´idōs, in turn, are subservient to superior ones, either of a
charitable and benevolent character or those which are malignant and
aggressive. The chief or superior man´idō is termed Ki´tshi
Man´idō--Great Spirit--approaching to a great extent the idea of the God
of the Christian religion; the second in their estimation is Dzhe
Man´idō, a benign being upon whom they look as the guardian spirit of
the Midē´wiwin and through whose divine provision the sacred rites of
the Midē´wiwin were granted to man. The Ani´miki or Thunder God is, if
not the supreme, at least one of the greatest of the malignant man´idōs,
and it is from him that the Jĕs´sakkīd´ are believed to obtain their
powers of evil doing. There is one other, to whom special reference will
be made, who abides in and rules the “place of shadows,” the hereafter;
he is known as Dzhibai´ Man´idō--Shadow Spirit, or more commonly Ghost
Spirit. The name of Ki´tshi Man´idō is never mentioned but with
reverence, and thus only in connection with the rite of Midē´wiwin, or a
sacred feast, and always after making an offering of tobacco.
The first important event in the life of an Ojibwa youth is his first
fast. For this purpose he will leave his home for some secluded spot in
the forest where he will continue to fast for an indefinite number of
days; when reduced by abstinence from food he enters a hysterical or
ecstatic state in which he may have visions and hallucinations. The
spirits which the Ojibwa most desire to see in these dreams are those of
mammals and birds, though any object, whether animate or inanimate, is
considered a good omen. The object which first appears is adopted as the
personal mystery, guardian spirit, or tutelary daimon of the entranced,
and is never mentioned by him without first making a sacrifice. A small
effigy of this man´idō is made, or its outline drawn upon a small piece
of birch bark, which is carried suspended by a string around the neck,
or if the wearer be a Midē´ he carries it in his “medicine bag” or
pinji´gosân. The future course of life of the faster is governed by his
dream; and it sometimes occurs that because of giving an imaginary
importance to the occurrence, such as beholding, during the trance some
powerful man´idō or other object held in great reverence by the members
of the Midē´ Society, the faster first becomes impressed with the idea
of becoming a Midē´. Thereupon he makes application to a prominent Midē´
priest, and seeks his advice as to the necessary course to be pursued to
attain his desire. If the Midē´ priest considers with favor the
application, he consults with his confrères and action is taken, and the
questions of the requisite preliminary instructions, fees, and presents,
etc., are formally discussed. If the Midē´ priests are in accord with
the desires of the applicant an instructor or preceptor is designated,
to whom he must present himself and make an agreement as to the amount
of preparatory information to be acquired and the fees and other
presents to be given in return. These fees have nothing whatever to do
with the presents which must be presented to the Midē´ priests previous
to his initiation as a member of the society, the latter being collected
during the time that is devoted to preliminary instruction, which period
usually extends over several years. Thus ample time is found for
hunting, as skins and peltries, of which those not required as presents
may be exchanged for blankets, tobacco, kettles, guns, etc., obtainable
from the trader. Sometimes a number of years are spent in preparation
for the first degree of the Midē´wiwin, and there are many who have
impoverished themselves in the payment of fees and the preparation for
the feast to which all visiting priests are also invited.
Should an Indian who is not prompted by a dream wish to join the society
he expresses to the four chief officiating priests a desire to purchase
a mī´gis, which is the sacred symbol of the society and consists of a
small white shell, to which reference will be made further on. His
application follows the same course as in the preceding instance, and
the same course is pursued also when a Jĕs´sakkīd´ or a Wâbĕnō´ wishes
to become a Midē´.