According to a treaty now being made between the United States
Government and the Ojibwa Indians, the latter are to relinquish the
several areas of land at present occupied by them and to remove to
portions of the Red Lake and White Earth Reservations and take lands in
severalty. By this treaty about 4,000,000 acres of land will be ceded to
the Government, and the members of the various bands will become
citizens of the United States, and thus their tribal ties will be broken
and their primitive customs and rites be abandoned.
The chief Midē´ priests, being aware of the momentous consequences of
such a change in their habits, and foreseeing the impracticability of
much longer continuing the ceremonies of so-called “pagan rites,” became
willing to impart them to me, in order that a complete description might
be made and preserved for the future information of their descendants.
There is scarcely any doubt that these ceremonies will still be secretly
held at irregular intervals; but under the watchful care of the national
authorities it is doubtful whether they will be performed with any
degree of completeness, and it will be but a comparatively short time
before the Midē´wiwin will be only a tradition.