Midewiwin


The Midewiwin or the Grand Medicine Society is a secretive religion 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 are called Midewinini, which is sometimes translated into English as "medicine man".

Name

The preverb mide can be translated as "mystery," "mysterious," "spiritual," "sanctified," "sacred," or "ceremonial", depending on the context of its use. The derived verb midewi, thus means "be in/of mide." The derived noun midewiwin then means "state of being in midewi." Often mide is translated into English as "medicine" though mide conveys the idea of a spiritual medicine, opposed to mashkiki that conveys the idea of a physical medicine. A practitioner of Midewiwin is called a midew, which can also be rendered as mide'o... both forms of the word derived from the verb midewi, or as a medewid, a gerund form of midewi. Specifically, a male practitioner is called a midewinini and a female practitioner a midewikwe.
Due to the body-part medial de' meaning "heart" in the Anishinaabe language, "Midewiwin" is sometimes translated as "The Way of the Heart." 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'." However, fluent speakers of Anishinaabemowin often caution that there are many words and concepts that have no direct translation to English.

Origins

According to historian Michael Angel, the Midewiwin 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, Midewiwin is ascribed to Wenaboozho as its founder. However, among the Abenakis, Midewiwin is ascribed to Mateguas, who upon his death and needing to comfort his brother who is still alive, bestowed the Midewiwin to his grieving brother Gluskab. However, Hoffman records 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

Tribal groups who have such societies include the Abenaki, Quiripi, Nipmuc, Wampanoag, Anishinaabe, Miami, Meskwaki, Sauk, Sioux and the Ho-Chunk. These indigenous peoples of Turtle Island pass along wiigwaasabak, teachings, and have degrees of initiations and ceremonies. They are often associated with the Seven Fires Society, and other aboriginal 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 tasks and gain the full knowledge of that degree's requirements. Only after successful completion may a candidate be considered for advancement into the next higher degree.

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 1 unit in width by 4 units in length. Though Hoffman records these domed oval structures measuring about 20 feet in width by 80 feet 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 6 feet in width and 24 feet in length and larger in those communities with more mide participants. The walls of the smaller mide-wiigiwaam consist of poles and saplings from 8 to 10 feet 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 3 feet in diameter and 6 feet in height, and large enough to hold two to four people.

Ceremonies

Annual and seasonal ceremonies

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 books written in the 1800s 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."

Teaching stones

Teaching stones known in Ojibwe as either Gikinoo'amaagewaabik or Gikinoo'amaage-asin can be either petroglyphs or petroform.

Seven prophetical ages

The seven fires prophecy was originally taught among the practitioners of Midewiwin. Each fire represents a prophetical age, marking phases or epochs of Turtle Island. It represents key spiritual teachings for North America, and suggests that the different colors and traditions of humans can come together on a basis of respect. The Algonquins are the keepers of the seven fires prophecy wampum.