Ojibwe religion is the traditional Native American religion of the Ojibwe people. Found primarily in north-eastern North America, it is practiced within Ojibwe communities in Canada and the United States. The tradition has no formal leadership or organizational structure and displays much internal variation.
Central to Ojibwe religion are powerful spirit beings called the manitouk. These come in various forms, each of which has a different relationship to humanity. Among the most prominent are the animikeek or thunderbirds, who bring storms and are generally helpful to humans, and the Mishebeshu, underwater and underground serpents whose activities are often harmful. In Ojibwe religion, a successful life is one that has secured the support of powerful manitouk, often through the provision of offerings like tobacco. Ojibwe religious practitioners undergo vision quests as a means of establishing a relationship with a particular manitou that becomes their guiding patron; prior to the 20th century, almost every Ojibwe male undertook this vision quest when they reached puberty. Ritual specialists, deemed to possess powers from the manitouk, are responsible for healing, locating game, and other tasks. The most common of these specialists is the Jiisakiiwinini, whose Jiisakiiwin or shaking tent ritual typically invokes spirits for healing.
One of the Algonquian-speaking peoples, the Ojibwe originally lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. In that context, relationships with manitouk were deemed crucial for securing food supplies. Early contacts with Christian Europeans came in the 17th century, when several Roman Catholic missions were established among Ojibwe communities. By at least the 18th century, southern Ojibwe had formed a religious organisation centring around healing, the Midewiwin. The 19th century saw the arrival of Protestant missions and the ultimate restriction of many Ojibwe people to reservations. Here, the Ojibwe were exposed more heavily to Christianity and many elements of Ojibwe religion, such as the puberty vision quests, declined substantially. Encouraged by the American Indian Movement, the 1960s and 1970s saw revitalisation efforts to revive Ojibwe traditional religion. In the late 20th century, Ojibwe practices were increasingly influenced by other Native American religions, especially those of the Lakota.
Many Ojibwe practice their traditional religion alongside Christianity, typically Catholicism. For these individuals, the creator being Kitche Manitou is often identified with the Christian God, although other Christians have expressed hostility towards Ojibwe religious traditions.
Definition and classification
The Ojibwe are an Algonquian-speaking people. They live principally in the Great Lakes region of North America—specifically in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ontario—and in parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Together with the Odawa (Ottawa) and Potawatomi nations, the Ojibwe form a confederation called the Three Fires.
The term Ojibwe was adopted as a collective noun in the 19th century. It probably derives from the Algonquian word ojib ('puckered up'), often interpreted as a reference to the puckered seam on the moccasin shoes traditionally worn by Ojibwe people. The alternative spelling Ochipwe has also resulted in the Ojibwe sometimes being called the Chippewa, especially in the United States. Many Ojibwe refer to themselves as the Anishnaabeg, although this term usually also encompasses all Algonquian-speaking peoples, and some members of the former group prefer Ojibwe over Anishnaabeg.
Classifying Ojibwe religion
Ojibwe religion has been described as an aboriginal religion. As Ojibwe culture is traditionally orally transmitted, the religion has no textual canon. It has no dogma, and no articles of faith, and there is therefore variation in its belief and practice. Many of its rituals have changed over time, with adherents open to adapting their beliefs and practices in accordance with dreams and visions. Native American religions more broadly have always adapted in response to environmental changes and interactions with other communities. The Ojibwe have absorbed influences both from other Native American groups and from European Americans, with their religious outlook being influenced by Christianity. Ojibwe religion thus no longer exists in the form practiced by the Ojibwe when they were a hunter-gatherer society prior to European contact.
Ojibwe people generally tend to a holistic view of religion. As with Native Americans generally, religion is a fully integrated facet of life and culture within Ojibwe communities. Many Ojibwe prefer to describe their traditional beliefs and practices as "our way" or "our way of life" rather than as a "religion." In the Ojibwe language, there are no indigenous words synonymous with the English language term religion. Two Ojibwe terms have sometimes been used in a roughly similar manner; namhwin or anamiewin denotes something like "prayer" and is used to describe Christian religion, while mnidooked, meaning to venerate the mnidoog or manitouk, is used to describe an attitude and action associated with traditional Ojibwe religion.
Ojibwe traditional worldviews closely resemble those of other Algonquian-speaking peoples. The Ojibwe's religion is particularly similar to that of the Odawa people, although they also share many religious and cultural elements with groups like the Potawatomi, Menominee, and Cree. Many Ojibwe combine traditional religious activities with involvement in Christianity, usually Catholicism, equating the Christian God with the traditional Ojibwe creator being Kitche Manitou. In some cases they have adopted Christian beliefs and figures and inserted them into the traditional Ojibwe cosmology. Other Ojibwe remain committed to just one of the two religions.
Beliefs
Theology and the manitouk
Ojibwe religion is polytheistic. It maintains that human existence relies on maintaining relations with powerful beings, the manitouk or manidoog (singular manitou or manidoo). These have been described as "spirits", or "spiritual beings", while the scholar of religion Theresa S. Smith called them "the power beings of the Ojibwe cosmos". Such entities are not considered fundamentally different from humanity; the Ojibwe do not traditionally draw a dichotomy between the natural and supernatural.
The most powerful of these manitouk are the four winds, the underwater serpents, the thunderbirds, the owners of various animal species, the windigo, and Nanabush. Beyond these, there are a wider range of less powerful manitouk. Manitouk act according to their own needs and desires; although their motivations are similar to those of humans, they possess far greater power. Ojibwe may interpret events in the world around them as caused through the actions of manitouk. Human relationships with the manitouk vary, with some being viewed with affection and others with dread. Some manitouk can harm humans, and those deemed particularly dangerous, such as Mishebeshu or the windigo, are termed matchi-manitou (evil manitou).
Like the traditionally hunter-gatherer Ojibwe, the manitouk are deemed nomadic, sometimes moving according to prescribed paths or the seasons, at other times in an unexpected manner. An example of a manitou moving in a prescribed pattern is Ningobianong, the evening star. They are also regarded as lacking a single form, instead possessing metamorphic abilities. In art, they are often represented in symbolic and abstracted ways. These depictions can be found on objects like woven bags and drums, on pictographs painted onto rocks, or alternatively on the birchbark scrolls used by the Midewiwin society.
Human relations with the manitouk
Humans can build a personal relationship with a particular manitou, one that becomes their guardian for life. This was historically facilitated by the vision quest which Ojibwe youth were expected to undergo around puberty. Some Ojibwe have had an image of this guardian tattooed on their body. Anyone falsely claiming the patronage of a particular manitou is thought to face severe, violent retribution from said being.
Manitouk can assist humans by providing them with success in hunting, in war, or in overcoming sorcery. One of the key means of interacting with the manitouk is ritual, and, as with other neighboring tribes, emphasis is placed on appearing pitiable before these spirits. Ojibwe tradition teaches that the manitouk can communicate with humans through dreams and visions, the latter thus considered of great importance among Ojibwe people. Via dreams, manitouk can bestow gifts of healing or power, historically often a skill in hunting. For this reason, manitouk are also referred to as pawaganak (dream visitors), especially among northern Ojibwe. If a person encounters an unwanted manitou in a dream, they will sometimes scrape their tongue with a cedar knife.
Kitche Manitou
No one manitou is believed to rule supreme over the others. Although it is deemed largely uninvolved in human affairs, Ojibwe theology includes a creator being, Kitche Manitou (Gichi-Manidoo), its name meaning "great manitou". Often referred to as the "Master of Life," the figure is not traditionally gendered. It is symbolised by the sun, with the sky described as its hand. Kitche Manitou is believed to send messages to the Ojibwe through eagles, whose appearance may be interpreted accordingly.
Since Christianity's introduction, many Ojibwe have equated Kitche Manitou with the Christian God. The historian Christopher Vecsey suggested that the name Kitche Manitou may have been coined by Christians and, highlighting the lack of references to this figure in early sources, suggests that this notion of a supreme Ojibwe creator deity was a Christian innovation. Conversely, John Cooper argued for the existence of such a creator divinity among northern Algonquian peoples prior to European contact, and by the late 20th century many Ojibwe believed that Kitche Manitou had been part of their pre-contact aboriginal traditions.
Nanabush and the Four Winds
Nanabush is the culture hero of the Ojibwe, in some stories appearing as the messenger of Kitche Manitou. A figure prominent in the cosmologies of various Algonquian-speaking peoples, his name exists in various forms across the Ojibwe, including Nanabozho, Nanapus, and Menabojes, while he is also called the Great Rabbit or Great White Hare. He is often presented as the son of a human mother and a manitou father, the latter often identified as the West or North Wind.
In Ojibwe lore, Nanabush taught humans to hunt and fish, discovered wild rice, and invented snow shoes. At the same time he was a trickster, one capable of being greedy or cruel. Although an important figure in Ojibwe mythology, historically Nanabush rarely served as a personal guardian and was not often given offerings. According to one belief, Nanabush traveled west to escape the arrival of European settlers, with some Ojibwe claiming that he now forms the Sleeping Giant rock formation in Thunder Bay harbor.
The four winds are manitouk that live in the four corners of the world, and are named Waubun, Zeegwun, Ningobianong, and Bebon. They are sometimes perceived as four separate entities, and at other times as part of the same being. According to Ojibwe mythology, they were placed in the cardinal directions by Nanabush. They also bear seasonal associations, with Bebon linked to winter and Zeegwun to summer. Ojibwe have historically sought to influence the four winds to act to their advantage, for instance by preventing them from blowing too harshly in summer, thus allowing Ojibwe to fish safely on the lakes, or by encouraging a harsh north wind in winter, thus hardening the crust of the snow to make it easier to hunt deer.
Animikeek