Ojibwe religion

In public, the people conducted rituals and ceremonies to foster upright living; petitioned Kitche Manitou and the deities for blessing; or offered thanksgiving for game and abundant harvest.

[63] Conversely, John Cooper argued for the existence of such a creator divinity among northern Algonquian peoples prior to European contact,[64] and by the late 20th century many Ojibwe believed that Kitche Manitou had been part of their pre-contact aboriginal traditions.

[68] 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.

[78] Ojibwe tradition holds that the arrival of the animikeek is signalled by thunderstorms,[75] a phenomenon common across the northern Great Lakes from late spring through to winter.

[86] The animikeek hurl lightning bolts down to kill serpents,[87] but are also thought to cast small spherical thunderstones to the ground, which then offer people protection from the power of storms.

[92] Although the name "Mishebeshu" literally means "Great Lynx", the entity is typically portrayed not as a cat but as a monstrous serpent, usually with horns, thought to dwell primarily in water.

[134] Some modern Ojibwe regard this cosmogony as a literal account of their history; they reject archaeological and genetic evidence indicating that Native Americans descend from prehistoric Asian migrants.

[147] Vecsey noted that, by the late 20th century, many Ojibwe, including those who were not Christians, had adopted a Christian-derived idea that there were separate afterlives for those who had been good and bad during their lives.

[151] The scholar of religion Graham Harvey noted that the traditional Ojibwe view of the world was "pervasively social," regarding it as "a community of persons (not all of whom are human).

[163] When hunting, Ojibwe were expected to treat their prey in a specific manner;[164] those slain were subject to a conciliatory mourning ceremony, with the hunters apologising to the animal, offering it tobacco, and referring to it with terms implying a family relationship.

[171] One story maintains that youths who fast excessively to accumulate visions have lost their sense of communal obligations and so have become murderers, outcasts, or have been transformed into robins.

[172] Smith argued that Ojibwe traditional views did not revolve around a binary between good and evil, but instead saw things in terms of "balance and imbalance, control and chaos".

[175] Prior to European colonisation, the Ojibwe observed clear gendered divisions of labor, with men as hunters and women as the gatherers and preparers of food.

[59] A person comes to be regarded as an elder not necessarily by age, but because they are perceived as living right, displaying wisdom as "sober, quiet, thoughtful, and respectful individuals".

[159] Vecsey noted that Ojibwe rituals have historically been concerned with hunting and food gathering and that they lacked "the ornate, formalised pomp" found among many agricultural Native American communities.

[42] Certain elements, such as the sweat bath, prayers, songs, offerings, the use of ritual paraphernalia, and the observance of taboos, are common features throughout Ojibwe religious practice.

[184] The method of disposal may reflect the identity of the manitouk it is directed towards; burning tobacco will help it reach the thunderbirds in the sky, while placing it on the ground will make it accessible to Mishebeshu.

[185] Ojibwe people may burn tobacco during a thunderstorm, usually in front of a wood stove, atop an oven or in a smudge pot, both to thank the thunderbirds for the rain and to supplicate them in the hope that it will prevent lightning from striking the home.

[203] When girls experience their first menstruation they traditionally underwent a period of seclusion in an isolated hut, during which time their face was blackened and they were forbidden from touching themselves with their hands, instead being given a scratching stick.

[207] Charms are often placed on a baby's tikanagan (cradleboard) to protect it, including a twine spider web that is believed to catch harmful things approaching the infant.

[214] The earliest written sources indicate that, by the time of European contact, the Ojibwe distinguished different types of people who had received powers from the manitouk.

[245] Ojibwe may hide their cut hair, blood, saliva, or faeces to prevent it being used to cause them harm, reflecting the belief that such material holds an intrinsic connection to the person from which it came.

[256] There was much competition and rivalry among these Christian missionary groups;[257] Roman Catholics were generally more tolerant of Ojibwe cultural practices like family feasts and mourning customs than their Protestant rivals.

[261] Various historians have argued that the Midewiwin may have emerged as a revitalisation movement in response to European-American expansion, offering an alternative worldview to that of the Christians and a means of resistance to it.

[266] By the 1870s, Ojibwe in both Canada and the United States were predominantly living on reservations, with government policies dedicated to transforming them from hunter-gatherers to settled agriculturalists.

[267] In the 1870s, President Ulysses S. Grant's policies in the U.S. placed missionaries in charge of Native reservations, resulting in greater success in the conversion of many Ojibwe.

[269] Various religious customs, including the puberty vision quest, traditions regarding menstruation, and war initiation ceremonies, eventually died out or become increasingly rare in Ojibwe communities.

[272] The Woodlands style of art, associated with the work of Norval Morrisseau in the 1960s, often featured traditional myth in its imagery and contributed to this religious resurgence.

[277] The scholar of religion Suzanne Owen noted that she had seen Ojibwe people using the Lakota term mitakuye oyasin (all my relations) as a means of encapsulating Native American perspectives on life more broadly.

[280] The religion of the Ojibwes has attracted less academic attention than the traditions of some of their neighbors, in part due to the absence of any 19th-century revivalist movement under a clear leader, something seen in certain other Native communities.