Preface
- Challenging Western thought
- The power of bear grease
- Bears as persons
- Transformative possibilities make definitive judgments difficult
Introduction
- Scope of this book
- Geography of the Ojibwe
- Goals and methodology
- Use of terms; spellings, illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Genesis of this book
- Permissions
Chapter One: The Grand Medicine Society, the Midewiwin
- Membership
- Wabeno, Jessakkid, and Midewiwin
- Origins of the Midewiwin
- Cosmic ordering
- Nanabush
- Health and the Midewiwin
- Functions of the Midewiwin
- Sound of the drum
- Medicine bags
- Birch bark scrolls, the lodge, teachings, ceremonies
- Midewiwin and rock art
- Bear, the “guiding spirit of the Midewiwin”
- Megis/shell
- Midewiwin and leadership
Chapter Two: “Paths of the Spirit”: Moral Values in the Writings of Four 19th-Century Ojibwe in the Spirit of the Midewiwin
- Peter Jones: Like the “red squirrel” who stores nuts, store works of the Great Spirit
- Andrew J. Blackbird: “The Great Spirit is looking upon thee continually”
- George Copway: “I am one of Nature’s children.”
- William Whipple Warren: ”There is much yet to be learned from the wild and apparently simple son of the forest”
Chapter Three: Otter: the Playful Slider
- Physical otter
- Otter as representational
- Otter as patterned
- Otter and Ojibwe standards of life
Chapter Four: Owls: Images and Voices in the Ojibwe and Midewiwin World
- Classification and characteristics of owls
- Owl as bad luck, bad medicine
- Owl as protector and healer
- Owl as a teacher of altruism
- Owl and directions, winds and seasons
- Owl and the dead
- Owl and conservation
- Owl and origin of day and night
- Representations of owl
Chapter Five: Omnipresent and Ambivalent Bears
- Bears’ anatomy, physiology, and behavior
- Ojibwe relationships with bears
- Representations of bear in ceremonial performances
- Near identity of bears and Ojibwe
- Bear in the Midewiwin ceremonies
- Totems/dodems, clans
- Evil bears
- Bear as archshadow
- Bear as celestial
- Bears and visions of sound
- Bear as medicine and healer: following the bear path
- Bear as patterned
- Bear as child abductor
- Bear as environmental guardian, mother
- Games
- Bear and greed
Chapter Six: Water Creatures
- Harmful creatures
- Snakes and the afterlife
- Helpful creatures
- Women, water and snakes
- Sea creatures and copper
- Sea creatures and silver
- The Little People
Chapter Seven: Thunderbirds
- Thunderbirds as givers
- Interrelationships among humans, sky and water creatures
- Birds and play
- Thunderbirds and Ojibwe life
- Thunderers as communicators and protectors
- Thunderbird symbolism
Conclusion
Appendix A
Leadership among Ojibwe
Appendix B
The sweat lodge
Appendix C
Bear as celestial
Appendix D
Ojibwe historical relationship with copper
Appendix E
Lacrosse and war
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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