Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians 3

Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians 3

Two small lake steamers and a barge took the troops to Bear Island, and

they anchored in shoal water just across from the island, proceeding

by barge to the mainland. The battle took place at the house of

Bujonegicig, who died only a few years ago. The troops were fired upon

from the woods and Major Wilkinson, Sergeant Butler and four privates

were killed. Ten were wounded. On October 6, 1898, 214 more troops came

to assist, but no further firing was encountered and the uprising was

over. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs, W. A. Jones, arrived from

Washington, October 10. The next morning he and Father Aloysius, a

priest with great influence over the Indians, held a long and friendly

conference with the Pillager chiefs investigating and settling the

timber complaints. Troops flooded that country and persuaded the

Bear Islanders to respond to the warrants. They were duly tried,

sentenced and fined, but the fines were remitted and after two months

imprisonment the sentences were commuted and pardons granted.

 

The writer found but few who remembered the battle, for while there

were over a hundred men able to bear arms in 1898, the Ojibwe could

not successfully fight the influenza attack of 1919 and the present

population consists of only fourteen persons: John Peper, wife,

daughter and mother; White Cloud, shown in plate 59, fig. 2, wife and

son; Moîckaˈwus and wife; John Smith, Frank Marshall, wife and two

children. John Peper’s mother was said to be 106 years old and looked

the part, as shown in plate 59, fig. 1. John, her youngest boy was past

70 years of age. Another very old resident, John Smith, had died the

year before the writer arrived. His age was said to be 138 years. His

recollections are said to have included George Washington as President

of the United States.

 

All of our Ojibwe residents in Wisconsin and those in Michigan and

Minnesota were forest Indians and, as such, great hunters, although

they cultivated maize in a small way. They made very superior birch

bark canoes and were at home on the many lakes of the northland,

subsisting largely on fish and game. While at the present time, they

dress themselves to satisfy the pre-conceived ideas of tourists, in

the early days, their headdress consisted of otter skin caps, often

embellished with eagle feathers, one for each enemy slain in battle and

consequently for each scalp secured. The great feathered bonnet was not

of their culture, but has been more recently borrowed from the Plains

Indians. They never used the tepee of the Plains Indians, such as is

shown in plate 46, fig. 2, and in plate 58, fig. 2, but built a wigwam.

The wigwam was easily constructed in a half-day’s time. Poles were

thrust into the ground in a circle of from twelve to twenty feet, their

tips bent and securely tied in the center with basswood bark cord to

form a hemisphere, about eight feet in height at the center. The whole

was then covered with bark of balsam, or woven cat-tail mats, such

as the one shown in plate 46, fig. 2, and roofed with birch bark. An

entrance and smoke hole were left and mats thrown upon the ground. It

was much warmer than a tepee and better adapted to the heavy snow fall

of the north, and to low temperatures. All of their storage houses and

their smaller sweat lodges were similarly made. Their medicine lodges

followed the same construction though they were much longer: being

eighty, a hundred and even a hundred and fifty feet in length.

 

We had occasion to see the medicine lodge in use several times during

our stay at Lac du Flambeau. This lodge was in the old Flambeau

village, just at the edge of the woods. It was a huge affair, about one

hundred and fifty feet long, with a stout framework of saplings joined

together and arched over at a height of eight feet. The framework

was rigidly held together with other horizontal saplings secured by

basswood bark cord at every junction of poles. It stood as a framework

for several years. During use, the sides of this framework are covered

with cat-tail mats and the top with sewed birch bark, as shown in

figure 21, of the Museum’s 1923 Yearbook. By using a bone needle and

nettle string the cat-tail mats are sewed together with an invisible

stitch, that makes a windproof cover.

 

Down the center of the lodge is a long ellipse where countless dance

steps have bared the earth of this otherwise grassy plot. The entrance

of the lodge faces the east, and there is an exit to the west. A

fire is usually burning just inside the eastern entrance, the smoke

ascending through a smoke hole left in the roof. The medicine men are

gathered to the left of the fire on the north while the patient is

usually seated to the right of the fire on the south. The medicine

drum in use during a treatment for healing is smaller than the dream

dance drum, usually seen by tourists, and of a different shape. It is

about eight inches in diameter and sixteen inches high. The buckskin

stretched over the end is moistened from time to time by reversing the

drum which contains water, and rubbing the skin to permit it to take up

the liquid. The tone and volume are greatly enhanced by this procedure.

 

The medicine lodge members sit in groups around the lodge starting at

the north side, and proceeding down to the west and back along the

south side toward the east again. Every song and march around the lodge

is repeated four times, this being their sacred number. The time needed

in effecting a cure is varied but the writer has seen a woman carried

in on a litter, recover in three hours time and take part in the

dancing.

 

The Indian Service in the past has wished to discourage treatment

by medicine men and on larger reservations has supplied a resident

physician. It is a constant competition between the two, for naturally

a white physician cannot cure every case any more than a medicine man

can, and when the medicine man apparently effects cures after the

physician has given up or appeared to produce no improvement, the

credulous patients are going to continue to believe in the medicine

men. Christianity has had but little effect upon the Ojibwe so far as

the writer has been able to observe, largely because of the reputation

of the medicine men among them.

 

According to the late Dr. William Jones, the ethnologist mentioned

in “Ethnobotany of the Meskwaki Indians”, Part 2 of this volume,

the Pillager Band of Bear Island occasionally practiced cannibalism

ceremonially, and even as late as 1902 ate human flesh on the Rainy

River during a famine. He cites the fact in 1905 that polygamy was once

common and even still occurred among wandering bands.

 

Many visitors to the northland think of the country in terms of sand,

and consider it unfit for use agriculturally. While sandy soil is

common, it is also easy to find very good productive soil and in

some cases even clay. The Indian settlements and homesteads were

never extensive and four or five acres of land seem to suffice them

for growing hay and garden crops. The agency Indian farmer maintains

demonstration garden plots, such as the one shown in plate 46, fig.

1, and also more extensive farms, and constantly advises with those

who are trying to farm. The Indian women even grow some cultivated

flowers. At Lac du Flambeau, the Ojibwe take great pride in their

annual Indian fair and display farm animals, horticultural products,

and native arts and crafts for premiums. It is a pity that more do

not follow agriculture because they have sufficient farming land and

have also good examples to follow. Most of them like the quick returns

made in selling Indian art work, or made acting as guides for fishing

and hunting parties. The easy money is too soon spent and they suffer

considerably before the winter is over.

 

The native flora is about the same at both Lac du Flambeau and Leech

Lake, and the species are by no means as varied as on the Menomonie

Reservation. They make full use of everything that occurs with them

except the adventive or introduced plants. They recognize regular types

of soil as sources of their medicinal plants. Sandy meadows, sandy

wastes, lakes, still ponds, swamps, upland swamps, rocky openings in

the forest, evergreen forests, and hardwood forests all are searched

for distinctive plants. The greatest number of species of native plants

are found in the composite family and we find the Ojibwe making more

use of these than any other tribe. The heath family contributes many

species and is important to them. Grasses and sedges, while numerous

in species are not so well known to them, although here again they use

more species than the neighboring tribes.

 

John Whitefeather, of the Couderay Ojibwe, who adopted the writer into

their tribe, related their origin myth. Briefly it is as follows:

There has always been a controversy among the whites as to whether

such an Indian as Hiawatha ever lived. Hiawatha is the name that Henry

Wadsworth Longfellow gave to their cultural hero, Winabojo. Hiawatha or

Winabojo was never seen by man, although sometimes both names have been

used for proper names among the Ojibwe. Their great spirit or ruler of

the universe was named Dzhe Manido.

 

According to Whitefeather, Winabojo was the one who caused the deluge

that covered the world and was responsible for building it again.

Winabojo was sitting at the mouth of a big river and noticed a stick

bobbing up and down near the middle of the stream. He thought it was

curious that it was not carried on down stream to the big lake and

further thought that it would be fun to sit on the stick. So he swam

out and sat on it. Dzhe Manido had told him two phrases, one of which

he might sing to himself, which is translated “Lake must close in”

and the other was “Lake should spread out”, and he must not say that.

Winabojo became curious to see what would happen if he repeated the

second of these phrases. He said it. Immediately the stick sank and he

fell under. He swam back to the top but could discover no land. Other

animals were swimming around, so he requested muskrat to dive down and

get him some mud from the bottom of the lake. Muskrat dived down but it

was too far and he drowned. The martin tried it and drowned. The otter

tried it and drowned. Then beaver tried it and obtained some mud, but

died as he reached the surface. Winabojo took the mud that remained

between the claws of beaver and rolled it into a little ball. Winabojo

made this ball grow as he rolled it around in his hands, while the

animals swam around him. Finally the ball grew large enough for the

fox to jump upon it and run around. Then it grew larger until all the

animals could get upon it.

 

So Winabojo and the animals were the first inhabitants and Winabojo

put the plants upon the world. Winabojo lived in a little valley with

his grandmother, Nokomis. Against her wishes, he went on a voyage of

exploration, leaving his valley to climb a hill. In the next valley

he saw a lot of people all dancing and he wanted to dance with them.

So he went down and danced all day, though none of them spoke to him

or said a word to each other. When the wind died down at sunset, he

discovered them to be only cattails, so he started back home. On his

way he was approached by Cumpa. No one knows who sent Cumpa there,

but we think that it was Dzhe Manido. Nokomis had told him that there

were inhabitants somewhere on the earth. Winabojo sat down with Cumpa

and they talked over the matter of how to regulate the world. In their

conference they developed the medicine lodge idea and the Ojibwe count

Winabojo as its founder. The painted post that they erect in their

medicine lodge represents Winabojo. It is carved to resemble a human

form, but not too closely, as they wish it to be understood that

Winabojo is a god and not a human being.

 

Winabojo started during the month of July to hunt for the inhabitants

of the earth and finally found them in the latter part of December or

early January. Then he stayed with them for several months, teaching

them the secrets of the medicine lodge. He told them how they must

gather roots and what songs they must sing. A specimen song and its meaning is here given.