Notes on the Post-Contact Origin of the Midewiwin

In a recent paper' I proposed that the Midewiwin of the Chippewa and contiguous central Algonquian peoples was not an aboriginal ceremonial, but developed in post-contact times. In making this assertion I questioned the validity of from the Jesuit Relations presented by W. J. Hoffman in 188518862 and later by W. Vernon Kinietz3 that the Midewiwin was practiced in aboriginal times. I did not present detailed evidence refuting the findings of Hoffman and Kinietz in my paper, but merely provided a series of citations from Jesuit Relations to document my point that the cross seen by Father Jacques Marquette in the Mascouten-Miami village on Fox River in 1673 was not the cross of the fourth degree of the Midewiwin, but the Christian cross.4 In this present paper I annotate these references and briefly summarize my position on the origin and development of the Midewiwin, while showing how a careless handling of source material has led to misconceptions with respect to early Indian custom and practice. I have suggested that the Midewiwin and related ceremonials (for instance, the ceremonial of the sweat lodge called by Henry R. Schoolcraft the Madodiswon) were developed due to transformations in the social and political organization of the

Genealogy · Archaeology and Natural History · History · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Mormonism, Religion, and History

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• The Sociohistorical Significance of Two Chippewa Ceremonials1

  Open Access•Harold Hickerson•American Anthropologist•1963

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