Midewiwin

## The Great Medicine Society (Midewiwin)

   While in modern times the Midewiwin (lit. 'Way of the Heart' in Anishinaabe) is most commonly associated with the Anishinaabe  people and the majority of well-known *Mide* (practitioners of the Midewiwin, lit. "Healers") in the Oceti Sakowin are Anishinaabe citizens, the Great Medicine Lodge of the Midewiwin was once one of the most widespread faiths on the continent, found across the northeastern quarter of North American among all the Algonquian -speaking peoples before European contact.  Even today it is the second-most practiced faith in the Zone after Christianity and a majority religion in both the Upper Yankton CF of the Oceti Sakowin and throughout the Niswi-mishkodewinan. Even in Fargo , which is across the river  from the center the largest Christian denomination in the region and holds the center  of the second-largest, the Midewiwin has regained much of its old reach.

### Initiation/Practitioners

The Midewiwin or Grand Medicine Society is a secret society whose mission is to share their spiritual teachings to the initiated people. People who are summoned to be part of this select group have already distinguished themselves with an innate talent for healing. In modern times (the Sixth World/Fire) this means that practitioners have already demonstrated a talent for magic. With the help of elders, they learn the teachings and accomplish various levels to enable them to practice their art. In addition to the spiritual aspects of their education, they also learn the use of more conventional treatment of diseases, including modern medical techniques and traditional healing plants.

The Midewiwin Society, like any other school of learning, has several levels or degrees. Each level corresponds to a pouch (medicine bag) in which the shaman puts telesma  and items needed for their art. These pouches are made with the skins of certain animals (weasels, mink, bear, lynx).

Mide are initiated and ranked by "degrees." Much like the apprentice system or an academic degree program, a practitioner cannot advance to the next higher degree until completing the required tasks and gain the full knowledge of that degree's requirements. Only after successful completion may a candidate be considered for advancement into the next higher degree.

The policies regarding the extended Fourth Degree vary from region to region. All Midewiwin groups claim the extended Fourth Degrees are specialized forms of the Fourth Degree. Depending on the region, these extended Fourth Degree Midew can be called "Fifth Degree" up to "Ninth Degree." In parallel, if the Fourth Degree Midew is to a doctorate degree, the Extended Fourth Degree Midew is to a post-doctorate degree. The *Jiisakiwinini* is widely referred to by Elders as the "highest" degree of all the medicine practitioners in the Mide, as it is Spiritual medicine as opposed to physical/plant based medicine.

**Jiisakiiwin**
The Jiisakiiwin are also known as the Shaking Tent or the Juggler's Tent. Among the Midewiwin, a particularly powerful and well-respected spiritual leader who had trained from childhood is called a Jaasakiid or Jiisakiiwinini, also known as a "Juggler" or "Shaking-tent Seer."

### Waabanowin "Dawn Society"​​​​

The Waabanowin (also spelled Wabuowin, Wabunohwin and Wabunohiwin) is the Dawn Society. Its practitioners are called Waabanow and the practices of Waabanowin referred to as the Waabano. The Wabanowin are distinct society of visionaries. Like the Midewiwin, the Waabanowin is a secreti soceity, requiring an initiation. But unlike the Mide, the Waabano have sometimes two levels and sometimes four. This variation being dependent on the particular lodge. Once heavily hunted, their ceremonies and traditions are closely guarded.

### Rites and Rituals

**Annual and seasonal ceremonies**

* Aabita-biboon (Midwinter Ceremony)
* Animoosh ([White] Dog Ceremony)
* Jiibay-inaakewin or Jiibenaakewin (Feast of the Dead)
* Gaagaagiinh or Gaagaagishiinh (Raven Festival)
* Zaazaagiwichigan (Painted Pole Festival)
* Mawineziwin ("War [Remembrance] Dance")
* Wiikwandiwin ([Seasonal] Ceremonial Feast)—performed four times per year, once per season. The Wiikwandiwin is begun with a review of the past events, hope for a good future, a prayer and then the smoking of the pipe carried out by the heads of the doodem. These ceremonies are held in mid-winter and mid-summer in order to bring together peoples various medicines and combine their healing powers for revitalization. Each Wiikwandiwin is a celebration to give thanks, show happiness and respect to Gichi-manidoo. It is customary to share the first kill of the season during the Wiikwandiwin. This would show Gichi-manidoo thanks and also ask for a blessing for the coming hunt, harvest and season.

**Rites of passage**

* Nitaawigiwin (Birth rites)—ceremony in which a newborn's umbilical cord is cut and retained
* Waawiindaasowin (Naming rites)—ceremony in which a name-giver presents a name to a child
* Oshki-nitaagewin (First-kill rites)—ceremony in which a child's first successful hunt is celebrated
* Makadekewin (Puberty fast rites)
* Wiidigendiwin (Marriage rites)—ceremony in which a couple is joined into a single household
* Bagidinigewin (Death rites)—wake, funeral and funerary feast

**Miscellaneous ceremonies**

* Jiisakiiwin (Shaking tent)—ceremony conducted by a Shaking-tent seer (jaasakiid; a male jaasakiid known as a jiisakiiwinini or a female jaasakiid known as a jiisakiiwikwe), often called a "Juggler" in English, who would enter the tent to conjure spirits and speak beyond this world.
* Bagisewin (Present)—custom at the end of a wedding ceremony in which the bride presents wood at the groom's feet as a wedding present.
* Ishkwaandem-wiikwandiwin (Entry-way Feast)—A ceremony performed by women who took a piece of wood out to the bushes to offer it to Gichi-manidoo, and brought something back as well. This ceremony represents the woman as mother earth whom asked for blessing from Gichi-manidoo so that the home would be safe and warm.

### Implements and Lodges

The Great Medicine Lodge is named for the distinctive structures in which the central rites of the Midewiwin are carried out. The midewigaan ("mide lodge"), also known as mide-wiigiwaam when small or midewigamig ("mide structure") when large, is known in English as the "Grand Medicine Lodge" and is usually built in an open grove or clearing. A midewigaan is a domed structure with the proportion of 1 unit in width by 4 units in length. Various reports describe domed oval structures measuring about 20 feet in width by 80 feet in length, the structures are sized to accommodate the number of invited participants, thus many midewigaan for small mide communities in the early 21st century are as small as 6 feet in width and 24 feet in length and larger in those communities with more mide participants. The walls of the smaller mide-wiigiwaam consist of poles and saplings from 8 to 10 feet high, firmly planted in the ground, wattled with short branches and twigs with leaves. In communities with significantly large mide participants (usually of 100 people or more participants), the midewigamig becomes a formal and permanent ceremonial building that retains the dimensions of the smaller mide-wiigiwaam; a midewigamig might not necessarily be a domed structure, but typically may have vaulted ceilings.

**Jiisakiiwigaan**
Design of the jiisakiiwigaan ("'juggler' lodge" or "Shaking Tent" or traditionally "shaking wigwam") is similar in construction as that of the mide-wiigiwaam. Unlike a mide-wiigiwaam that is an oval domed structure, the jiisakiiwigaan is a round high-domed structure of typically 3 feet in diameter and 6 feet in height, and large enough to hold two to four people.

**Teaching scrolls**
Called wiigwaasabakoon in the Ojibwe language, birch bark scrolls were used to pass on knowledge between generations. When used specifically for Midewiwin ceremonial use, these wiigwaasabakoon used as teaching scrolls were called Mide-wiigwaas ("Medicine birch [bark scroll]"). Early accounts of the Mide from books written in the 1800s describe a group of elders that protected the birch bark scrolls in hidden locations. They recopied the scrolls if any were badly damaged, and they preserved them underground. These scrolls were described as very sacred and the interpretations of the scrolls were not easily given away. The historical areas of the Ojibwe were recorded, and stretched from the east coast all the way to the prairies by way of lake and river routes. Some of the first maps of rivers and lakes were made by the Ojibwe and written on birch bark. In modern times, *wiigwaasabakoon*can either be bark scrolls or off-line databases hidden away to protect their inner-most secrets.

**Teaching stones**
Teaching stones known in Ojibwe as either Gikinoo'amaagewaabik or Gikinoo'amaage-asin can be either petroglyphs or petroform. They serve as one of the most common focii for Mide casters.

### Locations

The local Midewiwin are centered in the spaces set aside for them at the sprawling Tekakwitha Lodge complex in south Fargo, but while that serves as a central space each of the practicing Mide of course maintain their own personal midewigaan, often two, one for personal meditation and another for holding rituals with their followers.

### Midewiwin in the Sixth World

The Midewiwin's role in the world is heavily shaped by the fact that they only accept the magically-active as full Mide. Because of this, the Mide are able not only to command the considerable social respect due a spiritual elder in their society, but also the kind of financial resources that only a professional organization of highly-paid professionals can call upon. After all, besides being Mide, these are all also professional mages, pulling in the kind of nuyen that can command, and they tend to be people of purpose who are more than willing to put those resources towards their spiritual callings. Which makes the Midewiwin one of the most powerful, prestigious and well-connected religious movements in the region, if not on the continent.

Within the Niswi-mishkodewinan and Oceti Sakowin there are rumors that the Mide have begun to use their power and position not only to heal the individuals but to "heal the society", that is to say take 'corrective' or vigilante action against those who they feel are poisoning society. BTL's, political corruption, pollution. This isn't confirmed, but it is something to keep in mind. Remember 'healer' does not necessarily equal 'pacifist'.

### Seven Fires

The Seven fires prophecy is an Anishinaabe prophecy that marks phases, or epochs, in the life of the people on Turtle Island, their name for the North American continent. The seven fires of the prophecy represent key spiritual teachings for North America, and suggest that the different colors and traditions of the human beings can come together on a basis of respect. It predates the arrival of the Europeans, and contains information for the future lives of the Anishinaabe which are still in the process of being fulfilled.

Originally, the prophecy and the Ojibwa migration story were closely linked. However, the last half of the prophecy appears to apply to all peoples in contact with the Anishinaabeg. Consequently, with the growth of the Pan-Indian Movement in the 1960s and the 1970s, concepts of the Seven fires prophecy merged with other similar prophetical teaching found among Indigenous peoples of North America forming a unified environmental, political, and socio-economic voice towards Canada and the United States. The Seven fires prophecy was originally taught among the practitioners of Midewiwin.

The prophecies are supposed to have been given by eight prophets in seven different time periods. According to oral tradition, the Mi'kmaq  Nation heard the first Prophet. The remaining seven prophets appeared before and were recorded by the Anishinaabeg. A prophecy of each of these seven periods were then called a "fire". The teachings of the Seven fires prophecy also state that when the world has been befouled and the waters turned bitter by disrespect, human beings will have two options to choose from, materialism or spirituality. If they chose spirituality, they will survive, but if they chose materialism, it will be the end of it.

Consensus among Mide is that we are currently in the Sixth Fire (paralleling the 'Suns' of mesoamerican myth that have become such common parlence), and that the era of US domination was the Fifth Fire.

*"In the time of the Fifth Fire there will come a time of great struggle that will grip the lives of all native people. At the waning of this Fire there will come among the people one who holds a promise of great joy and salvation. If the people accept this promise of a new way and abandon the old teachings, then the struggle of the Fifth Fire will be with the people for many generations. The promise that comes will prove to be a false promise. All those who accept this promise will cause the near destruction of the people."*

*“In the time of the Sixth Fire it will be evident that the promise of the Fifth Fire came in a false way. Those deceived by this promise will take their children always from the teachings of the Elders. Grandsons and granddaughters will turn against the Elders. In this way the Elders will lose their reason for living ... they will lose their purpose in life. At this time a new sickness will come among the people. The balance of many people will be disturbed. The cup of life will almost become the cup of grief.”*

A common identification by Mide of Daniel Howling Coyote with the False Prophet who ended the Fifth Fire has put them at odds with the conventional authorities of the Oceti Sakowin, who hold Howling Coyote up as a hero and prophet, nearly a divine being.

The Seventh Prophet that came to the people long ago was said to be different from the other prophets. This prophet was described as "young and had a strange light in his eyes" and said:

*“In the time of the Seventh Fire New People will emerge. They will retrace their steps to find what was left by the trail. Their steps will take them to the Elders who they will ask to guide them on their journey. But many of the Elders will have fallen asleep. They will awaken to this new time with nothing to offer. Some of the Elders will be silent because no one will ask anything of them. The New People will have to be careful in how they approach the Elders. The task of the New People will not be easy. If the New People will remain strong in their quest the Water Drum of the Midewiwin Lodge will again sound its voice. There will be a rebirth of the Anishinabe Nation and a rekindling of old flames. The Sacred Fire will again be lit.*

*It is this time that the light skinned race will be given a choice between two roads. One road will be green and lush, and very inviting. The other road will be black and charred, and walking it will cut their feet. In the prophecy, the people decide to take neither road, but instead to turn back, to remember and reclaim the wisdom of those who came before them. If they choose the right road, then the Seventh Fire will light the Eighth and final Fire, an eternal fire of peace, love brotherhood and sisterhood. If the light skinned race makes the wrong choice of the roads, then the destruction which they brought with them in coming to this country will come back at them and cause much suffering and death to all the Earth's people."*

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