Preserving the Sacred: Historical Perspectives on the Ojibwa Midewiwin (review)

Since time immemorial the Anishinaabeg (as Ojibwa First Nation people call themselves) have sought to achieve and maintain bimaadiziwin, or a long, productive, and healthy life. While there were many ways to accomplish this, one enduring method was through the practice of a religion known as the Midewiwin. Commonly called the Great Medicine Society or Medicine Dance in the English language, the Midewiwin functioned to promote a balanced life, often achieved through healing practices, sacred teachings, and narratives, with the assistance of manidoog (spirits, gods, manitou). Historically, the Midewiwin also created and sustained an ethno-cultural identity for the Ojibwa. As a flexible, tenacious tradition according to historian Michael Angel, 'it provided an institutional setting for the teaching of the world view (religious beliefs) of the Ojibwa people' (48).

Angel's Preserving the Sacred is a study of documentary records about the Midewiwin between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries and how they represented Ojibwa religious life. The bulk are writings by non-Aboriginal authors, and therefore reveal as much or more about Euro-American perceptions as the perspectives of Ojibwa informants with whom they worked or about the practices of the Midewiwin itself. These 'documentary fragments,' as Angel so aptly calls them, were filtered through cultural and social non-Indigenous recorders. Hence, they described the Midewiwin in overwhelmingly negative terms - as 'strange, savage, evil and potentially dangerous' (6). 'If there is one theme common to all these narratives,' declares the author, 'it is the Midewiwin as "other"' (178).

Yet Angel offers compelling reasons for why those seeking to better understand the historical role played by the Midewiwin should not dismiss these texts outright. Comparing them chronologically for commonalties, and despite 'their various biases and prejudices, the documents provide a convincing picture of a society that had developed an holistic cosmological system, which was embedded in their language and all aspects of their social structure' (x). As one might expect, Euro-American conceptualizations of the Midewiwin dominate textual interpretations of Ojibwa religion, but Angel does not necessarily privilege non-Indigenous perspectives. Indeed, throughout the study he pays respectful attention to the sacred nature of his subject matter. More importantly, he recognizes that 'it is essential that we listen to how the Ojibwa viewed themselves and the Midewiwin' (6). To this end, among Angel's documentary accounts of the Midewiwin are several written by nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ojibwa, including William Warren, Peter Jones, Basil Johnson, James Redsky, and Edward Benton-Banai. Read just as critically as the former, they provide an important counter to Euro-American perspectives.

Angel's work contributes to our understanding of Ojibwa spiritual life in several ways. One of the strongest points Angel reiterates throughout is the 'living' nature of both the Midewiwin and the sacred narratives about the Anishinaabeg that comprise an important component of its ceremonies. Here, the author disagrees with other scholarly interpretations that classified the Midewiwin as a revitalization movement created in response to Euro-American presence. Angel instead, through his critical evaluation of documentary evidence of changes to it over three centuries, illuminates the Midewiwin as a dynamic expression of stable Ojibwa cosmology. The inclusion of illustrations of Midewiwin scrolls and lodges, historic photographs of members of the Midewiwin known as Mideg, and numerous maps collectively complement Angel's documentary analysis.

Another scholarly viewpoint Angel rejects is the notion that the Midewiwin was an 'evolution' in Ojibwa religious development marked by 'a change from a dependence on dreams and visions, to a reliance on inherited knowledge, as a means of acquiring power in Ojibwa society' (10). Instead, he offers numerous examples from the periods under examination of how 'essential elements of the Midewiwin were clearly elaborations of traditional Anishinaabe beliefs and practices' (74). This reformulation of spiritual life while adhering to ancient traditions is ongoing to this day in many Ojibwa communities. In a powerful statement Angel summarizes why historical documentation about the Midewiwin is significant. It also speaks to...