Ogimaag: Anishinaabeg Leadership, 1760-1845

3. Mayosewininiwag: Military Leaders

113 3 Mayosewininiwag military leaders It does not devolve upon any chief in particular to make or form a war party, but any of the braves can muster together a band of volunteers. Those who have a desire to do so, can join these parties, the number of each party being regulated entirely according to the bravery of the individual who forms it.—George Copway We have already taken life for life, and it is all our customs require. Father, do not think that I do not love our people whose blood has been shed. I would fain kill every one of the . . . Dakota tribe to revenge them, but a wise man should be prudent in his revenge. —Ezhkibagikoonzh The presence and assistance of the manidoog infused Anishinaabeg leadership and drew people to follow those whose bene ficial decisions reflected extensive support from these very important and very revered spiritual kin. While the support of these beings was important for ogimaag, it was crucial for leaders like mayosewininiwag and gechi-midewijig whose authority rested on the ability to gain followers through demonstrated success and persuasion. Ritual demonstrations of connection to manidoog assistance through song and dance bolstered their ability to inspire others to action. In other words, these leaders were charismatic. Max Weber defines charisma as “a certain quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, super- 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 114 Mayosewininiwag human, or at least specifically exceptional qualities.”1 Many theorists who have built upon Weber’s work have suggested that charismatic authority arises in situations of social instability and tends toward the destruction or decomposition rather than the construction or stabilization of leadership institutions.2 However, this characterization of charismatic leadership as aberrant , irrational, and distinctive to societies in transition ignores the many societies that have had orderly and stable charismatic leadership structures over long periods.3 Societies reliant upon such structures for their group decision making would hardly have maintained them if they had not proved successful in meeting people’s needs. First, in Anishinaabeg society, charismatic and hereditary leadership existed in a complex interrelationship . Second, Anishinaabeg evaluated the quality of candidates for hereditary leadership offices according to their ability to achieve and hold other more transient forms of leadership, in particular charismatic leadership roles. As a result charismatic leadership provided stability and authority rather than chaos to Anishinaabeg governance. The Anishinaabeg world view institutionalized charismatic authority in such a way that community members easily recognized who had it and who did not. One elder informed musicologist Frances Densmore that “if a man is to do something beyond human power he must have more than human strength” and indicated that for him, songs brought this ability.4 Anishinaabeg people individually and as a group used tobacco, songs, dance, dreams, feasts and fasts to communicate with, request aid, and thank the ever present manidoog. As discussed in the previous chapter, ogimaag used tobacco and feasts to draw on manidoog assistance and may occasionally relate a dream to lend weight to their concerns. Mayosewininiwag and gechi-midewijig show their connections to the manidoog more demonstratively, more charismatically through public rituals involving not only feasts and tobacco but also songs and dance. These additional dem- Mayosewininiwag 115 onstrations of access to manidoog support brought increased respect and confidence in the individual’s abilities. All of the most prominent ogimaag of Ojibwe communities in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota in the early nineteenth century demonstrated their charismatic authority through becoming skilled mayosewininiwag during their youth, by becoming skilled and successful hunters, or through attaining positions within the leadership of the Midewiwin society—or by some combination of the three. These avenues to leadership were open to anyone in the community regardless of hereditary qualifications, and some of those who gained prestige through these avenues successfully challenged the authority of ogimaag who did not. However, those individuals who exerted the strongest influence in Anishinaabeg society were those who combined hereditary and charismatic leadership. Different cultures and their world views define the culturally specific qualities of charisma. As Edward A. Shils has theorized, “the charismatic quality of an individual as perceived by others, or himself, lies in...