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Ojibwe

The Ojibwe are one of two main peoples indigenous to the lands that became Minnesota, the other being the Dakota.  Ojibwe oral history tells that their migration from the Atlantic coast to Minnesota was in obedience to prophetic visions. One said that the Ojibwe must move west or perish, and that they would know they had reached their destination when they found food that grew on water, referring to manoomin, or wild rice, their traditional staple and sacred food. Other prophets foresaw conflict with European settlers and times of great loss, the loss of their lands, children, language, spirituality, and culture. The final prophet said that after all this suffering would come a period of revival and healing, which characterizes the present. The story reminds Ojibwe of their purpose, history, struggles, and triumphs, and of the importance of environmental stewardship and their spirituality.

Supernatural forces and the transcendent entity called gichi-manidoo, translated as 'great spirit' or 'great mystery,' are important in Ojibwe religion. Gichi-manidoo has come, for some Ojibwe, to overlap with the concept of God after centuries of Christian contact.  There are a number of ceremonial traditions important to Ojibwe religion, among them the Pipe, the Big Drum Society, the Midéwiwin, or Grand Medicine, Society.  But the range of ceremonial tradition alike cultivate proper ethical relationships with non-human and extra-human others: plants, animals, waters, weather phenomena, and spirits.

The Ojibwe arrived in the Western reaches of Lake Superior by the late 15th centuryand participated in the fur trade when the French arrived in the 1600s. Like the Dakota in southern Minnesota, many places of significance to the Ojibwe in northern Minnesota bear traditional names. Traditional homelands in the north are known as Anishinaabe Akiing, translated either as "the people of the land" or "the land of the people," emphasizing the ethical responsibilities involved with relationships.  Ojibwe spirituality places great importance on the land, waters, and air. The waters of Minnesota are very significant as providers of transportation, drinking water, and food.

An influx of white settlers in the 19th century led to a series of treaties that ceded traditional Ojibwe homelands to the U.S. apart from reserved lands (hence "reservations") and in exchange for payments. Christian missions and forcible English-only boarding schools, the latter of which were deliberate attempts to sever indigenous connections to kinship, land, culture, language, and religion, led to the losses that many of the prophets anticipated. Protestant missionaries sought to root out Dakota and Ojibwe values with hymns translated into their respective languages, but within the limits of Christianization, the Ojibwe made this singing their own ritual, a practice that continues today at funeral wakes. Between 1883 and 1934, reservation life was governed by administrative laws known as the Civilization Regulations, sometimes called the Religious Crimes Code, under which Dakota and Ojibwe peoples could be jailed and fined for participating in the Sun Dance, funerary give-away feasts, and traditional medicine and healing ceremonies.

In 1968, the American Indian Movement (AIM) was formed in Minneapolis by several Ojibwe leaders; AIM grew its presence and scope to reconnect Dakota and other native peoples with traditional language, spirituality, and kin. Particularly important was the AIM's emphasis on spirituality, which would help Native peoples combat the causes of their suffering. In 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Ojibwe rights to hunt, fish, and gather in the lands that they ceded in the Treaty of 1837. Today, many Ojibwe live on one of seven reservations: Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, Leech Lake, Mille Lacs, Red Lake, Boise Forte, and White Earth. Whether on one of these reservations, in outlying states, or in Canada, Ojibwe continue to live in profound relationship to homelands and sacred places within and  beyond reservation boundaries despite centuries of conflict and hardship. Their endurance speaks to the strength of a culture, a language, a spirituality, and a people that refused to be extinguished.

Unpublished Exhibits