ALGONQUIAN CALENDAR

Most of the Algonquian peoples of the Great Lakes region and the Subarctic were hunters and gatherers, so their life was based on semi-nomadic groups which travelled on the land, following a sequence of activities and practices which depended from the availability of resources and from the season and the favorable period.

 

Illustration by Seth Eastman showing an Ojibwa village during the gathering and processing of maple syrup (from Mary H. Eastman, The American Aboriginal Portfolio, Philadelphia, 1853)

 

During the summer, the main occupations were fishing and gathering of wild fruits, like berries and nuts; in some regions small parcels of land were cultivated with maize, beans and squash. At the beginning of fall several families gathered in swampy areas for the “wild rice” harvest (Zizania aquatica, is a plant that has nothing to do actually with  rice). As for other products, a ceremony was celebrated to thank the spirits (manitok) and demand the continuity and abundance of the harvest. With the approaching of winter, the hunting expeditions were intensified, especially the deer hunt, because it provided not only the meat, but also the skin with which clothing, blankets, etc., were manufactured. A special ceremony was performed if during the hunt a bear had been killed, an animal that was particularly important in the religious world of the  Natives. The meat which was not immediately consumed was smoked, dried and processed to be conserved in the future months. In late spring, more numerous groups assembled again for the maple sugar harvesting, which was boiled until a crystal substance formed like sugar. This sugar was kept in special birch bark containers. In this case, also, the gathering of diverse families was the occasion for feasts and social entertainments.

 

Ojibwa woman occupied with the gathering of maple syrup. To obtain the tree sap incisions were practiced in the trunk and a little stick was inserted which acted as drip, allowing the sap to be gathered in birch bark containers expressly made for it (Photo Roland Reed, 1908)

During the year, most of the ritual activities were organized by single nomadic groups and varied greatly from one community to the other. Many religious practices were individualistic and regarded the quest for a visionary contact with a spiritual being. The only real collective ceremonial situation was the ritual of the Midewiwin, the so-called “Medicine Dance”. The Midewiwin society was a shamanistic association, divided in hierarchical degrees, to which one could access only after a long period of apprenticeship, and included the payments to the society members and formal initiation of the new adepts. The instruction and rituals were directed by a priest (mide) and his assistants. The initiation ceremonies occurred during public festivals, generally held twice a year, in late spring and early autumn. The feast lasted from two to five days, according to the needs and number of candidates to be initiated into the society (Ritzenthaler 1978: p. 754).