Upon death, the individual’s body was traditionally washed and dressed in its finest clothing and ornaments. The hair was carefully combed and braided and the face painted. The body remained in its lodge, laying in state on a sheet of birch bark, while relatives and friends assembled for the funeral feast, conducted by a priest of the Midewiwin shamanistic society. After the usual offering of tobacco to the spirits, the priest talked directly to the dead person, describing the four-day journey toward the West the soul would take to join the village of the dead in the sky. The soul was admonished to take the correct trail and to expect along the way to be confronted by dangers. He/she had to cross a river over a quaking log, which actually was a Water Monster. The soul was to address the log as “grandfather” and throw a tobacco offering, and he could cross in safety without damages.

Ancient Ojibwa graves, with the wooden frames in the shape of little houses that built over the buried corpse, near L'Anse, Michigan

At the end of the ceremony, several men carried the body out of the lodge, through a hole in the west side of it. The doorway was never used, lest the soul return one day through that way he/she knew. In more recent times, with log or frame houses, the body was removed through a west window, which, sometimes, had to be enlarged to accommodate the coffin. The body was, in early times, wrapped in birch bark and put into a low grave house, with feet oriented to the West. At the West end of the grave house an opening was cut for the release of the soul.

The old burial ground of the Ojibwa community of Bay Mills, Michigan. The circular holes on the graves were made to permit the passage of the soul of the dead.

Beneath the hole, on a wooden ledge, food and tobacco were placed, as an accompaniment during the four-day journey of the soul. A grave marker was set into the ground in front of the grave house, with drawings of the deceased’s totemic animal, inverted to indicate death. For four days a fire was lit at the grave, symbolizing the fire built by the soul as he rested after each day’s journey.             Wooden stele painted with the images of the deceased's totem. the animal, a crane, is represented upside down to signify death (drawing by Seth Eastman, from Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Historical and Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, Washington, 1851-57)

Offerings on the graves. The image is an artistic free reconstruction, that shows two different types of burial, belonging to different geographical areas. The undergound burial, covered with a little wooden structure, was typical of the Ojibwa, while the other type, with the corpse deposited on a platform, was frequent in the Plains area (drawing by Seth Eastman, from Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Historical and Statistical Information respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, Washington, 1851-57)

The survived relatives observed a period of mourning for one year, at the end of which a ceremony to remove the mourning was held, permitting to the dead person’s spouse to remarry. After his wife’s death, the husband was brought a bowl of food by several women of his wife’s clan. He ate the food, and was required  to keep the bowl with him for one year, taking it even at the feasts. At the year’s end, during a feast held at a clan member’s dwelling, his behaviour was reviewed by the wife’s clan members. If the audience decided that he had conducted himself according to the prescribed rules, his hands were washed, he was dressed in new clothing and his cheeks painted red. After a distribution of cloths to the wife’s clan women, he could freely remarry  (Ritzenthaler 1978: p. 753-753).