Tribal Traditions: Africa, Australia, and the Americas

• This section explores tribal traditions in Africa, Australia, and the Americas.
• Each continent, country, tribe, and ethnic group possesses a rich, diverse, and important history.
• Focus remains on religious traditions global in nature with formal organizations.
• Attention to traditions, rituals, beliefs and practices of indigenous people across four continents helps to understand how spirituality emerged.
• Four traditions examined included:
  • The North American Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) from the Great Lakes area of the US and Canada
  • The South American Incas/Quechuas primarily located along the western coast of South America
  • The Indigenous/Aboriginal people of Australia
  • The Yoruba people near and in Nigeria on the African continent.
• Each tradition possesses a rich tradition of spirituality, belief, and ritual
• Native traditions integrate all dimensions of social life.
• The term "life-way” is used, instead of "religion,” to describe the traditions of Native peoples.

The Anishinaabe

• The Ojibwe, also known as Chippewa, refer to themselves as Anishinaabe, meaning "the people."
• The term Ojibwe means "puckered," referring to the moccasins made and worn by the Anishinaabe.
• Population includes more than 170,000 in the United States and more than 160,00 in Canada.
• The Ojibwe are independent bands or tribes connected by shared language, culture, and clan system.
• They inhabit the Western Great Lakes region, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ontario, and Manitoba.
• The Anishinaabe are culturally related to other peoples of the Northeast Woodlands.
• They are linguistically related to other peoples of the Algonkian language family.

History and Belief

• The Anishinaabe originated on the east coast of North America, according to oral history.
• Prophecies led them to the western Great Lakes area and became known as the Seven Fires.
• Religious beliefs and activities vary but are rooted in profound respect for life.
• Beliefs include:
  • Understanding manidoog (manitous) as spirits or "mysteries," the sources of life and existence.
  • Everything has spirit - plants, animals, and the earth.
  • Gratitude to Gitche Manidoo, "Great Spirit" or "Great Mystery."
  • The Anishinaabe are basically monotheistic, but also refer to Mother Earth.
  • Mother Earth is both the physical manifestation and created by Gitche Manidoo.
• Praying to the spirits involves asking for health, gratitude, and assistance.
• Prayer takes various forms, often including smoke, drums, singing, and dance.
• Elders are respected for their wisdom.
• The clan system reveres wise individuals, and respect is shown in daily behaviors.
• Women are respected as life bearers and protectors of water.
• Key values include walking in harmony with the world, with no separation between sacred and secular.
• Europeans attempted to impose their lifestyle on the Ojibwe, seizing land, forcing individual ownership, and assimilation.
• Ojibwe children were sent to "boarding schools" to lose their native identities.

Location

• The Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe is located in Cloquet, Minnesota.
• Before European settlement, they lived in Duluth, known as Gichigami with access to Lake Superior.
• The Fond du Lac Band is one of six Chippewa Indian Bands in Minnesota.
• La Pointe Treaty of 1854 established the Fond du Lac Reservation.
• Archaeologists find the Chippewa (Ojibwe) resided in the Great Lakes region since 800 A.D.
• The Ojibwe name for the Fond du Lac Reservation is "Nagaajiwanaang" which means "where the water stops."
• Anishinaabe local life is seen in many places around the city, including at American Indian Community Housing Organization, at art galleries in the area, both at the University of Minnesota and at the AICHO Galleries, in the Lake Superior Ojibwe Gallery, and in many public parks
• Colleges offer language and history courses.
• Both Ojibwe oral traditions and archaeological findings suggest a migration from the east coast to the upper midwest over centuries.
• The Ojibwe were well established as far west as Sault Ste. Marie, Madeleine Island, and Minnesota by the 1600s.
• The Ojibwe are one of the larger tribes in North America, living in both the United States and Canada.
• They are located primarily around the western Great Lakes, in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario.
• Ojibwe tribes in the plains area of North Dakota and Canada are known as the Saulteaux.

Lifestyle

• The Ojibwe have historically lived in heavily forested areas with lakes, rivers, and swamps.
• Their semi-nomadic activities included:
  • Hunting bear, deer, moose, and birds
  • Fishing with spears and hooks in all seasons, including ice fishing
  • Maple sugar and syrup production
  • Harvesting wild rice, "the food that grows on water," which was prophesied before arriving in the Great Lakes area
  • Gathering and gardening

Ritual

• Central to Anishinaabe Spirituality
• May Include:
  • Smudging- burning 1 of 4 herbs tobacco, sage, cedar and sweetgrass, to create cleansing smoke
  • Sweat lodges- small heated constructions that cause perspiration and are used for prayer
  • Vision quests- fasting in solitude where young people might find their direction -Pow-wows- include eating and dancing, and are a community event for rejoicing, sobriety, and naming children
  • Drumming circles- voices of spirits flow through the drummers
  • Sacred pipes- pipes held carefully for prayer
  • Midewiwin (Medicine Lodge)- composed of spiritual leader
  • Gift exchanges- connecting with community by giving
  • Clan identity- 29 acknowledged clans within