Two Late Woodland Midewiwin Aspects from Ontario
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White Dogs, Black Bears, and Ghost Gamblers: Two Late Woodland Midewiwin Aspects from Ontario JAMES B. BANDOW Museum of Ontario Archaeology, University of Western Ontario INTRODUCTION Historians and ethnographers have debated the antiquity of the Midewiwin. Entrenched in historical discourse is Hickerson’s (1962, 1970) theory that the Midewiwin was a recent native resistance movement, a socio-evolutionary response to the changing culture patterns resulting from culture contact with Europeans. Other scholars view the Midewiwin as a syncretism, suggesting that a prehistoric component became intertwined with Christian influences that resulted in the ceremonial practices observed by ethnohistorians (Mason 2009; Aldendefer 1993; Dewdney 1975; Landes 1968). Recent critiques, however, provide evidence from material culture studies and center on the largely Western bias inherent in Hickerson’s diffusionist argument surrounding the post-contact origin of the Midewiwin. These arguments note structural similarities observed in birch bark scroll depictions, rock paintings and pictographs with historical narratives, ethnographic accounts, and oral history. These multiple perspectives lead some historians to conclude the practice was a pre-contact phenomenon (e.g., Angel 2002:68; Peers 1994:24; Schenck 1997:102; Kidd 1981:43; Hoffman 1891:260). Archaeological and material culture studies may provide further insight into understanding the origins of the Midewiwin. Oberholtzer’s (2002) recent overview of dog burial practices, for instance, compared prehistoric ritual patterns with the known historical practices and concluded that the increased complexity of the Midewiwin Society is an elaboration of substantive indigenous practices that must predate any European influence. This paper documents the archaeological continuity and syncretism of Mide symbolism observed from the Great Lakes region. Two Late Woodland and Proto-historic sites from Ontario are highlighted because of two unusual and previously undocumented structures which contain elements observed 40 WHITE DOGS, BLACK BEARS, AND GHOST GAMBLERS 41 both in Midewiwin birch bark scrolls and historical descriptions, yet exhibit features observed elsewhere in prehistoric contexts. DISCUSSION Archaeology can only deal with the tangible. Though it is possible to identify ritual behavior in the material record, observing specific Midewiwin practices cannot be done solely from archaeological data. It would be even more difficult to distinguish archaeologically the Midewiwin from the Waabanoowiwin. Ritual and ceremony are patterned, temporal, and repetitive behavior differentiated by degree of expression. The former is a reflection of a defined set of beliefs and the latter is a public expression of those same beliefs. To suggest that there is a “pure” expression of the Midewiwin, as suggested by Warren (1984:80), conveys a static view of the past and I use the term Midewiwin generally when speaking about archaeological contexts. Contextualizing ritual remains is often achieved by comparing the archaeological evidence with historical, ethnographic, and cross-cultural studies. Continuity and Syncretism: Prehistoric Algonquian Iconography Some scholars now acknowledge the similarity of some portraits of Midewigaan ceremonies with the shape and spatial arrangement of prehistoric subsurface features and the continuity of portrayed symbols with those observed both on rock art and winter counts. Howey and O’Shea (2006) explored the spatial relationship between mounds and earthwork enclosures at the Missaukee Earthworks in central Michigan with the Mide origins narrative of Bear’s Journey recounted to Ruth Landes (1968:106–110; Fig. 2).1 If we accept that perhaps some Midewiwin origins scrolls, not unlike instructional scrolls, are schematic and not just cognitive in their depictions, this is certainly an avenue for future research.2 Artifactual evidence can be found in Robertson’s (2005) survey of Late Woodland Middleport Period and Fort Ancient type ceramic pipes (ca. 1250–1400 AD) which revealed that the same two-dimensional anthropomorphic figures and triangular motifs 1. For an alternative perspective and critique see Whitely (2009) and Mason (2009). 2. Compare for example Dewdney (1975:119; Fig. 120) with earthwork features outlined in Abrams and Freter (2005). 42 JAMES B. BANDOW have “counterparts in the lexicons of rock art, the scrolls of the Midewiwin, or other forms of eastern woodlands graphic art” (Robertson 2005:51, Fig. 10). In Michigan, two clay ceramic figurines with representations of the bear and Mishibizhiw were uncovered from a Juntunen Phase (ca. 1000–1200 AD) component at the Johnson Site in Cheboygan County, Michigan. The artifacts displayed an unusual punctated orifice suggesting these figurines might have been mounted on posts (Lovis 2001:108–115). One pre-contact symbol observed on many artifacts, including Midewiwin birch bark scrolls and rock art, has been the subject of historical debate. The misinterpretation of the “cross symbolism” observed by Father Marquette for a Mide post erected in front of a Mide Lodge at the late seventeenth-century Miami–Mascouten village on the Fox River, Wisconsin in 1673 (JR:59:103). Rejecting Hoffman’s (1891:261) interpretation that the wood pillar was a midewaatig, a distinguishing marker of a Fourth Degree (sky) Lodge, he cites this wooden cross as evidence of early Jesuit relations (Hickerson 1970:54). Archaeologically, this “cross symbol” is observed at many Late Woodland sites throughout the northeast, southeast, and Mississippi drainage areas of North America. The motif conforms to fourth-degree midwinter charts and echoes images observed in the Denver Scrolls (Dewdney 1975:120, Fig. 119). These depictions often incorporate or overlay other motifs. Highly stylized painted or etched images are observed on petroglyphs, polished shell and copper pendants, slate and shell gorgets, and stone tablets. Late Woodland Mississippian Culture ornate shell gorgets, for example, depict the motif at the center of a circle or wheel-shaped depiction with flaring edges representing a sun, star, or some other celestial metaphor. The earliest dated shell gorgets range between 1000–1175 AD (Brain and Phillips 1999:222–229). Rock carvings with this imagery are also found at the Millstone Bluff Site, an undisturbed Late Mississippian Village located in the Shawnee National Forest. Here, the cross is depicted on rock slabs surrounding the village in association with a Great Horned Serpent (Wagner et al. 2004; Wagner 1996). These motifs, therefore, could not possibly represent early European influences on the Midewiwin. Midewiigwaas and Mazinaakizon Chief George Copway (Kahgegagahbowh) alludes to the presence of three ancient repositories for the Ojibway sacred records near the western shores of Lake Superior. Known as Midiwiigwaas, these hieroglyphic records and symbols were recorded on birch bark scrolls, wooden plates, as well as WHITE DOGS, BLACK BEARS, AND GHOST GAMBLERS 43 slate and copper tablets. The master narratives were entombed in large tree trunks filled with goose down, sealed with gum and buried underground or concealed in caves. Every fifteen years, the master narratives were examined, copied, divided, and redistributed among elders of the society. Decaying records were then replaced with exact facsimiles and reinterred (Copway 1850:127–133). Copway asserts that these hieroglyphics have twofold meanings representing both narrative text and religious symbolism that would allow a more cohesive tradition to be transmitted through generations over time. Over 150 years later, epigraphers would seem to agree. Vastokas’ (2003) linguistic investigation of Ojibway pictography distinguishes between iconic imagery and symbol as seen on rock art from the more structured narrative imagery observed on birch bark scrolls. She concludes that these birch bark scrolls should be recognized as a form of writing not unlike other forms of pictorial or semabiographic writing systems (Vastokas 2003:13–16). Archaeological remains of birch bark scroll fragments were uncovered from a cave site located at Burntside Lake, northwest of Lake Superior and east of Fort Francis, Ontario (Kidd 1965; Kidd 1981). Excavations revealed some 260 birch bark fragments with thirty-eight specimens exhibiting stitching holes suggesting that they had been bound together. Two specimens were actually still bound together by such stitching (Kidd 1965:481, Fig. 4; Kidd, 1981:41). A small collection of wooden fragments bearing a red pigment was also uncovered. Carbon dating yielded a mean date of 390 +/– 70 BP (ca. 1560 AD). Birch bark fragments and artifacts indicative of “curing rites” were also observed at the Rainy River Mound Group in Northwestern Ontario (Kenyon 1986; Kenyon 1970; Noble 1984). These mounds contain both primary and secondary interments and they are almost identical in structure and inclusions to features excavated on the Little Fork River and Red Cedar Rivers and are very similar to sites in Minnesota, Michigan, and Ohio (Johnson and Ready 1992). Two Mounds are of interest to this discussion: Hungary Hall Mound One and the Armstrong Mound. Kenyon’s excavations of the Armstrong Mound reveal an unusual empty circular feature; a rectangular collapsed structure with associated Laurel pottery and a pair of “sucking tubes” made of orthoclase and quartzite. A small poorly visible birch bark scroll fragment was reported from this mound. White pine fragments yielded a carbon