Degree initiations and the 'shooting' of the migis shell

CLM-0078 · Content

In the initiation, four officiating Mide' priests in turn thrust their medicine bags at the candidate, 'shooting' the sacred migis shell into his body; at the last thrust, aimed at his head, he falls forward as if lifeless, and a migis shell then drops from his mouth, where he had been told beforehand to hold it.

Claim support

Single source

Record review

Reviewed

Period

by 1891

Locators

SRC-0075: p. 215

Sources counted as independent

Not recorded

Supporting sources

• The Midē'wiwin or "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa ↗ (SRC-0075; authenticity: Unassessed)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Checked against the Internet Archive text on 2026-11-04. The same device recurs at a later degree, where the candidate spits out a shell he had hidden in his mouth (p. 265).

• SRC-0075: Source authenticity is unassessed; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
• SRC-0075: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
• ITEM-0035: The recorded practice status is provisional: no dated status claims are linked.

CLM-0079 · Content

After a new member is admitted, the Mide' on each side of the lodge take turns pretending to shoot the migis into members of the other side, who fall over, gag and pretend to cough up a migis shell, show it round, and then pretend to swallow it again.

Claim support

Single source

Record review

Reviewed

Period

by 1891

Locators

SRC-0075: pp. 265–266

Sources counted as independent

Not recorded

Supporting sources

• The Midē'wiwin or "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa ↗ (SRC-0075; authenticity: Unassessed)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Checked against the Internet Archive text on 2026-11-04.

• SRC-0075: Source authenticity is unassessed; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
• SRC-0075: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
• ITEM-0035: The recorded practice status is provisional: no dated status claims are linked.

CLM-0080 · Stated reason

Mide' priests charge for every remedy or secret they pass on, because it is believed that a secret that was paid for cannot be given away for nothing without its power being weakened or destroyed by the manido that guards it.

Claim support

Single source

Record review

Reviewed

Period

by 1891

Locators

SRC-0075: p. 221

Sources counted as independent

Not recorded

Supporting sources

• The Midē'wiwin or "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa ↗ (SRC-0075; authenticity: Unassessed)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Hoffman reports the belief and adds that the practice is not only mercenary. Checked against the Internet Archive text on 2026-11-04.

• SRC-0075: Source authenticity is unassessed; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
• SRC-0075: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
• ITEM-0035: The recorded practice status is provisional: no dated status claims are linked.

CLM-0081 · Other

The chief Mide' priests agreed to impart the ceremonies to Hoffman so that a complete description could be preserved for their descendants, because they expected that the 'pagan rites' could not be kept up much longer.

Claim support

Single source

Record review

Reviewed

Period

1880s

Locators

SRC-0075: p. 300

Sources counted as independent

Not recorded

Supporting sources

• The Midē'wiwin or "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa ↗ (SRC-0075; authenticity: Unassessed)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Hoffman's own account of how he obtained the material. He also expected the ceremonies to go on being held in secret. Checked against the Internet Archive text on 2026-11-04.

• SRC-0075: Source authenticity is unassessed; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
• SRC-0075: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
• ITEM-0035: The recorded practice status is provisional: no dated status claims are linked.

CLM-0097 · Content

During preparation for initiation the candidate is taught the Mide' plants one or two at a time. He may be taken into the woods to a particular plant or tree; a smoke offering is made before it is pulled up, and a pinch of tobacco is put into the hole as an offering to Nokomis, the earth, grandmother of mankind. The cures are not credited to any action on the body but to driving out the bad manidos that possess the sick part; the spines of conifer leaves, for example, are held to act through the vapour upon the demons in the patient's body.

Claim support

Single source

Record review

Reviewed

Period

by 1891

Locators

SRC-0075: pp. 197–198

Sources counted as independent

Not recorded

Supporting sources

• The Midē'wiwin or "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa ↗ (SRC-0075; authenticity: Unassessed)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Checked against the Internet Archive text on 2026-11-04. Hoffman lists the plants with botanical, English and Ojibwe names and their uses on pp. 198–201.

• SRC-0075: Source authenticity is unassessed; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
• SRC-0075: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
• ITEM-0035: The recorded practice status is provisional: no dated status claims are linked.

CLM-0098 · Change

Mide' members said that formerly much of the plant lore was withheld from first-degree candidates and kept for the higher degrees. Because much knowledge was believed lost through the reticence of former chief priests, these 'higher secrets' were by the 1880s given in the instruction for the first and second degrees, while the third and fourth degrees were very rarely conferred.

Claim support

Single source

Record review

Reviewed

Period

by 1891

Locators

SRC-0075: pp. 201–202

Sources counted as independent

Not recorded

Supporting sources

• The Midē'wiwin or "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa ↗ (SRC-0075; authenticity: Unassessed)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Checked against the Internet Archive text on 2026-11-04.

• SRC-0075: Source authenticity is unassessed; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
• SRC-0075: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
• ITEM-0035: The recorded practice status is provisional: no dated status claims are linked.

CLM-0099 · Suppression

Missionaries and, in many cases, Indian agents did their utmost to suppress the Mide' ceremonies as an obstacle to Christianisation, which Hoffman gives as one reason the third and fourth degrees were seldom conferred.

Claim support

Single source

Record review

Reviewed

Period

1880s

Locators

SRC-0075: p. 202

Sources counted as independent

Not recorded

Suppression mechanism

official_condemnation

Supporting sources

• The Midē'wiwin or "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa ↗ (SRC-0075; authenticity: Unassessed)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Checked against the Internet Archive text on 2026-11-04. See also CLM-0081, where the chief priests' expectation that the rites could not continue is the reason they gave the material to Hoffman.

• SRC-0075: Source authenticity is unassessed; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
• SRC-0075: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
• ITEM-0035: The recorded practice status is provisional: no dated status claims are linked.

CLM-0100 · Content

As part of the preparation for the fourth degree the candidate is taught to make charms and love powder. The love powder's composition is a profound secret, passed on only for a large fee: vermilion, powdered Seneca snakeroot (Polygala senega), a very small amount of blood from a girl's first menstruation, and powdered ginseng cut from the fork of the root, mixed and kept in a small buckskin bag. It is prepared only after a tobacco offering to Kitshi Manido and a Mide' song with a rattle.

Claim support

Single source

Record review

Reviewed

Period

by 1891

Locators

SRC-0075: p. 258

Sources counted as independent

Not recorded

Supporting sources

• The Midē'wiwin or "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa ↗ (SRC-0075; authenticity: Unassessed)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Checked against the Internet Archive text on 2026-11-04. Hoffman gives the menstrual-blood ingredient in Latin. He distinguishes it from the face paint of roots and red ochre used to attract a lover, which he quotes from Peter Jones.

• SRC-0075: Source authenticity is unassessed; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
• SRC-0075: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
• ITEM-0035: The recorded practice status is provisional: no dated status claims are linked.

CLM-0101 · Content

Before the first-degree initiation the candidate learns for the first time how the priests prepare effigies and other objects to give unbelievers visible proof of the Midewiwin's divine origin. In the tests, a string of four wooden beads rolls as if alive while its owner chants almost inaudibly; a small jointed wooden figure, set in a hole with a magic herb powder sprinkled around and into it, moves up and down; and the most powerful priests make a Mide' bag crawl on the ground. Hoffman suggests that a small animal in the bag would explain the last, and notes that the light is kept dim to stop the deception being seen, and that public displays are given only before the most credulous of the uninitiated or fellow priests.

Claim support

Single source

Record review

Reviewed

Period

by 1891

Locators

SRC-0075: pp. 204–206

Sources counted as independent

Not recorded

Supporting sources

• The Midē'wiwin or "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa ↗ (SRC-0075; authenticity: Unassessed)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Checked against the Internet Archive text on 2026-11-04.

• SRC-0075: Source authenticity is unassessed; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
• SRC-0075: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
• ITEM-0035: The recorded practice status is provisional: no dated status claims are linked.

CLM-0102 · Content

At the climax of the first-degree initiation the leading priest says Mi'-dzhi-de'-a-mi-shik' ('put your helping heart with me') and calls 'ya, ho', ho', ho', ho', ho', ho'' as he aims his bag at the candidate's head. When the shell has dropped from the candidate's mouth, the chief priest holds it toward the candidate's mouth, then to the east, south, west, north and sky, calling 'wa! wa! hé hé hé hé' each time, with the last syllable rising high and dropping. The new member then thanks each person present with the words Migwetsh ga-o-shi-to-in bimadisiwin, 'thanks for giving me life'.

Claim support

Single source

Record review

Reviewed

Period

by 1891

Locators

SRC-0075: pp. 215, 265

Sources counted as independent

Not recorded

Supporting sources

• The Midē'wiwin or "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa ↗ (SRC-0075; authenticity: Unassessed)

Contradicting sources: none recorded.

Checked against the page image of p. 215 and the Internet Archive text of p. 265 on 2026-11-04; Hoffman's accents on the thanks formula are omitted here.

• SRC-0075: Source authenticity is unassessed; this is separate from the truth of its assertions.
• SRC-0075: No source-level content_hash is recorded; linked artifact hashes may identify excerpts, derivatives or metadata instead.
• ITEM-0035: The recorded practice status is provisional: no dated status claims are linked.