OJIBWAY AND CREE OF CENTRAL CANADA 9 
A VISIT TO THE OJIBWAY AND CREE OF CENTRAL CANADA 
BAND of Ojibway Indians occupies that region of central Canada 
lying between Hudson Bay and the Great Lakes, and a band of 
Cree lies directly north of them. ‘These tribes it was my good 
fortune to visit during the past summer, sent by the Department of 
Anthropology of the Museum. On the first day of June starting from 
Dinorwick, the little Hudson’s Bay Company post some 200 miles east of 
Winnipeg on the Canadian Pacific Railroad, I began the expedition 
accompanied by two guides, one of whom, Tom Bain by name, was 
head-guide for the Museum’s expedition into the James Bay region in 
1908. Our equipment was light, consisting merely of a tent and blankets, 
food, guns and necessary ammunition. ‘These we carried nine and one 
half miles to Sandy Lake where we loaded them into an eighteen-foot 
cedar canoe, our bark for the remainder of the trip. 
From Sandy Lake we journeyed four days northward to Lac Seul, 
touching at several Ojibway villages and camps by the way and coming 
in rather dangerous proximity to a serious forest fire. We made our 
first permanent camp at Lac Seul. About eight hundred Ojibway 
trade at this point, and at first they were inclined to be suspicious of us. 
They became decidediy hostile and threatening after they learned that 
our object was to study their manners and customs, so that, aithough we 
spent about ten days among them, we were able to secure little informa- 
tion and but few specimens. 
At length, finding that our efforts were bringing no results, we set out 
for our next stopping place, Fort Osnaburgh on Lake St. Joseph, but 
after a day’s paddiing found that the guide did not remember the route. 
We were obliged to return to the Lac, which we reached a littie after 
midnight. For some time before nearing our camping ground we could 
hear the Indians drumming and singing back in the woods, and after we 
pitched our camp not far away from where the Indians were, we could 
hear very distinctly what was going on. ‘The medicine man or shaman 
was making medicine against us and particularly against me. His 
incantations, however, proved of no ayail, at ieast we can truthfully say 
that we have feit no iil effects from his charms as yet. The foilowing 
morning, we secured a friendly Cree who was living among the Ojibway 
at this point to guide us on our way to Fort Osnaburgh. ‘The journey 
