﻿Il6 SMITPISONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. /S 



Mr. Hewitt made a reconnaissance trip to the Chippewa of 

 Garden River, Canada, for the purpose of expanding his knowledge 

 of certain Cliippewa texts, recorded in 1921 by hini from the 

 dictation of Mr. George Gabaoosa of Garden River, Canada, and 

 also to obtain data in regard to the derivation of two very important 

 proper names, namely, Chippewa and Nanabozho (appearing in 

 literature also as Nenabojo, Menaboju, and Wenaboju). 



The name Chippewa is the generic designation of a historically 

 important group of Algonquian tribes of the northwestern United 

 States. Various unsatisfactory derivations have been given to it, 

 and it appears in literature with no less than 97 variant spellings. 



For two years Mr. Hewitt has had in mind a definition of the 

 name Chippewa which brings out one of the distinctive arts of these 

 people, just as the Ottawa received their name of " The Traders " 

 because for the moment the business of trading was then ethnically 

 distinctive. To those who first gave the name Chippewa to 

 these people, picture-writing was their preeminent characteristic. 

 And the birch bark records of the Chippewa are sufficiently 

 prominent in their culture to be noteworthy. The stem of the temi 

 may be found in the Chippewa expression. ;;/;/(/ ojibkva, meaning 

 " I mark, write, on some object." The form ojibii^'a used as an 

 appellative in the plural would become ojibivcg, which used as an 

 ethnic appellation signifies " those who make pictographs." Mr. 

 George Gabaoosa, of Garden River, Canada, a most intelligent 

 Chippewa, collaborated in the derivation of this tribal name. 



The present writer is not aware that any consistent meaning has 

 been given by any other student to the proper name Nanabozho 

 (Wenaboju, Menaboju, etc.. being other spellings of it) of the 

 Algonquian biogenetic myth. Briefly, it is the Myth of Mudjikewis, 

 the First Born on Earth, commonly called The Story of Infibi"- 

 oji'o' {i.e., Nanabozho.) This story, which is remarkable for 

 beauty and comprehensiveness, relates that on the shore of the great 

 primal sea dwelt Misakamigokwe (/'. c, The Entire Earth Mother) 

 and her Daughter. This Entire Earth Woman is the impersonation 

 of the inert earth, while the daughter is the life-increasing power 

 of the earth — the Life Mother — the Mother of all Living Things. 

 These two personages were of the super-race of the " first people " 

 who lived when the earth was yet new. 



The Entire Earth Woman cautioned her daughter, saying, 

 " Daughter, bend not yourself against the sun at noon-tide, be- 

 cause the Great Father Spirit at that time looks on you. Remember, 



