186 BULLETIN, PUBLIC MUSEUM, MILWAUKEE [Vol. 19 



Chief dance (og/cida'nimVdiw/n) at the present time is held if a person is 

 sick, or if someone dreams that sickness is about to invade the community, 

 and the main function of the ceremony is to enhst the aid of the guardian 

 spirits of a group of people in the curing of the sick person, or in warding 

 off the impending sickness. There is no regular membership, or scheduled 

 meetings as in the Midewiwin. The ceremonial pattern consists of invitation 

 by a gift of tobacco sent with a runner, the dedication of the food and 

 tobacco to the spirits by a speaker, a feast, singing and dancing to the rhythm 

 of a tambourine drum, and the enlistment of personal guardian spirits by 

 the participants in the aid of a person, or the community at large. 



The ceremony has undergone a rather profound shift in purpose. My 

 older informants claimed it was originally a war ceremonial held before a 

 war party was sent out against their traditional enemy, the Woodland 

 Dakota Sioux. The people then enlisted their guardian spirits to insure the 

 safety and success of the war party. This contention is bolstered by such 

 suggestive elements as the literal meaning of the name, i.e. "brave dance," the 

 relating of war exploits (now rarely done), the use of the same type of 

 drum as was employed by a war party, and a former practice of carrying 

 wooden knives to represent scalping-knives during the dance. Although 

 popularly called the "Chief Dance" at Lac Court Oreilles, it is commonly 

 called the "War Dance" at the nearby reservations of Lac du Flambeau and 

 Lac Vieux Desert. 



When hostilities with the Sioux ceased, the ceremony also died down 

 from lack of purpose, although it did not die out. Its dessication, and subse- 

 quent revival (during the early part of the twentieth century) as a mutual 

 aid society is a point on which all informants agreed. Although now held 

 primarily for curative purposes, it is also occasionally held to insure a good 

 wild-rice crop, to avert inclement weather, and during World War II, to 

 insure the safety and success of the Indian boys in the armed forces, a pur- 

 pose somewhat harking back to the original one. 



This revival and reinterpretation of the Chief Dance in terms of health 

 seems to me a significant display of the Chippewa attitude toward health. 



THE DRUM DANCE 



The third ceremonial, the Drum Dance (or Dream Dance), is an impor- 

 tation coming to this band during the 1870's. The ceremony revolves about 



