THE MENOMINI INDIANS 



By Walter James Huffman, M. D. 



INTRODUCTION 

 HISTORY OF THE INVESTIGATION 



The circumstances under which the materials for the accompanying 

 memoir were procured are as follows: 



Having succeeded, iu the years 1887-1890, in obtaining from the 

 Ojibwa Indians of northern Minnesota instruction in the ritual and 

 ceremonials of initiation into the Mide'wiwin or "Grand Medicine Soci- 

 ety" of that tribe, together with copies of hitherto unknown mnemonic 

 charts and songs, on birch bark, relating to their genesis and cosmog- 

 ony, the results were published in the Seventh Annual Report of the 

 Bureau of Ethnology. 



In consequence of this exposition of what was to them a secret of 

 vital importance, the attention of some Meuoiniui shamans, who visited 

 Washington during the first three months of 1890, was gained, and, 

 after protracted conferences, the proposition was made by the chief, 

 Nio'pet, that a visit to their reservation, at Keshena, Wisconsin, be 

 made; that, after proper instruction by some shamans to be appointed, 

 due initiation into their society, termed the Mitii'wit, would be con- 

 ferred, iu order that their version of the traditions and dramatized 

 forms of initiation could be studied and preserved "for the information 

 of future generations of the Menomini," these arrangements being made 

 iu anticipation of the consent of the chiefs of the society. 



The first visit was therefore made to Keshena in 1890, followed by 

 four subsequent visits, to attend to the necessary instruction and cere- 

 monials of the society. It was during these visits that other new and 

 interesting facts were obtained — material relating to their mythology, 

 social organization and government, customs, industries, and gentile 

 system and division into gentes and phratries, together with linguistic 

 data germane to the subject in general. 



These facts were believed to be entirely new to ethnology, as the 

 Menomini had not hitherto received careful attention by students, the 



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