The Ojibwe use two types of drums. One is the large dream-dance drum,
about two feet in diameter and fourteen inches deep. The other is
a tambourine-shaped drum of rawhide only a couple of inches thick
and possibly ten inches in diameter, suspended by a loop of sinew,
decorated with human figures, and beaten with the hands or a smaller
bone drum stick. This drum is used in games and the songs differ
considerably for the various games. La Crosse, the woman’s shinny game,
the bowl and dice game, the moccasin game and others are all announced
by preliminary songs from the chief, who accompanies himself on the
game drum.
In writing this bulletin, the system adopted in previous bulletins will
be followed. Plants not found to be of use are included in this list,
as other investigators may find that they were used. The listing of
each plant will be by family and English names, followed by the Latin
binomial according to Gray’s Manual of Botany, then the Ojibwe name and
its literal translation, if that be known. Following this will be the
uses, methods of use, supposed properties, its value as an official
or eclectic drug by the whites, and any known myth connected with it.
The same procedure will be followed in the other subheadings under
investigation, viz.: foods, fibers, dyes, and plants of miscellaneous
uses such as utility, good luck charms, love potions and so on.
OJIBWE MEDICINES
The Ojibwe are probably the best informed and the strictest observers
of the medicine lodge ceremonies in the country. Their knowledge of
plants both in their own environment and far away is probably the best
of any group of Indians. While their flora is not so rich in species as
that of Indians farther south, they make trips far away from their home
to obtain necessary plants.
As among the white people, one plant may bear several common names,
according to different individuals in different sections of the
country, and again, one name may be given to several plants, as in the
case of plants used as “revivers”. Yet, there is an agreement in names
of Lac du Flambeau and Leech Lake Ojibwe, that well checks information
received. The name is usually descriptive, just as their names for
animals usually are either descriptive or representative of the cry
or note uttered by the animal, like “ko-ko-ko-o”, the hoot owl, or
“ka-ka-ka”, the raven or crow. The medicine name usually tells what
the plant looks like, where it may be found, some peculiar taste or
property, or its chief use. Often a termination is added signifying the
plural of a noun or the part of the plant used, such as the wood, the
leaf, the flower, the root, or the berry or fruit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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