ILLUSTRATIONS Page VI. Interior of ceremonial structure of 1890. PLATE I. Part of Wisconsin showing location of Menomini reservation... II. Group of mounds near Keshena.. III. Certificate of Tshekâtshake mau V. Building of medicine lodge VII. Shaman's trick with snake bag 33 37 46 48 71 73 96 THE MENOMINI INDIANS BY WALTER JAMES HOFFMAN, M. D. INTRODUCTION HISTORY OF THE INVESTIGATION The circumstances under which the materials for the accompanying memoir were procured are as follows: Having succeeded, in 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 Society" of that tribe, together with copies of hitherto unknown mnemonic charts and songs, on birch bark, relating to their genesis and cosmogony, 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 Menomini 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 Mitä'wit, would be conferred, in 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 in 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 ceremonials 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 fugitive papers relating to this tribe being exceedingly brief, and often difficult of access to the general reader. HABITAT OF THE TRIBE The Menomini Indians are located on a reservation in the northeastern part of Wisconsin, and occupy almost the same territory in which they were found by Nicollet in 1634. Their history is intimately connected with that of the Winnebago, as they have lived with or beside that tribe from very early times, although their language shows them to belong to the Algonquian stock, and more nearly related to the Ojibwa than to any other. THE TRIBAL NAME The word Menomini is from Omä'nomine'ŭ (mäno'me, rice, and inä'neu' or inä'ni, man). Shea' says the "name is the Algonquin term for the grain Zizania aquatica-in English, Wild Rice. The French called both the grain and tribe Fol Avoin-Wild Oats." The tribe has been designated in literature under a variety of synonyms, of which the following are a list, together with the authorities therefor, and such additional notes of the respective authors as may be deemed of interest. Some of the changes in orthography are due to misprints, but still have a certain value in identification. The people of the tribe designate themselves "Menomini," or "Menomoni" giving preference to the latter, in which the sound of o is heard, although the letter i of the former term is more in harmony with the etymology of the word. Synonymy Addle-Heads.-Jeffreys, Natural and Civil History of the French Dominions in North and South America, pt. 1, London, 1761, p. 48. Falsavoins. (Johnson, London Doc. xxxvi, 1763) Docs. Col. Hist. New York, vol. vii, Albany, 1856, p. 583. (Probably that portion of the tribe living near Green bay; enumerates 110 as belonging to Ottawa confederacy.) Falsovoins.-(Harrison, 1814) Drake, Life of Tecumseh, and of his Brother, the Prophet, etc, Cincinnati, 1852, p. 162. Felles avoins.--(State of British Plantations in America, in 1721) Docs. Col. Hist. New York, vol. v, Albany, 1855, p. 622. Folle Avoine.-Relations des Jésuites (1671), tome iii, Quebec, 1858, p. 25. Folle Avoines.-(Mem. of 1718) Docs. Col. Hist. New York, vol. ix, Albany, 1855, p. 889. Folles, Les.-Featherstonhaugh, A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor, etc, vol. i, London, 1847, p. 174. Follesavoine.-(Vaudreuil, 1720) Margry, Découvertes, tome vi, Paris, 1866, p.511. Folles Avoines.—(Cadillac, 1695) Margry, Découvertes, tome v, Paris, 1883, p. 121. Fols, Les.-(Baden, 1830) Ann, de la Prop. de la Foi . . . tome iv, Lyons, 1853, p. 537. Fols Avoin. Pike, An Account of Expeditions to the Sources of the Mississippi, etc, Philadelphia, 1810, p. 13. Fols Avoines.-Brown, Western Gazetteer, Auburn, 1817, p. 265. 1 Coll. Hist. Soc. Wisconsin, vol. iii, for 1856, Madison, 1857, p. 134. Fols-avoise.-(Schermerhorn, 1812) Col. Massachusetts Soc., vol. ii, 2d ser., Boston, 1814, p. 19. Fulawin.-(Dalton, 1783) Col. Massachusetts Hist. Soc., vol. x, 1st ser., Boston, 1809, p. 123. Macomilé.-(La Chesnaye) Margry, Découvertes, tome vi, Paris, 1886, p. 6. Mahnomonie.-James in Tanner's Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures, etc, New York, 1830, p. 326. Malhomines.-Charlevoix (1721), vol. ii, London, 1761, p. 61. Malhoming.—Bacqueville de la Potherie, Histoire de l'Amérique Septentrionale, tome ii, Paris, 1753, p. 90. Malhominis.-Ibid., p. 70. Malhomins.-La Potherie, op. cit., tomne i, p. 206. Malhominy.—(Cadillac, 1695) Margry, Découvertes, tome v, Paris, 1883, p. 121; La Potherie, op. cit., tome ii, p. 49. Malhommes. Jeffreys' Natural and Civil History, op. cit., p. 48. Malhommis.-(Perrot, 1720) Mémoire sur les Mœurs, coustumes et relligion des Sauvages de l'Amérique Septentrionale, Leipzig and Paris, 1864, p. 127. Malomenis.-(Frontenac, 1682) Docs. Col. Hist. New York, Albany, 1855, p. 182. Malomimis.-La Ilontan, New Voyages to North America, vol. i, London, 1703, p. 231. Malomines.-Garcilaso, La Florida del Inca, etc, Madrid, 1723, vol. ii, p. 290. (Quotes-erroneously-from La Hontan.) Malominese.-Blue Jacket (1807) in Drake, Life of Tecumseh, etc, op. cit., p. 94. Malouin.-Sagard (1615), Histoire du Canada, etc, tome ii, Paris, 1866, p. 424. Maloumines.-Warren (1852), Col. Minnesota Hist. Soc., vol. v, St. Paul, 1855, p. 33. (So designated by the French.) Manōmanee.—Kane, Wanderings of an Artist, etc, London, 1859, p. 29. Manomines.-Henry, Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories, etc, New York, 1809, p. 107. Maroumine.-Relations des Jésuites (1640), tome i, Quebec, 1858, p. 35. Mathomenis.-La Potherie, op. cit., tome ii, 1753, p. 70. Mathominis.-Ibid., p. 81. Melhominys. (Croghorn, 1759) Proud, History of Pennsylvania, in North America, etc, vol. ii, Philadelphia, 1797-98, p. 296. Melominees.-Perkins and Peck, Ann. of the West, St. Louis, 1850, p. 713. Memonomier.-Vater, Mithridates oder allgemeine Sprachenkunde, pt. iii, sec. 3, Berlin, 1806-17, p. 406. Mennominies.-(Goldthwait, 1766) Col. Massachusetts Hist. Soc., 1st ser., vol. x, Boston, 1809, p. 121. Menomenes.-(Pike, 1806) Schoolcraft, Inf. Respecting Ind. Tribes, vol. iii, Philadelphia, 1853, p. 262. Menomenies.-Brown, Western Gazetteer, Auburn, 1817, p. 265. Menominees.—(Treaty of 1825) U. S. Ind. Treaties, Washington, D. C., 1837, p. 376. Menominie.-(Treaty of 1826) U. S. Ind. Treaties, Washington, D. C., 1837, p. 155. Menominny.-Featherstonhaugh, A Canoe Voyage, etc, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 25. Menomoee.-Gale, Map of the Upper Mississippi, 1867. Menomonees. (Edwards, 1788) Col. Massachusetts Hist. Soc., 2d ser., vol. x, Boston, 1823, p. 86. Menomonei.-McKenney, Rep. Comm. Ind. Aff., Washington, D. C., 1825, p. 90. Menomones.- Long's Narrative of an Expedition to Source of St. Peter's River, vol. ii, London, 1825, p. 171. Menomonies.-Boudinot, Star in the West, Trenton, 1816, p. 100. Menomonys.-Lapham, Indians of Wisconsin, map, 1870. Menonomees.-(La Pointe Treaty, 1842) Col. Minnesota Hist. Soc., vol. v, St. Paul, 1855, p. 494. |