Mythologies of the Algonquin Tribes
Similar to the general belief in animism, the Algonquian tribes worshiped “manitou”. The definition of “manitou” ranges from “gods, spiritis, or impersonal forces that permeate the world” (Converts). The number of manitou within a specific Native spirituality was high, and many times, each manitou would represent a very focused aspect of Native life. The division of manitous into subsets/areas of Native society led to the development of particular Native spiritual practices meant to facilitate communion with these manitou. The communion with specific deities would depend upon current needs within the tribe (ex. if a plentiful harvest was desired, Algonquians would commune with and attempt to appease Nokomis, goddess of the Earth (Native Arts).
ALGONQUINS
The Omàmiwinini, or more commonly known as the Algonquins, are a tribe who migrated from the Atlantic coast. They are the original natives of the southern Quebec and Eastern Ontario region. They are native North Americans and native Canadians. Today they live in nine communities in Quebec and one community in Ontario. The Algonquins call themselves the Omàmiwinini though they are now more commonly known as the Algonquins. Algonquin means ‘they are our relatives/allies’. The Algonquins lived in cone-shaped houses in the area of Southern Quebec and Eastern Ontario. Though, they also lived in small round building called Wigwams and some of them lived in Longhouses like the Iroquois. It depended on where the Algonquins lived. Their language was called Anicināpemowin or Omàmiwininimowin. In the past, the council members chose the tribe’s next chief, which was often the last chief’s son, nephew or son-in-law. Although, now a woman can be the chief too. The Algonquin women gathered plants to eat and did most of the child care and cooking. Men were hunters and sometimes went to war to protect their families. Both genders took part in storytelling, artwork and music and traditional medicine.
The Algonquin people are an Indigenous people of Eastern Canada. They speak the Algonquin language, which is part of the Algonquian language family. Culturally and linguistically, they are closely related to the Odawa, Potawatomi, Ojibwe (including Oji-Cree), Mississauga and Nipissing, with whom they form the larger Anicinàpe (Anishinaabeg). Algonquins call themselves Omàmiwinini (plural: Omàmiwininiwak) or the more generalised name of Anicinàpe. Though known by several names in the past, such as Algoumequin (at the time of Samuel de Champlain), the most common term “Algonquin” has been suggested to derive from the Maliseet word elakómkwik (IPA: [ɛlæˈɡomoɡwik]): “they are our relatives/allies.” The much larger heterogeneous group of Algonquian-speaking peoples stretch from Virginia to the Rocky Mountains and north to Hudson Bay, was named after the tribe.
The Algonquin is a tribe that live in Ottawa, Canada. In their language (which has many dialects) Algonquin means , “At the place of spearing fishes and eels”. This tribe is very interesting in many different ways which we will explore. The Algonquin could not farm a lot because they were semi-nomadic and the agriculture would be a hard task to complete because of the area where they lived with the land. Their food was generally hunted and gathered. Hunters had perfected the ability to set traps for their pray. The tools where knives, spears and their famous bow and arrows. They would use spears for fishing The Algonquin where quite skilled artist, wether it came to bead or basket work. The tribe was very religious and believed in afterlife and witchcraft. They also believed to respect objects such as trees and stones, because they have a purpose and a part of the circle of life. Also the Algonquin believed in visions and dreams which had a meaning.
Eating people is generally frowned upon in most cultures, but in Native American Algonquin tribes (who live in what is now the western USA and Canada), it is considered a specific taboo. In extremely harsh winters or periods of famine, Algonquin elders reassured their tribesmen that it was better to starve or to commit suicide than to eat a fellow human being. It was believed that when people broke this taboo, they would find themselves afflicted with a powerful curse that eventually seemed to kill them. I said ‘seemed to’ because they were not entirely dead, and would later arise from their graves. The resulting creatures are not technically zombies or undead, because they were not actually dead (hence they did not look decayed), but they did undergo a drastic change. No longer human, the creature that clawed its way out of the grave was a Wendigo.
Algonquins of Greater Golden Lake First Nation
The Algonquin is a tribe that arrived on the shores of the Ottawa River that flowed between Quebec and Ontario. In their language (which has many dialects) Algonquin means, “At the place of spearing fishes and eels”. The Algonquin were quite skilled artists, whether it came to bead or basket work. The tribe was very religious and believed in the afterlife and witchcraft. They also believed to respect objects such as trees and stones, because they have a purpose and are a part of the circle of life. Also, the Algonquin believed in visions and dreams which had very important meaning to them. We are descendants and one of the ten communities located across the settlement territory that makes up the Algonquins of Ontario (AOO). The ten communities who are part of the Algonquin Land Claim are comprised of Antoine, Bonnechere, Greater Golden Lake, Kijicho Manito Madaouskarini (Bancroft), Mattawa/North Bay, Ottawa, Pikwakanagan First Nation, Shabot Obaadjiwan (Sharbot Lake), Snimikobi (Ardoch) and Whitney Area.
Both Algonkin and Algonquin are correct spellings for the name of the tribe, but Algonquian either refers to their language or, collectively, to the group of tribes that speak related Algonquian languages. The source of Algonkin is unclear. Other than the names of their bands, the Algonkin do not appear to have had a name for themselves as a people. Some researchers have suggested that Algonkin came from the Maliseet word for “ally,” but others prefer the Micmac’s “algoomeaking” that translates roughly as “place of spearing fish from the bow of a canoe.” The most likely possibility is the Maliseet word “allegonka” meaning “dancers,” which Samuel de Champlain might have mistaken for their tribal name while watching a combined Algonkin, Maliseet, and Montagnais victory dance in 1603.
The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups. Historically, the peoples were prominent along the Atlantic Coast and into the interior along the Saint Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. This grouping consists of the peoples who speak Algonquian languages. Before Europeans came into contact, most Algonquian settlements lived by hunting and fishing, although quite a few supplemented their diet by cultivating corn, beans and squash (the “Three Sisters”). The Ojibwe cultivated wild rice.
“Algonquin” was the French name for the tribe. The French were probably trying to pronounce elehgumoqik, the Maliseet word for “our allies.” The Algonquins call themselves Anishnabe, which means “original person.” However, Algonquins use Anishnabek to refer to other Indians also. So when they are specifically referring to their tribe, they usually use “Algonquins” to distinguish themselves. The Algonquins didn’t live in tepees. For most of the year they lived in settled villages of birch bark houses, called wigwams. During the winter, the village split up to go to hunting camps, and each Algonquin family built a smaller cone-shaped wigwam for their camp, also made from birch bark. The Algonquins are original natives of southern Quebec and eastern Ontario, in Canada. Today they live in nine communities in Quebec and one in Ontario.
Algonquin legends of New England
According to Native American Algonquin myth, Michabo is the “Supreme deity, Creator of the human race. He was a shape changer who created man by mating with a muskrat”. His messengers were the Gijigouai, the sun deities. Michabo was derived from missi, meaning great and wabos meaning rabbit; also known as Giant Rabbit, Great Hare, Messibizi, Messon, Missabos, and Missiwabun.” Spirit of the eastern light; dispeller of darkness. Lord of winds, prince of air, his voice was thunder; his weapon was lightning”. Michabo’s grandmother was the moon, his father the west wind, and his mother was the Virgin of dawn. Born fully-grown and mighty in strength, Michabo had all the knowledge possible to obtain, a characteristic of sun deities. Michabo was in on-going conflict with his father, Kabun, who lived in the realm of darkness. Michabo married muskrat, who journeyed to the bottom of the sea and returned with a speck of mud out of which Michabo created the earth. Michabo is the originator of religious rites, interpreter of dreams, and the inventor of picture writing. He provided maize and spoke to hunters in their dreams to direct them to fish and game. He is the prototype of Brer Rabbit in Uncle Remus stories.
MYTHOLOGICAL CREATURES: WENDIGO
A group of Jesuit missionaries in 1661 went to the land of the Algonquins, a tribe of Native American’s that lived along the forest regions of the Ottawa River. A group of the Jesuits had already traveled to the land of the Algonquins but had fallen strangely ill. The Jesuits coming to replace and support their sickened brethren had heard that things had gone wrong at the mission – but what they found when they got there was worse than they could have ever imagined. As they wrote: “Those poor men … were seized with an ailment [that] makes them so ravenous for human flesh that they pounce upon women, children, and even upon men, like veritable werewolves, and devour them voraciously, without being able to appease or glut their appetite — ever seeking fresh prey, and the more greedily the more they eat.”
Some bands are English speaking and others are French Speaking. Some of the Algonquin population also speak their native Algonquin language. Algonquin is a musical language that has complicated verbs with many parts. If you’d like to learn a few easy Algonquin words “Kwey” rhymes with the word “day” which is a friendly greeting like “ Hello” and “Megwetch” means “Thank you”. It is also spelled a number of other ways such as Mìgwetch, Migwetc, Miigwetc, Mìgwech, Miigwech, and so on. Algonquin was not traditionally a written language, so the spellings of Algonquin words in English sometimes can vary a lot. The Algonquin Tribes were mainly located in Ontario and Quebec. They became allies to the Iroquois tribes and they did a great deal of trading with them.
Gitchi Manitou (also called Kitchi Manitou, with several variants of spelling) is the great creator god of the Anishinaabe and many neighboring Algonquian tribes. The name literally means Great Spirit, a common phrase used to address God in many Native American cultures. As in other Algonquian tribes, the Great Spirit is abstract, benevolent, does not directly interact with humans, and is rarely if ever personified in Anishinabe myths— originally, Gitchi Manitou did not even have a gender (although with the introduction of English and its gender-specific pronouns, Gitchi Manitou began to be referred to as “he.”) It is Gitchi Manitou who created the world, though some details of making the world as we know it today were delegated to the culture heroNanabozho. “Gitchi Manitou” (or one of its many variant spellings) was used as a translation for “God” in early translations of the Bible into Anishnaabe, and today many Anishnaabe people consider Gitchi Manitou and the Christian God to be one and the same.
Algonquin nations hunted, traded and lived in large territories in the Eastern Woodlands and Subarctic regions, and were largely independent of one another. Like their Anishinaabeg relatives, the Algonquin lived in easily disassembled birch bark dwellings known as wigwams, and shared knowledge of their culture through oral history. In the southernmost locations where both climate and soils permitted, some groups practiced agriculture. The Algonquin lived in communities comprised of related patrilineal clans (meaning they followed the male line of descent). Clans were represented by animal totems such as Crane, Wolf, Bear, Loon and many others. The communities were egalitarian, with leadership provided by respected elders and heads of clans. Intermarriage within a clan was forbidden, even if the parties were from separate communities.
Algonquin American Indian Tribe Beliefs
“Nokomis’s themes are prosperity, luck and providence. Her symbols are golden items and corn. In Algonquin tradition, Nokomis is an earth Goddess, the ‘grandmother’ who supplies us with the earth’s riches and gives nourishment to humankind in times of need. When people are hungry, Nokomis provides food. When there is no food to be found, she offers to let us consume her spirit, thereby continuing the cycle of life. Eating the corn internalizes the energy of the prayer so opportunities to make money start manifesting. If you are pressed for time, grab a kernel of un-popped popcorn and put it in your wallet or purse to keep Nokomis’s prosperity (and your cash) where it’s needed most.”
Medicine woman in the moon: An Algonquin traditional story
The Im traditional story of the Medicine Woman in the Moon is an ancient, powerful parable with two timeless lessons: Be careful what you ask for. It may not come in a form you expect. Appreciate and protect what you already know, as it must last you throughout the ages. The Algonquins were the most populous and widespread Native American nation when French and English settlers arrived in North America. The Algonquins inhabited most of what is now Canada south of Hudson Bay between the Rockies and the Atlantic Ocean, with many different tribes united by a common language. Most Algonquian-speaking tribes also shared creation myths and religious beliefs, such as the Medicine Woman in the Moon that resides at the top of the NLM totem.
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