There are theories that Midewiwin originated in response to the disease, conflict, and cultural changes brought to the Americas by Europeans. However, a Midewiwin scroll from Burntside Lake, Ontario, has been radiocarbon dated to 1560, which is before the first recorded interactions between Europeans and the Midewiwin. Those records were mostly the accounts of missionaries.
Most experts believe that Midewiwin ceremonies were practiced long before being influenced by European culture. |
In the nineteenth century advancing Europeans and the accompanying diseases were threatening the Midewiwin. Native American children were being schooled to reject their culture. So, Midewiwin culture incorporated some characteristics of Christianity, while fighting to maintain their traditional religion.
"What would you do if the Metawin had been the religion of your country, and the Book the religion of mine, and I were to offer you my religion?" -Black Duck, an Ojibwa, to Reverend William Stagg |
In 1981 W. J. Hoffman wrote about the future of the Midewiwin society in a report of the United States government Bureau of Ethnology after a treaty had been signed by the Ojibwe ceding 4,000,000 acres to the government and saying that the Ojibwe would move to the Red Lake and White Earth Reservations. He said that the chief Mide priests foresaw the impracticability of much longer continuing the ceremonies of so-called “pagan rites,” and said: ". . . it will be but a comparatively short time before the Midē´wiwin will be only a tradition." |