The Mide'wiwin or "grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwa: Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, Pages 143-300

Originally published by the Smithsonian in 1891, this volume represents one of the earliest systematic studies of the Mide'wiwin, the Grand Medicine Society that formed the spiritual backbone of Ojibwa life across the Great Lakes region. Walter James Hoffman, writing at a moment when federal assimilation policies actively threatened indigenous cultural survival, documented rituals, cosmogonic traditions, and the complex organizational structure of this powerful shamanic society with an attention that remains remarkable. The text captures not only ceremonial practices and healing traditions but also the profound upheaval facing the Ojibwa as colonization reshaped their world. Hoffman provides detailed accounts of initiation rites, sacred bundles, and the oral genealogies that bound Mide'wiwin members together, offering windows into a spiritual system that functioned as religion, medicine, and social governance all at once. For scholars and readers interested in Native American spirituality, historical anthropology, or the complex legacy of ethnographic preservation, this document stands as both invaluable primary source and a testament to what was nearly lost.