Description
Book SynopsisIn Ojibwe Stories from the Upper Berens River Jennifer S. H. Brown presents the dozens of stories and memories that A. Irving Hallowell recorded from Adam (Samuel) Bigmouth, son of Ochiipwamoshiish (Northern Barred Owl), at Little Grand Rapids in the summers of 1938 and 1940. The stories range widely across the lives of four generations of Anishinaabeg along the Berens River in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario.
In an open and wide-ranging conversation, Hallowell discovered that Bigmouth was a vivid storyteller as he talked about the eight decades of his own life and the lives of his father, various relatives, and other persons of the past. Bigmouth related stories about his youth, his intermittent work for the Hudson’s Bay Company, the traditional curing of patients, ancestral memories, encounters with sorcerers, and contests with cannibalistic windigos. The stories also tell of vision-fasting experiences, often fraught gender relations, and huntin
Trade Review
"Any effort to make archival sources more accessible to the general public should be applauded, and Ojibwe Stories from the Upper Berens River, edited by Jennifer S. H. Brown, is no exception. This text offers readers an opportunity to hear Adam Bigmouth's voice, opinions, and stories, which otherwise may have been lost to time, forgotten in a collection of old notes. It will be of use to scholars in a variety of fields, and it is an important inclusion in academic libraries."—Wendy Makoons Geniusz, Canadian Journal of Native Studies
“These stories are not merely interwoven with life situations; they are an integral part of life. This book is an immense contribution to its field. It brings to life the people, practices, and stories that were real and alive one hundred years ago. The stories themselves give extraordinary insights into the daily personal lives of the Berens River Ojibwe.”—Theresa M. Schenck, professor emerita of American Indian studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and editor of The Ojibwe Journals of Edmund F. Ely, 1833–1849
“The book’s focus and strength is its very detailed contextualization and annotation of Bigmouth’s tales. . . . It will be of considerable interest and value to specialists in Rupert’s Land ethnography and ethnohistory. It will also be of interest to scholars in history of American anthropology.”—Alice Beck Kehoe, author of North America Before the European Invasions, Second Edition
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Glossary of Ojibwe Personal Names Appearing in the Text
Map of the World of Adam Bigmouth
Prologue: Adam Declines to Conjure, 1932
1. Boyhood Memories
2. Working for the Hudson’s Bay Company
3. Dream Experiences
4. Curing, Helping, Love Medicine, and an Old Man’s Jealousy
5. Northern Barred Owl, Man of Many Powers
6. Gender, Power, and Incest
7. The Challenges and Risks of Being Female
8. Bad Medicine and Old Men’s Threats
9. Starvation Threatened and Real
10. Encounters and Contests with Windigos
11. Human Beings Made into Windigos
12. The Curing of Windigos
13. The Costs of Mockery and Cruelty
14. Magical Medicines and Powers
Afterword: Cousins and Connections, Power and Succession, Seeking Life
References
Index
