A lodge with degrees, run by our people: the Midēwiwin, "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwe
Record: the document says itLens: our readingOpen: not yet provenDisputed: argued, often by a hostile witness
Year: 1891 · Places: Europe
SUMMARYA lodge with degrees, run by our people: the Midēwiwin, "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibwe (Nov 8, 2026)
RECORD (W. J. Hoffman, "The Midē'wiwin or 'Grand Medicine Society' of the Ojibwa," Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian, 1891, pp. 143–300)the society "is graded into four separate and distinct degrees" (p. 164); on the Red Lake chart "The entrance to the lodge is directed toward the east, the western exit indicating the course toward the next higher degree" (p. 166); candidates pay fees and make offerings before each advancement (pp. 164–168)
LENS (WW9)a graded, initiatory medicine lodge, oriented east to west, existed on this land under its own people; the Smithsonian documented it itself (Rule 13)
DISPUTEDscholars argue whether the Midēwiwin predates European contact or took its present form after it; give both sides with sources before posting a date
OPENwhether Hoffman compares it to Freemasonry anywhere in the full text (the first fifth has no comparison); Ojibwe-language and Anishinaabe sources on the lodge's origin. Connects: P854, P856.