ABSTRACT
The Ojibwa described in this account live in woodland and lake country at the Manitou Reserve, on the Rainy River, in southwest Ontario, on the international boundary. The Ojibwa are hunters of big game and fur animals, and game is scarce in this part of Canada. All accounts of old Ojibwa life are shadowed by fear of starvation, and each man hunts for himself, alone on his trails, the hunters scattering as widely as possible in order to make the most of the thin supply of game. Politically and economically the Ojibwa are an atomistic society. Membership in the MIdewiwin is a source of great and much feared supernatural power, and influential men become the chief shamans in the ceremony. The child is born into the small world bounded by the members of the domestic family. This family includes the parents, immature children, sometimes elderly grandparents, an aunt or uncle, and sometimes a son-in-law or daughter-in-law.
