the past, the Ojibweg and other closely related tribes have
recorded their creation stories, songs, history, symbolic
images and world view on scrolls, etched on the soft surface
of birch bark. It was an ingenious record keeping and mnemonic
system. Though most scrolls found were connected with the
Grand Medicine Society, some scrolls were created by the general
population who had knowledge of the process.
sacred Grand Medicine Society was called the Midewiwin.
It was a highly structured society, open to both men and women.
Its members performed elaborate healing ceremonies to deal
with sickness, long term health, and matters of a Spiritual
nature. The Midewiwin records on
birch bark scrolls were an actual written account unique among
the Great Lakes tribes. Beyond its healing and “religious”
functions, Midewiwin membership
crossed band lines and provided an additional element of political
leadership binding the different Ojibwe groups to each other.
At times during the year, large numbers of Mide
members would gather in a selected location.
oldest known birch bark scroll is estimated to be 1,000 years
old. Birch bark scrolls, used in the past, taught Ojibwe traditional
teachings such as the origins of the Midewiwin,
the Eight Degrees of the Mide Society
representing the Four Degrees of Earth and the Four Degrees
of Sky. The most popular birch bark sacred writings are called
the Order of Songs. Secretly, these sacred writings were usually
translated and discussed among the Mide
Practitioners and the Medicine Healers in the Midewiwin
Lodge. Sacred icons were also conceptualized in pictographs
found in locations where the sky, earth, water, the underground
and the underwater met.
The records and teachings of
the Midewiwin are inscribed on birch
bark rolls made of heavy bark and either rounded at the ends
or strengthened by horizontal strips of wood, one being placed
on either side of the bark and securely fastened in place.
The characters on the rolls are engraved with a bone stylus
and the lines filled with charcoal or vermilion when available.
The inner side of the roll contains the records or teachings,
and the outer side usually shows a number of large circles
corresponding to the number of "lodges" or degree
of the society represented in the teachings. Thus, the circles
are in the nature of an index to the roll. The average length
of a roll is about 30 inches and the width about 12 inches.
The characters inscribed on the roll are crude delineations
of animals and human beings together with certain symbols.
The significance of these characters lies in their combination,
which produces a sequence of ideas. The devices on Mide
rolls are evolved from the teachings of the society, and their
significance singly and in combination is taught to initiates.
birch bark scroll dated to 1560 A.D. was found in a cave at
Burntside Lake in Quetico Provincial Park, Ontario near the
Minnesota border. This finding suggests a strong case for
a pre-White-contact Midewiwin, which
is contrary to some scholars beliefs that the Ojibweg “borrowed”
the tenets of their society from the Whites sometime after
their initial contact. The organized Midewiwin
may have developed later as a specialized development from
a much older, more individualistic shamanic tradition. The
birch bark scrolls, most of which are from Minnesota, should
not be viewed as providing an exact narrative translation
of the petroglyphs that have also been found in various places,
but rather are invaluable in providing data for an understanding
of the iconographic significance of images that appear repeatedly
and have their origin in the same concepts of Manidoog,
Guardian Spirits, and other Spiritual practices. Birch bark
scrolls are mnemonic and ideographic, not phonemic, but the
recurring motifs have components that were sufficiently understood
to become common figurative signs among Ojibwe Spiritual practitioners.
The figures with upraised arms and bent legs, the medicine
bags, the half emerged figures, the zigzag power lines, the
horned serpents and many other symbols found in the birch
bark scrolls can be found carved into the bedrock of Spirit
Island near Duluth, Minnesota.