Q: What is Animism? Long and short definitions can be found at; https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism

(Anishinabe Ojibway are referenced directly)

 

A: Animism is the belief that there is more in nature than the physical things that can be seen and touched. The part that is not physical can be called a soul, life force, or spirit. Physical things come in two types: things that are alive and things that are not alive. Animals and plants are alive. Most animists believe animals and plants have a spirit. Some animists also believe some non-living parts of nature have spirits. These non-living parts of nature include the wind, the rain, and geographic features like mountains and rivers.

 

Q: How many Native American tribes and indigneous people traditionally practiced Animism prior to colonialism?

A: Most, if not all Native American religions, functioned under some form of belief in animism. Tendency for tribes to hold polytheistic views led to many early settlers perceiving them as paganistic, therefore different and "dangerous".

https://dialogueinstitute.org/native-american-religions

 

Q: What is a syncretic religion and how has it participated in cultural eraser?

A: Religious syncretism is the blending of two or more religious belief systems into a new system, or the incorporation into a religious tradition of beliefs from unrelated traditions. This can occur for many reasons, and the latter scenario happens quite commonly in areas where multiple religious traditions exist in proximity and function actively in a culture, or when a culture is conquered, and the conquerors bring their religious beliefs with them, but do not succeed in entirely eradicating the old beliefs or (especially) practices.

Therefore directly erasing the cultural identity of the indigenous people, to separate them from their ancestral lands and knowledge of their connection to it, creating a manipulated abandonment for "colonialism to claim".

 

Q: What is the ancestral religious practices of the Anishinabe Ojibway Chippewa indigenous people and is it still alive and practiced now?

A: There are multiple ancestral spiritual practices/different Medicine Societies, all active.

 

The Midewiwin (also spelled Midewin and Medewiwin) is the Grand Medicine Society of the indigenous groups of the New England and Great Lakes regions in North America. Its practitioners are called Midew and the practices of Midewiwin referred to as the Mide. The Midewiwin society is a secretive animistic religion, requiring an initiation, and then progressing to four levels of practitioners, called "degrees". Male Midew are called Midewinini, which sometimes is very loosely translated into English as "medicine man".

 

The Waabanowin (also spelled Wabuowin, Wabunohwin and Wabunohiwin) is the Dawn Society, also sometime improperly called the "Magical Dawn Society". Its practitioners are called Waabanow and the practices of Waabanowin referred to as the Waabano. The Wabanowin are distinct society of visionaries. Like the Midewiwin, the Waabanowin is a secretive animistic religion, requiring an initiation. But unlike the Mide, the Waabano have sometimes two levels and sometimes four, with this variation being dependent on the particular lodge. They were systematically imprisoned in mem hospitals by the United States government in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Because of this persecution the Waabanowin went underground and have just begun to reemerge since the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. The ceremonies and traditions are closely guarded.

 

The Jiisakiiwin are also known as the Shaking Tent or the Juggler's Tent. Among the Anishinaabeg, a particularly powerful and well-respected spiritual practice. Those who had trained from childhood are called a Jaasakiid or Jiisakiiwinini, also known as a "Juggler" or "Shaking-tent Seer."

 

 

The midewigaan ('mide lodge'), also known as mide-wiigiwaam ('mide wigwam') when small or midewigamig ('mide structure') when large, is known in English as the Grand Medicine Lodge and is usually built in an open grove or clearing. A midewigaan is a domed structure with the proportion of one unit in width by four units in length.

 

Seven Fires Society. The Mide societies keep wiigwaasabak (birch bark scrolls) that preserve their teachings. They have degrees of initiations and hold ceremonies. They are often associated with the Seven Fires Society, and other Indigenous groups or organizations. The Miigis shell, or cowry shell, is used in some ceremonies, along with bundles, sacred items, etc. There are many oral teachings, symbols, stories, history, and wisdom passed along and preserved from one generation to the next by these groups.