The Cree and the Midewiwin

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Cultural sharing between the Ojibwe and Cree

Although there was much sharing of culture between the Ojibwe and Cree, the most extraordinary sharing that occurred during the early to middle 1800s was not just of natural resources and subsistence practices, but of religious beliefs and ceremonies.
 
At this time, some Ojibwe started to adopt the Sun Dance as a central ceremony, although the Midewiwin continued to be practiced and even spread to the Cree.  Cree oral tradition includes a story about the adoption of the Midewiwin by the Cree. A Cree man is said to have gone to the Ojibwe to obtain medicines and had taken with him two horses loaded with fine clothes. The Ojibwe were especially glad to get the horses, for they had very few. They took the Cree man into their Midewiwin lodge where they taught him the use of many plants as medicines. 

Adapted from Peers, Laura L. (Laura Lynn). 1994. “Ojibwa Of Western Canada, 1780 To 1870.” Manitoba Studies In Native History. St. Paul: MNHS.