Life of Children

OJIBWE

EDUCATION

DID OJIBWE CHILDREN ATTEND SCHOOL?

Children spent their first seven years among the women and elders of the camp, learning values and life skills. They learned to share willingly and never to take more than they needed. When they were seven years old, children began learning the skills they would need as adults. They learned by watching and helping their parents. Girls spent time with their mothers, as well as their aunts and female cousins, who taught them how to prepare and preserve foods, treat hides, sew and decorate clothing, and make birch bark items. Fathers, uncles, and male cousins showed boys how to hunt, fish, and make tools, weapons, and canoes.

PASSING INTO ADULTHOOD

Between the ages of ten and fourteen, a boy marked the end of his childhood with a vision quest. He went into the forest, where he fasted and stayed awake for days until he had a vision. The vision revealed his guardian manitou, who would guide and protect him. The boy also received guidance on which path he should follow in life.

A girl marked the end of her childhood with a type of fast called a berry fast. She stopped eating berries for one year. During that time, she met each month with older women in her family and learned about the sacred role that she would one day have as a mother.

< A young boy goes out on a vision quest.

THeir Place in the World - ORAL TRADITIONS

Grandparents spent a great deal of time teaching children about spirituality and their place in the world. Through the elders' songs and stories, children learned about the creation of the world, the Creator, various spirits, or manitous, and the history and culture of their people. Children learned that they were connected to all things and that they must respect the balance of nature.

FUN AND GAMES

People had a lot of work to do, but they always made time for fun, too. Even after gathering food or working on other tasks all day, they often danced and sang together in the evenings. They also played many kinds of outdoor games and sports, including wrestling and running races. In the winter, when the weather was cold and damp, families spent happy hours inside their warm wigwams playing games and telling stories. According to oral tradition, the storytelling season started with the first snowfall and ended with the first sound of thunder in the spring.

CHILDREN'S SPORTS AND GAMES

Children enjoyed all kinds of games. They played follow-the-leader, a version of hide-and-seek, and many other games that are still played today. They also competed in racing, wrestling, and various other sports. Handmade dolls were popular toys for girls, whereas boys often played with small bows and arrows.

LACROSSE

One of the most popular outdoor sports was the one that people now call lacrosse. For fun, families and friends formed two teams, each of which had six to ten players. Neighboring groups and nations often used lacrosse games to settle disputes. In these games, teams were made up of hundreds or even thousands of people. Lacrosse was often part of spiritual ceremonies, as well. It was played with a small ball and long sticks that usually had a circular net or basket at one end. Using the sticks to catch, hold, and throw the ball, the players tried to score points by moving it across a goal line.

SNOWSNAKE

Shu-shu-may

A popular winter game was snowsnake. The "snake" was a long wooden pole with a pointed end. Competitors slid their "snakes" across the snow or ice to see whose went the farthest.

Life of Infants

Most Ojibwe families were small, having only two or three children. Parents saw their children as a gift, so they treated them with a great deal of respect and affection.

CLOSE TO MOM

Mothers bundled their babies on cradleboards and carried them everywhere they went. They often strapped the cradleboards to their backs, like knapsacks. While they worked, mothers propped their cradleboards against trees or hung them from branches so that their babies could sleep or watch them work. Infants were bundled on the boards until they were about a year old. Their mothers unwrapped them several times a day to allow the babies to stretch.

Additional Resources

Sources

Kalman, B. (2003). Life in a Plains Camp. St. Catherines: Crabtree Pub.

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