Midewiwin

Indigenous religious society of North America A midew in a mide-wiigiwaam (medicine lodge). The Midewiwin (in Ojibwe syllabics: ᒥᑌᐧᐃᐧᐃᓐ, also spelled Midewin and Medewiwin) or the Grand Medicine Society is a religious society of some of the Indigenous peoples of the Maritimes, New England,[citation needed] and Great Lakes regions in North America. Its practitioners are called Midew, and the practices of Midewiwin are referred to as Mide. Occasionally, a male Midew is called Midewinini, which is sometimes translated into English as 'medicine man'. Etymology Due to the body-part medial de' meaning 'heart' in the Anishinaabe language, Midewiwin is sometimes translated as 'The Way of the Heart'.[page needed] Minnesota archaeologist Fred K. Blessing shares a definition he received from Thomas Shingobe, a Mida (a Midewiwin person) of the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation in 1969, who told him that "the only thing that would be acceptable in any way as an interpretation of 'Mide' would be 'Spiritual Mystery'."[page needed] Fluent speakers of Anishinaabemowin often caution that many words and concepts have no direct translation in English.[page needed][page needed] Origins Accord