Like many civilizations, the native tribes of the Western Great Lakes – including the Chippewa, Kickapoo, Menomini, and Potawatomi – upheld elaborate funeral practices steeped in religious practices. After death, the body of the deceased was washed, dressed, and wrapped in birch bark. Although ceremonies differed slightly based on what society the deceased belonged to, all of them included songs and speeches which instructed the soul how to make its four-day journey to the afterlife. Once instructions were given, the western portion of the wigwam was removed and the body, accompanied by its cherished worldly possessions, was carried to a grave outside the village, where the dead was interred and a carved grave marker was erected. Typically five feet long and three feet deep, the grave sat along the east-west axis and contained a shelf of food for the deceased, including fruit, maple, rice, and sugar. This was meant to give them nourishment as they traversed the road of souls. On the first day, the soul encountered the Water Monster (called Chibia’bos), which it had to appease with an offering of tobacco in order to cross the waterway. Each night, the soul lit a fire with matches provided by relatives and ate some of the food, with mourners gathering each of the four nights by the grave and lighting their own fires and joining them in a meal. After the dead entered the afterlife on the fourth day, mourners painted their faces black and grieved for a year, with an annual ceremony held for those who lost loved ones to be restored into society and presented with gifts.[1]
Works Referenced
Ritzenthaler, Robert, and Pat Ritzenthaler. The Woodland Indians of the Western Great Lakes. Garden City, NY: The Natural History Press, 1970.
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[1] Ritzenthaler and Ritzenthaler, 41-45.
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