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[[File:Ojibwe Language Map.png|thumb|right|Map highlighting the distribution of Ojibwe people at the time of European contact]]
The Ojibwe are an [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian-speaking]] people.{{sfnm|1a1=
Ojibwe religion has been described as an aboriginal religion.{{sfn|Smith|2012|p=22}} As Ojibwe culture is traditionally orally transmitted,{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=16}} the religion has no textual canon.{{sfn|Smith|2012|p=18}} It has no dogma,{{sfn|Smith|2012|pp=18, 79}} and there is therefore variation in its belief and practice.{{sfn|Vecsey|1983|p=3}} Many of its rituals have changed over time,{{sfn|Smith|2012|p=30}} with adherents open to adapting their beliefs and practices in accordance with dreams and visions.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=27}} Native American religions more broadly have always adapted in response to environmental changes and interactions with other communities,{{sfn|Crawford|2007|p=17}} with the Ojibwe having adopted influences both from other Native American groups and from European Americans.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=27}} Ojibwe religion thus no longer exists in the form practiced by the Ojibwe when they were a [[hunter-gatherer]] society prior to European contact.{{sfn|Smith|2012|p=38}}
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Some modern Ojibwe regard this cosmogony as a literal account of their history; they reject [[archaeology|archaeological]] and genetic evidence indicating that [[Peopling of the Americas|Native Americans descend from prehistoric Asian migrants]].{{sfn|Smith|2012|pp=5-6}}
Ojibwe cosmology includes belief in a multilevel cosmos with different layers ruled by different ''manitouk''.{{sfnm|1a1=Smith|1y=2012|1p=44|2a1=Angel|2y=2016|2p=21}} The hierarchy of these layers nevertheless varies among different Ojibwe religionists.{{sfnm|1a1=Smith|1y=2012|1pp=46, 47|2a1=Angel|2y=2016|2p=21}} In traditional Ojibwe cosmology, the world of humans is an island surrounded by water.{{sfnm|1a1=
===Spirit and afterlife===
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===Healing===
Medicine plays a key role in Ojibwe religion.{{sfn|Vecsey|1983|p=5}} According to traditional Ojibwe medicine, illness is often caused by a foreign object entering a person's body, often placed there by sorcery.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=35}} Traditional healers are termed ''Mashkikiiwinimiwag'' or ''Nenaandawiiwejig''; the former derives from the word ''mashkiki'' ('medicine'), the latte from ''nanandawia'' ('to administer medicines').{{sfn|Angel|2016|pp=33-34}} They are believed to possess the power to use certain herbs for treating particular ailments, something revealed to them by the ''manitouk''.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=34}}
Prior to performing a healing ceremony, some Ojibwe healers would fast to purify themselves.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=35}} They might then use smoke to beseech the ''manitouk'' for help,{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=35}} with singing and drumming then employed to ask the ''manitouk'' for help in determining the cause of the sickness.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=35}}
When using the herbs for healing, these healers will also offer songs and tobacco to the ''manitouk''.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=34}} Many Ojibwe healers will combine traditional remedies with Christian prayers.{{sfn|Smith|2012|p=35}} The family of a sick person will also offer food to the ''manitouk'' as a display of gratitude to them.{{sfn|Angel|2016|pp=34, 35}} One method employed by some Ojibwe healers involved sucking through a small bone to draw the sickness out of the afflicted person. Healers claimed that this removed a foreign body from the victim, which would then be placed in a dish for assembled people to see.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=35}}
Charms are often placed on a baby's ''tikanagan'' (cradleboard) to protect it, including a twine spider web that is believed to catch harmful things approaching the infant.{{sfn|Smith|2012|pp=151-152}}
===Ritual specialists===
The earliest written sources indicate that, by the time of European contact, the Ojibwe distinguished different types of people who had received powers from the ''manitouk''.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=30}} These individuals served as healers or as ceremonial leaders who helped to keep the universe in equilibrium.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=30}} Some individuals are deemed to have received multiple powers.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=30}} Over time, the English language term "medicine man" has generally been popularised for them all.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=30}}
Michael Angel noted that historically, those who obtained supernatural power often accrued "socio-political power" in Ojibwe society.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=13}}
Those who were believed to possess special powers were expected to use it to benefit their band as a whole.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=13}} Those
The Ojbwe have no ritual clowns like the ''[[heyoka]]'' found among Sioux groups.{{sfn|Smith|2012|p=67}}▼
Powerful ritualists are also thought capable of animating otherwise inanimate objects or of transforming one object into another, such as charcoal into bullets.{{sfn|Hallowell|1964|p=69}}
====''Jiisakiiwiniwag''====
▲The Ojbwe have no ritual clowns like the ''[[heyoka]]'' found among Sioux groups.{{sfn|Smith|2012|p=67}}
The ritual specialist most commonly recorded in historical accounts was the ''Jiisakiiwinini'' (plural ''Jiisakiiwiniwag'').{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=30}} They engaged in rites that summoned spirit helpers before communicating with them through singing and drumming.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=30}} Their powers to translate the messages of the ''manitouk'' are regarded as a gift from the ''animikeek''.{{sfn|Smith|2012|p=70}} In the Ojibwe language, this ceremony was called ''Jiisakiiwin'', although in English it came to be known as the [[Shaking tent ceremony|Shaking Tent or Conjuring Lodge ritual]].{{sfn|Angel|2016|pp=30-31}} This is a rite found among several Northern Algonquian peoples,{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=31}} although has similarities with ceremonies among other Woodlands and Plains groups, such as the Lakota ''[[Yuwipi|yuwípi wičháša]]''.{{sfn|Feraca|2001|p=30}}
The ritual often begins with the erection of a tent. The ''Jiisakiiwini'''s arms are then bound and they crawl into the tent.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=31}} The tent will then shake and animal-like sounds will come from within it. This will be followed by silence, after with the ''Jiisakiiwinini'' reveals that the spirits are ready to be asked questions.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=31}} Questions asked often revolved around requesting a cure for sickness, assistance in finding a marriage partner, and help in finding game to hunt.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=32}} Tobacco will often be offered to the spirit.{{sfn|Angel|2016|p=31}}
===Midewiwin===
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*{{cite book |last=Angel |first=Michael |year=2016 |title=Preserving the Sacred: Historical Perspectives on the Ojibwa Midewiwin |series=Manitoba Studies in Native History |location=Winnipeg |publisher=University of Manitoba Press |isbn=978-0887556579 }}
*{{cite book |last=Crawford |first=Suzanne J. |year=2007 |title=Native American Religious Traditions |location=Upper Saddle River, New Jersey |publisher=Pearson Education |isbn=9780131834835}}
*{{cite book |last=Feraca |first=Stephen E. |title=Wakinyan: Lakota Religion in the Twentieth Century |year=2001 |location=Lincoln and London |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=9780803269057 }}
* {{cite book |last=Hallowell |first=A. Irving |year=1964 |chapter=Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior, and World View |title=Primitive Views of the World: Essays from Culture in History |editor=Stanley Diamond |location=New York and London |publisher=Columbia University Press |pages=49–82 }}
*{{cite book |last=Harvey |first=Graham |year=2013 |title=Food, Sex and Strangers: Understanding Religion as Everyday Life |location=Durham |publisher=Acumen |isbn=978-1-84465-693-6 }}
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