Description
Ogimaag: Anishinaabeg Leadership, 1760-1845 by associate professor of history at the University of WisconsinûMilwaukee, Cary Miller offers a new look at Ojibwe leadership of the past. The author challenges the anthropological understanding of Ojibwe social organization as a band-level people with weak and changing leaders. She examines the known archival evidence such as missionary records, fur trade documents, government and travel documents along with Ojibwe oral narratives and material culture to come to her conclusion that Ojibwe had a variety of leadership styles that depended on physical and spiritual resources. She defines the meaning of power and authority and explores who these supported hereditary, military, and spiritual leadership with the community. Chapters discuss the meaning of Ogimaag or Hereditary Leaders; Mayosewininiwag or Military Leaders; and Gechi-Midewijig or Midewiwin Leaders. The difference between charismatic and hereditary leaders is explained as well as the role of women in leadership roles.