Manitous lived in human form among the Ojibway in the early days, after Kitchi-Manitou (the Great Mystery) created all things and Muzzu-Kummik-Quae (Mother Earth) revealed the natural order of the world. With depth and humor, Johnston tells how lasting tradition was brought to the Ojibway by four half-human brothers, including Nana'b'oozoo, the beloved archetypal being who means well but often blunders. He also relates how people are helped and hindered by other entities, such as the manitous of the forests and meadows, personal manitous and totems, mermen and merwomen, Pauguk (the cursed Flying Skeleton), and the Weendigoes, famed and terrifying giant cannibals.

These are the stories of the manitous--the spirits who inhabit the supernatural world of the Ojibway (the Native American tribe of the Great Lakes and central Canada region). Harvested by an eminent expert from an ancient oral tradition, these sacred stories introduce wily tricksters, fearsome giants, timorous tree spirits, seductive maidens, and wise grandmothers. Here, a coward masquerading as a hero becomes one; a powerful warrior is riled and routed by a younger sibling with a gift for dancing and disguises; and the ever-hungry evil weendigos--evil manitous--haunt the land. In spellbinding and hypnotic fashion, the creation and flood legends are told, and the origin stories of corn, spruce, and tobacco are revealed. Comic, erotic, dramatic, and tragic, these engrossing tales are a window into the heart of an ancient culture, an important contribution to Native American literature, and a fascinating source of spiritual guidance for the many followers of New Age mysticism.

The Ojibway Indians' sense of humor sparkles through these stories set on the fictional Moose Meat Point Indian Reserve, connected by a dirt road to the town of Blunder Bay. If some of them seem farfetched and even implausible, Basil L. Johnston writes, it is simply because human beings very often act and conduct their affairs and those of others in an absurd manner. These twenty-two stories were originally collected under the title Moose Meat and Wild Rice. Among the most memorable of the stories is They Don't Want No Indians, in which all attempts are made to circumvent bureaucratic red tape and transport a dead Indian to his home for burial. One of the funniest is Indian Smart: Moose Smart, which pits a moose in a lake against six Moose Meaters in two canoes. If You Want to Play and Secular Revenge are the result of misunderstanding or imperfect communication. Still other stories, like What Is Sin? and The Kiss and the Moonshine, reveal the clash of different cultural approaches. All show the warm-heartedness and good will of the Ojibway Indians. If they are gently satirized, so are the whites who would change them, and with good reason. Government ineptitude and rigid piety are foisted on the Moose Meaters, who have only thirty thousand acres to move around in.

A colorful, beautiful book which teaches us about ourselves as much as about one of North America's native peoples.--Vancouver Sun

Rarely accessible to the general public, Ojibway mythology is as rich in meaning, as broad, as deep, and as innately appealing as the mythologies of Greece, Rome, and other Western civilizations. In Ojibway Heritage Basil Johnston introduces his people's ceremonies, rituals, songs, dances, prayers, arid legends. Conveying the sense of wonder and mystery at the heart of the Ojibway experience, Johnston describes the creation of the universe, followed by that of plants and animals and human beings, and the paths taken by the latter. These stories are to be read, enjoyed, and freely interpreted. Their authorship is perhaps most properly attributed to the tribal storytellers who have carried on the oral tradition that Johnston records and preserves in this book.

Honour Earth Mother is an inspiring reminder of the affection and reverence that the Native peoples of North America have had for the land. For Native peoples the earth was special, the dwelling place of manitous and spirits and the repository of the bones of generations of ancestors. And the earth remains today a deep wellspring of revelations and unveiled mysteries for those who take time to watch, listen, and reflect. Celebrated Ojibwa writer Basil Johnston invites us to go into the woods and meadows, mountains, valleys, and seashores to watch miracles still unfolding, to listen to nature's symphonies, to feel the pulse of the earth, to take in the fragrances, and to sense the awesome. His stories of the creatures, seasons, and landscape of the earth reveal a land that has never stopped brimming with beauty, song, and dance. Basil Johnston is the author of Ojibway Ceremonies, Ojibway Heritage, and Ojibway Tales, all available in Bison Books editions. Basil Johnston's other books include The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the Ojibway, Indian School Days, and Crazy Dave. Insisting that one cannot fully know a culture without knowing the language, he has been active in the teaching of Anishinaubae, the language of the Ojibway. He lives at the Cape Croker reserve in Ontario, Canada.

We have, according to our beliefs, five essential parts: body, soul, spirit, heart, and mind, which all have to be satisfied equally. When you are in balance you are walking on the right road, following the right path of life - Basil Johnston. Eight traditional Anishinaabe stories are told in both Anishinaabe and English languages for adults.

The Ojibway Indians were first encountered by the French early in the seventeenth century along the northern shores of Lakes Huron and Superior. By the time Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized them in The Song of Hiawatha, they had dispersed over large areas of Canada and the United States, becoming known as the Chippewas in the latter. A rare and fascinating glimpse of Ojibway culture before its disruption by the Europeans is provided in Ojibway Ceremonies by Basil Johnston, himself an Ojibway who was born on the Parry Island Indian Reserve.

Johnston focuses on a young member of the tribe and his development through participation in the many rituals so important to the Ojibway way of life, from the Naming Ceremony and the Vision Quest to the War Path, and from the Marriage Ceremony to the Ritual of the Dead. In the style of a tribal storyteller, Johnston preserves the attitudes and beliefs of forest dwellers and hunters whose lives were vitalized by a sense of the supernatural and of mystery.

The unflinching and marvelously humane story of a man born with Down syndrome in an Ojibway community.

Honour Earth Mother was written in the hope that it would help restore some of the affection and reverence that the Indigenous people had for the land. For our ancestors the earth was a holy place, made so by the act of creation of the Great Mystery; it is the dwelling place of the manitous and spirits and is the repository of our grandparents' bones. It is a place of revelation that has yielded all that men and women have come to know and still has more secrets and mysteries to pass on to those who watch and listen.

Honour Earth Mother is an invitation to go into the woods and meadow, mountains, valleys and seaside, to watch miracles unfold, to listen to nature's symphonies, to feel the pulse of the earth, to take in the fragrances, to taste the nectars, and to sense the awesome.