Chapter 7 Quiz — Mino-bimaatisiiwin: Story, Ceremony & Healing¶
Part A — Multiple Choice (10 questions, 2 points each)¶
1. What is the difference between inaajimowin and aadizookaan?
A) They are synonyms — both mean the same thing
B) Inaajimowin is contemporary narrative; aadizookaan is sacred traditional story
C) Aadizookaan is a personal story; inaajimowin is sacred
D) They refer to written vs. oral stories
Answer: B
2. Traditional sacred stories (aadizookaan) are typically told:
A) During summer ceremonies
B) At any time of year
C) Only in winter, when the ground is frozen
D) Only by women
Answer: C
3. Who is Wenabozho in Anishinaabe oral tradition?
A) A historical Ojibwe chief
B) A water spirit
C) The trickster / transformer figure whose stories carry teachings
D) A moon deity
Answer: C
4. What does nagamowin mean?
A) Medicine bag
B) Song / singing
C) Story / narrative
D) Ceremony lodge
Answer: B — Nagamowin
5. When was the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) passed?
A) 1934
B) 1964
C) 1978
D) 1990
Answer: C — 1978
6. Why is the drum (dewe'igan) animate in Ojibwe?
A) All musical instruments are animate
B) Drums are made of wood
C) The drum is a sacred object with spirit and agency in Anishinaabe tradition
D) Animate status is random and unpredictable
Answer: C
7. What does the narrative phrase Mii i'iw signal in an Ojibwe story?
A) Once upon a time
B) That's it / that's all — the end of the story
C) And then / story development
D) They say / reportedly
Answer: B
8. The concept that language, ceremony, and healing are inseparable in Anishinaabe tradition is demonstrated by:
A) The fact that all Ojibwe verbs are also prayers
B) The fact that English can translate all ceremonial songs
C) The fact that many ceremonies cannot be conducted without Ojibwe and that songs carry spiritual weight that translation loses
D) The fact that healing only happens in hospitals
Answer: C
9. What does wiidookodaadimin mean?
A) We are telling stories
B) We are singing
C) Let us help one another
D) We are in the lodge
Answer: C — Let us help one another
10. The narrative opening word Aabiding is best translated as:
A) The end
B) And so
C) Once / one time / once upon a time
D) Long ago, the people say
Answer: C — Aabiding
Part B — Fill in the Blank (3 questions, 5 points each)¶
11. The Ojibwe evidential ikido is used to indicate ___ — reporting what someone else said, similar to "they say" in English.
Answer to Question 11
Hearsay / reported speech — indicating the speaker did not witness the event personally.
12. The word aadizookaan (sacred story) is grammatically ___ (animate or inanimate), meaning the story is a thing held by the community, while the act of telling it (aadizookaazo) is agentive and animate.
Answer to Question 12
Inanimate
13. The three main forms that mashkiki (medicine) can take in Anishinaabe tradition are: plant medicine, ___, and ___.
Answer to Question 13
Song (nagamowin) and ceremony (or: prayer, healing ritual, etc.)
Part C — Short Answer (3 questions, 10 points each)¶
14. Write a 5-line Ojibwe story opening using narrative vocabulary from this chapter. Include: the opening marker Aabiding, at least one transition (Mii dash), a reference to a character or place, and a closing phrase (Mii i'iw or Mii go imaa). Provide English translations.
Answer to Question 14
Sample:
- Aabiding, inini bimaadizi ziibiing. (Once, a man lived by the river.)
- Mii dash makwa bi-izhaa. (And then a bear came.)
- Inini giigido: "Aaniin!" (The man spoke: "Hello!")
- Makwa ikido: "Nibwaakaawin ayaan." (The bear said: "Have wisdom.")
- Mii i'iw. (That's it / the end.)
15. Explain the relationship between language revitalization and ceremony revitalization in Ojibwe communities. Why can't one be fully restored without the other? Give a specific example. (4–6 sentences)
Answer to Question 15
Strong answers: many ceremonies are conducted in Ojibwe and cannot be accurately translated; the songs carry spiritual weight in the language itself; learning the language without ceremonial context is incomplete; conducting ceremony without the language is also incomplete; both are aspects of cultural continuity that boarding schools attacked simultaneously; programs like Ojibwe language camps integrate both.
16. Research question: What are the specific limitations of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA) of 1978? Critics say it is "toothless" — what do they mean? What later legislation or court cases strengthened (or further undermined) Indigenous religious freedom? Write a 5–8 sentence response.
Answer to Question 16
Strong answers will include: AIRFA has no enforcement mechanism — it declares policy but creates no legal right to sue; the Supreme Court (Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery, 1988) ruled the government could still build roads through sacred sites despite AIRFA; the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA, 2000) provided some additional protection; AIRFA Amendments (1994) specifically protected peyote use; the tension between federal land ownership and sacred site access remains unresolved; the Protect Don't Desecrate movement (Oak Flat, etc.) continues this struggle.
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