Cover
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
PART I: INTRODUCTION
Background, Career, and Writings
Family and Childhood
The Wisconsin Years
The Lake Winnipeg Period
A Decade of Changes
The Lac la Ronge Phase
Interpreting the Indians: Nelson's Frameworks and Dilemmas
Editorial Procedures
PART II: GEORGE NELSON'S LETTER-JOURNAL
Conjuring at Lac la Ronge, December 1819
Dreaming to Conjure and Predict
The Supreme Being
Old Nick (Key-jick-oh-kay)
The Sun; Nelson's Dream
Roots and Herbs
The Spirits Enter: Their Names and Natures
The Conjurors' Power
A Cree Myth, 1823: The Birth of Wee-suck-a-jock and Mi-shaw-bose
The Battle of Weesuckajock and the Water Lynxes
The Making of the Land
The Making of Human Beings
Sickness in Spirit Form: A Lac la Ronge Cree Account
Encounters with Pah-kack (Skeleton)
Sacrifices and Feasts for Pah-kack
Pah-kack Feasts at Lac la Ronge
Medicines and the Abode of "Esculapius"
Songs: Their Transmission and Uses
Conjuring against Starvation, Wisconsin, 1804
The Soul
Soul-darting
Sorcery for Protection and Revenge
Sexual Sorcery
Hunting Medicine
Love Medicine
Hunters Bewitched and Restored
An Iroquois Hunter Bewitched
Stories of Nay-han-nee-mis
Man in his Natural State
Skepticism, Belief, and Innovation
Conjuring for a North West Company Gentleman
The Lost Traveller and the Wolf Spirit
The Windigo
Baiting a Windigo
Sources and Forms of Windigo
Windigo Dreams
Windigo Possession, Lake Winnipeg
A Windigo Execution
Windigo Cures and Precautions
Malignant Spirits
Affinities and Origins
Deviance, Confession, and Expiation
Feasts
Conjuring at Lac la Ronge, June 1823
Key-shay-mani-to
Michi-Pichoux
Sea Serpent
Mee-key-nock
Pah-kack (Skeleton)
Nay-han-nee-mis
Sickness/Plague
Bear
Stone
PART III: NORTHERN ALGONQUIAN RELIGIOUS AND MYTHIC THEMES AND PERSONAGES: CONTEXTS AND COMPARISONS
Cosmogonic Myths and Beings from Lac la Ronge
The Trickster-Transformer, Wīsahkecāhk
Nelson's Version of the Wīsahkecāhk Cycle
Nehanimis, North Wind, and the Hairy Breasts
Dream Guardians and the Vision Fast
The Vision Fast
The Human-Pawākan Relationship
The Shaking Lodge
Purposes of Conjuring
The Practice of Conjuring
The Languages of Conjuring
Nelson's Explanations of Conjuring
The Windigo Complex
Human and Nonhuman Windigos in Historical Context
Windigo Disorders
Origins of Windigo Behavior
Pragmatics of Windigo
The Symbolic Structure of the Windigo Complex
Medicine: Healing and Sorcery
Disease Theory and Healing Techniques
Medicine Dreams and Visions
Sorcery
Medicine for Hunting and Love
Confession
A Final Note
PART IV
ON NELSON'S TEXT
ON THE ETHICS OF PUBLISHING HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
References
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