What's a Manitou?

[Katydid]

My daddy calls me lots of things when I 'splore, like "sugar booger" and "crazydid," but sometimes when I break things he calls me "manitou." He says its something like a non-evil force of destruction or something. Is he using this term right?

 

[Willamena]

Amazon.ca: The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the Ojibway: Basil Johnston: Books

 

[3.14]

he should use loki

 

[painted wolf]

A manitou is a spirit. Everything has one and they can be good or bad or indifferent.

wa:do

 

[cardero]

What's a Manitou?
Nothing. What's a manitou you?

 

[painted wolf]

bu dum bum.... ching...

wa:do

 

[Poet-Troll]

Anthropologists tend to use the supposedly Iroquoian word Orenda, defined as magical power or unseen mystical force. The Algonquian equivalent in literature is Manitou or Manito. Painted Wolf's definition is as good as any, although spirit in English does not give exactly the same meaning as Manito in an Algonquian language; nor does Manito really correspond to the Iroquoian Orenda. In fact, the Iroquoian word refers to a song, dance, or a medicine society. Hewitt brought the word into anthropological use about a century ago. The real Iroquoian terms for magical power, if that is a useful term, are otkon and ogi. The former refers to earthbound powers and the later to airbourn powers, both of which work together, as for example thunder beings and snakes.
Your daddy was pulling your leg.