Manitou - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

MANITOU or Manito (Algonquian Indian, "mystery," "supernatural"), among certain American Indian tribes, a spirit or genius of good or evil. The manitou is almost always an animal, each individual having one assigned him, generally by dream-inspiration, at the greatest religious act of his life - his first fast. This animal then becomes his fetish; its skin is carried as a charm, and representations of it are tattooed and painted on the body or engraved on the weapons.