03/05/2025
The Story of the Ojibwe (Chippewa Indians)
The Anishinaabeg (singular Anishinaabe) is the umbrella name for the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi nations. The names "Ojibwe" and "Chippewa" are essentially different spellings of the same word, "otchipwa," which means "to pucker," a likely reference to the distinctive puckered seam on an Ojibwa moccasin.
According to tradition, which is supported by linguistic and archaeological studies, the ancestors of the Anishinaabeg migrated from the Atlantic Ocean, or perhaps Hudson Bay, following the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Straits of Mackinac, arriving there about
1400. They continued expanding west, south, and northward, and first met French fur traders in 1623, in what would become the eastern half of the upper peninsula of Michigan.
The Ojibwe primary prehistoric mode of existence was based on hunting and fishing, harvesting wild rice, living in small communities of wigwams (their traditional dwellings), and traveling inland waterways in birchbark canoes. The nucleus of the Ojibwe world was the island of Michilimackinac ("the great turtle"), famous for pike, sturgeon, and whitefish.
Ojibwe History
In the 16th century, the Anishinaabeg split from the Potawatomi and the Odawa, settling at Boweting, Gichigamiing, near what would become Sault Ste. Marie on Lake Superior. By the early 17th century, the Ojibwe divided again, some going towards "La Pointe" on Madeline Island on Wisconsin's Chequamegon Bay.
During the fur trade period of the 17th and early 18th centuries, the Ojibwe allied with the Dakota, agreeing that the Ojibwe would provide the Dakota with trade goods, and the Ojibwe could live west towards the Mississippi River. The peace lasted for 57 years, but between 1736 and 1760, an intense territorial conflict led to a war between the two, which persisted in some form until the mid-19th century.
From Lake Superior, the Ojibwe people spread north of Lake Ontario, around Lake Huron, and north of Lake Michigan. They settled all sides of Lake Superior and lived near the headwaters of the Misi-ziibii, today spelled Mississippi.
