The Ojibwa (or Chippewa) Indians refer to themselves as Anishnabe, a term that simply means ‘the people’. Its oral history traces its origins to the northern forests that stretch along the Atlantic coast in what is now known as New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. That same oral history tells of a visit from ancient ancestors who warned of a race of light-skinned people that would bring changes to the Anishnabe way of life.
Following the advice of ancestral grandparents, the Ojibwa began a five-hundred-year migration process that eventually brought them to the lands surrounding the Great Lakes in central North America. It was there that European explorers found them in the 16th century. As the newcomers learned the language, they began to refer to the tribe as Ojibwa, a word meaning ‘to wrinkle’ in reference to the puckered instep of their moccasins.
They were traditionally fishermen, hunters, and gatherers, but by the time of European contact, the bands that had settled south of the Great Lakes had also learned to grow corn and squash from their cousins further south.
Both southern and northern Ojibwa included elk, bear, elk, and deer in their diet, but like other Eastern Woodland Indian tribes, they harvested berries, roots, and wild rice. Southern tribes learned how to harvest maple sap and turn it into maple syrup and sugar and northern tribes experimented with the concept and adapted the process to harvesting birch syrup.
Their traditional house was called a wigwam. He was made by cutting down a dozen saplings and burying them upright in a large circular shape and then bending them to form a dome-shaped structure that was covered with layers of birch bark. Small bark-covered tipi-like structures were made when a quick temporary shelter was needed. When pressure from Europeans caused some to migrate to the prairies, they adopted as their own the large tipis used by the prairie tribes.
The Ojibwa Indians were part of a confederation called the Council of Three Fires that included the Potawatomi and Ottawa tribes. To Europeans, the Potawatomi and the Ottawa appeared as separate groups, but they were simply part of the larger Anishnabe culture.
In the 1600s, French fur traders befriended the Council of Three Fires. In exchange for European-made firearms and implements, the confederacy fought on behalf of New France against the Iroquois and the British who had colonized lower North America. Alliances changed in step with the fortunes of the British and French in North America. In the end, the Ojibwa signed more treaties with France, Great Britain, Canada, and the United States than any other native tribe.
Today, the Ojibwa Indians live on reservations surrounding the Great Lakes in both Canada and the United States. Due to pressure from the dominant culture, there are also Ojibwa communities that moved to the Great Plains in both countries.
