The history of the Ojibwe begins with the ancestors of the modern Ojibwe residing along the Atlantic coast, in modern-day New Brunswick and south-eastern Quebec. Somewhere between the 6th and 10th centuries the Ojibwe would slowly migrate further inland. Their ancestors would then form Council of Three Fires centuries before Christopher Columbus.
They reached the Great Lakes sometime around the 12th to 13th centuries. Then by around 1500, the Ojibwe reached Lake Superior and would later settle modern-day Wisconsin, where Madeline Island would become a significant part of the Ojibwe nation. From Madeline Island the Ojibwe would later reach what is today Minnesota.
Sometime between 16th century the early 17th century they gained contact with the French, where diplomatic relations were positive. Following the European contact the Ojibwe developed a common identity. The Ojibwe would side with the French during the Fox Wars, Beaver Wars, and Seven Years' War. Simultaneously the Ojibwe entered the North American fur trade, where they traded with the Europeans and exchanged each others customs and traditions. However, the French would destabilize the region, being partially responsible for the start of the Dakota-Ojibwe War.
The Ojibwe would later settle in what is modern day Ontario after wars with the Iroquois. They would came into contact with the Mandan along the southern shores of the Red River.
By the 19th century they were beginning to perceive themselves as a nation or tribe. During the second half of the 19th century, Ojibwe bands were forced to onto reservations by the United States government and continue to face hardships caused by the federal government.
The dreamcatcher originated from the Ojibwe and became a popular commercial item in the late 20th century and became a symbol for the Pan-Indian movement. By the 21st century they became one of the largest Indigenous ethnic groups in North America.
Background The Ojibwe language belongs to the Algonquian language family and the Ojibwe culturally belong to the Anishinaabe.
The Ojibwe never existed under a unified central government. Professor Anton Treuer states that they functioned as a group of independent villages with similarities in language and culture. The Ojibwe lived in small kinship groups, each an extended family that was politically autonomous, although they met with other groups for specific occasions and exchanged members for marriage, ensuring regular contact between different Ojibwe groups.
Ojibwe society followed a clan system and a person’s clan had a big impact on their positions in society; for example, warriors were traditionally from clans like the bear clan. Members of a clan were seen as close family members with intermarriage within a clan being forbidden.
According to Patricia Loew, there was originally 7 clans: Crane, Loon, Fish, Marten, Deer, Bear, and Bird. But according to William Warren, there was originally five clans but around his life time (19th century) there was about 15 to 21 clans. Originally all Ojibwe civil chiefs were part of the loon or crane clans, but as the Ojibwe moved west during the 1700s warrior clans began to dominate.
Pre-Columbian history
Most historians are of the view that the ancestral homeland of the Ojibwe was at the mouth of St. Lawrence River. The Ojibwe were in an alliance with the Odawa and the Potawatomi along the Atlantic Coast. Archeology confirms that the Ojibwe moved slowly in small groups over a period of hundreds of years starting from St Lawrence to the central Great Lakes.
According to Treuer, natural food resources along the Atlantic coast was so large that it sustained a massive and dense population greater than that of Western Europe. However, when the Ojibwe formed as a distinct group in the Algonquian language family, the population density resulted in competitions among tribes over land and resources. This tribal warfare along with prophecies resulted in the Ojibwe moving westward around the 6th century CE. It is unclear if other tribes contested this migration or not.
According to Encyclopedia.com, the ojibwe and other people began migrating to the Great Lakes around 900 AD. Although reasons for this migration are unclear it may have been due to contact with the Vikings.
According to oral histories and Wiigwaasabak birch bark scrolls, the ancestors of other tribes such as the Bodewadami, Mascouten, and Miami peoples undertook a Great Migration from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River to the Upper Great Lakes some time before European arrival. These Algonquian people people from the East Coast were driven west when Iroquoian peoples migrated to the region from central Canada and took their original homelands.Rodesch, Gerrold C. (1984). "Jean Nicolet". University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. Retrieved July 31, 2016.
Formation of Council of Three Fires The Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and the Odawa formed the Council of Three Fires.Warren, William W.; "History of the Ojibway People"; St. Paul, Minnesota Historical Society Press; 1984. Using the Midewiwin scrolls, Potawatomi elder Shup-Shewana dated the formation of the Council of Three Fires to 796 AD at Michilimackinac.
Although according to Bayfield historical society, the confederacy was likely formed in the 16th century as a response to the expansionism of the Iroquois Confederacy.
Council of the three fires was not a formal confederation, but these people allied themselves for military and political reasons.
Great Lakes Migrations
Ancestors of the Ojibwe are believed to have reached the Great Lakes region since about 1200CE.
Early presence in Michigan It is likely that the Ojibwa that resided at Sault Ste Marie originated from the original Proto-Algonquian homeland residing between Lake Huron and Lake Ontario.
Originally, the northern peninsula of Michigan was largely claimed by the Ojibwe nation. There was also the Noquet located in the region, the tribe is culturally and linguistically connected to the Menominee, who dominated the central Upper Peninsula for centuries prior to and during initial European contact, but gradually disappeared due to assimilation with the Ojibwe and Menominee.Waldman, Carl (2006). The Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. New York: Checkmark Books. p. 10.
Early contact with the Europeans
Jacques Cartier entered St. Lawrence River in 1535. According to Warren, he first discovered the Ojibwe in the Bay of Shaug-a-waum-ik-ong.
In 1609, Samuel de Champlain killed two Iroquois chiefs. Champlain had an army of many Native Americans and possibly including the Ojibwe, Champlain may have been the first European to describe the Ojibwe at the French River.Étienne Brûlé was sent by Champlain to learn the language of the Huron and the Algonquin. Brûlé didn't leave any written records of his travels but it's generally accepted that he was the first European to settle in the heartland of Ojibwe country, Sault Ste. Marie and possibly Lake Superior. Sometime around this point the Ojibwe were well established at Sault Ste. Marie and the surrounding area. When the French encountered them at Sault Ste. Marie in the 1640's they called them the Saulteurs meaning "People of the Rapids." Catholic missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries followed, with Ojibwe first encountering Franciscans in 1622 and the Jesuits in 1641. In the 1670s the Jesuits established a mission at the Sault, with a sparse Roman Catholic missionary effort continuing through the 18th century.
The Pageant of the Sault
On June 4, 1671, Simon-François Daumont de Saint-Lusson, a colonial agent, was dispatched from Quebec to the distant tribes, proposing a congress of Indian nations at the Falls of St. Mary between Lake Huron and Lake Superior. Trader Nicolas Perrot helped attract the principal chiefs, and representatives of 14 Indigenous nations were invited for the elaborate ceremony. The French officials proclaimed France's appropriation of the immense territory surrounding Lake Superior in the name of King Louis XIV.
The Ojibwe were missing the point of the ceremony and interpreted the ceremony as declaring mutual support and friendship. When in reality the French were attempting to take over the area and asked the natives to submit to the king of France.
According to William Warren, Shadawish was at this event and the French gave him a gold medal. According to journalist Robert Silbernagel, the founder of the Cadotte family was also present at the event.
At the end of the ceremony, the French placed a heart-shaped gold medal upon the chest of Ke-che-ne-zuh-yauh. According to French diplomatic custom he was recognized as chief of the Lake Superior Chippewa and principal chief of the Ojibwe tribe.
Enters the Fur Trade
Interactions with the French during the fur trade resulted in: increase in standard of living, population growth, growth of political power, expansion of territory.
The Ojibwe were influential during the fur trade too the point Europeans adopted Ojibwe customs. French and British favored Ojibwe customs of bartering, cooperative diplomacy, meeting in councils, and the use of pipes.
During the fur trade the Ojibwe had a positive relationship with the Dakota. In 1679, the Ojibwe and the Dakota formed an alliance at Fond du Lac; the Ojibwe agreed to give the Dakota fur in exchange that the Dakota allowed Ojibwe to move west toward the Mississippi.
Lake Superior migrations By around 1500 the Ojibwe reached Lake Superior from the east parts of the Great Lakes region.Sometime before 1745, Shadawish led his extended family to the headwater of the Wisconsin River near Lac Vieux Desert, becoming the first Ojibwe to settle in what is today mainland Wisconsin.
Migration to western parts of Lake Superior Exactly when the Ojibwe reached the western part of the lake is a debate among historians and scholars. According to historian Laura Peers, “entho-historians have generally concluded that Ojibwa were not present in the area north or west of Lake Superior until the mid-1700s”.
The first Ojibwe who arrived in Chequamegon were hunters looking to expand their hunting territory from the Keneenaw Peninsula.
Madeline Island, and the formation of La Pointe When exactly the Ojibwe made Madeline Island a seasonal home is a debate among historians and scholars. Reportedly the Ojibwe moved to Madeline Island to defend themselves from the Fox, Dakota, and other Native American nations.
According to historian Jacob Jurss, around 1650 the Ojibwe established one of the largest settlements on Lake Superior called Shagwaamikong or La Pointe. According to historian William Whipple Warren, "for a number of years the Ojibways continued to consider the bay of Shag-a-waum-ik-ong as their common home, and their hunting parties returned thither at different seasons of at the year."
In 1831, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft said about the island, "the focus from which, as radii from a centre, the ancient population emigrated; and the interior bands consequently look back to it with something of the feelings of parental relations." According to Ojibwe author Thomas Peacock the island is "the great homeland of the Ojibwe. Most of our Ojibwe ancestors originally came from Madeline Island."
According to a copper plate that belong to chief Tagwagane the Ojibwe settled on Madeline Island long before Columbus reached the New World, based on the 9 indications on the plate and the excepted life expectancy of 40 years this would indicate the Ojibwe settled a village on the island around the 1490s.
However, modern historians generally follow Harold Hickerson's view that the Ojibwe didn't reside on the Island until after 1680. According to Dr Schenck there is no archeological evidence that indicates that a large Ojibwe settlement at La Pointe before 1718, there is however evidence that Ojibwe or Saulteur bands around the area before the establishment of a village.