This document provides an overview of the Ojibwe people, their history, and their struggle against assimilation. It discusses the Ojibwe's original territories, key treaties signed with the US that established reservations but also hunting and fishing rights. It describes forced relocation efforts in the 1850s that resulted in many Ojibwe deaths. The 1854 Treaty of LaPointe established several reservations but the Ojibwe had to continually fight to exercise their treaty rights to hunting, fishing and gathering on those lands. The attached book discusses the author's syndicated newspaper column from 1989-2001 covering shifting treaty rights, casinos, sovereignty and language renewal for the Ojibwe people.

1. Native Ancestry: A Struggle Against
Assimilation

2. The Ojibwe Experience Then and Now

3. About the Ojibwe
• Ojibwe or also known as; Ojibwa, Ojibway,
Chippewa or Chippeway
• The Ojibwe peoples are a major group of the
Anishinaabe-speaking peoples, a branch of the
Algonquian language family which includes;
the Algonquin, Nipissing, Oji-Cree, Odawa and
Potawatomi
• The Ojibwe peoples number over 56,440 in
the U.S.

4. Where the Ojibwe Live
Source: Wikipedia

5. About the Ojibwe
• The Ojibwe are known for the crafting of birch
bark canoes and the cultivation of wild rice.
• The Ojibwe Nation was the first to sign more
detailed treaties with European settlers
before they were allowed too settle farther
west

6. Anishinaabe
• Lake Superior Chippewa is one of the largest
bands of the Ojibwe
• Reside in northern parts of present day
Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin
• Defeated the Dakota(Sioux) pushing them
west of the Mississippi in 1754
• More technologically adapt purchased guns
from the French fur traders

7. Bands United
• Several treaties with the US government leading up to the
final treaty of 1854 unite the independent bands of the Lake
Superior Chippewa; Mississippi, Pillager, Bois Forte, Muskrat,
Red Lake, Pembina and La Pointe become a collective
• These treaties of 1837 and 1842 were constantly in dispute-
they allowed rights to timber and copper in region with the
assurance that the Ojibwe would not be forced west of the
Mississippi and would retain their hunting and fishing rights
to the land
• The seat of power of the Ojibwe was located at LaPointe on
Madeline Island in present day Wisconsin

8. Encroachment
• The Indian Removal Act of 1830 signed by President
Andrew Jackson allowed the government to relocate
Indians west of the Mississippi. This was
instrumental in creating the states like Wisconsin
and Minnesota
• The Ojibwe were not forced to move initially but
watched as other kin tribes were forcibly relocated
to less desirable land but in 1850 this changed
• White settlers ignored the treaties and encroached
on Ojibwe land in increasing numbers during that
period

9. 1850
• In 1850 President Zachary Taylor signed an order
to remove the Ojibwe west in order to “protect”
them from the white settlers. The new state of
Wisconsin ignored the presidential order and
refused to act on the removal
• Minnesota territory Governor Alexander Ramsey
and Indian Agent John Watrous created a plan
that resulted in the death of over 200 hundred
Ojibwe

10. Sandy Lake
• Watrous refused to continue disbursing the
annual annuities in LaPointe requiring the
Ojibwe to travel to Sandy Lake in the territory
of Minnesota approximately 150 miles west
• Ojibwe people faced starvation, harsh
conditions and rotten provisions when they
arrived in Sandy Lake.

11. Chief Buffalo
(Kechewaishke)
In 1852 at 92 years of age,
serving as primary chief of
the Lake Superior
Chippewa for over fifty
years, Chief Buffalo made
a personal trek to
Washington DC after the
Sandy Lake tragedy. He
manages to meet with
President Fillmore who
agrees to stop the forced
move west of the Ojibwe
and agrees to open up
negotiations that next year
on a new treaty which
became the treaty of 1854

12. 1854 The Treaty of LaPointe
This treaty ceded all of the Lake Superior
Ojibwe lands to the United States in the
area denoted in map as 332. In exchange
it created reservations for the Lake
Superior Ojibwe in Wisconsin, Michigan,
and Minnesota. Also, these tribes
retained hunting, fishing and gathering
right within this region. Exercising these
treaty rights would remain a struggle into
the 21st century. Indian reservations
established under this treaty were:
L'Anse with Lac Vieux Desert
Bad River
Lac du Flambeau and Lac Courte Oreilles
Fond du Lac
Grand Portage
Ontonagon and Red Cliff
Source: Wikipedia

13. Anishinaabe Syndicated:
WHY THIS BOOK?

14. About the Author
Jim Northrup
Anishinaabe, author, humorist
journalist and playwright
Fond Du Lac Reservation, MN
Attended Boarding schools at 6
years old
Vietnam Vet
Grandfather
Student of the Ojibwe language

15. Anishinaabe Syndicated
Northrup’s book chronicles the years
between 1989 and 2001 when shifting treaty
rights, casino gambling, tribal sovereignty and
native language renewal were important
topics for his monthly syndicated newspaper
column the Fond du Lac Follies

16. Irreverence
Northrup is often irreverent in equal
measures regarding the treatment of
gaming/treaty rights by the federal
government, “necks of red” as he calls them
and the tribal government who he is often
baffled by their approach to the gaming
disputes.

17. “Christopher Columbus was just the point man”

18. Are you full blooded Indian?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
feature=player_embedded&v=q3wBCavyD1E

19. Fond Du Lac: Lake Beer Can

20. Powwows
• Northrup writes fondly of visiting various
powwows across the midwest. He describes in
detail the sights and sounds and the feelings of
togetherness that these stir in him
• As I reflect on the powwow I attended captured
in the next video, I could see a little better how
the event could really bring the culture alive for
the participants. The excitement, food, crafts and
dancing and celebration of elders

21. Augsburg College Traditional Powwow

22. Powwow
• What also struck me was the overall patriotic
theme that was integrated through the
ceremony. A significant amount of time was
devoted to honoring the veterans of our
nation and how the powwow ceremony itself
elevated the importance of this act

23. Veteran and Activist
Jim Northrup is a veteran and his
writing for the FDL Follies captures his
activism for veterans rights.
He has travelled the nation speaking
and advocating for fair treatment for
all veterans as well as
acknowledgement of the Anishinaabe
contribution to protecting our country.
In the attached video he shares
(candidly) a deeply personal poem
about the loss and devastation that
followed many veterans home after
the war.
Below I read an excerpt from his book
about attending a war memorial in
Duluth http://youtu.be/iKIPO3aXJBs

24. Ricing
• An important and critical skill and aspect of
being an Anishinaabe
• Jim Northrup writes extensivelly about this
practice in his book. It is clear that the practice
of ricing is much more than economic. It is
provides a connection to the history of the
Anishinaabe and reconnects him as a man to
his childhood

25. Ricing on Perch Lake FDL

26. Sugar Bush
• Northrup writes many times over the years
about the practice of making maple syrup
• “We tapped into the cycle of seasons once
again. It was a family affair to go to the sugar
bush. Anishinaabeg(plural) have been making
maple syrup for hundreds of generations”p.91

27. My grandson Aaron

28. Connecting it all together
The Ojibwa prayer below set to the Gaelic
music captures my emotional connection to
Madeline Island and my own Irish heritage.
My visits to Madeline always reminds me of
my time in Ireland
http://youtu.be/vEBvo8Y4ZIY