The Ojibwa, also known as Anishinabe, are one of the largest Native American groups in North America, primarily residing in the northern Midwest and south-central Canada. Their culture and way of life have undergone significant changes due to European contact and the fur trade, leading to a shift towards dependency on the U.S. government and the creation of reservations. Despite these challenges, the Ojibwa continue to maintain their rich cultural heritage through traditional practices, art, and language.

1. The Ojibwa: "The People Endure” By: Kaitlin Elyse Albert

2. Let’s start with the Basics! The Ojibwa live in the northern Midwest in the United States and south central Canada. Ojibwa lived mainly in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Ontario. The Ojibwa commonly refer to themselves as ANISHINABE , which literally means “human being.” Other translations of ANISHINABE include "first“, "original people“, or “puckered up” referring to their crimped moccasin stitching. Most Ojibwa people speak English, but some of them also speak their native Ojibwa language. They speak also speak a form of the Algonquian language and were closely related to the Ottawa and Potawatomi Indians .

3. More Basics! Beginning in the 17 th Century, the Ojibwa geographic expansion resulted in a four-part division. Salteaux (Northern Ojibwa) – occupying the Canadian Shield north of Lake Superior and south and west of the Hudson & James Bays Bungee (Plaines Ojibwa) – occupying the southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba region. Southeastern Ojibwa – occupying Michigan's lower and eastern upper peninsula, as well as adjacent areas of Ontario. Chippewa (Southwestern Ojibwa) – occupying northern Minnesota, extreme northern Wisconsin, Michigan’s western upper peninsula, and Ontario between Lake Superior and the Manitoba border. The Ojibwa are one of the largest Native American groups north of Mexico, numbered 35,000 in the mid-17 th century and today at around 200,000.

4. Other Tribes in the area

5. Ojibwa History The 17 th Century The Ojibwa were originally closely allied to the Huron. After the Huron were defeated by the Iroquois in their battle for control of the fur trade, the Ojibwa came under forceful Iroquois attack. The Ojibwa prevailed and ended the Iroquois power in their region. From then on Ojibwa expanded both southward and west ward. Eventually representatives from 15 Indian nation negotiated peace in the trade wars, but not without great cost. Ojibwa encountered Europeans on their land, when explorers found the natural bounty of rivers and forests that the Gulf of St. Lawrence had to offer. The market for native furs was tremendous, and by the end of the century Ojibwa were heavily involved in the fur trade and eager to expand their trade for European goods.

6. Ojibwa History The 18th Century By the beginning of the 18 th century, Ojibwa culture changed dramatically. Animals that had been hunted for food had now been trapped primarily to be used in trade, and as dependence upon European good increased, traditional patterns and activities diminished. With the development of the European fur trade and the exploitation of particular hunting and trapping territory evolved into discrete territories over which hunting and trapping groups had exclusive rights to fur resources. By the end of the 18 th century the major geographical expansion resulted in the four-part tribal fracturing of the Ojibwa.

7. Ojibwa History The 19th Century During the first half of the 19 th century, the Ojibwa began to experience in the influence of the U.S. government. They once again became increasingly dependent on traders, this time Americans. Although fishing was plentiful in the summer, winter found the Ojibwa without large game, which left them in need of provisions owned by traders. Large parcels of land were ceded in return for the promise of continues blacksmith service and payment of salt and tobacco on an annual basis. Hunting ad fishing rights on the land were given up and the demand for farmland forced Southeastern Ojibwa to cede their territory, and the movement toward reservation began.

8. Ojibwa History Reservations Canadian officials attempted what they called a “civilization program,” aimed at redirecting Ojibwa life to a reservation-based farming economy to replace the traditional fishing, hunting, and gathering. But the Ojibwa resistance was challenged by copper miner and the lumbering industry, eager to exploit the abundant resources on Ojibwa land, and loath to allow the Ojibwa to remain living on the land that they had ceded, a right that had been granted to them by the U.S. government. The government attempted to resettle the Ojibwa west of the Mississippi where they could live in permanent shelters and farm the land. This initial attempt was unsuccessful, and an alternative program of allotting individuals parcels of land came into effect.

9. Ojibwa History The Trials of Living on the Reservation Promised payments had not been materialized. Settlers on Ojibwa land had gone through the woods and taken the game that the Ojibwa had left hanging in trees to cure. Government-financed schools were not educating Ojibwa children. The Ojibwa from Sault Ste. Marie had their land destroyed by the construction of the shipping canal. Unsuspecting villager were taken by surprise as 400 workers arrived in their village and begun construction which destroyed not only the fishing sites, but the village itself. Although treaties ere signed promising permanent homes, farming acreage, equipment, and carpentry tools, this allotment never was granted. By the time an official Act was passed into law 90% of the land promised to the Ojibwa was already owned and settled.

10. The Culture Shift Despite their desire to maintain their way of life, Ojibwa who had been resettled on reservation could neither fish nor gather wild rice on land unsuitable for these economies. The consequences to Ojibwa culture beginning with the earliest days of the fur trade were cataclysmic. The technology introduced, the scattering and removal of the indigenous population, and the intertribal conflict engendered had dramatic effects on Ojibwa culture.

11. Changes in Technology Tools Before the middle of the 19 th century, Ojibwa tools were fashion of stone and bone. Bowls and spoons, canoe paddles and sleds, drums and snow shoes were all made of wood. Birch bark provided the material for canoes and container. Spears and bows were the tools of the hunt, with animal skins providing the material for clothing, blankets, and tailoring.

12. With the advent of the fur trade, iron tools like scissors, needles, axes, knives, cooking utensils, kettles, pots, as well as guns and alcohol, were introduced, with tremendous consequences. Iron tools transformed the approach to hunting. The European demand for fun in turn entrenched most of these Indians to remain in a region where any transition to agriculture was impossible. Changes in Technology Tools

13. Ojibwa Seasonal Settlements Ojibwa pattern of movement and settlement were guided largely by the seasons and varied among groups as their environments varied. SPRING In the spring, maple trees were tapped and the sap was gathered and boiled to produce maple syrup. SUMMER Ojibwa established semi-permanent village in the summer and maintained temporary camps during the rest of the year WINTER Bands dispersed in the winter moving to hunting grounds where deer, moose, bear, and a variety of small game were available.

14. Four-part Division Settlements Although the strategy of seasonal settlement and movement was found to some degree in all the Ojibwa groups, it was differently elaborated in each. Southeastern Ojibwa and Southwestern Chippewa returned to permanently establish summer village bases to plant gardens. Plain Ojibwa were highly mobile and moved to the open plains in the summertime to hunt the bison herds. The northern Ojibwa spent the late fall winter and spring moving in dispersed winter hunting groups

15. Ojibwa Migration

16. Ojibwa Society Ojibwa were organized into small autonomous bands of interrelated families. These were flexible groups with an egalitarian structure. Ojibwa society was later organized into a number of exogamous totemic clans, with membership determined patrilineally. Kinship terms directed social interaction, allowing relations with both extended family members of other groups as they moved among them. Ojibwa political organization was, like other aspects of their socio-cultural system, dramatically influenced by contact with European fur traders. IN the 18 th century band ere headed by less formal chiefs, as farming and more permanent settlement patterns were encouraged by the government, an elected chief, assistant chief, and a local council became the characteristic local political organization.

17. Ojibwa Gender Roles Ojibwa women were farmers and did most of the child care and cooking. Men were hunters and sometimes went to war to protect their families. Both genders practiced story-telling, artwork and music, and traditional medicine. Ojibwa men and women worked together to harvest wild rice. An Ojibwa man used a pole to steer through the reeds, while his wife knocked rice grains into the canoe. Ojibwa people still use canoes for harvesting rice today, but both genders do the knocking now.

18. Ojibwa Culture One belief system on the Ojibwa centers on the important relationship between people and those who are other than people. Although skills and knowledge obtained from fellow Ojibwa are certainly important, there are other crucial aspects of a successful life that can only be known and achieved though dependence upon those who are not human. To the Ojibwa, the category of “persons” includes not only themselves, ANISHINABE, “human beings”, but also animate beings who re not human. These beings are more powerful than human beings and might be classified as “supernatural.”

19. Ojibwa Religion Ojibwa religion is bound up with several distinctive features including; dreaming, fasting, visions, and above al else, the relationship with the “grandfathers,” the other than- human beings. The primary contact between individuals and these other being is achieved during dreaming, a state of primary important in Ojibwa life. It is during dreams that power is given and received, and is the most intimate and powerful relationship forged. Dreams and visions vary greatly, in both content and intensity, from person to person. It has been suggested that one reason that Ojibwa feel a strong link between human and the other-than-human spirits that are “the grandfathers” is that both classes of person are bound by the same moral order.

20. Ojibwa Spirituality The Ojibwa were extremely superstitious and required the exercise of great self control. It is through the telling of the myths that central values were passed on from Ojibwa to Ojibwa. Power is a recurrent theme in Ojibwa life, especially power possessed and granted by the “grandfathers.” One power possessed by human and other-than- humans alike is that of metamorphosis, the changing of ones shape. This thought is never more evidence than when considering the bestowal of blessings, though dreams and visions. The Ojibwa view of themselves as not solely people who live with other people, but as human beings who live in a more broadly defined society, with other-than-human persons, exemplified in two other features of Ojibwa culture; the shaking tent and the Mid é wiwin or Grand Society of Medicine.

21. Ojibwa Spirituality The Shaking Tent The shaking tent is a performance aimed at diving information not available though other means. Most other the questions asked have to with the diagnosis and treatment of illness, the welfare of loved ones far away, and the location of game animals. In preparation for this event a structure is built. Poles are lashed together to form a barrel-shaped tent, or lodge, with skin, canvas, or birth bark draped over the frame work. The diviner enters the tent after dark wit the assembled audience outside. Songs and drumming call the spirits to him.

23. Ojibwa Spirituality The Shaking Tent The evidence of the sprits arrival is the movement of the tent, which shakes from side to side. At time the movement appears as a hand or foot of the diviner are bound. Not only the movement of the tent signals the arrival of the spirits, they can also be heard to respond to the diviners son with singing of their own. These voices and songs are not believe to be “channeled” though the diviner, they seek for themselves.

25. One of the best known features of Ojibwa culture is the Midéwiwin. Society sometimes refers to these mystical doings as the Grand Medicine Society. The Midéwiwin is an organized society of men and women who possess the knowledge to cure by the use of plants and herbs. The initiation ceremony begins with a member being shot with a white shell. participants in a trance and falling unconscious after the magical shots, regain consciousness to spit the powerful shells from their mouths. Ojibwa Spirituality The Mid é wiwin

26. Ojibwa Spirituality The Mid é wiwin Ojibwa religion has been called “very much and individual affair as it focuses on individual experience thought visions and dreams of the individual. There are several categories of shamans, or professional healers, among the Ojibwa, quite separate from the Midé priests of the Midéwiwin. In recent years, there has been reexamination of the Midéwiwin and its origin and place in Ojibwa history. It had early been assumed to represent an aboriginal institution, nit has been challenged by anthropological investigation. Ojibwa culture and society was forced to under go major changed during European contact. It it believed that the Midéwiwin originated before contact with the Europeans, meaning that its ceremonies represented and reflected new modes of organization, not ancient ones.

28. The Ojibwa Today The rich Ojibwa cultural heritage survives through their continuing of themselves in art, language, and ceremony.

29. Ojibwa Traditional & Modern Dress Traditional Chippewa women wore long dresses with removable sleeves. Chippewa men wore breechcloths and leggings. Everybody wore moccasins their feet and cloaks or ponchos in bad weather. Traditionally, the Ojibwa’s wore leather headbands with feathers standing straight up in the back. In times of war, some men shaved their heads in the Mohawk style. Otherwise, Ojibwa men and women both wore their hair in long braids. In the 1800's, some Chippewa chiefs began wearing long headdresses like their neighbors the Sioux. The Ojibwa painted their faces and arms with bright colors for special occasions. They used different patterns for war paint and festive decoration. Some Ojibwa, especially men, also wore tribal tattoos. Today Some Ojibwa people still wear moccasins or a beaded shirt, but they wear modern clothes like jeans instead of breechcloths, and they only wear feathers or roaches in their hair on special occasions like a dance.

31. Ojibwa Transportation The Ojibwa Indian tribe was well-known for their birch bark canoes. Canoeing is still popular in the Ojibwa nation today, though few people handcraft their own canoe from birch bark anymore. Today, of course, the Ojibwa also use cars... and non-native people also use canoes.

32. Ojibwa Art Ojibwa artists are known for their beautiful beadwork, particularly floral design. Other traditional Ojibwa crafts include birch bark boxes, baskets, and dream catchers. Like other eastern American Indians, the Ojibwa also crafted wampum out of white and purple shell beads. Wampum beads were traded as a kind of currency, but they were more culturally important as an art material. The designs and pictures on wampum belts often told a story or represented a person's family.

33. The Key Issues Key issues facing the Ojibwa include economic development to reduce unemployment, the defense of the wild rice industry from commercial growers, improved medical treatment to combat illnesses such as diabetes and alcoholism, better management of natural resources, protection of treaty rights and attainment of sovereignty, and increased emphasis on higher education to train specialists and renew cultural ties.

34. Still Anishinabe Although the Ojibwa people are not a homogenous group, there is still wide spread adherence to traditional values and cultures. Oral literature, art and craft work, language, and religion are still passed along to new generations. Hunting gathering and finishing continue. In their ceremonies, dancing, and drumming, they are still Anishinabe!

36. Bibliography "Native Americans: Chippewa Indian Tribe” Web. 13 July 2009. http://www.native-languages.org/chippewa.htm "Ojibwe Indians." Department of Geography, Michigan State University . Web. 19 July 2009. http://www.geo.msu.edu/geogmich/ojibwe.html "Ojibwa Indians” Ohio History Central An Online Encyclopedia of Ohio History - Ohio Historical Society . Web. 26 July 2009. http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2090 Peters-Golden, Holly. Cultural Sketches: Case Studies in Anthropology. 5. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print. Redish, Laura and Orrin Lewis “Ojibwa Indian Fact sheet.” 12 July 2009. http:// www.bigorrin.org/chippewa_kids.htm Roy, Loriene “Ojibwa.” Countries and their Cultures . 15 July 2009. http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Le-Pa/Ojibwa.html