Cowboy Kisses: The Ojibwe People by Zina Abbott

According to my cell phone calendar, today is Native American Heritage Day. In keeping with that, I wish to share a few details about the largest Native American tribe in the United States, the Ojibwe (Ojibwa, Ojibway, Chippewa).

Origins

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. It can also refer to the Ojibwe custom of writing on birch bark. Individuals from this tribe generally refer to themselves as Anishinaabe.

The language spoken by the Ojibwe is called Anishinaabem or Ojibwemowin, as well as the Chippewa or Ojibwe language. An Algonquian language, Anishinaabem is not a single language, but rather a chain of linked local varieties, with nearly a dozen different dialects. There are about 5,000 speakers across Canada and the United States; the most endangered dialect is southwestern Ojibwe, with between 500–700 speakers.

Migration

According to Ojibwe oral history, 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. They arrived there about 1400. They continued expanding west, south, and northward.

There are several theories given for this migration. One was, due to a combination of prophecies around 1,500 years ago that urged them to move west to "the land where food grows on water." That referred to wild rice and served as a major incentive to migrate westward. Eventually some bands made their homes in the northern area of present-day Minnesota.

The Ojibwe migrated westward over the course of many centuries. They moved in small groups and followed the Great Lakes. By the time the French arrived in the Great Lakes area in the early 1600s, the Ojibwe were well established at Sault Ste. Marie and the surrounding area.

Another reason for their migration was to escape tribal warfare.

A third possible reason was climate change.

The Ojibwe was the largest and most powerful tribe in the Great Lakes area. The advantage of having superior weapons was one of the reasons why the Ojibwe turned to more habitual wars with other natives. Their fierce, warlike reputation and their sheer numbers made them one of the most feared tribes. They were able to take territories from other tribes as needed and extended their territories across a large area. During the Beaver Wars, the Ojibwe fought with the Fox, Mundua, Huron, Winnebago and Iroquois.

The Ojibwe people have a long history within the Midwest long before whites came in the 1600s looking for furs. Some adopted the lifestyle of the buffalo hunters of the Great Plains. Their histories date far back to days before anything was recorded, so the long past events come only in the traditional passing down of stories from generation to generation.

New France and the Fur Trade

The French established New France in the 1600's and established trading links with the Ojibwe, who they referred to as the Sauteux. Like most of the Algonquian-speaking tribes they became strong allies of the French fighting against the English and the tribes of the powerful Iroquois Confederacy. They expanded their territories to control most of lower Michigan and southern Ontario.

Ojibwe and Confederacies

The Ottawa people were one of the few tribes that the Ojibwe were in close alliance with. They traded furs back and forth, and with the introduction of the French fur traders into the area, were able to acquire European goods through the Ottawa without much contact with whites.

In 1769 the Chippewa formed a confederacy known as "The Three Fires" with the Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes aimed at forcing the Peoria tribe from the Illinois River.

In 1785 the Ojibwe joined the Western Confederacy that consisted of a league of many different tribes including the Potawatomi, Ottawa, Shawnee, Delaware, Kickapoo, Huron and the Seneca tribes. The goal of the Western Confederacy was to keep the Ohio River as a boundary between Native American lands and the United States. There were no wars between the Americans and Ojibwe after 1815 and the majority of the Ojibwe remained in their homelands in the United States and Canada.

The Ojibwe and the Dakota

The confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers was a place of diplomacy and trade for the Ojibwe. They met with Dakota people at Mni Sni (Coldwater Spring) and after European Americans arrived, they frequented the area to trade, treat with the US Indian Agent, and sign treaties.

Ojibwe delegations gathered at Fort Snelling in 1820 to meet with local Dakota leaders and in 1825 before traveling to Prairie du Chien for treaty negotiations. In 1837 more than 1,000 Ojibwe met Dakota and US representatives at the confluence to negotiate another treaty. The Ojibwe forced a rare provision into the Treaty of St. Peters, retaining the right to hunt, fish, gather wild rice, and otherwise use the land as they always had.

Throughout the fur trade era, the Ojibwe valued their relationship with the Dakota above those they maintained with European Americans. While historians have frequently cited ongoing conflict between the Ojibwe and Dakota, the two peoples were more often at peace than at war. In 1679 the Ojibwe and the Dakota formed an alliance through peaceful diplomacy at Fond du Lac in present-day Minnesota. The Ojibwe agreed to provide the Dakota with fur trade goods, and in return the Dakota permitted the Ojibwe to move west toward the Mississippi River. During this period of peace that lasted for fifty-seven years, the Ojibwe and Dakota often hunted together, created families together, shared their religious experiences, and prospered.

In 1737, a war with the Dakota people won the Ojibwe a large portion of Northern Minnesota, climaxing a long rivalry between the two tribes. The French were strong advocates for the Ojibwe, using them and other Indian allies to gain the most control of the land that they could, hoping to get better trade areas than the British. French diplomats convinced Ojibwe to attack certain tribes that might be in their way, and provided guns and other weapons to insure their dominance. They also got some Ojibwe to come to their own home forts in Quebec and Montreal to defend against the British, establishing a firm alliance between the two.

In the mid-1700s, the Ojibwe's westward expansion was finally halted in North Dakota when they ran into a better armed enemy – the Lakota. They had large numbers of horses and were able to hold their own territory against intruders.

By the middle of the 1800s, intertribal conflict was abandoned as both tribes were overwhelmed by challenges posed by the surge of European American settler-colonists.

Ojibwe and Americans

After the fur traders, the first Europeans who held sustained contact with the Ojibwe people were missionaries who arrived in Minnesota in 1832. They were Calvinist New Englanders who were associated with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). The Ojibwe welcomed them into their communities, seeing them as agents of alliance with the Europeans, while the ABCFM saw their role strictly to convert the people to Christianity. The misunderstanding created a mixed blessing. One benefit to the Ojibwe was the information about European plans and lifestyles they gained.

By the mid-19th century, the Ojibwe had become alarmed at the decline of both game and fur-bearing animals in their country. The recognized that the growing number of Euro-Americans was responsible. Particularly damaging were those commercial interests that built roads and homesteads and began logging activities.

Some Ojibwe responded by increasing their reliance on agriculture, especially wild rice, and the technology, tools, and equipment of the foreigners were considered to be useful for promoting that. Others had no interest at all in U.S. farming technology. This increased tensions within the tribe between those who supported a war against the Europeans and those who favored cooperating with them.

Traditional Clothing

The different types of clothes worn by the Ojibwe tribe that were dictated by climate and customs. The men wore breechcloths in the summer. In the winter they wore fringed, decorated tunics, high moccasins and leggings and turbans of soft fur.

The women wore wraparound skirts or buckskin dresses. They wore their hair in long braids.

Both men and women wore moccasins and ponchos in colder temperatures. Warm robes or cloaks were also worn to protect against the rain and the cold. Clothes were decorated and colored with red, blue, yellow and green dyes.

Some Chippewa crafts were made for beauty however, many were designed for much more practical uses such as for example baskets, wampum, snowshoes, and moccasins. The art of the Chippewa consist of fantasy catchers and complex beadwork.

To learn more about these two Ojibwe warriors, Sha-co-pay and A-wun-ne-wa-be painted by George Catlin in 1832, please CLICK HERE.

Society and Government

The Ojibwe primary prehistoric mode of existence was based on hunting and fishing, harvesting wild rice, and harvesting maple sap to made maple sugar and syrup. The lived in small communities of wigwams or wickiups (their traditional dwellings), and traveled inland waterways in birch bark canoes that were specifically recognized for being well-crafted and graceful. The were light and lean, yet strong.

The Chippewa not only caught several types of seafood, however they in addition caught crayfish, mussels, frogs and turtles. The nucleus of the Ojibwe world was the island of Michilimackinac ("the great turtle"), famous for pike, sturgeon, and whitefish.

Ojibwe communities were historically based on clans, or "doodem," which determined a person's place in Ojibwe society. Different clans represented different aspects of Ojibwe society; for example, political leaders came from the loon or crane clans, while warriors were traditionally from the bear, martin, lynx, and wolf clans.

Among the Ojibwe, honor and prestige came with generosity. Ojibwe culture and society were structured around reciprocity, with gift-giving playing an important social role. During a ceremony reinforced with an exchange of gifts, parties fulfilled the social expectations of kinship and agreed to maintain a reciprocal relationship of mutual assistance and obligation. Many fur traders, and later European and American government officials, used gift-giving to help establish economic and diplomatic ties with various Ojibwe communities.

Religion

The traditional Ojibwe religion, Midewiwin, sets down a path of life to follow (mino-bimaadizi). That path honors promises and elders, and values behaving moderately and in coherence with the natural world. Its theology centers on a belief in a single creating force but also incorporates a wide pantheon of spirits that play specific roles in the universe. Midewiwin is closely tied to indigenous medicine and healing practices based on an extensive understanding of the natural plants of the regions in which the Ojibwa reside. The practice involves songs, dances, and ceremonies.

The belief is that humans are comprised of a physical body and two distinct souls. One is the seat of intelligence and experience (jiibay), which leaves the body when asleep or in trance; the other is seated in the heart (ojichaag), where it remains until freed at death.

Ojibwe historical and spiritual beliefs were passed down to succeeding generations by teaching, birch bark scrolls and rock art pictographs.

Many Ojibwe today practice Catholic or Episcopal Christianity, but continue to keep the spiritual and healing components of the old traditions.

Surviving American Reservations

After the birth of the United States, treaties began to be made selling off land between the Native Americans and new settlers. The Ojibwe had little conflict with the United States during their reign, even after Fort Snelling was built in Minnesota to try to section off the Dakota from the Ojibwe. This may have been because they knew they had little chance of victory over the numerous, technologically advanced settlers, but they continued to attack the Dakota.

Treaties making land trades began in the 1800s between Euro-Americans and the Ojibwe. being cheated out on the books by whites who wanted to make more money, the Ojibwe found themselves in debt with the fur traders. Selling land was one of their most immediate sources for cash, and the Americans were all too eager to take it up from them. Copper and lumber were in great demand, and the Ojibwe were on land that had a lot of it. In exchange for their territories, the tribes were moved on to reservations, almost all of which were too small to fully support the entire groups of people sent there. The Ojibwe were given very little choice in the matter. Between 1854 and 1856, all of the Ojibwe reservation plans were organized, sending many people either out of their homes, or into much smaller plots than they once owned. The reservations were often too dense to fully keep up all of their traditions like hunting.

The end result of the approximately fifty different treaties were such that in the late 1870s and 1880s, there would be twenty-two different reservations. The rules required the Ojibwe to clear the land of trees and farm it. Subtle but persistent cultural resistance allowed the Ojibwe to continue their traditional activities, but hunting and fishing off-reservation became more difficult with increased sport fishermen and hunters, and competition for game from commercial sources.

To survive, the Ojibwe people leveraged their traditional food sources—roots, nuts, berries, maple sugar, and wild rice—and sold the surplus to local communities. By the 1890s, the Indian Service pressed for more logging on Ojibwe lands, but multiple fires fueled by downed timber on and off the reservation ended that in 1904. The burned-over areas, however, resulted in an increase in berry crops.

The Ojibwe people are among the largest population of indigenous people in North America, with over 200,000 individuals living in Canada—primarily in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan—and the United States, in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota. The Canadian government recognizes more than 130 Chippewa First Nations, and the U.S. recognizes 22. The Ojibwe people today reside on small reservations or in small towns or urban centers.

Today in Minnesota, the United States recognizes six different bands of the Ojibwe nation, including: Boise Forte, Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, Leech Lake, Mille Lacs, and the White Earth (Ojibwe). Although the tribe underwent great recession with the involvement of whites settling America, they are still one of the largest groups of Native Americans around, with the total estimated number of people comprising the tribe as 190,000.

When I wrote my first book featuring Luke McDaniels and Ling Loi (Joy), Escape from Gold Mountain, I knew I was setting up a romance between a Chinese woman and a man of a different race—a situation with which not everyone is comfortable. Ling Loi’s character was based on an actual historical person. For my fictional hero, I chose to have him be one-quarter Native American. Based on the existing prejudices and laws in the 1880s, I decided Luke’s Native tribe needed to live in a state that did not have anti-miscegenation laws (laws against marriage between of those of different races}. To fit his story of how he arrived in California, I chose Minnesota and the Ojibwa tribe.

It was not until I wrote Gift of Restitution that I needed to settle on a band. The seven Ojibwe reservations in Minnesota are Bois Forte (Nett Lake), Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, Leech Lake, Mille Lacs, White Earth, and Red Lake. Fond du Lac is the closest to Duluth, a fairly large city on the shore of Lake Superior, which best suited Luke’s back story.

What prompted me to write Gift of Restitution was a loose end in the first book. Luke was a basically decent man who managed—thanks to the two outlaws, Charley and Tex—to get himself entangled in illegal activities. As struggled to free himself and rescue Ling Loi, he tried to do the right thing without putting himself at risk. However, in one instance, Luke paid what he felt he could afford even though he recognized it did not honestly cover the cost of what he took. This story was written to allow Luke to redeem himself. As I finished the book, I felt as though I had been guided by an unseen hand.

While I did more research for my latest book, I found Ojibwe to be the preferred spelling for this tribe. However, when I wrote the first book, I went with the spelling my spell-checker accepted. Although I prefer the Ojibwe spelling, for the sake of consistency in both books, I spelled it Ojibwa.