Ojibwe (Anishinaabe people of Canada and the United States)

The proper name Anishinabe means 'human beings'. The origin of the word 'Ojibwe' is not yet clear. Edmund Danziger (1978) claims that the name derives from Ozhibii'oweg ('Those who keep Records of a Vision'), the name of a neighbouring tribe, while Frances Densmore (1929) puts forward the now generally accepted interpretation, that 'Ojibwe' is a linguistic variant of 'Anishinaabeg' and comes from a verb meaning 'to roast until it curls' (a reference to this tribe's particular way of sealing the seams of moccasins). The omission of the O from O'chippewa (a variant of 'Ojibwe') in erroneous Euro-American documents later led to the emergence of the word Chippewa, which is still used as the official name by the American government.

The Chipewyan tribe, on the other hand, has nothing to do with the Chippewa/Anishinabe, despite the similarity of the name, but belongs to the Athabascan group of peoples.

Together with the Ottawa and the Potawatomi, the Anishinabe formed the Council of Three Fires tribal confederacy before the arrival of the Europeans, which existed in the area of the Great Lakes of North America and the St. Lawrence River and held its own against the Iroquois League.

Euroamerican historiography generally assumes that the Anishinabe migrated from their original habitat to the area west of Lake Huron and east of Lake Superior (now Michigan) in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. There separated from the Anishinabe in the narrower sense the Potawatomi, who settled in the lower peninsula of the state of Michigan, and the Ottawa, who settled on Lake Nipissing in the northern part of the province of Ontario. These two tribes are now regarded as distinct peoples.

According to their own legend, they followed a sacred object, the so-called "Miigis" shell, which had emerged from the ocean. It contained a mission from the spirit world to lead the Anishinabe people to a new land "where food grows in the water" (wild rice). After the Indians arrived at their destination, the shell showed itself to the Anishinabe for the last time and has not been sighted since. The location of this last revelation is usually given as Mooningwanekaning (Madeline Island) in the Anishinaabe Gichigami (Lake Superior).

Under the influence of the fur trade - which soon played a major role in their culture - they spread very widely to all points of the compass. As their main trading partners were the French, they fought on their side against the English in the four North American colonial wars. Some groups moved further westward, driving the Dakota out of what is now the state of Minnesota toward the end of the 18th century.

Beginning in 1840, they had settled in the area north of Lake Superior and Lake Huron and in parts of Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. From 1850 to 1923, the British entered into a series of land-use treaties with various Anishinabe tribes in Canada. In the United States, the establishment of reservations began in 1854, resulting in increasing assimilation in American society with a move away from traditional economic practices (q.v.: Cultural Change).