The Chippewa Indians, also known as Ojibwa, Ojibwe, and Ojibway, lived in the Great Lakes region before European arrival. They migrated from Canada’s Atlantic coast and depended on fish and game. They lost much of their land due to treaties with the US and Canadian governments and now live on reservations or in rural and urban areas.
The Chippewa Indians are an indigenous tribal group of North America and may also be called North American Indians. They are also known by the names Ojibwa, Ojibwe and Ojibway, as well as Ashinabe. For hundreds of years before the arrival of Europeans, the Chippewa Indians lived in the Great Lakes region of North America near Lakes Superior, Huron and Michigan. In the 1800s, a series of treaties with the US and Canadian governments resulted in the loss of much of the Chippewa tribal lands. Today, many Chippewa live on Canadian reserves or US federal reserves, as well as in rural and urban areas of the Great Lakes region.
Tribal tradition of the Chippewa Indians records their migration from Canada’s Atlantic coast to the Great Lakes region, which probably took place around the 15th and 16th centuries. They traveled with the Ottawa and Potawatomi Indians, with whom they share related languages, before diverging in what is now northern Michigan. The first Chippewa Indians traveled north and settled near the east shore of Lake Superior and the north shore of Lake Huron in Canada. Over a period of centuries, other groups went south into the modern United States and settled on the peninsulas of Michigan, northeastern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota.
Prior to European contact, many Chippewa Indians followed a seasonal distribution of food and resources. Their cultural traditions included fashioning clothes and making furs for winter. They depended mainly on fish year-round, but followed game in the winter. Contact with French fur traders allowed them to expand their territory with the firearms they acquired, but the westward expansion of Europeans would gradually bring about many changes in the traditional way of life of the Chippewa Indians. This would include the last of the traditional Chippewa homelands.
The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 would bring thousands of settlers to the region east of Lake Michigan. The Chippewa Indians had ceded some land to the British and the United States in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but land loss increased dramatically starting in the 18th. The Chippewa Indians and Ottawa agreed to sell parts of Michigan in that year, and the following year gave land in Minnesota and Wisconsin. By 19 they had lost most of their land in the United States. The Chippewa gradually lost large amounts of territory in Canada in a process that lasted well into the 20th century.
Today, many Chippewa Indians live on what are called reservations in the United States, or reservations in Canada, of which there are more than 100. Many prefer to be called by their traditional name, the Ashinabe, which means the original ones. Many also live in rural, unofficial Chippewa communities or in larger cities, including Toronto and Winnipeg in Canada, and Minneapolis and Grand Rapids in the United States.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
