Historical relations between the Anishinaabeg and other indigenous groups
Historical relations between the Anishinaabeg and European settlers
The first of the Anishinaabeg to encounter European settlers were those of the Three Fires Confederation, within the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania in the territory of the present-day United States, and southern Ontario and Quebec of Canada Although there were many peaceful interactions between the Anishinaabeg and the European settlers, there were also times of turmoil and war. Warfare cost many lives on both sides.
The Anishinaabe dealt with Europeans through the fur trade, intermarriage, and performance as allies. Europeans traded with the Anishinaabe for their furs in exchange for goods, and also hired the men as guides throughout the lands of North America. The Anishinaabeg (as well as other Aboriginal groups) began to intermarry with fur traders and trappers. Some of their descendants would later create the Métis ethnic group. Fur traders were generally capitalists with significant backing. They tended to marry daughters of chiefs, with both sides forming high-status alliances. The explorers, trappers and other European workers married or had unions with other Anishinaabeg women, and their descendants tended to form the Métis.
In French North America
The earliest Europeans to encounter native peoples in the Great Lakes area were the French voyageurs. They were mainly trappers rather than settlers. Such explorers gave French names to many places in present-day Minnesota and Wisconsin.
In British North America
The ethnic identities of the Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi did not develop until after the Anishinaabeg reached Michilimackinac on their journey westward from the Atlantic coast. Using the Midewiwin scrolls, Potawatomi elder Shup-Shewana dated the formation of the Council of Three Fires to 796 AD at Michilimackinac.
In this Council, the Ojibwe were addressed as the "Older Brother," the Odawa as the "Middle Brother," and the Potawatomi as the "Younger Brother." Consequently, when the three Anishinaabe nations are mentioned in this specific order: Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi, it is an indicator implying Council of Three Fires as well. Each tribe had different functions: the Ojibwa were the "keepers of the faith," the Odawa the "keepers of trade," and the Potawatomi are the "keepers/maintainers of/for the fire" (boodawaadam). This was the basis for their exonyms of Boodewaadamii (Ojibwe spelling) or Bodéwadmi (Potawatomi spelling).
The Ottawa (also Odawa, Odaawa, Outaouais, or Trader) are a Native American and First Nations people. Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa (or Anishinaabemowin in Eastern Ojibwe syllabics) is the third most commonly spoken Native language in Canada (after Cree and Inuktitut), and the fourth most spoken in North America (behind Navajo, Cree, and Inuktitut). Potawatomi is a Central Algonquian language. It is spoken around the Great Lakes in Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as in Kansas in the United States. In southern Ontario in Canada, it is spoken by fewer than 50 people.
Though the Three Fires had several meeting places, they preferred Michilimackinac due to its central location. The Council met for military and political purposes. The Council maintained relations with fellow Anishinaabeg nations: the Ozaagii (Sac), Odagaamii (Meskwaki), Omanoominii (Menominee), Wiinibiigoo (Ho-Chunk), Naadawe (Iroquois Confederacy), Nii'inaawi-Naadawe (Wyandot), Naadawensiw (Sioux), Wemitigoozhi (France), Zhaaganaashi (England) and the Gichi-mookomaan (the United States). After the Europeans came into the country, the French built Fort Michilimackinac in the 18th century. After the Seven Years War, the victorious English took over the fort, also using it as a trading post.
Through the totem-system (a totem is any entity which watches over or assists a group of people, such as a family, clan or tribe [4].) and promotion of trade, the Council generally had a peaceful existence with its neighbours. However, occasional unresolved disputes erupted into wars. The Council notably fought against the Iroquois Confederacy and the Sioux. During the Seven Years' War, the Council fought against England.[citation needed]
The Anishinaabeg established a relationship with the British similar to that they had with the French. They formed the Three Fires Confederation in reaction to conflict with encroaching settlers and continuing tensions with the British Canadian government, as well as that of the new United States.
In the United States
The Three Fires Confederacy had conflict with the new United States after the American Revolution, as settlers kept encroaching on their territory. The Council became the core member of the Western Lakes Confederacy (also known as "Great Lakes Confederacy"), joining together with the Wyandots, Algonquins, Nipissing, Sacs, Meskwaki and others.
During the Northwest Indian War and the War of 1812, the Three Fires Confederacy fought against the United States. Many Anishinaabe refugees from the Revolutionary War, particularly Odawa and Potawatomi, migrated north to British-held areas.
Those who remained in the east were subjected to the 1830 Indian Removal policy of the United States; among the Anishinaabeg, the Potawatomi were most affected. The Odawa had been removed from the settlers' paths, so only a handful of communities experienced removal. For the Ojibwa, removal attempts culminated in the Sandy Lake Tragedy and several hundred deaths. The Potawatomi avoided removal only by escaping into Ojibwa-held areas and hiding from US officials.
William Whipple Warren (1825-1853), a United States man of mixed-Ojibwe and European descent, became an interpreter, assistant to a trader to the Ojibwe, and legislator of the Minnesota Territory. A gifted storyteller and historian, he collected native accounts and wrote the History of the Ojibway People, Based Upon Traditions and Oral Statements, first published by the Minnesota Historical Society in 1885, some 32 years after his early death from tuberculosis. Given his Anglo-American father Lyman Marcus Warren and American education, the Indians of the time did not consider William one of them. They did think of him as a friend and half-brother, because he knew the Ojibwe language and much about the culture from his Ojibwe-French mother, Marie Cadotte.[5] His work covered much of the culture and history of the Ojibwe, gathered from stories of the nation.
Warren identified the Crane and Loon clans as the two Chief clans among his mother's Anishinaabe people. Crane Clan was responsible for external governmental relationships, and Loon Clan was responsible for internal governance relationships. Warren believed that the British and United States governments had deliberately destroyed the clan system, or the polity of governance, when they forced indigenous nations to adopt representative government and direct elections of chiefs. Further, he believed such destruction led to many wars among the Anishinaabe. He also cited the experiences of other Native Nations in the U.S. (such as the Creek, Fox and others). His work in its entirety demonstrated the significance of the clan system.[5]
After the Sandy Lake Tragedy, the government changed its policy to relocating tribes onto reservations, often by consolidating groups of communities. Conflict continued through the 19th century, as Native Americans and the United States had different goals. After the Dakota War of 1862, many Anishinaabe communities in Minnesota were relocated and further consolidated.
In Canada
Population estimates indicate that the Anishinaabeg population in the United States is more numerous than that of Canada, but census reports are criticized as being inaccurate.
The Canadian Anishinaabeg are descended from the northern Lake Superior Anishinaabeg, whose original homeland was probably in the vicinity of the eastern upper peninsula of Michigan. They separated, with one group going down into Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, southern Ontario and Pennsylvania, while another group migrated straight westward. The ancestors of the Canadian Anishinaabeg moved to the north, and then to the west. They migrated to eastern British Columbia in the 19th century.
Scholars of the Anishinaabeg will eventually learn if all Anishinaabeg are descended from those Anishinaabeg of the eastern upper peninsula of Michigan, or if they are descended from the Algonquin Anishinaabeg of Quebec. The people's history points to the upper peninsula of Michigan as their land of formation.
The Anishinaabeg of Canada have managed to withstand the efforts of the European settlers and hold onto their languages. An estimated 50,000 Canadian Anishinaabeg speak their native tongue. From Quebec to the eastern lands of British Columbia, the Anishinaabeg reserves are, for the most part, smaller in size than those in the US, a factor which may have helped them preserve the languages.
Please pay attention to what this has to say about the use of native languages in Canada, and why this is so. All things considered, it is always wise to see why things are the way they are among other peoples. These reserves were not only smaller, but far flung, that is spread out, and that fact helped them resist the encroaching Europeans and their progressive ways. Progress has always been the enemy of tradition, but a little of it can go a long way. The First Nations People of Canada were able to resist much of what they were offered, a sort of pick and choose, and hold on to their languages.
More to follow later then folks.....
Nin se Neaseno.
