Ojibwe facts for kids
![]() Pre-contact distribution of Ojibwe-speaking people
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Total population | |
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170,742 in United States (2010) | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Canada (Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta) United States (Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota) |
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Languages | |
English, Ojibwe, French | |
Religion | |
Midewiwin, Catholicism, Methodism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Odawa, Potawatomi, Saulteaux, Oji-Cree, and other Algonquian peoples |
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people of Canada and the United States. They are one of the biggest indigenous peoples north of the Rio Grande. In Canada, they are the second-biggest First Nations group. The only group bigger are the Cree. In the United States, they have the fifth-biggest number of people among Native American peoples. The only groups bigger are the Navajo, Cherokee, Choctaw and Sioux.
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
The Ojibwe population is approximately 320,000 people, with 170,742 living in the United States as of 2010[update], and approximately 160,000 living in Canada. In the United States, there are 77,940 mainline Ojibwe; 76,760 Saulteaux; and 8,770 Mississauga, organized in 125 bands. In Canada, they live from western Quebec to eastern British Columbia.
The Ojibwe language is Anishinaabemowin, a branch of the Algonquian language family.
They are part of the Council of Three Fires (which also include the Odawa and Potawatomi) and of the larger Anishinaabeg, which also include Algonquin, Nipissing, and Oji-Cree people.
The Ojibwe are known for their birchbark canoes, birchbark scrolls, mining and trade in copper, as well as their cultivation of wild rice and maple syrup. Their Midewiwin Society is well respected as the keeper of detailed and complex scrolls of events, oral history, songs, maps, memories, stories, geometry, and mathematics.
European powers, Canada, and the United States have colonized Ojibwe lands. The Ojibwe signed treaties with settler leaders to surrender land for settlement in exchange for compensation, land reserves and guarantees of traditional rights. Many European settlers moved into the Ojibwe ancestral lands.
Images for kids
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An Ojibwe named Boy Chief, by the noted American painter George Catlin, who made portraits at Fort Snelling in 1835. In 1845 he traveled to Paris with eleven Ojibwe, who had their portraits painted and danced for King Louis Philippe.
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Plains Ojibwe Chief Sha-có-pay (The Six). In addition to the northern and eastern woodlands, Ojibwe people also lived on the prairies of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, North Dakota, western Minnesota and Montana.
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lains Ojibwe performing a snowshoe dance. By George Catlin
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Frame of Ojibwe sweatlodge
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Pictographs on Mazinaw Rock, Bon Echo Provincial Park, Ontario