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The Anishinaabe (alternatively spelled Anishinabe, Anicinape, Nishnaabe, Neshnabé, Anishinaabeg, Anishinabek) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawatomi, Mississaugas, Nipissing, and . The Anishinaabe speak Anishinaabemowin, or Anishinaabe languages that belong to the Algonquian language family.
At the time of first contact with Europeans they lived in the Northeast Woodlands and the Subarctic, and some have since spread to the Plains Indians.
The word Anishinaabe means . Another definition is , meaning those who are on the right road or path given to them by the Creator deity Gitche Manitou, or Great Spirit. Basil Johnston, an Ojibwe historian, linguist, and writer, wrote that the term's literal translation is or . The Anishinaabe believe that their people were created by divine breath.
The word Anishinaabe is often mistakenly considered a synonym of Ojibwe, but it refers to a much larger group of Nations.
The name Anishinaabe is sometimes shortened to Nishnaabe, mostly by Odawa people. The cognate Neshnabé comes from the Potawatomi, a people long allied with the Odawa and Ojibwe in the Council of Three Fires. The Nipissing, Mississaugas, and Algonquin people are identified as Anishinaabe but are not part of the Council of Three Fires.
Closely related to the Ojibwe and speaking a language mutually intelligible with Anishinaabemowin (Anishinaabe language) is the Oji-Cree (also known as "Severn Ojibwe"). Their most common autonym is Anishinini (plural: Anishininiwag), and they call their language Anishininiimowin.
Among the Anishinaabe, the Ojibwe collectively call the Nipissings and the Algonquins Odishkwaagamii , while those among the Nipissings who identify themselves as Algonquins call the Algonquins proper Omàmiwinini .
Not all Anishinaabemowin-speakers call themselves Anishinaabe. The Ojibwe people who migrated to what are now Canada's prairie provinces call themselves Nakawē(-k) and call their branch of the Anishinaabemowin Nakawēmowin. (The French ethnonym for the group is Saulteaux.) Particular Anishinaabe groups have different names from region to region.
Within the Anishinaabe governance structure there are seven leader clans that each facilitate a specific role and have responsibilities within the community and to the rest of Creation. Within each grouping of clans are seven clans. This means there are a total of 49 total Anishinaabe clans.
The clan system is integral to the Anishinaabe governance structure and to the Anishinaabe way of life as well as to their spiritual practices. People of the same clan are forbidden from marrying or having intimate relations as this would spell doom for the clan as a whole.
Anishinaabe oral tradition and records of wiigwaasabak (birch bark scrolls) are still carried on today through the Midewewin society. These oral and written records contain the Anishinaabe creation stories as well as histories of migration that closely match other Indigenous groups of North America, such as the Hopi. Before the Anishinaabe became Anishinaabe the people migrated from Waubanaukee, an island of the East Coast, which may have been what is now called New England, as the great ice sheet receded at the end of the last ice age. This migrating group split in many different directions as they headed towards the land of the rising sun and became the many Indigenous populations that now exist on North America. After reaching the East Coast seven prophets came to the people. Each prophet delivered a specific prophecy to the people that are known as the seven fires prophecies. After the prophets delivered their messages, groups of people began to migrate westward to find the land where food grows on the water. The fulfilment of this prophecy is understood as when the Anishinaabe found the wild rice (mnoomin) or that grew on the lakes in the Great Lakes region. This is where the Anishinaabe became Anishinaabe. To the Anishinaabe, the land they encompass is still recognized as Gitchi Mikinaak or Turtle Island.
The ethnic identities of the Ojibwa, Odawa, and Potawatomi did not develop until after the Anishinaabe reached Michilimackinac on their journey westward from the Atlantic coast. Using the Midewewin scrolls, Potawatomi elder Shop-Shewana dated the formation of the Council of Three Fires to 796 AD at Michilimackinac. In this council, the Ojibwa 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 implies the 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 of Boodewaadamii (Ojibwe spelling) or Bodéwadmi (Potawatomi spelling) . 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) and promotion of trade, the Council generally had a peaceful existence with its neighbours. However, occasional unresolved disputes erupted into wars.
The Odawa (also known as Ottawa or Outaouais) are a Native American and First Nations people. Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa (or Anishinaabemowin) 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 the U.S. state of Kansas. 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, and maintained relations with other indigenous peoples, including both fellow Anishinaabe: the Ozaagii (Sac), Odagaamii (Meskwaki), Omanoominii (Menominee), and non-Anishinaabe: Wiinibiigoo (Ho-Chunk), Naadawe (Iroquois Confederacy), Nii'inaa-Naadawe (Wyandot people), Naadawensiw (Sioux), Wemitigoozhi (France), Zhaaganaashi (Britain) and the Gichi-mookomaan (the United States). The Anishinaabe communities are recognized as First Nations in Canada.
After Pontiac's War, the Anishinaabe gradually established the same relationship with the British that they had with the French. During the American Revolution, which partly resulted from opposition in the Thirteen Colonies to the 1763 proclamation, the Anishinaabe (including the Three Fires Confederation) mostly sided against the rebelling colonists. Fighting in conjunction with British and Loyalist forces, the Anishinaabe fought in the Northern and Western theaters of the American Revolutionary War. After the British defeat in the Revolutionary War, the Anishinaabe mostly sought peace with the new United States, though lingering tensions resulting from encroachment by American settlers continued to spill into frequent outbreaks of violence in the frontier.
William Whipple Warren, an American 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 Ojibwe of the time did not consider Warren one of them. However, they retained friendly relations with him and considered him a half-brother due to his extensive knowledge of the Ojibwe language and culture and the fact that he had Ojibwe ancestry through his mixed Ojibwe-French mother, Marie Cadotte. His work covered much of the culture and history of the Ojibwe, gathered from stories of the Ojibwe 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 policies of the U.S. government led to the destruction of indigenous clan systems along with their modes of governance when they forced indigenous people to adopt representative government and direct elections of chiefs. Furthermore, he claimed that this destruction led to many wars among the Anishinaabe. He also cited the experiences of other indigenous nations in the U.S. (such as the Muscogee, Meskwaki, and other peoples). His work was a major early work in demonstrating the significance of the clan system. After the Sandy Lake Tragedy, the U.S. 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.
The Anishinaabe of Manitoba, particularly those along the east side of Lake Winnipeg, have had longstanding historical conflicts with the Cree people.
Clan originally meant extended family. In this system originally, clans were represented by a changing cast of spokespeople at yearly meetings. In more recent times, clans have come to align personality characteristics with the animals that represent them. This shifts the focus from extended family governance to groups of people who have a particular kind of strength to offer to the community. For example, the Deer Clan is sometimes understood as having the direction of hospitality toward visitors, whereas the Crane Clan or Eagle Clan, depending on region, may be aligned with leadership qualities. Conversations surrounding how to change current systems of governance to better match how the people governed themselves over millennia are always occurring throughout Anishinaabe Aki (their home territory).
Storytelling is situational, meaning that storytellers must be mindful of audience, of listener, and should keep the oration accessible and real." When a story is shared, "the teller and the listener are equally activie; the listener is not passive." Furthermore, stories told are not static: "Once they become public, people will play will them, embellish them, and add to them ... There is no need for any particular story to have any particular form. Nor is it the case that any one story can ever be said to have achieved its final form. Instead, all stories are works in progress."
Before telling a story, Elders "very often begin by quoting the authority of Elders who have gone before. They do not state the authority as coming from themselves. They will say things like, 'This is what they used to say,' or 'This is what they said.'"
Beyond sharing cultural knowledge, storytelling traditions can help provide Anishinaabe children "with the intellectual tools necessary to exercise authority." The Anishinaabe see the act of allowing children to share stories as "an act of empowerment." This action "recognizes that even children have something to contribute, and encourages them to do so."
Stories are typically shared throughout the winter when there is less to do and the animals are sleeping.
The Trickster helps teach cultural lessons by "learning lessons the 'hard' way." Within such stories, "Trickster often gets into trouble by ignoring cultural rules and practices or by giving sway to the negative aspects of 'humanness' ... Trickster seems to learn lessons the hard way and sometimes not at all." Contrary to some depictions of Trickster figures, the Trickster in Anishinaabe stories "has the ability to do good things for others and is sometimes like a powerful spiritual being and is given much respect." Stories involving the Trickster serve to "remind us about the good power of interconnectedness within family, community, nation, culture, and land. If we become disconnected, we lose the ability to make meaning from Indigenous stories."
They were "renowned" for their skills at making and using and traded widely.
Their kinship was Patrilineality and most Anishinaabe doodemag enforced exogamy, the wife keeping and representing her father's doodem while her children would take on their father's doodem. For the first few years of a marriage, a husband would live with his wife's family, and then they would typically return to the husband's people. As a result, many Anishinaabe villages included people speaking different languages not only from different clans, but also from entirely different peoples, such as the Wyandot people and even occasionally Sioux.
Different Anishinaabe political organizations have their own specific flags and emblems. For example, the Menominee use a red thunderbird with a different styling for their great seal, whereas the Ho-Chunk flag depicts a thunderbird like a brown eagle. (2026). 9780806135564, University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 9780806135564
In August 2017 the Anishinabek Nation in Ontario and the government of Canada signed an agreement allowing the Anishinabek Nation to control the classroom curriculum and school resources of its kindergarten-to-grade-12 education system in 23 communities.
Approximately 8% of Anishinabek students attend schools on-reserve.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> ‘Living’ Cybercartographic Atlas of Indigenous Perspectives and Knowledge by the Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre at Carleton University
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