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CHAPTER 1
A Historical Accounting of the Anishnaabeg People
When Columbus landed in North America, one of his first acts was to rename and "take possession" of the islands he "discovered." In doing so, he also "took possession" of the people who lived on those islands, and in the process "bestowed" upon them the collective term of "Indians," a misnomer that persists to this day. Indeed, wherever the European people have settled during the past five hundred years, they have instigated this process of naming and "possessing" the lands and people of those areas. Despite this misnomer, indigenous societies all over the world have maintained their identities, the most evident being the name(s) that indigenous peoples use to describe themselves in their language. As mentioned earlier, the people from the Lake Huron borderlands call themselves the "Anishnaabeg."
To understand who the Anishnaabeg are, it is important to have some basic knowledge about their original beliefs, precontact history, and the various areas within the Lake Huron borderlands where they made their home. It is also important to take a close look at the individual tribes that make up the Anishnaabeg and the problems that occur when the historical record is inconsistent with reality.
We will begin by trying to trace the geographical history of the groups that composed the Anishnaabeg, a difficult task, as the first written records of contacts with these people came from European explorers and missionaries, who often made arbitrary and artificial distinctions. (Much later, actual Anishnaabeg migration scrolls were discovered that showed they were not at all adverse to frequent and far-reaching movements across wide territories. As a consequence, establishing their location at a particular place and time could, indeed, be quite problematic.)
In 1615 the Ottawa were first encountered by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain at a place surmised to be along the shore of the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron east of Manitoulin Island. Champlain called them the "Cheveux Relevez" — the Standing Hair People — in reference to their fashion of wearing their hair in a tall roach. Peter Schmalz, in The Ojibwa of Southern Ontario, consistently refers to them as "Ojibway," citing examples from the historic record to back his claim. In 1634 the French explorer Jean Nicolet was sent by Champlain on a "peace mission" to the tribal people we now know as the Winnebago, in what is now Green Bay. The Huron, who had developed a close relationship with Nicolet, had apprised Champlain of the possible disruption of the fur trade by hostilities in the area. It was the Huron who led Nicolet to Green Bay, making him the first recorded European to have traveled the waterways into Lake Michigan. Out of the Nicolet mission came the first extensive European accounting of the tribes in the region.
Since there is no account of Nicolet's journey in his own hand, we must rely upon secondhand information provided by several people for a recounting of the tribes he visited. Not all of the accounts agree, and, indeed, some of the points in certain reports are disputed. Nevertheless, it is probable that Nicolet encountered sixteen different tribes. Of the sixteen, eleven are of historical significance to this particular study. (In the accounting that follows, the spelling of tribal names reflects modern convention, where such changes are appropriate.) The first mentioned are the Outchougai, Mantoue, and Atchiligouan. These three groups appear to have been related to the Amikwa, who were also mentioned. At the time, the Amikwa were a large and powerful group closely allied with the Nipissing. They were, however, nearly destroyed by disease and war with the Iroquois early in the contact era and play virtually no role in the historic period. The remnants of the Amikwa seem to have merged with either the Nipissings or the Ojibways.
The Noquets apparently lived on the far north shore of Lake Michigan in what is now the Bay de Noc area. Related to either the Menominees to the south and west, or to the Ojibways to the north and east, they eventually merged with one or both or these nations and ceased to exist as a separate tribe. The Winnebagos and the Menomineess are also mentioned in the Nicolet accounts. Both are fairly large tribes resident in extensive areas along the western shore of Lake Michigan both north and south of Green Bay and far inland. Wars and removal policy wreaked havoc on these people, who were pushed too far west of the area to be affected by the border issues under discussion.
Three other tribes referred to by Nicolet are the Baouichtigouians, the People of the Rapids at the Sault; the Ouasouarim, an Ojibway tribe of the Bullhead clan, who most likely were living in the Georgian Bay area at the time; and the Missisaugas, who also lived in the area along the north shore of the Georgian Bay, in the vicinity of the Missisauga River, and on Manitoulin Island. Keeping in mind the earlier discussion of the arbitrary nature of European naming, the Baouichtigouian, Outchougais, Atchiligouans, Noquets, Mantoues, and Ouasouarim can be considered "proto-Ojibway" people. The Missisaugas are also often classified as a division, or subtribe of the Ojibways, although they have, for the most part, retained a separate identity.
The Ottawas are again mentioned in the accounts as having been visited on Nicolet's return to Quebec, as was a tribe identified as the Nassauaketon. Though referred to as a tribe separate from the Ottawas, the Nassauaketon — the People of the Fork — were a division of the Ottawas, who, in 1634, were most likely located on the south shore of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It is interesting to note that the name, Nassauaketon, went through some confusing changes. Butterfield, in his account of the Nicolet journey, wrote of a tribe called the "Mascouten," and located them at a six-day journey up the Fox River at Green Bay, in what is now Wisconsin. He added in a footnote that it was curious that Nicolet never mentioned them, although they were clearly one of the tribes living in the area at the time. In fact, the "Mascouten" were actually the "Nassauaketon," an error made by the French, who mistakenly entered them into the European history under the former name.
Most historians have claimed that Nicolet visited all of the tribes mentioned in his accounts. This means that all sixteen tribes had to have lived along the water route from Lake Nipissing to the Sault, and from the Sault to Green Bay. There is some doubt that this is true.
The last four of the sixteen tribes in the "Nicolet accounts," the Potawatomis, Illinois, Assiniboines, and the Sioux are identified as tribes residing "in the neighborhood." James Clifton, in his book on the Potawatomis, doubts that any of these tribes were actually visited in their tribal location by Nicolet in 1634, since the Sioux, Assiniboine, and the Illinois lived too far away from the areas he visited, and the Potawatomis lived on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan at this time — out of the way of any direct route that Nicolet may have taken. However, as Clifton notes, it could have been that Nicolet encountered members of these tribes in Green Bay, which was an important trading center at the time.
In addition to the Nicolet accounts, one other vital contemporary group must be considered before attempting to create a map of tribal areas at the time of European contact. In 1671, the French administrator of Canada, Intendant Talon, well aware of the English presence to the north at Hudson's Bay, and the presence of the English and Spanish to the south and west of the Great Lakes, sent a party to Sault Ste. Marie to lay formal claim to the upper Great Lakes, as confirmation of French control of this vital fur trade area. Talon put Daumont de Saint Lusson in charge of the expedition and added the able explorer, Nicholas Perrot, to the party. Perrot's job was to travel to the far reaches of the area and invite the tribes to come to Sault Ste. Marie to attend the Native-French Council, now known as the "Pageant of St. Lusson." Sault Ste. Marie had been chosen as the place to hold this ceremony for two reasons: it was the central site of the fur trade area and it was also acknowledged as the historic meeting place of the Anishnaabeg.
Perrot and other emissaries were successful in gathering together a number of tribes at the Sault. Most of the areas represented were the same as those encountered on the Nicolet journey (i.e., the Green Bay and the northern Lake Huron–Georgian Bay regions), but a number of tribes from the area north of Lake Superior were also in attendance. Some of these Native people have already been identified: the Potawatomis, Winnebagos, Menominees, Amikwas, Ottawas, and the Baouichtigouian, who were referred to by Perrot as the "Sauteurs," a French word with the same meaning as Baouichtigouian — People of the Rapids. Other groups claimed by Perrot to be residing at the Rapids at Sault Ste. Marie were the Achipoes (Ojibway), the Marameg (the Catfish Clan of the Ojibway), and the Noquets, which in Nicolet's time lived to the south and west of the Sault.
Also at the 1671 Sault gathering were the Nipissing from an extensive area around the lake of the same name in northeastern Ontario, and the Hurons who lived south of the Nipissing in the area north of Lake Ontario. From the west, in addition to those already mentioned, were the Makomitek, an Algonquin group from the Green Bay area. Surprisingly, although they had to travel a great distance from their home in northern Ontario, the Assiniboines, Niscaks, Maskegons, Monsonis, and Crees were also in attendance. The Sauks from the lower peninsula of Michigan attended, but the Foxes, Kickapoos, and Miamis from the same area, did not. The Mascouten (as we now know were the Nassauaketon) are missing from the historical accounts of this ceremony.
In another account of the region's tribes at the time (1669), the French missionary, Father Dablon, claimed that members of twenty-two Indian nations came to the Sault to fish, but he named only nine of them. Four of the tribes, according to Father Dablon, were permanent inhabitants of the area: the Saulteurs, Noquets, Outchibous, and Marameg, and "the others [were] borrowers." These "borrowers" were the Atchiligouan, Amikwas, Missisaugas (from islands in the northern Lake Huron region), the Cree, and the Winnebago (whom he called "wanderers," from the Lake Superior area).
Many researchers of the Native peoples of this region have attempted to draw maps purporting to show tribal occupation at the time of contact. Please see map 5, which is a map developed by the Smithsonian Institution, on which there is a long disclaimer describing the difficulty in creating such a map. Using the data on tribal locations gleaned from the accounts of Nicolet, Perrot, and Father Dablon, I have modified the map, which places the various tribes of Native peoples in the Lake Huron borderlands area in their most likely position at the time of European contact in the early 1600s.
This map raises some particular issues. To begin with, there are a few names on the map that have fallen into disuse. The Nipissings are now "officially" designated as Chippewas or Ojibways. The Petun, located on the map just to the east of Lake Huron, have been historically referred to as the Tionontatis, or the Tobacco Nation. Then there are the Mascoutens, which, as we already know, are a bit more problematic. Despite a popular myth that they comprised a "mysterious long-lost tribe which had disappeared from the pages of history without leaving a trace," Skinner claims that they were not at all "lost" but were, in truth, the "Prairie Potawatomis." Clifton disputes Skinner's claim, arguing that "the Mascoutons were quite definitely a separate tribe which eventually merged with the Kickapoos." To confuse matters even more, Hodge breaks the tribe into two groups and asserts that the southern group joined the Kickapoos while the northern group joined the Sauks and Foxes. Fortunately, for the purpose of determining which groups were affected by borderland issues, it is sufficient to note that the Mascoutens appear to have merged with some other tribe and ceased to exist as a separate entity.
Other Native groups in map 5 are also unaffected by the Canadian–American borderland issues in the Lake Huron area. The Petuns, as we've already seen, are synonymous with the Tionontatis and eventually merged with the Hurons, who, along with the Neutrals and the Eries were so ravaged by the Iroquois during a series of bloody and devastating wars (apparently lasting from the precontact era until the mid-1600s) that they were either driven out of their home territory entirely, or, as their numbers were destroyed, merged into one tribe known as the Huron. This "Huron Confederacy," decimated by war, finally had to flee to "new" grounds, which eventually became the state of Michigan. The Huron Confederacy came to be called the Wyandot, which is claimed to have been the name of yet another of the "Canadian" tribes that fled before the Iroquois and joined the Huron group. After being driven from Canada, the Wyandots lived in what is now the vicinity of Detroit and parts of northern Ohio. They were players in the Indian wars of the area but were eventually "removed" to Indian Territory in the early nineteenth century.
Other nations on the map are the closely related Sauks and Foxes, the Kickapoos, and the Miamis. Most of the Foxes, having been driven from the area by the Ojibways, allied themselves with the Sauks. Eventually the allied Sauks and Foxes were forced west during the Removal period, as were the Kickapoos (many of whom moved eventually to Mexican territory) and the Miamis. The five-nation Iroquois, the Illinois, the Menominees, and the Winnebagos (identified in map 5) all played important roles in the historic period but were not residents of the Lake Huron borderlands area. This leaves the Potawatomi living in the northern portion of Michigan's lower peninsula and along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan; the Chippewa-Ojibways making their home throughout northern Michigan and northern Ontario; and the Ottawas living on Manitoulin Island and the Bruce Peninsula, along the east shore of Lake Huron to the south. These three resident groups — Potawatomis, Chippewa-Ojibways, and Ottawas — became the resident tribes of the Lake Huron borderlands most affected by the eventual establishment of the U.S.–Canada border.
Orthography and Origins of the Three Resident Tribes of the Lake Huron Borderlands
The Ottawas or Odawas
The Ottawa people, despite having been called the "Cheveux Relevez" by Champlain, continued to refer to themselves as the "Ottawas," and Europeans began using this designation prior to the treaty-making period in question. In Algonquin-based languages, the term "Ottawa" — and its variations — means "trader," and it was originally used to refer to all Native people who traveled the Ottawa River (running down from what is now northern Quebec into the St. Lawrence Seaway) to trade furs at the southern French posts. Historically, the spelling of the word has varied considerably. Among some tribal members today, the preferred spelling is "Odawa," pronounced with a long "O" with the accent on the second syllable. Consequently, "Odawa" is the term adapted for this particular study.
The Potawatomis
As James Clifton notes, the original meaning of the tribal designation "Potawatami" is also fairly straightforward. These people almost always refer to themselves as "Neshnabeks," meaning "People." During the early contact period, the French "blessed" the tribe with the name "Potawatamis" (which has up to 140 different spellings), a name with a less definitive meaning. Clifton suggests that the word is derived from an attempt by an Algonquin speaker to explain to a Frenchman (Nicolet?) that this particular group of people had something to do with blowing on a fire, "perhaps in irony or jest." Whatever the truth, the designation itself is used consistently and unambiguously in the treaties and documents that affected their lives as Lake Huron borderland residents.
The Ojibways or Chippewas
The discussion on the third, and final, component of Anishnaabeg name origins and orthography is more problematic than the others, as early accounts of the various "proto-Ojibway" tribes indicate, as does the alternating use of the names "Ojibway" and "Chippewa." The tribal name "Outchibous," found in the Jesuit Relation of 1640, is more than likely the source for the modern designation of "Ojibways," or "Ojibwes," as it is now more commonly spelled. The designation "Chippewa" for the same tribe is presumably a corruption of "Ojibway." The fact that Bishop Frederic Baraga called his 1853 publication A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language may be helpful in trying to understand how a single tribal designation came to have two distinct pronunciations over time. However, the meaning of the word "Ojibway" and how it came to be applied to this nation, is more difficult to pinpoint.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Three Fires Unity"
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Copyright © 2011 Phil Bellfy.
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