The Ojibwa or Chippewa (also Ojibwe, Ojibway, Chippeway or Anishinabek) are the third-largest group of Native Americans/First Nations in the United States, surpassed only by Cherokee and Navajo. They are about equally divided between the United States and Canada. Because they formerly had their main residence at Sault Ste. Marie, at the outlet of Lake Superior, the French referred to them as Saulteurs; Ojibwa who subsequently moved to the Prairie provinces of Canada have retained the name Saulteaux.

They belong to the great Algonquian stock and are related to the Ottawa and Cree. The major component group of the Anishinaabe, they number over 100,000 living in an area stretching across the north from Michigan to Montana. Another 76,000, in 125 bands, live in Canada. They are known for their canoes and wild rice, and for the fact that they were the only Indian nation to defeat the Sioux.

The name "Chippewa" is an anglicized corruption of "Ojibwa". Although "Chippewa" is more common in the United States and "Ojibwa" predominates in Canada, both terms do exist in both countries.

History
According to their own tradition, they came from the east, advancing along the Great Lakes, and had their first settlement in their present country at Sault Sainte Marie and Shaugawaumikong (French, Chegoimegon) on the southern shore of Lake Superior, near the present Lapointe or Bayfield, Wisconsin. Their first historical mention occurs in the Jesuit Relation of 1640. Through their friendship with the French traders they were able to obtain guns and thus successfully end their hereditary wars with the Sioux and Foxes on their west and south, with the result that the Sioux were driven out from the Upper Mississippi region, and the Foxes forced down from northern Wisconsin and compelled to ally with the Sauk. By the end of the eighteenth century the Chippewa were the nearly unchallenged owners of almost all of present-day Michigan, northern Wisconsin, and Minnesota, including most of the Red River area, together with the entire northern shores of Lakes Huron and Superior on the Canadian side and extending westward to the Turtle Mountains of North Dakota, where they became known as the Plains Ojibwa.

The Ojibwa were part of a long term alliance with the Ottawa and Potawatomi First Nations, called the Council of Three Fires and which fought with the Iroquois Confederacy and the Sioux. The Ojibwa expanded eastward taking over the lands alongside the eastern shores of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. The Ojibwa allied themselves with the French in the French and Indian War, and with the British in the War of 1812.

In the U.S., they were never removed as so many other tribes have been, but by successive treaty sales they are now restricted to reservations within this territory, with the exception of a few families living in Kansas.

In Canada, the cession of land by treaty or purchase was governed by the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and subsequently most of the land in Upper Canada was ceded to the Crown.

Culture
Most Ojibwa, except for the Plains bands, lived a sedentary lifestyle, engaging in fishing, hunting, the farming of maize and squash, and the harvesting of Manoomin (wild rice). Their typical dwelling was the waaginogan, made of birch bark, juniper bark and willow saplings. The Ojibwe language belongs to the Algonquian linguistic group. They also developed a form of pictorial writing used in religious rites of the Midewiwin and recorded on birch bark scrolls.

The Ojibwe people and culture are alive and growing today. During the summer months, the people attend pow-wows or "pau waus" at various reservations in the US and reserves in Canada. Many people still follow the traditional ways of harvesting wild rice, picking berries, hunting and making maple sugar.

The legend of the Ojibwa "Windigo," in which tribesmen supposedly identify with a mythological cannabalistic monster and prey on their families is mentioned in the fiction of Thomas Pynchon. A native tribe that is never specifically named but is probably the Ojibwe features prominently in the writings of Ernest Hemingway

Several bands of Ojibwe cooperate in the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission which manages their treaty hunting and fishing rights. The commission cooperates with U.S. agencies to run several wilderness areas. See List of U.S. state and tribal wilderness areas.

Clan system
The Ojibwe people were divided into a number of clans named for animal totems. This served as a system of government as well as a means of dividing labor. The five main totems were Crane, Catfish, Loon, Bear, Marten and Wolf. The Crane totem was the most vocal among the Ojibwe, and the Bear was the largest -- so large, in fact, that it was sub-divided into body parts such as the head, the ribs and the feet.

There were twenty-one totems in all: Crane, Catfish, Loon, Bear, Marten, Wolf, Reindeer, Merman, Pike, Lynx, Eagle, Rattlesnake, Moose, Black Duck, Sucker, Goose, Sturgeon, White Fish, Beaver, Gull, and Hawk Warren.