Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. They are Indigenous peoples of the Subarctic and Northeastern Woodlands.
Precontact distribution of Ojibwe-speaking people | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 170,742 in United States (2010) 160,000 in Canada (2014) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Canada (Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta) United States (Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana) | |
| Languages | |
| English, Ojibwe, French | |
| Religion | |
| Midewiwin, Catholicism, Methodism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Assiniboine, other Algonquian peoples Especially other Anishinaabe, Cree, and Métis |
| Person | Ojibwe |
|---|---|
| People | Ojibweg |
| Language | Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Ojibway, Otchipwe, Ojibwemowin, or Anishinaabemowin |
| Country | Ojibwewaki |
According to the U.S. census, Ojibwe people are one of the largest tribal populations among Native American peoples in the United States. In Canada, they are the second-largest First Nations population, surpassed only by the Cree. They are one of the most numerous Indigenous Peoples north of the Rio Grande. The Ojibwe population is approximately 320,000 people, with 170,742 living in the United States as of 2010, 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. Historically, through the Saulteaux branch, they were a part of the Iron Confederacy with the Cree, Assiniboine, and Metis.
The Ojibwe are known for their birchbark canoes, birchbark scrolls, mining and trade in copper, as well as their harvesting 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.