Society and Culture Atlas

How People Live Together
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Social Group

Ojibwe

Also Known As Ojibway, Chippewa
North American Indigenous and First Nations Peoples

The Ojibwe, also known as Anishinaabe or Chippewa, are one of the largest Indigenous peoples of North America, whose traditional territory spans the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, from present-day Ontario and Manitoba through Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, reached over centuries through a westward migration recorded in Ojibwe oral tradition. Traditional Ojibwe subsistence centered on hunting, fishing and the harvesting of wild rice (manoomin) and maple sap, and the Ojibwe developed the Midewiwin, a formal religious society preserving traditional teachings, alongside a distinctive tradition of birchbark scroll and wigwam construction. The Ojibwe language remains among the more widely spoken Indigenous languages in North America, and Ojibwe communities today live across numerous First Nations reserves in Canada and tribal reservations in the United States, including the White Earth and Red Lake nations in Minnesota.

Facts
Group Type
Anishinaabe people 1
Typical Region
Great Lakes region and the northern plains 1
Population Estimate
approximately 320,000 1
Primary Language
Ojibwe (Anishinaabemowin), an Algonquian language 1
Subsistence Mode
Harvesting of wild rice and maple syrup, copper mining and trade 1
Connections

Associated With

The English word totem derives from the Ojibwe language (doodem), and Ojibwe clan organization around named totemic animal ancestors is the source case from which the comparative anthropological concept of totemism was first drawn.

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Ojibwe
  • Introduction, paragraph 1, sentence 1
    an Anishinaabe people
  • Introduction, paragraph 1, sentence 1, homeland clause
    covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains
  • Introduction, paragraph 2
    The Ojibwe population is approximately 320,000
  • Introduction, paragraph 3
    The Ojibwe language is Anishinaabemowin, a branch of the Algonquian language family.
  • Introduction, paragraph 5
    mining and trade in copper, and their harvesting of wild rice and maple syrup
  • Introduction, paragraph 1, sentence 2
    including Ojibway or Chippewa
View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.