OJIB'WA, or CHIPPEWA. The largest and most important tribe of the Algonquian stock (q.v.), tormerly holding nil extensive territory about the upper Oreat Lakes, in Michigan, Min nesota, Ontario, Manitoba, and adjacent regions, and now gathered upon a number of reservations within the same area. The name is from a root signifying 'puckered,' or 'drawn up.' said by some authorities to refer to the peculiar sewing of the tribal moccasin, this derivation is disputed. They call themselves usually Anishinabey, 'spontaneous men,' were kimW11 to the French as Ojibois, or ,`!:ott/teurs, from their residence about Sault Saint :\hlriC, and were commonly known to the English as Ojibwa, or in its corrupted form, Chippewa.
Although the Ojibwa are the largest tribe north of Mexico, yet, owing to their looseness of organization and remoteness from the settle ment frontier, they were not proportionately conspicuous during the colonial period. Accord ing to their tradition they emigrated from the Saint Lawrence region in the east, in company with the Ottawa and rOlaWataini, the three tribes separating at MaekinaW, the two others going s,aithward, while the Ojibwa spread west ward along both shores of Lake Superior. The Cree, Alaskegon, and Missisaga (qq.v.) are claimed by the Ojibwa as later offshoots from their own tribe, and are sometinlVs so closely affiliated that they are hardly distinguished from the Ojibwa. The Ojibwa, Ottawa, and PO tawatami, though differing in language, also formed a sort of loose confederacy, and were sometimes for this reason designated in Indian councils as the 'Three Fires.' \\lien first known, about the year 1650, the Ojibwa were confined to a comparatively narrow area close along the shore of Lake Superior, hemmed in by the hostile Sioux and Foxes on the west and south. On procuring firearms from the trailers. however, they became aggressive and soon drove out the Foxes from northern Wisconsin, compelling them to take refuge with the Sauk farther south. They then turned their attention to the Sioux, driving them from the headwaters of the Mississippi and continuing their victorious westward march until they had occupied the upper Red River eountry and established their frontier band in the Turtle Mountains, on the boundary between Dakota and .\lanitoba. In the meantime other bands of the tribe had overrun the Ontario peninsula, formerly conquered by the Iroquois from the Huron and others. These bands later became known as The Ojibwa first turned the westward tide of Iroquois invasion by inflicting upon them a disastrous defeat at the place thereafter known to 4 he Indians as 'The Place of Iroquois Bones,' now Point Iroquois. near Sault Sainte Marie. Throughout the colonial wars they adhered to the French side and later to Pontine, but took sides with the English and Tecumseh against the Americans in the Revolution and War of 181;2, joining with other tribes in the general treaty of peace in 1815. Sinee then they have been at pence with the whites. Ilya I.:viler:II treaty of 1825 for the adjustment of intertribal boundaries in the Northwest the Oovernment made an end to the hereditary war between the Ojibwa and the Sioux. By other treaties, on both sides of the line, they have sold the greater part of their former territory, retaining only their present reservations.
Scattered over such an immense region, ex tending hundreds of miles from east to west, the Ojibwa had a large number of bands and divisions, some of wlikh were hardly known to the others more remote, as well as a large number of clans which were not all represented in the sane sec tion. According to Warren, they themselves recognized ten principal divisions, including three ou the Canadian side of the boundary.
these the Alakandwe, or l'illagers, about li ' LeecLake, Minn., are perhaps the best known. The number of clans is variously stated from eleven to twenty-three, Warren making it twenty-one, grouped into live Idiratries repre senting original clans, one of which claimed the hereditary chieftainship, while another claimed precedence in the war councils. In their genyral habit they resembled the other northern Algon quian tribes. Living in a cold country, they gave little or no attention to agriculture. but depended for subsistence upon hunting, fishing, and the gathering of wild fruits and seeds, par ticularly the abundant wild rice of the lake re gion, with the sugar which they had learned to extract from the maple. Their houses were framed in wigwam or tipi shape, covered usually with birch bark, from which also they made their light canoes, their bowls and boxes, and upon Nvh jell they scratched their simple pictograph records. They made no pottery, but were skill ful mat-weavers. They had an elaborate mythol ogy and ritual, chiefly in the keeping of the secret _Slide Society. Despite missionary effort and con tact with civilization, the primitive culture of the Ojibwa is little modified. The principal works iu the Ojibwa language are Paraga's Dic tionary, Belcourrs Grammar, and the shorter treatises of Schoolcraft. Of myths, the hest col lection is Sehoolcraft, Atgie ilcsearchcs, upon which Longfellow based his Hiawatha. In ritual mythology and general description the best work is Hoffman, "Midewiwin of the Ojibwa," in Sev enth Report of the Enrcan of Ethnology. On traditional and later history the most satisfac tory is Warren, "IIistory of the Ojibwa," in fifth volume of Minnesota Historical Society Collec tions, after which conic Copway, History of the Ojibwa!, Indians, and Jones, History of the Ojebway Indians, all three authors being of mixed Ojibwa blood. In special research may be noted Jenk, "Wild Rice Gatherers," in Nine teenth Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.
The Ojibwas were estimated in 1764 at about 25,000; in 1783. at 15,000; in 1843, at 30,000; in 1851, at 28,000. They number now about 30.000, divided between the United States and Canada as follows: States—Minnesota (chiefly at Leech Lake, Red Lake, and White Earth), 8130; Wisconsin (ehielly at Lae Court Oreille. Lae de Flambeau, and I.a Pointe), 5100: North Dakota (Turtle 24(0; Midi igan, 700 on upper peninsula. with 5600 scattered Chippewa and Ottawa on lower peninsula : Kan sas, mixed Munsee and Chippewa, 90. Canada —all in Ontario Province, on numerous small reservations. and variously designated as 'Chip pewas."Ojibbewas: and 'Saul ten mix.' 10,760, be sides Ojibbewas and Ottawas of Manitoulin and Cockburn islands, 1950. Sec Colored Plate of INDIANS, AMERICAN.
0. IC. The story that General :Jackson used these letters•to indorse official papers as correct seems to have been started by teba Smith (Major Downing), the humorist. It was a hit at Jackson's supposed illiteracy, and as a party cry during the Presidential campaign of 1832 ac quired great vogue. Parton states that Jackson used to indorse legal documents O. lt., order re corded, and the mistaking of the letters was probably the basis of Downing's jest. The term is also said to have originated with Josh Billings and has been ascribed to several other persons. Jacob Astor is said to have used it to indicate the standing of traders about whom he was clues. tioned. In colonial days, the best tobacco and rum were imported from Aux Cayes, and from this fact Aux Cayes (a k5) became a popular expression for excellence.