 Odawa group areas. | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 15,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Languages | |
| English,French,Ojibwe (Ottawa dialect) | |
| Religion | |
| Midewiwin,Animism, traditional religion,Christianity, other | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Ojibwe,Potawatomi, and otherAlgonquian peoples |
| adaawe "to trade" / "to buy and sell" | |
|---|---|
| Person | Daawaa / Odaawaa Ojibwe Nishnaabe |
| People | Daawaak / Odaawaag Ojibweg Nishnaabeg |
| Language | Daawaamwin / Odaawaamwin Ojibwemowin Nishnaabemwin Hand Talk |
| Country | Daawaaying / Odaawaaying Daawaaw’kii / Odaawaaw’kii Ojibwewaki Nishnaabew’kii |
TheOdawa[1] (alsoOttawa orOdaawaa/oʊˈdɑːwə/) are anIndigenous North American people who primarily inhabit land in theEastern Woodlands region, now in jurisdictions of the northeasternUnited States and southeasternCanada. Their territory long preceded the creation of the current border between the two countries in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Their peoples are federally recognized asNative American tribes in the United States and have numerous recognizedFirst Nationsbands in Canada. They are one of theAnishinaabeg, related to but distinct from theOjibwe andPotawatomi peoples.[2]
After migrating from the East Coast in ancient times, they settled onManitoulin Island, near the northern shores ofLake Huron, and theBruce Peninsula in the present-day province ofOntario, Canada. They considered this their original homeland. After the 17th century, they also settled along theOttawa River, and in what became the present-day states ofMichigan and Wisconsin. They also occupied other areas of the Midwest south of theGreat Lakes in what became the United States.[3] In the 21st century, there are a total of approximately 15,000 Odawa living in Ontario, Canada, and in Michigan andOklahoma (formerIndian Territory, United States).
TheOttawa dialect is part of theAlgonquian language family. This large family is made up of numerous smaller tribal groups or "bands", which are commonly called a "Tribe" in the United States and "First Nation" in Canada. Their language is considered a divergent dialect ofOjibwe, characterized by frequentsyncope.[4]
Odawaa (syncoped asDaawaa) is believed to be derived from the Anishinaabe wordadaawe, meaning "to trade", or "to buy and sell". This term is common to theCree,Algonquin,Nipissing,Innu, Odawa, and Ojibwe. ThePotawatomi spelling ofOdawa and the English derivative "Ottawa" are also common. TheAnishinaabe word for "those men who trade, or buy and sell" isWadaawewinini(wag).
Frederic Baraga, a Catholic priest and missionary in Michigan, transliterated this and recorded it in hisA Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language as"Watawawininiwok", noting that it meant "men of the bulrushes", associated with the many bulrushes in theOttawa River.[5] But, this recorded meaning is more appropriately associated with theMatàwackariniwak, a historicalAlgonquin band who lived along the Ottawa River.[citation needed]
Their neighbors applied the "Trader" name to the Odawa because in early traditional times, and also during the early European contact period, they were noted as intertribal traders and barterers.[6] The Odawa were described as having dealt "chiefly incornmeal,sunflower oil,furs andskins,rugs andmats,tobacco, and medicinalroots andherbs".[7][8]
The Odawa name in its English transcription is the source of the place names of the city ofOttawa,Ontario, and theOttawa River. The Odawa home territory at the time of early European contact, but not their trading zone, was well to the west of the city and river named after them.
Ottawa, Ohio, is the county seat ofPutnam County, developed at the site of the last Ottawa reservation in Ohio. There is also anOttawa, Kansas.
The Odawa dialect is considered one of several divergent dialects of theOjibwe language group, noted for its frequentsyncope. In the Odawa language, the general language group is known asNishnabemwin, while the Odawa language is calledDaawaamwin. Of the estimated 5,000 ethnic Odawa and additional 10,000 people with some Odawa ancestry, in the early 21st century an estimated 500 people in Ontario andMichigan speak this language. TheOttawa Tribe of Oklahoma has three fluent speakers.[9]
According to Anishinaabeg tradition, and from recordings inWiigwaasabak (birch bark scrolls), the Odawa people came from the eastern areas of North America, orTurtle Island, and from a region calledDawnland along the East Coast (where there are numerous Algonquian-language peoples).
Directed by themiigis (luminescent) beings, the Anishinaabe peoples moved inland along theSaint Lawrence River. At the "Third Stopping Place" near what is nowDetroit, Michigan, the southern group of Anishinaabeg divided into three groups, the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi.[10]
There isarchaeological evidence that theSaugeen complex people, aHopewell-influenced group who were located on theBruce Peninsula during the Middle Woodland period, may have evolved into the Odawa people. The Hopewell tradition was a widely extended trading network operating from about 200 BCE to 500 CE. Some of these peoples constructed earthworkmounds for burials, a practice that ended about 250 CE.[11] The Saugeen mounds have not been excavated.
The Odawa, together with the Ojibwe and Potawatomi, were part of a long-term tribal alliance called theCouncil of Three Fires.[12] Together they fought the nations of theIroquois Confederacy (who came from the East) and theDakota people.
In 1615 French explorerSamuel de Champlain met 300 men of a nation which, he said, "we callles cheueux releuez" (modern French spelling:cheveux relevés (hair lifted, raised, rolled up)), near the mouth of theFrench River. Of these, he said:
Their arms consisted only of a bow and arrows, a buckler of boiled leather and the club. They wore no breech clouts, their bodies were tattooed in many fashions and designs, their faces painted and their noses pierced.[7]
In 1616, Champlain left the Huron villages and visited thecheueux releuez, who lived westward from the lands of theHuron Confederacy.[10]
TheJesuit Relations of 1667 reported that three tribes lived in the same town: the Odawa, the Kiskakon Odawa, and the Sinago Odawa. All three tribes spoke the same language.[13]
Due to the extensive trade network maintained by the Odawa, many of theNorth American interior nations became known to Europeans by the names the Odawa used for them (exonyms), rather than by the nations' own names (endonyms). For example, these exonyms includeWinnebago (fromWiinibiigoo) for theHo-Chunk, andSioux (fromNaadawensiw) for the Dakota. From the early days of the colony ofNew France, the Odawa became so important to the French andCanadians infur trade that before 1670, colonists inQuebec (then calledCanada) usually referred to any Algonquian speaker from the Great Lakes region as an Odawa. In their own language, the Odawa (like the Ojibwe) identified asAnishinaabe (Neshnabek) meaning "people".
The mostly highly prized fur was beaver, popular in Europe. Other furs traded included deer, marten, raccoon, fox, otter, and muskrat. In exchange the Odawa received "hatchets, knives, kettles, traps, needles, fish hooks, cloth and blankets, jewelry and decorative items, and later firearms and alcohol".[14] Up to the time ofNicolas Perrot, the Odawa had a monopoly on all fur trade that came throughGreen Bay, Wisconsin, orSault Ste. Marie, Michigan. They allegedly did "their best to exploit" the tribes in those areas "who did not use the canoe, by bartering with them bits of iron and steel and worn-out European articles for extravagant quantities of furs". For example, "the Crees gave the Ottawas 'all their beaver robes for old knives, blunted awls, wretched nets and kettles used until they were past service.'"[15]
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The Odawa had disputes and warfare with other tribes, particularly over the lucrative fur trade. For example, the tribe once waged war against theMascouten. In the mid-17th century the Odawa allied with other Algonquian tribes around the Great Lakes against the powerfulMohawk people (of present-day New York) and their Iroquois allies in theBeaver Wars. The European introduction of guns and other weapons to some of their trading partners had disrupted the traditional balance of power in the region and changed economic risks and rewards. All indigenous peoples on both sides were disrupted or decimated; some groups, such as the Iroquoian-speakingErie, were exterminated as tribes. But by the mid-17th century, the tribes were more severely affected by new infectious diseases than warfare. Lacking acquiredimmunity to these European diseases, they suffered epidemics with high fatalities.
In 1701, the French colonists builtFort Detroit and established a trading post. Many Odawa moved there from their traditional homeland of Manitoulin Island near the Bruce Peninsula,[10] and Wyandot (Huron) also moved near the post. Some Odawa had already settled across northern Michigan in the Lower Peninsula, and more bands established villages around and south of Detroit. Their area extended into present-day Ohio.
With movements of the tribes in relation to warfare and colonial encroachment, the tribes settled in roughly the following pattern: "Sandwiched between the French, in the north and west, and the English, in the south and east, theMiami settled in present-day Indiana and western Ohio; the Ottawa settled in Northwest Ohio along the Maumee, the Auglaize, and the Blanchard rivers; theWyandot settled in Central Ohio; theShawnee in Southwest Ohio; and theDelaware (Lenape) in Southeast and Eastern Ohio."[16]
In the mid-18th century, the Odawa allied with theirFrench trading partners against theBritish in theSeven Years' War, known as theFrench and Indian War in the North American colonies. They made raids against Anglo-American colonists. The Odawa chiefPontiac[17] has historically been reported to have been born at the confluence of the Maumee and Auglaize rivers, where modernDefiance, Ohio, later developed. In 1763, after the British had defeated France, Pontiac led arebellion against the British, but he was unable to prevent British colonial settlement of the region.[18]
A decade later, ChiefEgushawa (also spelled Agushawa), who had a village at the mouth of the Maumee River onLake Erie (where Toledo later developed), led the Odawa as an ally of the British in theAmerican Revolutionary War. He hoped to build on their support to exclude European-American colonists from his territory in northwest Ohio and southern Michigan.[19] The defeat of the British by the United States had a far-ranging influence on British-allied Native American tribes, as many were forced to cede their land to the United States.
Following the Revolutionary War, in the 1790s, Egushawa, together with numerous members of other regional tribes, including the Wyandot and Council of Three Fires, Shawnee, Lenape, and Mingo, fought the United States in a series of battles and campaigns in what became known as theNorthwest Indian War. The Indians hoped to repulse the European-American pioneers coming to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains, but were finally defeated.[19]
In 1792 President George Washington sent Major Alexander Truman, his servant William Lynch, and guide/interpreter William Smalley on a peace mission to the tribes. Truman and Lynch were killed; Truman was apparently killed prior to April 20, 1792, at Lower Tawa Town, an Ottawa village (Ottawa, Putnam County Ohio). In a campaign during 1794,Anthony Wayne built a string of forts in the upperMaumee River watershed, includingFort Defiance, across the river from the site of Pontiac's birth. While the British had encouraged the Native American efforts, they did not want to get drawn into open conflict again with the United States and withdrew from offering direct support to the tribes. Wayne's army defeated several hundred members of the Indian confederacy at theBattle of Fallen Timbers, near the future site ofMaumee, Ohio and about 11 miles upriver of present-dayToledo.
In the winter of 1751–1752,Charles Langlade began assembling an allied war party of Odawa, Potawatomi, and Ojibwe warriors who traveled toPickawillany. They attacked the village in mid-morning on June 21, 1752, and killed thirteenMiami men and captured five English traders. Down to as few as twenty warriors the Miami tried to negotiate terms of surrender, and Langlade promised to allow the Miami men to return home if they handed over the English. The Miami sent only three of the five Englishmen. When the Englishmen reached Langlade's lines, one of his men stabbed one of them to death, scalped the Englishman, and ripped his heart out and ate it in front of the Miami men. Langlade's men seized the Miami chiefMemeskia. He was killed, boiled and eaten in front of his warriors. Afterward the Odawa released the Miami women and left for Detroit with four captured Englishmen and more than $300,000 worth (in today's dollars[when?]) of trade goods.
This French-led victory over the English is believed to have led to theFrench and Indian War and contributed to theSeven Years' War on the European continent.[20]
In 1795, under theTreaty of Greenville, the Odawa and other members of the Western Confederacy ceded all of Ohio to the United States, except the northwest area. This was part of the area controlled by the Detroit Odawa.
In 1807, the Detroit Odawa joined three other tribes, the Ojibwe, Potawatomi andWyandot people, in signing theTreaty of Detroit under pressure from the United States. The agreement, between the tribes andWilliam Hull, representing theMichigan Territory, gave the United States a large portion of today'sSoutheastern Michigan and a section of northwestOhio near theMaumee River.
Many Odawa bands moved away from the European Americans into northern Michigan. The tribes retained communal control of relatively small pockets of land in the territory of the Maumee River.[21] Bands of Odawa-occupied areas are known as Roche de Boeuf[22] and Wolf Rapids on the upper Maumee River.[23]
In 1817, in the first treaty involving land cessions after the War of 1812, the Ohio Odawa ceded their lands, acceptingreservations atBlanchard's Creek and theLittle Auglaize River in Ohio (a total of 34 square miles or 88 square kilometres). These were only reserves, for which they were paid annuities for ten years. Pressure continued to build against the Odawa as European-American settlers moved into the area.
After passage of theIndian Removal Act of 1830, the US government arranged for the Odawa to cede their reserves in 1831. The four following bands eventually all removed to areas of Kansas, then part ofIndian Territory: the Blanchard's Creek, Little Auglaize, Roche de Boeuf, and Wolf Rapids bands.[23]
The population of the different Odawa groups has been estimated. In 1906, the Ojibwe and Odawa onManitoulin andCockburn Island were 1,497, of whom about half were Odawa. There were 197 Odawa listed as associated with the Seneca School in Oklahoma, where some Odawa had settled after the American Civil War. In 1900 in Michigan there were 5,587 scattered Ojibwe and Odawa, of whom about two-thirds are Odawa.[10]
In the early 21st century, the total number of enrolled members of the federally recognizedOttawa Tribe of Oklahoma numbers about 4,700. There are about 10,000 persons who identify as Odawa in the United States, with the majority in Michigan. Another several thousand live in Ontario, Canada.
There has been one major anthropological study of theGrand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.Jane Willetts Ettawageshik devoted approximately two years of study in the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians community.Ettawageshik recordedAnishinaabe stories that speak of how theAnishinaabe people related to their land, to their people, and various other means of communicating their values, outlooks and histories in and around Northern Michigan. These stories have been translated into English by Howard Webkamigada and published as the bookOttawa Stories from the Springs, Anishinaabe dibaadjimowinan wodi gaa binjibaamigak wodi mookodjiwong[24] ezhinikaadek.
The following are or were Odawa villages:
By the end of the eighteenth century, the Ottawa in Ohio were concentrated in the northwest area along the Maumee River (which has its mouth at Lake Erie.)
The reservations and reserves listed below resulted from the Treaty of Greenville (1795), and following ones. These are listed byFrederick Webb Hodge in his 1910 history ofAmerican Indians North of Mexico.[25] Also see Lee Sultzman, "Ottawa History".[23]
United States:
Canada:
Canada:
United States:
 Native American tribes in Michigan | |
|---|---|
| Federally recognized | |
| State recognized |
|
