I’m sure you’ve been wondering, did the Three Fires—Ojibwe, Otdawa, Potawatomi—become Anishinaabe when they arrived in the Great Lakes or did they bring it with them? Luckily, I’m here to help you out with that. Since the people of the Three Fires originally came from the same Algonquin stock as the Abenaki, I simply had to find out if the Abenaki considered themselves Anishinaabe.
I first heard the word in Michigan. A friend who was attuned to such things said that’s what the local Indians called themselves. Therefore, I thought Ojibwe and Anishinaabe were synonymous. Wrong again!
I recall pronouncing the word myself out loud so I’d remember, then promptly forgetting it, that is until I started really studying American Indian myth and lore. Now it’s deeply embedded in my academic all and everythingness.
A quick refresh of the Abenaki pages shows me no mention of the word Anishinaabe so I’m calling that a no. Then I open to Anishinaabe and see confirmation of my conclusion, the names of those nations which are Anishinaabe. Not an Abenaki in the bunch.
Anishinaabe is a recognition of a special relationship between the tribes, kin, culture and kind. Within this cultural alliance are other closer affiliations like the Three Fires. According to Benton-Banai* these tribes came to the Great Lakes as one people, the Ojibwe. After arriving they split to become three tribes of special relations under the name Three Fires.
With our firm no on the Abenaki being Anishinaabe, another question arises: Did Anishinaabe exist before the Ojibway arrived? According to a map of around 1800 AD the Algonquin nation filled the area between the St. Lawrence and the sub-arctic east of Lake Ontario. The Mississaugas occupied much of the former Wendat Huron homeland along the northern shore of the two lower Great Lakes. The Otdawa occupied the Bruce Peninsula, Manitoulin Island and the eastern shore of Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay; the Potawatomi’s territory stretched around lower Lake Michigan; the Ojibwe covered all the territory around Lake Superior including the entire Upper Peninsula. Above them to the sub-arctic were the Oji-Cree. To the west of the Ojibway and south of the Oji-Cree were the Saulteaux. They are all Anishinaabe.
That answers your original question but if you’d like to know more, drop a dime in the slot.
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