Who Were the Chippewa Indians

The Chippewa Indians are also called as the Ojibwe or the Ojibwa tribe. This is a tribe that inhabited North America.

There are Chippewa settlements that run across Canada through the United States.  This shows that this specific tribe of Native Americans is not only confined to one specific region but instead, is spread throughout the North American continent. This is mainly due to their lifestyle.

The Chippewa Indians have an ideology of expansion and free living. This caused them to wander off to places that they haven’t been before, causing them to spread their people in huge expanses of territory, and causing the development of the variations in language, culture, and traditions.

In the First Nations of Canada, the Chippewa Indians are the second largest population. The Cree tribe is the second to them in terms of the number of population.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Chippewa Indians

Meanwhile, in the United States, the Chippewa Indians have the fourth largest population when compared to the other Native American tribes. The first largest is the Navajo tribe, a second is the Cherokee tribe, and the third is the Lakota tribe. The Chippewa Indians have been in the fourth spot for quite some time.

The Canadians also referred to the Chippewa Indians as Saulteurs because they once settled in the region that surrounds Lake Superior. Lake Superior is called by French colonists as the Sault Ste. Marie because of the strong rapids that it has. This is where the term Saulteurs come from.

The Chippewans moved into the prairie provinces of Canada have changed their identity into calling themselves as the Saulteux. However, this is still disputed by some scholars as the name also migrated and transferred to the western part of the continent.

Chippewa Indians Regional

On the other hand, the Chippewa Indians who were originally settling near the Mississauga Region, and have migrated to the southern regions near Ontario, are then called as the Mississaugas. One can see here that their name varies from region to region, even though their culture, tradition, and general identity as a people are still the same. Despite the gap in distance, the Chippewa Indians still maintained a close communication and relationship with each other.

Chippewa Indians Language

The Chippewa Indians are referred to as an Anishinaabe-speaking people. They speak a language that is similar to that of the Algonquian language that the Cheyenne Indians speak. Most of the Chippewa  Indians are now residing in Canada. This is mainly due to the original location that they have, being in the northern part of the United States. The United States’ northernmost part is not that developed. With this, the Chippewa Indians then decided to settle in the southern region of Canada, thus making it their major settlement.

Ojibwe Tribe Today

Today, there are 77,940 Chippewans that are pure blooded, 76,760 Saulteaux, and 8,770 Mississauga. They are comprised of 125 bands that are living in the western region of Quebec. This spans from Quebec to the eastern portion of British Columbia. There are roughly 170,742 Cheyenne Indians as of the present times.

chippewa tribe food, Minnesota Chippewa tribe, Chippewa Indian names, Ojibwa tribe facts, Ojibwe houses, Ojibwe traditions