| Total population |
|---|
| 15,000 |
| Regions with significant populations |
| United States (Oklahoma, Michigan) Canada (Ontario) |
| Languages |
| Religion |
|
Christianity, other |
| Related ethnic groups |
|
Ojibwa, Potawatomi and other Algonquian peoples |
The Odawa (pronounced /oʊˈdɒwə/ in Canadian English) or Ottawa, said to mean "traders," are a Native American and First Nations people. They are one of the Anishinaabeg, related to but distinct from the Ojibwe nation. Their original homelands are located on Manitoulin Island, near the northern shores of Lake Huron, on the Bruce Peninsula in present day province of Ontario and in the state of Michigan.[1] There are approximately 15,000 Ottawa living in Michigan, Ontario, and Oklahoma. The Ottawa language is considered a divergent dialect of the Ojibwe, characterized by frequent syncope. The Ottawa language, like the Ojibwe language, is part of the Algonquian language family. They also have a smaller tribal groups or “bands” commonly called “Tribe” in the United States and “First Nation” in Canada. The Odawa nation formerly lived along the Ottawa River but now live especially on Manitoulin Island.[2]
Contents |
Odaawaa (syncoped as Daawaa, supposedly from the Anishinaabe word adaawe, meaning “to trade,” or “to buy and sell”) is a term common to the Cree, Algonquin, Nipissing, Montagnais, Ottawa, and Ojibwa. The Potawatomi spelling of Odawa and the English derivative “Ottawa” are also common. The actual Anishinaabe word for "Those men who trade, or buy and sell" is Wadaawewinini(wag), which has been recorded by Fr. Frederic Baraga in his A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language as "Watawawininiwok" but was recorded to mean "men of the bulrushes", from the many bulrushes in Ottawa River,[3] though this recorded meaning is associated with the Matàwackariniwak, a historical band of Algonquins living about the Ottawa River. Nonetheless, the "Trader" name was applied to the Ottawa because in early traditional times and also during the early European contact period, they were noted among their neighbors as intertribal traders and barterers,[4] dealing "chiefly in cornmeal, sunflower oil, furs and skins, rugs and mats, tobacco, and medicinal roots and herbs."[5][6]
Like the Ojibwa, the Odaawaa usually refer to themselves as Nishnaabe (Anishinaabe, plural: Nishnaabeg / Anishinaabeg), meaning original people.
The name in its English transcription is the source of the place names of Ottawa, Ontario, and the Ottawa River, even though the Odaawaa's 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. It is also the source of the name for Tawas City, Michigan, and Tawas Point, which reflect the syncope-form of their name.
The Ottawa language is considered one of several divergent dialects of the Ojibwe language group, noted for its frequent syncope. In the Odaawaa language, the general language group is known as Nishnabemwin, while the specific language is called Daawaamwin. Of the estimated 5,000 ethnic Odaawaa and additional 10,000 people with Odaawaa ancestry, an estimated 500 people in Ontario and Michigan speak this language. The Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma has three fluent speakers.[7]
According to Anishinaabeg tradition, and from recordings in Wiigwaasabak (birch bark scrolls), they came from the eastern areas of North America, or Turtle Island, and from along the east coast. Directed by the miigis (luminescent) beings, the Anishinaabe peoples moved inland along the Saint Lawrence River. At the "Third Stopping Place" near what is now Detroit, Michigan, the southern group of Anishinaabeg divided into three groups, of which the second group became the Odaawaa.
The Odaawaa, together with the Ojibwe (Ojibwa/Chippewa) and the Boodewaadamii (Potawatomi), were part of a long-term tribal alliance called the Council of Three Fires,[8] which fought the Iroquois Confederacy and the Sioux. In 1615 French explorer Samuel de Champlain met 300 men of a nation which, he said, "we call les cheueux releuez" near the French River mouth. 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."[5] In 1616, Champlain left the Huron villages and visited the "Cheueux releuez" westward from the lands of the Huron Confederacy.
There is archaeological evidence that the Saugeen Complex people, a Hopewell influenced group of the Bruce Peninsula, may have evolved into the Odawa people.[9]
Due to the extensive trade network maintained by the Odaawaa, much of the North American interior nations are known by the Odaawaa names rather than by the nations’ own names. For example, these exonyms include Winnebago (from Wiinibiigoo) for the Ho-Chunk, and Sioux (from Naadawensiw) for the Dakota.
There were many wars and disputes of the Odaawaa with other tribes; for example, the tribe once waged war against the Mascouten.
The Odaawaa allied with the French against the British, and Odaawaa Chief Pontiac led a rebellion against the British in 1763.[10] A decade later, Chief Egushawa led the Odaawaa in the American Revolutionary War as an ally of the British. In the 1790s, Egushawa again fought the United States in a series of battles and campaigns known as the Northwest Indian War.[11]
The population of the different Odaawaa groups is not known with certainty. In 1906 the Ojibwe and Odaawaa on Manitoulin and Cockburn Island were 1,497, of whom about half were Odaawaa; there were 197 Ottawa under the Seneca School, Oklahoma, and in Michigan 5,587 scattered Ojibwe and Odaawaa, in 1900, of whom about two-thirds are Odaawaa. The total Ottawa Tribe is therefore about 4,700.
The following are or were Ottawa villages:
|
|
|
Cappel, Constance, Odawa Language and Legends: Andrew J. Blackbird and Raymond Kiogima, Xlibris, 2006.
Cappel, Constance, The Smallpox Genocide of the Odawa Tribe at L'Arbre Croche, 1763: The History of a Native American People, Edwin Mellen Press, 2007.
Wolff, Gerald W., and Cash, Joseph H. The Ottawa People, Phoenix, Arizona: Indian Tribal Series, 1976.