The Ojibwe ( oh-JIB-way; syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: Ojibweg ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (Ojibwewaki ᐅᒋᐺᐗᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the northern plains, extending into the subarctic and throughout the northeastern woodlands. The Ojibwe, being Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands and of the subarctic, are known by several names, including Ojibway or Chippewa. As a large ethnic group, several distinct nations also consider themselves Ojibwe, including the Saulteaux, Nipissings, and Oji-Cree.
According to the U.S. census, Ojibwe people are one of the largest tribal populations among Native American peoples in the U.S. In Canada, they are the second-largest First Nations population, surpassed only by the Cree. They are one of the most numerous Indigenous peoples north of the Rio Grande. The Ojibwe population is approximately 320,000, with 170,742 living in the U.S. as of 2010 and approximately 160,000 in Canada. In the U.S. there are 77,940 mainline Ojibwe, 76,760 Saulteaux, and 8,770 Mississauga, organized in 125 bands. In Canada they live from western Quebec to eastern British Columbia.
The Ojibwe language is Anishinaabemowin, a branch of the Algonquian language family.
The Ojibwe are part of the Council of Three Fires (along with the Odawa and Potawatomi) and of the larger Anishinaabeg, which includes Algonquin, Nipissing, and Oji-Cree people. Historically, through the Saulteaux branch, they were part of the Iron Confederacy, with the Cree, Assiniboine, and Metis.
The dreamcatcher originated from the Ojibwe and became a popular commercial item in the late 20th century and became a symbol for the Pan-Indian movement. The Ojibwe are known for their birchbark canoes, birchbark scrolls, mining and trade in copper, and their harvesting of wild rice and maple syrup. Their Midewiwin Society is well respected as the keeper of detailed and complex scrolls of events, oral history, songs, maps, memories, stories, geometry, and mathematics.
European powers, Canada, and the U.S. have colonized Ojibwe lands. The Ojibwe signed treaties with settler leaders to share land for the survival of settlers in exchange for compensation, according to Midewiwin laws pre-dating European contact, with an expectation of mutual non-interference. Many European settlers moved into the Ojibwe ancestral lands.
The exonym for this Anishinaabe group is Ojibwe (plural: Ojibweg). This word has two variations, one French (Ojibwa) and the other English (Chippewa). Although many variations exist in the literature, Chippewa is more common in the United States, and Ojibway predominates in Canada, but both terms are used in each country. In many Ojibwe communities throughout Canada and the U.S. since the late 20th century, more members have been using the generalized name Anishinaabe(-g).
The meaning of the name Ojibwe is not known; the most common explanations for the name's origin are:
ojiibwabwe (/o/ + /jiibw/ + /abwe/), meaning "those who cook/roast until it puckers", referring to their fire-curing of moccasin seams to make them waterproof. Some 19th century sources say this name described a method of ritual torture that the Ojibwe applied to enemies.
ozhibii'iwe (/o/ + /zhibii'/ + /iwe/), meaning "those who keep records [of a Vision]", referring to their form of pictorial writing, and pictographs used in Midewiwin sacred rites; or
ojiibwe (/o/ + /jiib/ + /we/), meaning "those who speak stiffly" or "those who stammer", an exonym or name given to them by the Cree, who described the Ojibwe language for its differences from their own.
Because many Ojibwe were formerly located around the outlet of Lake Superior, which the French colonists called Sault Ste. Marie for its rapids, the early Canadian settlers referred to the Ojibwe as Saulteurs. Ojibwe who subsequently moved to the prairie provinces of Canada have retained the name Saulteaux. This is disputed since some scholars believe that only the name migrated west. Ojibwe who were originally located along the Mississagi River and made their way to southern Ontario are known as the Mississaugas.
In 1764 Henry Bouquet estimated that the Ojibwe had 5,000 warriors, which would imply a total population of about 25,000 people. The fighting strength of the Ojibwe was again estimated as 5,000 warriors in 1764 (by Thomas Hutchins) and in 1778. Gilbert Imlay in 1797 wrote about 5,700 Chippewa warriors, indicating a total population of about 28,500. According to Emmanuel Domenech the Ojibwe and Chippewa numbered around 36,000 people in 1860. In 1905 the Ojibwe in Canada numbered around 15,000 people, while the U.S. 1910 census counted 20,214 Chippewa in the U.S. (including 8,234 in Minnesota, 4,299 in Wisconsin, 3,725 in Michigan, 2,966 in North Dakota).
According to the 2010 United States census, there were at least 113,330 full-blood Chippewa people in the U.S. (including 110,697 who reported being only Chippewa and 2,633 who reported more than one tribe) as well as 54,744 mixed-race people with Chippewa ancestry. In the 2020 census at least 100,625 people reported being full-blood Chippewa in the U.S. According to the 2018 American Community Survey in total 212,116 people declared having Chippewa ancestry.
The exact population of Ojibwe in Canada is hard to estimate. However as of 2014, around 160,000 people are registered with one of the 200 bands.
The Ojibwe language is known as Anishinaabemowin or Ojibwemowin, and is still widely spoken, although the number of fluent speakers has declined sharply. Today, most of the language's fluent speakers are elders. Since the early 21st century, there is a growing movement to revitalize the language and restore its strength as a central part of Ojibwe culture. The language belongs to the Algonquian linguistic group and is descended from Proto-Algonquian. Its sister languages include Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cree, Fox, Menominee, Potawatomi, and Shawnee among the northern Plains tribes. Anishinaabemowin is frequently referred to as a Central Algonquian language; Central Algonquian is a geographical grouping, however, rather than a linguistic genetic one.
Ojibwemowin is the fourth-most spoken Native language in North America after Navajo, Cree, and Inuktitut. Many decades of fur trading with the French established the language as one of the key trade languages of the Great Lakes and the northern Great Plains.
The popularity of the epic poem The Song of Hiawatha, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1855, publicized the Ojibwe culture. The epic contains many toponyms that originate from Ojibwe words.