ANISHINAABE 

“People of the Great Lakes” 

Anishinaabe, sometimes called, Anishinaabeg, Anicinape, Nishnaabe, Neshnabé, or Anishinabek, are a group of culturally, and linguistically, related nations living in North America, concentrated around the Great Lakes.

Anishinaabe has deeper cultural meaning often related to origin stories as "Beings Made Out of Nothing" and "Spontaneous Beings". Oral histories indicate they originated on the northeast coast of North America and migrated to Lake Superior west, known as the “Great Migration.” European contact resulted in movements to Ohio Valley and west onto the Plains.

Anishinaabeg Nations include, Ojibwe, Chippewa, Odawa, Potawatomi, Algonquin, Saulteaux, Nipissing, Mississauga and some Oji-Cree, and Métis. As of 2016, 35,870 people identify Anishinaabemowin as their mother tongue, a language spoken between Manitoba and Quebec. 

As European allies, Anishinaabeg participated in trade, fur trade, and various conflicts, including the Iroquois/Beaver Wars (1640), Seven Years' War (1756–63), Pontiac's War (1766), War of 1812, Dakota War (1862), WWI (1914-18), WWII (1939-45), and the Korean War (1950-53). They signed several treaties, including the Treaty of Niagara, Robinson Treaties, Manitoulin Island Treaties, Numbered Treaties 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 9, and the 1923 Williams Treaties. These treaties resulted in the establishment of reserves, residential schools, the Indian Act, and other assimilationist colonial policies.

To foster solidarity and strengthen the Nation, in 2017, the Leadership Council mandated the Union of Ontario Indians, a representative body of 39 nations, is used for legally binding agreements and the Nation for all else. Arts and culture are preserved through the work of various artists and institutions, such as, Norval Morrisseau, who established the Woodland Style of art, many internationally and nationally known musicians, and Algoma University and Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig who are creating cultural-linguistic programming. Still, the struggles for acknowledgement, respect, land ownership, and reconciliation, are ongoing. 

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