Kitchi-Gami: Life Among the Lake Superior Ojibway

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION THE windy shores of Lake Superior probably seemed like another world to Johann Georg Kohl when, in the summer of 1855, he visited the Ojibway Indians in northern Wisconsin. Kohl, a German geographer, ethnologist, and travel writer, extended his trip in order to spend four months with the Indians , who were themselves adjusting to a new way oflife. Only the year before they had been placed on four reservations: Lac Courte Oreilles, Lac du Flambeau, and, farther north, Red Author's note: The writing ofthis introduction was greatly facilitated by a generous grant from the American Philosophical Society that allowed me to purchase microfilms ofthe J. G. Kohl papers from the Universitatsbibliothek Bremen. I am grateful also to others who contributed to the completion ofthis project. They are Signe Seiler, who "tracked down" the Kohl papers in Germany; Ulrike Boeker, who aided in establishing contact and communicating with the library in Bremen; Emanuel J. Drechsel, who helped with some early translations ; and Gerhard Knoll, archivist at the Universitatsbibliothek Bremen, who graciously expedited our request for the Kohl microfilm . My greatest thanks, however, go to RalfNeufang, who worked long hours reading and translating old German from microfilm. His help and suggestions were invaluable. Xlll xiv LAKE SUPERIOR IN 1855 D -----... Lac Courte ~~~~~~oon C:::J ______, D ~l~~t~au ~-Reservation INTRODUCTION. XV Cliff and Bad River, on the south shore ofLake Superior near their old villages at La Pointe.1 The change was one ofmany the tribe had experienced. The Ojibway first encountered the Europeans early in the seventeenth century when the French pushed westward into the upper Great Lakes searching for furs. At that time the Ojibway lived in small family bands for most of the year, which enabled them to survive the region's harsh weather. They hunted during the fall and winter months. In early spring each family would go to its "sugar bush" to make maple sugar, an important staple used to flavor many foods. In the summer, bands congregated for ceremonies, trading, social exchange, and fishing. Many Ojibway favored Sault Ste. Marie, the falls on the St. Marys River at the eastern end of Lake Superior, for a summer encampment, as it was an excellent spot for catching whitefish.2 Although traditional Ojibway culture changed continually in response to different environmental conditions, the arrival of the French and the advent of the fur trade accelerated the process. Upon entering the fur trade, the Ojibway unknowingly linked themselves and their future to an international market economy; they began hunting furs for the trade, not just for their own use. Change was more apparent to the Ojib1 . Nancy Oestreich Lurie, Wisconsin Indians (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1980), 20; Edmund Jefferson Danziger, Jr., The Chippewas of Lake Superior (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1978), 89; Robert E. Ritzenthaler, in "Southwestern Chippewa," Handbook of North American Indians (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1978), 15:745. 2. Here and below, see E. S. Rogers, "Southeastern Ojibwa," in Handbook of North American Indians 15:760-64; Harold Hickerson, "The Southwestern Chippewa: An Ethnohistorical Study," Memoirs of the American Anthropological Association 92 Oune 1962): 2; Harold Hickerson, The Chippewa and Their Neighbors: A Study in Ethnohistory (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970), 13, 39-40; Harold Hickerson, "Ethnohistory of Chippewa of Lake Superior," in Chippewa Indians (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1974), 3:33. xvi KITCHI-GAMI. way when the French decided to make Sault Ste. Marie a fur trade center and encouraged other tribes to congregate there. What had once been an Ojibway summer village, shared at times with their linguistic neighbors the Ottawa and Potawatomi , now drew other tribes like the Huron, the Dakota, the Sac and Fox, the Menominee, and the Winnebago. This promoted marriages between Ojibways and Indians from other tribes. While such contact tended to alter the system ofclans and affect the social structure in the bands, it also enriched the ceremonial life ofthe Ojibway. The tribes exchanged not only songs and dances but also legends and creation stories. When the British defeated the French in 1763, the Ojibway, enmeshed in the fur trade, merely switched trading partners. After the American Revolution, some Ojibway began trading with the Americans. Throughout the 1820s and 1830s, the British Hudson's Bay Company vied with the American Fur Company under John Jacob Astor for the Ojibway fur trade. The Ojibway benefited from this competition and wisely...