Chippewa Customs

CHARACTERIZATION

6 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETnNOLOGY [BULL. 86 this derivation to a type of moccasin formerly used by this tribe, which had a puckered seam extending up the front instead of having a tongue-shaped piece, as in present usage. CHARACTERIZATION While it is difficult to attribute one peculiarity to an entire tribe, it ma.y safely be said that the Chippewa are a pleasant people. The older men and women are not lacking in dignity, but a ready smile and genial manner have, in the writer's experience, characterized this above other tribes. The Chippewa have a strong sense of humor and are fond of exchanging jokes among themselves. Their industrial life was marked by a cooperation of men and women, the man taking the heavier part of the women's work, and the women assisting in the lighter part of the men's work, as in the making of canoes. Even the children assisted in such parts of the industrial work as they were able to perform. In this, as in other tribes, the thrift of the women in their use of materials is worthy of special notice. Another interesting phase which the Chippewa share with other tribes is their high standard of excellence. Those who could not do a thing well either refrained from any attempt to do it or admitted that their work was not good. Those who excelled were given honor and, if their skill were particularl~ marked, they claimed that it was of supernatural origin. HISTORY OF THE CHIPPEWA TRIBE During the colonial period the Chippewa were remote from the frontier, but explorers and missionaries came into contact with them at an early date. History shows their prominence in transactions with the Hudson Bay Co. and the Northwest Fur Co. Although valiant in native warfare the Chippewa did not wage war against the white man, but seem to have been especially desirous of acquiring the customs of civilization. The Chippewa are a part of a special group of central Algonquian , which group includes the Chippewa, Potawatomi, Ottawa, Algonquian proper, Illinois, and Miami.~ Tradition states that the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi separated at Mackinac. "They were first noticed in the Jesuit Relation of 1640 under the name Baouichtigouin (probably Bawattigowininiwug, 'people of the Sault '), as residing at the Sault, and it is possible that Nicollet met them in 1634. . . . In 1642 they were visited by Raymbaut and Jogues, who found them at the Sault and at war with a people to the west, doubtless the Sioux." 5 • Twenty-eighth Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., p. 261 et seq. I Handbook of American Indians, Bun.. 30, Bur. Amer. Etbn., pt. 1, pp. 277, 278. ...