Native American Paper

The Ojibwe Indians also known as the Chippewa have communities in Canada and the United States. They lived mainly in Ontario, Michican, Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota. “Chippewa” is an anglicization of “Ojibwa,” which means “to roast till puckered up,” referring to the puckered seams on the moccasins worn by the tribe. They also call themselves “Anishinaabe,” which means, the original people. The Ojibwe Indians are members of the Algonquin language family, sharing similarities with languages spoken by the Cree, Potawatomi, Blackfeet, and Cheyenne. The land they inhabited was full of timber and minerals; perfect for the Chippewa to populate. They successfully traded fur with the French and the British, something that strengthened their relationship. In some occasions that even leaded to intermarriages, the children were also known as Michif or Métis.

The tribe fought with the French in the French and Indian War (1754-1763) against the British. In the War of 1812 the tribe fought along with the British against the United States. In 1815 they started to negotiate treaties with the U.S. government. The government guaranteed reservation lands and educational services in exchange for yielding control of huge pieces of land. The LaPointe Treaty of 1854 ceded a lot of tribal land traded for annual payments, the right to continue fishing and hunting on the territory and only six reservations. The reservations however, were not large enough to accommodate all the Ojibwe Indians. But unlike many other tribes, the Ojibwe tribe was not forced to migrate away from the homelands they had established centuries earlier, although a few did eventually move farther west, to North Dakota.

The modern tribal members live both on reservations, in rural areas and in large urban centers. Many people on the reservation face unemployment. However, in recent decades reservations have successfully developed business operations, from manufacturing to tourism to casino development. Many Chippewa are benefiting from tribally run schools and colleges that offer courses in business as well as traditional arts and language.

Native literature is a reflection the culture, and often displays the social problems that came along with the suppression. “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich tells the story of Lyman and his brother Henry. Together they own a red convertible, with which they road tripped together. But then Henry has to leave to serve in the Vietnam War. When he comes back he is not the same, being psychologically damaged by the war. The car works as treatment for Henry and together go on their last trip to a river. Henry drowns himself in the river and Lyman lets the car sink with him.

Lyman has a nose for making money, “My one talent was I could make money. I had a touch for it, unusual in the Chippewa. From the first I was different that way, and everyone recognized it” (Erdrich 306). Making money is