Ottawa

OTTAWA

OTTAWA. The Ottawa are an Algonquin tribe closely related to the Ojibway (Chippewa) and the Potawatomi, which together form the Three Fires Confederacy. Their name, by most accounts, means "traders," which reflects their role as the intermediaries between the Ojibway to the north and the Potawatomi to the south. Their involvement in the European fur trade was a natural extension of their tribal role within the confederacy.

At the time of contact, the Ottawa resided on Manitoulin Island and on the Bruce Peninsula along the eastern shore of Lake Huron. During the early post-contact era, they took up residence in northern Michigan, notably along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. As did most area tribes, the Ottawa vigorously fought to maintain their grip on their homeland and way of life, most notably through the actions of Pontiac, who lead an uprising against the British in 1763.

While most Ottawa still live in Michigan, others were removed to Kansas and Oklahoma during the early nineteenth century. Still others have returned to the islands of the North Channel of Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay. Also, because of early French trade policies and later U.S. Removal efforts, many Ottawa now live on Walpole Island on the north end of Lake St. Clair. While early estimates of their numbers are clouded by their often being counted as Ojibway, estimates in the early twenty-first century put their numbers at about 15,000, with two-thirds of those resident in what is now the United States (mostly in Michigan) with the rest living in Canada.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

McClurken, James M. Gah-baeh-Jhagwah-buk: The Way It Happened, a Visual Cultural History of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa. East Lansing: Michigan State University Museum, 1991.

White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Phil Bellfy

See also Great Lakes ; Indian Trade and Traders ; Tribes: Northeastern .