Historians have listed the Potawatomi, Ottawa and Chippewa as belonging to the Algonquian family. Their migration was from the Eastern Doorway or Nova Scotia. The Algonquian are a group of people who speak and understand a common dialect of language. Also know as the Three Fires Confederacy. Their way of life was hunting, gathering, fishing, and farming. An excerpt from the Encyclopedia of the North American Indian is provided to enlighten the reader about this wonderfully fascinating tribe.

“The Potawatomi, Ojibwa, and Ottawa were joined in a confederacy called the Three Fires. The Potawatomi called themselves People of the Fire. Their villages were organized by clans similar to those of the Ojibwa. Several animals represented each of the five social groups. Leaders’ clans were birds. Warriors belonged to the Bear, Wolf, or Lynx clans. Turtle and Otter were healers’ clans. Hunters were represented by the patient Beaver and Moose. Teachers were members of the fish clan because, although fish humbly hide themselves in river depths, they remain steady in strong currents.

In 1616, French explorers met about 9,000 Potawatomi on the western shores of Lake Huron. Soon the Potawatomi were incorporating French ribbons and beads into their clothing designs. During the colonial wars, the Potawatomi allied first with the French, then with the English. Despite signing 19th-century treaties with the United States, most Potawatomi were moved to the southern Plains in 1838. The Potawatomi call their forced march to Oklahoma the Trial of Death.

A yearly powwow in Michigan is called Kee-Boon-Mein-Ka, meaning We Have Finished Picking blueberries. A Michigan Potawatomi tribesman says, “The most meaningful aspect of life as a Potawatomi today is the culture. We are learning the language and dancing the powwows. Underlying it all is the practice of spiritual ways. “
(Ciment, James 1996)

The totem, a sort of clan, was the most important Ojibwa group. Five main totem groups were shared by all Ojibwa speaking tribes, including the Ottawa, Potawatomi, Sac and Fox, and Menominee. The Crane was a special leaders’ totem because cranes have unusual voices: They rarely call, but when they do, all other birds stop to listen.

Children were born into their mothers’ totems. They were named by elders who chose girls names from flowers, times of day, or bodies of water and boys’ names from animals, the weather, or stars. In their twelfth year, children went on vision quests. A girl became a woman when she reached puberty. A boy had to do something brave before he was called a man. Normally, childbirth was thought to be a woman’s bravest act, but the Ojibwas were also the only tribe to have female war chiefs who fought in battle.
The Menominee call themselves Omenomenew, or Wild Rice People, because they harvested rice near the Great Lakes in what is now central Wisconsin and Northern Michigan. Like other Algonquin of the Northeast, they built bark-cabin villages in winter and wigwams of reed mats in summer. The two main clans, the Thunderers and Bears, built different lodges for sweating, dreaming, and fasting.

The Menominee believed that children and elders were closest to the spirits. If a baby was unhappy, a special healer would find out why. Often it was thought that a certain ancestor’s spirit had been reborn in the baby and wanted the baby’s name changed. So a naming ceremony was held to give the child that ancestor’s name.

Ciment, James, 1996, Scholastic Encyclopedia of the North American Indian, Scholastic Inc. Publications.

Links:

Northern Algonquians
Ojibway/Chippewa
Potawatomi