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The Chippewas, Ojibwas, Ojibwes or Anishinaabe people were a loose collection of many different bands speaking similar languages. Originally confined to the area called Sault St Marie by French explorers (where Lake Superior and Lake Huron join), they probably numbered around 35,000 people split into small bands of around 500 each. These bands split into even smaller groups during the winter, when food sources became very scarce.

During the 1600s the Ojibwas began to expand southwards, particularly along the south shore of Lake Superior; by 1692 they had also occupied the Chequamegon Bay area and later they established villages at Lac du Flambeau, Lac Court Oreilles and Fond du Lac in Wisconsin and Minnesota, reaching Mille Lacs in Minnesota by the late 1700s.

Another Ojibwa group moved into the Ontario peninsula where they were known as Mississaugas.

So by 1800 the Ojibwas (or Chippewas) extended across the entire area north of the Great Lakes from the Ottawa river to Lake of the Woods; south and east of Lake Huron (as Mississaugas); south and west of Lake Superior and into Minnesota.

The really huge area occupied by this people and their many unconnected bands make it difficult to consider them a "tribe"; they should rather be considered a loose collection of tribal groups who gradually developed different dialects of the same language - at no time would the entire Ojibwa people ever come together as a unit.

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14y ago

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