The Great Migration and Stopping Points
This sacred object/shell appeared in prophecies to guide the Anishinaabeg westward toward their stopping places.
What is the Miigis shell?
Crafted from marine shells, these woven items were used across the Eastern Woodlands for storytelling, gifts, trade, and recording treaties.
What is Wampum (or Wampum belts)?
This French explorer was among the earliest Europeans to engage with and explore the Great Lakes region around 1615.
Who was Étienne Brûlé?
An original, firsthand record created at the time of an event (such as a treaty document, diary, or eyewitness account) is classified as this type of source.
What is a Primary Source?
In the Anishinaabe language, this word translates directly to "land" or "the earth."
What is the Muskrat (Wazhashk)?
Known today as Montreal, this location on the St. Lawrence River served as the first major stopping place along the migration route.
What is Mooniyaang?
Formed in 796 CE at Michilimackinac, this historic alliance united the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi nations.
What is the Council of Three Fires?
Issued by King George III following the Seven Years' War and Pontiac's Rebellion, this 1763 decree attempted to stabilize relations by regulating trade and settlement west of the Appalachians.
What is the Royal Proclamation of 1763?
A scholarly journal article or textbook that analyzes, synthesizes, and interprets historical events after the fact is classified as this type of source.
What is a Secondary Source?
As illustrated in *Waasa Inaabidaa*, traditional Ojibwe decision-making did not rely on top-down hierarchy, but rather on this collective leadership model.
What is Consensus-driven governance (or consensus)?
Located in the St. Louis River estuary near present-day Duluth, this island served as the sixth stop before reaching the final destination.
What is Spirit Island?
Before migrating inland along the St. Lawrence, the Anishinaabeg secured permission and safe passage from these coastal "Allied Brothers" nations.
Who are the Abenaki and Mi'kmaq?
Unlike the British, who frequently turned to hard power and military outposts, the French colonial strategy in the Great Lakes primarily relied on this type of diplomatic and cultural influence.
What is "Soft power" (or diplomacy/kin-making)?
When evaluating sources through critical theory, scholars examine an author's personal background, social context, and worldview—a concept known by this term.
What is Positionality (or bias/standpoint)?
According to Lecture 1, the course instructor, Dr. Smiles, belongs to this clan (doodem).
What is the Bullhead Clan?
Anishinaabe prophecies directed the people to journey until they reached the place where "food grows/floats on water," referring to this vital ecological and cultural plant.
What is Manoomin (wild rice)?
Rather than treating trade purely as a transactional exchange of goods, Indigenous diplomacy emphasized this economic relationship rooted in ongoing mutual obligations and ceremonial balance.
What is Relational economics (or Reciprocity)?
This major Great Lakes trading hub and portage site on Lake Superior's north shore served as a central meeting ground for European fur companies and local Ojibwe bands.
What is Grand Portage?
This term refers to the academic study of how history is written, interpreted, and shaped by societal frameworks and power structures.
What is Historiography?
In the Anishinaabe creation narrative, new land is formed on the back of a giant turtle through the sacrifice of this small animal who dives to retrieve earth from the floodwaters.
What is the Muskrat (Wazhashk)?
At this third stopping point around 1400–1500 CE, the Anishinaabeg divided into distinct groups, including the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, Nipissing, Mississauga, and Algonquin.
What is Detroit (or the Detroit River)?
Established in an alliance between the Ojibwe and Dakota in 1679, this sacred ceremonial practice bound leaders to truth and mutual diplomatic obligation.
What is the Pipe Ceremony?
European fur traders regularly solidified trade agreements and gained access to Indigenous trade routes by entering into this social institution with Ojibwe women (*kwe*).
What is intermarriage (or kinship ties)?
Indigenous community sovereignty over history and representation is encapsulated in this famous advocacy maxim often cited against dominant Western research extraction: "Nothing on us..."
What is "...without us"?
Traditional Anishinaabe historical knowledge and sacred records were documented on birch bark rolls known as these.
What are Wiigwaasabakoon (or Sacred Birch Bark Scrolls)?