First Nations Of Canada - The Ottowa

Until the European invasion, the Ottowa inhabited a large area including what is today northern Michigan, the French River, the Geogian Bay, and the Ottawa River. They take their name from the Algonquian word adawa, which means "to trade"" The Ottowa were famous throughout the Great Lakes region for trading and bartering.

The Ottowa had practiced tattooing and face painting ever since prehistoric times. They used bright colors and elaborate designs, both for the tattoos and facial designs. Men and women pierced their ears and noses, and decorated them with ornaments. Men went about naked while women were partially covered at the waist.

Early explorers described the Ottowa as cold-blooded businessmen who were crude, cruel, and often savage. Even accusations of cannibalism were made. Yet despite their personal failings, all of the peoples who encountered them had great respect for the Ottowa's skills in canoing, hunting, and survival in the woods.

Their role as intermediaries for inter-tribal commerce arises because they inhabited important waterways that provided a distinct advantage. The Ottowa traded in virtually everything that could be easily transported, including corn, furs, mats, medicinal herbs, meal, sunflower oil, and tobacco. (Remember that the European traders sought spices, which were easily transportable and worth a great deal of money by volume.) Some Ottowa round trips lasted over a thousand miles.

The Ottowa maintain that they, the Ojibwa (Chippewa), and the Potawatomi were originally one tribe which fragmented after a migration to the Great Lakes region from the far northwest. The Huron were almost exterminated by the Iroquois between 1648 and 1649, and fled to what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin where the Powatomi lived. The Iroquois, continuing to use firearms purchased from the Dutch, then began to exterminate the Ottowa, who fled the area.
Some went to the northern Great Lakes of Michigan and Huron. Others went to the what is now the Mississippi River near Lake Pepin, but were driven out by the Sioux (Dakata) and returned to the northern Great Lakes of Michigan and Huron. As a result of their flight to avoid genocide, the Ottowa have no land and live scattered throughout what is today northeastern Illinois, The lower Michigan pennisula, and Wisconsin. The descendants of the Ottowa are few in number and widely distributed across the territory they once controlled.

The famous chief Pontiac was an Ottowa.

The Ottowa creation myths were recorded by one of the first French missionaries to arrive. According to the Ottowa, they were formed from three families.
The first familiy was that of the "Great Hare", a great giant who was born on Michilimackinac Island. After forming the earth, he was inspired by a spider weaving a web to invent fish nets. This giant was so large that eighteen fathom deep water only reached his armpits. He also set forth burial rights for his descendants, saying that unless they cremated their dead and scattered their ashes that the winter would be continuous and the Ottowa would starve.

The second family was that of "The Carp". The first woman was created when the rays of the sun warmed eggs laid by the Carp.

The third family was "The Bear". The missionary did not record how the Bear gave rise to the Ottowa, but he did record how important bear were to them. A feast was held after a bear was killed to honor it and to tell the bear's spirit that it should be glad that it was being consumed by the children of captains. The Ottowa considered themselves to be a superior people by way of their enormous skills in navigating the innumerably waterways of the Canadian Shield.

There is a story told that They remember a mysterious tin box given them by British traders shortly after the war, which they were told not to open until they got back to their villages. They did as instructed, but there was nothing inside other than a strange brown powder. Immediately afterwards, an especially deadly smallpox epidemic broke out which decimated their villages in northern Michigan.