Ottawa Indian Tribe

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Ottawa Indian Genealogy

Ottawa (from ǎdāwe, 'to trade', `to buy and sell,' a term common to the Cree, Algonkin, Nipissing, Montagnais, Ottawa, and Chippewa, and applied to the Ottawa because in early traditional times and also during the historic period they were noted among their neighbors as intertribal traders and barterers, dealing chiefly in cornmeal, sunflower oil, furs and skins, rugs or mats, tobacco, and medicinal roots and herbs).

      On French river, near its mouth, on Georgian bay, Champlain in 1615 met 300 men of a tribe which, he said, "we call les cheueux releuez." Of these he said that their arms consisted only of the bow and arrow, a buckler of boiled leather, and the club; that they wore no breechclout, and that their bodies were much tattooed in many fashions and designs; that their faces were painted in diverse colors, their noses pierced, and their ears bordered with trinkets. The chief of this band gave Champlain to understand that they had come to that place to dry huckleberries to be used in winter when nothing else was available. In the following year Champlain left the Huron villages and visited the "Cheueux releuez" (Ottawa), living westward from the Hurons, and he said that they were very joyous at "seeing us again." This last expression seemingly shows that those whom he had met on French river in the preceding year lived where he now visited them. He said that the Cheueux releuez waged war against the Mascoutens ( here erroneously called by the Huron name Asistagueronon), dwelling 10 days' journey from them; he found this tribe populous; the majority of the men were great warriors, hunters, and fishermen, and were governed by many chiefs who ruled each in his own country or district; they planted corn and other things; they went into many regions 400 or 500 leagues away to trade; they made a kind of mat which served them for Turkish rugs; the women had their bodies covered, while those of the men were uncovered, saving a robe of fur like a mantle, which was worn in winter but usually discarded in summer; the women lived very well with their husbands; at the catamenial period the women retired into small lodges, where they had no company of men and where food and drink were brought to them. This people asked Champlain to aid them against their enemies on the shore of the fresh-water sea, distant 200 leagues from them. Read more...

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