By Bella and Dhara

Ojibwa’s Location  The Ojibwa’s lived in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Southern Canada, and Michigan

What did Ojibwa’s eat?  They ate wild rice, fish, sugar cake, berries, maple syrup, and more  They crushed dried plants to make refreshing drinks

What was Ojibwa’s housing like?  Their houses were called wigwams  2 or 3 families lived in a 12 foot by 10 foot wigwam  Each family had parents, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins  Wigwams had holes in them to let out smoke from cooking fires  Families slept on thin feather beds

What did the Ojibwa’s wear?  Women wore long dresses with removable sleeves  Men wore breech cloths and leggings  Everyone wore moccasin and cloaks or ponchos in bad weather  They wore leather headbands with feathers in the back  In 1800’s some Chippewa chiefs began wearing long head dresses

What happened when the Europeans came?  There clothing changed to cloth blouses and jackets which are decorated with beads  The Ojibwa’s were forced to move to a different part of Michigan set aside for them

Ojibwa’s beliefs  They believed that little spirits controlled everything  There was a spirit for health, for rain, for thunder, corn, and many more  They prayed and gave thanks to their spirits everyday  The medicine man sang prayers and that was their medicine  Dream catchers were used to catch evil spirits and tangle bad dreams before they entered your dreams

Cool facts about Ojibwa  When the children were bad behaved their parents did not spank them but instead the parents would put charcoal on their face and were then sent out to play  Everyone knew that the charcoal meant the child had done something wrong  The Ojibwa’s had a very interesting way of giving reminders. It was called night messages  At night when the camp was quiet an old man would walk around the circle of wigwams and would shout out messages and reminders