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Men-at-Arms
O
SPREY
PUBLISHING
North American Indian
Tribes of the Great Lakes
Michael G. Johnson • Illustrated by Jonathan Smith
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
Men-at-Arms • 467
North American Indian
Tribes of the Great Lakes
Michael G. Johnson
Series editor
Mar tin Windrow
•
Illustrated by Jonathan Smith
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN
TRIBES OF THE GREAT LAKES
THE GREAT LAKES REGION
T
Photographed c.1900, this
mature man is probably an
Ojibwa (Chippewa). His
headdress is a braided woollen
turban with eagle feathers and
V-cut ribbons. His multiple bead
necklace is of Plains style; his
woollen leggings are bound with
woven beaded garters with
fringed ties.
he Great Lakes Region was dominated by water and forest. The
thousands of interconnected lakes and rivers afforded the Indians
the means to travel long distances by canoe, with short land
journeys between by “portage” (the French term for carrying canoes from
water to water). While the five Great Lakes drain the huge water system
from the north and west, south of them tributaries drain into the two
major river valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio.
Natural vegetation varies throughout the area. In the north, on the
now-Canadian side, coniferous forests of spruce, fir, jack pine, tamarack
and cedar gradually give way southward to mixed coniferous and
deciduous woodland, adding maple, beech, birch, hemlock, and finally
basswood, oak, hickory, cottonwood, willow and elm, with deciduous
species predominating in the Ohio valley. Before European contact
small tracts were no doubt cleared by burning, particularly on the
Prairie-Woodland borders where indigenous
peoples practiced agriculture. From the early
17th century the ecology was increasingly
disturbed by the arrival of Europeans, with the
selective trapping of fur-bearing animals, and
from the 18th century there was major and
increasing forest clearance and drainage of land
for lumber and European agriculture. The river
and lake travel systems were also used by
European explorers, missionaries and fur-traders,
and by the early years of the 18th century the
French had already linked their Canadian and
Gulf of Mexico colonies by regular routes.
In the Great Lakes region four major
subsistence patterns are identified: domesticated
plants, hunting, fishing, and gathering wild rice.
Domesticated Indian corn (maize), beans, and
squashes were the basic foods of the tribes of the
Ohio valley, lower Ontario (the Huron), New York
(the Iroquois), southern Wisconsin and southern
Michigan. Nevertheless, all the agricultural Indians
also hunted, fished and collected wild plant foods.
The major subsistence pattern was hunting. In the
north, Indians were completely dependent upon
moose, caribou, bear, beaver and fish. In the south,
various deer, elk, buffalo (bison), bear, turkey and
other species were important sources of food,
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along with the storage of corn. The Ojibwa, Ottawa and some Iroquoian
groups living around the periphery of the Great Lakes developed a food
economy centered on fishing, with occasional gardening and maple sugar
production. Finally, west and southwest of lakes Michigan and Superior
wild rice provided a major food source for the Menominee, some
Winnebago and Dakota (Eastern Sioux), although hunting, and for some
the cultivation of corn, were also important.
Archaeologists have identified three broad cultural traditions among
the late prehistoric Northeastern Indians, which manifest themselves in
ceramic remains from at least AD 1000. These are the Woodland culture
of the Atlantic coastal area and upper Midwest; the Upper Mississippian
culture of the upper Ohio and upper Mississippi river valleys; and the
Mississippian culture of southern Illinois and Indiana. In general terms
the Woodland tradition divides into two subgroups, which approximate
to the Algonquian- and Iroquois-speaking peoples. The Upper
Mississippian culture also separates into those of Algonquian and those
of Siouan background, including the probable ancestors of the historic
Shawnee. The Mississippian cultural tradition which predominated in
the Gulf and lower Mississippi valley is marginal to Great Lakes
prehistory, but some influential centers did exist in the southern
Midwest and southern Wisconsin.
In the early historic period,
c.1600,
the Indian population in the
region of the upper, western three Great Lakes – Superior, Michigan
and Huron – was about 130,000. Perhaps 60,000 were Huron and their
related Iroquoian tribes of Ontario; the other, mostly Algonquian-
speaking tribes included the closely related Ojibwa, Potawatomi and
Ottawa. (The Winnebago, however, are Siouan in speech.) The Hurons
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ABOVE RIGHT
In 1673 the French
reached the Mississippi via the
Fox and Wisconsin rivers. By
the mid-1700s French fur posts
lined the Mississipi valley down
to Louisiana, and extended out
onto the Parklands and Prairies.
However, control of the upper
Mississippi was delayed during
1712–38 by war with the
Mesquakie (Fox), who struggled
unsuccessfully to unite the
tribes of the region to oppose
French passage across
Wisconsin and trade with the
Sioux.
After Britain acquired French
Canada in 1760, many French
fur traders – both licensed
(voyageurs) and illegal (coureurs
du bois)
– remained active,
scattered throughout the Great
Lakes and upper Mississippi
regions, but the management
and major profits of the trade
were taken over by English,
Scottish and New England
merchants. Pelts and trade
goods flowed through the main
centers at Michilimackinac (from
1781, Mackinac), Grand Portage
and Detroit, while Prairie du
Chien was established to trade
with western tribes such as
the Sioux.
The United States purchased
the Louisiana Territory in 1803,
and with it St Louis, key to
the Missouri River and Rocky
Mountains. After the War of
1812 with Britain the USA
established control of the
Northwest, and St Louis became
the leading center for the fur
trade – though this declined
steadily, and traders shifted
their investments to land,
lumber and mining as settlers
poured westward. (Maps by
John Richards)
were extensive farmers, the Ojibwa primarily hunters, and Menominee
subsistence was based upon wild rice to a greater degree than other
groups. The Ottawa and Potawatomi tended to hunt in small family
groups, while the Sauk, Mesquakie (Fox) and southern tribes undertook
communal hunts on the prairies; the Winnebago and Menominee seem
to have been intermediate between these patterns.
Eu ropean contact
The arrival of European explorers, missionaries and fur-traders brought
changes in native technology, with the introduction of metal weapons,
tools and utensils, blankets and other trade cloth, porcelain and glass
beads, to replace native buckskin clothing decorated with shell and bone
beads and dyed porcupine quills. But trade goods never completely
eliminated native technology, and such Indian items as moccasins,
snowshoes and canoes were adopted in their turn by Europeans. By
c.1750
firearms had largely replaced the bow and arrow and, importantly,
colonial wars and the fur trade had also rearranged tribal locations.
From their bases in Montreal and Quebec the French were quick
to make use of Indian trails and canoe routes. By the end of the
17th century they had a route from New France to the Mississippi, via
the Ottawa and French rivers to lakes Huron and Michigan, then
via Green Bay, the Fox and Wisconsin rivers to the Mississippi, with few
portages on the way. This opened up the whole core area of the Great
Lakes to French missionaries and traders, and, in the early 18th century,
opened the Illinois region to permanent French settlements.
By contrast, the British colonies along the Atlantic seaboard faced
a natural barrier to westward exploration on the same scale as their
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