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Chippewa ball club with spike. Was collected 1650-1850 in New France. Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Paris, France
GRASAC educator's permission
A ball club with an embelished handle.
©Minnesota Historical Society
Historically grizzly bears ranged into Manitoba, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. By 1900 they had been hunted from the region This necklace was collected by Lewis and Clark and is unlikely to be an Ojibwa example. On Page 1 Chief Ne-Bah-Quah-Om is wearing one.
©Harvard University, Peabody Museum
Chippewa Ball club collected at Fort Snelling, Minnesota
Brooklyn Museum educator's permission
Tomahawk pipe collected on the White Earth Reservation, Minnesota in 1889
Harvard Peabody Museum, wikicommons
A SPONTOON CLUB. COMMONLY CALLED GUNSTOCK CLUBS FOR THEIR GUNSTOCK APPEARANCE. THE STEEL SPONTOON WOULD HAVE BEEN A TRADE ITEM. The weapon was acquired by the British Museum from the Jesuit Stonyhurst College. Stoneyhurst is the direct decendent of the Jesuit's St. Omer College that had sent missionaries to Walpole Island and Wikwemikong in 1844, Sault Ste. Marie in 1846, and Thunder Bay in 1848. The lines in the handle could indicate coups made with the weapon.
British Museum wikicommons
Loom beaded Ojibwa knife case.
©Minneapolis Art Institute
Mille-Lacs band of Ojibwe bow
Mille-Lacs Indian Museum
Projectile Points of Ontario, 2025 https://www.projectilepoints.net/Search/Ontario_Search.html
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AUSTRIAN MODEL 1854 .54 CALIBER LORENZ RIFLE
The 1854 Treaty for the Chippewa stated the United States would furnish two hundred guns, one hundred rifles, five hundred beaver-traps, three hundred dollars’ worth of ammunition, This is the type of rifle the U.S. Government gave to the Wisconsin Chippewa. The gun was a percussion-type muzzle-loader simular to the American Springfield Model 1861 rifle-muskets. ©Smithsonian
1858 Lehmann's "Indian" rifle:
This rifle is what the Government purchased to use for annunity or treaty payments with Native Americans. The Chippewas of the Mississippi, Pillagers, and Lake Winnibigoshish all received these weapons in 1858. They came in two caliburs .54 or .58. These guns were used long after more modern rifles became available. There were 50 shotguns in the treaty goods for The Treaty of Old Crossing in 1862 for the Red-Lake and Pembina bands. They were used against the Sioux at Fort Abercrombie. wikicommons
Chippewa Ojibwa Wigwams
Wigwams, traditional birchbark Ojibwa homes . The favored construction material when it was available. Unlike hides it did not absorb water.
©University of Minnesota Duluth
Lac du Flambeau Medicine man's wigwam, Bearskin seated by his home.
Wisconsin Historical Society, wikicommons
Birch bark Wigwams
"Upper Canada Sketches" Thomas Conant 1898. ©University of Calgary
Chippewa Ojibwa Burials
Fond-du-Lac child's scaffold burial. The box was described as not being large enough for an adult to be laid out full length
Illustration from "A Further Contribution to the Study of Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians" by Dr. H. C. Yarrow. First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1879-80 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1881) . The image first appeared In Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 71, plate 4, "A Chippewa Grave at Fond du Lac" 1926.
©Smithsonian
Memory bundles. A woman who had lost her mate would make a bundle of his belongings to morn his death as warriors did not always return.
Fig. 32 "Chippewway Widow", A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians, Dr. H.C. Yarrow First Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1881. Smithsonian
Traditional spirit houses. Each individual has: a physical body, a spirit, and a shadow.
1873 "The Chippewa grave feast", John William Dawson.
Jiibegamig, Spirit Houses
Spirit house of Chief Odahmeekoo at Muncey Town. Published by Methodist minister Chief Jones or Chief Kah-ke-wa-quo-na-by-was in his "History of the Ojebway Indians," 1861.
The Spirit House has stone wired to the end with likely the name of the deceased and possibly The Morning STar inscibed on it. the Morning Star, symbolizes a Link with the spiritual world, new beginnings, and enlightenment, It also represents a link between the living and the spirits of the past. The Morning Star is often associated with guidance and hope. It could also be the "Returning home star" (Polaris) for the Ogimaag Dodem (chief or headsman) It could also be the Wolf Star (Canis Major) for the Wolf Dodum)
A traditional Spirit house of rough cut logs with openings for the deceased's spirit to leave and return. As finished lumber became available it was used instead to build more "house like" structures for the Spirit to use.
Bay Mills band cemetery
Atlas Obscura
Chippewa burial sticks. The upper left stick is an example for a man with pictograms for his Dodum, battles, and the coups he counted.
Bureau of American Ethnology
"Grave Fire" by the American School: A widow or mother by a grave board . For four days and nights food is kept near the grave and a fire built for night long vigils. On the final night there is a family meal and the spirit is instructed it must make a journey.
Ojibwe (Chippewa) People: funeral rites, Spiritualité Autochtone, 2025 https://peuplesautochtones.com/ojibwe-people-funeral-rites/
The Constellation Orion was called Mesabi by the Ojibwa on the Mesabi Iron Range in Miinnesota.[141].
wikicommons
Binawin naging or Cradle board
Cradle board from the Grand Portage Lake Superior Chippewa. Made by Mash-ko-wa-ni-ma doke (Strong Wind)prior to 1932
©Minnesota Historical Society
CRADLE BOARD by Josephine Norcross of the White Earth Band of Chippewa PRIOR TO 1932
©Minnesota Historical Society
Ojibwa Chippewa Beadwork
Ojibwa matching mirrored image panels for a woman's garment in a biomorphic design. ca. 1850. ©Cleveland Museum of Art
Medicine Bandolier bag, Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Made from tanned deer legs with hoofs that have notched edges. The beadwork has alternating buck and doe heads 1910, ©Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit College.
Wisconsin Ojibwa pipe bag with a symetric biomorphic panel. Art ©Balckburn Gallery
Ojibwa Medicine Bag with combined organic elements and a large panel in a geometric alternating pattern. ©Wabeno Logging Museum.
Ojibwa bandolier 1890-1910. It has an asymmetrical biomorphic design of stylized thistle heads . Thistles, with their sharp spines, are seen as a symbol of protection against negative forces. The Ojibwe believe that thistles can act as a bridge between the human and spirit worlds and protect from dangers. © McClung Museum
Ojibwa fire bag with a symmetrical geometric panel. ©Metropolitan
Edmona Lewis: neoclassicist
Hiawatha: Edmona Lewis
Drawn from Longfellow's song of Hiawatha in marble.
wikicommons
1844-1907, Edmonia Lewis albumen print, ca.1870, by Henry Rocher in the National Portrait Gallery. Edmonia was of African American Mississauga Ojibwa heritage. She was the first African-American/Native American sculptress to achieve international recognition. She is known for drawing from Longfellow's fictionalized Ojibwa warrior Hiawatha for the subject matter of several busts and sculptures.
wikicommons
The Arrow Maker, Edmona Lewis
Drawn from Longfellows Song of Hiawatha, Minnehaha and her Father in marble. Smithsonian
Art depicting the chippewa in Government Buildings:
Indian Attack on the Village of Saint Louis in 1780. Oscar E. Berninghaus depicts Chief Matchekewis with his men. 1925. The mural is in a lunette of the Missouri State Capitol.
wikicommons
The North Hearing room of Wisconsin's State Capitol has four transpotation themed murals. One has the Chippewa with their canoes at a fur trading post by Charles Yardley Turner, 1915. [16][17]
State of Wisconsin
1939 WPA "Indian Hunters and Rice Gatherers" Margaret Martin, Mural study for U.S Post Office, St. James, Minnesota. The more stylized final version hangs in St. James.[18]
©Smithsonian.
Sculptures of the Ojibwa Chippewa in public parks:
Bronze "Indian Scout" by Hamilton MacCarthy, 1918, Major's Hill Park, Ottawa, Canada. Was renamed "Anishinabe Scout" in the 1990s.
wikicommons
Bronze "Chief Shaynowishkung" (Chief Bemidji) by Gareth Curtiss, 2015 in Bemidji Minnesota
©City of Bemidji
Bronze Old Crossing Treaty memorial by Anders Skog.
Untitled bronze erected in 1932, Hout, Minnesota. wikicommons
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and the Chippewa
Longfellow is forever linked to the Chippewa by his 1855 "The Song of Hiawatha". It is an epic poem that launched his career. It became a part of 8th grade english across the U.S. for many years The main male character is the Chippewa warrior Hiawatha who is linked to the legend of Nanabozho. In the Song of Hiawatha Longfellow used a large number of Ojibwa words to give authenticity to his sterotyped characters. With a student population primarily Dacotah and Chippewa the Pipestone Indian School boyscouts made the poem a scout production in 1927. It became an annual school project that engaged the local community. It grew to become a regional event that the community continued long after Pipestone closed.
In Michigan Chief George Kabaosa of the Garden River band and, grandson of Chief Shingwaukonse made a stage adaptation of the poem. The tribe first preformed in 1901. Their preformances were popular and went international, with shows in Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, London, Portsmouth, Amsterdam, and Antwerp. They also preformed for 20,000 people per night for two weeks at the Toronto Exhibition in 1937. "The Song of Hiawatha", SOOTODAY.COM , 2020 https://www.sootoday.com/columns/remember-this/the-song-of-hiawatha-2147109. From 1905-10 the G.R.& I. R.R. funded and advertised the play at Round Lake, Michigan to promote tourists to see the native American production. They hired Canadian Louis O. Armstrong who worked with Ojibwa from the Garden River Reserve in Ontario. In 2015 the Michigan Historical Commission erected a marker to commerate the history. (Marker # 736.)
It was from this work that the Milwaukee Railroad choose the name for it's "Hiawatha" trains. The "Hiawatha's" served mainlines and were in the everyday vernacular. They ran the mainline from Chicago to St. Paul and the Hiawatha Olympian went to Seattle. Hiawatha's provided service on railroad's Chippewa Valley Line in Wisconsin also. When the railrod updated service to Milwaukee they choose to name the service "Chippewa" for Hiawatha's heritage. It was later changed to Chippewa Hiawatha. But when the railroad went out of business the name did not die. Today's Amtrak still has a "Hiawatha" named for Longfellow's fictional Chippewa warrior.
Hiawatha and Minnehaha stature 1912 by Jacob Fjelde, Minneapois
© Minnesota Historical Society
U.S. & Canadian Post offices recogntion of the Ojibwa people
Canada's Post Office's: "Ojibwa thunderbird" & "Naskapi pattern" Se-tenant pair was issued on April 4, 1975. The thunderbird was created by Norval Morrisseau of the Ojibwa Sandpoint First Nation.
©Canada Post
George Morrison, Grand Portage band of Lake Superior Chippewa. (September 30, 1919 – April 17, 2000) Was an abstract painter and sculptor that the U.S. Post office acknowledged with a souvenir sheet of stamps of him and five of his works in 2022.
Used with the permission of the United States Postal Service®
useage of The "Chippewa" name:
"Chippewa" Lake Superiour side wheeler 1893.
wikicommons
#152 "Chippewa" a 4-6-2 "Pacific" locomotive with her distinctive color scheme and huge "Hiawatha" logo on the tender. ca. 1940. Other non-stream lined locomotives were added with the same colors with "Chippewa" across the top of the tender. Known locomotives labeled "Chippewa were engines: # 150, 151, 152, and 197
The Milwaukee Railroad initated Streamlined passenger service from Chicago to Ontonagon, Michigan in 1937 continuing until 1960. The Milwaukee also ran the Chippewa Valley Line that was initiated in 1882.
© Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd.
1868 Wisconsin paddlewheel Packet boat the "Chippewa" on the west Eau Claire Levee. In 1859 the American Fur Company steamboat "Chippewa" was the first packet to reach Fort Benton trading post.[15] The American Fur Company acknowledged the indigenious by naming riverboats for the tribes it traded with.
wikicommons
MV Chippewa car ferry on Puget Sound. At a huge expense she was reconfigured from the passenger ferry in the top image into a vehicle ferry in the 1930's. The "Chippewa" was an important part of life on the sound.
public domain
"Chippewa" retired WWII Navy tug YTL-361 . She was christened the "Chippewa" in 1976. Tugs are viewed as "tough" which was why the name was chosen.
©facebook.com/TugChippewa
USS Wabanquot (YTB-525), later YTM-525, United States Navy tug 1945 to 1976. Wabanquot was a Hisada-class tug. Named for the famous Ojibwa Chief who offered to fight the Sioux in 1862 and the first USN Ship named for a Native American.
wikicommons