THE OJIBWAY MIGRATION STORY

According to oral tradition the Ojbways and other Algonquin speakers were originally settled up and down the East  Coast . Those who do not share this traditional view think it is more likely the Ojibway lived next to Hudson ,s Bay and moved southward . Traditional Ojibway spiritual leaders are creationists and do not believe in the Bering Strait hypothesis for the people of North  America nor the evolution of human beings in a Darwinian sense. Traditional oral history indicates that the early  Ojibway planted corn and used canoes, overland trails , and sled dogs and sled,s in winter.According to there oral traditions the Ojibway Daybreak people ( Wa-bun -u-keeg) vowed to stay in the east and may be the people the French referred to as the Abnaki. The prophet  of the 1st. Fire told the people to moved or be destroyed. most of the Daybreak people were later destroyed when the whites came. The Mide (shamans) remembered the  prophet of the First Fire speaking of a turtle shaped island that would be the first of seven  stopping places during Ojibway migration. There are two sites that fit the description. The first is at the mouth of the St. Francis River and the other is an island near Montreal . The 6 Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy  were major adversaries during the migration . The seven major stopping stopping places of the great migration were 1 ) turtle-shaped island ( Montreal?) 2 Niagara Falls3) the Detroit River 4) Manitoulin Island of Lk.Huron 5) Sault Ste. Marie 6) Spirit Island in Duluth and Madeline Island in the Apostle Island of Lk. Superior. The Megis Shell rose up out of the water or sand at each locale and they knew when to stop when they found a turtle -shaped island ( Madeline Island) and "the food that grows on the water" (wild rice). The Ojibway have a 3 Fire confederacy composed of the Potawatomi (the fire people, keepers of the sacred Fire), the Ottawa (the trader people) and the Ojibway ( the faith keepers , keepers of the sacred scrolls and the Waterdrum  of the Midewiwin  ( the organized shamanic society for healers). All of the Anishinabe people are the nation of the Three Fire. Benton -Banai  thinks the people were mistakenly referred to as the Chippewa.  Densmore said that " The  meaning of the word Ojibway has been the subject of much discussion. The derivation of the word from a root meaning "to pucker" has been conjectured. Many attribute this derivation to a type of mocassin formerly used by this tribe, which had a puckered seam extending up the front instead of having a tongue-shaped piece,as in present usage".)Densmore) 1979:5-6). The Three Fires nation was attacked along the migration by the Sauks and Foxes and never fought the whites. They fought battles with the Dakota when they got to the Midwest. Benton- Banai thinks the migration started around 900 AD and took 500. years to complete (1988:102). He believes the Sacred Fire was kept alive that long and the dream of   the original 7 prophets was carried by many generations, Lee Sultcman