Oral histories and early recorded histories According to Anishinaabeg tradition, and from recordings in
Wiigwaasabak (birch bark scrolls), the Odawa people came from the eastern areas of North America, or
Turtle Island, and from a region called
Dawnland along the East Coast (where there are numerous Algonquian-language peoples). Directed by the
miigis (luminescent) beings, the Anishinaabe peoples moved inland along the
Saint Lawrence River. At the "Third Stopping Place" near what is now the
Straits of Mackinac, Michigan, the southern group of Anishinaabeg divided into three groups, the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi. The Saugeen mounds have not been excavated. The Odawa, together with the Ojibwe and Potawatomi, were part of a long-term tribal alliance called the
Council of Three Fires. Together they fought the nations of the
Iroquois Confederacy (who came from the East) and the
Dakota people. In 1615 French explorer
Samuel de Champlain met 300 men of a nation which, he said, "we call " (modern French spelling: (hair lifted, raised, rolled up)), near the mouth of the
French River. Of these, he said: In 1616, Champlain left the Huron villages and visited the , who lived westward from the lands of the
Huron Confederacy. The
Jesuit Relations of 1667 reported that three tribes lived in the same town: the Odawa, the Kiskakon Odawa, and the Sinago Odawa. All three tribes spoke the same language.
Fur trade Due to the extensive trade network maintained by the Odawa, many of the
North American interior nations became known to Europeans by the names the Odawa used for them (exonyms), rather than by the nations' own names (endonyms). For example, these exonyms include
Winnebago (from
Wiinibiigoo) for the
Ho-Chunk, and
Sioux (from
Naadawensiw) for the Dakota. From the early days of the colony of
New France, the Odawa became so important to the French and
Canadians in
fur trade that before 1670, colonists in
Quebec (then called
Canada) usually referred to any Algonquian speaker from the Great Lakes region as an Odawa. In their own language, the Odawa (like the Ojibwe) identified as
Anishinaabe (
Neshnabek) meaning "people". The mostly highly prized fur was beaver, popular in Europe. Other furs traded included deer, marten, raccoon, fox, otter, and muskrat. In exchange the Odawa received "hatchets, knives, kettles, traps, needles, fish hooks, cloth and blankets, jewelry and decorative items, and later firearms and alcohol". Up to the time of
Nicolas Perrot, the Odawa had a monopoly on all fur trade that came through
Green Bay, Wisconsin, or
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. They allegedly did "their best to exploit" the tribes in those areas "who did not use the canoe, by bartering with them bits of iron and steel and worn-out European articles for extravagant quantities of furs". For example, "the Crees gave the Ottawas 'all their beaver robes for old knives, blunted awls, wretched nets and kettles used until they were past service.
Wars and refugees with
gunstock war club The Odawa had disputes and warfare with other tribes, particularly over the lucrative fur trade. For example, the tribe once waged war against the
Mascouten. In the mid-17th century the Odawa allied with other Algonquian tribes around the Great Lakes against the powerful
Mohawk people (of present-day New York) and their Iroquois allies in the
Beaver Wars. The European introduction of guns and other weapons to some of their trading partners had disrupted the traditional balance of power in the region and changed economic risks and rewards. All indigenous peoples on both sides were disrupted or decimated; some groups, such as the Iroquoian-speaking
Erie, were exterminated as tribes. But by the mid-17th century, the tribes were more severely affected by new infectious diseases than warfare. Lacking acquired
immunity to these European diseases, they suffered epidemics with high fatalities. In 1701, the French colonists built
Fort Detroit and established a trading post. Many Odawa moved there from their traditional homeland of Manitoulin Island near the Bruce Peninsula, In the mid-18th century, the Odawa allied with their
French trading partners against the
British in the
Seven Years' War, known as the
French and Indian War in the North American colonies. They made raids against Anglo-American colonists. The Odawa chief
Pontiac has historically been reported to have been born at the confluence of the Maumee and Auglaize rivers, where modern
Defiance, Ohio, later developed. In 1763, after the British had defeated France, Pontiac led a
rebellion against the British, but he was unable to prevent British colonial settlement of the region. A decade later, Chief
Egushawa (also spelled Agushawa), who had a village at the mouth of the Maumee River on
Lake Erie (where Toledo later developed), led the Odawa as an ally of the British in the
American Revolutionary War. He hoped to build on their support to exclude European-American colonists from his territory in northwest Ohio and southern Michigan. The defeat of the British by the United States had a far-ranging influence on British-allied Native American tribes, as many were forced to cede their land to the United States. Following the Revolutionary War, in the 1790s, Egushawa, together with numerous members of other regional tribes, including the Wyandot and Council of Three Fires, Shawnee, Lenape, and Mingo, fought the United States in a series of battles and campaigns in what became known as the
Northwest Indian War. The Indians hoped to repulse the European-American pioneers coming to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains, but were finally defeated.
Treaties and removals In 1795, under the
Treaty of Greenville, the Odawa and other members of the Western Confederacy ceded all of Ohio to the United States, except the northwest area. This was part of the area controlled by the Detroit Odawa. In 1807, the Detroit Odawa joined three other tribes, the Ojibwe, Potawatomi and
Wyandot people, in signing the
Treaty of Detroit under pressure from the United States. The agreement, between the tribes and
William Hull, representing the
Michigan Territory, gave the United States a large portion of today's
Southeastern Michigan and a section of northwest
Ohio near the
Maumee River. Many Odawa bands moved away from the European Americans into northern Michigan. The tribes retained communal control of relatively small pockets of land in the territory of the Maumee River. Bands of Odawa-occupied areas are known as Roche de Boeuf and Wolf Rapids on the upper Maumee River. In 1817, in the first treaty involving land cessions after the War of 1812, the Ohio Odawa ceded their lands, accepting
reservations at
Blanchard's Creek and the
Little Auglaize River in Ohio (a total of ). These were only reserves, for which they were paid annuities for ten years. Pressure continued to build against the Odawa as European-American settlers moved into the area. After passage of the
Indian Removal Act of 1830, the US government arranged for the Odawa to cede their reserves in 1831. The four following bands eventually all removed to areas of Kansas, then part of
Indian Territory: the Blanchard's Creek, Little Auglaize, Roche de Boeuf, and Wolf Rapids bands. ==Modern history==