"Ottawa" or "Odaawaa" comes from the word '''', which means "to trade". Long before European explorations began, the Odawa were known among other Native American tribes as important traders. The French quickly realized how influential they were and used them as middlemen to the tribes to the north and west of them, who supplied them with furs from the 17th well into the 18th century. The Odawa are part of the
Three Fires Confederacy, together with the
Ojibwe and
Potawatomi. The Oklahoma Odawa are descended from Odawa bands that moved south from
Manitoulin Island and the
Bruce Peninsula, both in
Ontario, Canada, under pressure from the Iroquois and other tribes, and European encroachment. They settled near
Fort Detroit and the
Maumee River in
Ohio. They were pressured to move again by the United States, after Congressional passage of the
Indian Removal Act of 1830, which authorized the government to make land exchanges with Native American tribes in order to remove them from east of the Mississippi River and extinguish their land titles there. The
Ottawa of the Blanchard's Fork, Roche de Bœuf and Auglaize reserves of Ohio signed a treaty with the US in 1833. The treaty ceded their lands in Michigan, Ohio, and
Illinois in exchange for lands in
Iowa, then
Kansas, part of what was known as
Indian Territory under the federal government's plan. The Odawa did not relocate from Ohio until April 1837. Of the 600 Odawa who migrated to Kansas, "more than 300 died within the first two years, because of exposure, lack of proper food, and the great difference between the cool, damp woods of Ohio and the dry, hot plains of Kansas." To survive as a people, the tribe made a remarkable investment in their children's future. Of the the Ottawa controlled in Kansas, they set aside for an upper-level school and sold of land to fund its construction and maintenance. Affiliated with the Baptist Church, which operated missions in Kansas,
Ottawa University educated both Indians and non-Indians. The present-day town of
Ottawa, Kansas, developed because of the Odawa Reservation. The Odawa people remained in Kansas until 1867, after the
American Civil War. Under the leadership of Chief John Wilson, the tribe sold their lands in Kansas and purchased of land in
Indian Territory from the
Eastern Shawnee. == Notable citizens ==