OP TUE HUMAN FAMILY. 203 



as well ascertained. They were frontagers of the Dakotas, and occupied some; 

 part of Northern Wisconsin, ranging eastward towards Lake Michigan, and the 

 occupancy of the Ojibwas on Lake Superior. Between these nations, whose dia- 

 lects closely affiliate, there was a political alliance, which existed to as late a period 

 as 1767, when they were called by Sir WiUiani Johnson " the Otawa Confederacy." 

 In the Otawa dialect, this league was styled Na-swd'-ba-ne-zid', signifying " Three 

 Council Fires in One." Among confederated Indian nations there is usually an 

 order of precedence in council established which indicates their relative rank, and 

 not unfrequently the parent nation. In the Otawa confederacy the Ojibwas were 

 styled the " Elder Brother," the Otawas, " Next Oldest Brother," and the Potawat- 

 tamics, " Younger Brother."^ These nations were probably subdivisions of one 

 original nation ; and the immediate progenitors of four other nations, called collec- 

 tively, at one time, the Illinois, namely, the Kaskaskias, Peorias, AVeas, and Piankc- 

 shaws, who occupied the quadrangle between the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the 

 foot of Lake Michigan. 



On the earliest map of Lake Superior in the relations of the Jesuits (1641-16G7) 

 the Kenistenaux or Crees are placed northwest of this lake, between it and Lake 

 Winnipeg. They were afterwards found to spread eastward as far as the regions 

 north of Montreal; and to hold the area between Lake Superior and Hudson's Bay, 

 and thence westward to the Red River of the North and the Siskatchewan. They 

 were evidently drawing westward at the epoch of the discovery, the causes of 

 Avhich may be traced to the rapid growtli of the power and influence of the Iro- 

 quois. It is also probable that a portion of the New England Algonkins retired in 

 this direction. 



The four nations named are designated the Gichigamian or Great Lake Nations. 

 Collectively they form one of the most conspicuous groups of this branch of the 

 Ganowanian family ; and from the earliest period, to which their traditions extend, 

 they have been identified with these lakes. It is also extremely probable, from the 

 great fisheries they afford, that these lakes have been the nursery of this stem of 

 the family, and the secondary initial point of migration to the valley of the 

 Saint Lawrence, and thence to the Atlantic seaboard ; and also to the valleys of 

 the Mississippi and the Ohio. They seem to stand intermediate between the east- 

 ern, the southern, and the western Algonkins. 



The system of consanguinity and affinity of the four groups of nations will be 

 considered in the order in which they are arranged. 



1. Ojibwas. Under the more familiar name of Chippewas, this nation has become 

 so well known, historically, that a reference to their civil aifairs will be unnecessary. 

 Small bands of this people still inhabit the south shore of Lake Superior, at the 

 Sault St. Mary, and around Marquette and L'Anse Bays; but the great body of 

 them now occupy the country around Leach and Red Lakes, in Western Minnesota. 

 They number about ten thousand. Their system of relationship agrees intimately 



' A similar order of precedure in council existed among the Iroquois ; the Mohawks, Onandagas, 

 and Senecas were collectively styled " Fathers," and the Cayugas, Oiieidas, and Tuscaroras " Sons," 

 and the nations were named in this relative order. — Cf. League of the Iroquois, pp. 96 and 118. 



