HRDLICKA— CHIPPEWA ANTHROPOLOGY 



such power or importance; yet until recently we knew practically 

 nothing of the exact physical characteristics of this people. x 



The Chippewa traditions, remarkably well preserved, place the 

 ancient abode of the tribe, a few centuries before the coming of the 

 whites, somewhere along the northern part of the Atlantic coast, 

 below the St Lawrence. There seem to exist some vague notions of a 

 still earlier migration eastward from the west or northwest, but in 

 this respect tradition is dim. From the coast the Chippewa extended 

 or migrated to the St Lawrence, and along that river reached in 

 course of time, and after much fighting with the Iroquois, the Great 

 Lakes, especially the vicinity of upper Lake Michigan and Sault Ste 

 Marie, where early in the seventeenth century they were found by 

 the French. From these points, by continued conquest, facilitated by 

 being provided early with firearms through the French, they pro- 

 gressed southward and especially westward until they occupied large 

 portions of the present states of Michigan and Wisconsin, most of 

 Minnesota, and parts of North Dakota as far as the Turtle mountains, 

 at the same time extending along Lake Superior into Canada. 2 



At present the main body of the tribe, numbering about 12,000 

 persons, live in northern Minnesota on the White Earth, Leech Lake, 

 Red Lake, and several smaller reservations. The country they occupy 

 is mostly a wilderness of brush, and of birch, poplar, and pine forests, 

 with many lakes and swamps. Some of the lakes are very large, and 

 a few, such as Sandy lake, are exceedingly beautiful. The country is 

 cold and for the greater part not well suited to agriculture. Fortu- 

 nately the lakes and, in spring, also their outlets, teem with fish, 

 and there is still some game, which, together with the product of a 

 little farming, some maple sugar, wild fruits, wild-rice, and the wages 

 earned by working for the whites, provide the Chippewa with the 

 necessaries of life. But the writer has seen much poverty, especially 

 among the old and feeble, and largely as a result there is much disease, 

 particularly teeth decay, trachoma, scrofula, and consumption. The 

 dress, housing, and habits of life of the Chippewa are now largely those 



1 The only anthropological studies made among the Chippewa were those by some students 

 under Professor Boas' direction on the occasion of the World's Exposition at Chicago, but the 

 measurements were restricted in number, the only ones reported upon (F. Boas, Zur Anthropologic 

 der nordamerikanischen Indianer, Verhandl. Berlin Anthr. Ges., 1895, p. 367 et seq.) being the 

 stature, length and breadth of head, and length and height of face. The series of "full-bloods" 

 examined included, however, it is now evident, many who were not wholly of that status. (Since 

 this was written, a contribution to the subject of Chippewa full-bloods and mixed-bloods has 

 been published by Prof. A. E. Jenks under the title "Indian-White Amalgamation", Bull. Univ. 

 Minnesota, no. 6, 1916, pp. 1-24.) 



2 See W. W. Warren, History of the Ojibways, Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, 

 vol. v, St Paul, 1885; Margry, Decouvertes, and the Jesuit Relations; also text as well as bibliogra- 

 phies in Handbook of American Indians, Bull. 30, B. A. E., art. "Chippewa". 



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