Ojibwe History Timeline

According to several authors, the R1b genetic lineage was most likely introduced through admixture during post-1492 European settlement of North America.

William Warren wrote that the Ojibwe originally had five clans, while around his lifetime in the nineteenth century there were approximately fifteen to twenty-one clans.

By the nineteenth century, the Ojibwe were beginning to perceive themselves as a nation or tribe.

By around the 1840s, the Ojibwe population numbered approximately 30,000 and extended across a broad area of North America.

The dreamcatcher originated among the Ojibwe and became a popular commercial item in the late twentieth century, later becoming a symbol of the Pan-Indian movement.

Image source: Dreamcatcher

By the twenty-first century, the Ojibwe had become one of the largest Indigenous ethnic groups in North America.

In 2013, the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa re-purchased Strawberry Island, a sacred island previously owned by a non-Indigenous family.

About 160,000 people were registered with approximately 200 First Nation bands in 2014.

According to the 2020 United States census, Ojibwe people made up the largest Canadian Indian alone population category, at 14.9%.

In 2025, a Catholic retreat center on the shore of Trout Lake was returned to the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, in one of the first transfers of land from Catholic sisters to a tribal government.

Sometime between the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the Ojibwe gained contact with the French, and diplomatic relations were positive.

Jacques Cartier entered the St. Lawrence River in 1535, marking an early stage of sustained French exploration in the region.

Image source: Jacques Cartier

In 1609, Samuel de Champlain killed two Iroquois chiefs, an act that affected relations and conflicts among Indigenous nations and the French.

Image source: Samuel de Champlain

Roman Catholic missionaries followed European contact. Ojibwe first encountered Franciscan missionaries in 1622.

Jesuit missionaries first encountered the Ojibwe in 1641 as Catholic missionary activity expanded in the Great Lakes region.

According to historian Jacob Jurss, around 1650 the Ojibwe established Shagwaamikong, or La Pointe, one of the largest settlements on Lake Superior.

In the 1670s, Jesuits established a mission at the Sault. A sparse Roman Catholic missionary effort continued through the eighteenth century.

On June 4, 1671, colonial agent Simon-François Daumont de Saint-Lusson was dispatched from Quebec to distant tribes and proposed a congress of Indigenous nations at the Falls of St. Mary.

In 1679, the Ojibwe and Dakota formed an alliance at Fond du Lac. The Ojibwe agreed to provide fur in exchange for Dakota permission to move west toward the Mississippi.

The alliance between the Dakota and Ojibwe collapsed between 1736 and 1739 because of French intervention.

Ojibwe Chief Nittum organized a brief peace between the Ojibwe and Dakota that lasted from 1787 to 1794.

Robert Stuart signed the first Treaty of La Pointe for the United States with representatives of Ojibwe bands from Lake Superior and the Mississippi River on October 4, 1842. It was proclaimed on March 23, 1843, and recorded as 7 Stat.

Image source: Treaty of La Pointe

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the United States government forced Ojibwe bands onto reservations. Ojibwe communities continued to face hardships caused by federal policies.

The Battle of Shakopee, fought in 1858, was described as the last battle in the long conflict between the Ojibwe and Dakota.

During the Dakota War of 1862, a group of Ojibwe volunteers fought against the Dakota on behalf of the United States, as many Ojibwe continued to regard the Dakota as enemies.

Image source: Dakota War of 1862

On September 2, 1862, Chiefs Naw-Gaw-Nub, also spelled Ne-Bah-Quah-Om, and Shin-Gwack wrote Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey requesting permission to fight the Dakota.