Lake Superior Chippewa

History
Lake Superior is a special place for the Lake Superior Chippewa. According to tradition the Chippewa's migrated from the east coast to Lake Superior. After reaching the eastern shores of Lake Superior they may have agreed to distribute land among themselves. One branch may have moved to southern Michigan. They are the Saginaw_Chippewa_Indian_Tribe_of_Michigan. They are also known as the Sac and Sauk.

Another branch moved west into what is now the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Included among them are the Menominee_Indians. They also colonized northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. Either the Chippewa's from northern Wisconsin or southern Michigan colonized southern Wisconsin.

Another branch moved to the northern shores of Lake Superior which the Chippewa call Kitchi Gami. They were not as numerous as the Chippewa's from the Lower Penisula of Michigan, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. THeir totems were largely non military but that changed after the whites invaded.

They did not migrate to the Lake Superior region in the 1500s. Ojibway authors from the 19th century wrote of the Chippewa's forcing their way east from the west. George Copway wrote that the Chippewa's from the Minnesota region, commenced to colonize the land east of Lake Superior and north of Lake Huron, around 1634 and 1635. They had to fight the Lakota who contested the Chippewa military advance which either means the Lakota lived between the Chippewa's of Minnesota and Chippewa's from Michigan, or the Lakota invaded from the south.

William W. Warren wrote that the Chippewa's waged a war against the Lakota of Minnesota in the early 17th century. Warren learned the Chippewa's counted one generation as being 40 years. Read his book carefully. Either the Chippewa's were forcing their way east from North Dakota or even Montana, west to Lake Superior, or an unknown event has been lost which could have provided the details of this Chippewa military advance to the east. Warren also wrote that the Chippewa's forced their way to the east from the west.