Image via First Ladies
This image, taken of a Chippewa family, depicts the traditional housing, hunting and family norms for Chippewa culture. The Chippewa, one of the largest groups of Native Americans in North America, were a strong tribe with morals built on the unification of the people. Chippewa believed that is was important for a tribe to be unified in religion, family, hunting and leadership. The Chippewa had outstanding gender roles, which promoted near equality of men and women, and also promoted the importance of family. For the Chippewa, tradition made them not only independent from European settlers who came in 1612 but also unified as a tribe. Traditional burial rite, family structures and positions, and trial leadership were a few parts of the unification process that led the Chippewa tribe to near equality for women and men, and also the great leadership and competency shown at the time of contact with Europeans such as the French. Family was one of the most important parts in the Chippewa lifestyle, with the women and children having connections with home life, with men teaching children how to hunt and fish, and men and women knowing each other from the tribe since earlier in life. Chippewa, a very family oriented tribe, thus find themselves having trouble keeping traditions going after contact with Europeans. My sources, ranging from academic databases to books, help me decipher the correct history of the Chippewa people. The academic database Gale U.S. History in Context is a great resource that helped me find academic articles regarding the family structures of the Chippewa. The book that I used was helpful in using artifacts to connect the dots historically, and the primary source, effigy burial mounds, helps to further my knowledge of family for the Chippewa.
Josie, this was very well written. I was really surprised at how much the Chippewa tribe was like the one I learned about, the Inuits. Hunting was a major role in both the tribes and so was gender equality.
ReplyDeleteHey Josie, since the Chippewa tribe were very family oriented I was wondering what were the common living arrangements for the families, would there be a single family in each house? I'd love to know more!
ReplyDeleteIn each wigwam there would typically be one family, until the children became a certain age where they would marry others in the tribe and build their own family which was very much apart from their own.
DeleteIn each wigwam there would typically be one family, until the children became a certain age where they would marry others in the tribe and build their own family which was very much apart from their own.
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ReplyDeleteIt sounds like all of the morals that the Chippewa had are the ones that many people in the U.S. are striving for. It almost sounds like utopia. Its funny how people from so long ago had everything right. I wonder if the Europeans forced the Chippewa to change their traditions and assimilate to the European traditions.
ReplyDeleteI do remember reading that once the Europeans made contact with the Chippewa the gender equality started to divide, with things as simple as the reassignment of jobs in the tribe. Post-contact the Chippewa were assimilated to a culture where men were the impetus behind the family's success.
DeleteHey Josie! The Chippewa's unification and tradition of their tribe helped keep them independent from the European settlers is the same kind of situation that happened with the tribe I chose, the Navajos. They had a connection between the land and the history that made them resistant to the settlers. I wonder if this same resistance happened with other tribes too when the European settlers invaded their land?
ReplyDeleteI like the question Lucy asked, and since it is a large part of your research I would also like to know more. How did the gender roles of the Chippewa people affect their relations with other tribes? Or maybe that is beyond the scope of what you researched. Perhaps how did the Chippewa people first learn to treat each other this way?
ReplyDeleteJosie,
ReplyDeleteI loved the facts regarding their language and art, and I really enjoyed reading your blog post. How have the Chippewa changed since the B.C. times to now? Have their traditions stayed relatively same?
Great work.
I like how in depth you get. The is really good fam!
ReplyDeleteI like how in depth you get. The is really good fam!
ReplyDeleteJosie,
ReplyDeleteI really like your blog! It is really cool that the language is still strong today! Was there any loss of culture through the oppression of Native Americans? I know that a lot of the culture of my tribe (the Makah) was lost as time progressed and times changed. Great job!