The Ojibwe tribe’s ancestors originated about three to four thousand years ago on the Atlantic coast. From the Ojibwe ancestors’, or the mother group, twenty-seven different Indian tribes were born, including the Ojibwe. All of these subtribes share common political and economical history, as well as share similarities in their languages. The emergence of the Ojibwe tribe as a subgroup is thought to have developed about fifteen hundred years ago. The Ojibwe people functioned as a tribe of autonomous villages that had many languages and culture commonalities among them. All these tribes came together to form the Ojibwe people. The culture of the Ojibwe tribe, when it originated, had a strong clan system. This was a patrilineal system, meaning that the clans were passed down from the father, and the clans were one of the most important factors in determining where a person stood among the Ojibwe’s society. The clans were named after animals, including names such as; loon, crane, wolf, bear, lynx, and more. Chiefs commanded the Ojibwe tribe at the beginning, and they were mainly from the crane or loon clan. Later, as the clans began …show more content…
Among a few of the reasons, the population density on the Atlantic coast of native people was increasing and causing problems for the Ojibwe people. Tribal warfare erupted as the population grew, due to the competition between Indian tribes over the resources of the land and over territory. Another reason that the Ojibwe tribe moved west is that of a prophecy. There is an old Ojibwe prophecy that referes to wild rice, which was one of the critical staples in the Ojibwe diet. The prophecy stated that the tribe had to, “move west to ‘the land where food grows on water’” (Treuer 10). This prophecy makes a clear reference to wild rice, and this was a major incentive for the Ojibwe tribe to move west to present day