| Mille
Lacs Indian Museum Mille Lacs, MN |
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In 1750, the Ojibwe made their permanent homelands near Lake Mille Lacs, though artifacts from as long ago as 9,000 years have been found in the area. About 3,000 years ago many tribes came to this part of the country. They are known today as the Woodland people. The Mille Lacs Indian Museum is an excellent place to learn about these resourceful people. We enjoyed our guided tour through the "Four Season's Room", learning about how the Ojibwe lived off the land. The faces for the figures in this diorama were made from plaster casts of present-day Ojibwe people. The rest of the museum was very informative, interesting and engaging. We ended up spending over three hours there! Harrison learned that in the cold seasons the Ojibwe lived in tipis made of skins. In the warm seasons, they lived in dome-shapes houses called wigwams made from reeds and bark. Birch bark was a very important material for the Ojibwe. They would carry it with them and use it year after year for different purposes. Amanda learned that they used it to make baskets, cradle boards, canoes, and they covered their wigwams with layers of bark. Did you know you can cook in a pot made of birch bark? As long as the flame doesn't touch the pot, liquids can be boiled in birch bark! Today, there are 2,906 enrolled members of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. Over half of the members 21 years old and up live off the reservation. The band has gone through many difficulties over the past 150 years and they have struggled to keep their lands. They have had great leaders in the past, and are lead today by a determined woman who is helping them regain their pride and self-respect. Here are just some of the interesting things we learned at this great museum. |
) Spring
- This part of the diorama showed Ojibwe woman at their sugar camp, gathering
maple sap. They would boil down the thin liquid to make solid cakes of sugar
(like hard candy) which stored much longer than syrup, which attracted dust
and insects. They also made granulated maple sugar by stirring the hot,
thick sugar mixture in hollowed out log troughs until it cooled into grains.
They would gather and process enough to last them all year. |
The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich |
) Summer
- The Ojibwe would move to the flat land and build birch bark wigwams in
which they would live while farming corn and squash. They also gathered
berries and other wild plants for teas and medicines. Harrison says the
Ojibwe used" mano and matate" (a flat, slightly scooped rock slab
and a smooth pounding rock) to grind the dried corn into meal. Snap turtle
soup was a favorite meal of the Ojibwe as well. |
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Can you find the baby in a cradleboard attached to the side of the wigwam in this picture? He is looking at a dreamcatcher. Amanda found out that dreamcatchers were made to trap evil thoughts and let the good thoughts come through. |
From the Dover Coloring Book Woodlands Indians by Peter F. Copeland |
) Winter
- Amanda learned how to say "it is snowing" in Ojibwe:
"zoogipon". During the coldest season, the Ojibwe lived in tipis
where they could build a fire inside. They would hunt deer and rabbit and
gather fish year-round, but especially in the winter. Their extra furs were
traded with the French as early as the 1600s for blankets, pots and beads.
In the winter, they made red willow pipe tobacco, which is still made today.
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) Birch
Bark Canoe - The Ojibwe built canoes from second-growth birch bark,
which is thicker and stronger than the original layer. These boats would
be kept under the ice all winter to preserve them. |
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 Faces
(Click Here
for more faces) |
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a face |
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Ojibwe
was the name given to this Indian nation by other Native American groups.
It means "puckered" and describes the way they sewed their
moccasins, with a puckered seam around the toe. Some other tribes had
smooth-toed moccasins. But the name the Ojibwe called themselves was
"Anishinaabeg", which means "the people".
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Shingebiss : An Ojibwe Legend
Ojibwe