or Chippewa
North American Plains Indian people living mostly in southern Canada and the north-central U.S. Ojibwa is an Algonquian language.
The people's name, spelled Ojibwe in Canada and given as Chippewa in official U.S. documents, is derived from an Algonquian word ojib-ubway , meaning "puckering," probably referring to a type of moccasin. They call themselves Anishinaabe or Anishinabek, meaning "Spontaneously Created" or "Original Man." They formerly inhabited a region north of the Great Lakes but during the 17th–18th centuries moved west to what is now northern Minnesota. Each Ojibwa tribe was divided into migratory bands. In the autumn, bands separated into family units for hunting; in summer, families gathered at fishing sites. They grew corn and collected wild rice. The Midewiwin, or Grand Medicine Society, was the major Ojibwa religious organization. The Ojibwa are one of the largest Native American groups in North America today, numbering about 50,000 in the U.S. and more than 100,000 in Canada. They are closely related to the Ottawa and Potawatomi.