Thesis (M.A.)--University of Nebraska at Kearney, 2018
Includes bibliographical references
The “Island Nation” examines the persistence of the Ojibwe people based on and near Madeline Island, Wisconsin, while confronting enemies, empires, republics, and European disease over a period of five centuries. It shows how the Island Nation remained a sovereign nation from the pre-Columbian period through centuries of trade, warfare, diplomacy, and treaties with the Europeans and Americans. The oral histories of the Anishinaabeg set the background for a migration across the North America from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to western Lake Superior. By the seventeenth-century, Ojibwes on the island were in contact with the first French explorers and encountered European technology, markets, and religions. This thesis shows how the Ojibwes’ ability to adapt to this rapid change and develop a unique foreign policy with France, Britain, and the United States differs from other Native nations because the Ojibwe were neither conquered nor removed from their western Lake Superior homelands. It addresses the tidal waves of change and the assimilative pressures that threatened the Ojibwe people’s culture and community, including the associated Ojibwe-European extended family. Ojibwes developed trade with European empires and negotiated treaties with the United States but increasingly relied on the descendants of French and British traders to function as translators and intermediaries. Finally, the thesis addresses the Chippewa (Ojibwe) Treaties of 1837, 1842, and 1854 with the United States, explaining the various intrigues, treacheries, and machinations in the treaty-making process. Throughout this period, the Island Nation maintained a steadfast and nonviolent refusal to be threatened or bullied by empires, republics, or their enemies
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Mich. : ProQuest, 2019
