Odawa

The Block

Shirley Pitawanakwat, a designer of leather garments and other crafts, as well as the owner of a craft store within her community, created this block on a cream-coloured hide background. She beaded a grouping of nine small, maroon flowers outlined in dark turquoise beads on red felt. A single dark-green bead joins the grouping to a sinuous circlet of similar five-petal flowers and leaves.

Cultural Profile

Also spelled Ottawa, the Odawa name comes from the Algonquian word “Adawe” meaning “to trade”, in reference to their well known role as traders long before contact with Europeans. Canada’s capital takes its name from this once highly influential people. The Odawa are an Algonquian-speaking people who call themselves Anishinàbe meaning “original people.” They are currently located on Manitoulin Island and along the Bruce Peninsula, which is their original homeland.

They came from the east more than six hundred years ago, settling on the east side of Lake Huron, along the Bruce Peninsula and on Manitoulin Island. Known as Mnidioo Minssing, meaning “Spirit Island” or “Land of the Great Spirit,” Manitoulin Island is the largest freshwater island in the world. The island was a major stop for traders enroute between the Great Lakes and Atlantic coast. As traders, the Odawa travelled in birch-bark canoes far from their own lands to trade with other Aboriginal groups. When the French fur traders arrived on the scene the Odawa were quick to recognize an opportunity and put their savvy business sense to good use. Through trade with Aboriginal peoples to the north and west, the Odawa had access to a massive supply of beaver pelts. These pelts were especially popular for winter clothing because the beaver grew thicker coats in response to the cold weather.

The Odawa are members of the Three Fires Confederacy, along with the Ojibwe and the Potawatomi. Within this longstanding alliance, the Odawa are known as the Traders. The Ojibwe and the Potawatomi are the Faith Keepers and the Fire Keepers, respectively. The confederacy is based on Manitoulin Island in Wikwemikong, or “bay of the beavers”. According to oral tradition, it was thus named because the beaver originated and spread across Canada from there. Many of these three Aboriginal peoples today live together on Manitoulin Island on the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve No. 26.

Sponsor: David & Erna Witherspoon, in memoriam Nancy & Dean Richard