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The Ojibwe are an indigenous people from Τurtle island, from across the northern plains to the northeastern woodlands of Canada and the United States of America. The migration legend that the Ojibwe recount follows them, the Ottawa and Potawatomi peoples from the St. Laurence River to St. Marys River through Lake Nipissing and Huron. Overall, the Ojibwe people's are often associated to rivers and water, leading to the French people's name for them (Saulteurs, meaning "People of the Falls"). French missionaries and explorers, under Samuel de Champlain, made first contact with the Ojibwe in Sault Ste. Marie around 1620. There is no standardized spelling for the people's name and due to this they have been also associated to the name Chippewa through a corruption of Ojibwa. In such, the etymology of the people's name either refers to the glyphs used by the group or the distinctive puckered toe of their moccasins.

As a member of the Algonquian language family, the Ojibwe share the proto-Algonquian language with other indigenous peoples such as the Arapaho, Cree, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, Mi'kmaq and Fox-Sauk-Kickapoo. There is no single organization linking the larger group. However, they were linked through alliances and personal connections of patriarchal clans. These kinship relationships are the cause of a close link between the Cree and Ojibwe peoples. Traditionally, the Ojibwe sustained themselves through a variety of means. Often being cited as hunters, fishermen and subsistence farmers, they additionally relied on maple sugar, wild rice, buffalo hunting and horse herds.

Note regarding the virtual timeline

Through this virtual timeline, tags will be used to differentiate between art made before colonial contact, during colonial contact and modern Ojibwe artwork. For future reference, art made before settler contact will be tagged as #pre-con. Furthermore, art which emerged from colonization will be tagged as #col-con. Finally, modern and contemporary Ojibwe are will be tagged as #mod-con. Sources used in the research for any given artwork will be placed within the comments of each related post.

The proper use of this timeline is to scroll backwards from the most contemporary artwork towards the eldest present.

Bibliography

"Ojibwa." In A Dictionary of World History, edited by Kerr, Anne, and Edmund Wright. : Oxford University Press, 2015. https://www-oxfordreference-com.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780199685691.001.0001/acref-9780199685691-e-2695.

“About Patrick.” Patrick Hunter Art & Design. Accessed December 21, 2025. https://www.patrickhunter.ca/pages/about-us.

Ace, Barry. “Biography.” Barry Ace, 2024. https://www.barryacearts.com/bio-2/.

Ace, Barry. “MIDEWIWIN.” (193cm x 152.4cm x 3.8cm) A colourful collage painted over a map of North America. Along the top border of the image is a phrase in phonetic Ojibwe. The bottom border is a line of music. Indigenous symbols are painted over the map in a linear pattern. Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Art Gallery, 2007. Ottawa Art Gallery. Ontario.

Anonymous. “Copper Artifacts.” Milwaukee Public Museum, 2022. https://www.mpm.edu/research-collections/anthropology/online-collections-research/old-copper-culture/artifacts?utm.

Anonymous. “Ojibwe.” Milwaukee Public Museum. Accessed December 21, 2025. https://www.mpm.edu/content/wirp/ICW-51.

Anselmi, L. M. “A Brief Historical Retrospective of Investigations of Archaic to Contact Period Copper-Based Metal Artifacts in Northeastern North America.” Archaic to Contact Period Copper-based Metal Artifacts, 2014, 81–94.

Archaeological geology of the archaic period in North America, 1995. https://doi.org/10.1130/spe297.

Bender, Herman. “The Thunderbird in Native American Rock Art.” Anthropomorphic Images in Rock Art Paintings and Rock Carvings, February 27, 2020, 268–78. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1228gc6.21.

Big Knife, Kaylene J. “FOUR BODIES WRITING: DOCUMENTING AND REVITALIZING THE ROCKY BOY CREE LANGUAGE AND THE GRAPHIC DESIGN PROCESS.” THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA, February 2019.

Braaten, Ann W., and Susan Pierson Ellingson. “Instructional Resources: Art from the American Indians of the Plains and Woodlands Region.” Art Education 45, no. 6 (November 1992): 25. https://doi.org/10.2307/3193313.

Bradley Lepper, For The Columbus Dispatch. “Archaeology: Copper Was Sacred to Hopewell, Regardless of Its Source.” The Columbus Dispatch, October 29, 2017. https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/technology/2017/10/29/archaeology-copper-was-sacred-to/17745661007/.

Burant, Jim. “Barry Ace.” Art Canada Institute - Institut de l’art canadien, 2020. https://www.aci-iac.ca/art-books/ottawa-art-and-artists/key-artists/barry-ace/.

Conway, Thor. Spirits on stone: Lake Superior Ojibwa history, Legends & the Agawa Pictographs. Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario: Heritage Discoveries, 2010.

“Dakonaagan (Cradleboards).” Ojibwe.net, November 8, 2023. https://ojibwe.net/projects/dakonaagan-cradleboards/.

Devine, Bonnie. “Letter to William.” Mixed media dyptych comprised of two panels; the first is a giclée print depicting an abstract field of black, gray, white, and tan, the second is a stretched canvas primed with white paint with wax or transparency paper stitched to the surface with yellow and red thread around all four sides with hand written text in pencil and four figures throughout; an otter, circle with vertical line, bird, and man in hat. [When viewing this work the abstract panel is on the left and the text panel is on the right.] (2 spec.). Washington, DC: National Museum of the American Indian, 2008. National Museum of the American Indian. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Dyc, Gloria, and Carolynn Milligan. “Native American Visual Vocabulary: Ways of Thinking and Living.” UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO-GALLUP, February 28, 2013, 54–78.

Freeman, Eric. “Copper Culture Shapes Ancient History: Great Lakes Echo.” Great Lakes Echo | Environmental news of the Great Lakes region, November 20, 2024. https://greatlakesecho.org/2019/05/03/copper-culture-shapes-ancient-history/.

Fulford, G. “Charms in Cree and Ojibwe Language, Culture, and Worldview.” Papers of the forty-fourth Algonquian conference 44 (2012): 67–84. https://doi.org/https://ojs.library.carleton.ca/index.php/ALGQP/article/view/2318.

Fiedel, Stuart J. “ALGONQUIAN ORIGINS: A PROBLEM IN ARCHEOLOGICAL—LINGUISTIC CORRELATION.” Archaeology of Eastern North America 15 (1987): 1–11. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40914351.

Harringa, Charissa von, and Heather Igloliorte. Ecopoetics, decolonizing aesthetics, and the fluid spaces of co-existence in contemporary circumpolar indigenous art and exhibitionary practice. Montréal, Québec: Concordia University, 2023.

Hermes, Mary, and Keiki Kawai’ae’a. “Revitalizing Indigenous Languages through Indigenous Immersion Education.” Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education 2, no. 2 (September 12, 2014): 303–22. https://doi.org/10.1075/jicb.2.2.10her.

Hill, Tom. “Norval Morrisseau | the Canadian Encyclopedia.” Canadian Encyclopedia. Accessed December 22, 2025. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/norval-morrisseau.

Hoffman, W. J. “Pictography and Shamanistic Rites of the Ojibwa.” American Anthropologist A1, no. 3 (July 1888): 209–30. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1888.1.3.02a00010.

Hoxie, Frederick E. 1996. Encyclopedia of North American Indians. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. EBSCOhost.

King, J. C. H. Thunderbird and lightning: Indian life in northeastern North America, 1600-1900. London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Publications, 1982.

Kruse, Pat, and Gage Kruse. “Ojibwe Birchbark Appliqué Baseball Hat.” Baseball hat made from silver birch and decorated with layered birchbark floral appliqué. Based from a design in Fred K. Blessing’s article, “The Ojibway Indians Observed,” published by the Minnesota Archaeological Society in 1977. St. Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society, 2014. Minnesota Historical Society Collections. Minnesota Historical Society’s Native American Artist-in-Residence Program.

Low, John. “Vessels for ‘Recollection’ — The Canoe Building Renaissance in the Great Lakes.” Material Culture 47, no. 1 (2015): 1–31.

M. Redix, Erik. “‘Our Hope and Our Protection’: <em>misko-Biiwaabik</Em> (Copper) and Tribal Sovereignty in Michigan.” American Indian Quarterly 41, no. 3 (2017): 224. https://doi.org/10.5250/amerindiquar.41.3.0224.

Nahwegahbow, Alexandra Kahsenni:io. “From Great-Grandmothers to Great-Granddaughters: ‘Moving Life’ in Baby Carriers and Birchbark Baskets.” RACAR : Revue d’art canadienne 42, no. 2 (January 25, 2018): 100–107. https://doi.org/10.7202/1042949ar.

Noori, Margaret. “3. Native American Narratives from Early Art to Graphic Novels:” Multicultural Comics, December 31, 2010, 55–72. https://doi.org/10.7560/722811-005.

Pomedli, Michael. Living with animals. University of Toronto Press, 2014.

Porter, Maria, M. Nieves Zedeño, Richard W. Stoffle, R. Christopher Basaldú, and Fabio Pittaluga Genevieve Dewey-Hefley. “TRADITIONAL OJIBWAY RESOURCES IN THE WESTERN GREAT LAKES.” TRADITIONAL OJIBWAY RESOURCES IN THE WESTERN GREAT LAKES Final Report May 1, 2001 BUREAU OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN ANTHROPOLOGY The University of Arizona in Tucson, June 2001.

Rajnovich, Grace. Reading rock art: Interpreting the Indian rock paintings of the Canadian shield. Toronto: Natural Heritage/Natural History Inc, 2009.

Ray, Lana. “‘Beading Becomes a Part of Your Life.’” International Review of Qualitative Research 9, no. 3 (November 2016): 363–78. https://doi.org/10.1525/irqr.2016.9.3.363.

Smith, Theresa S., Blake Debassige, Shirley Cheechoo, James Simon Mishibinijima, and Leland Bell. “Beyond the Woodlands: Four Manitoulin Painters Speak Their Minds.” American Indian Quarterly 18, no. 1 (1994): 1. https://doi.org/10.2307/1185726.

Southall, Neebinnaukahik. “Then and Now: Asserting Anishinabek Identity through Indigenized Apparel.” Oregon State university, 2011.

Steer, Bill. “Pictograph Colours - How the Marks Were Made and Why They Last so Long - Elliot Lake News.” Elliot Lake Today. Accessed December 22, 2025. https://www.elliotlaketoday.com/local-news/pictograph-colours-how-the-marks-were-made-and-why-they-last-so-long-3899808.

Syms, Leigh E, and Valerie McKinley. “CERAMICS OF THE CHURCHILL RIVER DIVERSION, NORTHERN BOREAL FOREST OF MANITOBA: SOME CURRENT INSIGHTS AND ISSUES.” Manitoba Archeological Journal 16, no. 1 and 2 (2010): 48–67.

Thompson, L., and R.C.P. Doonan. “Copper on the Northwest Coast, a Biographical Approach.” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 24 (April 2019): 1102–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.06.009.

Unknown. “Canoe Model.” Washington, DC: National Museum of the American Indian, 1920. National Museum of the American Indian. Smithsonian.

Unknown. “Ojibwe Beaded Velvet Cradleboard Bands.” Pair of black velvet beaded Ojibwe bands used as decoration for cradleboards, circa 1900. Collected by Alfred “Gafe” Peterson, who worked and owned businesses in the Cass Lake, Minnesota region from the 1920s to 1974. St. Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society Collections, n.d. Minnesota Historical Society Collections. Minnesota.

Unknown. Pipe bowl with human and feline effigies. Smithsonian, 1750. National Museum of the American Indian. Mississauga.

Unknown. “Sash Net.” Sash, net made of cord (wool), iron, bison hair and deer hair dyed red, quills (porcupine). Net construction, warps are quill wrapped with eleven tassels on both sides. United Kingdom: British Museum, 1750. British Musuem. United Kingdom.

Unknown. “Vessel.” Decorated birch-bark box. Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1925. National Museum of the American Indian. Smithsonian.

Vastokas, Joan M. “Ojibwa Pictography: The Origins of Writing and the Rise of Social Complexity.” Ojibwa Pictography, no. 75 (2003): 3–16.

Whiteford, William Hunter. “(Mystic and Decorative Art of the Anishinabe (Chippewa/Ojibwa.” Art and Material Culture of the North American Subarctic and Adjacent Regions 28, no. 1 (January 1, 1991): 74–83.

Walde, Dale & Meyer, David & Young, Patrick. (2010). Precontact Pottery in Alberta. Manitoba Archaeological Journal. 16. 139-165.

Kappenman, Jennie. “Beaded Cellphone Bag”, Cellphone/mobile phone bag done in floral beadwork by artist Jennie Kappenman. Rectangular leather bag decorated with beads and a beaded shoulder strap. The face of the bag is decorated with a multi-colored beaded floral pattern with rows of white beads forming the background to the pattern. The top, bottom and sides of the bag are decorated in alternating white, blue and gold beads. The bottom edge of the bag is scalloped with four semi-circular tabs; tabs are edge beaded with gold beads. The semi-circular flap at the top of the bag is edged in gold beads. The shoulder strap is entirely encased in alternating, wound bands of blue white and gold beads. A hide thong is bound to the ends of the shoulder strap where it attaches to the bag with a strand of gold beads; the thong is tied at the back of the bag over the opening flap. 2022. Located at the Smithsonian Institution Anthropology Collection (USNM number E437514-O).

#mod-con

Hunter, Patrick. “Woodland Gummies” Archival matte paper, 2 prints of 9"x16". Red Lake, Ontario: Patrick Hunter and Shopify, 2014.

Patrick Hunter is a 2Spirit Ojibwe artist from Red Lake, Ontario. After having been educated in graphic design at Sault College in 2011, Hunter hopped from part-time positions before developing his artistic style inspired by Norval Morrisseau and the Woodland style of his hometown. He developed his company, Patrick Hunter Art & Design, as a way to improve the homes of his clients through accessible art. The artist seeks to reflect his culture within his work so that future generations can see each other reflected within popular culture. This desire is reflected throughout the artist’s career since college when he led the Indigenous Students Council and advocated for other indigenous students through programming.

The designs that Hunter puts upon the eight gummy bears are identifiably different on each of them. Four of the bears have design elements within the spherical limbs of the gummies which imitate a bears’ paws. There are a variety of forms in which the artist depicts the bears’ digital pads. Identifiably, the pastel-blue bear bears heart shaped palms with four dotted or triangular toes. The magenta bear has upper paws which are similarly constructed as the first, although with a waxing or waning moon and five dots facing inwards to the bear’s body. The other half of the footed bears follow a more representative visual tradition as the top paws of the cerulean blue bear and the bright yellow bear have an outline or filled in shape representing the metacarpal pad with the four digital pads of a vaguely circular shape. Lastly, the cerulean bear offers a singular spiral based metacarpal pad with dotted digital pads which is similar to the paws of the green, magenta, teal, orange, and dark purple gummy bears giving the impression that they were each to have realistic paws were they not truly made of gelatine.

This call to the realistic anatomy of each bear could be a remaining aspect from Ojibwe art that is observable from the pictographic rock art of Agawa where animals were used to represent a people or group. Such an argument could be further reinforced by the headdress and facial markings on the green and yellow gummy bears. The yellow bear’s headdress could stand for a specific person or their role in society as the style of headdress depicted is a social status and respect within their communities. Furthermore, the rectangular outlines around the eyes of the green bear which resemble glasses could also be a tell for a human counterpart as facial features such as glasses are largely absent from local art.

#mod-con

Collection Record | Minnesota Historical Society

#mod-con

Two horizontal rectangular images are placed side by side as Bonnie Devine combines giclée print, graphite writing, and cotton thread stitching on paper. The rectangle on the left illustrates a close-up photograph of a rock surface discoloured with ochre while the one on the right illustrates a white background with dense handwriting and pictographic designs scattered.

This diptych was created by a Serpent River Ojibwe artist named Bonnie Devine, entitled “Letter to William” (2008) is an artwork which reflects on Canadian Shield landscape and rock art from the region where he grew up. The layout of the diptych calls to postcards, as the shape and comparison of image on one side and writing on the other imitates the postcards that would be found at important sites and museums. Furthermore, more comparisons can be made between the image and writing as it evokes the idea that the local land holds stories within the ochre and stone that paper and words cannot express. In fact, “Letter to William” (2008) furthers the larger practice of placing more traditional ways within the more European contemporary art contexts. Moreover, as the written component of the diptych is hand-drawn and stitched components can be seen as forms of mnemonic inscription that reference oral histories, pictographic traditions, and Indigenous mapping practices, while the photographic rock imagery foregrounds the landscape as an active bearer of ancestral memory. This additional method of placing writing within hand-stitched components furthers the questioning of the setttler European classification of history and art as it places the culturally feminine role of stitching and craft to the same level as written history.

#mod-con

A contemporary artwork made by Barry Ace in 2007 is a large map of North America painted over with a mixture of pink, yellow and blue acrylic paint. The white symbols painted in the centre of the map call back to the pictographs of Ojibwe rock art such as those at Agawa. The animalistic figures and human-like symbolic shapes on Midewiwin (2007) shares a cultural and visual memory as they both depict canoes and spiritual beings to function as mnemonic devices. Secondly, the mixture of phonetic Ojibwe, musical language and pictographs over the geological map demonstrates the interaction between different realms of knowledge important to Ojibwe life. The juxtaposition of the foreground of symbols against the foggy background of the map, compares the knowledge of the landscape which is present for the artist and Ojibwe communities compared to the cartographical separation of the settler perspective. In doing so, the artist reclaims space through Anishinaabe epistemologies. Both forms emphasize that knowledge is relational and that art serves as a vessel for teachings rather than purely aesthetic expression. In this way, Midewiwin echoes the purpose of Ojibwe rock art which is to assert Indigenous presence, transmit sacred knowledge, and maintain continuity between past, present, and future through visual means.

#mod-con

Unknown. “Vessel.” Decorated birch-bark box. Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 1925. National Museum of the American Indian. Smithsonian.

Using traditional birch basket making techniques and materials, an unknown Ontarian Ojibwe artisan built using birchbark, spruce root, and hide thong which was carefully folded, stitched and etched. The etching technique on the exposed sides of the birchbark to present a knotted-net-like pattern with small “+” markings in the open space of the net. This birchbark container reflects the vessels essential to everyday life, which could even hold water if well crafted. Furthermore, the creation of these vessels demonstrates a deeply rooted indigenous craft and ecological knowledge which values fine hand-crafted skills. Additionally, the creation of such vessels requires a knowledge of birch trees and when to harvest its birch sustainably which has been passed down over generations. These vessels show a method of decorating utilitarian devices and integrating decorative techniques which parallel birchbark scrolls.

#mod-con

Unknown. “Canoe Model.” Washington, DC: National Museum of the American Indian, 1920. National Museum of the American Indian. Smithsonian.

This miniature canoe model created around 1920 by an unknown Ojibwe craftsperson and artist is currently within the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian collection. Thus the artist mimicks the traditional methods of making a full-sized birchbark canoe with birchbark, porcupine quills, and conifer root. Such canoes are used by the Ojibwe and other local Anishinaabe people for transportation, trade and war. As this is a scaled down representation of a canoe, this miniature boat embodies a traditional and technical skill important to the Ojibwe way of life. Such miniature cultural objects such as similar dolls with beadwork and miniature canoes hold an important and pressing role in indigenous economic markets. Moreover, the creation of small cultural aspects of a native community serves as a boost to the local communities through colonial contact to today as handcrafted souvenirs to be traded with visitors. In such, these miniatures offered a way for communities to keep the traditional knowledge alive through economic shifts and preserve their heritage while allowing native peoples to assert agency over their representation and cultural expressions.

#mod-con

This pair of cradle board bands serve to decorate a child’s cradleboard, reflect a similar cultural and botanical motif present in Ojibwe art present and past. As cradleboards have both a practical and artistic character as they are used to carefully cradle the child with wooden boards, moss or plant fibres as padding, and soft coverings like these velvet covers for warmth. These constructions allowed and allow parents to continue daily tasks while ensuring that they would not need to worry about the child. Infants placed in such cradleboards get introduced to community life and support interpersonal connections with the child. Moreover, the manufacturing process of cradleboards are often made by relatives, reinforcing community relationships and familial ties. Additionally, beadwork such as this which decorates cradleboards can signify family identity, cultural ties, or spiritual protection.

#col-con

Unknown. “Catlinite Napkin-Ring.” Engraved catlinite napkin ring. New York, New York, United States of America. Unknown date but acquired in 1895. Smithsonian Anthropology department.

Accessed by the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in 1895, an unknown Ojibwe artist created this napkin ring. Decorated with engraved scalloped on both ends of the ring before leaving to a section of engraved starbursts and arrows on the top section and strawberries and starburst in the lower third. The middle-extruded section of the napkin ring has geometric edges with a repeating four petaled flowers and dotted covered X in a ABAB pattern horizontally. These patterns are not out of the ordinary for the Ojibwe people as floral and natural patterns are common in their art. Furthermore, the addition of more traditional visual indicators of Ojibwe onto a napkin ring, an item that is rather non-traditional for the community, could suggest that this item of art was an attempt of commercializing their art to cater towards the newer European neighbours.

#col-con

Nets hold a great importance to the Ojibwe and nearby native communities such as the Cree. The British Museum, which has held this artifact and artwork since 1865, classifies this net as a sash similar to finger woven belts and garters collected around the Hudson Bay. In fact, this net has even been a part of an exhibition held at the museum where it was placed under the category of personal decoration and grouped with tattoos, appliqué quillwork, beadwork and embroidery and belts. Although, little to no detail is given about this specific net other than it being a “sash of yarn strands bound together in open netted technique with quills (length 100 cm)”.

George Fulford proposes that such nets, ahnapiy (nets) or ahaapiish (little nets) could have been the origine of a reinvented interpretation of the process leading to the creation of the asabikeshiiwas-abiig (spider nets). Although the British Museum has catalogued this net as a sash, there is little to no evidence of the Ojibwe having or using similar sashes to this and could rather be a net charm. After an ethnographic review of native artifacts in North American and European museums by Cath Oberholtzer, traditional net charms were created through knotted thread into creating a small fishnet to prevent a child’ spirit from wandering from their physical self. In such the idea of conjoining between the physical body and spiritual body is linked to the symbolic image of the spider. Although these charms are usually taking the form of a circular charm, the method of binding the net could reveal a similar relationship to the animal.

#col-con

Unknown. Pipe bowl with human and feline effigies. Smithsonian, 1750-1790. National Museum of the American Indian. Mississauga.

This pipe depicting both a feline and human form holds a similar form to that of others which remain. The presentation pipe largely consists of two sections, the pipe bowl and the stem. In this case, the pipe bowl is within the head of the human figure as it is inset with a metal and is similar enough in shape to the Janus head common across other native pipes. Secondly, in the pipe presented the pipe stem is made with both wood and animal bone. The stem made of bone could therefore enter the first and be used as a mouthpiece. The paint mentioned by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian would have likely faded over time but could have from a similar mixture of ochre used in the Ojibwe’s rock paintings.

Since there was a sacred relationship between the Ojibwe and tobacco, such pipes held an import and role within ceremonial practices. During colonization, these pipes gained more use and had even been within gifted items between tribes as a sign of respect and even friendship. Additionally, after negotiation sessions, Ojibwe elders and the European settlers would complete their agreements with a pipe ceremony as to show that the agreement came from a sincere place, originating from the heart. This tradition continues to this day through more symbolic understandings of each part of the pipe and the tobacco, as to represent kindness, faith, honesty, and sharing.

#col-con

Left: Myeegun, "The Wolf's War Party", late 1600s, red ochre on stone photographed by Ramblin' Boy.

Right: Rajnovitch, Grace. "PEOPLE IN CANOES AT AGAWA ROCK ON LAKE SUPERIOR. THE ANIMALS LEADING THE BOATS ARE THE TOTEMS OF THE PEOPLE, CRANE, THUNDERBIRD AND POSSIBLY BEAVER", 2002.

An example of Canadian Shield rock art, the paintings of Agawa Rock are pictographs made of red ochre made by the Anishinaabe, the Canadian portion of the Ojibwe people. Generally, rock art such as those at Agawa Rock often sit on cliffs, caves and water's edge, liminal points where the Ojibwe believe the realms meet. Due to this placement and the properties of the rock formation, the reflection of sunlight off the water onto the stone would create a shimmering effect on the art. Furthermore, ethnographic accounts report ceremonies preformed at similar sites where offerings were given to spirits. In such, it could be compared to rock and cave paintings from other cultures due to the spiritual speculation. On the other hand, different panels of Agawa Rock have been traced to historical events and experiences linked to territorial significance. For example, Panel III, also known as "The Wolf's War Party" depicts an invading Iroquois war party and recites a battle between them and the Ojibwe which occurred in the late 17th century. There are three animals next to the canoes in the painting, a Thunderbird or eagle, beaver, and crane. These animals represent the local groups tied together by kinship. Another aspect of "The Wolf's War Party" which amplifies its connection to war and the historical record is its attribution to the warrior Myeegun.

#pre-con

Left: Drawn representation of a Pohonan ceramic vessel, Syms, Leigh E, and Valerie McKinley. “CERAMICS OF THE CHURCHILL RIVER DIVERSION, NORTHERN BOREAL FOREST OF MANITOBA: SOME CURRENT INSIGHTS AND ISSUES.” Manitoba Archeological Journal 16, no. 1 and 2 (2010): 48–67.

Right: Large, kettle-sized ceramic pot, Syms, Leigh E, and Valerie McKinley. “CERAMICS OF THE CHURCHILL RIVER DIVERSION, NORTHERN BOREAL FOREST OF MANITOBA: SOME CURRENT INSIGHTS AND ISSUES.” Manitoba Archeological Journal 16, no. 1 and 2 (2010): 48–67.

Center: Outline and representational of the large, kettle-sized ceramic pot, Syms, Leigh E, and Valerie McKinley. “CERAMICS OF THE CHURCHILL RIVER DIVERSION, NORTHERN BOREAL FOREST OF MANITOBA: SOME CURRENT INSIGHTS AND ISSUES.” Manitoba Archeological Journal 16, no. 1 and 2 (2010): 48–67.

Ceramics such as these Kame Hills Complex and Pohonan Complex vessels are often found within archeological cites of pre-contact Ojibwe settlements near river or lake systems, in this case within southeastern Manitoba. Current archeological records indicate a verity of methods to construct a great diversity of vessels. It is suspected that the variations in environments and ease of navigation of the local water systems have a significant impact on distinct ceramic cultures. Such ceramics were excavated during the Churchill River Diversion Archeological Project which began in 1960. It is largely understood through the co-influence sphere model of Selkirk Composite taxonomy that the ceramics of the Manitoban Ojibwe can be further divided into four regional complexes. In such, the vessel illustrated above falls within the Pohonan complex. There are visual links that can be drawn within those of the Selkirk Composite, such as kettle-sized and elongated tear drop shaped ceramic pots of the Kame Hills complex and this Pohonan ceramic vessel. However, it is often noted that the Pohonan ceramics are more clearly identified by their elongated rim which remains rather uniform instead of extruding outwardly like the Kame Hills pottery. The singular row of small holes and the repeated impressions are also identifiable diffreences of this pottery style which denote it as separate to its nearby Ojibwe ceramic tradition.

Due to this combination of similarities and minor but notable differences, the term "Plains Woodland" pottery types has been used to reference the larger area which share similar traces such as the cord-impressions during the pottery's construction and the series of cuts often found on or around the pot's rim. Additionally, this shared pottery genealogy is also present with the use of textile molds as the main method of creating the tear-drop shaped vessels present in Plains Woodland pottery types. Such a method involves the use of a woven bag being suspended by a leather frame to hang freely as clay is pressed into the structure. Thus, resulting in the cord impressions remaining on the vessels which are leftover from the woven bags.

#pre-con

Left: Beaded necklace with elongated cylindrical beads, about 1500 BCE, handmade copper beads of various sizes, Milwaukee Public Museum.

Right: Beaded necklace, about 1500 BCE, handmade copper beads of various sizes and thicknesses, Milwaukee Public Museum.

Copper has been a notable resource within Ojibwe communities for centuries since time immemorial. It is well documented that the material has been mined from pits near Lake Superior from about 3800 years ago. More personal items like these beaded necklaces appeared around 1500 BCE in and around the Milwaukee area. Copper was a material which took a large amount of effort to process and therefore necklaces such as these were likely signs of wealth and status. Much of the copper used in the Milwaukee area by the Ojibwe were cold or heat processed rather than being forged, smelted or casted, the various beads in these necklaces would have been typically rolled into their cylindrical shapes before creating a hole for the organic cord.

Later, in about 1636 a French explorer, LaGarde, explained that the native peoples that he came across worshiped Lake Superior as divinity and copper, such as that in these necklaces, were understood to be gifts from the divine. Metal in general, including copper, were considered a sacred gift from a divinity.

Similar copper ornaments and necklaces have been found in and around the Hopewell mounds. Although the native cultures of Hopewell are not known with certainty due to the degree of separation of the most active period, these similarities in copper use and production could indicate a cross-cultural dialogue between these groups or a shared practical and artistic knowledge.

#pre-con

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