Anishinaabe

The Anishinaabe (alternatively spelled Anishinabe, Anicinape, Nishnaabe, Neshnabé, Anishinaabeg, Anishinabek) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawatomi, Mississaugas, Nipissing, and Algonquin peoples. The Anishinaabe speak Anishinaabemowin, or Anishinaabe languages that belong to the Algonquian language family. At the time of first contact with Europeans they lived in the Northeast Woodlands and the Subarctic, and some have since spread to the Great Plains. The word Anishinaabe means 'people from whence lowered'. Another definition is 'the good humans', meaning those who are on the right road or path given to them by the Creator Gitche Manitou, or Great Spirit. Basil Johnston, an Ojibwe historian, linguist, and writer, wrote that the term's literal translation is 'beings made out of nothing' or 'spontaneous beings'. The Anishinaabe believe that their people were created by divine breath. The word Anishinaabe is often mistakenly considered a synonym of Ojibwe, but it refers to a much larger group of Nations.