History of the Ojibway People

As a distance relative I was very happy to see that a William Warren's work is still published today! Thank you Theresa M. Schenk for the time you devoted to research and history! I loved the biography that Theresa Schenk wrote as well!

I found this book to be most facinating, and helped me to gain some knowledge of how my ancestors lived. Four generations of my relatives were born into the L'Anse Band of Chippewa and Lac Vieux Desert Band of Indians, but I had no history of how they lived. This book helped me have some insight on their lives and their parents lives. I have given each of my children a copy of this book so that they too can have some knowledge of what their native american relatives lives were like. A most interesting read!!

During the 1850s, William Whipple Warren, an Ojibway "Half BReed," a member of the Minnesota Territorial Legislature and frequent correspondent for the "Minnesota Democrat" (a newspaper out of Saint Paul), spoke to all the elders, story tellers and medicine men of the Ojibway Nation and wrote a book. Unfortunately, he died of tuberculosis before finishing it, a fact that has many historians cursing their rotten luck. But what he achieved was priceless. His book tells the story of the Ojibway Nation's migrations, their battles against other tribes (like the Dakota, the Fox, and the Mundua), and how they first came to know the white man. FOr those who, like myself, went to public schools which portrayed the Indians as peaceful children of nature, this book explodes like a nuclear warhead on all misconceptions. Pre-Columbian America was a very brutal and VERY bloody place. Warren details the Ojibway's torure of captives, their vigilante approach to justice, and their vicious blood feuds against other tribes. THis book is NOT for the squeamish. Parts of it make Herbert Asbury's "THe Gangs of New York" look, well, kind of like a kid's game. Do NOT read this book if you posess a weak stomache. But it also proves that the history of the AMerican Indian is far too complex to fit with anyone's politically motivated attempts to push it into a box. I, for one, am deeply disapointed that Mr. Warren died before coming even close to completing his projected 7 volumes of work on the Ojibway Nation. There is much in this book already, though, to fascinate the reader and fill several film scripts. Therefore, this is a book that I recommend strongly for anyone with a strong stomache. William Warren, I salute you!

An excellent book covering the history of the Ojibwas primarily in the Northern Wisconsin/Minnesota area. William Warren did a fine job of badgering the tribal elders till he received the information he sought. Written in the 1880's, Warren writes of the different clans and their interactions, the introduction to the white men they liked (French) and hated (British), and the constant warring with other tribes (mostly Sioux) over prime hunting lands which took the lives of many. According to Warren, "Ojibwa" means "to roast until puckered", needless to say, he's not talking about dinner. If just one book on the Ojibwas is in your plans, this should be the one. I myself would prefer to read a book written by someone who actually talked to these tribal elders over 100 years ago, not someone who attempts to do so nowadays, generations (and clouded memories) later.

This book (which I have not read in entirerty) is probably the first history book written about the Ojibway. Most importantly and interestingly, the author was half Ojibway and half French and was intimate with many of the Ojibway elders he interviews. The authors biography is worthwhile in its own right. I cannot recommend a better book to gain a first hand perspective on colonial Ojibway customs, politics, culture, and the like. While the author (though Indian himself) does deplore Indian's lack of civilization, that really only adds to the book by revealing western society's rascist attitudes to the Indians. The author has been educated and christianized and his rascism is in respect to these institutions. In most other regards he has great respect for his Ojibway family.