Snowshoes

• Native tribes were important to the development of the fur trade that flourished in the days of the early French settlement of North America. The French fur trappers, known as coureurs de bois, would have found navigating the deep snow in winter impossible without the snowshoes that the Ojibwe people gave them. The Ojibwe had been using the footwear, made of a hardwood frame and hide netting, for centuries. They called them bear paws because the impression they made in the snow resembled bear tracks. Their traditional Ojibwe word for snowshoes is "aagimug."
  
  

Moccasins

• The words "Ojibwe" and its variation "Chippewa" have their roots in the word for a distinctive type of footwear made from animal hide called "otchipwa." The earliest moccasins, of which otchipwa are an example, were worn by eastern North American tribes who needed them to keep their feet from freezing in the cold winters. There were many variations, but the Ojibwe style included a puckered U-shaped vamp over the instep that was often embroidered with beads. This style is instantly recognizable today and is often reproduced by modern moccasin makers around the Great Lakes and north central plains.
  
  

Lacrosse

• Many tribes had a variation of a game played with rackets and a small ball. The Early French settlers who dubbed the game "jeu de la crosse," meaning game of the stick, because the sticks resembled a Bishop's miter or head covering, probably learned it from the Ojibwe who inhabited the fur trading regions they frequented in northern Ontario. They called the game baaga`adowe, which means "bump hips." In their variation of the sport, there was often a single goal post and each player had only one stick. By way of contrast, Cherokee and Seminole players, among others, used two sticks.
  
  

Ceremonies and Games

• While it is probable that no single tribe can lay claim to the invention of the sweat lodge, a method of ceremonial cleansing, the Government of the Anishinaabe Nation speaks of it as a method the Ojibwe people developed for self-purification. "Anishinaabe" means "original people" and is a term the Ojibwe use to refer to themselves. Ojibwe children played a variation of the game hide and seek that they called the butterfly game. One child closed his eyes while other children hid, and as he looked for them, he would sing: "Mee-mem-gwe (butterfly), show me where to go."