"Born Ojibway, hopefully they'll let me die that way too!" Charles Phillip White

We are one people with three names. Those names are Chippewa, Ojibway and Anishinabe. Each name has it's own history and as best I can I will describe the differences and usage below. The following is basedupon my research and my own cultural exposure and any errors or inconsistencies are my doing.

The name Chippewa is the "official" name as recognized by the United States Government and is used on all treaties. As such, this name is often used when talking in an official matter, or informally to non-Indian people.

This name is the most popular and the most proper as given it was given by our enemies. We use this when talking with other Indian people or someone more familiar than the above "Chippewa". It has many different spellings; Ojibway, Odjibwa, Odjibwe, Ojibwag, Ochipoy, Tschipeway, Chepeways, Achipoes and others. There is some controversy over it's real meaning, but suffice it to say it means, "to pucker. "There are some that believe it is due to our puckered seam moccasins that were sewn that way to keep the snow out. There is another meaning too but I won't go into that here.

This is the word that we call ourselves. Generally, it is reserved for Anishinabe people to refer to themselves, although there are some that would rather be known by this name. Actually, the Anishinabe are also people that live in our creation stories. They are the original people and were very weak.

One meaning is "original people as opposed to those other people who came later. "Another meaning is "Original people meaning creators, as opposed to those who cannot create". Connotations of the first meaning are that
the "original people" came down from the sky.