What is "anishinaabe"

Anishinaabe (or Anishinaabeg, which is the plural form of the word) is the autonym often used by the Odawa, Ojibwa, Potawatomi, and other Algonquin indigenous peoples (usually called aboriginal peoples in Canada or First Nations) and their subsidiary First Nations in Ontario. They all speak closely related Anishinaabemowin— Anishinaabe languages, of the Algonquian language family. Counting persons claiming Métis ancestry, some estimates claim "probably 600,000 to over 700,000 Anishinaabe people" alive today in Canada and the United States. The ways of life of all these Nations around the Great Lakes are well documented and share similarities.

The meaning of the word Anishinaabeg as described from speakers is "people from whence lowered". Another definition – possibly reflecting a traditionalist's viewpoint with a certain moral dimension – refers to "the good humans", or good people, meaning those who are on the right road or path given to them by the Creator or Gichi-Manidoo (Great Spirit). The Ojibwe scholar, linguist and author Basil Johnston, who explains the name in a creationist context, states that its literal translation is "Beings Made Out of Nothing", or "Spontaneous Beings", since they had been created by divine breath and were made up of flesh and blood and a soul or spirit – instead of rock, or fire, or water, or wind. Not all Anishinaabemowin speakers, however, call themselves Anishinaabeg. The Ojibwe people who moved to what are now the prairie provinces of Canada call themselves Nakawē(-k) and call their branch of the Anishinaabe language Nakawēmowin. (The French ethnonym for the group was the Saulteaux). Particular Anishinaabeg groups have different names from region to region.