Word Origin & History
OjibwaAlgonquian people of N.America, living along the shores of Lake Superior, 1700, from Ojibwa O'chepe'wag "plaited shoes," in ref. to their puckered moccasins, which were unlike those of neighboring tribes. The older form in Eng. is Chippewa, which is usually retained in U.S., but since c.1850 Canadian
Eng. has taken up the more phonetically correct Ojibwa, and as a result the two forms of the word have begun to be used in ref. to slightly differing groups in the two countries. Some modern Chippewas prefer anishinaabe, which means "original people."