From Sugar Bush to Treaty Councils: Ozhaawashkodewekwe’s Career in the Upper Great Lakes

Abstract Anishinaabe women in the nineteenth-century upper Great Lakes inherited responsibilities through their doodem (clan), which included incorporating newcomers into their networks and caring for lands and waterways. Employing biography, this article focuses on Ozhaawashkodewekwe, a prominent Anishinaabe who attempted to transform the gender-specific resources of seasonal rounds into titled property at sugar camps and treaty councils. The various stages of Ozhaawashkodewekwe’s life illustrate how biography involves navigating between the micro scale (details about her life) and the macro scale (Anishinaabe political practices and governance, as well as American settler-colonial political practices and governance). Collectively, her life showcases how Anishinaabe women’s involvement in the fur trade exemplifies deliberate political engagement aimed at strengthening her family and communities in the face of Anglo-American expansion.