Welcome Page

Our home page lists the areas around Sault Ste. Marie we are discussing and also lists the people our website is serving. That would include the Chippewa, Ojibwe, Anishnabe, First Nation, Metis, Mixed-Blood Indians, and Native descendants of the are. There is also an interesting map drawn from a Native Perspective.

About our Map

This page explains why the Map of Sault Ste. Marie and the area around it looks so very different than the European-based maps we are used to seeing. The Native view of things can be very different from the normally accepted way of seeing the world. Since this map is just 2 dimensional, even this map does not show the spiritual realms that are a part of the Native way of life and daily experience for many Anishnabe.

Intro to our Website

Here we explain who we are building this site for and why. Naturally it is for the Native People of the area, and their relations all around the continent. Each of us will find our own treasures in these pages, and our own reasons to BOOK MARK and SHARE WITH FRIENDS (..please do, and thank you.. )

Who are We?

Not precisely who we are writing this, but who are the Pauwetiig Ansihnabe, the People of the Rapids, and the area around the Sault. Presents a brief history of  European contact and it's effect on Native Identity.

Treaty of 1820

This is a presentation of a Treaty that was created by the Americans, and signed by a number of Native and American persons when the Americans came up to take "formal Possession" of the U.S. Territory here, that had been assigned to the Americans by the British. This treaty was to take land from the Native People along the southern shore of St. Marie's Rapids. Like all treaties, this one has had it's share of skeptics and disputations, some of which continue today.

Ojibwe Language

Here you will find come comments on the Nature of the Ojibwe Language, it's value in the Anishnabe Culture, and a pronunciation key that illustrates some of the comments made on the difficulty of learning Ojbewemowin as a Second Language..

Ojibwe Ceremony

In this page you will find both welcome and warning. We offer a brief commentary on Ojbwe Ceremony and Spiritual belief. No matter how much a person wants this to be simple and to be explained in a few words, it cannot be done. Many have tried to codify or record the spiritual life of the Anishnabe, but that is like cataloging all of the Native lifeways, the spiritual awareness of many Natives is ubiquitous.

Sacred Plants

The four Sacred Medicines each have thier own page linked from this main page. Tobacco (semah), Cedar, Sage, and Sweetgrass all are presented with text and images. These pages ar a favorite of our website visitors. The smell of Smudging Sage and warm Cedar fills the memory and brings us home to our roots.

Indigenous Rights

Here you will find the complete text of United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We have included it here for our visitors to browse and perhaps find new ways of thinking and approaching the deep issues of Identity and Sovereignty. The earth was once home to separate groups of people, each knowing themselves to be "Original" people having a natural place under the sky. This text demonstrates Modern Thinking in regard to such people in our mobile, climate changing times.

Soo Tribe Enrollment

Although the Sault Tribe has no Blood Quantum requirement, they do ask that you be recognized first by the United States Government, considering for membership those "..whose names appear on any historical roll, census or record made by officials of the Department of the Interior or Bureau of Indian Affairs." If you are not descended from someone who got in line and signed up some time in U.S. history, it is no use that you can prove descent from a Saulteuse here before the United States came into being, for example. They have deferred to the U.S. Government in these matters. We cannot say why. The ancestors know who we are. For those who wish to read the exact wording of the Tribal membership ordinance, here it is.

Privacy Statement

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Sault Ste. Marie - Pauwetiig - Bawating - Bahweting