page_title: Kechewaishke
section_title: Political structure of the Lake Superior Ojibwa
hierarchical_section_title: Kechewaishke / Background / Political structure of the Lake Superior Ojibwa
caption_attribution_description: Pictographic signature of Ouabangué, chief of the Saulteurs, on the Great Peace of Montreal (1701)
context_page_description: Chief Buffalo was a major Ojibwa leader, born at La Pointe in Lake Superior's Apostle Islands, in what is now northern Wisconsin, USA.
  Recognized as the principal chief of the Lake Superior Chippewa for nearly a half-century until his death in 1855, he led his nation into a treaty relationship with the United States Government. He signed treaties in 1825, 1826, 1837, 1842, 1847, and 1854. He was instrumental in resisting the United States' efforts to remove the Ojibwa to western areas and secured permanent Indian reservations for his people near Lake Superior in what is now Wisconsin.
context_section_description: Kechewaishke was born around 1759 at La Pointe on Madeline Island (Mooningwanekaaning) in the Shagawamikong region. Now part of Wisconsin, La Pointe was a key Ojibwa village and trading center for the empire of New France, which was fighting the Seven Years' War against Great Britain at the time of Kechewaishke's birth. Throughout the 18th century, the Ojibwa spread out from La Pointe into lands conquered from the Dakota people, and settled several village sites. These bands in the western Lake Superior and Mississippi River regions regarded La Pointe as their "ancient capital" and spiritual center. It had also become a center of trade.
  Traditional Ojibwa government and society centers around kinship clans, each symbolized by animal doodem. Each doodem had a traditional responsibility within the tribe. Kechewaishke, or Buffalo as he was known to Europeans, belonged to the Loon clan.
  The Loon Clan was said to have been rising in prominence in the mid-18th-century due to the efforts of Andaigweos (Ojibwe: Aandegwiiyaas, "Crow's Meat"), Kechewaishke's grandfather. Andaigweos was born in the Shagawamikong region, son to a man described as "a Canadian Indian" (i.e. a Saulteaux from Sault Ste. Marie, a key Ojibwa village at Lake Superior's eastern end). At the time of first French contact in the mid-17th century, men of the Crane doodem held the positions of hereditary peace chiefs of Ojibwa communities at both Sault Ste. Marie and La Pointe. Andaigweos was a skilled orator and favorite of the French officials and voyageurs. In that period, leaders of the Cranes were concerned more with internal matters. By the 19th century, it was Kechewaishke's clan, the Loons, that was recognized as the principal chiefs at La Pointe.
  Although the Loons were afforded respect as principal peace chiefs, this status was not permanent. The Cranes, led in Kechewaishke's time by his sub-chief Tagwagane, maintained that they were the hereditary chiefs. They said the Loons' status as spokesmen hinged upon recognition by the Cranes. A chief's power in Ojibwa society was based on persuasion and consensus, holding only as long as the community of elders, including the women, chose to respect and follow the chief's lead.
caption: Totemic signature of Ouabangué, head of the Crane doodem at Sault Ste. Marie and first chief of the Ojibwa, on the Great Peace of Montreal (1701)
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