Niswi-mishkodewinan

* **Name:**Niswi-mishkodewinan ("Council of the Three Fires", 'Algonkian-Manitou Council' in English).
* **Motto:***Nimaamawiinomin*("We Come Together")
* **Anthem:**O Kanata
* **Currency:**The Niswi-mishkodewinan uses both the Oceti Sakowin 's Tatanka and a form of block-chain currency, the Wampum, for internal use. The Wampum contains not only credit, but also a variety of other information, valuable and otherwise.
* **Capital:**Sâskwatôn, which serves as both the national capital and regional center for the Algonquian -speaking *Elakómkwik* territories. The two other regional capitals are Gaa-ministigweyaa (formerly Thunder Bay, ON), also the largest city in the Niswi-mishkodewinan, which serves as the regional center for the Iroquoian -speaking *Atiwandaronk* territories. Kuugjuaq (foremerly Churchill MB), served as the regional seat for the Sperethiel -speaking Manitou territories between 2045-2062, then as the center of the secessionist Manitou Council from 2061-2064 (after which it moved up the coast to Arviat).
* **Official Languages:**The languages of state are Daawaamwin and Kanienʼkéha, each representing one of the two major language groups represented in the Council. While no longer a language of state, Sperethiel is still also widely used in business, as well as English , Québécois and Sioux to reflect their major trading partners.
* **Population:**5,066,000 (2075 est.)
* **Demographics (by Metatype):**Human 51%, Manitou 30% (\*Disputed ), Pukwudgie 7%, Ork 7%, Troll 4%, Other 1%
* **Demographics (by Ethnicity):**Anishinaabe 33%, Haudenosaunee 31%, Algonkian 20%, Manitou 5% (\*Disputed ), Other Tribes: 11%
* **Government:** The Council of the Three Fires is ruled by an executive Triumvirate selected by agreement of their constituents. Traditionally the "*Elakómkwik"* or native Algonquian-language speakers have controlled the office of Civil Chief, selected by agreement of the *dodems* or Clans (until recently the Bear Clan had controlled the seat for three generations), while the "*Atiwandaronk"* or native Iroquoian-speakers have controlled the office of War Chief, elected by, and generally from, the Grand Council of the Confederated Peoples and ratified by the Council of Women. The office of Ceremony Chief was controlled for a long time by the Manitou elves until they broke away in 2061, and now is shared between the other two groups. Beneath the level of the Triumvirate, administration is almost feudal with smaller, 'dependent' groups abiding by the authority of larger parties. The Haudenosaunee Confederation is almost a state within a state.
* **Administrative Divisions:** Unlike the well-defined and organized States of the UCAS or Council Fires of the Oceti Sakowin, the territories of the Three Fires are not rigidly or uniformly divided. Instead it is organized into a patchwork of Clan territories, corporate Grants, common spaces, villages and other settlements. Constituency is far more important than local jurisdiction in the Three Fires, which is a matter of language, birth (or adoption) and culture more than place.

   *The unofficial Flag of the Elakómkwik territories, usually flown beneath the Three Fires Flag on the same pole.*

   *The flag of the Haudenosaunee Confederation, flown next to, but slightly lower than, the Three Fires flag.*

* **Military:** The Council of the Three Fires military has gone through vast changes in the last fifteen years, largely as a result of it ongoing Civil War with the elves in the north. Originally the office of War Chief acted largely as a coordinator between various local commands, who maintained whatever troops and military assets they thought needful. This remained true into the early days of the civil war, leading to the disastrous defeat at Tadoule Lake. The new War Chief, Kariwase, began wide-sweeping reforms of the Three Fires Military, standardizing ranks and centralizing command in Gaa-ministigweyaa, better integrating it with local defense and police functions. Today the Council Army is organized into four commands. I Band or 'the Headquarters Army' maintains the UCAS border to the south and polices the east, II Band or 'the Capital Army' protects the cities of Sâskwatôn, Mohkínstsis and the west, most often liaising with the SDF of the Oceti Sakowin, III Band or 'Range Army' patrols and protects the fertile central lakes region and IV Band or simply 'the War Army' is the army responsible for protecting the Manitou border and prosecuting their war against the separatist elves. IV Band is not tied to a region and also maintains close ties to the 'Crying Masks', a semi-secret paramilitary magical group that acts as Kariwase's personal secret police. While the False Face Society is technically an independent organization, they are so heavily associated with the Three Fires Military that it wouldn't be right not to mention them. The TFM is heavily modeled on and largely armed by their neighbors in the Sioux Defense Forces.
* **History:** Like many of the Native American Nations, the Council of the Three Fires is the second incarnation of a previous nation. The original Council of the Three Fires was a religious and political alliance between three closely-related Anishinaabe speaking nations, the Ojibwa ("Elder Brothers" or "Keepers of the Faith"), the Odawaa (the "Middle Brothers" or "Keepers of Trade") and the Potawatomi (the "Younger Brothers" or "Keepers of the Fire"), which lasted for nearly a thousand years, from 796 to 1783 CE when it became a central component of the larger Western Lakes Confederacy. The current incarnation can trace its origins, like the rest of the Sovereign Tribal Council, to the Treaty of Denver, formed from the First Nations of Canada under the leadership of the legendary statesman Michael 'Mikey' Bear, who's clan would dominate the Civil leadership of the Council for three generations. The early history of the Three Fires is a history of inclusion. After Denver, a great many of the native peoples left in the eastern parts of the United States and Canada (soon to be the UCAS), were ejected from the damaged and angry nations and sought refuge in the newly-recognized Native nations. A large number of Iroquoian speakers (the Kanienʼkéha, who had never recognized US sovereignty, led the six Haudenosaunee tribes of the old Confederation, as well as the Wynadot and others), applied for sanctuary, and were accepted as a full member nation of the Council, the *Atiwandaronk* ("Those Who Speak The Language" Iroquois), as opposed to the Algonkian nations, who started calling themselves *Elakómkwik* ("The Family"). This trend continued into the 2040's, in 2045 charismatic Elven shaman, Adrienne Silvermoon arrived and gained support of the Atiwandaronk's political branch, the Neutral Nation Party, to bring her followers to the sparsely-populated lands of the Council. Nearly a million elves from the northern and eastern parts of North America gather to form the Manitou Tribe, which becomes more than one-fifth of the Council's total population. This massive migration causes a seismic shift in the form of the nation's government. Civil Chief Bobby Bear leads the creation of a new Constitution, giving each of the three major population groups a stake in the government. The Triumvirate is formed to govern the nation, with three Chiefs at the head of the executive branch, each given to one of the three major nations, the *Elakómkwik* select the Civil Chief from their own number, the *Atiwandaronk,*mostly Kanien'keha who form a disproportionate amount of the officer corps of their military, chose the War Chief from their own internal councils, and the "Manitou Nation", Silvermoon's followers, send a Ceremony Chief to the Council. Silvermoon is, of course, selected as the first Manitou Ceremony Chief. The first great test of the new Triumvirate comes five years later, when crop failures caused a food crisis. The Triumvirate, led by Ceremony Chief Silvermoon, whose people, the Manitou, in the poor northern lands are put especially at risk, reaches out for foreign aid. Aztechnology steps in to prevent famine and prop up the economy. In return, Aztechnology is awarded exclusive contracts to the Three Fires' main agricultural exports. To call this move unpopular is to understate it. In her own lands an opposition movement among the Manitou, who stand against Aztechnology involvement, try to displace Silvermoon. However this effort collapses when key members of the opposition movement die under mysterious circumstances over a period of thirteen days. This does not, however, spell the end of the crisis. Indeed, the opposition martyrs only fuel resistance in the troubled region. The next year, a former supporter of the opposition movement, war hero and military mage**,**Derek Highsun leads a coup against Silvermoon (possibly with the tacit approval of some non-elven elements in the Council government). Silvermoon dies during the coup, reportedly after a spirit she summons turns on her. Civil Chief Bobby Bear and War Chief Okwaho appoint Highsun as the provisional Ceremony Chief, some say because they were backing his rebellion, others says because they were desperate to avoid intervention by the Sioux Defense Force. The next ten years are unstable ones, with a series of shifts in the office of Ceremony Chief, overshadowed by the growing influence of Aztechnology over the nation's economy and politics. These two strains come together disastrously in February of 2061 when terrorist bomb destroys the Aztechnology building in Mohkínstsis (formerly Calgary AB, in the primarily *Elakómkwik* dominated territory) during a meeting with the Council, killing, among others, Civil Chief Bobby Bear and War Chief Hillborn. Manitou druidic extremists, who had been protesting Aztechnology's exploitation, are blamed and there is a sudden upsurge of anti-Manitou anger among the other nations of the Three Fires. The next year or so sees rising tensions between the Manitou and their largely non-elven counterparts that culminates in, as a response to the Hudson Bay Incident that led to the death of a number of notable Manitou leaders at the hands of government security forces, the May 1, 2062 announcement by Ceremony Chief Laura Hawksford, an adherent to Silvermoon's tradition, of the Manitou Council's secession from the Three Fires, followed by Civil Chief Joseph Bear's May 19th declaration removing Hawksford from her position as Ceremony Chief and not recognizing the Manitou state as legitimate. A state of war now exists as Council troops are sent north to reclaim the territory. A noted shaman Arnold Halfway Man is appointed as the new Ceremony Chief. This sets the stage for the on-again-off-again civil war that has defined the Three Fires' affairs for over a decade now.
* **Relations With Other Nations:** The Council of the Three Fires is a founding member of the Sovereign Tribal Council and traditionally voted with the 'N-Bloc' led by the Inuit Nunangat, and including their neighbor and ally the Na-Dené Nén (N-Bloc for "North" as well as for all three starting with N), which advocates more international relations and globalist policies, as opposed to the 'Southern Bloc' led by the Kiis'ianii Naalyéhé há Dohwee'aohii (and including the Seliš-Bukwus Chíchelh Sq'èp and Oceti Ŝakowiŋ), which generally leans towards more active involvement in North American politics and forming an opposition to the influence of continental superpower Aztlan. In recent years this alignment has been shaken by the war, specifically the multiple interventions by the Sioux Defense Force to enforce various cease fires. This has given the SDF a great deal of influence over the Triumvirate and provided a counterbalance to the dominance of Aztechnology in their affairs. However, what has not changed is the close historical friendship between the Na-Dene and the Three Fires, political, military and economic allies. The Na-Dene diplomatic corps has been a driving force behind most of the cease-fires and negotiations in the last ten years. Outside of the STC, the Three Fires has a long-standing territorial rivalry with its neighbor to the east, République du Québec, which includes decades of border skirmishes and Quebecois support for Manitou rebels. The relationship with its neighbor to the south, the UCAS, is far more complicated, for the first few decades of its existence, the Three Fires profited as a gateway for trade between the Oceti Sakowin and the UCAS, benefiting from its close proximity to Ares Macrotechnology headquarters in Detroit MI. However, as Aztechnology's influence has grown, the relationship to Ares (and following this, the rest of the UCAS) has grown chillier and the border there has gotten stronger.

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