A groundbreaking exploration of the remarkable women in Native American communities. Too often ignored or underemphasized in favor of their male warrior counterparts, Native American women have played a more central role in guiding their nations than has ever been understood. Many Native communities were, in fact, organized around women's labor, the sanctity of mothers, and the wisdom of female elders. In this well-researched and deeply felt account of the Ojibwe of Lake Superior and the Mississippi River, Brenda J. Child details the ways in which women have shaped Native American life from the days of early trade with Europeans through the reservation era and beyond. The latest volume in the Penguin Library of American Indian History, Holding Our World Together illuminates the lives of women such as Madeleine Cadotte, who became a powerful mediator between her people and European fur traders, and Gertrude Buckanaga, whose postwar community activism in Minneapolis helped bring many Indian families out of poverty. Drawing on these stories and others, Child offers a powerful tribute to the many courageous women who sustained Native communities through the darkest challenges of the last three centuries.

This compelling, highly anticipated narrative traces the history of the Ojibwe people in Minnesota, exploring cultural practices, challenges presented by more recent settlers, and modern day discussions of sovereignty and identity.

"Presented in Ojibwe-English and English-Ojibwe sections, this dictionary spells words to reflect their actual pronunciation with a direct match between the letters used and the speech sounds of Ojibwe. Containing more than 7,000 of the most frequently used Ojibwe words."--P. [4] of cover.

Fifty-seven Ojibwe Indian tales collected from Anishinaabe elders, reproduced in Ojibwe and in English translation.

"An account of Louise Erdrich's trip through the lakes and islands of southern Ontario with her 18-month old baby and the baby's father, an Ojibwe spiritual leader and guide"--

In this collection of more than 200 stunning and storied photographs, ranging from daguerreotypes to studio portraits to snapshots, historian Bruce White explores historical images taken of Ojibwe people through 1950 and considers the negotiation that went on between the photographers and the photographed-and what power the latter wielded. Ultimately, this book tells more about the people in the pictures-what they were doing on a particular day, how they came to be photographed, how they made use of costumes and props-than about the photographers who documented, and in some cases doctored, views of Ojibwe life.

For young readers, the collected wisdom and traditions of Ojibway elders.