Description
The word 'Saulteaux' is a French translation for 'people of the rapids' which originates from their Ontario settlement location near a waterway. The Saulteaux are part of a larger tribe (Ojibwa or Chippewa) residing in the Northern United States. When first reported in the Relations of 1640, an annual report by the Jesuit missionaries in New France, the Ojibwa occupied a comparatively restricted region near the St. Mary’s River and in the Upper Peninsula of the present state of Michigan.
Language
Ojibwa
Culture
They are primarily hunters and fishers, and when still the primary dwellers of their sovereign land, they had extensive trading relations with the French, British and later Americans at that post. The summer months were spent in the north, trapping for furs such as beaver, and hunting for woodland game like moose, deer, and elk. Fishing was also a means of obtaining food during the summer, as was the gathering of berries and other edible plants. Some agriculture was practiced by the Saulteaux; European observers having recorded that they grew corn and potatoes. Buckskin clothing was the most common mode of dress for both Saulteaux men and women. Men wore breechcloths, while both men and women wore leggings.