Ethnohistoric study of culture retention and acculturation among the Great Lakes and Oklahoma Odawa

This study examines the history and culture of the Odawa people from their prehistory until the present time. This paper looks at a creation story of the Odawa to see how they perceived their own beginnings. Following this, there is an examination of the prehistory, protohistory and history of this people. The section on the history of this people is broken up into three major periods---French, British and American. In the course of this examination, it is discovered that they were originally part of the loosely structured Anishnaabeg (People), or the Ojibwa, Odawa and Potawatomi, which were made up of separate bands. They then coalesced into the Odawa, primarily under the influences of European contact. Finally, in the American period, they split into two main groupings---the Great Lakes and Oklahoma. This paper explores why the Oklahoma group ended up acculturated while the Great Lakes bands retained their culture.