The Potawatomi, also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie, are a Native American people of the Great Plains, upper Mississippi River, and western Great Lakes region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. The Potawatomi call themselves Neshnabé, a cognate of the word Anishinaabe. The Potawatomi are part of a long-term alliance, called the Council of Three Fires, with the Ojibway and Odawa (Ottawa). In the Council of Three Fires, the Potawatomi are considered the "youngest brother". Their people are referred to in this context as Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and refers to the council fire of three peoples.
Regalia at the Field Museum in Chicago
Shabbona
Metea lithograph (1842)
Leopold Pokagon
The Anishinaabe are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, Mississaugas, Nipissing and Algonquin peoples. The Anishinaabe speak Anishinaabemowin, or Anishinaabe languages that belong to the Algonquian language family.
Pictograph of a canoe (top left), Mishipeshu (top right), and two giant serpents (chi'gnebikoog), panel VIII, Agawa Rock, Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada
Anishinaabe shoulder bag, Ojibwa, Ontario, 1820
Anishinaabe Reserves/Reservations in North America, with diffusion rings if an Anishinaabe language is spoken. Cities with Anishinaabe population also shown.
Members of the Anishinaabe nation harvesting wild rice from a lake in Brainerd, Minnesota, in the year 1905.