Obemau Unoqua "Nancy" Sayer

Indigenous descendants of North America view lineage as the foundation of cultural identity.

The family is the central unity of the community, and the wise grandfathers and grandmothers are honored with respect.

Grand Chiefs negotiated Treaties with The United States of America asserting national sovereignty status, established national land boundaries, and established the Supreme Laws of the Land.

A ROYAL NATIVE FAMILY: TWO BROTHERS "Mamaangĕzide and Wáȟpe Šá"

One hundred years before the attack on Ojibwe maple sugar gatherers by Dakota raiders at Sandy Lake, one family’s alliance created a bridge of friendship between eastern Dakota villages and the western Lake Superior Ojibwe.

During this time, intermarriage between members of the Ojibwe and Dakota bands was a common practice that reaffirmed the peaceful commitment between the villages. Around the year 1720, Fox Woman Wabasha (Eshipequag) the daughter of Chief Jos Ojiibway, of the Reindeer Dynasty and Sandy Lake Ojibwe Band Chief Kadawibida No-Ka Gaa-dawaabide Broken Tooth Nooke “Bear” (Ka-ta-wah-be-dah Breshieu) met and married. The marriage unified the paramount leadership families of the Oceti Sakowin of the Dakota and Ojibwe Nations of The Great Lakes. From this union two sons were born, the eldest named Wáȟpe Šá and the younger Mamaangĕzide. 

Sadly for the family, the marriage of Wáȟpe Šá’s parents did not last long, as tensions along the indigenous borderlands flared and the alliance between their tribes fell apart, forcing mixed Dakota-Ojibwe households to separate. During these forced separations, “instances were told where the parting between husband and wife was most grieving to behold.” Wáȟpe Šá retained his Oceti Sakowin Dakota heritage and identity and stayed with his father’s village.

Knowing her life would otherwise be in danger, Wáȟpe Šá’s mother left to return to her kin living near Lake Superior at Lake of the Woods.

Together they had a son named Mamaangĕzide, and as he grew he earned a reputation as a leader
of the western Lake Superior Ojibwe. Mamaangĕzide was renowned for his hunting skills, and often extended his hunting expeditions deep into Dakota territory. This was especially dangerous because following the breakup of the Dakota-Ojibwe alliance, renewed tensions in the region saw a drastic increase in violence between the historic rival tribes. The tensions between the Dakota and Ojibwe created a corridor where hunters from both bands avoided going because of the great risk of attack.

In this narrow geographic space, the animal population rebounded and created a rich hunting region. Enticed by the opportunity to find plentiful game, Mamaangĕzide led a small group of “his near relatives, amounting usually to 20 persons, exclusive of children,” and embarked to the hunting grounds “near the borders of the Dakota country, in the midland district lying between the Mississippi and Lake Superior.”

This region was the geographical center of the Indigenous borderlands though Mamaangĕzide had hunted far from his main village before, this time the risk did not pay off. While the small hunting party made preparations for their hunt, Dakota warriors discovered and fired on the party. One of the Ojibwe was wounded in the second volley. The situation appeared desperate to Mamaangĕzide, and he called out in Dakota asking if his halfbrother Wáȟpe Šá was with the Dakota party. The Dakota paused their attack. After a long moment, Wáȟpe Šá stepped out from the tree line to meet with his Ojibwe half-brother, Mamaangĕzide, stopping the fighting between the two parties. The half-brothers shared the same Ojibwe mother, Fox Woman Wabasha (Eshipequag) yet their individual identities stemmed from the community in which they were raised.

Oceti Sakowin Dakota and Anishinabewaki Ojibwe village and kinship structures differed greatly from each other. Each man likely understood the concept of kin and obligation to kin differently, yet their shared maternal connection was strong enough to stop this particular skirmish. An individual’s connection to a large community was one of the keys to survival in the region, but each community was a collection of individual people who had agreed to band together.

The Ojibwe and Dakota differed in how these practices functioned, yet an individual’s need for community was the same for both tribes. While modern identity is made up of a web of affiliations, the nation-state is often the primary lens through which people understand themselves and others. In the Indigenous borderlands, nation-state identity was nonexistent, but that did not mean that there were no firm boundaries of identity that bonded some peoples together while separating others. Family kinship and village ties created these strong bonds and were centers of identity, as well as obligation. On certain occasions, like the meeting of Mamaangĕzide and Wáȟpe Šá, family ties could bridge the gap between cultures.

Mamaangĕzide and Wáȟpe Šá found peace. 

Mamaangĕzide daughter Claire Equaywid Ahdik Songab would marry his brother Wáȟpe Šá unifying the nations eternally through the Equaywid-Wáȟpe Šá bloodline, the principal leader of the Oceti Sakowin and Anisishinabe.  Claire Equaywid Ahdik Songab and Wáȟpe Šá would become parents of Chief of the Chippewas Pierre Misco Mahqua DeCoteau, Misko-Makwa Red Bear I; Ahdikons; Aceguemanche; Chief Noka Nokay Kadwabida Broken Tooth; Utinawasis "Star Woman" Margaret Son-gabo-ki-che-ta Grant; Angelique Woman LaBatte; Mary Etoukasah-wee Lapoint; Mdewakanton Dakota Chief Wahpehda Red Leaf Wáȟpe šá Wazhazha, II; Mah Je Gwoz Since Ah-dik Songab "Star Woman" and Marie Techomehgood Bottineau, Star Woman.

The brother of Mamaangĕzide and Wáȟpe Šá was called Chief Kaŋgidaŋ “Little Raven” Little Crow I. Chief Kaŋgidaŋ “Little Raven” Little Crow I is the father of Joseph Petit Courbeau III (Aisaince I) Little Shell I, who was the half-brother of Gay Tay Menomin Old Wild Rice (Red Wing I).

In a turn of intermarrying of leadership, Mamaangĕzide's father Chief Kadawibida No-Ka Gaa-dawaabide Broken Tooth Nooke “Bear” (Ka-ta-wah-be-dah Breshieu) was the half-brother of Chief of the Chippewas Pierre Misco Mahqua DeCoteau, Misko-Makwa Red Bear I. Chief of the Chippewas Pierre Misco Mahqua DeCoteau, Misko-Makwa Red Bear I mother was Claire Equaywid Ahdik Songab, the daughter of Mamaangĕzide. Claire Equaywid Ahdik Songab would have relations with Sandy Lake Ojibwe Chief Biauswah II Bayaaswaa "The Dry One" Bajasswa Thomme Qui Faitsecher, the grandfather of Mamaangĕzide. Red Bear I sister, Mah Je Gwoz Since Ah-dik Songab "Star Woman" was the daughter of Wáȟpe Šá and Equaywid. The family intermarrying practices unified a nation, preserved a bloodline, and established a royal native lineage.

The lineal successor of the line of leadership for the Dakota-Lakota-Nakota and United Ojibwe Nations is Mide Ogichidaa. A patrilineal Descendant grand-child of all lines of the Dakota-Ojibwe, and a matrilineal Descendant grand-child of Wahunseneca of the Powhatan Confederacy. 

Wazhazha Mdewakanton Grand-Chiefs
The Wazhazha Mdewakanton of the O'Jibway Nation is ceremonial. The O'Jibway Nation traces back 2000 years as a collection of Nations who unified and worked collectively to establish trade, and family unity, among the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabemowin, and Algonquin descendants of the Great Lakes. Ojibwa, also spelled Ojibwe or Ojibway, also called Chippewa, self-name Anishinaabe, Algonquian-speaking North American Indian tribe who lived in what are now Ontario and Manitoba, Can., and Minnesota and North Dakota, U.S., from Lake Huron westward onto the Plains. These matrilineal-patrilineal lines merge with one family. 

23. (2018-present) Ogimaa Midegah Ogichidaa, Council Rock Fire Keeper of Ojibway Nation (Midegah I)

22. (1989 - 2017) *EMERITUS Chairman Albert Dennis Lambert, Jiisakiiwinini Ogima Ma'Iingaan

21. Jiisakiiwigaan Patrice "Pat" Elmer Brunelle (1965-1989)

21. Little Shell IIX Karyence Ronald Delorme (1965-present)

20. Chief Thomas Little Shell IV "Little Crow" Pierre Kiyon, Wazhazha Mdewakanton (1903-1965)

20. Patrice "Petite" Francis Brunelle

19. Chief Ayabe-Way-We-Tung Apitwewitu Little Shell III "Little Crow" Thomas (Peter Cochelle) Wenis(1872-1903)

19. John Baptiste "La Petite Baptiste" Brunelle

18. Aisaince III Weesh-e-damo "Tacgitcit Split Rump" Little Shell II (1813-1872)

18. Ojibway Chief Joseph Montriel, Abenaki Menominee

17. O'Jibway Nation Grand Chief Black Duck Makadeshib Lerat, Wazhazha Mdewakanton (1811-1813)

17. Tabasnawa Joseph Lenau (Aisaince II) (1790-1804)

16. Chief of the Chippewas Pierre Misco Mahqua DeCoteau, Misko-Makwa Red Bear I

16. Joseph Petit Courbeau III (Aisaince I) Little Shell I

15. Gay Tay Menomin Old Wild Rice (Red Wing I)

14. Kaŋgidaŋ Petit Corbeau I (Little Crow II)

13. Dakota Grand Chief Wakute Wazican Red Leaf Chief Delonaise Wáȟpe Šá IV "Ojibwaince"

12. O'Jibway Nation Grand Chief Chief White Crane (Waub-Uj-Jauk) "White Fisher" "King Fisher" Waishkey

11. O'Jibway Nation Grand Chief Mamaangĕzide "Loons Foot" "Big Foot", Wazhazha Mdewakanton

10. Sandy Lake Ojibwe Band Chief Kadawibida No-Ka Gaa-dawaabide Broken Tooth Nooke “Bear”

9. Sandy Lake Ojibwe Chief Chief Biauswah II Bayaaswaa "The Dry One" Bajasswa Thomme Qui Faitsecher

8. Chief Biauswah I Bayaaswaa Matchiwaijan Thomme Qui Porte Une Grande Peau, The Great Skin

7. Chief Jos Ojiibway, Reindeer Dynasty

6. O'Jibway Nation Grand Chief Wajawadajkoa a cause qu'il avait la peau bien rouge, Wazhazha Mdewakanton

5. O'Jibway Nation Grand Chief Wajki Weshki The Great Firstborn, Wazhazha Mdewakanton

4. O'Jibway Nation Grand Chief Schawanagijik Shahwanegeshick Zhaawano-giizhig The Southern Sky le ciel du sud

3. Chief Mitiguakosh Timber Sprout le bec de bois

2. Chief Miskwandibagan Red Skull thomme a la tete rouge

1. Chief Gijigossekot Giizhig-gosigwad Great Thunderbird, Wazhazha Mdewakanton

​

O'Jibway Nation Ogimaakwe: Mah Je Gwoz Since Ah-dik Songab "Star Woman" daughter of Wazhazha Mdewakanton Dakota Grand Chief Delonaise Wáȟpe Šá IV Songab Okichita "Ojibwaince"; sister of Chief of the Chippewas Pierre Misco Mahqua DeCoteau, Misko-Makwa Red Bear I, son of Sandy Lake Ojibwe Chief Chief Biauswah II Bayaaswaa "The Dry One" Bajasswa Thomme Qui Faitsecher