Ottawatribe

Ottawa (tribe) (Ottoway), the name of several groups of North American Indians, all of whom belong to the Algonquian family, the most important being the Canadian Ottawas, about 3,550, scattered over an area of 40,000 square miles in the basin of the Ottawa river, named from them, and on the eastern slopes draining to Hudson Bay. Most of these are Roman Catholics of French speech; the Ottawas of Michigan, now grouped with the Chippeways in the Mackinac Agency, Michigan, where they jointly numbered about 3,700 in 1890; Lake Erie Ottawas, of whom 137 are now in the Quapaw Agency, Indian Territory, and others with the Ojibways in Manitoulin and Cockbum Islands, Ontario, where they collectively numbered 928 in 1890.