right|350px|thumb|Pictographs of a ' as well as two giant serpents and a canoe, from [[Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Attributed to the Ojibwe.]]
The term Anishinaabe is used as a collective noun by a group of different Algonquian-speaking peoples inhabiting parts of northeastern North America called the Anishinaabe. These peoples each have their own traditional Native American religions, although have also seen substantial conversion to Christianity.
Traditional religions found among the Anishinaabe peoples include Ojibwe religion, Odawa religion, Potawatomi religion, and Oji-Cree religion. Certain common features can be found across these different traditions and there are religious societies, like the Midewiwin, that have been practiced by members of different Anishinaabe groups.
Migration story
According to the written (bark Scrolls) and oral history of the Anishinaabe, the origins of the migration was from shores of the "Great Salt Water". The migration was both spiritual and physical. According to numerous Anishinaabe scholars, the migration bought into the interior inland seas, a spiritual governing system. They were instructed by seven prophets to follow a sacred shell (whiteshell) toward the west, until they reached a place where food grew upon the water. Current, Anishinaabe data suggests that the movement began much earlier - around 600 ad. They began their migration some time around 950.
Eventually, lands of Northwestern Ontario, Minnesota and Wisconsin (wild rice being the food that grew upon the water) and made (Madeline Island: 'Island of the yellow-shafted flicker') their new capital. The Governing Council continued until conscious decision to dismantle and hide, as the reservation (reserve) systems would greatly alter Anishinaabe life ways. In total, the migration took around ten centuries. are an essential part of generational connection by way of teaching and listening, and facilitate connection with the nonhuman, natural world. Oral storytelling is often considered unimportant in settler colonial society; however, this form of communication, connection, and teaching has been used for centuries, and is still used to pass down Anishinaabe traditional beliefs through generations.
thumb|right|Ojibwawomen in a canoe at Leech Lake [[Minnesota in 1909]]
Storytelling is often used to teach life lessons relating to traditional and current beliefs. In Anishinaabe traditional stories, Nanabush, Amik (beaver), and Nokomis (grandmother figure) are important characters. Nanabush stories carry the message to young Indigenous peoples that it is okay to make mistakes, and that things are not always black and white. This is different from many settler colonial narratives which usually clearly define story characters as good or bad.
Amik (beaver) is a being in traditional Anishinaabe stories that creates shared worlds. Elders are known as "knowledge keepers"