In Ojibwe Ethnogenesis, 1640–1740 Theresa M. Schenck (Ojibwe, Huron, and Blackfeet) presents the first scholarly work to untangle the origin, rise, and spread of Ojibwe identity and culture from the mid-seventeenth to mid-eighteenth centuries, as well as the emergence of Ojibwe identity in the early years of French imperial incursions into the Upper Midwest. Schenck traces the names ascribed to the Ojibwe by French officials, traders, missionaries, and settlers in the earliest European records to their presences in French America. Schenck then follows the people themselves and their complex relationships through the centuries.

Schenck’s proficiency in French and her close reading of the sources, many in French, have facilitated a more accurate, traceable, and comprehensive documentary study than achieved by previous generations of scholars. Ojibwe Ethnogenesis, 1640–1740 has thus achieved our fullest understanding to date of Ojibwe roots and culture going back four hundred years.