After building a large village on Madeline Island, small parties of Ojibwe would travel southward, but were frequently attacked by the Sioux and Fox who did not want other groups to settle there. Around 1745, three brothers of the Bear Clan made a trip with their families to Odawasagaegun (the place where was found the dead body of an Ottawa) and on the shores of Ottaway Lake or Lac Courtreille, a child was lost during the winter and the parents of the child refused to leave the grave site despite the warnings of the others. Striken with grief, the couple stayed and survived until the next season and were then joined by other Ojibwe families at Lac Courte Oreilles. By the late 1700's these Ojibwe people living at Odawasagaegun established the village as permenant by performing the rites of the Med-da-we-win which signaled their independence from the settlement at Madeline Island.

By the time the Ojibwe arrived to this area they were already activly trading with the French and English, acquiring European implements which would dramatically alter their way of life.