Ottawa governance was a simple, informal affair. There was no single reigning chief of the Ottawa. Each village had not one, but several civil chiefs. The son of a respected chief might occasionally succeed his father, but only if the village elders approved of him and if the people were willing to follow his lead. Any man who could persuade the people to follow his suggestions or directions could become a chief.

Civil chiefs participated in village council meetings. They decided where the village should be located and whether to allow a particular trader into the village. They settled disputes between people and made decisions regarding peace treaties and declarations of war. They represented their village at Ottawa and intertribal councils. Civil chiefs tended to be older than war chiefs. Many of them had been respected war chiefs in their younger days.

Any warrior could become a war chief if he were a fearless fighter and a skilled tactician. He only remained a war chief as long as he was successful. The loss of one or two battles was all it took for his warriors to abandon him in favour of another war chief. During a major conflict, war chiefs could overrule the civil chiefs in all decisions. A famous war chief like Pontiac could persuade the warriors of other villages and even other tribes to unite under his generalship for a particular campaign. After the campaign was over, the war chief deferred to the civil chiefs once again.

The Shamans or medicine men of the Ottawa were spiritual leaders. They presided over religious ceremonies, made essential predictions, and healed the sick. It was also their duty to record local events and pass down the tribe's history and traditions to younger generations.

Ottawa children were born into extended families called clans. Each clan derived its name from the totem, the animal emblem of the spirit believed to have founded the clan. Some Ottawa totems were Bear, Crane, Wolf, and Lynx. Clan membership was patrilineal; children inherited their totem animal from their father. People sharing the same totem were considered close kin.

Today, recognized Ottawa bands elect members for tribal council based on a system modelled after the federal government's electoral process.