Native Mackinac
Richard “Nimkee-Wae-Widom” Lewis
Guntram H. Herb
Mackinac strait and the island with the same name is a well-known place – a playground for tourists, a major shipping route, a crossing for an aging pipeline that threatens the largest drinking water supply in the world, framed by an imposing bridge. But Mackinac is more than that – it is the home of the Anishinaabe, the central node of a vast trading empire, sacred ground, and the home of a thriving community of Ojibwe (Chippewa) and Odawa (Ottawa) Indians that persists to this day.
Mackinac – Birthplace of the Anishinaabe
Mackinac has been, and always will be, home to the Anishinaabe people. Today, the straits area is home to the Michigan state recognized Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians. Their flag shows a turtle, which not only represents Mackinac Island, but also the Anishinaabe creation story. Mackinac is the place where the world was formed on the back of a turtle, earning it the name of Michilimackinac or giant turtle. However, the members of the Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians only represent part of the direct descendants of the Anishinaabe people whose numerous villages once abundantly dotted the area and whose leaders signed a treaty with the US federal government in 1836. Many of the descendants are enrolled in the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, which they were invited to join when that tribe was federally recognized. Apart from the confusion over enrollment there is also one of names and nomenclature, such as Anishinaabe, Chippewa, Ottawa, tribes, bands, and clans.
Anishinaabe is a term that identifies all tribes and bands who use the Anishinaabe language, and have shared spiritual teachings, ceremonies, and kinship networks that tie together tribes such as the Chippewa or Ojibwe, Ottawa or Odawa, and Pottawatomi or Bodéwadmi. Bands are regional divisions within tribes that are generally designated by geographical markers, such as lakes and rivers, or by a particular mode of food production or other distinctive characteristics. Clans, called dodems in Anishinabemowin, identify kinship groups and prevented intermixing of blood lines that are closely related. William Warren explains in his 1885 account, History of the Ojibways, based upon Traditions and Oral Statements, that marriage was strictly forbidden between individuals of the same clan and that the five original dodems, which were named after animals, such as the Bear, have grown over time to include more than twenty.
Early Settlement
Archaeological evidence indicates that the area around the straits was settled soon after the ice from the last period of glaciation receded about 10,000 years ago. Written records in the form of Wiigwaasabakoon or birch bark scrolls from the Anishinaabe Midewiwin medicine society, document Anishinaabe presence in Mackinac in 796, when the different bands who made up the Anishinaabe people came together to form a ‘Council of Three Fires’ as Patty Loew explains in Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal.
Edward Benton-Benai in The Mishomis Book: The Voice of the Ojibway says that Anishinaabe settled as far east as the Atlantic Coast in present-day New Brunswick and Newfoundland and that there was a great migration west around the 10th century AD. Their prophecies had foretold a grave danger coming from across the water and had compelled them to move where food grows on the water, a reference to manoomin or wild rice. Archaeological evidence supports contact with newcomers from across the ocean. Norse settlements discovered in L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland have been carbon dated to about 1,000 CE and contact might have spread disease among the indigenous population.
Native Mackinac features in the earliest written records of the Great Lakes borderlands, the writings of the Jesuit missionary Claude Dablon, who wrote that the place where he erected a log cabin chapel – in 1670 on the island and a year later in St. Ignace – was valued for its abundant fishing and settled by thousands of Native peoples.
Mackinac – Native Trade Center
For centuries, Mackinac formed the central node of a vast trading empire that dominated the middle of the continent even in the first years of a nascent American republic.
Strategically located at the confluence of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, which opened up trade routes to the south, it also connected to the eastern seaboard via the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers, to the north via the St. Mary’s river and Lake Superior, and to the west and south via the Fox, Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers.
Mackinac – Sacred Ground
The importance of Mackinac for the Anishinaabe is not just confined to the creation story and trade, but embodied in the landscape. Mackinac island was a final resting place of chiefs and their families from around the Great Lakes region. Skull Cave, a place described on a Mackinac tourism site as “another great photo stop”, is an Indian burial ground, but apparently empty today. Nobody seems to know what happened to the bones. Other Anishinaabe graves on the island have been dug up and covered by buildings because of their attractive location. The Wisconsin Historical Collections from 1910 document that the ”… present Grand Hotel occupies the site of the Indian burial ground of earlier days, and bones are still exhumed on the hotel property.” Unsurprisingly, the statement features in a minor footnote of a lengthy historical document and constitutes a rare public admission of desecration. It surely wouldn’t be good for business if this fact became widely known.
Mackinac – Silenced Native Community
Apart from the museum of Ojibwa culture in the old St. Ignace mission and isolated Native events, such as Powwows and feasts, the community of Anishinaabe people in the region is largely invisible. Because of restrictions imposed by state and local ordinances, ceremonies are conducted in private. This is a striking contrast to services by non-Native denominations whose rites are held in prominent public buildings. Their houses of worship fill the centers of towns, often towering over other dwellings and commercial structures. They can be seen from far away, and their bells offer audible reminders as to which spiritual practices are preferred.
Mackinac tourism also silences Native presence and survivance: Michigan offers a story celebrating the 19th century charm of Mackinac Island with its horse-drawn carriages and famous fudge. Native Odawa and Chippewa are sidelined to a few historical plaques that tell a story in which the indigenous descendants of Mackinac become just another example of the “vanishing Indian”.
Mackinac – Giving Voice to Native Community
We present Native Mackinac through the voices of Elders and leaders whose narratives bring to life the enduring presence of Odawa (Ottawa) and Ojibwe (Chippewa) in the Mackinac straits region.
We set the stage with a land teaching from Cathie Jamieson, an Anishinaabe from the other side of the border, who explains the difference between Native conceptions of land and settler territorial claims.
The Elders featured in the videos and audiovisual poem below are descendants of the Anishinaabe people whose numerous villages once abundantly dotted the area and whose leaders signed a treaty with the US federal government in 1836. They are ‘Treaty Indians’ and on the Durant Roll. Together, they remind us that pernicious laws in Canada and the United States prohibited the use of Native languages and religious ceremonies and tell stories about the lasting power of Native culture.
Richard D. Lewis (Nimkee-Wae-Widom) traces his Native lineage to both sides of the border, Cross Village and Mackinac in the US and Manitoulin Island in Canada. He is an enrolled member and councilor of the Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians. His mother crossed the border into the US to avoid restrictions imposed by the Canadian Indian Act such as always needing permission to leave the Wikwemikong reserve, his father to find work. His parents could cross using their status cards, but needed residence permits in the US despite being on their ancestral lands. His father even had to become a naturalized citizen to work at the Soo Locks. As a result, his mother, father and siblings had different citizenships and legal rights – the border crossed them.
Phyllis Colegrove experienced discrimination in school, yet returned there to work as a cook and ended up leading the Indian education program for several years, thereby ensuring Native students could start learning about their culture. Her story underlines the lasting importance of fishing, hunting, and lumbering for the Anishinaabe people of Mackinac. She proudly calls herself an ‘Indian” turning the formerly disparaging term into a powerful affirmation of Native identity. Phyllis has lived all her life in the Mackinac straits area. Her father was an enrolled member of the Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians, she is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
Lisa Powers recounts growing up in poverty, being told not to reveal her Indian heritage, experiencing abuse in Catholic schools, and explains the challenges of maintaining connections among the members of the Mackinac Native community when practicing ceremonies faces governmental restrictions. Lisa is enrolled member and chairperson of the Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians
Penny McBain tells of the intimate connection of her people to the land: giving thanks, respecting animals, learning about medicines, acknowledging that everything in the world is a gift of the creator. She also shares that being indigenous came at the price of hiding it. Indians faced legal restrictions and discrimination, which led many to seek solace far away from people. Penny is an enrolled member of the Mackinac Bands of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians. Truckey street in St. Ignace is named after her Native side of the family.
Patricia LeBon Herb’s poem ‘Returning Home from Home‘ offers insights into Anishinaabe culture, which embraces all elements of creation in a circle of life and considers stones animate. Patricia’s Native ancestors are from Mackinac; many are buried in Gros Cap cemetery west of St. Ignace, one of the oldest Native cemeteries in the US. She is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
This webpage is a digital introduction to our book Native Mackinac
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Awesome heritage wonderful education and experience.