The History of Mackinaw Island
History of Mackinaw Page 1
Located just north of Michigan lies a unique little island that may be small in size but large in history. Glaciers once covered this land and after they began to recede a unique landscape was revealed as was the opening for its place in history. The Mackinac Island’s history has been due in large part to its geographical location and terrain makeup.
The island is about 4 square miles and is today a place for tourism in the great lakes. Many thousands of years ago though this was a little piece of land with bluffs reaching high above its surroundings and was a merely a small piece of land surrounded by water. It was because of these bluffs the appearance of the island resembled a turtle and led to it being named “The Great Turtle” (Piljac, 1998). Currently the island reaches several hundred feet above the lake and it’s because of this geography that many nations saw this as a perfect military post and would be used over and over again throughout its history as such.
The island was first home to Native Americans long before Europeans started settling there. The Great Lakes American Indians were the first to visit and use this island as a resource for their own livelihood. Primarily during the summer they would travel and fish here due to the abundance of food in the surrounding waters. The first known tribe to have inhabited the island was the Anishinaabe tribe. Artifacts such has arrow heads, fish hooks and pottery have been found and dated back to as early as 900 A.D. (Mackinaw Island). In 1671, Europeans began settling here when a man named Father Jacques Marquette created the first mission on the Island. He originally setu...
... middle of paper ...
...t always been smooth sailing. Tourism declined greatly after the Great Depression but after the construction of the Great Hotel and the filming of a couple of movies, Mackinaw Island once again saw people flock to its shores. From fur trading to fishing and military posts to tourism, Mackinac Island has been a small little island but its place in history as loomed large.
References
Jennifer S.H. Brown, W.J. Eccles and Donald P. Heldman, The Fur Trade Revisited, Michigan State University Press, 1994.
Thomas M. Piljac, Mackinac Island: Historic Frontier, Vacation Resort, Timeless Wonder, Chicago Review Press, 1998.
Mackinaw City History. Retrieved on 27 April, 2014, accessed from: http://www.mackinawcity.net/mackinawhistory.php
Mackinaw Island History. Retrieved on 25 April, 2014, accessed from: http://www.mackinawinfo.com/mackinac-island-history/
Our name is derived by Vetromile from the Pānnawānbskek, 'it forks on the white rocks,' or Penobscot, 'it flows on rocks’. My tribe connected to the Abnaki confederacy (q. v.), closely related in language and customs to the Norridgewock. They are sometimes included in the most numerous tribe of the Abnaki confederacy, and for a time more influential than the Norridgewock. My tribe has occupied the country on both sides of Penobscot bay and river, and claimed the entire basin of Penobscot river. Our summer resort was near the sea, but during the winter and spring we inhabited lands near the falls, where we still reside today, My tribes principal modern village being called Oldtown, on Indian island, a few miles above Bangor, in Penobscot county.
Today, many of the family-owned resorts have been sold and transformed into timeshares, though ours has stayed in the same hands since the 1960s. Tourism still drives the economy, though a year-round vibe has begun to take hold in downtown Dennisport with many new shop openings and a new restaurant on seemingly every corner. Perhaps we're on the verge of another era in Dennisport's colorful history - join us and enjoy it!
When the Europeans first migrated to America, they didn’t know much about the ancestral background of the different types of the Indian tribes that were settled in Virginia and along the East Coast. Many of the Indian tribes became hostile towards the colonist because the colonists were interfering with their way of life. This lead the natives to attempt to destroy the frontier settlements. Many forts in this area were erected to protect the settlers and their families. One the historical land...
A small archipelago off the northwest coast of Britsh Columbia is known as the “islands of the people.” This island is diverse in both land and sea environment. From the 1700’s when the first ship sailed off its coast and a captain logged about the existence, slow attentiveness was given to the island. Its abundance, in both natural resources physical environment, and its allure in the concealed Haida peoples, beckoned settlers to come to the island. Settlers would spark an era of prosperity and catastrophe for the native and environmental populations.
Roderick Nash. ISLAND CIVILIZATION A VISION FOR HUMAN OCCUPANCY OF EARTH IN THE FOURTH MILLENNIUM. 2001. .
Before European contact with Turtle Island, the Native Peoples fully occupied the lands, maintaining extensive trade networks, roads that tied different nations together, and successfully adapted to the specific natural environments across the continent.15 In her book, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes of the Natives also adapting the environment to their needs,
Fur trading started between the Europeans along with the Aboriginals when the most valuable beaver pelts was a substituted for metal and clothing goods such as iron knives and axis, copper kettles, blankets and trinkets. The beaver pelts were well desired by the Europeans for the reason that using this fur for headgear provided an elegant way to keep dry. However these pelts were for fashion, as men and women could be instantly noted within the social hierarchy by according to their beaver hats. It was so valuable that the sand on the floor was filtered to save every hair that has fallen off. For the Europeans, captivating advantages of the rich furs from the Indians in the New World was a major factor in generating handsome profits, and there is no other pelt exchanging business enterprise like the Hudson's Bay Company. It is the oldest venture of Canada and it inspired many by its domination in the fur trading industry during its early years. They equipped their own armies, minted its own coins and even issued its own medals. The company had controlled fully one-third of present-day Canadian territory and were thought by many as a kingdom by itself in the fur industry. They had trading posts from the very north Arctic Ocean to Hawaii and as far south as San Francisco. HBC's revenue didn't generate simply from this one way trade in furs to Europe; it also consists of large amounts of European goods to North America. These goods incorporated many other products that local people cannot construct such as gunpowder, bullets, weapons, tobacco, kettles, pots, beads, fishing hooks, needles, scissors, and so much more. The Hudson's Bay Company showed a great measure of success since its formation, but it didn't come without s...
Wallis, Wilson D. and Ruth Sawtell. The MicMac Indians of Eastern Canada. St. Paul, Minnesota: North Central Publishing Company, 1955. 14, 21-22, 27-28, 51, 68, 192-194.
Elvin, John. "New Search For 'Lost Colony' Is Under Way." Insight On The News 20.8 (2004): 16. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.
The Menominee, or “wild rice people,” are the original inhabitants of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. There remain about 7000 Menominee people today, of which very few still speak Algonquian, the native language (Native Languages of the Americas). The polysynthetic language is mostly continued on by the tribal elders. The Menominee people are a part of only two tribes who claim to be originally from the Wisconsin area, the other being the Winnebago people. The Fox and Sauk, Dakota, Illinois, and Cheyenne migrated from elsewhere, and the Menominee Indians, never a large tribe, couldn't do much to stop it (Milwaukee Public Museum). The Menominee people, who already suffered from the migration of other tribes, also faced pressures from the Iroquois tribes. The Iroqouis sought to monopolize the rich fur-plenty lands of northern Wisconsin and upper Michigan. In 1667, the French began to trade for furs with the Menominee. This encouraged the Menominee to abandon their large permanent villages and instead live in bands that spent spring and summer in semi-permanent villages of several hundred people.
“Rhythmic waves, high dunes, ancient maritime forests, historic landmarks and glimpses of wildlife—Fire Island has been a special place for diverse plants, animals and people for centuries”
Before European contact with Turtle Island, the Native Peoples fully occupied the lands, maintaining extensive trade networks, roads that tied different nations together and successfully adapted to the particular natural environments across the continent.15 In her book, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes of the Natives also adapting the environment to their
...ils and new directions: papers of the third North American Fur Trade Conference. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980.
The book “We Were Liars” by E. Lockhart is about a rich family who owns a private island off the coast of Manhattan called Beechwood.
The Rock island southern lagoon is heightened by a complex reef system. The 445 uninhabited limestone islands are all volcanic origin. Many of the islands, displays unique mushroom like shapes in turquoise lagoons surrounded by coral reefs. The islands sustain a large, diverse city of plants, birds and marine life. There are the remains of stonework villages, as well as burial sites and the rock art. The abandonment of the villages in the 17th and 18th century illustrates the consequences of climate change.