The Central Upper Peninsula’s Native Americans – Part Two

“Rural Voices” shares cultural, educational, economic and artistic views of people who have lived and thrived in the Upper Peninsula. Each of our authors in Rural Voices may be living here in the U.P. or living someplace around the globe, but the U.P. is an important part of who they are and what their beliefs and values are today. Rural Voices wants to share the voices of our neighbors and friends about life and experiences in the UP. 

The following is the second of a three-part series we are running, featuring local historian Russell Magnaghi’s piece “The Central Upper Peninsula’s Native Americans.” We will conclude with Part Three next Friday.

Native Settlements 1800-On

Due to a lack of specific data, we are unable to trace the actual settlement of Native Americans in the Chocolay-Carp Rivers area, but it probably had developed by 1800. The settlement was an off-shoot of the Grand Island settlement of Ojibwe.

On June 11, 1832, Henry R. Schoolcraft stopped at the island and noted that there was a population of fifty Ojibwe, and there were twenty Ojibwa living there who belonged to Presque Isle, “40 miles above where they live and hunt most of the year.”¹¹

A careful and thorough study of a variety of documents allows us to develop a picture of Native American life in the Chocolay-Carp River area prior to the arrival of the mining frontier in the mid- to late-1840s.

As the Ojibwe entered the basin they became the enemies of the Sauk, who were concentrated in the Green Bay area. The Ojibwe invaded Sauk hunting territory and the war was on. These “wars” were reciprocal raids by small groups of warriors. 

The Ojibwe living in the Marquette area were involved in this warfare. Jacques la Pique (aka Francis Nolan) a metis and other-in-law of Charlotte Kabwagam related the following in the early 1890s to Homer H. Kidder. Probably in the 1790s a small war party of Sauks arrived on Lake Superior having come from Lake Michigan over a trail that followed the Chocolay River.

They climbed the knob above what we know as the “Rock Cut” to check for any Ojibwe canoes passing. Although fog interfered with their search they eventually killed Yellow Dog and his family, although his son fled the scene. In a short version this led to the naming of the Yellow Dog River, once called by the French, Chien Jaune and mispronounced by Americans as “St. John” or St. Jean.”

There is also Yellow Dog Point, Saux Head Point and Saux Head Lake. However, closer to Marquette Charles Kawbawgam said that the local band of Ojibwe named the knob on Highway 41 in Harvey, just opposite Michigan Department of Transportation log cabin tourist information center. He said that it was named O zah gee oh kaw wah bee win, “Sauk’s Lookout” (O zah gee, “Sauk”; ah kaw wah from okawia, “I see his track”;  and be win, from inábiwin, “look”).

It is curious that the knob has never been officially named and few people know its Native name.¹²

Rumors of Americans entering the region became a reality for local Native People. On June 22-23, 1820, the Lewis Cass expedition was in the vicinity of Marquette’s Presque Isle and the Dead River, but unfortunately there is no evidence of any interaction with the Native People.¹³ Having passed “the Garlic, St. John’s [Yellow Dog], Salmon Trout, and Pine rivers” they arrived at the mouth of the Huron River where they camped having traveled 48 miles.

Although they were camped at a distance from Marquette, they did find an Indian grave, which “excited our curiosity” as they noted, and provides us with insights into Native life in area:

It was pales in with pine saplings, sharpened at the top, and regularly inclosing it in the form of a parallelogram. A covering of bark bent over small poles in the form of a roof, secured the grave from the effects of the weather, and a blazed stake at one end, denoted the head. Between this stake and the grave, a smoothly cut piece of cedar wood with several Indian devices, served the purposes of a monumental record, upon which the figure of a bear denoted either the name of the deceased chief, or the tribe to which he belonged, Seven red marks were interpreted to signify that he had been seven times in battle. Other marks were not understood. It is probable, however, that they were commemorative of some of the most striking events of his life, which we are led to conclude, from these extraordinary marks of respect, had been devoted to the service of his tribe, or distinguished from some extraordinary achievements in hunting.¹⁴

As the years passed, the Native Americans of the Marquette area became identified with outside people. The American Fur Company knew them as the “Chocolate River band.” Henry R. Schoolcraft in 1832 identified them as the “Presque Isle/Granite Point band” and noted that the band consisted of four adult men, four adult women, and twelve children. There might have been more male adults with the band who were away on hunting trips.

We get a sense of the size of the Marquette community in 1831. On July 1, Henry R. School’s expedition camped at the Dead River, but again did not give an indication of a local Native camp or band. Since the Natives who had joined him at Sault Ste. Marie were to return home, Schoolcraft did not rely on the local community.

He sent a canoe to L’Anse with a message addressed to the head chief, Gitchee Iauba requesting that he supply the expedition with a canoe and four men to replace those from the Sault who would accompany him to La Pointe.

It is also interesting to note that Schoolcraft wrote that there was a conical hill above the bay, which was modern Sugar Loaf. He learned that the Indians – either locals or those from the Sault – called it Totösh or Breast Mountain. Since he was the first American to climb it, the site was named Schoolcraft’s Mountain, a name that did not become permanent.¹⁵

Life for the Presque Isle Band of Ojibwe was measured by the seasonal changes of the angle of the sun and length of the day. This change had an effect on animal and plant life. These seasonal changes marked the Ojibwe year in the form of moon names.

In late November when Lake Superior was no longer safely navigated the Ojibwe moved inland to winter hunting camps like the one studied by John Anderton. December and January were identified as the months of the Little Spirit and the Big Spirit Moons. These were times when the food supply would be low and times were difficult, and with starvation looming the Ojibwe turned to spirituality.

Then in February there was a run of carp/suckers, which saved the people and thus the moon was named. The “crust on the snow moon” of March was so named because by this time the snow developed a crust, which allowed the hunters and snowshoes and their dogs to easily approach and kill animals trapped in deep snow. April was the moon of snowshoe-breaking when at the end of the hunting season snowshoes were in  dilapidated state and falling apart making hunting difficult.

The spring and summer months are easily to explain: May was the start of spring called the flower moon while June was the Strawberry Moon, July the Raspberry Moon, August the Little Blueberry moon and September the Big Blueberry moon. October and November periods of good fishing were respectively called Trout Moon and Whitefish Moon.¹⁶

Although the Ojibwe did not practice traditional agriculture as the Native Americans to the south, they are usually classified as hunters and gatherers. However it is important to study their economic lifestyle for a better appreciation of it. They had developed complex cottage industries and following a prescribed pattern for gathering their foodstuffs.

The three most important vegetable materials were maple sap/sugar, wild rice and a variety of berries, of which blueberries were the most dominant.¹⁷ There was also a variety of small vegetables that were gathered as well. 

Of the items mentioned, maple sugaring deserves a special presentation. Maple sugar, which is found throughout the area in discussion, is an important energy source and includes minerals: potassium, calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc, and phosphorus.¹⁸ In particular we have the record of eighteenth-century traveler, Alexander Henry provides us with an insightful account, which is one of the few complete accounts of maple sugaring available to us some seventy years earlier.¹⁹

For all practicable purposes this was a complex industry carried out by Ojibwe families. The women processed the sap into sugar and syrup and the men provided wood for the fires in this case they cut some 30 cords of wood, hunted and fished. During the sugaring time from late March through most of April they consumed some three hundred pounds of sugar. At the end of the harvest the Wawatam family who had taken Henry in as a family member, had made 1,600 pounds of sugar and 36 gallons of syrup from over 700 trees.

Since it takes some fifty gallons of maple sap to make eight pounds of sugar they had to process 13,675 gallons of sap. Finally they had to move their equipment and harvest the latter amounting to 397 pounds of syrup and 1,600 pounds of sugar from the sugaring site to their camp.²⁰

Wild race was the grain, which replaced the corn that could not reach maturity along the southern shore of Lake Superior. It grew in local shallow marshes and along the shores of lakes and streams and was their staple cereal.²¹ It was cleaned, smoked, dried, wrapped in bark and stored underground to be used throughout the year. The Ojibwe made stews based on wild rice and later potatoes.

Depending on availability, they added fish, small game animals (beaver, raccoon, woodchuck, porcupine, squirrels), duck and partridge. It was flavored with maple sugar and/berries. Wild rice was boiled in water and eaten with or without maple sugar. Grease was put into a kettle and the rice parched in the grease after which it was seasoned with maple sugar and dried blueberries. Dried blueberries were often combined with this and the rice and berries stored for use on journeys.

Also, un-parched rice was stored with dried blueberries during the winter and the two were cooked together in the spring. Another recipe saw meat or fish broth poured over parched rice, which was them covered and allowed to “steam” for a time until softened. The following was considered a delicacy. Chaff from the treading of the rice was cooked as with rice and eaten with dried berries or maple sugar.²²  

A variety of berries, but especially blueberries played an important role in their diet. They were gathered, eaten fresh in great quantities and the surplus dried. Jesuit accounts tell of Native American surviving on blueberries through the month of August.

A variety of large animals – buffalo,²³ caribou, elk, moose, venison, bear – were hunted as it has been estimated that an adult needed 1,000 pounds of dry foodstuffs. The meat was cut into strips and dried and smoked over an open fire. It was put into vessels with oil and lasted until the middle of the summer. Bear fat was melted down and could be stored in porcupine skins as revealed by Henry. 

The Marquette Ojibwa, like others of the tribe, did not commonly drink water encountered when traveling but boiled it. They used fresh or dried leaves of the following plants – chokecherry, creeping snowberry, hemlock, Labrador tea, spruce, wild cherry, wild red raspberry, and wintergreen/teaberry. The tea could be sweetened with maple sugar and was consumed hot. In warm weather maple sugar was dissolved in cold water and made a delightful drink.²⁴

Was alcoholic beverage introduced to the Native American at Marquette? By the summer of 1832, traders on Lake Superior had not brought in liquor for two years. However when unscrupulous traders at Prairie du Chien, St. Peter’s River and Green Bay heard of this they sent large quantities of high spirits – brandy, rum, whiskey –into “Chippewa country” and Indian agent, Henry Schoolcraft was unable to stop it.

A decade later the American Fur Company did not ship in liquor into the Lake Superior region as not to violate federal law. However Abraham Williams who was a farmer and trader on Grand Island in 1843 readily traded in this illegal product to the Indians. In both instances consumption of alcohol and its deleterious effects on the Native population would have been felt. Schoolcraft attempted to take action and avoid a negative impact on the Native Americans.²⁵

An important part of Native life was the various important uses of tobacco. In 1820, Schoolcraft described bearberry known among Native Americans as kinnikinnick growing on the sandy plains near the Huron River. “The Indians prepared it by drying the leaf over a moderate fire, and bruising it between the fingers so that it, in some degree resembled cut tobacco. Pleasant and mild it is smoked as is but Indians preferred to mix a portion with tobacco.” They also scrapped of small red twigs of the maple trees and resorted to willow particles when available.²⁶

As Whites entered the area beginning with the Europeans and then Americans there was the constant threat of the spread of deadly diseases like smallpox, measles, diarrhea, typhoid, or cholera. Henry Schoolcraft entered the Lake Superior basin in the summer of 1831 and as Indian agent, oversaw the vaccination of Ojibwe both in camps and groups that they met either hunting or traveling.

He repeated the process in the following year.²⁷ Douglass Houghton said that his “greatest achievement” that he had successfully vaccination enough people on the American shore of Lake Superior “to secure them against any general prevalence of the small-pox.” He pointed that the same could not be said in the west.²⁸

There were a number of little known Native communities in the Chocolay-Carp Rivers area. Through the “Treaty with the Ottawa, etc.” or the Treaty of Washington (March 28, 1836 we get a brief insight into the leaders of the communities. By the treaty, the Ojibwe gave up ownership of their lands to the federal government. Kaug Wyanais was considered a “second class” chief at “Carp River west of Grand Island” who was entitled to receive $200 in payment. The Carp River at Marquette was an important gateway to the south. “Third class” chiefs included: Ashegons, Kinuwais, Misquaonaby and Mongons of “Carp and Chocolate [sic, Chocolay] Rivers” received $100 in payment.³⁰

If we superimpose Henry’s account onto the Chocolay-Carp communities we can learn of their material culture much of which came through trade. The Ojibwe had shirts, cloth leggings and moccasins; ornamentation consisted of silver arm bands, silver wrist bands and a collar and necklace of wampum. Weapons consisted of flintlock guns with powder and balls and utensils consisted of bowls used as dishes, wooden spoons, flint & steel (stick-a-light) for making fire, brass kettles, and tobacco pipes.³¹ 

A German-American farmer, George Basal (1873-1961) around 1900 had located a number of artifacts and surface indications of at least one Native American community in Chocolay Township. A quartz hammer, square at one end and pointed at the stem and found along with indications of foundations of a grave house, which would indicate that a Native cemetery was located at this unknown spot. There were also indications that bread was baked in holes in the ground. Unfortunately, more detailed information as to location is absent.³²

The relatively quiet era of tradition society came to an abrupt end with the coming of Michigan statehood in 1837. In preparation for this the Treaty of Washington was signed in 1836 whereby all lands from the Chocolay-Carp Rivers to mid-Michigan were ceded to the federal government. Six years later the Treaty of La Pointe transferred all Native land in the western Upper Peninsula to the federal government as well. This was quickly followed by the discovery of copper by Douglass Houghton on the Keweenaw Peninsula and by William A Burt in the Negaunee area. 

Before we proceed it is important to locate the various Native settlement sites in the Marquette area. It must remembered that the Native population in the area was never large and consisted of a small number of families. As a result they lived in small family-oriented camps and we will see that these camps moved to various locations

There were Native communities at the Chocolay and Carp Rivers. Unfortunately we know little of the former. However both communities had close social ties with the larger Native group on Grand Island forty miles to the east, that could be seen in the distance looking eastward from the Marquette shore.  Surveyor William A. Burt noted on a June 25 1844 survey map that there was an Indian village at the mouth of the Carp River and upstream was an “Indian garden” on the south bank of the river. By this time potatoes had been introduced to the Native Americans of the area and this was probably the main crop cultivated at this site.³³

MAH-JE-GE-ZHIK (? – circa 1857)

Important Ojibwe leaders have been lost to history due to the lack of interest by whites, mere prejudice that they were not important to the story they were relating. One of these individuals who did make it to the historical record was Mag-je-ge-zhik, although even he wanders through the documents because of the many variations of his name.

He played a major role in the origins of the cities of Marquette, Negaunee and Ishpeming during their pioneer phase. He was settled at the Native village at the Carp River and in 1845 he was leader to thirty warriors. Given Ojibwe he had multiple wives. Fortunately we have  a surviving document that his second wife, Susan Ge-Zhik provided us with some insights into the man. They and others frequently traveled between their home at the Carp River and the Native communities on Grand Island and the larger community at L’Anse. She noted that Native culture allowed a man two wives and a women, two husbands.

The couple had one surviving daughter, Charlotte (1836-1904). She married Charles Kawbawgam in 1847 at Sault Ste. Marie and within a year the Kawbawgams moved to Carp River, more than likely to be with her family.

When the American entrepreneurs arrived in 1845 they were led by Philo Everett (1807-1892). The group was from Jackson, Michigan and had come north to locate the rich iron deposits they had heard about. They landed at the Carp River and met Mah-ze-ge-zhik, who knew of the irn deposits at modern Negaunee. Native People used a small amount of iron dust to make a pigment however they otherwise avoided the site because it could attract deadly lightening in the storm. An interpreter was hired to communicate between Mah-ze-ge-zhik and Everett’s party. This event, led by Mah-ze-ge-zhik had the immediatelt effect of opening the Marquette Iron Range and led to the end of Native domination of the area.

Mah-je-ge-zhik was a respected healer among his people. This might have happened often, but we have only one account that discusses his medical expertise toward a white person. The story deals with Sidney Adams (1831-1906) who arrived in Marquette in 1851 aboard the Manhattan. He came from a family that had bouts with  tuberculosis and he lost his mother to the disease. Adams described himself as “sickly thin and of nervous temperament.” While chopping wood Adams encountered Mah-je-ge-zhik who could see that Adams was in poor health. He showed Adams how to chew balsam gum for what would be regarded at vitamins in later years and to improve his posture. The two men became good friends, visited and Mah-je-ge-zhik showed Adams numerous Native camp sites and ancient artifacts.

The story of Mah-je-ge-zhik comes to an end with his passing around 1857 when Marquette was just beginning to officially develop as a community.³⁴

In 1845, Mah-je-ge-zhik, who was living at the Carp River community oversaw thirty warriors, which would lead one to believe that this community consisted of approximately one hundred residents.³⁵ This was one of the larger Native communities in Marquette. Three years later Charles and Charlotte Kawabagam moved from the Sault to the Carp River location, which had close social ties with the larger group on Grand Island in Munising Bay where they could be close to family. The community was located on five acres of cleared ground surrounded by dense forest and consisted of two small American-style homes and 9-10 birch bark lodges.

The Kawbawgams lived in one of the homes constructed of cedar bark, with a door made of sail canvas, and a hole in the roof to provide light and an outlet for smoke. Charlotte served the first Americans, who visited them a meal of boiled and fried whitefish, “unequalled potatoes,” fried venison and good coffee and bread. Also living about 500 feet from Kawbawgam’s home was the home of Charlotte’s father, Mah-je-ge-zhik. However there was also an encampment where the Mackinac Railroad depot stood in 1882 in the vicinity of Whetstone Creek and South Front Street. Over the years other camps were noted near the Dead River and at the foot of Hewitt Street at the lakeshore.

It is interesting to note that in 1851, a chronicler noted that following a tradition introduced by the French, Mah-je-ge-zhik, dressed in a blanket, embroidered leggings and moccasins along with his wife wearing a broadcloth skirt celebrated New Year with other Native Americans by visiting homes around Marquette.

Sidney Adams (1831-1906) arrived in Marquette in 1850. Soon after, he accidentally met Mah-je-ge-zhik who provided him with Native medical advice for pulmonary problems and the two became close friends. This friendship lasted over the years. As a result due to this close connection between Adams and the Native American he obtained many artifacts over the years. In 1851 when Adams oversaw workmen excavating the old bed of the Carp River, they found many copper instruments, which were given to surveyor and discoverer of iron in Negaunee, William A. Burt.

At the same time in Chocolay Township, Adams remembered that a silver cross and a short gun barrel were uncovered while he was raking out a charcoal pit. In the summer Indian hieroglyphics were found by Adams on Ripley’s Rock in Marquette Bay. A year later Mah-je-ge-zhik told Adams that he remembered Indian cultivating garden on Presque Isle. In 1856 Adams found a copper spearhead four miles “below” Marquette. There were other stories of Indian graves south of the Carp River; in front of the Northwestern Hotels where the Founders Landing condos (Everett) now stand; at Lighthouse Point; and “rude tombs” at Shiras Park in 1845 but not remembered by Native People at the time.

When the foundations for the Northwestern Hotel were being excavated in 1861/1862 a vessel holding a half-bushel of large lead bullets were found by Joshua Hodkins. In the heart of Marquette Walter Stafford found stone artifacts near Dr. Hewitt’s residence on East Ridge Street. There were arrowheads, chips from worked stone and other evidence of a Native stone shop. Unfortunately this information is only found in History of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan published in 1883 and no artifacts mentioned have survived.

In the 1840s there were a number of small Ojibwe settlements to the northwest of Marquette. At the mouth of the Pine River in the Huron Mountains there were two – three dozen lodges. When it was visited In June 1840 there was a small population on site as the men were away hunting. Closer to Marquette on the Yellow Dog River there was another collection of three to four lodges.³⁶ 

It must be remembered that by the 1840s there were American communities to the west that easily influenced the lives of the Marquette communities. At L’Anse, which was easily accessible by water, there were large Ojibwe communities that could be easily visited the people from the Marquette area. Goods could be obtained at the American Fur Company store where trade goods could be obtained. There were Catholic and Methodist missions on the west and east shores of Keweenaw Bay.

Here the missionaries had introduced farming and in the gardens were found root crops: beets, peas, turnips and all-important potatoes. Although Native Americans at Marquette were farming in 1809, they could learn more from their L’Anse neighbors. By the mid- to late 1840s they had developed half-acre potato fields inland from Marquette and gardens along the Carp River and at Presque Isle. There is no indication that the evangelization of the missionaries had made inroads into the community.³⁷ 

As the years passed the quiet lives of the local Native Americans began to change. In the spring of 1845, Philo M. Everett and his party met Mah-je-ge-zhik who led them to the iron deposits at Negaunee. Within a short time iron mines were opened and a white population entered the areas in growing numbers. 

As these developments were taking place onto the scene came Charles Kawbawgam (“Charlie Bawgam)”) (1799-1902) who would be considered an important Ojibwe elder in Marquette. He was a second-class chief who was of the Bosinasse or Echo-maker-Crane totemic clan of Sault Ste. Marie, which claimed prominence over other Ojibwa clans by hereditary right. Black Cloud (Mukcawday mawquot) a chief of the second class noted in 1820 and 1836 treaties was his father.

Shaweno Kewainze (Ka-ga-qua-dung), head of the Sault Ojibwa in 1855 and the last prominent chief to make his home at the rapids was his stepfather. His mother was Charlotte (1836-1904) of Scottish-Indian descent. Kawbawgam’s true Ojibwa name was Nawaquay-geezhik (Noon Day), a name cited as a headman at the Sault in the treaties of 1855. Kawbawgam was a nickname. He was related to Shau-wa-no (South Wind) a leader of importance at the Soo.

In an 1849 interview with Peter White upon his arrival at Carp River, Kawbawgam noted that he was fifty years old. He had spent twenty years at the Soo (1799-1819), 20 years at Tahquamenon (1819-1839), and a decade (1839-1849) on “the Canadian side.” This would have meant that during the War of 1812 when the Americans raided the Soo he was on-site in some capacity as a child.

Kawbawgam lived at the Sault where he met Charlotte and they were married at St. Mary Catholic church by Fr. Jean-Baptiste Menet in July 12/13, 1847. They never had children. The couple came to the future Marquette with Robert Graveraet around 1848. They settled at Mah-je-ge-zhik settlement at the mouth of the Carp River.

It is interesting to note that Kawbawgam never learned the English language. When Peter White and Bishop Frederic Baraga met him they were able to communicate because they both knew Ojibwa. In latter years when the Kawbawgams lived at Presque Isle, now in closer contact with English-speakers his vocabulary expanded but Ojibwa remained his first and only language. 

Kawbawgam was a hunter and fisherman, and with the opening of the country he provided meat and fish to the mining companies. He and his family enjoyed the beauty of vast expanses of Lake Superior before them as they hunted, fished, gathered, and trapped furs in the winter. For evening entertainment they told folk tales of their lives before the coming the Whiteman. We are lucky to have a collection of these tales gathered in 1893-1895 by Homer Kidder, who interviewed Charles and Charlotte Kawbawgam and Francis Nolan better known as Jacque Le Pique or the Jack of Spades or the Joker by Native Americans and French Canadians.

Suddenly the traditional lives of the local Native Americans began to come to an end. Douglass Houghton discovered copper to the west and then in September 1844, surveyor William Burt discovered iron in Negaunee. In the spring of the following year, Philo Everett and his party appeared at Carp River seeking the iron mountain in the interior. Mah-je-ge-zhik, part of the Carp community led them to the iron deposits in modern Negaunee at “the shining mountain,” but feared getting too close because of the Native concern for lightning attracted by the iron!

On May 30, 1846 an agreement was made between the Jackson Mining Company and Mah-je-ge-zhik for services rendered. He was entitled to twelve undivided one-hundredths part of the interest stock in the mine. After Mah-je-ge-zhik’s death, his daughter, Charlotte Kawbawgam, found the certificate. When the Jackson Iron Company refused to recognize her ownership interest, she took the company to court.

Eventually the Michigan Supreme Court in a trilogy of cases in 1889 in considered the company’s claim that Charlotte Kawbawgam should not be recognized as Mah-je-ge-zhik’s lawful heir because she had been born to one of the three women to whom her father had been married simultaneously. Polygamy was prohibited under Michigan law, but permitted under tribal laws and customs.

The Court thus established the general rule in Michigan that the state courts must defer to tribal law in cases involving the internal domestic relations of  American Indians residing within their own country.

It concluded that since the marriage was valid under Chippewa law, it must be recognized by Michigan’s courts. Charlotte Kawbawgam was declared Mah-je-ge-zhik’s lawful heir, inheriting his ownership interest in the Jackson Iron Company. The story of Mah-je-ge-zhik, Charlotte Kawbawgam, and the Jackson Iron Company has been immortalized in Laughing Whitefish, a book authored by former Michigan Supreme Court Justice John Voelker under his pen name, Robert Traver.³⁸

Mah-je-ge-zhik is celebrated today with the name of the “Marji Gesick” 100–a strenuous mountain bike race in the area.

The “Central Upper Peninsula’s Native Americans” three-part series will conclude with Part 3 next Friday.

References:

¹¹Henry R. Schoolcraft. Schoolcraft’s Expedition to Lake Itasca. Ediyed by Philip P. Mason. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1993, p. 170.

¹²Bernard Peters. “Local Place Names the Result of Ojibwa-Sauk Warfare,” Marquette Monthly (October 1989); Homer H. Kidder. Mining Journal 01-20-1920.

¹³Henry R. Schoolcraft. Narrative Journals of Travels from Detroit Northwest through the Great Chain of American Lakes to the Sources of the Mississippi River in the Year 1820. Albany, NY: E. & E. Hosford, 1821, p. 158.

¹⁴Schoolcraft.Narrative of an Expedition, p. 161.

¹⁵Henry R. Schoolcraft. Narrative of an Expedition through the Upper Mississippi to Lake Itasca . . . in 1832.New York: Harper & Brothers, 1834, pp. 357 and 384.

¹⁶Bernard C. Peters. “Moon Names of the Presque Isle (Marquette) Band of Chippewa.” Above the Bridge (Fall 1991), 25- 28.

¹⁷See: A. A. Reznicek, E.G. Voss and B.S. Walters. Michigan Flora (on line), February 2011, University of Michigan. Web. January 20, 2020. The following native berries were available to Native Americans in Marquette County: Blackberry, Blueberry, Bunchberry, Chokeberry, Chokecherry, Cranberry, Grape, Juneberry, Strawberry, and Swamp Red Currant.

¹⁸Helen and Scott Nearing. The Maple Sugar Book. Chelsea, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2000; reprint of 1950 edition.

¹⁹Alexander Henry. Travels and Adventures in the Years 1760 to 1776. Milo M. Quaife, editor. Chicago, Ill.: The Lakeside Press, 1921, pp. 69-70, 143-144, 193, 209; George I. Quimby. “A Year with a Chippewa Family 1763-1764,” Ethnohistory 9:3 (Summer 1962): 217-239.

²⁰Quimby. “Chippewas In U.P. Made Syrup More than 200 Years Ago,” Mining Journal April 11, 1963.

²¹Frances Densmore. How Indians Use Wild Plants for Food, Medicine & Crafts. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1974; reprint of Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians. 44th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1926-1927. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1928, pp. 307-313 and 314-315; Barbara J. Barton. Manoomin: The Story of Wild Rice in Michigan. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2018.

²²Thomas Vernum, Jr. Wild Rice and the Ojibway People. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1988, pp. 49-50; Densmore. How the Indians Use Wild Plants, pp. 318-319.

²³Buffalo traveled to the Appalachian Mountains. They are recorded in the eastern Upper Peninsula in 16??. By 1800 they are no longer in Michigan.

²⁴Densmore. Hw the Indians Use Wild Plants, pp. 317-318; For plant details see: A.A. Reznicek, E.G. Voss and B.S. Walters. Michigan Flora (on line), February 2011, University of Michigan. Web. January 20, 2020.

²⁵Bernard  C. Peters. “Whiskey Traffic on Lake Superior: Who Brought the Whiskey to L’Anse in 1843,” Inland Seas 58:2 (Summer 2002): 110-113.

²⁶Schoolcraft. Narrative of an Expedition, pp. 161-162.

²⁷J. Diane Pearson. “The Politics of Disease: The Indian Vaccination Act of 1832,” M.A. thesis, University of Arizona, 1997; “Lewis Cass and the Politics of Disease: The Indian Vaccination Act of 1832,” Wicazo Sa Review 18:2 (Autumn 2003): 9-35; Barbara A, Mann. The Tainted Gift: The Disease Method of Frontier Expansion. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2009.

²⁸Gregory E. Dowd. Groundless Rumors, Legends, Hoaxes on the Early Ameican Frontier. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016, p. (#26)

²⁹Magnaghi. “On the Move: Traveling the Carp River Trail.” Michigan History (January-February 2020), 50-55.

³⁰Charles J. Kappler, editor and compiler. Laws and Treaties. 7 vols. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1904, II: 451-455.

³¹Quimby. Ethnohistory (Summer 1962): 231-232.

³²Helen L. Paul. “Old Indian Village – Chocolay,” deposited at the John M. Longyear Library, Marquette Regional History Center.

³³William A. Burt. “A Survey Map, Marquette County, Michigan,” deposited at the John M. Longyear Library, Marquette Regional History Center.

³⁴Mining Journal 10-02-1019.

³⁵Mining Journal 10-02-1019.

³⁶Russell M. Magnaghi. Native Americans of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula: A Chronolog to 1900. Marquette, Mich.: Center for Upper Peninsula Studies, Northern Michigan University, 2009, pp. 106 and 108.

³⁷Magnaghi. Native Americans, pp. 105-122.

³⁸Rebecca J. Mead. “The Kawbawgam Cases: Native Claims and the Discovery of Iron in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,” Michigan Historical Review 40:2 (Fall 2014): 1-31; John D. Voelker. Laughing Whitefish. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965 and a number of reprints.