Stories and resources
from elders, historians and others: indigenous and non-indigenous.Stories and resources
from elders, historians and others: indigenous and non-indigenous.
Michigan was demarcated by the Americans in 1787 as the Northwest Territories well before any treaty was made with Odawa (Ottawa), Ojibwe (Chippewa), Bodweadamee(Potawatomi)and other peoples. Manifest Destiny...the American nation...had a clear vision and policy of migrating, settling, occupying, colonizing and eradicating the indigenous nations of Turtle Island to set up - to paraphrase bell hooks, an African-American woman, scholar and educator: a white supremacist capitalist patriarchichal nation-state.
Dates -under construction-
1494 - Colombian-era hemispheric invasion starts with Columbus's second voyage to the Caribbean among which included 1500 soldiers, plenty of weapons and priests.
1630's - European disease reaches the indigenous nations of the Great Lakes. Within decades it is presumed that 2 out of 3 people die.
1750-1763, French and Indian Wars - Lord Jeffrey Amherst speaks of indigenous people as "pernicious vermin" and talks of "extirpating" an "execrable race."
1763 - War: indigenous leaders attack every fort west of the Alleghenies. In the western parts, captured forts included: Fort Michilimackinac, Fort St. Joseph - now present-day Niles, Michigan - Fort Miami - now present-day Fort Wayne, Indian -, Fort Sandusky, and Fort Ouiatenon - now present-day Lafayette, Indiana. Fort Edward Augustus - now present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin - was abandoned. Pontiac, Odawa, leads siege of Fort Detroit. 300 French-Canadians were purposefully spared from the attack on the British in Fort Michilimackinac.
1763 - A proclamation from the British king reaffirms a "no settlement" policy for the Ohio valley-Great Lakes region. Powerful colonists with large interests in this land because of land speculation complain and agitate against the proclamation.
1776 - The Declaration of Independence
comes from the British colonies, later states of the U.S.A.
1781 - The British purchase Mackinac Island - the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.
1783 - Treaty of Paris formally acknowledges victory of the American revolution.
1784-86 - Treaties at Fort Stanwix (1784), Fort McIntosh (1785), and Fort Finney (1786), supposedly secure claim to purchase of much Indian land. "Much of the selling was done by Indians who did not occupy the land, or who did not legitimately represent those who did. When the rightful occupants were present, they were usually woefully outnumbered." [source: Cleland, Charles E., Rites of Conquest:The History and Culture of Michigan's Native Americans. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1992
1787 - Northwest Ordinance
1788 - Constitution of the United States
ratified. No representation or significant laws or amendments for
co-existence for and with American Indians either as people
living within a colony or state or for those who were being encroached
upon by an increasing flood of colonists, soldiers, speculators and
missionaries.
1790 - Blue Jacket (Shawnee) and Little
Turtle (Miami) defeat U.S. General Josiah Harmar.
1792 - General Arthur St. Clair is
defeated by Ohio valley and Great Lakes indigenous coalition.
1795 - General Anthony Wayne defeats an
indigenous force at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The term Chimookmon or "Big Knife" arises
from a name for Gen'l Wayne and his troops. The term from this point
gradually grows to refer to any racist and/or supremacist non-native.
Treaty of Greenvile "cedes"
southern and eastern Ohio, a result of the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
1796 - The British surrender military
posts at Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinac.
early 1800's - Major land cessions come
from U.S. initiatives to acquire and annex land by any means convenient.
1803 - Thomas Jefferson suggests that
Indians "simply" relocate away from the unstoppable encroaching
settlers.
1805, 1807, 1817 - Treaties cede northern Ohio and southern Michigan lands.
1807 - Treaty of Detroit.
1807 - Tecumseh begins
coalition-building from the Gulf of Mexico to Michigan.
1811 - While Tecumseh is away
organizing, the coalition camp at Prophetstown (on the Tippecanoe
River , Indiana; Tecumseh's brother, the prophet Tenskwatawa) is
persuaded by Potawatomi and Winnebago to attack the Americans. General
(and future President) William Henry Harrison counterattacks, destroys
Prophetstown and forces a retreat of indigenous coalition forces.
Military strength at Prophetstown had numbered anywhere between 1,000
and 3,000 warriors.
1812 - In War of 1812, Tecumseh allies
with British. For a short time, Indian forces occupied Detroit,
Mackinac and Fort Dearborn.
1813, Sept. - Perry's (U.S.) naval force
defeats the British on Lake Erie in a decisive battle.
1813, Oct. - Tecumseh including
Odawa ogitchida (guardians,
warriors) Nawequageezhig (Noonday) and Sagima (both of the Grand River
valley) and Kewaycooshcum of Little
Traverse Bay attended to the rearguard the British retreat into
Ontario. On Oct. 5 Tecumseh is killed at a battle at Moraviantown,
Ontario.
1816-33 - The United Nation of Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi in southern Ohio relinquish "claims" east of the Mississippi River and sign an 1833 treaty for land to the west of the Mississippi.
1819 - Treaty of Saginaw regarding Saginaw River valley and Saginaw Bay Anishnabek and lands.
1821 - Treaty of Chicago; peoples south
of the Owashtinong - Grand River supposedly "cede" their lands to the
U.S. government. Many move northward.
1825 - President James Monroe "encourages"
Indians on east side of Mississippi to move to lands on western side.
1830-33 - President Andrew Jackson supports the State of Georgia in atrocities against the Cherokee (Tsalagi) peoples. The U.S. Congress ratifies and President Jackson signs into law the Indian Removal Act of 1830. President Jackson directs U.S. military forces to force the Cherokee on a forced march of relocation, The Trail of Tears, where thousands died during the brutal, wintry march (mostly during 1830-1833. Much of the political and cultural developments iinclude huge U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding the Cherokee: Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (30 U.S. (5 Pet.) 1 (1831)) and Worcester v. Georgia (31 U.S. (6 Pet.) 551 (1832). These decisions continue to lay the foundation of the ongoing American racist and colonial annexation ,occupation and imposition upon the present-day continental 49 states and the Pacific Island state of Hawaii.
1833 - Treaty of Chicago; also this year the Potawatomi are to forced to relocate to Marrietta, Kansas and other points west of the Mississippi. One church minister even tricks Potawatomi town folk to a church. The U.S. army surrounds the church and goes to their town and burns it to the ground. Others are freighted like "cattle," but most are forced to march. Trading goods like blankets that have the smallpox virus is utilized by the U.S. to infect Potawatomi (and others like the Mandan, Odawa and other) towns and decimate their peoples. A historical marker at the Kalamazoo, MI railroad station details a forced removal conducted by the U.S. army upon a Potawatomi town located north of the station.
1835 - Smallpox epidemic in the Grand
River valley.
1836 - Treaty of Washington: Michigan
Indian agent Henry Schoolcraft manipulates delegations from L'Arbre
Croche and Owashtinong (Grand River) Odawa in order to get a treaty
that "cedes" eastern half of the Upper Peninsula of present-day
Michigan and
Lower Peninsula north of Owashtinong. Many of the young men from the
delegation were sent only to dissuade others from selling their lands
and had no authority to sign a treaty. Schoolcraft tells
Secretary of War Lewis Cass that all of the Odawa arrived to "sell"
their lands.
Schoolcraft is given authority to
arrange a treaty signing delegation as soon as possible. Some who
did join delegation were still primarily interested in avoiding forced
relocation to the west. Ultimately, negotiations went on for weeks,
delegates are wined, dined, "counseled," pressured and only 21 of more
than 100 recognized Odawa and Ojibwe chiefs sign the treaty. During
various treaty signings even being a "recognized" chief can become a
trick played by the U.S. to come up with signatures on a treaty. Treaty
also has a claim which
calls for Indians removal and relocation (a term that signifies an
active and prototypical use of the reservation/concentration camp
system) to lands west of the Mississippi.
Many Odawa are "promptly required to leave their homes and improvements behind. A number of Grand Rapids settlers inherited ready-made houses, farms, and a working sawmill, all at Ottawa expense." (Clifton, Cornell and McClurken, 29)
next twenty or so years - most of the Anishnabek remain and negotiate removal with the United States government but many people from the Potawatomi nation are escorted by the U.S. military west of the Mississippi.
1836 - The British agree with Ottawa and Ojibwe on Manitoulin Island and other Lake Huron islands to allow other Indians to relocate to the islands in an unsuccessful attempt to create an Indian territory.
1837 - European-american settlers (and
their supporters) achieve statehood for Michigan; many settlers come to
homestead. Also treaty that cedes lands in Wisconsin and central
Minnesota.
1837 - Saginaw Ojibwe (Chippewa) see 2
out of 3 fatalities during another smallpox epidemic.
1838 - Michigan Indian agent Henry
Schoolcraft attempts to organize removal for the Odawa but it is
resisted by a unified front of Anishnabek in Michigan.
1839-40 - Many Odawa flee to Canada to
escape the very real and imminent threat of removal.
1840 - General Hugh Brady attempts to remove more
Potawatomi, captures many and sends them to Kansas. The attorney of the
Pokagon Potawatomi, however, succeeds at a court
injunction to stop removal.
1841 - The election of the Whig-party candidate
for U.S. president, Zachary Taylor, ends the Andrew Jackson-Martin Van
Buren dynasty and allows certain Michigan legislators to support
efforts to cease pressures on the Odawa to remove without
jeopardizing their political positions.
1842 - Treaty of La Pointe. Treaty affects rich copper and iron areas of upper peninsula Michigan.
1848 - a part of Odawa nation moves from
Holland-Grand Haven area to Northport area.
1850 - British "acquire" lands from
Ottawa River (Canada) in the east to most land north of Lake Superior -
land north of Lake Huron lies between.
1854 - Mississippi, Lake Superior and
Bois Forte Bands treaty affecting land on western lands and shores of
Lake Superior between Fond du Lac, Minnesota and Canadian border.
1855 - treaty regarding reservations in
northern part of Lower Peninsula and the U.S.A. being released from all
previous financial "responsibilities;" around 1,300 Grand River Odawa
"relocate" to a reservation in the area of Custer and Eden townships
(Mason County) and Crystal and Elbridge townships (Oceana County). The
lifechange takes two years for most.
1905, 1910 and 1929 - Canada annexes by
treaty, Ojibwe land up to the shores of Hudson Bay.
1905 - A petition is filed in U.S. court questioning federal ownership of stocks, bonds, interest and other monies that were in trust as a result of the 1836 treaty. The 1855 treaty was figured to have wrongfully terminated U.S. treaty obligation for trust monies that arise from 1836. A judgment later finds the U.S. federal government in error. All during this century other claims and court decisions on trust monies; interest monies and even decisions to not participate in claims or accept money (i.e. land rather than money) create a diverse and varied approach to the U.S.-Indian Country treaty relationship.
1961 - A meeting in Chicago of leaders. A "Declaration of Indian Purpose" is issued and adds to the foundation set for the Indian self-determation movement.
1973 - The liberation of Oglala Lakota land at Wounded Knee (in South Dakota). The formation of Independent Oglala Nation.
1995 - Anishnabek and community supporters bus themselves to Lansing, MI to protect state educational policies for Native American students.
1999 - U.S. Supreme Court affirms 1837 treaty rights to hunt, fish and gather for Ojibwe in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
note: various dates and sources will be added when accounts can be confirmed.
Sources for information and history
the people themselves
historical plaque regarding removal of many of the Potawatomi nation, Kalamazoo, MI railway station
Aube Na Bing: A Pictorial History of Michigan Indians, with legends by Simon Otto; Compiled By M.T. Bussey, Grand Rapids, MI, Michigan Indian Press, 1988
The Tree That Never Dies: Oral History of the Michigan Indians,edited by Pamela J. Dobson, Grand Rapids, Grand Rapids Public Library, 1978
Churchill, Ward, lecture, Grand Rapids Community College, 1996
Cleland, Charles E., Rites of Conquest: The History and Culture of Michigan's Native Americans. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 1992
Clifton, James A., George L. Cornell, James M. McClurken, People of the Three Fires, Grand Rapids, MI, Michigan Indian Press, 1986
Peacock, Thomas and Marlene Wisuri, Ojibwe
Waasa Inaabidaa - We Look In All Directions, Afton, Minnesota,
Afton Historical Press, 2002
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