An-Dah-Yahnh "Home"

Photo courtesy of Mary Cummings

A House. A Village. A Region. A People.

For the King Family, for the Waganakising Odawak, and for the Anishnaabek, this place is home.

Generations of the King family called this building home. Just outside this door, the once-bustling Middle Village or Ahpitahwaing (in the middle or half-way place) was home to numerous Odawa families like the Kings. The village sits at the heart of Waganakising (it is bent), a region stretching along the Lake Michigan shoreline from Cross Village to Harbor Springs, the traditional homelands of the Odawa. Extending out further, Gitchi Gumeek (the Great Lakes) is the original home of the Anishnaabek (the good people).

This is home.

Image courtesy of Feest, Johann E and Christian. Handbook of the North American Indians Northeast Vol. 15., Washington D.C: Smithsonian Institution, 1978.

Origins

The Anishnaabek include the Odawa/Ottawa, Ojibway/Chippewa and Bodawatomi/Potawatomi. They have multiple origin beliefs, varying by community, including one that tells how the Anishnaabek originally came from the east, following a sacred migration to their present-day locations. Another has the creation of the Anishnaabek occurring at Mackinac Island. In all of these beliefs, the Great Lakes is the original home of the Anishnaabek and continues to be home for thousands of Anishnaabek to this day.

Agate Basin Projectile Point , circa 9,500 BP. Found in the Petoskey area.

Cultural Artifacts of the Past

Archaeological evidence of indigenous people roaming the lands of northern lower Michigan hunting game fishing, and gathering wild plants since 9,500 B.P. (Before Present) includes a few spear points that have been comparatively cross-dated to this time period. That the people lived in a spruce-dominated, sub-arctic environment, has been confirmed through paleo-ecological analysis.

9,500 BP
Evidence of human occupation of northern lower Michigan origin beliefs of being here thousands of years ago.

BP = Before Present

2,000 BP
Introduction of dah-min (corn) agriculture, a vital crop for the Anishnaabek

1,000-800 BP
Introduction of the gill net to obtain fish in larger quantities; whitefish, sturgeon, and other fish are the primary protein for Waganakising Odawa

800 BP
Development of cache pits to store dah-min (corn), acorns, and various kinds of fish and meat underground for future use

800 BP
Odawa war parties under Sagima drive the Muscodesh out of northern Michigan

1615
French explorers make first contact with the Odawa

1640-1670
The Iroquois Wars drive the Odawa to the western Upper Peninsula and Minnesota, leaving few Odawa remaining in the Straits or Waganakising

1670
With their Ojibway allies, the Odawa drive the Iroquois out of Michigan, then reclaiming and resettling the Straits

1680
French establish Fort Michilimackinac on the southern shore of the Straits

Pre-1600
After war with the Muscodesh, the Odawa reestablish Waganakising as a primary village

Map of “New France”, 1687.

Did you know…

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