Michilimackinac

Michilimackinac ( ) is derived from an Ottawa-Ojibwe name for present-day Mackinac Island and the region around the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. Early settlers of North America applied the term to the entire region along Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior. Today it is considered to be mostly within the boundaries of Michigan. Michilimackinac was the original name for Mackinac Island and Mackinac County.

History

Woodland period

thumb|Overhead view of the Straits of Mackinac linking Lakes Michigan (left) and Huron (right)

Pottery first appears during Woodland period in the style of the Laurel complex. The people of the area engaged in long-distance trade, likely as part of the Hopewell tradition.

Anishinaabe and the French

The Straits of Mackinac linking Lakes Michigan and Huron was a strategic area controlling movement between the two lakes and much of the pays d'en haut. It was controlled by Algonquian Anishinaabe nations including the Ojibwe and the Odawa. The area was known to the Odawa as Michilimackinac, meaning "Big Turtle". For these people, "Michilimackinac is literally the birthplace and centre of the world" and is where the Three Fires Confederacy took place.

The Anishinaabe had good relations with the Iroquoian-speaking Wyandot, who were the first group to establish relations with New France after Samuel de Champlain's arrival in 1608. The Anishinaabe used these relations to trade indirectly with the French. After the fall of Huronia in the Beaver Wars, the Anishinaabe began to trade directly with the French and started inviting French settlers to Michilimackinac.

In 1763 Fort Michilimackinac fell to an Ojibwe attack during Pontiac's War.

European presence

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! width="10%"|Term start

! width="10%"|Term end

! width="20%"|Commander Name

! width="8%"|Picture

! |Forts and missions in the Michilimackinac area

! |Missionaries, explorers, and tribal leaders in the Michilimackinac area

! |Regional Governor (dates)

| 1671

| 1683

| New France did not have a post yet.

| St. Ignace Mission

| Jacques Marquette (1671–1675), Louis Jolliet (1673–1674), Father Henri Nouvel, "superior of the Otawa mission" (1672–1680 with a two-year break in 1678-1679, and again from 1688 to 1695.)

| Governor General of New France -- Daniel de Rémy de Courcelle (1665–1672), Louis de Buade de Frontenac (1672–1682), Joseph-Antoine de La Barre (1682–1685)

| 1683

| 1690

| Olivier Morel de La Durantaye

| St. Ignace Mission

| Father Henri Nouvel "superior of the Otawa mission"

| Joseph-Antoine de La Barre (1682–1685), Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville, Marquis de Denonville (1685-1689)

| 1690?

| 1691?

| François de la Forêt (Tonty 2nd in command)

| St. Ignace Mission

| Father Henri Nouvel "superior of the Otawa mission"

| Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville, Marquis de Denonville (1685-1689)

| 1691?

| 1694

| Louis de La Porte de Louvigné

| Fort de Buade and St. Ignace Mission

| Nicolas Perrot (1690–???)

| Louis de Buade de Frontenac (second term) (1689–1698)

| 1694

| 1696

| Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac

|

| Fort de Buade and St. Ignace Mission (abandoned by 1705)

| Étienne de Carheil 1686–1702

| Louis de Buade de Frontenac (second term) (1689–1698)

| 1696

| 1714

| (Post abandoned by New France in favor of Detroit)

| St. Ignace Mission

| Father Étienne de Carheil 1686–1702. Kondiaronk "Le Rat" / Chief of the Hurons. Father Joseph Marest (1700–1714)

| Louis-Hector de Callière (1698–1703) Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil (1703 to 1725)

| 1715

| Constant le Marchand de Lignery

| Fort Michilimackinac

| Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil (1703–1725)

| 1722

| 1725

| Constant le Marchand de Lignery

| Fort Michilimackinac

| Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil (1703–1725), Charles le Moyne de Longueuil, Baron de Longueuil (acting governor 1726)

| 1729

| ???

| Jacques-Charles Renaud Dubuisson

| Fort Michilimackinac