Yesterday
 

We were led in a tour of a very old Anishinaabe (Ojibway) village site This site is located on Lake Superior west of Brimley, MI, on a large bay known to the Anishinaabe people as  Half-a-Day Bay. The bay was named this because it took approximately half a day to walk there from town. Bucko Teeple who is the Vice Chairman of the Bay Mills Band of the Chippewa Indians led the tour; Tom Peters accompanied us from the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. Archeologists visited this site in the 1960’s; they uncovered many artifacts including flint, arrowheads, and pottery, dating some of these items back to as late as 1000 B.C. The original site was about 40 acres in size and was home to thousands at that time. There is documentation that this was an active site in the 1840’s with only about three or four families living there by that time. Today you can still see the trenches where the archeologist uncovered their find.
 
 

Today
 

Today the site is over run with various trees, shrubs, and grasses. The area shows none of the rich history that is here. While visiting this site we saw tracks of small and large deer, geese, and possibly a wolf, all evidence that there is and was wild game to feed the people whom once lived here. Modern day man has also left his tracks, not only footprints but the droppings of our modern day society candy wrappers, gum wrappers, and even a piece of brown glass, possibly from a beer bottle. We also saw recent diggings by treasure seekers looking for artifacts; there was a small group of pottery shards, that apparently were deemed not valuable enough to carry out. Along the beach we found a small stone shard that could possibly have come from the making of a spearhead or even an arrowhead. This site shows no outward signs of being once a large community, thus leaving it the way the Anishinaabe surely intended, IN TUNE WITH NATURE.
 
 

Thoughts
 

We left the highway and turned on to a two-track road used at times today by tribal fishermen. As we parked at a bend in the road. I had had the feeling that something special was going to happen; little did I know how true that was! After a long trek down a very old two track that is impassable to modern day vehicles, we broke out of the woods on to the beautiful blue waters of Lake Superior. Bucko says we are getting close to our destination now. After walking a short way down the sand, and sometimes-rocky beach, Bucko turned into the tall grass. And after a few feet he stopped. As we waited for the rest of the group to catch up, Tom Peters handed out Samah (Tobacco) to each of us so that we may lay this on the ground so as to honor all who once lived in this village. We then talked for a few minutes about the area, then began to move about a very small portion of the site. I keep going back, in my mind, to the fact that all of the civilizations that we read about in history, here is one that predates all of them and I have never read about this. The profound overriding thought is that this is I, this is where I came from and who I am. This short history lesson, we had today, goes back about 3000 years. As my mind starts to wander I can see huts and people as far as the eye can see there are young children playing on the beach. This place was alive with my people. All these images bring about feelings that I am having a hard time sorting out. However the Anishanabee people believe that you learn what you need when you need it, and maybe that’s the best way.