Is Michigan history indigenous history?

Absolutely, unequivocally, yes.

100%.

Michigan history is indigenous history.

We're at a place that has multiple names.

One of those names being Opit-awe-ing, halfway place, also known as Middle Village also known as Goodhart Michigan.

Historically, this would have been the population center for the Odawa during Pontiac's war in the 1700s.

this was the heart during Pontiac's time for the Northern Michigan Odawa.

This is one of our oldest burial grounds that have survived throug almost 300 years of development.

A lot of family member have ties to this very cemetery.

During Pontiac's Rebellion and the Revolutionary War and Little Turtle's War this was the main hub for the Waganakising Odawa.

In the summertime, thousands of people would be living all through this stretch.

And during those conflicts, hundreds of Odawa warriors were leaving this very beach to go fight and these guys are getting ready to head out to the various battle that they choose to go fight in that that was here.

Michigan does not come to one's mind first when they think of the American Revolution.

Nobody thinks of Michigan, what happened in Michigan that leads to the precursor of the American Revolution?

Well, actually, quite a lot.

after the French and Indian War was concluded, the French acquiesce to the British and they signed the treaty.

And none of the native nations were at the treaty.

You may have signed this France, but we didn't.

We never gave up.

And that leads right into Pontiac's war in 1763.

So Pontiac was one of the predominant sort of diplomats who had interacted with the British when they first came in.

And he was one of the firs to understand that promises the British had made to indigenous people were not being kept.

And he was proactive and decided to gather Indigenous collective will behind him.

The native nations of the Great Lakes took it upon themselves to defend their homelands and way of life.

So I feel an immense amount of pride, that even though the French said, okay, we are going to end this war, the native nations, the Anishinaabek and other allies said, no, we're going to continue to fight on for what is ours.

All these events are ar connected like a chain reaction.

when the French and Indian War is fought and and concluded it leads to Pontiac's war.

And when Pontiac's war happens the results are this proclamatio line that's created by the Briti And that line is the Appalachian Mountains.

So if you look at a map of the United States and you look at the Eastern Seaboard, you have the 13 colonies, then you have the Appalachian Mountains, and then you have, quote, wilderness territory.

And so the Proclamation Line itself states that those in the 13 colonies, you can't settle past this line, This land over here is designated for our indigenous brethren.

And so this sparks anger in the colonists.

And so you have people like Washington and Jefferson who are actually buying land o the other side of the mountains when they shouldn't be.

So they're going against Royal proclamation.

This leads to the colonists saying, you know what, we need to be free.

We need to be our own country.

This leads the colonists and Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence.

This leads to that line in the 27th grievance of the Declaration of Independence that refers to Indigenous people as merciless Indian savages Pontiac's Rebellio and the story of the indigenous folks who fought in the Midwest is key, and it's central to the story of the founding of this country in general.

If we could get our imagination caps on or go in our time capsule and come to this space in 1763, 1754, 1776, this whole beach would have been lined with war canoes.

The best way to sum it up through my own personal experienc as an initiative person in 2025 is this word that I learned is Indinawemaaganidog.

And that means all my relations, that everything is related to you.