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L'Arbre Croche

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Coordinates: 45°37′35″N 85°4′12″W / 45.62639°N 85.07000°W / 45.62639; -85.07000
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L'Arbre Croche
Waganakising
Region
Etymology: large crocked tree
L'Arbre Croche is located in Michigan
L'Arbre Croche
L'Arbre Croche
Coordinates: 45°37′35″N 85°4′12″W / 45.62639°N 85.07000°W / 45.62639; -85.07000 (site of a historical marker in the center of what was the L'Arbre Croche region)
CountryUnited States
StateMichigan
CountyEmmet County

L'Arbre Croche, known by the Odawa people as Waganagisi, was a large Odawa settlement.[1] The French called it L'Arbre Croche for the large crocked tree that marked the center of the settlement and was visible for many miles. It covered the region from Harbor Springs to Cross Village in present-day Emmet County, Michigan.[2] Nearly the entire population was wiped out after returning to L'Arbre Croche with a tin box surriptitiously planted by the British with smallpox in 1763. This occured following the battle in Montreal of the French and Indian War.

L'Arbre Croche is also known as the present Catholic community encompasing four churches, one of which is the St. Ignatius Church of Middle Village.[3]

Etymology

L'Arbre Croche means the crooked tree in French. The hooked top of the large pine tree was a prominent landmark for travelers on Lake Michigan. The tree, no longer standing, was located near Middle Village, 20 miles (32 km) north of Harbor Springs[4][3] The Odawa name for the village was Waganagisi, meaning bent tree.[4][3]

Background

The French operated a fur trading post at Michilimackinac, in what is now the state of Michigan. The Odawa in the area traded fur pelts with the French. Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette (1637–1675) established St. Ignace Mission at Michilimackinac in the late 17th century.[5] Pierre du Jaunay, a Jesuit preist from France, served as a missionary at Michilimackinac beginning in 1735. From the Sainte-Anne log church, he served the French residents, neighboring Native Americans, and visiting traders and explorers.[6] Nissowaquet was among the Odawa who lived at the village alongside Fort Michilimackinac.[7]

In 1740, the Odawa determined that they needed to relocate to more arable land. Fort Michillimackinac Commandant Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville (Céloron) led the Odawa chiefs to Quebec to hold a council with the Marquis de Beauharnois (Beauharnois), who offered several locations for the Odawa to establish themselves.[5] With Du Jaunay's encouragement, the Odawa chose the nearby area known as L'Arbre Croche.[6] The settlement was also known as Waganagisi by the Odawa.[5]

History

Little Traverse Bay at sunset, looking north from Petoskey

The Odawa, including Nissowaquet and around 180 warriors, moved to L'Arbre with the Jesuits in the summer of 1741[5][7] and they established a mission called Apatawaaing.[3] L'Arbre Croche, also known by the Odawa name Waganagisi, was the largest settlement in the Great Lakes at the time.[1][8] It encompassed much of present-day Emmet County, Michigan,[8] with a number of villages along the shoreline from Fort Michilimackinac down to Little Traverse Bay.[9][10][a] Beauharnois sent French men from Michilimackinac to help til the soil.[10] A church was built at Cross Village in 1742 by master carpenter Joseph Ainse.[10] Du Jaunay split his time between the Sainte-Anne church and the Saint-Ignace at L’Arbre Croche mission in Cross Village, where he had a farm. He was assisted by several French priests and a number of Native American slaves.[6]

The Odawa of L'Arbre Croche fished, hunted, and grew and gathered produce, including corn, squash, onions, cucumbers, turnips, cabbages, melon, and wild strawberries.[12] The Odawa bartered with the French at Mackinac Island, a major fur-trading center where Lake Huron meets Lake Michigan. They traded food, bark, and canoes for good, like clothing and glass and porcelain beads. The canoes and food–including dried fish and meat and produce–supplied the fur traders who worked in the wilderness of the Great Lakes and the Upper Mississippi regions.[13] In the fall, the Odawa moved south to the St. Joseph River and other rivers where they divided into family bands who hunted for furs. In the spring, they made maple sugar and headed back to L'Arbre Croche.[7]

Montreal occupied following the French and Indian War, viewed from the East with Royal Navy vessels in foreground

In 1763, L'Arbre Croche lost most of its residents during a small pox epidemic, called the smallpox genocide of the Odawa tribe at L'Arbre Croche. The disease was contracted after the Odawa warriors fought with the French against the British in Montreal during the French and Indian War.[14][b]

This historic photograph, captured in an unknown location, depicted a child who was seated in her bed, exhibiting the full-body, maculopapular rash due to smallpox

They were sold a tin box in Montreal, and were told the box contained something supernatural but that they were not to open it until they returned to their homeland. The box contained four or more nested boxes, until the final box which was one inch in size and contained moldy particles. The disease spread. Entire families of L'Arbre Croche were eliminated and the population of the region was greatly reduced. It is believed that the deceitful scheme was planned by the British against the Odawa and Chippewa peoples.[14][15]

Charge of the Dragoons at Fallen Timbers by R. T. Zogbaum, 1895, Battle of Fallen Timbers

The Odawa and Chippewa from northern Michigan fought with other Native Americans against the United States government at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. The indigenous people fought to protect their traditional lands from westward expansion. Having lost the battled, Mackinac Island went to the United States as negociated in the Treaty of Greenville.[16]

In 1799, Father Gabriel Richard, a Catholic missionary from Detroit, visited the Odawa at L'Arbre Croche. Soon after, a smallpox epidemic spread through the Great Lakes region. More than one half of L'Arbre Croche settlement's residents died. The Odawa believed deaths were retributions, either because Richard's religion was evil or that the Great Spirit was angered by the possibility of the natives accepting Catholicism.[17]

Tenskwatawa, also known as the Shawnee Prophet, by George Catlin, 1830

In 1807, an Odawa warrior named Le Maigouis, The Trout, traveled from his home in L'Arbre Croche to Tenskwatawa's village in Ohio. Tenskwatawa, also called the Shawnee Prophet, founded his own religion that Trout wished to learn more about. Trout returned to Michigan, where he successfully spread the religion to the Odawa and Chippewa of L'Arbre Croche and the northern peninsula of Michigan.[18] The prophet sought to effectuate a spiritual salvation and cultural renewal” by returning to traditional social ethics, including care for the widowed and respect for elders. He also called for giving up the ways of the white people, such as the use of alcohol, firearms, and European cookware.[16] Another message was to hunt only the animals needed to feed and clothe the tribe, and not to provide food for the White fur traders, which would help restore the number of game in the region.[18] The prophet's brother, Tecumseh helped spread the religion throughout the Great Lakes region.[19]

By September 1807, the Odawa had stopped buying liquor at Michilimackinc. It had been a lucrative product and traders tried to regenerate demand by giving away gallons of alcohol, without any takers.[19] In 1808, some of the converted moved to Tenskwatawa's village, Prophetstown, in present-day northwest Indiana. Other people moved to the settlement that was no able to support the number of arrivals. There was not sufficient farmland and the prophet disallowed trading for food with the Whites. As people starved, they resorted to eating their horses and then their dogs. More than 100 people from L'Arbre Croche died and the surviving disenchanted people returned to their homeland.[20]

L'Arbre Croche was a collection of ten villages, with a population of 1500, in 1819.[21] By 1820, the population of Odawa living in the Little Traverse Bay area of L'Arbre Croche were between 1,000 and 1,200 people. They lived in clusters of lodges along the shore of the bay.[22]

A historical marker is located on the Tunnel of Trees Scenic Heritage Route on Michigan State Highway 119.[2]

Notable people

See also

Notes

  1. ^ L'Arbre Croche covered a large area. Various descriptions placed it 20 miles (32 km) west of Fort Michilimackinac, 10 miles southwest of Mackinac, and at Harbor Springs. It is also said to have been a collection of 10 villages in 1819. All of which are correct.[11]
  2. ^ Nissowaquet's biography states that the "devastating" smallpox epidemic occurred in 1757, following a French and Indian War battle at Fort George.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Karamanski 2012, p. 5.
  2. ^ a b "L'Arbre Croche Historical Marker". Historical Marker Database. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
  3. ^ a b c d "St. Ignatius Church Middle Village". Visit Petoskey Michigan. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  4. ^ a b Bedford-Jones et al.
  5. ^ a b c d Bedford-Jones et al.
  6. ^ a b c "Biography – Du Jaunay, Pierre – Volume IV (1771-1800)". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  7. ^ a b c d "Biography – Nissowaquet – Volume IV (1771-1800)". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved 2022-01-23.
  8. ^ a b Wright, J. C. (John Couchois) (1917). The Crooked Tree ; Indian legends and a short history of the Little Traverse Bay Region. Harbor Springs, Michigan: C. Fayette Erwin. pp. xii.
  9. ^ Karamanski 2012, pp. 5, 8.
  10. ^ a b c Bedford-Jones & McGonnell 1917, p. 12.
  11. ^ Bedford-Jones & McGonnell 1917, pp. 11–12.
  12. ^ Karamanski 2012, p. 6, 8–9.
  13. ^ Karamanski 2012, pp. 8–9.
  14. ^ a b Karamanski 2012, pp. 6–7.
  15. ^ Otto, Simon; Cappel, Constance (2007). The smallpox genocide of the Odawa tribe at L'Arbre Croche, 1763: the history of a Native American people. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 978-0-7734-5220-6.
  16. ^ a b Karamanski 2012, p. 14.
  17. ^ Karamanski 2012, p. 17.
  18. ^ a b Karamanski 2012, pp. 14–15.
  19. ^ a b Karamanski 2012, p. 15.
  20. ^ Karamanski 2012, p. 16.
  21. ^ Bedford-Jones & McGonnell 1917, p. 11.
  22. ^ Karamanski 2012, p. 8.

Bibliography

Further reading

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