No less than 27 out of the 50 states' names in the USA are based in American Indian languages. Additionally, six out of 13 of Canada's provinces and territories have names with indigenous origins, and, of course, Canada itself is derived from an indigenous source. Shakespeare quipped, "What's in a name?" A lot, it turns out, because states like California and Florida reflect their Spanish history; here, in the Great Lakes, that history is indigenous. If you have an understanding of the name of a place, its history may reveal itself. And that history will, most likely, enrich your own life and your place in it. Join us on this journey through Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ontario, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota as we alphabetically traverse indigenous place names in each locale. Alternately, you can peruse an alphabetical concordance of every place name. In the appendices, you'll discover details of US and Canadian treaties with indigenous people, and many that are still under dispute today "Emeritus Professor Phil Bellfy has used his life-long Indigenous knowledge to produce this imaginative, original work that will be indispensable to any researcher working on Indigenous studies in the Great Lakes watershed. Indians and Other Misnomers of the Upper Great Lakes will be in the forefront of changing the way in which Indigenous knowledge shapes the hitherto colonial narrative of the Great Lakes." David T. McNab, professor emeritus, York University, Toronto, Ontario. "Indians and Other Misnomers of the Upper Great Lakes is a fascinating exploration of the Indigenous origins of many place names bordering the Great Lakes. This book offers readers the opportunity to contemplate their place within the landscape of the Indigenous homelands now claimed by the Canadian and American settler states. It is a must-own companion book for researchers, residents and anyone interested in the places, history and linguistic heritages of the Great Lakes." --Karl Hele, Anishinaabeg and the Davidson Chair in Canadian Studies, Mount Allison University "Words carry meaning and history. In this Indians and Other Misnomers of the Upper Great Lakes, Dr. Phil Bellfy takes us on an etymological journey around the Great Lakes region as he explains the possible origins and meanings of Native American place names. This book helps paint a relational picture of the cultural world of the Anishinaabe Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibway, Odawa, and Potawatomi and how that view has been impacted by settler colonialism." -- Dr. Martin Reinhardt, Anishinaabe Ojibway citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians; professor of Native American Studies, Northern Michigan University, president of the Michigan Indian Education Council. From Ziibi Press www.ZiibiPress.com

The Lake Huron area of the Upper Great Lakes region, an area spreading across vast parts of the United States and Canada, has been inhabited by the Anishnaabeg for millennia. Since their first contact with Europeans around 1600, the Anishnaabeg have interacted with—and struggled against—changing and shifting European empires and the emerging nation-states that have replaced them. Through their cultural strength, diplomatic acumen, and a remarkable knack for adapting to change, the Anishnaabeg of the Lake Huron Borderlands have reemerged in the twenty-first century as a strong and vital people, fully in charge of their destiny. Winner of the North American Indian Prose Award, this first comprehensive cross-border history of the Anishnaabeg provides an engaging account of four hundred years of their life in the Lake Huron area, showing how their history has been shaped and influenced by European contact and trade. Three Fires Unity examines how shifting European politics and, later, the imposition of the Canada–United States border running through their homeland continue to affect them today. In looking at the cultural, social, and political aspects of this borderland contact, Phil Bellfy sheds light on how the Anishnaabeg were able to survive and even thrive over the centuries in this intensely contested region.

Indians and Other Misnomers attempts to rescue the present from the past by documenting the names that tribal people use to refer to themselves, many of their historical figures, and many of the place names of North America that are of Native origin.

An acclaimed book and widely acknowledged classic, The Middle Ground steps outside the simple stories of Indian-white relations - stories of conquest and assimilation and stories of cultural persistence. It is, instead, about a search for accommodation and common meaning. It tells how Europeans and Indians met, regarding each other as alien, as other, as virtually nonhuman, and how between 1650 and 1815 they constructed a common, mutually comprehensible world in the region around the Great Lakes that the French called pays d'en haut. Here the older worlds of the Algonquians and of various Europeans overlapped, and their mixture created new systems of meaning and of exchange. Finally, the book tells of the breakdown of accommodation and common meanings and the re-creation of the Indians as alien and exotic. First published in 1991, the 20th anniversary edition includes a new preface by the author examining the impact and legacy of this study.

Unpacks the twenty-one most common myths and misconceptions about Native Americans In this enlightening book, scholars and activists Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker tackle a wide range of myths about Native American culture and history that have misinformed generations. Tracing how these ideas evolved, and drawing from history, the authors disrupt long-held and enduring myths such as: “Columbus Discovered America” “Thanksgiving Proves the Indians Welcomed Pilgrims” “Indians Were Savage and Warlike” “Europeans Brought Civilization to Backward Indians” “The United States Did Not Have a Policy of Genocide” “Sports Mascots Honor Native Americans” “Most Indians Are on Government Welfare” “Indian Casinos Make Them All Rich” “Indians Are Naturally Predisposed to Alcohol” Each chapter deftly shows how these myths are rooted in the fears and prejudice of European settlers and in the larger political agendas of a settler state aimed at acquiring Indigenous land and tied to narratives of erasure and disappearance. Accessibly written and revelatory, “All the Real Indians Died Off” challenges readers to rethink what they have been taught about Native Americans and history.

Often viewed in isolation, the Jolliet and Marquette expedition in fact took place against a sprawling backdrop that encompassed everything from ancient Native American cities to French colonial machinations. Mark Walczynski draws on a wealth of original research to place the explorers and their journey within seventeenth-century North America. His account takes readers among the region’s diverse Native American peoples and into a vanished natural world of treacherous waterways and native flora and fauna. Walczynski also charts the little-known exploits of the French-Canadian officials, explorers, traders, soldiers, and missionaries who created the political and religious environment that formed Jolliet and Marquette and shaped European colonization of the heartland. A multifaceted voyage into the past, Jolliet and Marquette expands and updates the oft-told story of a pivotal event in American history.

'An Upper Great Lakes Archaeological Odyssey' celebrates the career of Charles E. Cleland - Michigan State University emeritus professor and curator of anthropology - through a series of focused research papers by a sample of his friends, colleagues, and former students.