The Anishnaabek

The Anishnaabek. . , The indigenous people of Mackinac are the Anishnaabek. Their name translates as “the good humans” or “the real people,” reflecting the belief that they were the first people created. Oral traditions relate that the Anishnaabek originated in the east then migrated west, pausing at Mackinac Island to decide the final homes of the Ojibwa, Pottawatomi, and Odawa. Other traditions tell of the first Anishnaabe being created on Mackinac Island., The Anishnaabek were broadly divided into southern and northern groups. The southern Anishnaabek, primarily Pottawatomi, were agricultural people, farming corns, beans, and squash and living along rivers throughout southern Michigan. The northern Anishnaabek, mostly Odawa and Ojibwa, were hunters and fishermen, living on the shores of the Great Lakes. Each of these three groups has similar, but distinct, beliefs and traditions. All these people speak dialects of Anishnaabemowin, an Algonquian language related to those spoken by indigenous people across eastern North America.