Early History: Old Mission and New Mission, and Peshawbestown
Thanks to Eliot Singer for these two pieces, heavily researched and annotated, a real treat for history hounds! Here is Eliot’s introduction:
Improved access to primary source documents, facilitated by digitalization, allows for more accurate reconstruction of local history than previous attempts that were heavily reliant on hear-say. (Oral history is a valuable tool, but only when used cautiously and critically—if you watch Finding Your Roots, family lore is regularly problematized.)
Among the documents relating to the Old Mission period, roughly from Peter Dougherty’s arrival to implementation of the 1855 Treaty, are: Annuity Rolls; GLO records; correspondence in National Archives BIA Records, Schoolcraft Papers, Presbyterian Archive, and Notre Dame Archive; Annual Reports to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs; Dougherty’s Diary and Session Notes; and George N. Smith Memoranda.
By compiling these into a consolidated document, organized chronologically, we can tell a much more complete story, without imposing interpretive biases (readers are free to take sides, but scholars should not). There are still many holes in the data, some that perhaps can be filled in with further research, such as examination of property-sale records.
What we do have shows a multi-phase transformation of the Grand Traverse-Leelanau region during the 1840s and ‘50s, with some surprises. The Old Mission Epistolary is a more focused and reader-friendly compilation than the earlier Grand Traverse Epistolary that covered more ground, some of which is now in my George Johnston’s Grand Traverse compilation (which overlaps with his time at Old Mission), while the material about the George Smith mission, when not immediately intertwined, has been omitted, because research on this has been or is being undertaken separately. I hope this reduced Epistolary is now an enjoyable read, in and of itself—as with anything, tedious parts can be skimmed. There is so much to learn from reading what people had to say for themselves, instead of an historian’s paraphrase.
Of course, making sense of these documents requires considerable cross-checking and necessarily some inferencing—simply trying to identify people with native names, spelled differently, often badly garbled or abbreviated, not just with alternative orthographies, is a difficult task, and it doesn’t help that chiefs padded their Annuity Rolls, so figuring out from which band an individual originated, is further compromised. There were also names in common use, even before Christened children bore their father’s as a surname: Zhaawanibinesi, South Bird, Ako’osé, A-certain-distance Walks, the honorific, Ogimaa-Giigido, Chief-speaks, meaning someone who speaks for the chief, not that person’s original elder-given name.
Compiling these documents also enables better analytical studies on specific topics. (I encourage others to find subjects of their own interest and to read the researches of Larry Wycoff and Mark Smith.) I have taken on trying to document the sequence that led to the formation of what became the Catholic Village, referred to as Peshabe’s Town by soon after the Civil War. Reverends Dougherty and Smith frequently complained about interference from the Catholic priest—the evidence suggests that, although the principal activists were Benjamin Peshabe and other Ottawa from Little Traverse, about half the Catholics living in or associated with the village came from the original Grand Traverse Bay Chippewa bands.
Among the documents relating to the Old Mission period, roughly from Peter Dougherty’s arrival to implementation of the 1855 Treaty, are: Annuity Rolls; GLO records; correspondence in National Archives BIA Records, Schoolcraft Papers, Presbyterian Archive, and Notre Dame Archive; Annual Reports to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs; Dougherty’s Diary and Session Notes; and George N. Smith Memoranda.
By compiling these into a consolidated document, organized chronologically, we can tell a much more complete story, without imposing interpretive biases (readers are free to take sides, but scholars should not). There are still many holes in the data, some that perhaps can be filled in with further research, such as examination of property-sale records.
What we do have shows a multi-phase transformation of the Grand Traverse-Leelanau region during the 1840s and ‘50s, with some surprises. The Old Mission Epistolary is a more focused and reader-friendly compilation than the earlier Grand Traverse Epistolary that covered more ground, some of which is now in my George Johnston’s Grand Traverse compilation (which overlaps with his time at Old Mission), while the material about the George Smith mission, when not immediately intertwined, has been omitted, because research on this has been or is being undertaken separately. I hope this reduced Epistolary is now an enjoyable read, in and of itself—as with anything, tedious parts can be skimmed. There is so much to learn from reading what people had to say for themselves, instead of an historian’s paraphrase.
Of course, making sense of these documents requires considerable cross-checking and necessarily some inferencing—simply trying to identify people with native names, spelled differently, often badly garbled or abbreviated, not just with alternative orthographies, is a difficult task, and it doesn’t help that chiefs padded their Annuity Rolls, so figuring out from which band an individual originated, is further compromised. There were also names in common use, even before Christened children bore their father’s as a surname: Zhaawanibinesi, South Bird, Ako’osé, A-certain-distance Walks, the honorific, Ogimaa-Giigido, Chief-speaks, meaning someone who speaks for the chief, not that person’s original elder-given name.
Compiling these documents also enables better analytical studies on specific topics. (I encourage others to find subjects of their own interest and to read the researches of Larry Wycoff and Mark Smith.) I have taken on trying to document the sequence that led to the formation of what became the Catholic Village, referred to as Peshabe’s Town by soon after the Civil War. Reverends Dougherty and Smith frequently complained about interference from the Catholic priest—the evidence suggests that, although the principal activists were Benjamin Peshabe and other Ottawa from Little Traverse, about half the Catholics living in or associated with the village came from the original Grand Traverse Bay Chippewa bands.
Below are links to
Grand Traverse Epistolary: Old Mission click here
Compiled by Eliot. A. Singer
