History of Michigan
The history of human activity in Michigan, a U.S. state in the Great Lakes, began with settlement of the western Great Lakes region by Paleo-Indians perhaps as early as 11,000 B.C.E. One early technology they developed was the use of native copper, which they would fashion into tools and other implements with "hammer stones". The first Europeans to arrive in Michigan were the French. Explorer Étienne Brûlé traveled through Michigan in 1618 searching for a route to China. Soon the French laid claim to the land and began to trade with the local natives for furs. Men called "voyageurs" would travel the rivers by canoe trading various goods for furs that would bring a high price back in Europe.
The first French explorer of Michigan, Étienne Brûlé, began in about 1620. The area was part of French Canada from 1668 to 1763. In 1701, the French officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, along with fifty-one additional French-Canadians, founded a settlement called Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, now the city of Detroit. When New France was defeated in the French and Indian War, it ceded the region to Britain in 1763. After the British were defeated in the American Revolutionary War, the Treaty of Paris expanded the United States' boundaries to include nearly all land east of the Mississippi River and south of Canada. Michigan was then part of the "Old Northwest". From 1787 to 1800, it was part of the Northwest Territory. In 1800, the Indiana Territory was created, and most of the current state Michigan lay within it, with only the easternmost parts of the state remaining in the Northwest Territory. In 1802, when Ohio was admitted to the Union, the whole of Michigan was attached to the Territory of Indiana, and so remained until 1805, when the Territory of Michigan was established.
The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 connected the Great Lakes with the Hudson River and New York City, and brought large numbers of people to Michigan and provided an inexpensive way to ship crops to market. In 1835 the people approved the Constitution of 1835, thereby forming a state government, although Congressional recognition was delayed pending resolution of a boundary dispute with Ohio known as the Toledo War. Congress awarded the "Toledo Strip" to Ohio. Michigan received the western part of the Upper Peninsula as a concession and formally entered the Union as the twenty-sixth state on January 26, 1837.
When iron and copper were discovered in the Upper Peninsula, impetus was created for the construction of the Soo Locks, completed in 1855. Along with mining, agriculture and logging became important industries. Ransom E. Olds founded Oldsmobile in Lansing in 1897, and in 1899 Henry Ford built his first automobile factory in Detroit. General Motors was founded in Flint in 1908. Automobile assembly and associated manufacturing soon dominated Detroit, and the economy of Michigan.
The Great Depression of the 1930s affected Michigan more severely than many other places because of its industrial base. However, the state recovered in the post World War II years. The Mackinac Bridge connecting the Upper and Lower Peninsulas was completed and opened in 1957. By the 1960s, racial tensions produced unrest through the nation, and Detroit experienced a dramatic instance with the 12th Street Riot in 1967. By the 1980s, the state saw a decline in automobile sales and unemployment climbed. Michigan continues to diversify its economy away from its dependence on the automobile industry.
Early history
Paleo-Indians have lived in Michigan for about 12,000 years. Clovis artifacts have been found across Michigan. At the end of the Paleo-Indian period and the beginning of the archaic period caribou hunting occurred on the Alpena-Amberley ridge around 7000 BCE when lake levels were much lower. V shaped boulder hunting blinds and driving lanes have been found. The archaic period in Michigan includes the Old Copper Complex in the Western Upper Peninsula starting around 5000 BCE where copper knives and projectile points have been found. Other archaic sights include possible fishing grounds in the vicinity of Negwegon State Park from about 6000-4000 BCE.The area was inhabited from about 1000 B.C.E to 1000 C.E. by the Native American Hopewell culture who are possible ancestors of the Odawa tribe. Hopewell burial mounds and earthworks, built by the ancestors of today's Anishinaabek people, were located across the state. Petroglyphs known as ezhibiigaadek asin, meaning "knowledge written in stone," date to between 300 and 1,500 years before European settlement. These glyphs were created by Anishnaabe people to pass down traditional knowledge, medicine, and history. An Indian trail was built around 600 BCE connecting Traverse City to Cadillac
There is also evidence of a Siouan connection to Michigan, as it was reported in the Historical Collections of Michigan that the mounds in Detroit were built by the Tutelo.
According to oral histories and Wiigwaasabak birch bark scrolls, the ancestors of today's Ojibwe, Odawa, Bodewadami, Mascouten, and Miami peoples undertook a Great Migration from the mouth of the St. Lawrence River to the Upper Great Lakes some time before European arrival. These Algonquian people people from the East Coast were driven west when Iroquoian peoples migrated to the region from central Canada and took their original homelands.
Originally, the northern peninsula was largely claimed by the Ojibwe nation, although the border region of Wisconsin was claimed by the Menominee. Given that one of the oldest recorded names for the tribe was also the Mackinac, they most likely predate the other Algonquians in the region. There was also the Noquet, a tribe culturally and linguistically connected to the Menominee, who dominated the central Upper Peninsula for centuries prior to and during initial European contact, but gradually disappeared due to assimilation with the Ojibwe and Menominee. The entire southern peninsula was home to a tribe called the Mascouten until the Beaver Wars, which was probably home to a mixture of Algonquian & Siouan peoples before. Their southern border seems to very clearly be the Maumee River of Ohio & their territory extended around Lake Michigan into Indiana. During the Beaver Wars, the Iroquois of New York pushed other tribes in league with the French hard against Lake Huron, therefore several tribes migrated into Michigan & declared war on the Mascouten & Miami. The most likely identity for these tribes were the Erie, Chonnonton & Anishinaabeg. The Iroquoian tribes quickly continued on into northern & eastern Ohio & the Anishinaabeg groups seem to have formed the Sauk & Fox tribes by the time of the oldest surviving maps of the region, 1641. Either this, or the Sauk & Fox were chased into the region after defeats further east. Due to the Beaver Wars, the Mascouten migrated down to settle around the Wabash River.
Given the fact that they are culturally related & the Mascouten disappear from maps of the region around the same time that the new name appears, they may have later become known as the Wea, or Wabash tribe.
Afterwards, the Iroquois defeated the other Iroquoian tribes of northern Ohio—the Chonnonton, Erie & Petun—and continued into southern Michigan by the 1660s. With the Iroquoians having conquered the southern peninsula for themselves, the other Algonquians began to refer to the nearby lake as Michigan, which translates to "Big Cat" in their language. This is most likely supposed to be a reference to the Iroquoian water deity known as 'Blue Panther', or, more accurately, "Cat which Stalks Below." They defeated the Sauk & Fox, who migrated west and took refuge among the Ojibwe & Menominee. This caused other wars between Algonquian & Siouan peoples within the following decades.
Later, the Anishinaabeg tribes north of Lake Superior migrated down to the Lake Erie region, claiming some land in southern Michigan. In the U.S., they were known as the Odawa, & in Canada they were known as the Mississaugas—both deriving from tribal & subtribal names of the Anishinaabeg. The French migrated west, settling the colony of Illinois around 1680, which claimed all the land between the Great Lakes, Ohio River, Mississippi River & Appalachian mountains. Together with their native allies, they chased the Iroquois out of the region by 1701, forcing them to sign a treaty recognizing the Niagara River & the Ohio-Pennsylvania borders as the ends of their lands.
In the meantime, other tribes which had settled in Ohio were continuously pushed west by new settlers. Some settled in southern Michigan, however these were mostly the Iroquoian Wyandot. Rumor also has it that a group of Piscataway called the Conoy migrated into West Virginia & were noted as living around modern-day Detroit by 1819. If true, they most likely merged with the Odawa. During the War of 1812, tribes who sided against the United States were punished by seizure of land. With the Indian Removal Act of the 1830s, many natives were pushed away from Ohio & Michigan, many choosing to return to Canada. Despite this, many native tribesmen were able to remain, if they forwent their tribal allegiances & became American citizens. It was the later laws of 50 years later, outlawing Native American culture to control other tribes of the west, which permanently destroyed this heritage.
The Ojibwe called their land Mishi-Anishinaabaki, or Greater Anishinaabe Land. Since Anishinaabe was a collective term for the Ojibwe, Odawa & Potowatomi/ Nishnabe, who formed a governed confederacy known as the Three Council Fires, most of the Algonquian peoples around Lake Superior referred to their lands as 'something Anishinaabaki.' This most likely confused the French, who chose to simply translate the 'Mishi' part as "Superior." Although the Anishinaabeg did not have a true, organized government, the sacred site of their council fire, where they would conduct important political business, was known as Michilimackinac. Today, it is known as Mackinac Island. The Mascouten are supposedly so named for calling their original homeland of southern Michigan "Maskoutenich," or "The Treeless Land," for the Erie Plains region.
The first European explorer to visit Michigan was the Frenchman Étienne Brûlé in 1620, who began his expedition from Quebec City on the orders of Samuel de Champlain and traveled as far as the Upper Peninsula. Eventually, the area became part of Canada, one of the large colonial provinces of New France. The first permanent European settlement in Michigan was founded in 1668 at Sault Ste. Marie by Jacques Marquette, a French missionary.
The French built several trading posts, forts, and villages in Michigan during the late 17th century. Among them, the most important was Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit in 1701; it became the city of Detroit. Up until this time, French activities in the region were limited to hunting, trapping, trading with and the conversion of local Indians, and some limited subsistence farming. By 1760, the Michigan countryside had only a few hundred white inhabitants.