News & Fun in Michigan
Michigan Indian Place Names are important historical records of the Saginaw Valley and Upper Thumb, we have found this brief sketch about the original names from the Anishinaabeg to several places and rivers and discovered their meaning.
The Shore Indian trail was one of the five major routes of land travel leading out of Detroit and one best known to the early settlers.
The trail begins from the rapids of the Maumee River to Toledo. It played a major role during the War of 1812.
Indigenous Peoples of Michigan, the Anishinabeg, view the White Rock on the edge of the Lake Huron shore as a sacred site. The rock was much, much larger than it appears today. (Which is 2019 is mostly underwater). The Indian ensured that fresh game and food items were placed on the site as an offering. Gitchie Manitou or Great Spirit would recognize the offering by the Anishinabeg as a token of thanks for the bounty and richness of the peninsula.
In the 1920s, there was a flurry of archaeological activity in Michigan to record and catalog Native American villages, garden beds, and burial mounds. As a result, the entire Saginaw Valley has 100s of identified sites. The identification, and looting, of Indian artifacts from burial mounds, was a common occurrence.
The Saginaw Trail is the oldest and most traveled route in the Indian trail system in Michigan. Starting from the Straits of Detroit to Saginaw. It was a trading route with many other trails leading off. Today the trail is denoted as a great American Roadway starting with Woodward Avenue in Detroit.
