Editing Mackinac Island (section)

== Etymology ==
Like many historic places in the Great Lakes region, Mackinac Island's name derives from a Native American language, in this case [[Ojibwe language]]. The Anishinaabe peoples in the Straits of Mackinac region likened the shape of the island to that of a turtle, so they named it "Mitchimakinak" ({{langx|oj|mishimikinaak}}) "Big Turtle".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Nichols |first1=John D. |last2=Nyholm |first2=Earl |title=A Concise Dictionary of Minnesota Ojibwe |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis |year=1995}}</ref> [[Andrew Blackbird]], an official interpreter for the U.S. government and son of an [[Odawa]] chief, said the island was known locally after a tribe that had lived there.<ref name="blackbird">[[Andrew Blackbird]], "Earliest Possible Known History of Mackinac Island," ''History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan'' (Ypsilanti, MI: Ypsilanti Auxiliary of the Woman's National Indian Association, 1887) pp. 19-20</ref> The French transliterated the word and spelled it as [[Michilimackinac]]. The British shortened it to the present name: "Mackinac."<ref>{{cite dictionary |last=Harper |first=Douglas |title=Mackinaw |dictionary=Online Etymology Dictionary |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Mackinaw |access-date=March 8, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Ferjutz |first=Kelly |title=Broadcloth, Brocade and Buckskin—Return to the past on Mackinac Island |publisher=FrugalFun.com |url=http://www.frugalfun.com/mackinack.html |access-date=March 8, 2007}}</ref> Michillimackinac is also spelled as Mishinimakinago, Mǐshǐma‛kǐnung, Mi-shi-ne-macki naw-go, Missilimakinak, Teiodondoraghie, and in [[Canadian Aboriginal syllabics|Ojibwe syllabics]]: ᒥᔑᒥᑭᓈᒃ.

The [[Menominee]] traditionally lived in a large territory of {{convert|10|e6acre}} extending from Wisconsin to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Historic references include one by Father [[Frederic Baraga]], a [[Slovenia]]n missionary priest in Michigan, who in his 1878 dictionary wrote:

{{blockquote|''Mishinimakinago;'' pl.''-g.''—This name is given to some strange Indians (according to the sayings of the Otchipwes [Ojibwe]), who are rowing through the woods, and who are sometimes heard shooting, but never seen. And from this word, the name of the village of ''[[Mackinaw City, Michigan|Mackinac]]'', or ''Michillimackinac'', is derived.<ref>{{cite book |last=Baraga |first=Frederic |title=A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language |year=1878 |publisher=Beauchemin & Valois |location=Montreal |page=248 |volume=2}}</ref>}}

''Maehkaenah'' is the Menominee word for turtle. In his 1952 book ''The Indian Tribes of North America'', [[John R. Swanton|John Reed Swanton]] recorded under the "Wisconsin" section: "Menominee," a band named "Misi'nimäk Kimiko Wini'niwuk, 'Michilimackinac People,' near the old fort at Mackinac, Mich."<ref name="Swanton">{{cite book |last=Swanton |first=John R. |title=Indian Tribes of North America |url=https://archive.org/details/indiantribesofno00swan |url-access=registration |year=1952 |publisher=US Government Printing Office |location=Washington DC |pages=[https://archive.org/details/indiantribesofno00swan/page/250 250–256]}}</ref>

In an early [[recorded history|written history]] of Mackinac Island (1887) by Andrew Blackbird, the Odawa historian, he describes that a small independent tribe called "Mi-shi-ne-macki naw-go" once occupied Mackinac Island. They became confederated with the Ottawa from Ottawa Island (now [[Manitoulin Island]]), situated north of Lake Huron. One winter the Mi-shi-ne-macki naw-go on Mackinac Island were almost entirely annihilated by the [[Seneca people]] from western New York, who were one of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Only two of the local natives escaped by hiding in one of the natural caves at the island. To commemorate the losses of this allied tribe, the Ottawa named what is now Mackinac Island as "Mi-shi-ne-macki-nong."<ref name=blackbird1887>{{cite book |first=Andrew J. |last=Blackbird (Mack-e-te-be-nessy) |title=History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan: Earliest Possible Known History of Mackinac Island |location=Ypsilanti, Michigan |publisher=Ypsilanti Auxiliary of the Woman's National Indian Association |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bX8CAAAAYAAJ |year=1887 |pages=19–20|isbn=9780722200902 }}</ref> In 1895 John R. Bailey, the doctor at Fort Mackinac, published a history entitled ''Mackinac formerly Michilimackinac,'' describing some of the earliest French traders on Mackinac. They reportedly arrived in 1654 with a large party of Huron and Ottawa heading to Three Rivers; another visitor was an adventurer making a canoe voyage in 1665.<ref name=Bailey1896 />