Traveling the Seven Fires-Manitoulin Island

The fourth stopping place.

To get to the Fourth Stopping Place, you need a BIG canoe. Manitoulin Island is located on the northern shore of Lake Huron, and for the Anishinaabe living near Detroit, it was one of the most challenging locations to find.

Montreal, Niagara Falls, and Detroit were found upstream along the same waterway, but finding the next location proved to be a great challenge. In the text of the Seven Fires, it describes how the exodus came to a halt.

Where was the next island? Where are the Megis shells? Do we go over land? Do we travel up Lake Michigan? If so, there are 420 islands to check. Lake Huron? If so, we have 30,000 islands to check. Lake Superior? If so, we have 400 islands to check. During this time, the Anishinaabe splintered into different groups as some permanently settled in Michigan. Others pressed forward but found no traces. This is a reminder that there is a supernatural aspect to this story. If it were a simply migration (follow the natural resources), they would have made a definitive move within a generation. Yet without the "sacred megis shells" marking the path, the people floundered.

According to the lore, a young Potowatomi had a vision that led the people to discover Manitoulin Island, and the faithful made the trip across Lake Huron to their new island home.

Julie and I had to take "the big canoe" to cross Lake Huron.

For Julie and I, our path was also bewildering. Crossing from Canada, into Detroit, and then back into Canada in the same day resulted in Border Patral flagging us for a vehicle search and a few questions.

An author? Seven Fires what?

Even knowing our route seemed illogical, and for the Anishinaabe, it would've likely have been questioned also. The "content" Potowowatomi stayed in Michigan while the "devout" Anishinaabe migrated. For us, it meant a trip to Tobermory, where the MS Chi-Cheemaun (big canoe) ferried us across the big water to the northern shore. Coming from the south, the ferry is the only option. Although bridges now connect the island to the northern shore, Manitoulin Island is the largest island found in a lake. In fact, it is so large that it has 108 lakes on the island with "islands within islands."

My "little canoe" on Lake Manitoulin.

Julie and I stayed at a small bed and breakfast called Willow Shores, and our hostess had Anishainaabe roots, enriching our experience. While it was hard to imagine the island that existed hundreds of years ago, the modern island had everything we could have wanted: curling, golfing, fishing, hiking, and culture. It definitely was our favorite stop along the trip.

Today, roughly half of the population remains Anishinaabe, who claim sovereignty over the islands. Consequently, the street signs are all written in their language.

It is unknown how long the Anishinaabe remained on the island, but by the 1600s, the community had moved on, burned their settlements, and migrated fully to the next stopping place, leaving the island mostly uninhabited.

The "People of the Three Fires" kept homes in the area with the Odawa joining the Potawatomi as those who made their homes in the region. The Ojibwe, hoever, pressed on.

Beware the Horned Serpent!

Known simply as "Spirit Island" today, the full name is Manidoowaaling, which means "cave of the spirit." The legend holds that a powerful spirit lived in an underground cave. Thus it came as no suprise to me that there was a Lake Manitou found on this island.

While all the supernatural traits fit the migration, it was not the final stopping place.