Treaty of Washington of 1836/The Indian Agency

As Michigan was becoming a state, the 1836 Treaty of Washington transferred fifteen million acres of Ojibwe and Odawa land to the United States. It was Michigan’s largest land-cession treaty. The tribal nations of Sault Ste. Marie, Mackinac, Muskegon, Little Traverse, Grand Traverse and Grand River signed the treaty. In July 1836 more than four thousand Odawa and Ojibwe came to Mackinac Island for the ratification. The treaty included removal provisions; created reservations; and promised services to tribes, multiple forms of compensation, payment of debts to traders and tribal retention of access to natural resources on ceded lands. The Ojibwe and Odawa people of northern Michigan avoided removal, but it took nearly 150 years for fishing rights and payment for ceded lands to be honored. The Indian Agency The Indian Agency was a mainstay on Mackinac Island during the first half of the nineteenth century. At the agency house, originally located next to this site, a federal agent conducted business with regional tribal nations: Ojibwe, Menomonee, Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), Odawa and Potawatomi. Information was exchanged, grievances filed, goods distributed and concerns shared. The Washington Treaty of 1836 required “a dormitory for Indians visiting the post.” Completed in 1838, this building was designed by Indian Agent Henry Rowe Schoolcraft. For eight years it was the agency’s administrative headquarters, occasionally housing Native Americans who came to the island to receive their annual treaty payments. From 1867 to 1960, it served as the island’s public school. The Mackinac Island State Park Commission bought the building in 1964 and renovated it in 1966.