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Book/Printed Material History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan: a grammar of their language, and personal and family history of the author.

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About this Item

Title

  • History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan: a grammar of their language, and personal and family history of the author.

Summary

  • Blackbird (Mack-e-te-be-nessy) was an Ottawa chief's son who served as an official interpreter for the U.S. government and later as a postmaster while remaining active in Native American affairs as a teacher, advisor on diplomatic issues, lecturer and temperance advocate. In this work he describes how he became knowledgeable about both Native American and white cultural traditions and chronicles his struggles to achieve two years of higher education at the Ypsilanti State Normal School. He also deals with the history of many native peoples throughout the Michigan region (especially the Mackinac Straits), combining information on political, military, and diplomatic matters with legends, personal reminiscences, and a discussion of comparative beliefs and values, and offering insights into the ways that increasing contact between Indians and whites were changing native lifeways. He especially emphasizes traditional hunting, fishing, sugaring, and trapping practices and the seasonal tasks of daily living. Ottawa traditions, according to the author, recall their earlier home on Canada's Ottawa River and how they were deliberately infected by smallpox by the English Canadians after allying themselves with the French. Blackbird finds Biblical parallels with Ottawa and Chippewa accounts of a great flood and a fish which ingests and expels a celebrated prophet. He includes his own oratorical "Lamentation" on white treatment of the Ottawas, twenty-one moral commandments of the Ottawa and Chippewa, the Ten Commandments and other religious material in the Ottawa and Chippewa language, and a grammar of that language. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft appears in the narrative in his role as an Indian agent.

Names

  • Blackbird, Andrew J., 1810-

Created / Published

  • Ypsilanti, Mich., The Ypsilantian Job Printing House, 1887.

Headings

  • -  Ottawa Indians
  • -  Ojibwa Indians

Notes

  • -  The author's Indian name is Mack-aw-de-be-nessy.
  • -  Also available in digital form.

Medium

  • 128 p. 18 x 14 cm.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • E99.O9 B6

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 02016465

Online Format

  • online text
  • image
  • pdf

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress is not aware of any U.S. copyright protection (see Title 17, U.S.C.) or any other restrictions in the materials in the Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910 materials. The Library of Congress is providing access to these materials for educational and research purposes. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or other rights holders (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

Credit Line: Library of Congress, General Collections and Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

Further copyright information is also available at American Memory and Copyright.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Blackbird, Andrew J. History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan: a grammar of their language, and personal and family history of the author. Ypsilanti, Mich., The Ypsilantian Job Printing House, 1887. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/02016465/.

APA citation style:

Blackbird, A. J. (1887) History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan: a grammar of their language, and personal and family history of the author. Ypsilanti, Mich., The Ypsilantian Job Printing House. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/02016465/.

MLA citation style:

Blackbird, Andrew J. History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan: a grammar of their language, and personal and family history of the author. Ypsilanti, Mich., The Ypsilantian Job Printing House, 1887. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/02016465/>.