Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians

When European explorers and settlers first arrived in the area, Ottawa and Ojibwe Indians were the principal inhabitants. In 1763, Ojibwe Indians took the Fort Michilimackinac as a part of Pontiac's Rebellion and held it for a year before the British retook it. The British abandoned the wooden fort in 1781 after building the limestone Fort Mackinac on nearby Mackinac Island. An Indian community on the lakeshore in the western part of the county continued to thrive after the British abandoned the fort.

In the 1840s, Indian villages lined the Lake Michigan shore from present-day Harbor Springs to Cross Village. The area was mostly reserved for native tribes by treaty provisions with the U.S. federal government until 1875.

Official Website of Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians

Emmet County Home Page