The Beaver Island Archipelago has been a site of human habitation for many millennia. The ancestors of the current indigenous peoples, the Odawa, came from lands along the Ottawa River, a tributary of the St. Lawrence River.  Eventually, in the 1600’s and 1700’s, they came to live in the area of the Straits of Mackinac, and traveled  to Beaver Island and the surrounding islands in the archipelago to trade with the French fur traders and to visit the sacred sites of their ancestors.  Over time, the Odawa peoples, meaning ‘traders’, slowly began to inhabit the lands surrounding Lake Michigan.  They broke into numerous groups, some of which we know today as the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potowatomi. Many of these people have left their mark on Beaver Island, physically and culturally.  We deeply acknowledge the skills, knowledge, and talents that laid the foundation for life here on the Island today.