WAGANAKISING Land of the Crooked Tree By Eric Hemenway, LTBB Odawa
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he area known today as Emmet County, Mich., like many other areas in the United States, has gone by more than one name over the course of time. The original county name was Tonedagana, named after an Odawa chief from Cross Village. But in 1843 the county’s name changed to Emmet, in honor of Robert Emmet, an Irish nationalist. Emmet County officially organized in 1853 and has retained that name ever since. But Emmet County had a very distinctive designation before the arrival of European and later, American settlers. The indigenous people to Northern Michigan, the Odawa, had their own name for this special area. Waganakising or “Land of the Crooked Tree” was, and still is to this very day, a very significant area for the Odawa people. The French, who would be the first European visitors to the area, would not try to rename it. They simply called it the “Land of the Crooked Tree” which in French is “L’Arbre Croche.” Many early French and British maps have the area of L’Arbre Croche plainly designated. It would be one of the most significant political and village settlements in the entire Great Lakes. French officials would come here to conduct business during the late 1600s and early 1700s with the Odawa and their close kin, the Ojibway. Pontiac’s famed war would have ties to Waganakising in 1763, as Odawa from there, under the leadership of Odawa war chief/ French officer Charles Langlade, would secure over a dozen British soldiers who survived the attack at Fort Michilimackinac and transport them to safety in Montreal. Later, from 1831-33, the famed missionary Frederic Baraga carried out his mission work at the southern end of Waganakising, at Harbor Springs.
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Important Odawa leaders, such as Assiginack, Mookmanish, Kishigopenasi, Makadepenasi, Charles Langlade, Nissawaquat, Augustin Hamlin and Andrew J. Blackbird have all called the Land of Crooked Tree home. Part of what makes this area so fascinating, beyond its historical relevance, is the cultural importance the Land of the Crooked Tree has to the Odawa. The land was once marked by a massive pine that was bent out over the water near Middle Village (Good Hart). This tree, thought to be misshaped by spirits, marked the homelands of the Odawa and served as a sign to any traveler on Lake Michigan that you have entered into one of the principal village of the Odawa. Many tribes from the Great Lakes came to hold councils at Waganakising to discuss war, peace, trade and alliances; upon seeing the great bent tree, they knew they had arrived. But sadly, the tree was cut down and its exact location has become lost to memory. While the location of the tree is lost, the overall message of the Crooked Tree is not. A journey inland from the shoreline of Waganakising, one will discover other crooked trees. The Odawa would purposely misshape young maple trees at significant locations within Emmet County. Some can still be seen today, along Old Horton Bay Road near Bay Shore, which is an old Odawa village. These trees were cut down their main-stem at a certain age in their development. The trees would recover but the main trunk would not fully develop. Instead, large side branches would grow outward, resembling a large hand with its palm up. These trees would be used as trail markers and also to identify significant areas to the Odawa. The Land of the Crooked Tree is so much more than a single tree that once existed along the shoreline of Lake Michigan. The crooked tree took many forms here and had multiple meanings. Whether it was to identify a landing spot, a council area, a trail marker or a tree created through divine purpose to signify Odawa homelands, the crooked tree’s significance is still alive and well to this day. The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians have lived in Emmet County, continually, since 1742 and have called the area home for centuries prior. The tribe achieved reaffirmation of its federal status in 1994. Upon embarking on its right to self-government, the Odawa developed its own constitution. In their constitution, they honor their ancestors, their Anishnaabek beliefs and their homelands as identifying as “Waganakising Odawak,” or “Land of the Crooked Tree Odawa.” ▪