Maampii means “Here” in Anishanabee. This is the story of resiliency in post-colonial America. The Bay Mills Indian Community is a small tribe of 1,000 Ojibwe people living on the shore of Lake Superior, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Prior to fist contact in the early 1600’s, the community lived sustainably off the land and water for time immemorial.
Settlement and colonization changed life drastically for the tribe. Treaties were made and broken, land was taken away, fishing and hunting rights promised were not granted, children were forcibly taken away and sent to boarding schools. The goal was total assimilation and loss of culture and identity.
Bay Mills has grown from an impoverished existence in the mid-twentieth century to a middle-class community today. They have fought in courts to win back fish and game rights, they built a community college on the reservation knowing that education is a way out of poverty, they have invested in infrastructure, but mostly they have regained identity allowing them to move forward. The values, culture, teachings and customs of the past, the very things that colonization tried so hard to remove forever, are the things that have saved the people.
This is a collaborative story of the land, water and people of Bay Mills, and how they live harmoniously through each season. It is a story of re-gaining tradition and holding on. It is a story of a sovereign people fighting to stay that way.
