What so many of the people I interviewed longed for - what I long for - is the ability to return to the place where our ancestors lived and be welcomed there, as part of the living, breathing story of the people who call it home. ~Staci Lola Drouillard
Before there was a Grand Portage reservation, there was a village of around 200 Anishinabe families a mile east of Grand Marais.
Without a reservation to contextualize it for non-Indians, not much was written about Chippewa City by the white explorers and historians who wrote much of the early accounts of Grand Portage.
Chippewa City is gone, for the most part, now, but it didn't disappear long, long ago in an almost-forgotten past. In fact, author Drouillard said goodbye to yet another piece of it just last month.
Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe is published by the University of Minnesota Press.
