First Inhabitants of the Great Lakes Region

The First Inhabitants of the Great Lakes Region in North America

As archeological discoveries of bone fragments and fossils continue to support the existence of homo-sapiens

in North America prior to the arrival of Indo-European explorers in the 15th century, this paper will attempt to

explain chronologically, which Native American inhabitants lived or migrated throughout what is known today as the

Great Lakes Region. This region includes lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Ontario, & Erie as well as surrounding

U.S. state territories including Michigan, a significant portion of Wisconsin, small portions of Minnesota & Indiana, a

small part of Illinois and the Canadian providence of Ontario toward the north. In terms of chronological dates, this

paper will analyze the quaternary period, specifically the “Holocene epoch from 8000 B.C. to Present; the last 10,000

years ” (Quimby 2), since this epoch involved the fundamental evolution of mankind to the present. It is important to

realize that the late Pleistocene epoch had a dramatic affect on the migration patterns of homo-sapiens reaching “the

Americas by 14,000 ago” (O’Brien 12), after large portions of North America encountered the last ice age, which

through glaciation and glacial retreat affected the date of arrival and presence of indigenous people throughout the

Great Lakes Region.

Shortly following the glacial retreat of the upper Great Lakes region around 11,000 B.C., the flora and fauna

in the region began to develop prior to and upon the arrival of the “Paleo-Indian tribe, circa 7000 B.C. to 4500 B.C.”

(Quimby 6). Between this time period, in 6000 B.C., the basins of the upper Great Lakes became entirely ice free

and moraines and depressions began forming t...

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...indigenous inhabitants mentioned throughout this report. This led me

to conclude that Indian life in North America was without doubt, altered if not completely destroyed of its dignity,

prosperity and self-worth ever since the arrival of the white man to this very day.

WORKS CITED

Kubiak, William J. Great Lakes Indians. Grand Rapids : Baker Book House

Company, 1970.

O’Brien, Patrick K. Philips Atlas of World History. London : George Philip Limited, 1999.

Quimby, George I., Spaulding, Albert C. "The Old Copper Culture and the

Keweenaw Waterway" Fieldiana : Anthropology 36 no. 8 (1963): 189-201.

Quimby, George I. Indian Life in the Upper Great Lakes. Chicago: University of

Chicago Press, 1960.

Ritzenthaler E. Robert, Quimby, George I. "The Red Ocher of the Upper Great Lakes

and Adjacent Areas." Fieldiana : Anthropology 36 no.11 (1963): 243-275.