The Founding Mothers of Mackinac Island: The Agatha Biddle Band of 1870

Drawing on a wide array of historical sources, Theresa L. Weller provides a comprehensive history of the lineage of the seventy-four members of the Agatha Biddle band in 1870. A highly unusual Native and Métis community, the band included just eight men but sixty-six women. Agatha Biddle was a member of the band from its first enumeration in 1837 and became its chief in the early 1860s. Also, unlike most other bands, which were typically made up of family members, this one began as a small handful of unrelated Indian women joined by the fact that the US government owed them payments in the form of annuities in exchange for land given up in the 1836 Treaty of Washington, DC. In this volume, the author unveils the genealogies for all the families who belonged to the band under Agatha Biddle's leadership, and in doing so, offers the reader fascinating insights into Mackinac Island life in the nineteenth century.

Author: Theresa L. Weller
Publisher: Michigan State University Press
Published: 08/01/2021
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.98h x 5.98w x 0.71d
ISBN13: 9781611863956
ISBN10: 1611863953
BISAC Categories:
- Reference | Genealogy & Heraldry
- History | Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
- History | Women

About the Author
THERESA L. WELLER has been published in Michigan's Habitant Heritage, St. Ignace News, and the Mackinac Island Town Crier. She is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.