Indian Dormitory
Encyclopedia
The Indian Dormitory is a Federal-style structure built at U.S. government expense on Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island is an island and resort area covering in land area, part of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was home to a Native American settlement before European...

, Michigan, in 1838. It was a pioneering idea in building housing for Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

s visiting the Indian agency on the island. From 1867-1960, it was used as a public school, and from 1966-2003 as a museum of Native American culture. On July 2, 2010, it opened as the Richard and Jane Manoogian Mackinac Art Museum, operated by Mackinac State Historic Parks. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

.

Henry Schoolcraft, Indian Agent

The Indian Dormitory is a surviving fragment of the assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...

ist vision of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, the U.S. government official supervising Native American affairs and based at Mackinac Island. Schoolcraft noticed in the early 19th century that the culture of most Native Americans centered on the hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...

 and gathering of food, activities which were less productive in terms of food production than agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

.

Schoolcraft believed that Native Americans could be persuaded to cede much of their hunting lands to the U.S. federal government, and that the government could reinvest some of the proceeds to be earned from reselling these lands to teach farming techniques to the "Indians." Other income from land sales could be used to support Native American families during the transitional period.

As the Indian Agent in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Sault Ste. Marie is a city in and the county seat of Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is in the north-eastern end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, on the Canadian border, separated from its twin city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, by the St. Marys River...

, and later on Mackinac Island, Schoolcraft had seen that many of the Native Americans who traveled by foot or canoe to visit his agency by necessity were limited to portable, temporary shelters they could easily build. These did not seem adequate from the European-American point of view.

Treaty of Washington, 1836

As the Mackinac Island Indian Agent, Schoolcraft was able to persuade many Native Americans of Michigan Territory
Michigan Territory
The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan...

, especially members of the Ojibwa
Ojibwa
The Ojibwe or Chippewa are among the largest groups of Native Americans–First Nations north of Mexico. They are divided between Canada and the United States. In Canada, they are the third-largest population among First Nations, surpassed only by Cree and Inuit...

 and Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

 tribes, to sell most of the northern Lower Peninsula and eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan to the federal government. The exchange was sealed in the 1836 Treaty of Washington
Treaty of Washington (1836)
The Treaty of Washington is a treaty between the United States and representatives of the Ottawa and Chippewa nations of Native Americans. With this treaty, the tribes ceded an area of approximately 13,837,207 acres in the northwest portion of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and the eastern...

.

In exchange for the vast tract of land sold, the federal government promised to pay an annuity to affected Native Americans, provide training in farming and allied crafts, such as blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...

ing, and build a dormitory structure on Mackinac Island to which recognized Native Americans with tribal standing could come for shelter when doing business on Mackinac Island with the Indian Agency.

In fulfillment of this promise, the Indian Dormitory was built in 1838.

Island schoolhouse

After the expiration of the annuity schedule laid out in the 1836 treaty, Native Americans stopped coming to Mackinac Island in large numbers. The Indian Dormitory ceased to be of service in its original function.

In 1867, the building was adapted as a public school for the children of Mackinac Island of all ethnic groups. Serving as a schoolhouse from 1867–1960, the Thomas W. Ferry School provided classroom space to one of the most ethnically diverse populations in Michigan.

By 1960, the wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

en building could not meet the standards of school safety required by law. The school building, with its Schoolcraft heritage, had long been surrounded by Mackinac Island State Park
Mackinac Island State Park
Mackinac Island State Park is a state park located on Mackinac Island in the U.S. state of Michigan. The island park encompasses 2.81 mi² , which is approximately 74% of the island's total area of 3.78 mi² . The park is also within the boundaries of the city of Mackinac Island and has permanent...

 property, and in 1963 it was purchased by the Park Commission.

Building Restoration

Although Henry R. Schoolcraft's role in American frontier history could be criticized by a later generation as racist, Schoolcraft had a strong interest in the Ojibwa religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

, mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...

, and culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

. Schoolcraft energetically collected local Ojibwa stories and tales, many of which his mixed-race wife Jane Johnston Schoolcraft
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, also known as Bamewawagezhikaquay is the first known American Indian literary writer. She was of Ojibwa and Scots-Irish ancestry...

 told him or translated for him. All of his books were published under his name, with little credit to her or her family.

The Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...

 studied Schoolcraft's works for themes and inspiration for his epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha
The Song of Hiawatha is an 1855 epic poem, in trochaic tetrameter, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, featuring an Indian hero and loosely based on legends and ethnography of the Ojibwe and other Native American peoples contained in Algic Researches and additional writings of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft...

. To Americans of European ancestry, this Romantic
Romantic poetry
Romanticism, a philosophical, literary, artistic and cultural era which began in the mid/late-1700s as a reaction against the prevailing Enlightenment ideals of the day , also influenced poetry...

 poem and its title character were authentic windows into the spiritual life of the "American Indian".

In homage to this poem and its sentimental view of Ojibwa culture, in 1964-1965 the Mackinac Island State Park
Mackinac Island State Park
Mackinac Island State Park is a state park located on Mackinac Island in the U.S. state of Michigan. The island park encompasses 2.81 mi² , which is approximately 74% of the island's total area of 3.78 mi² . The park is also within the boundaries of the city of Mackinac Island and has permanent...

 renovated the interior of the Indian Dormitory to serve as a museum of Native American culture and Hiawatha
Hiawatha
Hiawatha was a legendary Native American leader and founder of the Iroquois confederacy...

 imagery. The exterior was restored to its original 1838 appearance, and the structure was opened to the public in 1966.

Mackinac Island Art Museum

From 1966 until 2003, the Indian Dormitory served as a museum featuring period settings depicting its service as the Indian Dormitory (1838–1846) on its lower levels, and offering an exhibit of Great Lakes Native American culture on the top floor. By the end of this period, the Hiawatha theme was reinterpreted as a classic example of cultural appropriation
Cultural appropriation
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It describes acculturation or assimilation, but can imply a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture. It can include the introduction of forms of...

 and, thus, was viewed as no longer appropriate for public use. Schoolcraft and Longfellow had synchretically mashed together images, names, and narratives from different Native American peoples and nations. In 2000 the second-floor exhibit space was closed, and in 2003 the State Park temporarily closed the structure.

After a study of its future use, the State Park announced plans in late 2008 to refit and reopen the Indian Dormitory as a museum featuring Straits of Mackinac
Straits of Mackinac
The Straits of Mackinac is the strip of water that connects two of the Great Lakes, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and separates the Lower Peninsula of Michigan from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is a shipping lane providing passage for raw materials and finished goods, connecting, for...

 art and culture. The interior was extensively rebuilt in 2008-2010 to add climate controls suitable for archival preservation of the collection on display. The museum opened on July 2, 2010 as the Richard and Jane Manoogian Mackinac Art Museum.

The Indian Dormitory has been named to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

.

External links

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