Indian Dormitory / Henry R. Schoolcraft

The Treaty of 1836 transferred 15 million acres of Ojibway and Odawa land in Michigan Territory to the federal government and required improvements to the Mackinac Island Indian Agency, including a dormitory for Native Americans visiting the post. This building, designed by Indian Agent Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, was completed in 1838 and served as the agency's administrative headquarters for eight years while also occasionally housing Native Americans who came to the island to receive annual treaty payments. From 1846 to 1867 it was used for a variety of purposes, including as a U.S. Customs House, and in 1867 it became the Mackinac Island Public School, remaining in that role until 1960. The Mackinac Island State Park Commission purchased the building in 1964 and renovated it in 1966. Henry Schoolcraft moved to Mackinac Island in 1833 from Sault Ste. Marie, where he had lived amid what he called the "wild magnificence of nature," to continue his work documenting the history, manners and customs, languages, and general ethnology of Michigan Indians from the Agency House next door. He had first come to Michigan in 1820 as geologist with the Lewis Cass expedition, became the Indian agent at the Sault in 1822, and as commissioner for treating with the Indians in 1836 insisted on broad tribal involvement in the negotiations. After leaving Mackinac for his native New York in 1841, he continued to write and publish research on Michigan Indians that scholars still use today.

Mackinac Island, Michigan · United States