J. William Ettawageshik (Ottawa)

J. William Ettawageshik (ca. 1889–1942) was one of several male printers at Carlisle. After graduating from Carlisle in 1911 he became assistant editor of the Outlook in Onaway, Michigan, as reported in the February 1913 issue of the Red Man. In 1914 he worked as a printer for the Enterprise in St. Ignace, also in Michigan. (Red Man, February 1913, 265; Littlefield and Parins, American Indian, 320; Littlefield and Parins, Biobibliography: Supplement, 209)

My Home Locality, 1909

Harbor Springs, in the northern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan, in a county called Emmet, is my hometown. It has a population of about nineteen hundred people. It is a delightful place, both in summer and in winter. It is well up-to-date. The name comes from the “harbor” which is nearby and “springs” from the many beautiful springs which are near the place. Putting harbor and springs together brings the name, Harbor Springs.

The surface around this locality is hilly. The hills average from 100 to 300 feet high. The highest of these hills are 950 feet and are called Emmet Heights. There are a few small rivers and their names read as follows: Maple river, Bear river, Indian river, and Five Mile river. They are mostly used for water-power and fishing. Three of these rivers flow into Lake Michigan and one into Lake Huron.

The climate is very mild in summer. There is plenty of rain in summer and much snow in winter.

Lumbering, fishing, farming, and manufacturing are the chief industries. The agricultural products are: oats, rye, barley, potatoes, sugar-beet, and wheat. Forest products, sugar, bark, maple, beech, hemlock, elm, oak, cedar, and tamarack. Sugar comes from the maple tree, bark from the hemlock and oak. This bark is used in tanning leather; maple, oak, beech, hemlock, and elm are made into lumber. Cedar into railroad ties and shingles; tamarack into telegraph poles. Pulp wood is also found in large quantities and it is made into paper in a town nearby. From the lake large quantities of fish are caught. Lake trout, white fish, and perch are chiefly caught for food. There are twenty other different kinds of fish in the lake and in the streams.

The scenery is grand, both in summer and in winter. The harbor is very beautiful and safe. Steamers stop at this place on their way to Buffalo, or to Chicago, both freight and passenger.

The scenery and climate are very suitable for a summer resort. Bay View, Petoskey, Wequetonsing, and Harbor Point and Harbor Springs are known as Petoskey resorts. In the lake there is excellent fishing, yachting, and swimming. There are also other amusements besides these. Golf, driving, and observation. Harbor Point has the most beautiful and best golf course in the northern part of Michigan. Many people come here to spend their vacation.

The most interesting part of this locality is in a park known as Hiawatha Park. It is situated on a little lake called Wayagaimug, or Round Lake. At this place Hiawatha is dramatized by the Ojibwa Indians. It is given daily, except Sundays, through the months of July and August.

Education is compulsory in this locality. All children over seven years of age, both Indian and white, must go to school or else be kept at home. This rule is enforced by the town officers. District schools are located in convenient places throughout the township. Sixty per cent of the people have education. Harbor Springs has both primary and secondary schools. After finishing secondary schools or high schools, they are admitted into a college in a town nearby.

Reservation is an almost unknown word to many of the Indians and the whites. The people are mostly of French descent. There are about 100 Indians living in this town. They are scattered among the white people. They work together and make the laws for the town in the same way. Indian boys and girls attend the same schools as the white children. Indians have equal rights with, and make laws and vote the same as their white brothers.25