Biddle House Project
On behalf of Mackinac Associates, we want to thank you for supporting our fall 2018 appeal and helping us reach our goal to create a very special addition to our community – the Mackinac Island Native American Museum at the Biddle House on Market Street. Staff worked diligently to select historic artifacts and install displays and landscaping. The long-awaited grand opening was finally able to occur in summer of 2021.
Mackinac Island has been a sacred and historically significant place for Anishinaabek people (Odawa, Ojibway, and Potawatomi) for centuries. Oral tradition, supported by archaeological evidence, speaks of Native settlement dating back to 1000 A.D. From this point forward, Mackinac Island occupied a central place in the Anishinaabek world.
The exhibition “Agatha’s Mackinac” tells the Anishinaabek story of Mackinac Island from pre-contact to today through the experiences and relationships of Agatha Biddle (1791-1873), an Odawa woman whose life provides a lens through which to understand and appreciate this rich story.
In recognition of Agatha Biddle’s importance to the Anishinaabek people and the region, she was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 2018.
