Looking through the surface of the Straits deep into the past

What lies below the surface is intriguing: in literature, in psychoanalysis, and in archeology. In spirituality one might look beyond the surface. What lies below the surface of Straits of Mackinac, and the lakes that the Straits connect, is space that interests university archeologists and Native American tribal citizen scientists. Why are large rocks seemingly assembled in a formation? Do they represent a prehistoric hunter’s trap, as has been documented in the Lake Huron water bed? Is it an ancestral site important to the Native American culture?

The discovery of this rock formation was initially made by an employee of Search, Inc., conducting an assessment of submerged cultural resources that could be impacted by an oil pipeline tunnel proposed by Enbridge in the water bed of the Straits, from Michigan’s Lower Peninsula to its Upper Peninsula. The findings were not revealed by Enbridge in its final report to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy in 2019. That report noted 32 findings on the floor of the Straits near the tunnel project area, none “determined likely to represent a submerged cultural resource,” according to a Detroit Free Press account (https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/10/14/straits-mackinac-ice-age-culture-native-american-tribes/5978992002/)

John O’Shea, a University of Michigan archeology professor conducting his own study on similar rock formations in Lake Huron, learned about the findings from the Search, Inc., researcher and informed Marth MacFarlane-Faes, Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, in a letter early in 2020. In that letter, O’Shea asserted that the discovery of “linear stone alignments of the type documented in Lake Huron” was disregarded. “The cultural deposits which are very likely present and visible in the second hand sonar imagery are about as significant as a site could be, given the small number of sites from this time period on land, and would be unique as the first instances to be documented off and beyond the Alpena-Amberley Ridge in Lake Huron” where his primary research takes place. “At the same time, the sites are extremely vulnerable to disturbance and would be obliterated without a trace by the proposed tunneling. These are a unique piece of Michigan’s past that should not simply be brushed aside and destroyed.”

The hunters who worked this space 9,000 years ago could also be ancestors of the current Native Americans living in the Great Lakes region. This fall a group of women from the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians set out in a handcrafted 32-foot canoe called Jimaan with sonar technology to see if they could confirm the original siting. “What the citizens did up there in the Straits was really remarkable and a little brave out of that small canoe,” O’Shea said. The role of citizen science is often to empower average people with sufficient training to use technology for identifying environmental problems that can support advocacy. But that’s not conducted under the professional rigors of scientific research. O’Shea adds, “You need to do systemic coverage to really answer the question, ‘Are there hunting features of this kind that are in the way where they may be impacted by the tunnel itself or related activities, or the removal of the old pipeline?’ The problem with these hunting structures, on one hand they look really massive. Often, they’re big rocks. You wonder how people moved them. Once you scatter them, you effectively destroy the site. They’re very robust features that show up on sonar but they’re very easily disturbed and effectively destroyed.”

O’Shea is part of a group of Great Lakes archeologists searching the lake beds for evidence of late Ice Age life, which he views as consistent with other underwater discoveries throughout the world as answering “some of the most pivotal questions in human history.” When looking at the end of the Ice Age, with glacial advances and retreats, “you’ve got the colonization of North America, you’ve got land mass in South Asia, you’ve got the British channel as dry land…there’s tremendous amount that we don’t know that was dry land at critical points in human development and the spread of humans throughout the globe. What we see in North American under water is a time period that is poorly represented on land. It’s a kind of missing period in the Great Lakes.” The ingenuity and craftsmanship of the people in the Great Lakes region is intriguing, he says. “We’ve found different kinds of technology, different methods of making tools and using tools that aren’t really similar from the people slowly migrating north into Michigan from the Midwest at this same period.”

The Straits was likely a river shallow enough for caribou, and hunters, to cross. It’s possible that hunting blinds and storage facilities were created there as well. While there’s no evidence of an extended settlement — and it’s likely that any encampments or permanent residences would be far away from the migrating herds — still “they don’t know what’s down there,” says Bryan Newland, Chairman of the Bay Mills Indian Community, a member of the Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority (http://www.greatlakesfisheriestrail.org/organization.asp?ait=ov&oid=7). Newland wouldn’t speculate on what cultural assets may lie in the Straits region only that the mystery relates to the sacredness of water in his spirituality. “It’s the place where the Earth was remade after it was cleansed,” a narrative that has been compared to that of Noah’s flood in the biblical Book of Genesis. “The earth was remade after the flood, right there in the Straits.” Newland adds, “The Great Lakes themselves are sacred. I know there are burial sites all around Michigan for that matter. There are ceremonial sites as well all around the Great Lakes. This has always been our home.

“We say in our culture that water is the lifeblood of Mother Earth.” In that sense, women play a critical role in caring for the water. “Women are generally expected to watch out for the water…pray for our waters.”

That may explain why it was women who went out to see, through sonar technology, evidence of something significant deep below the Straits — where the Enbridge Line 5 would have been laid. And why they prayed before making their journey.

Yesterday, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced that the state would terminate a 1953 easement allowing Enbridge to operate dual pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac to transport petroleum and other products. The governor’s comments: “Here in Michigan, the Great Lakes define our borders, but they also define who we are as people… Enbridge has routinely refused to take action to protect our Great Lakes and the millions of Americans who depend on them for clean drinking water and good jobs. They have repeatedly violated the terms of the 1953 easement by ignoring structural problems that put our Great Lakes and our families at risk. Most importantly, Enbridge has imposed on the people of Michigan an unacceptable risk of a catastrophic oil spill in the Great Lakes that could devastate our economy and way of life. That’s why we’re taking action now, and why I will continue to hold accountable anyone who threatens our Great Lakes and fresh water.”