Turtle Talk

From Interlochen Public Radio

 On Mackinac Island, developers of a new hotel discovered what appears to be a massive burial site last week. Police say it’s now clear some of the bones unearthed in the excavation are human, likely ancestors of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

Several hundred bones have been unearthed so far after a historic building known as the McNally Cottage was demolished. Property owner, Ira Green, plans to build a new three-story hotel where the building once stood. Some of the bones on the construction site belong to animals, while others are human remains. Mayor of Mackinac Island, Margaret Doud, said Saturday that she was not surprised bones had been found on the property. Downtown business owner, Tony Brodeur agreed, “You know, I’m not entirely surprised. And now… it’s going to stir up a lot of emotions… There has got to be a diplomatic solution.”

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One historian thinks more care should be taken to preserve the historic integrity of the site. Brian Leigh Dunnigan is the curator of maps for the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan and released a book which is an iconographic history of the Straits of Mackinac region from 1615-1860. Dunnigan says the site is just beside the original St. Anne’s Catholic Church which was relocated in the mid-1800s. He explained further, “After the cemetery was closed in December of 1851, supposedly all of the burials were removed and put in the new Catholic cemetery behind fort Mackinac.”