During your visit to the Museum of Ojibwa Culture, explore indoor and outdoor exhibits that examine Ojibwa culture and traditions, the first contact with the French and the site’s archaeological past. The history museum also houses a museum store, carrying Native American art, souvenirs, music and literature.
Indoor Exhibits
Ojibwa Migration Chart
Learn about the journey of the Ojibwa from their home along the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes and onward to Minnesota during the 14th and 15th centuries. The Ojibwa Migration Chart is featured on the replica of a birch bark scroll called a Wiigwaasabak.
Technology and Nature
Divided into Things from the Earth, Things from Animals and Things from Plants, Technology and Nature explores how the Ojibwa used the nature around them to survive the harsh winters they faced in St. Ignace. Learn how the Ojibwa made tools and weapons from copper and pottery from the clay they found in the ground. Items showcased in the Technology and Nature exhibit were donated and made by artisans as they would have traditionally been made.
Ojibwa Family Network
Learn about the Ojibwa family network, often numbering up to 20 people. The Ojibwa Family Network features an 8-minute video that provides insight into the Ojibwa family and demonstrates what the role of each family member would have been, from infant to elder.
Ojibwa Seasonal Movement
From the lakes where they fished in the spring to the forests where they hunted in the winter, the Ojibwa moved camp each season. A circular chart in the Ojibwa Seasonal Movement examines where the Ojibwa went each season and the resources that helped them survive there.
The Great Medicine Tree
Learn about the spiritual beliefs of the Ojibwa. The Great Medicine Tree provides a whole host of information on the Midewiwin, the Great Medicine Society, practiced from as far east as New England to as far west as the Dakotas.
Currents of Change in the Straits
Currents of Change in the Straits explores the first contact between the Ojibwa and French fur traders during the 1620s. While the Ojibwa and fur traders exchanged beaver fur peacefully for nearly 50 years, tensions began to arise after missionaries arrived. Displays include a lit chart that illustrates the movements throughout the Straits during the 17th century and highlights the journey of Father Marquette, one of the first and best known missionaries in Michigan; the Beaver Wars; and several exoduses from the Iroquois by the Odawa and Huron. A wind up chart features the Huron’s, a tribe of the Wendat who allied with the Ojibwa, reaction to the fur trade in its busier period after missionary arrival. Additional displays featured in the exhibit examine the impact the missionaries had on the Ojibwa and how trade changed the way the Ojibwa lived.
Outdoor Exhibits
Huron Village
Outdoors is a replica of a Huron clan house. Houses used by agricultural tribes throughout the Eastern United States, such as these, were permanent homes to entire clans and a symbol of status depending on how long and large the dwelling was.
Medicinal Wheel Garden
The Museum of Ojibwa Culture’s Medicinal Wheel Garden features cedar, tobacco, sage and sweetgrass. The four sacred plants represent the traditional philosophy that many tribes believed: life is like a circle with each stage leading into another without a true end.
Father Marquette Park
Next to the Museum of Ojibwa Culture is the gravestone of Father Marquette, missionary and explorer, and the location of his 1671 mission. The site was discovered in the spring of 1877, and five years later a garden was erected to protect the site. Features of the garden include a statue of Marquette, commissioned by the Knights of Columbus in 1957, a fountain and the grave of Father Marquette.
Be sure to shop the Museum Store, located at the entrance of the Museum of Ojibwa Culture. Native American products including artwork, baskets, literature, natural products and souvenirs made in Michigan, the United States and Canada are available to purchase.
Travel Tip
- Do not forget your camera. Photographs are welcome throughout the Museum of Ojibwa Culture.