May 12, 1781

Mackinac Island was sold to the British.

In a grove of trees below Fort Mackinac, Lt. Governor Patrick Sinclair, British commandant at Michilimackinac, and an assortment of Ojibway (Chippewa) chiefs met to transfer the ownership of Mackinac Island to the British crown. A deed was read in English and Algonquian. The British presented a seven-foot wampum belt as a “lasting memorial” of the transaction. Sinclair signed the deed and each chief scrawled his totem on the side of the document. The Indians were given a dozen canoe loads of presents worth 5,000 pounds in exchange for the island.

Thank you Michigan Start Pages for this glimpse into our past.  See more here.