Father Marquette’s statue dedication, originally located at the intersection of Ridge Street and Lakeshore Boulevard, it has since been moved to Father Marquette Park. (Photo courtesy of the Marquette Regional History Center)

MARQUETTE — In the 17th century, North America was an open, disputed territory claimed by both the French and British.

A select group of 46 Jesuits were deployed to New France, what is now called Canada and the eastern Great Lakes region. Called “black robes” by Native people because of the simple, functional black cassocks Jesuits wore. The city’s namesake, Jacques Marquette was among them.

Much has been written about Father Marquette’s story. The sources for most of that information has been gleaned from “The Jesuit Relations,” volumes of official reports from the Jesuits to the French authorities during the 17th Century. Other significant and highly valued resources include Mackinac County Native American oral traditions, 19th century letters and journal entries. Jesuit historians, Al Fritsch, S.J. and Joseph Donnelly, S.J. collected and compiled this material in several publications over the last 50 years.

Born near Laon, France, in 1637, Jacques Marquette was cross trained as a priest, a mapmaker, navigator and historian. He traveled to Quebec in 1666 where he mastered six Native dialects. Marquette and his colleagues are credited as founding the first European settlement in the Great Lakes Basin at Sault Ste Marie in 1669. Two years later he established the Mission at St. Ignace, 60 miles south, which he came to regard as his home.

During these years, the French and British fur industries were establishing themselves as lucrative commercial enterprises in New France. Unfortunately, Native peoples were exploited and manipulated in many of the commercial transactions. Alcohol was often freely provided, and violence ensued. Some Jesuits, having taken vows of poverty, demanded Native people be treated fairly.

Many Jesuits, including Marquette, were openly despised by traders and French government officials because of their position as fierce advocates.

In 1673, Father Marquette, at the request of the French government and with permission from his superiors, mapped and explored the Mississippi Valley with Louis Jolliet, a French-Canadian explorer from Quebec. Two years later, Jolliet returned to Montreal while Marquette began making his way back to the Mission at St. Ignace, but he never arrived.

Late one afternoon in May 1675, a lone birchbark canoe with three travelers approached the mouth of a river on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan (the location is disputed between present day Ludington and Frankfort). Father Marquette and two companions landed their craft on a remote beach, built a small fire, then proceeded to quickly construct a makeshift shelter for the night from branches and bark.

That evening, weakened by dysentery, the 38-year-old Jesuit priest died, surrounded by prayers from his two companions. The next morning, he was buried there. That place came to be known as “River of the Black Robe.”

Two years later, in June 1677, members of the native community in St. Ignace traveled to his burial place. They retrieved his remains, cleansed the bones as was their tradition and returned them by canoe north to the Mission he had founded. Records report that over 40 canoes of Huron, Ojibway, Odawa, Potawatomi, Huron, and Iroquois tribal members accompanied the delegation as they landed at the bay in St. Ignace. Their faces were painted black, a mourning custom.

On the Monday after Pentecost 1677, Jacques Marquette was buried beneath a simple altar in the mission chapel in St. Ignace. The service was framed by sounds of drums, prayers and rituals of a traditional indigenous pipe ceremony.

Two hundred years passed. During that time, the mission was abandoned. As with all cities and villages, St. Ignace was repeatedly rebuilt and transformed. In 1877, Peter Grondin, a Native American, unexpectedly discovered the site of the abandoned mission during an excavation project. Under what remained of the altar’s foundation, he found a box of bones, preserved in a double walled birchbark box.

After being unearthed in 1877, 19 fragments of bone ended up at Marquette University in Milwaukee. Native peoples from St. Ignace and the Museum of Ojibway Culture led a 15-year effort to return the bones. But some wonder why Native Americans would want to welcome back the remains of a zhaaganaash (Anishinaabe for white man), now that history has documented the devastating results of missionary work, including the loss of indigenous culture and religious beliefs?

Tony Grondin, descendant of Peter Grondin, says, “Jacques Marquette was given, by my ancestors the honor of being a sacred pipe carrier. For us this is a sign of respect and honor. It means a person shares our values, understands and respects our spiritual teachings. He lived among us. Fought to protect our tribal communities. While being true to his own faith and mission, he honored and practiced many of our spiritual traditions. It was our tribal people who first buried him here 345 years ago.”

On June 18th, 2022, representatives from Jewish, Buddhist, and Christian traditions traveled to St. Ignace from around the region. They joined with spiritual leaders from the Sault Ste. Marie Band of Chippewa Indians and representatives from Marquette University, 145 years after they were exhumed, the remains of Father Jacques Marquette were reburied to the sounds of prayers, drums, and eagle whistles. At the close of the ceremony, a single eagle flew over the courtyard site, next to St. Ignace’s Museum of Ojibwa Culture.

The Return: A Story of the Reburial of the Bones of Jacques Marquette will be held at 6:30 tonight at the Marquette Regional History Center.

There will be a discussion including representatives from Mackinac County’s Native American community and the Museum of Ojibwa Culture along with the project’s historian Dan Rydholm, and members of the Cedar Tree Institute, a nonprofit that initiates projects in the areas of mental health, interfaith collaboration and environment.

The film’s director will not be present. If you would like more information, please call The Cedar Tree Institute 906-228-5494. A $5 suggested donation will be used to support the ongoing programs of the Marquette Regional History Center.