Background Notes

Michigan is surrounded by the Great Lakes and has many rivers and smaller lakes within its borders. The First People of Michigan found canoe travel an efficient way to get from one place to another. When the French and English came seeking furs, they recognized it as a good way to travel and adopted the canoe for their own use.

Native Americans and fur traders frequently had to "portage" to get from one river to another. To portage they carried their canoes and fur bundles from one river or body of water to another. In later years some rivers were rerouted or canals dug to eliminate the need to portage. For example, a canal was dug to make it possible to cross the Keweenaw Peninsula in Houghton County without portaging.

Objectives

• Given a highway map of Michigan and a projected overhead transparency of the included map of Michigan rivers, the student will highlight the rivers used by Native Americans on the highway map.
• Students will be able to explain the extent of Michigan's waterways.

Michigan Social Studies Curriculum Content Standards

This lesson presents an opportunity to address, in part, these standards:

• SOC.II.1. All students will describe, compare, and explain the locations and characteristics of places, cultures, and settlements.
• SOC.II.2. All students will describe, compare, and explain the locations and characteristics of ecosystems, resources, human adaptation, environmental impact, and the interrelationships among them.
• SOC. II.3. All students will describe, compare, and explain the locations and characteristics of economic activities, trade, political activities, migration, information flow, and the interrelationships among them.
• SOC.II.4. All students will describe and compare characteristics of ecosystems, states, regions, countries, major world regions, and patterns and explain the processes that created them.

Materials Needed

• Michigan Department of Transportation highway map (free, order online)
• Overhead transparency of map of Michigan with rivers [PDF]
• Highlighter pens

Directions

Make an overhead transparency from the map of Michigan rivers [PDF]. Project the overhead transparency so that it can be viewed by the entire class. Ask students to open their highway maps.

Locate, identify by name and discuss (location, source, outlet) Michigan's major rivers. Direct students to highlight the rivers discussed on their maps of Michigan. Write the name of each river on the transparency as students identify it. Ask students to suggest places where the early travelers would have needed to portage to get from one river to another. Mark them on the transparency map.

Are there other rivers—especially near your town—that would have served as canoe routes? Highlight them on the highway maps and add them to the overhead transparency. Optional: a county map is useful for locating nearby rivers.

Questions for Discussion or Research

1. Why did Native Americans choose rivers as a major means of travel in Michigan?
2. Why did the early French and British adventurers also travel mostly by lake and river?
3. What major Michigan cities are near rivers?

At the Museum

1. Look at the canoe in the Woodland Diorama. What materials were used to make it? Would Indians or fur traders be able to carry it easily?
2. Discuss benefits of the canoe's shape.
3. Investigate the map of Michigan's rivers in the Sawmill in the Lumbering in Michigan gallery. Find out how 19th century lumberjacks used Michigan's rivers.

Vocabulary

• Canoe: A light narrow boat with both ends sharp, usually moved by paddling.
• Portage: (n.) The route followed to carry boats or goods overland from one body of water to another. (v.) to carry the canoe, back, etc., over land to the next available waterway.

References

• Sommers, Lawrence M. (Editor). Atlas of Michigan. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press (Distributed by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI), 1977.
• Tanner, Helen Hornbeck (Editor). Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987.

Updated 06/02/2004

Michigan Historical Center, Department of History, Arts and Libraries
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