A Brief Look

Indian Heritage

By: Julie Ottinger

Many Indians moved to this trading post and soon a village of 35 or 40 log cabins clustered around it on the flats of both sides of the river. Many bark tepees dotted the landscape and a log cabin was built in which regu lar monthly church services were held.

With the coming of the lumberman the river had to be flooded to carry the logs over the shallow places. These floods also would cover the flats where the village was located and it was necessary to move the cabins to higher ground.

The log trading post was protected with siding and remained in acceptable conditions until 1917 when it was torn down.

The name Lamarandier was hard to pronounce and so it was eventually discarded and the middle name Etiene was changed into Aiken.

Tom Aiken, who died in 1931, with his brothers Jacob and Robert, the sons of Alexandier Lamarandier, are now all gone, but there are several descendants of Lamarandier still living in the vicinity of the old trading post. Mrs. Ernest Brown (Gladys Aike n), the daughter of Tom Aiken and granddaughter of Alexandier Etiene Lamarandier and my great-great aunt, was born in the old trading post and still lives on part of the original holdings today.

My great grandmother Mrs. Jacob Weiglein (Genieve Aiken), was also born in the old trading post. She had

plenty of stories to tell me and I thought I would share a few of those with you.

When she was growing up they used to send all the Indian children up to Harbor Springs for the winter to go to school. Otherwise they had to follow the river to school and it was an extremely long walk. This way they stayed right up at the school.

And in the springtime when they came back home, the river would be flooded so the logs could go through then. When the river went back down there would be fish in these holes and the kids would go around and spear them and then take the fish home f or their mother to cook.

They also had friends across the river but it was such a long walk to get across when the river was high. So when it was low they would string a rope way up high across the whole river and then use this as a guide so they would get caught in the curren t and float down stream. That is how they visited the neighbors.

Mrs. Tom Aiken (Eva Mundy), my great-great grandmother, would churn butter and do laundry for other town people. Plus she had to take care of her family, which consisted of herself, Tom, and seven children and usually a cousin or two This was a big job for such a little women.

I'm told you can still see the Indian customs within my great grandmother. She's always saving things even if she won't use it for another month or so. And just the way she does her everyday things. . .her meals, sewing and taking

care of her pets. But who am I to argue with a 90 year old Indian woman?