A People of Influence - Margaret Blackbird Boyd and her Family

Eric Hemenway, Director of Archives and Records for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, presents on the life and work of Margaret Blackbird Boyd and her impact on local history in the Harbor Springs area.  During the 1800s, numerous Odawa leaders were influential in the path the community would take moving forward. Many of these leaders were from the same family at Waganakising. War chiefs, peace chiefs and treaty negotiators were some of the roles held. Part of this leadership was Margaret Boyd, an Odawa woman from Little Traverse. This talk looks at her and her family’s role in the history of the Waganakising Odawa. During this lecture, an extremely rare work of art created by Margaret Boyd was on loan to the Harbor Springs History Museum from Amherst College. This artwork was a book cover, crafted in birch bark and adorned with porcupine quills. The book it covers was written by Andrew J. Blackbird.