MICHIGAN - Michigan's identity is inextricably linked to the massive bodies of fresh water that surround and define it. Its most famous nickname is "The Great Lakes State," and even its very name is a tribute to this geography. But before it was Michigan, the land had other names, given by the Indigenous peoples who first called it home and the European explorers who followed. The story of Michigan's original names is a journey into its linguistic and colonial history.
The Indigenous Origin: "Mishigami" - The Great Water
The name Michigan is a French adaptation of a word from the Anishinaabemowin language, spoken by the Ojibwe (Chippewa) people. The original word was "mishigami" (or michi-gami), which translates to "large water," "great water," or "great lake."
Indigenous peoples originally used this descriptive name for the massive body of water we now call Lake Michigan. When French explorers arrived in the 1600s, they adopted this native term for the lake, and it eventually became the name for the entire territory and the subsequent state.
The French Colonial Era: "Le Pays d'en Haut"
Before the British, and later the Americans, took control, the Michigan region was a key part of New France. The French colonists had their own name for this vast, western frontier. They referred to the entire upper Great Lakes region, including what is now Michigan, as "le pays d'en haut," meaning "the upper country."
This name distinguished the remote, fur-trading wilderness of the Great Lakes from the more settled, agricultural heartland of the colony along the St. Lawrence River valley in Quebec. It was a land of voyageurs, missionaries, and military outposts, governed from hubs like Michilimackinac and, later, Detroit.
So, what was Michigan's original name? The answer has two parts. The true, original name comes from the Ojibwe people, who called the area's defining feature "mishigami," meaning "the great water." The first European colonial name for the region was the French term "le pays d'en haut," or the upper country. Ultimately, it was the beautiful and fitting Indigenous name, filtered through French, that endured and became the name of the state we know today: Michigan.
Sources:
- The Michigan Department of State
- The Historical Society of Michigan
- The Ojibwe People's Dictionary
- S. Bureau of Indian Affairs
- Historical accounts of New France and French exploration of the Great Lakes
- Wikipedia
