Madeline Island

Madeline Island (Ojibwe: Mooningwanekaaning) is an island in Lake Superior. Located in Ashland County, Wisconsin, it has long been a spiritual center of the Lake Superior Chippewa. Although the largest of the Apostle Islands, it is not included in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. It is the only island in the Apostle Island chain open to commercial development and private ownership.

The community of La Pointe, located on the western edge of the island and established by French colonists as a fur trading post, was one of the earliest European settlements in the area. It has a population of 302, with a higher population during the summer tourist season. The island can be accessed by ferry from nearby Bayfield.

Madeline Island has been the traditional spiritual center of the Lake Superior Chippewa. A traditional Anishinaabeg story says that Great Spirit Gitche Manitou told the people to travel west to the place where the "food grows upon the water." They traveled until they reached the area of the wild rice that grew in the marshes in nearby Chequamegon Bay.

Madeline Island is named after Madeleine Cadotte, Ikwesewe, a daughter of the Ojibwe chief White Crane and his wife. Madeleine married fur trader Michel Cadotte and they were prominent leaders on the island in the 19th century. The island was inhabited by Native Americans, fur traders, and missionaries for over 400 years, and has flown the flags of three nations: France, Great Britain and the United States.

Originally called Mooningwanekaaning ("At [the Place] Abundant with Yellow-shafted Northern flicker"), the island was inhabited for hundreds of years by the La Pointe Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, an Ojibwa band of the Lake Superior Chippewa.

The first European settlers were French fur traders, who in 1693 established a fort. The community of La Pointe developed around it. In the early 19th century, La Pointe became the site of an important post of John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company, established in 1808. This location was headed by Michel Cadotte, whose wife was Ikwesewe (Madeline), daughter of an Ojibwa chief. The island was named for her. They were a prominent couple on the island, and an example of many marriages between traders and high-ranking Ojibwe women. Such women were integral to the trading success of their husbands, as they helped create goodwill and provided access to the Native American communities. Native women were also prominent in the trading community on Mackinac Island and at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

For 150 years, Madeline Island was an important outpost for French, British and American fur traders. They brought European and American goods to trade with Native Americans for furs that were highly desired in the European markets.

In about 1660, Radisson and Groseilliers, two explorers and fur traders, made their way to Chequamegon Bay. They started a French fur trading post on the island, which they then considered part of New France, although it was traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg and previous indigenous cultures. From about 1660 through 1763, a fierce rivalry grew between France and Great Britain in North America, as each European power struggled to expand its fur-trading territories and control the lucrative fur trade. As part of the Seven Years' War, British and French regular and mostly colonial forces, together with assorted Indian allies, fought in North America. With the British victory, France ceded all its territories east of the Mississippi River.