Walking the Old Road

A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe

By: Staci Lola Drouillard

Narrated by: Staci Lola Drouillard

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

The story of a once vibrant, now vanished off-reservation Ojibwe village - and a vital chapter of the history of the North Shore.

At the turn of the 19th century, one mile east of Grand Marais, Minnesota, you would have found Chippewa City, a village that as many as 200 Anishinaabe families called home. Today you will find only Highway 61, private lakeshore property, and the one remaining village building: St. Francis Xavier Church. In Walking the Old Road, Staci Lola Drouillard guides listeners through the story of that lost community, reclaiming for history the Ojibwe voices that have for so long, and so unceremoniously, been silenced.

Blending memoir, oral history, and narrative, Walking the Old Road reaches back to a time when Chippewa City, then called Nishkwakwansing (at the edge of the forest), was home to generations of Ojibwe ancestors. Drouillard, whose own family once lived in Chippewa City, draws on memories, family history, historical analysis, and testimony passed from one generation to the next to conduct us through the ages of early European contact, government land allotment, family relocation, and assimilation.

Documenting a story too often told by non-Natives, whether historians or travelers, archaeologists or settlers, Walking the Old Road gives an authentic voice to the Native American history of the North Shore. This history, infused with a powerful sense of place, connects the Ojibwe of today with the traditions of their ancestors and their descendants, recreating the narrative of Chippewa City as it was - and is and forever will be - lived.

©2019 Staci Lola Drouillard (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Wonderful.

I am so thankful for the hard work put into this book so we can all hear the stories otherwise lost. Thank you.

Important History of Lake Superior’s North Shore

This is a book everyone should read or listen to before coming to the North Shore of Lake Superior and the Arrowhead region of Minnesota. Staci fills in a lot of the gaps left by other historians. I’ll never drive northeast on Highway 61 out of Grand Marais again without thinking of the people of Chippewa City. Nor will I drive past Swamper Lake, Caribou River, Kadunce River, or many other places in the Arrowhead region without thinking of the people from which these places were named.

This book is an essential historical account for the Arrowhead region of Minnesota, and also sheds a lot of light on the mistreatment of the indigenous people of this country over the last few centuries. I am a firm believer that people should know the triumphs and tragedies of our planet’s past. That way, we can learn to avoid the bad parts and build on the good aspects of our history.

I was fascinated by the cultural narrative of this book. It was interesting to learn about everything from the daily life to the annual collection and production of maple syrup for the people of Chippewa City and the surrounding region.

Staci masterfully interweaves the words of the Anishinaabe people who lived in the Arrowhead region with her own narrative. The amount of research and passion that obviously went into this book is amazing.

This book is extremely well written and narrated. I highly recommend it.

Treasure

Such a treasure of personal stories mixed with ancestral research and facts. I learned so much and a few of the stories mixed with my own remembrances of the point, the north shore, Grand Marais, Grand Portage and the Gunflint Trail as well as the people. I'd almost forgotten the I was privileged to visit George Morrison in Grand Portage while I was studying art at St. Olaf College. And hearing stories of the Powells and many others brought back faces, voices and memories. I hope this and books to come will help to heal the wrongs done in the past.
With respect t and sincere gratitude, Sandy