The Father Marquette National Memorial is going to be renovated and improved under a program paid for by the Mellon Foundation. (Courtesy photo)

MARQUETTE — The Father Marquette National Memorial at Straits State Park in St. Ignace will be reimagined from the perspective of the Native Americans the Jesuit served, with the help of a $3.6 million grant from the Mellon Foundation.

This grant is part of the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project, which is committed to giving $500 million “to transform the nation’s commemorative landscape through public ventures that more completely and accurately represent the multiplicity and complexity of American stories,” according to a Michigan DNR news release.

“The Mellon Foundation gift turns the collaborative planning work of our staff and partners into reality, and for that we are both excited and grateful,” DNR Director Scott Bowen said in the news release.

Father Jacques Marquette, a Catholic Jesuit priest, conducted the first French exploration of the Mississippi River with Louis Jolliet in 1673. Marquette founded the missions of Sault Ste. Marie in 1668 and St. Ignace in 1671, and is the namesake of the city of Marquette.

His accounts of his travels and missions have provided many historical perspectives on the Great Lakes region and its inhabitants.

The renovation project is called Gchi Mshiikenh Deh Minising, or Heart of the Great Turtle Island, in honor of the name given to the site by the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. This name represents the Anishinaabe view of the Great Lakes as the heart of North America.

According to the project’s website, it “re-centers interpretation around the thriving Anishinaabe (Odawa, Ojibwe and Potawatomi) people and cultures, whose history provides context for Father Marquette’s experiences and whose impact and influence extend to the present day.”

“The project has an amazing potential to tell a story of the region that has been missing, a perspective led from Native Americans with ancestral ties to the area,” said Austin Lowes, chair of the Sault Tribe, according to the DNR news release.

The project was started in 2017 by Moran Township, where Straits State Park is located, and has grown to include the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, the Mackinac Straits Health System, Lake Superior State University, the Michigan History Center and the Michigan DNR’s Parks and Recreation Division. Three of Michigan’s 12 federally recognized tribes have also joined the project: the Bay Mills Indian Community, the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians (Gun Lake Tribe) and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians.

“Many Anishinaabe descendants of those who knew Marquette are Catholic and honor his facility with their languages, his faith and his courage,” said Sandra Clark, director of the Michigan History Center. “It is a privilege that we can now also honor the culture that thrived before he arrived and remains an important part of Michigan.”

The memorial was created by the National Park Service in 1975 and opened to the public in 1976.

The former site of a museum that burned to the ground in 2000 is now used for an annual powwow, and the memorial site also features a 15-station outdoor interpretive trail, a natural amphitheater and views of the Straits of Mackinac and the Mackinac Bridge.

The DNR and its partners are currently implementing Phase 1 of their plan for the memorial, which includes building a learning commons, new structures for the Powwow Grounds and a community kitchen pavilion. They also plan to provide more interpretation of the site through art installations, history exhibits and educational programs. Phase 1 is expected to start this summer and be completed by 2025.

The master plan developed in 2019 includes additional recreation/interpretive trails, a recreation access point closer to U.S. 2, development of the amphitheater, and a possible location for a compatible private business. The DNR is also working with the state Department of Transportation to discuss the possibility of building a recreation bridge over I-75.

To learn more about the memorial and the project, visit Michigan.gov/MHC/Museums/Father-Marquette-National-Memorial.

Hannah Jenkins can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is hjenkins@miningjournal.net.