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Bay Mills Ojibwe (or Chippewa) - Michigan (U.S.)

Native American

image by Thanh-Tâm Tę, 19 January 1999

The band
The flag

See also:

The Band

map image by Peter Orenski based on input from Don Healy

Bay Mills Ojibwe (or Chippewa) - Michigan

One of the two easternmost homes of the Ojibwe (or Chippewa) people in the United States is the Bay Mills Indian Community on the northeastern tip of the upper peninsula of Michigan (the other is the Sault Ste. Marie Ojibwe located nearby). Flying over this eastern outpost of the third-largest Native Nation in the United States (after the Cherokee and Navajo) is a flag designed by tribal member Richard LeBlanc.

Š Donald Healy 2008

The Flag

That flag is divided diagonally by a central yellow stripe running from the lower left corner to the upper right corner, leaving a medium-to-dark blue triangle in the upper left and a red triangle in the lower right. Centered upon this is the seal of the Bay Mills Indian Community.

A narrow green ring surrounds the seal, bearing the legend "BAY MILLS INDIAN COMMUNITY" across the top and the Ojibwe word "GNOOZHEKAANING" or "place of the pike" (a fish) across the bottom in white. The center is divided diagonally into four equal sections recalling the sacred number four and using the four primary Native colors, white at the top, and running clockwise, yellow, red, and black. These colors reflect the races of man, the four primary directions, the four stages of man's life, the four seasons, and many other recurring elements of Native and human existence. Separating the four colored quadrants are four stylized feathers of white with brown tips and brown spines. The flag was adopted sometime after 1994.
[Thanks to Angie Carrick, of the Bay Mills tribal headquarters.]

Š Donald Healy 2008
information provided by Peter Orenski, 25 December 2007