Towns & Counties in Michigan with Anishinaabe Names

For thousands of years the Anishinaabe people have lived, hunted, fished and traveled in Michigan and the surrounding states and provinces. Originally, the towns and places in these areas all had names that were given to them by our Anishinaabe ancestors. The reason we created this page, and the map with Anishinaabemowin names of these places, is because we feel it is very important to carry on the traditions that our ancestors left us. So, as you learn these place names, please share them with others and use them like they were meant to be used.

First you must realize that Anishinaabemowin has been an unwritten language. Many have attempted to write this language - Missionaries, Linguists and so on. Many of the early writings I have seen have a French influence. We, as speakers and teachers, have now started to write and standardize the spelling and writing of this unwritten language. So, some of the ways that you may see a word written of a town, river, lake or county is the way a person that did not speak Anishinaabemowin wrote it. When you say the name of a place in Anishinaabemowin it is a locative term ending with “ing”, “ong”, “ang”, or “eng”. Also, we do not have the following letter sounds in Anishinaabemowin, F, L, R, Q, X, and V. Some of the names of towns, counties, lakes and rivers with these letters are not from the Anishinaabe language. On this page and on the map, you will be able to see the way it was written, the way it should be written and what the translation is.

Click here or on the map to launch the interactive map of Michigan.