Wisconsin Point Burial Site

Wisconsin Point (three miles in length) and Minnesota Point (seven miles) located in Superior, Wisconsin make up the largest freshwater sandbar in the world. They were formed by two rivers. The French traders who approached the west end of Lake Superior would eventually start calling the larger river on the right the St. Louis River (after the King of France) although the Ojibwe’s name for it was “Gichigami-ziibi” meaning “Great Lake River.” The stream on the left was called the Nemadji River (after the Ojibwe word “ne-madji-tic-guay-och” for “Left Hand River”). The Nemadji River marks the  boundary between the parishes of St. Francis Xavier and St. Anthony.

Fr. Claude Jean Allouez, S.J. (1622-1689) camped on the shore of Wisconsin Point in 1666 while ministering to the Ojibwe. The following year, he would establish a mission along Bluff Creek near the shore of the bay. Frustrated though with few Ojibwe willing to join the Catholic faith, he abandoned his evangelization efforts in about 1669.

Today, near the Superior entry lighthouse at Wisconsin Point, a stone marker states:

“Here was the burial ground of the Fond du Lac Band of Chippewa people dating from the 17th century. It was removed in 1919 to St. Francis cemetery, Superior.”

Actually, only about 180 remains from the most identifiable graves were moved (including at least one chief– Chief Joseph Osaugie (1802-1876). Sadly though, once placed in a mass grave at St. Francis Xavier cemetery, they were improperly cared for over the years. For example, when the slope of land on which they were reburied had been undercut by construction of a road, bones and decayed clothing could be seen spilling toward the river. As far as what happened to the 100 unidentified graves that were left on Wisconsin point? Some say Chief Osaugie’s descendants know their location, but they are not about to give up their dead.

“The bones of our ancestors have lain in peace for hundreds of years. Why should they now be dug up and removed to some other place? How can it be that others own this land? I was born here and have lived here all my life. Before me my father lived here and before him his father, and his father and so on back for hundreds of years. This has always been the Indian’s home. Now they tell us our dead must be moved, and that we must also move. Tell me, where are we to go?”
—Frank Sky Superior Telegram ( June 5, 1914)

Ironically, the reason why the remains were transferred from their original burial place (in fact, an entire village of Ojibwe evicted) was that in 1918 U.S. Steel wanted to build a huge ore dock on the land separating Lake Superior from Allouez Bay. However, it was determined that the sandbar was too sandy construct an ore dock, so it was never built.

The first remains to be removed from Wisconsin Point were of a Franciscan missionary, Father Elphonsus Chror. Chror was buried at Wisconsin Point in 1882. His remains were removed in 1910.

In 2003,  the Bureau of Indian Affairs submitted a formal petition (which was declined) to the federal government to obtain the property and hold it in trust for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. If the petition had been successful, there would have been the possibility for a reburial back on Wisconsin Point for those individuals that were put in the mass grave at St. Francis cemetery, and the area would have been made a historical and educational site.