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Bands also inhabited Ontario and southern Manitoba, Canada and northern Wisconsin, and northern and north-central Minnesota. The Ojibwe Indians (also known as Chippewa in the U.S.), an Anishaabe tribe, were established in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and northern and central Michigan. The Ojibwe, whose numbers are estimated to have been between 25,000 and 35,000, were the largest. The three nations co-existed peacefully as part of a loose confederation called the Council of Three Fires. When the first European explorers arrived, the most populous tribes were Algonquian peoples, who include the Anishinaabe groups of Ojibwe, Odaawaa/Odawa (Ottawa), and the Boodewaadamii/Bodéwadmi (Potawatomi). The Lower Peninsula is a center of manufacturing, forestry, agriculture, services, and high-tech industry.įor a chronological guide, see Timeline of Michigan history. Once exploited for logging and mining, today the sparsely populated Upper Peninsula is important for tourism due to the abundance of natural resources. It is home to the country's three major automobile companies (whose headquarters are all in Metro Detroit). automotive industry, which developed as a major national economic force. Īlthough Michigan has developed a diverse economy, in the early 20th century it became widely known as the center of the U.S. Immigrants from Finland, Macedonia and the Netherlands were especially numerous. It soon became an important center of industry and trade in the Great Lakes region, attracting immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from many European countries.
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Michigan was admitted into the Union in 1837 as the 26th state, a free one. Michigan Territory was formed in 1805, but some of the northern border with Canada was not agreed upon until after the War of 1812. The area was part of the larger Northwest Territory until 1800, when western Michigan became part of the Indiana Territory. Britain ceded the territory to the newly independent United States after Britain's defeat in the American Revolutionary War. After France's defeat in the French and Indian War in 1762, the region came under British rule. French and Canadian traders and settlers, Métis, and others migrated to the area, settling largely along the waterways. In the 17th century, French explorers claimed it as part of the New France colony, when it was largely inhabited by indigenous peoples. The area was first occupied by a succession of Native American tribes over thousands of years. Michigan has the second-most water of any state, behind only Alaska. It also has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds. Michigan has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the United States, being bordered by four of the five Great Lakes and Lake St. The Mackinac Bridge connects the peninsulas. The Upper Peninsula (often called "the U.P.") is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, a five-mile (8 km) channel that joins Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. The Lower Peninsula resembles the shape of a mitten, and comprises a majority of the state's land area. Its name derives from a gallicized variant of the original Ojibwe word ᒥᓯᑲᒥ ( mishigami), meaning "large water" or "large lake". Metro Detroit is among the nation's most populous and largest metropolitan economies. Its capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly 97,000 sq mi (250,000 km 2), Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the largest by area east of the Mississippi River. Michigan ( / ˈ m ɪ ʃ ɪ ɡ ən/ ( listen)) is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States.
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