Woodland period Pottery first appears during
Woodland period in the style of the
Laurel complex. The people of the area engaged in long-distance trade, likely as part of the
Hopewell tradition.
Anishinaabe and the French The
Straits of Mackinac linking Lakes
Michigan and
Huron was a strategic area controlling movement between the two lakes and much of the
pays d'en haut. It was controlled by
Algonquian Anishinaabe nations including the
Ojibwe and the
Odawa. The area was known to the Odawa as
Michilimackinac, meaning "Big Turtle". For these people, "Michilimackinac is literally the birthplace and centre of the world" and is where the
Three Fires Confederacy took place. The Anishinaabe had good relations with the
Iroquoian-speaking
Wyandot, who were the first group to establish relations with
New France after
Samuel de Champlain's arrival in 1608. The Anishinaabe used these relations to trade indirectly with the French. After the fall of
Huronia in the
Beaver Wars, the Anishinaabe began to trade directly with the French and started inviting French settlers to Michilimackinac. In 1763 Fort Michilimackinac fell to an Ojibwe attack during
Pontiac's War. ==European presence==