This is the book I have always wanted to read about my own family background. It gives all the facts and circumstances about how my people lost their land, told in one cohesive story that finally gives me a thorough understanding of our history.”
“A Cloud Over the Land” tells the story of the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and the terroristic event on October 15, 1900 that would change the course of history and their future in Northern Michigan forever.
On October 15, 1900, the Native American village at Burt Lake in Brutus, Michigan, was violently burned to the ground, leaving families homeless and landless. The perpetrators of this crime were a wealthy land developer and the local sheriff. “A Cloud Over the Land” tells of the events leading up to this tragic day and the timeline of acts that left this thriving village in ruins, and its people stripped of their treaty rights to their ancestral lands.
The hidden history of the Burt Lake Band is a story that should be as familiar to us as the story of the building of Mackinac Bridge or the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. But this tale of violence, discrimination and racism has been known to only the Band itself and a handful of historians, until now.
Over the past 10 years, author Richard Wiles has thoroughly researched and uncovered the details of this tragic event and its long-lasting repercussions for the original people of this area of Northern Michigan. He is a former high school American history instructor and a former college research instructor. He is an honorary member of the Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians.
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