Terri Ruleau contacted me years ago about all things Williams, and recently (2019) provided a copy of her extensive research, nearly 600 pages in two volumes, and over twenty years in the making. It's called: THE WILLIAMS FAMILY OF MICHILIMACKINAC - DESCENDANTS OF JEREMIAH M. WILLIAMS AND FRANCES. The copy I have is the 5th revision, and no doubt further data will be added and corrections made, since these things never really end!

Here are excerpts of Terri's work which coincide with my own family research. Of particular interest is her work with DNA data to trace the origin of Frances Williams. Some accounts have listed her as Frances Hagens, or as Anna Hagens/Higgens, with attempts to link her to New York, where Jerry's ancestors hailed from. Terri has totally upended these ideas, and we now believe that Frances was a daughter of Ojibwa Chief Paul Ance. I will let Terri's own words speak for themselves. Her comments on the data from others appear in parentheses, and I have added a few other observations of my own in brackets. Apart from these comments, the account is all Terri's. I have, however, corrected some typos, swapped out some punctuation marks, and in general reformatted some of the documents to make them more consistant with my own writings.

Jeremiah M. & Frances Williams

Jeremiah was born March 26, 1793, the son of Lewis Williams Jr. and Sarah Knapp. Lewis and Sarah were recent members of the Dutch Reformed Church in Saratoga/Schuylerville New York, where Jeremiah was baptized. Lewis Williams moved his family to Palatine New York within a few years, and he is found on a 1799 list of householders and is also listed on the 1800 census for Palatine.

By 1810 the Lewis Williams family had moved westward to Oneida County, New York, via Herkimer (where Lewis Sr. died). There is an L. Williams with 5 family members in Remsen, Oneida County in 1810, and Lewis is listed on a 1814 Remsen property list (he owned a farm valued at $1450).

Lewis Williams drowned in Oneida County in March of 1816. His widow Sarah “Sally” Williams married the recently widowed (April) Nathaniel Rockwood in the autumn of 1816. Jeremiah possibly left home at age 16 and went sailing on the lakes for a number of years, not wanting to work on the family farm. He bought his freedom from his father for $120.00 and went his own way until his father’s death. (It is a story his son Lewis told about himself, but doesn’t add up. Jeremiah didn’t own a family farm, and the practice of indenturing your children was more likely to have occurred during Jeremiah’s early years.)

Jeremiah’s mother Sarah “Sally” Knapp Williams, along with her two sons and a daughter, are mentioned in Roberts History of Remsen New York. “After the death of his first wife (Esther Roberts) in 1816, Nathaniel Rockwood married Mrs. Sally Williams, a widow with 3 children, Jerry, Henry and a daughter.”

There is record of a Jeremiah Williams who purchased land at Holland Patent, October 1, 1815. Holland Patent is in Oneida County. It may have been our Jeremiah, but this hasn’t been proven.

Jeremiah’s brother John Henry, the “Henry” mentioned in Roberts History of Remsen, married Nathaniel Rockwood’s only daughter Sophia in 1823 at Remsen.

After Sarah’s death in 1828, John & Sophia moved their family to Lorain County, Ohio, and were listed next to Jeremiah and Frances at the time the 1830 census was taken. I suspect John gave the information for Jeremiah’s family, but it is possible Jeremiah was there to help him clear the land and get settled. Stories from John’s family claim he also sailed on Lake Ontario, he lived like a frontiersman and frequently traded and visited with the local Pottawatomie at Gun Lake, Michigan.

Around 1818/1819 Jeremiah, age 25, married Frances; she would have been about 16 years old. Fanny and Jerry were most likely married without the blessing of a preacher. Most white men living in the territories married native or Metis women, some stayed with their families, some eventually left and went “back east” and married white women and raised families, forgetting their Metis children and Native wives. I do not think this was the case with Jeremiah; I cannot find mention of him after 1842. .

Timeline for Jeremiah & Frances Williams & Children/Grandchildren

It has been my belief for some time now that Frances is the ancestor who is the source of all the whispered stories of Native ancestry in the Williams family. That belief has turned out to be the truth; thanks to genetic genealogy, we can now say that Frances is likely a daughter of Chief Ance, although there is a small possibility that she is the daughter of Josephine Ance [his sister]. There are DNA matches between Williams descendants and descendants of both Josephine and Paul, although the amount of DNA shared is higher with descendants of Paul, which is why I believe Fanny is his daughter. The clues began to fall into place after I found a few bits of information:

The first find was the following comment regarding the Native American ancestry of the Williams family. It was found online at Clarke Historical Library (CMU), History of Beaver Island, Michigan. The information in parenthesis is mine.

Mrs. Floyd (Maria, a granddaughter of Jerry & Fanny) evidently was not proud of the Williams family. She always emphasized her father’s side of her ancestry (Palmer). "My mother (Annie Williams) was a Yankee from York State" was all she would say when asked about the Williams’ ancestry. She always insisted there was no Indian blood in the family. This makes it plausible that there was Indian in the Williams family and that she knew it.

A family tree my grandma wrote down many years ago states that John R. Williams was part Indian and born in Canada and came to Chambers Island from Mackinac Island; that was the extent of my knowledge of the Williams family when I began researching 20 years ago.

Considering the attitude toward Native Americans at that time, one can understand why the Williams and many other mixed families deliberately hid their Native ancestry. Even Elizabeth Whitney Williams, lightkeeper and author, hid her mother from the government lighthouse inspector. Elizabeth’s mother was ½ Ottawa (Odawa) and is listed on the 1836 mixed-breed roll along with her one year old son Louis (wife and son of Louis Chebeau). The last name is spelled Chebeau on the record, rather than Gebeau. This is the only Native American record I have found Mrs. Gebeau or any of her children listed on. After marrying her second husband Walter Whitney, a white man from Genesee County, New York, she presented herself and her children as white, and sent her sons to Green Bay to be educated. In her book A Child of the Sea, Elizabeth Whitney Williams intentionally states that both of her mother’s parents were English Canadians, a typical statement used by many, to cover up their true ancestry; another thing many people of mixed ancestry in the Mackinac area did was to change their place of birth, typically listing it as Ohio or New York.

Years ago, as I began researching the area where the Williams family lived, I suspected that there was a connection to Jeremiah & Frances’ neighbors, the Blanchards, and the neighboring band of Ojibwe led by Chief Ance, but I could not find any connection to Mr. Blanchard back east and didn’t know his wife’s ancestry at the time.

The quest for Frances’ parentage began with John R. Williams' death record and his mother’s name being listed as Anna Hagens; that was 20+ years ago. Further research showed that Jeremiah’s wife’s name was Frances, not Anna. (death record information is not always reliable.) I searched for any possible connection between Williams and Hagens/Higgens, census, marriage, births etc., and had no luck at all.

Jeremiah’s younger brother John told stories of sailing the eastern Great Lakes, most likely introduced to this occupation by his older brother. The Williams family also had relatives who had been trading at Owasso, New York (Lake Ontario) prior to Jeremiah’s birth, and one of those relatives, Thomas Williams, a distant uncle to Jeremiah, moved to Detroit in 1765 and worked in the fur trade and as a merchant. Thomas’ son John R. became the first Mayor of Detroit in the 1820's, but I didn’t know any of this until recently. (Note: John R., mayor of Detroit, added the R to differentiate between him and another John Williams in the area.)

At some point, Jeremiah ended up at Mackinac around 1818, either as a sailor or perhaps he just showed up to make his way in the wilderness or to visit is friend Isaac. He met Frances during this time and I suspect that he and/or Frances continued living at Mackinac (or possibly Cross Village) after their marriage, perhaps sailing to New York or Montreal for trade purposes as many Mackinac traders did.

My initial hunch that Frances was our connection to the rumors of Native American ancestry was based on the fact that no “white” families lived in the St. Helena area at the time the Williams moved there, only mixed blood and Native families, and most of them were fishermen. The men were French Canadian, or Yankees who had married native or mixed blood wives.

And then I found that Jeremiah had been granted a trader license to trade at Manistique, and according to court records his fish were picked up at Pte. aux Chenes (where the Ance band lived). Other hints were mentioned in the book A Child of the Sea: that Abbie sang French songs, her pretty braided hair and great dark eyes etc., along with Jeremiah and Fanny’s sons’ knowledge of Northern Lake Michigan fishing grounds, and John and Anna’s knowledge of local medicinal plants.

Too many coincidences were stacking up and I was sure there had to be a connection between Fanny and someone in the area. But it remained a well educated guess with no way to prove it. Descendants of Jeremiah and Frances all told stories of “Indian” blood, and most stated that they were discouraged from discussing it, a fact I discovered after corresponding with them, but still no solid proof, just rumors.

And then I discovered Mary Elizabeth Taylor’s death record, it lists her race as White and Indian. Her father was, without a doubt, a white man; that leaves Sarah Williams as the “Indian.” Frances’ ancestry had been pushed into the closet, whispered about by fascinated grandchildren and great grandchildren….and time lost her family connections. Until now.

I took an Ancestry DNA test in April of 2016 and my education in genetic genealogy began when I received the results a few weeks later. I have read everything possible on the subject, especially on how to use DNA to prove or disprove family connections thru small DNA matches. I downloaded my raw DNA file and uploaded it to various sites with more advanced tools to compare DNA.

The most important thing to understand when it comes to DNA research is that DNA inheritance is very, very random. Two people who share the same set of parents can share very little DNA with a common ancestor, and when you consider the addition of new genetic material into each generation and all of it recombining into something new in each child, it is amazing that any of us share enough DNA to match at all after five generations. So, to be able to find any shared DNA is a hit and miss with each person in a family tree and becomes more so each generation you go back.

Fortunately for my research, I was able to find and compare a number of Williams and Ance descendant DNA kits. And that brings us to the Ance DNA matches.

One of my first matches at Ancestry was with M.G., (as well as her dad and brother at GEDmatch). I looked at her tree and was stunned to see they are direct descendants of Chief Paul Ance. I compared our trees for any other possible connections, found one with my maternal line, but it was too far back for the amount centimorgans we share. The calculator says we share a 4th – 6th great grandparent, and in that range, the only possibility was Paul Ance or his father Joseph Louis. I began chromosome painting comparisons to see if the Williams kits matched Native DNA with the Ance kits. They did, consistently. When I began, there were only a few kits to utilize (Jan. 2017), I waited for new DNA to be uploaded at GEDmatch, the site I use for this sort of research. Eventually more Ance descendants showed up, then more Williams descendants and finally, I had four branches from Paul Ance’s tree and four Williams branches to compare, eighteen people in all. Chromosome painting shows we all share small segments of Native DNA on a number of chromosomes.

I ran a multiple kit analysis using small segment comparisons. It is tedious and time consuming work, but I was curious to see what the results would be and quite happy when I found that the results were very conclusive. All Williams and Ance branches matched up on a number of chromosomes. I was able to determine that the matches were more than chance because there were mother/daughter kits and a number of sibling kits from the various Williams branches to compare with the Ance groups which included a family of three, a father and two children.

And then the matches started coming in at Ancestry. Besides matching descendants of Peter Ance, I also match a descendant of Paul’s son Jean Baptiste (who was born on Beaver Island and lived at Cross Village and Northport/Sutton’s Bay) and my half brother matches another descendant of Jean Baptiste, and a number of us match descendants of Paul and Josephine through the Corp/Blanchard line. There are a few others at GEDmatch, all descended from Paul Ance. The largest cM’s shared between Williams and Ance descendants at that time was 17, the smallest 7.3. To put that into perspective, I share 10 cM’s with one descendant of Annie Williams (our shared ancestors being Jeremiah & Fanny), and 17 cM’s with her sister. And a generation closer, with descendants of John R., I share up to 30 cM’s with some, and as small as 7 with others. Again, DNA inheritance is very random. One more thing I had to consider was the fact that the Williams descendants only shared half DNA with Ance descendants since Fanny was most likely the daughter of a Cross Village woman and not Ance’s Pte. aux Chenes wife.

Recently, Caroline K. asked Floyd Williams to take a test. He is the grandson of Schuyler and one of our oldest living Williams descendants (Sadly, he recently passed away). He agreed and it has given us a clear answer to the question and for that I am forever grateful to him for sharing his DNA. I was thrilled when Caroline emailed me to say there was a James Ance in Floyd’s matches! It turns out that James is also a descendant of Chief Paul. The 35 centimorgans shared are the highest yet, indicating they share a 3rd to 4th great grandparent, which again brings us back to Paul. It was then that I determined that Paul was Fanny’s father.

Other clues: Abbie’s son, Andrew Jr., was baptized at Cross Village where Fanny’s mother lived and perhaps where the Williams [family] lived before coming to St. Helena. Cross Village was the largest Indian village in Michigan in 1848. And then there is the fact that Lucy Courchene was living at Northport near Jean Baptiste in 1860. And the three youngest Williams were living on Fox Island in the late 1860's/1870, another area the Ance families from Grand Traverse lived. Early on I had realized that the Williams family lived and fished in all the same areas as the Natives.

The following pages contain more information about the Ance/Ainse/Hinse/Haynes line. It is ironic that Chief Paul Ance’s great grandfather Joseph Haynes was taken to Quebec by Indians from 1690's Massachusetts at the age of seven. He remained in Quebec and raised his family there. (Variations of the Haynes name in Quebec and Michigan are: Hains, Ens, Hinse, Aintz, Ainsse, Ainse, Anse, Ance, Hance.)

Pte. aux Chenes & Chief Ance

Many of the families living from St. Ignace to Gros Cap were connected to Chief Ance by marriage and most of them were fishermen. Very little is actually known about the Chief who resided at Pte. aux Chenes. It is estimated that he was born between 1780-1785, son of Joseph Louis Ainse, an interpreter and trader, and a Native woman from an unknown band.

The earliest reference to Ance was found in the narrative of Captain Anderson (online at Wisconsin Historical Collections), who mentions that his life was saved from certain death at the hands of a group of Sioux the winter of 1809-1810. It does not specify that he was the son of Joseph Louis, so I am making an assumption here based on the name and the description of Ance.

Anderson had made it to his wintering grounds in the Big Stone Lake region by mid November 1809. 50-60 lodges were there. The natives asked if he’d extend them credit; he said no, they had not paid him in full the previous year. They were contemplating killing him and taking his goods when…

...a bustle was heard at the door and in popped a tall, good looking Indian, painted, feathered, armed in full war costume. “My time has come” I thought. He was asked by one of the others why he was attired thus at the late hour. “I am come, he replied, to die with the white people if they must be killed, I must first be put out of the way for they shall not be hurt while I live. You had better go to your lodges and let this man who has brought us ammunition etc., to save our lives, go to his rest, I am going to guard him.” They all hurried off and he said to me “go to sleep” and I did. I really felt that my life was in danger and had only escaped the assassins by god’s good providence in sending this man to save me. He was of course, my guest for the time being and the next morning about 10 o’clock he had walked a circuit around my house, examining for tracks in case any one of the band was lurking about. But finding all safe he told me I could go and hunt swan. I had never seen this man before and on inquiry my interpreter conferred to me that he was a half breed, the son of a gentleman trader from Montreal who had been in the trade many years before, named Ance, and had retired. I went into my shop and opened some packages and gave him a present of which he was proud and was as heavy as he could conveniently carry. I never saw him again. This proved to be the hardest winter I ever met with in my journey through life...

...old Red Thunder with 2 other lodges of his band, after Ance had been gone a few days...

...the Yankton band to which Ance belonged, had left in Red Thunder's charge, a horse...

This mention of Ance as a member of a Yankton band of Sioux could be due to the fact that his sister or half-sister Pelagie was Sioux. Perhaps he was adopted by her Sioux family? It is also possible that Pelagie and Paul shared a mother. David Corp stated that Josephine Ance was a Sioux, but at this time, there is simply no proof, although a thorough study of the DNA [from] known descendants of each would help answer that question.

How Ance became a Chief of the Ojibwa is not known. Where he lived prior to Pte. aux Chenes is also unknown, at least I have not been able to find any further information about his early years. In 1820 Chief Ance signed a treaty that specifies his area as Mackinac, making it possible that he was at Pte. aux Chenes at that time. A visit by missionaries in 1830 places him at Pte. aux Chenes, and an 1834 letter, an 1836 treaty and 1838 council list specify Ains of Oak Point. So we know that Ance was living at Oak Point by 1830 and could very well have been living there much earlier. Others state that Ance had three wives, one at L’Arbre Croche, the second at Manitoulin Island and another one at Pte. aux Chenes. There is no recorded proof of his marriages, or who the mothers of all his children are, but the interactions between his descendants affirms a connection, and DNA evidence has been immensely helpful in proving those connections.

Below are excerpts found in a 2009 article by the Old Hay Bay Guardian (Methodist History in the bay of Quinte and Upper Canada). The full article is in “The Christian Guardian,” issues Oct. 30th and Nov. 6th, 1830. The missionaries came from Canada to bring the “word” to the Natives. The story they told about meeting with Ance and his people is very similar to the stories they told of their meetings with a number of bands along the way. I suspect much of the retelling is biased toward their goal of assimilating Natives into their religion. The truth may not be well represented in their portrayal of Ance’s reaction to their words.

John Sunday’s and John Paul’s Tour to Mackinaw in 1830:

August 1830. “We arrived at the Island of Mackinaw and landed at the town. We then went to search of some of the Indians we had seen at Penetanguishine (Ontario), and were directed to the house of Wah-zhushk-oo, whom we had seen at Penetanguishine during the summer.” Friday 17th: “Having obtained the loan of a large birch canoe we set off towards the west to visit a gang of Chippewas residing at a place called Me-tig-oo-mirzh-ah-keeg. Wah-hush-koo and others accompanied us.”

My note: Me-tig-oo-mirzh-ah-keeg is actually: Na-me-tic-o-mish-e-keonge. (Oak Point). Translation: "Where a ridge of oak trees are." The place of this point is about 15 miles from the island of Mackinac west, on the straits. This point in Mackinac County is called Pointe aux Chenes today. It is located in Township 41 North, Range 5 West. The Chippewa Chief Ance and his band had their village here in the 1830’s.

Chief Ance Hears Their Words:

This was on the mainland. There they called on Chief Ance, who agreed to bring his people to hear them. After we had spoken to them, we thanked them for their attention and told them to go home and think about what they had heard, and so make up their minds what to do and let us know their decision on to-morrow. Tues 21st; In the morning the Chief and is people came together to let us know what they had decided upon. The Chief said “I hardly know what to do. I have two sons who are Roman Catholic besides other relation. We have concluded to try and give up drinking the fire water for one year to see if we can overcome it before we say we will be Christians. We have also concluded at the same time to look on the three sides of Christians”, viz: the French religion, the English Methodist religion and the Big Knife religion (meaning probably the Presbyterian religion.) After this we asked the Chief if he would accept one of our hymn books. He said “I don’t know, I cannot read it.” We told him that we would learn him how to say some of the hymns, he then received it and we gave one to another man. After this they became very anxious to have us read and sing the hymns and to read the scripture translations to them, which they were very fond to hear read. Wed. 22nd: We had intended to start for Mackinaw this day but the wind prevented us. The Chief’s son came to us and said “My father thanked the Great Spirit for sending the wind to stop you from leaving us, that you might learn us more how to read the books you gave us.” Ance, the Chief, came to us and said “I could not sleep all the night on account of talking and thinking about the things which we heard” We had meetings with them this day. Sabbath 26th: All the Indians to the number of 24, attended the meetings except three, whom we could not prevail upon to come near us. We had a class meeting, five of them spoke. Ah-tisk-oonce rose up and said “Brothers and sisters ever since I heard about the Great Spirit at Penetinguishine, I have been thinking about him and I feel determined to look to him as long as I live.” Ance, the Chief, next rose up and said “Brothers and Sisters I am very glad that while I was poor and ignorant the Great Spirit has sent his word among us which we have heard. I will now serve the Great Spirit as long as I live. I will tell my young men the words I have heard, if they will not listen and become Christians I will then worship alone. I thank you my Brothers for coming and telling us about the Great Spirit and the way of prosperity.” In the evening we had a prayer meeting and told them the death, suffering and resurrection of our Savior to atone for the sins of his people and then exhorted them now to look to him and he would make all their sick hearts well. They all wept much and a number found peace to their souls.

The Chief was among the rest, and a great conjurer called Pah-yah-pay-taush felt something in his heart that he never felt before. The children cried very much and I went to them and asked what they were crying for. They said “We want to go to Heaven with the rest that are going there.” Ance asked many questions of Sunday and Paul, such as what medicines to throw away or keep. He promised to build a little school house “So that if any teachers came to them they might have a place to hold meetings and schools.” (My note: It seems that the Chief didn’t become religious & didn’t stop his occasional drinking.)

In 1848 Henry Schoolcraft wrote the following about Ance’s band:

Ance or Hance’s band of Chippewas lived at Pte. St. Ignace on the straits of Michilimackinac in Michigan. This band in 1840, as denoted in the annuity pay rolls, numbered 193, of whom 33 were men, 54 women and 106 children. They subsist in part by hunting the small furred animals still existing in the country and in part by fishing. They migrate from place to place as the season varies, plant very little and are addicted to the use of ardent spirits.

The following comments were made by David Corp, grandson of the Chief:

Chief Ance was a tall, powerfully built man and must have weighed 250#’s in his prime – all muscle and bone. He wore a beard and had blue eyes. In the year 1835 he and Shabeawa were sent to Washington to make treaties. Ance was a man of strong force of character and of great mentality which many of his descendants inherited. He did not use fire water or I mean to say he was not a slave to it as most of the Indians were...He had 3 wives living in Mackinac & Emmet counties and one in Manitoulin Canada.

A few years ago while I was using various search terms on Fulton Postcards website (wonderful resource of millions of old newspaper pages) the following article popped up in the results, it was a wonderful find, such a vivid description of a visit to the Chief at Pte aux Chenes in 1843.

Brother Jonathan Magazine – Oct. 1843: A Saunter in the Northwest by C. Donald McLeod. The following are some excerpts from this very interesting article – (Items in parenthesis are my comments). It is a good description of life at the time and of the Chief and his family.

Jan. 22nd. A funeral here is a strange thing. The crowds of women, the half-breeds with their blankets and leggings; the pall and the nodding black plumes on the heads of the horses, the strange silent gliding of the sleighs without their bells; the old priest in his robes and women with scarfs all combine to make an unusual and striking spectacle for a dweller in a Protestant city.

Feb. 19th. One afternoon I came in from skating to behold Captain Frank. He was now in Mackinac to purchase other goods for a fresh expedition. He was acting for a Mr. Sherman who was up at Point aux Chenes getting out stage timber. Frank insisted on going up with him and I consented. To me, the 10 days now to be journalized have been the most pleasant of my Western Journey.

On Wed. Feb. 8th we started from Mackinac (with a dog train laden with a barrel of rye whiskey and another of pork.) On we trudged….in about an hour and a half we overtook the train at Point St. Ignace. (ate a supper of pork and potatoes). At Gros Cap we slept in the justicial palace of Mr. Jonas Jonathan Reck, (Jonas Stone?) Justice of the Peace. The residence of the patriarch is a fine mansion built of native timber and containing two very splendid apartments. We slept in the kitchen with only 7 others. 16 more slept in the backroom. (more whiskey, pork and potatoes for breakfast.) We stopped at Mr. Slocum’s (Abraham Slocum) about a mile up the lake (toward Pte. aux Chenes), where I saw an old man of war’s man, Myers by name…(more whiskey). Once more we started out upon the lake and marched on till about two o’clock; we reached Point Aux Chenes river and about 40 rods (abt. 660 feet) up its winding course we came upon the “shantee”. I was well received and partook of a savory partridge stew. In the morning an old sailor carried us down the lake to the Indian village. This old fellow is a character, abounding in “yarns” and Seth Barney by name. One of his phrases is “in regard of that” always introduced when unnecessary. Another “that is” is used where no explanation is needed. “My horse,” says he,”thinks that he- that is, that he knows more than I do. Well, he does, in some things.” He has a little black dog for whose name he has strung together all the Indian words he is master of, twisted in a way peculiarly his own. “His right- that is, his right name is Jim along josey ka-win cok-e-re-ka-go-cun-a-butch taiah wah! But in regard of that, I only call him Jimmy”. (Seth Barney is the name I searched for and found this article in the results: he was the captain of the boat that picked up Jeremiah’s fish.) We reached the village in the teeth of a biting south easter and made for the chief’s wigwam. This is an old war-chief, Anse by name, a splendid, tall, dignified old fellow..

We entered with an interpreter who carried a packet of dry goods, trinkets etc. (the interpreter is a Frenchman named Matty Mcgulpin, an excellent trader and teller of stories). After we were seated for some time Matty, chatting with the family, he produced a keg of whiskey and filled a tin pan and handed it to me whispering to me to drink to the chief…after I drank Frank & Matty finished the pan and it was replenished and again given to me. I touched it to my lips and presented it to the chief saying “drink with me” this time it passed among both the Indians and white men. I had on a sash of the McLeod tartan, and it’s beautiful colors had riveted the eyes of the whole wigwam. The daughter of the chief, a very pretty girl of about twenty, asked to see it. I untied it and showed it to her. I then explained to Anse that it was a distinguishing mark of my tribe. That my fathers had been like the Indians in many things. That they still had a Chief whom they all loved. This greatly tickled the old man – who made a long speech in return. At this time, Frank, for a bunch of beads, bought a sheath from She-bo-wis, a son of the old man’s. It is the most beautiful quillwork I ever saw. Heaven knows what Bonifanti or Tiffany & Young would charge for it, but it cost one bunch of beads, valued at one and six pence. Frank presented it to me, upon which Now-kay-quay, the daughter, threw me a ring of Eagle claws and came close to examine me; she tied my sash on, wondering at the zoological buttons of my coat, at my eye glasses, my plaid, everything. I put the plaid over her shoulders and mightily pleased was she with it. I asked Matty if it would do to kiss her, he nodded and I gave her a smack that made the lodge ring. Off she darted to a corner and I thought the old folks would split with laughter. At a sign from the old man she got the dinner ready. Outside the wigwam hung at least seventy brace of partridges and rabbits. Three of these were brought in, stripped, cut up and in two minutes, boiling. Their bread is made into a cake which fits the frying pans; this is placed before the fire, when one side is baked, they shake it loose in the pan and with a jerk send it sommersetting up to the roof and catch it again in the pan as it falls. I don’t know how they always manage to catch it on the right side, but they do.

My New York friends doubtless remember my Meersham pipe shaped like a dog. This I wished to give to the old man. “Chief, take this pipe here from me, your friend.” He then spoke to his daughter, she knelt down at my feet and bound a pair of garters round my legs. The old man gave me some whiskey, shook my hand and as Matty explained afterward, gave me a name – Matty translated, “The great law chiefs younger brother”, and said that my brother saved old Anse some white claim on his land. The other family members had long before given me a name, “the deer.” I had a pretty good pair of kid gloves which I gave to Noh-kay-quay, with a pen-knife. Next day she and her youngest brother named Sa-wah-goose, “Yellow Fox” came up to the shantee and gave me a pair of leggings.

Our shantee is on the beautiful creek called La Riviere de Point aux Chenes. When you debouche at the mouth of this creek, all along the lake you see for miles around, the Indians spearing trout. They cut a hole about 2 feet in diameter in the ice and set bushes around it so thickly as to allow no light to penetrate, this allows them to see through the clear water for at least 100 feet. They put up some bark to shelter them from the wind – spread their blankets on the ice and lie down. They have small wooden fish which serve as a decoy. The Trout swims toward it and is speared. A good fisherman never misses. They lie on the ice for six hours at a time. Life in the shantee was simple. We had hoe-cake, baked in the ashes, choke-dog, or a huge string of dough wound around a stick and thrown under the fire. It is the sweetest bread I have ever tasted. Then we had hulled corn, pea-soup, lup-ma-growly, port, trout, roasted partridges and stewed rabbit and every night we luxuriated on scald-keen, ie. Whiskey, maple syrup, butter and roasted apple boiled up to a syrup.

On a day the like of which for cold, a Gothamite never dreamed of, I donned my snow shoes and hied to the Island of Ste. Helene. It being the winter fishing season, there was quite an assembly of Indians. Some seven or eight lodges. They had caught many fish, trapped several mink and martens.

I returned to Mackinac in time to pay a visit to the French sugar camp on Bois Blanc Island. Every maple is cut and a spout inserted along which sap runs into a birch bark bowl, twenty or thirty pots are always boiling in each lodge and the number of trees tapped is immense. One man here this season has 2000.

Michigan History Magazine Vol. 16-17 - About the Evergreen Island of Saint Helena by Frances Margaret Fox:

Many of the Indians of that time and later, who lived on the shores of the straits and frequently visited Saint Helena, are known to us, thanks to the careful researched of Michigan historians. Chief Anse is one of the remembered. He was born at Old Mackinaw and Chief Petoskey married one of his sisters. The Indian chose the Island of Saint Helena for his home. A grandson of Chief Anse was proud of the fact that his grandfather went to Washington with other chiefs and there during the administration of Andrew Jackson, signed the United States treaty of 1836. “Father told us” writes the great grandson of Chief Anse, “the President and Chief Shawbwawa were invited to see the President in the house he resided. He says the President was a tall gaunt man, and he mentioned the open fireplaces and big logs used.” Thus we know that two Indians of the primitive Island of Saint Helena once were entertained at the White House. We do not have to be told that they wore their best beaded buckskins and feathers, and behaved with great dignity.

Chief Ance died in 1855, 80 some years old. His son Peter became chief. His probate record, available on Ancestry.com, is missing a crucial section, and does not name all of his descendants. His children and grandchildren married into the local fishing families and into other Native families and many of his descendants can still be found living along the shores of northern Lake Michigan.

The Williams, Ance and Laviolette Branches

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