Madeline Island

Madeline Island is an island in Lake Superior. Now part of Ashland County, Wisconsin, it was long a spiritual center of the Lake Superior Chippewa. Although the largest of the Apostle Islands, it is not included in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. It is the only island in the Apostle Island chain open to commercial development and private ownership.

The community of La Pointe, located on the western edge of the island and established by French colonists as a fur trading post, was one of the earliest European settlements in the area. It has a population of 302, with a higher population during the summer tourist season. The island can be accessed by ferry from nearby Bayfield.

Madeline Island has been the traditional spiritual center of the Lake Superior Chippewa. An Anishinaabe legend says that Great Spirit Gitche Manitou told the people to travel west to the place where the "food grows upon the water." They traveled until they reached the area of the wild rice that grew in the marshes in nearby Chequamegon Bay.

Madeline Island is named after Madeleine Cadotte, Ikwesewe, a daughter of the Ojibwe chief White Crane and his wife. Madeleine married fur trader Michel Cadotte and they were prominent leaders on the island in the 19th century. The island was inhabited by Native Americans, fur traders, and missionaries for over 400 years, and has flown the flags of three nations: France, Great Britain and the United States.

Originally called Mooningwanekaaning ("The Home of the Golden Breasted Woodpecker"), the island was inhabited for hundreds of years by the La Pointe Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, an Ojibwa band of the Lake Superior Chippewa.

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