“We have a geographic implicit bias right here in our county, where the highway was built upon a village,” said Melissa Petoskey on Aug. 19 as cars zoomed by on M-22, seemingly unaware that they were driving through a tribal reservation between Suttons Bay and Northport. Petoskey is the human relations executive for the Grand Traverse Band. “There’s no reduction in speed limit here. We’re the only village in Leelanau County without a reduction in speed.
We reached out to Mari Raphael, a registered nurse at the Grand Traverse Band Family Health Clinic and a tribal member, to hear how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting life for the tribe. The Leelanau Sands Casino is closed, and the tribe will begin furloughing workers next month. Nevertheless, the indispensable Family Health Clinic remains open.
JoAnne Cook of the Grand Traverse Band will speak on the “History of the Odawa Anishinabek people from the Grand Traverse Region” on Tuesday, July 25, at 4:30 p.m. at the Leelanau Historical Society’s Norbert Gits Family Gallery (inside the museum), located at 203 E. Cedar Street in Leland.
About a block up the road from the old Cannery down on the shore in Glen Haven, Henry “Hank” Bailey gets out of a white Lexus in front of an abandoned, turn-of-the-century building that looks like it used to be a store. The whole village is deserted and sad. Glen Haven today is a bleak little shore-side ghost town in the bright sunlight. It’s the off-season, middle of May, the leaves on the trees are in delicate shades, fuzzy-looking and babyish in their newness.
With this year’s primary election upon us and voters casting ballots on Tuesday, Aug. 7, we reached out to Derek Bailey and Allen O’Shea — two progressive Democrats who are vying to oppose incumbent Republican Ray Franz for Michigan’s 101st House seat in the November election.
Our online story yesterday about a poll released by the Derek Bailey campaign that reportedly puts him in the lead one week before the Democratic primary apparently ruffled a few feathers, and raised questions, among Leelanau County Democrats.
The results in a new poll of 400 likely Democratic primary voters released in mid-July shows Derek Bailey, candidate for the 101st State Representative District, leading his opponent, Alan O’Shea of Manistee, by eight points as the August 7 primary approaches.
When I spoke on the phone recently with Derek Bailey, current chair of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and now Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, he was crossing the Mackinac Bridge and returning home to Traverse City. The tires on his 2005 Saturn VUE hummed loudly as he passed over the rumble strips on the majestic arch that connects Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas.
Donald Jay Weeks, 51, of Elk Rapids, died May 2, 2011, at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City after a short illness. Born June 11, 1959 in Lansing, he was a graduate of Glen Lake Community Schools in Leelanau County and Michigan State University.
The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which celebrated its 40th birthday in late October, can almost count the days until work will begin on one of the Park’s biggest achievements — the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail. The project is a 27-mile, multi-use trail that promotes access and safety for bikers, hikers, rollerbladers and wheelchairs