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Charley Kawbawgam: Ojibwa Chief and Lake Superior Pioneer
Hardcover
BiographyGeneral Juvenile NonfictionHistory
Publisher Price: $34.95
Publisher: Modern History Press
Published: Sep 7 2026
Pages: 130
Weight: 0.80
Height: 0.38 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English
Book #2 in the Yooper Heroes Series
Charley Kawbawgam: Ojibwa Chief and Lake Superior Pioneer brings the extraordinary life of an Ojibwa chief to young readers through the dramatic history of Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the 1800s. Born around 1816, Charley grows up as Americans arrive and begin transforming the region. After traveling to Canada, he returns to Michigan, marries Charlotte, and helps establish the community that becomes Marquette.
Maps, illustrations, historical context, discussion questions, and activities make this engaging biography especially useful for classrooms. Charley's story introduces young readers to Native American and Michigan history while exploring courage, resilience, friendship, leadership, and community.
Charley Kawbawgam, the famous Ojibwa chief of Marquette, faced many struggles. Using unrivaled research, Tyler Tichelaar recounts his life like a feel-good action movie. The hero prevails, beats the mining company, conquers a blizzard, adopts small children, and makes great friends along the way. Tichelaar also explores the relationships between Native Americans in the Upper Peninsula and newly arriving colonists. He layers in key lessons about wars, treaties, payments, and the treatment of the Ojibwa. Charley Kawbawgam is a page-turner that will have young history lovers hiding beneath the covers with a flashlight, well past bedtime. -- Jennifer McGraw, Author of The Unsolved Mysteries of Father Marquette's Many Graves
Tichelaar compacts the history of colonizing a region into one person's life. The storytelling approach he lends makes this complex tale digestible and interesting. While following the chronicles of Charley's life, readers of all backgrounds learn how Great Lakes Indigenous history is a part of our living present. -- Betsy V. Rutz, Museum Educator, Marquette Regional History Center
Tyler R. Tichelaar's Charley Kawbawgam: Ojibwa Chief and Lake Superior Pioneer tells the story of the most important Ojibwa figure of the Upper Peninsula in an amazingly detailed narrative that only Tichelaar could pull off. The author's earlier work on Kawbawgam paved the way for this astoundingly infor-mative middle-grade biography that every young student of Michigan's Upper Peninsula should be required to read. Questions and projects at the end of the chapters and the book are thought-provoking for children and adults alike. Whether you are a student, a teacher, or simply a reader interested in history, you will come away with a greatly enhanced under-standing of the Ojibwas' influence on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. - Donna Winters, Author of the Great Lakes Romances(c) Series
Learn more at YooperHeroes.com
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