Ojibwa Island

Summary

Ojibwa Island is a small (0.44 km²) island at the northern end of the Beaver Island archipelago, the most northerly member of the group. Known as Squaw Island on every historical chart, in the U.S. Light List, and throughout 19th- and 20th-century literature, it was administratively renamed in 2022 under a 2021 federal order targeting place names containing the word “Squaw.” The island is privately owned and carries a lighthouse built in 1892; its current private owner disputes the applicability of the rename to his property.

History

The island’s lighthouse, described in Scott’s 1902 Coast Pilot as a 48-foot red brick tower with a fixed red light varied by a red flash every 15 seconds, marked “the most northerly [point] of the Beaver Island group” and functioned as “a coast-light” for vessels turning into Lake Michigan.¹ Elizabeth Whitney Williams’ 1905 memoir likewise records “Squaw Island, which now has a fine light-house erected upon it,” among the islands visible from the dune above Beaver Island’s harbor.² The 2023 Beaver Island Master Plan dates the lighthouse to 1892 and identifies the island as privately owned, one of only two privately owned islands in the archipelago (with Trout Island).³

The December 1900 Squaw Island light-crew tragedy is a source-bounded episode in the island’s maritime history. The crew launched from the light after its seasonal closing; a squall capsized the unnamed sailboat, and three people died before the Manhattan rescued the two survivors.⁴

In November 2021, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretarial Order 3404 directed the replacement of the word “Squaw” across federal place names; per the OSM record for this feature, Ojibwa was “the predominant new name with most of these places” nationally, and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names’ replacement took effect in 2022. In April 2025, the island’s private owner, Joe Callian, was reported asking the Interior Department to correct what he called “a significant public misunderstanding”: that the federal renaming process, intended for federal land units, had been applied to his private property without notice to, or regard for, its ownership status, and that agencies including GNIS, the Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers should be alerted to the error.⁵ This dispute over private-property status is reported from a single contemporary newspaper account and is held at probable confidence; it does not affect the well-established fact that “Ojibwa Island” is now the official GNIS/BGN name.

Geography

At 0.44 km², Ojibwa Island is one of the smaller named islands in the group, positioned at its northern edge. Its light-station, per Scott’s 1902 description, illuminated the entire horizon from a focal plane 57 feet above lake level, with a fog signal sounding 5-second blasts separated by alternating 20- and 40-second silent intervals — reflecting the island’s role marking the turning point between the Straits of Mackinac approach and the open water of Lake Michigan proper.

Names

This is the clearest case of superseded naming in the archipelago. Squaw Island was the name on every historical chart, in the U.S. Light List, and throughout 19th- and 20th-century literature and cartography; it is preserved in GNIS as an official/variant pair with feature 638673. In November 2021, Secretarial Order 3404 directed removal of the word “Squaw” from federal place names nationwide, and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names adopted “Ojibwa Island” (referencing the Ojibwe people) as the replacement, effective 2022. Any keyword search of historical sources, older charts, or the Light List for this feature must use the old name; searching modern sources for “Squaw Island” and historical ones for “Ojibwa Island” will each turn up nothing and look like an honest absence (see docs/data-quality.md). The island’s private owner has publicly stated the renaming should not have applied to privately held land.

Significance

Ojibwa/Squaw Island is both a working navigational landmark — its lighthouse dates to 1892 and it is the northernmost point of the archipelago — and a live example of the ongoing federal renaming process for place names, with a specific, documented private-property dispute attached to it in this instance.

Open questions

• The precise 2022 effective date of the official BGN name change (as opposed to the November 2021 order date) has not been independently confirmed beyond the OSM tag description.
• Whether the Callian family’s private ownership predates or postdates the lighthouse’s 1892 construction, and how the light-station itself (federal property on private land) was originally acquired or leased, is not established from sources held. A dedicated structure/LightStation article for the light itself is out of scope for this batch but would be a natural next entity.
• No resolution to Callian’s request to Interior Secretary Burgum has been reported in sources held as of the retrieved issue (April 2025).

See also

• Beaver Island archipelago
• Beaver Island
• Garden Island
• Squaw Island Light-Crew Tragedy (1900)

Sources

See the sources: block above.