Neebish Island is located in the U.S. state of Michigan, in the St. Marys River, which connects Lake Superior and Lake Huron at the easternmost point of Michigan's upper peninsula. Located west of the international border that separates the United States from the Canadian province of Ontario, the island is within the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence seaway. Ship traffic heading up to Lake Superior pass on the island's east side, while downriver traffic to Lake Huron passes through a deepened channel on the island's west side. The island has a permanent resident population of nearly 90. It is a tourist destination for seasonal cottagers and campers. History By the time the first Europeans arrived in the early 1600s, the area around Neebish was occupied by such historic and existing tribes as the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi, all Algonquian-speaking peoples. Their Algonkian ancestors had migrated gradually from the Atlantic coastal areas to the Great Lakes around 1200. The island is believed to have been named by European settlers from the Ojibwe word aniibiish, meaning "leaf". Following the Anglo-American War of 1812, British and American negotiators agreed to settle long-standing border disputes along the northern border in the Great Lakes area and elsewhere, that remained from the treaty following the American Revolutionary War. The two nations appointed commissioners to survey the boundary and determine the border between the United States and Canada as envisioned in the Treaty of Paris of 1783. At this time, Neebish came to be known as St. Tammany Island. Anthony Barclay, the British boundary commissioner, offered the name as a compliment to the United States, as Tammany was considered the Indian saint of New Englanders. While the commission used St. Tammany Island in its maps and reports, the name change did not survive. In 1821, the commissioners of both countries consented to assign the island to the United States. Originally, the channel between the island and the Michigan mainland was navigable only by very small craft. As a result, more of the earliest settlements developed on the east side, particularly on Little Neebish, a small island to the southeast of the main island. In 1853, Major William Rains was among the first European settlers on Little Neebish. Rains, a British national, had earlier attempted to start a colony in the 1830s on neighbouring St. Joseph Island, part of Ontario, Canada. When this venture failed, Rains and his family moved