Is the Big Lake Really Called ‘Gitche Gumee?’
Many people, thanks to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Hiawatha” poem (1855), have heard of Gitche Gumee,
the shining Big-Sea-Water. This spelling was learned, it is said, from
Henry Schoolcraft, who worked with the Ojibway people at the time
Longfellow wrote the poem.
Today in Ojibway language class, thanks to dialectic differences, you are more likely to see gichi-gami, gitchi-gami or kitchi-gami for Lake Superior. Loosely, it does indeed mean “Big Sea” or “Huge Water,” but just about always refers to Lake Superior.
The 1878 dictionary of Father Frederic Baraga, the first one written for the Ojibway language, says Lake Superior is Otchipwe-kitchi-gami - the sea of the Ojibway people. The “i” at the end of gami would be more like the “i” in it than a long “e” sound.
With respect to all of dialects of the complex Ojibway language, we have chosen Kitchi-Gami to title this special page that each issue will take a snapshot of our sweetwater inland sea.
Lake Notes
 As
of November 2005, precipitation around Lake Superior was 97 percent of
average with 29.72 inches in the preceding 12 months rather than the
usual 30.52-inch average.
The water level in Lake Superior was 6 inches below average at the beginning of December 2005.
The
Lake Superior shipping seasons officially end and begin when the Soo
Locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, shut down (January 15) and then
reopen (March 25). Some years those dates change depending on ice and
weather conditions.
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