Why Is the Big Lake Called ‘Gitche Gumee?’

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Lake Superior Shore Wallpaper

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 Ojibwe people at the time Longfellow wrote the poem.

Today in Ojibwe 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 Ojibwe language, says Lake Superior is Otchipwe-kitchi-gami - the sea of the Ojibwe people. The “i” at the end of gami would be more like the “i” in it than a long “e” sound.