The town of Indianville, or at least what is left of it, is near the northwest side of Burt Lake. St Mary’s Catholic Church still stands in the town along with the cemetery behind it.
The town will forever be linked to a tragic day in Michigan history. On October 15th, 1900 the sheriff came from Cheboygan to nearby Indian Village located on Indian Point on Burt Lake. John Walter McGinn purchased the land for back taxes of which the Native Americans did not owe because the land was given to them in a treaty with the government. When the men in the village were out of town getting supplies, the women and children were forcibly removed from their homes and then their houses burned to the ground by the sheriff and his men.
The former residents of the burned town moved to other Indian villages including Cross Village and the nearby town of Indianville.
P.S. I thought about skipping the story of the burning of Indian Village and leaving it as a nice picture of a little northern Michigan church, but I thought it would be disrespectful and dishonest not to share what really happened.
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