Leelanau, a word meaning Land of Delight in the Ojibwa language.

Leelinau, the name of an Ojibwa daughter who left her family to live in a haunted grove of pines along Lake Superior.

Leelanau, Land of Boats, Beer and a few Weirdos.

Actually, the last phrase was on a T-shirt I once owned. But versions of the first two are alternatively offered as origins for the name, “Leelanau” — along with a handful of other explanations that have been repeated to the point that within circles they are regarded as true.

But the truth about the origin of our county’s name can be a little more difficult to pin down.
A fact page offered in the official Leelanau County Governmental Directory offers this explanation: “Early Native Americans referred to the “little finger” of Michigan as lee-lan-au, or the “Land of Delight.”

Trudy Galla, head of the county Planning Department and architect of the directory, said she had no reason to doubt that Leelanau is an Indian word.

We asked if anyone had questioned its validity.

“No, and we had pulled that from some historical documents,” said Galla. “If we’re wrong, we won’t use it. But there was a lot of that (explanation) out there, referring to an Indian word.”

So is Leelanau an Indian word? We asked Robert Kewaygoshkum, Tribal Chairman of the Grand Traverse Band, if he knew the origin of the name “Leelanau.”

He hadn’t thought much about it, just like many residents who have been calling the place they live Leelanau as long as they can remember.

“I have not had that conversation,” said Kewaygoshkum.

He asked another person in the GTB office, who believed Leelanau was an Indian name meaning “long arm” of land extending into a body of water, referring to the county’s peninsula shape.

Laura Quackenbush is the former director of the museum operated by the Leelanau Historical Society. She is now working for the Grand Traverse Band in preparation for the opening of its cultural center and museum in Peshawbestown.

Quackenbush, of course, had dealt with the subject. She said the first written account of the name Leelanau had a different spelling, “Leelinaw,” and was penned by federal Indian agent Henry Rowe Schoolcraft.

Although she refrained from taking sides in the issue, Quackenbush said Schoolcraft was known to take poetic license in recording Indian lore.

“Schoolcraft took great liberties with the Ojibwa lore,” she said. “His stories are all pretty much his interpretation of it.”

Schoolcraft was an Indian agent stationed at Sault Ste. Marie who for 30 years lived and studied with the Ojibways, also known as the Chippewas, The official name of the tribe based in Leelanau County is the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. Schoolcraft’s wife, who he married in 1828, was the daughter of Chippewa Chief Wabojeeg.

Schoolcraft is credited in 1840 with naming 21 “unorganized” counties in Michigan — and even has one named after himself in the Upper Peninsula. He had previously penned into English an Indian legend he named “Leelinau, or the Lost Daughter, an Odjibwa Tale.”

Perhaps the best overview of Schoolcraft’s work as it relates to Leelanau County was written by Glen Arbor resident George Weeks in his book, Sleeping Bear, Yesterday and Today.

According to Weeks, the “Leelinau” story “tells of a pensive maiden, living on the shores of Lake Superior, who worries her family by continually leaving home to spend time among the pines of a sylvan haunt called Manitowak, or the Sacred Grove.”

Eventually Leelinau, showing “buoyant delight,” leaves her family “for the life that spirits live” — words taken from Schoolcraft’s early writings.

Weeks said he did not find other evidence to verify that the word “Leelanau” was taken from an Indian language, but does not openly dispute such an origin. “It may have had some origin with an Indian name,” he said.

Not all authors have been so kind to Schoolcraft, whose writings were later embraced by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

In Indian Names in Michigan, Virgil J. Vogel does not mince words.

“Schoolcraft, who probably invented the (Leelinau) story, suggested the girl’s name, in revised spelling, for the county. One explanation of the name,” delight of life,” is purely fanciful.

Moreover, there is no L sound in Ojibwa. The closest approach to the name Leelanau in an Algonquian language appears to be the Montagnalis word laleu, ‘seashore.’”

Vogel, who also wrote books about Indian names and folklore in Wisconsin and Iowa, added that the editor for the book Schoolcraft’s Indian Legends was even less kind.

“Mentor Williams suspected that this story was chiefly Schoolcraft’s invention, adding that, ‘The geography … links it to contemporary Indian tales in popular magazines rather than to an authentic Indian source’.”

In the book, 100 Years in Leelanau, author Edmund Munger Littell (1890-1970) makes no distinction between two versions of the origin of the name. He begins with Schoolcraft’s retelling — or made-up story — of the maiden Leelinau. Then he offers:
“There is another opinion, however, to the effect that Leelanau does not appear to be an Indian name, there being no similarity in root between it and the Ottawa tongue. The assumption in this case is that the word is of French derivation, based upon the fact that the area is on the lee of the waters — ‘eau’ or ‘au’ (French) — of Michigan.”

Michigan History Magazine delved into the subject in 1985, offering up an explanation with two accounts — and dragging another language into the fray:

“(Schoolcraft) said the translation of Leelinau was “delight of life.” Since Leelanau (the I was later changed to an a) does not appear to be Ottawan, the name may derive from the English word lee, referring to the area’s shelter from the winds of Michigan.”

So there you have it. After carefully reviewing this material, I can state with clarity that
Leelanau is the name of an Indian maiden, an Indian name meaning delight of life, an Indian name meaning land of delight, extension of a French word meaning “lee” of the land or an extension of an English word referring to protection from the wind.

My personal favorite, however, is still the T-shirt version, complete with weirdos.

Perhaps the best take on all this rather dry, historical research comes from Weeks, who is happy to accept a rather ambiguous and unassuming explanation.

“True to traditions of folklore, (the stories of the origin of Leelanau) have changed over time and been enamored by people who love Leelanau,” he said.

Even a self-proclaimed weirdo of the county such as myself has to agree.

Tale of Leelinau,
a pensive maiden

Spirit of the dancing leaves
Hear a throbbing heart that grieves,
Not for joys this world can give,
But for the life that spirits live…
Spirits hither quick repair,
Hear a maiden’s evening prayer.

- A passage from Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s
collection of Indian legends, entitled “Leelinau, or
The Lost Daughter, an Odibwa Tale.” This passage
was included in “Sleeping Bear, Today and Tomorrow,”
written by Glen Arbor author George Weeks.