All your patrons are invited to the first online bookclub event
of 2024. thanks for giving me the opportunity to get the word
out!
JENNIFER MCGRAW writes
non-fiction history focusing on the 1600s and the Michilimackinac
region. Her latest book, The Unsolved Mysteries of Father
Marquette's Many Graves, discusses his time in the Great
Lakes area, his life at Sault Sainte Marie and Saint Ignace, his
trip down the Mississippi, and his death. It then goes on to
extensively cover the multiple times that he was buried and dug up
as well as the evidence that led people to conclude that the remains
they had found were him. It tells of the treatment given to his
bones when he was dug up which included scraping the flesh from
them, likely cremating that flesh, and disarticulating his skeleton
to prepare his bones for transport. This book follows other books or
booklets she has authored including Lawless Mackinac and The
David Haynes Dig. She is also co-author of a collection of
writings called The Reminiscences of David Corp (co-authored
with Prentiss M. Brown, Jr.). The Unsolved Mysteries of Father
Marquette's Many Graves is available at multiple area
bookstores and gift shops. It can be purchased online at islandbookstore.com
or by contacting Island Bookstore on Mackinac Island at islandbookstore@gmail.com. 
"I was impressed with
McGraw’s in-depth research and how she incorporated text from
her sources, including The Jesuit Relations, to make
this scholarly work both informative and entertaining reading.
One highlight for me was the many details about Native American
customs of the time and how the Jesuits tried not only to
convert the Native Americans, but to get them to give up
practices they disagreed with from living together before
marriage to believing in the power of dreams.
But
one Native American custom was particularly important to Father
Marquette’s story—related to the Odawa’s way of showing respect
for their dead. Father Marquette died on May 18, 1675, as he was
journeying across Lake Michigan on his way back to St. Ignace.
Realizing he was not going to live to see again the mission
where he had served, he asked to be set ashore near present-day
Ludington, Michigan, where he died. He was buried there, but two
years later, the Odawa he had served decided to return his
remains to the mission at St. Ignace. McGraw notes that this was
the deepest sign of respect they could have shown him, and how
they exhumed and treated his body was one of their customs. They
practiced a process called excarnation—McGraw describes it in
detail—where they dug him up and removed the flesh from his
bones. Then they transported the body to St. Ignace. McGraw
notes that they treated Father Marquette with the same respect
they showed to loved ones whose bodies or bones they would
sometimes carry with them for decades."
-- Tyler R. Tichelaar, U.P. Book Review
About the Upper
Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association (UPPAA)-- Regards, Victor R. Volkman, President L H Press Inc. www.LHPress.com