Indian Village

St. Ignace, Michigan

This is the most interesting-looking souvenir store along the St. Ignace tourist strip, with its blinking neon outline of a teepee and a brave firing arrows.

It was built, according to its promotional literature, on the exact spot where missionary Father Marquette landed in 1671 to begin saving the souls of the Chippewas and Ottawas. "The Indian Village offers for sale thousands of articles made by the skilled hands of descendants of these same tribes."

Inside there's a wealth of Indian-themed items for sale (some imported from other Indian hotspots, such as "Genuine Indian Spears" -- rubber-tipped -- from Cherokee, NC), as well as caps and t-shirts and such. An adorable taxidermied monstrosity -- rabbit body, bird claws and wings, and deer antlers -- was priced $170, probably displayed to help sell novelty Jack-A-Lope Hunting Licenses.

From old post cards, still for sale here, the place appears to have once looked like an Indian village of teepees -- although it's unlikely Indians in Michigan's Upper Peninsula used teepees. We saw only one teepee left standing, and it looked as if one more winter would destroy it.