Walking in Anishinaabe Footsteps
Grant Supports Cultural Hikes at Sleeping Bear Dunes
by Amy Orzel
Anishinaabe historian Eric Hemenway
Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes is grateful to receive a 2026 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Grant from the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation to support the Anishinaabe Lifeways Programs at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The grant, totaling $2,000, will help deepen visitors’ understanding and appreciation of Anishinaabe history and culture at Sleeping Bear Dunes by funding guided hikes through the park led by an Anishinaabe historian. The hikes will highlight the history, culture, and deep land connections of the Odawa and Ojibway peoples in northern Michigan.
This is the second year that the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation has supported the Anishinaabe Lifeways programs. In 2025, their Diversity, Equity, Inclusion grant funded a series of five hikes led by Anishinaabe historian Eric Hemenway. Each hike gave participants a different insight into Odawa history, culture, and their relationship with the Great Lakes by covering topics like treaties, regional conflicts, the cultural importance of trees and plants, and traditional foods.
“The five Anishinaabe programs presented in 2025 were a success,” said Emily Sunblade, Supervisory Interpretation Park Ranger at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.
“Together, these programs helped bring forward Indigenous stories and perspectives that are often overlooked. The programs were engaging and valuable to the community and successfully connected both adults and young people with Anishinaabe history and culture.”
Following last year’s successful Anishinaabe Lifeways programming, we are excited to support another summer of meaningful cultural hikes showcasing the stories and traditions of the Anishinaabe people.
About the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation
The Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation stewards community assets for lasting impact by investing in the people and places of Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, and Leelanau Counties as well as the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, a federally recognized tribe. Established in 1992, the Community Foundation works to support healthy, resilient, thriving communities for all across the region by serving donor partners, awarding meaningful grants and scholarships, and participating in collaborative leadership efforts on important community issues. For more information, please visit GTRCF.org.