09/01/2026
Mackinac Island Becomes a Part of the United States
Mackinac Island officially became part of the United States when ownership of the Island was legally transferred from Great Britain to the new United States owing to the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution. It wasn't until 1796, however, that the late British forces finally left the Island and U.S. troops marched into Fort Mackinac.
The delay was owing to outstanding issues between Great Britain and the new United States involving trade, tariffs, and the imprisonment of American soldiers; final agreements were not reached until 1794 with the signing of the Jay Treaty. Under the treaty, the United States acquired huge swaths of land from Great Britain, giving the U.S. control of all lands east of the Mississippi River. Prior to the land transfer, Britain had had a policy of non-expansionism under the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which opposed White settlement on Tribal lands. But when the United States received the lands, its intentions were to push westward expansion.
Aggression against the Native Tribes to pave the way for U.S. expansion was widespread, with the United States Army burning Tribal villages and causing bloodshed as early as 1783. As a response, the Tribes of the Great Lakes region formed a confederacy known as the Northwestern Confederacy or, among its members, as the United Indian Nations. The United Indian Nations was headed by five Tribes, the Wyandot (Huron), Anishinaabeg, Miami, Shawnee, and Lenape (Delaware), with many other Tribes acting in supporting roles. The Nations’ clash with American forces grew into the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795). The conflict pitted the U.S. against the United Indian Nations, which had allied with the British, for control over the newly acquired lands.
Throughout the war, Native lands were taken and put under American control. The Treaty of Greenville, signed in Ohio in 1795, ended the Northwest Indian War. The treaty saw the British Army finally leave Mackinac Island and redefined the boundary between indigenous peoples' lands and U.S. territory in what is now northwestern Ohio.
On September 1 1796, Major Henry Burbeck of the United States Army tallied inventory at Fort Mackinac and ordered the Union Jack lowered. It was then replaced with the Stars and Stripes, officially marking Mackinac Island as American territory.
