It was a far from idyllic existence, but it suited the Indians just fine. They could endure a lot of hardship, but they had no resistance to the white man's diseases. That's what finally did the village in. Its population was decimated by repeated epidemics of smallpox and dyptheria. The survivors scattered to the four winds-to isolated farms in the area and to the Indian villages of Peshawbestown and Cross Village.
Today there's a lovely green meadow where the village stood.
A small creek runs through it. It was the waters of the creek that, over who knows how many years, eroded that great chasm in the bluff, at the edge of which the schoolhouse stood. Now the wind off Lake Michigan blows waves in the tall meadow grass and rustles the leaves of the aspens in the old cemetery where most of the people who once lived at Onominee now lie buried. Page created 6 Sep 1999. Last updated 6 Sep 1999.