The temporary Bay Mills Ojibwe School sits only a few 100 feet from the school that was open from 1856 to 1941 on the Bay Mills Reservation. The original site can be seen from the front door of the temporary school near the tallest tree on the horizon.
The Methodist Church established a mission school at Naomikong in 1849. Established in 1846 in the Soo, the mission moved one spring after the entire congregation moved to Naomikong.
In 1852 the church purchased 900 acres parallel to the allotment at Iroquois. In 1856, Reverend Peter Marksman and James Shaw moved the mission to Gnoozhekaaning (Bay Mills), which was called Shawville at the time. The Native people were very fond of James Shaw.
In 1902, the Methodist Church deeded 5 acres to the government. The school was threatened with closure several times.
In 1916, the government turned the land over to Chippewa County as a public school that went to the eight grade. Children walked the Democratic Trail and teachers lived with the Lufkins. The school was closed in 1941 and children were sent to boarding schools such as the Mt. Pleasant Indian School, Haskell and Carlisle.
Until 1941, there was a Bay Mills school for 85 years. The tribe elected its first school board in 1997. Six years later, after 62 years, there is once more a Bay Mills school , this time, under the control of the community attending it.
