Joe Pete

Florence McClinchey’s Joe Pete, was first published in 1929. Both of McClinchey’s novels, Joe Pete and Big John, revolve around American Indians living on Sugar Island, which is located at the far eastern end of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, on the border with Canada. Florence McClinchey has had the opportunity to observe the Ojibway Indians at first hand, and for many summers has lived on Sugar Island, the setting of Joe Pete, the powerful tale of the degeneration of Mabel, an Indian woman, the mother of Joe Pete. It is Joe Pete, "the thorough- bred," for whom the story is named and who, through many obstacles, emerges victorious; but it is Mabel who stands forth as the symbol of a dying race-a submerged people at the mercy of their conquerors. This 2018 re-printing was edited by Phil Bellfy, PhD, Professor Emeritus of American Indian Studies, Michigan State University.