James Robert Paquette was born in Ishpeming, Michigan and raised in Negaunee. He graduated magna cum laude from Northern Michigan University in 1974 with a Bachelor's in Social Services and a minor in history. He worked at Cliffs Natural Resources/Cleveland Cliffs for thirty-five years in development and training and has held various mine safety roles. Now he is on the Board of Trustees for the Historical Society of Michigan. James is a former instructor for NMU's Professional Development and Enrichment Program on Upper Great Lakes Region Archaeology. He currently is an instructor and speaker on Native American and Métis topics and archeological and historical research projects. James is working on an ongoing survey project in the central Upper Peninsula area for the purpose of locating, documenting and preserving pre-contact and post-contact First Nation cultural sites and artifacts. He has already discovered and documented over one hundred sites, including evidence of the earliest human occupation in the Upper Peninsula and earliest evidence of mid-17th century French contact with the First Nation people in Michigan.
