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Pontiac

   Pontiac (1720-1769) was a man of medium build and dark complexion who highly valued personal fidelity. If Pontiac owed a debt, he would scratch a promissory note on birch bark with his sign, the otter. The notes were always redeemed. He was an early ally of the French in 1755, at Fort Duquesne, now the site of Pittsburgh, along with an allied force of Ottawas, Ojibwas, Hurons, and Delawares. He played a major role in the French defeat of English general Braddock in 1755 during the opening battles of what came to be known as the French and Indian War. Pontiac was probably born along the Maumee River in northern Ohio of an Ottawa father and a Chippewa mother. He married Kantuckeegan and had two sons, Otussa and Shegenaba. Pontiac held no hereditary chieftainship among the Ottawas, but by about 1760, his oratorical skills and reputed courage as a warrior had raised him to leadership. By 1763, Pontiac had also formed military alliances with eighteen other Native peoples from the Mississippi River to Lake Ontario. After the British defeat of the French in 1763, Pontiac found himself faced on the southern shore of Lake Erie with an english force that included Robert Roger's legendary Rangers, who were self-trained as forest warriors. Rogers told Pontiac that the land he occupied was now British, having been ceded by France, and that his force was taking possession of French forts. Pontiac said that while the French might have surrendered, his people had not. After four days of negotiations, Rogers agreed with Pontiac's point of view. Rogers was allowed to continue to the former French fort on the present-day site of Detroit. Power was transferred as hundreds of Indians watched. Rogers and Pontiac became friends. Pontiac now looked forward to peaceful trade with the British, but when Rogers left the area, fur traders began swindling the Indians, getting them addicted to cheap liquor. Pontiac sent a belt of red wampum - signifying the taking up of arms - as far east as the Iroquois Confederacy then southward along the Mississippi. He appealed for alliance, telling assembled chiefs of each nation he visited that if they did not unify and resist colonization, the English would flood them like waves of an endless sea. By spring 1763, a general uprising had been planned by the combined forces of the Ottawa, Huron, Delaware, Seneca, and Shawnee. On May 9, each tribe was to attack the closest English fort. Pontiac's plan was betrayed to the commander of the British fort at Detroit by an Ojibwa woman named Catherine. Pontiac laid siege to Fort Duquesne at Detroit, and other members of the alliance carried out their respective roles. An appeal to the French for help fell on deaf ears, since they had been defeated. After a siege that lasted through the winter and into spring of 1764, the fort received outside reinforcements, tipping the balance against Pontiac after fifteen month. After the rebellion ended, settlers swarmed into the Ohio Valley in increasing numbers, and the prestige of the old leader began to disintegrate. Pontiac now counseled peace. The younger warriors were said to have shamed him, possibly beating him physically in their frustration. With a small band of family and friends, Pontiac was forced to leave his home village and move to Illinois. On April 20, 1769, Pontiac was murdered in Cahokia, Illinois. According to one account, he was stabbed by a Peoria Indian who may have been bribed with a barrel of whiskey by an English trader named Williamson. A statue memorializing Pontiac now stands in the lobby of City Hall in Pontiac, Michigan. Pontiac tried to erect a Native confederacy that would block Euro-American immigration into the Old Northwest.

Neolin delaware Prophet

   Neolin, whom the British called The Impostor, seemingly appeared out of nowhere. In 1762, he is recorded to have preached a new doctrine to his people, the Delaware (Lenni Lenape), who lived in what is now east-central Ohio.

   The Prophet spoke against drunkenness, disorderliness, and polygamy. He said native tribes should stop warring among themselves. Claiming he had learned the true way directly from the Great Creator - he condemned traditional spirituality, believing it to be inspired by evil spirits. Most of all, Neolin advocated an uncompromising return to traditional ways of life. Only by shunning all trade goods, including European cloth, tools, alcohol, and weaponry, he said, would native people gain the strength to resist European expansion into their territory.

   Neolin's fame increased rapidly. Native people came from near and far to hear his message. Ottawa war chief Pontiac was an early convert. Pontiac used Neolin's message to unite the tribes against the British under his own leadership.

   "You complain ... that the animals of the Forest are few and scattered ... You destroy them yourselves for their skins only and leave their bodies to rot or give the best pieces to the Whites. ... You must kill no more animals than are necessary to feed and clothe you"

   By 1766 Pontiac's resistance against the British had collapsed. The doctrine's adherents dwindled. The Delaware Prophet disappeared from the stage at about the same time. What later became of him is not known.

   At Detroit in November, 1807 the Ottawa, Ojibwe, Wyandot, and Potawatomi ceded seven million acres of southeast Michigan. In exchange, the Detroit Ottawa received $3,333, an annuity of $800 for ten years, and a 28,800 acre reservation in Ohio on the Maumee River above Roche de Boeuf. A treaty signed at Brownstown the following year took a little more, and as they were being pressed into an ever smaller space, the Ohio and Detroit Ottawa asked the Ottawa a L'Arbre Croche for permission to move in with them - they were refused. After the American purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803, there was talk of war along the upper Mississippi during the next two years. About this time, a prophet arose among the Shawnee with a message much like Neolin's in 1763 - reject trade goods and return to traditional ways. His name was Tenskwatawa (The Open Door), but Americans found this difficult to pronounce and simply called him "The Prophet."

Tenskwatawa

   Tenskwatawa (1775-1836), Shawnee religious and political leader known as the Shawnee Prophet, was born at Old Piqua, a Shawnee village on the Mad River in Ohio, the son of Puckeshinwa, a Shawnee war chief, and Methoataske, a Creek woman. He was originally given the name Lalawethika (The Noisemaker).

   Two treaties signed by the Michigan Ottawa resulted in their being declared legally dead. In 1836 they ceded their remaining land in upper and lower Michigan for a series of reserves, $30,000 per year for 20 years, $350,000 in cash, and payment of $300,000 in debts. So far so good, but the treaty signed at Detroit in 1855 (all bands were not present) created an imaginary Ottawa and Chippewa Nation. The signers agreed to 80 acre allotments and the dissolution of the non-existent tribe. Fraud during the allotment process by 1860 had cost the Ottawa most of their remaining land and became so obvious the federal government was forced to intervene. However, nothing was done to restore tribal status, and the result has been almost 150 years of legal battles. In 1905 the Michigan Ottawa successfully sued the United States in the Court of Claims for redress for fraud and treaty violations, but when the Indian Reorganization Act was passed by Congress in 1934, the Michigan Ottawa were not allowed to organize under its provisions. Only Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa has regained federal recognition, and this took them until 1980.

   Kansas was admitted as the 34th state in 1861, and the Blanchard's Fork and Roche de Boeuf bands in Franklin county could see their days were numbered. In June, 1862 they agreed to dissolve their tribal government, become citizens, and accept 160 acre allotments. The excess lands were to be sold to whites for not less than $1.25 per acre and 20,000 acres were to be donated to Ottawa University to ensure the education of their children. However, many could not agree to the end of tribal relations, and in 1867 signed a treaty selling their Kansas land and agreeing to move to the Indian Territory. They purchased land from the Shawnee in northeast Oklahoma, but lost most of this in 1891 to the allotment required by the Dawes Act. The educational benefits from the 20,000 acres given to Ottawa University in 1862 were never realized, and a lawsuit to recover the value of the donation and compensation for lands sold illegally by Indian agents was finally settled in 1965. Meanwhile, the Oklahoma Ottawa organized under the Indian Reorganization Act in 1936. Twenty years later the government tried to terminate their tribal status, and if this had succeeded, there would have been 24 treaties between the United States and a tribe which did not exist. However, it did not happen, and Pontiac's people are hidden but very much alive.

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