Jean Baptiste Cadotte (1790)

Ancestors

Died [date unknown] in Grand-Calumet, Pontiac, Quebec, Canada

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Biography

Jean Baptiste was Ojibwe.

Jean Baptiste Cadotte was born on 17 December 1790, probably at La Pointe on Madeline Island in modern day Wisconsin or Sault Ste. Marie in modern day Michigan or Ontario. He was the son of Metis fur trader Michel Cadotte Sr. and his Anishinaabe wife Ikwesewe (or Madeline).^[1] When he was 13 years old, around 1803, his father took him to Lac du Flambeau to work as a translator for trader Francois Victor Malhiot. In exchange, Malhiot taught him to read and speak French. According to Malhiot's journal, Jean Baptiste was proficient at learning the language quickly. Jean Baptiste served with the British, along with his brother Michel and Augustin, in the War of 1812. He was present at Mackinac and probably at the Battle of the Thames as well. Jean Baptiste remained in Canada after the war and lived at the Ile du Grand Calumet, except for a short return to La Pointe in the 1820s. He likely never married.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ John P. DuLong, "Some Births and Deaths Recorded in a Fur Trader's Account Book." Michigan's Habitant Heritage 5, no. 2 (April 1984):45-46.
2. ↑ Theresa M. Schenck, All Our Relations: Chippewa Mixed Bloods and the Treaty of 1837 (Madison, WI: Amik Press), 37.