Obwandiyag Odawa (1720 - 1769)

Born 1720 in Ottawa Village--Detroit or Maumee Rivers [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 20 Apr 1769 at about age 49 in Cahokia, Illinois Country, British North America

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Biography

Pontiac Odawa is Notable.

Pontiac became a leader of the Odawa during the French and Indian War which was part of the global Seven Years War. He was also head chief of the Ottawas, Ojibwas, Herons, and Delaware tribes during the War.

Little is known of the origins of the Odawa chief Obwandiyag, commonly known as Pontiac. He was probably born about 1720, but does not appear in records until 1760. Various claims are made that he was born in what is now Michigan or in Ohio; his mother may have been Ojibwe (Chippewa) and his father Odawa. He was a member of the Otter Clan or society. ^[1] Pontiac had a brother Meta and two sisters, one married Geyette and one married Oskkigoisin. ^{[citation needed]}

Pontiac may have been married more than once. He is believed to have fathered several children including sons named Tisson and and Negig and a daughter named Marie. ^[2] His surviving wife, Kan-tu-kee-gon, was the mother of two sons and a daughter.

Pontiac became a leader of the Odawa in the 1750's, at the time of the French and Indian War. He was named as the head chief of the Ottawas, Ojibwas, Herons and Delawares in the fight to save control of Fort Duquesne. Pontiac stated that he had interceded and saved Detroit from attack by Chief Mikinak in 1746; he led the Odawa warriors at Little Meadows in 1755; he gave a speech at Fort Duquesne in 1757; he may have then accompanied Montcalm in an expedition against Fort William Henry in 1757; he held a secret council at Rivière à l'Écorce, April 27, 1763 which soon led to the Siege of Detroit, under his command, from May 9 to October 31, 1763; on May 7, Pontiac struck with a stick the woman [Catherine] suspected of informing the English about the planned attack on Fort Detroit; at the time he was living on Isle aux Pêches, at the mouth of the Detroit River; he fought at Bloody Run, August 1, 1763 where his brother-in-law, Geyette, shot Dalyell; on September 3, 1765 Pontiac granted land on the south side of the Detroit River to McDougall, on September 17 to Anton, Abbot and Chesne, and on September 18 to Maisonville; he signed a peace treaty at Fort Ontario, July 1766; he was at the Oswego Conference, July 1766 and lived at Quiatenon on the Wabash River in 1768. REF: Deeds/Nations (now defunct site).

In the spring of 1769, he was betrayed by another native that was from the Kaskaskia. The native had been promised a barrel of Whiskey by an Englishman named Williamson, so he stabbed Pontiac in the back.^{[3] [4]}

Research Notes

Aka - Pontiak, Ponteack, Pontiague, Pondiac, Pondiak, Pondiag, and Obwandiyag in the Ottawa tradition^[5]

According to Oklahoma Otawa oral tradition, the Otter Clan was misidentified as "Sable", an animal similar in appearance to the Otter.

The Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma are descendants of Pontiac who is associated with the medicine lodge or fraternity whose emblem or totem was the sign of the otter.

In 1967, Norman G. Holmes, Tribal Operations Officer, Anadarko Area Office, Oklahoma, and a lineal descendant of Pontiac stated that historians and writers have misidentified the "sable" for the "otter" since both are similar fur-bearing animals of the weasel family.^[6]

Sources

1. ↑ Hodge, Frederick. Handbook of American Indians. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 1911. Part 2, p. 280.
2. ↑ Holmes, Norman G. "The Ottawa Indians of Oklahoma and Chief Pontiac," Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. 45 #2, Summer, 1967, pp. 190 ff. Digitized at Holmes
3. ↑ Waters, Frank: Brave Are My People, Indian Heroes Not Forgotten, pgs 34 - 42: Clear Light Publishers. ISBN: 0-940666-21-9
4. ↑ http://www.cahokiaillinois.org/about/
5. ↑ http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/pontiac_3E.html
6. ↑ Holmes, "The Ottawa Indians of Oklahoma and Chief Pontiac", p. 192

'See also:

• Wikipedia: Chief Pontiac
• Wikidata: Item Q314960, en:Wikipedia
• (dead link) college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_030200_pontiac.htm
• Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs, by Norman B. Wood https://www.gutenberg.org/files/58781/58781-h/58781-h.htm#chv
• https://allthingsliberty.com/2020/01/the-lenape-origins-of-an-independent-america-the-catalyst-of-pontiacs-war-1763-1765/