Ottawa chief; born on the
Ottawa River in 1720; became an early ally of the
French.
With a body of Ottawas he defended the
French tradingpost of
Detroit against more northerly tribes, and it is supposed he led the Ottawas who assisted the
French in defeating
Braddock on the
Monongahela.
In 1760, after the conquest of
Canada,
Major Rogers was sent to take possession of the
Western posts.
Pontiac feigned friendship for the. English for a while, but in 1763 he was the leader in a conspiracy of many tribes to drive the
English from the
Ohio country back beyond the
Alleghany Mountains.
The
French had won the affection and respect of the
Indian tribes with whom they came in contact, by their kindness, sociability, and religious influence; and when the
English, formidable enemies of the red men, supplanted the
French in
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the alleged possession of the vast domain acquired by the treaty of
Paris, expelled the
Roman Catholic priests, and haughtily assumed to be absolute lords of the Indians' country, the latter were exasperated, and resolved to stand firmly in the way of English pretensions.
“Since the
French must go, no other nation should take their place.”
The conspiracy known as
Pontiac's began with the lower nations.
The
Senecas, of the Six Nations, the Delawares and Shawnees, had for some time urged the
Northwestern Indians to take up arms against the
English.
They said: “The
English mean to make slaves of us, by occupying so many posts in our country.”
The
British had erected log forts here and there in the
Western wilderness.
“We had better attempt something now to recover our liberty, than to wait till they are better established,” said the nations, and their persuasions had begun to stir up the patriotism of the
Northwestern barbarians, when an Abenake prophet from
eastern New Jersey appeared among them.
He was a chief, and had first satisfied his own people that the Great Spirit had given him wisdom to proclaim war against the new invaders.
He said the great
Manitou had appeared to him in a vision, saying, “I am the
Lord of life; it is I who made all men; I wake for their safety.
Therefore I give you warning, that if you suffer the Englishmen to dwell in your midst, their diseases and their poisons shall destroy you utterly, and you shall die.”
The chief preached a crusade against the
English among the
Western tribes, and so prepared the way for
Pontiac to easily form his conspiracy.
After the capture of
Fort Duquesne, settlers from
Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and
Virginia went over the mountains into the
Ohio region in large numbers.
They were not kindly disposed towards the Indians, and French traders fanned the embers of hostility between the races.
The
Delawares and
Shawnees, who had lately emigrated from
Pennsylvania, and were on the banks of the
Muskingum,
Scioto, and
Miami, nursed hatred of the
English and stirred up the
Western tribes against the white people.
Pontiac took the lead in a widespread conspiracy, and organized a confederacy for the purpose of driving the
English back beyond
the Alleghanies.
The confederacy was composed of the Ottawas,
Miamis, Wyandottes, Delawares, Shawnees, Ontagamies, Chippewas, Pottawattomies, Mississagas, Foxes, and Winnebagoes.
These had been allies of the
French.
The
Senecas, the most westerly of the Six Nations, joined the confederacy, but the other tribes of the
Iroquois Confederacy (q. v.) were kept quiet by
Sir William Johnson.
It was arranged for a simultaneous attack to be made along the whole frontier of
Pennsylvania and
Virginia.
The conspiracy was unsuspected until it was ripe and the first blow was struck, in June, 1763.
English traders scattered through the frontier regions were plundered and slain.
At almost the same instant they attacked all of the
English outposts taken from the
French, and made themselves masters of nine of them, massacring or dispersing the garrisons.
Forts Pitt,
Niagara, and Detroit were saved.
Colonel Bouquet saved
Fort Pitt (now
Pittsburg);
Niagara was not attacked; and
Detroit, after a long siege by
Pontiac in person, was relieved by
Colonel Bradstreet in 1764.
The
Indians were speedily subdued, but
Pontiac remained hostile until his death in
Cahokia, Ill., in 1769.
He was an able
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sachem and warrior, and, like King Philip, was doubtless moved by patriotic impulses; for the flow of emigration over the mountains threatened his race with displacement if not with destruction.
See
Detroit.
