|
Ottawa Indian Tribe
Location
Ottawa. From a native word signifying "to trade,"
because they were noted as middlemen. It occurs shortened to Tawa.
Also
called:
Andatahouats, Ondatawawat, Huron name.
Udawak, Penobscot name.
Ukua'-yata, Huron name, according to Gatschet (1877).
Waganha's, Iroquois name, meaning "stammerers".
Watawawininiwok, Chippewa name, meaning "men of the bulrushes", from
the many bulrushes in Ottawa River.
Wdowo, Abnaki name.
Connections
The earliest known home of
the north shore Manitoulin Island and neighboring parts of the north shore of
Georgian Bay. Their connection with Michigan came later. (See also
Illinois,
Indiana,
Iowa,
Kansas,
Minnesota,
Ohio,
Oklahoma,
Wisconsin, and Canada.)
Subdivisions and Villages
The following four main divisions are given by early
writers: The Kishkakon or Bear Gens, the Nassauaketon, or Fork
People, the Sable Gens and the Sinago or Gray Squirrel Gens, is sometimes
times added. The Kishkakon, Sinago, Keinouche were closely associated.
Aegakotcheis, in Michigan
Anamiewatigong, in Emmet County, lower Michigan
Apontigoumy, probably in Ontario.
Machonee, near the mouth of Au Vaseau River which flows into Lake
St. Clair, in lower Michigan.
Manistee, in Michigan, perhaps near the village of Weganakisi on
Little
Traverse Bay
Menawzhetaunaung, on an island in the Lake of the Woods.
Meshkemau, on Maumee Bay, Lucas County, Ohio
Michilimackina location Mackinac Island.
Middle Village, location unknown.
Obidgewong, with Chippewa, on the western shore of Lake Wolseley,
Manitoulin Island, Ontario.
Oquanoxa, on the west bank of the Little Auglaize, at its mouth, in
Paulding
County, Ohio.
Roche de Boeuf, on the northwestern bank of Maumee River, near
Waterville,
Lucas County, Ohio.
Saint Simon, a mission on Manitoulin Island.
Shabawywyagun, apparently on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.
Tushquegan, on the south bank of Maumee River opposite Toledo, Ohio.
Waganakisi, on the site of Harbor Springs, Emmet County, Mich.
Walpole Island, on the island of that name, Ontario.
Waugau, near the mouth of Maumee River, in Lucas County, Ohio.
Wolf Rapids, on Maumee River, Ohio, about the boundary of Wood and
Henry Counties.
Additional bands:
Maskasinik, position uncertain, mentioned in Jesuit Relation of
1657-58 with Nikikouek and Missisauga.
Nikikouek, position uncertain, associated with Missisauga and
dwelling east of them on the north shore of Lake Huron.
Outaouakamigouk, on the northeast coast of Lake Huron in 1648,
probably Ottawa.
Sagnitaouigama, in 1640 southeast of Ottawa River, perhaps same as
Sinago.
History
It is uncertain whether the
Ottawa River in Ontario received its name because the Ottawa once lived upon it
or because the Ottawa had obtained a monopoly of the trade passing up and down
it. When the French actually came among them they were in the region above
indicated. After the destruction of their allies, the Hurons, in 1648-49, the
Iroquois attacked the Ottawa in turn, who fled to the islands at the entrance of
Green Bay, part of them later passing to Keweenaw Bay, while the rest
accompanied the Hurons to an island near the entrance of Lake Pepin on the
Mississippi. Harassed by the Dakota, the Ottawa settled on Chequaniegon Bay but in
1670-71 were induced by the French to return to Manitoulin Island. By 1680
most of them had left Manitoulin Island and joined the Hurons about the
mission station at Mackinaw. About 1700 the Hurons removed to Detroit, and
a portion of the Ottawa seem to have obtained a foothold on the west shore
of Lake Huron between Saginaw Bay and Detroit, but they returned to
Mackinaw about 1706. Soon afterward the chief seat of a portion of the
tribe was fixed at L'Arbre Croche in Emmett County, whence they spread
down the east side of Lake Michigan to St. Joseph River, a few finding
their way into Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois. At the same time some
of them were living in their old country on Manitoulin Island and about
Georgian Bay, and others were scattered along the southern shore of Lake
Erie from Detroit to the vicinity of Beaver Creek, Pa. They took part
successively against the English and the American colonists in all wars
during the latter half of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the
nineteenth until the end of the War of 1812. The famous chief
Pontiac was an
Ottawa. The Canadian Ottawa are on Manitoulin and Cockburn Islands and the
adjacent shores of Lake Huron. In 1831 two bands of Ottawa known as the
Ottawa of Blanchard's Fork of Great Auglaize River and the Ottawa of Roche
de Boeuf on Maumee River were granted lands on Marais des Cygnes River,
Kans., but they re-ceded the greater part of these lands in 1846, and in
1862 they agreed to allotment in severalty and to the relinquishment of
their remaining territory. Further treaties regarding the disposal of
their lands were made in 1867 and 1872. In 1867 they received a plot of
land in Oklahoma which had been ceded by the Shawnee. A few Ottawa went
west with the Prairie Potawatomi but were soon fused with them or
scattered to other places. A few others have continued to occupy parts of
Kansas down to the present day but after 1868 most of them removed to
Oklahoma. A still larger body of Ottawa remained in Michigan, scattered
among a number of small villages.
Population
Mooney (1928) estimated that in 1600 there were of the
combined Algonkin and Ottawa about 6,000. The scattered condition of the tribe
during their earlier history prevented their contemporary chroniclers from
obtaining satisfactory figures. In 1906 the Chippewa and Ottawa on Manitoulin
and Cockburn Islands numbered 1,497, of whom about half were Ottawa; there were
197 under the Seneca School, Okla.; and in Michigan there were 5ca87 in 1900 of
whom about two-thirds were Ottawa. According to the census of 1910, there were
2,717 Ottawa in the United States, 2,454 being in Michigan, 170 in Oklahoma, and
the rest in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kansas, and Pennsylvania. In 1923 there were
274 in Oklahoma and a much larger number in Michigan and Canada. The United
States Oklahoma, and gives 84 in Wisconsin. In 1737 there were 422 in Oklahoma.
Connection in which they have
become noted
Although a prominent tribe in early times, the Ottawa
will now be especially remembered from the fact that they have given their
name to the most important branch of the St. Lawrence River and the city
on its banks which became the capital of the Dominion of Canada. Their
name is also borne by counties in Kansas, Michigan, and Ohio, and the
province of Quebec; by important cities in La Salle County, Ill., and
Franklin County, Kans.; and by smaller places and streams in Rockcaste
County, Ky.; Waukesha County, Wis.; Le Sueur County, Mined Putnam County,
Ohio; Boone County, Wis.; Boone County, Va.; an Ottawa Beach in Ottawa
County, Mich., and Ottawa Lake in Monroe County in the same State. The
tribe will be noted furthermore as that to which belonged the famous
Indian patriot, Pontiac.
Resources:
Notes About the Book:
Source: The Indian Tribes of North America, by John R. Swanton, 1953, Bureau of
American Ethnology, Bulletin 145, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC.
Online Publication: The manuscript was scanned and then ocr'd. Minimal editing
has been done, and readers can and should expect some errors in the textual
output.
|
|
Pre-Order Family Tree Maker 2012!!!