History of the Ojibway People by William Warren

Author:William Warren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
Published: 2009-02-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 17

Commencement of British Supremacy

That portion of the Ojibways, forming by far the main body of the tribe, who occupied the area of Lake Superior, and those bands who had already formed distinct villages on the headwaters of the Mississippi and its principal northeastern tributaries, were not engaged in the bloody transaction of the taking of Fort Michilimackinac, or at most, but a few of their old warriors who have all now fallen into their graves, were noted as having been accidentally present on the occasion of this most important event in the history of their tribe.

It is true that the war-club, tobacco, and wampum belt of war had been carried by the messengers of Pontiac and his lieutenant, the Mackinaw chieftain, to La Pointe, and the principal villages of the tribe on Lake Superior, but the Ojibways listened only to the advice and the words of peace of a French trader who resided at Sault Ste. Marie, and from this point (with an influence not even surpassed by that which his contemporary, Sir Wm. Johnson, wielded over the more eastern tribes), he held sway, and guided the councils of the Lake Superior Ojibways, even to their remotest village.

This man did not stand tamely by, as many of his fellow French traders did, to witness the butchery of British soldiers and subjects, and see the blood of his fellow whites ruthlessly and freely flowing at the hands of the misguided savages. On the contrary, he feared not to take a firm stand against the war, and made noble and effective efforts to prevent the deplorable consequences which their opposition to the British arms, would be sure to entail on the Ojibways. He knew full well that the French nation had withdrawn forever from their possessions in this country, and that their national fire, which was promised would blaze forever with the fire of the Ojibways, was now totally extinguished, and knowing this, he did not foolishly stimulate, as others did, the sanguinary opposition which the Indians continued to make against the predominant Saxon race, by telling them that “the great king of the French had only fallen into a drowse, but would soon awaken, and drive the English back into the great salt water.”

On the contrary, he pointed out to the Ojibways, the utter uselessness and impotence of their efforts; and he told them that the war would only tend to thin the ranks of their warriors, causing their women to cover their faces with the black paint of mourning, and keep them miserably poor, for the want of traders to supply their wants.

It is through the humane advice of this French trader, and the unbounded influence which he held over the Lake Superior Ojibways, which prevented them from joining the alliance of Pontiac, in his war against the English, and which has thereby saved them from the almost utter annihilation which has befallen every other tribe who have been induced to fight for one type of the

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