Pontiac

(ca. 1720–69)

Ottawa War Leader

The conclusion of the French and Indian War in North America left the British Empire in possession of French [Page 641]Canada, extending into the strategic and valuable Ohio River Valley. In acquiring this land, the British also took on obligations to the Indians of the region, with whom the French had maintained generous financial and diplomatic arrangements. The British were unwilling to continue such relations and began planning for the expansion of military fortifications as well as the arrival of British settlers whose presence was bound to antagonize indigenous peoples—who would lose hunting land and prestige, as well as be in far closer contact with the British than they had been with the French. Intense dissatisfaction with the change in colonial overlords led to a violent confrontation that, in the long term, shaped British (and later American) relations with Indians in extremely negative ways.

An important figure at the center of these changing relations was the warrior and leader Pontiac, whose origins and activities before 1763 are obscure. Although he identified himself as an Ottawa and was likely born in Ottawa lands on the Detroit River, his mother may have been a Chippewa. As a young warrior, Pontiac probably took part in King George's War as a French ally, and he may have been among the Ottawa who attacked Gen. Edward Braddock on the Monongahela near Fort Duquesne. The first written mention of Pontiac occurred in 1757 in the papers of Sir William Johnson, who described him as a war chief who demanded a tangible reward from the French for his loyalty in the fighting. The British military authorities first encountered Pontiac at the handover of Fort Detroit, where he appeared at the head of a still proFrench entourage of Ottawa.

By 1761, the indigenous peoples surrounding British forts in the Ohio River and Great Lakes region were deeply disappointed with their new status and treatment by Gen. Jeffrey Amherst, who failed to distribute the liberal amounts of powder and shot he had promised as well as the expected presents of blankets, tools, and money. Even more insulting was the new British restriction of alcohol sales—previously, they had encouraged the distribution of spirits to cause disturbances among those peoples who were pro-French. Merchants refused credit to indigenous peoples and often overpriced their goods when dealing with them. Settlers also began to trickle into the region, setting off confrontations. Rumors that the French wished to continue the war, or that they would support an uprising, flew through disgruntled indigenous populations around the Great Lakes (although a call by the Seneca to rise against the British failed to attract supporters).

In 1762, Pontiac met with French agents and representatives of the Huron, Chippewa, and Pottawatomie, and, fueled by the popular proclamations of the Delaware Prophet, formed a conspiracy designed to strike at British forts, particularly Fort Detroit. It is a point of contention among historians whether Pontiac spearheaded the entire conspiracy or if his actions simply triggered existing plans against British garrisons. Pontiac himself set off the rebellion on May 7, 1763, with an attempt to take Fort Detroit under the guise of a friendly visit. Maj. Henry Gladwin, who had probably been warned, refused the large party entry, forcing Pontiac to establish a siege position two miles above the fort with approximately 450 men. From there, he led Huron and Chippewa warriors in an attack on English settlers, the ambush of a British army column, and the destruction of outbuildings around the fort. Throughout the siege, Pontiac attempted to remain on good terms with French settlers, issuing paper receipts for food and supplies levied from their farms and offering them protection in return for skilled military aid. The French response was cool, however, and no experienced European soldiers volunteered to help. Pontiac, although in a strong position, could not take the fort by direct assault; nor could he prevent it from receiving reinforcements and supplies by boat.

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