PONTIAC (c. 1720-1769), Indian chief of the Ottawa and
leader in the “Conspiracy of Pontiac” in 1763-64, was born
between 1712 and 1720 probably on the Maumee river, near the
mouth of the Auglaize. His father was an Ottawa, and his
mother an Ojibwa. By 1755 he had become a chief of the
Ottawa and a leader of the loose confederacy of the Ottawa, Potawatomi and Ojibwa. He was an ally of France and possibly commanded the Ottawa in the defeat (July 9, 1755) of General Edward Braddock. In November 1760 he met Major Robert Rogers, then on his way to occupy Michilimackinac and other forts surrendered by the French, and agreed to let the English troops pass unmolested on condition that he should be treated with respect by the British. Like other Indians he soon realized the difference between French and English rule—that the Indians were no longer welcomed at the forts and that they would ultimately be deprived of their hunting grounds by encroaching English settlements. French hunters and traders encouraged Indian disaffection with vague promises of help from France; in 1762 an Indian “prophet” among the Delawares on the Muskingum preached a union of the Indians to expel the
English; and in that year (as in 1761) there were abortive
conspiracies to massacre the English garrisons of Detroit, Fort
Niagara and Fort Pitt (now Pittsburg). Pontiac seems to have
been chief of a magic association (the Metai), and he took
advantage of the religious fervour and the general unrest among the
Indians to organize in the winter of 1762-63 a simultaneous
attack on the English forts to be made in May 1763 at a certain
phase of the moon. On the 27th of April 1763, before a meeting
near Detroit of delegates from most of the Algonquian tribes, he
outlined his plans. On the 7th of May, with 60 warriors, he
attempted unsuccessfully to gain admission to Detroit, which
then had a garrison of about 160 under Major Henry Gladwin
(1730-1791); and then besieged the fort from the 9th of May to
the end of October. On the 28th of May reinforcements from
Fort Niagara were ambuscaded near the mouth of the Detroit. In June the Wyandot and Potawatomi withdrew from the siege, but on the 29th of July they attacked reinforcements (280 men, including 20 of Rogers's rangers) from Fort Niagara under Captain James Dalyell (or Dalzell), who, however, gained the fort, and in spite of Gladwin's opposition on the 31st of July attacked Pontiac's camp, but was ambuscaded on Bloody Run and was killed, nearly 60 others being killed or wounded. On the 12th of October the Potawatomi, Ojibwa and Wyandot made peace with the English; with the Ottawa Pontiac continued the siege until the 30th of October, when he learned from Neyon de la Vallière, commandant of Fort Chartres (among the Illinois) that he would not be aided by the French. Pontiac then withdrew to the Maumee.