PONTIAC (c. 1720-1769), famous chief of the Ottawa In dians and leader in the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" in 1763-64, was born about 1720, probably on the Maumee river, in what is now northwestern Ohio. His father was an Ottawa, and his mother an Ojibwa. By 1775 he had become a chief of the Ottawa and a leader of the loose confederacy of the Ottawa, Potawatomi and Ojibwa. As an ally of France, he possibly commanded the Ottawa in the defeat (1755) of Gen. Braddock. In 1760 he met Maj. 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; and in 1762 Pontiac enlisted the support of practically all the Indian tribes from Lake Superior to the lower Mississippi for a joint move to expel the British. He arranged for each tribe to attack the fort nearest to it in May 1763, and then to combine to wipe out the undefended settlements. Pontiac himself decided to cap ture Detroit, but his carefully laid plans for a surprise attack on May 9 were betrayed to the commanding officer, Maj. Gladwin, and he was forced to lay siege to the fort. The siege continued for five months, marked by desultory attacks and sorties. Schooners sent through Lake Erie with supplies and provisions were captured by the Indians, but Pontiac could not prevent reinforcements from Fort Niagara under Capt. Dalzell from reaching Detroit. How ever, when the besieged made a night attack on the Indian encamp ment, Pontiac, apprised of their coming, inflicted heavy losses on them at Bloody Run, July 31. The Indians were unused to making
long sieges and, after a few months, several of the associated tribes made peace. With his own Ottawa, Pontiac continued to camp around Detroit until Oct. 3o when, hearing that no aid from the French could be expected owing to the signing of the peace treaty with the English, he withdrew to the Maumee river.
Pontiac's larger plan was more successful. Of the 12 fortified posts attacked by the Indians, all but four were captured ; most of the garrisons were massacred; several relief expeditions were nearly annihilated, and the frontiers were desolated and plundered. Col. Bouquet, however, succeeded in defeating the Indians at Bushy Run, when on his way to relieve Forts Pitt and Ligonier, and in 1764, he led a second expedition into Ohio from Pennsyl vania, and forced the Indian tribes to sue for peace and release their prisoners. Pontiac still hoped to arouse other tribes to con tinue the fight, but after another year he saw that the English were the real masters of the situation and, on behalf of the tribes lately banded in his league, he concluded a treaty of peace and amity with Sir William Johnson at Oswego, N.Y., July 25, 1766. Pontiac, laden with gifts from the enemy, returned to his home on the Maumee. He met his death in 1769 at the hands of an Illinois Indian bribed by an English trader to murder him at Caho kia (nearly opposite St. Louis). His death occasioned a bitter war among the Indians, and the Illinois group was all but annihi lated by his avengers. Pontiac was one of the most remarkable men of the Indian race in American history, possessing a com manding energy and force of mind combined with subtlety and craft, and a power of organization.