PONTIAC, pon'ti-ik, Indian chief : b. on Ottawa River, about 1720; d. Cahokia, Ill., 1769. He became the principal chief of the allied tribes of the Ottawas, Ojibways and Pottawat tomies, and it is thought that he led the Otta was at the defeat of General Braddock (q.v.) near Fort Duquesne. After the taking of Que bec, Major Rogers was despatched to session of the western forts for Great Britain, under the terms of the treaty of Paris. Pon tiac objected to this procedure, which he re garded as an invasion of his domain, and as a result soon began to plot the complete extermi nation of the English. In 1762 he sent out mes sengers who secured the allegiance of all tribes as far as the lower Mississippi in a confedera tion against the common enemy. The plan, as arranged, was that each tribe was to attack the fort nearest it, and that all were then to make a combined descent upon the undefended settle ments. A great pow-wow or council was held. 27 April 1763 near Detroit; Pontiac made a stirring oration, rehearsing the wrongs inflicted upon the Indians by the English. He was him self to make an attempt to capture Detroit on 7 May, but the design was revealed, and Pon tiac could lay siege only to the fort. But a long investment was a thing foreign to Indian war fare, and the lines were so loosely drawn that provisions were freely smuggled into the fort. Pontiac was supplied by the Canadians, and paid in promissory notes of birch-bark, later, it said, scrupulously redeemed. Schooners sent through Lake Erie with supplies and reinforce ments were captured by the savages, but at last one with ammunition and provisions did suc ceed in reaching the fort. The besieged there
upon believed themselves strong enough to ven ture a sally against the Indian encampment, but Pontiac, warned of the project, defeated them in the battle of Bloody Bridge (31 July). The siege was sustained until 12 October, when Pon tiac withdrew his forces to the neighborhood of the Maumee. This part of the conspiracy had, it is true, been a failure; but elsewhere the suc cess was remarkable. When the detached and unorganized character of Indian warfare is con sidered, recognition must be made of the no table diplomatic and military talent of the chief tain who directed the largest and most powerful coalition in Indian history, and came so near to realizing his grand object. Of 12 fortified posts attacked, eight were taken, while the gar risons of most were massacred; several English expeditions were annihilated; and the fron tiers were desolated and terrified. Hostilities continued in a desultory fashion into 1764, but on 17 Aug. 1765 Pontiac formally made peace at Detroit, and in the summer of 1766 concluded a treaty with Sir William Johnson at Oswego, N. Y. In 1769 a Kaskaskia Indian, bribed by an English trader, murdered Pontiac; in ven geance the northern tribes made war on the Illi nois group, which was all but exterminated. Consult Parkman 'The Conspiracy of Pontiac) (1851; new ed. 1:'?:) ; 'Handbook of American Indians) (Bureau of American Ethnology, Vol. II, 1910).