PON'TIAC (c.1720-69). A famous chief of the Ottawa Indians and leader of the confederate tribes of the Ohio Valley and Lake region against the English in 1763-65. He was born in what is now northwestern Ohio, his mother being an Ojibwa. Ile distinguished himself in the French service at an early age, and is said to have led the warriors of his own tribe against Braddock in 1755. When Major Rogers was sent out in 1760 to take possession of the Western posts on behalf of the English Government, he was halted by Pontiac near the present Cleveland with the significant warning, stand in the path," but finally with Pontiac's consent pro ceeded on his way to Detroit. Pontiac professed loyalty to the English King, apparently in good faith, but in a short time organized a confederacy which embraced practically all the tribes from the head of Lake Superior almost to the Gulf coast. His declared object was to drive out the English and recover the country for the In dians, who were still to hold themselves friendly to the French. According to the arrangement, the warriors of each tribe, on a concerted day, early in May, 1763, were to attack the garrison in their immediate neighborhood. Pontiac him self was to lead the assault at Detroit. Through out the great wilderness extending from the Pennsylvania frontier to Lake Superior there were then fourteen )mulish (formerly French) posts. of which the most important were those at. Fort Pitt, Detroit. and Mackinaw. The at tacks were made as planned. and the Indians cap tured all hut four of the fourteen posts, Niag ara, Pitt, Ligonier, and Detroit. Mackinaw was taken by a stratagem and the entire garrison was massacred. A plot for the capture of Detroit seems to have been betrayed to the ccunnianding officer, Major Gladwin. by an Indian girl, and
completely failed, whereupon Pontiac at once laid siege to the post. The siege continued live month., varied by desultory attack. and sorties and attempts to relieve the fort with men and supplies. The most notable event of the siege was the action at Bloody Bridge, July 31, 1763, in whieh a ,Ortie of troop. was repulsed by nintiae. Forts Pitt and Ligonier, to which the Indians bad laid siege, were relieved by Colonel Bouquet, who defeated the Indians at Bushy Run. near the fornler post. Reinforcements finally suc ceeded in entering Detroit ; Pontiac's men began to desert him, and the news of the signing of a treaty of peace between France and England re moved all hopes of French aid. Pontiac, thorough ly discouraged, thereupon raised the siege of De troit. In 1764 Bouquet led a second expedition into Ohio. which compelled the tribes to :submis sion, and on .August 17, 1765. Pontiac himself entered into a formal treaty of peace at Detroit, which he confirmed at Oswego with Sir William Johnson the following year. Ile was nnu•dered at Cahokia, 111., in 1769, by an Illinois Indian, who seems to have been bribed by an English trailer. In revenge the northern tribes made concerted war upon the Illinois tribes, and within a few years virtually exterminated them.
The genius of Pontiac is shown by his capacity to mold the warriors of so many diverse tribes and languages into a working unit capable of striking a simultaneous and effective blow across five hundred miles of wilderness, and afterward. by his maintaining a close siege of a fortified gar rison for five months. Consult Parkman, Con spiracy of Pontiac (Boston, 1851).