Wabiwindego (literally “White
Wendigo
Wendigo () is a mythological creature or evil spirit originating from the folklore of Plains and Great Lakes Natives as well as some First Nations. It is based in and around the East Coast forests of Canada, the Great Plains region of the Uni ...
” or sometimes "White Giant"
) (d.1837), also spelled Wobwindego, Wobiwidigo, or Wabaningo, and known among the
Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
as Waabishkindip
(literally “White-Headed”), was a
leader
Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...
of the Grand River Band of
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
in what would become the
U.S. State
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...
of
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
. He negotiated the
1836 Treaty of Washington with the
federal government
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...
on behalf of the Grand River Ottawa, leading to the
admission of the State of Michigan to the Union. Several villages he led formed the basis for several modern Michigan towns, including
Lowell,
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It is the main ...
, and
Montague.
Wabiwindego shared leadership of his band with
Keewaycooshcum until 1821, when Keewaycooshcum was exiled to
Manistee, the most remote of the Grand River bands' villages, for selling Ottawa land in the
1821 Treaty of Chicago
The Treaty of Chicago may refer to either of two treaties made and signed in the settlement that became Chicago, Illinois between the United States and the Odaawaa (anglicized Ottawa), Ojibwe (anglicized Chippewa), and Bodéwadmi (anglicized P ...
without the tribe's authorization. Wabiwindego later shared leadership with his son-in-law,
Cobmoosa
Cobmoosa (1768 - 1866), or Weebmossa meaning "Great Walker", was an Odawa leader who lived in a Native American village at the mouth of the Flat River at the present-day city of Lowell, Michigan until 1858.
From the mid-1830s, there was a wave o ...
.
Treaty of Washington
The completion of the
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...
in 1825 significantly lowered the cost of travel by ship from the
east coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Eastern United States meets the North Atlantic Ocean. The eastern seaboard contains the coa ...
to the
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
. Where before there had been as many Ottawa as colonial settlers in Michigan, with most settlers living in and around
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
, a surge of settlers into western Michigan over the following decade left the Ottawa outnumbered 25-to-1.
By 1836, the possibility that Ottawa from the
L'Arbre Croche
L'Arbre Croche, known by the Odawa people as Waganagisi, was a large Odawa settlement in Northern Michigan. The French called it L'Arbre Croche for the large crocked tree that marked the center of the settlement and was visible for many miles. It c ...
band to the north might promise the Grand River Ottawa's land north of the Grand River to the United States prompted Wabiwindego and other Grand River Ottawa leaders to write
President Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
a letter preemptively refusing the cede any land or remove their bands west of the Mississippi.
However, after an especially harsh winter and a year-long outbreak of
smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
, the Grand River Ottawa's negotiation position was severely weakened.
In March 1836, Wabiwindego led two dozen young Ottawa men to
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
to try and stop a potential treaty between the
L'Arbre Croche
L'Arbre Croche, known by the Odawa people as Waganagisi, was a large Odawa settlement in Northern Michigan. The French called it L'Arbre Croche for the large crocked tree that marked the center of the settlement and was visible for many miles. It c ...
and the United States, taking the place of the tribe's foremost leader,
Noahquageshik
Noahquageshik (1755–1855 or 1770–1840), also spelled Nawehquageezhik, Nawehquageezhig, or Nowgeschick, and better known as Chief Noonday, was a chief of the Grand River Band of Ottawa Nation Native Americans in what would become the U.S. st ...
, in order for them to appear more aloof to the possibility of sale.
At negotiations in Washington, however, Wabiwindego and the Ottawa agreed to sell the Grand River lands and the eastern coast of Lake Michigan to the United States. They did so because of the offer of permanent reservations in west and northwest Michigan, as well as regular annuities, hunting rights, and access to a blacksmith, Western farming implements, and various other benefits to help smooth any integration efforts. Wabiwindego was designated in the treaty as a "first class" leader, and assigned to receive a $500 annuity for his tribe.
Unknown to Wabiwindego and the Ottawa, however, Jackson's negotiators knew that neither Jackson nor the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
would
ratify
Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent that lacked the authority to bind the principal legally. Ratification defines the international act in which a state indicates its consent to be bound to a treaty if the parties inten ...
the permanent reservation clause, as both had a policy of forcing all Native American tribes to resettle west of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
.
After the Ottawa left Washington, the Senate added a five-year expiration date to the Michigan reservations. When the Ottawa met to discuss and reluctantly sign the altered treaty later that summer on
Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island ( ; french: Île Mackinac; oj, Mishimikinaak ᒥᔑᒥᑭᓈᒃ; otw, Michilimackinac) is an island and resort area, covering in land area, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The name of the island in Odawa is Michilimackinac an ...
, Wabiwindego refused to sign.
Within a year of the treaty, the United States admitted the State of Michigan to the Union.
Founding of Lowell
Wabiwindego's largest village sat at the junction of the
Grand River and the
Flat River. In 1828, Wabiwindego took in a young settler named Daniel Marsac, who built a trading post in the village, around which grew a small community of colonial settlers. In 1847, Marsac purchased land under the village and
plat
In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...
ted it as "Dansville." In 1851, a post office was established there named "Lowell" after its township. The community was replatted in 1854 and renamed after the post office. It incorporated as a village in 1861.
The Lowell Area Historical Museum regularly recreates the Ottawa village and the meeting of Wabiwindego and Marsac in a pageant called “The River of Time.”
Founding of Whitehall and Montague
Wabiwindego also maintained a small farming village on Lake Michigan near the mouth of the
White River at what was called Waabgankiishkbogong, "The Place of White Clay."
In 1837, Wabiwindego invited passing lumberman and settler
Charles Mears and his brother Albert to stay at the village.
Mears established a lumber camp there that grew into the towns of Whitehall and Montague by the 1860s.
In 1861, Albert Mears returned to Whitehall and Montague and told stories of his meeting with Wabiwindego. An article in the ''Montague Lumberman'' newspaper in 1876 recounted Albert Mears' account using the spelling "Wabaningo."
Over the rest of the 19th century, Wabaningo became a figure of
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
in
White Lake culture. Locals began calling the land near the former Ottawa village the Wabaningo Flats, and in 1897 the Sylvan Beach Resort Company built a hotel nearby that acquired the nickname "The Wabaningo." In 1906, the local women's social club built a recreation center named the Wabaningo Club, which began putting on a variety show in August 1909 called the "Wabaningo Jinks." The local post office branch opened around the same time called the Wabaningo Post Office. A Boy Scout camp nearby called
Camp Wabaningo operated during the 20th Century.
Death and legacy
In the winter of 1837, Wabiwindego died during a smallpox outbreak so deadly that “almost without exception, every house
n the Grand Riverhas been literally a hospital, both among the natives and white inhabitants.”
After his death, his son Shagwabeno assumed leadership of the band.
In 1855, Shagwabeno and another of Wabiwindego's sons, Aishkibegosh, negotiated a
new treaty with the United States in Detroit which created permanent reservations for the Grand River Ottawa in Michigan. The bands are organized today as the federally-recognized
Little River Band of Ottawa Indians
Little River Band of Ottawa Indians ( oj, Gaaching-Ziibi Daawaa Anishinaabe) is a federally recognized Native American tribe of the Odawa people in the United States. It is based in Manistee and Mason counties in northwest Michigan. It was recogn ...
and the Grand River Band of Ottawa Indians, which is pending federal recognition.
References
{{Reflist
Native American leaders
Odawa people
1837 deaths
19th-century Native Americans
Native American people from Michigan
People of pre-statehood Michigan