Friday Reprise: Egushawa of the Ottawa

The Northwest Indian War (1785-1795), brought together some of the finest Native commanders ever seen in this early period of American history.  We've focused on Blue Jacket of the Shawnee, Little Turtle of the Miami and Buckongahelas of the Delaware/Lenape.  There were others, too, among them Egushawa of the Ottawa, who may have been related to Pontiac.

Egushawa (c 1726-1796) would have been born in the area of the Detroit River region, not far from the later British Army outpost of Fort Detroit.  His name means "bringer together" in the Ottawa language, a skill he was good at when it came to uniting his people under his leadership later in life.  Little is known of his youth and early adulthood.  If he was born in 1726, he would have been old enough to participate in the Seven Years War (1755-1762) and later Pontiac's Rebellion (1764).  At some point, he became a war chief and later a principal political chief among the Ottawa.  He is sometimes called a successor to Pontiac, though Pontiac never had as much power during his lifetime.

The first time Egushawa appears on paper, he was mentioned in a land grant of an island in the Detroit River to Alexis Masonville in 1774.  At that time, Ottawa influence extended through what is now Michigan to Northwestern Ohio to the Maumee River.  When the Revolution broke out, Egushawa was living near the mouth of the Maumee River, near present day Toledo, Ohio.  He assisted British officials with efforts to recruit Native warriors to support the British war effort on the frontier.  Henry Hamilton, the British Lieutenant Governor at Fort Detroit, awarded him a sword.  Like many future Native leaders, he was present at the Battle of Oriskany.  In 1778, he accompanied Hamilton's expedition to recapture Fort Vincennes from General George Rogers Clark.  Hamilton was captured by Clark instead, but Egushawa escaped.  Later, he participated in an invasion of what is now Kentucky where two American outposts were captured. 

In 1783, the British ceded their land rights in the United States and Northwest Territory without consulting their Native allies.  This left tribes in the Northwest Region in the lurch, having to agree to peace treaties to keep what they could of their land and hunting rights.  Egushawa opposed this and considered none of these treaties to be valid.  When the Shawnee began agitating for the various tribes to come together to form the Western Confederacy, they found Egushawa and the Ottawa to be willing allies.  The British, who had not abandoned Detroit or Mackinack, clandestinely supported the Confederacy through advice and supplies of arms, but did not provide troops or leadership.  Egushawa was part of the Native army who defeated Col. Josiah Harmer in 1790.  Later, he was present at the Battle of the Wabash in 1791.

The tide turned at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, when the Native forces were defeated and Egushawa was wounded.  With the British unwilling to provide shelter to their families or more open support of their effort, the Natives, including Egushawa, had no choice but to agree to the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, ceding most of Southwest Michigan but preserving at least some hunting range for the Ottawa in northwestern Ohio.  Egushawa, who was old by the standards of the time, died the following year.