A Little History
OTTAWA TRIBE A large party of Ottawa was first met by Champlain in 1615 near the mouth of the French River, Georgian Bay Region, Canada, which seems to have been the original location of the tribe in the historic period. They were generally counted as allies of the Huron and the French during the French and Indian War. As a result of conflicts and southwest, their location being on Lake Huron between Detroit and Saginaw Bay from about 1700. Between 1785 and 1862, the Ottawa signed 23 different treaties with the United States. In 1833, they ceded all their lands on the west shore of Lake Michigan and accepted a reservation in northwestern Kansas. Several bands of the Ottawa Tribe living in Ohio had ceded their lands to the Government and moved to the Kansas reservation in 1832. After the Quapaw Treaty of 1857, they moved to Indian Territory. The main portion of Ottawa remained in scattered settlements in southern Michigan, though another portion continued to live in Canada with the Chippewa. The noted Chief’s Pontiac was an Ottawa, and one of the principal events in the tribe’s history was known as Pontiac’s War, waged near Detroit in 1763. The Act of August 3, 1956-Public Law 84-943-terminated Federal supervision over the property and members of the Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma. This act was repealed by the Act of May 15, 1978, which restored the Ottawa as a federally recognized tribe. |
