Chief Pontiac

Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa people, led the greatest alliance of Native Americans against white expansion in the United States and Canada. Born around 1720, he became chief of the Ottawas in 1755 and organized a coalition of tribes stretching from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. In 1763, the tribes struck simultaneously at 14 British posts, and Pontiac personally led the five-month attack on Fort Detroit, which ended in defeat when Britain forged peace with France, its other adversary for expansion in the New World. Realizing the hopelessness of his cause, Pontiac negotiated a peace treaty with the British in 1765. In 1769, a member of a rival tribe murdered him in Cahokia, Illinois, and his remains were buried here, then the edge of the village of St. Louis.

East St. Louis, Illinois · United States