e Huron, Mash-i-pinash-i-wish, one of the principal Chippewa
chieftains, voluntarily made the United States a present of the Island
De Bois Blanc, at the eastern entrance of the straits of Mackinac, for
their use and accommodation, and was highly complimented by the general
for his generous gift. A reference to the maps of Thomas G. Bradford, of
1838, shows the whole upper peninsular of Michigan in the possession of
the Chippewas, as well as the whole southern and western shores of Lake
Superior, and a large portion of northern Wisconsin. One of their
principal sources of food supply was wild rice, and the presence of this
cereal, together with the plentiful supply of fish, probably accounts
for their numbers and strength. In the beginning of the eighteenth
century, they expelled the Foxes from northern Wisconsin, and later
drove the fierce fighting Sioux beyond the Mississippi. They were the
undisputed masters of a very extensive domain and held it with a strong
and powerful hand. One of their chiefs proudly said to Wayne: "Your
brothers' present, of the three fires, are gratified in seeing and
hearing you; those who are at home will not experience that pleasure,
until you come and live among us; you will then learn our title to that
land." Though far removed from the theatre of the wars of the northwest,
they, together with the Ottawas, early came under the British influence,
and resisted the efforts of the United States to subdue the Miamis and
their confederate tribes, fighting with the allies against General
Harmar at the Miami towns, against St. Clair on the headwaters of the
Wabash and against Anthony Wayne at Fallen Timbers on the 20th of
August, 1794.

The rudest of all the tribes of the northwest were the Ottawas, those
expert canoemen of the Great Lakes, known to the French as the
"traders," because they carried on a large trade and commerce between
the other tribes. They seem to have had their original home on Mantoulin
Island, in Lake Huron, and on the north and south shores of the
Georgian Bay. Driven by terror of the Iroquois to the region west of
Lake Michigan, they later returned to the vicinity of L'Arbe Croche,
near the lower end of Lake Michigan, and from thence spread out in all
directions. Consulting Bradford's map of 1838 again, the Ottawas are
found in the whole northern end of the lower Michigan peninsula. Ottawa
county, at the mouth of Grand river, would seem to indicate that at one
time, their