City history
Pontiac
1720–1769 · Odawa war chief
Odawa leader from the Detroit River who besieged British-held Fort Detroit in 1763, the opening act of the uprising known as Pontiac's War.
- Born
- Died
Cahokia, Illinois Country- Also known as
- Obwandiyag · Obwaandi'eyaag
- Detroit years
- c. 1720s–1766
- Field
- City history
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Pontiac, called Obwandiyag in his own language, was an Odawa war leader whose people lived along the Detroit River near the French fort. An ally of the French in the French and Indian War, he resented the British, who took over Detroit in 1760 and cut back the trade and gift customs that had bound the fort to its Native neighbors. In late April 1763 he called a council of Odawa, Potawatomi and Huron-Wendat leaders near the Ecorse River, and on May 7 he entered Fort Detroit with armed men, planning to seize it. Commander Henry Gladwin had been warned, so Pontiac laid siege to the fort instead, and warriors from half a dozen nations joined him. On July 31, 1763, his men routed a British column at Parent's Creek, known ever since as Bloody Run. He lifted the siege in October and made peace in 1766. He was killed at Cahokia in 1769.
Highlights
- Besieged Fort Detroit from May to October 1763
- His warriors won the Battle of Bloody Run on July 31, 1763
- The uprising helped prompt Britain's Royal Proclamation of 1763
- The city of Pontiac, Michigan, and the Pontiac car brand bear his name
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Memorial · 1977–
Battle of Bloody Run historical marker
Michigan state marker on East Jefferson Avenue near Elmwood Cemetery recalling the July 31, 1763 ambush in which Pontiac's warriors defeated Captain James Dalyell's column.
Related place
Elmwood Cemetery
The last surviving stretch of Parent's Creek, renamed Bloody Run after the 1763 battle, winds through the cemetery's landscaped grounds.