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MICHIGAN CHAPTER 11 Pontiac Plans to Wipe Out the English Invaders
He had sufficient force and energy, coupled with shrewdness and knowledge of the springs of human action, to maintain his ascendency and organize a combination, the most remarkable in the annals of the Indian race in America. He had lived in a contented state under French domination. He led a squad of his followers in support of the French in the attack upon Braddock near Duquesne. But when the English came into his territory his eyes were opened to the inevitable results of this influx of foreigners. He had the intelligence to observe the course of events and the foresight to perceive that if the tendency were not checked the day of the native Indian in the land was drawing to a close. Therefore he resolved to organize all the tribes in a combination to wipe out the English and drive them from the country once and for all. He sent out ambassadors to all the tribes north of the Ohio, into Canada to the Ottawa region and far to the southward along the Mississippi. They went from village to village and talked with the head men and warrior chiefs. They met with a cordial reception and found the sentiment among the savages to be the same as that of Pontiac and the Ottawas. Nearly all the tribes of Algonquin stock
were united in the plan to make universal war upon the English. These comprised the Pottawatomies, the Wyandottes, the tribes of the lower Mississippi, and the Iroquois tribe of Senecas of western New York.
So cautiously was this campaign of a universal uprising against the English conducted that no information of it leaked out. The American savage was reticent and reserved naturally. He was capable of dissimulation. He kept his own counsel and depended largely for success upon taking the enemy off his guard.
MICHIGAN
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