More Coming Soon...
|
|
1770 |
Accounts of
Okemos' date of birth range from 1739 to 1775. |
|
|
1791 |
November 4. Okemos led his warriors to
defeat General Arthur St. Clair on the Miami River in northern Ohio,
near the shores of Lake Erie. This greatly concerned President
George Washington.. |
|
|
1794 |
August 20. Major General "Mad" Anthony Wayne defeated
Okemos and his men at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, or Battle of
Maumee River in northern Ohio. |
|
|
1800 |
Okemos and the Ottawas, along with the Pottawatomie,
defeated the Shawnees near Three Rivers, Michigan. Later that year,
Okemos' tribe helped repulse the Chippewas, who were trying to
invade Michigan from Wisconsin and the northwest. |
|
|
1811 |
The Battle of Tippecanoe, in Tippecanoe County,
Indiana, took place November 7, 1811. A brother of Tecumseh called
"The Prophet" led the Native Americans to defeat by Major General
William Henry Harrison. The battle took place on the Wabash River
north of Lafayette, Indiana. Okemos and his men escaped. He joined
the British forces and fought in the war of 1812 with a colonel's
commission. |
|
|
1813 |
The Battle of Sandusky was fought in January, 1813.
It was fought on the Seneca Plains in northeast Ohio. The Native
Americans waited near a road cut for passage of the American Army
and supply wagons. American troops approached and the Native
Americans attacked. More American troops appeared and the Native
Americans were defeated. Three days later, Native American women
found three survivors, which included Okemos. They nursed the
survivors for months. Okemos had wounds on his forehead and a gash
on his back that never healed. For this, the Native Americans
surmised that he must have been favored by the Great Spirit and
named him Chief out of respect. Later that same year came the siege
of Ft. Miegs in northern Ohio. Two biographers, Albert Cowles and
Rufus Hosmer, recount putting three fingers in a hole in Okemos
skull. The injury was sustained at Fort Miegs.
The Battle of the Thames was Okemos' last battle. It
took place October 5, 1813. Major General W. H. Harrison defeated
General Proctor and the Native American allies. Chief Tecumseh was
killed, Chief Okemos injured. The battle took place in Ontario,
Canada, on the Thames River, 30 miles north of Chatham. |
|
|
1814 |
Okemos presented himself to Colonel Godfrey at Fort
Wayne, Detroit, in the spring of 1814 and said simply that he would
fight no more. Through Lewis Cass, governor of the Michigan
Territory, a peace pact was affected. It was never broken. |
|
|
1830 |
smallpox and cholera wiped out most of Okemos' tribe. |
|
|
1840 |
roaming old hunting and camping grounds. |
|
|
1858 |
According to an article in the Portland Observer of
1873, Okemos died in December 1858. One account says that a small
band of Indians came into DeWitt, drawing with them a sled upon
which was Okemos? remains. They filled a pouch with tobacco, a horn
with powder, and a bag with bullets. They placed the remains in a
coffin, which was unusual for Native Americans, and continued their
journey to the Indian village of Shimnecon |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|