Waukazoo

Born about 1740, by a very rough estimate.   He died in Manitoba before 1824, according to Blackbird's History. 

He was one of a group of brothers documented by his nephew Andrew Jackson Blackbird, in Blackbird's History of the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan; a grammar of their language, and personal and family history of the author.    Blackbird's History is a 'must-read' book for anyone interested in the Ottawa tribe or this family.

The father of these brothers would have been born before 1740.  I don't have a name for this progenitor, so for the attached family tree I created the name "Original Waukazoo" in place of his name.  The family tree is a one page PDF file of the descendants as I have them from my records.   Any additions or corrections would be appreciated.  I have little or no information on the mother or mothers of these men.

Other brothers were:

• Blackbird (d. June 1861), aka Gabriel Blackbird, aka Macka-de-pe-nessy,   He was in Manitoba with Waukazoo, but returned to Arbre Croche in Michigan about 1800.  He fathered the author Andrew Jackson Blackbird.   His wife, Andrew Jackson Blackbird's mother, died in 1828.
• Ningwegon (d. January 1839), aka Wing, aka Old Wing, aka Warrior Wing.   He supported the United States in the War of 1812 and was granted a US government pension on this account.   Henry R. Schoolcraft mentions him in his accounts.
• Good Hart, aka Goodheart, from Blackbird's History: In the fall of 1827, my father [Gabriel Blackbird] left his subjects at Arbor Croche proper, now Middle Village, in charge of his brother, Kaw-me-no-te-a, which means Good-heart, as he was persuaded by other chiefs to come and establish himself where the mission was and send his children to school.
• Au-se-go-nock (Ca. 1770-3 November 1863), aka Assignack, aka Assignac, aka Siganog.   Christian name: Jean Baptiste.   The earliest mention of him I have been able to find was in the summer of 1802 on Mackinac Island.   The first Protestant missionary to that area, Rev. David Bacon, arrived that year and attempted to establish a mission to Indians in the area of the Straits of Mackinac.  He worked with a young Indian related to chiefs at L'Arbre Croche, whom he called "Siganog" and almost certainly is this man.   From pp 54-5 of the "Sketch of the Rev. David Bacon" authored by Rev. Bacon's son Leonard in 1876: Sigenog is much respected by several of the principal chiefs and all the best Indians, but the others are opposed to him, because he is trying to be something more than an Indian, and is going to be a "Kiche Makomon" (great knife), as they call the Americans. But he says they are fools; that they would rather be always drunk than to learn anything; and that he does not regard them. It is not in the power of Frenchmen or Indians to persuade him away, though many of them have exerted themselves to the utmost. He has never gone to see his friends till very lately, and seems much more fond of our company than of the Indians'. They are always inviting him to drink, but he appears not to be fond of it, and tries to avoid them as much as he can. He seldom goes out, and I have never known him to come home intoxicated but twice (which could be said of hardly any gentleman in the place), and then he had been with some chiefs who were old acquaintance and would take no denial. . . . He is twenty-five years of age. He showed himself very brave in their war with us (which he says was caused by the British, who were constantly persuading and urging them, and giving them presents), and he is accounted one of the best hunters in the country. . . . On hearing my speeches interpreted to him, he appeared highly gratified, and said he could sit all night to hear such talk, and greatly lamented that Indians at Arbrecroche were such fools. He seems fully bent on getting an education, is very fond of writing, and improves as well in reading as could be expected considering his age, that he has to begin where a child does, that he understands not what he reads, and has no others with him to excite his ambition. . . . I spoke to him some time ago, to know if he would be willing to go to Connecticut to get an education. The idea was very pleasing to him, and his desire to go appears to be continually increasing.  I have told him that I would write to the trustees to know whether they would be willing to take him, and he is impatient to know. He thinks he could get another sober young Indian to go with him, if they would wish to have two. Their education would cost but a trifle there to what it would here; and if Sigenog were there he would soon learn the English language. He understands a good many words, but he will not be likely to learn the language here, as we always speak Indian to him. . . . Sigenog is a great help to us in acquiring the language.
         From the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online: In 1827 Assiginack heard that a Catholic mission was to be established at Arbre Croche. He resigned as interpreter at Drummond Island and went to Arbre Croche to assist at the mission. To his disappointment there was no priest there but he himself catechized and preached. In 1830 he led a group of Ottawas to Penetanguishene, where the British garrison had relocated after the transfer of Drummond Island to the United States in 1828, and returned to the employ of the Indian Department [Canada] as interpreter.  See  "Journal of American Folklore", vol 12, p. 213:  the "Blackbirds," an Ottawa family which has produced some notable characters, from the Assikinack or Assignac, who, as a boy, was at Mackinac in 1763, down to F. Assikinack (died 1863), who, after distinguishing himself at Upper Canada College, spent several years in the [Canadian] government service, in the Indian Department.

Origins of the Waukazoo family:  Andrew J. Blackbird's family history states they are descendants of another tribe, not Ottawas, but captured in war and later incorporated into the tribe.  According to Andrew Blackbird: Our tradition says that long ago, when the Ottawa tribes of Indians used to go on a warpath either towards the south or towards the west, even as far as to the Rocky Mountains, on one of these expeditions towards the Rocky Mountains my remote ancestors were captured and brought to this country as prisoners of war. But they were afterwards adopted as children of the Ottawas, and intermarried with the nation in which they were captives. Subsequently these captives' posterity became so famous among the Ottawas on account of their exploits and bravery on the warpath and being great hunters that they became closely connected with they royal families, and were considered as the best counselors, best chieftains and best warriors among the Ottawas. Thus I am not regularly descended from the Ottawa nations of Indians, but I am descended, as tradition says, from the tribe in the far west knows as the Underground race of people. They were so called on account of making their habitations in the ground by making holes large enough for dwelling purposes. It is related that they even made caves in the ground in which to keep their horses every night to prevent them from being stolen by other tribes who were their enemies. It is also related that they were quite an intelligent class of people. By cultivating the soil they raised corn and other vegetables to aid in sustaining life beside hunting and fishing. They were entirely independent, having their own government and language, and possessing their own national emblem which distinguished them as distinct and separate from all other tribes. This symbolical ensign of my ancestors was represented by a species of small hawk, which the Ottawas called the "Pe-pe-gwen." So we were sometimes called in this country in which we live the "Pe-pe-gwen tribe," instead of the "Undergrounds." And it was customary among the Ottawas, that if any one of our number, a descendant of the Undergrounds, should commit any punishable crime, all the Pe-pe-gwen tribe or descendants of the Undergrounds would be called together in a grand council and requested to make restitution for the crime or to punish the guilty one, according to the final decision of the council.    There were several great chieftains of the Undergrounds among the Ottawas who were living within my time, and some are here mentioned who were most known by the American people, particularly during the war with Great Britain in 1812.

One hidden theme in the story of the Waukazoo's is that of a family taken prisoner by another tribe, who are eventually adopted as children by their captors and who eventually do very well.   Catherine Waukazoo's son Payson Wolfe in 1864 would experience being a POW, in the modern sense, for himself at Andersonville.

Waukazoo is first documented by John Tanner, Shaw-shaw-wa-be-na-se, the Falcon, in his 1830 narrative.  Tanner met the old chief in the Red River country, where the chief's band of Ottawas was working in the fur trade.  This meeting would have occurred about 1812-1814: 

Wah-ka-zhe, the brother of Muk-kud-da-be-na-sa [old Chief Blackbird, father of the author Andrew Jackson Blackbird], met those Ottawwaws who returned from the Wild Rice River, at Lake Winnipeg.  He had been ten years in the Rocky Mountains, and the country near them, but now wished to return to his own people.  He had, in the course of his long life, been much among the whites, and was well acquainted with the different methods of gaining a subsistence among them.  He told me that I would be much better situated among the whites, but that I could not become a trader, as I was unable to write; I should not like to submit to constant labour, therefore I could not be a farmer.  There was but one situation exactly adapted to my habits and qualifications, that of an interpreter.   Andrew J. Blackbird says of his father, Waukazoo's brother, Blackbird, or Macka-de-pe-nessy (died June 1861)  He stayed about twenty years in the country of Manitoba with his brother Wa-ke-zoo, among other tribes of Indians and white fur-traders in that section of the country.  Rev. G. N. Smith diary on Sept 11, 1851 states "...landed near the old Village and towed to Middle Village (Emmet County Michigan)...12th:  Visited an old man age 92 , old Wakazoo's brother [who was also Andrew J. Blackbird's father]"

     "Old Wakazoo", above, brother of Macka-de-pe-nessy

Engraving of John Tanner from the cover of his 1830 book.

 John Tanner repeats a story the old chief told him of a baptized Indian: He gave us, among other information, some account of a missionary who had come among the Ottawwaws of Waw-gun-uk-kezie, or some of the Indian settlements about the [Great] lakes, and urged them to renounce their own religion, and adopt that of the whites.  In connexion with this subject, he told us the anecdote of the baptized Indian, who, after death, went to the gate of the white man�s heaven, and demanded admittance; but the man who kept watch at the gate told him no redskins could be allowed to enter there. "Go," said he, "for to the west [traditional direction of the afterlife] there are-the villages and the hunting grounds of those of your own people, who have been on the earth before you." So he departed thence; but when he came to the villages where the dead of his own people resided, the chief refused him admittance."