Pontiac

Pontiac, also known by his Odawa name Obwaandi'eyaag (c. 1714/1720-1769), was an Odawa war chief best known for his central role in the conflict that came to bear his name, Pontiac's War, an armed uprising of Native American nations against British rule in the Great Lakes region from 1763 to 1766. Fought in the aftermath of Britain's victory over France in the Seven Years' War, the conflict arose from Indigenous discontent with British trade and land policies that differed sharply from earlier French practice, and Pontiac played a leading role in an extended siege of the British post at Detroit. Though later 19th-century accounts portrayed him as the war's sole mastermind, most modern historians view him as one important local leader among several who together shaped a wider movement he did not single-handedly command.