Egushawa (c. 1726 – March 1796), also spelledEgouch-e-ouay,Agushaway,Agashawa,Gushgushagwa,Negushwa, and many other variants, was a war chief and principal political chief of theOttawa tribe ofNorth American Indians. His name is loosely translated as "The Gatherer" or "Brings Together" (c.f.Ojibweagwazhe'waa, "to quilt something(s); to blanket someone(s)"). He was a prominent leader among the Detroit Ottawa, a prominent group in southeast Michigan and northwest Ohio. Egushawa is considered a successor toChief Pontiac. As a leader in two wars against theUnited States, Egushawa was one of the most influential Native Americans of theGreat Lakes region in the late eighteenth century.
Egushawa first appears in historical records in 1774, when he signed an indenture granting an island in theDetroit River to Alexis Masonville in 1774, not far from theBritish Army outpost ofFort Detroit. Nothing is known for certain about his life before that time. He was likely born in the Detroit River region, in what is nowMichigan orOntario. The Odawa were prominent in this area and many had settled around Fort Detroit after it was constructed by the French in 1701. Their influence and territory extended into present-day northwest Ohio, along theMaumee River.
Egushawa came to prominence as a successor toPontiac, the famous Ottawa leader, to whom he may have been related. Egushawa may have fought against the British during theFrench and Indian War (1754–1763) as an ally of the French.
When theAmerican Revolutionary War (1775–1783) began, Egushawa was living in a village at the mouth of theMaumee River, the location of the present-dayToledo, Ohio.[1] Egushawa supported the efforts of the British in Fort Detroit to recruit American Indians allies in order to attack U.S. settlements inKentucky. In April 1777, he traveled with British officials toVincennes to help forge an alliance with some of theWabash tribes. For his efforts,Henry Hamilton, British lieutenant governor at Detroit, awarded Egushawa a sword in June 1777.
Egushawa saw much action in the war. He accompaniedSt. Leger's expedition in upstate New York, taking part in the bloodyBattle of Oriskany on 6 August 1777. In 1778, he was the main chief with Hamilton's expedition to recapture Vincennes after it had been taken by ColonelGeorge Rogers Clark of Virginia. He admonishedPiankeshaw chiefYoung Tobacco for working with the Virginians, which Hamilton understood to be a threat.[2] Clark made a surprise return to Vincennes in 1779 andcaptured Hamilton, but Egushawa escaped. In 1780, his war band accompanied Captain Henry Bird'sinvasion of Kentucky, in which two American "stations" (fortified settlements) were captured.
In the1783 peace treaty which ended the Revolutionary War, the British ceded the land of their Native American allies to the United States. Without British military support, Native Americans were compelled to sign various peace treaties which ceded portions of theNorthwest Territory to the United States, culminating with theTreaty of Fort Harmar in 1789. Egushawa opposed these treaties and did not consider them to be binding.
After the Revolutionary War,Shawnee of theOhio Country began to forge a confederacy to oppose U.S. occupation of the land ceded by the British in what became called the Northwest Territory (now Midwest of the United States). These efforts were clandestinely supported by the British, who had refused to abandon Fort Detroit andFort Mackinac as called for in the 1783 peace treaty with the United States. Egushawa was initially reluctant to take part in theNorthwest Indian War, but he joined the nativeWestern Confederacy after the defeat in October 1790 of an American army led byJosiah Harmar .
As a war chief, recruiter, and a diplomat to the British, Egushawa became one of the most prominent leaders in the war. He belonged to the pro-war faction of the confederacy, arguing that the only path to peace was through war, since "the enemy confide in their superior numbers and strength and not on God, who made them and us, nor on the justice of their cause."[3]
In 1791, he probably led members of the Ottawa,Ojibwa, andPotawatomi contingent at theSt. Clair's Defeat, the most severe defeat ever suffered by the United States at the hands of American Indians.
In 1794, Egushawa was seriously wounded in the American Indian defeat at theBattle of Fallen Timbers in the future Ohio, north of the Maumee River. It was the last time Egushawa saw combat.
Recuperating, he lived on the Maumee orRaisin rivers (the latter in southern Michigan). He continued to urge fellow American Indian leaders to support the British Crown. With the British distracted byEuropean wars, however, they did not offer renewed military support to Native American resistance.
Egushawa finally agreed to negotiate a peace treaty with the Americans, one of the last chiefs to do so. He signed theTreaty of Greenville on August 3, 1795, ceding much of southeastern Michigan but preserving some of northwest Ohio for Odawa use. He died near Detroit shortly thereafter, probably leaving no descendants.
