Jean-Baptiste Assiginack

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Jean-Baptiste Assiginack
Born1768
Andrew Jackson Blackbird

Jean-Baptiste Assiginack (1768 - 3 November 1866) was an Odawa leader in the early 19th-century. He was also known as "Blackbird," a literal translation of his name in the Anishinaabe language.[1]

Early life and War of 1812

Assiginack is thought to have been born at what is now

Drummond Island.[1]

After the War of 1812

After the war, in 1815, the Indian Department at Drummond Island hired Assiginack as an interpreter. There he met Captain Thomas Gummersall Anderson, and a long friendship grew between the two men.[2] Assiginack's command of several Indian dialects proved a crucial asset for the Indian Department’s operations in the northern Great Lakes area. Starting in 1827 he returned to Harbor Springs to work as a Catholic missionary, hoping a priest would soon join him, but had to carry out the efforts of Catholicizing the local Ojibwe population all on his own.[1]

After the 1828 transfer of Drummond Island to the United States Assiginack lead a large number of Ojibwe to relocate to

Coldwater, Ontario. He had continued his Catholic evangelizing activities, and at Coldwater convinced the prominent Chippewa leader John Aisance to switch from being a Methodist to being a Catholic.[3]

Move to Manitoulin Island

A view of an Anishinaabe village on Manitoulin Island in the 1850s

In 1836, Assiginack took part in the foundation of a new pan-Indigenous community on

Manitowaning
. Over the following years, Assiginack remained committed to the old alliance with the British and he generally supported various British treaties over the coming years.

In 1862 he was the leading spokesman for the British treaty while one of his sons, Edowishkosh, was a leading spokesman for the opposition faction based around

Wikwemikong.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Biography – ASSIGINACK, JEAN-BAPTISTE – Volume IX (1861-1870) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". www.biographi.ca. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Biography – ANDERSON, THOMAS GUMMERSALL – Volume X (1871-1880) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". www.biographi.ca. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  3. ^ "Biography – AISANCE, JOHN – Volume VII (1836-1850) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography". www.biographi.ca. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
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