Billy Caldwell

Billy Caldwell (March 17, 1782 – September 28, 1841), known also as Sauganash, a variant spelling of Zhagnash meaning British in the Potawatomi language,^[1] was a Métis fur trader who was commissioned captain in the Indian Department of Canada during the War of 1812, and fought alongside Tecumseh at the Battle of Frenchtown^[2]and likely all the subsequent battles until their defeat at the Battle of the Thames.^[3] In 1829 and 1833, he negotiated treaties on behalf of the United Nations of Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomi with the United States, as a leader of a Potawatomi and led his band to Trader's Point, Iowa Territory, modern day Council Bluffs. He had worked to gain the boundary long promised by the British between white settlers and Indians, but never achieved it and instead acquiesced to American purchase and Indian removal, leading his followers personally across the Mississippi, as evidenced by his signing of the 2nd Treaty of Prairie du Chien and his inclusion on the Removal Muster Rolls of 1837.^[4]

Born in a Mohawk refugee camp near Fort Niagara, Billy was the son of William Caldwell, a Scots-Irish immigrant to North America and a Loyalist British officer during the American Revolutionary War, and a variously Mohawk or Shawnee woman. She is sometimes called the daughter of a Mohawk chief named 'Rising Sun',^[5] or, herself named 'Rising Sun'.^[6] Due to his British father, French-Canadian step-mother, (Suzanne the daughter of Jacques Baby) and his later Potawatomi wife, he became multilingual, learning English, French, and Potawatomi.

After moving to the United States in 1818, Caldwell became a fur trader and learned Potawatomi, an Algonquian language; he negotiated with numerous tribes in the Lake Michigan area. He gained their respect and also acted as a translator and negotiator between the government and American Indians. In 1829, Caldwell represented the Chippewa, Ottawa and Potawatomi peoples of the United Nations Tribes in negotiating the Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien with the United States. For his work, the US granted him a 1600-acre tract, known as the Caldwell Reserve, along the Chicago River. Eighty acres is included within the Cook County Forest Preserve.

Together with Alexander Robinson, Caldwell also negotiated the 1833 Treaty of Chicago for the United Nations Tribes. The US had appointed the two mixed-race men as chiefs in 1829 to fill vacant positions, to encourage the United Nations Tribes to sign the cessions. The treaty led to the final removal of American Indians from that region, to west of the Mississippi River. In 1835, Caldwell migrated with his people from the Chicago region west to Platte County, Missouri.

As a result of the Platte Purchase in 1836, Caldwell and his band were removed from Missouri to Iowa Territory, to the area of Trader's Point (Pointe aux Poules) on the east bank of the Missouri River. While living at Trader's Point, Caldwell led a band of approximately 2000 Potawatomi. Their settlement became known as Camp Caldwell. In 1841 Caldwell died; scholars believe it may have been because of cholera.