Nicolas Orontondi

Nicholas Orontony (c. 1695–1750) was an 18th-century Wyandot leader who, in the years before the French and Indian War, tried to escape the domination of New France over Native people in the Detroit region by resettling in the Ohio country and forming an anti-French tribal coalition. His efforts at trying to organize armed resistance to a European power, culminating in events in 1747 sometimes known as the "Conspiracy of Nicholas", made him a forerunner of more famous Native leaders in the region such as Pontiac, Blue Jacket, and Tecumseh.

Little is known of Orontony's early life. He was probably born at the Jesuit-established Huron village of St. Ignace, Michigan. The name "Orontony" (Huron: "Rontondi", rendered variously in French and English as "Rondoenie", "Wanduny", "Orontondi", etc.) was a title bestowed upon the leader of the Wyandot Turtle clan. This Orontony also received the name "Nicholas" after he was baptized by a French Catholic missionary at Detroit, perhaps Father Armand de la Richardie, sometime after 1728.

In the mid-17th century, the Wyandots had settled near Detroit, but soon fell into conflict with the neighbouring Ottawas. In 1739, the Wyandot fearing for their lives, Orontony and two other leaders requested resettlement nearer the centre of New France and in 1740, Orontony pressed the request to Governor of New France Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnois in person. The authorities hesitated to act and some Wyandots made a unilateral relocation to "Little Lake Sandusky" (Sandusky Bay) (near the later city of Sandusky, Ohio). There, they came under the influence of British traders and of an established mixed ethnic population, including Iroquois, settled on the Cuyahoga River, near present Cleveland, Ohio.

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