Petosegay
| Petosegay | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Neyas Petosega (Rising Sun), later Ignatius Petoskey c. 1787 Near the Manistee River, Michigan |
| Died | June 15, 1885 (aged 97-98) Petoskey, Michigan, United States |
| Nationality | Ottawa |
| Other names | Petosegay, Pet-O-Sega |
| Occupation | Chieftain, fur trader |
| Predecessor | Neaatooshing |
| Successor | Ignatius Petoskey |
| Spouse(s) | Kewaykabawikwa, wife |
| Children |
Ignatius Petoskey, son Francis Petoskey, son Mitchell Petoskey, son |
| Parent(s) |
Antoine Carre (Neaatooshing), father Unnamed Ottawa, mother |
| Relatives |
Pokozeegun, father-in-law William Petoskey, grandson Paul Petoskey, grandson |
Petosegay or Pet-O-Sega (Ottawa: Rising Sun, Rays of the Morning Dawn and Sunbeams of Promise) (c. 1787 – June 15, 1885) was a 19th-century French-Ottawa Métis merchant and fur trader. Both present-day Petoskey, Michigan, Petoskey State Park, and nearby Emmet County park Camp Petosega are named in his honor. The official state stone of Michigan, the Petoskey stone, were found in abundance on his former lands and named after him.
The son of Antoine Carre (Neaatooshing), he was born along the northern banks of the Kalamazoo River near the mouth of Manistee. According to popular lore his father held him up to the rising sun and said "his name shall be Petosegay and he shall become an important person".
He grew up in the lodge of his father roughly seven miles northwest of Harbor Springs, nearby the site of the town of Middle Village. At the age of 21, Petosegay married the daughter of Pokozeegun, an Ottawa chieftain from the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. He and his new bride, Kewaykabawikwa, planted apple trees to celebrate their marriage and, at the time of his death, they could still be seen by local residents.
With the arrival of Jesuits in the area during the early 19th century, he was befriended by the missionaries who would have a great influence on him throughout his life. He was called Neyas Petosega by the Jesuits who later interpreted Neyas as an abbreviation of Ignatius, the given name of Saint Ignatius Loyola, and the young chieftain would eventually adopt the Christian name Ignatius Petosega.
During the 1840s, when the US government began establishing the first Indian Schools for the purposes of educating Native American children, Petosegay sent his two oldest sons to Twinsburg Institute in Twinsburg, Ohio also attended by Native American writers Andrew Jackson Blackbird and Simon Pokagon. However, when the Jesuits were informed that the school was run by Protestant auspices, he was requested to remove them under threat of excommunication. Although he eventually agreed due in part to his wife, who recognized the power and influence held by the Jesuits among the Chippewas, Ottawas and Ojibwas of Northern Michigan, this incident would eventually lead to the break between him and the Jesuits.
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Wikipedia