Billy Caldwell

"Sauganash" redirects here. For the Chicago neighborhood, see Forest Glen, Chicago.

Billy Caldwell (March 17, 1782 – September 28, 1841), known also as Sauganash, a variant spelling of Zhagnash meaning British in the Potawatomi language, 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 and likely all the subsequent battles until their defeat at the Battle of the Thames. 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.

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', or, herself named 'Rising Sun'. 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.

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.

Early life and education

Soon after the American Revolutionary War, Billy Caldwell, was born in 1782 (as documented through two autobiographical letters) in a Mohawk refugee camp near Fort Niagara to a Mohawk woman. His father was William Caldwell, a Scots-Irish immigrant who came to North America in 1773 and served as a Loyalist soldier in the war. Living first in Virginia, in 1774 his father had fought as an officer with Lord Dunmore and was wounded. After recovering, he went to Fort Niagara in New York, where he fought with the partisan Butler's Rangers against Patriot colonists in New York and Pennsylvania.

After the war, Caldwell abandoned Billy and his mother, moving to the Detroit area. He resettled as a Loyalist in Upper Canada, where he was granted land by the British Crown. In addition to clearing land for his own farm, he helped develop the town of Amherstburg, in present-day Ontario.

In 1783, the senior Caldwell married Suzanne Baby (daughter of Jacques Baby dit Dupéron), of French-Canadian descent. They eventually had eight children together. In 1789, when Billy was seven, his father took the boy to live with him and his Canadian wife, who wanted to rear him in the Catholic faith. Billy was given a basic Anglo-Canadian education and became Catholic. Living with his father's family, Billy learned to speak both English and French, after having grown up learning the Iroquoian Mohawk. Although Billy worked on his father's farm as he was growing up, he wanted a different life.

Career

In 1797 at the age of 17, Billy Caldwell entered United States territory for the first time, to learn the fur trade business (he traded for much of his life). He kept his British Canadian loyalties and learned Potowatomi, an Algonquian language, for dealing with the several tribes of that language family near Lake Michigan.

Billy Caldwell Jr. was considered the left hand of the Great Leader Tecumseh, one of North America's greatest European resistance movements.

In 1812, after the Battle of Fort Dearborn, Caldwell at age 32 returned to Canada to enlist in the British service; he looked for his father's help to gain a commission. The senior Caldwell by then was a Lieutenant Colonel and had gained commissions for his sons by Suzanne. The regular army did not accept Billy Caldwell, but he was commissioned as a captain in the Indian Department. By then he had become influential among the Ojibwa, Ottawa and Potawatomi, Algonquian-speaking tribes inhabiting the area around Lake Michigan. Severely wounded in his first combat action, Caldwell Jr. recovered and participated in several more battles along the northern frontier. He was disgusted that the British abandoned their First Nations allies at the Battle of the Thames, when General Proctor made an early retreat before the US forces. By account of natives at the battle, Caldwell was one of the last to see Tecumseh alive, walking away after the battle mortally wounded in the chest. In addition, through this period Caldwell had worked with the British in the hope they would deliver the long-promised boundary between European and First Nations settlement, but each war ended with their ceding more land to the Americans.

In 1814, the Canadians appointed the senior Caldwell as Superintendent of Indians for the Western District, a position for which the younger Caldwell had competed as well. He was appointed second to his father. In 1815 Amherstburg, Ontario's Commandant, Reginald James, suspended Caldwell Sr. because of problems in supplying the Indians; he appointed Billy Caldwell as Superintendent. The Indian Department quickly found that he could not manage the work and "eased him out" the following year, in 1816.

The younger Caldwell inherited a plot of land in early 1818 after his father's death, but decided to return to the US. He settled in the Fort Dearborn area (now Chicago); he had long been recruited by Americans because of his influence with the local tribes. He worked hard to gain the Americans' trust. At the same time he continued to work with a local fur trade firm and became active with the tribes in the area.

He became more politically active and in 1825, Caldwell sought an appointment to become a justice of the peace. In August 1826, Caldwell served as a judge in Peoria County, Illinois's first election. Also in 1826, he was recommended to the Governor of Illinois to hold the Justice of the Peace position for Peoria County. That year, he became an appraiser for the estate of John Crafts, a local trader who died during the year of 1825. In 1827, Caldwell worked for the United States to secure information related to a possible Winnebago uprising.

In 1829, Caldwell became one of several councilors to represent the United Nations of the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi in negotiations with the United States in the Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien. The US was working on Indian Removal, the process that would be authorized by Congress in 1830. At the same time, their agents were also negotiating with the Winnebago for cessions and removal.

"Through his involvement in the process, he became recognized as a chief of the United Nations," and was so introduced by their spokesmen. Also negotiating as a chief was Alexander Robinson (also known as Chechepinquay or The Squinter), a mixed-race Potawatomi who was Caldwell's long-time friend. He later said that Dr. Wolcott, the US Indian Agent to the United Nations, arranged for both Robinson and Caldwell to be selected as chiefs to fill two vacancies. It was an example of US intervention into tribes' processes for identifying their own leaders. Wolcott wanted to have chiefs who would favor the treaty, fearing that unless all the chiefs' positions filled, the United Nations would not sign. The US granted both Robinson and Caldwell large plots of land under the treaty for their parts in influencing the other chiefs to sign the land cession.

Caldwell was given 1600 acres on the Chicago River. In 1833, he helped found the first Catholic church in Chicago, Saint Mary of the Assumption. It was located at what is now Lake Street west of State Street.

In 1833, together with Robinson, Caldwell was one of the chiefs representing the United Nations of the three tribes in negotiating the Treaty of Chicago. By this, the Potawatomi ceded the "last of their Illinois and Wisconsin lands and their last reservations in Michigan." Caldwell and his band migrated west in 1835, first settling in Missouri west of the Mississippi River. The treaty provided for a $10,000 payment each to Caldwell and Robinson, and a $400 lifetime annuity for Caldwell, with $300 annually for Robinson. Before the US Senate ratified the treaty in 1835, it reduced the lump-sum payments to the men to $5000 each, but left their annuities intact. Robinson and some other Métis remained in Illinois on their private tracts of land, but most of the United Nations Tribes removed to Missouri and then to Iowa.

Caldwell Reserve

The US had awarded Caldwell's Reserve, 1600 acres on the Chicago River, to Sauganash in 1829 as a result of his services in negotiating the Prairie du Chien treaty. In 1833, likely in preparation for their removal beyond the Mississippi River, as well as due to the declining fur trade and disappearance of game, Caldwell began selling off his land by contracting with the land speculator Arthur Bronson from New York. According to his land patent, to be legally binding, each deed had to have a president's endorsed signature upon it.

The tracts of land herein stipulated to be granted, shall never be leased or conveyed by the grantees, or their heirs, to any persons whatever, without the permission of the President of the United States.

— Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien, 1829

All unsold parcels were legally to be considered owned by Caldwell's heirs, in trust with the US Bureau of Indian Affairs. The land patent was not completed until 1839, and the deeds did not gain a president's signature until 1841, after Caldwell and his band had left the area for the West.

In all, six land sales took place from Caldwell's Reserve. These land transactions included: 80 acres to George W. Dole and Richard Hamilton in June 1833 for $100; 160 acres to Richard Nicolas, Sarah Amantus, Eleanor Hamilton, and infant heirs of Richard Jo and Diana W. Hamilton in July 1833 for $200; 160 acres to Philo Carpenter in July 1833 for $200; 720 acres to Arthur Bronson in 1833 for $900; 160 acres to Captain Seth Johnson in November 1833 for $200; 80 and 160 acres, respectively, to Julius B. Kingsbury in November 1834 for $300. To date, the Northern 160 acres of Caldwell's Reserve were never legally conveyed for sale with a president's signature of approval. They are included within the Cook County Forest Preserve and the neighborhood of Wildwood being purchased from an adverse possessor.

Marriage and family

Caldwell married Nannette about 1804, who gave him at least four children, three daughters all baptized by Father Stephen Badin, and a son Alexander. Nannette was either the niece or daughter of the powerful Potawatomi chief, Mad Sturgeon, Juliette Magill Kinzie in her book Wau-bun refers to the wife of Caldwell as the daughter of Chief Neescotnemeg, referring to Mad Sturgeon, likely a bastardization of the original name. The contemporary words for mad and sturgeon in Potawatomi are nshkadze and namé, respectfully. Given his name, Mad Sturgeon was likely from the Fish Doodem. It is claimed that Alexander, the male offspring of this union, died in 1832 in his twenties from alcoholism, however the timing cannot be correct as in 1834 Caldwell wrote a letter to his half-brother Francis complaining that his son Alexander had recently returned to his home "almost naked" and expressed concern about his "future conduct." The strife could very well have been caused by Alexander's overuse of alcohol. The same letter makes mention that Caldwell's "favorite daughter" Elizabeth was on the verge of death at six years old. He expressed his thanks that she had been baptized by Father Stephen Badin, whose own records indicate she was born in 1826. Her own father would surely have been a more reliable source, meaning she was likely born in 1828.

Caldwell married again, but his second wife also died within a year after the birth of their first child, of which nothing is known.

Before leaving the Chicago area, Caldwell married a third time, on November 19, 1834. His bride was Saqua (also called Masaqua) LeGrand, likely a Métis woman of mixed native and French descent. According to a report made by the Hayes Administration in 1880, Caldwell was not known to have any living heirs, meaning all his children predeceased him. A certain Pe-y-mo, also spelled Pewymo, claimed to be his heir in the latter half of the 19th century, but the same report declared him to not be the trueborn son and heir of Caldwell. Whether this leaves Pe-y-mo as an illegitimate son, a step-son, or a failed conman is unclear.

Indian removal

Pierre-Jean De Smet's map of the Council Bluffs, Iowa area, 1839. The area labeled 'Caldwell's Camp' was a Potawatomi village led by Sauganash. The later town of Kanesville, the precursor of Council Bluffs, grew up in that place.

In 1835, Caldwell and his band of Potawatomi left the State of Illinois and relocated in Platte County, Missouri.

In 1836, as a result of the Platte Purchase, Caldwell and his band were removed from this reservation to Trader's Point on the east bank of the Missouri River in the Iowa Territory. The Potawatomi band of an estimated 2000 individuals settled in a main village called "Caldwell's Camp", located where the later city of Council Bluffs, Iowa developed. (This was on the eastern bank of the river, opposite the present-day city of Omaha, Nebraska.)

From 1838 to 1839, Caldwell and his people were ministered to by the notable Belgian Jesuit missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet, based in St. Louis, Missouri. The Jesuit priest was appalled at the violence and desperation that overtook the Potawatomi in their new home, in large part due to the whiskey trade. After De Smet returned to St. Louis, the Catholic mission was abandoned by 1841.

Caldwell died on September 28, 1841; scholars believe it may have been from cholera. His wife Masaqua died in the winter of 1843.

Legacy and honors

• The Sauganash Hotel, completed in Chicago in 1831 was named in honor of Caldwell.
• He was awarded a 1600-acre reserve on the Chicago River, including the confluence of the three tributaries of the North Branch of the Chicago River, which he started selling off in 1833. The reserve is clearly visible in the 1861 Plat of Chicago held at the Library of Congress. The eastern half of the reserve was sold as a chunk of 720 acres, and was subdivided and developed, today representing the neighborhood of Sauganash within Forest Glen. The 80 acres above were sold off separately and developed into the neighborhood of Wildwood. The western 800 acres were seemingly sold off as four parcels of 160 and the two northernmost parcels being 80 acres. The northernmost 80 acres on either side of U.S. Route 14, thus 160 total, never received the official presidential approval needed for the sale to be formalized. This land was purchased by the Cook County Forest Preserve, the eastern section becoming Wildwood, and the western section being part of Caldwell Woods.
• He is thought to have had many children but none survived him according to a letter written to his half-brother Francis Caldwell.
• In the removal muster roll of 1837, Billy Caldwell is labelled as being the head of a family of five. Two children were under 10, there was a man and a woman marked as under 25, the woman may have been his last wife and eventual widow: Saqua (Masaqua) LeGrande, his own age marked as over 50.
• There is a Sauganash Golf Club in Three Rivers, MI., as well as another on his former reserve, both named in his honor.
• He is the subject of two documentary films: Holy Ground which was limitedly released in theatres in December 2023, and The Negotiator: Billy Caldwell, which sold out its June 20, 2024 screening at the Illinois Holocaust Museum.