Blackbird's Song: Andrew J. Blackbird and the Odawa People

3. A New World

77 3 A New World On March , , Mackadepenessy finally met the “American father.” He and twenty-three other Anisanabeg were ushered into the White House, where they were received by Andrew Jackson. White haired, grave, and tall, the president in his black suit cut an impressive figure. Mackadepenessy knew little about Jackson’s record as an “Indian fighter” and probably had only a vague understanding of his administration’s fierce adherence to the policy of Indian removal. What Mackadepenessy had long appreciated was that Jackson was the man who could speak with final authority for the Americans, and that he was the one with whom the Ottawa had to build a bond of friendship, such as that they had known in the past with the “French father” or the “British father.” The meeting with Jackson reinforced Mackadepenessy’s growing understanding of how numerous and prosperous the Americans were. This was something he had been told and it is something that he had known intellectually , but seeing the centers of American power for himself brought a deeper and perhaps more depressing realization. The long journey east had taken him through scores of towns and cities any number of which exceeded the entire Indian population of the Michigan Territory. The power disparity between the Ottawas and the Americans, which was apparent even on the remote Great Lakes frontier, was awesomely realized by Mackadepenessy when he entered the American capital. The imposing buildings of stone, the bustle of pedestrians on the muddy streets of Washington, D.C., and the constant cacophony of carriages, crowds, and construction was new and disturbing. He had traveled widely in the West, but Mackadepenessy never knew the power of the Americans until he visited the “Great Father’s” village . He and the other chiefs were as voyageurs entering a new world. The treaty negotiation that brought them to the capital would go far toward determining their place in that new world.1 78| Chapter Three “The President received them handsomely,” an observer noted. Mackadepenessy and the other delegates each shook hands with Andrew Jackson. One of the Anishnabeg delegates, probably Augustin Hamlin, then delivered a formal speech to the president. His remarks were deemed an “eloquent address,” unfortunately; no record was made of what was said. At that point the president terminated the audience. Mackadepenessy may have been disappointed that there would be no negotiation with Jackson. Instead of negotiating with the president or even his respected secretary of war, Lewis Cass, the Indian delegates from Michigan were forced to accept that the treaty process would begin the next day under the supervision of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft. For Mackadepenessy, Apokisigan, and the other Ottawa present the long-awaited meeting with the president was as deflating as it was brief. Their presidential audience made clear that there would be no bond of trust established between the Ottawa and the “American father.” Unlike the British and the French, the Americans did not see the Anishnabeg as allies and partners. They did not care what was in Indian hearts, only how much land would be ceded. The Ottawa had journeyed all the way to Washington only to be forced to negotiate with a man from Michigan they did not trust. It was a sad indication of where they stood with the United States government.2 THE TREATY OF 1836 The 1836 Treaty of Washington was the most important agreement the Indian peoples of western and northern Michigan ever made with the United States. It was the contradictory document that both set the stage for their potential removal from Michigan and at the same time was the basis for their eventual persistence in the state. It was a deeply flawed agreement that was fated to be very shortly undermined by events on the ground, yet paradoxically it proved to be the legal taproot of tribal rights for the Ottawa and Chippewa people well into the twenty-first century. Like so many agreements between the United States and the native people of the Great Lakes region, this treaty was an instrument of European-American hegemony whose primary purpose was to separate Indian people from their land. At the same time, this treaty also provided a legal framework and political opportunity so that Ottawa and Chippewa people could continue to live within their culture. To the disgust of the Ottawa, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft was the key man A New World| 79 in...