Pontiac

Pontiac rose as a local leader among the Odawa in the Great Lakes, where British policies after the French and Indian War fed Native resentment. In May 1763 he and 300 fighters tried to take Fort Detroit by surprise; the plan failed, but the siege drew more than 900 warriors from half a dozen tribes and sparked a wider conflict across the region. He won the Battle of Bloody Run that July but never broke the fort, lifting the siege in October and retreating to Illinois Country. His actions helped prompt the Proclamation of 1763, which barred colonial settlement west of the Appalachians. As the war dragged on, British diplomats made him the face of peace talks, signing a treaty with Sir William Johnson in 1766 - but the attention bred resentment among other leaders in what had always been a loose alliance. Pontiac claimed more sway than he held, found himself increasingly isolated, and was killed by a Peoria warrior in April 1769.