Petosegay

The son of Antoine Carre (Neaatooshing) and his wife, daughter of an Odawa chief, Petosegay 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".[2]

He grew up in the lodge of his parents, roughly seven miles northwest of Harbor Springs, nearby the site of the town of Middle Village. At the age of 21, Petosegay married Kewaykabawikwa, the daughter of Pokozeegun, an Ottawa chieftain from the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. He and his new bride planted apple trees to celebrate their marriage. Many trees survived for decades and Petosegay's death, when they could still be seen by local residents.

With the arrival of Jesuit Catholic missionaries in the area during the early 19th century, Petosegay was befriended by the new men, 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. Eventually the young chief would become Catholic and 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. It was also attended by Native Americans Andrew Jackson Blackbird and Simon Pokagon, who later became writers.[3] However, when the Jesuits learned that this school was operated by Protestants, they asked Petosegay to withdraw his sons, 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 Chippewa and Ottawa of Northern Michigan, many of whom had converted to Catholicism. Eventually Petosegay broke with the Jesuits.

Moving his family to the southern shore of Little Traverse Bay, Petosegay and his elder sons soon acquired much of the land of what is now Petoskey, Michigan. He expanded trading to become a prominent merchant and landowner. In 1852, a Presbyterian Mission was established on the land of Nathan Jarman, a local farmer living west of Petoskey's village. Choosing to declare independence of the Jesuits, Petosegay became actively involved with the Presbyterians, and he and his children became regular attendees at the services. His grandson William Petoskey, the son of Francis, later became a Presbyterian minister.

The Jesuits, who had lost some support from the local tribes south of the Bay, attempted to regain control although their attempt to establish a rival mission failed as a direct result of Petosegay's support of the Presbyterian church. His wife, upset at her husband's decision to leave their home of 43 years, left him to live with her relatives across the bay. He lived with another woman during this time, however, he agreed to take her back when she returned several years later. Petosegay gave the second woman a dower and she left the village.[4]

In 1873, the local residents living along the bay of Bear Creek named their settlement Petoskey in his honor. Although the name was a corruption of Petosegay, he changed the spelling of his name as a gesture to them. After his wife died in 1881, he lived with his daughter and her husband Moses Waukazoo. Suffering poor health thereafter, he died on June 27, 1885.[5] Of his ten children, his son Ignatius Petoskey was rumored to have been become the last chief and head of the Bear River Ottawa. This was a non-tribal viewpoint that tribal members found amusing because it was untrue.[6]

A type of fossil colonial coral, dating back to the Devonian period, was later discovered on his land and named after him as the Petoskey stone.[7] This was later declared the official state stone by Governor George Romney, who officially signed a bill to that effect. A granddaughter, Ella Jane Petoskey, was present at the signing.[8][9]

In 2005 a bronze statue of Petosegay was erected in Petoskey on a prominent hill overlooking the town and Little Traverse Bay.[10]