John Okemos

John Okemos (Chief Okemos) (ca. 1775-1858) was a Michigan Ojibwe (Chippewa) chief. He participated in Tecumseh's War and was a signatory of the Treaty of Saginaw. "Okemos" was the anglicised form of his Ojibwe language name ogimaans meaning "Little Chief". "John" was an adopted name.

The exact date and location of Okemos' birth is unknown, although it's widely attributed to Shiawassee County, Michigan. Two registered historical markers attribute his birth here, possibly around the Knaggs Bridge area. He was probably born in the mid-1770s (although at least one of his white contemporaries - Freeman Bray - put his birth year as far back as the 1750s). When deposed in 1856, Chief Okemos made the following statement: “I was born in Michigan, near Pontiac, on an island in a lake… I was 30 years old when I left the place I was born.” One possible location that Okemos was referring to could be Apple Island in Orchard Lake, located in present-day Orchard Lake, Michigan.

Okemos indicated that his mother's father was the Ojibwe chief Min-e-to-gob-o-way and his uncle was the Odawa chief Kob-e-ko-no-ka.

In his old age, Okemos, being in poverty, went to Sarnia, Canada to request a military pension from the British government. On that trip, his wife died and was "buried among strangers."

He is believed to be the father of A-da-wah-qua Ogimas, who was one of the wives of Chief Cobmoosa of the Flat River Band of Ojibwe-Odawa. It is unclear how many other children he had, but three have been ascertained: Jim, John, and Mary (whose Native name was Mekchis Quahwis Okemos).

The first formal reference to Okemos appears in 1796 when Okemos and 16 other men enlisted in the British armed forces as scouts.

Okemos fought at the Battle of Lower Sandusky (also called the Battle of Fort Stephenson) in what is now northern Ohio. The battle took place on August 2, 1813 during the War of 1812. Although the British lost the battle and the United States repulsed the attack, Okemos accrued considerable respect in the fighting, which raised his standing among the Ojibwa. During the battle, Okemos was slashed with a saber; this left a five-inch (127 mm) scar on his forehead that remained for the rest of his life as a distinguishing feature.

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