William Yellowhead

William Yellowhead, or "Musquakie" or "Misquuckkey" (Miskwaaki or Miskwaa-aki: Red-earth), as he was known in Ojibwe (other attested names include "Mayawassino" and "Waisowindebay" (Wezaawindibe: Yellow-head)) was the "head chief" of the Chippaweans of Lakes Huron and Simcoe and leader of the Deer clan of that people from 1817 until his death in 1864. He led his people in taking arms in defence of Upper Canada in the Upper Canada Rebellion, oversaw the sale of the bulk of their territory to the provincial government, and led them in their first attempts to adopt an agrarian way of life. Although the claims of several other persons have been advanced, it is generally believed (not necessarily correctly) that Musquakie is the origin of the name of the District Municipality of Muskoka.

Early life and military service

Musquakie's father, Yellow Head, preceded him as "head chief". After Yellow Head persuaded the Ojibwe of the Home District of Upper Canada to side with the British during the War of 1812, Musquakie saw action under his father at the Battle of York in April 1813, where Musquakie sustained a facial injury from a musket ball. Yellow Head too was wounded at York, sustaining wounds of such severity that the remainder of his career was curtailed. Musquakie had taken over his father's duties by 1815, and in 1817 he formally succeeded Yellow Head as head chief.

Land purchases

The early years of Musquakie's chiefship were dominated by treaty negotiations and land purchases. In 1815, as acting chief in his father's place, he participated along with John Aisance and another chief in the Lake Simcoe–Lake Huron Purchase, surrendering to the provincial government 250,000 acres of territory lying between the north shore of Kempenfelt Bay and Georgian Bay (present-day North Simcoe). In 1818, having succeeded his father the previous year, he and four other chiefs surrendered a further 1,600,000 acres of territory to the government.