The best known Indian chief of this period (early/mid 1800's) was Chief Noonday of the Potowatamis, who lived in the Upper Village on the rapids of the Washtanong or Grand River. He was a strong, well-built man with broad shoulders, standing more than six feet in height. His influence was felt among all tribes in this section of the country. He was a leader for the British in the war of 1812, witnessed the burning of Buffalo, and was at the side of Chief Tecumseh when the latter was killed.
Legend claims that it was Chief Noonday who carried the body of Tecumseh, Pawnee leader of the Indian warriors, from his final battlefield. Chief Noonday was also instrumental in the negotiations that opened much of Michigan to settlement. Living out his last years in the Yankee Springs area at Slater's Mission, his grave lies near Prairieville.
The history of the Grand River Ottawa from the early 1820's until the 1836 treaty was closely associated with mission activities of the Baptist denomination, even though some of the individual Grand River Ottawa chiefs were Catholic. In 1823, the Reverend Isaac McCoy, who had established a mission among the Pokagon Potawatomi near Niles in southwestern Michigan, traveled north, crossed the Grand River, was received inhospitably by the Indians, and returned to the Carey Mission. In 1824, McCoy visited some Ottawas on the Kalamazoo river and established a blacksmith shop on the border between the Ottawa and Potawatomi territory. In November, he visited the Rapids of the Grand River again and found the blacksmith shop burned. However, on November 27 they reached Gun Lake, and camped upon its banks. The next day they were visited by Noonday, the Ottawa Chief of the Indian village at the Rapids, who, with some followers, was camping on the opposite side of the lake. McCoy found that Noonday was desirous of having a mission established at the Rapids.
The Baptist mission at Grand Rapids was founded shortly thereafter. In the winter of 1836-37 the Rev. Leonard Slater brought a band of Indians, numbering 300, from Grand Rapids to Prairieville. They were located on the northern part of section 35 and the adjoining parts of sections 26 and 27. Noonday converted to Christianity and in 1836 moved with Slater to the "Ottawa Colony" at Prairieville, Barry County, where the mission was located on sections 26, 27, and 35. In 1836, Indian agent Henry Schoolcraft prepared a survey of the Grand River Ottawa bands, listing the following: Fort Village Band, Prairie Village Band, Grand Rapids Band, Thornapple River Band, Forks of the Thornapple River Band, Flat River Band, and the Maple River Band. Mr. Slater erected a church for them in 1840, which was also used as a school-room. It was on the north part of section 35. Mr. Slater taught there a while, and later his daughter Emily. Previous to this time a log house was used. It stood on the knoll opposite the site of William Shean's house. The Indians remained in Prairieville until 1852, when they were removed. During their stay many died. They were buried in the field, now an orchard, at the termination of the road running east from Cressy's corners . . . Their chief, Noonday, who is said to have led the Indians who accompanied the British at the attack on Buffalo, N.Y., in December 1813, and to have set fire to that village, died in Prairieville. . . After the removal of the Indians the church was moved to Kalamazoo .
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