A wooden tribute to the city's American Indian roots was planted in Keyser Park on West Bath Road.
Chief Pontiac -- a 2-ton, white oak carving of the Ottawa Indian chief's head -- was lowered by crane onto its base July 23. The sculpture is 20 feet tall from the bottom of the base to the top of the chief's feathers.
Joe Frohnapfel of Stow was asked by the Northampton Historical Society to carve the oaken image after he spoke to the organization during one of its meetings. Frohnapfel donated the sculpture to the city.
"I donate sculpture where the community will share it," Frohnapfel said, adding a personal incentive was the fact there is a spiritual burial ground close by. He estimated he invested more than 300 hours in completing the sculpture, which he started in November 2007.
Pontiac is Frohnapfel's eighth large American Indian sculpture given to a community. Another one of his creations stands on Front Street across from River Front Park, Chief Netawatwees, waymarked as WM5Z6Y. Others stand in Adell Durbin Park in Stow and Camp Butler in Boston Township.
There were two Ottawa Nation villages in the former Northampton Township in 1760, said Dreama Powell, president of the Northampton Historical Society. One village was on the former Herbruck Farm off Northampton Road and Portage Trail, the other on the east side of the river along West Bath Road and Akron-Peninsula Road, said Powell.
A third village bordered Northampton north on the Boston Township line, she added.
"The Ottawa people were expert with the canoe, having already migrated generations earlier from Ottawa, Canada," Powell said. Ottawa means "one who trades," she said, and the Ottawa Indians found the banks of the Cuyahoga River were an excellent source for otter pelts.
Ottawa Chief Pontiac, or Obwondiyag (pronounced oh-pahn-tee-yag), was known to have spent some time in his youth in this area, Powell said. "It's very likely he returned to recruit warriors for his war of liberation from the invading colonists, known as Pontiac's Rebellion," she said. Powell said Pontiac was "the most successful resistance leader of the Native Peoples in the history of the United States."
The sculpture was dedicated with an American Indian "smudging" ceremony on September 6th of 2008 at the Crooked River All Nation Powwow held at the park.
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