Almost everywhere you look in Pontiac there are signs of the city’s namesake, Native American leader Obwaandi’eyaag or Obwandiyag. The French and English pronounced his name Pontiac, though they used different spellings.

It’s not clear he ever lived in this part of Oakland County, said Mike McGuinness, Pontiac City Council president and the Oakland County Historical Society’s executive director, despite so many places bearing his name: the 640-acre Pontiac Lake and Pontiac Lake Road in Waterford; Pontiac Street in Oxford Township; Pontiac Road and Pontiac Plaza in Pontiac, near Chief Financial Credit Union; and the General Motors’ Pontiac vehicle in production from 1926 through 2010. Early models featured hood ornaments depicting the man with a full headdress or just three feathers. Over time, the hood ornament became car badges with a sketch of Pontiac’s face, then simply a red arrowhead-shaped logo.

Historians believe Pontiac was born around 1720 in Southeast Michigan or Ohio.

Among the Odawa (Ottawa) tribe, he was famous for his ability to cultivate alliances with other tribal leaders and French traders as well as his ability to strategize and lead battles.

When the British supplanted the French in the Midwest after the Seven Years’ War, Native Americans quickly learned the British weren’t interested in learning their language or assimilating as French traders did. The British wanted to colonize the area and they weren’t interested in such established customs as exchanging gifts or making fair trades for goods.

To make matters worse, the British settlements were far larger than French trading posts. Forts were surrounded by villages. The British claimed, developed and sold land without consulting area Native Americans.

Pontiac and others felt threatened and wanted to drive the British out. In 1763, he made an appeal to the Anishinaabe, called the Council of Three Fires, representing three tribes: Ojibwe, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi. They messaged other tribes and agreed to target a dozen British forts. Fort Detroit was the largest. Pontiac would lead a visit designed to get inside the fort as visitors, then attack. Someone alerted the British and foiled the plot.

That attempt and the siege that followed became known as the Pontiac Rebellion or Pontiac’s War. The Algonquian, Iroquois, Muskogean, and others joined the effort, quickly taking at least eight forts from Virginia to Illinois. In return, the British used such tactics as giving some Natives blankets carrying the smallpox virus and negotiated treaties with other tribes, draining Pontiac’s support.

At one point the British attempted a night raid of Pontiac’s Detroit encampment on July 31, 1763, but Natives quickly surrounded and defeated their enemies in what became known as the Battle of Bloody Run. News of the heavy British losses caused General Jeffery Amherst to put a bounty on Pontiac’s head.

A British officer who survived the Battle of Bloody Run, Robert Rogers, was so impressed by Pontiac’s battle skills, he wrote “Ponteach; Or, The Savages of America.”

“That helped make Pontiac one of the most-known names in the world although it was a semi-fictionalized version of his life,” McGuinness said.

While Pontiac survived the war and in 1766 signed a treaty with the British, his decision angered some in his tribe and he eventually left Southeast Michigan for Illinois. His rebellion wasn’t a total loss: King George III’s Proclamation Line of 1763, established what was then called Indian Territories west of the the Appalachian Mountains. That rule set the legal precedent for future Native American land claims.

On April 20, 1769, Pontiac was killed by a man from the Peoria Tribe in Cahokia, Illinois. Speculation about the reason for Pontiac’s killing ranged from the Amherst bounty to the Peoria man’s jealousy over a woman. Pontiac’s death led to revenge killings by his supporters. He was believed to be 49 when he died.

By then, he’d had three wives and three children. Several of his direct descendants live in Michigan, but none responded to The Oakland Press’ inquiries. He was buried in what is now St. Louis, Missouri.

“He did not die here and was not buried here, and it’s not like Chief Pontiac lived in Pontiac,” McGuinness said. “It’s very likely he would have traveled through and maybe stopped and camped. But the city is not named for him because he had a geographic connection.”

The city’s name came from a group of Detroit businessmen who created The Pontiac Company for real estate investments in 1818.

“The men in The Pontiac Company were venturing into this undeveloped land and had just come off the War of 1812. Anti-British sentiment was high,” McGuinness said.

At least two other towns are called Pontiac. One is in Illinois; the other is in Canada’s Quebec Province.

The American Legion Post 377 in Clarkston is known as the Chief Pontiac Post. No one seems to recall how the name was chosen. The national American Legion records don’t have the details, either, only that the post was founded on Sept. 17, 1943.

Post 377’s website simply states: “Our post’s namesake is Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa tribe. Chief Pontiac was a great leader and warrior. He is most well known for his role in the Pontiac Rebellion, also known as the Pontiac War, an Native American struggle against the British occupation of the Great Lakes.”

One reason the city has so many representations of Chief Pontiac has to do with a General Motors marketing tactic dating back to the 1940s. Every Pontiac dealership had a statue of the chief. Today, one stands in the city hall lobby. Another is in Pontiac School District’s board room. Several are at the Pontiac Transportation Museum.

The city hall lobby also has a print of a painting done in 1935 by noted artist Jerry Farnsworth. The Pontiac Daily Press newspaper raised $9,000 in a penny drive to have the painting made for the 10th anniversary of Pontiac Motor Division.

Another depiction of Chief Pontiac is Marshall Fredericks‘ 20-foot image gold-anodized aluminum sculpture commissioned for the then-Community Bank building at 30 N. Saginaw St. in downtown Pontiac.

Drivers may also spot the sculpture commissioned by Woodward Avenue Action Association, Pontiac’s Tribute, on northbound Woodward at Whittemore Street.