Ozaawindib (ca. 1748–?)

Ozaawindib was a prominent figure among the Pillager Ojibwe who interacted with white travelers and participated in conflicts with the Dakota in the late 1700s. During one encounter in the 1790s, she successfully defended her Ojibwe kin with a bow and arrows, earning a reputation for bravery. As an agokwa (a person deemed male at birth who took on women’s roles), she was a respected member of her community who grew into a position of leadership.

Ozaawindib (also spelled Ozawindib, Ozawondib, and Ozaw-wen-dib, also known as Yellow Head) was born in the late 1700s to an unknown mother and the Minnesota Ojibwe leader Wiishkobak (also known as the Sweet, or La Sucre). Wiishkobak was a chief of the Pillager band of Ojibwe, who lived around Gaa-zagaskwaajimekaag (Leech Lake).

Little is recorded of Ozaawindib’s early life. As the child of a military leader like Wiishkobak, she would have observed and eventually participated in war councils, diplomatic discussions, and peace negotiations. By the time she was an adult she was recognized and accepted as an agokwa, an Ojibwe term that refers to a person designated male at birth who takes on the roles of a woman. Though Ojibwe people respected such individuals and honored their identities as women, Ozaawindib’s father attempted to convince her to return to the role of a man. There is no evidence that Ozaawindib complied.

In about 1790, Ozaawindib attended a gathering of Ojibwe and Dakota people hosted by trader Joseph Réaume. The meeting was an attempt to resolve an ongoing conflict between the two groups, and at first, things seemed to go well. The Dakota, however, followed Ozaawindib and the other Ojibwe after they left the council, and Ozaawindib fired arrows at the Dakota in defense until her companions were able to reach a safe distance. The bravery she demonstrated earned Ozaawindib the gratitude of the other warriors, who retold the story to celebrate her after they returned home. When the fur trader Alexander Henry visited the same group of Pillager Ojibwe in 1801, witnesses told him the story, and he recorded it in his journal.

In 1800, Ozaawindib encountered John Tanner, a white American who had been kidnapped and raised by Ojibwe people from a young age. Though she had already had multiple husbands in the past, Ozaawindib sought Tanner’s hand in marriage. She courted him by bringing him moose meat—a traditional Ojibwe way of showing care for someone. Tanner, however, was disgusted by Ozaawindib and rejected her advances.

In the end, Ozaawindib decided to marry an Odaawaa man named Wenji-dotagaan instead. She became his third wife. Their marriage may have been strategic, since in the years around 1800 an alliance with the Odaawaa near the Red River, where Wenji-dotagaan and his people had recently moved, would have helped the Pillager Ojibwe in conflicts with the Dakota.

The date of Ozaawindib’s death is uncertain. In the same 1801 journal that mentions her bravery during the incident with the Dakota, Alexander Henry referred to her as having been killed during a fight. A source written by US Indian Agent Thomas McKenney, first published in 1844, referred to her as having been “killed by the enemy” after participating in seven conflicts.

Editor’s note: This article has been revised from its original version, which stated that Ozaawindib guided Henry Schoolcraft to the source of Gichi-ziibi (the Mississippi River) in 1832. Additional research has shown that there were two different Ojibwe leaders named Ozaawindib whose lives overlapped. The first, born in about 1748 and described above, was an agokwa from the Pillager band who participated in conflicts with Dakota warriors. The second, not an agokwa, was born closer to 1800, led an Ojibwe community at Gaa-miskwaawaakokaag (Cass Lake), and guided Schoolcraft’s 1832 expedition. Schoolcraft’s narrative of that expedition specifies that his guide was not the son of a chief. The sources that discuss the first Ozaawindib, however, refer to her as the child of a chief at Leech Lake named Wiishkobak.