page_title: History of Grand Rapids, Michigan
section_title: Pre-Columbian settlement
hierarchical_section_title: History of Grand Rapids, Michigan / Pre-Columbian settlement
caption_attribution_description: English: Engraving titled "Habit of an Ottawa an Indian Nation of N. America". From A collection of the dresses of different nations, antient and modern, particularly old English dresses, Vol 4: Plate 197. HEW 14.7.6, Houghton Library, Harvard University
context_page_description: The recorded history of Grand Rapids in the U.S. state of Michigan, began with settlers in 1806.
context_section_description: For thousands of years, succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples occupied the area. Over 2000 years ago, people associated with the Hopewell culture occupied the Grand River Valley. Later, a tribe from the Ottawa River traveled to the Grand River valley, fighting three battles with the Prairie Indians who were established in the area. The tribe later split, with the Chippewas settling in the northern lower peninsula, the Pottawatomies staying south of the Kalamazoo River and the Ottawa staying in central Michigan.
  By the late 1600s, the Ottawa, who occupied territory around the Great Lakes and spoke one of the numerous Algonquian languages, moved into the Grand Rapids area and founded several villages along the Grand River. The Ottawa established on the river, which they called O-wash-ta-nong, or far-away-water due to the river's length, where they "raised corn, melons, pumpkins and beans, to which they added game of the woods and the fish from the streams".
  In 1740, an Ottawa man who would later be known as Chief Noonday and become the future chief of the Ottawa, was born. Between 1761 and 1763, Chief Pontiac visited the area annually, gathering over 3,000 natives and asking them to volunteer to fight the British in Detroit, which would culminate into Pontiac's War. The Potawatomi attacked the Ottawa in 1765, attempting to take the Grand River territory but were defeated. By the end of the 1700s, there were an estimated 1,000 Ottawa in the Kent County area.
caption: A 1772 engraving showing Ottawa attire of the period.
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