Old Briton
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Memeskia or Old Briton (d. June 21, 1752), also known as La Demoselle, was an eighteenth century Piankashaw chieftain who fought against the French in 1747.
A prominent member of the Piankashaw tribe, Memeskia was one of the earliest opponents of the increasing French presence in North America regarding their dominance and monopoly over the fur trade in the western Great Lakes region. In 1747, Old Briton (as he was now known), led a rebellion with a confederation of local tribes, against local French settlements successfully attacking Fort Miami at Long Portage/Kekionga. With British settlers from Pennsylvania, Old Briton later opened a trading post at his village of Pickawillany in the Ohio Country (later Piqua, Ohio) in 1750, trading with the British in defiance of French claims to the region.
However rival tribes, under Métis chieftain Charles Langlade, attacked Pickawillany in June 1752 and, with a force consisting of around 240 Ottawa and Ojibwa, eventually captured Old Briton and allegedly cannibalized him. Langlade's raid on Pickawillany, which drove British traders out of the Ohio Country, was one of the events leading up to the French and Indian War.
[edit] References
- Schweikart, Larry and Birzer, Bradley J. The American West, John Wiley & Sons: New Jersey, 2003.
