Often times in history we only tend to hear the names of those who were quote, successful or had a big presence and those names tend to be only men.

So when we think about in terms of the revolution, you think of Washington and Jefferson and Adam in terms of Pontiac's Rebellion, you think of Pontiac because his name is literally in the name of this rebellion So part of what is interestin around the history of Pontiac's war, it' dominated by stories about men.

It's almost as if women weren't her or weren't part of this story.

But it's important to understand that there were folks within the indigenous community, that made it possible for Pontiac to even have this rebellion.

There were folks who were feeding everybody, who were taking communication back and forth between different tribal nations.

There were people who were assisting Pontiac in a number of different ways.

It is important to note that he couldn't have don what he did without the support of men, women and even children helping to make it possible.

And so he kind of anoints himself a as this leader of this rebellion Pontiac saw the fact that the British felt that they were victorious across the continent And he was proactive and decided he wanted to take action and to gather Indigenous collective will behind him in that endeavor.

And they have a council and they get together and they're like, They're going to come an they're going to take our land.

We have to figure out a way that we can say, Hey, no, this is our land.

So he's able to rally some of the tribal nations, not just in the Great Lakes region but also along, that lower part.

I want you to think of Ohio and going into Pennsylvania.

He's able to talk to those people and say, hey, we've got to form this coalition.

So to speak, But the Fort gets word that Pontiac's already planning a rebellion.

So when they open the fort doors to let Pontiac in, he can see that the British soldiers are already armed because his plans are already known.

there were two women that were hovering aroun the edges of this historic story as having been people who might have told the British in advance about Pontiac's efforts.

So one woman she's French comes from a fur trading family, and has been established in Detroit her father was a very close associate of Pontiac.

His daughter's name Angelique.

So supposedly, Angelique Cuillerier overheard a conversation between Pontiac and her father.

At and she had a fiance, say, who was a British trader.

She was worried about him and whether he'd survive such an onslaught.

And she let the British know.

It's a simplified story of a much more complicated narrativ that talks more about the fact that local French and indigenous people had business to attend to, had lucrative trade networks, and they wanted these particular networks to remain in place.

The other woman, that sort of part of the story her name was Catherine, she was Anishinaabe and she was purported to have visited the British, commandant to have brought back elk skin moccasins she had made for him, and he had asked her to take unfinished elk skins back with her and to make another pair.

And supposedly she lingered and told him, I may not be able to come back with the finished product.

I'll tell you why.

I'll tell yo what's probably going to happen.

So the story that circulates after the fact is that she did this because she was having an affair with the British commandant.

We don't know this for certain.

It's likely not true.

What we do know about Anishinaabe women is that Anishinaabe women controlled trade in their nations.

They controlled whether or no their nations would go to war.

So it's very possible that this woman is coming to the British commandant's house, not out of some romantic obligation, but because she wants to maintain the trade networks that she's in control of as an Anishinaabe woman.

So the women of Pontiac's era who I've come to discover played a pivotal role, were from families of chiefs or leaders in their community.

So they might have been daughters or nieces of chiefs so they were used to operating in their own nations.

And these roles of responsibility And as somebody who is a citizen of the Oneida Nation who fought on the side of the patriot during the American Revolution as as a woman who, descends from women who treated the sick and nursed soldiers.

And as a public historian from a community that historically has been underrepresented, it is important now more than eve that these stories come forth.

All of our stories make u the fabric of the United States, and it all should be considered US history,