Backgrounder — Chief Tessouat

About Chief Tessouat

The Kichi Zibi Anishinabeg are recorded as the first people to occupy the land and tributaries around the Kichi Zibi—Ottawa River. A community was founded on Morrison Island, which sits in the middle of the river near what is now Pembroke, Ontario. Called the Minitig Anishinabeg, or Island People, this group of Anishinabe or Kichi Zibi Anishinabeg took advantage of their strategic location to control traffic and trade in the river by collecting a toll of goods to allow passage through the water-highway.

In the 1590s, a great chief rose among the Kichi Zibi Anishinabeg, Chief Tessouat. Statesman, skilled negotiator, warrior: Chief Tessouat knew the river and understood its value. In 1603, in Tadoussac, Quebec, Chief Tessouat participated in a victory feast with allies Innu and Maliseet after a battle with the Mohawk. This event was witnessed by the newly arrived Samuel de Champlain, who was not familiar with the Anishinabe people or their territory, calling them “Algonquin.”

Champlain observed the esteem with which Chief Tessouat was held by his allies and wanted to learn more. He realized Chief Tessouat and his community lived by and navigated a huge waterway that perhaps led into the interior of the country; Champlain even imagined it might be the route to the Orient. However, it would be ten years before he could explore mapping the river further west.

The Anishinabeg continued to control trade along the river. In 1613, Champlain himself travelled to meet with communities along the way—history tells us there were 10 sub-nations of the Algonquin along the river—encouraging them to deal directly with France and cut out the “middleman” (Tessouat), disrupting an arrangement that had been in place for hundreds of years. He finally met Chief Tessouat and the Minitig Anishinabeg on Morrison Island. Chief Tessouat and his warriors were strong, organized and in control, leading Champlain to renew his alliance with the Chief.

Champlain asked for permission to pass the island and travel further inland; he wanted to make contact with the Wendat nation further to the west. Chief Tessouat, who history reports having only had one eye, nevertheless saw very clearly what the explorer was after: Champlain would cultivate a new alliance that would eliminate the Kichi Zibi Anishinabeg, Chief Tessouat, and his people as middlemen in the fur trade. Chief Tessouat refused Champlain passage.

Exploration further west did eventually continue, but Chief Tessouat established order that protected commerce on the river and tribute that benefitted his people and allies.

—Source: Since Time Immemorial: “Our Story”: The Story of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinàbeg by Stephen McGregor