Na-Ya-to-Shingh "Chief Mishicott" Potawatomi Leader

Na-Ya-to-Shingh "Chief Mishicott" Potawatomi Leader. . , In 1847, Daniel Smith, a lumberman from New York, plotted a small village around his dam and sawmill on the river here, naming it for his friend Old Chief Mishicott. Old Chief Mishicott, a Potawatomi leader, is also the namesake of the Town of Mishicot, organized in 1852, and the Mishicot River (now called the East Twin River) in Manitowoc County. Mishicott’s Potawatomi name was Na-ya-to-shingh, or Hairy Leg, for the fluffy white feathers on the upper leg of a horned owl. Old Chief Mishicott raised his grandson, also named Na-ya-to-shingh, or Young Chief Mishicott (1821-1916)., Faced with European American land encroachment and the loss of traditional hunting grounds in the territorial land cessions of 1831 and 1833, the Potawatomi were removed to areas as far away as Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Canada. In 1842, both Mishicotts returned to Wisconsin from Canada via Potawatomi Island (now Washington Island)., In 1846, Andrew Vieau, son of French fur trader Jacques Vieau and Angelique Roy, a Menominee woman, purchased 80 acres as a permanent home for the band from the US government at the Potawatomi village and planting grounds of Mah-Kah-da-wah-gah-cok (Black Earth), eight miles north of the Smith mill. The Potawatomi lived there until 1862, but due to unpaid property taxes, were forcibly removed from the property by the Kewaunee County sheriff., The Potawatomi relocated to the Cedar River area in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where they endured many hardships. A smallpox epidemic claimed 121 families, of which only an estimated thirteen, including young Mishicott’s, survived. The band then moved to nearby Harris Township. Their new settlement was named Hannahville for the wife of Methodist minister Peter Marksman, a trusted friend and spokesman. Young Mishicott was baptized there and given the biblical name Abraham and is buried in the Hannahville Cemetery. Many of his decedents continue to live in the Hannahville Indian community today.