Shinguacöuse

Shinguacöuse, or Little Pine, Indigenous leader (born c. 1773; died 1854 at Garden River, Canada West [now ON]). Son of an Ojibwa woman and possibly Lavoine Barthe, a trader, Shinguacöuse became a warrior, orator and medicine man. He joined the British during the War of 1812, but afterward promoted harmony between the Ojibwa and the American government. In 1832 he requested that Lt-Gov Colborne help establish a settlement for Indigenous people near Sault Ste Marie. With Allan McDonnell, a mine shareholder, Shinguacöuse devised a plan in 1849 whereby Indigenous people might benefit, under government protection, from revenues and employment opportunities arising from mining on unsurrendered traditional territory. When the government failed to respond, Shinguacöuse, accompanied mainly by Métis and First Nations, forcibly took possession of mining operations at Mica Bay that fall. Although prominent in Robinson Treaty negotiations in 1850, Shinguacöuse failed to gain recognition for his plan, since prevailing policy viewed Indigenous people as wards, not participants, in the developing nation.