Draft:Equaysayway
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Last edited by CycoMa2 (talk | contribs) 16 minutes ago. (Update) |
Comment: In accordance with Wikipedia's Conflict of interest policy, I disclose that I have a conflict of interest regarding the subject of this article. CycoMa2 (talk) 21:44, 5 June 2025 (UTC)
Equaysayway | |
|---|---|
| Spouse | Michel Cadotte |
| Family | |
Equaysayway (1760-
Was an Ojibwe woman of the powerful clan ajijaak dodem and wife of Michel Cadotte.
She played a vital role in her husband’s business. Her linage helped in developing important partnerships with natives.
Madeline island was named in her honor and she would have a big impact on her descendants even in the present day.
Need access to this source.[1]
Name
[edit]Equaysayway was her Ojibwe name[2] it means traveling woman.[3]
She was also called Ikwezewe.[4]
She is also called Marie Madeleine.[5] According to journalist Robert Silbernagel, Madeline is a corruption of her European name Magdelaine.[6] She was given this name when she was baptized to Catholicism.[7]
Life
[edit]Early life
[edit]She was born around 1760.[8]
She probably met Michel Cadotte sometime in the early 1780s, after Michel left his father's home and ventured out. They probably meeting at Michel's first trading post on the Namekagon River.[9]
Marriage to Michel Cadotte
[edit]She went on to marry Michel Cadotte and they were prominent leaders on the island in the 19th century.[10] Native American women were important to the North American fur trade, especially ones who married fur traders.[11]
Role in the Fur trade
[edit]Equaysayway's Ojibwe lineage would benefit her and her husband in developing important partnerships with the natives in the area.[12] Equaysayway assisted her husband in the exchange of fur for goods. She also used her role as a mediator and access to trade goods to increase her own power and the power of her family.[11]
Family (title pending)
[edit]Around 1800 she and her husband established a trading post on the island, then around this time she spent most of her time with family and her 6 children.[13] At the family home she managed to impress people, when Thomas McKenney visited Madeline Island in 1826, he called her a:
a worthy, well-disposed woman
Elderly years and death
[edit]Her husband Michel Cadotte died in 1837 but Equaysayway would live a decade longer. She was alive when her grandson William Whipple Warren was interviewing her[14] and Ojibwe elders about tribal history. Census records report that in 1850 she was living at La Pointe and her age was listed as 90.[15] She would be buried at La Pointe Indian Cemetery.[16]
Family
[edit]She was a member of the important clan the Crane Clan (also called ajijaak dodem) on Madeline island, this clan was usually responsible for creating chiefs in the Anishinaabe clan system.[17] Mamongazeda is her great-great uncle.[18] She is a daughter of chief Waubujejack[19] and sister to Tagwagane.[20]
Children
[edit]Legacy and recognition
[edit]Madeline island is named after her.[21] Her father declared the island to be named after her sometime after 1800.[7]
One of Equaysayway’s descendants made a sculpture titled Gateway to Madeline. The artist based this sculpture after an aunt told her she was related to Equaysayway, then only found out later in life this was true.[22] The sculpture depicts the Equaysayway’s father rising from the red earth.[23]
Dr. Melissa Beard-Jacob said: ”Equaysayway is truly the matriarchal foundation for the Cadotte family legacy, and I am proud to be her fourth granddaughter.”[24]
References
[edit]- ^ Child, Brenda J. (2012-02-16). Holding Our World Together: Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-101-56025-9.
- ^ Tobola 1974, p. 122.
- ^ DuLong 2020, p. 92.
- ^ "Cadotte, Michael, 1764-1837". Wisconsin Historical Society. 2012-08-03. Retrieved 2025-06-08.
- ^ Silbernagel 2020, p. xiii-ix.
- ^ Silbernagel 2020, p. 1.
- ^ a b Tobola 1974, p. 111,122.
- ^ Silbernagel 2020, p. 126-127.
- ^ Silbernagel 2020, p. 128.
- ^ "Madelineisland.com". 13 June 2011. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
- ^ a b Silbernagel 2020, p. 67.
- ^ Her Ojibwe lineage would benefit her husband 2020, p. 127.
- ^ Silbernagel 2020, p. 126.
- ^ Schenck, Theresa M. (2025). Ojibwe Ethnogenesis, 1640-1740. U of Nebraska Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-1-4962-4187-0.
- ^ Silbernagel 2020, p. 156-161.
- ^ Ross, Hamilton Nelson (2000). LaPointe: Village Outpost on Madeline Island. Wisconsin Historical Society Press. pp. 88–90. ISBN 0870203215.
- ^ Silbernagel 2020, p. 20-21.
- ^ Silbernagel 2020, p. 46.
- ^ Silbernagel 2020, p. 3.
- ^ Schenck, Theresa M. (2025). Ojibwe Ethnogenesis, 1640-1740. U of Nebraska Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-1-4962-4187-0.
- ^ "Island History | Madeline Island Chamber of Commerce". www.madelineisland.com. 2011-06-13. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
- ^ "Gateway to Madeline • The Slice • PBS North". Retrieved 2025-06-08.
- ^ Arts, La Pointe Center for the (2024-01-08). "Gateway to the Island". La Pointe Center for the Arts. Retrieved 2025-06-08.
- ^ https://pubs.lib.uiowa.edu/annals-of-iowa/article/31472/galley/139881/view/.
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Bibliography
[edit]- Silbernagel, Robert (May 13, 2020). The Cadottes: A Fur Trade Family on Lake Superior. Wisconsin Historical Society. ISBN 9780870209413.
- Tobola, Thomas (1974). Cadotte Family Stories. Cadott Printing.
- DuLong, John P. (2020), Jean-Baptiste Cadotte’s First Family: Genealogical Summary, University of Saskatchewan, archived (PDF) from the original on June 8, 2025
- DuLong, John P. (2015), Jean-Baptiste Cadotte’s Second Family: Genealogical Summary, University of Saskatchewan, archived (PDF) from the original on June 10, 2025