Tecumseh was killed in this battle, and Noonday inherited his tomahawk and hat. During the War of 1812, Noonday was allied with Tecumseh during the Battle of the Thames. īy 1810, Chief Noonday established a village on the north side of the river with about 500 Ottawa. La Framboise, whose mother was Ottawa and father French, later merged her successful operations with the American Fur Company. After the murder of her husband in 1809 while en route to Grand Rapids, Madeline La Framboise carried on the trade business, expanding fur trading posts to the west and north, creating a good reputation among the American Fur Company. They likely both spoke Ottawa, Madeline's maternal ancestral language. They were French-speaking and Roman Catholic. In 1806, Joseph and his wife Madeline La Framboise, who was Métis, traveled by canoe from Mackinac and established the first trading post in West Michigan in present-day Grand Rapids on the banks of the Grand River, near what is now Ada Township, the junction of the Grand and Thornapple Rivers. They generally lived in peace, trading European metal and textile goods for fur pelts. At the start of the 19th century, European fur traders (mostly French Canadian and Métis) and missionaries established posts in the area among the Ottawa. Nineteenth century: European-American settlement Trading post Īfter the French established territories in Michigan, Jesuit missionaries and traders traveled down Lake Michigan and its tributaries. By the end of the 1700s, there were an estimated 1,000 Ottawa in the Kent County area. Between 17, Chief Pontiac visited the area annually, gathering over 3,000 natives and asking them to volunteer to lay siege to the British fort in Detroit, which would culminate into Pontiac's War. In 1740, an Ottawa man who would later be known as Chief Noonday and become the future chief of the Ottawa, was born. The Ottawa established on the river, which they called O-wash-ta-nong, or far-away-water due to the river's length, where they 'raised corn, melons, pumpkins and beans, to which they added game of the woods and the fish from the streams'. īy the late 1600s, the Ottawa, who occupied territory around the Great Lakes and spoke one of the numerous Algonquian languages, moved into the Grand Rapids area and founded several villages along the Grand River. The tribe later split, with the Chippewas settling in the northern lower peninsula, the Pottawatomies staying south of the Kalamazoo River and the Ottawa staying in central Michigan. Later, a tribe from the Ottawa River traveled to the Grand River valley, fighting three battles with the Prairie Indians who were established in the area.

Over 2000 years ago, people associated with the Hopewell culture occupied the Grand River Valley.

Ford Freeway are named after him.Ī 1772 engraving showing Ottawa attire of the period.įor thousands of years, succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples occupied the area. President Gerald Ford, who is buried with his wife Betty on the grounds of the Gerald R. Grand Rapids was the childhood home of U.S. The city and surrounding communities are economically diverse, based in the health care, information technology, automotive, aviation, and consumer goods manufacturing industries, among others. A historic furniture manufacturing center, Grand Rapids is home to five of the world's leading office furniture companies and is nicknamed 'Furniture City.' Other nicknames include 'River City' and more recently, 'Beer City' (the latter given by USA Today and adopted by the city as a brand). Situated along the Grand River approximately 25 miles (40 km) east of Lake Michigan, it is the economic and cultural hub of West Michigan, as well as one of the fastest-growing cities in the Midwest. Grand Rapids is the central city of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area, which has a population of 1,087,592 and a combined statistical area population of 1,383,918.

At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917, which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S.

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