CHINGOUESSI (Changouessi, Changouessy, Changouossy, Jangouessy, Sangouessy), Ottawa Sinango chief from Michilimackinac; fl. 1695–1701.

Chingouessi came to Quebec in July of 1698 to report to Governor Buade* de Frontenac that his neighbours, the Kiskakons and Ottawas du Sable, were on the point of abandoning Michilimackinac. Claiming to have stood resolutely against such a move, he now expressed fear that his loyalty to the French had endangered his life and, with high dramatic sense, asked Frontenac to provide him with an antidote for poison. At the governor’s behest, he agreed to attend an assembly of Indians at Montreal with the aim of convincing the most dissident chiefs that they could escape Iroquois slaughter only by remaining together at Michilimackinac. The mission was apparently successful and henceforth Chingouessi stood high in French esteem.

In 1701, he was the Ottawa Sinango delegate to the peace conference convened by Callière in Montreal between the French, their allies, and the Iroquois. In discussions concerning the fur trade, he joined several other chiefs in submitting that since beaver were becoming increasingly scarce, the French should accept more miscellaneous pelts from the Michilimackinac tribes. During the actual peace negotiations, he apologized for having brought so few of his Iroquois prisoners but, with disarming candour, explained that he had eaten most of them. Even so, to demonstrate his desire for peace, he presented an Iroquois woman and child whom he had ransomed.

Donald J. Horton