Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/749

OTTAWAS OTTER 735 naw, and Thunder bay fled from the Iroquois to the islands at the mouth of Green bay, and thence beyond the Mississippi to the country of the Sioux. Provoking these to war, they j fell back to Ohegoimegon before 1660 (where j the Jesuits began a mission), and afterward to j Mackinaw. Here they became involved with ; the Iroquois, and though great cowards joined the French in many of their operations. Af- ter the settlement of Detroit a part of the Ottawas settled near it. The band remain- ing at Mackinaw soon passed over to Arbre Croche, "where the mission still subsists. The Ottawas took part in the last war of the French for Canada, and at the close Pontiac, chief of the Detroit Ottawas, did not yield, but organized a vast Indian conspiracy for the | destruction of the English. (See PONTIAC.) The Ottawas of Arbre Croche did not join him. The tribe at this time numbered in all about 1,500. During the revolution they were un- der English influence. They joined in the trea- ties made by several tribes at Fort Mclntosh in 1785, and Fort Harmar in 1789, but took up arms with the Miamis soon after, making peace finally at Greenville, Aug. 3, 1795. One band about this time settled on the Miami. A long series of treaties followed, sometimes by the Ottawas alone, but more frequently in con- nection with other tribes, ceding lands to the United States, and reserving to the band of Ottawas who had long been associated with the Ojibways and Pottawattamies a tract on the Miami 34 m. square. By the treaty of 1833 these confederated tribes ceded their lands around Lake Michigan to the United States, and agreed to take lands south of the Missouri river, where they soon ceased to be a distinct band. A band of Ottawas at Maumee, Ohio, on Aug. 81, 1836, ceded 49,000 acres in that state, and 200 removed to 34,000 acres on the Osage, south of the Shawnees. About 230 re- mained, some of whom followed the firsthand, ! and others scattered. The emigrant band prospered, had a Baptist mission, and soon ; possessed good farms and comfortable log houses. The political troubles in Kansas led to depredations on them, but steps were taken to make them citizens. By treaty of July 3, ! 1862, these Ottawas, numbering 207, were to j be located on individual tracts, 160 acres to a family, 20,000 acres to be reserved for schools, and the rest to be sold. Under this and a sub- sequent act they actually became citizens in 1867, and began an ill advised college which absorbed much of their property. Their posi- tion was so uncomfortable that they asked and obtained a reservation of 24,960 acres in the Indian territory north of the Shawnees, on Blanchard's fork and Eoche de Bceuf, to which they emigrated in 1870, and where they are now (1875) reduced to 142. The Ottawas in ! Michigan on March 28, 1836, ceded all their j lands except reservations, and the treaty of j 1855 gave them the option of taking up lands j in severalty on these reservations. They are ! 624 VOL. xn. 47 at Arbre Croche, Cross village, Grand river, Gull prairie, &c., and on the shore of Lake Superior, alternating with the Ojibways, the two nations numbering nearly 5,000. In Can- ada there are Ottawas on Walpole, Christian, and Manitoulin islands, mingled with other In- dians, numbering probably 1,000 more. They are all self-supporting, with missions of Cath- olic and various Protestant denominations. OTTENDORFER, Oswald, a German- American journalist, born at Zwittau, Moravia, Feb. 26, 1826. He studied jurisprudence in Prague and Vienna, and settled in New York in 1850, when he became connected with the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung. After the death in that year of Mr. Jakob Uhl, proprietor of the journal (whose widow Mr. Ottendorf er married in 1859), he became its manager and subse- quently its editor, and conducted it in the in- terest of the democratic party. As president of the German reform association, he opposed the " Tammany democrats " in 1871, and the Staats-Zeitung has since been independent in politics. In 1872 he was elected alderman, and in November, 1874, he was defeated as an in- dependent candidate for mayor. OTTER, the name of several species of car- nivorous mammals, of the subfamily lutrince, and family mustelidce or weasels. The subfam- ily includes the four genera lutra (Linn:), pte- ronura (Gray) or pterura (Wiegm.), enhydra (Fleming), and aonyx (Lesson) ; they are all eminently aquatic animals, feeding principally upon fish. In the genus lutra the dentition is : incisors fif , canines |z^, premolars |c|, mo- lars l = 36 ; the upper laniary is very large, with a large accessory internal tubercle, and the lower posteriorly tuberculated ; the ears are small and far apart ; the head broad and blunt, and flat above ; the body thick and elongated ; the feet short and webbed ; tail long, round, depressed toward the tip, and flat American Otter (Lutra Canadensis). beneath. The species are found in all parta of the globe, and are distinguished with diffi- culty from the similarity of their colors. The American otter (L. Canadensis, Sab.) is about 4^ ft. long, of which the tail is 1, and the weight from 20 to 25 Ibs. ; a considerable part