PONTIAC RISING

 

18thCentury New France, modern day Michigan. 

 

On the eve of his first kill in battle a blood-soaked young warrior, named Pontiac, awakens a prophecy told on the year of his birth. The signs point to him as the chosen warrior, meant to lead his people out of impending extinction. The prophecy is delivered by Awa- Han, a haunting, young, beauty and powerful seer. Her words clearly point an accusing finger at one of the invading European powers that seek to claim the ancestral land of the Natives Americans. 

Pontiac’s people find themselves at the center of two warring empires, fighting to control the lucrative fur trade.  Blindly addicted to the trade goods of the French and British, the tribes hesitate to see the impending apocalypse. 

 

Pontiac struggles to accept the prophecy and his role in it. Charles de Langlade, a French and Ottawa mix-blood, and Awa-Han, come to Pontiac’s aid.  They both play an important part in stewarding Pontiac into the warrior he is meant to be. 

 

 Against the backdrop of the French and Indian war, Pontiac and Langlade fight alongside the French, leading a series of ambushes and successful battles. Pontiac builds a loyal following of warriors, the likes of which no other native leader has achieved before him. During the battle of Fort William Henry, Pontiac’s warriors are presented with metal boxes by the British containing blankets. The warriors take the blankets home to their villages and family’s.  The blankets are surreptitiously infected with smallpox.  The aftermath is catastrophic.  Pontiac loses his father and several of his most trusted warriors to the disease. This heinous act effectively removes the native forces from the French and Indian war, solidifying a British victory and adding fuel to the rage that has been building in Pontiac.

 

The British begin to occupy strategic French Forts across the Great Lakes. Pontiac flexes his muscles to prevent Robert Rogers and his Rangers from taking possession of Fort Detroit, without first demonstrating his authority in the region.  Pontiac needs to ensure that the forts trading post will be well stocked and reinstated, so that the livelihood of his tribe will continue under British rule. Upon the meeting of Rogers, Pontiac demands a French captive be given to him as a gift in exchange for his blessing to take the fort.  The captive, Adelina Eberhardt, turns out to be the Acadian born wife of a German gunsmith and is an excellent sharp shooter.    Adelina proves to be the deadliest weapon Pontiac possesses in his band of warriors.  

 

Jeffery Amherst, the Commanding General of British forces in North America, severely restricts trade with the Indians and does away with long standing French traditions, traditions that the Indians had come to rely on for their survival. Pontiac realizes that the prophecy of his childhood has come to a head and that he must do something to prevent the extinction of his people.  

Against all odds, Pontiac is able to unite the historically warring tribes of the Midwest.  Tribes that have been killing each other for hundreds of years. He unites them under one banner and rallies them to drive back the most powerful military force on the planet. 

 

Pontiac and his rallied war Chiefs, plan, execute and are victorious in the largest and most impactful Indian offensive ever recorded. Pontiac’s War reclaims nine British forts with the intent of French reoccupation. After it is clear that the French cannot reoccupy the forts due to the Treaty of Paris, Pontiac faces the revelation that the British are but endless waves of the vast ocean and will only just keep coming. In an act to save his people, Pontiac signs a peace treaty that enforces the Proclamation of 1763, which pushes the British settlements back to the Appalachian mountain range. This agreement forbids all settlement west of that line and secures the land for his people.