Billy Caldwell

Billy Caldwell (March 17, 1782 – September 28, 1841) was a Captain in the British Indian Department during the War of 1812, a fur trader, and in his later life a chief of the Potawatomi at Council Bluffs. He was also known as Sauganash, a variant spelling of Zhagnash meaning British or Canadian in the Potawatomi language.

Born in a Mohawk refugee camp near Fort Niagara, Billy was the son of William Caldwell, a Scots-Irish British officer during the American Revolutionary War, and a Mohawk woman, the daughter of a chief named 'Rising Sun'. His name was not short for William. His half-brother, the eldest son of William Caldwell by his French Canadian wife, was named William Caldwell Jr, Billy was only ever called Billy. Due to his Mohawk-speaking mother, English-speaking father, French-speaking step-mother, (Suzanne the daughter of Jacques Baby) his later Potawatomi wives, and years of fur trading, he became multilingual. He did, however, lose the use of the Mohawk language, with which he had been raised in his youth, due to nonuse.

At seventeen Caldwell moved to Chicago to work as a clerk for John Kinzie and Thomas Forsyth. He remained with them for a few years before starting his own independent trade. When the War of 1812 broke out, he arrived alongside the Potawatomi to fight for the British.

After the war Caldwell returned to the Chicago area. Having gained the respect of many bands of Potawatomi, together with Alexander Robinson, he acted as a chief councilor on behalf of the prairie bands of the Potawatomi in numerous treaties with the U.S. Federal Government. He was involved in the Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien, the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, and others. For his work, the US granted him life annuities as well as a 1600-acre Half-Breed Tract, known as the Caldwell Reserve, along the North Branch of the Chicago River. These treaties, signed under innumerable pressures, sold their ancestral lands and acquiesced to their removal west of the Mississippi River. In 1835, Caldwell migrated with his people from the Chicago region west to Platte County, Missouri.

As a result of the Platte Purchase in 1836, Caldwell and his band were removed from Missouri to Iowa Territory, to the area of Trader's Point (Pointe aux Poules) on the east bank of the Missouri River. While living at Trader's Point, Caldwell led a band of approximately 2000 Potawatomi. Their settlement became known as Camp Caldwell. In 1841 Caldwell died; scholars believe it may have been because of cholera.