Chief Joseph Headman Osaugie

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Chief Joseph Osaugie was born in 1802 in Michigan. He was Chief and headman of the Fond Du Lac band of Ojibwa, he was chief of an Ojibwa village located variously on Wisconsin Point and at several sites in Douglas County, WI. He signed the 1854 treaty. As the Ojibwe Nation divided and expanded west from Sault St. Marie region, the southern branch came to the area known as Lac Vieux Desert. Osaugie’s father was Chief Kash-oshe, he was born in 1780 and signed the 1842 Treaty as first chief of the Vieux Desert Band. Chief Kash-oshe and his cousin Kaka-bachine (screech owl) were very skilled hunters and the members of his tribe were very jealous of them. They sprang his traps and ruined their caches to such an extent that they decided to leave this trapping ground and relocate on Wisconsin point.1 Joseph Osaugie, the name means “entry to river”. He was made chief by President Franklin Pierce. The Chief’s trapping lines ran from the Point to Lake Nebagamon. The line also extended over Lake St. Croix, which he called diving waters. He also came to dividing waters for roots and herbs of medicinal value as they could not be found in the lake country.

Chief Joseph and his wife, Marguerite, were buried on Wisconsin Point. Their bodies, along with the bodies of about 200 other relatives, were moved in 1918 by the United States Steel Co. so they could build an iron ore dock on the point. The bodies were reburied in Saint Francis Cemetery in Superior. There is a stone marker in the Saint Francis cemetery which states "Here lies the bodies from Wisconsin Point removed in 1918." A sign has since been erected on Wisconsin Point by the Superior Indian Organization designating the site of the old Indian Cemetery.