The White Chief of the Ottawa

A biographical sketch of Philemon Wright and his family, recording settler experiences as they establish a community on the Ottawa, combining documented letters and diaries with local tradition; chapters describe encounters with Indigenous people including rituals and negotiations, domestic life, voyages, hunting, accidents, weddings, tragedies, and social connections with various contemporaries. The narrative alternates anecdote and documentary material to trace family relationships, pioneer enterprise, and hardships of frontier settlement, and is supplemented by period illustrations and archival extracts.