A drawing of Joseph Waukazoo (About 1839-about 1910), the only image of him
known to exist, has been found at the Minnesota Historical Society.
Joseph's father was Chief Peter Waukazoo aka Pen-dun-wan, who founded
Waukazooville in Leelanau County (now Northport) in 1849 after moving the
Ottawas there from what is now Holland Michigan. An excerpt from the
article: "Domestic Missions: The Indian Deacons at White Earth" by the Rev.
Joseph A. Gilfillan, published 1881, was found in the archives of the
Minnesota Historical Society:
"Joseph Wakazoo is an Ottawa - a kindred people to the Ojibways.
speaking nearly the same language from Michigan. He is now forty-two years
of age.
He was a soldier in the late {U.S. Civil] war, was shot through the
body in the Shenandoah Valley and was again wounded. He was formerly
attached to the Methodist body in Michigan as a worker, and about six years
ago [that is, in 1875] he came among the Ojibways.
He has been lay-assistant at Leech Lake, and again was in charge of
the Church of St Antipas for some time; and has now a separate charge. that
of the Mission and Church of St. Philip the Deacon, Lake Winniboshish. "
He was baptized by the missionary Rev. George N. Smith, Sr. at
Northport, Michigan in 1852. Joseph's first cousin Payson Wolfe married
Rev. Smith's daughter Mary Jane in 1851. Between 1848 and 1861, he traveled
frequently between northern Michigan and northeastern Ohio as a student at
Twinsburg Institute, Twinsburg, Ohio, graduating in March 1861. At
Twinsburg Institute some of his Indian schoolmates were the Ottawa historian
Andrew Jackson Blackbird and the Potawatomie leader Simon Pokagon. There
is an original handwritten letter from Joseph in the files of the Western
Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland dated June 16, 1852. He enlisted
in the 16th Michigan Infantry near Washington, DC, Nov. 8, 1861, and was
transferred to the all-Indian Company K of the 1st Michigan Sharpshooters on
Nov. 27, 1863. He was discharged from the Army in Detroit Feb. 15, 1865.
After moving to Minnesota, he married Nessette, an Ojibway woman, and (to my
knowledge) never returned to Michigan. Evidently inspired by the example
of his mentor Rev. Smith, he was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church
in Minnesota about 1887. The Durant roll field notes 9B-25 refer to Joseph
as "Rev.". Mr. and Mrs. Waukazoo had two sons, Edman and Franklyn. After
Ed Waukazoo was discharged from the Army in 1919, he moved to Michigan and
married my aunt Ella Fisher. They had 2 daughters who survived to
adulthood, Sylvia and Viola Waukazoo. Many of the Waukazoo members of the
Grand Traverse Band are the direct descendants of Joseph and Nesette.
Ed's brother Franklyn has many living Waukazoo descendants, most of them in
Minnesota and belonging to tribes there. There is a page on the internet
about the family at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~waukazoo/