Ozhaguscodaywayquay

Ozhaguscodaywayquay (Ozhaawashkodewekwe: Woman of the Green Glade), also called Susan Johnston (c. 1775 – c. 1840), was an Ojibwe (also known as Ojibwa) woman and was an important figure in the Great Lakes fur trade before the War of 1812, as well as a political figure in Northern Michigan after the war. She married the British fur trader John Johnston, Waubojeeg had been a war leader when younger, and he became civil chief as an elder in his community at Chequamegon. According to Jameson's 1838 book Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada, Ozhaguscodaywayquay told her when she was 13, she embarked on her vision quest to find her guardian spirit by fasting alone in a lodge painted black on a high hill. Waubojeeg was cautious, as he had seen other white traders later abandon their native wives, and told Johnston to return to Montreal, and if he returned to Chequamegon in the spring, Waubojeeg would consider his proposal. Waubojeeg's motives for his actions are unclear as neither compelled marriage nor violence enforcing it appear typical of Ojibwe marriages or Ojibwe fur-trade marriages.

Johnston was a fur trader for the North West Company. He and his wife were influential in the trade and relations among the Ojibwe, Canadians, Europeans and Americans in the area. They received as hosts many explorers, politicians of both Canada and the U.S., scholars, Native chiefs, and military officers. They were considered among the ruling class in both the Native and European communities. All of their children lived into adulthood.

Their eldest daughter Jane Johnston married the American ethnographer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft in 1823. Assigned to the community as the U.S. Indian agent in 1822, he became noted for his work on the Ojibwe, aided by Jane's access and her knowledge of the Ojibwe language and culture. Jane Johnston has been recognized as the first Native American literary writer and poet in the United States. In 2008, she was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.

Two other Johnston daughters also married prominent white men of the region; Anna Maria married Henry R. Schoolcraft's younger brother, James. George Johnston assisted Schoolcraft as a U.S. Indian agent.

Later life Under the Treaty of Ghent which ended the War of 1812, the U.S. no longer allowed British traders and trappers to move freely across the border between the U.S. and the British colony of Upper Canada. John Johnston's fur trade business never recovered. Lewis, the oldest son, had served with the Royal Navy against the U.S. Taken prisoner during the war, he suffered poor treatment by US forces and rejected living under U.S. rule. After his release, he moved to Upper Canada.

Ozhaguscodaywayquay's political influence grew after the War of 1812, as demonstrated by the story of she and her son, George, dissuaded Ojibwe leaders from attacking the treaty delegation led by Michigan Territory Governor Lewis Cass in 1820.

Ozhaguscodaywayquay was widowed in 1828. After her husband's death, she managed the family fur trading business. She also established a sugaring and fishing business, which she operated with the help of her children for several years. She was known as a physically active woman who caught and preserved local whitefish, regularly paddled her canoe across the broad St. Marys River (Michigan–Ontario), and annually spent time in the woods making large quantities of maple sugar, sometimes returning with as much as two tons. She also began to take an active role in the Presbyterian Church (USA) . Throughout her life, she played integral roles in her family and community as a business woman and leader.