Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish

Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish (also spelled with various transliterations as Mashipinashiwish, Me-chee-pee-nai-she-insh, Mash-i-pi-wish , Mitch-e-pe-nain-she-wish, or Mat-che-pee-na-che-wish) was a hereditary chief^[1] of a Potawatomi Indian group in what is now Michigan.

He signed the Treaty of Greenville, in 1795, listed as a Chippewa chief with the English name of Bad Bird. (The Chippewa were closely allied with the Potawatomi and Ottawa in the Council of Three Fires). This treaty was signed by chiefs following the defeat of the Western Confederacy by the United States in the Northwest Indian War. The bands ceded considerable territory, allowing settlement by European Americans in the Northwest Territory.

The Treaty of Chicago, which Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish signed on August 29, 1821 listed as an Ottawa, reserved a three mile-square tract for an Indian village at the head of the Kalamazoo River (spelled then as Kekalamazoo); the present-day city of Kalamazoo developed at this site.^[2]

Bad Bird signed the Treaty with the Potawatomi, of September 19, 1827, ceding the tract reserved for the village to the U.S. He did not sign the 1828 Treaty with the Potawatomi, which ceded additional land in southwest Michigan to the US. He did sign the 1832 Treaty with the Potawatomi, which also ceded additional land in the area.

The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi (formerly known as the Gun Lake Band), based in Dorr, Michigan in Allegan County, take their name from this chief. Its members trace their descent from him.

References

• "MADJECKEWISS (Machiquawish, Matchekewis, Michiconiss, Michiguiss, Mitchikiweese, Mudjekewiss, Wachicouess, meaning a hereditary chief; Kaigwiaidosa; Mash-i-pi-nash-i-wish or Bad Bird), Ojibwa chief; b. in present-day northern Michigan, probably c. 1735; d. c. 1805.". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. 2000. Retrieved December 6, 2012.