Cadotte was born July 22, 1764, as the second son to a French Métis father and an Anishinaabe mother in present-day Sault Ste.

His father Jean Baptiste Cadotte, Sr., became a fur trader for French and later British interests in and around the eastern end of Lake Superior.

Michel's paternal great-grandfather was a Frenchman named Mathurin Cadeau, and he had come to Lake Superior in the late 17th century on a French exploratory mission.

[1] Cadotte Sr. pressed westward as a trader along the south shore of Lake Superior and set up a trading post on Mooningwanekaaning (Madeline Island), in Chequamegon Bay in modern-day Wisconsin.

At La Pointe, Cadotte married Ikwesewe, the daughter of the head of the White Crane clan of the Anishinaabe.

Similarly, the head of the White Crane clan believed it advantageous to have a strong alliance with the fur trader through his daughter's marriage.

[citation needed] Cadotte and his brother Jean Baptiste were generous and well-liked; they proved instrumental in brokering peace and commerce in the region.

In 1775 Cadotte and Henry took £2,236 worth of goods from Montreal to the region of the new Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) post at Cumberland House, Saskatchewan.