William Yellowhead, or "Musquakie" or "Misquuckkey" (Miskwaaki or Miskwaa-aki: Red-earth), as he was known in Ojibwe (other attested names include "Mayawassino" and "Waisowindebay" (Wezaawindibe: Yellow-head)) was the "head chief" of the Chippaweans of Lakes Huron and Simcoe and leader of the Deer clan of that people[2] from 1817 until his death in 1864.
[7] Notwithstanding the surrender of this vast swathe of land, representing most of their remaining territory, Musquakie and his people reserved the right under the purchase agreement to continue to range and hunt there.
[11] In 1842, Musquakie and Aisance, along with Naingishkung, Big Shilling, Joseph Snake and another chief, wrote to Governor General Charles Bagot protesting that Bond Head had not fully explained the 1836 purchase agreement, and had, in particular, not made it clear that it did not involve an upfront, lump-sum payment, nor that the Ojibwe would receive only one-third of the sale proceeds.
They were soon dismissed, at which they complained "most bitterly" to government agents that the small stipend paid to them for this brief period of service was too little to offset the economic blow of having been compelled to abandon their hunting.
[14] Bond Head's call to arms had followed on the heels of the relocation of Musquakie and his band from the Narrows to a new settlement at Rama, established in 1838 on a tract of land the Ojibwe had purchased for themselves on the eastern shores of Lake Couchiching.
From the outset the Rama settlers were under considerable pressure from their creditors; in 1839, Musquakie, Naingishkung and Big Shilling wrote to the government that they were relying on that year's hunt to enable them "to pay our debts to those we have been so long owing",[15] presumably white traders for the most part.
Although the Chippewas of Rama still reserved the right to hunt across the extensive territory their chiefs had sold in 1815 and 1818, by 1838 European settlement was putting pressure on the game population, and the Ojibwe were also "obliged frequently to submit to irritating and extremely unjust Treatment on the Part of the neighbouring White Settlers".