Ma-mong-a-ze-da was an 18th-century Ojibwa

Ojibwa

The Ojibwe or Chippewa are among the largest groups of Native Americans–First Nations north of Mexico. They are divided between Canada and the United States. In Canada, they are the third-largest population among First Nations, surpassed only by Cree and Inuit...

 chief from Shagawamikong. He was a member of the Caribou doodem and his ancestors came from Grand Portage on the north shore of Lake Superior

Lake Superior

Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...

. His father was his mother's second husband as she had been married to a chief of the Dakota

Sioux

The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...

 people previously during a period of peace between the Ojibwa and Dakota. When war resumed the couple was obliged to divorce with the husband and children joining the Dakota and the wife marrying an Ojibwa man. In this way, Mamongazeda's older half-brother Wapasha

Wapasha

Wapasha was the name of a Mdewakanton Sioux chief.Wapasha was born in present-day Minnesota in 1718. During his youth he befriended the agents of King Louis XV of France and was a long time friend to the French against the British. Wapasha and his followers were allies of the French, and aided...

 became a chief of the Dakota while he became a chief of the Ojibwa. In addition to being an accomplished war leader, Mamongazeda was persuasive diplomat and strong ally of the French

New France

New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...

. During the French and Indian War

French and Indian War

The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...

, Mamongazeda raised a party of Lake Superior Ojibwa to fight with the French, and were part of Montcalm

Montcalm

- People :*Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, commander of the French forces in North America during the French and Indian War- Vessels :* French ship Montcalm, four ships of the French Navy...

's army at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham

Battle of the Plains of Abraham

The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, also known as the Battle of Quebec, was a pivotal battle in the Seven Years' War...

. He lived to a very old age and was succeeded by his son, the famous chief and warrior, Waubojeeg

Waubojeeg

Waub-o-jeeg, also written Wa-bo-jeeg or other variants of Ojibwe Waabojiig was a famous warrior and chief of the Ojibwa. He was born into the Adik doodem some time in the mid-18th century near Shagawamikong on the western end of Lake Superior...

.