Memeskia known by the British as "Old Briton" and by the French as "La Demoiselle", was an eighteenth-century Piankashaw chieftain who fought against the French in 1747.

A prominent member of the Piankashaw tribe, Memeskia was one of the earliest opponents of the increasing French presence in North America regarding their dominance and monopoly over the fur trade

Fur trade

The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...

 in the western Great Lakes

Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

 region. In 1747, Old Briton (as he was now known), led a rebellion with a confederation of local tribes, against local French settlements successfully attacking Fort Miami

Fort Miami

Fort Miami was the name of several forts in what is now the United States.*Fort Miami *Fort Miami *Fort Miami...

 at Kekionga

Kekionga

Kekionga, also known as Kiskakon or Pacan's Village, was the capital of the Miami tribe at the confluence of the Saint Joseph, Saint Marys and Maumee rivers on the western edge of the Great Black Swamp...

. With British

Kingdom of Great Britain

The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...

 settlers from Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, Old Briton later opened a trading post at his village of Pickawillany

Pickawillany

Pickawillany was a Miami Indian village located on the current site of the city of Piqua, Ohio, in the United States.It was created in 1748 by La Demoiselle, a Miami chief, and was destroyed by the French and their Indian allies under Charles Langlade in June 1752...

 in the Ohio Country

Ohio Country

The Ohio Country was the name used in the 18th century for the regions of North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and in the region of the upper Ohio River south of Lake Erie...

 (later Piqua, Ohio

Piqua, Ohio

Piqua is a city in Miami County, Ohio, United States. The population was 20,738 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area.Piqua was one of the cities that experienced severe flooding during the Great Dayton Flood of 1913....

) in 1750, trading with the British in defiance of French claims to the region.

However rival tribes, under Métis

Métis

A Métis is a person born to parents who belong to different groups defined by visible physical differences, regarded as racial, or the descendant of such persons. The term is of French origin, and also is a cognate of mestizo in Spanish, mestiço in Portuguese, and mestee in English...

 chieftain Charles Langlade, attacked Pickawillany in June 1752 and, with a force consisting of around 240 Ottawa

Ottawa (tribe)

The Odawa or Ottawa, said to mean "traders," are a Native American and First Nations people. They are one of the Anishinaabeg, related to but distinct from the Ojibwe nation. Their original homelands are located on Manitoulin Island, near the northern shores of Lake Huron, on the Bruce Peninsula in...

 and 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...

, eventually captured Memeskia and ritually cannibalized him. Langlade's raid on Pickawillany

Raid on Pickawillany

The Raid on Pickawillany is a famous event in Ohio history, and one of the events that led to the French and Indian War.On June 21, 1752, the Miami Indian village of Pickawillany was attacked by 240 French allied Ottawa and Ojibwa Indians led by the métis coureur de bois Charles Michel de Langlade...

, which drove British traders out of the Ohio Country, was one of the events leading up to 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...

.