Tuscola-Saginaw-Sanilac County MI Archives Biographies.....Otusson, Chief Abt 1775 - Abt 1835
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Mark Putnam markrputnam@hotmail.com March 15, 2007, 6:42 pm

Author: Mark R. Putnam

The Village of Chief Otusson was the earliest habitation in Tuscola County 
during written history.

Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico says that the name "Otusson [was] 
(probably form utasun 'bench' or platform' in the lodge.--W. J.)  A former 
Chippewa village taking its name from a chief on the Upper Huron River in 
Sanilac [now Tuscola] County, Michigan, on a reserve sold in 1837.  

In the same book it says that "Matotiswaning" was the same word as Otusson.

The early Cass River was also known as the Wakishegan, Washington, and 
Mattawan River, and the Village of Chief Otusson seems to have been recognized 
as Mattawan because is was easier to pronounce in English and the name 
Mattawan was also used in the Eastern States and a familiar word.

The Cass River was the early home of the people called the Wakisos.  Otusson 
would have been a Wakiso.  Wakiso seems to mean the maker of a fort or 
fortication.  The root word being "waak" probably meaning forest, woods, or 
wood.

The Cass River area was known early on as one of the worlds greatest, and 
finest, pineries.

The road going out of Saginaw into Tuscola County, today, is known as 
Washington Road.

The name Otusson seems to come from the Algonquin word "desa'on" meaning a 
bench or platform, and it may have been that Otusson was known as "High 
Banks".  The area around Caro, Michigan, the county seat of Tuscola County was 
known early on by Native People as the High Banks.

The area was also known as Podunk, which means a "neck or corner of land", but 
this may have been a corruption of the name Otusson and meaning podium [a 
footing in a swamp].

The Algonquin word "des-nagaan" means a flat plat or platter.  The root 
word "des" means a "board side" and is similar to the Latin word "latus".  One 
of the early suggested names for Caro, Michigan, was Latusca.

The Latin word "cola' means agricultural land or a colony.  Tuscola was known 
early on as "Tusci" probably meaning Otusson's Land, Banked Land, or High 
Banks.  The author of the name Tuscola, Henry Schoolcraft seems to have used 
Chief Otusson's name as a base for the name Tuscola and in the process making 
the name Otusson easier to pronounce.

The German word "ducht" means a bank in a boat or thwart.  The German 
word "tisch" means a bench.  Algonquin "bmitdsaa" means a thwart or rafter.

Tuscola County was named for Chief Otusson, whose village included the City of 
Frankenmuth and the area just west of the Town of Tuscola, Michigan.

Mark R. Putnam.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/tuscola/bios/otusson645gbs.txt

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