Chief of mystery

TUESDAY, FEB. 3 — The life of Chief Okemos is shrouded in mystery. One famous rumor suggests that he was hired by the British to assassinate George Washington — and that he missed the target nine times. Other rumors place him in the Battle of the Thames in Ohio, where Tecumseh was killed. Even his age is the subject of speculation. Okemos died in 1858, but conflicting accounts place his birth year anywhere from 1750 to the mid-1770s.

The Historical Society of Greater Lansing will attempt to peel away these myths and find the truth about Okemos Thursday as they present “Chief Okemos: the Man and the Myth.” The chief, who is the nearby village’s namesake, is tied to Lansing history but information about him is scarce.

“No other Lansing figure has inspired such a mythology as Chief Okemos,” Valerie Marvin, HSGL president says. “Lansing residents are proud to call him one of our own, yet most of us really don’t know too much about him.”

Genealogist and amateur historian James Lalone will lead the presentation. Lalone is particularly interested in the Native American tribes of Michigan, and has complied a database of 42,000 Michigan Native Americans.

“I was an anthropology major in college and naturally gravitated toward (Native American) genealogy,” Lalone says. Lalone studied everything he could find about Okemos, and has carefully constructed a history of the chief.

“I think people will be surprised about what they think they know about this warrior chief,” he says.

Local historian and collector Craig Whitford will display and discuss his tintype photograph of Chief Okemos that he bought on eBay several years ago. Only two other photographs of Chief Okemos are known to exist. One, an ambrotype, is in the State Archives; the other is in private hands. It is likely the photographs, with slight differences, were shot at the same time around 1857.