Chief Tagwagané (c. 1780-1850) was an Anishinaabe

Anishinaabe

Anishinaabe or Anishinabe—or more properly Anishinaabeg or Anishinabek, which is the plural form of the word—is the autonym often used by the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Algonquin peoples. They all speak closely related Anishinaabemowin/Anishinaabe languages, of the Algonquian language family.The meaning...

 (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...

) sub-chief of the La Pointe Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

Lake Superior Chippewa

The Lake Superior Chippewa were a historical band of Ojibwe Indians living around Lake Superior in what is now the northern parts of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.-Origins:...

, located in the Chequamegon area in the first half of the 19th century. He was of the Ajijaak-doodem (Crane Clan). His village was often located along Bay City Creek (Naadoobiikaag-ziibiwishenh: "creek for collecting water") within the city limits of what now is Ashland, Wisconsin

Ashland, Wisconsin

Ashland is a city in Ashland and Bayfield counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The city is a port on Lake Superior, near the head of Chequamegon Bay. The population was 8,695 at the 2010 census....

.

During the signing of the 1842 Treaty of La Pointe

Treaty of La Pointe

The Treaty of La Pointe may refer to either of two treaties made and signed in La Pointe, Wisconsin between the United States and the Ojibwe Native American peoples...

, Father Chrysostom Verwyst, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society

Wisconsin Historical Society

The Wisconsin Historical Society is simultaneously a private membership and a state-funded organization whose purpose is to maintain, promote and spread knowledge relating to the history of North America, with an emphasis on the state of Wisconsin and the trans-Allegheny West...

, was informed by Chief Tagwagané of a copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

 plate his family used for time reckoning. Based on the description Verwyst gave, William Whipple Warren

William Whipple Warren

William Whipple Warren was a mixed-blood Ojibwe historian, interpreter, and legislator in the Minnesota Territory. He moved from Wisconsin to Crow Wing in the fall of 1845. Warren suffered from lung problems for many years and died as a young man of 28 from tuberculosis on June 1, 1853.-Early life...

 concluded that Chief Tagwagané's ancestors first arrived in the Chequamegon Bay

Chequamegon Bay

Chequamegon Bay is an inlet of Lake Superior, NE-SW and 2- wide, in Ashland and Bayfield counties in the extreme northern part of Wisconsin. It lies largely inside the barrier of Chequamegon Point and Long Island, with the Bad River Indian Reservation to the east. Ashland, Wisconsin is on its...

area sometime around 1490.