Ongwata was a Huron Indian. In 1777, he and Tonti took in the fugitive Patriots Tom Dobb, Ned Dobb, and Merle Miller as they ran from the British and Mohawk, as the Hurons had poor relations with the British. The Hurons cauterized Ned Dobb's bleeding lash wounds on his feet and helped him recover over the next several months before joining the colonists in fighting for the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War, fighting at the Siege of Yorktown.