Normand MacLeod (c. 1731 – 1796) was a British army officer, merchant, and official of the British Indian Department. He was born on the Isle of Skye, in Scotland, about 1731. At age sixteen he joined the Forty Second Highlanders (Black Watch) Regiment, and went with his unit to the Netherlands and what is now Belgium. By 1756 he was an ensign as the regiment went to New York to fight in the French and Indian War. In 1760 Macleod won promotion to captain lieutenant and transferred to the Eighteenth Regiment. In 1761 Macleod attended the Niagara Conference held between Sir William Johnson and Pontiac. Macleod heard a rumor that Pontiac was being paid ten shillings a day by the British and this was creating resentment among other Indians which would "end in his ruin." Soon after this Macleod