Lake Pontchartrain was named by Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur de Iberville, elder brother of Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville. He tactfully named the lake after the French Minister of Marine and Colonies, Count Pontchartrain. Another nearby lake he named for the count's son and successor, Jerome Maurepas. Before Bienville decided, in 1718, on the river location for the settlement he would call La Nouvelle Orleans, his brother Iberville set out to search for the entrance to the Mississippi River. They had arrived at Mobile Bay in February 1699, and a month later, on Mardi Gras, Iberville and a small party began their ascent up the river. Their journey took them to the present site of New Orleans and as far as the Red River. There they turned around and made their way back by way of the two lakes. When the brothers Le Moyne arrived, the region of the lower Mississippi Valley was the domain of the Choctaw Indians. A once powerful tribe of the Muskhogean family, they were the first major tribe to form an alliance with the French in Louisiana. The Choctaw called the lake "Okwa-ta" or "Ok-Hata," meaning wide water. Fort Ponchartrain The first permanent French settlement in the Detroit region was built on this site in 1701. The location was recommended by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who wished to move the fur trade center south from Michilimackinac. Cadillac's plan was approved by Count Jerome de Pontchartrain, Minister of Marine, for whom the fort was named. The term le detroit (the strait) was applied to the fort and surrounding area; after 1751 the post was known as Fort Detroit. In 1760, as a result of the French and Indian War, the British gained control of Detroit and other posts in the Great Lakes region. British troops enlarged Fort Detroit, but during the American Revolution they moved to nearby Fort Lernoult, built in 1778-79. The Americans occupied Fort Lernoult in 1796 and renamed it Fort Shelby.