Billy Bowlegs: the Real One(s)

In an earlier post we met William Augustus Bowles, a Anglo-American imposter and adventurer who tried and failed to create an independent State of Muscogee in Spanish Florida and ended up starving himself to death in a Cuban jail.  His memory lives on in a festival in Fort Walton Beach called the Billy Bowlegs Pirate Festival.   Yes, Bowles was a pirate, but there's no evidence he ever set foot in Fort Walton Beach, nor was he called Billy Bowlegs in his lifetime.  The only explanation of how he got that name was that somehow his legend got mixed up with one of four men who were the real Billy Bowlegs.  Each of them were important Seminole chiefs and worthy of a post in his own right, but we're listing them here to clear up the confusion.

The first was a Seminole leader named Bolek (d. 1819).  He came from families of chiefs on both his father's and mother's sides.  His father was Ahaya (Cowkeeper) and his brother was known to White men as King Payne.  The name Bowlegs didn't come from any physical deformity on Bolek's part, but was a corruption of his name.  He began his career as a village chief, where he became known for preventing Georgia slaveholders from entering Seminole territory to pursue escaped slaves.  He and his brother, King Payne, began raiding White settlements in Georgia and Florida until Payne was killed and Bolek succeeded as Principal Chief.  He led his people through the First Seminole War (1816-1818).  When he died, he was succeeded by his maternal grandnephew, Micanopy

The next Billy Bowlegs (1810-1859), whose nickname again came from the surname of Bolek and not from any physical characteristic, also came from the Cowkeeper family.  He was a nephew of Micanopy, which meant that he achieved his status through his mother's relationship to Micanopy, though his father may have been the brother or nephew of the previous Bolek.  Billy rose to prominence during the Second Seminole War (1835-42), taking up the fight after Osceola was captured and died, and Coacoochee agreed to remove to Oklahoma.  Billy and his remaining band of Unconquered Seminoles remained in Florida until 1855, when surveyors once again moved into their territory, cutting down trees and destroying property.  Billy proved to be a successful partisan leader, directing his men on lightening strikes against the enemy.  Coacoochee returned to Florida and convinced Billy to remove to Oklahoma, where he became a wealthy planter and lived until his death in 1859.

The next Billy Bowlegs likely wasn't related to this important family, but took the name in honor of the preceding Billy.  Sonuk Micco (d. 1864), was a veteran of the Second and Third Seminole Wars.  When the Civil War broke out, pro-Confederate forces took control of Oklahoma, including a sizable Cherokee contingent under Stand Watie.  Some Seminole and Creek leaders objected to this and wished to remain loyal to the Union.  Although their tribes were traditional enemies, Sonuk Micco allied his men with Creek leader Opothleyahola to make the journey to Fort Belmont, Kansas to seek Union protection.   In a series of battles known as the Trail of Blood on Ice, Opothleyahola and Sonuk Micco led their men in a running retreat against the advancing Confederates, then suffered a terrible winter at Fort Belmont with little in the way of rations or shelter.  Many Creek and Seminole died, including Sonuk Micco himself.

The final Billy Bowlegs also took his name in tribute to Number 2 above, though he wasn't a chief or related to a chiefly family.  His ancestry was equally impeccable as he was reputed to be a maternal grandson of the Unconquered himself, Osceola.  Billy Fewell (1862-1965) also had African descent, lending credence to the idea that at least one of Osceola's wives was black.  He had remained in Florida after most of his people were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma and became an important cultural link to younger generations.  He was an elder of his tribe, living on the Brighton Reservation in Florida, until his death. 

Indian Removal: Potawatomi Trail of Death, 1838

As has been said many times, the Five Southeastern Tribes weren't the only ones removed during the Jackson administration's purge of Natives from the Eastern United States.  Natives remaining in the Old Northwest, what is now Indiana, Illinois and Ohio, were also forced to remove.  In 1838, it would be the Potawatomi's turn.

The Potawatomi had been at odds with Government official since the Battle of Fort Dearborn in August, 1812, when Potawatomi attacked a caravan of soldiers and civilians evacuating the Chicago area.  Beginning in 1818, the Potawatomi had signed a series of treaties agreeing to cede their land and move west, then did their best to stall for time.  Leaders such as Menominee, who was also a medicine man, thought up one excuse after another to keep their people in Indiana.  The signs weren't favorable.  Hunting hadn't been sufficient in this or that season.  Too many people were old or ill.  For years, this had worked.  Patience with the Potawatomi ran out during the Black Hawk War of 1832 when, although many leaders tried to keep their people neutral, some individuals sided with Black Hawk and others served with U.S. forces.  No matter what they did, the Potawatomi were distrusted it and it all harked back to Fort Dearborn.  Even the fact that they had begun to farm and to Christianize didn't soften officials' attitudes toward them.

Finally, in 1838, the Governor of Indiana authorized General John Tipton to remove Menominee and his Yellow River Band, who were living at Twin Lakes, Indiana, near present-day Plymouth.  On August 30, 1838, Tipton and his men surrounded Menominee's village and called for them to meet in their chapel for a council.  As the people arrived, their leaders were detained and the rest of the group not allowed to leave until the march began.  859 people would march over 660 miles from Twin Lakes to what is now Osawatomi, Kansas.  On the way, 40 people, mostly children, would die from malnourishment and exposure to heat, dust and disease along the trail.  As they left, the soldiers destroyed the village to prevent any attempt at lingering or return.   Their village missionary priest, Father Benjamin Petit, went with them to serve as interpreter, priest, caregiver and in any other way he could.  Menominee and two other leaders were at first forced to travel in a wagon as prisoners.  With Petit's intercession, they were finally allowed to travel on horseback at the head of their people. 

Petit, Tipton and some others wrote journals during their travels, as well as letters to family, friends and colleagues, giving details of the march.  Many of the Potawatomi had horses to ride, which lessened the burden somewhat, but the heat, dust and scanty rations took their toll on everyone, mostly the children.  Petit spoke of baptizing children who died almost immediately after birth.  At his urging again, the men were allowed to hunt to supplement their rations with game and the health conditions began to improve for some, but not others.  Care for the sick was a constant concern, as their only recourse was riding in the intense heat in jolting wagons, sweltering under canvas coverings.  Many of them also died. 

The Potawatomi, minus the ones who had died and were buried along the trail, arrived in Osawatomi, Kansas on November 4, 1838, as winter was coming on, with no way to cultivate the land or build shelters against the approaching cold.  Father Petit stayed with his congregation until a new priest arrived to take up where he left off.  As he journeyed back to Indiana, he became ill in part from the harsh conditions of the journey and died in St. Louis.  Meanwhile, the trek wasn't over for the Potawatomi who had come from Indiana.  They moved across Kansas several times in the years leading up to the Civil War.  In 1861, some Potawatomi accepted a treaty giving them land in Oklahoma along with United States citizenship.  They became the Citizens Band Potawatomi.  Other Potawatomi remained in Kansas, where the Prairie Band Potawatomi has a reservation.  Meanwhile, others had returned or remained in Indiana, where they became part of the Huron or Pokagon Bands.  Over 2500 fled to Canada.  As with the Kickapoo and other Northeastern tribes, the Potawatomi were scattered and broken up into smaller and smaller units. 

Since 1838, groups of interested citizens began placing markers along the trail taken by the Potawatomi from Indiana to Kansas.  There are over 80 such markers now.  Benjamin Petit was buried under the chapel at Notre Dame University.  A statue commemorating Menominee stands near Plymouth, Indiana, where his village once stood.  In 1909, Historian Jacob Platt Dunn called the march the Trail of Death in a book he wrote about Indian Stories and the name has stuck ever since.     

Natives versus Settlers: the Black Hawk War, May-August, 1832

For Americans today, this brief War is notable only for the presence of one Illinois militia captain who never had to fire a shot in anger, Abraham Lincoln.  In its wider context, it's a microcosm of how the United States government tried to deal with the problem of Natives living in traditional lands east of the Mississippi, fraudulent treaties, pitting tribes or bands against one another, and finally forced removal.

The Sauk and Fox tribes originally lived along the Great Lakes, but had been displaced in the 18th century and resettled along the Mississippi River in Iowa and Illinois.  During the time of this War, they numbered about 6,000 people.  In 1804, Indiana governor William Henry Harrison negotiated a treaty with members of the tribes to cede their land for about $2,000 in trade goods.  This treaty was disputed for several reasons.  First, the men signing on behalf of the Sauk and Fox were not chiefs or leaders duly authorized to sign for the tribe.  Second, there may have been misunderstandings about what the treaty called for, since thousands of acres shouldn't have been sold for such a paltry amount.  Hoping to avoid trouble for now, the Government signed a further treaty in 1816, which gave the Sauk and Fox the right to live on the land until the Government was ready to survey it and open it up for settlement.  That day came in 1828 when Indian Agent Thomas Forsyth informed the tribes that they would have to prepare to move West.

The Sauk and Fox were divided.  Some coalesced around an orator named Keokuk who, although he believed the 1804 treaty was a fraud, was convinced of the futility of fighting the United States.  Others gathered around Black Hawk, a war leader though not a chief, who had signed the 1816 version of the treaty but believed that he had not been told the full ramifications of what he was signing, which he likely wasn't.  Black Hawk and his followers determined to hold onto Saukenuk, the Sauks principal town in Illinois, where he had been born and lived his entire life.  When the tribe returned from their winter hunt, they found the town occupied by Settlers waiting for their deeds from the government to come through.  After several months of clashes, Black Hawk told Forsyth that he would give up Saukenuk and left for Iowa. 

Black Hawk changed his mind and, in 1830, led his people back to Saukenuk, joined by 200 Kickapoos.  They had begun flying the British flag as a taunt to the Americans, and had heard rumors of possible support from British Canada, which never materialized.  For this reason, they are known as the British Band.  When they again returned to Saukenuk in 1831, Black Hawk's group included Potawatomi and had grown to 1500 warriors.  The Americans began assembling troops with the goal of intimidating Black Hawk into going back to Iowa and staying there.  On June 26, 1831, the Americans surrounded Saukenuk, only to find that it had been abandoned.  They later signed an agreement with Black Hawk to leave Illinois, remove his people west of the Mississippi and to have no further dealings with Canada.

Meanwhile, Neapope, who was a civil chief of the Sauk, returned from Fort Malden (Amherstberg) in Ontario, Canada, telling Black Hawk they had the support of other Illinois tribes and British authorities in Canada.  To this day, no one knows on what basis Neapope thought he had this level of support.  Black Hawk again began trying to recruit allies, which for the most part didn't materialize.  Then, word reached Black Hawk that a Winnebago visionary and Sauk civil chief known as Wabokieshiek also claimed that other tribes were ready to support the movement.  Black Hawk's movement did recruit Winnebagos (Ho-Chunk), Meskwakis, Kickapoos and Potawatomis who were dissatisfied with their leaders for not standing up the White aggression, but they weren't as many as Black Hawk had hoped.  Black Hawk led his followers back to Illinois in 1832.  Some believed that he was intended to reoccupy Saukenuk.  Others, that he intended to head for Wabokieshiek's village at Prophertstown..  Black Hawk himself may have been ambivalent about which of these two objectives he really sought.  Because his force contained, in addition to 500 warriors, about 600 women and children, he did not consider it a war party and most likely was heading to Prophetstown, which he believed was allowed by the agreement he had signed.

The Americans, though, considered this a war party and an act of aggression.  The Jackson administration had come to power and Indian Agents who were known to the Natives and might have calmed the situation, such as Thomas Forsyth, were dismissed in favor of Jackson appointees ready to take his hard line despite not knowing conditions on the ground.  These new men were willing to take advantage of inter-tribal rivalries and recruited other Winnebago and Potawatomi, along with Dakota (Sioux), and Menominee allies willing to fight against Black Hawk in exchange for, they hoped, concessions regarding their own lands.  The Government had troops in the area to detain the Meskwaki, who had recently been involved in clashes with the Menominee, when it realized it had a larger situation on its hands.  The commander wrote to the Governor of Illinois, requesting militia.  Among the men who mobilized at Beardstown was a 23-year-old lawyer named Abraham Lincoln. 

The local commander decided to send emissaries to Black Hawk, which he rejected.  At this point, Col. Zachary Taylor, also a future present, was sent to handle the problem.  While the Americans were sorting themselves out, so were the Natives.  Tribes and bands of tribes split in a confusing array of coalitions and alliances, as some leaders tried to keep their people out of the war and others, or individuals and groups of other tribes, went over to Black Hawk.  The Potawatomi were in the most difficult position of all.  Because many people in the area remembered the Battle of Fort Dearborn in 1812, they deeply distrusted the Potawatomi and their leaders who were trying to keep their people out of the war.  Repercussions would fall disastrously on this tribe, but more on that later.  Black Hawk decided that the time had come to negotiate a peaceful resolution, but fate was against him.

On May 12, 1832, a force of troops and militia advancing along the Rock River realized that Black Hawk's band wasn't far away and decided the time had come to strike.  The militia, who had been sent forward to reconnoiter the enemy, decided instead to open fire in an encounter that became known as the Battle of Stillman's Run, near present-day Stillman Valley, Illinois.  Accounts differ as to why the battle started, but both sides agreed that Black Hawk attacked the militia camp at dusk, pulling off an incredible surprise.  Twelve militia were killed, while Black Hawk lost only 3 men.  Whatever had been Black Hawk's initial intent in coming back to Illinois, he was now involved in a war.  Black Hawk found refuge for the non-inhabitants as skirmishes broke out between troops, militia and settlers and members of Black Hawk's band.  Despite efforts of their leaders to keep them out of the conflict, individual Winnebago and Potawatomi also engaged in raiding, one such raid killing the Government's Indian Agent and further inflaming the situation.  As Settlers and neutral Natives fled, mostly toward Chicago, and Illinois militia deserted to protect their families, the American forces scrambled over and over again to reorganize. 

Skirmishes continued through June, including an attack on June 14, 1832 near present-day South Wayne, Wisconsin, where 30 warriors attacked a group of farmers, killing several.  A force of troops and militia met more of Black Hawk's band on June 16, 1832, near a bend in the Pecatonica River named, ironically, Horseshoe Bend.  They inflicted a defeat on the Natives, strengthening the American side of the fight.  On that same day, at Kellogg's Grove in present-day Stephenson County, Illinois, American troops scored another victory over a raiding party, following it up at Waddame Grove two days later.  On June 24, 1832, Black Hawk and 200 warriors attacked the partially-constructed fort at Apple Grove, near present-day Elizabeth, Illinois.  The Natives were gaining the upper hand, but Black Hawk called off the attack.  He did so again the next day during another skirmish at Kellogg's Grove, when his forces had militiamen under siege at a fortification there before Black Hawk retreated again.  Running low on food and ammunition, Black Hawk decided to retreat into Wisconsin. 

Andrew Jackson ordered General Winfield Scott to take command.  Scott gathered about 950 men and began a journey across the Great Lakes toward Chicago.  His men became sick with cholera en route, rendering most of them useless.  When he landed in Chicago, Scott had about 350 men left.  Meanwhile the local commander, knowing that he was soon to be replaced and potentially fired altogether, worked his sources among the Potawatomi and Winnebago, who were now willing to cooperate with the Americans.  They hoped, wrongly, that their cooperation would save them from U.S. retaliation after the War was over.  While American troops marched toward where they though Black Hawk's non-combatants were located, a Metis trader informed them that Black Hawk was camped on the Wisconsin River near present-day Hustisford, Wisconsin.  Black Hawk's band, weakened by death, wounds, desertion and illness, fled from the approaching Americans. 

On July 21, 1832, the Americans caught up with Black Hawk at present-day Sauk City, Wisconsin.  As their people scrambled to cross the river, Black Hawk and Neapope faced the Americans in the Battle of Wisconsin Heights.  The Americans lost 1 militiaman killed while Black Hawk lost over 68 warriors.  He held on long enough to allow most of the women and children to get across the River, a difficult operation that earned him the grudging respect of his enemies.  Still, Black Hawk wasn't ready to turn himself in.  As militia pursued him, Black Hawk had a messenger shout out a message that they would fight no more but intended to go west of the Mississippi.  Because no one interpreted the message, it remained undelivered up the American chain of command.  Believing his message had been received, Black Hawk continued his journey toward the River. 

On August 1, 1832, a steamer outfitted with a cannon arrived at the junction of the Bad Axe River with the Mississippi as Black Hawk's people prepared to cross.  Black Hawk put up a white flag.  The Americans, suspecting a trick, opened fire with the cannon.  Twenty-three Natives were killed.  The next day, Black Hawk and Wabokieshiek with a few of their more determined followers, decided to head north to seek refuge with the Ojibwe, while the rest of his group remained at Bad Axe, where they were soon attacked by the Americans.  Black Hawk tried to rejoin the group, but was repulsed near present-day Victory, Wisconsin.  The Americans at Bad Axe faced about 150 warriors trying to protect about 500 non-combatants.  The non-combatants tried to cross to an island in the middle of the river, but the cannon on the steamboat opened fire.  260 members of the remaining British Band were killed, including over a hundred non-combatants trying to cross the river.  Menominee warriors chased after fleeing survivors.  Dakota warriors also tracked more survivors to the Cedar River on August 9, the final battle of the War.

Americans lost about 77 soldiers, militia and settlers killed, not including anyone in General Scott's expedition who died of cholera.  Estimates vary for Black Hawk's forces but may have included up to 600 warriors and non-combatants.  Surviving troops and militia among the Americans including a surprising number of future Senators, Governors and one President, all of whom touted service in this War as part of their political record.  The War demonstrated to Americans the need for a mounted force, leading to the creation of the Mounted Ranger Battalion in 1833, which later became the 1st Cavalry Regiment.  Meanwhile, Black Hawk fled north to seek refuge with the Ojibwe, but was spotted at Tomah, Wisconsin.  Local Winnebago convinced him to surrender, which he did at Prairie du Chien.  Zachary Taylor took charge of the prisoners and sent them to Jefferson Barracks under the custody of Jefferson Davis (yes, that Jefferson Davis) and Robert Anderson (of Fort Sumter fame).  Black Hawk, Neapope and several other leaders of the revolt were later transferred to Fort Monroe, where they were treated as curiosities and had their portraits painted by Charles Bird King, considered in his day the dean of artists portraying American Indians. 

Prior to their release, the prisoners were taken to Washington, D.C. for an audience with Jackson.  There, Jackson informed Black Hawk that he now considered Keokuk to be the leader of the Sauk and Fox people, displacing Black Hawk as war leader, and other traditional civil chiefs previously appointed by the tribe.  The prisoners were then sent on a tour of Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, where Black Hawk's handsome son drew kudos and admirers.  In the East, the defeated Natives were treated as celebrities.  When they reached Detroit, crowds grew hostile and Black Hawk was hanged in effigy.  Meanwhile, Jackson and his officials moved forward with Indian Removal of any remaining Native tribes in the Old Northwest, by treaty if possible, by force if necessary.

     

Settlers v. Natives: the Apalachee Massacre

In 1700, the last Habsburg King of Spain died and Louis XIV of France wanted to place his grandson Philippe on the throne as the first Bourbon Monarch.  While some European powers accepted that this had been the dying King's choice as his successor, others, led by England, opposed France's claim and most of Europe rushed into war to carve up Spain's vast colonial empire.  The War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1714), known as Queen Anne's War in North America was on.  What did this have to do with the Natives of Carolina (it wasn't divided North or South then) and the Spanish province of La Florida?  Everything.

The borderlands between Charles Town (now Charleston) founded in 1670, and the two Spanish bases of Pensacola (founded in 1689) and St. Augustine (founded in 1565), was a tense place.  Georgia wouldn't exist until 1733, so slavers and raiding parties from various tribes used what should have been a buffer zone as a free range to conduct their activity.  Bands of Creek Natives, who were constantly at odds with the Apalachee and other Florida tribes, created most of the raiding and fighting back and forth.  With the War of the Spanish Succession in full swing in Europe, colonial officials in Carolina saw an opportunity to exploit this situation for their own advantage. 

Their first target was the Apalachee Province in what is now western Florida and southwestern Georgia, where Spain had established fourteen missions to convert the Native population to Roman Catholicism.  In addition to religious activities, many missions were also large farms and ranches, owing their prosperity almost entirely to Native labor.  Conditions were harsh.  Natives who refused to work the land or reverted to their traditional beliefs were harshly punished.  Needless to say, many Apalachee were unhappy with their Spanish overlords, who demanded work but did not protect them from English slavers or Creek raids.  When hostilities broke out in 1702, there were roughly 8,000 Apalachee in and around these mission farms, which provided most of the food for St. Augustine and Pensacola.

In 1702, Governor James Moore of Carolina saw his opportunity and requested funding from the Colonial legislature for raids on St. Augustine.  Other than destroying missions in Guale Province (what is now coastal Georgia), the raid was a failure and Moore was removed from office, though he still had a great deal of personal influence.  Meanwhile, the Spanish governor of Florida ordered some missions abandoned, others consolidated and fortified.  Natives from some missions were displaced and sent to others, further increasing their unhappiness.  In 1703, Creeks attacked several of the missions, taking over 500 Apalachee as slaves.

In 1703, ex-Governor Moore presented to the Carolina legislature yet another plan for raiding the Spanish missions in Florida.  He promised that the entire endeavor would be paid for by Spanish loot and Native slaves.  The Colony wouldn't have to spend any money.  The legislature gave the authorization.  Moore set out with 50 colonists and 1,000 Creek allies against the Apalachee, who were traditional enemies of the Creek.  On January 25, 1704, Moore's force moved against Ayubale, one of the larger mission towns in Apalachee Province.  The local priest at Ayubale, Father Angel Miranda, barricade himself, several other men along with women and children in the church compound of the village and held off the English for 9 hours, only surrendering when his force was out of ammunition.  He threw himself on Moore's mercy and hoped to be allowed to march out unharmed.  He and 26 men, along with several dozen women and children, were slaughtered by Moore's force. 

Word reached Captain Juan Ruiz de Mexia at the next largest town of San Luis de Apalachee.  He raised a force of 30 Spanish cavalry and 400 Apalachee warriors.  They marched to the relief of Ayubale and were defeated.  Over 200 Apalachee were killed.  Moore captured Mexia and tried to extort a ransom from Florida's governor, who refused to pay.  Moore continued his rampage through Apalachee Province.  Some Apalachee, such as those living at San Lorenzo de Ivitachuco, saw their chance to be rid of Spanish domination and threw open their gates to Moore.  Moore looted the gold from the church and sent the surviving Apalachee back to what is now Savannah to resettle.  San Luis de Apalachee also followed suit and was spared.  Other towns and villages chose to fight and the consequences were severe.  Moore took them by storm, burning crops and buildings.  He later reported that he killed more than 1100 men, women and children, removed 300 into exile (those who gave up voluntarily), and captured over 4300 people as slaves.  These were dispersed among plantations in Carolina, or shipped to New England or the Caribbean.  Five missions were destroyed and the Spanish decided that others were indefensible.  Apalachees retreated to Pensacola or as far as the French base at Mobile.  Others chose to leave their homeland with Moore's force. 

Moore returned to Carolina, but Creek forces followed up with more raids into Florida in 1704.  The result of this combined activity was the loss of two thousand Apalachee lives, and the depopulation of Spanish Florida with the exception of St. Augustine and Pensacola.  Nor were the Apalachees who settled along the Savannah River to get the peace they hoped for.  They were harassed by slavers and Creek raiders.  Throughout the duration of the War, the English tried to capture either St. Augustine or Pensacola, as well as the French base at Mobile, but were never successful, and more raids ensued, further decimating any remaining Apalachee and other Florida Native populations.  Although the Apalachee ceased to function as a tribe, a few hundred descendants still live in Louisiana today.

Great Leader: Cornstalk of the Shawnee

Being an ally of the new United States could be hazardous for a Native leader.  We've already discussed the fate of White Eyes of the Delaware/Lenape.  Another man met a similar tragic end, Cornstalk of the Shawnee (1720-1777).

Cornstalk or Hokoleskwa was born in Pennsylvania, though his family, including his sister Nonhelema, immigrated to the Ohio Territory.  He may have taken part in the French and Indian War (1755-1762) and Pontiac's War (1764-67), though his presence in the latter is only documented as far as the peace negotiations.  During the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix, where the Iroquois gave up their claims to the Ohio Territory, other tribes such as the Shawnee were not consulted.  As Settlers poured into the Ohio River Valley, precious hunting ranges of the Shawnee, Delaware and others were being depleted.  The friction led to Lord Dunmore's War (1774).  Cornstalk led Shawnee and Mingo warriors at the Battle of Point Pleasant in October, 1774, where they were defeated.  He agreed to further land concessions at the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, which ended the War.  His presence at those negotiations struck everyone who met him.  Tall, commanding and good-looking, he was also a skilled orator and diplomat.  One visitor wrote that Cornstalk was a better speechmaker than Patrick Henry. 

When the American Revolution broke out in 1775, Cornstalk wished to keep his people neutral.  Some Shawnee, such as Blue Jacket, actively fought for the British, hoping to reclaim their hunting grounds.  A rift developed within the tribe over whether to fight or stay on the sidelines.  In the fall of 1777, Cornstalk visited Fort Randolph at Point Pleasant in what is now West Virginia on a diplomatic mission.  He was instead taken hostage and detained at the fort.  He was allowed comfortable quarters, but not his freedom.  Later, his son Elinipsico along with another Shawnee leader named Red Hawk and an unnamed Shawnee visited Cornstalk in prison.  They were also detained.

On November 10, 1777, soldiers outside the Fort heard gunfire in the surrounding woods.  When they went to investigate, they found a Settler apparently killed by Natives, though that was never certain.  Not bothering with collecting the facts, the enraged soldiers returned to the Fort and burst into the room where Cornstalk and the others were being held.  Elinipsico, sitting on a stool with his back to the door, was the first to be shot.  Red Hawk attempted to escape out a window or chimney, but was pulled back into the room and either strangled or stabbed to death, as was the other unnamed Shawnee.  Cornstalk had stood to face his attackers and took eight shots at point-blank range, collapsing to the floor.  He soon died and was buried on the Fort grounds.  The others were buried in a mass grave outside the Fort and their resting place was soon forgotten.  Later, Cornstalk's remains were removed at least twice, first at the Mason County courthouse grounds and, later, at a cemetery in Point Pleasant.  Realizing that they had a Shawnee uprising on their hands, Virginia officials led by Governor Patrick Henry demanded that Cornstalk's murderers be tried for the crime.  However, fellow soldiers refused to testify and the soldiers were acquitted.

And, as usual with Natives who die violently at the hand of White men, or whose graves are disturbed, rumors began to circulate about a curse.  Point Pleasant and the surrounding environs have a reputation for tragic and deadly incidents, everything from mine collapses to train wrecks to unsolved murders.  According to legend, as Cornstalk lay dying, he made last, lengthy speech pronouncing a curse on the White men who settled in the area.  Assuming that a man who'd just taken eight musket balls at point-blank range was still in a position to say anything, he may have given the men who shot him and his son a piece of his mind, but whatever he said wasn't recorded.  Native curses are yet another stereotype, retold and embellished over time.  There is no evidence that he indeed pronounced such a curse.   Ditto for the Mothman, which is a crypto-zoological creature that supposedly haunts the area.  No evidence exists that Cornstalk had or has anything to do with that either.

Great Woman: Molly Brant

Native history is filled with brother-and-sister teams who band together to contribute as best they could to helping their people survive, Lozen and Victorio, Cornstalk and Nonhelema, or Joseph and Molly Brant.  Today, we'll look at Molly (1736-1796). 

Although women held a respected place in Iroquois society Molly was not from one of the Mohawk families given the right to chose a Sachem.  She was never a clan mother, except among her specific family.  Yet, like Joseph, she rose through a combination of connections, luck and the strength of her own mind and personality.  She was born at Canajoharie on the Mohawk River, near present-day Fort Plain, NY.  Her childhood name was a Mohawk word meaning "Someone Lends Her a Flower".  Her adult name, more commonly known, was Deganwodanti, meaning "Two Against One", which fit her relationship with Joseph and much of the rest of the world.  Both brother and sister garnered their fair share of jealousy from fellow Mohawk, who thought they were pretentious and getting above themselves.

Molly stepfather was a Mohawk Sachem, with the last name of Brant.  To more solidify their place in their society, she and Joseph took their stepfather's surname.  Like many Mohawk, the Brant family were Anglican, lived in a frame house, and spoke English in addition to their Native language.  As a young woman, Molly was described as being "very likely", which meant "quite pretty".  When British Superintendent for Indian Affairs Sir William Johnson came to Canajoharie, he stayed with the Brant family.  He and Molly became intimate before 1759, when her first son by him, Peter, was born.  She soon moved to Johnson Hall, where she would bear Johnson a further seven children.  She presided over his home, greeted his guests and, in every way, acted as his wife, though a formal marriage was out of the question.  Joseph also came to stay with his sister at Johnson Hall, bringing him further under Sir William's influence.  He and Molly were valuable assets to Johnson in furthering his influence with the Iroquois.

Sir William Johnson died in 1774, having provided generously for Molly and their children in his will.  She returned with her children to Canajoharie as the American Revolution loomed.  She was a staunch Loyalist who provided food and shelter to other Loyalists who were hiding from Patriot reprisals or fleeing to Canada.  She remained in Canajoharie until after the Battle of Oriskany, where she had tipped off the British, through Joseph, about Patriot efforts to relieve besieged Fort Stanwix.  Oneida and American forces retaliated against the Brants by burning Canajoharie and Molly had to flee to the Iroquois capital of Onondaga. 

Once at Onondaga, the Iroquois held several councils as to what to do about the Revolution, which side to back or to stay neutral.  Although some leaders were in favor of staying neutral, Molly persuaded most of the tribes to remain
in the fight, siding with the British.  She used her influence as Johnson's widow and the stepdaughter of a Sachem to carry her point and British observers realized that a word from her was often enough to get the Iroquois Grand Council to do whatever the British needed done.  Later in 1777, she moved to Fort Niagara at the request of Loyalist officer Maj. John Butler, to bolster Iroquois loyalty in that area.  Two years later, in 1779, after the Sullivan Expedition had driven the Iroquois from their homeland forever, she served as a mediator, negotiator and advocate for both British and Natives, dividing her time between Fort Niagara, Carleton Island, and Montreal, all of which were filled with Native refugees fleeing the havoc in New York.

In 1783, she moved to Cataraqui, near what is now Kingston, Ontario.  The government built her home and gave her a yearly pension.  Her eldest son, Peter, had been killed serving with a British regiment during the War and most of her daughters married British army or naval officers.  Hoping to make us of her influence with the remaining Iroquois in New York, the Americans offered her a larger pension if she would return to the Mohawk Valley.  She refused.  She lived out her life in Kingston and died there, though the exact location of her grave is unknown.  Her son, George, married a Mohawk woman and maintained some of her influence after her death. 

In 1994, she was named a Person of National Historic Significance in Canada.  She has been commemorated by a Canadian postage stamp and a bust in Kingston, among other honors. 

Captivity Narrative: Mary Draper Ingles

While some captives grew attached to their Native families and wanted to stay with them as long as possible (see Simon Girty and Mary Jemison), others didn't appreciate the experience at all and used every means to get back to White society as soon as possible.  Such was the case of Mary Draper Ingles (1732-1815), who spent over two months with the Shawnee before she found a chance to head for home.

Mary was born in Philadelphia to George and Eleanor Draper, recent immigrants from Ireland.  In 1748, while Mary was still a teenager, her family moved to Virginia and established a settlement on Stroubles Creek near present-day Blacksburg.  In 1750, Mary married William Ingles and the couple had two sons.  Things went well until the outbreak of the French and Indian War.  On July 8, 1755, a party of Shawnee allied with the British raided Draper's Meadow.  Four men were killed.  Mary, her sister-in-law Betty Draper, Mary's son's Thomas and George, and two adult men were captured.  The two men died from running the gauntlet and the other members of the group were split up as the Shawnee made their way back to their base at Shawneetown, near the junction of the Ohio and Scioto Rivers.

Not sure whether her children or her sister-in-law were alive or dead, Mary made herself useful to her captors by sewing shirts from trade cloth.  The Shawnee paid her in trade goods for her work.  In October, 1755, she was taken to the Big Bone Salt Lick near present-day Big Bone, Kentucky.  There, in late October, she and another woman slipped out of camp with nothing but blankets, moccasins and tomahawks to begin the arduous journey home.  She realized that her best chance of finding a White settlement and help was to follow the network of rivers in the area.  They kept to the Ohio River, and at its junction with the Licking River near present-day Cincinnati, found an abandoned cabin with corn.  From there, following the Ohio, Kanawha and New Rivers while fording others such as the Licking River, Big Sandy, Little Sandy, Twelvepole, Guyandotte, Coal, Paint and Bluestone, over 140 rivers and streams in all.  At one point, when their crossing place was too deep, the two women constructed a crude raft to make it across.

As the weather turned colder and food supplies ran out, Mary's companion began talking about killing and eating her and made two attempts on Mary's life.  Mary decided to go it alone as they reached the New River on or around November 26, 1755.  She eventually came to the cabin of a Settler she knew named Adam Harmon, near what is now Pembroke, Virginia.  Mr. Harmon returned for the other woman, and took her to a nearby fort, where she joined a wagon train for Pennsylvania.  Mary was reunited with her husband, William, whom she had feared dead from the Shawnee attack, but who had fled into the wounds severely wounded and survived.  The couple had four more children.  They established the Ingles Ferry over the New River, along with a blacksmith shop and tavern, hoping they would get word of their two boys someday.  They lived out their lives in the cabin shown here.

George died in captivity but Thomas, who'd been taken at age 3, spent over thirteen years with the Shawnee, becoming fully acculturated.  He was eventually returned to White society and his family, where he had to learn English all over again.  Later, he would fight against the Shawnee during Lord Dunmore's War (1774).  He served in the American Revolution and, years later, when his own wife and children were captured in a raid, he went looking and got them back. 

Betty Draper, Mary's sister-in-law, eventually wound up with the Cherokee.  Years later, her husband and Mary's brother, attended a council with the Cherokee and John Draper found out that his wife was with the band of one of the leaders present.  He arranged a ransom and retrieved Betty.  The family's story was passed down through letters and oral tradition, but has been the subject of several novels and a 1995 TV movie "Follow the River".

In addition to her cabin being preserved, a statue of Mary stands outside the Boone County Public Library.  A memorial made of chimney stones was erected over her grave in West End Cemetery in Radford, Virginia, and Radford University named one of its buildings Draper Hall in her honor.  There is also a bridge, a portion of a highway and other points in the general area named for her. 

Native Life: Turbans

Today, turbans are more associated with Middle Eastern cultures while Natives are routinely pictured with feathered headdresses or decorations in their hair.  While feathers played an important role in most Native adornment, so did the turban for many Woodlands tribes.

The story goes that, during the eighteenth century, a Cherokee delegation visited London and, as per usual, had their portraits made by a European artist.  He thought that the traditional shaved heads of Cherokee warriors wouldn't be as pleasing to the eye of a European audience, rummaged his shop and came up with some turbans that had been left behind by a Turkish patron and voila, a trend was born.  While turbans didn't constitute part of Native headgear prior to contact with Europeans, their introduction to Native life is most likely due to the fact that turbans are easily made from any handy strip of cloth.  All you need is a little ingenuity, which is probably why many cultures around the world adopted them.

An important item of trade among Natives was cloth, most often calico.  Made from cotton and block-printed with a variety of designs, calico cloth was attractive, cheap and durable.  The first turbans were likely cloth worn bandanna-style, tied around the head.  As time wore on, members of Northeastern and Southeastern tribes put their own variations on the theme.  Cherokee men quickly adopted White dress, but differentiated themselves by calico turbans wrapped around the head, as Sequoyah is often pictured.  Men of the Muscogean tribes, such as the Choctaw Pushmataha, used cloth that had already been made into shawls, leaving the fringed ends hanging down on either side.  He and other leaders and prominent warriors decorated their turbans with silver bands, or feathered plumes, as the Seneca Guyasuta is pictured wearing in the miniature.

However, it was among the Seminole that turbans reached a superb art form.  Seminole men would take several pieces of cloth and wind them tightly about the head, securing the fabric with decorated silver bands.  The outfit would be complete with large crane plumes of various colors.  Osceola's configuration of two black and one white plume was a well-known "trademark" that appears in all images of him.  He sometimes bestowed white plumes from his turbans as gifts or peace offerings.  After his death, White officers at Fort Moultrie divided his white and black plumes and cloth he used for his turbans among themselves as souvenirs. 


 Here's a clip from a modern Cherokee turban maker on how to tie a turban.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-FfCk6Qb90

 

 

 

The Battle of Oriskany, August 6, 1777

This skirmish between Patriots and Loyalists leading up to the climactic battle of Saratoga was one of many in the Revolution fought almost entirely by Americans with Native allies.  No British officers or units were present on the field.  It's also one of many battles in several frontier wars that were fought with Native allies on both sides,  For this reason, it's also one of the bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War, although not one of the larger or more remembered ones.

Early in the War, Americans had taken over Fort Stanwix, near what is now Rome, New York.  On August 2, 1777, British forces laid siege to the Fort and an American relief party commanded by General Nicholas Herkimer, aided by 280 Oneida and Tuscarora under John Shenandoah, Louis Cook and Han Yerry was sent to break the siege.  The British commander of the area sent Loyalist units under Sir John Johnson, son of William Johnson, the Queen's Rangers, a Loyalist Unit under John Butler, and Mohawk and Seneca warriors under Joseph Brant, to break the siege.  They ambushed the Americans at Oriskany, near the present-day town of that name.  General Herkimer was mortally wounded, so much of the control of the battle went to the Native leaders on the Patriot side.  For the Iroquois, this was the first time in centuries that the members of the Confederacy had broken the Great Law of Peace and faced off against each other.  For this reason, Seneca oral tradition remembers Oriskany as "a place of great sadness". 

The battle was fought on Oneida land.  Fort Stanwix guarded a portage on the Oswego River known as the Oneida Carry, a place where Oneida and other Iroquois had to carry their canoes around a rough portion of the River.  British General John Burgoyne intended to split New York and cut New England off from the rest of the Colonies and sent General Barry St. Leger with a large Mohawk and Seneca contingent down the Mohawk Valley to do just that.  They laid siege to Fort Stanwix, the only Continental fort in the area, guarding the portage across the Oswego River.  Nicholas Herkimer, a member of the local Committee of Safety, was tipped off by the Oneida about the British movements.  He raised the Tryon County Militia and rushed to the relief of the Fort.  Meanwhile, Molly Brant learned of the Americans movements and got word to her brother Joseph.  St. Leger dispatched him and his men, along with the two Loyalist units mentioned above, to meet the threat.

Herkimer had sent messengers ahead to warn the Continentals in Fort Stanwix that they were coming.  The agreed-on response was three cannon shot, after which the men inside the fort would attempt a sortie.  On August 6, 1777, not having heard the signal, Herkimer wanted to wait for further word or indication from Stanwix.  His commanders disagreed, accusing him of being a closet Loyalist because his brother was with Burgoyne's army.  Herkimer had no choice and pushed on toward Stanwix, leading his men through a marshy ravine where Cornplanter and another Seneca leader were waiting to meet them.  Cornplanter sprung his trap, catching most but not all of the American force still ascending from the ravine.  Herkimer was hit and his horse was killed.  Propped against a tree, he tried to direct the battle as best he could.  Many of the militiamen fled, but the Oneidas and some more stalwart souls stood fast. 

A thunderstorm put a temporary hiatus on the fighting.  Johnson sent back to St. Leger, requesting more men.  As the fighting resumed, the Natives fighting on the British side resumed attacks with tomahawks.  Herkimer instructed his men to fight in pairs, one reloading while the other shot, to fend off the attacks.  Meanwhile, Butler had found out about the cannon signal, and convinced some of his men to turn their coats inside out to hide the green color used by Loyalist forces.  Disguising themselves as a relief party, they advanced toward Herkimer's men as if to help.  Patriots recognized the faces of Loyalist neighbors and went fighting hand-to-hand. 

Meanwhile, the commander of Fort Stanwix sent out a sortie, who began raiding the empty British, Loyalist and Native camps.  Now facing a threat behind them, Native runners from the camps alerted their compatriots on the field.  The Seneca and Mohawk withdrew to protect the camps, forcing the Loyalist units to do likewise.  Herkimer's men retreated to Fort Dayton, near what is now Herkimer, New York.  Herkimer's leg was amputated, but infection set in and he finally died on August 16, 1777.  The Oneidas and other Natives retrieved their dead and wounded, but the Patriot dead and wounded were left on the field, providing a grisly sight for other American forces coming to relieve Stanwix. 

Brant and other Native leaders with the British were furious with the Oneidas for having turned against the other tribes of the Confederacy.  They sent the Oneida leaders a bloody hatchet, and followed up the threat by burning the Oneida village of Oriska.  Not to be outdone, the Oneidas struck back, burning Tionanderoga and Canojahorie.  Stories circulated of ritual killing and cannibalism by the Natives supporting the British.  Though some prisoners may have been ritually killed, there is no evidence of the Patriot propaganda charge of cannibalism.  The Oneida's raids on the Mohawk eventually forced most of them to flee to Canada.  The battle is considered a tactical victory for the Redcoats, they stopped the Americans from relieving Stanwix.  But it was a strategic victory for the Americans because they were in control of the ground when the Loyalist forces withdrew.

The Seneca and Mohawk leaders fighting with St. Leger were angry with the British, since they had born the brunt of the casualties and lost most of their personal property.  They believed they were to serve mostly as scouts, with Redcoats doing the lion's share of the fighting.  Too late, they realized they would bear much of the fighting with little British support.  Blacksnake, a cousin of Cornplanter, later recalled that there was so much Native blood spilled that it ran a stream upon the ground.  This is the Battle featured in the movie, Drums Along the Mohawk in 1939. 

Children of the Country: the Metis

Canada has three federally recognized indigenous groups, First Nations, Inuit, and Metis.  The Metis developed as an ethnic group over time, as first French and then Anglo men immigrated from Europe and formed unions with Native American women.  The word Metis (may-tee) is a cognate of the Spanish word Mestizo, which means roughly the same thing, a child born of a Native parent, usually female, and a European parent, usually male.

In the past several posts, we've met many Metis people who successfully bridged the gap between Native and White society.  Many of them remained loyal to their (usually) mother's people while being educated or maintaining contact with their Father's world.  Some attained leadership positions in their Native society.  Many married people who were like themselves, of mixed-race.  Prior to Indian Removal, there was no stigma attached to these unions or the children they produced, as long as the children were properly provided for, which they usually were.  Children of these unions were considered members of their tribes and their skills at languages and frontier survival gave them a calling card for employment along the frontier.  Over time, the Metis developed their own ethnic group, speaking dialects of French and/or indigenous languages.

Things began to change in the 19th Century, as Natives were forced onto reservations and stigma began to attach to mixed-race people.  Metis were often overlooked or excluded from land allotments, ration distribution and the like though they, too, were often forced West.  This sparked a series of Metis-led revolts, which are beyond the scope of this blog.  Only in the 20th century were the Metis finally given recognition by the Canadian government as an ethnic group.  Metis in the United States who can prove their ancestry are often attached to Native reservations here. 

Family Ties: The Johnsons, Brants and Croghans

Families on the Frontier not only bridged two worlds, Native and White, they also straddled two political ideologies, Loyalist and Patriot.  This was nowhere better illustrated than another extended Pennsylvania-New York clan, the Johnson, Brant, Croghan family.

Our story begins with two talented Mohawk leaders, Joseph (1743-1807) and Mary or Molly Brant (1736-1796).  Exactly how Mary met Sir William Johnson isn't known.  However, their stepfather was a Mohawk Sachem, so it isn't inconceivable that the families were introduced to each other socially at some point.  Mary soon became the companion of Johnson and mistress of his estate at Johnson Hall, where the household included their eight children and her younger brother Joseph.  Johnson became an important mentor and contact for Joseph and assisted his rise to the rank of war chief in the Mohawk Nation.  Joseph and Johnson, the first Superintendent of the British Indian Department worked hand-in-hand for years.

Enter George Croghan (1720-1782).  Like Johnson, he was Irish-born and immigrated to America, migrating to the Pennsylvania frontier.  Perhaps inspired by the Montour family, Andrew was a contemporary and colleague, he went to the Natives of the Ohio Valley, rather than expecting them to come to a trading post.  He learned Lenape, Seneca and perhaps other languages as well, soon becoming a top trader in a field dominated by the French.  He had a child by one relationship, then he met and married Catherine, the daughter of a leading Mohawk Sachem whose title was Tekarihoga.  As a woman from a family with the right to confer the sachem-ship on her father's successor, this was a key match for Croghan.  Their daughter, also named Catherine, would marry Joseph Brant as his third wife.  Her son, John, would in turn become Tekarihoga in the 1830's. 

Croghan deserves a post of his own, which he will get in due time, but suffice it to say that while the Johnson and Brant portion of the family stayed loyal to the Crown, Croghan worked behind the scenes for the Patriots, trying to use his influence to keep the Ohio tribes neutral.  His empire collapsed when American military officials accused him of treason and barred him from the Ohio Valley.  He died in obscurity in 1782. 

Meanwhile, Joseph and Molly immigrated to Canada after the British lost the Revolution and their ancestral homeland was burned over by the Sullivan Expedition of 1779.   But the saga continued down another generation.  Joseph Brant's daughter by Catherine Croghan, yet another Catherine, married William Johnson-Kerr, a grandson of William Johnson and Molly Brant, linking the three families forever.

Family Ties: the Chartiers of Pennsylvania

At the same time as Madame Montour began a trading and interpreting career that would sustain her descendants for a generation, another Metis family was putting down roots in Pennsylvania.

Martin Chartier (1655-1818) was born in France and learned the glove-making trade.  He immigrated to Quebec and decided that exploring the frontier was more exciting.  In 1674, he accompanied Joliette on the first of several expeditions into Illinois.  He later joined La Salle's expedition and helped build Forts Miami and Crevecoeur.  In 1680, a mutiny broke out at Crevecouer, which was burned to the ground.  Chartier was implicated in the mutiny and fled.

He found refuge with the Shawnee, the Pekowi band led by Straight Tail Meaurroway Opessa. Through another line, Opessa would be an ancestor of Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa. Opessa gave his daughter Sewatha as Martin's wife and she bore him, among others, his son Pierre (1690-1759).

Martin and Sewatha migrated with their family, keeping up with her Shawnee relatives and following the fur trade.  He eventually established a trading post with his son Pierre. Pierre married another Opessa woman, with the unusual name of Blancniege, which literally means Snow White.  They had several children of their own.

Throughout his life on the frontier, Pierre had seen the terrible effects of alcohol on Natives. Unscrupulous trsders and Indian agents plied Natives with alcohol and used their inebriated state to force agreements to unfavorable trade or even land concessions.  Responsible Shawnee leaders saw it, too, and asked Martin to approach Colonial authorities and put a stop to the practice.

Martin stepped into a political perfect storm. Colonial officials benefitted as much from the fur trade as anyone else, through kickbacks from traders to encourage politicians to turn a blind eye to what was going on.  Martin's stance also angered traders themselves, for whom alcohol was one of their more lucrative items. Unlicensed traders poured into Shawnee country.  Some Native leaders tried confiscating and smashing liquor kegs, which only increased the tension.

Martin realized the Colonial officials in Pennsylvania would never do more than pass a law permitting Native leaders to destroy alcohol if they objected to it.  Authorities were unwilling to stop the illegal traders from smuggling in whiskey in the first place.  Martin led his mother's people from Pennsylvania to Kentucky to escape the more unscrupulous traders, finally settling in Old Shawneetown in Illinois.

He offered his services to the French during the French and Indian War and his sons led Shawnee warriors on behalf of the French and against the British during Pontiac's War. Chartier descendants are spread throughout Canada and the Northeastern United States today.

Family Ties: the Monotours of Pennsylvania and New Yrok

Our next family is a clan of talented interpreters and traders who successfully bridged the divide between the White and Native worlds.  Though the details are obscured and sometimes confusing, it's still possible to give a rough sketch of this remarkable and talented family.

The matriarch was Isabelle or Elizabeth Couc (1667-1753), the daughter of a French officer and an Algonquian mother.  She was born in Quebec and captured by the Iroquois during her youth, picking up several of their languages.  Like many men who'd had the experience of being raised by Natives, she later made a successful career as a trader and interpreter.  She interpreted for the French military at various forts throughout the frontier, where it was specified that she be paid the same as a man. She became a paid interpreter for the Colony of New York.  Later, she and her family resettled in Pennsylvania.   Like many people of that time period where early mortality was common, she married several times.  One of her husbands was an Oneida leader named Carandawanen, more on him in a later post.  By him, she had at least two children.

Andrew Montour (1720-1772) inherited his mother's business sense and flair for languages.  During the French and Indian War he worked for he British Indian Department, achieving the rank of Captain.  Later, he commanded warriors loyal to the British during Pontiac's Rebellion (1764-1767).  He was granted land in Pennshylvania.  His son, John, served on the American side during the Revolution.

Madame Montour's niece and Andrew's sister, or some sources indicate her niece and thus his cousin, was Catherine Montour, called French Catherine.  She had several children, some of whom joined the family business of interpreting. Margaret, also called French Margaret, married an Iroquois leader and had several children.  She later settled near what is now Williamsport, Pennsylvania.  Like her grandmother, mother and siblings, she was fluent in several languages and was also an interpreter.

 Esther Montour, called Queen Esther by Whites who failed to understand the important place of women in Native society, married a Delaware leader named Echogohund.  She followed him to war, and after his death at the Battle of Wyoming in 1778 (this has nothing to do with the State of Wyoming but was fought in Pennsylvania), she led her husband's warriors.

Her sister Mary, who married a Mingo leader, was fluent in several languages and also served as an interpreter when such was needed.

Roland, another of French Catherine's children, was married to the daughter of a Seneca leader and served on the British side during the American Revolution.  He is said to have died of wounds during an encounter known as the Sugarloaf Massacre in 1780, an battle between Natives and Loyalists on one side, and Patriots and Native allies on the other, which will be covered in a later post.  Despite his British allegiance, his putative grave is marked with a statue.

There are several sites named for this remarkable family, including the town of Montoursville, Montour County, Catherine, New York, Montour, New York, and Montour Falls, New York, just to name a few.

Family Ties: the Wind Clan of the Creek

For our second theme week, we're looking at families who co-existed and intermarried Natives.  In the centuries before Indian Removal, such interracial marriage didn't carry the stigma it did in later years.  One such family was the extended children, grandchildren and in-laws of three Coushatta Creek womenn named Sehoy.

As with many Eastern Woodlands societies, the Creek or Muscogee traced kinship snd inheritance through the female line.  Children were born into their mother's clan and inherited their property and status though her clan.  In Creek society, the most prestigeous clan was the Wind Clan and, though Wind women weren't princesses, they had a great deal to offer their children in terms of status.  The fact that some of these children were mixed-race wasn't held against them.  If their mother was Creek, so were they, no distinction made about blood quantum

The story begins with a woman named Sehoy (1702-1772), called Sehoy I to avoid confusion.  Sehoy married a Frenchman named Louis Marchand.  Louis was a captain of French Royal Marines stationed at Fort Toulouse in what is now Elmore County, Alabama.  He and Sehoy I had two children.  A boy, Red Shoes, who became a Creek chief, and a girl, Sehoy II.   Then Louis was killed a mutiny in 1722 and Sehoy married a Choctaw chief.  One of their daughters married a White silversmith with the last name of Francis.  Their son, Josiah, whom we already met, would become the Red Stick prophet.

Meanwhile, Sehoy II grew up and married a Scottish trader, Lachlan McGillivray.  They had a son, Alexander.  Though Lachlan provided his son with a White education, Uncle Red Shoes gave Alexander his warrior training and sponsored his rise as an up-and-coming leader.

Straightforward so far, but then it gets real confusing, so hang on.  Sehoy II and Lachland had several daughters.  One of them, Sehoy III would marry a man named Weatherford and their son, William, became Red Stick war leader William Weatherford, or Red Eagle, whom we've run across in the Creek War.

Sehoy III's sister Betsy would marry a man named Durant and their daughter would marry Peter McQueen, another Red Stick leader.

Meanwhile, Lachlan McGillivray had died and Sehoy II married again to a man named McPherson.  Their daughter would marry into the McIntosh family and bear a son William, who became a chief, as well.  William was of the White Stick faction and would be assassinated by his own people for signing away Creek land in treaties.  Even in a close family, there's drama.

Then McPherson died and Sehoy II married again, to a man named Moniac.  Though it wasn't the done thing for a man and woman of the same clan to marry, their daughter Hannah married her cousin Josish Francis and had daughters, one of whom was Milly, whom we've seen in a previous post.

Sehoy II and Moniac's son Sam also married a cousin and his son, Major David Moniac, grew up to do the family proud before being killed in battle in 1836.

And just to show that all this chaos does make perfect sense, David married Polly Powell, a sister or cousin of Osceola and great-niece of Peter McQueen.

Did it Happen: Jeffrey Amherst and Smallpox

There's no getting around it.  The short answer here is yes.  Biological warfare is not a twentieth century invention.  People have been using it for centuries.  Whether it's throwing dead bodies into a town that's besieged, or introducing articles that have been infected by smallpox, plague or whatever, it happened.  And, it happened in North America during Pontiac's War (1764). 

Lord Jeffrey Amherst (1717-1797) was the Wellington of the French and Indian War.  After the death of General Wolfe at Quebec, he took over the successful siege of that City.  The victor of Quebec, Louisbourg and Montreal, he was credited with taking several French forts and winning other battles as well.  Just the right person to be the first Governor of the Province of Quebec.  In those days, Quebec encompassed all of France's losses in North America, running from what is now Quebec proper through the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys to New Orleans.  This was quite a chunk of territory and British forces were spread thin.  Amherst intended to take a firm hand with the Native population.  He forbade whiskey sales to Natives and severely limited trade goods, weapons and ammunition.  He believed that such things were bribery and he had no intention of stooping to bribery to enforce obedience.

The Natives objected, and with good reason.  They needed the guns and ammunition to hunt for food for themselves and for the beaver pelts and other skins which fueled their trade with Settlers.  Trade good such as mirrors, pots and other items were not only household necessities for Native families but items of trade.  To limit these items was to throw their bartering economy into a serious setback.  It wasn't long before several leaders, Pontiac of the Ottawa and Guyasuta of the Seneca among them, began raiding isolated British forts and settlements to make their views known.  Fed up as the Natives besieged his forts and created more of a threat than he had bargained for, Amherst embarked on a diabolical idea.  He had heard that smallpox had broken out at some of the newly occupied British forts and wrote to one of his subordinates, Col. Henry Bouquet:

Could it not be contrived to send the small pox among the disaffected tribes of Indians? We must on this occasion use every stratagem in our power to reduce them.


Bouquet dropped a post-script to his next letter:

P.S. I will try to inocculate [sic] the Indians by means of Blankets that may fall in their hands, taking care however not to get the disease myself. As it is pity to oppose good men against them, I wish we could make use of the Spaniard's Method, and hunt them with English Dogs. Supported by Rangers, and some Light Horse, who would I think effectively extirpate or remove that Vermine.

Amherst replied:

P.S. You will Do well to try to Innoculate [sic] the Indians by means of Blankets, as well as to try Every other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race. I should be very glad your Scheme for Hunting them Down by Dogs could take Effect, but England is at too great a Distance to think of that at present.

Nor were these two the only ones who'd thought of this means of decimating the Native population.  A trader wrote that, at the fort he was based at, they had given a Native delegation two blankets and a handkerchief from the smallpox ward of the infirmary.  Just how far these men got in their scheme isn't known, but smallpox epidemics among Natives in the Pittsburgh area continued to break out for several years after Pontiac's Rebellion was put down. 

Crazy Brave Medicine: Josiah Francis of the Creek

Some spiritual leaders preached a message that fired their people to resistance or a new way of life.  Others had more intangible powers that were equally effective in making warriors want to fight the invading Settlers.  Abiaka was one known for his medicine, a combination of ceremonies, herbs and other methods to inspire Seminole and Miccosuke warriors into the proper frame of mind for battle.  So, too, was Josiah Francis (1770-1818).

Josiah was mixed race, born in central Alabama to a silversmith father and a Creek mother.  He married into the Wind Clan, the first among the Creek clans.  This made him a nephew by marriage of Alexander McGillivray and a brother-in-law of William Weatherford, a Red Stick Creek leader.  He was inspired by Tecumseh's movement and instructed by a Shawnee medicine man, though not Tenskwatawa himself.  He became known for his skills at preparing warriors for battle, hence his
Creek name, Hillis Harjo, or Crazy Brave Medicine.  Though he was primarily a spiritual leader, he sometimes led war parties in the field, as he did along with Weatherford at the Battle of Burnt Corn, which we discussed in an earlier post.

At the disastrous conclusion of the Creek War, as his family fled to Florida along with the McQueens, Powells and others, he traveled to England to enlist English  help for a resurgence of the Creeks.  The English promised nothing concrete and he returned to Florida in 1817.  At first, he was prepared to lay down arms and try to coexist with the Americans.  But as more and more Settlers poured into Florida, he again took up the fight.  Andrew Jackson invaded Florida and began burning Native villages, sparking more resistance.  Jackson quickly determined the leaders and culprits and on April 8, 1818, Josiah Francis and a Seminole war leader were hanged on Jackson's order, in sight of Francis' daughter Milly, his wife and Milly's sisters. 

Native Life: Agriculture

A common justification for taking Native land was that the Natives either could not or would not farm, the land was going to waste and should be put to better use.  No one who spouted this theory stopped to consider that Natives had been using some very sophisticated means of farming for centuries before Settlers arrived in North America.

The method that Squanto taught the Pilgrims when they first landed in 1620 of planting corn, beans and squash together and fertilizing them with dead fish is a form of companion planting, where the seeds of various food crops were sown together to maximize the use of available soil and allow the plants to benefit each other.  Maize was the first of the three to be planted, and fertilized with dead eels or fish when the soil was poor.  When the maize stalks grew tall enough, beans were added.  The beans would use the stalks of the maize plants to climb.  Bean plants also provided important nutrients to the soil.  Finally, the squash was added.  Squash vines running along the ground provided several benefits.  The vines allowed no room for weeds to grow.  They shade kept the soil underneath all three crops stable and moist, and the leaves provided mulch as another form of fertilizer.  The resulting staple crops, called the Three Sisters in Iroquois legend, were rich in carbs and amino acids.  They could be stored for long periods of time and be a reliable, nutritious food source when other means of sustenance, such as hunting, weren't yielding as much.

For this reason, tribes who subsisted by farming maintained relatively stable home grounds, though they could move an entire village when the soil played out.  Chilicothe, the Native town for which the City was named, changed location several times during this period.  Tribes sometimes migrated seasonally between their farmland or their hunting range, each of which was vital to surviving the next year.  Because of their experience as farmers, Eastern tribes were open to new agricultural ideas, Nancy Ward of the Cherokee asking Washington for farm implements was one example.  When Sullivan's men raided the Iroquois villages in 1779, they were surprised by the prosperous farms, including livestock and farmhouses, that the Iroquois had built.

Another criticism leveled at Native societies was that the women did all the farm work.  While they did the lion's share of it, men divided the labor hunting, fishing, and keeping intruders away from the villages and off the tribal hunting range.  Among the Creek and other Southeastern tribes, during the corn season, everyone worked to get the corn harvested as quickly as possible.  Even a war leader like Osceola did his time in the fields without complaint.  People who remembered him as a young man remembered that his cheerfulness and energy in this work helped everyone else to bear up. 

As with their Northern counterparts, White settlers admired the farms and even plantations of their Native neighbors.  Assuming it was the rich soil, not the labor of Native farmers, that produced the bounty, Settlers soon wanted the land for themselves.  After the Trails of Tears of the 1830's, tribes relocating to Oklahoma weren't provided with seed or farm implements and rations were scarce, leading to starvation and illness.  Successive delegations of Native leaders failed to move government officials to address these concerns. 

The Open Door: Tenskwatawa of the Shawnee

Life can be rough for a young man born into a famous family when he doesn't quite make the grade.  Things get compounded when that young man has a disfiguring disability and some character traits that make him his own worst enemy. 

Tenskwatawa (1775-1836) was born into a family of warriors.  His father, Pukeshinwa, was a noted warrior and chief of the Kispoko band of the Shawnee.  Pukeshinwa's oldest son, Cheeseekau, would later succeed his father as chief, as would the next eldest sibling, Tecumseh.  All three would die fighting for their homeland, as would yet another of Pukeshinwa's sons, who were all noted warriors.  Their sister, Tecumpease, was married to a warrior in his own right, Wasgoboah.  Then there was the baby of the family, Lalekawitha, the Noise Maker.  He was the only survivor of a set of triplets born to his mother Methoataske and Pukeshinwa after Pukeshinwa was killed at the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774.  Grief-stricken, Methoataske decided to return to her people for a long visit, leaving her younger children in the care of Tecumpease and Cheeseekau. 

There was no reason that Lalekawitha wouldn't grow up to be a warrior like the other men in his family.  However, at a young age, he damaged his eye while practicing with a bow.  The injury was visible and disfiguring.  Added to that the fact that he just didn't seem to cut it at warrior training and Lalekawitha grew up to be an insecure young man whose mouth got him in a lot of trouble.  He later turned to alcohol and became known as a drunken bully and braggart, not to be regarded in anything.

It was Tecumseh who tried to help Lalekawitha as much as he could, even taking him along to the Battle of Fallen Timbers to see if he couldn't finally become the warrior he wanted to be.  Tecumseh also took Lalekawitha with him to Indiana to start a Shawnee village there, but Lalekawitha's efforts at redemption came to nothing.  He slipped further into drinking and eventually became ill and fell into a fire during a drinking binge, becoming seriously injured.  While unconscious, he began to see visions.  According to the visions, the Americans were the spawn of the Great Serpent and their luxury goods had spread corruption to the Native people.  Lalekawitha proclaimed that he had been given a new name, Tenskwatawa, or the Open Door, and commanded to preach his visions among the people.  He demanded that they give up European items and return to their original way of life.  He also believed that some Shawnee had fallen into the error of witchcraft and began calling for witch hunts to determine who they were. 

Tenskwatawa had his skeptics at first but that changed in 1806 when he predicted a solar eclipse and embarrassed Indiana's military governor, William Henry Harrison, in the process.  Tenskwatawa's teachings caught on and spread to other tribes, leading to the founding of Tippecanoe, or Prophet's Town in 1808.  With Tecumseh as his war leader, the two were an unbeatable combination and people from other tribes flocked to join them.  Naturally, this large gathering of Natives and rumors of a pan-Indian Confederacy and uprising didn't sit well with Harrison, who began making plans for military action. 

Matters came to a head in 1811, Tecumseh journeyed South to convince the Creek and other Southeastern tribes to join his Confederacy.  He'd left Tenskwatawa in charge at Prophet's Town with strict orders that if the Whites tried to attack the town, it would be evacuated.  On November 7, 1811, Harrison advanced on he town.  Although the town was surrounded, Tenskwatawa chose to attack.  The Natives were defeated and several killed in the Battle of Tippecanoe.  Surviving Natives from other tribes abandoned the town in droves while the humiliated Shawnee stripped Tenskwatawa of his status as a prophet, burned the village and fled.  Tecumseh returned and, furious, banished Tenskwatawa rather than killing him.  Nevertheless, Tenskwatawa trailed along as his people sought refuge in Canada.  He may have found asylum with John Norton's band of Mohawk but was not present at Tecumseh's death at the Battle of the Thames in 1813.

Beginning in 1825, he again tried to reassert leadership among his people, eventually leading a small group to a settlement in what is now Argentine, Kansas.  He died in 1836.