Two Identities, One Man: Spemica Lawba of the Shawnee

In the days before centralized record keeping, verifying personal identity and family information was sketchy at best.  Even now, researchers must often rely on family history or rumor when there is no paper trail and DNA science hasn't advance to the point of connecting one person to one ancestor over several generations back.  This obstacle has led to some interesting puzzles, such as that involving a mixed-race Shawnee or Shawnee/Miami army scout known as Spemica Lawba (c 1774-1812).

Theory one, held by descendants of the Renick family and personal acquaintances of Spemica Lawba holds that on July 25, 1757, Robert Renick was murdered during a Shawnee raid and his family captured.  While most of the family were ransomed at some point, Joshua Renick remained with the Shawnee and became assimilated to their culture.  He was raised by the family of Tecumseh, whom he knew well.  At some later point, Joshua went to live with the Miami and took a wife from that tribe.  He had two sons by her, one of whom he named James.  James also received the Native name of Spemica Lawba, which has been translated as "High Horn".  How or when he received this name remains unclear.  While he was a young boy, High Horn was captured by General Benjamin Logan during his campaign against the Shawnee in 1786.  One object of the raid was to retrieve from the Shawnee any white or mixed race captives to repatriate to White society.  Logan found James Renick and learned something of his family history.  Logan might have known the Renick family as he was, like Robert and Joshua Renick, from Augusta County, Virginia, and both Logan and Joshua Renick had been baptized by the same parson. 

Logan took James Renick home with him to Kentucky and gave him an English education, teaching him to read and write.  In gratitude, James Renick adopted Logan's last name.  Later, James decided to return to Native society and General Logan respected his choice.  James never forgot his English upbringing and, years later, military officers who came into contact with him remarked on his ability to speak English and his love for fine horses.  He became a prosperous farmer and settled in Indiana, marrying a woman who, like himself, may have been of mixed ancestry. 

Theory two was first brought to light in the 20th century, by researchers independent of the Renick and Logan families, such as Allan Eckert of The Frontiersmen fame.  In Eckert's book, James Renick-Logan is referred to as Johnny Logan, or by the White nickname for him, Captain Johnny.  According to this theory, Johnny was a full Shawnee child captured by Logan, raised by him and later returned of his own accord to the Shawnee.  He took the name John Logan in gratitude to General Logan, but chose his Native heritage. 

When the War of 1812 broke out, James Logan joined a cavalry regiment to fight the British.  As with many men on the frontier who had either lived with or had mixed race ancestry, his skills and knowledge of the Natives would come in handy.  He quickly rose to the attention of William Henry Harrison.  In 1812, James Logan was sent to assist with the evacuation of women and children during the Siege of Fort Wayne.  He performed that task and later, Fort Wayne was relieved by Harrison's men.  In November, 812, James Logan was sent on a scouting mission along the Maumee River.  He was captured by warriors under Winnemac, whom we've met earlier, and was shot trying to escape.  He reached safety, but died of his wounds.  His commander, reporting the death to Harrison, wrote that, "more firmness and consummate bravery has seldom appeared in the military theater."  Captain Logan's remains were carried to his home village of Wapakoneta, Ohio and a grave stone placed there.  Later, a tombstone made out to Johnny Logan was erected in Defiance, Ohio.

Which One: Winnemac of the Potawatomi

The story of the two tense meetings between William Henry Harrison and Tecumseh is a dramatic set-piece featured in paintings, prints, novels and even movies.  Around these two more prominent characters were a host of others, not as well known, but playing vital parts in the story.  Today we're focusing on two such men, both Potawatomi leaders and both named Winnemac.  There is often confusion between the two, but we'll sort it out here.

The name Winnemac, meaning "Catfish", was a common name among men of the Fish Clan of the Potawatomi.  The first recorded Winnemac was an Eastern Algonquian Native named Wilamet, no one is sure of which tribe he was from, who in in 1681 accompanied La Salle's expedition to the Great Lakes area.  The name Wilamet also means "Catfish".  Catfish was adopted into the Potawatomi tribe and appointed by the French as a liaison between them and the tribes of the Great Lakes area.  Though he was not a chief in the traditional sense as being one because of descent or merit, he was a chief because the French appointed him as such.  French, British and Americans often interfered in tribal governance in this way, reaching over traditional methods of appointing leaders and picking out men with whom they thought they could deal.  Some sources call these leaders "alliance chiefs" for that very reason.  Wilamet, or Winnemac, as he came to be called by the Potawatomi, appears as a leader for the Potawatomi villages along the St. Joseph River in what is now Michigan. Probably this same man led thirty Potawatomi warriors against the Iroquois in 1694, and either he, or a descendant similarly named, was a signatory to the Treaty of Montreal which ended the Beaver Wars discussed in a previous post.  Yet another Wilamet/Winnemac was a leader of the Fish Clan during the Fox Wars (1712-1733), to be discussed in a later post.  Sources disagree on whether this might have been the same man, now very old, a descendant, or even a Sauk and Fox person adopted into the Potawatomi Tribe.  In 1719, this Wilamet/Winnemac traveled to Montreal in a delegation to seek peace with the Meskwakis.  His son was later captured by them but released. 

Fast forward almost one hundred years, to the War of 1812.  There were two distinct individual leaders of the Potawatomi, both named Winnemac, on opposite sides of Tecumseh's Revolt and the War of 1812.  The split between these men, who may have been relatives and/or descendants of the man or men above reflected the split in the larger Potawatomi Tribe, where some bands supported Tecumseh and the British, some supported the Americans, and others wished to remain neutral.  First, we focus on the Winnemac who was pro-Tecumseh.  He was recorded in 1810 as being among the suspects for stealing a Setller's horses on return from a raid against the Osage.  The Governor of Illinois demanded that the Potawatomi surrender Winnemac and the other suspects for trial but was informed that they had gone to Prophetstown in Indiana.  Along with Shabbona, whom we've previously met, Winnemac led the Potawatomi contingent at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811.  Later, after that defeat, he organized his warriors to besiege Fort Wayne in 1812.  Winnemac and his men tried several ruses to gain entry to the Fort and either kill the commander or take it from within but were rebuffed each time.  Harrison arrived and broke the siege in September, 1812.  Later, Winnemac served under British Agent Matthew Elliot.  On November 22, 1812, Winnemac was on a scouting party that encounter men under Shawnee Chief Logan (Spemica Lawba), a leader of a Shawnee band who did not support Tecumseh.  Winnemac was killed in the exchange of gunfire.

Meanwhile, another Winnemac of the Potawatomi was a staunch ally of the Americans.  He first appeared in the record in 1807, asking the government for farming implements so that his people could learn to farm.  The plan never went anywhere, as the Potawatomi at that time were not traditional farmers.  Also, in 1807, the Jefferson Administration waned to acquire more land in Indiana and Illinois.  A council was called at Fort Wayne to discuss the matter and Winnemac led the Potawatomi delegation.  While the Miami and leaders of other tribes were adamant against ceding any more land, Winnemac persuaded them to grant the cession.  When the land cessions were agreed, none included lands of the Potawatomi.  Winnemac received an annuity from the US government for his assistance.  With the thanks of the Americans came the disapproval and distrust of Native leaders against Winnemac for his willingness to help the Americans.

The showdown came in 1810, when Harrison and Tecumseh met at Grouseland in the first of two failed efforts to halt the impending war between the pan-Indian Confederacy and the United States.  During the heated exchanges, Tecumseh referred to Winnemac as a "black dog".  Not losing his cool, Winnemac held back until the climactic moment when Harrison and Tecumseh physically confronted each other and called for their respective followers to draw or load their weapons.  Winnemac stepped between the two men and separated them, then turned his attention to Tecumseh and his men, speaking directly to them.  Gradually, the tension lessoned.  Tecumseh and his men left the conference.  Later, as raids by anti-American Natives increased in the area, councils were called at Cahokia and Vincennes.  Winnemac was at pains to assure the Americans that no Potawatomi were involved in the raiding, thus sparing his people reprisals for the time being.  Reproached by Tecumseh again for not controlling his warriors, Winnemac's calm reply once more defused a tense situation between him and Harrison.  Winnemac's men were with Harrison's forces at Tippecanoe in 1811.  Harrison dispatched him to go into Prophetstown ahead of the main force and try to talk to Tenskwatawa, but to no avail.  On his way back from Prophetstown, Winnemac passed Harrison's force without rejoining it (this was the age before cell phones, walkie talkies and other communication), and was not present at the actual battle.  Nevertheless, Winnemac was vilified by both sides.  To the Potawatomi who had remained loyal to Tecumseh, he was a traitor.  To the Americans who were angry at the Natives, no matter which side they were on, he would have been a convenient target.

Winnemac was now a laughingstock among his own people.  He continued to support the Americans, leading delegations to various villages seeking the warriors responsible for raiding American settlements.  He was laughed out of each village and ultimately unsuccessful.  It was Winnemac who conveyed Governor William Hull's order to Captain Nathan Heald to evacuate Fort Dearborn in August, 1812, as discussed in a previous post.  Winnemac pleaded with Heald to leave the Fort as soon as possible, something which Heald at first was reluctant to do.   Winnemac did not participate in the attack led by Mad Sturgeon and Black Partridge on August 15, 1812 that led to the Battle of Dearborn.  He was a signatory to the Treaty of Fort Meigs in 1817 and died in 1821. 

The State of Winnemac, used by Upton St. Clair as a fictionalized version of Illinois in his novels, is named for the pro-American Potawatomi leader.  So, too, is Winnemac Avenue and Winnemac Park in Chicago, and Winamac, Indiana.

The Beaver Wars of the 17th Century

Wars can be fought over many things, land, religion, ideology, resources or valuable commodities.  And, in 17th century Europe, one of the more valuable commodities was beaver pelts.  Beaver fur is warm, has a lux look, is water-resistant and can be made into felt for hats, coats or other outdoor weather necessities.  For centuries, Europeans had obtained furs from Russia or Scandinavia but these were expensive and available to very few.  Beaver was more plentiful and available to the rising middle classes of European society.  Thus, each country jealously guarded their sources of the fur and the Native allies they depended upon to provide it.

Fisherman who plied their trade along the North American seacoast were the first ones to discover beaver during the 16th century, perhaps in trade with Natives on whose shores they made landfall.  They brought the fur back to Europe and interest in it spread.  As European powers laid claim to North American, Champlain in Canada in 1600, the English in Jamestown in 1607, the Dutch in what is now New York in 1609-10, and the English again in Massachusetts in 1620, they soon realized that trading for this fur from Natives was a lucrative source of income for both sides.  They also walked into an ongoing dispute between the Five Nations of the Iroquois (the Tuscarora didn't come along until the next century), and nearly every other Native tribe in the Northeast and Great Lakes Region.  The Iroquois, having banded together under their Great Law of Peace, were formidable enemies, especially the Mohawk, who were the most powerful of the tribes. 

Samuel de Champlain was the first to catch on to the politics among the Native peoples.  The Huron, Montagnais and various Algonquian tribes vied for his support against the rapidly expanding Haudenosaunee (Iroquois).  He determined to cut the Iroquois out of the fur and firearms trade and deal only with their adversaries.  He and his small band of Europeans joined forces with the Huron and other tribes to oppose the Iroquois access to the beaver trade, leading to a series of conflicts in which Europeans and Natives became embroiled for the next century.  Nor were the French the only ones seeking entry into the beaver trade.  The Dutch East India Company had commissioned English adventurer Henry Hudson to seek a northwest passage through the North American land mass.  In 1609, Hudson sailed up the river that bears his name and established the first settlement at what is now Albany in 1609.  The Dutch, and later the English who received all of Holland's possessions in North America, were more than willing to cut the Iroquois in on the fur trade as Fort Nassau competed with Quebec City (1608) as a locus for the beaver trade.  Soon, Dutch settlers began arriving in what is now New York and Connecticut, mostly religious minorities seeking freedom from oppression back home.  The English also made landfall in Massachusetts in 1620, and soon spread throughout what is now New England.  The Mohawk watched the expansion with growing concern, and were willing to ally with either Dutch or English against other tribes to protect their hunting grounds and the beaver trade. 

Beginning in the 1640's conflicts began in earnest between the Iroquois and their Dutch/English allies, and almost everyone else including the Huron, Erie, Odawa, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Algonquian, Shawnee, Lenape, Miami and Mahican, just to name a few, supported by the French.  The Beaver Wars saw some of the bloodiest fighting in North America as Natives and their European allies fought for control of hunting range and the beaver trade.  Gradually, Iroquois power expanded from their traditional homelands in New York up the St. Lawrence river, through the Ohio Valley and as far as Virginia.  They defeated first the Mahican in 1628 and turned their attention to other tribes, such as the Huron, the Neutrals and Erie, then the Susquehannock and the Shawnee.  As the beaver became more scarce, the fighting became more deadly. 

Although the Iroquois appeared to be gaining the upper hand, constant warfare and exposure to European diseases was taking their toll on them.  As they saw the balance of power shaping between the French on one side and the Dutch/English on another, they sent a delegation to the Governor of New France in 1641, but were rebuffed.  The warfare intensified as each side sought alliance with other tribes, or tried to break existing bonds of unity, the French attempting to wean the smaller Cayuga and Onandaga tribes away from the larger Iroquois Confederacy.  The Mohawk promptly put a stop to this espionage.  The Iroquois continued to battle the Huron, who withdrew from the Great Lakes Region.  However, other tribes, such as the Ottawa, were strong enough to block the Iroquois from further expansion into the Ohio Valley.  The Iroquois continued to attack French settlements, most notably Montreal.  Meanwhile, the Dutch had ceded most of their land in Connecticut and New York to the English by 1664 and withdrew from North America.

The French were fed up with Iroquois attacks on Montreal and began bringing troops from France to deal with the threat.  As the French gained the upper hand on the Iroquois in the 1660's, and the Dutch withdrew, English support for the Iroquois' efforts at expansion began to dry up.  The French sent punitive raids into New York and the Ohio Valley with mixed success.  The fighting drove many Native tribes who had hitherto lived in the Great Lakes Region, such as the ancestors of the Lakota, across the Mississippi and onto the Great Plains.  The Iroquois found themselves in a struggle with the French on one side, and the Shawnee, Potawatomi and others for control of the Ohio Valley. As smaller tribes fled to get out of the way of the conflict, portions of the Ohio Valley were underpopulated.  More French settlement poured into the Great Lakes Region and the Ohio Valley, the conflict intensified.

Meanwhile, the English, trying to consolidate the territory the Dutch had left behind, found themselves perilously close to a land war with France in North America and both sides grew desperate.  In an act of terrible treachery, in June, 1687, the then-governor of New France decided to deal with the Iroquois threat, and the Iroquois-English combine, in a brutal way.  He invited the 50 Iroquois sachems to a treaty parley, had them arrested, clapped in irons and sent to France for use as galley slaves.  He then ravaged the Seneca's homelands.  Incidents like this created anger and mistrust between France and the Iroquois for decades to come.  It also drove the Iroquois into tighter alliances with the English.  During the first of the so-called French and Indian Wars (King William's War (1688-1697), English, French and their respective Native allies attacked and destroyed each others' forts, settlements and villages with a vengeance.  The 1697 Treaty of Ryswick ended the European portion of this conflict, but the North American portion was far from over.

As English settlers poured into Pennsylvania, further encroaching on territory claimed by the Iroquois, the fighting only intensified with the Five Nations, now caught between two warring colonial powers.  The French began to realize that the Iroquois were not about to give up or go away and would have to be treated as what they were, a confederacy of sovereign nations in their own right.  In 1701, Iroquois representatives traveled to Montreal and signed the Peace of Montreal in 1701.  They agreed to stop raiding and to allow other tribes such as the Shawnee access to the Ohio Valley.  The Miami resettled in Ohio and Indiana.  The Potawatomi relocated to Michigan, and the Illinois tribes located to what is now Illinois.  Although the English were against the Iroquois signing any treaties with the French, they had to accept the status quo for the time being.  The Iroquois formed an uneasy buffer between two equally powerful colonial powers.  Later, the Iroquois agreed to cede some territory in the Ohio Valley to the English, though this transfer was never recognized by the French.  In this period of relative peace, the Iroquois were able to rebuild their homes and lives without the havoc wrought by constant warfare.  Though the frontier was far from quiet, there was a brief lull in the fighting, for the time being.

Rulers of the Chesepeake: the Pisacataway

The Piscataway are an Algonquian-speaking people who lived on the North bank of the Potomac River in what is now Charles County, with portions of territory in Prince George's and St. Mary's Counties.  The Jamestown settlers encountered them in in 1608.  Much like the Wampanoag of New England and the Powhatan of Virginia, they held sway over several other related tribes, such as the Anacostan, Doeg, Mattawoman, and Pamunkey.  Like most Eastern Woodlands tribes they relied on agriculture to supplement their hunting.  Their villages were of the typical longhouse within a palisade architecture seen along the Northeast and mid-Atlantic coastline. 

Sources trace the Piscataway presence in the Potomac River area to around 1300 A.D., although a difference of opinion exists as to where they migrated from, be it the Eastern Shore or much further away.  Once settled along the Potomac, they developed stable villages where they lived year-round, subsisting on maize and other crops in addition to hunting.  By the 1600's, they were facing intrusion from the Susquehannock, who were in turn being pushed out of their land by White settlement.  Warfare between the tribes reduced the Piscataway population.  The Piscataway's response to this was to consolidate under powerful chiefs and war leaders who could lead the people in this time of distress.  Local leaders were known under the mid-Atlantic designation of werowance, while the paramount chief was referred to as the Tayac. 

They were first encountered by John Smith I'm 1608, who noted their close association with the Anacostans.  As the British sought other Native auxiliaries to partner with them in the fur trade, the power of the Piscataway continued to decrease.  When the English began settling Maryland, a Tayac granted them the land for St. Mary's City.  Some Piscataway converted to Catholicism, including a prominent leader and his wife, whose daughter married a local Colonist.  However, in time, the English turned against the Piscataway, confining them to two areas, one on the Wicomico River and another in their traditional homeland of Charles County.  Refugees from other tribes merged with the Piscataway.  After a war between the Iroquoian-speaking Susquehannock and the Iroquois Confederacy, Maryland authorities tried to force them to live with their traditional enemies.  The Piscataway rose in revolt and drove out the Susquehannock.  They reformed their alliance with the Iroquois and the Five Nations were in constant conflict with the Piscataway.  Facing the Iroquois on one side and the English on the other, the Piscataway power and population continued to decline.  Some Piscataway attempted to relocated to Virginia but were forced to Conoy Island in the Potomac near present day Point-of-Rocks.

In the 18th century, the remaining Piscataway merged with the Nanticoke and migrated north of the Susquehannah River, settling among other displaced tribes in Pennsylvania's backcountry.  By 1793, members of the tribe were noted as having migrated as far away as Fort Detroit.  Some Piscataway/Nanticoke found refuge with the Haudenosaunee/Iroquois on the Grand River Reserve in Canada.  Other Piscataway remained in Virginia, merging with tribes still there.  Meanwhile, a small number of Piscataway families clung to their homeland in Maryland.  They settled into farming and were classified as free people of color, a catch-all that also including free blacks and those of mixed race.  Some of these people were of mixed white and black as well as Native ancestry.  In the 20th century, the Piscataway sought federal and state recognition as a tribal unit.  Though not able to achieve federal recognition, the Piscataway people are represented by the Piscataway Indian Nation and Tayac Territory, and the Conoy Tribe of Maryland. 

Family Matters: The Lady Sachem of the Pawtucket

In most Native tribes, while women may have controlled their own property and had in-put in important tribal decisions, men held the positions of power.  There were exceptions, and a women who combined inheritance, status, power and her own strength of mind and character could emerge as a formidable leader in her own right.  Such a woman was the Squaw Sachem, or Lady Sachem, of the Pawtucket Confederacy.

The Pawtucket Confederacy was a group of Abenaki people who ranged over land from what is now modern-day Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to the White Mountains, through the Marblehead/Salem area and throughout what is now Greater Boston.  Their Great Sachem Nanepashemet was a powerful and respected a ruler in his own right as Massassoit of the Wampanoag.  He and his wife had three sons, whose English names were John (Wonohaquaham), James (Montowampate), and George (Wenepoykin).  His wife's name was unknown.  Nanapashemet had consolidated his power by 1607 but still had to deal with a band of Abenaki known as the Tarrantines.  They were a warlike Mikmaq band from Maine who did not farm as did most other surrounding tribes.  They made their living hunting, gathering, and raiding from others.  Nanapashemet built a fort on the Mystic River, sent his wife and young children further inland to a friendly tribe for safety and spent his remaining years battling them.  Though the 1618 epidemic struck down hundreds of his people, Nanapashemet escaped the disease, but fell in battle with the Tarrantines a year later, leaving his wife a widow with presumably young sons to raise. 

The Lady Sachem came into her own right.  Though not from a chiefly family herself, and with no precedent for succeeding her husband, she took in hand a tribe that was in the midst of several crisis.  Repeated epidemics had drained the supply of warriors, leaving them open to invasion by the Tarrantines and by any other tribes further north along the coast.  They were also vulnerably should Massassoit or the leader of any other powerful tribe or group decide to flex their muscle.  And all the Natives in New England were about to be hit with waves of more Settlers than they could possibly have imagined.  In the wind-up to the English Civil War, the Crown's repressive measures against Puritans forced more of them to head for Massachusetts in what became known as the Great Migration.  The Lady Sachem decided that the most diplomatic gesture would be to make the newcomers as welcome as possible and did cede to Governor John Winthrop the land on which Boston and the surrounding environs now stands.  In the years to come, the English would have several dealings with her and come to respect her.  So much so that no one would have dared ask her personal name.  She was known as the Squaw Sachem in the sense that she was a female Sachem and that was all they needed to know. 

Her sons also respected her, as they accepted positions under her and never attempted to usurp her power.  Sources differ on whether the title Sagamore is a corruption of Sachem or a lesser title or rank.  John, according to Governor Thomas Dudley in 1631, controlled only about 30-40 warriors at a time.  He governed the area around what is now Charlestown, Medford, Revere, Winthrop and Chelsea.  He was friendly to the Colonists, as was his mother, and would warn them of any tribes with warlike intentions toward them.  He did in a smallpox epidemic in 1633.  A monument to him stands in Medford.

His next brother, James controlled the area of Saugus/Swampscott, Lynn and Marblehead.  He, too, died in he smallpox epidemic.

George survived both his brothers and his mother, since he later consolidated her power to himself.  He received the nickname of "No Nose" from the English, perhaps from a deformity suffered during the epidemic of 1633 or some other reason.  He allied with Massassoit's young son King Phillip during the rebellion which bears Phillip's name.  Taken into captivity with other Native warriors and sold into slavery on the island of Barbados, George was able to escape slavery and return home.  His descendants ceded the land where Salem now stands. 

People of the Dawn: the Wampanoag

The Wampanoag were one of the first tribes to make contact with Whites, even before the Pilgrims landed in 1620, and they were to suffer heavily for it. 

Decades before the founding of the colony at Plymouth (Plimouth), fishermen from Europe had discovered the rich fishing beds of the North American coast, particularly the abundance of cod, herring and other fish that could be salted down, pickled or otherwise easily preserved for food.  They often landed on the coast and traded or interacted with Natives whom they met, such as the Abenaki in a previous post, and the Wampanoag, who inhabited what is now Massachusetts and Rhode Island.  This contact exposed the Natives to two dangers.  Unscrupulous captains short on cash could capture them and sell them in the Caribbean or Spain as slaves, which happened to Squanto, whom we've also met.  Or, Natives could catch diseases for which they had no natural immunity.  The Wampanoag numbered in the thousands just prior to the Pilgrim landing.  However, between 1615-1619, they fell victim to a disease once thought to be smallpox but now leptospirosis, a dangerous fever that is usually fatal without modern medical treatment.  Whole tribes were wiped out, such as Squanto's Patuxet people, a member tribe of the greater Wampanoag Confederacy.

The Wampanoag whom the English encountered depended on agriculture to supplement hunting and gathering.  Because of their rich farmlands, they were a prosperous tribe.  The culture was matrilineal, with women controlling property, assets and inheritance.  Women chose the Sachems and participated in major decisions of the tribe.  Ousemaquin was Sachem of the Wampanoag and Massassoit or Great Sachem of the Wampanoag Confederacy.   He was the Great Sachem with whom the Pilgrims and later Colonists most often dealt, and is known to history today by his title and not his personal name.  At first, Massassoit was suspicious and cautious of these strangers, but did permit Squanto to interact with them and teach them to farm and hunt, though he later became suspicious of how close Squanto seem to be to them.  Later, when Massassoit died, his sons, to whom he had allowed the Settlers to give English names, inherited his title and authority.  As they sought to assert their dominance over their own people and prevent the Settlers from acquiring anymore land, relations soured with the Colonists.  First King Alexander (Wamsutta) and King Phillip (Metacomet), both of whom met their death either at the hands of White people or through instigation of the Settlers.  King Philip's War, begun in 1675, decimated the Wampanoag, particularly the aftermath, where men were sold into slavery in the Caribbean and women were enslaved in New England. 

There are always survivors and, for centuries small pockets of Wampanoag survived in Massachusetts as bets they could, either assimilating with the local population, or keeping to themselves as best they could.  Remnants of their language survived until nearly one hundred years ago, when it died out naturally.  Wampanoag Natives in Massachusetts today are attempting to revive its use.  They are represented by two federally-recognized tribes, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, plus four state recognized bands. 

The Treaty of New York of !790 (Creek)

One of the more urgent tasks of the new Washington Administration, which took office in 1789 was to settle the land claims of the various tribes to insure access to new lands and les turmoil on the frontier.  One of the first of these treaties was with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation under Alexander McGillivray.

As we've seen from the previous post, McGillivray was willing to treaty with anyone and everyone if it meant keeping his people safe and united.  He had been a Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War and his personal sympathies lay with the British.  But he was pragmatic enough to see that the British weren't coming back to American anytime soon, so he was willing to deal with the new United States Government.  He met with representatives of the Washington Administration at Rock Landing, Georgia in 1789 and didn't like what he was hearing.  He left the talks and wrote directly to President Washington, complaining of the Indian Commissioners sent to negotiate the treaty.  Washington sent a personal emissary, Colonel Marius Willett, to Georgia to speak to McGillivray and persuade him to come to New York to speak to Washington and Secretary of War Henry Knox directly.  This was more risky than it sounded.  Other Native leaders who had put themselves in the hands of the Americans hadn't faired so well, see the post of Cornstalk of the Shawnee.  Nevertheless, McGillivray agreed to go.

Henry Knox was a former bookseller from Boston who'd discovered an odd-ball talent for artillery during the Revolutionary War, becoming Washington's top artillery commander and a personal trusted friend.  Over three hundred pounds with a generally likeable spirit, it was Knox who, in concert with his commander, developed some basic ideas behind US Indian policy.  First, they believed it was the prerogative of the federal government, not the states or private individuals, to make treaties with the tribes.  Second, they believe that Native nations were sovereign entities who needed to be treated as such when it came to treaties asking them to cede land.  However, because they were not separate nations, treaty-making with the tribes fell under the purview of the War Department, not the State Department. 

McGillivray and several other Creek/Muscogee leaders arrived, having the power to treat for the Upper, Lower and Middle Creek towns, as well as the Seminoles in Florida.  McGillivray and Knox developed a rapport and soon agreed a treaty whereby the Creek agreed to cede some land in exchange for keeping other portions of their ancestral territory.  The Creek agreed to turn over any runaway slaves in their territory, though both Knox and McGillivray realized that likely wasn't going to happen.  Creeks had the right to punish White trespassers on their land, but had to turn over persons, Creek or White, suspected of more serious or violent crimes.  There was a secret corollary to this treaty.  McGillivray himself received a Brigadier General's commission in the United States army, and permission to import goods through the port of Pensacola without paying duty fees.  Whether Knox suspected that McGillivray held stock in the Pensacola firm of Panton, Leslie, or also had a similar agreement with Spanish authorities in Florida know one knows, but it was likely that he did.  Washington met with McGillivray and the other leaders and presented McGillivray with a pocket watch that has been featured on the History Channel's series, Cajun Pawn Stars.  While this would be looked upon in a modern context as self-dealing an unethical for Knox to offer and McGillivray to accept, per the customs of the time, gifts were always exchanged between Native leaders and governmental authorities in a treaty parley.  Commissioning McGillivray would make it easier to recruit the Creek as auxiliaries if either the British came back for a rematch or the Spanish decided to use Florida as a base for an offensive, and giving the Natives the right to import trade goods duty free was cheaper than paying an annuity, so the arrangement benefitted all sides.

This treaty was the first treaty under the new federal government of the United States and was the first time Natives had come to the Nation's Capital to negotiate a treaty, rather than commissioners going to them.  Native delegations would become a frequent site in New York, Philadelphia and later D.C.

The Seven Nations of Canada

Throughout this blog we've run across different Native alliances and confederacies.  Some were bound together by tradition, others categorized by Settlers.  Still some came together as a result of pressure from Whites and other Natives.  The nations we're focusing on today are all of the above. 

The historical Seven Nations are: the Mohawk of Akwesasne, whose reservation crosses the border of upper New York and Lower Ontario.  The Mohawk of Kahnawake, living near Montreal.  The Mohawk and Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe, Potawatomi, etc.) of Kanestake, now Central Quebec.  The Abenaki of Odanek in Southern Quebec, along with the Abenaki of Becancour, also in Quebec.  The Huron of Wendake, near Quebec City.  And the Onondaga of Oswegatchie.  There are many Native nations in the country of Canada, but the focus on these seven was a historical grouping made first by the French and then the British, primarily to describe those Natives living near the St. Lawrence River and who had accepted Catholicism. 

The divide began, according to Mohawk sources, in 1667, when an attack by French forces on Mohawk villages in New York forced some Mohawk to accept Catholicism and French protection by moving near to Montreal.  The name for their settlement Kahnawake is similar to a principal Mohawk town of Caughnawaga in New York.  Though these Mohawk considered themselves related to the Mohawk in New York, relations were strained because of the difference in religion.  The Kahnawake formed a loose alliance with other bands of Mohawk, Algonquin, Abenaki and Huron living in the St. Lawrence River who practiced Catholicism and allied with the French.  French sources first refer to them as the Seven Nations, a nomenclature that the English took over later.  During the French and Indian War (1755-1762), these Natives fought against the British and their Native auxiliaries, including Mohawk from New York.  According to an incident witnessed by one of William Johnson's Indian Agents, the two opposing groups met each other, challenged to identify each other, a Mohawk from New York replied that he was Mohawk and Five Nations, the traditional name for the Iroquois Confederacy.  The other Mohawk retorted that he was Mohawk of the Seven Confederated Indian Nations of Canada.  Whether he was using a designation of the tribes themselves, or had picked up the French grouping for the Natives along the St. Lawrence River is unknown.

The Seven Nations later switched alliance to the British during the Revolutionary War and War of 1812, though they retained their Catholicism and separate identity.  Although they lived primarily in Canada, most of these tribes had traditional homelands and hunting ranges in the United States.  In 1796, they signed a treaty with the Washington Administration in which they ceded much of their land in America, with the notable exception of the Akwesasne Reserve in New York. 

"They despite to meet in peace those they fear in war": The Battle of Devil's Hole, September 14, 1763

As the Seven Years War drew to a close in 1763, the Natives of the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes Regions had a laundry list of grievance with the British who had taken over where the French left off.  Not only were a lack of trade goods and crackdowns on sales of weapons, munition and alcohol a problem, so was overall encroachment on Native land by Settlers.  While some tribes chose to act in concert with Pontiac's Rebellion, others operated independently, though they are considered part of the Rebellion as a whole.

For centuries the Seneca had controlled a portage near the Niagara Gorge.  A portion of this Gorge, including a cave formation, had received the name (by Whites) of Devil's Hole because of its steep sides and fast-flowing water.  For this reason, anyone who needed to use the portage in the Gorge had been content to let Seneca warriors act as guides and bearers.  Over time this had changed, and various schemes had been developed to widen the portage so that teams of horses could drag wagons over the portage.  Not only did this displace Seneca men who had made a living as guides and bearers, but encouraged more traffic over the Gorge, disrupting Seneca access to it.  Fearing more settlement in the area, Seneca leaders had complained to the French, who were not in a position to do much about the matter, since they were losing their entire North American colonial empire at the time.  The Seneca also approached Sir William Johnson, the Superintendent of the British Indian Department, whom we've already met.  He was willing to broker an agreement between New York authorities and the Seneca but the New Yorkers weren't talking and Johnson became exasperated.  He found that his own White people were ill-disposed to leave in peace with the Natives, commenting that "they despise those in peace whom they fear to meet in war". 

As more developers poured into the Gorge, widening the road and disrupting Seneca ways of life in the process, Cornplanter and other leaders decided the time had come to act.  Cornplanter dispatched a band of 300-500 warriors who ambushed a wagon train with an armed escort from Fort Schlosser to Fort Niagara on a portion of the trail flanked with ravines on both sides.  The animals stampeded and several teamsters were killed.  Their leader, John Stedman, managed to escape to Fort Schlosser to seek help.  A detachment of the 80th Regiment of Foot was camped at Lewiston nearby.  Its commanders, George Campbell and William Fraser gathered their men and rushed to help the besieged wagon train.  Seneca warriors cut them off about a mile from the wagon train.  The soldiers suffered a loss of over 80 dead.  A Seneca later informed Johnson that Native losses were one man wounded.  A larger unit of soldiers set out from Fort Schlosser, but found only dead and wounded at the site of the two encounters.

Johnson also received news that it was not Cornplanter who had led the attacks, but another leader known among the Seneca as Farmer's Brother.  The Seneca hoped to underscore their point about this being their portage, but the British reinforced their presence at Fort Niagara and Johnson pressured the Seneca into ceding an area of land of one mile on either side of the Niagara River from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, as well as the islands upriver from Niagara Falls.  Thus the Gorge became a British military road and the Seneca lost access to the River, which was a valuable store of water and fish for them.  Fearing the Seneca anyway, Settlers stayed away from the area until after the Revolution, when most of the Seneca had fled to Canada. 

The Treaty of Canandaigua, November 11, 1794

As we've seen in early posts, raids such as that by General John Sullivan had pushed most of the Iroquois Six Nations peoples from their hunting ranges and farmland in New York.  After the war, the state of New York and land speculators had sought to capitalize on this vacuum by negotiating peace meal treaties with the tribes, something the federal government was keen to stop.  Some of these agreements were leases, others were in the form of treaties, but none were legal and many were patently unfair.  Afraid that the Six Nations would join the Ohio tribes and prolong the Northwest Indian War (1785-1794), the Washington Administration stepped in.

Washington sent Timothy Pickering, who was Postmaster General at the time, as his agent to treat with the Six Nations for their property in New York.  Pickering invited the Iroquois Council to a meeting at Canandaigua, New York.  The Treaty established peace and friendship between the Iroquois Nations and affirmed the boundaries of an earlier land purchase from Massachusetts to New York known as the Phelps-Gorham Purchase, which involved land claimed by the Seneca.  It also set the boundaries of a large Seneca reservation in New York and provided for an annuity and annual allotments of Calico cloth to the tribes as repayment for the land they stood to lose under the Treaty.  These cloth allotments give the Treaty its nickname of the Calico Treaty.  It remains one of the governing documents between the Six Nations and the federal government, who still provides an annuity and, at least until recently, cloth allotments.   However, in 1960, the state of New York took eminent domain of thousands of acres of Iroquois land as a draining area for the Kinzua Dam, displacing several families.

Among the signatories for the Iroquois were Cornplanter, Handsome Lake, Little Beard and Red Jacket, all of whom we've run across in other posts.

Places: Fort Stanwix

Forts on the frontier not only provided protection to the surrounding countryside and symbolized colonial or national power, they also served as important meeting places for treaty councils and other key events in history.  One such historic location is Fort Stanwix, near Rome, New York.

Construction of Fort Stanwix was begun at the order of British General John Stanwix in 1758, but not completed until 1762 as the French and Indian War (1755-1762) wound down.  It was built to guard an important portage area known as the Oneida Carrying Place, connecting the Hudson River to Wood Creek, through to Lake Oswego and on to Lake Ontario and the Great Lakes.  Thus, like many forts of the area, it was built along an important Native trading trail and war path.  In 1764, during Pontiac's War, Native tribes were directed to bring any White captives to Fort Stanwix for return to their families.  There were many tearful scenes as Natives and captives, many of whom knew no other family or way of life, were forcibly parted by British soldiers.  Fort Stanwix hosted its first major treaty in 1768, when British Agent Sir William Johnson, whom we've already met, arranged a treaty council among various tribes to put a final end to Pontiac's Rebellion.  The result of this treaty was a new boundary line set several hundred miles back of the one in the Proclamation of 1763, which unfortunately led to more strife on the frontier.  After this treaty, the Fort was abandoned and allowed to go into ruin.

It was reoccupied by Patriot forces during the Revolutionary War.  It was officially renamed Fort Schuyler after General Philip Schuyler, though people continued to call it Fort Stanwix.  British forces under General Barry St. Leger besieged the Fort.  According to legend, the flag flown over the Fort during the siege was an early version of the Stars and Stripes, but most likely it was the flag of New York and had no relation to the present national flag.  The Battle of Oriskany, which we've already covered, was fought between Patriot militia on their way to relieve the siege, and Loyalist and Iroquois auxiliaries attached to St. Leger's units.  The British forces withdrew without breaking the Fort.  In 1779, an expedition against the Onondaga was staged at Fort Stanwix.  As the structure was made almost entirely of wood, it burnt to the ground in 1781 and was not rebuilt.   The ruined Fort played host to another Treaty in 1784, settling Native land claims after the Revolution.  Like the First treaty, these arrangements caused more conflict then they settled and yet more fighting ensued.  Although a blockhouse was erected on the parade ground of the old fort during the War of 1812, it was dismantled in 1828.

The location of Fort Stanwix was designated a National Monument in 1935, but reconstruction did not begin until 1974-1978.  It remains open today under the care of the National Park Service. 

Great Leader: Shabbona of the Ottawa-Potawatomi

Native leaders facing war between competing colonial powers or encroaching settlers faced a daunting task, balancing resistance against the theft of their land with the reality that fighting might do more harm then good.  Striking that balance was key to survival and none knew that better than Shabbona (c 1775-1859) of the Ottawa and Potawatomi.

Shabbona's name derives from two cognate words, either Potawatomi or Ottawa, meaning strong or hardy.  It is sometimes also translated as "built like a bear".  He was born either on the Maumee River in Ohio, in Ontario, or in Illinois.  Shabbona's biography, dictated many years later, placed his birth in 1775 along the Kankakee River, in present-day Will or Kankakee County, Illinois.  A member of the Ottawa tribe, Shabbona was said to be a great-nephew of Pontiac and achieved his own status as a chief while still a young man, by virtue of his skill as a warrior.  The Ottawa and Potawatomi were allies and it would not have been unusual for a young man of the Ottawa tribe to rise to prominence among the Potawatomi.  He readily joined Tecumseh's Revolt in 1811 and soon became one of Tecumseh's more trusted lieutenants.  He helped Tecumseh persuade many other tribes, including the Potawatomi, Sac, Fox, Winnebago and others to join the fight.  He was present at the Battle of Tippecanoe in November, 1811.  Harrison's victory scattered the tribes back to their respective ranges, but Shabbona traveled to Canada to offer his services to the British.  After the fall of Fort Detroit, he, Tecumseh and several others followed the British army deeper into Canada.  On September 27, 1813, at the Battle of the Thames, Shabbona led his warriors until Tecumseh fell, before returning to the United States, now convinced that fighting the Americans was futile.

Indian Agents and military commanders often interfered directly in tribal governance, choosing and backing leaders they believed would be more amenable to their demands.  Shabbona became involved in a three way rivalry with several other Native leaders that led to the Winnebago revolt known as the Red Bird Uprising.  Shabbona volunteered to travel to Red Bird's village on Lake Geneva to determine if any Potawatomi members were involved in the uprising and to persuade them to abandon it.  He was captured by the Winnebago, and allowed to return to his village on condition that he not travel to Chicago to report to the Americans.  As he was being escorted back to his village, he passed an area where his companions had remained hidden, complaining loudly about how he was being treated and giving details.  While these men took word back to the Americans about which tribes and leaders were involved in the uprising, Shabbona returned home unharmed.  He was later awarded a tract of land in the Treaty of Prairie du Chien in 1829.

During the Black Hawk War of 1812, Shabbona became convinced that Black Hawk's actions would only involve more harm than good for the Potawatomi.  He met with Black Hawk and urged him not to resist the Americans, but could not convince him nor all of the Potawatomi, to stay peaceful.  On May 16, 1832, Shabbona rode across Northern Illinois, warning as many Settlers as he could of the coming danger.  Some of them disregarded his warning and later became victims of the Indian Creek Massacre of May, 1832.  Shabbona also served as a guide for the Americans during the war, known for warning Settlers of impending attacks on several occasions.

In 1836, Shabbona led his people to Nebraska, but returned to Peru, Illinois, where he lived out his final days  He died in Morris, Illinois in 1859 and was buried there at the age of 84.  A large granite rock bearing his name was placed on his gravesite in 1903.  The unincorporated community of Shabbona, Michigan is named in his honor.  The Shabbona Trail, from Joliet to Morris, Illinois is named in his honor.  The Prairie Band Potawatomi remain committed to reclaiming the land that was promised to Shabbona in the Prairie du Chien treaty. 

Place Names: Tennessee

In modern-day Monroe County, Tennessee under the Tellico Lake impoundment of the Little Tennessee River sits the ruins of two historic Overhill Cherokee towns, Tanasi and Chota.  The town of Tanasi gave its name to the modern-day state of Tennessee.

In 1567, Spanish explorer Juan Pardo encountered a Native village known as Tanasqui.  It's not clear exactly which tribe inhabited this town, or exactly where it was, though it is now believed to have been near the junction of the French Broad River and Pigeon River near modern-day Newport.  Sometime after the Spaniards left the area, the Cherokee began building another town in a bend of the Little Tennessee River which they called Tanasi.  No one knows now what the name means.  It could be a Cherokee borrowing of a Yuchi word for "meeting place", "winding river", or "river of the great bend".  Though the Cherokee used the word for other place names in the area, the exact meaning of the name now is lost.  The Cherokee name for the river near which the town was situated was Callamaco, though White explorers and settlers renamed the river the Little Tennessee after the town.

Tanasi served as an early capital of the Cherokee people and was an important site for traders.  An English trader by the name of Eleazar Wiggen, called Old Rabbit by the Cherokee, based out of Tanasi as early as 1711.  In 1725, South Carolina authorities dispatched Col. George Chicken (yes, that really was his name) to Tanasi to request Cherokee assistance against the Creek.  Chicken referred to the leader of Tanasi as the Tanasi Warrior who "ruled" over the Overhill, Middle and Valley towns in the region.  Another colonial emissary, Col. John Herbert, recorded meeting the Tanasi Warrior at the townhouse in the town.  The Tanasi Warrior possessed a headdress known by settlers as the Tanasi Crown.  Thinking this would be a great souvenir to present to George II, an Anglo-Scottish adventurer named Alexander Cumming staged an elaborate ploy to get hold of it.  He arranged for the "crowing" of a rival chief, Moytoy of Tellico, as "Emperor of the Cherokee" and switched out the headdress for a crown of European design.  Cumming took the headdress to England along with a delegation of Cherokee warriors that included Wiggins, Attakullakulla and several others. 

After this ceremony, Moytoy of Tellico tried to consolidate his own power in Great Tellico, a town along the Tellico River sixteen miles away from Tanasi.  However, after his death, another Cherokee leader, Old Hop of Chota rose to prominence, eventually moving the Cherokee capital from Tanasi to Chota, the adjacent town separated from Tanasi by an unnamed stream.  In 1762, Henry Timberlake reported only a few dwellings still inhabited at Tanasi, and that Chota was the more dominant town.  However, a Warrior of Tanasi signed the treaty ceding land to the Watauga Association, a group of Settlers interested in developing the area as a possible new colony and later state.  As to the name Tennessee, South Carolina governor James Glen began spelling the name Tennessee in his correspondence in the 1750's.  Timberlake also used the spelling in his journals.  In 1788, North Carolina created a Tennessee County out of what is now Montgomery County and Robertson County.  By the time the state constitutional convention met in 1796, the modern spelling became official. 

Today, the site of Tanasi lies under the lake with a monument overlooking it.  Part of Chota is also submerged, though the area where the Chota townhouse stood has a monument with carvings denoting the seven Cherokee clans and the Nation as a whole. 

Great Woman: Tacumwah of the Miami

As we've seen in many societies, Native women on the frontier often held property and prestige in their own right, which they could confer on their husbands or children.  They could also pay a steep price for that honor when the men in their lives sought to use that power for their own ends.  And, they could also fight back.  One such woman was Tacumwah (c 1720- c 1790), sister to Miami leader Pacanne and mother of Miami leader Jean-Baptiste Richardville, of whom more later.

Tacumwah, whose name in the Miami language translates as parakeet, was born into prominence on both sides of her family.  Her father was also a noted Miami leader and warrior, Turtle (not Little Turtle), and her uncle was another warrior and leader, Cold Foot.  Through her mother, she had inherited the Long Portage, an eight-mile strip of land between the Maumee and Wabash Rivers.  Because these two rivers connected fur trade routes leading from Canada through Indiana to Louisiana, their family came into frequent contact with French officials, military commanders and traders in the area.  The Miami's main town of Kekionga became an important crossroads and Tacumwah, who was often left in charge of the village while Pacanne and other leaders were away hunting and fighting, became a force to be reckoned with in her own right. 

She married Antoine-Joseph Drouet de la Richerville, a nobleman and military officer stationed at Fort Miamis, what is now Fort Wayne, Indiana, and had at least three children by him.  She also converted to Catholicism, hence the other name by which she is often known, Marie-Louise Richardville.  She had all three of her children, including her eldest son Jean-Baptiste, baptized.  After the defeat of the French in the Seven Years War (1755-1762), Richerville, who had changed his name to the more Anglophone, Richardville, decided to stay in the area as a fur trader.  He and other fur traders, namely Alexandre and Francois Maisonville, wanted control of the Long Portage and Richardville believed that, as Tacumwah's husband, her property was his.  He reckoned without Miami law and tradition, which allowed property ownership to women through matrilineal heritage.  Tacumwah stood her ground and Richardville beat her severely in an argument.  She took refuge with another trader, Charles Beaubien and sued her husband for divorce. 

The court case brought Pacanne and the Miami tribe into the fracas, which played out like many nasty divorces do, over a lengthy period of time, culminating in a court trial at Fort Detroit in 1774.  The end result was that Pacanne took over the Portage as his property, Tacumwah was allowed the rest of her inheritance through her mother and retained some rights to custody of at least her elder son, Jean-Baptiste.  She married Charles Beaubien, but operated a trading post in her own right.  Tacumwah retained her standing among her people, running Kekionga for Pacanne and serving as a mentor and political advisor to her son as he matured into his position as a successor to his uncle.  And, he learned to take his mother seriously when she spoke.  Once, when he refused to release some White captives who were slated for execution, Tacumwah drew her knife and held it to his throat until he complied.  Jean-Baptiste, whose name in Miami translated to Wild Cat, inherited her trading post and other property when she died. 

The Treaty that Started a War: the Treaty of Fort Wayne, 1809

Treaties with Native peoples were problematic on many levels.  They often involved several tribes and invariably one or more tribes were overlooked and felt the treaty terms did not apply to them, creating conflict.  Or, civil strife in tribes who felt that their leaders lacked the authority to sign over land created friction that often caught frontier settlers in the fighting.  If the government were unlucky, some treaties started full-blown wars.  Such was the case with the Treaty of Fort Wayne of 1809. 

During the opening decades of the Republic, U.S. Indian policy had been to induce Native leaders to sign treaties ceding land for money, trade goods, and alternative ranges out west.  Many negotiators were none too scrupulous about how they went about this.  Maps were redrawn, fraudulent older documents were produced, men were allowed to sign for tribes wo lacked traditional or legal authority to do so, often they did not understand exactly how much land was being ceded or what the actual ramifications of signing were.  Tales of Natives being plied with liquor in order to get them to sign are too numerous to believe it didn't happen a few times.  Nevertheless, territorial governments, Indian agents, private land speculators, military commanders and others set about procuring treaties with the Natives and rushing them off the land.  The most zealous in this regard was future President William Henry Harrison, who was Governor of Indiana Territory from 1801-1812 and negotiated over 13 treaties with Native leaders at various times.  The Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1809 would be his masterpiece.

The Treaty of Greenville in 1795 had opened several thousands of acres of Native land to settlement by Whites, but by 1809 more families were coming into the territory.  Harrison wanted expansion of the treaty boundaries, but some tribes, including the Miami, Wea and Kickapoo were unwilling to part with their lands around the Wabash River.  President James Madison, who was aware of the consequences of Native treaties with so many tribes involved, wanted Harrison to hold back on acquiring any more land.  Harrison, never a man to listen to anyone, decided to go ahead.  He opened negotiations with Potawatomi, Eel River (a Miami off-split) and Miami, offering them large subsidy payments if they would cede the land he was requesting.  The Miami were suspicious that Wea leaders had not been invited to the council and wanted land paid for by the acre, not by the tract.  Harrison agreed to get the Wea's approval on the new treaty, but refused to agree to payment by the acre.

The Potawatomi leaders eventually agreed to sign and won over the Miami.  With the help of Miami leader Pacanne, Harrison convinced the Wea to sign on as well.  Meanwhile, the Kickapoo were living at Prophetstown and closely allied with the Shawnee, so Harrison knew they would be hard to convince.  Not wanting to deal with Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa or the Shawnee in general, he convinced Wea leaders to approach the Kickapoo, who also agreed to the treaty.  By 1810, Harrison felt he had all the signatures he needed to acquire three million acres of land. 

But nobody had reckoned with the Shawnee.  Following the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, Little Turtle of the Miami had asked the Shawnee to leave Indiana and most of them were content to go elsewhere, but not Tecumseh, Tenskwatawa and their followers.  They had built a village at Prophetstown, near modern-day Battle Ground, Indiana and were acquiring more converts to their pan-Indian movement every day.  Tecumseh came to see Harrison at Harrison's mansion of Grouseland, the first of two tense meetings held there.  Although the Shawnee did not live on lands involved in the treaty, Tecumseh was furious.  He believed that, despite their tribal differences, Natives were one nation, with no one group being able to cede land that others also used.  He threatened to kill the leaders who had signed the Fort Wayne Treaty and to seek an alliance with the British.  Harrison rejected his idea that all Natives owned the land in common.  The land was under control of the Miami and Wea, who had ceded over their lands and had the right to do so.  He didn't flinch at Tecumseh's threat to kill the chiefs or involve the British.  If Tecumseh wanted a fight, it was on.  A further meeting at Grouseland in 1811 almost involved personal combat between Harrison, Tecumseh and their armed followers had it not been for a Potawatomi leader who stepped in the way and talked both sides down.

As Tecumseh left to seek further allies for his pan-Indian movement, Harrison began mobilizing for war.  Having pinpointed the Shawnee as the agitators and troublemakers, Harrison mobilized his forces and moved on Prophetstown in November, 1811.  Tecumseh had ordered Tenskwatawa to evacuate the town if Harrison moved to attack it.  Instead, Tenskwatawa mobilized his warriors and met Harrison on the banks of the Tippecanoe River where it joins with the Wabash.  On November 7, 1811, Harrison delivered a crushing defeat and the surviving Natives fled, leaving the town behind to be burned by the Americans.  Indian Removal was less than twenty years away, but following Tippecanoe many Natives began moving to Kansas, Missouri or Oklahoma, or fleeing to Canada to get ahead of the coming storm.  Harrison's treaty was already land and money in the bank.   

Artist: Charles Bird King

Today most people are familiar with the Native American portraits of George Catlin, perhaps because so many of his works have survived and have been recopied again and again.  In their day, Charles Bird King (1785-1862), was considered the Dean of the Native American Painters, not only because of the quality of his work, but his proximity to government officials and the assignments he received through them.

King was born in Newport, RI.  The family migrated west but, when King was four years old, his father was killed by Native Americans and the mother brought her young children back to Newport.  King studied under New York painter Edward Savage, and later traveled to London to work under Benjamin West.  The War of 1812 brought him back to America, where he drifted to studious in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Richmond before deciding to base in Washington, D.C.  He hoped that by being so close to the seat of power, he would capture the patronage of wealthy clientele needing portraits.  He eventually painted portraits of John Quincy and Louisa Adams, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and many others.  At that time, painting Native portraits was the last thing on his mind.

Enter Thomas McKinney, head of the BIA in Washington, D.C.  Like Catlin and many others, McKinney believed that the Natives were rapidly becoming extinct and believed that careful imaging and cataloging of tribes and artifacts was the last best hope for preserving some vestige of their society.  Because of his position in the government, McKinney met many leaders and prominent Native people, and achieved a priceless collection of artifacts but he felt more was needed.  He turned to King and asked if he would be interested in painting portraits on commission for the BIA.  King agreed.  Unlike Catlin and others of the genre, he did not go out West and paint the Natives in the home environment.  They came to him.  Part of any diplomatic rotation in Washington, no matter whether the emissaries were Native or not, was a round of sittings with prominent artists.  For Natives, that meant a stop in King's studio, where he painted many Native notables of the day whose images might otherwise be lost.  Red Jacket, Pushmataha, Cherokee leaders John and Major Ridge and many others.  Later McKinney, who was compiling an encyclopedia of Native tribes, asked King to do the lithographs for it. 

After McKinney left the BIA, the agency severed its ties with King and donated his works to the National Institute, where shoddy upkeep nearly destroyed them.  In 1858, his work was donated to the Smithsonian Institution.  In 1865, a fire swept through the gallery containing works by King and John Mix Stanley and only a few works by each were saved.  Fortunately, most of King's lithographs were saved by being published in the companion book to McKinney's encyclopedia.  King died in Washington, D.C. in 1862.

Great Warrior: Menawa of the Creek

In every society or era of history there is one person who seems to be there for all the important events.  One such is Menawa of the Creek (c 1765-c 1835), a Red Stick leader who paid the ultimate sacrifice while leading his people into the unknown.

Menawa was born in Oakfuskee on the Tallapoosa River in present-day Alabama, a site that is now covered by Lake Martin.  His mother was a Creek woman of status and his father was a fur trader of Scottish ancestry.  Like many young boys in that situation, he derived his standing in the tribe from his mother, and an uncle or other maternal relative would have provided his warrior's training.  How much involvement his father had in his education and upbringing is unknown.  As a boy and young man, Menawa went by the name of Hothlepoya.  It wasn't until he was much older, and made second Chief of Oakfuskee that he was given the name he was better known by, Menawa.

Menawa opted for the Red Stick faction of the Creek War (1813-14), opposing continued White incursion into Creek lands and believing that traditional ways should be upheld over assimilation into White society.  Along with William Weatherford, Peter McQueen and Josiah Francis, some of whom we've already run across, he became one of the prominent leaders of the Creek War on the Red Stick side.  He was on the Native command team at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814), where he was wounded seven times but managed to escape. 

After the War, he continued to impose White encroachment on Creek lands.  He supported the law passed in 1824 by the Creek National Council outlawing any more cession of Creek land.  When the sentence of death was passed against William Mc Intosh for signing the Treaty of Indian Springs in 1825, Menawa was chosen to lead the hit on Mc Intosh.  He and a party of warriors surprised the erring chief at his plantation, killed him and another leader who had signed the treaty, and tracked down Mc Intosh's two sons-in-laws, hanging one and wounding the other, who managed to escape.  Menawa was appointed to the National Council and went with Opothleyahola, whom we've also met, to Washington to try to salvage whatever communal land they could.  They negotiated the 1826 Treaty of Washington, which allowed the Creek to retain some land, and compensated them for lands they had lost.

But removal was inevitable.  Both Alabama and Georgia immediately began eviction of Creek families, signaling that they were not willing to abide by the new treaty.  The Indian Removal Act sealed the fate of most Southeastern Natives.  The Creek began their own Trail of Tears in 1834, emigrating in waves to Oklahoma from 1834-37.  Menawa led his people on one of these treks and died along the way of the same harsh conditions they were experiencing.  He was buried on the trail and his burial place is not known. 

Bridging Two Worlds: Greenwood LeFlore of the Choctaw

Sometimes it's easy to tell which Native leaders were great leaders or great warriors.  Their acclaim is obvious both within the tribes and in the history of this country in general, men such as Pushmataha, Tecumseh or Osceola.  Other leaders, such as William Mc Intosh, weren't so fortunate, and their tribes' opinions of them is also a matter of record.  Others, one has to present the facts, step back and let readers be the judge.  Such is the case of Greenwood LaFlore/LaFleur of the Choctaw (1800-1865).

Greenwood was the oldest son of Rebecca Cravatt, a daughter of Pushmataha, who was featured in a previous post.  Rebecca held chiefly lineage through her mother's clan, as well.  Greenwood's father, Louis LaFleur was a French-Canadian trapper who worked for Panton, Leslie, which we've also run across.  Greenwood would have received his training in Choctaw society through the men of his mother's family.  Perhaps he knew his famous maternal grandfather.  Louis LaFleur provided his son with a White education, sending him to board with a family in Nashville, Tennessee.  There, Greenwood fell in love with Rebecca Donley, the daughter of his host family.  They were married and he brought her back to Mississippi.

Perhaps because of his education, or his grandfather's influence, Greenwood realized the benefits of assimilating with White society.  While he deplored the encroachment of Settlers onto Choctaw land, he encouraged other reforms, such as education and improved farming methods.  At age 22, he became Chief of the Western Division of the Choctaw Nation, where he worked to abolish the ancient "blood for blood" system of avenging violent crimes through blood feuds.  Meanwhile, he repeatedly pleaded with government officials to stop the infringement of Settlers onto his people's land, asking that they be left alone in return for adopting these reforms. 

But it was not to be.  As more and more Settlers poured into Mississippi, pressure mounted on the Choctaw to cede their remaining lands and depart to new territory in Oklahoma.  Andrew Jackson's election in 1828 convinced many Choctaw leaders that removal would be inevitable. After passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, the Chiefs of the other two districts resigned and the Council elected Greenwood LaFleur as the first Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation.  He drafted a treaty with what he believed to be the best terms possible for the Choctaw and sent it to Washington.  The government sent representatives to Mississippi to negotiate with the Choctaw.  LaFleur and other leaders selected what they hoped was the best land available in Oklahoma and believed they would be compensated by being allowed to keep some land in Mississippi.  LaFleur and other chiefs signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek in 1830, ceding most Choctaw lands in Mississippi and a storm broke loose.

Neither the Jackson Administration nor Mississippi authorities had any intention of honoring the provisions in the treaty allowing any Natives to stay on reserved lands in the state and become American citizens.  A faction of the Council, furious with the chiefs and leaders who had signed the treaty, directed their ire at LaFleur and worked to have him deposed as Principal Chief.  LaFleur's nephew was elected in his place.  LaFleur did receive a grant of land and the right of his unmarried and minor children to continue living with him.  A few other families also receive land, but most of the Choctaw Nation began their own Trail of Tears trek in 1831-33.  In fact, it is the description of this Trek by a Choctaw leader as a trail of tears and death that gave the whole process of removing the Southeastern Tribes the name by which it is still known today. 

Greenwood LaFleur decided that the best course of action for him was to move forward and not look back.  He became a Mississippi State Senator and friends with Mississippi leaders such as Jefferson Davis.  He was an admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte and named his plantation Malmaison, after Napoleon's country retreat.  He became a successful planter and businessman, dying as the Civil War wound down in 1865. 

Captivity Narrative: Susannah Willard Johnson

Decades after Mary Rowlandson survived captivity by Natives and wrote about her experiences, another Puritan housewife went through something similar. 

Susannah Willard (1729-1810) was born in Turkey Hills, now Lunenburg, Massachusetts.  On both sides of her family, she came from prominent Massachusetts Puritan families.  Among her siblings was a younger sister, Miriam, who will become important later.  When Susannah was in her early teens, her father moved the family to what is now Charlestown, New Hampshire.  At the age of twenty, Susannah married Captain James Johnson, an officer in the local militia.  At the time her captivity began, Susannah had had Sylvanus, Little Susannah and Mary or Polly, and was heavily pregnant with Elizabeth.  The little town was tense with rumors of a suspected war with France, which would bring raids by Natives, either the Mohawk or Abenaki.  On August 29, 1754, the family was having a dinner to celebrate James' return from a hunting trip and news that any likely wars with local Natives or the French wouldn't occur before next Spring, in 1755. 

However, in the early morning hours of August 30, 1754, the Abenaki stormed the settlement, overran the enclosed stockade and captured the entire Johnson family and Susannah's sister Miriam Ward, along with two neighbors of theirs, Peter Labarree and Ebenezer Farnsworth.  The Abenaki burnt the stockade and quickly marched their captives away.  Near present-day Reading, Vermont, Susannah went into labor and gave birth to Elizabeth Captive Johnson.  The Abenaki were considerate, providing her with a pair of moccasins and a stolen horse to ride.  Later, as food became scarce on the march, the party killed and ate the horse, the Natives drinking a soup made from the bones so that Susannah and the children could have the meat. 

As they arrived at the Abenaki village of St. Francis, the captives faces were decorated with vermillion paint and they were forced to run the gauntlet.  Susannah was terrified, but she passed through the line with few light strokes only.  She later wrote that she, her children and sister were treated decently and used her time in the Abenaki village to pick up a few words and phrases.  One by one the captives were separated and taken to Montreal to be sold to the French as slaves.  James Johnson went first, followed by Faarnsworth, Labarree, and later Miriam along with Susannah's two oldest girls Little Susannah and Polly.  Only Susannah, her son Sylvanus and the baby Elizabeth were left at the Abenaki village.  Later, Susannah and Elizabeth were also taken to Montreal and sold to a French family as slaves.  Sylvanus was kept behind to be adopted into the tribe. 

James Johnson was given two months parole to return home and try to raise a ransom for his family.  He returned late and with insufficient money.  He was accused of violating his parole.  He, Susannah, Elizabeth, Little Susannah and Miriam were thrown in jail.  Only Polly, who had been sent to live with an influential family, remained free.  By now, the French and Indian War was on and the family lived in a series of jails from July 1755, through July, 1757, first a criminal prison and later a civil prison.  The whole family came down with smallpox and survived, though Susannah gave birth to an unnamed child who died within a few hours and was buried under a church in Montreal.  Meanwhile, Susannah busied herself petitioning the Governor of Quebec for their release.

Eventually, he agreed.  Susannah, her daughters (except for Little Susannah) and her sister were placed on a ship bound for England.  They got as far as Cork, Ireland, a common jumping off place for travelers coming to and from North America, where she arranged transport back to New York.  From New York, they walked to Lancaster, Massachusetts, where they were reunited with James, who had been released by this time.  The family returned to Charlestown, New Hampshire.  As soon as his parole was up, James joined the militia forces heading to support the British attempts to capture Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga),and was killed there on July 8, 1758.  Susannah concentrated her efforts on find Sylvanus, who was finally ransomed in October, 1758 for the sum of 500 livres, quite a bit in those days.  Sylvanus was assimilated, remembered very little English.  Though he eventually regained English and settled into family life, he retained some Abenaki ways for the rest of his life.  Little Susannah rejoined the family in 1760, after the capture of Montreal.  Even the two neighbor men, Peter Labarree and Ebenezer Farnsworth, managed to escape or were ransomed. 

Susannah opened a small store to support her family.  In 1762, she married John Hastings and had additional children by him.  Of the fourteen children she had between James and John, only seven survived to adulthood.  Not an uncommon tragedy in those days.  Hastings died in 1804, leaving his wife a prosperous widow, well off enough to have her portrait painted in 1807, three years before she died.  Almost forty years after her experience, Susannah felt comfortable enough writing about it.  Using her letters, diary and memories of fellow captives including the two male neighbors, she dictated her memoirs to Charlestown lawyer, John Curtis Chamberlain.  It was titled A Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Johnson and had pretty good sales.   However, in 1807, after her second husband's death, Susannah decided to undertake a more detailed second edition, written entirely by herself and published under her own name.  This edition became an instant best seller.  She was working on a third, more expanded edition when she died in 1810.  She was buried by James Johnson in Charlestown and a monument was erected over he grave in 1870. 

In 1957, author Elizabeth George Spears wrote Calico Captive, based on Susannah's memoirs.  The POV character there is not Susannah, but her younger sister Miriam, who seems to have most of the adventure, including turning down the advances of a swaggering young French officer in hopes of returning to her sweetheart back home, which she eventually does. 

Native Life: Running the Gauntlet

We've alluded to and described this practice in other posts, most notably on Simon Girty and William Crawford, as well as John Stark, but it was so common, and varied in intent, intensity and practice throughout most Northeastern tribes, that we'll go into it in more detail here.

The basic idea of requiring a condemned person to run, either semi or fully nude, through two lines of comrades wielding clubs, whips, switches or bare fists, was nothing new.  Greek and Roman armies had used it as a punishment, and from there it migrated to various European armies and military academies.  The word "gauntlet", thought it sounds similar to the French word for an armored or heavy duty military glove, actually has a different derivation.  It comes from the Swedish words for a lane or a running course, which is what a gauntlet essentially is.  In European armies, a gauntlet was considered a less demeaning form of punishment, since it allowed an offender to take his punishment like a man among comrades, not tied to a post being flogged.  Though excessive blows could lead to death, and a gauntlet was sometimes used as a prelude to execution, such was not always the case.  Military schools also adopted the gauntlet as a punishment or hazing ritual.

Whether Eastern Woodlands native invented the practice independently of Whites or borrowed it from Settlers one can't say for sure.  However, Jesuit missionary Isaac Jogues provided one of the first descriptions of it in 1641, so likely the Natives had their own version.  And it became a common practice for captives.  Men such as Simon Girty, Simon Kenton, Daniel Boone and John Stark ran gauntlets before being adopted into the respective tribes or, in Kenton's case, slated for execution.  Practices varied from tribe to tribe.  Sometimes the victim was stripped naked, or to the waste, sometimes their hands were tied, or they were allowed to have their hands free to protect their heads and faces.  This was hazardous to the men on the running line.  John Stark and Daniel Boone took advantage of their hands not being bound to grab the nearest warrior and start beating back.  Simon Kenton also did so, but this show of bravado angered his captors rather than impressed them, which is one of the reasons he was marked for death.  Nor were women always exempt.  Susanna Willard Johnson, a Massachusetts housewife who was captured by Abenaki during the French and Indian War (1755-762), was also forced to run a gauntlet.  Though, perhaps because she'd just given birth, she was allowed to pass through the line with light blows only.

Though some tribes imposed rules, such as barring bladed implements, limiting the number of strikes per man, etc., for other unfortunate prisoners, the gauntlet was a prelude to death and the best the unfortunate Settler could hope for was die during the process.  Prior to being burnt at he stake in 1782, Col. William Crawford was subjected to the gauntlet.  He survived.  Other prisoners, if they fell too many times or could not get up, were dispatched on the running line.  Modern reenactors sometimes do a friendly version of the gauntlet for visitors or newbies.