Fort Marion and the Case of the Wrong Ghost

The other day as I was flipping through channels, I saw a ghost-hunting special on Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Florida.  In addition to the tragic souls of two star-crossed lovers of the Spanish era, the ghost-busters were seeking the spirit of Osceola, who had died at the fort after being beheaded on order of the fort's commandant (implicitly a la Mary Queen of Scots or Anne Boleyn, as he was being made out as one of the most tragic figures in history, etc.).  Huh! Wait! What? No!  Osceola died at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina of a throat infection, not in Florida from a Tudor-style beheading, but let's examine the Fort Marion story a little more closely.

With Osceola when he was captured in October 1837 were a number of Seminole leaders and warriors, including King Phillip and his son Coacoochee, John Horse, a close friend of Osceola's known as Coa Harjo and some others.  Among them were several Yuchi.  The Yuchi were a tribe from the Tennessee River Valley area who had been displaced and many of whom sought refuge in Florida with the Seminole.  Among the Yuchi were several relatives or siblings, Yuchi John, Yuchi Bob and Yuchi Billy, among others.  As the captives made their way along the road to St. Augustine, an army doctor traveling with the group noticed that Osceola was unwell.  He had been struggling with malaria on an off for the past several months and may even have had the beginnings of the tonsillitis that killed him. 

The quarters at the old Castillo de San Marcos (renamed Fort Marion by the Americans) were tight, damp and not too clean.  The doctor who had noted Osceola's illness was soon dispatched to other duty and a more senior army physician, Dr. Frederick Weedon, was assigned to care for the captives, visiting them twice a day.  In the overcrowded, unhygienic conditions, the prisoners developed rashes and head lice.  More seriously, in December, 1837, a chicken pox epidemic broke out.  Many of the Natives had no immunity to this routine childhood disease and Weedon recorded that Yuchi Billy was among those who succumbed to the illness and died.  Osceola did not get chicken pox.  Either he'd gotten it as a child or was not in direct contact with Yuchi Billy. 

It was then that a strange side of Frederick Weedon's personality manifested itself.  Upon Yuchi Billy's death, Weedon amputated the head of the corpse, removed the flesh and kept the skull as a souvenir.  In January, 1830, when Osceola finally succumbed to quinsy as part of his tonsillitis while at Fort Moultrie in South Carolina, Weedon would remove his head after death and preserve it in alcohol.  So it's easy to see how the beheading theme got going.  Both Yuchi Billy and (Billy Powell) Osceola were beheaded by this same doctor, but only after death and in two separate locations.  Osceola's biographer, Patricia Wickman, is at great pains to excuse Weedon's conduct on the basis of routine 19th century medical practice.  And, probably because Weedon's descendants cooperated with her book and provided access to artifacts and information concerning Osceola.  I'll let anyone who's interested read the book for more info. 

The fact remains that the bodies of these two men, at Fort Marion and Fort Moultrie, were not treated in accord with their own expressed wishes and cultural beliefs.  Most anyone who has had any exposure to Natives, as Weedon claimed, would know that death and the body of a deceased, particularly a deceased warrior or leader, was to be treated carefully and respectfully after death.  Osceola specifically asked Weedon to see to it that his body was returned to Florida for burial and he made personal preparation for death by dressing in his finest regalia.  Weedon was present at the death, saw how Osceola wished to die and the fact that he had relatives and colleagues present who mourned his passing.  Weedon claimed sympathy for Osceola and friendship with him, yet used his body as a medical specimen, insuring that Osceola lies at the gates of Fort Moultrie a naked, headless corpse whose coffin was dropped or tipped at some point so that the body slid to the left and decayed into a pile of jumbled bones.  Some respect for a friend with whom one sympathizes!  (Off soapbox now). 

Legends proliferated at both Fort Marion and Fort Moultrie that Osceola haunts both places, seeking vengeance on the Whites who took his land and disrespected his body.  Whether people believe in ghosts or ghost stories I'll leave to each reader to decide.  However, Osceola did not die at Fort Marion.  The Native warrior whose remains were mishandled and disrespected there was Yuchi Billy, not Osceola.  If anyone has a right to be aggrieved about whatever happened at Fort Marion, it is this Yuchi leader, not Osceola. 

Natives versus Settlers: the Cherokee-American Wars 1776-1795

In some respects, the American Revolution was no different than the other Colonial land wars fought in North American since the 17th century.  It involved European powers, England versus France and Spain (fighting on the side of the Americans), over land.  And neither Patriots nor Redcoats thought of the impact on the original inhabitants of the land.  The Cherokee American Wars spanned the time period of the American Revolution and throughout the Northwest Indian War, which we've already covered.  We've also met Dragging Canoe, probably one of the most able Native leaders of any time period.  The Cherokee-American Wars, also known on the frontier as the Chickamauga Wars, were the conflicts that made him famous, and feared.

The Cherokee allied with Great Britain as the American Revolution broke out.  In the aftermath of the French and Indian War (1756-1763), the English had negotiated a series of treaties with the Cherokee in an effort to protect their land from encroachment by Settlers.  However, the Settlers kept coming and while the Cherokee were compelled to cede some land, others chose to move further west, keeping distance between them and the Whites.  The result was a great deal of upheaval among Cherokee communities, with some towns being abandoned and resettled elsewhere.  As the Revolution broke out, Cherokee war parties began attacking frontier settlements, sometimes with the support of Loyalists who had been forced to flee their homes to avoid the wrath of Patriot neighbors.  These attacks were blown into full-fledged atrocities by Patriot propaganda and the familiar cycle of retribution set in. As hostilities continued, the Cherokee allied with northern tribes such as the Shawnee and Lenape/Delaware to pool their collective manpower and resources. 

Patriot governments in Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia now had a two-front war on their hands.  While fighting the British, they also had to deal with war on the frontier against a combination of warriors from various tribes.  In this first phase of the conflict, war parties of the Cherokee and other tribes fought a series of small battles against Patriot militias from the various states.   It was in this context that Dragging Canoe emerged as a war leader, directing evacuations of women, children and elderly so that the warriors could burn the towns and meet the Settlers in battle.  The Cherokees scorched earth tactics, burning their own towns to avoid them coming into the control of the Settlers, deprived the Settlers of food stores they had hoped to plunder in their march.  There was a respite in 1777, when the Cherokee signed a series of treaties with Patriot governments in all four colonies.  However, there would be no rest on the frontier.  The Creek/Muscogee, erstwhile enemies of the Cherokee, were also fighting on the side of the British and scoring raids of their own.  Dragging Canoe led his people along the Great Warpath to where it crossed Chickamauga Creek, hoping to be left alone.  The towns along the Chickamauga became a point of refuge both for Cherokee who had had to flee from other areas, as well as Loyalists driven from their homes.

But peace would not last.  As Settlers flooded in to the various river valleys leading to Tennessee, they encroached on Chickamauga hunting range, facing deadly reprisals for doing so.  Dragging Canoe and his men were constantly battling Settlers who strayed into their lands.  Beginning in 1778, the British turned their attentions to war in the Southern States, pitting Patriot against Loyalist as well as Settlers against Natives.  Initial Patriot setbacks in the southern theater of Revolutionary War forced more Settlers west.  The British had also turned their attention to the frontier, sending troops with Native auxiliaries under Sir Henry Hamilton into Tennessee.  They were met by Patriot forces under George Rogers Clark, among others.  As they had in the North, Loyalist units teamed with Native auxiliaries to raid backcountry settlements and farms.  Patriot units found their own allies, mostly among tribes such as the Catawba, and kept up the fight.  Settlers destroyed several Chickamauga towns, which inflamed Dragging Canoe's men.  They allied with the Shawnee to keep up the fight.

Meanwhile, Native leaders such as White Eyes of the Delaware had opened negotiations with both the British and Americans, seeking a Native buffer state and a possible end of the war.  To that end, the Cherokee agreed to remain neutral, hoping that the tensions would ease.  In 1780, the Chickasaw, who had been raided by Clark's Patriot forces, entered the fight against the Americans, further adding to the conflict.  Also in 1780, the British captured Charleston, South Carolina and besieged Savannah.  Patriot militias from the backcountry were forced to put the war with the Natives on hold and march to battle at Kings Mountain (October, 1780), and the Cowpens (January, 1781) to deal with the British onslaught.  They turned their attention back to the Cherokee in skirmishes in the Cumberland Valley in 1781.  The Cherokee had allies in the Shawnee and Chickasaw, fighting a series of campaigns against the Overmountain men, whom we've also discussed in a previous post. 

Washington's victory at Yorktown in October, 1781, did nothing to stop the war on the frontier, where Patriot and Loyalist forces continued to raid settlements and incite the conflict.  The conflict spread from Tennessee and into Georgia, where both the Cherokee and Creek were fighting Settlers, free from any interference by King or government, encroaching on their lands.  Cherokee communities in the Ohio Valley were also drawn into the conflict.  Dragging Canoe and representatives of several tribes met with Spanish and British officials in St. Augustine, Florida, to discuss a Native confederation to deal with the crisis.  The Treaty of Paris of 1783 dealt with Britain's claims to her former colonies, but did not deal with any claims the Natives may have had to the same land.  With the Revolution over, some tribes entered into treaties with various states, while others including the Cherokee, saw no other option but to continue fighting.  The Spanish had been allies of the Americans.  Now, aware that Americans were casting covetous eyes on Florida, the Spanish had a stake in backing the Natives in the conflict, though they did so covertly.  Alexander McGilllivray of the Creek helped broker a treaty between the Creek and the Cherokee of the Lower Towns with the Spanish that was, on its face, a treaty of trade, but also one of tacit support in the event of conflict with the fledgling American government(s).  He assisted the Choctaw and Alabama in negotiating similar treaties. 

Despite the treaties, the frontier was tense.  In 1785, as the Natives worked toward the confederation that would fight the Northwest Indian War, they were also working toward a combine that would defend their land claims in the South.  The United States, still just a loose confederation of squabbling states who each insisted on dealing with their own defense and with the Native tribes, now found itself with two parallel Indian Wars, each lasting for the next ten years.  Dragging Canoe was aging, but other able warriors were coming on the scene, including Cheeseekau, older brother and mentor of Tecumseh, who would spend his own formative years in these conflicts and learn valuable lessons from them.  Dragging Canoe died in 1792 and Alexander McGillivray followed In 1793, but the conflict did not die with them.  A series of more treaties with various tribes and discovery of Spain's duplicity led to another lull in the fighting, but not for long.  The wars in the backcountry would not wind down until 1794, with the defeat at Fallen Timbers which ended the Northwest Indian War.  The Cherokee, under John Watts, signed the Treaty of Tellico Blockhouse in 1794, pulling them out of the conflict.  Treaty of Greenville in 1795 put an end to the Northwestern conflict, forcing punitive land concessions on the part of many tribes.  The frontier, though, was far from quiet. 

Great Writer: Elias Boudinot (Gallegina Uwati) of the Cherokee

Throughout the centuries, Native people have been quick to adapt to changing technology to spread their message, often one of protest at the unfair conditions forced upon them.  Elias Boudinot, the first editor of the Cherokee Phoenix, was one such.

Elias (1802-1839), was born of a elite Cherokee family in present-day Calhoun, Georgia.  His father accepted Christianity and took the name David, dropping the U from the family's name and adding an e, making the more family Watie.  He named his son Gallegina, which means either Turkey or Male Deer in Cherokee.  Gallegina's brothers included later Confederate General Stand Watie.  They were nephews of Cherokee leader Major Ridge and cousins to his son John.  Like several prominent Cherokee families, the Waties were mixed-race, Gallegina's mother being of partial Cherokee and English ancestry.  It was typical for young men of these families to receive a White education in addition to schooling in traditional ways and beliefs, so that they could better represent their people in dealing with Whites.  Gallegina attended a school run by the Moravians, and was later accepted to the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut.  While there, he met Elias Boudinot, president of the American Bible Society and member of the Second Continental Congress.  Boudinot became his mentor and, out of respect, Gallegina took his name, becoming known as Elias Boudinot.

While in Connecticut, Elias accepted Christianity and later collaborated with others in using Sequoyah's syllabary to translate the New Testament into Cherokee.  He did well at school, but illness forced him to return home.  Not before he'd met a young White woman, Harriet Ruggles Gold, from a Connecticut family with roots back to the Pilgrims.  He courted her by letter.  His cousin, John Ridge, had also found love in Connecticut.  These two cross-race marriages caused controversy in Connecticut and forced the eventual closure of the mission school, but both young couples stuck to their guns and their families eventually decided to support them.  Elias and John married the women the loved regardless of class and race.  In 1825, the Cherokee National Council accommodated these and other marriages by allowing full Cherokee citizenship to children of a Cherokee father and White mother, something not allowed in traditional matrilineal society. 

Elias and Harriet had ten years together, with six surviving children, before Harriet died of tuberculosis.  Meanwhile, in 1828, Elias was selected by the National Council to be editor of a newspaper, which eventually became the Cherokee Phoenix.  Although it published articles in Cherokee, it also published in English, acquired a national and international circulation, and became one of the most respected papers of its time.  Elias hoped to use the paper to explain Cherokee society to non-Natives and to prove that they were on par with Americans and Europeans in every way.  As editor, Elias wrote several articles protesting against Removal.  He argued that Indian Removal violated the Constitution and would ultimately hurt the American economy.  He argued that Native people's efforts to assimilate, such as conversion to Christianity and educating their children, entitled them to remain in their homeland.   He also went on a speaking tour to present his views to a wider audience.

Despite the Supreme Court's decision upholding Cherokee rights to their Native land, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and President Jackson was intent on enforcing it.  Elias began to see that Removal was inevitable and believed the best thing to do was to make the most favorable terms with the Americans, and leave before they were forced out.  In this opinion, he was opposed by the National Council and John Ross, who still opposed Removal.  Tempers flared between Natives who sided with Ross, and those who sided with Boudinot and the Ridges, who advocated acquiescing to Removal.  Ross forbade Elias from publishing pro-Removal articles in the Phoenix and Elias resigned.  In addition to his work on the Phoenix, Elias had written and later published an "Address to the Whites", arguing his reasons why the Cherokee should not be expelled from the homeland.  A minor gold strike in Georgia sealed the Cherokee's fate.  Elias and other Treaty Party leaders, including the Ridges, signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, ceding all Cherokee land in Georgia.  John Ross, the Principal Chie at the time, refused to sign.  Despite this, the Treaty was ratified. 

Elias, dealing with Harriet's illness and eventual death, placed some of his children in school and sent others west with relatives before going to visit Harriet's family in Connecticut.  When he returned to Georgia, he married another New England woman who had been a school teacher in New Echota, before migrating West to Oklahoma.  He was by now destitute, and received assistance from a missionary society to settle in Park Hill and return to assisting with translating the Bible.  Elias' second wife, Delight Sargent, died even as they settled into their new home.  As the tragedies of the Trail of Tears unfolded in 1838-1839, anger boiled over at the men who had signed the Treaty of New Echota.  On June 22, 1839, a group of Cherokee assassinated Elias outside his home.  That same day, Major Ridge and John Ridge were also killed, and Elias' brother Stand Watie was severely wounded.  Elias' children were sent to their respective grandparents in Connecticut.

The roots of this internal blood feud would run deep in the Cherokee Nation for decades, exacerbated by hardship and later, by the Civil War.  Stand Watie later took revenge on a man whom he had believed killed his uncle, Major Ridge.  He was tried for murder, and his attorney was his own nephew, Elias C. Boudinot, who later became a Confederate States Senator for Indian Territory. 

 

Places: Old Indian Meeting House, Mashpee, Massachusetts

As we've seen in previous posts, one of the by-products of colonization was that some Natives chose to accept Christianity.  While some were forced or felt compelled to do so, others did so of there own free well.  These included many member of the Wampanoag Tribe, with whom the Pilgrims first had contact.  Christianized Wampanoags soon had their own congregations, including one in the present-day town of Mashpee, Massachusetts.  The Old Indian Meeting House is the oldest Native church in the eastern United States.  It was built in 1684 to replace an older structure that had served as a meeting place for a Wampanoag congregation.  In 1717, it was moved to its current location and remodeled, including the addition of a cemetery.  It is still used today as an active church.

As with many minority communities in the United States, the local church was a focal point of community activity.  The Old Indian Meeting House served as a school for Wampanoag children and a general meeting place for the community.  In 1833, the Wampanoag and other New England tribes were facing the same pressure to remove as were other Natives in the eastern United States.  White neighbors were encroaching on tribal land and the Wampanoag community, led by their Pequot minister William Apess, staged a formal protest.  Unlike many other tribes, the Wampanoag were not forced to remove.  The building has been entered in the National Register of Historic Places.

The Treaty of Moultrie Creek, September 1823

On the frontier, treaties between Natives and various governments, including the federal government, were made and scrapped almost at will.  An example of this was the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, between the United States, the Seminoles and various other Florida tribes in 1823.

During Colonial times and throughout the first decades of the Republic, the line between Georgia and Spanish Florida was a porous border.  Tribes such as the Creek/Muscogee, Seminole, Yamassee and Yuchi moved back and forth as living conditions or hunting needs changed.  Black slaves also used this border, to escape from plantations in Georgia and South Carolina.  The area was essentially a no man's land, with almost no law enforcement, so smuggling and cattle rustling was a problem.  With Spanish Florida finally ceded to the United States by Spain in 1821, more and more settlers looked to the panhandle area of Florida as ranching and cotton farming country.  They began to demand that the federal government do something about the Native people already living there, as well as clamp down on the escaped slaves, and trade with Cuba, which was still a Spanish possession. 

The Seminoles and other Native people had already born the brunt of a loss against the US army during the First Semiole War (1816-1818), and many people, such as Abiaka and Osceola, had vivid memories of the Creek War (1813-1814).  They had no wish to repeat the experience.  There were varied motivations for signing a treaty, but many Natives hoped that, with the boundaries clearly identified, they would be left in peace.  There were two problems.  The proposed treaty land was in Central Florida and much of it was unsuited for agriculture.  The government had carefully selected the best land for Settlers, leaving the Natives (who depended on farming for part of their food supply, too), with the leftovers.  Further, the Natives would be restricted to hunting within the bounds of reservation, with lashings, imprisonment and confiscation of weapons as punishment for being caught off the reservation.  This severely limited the hunting range for them. 

Representatives of the United States, the Seminoles and other Native groups concerned met on the bank of Moultrie Creek in what is now St. John's County to hammer out the details.  The US promised monetary compensation for loss of land, rations to supplement the food supply, a school, blacksmith and farming implements.  The Seminoles promised to return any escaped slaves, confine themselves to their land, cease trading with Cuba and allow roads to be built across their land as needed.  The Treaty was signed and, almost immediately, problems arose.  The rations supplied were never enough, forcing desperate Native men to go off the Reservation to hunt and risk arrest.  Although most of the Blacks living with the Seminoles at this time were either free, or mixed race, not run away slaves.  Whenever any cattle turned up missing, or slaves escaped from nearby plantations, though, the Natives were blamed.  Measures to enforce the Treaty became more harsh and punitive.

The ultimate solution, and for many a Final Solution, came with the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which would remove all Natives east of the Mississippi to Kansas and Oklahoma.  The Treaty of Payne's Landing in 1832, and Fort Gibson in 1836, essentially scrapped the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, leaving most Seminoles with no other choice than to remove to Oklahoma.  Today, the oak under which the treaty was supposedly signed is preserved in a park in St. John's County.

Great Woman: Madeline Laframboise of Mackinac Island

As we've seen from earlier posts, the Ottawa were known even before contact with Europeans as traders and middlemen for various products.  A mixed-race Ottawa woman, Madeline Laframboise (1780-1846) carried on that tradition in 19th century Michigan, long before women of any race routinely made it in the business world.

Marguerite-Magdelaine Marcot was born at Fort St. Joseph, a French outpost taken over by the British during the Seven Year's War and located near present-day Niles, Michigan.  Her father was a French fur trader who was killed when Madeline was quite young.  Her mother was Ottawa, the daughter of a local leader, Kewiniquot.  Madeline was baptized Catholic in their teens, after the British had abandoned Fort St. Joseph and Madeline fled with her mother and sisters to Mackinac Island.  At some point in her childhood, Madeline spent time in an Ojibwe village.  She became fluent in English, French, Ojibwe and Ottawa.  She and her two sisters married traders and all became quite wealthy and influential women in their own right.

In 1794, when she was about fourteen, Madeline married Joseph La Framboise.  Many girls in that era, both Native and White, married in their mid-teens, so the fact that she was a young bride wasn't unusual.  Their marriage was solemnized according to Ottawa custom and later confirmed by a Catholic ceremony in 1804.  They had two children, Josette and Joseph.  The couple moved between Mackinac Island and the Grand River in Michigan (nothing to do with Joseph Brant's Grand River in Ontario).  They established several trading posts along the Grand River.  Throughout the winter, they would trade their goods for furs, which they would bring back in the spring to Mackinac and repeat the process.  Tragedy struck when Joseh, Sr., was murdered in 1806, leaving Madeline a widow.  Not to be outdone, she continued the pattern, picking up trade goods in Mackinac and visiting their various points of call on the Grand River.  The population of Mackinac Island at this time was predominantly Metis and French, so Madeline and her sisters fitted in there along with their families.  Madeline was able to send her children to Montreal to be educated. 

However, a larger fur company was slowly taking over independent traders in Michigan, John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company.  Her children raised and a comfortable nest egg accumulated for herself, Madeline sold out to him in 1822.  She retired to a large home on Mackinac Island that still stands today and became active in her local church community.  Her foremost project was a school for Native American children.  She was also a catechism teacher in the local Catholic church, keeping the congregation together when they did not have a resident priest.  When the church decided to move to better quarters, she donated the land next to her home, asking only to be buried beneath the altar of the church.  This was an often-made request on behalf of pious donors throughout the ages.  Her daughter Josette (called Josephine), married a brother of future President Franklin Pierce.  Her son carried on the family business in Minnesota, marrying a woman who was mixed-race Sioux.  Madeline remained in Mackinac, her home become a stopping point for prominent characters such as French writer Alexis de Tocqueville, who was impressed by her ladylike manners and ability to speak French and specifically noted that she wore Native dress and quite beautifully so. 

Madeline died on April 4, 1846, and was buried beneath the alter of St. Anne's Church in Mackinac.  Later when the church was renovated in the 1960's, her body and those of some family members were interred in a new crypt beneath the altar.  Her home is now the Harbor View Inn. 

Places: Mohawk Lower Castle and Fort Hunter

During much of frontier history, land acquisitions between Natives and Settlers were often fraught with tension or outright conflict.  Occasionally, though, transfers of land were made in a spirit of mutual cooperation.  Such was the basis on which Fort Hunter was built in 1711. 

The Beaver Wars of the 17th Century were brutal on Natives serving as auxiliaries to both French and English.  The Mohawk took the precaution of constructing larger villages with strong palisaded fortifications which the English took to calling castles.  We've dealt with Canajoharie, the Upper Castle, in a previous post.  That was located further up the Mohawk River on the south side.  Because Tionanderoga was located further down river, it was referred to as the Lower Castle.  Inhabitants of the Lower Castle and their English neighbors managed to get along.  The Mohawk granted the town of Albany 1,000 acres in the environments of the lower castle.  A couple named Jan Peters Mabee and his wife Anna Boorsboom Mabee also received a seizable grant in 1697 from a Sachem of the Mohawk Wolf clan.  The link might have been Anna, who was mixed-race and may have been related to the Sachem.  The Mabees set up their farm and started their family.

In 1710, another Wolf Clan Sachem whose title was Teyoninhokarawa journeyed to England with three other Native leaders to the court of Queen Anne.  Teyoninhokarawa had serious concerns on his mind and made some requests plain to the English Queen.  He feared the encroachment of French Settlers and Catholicism on Mohawk land and among the people.  He asked the Queen to build a fort to help protect his people, to build a chapel and to send Anglican missionaries to teach the people.  Anne was happy to oblige but had a request of her own.  German refugees from the Palatine (Rhine) area of Germany were coming to England, fleeing persecution in their own land.  Concerned that England might take in too many, Anne requested land from the Mohawk to resettle these people in North America.  Teyoninhokarawa agreed.

Coming back to America, there were certain logistics that had to be worked out.  The future site of Fort Hunter, located near the junction of Schoharie Creek with the Mohawk River, was on the Mabee land grant.  The Mabees agreed to swap out land further upriver.  The Palatine refugees were settled, and construction began on Fort Hunter and an Anglican chapel in 1712.  In addition to missionaries, the Queen sent a silver communion set for the chapel.  Fort Hunter enclosed the chapel, and proved to be a defense for the Mohawk and surrounding area during the French and Indian War and later during the American Revolutionary War.  The Mohawk built prosperous farms, sent their children to school and lived lives not that much different from their White neighbors.  Then the spirit of cooperation and neighborliness broke down forever. 

As we've seen, the Mohawk took the side of the British during the American Revolution and paid dearly.  Raids by militias supporting both sides, along with Native auxiliaries, ravaged the Mohawk River Valley.  Mohawk leader John Deseronto gathered over 150 of his people resident near Fort Hunter and fled to Canada.  It was none too soon.  The Sullivan-Clinton expedition of 1779-1780 lay waste to the Mohawk Valley and broke the back of Iroquois power in their ancient homeland forever.  Fort Hunter and the chapel fell into ruin.  Finally, in 1820, the fort and chapel were torn down to make way for construction of the Erie Canal.  Only the parsonage, which stood outside the fort, exists today. 

A Battle by Any Other Name: Klock's Field, October 19, 1780

The Sullivan-Clinton Expedition may have destroyed the homeland of the Iroquois in New York, but it did not dampen their will, or that of their Loyalist allies, to try to take it back.  As the tide began to turn against the British elsewhere in the Revolution, units of Loyalist and Patriot militia, along with Native auxiliaries, kept up the fight.

This Battle goes by several names, Klock's Field, Falling's Orchard, Nellis Flatts, or Stone Arabia.  On one side was Sir John Johnson, William Johnson's successor as Superintendent of the British Indian Department.  Johnson had command of units from several Loyalist troops, including his own King's Royal Regiment of New York, Butler's Rangers, and a British regular infantry regiment.  Brant's Volunteers included both Natives and even Whites or mixed-race men willing to fight under his command.  Facing them were units of the Albany County Militia and Tryon County Militia, along with Oneida auxiliaries.  As with other battles we've covered, this would be a case of Settlers and Natives against Natives and Settlers. 

In retaliation for the destruction of their homeland, Brant's and Johnson's men began destroying homes in Stone Arabia, a village in present-day Palatine Township, Montgomery County, New York.  The American commander, John Brown, gathered up levies of militia from as far away as Massachusetts to meet the threat.  He was quickly defeated by Johnson and Brant, but they had reckoned without larger American forces nearby, commanded by General Robert van Rensselear, who caught up with them on the fields of a farm owned by George Klock.  The two groups traded fire until Renssalear that his men were too bunched up on the field and cross-firing at each other.  He ordered a retreat to Klock's farmhouse and outbuildings to sort out the mess.  Johnson and Brant took the opportunity to cross the Mohawk River and put it between themselves and their enemy. 

Although this battle sounds like a mutual retreat and a dismal failure on both sides, Johnson and Brant did achieve their objective, a twenty-mile swath of destruction from Fort Hunter to Stone Arabia.  The Americans would pay dearly for the destruction and theft of Iroquois land and property. 

Native Life: Language(s) and Interpreters

As we've seen on this blog, there were a variety of tribes on the frontier, each speaking its own language.  Yet they managed to form alliances, conduct trade and function within the context of wider society, all without modern translating equipment.  While there were dozens of Native languages on the frontier, most could be grouped into broad languages families, including but not limited to, the following:

Algonquian: this is perhaps the largest language family, spoken by tribes in a wide swath of Canada, the Great Lakes, and Eastern Seaboard.  Sources suggest that the word Algonquian comes from a Maliseet word meaning friends or allies, and indeed often Algonquian groups were allied firmly against their nearest neighbors, Iroquoian-speaking tribes.  Speakers of Algonquian included the Abenaki, Cree, Lenape/Delaware, Fox, Kickapoo, Mahican, Menominee, Miami, Ojibwe, Massachussett, Mikmaq, Mohegan, Narragansett, Passamaquoddy, Potawatomi, Powhatan, Sauk and Shawnee.

Iroquoian: these languages were not as far-flung as the Algonquian, but still spoken by some powerful tribes, including Cayuga, Cherokee, Erie, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, Susquehannock, Tuscarora and Wyandot.  Iroquoian speakers were clustered in the Great Lakes, Quebec and New York areas, and ranged throughout the backcountry through to the Southeast, which was the domain of the Cherokee.

Muskogean: most of these languages were clustered in the Southeast, and included Alabama, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Koasati, Miccosuki and Seminole.  Some Muskogean languages are now extinct, including Apalachee.  Modern Miccosuke may be an off-shoot of an older language, Hitchiti. 

Siouan:  associated with the Plains and the Mississippi River basin, the Catawba language is from this family.  Sources indicate there may have been other Siouan languages along the Eastern Seaboard, but have since become extinct.

The extent to which languages within a language family are mutually intelligible depends on the language and the speakers in question.  Some Natives were proficient in several languages, usually from having spent time with the tribe(s) in question or from frequent contact.  These weren't written languages and the only immersion course available was finding oneself suddenly with another tribe who didn't speak the same language and having to learn in a hurry to survive.  Add to this mixture the need to communicate with settlers who spoke Dutch, English, French or Spanish and the situation becomes more complicated.  For this reason, interpreters who could speak several languages were highly valued.  For example, John Norton, whom we've already run across, could speak several Native languages, as well as English, French and Spanish in addition to his Native Scots and Cherokee.  He first came to Joseph Brant's attention as an interpreter for the British Indian Department, later working directly for Brant and become a Pine Tree Chief of the Mohawk.

Circumstance and consensus often dictated that one prevailing language serve as a common language for trade, diplomacy and other communication.  Among the Six Nations, Mohawk filled this need.  Shawnee was a common trade language in the Ohio Valley.  Creek and Cherokee served the same purpose in the Southeast.  Men who by talent or circumstance could speak several languages were also in demand.  Simon Girty was said to speak eleven different languages, most notably Shawnee and Seneca, the tribes with whom he'd spent much time as a young man.  Working for the British Indian Department brought several important benefits besides steady pay.  Men who served as interpreters often carried military rank, received regular clothing allowances, and were viewed by the tribes as having some authority. 

The United States government also made use of interpreters, both working directly for trading companies, the military or the various Indian Agencies.  These could be men who had returned to White society from captivity as youngsters, but more often were mixed-race.  George Drouillard, profiled in a previous post, spoke French and English as well as Shawnee and other dialects.  He was a valuable interpreter for Lewis and Clark, who couldn't say enough about him in their journals.  Paddy Carr, whose father was Irish and Mother was Creek was one example.  Moreover, many leaders of the Southeastern tribes, whether mixed-race or not, were fluent in several languages.  Several Cherokee leaders were mixed-race and may have spoken Creek in addition to English and Cherokee.  Several Seminole, including Coacoochee and Tiger Tail, spoke English.  Osceola was known to be fluent in Spanish.   

Great Leader: John Deseronto of the Mohawk

Joseph Brant wasn't the only well-known Mohawk leader of his time.  He had to share that honor with another warrior, John Deseronto (c 1740-1811).  Deseronto, which he used as a last name, sometimes spelled Deserontyon, is likely the English corruption of his Native name Odeserundiye.

John Deseronto was born in the Mohawk Valley.  Like many of his tribe, he had attended school and received a White education, learning English and becoming familiar with European-American customs.  He was active in the French and Indian War and Pontiac's Rebellion, leading Mohawk warriors on behalf of the British.  Like the Brants, whom he would have known well, he was an ally of Sir William Johnson, whom we've discussed in a prior post.  When the American Revolution started, Deseronto was an established Mohawk leader, living near present-day Fort Hunter, he had a house and a prosperous farm.  He chose to side again with the British and the Loyalist Johnson family.  When Guy Johnson, one of Sir William's sons, left for Canada, Deseronto accompanied him and offered his services to the British.  Later, he would help Sir John Johnson, William's successor as British Indian Agent, to escape from New York to Montreal.

Like many famous leaders of this period, he was present at the Battle of Oriskany.  in the windup to the battle, July, 1777, he attacked a Patriot work detail as it was cutting wood near Fort Stanwix.  From information collected from prisoners, he passed on the information that the Fort was not strongly garrisoned.  After the Battle, British General Barry St. Leger hurriedly retreated and left behind in his tent a table set for dinner.  Deseronto sat down and helped himself.  A Patriot scout came upon him and shot him with a buck and ball load in the left chest and arm.  He would recover, but nearly lost his arm.  Discerning that the British might not be able to keep New York intact, he returned to Fort Hunter, and began to prepare his people for a mass departure to Canada.  Their departure was hastened by hearing of the destruction of Canajoharie (Upper Castle), by Patriot forces.  With over 150 people looking to him and his warriors for protection, Deseronto hurried to the safety of the British lines, having to fight through a Continental regiment to get there.  During that skirmish, he was wounded again.  They settled near Montreal to wait out the War.

He recovered and served under Sir John Johnson and other Loyalist commanders, raiding again and again in the Mohawk Valley to drive the Patriot settlers away, but with little success.  After the War, he and Brant along with other Mohawk and Iroquois leaders met with Frederick Haldimand, Governor of Canada, to discuss the loss of their land in New York.  Haldimand suggested that the Mohawk settle near the Bay of Quinte.  Deseronto agreed and Haldimand purchasd this land, granting it to the Mohawk.  Deseronto and his followers, mostly from the Lower Castle area around Fort Hunter, settled in.  Brant had his eye on the Grand River, which reminded him of the Mohawk River they had lost.  Haldimand eventually purchased and granted that land, which became the Grand River Reserve.  Although there may have been some friction between the two men, Deseronto's grant on the Bay of Quinte became the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory.  Tyendinaga was a variant spelling of Brant's name, Theyandenagea.   In 1797, Deseronto and Brant went to New York to meet with state leaders about ceding the Mohawk rights to their traditional homeland in return for money.  The Treaty was never ratified, partly because the federal government had disallowed states to make individual treaties with Natives.  The Mohawk were never compensation for this land. 

Deseronto became a successful farmer and trader.  He either owned or had interest in a trading post at Fort Detroit, in what is now Michigan.  There he would develop a friendship with John Norton, a young mixed-race Cherokee who eventually moved into Brant's orbit, though Norton and Deseronto remained on good terms.  Deseronto died on his farm in 1811.  The town of Deseronto, Ontario, developed on land personally granted to him and bequeathed at his death to his grandson, is named for John Deseronto. 

Honorable Mention: Sam Houston

Yesterday we discussed the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, where the lives of several important later leaders in America, both White and Native, converged.  We mentioned two men from Tennessee, Davy Crockett and Sam Houston, who both came away from that battle with a different perspective of Natives and Native culture.  Houston also came away with an injury that might have affected his life in a different way.

Sam Houston was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia on March 2, 1793.  His father died while Sam was still a boy and his mother took her family to Maryville, Blount County, Tennessee, when Sam was 14 years old.  Life was rough for a fatherless boy on the frontier and Sam did double duty, working on his mother's farm and as a clerk in his brothers' store.  Not liking either farm work or shop work, he ran away went to join the Cherokee on Hiawasee Island on the Hiawasee River.  This band was led by Ahuludegi, whom Americans knew as John Jolly.  Sam fitted in with Jolly's family, learning the Cherokee language and customs.  Whether sparks flew between Jolly's niece, Talahina/Tiana Rogers and Houston at that time will never be known.  Eventually, Sam returned to White society and became a schoolmaster.  He later settled on becoming an attorney, apprenticed to a Judge and passed the Tennessee bar exam.  In 1822, Houston was elected to Congress, where he was seen as a political protégé of Andrew Jackson.  Their politics differed in one principle area, treatment of Native Americans.  Houston did not approve of the prevailing sentiment of the time, which coalesced around Jackson, of calling for Indian Removal or worse.  He felt that peaceful co-existence with fair treatment and putting aside of mutual differences and prejudices was the answer. 

He sought to continue these policies when he was elected Governor of Tennessee in 1827, but rumors of alcoholism and infidelity threatened to undermine his career.  He was a heavy drinker at this time and he would quit only years later, in Texas.  But the infidelity accusations more likely stemmed from an incident during his wedding to Eliza Allen, daughter of a prominent Tennessee family.  On their wedding night she fled from their marriage bed and left Houston's home within a week.  Speculation abounds on why.  Possibly the chronic injury he had received from the Battle of Horseshoe Bend had something to do with it, though Houston would later have children with his third wife.  Eliza, though, publicly accused Sam of infidelity and the resulting scandal cut short his term.  He was forced to resign from the Governorship and seek annulment of his marriage.  Ashamed and disgraced, he once again sought refuge with John Jolly's family.

The Jollys were making a transition of their own.  While some Cherokee chose to remain in their traditional homeland for as long as they could, others decided to leave.  Sequoyah was one, John Jolly and his band were others, seeking refuge in Arkansas before White settlement could catch up to them again.  Houston accompanied the Jolly family to Arkansas and met Tiana/Talahina Rogers, the daughter of another Cherokee leader.  They married and were happy together.  While living in Arkansas with the Cherokee, Houston decided to use whatever influence he had in Washington to help them.  Indian Removal had passed in 1830 and he knew it was a matter of time before Jackson carried through on his platform of total removal of all Natives east of the Mississippi.  In 1832, while he was in Washington, he became embroiled in a dispute with Congressman William Stansbury of Ohio.  Stansbury believed that Houston, rather than coming to Washington out of any benefit to the CHerokee, was coming instead to support contractors seeking to provide rations to the Natives who were being removed, a lucrative job that was notorious for graft and corruption.  Houston challenged Stansbury to a duel and, when his challenge was refused, met up with Stansbury on a Washington street and beat him with a hickory stick.  Houston was arrested and found guilty, though sentenced to a fine only.  Stansbury sued and won damages, but Houston had already left for Texas without paying.

He also left without Tiana, who had no desire to leave her family.  Houston went to Texas and quickly became swept up in the independence movement.  He negotiated a settlement with the Cherokee who had settled in East Texas, to allay their fears about independence and what an American-based government in Texas could mean for them.  After defeating Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, Houston was elected President of the Republic of Texas.  Along with the American settlers who poured into the country, he also had to contend with Native refugees from across the eastern United States who were fleeing removal.  He made treaties with as many different tribes as he could, creating a buffer zone between White settlement and Native lands.  This lenient treatment did not earn him favor with Whites.  He lost a second term in 1841, but regained office in 1844, where he continued his policy of fair treatment of the Natives.  His policy culminated in a treaty of peace in 1843 which involved eleven different tribes.  While he was in office, he mandated that Texas troops assist the Native leaders in keeping trespassers off their land and settled disputes among Natives and Whites before they became open conflicts.

Sam Houston went on to marry a third time, to a White woman.  He served as a Senator from Texas and later as Texas Governor.  Slavery, secession and a looming Civil War took up much of his time from then on out, but when he could, he continued to demand fair treatment and on-interference with the Natives.  In 1838, Talahina Rogers Gentry had died of pneumonia in Fort Gibson, Oklahoma.  Her tombstone read, "wife of General Sam Houston".

Settlers versus Natives: The Battle of Horseshoe Bend, March 27, 1814

We've already discussed the Creek War of 1813-14, talked about Andrew Jackson's feelings toward Natives, and met some of the Native commanders on both sides of this battle.  Now its time to bring the Battle of Horseshoe Bend into focus. 

As we've already found out, there were sharp divisions within the Muscogee/Creek Confederacy about whether they should cooperate with the Americans, and become more assimilated into White Society, or side with the British should they choose to reclaim a portion of their former North American Empire.  The factions split into two sides.  Red Sticks, such as William Weatherford, Menawa, Peter McQueen and others were for greater Creek autonomy and already making overtures to both the British and Spanish.  Red was the traditional color indicating war, and was used to paint weapons and ceremonial implements used by medicine men (often called prophets), when war was in the offing.  Other Creek leaders such as William McIntosh, influenced by United States Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins, both of whom have featured in previous posts, believed that cooperation with the Americans was essential to Creek survival.

We've covered the opening salvos of the Creek War, including the Battle of Burnt Corn and the Battle/Massacre of Fort Mims.  The Battle of Horseshoe Bend, fought on a bend of the Tallapoosa River near present-day Alexander City, Alabama, was the tragic end of this War and, though they may not have realized it yet, one more step in the inevitable march toward Indian Removal for all the Southeastern tribes.  Andrew Jackson, anticipating that the Creek War would be a sideshow and that his larger foe was the British, had built his Tennessee Militia into a fighting force.  In March, 1814, he would.  He also had a unit of regular Army, the 39th United States Infantry, and over 600 Native auxiliaries, including White Stick Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, and others.  Among the men in Jackson's army were both Sam Houston, who had married into the Cherokee Tribe and been adopted by a family, as well as Davy Crockett.  Among the Native leaders were Janaluska of the Cherokee, Pushmataha of the Choctaw and McIntosh.  Jackson's force numbered about 3,300, including cavalry, artillery and Native auxiliaries.  The Red Sticks were commanded by Menawa, though William Weatherford may also have been present, and numbered about 1,000 warriors. 

On March 27, 1814, both armies encountered one another on the Tallapoosa River and made their preparations.  Jackson sent a portion of his army under Col. John Coffee across the River to surround the Creek village.  The Creeks had dug themselves in with log and dirt barricades.  Jackson opened with an artillery barrage which did little to damage the Red Stick fortifications.  He then ordered a bayonet charge.  As Sam Houston leaped over the barricade, he was shot in an unfortunate place by a Creek warrior.  The injury troubled him for the rest of his life and may have led to the annulment of one of his marriages.  Jackson's numbers eventually overwhelmed the Creek forces and drove them from the field.  Menawa (and perhaps Weatherford) led their men away from the field and fled toward Spanish Florida and the safety of the Seminoles. 

Jackson forced the remaining Creek to sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson, ceding 23 million acres of land in central Alabama and southern Gerogia.  This included land claimed by White Stick Creeks, who now found themselves being punished along with their Red Stick enemies.  Some of the land ceded was land also claimed by the Cherokees, who protested to no avail.  This battle put Jackson's name on the national map as far as military heroes went.  The auxiliaries who fought with him weren't so lucky.  Though Cherokee, Creek and Choctaw veterans had been promised land grants for their service, as well as annuities, they received no money, and many of them were forced to march west during Removal.  These included Janaluska, who had saved Jackson's life by clubbing a Creek prisoner in the aftermath of the battle and who later went to Jackson personally to plead his people's cause. 

People of the Other Side: The Apalachicola

When the Spanish arrived in Florida in the 16th century, it was home to many Native people.  One of these was the Apalachicola.  They were a Muscogean-speaking people related to he Hitchiti.  The word Apalachicola or Pellachicola may derive from a Muscogean word meaning "people of the other side", referring to those who lived on the other side of the Apalachicola River or some other river or stream.  By 1706, these people had been decimated by disease, warfare, and slave-raiding and there were only a few hundred of them living by the Savannah River.  Over time, they melded into larger Muscogee/Creek tribes.  Descendants today live in Oklahoma and Louisiana.  The Apalachicola River and the City of Apalachicola, Florida bears their name.

Settlers v. Natives: The Yellow Creek Massacre, April 30, 1774

We've already come across Logan the Orator several times and covered Lord Dunmore's War.  Now it's time to take a look at the even which sparked the War, the Yellow Creek Massacre.

Logan's family was known to be friendly to the Settlers.  This tradition began with his father, Chief Shikellamy and continued to nearly all of his sons.  Logan had formed many friendships with Whites, and his family were known as traders, moving easily between Settlers and Natives and among Native tribes less receptive to Whites, such as the Shawnee.  As Settlers poured into the Ohio Valley, where so many tribes were cramped for hunting range, tensions increased.  The Greathouse brothers of Virginia, Jacob and Daniel, were looking for an incident to start a conflict with the tribes, hoping to use it as an excuse to drive them from the Ohio Valley. 

They came across a party of Mingo containing members of Logan's family, including his wife, Mellana, his brother, called John Petty by English speakers, John's son, and his and Logan's sister, Koonay, who had a two-year-old daughter and was pregnant by a White man, John Gibson.  On the night of April 30, 1774, the Greathouse brothers with their company of militia/frontiersmen camped near Logan's family near the mouth of the Yellow River on the upper Ohio River, near present-day Cumberland, West Virginia.  The Greathouse party sent word to Logan's relatives that they would like to trade and the Mingo came freely into their camp.  The trap was sprung.  In the ensuing melee, Logan's wife, his brother John, John's wife and son, their sister and her unborn child, as well as several other Mingo, were killed.  Only the two-year-old girl was spared.  She was first taken in by the family of William Crawford, whom we've already met, and later returned to the custody of her biological father, John Gibson.

Karma fell, not on Daniel Greathouse, who instigated and led the attack.  He died of measles in 1775.  However, his brother Jacob was killed in another of the Native/Settler conflicts on the frontier, the Foreman Massacre of 1777.  Another brother, Jonathan, who was not known to have been at Yellow Creek, was captured with his family in 1791 while trying to settle in the Ohio Valley.  He and his family were all killed. 

Second Seminole War: The Dade Battle (Massacre) and the Killing of Wiley Thompson

We've already met the most of the characters who played parts in igniting the Second Seminole War, so we might as well take a closer look at two opening salvos in that war. 

Wiley Thompson was born in Amelia County, Virginia and later moved to Elberton, Georgia.  Along the way, he'd become an officer in the Georgia militia and a many-times elected United States Congressman.  He was a devoted Jacksonian Democrat and believed whole-heartedly in Jackson's policies regarding Indian Removal.  A slave-owner of the planter class, he had an incentive for removing the temptation for runaway Blacks to find easy shelter with the Seminoles.  He was just the man for Jackson to appoint as United States Indian Agent to the Seminole in 1834.  He was bound to cross paths with Osceola soon enough, and he did.  Various sources have described these two as uneasy friends or outright enemies.  More accurately, they got along when they had to and disliked the whole process.  Osceola knew why Thompson was there and resented it.  He had no intention of moving from Florida.  He had a personal dislike of slavery and ill-treatment of Blacks.  And he resented the fact that his people were confined to their reservation and not allowed to hunt beyond its boundaries.  New laws prescribed jail and lashing for any Seminole caught beyond the reservation boundaries.  The penalty was more severe if the Native had been found to have killed a Settler's livestock.  In all these cases, the man's weapons were confiscated, which stripped him of the ability to feed his family.

Osceola had proven his skills as a warrior and raider while quite young and had been appointed by Chief Micanopy as a Tustenegge.  This was a position of great responsibility among the Creeks and Seminoles.  Tustenegge were not only leaders in battle, with responsibility for muster warriors and leading them on the field, they also served as an internal police force to maintain discipline among tribal members.  One of Osceola's responsibilities was seeing to it that his people stayed within their boundaries and did not hunt Settlers' livestock.  From time to time, desperate Seminole men would do just that and Osceola had developed a relationship with previous Agents.  He would round up the offenders, take them to Fort King as though to turn them in, the plead with the Agent to allow him to take them to Micanopy for whatever punishment the Chief deemed just and proper.  He would assure the Agent that the man had just been trying to feed his family and meant no harm.  The Agent would allow Osceola to take an inconvenient problem off his hands, compensate the aggrieved Settler with money and let it go.

Not so Thompson, who intended to enforce the letter of the law.  He was irked that the Seminoles were making things worse for themselves by not just picking up and leaving for Oklahoma, more irked that they could not survive on reservation rations, really irritated that they welcomed Black runaways, and he personally disliked Osceola and hated that he had to even be courteous to him.  Their discussions devolved into shouting matches.  Accusations and threats flew both ways.  The final straw was the day Osceola came to buy ammunition at Fort King and Thompson, who was suspicious of the amounts of powder and led Osceola bought, refused the sale.  The two began shouting at each other.  Thompson later claimed Osceola drew his knife.  Osceola was incensed that he was being treated like a Black.  "My skin is dark but I am not Black!" he shouted.  "I shall make the White Man's skin red with blood!"  Thompson gave the order and four soldiers subdued Osceola, clapped him in irons and threw him in Fort King's guardhouse.  Livid, he trashed his cell and continued to shout and make threats until he was exhausted.  Abiaka, whom we've already met, arrived at the Fort, let Osceola know this wasn't the way to win battles with the Whites and promised better behavior.  Thompson wasn't impressed and demanded that Osceola sign the Treaty of Payne's Landing.  Osceola did so, and later brought in several of his men to do the same before escaping into the forest.  He had no intention of leaving, and Thompson knew it.  Whether Thompson knew or suspected that he had made out his own death warrant, no one knows.  Probably, he didn't care.  Osceola would be dealt with soon enough.

Another man who had little use for Osceola was Francis Dade, for whom Miami-Dade county is now named.  In December, 1835, he decided to reinforce Fort King and took two companies totaling 110 troops from Fort Brooke, now Tampa, up the old Spanish highway toward Fort King.  They knew that there were Seminole scouts tracking them through the trees and they suspected who it might be, but Dade thought that his men could handle Osceola if he reared his head.  They were not aware that it was Micanopy and Tiger Tail, another Tustenegge whom we've already met.  They tracked Dade's column, waiting for Osceola to join them, but he was away on personal business.  Also waiting for Dade's column was Wiley Thompson.  Osceola was staking out Fort King, waiting for a sighting of Wiley Thompson.  Meanwhile, Micanopy and Tiger Tail decided the time had come to strike. 

The area where Dade was marching was pine forest, not swamp.  Believing that he could easily see any enemy that might come his way, Dade had recalled his scouts.  While the trees wouldn't have concealed anyone standing or walking, they did conceal the warriors who were crouching in wait, watching the column of blue coated men with their artillery and heavy pack trains.  Micanopy gave the word and his men attacked.  Dade's men had no choice but to form up on the open road, their artillery now useless, and defend themselves as best they could.  At a spot near present-day Bushnell, Florida, the Seminoles surrounded their prey.  The battle was fought at such close quarters that they could hear Dade and other officers cursing at the men and the situation in general as they were cut down by a hail of bullets.  Dade, on horseback, was the first to be shot, by Chief Micanopy himself, whom Whites consistently derided as a silly, senile old man. 

According to Alligator, another leading warrior present at the battle, the Seminoles had 180 men.  The first volley not only killed Dade, but about half of his men.  Captain George Gardiner took command, and it was his cursing and swearing that rang out above the gunfire.  Some men tried to construct makeshift barricades of logs and bring the cannon into line but were killed before they could do so.  Alligator later said their ammunition boxes were empty when he checked them.  Only one man, Private Ransom Clarke, made it to Fort King to tell the story, but he would soon discover that the Seminoles, or one very famous Seminole, had already made his mark the previous night. 

Thompson had also been waiting for Dade's relief column and, on the evening of the 28th, stepped outside the Fort to take a walk with only a light escort.  He was soon surrounded by Natives bent on only one errand.  Hearing the shouts of Thompson's escort and, more importantly, war cries outside, the men inside Fort King panicked and shut the gates, trapping him outside with his mortal enemy.  Osceola personally stabbed Thompson to death and scalped him.  Natives inside the Fort recognized his shrill scream of triumph when the deed was done and identified Osceola as the attacker.  The Second Seminole War was on. 

Great Warrior: Tiger Tail of the Seminole

Though other Seminole leaders such as Osceola, Abiaka and Coacoochee are more well-known, they were only part of a core cadre of battle-tested Seminole leaders fighting on behalf of their people.  Today we'll focus on one of the victors of the Dade Massacre, Tiger Tail, also known by his war title of Tustenugge Thlocko. 

Little is known of Tiger Tail's background, where he was born or when and how he achieved prominence a as a great warrior.  Tustenugge Thlocko means exactly that, Great Warrior or Big Warrior, and was assigned to the ranking warrior in a Creek or Seminole town.  He would have been charged with marshaling the men for battle, as well as keeping intruders out of his town's hunting range and policing the behavior of erring members.  Beginning in 1835, though, Tiger Tail would have had his hands full with another fight, the Second Seminole War.  A talented man who was said to have spoken English fluently, he and Halleck Tustenugge were part of the command team overseeing 300 warriors in the ambush known as the Dade Massacre, which happened on December 28, 1835.  Later, he and Halleck met with General Walker Keith Armistead to discuss possible surrender, but the talks broke down and the war continued. 

When the War ended in 1842, Tiger Tail and his immediate band of warriors were one of the last few Seminole groups that remained in Florida, but that was not for long.  They, too, were rounded up and forcibly transported west via the steamship USS Lawrence.  Unable to bear the thought of leaving his homeland, Tiger Tail committed suicide by swallowing powdered glass before the ship arrived in New Orleans to begin the overland trek to Oklahoma. 

Native Life: Cloth

We've discussed many items that would have been attractive items for trade between Settlers and Natives.  Now here's another that would have rank almost as high as firearms and lead for bullets, cloth.  Cloth came in two forms, bolts of material that could be made into shirts, dresses and other items, and ready-made garments, usually shirts, hence the name, trade shirt.

Natives accepted almost any kind of cloth, but the most widely traded was Calico, also called muslin in the United States.  It is made of partially-processed cotton, which makes it cheaper and more readily available than many types of cloth.  Calico got its name from the city of Calicut in India and was well-known in Europe by the 17th century.  Undyed Calico cloth from India would be shipped to England for block-printing with various patterns, leaves, flowers, whirls, and other motifs, and shipped back to India for sale or trade.  It was also shipped to North America, where it became the common material for everyday shirts and dresses.  Natives appreciate it not only for its bright colors, but because durable Calico cloth was easier to work with than skins, easier to wash and mend, and held up longer under repeated washing and wearing.  Bolts of beautifully printed Calico cloth were sometimes used to commemorate important treaty signings, as it was with the Treaty of Canandaigua, which we've already discussed, and some tribes still get allotments of Calico as specified in earlier treaties.

An important item made from Calico were shirts, sometimes called trade shirts.  Mass produced as ready-to-wear clothing either in England or later North America, they were worn as work shirts by men of all races and most classes.  While upper classes preferred linen because of its texture and look, anyone needing a solid work shirt or hunting shirt would have appreciated Calico, both in undyed form, or even sprigged.  Among Natives, both men and women wore trade shirts because of their durability and practicality on the frontier. 

Did It Happen: Logan's Lament

We've already touched on Lord Dunmore's War (1774) and the killing of the family of Mingo leader Logan in a previous post.  We've also covered Logan's famous speech in a post devoted to Native oratory.  The question remains, did anyone ever hear the speech live?

The first hurdle remains Logan's own identity.  Chief Shikellamy, whom we met in last post, had two sons who took the English surname of Logan, James or John.  Another name is often given for him, Logan Elrod, which further complicates the identity.  Most likely, the Logan in question took the name of James Logan.  Another complication rests in the fact that early Settlers insisted on calling almost every prominent Native leader with whom they came in contact as a Chief.  Logan's father was rightly titled a Chief, but Logan was more likely a war leader, working under Guyasuta's command.  In the years after Pontiac's Rebellion, the various remnants of Iroquois people within the Ohio Valley had coalesced into the Mingo tribe, which further complicates Logan's identity.  Was he Cayuga, Oneida, or Mingo?  Most settlers described him as Mingo.  How Logan self-identified is not a matter of record. 

On April 30, 1774, several members of Logan's family, including his brother or half-brother, called John Petty, and two female relatives, one of whom was pregnant with an infant daughter, had taken refuge in the cabin of Joshua Baker, a White settler.  As they were there, Virginia militia under Colonel Daniel Greathouse stormed the cabin, murdering the adults and sparing only the child, who was mixed-race and whom he intended to return to the custody of her father.  Other Mingo coming to help those at the cabin were murdered in what became known as the Yellow Creek Massacre.  The news was conveyed to Logan, but the man named as responsible was another militia officer, Col. Michael Cresap, whom Logan considered a friend.  Maddened with grief and betrayal, Logan joined other Native contingents raiding settlements on the frontier and the resulting unrest led to Lord Dunmore's War, which we've already discussed.  Logan became convinced that fighting the Settlers was a useless exercise and, when he believed family vengeance was satisfied, retired from fighting.  He was not at the Battle of Point Pleasant, but was considered an important enough leader that he was invited to the treaty council at Camp Charlotte. 

The one who likely carried the summons to Logan was one of the Girty brothers, probably Simon, who was still working for the Americans and had yet to acquire his infamous reputation.  Logan refused to go, but instead dictated a message for Simon to carry back to the meeting at Camp Charlotte.  And here the story gets murky.  Simon Girty was most likely illiterate, although surviving letters dictating by him to others indicate that he was articulate.  A skilled interpreter, it would have been within Simon's ability to understand, commit to memory and transmit Logan's message to Camp Charlotte.   However, once he got to Camp Charlotte, there's no record that the message was ever delivered.  One of Simon's biographers says that, rather than transmit Logan's message himself, Simon  gave the message to one of the official interpreters to transmit.  Sir William Johnson's Indian Department was in charge of the proceedings, one of the last diplomatic missions he would undertake.  There's no record that either Girty brother worked for them and, most likely, Simon was attached to one of the militia units and wouldn't have been allowed to speak anyway.  Further, given Girty's later reputation, any role he would have had in the proceedings would have been purged.  Probably, Logan's message was written into whatever record of the council was kept, but not orally transmitted, as he intended.  Still, it's one of the more poignant pieces of Native oratory, if the words are Logan's.  Some sources indicate that the speech was either made up entirely, or embellished along the way. 

The doubts cast on the authenticity of Logan's lament fail to do justice to a man who was grieving, but still trying to make sense of the situation in which he and his people found himself, and to someone who, whatever his faults and failings, had a love for the Natives with whom he'd spent his formative years and who was acknowledged by many people on the frontier to be one of the best interpreters and translators at the time.  Even if the ideas and most of the wording are Logan's, with some add-in by Girty, it takes nothing away from this powerful speech, which I've attached in several posts, but it bears repeating.  Here is the text from the Ohio History Central Website.


I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, Logan is the friend of white men. I had even thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man. Col. Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it: I have killed many: I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbour a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one.

Great Leader: Shikellamy of the Oneida

Settlers along the frontier owed a great deal to Natives who were willing to serve as guides and otherwise facilitate contact between Natives and Whites.  Shikellamy, an important Oneida leader, was one of those people.

Shikellamy, also known as Swatana, first appears on the historical record in 1728, during a visit of Iroquois leaders to Philadelphia.  His date and place of birth are unknown.  At some point after he had become an adult and proved himself as a warrior, the Iroquois appointed him to oversee their border along the Susquehanna River and also to protect their hunting rights in the Ohio Valley, particularly against the Shawnee and Lenape/Delaware.  This was delicate work, requiring the right combination of strength and diplomacy between the various tribes, who often resented the Iroquois' claims of supremacy in Ohio.  Shikellamy must have gotten along well with the Shawnee, because he lived in one of their villages near what is now Milton, Pennsylvania.  He later moved to the Lenape village of Shamokin, modern-day Sunbury, where the west and north branches of the Susquehanna River join.  In addition to pacifying the Shawnee and Delaware, he also served as a go-between for the Pennsylvania colonial government and the Iroquois Council in Onondaga.  He also served as a guide to early Pennsylvania explorer Conrad Weiser.

Through the friendship of Shikellamy and Weiser, Iroquois leaders were invited to a conference in Philadelphia in 1732.  The meeting went over so well that a series of regular meetings were held thereafter.   A member of the Pennsylvania legislature described Shikellamy as "a trusty, good man".  His good relations with the Delaware/Lenape may have been strained, though, when he assisted the Pennsylvania Legislature to arrange the purchase from the Iroquois of land drained by the Delaware River and south of Blue Mountain in 1736.  The Iroquois had never claimed this land previously.  It had been part of the range of the Delaware, who weren't consulted or informed until after the sale went through.  While the improved relations between the Iroquois and Pennsylvania helped bind the Iroquois more firmly to an alliance with the British during the Seven Years War (1756-1762), it also drove the Lenape to remain allied to France, further contributing to friction on the frontier. 

The Pennsylvania Legislature decided to award Shikellamy by building a house for him at Shamokin.  He was willing to cooperate with the Moravian missionaries because he believed they had the Natives' best interest at heart, and served as a go-between for them and other Native leaders in the area.  Shikellamy finally converted to Christianity in 1748, just before his death of an unspecified illness.  He was succeeded in his role as leader and diplomat by his son, John Shikellamy, also known as John Logan.  Either this son or his brother, named James Logan after a close personal friend of Shikellamy's, was the Mingo leader Logan who may have spoken the words that have come to be known as Logan's Lament.  Another son of Shikellamy was given the English name John Petty, after another trading friend of his fathers.  All of Shikellamy's sons were noted warriors, two of them dying in battle for their people. 

Several places in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania are named for Shikellamy, including Shikellamy State Park, Shikellamy High School, an elementary school district, and a Boy Scout troop, to name a few.

Native Life: Chunkey (Hoop and Stick)

We've already discussed one Native pastime, stickball.  There were other sports, with equally passionate devotees.  One of these was known as chunkey.

Chunkey is an English corruption of several names for the sport, including "chenco" and "tsung-kee", which one source translates as "running hard labor", though without an exact etymology a to which language that translation came from.  It originated in around 600 C.E. with the Cahokians, a mound-building culture centered around modern-day St. Louis.  The basic object of the game was to throw a spear or stick at a rolling disk or hollowed-out stone, trying to land the spear as close as possible to the place where the disk would stop, not as easy as it sounds.  It was a common element of Mississippian culture, with designs on shell gorgets and other carvings showing chunkey players garbed in specialized regalia to participate in the sport.  It lived on after the demise of the Mississippians in the Southeastern tribes, though a variant of the sport had reached the West Coast and was observed among the Chumash people there.

As with stick ball, chunkey was taken seriously.  Specialized areas were reserved in towns and villages for it.  Often stick ball courts could also be used to play chunkey.  People from an entire village, or even several surrounding villages in an area would gather to watch a match, and the honor of the players as well as their village was at stake.  Players who lost a match were known to commit suicide.  George Catlin described a chunkey match at a Mandan village, and painted a game in progress.  Variations existed, mostly on the type of equipment used or the way points were scored.  The Cherokee reckoned points on how close the stone rested to certain carvings on a player's stick.  The Chickasaw gave extra points if the disk actually touched a thrown stick.  The Choctaw version awarded victory to the player who gained 12 points.