Treaty: Fort Finney, January 31, 1786

If there was one American leader that most Natives feared and preferred not to mess with if possible, it was George Rogers Clark.  At the height of his fame during the American Revolution, 1775-1783, just that thought that Clark was on the move was enough to bring reluctant Natives to parley and hopefully agree a treaty.

The Treaty of Fort McIntosh, also called Treaty of the Mouth of the Great Miami, was signed on January 31, 1786.  It followed another Treaty, the Treaty of Fort McIntosh, in which representatives of the Chippewa, Wyandot, Delaware and Ottawa gave up claims to Ohio east of the Muskingum and Cuyahoga Rivers, and to the area that is now Detroit, Michigan.  Once again, the Shawnee were neither invited nor informed and they soon gave notice that they were prepared to fight.  Clark, along with Richard Butler and Samuel Holden Parsons, invited Blue Jacket and other Shawnee leaders to a parley at the mouth of the Great Miami River. 

The Shawnee arrived and made their intent clear with a belt of black wampum, signifying war if things did not go as they expected.  After tense negotiations, Clark played the one card both sides knew he still had.  He, too, would go to war and he would be bringing his militia with them.  Though Clark's career was on the downhill slide at this time, the Natives did not know it.  They knew that he was capable of meeting them in battle.  Although Blue Jacket and some other Shawnee leaders saw no choice but to sign.  Other signatories included Captain Pipe/Hopocan of the Delaware, Buckongahelas, and Pierre Drouillard, father of George Drouillard.  This treaty, like many others, wasn't worth the paper it was written on.  The Northwest War (1785-1786) was already beginning and with Clark soon sidelined with alcohol and other issues, the frontier was inflamed once more. 

Native Life: Communicable Disease

There was an enemy that not even the bravest warriors or most skillful war leaders could overcome because it was unseen.  Disease decimated Native populations beginning in 1492, and some of those effects are still being felt today.  Soon after Jean Cabot's voyages of exploration in 1497, and Spanish contact with Florida in 1539, fishermen and explorers regularly visited North America, interacting with local inhabitants.  Invariably, during or after these contacts, disease broke out among the Native population.  Some of the worst killers were:

Smallpox: now eradicated by the use of vaccines worldwide, it was a common plague in both the Old and New Worlds.  However, Europeans who had some immunity to the disease stood a better chance of surviving.  Native peoples weren't so fortunate.   A drastic example is the smallpox epidemic that swept through what is now Massachusetts Bay in 1617-1619, destroying Squanto's people, the Patuxet.  Call the Great Dying in local memory, it was responsible for wiping out entire villages of men, women and children.

Influenza: a disease that could be death-dealing for Europeans, but not always, it wrought havoc among Native peoples.  An epidemic of influenza in 1647 spread from New England throughout the Northeast.

Measles: a routine childhood disease of the time, but one to which Natives had no natural immunity.  Measles epidemics struck in New England in 1658 and 1692.

Bubonic Plague: waves of plague had swept through Europe since Medieval times.  Even as the disease began to die out there, it was making itself felt across the Atlantic.  Bubonic plague swept through Natives living near missions in Florida in 1613. 

Other diseases included typhoid fever, scarlet fever, malaria and diphtheria, each killing more Native inhabitants than arrows or bullets could possibly reach.  Allegations of biological warfare in the form of infested clothing or blankets has already been discussed in a previous post on Lord Jeffrey Amherst during Pontiac's War 1764.

Extinct Tribe: the Ais

The Spanish encountered many tribes during their exploration and conquest of what is now Florida.  Unfortunately, warfare and disease would decimate these Natives long before Europeans would have time to lean more about them.  The Ais were one of these tribes.

The Ais lived along coastal Florida, approximately what is now Cape Canaveral to St. Lucie Inlet, in the modern-day Brevard and St. Lucie County.  They were first encountered in 1566 by Pedro Mendez de Aviles, the found of St. Augustine.  He named the tribe Ais or Ays after a Cacique or chieftain of the name.  The Spanish built a town called St. Lucia near an Ais village, but were forced by repeated attacks to give it up and head back to St. Augustine.  After this rocky start, the Ais became allies of the Spaniards and learned to view other Europeans with hostility, perhaps because the Spanish did.  In 1696, an English merchant and sea captain named Jonathan Dickinson set sail from Port Royal, Jamaica and became shipwrecked on the Florida coast, living several weeks with the Ais before being rescued.  Much of modern-day knowledge about this people comes from his journal.

According to Dickinson, the Ais were a hunting and gathering people with a primary diet of fish, which they speared themselves from the various lakes and inlets in their territory.  They had developed a thriving trading economy with the Spanish at St. Augustine, spoke Spanish and relied on trade goods such as mirrors, axes and knives.  They dwelled in towns in which were large cabins made primarily of palmetto wood and thatched with leaves.  The towns were headed by a Cacique or chief, and there were alliances between the various towns and other tribes in the area.  Unfortunately, Dickinson recorded little of the Ais people's language and customs.  Sources differ on whether they were related to the Muskogean tribes or Arawakan tribes such as the Caribe.  As we've seen in other posts, English raids from what was then the Colony of Carolina decimated the Native population of Florida in the early 18th century.  Sources also differ on whether Ais survivors may have joined with later migrants such as the Seminole. 

Treaty: Fort Stanwix, 1784

Sometimes treaties between Natives and various colonial, state and the federal government caused more problems than they solved.  A case in point is the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1784. 

This was one of the first major treaties between the United States Government and a Native tribe(s), in this case the Iroquois Confederacy.  The land concerned was most of the modern-day state of Pennsylvania, portions of Ohio and New York.  In the Treaty of Paris which ended the Revolutionary War in 1783, the land rights of Native tribes were overlooked.  As more settlers poured into the backcountry, the Continental Congress realized it would have to do something about solidifying title to these lands from at least some of the tribes concerned.  Since the Iroquois were considered the primary owners, according to European-American theories of land ownership, the government considered that it could treat with them.  The Shawnee, Delaware and other tribes were neither invited or consulted.

Joseph Brant and Cornplanter were among the principal negotiators for the Iroquois side.  Brant made it clear that he could only negotiate peace.  He wouldn't deal with any land concessions.  He soon had to leave the treaty talks for a trip to England and Cornplanter took over the negotiations.  He ceded most of what is now Pennsylvania for a sizeable tract of land to the Seneca.  The treaty was signed at Fort Stanwix near Rome, New York on October 22, 1794.  When the Iroquois Council was informed, they at once disavowed the treaty, saying that their delegates had no authority to make land concessions.  Other tribes were also heard from, often in the manner of continued raids on settlements.  The government would have to negotiate with each tribe for its own hunting range.

In 1785, the Treaty of Fort McIntosh dealt with the rights of the Wyndot, Chippewa, Delaware and Ottawa to land in Pennsylvania and the Ohio River Valley.  The Shawnee ceded their rights in 1786 with the Treaty of Fort Finney.  The state of New York arranged a purchase of primarily Seneca land in 1788.  There further treaties with the Iroquois at Fort Harmer in 1789, Canadaigua in 1794, and Big Tree in 1797.  This hodgepodge of federal and state agreements would tangle up title to lands on the frontier even further, particularly in New York, prompting the federal government to disallow states from negotiating treaties with Native tribes. 

Natives versus Settlers: The Big Bottom Massacre, January 2, 1791

An unfortunate rule of thumb in American history is that instances of Natives resisting trespassers on their hunting range are always called massacres, no matter the wrongs or the rights of the situation.  In the period of the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795), these incidents happened time and time again, with death and tragedy often accruing to both sides.

In the decades following the Revolution, the United States government opened more and more frontier land to settlement, particularly in the Ohio Valley.  Deeds to land companies and individuals were often vague and faulty, with the result that many settlers simply squatted on whatever parcel they happened to claim, hoping the mess would sort itself out eventually.  These individuals or small groups of settlers were the most vulnerable to Native attack.  One such land company, the Ohio Company of Associates, received a large grant of land along the Muskingun River.  The Company's main base was the town of Marietta, but settlers, whether affiliated with the Company or not, began to settle on pieces of land along the river.  In those days, the flood plain of a river was known as a bottom.  A group of 36 settlers had gone further east up the River and settled in one of these flood plains known as Big Bottom.

Their presence attracted the attention of bands of Wyandot and Delaware/Lenape Natives.  The Company leaders hoped to keep on good terms with the Natives and having squatters settle on Native hunting range was not the way to do it.  Word reached Col. William Stacy, whom we've already met at Cherry Valley.  Knowing the Natives would protect their land, in late December, 1790, he strapped on a pair of skates and made his way up the frozen Muskingum to warn his two sons, John and Phillip or Philemon and the other men that they were in harms way.  The settlers at Big Bottom were in process of building a blockhouse to protect the settlement, but it wasn't completed.  On January 2, 1791, a Delaware and Wyandot war party swarmed the partially-constructed blockhouse, killing 9 men, a woman and two children.  John Stacy was killed in the attack.  Phillip and three others were taken prisoner, with Phillip dying days later.  Other Settlers escaped into the woods. 

Attacks such as these convinced the United States government to take more of a hand in the Ohio Valley.  Congress authorized a large portion of land bordering the Ohio Company lands as a Donation Tract, a buffer zone between Native and Settler land claims.  However, squatters soon invaded this area, too.  There was nothing left to do but to expel the Natives permanently from their land, which they were forced to give up in the Treaty of Greenville, 1795. 

Great Leader: Uncas of the Mohegan

Forever immortalized in James Fenimore Cooper's story, Last of the Mohicans, this Mohegan leader in fact lived a century earlier.  And his people, far from being extinct, are still alive and well today.

Uncas (c 1588- c 1683) was born near the Thames River in modern-day Connecticut.  He was the son of a Mohegan Sachem known as Owaneco.  Uncas comes from a Mohegan word meaning fox.  Otherwise, little else is known about Uncas' personal life.  The Mohegan were closely allied with the Pequots.  However, as Uncas became Sachem and began to exert his own authority, he aligned his tribe with the Narragansett and later, the English.  He developed a friendship with an early Connecticut settler, John Mason, and later sent word to Connecticut leader Jonathan Brewster that the Pequot were planning an attack on the English.  Throughout the Pequot War, 1637-38, Uncas led war parties of Mohegan warriors as auxiliaries of the English.  The Treaty of Hartford of 1638 divided the lands of the defeated Pequot between the English, the Mohegans and the Narragansett, causing further occasions for future conflict.

Though the Mohegan and Narragansett had been allies, disputes about the Pequot land drove them apart.  In 1643, war broke out between the two tribes.  Uncas' Mohegans defeated a much larger force of Narragansetts.  Uncas captured their Sachem, Miantonomo, and several of their leading warriors.  After executing Miantonomo's men in front of him, Uncas turned him over to the English.  Uncas requested the right of executing Miantonomo after his trial by the English, to prevent further fighting between the Narragansett and the English.  Miantonomo escaped before Uncas could kill him.  During the escape, Miantonomo leaped over the Yantic falls to get away from the Mohegans.  Later, Uncas' brother caught up with Miantonomo and killed him.  The leap was immortalized in the Cooper novel by Uncas leaping over a similar waterfall.  Uncas and the Mohegan allied with the English to escany reprisals by the Narragansett. 

A neighboring tribe, the Wampanoag under King Phillip/Metacomet, began a war against the Settlers in 1675.  During that War, the Mohegan remained allies with the English and often served as auxiliaries during the initial fighting.  However, Uncas later withdrew his people and chose to remain neutral as the conflict played itself out.  He died in 1683, near what is now Norwich, Connecticut.  A monument to his memory was erected in Norwich, with the foundation being laid by Andrew Jackson, of all people!  In 1907, William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody laid a wreath on the monument in Uncas' memory.  Three U.S. Navy ships have born the name USS Uncas, as does the town of Uncasville, in Connecticut.  But the ultimate tribute was the role of the main Native character in Cooper's novel, as played by Eric Schweig, an Inuit/Ojibwe Native in the 1992 film, Last of the Mohicans.

Natives versus Settlers, the Nickajack Expedition of 1794

The Cherokee-American War, 1775-1794, was one of the longest-running Native versus Settler conflicts in American history.  This skirmish in the fall and summer of 1794 was the last gasp of the Chickamauga Cherokee.

The Chickamauga Cherokee had long resisted any kind of agreement with Settlers for more Cherokee land, eventually withdrawing to Tennessee, where they allied with like-minded Shawnee and Creek allies.  They kept up their raids on frontier settlements, operating from a town known as Nickajack, near a cave of the same name in present-day Marion County, Tennessee.  William Blount, Governor of what was then known as the Southwest Territory, opened negotiations with the Chickamauga, hoping for a peaceful settlement, when members of two prominent families were killed in 1794.  He decided instead on a punitive expedition against the Chickamauga.  Militia units from Tennessee and Kentucky banded together and marched against Nickajack Town and Running Water Town. 

Scouts had alerted the inhabitants of Nickajack Town of the militia's movements and most of its inhabitants fled, leaving a hundred or so warriors behind.  As these warriors fell back to Running Water Town, they met up with a war party coming from there.  They decided to engage the Americans and a series of skirmishes led to a final encounter on the banks of the Tennessee River.  The Chickamauga force was defeated, killing seventy warriors and burning both towns.  Only 3 settlers were wounded.  With this defeat, the Chickamauga had no choice but to agree to the Treaty of Tellico, signed in 1794.  This would be a fatal year of defeat for many Native tribes, including the end of the Northwest Indian War through the Battle of Fallen Timbers.   

The Condemned Man: Simon Kenton

White men who had spent time with Native tribes, either as captives, traders or in-laws, were valued as guides, trackers, interpreters, scouts and other necessary functions in the frontier.  Sometimes known as "White Indians", or considered know the skills of a hunter and outdoor survivor as well as Natives did, they were legends in their own time.  Daniel Boone, who had been captured briefly by the Shawnee, was reckoned at the time to be the best.  Simon Kenton (1755-1836) was considered his only equal or a close second.

Simon was born in 1755 in what is now Prince William, now Fauquier County, Virginia, of Scottish and Welsh ancestry.  When he was sixteen, he and another young man got into a fight over a girl.  Simon believed he'd killed his adversary, and the only thing he could do to save himself from a rope was to escape into the wilderness of what is now West Virginia and Ohio.  He used the name Simon Butler for years as a disguise, until he learned that his erstwhile victim had survived the fight with no harm done.  During Lord Dunmore's War, in 1774, he saved Boone's life during a battle with the Shawnee and the two became friends.  In 1775, Kenton was captured by the Shawnee and put through several days of running the gauntlet.  Simon Girty, realizing that this torture was a prelude to death, convinced the Shawnee to spare Kenton's life.  In Allan Eckerts' book, The Frontiersmen, he does this through a speech at a counsel meeting.  Likely, there was some extensive trading and calling in favors on Girty's part.  The two men became friends for life.

Later, the Shawnee captured Kenton again.  This time either George Drouillard, a mixed-race Shawnee who later became a guide for Lewis and Clark, stepped into save Kenton's life.  Or, according to some sources, it was George's father Pierre, a noted trader in his own right.  Or, George got word to Simon or James Girty.  However it was, Kenton earned the grudging respect of the Shawnee, who called him Cutahota, meaning, Condemned Man.  His skills earned Kenton a position as a guide to George Rogers Clark's expedition to take Fort Sackville/Vincennes in 1778.  He also served as a scout for Mad Anthony Wayne in 1794 during the Northwest Indian War in 1794.  Throughout his travels in Ohio, Kenton had scouted land near the Mad River, between present-day Urbana and Springfield, Ohio.  He later led a group of families from Kentucky to begin settlement of the area in 1799.

In 1810 Kenton moved to Urbana and was made a brigadier-general in the Ohio militia.  During the War of 1812, as American forces invaded Amherstberg, Ontario, across the river from Detroit, he had a chance to repay his old friend, Simon Girty, who had fled Detroit several years earlier and taken refuge in Canada.  American forces were aware that Girty, whose name was just as odious at the time as Benedict Arnold, lived near Amherstberg and were bent on a lynching.  Girty had fled to the safety of the Grand River Reserve, but his daughter-in-law Monica had remained at the family farm.  They would have burned the farm down around her had not Kenton stepped in and talked them out of it.  He served as both a scout and officer in the militia during the Battle of the Thames.  After the battle, when American commander William Henry Harrison toured the battlefield, he asked Kenton to identify the body of Tecumseh.  Likely Tecumseh's body wasn't present or Harrison, who had met Tecumseh on at least two occasions, would've seen it and known who it was.  Kenton was aware that souvenir hunters wanted pieces of the body as souvenirs, so identified another warrior as Tecumseh and left it at that.

After the War, he retired to Ohio.  He died in New Jerusalem, present-day Logan County.  His remains were buried there, but later moved to Urbana.   He has a large number of descendants today. 

Sachem: John Brant of the Mohawk

Being the child of a famous family is difficult in any era.  How to top the accomplishments of parents and other relatives to stand on one's own feet is a never-ending challenge.  One man who successfully met that challenge was John Brant, the son of Joseph Brant/Theyandenagea. 

John (1794-1832), was not Josesph's oldest son.  He was the son of Joseph's third wife Catherine Croghan/Adonwentishon, herself the daughter of Indian Agent George Croghan, whom we've already met in a previous post.  George Croghan had married a Mohawk woman of the Turtle Clan, who had the right of choosing one of the Sachems of the Iroquois Confederacy.  She passed that right along to her daughter, Catherine.  Thus, Joseph, already a war chief of renown, would be the father of a Sachem, though many years posthumously.  As John came of age, he was surrounded by tragedy.  His people had lost their traditional homeland in New York and were struggling to adapt to their new Reserve on the Grand River.  Hard times hit closer to home when John's older brother, Isaac, attacked their father in a drunken rage and Joseph killed his own son in self-defense.  Still, John excelled in school and in warrior's training and his parents agreed that he would be groomed for a leadership role within his society. 

Joseph died in 1807, but by that time, John's training would have been undertaken by men on his mother's side of the family.  And, there were other mentors within the tribe.  In 1812, at just eighteen years of age, John, along with John Norton/Teyoninhokawrawen, led Mohawk auxiliaries at the Battle of Queenston Heights, both men being praised by General Roger Hale Sheaffe for their "judicious dispositions" during the battle.  John was made a lieutenant in the Indian Department and served in several battles in the War of 1812.  After the War, he traveled to England in 1820 to get a formal deed to additional land along the Grand River known as the Haldimand Grant.  This effort proved to be unsuccessful, but John turned his attention to other issues, encouraging the building of schools on the Reserve.  In 1828, he was appointed resident Superintendent of the Grand River Reserve.  He also ran for office as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada and was elected to represent Haldimand.  He would be the first Native to sit in a Canadian parliament.  His victory was short-lived when it was determined that he did not own sufficient land to be elected a legislator.  He was expelled from office and his challenger deemed elected.

In 1832, his uncle, Henry Tekarihoga passed away.  Catherine Brant appointed her son as the next Tekarihoga Sachem.  John would have only months in his new role, before dying of a cholera epidemic in 1832. 

Places: Fort Recovery, Ohio

What to do when morale is still at a low ebb following one of the worst defeats of an American army at the hands of Natives?  To Mad Anthony Wayne, the answer was simple.  Build a fort on that very spot and give it an appropriate name, Fort Recovery.

And that's just what he did.  In November, 1791, a force under Little Turtle of the Miami and Blue Jacket of the Shawnee laid a devastating defeat on the forces of General Arthur St. Clair, which saw 933 soldiers and militia either killed, wounded or captured.  President George Washington was furious, and looked around for the right man to put the desire to fight back into a demoralized United States Army.  General Anthony Wayne was a Revolutionary War veteran who wasn't called mad for nothing.  In addition to strict training and discipline to get his men ready for the next battle, Wayne needed a staging area.  He decided to build a new fort on the site of the Battle of the Wabash and named it Fort Recovery. 

In June, 1794, Fort Recovery would weather its first attack.  On June 30, 1794, a supply column left Fort Recovery headed to Fort Greenville.  It was attacked by Blue Jacket's Shawnee, including a young warrior named Tecumseh.  The column returned to Fort Recovery.  That night, a scouting party under William Wells, who we've run across before, found out what the Shawnee had been up to.  British officers had been present with the Natives, though they took no part in the fighting.  They had brought cannon balls and powder but no cannon.  The Natives thought they would be able to salvage St. Clair's cannon, which the Natives had buried after the battle.  Little did they know that Wells, a son-in-law of Little Turtle, had tipped Wayne off to where the buried guns were located.  They were now dug up and safely inside the Fort.  The next day, July 1, 1794, the Shawnee attempted an assault on the Fort itself, but soon gave it up.

Fort Recovery was a reference point in the boundaries established by the Treaty of Greenville, in 1795.  In 1800, when Indiana Territory was separated from Ohio Territory, the Fort was again used as a reference, since it was then directly on the boundary.  However, when Ohio was admitted as a state, the boundary had been adjusted by two miles and the reference point was no longer needed.  This Fort, like others of the area, crumbled into disrepair and was ultimately abandoned.  In 1891, excavation began on the battle sites, recovering the remains of 1200 people.  They were reinterred in a memorial park in the town of Fort Recovery, Ohio.  In 1908, President Taft appropriated money for the building of a monument to those killed at the Wabash and in the attack on Fort Recovery.  An obelisk was erected and dedicated to their memory in 1913.  A reconstruction of the Fort exists today, administered by the Ohio State Historical Society, along with a visitor's center that shows dioramas and explanations of the battles.

Opposition: Col. Daniel Brodhead IV 1736-1809

This American Revolutionary War officer was leader of several punitive expeditions against Natives in New York and in the Ohio Valley.  And, in the end, karma caught up with him in a strange way.

Daniel Brodhead IV (1736-1809) was the fourth of his name, born to an old New York family in Marbletown.  When he was a boy, his father moved the family to Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.  There, Daniel IV saw firsthand the struggle between Natives and Settlers for the same ground.  In this case, it was the Lenape/Delaware, whom he would become familiar with later in life.  The family homestead was attacked numerous times.  When Daniel's father died, Daniel sold his share of the family homestead and headed for better prospects.  He would work a series of odd jobs before finding his calling as a soldier in the American Revolution. 

Brodhead became an officer in the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.  He took part in many early battles in New York, including the Battle of Long Island, where George Washington commended Brodhead for his bravery.  He took over the 8th Pennsylvania after the death of its Colonel, suffered through Valley Forge and led his first expedition against Native Americans, in this case the Delaware living near the Muskingum River in the Ohio Country in 1778.  After General Lachlan McIntosh's failed attempt to capture Fort Detroit, Washington replaced McIntosh with Brodhead, making him commander of the Western Department, which included Ohio and western Pennsylvania.  Brodhead would have his hands full dealing with Shawnee, Wyandot, Mingo, Delaware and other tribes both working as auxiliaries for the British and defending their hunting range.

He would lead an expedition against the Ohio-based Seneca in 1779 in support of the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition, which we've already covered.  In 1781, he led another expedition against the Lenape/Delaware known as the Coshocton Expedition.  It was during this expedition that he would have to restrain militia who wanted to kill Christianized Delaware living at the mission station of Gnadenhutten, something we've discussed in a previous post.  Then, karma in the form of George Washington caught up with Brodhead.  He was accused of misappropriating supplies and money earmarked for recruiting bonuses and removed from command.  He was court-martialed and acquitted of all the charges except mishandling the recruiting funds.  However, the court-martial found that his handling of the funds was justified under the circumstances and recommended no discipline.  Washington brevetted Brodhead a Brigadier General and sidelined him to militia command for the rest of the War.  He later married a wealthy widow, Rebecca Mifflin, from a well-known Pennsylvania family and helped found the Society of the Cincinnati, but he never held a field command again. 

Settlers versus Natives: Battle of Hightower, October 17, 1793

The Cherokee-American War (1775-1794) was one of the longest-running conflicts between Natives and Settlers, skirmishes on frontier towns and settlements and raids on Native villages punctuated by pitched battles.  The Battle of Hightower, sometimes called the Battle of Etowah, after a nearby Cherokee village, was one of these contests.

In the 1785 Treaty of Hopewell, the Cherokee agreed a specific set of boundaries for their homeland and hunting range.  This included areas in Tennessee, eastern North and South Carolina, nd Northern Georgia.  They also received assurances that the United States would keep trespassers out of Cherokee land.  If anyone trespassed on Native land, they could be punished as the Cherokee saw fit, with the exception of anyone accused of murdering a Cherokee.  These were to be punished by American jurisdiction.  The Cherokee also agreed to suspend trade with Spain.  However, there was no way to enforce this clause or any other terms of the treaty.  Settlers continued to make their way onto Cherokee land and Spanish traders infiltrated Cherokee territory, too. 

John Watts led a band of 1,000 Chickamauga and Muscogee warriors in attacks against American settlements.  The settlers, under Col. John Sevier, retaliated.  The two sides skirmished back and forth and tempers flared.  Near Knoxville Road on the French Broad River, Watts' force ambushed Cavett's Station.  The settlers there offered to surrender in return for promises of clemency, which Watts intended to allow them.  However, another Cherokee leader, named Doublehead, opposed Watt's lenient position and began killing prisoners despite the efforts of Watts and James Vann, whom we've already run across, to stop him.  This would deepen already hard feelings between Watts, Vann and Doublehead, which would fester later, but more on that.

Sevier learned of the attack and mustered his forces.  They caught up with a portion of Watts' force under a leader named Kingfisher in what is now Rome, Georgia and what was then near the Cherokee town of Etowah.  The Cherokee took up a defensive position on Myrtle Hill and tried to prevent Sevier from fording the Etowah River to attack.  Sevier forded the River further downstream and, when the Cherokee rushed to stop him, turned around and made straight for the village.  When Kingfisher was killed, Cherokee resistance collapsed.  Sevier's men rushed and burned the village of Etowah.  Nor was that all.  He burned several more Cherokee and Creek villages before heading back to Knoxville.

The war between the two sides would flare up again in 1794, as the frontier was never quiet.  The battle ground on Myrtle Hill is now a cemetery with a monument honoring Sevier's part in the battle, as he later became a governor of Tennessee. 

"I have signed my own death warrant!": Major Ridge of the Cherokee

What to do about encroaching White settlement was a never-ending question for Native leaders.  Some believed in co-existence, in giving up land and adopting European ways in an effort to co-exist and preserve something for their own people.  Others were for resistance.  Often, these stances changed over time, as circumstances changed.  And, almost always, without fail, no matter what these men tried to do or the motive behind their actions, it ended up in tragedy.

Major Ridge (c 1771-1839), was born in the Cherokee town of Great Hiwassee, in present-day Tennessee.  His mother was Cherokee and Scottish, his father was most likely full-blooded Cherokee.  Like many mixed-race young men of that era, he took his status from his mother's clan, the Deer Clan and received his warrior's training from the men of her family.  Because her father had returned to Scotland, Ridge did not receive what was called at that time an English Education, though he later learned the language, but could not write it.  There was plenty for a young warrior to do during the Cherokee-American Wars, 1775-1795.  Ridge's name as a young man, Nunnehidihi meant, he kills the enemy in his path, shortened to Pathkiller.  He is sometimes known as Pathkiller II to distinguish him from a Cherokee leader with the same name.  Later, Ridge received the name Ganundalegi, meaning, he walks along a high mountain.  This was shortened into English as, The Ridge, which is how many White men knew him. 

In time Ridge married a woman named Sehoya or Susanna Catherine Wickett, a mixed-race Cherokee, and had two children, John and Sarah.  He determined that John would receive a full education and sent him to the Foreign Missionary Society school in Connecticut.  John's cousin and Ridge's nephew Elias Boudinot, whom we've already met, was also a student there.  In this, Ridge was not alone.  Along with two other prominent leaders of the time, Charles R. Hicks and James Vann, also of mixed-race, he believed that the young men needed to be able to communicate with and function in White society if their people were to be successful in co-existing with White Americans.  In time, Ridge rose to prominence, becoming a planter, businessman and owning a ferry, a lucrative income in those days.  He served as a mentor to a younger man, John Ross, though the two would part ways in later years. 

Ridge attained a seat on the Cherokee National Council and was directed to be part of the party that executed another Cherokee leader, Doublehead, who had ceded some land without the Council's permission, something Ridge knew to be a capital offense.  The killing of Doublehead, along with other events, would led to a terrible blood feud that would follow the Cherokee to Oklahoma and fester until the Civil War created tension of its own.  Ridge opposed Tecumseh's Revolt (1811-1813).  Being present when Tecumseh made a speech to leaders in a Creek town, Ridge stepped across the Shawnee's path and warned him that if he came into Cherokee Country and tried to spread his message there, Ridge would kill him personally.  He later led Cherokee warriors under Andrew Jackson during the Creek War and the New Orleans campaign, earning the military rank of Major, which became part of his name in White reference.

After returning from the War of 1812, Ridge moved his family to present-day Rome, Georgia, where his home still stands.  In addition to his plantation and ferry business, he went into partnership with a White man dealing in Calico and other fabrics, another lucrative trade item.  For years, as the federal government tried to induce the Cherokee to part with more land, Ridge was one of those who stood firm.  However, as Georgia officials became more restrictive in their laws toward the Cherokee, such as disallowing Whites to work for Native or forbidding Whites to enter into business dealing with Natives, John Ridge persuaded his father that perhaps giving up the lands in the east and striking their best deal for land out west was the better option.  Hoping to make the best terms possible, Ridge became a leader of what was known as the Treaty Party.  He was one of those who signed the Treaty of New Echota in December, 1835, though he knew what it would mean.  "I have signed my own death warrant," he said.

As Cherokee families packed up and prepared to leave, White officials in Georgia didn't bother to wait, auctioning off Cherokee property in lotteries and seizing livestock and other property.  Ridge moved his family west in 1837, traveling by flatboat and steamer to Honey Creek on the Arkansas, Missouri border.  This was outside of the Cherokee Nation boundary, but Ridge knew he was no longer welcome among his people.  Too many Cherokee, over 4,000 had died in the trek known as the Trail of Tears and many believed that Ridge, as leader of the Treaty Party, should pay with his life as Doublehead had.  In June, 1839, Major Ridge, his son John, their nephew Elias, and Ridge's other nephew Stand Watie were ambushed.  Only Watie escaped, though severely injured.  More on him and this feud later. 

Ridge's home in Georgia is now a museum on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.  Ken Burns included Ridge's life in a documentary called "We Shall Remain", part of his American Experience series.  

Treaty: Fort Pitt, September 17, 1778

This treaty was the first formal, written treaty between the new United States Government, as represented by the Continental Congress and an Indian tribe.  It is sometimes known as the Delaware Treaty, or even the Fourth Treaty of Pittsburgh, commemorating both the people with whom it was conducted, the Lenape/Delaware, and the place, Fort Pitt where modern-day Pittsburgh now stands.

Prior to this treaty, various states had conducted diplomacy with Native tribes and there had been informal agreements but nothing formal on the federal level.  With the Revolutionary War on the frontier theatre heating up, the Continental Congress knew they needed allies among the Native tribes.  They would need the help if an attack on Fort Detroit was to become reality.  White Eyes of the Delaware, whom we've already covered, was one of those leaders who believed peaceful co-existence with the Americans was the only way for his people to preserve some of their land and hunting range for themselves.  He had been chosen as Principal Chief of the Delaware and spearheaded negotiations for their side. 

The United States requested permission for troops to travel through Delaware territory and called for the Delaware to actively aid them as allies against the British, including furnishing warriors to fight against the Redcoats or their Native auxiliaries.  The United States promised trade goods including cloth, such as Calico, ammunition and arms.  It represented to the Delaware that it would build a fort to help protect the Delaware against either the British or trespassers on their land.  In reality, the fort would be there to protect American settlers as they made their way into the Ohio Valley.  And here the understanding on both sides diverged.  As with many Native treaties, the Natives believed they were granting free passage or use of their land.  They didn't know or weren't told, that this treaty would be a prelude to White settlement.  White Eyes also pressed for, or was led to believe, that the treaty created a Native buffer state out of the Ohio to allow the Natives to live in peace in a no-man's-land between British-held territory and American territory.  Sources differ on whether White Eyes requested it, or the American representatives offered it as an incentive to sign the treaty.  In reality, a treaty with such a clause in it would likely never see the light of day.

The Treaty was signed at Fort Pitt on September 17, 1778.  The Delaware delegation included White Eyes, Captain Pipe/Hopocan, whom we've also met, and John Kill Buck/Gelelemend for the Lenape/Delaware.  Brothers Andrew Lewis and Thomas Lewis, veterans of several frontier skirmishes, led the American delegation.  The treaty signing was witnessed by Col. Daniel Brodhead, more on him later, and Col. William Crawford, whom we've already run across in a previous post.  The Treaty was returned to Philadelphia to be ratified by the Congress and was submarined in committee, never being ratified into effect.  Settlers continued to pour into the Ohio Valley.  The Delaware sent delegations to the Congress to alert them that the treaty terms weren't being carried out, to no avail.  Peaceful relations between the Delaware and Settlers collapsed again.  White Eyes, who'd worked so hard to bring the treaty forward, died during one such visit in November, 1778, barely two months after it was signed.  The story was that he'd died of smallpox or fever, depending on the source.  Only years later did relatives find out that he'd been killed by one of his militia escorts.  The Delaware soon joined other Ohio tribes on the side of the British and the war in the frontier kept on. 

Extinct Tribe; The Neutral

The Beaver Wars of the 17th century coupled with disease and ill-treatment decimated many Native tribes and caused others to lose their tribal identity entirely.  The Neutral, an Iroquoian-speaking people whose home range lay between that of the Five Nations, the Tobacco or Wenro, the Huron, the Susquehannock and the Erie, would suffer that fate. 

Although the name suggests that they were a buffer between larger Iroquoian-speaking tribes, or that they tried to remain neutral during the ongoing conflicts, there was constant friction within the Iroquoian peoples themselves, as well as with Algonquian-speaking tribes.  When the French first encountered them, they comprised about 40 permanent settlements.  Neutral is a French designation.  The people referred to themselves either as Keepers of the Dear, due to their practice of herding deer into pens to hunt.  Another group were the Onguiaarha, or Near the Big Water, from which the word Niagara may have come.  The Huron knew them as "People Whose Speech is Awry/Different".  Flint was found in their territory and became a valuable trade item until European firearms became more plentiful in the frontier and the market for local flint dropped off.  Jesuit sources in 1652 described the Neutral Natives' practice of tattooing. 

The Neutral occupied what is now southern Ontario and around modern-day Buffalo, New York.  At one time, they may have consolidated their power under a war leader named Souharissen.  Souharissen ranged as far as Michigan defending his people's home and hunting range and welcomed a French missionary who later wrote of the Neutral people's power at that time and of their war leader.  French missionaries and explorers of the 17th century made frequent mention of how powerful these people were, and the amount of plentiful wild game and food resources in their country.  Another leader, Tsouharrisen, Child of the Sun, who may be the same person or a relative, also led the Neutrals during their declining years in the latter 17th century as war and disease took their toll on all the Iroquoian peoples.  Constant wars with their fellow Iroquois, the Five Nations, led to the loss of the Neutral tribal identity, though individuals may have sought refuge with other tribes, such as the Huron and Wenro.  There is no further mention of this tribe in French sources after 1671.

Settlers versus Natives: The Trail of Blood on Ice, 1861

This series of three skirmishes during an epic trek of the Seminole and Creek people out of Oklahoma to Kansas during the Civil War doesn't strictly belong in the timeframe of this blog, but it's a testament to the bravery and skill of Muskogean warriors, many of whom were veterans of the Seminole Wars, so we'll include it here.

As the Civil War broke out, tribes who had been removed to Kansas and Oklahoma felt the pressure to choose sides.  Some believed that either the Union or Confederacy would be more accommodating with land concessions, perhaps even giving them their old home territory back or at least the compensation promised.  Others wanted protection from one side or the other, or to be left alone to live their lives without joining in the conflict.  In some cases, these divisions manifested still smoldering tribal rivalries or internal conflicts within tribes.  In 1861, as Confederate troops aided in part by Pro-Confederate Cherokee took over much of Oklahoma, pro-Union Creeks and Seminoles became worried that they would be attacked and dispossessed of what little land and resources they had.  And they were right, a Confederate force under Col. Douglas H. Cooper was on its way to force these Natives to join the Confederacy or face seizure of their property and yet more death and hardship. 

These Creek and Seminole were in dire need of leadership and two veterans stepped forward.  Opothleyahola, was an Upper Creek leader with great experience in crisis leadership.  He'd already worked to undue the damage caused in 1825 when Creek leaders ceded the entirety of Creek land in the Southeast to the United States, and led his people on their own Trail of Tears.  Sunak Micco, a Seminole leader who'd fought in the Second and Third Seminole Wars was another able warrior.  Together, they and other leaders wrote to President Lincoln, outlining the situation they faced and asking guidance from him.  Lincoln responded, telling them they should leave Oklahoma and head for Fort Row in Kansas.  Winter was a terrible season for traveling, but with Cooper's men ready to attack at any time, the Creek and Seminole felt they had no choice but to act immediately on the President's direction.

With women, children and the elderly in tow, they began their trek, which essentially became a rear guard action in the face of the enemy, something only the most able military leaders can pull off.  Their first brush with the Confederates was at the Battle of Round Mountain near what is now Yale, Oklahoma.  On November 19, 1861, at 4:00 in the afternoon, Cooper's Confederates arrived and prepared to attack the Native camp.  Opothleyahola, warned ahead of time by his scouts, had evacuated the camp, leaving it empty.  As Cooper's men looked for the Native forces, they ran smack into Opothleyahola's men, who were ready for them.  The Creek and Seminole attack drove Cooper's lines back.  As Cooper's men reeled and tried to regroup, the Natives set fire to the prairie grass and fled.

The two enemy forces found each other again on December 9, 1861, near Sperry, Oklahoma at the Battle of Chusto-Talahash, also known as the Battle of Caving Banks.  After four hours of back and forth fighting, Cooper's men drove the Native contingent over Bird Creek.  Cooper intended an attack the next day, but was short of ammunition.  This delay gave Opothleyahola and Sanuk Micco time to withdraw their men for a much-needed respite.  The Natives lost almost 500, by Cooper's estimate.  He calculated his own losses as 15 killed and 37 wounded.

But they weren't through with each other yet.  The Battle of Chustenahlah occurred on December 26, 1861.  Cooper wanted to join forces with Col. James M. McIntosh, coming out of Fort Gibson with a larger forces.  McIntosh encountered the Native forces near Skiatook, Oklahoma.  Without waiting for Cooper, he attacked.  Opothleyahola and Sunak Micco had dug their men in a brushy slope of a hill.  McIntosh launched repeated attacks with his cavalry against their positions and eventually Opothleyahola had to pull his men back and head for the Oklahoma-Kansas border.  A force of mounted pro-Confederate Cherokees under then-Col. Stand Watie attacked the retreating Creeks and Seminoles.  Sunak Micco and his men faced them off.  As Watie's force pursued the retreating pro-Union contingent, the Seminoles, many of them veterans of the wars in Florida, showed that the spirit of Osceola, Coacoochee, Bily Bowlegs and John Horse was still alive and well in the men they trained. 

The Creek and Seminole warriors with their families made it to Fort Row, Kansas, and relocated again to Fort Belmont, but there was no shelter and scant rations in the dead of winter.  Illness set it, claiming more casualties.  Opothleyahola, already aging, perished under the harsh conditions in March, 1863.  Sunak Micco would formally enlist himself and his men into the Union Army, fighting several more battles and being mentioned by senior commanders for his bravery.  He would die of smallpox in 1864 having adopted the name of a famous and beloved Seminole leader, Billy Bowlegs. 

 

Treaty: The Tragedy of New Echota December 28, 1835

The Treaty of New Echota ceded the last of the Cherokee lands east of the Mississippi, with the exception of North Carolina.  It also exposed deep fissures in the Cherokee Nation as to how to deal with the onslaught of settlers encroaching on Native land.

From the beginning of the Republic, from Washington's Administration through that of John Quincy Adams (1824-1828), the federal government had enacted a policy of treating Native tribes as sovereign nations.  In theory, this mean allowing each tribe to handle its own internal affairs.  In practice, the federal government and state governments often interfered directly in tribal government, usually by appointing leaders or favoring leaders who appeared willing to cooperate by ceding land and ignoring the claims of those who weren't.  This interference made divisions within each tribe worse, as some leaders believed that cooperation and co-existence were the best answers to the inevitable displacement off tribal land.  Others were willing to resist encroachment, by force of arms if necessary.  These breaches led to civil wars within some tribes, for example the Creek, or blood feuds, as anger and resentment of each faction's motives gave way to violence.

By 1828, Cherokee land in Georgia had been guaranteed by a series of treaties, as had Cherokee rights to sovereignty.  The state of Georgia, wanting more land for incoming settlers, had pressed the John Quincy Adams administration to rewrite the land treaties with a view toward removing the Cherokee from their land altogether.  Otherwise, Georgia threatened to act on its own, nullify the treaties, disband the Cherokee National Counsel and begin forced removals.  In a windup to the Indian Removal Act, incoming President Andrew Jackson urged Native leaders in the South to cooperate with efforts at removal.  A minor gold rush in Georgia in 1829 sped up the inevitable and Georgia began taking repressive measures against the Cherokee, surveying their lands and holding a lottery to disburse the lands to White settlers. 

Led by Principal Chief John Ross, the Cherokee National Council brought suit in state courts and all the way up to the United States Supreme Court, where Chief Justice John Marshall ruled Georgia's actions unconstitutional.  This, however, did little to address the situation on the ground, as Georgia began forced removals of Cherokee families anyway.  The Jackson Administration sent representatives to persuade the Cherokee to give up their land, including promises of compensation, self-government and relocation assistance.  With these assurances, a faction within the Council began to believe that cooperation with the removal would be the best way of dealing with the inevitable situation.  Members of the Ridge, Boudinot and Watie families urged fellow Council members to cooperate with removal but most were firmly opposed.

These leaders began negotiations with Jackson's Secretary of War, Lewis Cass, seeking the best terms possible in the face of what they perceived to be inevitable removal.  John Ross tried to put a stop to their negotiations, but to no avail.  He openly condemned the treaty negotiations, with the result that the Treaty Party split from the National Council and began holding their own meetings.  Tempers flared and violence broke out amidst the various factions.  Finally, in 1835, Jackson sent a delegation to negotiate a final treaty with the Cherokee.  Ross's faction proposed a counter-offer and a meeting was set in 1835 to take place at New Echota, the Cherokee capitol at the time.  In late December, 1835, as delegate arrived at New Echota, the weather prohibited some leaders from attending.  Despite this, the leaders present agreed a treaty that did not have the approval of Principal Chief John Ross or a vote of the National Council.

Per the terms of the treaty, the Cherokees would receive compensation for the land given up, additional monies for educational funds, an amount of land in Indian Territory equal to the amount ceded back east, and individual compensation for any property left behind.  The treaty contained a clause allowing individual Cherokee to stay and become citizens, but Jackson ordered that provision stricken.  The Treaty negotiations concluded on December 29, 1835 and the formal treaty was signed on March 1, 1836.  With publication of the terms of the treaty, John Ross and the National Council objected and stated that they did not approve the treaty.  Ross went to Washington to urge the Senate not to ratify the Treaty but it was ratified any way.  The incoming Van Buren Administration directed the Army under General Winfield Scott to begin forced removals. 

The forced removal known forever as the Cherokee Trail of Tears began in 1836, but even deeper fissures were running through the Cherokee Nation.  Treaty Party versus National Party, East versus West, Old Settlers versus Late Settlers, families and clans against each other and even brothers and cousins against one another.  The anger at those who had dared to sign the treaty, or against those who felt they were making the situation worse by resisting would wear on for decades, even as hundreds of Cherokee died of hunger and exposure along the trail and in the next few years of settlement in Oklahoma. 

Places: Forts of Vincennes, Indiana

The Wabash was a historic river, being an important artery for the fur trade.  The trading post turned military garrison turned town of Vincennes, situated on the River, would also become important.  No less than five military forts would be built there as the area changed hands from Native to French to British and, finally, to American. 

European activity began at what is now Vincennes in 1702, when French traders from Montreal established a trading post in the area.  That post was short lived in trading in the area ceased for a time.  Then, Francois-Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes arrived from Louisiana in 1731 with orders to build a garrison to secure the lower Wabash Valley, and strengthen alliances with the Miami, Wea and Piankeshaw nations.  Unfortunately, Monsieur de Vincennes got into a scrape with the Chickasaw in 1735, and his life ended at the stake.  A new commander was brought in to revitalize the trade at Vincennes and, by 1750, the Piankeshaw had settled a village nearby and the town was bustling with Canadien immigrants. 

The Fort changed hands in 1764, when the British took over the area pursuant to the Treaty of Paris which ended the Seven Years/French and Indian War (1755-1763).  It was renamed Fort Sackville, after a British commander who'd died during an important battle in the European theatre of the war.  The fort, which was located near where First and Main Streets intersect in Vincennes, was soon allowed to fall into disrepair because of the cost and logistics of maintaining such an isolated garrison.  However, the British resumed activity at the Fort in 1774, to enforce the provisions in the Quebec Act which prohibited American settlement in the frontier.  However, the American Revolution intervened in 1775 and the British once again pulled their garrison, having other things to do.

In 1778, residents of the town, which remained largely French-Canadian, heard that France had allied with the fledgling United States.  Hoping that France was on its way to take them back, they took control of the old fort.  George Rogers Clark sent a small garrison of militia to garrison the fort.  The British quickly took it back, with General Henry Hamilton, the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec, coming to garrison the fort in person.  Not to be outdone, the townspeople cooperated when Clark himself besieged the Fort and captured Hamilton.  Clark renamed the outpost Fort Patrick Henry, in honor of the then-Governor of Virginia.  Clark intended to use the area as staging for his intended attack on Fort Detroit, but those plans never came to fruition.  As the War on the frontier moved elsewhere, more settlers came into the area, further complicated matter with the local tribes.

As the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795) heated up, the United States took control of the area but didn't use the site of Fort Vincennes/Sackville/Patrick Henry.  They built a new fort at where First and Buntin Streets intersect and named in Fort Knox, after then-Secretary of War Henry Knox.  (This was the first of several forts to bear his name, but not any of the nation's gold reserves).  For almost two decades (1787-1803), Fort Knox I was the westernmost outpost of the United States.  And, although the Natives in the area were relatively peaceful and on good terms with the garrison, the townspeople were not.  Matters got so bad that commanders issued orders to their men not to venture more than 100 feet outside fort walls and the commander petitioned the Secretary of War to relocate the facility altogether. 

The Secretary appropriated money for a new fort three miles outside the town of Vincennes, which was named Fort Knox II.  And there the dynamics and drama continued, as the members of the garrison fought several duels with each other.  It wasn't until 1811, when Captain Zachary Taylor was put in charge of the fort to shape it up in the wake of Tecumseh's Revolt that things settled down.  It was here that William Henry Harrison staged his troops for the assault on Prophetstown in 1811.  It was also here that casualties of the battle were brought back for treatment or a slow and painful death.  As the War of 1812 heated up and fears of the local Native population increased, soldiers dismantled and packed up the entire fort, floated it back into town and reassembled it near the original site of Fort Knox I.  After the War of 1812, the fort fell into disrepair and was abandoned in 1816.  A palisade based on archaeological records stands at the site today, which is on the register of National Historic Places.  An interpretive trail and annual reenactment keep its story alive today. 

Agent: William Wells

Life on the frontier for anyone connected with Natives was never easy.  These people, who were White but often adopted into Native tribes or married to Natives, faced a constant tug-of-war of emotions and loyalties.  William Wells and his relationships with his in-laws, Little Turtle and the Miami, is a classic case in point.

William Wells (c 1770-12), was born in Jacob's Creek, Pennsylvania, the son of a Revolutionary War veteran who later moved his family to Kentucky.  Wells' father died when he was nine and he was taken in by a neighbor.  At the age of 13, Wells and three other boys were captured by a raiding party of Wea and Miami and taken to Indiana.  Wells had bright red hair, earning him the name Apekonit, Miami for carrot.  He was given to a Miami chief, Porcupine, and taught the ways of a Miami warrior, which he readily became.  He eventually married a Wea woman and seemed content to remain with the Natives, though he visited his birth family in 1789.  His wife and daughter were later captured in a raid by General James Wilkinson (more on him in a later post), and Wells remained attached to Little Turtle's band of Miami, serving as a sharpshooter during the Battle of the Wabash, November, 1791. 

At this point, things became a little murky.  In 1792, Wells, still seeking his wife and daughter and other Native hostages, returned to his family in Louisville.  His brother urged him to meet with Indian Agent Rufus Putnum in Cincinnati.  There, Wells agreed to work with Putnum to urge the Natives to agree to treaty terms in return for freeing the hostages.  Putnum then hired Wells to spy on various Native counsel in 1793 and report Native plans to the Americans.  Wells thus became a double agent, and remained one the rest of his career.  He had by this time married Little Turtle's daughter, Wanagapeth (Sweet Breeze) and had four children by her.  Their three daughters married White men and his son would follow in David Moniac's footsteps at West Point.  As Wells attempted to work with the Natives behind the scenes to put an end to the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795, he was thwarted at every turn by British Agents, Alexander McKee and Simon Girty, a personal nemesis.  Wells was able to bring Wayne warning that he was facing a force of over 1500 warriors ready to attack Wayne's Legion of the United States.

Wells was given a captain's rank and become the leader of a group of scouts and spies who worked directly under Anthony Wayne's direction as scouts, spies, interpreters or whatever else needed doing.  He led Wayne's forces to the battleground of the Wabash and pointed out to him where Natives had buried the cannon left behind.  Although he was wounded in the lead-up to Fallen Timbers in 1794, he was able to give Wayne advice that helped Wayne win that battle.  Later, Wells was one of the main interpreters at the negotiations leading up to the Treaty of Greenville of 1795.  As he urged his father-in-law Little Turtle to sign the treaty, did Little Turtle know that his daughter's husband was playing a double role?  Most likely not, as Little Turtle was adamant that Wells should be the Indian Agent appointed to the Ohio Tribes. 

As Indian Agent, Wells escorted delegations of Native leaders to Philadelphia and later Washington.  He also worked to urge Natives to sign treaties with the government, then urged them quietly to back away from what they'd signed.  Like Little Turtle, he believed that the Quakers could teach the Natives better methods of farming, but he did not push other aspects of Jefferson's civilization program for Native Americans.   As Tecumseh's movement gained grounded, both sides became suspicious of Wells, who negotiated his last treaty, the Treaty of Fort Wayne, in 1809.  As the incoming Madison Administration began investigating Wells and Little Turtle on allegations of corruption, Tecumseh was also spreading mistrust of the Agent.  Wells was fired in 1809, though he continued to work unofficial as an interpreter and tried to warn the Madison Administration of the gravity of Tecumseh's movement. 

Wells
would spend the rest of his life trying to get his job back.  Fortunately, he did not have long on this earth.  In 1812 he became aware of that Potawatomi supporting the British and Tecumseh were going to attack Fort Dearborn in present-day Chicago.  He rode with a delegation of peaceful Potawatomi, among them Black Partridge, to try to warn Captain Nathan Heald, commandant of the Fort and married to William's niece, Rebekah.  Believing that it was safe to march the garrison out, on August 15, 1812, Heald led a force of regulars, militia, women and children out of Fort Dearborn, where they were ambushed by the Potawatomi in the Battle of Fort Dearborn.  Wells died trying to protect women and children.  Most likely, family, his own or anyone else's, had been his motive all along. 

Great Leader: Pacanne (P'Koumkwa) of the Miami, c 1737-1818

Little Turtle wasn't the only Miami leader with an outstanding military record.  He would have to share those laurels with P'Koum-Kwa, or as the French said the name, Pacanne.  We've already run across another member of Pacanne's family, his sister Tecumwah, who was his partner in politics and war.

Pacanne's family controlled the area of the Long Portage, an 8-mile passage between the Maumee and Wabash Rivers.  These rivers were important connections in the system of waterways leading from Canada to Louisiana and thus vital to Natives, fur traders, and even armies.  All of them would have to deal with Pacanne's family and his band of the Miami for permission to use the portage.  No record exists of Pacanne's early life except that he might have been a nephew of Cold Foot, and succeeded his uncle in the Miami's matrilineal inheritance system when Cold Foot died of a smallpox epidemic in 1752.  Pacanne was still a young man when he encountered Captain Thomas Morris, an English officer sent to secure the Native villages of Kekionga, Ouiatenon, Vincennes and Kaskaskia after Pontiac's Rebellion (1764).  Morris was captured by the Miami and on his way to a ritual burning when Pacanne ordered his release from the stake and, when that failed, released Morris himself.

Pacanne was a shrewd dealer in the fur trade and traveled between Kekionga, Vincennes, Detroit and Quebec both in his own business interests and representing his people.  While he travelled, Tecumwah, aided by Little Turtle and Le Gris, kept order in Kekionga and the other Miami villages.  Because of his frequent visits to Fort Detroit, Pacanne became well-known to the British officials there, including Lieutenant-Governor Henry Hamilton.  Hamilton was keenly interested in Native culture and often sketched the Native leaders he met.  We're indebted to him for Pacanne's likeness, the only one known of him.  When the American Revolution broke out in 1778, Pacanne was instrumental in weaning the Piankeshaw away from their alliance with George Rogers Clark and back to the British side.  La Balme's raid on Vincennes in 1780 cemented Pacanne's determination to support the British.  American Loyalist and British office Arent De Peyster singled out Pacanne for his bravery and loyalty. 

After the war, Pacanne accepted the inevitable and tried to keep peace with the Americans, becoming a guide to both Josiah Harmer and Jean-Francois Hamtramck, another transplanted French officer who had remained in America, more on him in another post.  In 1788, disaster struck when settlers attacked a Piankeshaw village.  Pacanne withdrew from cooperation with the Americans and returned to Kekionga to protect his people.  Little Turtle emerged as the war leader in most of the battles of the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795), with Pacanne in charge of the home guard.  He refused to sign the Treaty of Greenville of 1795, instead sending his nephew and successor, Jean-Baptiste Richardville.  He was wary of Tecumseh's Revolt and urged his people to remain neutral.  American retaliation after the attack on Fort Dearborn drove him once again to seek British protection, but it was short-lived when the War of 1812 ended with an American victory.  Pacanne lived out his days in Kekionga and died, succeeded by his nephew.

Natives versus Settlers: Harmer's Defeat, 7-22 October, 1790

The latter portion of the Northwest Indian War (1790-94) is often called Little Turtle's War with good reason.  Little Turtle of the Miami racked up several impressive victories against White commanders, his most famous being the Battle of the Wabash in 1791.  However, before he met Arthur St. Clair, he'd run into Josiah Harmer no less than three times in October, 1790.

The Northwest Indian War in general (1785-1795) saw some of the bloodiest conflicts on the frontier.  Natives raided American settlements and isolated farms and blockhouses, opposing encroachment on their homelands and hunting ranges.  But the settlers just kept coming.  Finally, several tribes in the Ohio Valley, including the Miami, Shawnee and others, banded together to form large enough war parties to hopefully put an end to the trespassing for good.  At the time of the three skirmishes known collectively as Harmer's Defeat, Little Turtle of the Miami was acting in concert with Blue Jacket of the Shawnee, in command of over 1,000 warriors of various tribes.  Josiah Harmer was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, with experience and a track record that caused Washington to put confidence in him.  Harmer marched toward the main Miami village of Kekionga, now Fort Wayne, Indiana, with a force of 320 Regulars and 1100 militia.  Their objective was a punitive mission against the Shawnee and Miami for raids on American settlements, but Harmer's men were the ones who would feel the pain.

Harmer began his march along the Great Miami River, approaching Kekionga.  However, when he sent his second in command, John Hardin of Kentucky, to launch a surprise attack on the village, they found that its inhabitants had burned it to the ground and fled.  Harmer turned his attention to other Miami villages, but they likewise had been evacuated.  The Native command team were well aware of Harmer's intentions and movements and awaiting their moment to strike.  Near present-day Churubusco, Indiana, on October 19, 1790, Hardin's men encountered a lone Native warrior on horseback.  They took the bait, pursuing him as he led them right into an ambush.  The Native horsemen led the Americans into a swamp, where Little Turtle's forces attacked.  This skirmish, called either the Battle of Heller's Corner, or Hardin's Defeat, cost 22 Regulars, 40 militia killed and 12 Americans wounded.  Some of Hardin's men had to hide in the swamp to escape with their lives.

Harmer next sent a scouting party of 300 men under Ensign Phillip Hartshorn.  (Ensign in those days could also be an army rank).  On October 20, 1790, they walked right into an ambush not far from the burned village of Kekionga.  This skirmish, called Hartshorn's Defeat, happened so fast that the Americans had to pull away from Kekionga and leave their dead on the field, further dispiriting American morale.  A rift developed between Harmer, the Regular Army officer and Hardin, a militia commander who wanted to take a larger force and try to strike back at the Natives or at least bury the bodies properly.  Hardin himself was in bigger trouble, soon enough.  On October 21, 1790, he returned to the area of the burned-out Kekionga and found Little Turtle's main force of 1,000 warriors.  He sent back word to Harmer for reinforcements.  Harmer, possibly drinking, got cold feet.  Instead of marching to Hardin's relief, he bunched his remaining 800 men into a square formation and hunkered down.

It didn't go well for either Hardin.  Hardin divided his men into smaller groups and tried to attack the Natives on al sides.  Little Turtle was on to him and baited the militia into foolish charges until he could isolate the regular force.  Little Turtle's men then swooped down on the regulars in an encounter known as Harmer's Defeat (though he wasn't there) or as the Natives remembered it, the Battle of the Pumpkin Fields.  The origin of this name was grim enough.  Hardin lost 180 men and the bare skulls reminded the Natives of pumpkins steaming in the autumn air. Native losses were about 120 men.  Harmer, still sitting tight with his remaining men, determined that he could not attack and began a retreat.  Until St. Clair's defeat the following year, this was the worst defeat handed to the Americans by the Natives and it was a military and political nightmare for the Washington Administration.

Washington was furious and lost his proverbial temper, saying "my mind is prepared for the worst, that is for an experience without honor or profit."  Harmer demanded a court martial and was white-washed, but his career was stymied after these battles.  None of these men knew that the worst was yet to come, courtesy of Little Turtle, Blue Jacket and their colleagues. 

Great Leader: Ostenaco of the Cherokee

Great leaders are often called upon to perform different roles as their people's needs change.  Many tribes of this era tasked their war chiefs with diplomatic duties.  The best leaders excelled at both and benefitted their people as a result.

Ostenaco (c 1703-1780) was born in the Cherokee town of Great Hiawasee in modern-day Hamilton County, Tennessee.  His name meant Big Head.  He preferred his warrior's name Utsidihi, which translates to "Man Killer".  He was a noted warrior, orator and charismatic leader of men.  He lived in the town of Great Tellico for a time, before becoming war chief of Tomotley.  During the French and Indian War (1755-1763) he allied with the Colony of Virginia against the French.  In 1756, he led a war party of over 130 warriors in a joint campaign against the French in what is now West Virginia.  In 1757 and 1758, he led raids against the French outpost at Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburgh.  However, relations between the British and the Cherokee soured into open conflict during 1759-1761, with Ostenaco firmly on the side of his people.

Henry Timberlake arrived in Tomotley on a diplomatic overture from the British in 1761 and met with Ostenaco at Tomotley.  Ostenaco was sufficiently impressed with what Timberlake had to say and led him to Chota to address a gathering of Cherokee leaders.  As part of the gathering, Ostenaco made a speech and buried a hatchet in the ground as a gesture of renewed goodwill with the British.  Ostenaco later guided Timberlake back to Virginia in 1762.  He and Timberlake remained friends and Timberlake had a relationship with Ostenaco's daughter, producing a son, Richard Timberlake.  In Williamsburg, Ostenaco met Thomas Jefferson, then a student at William and Mary University. Jefferson described him as a great orator and warrior.  Whenever Ostenaco was in Williamsburg, he would stay with Jefferson's family.  Ostenaco wanted to go to London to meet personally with King George III.  Jefferson traveled with him and Timberlake back to Tomotley, where Jefferson witnessed Ostenaco's farewell oration to his people. 

Timberlake, accompanied by Thomas Sumter, who later became a noted Indian Fighter, accompanied Ostenaco and three other leaders to London in 1762.  They toured the sites of the capitol, were received at the royal court, had their portraits painted by Joshua Reynolds and did the typical diplomatic social round.  While Timberlake remained in London, Sumter escorted the Cherokees back to America.  By the time of the American Revolution, Ostenaco was war chief over all the Lower Towns of the Cherokee and remained in his allegiance to Great Britain.  After American forces destroyed the Cherokee Lower Towns, Ostenaco and his people drifted further west, some settling in North Georgia at the town of Ustanali, or others joining Dragging Canoe's Chickamauga Cherokee.  Ostenaco, now an old man, died at the home of his grandson Richard in the Cherokee town of Ultiwa in 1780. 

Activist: William Apess of the Pequot

William Apess of the Pequot accomplished many milestones during his short and turbulent life.  He became an ordained Methodist minister, a rarity for a Native, even one of mixed-race descent.  He also published his autobiography, also rare for the time period. 

William Apess (1798-1839) was born in Colrain, Massachusetts to William, Sr., and Candace Apess.  His paternal grandfather was white.  His mother claimed descent from King Phillip of the Wampanoag, and also had European and African ancestry.  William's life fell apart at the age of five when his parents separated.  William, Jr. and his siblings were placed in the care of their maternal grandparents, who drank and were abusive.  A neighbor intervened and brought the matter to the attention of the town authorities.  The children were taken from their grandparents, separated and placed as indentured servants with white families.  It was a common practice for abused or orphaned children in the years before juvenile and family court systems and modern social services. 

His foster mother introduced him to Christianity and he enjoyed attending Baptist sermons until his foster father forbade him to continue going.  Though he was happy with his foster family, he still yearned for his own culture and ran away.  At age thirteen, his indenture was sold, then resold to General William Williams.  Young William had discovered the Methodists and again took refuge in Christianity, but at age 15 ran away to New York and joined a militia unit there, fighting in the War of 1812.  By this time, he too had succumbed to alcohol abuse, a disease that would plague him the rest of his life.  After drifting to Canada and various odd jobs there, he decided to return to Massachuseetts and reclaim as much of his Pequot identity as he could  He was baptized as a Methodist in 1818.

He married Mary Wood, a mixed-race Pequot like himself, settled down and had three children.  It was around this time that he discovered his vocation to preach.  He was ordained a lay minister of the Protestant Methodist Church in 1829.  Also that year he published his autobiography entitled A Son of the Forest.  It was one of the first autobiographies written by a Native.  By this time, Apess had become aware of the growing movement toward Indian Removal.  He learned Wampanoag, and began to minister to the Mashpee Wampanoag.  Massachusetts had taken the remaining Wampanoag land in the state and placed it under the care of White trustees known as Overseers.  The Overseers were allowing Whites to use the land, selling firewood and committing other abuses.  Along with other leaders, Apess organized the Mashpee Revolt of 1833, really a series of demonstrations and civil disobedience.  With Apess' help, his Wampanoag parishioners wrote to state authorities, prevented settlers from taking firewood and staged protests.  Apess was jailed for a month on charges of inciting riots. 

Apess began writing articles in the Boston newspapers arguing that laws which interfered with Native sovereignty were null and void.   He also published a volume of his sermons dealing with the rights of Natives.  However, his alcoholism was beginning to takes its toll, causing both Natives and White allies to distance themselves from him.  In his final effort, Apess published a funeral eulogy for King Phillip, centuries after the Wampanoag leader's death, extolling him as a leader who had been martyred by the early colonists.  After this sermon in 1836, he left for New York to try and find work and start over in life.  He died of a brain hemorrhage in 1839 at the age of 41. 

Places: the James Vann House, Chatsworth, Georgia

A house can be a visible reminder of the triumphs and tragedies of the people who live within its walls.  The James Vann House, a National Historic Place in Chatsworth, Murray County, is one example.

James Vann (c 1765-1809) was a mixed-race Cherokee with a Native mother and Scottish father.  He quickly rose to prominence in the Cherokee Nation and was a colleague of Major Ridge and Charles Hicks.  He was also a successful businessman and planter who owned extensive properties in Georgia.  And, like many Native leaders in the Southeast of this era, he did own slaves.  In 1803, he began work on a home that would reflect his status, a red brick Georgian and Federal style mansion.  The bricks were made with red clay from one of his plantation properties.  The nails, hinges and other iron components were made in a foundry on the plantation site.  It was the first such house in the Cherokee Nation at the time and remains a cultural treasure.

Unfortunately, James didn't live long to enjoy his home.  He did in 1809 and, contrary to Cherokee custom, left the house to his son Joseph, called Rich Joe by his neighbors.  Joe had his father's knack for business and continued to add to the family holdings.  He also added on to and improved the house his father had left him.  In 1819, when President James Monroe was visiting Murray County, he requested to stay in the Vann House because it was the most comfortable house in the area.  Then, in 1829, Georgia experienced a gold rush, with some of the strikes being on Cherokee land.  As more and more settlers poured into the area seeking gold, they couldn't help but notice the prosperous home and property of the Vanns and other Cherokee land owners.  Greed kicked in.  Joe Vann had hired a white man to look after the house while he was away tending to his other properties.  Georgia authorities used that as a pretext (Whites could not legally work for Natives) to seize the house in 1835, forcing Joe and his family to remove to Oklahoma in the windup to the Trail of Tears.  The house remained vacant while two claimants to the property (sold in a land lottery along with other Cherokee holdings), litigated about who owned it.  Joe Vann later sued for the loss of his property and received $19,000 in the currency of the time.  This was far below the market value of the house and its surrounding land. 

The house passed through several successive owners before being sold to the Georgia State Historical Commission in 1952.  The house was restored in 1958 and is administered by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.  A museum and interpretive center accompanies the house today.