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.