Historiography: Lyman Draper and the Draper Collection

People of the early frontier, Settlers and educated Natives alike had a keen sense of posterity and kept a paper trail.  Letters, diaries, logs, deeds, legal documents or even interviews with relatives who thought their lives worth record.  However, there was often no way to preserve these priceless written records. 

Enter Lyman Draper, 1815-1891.  Draper was a descendant of the Mayflower and Massachusetts veterans of the Revolutionary War.  He was lucky to be both someone who loved history and a professional historian.  Born in Lockport, New York, his family migrated to Wisconsin, where he became Superintendent of Public Instruction as well as President of the state historical society.  He developed a keen interest in the early settlement of the Ohio Valley and the Appalachian Mountains.  Beginning in the 1830's, he open correspondence with people who had been alive during those times or their relatives and descendants.  His plan was to write a history of the Ohio Valley, including the Native-Settler wars that had taken place there.  Nor was he biased.  He acquired as much information about Native leaders such as Joseph Brant of the Mohawk, who were considered "villains" in conventional histories of the day.  He also corresponded with Simon Girty's sons and, through them, with Girty's widow Catherine. 

Draper kept meticulous notes in his capacity as President of the Historical Society, producing 10 volumes of them throughout his tenure.  Though his book about the Ohio Valley never saw the light of day, he did write a book about the Revolutionary War battle of Kings Mountain, October, 1780, which featured the Overmountain Men such as John Sevier.  In time, Draper was trusted enough by descendants and family members that he acquired the letters and other documents actually written by such men as Joseph Brant, George Rogers Clark, Simon Kenton, Daniel Boone, Lewis Wetzel, Josiah Harmer, William Henry Harrison, and Daniel Brodhead.  He also gathered information about Native leaders such as Tecumseh.  These precious paper trails reside in the Lyman Draper Manuscript Collection of Wisconsin's State Historical Society and cover over 500 volumes.  Some repositories are available online but only to credentialed scholars.  Snippets and abstracts of various information from the Collection can be accessed by a lot of hunting around on the Internet, a lot of hunting around!

 

Natives in the American Civil War

The Civil War wasn't just a war between Whites over Black slavery.  Native tribes and Individuals from various tribes line up on either side of the issue.  The Five Southeastern Tribes had been, prior to Indian Removal, prosperous farmers and planters.  Many owned slaves and brought their slaves with them on the Trails of Tears.  Natives of other tribes did not own slaves.  Their allegiance to either the Union or Confederacy revolved around the ability of either government to protect their lands or perhaps to grant them more land, or lands they had lost.  To that end, when war broke out in 1861, Natives formed troops of infantry and cavalry just as quickly as did White volunteers, and brought their own skills to bear in the war effort.

Some of these units were raised primarily in Oklahoma and composed of mounted cavalry from the Five Southeastern Tribes.  The most famous of these were the Cherokee Mounted Rifles, raised in Oklahoma by Col. Stand Watie, later a Brigadier General.  Another famous unit was Thomas' Legion (69th NC Infantry), which included both infantry and cavalry raised by William Holland Thomas from Cherokee in North Carolina.  Mounted Units formed from the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Seminole and Osage.  Ironically, some of these men had prior military experience fighting against United States forces trying to force them off their land. 

Opposing them were Native regiments raised primarily in Kansas and known as the Indian Home Guard.  They included tribes primarily from the Northeast, such as the Delaware, Kickapoo, Shawnee, Quapaw, and even some Osage and Cherokee.  As the war drew on, some Natives who had originally signed on to the Confederacy later changed sides and fought for the Union's Indian Home Guard.

Two officers, one on each side, both the highest ranking Natives in either army.  Bvt. Ely S. Parker of the Seneca, who served on the staff of General Grant, drafted the surrender documents for the Army of Northern Virginia and was present when Lee and Grant met at the McLean House in Appomattox.  On the other side, Brig. Gen. Stand Watie of the Cherokee, who surrendered the last Confederate Army at Doaksville, Oklahoma on June 23, 1865.

(This post also appears in https://greatwarriorsII.blogspot.com).
 

Friday Reprise: Pontiac of the Ottawa

There were many fine qualities that could make a man eligible for elite warrior status among his people, if not leadership or even to become a chief.  There were other qualities which could doom a once-great warrior to disgrace.  The range of good and bad can be seen in Pontiac (c 1720-1769), a war leader of the Ottawa.

Pontiac was born in the Great Lakes region sometime in 1720.  Sources differ as to whether both of his parents were Ottawa.  While his mother may have been a member of that tribe, his father might have been Ojibwe or Miami.  From an early age, Pontiac began to show promise as a warrior.  He had a charismatic personality and was a good orator who could persuade others of his point of view.  He had a reputation for honesty, always keeping his word and paying his debts.  At this point in their history, the Ottawa sided with the French.  Pontiac rose to fame when he led warriors against a Huron rebellion, and later during the French and Indian War (1755-1762).  Tradition, unsupported by evidence, states that Pontiac may have taken part in the destruction of the Braddock Expedition.  Nevertheless, Pontiac continued to rise in stature as a leader among his people.  Enter Robert Rogers, the colorful commander of Rogers Rangers.  According to Rogers, although this is disputed by most sources, he developed a friendship with Pontiac although they were on different sides of the conflict.  After the War, Rogers went to London and wrote a play called "Ponteach: the Savage of America", which was a surprise one-hit wonder and made Pontiac famous in his own time.

While the fighting of the North American phase of the French and Indian War died down by 1760, French-allied tribes became discontent with the differing trade practices of the British.  British authorities cut back on the rations and other gifts given to the Indians.  They also cut back on the arms and ammunition allowed to be traded to Natives.  This impaired their ability to hunt and led to rumors that the British intended to subjugate or destroy them.  To add fuel to the fire, squatters began infiltrating Native land.  A Lenape/Delaware prophet known as Neolin tried to start a pan-Indian movement, calling on the tribes to reject European ways and band together against British oppression.  Several tribes joined in a council on the Detroit River to band together in armed resistance against the British.  Attention soon focused on Pontiac as the leader of this movement. 

Pontiac held his own council at what is now Lincoln Park, Michigan.   According to a French chronicler, Pontiac roused interest during a second counsel with the words "It is important for us, my brothers, that we exterminate from our lands this nation (Britain), which only seeks to destroy us.  You see as well as I that we can no longer supply our needs, as we have done from our brothers, the French.  Therefore, my brothers, we must all swear their (British) destruction and wait no longer.  Nothing prevents us; they are few in numbers and we can accomplish it." Despite his optimism, On May 7, 1763, when Pontiac and 300 followers attempted to take Fort Detroit, they found that an informer had tipped off the British commander.  Pontiac postponed the attack until May 9, when more reinforcements had jointed him.  He again laid siege to the Fort.  His actions inspired other Native leaders and contingents, who soon began attacking British forts and colonists.  The Natives soon were blockading nine of eleven British forts in the Ohio Valley Region.  Pontiac scored another success in defeating an entire British detachment in the Battle of Bloody Run in July, 1763.  However, neither he nor any other Native commanders were able to actually take any of the forts and Pontiac had to lift his siege on Detroit.

With the siege lifted, the British believed that the crisis was over, but as the discontent among the Natives continued and more tribes joined Pontiac's movement, they realized that they had to treat with the Natives and make concessions.  Although Pontiac's name was most associated with the uprising, British authorities failed to realize that the were more senior leaders involved and that many tribes were operating independently.  The British focused their attentions on Pontiac.  He met with Sir William Johnson, the British Superintendent for Indian Affairs, on July 25, 1766, at Fort Ontario near present-day Oswego, New York and agreed a cessation of hostilities.  The British offered more generous trade concessions, but they also increased their footprint in the Ohio Valley.  Their continued focus on Pontiac aroused jealousy among other Native leaders and it may have gone to Pontiac's head.  According to observers, he became arrogant and tried to assume more power than was usually granted to a leading warrior who was not a chief. 

In 1767, Pontiac was alleged to have been involved in an incident involving the murder of a young British captive named Elizabeth "Betty" Fisher.  According to the allegations, she was in Pontiac's camp and tried to warm herself at his fire.  She was ill with dysentery and soiled some blankets or clothing.  Incensed, Pontiac picked her up and threw her into the Maumee River, ordering a Frenchman in his camp to hold her under.  The child died and a warrant was issued for the Frenchman.  He was caught and Pontiac was summoned to testify, but the Frenchman escaped before a trial could begin.  Pontiac never confirmed or denied the incident and was not charged, but the scandal marked the beginning of the end.  By 1768, he was forced to leave his village on the Maumee river and relocated to a village on the Wabash River.  There are several reasons given for this.  One being that his people believed he was becoming too much a pawn of the British.  Or, that they were tired of his high-handed ways and excessive cruelty toward captives.  In any event, he dictated a letter to British authorities dated May 10, 1768, in which he stated that he was no longer recognized as a leader by his people on the Maumee River.  On April 20, 1769, he was murdered by a Peoria warrior near the town of Cahokia, Illinois.  The Peoria was avenging the injury by Pontiac to his uncle, a Peoria chief named Makachinga.  Despite legend, there were no attempts by the Ottawa to take reprisals against the Peoria for the murder of their one-time leader.  Tradition says that Pontiac was ultimately buried somewhere in or near present-day St. Louis.

Because of his resistance to British tyranny, the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a commemorative plaque in a corridor of a St. Louis hotel believed to stand on his burial place.  Different assessments have been placed on his role in the rebellion that bears his name.  Although he was a noted orator and may have persuaded some tribes and bands to join it, other more senior leaders conducted most of the fighting.  During the time of the rebellion, there was widespread unrest among the Natives and dissension among various tribes.  Many tribes operated on their own, without control from a centralized command, let alone Pontiac.  Historians today believe his role in the rebellion was overstated.  Nevertheless, his fame continues.  Towns in Illinois, Michigan and Quebec bear his name, as does a Municipality in Quebec.  But he is most famous today for his automotive namesake, the Pontiac brand developed by General Motors and no longer being made. 

Opposition: Daniel Boone and Native Americans

Americans have always had a fascination with celebrity.  In the 18th century, particularly on the frontier, there were no bigger celebrities than Indian Fighters.  And the most well-known Indian Fighter of his day was Daniel Boone, 1734-1820.  Daniel wore many hats throughout his long life, including frontiersman, longhunter, trapper, soldier, teamster, militia officer, politician, surveyor, merchant, sheriff, tavern keeper, horse trader, justice of the peace and land speculator.  The one title that drew the most attention though, was Indian Fighter.

Daniel's family were Quakers, though he himself wasn't a practicing member.  Growing up in frontier Pennsylvania, the Delaware/Lenape were still around and Daniel might have encountered them in a peaceful atmosphere.  From observing Native hunters he would've acquired hunting, trapping and tracking skills that would later save his life.  During the French and Indian War (1755-1763), he served as a teamster and narrowly survived Braddock's Defeat.  It would be his first hostile encounter with Natives.  He also served in the North Carolina militia during the Anglo-Cherokee War (1759-1761).  After the war, in 1767, he and his brother Squire began hunting and trapping in Kentucky.  In 1769, he was captured by a group of Shawnee.  Despite the experience, Boone returned to Kentucky again to hunt and later led his family and other settlers there in 1773.  His son James Boone and another teenager, Henry Russell, were captured, ritually tortured and killed.  Whatever Daniel's personal feelings, the killings forced many families to flee back to civilization and was one of the incidents that touched off Lord Dunmore's War (1774). 

Boone eventually returned to Kentucky and founded the settlement of Boonesborough.  In 1776, Boone's daughter Jemima was captured with two friends outside Boonesborough.  Daniel learned of her captured, formed a rescue party, and two days later retrieved his daughter and her two friends alive.  In 1777, the British recruited Shawnee leader Blackfish to attack settlements in Kentucky.  Blackfish and his men besieged Boonesborough and Daniel was shot in the process, but he survived and fended off the siege and a court-martial.  In 1778, Blackfish captured Daniel, who spent the winter with the Shawnee until he could get home to Boonesborough.  At this time, he was given the Shawnee name Shaltowee or Big Turtle. 

Given this history, it would be easy to think that Daniel Boone hated or bore a vengeful grudge against Natives.  During the 19th century, he was portrayed as being angry over the death of his son and willing to kill Natives, particularly Shawnees and Cherokees any chance he got.  People who knew him personally didn't remark on any outstanding animus against the Natives.  Daniel defended his family, his neighbors and his country against both Natives and British.  If they were a threat to him, he was able to meet them on their terms.  But he bore them no abiding ill-will.  Unlike Lewis Wetzel or James Smith, who'd spent time in captivity and didn't appreciate the experience, Daniel learned from it and gained the respect of Natives.  The idea that he was an ardent Indian hater is a later invention.

Great Leader: Meaurroway Opessa Straight Tail of the Pekowi Shawnee, 1630-1709

What we now know as tribes are actually composed of several bands or clans grouped together under a general name.  On the frontier, long before the BIA and federally recognized tribes, each tribe had several clans, combinations of which often formed bands within the tribe.  Those bands might often be self-governing, with little direction from a centralized authority.  Members of certain clans or bands might be noted for certain things, hunting, war leadership, medicine and the like.  The Pekowi are one band among the Algonquian-speaking Shawnee, which like many tribes has a Turtle clan.  Members of that clan are known as religious leaders. 

Straight Tail Meaurroway Opesa, known to Whites as Meaurroway, was born in 1630 in what is now Ohio to a chief of the Pekowi band and his wife.  Shawnee leadership runs through the paternal line and Meaurroway succeeded his father at about age 40, both as chief of the Pekowi ban and head of the Turtle Clan.  The Shawnee were a nomadic tribe who tended to range far in pursuit of game or to avoid conflicts with enemies.  In 1677, Meaurroway led his people to what is now Illinois.  From 1680-1693, his range was what is now Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina.  In 1697, he settled his people near what is now Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and became a friend of William Penn.  Meaurroway eventually retired and passed leadership of the Pekowi and Turtle Clan to his son, who would continue the friendship with Penn.  Meaurroway died in 1709.

His heritage lived on in his many children and descendants.  One of his daughters married Pierre Chartier, a French army deserter turned trader.  Their son, Martin Chartier, was a well-known trader on the frontier who advocated against sales of alcohol to Natives and even led the Pekowi back to Illinois to get away from unscrupulous traders.  Another son, Opessa Straight Tail, became the great-grandfather of Tecumseh.  Through his Chartier descendants, Meaurroway has many-times great grandchildren today.

Friday Reprise: Buckongahelas of the Delaware, 1720-1805

Buckongahelas (c 1720-1805) was a war leader of the Delaware/Lenape people.  The Lenni Lenape are an Algonquian-speaking people whose name for themselves translates as 'pure man'.  Settlers called them Delaware, because their original home range was along the Delaware River, including parts of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.  Buckongehalas was born somewhere in present-day Delaware, but would live to see his people pushed into the Ohio River Valley by advancing settlement.  His known family included a son, Mahonegon, who was killed by a settler in 1773. 

Buckongahelas was already a noted warrior by the time of the French and Indian War (1755-1763), where he took the side of the Settlers against the French.  Sources conflict as to whether he was a titled chief, or a war leader.   Either way, he was a fierce opponent in battle and his enemies, Native or European, did not take him lightly.  During the Revolutionary War, he sided with the British against the Americans.  He broke away from a larger band led by White Eyes, and moved his followers closer to the village of Blue Jacket, a Shawnee leader.  The two men became close friends and allies in war.  A number of Lenape had converted to Christianity and lived at the Moravian mission village at Gnadenhutten in Ohio.  Buckonghelas told them that the Settlers would have no regard for the fact that they were Christians and would kill them anyway.  He urged these vulnerable Delaware to leave with his band.  They refused and in March, 1782, most of these Natives were killed in the Gnadenhutten Massacre.

After the Revolution, Buckongahelas joined his Shawnee allies in several skirmishes aimed at repelling American settlement into the Ohio Valley.  These clashes led to the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795).  Eventually, the Americans prevailed, forcing the British to leave the Ohio Valley.  American forces now occupied the home territory of the Shawnee, the Lenape and their allies, and the conflict continued.  His warriors, along with Blue Jacket's Shawnee and Little Turtle's Miami, were present at the Battle of the Wabash, on November 4, 1791, where they inflicted a decisive defeat on American General Arthur St. Clair, who lost 600 men.  This battle was the most devastating military defeat suffered by American forces at the hands of Native Americans up to that time.  Nevertheless, the Americans rallied and defeated the Native alliance at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, 1794.  Buckonghelas was among those leaders who signed the Treaty of Greenville I 1795, and the Treaty of Vincennes in 1804, seeking to preserve his people's Ohio Valley homeland against further White encroachment. 

Buckonghelas lived out his final years near what is now Muncie, Indiana.  He died in 1805 from either smallpox or influenza.  Some of the Delaware believed that the illnesses, whatever they were, were brought on by witchcraft and executed a few of their own.  The despair and sense of defeat of the Delaware and the other peoples in the Ohio Valley led to the rise of the Shawnee Prophet and Tecumseh, who would try again where Buckongahelas and White Jacket had left off.  Although there are no likenesses of Buckongahelas, he was described as being 5' 10" and a strong, powerfully-built man.  A statue of him cradling the body of his dying son was erected in a park in Buckhannon, West Virginia, commemorating his assistance to the settlers during the French and Indian War.

(This entry first appeared in May, 2016).

  

Great Warrior: Matchekewis of the Ojibwe

Matchekewis first appears in the historical record in 1763 in the windup to Pontiac's Rebellion, when he and other Native leaders besieged Fort Michilimackinac and took it from the British.  This was a rare feat, happening only one other time during the Seven Years War, when Cherokee captured Fort Loudon in what is now Tennessee.  After Pontiac's Rebellion, Matchekewis led his people to what is now Michigan, trying to keep away from Settlers, but to no avail.  He later allied with the British during the American Revolution, and led a war party of over 750-1,000 warriors from combined tribes against the Spanish outpost at St. Louis, Missouri in 1780.  Unfortunately, this time, faced with a tipped-off ragtag garrison of volunteers, he faced defeat.

Not to be outdone, Matchekewis was also active in the Northwest Indian War, 1785-1795, but like many other leaders, came to believe that resistance to the American would only prove futile and harmful to his people in the end.  He was a signatory of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, ceding Bois Blanc Island in Lake Huron.  After the treaty parley, he disappeared from the historical record.

Survivors: the Meherrin

The Meherrin are an Iroquoian-speaking people with ties to the Tuscarora and Nottoway.  They originally lived in the Piedmont area of Virginia when encountered by English settlers.  By the early 18th century, they had moved into what is now the border of Virginia and North Carolina to evade oncoming Settlers.  By 1705, they had been granted a reservation in 1705 in disputed land between the two colonies at Manley's Neck.  The land was ultimately assigned to what became North Carolina in 1706 and, despite earlier promises made to the Meherrin, Carolina authorities began to destroy homes and crops in an effort to force the tribe to move.  They were given refuge in Virginia, at the mouth of the Meherrin River.

This respite wouldn't be for long.  They allied with the Tuscarora in 1715 during the Tuscarora War, revolting against encroaching and slaving of Natives by Settlers.  After the War, they were confirmed on land in what is now Bertie County, North Carolina.  Continued encroachment by Settlers convinced many of them to flee with the Tuscarora to join the other Iroquois tribes in New York.  However, many families did stay in North Carolina, keeping their communities together throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.  In 1986, they were granted state recognition in North Carolina and remain there, based in Hertford County, North Carolina.

Natives versus Settlers: the Battle of St. Louis, May 25, 1780

Colonial wars in North America were always grudge matches over territory, never mind what the Native inhabitants thought.  England, France and Spain bickered over pieces of what is now the United States until the American Revolution, 1775-1783, the Adams-Onis Treaty, 1819, and the Mexican War, 1846-48, put a stop to it.  Most of those battles were on the frontier east of the Mississippi and properly belong in Great Warriors Path.  However, part of the double battle of Cahokia, in present-day Illinois, and St. Louis, in present-Missouri, happened west of the Mississippi and as it involved the Sioux, is also featured in Great Warriors II. 

The French lost territory two ways after the Seven Years War, 1756-1763.  Most of what had been New France, i.e., Quebec, the Maritimes, and the Old Northwest, went to England.  Louisiana, which included the Gulf States, went to Spain.  When the Revolution began in 1775, Britain saw an opportunity not only to punish some rebellious colonies, but take away all of Spain's land in North America.  Spain still had control over much of her vast colonial empire, but centuries of weak, inbred kings had turned the once mighty Hapsburg-Bourbon dynasty into a rotting hulk.  Spain, as with any European power, had difficulty garrisoning the many French forts turned over after Seven Years War and kept only a small garrison at St. Louis.  The British commander at Fort Michilimackinac thought he saw easy pickings in St. Louis, and Cahokia across the Mississippi River, which was occupied by Patriots.  With control of these two outposts would also come control of the Mississippi.  The only problem was manpower.  The Brit took care of that by appointing a local trader, Emanuel Hesse, to recruit as many Native warriors as would fight with him and march against St. Louis/San Carlos.  Among the tribes who sent warriors were the Sioux, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, Sac, Fox, Winnebago/Ho-Chunk and Ojibwe/Chippewa. 

The Spanish weren't sitting idle in New Orleans.  Bernardo de Galvez, who would later prove a valuable ally to George Washington, speedily installed garrisons in New Orleans, Pensacola, Mobile, and other key outposts in the Southeast.  He also dispatched the Lieutenant-Governor Fernando de Leyva, to beef up the outpost at St. Louis.  De Leyva roused the inhabitants of the town and with his small force of Spanish soldiers and militia prepared to meet the Native army now amassing at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.  He ordered the construction of four stone towers and helped pay for one of them from his own money, naming it Fort San Carlos.  Meanwhile, about 750-1,000 warriors came to Prairie du Chien, many of them Sioux under Wapasha.  Although Native forces operated under a command team, Hesse designated the overall Native commander as Matchekewis of the Ojibwe.  They quickly made their way downriver to St. Louis, believing they had the element of surprise and a lax Spanish presence.

A local trader got wind of what was about to happened and tipped de Leyva, who hadn't managed to get the other three towers built.  De Leyva persuaded a group of French lead miners to make up an impromptu militia to help bolster their defenses.  These miners brought a valuable commodity, lead for bullets.   On May 23, the Natives beached their canoes fourteen miles upriver of St. Louis and made ready for a land assault.  Hesse sent Canadian fur trader Jean-Marie Ducharme and 300 Natives across the river to deal with Cahokia, while his main force advanced on St. Louis.  On May 25, 1780, lookouts in rickety Fort San Carlos saw them coming and began firing shots.  Leyva directed the town's defense from the tower, ordering his men to fire again and again at the Native onslaught.  While some of the smaller contingents of Natives fell back, Wapasha and his Sioux kept on coming.  The continuing barrage of lead finally convinced the Natives to leave St. Louis alone.  George Rogers Clark showed up across the River to take charge of Cahokia, repulsing the attack there.  St. Louis would remain in Spanish hands for the time being. 

Casualties in St. Louis were between 50-100 killed, wounded and captured, most of them civilians who had volunteered to defend their town.  As the whole town was about 700 people, this was a costly victory.  Fernando de Leyva died a month later, not realizing he'd been made a Lieutenant-Colonel by the King of Spain.  The site of Fort San Carlos is on 4th and Walnut Streets in St. Louis, where a yearly commemoration is held.

This post also appears on https://greatwarriorsII.blogspot.com.

Great Leader: Black Partridge of the Potawatomi, c 1744- c 1816

The almost constant warfare on the frontier makes it seem as though friendships and fellow feeling between Natives and Settlers was impossible.  In fact, mutual friendship and respect were possible, though wider tensions strained these qualities to the breaking point.  The story of Black Partridge, c 1744 - c 1816, and Mrs. Margaret Helm at the Battle of Fort Dearborn on August 15, 1812, illustrates that point.

Black Partridge and his brother Waubonsie were first recorded as leaders of the Potawatomi during the Northwest Indian War, 1785-1795, participating in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.  As signatories of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, both received medals bearing the likeness of George Washington.  After the treaty, Black Partridge worked with his brother and other Native leaders to co-exist with Settlers in and around what is now Chicago.  He later affirmed his peaceful stance by signing the Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1809, possibly receiving another medal from William Henry Harrison with James Madison's likeness.  With the windup to Tecumseh's Revolt in 1810, Native leaders had to decide where their people's best interests lay.  Black Partridge made his mind up and told Tecumseh, "I cannot join you.  This token (the Washington medal) was given to me at Greenville by the Great Chief (Wayne).  On it you see the face of our father at Washington.  As long as this hangs on my neck, I can never raise my tomahawk against the Whites."  Black Patridge's own feelings did not deter many young warriors who wished to join Tecumseh and take on the Settlers coming into their territory.

Black Partridge was a frequent visitor to Fort Dearborn and knew the family of trader John Kinzie quite well.  Kinzie's daughter, Margaret, married Lt. Lenai Helm.  He also developed a personal friendship with the commander of the fort, Captain Nathan Heald.  As Tecumseh's War blended into the War of 1812, Black Partridge felt that he could no longer deny his young warriors their right to fight the Whites.  As an attack on Dearborn loomed, he sought a meeting with Captain Heald and urged him in the strongest terms to leave Dearborn, letting him known plainly that his warriors had no choice but to attack the fort.  When Heald refused to leave, Black Partridge pulled the medal off his neck and handed it over, telling Heald, "Father, I came to deliver up to you the medal I wear.  It was given to me by the Americans, and I have long worn it in token of our mutual friendship.  Our young men are resolved to imbue their hands in the blood of the Whites.  I cannot restrain them, and I will not wear a token of peace while I am compelled to act as an enemy."  Heald finally received orders to evacuate the fort.  On August 15, 1812, as the garrison, militia and noncombatants marched out of Dearborn, the Potawatomi war party attacked.

Black Partridge saw a warrior about to tomahawk a pregnant woman struggling to carry a young toddler in her arms.  He waded into the confusion and jerked the woman away, acting as though he bore a personal grudge and intended to kill her himself.  It was Margaret Helm and her young daughter.  He led her to edge of Lake Michigan and made her get into the water and stay as low to the water line as possible.  Later that night, he found her and conducted her to his village so she and the child could eat and have their wounds treated.  However, though he had taken her, he didn't have the authority to release her.  He carried the ransom money given him from Kinzie by the Indian Agent, and when that didn't prove enough, threw in his own horse, rifle, a gold ring, and a note for $100 signed by George Rogers Clark.  Having settled Margaret Helm's ransom, he returned to his own village, only to find that it had been burned by Illinois Rangers under the command of Ninian Edwards.  Black Partridge's daughter and young grandchild, no older than Margaret Helm and her daughter, had been killed.

This slaughter made up Black Partridge's mind to go to war.  He led his people throughout the War of 1812.  Eventually, he and his men surrendered, and he signed a treaty with Zachary Taylor in St. Louis.  He left the historical record more than twenty years after he'd first entered it, a warrior who tried to honor his word to both his people, and to Settlers with whom he'd had no personal quarrel.  The attack on Fort Dearborn has been novelized several times, with allegations that Black Partridge mercy killed other settlers whom he could not rescue.  History doesn't record these claims.  A statue of Black Partridge was erected in Chicago in 1893, showing the climactic moment when Black Partridge pulled Margaret Helm and her child from danger.  The statue has since been removed, and is in city storage. 

Lappawinsoe of the Delaware/Lenape and the Walking Purchase

Europeans used different inducements to Native leaders to persuade them to cede tribal land.  Sometimes threats of force were effective, forcing leaders to balance the need to fight for what was there against the reality that irreplaceable men would die, leaving women and children at risk.  Other inducements were more subtle, including alcohol or bribery.  Still, other leaders were the victims of outright fraud.  When it comes to fraud, anyone can be duped.  White concepts of land ownership and the legality of documents differed from Native viewpoints, often leading to confusion about what was being asked, or signed away.

One of the most egregious versions of this was the Walking Purchase of 1737.  William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, had always treated the Native fairly.  As a Quaker, his word was his bond and they trusted it.  So much so that sources differ as to whether Penn actually signed any treaties, at all, since none survived.  However, Penn's sons, particularly Thomas Penn, were of a different caliber.  Pennsylvania was a proprietary colony, owned by the Penn family.  Colonization was business and businesses needed money, resources and customers in the form of settlers.  Thomas was willing to do whatever it took to have land available for more Settlers to farm, even if it meant duping the Natives. 

He approached Lappawinsoe with documents purported to be signed by William Penn, granting the Penn family possession of all the land a man could walk in a day.  Lappawinsoe believed the documents to be genuine and was wiling to accommodate the son of William Penn.  He also knew how far most men could walk in a day, and it wasn't very far.  What he didn't know was that Thomas intended to make the walk a footrace.  The three fasted runners in the colony ran as far as they could for a day and a half.  This allowed the Penns to claim far more Lenape land than Lappawinsoe had bargained.  Faced with Penn's demand, the elderly chief was indignant.  "The white runners should have walked along by the Delaware River or the Next Indian path to it," he exclaimed.  "They should've walked for a few miles, then sat down and smoked a pipe or now and then have shot a squirrel and not kept up the run, run all day!" 

Nevertheless a bargain was a bargain and Lappawinsoe and his people were forced to move further west, eventually making their home in the Ohio Valley. 

Extinct Tribe: the Tutelo

When English settlers arrived in Virginia permanently in 1607, they found dozens of Native tribes.  Many were Algonquian-speaking.  However some, such as the Tutelo, were Siouan-speakers.  Tutelo, also known as Totero, among other variants, is an Iroquoian word, echoing an Algonquian name for this people, who lived in Virginia on what is now known as the Big Sandy River.  They were living there when Settlers first encountered them.  During the Beaver Wars, the Iroquois took over the Ohio Valley as their hunting range, putting pressure on other tribes.  The Tutelo joined with the Saponi and moved to the Virginia/North Carolina border area.  By 1701, they had moved as far south as the Yadkin River in North Carolina.

Early descriptions of the Tutelo indicate that their name for themselves was Yesan.  They lived in single family wigwam type structures and supplemented their hunting with agriculture.  As disease, warfare and economic disruption took their toll, the Tutelo merged with other Siouan-speaking tribes in the area.  Beginning in the 1730's, remnants of the Tutelo, Saponi and Ocaneechi tribes, among others, moved to Pennsylvania and sought the protection of Oneida leader Shkellamy.  Eventually, they were formally adopted by the Tuscarora tribe in 1753 and settled in a village near Ithaca, New York.  They stayed there until displaced along with their Iroquois protectors by the Sullivan-Clinton Expedition in 1778-79.  They fled with the Iroquois to Grand River, and continued living among the Tuscarora.  Eventually, descendants intermarried with the Tuscarora and lost their identity as a separate tribe.  The last Tutelo speaker died in 1870. 

Captivity Narrative: Elizabeth Hansen

Captivity narratives often went from being fact to fiction by the time generations of editors got through with them.  Elizabeth Hansen's story of her few months with the Abenaki during Father Rale's/Dummer's War in 1725, was a case in point.

Elizabeth Meador was born in New Hampshire, and married John Hansen when she was 19 years old.  The couple had seven children.  Though Quakers in New England weren't actively persecuted, as they had been in decades past, they still weren't popular.  In 1724, when the conflict known in Canada as Father Rale's War, and in America as Dummer's War broke out, the family were living near Dover, New Hampshire.  Being Quakers, they were pacifists and refused refuge with the local garrison, believing that the Natives would respect their pacifist beliefs.  In August, 1724, an Abenaki war party captured Elizabeth, a maidservant, and four of her children, Sarah, Little Elizabeth, Daniel, Caleb, Eleazar, and Elizabeth's two-week old baby.  Two of the boys, Caleb and Eleazar, were killed along the trail, two young to keep up and stay quiet on the march.  Elizabeth, Sarah and the maidservant kept the baby alive as best they could. 

They arrived at an Abenaki village in Canada, where a Native woman showed Elizabeth how to make a nut milk that supplemented her nursing and kept her baby alive.  The maidservant, Sarah and Little Elizabeth were soon separated from Elizabeth, Daniel and the baby.  French forces soon raided the village and detained the captives.  A French family took in Elizabeth, her baby and Daniel.  Elizabeth was ill at this time.  The couple had the baby baptized Catholic and gave her the name Mary Ann.  Finally, in 1725, John Hansen was able to locate his family in Port Royal, Nova Scotia.  He managed to arrange the ransom for both the French couple and the Natives for all of his family, except his eldest daughter Sarah.  She, despairing of rescue, had chosen her own way out.  Old enough to marry, she married a French settler, thus freeing herself from the Abenaki and the French couple who had control of her mother and siblings.  Given the choice, she elected to stay with her new husband.  John took Elizabeth, Little Elizabeth, Mary Ann and Daniel back to Dover, but wasn't ready to give up on Sarah.  He returned to Canada to convince her to come home, but died at Crown Point, New York.

Elizabeth, now a widow, had to put the remains of her life back together as best she could.  Following in Mary Rowlandson and Hannah Dustin's footsteps, she published a narrative of her captivity, God's Mercy Surmounting Man's Cruelty.   The title gives everything away.  Like most narratives written about women in captivity to Natives, the work was heavily edited by a male editor, who took the opportunity to insert Quaker propaganda.  Only God's help and Elizabeth's own faith and strength of character had enabled her to survive.  Where the Natives were kind, such as the woman who helped her with the nut milk, or another woman who intervened when a warrior had wanted to kill Elizabeth, it was only God's providence, not the humanity of the Natives in question, that saved the day.  The book became a popular specimen of the captivity narrative genre, going through several printings, each with embellished details to harp on the cruelty of the Natives and the luck of Elizabeth's survival. 

  

Trading: American Fur Company

Fur traders in the 18th and 19th century, as well as the scouts, guides, trappers and Native hunters who worked for them, had a ready demand for their furs.  Europe had been the primary consumer of North American fur, primarily beaver pelts and later deerskin hides.  Trading companies like the Hudson's Bay Company, the North West Company and smaller firms such as Panton & Leslie held the lion's share of the fur trade.  However, these were British firms and as Britain continued to stifle American trade with Europe in the windup to the War of 1812, Americans found their own firms and looked to other markets.  China became a viable customer for American furs, beaver and later buffalo robes.  An enterprising German immigrant named John Jacob Astor seized on this opportunity and created the American Fur Company in 1808.

The American Fur Company worked in a similar way as Hudson's and other similar firms.  Cheaply manufactured trade goods would be made available at trading posts.  Natives could bring pelts to trade, or itinerant trappers, working in the wilderness for months at a time, could bring the furs to trading posts or to yearly gatherings known as rendezvous and trade for money, liquor and supplies.  Astor's company established its first factories, as trading posts were known then, connected to more distant trading posts out west.  With the support of then-President Thomas Jefferson and other leaders such as the Mayor of New York, furs transitioned from posts as far as the Pacific ocean, to eastern American ports and were on their way to China, all on ships owned by Astor.  Once in China, the furs could be traded for luxury goods such as tea and porcelain, bypassing embargoes by Britain and Napoleonic France alike. 

Astor's company left an indelible mark on the American landscape.  Much of the eastern fur trade, particularly along the Great Lakes, was still controlled by Hudson's Bay and the American Fur Company found stiff competition from them and from lucrative independents, such as Manuel Lisa's trading company.  However, further and further west, AFC and its affiliates were able to make inroads into Hudson's profits, shaping the American west as they did so.  Towns such as Fort Laramie, Wyoming, Fort Benton, Montana and Astoria, Oregon began as AFC trading posts.  Mountain men wo worked for the company later traded on the skills as guides and scouts for military exploration of the American west, as well as interpreters for the various Native tribes.   All good things had to come to end.  As silk, cotton and other textiles replaced fur, the demand died out.  Astor withdrew his investment in 1834 and continued investing in real estate, becoming one of the wealthiest men in America.  The AFC gradually broke up.  By 1847, it was defunct and no longer operating. 

Today's entry also appears in https://greatwarriorsII.blogspot.com, covering Native tribes, leaders and warriors west of the Mississippi.

Places: the Richardville House, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Not all Native tribes used tipis.  Natives lived in a variety of homes including longhouses, wigwams, chickees and even cabins.  Some tribal leaders built homes that were the equal of those of their White neighbors.  While most of these homes reflected the individual's status as a prosperous trader or planter, others were 'treaty homes'.  I.e., part of the funding for the home came from kickbacks received for signing away tribal land to the United States government.  Today, that would likely be considered a form of unethical self-dealing.  However, different eras often have a different take on what constitutes ethics, so the individual reader will have to judge.

Jean-Baptiste Richardville of the Miami came from a prominent Native family.  He was the son of Tacumwah, sister of the Miami leader Pacanne, and a Canadian fur trapper Joseph Drouet de Richerville.  The Richerville name was Anglicized to Richardville.  Jean-Baptiste inherited wealth from both sides of his family.  Tacumwah's family had control of a portage connecting the Little River with the Maumee River.  She also took over her husband's trading business when he decided to return to Canada.  Tacumwah built a successful business, which she eventually turned over to her son.  In addition to profits as a trader, Jean-Baptiste dealt in real estate and made another fortune there.  He inherited his uncle's position within the Miami tribe and did sign a number of treaties ceding land to the United States.  However, he used the land and subsidies he received to settle as many Miami families as he could, to prevent them from facing removal.  The revenues from his own businesses as well as U.S. subsidies went into the building of his home in Fort Wayne, a combination of two popular styles of the period, Federal and Greek Revival. 

The Fort Wayne County Historical Society acquired the home in 1991, restored it and opens it to the public for tours.  Richardville had another home near Huntington, Indiana.  That home is also a historic site, as part of the Forks of the Wabash State Park.

Place Names: Mississippi (River and State)

When European settlers arrived in North America, they freely borrowed Native place names for rivers, mountains and other points of geography.  One of the anchors of the North American continent is the Mississippi River and its network of tributaries.  The modern form of the name, Mississippi, comes from the French Messippi, which is a corruption of the Ojibwe words Misi-ziibe, or Great River.  Unlike Europeans, who tended to keep a consistent name for a river throughout its course, Natives used different descriptive terms to denote which part of a river was under reference.

Lake Itasca, the beginning of the Mississippi, was known as Elk Lake to the Ojibwe, who called the river flowing out of it, Elk River.  Where the River joined Lake Bemidji, it was known as the River from the Traversing Lake.  Further downstream, flowing into Lake Cass, it became the Red Cedar River.  Then the River flowed of Lake Winnibigoshish and became known as the Wretched Dirty Water River.  Things improved a bit when the Mississippi joined the Leech Lake River, becoming known as Gichi-ziibe or Big River, then when the Mississippi met the Crow Wing River, it became the Misi-ziibe or Great River.  During the earliest days of European settlement, the portion of the River known as the Messippi was that portion above the Crow Wing River.  The name eventually applied the entire length of the River.  Incidentally, the Cheyenne knew the river as Greasy River.  The Sioux, one of the local tribes who lived along the river, stuck with their own name, the Great River.  Other sources state that Natives called the River the Father of Waters, and generally give this term an Algonquian definition.  However, with dozens of tribes living along the Mississippi, and many of the Algonquian-speaking peoples, no one tribe has been credited with this name.

But European explorers had to add their two cents.  Hernando de Soto favored Rio del Espiritu Santo, or River of the Holy Spirit.  Later Spanish knew the River as Rio Florida, because it flowed through the then-province of West Florida.  Early French explorers called the River, Malabouchi, explaining that Messippi meant Father of Waters, but without giving the exact derivation.  Other French explorers, priests Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet, favored Immaculate Conception River.  The Choctaw and Chickasaw referred to it as the River Without Age.  Robert Cavalier, Sieur de LaSalle, wanted to name it the Colbert River, after one of the ministers of King Louis XIV.   In addition to the French corruption of Messippi, the river was also designated Riviere St. Louis, after Louis IX, the Patron Saint of Louisiana.    In American parlance, the Mississippi is Old Man River, Big Muddy, Old Blue, the Gathering of Waters, or Mighty Mississippi.  The state takes its name from the River.

Ally: Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil, 1702-1765

European settlers hadn't been in North America long before they realized that survival required different skills at hunting, and most of all fighting.  Guerrilla-type tactics had been known since the days of Roman general Fabius, but Native warriors perfected the arts of marksmanship, ambush, and hit-and-run raiding.  Local militias, be they French, Dutch or English, soon picked up these skills and used them, both against Natives and against other colonial powers.  Some of these men became household names.  Acadiens and Cajuns alike still remember Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil, 1702-1765, a guerrilla leader who led Acadien and Native resistance fighters against the British in Nova Scotia in the 18th century.

Joseph Broussard was born in what is now Port-Royal, Nova Scotia.  He lived in present-day Stoney Creek, New Brunswick, along with his wife Agnes and their 11 children.  How he picked up the alias Beausoleil (Beautiful Sun) isn't clear today.  Broussard would most likely have been a unknown Acadien farmer had he not participated in Father Rale's War, when he participated with other Acadien militia in a raid on Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia in 1724.  The French lost Nova Scotia, including the area of Acadia, what is now roughly Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, parts of Quebec and Maine.  At first, the British were tolerant of the local French Catholic population and the Native Mi'kmaq and other tribes.  However, as more settlers poured into the area, frictions mounted.  Following King George's War, 1740-1744, the British began to fortify Nova Scotia, and to demand that the Natives cede land and that the Acadiens swear loyalty to Britain and give up Catholicism.  This was too much to ask for men such as Father Jean-Louis Le Loutre and Joseph Broussard.  His leadership skills allowed him to rise in the local militia to captain. 

The French hadn't lost all their possessions in New France and provided advice and armament to the Acadien resistance but, for the most part, they were on their own, battling one of the most powerful armies on earth at the time.  In 1747, Broussard led a force of Acadiens and Mi'kmaq at the Battle of Grand Pre.  During Father Le Loutre's War, 1749-1754, Broussard led raids composed of both Acadiens and Mi'kmaq against Annapolis, Port Royal, Dartmouth and other towns in Nova Scotia.  The British were forced to abandon their settlements and withdraw to Halifax.  The French government provided knives for the Natives and Acadiens, but the shipment was intercepted on June 8, 1755.  Father Le Loutre was imprisoned, leaving Broussard to lead the Acadien resistance on his own.

Resistance had become imperative, as the British were now demanding and forcing Acadien families to leave their homes.  Acadien farms and settlements were burned out, and the inhabitants placed on ships bound for France or Santo Domingo, now Haiti.  Broussard and his Acadiens, including Mi'kmaq, fought as partisans on the side of the French during the French and Indian War (1755-1762).  At times, his men often made raids on ships, daring the might of the British Navy.  But the British caught up to Beausoleil in 1762.  He was captured and imprisoned, later sent to Haiti with other Acadiens.  Acadiens in Haiti soon found that the climate was unlike that they had known in Acadie, and they weren't welcomed by the local French population, which depended on slave labor and not free farmers for their workforce.  In 1765, Beausoleil was allowed to leave Haiti with 200 other Acadiens, including some members of his own family.  They settled in what is now St. Martinville, Louisiana.  Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil died soon after arriving in Louisiana.  His burial place is unknown.

But his name lives on.  Families in Nova Scotia and Louisiana claim descent from Joseph Broussard, including the family of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter.  A popular Cajun band, BeauSoleil, is named for him. 

Survivors: the Tunica of Louisiana

Despite warfare, disease and pressure to migrate from European settlers and other tribes, some peoples managed to hang on to the cultural identity.  The Tunica of the central Mississippi Valley are one group of hardy survivors.

The ancestors of the Tunica were part of the Mississippian Culture, an advanced pre-Contact culture dependent on maize cultivation.  As that Civilization began to fragment into smaller tribes, the Spanish landed in Florida under Hernando de Soto beginning in 1539.  He traveled throughout the area of what is now the southeastern states.  One of the tribes he encountered in the Mississippi Valley was the Tunica in 1541.  They were dwelling on the Yazoo River in 1699, when French explorers encountered them.  The French established a mission among the Tunica, many of whom still clung to Mississippian religious practices including buildings designated as temples, a priest caste and ritual objects.  They also traded in salt, a valuable commodity to both Natives and Settlers alike. 

Beginning in the 18th century, the Chickasaw raided extensively in Tunica territory for slaves.  The Chickasaw were trading allies of the British, which put them at odds with tribes preferring to deal with the French.  To avoid the Chickasaw, the Tunica moved to what is now Angola, Louisiana.  Beginning in 1729, the French and Natchez became embroiled in a series of wars, brought on by French incursion onto Natchez land and taking Natchez people as slaves.  The Natchez were defeated in these wars and sought refuge with the Tunica.  Some of the Natchez survivors, with Chickasaw and infiltrators from other tribes, attempted to take advantage of the Tunica hospitality and ambush the Tunica from within their own camp.  The Tunica fought back and kept control of their territory.  After this episode, they moved to Trudeau Landing in what is now West Feliciana parish, and continued trading with various tribes and Settlers alike.  They also raised horses, which the French found convenient to purchase from the Tunica rather than import.

The relationship between the Tunica and French ended in 1760, when the French ceded control of Louisiana to the Spanish.  In time, remnants of other tribes mingled and intermarried with the Tunica, such as the Siouan-speaking Biloxi.  Despite British incursion into Louisiana from West Florida, the Tunica remained allied to the Spanish.  In 1779, Tunica auxiliaries were part of a force under Governor Bernardo de Galvez to attack a British outpost at Baton Rouge.  After the Revolutionary War, influx of American settlers forced the Tunica to move again, to Avoyelles Parish, where they were granted land by the Spanish.  There, an Italian immigrant by the name of Marco Litche established a trading post that developed into a town, Marksville.  The Tunica and allied tribes such as the Biloxi settled into a peaceful farming existence.  They were not explicitly subjected to Indian Removal but White neighbors continued to harass members of the tribe and steal their land.  Some removed to Oklahoma and Texas, while others tried to remain in Louisiana and make the best of a bad situation.

In the midst of mounting prejudice, the Tunica and other remnant tribes drew together as a people, continuing to elect their chiefs and participate in their ancient ceremonies in secret, so as not to draw attention to themselves.  The modern Tunica-Biloxi tribe remains headquartered in Louisiana, although the languages of both are now extinct.  Their tribe includes Ofo, Avoyelle and some Choctaw, with a reservation centered on Marksville, Louisiana.