Treaty: Camp Charlotte, 1774

This Treaty was one of many which had to be made to clear up the ensuing confusion after the British victory in the Seven Years/French and Indian War (1755-1763).  The Ohio River Valley, including what is now Ohio and West Virginia, had been the hunting range of several tribes, including the Iroquois Confederacy, the Cherokee, Lenape, and Shawnee, among others.  In the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1768, the Iroquois had given up their rights to the Ohio Valley.  That left other tribes, such as the Delaware and Shawnee, who refused to give up their right to hunt in the area and to challenge settlers who tried to establish farms in the area in violation of the Royal Proclamation of 1763.

It wouldn't be long before matters came to a head.  In 1773, Daniel Boone led a party of settlers into the area.  Boone's group was attacked by a party of Cherokee, Delaware and Shawnee and Daniel's 16-year-old son James was killed.  Boone abandoned the effort and led the settlers back to Virginia.  However, this didn't stop others from trying to found settlements in the area.  In 1774, members of the family of Mingo Chief Logan were killed while staying at the cabin of a settler in what became known as the Yellow Creek Massacre.  Finally, in May, 1774, John Murray, 4th Lord Dunmore and Governor of Virginia, led a punitive expedition against the Shawnee, Mingo and Delaware.

Militia under Andrew Lewis met a combined war party of Shawnee and Mingos under Cornstalk, Pukeshinwa (father of Tecumseh) and Blue Jacket.   The Virginians prevailed in the Battle and Cornstalk in particular realized the need to make the best terms possible with the settlers.  Dunmore's larger force in what is now Pickaway County, Ohio.  Cornstalk led the council which negotiated with Dunmore to forfeit their hunting rights in the Ohio Valley.  Logan was invited to the Council but was still too angry and grief-stricken to want to participate.  He sent his remarks via a courier, possibly either James or Simon Girty, though their official participate isn't recorded.  The Shawnee agreed to cease hunting in the Ohio Valley, but the Mingos refused to agreed.  Captain William Crawford attacked several of their villages, forcing them to capitulate.  Crawford would rue this action less than 8 years later, when he became a captive of the Mingo leader Captain Pipe.  The Cherokee, particularly the Chickamauga under Dragging Canoe, also refused to recognize the Treaty and would continue their fight on the frontier in the Cherokee-American Wars (1775-1794).  They would be joined by Shawnee under Pukeshinwa's son, Chiksika, the older brother and mentor of Tecumseh.

A monument stands on the site of Camp Charlotte where the council and treaty parley were held.