Tellico Blockhouse and the Treaties of Tellico

Blockhouses on the frontier served several purposes, including defense for local Settlers.  They were also centers of trade and could be meeting places for treaty parleys with local tribes.  Tellico Blockhouse, on the Little Tennessee River in what is now Monroe County, Tennessee served as the focal point for four treaties with the Cherokee.  The blockhouse was named for one of the principal Overhill Cherokee towns, Great Tellico.

The period of 1775-1794 saw continual skirmishing between the Cherokee, particularly the Overhill Cherokee and White Settlers who were coming into the Tennessee Valley.  Cherokee leader Hanging Maw opened talks with North Carolina Governor William Blount, who had control over what is now Tennessee, to build a blockhouse and fort in the area and appoint an agent to treat with the Cherokee.  Hanging Maw donated the land and construction began in 1794.  In 1795, Congress passed what was known as the factory act, formalizing relations with Native tribes through what they called factories, what we now know as agencies or trading posts.  Each factory was headed by an Indian Agent, or factor in the language of the time, whose job it was to serve as a liaison with the local tribe. 

The Blockhouse was surrounded by a palisade and quickly became the focal point for the surrounding community, both Natives and Settlers.  It even made the itinerary for foreign visitors, such as Louis-Philippe, Duc of Orleans and future King of France, who was one of many royal dignitaries to visit the frontier.  The fort remained in operation until 1807, when it was abandoned.  Modern archaeologists have uncovered the fort site and even artifacts from the people who lived and passed through it.  An outline of stones gives the blockhouse and palisade dimensions and layout.  Tellico Blockhouse is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The four treaties concluded at Tellico Blockhouse included:

Treat of 1794, which brought an end to the Cherokee-American Wars.  Hanging Maw represented the Overhill Cherokee and John Watts was the signatory for the Chickamauga Cherokee.

First Treaty of Tellico of 1797, dealt with the problem of forcing squatters from Cherokee lands.  The Cherokee agreed to a cession of land in exchange for financial compensation. 

Second Treaty of Tellico of 1804, the Cherokee ceded land in Northern Georgia in return for financial compensation.

The Third and four Treaties of Tellico, signed on October 25 and October 27, 1805, acquired the area between the Cumberland and Duck Rivers.  The Cherokee leaders who signed were later accused of having done so for personal financial gain. 

Friday Reprise: Major John Norton (Snipe)

He was recognized at the time as one of the best Native war leaders of the War of 1812, ranking just behind Tecumseh.  But his life and contributions to the British war effort in Canada have long been overshadowed by the Shawnee leader.  Perhaps for this reason, or for others that we'll get to later, Major John Norton has never received his due in a scholarly or popular biography.  Research by a trained expert would certainly help the amateur historians and Norton fans, because John's life was an enigma, wrapped in riddle and surrounded by mystery and clouded with misinformation.

According to a video put out by the Canadian Bible Society, John's father was a Cherokee baby rescued by a kindly Scottish officer during a raid on the Cherokee village of Keowee (near present-day Clemson, South Carolina) in 1760.  Then, ten years later, John Norton himself was baptized at the Kirk in Dunfermline, Scotland, the son of this Cherokee and a Scottish woman with the last name of Anderson.  Nobody stopped to figure the unlikelihood of a ten-year-old fathering a child.  I wrote to the Canadian Bible Society for clarification, but got no answer.  In his Journal, written years later, and in other reminiscences written by people who knew and met him, John Norton is described as a full-blooded Cherokee.  He believed himself to be full-blooded Cherokee, although he would surely have known he was mixed-race. 

My idea, and my idea only, is that John himself was the baby rescued in 1760, the son of a Cherokee parent and a Scottish parent.  Many Scots did immigrate to North Carolina following the failure of the Jacobite Rising in 1745, so there were plenty of opportunities for a Cherokee man and a Scottish or mixed-race Scottish woman to meet by 1759-60.  The soldier who rescued the child was also named John Norton, and he may have bestowed this name on both John and his Cherokee father, which makes the matter all the more confusing.  At some point before he was ten years old, the soldier, John and either or both of his parents travel back to Dunfermline, Scotland, where young John would have been taken for baptism and registry in the Kirk at around 10 years old.  Young John remained in Scotland, was educated, and may have apprenticed to a printer, but around 1784 decided to join the army instead.  He was initially based in Scotland, than Ireland, and finally came to Niagara, in what was then called Upper Canada, where the British still maintained some bases on the frontier even though the Treaty of Paris required them to withdraw from the former Colonies as well as the Ohio River Valley.  While there, he became fascinated with the culture of the Six Nations and got to know Joseph Brant.  In 1788, John was discharged from the army and adopted into the Mohawk tribe as Brant's nephew.  His personal name would have been Snipe, we'll get to his more commonly-known Native name later.

John traveled to Quinte Bay, Ontario and tried teaching school.  That lasted about a year.  He worked for several years in a trading post owned by another Mohawk leader, John Desoronto.  Throughout his ramblings in the region, he continued his studies of the various Iroquois dialects and cultures.  Eventually, he would be described as able to speak almost a dozen Native dialects, as well as English, French and German.  He would later pick up Spanish.  If this seems unlikely today, it's because we don't live on a frontier where being able to pick up the rudiments of a language quickly is a means of survival.  As a trading post employee, and later a translator for the British Indian Department, he would have needed to constantly hone his skill at languages, both Native and the major European languages spoken by immigrants in the area. 

John's work kept him in contact with his adopted uncle, Joseph Brant, who noticed the younger man's leadership and negotiating ability.  At some point, Brant proposed making Norton an Iroquois Pine Tree Chief.  These non-hereditary specialized chiefs were specifically called for the in the Iroquois Constitution as a way to honor and make use of men with specialized skills who could aid the tribes in dealing with urgent issues.  Upon his investiture, Norton was given the name Teyoninhokawrawen, which means Open Door, or Open the Door.  I've seen speculation that this refers to his possible role as guardian of the Council House door, but both Norton and an earlier chief who held the title were also noted warriors and diplomats.  War chiefs of the Iroquois, such as the Seneca Red Jacket and even Brant himself, often undertook diplomatic missions on behalf of their people.  John himself was sent by Brant to England in 1804 and, while there, his life took another strange turn.

Like Brant, Norton was a deeply religious man who took a keen interest in the work of the various Anglican missionaries on Mohawk land.  Since some of these missionaries did not speak the Iroquois languages, he and Brant often acted as interpreter for Sunday sermons and the like.  With his ability at languages and interest in religion, while he was in London in 1804, he met with the founders of the British and Foreign Bible Society.   He was asked to translate a book of the Bible into Mohawk and he chose the Gospel of John.  After several months of working hours at a time on the translation, he completed his work and the Gospel was published by the Bible Society.  When Norton returned to Canada to report on the results of his mission to Brant, he carried several copies of the Mohawk Gospel of John with him.  Unfortunately, by the time he arrived home, Brant's health was failing and John's efforts to distribute the Mohawk translation fell by the wayside to other urgent matters. 

The British Indian Department was trying to take a firmer hand in affairs on the Six Nations and other reserves.  Their distrust focused on one leader who seemed to resent that, their former employee John Norton.  There were several reasons for this.  Whites who did not understand Native culture did not believe that Norton was a bona fide adopted Mohawk or duly-appointed chief.  Nor did they buy his claim of being part Cherokee.  Higher ups at the Indian Department felt that Norton was an imposter and a nuisance who needed to be shown his place.  Discouraged and fed up, John traveled to Cherokee country, trying to find his father's family.  He did find relatives and a family tree written as a preface to a 20th century publication of his journal places him in a kinship group that included Cherokee Leader John Watts, and thus by extension, Sequoyah, Dragging Canoe and Nancy Ward.  He found his father's grave and the remains of his village, then returned to Canada in 1810, meaning to publish the journal.  On the way back to Canada, he traveled through Shawnee country, meeting Tecumseh and Tenskwata. 

Tecumseh's revolt began in 1811, putting any publication plans on hold.  The War of 1812 further pushed any thoughts of Bible translating or diplomacy to the back burning.  Norton led Six Nations warriors during several battles, including Queenstown Heights, Lundy's Lane, Stoney Creek, and Beaver Dams.  During Queenstown Heights, when the death of General Sir Isaac Brock disorganized the British advance, Norton coordinated attacks of his warriors, demoralizing the Americans who were terrified of the Natives.  This allowed the new commander time to organize his men and launch a crushing counter-attack.  General Sheaffe later praised the 'judicious dispostions' Norton had undertaken to put his men where they were needed the most.  He also led a force of warriors during Tecumseh's defeat at the Battle of the Thames in 1813.  Norton remained almost constantly in the field as a war leader, but did take time off in 1813, as well, to marry a young Lenape woman who had been baptized with the Christian name of Catherine.  He'd had a son, John, Jr., by a previous relationship.  With the conclusion of the War of 1812, he had earned the brevet rank of Major.

In 1816, Norton took his young son and new wife to England for another diplomatic mission on behalf of the Six Nations.  While he conducted business in London, his son John, Jr., went to Dunfermline to be educated.  Catherine also received tutoring and lessons in deportment as befitted a lady.  They later returned to Canada, where Norton had an estate near where the town of Caledonia now stands.  He tried the life of a farmer, but couldn't make his farm successful, sinking deeper into debt.  Catherine developed a relationship with the farm overseer, a young Native man who had served under her husband in several battles.  Hurt and humiliated, Norton challenged the man to a duel and killed him.  He was charged with murder and convicted of manslaughter, forced to pay the stiff fine of 25 pounds.  After talking matters over with his son John, Norton decided that the most dignified course was to leave Ontario for awhile and let things settle down. 

He went back to Cherokee Country, accompanied by his son and some Cherokee friends who wanted to return to their own country.  John, Jr., soon returned to Canada, but without his father, who indicated that he would be returning later.  A friend also claimed to receive a letter from Norton in 1826, stating his intent to return to Grand River.  But he never came back.  A relative seeking to claim his estate said that he could prove that Norton died in Laredo, then Mexico in 1831, but the case never came to court.  John, Jr., did not claim his father's land and left the Reserve.  Norton's estate was finally auctioned in 1848.  No one knows why Norton went to Mexico, why he failed to return home, how he died, or where he is buried.  A window in the Mohawk Chapel commemorates his translation of the Gospel of John.  The picture of him in red, with the battle axe, hangs in Syon House, the London home of the Dukes of Northumberland.  A full length portrait of him in the blue outfit also hangs in Syon House, but there are no other monuments to him.  He died as mysteriously as he had lived.

Later: I've posted the Canadian Bible Society video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPeVgrmey4U

Great Leader: Gray Lock of the Western Abenaki

American fascination with celebrity has taken unique turns throughout our history.  One example of this is/was the tendency is a fascination with Native opponents in various "Indian Wars".  The first of many such would be Gray Lock/Wawanolet, a Western Abenaki leader during a conflict known as Dummer's War, sometimes known as Father Rale's War, 1722-1725.

The tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy, including the Abenaki, Mikmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot, lived in what is now Nova Scotia and portions of New England, including Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont.  At that time, Massachusetts controlled what would later become Maine and Vermont.  The Wabanaki tribes, like many Algonquian-speaking people, allied with the French.  Iroquoian-speaking peoples tended to ally with the English and the various tribes came into repeated conflict in the 17th century over the beaver trade.  As more and more English settlers infiltrated what is now New England and portions of Nova Scotia, they came into increasing conflict with Natives.  The tribes had been missionized by French priests, who often served as liaisons with the government of New France, providing weapons, advice and tacit support. 

During this conflict, Wawanolet emerged as a leader, known to the English by their name for him, Gray Lock.  How or why he got this name remains unknown.  His Native name refers to one who puts others off his track.  He made his presence known in Massachusetts through a series of raids, including settlements at Northfield and Rutland, killing some Settlers and taking others captive.  To combat the threat, Massachusetts authorities erected a fort near what is now Brattleboro, Vermont named Fort Dummer, after the then-acting governor of Massachusetts.  In 1724, Gray Lock struck settlements at Deerfield, Northampton and Westfield.  Captain Benjamin Wright set out with a company of militia, but quickly realized he faced a more powerful opponent and withdrew, Gray Lock's warriors tracking him every step of the way. 

The Abenaki made peace in 1725, but Gray Lock refused to be part of the treaty parley.  For the next two decades, Settlers in Massachusetts would learn of his continued existence through his lightening raids.  He died around 1750.  Mount Greylock in western Massachusetts was named for him.  A monument to him stands in Battery Park, Burlington, Vermont. 

People of the Beautiful River: the Maliseet

This Algonquian-speaking tribe were part of the Wabanaki Confederacy along with the Abenaki, Mikmaq, Penobscot and Passamaquoddy.  Their home range was the St. John River Valley in what is now New Brunswick and Canada and portions of Maine.  Their name for the river, Wolastoq means, Beautiful River, and the tribe's name for themselves, Wolastogiyik means People of the Beautiful River.  The more common name, Maliseet, was a reference by the Mikmaq, which referred to People Who Speak Differently, the two tribes speaking different forms of Algonquian dialect.

Like other Algonquian tribes, the Maliseet practiced agriculture supplemented by hunting and gathering.  They established trading relations with the French for beaver furs, and many Maliseet people learned to speak French and converted to Christianity.  Disease took its toll on the Maliseet, and the various colonial and trade wars were also destructive.  However, as beaver supplies dwindled, the Maliseet turned their attention more and more to farming.  By doing so, they were able to retain much of their traditional homeland.  The Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians was one of the first tribes to sign a treaty with the new United States government and is today a federally recognized tribe.

Friday Reprise: Koquethagechton/White Eyes of the Lenape/Delaware

Native American leaders tried a variety of strategies to cope with the influx of White Settlers onto their hunting ranges.  While some preferred all-out resistance, others tried to negotiate and work with the inevitable as best the could.  Even then, the results were almost always tragic.  White Eyes' story is a case in point. 

Koquethagechton was born somewhere in Pennsylvania (c 1730-1778), and his clan heritage marked him out as a man in a position for leadership.  He received his warrior's training and later married a young woman, Rachel Doddridge, who'd been captured from her Settler family as a little girl and assimilated into the tribe.  They had one son, whom they named after a personal friend of the family.   White Eyes first came to the attention of British authorities as a messenger during the French and Indian War.  Settlers and Colonial authorities referred to him by a variety of names, including William or Captain Grey Eyes.  Most likely, the names referred to some feature of his eyes that stood out as different from other Natives, but is not recorded now.  Despite the fact that he did not speak English well, he was singled out by Colonial authorities as being useful for facilitating interaction between Whites and Natives, a role he seemed willing to play. 

By 1773, he had risen to prominence among his people as speaker of the Delaware Head Council.  By that time, he had migrated from his birthplace in Pennsylvania to the Muskingum River Valley in Ohio.  There, many Delaware came under the influence of the Moravian missionaries and turned to Christianity.  White Eyes chose to retain his traditional beliefs, but tried to make sure that Christian Delaware remained part of the larger Lenape community.  He established his own town, called White Eyes' Town, near where Coshocton, Ohio is today.  In 1774, the Lenape Grand Council named him Principal Chief of their Nation.  White Eyes' first attempts at negotiations failed, as he was unable to persuade the Shawnee not to escalate the conflict that became Lord Dunmore's War.  However, he served as an intermediary between the Virginians and the warring tribes and helped negotiate the Treaty of Camp Charlotte, October, 1774, which ended that War. 

White Eyes' ultimate aim was a separate Lenape state in the Ohio Valley where his people could live without fear of encroachment on their lands.  He was willing to talk to British colonial officials in hopes of making that a reality, but the Revolution intervened.  He opened negotiations with the Americans and, in 1776, personally visited and spoke to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, requesting a separate homeland for his people.  In 1778, representatives of the United States and the Lenape signed the Treaty of Fort Pitt, which promised, among other things, a separate Lenape State.  American negotiators took the treaty back to Philadelphia, where it was never presented to Congress for action.  The treaty also provided that the Lenape would act as guides to American forces trying to dislodge the British from the Ohio Valley.

In early November, 1778, White Eyes joined an expedition led by American General Lachlan McIntosh as a guide and negotiator.  He died soon after and the Americans reported his death to his people as smallpox.  Only years later did White Eyes' friend, United States Indian Agent George Morgan, write a letter to Congress requesting a pension for White Eyes' widow and child.  In that letter, he claimed that White Eyes had been killed by an American militiaman.  The assassination was covered up at the time to avoid alienating the Lenape and inflaming other tribes in the frontier.   White Eyes' widow, Rachel, who had assimilated to her husband's people, was also murdered by White Militia in 1788.  George Morgan took their son in and raised him as his own child.  He was successful in securing for White Eyes' son a scholarship to the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), all expenses paid by the Continental Congress.  Unfortunately, the young man died in 1798. 

Artist: Pauline Johnson of the Mohawk, 1861-1913

Education for women was becoming more accepted in the 19th century, but a woman who was a published poet and novelist was still rare.  Even rarer still were Native women who wrote for publication.  Pauline Johnson, 1861-1913 a mixed-race Mohawk woman of the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada, beat these odds.

A word on her ancestry, because there are a great many myths and misconceptions.  The Mohawk traditional home range was New York.  In the 18th century, Anglo-Irish Indian Agent Sir William Johnson was well-known to the Mohawk and lived with a Mohawk woman, Mary (Molly) Brant, the sister of Mohawk war chief Joseph Brant.  The Mohawk had, for the most part, accepted and adopted to English customs, converting to Anglicanism and farming.  As was often customary, when a Mohawk person was baptized, he or she often took the name of a prominent White person.  Thus, in 1758, when Pauline Johnson's great-grandfather was baptized, he took or was given the name Jacob Johnson.  Jacob is a Bible name and Johnson honored Sir William.  However, Jacob was not, as is commonly asserted, a biological son or nephew of Sir William.  Jacob would go on to marry a Mohawk woman.  Their son, John Smoke Johnson, was a veteran of the War of 1812 and later made a Pine Tree Chief.  He was not a hereditary sachem, but was chosen as a chief because of his abilities in war, as well as his ability to work with Whites.

John Smoke Johnson married a woman of the Wolf Clan who carried the authority to chose one of the hereditary sachems of the Mohawk Nation.  Their son, George, was thus a Wolf Clan Sachem.  Like his father, George had a flair for public speaking, diplomacy and languages.  He was a church translator and government interpreter.  He fell in love with Emily Howells, the sister-in-law of an Anglican missionary with whom he worked as a translator.  Emily's family opposed the match because George was Mohawk.  George's family opposed the match because Emily, being White, would carry no status within the tribe.  They felt that a sachem should marry a woman who could transmit her status and clan membership to her children.  George and Emily stuck to their guns and, in 1853, they were married.  By 1856, George built Chiefswood, a timber mansion house similar to what well-to-do White families would have lived in at the time.  The families eventually came around and accepted the marriage.

Emily Pauline Johnson was born at Chiefswood in 1861.  Her parents instilled in her respect for both the Anglo and Mohawk heritages.  Grandfather John Smoke was still alive and his stories fired young Pauline's imagination.  She would grow up understanding Mohawk but not speaking it well.  While other Native children were sent away to boarding schools, Emily insisted on teaching Pauline at home.  George had acquired a library and Pauline loved poetry, devouring Tennyson, Keats, Browning and Longfellow.  At the age of 14, Pauline went to Brantford Central Collegiate and graduated in 1877.  A well-to-do young woman of the time didn't work outside the home, so Pauline had plenty of opportunity to begin writing and acting in amateur theatricals.  She published her first work, "My Little Jean" in 1883.  Then, in 1884, her father died.  The family rented out Chiefswood and moved to a modest home in Brantford.  Pauline now had to make her acting and writing pay.

In 1885, she published "A Cry From an Indian Wife," basing it on an incident from the recent Riel Rebellion.  She would later travel to New York, and write a poem honoring Seneca leader Red Jacket.  Then, in 1886, she wrote a poem to commemorate the unveiling of the Joseph Brant Statue in Brantford.  By the 1890's, she was regularly publishing in periodicals in Canada.  She began giving readings of her poems, wearing Native dress to recite works dealing with Native history and legends, and also writing conventional poetry of the time.  This was an era of interest in all things Native, including the Wild West shows of the period, which were popular throughout North America and Europe.  Later in life, she moved to Vancouver, where some of her work dealt with the local Suquamish people.  She died in Vancouver of breast cancer in 1913.  She was cremated and her ashes buried near Siwash Rock in Stanley Park.  In 1922, a memorial cairn was erected at the site.

Scouts: the Black Seminoles, 1870-1914

Prior to the Civil War, members of the Five Southeastern Tribes, had owned black slaves.  Slaves, both from other tribes and from White masters, found a ready escape in Florida with the Seminoles.  While some Seminoles did own black slaves, for the most part they welcomed blacks to live among them and intermarry with Natives.  Mixed race Seminole leaders, such as John Horse, were trusted colleagues of Seminole leaders such as Osceola and Coacoochee, fighting for what they considered their homeland, too.  John Horse eventually agreed to lead his people to Oklahoma, under a promise that they would not be returned to slavery.  However, once in Oklahoma, White slave catchers began taking blacks and mixed race Natives back into slavery.  John Hors led his people from Oklahoma and down into Mexico to escape enslavement.  Many became scouts for the Mexican Army.

Following the Civil War, the U.S. government turned its attention to Texas, where tribes such as the Kiowa, Comanche and Kickapoo were fighting White encroachment on their homelands.  The trackless plains with their dust and heat were some of the most unforgiving country in North America.  In order to track bands of raiding warriors, the Army would have to turn to other Natives who, by now, had plenty of experience in the area doing just that for the Mexicans.  In 1870, the government invited John Horse and his people to return to the United States.  On July 4, 1870, 200 warriors with their families crossed the Rio Grande.  The men were mustered into the Army, while their families often settled near Army posts.

Because most of these people were either black or mixed race, they were often dispatched to work with the 9th and 10th Black Cavalry, the Buffalo Soldiers.  Like the cavalry, they were mounted and became proficient scouts and soldiers.  Four Seminole Scouts would receive citations for the Congressional Medal of Honor in skirmishes with the Comanche, Kickapoo and other Plains tribes, but it's unclear whether they actually received the medals to go with the citations.  In 1914, with the war in Europe claiming the government's attention, the Seminole Scouts were disbanded and they and their families forced to go to Indian Territory.  Most of them did.  However, some of their descendants still live in Texas and Mexico.