Dawson, Moses
William H. Harrison:
p. 52.
vent illiberal reflections,' is to make every transaction tell for itself, by having the account and receipt to accompany the notice of the draft. This plan was probably well adapted to the situation of the western country at the time, as his drafts were an accommodation to persons in trade who had their remittances to make, and it saved to government the risk and expense of transmitting money from the seat of government westwardly, both of which, were very considerable. This plan we have reason to believe was invariable adhered to by the Governor, and thus he paid all the public engagements, except in one instance, where the secretary unadvisedly remitted to him, a sum of $1500 in specie; and although the treasury was thrown entirely open to him, this was the only sum for contingencies that ever passed through his hands.
About this time, the Governor found means to prevail upon the Indian chief called the Owl, to give up his enmity to the United States, and he with several of the chiefs who were attached to his party came to Vincennes about one month before the last treaty was signed, and made the most solemn protestations of his friendship to the United States. This was a very fortunate circumstance, as this man had it in his power to thwart or obstruct any of the designs of the government, relating to the Indians in that quarter.
The benevolent intentions of the government by the law interdicting the sale of spirits among the Indians, appeared not only to be frustrated, but the evil was considerably augmented. The law forbade the sale of spirits by the traders in the Indian country, but did not prevent or forbid our citizens to sell them spirits within the dominion of the United States. The law therefore operated in a way to make things worse instead of better. When the Indians found that the whiskey could not be procured from the traders, some of themselves became traders in the article, and they purchased it from the settlers within the dominion of the United States by wholesale, and retailed out to their people at home at the same price by the mouthful, which they had formerly paid to the traders by the quart. And the want of whiskey inducing a greater intercourse with the American citizens than formerly, the mischiefs arising from intoxication were greatly increased.
Under these circumstances, the Governor earnestly called upon the executive to endeavor to have the law repealed, or to make it highly penal for any one under any circumstance, to sell spirits to an Indian.
In order to give a contrast between the policy pursued by the American Government towards the Indians, and that of the government of Britain, we request the reader to revert to page 22, and when he has read the speech of Governor Harrison to the council at Vincennes, let him observe with attention the fol-
Dawson, Moses
William H. Harrison:
p. 60.
United States to protect the tribes in possession of their lands- the tribes not to sell any lands to any other sovereign power, or to individuals- all revenge for private injuries prohibited- offending Indians against citizens of the United States to be delivered up for punishment- American citizens to be punished for crimes committed against Indians- the chiefs to exert themselves to have property stolen from citizens restored; or, in case of not being restored, the value to be deducted from the annuity- stolen property from the Indians to be restored, or paid for by the United States- all intruders on the lands of the Indians to be removed on complaint being made to the superintendent of Indian affairs- the Sacks and Foxes to be allowed to hunt on the ceded lands so long as they continued in the possession of the United States- the Indians not to suffer unlicensed traders to reside among them, and that they should from time to time give notice of all such traders as may be in their country- that they should allow a fort to be built on the upper side of the Ouisconsing, or on the Mississippi, and grant a tract of two miles square for that purpose- that the United States should establish a factory, or trading house, where goods could be had at a more reasonable rate than from private traders- that the tribes should make peace with the Osages; and for the purpose of burying the tomahawk, and renewing a friendly intercourse with the Osages, a meeting of the respective chiefs should be held at St. Louis, under the direction of the superintendant, and peace established upon a firm and permanent basis- that a free and safe passage should be given to traders and others passing through the country, under the authority of the United States; and that for such passage there should be no toll or other exaction taken.
In an additional article it was provided,
That the treaty should not affect individual claims under Spanish grants, not included within the boundary lines laid down in the treaty, provided that such grant had been known to and recognized by the Indians; which boundary lines are thus described in the treaty: Beginning a point on the Missouri river, opposite the mouth of Gasconade river; thence in a direct course so as to strike the river Jeffreon, or, on the map, Jauflione, at the distance of 30 miles from its mouth; thence down the said Jeffreon to the Mississippi; thence up the Mississippi to the mouth of Ouisconsing river; and up the same to a point 36 miles in a direct line from its mouth; thence in a direct line to a point where the Fox river leaves the small lake Sakaegan; thence down the Fox river to the Illinois; and down that river to the Mississippi.
In the beginning of this year, 1805, some intriguers, among whom was the celebrated Little Turtle, found means to excite among the tribes of the Potawatamies, the Miamies, and Eel river
Dawson, Moses
William H. Harrison:
p. 61.
Indians, considerable discontent and dissatisfaction with the treaty entered into by the Governor with the Piankishaws and Delawares in the month of August 1804. The ground which was assumed for this discontent was, that the Piankishaws and Delawares had no right to convey away the lands without having the consent of the other tribes. But upon the most mature consideration of the circumstances of this case, it appears evident that the Delawares were fully entitled to the land, which they had ceded to the United States, both by present occupancy, and by a grant which had been made to them by the Piankishaws, (whose prior claim, as will hereafter appear, was valid) above thirty years before the cession was made to the United States.
When the French discovered the Wabash, the Piankishaws were found in possession of the land on either side of that river from its mouth to the Vermillion river, and no claim had ever been made to it by any other tribe from that time till the period of its cession by the Delawares to the United States; nor would any claim have been set up then, had the Turtle been consulted when the treaty was made; but his pride was hurt that he was not consulted upon the transaction, and that the treaty was concluded without his assistance or interference; and his disappointed ambition combined with the more interested motives of another person, served to raise a clamor among the tribes who had no legitimate claim to the lands whatsoever.
That the Piankishaws are a tribe of the large confederacy which obtained the general appellation of Miamies from the superior size of the particular tribe to which that name more properly belonged, was not denied. The tie, however, which had for many years united them to their brethren became so feeble that the connexion was scarcely acknowledged. For a considerable time antecedent to the treaty of Greenville, the Piankishaws found it necessary to adopt a different policy from that pursued by the tribes their allies. Three considerable bodies of men led into the heart of the country by general Clarke, between the years 1779 and 1786, convinced them that their union with the Miamies could not afford them that safety and protection which were the objects of that union. Several conferences were held between general Clarke and their chiefs, at which the Piankishaws solemnly promised to remain at peace with the United States. One of those conferences is preserved in Imlay's History of Kentucky, and in it no mention is made of the Miamies.
It had been reported to the government of the United States, by a certain agent of theirs, "that for twenty years anterior to that period, 1805, nothing of importance had been transacted by the Piankishaws and Kaskaskias, without the consent of the Miami chiefs." This assertion appears to have been unfounded, for a treaty was made at Vincennes in 1792 by general Putnam
Dawson, Moses
William H. Harrison:
p. 62.
with the Piankishaws and Weas, and peace established between those tribes and the United States. The Miamies were not parties to this treaty, and continued their hostilities against the United States until the treaty of Greenville. This circumstance could not be unknown to the person who asserted that they never had done any thing of importance without the consent of the Miamies, as he was present at the treaty made by Putnam, and was employed as an interpreter.
Although the language, manners and customs of the Kaskaskias make it sufficiently certain, that they derive their origin from the same source with the Miamies, the connexion had been dissolved before the French had penetrated from Canada to the Mississippi:- At that time a confederacy of five tribes existed in the Illinois country, viz, the Peorias, the Kaskaskias, Michigans, Cahokias, and Tamarois, which confederacy could then have brought 2000 warriors into the field. A long and unsuccessful war with the Sacks, in which they received no assistance from the Miamies, had reduced them to a small band who followed the chief Ducoigne, and a remnant of the Peorias, who procured a miserable subsistence by stealing and begging from the inhabitants of St. Genevieve, and even those wretched beings had been proscribed by those very Potawatamies who it had been asserted were closely united with the Miamies.
The Kaskaskias never lifted the hatchet against the United States; the fear of extirpation by the Potawatamies was one inducement for them to throw themselves entirely under the protection of the United States; they never thought of seeking that protection from the Miamies. On the other hand, the Miamies during the whole war with the northwestern Indians, were the most active enemies of the United States, and the most difficult to treat with. The Piankishaws, though they gave assistance to the other tribes at the commencement of the war, seceded from the confederacy, and made peace with the United States three years before the Miamies. If then, the Kaskaskias and Piankishaws were competent to the important concern of making peace and war, without the consent of the Miamies, they must have been equally so to sell a tract of land which was acknowledged to be theirs, and which was no longer useful to them. The treaty of Greenville contains nothing to authorise the supposition, that those two tribes were at that time dependent upon the Miamies; none of their chiefs were present, they did not think it necessary to go, as one of the tribes had never been at war, and the other had made peace three years before: but it was considered just, that they should receive equal advantages with the other tribes, and the Weas, not the Miamies, were requested to sign for them.
It must be plain to the candid reader, that nothing could be more unjust or unfounded, than those clamors raised against the
Dawson, Moses
William H. Harrison:
p. 63.
treaties of August 1804. The land in question had been granted to the Delawares about the year 1770, by the Piankishaws, on condition of their settling on it and assisting them in a war with the Kickapoos. These terms were complied with, and the Delawares remained in possession of the land, till finding that their numbers were greatly diminished, and that the possession of so large a tract was injurious to them in inducing their hunters to wander far from their towns, and thus obstruct the progress they were beginning to make in agriculture, they agreed to sell the land to the United States. But in consideration, they the Piankishaws had denied the right of the Delawares to sell, or dispose of the land, the treaty entered into with them was made subject to such arrangements as could be made with the Piankishaws, and, accordingly, a treaty was concluded with the latter tribe, wherein they relinquished to the United States all claim or title they had, or might have had, to the lands ceded to them by the Delawares.
The Little Turtle was the first to raise the cry against those treaties, and it is believed from no other motive but merely because he had not been consulted by either parties, and that they had been concluded without his interference or assistance. But in this as in many other cases, a seditious cry was raised for one purpose, and made subservient to another, and by those who had no agency in its origin. This clamor was raised by the disappointed ambition of the Turtle, and perhaps from the interested motive of another person, but was afterwards taken advantage of by the Prophet, and the mischievous agents of Britain; by the former, as a means of enabling him to form a confederacy against the United States, so as to circumscribe their dominion to the east of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and by the latter, to provoke a war between the parties, without reference to any particular object but mischief to both.
Dawson, Moses
William H. Harrison:
p. 67.
much fear, few persons in his circumstances would be inclined to follow. But by such conduct has he gained popularity, and we are confident that our readers will agree in saying, that such conduct was truly deserving of it.
About this time it appears to have been the intention of the government to sell the land about the neighborhood of Fort Wayne. This project the Governor disapproved of, and for these reasons: It was too far from the other settlements for American farmers to settle on it; and the few sections which would be sold, would have been purchased by the Indian traders, and thus be introduced into the heart of the Indian country, a number of people entirely out of the reach of the laws of the United States for regulating the trade and intercourse with the Indians. The President agreed with him in sentiment, and the land has not yet been sold.
About the middle of August, a convention of chiefs from the Indian tribes assembled at Vincennes, and all the difficulties were removed, which, by the manoeuvres of the Little Turtle and the agent to whom we have before alluded, had agitated the Indians for about ten months previous. At this meeting a treaty was entered into and concluded, which not only settled the dispute respecting the purchase made of the Delawares the year before, but a further cession was made to the United States, of all that tract of land which lies to the south of the line drawn from the northeast corner of the tract ceded by the treaty of Fort Wayne, and striking the general boundary line running from the mouth of Kentucky river to Fort Recovery, at the distance of 50 miles from its commencement on the Ohio river. In consideration of which, it was agreed that the United States should pay to the Miamis an annuity of 600 dollars; to the Eel river tribe, $250; to the Weas, $250; to the Potawatamies, an additional annuity of $500 for ten years and no longer, together with the sum of $4000 then paid in goods and drafts upon the war department.
The United States agreed that the Miami, Eel rivers, and Wea Indians should henceforth be considered as one tribe, and that they would never purchase any land from any one of them individually without the consent of the whole; provided, however, that nothing contained in the treaty should weaken or destroy any claim that the Kickapoos who were not represented at that meeting might have to the land on the Vermillion river, which they then occupied. The Potawatamies, Weas, Miamies, and Eel river tribes acknowledging the right of the Delawares to sell the tract purchased of them the year before, which tract had been given by the Piankishaws to the Delawares about 37 years before. The Miami chiefs were extremely anxious to have the Piankishaws included in the treaty, but of this the Governor would not admit, nor would he give
Dawson, Moses
William H. Harrison:
p. 68.
up the right of the United States to purchase land of that tribe at any time that they could make an agreement with them.
This treaty may be found in the 1st volume of the laws of the United States, page 411; it is called the treaty of Grousland.
The Governor received a despatch from the executive of the United States, of date 20th June this year, 1805, desiring that he should proceed to St. Louis, and, in conjunction with general Wilkinson, endeavor to accommodate matters between those tribes eastward of the Mississippi, and the Osages; it having been reported to government, that they were upon the eve of a war. It was the desire of the President, that there should be a convention of the principal chiefs of the different nations at St. Louis, for the purpose of having their differences adjusted, and if possible to promote, not only pacific, but friendly dispositions among the nations on both sides of the river. The governors were to inform them, that it was the wish of the President that the nations eastward of the Mississippi, should not cross it with hostile intentions without his consent. That all his red children should live in peace with each other, and that he would be greatly displeased with any of them who should commence war upon their neighbors without first consulting him, and convincing him of the necessity and propriety of the war; and that if they wished to remain in friendship with him, they might not forfeit that friendship by rash or unjustifiable measures which might involve his red children in all the horrors and distresses of an unnecessary war.
The Governor, as directed, proceeded to St. Louis, and there, assisted by general Wilkinson, effected the purpose required, and brought about an apparently perfect reconciliation, between the Osages, Sacks, Kickapoos, Potawatamies, and the other tribes residing eastward of the Mississippi, and a treaty was concluded between them; but notwithstanding the cordiality which then appeared to subsist among them, hostilities soon after commenced, as may be seen below.
Dawson, Moses
William H. Harrison:
p. 87.
the reason why the Kickapoos wished to go to war with the United States, who were strong enough to destroy all the Indians in a short time. He answered that all this was well enough understood, but that they had received so many injuries from the Americans, that they were determined to perish to a man rather than not avenge them.
The Governor used every possible exertion to ascertain the truth of this report. He sent for the principal Wea chief, upon whose fidelity and attachment he had great reliance. This man told him that all the Kickapoo were sincerely disposed to keep upon friendly terms with the United States, and that it was only the young men of the tribe who were for war. He also stated that the tribes beyond them were disposed for war, and that they had solicited the Kickapoos to join them, and that a message from the British had recommended the same plan.
In order to take every step within his power to prevent hostilities, the Governor despatched an emissary to the Kickapoo tribe, to which messenger he gave the following instructions:
"As soon as you arrive at the Vermillion towns, you will deliver my speech to the chiefs, and cause it to be minutely interpreted to them; you will add to it such observations as may occur to you, to enforce upon them the belief that the United States are extremely desirous to preserve a friendly intercourse with them, and will not commence hostilities unless driven to it by the conduct of the Indians themselves. But if they should be forced into a war, after having done every thing in their power to avoid it, the Kickapoos must take the penalty of their own rashness. It will be of advantage to dwell upon the immense force of mounted militia which the United States can bring upon them from the neighboring states of Kentucky and Ohio, and the Louisiana and Indiana territories. It may also be suggested to them, that (a few stragglers excepted) there is not the smallest probability of their receiving any aid from the Potawatamies, Miamies, Weas, or Delawares, who have too just a sense of the danger of their situation, to engage in any such rash enterprise.
"After having delivered the speech to the chiefs at the Vermillion, if you should discover that there is no danger of proceeding to the villages on the Prairies, (and you are not on any account to expose yourself to any danger,) you will go there, and, if possible, prevail on Joseph Renard's son, their head chief, to accompany you to both places. You will omit no means of obtaining information, as to the general disposition of the Indians, as it relates to peace or war; and the resources which they calculate on for carrying on a war, particularly their means of procuring arms and ammunition, and the deposites they may have of either. Should time and other circumstances unite, to make it proper in your opinion, to proceed to the Potawatamie villages on the Wabash, you will do so; but, at any rate, I wish you to
Dawson, Moses
William H. Harrison:
p. 88.
go to the Delaware towns, on White river to
deliver the speech which I have sent to them, for the purpose of explaining to
them the circumstances relating to the escape of Red, who murdered one of their
men. Whilst you are there, you will collect such information as you may think
necessary or interesting.- You can also visit the establishments of the Eel river
and Miami Indians, on White river, and Sugar creek. Your having been at St.
Louis at the time the Kickapoo was killed by Mr. Hammond, which is given as the
reason of their discontent, you will have it in your power to explain the
circumstance, and convince them that it was purely accidental. You may also
assure them that the presents to the relations of the deceased will not be
withheld."
"CAPTAIN WILLIAM PRINCE."
The following is the speech alluded to in the above:
"William Henry Harrison, Governor and Commander in Chief of the Indiana Territory, and Superintendant of Indian Affairs, to his Children, the Chiefs and Warriors of the Kickapoo tribe.
"MY CHILDREN,
"I lately sent you a message by one of your warriors, but I have not yet received an answer. The head chief of the Weas has however been with me, and has assured me that you still keep hold of the chain of friendship which has bound you to your father, since the treaty made with general Wayne.
My Children, this information has given me great pleasure, because I had heard that you had suffered bad thoughts to get possession of your minds.
My Children, what is it you wish for? have I not often told you that you should inform me of all your grievances, and that you should never apply to your father in vain?
My Children, be wise; do not follow the advice of those who would lead you to destruction; what is it they would persuade you to?- To make war upon your fathers, the Seventeen Fires?- What injury has your father done to you?- If he has done any, why do you not complain to him and ask redress?- Will he turn a deaf ear to your complaints?- He has always listened to you, and will listen to you still; you will certainly not raise your arm against him.
My Children, you have a number of young warriors, but when compared to the warriors of the United States, you know they are but as a handful. My Children, can you count the leaves on the trees, or the grains of sand in the river banks? So numerous are the warriors of the Seventeen Fires.
My Children, it would grieve your father to let loose his warriors upon his red children; nor will he do it unless you compel him; he had rather that they would stay at home and make corn for their women and children; but he is not afraid to make war;
Continue to
next page.
Continue
to Dft. Ex. 126.
Return
to Docket 317 Table of Contents
Return to Ohio Valley -
Great Lakes Ethnohistory Archive Menu
Return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology List of Publications
Return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology Home
Last updated: 2
October 2000
Comments: webmaster@www.gbl.indiana.edu
Copyright 1997, Glen Black Laboratory of Archaeology and The Trustees of Indiana University.