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Chapter IX: pp. |
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343. |
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 2.
Chapter 9, pp. 337-343.
337 |
Chapter IX. Native Use and Occupancy of Royce Area 73
from Earliest Known Date to 1809
Royce Area 73 was ceded by the Delawares, Potawatomis, Miamis, and Eel River Indians in the Treaty of Fort Wayne of September 30, 1809 (7 Stat. 113). The cession was consented to by the Wea Indians in a Convention made at Vincennes on October 26, 1809 (7 Stat. 116) and was agreed to by the Kickapoo Indians in a separate treaty held on December 9, 1809 (7 Stat. 117).
Royce Area 73 is a strip of land about 15 miles wide at its widest point, extending along the west shore of the Wabash River from Point Coupee1 to Raccoon Creek. It is bounded on the north by a ''northwardly extension" of a line running from the mouth of Raccoon Creek, continuing the northern boundary line of Royce Area 71 (7 Stat. 113:115). About a quarter of the cession is in present-day Indiana; the rest is in the present State of Illinois (see Map 10).
No Indian villages have been found which were located within Royce Area 73. To the north, however, was the Vermilion River Indian settlement, in Royce Area 74. This Vermilion area was occupied by Piankashaw Indians from about 1725 to the end of 1792; it was then occupied by Kickapoo Indians in December, 1793, and from 1803 past the Treaty date of December 9, 1809 (see Chapter 11 on Royce Area 74).
On the south, Royce Area 73 abuts on Royce Area 26 which, at least along the Wabash, was occupied and used by Piankashaw
1. Point Coupee is the point on the Wabash River where the northern boundary of Royce Area 26 crosses the River. See Royce, Indian Land Cessions, Map of Indiana, Pl. 19.
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 2.
Chapter 9, pp. 337-343.
338 |
Indians from the time that the French officer, Jean-Baptiste Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, set up a post at the place now called Vincennes, Indiana in ca. 1730, until 1802 when "the Vincennes Tract" was bounded by various Indian groups at the behest of the United States (see pp. 204-208, this Report).
To the east of Royce Area 73, across the Wabash River, is Royce Area 71, which had one mayor settlement area along the Wabash at present-day Terre Haute, Indiana. Information on early eighteenth-century native occupancy of Terre Haute is spotty. This location was occupied by some Kickapoo Indians in 1744 and 1752, and by Mascoutens in 1746 (see Chapter 7, this Report). The Piankashaw Indians probably used the western third of Royce Area 71 for hunting during the period 1725-1760 (see pp. 253-255, this Report).
In 1765 George Croghan, British Indian agent, was captured on the Ohio River below the mouth of the Wabash by Kickapoo and Mascouten Indians, and was taken north along the Wabash to Kickapoo and Mascouten villages at Ouiatanon, four miles below present-day Lafayette, Indiana. Croghan remarked that the Vermilion Piankashaws had their hunting grounds in the meadows to the south of the Vermilion River.2 These hunting grounds may have been in Royce Area 71 or in Royce Area 73; it is not clear from Croghan's account which side of the Wabash the meadows were on. However, since Croghan crossed to the west side of the Wabash some time before reaching Vermilion River, it is probable that the Vermilion Piankashaws hunted in Royce Area 73.
2. Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, vol. 11, pp. 29-34; Dft. Ex. 67.
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 2.
Chapter 9, pp. 337-343.
339 |
Royce Area 73 was included, also, in the lands sold to the land speculators in 1775 by 12 Piankashaw chiefs of the Vincennes and Vermilion Piankashaw villages. This grant included lands along the Wabash River from the mouth of Wild Cat Creek, which is slightly upstream from present-day Lafayette, Indiana, south to Point Coupee, the point where the northern boundary of Royce Area 26 crosses the Wabash River, and from the mouth of White River south to the mouth of the Wabash River. The grant extended 40 leagues (1 league = 2 1/2 miles) east and 30 leagues west of the Wabash River (see Map 5). This sale was not recognized as valid by either the British or United States governments, but does indicate that the Piankashaws felt, in 1775, that they could dispose of these lands.3
Henry Hamilton, Lieutenant-Governor of Canada, on his way down the Wabash in the winter of 1778 to retake Vincennes, found Piankashaws wintering at a place called La Soupe, a short distance below Terre Haute and probably within Royce Area 71, across the Wabash River from Royce Area 73.4
Maj. John F. Hamtramck of the United States Army, who was in charge of the post at Vincennes in the fall of 1787, had Piankashaw visitors from Terre Haute in 1787. In his estimates of Indian warriors along the Wabash made in 1788 and 1790 he
3. American State Papers, Public Lands, vol. 2,
pp. 119-120;
Dft. Ex. 92., See also
Chapter 7, this Report.
4. Barhart, Hamilton and Clark in the Revolution, p. 143; Dft. Ex. 66.
5. Indiana Historical Society Publications, vol. 19, p. 37; Dft. Ex. 79.
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 2.
Chapter 9, pp. 337-343.
340 |
noted that there were 30 men at Terre Haute.6 These were probably Piankashaws, since Hamtramck had identified his visitors from Terre Haute in 1787 as Piankashaws.
Antoine Gamelin, a resident of Vincennes who in April, 1790 carried Gen. Arthur St. Clair's message of peace from the United States to the Indians who lived along the Wabash River and those of the Miami village came to a Wea village on his trip up the Wabash, which had Les Jambes Croches or Crooked Legs as chief and was situated some place between Vincennes and the Vermilion River.7 This village was probably in Royce Area 71 or Royce Area 73. In the winter of 17901791 this same Wea band was allowed to winter near Vincennes.8
William Henry Harrison, Governor of Indiana Territory, stated in 1805 that the Weas occupied the country along the Wabash above Point Coupee, after their towns at Ouiatanon had been destroyed ln 1791.9 This would locate Weas in Royce Area 71 and 73 from ca. 1791 on, but precise contemporary information on the Weas' move south is lacking for any except Crooked Legs' village. Harrison's statement about the Weas was probably valid from about 1800, when he was actively dealing with Indians living on the Wabash River.
6. Ibid., vol. 19,
p. 80;
Dft. Ex. 79. Hamtramck to Sargent, Fort Vincennes,
July 2, 1790;
Dft. Ex. 75.
7. American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 93; Dft. Ex. 96.
8. Indiana Historical Society Publications, vol. 19, p. 264; Dft. Ex. 79.
9. Harrison to the Secretary of War, Vincennes, March 3, 1805; Dft. Ex. 84.
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 2.
Chapter 9, pp. 337-343.
341 |
The large region claimed by the Miami chief Little Turtle at the Treaty of Greenville of August 3, 1795 (7 Stat. 49) for the Wabash, Miami, and St. Joseph Potawatomi Indians included part of Royce Area 73 (see Map 8),10 but few specific locations of the Indian groups were mentioned during the Treaty proceedings. The one location mentioned as being in Royce Area 73, at the Greenville Treaty discussions, was that of "Musquiton," said to have been on the Wabash above Vincennes.11 Gen. Anthony Wayne included Musquiton in a list of sites where the French and British had had establishments in the years before American sovereignty. A Wea chief at the Greenville Treaty, however, claimed that he did not know of any place called Musquiton. Perhaps the name was intended as a form of "Mascouten." Mascouten Indians had lived in the vicinity of Terre Haute for a short time during the period of French sovereignty- in 1746, to be exact (see above, this Chapter). "Musquiton" on the Wabash was noted elsewhere only on a map of the geographer Thomas Hutchins which was published in 1778.12
Some "Wabash Indians'' were found by a United States Army captain, John Wade, on his trip up the Wabash River in May and June of 1795.13 These Indians were located about
10. American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. 1,
pp. 570-571;
Dft. Ex. 96.
11. Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 573-577; Dft. Ex. 96.
12. Tucker, Indian Villages, Pl. 29 and accompanying text; Dft. Ex. 106.
13. Wade, Extracts of a Journal; Dft. Ex. 74.
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 2.
Chapter 9, pp. 337-343.
342 |
half way between Vincennes and the mouth of the Tippecanoe River, and thus must have been in the vicinity of Terre Haute. "Wabash Indians" were also mentioned by a United States Army ensign, Thomas Bodley, on a trip he also made up the Wabash in May and June of 1795. Bodley located the "Wabash Indians" at Terre Haute.14
The Piankashaws along the Wabash River diminished in numbers as the decades passed. By the end of 1792 they had left their Vermilion River village,15 and by 1802 William Henry Harrison, then Governor of Indiana Territory, wrote that there were only 25-30 Piankashaw warriors left along the Wabash.16
By the Treaty of Grouseland of August 21, 1805 (7 Stat. 91) the United States engaged to consider the Miamis, Eel Rivers, and Weas as joint owners of the lands "on the Wabash and its waters, above the Vincennes tract." Royce Area 73 formed a part of these lands. The Miami Indians had tried to have the Piankashaws included with them as joint owners of this region, but Harrison had refused to allow this.17 One reason why he could refuse was the then small population of the Piankashaws, and their consequent lack of strength to demand concessions.
14. Bodley,
Observations on the Navigation;
Dft. Ex. 74.
15. A. Prior to Anthony Wayne, Fort Knox, December 20, 1793; Dft. Ex. 74.
16, Dawson, A Historical Narrative, p. 19, Dft. Ex. 125.
17. American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol, 1, pp. 701-702; Dft. Ex. 96.
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 2.
Chapter 9, pp. 337-343.
343 |
On July 5, 1809 Harrison, while discussing a proposed treaty which was later signed at Fort Wayne on September 30, 1809 (7 Stat. 113), mentioned that the Weas were at that time (July, 1809) living between Vincennes and the Vermilion River.18 This location is not precise, but it may have been that the Weas were living in the vicinity of Terre Haute, since there was a Wea village there in 1810.19 Thus, Wea Indians would have been living in the vicinity of Royce Area 73 at this time.
Conclusions on Native Use and Occupancy of Royce Area 73 from Earliest Known Date to 1809. From the evidence presented above, it is probable that Piankashaw Indians used Royce Area 73 to hunt in, from about 1725 to around 1802, at least. The Piankashaws did not have any villages in Royce Area 73 nor, at certain times, was their use of the Area a probable exclusive use. In 1744, 1752, 1793 and from 1803-1809 Kickapoo Indians lived close to Area 73 and probably hunted within the Area. In 1746 Mascoutens were likewise living adjacent to Royce Area 73 and were probably hunting in this Area. Finally, from 1790 onward the Weas moved into locations on the Wabash between Vincennes and Terre Haute and also probably hunted in Royce Area 73. We thus have probable exclusive use of Royce Area 73 by a specific Indian group limited to two periods, as follows. From 1725-1744 and again, from 1753-1790 the Piankashaws probably exclusively used Area 73, for hunting.
18. Harrison to the Secretary of War, Vincennes, July 5, 1809;
Dft. Ex. 152.
19. Dawson, A Historical Narrative, p. 152; Dft. Ex. 125.
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