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 5, pp. 196-201.
196 |
Indians would have to pay the penalty.22
However, the travellers were fortunate and met no war parties, either Indian or White.
At the proceedings prior to the Treaty of Greenville of August 3, 1795 (7 Stat. 49) the Miami war chief, Little Turtle, claimed in the name of the Miamis, Potawatomis of St. Joseph, and the "Wabash Indians" all of the land within the present boundaries of the State of Indiana.23 This claim included, of course, a claim for all of Royce Area 56.
During the winter of 1796-1797 at least one group of Indians wintered in western Royce Area 56. In late December, 1796 and early January, 1797, Moses Austin, an eastern merchant, traveled overland from Louisville, Kentucky, to Vincennes. Near the headwaters of the Blue River in south- central Royce Area 56 he spent the night at "an Indian camp of Wyandots fifteen in Number with an Old Cheef." Austin was fed and well treated by the Wyandots. The following day he travelled approximately 36 miles farther on his way to Vincennes, probably through southwestern Area 56. He noted: "this day I come up and meet with a number of Hunting Indians all of which were friendly."24
Two years later, in 1798, a small party of Delawares consisting of two men and a woman were also hunting on Blue River, but whether in Royce Area 49 or Royce Area 56 cannot
22. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 12, pp.
173-174; Dft. Ex.
110.
23. American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. 1, pp. 570-571; Dft. Ex. 96.
24. American Historical Review, vol. 5, pp. 527-528; Dft. Ex. 24.
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 5, pp. 196-201.
197 |
be ascertained. While hunting there they were murdered by two White men.25
At a general council held at Fort Wayne in June, 1803 the "Miami tribe" acknowledged the title of the Delawares to a large tract which included Royce Area 56 (7 Stat. 81:82). In 1804 the United States recognized, in a treaty with the Delawares held on August 18, 1804, the Delawares' claim to this large tract in southern Indiana which included Royce Area 56 (7 Stat. 81:82). In 1805, however, at the Treaty of Grouseland of August 21, 1805 (7 Stat. 91) the Miamis reneged on their acknowledgment made in 1803, and the Delawares, "for the sake of peace and good neighbourhood" relinquished "their claim to the said tract" (which included Royce Area 56), and released the United States from its recognition of Delaware ownership of the tract (7 Stat. 91). The Miamis, Eel Rivers and Weas then ceded to the United States, at Grouseland on August 21, 1805, Royce Area 56 (7 Stat. 91).
Summary and Conclusions on Native Use and Occupancy of Royce Area 56, 1739-1805. Data on Indian use and occupancy of Royce Area 56, during the period 1739 to the time the Area was ceded at the Treaty of Grouseland of August 21, 1805, are meager. All indications are that since this Area was not well endowed for native exploitation- being chiefly eroded upland, difficult to traverse- the Area was put to very little and very sporadic use by native peoples during the
25. Indiana Historical Collections, vol. 7, pp. 25-26;
Dft. Ex.
97.
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 5, pp. 196-201.
198 |
period under consideration. The few references we have to use and occupancy of Area 56 and adjoining regions can be summarized as follows:
In the winter of 1750-1751 "French Indians"- possibly Ottawas from Detroit- were hunting around the Falls of the Ohio, a few miles south of southcentral Area 56.
In 1765 a group of "Warriors Cabbins" was noted along the Ohio River on the stretch which forms the southeastern boundary of Area 56.
In 1785, 1786, and 1787 several accounts of overland trips made from Vincennes to the Falls of the Ohio contain no references to meetings with Indians or to evidence of Indians in the southwestern part of Area 56.
In 1788 some Shawnees from the Scioto River in Ohio, whose village on the Scioto had been burnt by Americans the preceding fall had, perhaps, a hunting camp in the eastern part of Area 56. A village, to which these Shawnees repaired after they left their hunting camp in the spring of 1788, may have been located at that time in the western part of Area 56. The site of this village cannot be pinpointed, nor is the identity of its inhabitants certain.
In the spring of 1789 some Shawnees from a village on the Mississinewa River in northern Indiana hunted either in extreme southeastern Royce Area 56, or extreme southwestern Royce Area 11. A Miami war party passed through the same region in the spring of 1789; a year later another war party, this time Shawnee, was in the region.
In 1792 the Shawnee war chief Blue Jacket and a band of
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 5, pp. 196-201.
199 |
Shawnees were again hunting on a creek which heads in eastern Area 56 and flows into the Ohio River in southwestern Royce Area 11.
In 1793 a land route across southern Royce Area 56 wan being used by Miami warriors going to raid in Kentucky.
In 1796 a group of Wyandots had a winter camp in south central Area 56, and a number of unidentified Indians were hunting to the west of the Wyandots' camp, in the southwestern part of Area 56. Two years later, in 1798, three Delawares were also hunting in the same general region.
Our conclusions as to use and occupancy of Royce Area 56 during the period 1740-1805 are as follows:
During the first two-thirds of the period, through 1787, Area 56 was devoid of any except occasional occupants. The southern part of the Area was used at times to hunt in, or as a stopping place for war parties of northern Indians, but no specific groups can be identified with Royce Area 56 from 1739-1787.
By 1788, when the natives of the eastern part of the Ohio Valley were in a state of great unrest and trouble, Area 56 became a refuge area for occasional hunting parties of Shawnees, Wyandots and Delawares. There may have been one village of unidentified Indians in the western part of Area 56 in 1788. The region, however, was not considered safe by the Indians themselves in the 1790's, because of the likeliehood of encountering in it Miami, Shawnee and other, or White, war parties.
We therefore conclude that during the period 1739-1805 no one group of Indians exclusively used or occupied Royce
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 5, pp. 196-201.
200 |
Area 56, and that the Area was in the main, throughout this period, largely unused except by war parties, and only sporadically occupied by various Indian groups.
Summary and Conclusions on Claims to Royce Area 56, 1775-1805. Claims to Royce Area 56, often made indirectly in a claim to a large region that included Area 56, were set forth by three Indian groups during the period 1740-1805. These claims are discussed at length in Chapter 6 of this Report; briefly, they were as follows.
In 1775 the Piankashaw disposed of the western half of Royce Area 56, as part of a large area sold and granted to Whites.
In 1779 the Delawares claimed all of Royce Area 56 as part of a much more extensive claim.
In 1779 the Piankashaws granted to George Rogers Clark a tract 2 1/2 leagues square, adjoining the Falls of the Ohio on the west side of the river. This grant was south of Area 56, and entirely within the huge tract the Delawares had laid claim to that same year.
In 1795 the Miami war chief Little Turtle claimed, in the name of the Miamis, St. Joseph Potawatomis and Wabash Indians, all of Royce Area 56 as part of a larger claim.
In 1803 the Miamis acknowledged the Delawares claim to a large region in southern Indiana which included Royce Area 56.
In 1804 the United States recognized the Delawares' claim to this same large region in southern Indiana.
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 5, pp. 196-201.
201 |
In 1805 the Miamis reneged on their recognition of the Delawares' claim to the large region in southern Indiana; the Delawares relinquished their claim to this region (which included Royce Area 56) and released the United States from its recognition of Delaware ownership of it; the Miamis, Eel Rivers and Weas then ceded that part of the large tract that constituted Royce Area 56, to the United States at Grouseland near Vincennes on August 21, 1805.
The fact that within 30 years three Indian groups asserted claims to Royce Area 56, and that such were nearly always part of a claim to a much larger region, affords little specific aid in any attempt to determine what native groups, if any, had a claim to this Area. In the historical record we have found nothing to justify either Piankashaw, Miami, or Delaware claims to Royce Area 56. There is no record of Piankashaw occupancy of the region; Miami war parties traversed Area 56 when raiding, but so did other groups; our only record of Delawares in the area was noted very late- in 1798- when two Delaware hunters and a Delaware woman were killed by Whites. We cannot, therefore, regard the claims made by the Piankashaws, Miamis or Delawares as anything more than generalized, sweeping claims to ownership of a large region, of which Royce Area 56 happened to form one part.
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