212 |
Harrison concerning future land cessions by the Indians, and enclosed a blanket commission for Harrison which enabled him to serve as commissionor for such treaties with the Indians as Jefferson might wish. Dearborn ordered Harrison to proceed with the negotiations for delimiting the boundaries of the Vincennes Tract and for obtaining the Saline Spring. If possible no deviation was to be made in the boundaries of the Vincennes Tract from those set forth in the preliminary agreement. In this letter Dearborn, like Jefferson, expressed his interest in obtaining from the Indians all the land bordering on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.22a
In mid-April, 1803, Harrison started up the Wabash for Fort Wayne, the site of the proposed treaty of June 7, 1803. Along the way he visited all the Indian villages on the Wabash to invite the chiefs to attend the treaty. The Indians began to gather for this treaty on May 15, and dispersed after the signing of it on June 7, 1803. There was strong opposition to the boundaries of the Vincennes Tract as set forth in council the preceeding year as well as the cession of the salt springs, by many of the Indian groups. In fact, Harrison found that only the Potawatomi chiefs and Little Turtle had arrived at Fort Wayne to negotiate with him. From Little Turtle, Harrison learned that the Miami chief called the Owl or Long Beard "had been busily employed in dissuading the Indians from meeting him [Harrison]," and that his efforts, in large part, had been successful.
22a. Records of the Office of the Secretary of War, Letters Sent, Indian
Affairs, vol. A, pp. 328-331;
Dft. Ex.
100.
213 |
Harrison apparently had some doubts concerning the effectiveness of having only the four designated chiefs sign this treaty. According to his biography written by Dawson, which is an apologia of Harrison's political and military career, Harrison
was satisfied that the treaty would be effected and completely ratified by the four chiefs appointed for that purpose at Vincennes, yet he was anxious to have it signed by as many chiefs as could be procured, particularly by those who had been at the council of Vincennes.23
To procure as large an attendance as possible, Harrison sent messages threatening all groups who did not attend with the withdrawal of "the friendship and protection of the United States," and further stated that he would deliver goods only to those groups in attendance. (It should be noted that annuities for all of these groups were long overdue. None had been distributed in 1801 or 1802).24 As a result of Harrison's message deputations from the Shawnees, Delawares, and Kickapoos came to Fort Wayne. The latter group had also attended the 1802 conference at Vincennes and two Kickapoo chiefs had signed the convention.
On June 1, 1803, after the arrival of the Shawnees, Delawares and Kickapoos, Harrison expounded on the benevolent paternalism of the federal government, favorably contrasting the condition of the Indians in 1803 to that during the period
23. Dawson, A Historical Narrative, pp.
47-48; Dft. Ex.
125. Emphasis ours.
24. Idem.
214 |
of British control over the Great Lakes-Ohio Valley region. He also expressed the desire of the United States government to teach the Indians agriculture by
which effectual and certain subsistence would be afforded, and which, by enabling their women to raise a number of children would in a few years make them more numerous and powerful than they had ever heretofore been.
However, when the subject of the transactions of the council held the previous year at Vincennes was brought up, a storm of protest arose from the Delawares and Shawnees. Buckingehelos an old Delaware chief,
declared with vehemence, that nothing that was done at Vincennes was binding upon the Indians; that the land which was there decided to be the property of the United States, belonged to the Delawares; and that he had then with him a chief, who had been present at the transfer made by the Piankishaws to the Delawares of all the country between the Ohio and White Rivers more than 30 years before.
The Shawnees were even more incensed
and behaved with so much insolence, that the Governor was obliged to tell them that they were undutiful and rebellious children, and that he would withdraw his protection from them until they had learnt to behave themselves with more propriety. These chiefs immediately left the council house in a body.
However, by private conferences with the various Indian chiefs and through
being powerfully, though privately, aided by the Turtle, and boldly seconded in every proposition by the Potawatamies (who, as was well known to the other tribes, were entirely devoted to the Governor,) all opposition [to the treaty]
215 |
was finally silenced25
and the treaty was signed on June 7, 1803 (7 Stat. 74) by two Miamis (Little Turtle and Richerville), two Kickapoos (Wahmah-to-hah, or Standing, and Pas-she-we-hah or Cat, neither of whom signed the 1802 convention), four Potawatomis (Tupinibee, Winnemac, Wannangsea or Five Meddals and Kee-saas or Sun), four Delawares (Teta Buxike, Bu-Kon- ige-helas, Hakingpomskenn and Kechkawhanund), and three Shawnees (Neahnemsiceh, Cu-the-we-ka-saw or Black Hoof, and Methawnasice. As the treaty finally read, the United States obtained a cession of Royce Area 47 (Saline Spring), not a lease as authorized by the 1802 convention, and the Vincennes Tract.26
In all, 1,011 Indians from eight different groups attended the treaty council of Fort Wayne in 1803: 173 Delawares, 205 Shawnees, 349 Potawatomis, 56 Miamis, 23 Eel River Miamis, 16 Kickapoos, 180 Ottawas, and 9 Mohicans.27 Of these eight groups, only five- Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Potawatomis, and Kickapoos- signed the Treaty of June 7, 1803.
It is very evident throughout the account of the proceedings of this treaty that Little Turtle and Richerville did not represent even half of the Miamis and that Pacane and the Owl controlled the majority of the Miamis as well as the Eel River Indians. The Owl (Hibou) had been actively engaged in
25. Ibid., pp.
49-50; Dft. Ex.
125.
26. Idem.
27. Secretary of War, Letters Received, Wells, A correct statement. . ., December 5, 1809; Dft. Ex. 119. The "9 Mohicans" probably lived with the White River Delawares.
216 |
turning the Indians away from the Americans, and from Little Turtle. According to the Owl, Little Turtle had sold all the Indians' land to the United States, and the latter could claim it when desired. The Owl also attempted to induce the various Indian groups not to accept the annuities due them under the Treaty of Greenville,
|
|
assuring them that the
United States |
It was only after the actual signing of the treaty that both the Owl and Pacane
visited Harrison at Fort Wayne. Harrison immediately called a council to meet
the next day, June 10, 1803, for all the Indians who remained near Fort Wayne.
However, at the opening of the council, both the Owl's and Pacane's Miamis as
well as the Delawares snubbed the council called by Harrison and privately
councilled together. It was at this council that the Miamis, according to the
Delawares, acknowledge the Delawares' right to the land between the White River
and the Ohio, and gave the Delawares a belt of Wampum "to commemorate the
transaction." Unfortunately Harrison could not stay at Fort Wayne long
enough to actually hear the Owl and Pacane corroborate the Delaware claim.29
Shortly after the Fort Wayne treaty of June 7, 1803 Harrison
found means to prevail upon the [Miami] Indian chief called the Owl, to give up his enmity to the United States, and he with several of the chiefs who were
28. Dawson, Historical Narrative, p. 48;
Dft. Ex.
125.
29. Harrison to the Secretary of War, Vincennes, March 3, 1805; Dft. Ex. 119.
217 |
attached to his party came to Vincennes [in July, 1803]. . ., and made the most solemn protestations of his friendship to the United States. This was a very fortunate cercumstance, as this man had it in his power to thwart or obstruct any of the disigns of the government, relating to the Indians in that quarter.30
During August, 1803 Harrison started to carry out Jefferson's and Dearborn's
instructions to obtain lands bordering on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. On
August 13, five Illinois Indians ceded Royce Area 48 (7 Stat. 78). Even though
Harrison was not aware of the fact, by this date such a cession of land was no
longer needed to serve as a possible buffer between the Indians and the
trans-Mississippi French and/or Spanish; all of Louisiana Territory had been
purchased by the United States less than four months before.
In 1804 Harrison negotiated three more treaties by which the Indians ceded Royce Areas 49 and 50. These were as follows. On August 18, 1804, at Vincennes, five Delaware chiefs ceded Area 49 (7 Stat. 81). In this treaty the United States recognized that the Delaware were the rightful owners of all the unceded land between the White and Ohio rivers within the present state of Indiana. However, since the Piankashaws refused to recognize any other group's right to sell land in southern Indiana except themselves, Harrison began to negotiate a treaty of cession with them shortly after the Delaware treaty of August 18, 1804 was signed and within nine days, on August 27, 1804, the Piankashaws had also ceded Area 49 to the
30. Dawson, Historical Narrative, p. 52; Dft. Ex.
125.
218 |
United States (7 Stat. 33). By the third treaty negotiated by Harrison on November 3, 1804 (7 Stat. 84) in which the Sac and Fox ceded Royce Area 50 we see further evidence of Harrison's efforts to obtain land along the Mississippi, even though such cessions were no longer necessary to provide a buffer between the French and the Indians. However, by this cession of Royce Area 50 and by the cession of the Kaskaskias on August 13, 1803 (7 Stat. 78) of Royce Area 48 the United States obtained the entire east bank of the Mississippi River between the mouths of the Ohio and Wisconsin, as well as a good portion of the present state of Illinois.
Less than two months after the Delawares had ceded Royce Area 49 on August 18, 1804 Little Turtle complained about the cession to General James Wilkinson, commander of the United States Army. In a letter of October 6, 1804 Little Turtle sent Wilkinson the following message:
My friend I am sorry now
to say that the Indians are astonished to find an agent of the united states
[Harrison] purchesing our Lands from Indians that has no right to sell them and
intierly [sic] contrary to the wish of all the Indians in this country.
. . . .
My friend I shall request the President to not pass the treaty concluded between the [Delaware and Piankashaw] Indians and governor Harrison at Vincennes, and asshure him if he does that his children will have no confidence in him [.] he has sent governor Harrison to this count[r]y to take care of his red children and render them services.
But in place of the governor doing us good he has done us more harm than any man that ever came into our Count[r]y [.] he has made new chiefs among
219 |
us and payed no regard to the wishes of our former ones[;] he had gave Indians titles to Lands that never had any and after words purchased the same Lands from them for the united states, and I am afraid that he has mad many representations to the president respecting the wish of the Indians- in this count[r]y- in order to make him self a great man at the expense of the Indians- in fact he has struck our existence at the root and I am afraid that his conduct will finally set us at war with each other.31
In the same letter William Wells reiterated Little Turtle's statements re further cessions of land to the United States saying,
I am certain that the Indians would wish a war with the united states rather than sell the Lands that lay on the ohio above the mouth of the Wabash and below the falls that `'as lat[e]ly purchased by governor Harrison for the united states from the Delawar[e] and piankashaws- if they had any prospect of being supported by any foreign power.32
Apparently rumblings of Indian discontent had reached Dearborn prior to the receipt of the above-quoted letter of October 6, 1804. On October 20, 1804, before Dearborn could have seen Wells' letter, Dearborn had outlined to Wells the government's position re the August 18 and August 27, 1804 cessions of Royce Area 49 as follows:
The Treaties held by Governor Harrison, with the Piankashaws & Delawares, ought not to give any uneasiness to the Miamis & Pottawattamas, for neither of the latter nations, can have any pretensions to the lands ceded by the Piankashaws on
31. Wells to Wilkinson, Fort Wayne, Oct. 6,
1804; Dft. Ex. 119.
32. Idem.
220 |
the Ohio, nor do I conceive the Delawares have just claim to the said lands) but as they made some pretensions to a claim it was thought adviseable, to give them a small sum to quit their pretended right & Title. Suppose the Pattawattamas were to sell a tract of land to the United States bordering on the Lake Michi-gan at the mouth of the St Joseph[,] would they ask permission of the Piankashaws to sell such land, I presume not. The United States will never intentionally purchase lands of one Nation belonging to another; but it must be presumed each Nation has a right to dispose of its own lands.-- If the Pottawattamies or Miamies can shew a good title to any part of the lands lately ceded by the Piankashaws they may have reason to complain but not otherwise.33
In a late December, 1804 reply to Wells' October 6, 1804 letter to Wilkinson, Dearborn was as emphatic as in his previous letter to Wells of October 20, 1804, in denying Miami and Potawatomi claims to lands lying on the Ohio. He stated:
The President of the United States will not be driven by threats into any measures of accommodation, but will at all times hear the candid representations of his red Children and be ready to do them justice in all cases within his power. . . .
The Little Turtle and all the other red people may rest assured that we wish to deal honestly and fairly with them and that no advantages are desired by the United States. But if they should have recourse to War for the purposes of securing a better title to their lands, or a happier solution for themselves and families, they will certainly be much disappointed.34
Other Indians also complained about the August 18, 1804 cession of Royce Area
49. In late March, 1805, three of the
33. Records of the Office of the Secretary of War, Letters Sent, Indian
Affairs, vol. B, pp.
21-23; Dft. Ex.
100.
34. Ibid., vol. B, pp. 35-36; Dft. Ex. 100.
221 |
five Delaware chiefs who had signed the Treaty of Vincennes of August 18, 1804, complained that they had not known that they were ceding land. According to their understanding of the Vincennes Treaty, the line which demarcated the cession had been nothing but a line separating the land of the Delawares from that of the Piankashaws. They protested that they, the Delawares, had no right to sell this land without the consent of their neighbors.35
Harrison laid the entire blame for the Indians' opposition to the cession of Area 49 on Little Turtle who, according to Harrison, was aided in this affair by William Wells, United States Indian agent at Fort Wayne. According to Harrison, Indian feeling against this cession was not as strong as Wells had stated. Even though Little Turtle had influence over some Indiana Potawatomi and possibly the Eel Rivers, he by no means controlled or represented all of the Miamis. According to Harrison,
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Nine tenths of that Tribe
[Miami] who |
However Harrison feared that "the Peccan [Pacane]" and the Owl might
be tempted to join in Little Turtle's protestations in expectation of some
material gain.36
35. Tethteposeske, Buckingehelas and Hockingposskon to Wells, White River, March 30,
1805, Patterson to Wells, White River, April 5,
1805; Dft.
Ex. 119.
36. Harrison to the Secretary of War, Vincennes, March 3, 1805; Dft. Ex. 119.
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