222 |
To alleviate the tension among the Indians arising from the cession of Area 49, Dearborn, on May 24, 1805, ordered Harrison
with as little delay as
possible,. . . to cause a meeting of the Delaware Chiefs and some of the
principal Chiefs of the Miamies and Puttawattamies, for the purpose of an
explanation of the doings, so much complained of as will satisfy the Chiefs
generally, that the transaction was not only open & fair, but such as they
have no right to object to.
. . . .
Should you judge it advantageous to distribute two or three hundred dollars among the Miamies, Puttawattamies & others, by way of quieting their minds in relation to the sale of the lands by the Delawares and Piankashaws, you will do it, in such manner, as you may consider most useful.37
Harrison, almost three months before, on March 3, 1805, had reported to Dearborn his opinion as to the validity of the Miami and Potawatomi claims to extreme southwestern Indiana. as follows:
After a careful and dispassionate consideration of the Subject I can see no reason to alter the opinion I had formed that neither the Miamis nor the Putawatomies have any just claim either in Common or otherwise to any part of the Tract ceded to the United States by the Delawares & Piankeshaws . . . .
The Tract purchased of the Delawares & Piankeshaws is not nor never has been since my arrival in this country frequented as a Hunting ground by either the Miamis or Putawatimies. None of the Indians go
37. Records of the Office of the Secretary of War, Letters Sent, Indian
Affairs, vol. B, pp.
78-79; Dft. Ex.
100.
223 |
there to hunt buffaloes (as Mr. Wells has asserted) not an Animal of that Kind having been seen within that tract for several years. Nor is its generally flat surface well calculated for the residence of bears.
The Putawatimies so far from having any claim to land on the South East side of the Wabash acknowledge that they have trespassed upon the Miamis by settling on the North bank of that river & it has been an object with the Turtle & Wells for several years to get them to remove.
In order to settle the differences between the various Indian groups and the United States, Harrison wished to confer with several Indian groups. This meeting, in his opinion, would have to be held at Fort Wayne, since there was no doubt the Indians would refuse to come to Vincennes. But Harrison promised that nothing would be done until he received specific directions from Dearborn concerning this matter. In late May, 1805 Harrison reported that he no longer considered it advisable to go to Fort Wayne:
First from the probability that my services will shortly be required here [Vincennes] to hold a session of the Legislature and secondly Because I think it would be a sacrifice of that dignity and authority which it is necessary to observe in all our transactions with the Indians. We are not conscious of having done them any wrong but as they pretend to think otherwise they have been invited to come forward and state their grievances and every assurance has been given that for any injury which may have unintentionally have been done them ample remuneration shall be made. As they
38. Harrison to the Secretary of War, Vincennes, March 3,
1805; Dft.
Ex. 119.
224 |
have declined this invitation I think it would be improper for us to descover too much solicitude to give them satisfaction lest they would attribute that to fear which is purely the effect of justice and benevolence, an error which the Indians above all the people in the world are prone to imbibe.
In order to disabuse their minds of any "false statements and misrepresentations," Harrison sent Col. Francis Vigo, a prominent Vincennes business man, to the Miamis and Potawatomis and Gen. John Gibson, Secretary of Indiana Territory, to the Delawares.
Harrison also reported that during "the course of this Spring [1805]" he had
seen all the chiefs of the Weas one excepted- A large deputation from the Kickapoos of the Prairie an other from those of the Vermilion River, Almost the whole band of Eel River Indians and the only Chief of the Delawares who was not present at the late Treaty with that Tribe in none of them have I discovered the smallest signs of discontent & I am persuaded that if it does exist it exists no where but in the immediate neighborhood of Fort Wayne and the Indians there are no more effected by the Treaties with the Delawares & Piankshaws than the Mandans of the Missouri.39
Less than a month later, Harrison again reported re the dispositions of
the various Indian groups.
The Piankeshaws the Weas the Eel River Miamis the Putawatimies of the Wabash & the Kickapoos of the Vermilion River have lately been with me & I am persuaded that they are more warmly attached to us than they have ever been.
39. Harrison to the Secretary of War, May 27,
1805; Dft.
Ex. 119.
225 |
According to Harrison, the Potawatomi of St. Joseph, the only Indian group controlled by Little Turtle, were the only Indian group actively opposed to the cession of Area 49.40
In June, 1805 Gibson and Vigo visited various Indian villages within the present State of Indiana. At the Delaware towns on White River Gibson upbraided the Delaware chiefs for their statements concerning the Treaty of Vincennes of August 18, 1804 which he, Gibson, knew to be false since he had been the interpreter at this Treaty (7 Stat. 81:83). In the end many of the Delawares' principal warriors and young men were convinced that their chiefs had in truth ceded the land in question. One of the reasons the Delawares advanced to Gibson for having denied this cession was that they had been told that "the sum specified in the treaty was a mere nothing and that they were cheated and imposed on." They had also been told that "if they would deny having made the treaty a new one would be made & [a] much larger Consideration given."41
Through the two emissaries, Gibson and Vigo, the Indians were persuaded to attend a formal conference which was to be held at Vincennes with Harrison. Little Turtle, in the name of the Miamis, demurred at setting a precise date for this conference, saying the Potawatomis had to be consulted first. However, Pacane, one of the chiefs from the Miami village on
40. Carter, Territorial Papers, vol. 7, p. 294;
Dft. Ex.
69.
41. Gibson and Vigo, Vincennes, July 6, 1805; Dft. Ex. 152. Harrison to the Secretary of War, Vincennes, July 12 [10], 1805; Dft. Ex. 119.
226 |
the Mississinewa, privately declared that "the Turtle had no right to say the Indians wanted time to think on it, that was not the case." He, Pacane, "wanted to go on to Vincennes now and would go at any time."42
The Indians started to gather at Grouseland, Harrison's home near Vincennes, early in August 1805. On the 10th of August Harrison reported that the Delaware, Miami and Eel River chiefs had arrived, as well as some of the Potawatomis. Other Potawatomis were expected momentarily, and the Delawares had finally acknowledged that they had made a treaty of cession the previous year (Treaty of August 18, 1804; 7 Stat. 81). No formal journal of the proceedings of the Treaty of August 21, 1805 is extant; the only records which relate to the actual proceedings are three letters written by Harrison to Dearborn dated August 10, August 26, and September 16, 1805.
The first part of the conference which preceded the signing of the Treaty of August 21, 1805 (7 Stat. 91) was devoted to discussions as to validity of the Delawares having ceded Royce Area 49 at the Treaty of August 18, 1804. The Indians readily agreed to all the articles in this Treaty of August 18, 1804, except Article 4, which recognized the Delawares as the rightful owners of "all the country which lies between the Ohio and White River" (7 Stat. 81:82).
42. Minutes of a council held at Fort Wayne, June 21, 1805, Harrison to the
Secretary of War, Vincennes, July 12,
[10] 1805; Dft. Ex.
119. Gibson and Vigo, Vincennes, July 6,
1805; Dft. Ex. 152.
43. Harrison to the Secretary of War, August 10, 1803; Dft. Ex. 152.
227 |
The discussion between the Delawares and the Miamis on this point lasted several days. All the while the Miamis
strenuously contended, that the declaration which they made, on that occasion, meant nothing more than an assurance to the Delawares, that they should occupy the country as long as they pleased, but that they had no intention to convey an exclusive right.
At the beginning of the conference Harrison had made it plain to the Delawares that it was their responsibility and theirs alone to prove the validity of their claim to the land between the White and Ohio rivers and that he would take no part in this discussion. In spite of Delaware protestations the Miamis refused to admit that they had granted to the Delawares anything more than a usufructuary right to this land. Finally, the Delawares were forced to admit defeat and conceded this point. Harrison attempted to effect a compromise between the Miamis and Delawares by suggesting that the Miamis cede some land (roughly equating with Royce Area 72, eastern Area 56, perhaps a small part of southeastern Area 99) which the Miamis had formerly recognized as belonging to the Delawares in 1803, and that the Delawares' annuity for Area 49 should be changed from a temporary, 10-year annuity, to a permanent one. This compromise almost passed, but one Miami chief objected and prevailed upon the others to refuse Harrison's suggestion.
At the beginning of the council both the Miami and Potowatomi
|
|
chiefs had hinted at the
necessity of increasing |
228 |
But Harrison assured them that he would not pay them a penny for land already ceded by the rightful owners. He did tell them, however, "that they might obtain a further annuity by a further cession of land." From this statement arose the eventual cession of Area 56, at this Treaty, by the Miamis, Eel River and Weas.44
In Article I of the Treaty of Grouseland of August 21, 1805 (7 Stat. 91) the Delawares relinquished their claim, "for the sake of peace and good neighbourhood," to the White River-Ohio River lands, and released the United States from its previous acknowledgment of Delaware ownership of these lands, made in the Treaty of August 18, 1804 (7 Stat. 81).
In Article II of the Treaty of Grouseland the "Miami, Eel River, and Wea tribes" ceded to the United States a tract now designated as Royce Area 56. Area 56, it might be noted, lay within the southern part of the large White River-Ohio River tract the Delaware had relinquished "for the sake of peace and good neighbourhood."
In Article III of the Treaty of Grouseland the United States agreed to pay, as compensation for the cession of Area 56, permanent annuities to the Miamis ($500), the Eel Rivers ($250) and the Weas ($250); and also, to the Potawatomis, an annuity of $500 "for ten years, and no longer."
In Article IV it is stated that "the Miamis, Eel River, and Weas, were formerly and still consider themselves as one nation" and "have determined that neither of these tribes shall
44. American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 701;
Dft. Ex.
96.
229 |
dispose of any part of the country which they hold in common." Therefore the United States engaged to "consider them as joint owners of all the country on the Wabash and its waters, above the Vincennes tract,. . .not. . .ceded to the United States, by this or any former treaty." The United Stakes also engaged not to purchase any of this country without the consent of "each of the said tribes" (Miamis, Eel Rivers and Weas). A provision was made, however, that nothing in Article IV should weaken or destroy "any claim which the Kickapoos," who were not represented at the Treaty, might have "to the country they now occupy on the Vermillion river."
In Article V of the Treaty of Grouseland "The Putawatimies, Miami, Eel River, and Wea tribes" acknowledged the Delawares' right to have previously ceded Royce Area 49. It is also stated in this Article that Area 49 had been "given by the Piankashaws to the Delawares, about thirty-seven years ago."
The last two Articles of the Treaty, VI and VII, are formal ones concerned with delivery of annuities and ratification.
Five Delawares, three Potawatomis, five Miamis, three Eel Rivers, and three Weas signed the Treaty of Grouseland of August 21, 1805. Harison served as commissioner and the Treaty was witnessed by twelve top-ranking public officials of Indiana Territory, as well as "Wells, Agent of Indian Affairs," and "Vigo, Colonel of Knox county militia." Two sworn interpreters were used.
At least two of the three Potawatomi signers of the Treaty, Topanepee and Wenameck, can be identified. Topinebe was a St. Joseph Potawatomi chief and Wenameck was a Potawatomi of the Huron. Both Topinebe and Wenameck had signed the Treaty
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