256 |
Native Locations in Royce Area 71 During English and American Sovereignty (1760-1795). In 1760 when the French lost Montreal, Canada came under English control, and British officers were sent out to the French posts in the Ohio and Illinois country. There developed however much native discontent with the British, due partly to lack of British trade goods. In 1763, in the Pontiac Uprising, the Indians captured all the British posts save three- Forts Niagara, Detroit, and Pitt. Fort Ouiatanon was taken by stratagem on June 1, 1763.60
The Indians involved at Ouiatanon were probably Weas, Kickapoos and Mascoutens; in 1765 George Croghan British Indian agent, found those three groups living there.61
Colonel Henry Bouquet, British officer, in his account of his expedition against the Ohio Indians in 1764 listed the Kickapoos, Weas, and Piankashaws as living on the Wabash, with populations of 300 warriors or a total population (according to Bouquet) of 1,500 souls for the Kickapoos, 400 warriors or a total population of 2,000 for the Weas, and 250 warriors or a total population of 1,250 for the Piankashaws.62 These figures seem extravagant. They were derived from a French trader at Detroit.
George Croghan, British Indian agent, after having been captured by Kickapoos and Mascoutens in June, 1765, near an
60. Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, vol. 10, pp. 12-13;
Dft. Ex.
67.
61. Ibid., vol. 11, pp. 29-34; Dft. Ex. 67.
52. Smith, Historical Account . . ., p. 155, Dft. Ex. 144.
257 |
old Shawnee town below the mouth of the Wabash, was taken north along the Wabash to their villages at Ouiatanon. Croghan was taken first to Vincennes, where there was a village of French and also a Piankashaw village. For several days after leaving Vincennes on his northward journey, he and his captors travelled through large meadows, referred to as the Piankashaws' hunting grounds. Croghan stated that the Piankashaws of the Vermilion River had their hunting grounds in the meadows south of the Vermilion River. The village of Piankashaw at Vermilion River was called Vermilion Piankashaw. Croghan did not mention meeting any Kickapoos, Mascoutens, or Weas in addition to those who had captured him, until he came within six miles of Fort Ouiatanon. The Kickapoos and Mascoutens had two villages near the Fort, where about 14 French families also lived, on the north side of the Wabash; the Weas had one village on the south side of the river.63
During this trip and his brief captivity Croghan succeeded in gaining the consent of the Indians living along the Wabash and in the Illinois country,for the English to take possession of the former French posts. Croghan reported that the Indians
were willing to comply, as the other Nations their Brethren had done and desired that their Father the King of England might not look upon his taking Possession of the Forts which the french formerly Possest as a Title for his Subjects to possess their Country, as
63. Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, vol. 11, pp. 29-34;
Dft. Ex.
67.
258 |
they never had sold any part of it to the French & that I might rest satisfied that whenever the English came to take possession they would receive them with open Arms.64
The Weas, Miamis, Piankashaws, Kickapoos, and Mascoutens confirmed their promise to be friendly to the English and to help them establish themselves in the former French posts, at a conference they attended later that year in Detroit.65 At this conference they also reaffirmed the fact that they had not sold lands to the French, adding that if the British wanted to keep the posts they should give "proper returns" to the Indians.
They then spoke on a Belt & said Father, every thing is now Settled, & we have Agreed to your taking possession of the Posts in our Country. we have been informed, that the English where ever they settle, make the Country their own, & you tell us, that when you Conquered the French, they gave you this Country. That no difference may happen hereafter, we tell you now the French never Conquered [us] neither did they purchase a foot of our Country, nor have [they a right] to give it to you, we gave them liberty to settle for which they always rewarded us & treated us with great Civility while they had it in their power, but as they are become now your People, if you expect to keep those Posts, we will expect to have proper returns from you.66
A British officer, Lt. Alexander Fraser, who made a trip west in 176666a
reported thus on the Ohio Indians:
64. Ibid., vol. 11, p. 42;
Dft. Ex.
67.
65. Ibid., vol, 11, p. 44; Dft. Ex. 67.
66. Ibid., vol. 11, pp. 47-48; Dft. Ex. 67.
66a. Ibid., vol. 11, p. 72; Dft. Ex. 67.
259 |
There are no Indian Nations living contiguous to the Banks of the Ohio but those two I have Just mention'd (the Delaw: & Shaw.) & the Mingos or Senecas who live a little above Fort Pitt- excepting those of Ouabache, on which there are five nations [in margin: Ouiachtonons, Quicapous, Mascoutains, Peankishaw & Vermillion], settled besides a French Village call'd St Vincent in which there are about Sixty Farmers who raise a considerable quantity of wheat & Tobacco, and have a good Stock of Cattle.67
The French citizens of Vincennes in 1738 pleaded their right to be granted some lands by the United States on the basis of their "purchases" in 1768 from the "Pianquicha Indians" of lands which began
at Point coup? twelve leagues above the Poste by water, down to the mouth of White river twelve leagues below said Poste; and is to extend forty leagues to the Eastward & thirty to the Westward which contains about eight millions of acres.68
This grant was at least in part confirmed by a deed made in 1775 to Louis Viviatte and other land speculators.69 It was further confirmed by the statement of an American officer, General Rufus Putnam, which was made when Putnam transmitted the treaty he had made with the Wabash Indians in 1792. Putnam wrote that the Piankashaws denied the validity of any sale of lands to the speculators, but that they did acknowledge they had given the French the lands
67. Ibid., vol. 11, p. 227, Dft. Ex. 67.
68. Carter, Territorial Papers, vol. 2, pp. 92-94; Dft. Ex. 69.
69. See below, pp. 264-265.
260 |
mentioned in the 1775 deed.70 This area included the southeastern portion of Royce Area 71 (see Map 5).
In 1766 the British army officer, Lt. Thomas Hutchins, in his Journal written on a trip from Fort Pitt to the mouth of the Ohio, merely noted without locating them precisely that the Weas, Kickapoos, Piankashaws, and Mascoutens lived on the Wabash.71
In the spring of 1769 Monsieur de Sainte Ange, commandant of the Illinois, reported the Indian tribes who were accustomed to receive presents in the "District of Ylinueses." He included the Piankashaws, Orinanons, (Ouiatanons or Weas), Kickapoos, Mascoutens, and Miamis all as being "of the district of Ouabach."72
In 1773 Sir William Johnson remarked that
Custaloga chief of the Delewares with a hundred of his Nation have retired on invitation below the falls of Ohioto, [Ohio to?] the Wabash Indians, there are still eight hundred Delewares & Munsies at their former places of residence about Ohio but many of them talk of removing lower down . . .73
Johnson added that these Indians were planning to hold con-
70. American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 340;
Dft. Ex.
96.
71. Indiana Historical Society Publications, vol. 2, p. 420; Dft. Ex. 79.
72. Houck, Spanish Regime, vol. 1, p. 44, Dft. Ex. 88.
73. Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York, vol. 8, p. 396; Dft. Ex. 83. Custaloga did not go west, but a group of Delaware headed by Welendaw?chen were living on or near the Wabash in about 1776. (Moravian Archives. Box: Moravian Indian Missions. Heckewelder. Envelope: The Names of all the different Nations in North America; Dft. Ex. 147).
261 |
ferences with the Wabash and Cherokee Indians in July, 1773.74
In June of 1776 some Delawares who were settled near the mouth of the Wabash River planned to attend a treaty at Vincennes to be held between the English and the Kickapoos.75 This confirms Johnson's statement that at least some Delawares had accepted the Wabash Indians' "invitation," even though no mention of a definite location for any Delawares in Royce Area 71 in 1776 has been found.
The Delawares none-the-less, claimed all of the eastern two-thirds of Area 71, by 1779. In a speech to Washington and Congress on May 10, 1779, the Delawares laid claim to
all the Lands they have long Inhabited and Hunted on . . . From the mouth of the Alegany River at Fort Pitt to Venango & from thence up French Creek & by Labeuf along the old Road to Presqu'Isle on the East The Ohio River Includeing all the Islands in it from Fort Pitt to the Wabachee on the South. Thence up the River Wabache to that Branch call'd Opecomeecah [White River] and up the same to the Head of it, & from thence to the Head Waters & Springs of the Great Miami or Rocky River, thence across to the Head Waters & Springs of the most Northwestern Branches of Scioto River, thence to the Head Westernmost Springs, of Sandusky River, Thence down the said River Including the Islands in it and in the Little Lake to Lake Erie, on the West & North West and Lake Erie on the North. These Boundaries contain the Cessions of Lands made to the Delaware Nation by the Wyondots and other Nations, & the Country we have seated our Grand
74. Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York, vol.
8, p. 396;
Dft. Ex.
83.
75. Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, vol. 8, p. 15; Dft. Ex. 67.
262 |
Children the Shawnese upon in our Laps.76
This 1779 claim was a great increase over that made by the Delaware chief Captain White Eyes, at a meeting of the Commissioners for Indian Affairs on October 9, 1775 (see Map 8, this Report). Captain White Eyes had stated:
I now also Acquaint you that my Uncles the Wiandots have bound themselves the Shawanese Tawaas and Delawares together and have made us as one People and have also given me that Tract of Country Beginning at the Mouth of Big Beaver Creek and running up the same to where it interlocks with the Branches of Guyahoga Creek and down the said Creek to the Mouth thereof where it empties into the Lake along the Side of the Lake to the Mouth of Sanduskey Creek and up the same to the head untill it interlocks with Muskingum down the same to the Mouth where it Empties into the Ohio and up the said River to the Place of Beginning I also now acquaint my Uncles the Six Nations that my Uncles the Wiandots have given me that Tract of Country.77
By the claim of 1779 Delaware lands were extended to include the southern
two-thirds of Royce Area 72, all of Royce Area 56, and the eastern two-thirds
of Royce Area 71. The basis for the westward extension of the Delaware claim
may have been the "Wabash" Indians' invitation to the Delaware
mentioned by Sir William Johnson in 1773 and the gift of lands mentioned in two
treaties (see below), as well as the permission to settle in the area,
mentioned by the Tobacco's son, a Piankashaw chief, in 1779.
76. Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 23, pp.
320-321; Dft. Ex. 64.
See Map
8, this Report.
77. Thwaites and Kellogg, Revolution on the Upper Ohio, pp. 86-87; Dft. Ex. 137.
263 |
In the Treaty of August 18, 1804 ceding Royce Area 49, it was stated the Delawares had exhibited to the commissioner (Harrison)
sufficient proof of their right to all the country which lies between the Ohio and White river, and the Miami tribe who were the original proprietors of the upper part of that country having explicitly acknowledged the title of the Delawares at the general council held at Fort Wayne in the month of June 1803, the said United States will in future consider the Delawares as the rightful owners of all the country which is bounded by the white river on the north, the Ohio on the south. . . (7 Stat. 81:82).78
It was also stated that the Piankashaws had
obstinately persisted in refusing to recognize the title of the Delawares to the tract of country ceded by this treaty. . . (7 Stat. 81:82)79
Despite the Piankashaws' objection, the Delawares' right to lands between White River and the Ohio is supported by the fact that in the Treaty of Grouseland of August 2, 1805, when the Delawares released the United States from its recognition of a Delaware claim to the lands, the Potawatomis, Miamis, Eel Rivers, and Weas acknowledged the Delawares' right to have sold Area 49,
which tract was given by the Piankashaws to the Delawares, about thirty-seven years ago (7 Stat. 91:92).80
In an itinerary of "The Road from Detroit to the Illinois," endorsed
as prepared by a Mr. Hay in 1774, the Ouiatanon Fort was located
on the right [going downstream] about 70 yards from the River [Wabash], the Ouiattanon Nation of Indians is on the opposite side, & the Keccaposis are
78. The eastern two-thirds of Area 71 lies within this tract.
79. Royce Area 49 was ceded by the Piankashaws on August 27, 1804 (7 Stat. 83), nine days after the Delawares ceded it.
80. Ca.1768, i.e.,about 37 years before Grouseland.
264 |
round the Fort in both villages about 1000 men able to bear arms.81
From the Ouiatanon Fort down the Wabash to the Vermilion River was 60 miles. "A mile up it is a Village of Peankeshaws of upwards of 150 men."82 This Vermilion River village was about 60 miles from Terre Haute and 130 miles from Vincennes.83
In 1775 a group of land speculators bought much of southeastern Illinois and southern Indiana from 12 Piankashaw chiefs from Vincennes and the Vermilion area. The territory purchased consisted of the lands on the Wabash from the mouth of present-day Wild Cat Creek which is slightly upstream from present-day Lafayette, Indiana, to Point Coupee, the point on the Wabash River where the northern boundary of Royce Area 26 crosses the Wabash, and from the mouth of White River to the mouth of the Wabash. The area between Point Coupee and the mouth of White River, which the French claimed they had obtained from the Piankashaws in 1768, was reserved to the inhabitants of Vincennes. The grant claimed by the French had been for 40 leagues (ca. 100 miles) to the east of the Wabash and for 30 leagues (ca. 75 miles) to the west of the river.84 All of Royce Area 71 was included ln the deeds. Whether the Piankashaws realized
81. Holdimand Papers, B 27: pp. 296;
Dft. Ex.
121.
82. Ibid., B 27: p. 297; Dft. Ex. 121.
83. Idem.
84. Carter, Territorial Papers, vol. 2, p. 92; Dft. Ex. 69. American State Papers, Public Lands, vol. 2, pp. 119-120; Dft. Ex. 92.
265 |
the extent of their sales to the French and to the land company is a question not to be answered here. The sales indicate, however, that the Piankashaws felt that they had interests in the lands along the Wabash from the area around Ouiatanon to the juncture of the Wabash with the Ohio River.
There was some native dissatisfaction with the 1775 sale by the Piankashaws, according to the Lieutenant Governor of Canada, Henry Hamilton. Hamilton viewed this dissension among the other Indians as a hopeful sign that the Wabash Indians would not support the American rebels.85
Although the 1775 sale was a private transaction and was not recognized by either the British or the American Government, it still was being considered by the United States Congress in 1788. Members of Congress wondered if the United States could recognize it, and thereby not have to pay the Indians again for these lands.86
There was much unrest among the Indians of the Wabash in the 1770's, partly as a result of the American Revolution, and in 1778 Lieutenant-Governor Henry Hamilton set out in person from Detroit for Vincennes. In his report of the trip he made down the Wabash in the winter of 1778 in which he tried to secure the Wabash Indians in the British interests, Hamilton described the various Indians and villages he visited on the way. Many of the Wabash Indians who were away from
85. Historical Collections of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, vol.
9, p. 475;
Dft. Ex.
82.
86. Carter, Territorial Papers, vol. 2, p. 116; Dft. Ex. 69.
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