Locations of Piankashaws (ca. 1708- ca. 1763) PART 1 of 4 (pages 16-28)
/pg. 16/
There is mention of "Weas being on the Wabash as early as 1708 when a French trader obtained six canoes of furs from them (D'Aigremont, Dft. Ex. A-84, p. 441). If the trader used the term "Onyatanous" (i.e., Weas) in a generic sense as was done during this period by some French officials (see e.g., quotation below, and pp. 19-20), the possibility exists that some Piankashaws may have lived on the Wabash at this time.
By1718 Piankashaws were located on the Wabash in the vicinity of Ouiatenon (near the site of present-day Lafayette, Indiana) on the Wabash River. Jacques Charles Sabrevois de Bleury, formerly a commandant at Detroit, makes this clear in a memoir written "on the Savages of Canada as far as the Mississippi River." In writing about the different "Wea" groups he says:
It is on this ouabache River that the ouyatanons are settled. They have five villages, all built close together. One is called ouyatanons [Ouiatenon], another peangnichias, another peticotias, and another Les Gros; as for the last, I do not remember its name. But they are all ouyatanons. They speak like The miamis, and are their brothers; and indeed all the miamis have the same customs and style of dress. They number fully one thousand or twelve hundred men [ca. 4,000-4,800 persons]. (Sabrevois., Dft. Ex. A-115, p. 376). [see Footnote 8]
/pg. 17/
Sabrevois is using the term "ouyatanons" in two senses above - as a generic term covering all the Miami-speaking groups except the Crane band of Miamis whom he calls "miamis," and also as a term designating one particular village of Miami-speaking Indians. The map drawn in 1758 by the French cartographer Guillaume De Lisle shows "Miami" villages on both sides of the Wabash River at about the location of Ouitenon, and supports Sabrevois' statement that there were several Miami-speaking villages clustered around that area (Tucker, D M . Ex. A-106, pl XV and text) .
The French in that same year (1718) sent to the post at Ouiatenon the younger Sieur de Vincennes, Francois Margane de la Valterie, who had taken over his uncle's role of being the chief intermediary between official French policies and the "Miamis," and who later became identified especially with the Piankashaws (Vaudreuil, Dft. Ex. A-55, p. 174).
Philippe de Rigault, marquis de Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada in reporting to the Council of the Marine in France in October 1720 French troubles with the Fox Indians and the success of French policy of withdrawing "Miamis" and "Ouyatanons" from their locations which were too close to English and Iroquois influences, says
According to advices received from St. Joseph River and the Ouyatanons post, some savages of that nation, to the number of forty or 50, have gone to settle at the Teatiky [Kankakee], and it was Hoped that the rest would Follow Them this autumn. It is, however, to be Feared that the Pianginchias, who are more numerous than all the rest, may decide to remain where they are; for they have been solicited by the Canadians who have fled to Caskakias; Who have told the
/pg. 18/
Savages that they would take care to bring them merchandise, and that the officer who was in command in the country of the Ilinois, claiming that they were his dependents, was on the point of having their post occupied by an officer with a Garrison. This, according to my views, is wholly Prejudicial to the welfare of This Colony and to the union which ought to exist between the ouyatanons and the Miamis; for they are one and the same nation, having separated into two Bodies on account of the Jealousy of the Chiefs who formerly governed them. Besides, that nation has never been Considered as belonging either to the Illinois country or to Louisiana (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-115, p. 394).
Vaudreuil concludes his letter by saying that every effort will be ; made to move the Miamis to St. Joseph and to persuade all of the "Ouyatanons" to remove to the Kankakee (Ibid., D M . Ex.-A-115, p. 395). In this report Vaudreuil divides the "Miami" into Miamis and Ouyatanons, lumping in the second category at least the Piankashaws in addition to the Weas, with his statement that the Piankashaws were the most numerous of the Ouyatanon groups. Whether any of the Piankashaws were among the 40-50 Indians who did move to the Kankakee in response to French solicitations is not known. Apparently the majority, at least, intended to remain on the Wabash.
Vaudreuil's report reflects, also, in addition to French concern with English encroachments, another factor which influenced French relations with Indian groups in the Illinois-Indiana area--the squabbling over Jurisdiction and the rivalry that existed between the several French governmental divisions in the New World. The Kankakee River to which the French wanted them to move was the site of one of the Piankashaw's earlier villages.
/pg. 19/
Vaudreuil's fears about the non-cooperation of the Wea's groups in moving to the Kankakee River were realized by the fall of 1721. The "Weas" refused to move to the Kankakee village "en masse," and those few "Weas" who had gone there abandoned the location "on finding that the rest of the nation would not come" (Bourbon, Dft. Ex. A-115, p. 399).
In September 1726 the "Compagnie des Indies" (a commercial company formed in 1717 which had received a charter from France to exploit commercially the Louisiana colony and to form colonies on the Mississippi River) wrote to the Governor of Louisiana concerning what they thought ought to be done with the "Weas" to protect the colonies and the communications between Louisiana and Canada from the English. The Company had already given orders to establish a new post on the Wabash River, and had
requested the Governor of Canada, for his part, to instruct the Sieur de Vincennes, who is in command among the Ouyatanons- Miamis settled near the upper part Of the Wabash, to make arrangements with the commandant of the new post to bring that tribe nearer it, in order to protect the post and to watch the proceedings of the English and to drive them out in case they should approach, (Compagnie des Indies, Dft. Ex. A 263, p. 659).
Pierre Duque, Sieur de Boisbriant, who had been commandant in the Illinois country, in his comments on this plan, thought
it necessary to give the command of the post to M. de Vincennes, who is already a half-pay lieutenant of infantry in Louisiana, and will set the Miamis in action better than anyone else. (Idem).
Perier, the Governor of Louisiana, was to consider the question of the new post carefully. The Company did not want Vincennes to leave the
/pg. 20/
"Weas" and suggested that Vincennes might the communication between Louisiana and Canada from the English with the aid of the Indians if he were given "eight or ten soldiers and the Missionary intended for Wabash," (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-263, p. 600). As an inducement to Vincennes "to attach himself to the colony of Louisiana" Perier was to inform Vincennes that the Company would pay him "an annual gratuity of three hundred livres" in addition to "his half-pay as lieutenant," (Idem).
Jean Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, formerly Governor of Louisiana, in a memoir also written in 1726, reports that the "Miami" Indians were separated at this time into three villages.
Montreal from the Illinois country as follows:
The first, which retains the name of Miamis at the great village of the Crane, is established on the river of the same name which has its source in the same latitude as the Wabash and which empties into the Lakes of Canada. The second, which is called the village of the Weas and in which there are more than four hundred men [ca. 1,600 persons], is two hundred leagues up the Wabash on the left as one goes upstream, and several leagues lower down is the new village of Mercata or Piankashaw where there are at least one hundred and fifty men [ca. 600 persons]. (Bienville, Dft. Ex. A-98, p. 534)
Pierre de Boucher, Sier de Boucherville, in a narrative written upon his return from his adventure sin the Sioux country in 1728 and 1729, reports that after reaching the French fort at Kaskaskias and, having much trouble in ascending the Ohio River, he decided to go overland to Ouiatenon from Kaskaskias with some of the Jesuit missionary Jean Antoine Le Boulenger's people. (Boucherville, Dft. Ex. A-116, p. 55) He gives distances that he had to travel to reach
/pg. 21/
Montreal from the Illinois country as follows:
The distance from the Illinois to the Peanguichias is about 120 leagues and 15 leagues from the Peanguichias to the Ouyas; 60 leagues from the Ouyas to the Miamis; 120 leagues from the Miamis to Detroit; and 300 leagues from Detroit to Montreal; making 615 leagues in all. (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-116, p. 56)
This, taken with Bienville's statement above, seems to locate the new "village of Mercata or Piankashaw" about 15 leagues (ca. 37 miles). downstream from Ouiatenon, that is, near the mouth of present-day Vermilion River, a western tributary of the Wabash River. That the move made by the Piankashaws about 1726 was to the vicinity of the mouth of the Vermilion River is made more certain by the Pact that in April of 1732 Simon Reaume, commandant at the Ouiatenon post in 1732 and 1733, gave powder and bullets to Piankashaw chiefs identified as being located at the Vermilion River in an attempt to persuade them to move their village to the French post at Ouiatenon. (Reaume, Dft. Ex. A-281, Cll A67- 135) Why the Piankashaws moved from the vicinity of Ouiatenon to the Vermilion River is not known. Perhaps a partial explanation may be found in Vincenne's increasing identification with the Government of Louisiana and its interest in a settlement on the lower Wabash.
In the meantime the French governing officials of Louisiana. and of Canada had continued to debate the jurisdiction as well as the necessity for establishing a French post on the lower Wabash as an additional counteracting influence against English trade. As late as July 1728 Perier and another Louisiana official wrote concerning the projected post that after talking the matter over with Vincennes
/pg. 21/
it was decided that he would remain among the Miami, where he would have his itinerant fort [?] in order to avoid an expense which might become useless, because actually apart from the fact that the Miami might not all settle on the three rivers, those who stayed behind would be capable of lending a hand to the English, whereas by remaining among them, since he is loved and esteemed by this nation, he will have them do all that he will wish. We have given him 3,400 pounds of merchandise which he is taking back with him; it will serve in payment of his salary, bonus, subsistence for ten soldiers, and presents for the savages. (Perier, and De La Chaise, Dft. Ex. A55, p. 177)
This document indicates that Vincennes at this time was becoming more closely involved with the government of Louisiana than he had been. He also was granted use of 8-10 soldiers and presents for the Indians to make his efforts effective. In March of 1729 the planning had become advanced sufficiently so that the amount "for the presents to the Indians and the establishment of his [i.e., Vincennes'] post" could be commented on in a letter to the Directors of the Company of the Indies by their representatives. (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-97, p. 634) The post itself may have been established in 1729 and certainly was at least by 1730. On October 15, 1730 Charles de Beauharnois, governor of Canada and Gilles Hocquart, Intendant of New France complained that
/pg. 23/
missionaries to the Tamarois [an Illinois tribe], Who took a quantity of goods with them which they disposed of in the old post as usual. (Beauharnois and Hocquarts Dft. Ex. A-85, p. 71)[See footnote 9]
Here again "Wea" is used in a generic sense. It is evident from the statements of Vincennes and others (see below) that the Indians located near his fort at the location which later was called Vincennes, Indiana, were Piankashaws.
Despite this move of a number of Piankashaws to Vincennes' post on the lower Wabash which apparently surprised the Canadian government, some Piankashaws took part in an intensive battle against the Fox Indians in August and September of 1730. They arrived at the battlefield, located somewhere in the plains between the Illinois and Wabash rivers, together with the Weas. (Beauharnois, Hocquart, and De Villiers, Dft. Ex. A-116, pp. 111, 114-115) The move of Piankashaws to the Vermilion River and later south to Vincennes' post, thus, apparently did not indicate hostility between the Piankashaws and Weas. The Canadian officials were annoyed at their move but soon became reconciled to it as an accomplished fact. That some Piankashaws remained at the Vermilion River location when others moved south with Yincennes is made clear by Reaume's giving presents to the Vermilion Piankashaw chiefs in 1732 to get them to move to Ouiatenon. (Reaume, Dft, Ex. A-281, Cll A67: 135)
/pg. 24/
The 1731 budget for Louisiana showed an allowance made for a commandant at Wabash (i.e., Vincennes' post) and for the support of a fort there. (Maurepas, Dft. Ex. A-54, pp. 296-297)
Yincennes himself, however, writing in March of 1733, complained of the lack of official support he had received in furnishing goods. His complaint confirms the approximate founding date of the Vincennes post to be ca. 1729-1730.
The little experience I have acquired in the twenty (?) years I have been with them, makes me fear some bad return from these nations, especially mine [i.e., the various Miami groups] which sees an establishment that I have begun and which there has appeared no desire to continue in the past three years. (Vincennes, Dft. Ex. A-54, p. 304)
In the same letter Vincennes described the Indian groups he was supposed to control and keep from English influence as follows:
the Ouabache nation is composed of five tribes, which include four villages, of which the least is of sixty men bearing arms [ca. 240 persons] and in all about six or seven hundred men [ca. 2800-2800 persons]... (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-54, p. 303)
These four villages must have included the Indian village that became established at his post at Vincennes, since the other "Miami" villages referred to at this time were those of the Miami proper, the Wea, and the Piankashaw village at Vermilion river. (Perier and De La Chaise, Dft. Ex. A-98, p. 534) Perhaps the last village established, which was that at Vincenness post, had the 60 men, since he mentions, writing from his post, that he intends "to go to the large village" in a few days and then on to Canada. (Vincennes, Dft. Ex. A54, p. 307) This would give an estimate of at least 120
/pg. 25/
for the Piankashaws in their two villages, and a minimum population figure of about 480 Piankashaws.
In the same month Vincennes remarked that Chickasaw Indians, whose towns were located mainly near the Mississippi River south of the Ohio, and who crossed the Ohio at this general time period on raids, had killed one of the Indians of his post and his wife, and that
All [the Indians] from this place have gone even to their chief (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-54, p. 306)
to "strike" the Chickasaws. This expedition was undertaken despite the great mortality among the Miamis, Weas, and Piankashaws from small pox which Beauharnois thought was due to "the Brandy of the English" and might "disturb" his plan to subdue the Chickasaws. (Beauharnois, Dft. Ex. A-116, p. 175) Vincennes had already sent a number of Wea, Piankashaw, Potawatomi, Miami, Iroquois, and Ilinois Indian war parties against the Chickasaws. (Bienville and Salmon, Dft. Ex. A-98, p. 666) Vincennes' actions were reported to the French minister by Beaubarnois in July of 1733 who specifically identified the Indians of Vincennes' post as Piankashaws.
as soon as the Sr. de Vincennes became aware of my intentions [Beauharnoist decision to send Lake and western Indians against the Chickasaws. he made some Peauguichias go on the war path against the Chicachas. that they killed several of them and made two prisoners, whom the Sr. de Vincennes is bringing here. (Beauharnois, Dft. Ex, A-85, ps 108)
In July of 1734 Bienville reported that
the Piankeshaws, who are settled near our fort [i.e., Vincennest post], desire to draw to them a village of the same nation which is 60 leagues higher up. (Beauhernois, Dft. Ex. A-54, p, 330)
/pg. 26/
It is clear from this statement that the Piankashaws were still divided into two villages, one located at Vincennes post and the older one which was located in the vicinity of the mouth of Vermilion River. It is apparent from later events that the Piankashaws of the Vermilion village did not move downstream to join the Piankashaws at Vincenness post in response to this invitation.
In August of 1735 Bienville reported on the plans of Vincennes, again identified as being in command at the fort of the "Piankashaws," to attack once more the Chickasaw Indians with the Indians of his region. (Pienville, Dft. Ex. A-96, p. 265) Bienville had also learned from Vincennes
that the Miamis of our portage and those Of the Weas where, Sieur Despervance is in command are determined to go this autumn and settle near them [i.e., the English who were established "on the upper part of the Ohio River and who were working incessantly to win" the Indian groups over from the French; that the others of his post [i.e., the Piankashawas have refused to accept the necklaces that were sent to them for the same purpose. (Idem)
In October of 1735 Beauharnois, not having received as yet Bienville's letter, nevertheless reported to the French Minister information received from the governor of Illinois, Pierre d'Artaguette, that the Piankashaws had captured ten Chickasaws and taken the scalps of two men and one woman. (Beauharnois, Dft. Ex. A-116, p. 220)
An unidentified "Enumeration of the Indian Tribes connected with the Government of Canada" presented in 1736 lists the "Ouyattanons [Weas], Peanguichias, Petikokias," with totems of serpents deer, and. small acorn, as being "the same Nation, though in different villages."
/pg. 27/
Altogether these three had 350 men (representing a population of ca. 1400 persons) able to bear arms. (Dft. Ex. A-92, p, 1057) This estimate would probably not include the Piankashaws Of Vincennes' post which was outside of Canadian jurisdiction.
After Vincennes death in 1736 while on a raid with the Piankashaws against the Chickasaw Indians, Louis St. Ange, Sieur de Bellerive became commandant of the Piankashaw post. (Salmon, D M . Ex. A-54, p. 313; Bienville, Dft. Ex. A-96, pp, 328-329) St. Ange was appointed because he was known and liked by the Indians of the area and was expected to be able to influence them and the Indian war parties from the north which were frequently passing the Piankashaw post on their way to attack the Chickasaws to follow French wishes. (Bienville, Dft. Ex. A-96, pp. 328 329)
Piankashaws began to leave the village at Vincennes post after his death. In June of 1737 Blenville reported to the French Minister that
The Piankashaws, in whose country we have a post where the late Sieur de Vincennes commanded, have almost all left their village since his death with the exception of about fifteen men who are still with Sieur de St. Ange. They have gone higher up the Ousbache to another village. (Ibid, Dft. Ex. A-54, p. 311)
In another letter written to the minister in June of 1737 it is reported
that the Indians of that neighborhood - [i.e., Vincennesl post] wish to abandon it; that part of them have already retired to the old village of Vermillion, so that there remain only about twenty five men who have not deserted it. (Salmon, Dft. Ex . A-54, p. 313)
There is no evidence that the Vincennes post was completely abandoned by the Piankashaws at this times however, despite the fact that
/pg. 28/
many of them did return to their older village at the mouth of Vermilion River. The figures of ca. 15-25 men would represent an Indian population of ca. 60 100 persons still at the post.
The French-instigated raids to the south against the Chickasaws continued; the commandant at Ouiatenon reported that among the Indians Of his post active against the Chickasaws in the spring and summer of 1738 were "the savages of the Vermilion [i.e., Piankashaws]" who
had brought back three Chickasaw, one of whom was burned; the other two were granted life because they were children. (Linctot, Dft. Ex. A-55, p. 187)
Piankashaws also apparently took prisoners and scalps in 1740 or 1741. (Dft. Ex. A-116>
Another southern Indian group, the Cherokees, also were becoming a problem to the French. In 1741 Bienville reported on his plans to counteract the raids of the Cherokee Indians who were interfering with French navigation of the lower Ohio River. He had been of the opinion five years before
that it would be advisable to place the new fort planned for the Illinois at the mouth of this river of the Cherokees [12 leagues above the Juncture of the "Wabash"(i.e., Ohio) and the Mississippi rivers] in order to put a stop to the raids of that nation, but that it was necessary for that purpose to induce several allied nations to form villages near the fort. Consequently I sent word to the Kickapoos and Piankashaws and they had promised to come there. (Bienville, Dft. Ex. A-96, p, 749)[see Footnote 10]
Footnote 8: The generic use of the term Wea by the French may go back as far as 1687--see quotation of Deliette referring to the dispersal of various groups of "Weas," above.[return to text}
Footnote 9: The dividing line between the jurisdiction of the governments of Louisiana and Canada at this time ran through the vicinity of present-day Terre Haute, Indiana, about half way between the Vermilion River and the location of Vincennes.[return to text]
Footnote 10: The river of the Cherokees is the present day Tennessee River..[return to text]
[continue to
Location of the Piankashaws Part 2 of 4, pp. 29-37]
[return to
Dockett 99 Table of Contents]
[return to Ohio
Valley-Great Lakes Ethnohistory Archive Menu]
[return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology List of Publications]
[return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology Home]
Last
updated: 6 October 2000
URL: http://www.gbl.indiana.edu/home.html
Comments: gbl@indiana.edu
Copyright 1996, Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology and The Trustees of Indiana University