Piankashaw Locations (ca. 1783-ca. 1795), pp. a-127-135
/pg. a-127/
Preliminary articles of peace between the United States and Great Britain were arranged in 1782, and 1783 and a definitive Treaty of Peace was signed at Paris on September 3, 1783. (See Bemis, Dft. Ex. A-2, pp. 128-129 for a discussion of this treaty.) This did not immediately end English intrigues against the United States in the west, however, and Great Britain still endeavoured to control her former lands north of the Ohio River, at times by encouraging Indian opposition against the United States. The later "Jay's Treaty" of November 17, 1794 was intended to solve this problem, among others, for what was then called the Territory north and west of the Ohio River, and to ensure the end of British-Indian intrigues against the United States in that area. (See
/pg. 127/
discussion of this in ibid., Dft. Ex. A-3, pp. 169-170) The United States during this time was trying to consolidate her position in the Northwest Territory and in the world as a sovereign nation. The Constitution of the United States, adopted in 1787, concentrated executive powers in the central governing body and limited the independent actions of the separate states in various areas including the conduct of Indian affairs. See discussion in Nevins, Dft. Ex. A-1, pp. 125-126; Myers, Dft. Ex. A-2, pp. 28-29) One of the mayor problems facing the central government at this time was the pacifying of the various Indian groups and the reconciling of them to United States authority. Treaties were made with them, battles fought, economic pressures exerted, and negotiations of all kinds were undertaken. All of this activity will be dealt with here only insofar as Piankashaw Indians took part in them or were specifically affected by them.
The first emissary from the central government to the Indians in the west, Ephraim Douglass, wee sent out by the Secretary of War to announce to the western Indians that peace had been made by the United States with Great Britain. He was forestalled in his attempt to collect them at Sandusky by a British call to the Indians to come to a council at Detroit. (Douglass, Dft. Ex. A-13, pp. 264-270) On July 6,1783 the British officer at Detroit, De Peyster, announced the American's message to the Indians. De Peyster told the Indians to keep peace with the United States
and assured them that he could by no means give them any future assistance against 'the people of America.' (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-13, p. 270)
/pg. 128/
Douglass, in his report on his mission, stated that
at this meeting were the Chiefs of eleven Indian Nations, comprehending all the Tribes as far South as the Wabash. They were Chipewas, Otawas, Wyandots or Hurons, Shawneze, Delawares, Kickaboos, Oweochtanoos, Miamis, Pootawotamies and Pienkishas with a part of the Senecas; most of whom gave evident marks of their Satisfaction at seeing a subject of the United States in that Country. (Idem)
These Indian groups were not identified further.
The next notice of Piankashaws was that of John Filson who included a listing of the "28" Indian nations east of the Mississippi in his widely circulated early history on Kentucky, which was first published in 1784. Because of his lack of actual contact with the western Indians at that time, Filson's locations for most of the Indians in the list are inexact, but do reflect current ideas. Filson's statements on Piankashaw and Vermilion Indians, based on information compiled before he had made any trip up the Wabash River, follow:
The Piankashaws reside about 160 miles up Wabash River:-
The Vermilion Indians about 60 miles higher;-- and the Wyahtinaws about 30 miles still further up the same river. (Filson, Dft. Ex. A-32, p. 364)
Included in this same publication are the minutes of a council that an American, Thomas Dalton, held with Piankashaw Indians at Vincennes on April 15, 1784 which indicates their reaction to the news that peace finally had been made between England and the United States. (Dalton, Dft. Ex. A-32, pp. 359-362) The Piankashaw Indians said they were pleased to have peace and that they had been forced to make war for the British side by poverty. They promised to send all the American prisoners they
/pg. 129/
had to Dalton and Costea, a Piankashaw chief, at the Falls of the Ohio in a month. Dalton notes those present at the Vincennes council as follows:
Muskito, capt. Beaver, Woodes and Burning, Badtripes, Antia, Mantour, Castia, Grand Court, with many other chiefs and war captains, and the principal inhabitants of the post of St. Vincent's. (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-32, p. 362)
Not all of the Indians named can be identified as Piankashaws from other sources, but the names indicate that Piankashaws were present. In a manuscript account posthumously published, Filson described a trip he made to Vincennes from Louisville by the Ohio and Wabash rivers in the fall of 1785. Although he does not specify what kinds of Indians he saw, he does say that after entering the Wabash River from the Ohio he and his party met numbers of "friendly" Indians either in canoes or encamped along the bank. (Filson, Dft. Ex. A-86, pp. 325-326)
In his description of this trip, Filson identifies the Indians "residing near where the Post now Stands" as Piankashaws, and says the Indian village adjoining that of the French was called "Gibacohque." (Ibid , Dft. Ex. A-86, p. 328)
Despite the friendly intentions stated by both Indians and Americans, for the first several years the signing of the Treaty of Peace of 1783, amicable relations did not in fact exist, and depredations continued to be committed by both sides. The Americans, especially at Vincennes and in Kentucky, were anxious by 1786 about their being able to survive in the west, so numerous and deadly had the Indian attacks and counter-attacks become. (See,e.g., Spring,
/pg. 130/
Dft. Ex. A-333; Brasher, Dft. Ex. A-128; Filson and others, Dft. Ex. A-59, pp. 456-457) One exploit in which apparently friendly Piankashaws were attacked is given by a resident of Vincennes as follows:
We hear that he [Capt. James Patton, who, with John Hardin, led an expedition from the Falls of the Ohio ostensibly for the relief of Vincennes] Defeated a party of peankeyshaws on the Seleen [probably Saline River in Royce Area 48 in southeastern Illinois], killed seven and wounded four of their principle Warriors, and is returned Back with plunder he took of a considerable value, which in all the account we can give of him. (Small, Dft. Ex. A-59, p. 462)[see Footnote 39]
The Patton-Hardin expedition may have been partly in retaliation for a Piankashaw attack at "La Riviers de Embarras five leagues [ca. 12 1/2 - 15 miles] below the Post [Vincennes]" (in Royce Area 26) in the spring of 1786 "two days before Easter Sunday" on a "Batteau from the falls" in which the Indians killed the owner and wounded two of the men in the boat. When this news was brought to Vincennes a party of 30 Americans set off to take revenge, met the American party that had been attacked, and persuaded them to "attack the first Indians they met." These happened to be "Indians of the Post" who had only left it two days before and could not have been responsible for the attack on the batteau. Nonetheless the Americans attacked them but were defeated, with three men killed immediately and nine wounded some of whom later died, while the Indians had only one man wounded. (Park; Dft. Ex. A-83, pp. 29 -31; See also LeGras, Dft. Ex. A-70, pp. 175-181; Denny, Dft. Ex. A-36, pp. 291-292; LeGras, Dft. Ex. A-59, pp. 462-467)
On May 29,1786, perhaps in part as a result of such unwarranted attacks and the influx of American squatter, Montour, a Piankashaw Indian Chief, sold some of the lands.
/pg. 131/
of the Indian village at Vincennes to "Simon Spring" and "Francois Bosseron [Busseron]," citizens of Vincennes. (Montour, Dft. Ex. A-273) About this time other Indians also sold other bits of land around Vincennes to its citizens; other Indians had sold lands near Vincennes earlier (See, e.g., La Manvaise Tate, Dft. Ex. A-277; Nebrushe and his wife, Dft. Ex. A-279; Morrangdon, Dft. Ex. A-276). William Sargent, as Secretary of the Northwest Territory and acting for the governor, Arthur St. Clair, in his investigations of American land claims in the Vincennes area reported that the last of the Piankashaw Indian village lands in the village of Vincennes, amounting to 150 acres, had been sold by individual Indians to Whites by 1786. "Sargent, Dft . Ex. A-17, p. 325) As a result, the Piankashaw population near Vincennes must have diminished in numbers by the end of 1786 as these Indians sold their lands and moved away.
Clark determined to quell the native disturbances on the Wabash by making a punitive expedition against the Indians living on that river. He arrived at Vincennes in October of 1786, started out on the expedition, but was forced to return after a few days without accomplishing anything because most-of his men refused to continue. (See, e.g., Denny, Dft. Ex A-36, p. 293; Brashear, Dft. Ex. A-128; Bauvais, Dft. Ex. A-70, pp. 190-191; Harmar, Dft. Ex. A-103, pp. 18-19; Clark, Dft. Ex. A-108, pp. 122,213; May, Dft. Ex. A-108, pp. 156-157)
Because of continuing frontier disturbances, reported usurpation of public lands by private citizens and armed men, and uncertain legal conditions after the individual states (especially Virginia, ceded to
/pg. 132/
the United States their claims to the western lands, the United States was forced to consider measures of effectively establishing law and order. (See,e.g., New York, Dft. Ex. A-16, pp. 3-5; Virginia, Dft. Ex. A-16, pp. 6-9; Massachusetts, Dft. Ex. A-16, pp. 10-12; Connecticut, Dft. Ex. A-16, pp. 22-24; Knox, Dft. Ex A-16, pp. 26-27, 31-35; Harmar, Dft. Ex. A-103, pp. 19-22; Dalton, Dft. Ex. A-179) To control the chaotic situation Congress passed the Land Ordinance of 1785 setting up methods of disposing of the western lands, (U. S. Continental Congress, Dft. Ex. A-16, pp. 12-18) and devised regulations for the conduct of Indian affairs (August 7, 1786). (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-16, pp. 19-22) The Secretary of War, in addition to the giving of presents to the Indians and making of peace treaties with them, decided also to concentrate troops in the west to awe both the Indians and the-Whites into quiescence. (Knox, Dft Ex. A-16, pp. 31-35)
On April 24, 1787 the Continental Congress also resolved
That the Secretary of War direct the commanding officer of the troops of the United States in Ohio to take immediate and efficient measures for dispossessing & body of man who have in a lawless and unauthorized manner taken possession of Post st Vincents in defiance of the proclamations and authority of the United States and that he employ the whole or such part of the force under his command as he shall judge necessary to effect the Object. (U. S. Continental Congress, Dft. Ex. A-28, p. 231)
The American Lt. Col. Josiah Harmar received these orders from the Secretary of War and proceeded to carry them out. (Harmar, Dft. Ex. A-103, pp. 22-23) He arrived at the Falls of the Ohio in June and immediately made preparations to go to Vincennes. He planned to take
/pg. 132/
the United States their claims to the western lands, the United States was forced to consider measures of effectively establishing law and order. (See,e.g., New York, Dft. Ex. A-16, pp. 3-5; Virginia, Dft. Ex. A-16, pp. 6-9; Massachusetts, Dft. Ex. A-16, pp. 10-12; Connecticut, Dft. Ex. A-16, pp. 22-24; Knox, Dft. Ex A-16, pp. 26-27, 31-35; Harmar, Dft. Ex. A-103, pp. 19-22; Dalton, Dft. Ex. A-179) To control the chaotic situation Congress passed the Land Ordinance of 1785 setting up methods of disposing of the western lands, (U. S. Continental Congress, Dft. Ex. A-16, pp. 12-18) and devised regulations for the conduct of Indian affairs (August 7, 1786). (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-16, pp. 19-22) The Secretary of War, in addition to the giving of presents to the Indians and making of peace treaties with them, decided also to concentrate troops in the west to awe both the Indians and the-Whites into quiescence. (Knox, Dft Ex. A-16, pp. 31-35)
On April 24, 1787 the Continental Congress also resolved
That the Secretary of War direct the commanding officer of the troops of the United States in Ohio to take immediate and efficient measures for dispossessing & body of man who have in a lawless and unauthorized manner taken possession of Post st Vincents in defiance of the proclamations and authority of the United States and that he employ the whole or such part of the force under his command as he shall judge necessary to effect the Object. (U. S. Continental Congress, Dft. Ex. A-28, p. 231)
The American Lt. Col. Josiah Harmar received these orders from the Secretary of War and proceeded to carry them out. (Harmar, Dft. Ex. A-103, pp. 22-23) He arrived at the Falls of the Ohio in June and immediately made preparations to go to Vincennes. He planned to take
/pg. 133/
with him the goods the Indian Commissioners were to distribute as gifts, and asked for permission to distribute some himself if necessary, since the Superintendent of Indian affairs for the Northern Department (Richard Butler) was not going to be at Vincennes. (ibid.Dft. Ex. A-56, pp. 21-22) Harmar arrived at Vincennes after an overland march on July 17; his provisions and other supplies, which were transported by water, arrived a week later. (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-56, pp. 34-36) Harmar immediately set about his business of trying to establish order, to investigate the land claims of French and American inhabitants, and to conciliate the Indians of the region.
In the meantime (July 13, 1787) the Continental Congress had passed "an Ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States North west of the river Ohio" setting up the formal organization and means for governing the territory, (U. S. Continental Congress, Dft. Ex. A-16, pp. 39-50) and on July 21, 1787 resolved
That the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the northern department and in case he be unable to attend then col Josiah Harmar immediately proceed to post St. Vincent, or some other place more convenient in his Opinion for holding a treaty with the Wabash Indians, the Shawanese and other hostile tribes, that he inform those Indians that Congress is sincerely disposed to promote peace & friendship between their citizens and the Indians; that to this end he is sent to invite them in a friendly manner to a treaty with the United States to hear their complaints, to know the truth end the causes of their quarrels with those frontier settlers and having invited those Indians to the treaty he shall make strict enquiry into the causes
/pg. 134/
of their uneasiness and hostile proceedings and form a treaty of peace with them if it can be done on terms consistent with the honor and dignity of the United States, (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-16, p. 50)
together with other resolutions to protect U. S. sovereignty n the Northwest Territory and to implement the projected peace treaty to be held with the Indians. (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-16, p. 51)
Harmar in his report of August 7 concerning his activities at Vincennes to the Secretary at War, mentions that on July 28, 1787
eight Piankeshaw Indians arrived from the Terre haut up the Wabash in consequence of Colonel Legras information to them of the troops coming to the post. On the 29th I had a conference with them & presented them with 13 strings of wampum, and assured them of the friendly disposition of the United States, & advised them not to listen to what many bad people might say to the contrary. I sent a message by these Indians to all the chiefs of the different tribes on the Wabash, inviting them to assemble here & hear what I had to say to them. These Indians were well pleased, they presented me with a calumet. I gave them some small presents, and they set off on the 31st to deliver my message to the different chiefs. (Harmar, Dft, Ex. A-56, p. 37)
Harmar expected the Indians to take at least a month to assemble at Vincennes.( Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-56, p. 38)
Major Ebenezer Denny, who was among Harmar's subordinate officers on the expedition to Vincennes, described the same Piankashaw visit. He reported that they "were timorous, having considered their Americans as their enemies," (Denny, Dft. Ex. A-36, p. 307) and that this was the result of Clark's attempted attack the previous year. Denny reported that these Piankashaws "who inhabit the upper waters"' of the Wabash seemed glad to become reconciled with the Americans and went off,
/pg. 135/
"intending to return and bring with them all the chiefs of the Wabash nation." (Idem)
On the evening of August 4, Denny records that ''three Indian men" (Idem) came in to Vincennes who had been down at the mouth of the Wabash with Lieutenant Armstrong who was to bring up the remainder of Harmar's supplies. These Indians reported that "forty Piankeshaws were lying in wait, at the Grand Rapids in the Wabash River, for Lieutenant Armstrong's fleet." (Ibid.; Dft. Ex' A-36, p. 308) Hamtramck immediately set out with reinforcements to the aid of Armstrong, and the whole party arrived at Vincennes safely on August 5, apparently without encountering hostile Indians. (Idem., see also Buell, Dft. Ex. A-35, p. 156; Harmar, Dft. Ex. A-56, p. 37) Harmar rebuked the Indians for this attempt and an earlier attack made on a supply boat, but the Indians truthfully or not, denied their guilt. (Ibid., Dft. Ex. A-56, p. 37) Lt. Armstrong's description of his trip casts some doubt on their protestations since he reported that "Monture [Montour]," a Piankashaw chief from Vincennes, was the leader of this group of forty Indians who were "of different tribes" (Armstrong, Dft. Ex. A-56, pp. 41-44)
On September 5 a number of Piankashaw and Wea Indians arrived at Vincennes from up the Wabash. Harmar reported to the Secretary at War that there were about 120 of them. (Harmar, Dft. Ex. A-56, p. 51) Denny noted in his journal the more conservative estimate of 100. (Denny, Dft. Ex. A-36, p. 309) During this conference Harmar tried to impress the Indians with both the good intentions and the military
Footnote 39: LeGras, Dft. Ex. A-59, pp. 462-467 and ibid., Dft. Ex. A-70, pp. 175-181 for a more connected and complete relation of the background for this event, and Spring, Dft. Ex. A-333.[return to text]
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