THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed.
The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or
standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather,
indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was
published.
Spanish Describe
Tribesmen
(1777)
In: Wisconsin Historical
Collections, vol. 18,
pp. 366-367.
The Mascuten Tribe
This tribe is composed of two hundred warriors. The name of the principal chief of this tribe is El Tander. They are located eighty leagues overland from this village, on a river called Aguas Bajas [Low Waters], distant from the Misisipy river by La Belle Riviere one hundred and twenty leagues next to a village of the English called Post Vensen [Vincennes].88 We have never heard that this tribe has done any harm to this district. On the contrary, whenever any of them are wont to come to this village, we experience great affection in them and considerable quietness.
Quicapu [Kickapoo].
This tribe is composed of three hundred warriors. The name of the principal chief of this tribe is Pacana.89 They are lo- (page 367) cated one-half league from the tribe of the Mascuten on the said river of Aguas Bajas. The same things are to be said of this tribe as of the above.
The Pu Tribe [Potawatomi]
This tribe is composed of one hundred and fifty warriors. The name of the principal chief of this tribe is Unan Guise. They are located two hundred leagues from this post, on a river called San Joseph which rises in a lake called Michipan located at a distance of sixty or seventy leagues from the Misisipy. This tribe has been well affected to the French, but they are somewhat in revolt at present, and are evilly inclined, and cause many thefts in this district.
The Tribe of Otabuas [Ottawas]
This tribe is composed of three thousand warriors.
The name of the principal chief of this tribe is Pondiac. They are located
one-quarter league from the district of Detroit in Canada, at a distance of
three hundred leagues from this village. This tribe is especially well affected
towards this district; and as we have heard are not very well satisfied with
the English; for they are thinking of coming to locate in this district.
___________________________
88 "Aguas Bajas" is apparently the old Spanish name for Wabash River. The tribe near Post Vincennes was the Piankashaw, not Mascoutin. The latter dwelt in the neighborhood of Ouiatanon.- Ed.
89 Although the permanent villages of the Mascoutin and Kickapoo were near Fort Ouiatanon, on the Wabash, yet these tribes appear to have been much with the Piankashaw, near Vincennes, and under the influences of their great chief, Tobacco's son, who adhered to the Americans in the War of the Revolution, and was of much service to George Rogers Clark in his conquest of Vincennes. Pacan was a Miami and the head chief of that nation for many years. He opposed the treaty of Greenville, as well as those of 1805, 1814, and 1815. He died on the Wabash soon after the last mentioned date.- Ed.
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