USA > Indiana > Centennial history and handbook of Indiana : the story of the state from its beginning to the close of the civil war, and a general survey of progress to the present time > Part 9
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Louisiana and Indiana .- When the vast tract known as the "Louisiana Purchase," secured from France in 1803, came to be organized it was divided into two districts and the northern part called the "District of Louisiana," a large part of it lying immediately west of the Illinois country, was attached to Indiana for purposes of government, though not made a part of our territory. Our governor and judges established several laws for the District of Louisiana that were separate and apart from the laws for Indi- ana. This arrangement was not practicable and on March 4, 1805, Louisiana became a separate territory.
Letters of Decius .- Like all public men Gov- ernor Harrison was subject to the virulence of his enemies, and much of the criticism leveled at him is, by the light of history, vicious and unwar- ranted beyond excuse. A series of attacks on him, which is referred to so often that it is some- what famous, is known as "The Letters of De- cius." Decius was Isaac Darneille, who in 1805 published his "Letters" in "The Farmer's Li- brary," of Louisville, and afterward issued them in a pamphlet. These communications were not only criticisms of Harrison's public acts and poli- cies, which, of course, might have been quite warranted, but they reek with a personal spite which was the fashion among critics at that day. To such extremes did "Decius" go that even- tually the editor of the publishing paper, J. Vail, printed an apologetic explanation discrediting the author and giving his name.
CHAPTER V
THE DANGER PERIOD-INDIAN HISTORY
Indian Relations .- From the first invasion of the whites to the close of the war of 1812, in which the power of the red man in this region was finally and effectually broken, constituted what may be called the danger period of Indiana history. During those years the frontier settlers were never free from the risk of savage warfare, and from time to time the smoldering hostility broke forth fiercely. The causes of this were, in the first instance, the Indians' resentment at the never-ending encroachment of the white race, and, in the second, the unscrupulous conduct of very many of the whites in their relations with the red men. The policy of the government to- ward the Indians, in theory, at least, was pro- tecting and conciliatory, but its salutary inten- tions were continually overriden by an element that had small regard for an Indian's rights. Gov- ernor Harrison, who manifested a real interest in the welfare of the aborigines, has testified to the abuses they suffered. "Their people," he affirmed, "have been killed, their lands settled on, their game wantonly destroyed and their young men made drunk and cheated of the peltries which formerly procured them necessary articles of clothing, arms and ammunition to hunt with. The frontiersman," he said, "thought the killing of an Indian meritorious," and he cited instances of Indian murders that went unpunished. While they bear this, as he said, with patience, and at that time showed no disposition for war, he feared their ready alliance with any enemy the United States might have .* The disposition of adventurous whites to ignore boundary lines and to intrude upon the Indian lands could never be prevented by the government, though it pro- claimed that such parties intruded at their own risk and, in case of Indian vengeance, were be- yond the pale of governmental protection.
Distribution and Territorial Claims of the Indians .- When Indiana Territory was cre- ated the aboriginal population was estimated at one hundred thousand (Webster), though we find no statement as to the actual number within
the limits of the present State. The tribes in these latter limits consisted mainly of the Miami Confederacy, the Potawatomis and the Dela- wares. At the Greenville treaty of 1795, the Miamis, through Little Turtle, their spokesman, claimed to have held from "time immemorial" a large territory that included all of Indiana. Such other tribes as occupied any part of that region seem to have done so by invitation or sufferance of the Miamis. What was known as the "Miami federation," as represented here. consisted of the Twightwees, or Miamis proper. the Ouiatanons or Weas, the Eel Rivers and the Piankeshaws. Their towns were mostly along the Wabash, from the site of Fort Wayne to Vincennes, each of the various sub-tribes having its own locality. The Potawatomis occupied that part of the State lying north and northwest of the Miami country, as far eastward as the head waters of the Tippecanoe and Eel rivers, and the Delawares had the White river valley, their most eastern town standing where Muncie now is. Other tribes, notably Kickapoos, Shawnees. Win- nebagos and Wyandotte or Hurons had towns in the Miami country. The south part of the terri- tory east of the Wabash is said to have been com- mon hunting ground. We hear of aboriginal vil- lages here and there throughout that region, but whether these were in any sense permanent or other than the shifting villages of hunting par- ties is not established.
The vagueness of the Indian claims and their loose validity is illustrated by the fact that the Potawatomis and Delawares, though said to have been occupying Miami territory, yet figured in the treaties for land sales and shared in the money and goods that were paid .* One thing
* In the American state papers (Public Lands, vol. ii. p. 373) is a petition to congress under date of February 24, 1820. from the "Muhbeaknunk or Stockbridge nations of Indians." otherwise the Mohicans, in which the petitioners claim that ante- cedent to the Revolutionary War the Miamis had granted to them and to the Delawares and Munsees a tract of land situated on the waters of White river (in Indiana) equal to 100 miles square. These Mohicans, under the second article of the hurt Wayne treaty of September 30, 1800, chained to be the "lawful proprietors of an equal and n landed share of the Delaware territory and asked for a made therefor."
* Harrison's letter to secretary of war in 1801.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
that contributed to this vagueness was the shift- ing westward of the Ohio Indians by Wayne's treaty of 1795, leaving those tribes without any clearly defined lands of their own. General Wayne was asked to apportion the territory re- maining to the Indians by "fixing the bounds of every nation's rights," but declined the delicate task .* Naturally, then, all the resident tribes came to regard themselves as having a right in the lands they occupied, and when these lands came to be sold made their claims accordingly.
Conditions In First Decade .- During the first decade of Indiana Territory, the United States government was nominally at peace with the Indians north of the Ohio. That is, there were no campaigns and not much armed demon- stration, and the series of land treaties during that period bespoke friendly relations. This seeming friendliness, however, is belied by the straggling chronicles we have of attacks and re- prisals between the frontiersmen and marauding war parties of savages. A repeated source of aggravation was the land question and the fact that the chiefs who signed away the various tracts, one after the other, did not represent the sentiment of all the Indians who conceived that they had rights in the land. This, as will be re- lated elsewhere, was the prime cause of the trou- ble that culminated in the battle of Tippecanoe. There was also, doubtless, the deep-seated feel- ing that the government, with all its professions of fairness, was exercising the merciless power of a dominant race. As a matter of fact in the policy of the government it was a foregone con- clusion that the white man was to possess the land-the boundaries of future States were es- tablished before any of it had been purchased : and when the time came he bought pretty much on his own terms. What kind of terms these were may be seen from a letter of Harrison's to Jefferson which stated that the purchase of 1805 amounted to about one cent per acre, but that he "hoped to get the next cession enough cheaper to bring down the average." In connection with this purchase he also said that a knowledge of the value of land was fast gaining ground among the Indians.t In brief there existed in connection with the land purchases an undercurrent of dis-
satisfaction that played its part in making the early years a "danger period ;" and the further fact that hunters, invading the Indian lands in search of pelts, had almost exterminated the larger game, kept the young men of the tribes on the verge of warfare. William M. Cock- rum, in his "Pioneer History of Indiana," has rescued from this obscure period some accounts of Indian adventures that savor of the annals of Kentucky's "dark and bloody ground."
Ranger Service of 1807 .- Mr. Cockrum, in the work above mentioned, also published certain valuable papers of a Captain William Hargrove which revealed that in 1807 the troubles were so acute that a ranger service was organized to patrol the frontier. This body was formed into three divisions, one taking the country from the Wabash eastward to the neighborhood of the French Lick springs; another from that point to the falls of the Ohio, and the third from the falls to Lawrenceburg. The commander of one of these divisions was Captain Hargrove, and the papers mentioned, being letters of instruction to him from John Gibson, secretary of the ter- ritory, throw considerable light on that particular period and its dangers .*
Tecumtha and the Prophet .- A factor in our Indian troubles that became historic was the in- fluence of the Shawnee chief, Tecumtha (often written Tecumseht) and his brother, known as the "Prophet," and the part that influence played in precipitating important issues. These two re- markable Indians first appeared in Indiana his- tory in 1805, among the Delawares on White river, where the Prophet fomented a witchcraft craze which resulted in the murder of several victims accused by him, and which had somewhat the complexion of a crusade of vengeance against those who were friendly to the whites and who had sanctioned the sales of land. In 1808 the two appeared among the Potawatomis and es- tablished themselves at the mouth of Tippe- canoe river a few miles above the site of Lafay- ette. Here they drew about them Indians of various tribes and the place became known as the Prophet's Town. The Prophet was a re- ligious teacher whose propaganda was a strange mingling of ethics, wisdom and gross supersti-
* Dunn's "True Indian Stories," p. 74.
See Webster's "William Henry Harrison's Administration of Indiana Territory;" an excellent monograph in vol. iv, Ind. Hist. Soc. publications.
* Cockrum's "Pioneer History of Indiana," pp. 202-29.
" The form "Tecumtha" seems to be adopted by the best In- dian authorities.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
tion. He claimed to be a divine spokesman and to have supernatural vision, and this seems to have been the great source of his power among his followers. This power he exercised in the furtherance of the plans conceived by his brother, Tecumtha.
Tecumtha was one of the most notable Indians of history, being an aboriginal orator, patriot and statesman. Foreseeing the ultimate destruction of his race, the effort of his life was to stop the advancing host of the white invaders, and to this end he planned and worked to federate the red tribes and thus create a power that could hope to stem the oncoming tide. The heterogeneous gathering at the Prophet's Town was but a nu- cleus of the federation that was hoped for. He took a bold and consistent stand against the selling of lands to the United States government, maintaining that many of the Indians concerned did not agree to these sales, and that they were not valid without the consent of all the tribes. The claim of the Shawnees was based on the fact that when, by the treaty of 1795, the whites took Ohio and the Ohio Indians were all pushed back into the Miami territory in Indiana, they too became part owners of that territory (Dunn). When, in 1809, a new treaty cut off about three million acres more from the Indians' holdings and carried the boundary line far up the Wabash, Tecumtha's opposition became threatening. In 1810 he visited Vincennes with his retinue for a council with Governor Harrison, and expressed his views with such plainness that a clash was narrowly averted. His final assurance at this memorable conference was that if the whites crossed the old boundary line with their sur- veyors there would be bad consequences.
After this Tecumtha went on a tour among the tribes of the south to spread his doctrine of In- dian federation and during his absence the de- cisive battle of Tippecanoe was fought, ending his dreams of a successful resistance. When the war of 1812 broke out he joined the British and was killed in the battle of the Thames.
After the battle of Tippecanoe the Prophet, who had precipitated that battle and urged his followers on, assuring them that the bullets of the enemy could not harm them, fell into disre- pute among his people, and after living in "a sort of disgrace" among various bands, died be- yond the Mississippi in 1834.
THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE
The battle of Tippecanoe, the most important clash of arms that ever occurred on Indiana soil. if we except the storming of Vincennes by George Rogers Clark, was directly brought about by the land troubles spoken of above. As said, these became more acute after the purchase of a large tract in 1809, largely by reason of the protests of Tecumtha and the influence of the Prophet. Besides the danger of incursions by irresponsi-
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The Plan of the Battlefield of Tippecanoe and Route of Harrison's Army .- Courtesy of State Librarian D. C. Brown.
ble hostile bands, serious hostility was evidently brewing among the tribes, with the Prophet's Town as source and center, though the fomenters of it avowed peaceful intentions. Governor Har rison repeatedly sent messengers not only to the Tippecanoe town but to other villages of the various tribes to promote amity and to warn them against the danger of hostility to the United States, but the situation was not mended and the predatory raids on the frontier continued until, on July 31. 1811, the citizens of Knox county, at a public meeting, declared that there could be no safety until the Prophet's combina-
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
tion was broken up by prompt and decisive measures, and such measures were recommended to the governor and the president. Harrison and those who knew Indian character best shared the belief that a vigorous threat, backed by an actual show of power to enforce it, was the only de- pendable remedy, and the outcome of the situa- tion was the mobilizing of a little army of about nine hundred men consisting of United States troops and Indiana militia with about sixty volun- teers .from Kentucky (Dillon). The purpose of this force was not to actually attack the In- dians, unless circumstances made it necessary, but to establish a military post within the terri- tory that was the immediate source of trouble, thence to proceed to the Prophet's Town by way of a demonstration and awe the troublesome tribesmen there into compliance with demands that had been made upon them.
The expedition left Vincennes September 26, 1811, and on October 3 reached a favorable spot for the proposed post, on the high ground above the site of Terre Haute. Here the force re- mained until the last of the month, building the fort, which was named in honor of the governor, then resumed the march, arriving at Tippecanoe on November 6. Indian messengers met the whites for a parley and, after Harrison's assur- ances that the first intention was not an attack but a conference, he was directed by them to a camping place on high ground, where wood and water were procurable. Here the army en- camped, expecting the conference on the mor- row, but Harrison's familiarity with Indian methods forbade reliance on Indian honor, and, prudently, the men slept on their arms, prepared to meet any contingency at a moment's notice. The precaution was fortunate, for before day- light the following morning an attack was made by a large body of Indians so sudden and fierce that the assailants were fairly in the camp before many of the soldiers could get out of their tents. The conflict lasted from about a quarter past four till daylight and only preparedness and desperate fighting saved the army from rout and massacre. When, after the foiled and beaten Indians were driven from the field, the whites took stock of their losses they found that thirty-seven of their number were slain and a hundred and fifty-one of them wounded. How many Indians were en- gaged is not accurately known, but they have
been estimated at from six hundred to eight huir dred. Their loss was also unknown but ex- ceeded that of the whites, as thirty-eight were found dead and others were carried off. The defeated savages abandoned their town and the victors burned it to the ground.
A trial by arms at this time was contrary to the plans of Tecumtha, who was then in the south. The Prophet was responsible for it. His power over his followers was such that he made them believe the enemy's bullets could not harm them, and during the fight he stood aloof urging them on by singing his mysterious incantations in a voice so stentorian that from it he took his name of La-lu-e-tsee-ka, or the "Loud Voice" (Dunn). With his defeat his influence was de- stroyed and he became a sort of outcast.
Harrison's army was composed of nine com- panies of regulars, six companies of Indiana mi- litia (infantry), five companies of riflemen, two companies of dragoons and a company of scouts and spies. About one-fourth of the force were mounted (Dunn).
Importance of Tippecanoe .- While the bat- tle of Tippecanoe did not put an end to Indian hostilities it was, nevertheless, a fight of such importance as to merit the term "decisive." Probably it decided to no small degree the fu- ture of Indiana, for whereas it effectually checked the political plans of Tecumtha and de- stroyed the dangerous influence of the Prophet, Indian victory would doubtless have accelerated these, and what the frontier would have suffered with its protecting army defeated is beyond guessing, especially when we consider the fast- following war with England.
The impress it left on the minds of the peo- ple was strong and abiding. No less than half- a-dozen counties in the State were afterward named for heroes of Tippecanoe. It made for Governor Harrison a military reputation which opened the way to conspicuous service in the war of 1812 and which as late as 1840 carried him to the presidential chair of the United States after the most enthusiastic political campaign the country has ever had. The spot where the conflict occurred is to-day the one battlefield which Indiana owns and fittingly preserves as a memorial of those who fought and fell there. The ground was presented to the State in 1835 by General John Tipton, who was a participant
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
in the battle. An obscure account that has never found its way into the histories is to the effect that on the 21st of November, 1830, the bones of those killed on the field nineteen years before were collected and interred "by a large concourse of people with due gravity and respect," the re- mains being put in one large coffin on the lid of which, formed of brass nails, was the inscription, "Rest, Warriors, Rest." General Harrison, who
THE WAR OF 1812
One factor in our Indian troubles from the be- ginning was the encouragement offered the say- ages by the British in Canada. England had never reconciled herself to the occupancy by the Americans of the territory wrung from her by George Rogers Clark, and it is an established charge in our histories that, even during the pe-
ROSENOW & Co. CHI
Views Near the State Soldiers' Home, Lafayette. No. 1-Tippecanoe Battleground. The spot shown here is where the battle raged fiercest on November 7, 1811. No. 2-Prophet's Rock, near the Tippecanoe Battle- ground, from which point it is said a prophet directed the Indian warriors and witnessed their defeat. No. 3-Old bark wigwam at "Tecumseh Trail." No. 4-Old log cabin on "Tecumseh Trail."
was to have been the leading figure on this occa- sion, was kept away by illness and General John Tipton took his place.
Apropos to this interment, it is further stated that after Harrison's troops had buried their dead and withdrawn from the field after the battle, the Indians returned, dug up the bodies and scalped them, leaving them unburied .*
* Ind. Journal, Nov. 3, 1830; Ind. Democrat, Sept. 25. 1830; Niles' Register, Nov. 27, 1830.
riod of peace between the nations, the Indians of the northwest received their arms and ammuni- tion from our old-time for and were secretly backed up in their hostilities. When the brew- ing troubles between America and England cul- minated in a declaration of war in June. 1812. the latter nation found ready allies among the red people notwithstanding the fact that as late as May of that year, at a grand council on the Mississinewa. the majority of the tribes there
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY AND HANDBOOK OF INDIANA
professed a desire for peace with the United States. That summer there was little hostile demonstration, but during that time English suc- cesses emboldened the tribes and in early Sep- tember there occurred in two places widely sep- arated one of the fiercest assaults and the worst massacre in the history of the State.
Attack on Fort Harrison .- The assault mentioned was that on Fort Harrison on the fourth of September. 1812. This post, built by Harrison in his Tippecanoe campaign the year before, guarded the frontier farthest north and the river approach to Vincennes, some sixty miles below. At this time it was commanded by Captain Zachary Taylor (afterward president of the United States) and garrisoned by a small force so enfeebled by fever and ague that, by Taylor's account, there were not more than ten or fifteen able-bodied men. On the 4th the com- mandant had warning of the proximity of In- dians and so, fortunately, was on his guard. Nev- ertheless one of about 600 warriors that quietly surrounded the fort that night, managed, under the cover of darkness, to drag himself to the walls of one of the buildings with a bundle of combustibles on his shoulders and the first intimation the sentinels had of an attack was when the walls were ablaze. The barracks caught fire and not only the women and children, of whom there were nine, but the men themselves were thrown into panic and despair. Taylor's presence of mind saved the situation. He saw that by throwing off the roof of the barracks building and saturating the walls with water the flames could be combated with promise of suc- cess, and when he ordered the men to this task they fell to with a will, led by a Doctor Clark, the post surgeon, though a galling fire was di- rected upon them by the skulking savages from the woods. At this hazardous work one man was killed and two wounded, but the blaze was sub- dued and a barricade of pickets put up across the gap in the stockade caused by the fire. Mean- while the rest of the garrison, by the glare of the flames, were pouring their fire into such of the Indians as dared venture into the open, and thus managed to hold them off until daylight. when the besiegers withdrew, driving with them quantities of live stock .*
Despite the seemingly overwhelming force of
the assailants Taylor lost only three men, besides two or three wounded. At the beginning of the attack two men got over the stockade for the purpose of escaping but one was killed and the other one, wounded, returned to the gate and begged to be let in. He was obliged to lie there hidden until morning. The Indians who made the attack were supposed to have been Pota- watomis, Kickapoos, Winnebagos and Miamis.
When word of the assault traveled to Vin- cennes troops were sent and the place reinforced, but the Indians never returned.
Pigeon Roost Massacre .- Almost simulta- neous with the Fort Harrison attack occurred the most diabolical event in our Indian history -- the "Pigeon Roost" massacre. What was known as the Pigeon Roost Settlement consisted of sev- eral families that made a little community in what is now Scott county. This settlement, founded in 1809, was separated from any other by several miles, and was confined to about a square mile of territory (Dillon, p. 492). On the third of September, 1812, this settlement was attacked by a band of about a dozen marauders, said to have been Shawnees, who, scouring the locality and going from cabin to cabin, mur- dered within a space of an hour, twenty-two per- sons, sixteen of them being children and five of them women. Prior to this general killing, two men, Jeremiah Payne and Isaac Coffman. were shot in the woods. Most of the cabin homes were burned down. The victims, besides Payne and Coffman, were Mrs. Jeremiah Payne and her eight children, Mrs. Richard Collings and seven children, Henry Collings and his wife, Mrs. John Morris, her only child, and her mother-in-law .*
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