USA > Louisiana > Louisiana; comprising sketches of counties, towns, events, institutions, and persons, Volume I > Part 71
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The Chickasaws arrived at Hopewell a little later and a treaty was concluded with them on Jan. 10, 1786. The chiefs Piomingo and Mingotusha were both present, the former announcing that he was the head warrior of the nation. The Chickasaws promised to cede land for a trading post on the Tennessee river, and agreed to a frontier line for settlements. The commissioners reported "that if the adjoining states were disposed to carry the treaties into effect, the Indians would be happy in the new change of sovereignty and in constant amity with us." Georgia and North Carolina repudiated the treaties as invasions of the sovereignty of the states, and the Spanish, through Gov. Miro, declared the treaties were chimeras. They were however confirmed as part. of the supreme law of the land by the treaty of Coleraine (1796), and submitted to all parties concerned, after a struggle that occupied the entire adminis- tration of President Washington.
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Treaty of Natchez .- This treaty was made on May 14, 1790, at the "parochial church called the Savior of the World, of the said fort of the Natchez," between Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, colonel of the royal armies, governor of the fort and district of Natchez, and Tascaduca, king of the Chickasaw nation, Franchi- mastabia, principal chief of the Choctaw nation, accompanied by the chiefs Yteleghana, Stonahuma, Tapenahuma, and Neesahuma- acho, and in presence of many captains and warriors of both nations.
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The treaty was witnessed by Don Joseph Vidal, secretary, Carlos .de Grandpre. Blasdu Bouchet, Estevan Minor, Turner Brashears, Ryan (Bryan) Bruin. Gregorio White, Ygnacio Lopez, Augustin Macarty, Jorge Cochran. Francisco Candel, Luis Faure, Juan Girault, Carlos Todd. Ebenezer Fulson. Antonio Soler, Jorge Tompson, Guillermo Wushtoff, Jaime McFarland, Elias Smith and Kinneth Thompson.
The extracts of this treaty as below quoted are from the trans- lation appearing in American State Papers (X, 228). After pro- viding that "all the individuals of the Spanish, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations shall love one another reciprocally," and give each other prompt information, the treaty states:
Art. 2. "That to remove every motive of discord, which in future times might occur about limits, the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations acknowledge that the limits of the dominion of his majesty in the neighborhood of their territory on the western side, begin on the Mississippi river at the mouth of the river Zasu, and ascend- ing the said river along the middle of its waters till it comes near the place called Juego do la Pelota (ball ground), where the Eng- lish nation, by agreement with the Choctaw nation, marked a dividing line which continued until it entered West Florida, and following the said line from the said Juego do la Pelota, till it meets those which separates the rest of the dominions of his Catholic majesty from the Alibamones and Talipuche nations.
Art. 3. "The said Chickasaw and Choctaw nations declare. that all the lands which are to the south and to the west of the said line belong indisputably to his Catholic majesty, great king of the Spains and Indies, without that they for themselves or their descendants have any right to them, nor at any time 'may reclaim them under any pretext or motive it may be, and moreover they promise to support the Spanish nation in possession of the said lands, in which are specifically comprehended the government and territory of the Natchez, as far as the waters of the Zasu.
Art. 4. "The Spanish nation declares and acknowledges that all the lands to the east of the said dividing line of the 2nd article belong lawfully and indisputably to the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations, promising to support them therein with all their power."
The remaining 9 articles pledged harmony between the two na- tions and Spain : promised an ample conveyance of presents and goods to the Indians in return for the cession of all rights to the territory of the Nogales, adjoining the Yazoo: mutually confirmed the treaty of Mobile and all subsequent promises, etc. This treaty, with the treaty of Pensacola, was communicated to Mr. Jefferson. secretary of state. by Jaudenes and Viar. Spanish commissioners. in 1793, as a justification of Spanish interference in Indian affairs.
Treaty of 1793 .- According to Gayarre, Gov. Carondelet had the satisfaction on Oct. 28, 1793, through his agent and representative. Col. Gayoso, governor of Natchez. to make a reciprocally defensive and offensive treaty, between Spain on the one side and the Chick- asaws. Creeks, Cherokees and Alibamons on the other. The treaty
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of 1784 was ratified, and the Indian nations agreed in return for the . protection of Spain to contribute to maintain his Catholic majesty in possession of the provinces of Louisiana and the two Floridas.
Treaty of Chickasaw Bluffs .- This treaty was negotiated on Oct. 24, 1801, by Gen. James Wilkinson, Benjamin Hawkins and Andrew Pickens, with the mingo and 16 of the head men of the Chickasaw nation. Presents of $700 in value were made to the Indians, who in turn granted premission to build a wagon road on the Natchez trace, northward to the mouth of Bear creek on the Tennessee river and on to Miro district, or Nashville. The grant of 5 miles square at the mouth of Bear creek for the purposes of a trading post, obtained by the United States in 1786 under the treaty of Hopewell, had never been occupied, as the Spanish party among the Chickasaws had remonstrated. After this convention, Col. Butler and 8 companies of the 2nd infantry were ordered up the Tennessee, the route being changed to east of Bear creek, and Samuel Mitchell, Chickasaw agent, and 2 Indians were deputed to mark the line.
Treaty of Fort Adams .- This convention was concluded at Loftus heights (Fort Adams), Dec. 12, 1801, between Gen. Wilkinson, Benjamin Hawkins and Andrew Pickens, with the Choctaw nation, which was represented mainly by "Tuskonahopia, of the Lower towns, Mingo Poos Coos, of the Choctaw Half town, Oakchuma, Puckshumubbee and Elatalahoomuh, of the Upper towns, Buck- shumabbee, factor of a Mobile merchant. and Mingo Homassa- tubbe." The Indians received gifts valued at $2,000. The treaty provided that a road should be opened on the Natchez trace through the Choctaw country, as had been recently granted by the Chicka- saw nation, and that the old British line of Natchez district should be resurveyed and marked as a boundary line of the lands opened to settlement. The commissioners also proposed a road to the settlements on the Tombigbee and Mobile, but did not press it, as it would run through. the lands of the Six towns, a people friendly to Spain, whose head men were then in conference with the Spanish governor at New Orleans.
Treaty of Fort Confederation .- This treaty was concluded at Fort Confederation, formerly the French Fort Tombecbe, on the Tombigbee river, Oct. 17, 1802, by Gen. Wilkinson, with 1.800 representatives of the Choctaw nation. It was a provisional con- vention for a resurvey of the north line of the old British district of Mobile, or Charlotte county, so far as it lay above the Ellicott line, between the Chickasawhay and Tombigbee rivers. The recti- fication of the Natchez district frontier was also discussed. The line was duly surveyed by Wilkinson, Mingo Poos Coos and Alatala Hooma, and ratified by them as commissioners plenipotentiary, at Hoc-Backintoo-pa. Aug. 31, 1803. The boundary was defined as beginning on the Spanish line, in the Hatchee Comeesa or Wax river, up said river to the confluence of the Chickasawhay and Buckatannee; up the latter to Bogue Hooma or Red creek; up
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the latter to a pine tree near the trading path from Mobile to the Hewhannee towns, thence in various courses to Sentabogue or Snake creek. and down the same and the Tombigbee and Mobile to the Spanish line.
Treaty of Fort Clark .- In Nov., 1808, Meriwether Lewis, gover- nor and superintendent of Indian affairs for Louisiana Territory, and Pierre Chouteau, agent for the Osage Indians, met at Fort Clark, above the mouth of the Osage river, and negotiated a treaty with the Osages, by which that tribe ceded to the United States all their territory lying between the Arkansas and Missouri rivers east of line running due south from Fort Clark to the Arkansas river. This was the first large cession of lands west of the Missis- sippi made by any Indian tribe to the United States.
Quapaw Treaty .- By the treaty with the Quapaws, made in 1818, the United States acquired about 2,500,000 acres of land in the northern part of Louisiana. The cession was bounded as fol- lois: "Beginning at the month of the Arkansas river; thence up that stream to the Canadian ; thence up the Canadian to its source : thence south to the big Red river : down the middle of that stream to the big raft; thence in a direct line so as to strike the Missis- sippi river 30 leagues in a straight line below the mouth of the Arkansas." The following reservation was made from the cession : "Beginning at a point on the Arkansas river opposite the present Post of Arkansas and running in a due southwest course to the Washita river: thence up that stream to the Saline fork: thence up the Saline fork to a point from which a due north course will strike the Arkansas river at Little Rock: thence down the right bank of the Arkansas to the place of beginning."
Treaty of Harrington's Landing .- By this treaty, made on Nov. 15, 1824, the Quapaw reservation mentioned above was ceded to the United States, in consideration of payment of $500 to each of the four principal chiefs and an annuity of $4,000 in goods and merchandise and $1,000 in specie to the tribe for 11 years, in addi- tion to all previous annuities. At the same time the government took steps to amalgamate the Quapaws with the Caddo nation, the former agreeing to remove to the Caddo reserve on the Red river and to become a part of that tribe. The removal was made in. March, 1826, but on May 13, 1833, the Qnapaws were granted a . reservation of 150 sections west of the Missouri, and they severed their connection with the Caddoes.
Treaty of the Caddo Agency .- On July 1. 1835, Jehiel Brooks, acting as commissioner for the United States, negotiated a treaty with the Caddo Indians at their agency in Louisiana, by which that tribe ceded to the United States a tract of land "bounded on the west by the north and south line which separates the United States from Mexico: * on the north and east by the Red river from the point where the said United States boundary line intersects the said Red river, whether it be in the Territory of Arkansas or the State of Louisiana; following the meanders of said river down to its junction with the Pascagoula bayon; on
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the south by the said Pascagoula bayou ; by said bayou to its junc- tion with bayou Wallace; by said bayou and Lake Wallace to the mouth of the Cypress bayou; thence up said bayou to the point .of intersection with the first mentioned north and south line, fol- lowing the meanders of said water-courses ; but if the said . Cypress bayou be not clearly definable so far, then from a point which shall be definable by a line due west till it intersect the said first men- tioned north and south line. be the contents of land within said boundary more or less." By this treaty a considerable portion of the northwestern part of the State of Louisiana was relinquished by the Indians and opened to settlement.
Indian Village, a post-hamlet in the western part of Ouachita parish, is 4 miles southwest of Calhoun, the nearest railroad station.
Indian Wars .- For more than a quarter of a century after the first settlement was established at Biloxi by the French, the rela- tions between the white colonists and the natives were in the main peaceful, and were undisturbed by armed conflicts. The first serious trouble occurred in the fall of 1729, with the Natchez tribe, but as this disturbance was more in the nature of a massacre than a war, a full account of the event will be found under the head of "Natchez Massacre." The Chickasaw nation was charged by the French with being the chief instigator of the massacre. This .aggressive and warlike tribe occupied an extensive region north .of the Choctaws. Their villages once extended from the Cumber- land to the Tennessee, thence to the Mississippi and the head- waters of the Yazoo and Tombigbee. Their record is unique in the fact that they were never conquered by the whites, the Creeks. 'Cherokees, Shawnees nor Choctaws, with whom they were often at war. During the early French period, they professed friendship for the French, and often sent deputations to the posts at Biloxi and Mobile. However, they soon came under British influence. and were thenceforth guilty of numerous acts of aggression against the French. When they finally accorded an asylum to the Natchez refugees, after the final dispersal of that tribe in 1732, Bienville. who had returned to the colony as governor, sent an agent to the Chickasaws demanding the delivery of the Natchez in their midst. The answer of the Chickasaws was "that they and the Natchez now formed one nation, and that they consequently could not give them up." Bienville then determined to invade the Chickasaw country and made arrangements with the younger D'Artaguette, commandant of the Illinois post, to come down the river and effect a junction with him in the Chickasaw country early in the spring of 1736. D'Artaguette was ordered to bring with him all the Illinois Indians, French troops and settlers he could muster. Bien- ville planned to lead an expedition from New Orleans in person. and to penetrate the Chickasaw country by way of the Mobile and Tombigbee rivers. The place of rendezvous was "Tombeche" . (Jones's bluff, on the Little Tombigbee), where a company of sol- diers had been sent 9 months before to build a fort and cabins, as a resting place for the army. Bienville left New Orleans, March
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23, embarking his little army of 600 Frenchmen and negroes (45 of the latter under the command of Capt. Simon, a free mulatto) in boats and pirogues and proceeded first to Fort Mobile. On April 20 he reached Jones's bluff, where he was joined by his Choctaw allies under their head chief to the number of over 500. After a series of exasperating delays and difficulties the army finally resumed its march, proceeding up the Tombigbee both by land and water. On May 22 it reached a point on the Tombigbee (Cotton Gin) a little less than 30 miles from the Chickasaw vil- lages. Before leaving the river Bienville first caused to be erected some palisaded fortifications and a shed for the protection of his boats and supplies. He left here his sick men and a garrison of 20 men, and set out on the 24th through the woods and cane- brakes for the Indian villages, marching in Indian file with his Choctaw allies on his flanks. Two days later the army arrived at the edge of a fine open prairie whereon could be descried the various fortified villages of the enemy, over one of which floated the English colors and several Englishmen could be seen among the Indians. After a council of war an attack was ordered on the nearest of the fortified villages, known as Ackia and subsequently called Chickasaw Old Fields, distant some 3 miles from the present town of Tupelo, Miss., and only a few miles from the great council house of the tribe. In a fierce assault led by Bienville's nephew, Noyan, which lasted from 1:30 to 5 o'clock p. m., the French were repulsed with severe loss. As Bienville found his Indian allies unreliable both during and after the battle, had no cannon with which to reduce the Indian forts, having left his heavy pieces behind on the Tombigbee, was short of provisions and enenmbered now with many wounded, and having heard nothing from D'Ar- taguette, he determined on an immediate retreat. In retiring from the field of battle the French were even unable to bring off all their dead, and the following morning had the chagrin of seeing the naked corpses impaled on the palisades of the fort. The French officers appear to have fought with the utmost bravery, but the same can not be said of many of their men, among whom were many raw and ill-disciplined recruits. Among the gallant French officers who met their death in this bloody Indian fight were the Chevalier de Contre Coeur, De Lusser, captain of grenadiers and De Juzan, Noyan's aide-de-camp. Among the wounded were Noyan; D'Hauterive. captain of grenadiers; Grondel, lieutenant of the Swiss; De Velles and Montbrun. The brave Grondel, who later received the cross of St. Louis and had a distinguished career, narrowly escaped being scalped. As he lay bleeding and desper- ately wounded near the walls of the fort, he was rescued from the Indian tomahawk by the reckless daring of a grenadier named Régnisse, who ran to his relief amid the storm of bullets and bore him away to safety on his shoulders. Transporting his wounded on litters. Bienville slowly retreated with all his forces to the Tom- bigbee, which he reached on the 29th and found it so reduced in volume that he cast his cannon in the river and hastened down to
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Fort Tombigbee. Reaching here on June 2, he immediately sent forward the wounded and sick with all his surgeons, and departed himself the following day. Before leaving the Tombigbee settle- ment, Bienville drew up a plan of the fortifications he wished to have erected, and left here Capt. De Berthel in command of a garri- son of 50 men to build the new works.
The most unfortunate part of this dismal campaign remains to be told. Upon his arrivai in New Orleans Bienville learned why D'Artaguette had not effected a junction with him as ordered. In obedience to his instructions D'Artaguette had assembled a con- siderable force from the upper country, and as early as March 4, 1736, was at the Ecores a Prudhomme (third Chickasaw bluff) on the Mississippi, "with 30 soldiers, 100 volunteers, and almost all the Indians of the Kaskaskia village. There he was joined by De Vincennes with 40 Iroquois, and all the Indians of the Wabash tribe. De Monteherval, with the Cahokias and the Mitchigamies, was daily expected. De Grandpré, who commanded at the Arkan- sas, had dispatched 28 warriors of that tribe to ascertain whether D'Artaguette was at the Ecores a Prudhomme, and to come back to him with that information." (Gayarre). When these messengers arrived, D'Artaguette had already set forth, and instead of return- ing and reporting, they followed his route. It appears that as a result of this disobedience of orders, Grandpré and his Arkansans never participated in the expedition at all, while Monteherval and his force of 14 Frenchmen and 160 Indians only arrived on the scene of action in time to assist the shattered remnant of D'Ar- taguette's forces in their retreat. When D'Artaguette and his little army of 130 Frenehmen and 366 Indians arrived in the vicinity of the Chickasaw villages, their scouts could discover no signs of Bienville and his forces. Shortly after they learned from a courier that Bienville was unavoidably delayed and would not arrive until the end of April at the earliest. D'Artaguette thereupon held a council of war, and it was decided that as they were short of pro- visions and the Indian allies talked of deserting, an immediate attack should be made on one of the more exposed of the Chicka- saw villages. Having affected the capture of this village and the provisions therein, they could intrench themselves and await the arrival of Bienville. Unfortunately their presence was known to the enemy, and hardly had they commenced their attack on the fortified vilage when they were suddenly assailed by a superior force of the enemy, among whom were a considerable number of Englishmen. Surprised by this impetuous counter-attack, the Miamis and Illinois allies took flight, but the French and the re- maining Indians maintained an obstinate defense until most of the French officers had been shot down, when a retreat was ordered. They were so fiercely pursued by the enemy that the retreat soon became a rout. Over 50 of the French were killed and many others wounded, while 19 were captured. among whom were D'Artaguette, who had fallen desperately wounded: the Jesuit Father Senac : Du Tisné, an officer of regulars; and Lalande, a militia captain.
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The French officers St. Ange, De Coulanges, De la Graviére, De Courtigny, Des Essarts, Langlois, and Levieux fell early in the fight. Those who managed to escape were pursued by the relent- less Chickasaws for more than 100 miles, the pursuit ending only when a violent storm intervened. Says Gayarre: "The Chicka- saws took possession of all the provisions and baggage of the French, with 450 pounds of powder, 12,000 bullets and 11 horses. Their victory was as complete as possible, and the ammunition which fell into their hands was of great use to them, in helping them to resist the subsequent attack of Bienville." Fifteen of those captured, including D'Artaguette and Father Senac, were afterwards tortured and burned at the stake: two of the French officers were eventually exchanged, and from these the full details of the final tragedy were learned.
In reporting the miserable failure of his campaign, Bienville maintained that he made the best use possible of the means at his command. but was unable to anticipate the many delays in his preparations, or the wretched cowardice of his soldiers. But grant- ing all this. there was a manifest failure to properly weigh all the difficulties of the campaign, and a lack of generalship displayed in permitting the undisciplined foe to meet and defeat his two armies in detail. Says French, in Historical Collections of Louisiana, vol. 5, p. 112: "It is not easy to, justify Bienville's conduct in this expedition. The war was rashly brought and rashly conducted. He entered the enemy's country without any means of siege, made one attack on a fort, and then, without attempting by scouts to open communication with D'Artaguette, whom he had ordered to meet him in the Chickasaw country on the 10th of May, or making any attempt to give him proper orders, without even taking one Chickasaw prisoner to get any information of D'Artaguette's pro- ceedings, he retreated, and ended the campaign disastrously."
Bienville suffered severely in his military prestige as a result of his unsuccessful campaign of 1736 against the Chickasaws. Deter- mined, if possible, to rehabilitate his reputation with the French government and to avenge his previous defeat, he devoted much of · the years 1737-38 to the preparations for a second campaign against the Chickasaws. He continually incited the Choctaw nation to make war against the Chickasaws, and in this way managed to inflict considerable losses on the tribe. He also repeatedly urged on the home government the necessity of more troops and sought permission to enter upon a second campaign, alleging that the Chickasaws must be humiliated at all hazards. Consent to prose- cute a second campaign was finally accorded him, and he was also furnished with reinforcements to the number of 700 men, embrac- ing a strong body of marines, commanded by the Chevalier de Noailles d'Ayme, a number of recruits, as well as some "bom- bardiers, cannoniers and miners." He was also given a supply of arms, ammunition, provisions and merchandise. Instructions, how- ever, were given to Bienville that M. de Noailles was to command not only the marine troops, but also the colonial troops and militia
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heretofore under the orders of Bienville, who was ordered to act in concert with the new commander in the direction and employ- ment of his troops, as "M. de Noailles," wrote the minister of marine, "has the necessary talents and experience to command." A large part of the year 1739 was devoted to the work of prepara- tion and the expedition was planned on a most formidable scale. Bienville had determined this time to penetrate the Chickasaw country by way of the Mississippi, instead of the Mobile and Tom- bigbee. He was moved to this course by the desire to escape the previous danger of a low stage of water, and also by the greater facility thus afforded in obtaining provisions and in transporting his artillery. As a preliminary, the support of the great Choctaw nation was secured. Already a competent engineer, acting under Bienville's instructions, had examined the country between the Mississippi and the Chickasaw villages and had reported that a good road was possible for the whole 120 miles intervening. Beau- harnias, governor of Quebec and Canada, was ordered to cooperate with him, and, indeed, every settlement in the province was called upon for assistance. Bienville first built a temporary fort and a number of cabins at the mouth of the St. Francis, to serve as an intermediate station for his troops and supplies, pending the com- pletion of his preparations. By the end of June he had assembled here an army composed of marines, troops from the capital, militia and negroes, together with some of the neighboring Indians. In August the vanguard of the army was moved up the river to the mouth of the river Margot (Wolf), which was the general rendez- vous. Here the army was reinforced until it aggregated about 1,200 Frenchmen, double that number of Indian allies, and a few negroes. Capt. Alphonse de la Buissoniere, who had succeeded the brave D'Artaguette at the Illinois, came down with 200 Frenchmen and 300 Indians. Soon after Celoron and St. Laurent, two Canadian officers, arrived with a company of Quebec and Montreal cadets and a body of Indians from that distant region. Bienville and the troops under his command, strange to relate, did not reach the general rendezvous until Nov. 12. Meanwhile, the army on the Margot busied itself with the construction of a spacious fort, called Fort Assumption, because it was completed on the day of the feast of the Assumption, and also erected a house for the commandant, Noailles, barracks for the soldiers, storehouses, ammunition houses and a bakery.
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