USA > Pennsylvania > Early history of western Pennsylvania, and of the West, and of western expeditions and campaigns, from MDCCLIV to MDCCCXXXIII > Part 38
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" A few Mohawks, and some other Indian chiefs and warriors belonging to the Canada Indians, about Lake Ontario, were mixed with the British regu- lars in the front line of the enemy. Some of these savages were killed in the action, and the remainder of these Indians on horse back, fled with Proctor. The Indian found dead, belonged to these Indians, not to the Winnebagoes or Shawanese, who in this battle lay in ambush, beyond a morass on the left of the American army."-History of Ohio by Caleb Atwater, pp. 236, 237.
(2) Breckenridge's History of the late War, pp. 154, 155.
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ed was about fifty. Several pieces of brass cannon, the trophies of the revolution, and which had been surrendered by Hull, at Detroit, were once more restored to our country.
By this splendid achievement, Gen. Harrison, and the brave men under his command, rescued the whole northwestern frontier from the depredations of the savages, and the horrors of war. The national gratitude burst out in one loud voice of applause. The Commander-in- Chief was complimented by Congress, and by various public bodies ; and the distinguished Langdon Cheves, asserted on the floor of the National House of Representatives, that this victory, " was such as would have secured to a Roman General, in the best days of the Re- public, the honors of a triumph."
CHAPTER XX.
TREATIES MADE WITH THE INDIANS AFTER THE BATTLE OF THE THAMES, IN WHICH SEVERAL MILLIONS OF ACRES OF LAND WERE CEDED TO THE UNITED STATES-THE NUMBER OF INDIANS IN 1820, IN OHIO, MICHIGAN, ILLINOIS, INDI- ANA, AND WISCONSIN-TREATY OF 1823-MURDER OF M. METHODE AND FAMILY -IMPRISONMENT OF RED BIRD, BLACK HAWK, AND OTHERS-MURDERS ON IN DIAN CREEK-BLACK HAWK WAR-DEFEAT AND CAPTURE OF BLACK HAWK- BLACK HAWK DEPOSED.
After the battle of the Thames, on the fifth day of October, 1813, the Indians sued for peace. General Harrison, General Cass, and Governor Shelby, were appointed commissioners by the government, to enter into a treaty with them. Governor Shelby not accepting the commission, General Harrison and General Cass concluded a treaty at Greenville, with the Indians, in which they ceded to the United States several mil- lions of acres of land, comprising the whole territory then claimed by them in Ohio and Indiana, with some small reservations, and the whole of Illinois, south of Lake Michigan. Afterwards treaties were entered into at Chicago and Detroit, in which the Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottowatamies, relinquished more than five millions of acres in the southern part of the peninsula of Michigan.
The Pottowatamies still possessed the country adjacent to Lake Mi- chigan, in Indiana and Illinois, and in 1820 numbered 3,400. The Sacs and Foxes lived west of the Pottowatamies, generally on Rock River, between the Illinois and the Mississippi, amounting to about 3,000 persons, one-fifth of whom were warriors. The Winnebagoes inhabi- ted the country on the Wisconsin, and were estimated at 1,550, while
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the Menomenies lived further north, between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, numbering about 550. In 1820, these 8,000 Indians were all that remained of the once powerful tribes that held the country north of the Ohio, east of the Mississippi, and south of the Great Lakes.
In the year 1823, the agents of the United States held a treaty at Prairie Du Chien, with the Sacs, Foxes, Winnebagoes, Chippewas, and some other tribes, for the purpose of bringing about a peace between some of the tribes who were then at war with each other. To effect this object, bounds were set to the territory of each tribe, and it was also stipulated by the treaty, that the United States should protect any of the Indian nations from the hostile attacks of the others, whenever visiting a garrison of the United States.
About this time the lead mines, near Galena, attracted great attention, and avarice and speculation drew several thousand miners beyond the limits of the United States, into the adjacent lands of the Winneba- goes. This gave offence to the Indians, and a whole family, consisting of M. Methode, his wife and five children, were murdered near Prairie Du Chien, by a party of Winnebagoes, two of whom were afterwards taken and committed to the jail of Crawford county, Illinois.
In addition to this, in the summer of 1827, in defiance of the treaty of Prairie Du Chien, a band of the Sacs fell upon twenty-four Chippe- was, on a visit at Fort Snelling, and killed and wounded eight of them. The commandant at Fort Snelling captured four of the Sacs, and deliv- ered them into the hands of the Chippewas, who immediately shot them. RED BIRD, a Chief of the Sacs, immediately led a band against the Chippewas, and was defeated. Enraged against his ill success, with only three desperate companions, like himself, he repaired to Prairie Du Chien, and killed two white persons, and wounded a third, and then retired to the mouth of Bad-axe river. Here he augmented his force, and waylaid two keel boats that had been conveying stores to Fort Snel- ling. One boat came into the ambush in the day time, and after a fight of four hours, escaped with the loss of two killed and four wounded .- The other boat arrived in the night, and escaped without much injury.
Not long after, General Atkinson, at the head of a large force, marched into the Winnebago country. Here he succeeded in making prisoners of RED BIRD, his SON, BLACK HAWK, KANONEKAH, and others. These were imprisoned, and Red Bird died in prison. Some of the others were tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death, but Black Hawk, Ka- nonekah, and the son of Red Bird, charged with the attack on the boats, were discharged.
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KEOKUK and BLACK HAWK, were the chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes at this time. Keokuk was in favor of peace with the whites, but Black Hawk, who had been imprisoned for alleged hostility, collected a num- ber of the Sacs, at their principal village on the Mississippi, for the purpose of hostilities. 'They were joined by a number of warriors from other tribes. On the twenty-sixth of June, 1831, Gen. Gaines, Gov. Reynolds, and Gen. Duncan, at the head of his brigade of fourteen hundred mounted men, took possession of the Sac village without op- position. The Indians had fled across the river, and all but the Sacs abandoned Black Hawk, and returned home. He, therefore, made peace and agreed to remove with his tribe, west of the Mississippi.
In the meantime, in defiance of the treaty of Praire Du Chien, the Sacs fell upon the Menamenies, and murdered twenty-eight of their number. They also, in the spring of 1832, recrossed to the east bank of the Mississippi, and occupied the country upon Rock river, which they had by the treaty of 1831, given up. 'There had also been several murders committed in the northern part of Illinois. At Indian creek which empties into Fox river, there was a terrible massacre. Two daughters of a Mr. Hall, one sixteen and the other eighteen years of age, were carried into captivity by the Indians. Before they were led away, they saw their mother, and about twenty other persons, toma- hawked and scalped. Gen. Atkinson, was therefore, sent into the In- dian country with an army, and was encamped at Ogee or Dixon, on Rock river, when the news of the massacre arrived. A detachment of about two hundred and seventy-five men under Major Stillman, marched in pursuit of the Indians. On the fourteenth of May, they came across a small party of whom they shot two and took two others prisoners. On the same day, when they were about to encamp, at night they dis- covered a small band of Indians bearing a white flag. They therefore, mounted and rushed forward, regardless of all order, several miles, until they crossed Sycamore creek, where they fell into an ambuscade. It was moonlight when the fight began, and soon became so disastrous 10 the whites that they retreated in great disorder. The Indians after dis- charging their guns rushed upon their assailants with their knives and tomahawks, and had not the night and situation of the country favored their escape, they would nearly all have been cut off. Thirteen men were killed and several wounded. Immediately after fourteen hundred men marched to the scene of action, where they found the slain mangled and mutilated in a shocking manner.
Black Hawk assembled his forces, amounting to one thousand war-
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riors, at a point between Rock and Wisconsin rivers. Gen. Atkinson at the head of two thousand troops marched to give him battle. The wary chief, fled to an almost impenetrable wilderness, and Gen. Atkin- son was unable to discover the place of his encampment. About this time Gen. Dodge, surprised a party of twelve Indians near Galena, and cut them off to a man, and Capt. Stephenson, after a severe conflict in which he lost three of his own men, defeated a body of Indians, with the loss of six of their number killed. Gen. Dodge then commenced the pursuit of a band of Indians, and came upon their trail about forty miles from Fort Winnebago. They were half starved and flying when he came up with them, on the Wisconsin, near the old Sac village. The battle commenced in the evening. The Indians left sixteen dead upon the field and carried off more than fifty. The whites had one man killed and four wounded.
Being now hotly pursued by sixteen hundred troops, Black Hawk, crossed over to the Mississippi, with his warriors, above the mouth of the Wisconsin, leaving his women and children to descend the Wiscon- sin in boats. Many of their women and children fell into the hands of the whites, some perished with hunger, some were drowned, and others were scarcely saved from their famishing state.
A battle was soon afterwards fought between the troops under Gen. Atkinson and Gen. Dodge, and the Indians under Black Hawk, on the east side of the Mississippi, about forty miles above Praire Du Chien. Black Hawk had only three hundred warriors, and the Americans thir- teen hundred troops. The Indians were attacked on all sides, and were driven from covert to covert, until at length, they were routed with great slaughter. Some attempting to escape by swimming over the Missis- sippi, were fired upon by artillery from the steamboat Warrior, and from musketry on shore, so that few escaped. Some escaped by land, but more than one-half of the whole number were left dead on the field or were killed in the river.
Black Hawk, was among those who escaped, leaving behind him a certificate from British officers, that he had served faithfully and fought valiently in the war of 1812, against the United States. Gen. Atkin- son then ordered Keokuk, to demand a surrender of Black Hawk, and other hostile chiefs, and one hundred friendly Sacs went in pursuit of them. Overtaking them, a battle ensued in which Black Hawk was defeated, and together with several other hostile chiefs were taken pris- oners, and delivered to the American General. On the eleventh of September, 1832, Black Hawk, his two sons, the Prophet, Naopope,
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and seven others were taken on board the steamboat Winnebago, con- veyed down the river and confined in Jefferson Barracks, below St. Louis.
Black Hawk, his two sons, Naopope, Wabokeishiek, Pamahoe and Poweeshiech, were kept in the Jefferson barracks until they were re- moved to Fortress Monroe in 1833. On the twenty-second of April, they arrived at Washington city, and had an intercourse with President Jackson. The first words of Black Hawk to the President were: "I AM A MAN, AND YOU ARE ANOTHER !" They expressed some dissatisfaction on being told that they were still longer to be confined, as they wished to see their wives and children. The President assured them, that their children should be taken care of, and dismissed them. On the twenty-sixth of April, the captives were taken to Fortress Mon- roe, situated on an island on the West side of the Chesapeake bay. On the third of June, 1833, orders were received by the commandant, for their liberation, and the next day they set out for home in a steamboat for Baltimore. At Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, they were visited by crowds, and were taken to the theatre, the circus, and shown the arsenals, and vessels of war, which excited their wonder at the power of the whites. They visited Castle Garden in New York, and Mr. Durand ascended in a balloon. Black Hawk, on seeing him ascend and unfurl his flag, exclaimed :
' That man is a brave. I do not think he will ever come back. He must be a Sac."
One of the other chiefs replied :
" If he is a Sac, he will get none of his brothers to follow in his trail. None of them will ever see the smoke of a wigwam. He will have to live alone-without any squaw."
When the balloon had reached so great a height, as to be only a speck in the Heavens, the old chief exclaimed :
" I think he can go the Heavens-to the Great Spirit."
The chiefs were afterwards taken by the way of Albany and Buffalo, to Chicago. Leaving Chicago, they passed up Fox River and down the Wisconsin. On the route, Black Hawk pointed out the spots, where he said, had once stood the fine villages of the Sacs, and he was much depressed at the idea that this fine country was lost to the Indians for- ever. Having arrived at Praire Du Chien, the Prophet was set at liberty. He was completely humbled. His village on Rock River, below Dixon, had been destroyed, and his cabin burned to the ground,- his family without a protector, and he himself now obliged to find a home in the village of some neighboring chief. It was about the first
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day of August, 1833, when Black Hawk and his attendants arrived at Fort Armstrong, on Rock Island, in Illinois. Here was the place se- lected for their liberation. A messenger was dispatched to Keokuk, the principal chief of the tribe, who returned and gave information that he would arrive during the next day. About noon, the Indian drum, accompanied by occasional shouts, were heard, which announced his approach. Keokuk, the friendly chief of the Sacs and Foxes, was in front, with two large canoes, lashed side by side, with a large canopy extended over him and his three wives, where he sat in all his dignity, with the American flag waving over the bow. About twenty canoes followed in his train, filled with his followers, who made the " welkin ring" with their wild and savage songs. Proceeding up the river, they landed on the opposite side. After some time, they sailed directly across to Rock Island, the rowing being accompanied by the wild Indian song. Keokuk was the first to land, decorated in his ornaments. He then turned to his followers and said, " The Great Spirit has sent our brother back .- Let us shake hands in friendship." He then took Black Hawk by the hand, and having saluted the others, took his seat. His example was followed by his attendants. After smoking the pipe of friendship, they separated to meet in council the next day.
The next day Keokuk with one hundred of his followers, Black Hawk and his party, met Major Garland in council, in a large room in the fort. Black Hawk and his son appeared quite dejected. After several speeches, Maj. Garland, informed Black Hawk, that it was distinctly understood by all present, that henceforth, Keokuk, and not Black Hawk, was to be the principal Chief of the nation, that he must conform to his coun- sels, and that the tribe must no more be divided into two bands.
On this being interpreted to him the old man became completely in- furiated. The spirit and vigor of his youth broke forth like a volcano. He exclaimed, with great emotion :
"I am a man-an old man-I will not conform to the councils of any one-I will act for myself-no one shall govern me-I am old-my hair is grey-I once gave councils to my young men. Am I to conform to others ? I shall soon go to the Great Spirit where I shall rest-what I said to our great father at Washington, I say again-I will always listen to him. I am done."
This was his last expiring struggle. He sat absorbed in his own feelings, when Keokuk spoke to him kindly in an under tone, and ob- tained leave to excuse his violence. This was done, and Black Hawk was told that he was now at liberty.
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In the evening the several chiefs were invited by Major Garland to his quarters. About seven o'clock in the evening, they arrived, and took their seats in silence. Speeches were now made by PASHEPARHO and KEOKUK, in favor of a lasting friendship and perpetual peace with the United States, and congratulating Black Hawk and his friends upon their return to the tribe. BLACK HAWK then arose, and in a very calm and dejected manner, replied :
" I feel that I am an old man ; - once I could speak, but now I have but little to say. To-day we met many of our brothers, and were glad to see them. I have listened to what my brothers have said: their hearts are good-they have been like Sacs since I left them, for they have taken care of my wife and children, who had no wigwam. I thank them for it. The Great Spirit knows that I thank them, and. before the Sun gets behind the hills to-morrow, I shall see them-I want to see them-I expected soon to return. I told our Great Father when in Washington that I would listen to his counsels - I now say to you I will listen to the counsels of Keokuk. I shall soon be far away-I shall have no village, no band-I shall live alone. I once listened to the Great Father(1) across the Great Waters. My father listened to him whose band was large. My band was once large- now I have no band. I thank our Great Father(2) for what he has done. He is old, I am old-we shall soon go to the Great Spirit, where we shall rest. He sent us through his great villages. We saw many white men, who treated us with kindness. We felt safe-we thank them. When they shall come to the Mississippi, they shall come to my wigwam. I have none now. When those who came with us return home, they will pass the place where my village once was. No one lives there now ; all are gone. I give you my hand ; we may never meet again. I shall long remember you. The Great Spirit will be with you and your women and children."
The party then separated in the most perfect understanding among themselves, and in fellowship and good feeling, to their homes beyond the Mississippi, never more to build their villages on the eastern side, where the great chieftain was born. (3) The war-whoop, which in 1832, reverberated along the vallies of the Illinois, the Rock river, the Wisconsin, and the Upper Mississippi, is now heard no more ; and the
(1) The King of Great Britain.
(2) President Jackson.
(3) Black Hawk was born about the year 1767, on a beautiful spot, on Rock River, near Dixon, Illinois.
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name of Black Hawk, which once roused the frontier men to arms, has lost its terrors. A thousand steamers have taken the place of the frail bark canoe of the Indian, upon the Father of waters, and his great tribu- taries. Populous towns and cities occupy ths sites of the meagre wig- wam villages, and great and powerful commonwealths, inhabited by civilized and enlightened men, have been formed out of the territory, which, in the memory of many living, was the abode of the children of the forest, and the hunting ground of the roaming savage.
APPENDIX.
A.
APPENDIX.
[NO. I. ]
THE OHIO COMPANY .;
In the year 1748, Thomas Lee, one of His Majesty's Council in Vir- ginia, formed the design of effecting settlements on the wild lands West of the Allegheny mountains, through the agency of an association of gen- tlemen. Before this date there were no English residents in those re- gions. A few traders wandered from tribe to tribe, and dwelt among the Indians, but they neither cultivated nor occupied the lands. With the view of carrying his plan into operation, Mr. Lee associated himself with twelve other persons in Virginia and Maryland, and with Mr. Han- bury, a merchant in London, who formed what they called, " THE OHIO COMPANY." Lawrence Washington, and his brother Augustine Wash- ington, (two brothers of George Washington,) were among the first who engaged in this scheme. A petition was presented to the King in behalf of the company, which was approved, and five hundred thousand acres of land were granted almost in the terms requested by the company.
The object of the company was to settle the lands and to carry on the Indian trade upon a large scale. Hitherto the trade with the Western Indians had been mostly in the hands of the Pennsylvanians. The company conceived that they might derive an important advantage over their competitors in this trade from the water communication of the Po- tomac and the eastern branches of the Ohio, whose head-waters ap- proximated each other. The lands were to be chiefly taken on the south side of the Ohio, between the Monongahela and Kenhawa rivers, and west of the Alleghenies. The privilege was reserved, however, by the company of embracing a portion of the lands on the north side of the river, if it should be deemed expedient. Two hundred thousand acres were to be selected immediately, and to be held for ten years free from quit-rent or any tax to the King, on condition that the company should at their own expense seat one hundred families on the lands within seven years, and build a fort and maintain a garrison sufficient to protect the settlement.
The first steps taken by the Company were to order Mr. Hanbury, their agent in London, to send over for their use two cargoes of goods
* From Washington's writings, edited by Jared Sparks, 2 vols .; Appendix pp. 478-483.
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APPENDIX-NO. I.
suited to the Indian trade, amounting in the whole to four thousand pounds sterling: one cargo to arrive in November, 1749; the other in March following. They resolved, also, that such roads should be made and houses built, as would facilitate the communication from the head of navigation on the Potomac river across the mountains to some point on the Monongahela. And as no attempt at establishing settlements could safely be made without some previous arrangements with the Indians, the company petitioned the government of Virginia to invite them to a treaty. As a preliminary to other proceedings, the company also sent out Mr. Christopher Gist with instructions to explore the country, exam- ine the quality of the lands, keep a journal of his adventures, draw as accurate a plan of the country as his observations would permit, and report the same to the board. On his first tour he was absent nearly -seven months, penetrated the country for several hundred miles north of the Ohio, visited the Twigtwee Indians, and proceeded as far south as the falls of that river. In November following, (1751,) he passed down the south side of the river, as far as the Great Kenhawa, and spent the winter in exploring the lands on that route. Meantime the Indians had failed to assemble at Logstown, where they had been invited by the Governor of Virginia to hold a treaty. It was natural that the traders, who had already got possession of the ground, should endeavor to bias the Indians, and throw obstacles in the way of any interference from another quarter. The French were likewise tampering with them, and from political motives were using means to withdraw them from every kind of alliance or intimacy with the English. The company found that it would be in vain to expect much progress in their designs, till measures had been adopted for winning over the Indians; and accord- ingly the proposed treaty of Logstown took place the next year, when Mr. Gist attended as their agent, to look to the interests of any settle- ments that might be made on the south-east side of the Ohio. This treaty was concluded June 13th, 1752. Colonel Fry, and two other Commissioners, were present on the part of Virginia.
It is remarkable, that, in the debates attending the negotiation of this treaty, the Indians took care to disclaim a recognition of the English title to any of these lands. In a speech to the Commissioners, one of the old Chiefs said: "You acquainted us yesterday with the King's right to all the lands in Virginia, as far as it is settled, and back from thence to the sun-setting, whenever he shall think fit to extend his settlements. You produced also a copy of his deed from the Onondaga Council at the treaty of Lancaster, (1744,) and desired that your brethren of the Ohio might likewise confirm the deed. We are well acquainted that our Chief Council at the treaty of Lancaster confirmed a deed to you for a quantity of land in Virginia which you have a right to; but we never understood before you told us yesterday, that the lands then sold were to extend farther to the sun-setting, than the hill on the other side of the Allegheny Hill, so that we can give you no farther answer." *
Hence it appears that the Indians west of the Ohio, who inhabited the lands, had never consented to any treaty ceding them to the English,
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