Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690-1792
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Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest This page intentionally left blank Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690–1792 Susan Sleeper-Smith Published by the OmOhundrO InstItute Of early amerIcan hIstOry and culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, and the unIversIty Of North carOlIna Press, Chapel Hill The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture is sponsored by the College of William and Mary. On November 15, 1996, the Institute adopted the present name in honor of a bequest from Malvern H. Omohundro, Jr. © 2018 The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Table 1 previously appeared in Susan Sleeper- Smith, Indian Women and French Men: Rethinking Cultural Encounter in the Western Great Lakes (Amherst, Mass., 2001), 126. Jacket illustration: Watercolor by George Winter, courtesy of Tippecanoe County Historical Association, Lafayette, IN Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Sleeper-Smith, Susan, author. Title: Indigenous prosperity and American conquest : Indian women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690–1792 / Susan Sleeper-Smith. Description: Williamsburg, Virginia : Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture ; Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017059439 | IsBn 9781469640587 (cloth : alk. paper) | IsBn 9781469640594 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Indians of North America—Ohio River Valley—Government relations. | Indians, Treatment of—Ohio River Valley—History. | Indian women— Ohio River Valley—History—18th century. | Indian women—Ohio River Valley— History—17th century. | Kidnapping—Ohio River Valley—History. | United States—History—1783–1815. | United States—History—1783–1865. Classification: LCC e78.O4 s58 2018 | ddc 977.004/97—dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017059439 The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003. To the women who raised me: My grandmother, Hansine My mother, Nellie My sisters, Dorothy and Helene This page intentionally left blank acknOwledgments When I began research on my first book, I happened onto a little- known archive in West Lafayette, Indiana: the Tippecanoe County Historical Society. Housed there is a remarkable body of work by an English artist who arrived in Logansport, Indiana, in the 1830s. His interest in Indian people led him to portray many Miami and Potawatomi people who lived in nearby villages along the Wabash River. His sketches and paintings reveal a prosper- ous world where Indian people wore colorful calicoes, fine-woven woolens, and elegant silks, their clothing and bodies richly ornamented with trade sil- ver. I remember briefly discussing George Winter’s portraits at my first job interview; most scholars were surprised by Indian dress and questioned his depictions of Indian houses. Several scholars insisted that this was ceremo- nial dress, certainly not daily dress. Many historians still resist the notion of prosperous Indian communities in the Ohio River valley. Most scholarly lit- erature remains embedded in the vision of a region peopled with colonist settlers whose hardy natures, perseverance, and farming skills rapidly replaced nomadic Indians. It is my hope that this volume will bring greater attention to a region that has been long neglected and shifts our focus to the Indians who first settled and farmed the Ohio River valley. I have accumulated many scholarly debts in writing Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquests, and I am grateful to everyone who contributed time to reading and commenting on papers at seminars and workshops where I pre- sented much of this material. Their invaluable observations have shaped this book and provided crucial feedback. Those errors that remain are entirely my fault. I know there are people that I will forget to mention, and I hope they forgive me. I owe a debt of gratitude to Dan Usner and the late Drew Cayton for read- ing several versions of this manuscript. Their insightful commentary, careful reviews, and excellent suggestions transformed my extensive research into a comprehensive and coherent manuscript. I owe an even greater thank-you to the diligent and careful review of every statement and word in this manuscript by Paul Mapp and M. Kathryn Burdette. I could not have asked for more gen- vii erous and rigorous editors. Their dedicated reading helped sharpen the focus of this manuscript. The Omohundro workshop on Early American Women provided a forum for my research, and Karin Wulf encouraged me to publish with the Institute. She has provided the opportunity to work with truly gifted editors, and the instances of elegant prose in this manuscript reflects Paul and Kathryn’s meticulous and thoughtful editing. The long process of helping to make this monograph reality also owes a great deal to my department chair- man, Walter Hawthorne. He has been an inspiration and a much needed ally. Walter expends incredible effort in locating the funds and creating the cir- cumstances that make it possible for our faculty to be productive scholars. His enthusiasm and support have made it a real pleasure to work at Michigan State University. My work owes a great deal to the Newberry Library, which has been my primary research home. President David Spadafora has fostered a congenial scholarly atmosphere; he sets the tone for his staff and contributes to many scholarly seminars. I am thankful for the privilege of working with Danny Greene, formerly the Vice- President for Research, whose insight and dili- gence transformed the Fellows Seminars into a crucial discussion forum. Brad Hunt has both advanced the Newberry’s intellectual life and enthusiastically supported my research. No one could ask for a more supportive staff than the directors of the D’Arcy McNickle Center, Scott Manning Stevens and Patricia Marroquin Norby. The working seminars in Indian Studies, Women and Gen- der History, and the Fellows Seminars have transformed the direction of my research. A special thank- you to the many scholars who have read and com- mented on my work: Leon Fink, Roy Fogelson, Brenda Child, Jeani O’Brien, Jeff Ostler, Cary Miller, Ella Tandy Shermer, Barbara Hanawalt, Cathleen Cahill, Kathleen Washburn, Juliana Barr, Colin Calloway, Frances Hage- mann, Christopher McKee, Peter Nekola, Elliott Gorn, Liesl Olson, Margaret Newell, Toby Higbie, Mary Bane Campbell, Christina Stanciu, Margaret Meserve, Michael Schreffler, Phil Round, Jacob Lee, Lisa Freeman, Stephen Foster, and Rowena McClinton. The Newberry has a vast range of support- ive staff, and both John Powell and Catherine Gass have patiently guided me through the ins and outs of the Newberry’s rich collection of archival images. I have had the good fortune of being generously supported by an NEH grant from the Newberry Library, by the Filson Historical Society, and by the Michigan State University College of Social Science. Glenn Crothers and the staff of the Filson provided invaluable direction in navigating the ar- chives. There are many smaller archives with very limited personnel that have been tremendously supportive: the Tippecanoe Historical Society, the Porter County Historical Society, the Michigan State Archives, and the Northern viii Acknowledgments Indiana Historical Society. The Indiana Historical Society, Burton Historical Collections in Detroit, the Wisconsin Historical Society, Minnesota Histori- cal Society, the Chicago Historical Society, Special Collections at the Univer- sity of Kentucky, the Missouri Historical Collections, Historic New Orleans Collection, Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa, and the British Library have been crucial to my research. A very special thank-you to Special Col- lections at Michigan State University. I am always thankful when I have the opportunity to work with Peter I. Berg, who is our head of Special Collec- tions. He has transformed a once small collection into an outstanding re- source for scholars of early history, creating a strong collection that has drawn people to the library. In Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest, there is an equally important archive that can be found in the campus landscape. We have an amazing Department of Plant Biology at Michigan State, where Professor Frank Telewski has created an amazing Native garden in the Beal Garden, an important inspiration for my work. Frank Telewski provided ex- tensive information about an incredible range of natural plants harvested by Native people. I also want to thank the history faculty at Western Michigan University for allowing me to present my research on agrarian landscapes at their faculty seminar and to José António Brandão and Michael Nassaney for their insightful comments on my project. We have had an amazingly supportive group of deans at Michigan State; their support of scholarship in American Indian Studies has made this re- search possible. Thank you, Karen Klomparens and my former college dean, Marietta Baba. Above all, I want to thank several people who helped this book come to fruition. They have been there for me throughout this project. I would like to especially thank Nancy Shoemaker and Sarah Pearsall, who provided excellent commentary and ongoing support and encouragement. Jacob Jurss and Aaron Luedke were diligent and cheerful research assistants and library moles. Dawn Martin worked tirelessly to secure illustrations and permissions.