The Indians and the Michigan Road

Home , Carey Mission, Fort Wayne (Detroit), Isaac McCoy, James Barbour, Michigan Road, Sauk Trail

Juanita Hunter*

The United States Confederation Congress adopted on May 20, 1785, an ordinance that established the method by which the federal government would transfer its vast, newly acquired national domain to private ownership. According to the Land Ordinance of 1785 the first step in this transferral process was purchase by the government of all Indian claims. In the state of Indiana by 1821 a series of treaties had cleared Indian title from most land south of the Wabash River. Territory north of the river remained in the hands of the Miami and Potawatomi tribes, who retained posses- sion of at least portions of the area until their removals from the state during the late 1830s and early 1840s.’ After a brief hiatus following 1821, attempts to secure additional cessions of land from the Indians in Indiana resumed in 1826. In the fall of that year three commissioners of the United States government-General John Tipton, Indian agent at Fort Wayne; Lewis Cass, governor of Michigan Territory; and James Brown Ray, governor of Indiana-met with leading chiefs and warriors of the Potawatomi and Miami tribes authorized in part “to propose an exchange of land. . . acre for acre West, of the Mississippi . . . .’’z The final treaty, signed October 26, 1826, contained no provision for complete Indian removal from the state. The Potawatomis agreed, however, to three important land cessions and received certain benefits that included payment of debts and claims held against

* Juanita Hunter is a graduate of Indiana State Teachers College, Terre Haute, and was a social studies teacher at Logansport High School, Logansport, Indiana, at the time of her retirement. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Cass County Historical Society, Logansport. John D. Barnhart and Donald F. Carmony, Indiana: From Frontier to Indus- trial Commonwealth (4 vols., New York, 1954), I, 203-205, 210-19. Nellie Armstrong Robertson and Dorothy Riker, eds., The John Tipton Papers, 1809-1839 (3 vols., Indiana Historical Collections, Vols. XXIV, XXV, XXVI; Indi- anapolis, 1942), I, 537. INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY, LXXXIII (September, 1987).t’1987, Trustees of Indiana University The Indians and the Michigan Road 245 them. In addition, the treaty provided for eighty-six individual reserve~.~ Especially significant was the land ceded in Article I1 of the treaty. With the northward push of settlers in Indiana during the early 1820s considerable interest had developed in constructing a road from Lake Michigan to the Ohio River via the new state cap- ital in Indianapolis. Such a road would provide access to new areas as well as a means for getting excess produce to market. By cross- ing the National Road at Indianapolis, the north-south road would also open sections of northern Indiana to points east. Governor Ray was almost single-handedly responsible for the inclusion of the road proposal in the treaty negotiation^.^ Couched in the white negotiators’ language and questionably attributing white views to the Indians, Article I1 of the final treaty read in part: As an evidence of the attachment which the Potawatamie tribe feel towards the American people, and particularly to the soil of Indiana, and with a view to dem- onstrate their liberality, and benefit themselves by creating facilities for travelling and increasing the value of their remaining country, the said tribe do hereby cede to the United States, a strip of land, commencing at Lake Michigan, and running thence to the Wabash river, one hundred feet wide, for a road, and also, one section of good land contiguous to the said road, for each mile of the same, and also for each mile of a road from the termination thereof, through Indianapolis to the Ohio river, for the purpose of making a road aforesaid from Lake Michigan, by the way of Indianapolis, to some convenient point on the Ohio river.5 Despite the treaty’s implications the commissioners had difficulty persuading the Indians to cede land for the proposed road, and implementation of the final agreement proved extremely trou- blesome. In these respects the treaty of 1826 was no different from preceding negotiations between the Indians and the national government. A statement written in 1908 in History of Michigan City, Indiana, expressed in a bias typical of its time one opinion of the Indians and treaty-making in general: The untutored savage was very wily in the matter of these treaties, being very ready to enter into them and equally ready to crawl out. The Indians would claim that their alleged chiefs acted without authority; that the treaties were not plain to them; that their young men were made drunk and were then overreached; that the agreements were abrogated by the encroachments of settlers, or that other tribes had assumed to cede the lands of the objectors without right. . . .6

Charles J. Kappler, ed., Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties (7 vols., Washing- ton, D.C., 1904-19791, 11, 273-77. The Miamis proved more determined than the Potawatomis to retain their lands. The commissioners were forced to negotiate a separate treaty with them, signed one week later on October 23, 1826, at the same treaty grounds at Mississinewa. Ibid., 278-81; Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, I, 590-92. Barnhart and Carmony, Indiana, I, 290-91; Geneal Prather, “The Struggle for the Michigan Road,” Indiana Magmine of History, XXXIX (March, 19431, 1-8; Rob- ertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, I, 587. Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, 11, 274. 6Rollo B. Oglesbee and Albert Hale, History of Michigan City, Indiana ([La Porte, Ind.], 1908), 42. 246 Indiana Magazine of History

The authors of this work did add, however, that “too often there was some basis in fact in the [Indians’] averment^."^ Research in- dicates that the Potawatomis, as well as other tribes, were justified in their complaints. Of the Potawatomis in particular the book continued: “The Pottawattomies were indefatigable treaty makers and traveled long distances to be present at treaty councils. . . . They liked the festivities with which the negotiations were accompanied, and they liked to share the liberal payments the government gave for the land.”E Difficulties regarding treaties were aggravated by the mobile, loose structure of the Indian groups. Chiefs frequently moved their bands; individuals changed villages. Intertribal marriages, over- lapping territories, and changing alliances were hard for whites to understand. They negotiated business deals, etc., with a “chief,” often not realizing that the Indians had village chiefs, ceremonial chiefs, or war chiefs, who might have only temporary or limited authority. Moreover, the Indians were not cognizant of state boundaries. During the early 1800s they roamed throughout the Old Northwest Territory and even across the Mississippi. Regional groups functioned independently and signed different treaties. In- dividual chiefs had varying attitudes, and young warriors were more likely than their elders to support Indian confederation and oppose cooperation with American~.~ Loyalty to the French, British, or Americans constantly changed, usually according to which group exhibited the most power at the time. French influence was strongest during earlier periods when fur trading was the main source of subsistence for the Indi- ans. Intermarriage accounted for Potawatomis or Miamis with French names who were eligible for government annuities and reserves. Many of those with mixed blood had some schooling and attained leadership position; usually they supported the white man’s cause and so influenced other tribal members. American farmers were intruders and often squatters on Indian lands; therefore, most of the tribesmen were happy to get guns, ammunition, whiskey, and other trade goods from the British and were England’s allies during the War of 1812. During this period the Potawatomis earned the reputation of being the United States’s “most cruel and invet- erate enemies.”l0 Many isolated and organized aggressive acts occurred between the Potawatomis and the Americans. Both sides were guilty of indiscriminate barbarism. Some instances were con-

’ Zbid. 8 Zbid. For general discussion of Indian culture and of Indian-white relations, particularly concerning the Potawatomis, see, for example, R. David Edmunds, The Po- tawatomis: Keepers ofthe Fires (Norman, Okla., 1978), 15-16,21-23,216-19, passim. lo Zbid., 56-58, 99, 222, 227-28, passim. Quotation is located on p. 198. LEWISCASS GOVERNOROF MICHIGANTERRITORY (1813-1831); SECRETARY OF WAR (1831-1836); COMMISSIONER, TREATYOF MISSISSINEWA(1826)

Reproduced from Edwin Wood, Historic Mackinnc The His- torical, Picturesque and Legendary Features of the Muckinac Country (2 vols , New York, 1918),11, 526 JOHNTIPTON INDIANAGENT (1823-1831); COMMISSIONER, TREATYOF MISSISSI- NEWA (1826); UNITEDSTATES SENATOR (1831-1839)

Courtesy Cass County Historical Society, Logansport, Indi- ana; painting by George Winter located in Tipton Masonic Lodge #33, Logansport; photograph by Stephen Burch. JAMESBROWN RAY GOVERNOROF INDIANA (1825-1831); COMMISSIONER, TREATYOF MISSISSINEWA(1826)

Courtesy Indiana historical Bureau, Indianapolis; reproduced from Dorothy Riker and Gayle Thornbrough, eds., Messages and Papers relating to the Administmtwn of James Brown Ray, Governor of Indiana, 1825-1831 (Indiana His- toricol Collectrons, Vol. XXXIV; Indianapolis, 19541, frontis- piece 250 Indiana Magazine of History sidered revenge, some unauthorized behavior of rebels. The British invited the Indians to Canada, while Americans continually tried to move treaty and annunity sites far from British influence. After the Treaty of Ghent was ratified in 1815, the Potawatomis reluc- tantly recognized that Americans controlled the area. By this time the fur trade would no longer support the Indians; thus, they became more and more dependent on government annuities from the United States." Congress passed laws trying to bring about the civilization and assimilation of the Indians. Some money was appropriated, and hoes, plows, and livestock were sent to the Indian agents. The Quakers developed a program to teach the tribes agricultural methods and tried several times to set up a mission near Fort Wayne. A few chiefs gave passing interest to these experiments, but most of the Indians did not progress past their small gardens. This increased their vulnerability to seeking trade goods on credit and being willing to give up land to pay off their debts. White traders and land-hungry settlers reacted; they especially welcomed the treaty of October 16, 1826, since it not only opened up new sections of land but also made possible a road to get there.12 Individuals in the whole area knew of the impending treaty for months. James Barbour of the Department of War officially no- tified the commissioners of their appointment on May 24, 1826,13 and from that point on the three received a deluge of letters from men seeking jobs or business opportunities. Some applied for themselves; others had relatives or political figures recommend them. Sometimes a long list of supporters' names was attached to add weight to the recommendation. The most common reason given for deserving a job or getting a contract was the need for the money, not the applicant's ability to do the work effi~ient1y.l~ Staff for the treaty-making session were finally selected and supplies contracted for. Colonel William Marshall was chosen secretary. James M. Ray, an Indiana state legislator, was the assistant. In a report of the treaty council written in 1884, Ray claimed that Marshall was ill and that he, Ray, actually served as secretary.15 Benjamin B. Kercheval "was to supply the table and to prepare every thing necessary for the Commissioners & persons

l1 Zbid., 178-206, 215-16; Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, 11, 87; ibid., 111, 641. 12 Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, I, 7;US., Statutes at Large, 111, 516-17; Edmunds, Potawatomis, 162-63. l3 Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, I, 536-37. l4 For examples of letters asking for appointments see ibid., 540, 545-46, 550- 51, 552-54, 556. '5Zbid., 577; [Thomas B. Helm], History of Wabash County, Indiana. . . (Chi- cago, 1884), 89-90. The Indians and the Michigan Road 25 1 required to attend the treaty.” The commissioners received appli- cations from at least five doctors.16 Guard duty was a coveted position, and many applied; nineteen eventually signed an “Agreement with Commissioners.” The agreement opened with a “promise to abstain from intoxication, riots and every kind of disorderly behaviour.” In return guards were guaranteed “a good rifle or musket with powder and Lead, a Tent or house for shelter when in Camp . . . [as well as] sufficient rations of good and wholesome Beef & Bread or flour with salt, and one gill of Liquor per day. . . .,, Tipton drew up orders for the treaty guards. Procedures included “revelee . . . at Brake of Day, retreat at sunset and Tattoo at 9 oclock on each day, with the other usuel Beats of Drum. . . and train in squad exercise 3 times each day . . .[.I” Pay for guard duty was fifty cents to one dollar per day, and at least eight men drew thirty-five dollars each for forty days ser- vice in Indian ~0untry.l~ Three men-including Martin M. Ray, brother of Governor Ray- were instructed to “advertise and close contracts . . . for 40.000 lbs fresh beef 10.000 [lbs.] pork and 250 bbls. flo~r,~to supply all workers and participants at the treaty negotiations. In June, Tip- ton had suggested that thirty thousand pounds of meat and one hundred fifty barrels of flour would be needed. The list of persons drawing rations justifies the seemingly huge quantities. There were twenty-four bands of Potawatomis, varying in size from seven to eighty-two each and “there was allso about 50 that drew on special orders who are connected with white men and allso between 50 and 100 Frenchmen who were trying to get land that drew rations most of the time[.1”ls Negotiations with the Miamis were also taking place at the same site although their number was smaller. Numerous contractors vied for the privilege of furnishing supplies. Tipton and James Brown Ray were responsible for the final choice of the treaty site. Cass had suggested that it “ought to be far enough within the Indian boundary to give us the entire control of the persons about us, so that we may be enabled to keep whiskey from the Indians.” Since water was another priority, Tipton and Ray chose Paradise Springs near the junction of the Wabash and Mississinewa rivers, close to the site of the present-day city of Wa- bash.lg Preparations at the treaty grounds were extensive. Accord- ing to one early county history, “Gen. Tipton, the Indian Agent, accompanied by Joseph Barron the Interpreter, and James H. Kintner, and others after first selecting the site for the coming treaty, erected a number of shanties and other buildings, suitable

IfiRobertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, I, 543-44, 550-51. l7 Ibid., 574-75, 593. IR Ibid.,566, 543, 614-18. Ibid., 544, 567. 252 Indiana Magazine of History for Commissioners’ headquarters, store houses, council house, quarters for soldiers and other necessary attaches of the commissioners.”20 The often circus-like atmosphere at the treaty site and the al- ways possible “collision between tribes” justified the guards selected by the commissioners. In James M. Ray’s personal narrative of the negotiations he refers to a riot when some Indians broke into quarters in the commissary cabin trying to get more than their small ration of whiskey. It was settled by daybreak when “the interpreters and others, well armed, passed quietly through the camp. . . .”21 Ray’s eyewitness account of another incident depicts the general atmosphere surrounding the treaty site: We were treated to several native dances, one being on a park, carefully cleared, east of the Wabash, around which a circular path for dancing was prepared with soft leaves for the moccasins. It being night, the limbs of the trees around were well lighted with candles furnished by our Commissioners. In a leading dance, a promi- nent brave, brightly painted (as most of the dancers were), whirled into the path, keeping time with the music of a rough drum, beating time as he passed around the circle, instantly followed, singly, behind him, by the bright girls, making him thus their favorite. And soon after, as other braves joined the dance, space was left for their sweethearts that chose them as partners, to follow them in the dance. Loud shouting and yelling followed in the choice made by the girls after favorite warriors, some of whom would have groups of followers, while others would be left to dance almost if not quite alone, thus receiving the mitten with the jeers of the crowd. With other varieties, the dance was continuing, in the best of humor and life, when we left them near midnight.2’ The formal proceedings began on October 5, 1826. Cass read a previously prepared statement to open the negotiations. After ad- dressing the Indians as children and referring to the president of the United States as “Your Great Father,” he told them that there was no longer enough game for them and that their “Great Father is willing to give for this land much more. . . than all the game upon it would sell for. . . . You know well, that all he promises, he will perform.”23After pointing out evils among red men and white caused mostly, he claimed, by alcohol, he recommended that the Indians move west of the Mississippi. We are authorized to offer you a residence there, equal in extent to your land here, and to pay you an annuity, which will make you comfortable, and to provide the means of your removal.-You will then have a country abounding in game, and you will also have the value of the country you leave.-You will be beyond the reach of whiskey, for it cannot reach you there. Your Great Father will never suffer any of his white children to reside there, for it is reserved for the red poeple [sic].It will be yours, as long as the sun shines, and the rain falls.24

20 Helm, History of Wabash County, 93. 21 Ibid., 90. 22 Ibid. 23 Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, I, 578-79. 24 Ibid., 579-80. The Indians and the Michigan Road 253

Approximately two weeks after Cass’s opening statement, “Au ba, nau, bee,” one of the Potawatomi chiefs, and “Legro,” a Miami chief, both declared that they did not wish to sell any more land. Legro summarized: “You speak to us with deceitful lips, and not from your hearts. . . . You say the game is going away, and we must follow it; who drove it away . . . Before you came, the game was plenty . . . We own there is game there [in the West], but the Great Spirit has made and put men there, who have a right to that game, and it is not The commissionners responded that, unlike the British, Americans did not take land without negotiations. They noted the amount of silver, blankets, and trinkets that the Indians possessed because of the Americans’ past benevolence at treaty negotiations and pointed out that the chiefs and wise men knew that “we give you more in annuities and presents, than all your land is worth.-”26 By the following day the Potawatomis had agreed to cede some lands, but only a part of what the commissioners wanted. It was at this point that Indiana’s Governor Ray inter- jected the idea of lands for “a road from Indianapolis, our great village, to Lake Michigan.”27 Again Aubenaubee’s response was negative: “We heard your proposition-we have answered you.- we have said all we have to say. You have listened-. What is the reason you cannot hear?”28 The secretary of the negotiations recorded none of the inter- vening dialog, but four days later on October 16, 1826, the treaty was signed.29The Treaty of Mississinewa was ratified by the United States Senate on February 7, 1827, and on March 2, 1827, Con- gress, in confirming the grant, gave the ceded land to Indiana so that the state could apply the proceeds from its sale to building the road.30 In Article I of the treaty of 1826 the Potawatomis ceded a ten- mile-wide strip of land north of an east-west line through the southern extreme of Lake Michigan stretching from the lake to the St. Joseph River. This cession removed Indian title from part of the territory added to Indiana by the Enabling Act of 1816 and cleared the way for a proposed harbor on Lake Michigan. Also ceded in Article I was an irregular strip, averaging about ten miles wide, along the Eel River to Fort Wayne and to the Ohio boundary, which laid the groundwork for acquiring lands for the Wabash and Erie Canal. These areas were exact and clearly defined.31

25 Ibid., 583. The Indian names are here spelled as in the treaty reports. Spell- ing variations are myriad; for example, “Le Gros,” “Aubbeenaubbee,” “Aubba- nowby.” 26 Ibid., 585-86. 21 Ibid., 587. 20 Ibid., 588. Ibid., 589-90. 30 US.,Statutes at Large, VII, 295-96; ibid., IV, 234-35. 31 Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, 11, 273-74. 254 Indiana Magazine of History

In return for the land cessions granted in Article I the Pota- watomis received over thirty thousand dollars’ worth of goods provided to the Indians at the treaty site. Acccording to Tipton, “Without this provision, no treaty could have been formed.” In fact, he considered these provisions to be one of the main reasons that the Potawatomis and Miamis had agreed to come to the proceedings in the first place.32The total cost, $30,547.71, was figured to the penny; it was the exact amount (with suitable deductions having been made by Tipton) owed to the many traders who were more than willing to furnish anything to the Indians for a profit. The treaty also paid $9,573 in claims against the tribesmen, debts that the treaty said they were anxious to discharge. According to Tip- ton, the claimants were “exclusively Indian traders.” Sometimes in Tipton’s records the claims were denied or postponed for want of proof, but the exact amount of the payments had been established, apparently by Tipton himself, before the treaty negotiations had even begun.33 The United States government also agreed to pay the Pota- watomis two thousand dollars in silver each year for twenty-two years. The original treaty scheduled the payments for twenty years; the two additional years were a compromise when Chief Metea suggested that they should have a permanent annuity of one hundred dollars for each man, woman, and child. Two thousand dollars were set aside for education “as long as the Congress of the United States may think proper,” and the government was to build a mill on the Tippecanoe (at what is today Rochester), provide a miller, and also supply the Indians with 160 bushels of salt annually.34 Whether these annuities and grants were much or little has been interpreted in different ways by different historians. George S. Cottman believed: “The Michigan road is, in a sense, a monu- ment to the white man’s shrewdness in his dealing with the red man. By the Mississinewa treaty of 1826 a goodly portion of northern Indiana was transferred to the United States for a price that would at this day, perhaps, be equivalent to a few city It was also true, however, that by 1828 Tipton, as Indian agent, was dispensing as much as $100,000 a year in annuities to the Indians in the Fort Wayne area alone. Complicating further the issue of right or wrong were the traders who extended credit to the tribesmen, then collected from them on the day of the annuity payments

32 Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, I, 600. 53 Ibid., 600-601; Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, 11, 274-75. 34 Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, 11, 274; Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, I, 599n-600n. 3s George S. Cottman, The First Thoroughfares of Zndiana (Indianapolis, 1906), 52. The Indians and the Michigan Road 255 whether the debts were just or not. Such men vociferously opposed Indian removal from Indiana.36 Unlike the cessions designated in Article I, road lands granted in Article I1 of the treaty had yet to be selected. When the treaty was negotiated and signed, no one knew how much land was being ceded or where. After much debate the route eventually chosen for the Michigan Road north of the Wabash River was an indirect one running from the mouth of the Eel River (present-day Logansport) to the south bend of the St. Joseph River (present-day South Bend) thence westward to the mouth of Trail Creek on the lake (present- day Michigan City). The somewhat circuitous route stretched for 102 miles from the river to the lake and avoided the daunting swamps along the Kankakee River. Not unil 1830 did the state legislature, after extensive and acrimonious debate, decide on Madison as the southern terminus. The final total length of the Michigan Road was 264-plus miles.37 According to the treaty of 1826 and the congressional act of March 2, 1827, the state of Indiana was entitled to select one section of land for each mile of road-in the final analysis 264-plus sections-proceeds from the sale of which would be used to build the Michigan Road. Years of debate, anxiety, and even some violence centered around the phrase “one section of good land contiguous to the said road, for each mile of the same, and also for each mile of a road from the termination thereof, through Indianapolis to the Ohio river . . . .” For the Potawatomis to grant lands through pop- ulated southern Indiana was, of course, impossible; the sections for miles of the road south of the Wabash would have to be chosen from territory north of the river. Differences of opinion among the United States secretary of war, secretary of treasury, the General Land Office, and the Indians caught the state in the middle in the question of which lands were eligible for selection. Two questions were paramount: 1) must the Indians grant sections for land south of the Wabash, and 2) if so, must the remaining sections other than those along the route of the road be selected from unceded territory? Early interpretations indicated that the sections would be chosen from territory already acquired in existing treaties, but the federal land office later determined that sections selected for the portion of the road north of the Wabash must be contiguous to the route and that other noncontiguous sections must come from land not previously ceded by the Indians.38

36 Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, I, 22-23. 37 Indiana, Laws (1829-1830), 111-14; Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, I, 33; Rather, “Struggle for the Michigan Road,” 15-24. 38 Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, 11, 274; Indiana, Senate Journal (1831-1832), 67-84. For a complete discussion of the conflict over selection of lands for the Michigan Road and the final solution of the problems, see Geneal Prather, “The Construction of the Michigan Road, 1830-1840,”Indiana Magazine of History, XL (September, 1944), 244-56. 256 Indiana Magazine of History

The Potawatomis resisted losing any sections other than contiguous ones along the road from the Wabash to Lake Michigan, land that they agreed had been ceded in the treaty of 1826. Tipton wrote to Elijah Hayward, land office commissioner, concerning the problem: I feel bound to state to you, and through you to the President, that, at the time of negotiating this treaty, these Indians did not understand that their land, not embraced within the bounds of the tract then ceded, would be required to construct this road, except where the road passed through the country retained by them . . . . This was also my understanding of this treaty at the time it was made. Should the United States.. . take the best lands now owned by these Indians, it will greatly disappoint and distress them.39 Trouble with the Indians did indeed develop in a number of instances. One such incident occurred when William Polke, road commissioner, began choosing sections north of the Kankakee River. According to the History of Michigan City some members of the Potawatomi tribe aggressively stopped the surveyors as they chose noncontiguous lands. The surveyors withdrew, partly to avoid conflict, partly because they had not received approval from the federal government for sections that they had already chosen, and also because even in 1831 they anticipated the total removal of the In- dians from Indiana.40Polke consulted further with Tipton, seeking his assistance in being allowed to make the selections. Tipton responded that any further selection of lands out of the Indian country, without their approbation will distress them, but as no alternative is now left for the State . . . I will convene the Indians, and if possible obtain their consent for you to make other selections. The United States will no doubt pay the Indians for these lands, if they were not embraced in the former cession made by them. I will thank you to attend the council.41 This council was held at Potawatomi Mills on the Tippecanoe River on August 20, 1831. By August 31 the negotiators succeeded in getting partial consent from the Indians to select the required number of sections north of the Kankakee near the Michigan Ter- ritory line.42 Another council was held on September 4. After considerable discussion the Potawatomis agreed not to molest surveyors in their territory but stated unequivocally that they did not consent to selections of land in Indian country. The Indians also still objected to granting land for the road south of the Waba~h.~~The History of

s9 Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, 11, 366-67. 40 Oglesbee and Hale, History of Michigan City, 58, 73; Prather, “Construction of the Michigan Road,” 245-46. 41 Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, 11, 419. 12 Ibid., 451-52; Indiana, House Journal (1831-18321, Appendix D, pp. 2-3. 43 Ibid. The Indians and the Michigan Road 257

Michigan City provides an interesting account of the September 4 council meeting. According to the authors a few young chiefs, in- cited by certain traders who wished to postpone the removal of the Indians as long as possible, claimed that the Treaty of Mississi- newa was intended to convey only a strip of land for the road and one contiguous section for each mile from Lake Michigan to the Wabash. Jean B. Chandonnais, a Potawatomi of mixed blood, eas- ily extricated the negotiators from their difficulty. “He procured an ox and a great quantity of whisky from the public authorities and invited the tribesmen to a feast, and in the presence of the ensuing barbecue and spree the white man’s view was accepted and the work [choosing sections in Indian territory] was allowed to pro- ~eed.”~~ Eventually 170,580.24 acres of land were surveyed and granted for the building of the Michigan Road, actually a few more than the section per mile would have called Not only was the language in which Article I1 was couched open to varying interpretations it was also unrealistic. It is diffi- cult, for example, to imagine the Potawatomi tribe’s having an attachment to the American people or the soil of Indiana as such or to believe that a road would benefit them much in their travels. In any event, any value accruing lasted only twelve years until the time of their departure from Indiana in 1838. It is further ironic that part of the Potawatomis’ final journey from the state was down the Michigan Road, accompanied by Tipton, a commissioner for the government at the Treaty of Mississinewa in 1826.46 Provision for eighty-six individual reserves amounting to some 29,600 acres was also included in the 1826 treaty. Historian Paul

Oglesbee and Hale, History of Michigan City, 58, 73. Jean Baptiste Chandon- nais’s father was a French fur trader and his mother a Potawatomi. He was well educated and later was a leading citizen in the development of La Porte County. After getting some experience in John Jacob Astor’s fur company, he then became involved in the fur business himself. He was credited with saving lives of Ameri- cans at the massacre of Fort Dearborn in 1812, was in the United States military, and was invited to several Indian councils because of his ability to influence his tribal leaders. He also served as a scout for Lewis Cass. Zbid., 56; Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, 11, 561n. His name is variously spelled as “Chandonnai,” “Chandonia,” “Chandronet,” “Shaderny,” “Shadney,” etc. *5 Prather, “Construction of the Michigan Road,” 277; Indiana, Documentary Journal (18401, 570. 46 On the first night of the Potawatomis’ departure from Indiana for the West in 1838, Tipton and between seven hundred and eight hundred Indians camped near the Tippecanoe River at the Indian village of Chippewa after leaving Twin Lakes in Marshall County on September 2, 1838. They continued south to Logansport on the Michigan Road and then headed west. Tipton turned his charges over to Wil- liam Polke at the Illinois border. Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, 111, 687, 690, 691, 692, 699-700, 710-11, passim. For an early account of the Potawatomis’ removal over the “Trail of Death,” see Daniel McDonald, Removal of the Pottawatto- mie Indians from Northern Indiana (Plymouth, Ind., 1899); and Edmunds, Potawatomis, 240-72. 258 Indiana Magazine of History

Wallace Gates, in the introduction to the John Tipton Papers, wrote that these reserves were “granted to chiefs, half-breeds, fifty-eight Indian scholars, and a few white men with claims against the In- dian~.”~~Some of the recipients fit more than one of the categories. George Cicott, although French-Canadian, was considered a chief following his marriage to a Potawatomi. His reserve eventually was laid out as Logansport. Joseph Bertrand, Joseph Barron, and Wil- liam Burnett married sisters and a daughter of Topinbee, a prin- cipal chief. All of these, by having this close contact with the Indians, became proficient in the Potawatomi language and served as interpreters. Barron had served as a messenger for William Henry Harrison, and Bertrand established an important trade cen- ter at the junction of the St. Joseph River and the Old Sauk Trail across northern Indiana. Louison’s mother was a Potawatomi as was Zachariah Cicott’s wife. Eliza C. Kercheval was listed as receiving a reserve. She was not identified in the treaty, but it was probably no coincidence that Benjamin B. Kercheval was one of the signers and identified as a subagent. Brothers William and Henry Conner signed the treaty as interpreters and received reserves, as did another brother, James. The Conner family had been raised among the Christian Delawares and had served Indiana, state and territory, in many capacities including negotiations with the Indi- ans. Hyacinthe Lasselle, an Indian trader and the son of a British Indian agent, also received a reserve. Of him Tipton wrote in a memorandum concerning the treaty of 1826, “Genl Hyacynth Las- sell has resided and traded with the Indians this land was considered payt for debts due to him-”4s As Indian agent, Tipton had countless responsibilities concerning the reserves. His duties began when a treaty was pending, especially if he was also commissioner as in 1826. A letter from William Polke, who later became commissioner for the Michigan Road, is typical of the requests for land. Mr. Derome [Charles H. De Rome] attends the treaty in Hopes of obtaining a Reservation in behalf of his wife, any advice or assistance you Can Render him not Incompatible with your Duty as Commissioner of the U.S. will be an act of Benev- olence, as Mr. Derome is in but moderate Circumstances and has four Helples Chil- dren Dependant on his Exertions your attention to his Case will be acknowledged as a Favour by your friend and Humble

47 Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, I, 18. “Zbid., 410n, 341n, 324n, 616n; ibid., 11, 252; Charles N. Thompson, Sons of the Wilderness: John and William Conner (Indiana Historical Society Publications, Vol. XII; Indianapolis, 1937); Kappler, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, 11, 276- 77. 49Zbid.,I, 573-74. The children of Maria Christiana De Rome were granted one section of land between the Maumee and St. Joseph rivers by the treaty of 1826. Ibid.. 574n. The Indians and the Michigan Road 259

Tipton assigned many of the reserves, giving several sections to a chief at his village site or to individuals where they had already located homes or businesses. Often he was asked to choose a site on behalf of widows or orphans. Such a one was evident in a letter to Tipton from John Johnson: “Bad health has prevented me from visiting the Wabash Country for the purpose of selecting the land granted. . . to the orphan children of my late Brother [the father had been killed by the Potawatomisl.. .you had made a choice. . . subject to my Sometimes the Indian agent refused the first choice: “I have to inform you that I cannot locate that Section [for your wife] it having been surveyed and selected by the Comr of the State of Indiana for the use of Michigan road. I would thank you to make another It was also Tip- ton’s duty to prepare a conveyance of titles of chosen reserves and forward it with his recommendation to the president of the United States for approval. Sale of a reserve was possible only with the agent’s assurance that the Indian had received a fair price. This often led to some King Solomon judgments, as when Harriet Isaacs requested that her land be leased to some “industrious prudent man” despite the fact that her brother-in-law wanted the reserve It is unknown what Tipton meant when he told Cass, superintendent of Indian affairs, “Your letter of the 19th enables me to give a different answer to Mr. Koons who has been for months call- ing on me to know whether he can purchase the Bondie Land.-” Whatever it was, it caused him to say, “I would have much reason to rejoice if the Indian reserves were all sold and transferred to other hands.”53 Probably the most complicated land-sale situation occurred over section 5 of township 37 north, range 5 east, which is the junction of the Elkhart and St. Joseph rivers. George Crawford and Lewis Davis had built a mill and made other improvements on that site. In May, 1830, a Mr. Godfroy told Tipton that he was choosing a reservation of three sections for “Morain” and wanted the above site. Tipton told him he would have to pay a fair price for the improvements. George Graham, commissioner of the General Land Office, confirmed “Moran’s” right to have this section.54Crawford was hoping that squatters’ rights would count for something. On July 21, 1830, he wrote: “If it was not for Godfry we could injoy the benefit of Preemtion[.l . . . He (Davis) made proposals to him in

50 Zbid.,11, 120. s1 Zbid., 375. s2 Zbid., 370. s3 Zbid.,357. 54 Zbid.,275-76, 303, 321-22. Research on this event is complicated by the fact that Mr. Godfroy is referred to by Tipton as “Richard,” but the gentleman himself used “J. J.” in a signature; nor is it helpful to find five different spellings for “MO- rain.” 260 Indiana Magazine of History every shape and manner that he could think of but could not do any thing with him. . . . Gen. we will compensate you liberally for all the trouble that you are put to wether we get it or not[.] We are desireous that you do all you can for us.”55The following January J. J. Godfroy wrote Tipton that “Morin” was selling the land to Stephen and Rufus Downing, that he wanted part of it, and that it was not true as Crawford stated that he had purchased the land for $150.56 In April, Tipton was still trying to put a period on the entire transaction. He wrote to a commissioner of the General Land Of- fice, Elijah Hayward: The Indian Moran came to my office to day and informed me that he had sold his land to Doctor Beardsley for $800, and requested me to procure the Presidents approval to his deed.-[Tipton increased the price to $1,500.1The Indian also said, that he had sold this same land some years ago to a Mr. Richard Godfroy of the Michigan Territory, for One dollar per acre, and that Mr. G. [thus far had] paid him a horse and an old Dearborn waggon with $112 . . . , and [to further complicate everything] A Mr. L. G. Thompson of Fort Wayne, has caused a Deed to be prepared conveying this same section to himself, and placed it in the hands of an Interpreter with the promise of a handsome present, if he, the Interpreter, would go privately to the Indian, and procure his signature . . . .57 Beardsley got the site; Godfroy got his $112 back. The last statement of Tipton’s letter is not surprising: You will perceive by the foregoing statement that this reservation has produced both excitement and fraud; this may be truly said of other reservations.-No one would believe what intrigues and frauds are attempted in regard to conveying reservations, unless they were near the scene of action.-I would respecfully [sic]recommend that the President would cause reservations that are hereafter to be sold, to be advertized in the News-papers and sold at public auction.-This would shield the Department of trouble, and the officers of unjust imputation^.-^* Four years elapsed before the reserves for the fifty-eight students of the Carey Mission School were awarded. The Carey Mis- sion in Michigan Territory and the Choctaw Academy in Kentucky were recipients of treaty benefits having to do with the education or civilizing of Indian children. Carey Mission, near present-day Niles, Michigan, was oper- ated by Isaac McCoy, a Baptist minister who had served as a missionary to the Indians in Indiana for a number of years. In 1804 McCoy and his wife Christina had come to Vincennes in Indiana Territory seeking a pastorate. There they observed the Indians “systematically stripped of their annuities, their furs, and even their weapons and clothing, being left in a pitiable and helpless condi-

55 Ibid., 306-307. 56 Ibid., 385-87. 57 Ibid., 404-405. 58 Ibid., 405. The Indians and the Michigan Road 261 tion.” After ministering to congregations at Silver Creek Baptist Church in Clark County and the prestigious Maria Creek Baptist Church near Vincennes, the McCoys in 1818 opened an Indian mission on Raccoon Creek north of Terre Haute, moving from there to Fort Wayne approximately two years later.59 When the McCoys arrived in Fort Wayne, they were provided with a deserted government barracks for a church and school. By the end of the first year over forty Indian children as well as several French and English students were being taught and cared for. Financing their missionary work and still providing for their own large family was a constant problem for the McCoys. In 1819 Con- gress had passed an act providing funds for the “purpose of providing against the further decline and final extinction of the Indian tribes.. . and for introducing among them the habits and arts of civilization . . . ,” and in 1821 Lewis Cass, superintendent of Indian affairs, allotted McCoy $450 for clothing and food for his Indian scholars. At times the McCoys received temporary support from the Kentucky Baptists and from individuals or congregations in Kentucky and Ohio. Most people of that time, however, had little concern or interest in the Indians and thought problems regarding them could be more quickly solved by removal of the Indians across the Mississippi.6o Despite his financial problems McCoy felt that he had some success in his missionary efforts at Fort Wayne. He wrote of the Indians: Some person must reside near them, where he may contact a familiar acquaint- ance with them, converse with them frequently, set them an example of industry, and take advantage of their hunger and cold in a winter storm, so that their pri- vations shall subserve their best interests. Let the unhappy creatures sometimes realize the comforts of a warm room on a stormy night; let them be taught by actual experience, as well as by persuasive arguments, the great advantage to be derived from cattle, hogs, & c. . . . In a similar way could domestic economy be impressed on the females in the school, and on their mothers at home.61 The McCoys remained at Fort Wayne for approximately two years but then decided that they could better serve the Indians by

”Zbid., 308n; James Polke, “Some Memoirs of the Polke, Piety, McCoy, Mc- Quaid, and Mathes Families,” Indiana Magazine of History, X (March, 1914), 92- 94; John F. Cady, “McCoy’s Mission to the Indians of Indiana and Michigan,” Indi- ana History Bulletin, XVI (February, 1939), 100-13 (quotation p. 105); Isaac McCoy, History of Baptist Indian Missions: Embracing Remarks on the Former and Present Condition of the Aboriginal Tribes; Their Settlement within the Indian Territory, and Their Future Prospects (orig., Washington, D. C., 1840; reprint, New York, 1970), vi-viii, 43-44, passim. M, McCoy, History of Baptist Indian Missions, 71-89, 153-54, 203-204, 215, 218, passim; U. S., Statutes at Large, 111, 516-17; Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, I, 307-308; Cady, McCoy’s Mission to the Indians, 100-13. 61 Isaac McCoy to Baptist Board of Indian Missions, May 7, 1818, in Latter Day Luminary, I (August, 1818), 184; see also ibid., 412, 503-504. ISAAC McCoy PROTESTANTMISSIONARY AMONG THE POTAWATOMISIN INDIANA AND AT CAREY MISSIONNEAR PRESENT-DAYNILES, MICHIGAN

Courtesy Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka; reproduced from R. David Edmunds, The Potawatomis: Keepers of the Fire (Norman, Okla., 19781, 142. The Indians and the Michigan Road 263 being farther away from the corrupting influence of white traders. By the Treaty of Chicago in 1821 a section of land on the St. Jo- seph River was granted for Carey Mission, and McCoy was allotted $400 to serve as teacher. He was pleased with the opportunity and there established a school, built a chapel, and converted large numbers of Potawatomis. Seven students from Carey Mission en- tered the Columbian College in Washington, D. C., and two were known to be enrolled in a medical school in Vermont.62 In October of 1826 McCoy and his Indian pupils came to the treaty site at Mississinewa. James M. Ray, the assistant secretary of the proceedings, recorded their attendance. In the cabin next to ours, the Rev. Mr. McCoy had a large number of Indian scholars from the Baptist mission on the St. Joseph‘s, manifesting the results of his faithful labor for several years. The contrast between these, in their fixed attention to their books, while the wild natives of the tribe were yelling, grinning and laugh- ing at them between the cracks of the cabin, but wholly failing the divert them in the least, had the effect of securing a grant of good reservation of land, in the treaty, for the support of the mission.63 In actuality, rather than a reserve for the mission, each of fifty- eight pupils was granted a quarter section of land. The United States Senate questioned this provision in the treaty, but the ex- emplary deportment of the pupils eventually influenced a positive vote.64The support of the mission did not really materialize, however. McCoy reported later that the reserves were sold to whites and the proceeds used for food and clothing and were of little good to the grantees or the The two thousand dollars set aside for education went to the Choctaw Academy of Scott County, Kentucky. Richard M. Johnson, director of that institution, was a United States senator and a friend of Tipton. Since 1818 he had been providing lodging and schooling for a number of Choctaw children under the auspices of the Ken- tucky Baptist Society. After a treaty with the Choctaws in 1825, Johnson worked out a plan, accepted by the War Department, to establish the academy with the Baptist Board of the General Con- vention. The treaty in 1825 supplied Johnson’s school with six thousand dollars yearly for twenty years. Thomas Henderson was the superintendent of the school, and Johnson handled the fi- nances. Subsequently, the Creeks agreed to appropriate twenty-four thousand dollars to educate some of their children there.66

McCoy, History of Baptist Indian Missions, 145-51, 300-302, 264-71; Cady, McCoy’s Mission to the Indians, passim. 63 Helm, History of Wabash County, 90. See also Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, I, 580, 18, 655; and McCoy, History of Baptist Indian Missions, 289-91. Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, I, 643, 655. &5 McCoy, History of Baptist Indian Missions, 290-91; Robertson and Riker, Tip- ton Papers, I, 180. 66 Robertson and Riker, Tipton Papers, I, 530n, 571-73. 264 Indiana Magazine of History

In a protracted correspondence Johnson explained to Tipton the educational arrangements at the academy and urged that similar educational funds be included in treaties in the Wabash area. Johnson promised to do everything in his power to get Tipton appointed commissioner of the impending treaties, including speak- ing to the secretary of war and encouraging fellow political leaders from Indiana to do the same.67 After Tipton had been appointed commissioner for the Mississinewa treaty, Johnson wrote, on Sep- tember 8, 1826: As my engagements will prevent my attending, I would suggest that in an article in the treaty a certain Sum be set a part for the purposes of Education, without designation where it shall be expended, but with an understanding, that ten, fifteen, or twenty children of promise be sent to the academy at this place as soon as the treaty is ratifyed, the sum reserved may specify so much annually for education, for so many years or the sum reserved may be in gross & this will enable the nation to send more or less schollars as they please till the fund is ex- hausted--6R After the ratification of the treaty Johnson urged Tipton to choose students from eight to nineteen years old and to recommend that they stay at least five years. Allowing two hundred dollars per pupil, nine youths were to be sent, and seventy-five dollars were allowed to help hire an additional teacher at the academy. Johnson also found it necessary to ask for an advance to build a new dining room. He also added, “In case of any future Treaty I hope you will again act as a commissioner & particularly attend to the increase of the literary fund, that we may do something to rescue at least a part of these people from barbarism & annehilati~n[.I”~~ Choosing the youths was not an easy task. A rumor was started that the boys would be used as slaves when sent off to that distant land. Parents refused to allow their sons to leave, and at least one boy refused to go. Several hundred dollars’ worth of presents helped induce some parents to change their minds.70 Finally in May of 1827 Tipton set out with seven boys. One was already there (the adopted son of Johnson’s brother-in-law), and George Cicott, a trader whose mother was a Potawatomi, was to join him with another. Instead of one prospective student Cicott arrived with three, which was two over the number agreed upon. Tipton and Cicott continued their journey anyway, hoping to get the additional money from the War Department or, with Cicott’s recommendation, from the Indi- ans them~elves.~~ Tipton visited the school a few years later taking some additional boys who were eligible because of a subsequent treaty that

67 Ibid., 529-30, 530-31, 571-73. 6R Ibid., 571-73. 69 Ibid., 647-48, 709-10. 70 Ibid., 715-16, 721-22. 7lIbid., 715-16, 719-20. The Indians and the Michigan Road 265 included funds for educating the Indians. He reported to Thomas McKenney , commissioner of Indian affairs of the War Department: “The pottawatomie boys.. . have done well. the advances they have made is highly creditable. . . and with regard to their treate- ment . . . I find them well satisfyed . . . .,’ In the same letter to McKenney Tipton also suggested that they educate girls: “one educated female will do more good than ‘2 men to the next genera- tion.” He did believe, however, that girls should be educated closer to home.72 Five years later the original pupils at the Choctaw Academy were replaced, and there was some discussion of their learning trades, becoming assistant teachers, or studying law or medicine. Several of the students wrote to Tipton and seemed to look on him as a father, asking for letters from him and appearing anxious for his visits.73 In this fatherly attitude Tipton advised the pupils at the academy: The Indians are no way inferior to us but deficent in knowledge. that knowledge is derived from books instruments and teachers such as are now placed within your reach. . . obey those teachers set over you be friendly to each other; compleate your Education and return to your respective Nations. . . nothing could afford me more pleasure than your sucess and happine~s.’~ To Secretary of War Barbour he wrote: another reason which influenced me to make exertion in the case of my putto- watomie buoys was this. . . . the creeks and puttowatomies were the first and most desperate enemies against us in the last war. we now have a number of thier buoys becomeing educated and forming friendship in the chocktaw Acady that will only cease with their lives. . . . The puttowatomies are a powerfull Nation scattered along the waters of the wabash on the Lake and near the Canada line where British talks and British goods continuelly interrupt thier peace and our security. it is now in our power not only to make them friends but if ever the Indians can be civillized and preserved from utter extermination this must be the proper course.75 Tipton’s stated goals of friendship and civilization did not ex- actly occur. The Mississinewa treaty and the resulting Michigan Road further fractionalized the Indian tribes in northern Indiana. The road and the lands selected to pay for it cut a wedge through Potawatomi territory and discouraged any unity that had existed. The commissioners, in fact, saw this fractionalization as one reason for ratification of the treaty. Although at the time they gave up immediate removal, they recognized:

72 Ibid., 11, 289-90. It is interesting to note the list of names of the Potawatomi students: two “John Tiptons,” a “Colonel McKenney,” and a “Thomas Jefferson.” Ibid., 290. 73 Ibid., 645-46. 448-49, 605-606, 612, 620. 7* Zbid., I, 788. 75 Ibid., 720-21. 266 Indiana Magazine of History

It was then important that the Indians be separated into bands, by the intervention of our settlements. . . . We could not purchase any particular district near the centre of the Pattawatamie country; but that tribe freely consented to give us land for the road described in the treaty, and for the settlement along it. Such a road. . . will sever their possessions, and lead them at no distant day to place their dependence upon agricultural pursuits, or to abandon the country.76 Different villages began to meet separately with government offi- cials, selling their land piecemeal for the American trade goods, money, and promises.77Many tribesmen could only turn to the In- dian agent for provisions to get through the winter and then reluc- tantly turn westward with the spring. Some who had gone west eventually returned, and some fled to Canada. Today their descen- dants live in Wisconsin and in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and on small reservations in Michigan and near Mayetta, Kansas.78Their names, such as Pokagon, Winamac, and Metea, are liberally sprinkled over northern Indiana. Increasingly, interest in Potawatomi history and culture is being expressed in museums, festivals, pageants, and educational programs, some of them along the Michigan Road.

76 Ibid., 602. 77 Edmunds, Potowatomis, 219, 241-42. 78 Zbid., 273-75.