The Struggle to Defend Indian Authority in the Ohio Valley-Great Lakes Region, 1763-1794
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The Struggle to Defend Indian Authority in the Ohio Valley-Great Lakes Region, 1763-1794 John Timothy Fierst A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History The Universi9 of Manitoba On October 31,2000 Ln Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts O 2000 National tibrary Bibliothèque nationale 1*1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington OttawaON K1AON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une Licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Cana& de reproduce, loan, distnbute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. 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THE UNLVERSlTY OF MANITOBA COPYRIGHT PERMISSION PAGE The StruggIe to Defend Indian Authority in the Ohio Valley-Great Lakes Region, 1763-1794 John Timothy Fierst A Thesis/h-acticum submitted to the Facuky of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fntfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts JOHN TIMOTHY FIERST O 2001 Permission has been granted to the Library of The University of Manitoba to lend or seU copies of this thesis/practicum, to the National Library of Canada to microfiim this thesidpracticum and to lend or seii copies of the film, and to Dissertations Abstracts International to pubiish an abstract of this tbesis/practicum. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither this thesidpracticum nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's written permission. Table of Contents Preface and Adaiowledgementç Abstract 1. Introduction: Indian "Banditti" 2. Indian History? 3. Indian Authority in the Pays d 'en Haut 4. Resistance to the Anglo-Amencan Invasion 5. Refusal to Acknowledge Indian Authority 6. Conclusion: Loss of the Ohio Country Bibliography Maps Map 1: The Ohio Valley-Great Lakes Region 1 Map 2: Tribal Distribution in the Ohio Valley-Great Lakes Region 49 iii Preface and Acknowledgments In deciding which tenns to use in the thesis to refer to different Native American groups, 1 have followed the nomenclature used by Helen Tanner in the Aflas of Great Lakes Indian Hkfq. Although the use of traditional names, such as Anishinaabe or Haudenosaunee, might be considered more accurate, most readers will be fdarwith the tems that Tanner employs. 1did not try to avoid using the term Indian or Native American but used them interchangeably. In places 1have also used the term confederacy to refer to intertribal assoaations such as the Stioto Confederacy. Other historians, such as JohnSugden, in Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees, have done the same. Using this term 1 do not mean to imply more than association. 1am unaware of evidence showing that the Indians in the Ohio Valley ever formally bound themselves together under offiaal artides or agreements of confederation. 1would like to thank Dr. Francis Carroll for helping me to see this thesis through to completion. 1could not have had a better advisor. From the reading we did together, 1 gained an overview of the nationalist penod in United States history and an invaluable appreaation for the impact that international politics and diplomacy had upon developments in the North American intenor. Dr. Carroll has always expressed confidence in my ability and has always been open to sharing with me the howledge he possesses. In the course of our working to- gether, I was reminded time and again of why 1 like to study history. 1 wodd also like to thank my parents, John Peter Fierst and Maureen O'Donovan Fierst, to whom this thesis is dedicated. Throughout my life they have been an unwavering source of love and support. Abstract From the Seven Years' War in North America to the Battle of Fallen Tim- bers, 1754 to 1794, Native Americans fought to retain control of the Ohio Valley- Great Lakes region. They fought to keep-first the British and after the Revolution the American~astof the Appalachiav and out of the Ohio Coun- try. White Americans looked upon the Seven Years' War, the Revolution, and the Indian Wars of the early 1790s as separate events, but for Native Americans of the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes region they were all part of a forty-year-long stniggle to protect their homelands. This forty year stmggle is not well under- stood. The problem is that most historians have treated Native Americans as Britain's hdian allies. Indians involved in the struggle are not usudy recog- nized as having authority in and of themselves. The purpose of this thesis is to review this prolonged stniggle hom the perspective of Indian authority. It is not written from an insider's point of view but from the point of view of what, fkom a reading of the literahire, were dearly Native Amencan interests. This point of view dows not only a dearer perspective on the actions and decisions of the In- dians themselves but also a dexer perspective on the actions and deàsions of British and American officiais. Native Americans were not weak, dependent, and doomed. They were not pawns of the British or simply the victims of trans- Atlantic market forces. They held power in the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes re- gion, and that power was wrested from them by a& of war. Introduction: Indian "Banditti" In the treaty that brought the Amencan Revolution to a dose, Lord Shel- bume, the British Prime ester,wishing to keep the former colonists within the British commeraal system, and therefore favoring generous terms of peace, advocated ceding to the new republic the region lying south of the Great Lakes and west of the Appalachian ~ountains?With the signuig of the Treaty of Paris on September 3,1783, Amencan offiaah were most anxïous to establish the authority of the United States throughout the newly acquired Northwest Tem- tory2 This country, however, was under the control of the Shawnees and their 1 For SheIburnefs position see Charles R. Ritcheson, Aft&h of Reuolution: British Policy Towmd thUnited States, 1783-1795 (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1969), 45. 2 Northurest TmZqis one of severd tenns used herein which essentiaily derto the same region. The Tm-toryNorfhwest ofthe Ohio River, or the Narthest Territory, waç the official name the United States gave to the country north of the Ohio River, ceded in the 1783 treaty. The Great Lakes formed the northern boundary of the Northwest Temtory, Pennsylvania the eastem boundary, the Ohio River the southem boundary, and the Mississippi River the western boundary. Other ternis employed in the thesis are not so explicitiy delineated. The Ohio Counhy and the Illinois Country, both within in the limits of the Northwest Temtory, are older terms. The Old Norfhwest generaiiy refers to those states carved out of the Northwest Territory that now make up a large part of the American Midwest, being the states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. This is explained by R. Carlyle Buley in his prehce to The Old Norfhwst: Pimer Pend 1815-1840, vol. 1(Bloornington: Indiana University Press, 1950), vii: "From this territory five states (and part of a sixth-Mùinesota east of the Mississippi River) were eventually admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original states. As the United States moved on to the Pacific and a new northwest developed, the region north of the Ohio came to be known in American history as the Old westem confederates. The westem Indians, who had fought alongside the Brit- ish during the Revolution, had not been defeated in battle; nor had they partiù- pated in the peace process; nor had they signed the 1783 treaty. They were, in fad, quite angered by Britain's presuming to turn over their homeland to the Americans. And they were waiting to see if the new United States would honor Northwest." The Norfhwest, as Wayne Stevens uses the term in The Nmthwest Fur Trade 1763-1800,University of Illinois Studies in Social Sciences, vol. 14, no. 3 (Urbana: Univerçity of Illinois, 1926), is more troublesome because it is inclusive of more than the Northwes t Territory or the Old Northwest Stevens employs the term ambiguously, sometimes using Nmthest to refer to the Northwesf T'rritory. Northwest, it wodd seem, is more a directional tenn, referring to the vast country Iying northwest of the Atlantic Seaboard colonies, and therefore induding large parts of Canada. Point of view is critical to understanding these terms, as is indicated by the use of pays d'en haut or upper country, which also appears throughout the thesis. In this case the St. Lawrence River serves as a point of reference. The St. Lawrence, the principal French route into the interior, flows hmLake Ontario to the North Atlantic. On the St. Lawrence the Qty of Montreal is located below the point where the Ottawa River, another major route to the west, joins the St Lawrence. Pays d'en haut refers to the country above-up river hm-Montreai, Like the term Nurthzuesf the tenn pays d'en haut is vague and inclusive.