Peace, Power and Persistence: Presidents, Indians, and Protestant Missions in the American Midwest 1790-1860
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PEACE, POWER AND PERSISTENCE: PRESIDENTS, INDIANS, AND PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN THE AMERICAN MIDWEST 1790-1860 By Rebecca Lynn Nutt A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of History—Doctor of Philosophy 2015 ABSTRACT PEACE, POWER AND PERSISTENCE: PRESIDENTS, INDIANS, AND PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN THE AMERICAN MIDWEST 1790-1860 By Rebecca Lynn Nutt This dissertation explores the relationships between the Shawnee and Wyandot peoples in the Ohio River Valley and the Quaker and Methodist missionaries with whom they worked. Both of these Indian communities persisted in the Ohio Valley, in part, by the selective adoption of particular Euro-American farming techniques and educational methods as a means of keeping peace and remaining on their Ohio lands. The early years of Ohio statehood reveal a vibrant, active multi-cultural environment characterized by mutual exchange between these Indian nations, American missionaries, and Euro- and African-American settlers in the frontier-like environment of west-central Ohio. In particular, the relationships between the Wyandot and the Shawnee and their missionary friends continued from their time in the Ohio Valley through their removal to Indian Territory in Kansas in 1833 and 1843. While the relationships continued in the West, the missions themselves took on a different dynamic. The teaching methods became stricter, the instruction observed religious teaching more intensely, and the students primarily boarded at the school. The missionary schools began to more closely resemble the notorious government boarding schools of the late-nineteenth century as the missions became more and more entwined with the federal government. This work further allows an evaluation of the role that the U.S. government and the missionaries played in the shaping of Indian Removal and U.S. Indian policies, and examines the methods of Indian removal that go beyond the traditionally held images of the 1838 forced removal of the Cherokee nation. Copyright by REBECCA LYNN NUTT 2015 For my Dad Bill and my Mama Pat v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As with most of life’s accomplishments, little is ever achieved without the grace and effort of many individuals and organizations. I first wish to express my sincere appreciation to the History Department and the faculty of Michigan State University as they provided a rich, accepting, learned environment in which to grow as a student and scholar. I especially appreciate those who served on my graduate committee including, from the History Department, Dr. Thomas Summerhill, and Dr. Kirsten Fermaglich, and from Anthropology, Dr. Mindy Morgan and the late Dr. Susan Krouse. Your guidance, suggestions, and leadership were keys to my success as a graduate student. To my advisor and committee chairperson, Dr. Susan Sleeper-Smith, I am forever grateful and indebted. I am not sure how to thank effectively a mentor who has gone above and beyond the standards of academic advising to make possible my opportunity to see my goals to fruition. It is because of her and her stellar support and leadership that this dissertation and completed degree are a reality. You are and will continue to be a scholar I admire, a mentor I respect, and a friend I value. Of my MSU office mates, I hold lovely memories of support, camaraderie, and laughter during the challenges of graduate school. To Sakina Hughes, Justin Carroll, Laura Cuppone, and Ashley Sanders, thank you. I wish to thank the CIC-American Indian Studies Consortium and the Newberry Consortium of American Indian Studies for significant travel funding and multiple opportunities to expand my knowledge and advance my scholarship through workshops, seminars, and the American Indian Studies Summer Institute at the vi Newberry Library. In particular, I was honored to be awarded a Newberry Consortium of American Indian Studies Student Fellowship for extended research at the esteemed institution. The scholars and staff at the Newberry Library and the D’Arcy McNickle Center were valuable in progressing my research. These opportunities to learn from and work with some of the best scholars of American Indian studies from all over the United States were an integral part of my graduate education. I further thank the staff of the Kansas State Historical Society and Archives, the Ohio State Historical Society and Archives, the Indiana State Libraries and Archives, the Quaker Collection of the Earlham College Libraries, and the Filson Historical Society for their good work and their willingness to assist in my research. And finally, I am indebted to genealogy librarian, Karen Campbell of the Mary L. Cook Public Library in Waynesville, Ohio, who sparked my interest in the subject of the Harvey family and their involvement with the Wapakoneta Shawnee, through her informative genealogy blog. She spent a lovely day with me sharing her work and touring me through the streets of Harveysburg. Her enthusiasm for her county’s intriguing past was contagious, and inspired my own excitement for the subject. I am grateful for the love and support from my family. My parents, sisters, and my niece and nephew and their children and my husband and I are a close-knit little group. We share our successes and our weaknesses and knowing that they are always there to make me laugh, to cry with me if they needed, or to kick me in the backside if necessary keeps me sane and grounded. To my husband, Reed, you have made all the difference in my life and your constant encouragement pushed me to do my best. You have done way more than your share of laundry and dishes while I was travelling vii back and forth between Ohio and Michigan, and spent boring hours at copy machines as my “research assistant,” but your love and your patience never failed. You are pretty darn amazing, and I’m so glad to be on this journey with you. Finally, at the risk of sounding like a first-time-Grammy-award-winning musician with my trophy thrust skyward, I really do want to thank God, apart from whom I am incomplete. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES …………………………………………………………………….. ix INTRODUCTION: Indian Education, Removal, and the Forgotten Midwest ……. 1 CHAPTER ONE: River Valley Tapestry: Relationships, Race and Religion …… 12 Everyday Life……..……………………………………………………. 18 The Quaker Experience……………………………………………….. 24 The Methodist Experience…………………………………………….. 44 Conclusion…………………………………………………………........ 50 CHAPTER TWO: Agency and Resistance: Indians and Burgeoning Mission in the Nineteenth-Century Ohio River Valley ………………………………………. 52 The Shawnee Mission at Wapakoneta and the Wyandot Mission at Upper Sandusky ……………………………………………………….. 59 Indian Education, Indian Approval………………………….………… 84 School Attendance……………………………………………………... 88 Removal West of the Mississippi……………………………………... 93 Conclusion……………………………….……………………………… 102 CHAPTER THREE: Beyond the Cherokee: Multiple forms of forced Removal and Presidential Power in the Midwest………………………………………………. 106 Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Indian Policy .………. 111 Early Acts of Forced Removal……………………………………....... 116 Thomas Jefferson and His Chief Indian Agent, William Henry Harrison………………………….……………………… 118 The Presidencies of Monroe and Adams…………………………….. 133 The Sac and Fox War………………………………………………….. 136 Conclusion………………………….…………………………………… 143 CHAPTER FOUR: After Removal: the Shawnee and Wyandot in Kansas/Missouri 145 The Shawnee Missions………………………………………………… 147 Wyandot Removal……………………………………………………… 166 Conclusion………………………………………………………………. 171 CHAPTER FIVE: Religion, Policy, and the “Road to Civilization” with Primer and Hoe 172 New England Praying Towns………………………………………….. 177 Second Great Awakening……………………………………………… 186 The Reservation System………………………………………………. 188 The Hampton Institute and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School …. 194 Into the Twentieth Century ……………………………………………. 197 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………….. 207 ix BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………… 214 x LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: John Johnston, Indian Agent …........................................................ 19 Figure 2: Location of Harveysburg, Ohio ……………………………….………. 35 Figure 3: Harveysburg Free Black School, date unknown ……………………. 39 Figure 4: Orindatus Wall, eldest of the Wall children ..………………………... 41 Figure 5: Baptist Missionary, Isaac McCoy …………………………………….. 55 Figure 6: Location of Ottawa Settlement…………………………………….…… 57 Figure 7: Location of the Wapakoneta and the Wyandot Missions………….. 60 Figure 8: Catehecassa (Black Hoof) ……………………………………………... 64 Figure 9: Mishikinakwa (Little Turtle) …………………………………………….. 72 Figure 10: Tarhe (The Crane) ……………………………………………………… 74 Figure 11: Reconstructed Wyandot Mission House, Upper Sandusky………… 80 Figure 12: Between-the-Logs and Mononcue ……………………………………. 91 Figure 13: The Death of Jane McCrea , John Vanderlyn 1804…………………. 120 Figure 14: William Henry Harrison ………………………………………………… 121 Figure 15: Tecumseh ………………………………………………………………. 126 Figure 16: Tenskatawa, Also known as The Prophet.………………………….. 126 Figure 17: Black Hawk …………………………………………………………….. 137 Figure 18: Shawnee Methodist Manual Labor School ………………………..... 148 Figure 19: Rev. Thomas Johnson …................................................................ 150 Figure 20: Shawnee Manual Labor School buildings and their dimensions…... 154 Figure 21: Sketch of the southern section of the mission campus …………….. 156 Figure 22: Quaker Mission House ………………………………………………… 158 xi Figure 23: William Walker, Jr. ……………………………………………………… 168 Figure 24: