UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Ohio Wyandots: Religion and Society on the Sandusky River, 1795-1843 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1141g459 Author Cox, Michael Leonard Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE The Ohio Wyandots: Religion and Society on the Sandusky River, 1795-1843 A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Michael Leonard Cox March 2016 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Rebecca Kugel, Chairperson Dr. Clifford E. Trafzer Dr. Jennifer S. Hughes Copyright by Michael Leonard Cox 2016 The Dissertation of Michael Leonard Cox is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Osiyo! The title of a Beach Boys song, I think, captures the essence of writing a dissertation: “You Need a Mess of Help to Stand Alone.” Nothing could be truer in my experience. The list of those who have lent their hands to me along the way is too long to adequately capture in such a short space, but I shall do my best. Academically, I owe a debt to both the institution where this project began, the University of Oklahoma, and where it ended, the University of California, Riverside. Both universities provided an atmosphere of learning and collegiality that I cannot credit enough for my intellectual and personal development. The History Department at OU provided me with a teaching assistantship, while the History Department, College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS), and UCR writ large provided significant funds to support my enrollment, research, and writing efforts during my time there. Additionally, funds from the American Philosophical Society Phillips Fund, the Newberry Library, the Lilly Library at Indiana University, and the Clements Library at the University of Michigan further supported research trips throughout the Midwest. I also had the privilege to attend an NEH Summer Institute hosted by the Newberry Library which exposed me to a wonderful group of fellow scholars. Special thanks to Scott Stevens for organizing and hosting us. I wish to thank Chief Leaford Bearskin for sitting down one morning to chat with me in Wyandotte, Oklahoma several years ago. While the conversation wasn’t really about my dissertation, it opened my eyes significantly. Thanks also to all of those I have met through the years at conferences as panel colleagues, panel chairs, and discussants. I have taken your words and influences to iv heart. Thanks especially to Katie Magee Labelle and Tom Peace. I also wish to thank all of my colleagues in the Department of History & Government at Cameron University, where I spent the past two years as a faculty member while laboring (slowly!) to complete this project. On an individual level, I am indebted to a number of faculty members at both OU and UCR for classes I took with them, advice given along the way, and exposure to a variety of teaching styles and emphases while serving as a teaching assistant. At OU, I particularly wish to thank those who served on my Master’s thesis committee, Albert Hurtado, Paul Gilje, and my advisor, Joshua Piker. Josh, in particular, helped to foster the origins of what became this dissertation. His work in the realm of microhistory, as one can see, was quite influential on this dissertation. At UCR, I first wish to thank Catherine Allgor, Lynda Bell, Randy Head, and Robert Patch, all of whom I took classes from, and all of whom I worked for as well. I especially wish to thank the readers of this dissertation, Jennifer Hughes and Clifford Trafzer, who have both been great influences on my ways of thinking and great supporters of mine along the long and winding road that is this dissertation. Most of all, I want to thank Monte Kugel for being the best of advisors, and for giving her all to her advisees like me. I could not have hoped to do this without you, and I hope you are proud! Along with the ties that bind me to those I studied under, the bonds I developed with those I studied with demand acknowledgement. Simply listing people does not seem to be enough, but I cannot think of a better way. If I leave anyone out, please forgive me. At OU, I had the privilege to enter a program with a large cadre of budding scholars who v all influenced my development at a critical stage in my academic life. I wish to especially thank Willy Bauer, Jeff Means, David Loving, Theresa Moore, Linda English, Sarah Eppler Janda, Dan Cobb, Carolyn Cuskey, George Milne, and Charlie Vaught for enriching my intellectual and personal life while I was in Norman. At UCR, I want to thank Ian Chambers, Jon Ille, Liz Von Essen, Owen Jones, Tim Russell, K.D. Motes, Vanessa Wilkie, Kelly Dormady, Kathleen McGuire, Isaac Stephens, Dave Buhl, Kevin Whalen, Tony Yang, Matt Growhoski, and the late Michael Drake for their friendship and camaraderie. I save particular adoration for my core of friends from Kensington House (and affiliate members like me): Sue Hall Nguyen, Emily McEwen, Vanessa Stout, Jamie Green, Sarah McCormick Seekatz, Becky Wrenn, Jason Sampson, Robert Miller, Sean Slusser, Andrew Garrison, and Laura Bellew Hannon. I can never say how special you all are to me, so I won’t try. While we don’t get to pick our families, I was lucky enough to get a good one. I wish to thank my very large extended family for all the love, support, and joy you have brought to my life. There are too many of you to name, but you know who you are! A special word of thanks to my grandmother Thelma Stiles, who has influenced me in ways I can’t even begin to fathom. Everyone should have a grandma like you. I also wish to thank my wife’s family, which has supported me in so many ways the past twenty years: Dave and Michele Roush; Jennifer, Ben, Braeleigh, and Brandt Blosser; Julia Roush; and especially Katie Roush. I would like to thank my father, who showed me what hard work is by his own example, and also prompted me to finish this dissertation with persistent prodding about when it would be done. Thanks dad. Some might say it’s tough to be a vi male in an all-female household, but I was fortunate to have two tremendous sisters to grow up with, both of whom helped to make me who I am. I love you Christie and Jennifer. Thanks also to their families: my brother-in-laws Todd Ely and Kyle Dunkle, my nephews Jake and Ryan, and my new niece Kyra. Thanks also to Tom Lewis. A final addition to this list of family is my dog, Josie. I must admit that I used to think it was a bit silly when people thanked their pets, but here I am doing it! My final thanks go to the two people who have had the most profound influence on my life, and who are the entire reason I made it to the finish (or even the start) on this project. I dedicate this dissertation to them. To my late mother, Linda, I can only say that whatever is fundamentally good about me at the core is because of her. She gave me life, love, and instilled a passion for learning in me early on. She was the force who drove me to aspire to things that would have seemed impossible otherwise. She didn’t live to see this project, but her influence is profound on it nonetheless. Last but most, I want to thank my wife Audrey. We have now been together for over twenty years, and I cannot remember life without you. What can I say other than that you have been my rock, my soul, and my heart. You have believed in me when I didn’t even believe in myself. You have moved and struggled repeatedly with me so that I could complete this dream, and you have been my constant companion down every road we have travelled, including the addition of our new son Michael Pennington. I wouldn’t want it any other way. Never my love. PS: Any factual errors or expressions of opinions are solely my own. vii DEDICATION To the memory of my mother For Audrey viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Ohio Wyandots: Religion and Society on the Sandusky River, 1795-1843 by Michael Leonard Cox Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in History University of California, Riverside, March 2016 Dr. Rebecca Kugel, Chairperson The preponderance of Native American histories of the Old Northwest traditionally have examined macro-regional trends, particularly those related to warfare, trade, and the attrition of indigenous sovereignty in the face of European/American expansion. A number of recent studies have begun to dig deeper into the details of indigenous life in the region, but usually in the context of Indian Removal. This study attempts to shift the focus to a microhistorical examination of a single indigenous community, the Wyandot people in the Sandusky River region in modern northwest Ohio. I argue that training the analytical lens on the Wyandots reveals a much more complicated history than most existing studies have considered, especially after the War of 1812 (when most studies tend to end with the collapse of effective military resistance to American expansion). This study reveals a community in the midst of tremendous cultural changes, especially in regards to questions of religious adherence/identity, economic change, social structural changes, and perceptions of the importance of race and cultural identity.