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Home , Brothertown Indians, Buckongahelas, David Kilgore, Francis Godfroy, Miami Nation of Indiana, Samson Occom

HISTORICAL SOCIETY PRESS The 1818 Saint Marys Treaties A. ANDREW OLSON III

The 1818 Saint Marys Treaties

A. ANDREW OLSON III

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Originally published as a four-part series in the following issues of The Hoosier Genealogist: Connections

Volume 57, Fall/Winter 2017

Volume 58, Spring/Summer 2018

Volume 58, Fall/Winter 2018

Volume 59, Spring/Summer 2019

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Contents

Part 1: Tribal and Euro-American Historical 1 Backdrop through 1817

Part 2: Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians 11 and Treaty Preparations

Part 3: Concluding the Treaties: The Brothertowns’ 23 and Stockbridges’ Sagas

Part 4: In the Aftermath of the Treaties: Removal 37 and Settlement

Part 1: Tribal and Euro-American Historical Backdrop through 1817

The years 2017 and 2018 marked disinterment of remains at the site in the Initially the Saint Marys treaties were the two-hundredth year since six pivotal first half of the twentieth century. Upon tangential to my original object, but treaties were concluded at Saint Marys, assuming ownership of this parcel, my when I also discovered a historical error Ohio. They were undertaken between grandfather renamed it the “Indian Hill made in the tribal identities of those the and an extensive Stock Farm” in remembrance of those granted land under the treaty with the number of tribal groups buried there. , my focus shifted. The ratio- clustered around the southern shores One family line reports the departing nale for such grants soon became clear. of Lake Erie and in Indiana. The treaties Indian was either the famous So, too, a plausible explanation for the would inalterably change the future or a () chief. town name “Yorktown” came into view. trajectories of those who had called this Another line states it was a “York” In- More broadly, my research provided area home, and for the new states of dian.2 However, because Tecumseh had fascinating insights about how the Ohio and Indiana, huge swaths of virgin been killed during the (at lopsided discussions at treaty gatherings territory would be opened for settlement. the Battle of the Thames in 1813), when were arranged and conducted. I came to It is with a view to the cultural changes David Kilgore would have been only nine realize the Saint Marys outcomes repre- wrought by the Saint Marys treaties—on years old, the “Tecumseh” version seems sented the United States’ first tangible all involved—that they were observed unlikely.3 Similarly, nearly all Delawares steps toward what would be codified as in a series of four articles appearing were relocated from White River to its disruptive policy by over eighteen months and are brought what is now southwest Missouri by 1821, 1830—mandating the relocation of all together here, in a special digital edition. under terms of the Saint Marys Treaties tribes to lands west of the Mississippi. of 1818.4 As I discovered, however, Kil- At the least, they set new cultural paths Introduction: The Kilgore Pact Legend gore did not arrive in Delaware County for all touched by these predetermined Several years ago I set about explor- until 1829–1830. Thus, a pact with a negotiations. ing a family legend. The story revolves Delaware chief is improbable. Finally, As a result, my focus shifted from around my great-great-great grand- historical research could not confirm the resolving the Kilgore pact legend—which father, David Kilgore (1804–1879), of existence of a “York” tribe, as had been I still sought to address—to dealing with the small east-central Indiana town of reported by my great-grand-uncle in a the more sobering and fundamental Yorktown in Delaware County. Family 1926 interview. This last possibility, then, truths revealed by these treaties. lore suggests that Kilgore made a pact appears far-fetched as well.5 with one of the Indians then departing Nevertheless, as with any such leg- Historical Context of the Saint the state. He vowed that neither he nor end, grains of truth are often intermixed Marys Treaties of 1818 his descendants would disturb an Indian with the fanciful storytelling passed By mid-September 1818, five thou- burial ground purportedly located on down from generation to generation. My sand village, war, and civil chiefs and property to which he was then gaining attempt to pluck such kernels of truth sachems of nearly all the southern Great title in the 1830s. from the story led to a related discovery. Lakes tribal groups had gathered in west This tract of land, which remained in Two previously underreported, mission- central Ohio to make treaties with com- our family until 2002, is located along ary-led tribal amalgams were present missioners of the United States govern- 6 the west branch of White River, now along White River in the Yorktown vicin- ment. Encamped along the banks of known to archaeologists as the “Kilgore ity about the time of the Saint Marys the Saint Marys River near the small Village” site.1 True to the legendary pact, treaties. This new insight warranted garrison of the same name, the chiefs my maternal grandfather, Benjamin M. further investigation. represented a variety of tribal bands Nelson Sr., told me he had halted the

1 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

with the Delaware put into written form Wyandots divided from the main body the developing government policy to of French-connected Hurons in Michi- remove all tribal groups to areas west of gan and also settled around Sandusky the Mississippi. The White River Dela- Bay.12 Similarly, a British-aligned band of wares of Indiana became the vanguard Miamis established a separate presence in this new aspect of U.S. government at the trade town near policy toward their subjugated native Piqua in west central Ohio. The Miamis’ populations. main body, reluctantly trading with the At the dawn of the nineteenth cen- French, was residing in northern Indiana tury, the United States government was along the Saint Joseph and Mississinewa faced with a grinding problem. Much Rivers and at the headwaters of the of the recently organized Northwest .13 Territory remained under control of a As the left their north- substantial number of tribal groups, ern refuge, several bands as illustrated on the map “Principal settled along their migratory route in the Tribal Groups in the Northwest Terri- and areas. The ma- David Kilgore (1804–1879), Republican Congressional representative from Indiana, tory, c1800.” Years before, a whirlwind jority of the group, however, returned to 1857–1861 (Photograph by Julian Vanner- of seventeenth-century Indian wars their homeland along the Saint Joseph son, 1859, Library of Congress, Prints and to control with Dutch, then River in southern and northern Photographs Division) French, and finally English interests in Indiana. The Saint Joseph River band historically and broadly designated by the East had a domino effect around became the largest tribal contingent Euro-American interests for their own the Great Lakes. As a result, bands of and settled more widely across the area negotiating convenience as Wyandots, Miamis, Ottawas, Wyandots/Hurons, being vacated by the eastwardly-shifting 14 Senecas, , Ottawas, Potawat- and Potawatomis were pushed off their Miamis. omies, , Delawares, and Miamis.7 In ancestral homelands around Lakes Erie, Economically driven intermarriage many instances, however, they were ac- Huron, and Michigan by a confederacy between village women and French trad- tually smaller, near-independent regional of five (later six) -speaking tribal ers was also prolific. So strong had these bands of these larger contrived tribal groups from the northeast. connections become that the languages groupings.8 For the most part, tribal gov- The mostly Great Lakes Algonquin- of trade during this period were Ojibwa/ 15 ernance was centered at the village level, speaking bands temporarily settled, for Ottawa and French. The descendants typically based on consensus. little more than a generation, in today’s of such mixed-race couples, known as 10 The U.S. War Department had northern Wisconsin and Upper Canada. métis, ultimately assumed prominent authorized treaty commissions and While these groups slowly returned to tribal leadership positions by the begin- funding in 1817 and 1818 with the design their homelands in the early years of the ning of the nineteenth century. This was of securing ownership and control of all eighteenth century, tribal intermarriage based on their familiarity with European lands in the northwest quarter of Ohio between people in closely proximate cultural notions of land ownership and and in the central third of Indiana. To the villages diluted their formerly homo- political imperialism, key concepts for extent possible, the object also encom- geneous kin composition. Increasingly, tribal survival during this era. The Mi- passed the removal of these tribal bands separate small group or village identities amis and Ottawas became particularly from their ancestral or sanctioned lands developed, such as with the Miami’s effective through such leaders, as they that were then being enveloped by the and bands that re- were among a small number of tribes new states of Ohio and Indiana. turned to the vicinity of Vincennes, and that selected both civil and war chiefs In the end, the collective tribal an Ottawa segment that migrated to who served broad regional groupings of groups would be induced to yield up Sandusky Bay along the southern shore villages and bands.16 Jean Baptiste Rich- 11 nearly five million acres in Ohio and of Lake Erie. ardville (Pinšiwa), the influential Miami eight million acres in Indiana as well as Differences in opinion regarding chief during the first half of the nine- relatively small parcels in Michigan and trade alliances also resulted in splinter teenth century, exemplified such impact 17 .9 And for the first time, the treaty groups, as when the then British-aligned through his pedigree and role.

2 This map, by the author and cartographer Erin Greb, shows where tribal groups were located in the Old and beyond around 1800. As the article relates, there was much movement among bands within the main groups, and many villages included individu- als or families from more than one tribe. This map shows the major groupings on the eve of the treaty era—the era of Indian removal beyond the .

3 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

As part of what was then the under earlier French influence and direc- five-nation Iroquois confederacy, the tion, settled among the Weas in western Senecas had participated in the aggres- Indiana to quell potential Wea–Miami sive seventeenth-century purge of rival conflict.22 In the late eighteenth century, Algonquin-speaking, fur-trading tribal a small group had also joined a band of groups in today’s Midwest. Although Delawares migrating to Spanish territory most Seneca bands returned to their west of the Mississippi River.23 homeland in western New York by the The Delawares, on the other hand, early eighteenth century, several villages while comprised of three virtually of subjugated Eries, Conestogas, and autonomous segments, originated in a Mingoes remained along the south- concentrated area along the Delaware ern shore of Lake Erie. They appear to and Hudson Rivers in today’s New have adopted the tribal name of their Jersey, southern New York, and south- former captors even though not kin.18 eastern . By virtue of their They were joined by nearly five hundred unfortunate position in the path of Senecas during the Revolutionary War, European settlement, and victimized by who settled around Sandusky Bay at one-sided and unenforced treaties, the the invitation of the Wyandots. So, too, tribal groups found themselves reluc- Wyandot Chief Tarhe (the Crane) (1742– did the Cuyugas from the Buffalo Creek tantly pushed off their homelands. Over 1816/1818) was principal chief of the Reservation in New York.19 the course of a century, many Delawares Wyandots on the Sandusky River in Ohio. During the first decades of the drifted to northeastern then western He initially was a war chief who sided with eighteenth century, several tribal bands, Pennsylvania, then eastern and north- the British against the United States, but who had not originally lived in the area western Ohio. Some aligned with Mora- he shifted alliance to the Americans at the 1795 , indicating he was between the southern shores of Lake vian missionaries in eastern Ohio and speaking for the Delawares and Shawnees Erie and the northern banks of the Ohio southwestern Ontario. Others remained as well. Nonetheless, Tarhe subsequently River, found themselves forced north behind in villages in northwestern Ohio. objected to continued trespass of settlers in and westward to these lands.20 Later, The largest tribal groupings had finally Ohio at William H. Harrison’s 1815 post- driven more by the inability or unwilling- made their way to Indiana’s White River War of 1812 council at Fort Wayne, Indiana. ness of the British to enforce their 1763 by the beginning of the nineteenth (William Alexander Taylor, Centennial History of Columbus and Franklin County, Proclamation treaty lines with the Dela- century. Ohio, vol. 1 [Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publish- wares and Shawnees, these tribal groups When a further surge of American ing, 1909], 71. For information regarding were pushed in front of a tidal wave of settlers encroached on government- Tarhe see John P. Bowes, Land Too Good for unauthorized settlers who breached the sanctioned Indian lands in eastern Ohio Indians [2016]). heading west. after the Revolutionary War, some Dela- tribes with the French or British over The Shawnees were an amorphous wares sought to escape the onslaught. time had a rational basis. The groups tribal grouping that was spread across a At least one band, along with some were looking for political and economic vast area extending from Florida up the Shawnees, migrated to Spanish-con- advantage.25 On the other hand, the East Coast and west to Kentucky and trolled lands just west of the Mississippi, Euro-Americans sought to align tribal the Ohio Valley. Over time, European in what would become southeastern bands as military proxies against com- settlement and the Iroquois trade wars Missouri.24 Meanwhile, the larger groups peting trade powers and their Indian of the seventeenth century squeezed the of Delawares and Shawnees were in- mercenaries. This was often accom- smaller numbers of Shawnee survivors creasingly confined to narrower portions plished by agitating rivalries between to Kentucky and southern Ohio. By the of today’s western Ohio and the banks tribal groups or bringing trade-based beginning of the nineteenth century, of Indiana’s White River. economic leverage to bear. they were centered on the Scioto and As the various tribal groups migrated The Americans and British would Miami Rivers in southern and west- during the eighteenth century, so too did follow the same protocol against each ern Ohio, thought to be their original their loyalties to European and American other in the Midwest, even after the homeland.21 Other bands of Shawnees, powers. Vacillating alignments of the end of the Revolutionary War. This was

4 PART 1

further exacerbated by the 1794 Jay combination of Indians in a number of policy toward the Indians was crystalliz- Treaty. While mandating removal of Brit- autonomously led tribal bands, with ing. Harrison’s tactics for implementing ish forts from American soil, the treaty ever-present métis and traders ingrained that policy had already been honed and terms sanctioned the free travel of into their culture, along with agitated in- were now ready for use. As Secretary of Indian groups across the newly estab- dividuals and groups constantly moving War Henry Dearborn wrote to Harrison lished American/Canadian border. Many between the bands. This mix created an in early 1802, “All prudent means in our continued to be under British influence unstable environment. At the same time, power should be unremittingly pursued based on trade relationships.26 Because the British and their agents operated for carrying into effect the benevolent of these factors the Great Lakes region from several forts adjacent to American views of Congress relative to the Indian remained unsettled in its geo-political soil (at Mackinac/Michilimackinac in Nations.”27 disposition until the War of 1812 reached what became Michigan, and Malden in President Thomas Jefferson had its conclusion by 1815. Upper Canada), seeking to control the rejected the conquest-based Spanish Thus, as the nineteenth century Indians with trade goods. Add to this model, favoring fair and just treat- dawned, the territorial governors of scene the increasing intrusion of squat- ment of the Indians instead—unless Indiana and Michigan, William Henry ters onto Indian lands, and the situation it clashed with the need for imperial Harrison and , respectively, as was ripe for conflict. The task at hand expansion.28 His specific attitude was well as the new state governor of Ohio was challenging. clearly expressed to Harrison a year later. (after 1803), Edward Tiffin, experienced By the time Harrison assumed Jefferson penned a private letter, urging significant difficulty gaining and main- responsibility as Indiana’s territorial Harrison to promote a “disposition to taining control of their expansive areas. governor in 1801, several things were exchange lands. . . . We shall push our These territories were populated by a becoming clear. The U.S. government’s trading houses, and be glad to see [the

Prophetstown, painting by Hal Sherman, 2005. In this painting, Sherman depicts Prophetstown, Ohio, which was near Greenville, from 1805 through 1808. In 1808 the Shawnee spiritual leader (the Prophet) and his brother Tecumseh moved their town to near present- day Lafayette, Indiana. In both villages, people from many different tribes would visit, sometimes for weeks at a time. The painting suggests how treaty encampments, such as the one at St. Marys, might have appeared. (Courtesy of the Garst Museum and the Darke County Histori- cal Society, Greenville, Ohio)

5 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

nections to ceded lands (disrupting tribal power structures and relationships), and flexible in providing considerable tribal and individual annuities and land grants to assure a desired outcome. Harrison would put these tools to use between 1803 and 1809. He also added Jefferson’s “incurred debt” strategy and a program to physically divide and separate increasingly smaller Indian treaty reserve lands, which had been designated within otherwise ceded territory. This approach stifled the tribes’ former hunter-gatherer lifestyle and checked their ability to assemble for armed resistance, all while surround- ing these lands with an ever-increasing population of settlers. Ultimately, these methods would induce the beleaguered tribes to cede even their reserve lands. In spite of setting aside lands under various treaties, Harrison would bring huge swaths of acreage under government control dur- ing the decade, completely changing the political map of the Northwest Territory by the eve of the War of 1812. This in- cluded millions of acres in Illinois, much of the north central portion of Ohio, and a chevron-shaped wedge of additional millions that would define the southern third of Indiana.31 The massive extent of Harrison’s This map depicts treaty quest gains from 1795 through 1840, including land acquired treaty quest—including new acquisitions, through all of William H. Harrison’s treaties, the 1817 Treaty at Fort Meigs, and the 1818 Treaties of St. Marys. (R. Carlyle Buley, The Old Northwest Pioneer Period, 1815–1840, confirmation of earlier treaty boundar- vol. 1 [Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1950], 111.) ies, and resolution of overlapping tribal claims—is reflected on the map “Indian Indians] run in debt, because . . . when in 1794 at the Land Cessions, 1795–1840.” Land was these debts get beyond what the indi- in today’s northwest Ohio, a youthful subsumed by Harrison treaties at Fort viduals can pay, they become willing to Harrison developed his approach for Wayne, 1803 (reconfirmed earlier treaty lop the[m off] by a cession of lands.”29 To negotiating treaties. At the subsequent lines; see 1795 area in Indiana and this end, Jefferson expanded Harrison’s Treaty of Greenville (Ohio) in 1795, Illinois); at Vincennes, 1803 (in Illinois); responsibilities in 1803 to include a com- Wayne’s methods proved effective: at Vincennes, 1804 (in Indiana and mission for negotiating land treaties with generous in supplying gathered Indians Illinois); at Fort Industry, 1805 (in Ohio); Indians north of the .30 with food and liquor, liberal in distribut- at /Vincennes, 1805 (in As aide-de-camp to General An- ing trade goods and presents, successful Indiana); at Fort Wayne, 1809 (in Indiana thony Wayne following the defeat of a in gaining acceptance of cessions from and Illinois); and at Vincennes, 1809 (in loose confederacy of Great Lakes Indians tribal groups with only tangential con- Illinois and Indiana).32

6 PART 1

To accomplish his goal, Harrison also improvements and expanded settle- drew upon loyal, acculturated Indian ment— as well as his concern about sachem and Revolutionary War veteran Indian raids—was clear. He had been Hendrick Aupaumut of the missionary- the ’s congressional led Stockbridge tribe of upstate New delegate in 1809, 1811, 1812, and 1814. York. Aupaumut’s role was to encourage During his tenure, Jennings introduced a adoption of treaties and to work with resolution to construct a road between tribal groups to employ domesticated Jeffersonville, Indiana, and , right farming methods, part of a broader gov- through Indian-controlled land. He also ernment acculturation scheme.33 sought credit relief for settlers’ land pur- These bargaining methods were chases to encourage further settlement passed down to the next generation of and secured passage of a bill to organize Great Lakes treaty negotiators, most four additional companies of Rangers to notably Lewis Cass. Cass had been Har- further protect Indiana’s pioneers.35 rison’s unofficial aide-de-camp during There was a problem, however. (1784–1834): Indiana ter- the Battle of the Thames in 1813. Harri- The Delawares and Miamis, along with ritorial congressional delegate (1809–1816); son then appointed him as the Michi- the Potawatomis, controlled nearly Indiana State’s first governor (1816–1822); gan Territory’s military governor (later two-thirds of Indiana’s land, effectively Commissioner at the 1818 St. Marys (Ohio) that year appointed as civil governor by relegating its citizens to the southern Treaties and at the 1832 Treaty with the President James Madison). Finally, Cass third of the state. At the same time, by Potawatomis at Tippecanoe River, Indiana; and U.S. Congressman (1822–1831) (W. H. served alongside Harrison as treaty com- the Harrison-led Fort Wayne Treaty of Bass Photo Company Collection, P 0130, missioner when a so-called post-War 1809, Jennings understood the Miamis Indiana Historical Society) of 1812 “friendship” treaty was orches- were “acknowledged joint-tenants with trated in 1814 at Greenville, Ohio.34 In the Delawares, to the lands watered by they also assured Parke the Delawares 38 these various roles, Cass engaged with the white rivers.” He also knew they had would acquiesce to the concept. Things the very tribes he would soon encounter a claim to land ceded by the Wea tribe.36 moved quickly, and by October the at Saint Marys. These two principal tribal groups would United States had designated Parke as a Pioneer populations in the eastern ultimately control the disposition of a treaty commissioner, along with former portions of the Northwest Territory vast portion of this enormous area. Indiana Territory Governor Thomas 39 soon reached threshold levels, and the Separately, in July 1816, while Indiana Posey (1813–1816) and T. C. Sharpe. new states of Ohio and Indiana were was moving toward statehood, word Arrangements were set for the Weas admitted into the Union by the end of of possible Wea interest in selling more and Mississinnewa Miamis to negotiate 1816. However, in spite of Harrison’s than a million acres of land lying be- with the commissioners at Fort Harrison 40 early treaty quest, vast portions of these tween the main branches of White River (today’s Terre Haute) on November 11. new states remained in the hands of the in Indiana had come to the attention of While a council at Fort Harrison did 41 Indians. To rectify this situation, Presi- . Parke, a loyal supporter occur, only the Weas attended. As a re- dent James Monroe authorized a series of former territorial governor Harrison, sult, the outcome was minimal. Formerly of pivotally important treaties in 1817 was then serving as an Indiana territo- negotiated treaty boundaries with the 42 and 1818. Cass would lead these treaty rial judge in Vincennes. Not wanting to Weas and Kickapoos were confirmed. commissions—now directed to divest miss this opportunity, and recognizing The Miamis did send assurance of a the Indians of their land. Friendship the Miamis and Delawares were impor- willingness to join with other tribes in would be secondary. tant stakeholders of the country east cession of the White River country, and of the Wabash, Parke sought to expand the Delawares suggested they would The White River Country and U.S.– any such discussions to include them as accede to whatever arrangements were Indiana Interest in Securing the Land well.37 negotiated by the Miamis. Well before Jonathan Jennings’s The Miamis’ interest in such a plan Importantly, the Delawares told election as Indiana’s first governor on was confirmed by September 25, when Parke their interest was in “negotiat- August 5, 1816, his interest in internal ing an exchange of their claim to the

7 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

Pressure from the new governor of New to his role heading treaty councils, Indiana to secure an enormous area in Cass was liberal in doling out annui- the heart of the state was likely a fac- ties and large land grants to achieve his tor in the commissioners’ hasty work. goals. He made “fee simple” land title However, those most familiar with and conveyances to nearly all individual and closest to the Delawares and Miamis— tribal recipients. Fee simple title gave the U.S. Indian agents John Johnston and grantee a permanent estate in land with Benjamin Stickney—had not been freedom to dispose of it at will. Such consulted about the Fort Harrison coun- progressive land title grants would come cil. Without the agents’ participation, back to haunt Cass and McArthur within Johnston implied in correspondence to the year. Governor Lewis Cass, Fee simple title was granted to four- tribal leaders gave little credibility to its teen individuals, ranging from former importance.44 By April 1817 Johnston Indian captives to orphans of parent(s) Portrait of Shawnee Chief Catecahassa had initiated unofficial discussions with connected to particular tribes, to chil- () by Charles Bird King, 1836. the Delawares for sale of the White River dren of loyal chiefs, to those in service of Black Hoof (flourished 1795–1831) was a country.45 the government. The Fort Meigs treaty war chief, then principal civil chief of the Ohio Shawnees. Little is known of Black Thus, the possibility of securing the also provided unrestricted title to large Hoof’s early life. He appears to have fought entire White River country from the swaths of land for thirty-six chiefs from against British and U.S. interests until the Delawares and Miamis became evident the Wyandots, Senecas, and Shawnees Treaty of Greenville in 1795. Thereafter, as in mid-1817. However, by this time plans (of the Wapakoneta, Hog Creek, and principal civil chief, he led his tribal group had already been laid and a commission Lewistown bands) for subsequent re- toward selective assimilation, particularly set to seek relinquishment of Indian title allocation to tribal and family members in regard to agriculture, as a way to ensure 46 a food supply and to accommodate his to remaining tribal lands in Ohio alone. as they saw fit. Chiefs of the Sandusky U.S. overseers. He reluctantly signed both At northwest Ohio’s Fort Meigs (near Delawares and Ottawas also received the 1817 Treaty at Fort Meigs and a Treaty today’s Maumee) in the fall of 1817, the small, unrestricted grants.48 Only the at St. Marys in 1818. He strongly resisted focus was on gaining control of a huge lesser Ottawa bands received land removal until his death in 1831. (Thomas L. swath of Wyandot land just south of grants the U.S. government would find McKenney, History of the Indian Tribes of the fort. A second thrust was to secure suitable: the right to simply occupy land North America [Philadelphia: D. Rice and Co., 1872]. For information on Black Hoof, the final piece of the Ohio puzzle in the “reserved” for them, either without title see John Sugden, “Black Hoof” on American northwest corner of the state, extending or with title restrictions on the ability National Biography Online.) into south central Michigan. Potawa- to sell or otherwise transfer the land to tomi, Ottawa, and Michigan-based others.49 whole of the country on White River Ojibwa/Chippewa villages occupied this In spite of the 1817 treaty commis- for a portion of the lands the United land. Lands east of this parcel extend- sion limitations, Cass had decided to States purchased of the Osage Indians in ing to today’s Toledo, Ohio, had been invite the Delaware and Miami chiefs to the Missouri Territory.” Parke reported, procured at the Treaty of Detroit in 1807 the treaty anyway, although neither held “One of their Chiefs is now on a visit to (see Indian land cessions map). Finally, significant lands in Ohio by that time. that Country for the purpose of ascer- as the last part of the Fort Meigs treaty, The possibility that treaty discussions taining its situation and the means of the Delawares were induced to cede could be expanded to include the White subsistence it affords.”43 Although Parke previously-granted small town reserva- River country drove his decision.50 concluded that the prospect of a suc- tions in central Ohio.47 cessful result was high, it would take a In Part 2 of “The 1818 Saint Marys Trea- Cass and Ohio’s General Duncan grand council of many tribes to reach ties,” read more about the fallout from the McArthur, who had both served under this desired goal. 1817 and the resulting Harrison during the War of 1812, were decision to initiate a series of treaties at the treaty commissioners at Fort Meigs. Saint Marys the following year.

8 PART 1

Notes Regulations Relating to Indian Affairs . . . available through the Library of Con- Compiled and Published under Orders of gress website at https://www.loc. gov 1. Professor F. M. Setzler to Indiana Histori- the Department of War of the 9th Febru- /resource/g3701em.gct00002/. cal Bureau, July 31, 1930, Indiana State ary and 6th October, 1825 (Washington 10. Cleland, Rites of Conquest, 92–94. Upper Archives, Indianapolis. City: Way & Gideon, 1826). This book Canada included all of modern-day 2. Josiah V. Thompson interview of Obed contains transcriptions of the Indian Southern Ontario and much of what is Kilgore, November 13, 1926, J. V. treaties, including names of all those now Northern Ontario. Thompson genealogical papers (micro- who signed the treaties, as well as 11. Cleland, Rites of Conquest, 147–48; film), 19:275, Detre Library and Archives, several appendixes. Appendix No. 7, Anson, Miami Indians, 8–9, 30–32. Senator John Heinz History Center, “Abstract of Indian Treaties, whereby the 12. Cleland, Rites of Conquest, 122; Anson, Historical Society of Western Pennsylva- United States Acquired the Title to Lands Miami Indians, 44. nia, Pittsburgh, PA, available at Family- in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 13. Anson, Miami Indians, 7–11, 13–15. Search. Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama, 14. James Mooney and J. N. B. Hewitt, 3. Benjamin Drake, Life of Tecumseh and of and in the Territories of Michigan and “,” in Handbook of Ameri- his Brother the Prophet, with a Historical Arkansas,” gives an estimated acreage of can Indians North of Mexico, part 2, ed. Sketch of the Shawnee Indians (Cincin- each concession by Indian tribe, treaty, Frederick Webb Hodge (Washington, nati: Anderson, Gates and Wright, 1858), and by state or territory in which land DC: Government Printing Office, 1910), 190–99. was ceded, listing also the date and 289–92; Cleland, Rites of Conquest, 148, 4. Roger J. Ferguson, “The White River place of each treaty. The numbers in this 219–20. Indiana Delawares: An Ethnohistoric appendix for land ceded to Ohio under 15. Cleland, Rites of Conquest, 146, 179. Synthesis, 1795–1867” (PhD. diss., Ball the Treaty of Fort Meigs, Ohio, Septem- 16. Anson, Miami Indians, 13, 57; Stewart State University, 1972), 106–7; Charles J. ber 1817, and the Treaty of Saint Marys, Rafert, The Miami Indians of Indiana Kappler, ed., Indian Affairs, Laws, and 1818, match exactly those recorded by (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society Treaties, vol. 2, Treaties (Washington, Knepper above. The appendix lists 7.7 Press, 1996), 21. DC: Government Printing Office, 1904), million acres ceded to Indiana via the 17. Robert M. Owens, Mr. Jefferson’s Ham- 170–71. same treaties. Further evidence for the mer: and the Ori- 5. Delores Lahrman and Ross Johnson, “A acreage ceded to Indiana comes from gins of American Indian Policy (Norman: Delaware Indian’s Reservation: Samuel Bert Anson, The Miami Indians (Norman: University of Press, 2007), Cassman vs. Goldsmith C. Gilbert,” In- University of Oklahoma Press, 1970), 30. diana Magazine of History 71, no. 2 (June 282–285n40, citing claims against the 18. John P. Bowes, Land Too Good for Indians: 1975): 111n32. United States by the Miamis. See also Northern Indian Removal (Norman: 6. Benjamin Parke to J. C. Calhoun, De- v. United University of Oklahoma Press, 2016), cember 7, 1818, folder 2, Benjamin Parke States, No. 2-58, 175 F.Supp. 926 (1959) 115–16. Papers, 1816–1818, SC 1692 (hereafter (U.S. Court of Claims, July 13, 1959), 19. J. N. B. Hewitt, “Seneca,” in Handbook of Benjamin Parke Papers), Indiana Histori- available on Leagle, https://www American Indians North of Mexico, part 2, cal Society. .leagle.com. Another important source 506. 7. George Neargarder, “Indians of Ohio and is Charles C. Royce comp., Indian Land 20. Cleland, Rites of Conquest, 118–19; the Treaties of St. Marys” (unpublished Cessions in the United States, part 2 of Anson, Miami Indians, 9. manuscript, 2003), Local History Room Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau 21. James Mooney, “Shawnee,” in Handbook Collection, Saint Marys Community of American Ethnology to Secretary of the of American Indians North of Mexico, part Public Library, Saint Marys, Ohio. Smithsonian Institution, 1896–97 by J. W. 2, 530–36. 8. Charles E. Cleland, Rites of Conquest Powell (Washington, DC: Government 22. Anson, Miami Indians, 40–42. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, Printing Office, 1899). Two sections of 23. Bowes, Land Too Good for Indians, 91–92. 1992), 192–93, 205–6. Royce’s report are particularly useful to 24. James Mooney, “Delaware,” in Handbook 9. For number of acres ceded by tribal understand the lands ceded in various of American Indians North of Mexico, part groups in Ohio, see George W. Knep- treaties with American Indians: “Sched- 1, ed. Frederick Webb Hodge (Washing- per, “Main Treaties Ceding Indian Lands ule of Treaties and Acts of Congress ton, DC: Government Printing Office, in Ohio,” a chart in The Official Ohio Authorizing Allotments of Land in 1910), 385. Lands Book (Columbus, OH: Auditor Severalty” and “Schedule of Land Ces- 25. Rafert, Miami Indians of Indiana, 23–24. of State, 2002), 8. For lands ceded in sions.” An electronic copy of this book 26. Cleland, Rites of Conquest, 158–60. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan by is available on GoogleBooks. Royce also 27. Henry Dearborn to Wm. H. Harrison, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century created maps for this work, which are February 23, 1802, in The Papers of Wil- treaties, see Indian Treaties and Laws and liam Henry Harrison, 1800–1815 (micro-

9 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

film), ed. Douglas E. Clanin (Indianapolis: 38. Benjamin Parke to William H. Crawford, 46. Lewis Cass to John Johnston, July 12, Indiana Historical Society, 1999), 262ff. September 25, 1816, folder 1, Benjamin 1817, Records of the Michigan Superin- 28 Owens, Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer, 58–59. Parke Papers. tendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851 29. Thomas Jefferson to Wm. H. Harrison, 39. Logan Esarey, A From (RG 75.15.5). February 27, 1803, in Papers of William Its Exploration to 1850 (Indianapolis: 47. Royce, “Schedule of Land Cessions,” in Henry Harrison, 1800–1815, 519. W. K. Stewart, 1915), 229. Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 30. Owens, Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer, 78. 40. Benjamin Parke, Thomas Posey, T. C. 674–75, 684–85, 688–89. 31. Ibid., xxiii–xxiv. See also M. Teresa Baer, Sharpe to the Honorable Secretary of 48. Ibid., 686–89. “Hero and Villain: William Henry Harri- War, November 27, 1816, and Ben- 49. Ibid., 686–87; Kappler, Indian Affairs, son and the Indian Land Treaties,” Traces jamin Parke to William H. Crawford, Laws, and Treaties, 145–55. of Indiana and Midwestern History 11, no. October 3[?], 1816, folder 1, Benjamin 50. Lewis Cass to Benjamin F. Stickney, 4 (Fall 1999): 12–23. Parke Papers. The principal villages of August 4, 1817, Records of the Michi- 32. R. C. Buley, The Old Northwest Pioneer the Miami Nation were located along gan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, Period, 1815–1840, vol. 1 (Indianapolis: today’s Mississinewa River in east central 1814–1851 (RG 75.15.5). Indiana Historical Society, 1950), 111. Indiana (See P. K. Goffinet, “Treaty Ces- 33. Owens, Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer, 82. sions, 1795–1809” map, in Rafert, Miami 34. William Karl Klunder, Lewis Cass and the Indians of Indiana, 67). Politics of Moderation (Kent, OH: Kent 41. Benjamin Parke, Thomas Posey, and State University Press, 1996), 15, 20; T. C. Sharpe to the Honorable Secretary Owens, Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer, 235. of War, November 27, 1816, folder 1, 35. Dorothy Riker, “Jonathan Jennings,” Benjamin Parke Papers. Indiana Magazine of History 28, no. 4 42. Kappler, Indian Affairs, Laws, and Treaties, (December 1932): 224–39. 131–32. 36. Jonathan Jennings to John C. Calhoun, 43. Italics added to “the whole of the coun- October 28, 1818, Jonathan Jennings try” for emphasis by author. Benjamin Collection, L079, Manuscripts and Spe- Parke, Thomas Posey, and T. C. Sharpe cial Collections, Indiana State Library, to the Honorable Secretary of War, Indianapolis. November 27, 1816, folder 1, Benjamin 37. C. A. Weslager, The Delaware Indians Parke Papers. —A History (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers 44. John Johnston to Lewis Cass, June 20, University Press, 1972), 332; Benjamin 1817, Records of the Michigan Superin- Parke to William H. Crawford, July 31, tendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851 1816, folder 1, Benjamin Parke Papers. (RG 75.15.5), microfilm publication M1, Parke indicated, “As a favour, they roll 3, National Archives and Records [Miami] stipulated in 1809, that the Administration, Chicago. Delaware should have an equal right 45. John Johnston to Lewis Cass, April 26, with themselves, to the country watered 1817, Records of the Michigan Superin- by White River.” tendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851 (RG 75.15.5).

10 Part 2: Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians and Treaty Preparations

Digging Deeper into the Kilgore Pact Legend a five-mile radius of the farm are the Yorktown Enclosure (to The research and writing project set forth in this article the east) and Mounds State Park (to the southwest).4 Had series began as a limited effort to test the veracity of a family Setzler uncovered a prehistoric site, perhaps from one of these story—the Kilgore pact legend. David Kilgore (1804–1879) cultures, or a site from the historic era, such as from the Dela- arrived in Yorktown, Delaware County, Indiana, by 1830, wares? He makes no characterization in his report. and in little more than a decade he had amassed nearly one thou- The cultural identity of the Indian mentioned in the pact sand acres. This included a mile of riverbank along the West legend would be fundamental to directing my related research. Fork of White River, northeast of Indianapolis. And although the burial ground’s proximity to Hockingpomsga’s As passed from one generation to the next, the legend Town suggests a Delaware connection, Kilgore’s arrival in suggests Kilgore pledged to a departing Indian that neither he the area nearly a decade after their 1820–21 removal proved nor his descendants would disturb a burial ground on a bluff problematic. within a parcel to which he was then gaining title. But to the Another Kilgore family genealogist led me to a 1926 naked eye no such burial ground is evident today. How could interview of my great-great-uncle Obed Kilgore (1876–1939). this site be located again, and connected with a particular Josiah V. Thompson traveled the Midwest from the late 1890s tribal group? to 1933 interviewing extended family members and amassing Given the historic presence of Delaware Indian villages a vast multivolume journal. Thompson recounts Obed’s story: along White River in the early nineteenth century, the first “There was an Indian graveyard on his gf’s [grandfather’s] farm step was to review a map of their likely locations. Charles N. of the York tribe & Yorktown was named for them. They con- Thompson’s depiction of the villages in his seminal 1937 book tinued to bury there after the Judge [David Kilgore] owned the Sons of the Wilderness places one, Hockingpomsga’s Town, farm. He would never let anyone dig in the graves.”5 Here, in a near the Kilgore homestead.1 Also, a 2002 archeological single statement, Obed notes the presence of a burial ground, study of Delaware settlements, authored by former Ball State identifies those interred there, mentions its continued use University professor Beth McCord, includes a compendium of when Kilgore possessed the land, and suggests the existence ethnographic and archeological field studies and manuscripts of a pact by Kilgore’s action. related to the White River villages.2 This listing became an The search to identify the York Indians led me to a 1975 important jumping-off point for further research. Indiana Magazine of History article focused on Samuel Cass- McCord references a 1930 Report of Work Done on an man—one of the land grantees in the Delawares’ 1818 Saint Archeological Survey, Delaware County by University of Marys Treaty. The article references an 1832 letter from Chicago Professor Frank M. Setzler. His report, viewed at the Cassman’s son, who characterizes his father as “‘one of the Indiana State Archives, makes specific reference to the Kilgore York Indians.’” The authors note, however, “No identification farm site: “On the top of a high glacial kame . . . evidence was of ‘York Indians’ has been made, though numerous reference found of a large village site and burial ground. . . . The little works have been consulted.”6 Who were the “Yorks”? excavation . . . revealed numerous burials along with some Professor C. A. Weslager notes a third possible tribal con- very interesting artifacts . . . numerous shell beads and a few nection to the area in his ground-breaking 1972 book The fresh-water pearls.”3 Delaware Indians: A History. Delaware Chief William Anderson While it would be gratifying to confirm the existence of a (Kikthawenund) had invited the Stockbridge tribe to migrate burial ground, the inability to locate it today remains perplex- from to tribal lands in Indiana. Weslager ing. Further confusing the identity of those buried on the bluff observes that while the Saint Marys Treaty removed all Indiana is the fact that the Kilgore farm is flanked by two sites linked lands from Delaware control, “some Stockbridge families came to prehistoric cultures: the Adena (flourished 800 BC to 100 to the White River after the land had been sold.”7 AD) and the Hopewell (flourished 200 BC to 400 AD). Within

11 Map of Delaware Indian Settlements along the White River in Indiana Territory around the turn of the nineteenth century. The circled area contains Hockingpomsga’s Town, which is located on or near David Kilgore’s homestead. This area also contains the Unnamed Site, which likely refers to the Brothertowns/Stockbridges settlement between 1819–1822 that will be discussed in subsequent parts of this article. (Charles N. Thompson, Sons of the Wilderness [1937])

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Who were the Stockbridge people, where did they come from, and why would they come to the White River? The search for these answers became the tipping point beyond which my interests shifted from the pact legend to the broader story outlined in this article.

The Stockbridges and Brothertowns Gain Approval to Settle on White River Far away from the tensions in Indiana and Ohio, another influx of white settlers was flowing over the upstate New York lands of the Iroquois Oneida and Seneca tribal groups. The ambitious Erie Canal project across northern New York, linking New York City to the West, commenced in 1817. Well before then the prospect of its construction had drawn land specu- lators to the Oneidas’ homeland. Similarly, the 1796 Dutch Holland Land Company’s purchase of rights to four million acres of Seneca territory also suggested the need for a move farther west.8 The unstoppable menace of white settlers placed a sense of urgency on a proposed exchange of country—land in upstate New York for open space among the Delawares in Indiana. To push this concept forward, the Oneidas and Senecas had been invited to attend the 1817 Fort Meigs Treaty was a , born in Connecticut in 1723. He council in Ohio.9 The request was delivered through powerful studied theology with the Latin School of Congregational minister New York land speculator and Congressman David A. Ogden for four years. Occom was the first Indian to as well as Seneca Indian Agent Erastus Granger.10 Appealing to publish writings in English. He became a Presbyterian minister in Ogden’s avarice, treaty commissioner Lewis Cass mentioned in 1759, married Mary Fowler, and preached to the Six Nations Iroquois correspondence to him, “I presume the execution of this plan in upstate New York in the 1760s. In 1783 he worked with son-in- law Joseph Johnson and brother-in-law David Fowler to organize is important to you in a pecuniary point of view.”11 Christianized Indians of as the Brothertowns. The new Also living on Oneida land at this time, by invitation, were community lived on the Oneidas’ land in upstate New York. Occum the uniquely constituted Stockbridge and Brothertown amal- arranged for the village to receive a civil charter in 1787. He died in gams. These tribal band remnants had been brought together 1792. (W. DeLoss Love, Samson Occom and the Christian Indians and Christianized by missionaries operating during the First of New England [1899]) Great Awakening religious movement of mid-eighteenth cen- tury New England. In 1734, at the invitation of a Mahican tribal leader, the Mohegan-born Presbyterian minister Samson Occom, his Society for Propagating the Gospel appointed John Sergeant son-in-law Joseph Johnson, and brother-in-law David Fowler to establish a mission at what became Stockbridge, Massachu- assembled Mohegan, Pequot, Narragansett, Montauk, Tunxis, setts.15 Soon, scattered bands of Wapping, Wyachtonok, and and Niantic families from seven New England Indian villages other Connecticut groups also gathered there. Later Sergeant’s to form the Brothertown community in 1773.12 Although some son, John Jr., would provide spiritual guidance and oversight took up residence on lands provided by the Oneidas in upstate during the early nineteenth century.16 New York before the , the hostility of Pushed by white settlement after the war, the Brother- British-allied warriors from among the Iroquois Six Nations towns completed their migration from to disrupted their planned move.13 Instead, the American-aligned Oneida lands in 1783. Occom also persuaded the Oneidas to Brothertowns sought safe haven with the Stockbridges in Mas- offer land and an invitation to the Stockbridges, who began sachusetts. Thus began a long and interconnected relationship their migration in 1785.17 They named their community New between these groups.14 Stockbridge. Quaker schoolmaster John Dean joined the

13 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

Brothertowns in 1798. With financial support from the Society 1802 he orchestrated a council with the Delawares and other of Friends in New York, he focused on industry and morality Indians. The result was a friendly compact and invitation training.18 from principal Delaware chief Tatepahqsect [Tetepachsit] and A portion of the Delawares’ autonomous Munsee group, head warrior Pokenchelah [] to come to White from ’s Valley, soon sought asylum River. 26 for the same reasons. Led by Chief Bartholomew Calvin, they The Delawares by then were reestablishing a sense of com- were being pushed off New Jersey’s only . munity along White River, triggered, in part, by their displace- New Jersey’s government had created the Brotherton Reserva- ment from Ohio to Indiana under terms of the 1795 Treaty of tion in 1758 as a sanctuary from white settlement. However, Greenville. It also coincided with a rising nativism movement pressure from the colony’s expanding population overcame its to recapture the heritage and prestige of their once-dominant commitment to the Indians. The Munsees joined the Stock- tribe. To this end, Delaware chiefs made it known that all rem- bridges in upstate New York by 1802.19 nant bands and kin were welcome to join them.27 These three groups—the Brothertowns, Stockbridges, and In the early nineteenth century, soon after White River their Munsee/Brotherton additions—were unique. Many were Delaware leadership had shifted to Chief Anderson, Christians who had adopted so-called “civilized” ways: do- mesticated farming, food production, education, and English language skills. After the Revolutionary War a significant leader emerged from among the Stockbridges: Hendrick Aupaumut. He was a Mahican by birth, thought to be related to celebrated Mohawk chief “King” Hendrick (Theyanoguin). Educated and fluent in English, Aupaumut was a former Revolutionary War officer.20 His visible war service and support of the United States made him a logical choice as a U.S. emissary to the western tribes.21 Leveraging on the Mahicans’ and Munsees’ kinship with the Delawares, Aupaumut had immediate access to the Dela- wares’ tribal leaders.22 And as the Mahicans had a historical reputation as intertribal mediators, other tribal groups were also receptive.23 In the early the U.S. government tapped Aupaumut for several missions. His visits to the western tribes focused on reducing the prospect of war by mitigating tribal angst in the face of pioneer encroachments. The missions included one on behalf of General St. Clair in 1791 (in which he remained among the western tribes for seven to eight months); another for Secretary of War in 1792; and, finally, for Gen- eral Timothy Pickering in 1793 (in anticipation of a council in Sandusky that failed to materialize).24 Years before, the Brothertowns and Stockbridges had concluded that the formidable white settlement around them would require a move farther west. As a result, Aupaumut’s This etching and engraving bears the caption: “The brave old Hen- missions had a dual purpose. One was to placate the western drick the great Sachem or Chief of the Mohawk Indians, one tribal groups on behalf of the government. The other was to of the Six Nations now in Alliance with & Subject to the King of Great Britain.” Chief Hendrick, who died in 1755, may have been strengthen his Delaware relationships and seek out areas for related to Hendrick Aupaumut, a Christian Mahican who fought 25 relocation of the Brothertowns and Stockbridges. for the Americans in their revolution against Great Britain and When the nineteenth century dawned, Aupaumut was was appointed a U.S. emissary to the western tribes after the clearly intent on bringing the Stockbridges to White River. In war. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, No. 2003675605)

14 PART 2

December 21 that granted to the Delawares, Moheakunucks (as the Stockbridge Mahicans called themselves), and Munsees a certain portion of the Delawares’ lands on White River. The declaration concluded: “‘Neither they, the said Delawares, Mohiccans and Muncees nor their descendants, shall ever alienate the Lands to any other persons or purposes whatso- ever, without the concent [consent] of the said Miamies. And the Chiefs before named.’”29 The same month Aupaumut was appointed a U.S. agent to assist and instruct the Delawares in “Agriculture and Domes- tic” arts. This role reflected Jefferson’s strategy to integrate tribal groups into American society and divorce them from their hunter-gatherer lifestyle. For this mission, commencing in June 1809, Aupaumut and a delegation of twelve Stockbridges lived continuously among the Delawares along White River for four or five years.30 Once again, Aupaumut had a dual mission: one on behalf of the government and another to secure a place for the Stockbridges and Brothertowns. There was a third goal as well: stemming the nativist influence of the Shawnee “Prophet” Image of Shawnee Tenskwatawa (1775–1836), aka the Prophet, who (Tenskwatawa) and his brother Tecumseh on the increas- was the brother of Tecumseh, leader of a confederation of Indian 31 warriors resisting American expansion. Until defeated during the ingly receptive Delawares. Both were becoming prominent War of 1812, Tenskwatawa was trying to bring Native Americans national figures, building a confederation of disaffected tribal from various tribes in Ohio and Indiana back to their original spiri- warriors to resist white settlement. They may have formed a tual beliefs and way of life. (James Otto Lewis, The Aboriginal Port town among the Delaware villages along White River between Folio [1823], Indiana Historical Society) 1798 and 1805.32 Aupaumut had been clear on this point: “I Aupaumut sought to reconfirm the invitation for the Brother- find that they do firmly believe the prophet. . . . I think it our towns and Stockbridges. Anderson, as a strong advocate for duty to cut off these prophets influence.” Longer term, he reuniting the Delaware Nation, would have supported such reasoned, his Christian community could put in check the 33 migrations. During an 1809 Delaware council along White Delawares’ return to Prophet-inspired nativism. River, Aupaumut garnered an agreement to receive a Brother- Apparently appreciative of Aupaumut’s knowledge of white town delegation. ways and the related stability it would bring with govern- Unlike the Stockbridges, the Brothertowns lacked a shared mental authorities, all while bringing Mahican and Munsee kinship with the Delawares. Several Brothertown Peacemak- kin to White River, Chief Anderson continued to beckon the ers (leaders), along with Aupaumut, traveled to White River Stockbridges.34 As late as July 21, 1817, he admonished them: in July 1809. Upon their return they recounted the speech of “‘Grand Children [Stockbridges], Your Grand Fathers [Dela- the Delaware chiefs: “‘You have the same privilege as we have wares] have at two different times, given you a seat on White to this land. . . . You may take your own choice wherever you river. . . . Prepare in haste, and come and set down on the 35 should be suited on undivided land along this river, there you ground your Grand Fathers have given you.’” may build your fire-place.’”28 The Brothertowns, on the other hand, remained concerned Even before the Peacemakers’ visit, Aupaumut had been about their lack of Delaware kinship. Following the Delawares’ quick to gain the Miamis’ endorsement of the Delawares’ 1809 invitation, they determined to establish a settlement authority to act. He knew the Miamis were seen by the U.S. along White River beginning in 1812.36 The advent of war government as primary stakeholders in the White River scuttled their plans. country. In December 1808 Aupaumut headed a delegation to In the wake of the War of 1812, the Brothertowns voted on President Thomas Jefferson that included Miami Chief Little January 13, 1817, to choose five men to go to the White River Turtle. There, Jefferson witnessed the Miami Declaration on in “‘pursuit of a tract of land heretofore sought for by . . .

15 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

delegates sent there in the year 1809, and to get a title to it.’”37 Wayne by mid-September. At the time Fort Wayne was home To this end, in May 1817 Quaker advisor Thomas Dean—who to Brothertown elder Isaac Wobby (Wauby), his wife Jane, and had succeeded his father, John, in 1801—led an all-water their extended family.40 Wobby, a Baptist exhorter while living expedition of Brothertown Peacemakers and their wives to in Brothertown, New York, was part of a new Brothertown Indiana.38 religious division and had sought legislative permission to sell The Peacemakers met with Indiana Governor Jonathan his New York property in 1811. He subsequently moved to Jennings in Vincennes, leaving Dean with the impression that Indiana. The move was likely related to Aupaumut’s long-term Jennings was “no great friend of the Indians.” Jennings sug- presence among the Delawares in addition to Wobby’s differ- gested the United States was angling to purchase a large tract ing religious theology.41 Like Aupaumut, Wobby apparently had of land northeast of the 1809 Fort Wayne, Indiana, treaty ac- a dual mission: Christianize the Indians and assure the Brother- quisition. This was, in essence, the entire White River country towns a place along White River. then occupied by the Delawares.39 It was an ominous sign of When Dean arrived in Fort Wayne in September 1817, he things to come. learned that Wobby had gone to Fort Meigs to observe and The delegation continued on to meet Wea chiefs near Fort influence the ongoing treaty council. Wobby was well known Harrison (Terre Haute, Indiana), traveled to White River for to Indian Agent John Johnston, who was then attending to the a council with Chief Anderson, then made their way toward Fort Meigs treaty. He had preached often at the schoolhouse the Miami villages along the Mississinewa River and near Fort on Johnston’s Piqua, Ohio, farm, had led the Johnston fam- ily’s dinnertime devotions, and had been a regular overnight visitor.42 Hearing of Wobby’s mission to Fort Meigs, the Brother- town Peacemakers departed for the treaty council as well— arriving just a day before its conclusion on September 30. Apparently the Oneidas, previously invited by treaty com- missioner Lewis Cass to arrange an exchange of country, did not attend. Although Dean and the Peacemakers did not participate directly in the council, they accomplished much. The presence of all Delaware chiefs at Fort Meigs provided the opportunity for Dean and Wobby to confirm the Delawares’ invitation as Dean reported: “In the evening [October 1] we held a council with the Delawares and Shawnee chiefs. The Delawares, in the presence of John Johns[t]on, agent, ex- pressed the desire that the would go into their country, and on the 2d I received a certificate from John Johns[t]on of the purport of the council.”43 Dean and some of his party returned to Brothertown, New York, with the news, leaving behind Peacemakers Jacob Dick, Thomas Isaacs, and their families, who subsequently settled in the vicinity of Fort Harrison. Meanwhile, preparations began in New York for the migration of numerous Brothertown families the following summer.44

Lead Up to the Treaty of Saint Marys: Pressures and Strategies Thomas Dean (1783–1843) was born in Westchester, New York. He moved with his father, John, to the Oneidas’ country in 1798. Cass and fellow treaty commissioner General Duncan Through the Society of Friends in New York City, they served McArthur completed what they thought was a significant as missionaries among the Brothertowns, teaching the Indians milestone in acquiring all Indian lands in Ohio at the 1817 industry and morality. He served as attorney and agent to the Fort Meigs Treaty negotiations. It proved to be otherwise. The Stockbridges, Oneidas, and Brothertowns. (John Candee Dean, ed., Journal of Thomas Dean [1918])

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treaty was rejected, or technically “postponed,” by the U.S. Senate in early 1818. This was principally because the govern- ment would not accept the fee simple land grants that were part of the treaty.45 Fee simple title allowed the holder to freely alienate, or sell, the land. Cass explained the situation to Indian Agent Benjamin F. Stickney: “The Senate contend that the United States must be the ultimate purchaser of all land and that consequently no land can be patented [fee simple title provided] to Indians.”46 A renegotiation of the treaty posed a particular challenge to the government. As Johnston reported in March 1818: “The information is gone among the Indians from the NewsPapers & travelers and has made a great bustle, they [the Western tribes] are much rejoiced at the news, and declared they will never sell a foot of the Country again.”47 Dr. William Turner, son-in-law of the late (who had married Miami Chief ’s daughter) and was then living at Fort Wayne, charac- terized Miami Chief Richardville’s attitude: “His mind is pre- pared to sell, but he is determined, that the Government shall make certain donations to the tribe &c.”48 In spite of Richardville’s pushback, subsequently endorsed John Johnston’s portrait is the frontispiece for his book Recollections by the actions of other tribal leaders, Johnston confidently of Sixty Years (1915). Born in Northern Ireland in 1775, by 1786 indicated he could deliver the consent of the Delawares “if the Johnston had immigrated to Pennsylvania. After serving as a wag- oner in General ’s legion, he was appointed Indian necessary means are placed at my disposal.”49 Just months Agent at Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1802, focused on trade. In 1811 he before, he concluded Richardville could be brought around, established an agency at Piqua, Ohio. His responsibilities grew to noting he “is everything in the nation, [and] is as mercenary include the Delawares, Miamis, Shawnees, Senecas, Wyandots, and as he can be. He can be secured.” Almost as an aside, and Ottawas in Ohio and Indiana. based on his Fort Meigs meeting with Thomas Dean and the Brothertown Peacemakers, Johnston observed: “There is near Jennings’s pressure had the desired result: He was 1000 Indians in New York in part civilized who will certainly appointed one of three treaty commissioners, under Cass’s emigrate to White River in a year or two if not prevented by a leadership, for the forthcoming council of 1818. The goal was treaty, and once located there it will be a very difficult matter to extinguish Indian title to nearly eight million acres in the 54 to purchase the Country. Many of the Senecas and Shawanese middle of the new state of Indiana. The issue now was how will move there also.”50 to proceed. Pressure was mounting from Indiana’s Governor Jennings as Within weeks of concluding the Fort Meigs Treaty on well—and for good reason. An 1815 territorial census revealed September 30, 1817, plans were underway to capitalize on that the population was moving away from the Ohio River. In the Delawares’ expressed interest in negotiating for the the Whitewater River basin, the new interior counties of Wayne entire White River country. By early November, Johnston sent and Franklin contained a 30 percent larger population than Delaware interpreter and trader William Conner among them. those bordering on the Ohio.51 He expected to hear back by early winter. Johnston also asked 55 In December 1817 Jennings expressed his frustration about Stickney to probe the Miamis. the need for more land to Stickney: “For want of further [Indian As 1817 drew to a close Johnston had a handle on the title] extinguishment, our Seat of Government cannot be mindset of both the Delaware and Miami Nations. He now located where it will ultimately rest.”52 Johnston reported that framed out the political construct to bring the Miamis, 56 Jennings was also talking to him, “asking for information” and through Chief Richardville, to a favorable result. This was “expressing a great deal of anxiety on the subject of purchasing communicated to Cass even though a treaty had not yet been the White River Country from the Indians.”53 authorized, nor commissioners appointed. It seems to have been a foregone conclusion that Cass would head whatever

17 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

commission the president approved. Cass threw his support isted, which Governor Jennings sought to fill. In addition to his behind Johnston’s plan, stating, “I will not fail to afford it all direct pressure on Johnston and Stickney, he was working to my aid.”57 make sure Indiana would be well represented by a treaty com- Johnston’s plan to secure the Miamis entailed bribing Chief missioner—himself. Fragmentary evidence suggests Jennings Richardville and other tribal leaders: “I have ventured to tell Mr. was also at work with other Indiana politicians and interpreter/ Stickney that he might promise him either Money or Land or trader William Conner in trying to guide the negotiations to a an annuity personal.” He ticked off others on his list: “Antoine favorable end.63 Meanwhile, seasoned agent Johnston candidly Bondie, young Lafontaine and Mr. Bureau Langloy a trader who told Cass, “It [i]s indispensably necessary to the success of the resides among the Miamies . . . the young Godfroys, nephews measure that your Excellency should be placed at the head to your Col. Godfroy.” He minced no words: “These people of the Commission.”64 Jennings received an appointment, but must be all attended to, as we have no other way left us for Cass would head the commission. getting Indian Lands. We must make use of those who have the Before Cass’s appointment, efforts to secure the enormous Confidence and affections of the natives.”58 tract of Indiana land were disjointed and without direction. This became Johnston’s recurring mantra. He repeated it Thomas Posey, the newly appointed Indian agent at Fort Har- again in March 1818: “Nothing you know can be done with rison and former Indiana territorial governor, reportedly them without presents.”59 Given Richardville’s bicultural ordered provisions for a general council to be held at the fort negotiating savvy—he was métis (having a French father and a in May 1818. His untimely death in March, however, scuttled Miami mother)—and the angst of other tribal groups following the council. Frustrated, Stickney reported, “I am fully per- the Senate’s rejection of the Fort Meigs Treaty, there were few suaded that it will [not] advance the public Interest for those remaining options. Indians to go there. It will only tend to distract and make them The certainty of treaty negotiations prompted Johnston to more unmanageable.”65 compile a detailed estimate of treaty expenses. He forecast Soon after receiving his appointment Cass wrote to upstate the rations needed, lined up warehousing, recommended extra New York politician and land speculator David Ogden again interpreters and runners, and designated who would procure regarding the Indians from New York.66 Johnston also wrote which items and where—from powder and lead to saddles to the Stockbridges, purportedly making them aware of the and bridles. He also counseled which tribes to invite, and why: treaty date and inviting them to attend. Interestingly, as the “Some of the tribes enumerated (the Delawares, Miamis, conduit for communications between the Stockbridges and Putawatimies, Kickapoos, Weas, Eel River Miamis, Shawano- the Delawares, Johnston chose not to forward a subsequent ese, Senakas) have no claim to the lands in question, but in all Stockbridge letter to the Delawares urging them not to sell large Treaties the whole must be invited and participate in the any more land, stating: “‘Those communications I could not be presents in hand. They are often serviceable in deciding the the organ of to the Indians, because they were directly in the real owners to sell.”60 Such a broad invitation was consistent face of my duty.’”67 with General Anthony Wayne’s 1795 Greenville Treaty strategy Confident of the groundwork laid by Aupaumut, the Stock- and recognized the often decentralized, village-by-village lead- bridges chose not to attend the forthcoming treaty—accord- ership structure prevalent among the Great Lakes Indians. ing to Johnston. They purportedly wrote, instead, to have a The question of where to hold the treaties was also under large reservation set aside, as he subsequently recalled, “I think discussion. Johnston urged Greenville, Ohio, for logistical and twenty miles square.”68 historical reasons; Stickney thought Fort Wayne best to pacify The Brothertowns, however, were more deliberate and the Miamis; and Fort Meigs Treaty commissioner McArthur cautious. Brothertown elder Isaac Wobby moved his family favored Upper Sandusky, Ohio, a Wyandot stronghold.61 from Fort Wayne to Piqua, Ohio, near Johnston’s agency of- Within a month Cass expressed his preference for Saint Marys, fice and home. Wobby wanted to be close by to monitor and Ohio. Stickney endorsed the choice, noting: “It will be within influence the Indian agent. It was an astute decision. Johnston the Indian Country, and entirely within our control, and so would become the pivotal strategist for the Treaties of Saint far removed from the White settlements that it will be much Marys.69 more easy to control the spirituous liquors.”62 Until May 2, 1818, when the U.S. Senate and president In the next part of this article, read about the strategies used authorized a treaty commission, a lingering power vacuum ex- at the negotiations for the Saint Marys treaties and details of the results.

18 PART 2

Notes 1. Charles N. Thompson, Sons of the Wilderness: John and William Conner (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1937), map opp. p. 43, 199–200. 2. Beth McCord, “The Ghosts of the Delaware: An Archaeological Study of Delaware Settlement Along the White River, Indiana,” Archaeological Resources Management Service, Ball State Uni- versity, 2002. 3. Professor F. M. Setzler, “Report of Work Done on an Archaeologi- cal Survey, Delaware County,” to Indiana Historical Bureau, July 31, 1930, pp. 1–2, Indiana State Archives, Indianapolis. 4. “Prehistoric Earthwork, Yorktown Enclosure to be Permanently Preserved,” The Archaeological Conservancy, http://www .archaeologicalconservancy.org/prehistoric-earthwork -yorktown-enclosure-permanently-preserved/, accessed April 2018; “Mounds State Park,” Indiana Department of Natural Resources, http://www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/2977.htm, accessed April 2018. See also Ohio History Central on the Adena and Hopewell cultures of the Ohio River Valley, http://www.ohio historycentral.org. 5. Obed Kilgore, interview by Josiah V. Thompson, November 13, 1926, “Josiah V. Thompson, Uniontown, Pa., family record book,” journal vol. 19, Oct. 1926–Dec. 1926, microfilm 1598073, Item 4, Family Search.org. 6. Delores Lahrman and Ross Johnson, “A Delaware Indian’s Reservation: Samuel Cassman vs. Goldsmith C. Gilbert,” Indiana Magazine of History 71, no. 2 (June 1975): 103–23. 7. C. A. Weslager, The Delaware Indians: A History (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1972), 353–54. 8. Brad D. E. Jarvis, “Preserving the Brothertown Nation of Indians: Exploring Relationships Amongst Land, Sovereignty, and Identity, 1740–1840” (Ph.D. diss., University of Minnesota, 2006), 199. 9. Lewis Cass to David A. Ogden, July 30, 1817, Records of the Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851 (Record This document dated January 1818 and signed by John Johnston Group 75.15.5), microfilm file M1, roll 3, National Archives and provides an estimate of expenses for a treaty to be held at Green- Records Administration, Chicago. The Fort Meigs Treaty was also ville, Ohio. A later document of April 30, 1818, revises the estimate referred to as the Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids of the Miami upward by 50 percent when Johnston recommends that the Saint of Lake Erie. Marys treaties include a renegotiation of the 1817 Fort Meigs 10. “Ogden, David A. (1770–1829),” Biographical Directory of the Treaty. (Benjamin Parke Papers, 1816–1818, Indiana Historical United States Congress, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts Society; Records of the Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, /biodisplay.pl?index=O000043, accessed April 2018; Jarvis, 1814–1851, NARA, Chicago) “Preserving the Brothertown Nation of Indians,” 199. Ogden, a U.S. representative from upstate New York in 1817, was also a powerful land speculator through the Ogden Land Company and influencer of western New York settlement. 11. Lewis Cass to David A. Ogden, July 30, 1817, Records of the Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. 12. W. DeLoss Love, Samson Occom and the Christian Indians of New England (Boston: Pilgrim Press, 1899), 188–204, 210; “Johnson, Joseph,” Library Digital Collections, https:// collections.dartmouth.edu/occom/html/ctx/personography /pers0288.ocp.html, accessed April 2018.

19 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

13. “Sketch of the Brothertown Indians,” Thomas Commuck to 1956), M293, box 1, pp. 7–10, Indiana Historical Society; Love, Lyman C. Draper, August 22, 1855, in Report and Collections of Samson Occom, 239; Rachel Wheeler, “Hendrick Aupaumut: the State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Madison, WI: 1859), Christian–Mahican Prophet,” Journal of the Early Republic 25, 4:292–93; Love, Samson Occom, 211–23; John Candee Dean, no. 2 (Summer 2005): 194; Milton W. Hamilton, “Theyanoguin,” ed., Journal of Thomas Dean: An Account of a Journey to Indiana in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 3, University of Toronto/ 1817 (Indianapolis: John Candee Dean, 1918), 6. See also William Université Laval, 2003, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio Sawyer, “The Six Nations Confederacy during the American /theyanoguin_3E.html, accessed April 2018. “King Hendrick” is Revolution,” in Fort Stanwix National Monument, New York, said to have brought ninety of his tribal group to Stockbridge in National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov. 1750 to receive an education. Wheeler makes no mention of this 14. Love, Samson Occom, 231–32; Caroline K. Andler and Craig possibility. Cipolla, A Brief Historical Overview of the Brothertown Indian Na- 21. Hendrick Aupaumut, “A Narrative of An Embassy to the Western tion, https://brothertowncitizen.files.wordpress.com/2017/03 Indians, from the Original Manuscript of Hendrick Aupaumut,” /cipolla-and-andler-brief-brothertown-history.pdf, accessed edited by Dr. B. H. Coats, in Memoirs of the Historical Society of April 2018. Pennsylvania, vol. 2 (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea and Carey, 1827), 15. Love, Samson Occom, 232–33; Yasuhide Kawashima, “Sergeant, 61–132. John (1710–27 July 1749),” in African–Native American Gene- 22. James Mooney and Cyrus Thomas, “Mahican (‘wolf’),” in Hand- alogy Forum, http://www.afrigeneas.com, part of American book of American Indians North of Mexico, Part 1, Frederick Webb National Biography Online; “Sergeant, Sr., John,” biographical Hodge, ed. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1907), sketch, in Dartmouth College Collections, https://collections 786–89; Weer, “Writings and Notes Regarding Hendrick Aup- .dartmouth.edu; “The People From Stockbridge,” in the collec- aumut”; Aupaumut, “A Narrative of An Embassy to the Western tion guide for Stockbridge Indian Papers, 1739–1915, No. 9185, Indians.” The Mahicans lived near and were closely associated Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University with the Munsees and Delawares along the upper Hudson River Library, Ithaca, NY, http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/. in New York. About 1730 a large group migrated near to the 16. “The People From Stockbridge,” in the collection guide for Stock- Delawares and Munsees in the vicinity of Wyoming, Penn- bridge Indian Papers, 1739–1915; “Sergeant Jr., John,” biographi- sylvania, and subsequently removed to the Ohio region with cal sketch, in Dartmouth College Collections, https://collections them. The Delawares had a particularly strong feeling of shared .dartmouth.edu. heritage with the Mahicans and Munsees. 17. “The People From Stockbridge,” in the collection guide for Stock- 23. Peyer, The Tutor’d Mind, 112. bridge Indian Papers, 1739–1915; Love, Samson Occom, 243–45. 24. Aupaumut, “A Narrative of An Embassy to the Western Indians”; 18. Dean, Journal of Thomas Dean, 9; Craig N. Cipolla, “The Duali- Weer, “Writings and Notes Regarding Hendrick Aupaumut,” ties of Endurance: A Collaborative Historical Archaeology of 23–24, 28–29; Mark Rifkin, “Remapping the Family of Nations: Ethnogenesis at Brothertown, 1780–1910” (PhD diss., University The Geopolitics of Kinship in Hendrick Aupaumut’s ‘A Short Nar- of Pennsylvania, 2010), 67, http://repository.upenn.edu ration,’” Studies in American Indian Literatures 22, no. 4 (Winter /edissertations/162, accessed April 2018. 2010): 29n11. Weer cites a July 21, 1791, Thomas Pickering letter 19. Roger J. Ferguson, “The White River Indiana Delawares: An Eth- indicating Aupaumut had departed on his mission to the western nohistoric Synthesis, 1795–1867” (PhD diss., Ball State Indians. The following February 18, Aupaumut wrote to Pickering University, 1972), 3–4. The Lenape (Delaware) were originally of his return to Genesee, New York—awaiting Pickering’s arrival comprised of three principal autonomous groups, the Munsees, to give him a full report. Some have claimed Aupaumut served Unamis, and Unalachtigos. The Munsees occupied an area as a counselor and translator for General Anthony Wayne in including the lower east Hudson River and the upper Dela- his 1794 campaign. The basis for this assertion is unclear, given ware River down to the Lehigh River. A Munsee subgroup, the that Aupaumut is not listed as among the eight translators in Minisinks, was located at the headwaters of the Delaware River. the Treaty of Greenville. See for example, Alan Taylor, “Captain See also Richard S. Walling, “Removal to New York, 1793–1803,” Hendrick Aupaumut: The Dilemmas of an Intellectual Broker,” and “Pictures of Brotherton,” Brotherton and Weekping Indian Ethnohistory 43, no. 3 (1996): 450; Isabel Thompson Kelsay, Communities of NJ (blog), http://brotherton-weekping.tripod , 1743–1807: Man of Two Worlds (Syracuse NY: .com/index.html, accessed April 2018; Jeff Siemers, “Brotherton Syracuse University Press, 1984), 450, 455, 469, 498. Reservation,” Algonkian Church History (blog), November 17, 25. Avi Kupfer, “The Dictates of Sound Policy: Contending with the 2008, http://algonkianchurchhistory.blogspot.com/2008/11 Western Indians under the New American Constitution,” Eli- /brotherton-reservation.html, accessed April 2018. Scholar, 2010, Yale University Library, https://elischolar.library 20. Bernd C. Peyer, The Tutor’d Mind (Amherst, MA: University of .yale.edu/; Love, Samson Occom, 316 –17. Massachusetts Press, 1997), 111; Paul Weer, “Writings and 26. Weer, “Writings and Notes Regarding Hendrick Aupaumut,” Notes Regarding Hendrick Aupaumut” (unpublished manuscript, 34, 36; Jedidiah Morse, A Report to the Secretary of War of the

20 PART 2

United States, on Indian Affairs, Comprising a Narrative of a Tour 38. Cipolla, “The Dualities of Endurance,” 67; Love, Samson Occom, Performed in the Summer of 1820 (Washington, [DC]: Davis and 314; Dean, Journal of Thomas Dean, 6. Force, 1822), 110. 39. Dean, Journal of Thomas Dean, 40. 27. Weslager, The Delaware Indians: A History, 332–33. Some villages 40. Ibid., 40, 74. may have begun to appear in Indiana as early as the late 1760s. 41. Love, Samson Occom, 309–12; Journal of the Assembly of the Weer, “Writings and Notes Regarding Hendrick Aupaumut,” 35. State of New York, 41st Session (Albany: 1818), 547; Caroline K. 28. Ferguson, “The White River Indiana Delawares,” 70, 95, 101; Andler, Brothertown Nation historian, e-mail message to author, Love, Samson Occom, 316–17; Jarvis, “Preserving the Brother- November 23, 2010. town Nation of Indians, 196; Cipolla, “The Dualities of Endur- 42. John Johnston to Henry Howe, March 20, 1847, John Johnston ance,” 175. Papers, microfilm reel 2 (transcribed), Cincinnati Historical So- 29. Martin Barker and Roger Sabin, The Lasting of the : ciety Library, viewed at Local History Department, Piqua Public History of an American Myth (Jackson: University Press of Mis- Library, Piqua, Ohio. The profile of Wobby (transcribed) appears sissippi, 1995), 194; Hendrick Aupaumut to Thomas Jefferson, to be part of a series of profiles produced by Johnston and for- December 12, 1808, and Thomas Jefferson to Hendrick Aupau- warded to Howe, who was then compiling and editing material mut, December 21, 1808, in Founders Online, National Archives, for his important publication “Historical Collections of Ohio in February 1, 2018, https://founders.archives.gov/; “Report of Two Volumes,” first published in 1846. The Wobby profile was a Select Committee on the Petition of Sundry Indians of the not included in the published work. See also Dean, Journal of Stockbridge Nation, Accompanied with a Bill Confirming their Thomas Dean, 77. Title to Certain Lands” (Washington, DC: U.S. House of Repre- 43. Dean, Journal of Thomas Dean, 77. sentatives, February 24, 1820), available on Google Books. 44. Ibid., 6; Thomas Isaacs to Thomas Dean, July 7, 1819, and Isaac 30. Gayle Thornbrough, ed., Letter Book of the Indian Agency at Wobby to Thomas Dean, October 3, 1818, Dean Family Papers, Fort Wayne, 1809–1815, vol. 21, Indiana Historical Society 1788–ca. 1920, M 0085, box 1, folder 10. Publications (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1961), 45. Jer. Morrow to John Johnston, February 10, 1818, Records of the 53–55, 185n; Andrew A. Lipscomb, ed., The Writings of Thomas Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. Senator Jefferson, vol. 16 (Washington, DC: Georgetown, 1853), 424; Jeremiah Morrow from Ohio indicated: “We preferred a Post- Weer, “Writings and Notes Regarding Hendrick Aupaumut,” ponement with a recommendation for a new negociation, to its 37. Thornbrough, in her footnote, cites a postscript to a letter rejected or complete alteration by the Senate and accordingly it from Benjamin Stickney to William Harrison, dated February 16, is postponed. . . . The object of which will be to expunge from the 1813, found in the Harrison Papers, Series 1, Library of Congress. treaty the provisions for granting land to Indians in fee simple. Stickney wrote: “‘Capt. Hendricks [Aupaumut] is at Piqua, and his With the Power of alienation, these features are unprecedented, services as civilizing Agent are not now required, and as he [has] and to a Majority objectionable.” expressed a wish to go home to his own country, I have, with the 46. Lewis Cass to B. F. Stickney, March 9, 1818, Records of the Michi- advice of Mr. Johnston told him that his salary would end with gan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. The policy set this month.’” Weer cites a John Sergeant to Timothy Pickering, forth here by the U.S. Senate was upheld by the U.S. Supreme February 20, 1815, letter in which Sergeant notes Aupaumut had Court in Johnson v. M’Intosh in 1823. See Elizabeth Brand Mon- been away for five years, endeavoring on behalf of the Stock- roe, “Territorial Law and Orders, Part 2: Indiana’s Earliest Records bridges, to secure land “‘near the .’” Address Probate Matters, Official Appointments, Incorporation 31. Hendrick Aupaumut to John Sergeant, February 4, 1808, Dean of Towns and Organizations, and Numerous Other Concerns,” Family Papers, 1788–ca. 1920, M 0085, box 1, folder 2, Indiana The Hoosier Genealogist: Connections 57, no. 1 (Spring/Summer Historical Society. 2017): 23–25. 32. John Sugden, Tecumseh: A Life (New York: Henry Holt, 1997), 47. John Johnston to Lewis Cass, March 27, 1818, Records of the 99–100; Weer, “Writings and Notes Regarding Hendrick Aupau- Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. mut,” 36. 48. Dr. William Turner to Lewis Cass, March 17, 1818, Benjamin Parke 33. Hendrick Aupaumut to John Sergeant, February 4, 1808, Dean Papers, 1816–1818, SC 1692, folder 2, Indiana Historical Society. Family Papers, 1788–ca. 1920. 49. John Johnston to Lewis Cass, March 27, 1818, Records of the 34. Wheeler, “Hendrick Aupaumut: Christian–Mahican Prophet,” Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. 196. 50. John Johnston to Lewis Cass, December 31, 1817, Records of the 35. Morse, A Report to the Secretary of War of the United States, on Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. Indian Affairs, Comprising a Narrative of a Tour Performed in the 51. Waldo F. Mitchell, “Indiana’s Growth 1812–1820,” Indiana Maga- Summer of 1820, 111–12. zine of History 10, no. 4 (December 1914): 378–79. 36. Love, Samson Occom, 316, 317. 52. Jonathan Jennings to Benjamin F. Stickney, December 23, 1817, 37. Ibid., 317–18. Records of the Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851.

21 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

53. John Johnston to Lewis Cass, January 20, 1818, Records of the of the removal of the Indians from New York to this quarter . . . Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. that this object might be speedily attained. . . . I have not had 54. Indian Treaties and Laws and Regulations Relating to Indian Affairs the pleasure to receive a letter from you since last summer, al- (Washington, DC: Way and Gideon, 1826), 315; J. C. Calhoun though I have twice written, I cannot form a probable conjecture to Jonathan Jennings, Lewis Cass, Benjamin Parke, May 2, 1818, in relation to your views and expectations upon this subject.” Records of the Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 67. “Report of a Select Committee on the Petition of Sundry Indians 1814–1851. For number of acres in Indiana, see part 1 of this of the Stockbridge Nation, Accompanied with a Bill Confirming article: “Tribal and Euro-American Historical Backdrop through their Title to Certain Lands” (February 24, 1820). This report, 1817,” The Hoosier Genealogist: Connections 57, no. 2 (Fall/Winter according to a statement made by Johnston, was in conjunction 2017): 14, 21n9. with Congress’s review of a petition by the Stockbridges claiming 55. For a complete profile of William Conner and his brother John, land in Indiana. see John L. Larson and David Vanderstel, “Agent of Empire: Wil- 68. “Report of a Select Committee on the Petition of Sundry Indians liam Conner on the Indiana Frontier, 1800–1855,” Indiana Maga- of the Stockbridge Nation, Accompanied with a Bill Confirming zine of History 80, no. 4 (December 1984): 301–28; B. F. Stickney their Title to Certain Lands” (February 24, 1820). to Lewis Cass, November 18, 1817, Records of the Michigan 69. Isaac Wobby to Thomas Dean, October 3, 1818, Dean Family Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. Papers, 1788–ca. 1920, M 0085, box 1, Folder 10; J. C. Calhoun 56. John Johnston to Lewis Cass, December 31, 1817, Records of the to Lewis Cass, April 22, 1818, Records of the Michigan Super- Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. intendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851, microfilm M1, roll 3. 57. Lewis Cass to John Johnston, January 30, 1818, Records of the Calhoun notes, “You will see that, by the new organization of the Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. Ind. Department the agencies at Fort Wayne & Piqua have been 58. John Johnston to Lewis Cass, January 20, 1818, Records of the united and that Mr. Johnston has been appointed the agent.” Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. 59. John Johnston to Lewis Cass, March 27, 1818, Records of the Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. 60. John Johnston expense estimate in letter, January 17, 1818, Ben- jamin Parke Papers, 1816–1818. 61. John Johnston to Lewis Cass, January 20, 1818, and Lewis Cass to John Johnston, June 15, 1818, Records of the Michigan Superin- tendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. 62. B. F. Stickney to Lewis Cass, February 24, 1818, Records of the Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. 63. Larson and Vanderstel, “Agent of Empire: William Conner,” 311. 64. John Johnston to Lewis Cass, March 27, 1818, Records of the Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. 65. B. F. Stickney to Lewis Cass, April 10, 1818, Records of the Michi- gan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. 66. Lewis Cass to David A. Ogden, June 21, 1818, Records of the Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. Cass indicates: “I wrote on the 29th of January last upon the subject

22 Part 3: Concluding the Treaties The Brothertowns’ and Stockbridges’ Sagas

Connecting the Kilgore Pact while, at the same time, both Kilgore and Fortunately, Dean kept a journal dur- Legend Dots Cassman were living in what soon be- ing this journey. In it, he identified one Is it plausible that my ancestor David came Yorktown.6 But could Cassman be of the peacemakers traveling with him Kilgore (1804–1879) made a pact with connected to Kilgore’s land or the pact as Jacob Dick. A year later, as set forth an Indian departing the White River legend, and what of his tribal affiliation? in the Delawares’ 1818 treaty, Dick was area after 1830? And what of the burial The broad sweeping characteriza- identified as a land grantee and a “Dela- ground he pledged to protect? At least tion of Cassman and five other land ware.” Dean also wrote that the entou- one aspect of this family legend proved grantees in the Delawares’ 1818 treaty rage met with Brothertown Elder Isaac to be true. A 1930 archaeologist’s letter as “all of whom are Delawares” was Wobby at the 1817 Fort Meigs treaty. Yet confirmed the existence of an Indian unusually vague.7 When Cassman’s son Wobby also received a land grant as a burial ground on our ancestral home- subsequently referred to him as a “York” “Delaware” in the Saint Marys treaty.12 land. 1 Clouding the picture, however, Indian, the need for further investiga- The multiple misidentifications in the was the identity of three possible tribal tion regarding the tribal heritage of all treaty were clearly more than coinci- groups associated with the story: the grantees became obvious.8 dental. A further probe of the other Delawares, Yorks, and Stockbridges. The third possible tribal identity of grantees’ heritage suggests four of those While the Delawares’ Hocking- the pact legend Indian appeared to be misidentified were Brothertowns and pomsga’s Town is proximate to the burial the most plausible. C. A. Weslager, in one was a Stockbridge Munsee.13 With ground area, Kilgore’s settlement there his book The Delaware Indians: A History, one possible exception, none were Dela- nearly a decade after the tribe’s removal confirmed the Stockbridges’ presence wares. Only Cassman’s heritage remains from Indiana diminishes this possibil- along White River following the Saint a mystery today. ity. 2 In contrast, a 1926 family member’s Marys treaties.9 But who were they, and A Cassman family genealogist tells telling of the legend that was detailed in could they still have been in the vicin- of a family legend that the Anglicized many ways, identifies the area’s occu- ity at the time of Kilgore’s arrival in or “Cassman” surname derived from pants and burial site as associated with around 1830? Samuel’s service to Lewis Cass—he was the “York Indians.”3 And a son of one of By the outbreak of the War of “Cass’s Man.” Family lore further sug- the Delawares’ Saint Marys treaty land 1812, Stockbridge Sachem Hendrick gests he migrated from Montreal to the grantees characterized his father as “one Aupaumut had spent years among the Detroit area around the War of 1812, of the York Indians.” Yet no such tribe White River Delawares as U.S. agent for where he farmed with his brother. He appears to have existed.4 “Agriculture and Domestic Arts.”10 After then disappears from the family record It became clear the land grantee later the war, he secured an invitation from until the 1818 treaty.14 Why was he referred to as a “York Indian,” Samuel Chief William Anderson (Kikthawenund) included among the grantees? Was he a Cassman, was still living along White for both the Stockbridges and nearby scout, a fur trader, a tribal intermediary River as late as 1840. The sale of his Brothertowns to migrate to White River and/or a New York Indian? Could the granted land was not completed until from upstate New York.11 That prompted family stories help identify his heritage? 1836. Then he appeared in the 1840 Del- Brothertown advisor/agent Thomas aware County census.5 It surprised me Dean to accompany leaders, or “peace- The Stockbridges and Brother- when I found that Kilgore represented makers,” of this tribal group on a voyage towns Prepare to Move the 1836 purchaser of Cassman’s land to the White River Delawares in 1817 to Dean and the peacemakers carried confirm their invitation. news confirming the Delawares’

23 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

Similarly, referring to the nearby Senecas, Sergeant observed: “If a part of them remove they will all go within ten years—if things appear promising at White River I should be willing to have them all remove.”16 Still, Sergeant was aware things could go awry. In an omi- nous letter of June 29, 1818, he noted: “It is reported that the Indiana [U.S.] Government, this season, intends to purchase the lands on the White river. If they should be able to do it by a stretch of unlawful power, the proposed plan will be at an end.”17 Little did he know that plans were already well advanced to transfer some eight million acres of tribal lands in what would become central Indiana to the federal government.18

Finalizing Saint Marys Treaty Arrangements: Strategies Set As Michigan Territorial Governor Lewis Cass assumed the reins of the Saint Marys treaties commission in May 1818, a series of decisions were made in rapid succession. He solicited John Cal- houn, secretary of war, to up the ante to ensure success: “More may be required, powerful inducements must be held out to the Indians.” Cass also strategized with Delaware and now, additionally, Miami Indian Agent John Johnston: “I have serious doubts of the policy of say- The women in the photo at top are among the second, third, and fourth generations of descendants of Samuel Cassman. From left to right: Seymour Lipprant; his wife, Elizabeth ing much to the Indians respecting the O’Halloran Lipprant; Frances Cassman O’Halloran, Elizabeth’s mother; and Cecilia Lipprant. approaching negotiation.”19 The photo beneath shows second, third, fourth, and fifth generation descendants of Samuel Cass urged Johnston’s appoint- Cassman. They are, left to right: Harry Sylvester Cassman (1866–1935), Oliver Henry “Polk” ment as secretary to the commission- Cassman (1839–1927), Francis Leo Cassman (1893–1985), and Virginia Lillie Cassman ers, arranged for a military presence to Brown (1920–2002). (Photos used with permission of Lois Jane Cassman Sparks—sister of maintain peace and keep whiskey out of Virginia, daughter of Francis Leo, granddaughter of Harry, and great-great-niece of Oliver. Sparks is the Cassman family historian.) the Indian camps, and fixed on dates and sequencing of treaty discussions.20 First, invitation to the Brothertowns and and agent to the Stockbridges, wrote to the 1817 Fort Meigs treaty would be Stockbridges when they returned to Dean: “My people have reported to me renegotiated, and then a series of lesser upstate New York in fall 1817. Plans were their agreement in publick council . . . treaties would build toward extinguishing put in place to fund the upcoming mi- and a number of families [are] moving to title to White River country under the gration by selling a portion of their New White River in the [6th] [m]onth of next Delawares’ and Miamis’ control. All this York lands. John Sergeant Jr., missionary summer.”15 was to occur at Fort Saint Marys, Ohio.21

24 Surveyor General’s Map of Oneida County, New York, in 1829, showing original patents and grants. Notice the two small sections blocked off for the Stockbridge and Brothertown Indians near the bottom of the map. The Brothertown parcel was established on Oneida land in 1773 but not fully occupied until 1783. In the meantime, the Brothertowns resided with the Stockbridges in Massachusetts until after the Revolutionary War. The Brothertowns negotiated with the Oneida tribe for a parcel of land adjacent to their community for the Stockbridges, who began moving to “New Stockbridge” in 1785. (Digital map courtesy of Waterville, New York, Public Library)

25 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

Pushing back against concerns voiced He accepted the assistance of Quaker “Wood” bands. The Wood clan of north- by treaty commissioners Governor Jona- missionaries to help his people become ern Indiana and southern Michigan, with than Jennings and U.S. District Court more self-sufficient on their diminishing prominent chiefs Metea and Topinabee, Judge Benjamin Parke, Cass argued: “If range of lands in Ohio. By the Fort Meigs was most involved in discussions for the we are to set down watching the arrival treaty Black Hoof was pushing back 1817 and 1818 treaties. In spite of their of a period when we can calculate with against removal efforts and consolidat- far-flung structure, the Potawatomis certainty that the Indians will be willing ing his band around reserves at or near had not yielded any homelands until the to cede what we are anxious to acquire Wapakoneta. He also secured another 1816 Saint Louis treaty. And while the we shall wait till the time for action 12,800 acres beyond the 10-mile square Wood clan became the epicenter of suc- has passed away.” He was confident reserved during the 1817 treaty. A cessful adaptive resistance longer term, the Fort Meigs treaty could be restruc- $2,000 permanent annuity, in addition in 1818 they were lured by a robust tured, noting: “I do not think there is to the $1,000 his group was already re- $2,500 permanent annuity to part with any reason to doubt, but that we shall ceiving, provided the economic leverage 758,572 acres of their Indiana home- procure a change in the tenure of their to resist removal.26 land north of the Wabash River, near lands although I am not so sanguine Over time, the Potawatomis had Lafayette. No reserves were included, respecting their removal [west of the split into at least three virtually autono- although several principal individuals Mississippi].”22 There was good reason for mous groups spanning a huge area of received grants of one or two sections of Cass’s concern. the Midwest: The “Prairie,” “Lake,” and land in Indiana and Michigan.27 The Wyandots, with more than three million acres on the table in northwest Ohio, made it clear they would not re- move. The combination of Chief Tarhe’s alignment with the Americans after 1795, the advent of a more unified clan governance structure, the growing suc- cess of Presbyterian and Methodist mis- sionaries in “civilizing” the tribe, and the emergence of métis William Walker Jr. as an effective go-between and eventual tribal leader had the desired effect.23 As part of the bargain to reframe the 1817 treaty, the Wyandots secured a 55,680-acre extension to the formerly granted 12-mile square “Grand Reserve” centered on the Upper Sandusky River. They also received several small re- serves, and an additional $500 perpetual annuity added to the $4,000 provided the year before. The Wyandots asserted their economic and political indepen- dence around this package of reserves Portrait of Potawatomi Chief Metea (fl. 1800–1827), who fought with the British during the and annuities.24 They were not heading War of 1812 and was known afterward as a great orator. He signed treaties in both 1817 and west. 1818 for the Potawatomis. Metea lived a few miles from Fort Wayne, Indiana, on the Saint Chief Black Hoof (Catecahassa) led Joseph River, in a village called Muskwawasepeotan (town of old redwood creek) from at the less radical portion of the Shawnees least 1823 until his death in 1827. (Thomas L. McKenney, History of the Indian Tribes of on a path of “adaptive resistance” fol- North America with Biographical Sketches and Anecdotes of the Principal Chiefs. Embel- lowing the 1795 Treaty of Greenville.25 lished with One Hundred Portraits from the Indian Gallery in the War Department at Washington, vol. 1 [1872], 379–86)

26 PART 3

“A large portion of the Delaware nation are now living West of the Mississippi. This circumstance renders a removal much more desirable to them . . . and they have accordingly requested us to permit them to cross that river. They do not stipulate for any reservations, but only for some annuities & for another country.”30 Johnston later revealed, however, that Anderson grew reluctant to sign the treaty. He secretly arranged, therefore, to pay Anderson and Chief Big Bear (Lapahnilhe) annual private annuities of $360 and $140, respectively, as long as they lived. To ensure the chiefs’ safety, “no record of this payment was kept in the official records.”31

The Stockbridges and Brother- towns Commence Migration On July 24, 1818, eleven days after the Stockbridges first sold land in New York to fund migration to Indiana, Lewis Cass from an engraving by T. B. Welch, ca. 1833–1840, that he produced from a paint- Reverend John Sergeant assembled the ing by artist James B. Longacre, ca. 1833. Cass served in the dual roles of Michigan territorial tribe. The four men and seven of the governor and ex officio superintendent of the Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs ten women who were members of the between 1813 and 1831. In the latter role, Cass reported to the Secretary of War from which Indian affairs were administered between 1789 and 1824. Superintendents had general re- Church of Christ signed a covenant espe- sponsibility for Indian affairs in a specific geographic area. Their duties included supervision cially adapted to their circumstance and of relations between the U.S. government, its citizens and the Indian tribes. They were also made ready to move.32 responsible for the conduct and accounts of the Indian agents within their jurisdiction. As a Sergeant reported: “The Tuscaroras, result, Cass was the lead commissioner for both the 1817 and 1818 treaties at Fort Meigs and living near Buffalo, are about to remove Saint Marys, Ohio, respectively. (Image courtesy Library of Congress; Cass biography from to White river; and . . . I understand a Records of the Michigan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851, 1) number of the Munsees will go on with my people.” Some Brothertown families Cass reported substantial progress ranged for substantial reserves—includ- were also included. The migrating group in pivotal pre-treaty discussions with ing the 132,480-acre Big Miami Reserve included a third of the church and one- influential Miami Chief Jean Baptiste (largest in Indiana)—for various tribal fourth of the combined tribes, an esti- Richardville (Pinšiwa): “It has happened leadership family lines that effectively mated seventy people. Finally, on the fif- fortunately that Richardville is on a prevented forced removal for nearly half teenth of August, “some having gone and visit to this place. I have had a long and the tribe.28 more being then ready to depart . . . chief confidential interview with him. I think It is interesting that little concern Hendrick Aupaumut, in a ‘large speech’ no rational doubt can be entertained was voiced about the Delawares and presented to them . . . a copy of Scott’s but that he will zealously cooperate with Chief Anderson’s position. In 1816 Com- Bible . . . So they said farewell, and were us as far as such cooperation may be missioner Parke first became aware of gone, to return no more.”33 prudent for him or desirable for us. This Anderson’s desire to take his people While some Brothertowns migrated interview and its effect upon him are not away from encroaching white settlers, to with the main body, several families had to be disclosed.” Still, Richardville ar- Missouri.29 Cass drew these conclusions: already settled in Indiana. Isaac McCoy,

27 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

a Baptist missionary who would become town Elder Isaac Wobby, his wife Jane, perfectly convinced that nothing but director of a mission school at Fort and nephews Orrilla and David were the application of physical force can, for Wayne, lodged at the home of Betsy living in Piqua, Ohio, by 1818, having a few years compel them to leave the Pitcharker on December 4, 1818, when recently relocated from Fort Wayne. He country which they have inherited from traveling through the Delawares’ White had plowed and planted ten acres of their forefathers.”39 River country. She was a widow with land along White River that spring in an- The 1818 treaty provided tribal several children and McCoy was “happy ticipation of the arrival of the migrants.37 reservations and numerous individual to find her a Christian. She had united land grants more substantial in size than with the Baptist church in the State of The Treaties of Saint Marys: those provided in the Treaty of Fort New York.”34 September 17 to October 6, 1818 Meigs the year before, but now these Jacob Dick and his family remained The scene was set at Saint Marys, as lands were restricted in title. With the in the vicinity of Fort Harrison (Terre Parke described it: “There were about provision of additional annuities, all rep- Haute) at the conclusion of the voy- five thousand Indians assembled. Some resentative chiefs signed the treaty.40 age to Indiana in 1817.35 Thomas Isaacs, of the Tribes were on the ground five September 20: Treaty with the another peacemaker on Dean’s voyage, or six weeks. . . . It was necessary to Wyandots and his family also remained behind in detain them, until the conferences, with Next in sequence was a separate Palestine, Illinois—twenty-five miles all were finally concluded; as a means treaty with the Wyandots on Septem- southwest of Fort Harrison.36 Brother- of conciliation, we dined the chiefs and principal warriors by tribes.”38 ber 20, to deal with two small parcels Actual discussions with various tribal totaling 5,000 acres in the Michigan groups at the treaty ground were almost Territory near Detroit. The Wyandots anti-climactic. Nearly all critical issues traded these parcels for a like number had been resolved, personal or private of acres slightly resituated. However, annuities agreed to, and other arrange- title was now contingent on continual ments made beforehand. With few occupancy by tribal members instead exceptions and only one surprise, each of being granted in fee simple. (The treaty was smoothly concluded—from Wyandots could not mortgage, rent, or the United States’s point of view. sell this land.) The Wyandots were also compensated for losses.41 September 17: Treaty with the Wyan- dots, Senecas, Shawnees,and Ottawas October 2: Treaties with the Renegotiation of the Fort Meigs Potawatomis and Weas Treaty was completed on September 17 Treaties were then concluded sepa- rately, but completed the same day, Benjamin Parke (1777–1835) was born with the Wyandots, Senecas, Shaw- in New Jersey, then moved to Lexington, nees, and Ottawas. Cass reported: “The October 2, with the Potawatomis and Kentucky, in 1797, where he studied law. In provisions which appeared obnoxious Weas. Future annuities would now be 1799 he moved to Vincennes, Indiana, and to the Senate have been so altered as to paid in silver and land grant sales subject became a supporter of Territorial Governor offer no impediment to its ratification.” to consent of the president. Cass had William Henry Harrison. He served as However, regarding the government’s reasoned: “As nothing was wanted of attorney general of the Indiana Territory the Ottawas, Chippawas and Potawato- from 1804 to 1808 and was territorial directive to effect removal of the tribes delegate to the U.S. Congress from 1805 west of the Mississippi, Cass was clear: mies they would be willing to second to 1808. During the War of 1812 he was on “We considered it neither politick nor our application to the other Indians, in Harrison’s staff, achieving the rank of colo- just . . . to urge their acceptance of our consequence of the presents, which they nel. Parke was a territorial judge from 1808 proposition. We submitted it to them in would receive.”42 to 1817 and a U.S. district court judge from a way . . . so that we could expect their In fact, the Potawatomis did relin- 1817 to 1835. He was also the first president quish ownership of a substantial strip of the Indiana Historical Society. (Courtesy fair opinions respecting it. The result of the U.S. District Court, Southern District was a prompt and I may add an indig- of land between the Wabash, Vermil- of Indiana; digital image by Indiana Histori- nant rejection of the offer . . . and I am lion, and Tippecanoe Rivers totaling cal Society)

28 PART 3

sions with the Weas first. At the same Christian revivalist groups, on the other time, only a generalized ceding of “all hand. Chief Anderson felt compelled to the lands claimed and owned . . . within move his tribe west. Their treaty con- the limits of the states of Indiana, Ohio cluded on October 3, 1818.47 and Illinois” was required. Nonetheless, Commissioners capitalized on Ander- his decision proved critical. It appeared son’s expressed desire to escape unau- some traders and business people reliant thorized settlements and reassemble on the Weas’ annuities sought to keep the once-great Delaware Nation in open them in the state. They leveraged on the spaces. The government’s commitment band’s historically deep-seated connec- to provide a country “upon the west side tion with their French-Canadian trading of the Mississippi” was vague but entic- partners. It almost scuttled the treaty.44 ing. The Delawares were allowed three Parke later reported: “Most of the years to prepare to move. Apparently, Weas had determined not to treat, not a thought was given regarding invita- but upon condition of their friends the tions extended to the Brothertowns and French being accommodated. . . . They Stockbridges by the Delawares, con- Portrait of Miami Chief Jean Baptiste Rich- had been taught to believe, that the firmed by John Johnston at Fort Meigs ardville by James Otto Lewis in 1827, part of 48 The Aboriginal Port Folio or a Collection of President . . . encouraged the Weas the year before. Portraits of the Most Celebrated Chiefs of to insist on a portion of their Country Boats and horses were included North American Indians. Although dressed being ceded to the French.” Proceedings for the removal, an additional $4,000 in Euro-American fashion here, reports of were delayed as the Weas, distrusting perpetual annuity was arranged, and him after the treaty period indicate that government-appointed interpreters, $13,312.25 was paid out for improve- he lived a more native way of life than this took a copy of the president’s address to ments on the land being ceded. Secret portrait suggests. Richardville was influ- ential, over the course of multiple treaty Indians they trusted for interpretation, lifetime annual annuities were provided negotiations, in gaining “unassailable title” including interpreters living among the to Chief Anderson ($360) and Chief Big to a vast amount of land he expected his kin Miamis who were métis. Finally, with the Bear ($140). In return, the Delawares to live on. While often viewed as a contro- president’s true intent understood, the yielded nearly seven million acres in the versial figure in this regard, at least half of Weas gave up their claim.45 heart of Indiana.49 the Miamis were not subject to removal In concluding this portion of the Governor Jennings acknowledged the west by the time of his death in 1841. (Image courtesy Indiana Historical Society; Richard- treaty negotiations, Cass observed: pivotal role trader and interpreter broth- ville biography from Andrew R. L. Cayton, “They see that our settlements are fast ers William and John Conner played Frontier Indiana [1996], 263) gaining upon them and they feel the in influencing Anderson and the other necessity of making some permanent chiefs to remove: “I have no hesitation more than 758,000 acres in Indiana and provision for themselves and their chil- in stating, that those two individuals another 141,000 in Illinois as well as all dren. Reservations of land are becoming had it in their power to have prevented claims to country south of the Wabash. very desirable to them, and will I trust, any purchase of Indian title to lands on For this, they received a perpetual an- constitute the cornerstone of their im- the waters of the White River.” William nuity of $2,500 and several land grants. provement.” 46 Conner’s influence was substantial, as However, the Potawatomis remained on his common law wife, Mekinges, was the October 3: Treaty with the Delawares their land in northern Indiana and else- daughter of one of the chiefs. He was The Delawares were desperate. They where in the upper Midwest. Not until secretly promised title to the section of were racked by alcoholism, in grinding the treaty of 1826 would they finally land he already occupied—640 acres— poverty and hunger, undermined by begin the long, slow process of leaving for his invaluable assistance.50 incessant white settler encroachments, much of their homeland.43 Chief Anderson’s Delawares became and torn apart by nativist groups that Cass understood the Weas were a the reluctant vanguard for the govern- promoted a return to the tribe’s pre- sub-band of the Miamis. To eliminate ment’s first formal, treaty-specified, re- European culture, on the one hand, and a variable in his later dealings with the moval of a tribe west of the Mississippi. Miamis, he chose to complete discus-

29 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

The United States now put into practice its often-contemplated removal policy. The United States now put into practice And once the dam was broken, this its often-contemplated removal policy. policy began to appear with regularity in other treaties until codified as the Indian at this place during the Indian Treaty— and the chief’s assurances were enough. Removal Act of 1830.51 which is now about to be brought to a Instead, they reportedly asked Johnston close. The Delawares have sold their land to secure a large reservation, “twenty A Few Brothertown Members Receive without any reserve for us, them or oth- miles square,” he later recalled. But Land Grants ers. I have said much on the subject but Anderson declined to endorse a reser- Aside from the government’s gener- to no effect.”58 vation for them because, according to alized commitment to provide land west Taking advantage of his relationship Johnston, “they wished the Mohiccans of the Mississippi for the Delawares, no with Johnston and Johnston’s certifica- [Stockbridges] to accompany them over reservations were outlined or neces- tion of the Delawares’ invitation to the the Mississippi.” Miami Chief Richardville sary. But Johnston and Cass both knew Brothertowns made at the 1817 council, also reportedly refused a reservation for of the impending Brothertowns’ and Wobby secured land grants for him- them, noting, “If the Delawares would Stockbridges’ migration. Johnston said self and four of the other five grantees not provide for their friends . . . it could as much to Cass in an 1817 New Year’s mentioned—several of whom were not be expected the Miamis would.”61 Eve letter: “There is near 1000 Indians in already residing in Indiana. Later in the New York . . . who will certainly emi- October 6: Treaty with The Miamis day Wobby appended a somewhat posi- grate to White River in a year or two if Finally came the focal point of the tive postscript to his letter: “I have been not prevented by a treaty.”52 entire White River country scheme— informed by Mr. Johnson [Johnston] & As a result, land grants were made to the Miamis and especially Richardville others that . . . there will now be a favor- several individuals, broadly characterized and his various sub-chiefs and family able opportunity to purchase on the as “all of whom are Delawares.”53 In fact, members. The treaty completed on White River.” As subsequently explained with only one possible exception, none October 6 included a large number of by Brothertown Peacemaker Thomas were Delawares. Four were Brother- reservations and individual land grants: Isaacs: “If the Brothertown people wish towns (Isaac Wobby, Jacob Dick, and six reservations comprising a large to reside in this country [White River] Solomon and Benoni Tindell).54 Elizabeth 132,480-acre tract, two 10-mile-square they now have to make a contract with Petchaka was a Stockbridge/Munsee.55 tracts, one 6-mile-square tract, and two the United States. The land will probably The only individual of questionable heri- 1-mile-square tracts, as well as twenty- be offered for sail [sale] in 2 or 3 years at tage remains Samuel Cassman. one land grants aggregating 49 sections. furthermost.”59 Nothing ever came of it. Wobby, a Brothertown elder, had “Richardville, understanding the impor- shadowed Johnston for more than a The Stockbridges Receive No Land tance of private property to the white year—starting before the Fort Meigs Grants or Reservations Americans, secured unassailable titles to treaty in 1817. He had been a frequent The Stockbridges, on the other hand, land that he expected his kin to live on.” visitor at Johnston’s Upper Piqua, Ohio, received nothing. Unfortunately, they A large perpetual annuity of $15,000 home.56 Wobby even moved his family relied on Johnston as their intermediary was also provided.62 from Fort Wayne to the Piqua area when for communications with the Delawares. Parke was taken aback by the scope Johnston assumed sole responsibility When they wrote to urge the Delawares of the numbers in the Miamis’ treaty. for the Miamis and Delawares in early not to sell further White River lands, He wrote, “I signed with reluctance. 1818.57 Johnston balked at passing along their Richardville’s patents, the reservation . . . Wobby was present at the Saint communications “because they were the annuity, and the admission of indi- Marys treaty discussions. His mission directly in the face of my duty.”60 vidual claims to so large an amount, are was to ensure commitments made by If Johnston is to be believed, the objectionable features. . . . The annuity the Delawares to the Brothertowns were Stockbridges sent no one to the trea- secured to the Miamis compared with fulfilled. They were not. Wobby reported: ties, convinced Hendrick Aupaumut’s other treaties of purchase North West of “I would inform you that I have been strong relationship with Chief Anderson the Ohio is extravagant.”63

30 Map of treaties made for Indiana Lands from Indian Land Cessions in the United States, part 2 of Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1896–97, compiled by Charles C. Royce (1899). All treaty land cessions in Indiana made over time by various Native American groups are design- ated by number on the map. While a large area, such as 99, was ceded by the Delawares and Miamis in their 1818 Saint Marys treaties, subsequent treaties conveyed back to the United States “reserve land” which had been carved out of the original cessions—such as areas 198 and 258. These particular reserves together comprised the Big Miami Reserve discussed in this article. (Library of Congress Geography and Map Division)

31 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

Jennings echoed these sentiments, Notes 8. Lahrman and Johnson, “Delaware In- dian’s Reservation,” 111–12. pointing to the role of those whites resid- 1. F[rank] M. Setzler, archaeologist, to 9. C. A. Weslager, The Delaware Indians: ing or trading with them “whose interest Indiana Historical Bureau, July 31, 1930, A History (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers is directly opposite to that of the United Indiana State Archives, Indianapolis. University Press, 1972), 353–54. States.” Through them, he argued, “the 2. Arthur Andrew Olson, “Pioneer and Civil 10. Gayle Thornbrough, ed., Letter Book of War Era Indiana Politics: The Political Indians have been taught to place a the Indian Agency at Fort Wayne, 1809– Career of David Kilgore” (unpublished greater estimate than formerly on their 1815, vol. 21, Indiana Historical Society manuscript, 2012), 27, 27n16, box 1, lands, and to resort to intrigue and duplic- Publications (Indianapolis: Indiana folder 11, MSS 334, Archives and Special Historical Society, 1961), 53–55, 185n; ity, either to extort exorbitant annuities, Collections, Alexander M. Bracken Andrew A. Lipscomb, ed., The Writings of or to prevent cessions from being made Library, Ball State University, Muncie, Thomas Jefferson, vol. 16 (Washington, to the U. States.” Nonetheless, Jennings Indiana. Kilgore witnessed a deed of con- DC: Georgetown, 1853), 424; Paul Weer, faced the reality of the situation: “Rich- veyance in Delaware County, Indiana, on “Writings and Notes Regarding Hendrick ardville [is] a very important object in the April 8, 1830. Aupaumut” (unpublished manuscript, 3. Obed Kilgore, interview by Josiah V. negociation [sic], and without his assent 1956), 37, M 293, box 1, Indiana Histori- Thompson, November 13, 1926, “Jo- to the views of the government, the cal Society. siah V. Thompson, Uniontown, Pa., Fam- result must have been unsuccessful.”64 11. W. DeLoss Love, Samson Occom and the ily Record Book,” Journal vol. 19, Oct. Christian Indians of New England (Boston: 1926–Dec. 1926, microfilm 1598073, As the Dust Settled Pilgrim Press, 1899), 317. Item 4, Family Search.org. 12. John Candee Dean, ed., Journal of It was over. The ceremony and tradi- 4. Delores Lahrman and Ross Johnson, “A Thomas Dean: An Account of a Journey to tions of the treaty ritual came to an end Delaware Indian’s Reservation: Samuel Indiana in 1817 (Indianapolis: John Can- after nearly three weeks of orchestrated Cassman vs. Goldsmith C. Gilbert,” In- dee Dean, 1918), 6, 73; Kappler, Indian decorum.65 Hundreds of thousands of diana Magazine of History 71, no. 2 (June Affairs, vol. 2, 170–71. meals were consumed by one of the 1975): 111, 111n32. 13. Arthur Andrew Olson III, “Anatomy of 5. Ibid., 106–7, 107n19. largest gatherings of the lower Great the 1818 Treaties of Saint Marys and the 6. Douglas Rolfs, “The Last Indian Land- Lakes Indians. All returned to their newly ‘New Purchase’ of Indiana” (unpublished owners of Delaware County, Indiana,” altered homelands. manuscript, 2012), 33–34, MSS 334, box in Delaware County, Indiana, 1827–1850: While the expenditures of the United 1, folder 1, Archives and Special Collec- The Pioneer Period, edited by Althea L. tions, Andrew M. Bracken Library, Ball States were by no means small, they Stoeckel and Ross S. Johnson (Muncie, State University, Muncie, Indiana. See paled by comparison to the extent of IN: Ball State University, 1975), 13. also notes 54 and 55 below. tribal lands yielded up. Under the revised 7. Charles J. Kappler, ed., Indian Affairs: 14. Author e-mail exchange with Lois terms of the 1817 Fort Meigs treaty the Laws and Treaties, vol. 2, Treaties (Wash- Jane Cassman Sparks (Cassman family seven tribes involved conveyed nearly ington: Government Printing Office, genealogist), Bloomington, Indiana, 1903), 170–71. In all other treaties 4.8 million acres. Then, under the Saint October 27, 2017. This confirming e-mail associated with the Saint Marys treaties, Marys treaties, the Wyandots parted exchange followed a telephone conver- each land grantee’s more specific con- with 5 thousand acres, the Potawatomis sation the same day between the two nection with the treaty was indicated. parties. See also Lahrman and Johnson, with around 900 thousand acres, and For example, in the Saint Marys treaty “Delaware Indian’s Reservation,” 104; the Delawares and Miamis combined with the Weas of October 2, 1818, 66 Commissioner of Indian Affairs, comp., with more than 7 million acres. In total, grantees “Christmas Degeny and Mary Treaties between the United States of approximately 12.7 million acres were Shields” are described as “formerly Mary America and the Several Indian Tribes transferred to the U.S. government. It Degeny, children of Mechinquamesha, from 1778 to 1837 (Washington, DC: sister of Jacco, a chief of the said tribe” was a staggering number in both statisti- Langtree and O’Sullivan, 1837), 225, (Charles C. Royce, comp., Indian Land cal and human terms. available at Internet Archive. Cessions in the United States, part 2 of 15. Annie Heloise Abel, The History of Events Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau The next and final part of this article Resulting in Indian Consolidation of American Ethnology to Secretary of the will discuss the fates of the tribal groups West of the Mississippi ([Washington, Smithsonian Institution, 1896–97 by J. W. that gathered at Saint Marys as they Government Printing Office, 1908]), Powell [Washington, DC: Government sought to deal with their unreliable and 309–10; John Sergeant to Thomas Dean, inconsistent overseer. Printing Office, 1899], 260).

32 PART 3

February 26, 1818, Dean Family Papers, tions 57, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2017): 14, Affairs, 1814–1851. Fort Saint Marys was 1788–ca. 1920, M 0085, box 1, folder 10, 21n9. situated in Ohio at the former trading Indiana Historical Society; James W. 19. Lewis Cass to Hon. J. C. Calhoun, location known as Girty’s Town (Ed- Oberly, A Nation of Statesmen: The Politi- June 19, 1818, Letters Received by the win R. Kuck, “An Historical Account of cal Culture of the Stockbridge–Munsee Office of the Secretary of War Relating the Early Religious and Social Life of the Mohicans, 1815–1972 (Norman, OK: to Indian Affairs, 1800–1823, RG 75.2, New Knoxville, Ohio Community,” as University of Oklahoma Press, 2005), no. M271, microfilm roll 2, doc. 561, quoted in Auglaize County History and 19. John Sergeant Jr. was the son of the National Archives and Records Admin- Genealogy, Ohio GenWeb, http://www original missionary to the Stockbridges, istration, Chicago; Lewis Cass to John .usgenwebsites.org/OHAuglaize/info John Sergeant. Further references in this Johnston, June 15, 1818, Records of the /history.html). article relate to John Sergeant Jr. After a Michigan Superintendency of Indian 22. Ibid.; Lewis Cass to John Johnston, July 8, report appeared in a Boston newspaper Affairs, 1814–1851, RG 75.15.5, microfilm 1818, Records of the Michigan Superin- suggesting the Delawares had sold out file M1, roll 4, NARA, Chicago. tendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851. to the U.S. government, the Stock- 20. Lewis Cass to John Johnston, June 15, 23. James Buss, “The Politics of Indian bridges wrote to the Delawares, who 1818; Lewis Cass to Alexander C. Sanier, Removal on the Wyandot Reserve, assured them the report was false. The Esq., June 24, 1818; and Lewis Cass 1817–1843,” in Contested Territories: Stockbridges thus prepared to depart to Maj. Gen. [Alexander] Macomb, Native Americans and Non-Natives in the New York in late summer 1818 under July 8, 1818, Records of the Michigan Lower Great Lakes, 1700–1850, edited the leadership of John Metoxen. Superintendency of Indian Affairs, by Charles Beatty–Medina and Melissa 16. John Sergeant to Thomas Dean, Febru- 1814–1851; Benjamin Parke to J. C. Rinehart (East Lansing, MI: Michigan ary 26, 1818; Abel, History of Events Calhoun, December 7, 1818, Benjamin State University Press, 2012), 169–71, Resulting in Indian Consolidation West of Parke Papers, 1816–1818, SC 1692, folder 174; John P. Bowes, Land Too Good For the Mississippi, 304–7. Under a colonial 2, Indiana Historical Society. Cass had Indians: Northern Indian Removal (Nor- grant, Massachusetts held a preemp- recommended Johnston’s appointment man, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, tive right to land in the western part of as secretary to treaty Commissioners 2016), 29, 34–37, 132, 139, 141. upstate New York, constituting a privi- Jonathan Jennings and Benjamin Parke. 24. Buss, “Politics of Indian Removal on the lege to buy or sell the land as a private However, as this was a politically sensi- Wyandot Reserve, 1817–1843,” 174–75; person or corporation from the Indians tive appointment, it appears Gover- Bowes, Land Too Good For Indians, 118– whenever they might choose to sell. This nor Jennings won the day: James Dill, 21, 122; Royce, Indian Land Cessions in right was ultimately sold to David A. Indiana 1816 Constitutional delegate the United States, 211, 259, 686–87, 690; Ogden, congressman for western New from Dearborn County, obtained the Indian Treaties and Laws and Regulations York, who formed the Ogden Land appointment. Parke later reflected on Relating to Indian Affairs . . . Compiled and Company. As a result, soon after 1815 the sequencing of treaty discussions: “It Published under Orders of the Depart- the sachems of the Iroquois Six Nations was desirable to have negociated [sic] ment of War of the 9th February and 6th indicated a desire to sell and move west, a treaty to which all should have been October, 1825 (Washington City: Way & which the Ogden Land Company ag- parties; but the fears and distrusts, and Gideon, 1826), 64, 500. gressively sought to bring to fruition. the various interest of individuals, and of 25. Bowes, Land Too Good For Indians, 13, 31. 17. John Sergeant to [Jedidiah Morse], Tribes appeared to render it impractica- Bowes characterizes adaptive resistance June 29, 1818, in Jedidiah Morse, A ble; and the safer and more expeditious as “the diverse array of approaches to Report to the Secretary of War, On Indian mode of separate negociations was ad- settler–colonial policies,” which might Affairs, Comprising a Narrative of a Tour opted with the Puttawatami, Delaware include accepting/working closely with Performed in the Summer of 1820 (New and Wea Treaties.” He further observed: traders and missionaries to “maneuver Haven, CT: Davis and Force, et al., 1822), “Governor Cass and Genl McArthur have around local, state, or federal policies.” 114–15. As Morse observed in a related arranged to hold their treaty for lands Treaties, as well, could be “instruments footnote, “The Government of the in Ohio, at the same time and place . . . of gain as much as they were instru- United States have the exclusive right and although the business with several ments of loss,” providing “foundations to purchase Indian lands. The ‘Indiana was dispatched as early as the 15th or for survival into the twenty-first government’ have no authority to do 18th of September, it was necessary to [century].” what is here attributed to them.” detain them until the conferences with 26. Amy C. Schutt, “Delawares in Eastern 18. A. Andrew Olson III, “The 1818 Saint all were finally concluded.” Ohio after the Treaty of Greenville: The Marys Treaties, Part 1: Tribal and Euro- 21. Lewis Cass to General [Duncan] Mc- Goshen Mission in Context,” in Con- American Historical Backdrop through Arthur, August 5, 1818, Records of the tested Territories: Native Americans and 1817,” The Hoosier Genealogist: Connec- Michigan Superintendency of Indian Non-Natives in the Lower Great Lakes,

33 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

1700–1850, edited by Charles Beatty– the bounds of the reserve but does not and the Christian Indians of New England, Medina and Melissa Rinehart (East Lan- indicate its size in acres or square miles. 318. sing, MI: Michigan State University Press, He concludes the reserve was 37 miles 34. Isaac McCoy, History of Baptist Indian 2012), 113; Bowes, Land Too Good For square or 875,000 acres. Leiter provides Missions: Embracing Remarks on the Indians, 31; John Sugden, “Black Hoof,” more detailed information, citing the gov- Former and Present Condition of the Ab- American National Biography Online (Ox- ernment surveyors’ notes, and concludes original Tribes, their Settlement within the ford University Press, April 2014), http:// the reserve was approximately 34.54 , and their Future Prospects www.anb.org/articles/20/20-01687 miles square or 760,000 acres. To under- (Washington, [DC]: William M. Mor- .html, accessed October 2018; Royce, stand how Leiter arrived at this number rison, 1840), 50–51, 75; Kappler, Indian Indian Land Cessions in the United States, of acres, consider the following: A section Affairs, vol. 2, 170–71. As will be outlined 164, 165, 690–91; Indian Treaties and of land is 1 square mile or 640 acres. A subsequently, “Pitcharker” was likely of Laws and Regulations Relating to Indian township is 6 miles square, which equals the Stockbridge Munsees. Under Article Affairs, 86, 500. 36 square miles or 36 sections, totaling 7 of the Treaty of Saint Marys signed 27. Bowes, Land Too Good For Indians, 13, 23,040 acres. If the Big Miami Reserve with the Delawares on October 3, 1818, 156–57, 178; R. David Edmunds, The was 34.54 miles square, that would equal “Elizabeth Petchaka” received a land Potawatomis: Keepers of the Fire (Nor- around 1,193 square miles, totaling just grant of one-half section. See Royce, man, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, over 763,527 acres. (For an explanation Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 1978), 218–20. Prior to this time, the of miles square versus square miles see 6 –7. Potawatomis simply “confirmed” or “ac- “Ask Doctor Math,” on The Math Forum: 35. Isaac Wobby to Thomas Dean, Octo- ceded” to the cessions of land made by People Learning Math Together, http:// ber 3, 1818, Dean Family Papers, 1788– other tribes. See also Royce, Indian Land mathforum.org/library/drmath/view ca. 1920. “I have lately heard from Jacob Cessions in the United States, 98, 692–93; /58423.html, accessed October 2018.) Dick & his family whom you left at Fort Indian Treaties and Laws and Regula- 29. Benjamin Parke, Thomas Posey, T. C. Harrison—they are well and doing well.” tions Relating to Indian Affairs, 274–76, Sharpe to Honorable Secretary of War, 36. Thomas Isaacs to Thomas Dean, July 495. Per this last source, an additional November 27, 1816, Benjamin Parke 7, 1819, Dean Family Papers, 1788–ca. 141,043 adjacent acres in Illinois were Papers, 1816–1818. 1920. also ceded. 30. Lewis Cass to Thomas L. McKenney, 37. Isaac Wobby to Thomas Dean, Octo- 28. Lewis Cass to John Johnston, July 8, 1818, September 30, 1818, Records of the ber 3, 1818, Dean Family Papers, 1788– Records of the Michigan Superintendency Michigan Superintendency of Indian ca. 1920. of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851; Melissa Rine- Affairs, 1814–1851. 38. Benjamin Parke to John C. Calhoun, De- hart, “Miami Resistance and Resilience 31. Indian Treaties and Laws and Regulations cember 7, 1818, Benjamin Parke Papers, during the Removal Era,” in Contested Relating to Indian Affairs, 506; C. A. 1816–1818. Territories: Native Americans and Non- Weslager, The Delaware Indian West- 39. Lewis Cass to Thomas L. McKenney, Sep- Natives in the Lower Great Lakes, 1700– ward Migration (Wallingford, PA: Middle tember 30, 1818, Records of the Michi- 1850, edited by Charles Beatty–Medina Atlantic Press, 1978), 73. gan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, and Melissa Rinehart (East Lansing, MI: 32. “Report of a Select Committee on the 1814–1851; George W. Knepper, The Michigan State University Press, 2012), Petition of Sundry Indians of the Stock- Official Ohio Lands Book (Columbus, OH: 137–38, 142–44; Stewart Rafert, The bridge Nation, Accompanied with a Bill Auditor of State, 2002), 8; Abel, History Miami Indians of Indiana: A Persistent Peo- Confirming their Title to Certain Lands” of Events Resulting in Indian Consolidation ple, 1654–1994 (Indianapolis: Indiana His- (Washington, DC: U.S. House of Repre- West of the Mississippi, 288–89. Ohio torical Society, 1996), 80–81; Carl Leiter, sentatives, February 24, 1820), available congressmen saw the advantage of con- “The Big Miami Reserve,” in Howard on Google Books; Love, Samson Occom necting the populations of Ohio to the County, Indiana, Memory Project (2009), and the Christian Indians of New England, Michigan Territory. The treaty commis- http://www.howardcountymemory.net 318; Oberly, Nation of Statesmen, 23. sioners were thus encouraged in 1817 /default.aspx?id=12840, accessed Oberly notes how few Stockbridges were to offer “a more liberal compensation” October 2018; C. Albert White, “A His- full members of the church. Of a total for relinquishment of land near Lake tory of the Rectangular Survey System” population of 300 at New Stockbridge, Erie. However, the U.S. Senate rejected (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of New York, in 1796, only 27 were full the 1817 treaty because fee simple title the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, church members. was offered to a majority of the Indians 1983), 74, https://www.blm.gov/sites 33. Morse, A Report to the Secretary of War, granted land. /blm.gov/files/histrect.pdf, accessed On Indian Affairs, Comprising a Narrative 40. Kappler, Indian Affairs, vol. 2, 162–63; October 2018. Rafert cites the Miamis’ of a Tour Performed in the Summer of Royce, Indian Land Cessions in the United Saint Marys treaty, article 2, that defines 1820, 114–15, 116; Love, Samson Occom States, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 150, 163, 164,

34 PART 3

165, 166, 167, 168, 182, 211, 212, 259, the Wilderness, states Mekinges was the several lots in Brothertown, New York, 684–89, 690–91. daughter of Chief William Anderson. they remained in Indiana and settled in 41. Kappler, Indian Affairs, vol. 2, 164; Royce, However, C. A. Weslager’s book, The the Fort Harrison (Terre Haute) area fol- Indian Land Cessions in the United States, Delaware Indians, A History (1972), gives lowing the Dean voyage. 95, 96, 260, 690–91; Lewis Cass to John new information regarding Mekinges’s On Solomon and Benoni Tindell: Johnston, April 12, 1819, Records of the parentage, which came from an elderly Thomas Isaacs to Thomas Dean, July 7, Michigan Superintendency of Indian Delaware woman in Oklahoma, Sara 1819, Dean Family Papers, 1788–ca. Affairs, 1814–1851. Kinney, who gave a 1925 affidavit re- 1920; Lahrman and Johnson, “Delaware 42. Kappler, Indian Affairs, vol. 2, 168–70; garding the genealogy of several Indian Indian’s Reservation,” 114; Abstract of Lewis Cass letter to General [Duncan] families. Weslager also cites the Morgan Title, Section 15, Township 20 North, McArthur, August 5, 1818, Records of Journals, 1859–1862 in which informa- Range 9 East, Record 3, page 132, the Michigan Superintendency of Indian tion was obtained from an elderly Dela- Surveyor’s Office, Delaware County, Affairs, 1814–1851. ware woman in . These sources Indiana. Isaacs characterized the Tindells 43. Royce, Indian Land Cessions in the United seem to suggest that Mekinges was as “BrotherTown people.” There is also a States, 98, 692–93; Indian Treaties, and either daughter or sister to a Delaware reference to Solomon Tindell’s departure Laws and Regulations Relating to Indian chief called Captain Ketchum. Thus, she for Green Bay, Wisconsin (where the Affairs, 495; Kappler, Indian Affairs, vol. 2, would have been of the Ketchum family Brothertowns and Stockbridges secured 168–69; Abel, History of Events Resulting line and may not have been in Ander- land in the 1820s). Solomon Tindell was in Indian Consolidation West of the Missis- son’s family. living in Wayne County, Indiana, by 1828 sippi, 291–93n. 51. Abel, History of Events Resulting in Indian and was noted as the heir of Benoni Tin- 44. Lewis Cass to Thomas L. McKenney, Consolidation West of the Mississippi, dell, deceased (Deed, Soloman Tindell September 30, 1818, Records of the 290–91. to Goldsmith Gilbert, October 31, 1828, Michigan Superintendency of Indian 52. John Johnston to Lewis Cass, De- Delaware County [Indiana] Deed Record Affairs, 1814–1851; Carl Leiter, “Indian cember 31, 1817, Records of the Michi- Book 1, pp. 64–65, Muncie/Delaware Treaty of 1826: Treaty Deliberations,” in gan Superintendency of Indian Affairs, County Digital Resource Library, Muncie Howard County, Indiana, Memory Proj- 1814–1851, microfilm file M1, roll 3. [Indiana] Public Library, https://www ect (2009); Kappler, Indian Affairs, vol. 2, 53. Kappler, Indian Affairs, vol. 2, 171; Abel, .munciepubliclibrary.org/muncie 169–70. A reservation and two restricted History of Events Resulting in Indian Con- delaware-county-digital-resource individual land grants were provided, solidation West of the Mississippi, 304 –7. -library). and a $1,850 permanent annual annuity 54. On Isaac Wobby: Caroline Andler (Broth- 55. Ron Ayer, “Brief History of the White was added to an already received $1,150 ertown historian) to author e-mails, No- River Delawares as It Relates to the annuity—totaling $3,000. vember 23, 2010, and January 27, 2011. Petchaka Case” (unpublished manu- 45. Benjamin Parke to John C. Calhoun, De- Isaac Wobby (1762–ca. 1819) was the script, [1976?]), [8], Local History Re- cember 7, 1818, Benjamin Parke Papers, son of Mary Wobby and Roger Wobby search Papers, MSS.000.2, Series 1: Local 1816–1818. (1734–ca. 1819; originally of the Pequot History Research Papers, 1936–2010, 46. Lewis Cass to Thomas L. McKenney, tribe and a Revolutionary War soldier). Native Americans #2, box 3, folder September 30, 1818, Records of the They were among the founders of Broth- 18, Archives and Special Collections, Michigan Superintendency of Indian ertown. Isaac married Jane Patchauker Alexander M. Bracken Library, Ball State Affairs, 1814–1851. (daughter of Thomas Patchauker). They University, Muncie, Indiana; McCoy, 47. Roger J. Ferguson, “The White River lived in Brothertown before moving to History of Baptist Indian Missions, 50–51. Indiana Delawares: An Ethnohistoric Fort Wayne, Indiana. Elizabeth Petchaka was the daughter of Synthesis, 1795–1867” (PhD diss., Ball On Jacob Dick: Dean, Journal of Thomas Jacob Skeggett, a former chief of the State University, 1972), 62, 74, 79, 90; Dean, 6; Isaac Wobby to Thomas Dean, New Jersey Delawares (Munsees) who Kappler, Indian Affairs, vol. 2, 170–71. October 3, 1818, Dean Family Papers, moved to New Stockbridge, New York, 48. Kappler, Indian Affairs, vol. 2, 170. 1788–ca. 1920. Jacob and Sarah Dick around 1810. Elizabeth’s brother, Isaac 49. Ferguson, “White River Indiana Dela- came with the Dean voyage to Indiana Skeggett, succeeded Jacob as chief. She wares,” 94–95; Indian Treaties, and Laws in 1817. In his introduction, John Candee was living among the White River Dela- and Regulations Relating to Indian Affairs, Dean, editor of Thomas Dean’s journal, wares in December 1818 when McCoy 6, 495, 506. characterized Jacob as among the “chiefs stayed overnight at her home. 50. Weslager, Delaware Indian Westward and leading men of the Brothertown 56. John Johnston to Henry Howe, March 20, Migration, 73–75. Charles N. Thompson, tribes.” Even though the Dick family held 1847, John Johnston Papers (transcribed), in his well-regarded 1937 book, Sons of

35 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

microfilm reel 2, Cincinnati Histori- script, 1985), SC 2250, Indiana Historical 2001), 134–37. Richter outlines the nine cal Society Library. The profile of Isaac Society; Indian Treaties, and Laws and steps of treaty protocol in place during Wobby appears to be part of a series Regulations Relating to Indian Affairs, the nineteenth century in the Great produced by Johnston and forwarded to 502. Lakes region. Howe, who was compiling material for 63. Benjamin Parke to John C. Calhoun, De- 66. Indian Treaties and Laws and Regula- his seminal publication, Historical Collec- cember 7, 1818, Benjamin Parke Papers, tions Relating to Indian Affairs, 494–95; tions of Ohio in Two Volumes (1888). The 1816–1818. A land “patent” is the term George W. Knepper, Official Ohio Lands Wobby profile was not included in the used to describe the first fee simple Book, 8. See also Olson, “1818 Saint published work. title conveyance from the U.S. govern- Marys Treaties, Part 1: Tribal and Euro- 57. Isaac Wobby to Thomas Dean, Octo- ment to a private individual or company. American Historical Backdrop through ber 3, 1818, Dean Family Papers, 1788– Land owned in fee simple means the 1817,” 14, 21n9. ca. 1920. owner has the right to mortgage, rent, 58. Ibid. or sell the property. Parke objected to 59. Indian Treaties and Laws and Regulations the fact that Chief Richardville received Relating to Indian Affairs, 7; John John- land patents, which automatically ston to Henry Howe, March 20, 1847, gave him rights in “fee simple.” Other John Johnston Papers (transcribed). Native Americans received land grants Johnston notes, in his profile of Isaac or reserves in the Saint Marys trea- Wobby, “In the Treaty of Saint Marys, ties. If allowed to “complete” a grant, Ohio, in 1818, I had a half section of an individual would eventually own it 320 acres assigned to him.” Also Isaac in fee simple. But, this did not always Wobby to Thomas Dean, October 3, happen. Many times treaties stipulated 1818; and Thomas Isaacs to Thomas land grants were not in fee simple. Dean, July 7, 1819, Dean Family Papers, Other times, Native Americans were 1788–ca. 1920. prevented from obtaining fee simple title 60. “Report of a Select Committee on the to land when they tried to work through Petition of Sundry Indians of the Stock- the government land system. Reserves bridge Nation, Accompanied with a Bill could never be in fee simple. The Native Confirming their Title to Certain Lands” Americans did not own the land in re- (February 24, 1820); Oberly, Nation of serves; they merely had the right to live Statesmen, 27. on it. 61. “Report of a Select Committee on the 64. Jonathan Jennings to John C. Calhoun, Petition of Sundry Indians of the Stock- October 28, 1818, Jonathan Jennings bridge Nation, Accompanied with a Bill Collection, L79, box 1, folder 3, Manu- Confirming their Title to Certain Lands” scripts and Special Collections, Indiana (February 24, 1820). State Library, Indianapolis. 62. Kappler, Indian Affairs, vol. 2, 171–74; 65. Daniel K. Richter, Facing East from Indian Andrew R. L. Cayton, Frontier Indiana Country: A Native History of Early America (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Press, 1996), 263; Kevin Mahern, “Indian Land Cessions and Official United States Surveys in Indiana” (unpublished manu-

36 Part 4: In the Aftermath of the Treaties Removal and Settlement

Coming Full Circle on the Kilgore widow, and as such entitled to no other join his tribal brethren.8 The government Pact Legend interest in the tract than her dower.”4 issued first title to these parcels (called Research into the Kilgore family’s Out of the legal fog arising from the “patents”) by early 1824, although pact legend leads to only one conclu- Wobby situation, one Goldsmith Gilbert Thomas Dick’s was delayed pending sion. Direct evidence that my great- claimed clear title when he sold the land proof of his legal status as heir.9 great- great grandfather, David Kilgore in October 1829—although he never Stockbridge/Munsee Elizabeth (1804–1879), pledged to leave a burial received a deed from the Wobby heirs.5 Petchaka’s attempt to gain title to her ground undisturbed on land he was ac- It was 1900 before clear title to the granted lands was fraught with ob- quiring is still lacking. But circumstantial parcel was finally adjudicated.6 stacles. Isaac Wobby’s heirs were first evidence points in only one direction— Goldsmith Gilbert, shrewd trader and to claim the parcel she was seeking, as the conclusion of this story will show. shopkeeper along the Mississinewa River the government refusing to “enter” her Converting treaty land grants into in Delaware County, fell victim to his claim in the original entry books.10 By tangible property rights is not easily own trading practices in the mid-1820s. 1830 Petchaka was residing in Kaskaskia, accomplished, as the six grantees under Several Indians “who had been excited Illinois. She sought President Andrew the Delawares’ October 3, 1818, Saint to riotous conduct by the Gilbert brand Jackson’s permission to sell her granted Marys treaty soon found. It seems, too, of whiskey” burned down his store. In land. He refused until the land was that it could be deadly. Process-wise, compensation, a portion of tribal annui- located, a deed issued, and she was granted land is first generally situated, ties was reportedly diverted to Gilbert. endorsed by an Indian agent as able to based on treaty language. Then, follow- He funneled these funds into acquir- care for the land.11 Frustrated, on Octo- ing an application for title, a survey is ing— often deceptively—all Indian treaty ber 13, 1831, Petchaka sold her interest made. Treaty verbiage positioned the six lands in Delaware County. This included in the parcel to Jean Baptiste Vallé, a grants “at the first creek above the old parcels granted to the Brothertowns at successful late-eighteenth/early-nine- fort on White River, and running up the Saint Marys. He also took title to a tract teenth- century trader in the Missouri river.”1 Although the “old fort” was never (in today’s Muncie ) granted to Rebecca Territory.12 She had few options. The specifically located, it was assumed the Hackley under the Miamis’ 1818 treaty— Indiana White River parcel was never waterway was Buck Creek in the center although legal action regarding the deal legally located. of today’s Yorktown. continued for years. Thus Gilbert has Like Isaac Wobby, grantee Samuel Grantee Isaac Wobby, Brothertown been dubbed the “founder” of Muncie.7 Cassman made application to perfect his elder and on-the-ground advocate for Another grantee and Brothertown title in 1820. A “patent” was issued on the Stockbridges and Brothertowns at Peacemaker, Jacob Dick, was dead September 10, 1823. It was for a prime both the 1817 and 1818 treaties, was by 1819, shortly after the treaty was parcel, at the confluence of Buck Creek dead by the early 1820s.2 He made concluded. His son Thomas, then living and White River. He cleared the land and application for a deed, which was in Brothertown, New York, sold the began farming by 1824 or 1825—the “entered” into the government’s original granted parcel to Goldsmith Gilbert only one of the grantees to actually live entry book, in favor of Wobby’s heirs, on May 1, 1828. Likewise, Brothertown on granted land. Like the other grantees, on December 17, 1820.3 However, his grantee Benoni Tindell had passed away Cassman sold his parcel to Goldsmith widow Jane’s attempt to perfect the title in the 1820s. His heir and fellow grantee, Gilbert on August 6, 1830, for $500. came to naught. In 1825 former Saint Solomon Tindell, then living in Wayne But Cassman’s heirs objected based on Marys treaty commissioner Lewis Cass County, Indiana, sold both parcels to Gil- the low valuation, and the president’s opined: “She [Jane Wobby] is not shewn bert on October 31, 1828. Solomon then endorsement was missing.13 by the papers to be the heir, but only the migrated to Green Bay, Wisconsin, to

37 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

Could he have later served in a similar role for the nearby Brothertowns and Stockbridges, and pledged to protect the burial ground they were vacating when migrating to Wisconsin in 1822?17 Did Cassman ask Kilgore to honor his pledge of protecting the burial ground on the bluff Kilgore was acquiring? The most detailed description of the Kilgore pact legend, conveyed by my great-grand-uncle in a 1926 interview, is striking in its correlation to the known “York” Indians’ saga. Here I will leave it, as transcribed by Josiah V. Thompson from his interview with Obed Kilgore, for the next generation to resolve: “There was an Indian graveyard on his gf’s [grandfather’s/David Kilgore’s] farm of the York tribe & Yorktown was named for them. They continued to bury there after the Judge [David Kilgore] owned the farm. He would never let anyone dig in the graves.”18

Short Tenure of the Brothertowns USGS 7.5 West Muncie and Gilman, Indiana, quadrangles map annotated to show location and Stockbridges in Indiana of patented grantee land parcels for the “Delawares” (Brothertowns and Stockbridges) per Three weeks after the Brothertown the 1818 Saint Marys treaties (Beth McCord, “The Ghosts of the Delaware: An Archaeologi- and Stockbridge contingent began their cal Study of Delaware Settlement along White River, Indiana: Report of Investigation 62” migration from New York to Indiana in [Archaeological Resources Management Service, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, May August 1818, they heard “of the danger 2002], 27) they were in of losing their lands” and sent two runners ahead.19 The scouts Years of legal petitions resulted in an As to the Kilgore pact legend, this reported the Delawares had signed a 1836 mediated settlement, when Gilbert much can be said: David Kilgore and treaty at Saint Marys conveying all of paid an additional $1,200 to finalize the Samuel Cassman lived in the same town their Indiana land. Stunned, the delega- legal transfer. Within months politician, at the same time and were involved in tion stopped for the winter at a Shawnee lawyer, and land speculator Oliver H. the same legal proceedings. While Cass- reservation in Ohio and contemplated Smith, who had drawn up the agreement man’s land valuation issue was being their fate. Subsequently, depleted of on Cassman’s behalf, acquired the land resolved, David Kilgore took possession funds, many in their party continued on from Gilbert for $1,500. David Kilgore and then ownership of the parcel that to White River. An 1819 report docu- acted as Gilbert’s attorney. Smith then included the bluff and burial ground two ments the Stockbridges living at Piqua, platted “Yorktown” and named it in miles away.15 Ohio, and then later at Shawneetown, honor of those clustered around the Although Cassman’s heritage Ohio.20 new town who had migrated from “New remains a mystery, he did not migrate Sometime soon after December 15, York” in 1818. It is probable that local with the Delawares, Brothertowns, or 1818, the Stockbridges sent a delegation settlers referred, collectively, to the Indi- Stockbridges. Might he have been an to Washington, DC, to “lay their griev- ans who had migrated from New York as unlicensed métis trader, serving as a ances before the General Government,” the “York” Indians, not knowing of their friendly intermediary between the Dela- but decided to wait for a better time as true heritage as the Brothertowns and wares at Hockingpomska’s Town and the many Congressional members were Stockbridges.14 U.S.-licensed traders they detested?16

38 PART 4

apparently unavailable. The next summer and some Stockbridges remained along about consolidating Indians west of the the delegation returned with Sachem White River (likely in the Yorktown Mississippi River. An unauthorized 1820 Hendrick Aupaumut at their head. This vicinity) from 1818 to 1822.23 treaty for land along Wis- time, they had additional evidence of Meanwhile, Aupaumut, Sergeant, consin’s Fox River, negotiated by Indian their title to the White River land: the Morse, and Thomas Dean (the Brother- Agent Colonel John Bowyer, was never 1808 Miami Declaration witnessed by towns’ Quaker agent) continued their sent to the Senate due to pressure from President Thomas Jefferson. By this work with the government to secure Jedidiah Morse, Lewis Cass, and Eleazer document the Miamis granted to the land from the and Winne- Williams. A subsequent 1821 delegation Delawares, Mohicans (Stockbridges), bagos/ Ho-Chunks in Wisconsin. Under of fourteen Iroquois including Oneidas, and Munsees (the Stockbridges’ former government influence, the tribes signed Saint Regises, Stockbridges, Onondagas, Brothertown Reservation members) an intertribal agreement in August 1821 Senecas, and Tuscaroras was joined by a certain portion of their lands on the to sell nearly 500,000 acres to the Charles C. Trowbridge, Cass’s represen- White River. 21 Stockbridges for $2,000, primarily paid tative, in traveling to Wisconsin. The Stockbridge missionary John Ser- in goods.24 The convoluted story of how formal intertribal agreement required geant also asked for Jedidiah Morse’s this came about is set forth in a prize- the Menominees and Winnebagos to assistance. Morse, an ordained minister winning work by Annie Heloise Abel “Cede, Release, and Quit Claim” the then under commission of the Secretary lands “forever” to the New York Indians. of War to survey the Indians’ condi- A year later another agreement tion, knew the Stockbridges. He had added five million acres for $3,000, visited them as early as 1796 and now again paid in goods.25 President James envisioned them as part of his model Monroe approved the 1821 arrange- communities concept. The idea was ment but did not send it to the Senate fully developed following his visit to the because it was an intertribal agreement. Midwest in 1820: to establish Indian Several of the New York Iroquois groups communities of “education families” and remained unhappy with the agreement, even an Indian state comprised of to- feeling the amount of land purchased day’s Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula was inadequate. This led to a third of Michigan.22 expedition to Wisconsin in 1822, with Sergeant implored Morse, “Use the delegation expanded to include the all your influence in such ways as Munsees and Brothertowns. The inter- you judge most wise to support their tribal agreement signed in September [Stockbridges’] cause.” These combined suggested the Menominees would share efforts prompted a favorable report from their lands in common with the New a select committee of the U.S. House York tribes, but French and other trading of Representatives, dated February 20, interests around Green Bay opposed the 1820: “It being evident . . . that their Portrait of Jedidiah Morse (1761–1826) coming of these tribal groups and sought [Stockbridges’] title to some portion of by Samuel Finley Breese Morse, ca. 1820. to impeach its validity. Then in 1823 the the lands ceded by the Delawares is well Jedidiah was a prominent New England Con- Stockbridges signed a separate arrange- founded, the committee report a bill gregational minister and scholar and author ment with the Brothertowns, making for the confirmation of their claim, and of books on geography and indigenous them a “‘component part’” of the 1821 providing for its amicable and equitable people. He was interested in civilizing and and 1822 treaties/agreements.26 Christianizing the Indians and was appointed adjustment.” The result was a $3,000 in 1820 by the Secretary of War to visit and Problems surrounding interpretation settlement made in 1821, with an addi- observe various tribes on the frontier to of the 1822 agreement soon arose over tional $5,000 in cash, and $20,000 in suggest suitable means for their improve- whether the Menominees “co-owned” ten annual installments to relinquish ment. (Image courtesy of Yale University Art the land with the New York Indians, all claims associated with the White Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. Informa- or merely consented to allow them to River lands—in a treaty memorializing tion from Report to the Secretary of War on move to their lands.27 Another govern- Indian Affairs [New Haven, 1822]) the agreement twenty-seven years ment- directed treaty in 1831, modified later. Nonetheless, the Brothertowns by the U.S. Senate a year later, set the

39 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

framework for a long-term solution. In way to secure their future. Instead, he The crowning Potawatomi removal a highly unusual move, the Senate set later felt compelled to sell the students’ effort was the 1833 , off a retrocession of three townships reserves to raise operating funds for the involving nearly five million acres of land from the public domain, providing two financially strapped missions.33 south of . Implementation to the Stockbridges and one to the of its terms was slow in coming. In spite Brothertowns.28 The Potawatomis’ Piece-By-Piece of Missouri’s objection to locating the Isaac McCoy, Baptist missionary and Removal Potawatomis in the Platte River area mission school instructor at Fort Wayne, When the Potawatomis (Neshna- of the state’s northwest quadrant, Indiana, counted eight Stockbridges beks) yielded nearly 900,000 acres removals began in 1834 and extended among his forty-eight students. He had under terms of their Saint Marys treaty, through 1836. As many as 1,500 people asked the Stockbridges living at White it was the fourth time they had given up were repositioned. They were shifted River to move close to his mission in Sep- a portion of their original homeland. It again to Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1837, tember 1821 so they could be the start of would not be the last. In the quarter cen- and finally landed on the Osage River in a settlement of so-called “civilized” Indi- tury following the War of 1812, twenty- Kansas after yet another displacement.36 ans.29 By 1822 McCoy’s mission eight such agreements were concluded In the meantime, removal agent school may have included seven Brother- with a diversity of Potawatomi bands Abel Pepper was rounding up remnant towns as well.30 They remained under (the Prairie, Lake, and Wood groups) Potawatomis in northern Indiana. In McCoy’s tutelage well after Stockbridge and a tacit association of three regional the subsequent forced march of 1838, Chief John Metoxen’s White River con- groups, the Three Fires: the / known as the Trail of Death, forty-three tingent passed through Fort Wayne the Chippewas, , and Potawatomis. individuals perished, including twenty- same year on their way to “Green Bay wkama (leader) Metea balked eight children. Still more would be Country” in Wisconsin.31 during Chicago treaty negotiations in The mission school at Fort Wayne 1821 when he was “taken aback by the closed in 1822 when nominal govern- size of the proposed cession.” Over the ment and Baptist support for two new next two weeks, lured by substantial missions was provided for the Carey annuities and individual bribes, commis- Mission, near today’s Niles, Michigan, sioner Lewis Cass convinced the Three and the Thomas Mission on Grand Fires’ leadership—except Chief Metea— River. McCoy ran the to capitulate. Lands in southwestern and though now focused on the Pota- Michigan and a strip of land extending watomis, all Brothertown/Stockbridge from South Bend, Indiana, to the Ohio 34 children were still with him.32 line shifted to the United States. The 1826 Paradise Springs (Wabash, In 1826 further Potawatomi Indiana) treaty with the Potawatomis homeland was lopped off in Indiana, granted each of McCoy’s fifty-eight mis- north of the Wabash from the sion school students a quarter section of Tippecanoe River to the Ohio line, as land. Among the grantees were all the well as additional land in northwest Brothertowns and Stockbridges he had Indiana. More and more homeland fell Baptist minister Isaac McCoy (1784–1846) mentioned in a September 1822 letter under the treaty pen in 1827 and 1828, as much of their ground in northeast married at nineteen and moved to the Indi- to Thomas Dean, including Susanna, ana Territory. There he preached to settlers, Indiana and southeast Michigan now Harriet, Angelina, and Jemima Isaacs French traders, and Indians, witnessing (daughters of Thomas Isaacs), Betsey came under government control. Leading the degradation and suffering of tribes at Plummer (Thomas Isaacs’s stepdaugh- the negotiations was métis Chief Leopold the hands of whites. He felt removal of the ter), Charles Dick (son or stepson of Pokagon of the Potawatomis’ Wood/ tribes west, beyond the Mississippi River, was the only way to ensure their longterm sur- Jacob Dick), and Jacob Konkapot. McCoy Saint Joseph Band. Nineteen individual reserves set aside by these treaties later vival. He lobbied Congress in this regard and intended to use proceeds from the even- surveyed future Indian lands in what would became the basis for his push to remain tual sale of the granted parcels to fund become Kansas. (Isaac B. McCoy, DaRT ID: removal of the students west, as by now in the Midwest; he did not see removal 497, Kansas State Historical Society) 35 he was convinced this would be the only as beneficial or inevitable.

40 Map of Missouri by Anthony Finley, indicating locations of indigenous tribal groups circa 1825 (David Rumsey Map Collection, www.davidrumsey.com)

16 THG: CONNECTIONS 41 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

corralled and sent west from South Bend in against removal, as did the other sub- panded their domesticated farming and 1840 under an armed escort.37 chiefs. But with his death, implementa- millworks, pushing back against removal. Chief Pokagon did not bow to tion of treaty removal provisions began Multiple efforts to effect further Wyan- government pressure. Although some in 1831. The Shawnees would have two dot removal during the 1830s failed.43 3,000 Potawatomis headed to Canada years to quit Ohio for Kansas.40 Finally, the government turned to its to avoid removal, Pokagon’s strategy Meanwhile, two months after the most trusted former U.S. Indian agent: epitomized “adaptive resistance.” He jet- Ohio Delawares, the Senecas made John Johnston. Although an 1829 shift tisoned Baptist missionary Isaac McCoy known their intentions to leave Ohio in in national politics prompted Johnston’s when McCoy began to endorse removal, the fall of 1829. They sought to join the removal from his post after nearly three favoring the services of a Catholic priest Cherokees west of the Mississippi. Their decades of service, he remained influ- instead. He argued a move was not removal was delayed, however, awaiting ential among the tribal groups near his possible “on account of their religious the Cherokees’ permission. With many Piqua, Ohio, home until the early 1840s. creed.” Pokagon used treaty monies relatives among the Senecas, Shawnees, In late November 1841 Johnston gath- to personally purchase what eventu- and Wyandots, the Delawares happily ered Wyandot chiefs together, seeking a ally totaled 1,200 to 1,300 acres and hesitated.41 treaty conference. Finally, on March 17, then leveraged on judicial interpretation Finally, in November 1831, the Sene- 1842, principal Chief Francis Hicks regarding his ownership status to avoid cas and Delawares (led by Captain Pipe and six other leaders signed over their removal.38 Pokagon’s band, even today, [Tahungeecoppi]) began their reluctant remains on a portion of its homeland trek—requesting a slower overland and is a federally recognized tribe. instead of water route to say goodbye to relatives in Indiana and Illinois along the The Varying Fate of Tribal Groups way. Of 340 individuals, only 108 opted in Ohio to travel by water. The larger group win- Following the Saint Marys trea- tered in Munseytown (Muncie) and other ties, a sizable and independent group settlements on the White River among of Delawares remained on reserves in friends. It would be an arduous and tor- the Sandusky area as well as near John tuous journey. A small band of twenty Johnston’s agency in upper Piqua, Ohio. Delawares remained behind in Ohio with By the late 1820s, however, the surge of their Wyandot kin. They would not mi- white settlement had become intoler- grate west until the Wyandots did so.42 able. Thus, the prospect of joining Chief The Wyandots, hearing of the Sen- William Anderson’s large contingent, ecas’ punishing removal, balked at the then shifting from Missouri to Kansas, prospect of making the same mistake. A seemed the best option. The Ohio Chief (ca. 1775–1841). delegation headed by métis William Pokagon emerged as leader of the Wood/ Delawares signed a treaty to that effect Walker Jr. returned from Missouri, Saint Joseph Band of the Potawatomis in in August 1829. However, they stopped concluding that overlapping claims of 1825. In July 1830 he traveled to Detroit to among the Shawnees in Wapakoneta, the Sauks and Mesquakies would spell seek affiliation with the Catholic Church as 39 Ohio, as they proceeded west. trouble. U.S. agents were forced to an important political alliance to avoid re- moval. A month later a Catholic mission was Following the 1817 Fort Meigs treaty modify their strategy. They now deployed as recast at Saint Marys, Chief Black established to serve what became known as a “divide-and-conquer” approach focused the Pokagon Band of Potawatomis. To that Hoof’s (Catecahassa’s) Shawnees were on the non-Christian factions in village end, he negotiated an amendment to the confined to three small reservations in reserves, where they met with some lim- 1833 Treaty of Chicago, allowing his band to western Ohio, centered on Wapakoneta. ited success. The Big Springs Band ceded remain on its land in Michigan. Then, in 1841 His continued receptiveness to Quaker its 16,000-acre reserve in 1832. But in- he proactively sought judicial assistance in halting U.S. military attempts to remove his schooling and domestication efforts, stead of moving west, a portion moved to while important for the tribe’s health band from its sanctioned land. Today, the Canada while others shifted to Sandusky, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians has and economic stability, did not change Ohio. Meanwhile, the Christians, headed more than 4,300 citizens. (Item 00004288, the government’s attitude regarding re- by Walker (after 1836) and guided by Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, moval. Black Hoof remained adamantly Methodist missionary James B. Finley, ex- Indiana)

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remaining 114,000 acres in Ohio and competing parties against one another. Michigan. Together with the Huron River Merchants and traders, who profited Band of Michigan, they agreed to settle handsomely from the Miamis’ annuity on 148,000 acres west of the Mississippi and treaty-driven purchases, were set between the Kansas and Missouri Rivers off against the state of Indiana and the along the Missouri border, although U.S. government, which wanted the land neither the Wyandots nor the federal for settlement and speculation.48 In the government knew exactly where the treaty of 1826 alone, 106 individual land land was located. Their journey began on grants were set aside.49 July 11, 1843.44 Between 1829 and 1831, the state of Indiana petitioned Congress six times to The Miamis’ Removal Legacy extinguish the Potawatomis’ and Miamis’ “Father, I have told you . . . that your land titles in Indiana. Still, Richardville red children would not go to the Missis- persisted. In 1834 he took fee simple sippi country—they wish to stay on their title to 14,720 acres—land with no title ancient lands.” This was a theme that restrictions. And again in 1838, thirty- Portrait of (1788–1840) by James Otto Lewis in The Aboriginal Port echoed through Miami Chief Jean Bap- four individual grants were made, many tiste Richardville’s (Pinšiwa’s) rhetoric for Folio (1836). Godfroy was born in Canada, to the Richardville and Godfroy families. the son of a French trader and a Miami decades in the early nineteenth century. Among other compensation, Richardville woman. He was among the Miami leaders It was backed by his consolidating tribal and Francis Godfroy received $6,800 in the Battle of Mississinewa (near today’s group’s support, métis family pedigree, and $2,612, respectively, for claims Marion, Indiana) during the War of 1812. amassed wealth, and personal regard against the tribe related to their roles After that war Godfroy focused on trade in partnership with Miami Chief Jean Baptiste from the U.S. government. For years, as commercial traders. More generally, Richardville. Together they were influen- Richardville resisted “any specific men- tribal debt had become a significant issue 45 tial in brokering the sale of tribal lands at tion of removal” in treaty language. as more than half of monies awarded for treaties in 1826, 1834, and 1838 in which But, it would come anyway. ceded land ($150,000) in 1838 was set the Miamis gained large payments for ceded While the Miamis and Delawares aside for this reason.50 land while their removal was postponed. yielded most of central Indiana under Finally, in November 1840, the Today, the still resides in Indiana, a testament to the trading Saint Marys’ treaty terms, the Miamis Miamis’ twelfth and final treaty since retained their principal winter hunt- skills of Godfroy and Richardville. (Infor- 1795 was concluded. All remaining lands mation from Elizabeth Glenn and Stewart ing ground. This reserve, centered in Indiana were ceded in exchange for Rafert, The Native Americans [Indiana around Kokomo, totaled 34.54 miles 500,000 acres in Kansas Territory and Historical Society Press, 2009], 53) square—763,527 acres.46 While the $550,000 to the tribe, with removal to other treaty grants were fragmented into occur within five years.51 Of the total sum were of mixed ancestry, Christians, and six villages and twenty-four individual specified in the treaty, $300,000 was businessmen. Ultimately, ’s reserves, private set-asides were awarded withheld to pay for outstanding debts entire village was also exempted.52 By to Miami leaders and individuals with along with expenses incurred during the year-end 1840, exemptions had been close ties to the tribe. Such provisions treaty itself. That left the Miamis with only secured for 161 individuals. Ultimately, were made to more “civilized” Indians $250,000 to be paid over twenty years 345 succeeded in avoiding removal. The ostensibly to promote private ownership ($12,500 per year). In addition, Richardville outcome foreshadowed the cultural but were actually rewards for those who was to receive $25,000 and additional divide of the Miami tribal group.53 Many 47 had helped bring the treaties to fruition. acreage for him and his extended family. were pushed west to tribal lands while Richardville, who guided the Miamis Sizable cash inducements were provided some remained in Indiana as individual until his death in 1841, was “described for several Miami individuals as well. landowners. by a contemporary as ‘he of whom no Richardville was granted 4,480 acres Fittingly, Richardville never left one ever got the better in a trade.’” and his son-in-law Francis Lafontaine Indiana. He died at home, on the Saint Over the course of more than twenty 640 acres. The Richardville, Godfroy, and Marys River, on August 13, 1841. In a years, he astutely expanded individual Metocina families were also exempted tribute to his determined attitude, the grants and tribal coffers as he played from removal. Many others exempted Miamis who left their homeland did not

43 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

do so for another five years—in October Reluctantly, Anderson now turned to the move by fall 1820, and the balance 1846. Today more than 3,000 Miamis securing sure title to specific treaty land to remove in 1821, he lamented: “I was live in their home state. While about a that had only been generally described not able for the want of funds, to send quarter of these are from the federally as “on the west side of the Mississippi.” them off as I could wish or indeed as recognized Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, In late 1818 he told McCoy: “I have they had a right to expect from my most are from the Miami Nation of written to the great council of the promises made pending the Treaty. I did Indiana. Although the latter tribe is no Seventeen fires [Congress] to send me a the best I could with them.”61 longer federally recognized, its tribal paper that will give us a sure title to the The government’s knowledge of the council in Peru, Indiana, serves as the land to which we are going, so that the territory beyond the Mississippi was lack- governing body for all its members.54 white people may no more disturb us.”58 ing, and officials were worried about what By midyear 1819 John Calhoun, might happen when eastern Indians were The Delawares—at the Vanguard Secretary of War, was questioning the moved onto the lands already inhabited of Indian Removals governors of the Missouri and Arkansas by western tribes. The government’s Before 1818 was over Chief Ander- Territories about where to locate the fears turned out to be warranted as the son’s shifting attitude about the Saint tribal group. He then approached An- Delawares encountered many conflicts Marys treaty was clear. He told Isaac derson about a plan to locate them on a with the Pawnee and Osage tribes in the McCoy: “I think that the men who made “tract of country to join [the] tract given Missouri Territory—not to mention with the bargain with us have done wrong to the Delawares and Shawanese that the new state of Missouri.62 . . . and I hope the transaction will not formerly resided on Mississippi.” John be approved by Congress.” McCoy also Johnston further clarified: “It is probable The Flow of Settlers into the Void found many other Delawares “still hoped the upper waters of White River [Mis- The quiet central Indiana forests left that they would not be compelled to souri Territory] would be preferred as behind by those who had called this leave it [White River country].” None- they do not wish to be again interrupted area home did not remain tranquil for theless, when McCoy visited again in by the white settlements.”59 Delaware long. As methodically as they had con- June 1819 Anderson was resigned to scouts sent to assess the Missouri cluded treaty after treaty during the first 55 removal. land apparently returned with positive decades of the nineteenth century, the Hendrick Aupaumut also received the reports, as characterized by Johnston. U.S. government quickly dispatched ten same impression, as John Sergeant (mis- Upon the tribe’s arrival, however, they surveyor teams over the vast lands of its sionary and agent for the Stockbridges) discovered the reports were mislead- new bounty. Armed with rod and chain, related to Jedidiah Morse in fall 1819: “He ing. Anderson was disappointed with a surveyor’s compass, and a notebook, tells me all the Munsees on White River the ruggedness and unsuitableness of each team collected data in conformity and about five hundred in other parts are the land especially in contrast with the with the rectangular public land survey very anxious to have the country at least fertile Indiana land they had given up.60 system adopted as part of the North- in part returned.”56 It was not to be. While the exact location had yet west Ordinance of 1787. The extensive Lewis Cass brushed aside a rumored to be resolved, Anderson was feeling survey would take around fifteen years Delaware petition to the federal govern- compelled to move by the onslaught of to complete.63 ment for return of their land. His letter to white settlement: “We do not think we Soon a patchwork quilt of surveyed the Secretary of War was clear: “I know can reside here long for the whites is townships, each including thirty-six no circumstances in their situation pres- rushing in here so fast difficulties will I 640-acre square sections of surveyed ent on [or] prospective which can require am afraid take place.” At the same time, land, could be laid over a map of Indiana. a journey to Washington, or which render Johnston was having difficulty securing Initially, whole sections, and then partial it necessary, that they should trouble you the necessary government funds to sections, were offered for sale to pio- 57 with their personal applications.” properly prepare the Delawares for their neers hungry for land. At Indiana land move. With 800 Delawares already on office towns, such as Brookville and Terre Haute, parcels from what became known “I think that the men who made the bargain as the “New Purchase” of Indiana were regularly auctioned off. Arrangements with us have done wrong.” were also made at land offices for the government to issue to settlers the first

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Left to right: Michael Pace, great-great-great- grandson of Chief William Anderson (Kikthawe- nund) and artist-in-residence at Conner Prairie Outdoor History Park, Fishers, Indiana, is pictured at Conner Prairie in 2015 with Delawares () Annette Ketchum and her husband Dee Ketchum of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Annette also descends from Chief Anderson’s family line. Dee is a former tribal chief and a descendant of “Captain Ketchum,” an early nineteenth-century subchief, who may have been the father of Mekinges, the Delaware wife of William Conner. Conner owned a trading post and built his home where Conner Prairie now sits. Many Delaware tribal members return annually to Anderson, Indiana, twenty-five miles northeast of Conner Prairie, for the Andersontown Powwow to recall their ancestors’ connection to this land along White River during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. During the powwows, tribal members showcase Native American culture and tradition through dance, music, storytelling, and crafts. (Photo courtesy of James W. Brown, professor emeritus of journalism, Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis, © 2015 James W. Brown)

title to tracts sold—known as “patents.” relinquishment of every thing which posed to the indigenous people, Many settlers became landowners for the gives rest to savage life, we must in particular, difficult and emotional first time, ushering in a period of growth expect that this demand will be dilemmas. For Americans, the issues and prosperity never before imagined.64 received with regret and obeyed were couched in terms of providing with reluctance. In fact the whole land for their surging population while Treaties and Their Impact of the Wyandots and those of the satisfying themselves that fairness The land the settlers soon cleared Shawnese & Senecas in this quarter had been achieved by dealing with took on a completely different hue. have made the last struggle to pre- indigenous nations as sovereign entities It was as if the last vestiges of the serve the inheritance of manners or on an equal footing. “Equal footing” is indigenous cultures resident among the of land transmitted to them by their not an accurate characterization of the woods and along the rivers for millennia ancestors.65 relationship dynamics. Dominating the were being swept away with each felled But it was the sentiment of Benjamin indigenous population by sheer numbers tree. Even the often hypocritical U.S. Parke, commissioner at the Saint Marys and military might, and with little government officials responsible for im- treaties, that captured the deeply seeded institutional regard for their cultures plementing the American exceptional- impact of such removals on the psyche and attitudes, the United States was not ism treaty policy, could not help but be of those dealing firsthand with these inclined toward balanced negotiations. affected by what they saw before them. victimized peoples: “The subject of The drive for western expansion swept After the Fort Meigs Treaty of 1817, lead civilizing the Indians is a pretty theme over these issues. commissioner Lewis Cass observed: for the speculative philanthropists; but The 1818 Saint Marys treaties Changes in the manner and customs sounder conclusions may be drawn from exemplified the nature of this evolving of nations are generally slow and a little personal observation, than the relationship and spelled out the impact gradual and it is only some violent theory of closet declaimers.”66 of the relationship on the lives of all convulsion moral or physical which Treaties defined and laid bare the involved. The overwhelming presence renders these changes rapid and relationship between the United States of Euro-Americans in today’s Midwest perceptible. When therefore we and indigenous groups of that era. It leaves it for us to reconstruct the mindset demand of the Indians an absolute and dynamics of a time, place, and

45 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

culture we no longer can see around us. The year 2018 marked the two Kilgore’s land, and elsewhere in the states But the Delawares still remember. Each hundredth year since the Saint Marys of the Old Northwest whose spirits still year they gather along White River for treaties were concluded, providing an live in the woodlands and rushing rivers all the Andersontown [Indiana] Powwow to opportunity to recognize and acknowledge around us. reconfirm their connection to this land indigenous people who still reside on and the way of life their ancestors once their homelands in today’s Midwest and Notes knew. And they are not alone among the those living throughout the country. May 1. Charles J. Kappler, ed., Indian Affairs: indigenous peoples who, while no longer we also pause to consider native people Laws and Treaties, vol. 2, Treaties (Wash- living in the Midwest, are at home here. buried along the removal trails, on David ington: Government Printing Office, 1903), 171; Logan Esarey, A History of Indiana from Its Exploration to 1850 (In- dianapolis: W. K. Stewart Co., 1915), 190. Esarey notes during the War of 1812, “A row of blockhouses, or forts as they were called by the settlers, was con- structed from Vincennes to Greenville.” It seems probable there may have been such a defensive structure near Buck Creek. 2. John Johnston to Henry Howe, March 20, 1847, John Johnston Papers, microfilm reel 2 (transcribed), Cincinnati Historical Society Library, viewed at Local His- tory Department, Piqua Public Library, Piqua, Ohio. The profile of Isaac Wobby appears to be part of a series produced by Johnston and forwarded to Howe, who was then compiling and editing material for his seminal work Historical Collections of Ohio in Two Volumes, first published in 1846. The Wobby profile was not included in the published work. In the profile Johnston notes, “Some years later [after the treaty] he died in Shelby County, Ohio.” 3. “An Abstract of Title to the following described real estate situate in Delaware County, Indiana, to wit: Lot numbered Nineteen (19) in Beverly Heights, Section ‘A’, an addition to the Town of Yorktown, Indiana,” plat recorded in Plat Book 8, page 22, item no. 3, referencing “Original Entry, Dated Dec. 17, 1820.” 4. Lewis Cass to Tho. L. McKenney, March 25, 1825, Dean Family Papers, 1788–ca. 1920, box 1, folder 12, M 0085, Indiana Histori- cal Society; Timothy Crumrin, “Women and the Law in Early 19th Century,” Con- ner Prairie, http://www.connerprairie .org/education-research/indiana-history Indiana Section–Township Range Map by Annette Harper in “The Rectangular Survey System -1800-1860/women-and-the-law-in in Indiana and Using the GIS Atlas,” Indiana Genealogist 19, no. 1 (March 2008): 47. -early-19th-century, accessed March 2019. According to Merriam–Webster.com, a dower is “the life estate in a man’s real

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property to which his wife is entitled upon that Charles is probably not the son of Johnson, eds., 13, Althea L. Stoeckel his death under common law and some Jacob Dick and there are some fears that Collection, 1954–1979, MSS 30/PCS state statutes.” Jacob’s relations may claim the land.” 16, box 3, folder 6, Archives and Special 5. Bond to sell Land, Goldsmith Gilbert to 10. Ron Ayer, “Brief History of the White Collections, Ball State University Librar- Daniel Sherer, October 31, 1829, online River Delawares as It Relates to the ies, Muncie, Indiana; A. Andrew Olson digital collection, Muncie (Indiana) Petchaka Case” (unpublished manu- III, “The 1818 Saint Marys Treaties, Part Public Library, accessed 2011; Goldsmith script, [1976?]), 3–5, Local History 2: Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians Gilbert to Thomas Dean, January 17, Research Papers, MS.000.2, box 3, folder and Treaty Preparations,” The Hoosier 1829, Dean Family Papers, 1788–ca. 18, Archives and Special Collections, Ball Genealogist: Connections 58, no. 1 1920, box 2, folder 3. Gilbert said, “The State University Libraries, Muncie, Indi- (Spring/Summer 2018): 14–25. Samuel Registrar informed that I could not git a ana; George Graham to Robert Hanna Cassman was still living in Delaware deed on the accounte that the proof has Jr., Esq., March 11, 1824, Records of the County, Indiana, at least until 1840. never bin made that Jane Wobby was Michigan Superintendency of Indian 15. Indenture, William Jones (probate Isac Wobby’s lawfool wife.” Affairs. Ayer quotes a February 25, 1824, court) to David Kilgore, March 1, 1836, 6. “An Abstract of Title to the following letter from Robert Hanna (Registrar of Delaware County, Indiana, Record Book described real estate situate in Delaware the Land Office in Brookville, Indiana) 6, page 247, online digital collection, County, Indiana, to wit: Lot numbered to George Graham (from the General Muncie (Indiana) Public Library, accessed Nineteen (19) in Beverly Heights, Sec- Land Office), asking guidance because 2011. The indenture sets forth the tion ‘A,’ an addition to the Town of Petchaka had made application for a chronology related to the probate of the Yorktown, Indiana,” plat recorded in Plat parcel already given to the heirs of Isaac Newland estate, including the Book 8, page 22, item numbers 30–35, Wobby. Graham responds on March 11, appointment of David Kilgore and referencing “Decree Quieting Title, indicating Hanna “acted correctly in Joseph VanMatre as administrators in Dated Feb. 6, 1900, Delaware Circuit withholding the entry.” 1831. The administrators reported insuf- Court, Cause No. 12032.” 11. Ayer, “Brief History of the White River ficiency of the estate to meet its obliga- 7. Delores Lahrman and Ross Johnson, “A Delawares as It Relates to the Petchaka tions in 1832, the court authorized the Delaware Indian’s Reservation: Samuel Case,” 3–4; Roger James Ferguson, “The sale of the land in 1834, Kilgore assumed Cassman vs. Goldsmith C. Gilbert,” In- White River Indiana Delawares: An Ethno- the outstanding mortgage in 1834, and diana Magazine of History 71, no. 2 (June historic Synthesis, 1795–1867” (PhD. he took title to the land in 1836. 1975): 107–8; Seth Slabaugh, “Indian diss., Ball State University, 1972), 125–27. 16. Elizabeth Glenn, “The Fur Trade, the Who Owned Muncie Nucleus Lived Ayer cites a January 12, 1830, letter Long Portage, and the Forks of the Tragic Life,” Star Press, Muncie, Indiana, to President Andrew Jackson, which Wabash,” in The Forks of the Wabash: October 30, 2001. indicates it was written from Kaskaskia, An Historical Survey, Dwight Ericsson 8. Thomas Isaacs to Thomas Dean, July 7, Illinois. Ferguson describes the Delawares and Ann Ericsson, eds. (Huntington, IN: 1819, Dean Family Papers, 1788–ca. in Illinois as primarily Munsees who had Historic Forks of the Wabash, 1990), 11, 1920, box 1, folder 10. In the letter, removed from White River in 1820. They 14, 16–17. Glenn discusses the nature of Isaacs, a Brothertown, reports, “The numbered about twenty-five lodges. unlicensed, intermediary traders. widow Dick is well.” Also: Indenture, 12. Ayer, “Brief History of the White River 17. Isaac McCoy to Thomas Dean, Septem- Thomas Dick to Goldsmith Gilbert, Delawares as It Relates to the Petchaka ber 2, 1822, Dean Family Papers, 1788– May 1, 1828; and Indenture, Solomon Tindell Case,” 5; Lynn Morrow, “Rendezvous ca. 1920. McCoy noted, “John Metoxen, to Goldsmith Gilbert, October 31, 1828, for a Nation: The Delawares on James one of your Chiefs from White River, online digital collection, Muncie (Indi- River,” folder 35, Archaeological Project and his party passed this place, not long ana) Public Library, accessed 2011. “Delaware Town” bibliography, Archaeo- since, on their way to Green Bay.” 9. George Graham to Robert Hanna Jr., logical Resource Center, Southwestern 18. Obed Kilgore, interview by Josiah V. Esq., March 11, 1824, Records of the Missouri University. Jean Baptiste Vallé Thompson, November 13, 1926, “Josiah V. Michigan Superintendency of Indian of Saint Genevieve, Missouri, initially Thompson, Uniontown, Pa., family record Affairs, 1814–1851, Record Group partnered with Ozark Delawares and the book,” Journal vol. 19, October 1926– 75.15.5, microfilm file M1, roll 18, docu- Shawnees’ protector and patron Louis December 1926, microfilm 1598073, Item ment 611, National Archives and Records Lorimer. 4, FamilySearch.org. Administration, Chicago; Isaac McCoy to 13. Lahrman and Johnson, “Delaware In- 19. John Sergeant to Jedidiah Morse, De- Thomas Dean, September 2, 1822, Dean dian’s Reservation,” 106, 106n11, 108–9. cember 15, 1818, in Rev. Jedidiah Morse, Family Papers, 1788–ca. 1920, box 1, 14. Ibid., 120, 120n59, 122; Douglas Rolfs, D.D., A Report to the Secretary of War on folder 11. Baptist missionary McCoy stat- “The Last Indian Landowners of Dela- Indian Affairs, Comprising a Narrative of ed, “It was expected, [the land] would ware County, Indiana,” in “Delaware a Tour Performed in the Summer of 1820 descend to Charles Dick, the lad who County, Indiana, 1827–1850: The Pioneer (New Haven, CT: Davis and Force, et al., lives with me. But I am informed Period,” Althea L. Stoeckel and Ross S. 1822), Appendix V, 116–17; Annie Heloise

47 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

Abel, “The History of Events Resulting in dolph and Co., 1874), 167–84; George A. 28. Oberly, Nation of Statesmen, 48–51; Indian Consolidation West of the Missis- Schultz, An Indian Canaan: Isaac McCoy Abel, “History of Events Resulting in sippi,” in American Historical Association and the Vision of an Indian State (Nor- Indian Consolidation West of the Missis- Annual Report, vol. 1 (AMS Press, 1908), man, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, sippi,” 406–7; Andler and Cipolla, “Brief 309–10. Abel notes that after a report 1972), 61–62; Oberly, Nation of States- Historical Overview of the Brothertown appeared in an 1817 Boston newspaper men, 29–30; Abel, “History of Events Indian Nation.” These townships were suggesting the Delawares had sold out Resulting in Indian Consolidation West east of . to the U.S. government, the Stockbridges of the Mississippi,” 303–4, 311. 29. Morse, Report to the Secretary of War on wrote to the Delawares, who assured 23. John Sergeant to Jedidiah Morse, Octo- Indian Affairs (1822), Appendix V, 119– the Stockbridges the report was utterly ber 20, 1819, Stockbridge Indian Papers, 20; George A. Schultz, An Indian Canaan: false. Thus, the Stockbridges prepared to 1739–1915; Sprague, Life of Jedidiah Isaac McCoy and the Vision of an Indian depart New York in late summer 1818 Morse, 18–19; “Report of a Select Com- State. Civilization of the American Indian under the leadership of John Metoxen. mittee on the petition of sundry Indians (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 20. John Sergeant to Jedidiah Morse, of the Stockbridge Nation, accompanied 1972), 62. Schultz cites McCoy’s journal, December 15, 1818, and December 16, with a bill confirming their title to cer- September 14, 1821 (Isaac McCoy 1821, in Morse, Report to the Secretary of tain lands,” February 24, 1820; Kappler, Collection, Kansas State Historical War on Indian Affairs (1822), Appendix V, Indian Affairs, vol. 2, Treaties, 577; “Quin- Society Library, Topeka, Kansas). 116–17, 119; “Report of a Select Commit- ney’s Memorial to Congress” in “Report 30. Isaac McCoy to Thomas Dean, Sep- tee on the petition of sundry Indians of and Collections of the State Historical tember 2, 1822, Dean Family Papers, the Stockbridge Nation, accompanied Society of Wisconsin for the Years 1857 1788–ca. 1920. McCoy may have used with a bill confirming their title to certain and 1858,” vol. 4 (Madison, WI: James the terms “Stockbridges” and “Brother- lands,” February 24, 1820, U.S. House Ross, 1859), 327–28. towns” interchangeably in this and his of Representatives, reference number: 24. “Quinney’s Memorial to Congress,” prior communication with Jedidiah E99.58U558, Indiana Historical Society; 327–32; R. Carlyle Buley, The Old Morse. As a result, the total number of James W. Oberly, A Nation of Statesmen: Northwest Pioneer Period, 1815–1840, Stockbridges and Brothertowns under The Political Culture of the Stockbridge– vol. 2 (Indianapolis, IN: Indiana Historical McCoy’s care is unclear. Munsee Mohicans, 1815–1972 (Norman: Society, 1950), 122–25; Oberly, Nation 31. Isaac McCoy to Thomas Dean, Septem- University of Oklahoma Press, 2005), 27. of Statesmen, 29–33; Abel, “History of ber 2, 1822, Dean Family Papers, 1788– A listing of the twenty-four Stockbridge Events Resulting in Indian Consolidation ca. 1920. McCoy mentions that “John male family heads purportedly living on West of the Mississippi,” 311–18; U.S. Metoxen, one of your Chiefs from White White River was included in the 1820 Supreme Court Findings 170 US 1, Note 2. River, and his party passed this place, report. There were also several Brother- 25. Abel, “History of Events Resulting in not long since, on their way to Green town individuals not included in this Indian Consolidation West of the Missis- Bay. He was well satisfied with the situa- list. Oberly indicates the Stockbridges sippi,” 317–21; Oberly, Nation of States- tion of the children.” soon moved to Piqua, Ohio, and then to men, 34; U.S. Supreme Court Findings, 32. Abel, “History of Events Resulting in Shawneetown, Ohio. 170 US 1, Note 3. Indian Consolidation West of the Missis- 21. John Sergeant to Jedidiah Morse, De- 26. Oberly, Nation of Statesmen, 38; Caro- sippi,” 297; Frederick Webb Hodge, ed., cember 15, 1818, in Morse, Report to the line K. Andler and Craig Cipolla, “Brief Handbook of American Indians North of Secretary of War on Indian Affairs (1822), Historical Overview of the Brothertown Mexico, Part 1 (Washington, DC: Smith- Appendix V, 116–17; John Sergeant Indian Nation,” https://brothertown sonian, 1907), 889; John P. Bowes, Land to Jedidiah Morse, October 20, 1819, citizen.files.wordpress.com/2017/03 / Too Good For Indians: Northern Indian Stockbridge Indian Papers, 1739–1915, cipolla-and-andler-brief-brothertown Removal (Norman, OK: University of Collection 9185, no. 4.1 (moved to -history.pdf, accessed March 2019. Oklahoma Press, 2016), 56–57; R. David collection 9086, folder 2), Division Andler, Brothertown Indian Nation Edmunds, The Potawatomis: Keepers of Rare and Manuscript Collections, genealogist, and Cipolla, anthropologist of the Fire (Norman, OK: University of Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New at the University of Toronto, Canada, put Oklahoma Press, 1978), 222–24; Schultz, York; “Report of a Select Committee the acreage total at 860,00 in 1821 and Indian Canaan, 34, 64, 89. Edmunds on the petition of sundry Indians of the 6.72 million in 1822. recounts how McCoy maneuvered to Stockbridge Nation, accompanied with 27. Oberly, Nation of Statesmen, 34–35; establish and fund the Carey Mission. He a bill confirming their title to certain Abel, “History of Events Resulting in gained minimal funding under the fed- lands,” February 24, 1820. Pages 11–12 of Indian Consolidation West of the Mis- eral Civilization Fund Act passed in 1819 the report include the text of the Miami sissippi,” 317–21; U.S. Supreme Court to support such efforts. Schultz notes, Declaration. Findings, New York Indians vs. US, 170 US “It is apparent that up to the first part of 22. William B. Sprague, The Life of Jedidiah 1, April 11, 1898, Findings of Fact, Notes the nineteenth century at least, the phi- Morse, D.D. (New York: Anson D. F. Ran- 2, 3. losophy of the separation of church and

48 PART 4

state did not seem inconsistent with the 45. Melissa Rinehart, “Miami Resistance and 52. Rafert, Miami Indians of Indiana, 99–100; support of Indian missions from public Resilience during the Removal Era,” in Rinehart, “Miami Resistance and Re- funds.” Contested Territories: Native Americans silience during the Removal Era,” 145, 33. Kappler, Indian Affairs, vol. 2, Treaties, and Non-Natives in the Lower Great 148–49; “Treaty with the Miami, 1840,” 277; Bowes, Land Too Good for Indians, Lakes, 1700–1850, 141. Articles 1–4, 10, American Indians of Illi- 68–69; Isaac McCoy to Thomas Dean, 46. Carl Leiter, “The Big Miami Reserve,” nois, https://cdn.citl.illinois.edu/courses September 2, 1822, Dean Family Papers, 2009 Howard County Indiana Memory /aiiopcmpss/miamicase/1840Nov28 1788–ca. 1920; Isaac McCoy, History Project, http://www.howardcounty .htm, accessed March 2019. of Baptist Indian Missions (Washington: memory.net/default.aspx?id=12840, 53. Anson, “Chief Francis Lafontaine and William Morrison, 1840), 289; Schultz, accessed March 2019. Leiter provides the Miami Emigration from Indiana,” Indian Canaan, 67–68, 80, 88, 96–98. more detailed information, citing the 246–47; Rinehart, “Miami Resistance 34. Bowes, Land Too Good for Indians, government’s surveyors’ notes, and and Resilience during the Removal Era,” 154–57; Edmunds, Potawatomis, 218–21. concludes the reserve was approximately 137–38. 35. Edmunds, Potawatomis, 228–30, 266, 34.54 miles square (i.e., 34.54 miles on 54. Andrew R. L. Cayton, Frontier Indiana 274; Bowes, Land Too Good for Indians, each side) or 760,000 acres. Converting (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University 66–69, 153. 34.54 “miles square” to “square miles” Press, 1996), 263; Rafert, Miami Indians 36. Bowes, Land Too Good for Indians, 154, results in an area of 1,193.0116 square of Indiana, 100; Miami Nation of Indians of 160 – 67. miles. A section of land is one square the State of Indiana, http://www.miami 37. Ibid., 168–73. mile or 640 acres. Thus, the size of the indians.org/, accessed March 2019; Diane 38. Ibid., 173, 177–81. Big Miami Reserve was actually 763,527 Hunter, tribal historic preservation officer, 39. Ibid., 125–26. acres. Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, e-mail to 40. John Sugden, “Black Hoof,” American 47. Stewart Rafert, The Miami Indians of author, December 6, 2018; Sarah Siders, National Biography Online (Oxford Uni- Indiana: A Persistent People, 1654–1994 tribal secretary, Miami Nation of Indiana, versity Press, April 2014), http://www (Indiana Historical Society Press, 1996), e-mail to author, April 10, 2019. .anb.org/articles/20/20-01687.html, 80–81. 55. McCoy, History of Baptist Indian Missions, accessed March 2019; “Shawnee 48. Bert Anson, “Chief Francis Lafontaine 53, 60. Indians,” in Ohio History Central, Ohio and the Miami Emigration from Indiana,” 56. John Sergeant to Jedidiah Morse, Octo- History Connection, http://www.ohio Indiana Magazine of History 60, no. ber 20, 1819, Stockbridge Indian Papers, historycentral.org/w/Shawnee_Indians, 3 (1964): 242–44; Rinehart, “Miami 1739–1915. accessed March 2019. Resistance and Resilience during the 57. Lewis Cass to John C. Calhoun, Octo- 41. Bowes, Land Too Good for Indians, 126. Removal Era,” 145; Craig Larson, “Chief ber 30, 1819, Records of the Michigan 42. Ibid., 129–30; Kappler, Indian Affairs, vol. Jean Baptiste Richardville,” in Forks of Superintendency of Indian Affairs, 2, Treaties, 152; “Treaty of the Maumee the Wabash, 75. Although Anson states 1814–1851, Record Group 75.15.5, micro- Rapids (1817),” in Ohio History Central, that Richardville led the Miami until film M1, roll 6. Ohio History Connection, http://www 1840 (p. 244), other sources state that 58. McCoy, History of Baptist Indian Missions, .ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Treaty_of Richardville was chief until his death on 59. _the_Maumee_Rapids_(1817), accessed August 13, 1841. Indeed, Richardville—as 59. John C. Calhoun to Lewis Cass, August 24, March 2019. In the 1817 Fort Meigs chief—did ratify the 1840 treaty in 1841, 1819; and Chief Anderson (by William Treaty, “Captain Pipe” was also identified and Francis Lafontaine did not officially Conner, interpreter) to John Johnston, by his Indian name: Tahungeecoppi. See become chief until after Richardville’s November 11, 1819, Records of the also Bowes, Land Too Good for Indians, death. Michigan Superintendency of Indian 129. 49. Rafert, Miami Indians of Indiana, 93. Affairs, 1814–1851, Record Group 75.15.5, 43. James Buss, “The Politics of Indian 50. Ibid., 95, 96; Rinehart, “Miami Resis- microfilm M1, roll 6. In a footnote dated Removal on the Wyandot Reserve, tance and Resilience during the Removal December 2, 1819, Johnston appears to 1817–1843,” in Contested Territories: Era,” 142, 143. respond to Anderson’s letter of Novem- Native Americans and Non-Natives in the 51. Rafert, Miami Indians of Indiana, 99–100; ber 11, 1819. Lower Great Lakes, 1700–1850, Charles Rinehart, “Miami Resistance and Resil- 60. John Johnston to Lewis Cass, July 17, Beatty–Medina and Melissa Rinehart, ience during the Removal Era,” 144–45; 1819, Records of the Michigan Superin- eds. (East Lansing, MI: Michigan State Anson, “Chief Francis Lafontaine and tendency of Indian Affairs, 1814–1851, University Press, 2012), 167–69, 177–78, the Miami Emigration from Indiana,” Record Group 75.15.5, microfilm M1, 183–85; Bowes, Land Too Good for Indi- 245–46, 266; “Treaty with the Miami,” roll 6; Abel, “History of Events Result- ans, 131–36. in Kappler, Indian Affairs, vol. 2, Treaties, ing in Indian Consolidation West of the 44. Bowes, Land Too Good for Indians, 531–34. Mississippi,” 290–91, 291nA. Based on a 144–48. series of letters between 1820 and 1822 from Secretary of War John Calhoun,

49 THE 1818 SAINT MARYS TREATIES

Abel suggests the Delawares were tardy 63. Stephen F. Strausberg, Federal Steward- Arthur Andrew Olson III is an amateur in sending scouts to examine the land, ship on the Frontier: The Public Domain historian who focuses on the Midwest’s as the government grew impatient to in Indiana (NY: Arno Press, 1979), 53–54. pioneer era. Olson has authored Forging complete the tribe’s migration to what 64. Ibid., 63; Annette Harper, “The Rectan- the Bee Line Railroad, 1848–1889: The Anderson later protested was particu- gular Survey System in Indiana,” Indiana Rise and Fall of the Hoosier Partisans larly small acreage given in exchange for Genealogist 19, no. 1 (2008): 47–48; and Clique (Kent, OH: Kent their Indiana lands. Abel states that he “Land Records,” National Archives and State University Press, 2017), and “A Die- also complains about the poor condition Records Administration, https://www Hard Independent: The Political Career of the land and the lack of game in a .archives.gov/research/land, accessed of David Kilgore,” Traces of Indiana and letter dated February 29, 1824. March 2019. Midwestern History 31, no. 1 (Winter 61. Chief Anderson (by William Conner, 65. Lewis Cass and General [Duncan] 2018), as well as several unpublished interpreter) to John Johnston, Novem- McArthur letter to John C. Calhoun, manuscripts archived in a research collection at Ball State University. His ber 11, 1819; and John Johnston to Lewis October 2, 1817, Records of the Michigan “Anatomy of the 1818 Treaties of Saint Cass, October 1, 1820, Records of the Superintendency of Indian Affairs, Marys and the ‘New Purchase’ of Indiana,” Michigan Superintendency of Indian 1814–1851, Record Group 75.15.5, upon which these articles are based, and Affairs, Record Group 75.15.5, 1814– microfilm M1, roll 3. “Pioneer and Civil War Era Indiana Politics: 1851, microfilm M1, roll 6. 66. Benjamin Parke letter to John C. Cal- The Political Career of David Kilgore” 62. C. A. Weslager, The Delaware Indians: houn, December 7, 1818, Benjamin Parke take a detailed look at key aspects of this A History (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Papers, 1816–1818, SC 1692, folder 2, important era in Indiana history. Olson University Press, 1972), 354–55; Abel, Indiana Historical Society. holds a bachelor of science degree from “History of Events Resulting in Indian Miami University and a juris doctor degree Consolidation West of the Mississippi,” from the Illinois Institute of Technology’s 295, 362–64. Regarding Missouri, Abel Chicago–Kent College of Law. cites a December 9, 1821, letter and notes: “Statehood was near at hand and already there were faint glimmerings of trouble over Indian possessions.” Abel also relates the story of how land in Kansas Territory (the trans-Missouri region) was gathered from the Osages by , Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Saint Louis, Missouri, in August 1825 for resettlement of various tribal groups there.

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