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An Ethnohistory of the Susquehanna-Ohio

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An Ethnohistory of the Susquehanna-Ohio "IS IT NOT OUR LAND?" AN ETHNOHISTORY OF THE SUSQUEHANNA-OHIO INDIAN ALLIANCE, 1701-1754 By MALCOLM B. BROWN Bachelor of Arts Lycoming College Williamsport, Pennsylvania 1982 Master of Arts Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana, Pennsylvania 1992 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December, 1996 C O P Y R I G H T By Malcolm B. Brown December, 1996 ii "IS IT NOT OUR LAND?" AN ETHNOHISTORY OF THE SUSQUEHANNA-OHIO INDIAN ALLIANCE, 1701-1754 Dissertation Approved: Dissertation Advisor f" ))<lku~. lil Dean of the Graduate College iii PREFACE "Is it not our land? What Right has Onontio [the Governor of French Canada] to our Lands? I desire you may go home directly off our Lands." -The Seneca sachem Tanaghrisson, 1751 Logstown Conference While I was growing up in central Pennsylvania my Mother told me stories of the Indians who once inhabited the area, and of the fabled "Tulpehocken Trail," which she said ran just south of where we lived. This important trail, often used by the Indian interpreter Conrad Weiser and his Iroquois friend Shikellamy; connected my home town of Sunbury, Pennsylvania with the colonial capital of Philadelphia. When I was in my early teens I discovered a portion of the trail when climbing nearby Kershner's Hill, and on it a pristine piece of wampum apparently dropped by some Indian traveler over two hundred years before. My father had also excited my curiosity by taking me to search for arrowheads on the cornfields of Packer's Island on the Susquehanna River, which had been part of the Delaware Indian village of Shamokin. These misty views of the past never left me, and after doing other things for a few years I found myself once again immersed in the study of the Indian peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. This dissertation describes the birth, consolidation, iv and decline of the Susquehanna-Ohio Indian Alliance, an inter-cultural alliance among the various native peoples of the Susquehanna and Ohio valleys. This includes the peoples of the Iroquois Confederacy (including the Tuscarora), the Delaware (Lenape), Shawnee, Wyandot, and Miami nations, and other minor groups. It will tell the story of these peoples in the first half of the eighteenth century, and attempt to answer the most important questions concerning them: Who were they? What were they like? Where and how did they live? Finally, and most important, why are they no longer in the Susquehanna and Ohio valleys? The focus of this dissertation is a multicultural analysis of the Indian peoples of the Susquehanna-Ohio Indian Alliance using ethnohistorical methods. History can be defined as the study of the process of change among human individuals and populations using written and other primary records as the basic source of information. Yet ethnohistory is somewhat different, an interdisciplinary hybrid. According to one of its most prolific practitioners, "ethnohistory is essentially the use of historical and ethnological methods and materials to gain knowledge of the nature and causes of change in a culture defined by ethnological concepts and categories. 111 Another 1 James Axtell, "Ethnohistory: An Historian's Viewpoint," Ethnohistory 26 (Winter 1979): 2. V more anthropologically-oriented definition of ethnohistory is: "an advancement of the understanding of culture or cultural process by analysis of human group behavior through time using protocols of an historic nature, preferably analyzed for purposes other than those originally intended by the authors, and in categories based upon modern ethnographic field investigation." 2 Such a methodology forms the core of modern research into the lives of non- European peoples often misrepresented in the past by ethnocentric writers. This work hopes to avoid such cultural traps which have plagued earlier writers (despite the sincere attempts of some of them to be fair) by the rigorous use of ethnohistorical techniques and analysis. 3 I would like to thank the following for their help in my academic career and in the preparation of this dissertation. Dr. L.G. Moses, my advisor and friend, has never lost confidence in me and has been a continual source of inspiration and encouragement over the years. The other members of my advisory committee, Dr. Michael Smith, Dr. Donald Brown, and Dr. Richard C. Rohrs, offered patience, encouragement, and invaluable advice. Dr. Ron Petrin took 2 Robert C. Euler, "Ethnohistory in the United States," Ethnohistory 19 (Summer 1972): 201. 3A bibliographical essay addressing this and other historiographical issues can be found in the Appendix. vi me on an eye-opening voyage into the historiographical realm and provided me with the funding and physical facilities for completing this dissertation. Dr. Mary Jane Warde prevented me from making some major interpretive errors early in the research phase. My fellow graduate students, Pam Koenig, Cliff Coppersmith, Amy Carriere, Julie Jones, Rich Faillace, David Amstutz, and David Tait functioned as an ever-patient sounding board for my ofttimes half-baked ideas over the years. Sandy Rife, the Director of the Pennsylvania's Lycoming County Historical Society, and her friendly and helpful staff provided immeasurable help to an unknown scholar just beginning work on his dissertation. Special thanks go to Dr. Jim Bressler, the Society's archeologist, for his tour of the Otstonwakin village site. Dr. Stephen Griffith of Lycoming College, my undergraduate mentor, and his wife Ricki were considerate hosts always ready with a word of encouragement. Gerald and Carrie Hause and their children of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania provided a base of operations for my fieldwork in Pennsylvania. Special thanks go to their stalwart son, James, who literally blazed a trail through the undergrowth for me so that I could view the Chillisquaque village site. My friend Chuck Slaton of Perry, Oklahoma, and my parents-in-law, Howard and Faye Smith of Owasso, Oklahoma gave much needed help along the way. Our department secretary, Susan Oliver, provided vii invaluable help and advice during the printing of the dissertation. Jane Johnson, the department graduate secretary, gave a never-ending store of friendly advice and took the time to proofread the manuscript. My late Mother, Martha Snyder Brown, bequeathed to me a love of literature and an unrelenting interest in early American History. My late Father, Malcolm Putnam Brown, taught me the virtues of hard work at an early age and unceasingly encouraged me to pursue my academic avocation despite the harpings of the "Idols of the Marketplace." My sisters, Beverly Hill and Barbara Mccusker, provided continual support and encouragement over the years. My children, Michael, Robert, Carrie, Jeremiah, William, Abigail, Christopher, Jacob, and Matthew, unselfishly shared me with my work. My ever­ patient wife, Linda, sacrificed greatly for six long years so that I could pursue my academic dream, and should also receive special recognition for producing the map. Finally, He whom the Iroquois call the "Master of Life" has protected and instructed me throughout my life and unfailingly guided me in the conception and writing of this work. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I . INTRODUCTION. 1 II. AN ETHNOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW OF THE SUSQUEHANNA-OHIO PEOPLES ................................................ 23 III. BEGINNINGS: THE SUSQUEHANNA VALLEY IN THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 86 IV. THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE SUSQUEHANNA-OHIO INDIAN ALLIANCE. 143 V. THE ALLIANCE AT CROSS-PURPOSES ..................... 205 VI. WAR AND DISSOLUTION. 256 VII. CONCLUSION ....................................... 298 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................... 320 APPENDIX·. 3 6 0 ix LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DHSNY Documentary History of the State of New York EAIDTL Early American Indian Documents, Treaties, and Laws EJCCV Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia IESYW Illinois on the Eve of the Seven Years' War, 1747- 1755 Jesuit Relations Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York Pennsylvania Archives Pennsylvania Colonial Records Papers of Sir William Johnson Papers of William Penn Susguehannah Company Papers Wilderness Chronicles of Northwestern Pennsylvania Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin X -- l I 'I ,_ v Z) ::) 'I '""'U l "',:.J ~ \ 2 0 c.C·- 0 I I I I l xi "IS IT NOT OUR LAND?" AN ETHNOHISTORY OF THE SUSQUEHANNA-OHIO INDIAN ALLIANCE, 1701-1754 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION The Susquehanna River is one of the most beautiful and pristine river systems in the continental United States. It has two main branches, the North Branch, whose headwaters originate in upper New York State, and the West Branch, whose waters form in streams along the eastern flanks of the Allegheny Mountains in Western Pennsylvania. These two major waterways flow together at what was the old Indian town of Shamokin, the location of the present-day Pennsylvania towns of Sunbury and Northumberland. There the vast watery system moves majestically and inexorably southward past the fields, forests, and mountains of the Ridge and Valley Region of central Pennsylvania. Augmented by the flow of other streams, such as the Juniata River, it eventually flows resolutely but serenely into Chesapeake Bay. Although large craft are not able to navigate the Susquehanna over its entire length, from as early as 500 B.C. the river was a major northeastern diplomatic and trade conduit. In early post-contact times the river allowed North-South canoe traffic from Chesapeake Bay to New York's Finger Lakes and Mohawk River Valley, and provided an East- West route from the Delaware River to the Ohio Valley or 1 Great Lakes. In the early eighteenth century, canoe-borne Indian travelers could easily journey from the headwaters of North Branch in the Iroquois homeland to Shamokin and back again in the space of one leisurely summer season. 1 East of the river are the occasional high ridges of the Appalachian Mountains to the northeast, and low rolling hills and fertile valleys to the east and south.
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