ABORIGINES
THE
MOUND BUILDERS INDIAN TRIBES
EXPLORERS MISSIONARIES INDIAN WARS
AND TREATIES
The origin of the North American Indian is still a matter of
conjecture from circumstantial evidence, but the theory generally
agreed upon is that he is
Asiatic, on
account of the resemblance in physiognomy, traditions and language to the tribes
inhabiting the northeastern part
of that continent. If the mound
builders had not preceded him on this continent we might as well
suppose that he originated here as to assign him to any other country.
That the homes of the mound builders
were destroyed by the
southern tribes from Mexico and that the Indians represent the remnant of
a despoiled people is the theory entertained by some. Those putting
forth this explanation say that those that escaped death by taking
refuge in the wilderness were put to such straits that their finer arts
and civilization were lost in the hard battle for mere existence and their
desperate condition developed a stolid and fierce disposition. Whether this
is true or not, it is nevertheless certain that after the white man
began the war of extermination against the red man the latter did not live
the sort of life to which he was accustomed before the invasion. We think of the
Indian as a wild, roving, ferocious
savage, living entirely by
hunting and fishing, having no fixed abode, no friendly intercourse and no
commerce. This was the Indian as
he existed after he had been
driven half way across the continent, but does not represent his earlier
condition before his manner of life became so precarious and before he
was constantly menaced, harassed and driven by the ever-encroaching
white foe. In the Seventeenth century
the agriculture and
industrial organization of the Five Great Nations occupying the Mississippi
river land from the Great Lakes to the Ohio river are not incomparable
with those of Europe a century or two earlier. They built villages of
log houses, planted orchards and cultivated plantations. They had
commercial intercourse with the southern tribes. Their industrial
organization was of that order in which each tribe or division of a
tribe had a monopoly on some staple article of trade which they had
exclusive right to manufacture and sell, though the right was probably the
mere grant of custom.
The area now known as Posey county
was successively occupied by a number
of different tribes as the red
men were gradually pushed westward. For many years previous to 1670 this
territory was held by the Miami
Confederacy, which was formed
in the early part of the Seventeenth century for protection against the
Five Great Nations, with whom
they were in constant conflict
for the possession of this region. The confederacy consisted of several
of the Algonquin tribes, notably the Twightwees, the Weas, the
Piankeshaws and the Shockeys. They lived in small villages along the
rivers in Indiana, extending their dominions east as far as the Scioto river, west
as far as the country of the Illinois
and north to the Great
Lakes. Their principal settlements were along the headwaters of the Great
Miami, the banks of the Maumee, the St. Joseph of Michigan and the
Wabash and its tributaries. At one time they had been important among
the nations of the lake region but their powers were weakened by
repeated defeats in war and they were in a demoralized condition when first
visited by the French and their villages presented a very untidy
appearance. They were living in constant terror of the Five Nations and were
practicing only enough industry to avoid starvation. Their resources
were depleted and they were indulging
all their vicious passions
so that they were in a state of retrogression. In the latter years of
the Seventeenth and the early years of the Eighteenth centuries the
French came to the Miamis bearing aloft the cross of Christ, under the cloaks
the whiskey jug to further degrade an already declining people, and in
their hearts the lust of gold and the greed of conquest.
As in most cases of successful
invasion the missionaries in their black robes preceded the traders. They were
the Jesuit priests and were kindly
treated by the Miamis. The
Indians would listen patiently to the strange theory of the Savior and
salvation which they could not in the least understand, but in which
they would manifest a willing belief by way of courtesy and hospitality,
and then they would attempt to entertain
their visitors with a
recital of their own simple faith in the Manitous, and were disappointed and
dissatisfied because the missionaries would not accept their religion with
the same politeness that they showed
toward the white man's God.
Missionary stations were established in the principal villages and the
work of converting the savages begun.
The principal stations were at
the villages of Maumee, those of the Weas about Ouiatenon on the
Wabash, and those of the Piankeshaws
around Vincennes, the latter
having been established in 1749. However, the missionaries were active
in the Miami country at least twenty
years before that. There was a
regular daily order of services at the missions. Early in the morning
the priests would gather the Indians together at the church for prayers
and for the teaching of the Catholic
religion. This was followed
by singing, at the conclusion of which the congregation was dismissed,
the Christians only remaining to
take part in mass. This service
was followed by prayers. During the forenoon the priests spent the
time in visiting the sick and comforting the afflicted. In the afternoon
another service was held in which
all the Indians were allowed to
appear in their finery, and each without regard to rank or station
answered questions put by the missionaries. This exercise was concluded by the
singing of hymns set to airs
familiar to the Indians. In
the evening all again assembled at the church for instruction, prayers
and singing. The Indians greatly enjoyed the singing of their favorite
hymns. The priests for the most part were zealous and conscientious
and were greatly beloved by their dusky converts. Close upon the heels
of the black robed fathers came the advance guard of the French fur
traders dressed in gay attire and with coarse blue and red cloths,
their fine scarlet, balls, knives, ribbons, beads, vermilion, guns, powder,
tobacco and rum. These were the
"coureurs des bois" or rangers,
and they were engaged to conduct canoes along the rivers and trade for
furs which they brought back to the trading posts. Many of them
carried on a remunerative business inland by carrying the goods for many
miles on their backs. They mingled freely with the Indians, lived their
life, intermarried and many of them
became renegades, sinking below
the level of the self-respecting savage. Intoxicating liquors were
freely introduced and found a ready sale. The distribution of it was made
in the following way: a certain number of persons have delivered to
each of them a sufficient quantity to get drunk on so that the whole
were often drunk for days at a time. The drinking would begin in the
villages as soon as the sun had set, and night after night the woods and
fields echoed with the most hideous howling. A line of trading points was
established in 1719 on the Wa- bash,
around Vincennes and at Fort
Wayne. A fort was built at the Piankeshaw
village near Vincennes in
1750, the next year after the building of the permanent mission at that
place. At the same time a fort was
erected near the mouth of the
Wabash. These forts drew a large number of French traders and in a few
years they had become important settlements with a mixed population
of French and Indian. At the
close of the French and Indian
wars, when Canada and its dependencies fell into the hands of the British,
the French, for the protection of their business interests, swore
allegiance to the British government and were allowed to continue in the
occupation of their lands with the slight improvements they had
effected.
But with the change in governments
came a change of policy toward the
Indian. The French had been very
polite and deferential toward the
native. They were robbers none
the less, but they were polite about it and managed to get along
beautifully. But when the English came into power they assumed an arrogant
manner toward the Indians that aroused
their enmity. The British
opposed any strengthening of the interior settlements lest they become
self-supporting and independent. The government held the land and
would not let it be apportioned out to the settlers and so provoked the
Americans that the British government had no friends upon this continent.
At the close of the French and
Indian war the number of families
in what was known as the Northwest
Territory did not exceed
600, none of whom, as far as we are able to ascertain, were in Posey
county. The Miamis at this time had 1,050 warriors, about 300 of whom
belonged to the Wea tribes on the
Wabash. The British policy toward
the settlement of the new lands
was one of the things which led
to the American Revolution, which
ended in the establishment of
the new government on this continent in 1783. The American government made
liberal propositions to settlers
and civilization pushed
rapidly westward.
The principal opening wedge to the
occupation of the Wabash country by the white people was the work of
Francois Morgan de Vinsenne in
the early part of the century. He
probably reached the place now known
as Vincennes as early at 1732.
There is a record of a sale made by himself and Madame Vinsenne dated
January 5, 1735. This document gives
his military position as
commandant of the post of Ouabache (Wabash) in the service of the French
King. The will of his wife's father,
dated March 10 of the same
year, bequeathes among other things 408 pounds of pork which he ordered
kept safe until Vinsenne, who was
then at Ouabache, returned to
Kaskaskia. Another document is a receipt signed by Vinsenne for 100
pistols granted him as his wife's dowry. This officer was killed in
Louisiana in a war with the Chicka- saws. Over forty years later, and
while the American Revolution was still in progress, Colonel George
Rogers Clark led his memorable expedition against the ancient French
settlements of Kaskaskia and Post Vincennes.
This was one of the most gigantic
single feats of the whole history
of settlement and called for
courage and daring, for, while the government of Virginia, Clark's
native State, was friendly to the undertaking, they had no authority to
assist very largely in the affair. Governor Henry and a few other
gentlemen lent private assistance and Clark organized his expedition
and laid his plans secretly so that he would not be confronted with
organized opposition. The object of the expedition was to open the
western territory to active settlement to take the French forts, establish
American control, wrest the land
from the hands of the alien and
the savage and blazon a trail for
safe immigration. He took stores
at Pittsburgh and Wheeling and proceeded
down the river to the
"Falls," where he took possession ofan island of about seven acres. Here
he for the first time made known
to his troops the real intent of the
expedition and disclosed to them his plans for the taking of Kaskaskia
and Vincennes. It was a daring proposal
and many of his men
deserted. He then divided the island among a small number of families,
threw up some light fortifications and decided, on account of the
weakened condition of his forces, to take Kaskaskia first, as the post at
Vincennes had about 400 militia to his handful of men. On the night of the
Fourth of July he came near the
village, keeping his spies ahead.
He took possession of a house for headquarters and the spies returned,
saying that the town had laid down
arms and that the Indians had
all left. He took possession without opposition of the fort and the town.
The people thought resistance in
vain. Having become master of the
situation, he treated the inhabitants kindly, secured their good will and
they swore allegiance to Virginia.
The inhabitants were in terror of
Clark at first, never dreaming but
that he would lay waste to their
homes and separate them from their
families and starve their
children. This helped him to gain their good will, as he explained to
them that the French and Americans were now friends and allies against the
British, that the war for independence would soon be over, and that their
religion would be respected by
the American law. The few men who
had been arrested were set at
liberty and the inhabitants were
so pleased that a volunteer company of French militia joined his forces.
Clark also enlisted the services of Father Gibault in the expedition
to Vincennes. When they arrived
at that fort some time was
spent in explaining to the people the nature and intent of the war,
with the result that the inhabitants proceeded at once to the church and
unanimously took the oath of allegiance to the American flag. A fort was
immediately garrisoned to defend
these colors and the flag was
unfurled. The Indians were also greatly pleased and were induced to
become friendly toward the Americans, and treaties of peace were effected
with the Piankeshaws, Ouiatenous,
Kickapoos, Illinois,
Kaskaskias, Peorias, and some of the other tribes that inhabited the
country between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi river. The treaty
with the Piankeshaws was accomplished in the following manner : When
Captain Helm, who was appointed by Clark to take charge of Vincennes,
set out from Kaskaskia in
August he took with him a speech
and a belt of wampum from Colonel Clark to be presented to "The Grand
Door to the Wabash," or the Tobacco's Son, as the leading Piankeshaw chief
was called. He arrived safely
at Vincennes and was received
with acclamations by the people. After the usual ceremony the "Grand
Door" was called and Helm delivered the speech and the belt. Grand Door
informed the captain that he
was indeed glad to welcome him as
one of the Big Knife's chiefs. He
thought favorably of the idea of
joining the Americans, but according to their custom asked time to present
the matter to the other leading men of the tribe. After several days
had elapsed Captain Helm was
invited to the Indian council and
was told that the chiefs had considered his case and had decided that he was
right; that they would tell
all the Indians on the Wabash to
waste no more blood in behalf of the English. Then the Grand Door
jumped up, called himself a man and a warrior, said that he was now a
Big Knife and took Captain Helm by the hand. His example was followed
by all present and the council ended
in good feeling and merriment.
This treaty was followed by treaties
with all the tribes above
mentioned and the American flag waved above Indiana for the first
time. When the General Assembly in Virginia met in October, 1778,
they passed an act which provided for home government for all the
territory west of the Ohio river. Before the provisions of the act could be
carried out Henry Hamilton, the
British Lieutenant-Governor of
Detroit, collected an army of about thirty regulars, fifty French
volunteers and 400 Indians. At the head of this force he proceeded down the
Wabash and seized Vincennes in
December, 1778. When he entered
the place there were but two Americans
at the post, Helm and a man
by the name of Henry, Colonel Clark
having in the meantime turned
his attention to other points. Helm
and Henry were arrested and a
number of the French citizens disarmed.
When the news reached Clark
at Kaskaskia he made preparations for his famous march to Vincennes.
Hitherto he had not gone there
himself, the work of winning
over the people having been done by Father Gibault and the treaties
having been made by the agency of
Helm. He now gathered together a
force of 170 men and on February 5, 1779, crossed the Kaskaskia river
and proceeded to Vincennes. In
January he had learned that
Hamilton had sent his Indians to the frontier and to block up the Ohio,
expecting them to return to Post Vincennes in the spring, bringing
their friends with them in great enough numbers to drive all Americans
out of the West. This left Hamilton
with eighty men in the
garrison, three pieces of cannon and some swivels mounted, but they were
repairing the fort and expected reinforcements. The stores of most of
the merchants of the town had been
taken to provide for Hamilton's
men, but they were expecting a large
supply of all kinds of
provisions in the spring. It seemed that the blow must be dealt at once before
these plans of the British could be consummated. Clark's situation was
a perilous one, cut off from Virginia
and his source of
reinforcements and supplies. He had only a few weeks left before all would be
lost, for if the enemy were left to proceed in peace with their
preparations there was no possibility of his being able to cope with them. He
called upon Major Bowman to evacuate the fort at Cahokia and join him, and
immediately gave orders to prepare
for the march on Vincennes.
The inhabitants of Kaskaskia rallied
enthusiastically to his
support and provisions and clothing to withstand the coldest weather were
soon provided. It was decided to send a vessel by water to carry the
stores and arms. A large Mississippi boat was purchased and fitted out as
a war vessel so that she might
force her way if necessary. Two
four-pounders and four large swivels
were placed in position and
she was manned by forty-four men under Captain John Rodgers. He
embarked the fourth of February with orders to force his way up the
Wabash as far as White river and there await further orders. In case
he found himself discovered he was
to do all the damage possible
without running the risk of losing his vessel, and not to leave the
river until he had lost all hope of the arrival of the land forces. Clark
placed much reliance upon this vessel, as the craft was much superior to
anything the enemy could muster. Having gotten her started, he took
the remainder of his men. 170 in number, and on the fifth of February
crossed the Kaskaskia on his way to Vincennes. The march was fraught
with the greatest hardship, for not only was the weather cold, but
the plains were covered with several inches of water through which the
little band was forced to wade day by day. Everything possible was done
by the commander to keep the men
in good spirits. He allowed them
to shoot game on all occasions and
to make feasts on it after the
style of the Indian war dancers. Each company in turn invited the others to
feast with them and entertained them with singing and stories. Thus
the soldiers were led without a murmur to the banks of the Little
Wabash, arriving there on February 13. A camp was formed on a small
elevation on the bank of the river and Clark ordered his men to
construct a boat, pretending all the time to believe that the crossing of the
river would be a piece of little boy play. The boat was finished the next
day and a small company was selected
to make the first trip to
the other side. They were privately instructed as to the sort of report
they should make and told to find a spot of dry land if possible. They
found half an acre of dry land and, marking the place, returned with a
very encouraging report. On the fifteenth the work of crossing began.
Fortunately the day was warm for
the season. The channel at this
point was about thirty yards wide. A scaffold was built on the opposite
shore, which was about three feet in water, and the baggage was landed
in this manner. The horses next swam across and received their loads
at the scaffold. The men were then
ferried over the river and the
little army again took up the march in water knee deep. Much bantering
and jollying was indulged in and it kept up the spirits of the men to
a remarkable degree and by night they were encamped on a pretty
height. They were in high spirits at their success thus far and indulged
that night in extravagant speculations of their future prospects of crossing
the main stream, taking Vincennes
and marching on Detroit.
However, the next day they marched in a driving rain and Clark
discovered that the whole Wabash valley was overflowed and that he could be
easily approached by the enemy. That night they spent miserably in
the wet without sufficient provisions. The next day they continued their
march in search of the Wabash. They
found no dry land and were
compelled to spend the night in the water. After such an experience the
morning gun of Vincennes sounded sweet as a dinner horn when they
heard it at sunrise on the eighteenth. They were able by this to locate the
river and reached it about 2 o'clock.
They tried to steal boats by
means of rafts but met with no success
that day or night. The next
day intelligence was brought to Clark that two fires were within a
mile of their camp. He at once sent a canoe down the stream to meet the
vessel with their stores and ammunition and bring it with all possible haste
to their aid. Their food supplies
were now entirely exhausted
and they were in a critical condition. At noon the next day the river
sentinel brought in five Frenchmen from Vincennes and from them they
learned that their presence was not known as yet. The men were pretty
nearly exhausted and had lost courage when the last day's march to Post
Vincennes began on the twenty-first.
They had to cross the
main stream of the Wabash now and
there was no time to construct
boats. Encouraged by Colonel Clark,
who painted his face black and
gave a war whoop, the whole company
plunged to their necks in
ice-cold water. They succeeded in making the other shore, although they
had to be encouraged in heroic ways
by their leader and by his most
devoted followers, one in particular being a little drummer boy who beat
the advance under the most discouraging
and disheartening
circumstances. The other shore was gained in safety and they found a
sugar camp where there was half an acre of dry land and here remained
for the night. They continued the
next day and came to a copse of
timber called "Warrior's Island," in full view of the fort and town.
From a prisoner captured while shooting ducks it was learned that the town
was full of Indians and that together with them and the troops there were
about 600 men. Meantime the
boat with ammunition and supplies
had not been heard from. A bold letter requesting those who wished to
fight to gather at the fort and those who wished to remain loyal to
the Americans to keep in their houses
was dispatched to Vincennes,
and upon receiving no reply Clark displayed his force in such a way
that they appeared numerous, marching back and forth for some time, and
finally occupying the heights back
of the town. Fourteen men were
then sent to fire upon the fort, while the main body took possession
of the strongest part of town. Clark
then ordered Hamilton to
surrender. This being refused the fighting began, and an hour later Clark
dictated the terms of surrender on February 24, 1779. Hamilton was kept
as a prisoner till the next June and then was sent to Virginia. It
appears that he was a savage as much as any of the Indians and
offered a reward for every American scalp lock. Clark organized a
military government at Vincennes and left Helm in charge while he returned
to Kaskaskia by boat. Here he was
reinforced by a command under
Captain George. About this time the Delawares murdered and plundered
a party of traders on White river.
Captain Helm was sent to make
war upon them. They soon sued
for peace and Colonel Clark
required them to find a neighboring tribe who would vouch for their
future good behavior. The Piankeshaws went security for them. This not only
warned the Delawares but secured the respect of the neighboring
tribes. Meantime the preparations for establishing civil government in
Indiana went on in Virginia, to which State this territory belonged by
right of conquest. Colonel John Todd came to the settlements and the
military government maintained by Clark at Vincennes gave place to
civil and criminal courts in June, 1779. The giving out of land grants
began and the courts adopted the opinion that they were at liberty to
dispose of the entire region that in 1742 had been given to the French at
Vincennes by the Piankeshaw Indians. The whole country accordingly was
divided among the members of
the honorable court. From the
first invasion of this section by Clark until 1783, when the war with
Great Britain was concluded, there was a succession of wars along the
border, sometimes resulting in victory for the Americans and sometimes for
the other side. However, Clark
succeeded in holding the
country, which, upon the establishment of the Republic in 1783, was ceded by
Virginia to the United States.
When the transfer was finally
consummated in 1784 the work of extinguishing Indian titles began. In 1787 the
"Northwest Territory" was
created and Major-General Arthur
St. Clair was elected by Congress governor of the territory. He was
instructed to ascertain the real
attitude of the Indians, do all
in his power to secure their friendship toward the government and quiet as
many titles as possible. Governor St. Clair established headquarters at
the new settlement of Marietta, Ohio, where he organized the
government of the territory and in 1788 held the first session of court and
the necessary laws for the administration of affairs were passed. This done,
the governor, accompanied by the
judges, proceeded to Kaskaskia
for the purpose of organizing the government there. Meantime, Major
Hamtramck, commander at Vincennes,
had received instructions
to ascertain the temper of the Indians along the Wabash and be prepared to
report the exact situation. On
April 5, 1790, a Frenchman by the
name of Antoine Gamelin was sent
out of Vincennes with speeches
to all the tribes. He visited nearly all the tribes of the Wabash country
and those of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's rivers, but was coldly
received, owing to dissatisfaction created among the Indians by English
misrepresentation. A full account of the situation reached St. Clair at
Kaskaskia in June, 1790. The Governor, being satisfied that there was no
prospect of a peaceful settlement of affairs with the natives of Indiana,
resolved to visit General Harmer at his headquarters at Fort Washington
and there consult with him in regard
to- an expedition against the
hostile tribes. Meantime, Winthrop Sargent, secretary of the territory,
was to send resolutions to Congress in regard to the lands and settlers
on the Wabash, and also to go to Vincennes, lay out a county there and
appoint civil and military officers. Sargent found great difficulty in
adjusting claims to land, as previous
to this time the most
important deals had been committed to loose sheets of paper, many of which
had been stolen or lost. To settle such matters Congress in 1791 passed
an act to give lands not to exceed
400 acres to any one person to
those having made improvements under
a supposed grant for the lands.
In the summer of 1790 the
court of Vincennes passed the
following laws:
I. An
act to prohibit the giving or
selling of intoxicating liquors to Indians residing in or coming into
the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio river, and for
preventing foreigners from trading: with Indians therein.
II. An
act prohibiting the sale of
spirituous or other intoxicating liquors to soldiers in the service of
the United States, being within ten miles of any military post within the
territory of the United States northwest
of the River Ohio, and to
prevent the selling or pawning of arms, ammunition, clothing or
accouterments.
III.
An act for suppressing and
prohibiting every species of gambling for money or other property and for
making void contracts and payments made in consequence thereof, and for
restraining the disorderly practice
of discharging arms at
certain hours and places. The
conference between Governor St.
Clair and General Harmer at Fort
Washington resulted in the
determination to send a powerful force to whip the Indians of the Wabash
into submission. The President had
empowered St. Clair to call upon
Virginia for 1,000 troops and on Pennsylvania for 500, and he now
exercised this authority. Three hundred of the Virginia militia were ordered
to join the forces at Fort Steuben
and with them march to
Vincennes and join the command of Major Hamtramck, who had orders to
proceed up the Wabash and attack any Indian tribe with forces not
superior to his own. The remaining 1,200 men were ordered to join the
regular troops at Fort Washington, of which there were about 400
effective men under General Harmer.
All was in readiness by
September and General Harmer marched
from Fort Washington on the
thirteenth of that month at the head of 1,450 men. This force reached
Maumee on the seventeenth and the
work of punishing the Indians
began, but the expedition did not result in any permanent gain, for the
American forces were about as sorely
punished as the Indians, and
the latter refused to sue for peace. A detachment of 340 militia and sixty
regulars under Colonel Hardin was
defeated at Maumee on October 22
and the next day they started back
to Fort Washington, reaching
there November 4, having lost in the expedition 183 killed and
thirty-one wounded. The Indians sustained a similar loss. While these
operations were going on Major Hamtramck
marched up the Wabash from
Vincennes as far as the mouth
of the Vermilion river,
destroyed several deserted villages, but returned without meeting the enemy.
The Indians continued their hostilities and the inhabitants of the frontier
settlements took alarm. Delegates of Ohio, Monongahela, Harrison,
Randolph, Greenbrier, Kanawha and
Montgomery counties of Virginia
sent a memorial to their governor calling attention to their exposed
situation, to the inability of the
Continental troops to be of any
use to them and calling upon the State of Virginia for protection. The
legislature of Virginia then authorized the governor to take such measures as
he deemed necessary for the
protection of the settlements
until the national government had time to act. The governor immediately
called upon the military commanding officers in the western counties of
Virginia to raise several small companies by the first of March, 1791.
Charles Scott was appointed Brigadier-General
of the militia of
the district of Kentucky with the
authority to raise 226 volunteers
to protect the most exposed parts of the district. Congress was
appraised of the need for protection on the frontier and, upon consideration
of the situation, created a board of war for the district of Kentucky,
this board being composed of Brigadier-General Scott, Henry Innis, John
Brown, Benjamin Logan and Isaac
Shelby. On March 9, 1791,
General Henry Knox, secretary of war, sent a letter of instructions to
Brigadier-General Scott recommending an expedition of mounted men, not
over 750, to proceed against the Wea villages along the Wabash.
Accordingly, on the twenty-third of May Scott crossed the Ohio at the
head of 800 mounted men, reaching the Wabash on the first of June. He
destroyed all the villages around
Ouitenon and several Kickapoo
towns, killing thirty-two warriors and taking fifty-eight prisoners. A
few of the most infirm were released
in order that they might
spread the news all up and down the Wabash, as Scott's command, not being
well enough mounted, could not
go up the river. On March 3,
1791, Congress provided for raising and equipping a regiment for the
protection of the frontier and about 3,000 men were placed at the disposal
of Governor St. Clair, who was instructed
by the secretary of war to
establish at the Miami village a strong and permanent military post,
and in the process of his advance to that point to establish along the
Ohio such posts of communication with Fort Washington as he deemed
-expedient. The post at Miami was
intended to keep the Indians in
that section of the country in check
and the secretary of war
insisted that it be established in any event and that it be strongly
garrisoned. In case terms were arranged with the hostile tribes the
establishment and maintenance of this post was to become a part of the treaty of
peace. Previous to the establishing of this post at the Miami village
Governor St. Clair sent Brigadier- General Wilkinson to conduct a second
campaign in the Wabash country. Wilkinson mustered his forces and on
July 20, 1791, started at the
head of 525 mounted volunteers,
well armed and provisioned for thirty
days. On August 7 he came with
this force to the village of Ke-na-pa-com-a-qua,
on the northern
bank of the Eel river, six miles above the junction of that stream
with the Wabash. Here he killed six warriors, took thirty-four
prisoners and totally destroyed the village. These Indians belonged to the
Kickapoo tribe. The army encamped on the ruins that night and the next day
started for the Kickapoo village on the prairie, but was unable to
reach it on account of the impassable condition of the route he selected.
These three expeditions by Harmer, Scott and Wilkinson resulted in great
damage to the Indians but did not
restore peace. They believed the
American policy to be one of extermination
and were goaded to
desperation. Contrary to the treaty of Paris, the British government
was still maintaining posts at Niagara, Detroit and Michilimacinac, and from
these points not only incited the hostile Indians against the
Americans, but actually rendered them every possible assistance in the way of
stores and provisions. This condition continued until the English posts
were withdrawn by a second treaty in 1796.
In September, 1791, Governor St.
Clair prepared to carry out the orders of the secretary of war and
left Fort Washington with 2,000 men. On November — the main body of the
army, comprising about 1,400 men,
moved forward and encamped at
the headwaters of the Wabash, where
Fort Recovery was afterward
built. Here he was surprised by
the Indians, who attacked his force
about half an hour before sunrise, which is their favorite hour for
making war on their enemies. The Indians were 1,200 strong and were
led by the chiefs Little Turtle, Blue Jacket and Buck-ong-a-helas, who
had secreted their forces and watched
the enemy until such a time
as they could deal a crushing blow.
The white army was cut to
pieces and there were lost in the engagement thirty-nine officers
killed, 539 men killed and missing, twenty-two officers and 232 men wounded, and
all the baggage, ammunition and
provisions, and several pieces of
artillery. The property lost in this engagement was valued at $32,800. The
most deplorable aspect of the disaster
was the fate of more than
100 women who were following the fortunes of their husbands. Very few
escaped the brutality of the victorious savages, who proceeded to avenge
their real and imaginary wrongs
by the most unspeakable
atrocities. Believing that the white men had been making war to acquire
land, they stuffed sand and clay in the eyes and down the throats of
the dying and dead. Governor St. Clair felt the force of this defeat
very keenly and, although he was in no way to blame, he resigned upon
leading the remnant of his disheartened army back to Fort Washington.
St. Clair was succeeded by the
brilliant and distinguished Anthony Wayne, who became famous in the
Revolutionary war. Early in 1792 the general government made
provisions for the reorganization and strengthening of the army and in June
of that year Wayne came to Pittsburgh,
where he remained until
October, 1793, organizing and training
his army. Then at the head
of 3,600 effective men he moved to Fort Washington. During all this
time efforts were being made to bring the Indians to a peaceable
adjustment of affairs. Major Hamtramck,
who was still at Vincennes,
succeeded in concluding a peace treaty with the WaSash and with the
Illinois tribes, but the tribes more directly under the influence of the
British refused to be reconciled, would not listen to the speeches of
friendship presented to them and tomahawked several of the messengers
sent to them. They had been greatly
encouraged by their victory
over St. Clair and believed themselves equal to the forces
mustered by Wayne. They insisted on the Ohio river as the boundary line
between their possessions and those of the United States and determined to
defend their claims in battle if necessary rather than make any
further concessions.
On July 26, 1794, Major-General Scott
joined General Wayne with 1,600
mounted volunteers and two
days later the united forces proceeded to the Maumee river and, arriving at
the confluence of that stream with the Auglaize, they erected Fort
Defiance. August 15 Wayne moved his army toward the British fort at
the foot of the rapids of the Maumee and here gained a decisive victory
over the combined Indian and British forces. The enemy was completely
routed and demoralized and after the engagement the woods were full of
the dead bodies of Indians and red
coats shot down in flight. In the
return march to Fort Defiance the
villages and corn fields on
either side of the Maumee were destroyed, as well as everything within a large
radius of the fort. The next
movement on the part of Wayne
was to the confluence of the St. Joseph and the St. Mary's rivers,
where stood the deserted villages of the Miamis. Here a fort was erected
and garrisoned by a strong detachment of infantry and artillery under
Colonel John F. Hamtramck, who named
the place Fort Wayne. The
Kentucky volunteers who had come in the command of Scott returned to
Fort Washington, where they were mustered out of service. General
Wayne marched to Greenville and took up his winter quarters and began
negotiations with the Indians. Finally,
in August, 1795, a general
treaty of peace was concluded with all the hostile tribes which had been
contesting the territory of the United States beyond the Ohio river.
This was known as the Treaty of
Greenville and it opened the way
for the rapid settlement of all the lands of the Northwest Territory. In
July, 1796, a treaty with Spain was entered into by the United States
and the British withdrew from their
posts in the territory of the
United States northwest of the Ohio river.
The next thing of importance to our
present story was the organization of the territory of Indiana in 1800,
immediately following which the attention of Governor Harrison was
called by the federal government to the necessity of making a final
adjustment of affairs with all Indians still holding claims to lands within
the limits of the territory. In the course of the next five years he
succeeded in closing several treaties with the Indians by which 46,000
square miles of land were added to those already obtained by the
government. This land acquired by Governor Harrison included all that lying on
the borders of the Ohio river, between
the mouth of the Wabash and
the western boundary of Ohio. Among
these treaties was the one
which ceded Posey county to the white man. Settlement had already
begun within its borders before the treaty was consummated.
In his message to the territorial
legislature in 1806 Governor Harrison congratulated the people upon the
fact that peace had been brought
about with the Indians and
the lands opened to civilized development. He advanced the opinion that further
war would not be necessary unless
the Indians were driven to
arms by a succession of injustices. However, he remarked by the way that
the Indians were already making
complaints which were far from
being groundless. While the laws
provided the same punishments
for offenses committed against the
Indian as against a white man,
the laws were so administered that in every case the Indian got the
worst of it, whether he was the offender or the one against whom the offense
was committed. Crimes against him
went unpunished, while he was
severely punished even for the smallest
crime against his boasted
superior. From the time the treaties were closed in 1805 until 1810, the
Indians complained bitterly against the encroachments of the white men on
ground which belonged to themselves, and of the unjustifiable killing of
many of their number. In laying
the matter before Governor
Harrison an old chief used these words : "You call us your children ;
why do you not make us happy as our fathers, the French, did? They
never took from us our lands; indeed, they were in common between us. They
planted where they pleased ;
they cut wood where they
pleased ; so did we. But now if a poor Indian attempts to take a little
bark from a tree to cover him from the rain, up comes a white man and
threatens to shoot him, claiming the tree as his own." It is more to the
credit of the Indian than anything else that these continued offenses
should end in war. In the midst of their tribulation and unrest there
arose a prophet among the red men. This was none other than the brother
of Tecumseh, the crafty Shawnee. His name was Law-le-was-i-kaw, but
upon assuming the character of the
prophet he took the name of
Pems-quat-a-wah, or the Open Door, signifying that he was the means of
opportunity for his people.
Open Door was a gifted orator. He
began by preaching a crusade against
witchcraft, the drinking of
intoxicating liquors, the intermarriage of Indian women with white men, the
dress and customs of the white
race and the practice of
selling Indian lands to the United States. He said that the Great Spirit
required them to punish with death those who practiced the arts of witchcraft
and magic, and declared that he had been given power to discover all
such persons; to cure all diseases ; to confound his enemies, and to stay
the arm of death in sickness and
on the battlefield. Through the
excitement caused by his preaching
an old Delaware named
Tate-e-bock-o-she, through whose influence the treaty with the
Delawares had been made in 1804, was accused of witchcraft and upon his
conviction was tomahawked and his
body burned. His wife, nephew,
and another aged Indian were then accused, tried and condemned. The two
men were executed but the woman was saved by her brother, who led her
out of the council house and,
returning, rebuked the
proceedings in an effective manner. When the news reached Governor Harrison he
sent word to the Indians, pleading with them to renounce the prophet and
return to reasonable ways of thinking.
This had some effect but,
in 1808, the Open Door, with a large
following, settled near the
mouth of the Tippecanoe river at a place which was afterward known as
Prophet's Town.
Meantime, Tecumseh, following up the
advantage of his brother's influence,
as well as of his own
popularity, began the organization of the various tribes into a
confederacy. He declared the treaties hitherto entered into in reference to the
lands beyond the Ohio river as null and void for the reason that,
according to his idea, no single tribe had a right to cede any lands without the
consent of the others, as the land belonged to all of them in common. He
declared that he and his brother,
the Prophet, would oppose
any future attempts on the part of the white people to extend their
territory. Early in 1808 Governor Harrison sent a speech to the
Shawnees in which he accused Open Door of being in league with the British
and asked the people to send him away to the lake region. In August of
that year the Prophet visited Vincennes
and spent several weeks
there for the purpose of holding interviews with the governor. He was
so smooth and talked so earnestly about his mission as a religious
teacher that Harrison was led for the time being to believe him a man of
honest motives. But he soon discovered his double nature and learned that he
and his brother, Tecumseh, were
enemies of the United States and
in league with the British, whom they would induce the tribes to join
in case of war between the two nations.
In face of all these
difficulties Harrison continued to extinguish Indian titles in Indiana and to
secure lands for settlement, prosecuting this work in direct opposition to the
two Shawnee brothers.
In the year 1810 the movements of
Tecumseh and Open Door caused so
much alarm among prospective
immigrants as to materially retard settlement. Under the guise of
forming a confederacy to prevent further sale of lands, Tecumseh, at the
instigation of the English, was organizing a force to oppose the American
government. Governor Harrison understood
this and used all means he
was able to contrive to prevent
further progress of the
scheme and break up the plot peacefully. In the spring the officials who
offered the followers of the Prophet
their annuity were insulted
and the provisions were refused. In the months that followed the
governor made repeated efforts to conciliate the Prophet, but without avail.
Finally, on August 10 of that year,
Tecumseh with twenty of his
principal warriors came in state to Vincennes to interview the
governor. For twelve days Governor Harrison met them in a grove near his
house in daily council. Tecumseh said that he wanted the lands which
had been ceded to the white men northwest of the Ohio and gave the
governor the alternative of returning them or engaging in war with the
confederacy.
At this time some of the most fertile
sections of Indiana were still the property of the Indians, and the
eastern and western settlements were separated by the hunting grounds of
the savages. It was not satisfactory to either white men or Indians, as
the lands still held by the red men were now scarce of game and of
little real use, while the fact that they were still the property of
the Indians was a detriment to settlement anywhere in the State. Governor
Harrison continued to persuade different
tribes of Indians to give
up the lands which afforded them
such scanty sustenance and
accept the provisions from the government, which were ample for all needs. This
policy was vigorously opposed
by the warriors, who would
not agree to give up their habits until compelled to do so.
In the year 1811 the British Indian
agent adopted measures for the support
of the savages in the war
which then seemed inevitable. To the last Harrison endeavored to
destroy the influence of Tecumseh and the Prophet, but without avail. It
was now coming to a point where it was with great difficulty that
peace was maintained between the whites and Indians. An Indian would
be killed and a white man scalped in return, neighborhood raids and
depredations were a constant occurrence and property was being destroyed on
both sides. Finally the governor
sent a message to Tecumseh
and the Prophet telling them that
for three years they had
threatened the white people with war and that through reliable sources he had
the information that it was their intention to murder him and then
begin war upon the settlers. He warned them that they were about to
undertake a very rash act, as the
white men were prepared to defend
themselves and that they far outnumbered
the strongest force the
Indians could muster. He told them
that it was not the wish of the
white men to hurt them, that it was the desire of the government that
they should live long and happily beside the white people, but that
they must desist from their hostile preparations and from seizing the
salt which belonged to other tribes. He offered them the means to go to
Washington for a conference with the President, should they desire to
lay their wrongs before him. Tecumseh received the messenger politely and
send word to Harrison that he
would visit Vincennes in a few
days. He came on July 27, 1811, and brought with him a considerable
force, against the specific instructions of the governor, who told him he
would not allow him to come into
the settlements with an armed
force. On the day of the arrival of Tecumseh Governor Harrison reviewed
the militia of the county — about 750 well armed men — and stationed
two companies of militia and a detachment
of dragoons on the borders
of the town. Tecumseh made his usual
conciliatory talk, claiming
that it was not his intention to make war, but merely to protect the
Indian lands from encroachments. He asked forgiveness for the Indians who
had killed white people and said the white people who had killed
Indians were forgiven. He promised to send letters among the tribes to
stop the depredations and murders and to go south as he wished to unite
all the tribes, and upon his return would visit the President of the
United States and settle all matters of difficulty. In the meantime he hoped
that there would be no attempt to
settle the lands ceded at the
treaty of Fort Wayne, as he said the Indians needed those lands for
themselves. Tecumseh took twenty warriors and went south for the purpose of
inducing the southern tribes to join his confederacy.
After realizing that peace could not
be maintained with the Prophet and
his followers, Harrison
determined to resort to arms. The President gave him instructions to break up the
Prophet's town and to that end he
established a new fort on the
Wabash. Colonel Boyd's regiment was ordered from the falls of the Ohio to
Vincennes and soon Governor Harrison had a powerful military expedition
ready to march on Prophet's Town.
On September 25, the day they
were ready to start a number of chiefs arrived in Vincennes from
their objective point and offered to disperse the Indians. This did not
check the expedition, which started the next day under the personal
command of Harrison. On October 3 the army camped on the site of Fort
Harrison, where the city of Terre Haute now stands. On October n a few
hostile Indians approached the camp, wounding one of the sentinels.
Harrison sent a message to Prophet's Town requiring the Shawnees, the
Winnebagoes, the Potta- watomies and the Kickapoos who were at that
place to return to their respective tribes. The Prophet was required to
give up all stolen horses and all murderers of white people. There was
no reply made and Harrison pursued the work of erecting the new fort on
the Wabash, which by unanimous request of all subordinate officers was
called Fort Harrison. It was finished on October 28 and
Lieutenant-Colonel Miller was left in charge with a small garrison. The
next day Harrison, with a force of about 900 efficient men who could be
called into action, moved toward the mouth of the Tippecanoe. About
270 men were mounted and there were in the army only 250 regular army
men under Colonel Boyd, while the rest were citizens of Indiana to the
number of 600, and sixty militia men from Kentucky. When within half a
mile of Prophet's Town a conference was held with the Prophet, who
expressed surprise at the approach of an armed force. Harrison replied
that he would hold an interview with him in the morning and hoped that
things might end peacefully. They encamped on a spot of dry oak land
which rose about ten feet above the marshy prairie in front of
Prophet's Town. As the place was easily accessible to the enemy the order of encampment was
the order of battle and each man slept immediately opposite his post.
The single file formation of troops was
adopted in order to extend the lines
as far as possible. Here they remained without action until November 7, when
about 4 in the morning, when
the governor had just arisen,
the left flank was charged by the Indians. The first notice that the
troops had that the flank was in danger was the yells of the savages a short
distance from the line. However, they met the situation with much
courage. Those who were quick
enough seized their arms and
took their posts and those who were slower had to contend with the enemy
in their tent doors. The storm center
at the beginning was in
Captain Barton's company of the Fourth United States regiment and in Captain
Geiger's company of mounted riflemen,
which formed the left angle
of the rear line. As soon as the governor could mount he rode to the
angle that was attacked and found that Barton's company had suffered
severely and that Geiger's had been cut to pieces. Some of the Indians
had passed into the encampment near
the angle and two had penetrated
the line before they were killed. Harrison ordered Cook's and
Wentworth's companies to march up to the center of the rear line and form
an angle in support. A heavy fire upon the left of the front line then
attracted Governor Harrison's attention and he rode up to where the companies
of Bean, Snelling and Prescott
and a small company of United
States riflemen were stationed. Here Major Davies was forming the
dragoons at the rear of these companies for support. Finding that the
heaviest fire proceeded from behind some trees about twenty paces away,
Harrison ordered Major Davies
to dislodge the Indians from
that position with his dragoons. The Major undertook this enterprise
with fewer men than were required for the work and the enemy was thus
enabled to avoid his front and attack
his flanks. The dragoons were
driven back and Major Davies was
mortally wounded. Captain
Snelling, however, immediately dislodged the Indians from their position. The
work was being done under cover
of darkness, as it was a cloudy
morning and the few fires of the
camp gave more aid to the enemy
than to the soldiers and were extinguished
shortly after the attack
began. Within a few moments the firing extended along the left flank,
the whole of the front, the right flank and part of the rear line. The
Prophet stood on an elevation near
by encouraging his men to battle
by singing a favorite war song. The fire upon Spencer's mounted
riflemen in the rear was exceedingly severe. Captain Spencer and his two
lieutenants, first and second, were killed and Captain Warwick was
mortally wounded. The companies stood bravely by their posts, but the
attack was so severe on Spencer's command and they suffered so greatly
in loss of numbers that Harrison reinforced them with a company of
riflemen that had been driven from
their position on the left
flank. The object of the governor was to keep the line intact and prevent
the Indians entering the camp until the coming of daylight should give
him an opportunity to charge. Accordingly, he had reinforced every part of the
line that was suffering very
greatly from the attack, and as
morning approached he withdrew several
companies from the front and
rear lines in order to reinforce the right and left flanks, knowing
that the enemy would make their last stand against these points. When
it was light enough to take the offensive Major Wells, who commanded
the left flank, charged upon the
enemy with the bayonet, driving
them into the marsh where they could
not be followed. In the
meantime Captain Cook and Lieutenant Barabes marched their companies to
the rear flank and, forming under fire, were joined by a company of
riflemen and made a charge upon the enemy, killing a number of the
Indians and putting the rest to disorderly flight. This ended the famous battle
of Tippecanoe, which meant so
much to the peace and future
development of the State of Indiana and Posey county, which we have now
under consideration. The loss on
the American side was thirty-seven
killed on the field, twenty-five mortally wounded and 126 wounded.
There were forty Indians killed on the field and the number wounded
was unknown. On November 8 Prophet's
Town was totally destroyed,
and on the eighteenth, after having
cared for their wounded, the
army under General Harrison returned to Vincennes, where the men were
honorably discharged and allowed
to go back to their homes.
The surviving Indians lost their faith in the Prophet and in his
ability to call upon the Great Spirit to render the bullets of the enemy
ineffective. Those who had come from distant tribes returned to their
homes and the confederacy was broken up. The Prophet left without a
following and took up his residence with a small band of Wyandottes on Wildcat
creek. Resolutions of appreciation and congratulation were extended to
Governor Harrison by the territorial
legislature. This would
have ended Indian depredations in this section of the country had it
not been for the War of 1812, which gave the hostile bands another
opportunity.
Upon the defeat of his brother, the
Prophet, Tecumseh went to Ontario to his friends, the English, and from
there incited the Indians to an
uprising. War between the United
States and Great Britain was declared in June, 1812, and in September of
the same year the Indians began
to assemble in warlike numbers
around Fort Wayne. A large force
attacked Fort Harrison, while
at the same time other bands made an extensive raid through the State,
particularly in Clark and Jefferson counties, and massacred twenty-four
persons at a colony called ''Pigeon Roost Settlement." The attack upon
Fort Harrison was made early in the morning, which is the Indian
custom. There were but fifteen men there able for duty, the others being
sick or convalescent, and it was with difficulty that Captain Zachary
Taylor, the famous old hero who was in command, succeeded in saving
the fort. The Indians set fire Loading...Loading...to the barracks in several places,
and when daylight came so that they could be seen and fired upon they
retired, killing the horses belonging to the citizens and driving away the
cattle and oxen. Relief was immediately sent from Vincennes to the fort, but
the Indians had withdrawn from
the neighborhood.
Meantime, the little garrison at Fort
Wayne was in a desperate situation. A dispatch was sent to General
Harrison requesting volunteers, but before they could arrive the
Indians, learning that Harrison was coming to the relief, began a furious
attack upon he little band defending the stronghold. However, they
repelled the attack day after day
until General Harrison with 3,500
men came to their relief. He arrived
there on the tenth of
September and the Indians retreated east and north. The town in the vicinity
had been totally destroyed by the savages and as soon as General
Harrison had made his camp he sent out two detachments and destroyed all
the Indian villages in the whole region. This was the last struggle
with the Indians in the State and Fort Wayne was permanently evacuated
in 1819.
The process of extinguishing Indian
titles inaugurated by General Harrison
while governor of the
territory was carried on until in 1830 there were only two tribes within the
boundaries of the State. These were
in a degenerate condition,
ignorant, indolent, intemperate, dependent upon their neighbors for sustenance.
Without prospects of living by the
chase they gave themselves over
to acts of reprisal from the nearby white settlements, committing murders
and other outrages and displaying their savage customs before the
children of the white people. These things made it very desirable to be
rid of them entirely and in 1831 the legislature in a joint resolution
requested Congress to appropriate enough funds to extinguish the Indian
titles within the State. The request
was granted and the
appropriation was made and the secretary of war designated three citizens to
carry the transfer of the lands into effect. The Miami lands were
surrounded entirely by white settlements and it was thought of greatest
importance that their lands should be bought. A summons to the treaty
was sent to this tribe and, although the chiefs obeyed promptly and
cheerfully, they absolutely refused to sell their lands and go west. The
negotiations with the Pottawatomies, however, were successful and they
disposed of their entire claims in this State.
In July, 1837, the time arrived when,
according to the treaty, the Pottawatomie
nation had to give up
their homeland and remove beyond the Mississippi. It was a sad and
solemn affair as they bade a last
farewell to their hunting
grounds, battle fields and play grounds of their childhood, realizing that they
must soon be desecrated by the plough
share of the white man. In the
fall of the year about eighty or ninety of the leading men were taken
across the Mississippi to select anew home for their people and the
main exodus of about 1,000 people took place in the summer of 1838
under the direction of Colonel Pepper and General Tipton. It was a mournful
procession of all sizes and ages of Indians, some in wagons, some on
horseback and others on foot. Some
seemed to pray, others to weep,
and occasionally one of them would
break from the line and return
to their old camps, declaring that they would die in their native
haunts. In this way scores of discontented emigrants returned home from
different points in the journey and it was several years before all of them
were induced to quit the land for the new home of their kinsmen across
the Mississippi. Several years after
the Pottawatomies had
relinquished their lands in Indiana the Miamis, who were more obstinate, were
conducted by coercive methods to
the west by an escort of United
States troops. Once a powerful nation,
the Miamis had deteriorated
in numbers and capabilities until at the time of their removal they
were fewer than the Pottawatomies, who had for so long enjoyed their
hospitality after being driven from their original homes in the lake
region.
A striking example of Indian savagery
is contained in "Recollections of
the Wabash Valley," by Cox. On
February 11, 1781, a wagoner by the name of Irvin Hinton, accompanied
by two young men, Richard Rue
and George Holman, aged
respectively nineteen and sixteen years, were sent from the block house at
Louisville, Kentucky, to Harrodsburg for a load of provisions. Soon after
their start a severe snow storm came up and they fired their guns off,
intending to reload as soon as the storm ceased so that the melting snow would
not dampen the powder in their rifles.
Hinton drove, while Rue
walked a few rods ahead and Holman about the same distance behind. They
were waylaid by Simon Girty, a
renegade white man, with thirteen
Indians. Being so near the two forts,
they made all possible speed
to join the rest of the tribe at the village of Wa-puc-ca-nat-ta, which was
several days' journey away. There the prisoners were compelled to run
the gantlet and in this way were severely beaten. Hinton tried to
escape but was brought back to camp and burned at the stake amid horrible
orgies. The fire was slow and he
was roasted for several hours
before death relieved him. After three more days' march the other two
prisoners were compelled to run the gantlet again and were nearly killed.
It was decided that both should be burned at the stake that night.
However, when the preparations were in progress a tall, noble looking
Indian who had been opposed to this act of savagery took Holman by the
hand and adopted him as his son in place of one he had lately lost.
This Indian was Logan, who afterward proved such a staunch friend to
General Harrison in his campaigns for the peace of the Wabash country.
The preparations for the burning
of Rue went on. The two young
men bade each other a touching farewell,
but just as the faggots had
been lighted a young Shawnee came to the rescue of the poor fellow and
adopted him as his brother.
They were in captivity three and
one-half years and spent most of this time in the Wabash country. A few
days before their escape the two prisoners decided to question the
tribal prophet concerning their families at home. The Indian seer astonished
them with correct descriptions of
their loved ones and told them
they were soon to go home to them.
He described the perilous
journey ahead of them, but said that just when they would give up all hope
succor would come to them when least
expected. He said the first
game Rue would succeed in taking would be a male of some kind and
after that he would have plenty of game and reach home safely. Strangely
enough the prophet kept these things
secret from the rest of the
tribe, and a few days later the young man succeeded in getting away and,
after just such experiences as the prophet had foretold, he reached home
completely worn out from three weeks
of exposure and walking through
the rough country.
Holman's party returned to the
village of Wa-puc-ca-nat-ta and he was once more put on trial for his
life, but was saved by a small vote. In the time of his captivity he saw
many brutal scenes enacted, one of them being the burning of a
Kentuckian by the name of Richard Hoagland, who was taken prisoner at the
defeat of Colonel Crawford. They roasted him more than twelve hours
before he died. The torture was excruciating and upon his begging to
be killed they cut gashes in his flesh and heaped burning ashes into
the wounds. When he was dead they
scalped him, cut his body to
pieces, burned it to ashes and scattered these through the village to ward off
the evil spirits.
After three years and a half in
captivity Holman saw an opportunity of going on a mission for destitute
Indians. This took him to Harrodsville, Ky., where he had a rich uncle
who paid a ransom for him and he was released.
Such were the customs of the race of
people who were driven out of Posey
county to give place to the
civilization now in evidence, and when we consider the improvements which
the white men made in the course of a hundred years, having no more at
their command than the savages had,
namely, the earth and the
fullness thereof, it does not seem so much
of an injustice that the Indians were
deprived of that which they could not or would not use.
Source : History of Posey County, Indiana By John C. Leffel
Published by Standard Publ. Co., 1913