REMOVING THE INDIANS FROM INDIANA
The Treaty Grounds
The little
garrison under Maj. Josiah H. Vose at Fort Wayne was withdrawn April
19, 1819.1 They were the last
regular soldiers on frontier duty in the State. The westward movement
of settlers had carried the frontier beyond Indiana.
Fort Wayne
was then a busy center of the fur trade. Often 1,000 men were collected
there on Indian pay day. At
such times horse-racing, gambling, drunkenness and debauchery were the
order until the traders had all the
Indians' annuity money in their
possession.
Robert S.
Robertson, Valley of the Upper Maumee I, 184. The following paragraph
from Rev. J. B. Finley, Life Among the Indians, 518, describes these scenes. The missionary
was an eye witness: "This was an awful scene for a sober man to look
upon. Here were encamped between two and three hundred Indians, and
one-third if not one-half drunk; men and women, raving maniacs,
singing, dancing, fighting, stabbing, and tomahawking one another—and there were the
rumseller watering their whisky until it was not strong grog, and
selling it for four dollars a
gallon—their hired men gathering up all the skins and furs, and their
silver trinkets, ear-bobs, arm-bands, half-moons, silver crosses, and
brooches—giving a gill of grog for a
dozen of silver brooches—and their guns, tomahawks and blankets, till
they were literally stripped
naked, and three or four were killed or wounded. The reader may set
what estimate he pleases, or call him by what name; yet if there was ever a greater robber, or a
meaner thipf, or a dirtier murderer than these rumsellers, he is yet to
be seen."
In 1823
John Tipton became the agent of the Miamis and Pottawattomies, with
headquarters at Fort Wayne. As
the settlements around the place increased the Indians fell back on the
upper Wabash and Eel rivers. Partly that he
might be nearer the Indians and
partly due to interest in land speculation, Mr. Tipton secured the
removal of the Indian Agency, in the spring of 1828, to the mouth of Eel river, the present site of Logansport.
The Indian trade at that time was one of the most
lucrative occupations in the State. The agent bought large numbers of cattle, hogs, and horses for
the Indians. Droves of stock were gathered up and driven through the
forests to
Fort Wayne or Logansport
By the law
of 1819 the Indians of Indiana were granted annuities as follows: Weas,
$3,000; Pottawattomies,
$2,500; Delawares, $4,000; Miamis, $16,000; besides which there were
specific gifts which often amounted to as much
as the annuities. Thus at this time,
1819, the Delawares, then preparing to go west, were given $13,000.
The annual
assembly at the Treaty Grounds was the greatest commercial event of
northern Indiana from 1820 to
1840. It corresponded with the New Orleans trade in the southern part
of the State. At the treaties of October
20, 26 and 27, 1832, there were
distributed goods to the value of $866,729.87. There were not less than
fifty traders on the grounds.
The bills of W. G. and G. W. Ewing footed up about $30,000. Joseph
Holman, a member of the
First Constitutional Convention;
Jonathan Jennings, our first governor; John W. Davis of Carlisle, long
a member of Congress and at
one time its speaker; Allen Hamilton, president of the Fort Wayne
Branch of the State Bank;
Samuel Hanna, founder of Fort Wayne;
Nicholas McCarty, a merchant of Indianapolis and later a Whig candidate
for governor; Alexis
Coquillard, founder of South Bend; Jordan Vigus, one of the founders of
Logansport, were a few
of the better known traders and
agents. It is hardly necessary to say these were the leading men of the
northern part of the
State. Many of them became wealthy in this business. It was
said that the Ewing brothers became
millionaires.
At this
time it is hardly possible to determine the profit made by the traders.
Blankets sold at $8 and $10 each; red flannel at 57 cents; bleached
shirting at 97 1/4 cents; tincups at 12 1/2 cents; red cotton
handkerchiefs at 40 cents;
calico at 25 cents; silk vests at $4;
coffee boilers at 75 cents; thread at $2 per pound; hats at $5; knives
at 40 cents; powder at 40
cents. The quality of the goods cannot now be ascertained. The traders
sold on credit to the
Indians and then presented their
bills to the Indian agents who paid the annuities. This plan was
tolerably satisfactory until the greedy traders presented bills which
amounted to more than all the annuities. Then there was trouble among
the traders.
At the
October payment, 1836, the Ewing brothers and Captain Fitch presented
claims for $34,000. As the payment of this would have taken all the
money the other traders objected. The agent, Abel Pepper of Rising Sun,
was unable to settle this dispute. A
committee then received all the claims, amounting to over $100,000, and
prorated the annuity
money. This wrong to the Indians was so plain that a government agent,
J. W. Edmunds, was sent to investigate the claims. His report showed beyond a doubt
that the Indians had been cheated out of practically all their money.
Black Hawk's War
As long as the first pioneers of our
State lived they feared and hated the Indians. It was difficult to tell whether they feared or hated them most
During the decade from 1830 to 1840 they gave a good exhibition of each. From their own viewpoint they were amply
justified in both. As an example of the terror which an Indian uprising
caused on the border there is
nothing better than Black Hawk's War.
Black Hawk
was a popular leader of a band of Sauk Indians who lived on Rock river,
in northwestern Illinois. His
village was near the mouth of the river, down where it joined the
Mississippi. The old warriors in this band were
kindred spirits who had served under
Tecumseh in the War of 1812. They were known along the frontier as the "British Band," and their sympathy for
the British was notorious. The Hawk had himself "touched the quill" as
the Indians called signing a treaty,
in 1804 and again in 1816, when his tribe had ceded its land to the
government.
But when
the government surveyors and the settlers came in 1831 to occupy the
land the grizzly old warrior's
heart failed him. He had watched his women and children cultivate the
village fields for half a century, and when, in
the spring of 1831, he returned from
a winter's hunt in Iowa to find the squatters had pre-empted his fields
and actually plowed up the
graves of his ancestors, he could stand it no longer. He warned the
intruders and then
started with his warriors across
northern Indiana and southern Michigan to visit his British friend, the
commander of Maiden.
The British general advised him wrongly and the war followed.
All the
border Indians were restless during that year. Early in the summer of
1831 a Miami hunting party killed a Pottawattomie war chief, as a result of
which the Pottawattomies threatened war. They first demanded an
indemnity of
$50,000 as blood money. If this was
not forthcoming the Miamis were assured that the Pottawattomies would
be on them in the spring "before the leaves were as big as squirrels' ears."
Gen.
William Marshall was sent as agent to settle this difficulty; and in a
grand council on the St. Joseph succeeded in doing so.
About this time a proclamation of Gov. John Reynolds
of Illinois reached the Indiana border. The frontier settlements at
this time were between the Wabash and the Illinois State line, west and
northwest of Lafayette, with advance posts over the line in Illinois
twenty to forty miles. When
Black Hawk returned from his winter's hunt he warned the squatters to
leave. The governor of Illinois
took this warning for a declaration of war, and at once called out the
Illinois State militia and notified the people that the Sauk and Pottawattomies were on
the warpath. The governor meant the Prairie Pottawattomies of Illinois, but the Indiana settlers thought he meant
the Indiana Pottawattomies, many of whom lived among the settlers west of the Wabash. A courier carried the
report to Indian Agent Marshall at Logansport, who at once dispatched
his runners in all directions
to gather the scattered villages of Pottawattomies into Logansport till
the war was over. He
did this to pacify the settlers and
to save the Indians from the militia.
At midnight
Sunday, May 21, 1832, Captain Newell of the Warren county militia, was
called out of bed and told
that the Indians were at Iroquois, near the State line, and approaching
fast. He was told that all the settlements
west of Big Pine creek, in Warren
county, had given way and Big Pine would break in the morning, if no
aid appeared.
By eight
o'clock Captain Newell was at the head of fifty mounted men, and by
eleven o'clock had reached Parish's Grove, eighteen miles on his way. Here he
met the throng of refugees from the Sugar Creek Settlements. The rabble
of refugees completely blocked the
way. The settlers of upper Pine creek had abandoned their clearings.
After Captain Newell had
calmed the terror-stricken pioneers, he selected twenty-five of his
best-mounted men and pressed
forward that same evening twenty
miles farther, to Iroquois river, in Illinois. He passed scores of
settlers fleeing for their lives.
From these he heard that the Hickory Creek Settlements had all been
abandoned and the people
were on their way to the Wabash.
Several families were reported murdered on Fox river. The Fox River
Settlement was seventy-five
miles farther on, but Captain Newell decided to go ahead and try to
reach it by morning. A few
miles further he met more refugees
from Hickory creek, who assured him that not a person was left in the
outlying settlement, and that
it woul4 be useless to to on. The captain accordingly returned and
began to quiet the people.
As soon fts
Captain Newell received word of the outbreak, on Sunday night, he sent
a mounted scout posthaste to
Lafayette for aid. Another report reached Lafayette, also, about the
same time as the courier, that the Illinois
militia, 275 in number, had been
routed on Hickory creek, with the loss of over twenty-five men killed;
that 200 militiaman were
needed; that the settlers had all fled, some to Fort Chicago and others
to the Wabash; that the whole
frontier was abandoned, and that
houses were being: burned and families murdered.
A small
party of militia scouts immediately set out from Lafayette for the
scene of the depredation, and Gen. Jacob Walker called out the militia to
rendezvous at Sugar Creek Grove in the western part of Benton county.
Meantime
the scouts who set out from Lafayette at the first alarm returned and,
on June 1, a committee of the best known men of the town sent out a
statement to the effect that they had gone as far as Hickory creek, 100
miles north-
west of I^fayette, and had found no
traces of Indian warfare. No damage had been done on Hickory creek. They reported, however, that Black Hawk, at
the head of 500 warriors, was in arms and on the warpath, but was
making his way toward the Mississippi.
The militia
camp at Sugar Creek Grove was soon broken up. The returning: scouts
made it certain that Black
Hawk had his hands full and that there was no danger from that quarter.
Word was received in a few days from
the deputy agent, M. G. Grover, at
Logansport, that the Miamis, Pottawattomies, Chippewas, and Ottawas on
the St. Joseph were all quiet.
When this word came, General Walker disbanded his militia.
The alarm
was not confined to Warren and Benton counties. The old Sac, or "Sauk,"
trail from Illinois to Maiden led through LaPorte county. The early
settlers of Door Village were
accustomed to seeing Sac, or "Sauk," warriors pass and repass on this
trail. At times the Indians stole horses and committed other crimes. The
settlers along the trail feared them.
In May the
Indian agent at Chicago sent a courier to warn the pioneers of the Door
Village (LaPorte) that the
Sacs were on the war path. It is said that refugees from Door Village
fled as fax as Cincinnati. The more resolute
gathered in the little village and
set to work to build a stout stockade. As soon as this was completed
they sent out spies to learn
what they could of the Indian advance. In the meantime a good
blockhouse was constructed. After
a few weeks the excitement wore off.
There was ample reason for fear along: the frontier of the State. Had
Black Hawk chosen to lead his
warriors along the Sac Trail to his old British friends and allies at
Maiden, there were not enough
troops or settlers along the way to
have prevented him.
The
refugees from the Portage Prairie, Terre Coupee, and other settlements
west of South Bend brought the
news of the Indian war to that town. Most of the refugees were so
alarmed they would not stop in South Bend, but
hurried on to the east. As soon as
the citizens were aroused they gathered together and, like the friends
to the west, at the Door
Village and on Portage Prairie, decided that safety lay in a
blockhouse. Accordingly they built one
and confidently awaited the coming of
Black Hawk's warriors.
As soon as
General Walker received the first report of an Indian uprising from
Captain Newell he sent a messenger
to Indianapolis. The messenger reached the governor May 29, 1832, and
requested him to call out the militia for
the Black Hawk War. The militia of
Marion, Johnson, and Hendricks counties were accordingly called to meet
at Indianapolis. These
troops, the pick of the three counties, 160 in number, under Col. A. W.
Russel, of the Fortyeighth
Regiment, reached Lafayette June 1-3.
From Lafayette they crossed over into Illinois, marched to Chicago,
back around the south
end of Lake Michigan, then by way of the St. Joseph country to
Indianapolis, without seeing any hostile Indians. When they arrived at
home they were banquetted as
heroes at Washington Hall and the Mansion House hotels. They received
the name "The Bloody 300" as a result of their campaign.
At the same
time when Governor Noah Noble called out the Marion, Johnson, and
Hendricks county militia, he ordered
a company of mounted volunteers from Putnam county to patrol the State
line and watch for straggling bands
of Indians that might attempt inroads
on the settlements. General Orr, accordingly, enrolled eighty-two men,
armed with rifles, tomahawks
and butcher-knives. The company established headquarters at Attica and
stationed guards
along the State line. Patrols passed
from one station to another every day and also reported daily to
Attica. This was continued
until August 10.
As soon as
Senator John Tipton, who then represented Indiana in the United States
Senate, heard that Black Hawk
was on the war path, he proposed to call out 600 rangers to patrol the
frontier till the war was ended. Con-
gress quickly passed the measure. Two
of the companies were to be furnished by Indiana. One was raised by
Major B. V. Beckes, of
Vincennes, the other by Colonel Lemuel Ford, of Charlestown. Colonel
Ford's rangers reached
Indianapolis July 28, 1832. At this
place they were joined by a party from Rush county under Lieutenant
Bissell. All were well mounted
and well drilled. Nearly all the people of the town turned out to see
them march away next morning
over the Michigan Road toward
Logansport and Chicago, where they were to report to General Scott. They were enrolled for a year or less,
furnished their own horses and weapons, and received $1.00 per day.
Captain
Beckes also hastened to the frontier with his company, but Black Hawk's
band was annihilated at Bad
Axe August 2, and all the troops were soon discharged. One thousand
Sauk Indians had entered Illinois in April, but by
the 3d of August not more than 150
were left alive. None had come nearer to Indiana than seventy-five
miles. The scare had come from
three sources. First, the Sauks had defeated a large army of
militia—2,500—under Stillman, on
Rock river, and the agent at Chicago
had sent the news to the settlements, with the added information that
the warriors would
devastate the settlements. Second, the pioneers knew the Pottawattomies
were closely related to the Sauks.
Third, a large body of Sauk warriors
had crossed northern Indiana just at the beginning of the war.
The Removal of the Miamis and Pottawattomies
The excitement caused by the Black
Hawk War was the doom of the Indian population in Indiana. Although the Indians of Indiana were perfectly quiet
and had nothing to do with causing: the scare, the settlers seemed
unable to
accustom themselves to their presence
in the neighbor-hood.
As early as 1819 Congress had discussed plans
for civilizing the Indians.10 A law of that year gave the President power to use $10,000 to pay the
tuition of Indian children in mission schools. Several mission schools
had been
established in the State and were
said to have done good work. However, there was no well organized
support back of the law and
nothing on a considerable scale was accomplished.
In 1822 the system of
government traders was abolished and a horde of irresponsible, depraved
traders were turned into the
Indian country. These small traders carried whisky to the Indian
villages and traded it for furs.
They were, in fact, poorly disguised
robbers.
Various
missionaries and other friends of the Indians soon began to plead for
help. Most of them agreed that
it would be better to get the Indians beyond the frontier. It was a
policy of the Jacksonian Democrats to get them out
of the way of the white settlers. The
law of May 28, 1830, permitted any Indian tribe that dared to, to trade
its land along the border for
lands beyond the Mississippi.'8 The law of July 9,1832, Which provided
for a complete reorganization
of the Indian service, also
appropriated $20,000 to hold councils among the Indiana Indians in
order to induce them to
migrate beyond the Mississippi.
During the
summer of 1888, and later, agents were busy along the upper Wabash and
on Eel river gathering up parties
of Indians and transporting them to the West A favorite plan was to
give horses to a number of chiefs and pay
their way out to the new country on a
tour of inspection. If necessary, these were then bribed to give a
glowing report of the country
they had seen. The Indians were by that means persuaded to emigrate."
The best
illustration of the hatred which the Indiana settlers bore toward the
Indians is their treatment of the Pottawattomies, whom they forcibly
expelled from the State in the summer of 1838. The Pottawattomies
originally hunted
over the region south of Lake
Michigan, north of the Wabash, and west of the St. Joseph and St.
Mary's rivers.
They were
usually hostile to the Americans when war was on. They led in the
Indian massacre at Fort Dearborn, and in the attack on Fort Wayne and Fort
Harrison. Most of the warriors under the Prophet at Tippecanoe, as well
as those who perpetrated the
Pigeon Roost murders and harassed the White river border from Vallonia
to the Wabash above Vincennes
during the following years, were thought to be Pottawattomies. On the
other hand, they had given the
settlers the land for the Michigan Road—a body of land equal to a strip
a mile wide from the Ohio to the lake. Few settlers penetrated their lake-region
hunting grounds before 1830. Beginning as early as 1817, in a treaty at Fort Meigs, the government
adopted the unfortunate policy of making special reservations for Indian chiefs who refused to join the tribe in
selling land. As a result of this policy several bands of
Pottawattomies had special
reservations in Marshall and adjoining counties. The treaty of 1832
took from the tribe its tribal lands, leaving Chief Menominee a reservation around Twin
Lakes and extending up to the present city of Plymouth. Down around Maxinkuckee, Chief Aubbeenaubee had a
large reservation. Chief Benack and his village lived on a reservation
in Tippecanoe township.
In fact, Indians claimed and occupied the whole county except the strip
of land given for the Michigan
Road, a mile wide, stretching across the country north and south
through Plymouth.
In 1834 a
commission tried to buy the Indian land and succeeded in making a
contract for most of it at fifty cents an acre. But on account of some
individual reservations made in the treaty the government refused to
ratify the purchase.
Col. Abel
C. Pepper, of Lawrenceburg, then Indian agent, succeeded, in 1836, in
buying the Indians out at $1
per acre, giving the Indians the privilege of remaining two years on
the lands. The Indians asserted that this cession
was obtained by unfair means, but it
seemed to have been accomplished as most others had been.
Anticipating: the land sale which was to take place when the Indian
lease expired, August 5, 1838, squatters began to enter the country and settle on the
Indian land. They expected to hold their land later by the right of
pre-emption. The Indians began
to show resentment as the time for their forced migration approached.
They contended that the chiefs
had no right to sell the lands, and went so far as to murder one of the
chiefs who had "touched the quill."
General
Morgan and Colonel Pepper were busy among them, trying to persuade them
that in the west was a much
better place for them. Councils were held at Plymouth and at Dixie
Lake, but the red men were obdurate. Then Col.
Edward A. Hannegan, later a United
States senator from Indiana, came from the post with a company of
militia to see what effect
that would have. It had none.
Pioneers
had already squatted on the Indian lands. On August 5 these squatters
demanded possession of the Indian
huts and fields. Many of the Indians had been induced to plant corn.
They were told that the government
would not sell their land till it was
surveyed, and that could not be done during the summer of 1838.
The Indians refused to give
possession and both parties resorted to violence. The fur traders in
the region sided with the
Indians and advised them to resist the squatters. The Catholic priest
located at the Twin Lake Mission also advised them that the squatters had no
right to demand their land, especially the crop of corn which was now
raised.
A squatter
named Waters, it seems, was especially persistent in demanding that the
Indians give him possession of
a quarter section of land he had laid claim to. About the middle of
August some Indians battered down his cabin door with an ax. In return the squatters
joined together and burned eight or ten wigwams.
The
pioneers along the frontier were expecting trouble. It had been only a
few years since the scare of the Black Hawk War. The Miamis had been sullen all
the season. Stragglers from the transported tribes were returning from
the west and telling how their
fellows had suffered from cold and hunger out on the plains. So when
word was received that the
Indians were committing acts of violence the government acted swiftly.
Colonel
Pepper called all the warriors together in council at Twin Lakes,
August 29. He could do nothing with them, however. The old men had tost
control of the young bucks. All flatly refused to leave, saying that
both they and the President
had been deceived. While they were sitting in council John Tipton with
the militia arrived. The
government agents had been preparing all summer for the removal of the
tribe, but perhaps would not have done it till the cool weather of the autumn.
As soon as
Oekmel Pepper of Logansport had heard of the first Indian
depredation—and he heard as soon as a courier from the squatters could reach
him, August 26—he at once sent a dispatch by mounted courier to Governor
David Wallace asking for a good
general and at least one hundred soldiers. He reported that the
Pottawattomies on Yellow river
were in arms and an outbreak was expected at any moment This message
reached Governor
Wallace on the next day. The same day
he received word the governor sent an order by courier to John Tipton of Logansport ordering him to muster the
Cass and Miami county militia and proceed with all haste to the Scene
of trouble.
Tipton lost
no time in enrolling the militia. They left Logansport at one p. m.
August 29. At ten o'clock that
night they went into camp at Chippewa. Breaking camp at 3 a. m. they
reached Twin Lakes as above noted and found Colonel Pepper and the Indians in
council. Tipton at once stated his business, scolding the chiefs for the depredations. The Indians made no excuses
fof the outbreaks and again refused to leave their homes. From the report it seems clear the whites were the
aggressors and had done nearly all the damage. Tipton Wasted no words, but established a camp on an island in
the lake and detained all the Indians present, about 200. As all the
leaders were
present it was easy to control the
rest All were disarmed as soon as found.
Squads of
soldiers patrolled the country in all directions looking; for the
Indians and driving them in. Many, fearing harm to those at council, came in
to see what was wrong. By September 1 more than 700 were rounded up. All the Indian wigwams and cabins were
destroyed. Their ponies and all their other property were brought into
camp.
Early on
the morning of September 4 Tipton commenced to load the thirteen army
wagons in which their goods
were to be moved. About 400 horses were found and kept on the island
till ready to start. The procession left the Twin Lakes, September 4, and dragged its
mournful way south over the Michigan Road through Chippewa,
twenty-one miles
distant, going into camp at sunset. Father Petti t, the missionary whom
Bishop Brute had stationed there, had been allowed to gather the Indians into the little chapel
and say a farewell mass before they started. The first day's march was
excessively tiresome. No water
could be found for drinking and the road was dusty. They traveled from
9 a. m. to sunset, the mounted
guard prodding on the laggards.
Next day
forty-one persons were unable to move. Others had to wait on the sick.
Beef, flour, and bacon had been
ordered from Logansport, forty-six miles distant, but only a little
reached them.
On
September 5 they reached Mud creek. Twenty guards deserted during the day, stealing Indian
horses on which to get away. On September 6 the Indians marched
seventeen miles reaching
Logansport, about 800 strong. They waited near the town three days for
the government agents to make
better arrangements for traveling. One-half the militia were discharged
and half were kept to accompany
the Indians to the State line.
By this
time the Indian children and old people were completely worn out. The
children, especially, were dying
in great numbers, not being used to such fare. Physicians from
Logansport reached them on the 9th and reported three hundred unfit for travel. The march
from this time was not so rapid. William Polke took a small detachment of troops and revisited the abandoned
villages to see if any Indians had returned. Several children died
during the stay at Logansport.
September
10, they started at 9 a. m. and skirted the north bank of the Wabash
all day, reaching Winnamac's
old village by 5 p. m. Food was very scarce. The priest was given
permisison to say mass every evening. They left Winnamac's old village at 10 a. m.,
marched seventeen miles on the 11th, and camped at Pleasant Run at 5 p.
m.
Next day
they forded the Tippecanoe at 11 a. m. and passed the Battleground at
12 m. Here Tipton distributed
to the Indians $6,000 worth of dry-goods, hoping by this means to raise
their spirits somewhat.
Chief
Wewissa's mother died on the 12th at the extreme age of 100. She had
asked to be killed and buried with her fathers at the Mission and the chief had
decided to humor her, but the white men would not permit it.
On
September 13th they reached Lagrange on the Wabash, a short distance
below Lafayette, marching
eighteen miles. One hundred and sixty were under the care of Dr.
Ritchie and son, the attending physicians. The physicians were almost entirely out of
medicine. The children were dying at the rate of from three to five a
day. On the 14th they reached
Williamsport. On the 16th they reached Danville, 111. Heat and dust
were getting worse. Large
numbers of sick had to be left in the road. Horses were worn out and
the guards were nearly all sick,
and unable to proceed.
At Sandusky
Point, on the 18th of September, Tipton turned the command over to
Judge William Polke, who had
been appointed by the national government to superintend the removal.
Judge Polke, Father Pettit, and an escort of fifteen
men continued with the broken tribe to their destination on the Osage river, in Kansas.
The journey
required about two months and cost the lives of one-fifth of the tribe.A few Indians remained in Indiana
scattered on small reservations in various parts of the State. The
larger numbers of these were
on the lower Mississinewa, around Maxinkuckee Lake, and around the
small lakes in Kosciusko county.
As citizens they were no match in their business dealings with their
white neighbors. They gradually
parted with their lands and spent the proceeds. A few remain at
present, respected and treated well by their white neighbors. They have taken on
enough of the white man's thrift and culture to convince anyone that
the whole tribe might, under
more fortunate circumstances, have been saved to civilization.