Allen County, Indiana - Chapter 4: Indian Treaties at and Affecting Fort Wayne, 1880

By the treaty of Greenville, Ohio, concluded on the 3d day of August, 1795, between Maj. Gen. Anthony Wayne, commanding the army of the United States, and sole Commissioner for the good purposes above mentioned, "to put an end to a destructive war, to settle all controversies, and to restore harmony and friendly intercourse between the said United States and Indian tribes '' - and the "Sachems, Chiefs and Warriors" of " the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanoes, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Miamis, Eel Rivers, Weas, Kickapoos, Piankcshaws and Kaskaskias - the first agreement concerning the lands and the grant thereof by the Indians at and in the vicinity of Fort Wayne was consum¬ mated. The scope and purpose of that treaty, so far as the purposes of this work are concerned, can best be determined by a reference to some of the con¬ ference proceedings incident to the conclusion of the treaty as we find it. In these discussious, the principal subject of controversy, and which needed to be settled, was that in reference to the validity of cessions made by former treaties, in which, as the Indians claimed, they had not been fully represented. To Little Turtle, then, who best represented the interests and rights of the Miamis of this locality, let us look for an explanation of the matters in issue. Gen. Wayne having previously explained the basis upon which he expected to consummate this treaty, Little Turtle, in reply, said, " You have informed us that the treaty of Muskingum shall be the foundation on which the preseut treaty shall be founded. That treaty was held by the six nations, and by a few youDg men of the Chippeways, Ottawas and. Pottawatomies. We, Miamis and Wabash tribes, are totally unacquainted with it."

Other members of the council having spoken, Little Turtle added : " I wish to ask of you (elder brother) and my brothers present one question. I would be glad to know what lands have been ceded to you, as I am informed, in this particular. I expect that the lands on the Wabash and in this country belong to me and my people. I now take the opportunity to inform my brothers of the United States, and others present, that there are men of sense and understanding among my people, as well as among theirs, and that these lands were disposed of without our knowledge or consent. I was yesterday surprised when I heard from our grandfathers, the Delawares, that these lands had been ceded by the British to the Americans, when the former were beaten by and made peace with the latter, because you had before told us that it was the Wyandots, Delawares, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Sauckeys who made this cession."

On the following day, July 22, Little Turtle resumed, and addressing Gen. Wayne, said, " I hope you will pay attention to what I now say to you. I wish to inform you where your younger brothers, the Miamis, live ; and also the Potta¬ watomies of St. Joseph, together with the Wabash Indians. You have pointed out to us the boundary line between the Indians and the United States ; but I now take the liberty to inform you that that line cuts off from the Indians a large portion of country which has been enjoyed by my forefathers, time imme¬ morial, without restriction or dispute. The prints of my ancestors' houses are everywhere to be seen in this portion. I was a little astonished to hear you and my brothers, who are now present, telling each other what business you had transacted together heretofore, at Muskingum, concerning this country. It is well known by all my brothers present that my forefathers kindled the first fire at Detroit; from thence ho extended his lines to the head-waters of Scioto, from thence to the mouth, from thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash, and from thence to Chicago, on Lake Michigan. At this place I first saw my elder brothers, the Shawanoes.

" I have now informed you of the boundaries of the Miami nations, where the Great Spirit placed my forefather a longtime ago, and charged him not to sell or part with his lands, but to preserve them for his posterity. This charge has been handed down to me. I was much surprised to find that my brothers differed so much from me on this subject, for their conduct would lead me to suppose that the Great Spirit and their forefathers, had not given them the same charge that was given to me ; but, on the contrary, had directed them to sell their lands to any white man who wore a hat, as soon as he should ask it of them. Now, elder brother, your younger brothers, the Miamis, have pointed out to you their country, and also to our brothers present. When I hear your remarks and proposals on tins subject, I will be ready to give you an answer. I came with an expectation of hearing you say good things, but I have not yet heard what I had expected."

I wo days later, Gen. Wayne, addressing the Miamis, said: " I have paid attention to what the Little Turtle said two days since, concerning the lands which he claims. He said his father kindled the fire at Detroit, and stretched his line from there to the head-waters of the Scioto ; thence down the same to the Ohio - thence down that river to the mouth of the Wabash, and thence to Chicago, on the southwest end of Lake Michigan ; and observed that his forefathers had enjoyed that country undisturbed, from time immemorial.

" Brothers ! these boundaries inclose a very large space of country indeed - they embrace, if I mistake not, all the lands on which all the nations now present live, as well as those which have been ceded to the United States. The lands which have been ceded within these three days have been acknowledged by the Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Wyandots, Delawares and Shawanoes. The Little Turtle says the prints of his forefather's houses are everywhere to be seen within these boundaries. Younger brothers ! it is true these prints are to be observed, but at the same time we discover the marks of French possessions throughout this country, which were established long before we were born. These have since been in the possession of the British, who must, in their turn, relinquish them to the United States, when they, the French and the Indians, will be all as one people.

" I will point out to you a few places where I discover strong traces of these establishments; and first of all, I find at Detroit a very strong print, where the fire, was first kindled by your forefathers ; next at Vincennes, on the Wabash ; again at Musquiton, on the same river ; a little higher up the stream, they are to be seen at Ouitanon. I discover another strong trace at Chicago ; another on the St. Joseph's of Lake Michigan. I have seen distinctly the prints of a French and of a British post, at the Miami villages, and of a British post at the foot of the rapids, now in their possession. Prints very conspicuous are on the Great Miami, which were possessed by the French forty-five years ago ; and another trace is very dis¬ tinctly to be seen at Sandusky."

" It appears to me that if the Great Spirit, as you say, charged your fore¬ fathers to preserve their lands entire, for their posterity, they have paid very little regard to the sacred injunction, for I see they have parted with those lands to your fathers, the French, and the English are now, or have been, in possession of them all ; therefore, I think the charge urged against the Ottawas, Chippewas and other Indians, comes with a bad grace, indeed, from the very people who, per¬ haps, set them the example. The English and French both wore hats, and yet your forefathers sold them, at various times, portions of your lands. However, as I have already observed, you shall now receive from the United States further valuable compensations for the lands you have ceded to them by former treaties. .

" Younger brothers ! I will now inform you who it was who gave us these lands in the first instance; if was your fathers, the British, who did not discover that care for your interests which you ought tojiave experienced."

On a subsequent day, Gen. Wayne further explained the grounds for the proposed treaty in the following language: " You will consider that the principal part of the now proposed reservations were made and ceded by the Indians, at an early period, to the French ; the French, by the treaty of peace of 1763, ceded them to the British, who, by the treaty of 1783, ceded all the posts and possessions they then held, or to which they had any claim, south of the great lakes, to the United States of America. The treaty of Muskingum embraced almost all these reservations, and has been recognized by the representatives of all the nations now present, during the course of last winter, as the basis upon which this treaty should be founded."

Frequently, during the progress of the conference, Little Turtle, as the master mind among the Indians, with the manifest desire to have all the repre¬ sentatives of tribes present fully understand all the details of the deliberations, harangued them upon the subject, requesting that they be not precipitate, but consider well what they were doing. He replied, also, to some of the statements of Gen. Wayne, who had spoken of the habitations of the French and English traders at the Miamis' village and elsewhere, saying : " I will iuform you in what manner the French and English occupied these places.

" Elder brothers ! These people were seen by our forefathers first at Detroit ; afterward they saw them at the Miami village - that glorious gate which your younger brothers had the happiness to own, and through which all the good words of our chiefs had to pass, from the nprth to the south, and from the east to the west. Brothers, these people never told us they wished to purchase our lands from us.

" Elder brothers 1 I now give you the true sentiments of your younsrer brothers, the Miamis, with respect to the reservation at the Miami villages. We thank you for kindly contracting the limits you at first proposed. We wish you to take this six miles square, on this side of the river where your fort now stands, as your younger brothers wish to inhabit that beloved spot again. You shall cut hay for your cattle wherever you please, aud you shall never require in vain the assistance of your younger brothers at that place.

" Elder brothers ! The next place you pointed to was the Little Iliver, and said you wanted two miles square at that place. This is a request that our fath¬ ers, the French or British, never made us - it was always ours. This carryingplace has heretofore proved, in a great degree, the subsistence of your younger brothers. That place has brought us, in the course of one day, the amount of one hundred dollars. Let us both own this place and enjoy in common the advantages it affords. You told us, at Chicago, the French possessed a fort; we have never heard of it. We thank you for the trade you promised to open in our country ; and permit us to remark that we wish our former traders may be continued and mixed with yours."

A day or two afterward, when the deliberations were nearly concluded, Gen. Wayne again spoke, addressing the Miamis; after reviewing generally the objec¬ tions stated by them to the proposed terms, he said :

" I find there is some objection to the reservation at Fort Wayne. The Little Turtle observes he never heard of any cessions made at that place to the French. I have traced the lines of two forts at that point - one stood at the junction of the St. Joseph's and the St. Mary's, and the other not far removed, on the St. Mary's ; and it is ever an established rule among Europeans to reserve as much ground around their forts as their cannon can command ; this is a rule as well known ns any other fact.

" Objection has also been made respecting the portage between Fort Wayne and Little lliver, and the reasons produced are that the road has been to the Miamis a source of wealth ; that it has heretofore produced them $100 per day. It may be so ; but let us inquire, who in fact paid this heavy contribution ? It is true, the traders bore it in the first instance ; but they laid it on their goods, and the Indians of the Wabash really and finally paid; therefore, it is the Little Beaver, the Soldier, the Sun and their tribes who have actually been so highly taxed. The United States will always be their own carriers to and from their different posts. Why, then, should the United States pay the large sum of S8,000 annually if they were not to enjoy the privilege of open roads to and from their reservations? This sum the United States agree to pay for this and other considerations; and the share which the Miamis will receive of this annuity shall be $1,000. * * * The Miamis shall be at liberty, as usual, to employ themselves for private traders whenever their assistance may be required, and those people that have lived at that glorious gate (the Miami villages) may now rekindle their fires at that favorite spot, and henceforth, as in their happiest days, be at full liberty to receive from and send to all quarters the speeches of their chiefs, as usual, and here is the road the Miamis will remem¬ ber."

The treaty was concluded on the 3d of August, all the provisions and stipu¬ lations having been thoroughly considered and assented to by all the representa¬ tives of tribes present.

When the essential provisions had been agreed upon, Little Turtle expressed his satisfaction in the following forcible language: "Elder brother! Your younger brothers, the Miamis, now thank you for the sentiments you have expressed and for burying the hatchet. They offer, at the same time, their acknowledgments to their elder brother of the fifteen fires for throwing his toma¬ hawk. with so strong an arm, into the great ocean. We are convinced of the sincerity with which these actions are performed. I do not believe the hatchet was ever before buried so deep. I fancy it has always, heretofore, been cast into shallow, running water, which has washed it up on dry land, where some of our foolish young men have always found it, to involve their people in trouble."

The provisions of that treaty, especially affecting this locality, are the following : "And for the same considerations, and as an evidence of the returning friendship of the said Indian tribes, of their confidence in the United States and desire to provide for the convenient intercourse, which will be beneficial to both parties, the said Indian tribes do also cede to the United States the following pieces of land, to wit : One piece six miles square at or near the confluence of the rivers St. Mary's and St. Joseph's, where Fort Wayne now stands, or near it. One piece two miles square on the Wabash River, at the end of the portage from the Miami of the lake aud about eight miles westward from Fort Wayne.

" And the said Indian tribes will allow to the people of the United States a free passing by land and by water as one and the other shall be found convenient through their country along the chain of posts hereinbefore mentioned, that is to say, from the commencement of the portage aforesaid, at or near Loramie's store, thence along said portage to the St. Mary's and down the same to Fort Wayne, then down the Miami to Lake Erie ; * * * also from Fort Wayne,

This treaty was signed on the part of the Miamis by Na-goh-quan-gogh, or Le Gris; Mesh-a-kun-no guah, or Little Turtle, and by Wa-pa-mun gwa, or White Loon.

On the 7th day of June, 1803, a treaty was held at Fort Wayne, between Gen. " William H. Harrison, Governor of the Indiana Territory, Superintendent of Indian Affairs and Commissioner Plenipotentiary of the United States for concluding any treaty or treaties which may be found necessary with any of the Indian tribes northwest of the Ohio, of the one part, and the tribes of Indians called the Delawares, Shawanoes, Pottawatomies, Miamis and Kickapoos by their chiefs and head warriors and those of the Eel Rivers, Weas, Piankeshaws and Kaskaskias, by their agents and representatives, Tuthinipec, Winnemac, Ricbeville and Little Turtle, of the other part."

It was the purpose of this treaty among other things to re-adjust the bound¬ aries of certain lands reserved by the United States for their use adjacent to the post of St. Vincennes, by the fourth article of the treaty of Greenville, prescrib¬ ing new boundaries for said reservations and relinquishing all right of the United States to any lands adjoining to or in the neighborhood thereof. This treaty also was signed on the part of the Miamis by Chiefs Richeville and Little Turtle. The cessions of land to the United States by this treaty embraced an area of about one million six hundred thousand acres.

Another treaty was held here, which was concluded and signed on the 30tli day of September. 1809, between William II. Harrison, Commissioner on the part of the United States, and the Delawares, Pottawatomies, Miamis and Eel River Miamis, by which the Indian tribes named ceded to the United States all the tract of country included between the boundary line established by the treaty of Fort Wayne, the Wabash and a line drawn from the mouth of Raccoon Creek, so as to strike the boundary line established by the treaty of Grouseland, near

Vincennes. In this treaty, the Miamis explicitly acknowledged the equal right of the Delawares with themselves to the country watered by the White River, neither party having the right to dispose of the same without the consent of the other. The compensation to the Miamis for the cessions made to the United States was an annuity of $500. The amount of land ceded to the United States by this treaty was estimated at about two million nine hundred thousand acres. Since the validity of this treaty depended upon its ratification by the Weas, that tribe, on the 26th of October following, confirmed the same by a separate article of the last-named treaty, upon the request of the Miami nation ; additional compensa¬ tion was allowed them, and it was therefore " agreed, that the United States shall deliver for their use, in the course of the next spring, at Fort Wayne, domestic animals to the amount of $500, and the like number for the two follow¬ ing years, and that an armory shall be also maintained at Fort Wayne, for the use of the Iudians, as heretofore. * * * * The United States

By the treaty at St. Mary's, Ohio, on the 6th day of October, 1818, between Jonathan Jennings, Lewis Cass and Benjamin Parke, Commissioners on the part of the United States and the Miami Indians, the latter ceded to the former the following tract of country : " Beginning at the Wabash River, where the present

Indian boundary line crosses the same, near the mouth of Raccoon Creek; thence up the Wabash River to the reserve at its head near Fort Wayne ; thence to the reserves at Fort Wayne; thence with the lines thereof to the St. Mary's River; thence up the St. Mary's River to the reservation at the Portage ; thence to the reservation at Loramie's Store ; thence, with the present Indian boundary line, to Fort Recovery ; and with said line * * * * to the place of

From said cession, certain reservations were made, among others, a " reser¬ vation of ten miles square opposite the mouth of the river A. Bouette" [Aboite]. " To Jean Bapt. Richardville, principal chief of the Miami nation of Indians * * * three sections of land, beginning almost twenty-five rods below his house on the river St. Mary's, near Fort Wayne ; thence, at right angles with the course of the river, one mile ; and from this line and the said river, up the stream thereof for quantity. Two sections upon the east side of the St. Mary's River, near Fort Wayne, running east one mile with the military reser¬ vation ; thence from that line, and from the river for quantity.

"To Joseph Ricliardville and Joseph Richardville, Jr., two sections of land, being one on each side of the St. Mary's River, and below the reservation made on that river by the treaty of Greenville, in 1795.

" To Frangois La Fontaine, and his son, two sections of land, adjoining and above the two sections granted to Jean Bapt. Richardville, near Fort Wayne, and on the same side of the St. Mary's River.

" To the son of George Hunt, one section of land on the west side of the St. Mary's River, adjoining the two sections granted to Frangois La Fontaine and his son.

"To Josette Beaubien, one section of land an the left bank of the St. Mary's, above and adjoining the three sections granted to Jean Bapt. Richard¬ ville."

At a later date, by treaty between Lewis Cass, James B. Ray and John Tipton, Commissioners on the part of the United States, and the chiefs and warriors of the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians, held at the mouth of the Mississinewa, upon the Wabash, in the State of Indiana, on the 16th day of October, 1826, further territory was ceded in part, lying within the present boundary of this county, being that part between the St. Joseph's and the Maumee; also, that part west of the boundary line established by the treaty of St. Mary's, with the Miamis in 1818. Out of this certain individual reservations were made, among others, " To Eliza C. Kercheval, one section on the Miami River, commencing at the first place where the road from Fort Wayne to Detroit strikes the Miami, on the north side thereof, about five miles below Fort Wayne, and from that point running half a mile down the river, and half a mile up the river, and back for quantity.

" To James Knaggs, son of the sister of Okeos, chief of the River Huron Pottawatomies, one section of land upon the Miami, where the boundary line between Indiana and Ohio crosses the same.

" To John B. Bourie, of Indian descent, one section of land, to be located on the Miami River, adjoining the old boundary line below Fort Wayne.

" To Joseph Parke, an Indian, one section of land, to be located at the point where the boundary line strikes the St. Joseph's, near Metea's village."

A week afterward, on the 23d day of October. 1826, a treaty was held on the same ground, between the same Commissioners on the part of the United States, and the chiefs and warriors of the Miami tribe of Indians, by which the Miamis ceded " to the United States all their claims to land in the State of Indiana, north and west of the Wabash and Miami Rivers, and of the cession made by the said tribe to the United States, by the treaty concluded at St. Mary's, October 6, 1818."

From the cession aforesaid, certain reservations were made for the use of the tribe : "One section for Laventure's daughter, opposite the Islands, about fifteen miles below Fort Wayne.

" And it is agreed that the State of Indiana may lay out a canal or a road through any of the reservations, and for the use of a canal, six chains along the same are hereby appropriated.