January 21, 2001

Indian State, Almost

Was it murder, or an untimely death from smallpox, that squelched an all-Indian 14th state of the Union?

Ohio Country had been set aside by King Gorge III as a reservation for Indians - an effort to pacify America's western frontier following the French and Indian War.

A royal proclamation issued Oct. 7, 1763, in London forbid colonial settlement beyond the Ohio River and regulated purchases of land from Indians east of stated limits. It also ordered squatters in Ohio County "forthwith to remove themselves."

Indian territory west of the proclamation line was put under military control Former French territories were divided into three provinces: East Florida, West Florida and Quebec. The latter included the entire Northwest Territory.

King George's decree, promulgated without consultation with American colonists, infuriated both the settled east coast and the "borderers" on the frontiers of New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The hot heads of New England railed about "taxation without representation." Land-hungry frontiersmen, however, muttered darkly about "reservations without representation."

When the Revolution War seemed lost by Americans, General George Washington's officers seriously considered mutiny. The Continental Congress in 1780 stiffened the resolve of soldiers by promising to open the Ohio Country to settlers after victory.

Principal Indians occupying Ohio at this time were the Leni-Lenape, meaning "real men." They are better known to history as the Delaware -- an English name for the river along which they were living when Europeans came.

The Delaware had no love for the British. Yet, the Indians hated the advancing colonists more. Nevertheless, when the second Continental Congress proclaimed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the Ohio Indians knew the time had come to take sides.

A "great council" to decide the matter was held by the Delawares at Goschachgunk (Coshockton, Ohio) on Aug. 14, 1776. Pipe, representing the Wolf clan, was pro-British. However, White Eyes of the Turtle clan and Kill Buck of the Turkey division persuaded the council to ask the new American government for a liaison agent to come and live among them.

The message was addressed to "The Thirteen States of America" and signed by "King New Comer, Capt. White Eyes, Capt. Kill Buck and John Kill Buck." It was the first recognition of the new nation.

The request was pigeonholed for more than a year. Americans were too hard pressed to stave off the British on the coast to worry much about the wild hinterland.

Finally, in early 1778, the fortunes of war improved sufficiently for Americans that they could consider a campaign against Fort De Trois (Detroit). For this extended assault, an alliance with the Delaware would be necessary to insure a peaceful march through their territory.

Congress asked that a delegation of Delawares come to Philadelphia to discuss the proposal. Attending for the Indians were "Capt. White Eyes, Capt. John Kill Buck and Capt. Pipe" representing the three divisions of the Delaware Nation. They were presented to Congress and accorded the dignities of visiting heads of state.

John Anderson was appointed "ambassador" to the tribe and directed to negotiate an agreement that would permit Americans to travel through Delaware territory on the Great Trail to Detroit.

The Indian representatives readily agreed to provisions which obligated them to "supply at full pay, corn, meat, and horses and to join the troops of the United States with such number of their best and most expert warriors as they can spare."

For its part, the United States guaranteed the "nation of Delawares, and their heirs, all their territorial rights in the fullest and most ample manner, as it hath been bounded by former treaties."

White Eyes, supported by John Kill Buck, insisted that the treaty also provide for an all-Indian 14th State. Accordingly language was incorporated which was far reaching in its implications:

"And it is further agreed on between the contracting parties that should it for the future be found conducive for the mutual interest of both parties, to invite any other tribes who have been friends to the interest of the United States, to join the present confederation; and to form a state whereof the Deleware Nation shall be the head, and have a representation in Congress."

The treaty was signed Sept. 17, 1778, at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh). Making their marks for the Delaware were "White Eyes, Pipe and John Kill Buck. Principal signer for the United States was Brig. Gen. Andrew Lewis, the victor at a notable battle a few years earlier with other Indians at Point Pleasant on the Ohio River.

Among the witnesses was Col. William Crawford who only four years later was to be burned at the state by Capt. Pipe in the final act of a tragedy that killed hopes for cooperation between Americans and Indians.

Treachery

White Eyes volunteered to guide the troops of Gen. Lachlan McIntosh through Ohio Country. They marched for two weeks with sheep and cattle and reached Beaver Town (Bolivar, Ohio) on the Tuscarawas River.

There he received two staggering communications. Congress was unable to send any supplies. Worst of all, McIntosh was informed that White Eyes had been killed by an American soldier -- whether by accident or design was not clear.

The official explanation - to prevent an uprising amongst the friendly segment of Delawares -- was that White Eyes had died of smallpox.

However, Col. George Morgan, Indian agent at Fort Pitt, six years later wrote a confidential letter to Congress in which he claimed that White Eyes had been "treacherously put to death!" The assertion was never explained.

Whatever the cause of White Eyes' death, dying with him was his dream of a united Indian state of America. The concept, of recent origin, had not yet been discussed in Great Council.

Of the other Delaware signers to the confederation treaty, Capt. Pipe distrusted the Americans. John Kill Buck, a young and newly converted Christian, was suspect by the Delawares.

Capt. Pipe, hostile to the American from the beginning, was chosen chief by a Great Council. A despondent Kill Buck went to Fort Pitt with his family to live among his white brothers.

Pipe embraced the British and initiated a series of murderous raids on the Ohio River frontier. What amity had been reached was shattered in 1782 when four Wyandot Indians attacked a lonely American cabin and carried away a mother and child.

The savages killed their prisoners by impaling them on sharp stakes and then fled toward Sandusky (Ohio) where Pipe's clan had a village. Enraged frontiersmen organized a posse to find and execute the murderers.

The guilty party camped overnight near of the Moravian Christian village of 98 converted Indians. Discovery there of a bloodstained dress threw avengers into frenzy. Then began a systemic slaughter of the Moravian Indians amidst the singing of hymns by victims as they knelt to take their deathblows.

Only two small boys were overlooked. Other Indians nearby fled to the protection of Capt. Pipe and his British friends at Upper Sandusky. It was a shameful massacre that even the much-abused borderers condemned.

 American frontiersmen two months later decided to "make a dash" against Pipe's Sandusky stronghold. Militia Col. William Crawford was pressured into accepting the role of commanding officer.

The ensuing battle against Pipe and his warriors at Upper Sandusky was disastrous for the Americans. Col. Crawford was captured and slowly roasted alive by Pipe to the taunts of British soldiers and a renegade white American named Simon Girty.  

The faintest chance for reconciliation between the Americans and Delawares was forever finished.  

 Pipe embraced the British who encouraged opposition to Americans in hope of holding onto the Northwest Territory and its lucrative fur trade.

Gen. Mad Anthony Wayne was called from retirement in 1794 to drive the British out of the Territory, pacify the Indians and finally bring all under United States control - without an all-Indian state.

Author: Lindsey Williams

Cutline - Indian group, 3 col.

Illustration provided  

[  A Delaware Great Council petitioned the newly declared United States to become a 14th all-Indian state. ]

oooo end opoooo