History of
by Samuel P. Bates,
Submitted by Gaylene Kerr
Banister
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Chapter VI - Indian History |
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In the State Library of
Pennsylvania at |
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The information above given in
regard to the Eriez is corroborated in a French book
printed in 1703, describing the voyages of Le Baron de Lahonton,
an adventurous Frenchman, who spent ten years among the Indians, commencing
in 1683. "The shores of Lake Erie," he says, "are frequented
by the Iroquois, the |
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Records are in existence which
show that the Eriez were visited by French
missionaries as early as 1626. They were found to be living on terms of amity
with the surrounding warlike tribes, and hence they were designated by the
French, "The Neutral Nation." They were governed by a queen, called
in the own language, Yagowania, and in the Seneca
tongue, Geogosasa, who was regarded as "the
mother of nations," and whose office was that of "keeper of the
symbolic house of peace." The chief warrior of the tribe was Ragnotha, who had his principal location at Tu-shu-way, now |
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Extermination of the Eriez |
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The war of extermination between
the Eriez and the Iroquois occurred about 1650, and
was one of the most cruel in aboriginal history, From the opening it was
understood by both sides to mean the utter ruin of one tribe or the other.
The Eriez organized a powerful body of warriors and
sought to surprise their enemies in their own country. Their plans were
thwarted by a faithless woman who secretly gave the Iroquois warning. The
latter raised a force and marched out to meet the invaders. The engagement
resulted in a complete victory for the Iroquois. Seven times the Eriez crossed the stream dividing the hostile lines and
they were as often driven back with terrible loss. On another occasion
several hundred Iroquois attacked nearly three times their number of ERiez, encamped near the mouth of French Creek, dispersed
them, took many prisoners, and compelled the balance to fly to remote
regions. In a battle near the site of the Cattauraugus
Indian mission house, on the Allegheny River, the loss of the Eriez was enormous. Finally a pestilence broke out among
the Eriez, which swept away greater numbers even
than the club and arrow." The Iroquois took advantage of their
opportunity to end all fear of future trouble from the ill-fated Eriez. Those who had been taken captive were, with rare
exceptions, remorselessly butchered, and their wives and children were
distributed among the Iroquois villages, never again to be restored to their
husbands and brothers. The few survivors "fled to distant regions in the
West and South, and were followed by the undying hatred of the Iroquois. * *
* Their council fire was put out, and their name and language as a tribe
lost." Sculptures and embankments on Kelly's Island, in the upper end of
the lake, lead to the impression that it may have been the last stronghold of
the Eriez. |
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Traces of the tribe were
occasionally found by the French Jesuits in their wanderings through the
eastern wilderness. A number were living as helots among the Onondagas of New
York. They appealed to the missionaries to aid them in securing their
freedom, but abandoned all hope when the request was refused. An early French
writer, describing the Christian village of La Prairie, says a portion of the
settlement was made up of fugitive Eriez. Students
of Indian history are generally of the belief that the tribe was at one time
considerably ahead of the other aborigines of North America in progress and
intelligence. |
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The Six Nations |
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"The peculiar location of
the Iroquois gave them an immense advantage. On the great channels of water
communication to which their territories were contiguous, they were enabled
in all directions to carry war and devastation to the neighboring or to the
more distant nations. Nature had endowed them with height, strength and
symmetry of person which distinguished them at a glance among the individuals
of other tribes. They were brave as they were strong; but ferocious and cruel
when excited in savage warfare; crafty, treacherous and overreaching, when
these qualities best suited their purposes. The proceedings of their grand
council were marked with great decorum and solemnity. In eloquence, in
dignity and profound polity, their speakers might well bear comparison with
the statesmen of civilized assemblies. By an early alliance with the Dutch on
the Hudson they secured the use of firearms, and were thus enabled, not only
to repel the encroachments of the French, but also to exterminate, or reduce
to a state of vassalage, many Indian nations. From these they exacted an
annual tribute, or acknowledgment of fealty, permitting them however, in that
condition, to occupy their former hunting grounds. The humiliation of
tributary nations was, however, tempered with a paternal regard for their
interests in all negotiations with the whites, and care was taken that no
trespass should be committed on their rights, and that they should be justly
dealt with." |
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Jean de Lambertbille,
a French officer in the Indian territory, writing under date of January 10,
1684, said: "Presents, conjoined with kindness, are arms which the
Iroquois scarcely ever resist; on the other hand, threats, or even war, would
have been equally fatal to the colony. * * The Iroquois is daring, well
armed, and makes war like a thief." M. Denonville,
writing a year later, said of the various Indian tribes: "The Iroquois
are the most formidable; they daily make prisoners among their neighbors,
whose children they carry off at an early age and adopt." |
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French and English Intrigues |
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Friendly as the Six Nations were
toward the French in a commercial sense, they did not take kindly at first to
the occupation of their country by armed bodies of the latter. The expedition
of Sieur Marin (or Morang),
in 1753, and the erection of forts at Presque Isle and LeBoeuf,
worked them up to a spirit of bitter resentment. A delegation of Senecas waited upon that officer at LeBoeuf
to inquire of him "by a belt" whether he "was marching with a
banner uplifted or to establish tranquility." He answered that his
purpose was to support and assist them in their necessities, and to drive
away the evil spirits that encompessed them and
disturbed the earth, meaning the English. His manner and conduct appeased
them, so that the Allegheny River Senecas zealously
assisted the French with horses and provisions. During the fall of the year,
the chiefs of the several tribes bordering on the lake and the Allegheny
River were called together at LeBoeuf, told by the
French commander that he could advance no further on account of the winter, but
would be on hand in the spring with a strong force, and threatened with
vengeance if they took sides with the English. On Washington's visit to LeBoeuf, in 1753, he learned that in addition to the Senecas, the Chippeways, Delawares, Chaounans, Ottaways and Orandeeks, tribes
in the interior, were all in league with the French; 600 Indians took part
with the latter at Braddock's defeat. The Indians of Western Pennsylvania
were generally favorable to the French throughout the war. |
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M. de Vandreil,
in a letter from Montreal, dated August 8, 1756, wrote that "the domiciliated Massassauguas of
Presque Isle have been out to the number of ten against the English. They
have taken one prisoner and two scalps, and gave them to cover the death of
M. de St. Pierre." This was the officer who commanded at LeBoeuf when Washington was there, and who was killed in
battle near Lake George in 1754. A large body of Indians was gathered at
Presque Isle in the same year. The small-pox breaking out among them caused
so much alarm that they made haste to return to their homes. |
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In 1757, the English seem to
have won some of the tribes over to their side, for we learn from the
Pennsylvania Archives that the French kept "100 men in garrison at
Presque Isle, being apprehensive that the English and the Indians might
attack them there," and by 1759 the nation had reached the conclusion
that they could very well dispense with the presence of both. M. de Vandreil, writing from Montreal, on March 31 of that
year, state that "There is reason to presume that the Indians would wish
there were neither French nor English at the beautiful river (the Allegheny),
and that they are heartily tired of the war" -- a wish that is not
surprising, as they were the greatest sufferers. |
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Pontiac's Conspiracy |
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Capture of LeBoeuf
and Presque Isle |
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"There had been hot
fighting before Presqu'ile was taken. Could courage
have saved it, it never would have fallen. * * At one of its angles was a
large block-house, a species of structure much used in the petty forest
warfare of the day. It was two stories in height, and solidly built of
massive timber; the diameter of the upper story exceeding that of the lower
by several feet, so that through the openings in the projecting floor of the
former the defenders could shoot down upon the heads of an enemy assailing
the outer wall below. The roof being covered with shingles might easily be
set on fire, but to guard against this there was an opening through which the
garrison, partially protected by a covering of plank, might pour down the
water upon the flames. * * And now the defenders could see the Indians
throwing up earth and stones behind one of the breastworks; their implacable
foes were laboring to undermine the block-house, a sure and insidious
expedient, against which there was no defense. There was little leisure to
reflect on this new peril, for another, more imminent and horrible, soon
threatened them. The barrels of water always kept in the block-house were
nearly emptied in extinguishing the frequent fires, and though there was a
well in the parade ground, yet to approach it would be certain death. The
only recourse was to dig one in the block-house itself. The floor was torn
up, and while some of the men fired their heated muskets from the loopholes
to keep the enemy in check, the rest labored with desperate energy at this
toilsome and cheerless task. Before it was half completed, the cry of fire
was again raised, and, at the imminent risk of life, they tore off the
blazing shingles and arrested the danger. By this time, it was evening. The
little garrison had fought from earliest daylight without a minute's rest.
Nor did darkness bring relief, for the Indians' guns flashed all night long
from the intrenchments. They seemed determined to
wear out the obstinate defenders by fatigue. While some slept, others in
their turn continued the assault, and morning brought fresh dangers. The
block-house was fired several times during the day, but they kept up their
forlorn and desperate resistance. The house of the commanding officer sank
into glowing embers. The fire on both sides did not cease till midnight, at
which hour a voice was heard in French, calling out that further defense was
useless, since preparations were made to burn above and below at once. Ensign
Christie, the officer in command, demanded if any one spoke English, upon
which a man in Indian dress came forward. He had been made a prisoner in the
French war, and was now fighting against his own countrymen. He said if they
yielded they would be saved alive, if not, they would be burned. Christie
resolved to hold out as long as a shadow of hope remained, and while some of
the garrison slept, the rest watched. They told them to wait until morning.
They assented, and suspended their fire. When morning came, they sent out two
persons, on pretense of treating, but in reality to learn the truth of the
preparations to burn the block-house, whose sides were pierced with bullets
and scorched with fire. In spite of the capitulation, they were surrounded
and seized, and, having been detained for some time in the neighborhood, were
sent as prisoners to Detroit, where Ensign Christie soon made his escape and
gained the fort in safety." |
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Another Account of the Capture
of Presque Isle |
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For some time after the capture
of the forts, the sparsely settled western country was a "dark and
bloody ground" indeed. Hundreds of traders and settlers were shot,
tomahawked and scalped, and no mercy was shown even to the women and
children. Many babes had their brains knocked out before the eyes of their
terror-stricken mothers; many shrieking wives were ravished and murdered in
the presence of their tortured and helpless husbands. It was one of the most
terrible episodes in border history, and seemed for the time to have crushed
out all hope of the advance of civilization into the interior of the country.
A covenant with the Indians of New York and Western Pennsylvania was made in
the fall of 1768, but hostilities, though not upon an extended scale, were
soon renewed. Early in 1784, a British Army of 8,000, under command of Gen.
Bradstreet, passed up the lake in canoes. They stopped at Presque Isle and
dragged their canoes across the neck of the peninsula to avoid paddling
several miles around. After relieving Detroit, Bradstreet returned to Presque
Isle, where on the 12th of August, 1764, he made a treaty of peace with the Delawares and Shawnees, which was scarcely signed till it
was broken. |
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No authentic record of events in
this section can be found from that date until 1794. The fort appears to have
been abandoned, and it is probable that the English made no attempt to
exercise more than nominal control over the country. A few traders wandered
back and forth, but there is no knowledge of any permanent settlement. The
whole region along the south shore of Lake Erie, and for many miles south and
west, was known as the Indian country. Pittsburgh was the nearest white
settlement on the south, and Cherry Valley, New York, on the east. |
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American Occupation |
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The treaties and deed referred to
above were distasteful to a large element of the Six Nations, and even some
of the Senecas refused to acquiesce in them,
charging that Cornplanter and the other chiefs had
been bribed to give the documents their signatures. The Indians regarded the
presence of the State troops with great disfavor, and determined, if
possible, to prevent the settlement of the territory. They were incited to
this course by English emissaries, who hoped that by a rising of the Indian
tribes they might cripple the infant government of the Union, and perhaps
restore the western territory to the British crown. Among the most hostile to
the progress of the Americans was the notorious Brandt, head of the Mohawk
tribe, who still cherished the idea, originated by Pontiac, of building up a
great Indian confederacy and restricting the control of the Union to the
country east of the Allegheny. The following letter, witten
by him on the 19th of July, 1794, to Gov. Simcoe,
of Upper Canada, shows in a clearer light the aid extended to the hostile
Indians by the British authorities: |
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"In regard to the Presque
Isle business, should we not get an answer at the time limited, it is our
business to push those follows hard. * * Should those fellows (the Americans)
not go off, and O'Bail (Cornplanter)
continue in the same opinion, an expedition against those Yankees must of
consequence take place. His excellency has been so good as to furnish us with
a cwt. of powder, and ball in proportion, which is not at Fort Erie, opposite
Buffalo; but, in the event of an attack upon LeBoeuf
people, I could wish, if consistent, that his excellency would order a like
quantity in addition to be at Fort Erie in order to be in readiness;
likewise, I would hope for a little assistance in provisions." |
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It may be stated here that the
Six Nations were dissuaded from joining the confederacy of Western Indians to
oppose the Americans chiefly by the influence of Cornplanter.
His course cost him the confidence of his people, but he was rewarded by the
thanks of the United States Government, and received liberal donations of
land at its hands. |
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Threats of an Indian War |
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The council at Buffalo was
attended by Gen. Israel Chapin, U. S. Superintendent of the Six Nations, who
wrote to the Secretary of War: "I am afraid of the consequences of the
attempt to settle Presque Isle at present. The Indians do not acknowledge the
validity of the Cornplanter sale to
Pennsylvania." By request of the council, he went to LeBoeuf
on or about the 26th of June, 1794, accompanied by Mr. Johnson, British
Indian Agent, and twenty-five chiefs and warriors, to remonstrate with the
State officers at that post against the placing of garrisons in the
Northwest. The representatives of the Six Nations claimed to be anxious to
live at peace with the United States, but pretended to be much disturbed by
the presence of the troops, fearing that it would involve them in strife with
the hostile Indians. They were assured by Ellicott and Denny, the State
officers at LeBoeuf, that the soldiers could not
move from there till ordered, and that they would await the commands of their
superior in authority. The council adjourned without accomplishing anything
of a definite character. During its continuance, it was reported that two armed
British vessels were lying off Presque Isle, evidently for the purpose of
intimidating the State officials. |
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Another Indian council was held
at LeBoeuf on the 4th of July, 1794, at which the chiefs
reiterated their purpose of preventing a garrison being stationed at Presque
Isle. |
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Raids by the Savages |
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A treaty of peace was effected
with the Western tribes by Gen. Wayne at Greenville, Ohio, on the 3d of
August, 1795, and another was made with the Six Nations at Canandaigua, N.
Y., on the 9th of November ensuing. At this latter, which was described in
the annals of the day as "the Great Council," 1,600 Indians were
present, including Cornplanter, who was at the head
of 400 of the Allegheny portion of the Senecas. |
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Indian Villages and Graveyards |
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On the Scouller
farm, directly south from the Martin Warfel place,
and in the southeast corner of the city limits, was an Indian graveyard,
where the boys of forty years ago used to irreverently dig into the mounds and
gather bones as relics. The first field east of the burial ground was cleared
in 1821, and for some years after it was a frequent thing to find stone
hatchets and other rude implements of the aborigines. it was the custom for
many years after the incoming of the whites, for parties of Indians to camp
near by and indulge in peculiar rites in commemoration of their ancestors.
The last Indian encampment was in June, 1841, when about a dozen Indians
spent a couple of days on the site. The mounds have all been plowed down, and
no traces exist of this once sacred spot to the red men. |
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Numerous Indian graves, arrow
heads, pieces of pottery, and other curiosities have been found in a grave on
the Hunter place, bordering French Creek, in LeBoeuf
Township. A graveyard was opened on the Ebersole
farm, east of Erie City, which contained numerous bones, beads and other
Indian remains. All of the bodies were in a sitting position. Graves have
been found in spots all along the Ridge road from Ebersole's
woods to State street in Erie. |
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As to the number of Indians in
this section, the only authority we have is a letter from Andrew Ellicott to
Gov. Mifflin, written from LeBoeuf, in 1794. In
this epistle he said: "When I was at Niagara, in 1789, Mr. Street, who
stored the presents from the British Government for the Six Nations, handed
me a census of their numbers, which had just been taken, and on which the
decision was to be made, and it amounted only to between 3,200 and 3,300 men,
women and children." What became of the Indians, it is difficult to
state. Many undoubtedly went westward, while others took up their homes on
the reservations along the Allegheny. Early in the century, bodies of Indians
passed through the county occasionally on friendly visits between New York
and Western tribes. Maj. G. J. Ball informs us that when a boy he saw parties
of 100 to 150 red men, women and children, encamped on the parks in the city
of Erie. |
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In an appendix to his published
oration at the dedication of the monument to Cornplanter,
in 1867, Hon. J. R. Snowden gives the following, as the location and number
of the Seneca Indians at that date: |
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On the Allegheny River, in
Pennsylvania, fifteen miles above Warren, at Cornplanter's
town (Jennesadaga), 80; acres of land owned, 300;
on the Allegheny Reservation, in New York, a few miles above the Pennsylvania
line, 900; acres of land owned, 26,600; on Cattaraugus Reservation, in Erie
and Cattaraugus Counties, N. Y., about 1,700; acres of land under
cultivation, 5,000; at Tonawanda, in New York, about 700; acres of land
owned, 7,000. |
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"The Oneidas at the same
time numbered 1,050. Some 250 were located in Oneida and Madison Counties, N.
Y., and the balance of the tribe were in Brown County, Wis. The Onondagas and
Tuscaroras were each 350 in number, the former
living about six miles south of Syracuse, N. Y., and the latter about seven
miles northeast of Niagara Falls." |
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Mr. Snowden adds: "The
present condition of these remnants of the Six Nations is quite respectable.
In most of the reservations they have schools and places of public worship.
Many of them belong to the Methodist and Baptist Churches. The chief of the
Six Nations, Stephen S. Smith, who made a speech at the inauguration of the Cornplanter Monument, is a minister in the Baptist
Church." |
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The reservations occupied by the
Senecas include about 40,000 acres. "They own
the land in common, and are governed by a President and a Board of
Counselors. Very few white people live among them. They are all civilized,
and all have embraced the Christian religion, except a few who cling to the
old Indian religion, and are called 'pagans.'" |
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Cornplanter, The Seneca Chief |
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"I thank the Almighty that
I am speaking this good day. I have been through all nations in America, and
am sorry to see the folly of many of the people. What makes me sorry is, they
all tell lies, and I never found truth amongst them. All the Western nations of
Indians, as well as the white people, have told me lies. Even in council I
have been deceived, and been told things which I have told to my chiefs and
young men, which I have found not to be so, which makes me tell lies by not
being able to make good my work; but I hope they will all see their folly and
repent. The Almighty has not made me to lie, but to tell the truth, one to
another; yet, when two people meet together, if they lie, one to the other,
these people cannot be at peace; and so it si with
nations, and that is the cause of so much war." |
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In 1866, the Legislature of
Pennsylvania appropriated $500 to build a monument to Cornplanter
at Jennessedaga, |
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Bibliography:
Samuel P. Bates, History of |
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