SUBSEQUENT FATE OF THE LENAPE AND THEIR KINDRED TRIBES.
After the murder of the Conestogo Indians, the Lenni Lenape thought
proper, for their safety, to withdraw altogether from the interior of
the white settlements, into the wilds of the Susquehannah country; and
Government, conscious that they could no longer protect any Indians,
or body of Indians, whether Christians or not, in the settled parts
of the province, advised the Christian Indians, whom, during the last
troubles, they had with difficulty prevented from sharing the fate
of the Conestogos, to retire into the back country. They did so, and
settled at Wyalusing,[83] which then became the nearest settlement of
Indians to the white inhabitants, being upwards of 150 miles north of
Philadelphia, and about 100 miles from the frontier settlers beyond
the blue mountains; all the other Indians of that nation, together
with the Nanticokes, lived then higher up the Susquehannah. For about
five years, the Indians on this river enjoyed peace, and the Christian
Indians lived quietly here and at another settlement they had made
thirty miles higher, built good houses for themselves, together with
a spacious church, planted fruit trees, and put large bodies of land
under cultivation. But, while they were flattering themselves with
the most favourable prospect, they were informed that the Six Nations
had sold the whole country, including the land they lived on, to the
English. They soon saw the object of this clandestine proceeding,
of which they had not received the least notice, and foreseeing what
kind of neighbours they should have, if they should stay where they
were, they determined to move off in a body to the Ohio, where they
had received an invitation to settle from the grand council of their
nation. Accordingly, two hundred and forty-one souls set off directly
for the Muskingum river, where a large tract of land was given them,
out of that which the Wyandots had formerly granted and confirmed
to their people; the other Indians of the same nation residing on
the Susquehannah soon followed, some settling at one place, some
at another; the Mouseys,[84] however, joined their own tribe, who
long since had emigrated and were settled on the head waters of the
Allegheny river; and so the whole country east of the Allegheny
mountains was cleared of its original inhabitants.
The Delawares thus became at once released from their troublesome
neighbours the Iroquois, who had calculated on their settling near
them, at a place they had already fixed upon; but they were mistaken,
for with all their fair speeches they could not persuade the Lenape,
who gave them plainly to understand that they were no longer inclined
to listen to a people who had so long and so often deceived them.
This happened in the year 1768,[85] about six years before the
beginning of the revolutionary war. During which short period of
tranquillity, the numbers of the Christian Indians on the Ohio rapidly
increased, and never was there such a fair prospect of their being
fixed in a state of prosperous civilisation. But the revolution put an
end to these hopes, and this opportunity was lost, perhaps, never to
return again. It was not the fault of the American government, who were
truly desirous of seeing the Indians adopt a neutral line of conduct,
and repeatedly advised them not to interfere in the quarrel between
the colonies and the mother country; happy would it have been if the
British government had acted in the same manner; but they pursued a
different plan. These poor deluded people were dragged into a war in
which they had no concern, by which not only their population was
gradually reduced, but they lost the desire of becoming a civilised
people; for the Americans, at last, become exasperated against them,
and considering all Indians as their enemies, they sent parties out
from time to time to destroy them. The murder of the Christian Indians
on the Muskingum in 1782, completed their alienation. Those who yet
remained were driven to despair, and finally dispersed.
It is not in my power to ascertain the whole number of the Lenni
Lenape, or Delaware Indians, still existing at the present time. As
far as I am informed, they are very much scattered, a number of them,
chiefly of the Monsey tribe, living in Upper Canada, others are in the
state of Ohio, and some on the waters of the Wabash in the Indiana
territory. A considerable number of them has crossed the Mississippi.
Their first emigrations to that country had already begun between the
years 1780 and 1790. What the numbers of this nation were when the
Europeans first came into this country is difficult to tell; all I can
say is, that so early as 1760, their oldest men would say that they
were not then as many hundreds as they had been thousands. They have
considerably decreased since that period. I saw them myself between the
years 1754 and 1760, by hundreds at a time, and Loskiel in his history
gives an account of upwards of 800 having been fed at Bethlehem in one
year. In the year 1762, while I lived at Tuscorawas on the Muskingum,
they were settled on that river and its branches, and also on the
Cayahoga river, which empties into Lake Erie, in the neighbourhood of
which they had since a small Christian settlement called _Pilgerruh_
(Pilgrim’s rest.)[86],[87]
THE SHAWANOS OR SAWANOS.[88]
The history of these people is here given, principally from the
relations of old Indians of the Mohican[90] tribe, who say that they
formerly inhabited the Southern country, Savannah in Georgia, and the
Floridas. They were a restless people, delighting in wars, in which
they were constantly engaged with some of the neighbouring nations.
At last their neighbours, tired of being continually harassed by
them, formed a league for their destruction. The Shawanos finding
themselves thus dangerously situated, asked to be permitted to leave
the country, which was granted to them, and they fled immediately
to the Ohio. Here their main body settled, and sent messengers to
their elder brother[91] the Mohicans, requesting them to intercede
for them with their grandfather the Lenni Lenape, that he might take
them under his protection. This the Mohicans willingly did, and even
sent a body of their own people to conduct their _younger brother_
into the country of the Delawares. The Shawanos finding themselves
safe under the protection of their grandfather, did not all choose to
proceed farther to the eastward, but many of them remained on the Ohio,
some of whom settled even as high up that river as the long island,
above which the French afterwards built Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburg.
Those who proceeded farther, were accompanied by their chief, named
Gachgawatschiqua, and settled principally at and about the forks of
Delaware, some few between that and the confluence of Delaware and
Schuylkill, and some even on the spot where Philadelphia now stands;
others were conducted by the Mohicans into their own country, where
they intermarried with them and became one people. When those settled
near the Delaware had multiplied, they returned to Wyoming on the
Susquehannah, where they resided for a great number of years.
In the mean while, those who had remained on the Ohio increased in
numbers, and in process of time began again to be troublesome to their
neighbours. At last, they crossed the Allegheny mountains, and falling
upon the camps of the Lenape on Juniata river, they committed several
murders and went off with their plunder. It was soon discovered who
were the aggressors; but the Lenape had now assumed the station of
“the woman,” and could not engage in wars. They could only apply
for protection to the Five Nations, which they did, expecting that
they would immediately pursue the offenders and inflict an exemplary
punishment upon them, but the Five Nations found means to evade their
demand for the present. They told the Delawares that the season was
too far advanced to commence a war; that it was better to put off
their intended expedition until the ensuing spring; that in the mean
time, both nations should put themselves in readiness, and keep their
preparations secret, and that as soon as the season should open, they
would march off separately and meet together at an appointed time and
place on the Allegheny, then push on together for the Shawano towns
below the confluence of that river and the Monongahela, where they
could fall together unawares on the aggressors and punish them. The
Iroquois promised, as usual, that they would place themselves in the
front of the battle, so that the Delawares would have nothing to do but
to look on and see how bravely their protectors would fight for them,
and if they were not satisfied with that, they might take their revenge
themselves.
Agreeably to this plan, the Lenape remained quiet till the spring,
when, with a body of their most valiant men, they marched to the
appointed spot; but how great was their surprise when their pretended
champions did not make their appearance? They suspected treachery,
and were not mistaken; for having immediately marched forward to the
Shawano towns, bent on taking an exemplary revenge, they had the
disappointment to see on their arrival their enemies pushing off as
fast as they could down the Ohio river in their canoes. Some of them
were flying by land, as probably they had not a sufficient number of
canoes to convey their whole number; these they pursued and attacked,
beat them severely, and took several prisoners. Here they had a
striking instance of the treachery of the Mengwe, who had warned the
Shawanos of their approach. Some time after this, the Shawanos who
resided on the north branch of the Susquehannah, began to draw off by
degrees, first to the west branch of that river and the Juniata, and
then to the Ohio; so that at the commencement of the French war in
1755, they had all, except a few families, with whom was their chief
Paxnos, retired to the Ohio, where they joined their countrymen in a
war against the English.[92]
Peace was made in 1763 between Great Britain and France; but the
restless spirit of the Shawanos did not permit them to remain quiet;
they commenced war[93] against their southern neighbours, the
Cherokees, who, while in pursuit of the aggressors, would sometimes
through mistake fall upon the Lenape, who resided in the same country
with the Shawanos, through whom they also became involved in a war with
that nation, which lasted some time. The Mengwe being then also at war
with the Cherokees, and frequently returning with their prisoners and
scalps through their country, the warlike spirit was kept alive among
all, until at length, in 1768, the Cherokees sought a renewal of the
friendship formerly existing between them and their grandfather, the
Lenape, which being effected, they, by their mediation, also brought
about a peace between them and the Five Nations.
The Shawanos not being disposed to continue the war with the Cherokees
by themselves, and having been reprimanded by their grandfather for
being the instigators of all those troubles, willingly submitted to the
dictates of the Lenape, and from that time remained at peace with all
the nations until the year 1774, when they were involved in a war with
the people of Virginia, occasioned by some murders which were committed
on Logan’s family connexions and others by white people. In this
instance it cannot, I think, be said that they were the aggressors, yet
their thirst for revenge was so great, and the injured Mengwe at their
side called out so loudly for revenge, that they with great spirit
engaged into a war with the Virginians, which, however, was of but
short duration, as they were opposed with an equal degree of courage,
and after a severe battle between the two rivals, at or near the mouth
of the Great Kanhawa, and the destruction of many of their towns by
the Virginians, the Shawanos were brought to make peace once more;[94]
which did not last long, as they joined the British against the
American people, some time after the commencement of the Revolution,
and remained our enemies after that time, never establishing a firm
peace with us, until the memorable treaty which took place in 1795,
after the decisive defeat of the nations by the late General Wayne.
The Shawanos lost many of their men during these contests; but they
were in a manner replaced by individuals of other nations joining
them. Thus, during the Revolutionary war, about one hundred turbulent
Cherokees, who could not be brought by their own nation to be at peace
with the American people, and were on that account driven out of their
country, came over to the Shawanos, while others from the Five Nations
joined them or became their neighbours.
The Shawanos are considered to be good warriors and hunters. They are
courageous, high spirited and manly, and more careful in providing a
supply of ammunition to keep in reserve for an emergency, than any
other nation that I have heard of. Their language is more easily
learned than that of the Lenape, and has a great affinity to the
Mohican, Chippeway and other kindred languages. They generally place
the accent on the last syllable.
THE NANTICOKES.
The Delawares say that this nation has sprung from the same stock
with them, and the fact was acknowledged by White,[95] one of their
chiefs, whom I have personally known. They call the Delawares their
grandfathers. I shall relate the history of the Shawanos,[96] as I had
it from the mouth of White himself.
Every Indian being at liberty to pursue what occupation he pleases,
White’s ancestors, after the Lenape came into their country, preferred
seeking a livelihood by fishing and trapping along the rivers and
bays, to pursuing wild game in the forest; they therefore detached
themselves, and sought the most convenient places for their purpose. In
process of time, they became very numerous, partly by natural increase,
and partly in consequence of being joined by a number of the Lenape,
and spread themselves over a large tract of country. Thus they became
divided into separate bodies, distinguished by different names; the
Canai, they say, sprung from them, and settled at a distance on the
shores of the Potomack and Susquehannah, where they lived when the
white people first arrived in Virginia; but they removed farther on
their account, and settled higher up the Susquehannah, not far from
where John Harris afterwards established a ferry.[97] The main branch,
or the Nanticokes proper, were then living in what is now called the
Eastern shore of Maryland. At length, the white people crowded so much
upon them, that they were also obliged to seek another abode, and as
their grandfather was himself retreating back in consequence of the
great influx of the whites, they took the advice of the Mengwe, and
bent their course at once to the large flats at Wyoming, where they
settled by themselves, in sight of the Shawanos town, while others
settled higher up the river, even as high as Chemenk[98] (Shenango) and
Shummunk, to which places they all emigrated at the beginning of the
French war. White’s tribe resided there until the Revolutionary war,
when they went off to a place nearer to the British, whose part they
had taken, and whose standard they joined. White himself had joined the
Christian Indians at Schschequon,[99] several years previous to the
war, and remained with them.
Nothing, said White, had equalled the decline of his tribe since the
white people had come into the country. They were destroyed in part by
disorders which they brought with them, by the small pox, the venereal
disease, and by the free use of spirituous liquors, to which great
numbers fell victims.
The emigration of the Nanticokes from Maryland was well known to
the Society of the United Brethren. At the time when these people
were beginning their settlement in the forks of Delaware, the Rev.
Christian[100] Pyrlæus noted down in his memorandum book, “that on
the 21st day of May, 1748, a number of the Nanticokes from Maryland,
passed by Shamokin in ten canoes, on their way to Wyoming.” Others,
travelling by land, would frequently pass through Bethlehem, and
from thence through the Water Gap to Nescopeck or Susquehannah, and
while they resided at Wyoming, they, together with the Shawanese,
became the emissaries of the Five Nations, and in conjunction with
them afterwards, endeavoured to remove the Christian Indians from
Gnadenhütten, in Northampton county, to Wyoming; their private object
being to have a full opportunity to murder the white inhabitants, in
the war which they already knew would soon break out between the French
and English.
These Nanticokes had the singular custom of removing the bones of their
deceased friends from the burial place to a place of deposit in the
country they dwell in. In earlier times, they were known to go from
Wyoming and Chemenk, to fetch the bones of their dead from the Eastern
shore of Maryland, even when the bodies were in a putrid state, so that
they had to take off the flesh and scrape the bones clean, before they
could carry them along. I well remember having seen them between the
years 1750 and 1760, loaded with such bones, which, being fresh, caused
a disagreeable stench, as they passed through the town of Bethlehem.
They are also said to have been the inventors of a poisonous substance,
by which they could destroy a whole settlement of people, and they
are accused of being skilled in the arts of witchcraft; it is certain
that they are very much dreaded on this account. I have known Indians
who firmly believed that they had people among them who could, if
they pleased, destroy a whole army, by merely blowing their breath
towards them. Those of the Lenape[101] and other tribes, who pretend
to witchcraft, say that they learned the science from the Nanticokes;
they are not unwilling to be taxed with being wizards, as it makes them
feared by their neighbours.
Their national name, according to the report of their chief, White,
is _Nentégo_. The Delawares call them _Unéchtgo_, and the Iroquois
_Sganiateratieh-rohne_. These three names have the same meaning,
and signify _tide water people_, or the _sea shore settlers_. They
have besides other names, by-names, as it were, given them with
reference to their occupation. The Mohicans, for instance, call them
_Otayáchgo_, and the Delawares _Tawachguáno_,[102] both which words in
their respective languages, signify a “bridge,” a “dry passage over a
stream;” which alludes to their being noted for felling great numbers
of trees across streams, to set their traps on. They are also often
called the _Trappers_.
In the year 1785, this tribe had so dwindled away, that their whole
body, who came together to see their old chief, White, then residing
with the Christian Indians on the Huron river,[103] north of Detroit,
did not amount to 50 men. They were then going through Canada, to the
Miami country, to settle beside the Shawanos, in consequence of an
invitation they had received from them.
THE MAHICANNI, OR MOHICANS.
This once great and renowned nation has also almost entirely
disappeared, as well as the numerous tribes who had descended from
them; they have been destroyed by wars, and carried off by the small
pox and other disorders, and great numbers have died in consequence of
the introduction of spirituous liquors among them. The remainder have
fled and removed in separate bodies to different parts, where they now
are dispersed or mingled with other nations. So early as the year 1762,
a number of them had emigrated to the Ohio, where I became acquainted
with their chief who was called by the whites “Mohican John.” Others
have fled to the shores of the St. Lawrence, where numbers of them
incorporated themselves with the Iroquois, and where their descendants
live at the present time, a mixed race, known by the name of the
_Cochnewago_ Indians. Upwards of one hundred of them, who lived in the
colonies of Connecticut and New York, having through the labours of
the United Brethren embraced Christianity, emigrated to Pennsylvania,
some time between 1742 and 1760, where they afterwards became
incorporated with the Delawares.[104] A considerable number migrated
from Hudson’s river about the year 1734, and settled at Stockbridge,
in Massachusetts; between the year 1785 and 1787, they removed to
Oneida, in the country of the Six Nations, and gave to their settlement
the name of New Stockbridge. Before their removal their numbers had
gradually diminished. In 1791, they were reduced to 191 persons.[105]
They were once very numerous in Connecticut, and in the year 1799,
there still were 84 individuals of them, in the county of New
London,[106] the remains of a once large and flourishing settlement. It
is probable that by this time they are nearly if not entirely extinct.
It is believed that the Mahicanni are the same nation who are so
celebrated in the History of New England, under the name of _Pequods_
or _Pequots_.[107] The Rev. Jonathan Edwards, late President of Union
College at Schenectady, in the State of New York, published in the year
1788 in a pamphlet form, some observations on their language, which
were republished at New York in 1801. This small tract, as well as the
translation of the Bible into the Natick, by the venerable Eliot, and
his grammar of that language, put it beyond a doubt that the idiom of
the Mohicans and those of the other New England Indians proceeded from
the same source with that of the Lenni Lenape.