THE TRIBES OF THE NORTHWEST
--_A description of the seven tribes of savages who opposed the advance
of settlement in the Northwest. Their location. Kekionga, the seat of
Miami power._
We have now to consider those Indian tribes and confederacies, which at
the close of the Revolutionary war, inhabited the northwest territory.
Chief among them were the Wyandots, Miamis, Shawnees, Delawares,
Ottawas, Chippewas and Potawatomi. These were the seven tribes known in
after years as the "western confederacy," who fought so long and
bitterly against the government of the United States, and who were at
last conquered by the arms and genius of General Anthony Wayne in the
year 1794.
The Ottawas, Chippewas and Potawatomi formed a sort of loose confederacy
known as the Three Fires, and Massas, a Chippewa chief, so referred to
them at the Treaty of Greenville.
The Miamis, the most powerful of the confederates, were subdivided into
the Eel Rivers, the Weas, and the Piankeshaws. The Kickapoos, a small
tribe which lived on the Sangamon, and the Vermilion of the Wabash, were
associated generally with the Potawatomi, and were always the allies of
the English. The Winnebagoes of Wisconsin were of the linguistic family
of the Sioux; were generally associated with the confederates against
the Americans, and many of their distinguished warriors fought against
General Harrison at Tippecanoe. The decadent tribes known in early times
as the Illinois, did not play a conspicuous part in the history of the
northwest.
While the limits of the various tribes may not be fixed with precision,
and the boundary lines were often confused, still there were well
recognized portions of the northwest that were under the exclusive
control of certain nations, and these nations were extremely jealous of
their rights, as shown by the anger and resentment of the Miamis at what
they termed as the encroachment of the Potawatomi at the Treaty of Fort
Wayne, in 1809.
The Wyandots, for instance, were the incontestable owners of the country
between the Cuyahoga and the Au Glaize, in the present state of Ohio,
their dominion extending as far south as the divide between the waters
of the Sandusky river and the Scioto, and embracing the southern shore
of Lake Erie from Maumee Bay, to the mouth of the Cuyahoga. Large
numbers of them were also along the northern shores of Lake Erie, in
Canada. Their territory at one time probably extended much farther south
toward the Ohio, touching the lands of the Miamis on the west, but
certainly embracing parts of the Muskingum country, to which they had
invited the ancient Delawares, respectfully addressed by them as
"grandfathers." Intermingled with the Wyandots south and west of Lake
Erie were scattered bands of Ottawas, but they were tenants of the soil
by sufferance, and not as of right.
The Miamis have been described by General William Henry Harrison as the
most extensive landowners in the northwest. He stands on record as
saying that: "Their territory embraced all of Ohio, west of the Scioto;
all of Indiana, and that part of Illinois, south of the Fox river and
Wisconsin, on which frontier they were intermingled with the Kickapoos
and some other small tribes." Harrison may have been right as to the
ancient and original bounds of this tribe, but Little Turtle, their most
famous chieftain, said at the Treaty of Greenville, in 1795: "It is well
known by all my brothers present, that my fore-father kindled the first
fire at Detroit; from thence, he extended his lines to the head-water of
Scioto; from thence, to its mouth; from thence, down the Ohio, to the
mouth of the Wabash, and from thence to Chicago, on Lake Michigan." The
truth is, that the ancient demesne of the Miamis was much curtailed by
the irruption of three tribes from the north in about the year 1765, the
Sacs and Foxes, the Kickapoos and the Potawatomi, who conquered the old
remnants of the Illinois tribes in the buffalo prairies and divided the
country among themselves.
Says Hiram Beckwith, in speaking of the Potawatomi: "Always on friendly
terms with the Kickapoos, with whom they lived in mixed villages, they
joined the latter and the Sacs and Foxes in the exterminating war upon
the Illinois tribes, and afterwards obtained their allotment of the
despoiled domain." The Potawatomi advancing by sheer force of numbers,
rather than by conquest, finally appropriated a large part of the lands
in the present state of Indiana, north of the Wabash, commingling with
the Kickapoos at the south and west, and advancing their camps as far
down as Pine creek. The Miamis were loud in their remonstrances against
this trespassing, and denounced the Potawatomi as squatters, "never
having had any lands of their own, and being mere intruders upon the
prior estate of others," but the Potawatomi were not dispossessed and
were afterwards parties to all treaties with the United States
government for the sale and disposal of said lands. The Miamis also lost
a part of their lands on the lower west side of the Wabash to the
Kickapoos. Pressing eastward from the neighborhood of Peoria, the
Kickapoos established themselves on the Vermilion, where they had a
village on both sides of that river at its confluence with the main
stream. They were, says Beckwith, "Greatly attached to the Vermilion and
its tributaries, and Governor Harrison found it a difficult task to
reconcile them to ceding it away."
To the last, however, the Miamis remained the undisputed lords and
masters of most of the territory watered by the two Miamis of the Ohio,
and by the Wabash and its tributaries down to the Ohio. The great head
and center of their power was at Kekionga (now Fort Wayne), always
referred to by President Washington as "the Miami Village." It was a
pleasant situation in the heart of the great northwest, at the junction
where the swift flowing St. Joseph and the more gentle stream of the
Saint Marys, formed the headwaters of the Maumee. On the eastern side
of the St. Joseph was the town of Pecan, a head chief of the Miami, and
the same savage who had supplied deer and buffalo meat for Brigadier
General Harmar on his mission to Kaskaskia in 1787. Pecan was an uncle
of the famous chief, Peshewah, or Jean Baptiste Richardville, who after
the death of Little Turtle in 1812, became the head chief of the Miami
tribe, and was reputed to be the richest Indian in North America. The
southern end of this town was near the point of juncture of the St.
Marys and St. Joseph, and the village extended north along what is now
known as Lakeside, in the present city of Fort Wayne, a pleasant drive
revealing at times the rippling waters of the river to the west. To the
south of this village lay the Indian gardens, and east of the gardens
the extensive corn fields and meadows. On the northern side of the town
more corn fields were found, and north and west of it extended the
forests. The banks of the Maumee just below the junction, and south of
this old village, are quite high and steep, and along the northern side
now runs the beautiful avenue known as Edgewater. Traveling down
Edgewater to the eastward one comes to a great boulder with a brass
tablet on it. You are at Harmar's Ford, and at the exact point where the
regulars crossed the river just after sunrise of October 22nd, 1790, to
attack the Indians. Here it was that Major John Wyllys fell leading the
charge. Along the southern bank of the Maumee the ground is elevated and
crowning these elevations were the forests again. It was through these
forests that Hardin's forces approached the fatal battlefield.
On the western bank of the St. Joseph was a mixed village of French and
Indians known as LeGris' Town, and it in turn was surrounded by more
corn fields. LeGris was also an important chief of the Miamis, and named
in Henry Hay's journal as a brother-in-law of the Little Turtle. He
signed the treaty of Greenville under the Indian name of
Na-goh-quan-gogh. Directly south of this village ran the St. Marys, and
to the west of it was a small wooded creek known as Spy Run.
To these villages in August, 1765, came George Croghan on his way to
Detroit. He describes the carrying-place between the Wabash and the
Maumee systems to be about nine miles in length, "but not above half
that length in freshes." He reported navigation for bateaux and canoes
between the carrying place and Ouiatenon as very difficult during the
dry season of the year on account of many rapids and rifts; but during
the high-water time the journey could be easily made in three days. He
says the distance by water was two hundred forty miles and by land about
two hundred ten. Within a mile of Miamitown he was met by a delegation
of the Miami chiefs and immediately after his entrance into the village
the British flag was raised. He describes the villages as consisting of
about forty or fifty cabins, besides nine or ten French houses. He
entertained no very high opinion of the French and describes them as
refugees from Detroit, spiriting up the Indians against the English. He
describes the surrounding country as pleasant, well watered, and having
a rich soil.
Recently another account of these villages has been given to the world
by the publication of the diary of one Henry Hay, who, as a
representative of certain merchants and traders of Detroit, visited
these villages in the winter of 1789-1790, while they were still under
the influence of the British agents at Detroit, although the soil was
within the jurisdiction of the United States government. It was then one
of the most important trading places for the Indian tribes in the
northwest, and in close proximity to the great council grounds of the
northwestern Indian confederacy in the valley of the Maumee. Le Gris,
was there, and Jean Baptiste Richardville, then a youth; also the Little
Turtle himself, about to become the most famous and wily strategist of
his day and time.
Let there be no mistaken glamour cast about this scene. Already the
disintegration of the Indian power was setting in. The traders among
them, both English and French, seem to have been a depraved, drunken
crew, trying to get all they could "by foul play or otherwise," and
traducing each other's goods by the circulation of evil reports. Hay
says, "I cannot term it in a better manner than calling it a rascally
scrambling trade." Winter came on and the leading chiefs and their
followers went into the woods to kill game. They had nothing in reserve
to live upon, and in a hard season their women and children would have
suffered. The French residents here seem to have been a gay, rollicking
set, playing flutes and fiddles, dancing and playing cards, and
generally going home drunk from every social gathering. The few English
among them were no better, and we have the edifying spectacle of one
giving away his daughter to another over a bottle of rum. The mightiest
chieftains, including Le Gris, did not scruple to beg for whiskey, and
parties of warriors were arriving from the Ohio river and Kentucky, with
the scalps of white men dangling at their belts.
There was still a considerable activity at this place, however, in the
fur trade, and the English thought it well worth holding. Raccoon, deer,
bear, beaver, and otter skins were being brought in, although the season
was not favorable during which Hay sojourned there on account of it
being an open winter. Constant communication was kept up with Detroit on
the one hand and the Petit Piconne (Tippecanoe) and Ouiatenon on the
other. La Fountaine, Antoine LaSalle, and other famous French traders of
that day were doing a thriving business in the lower Indian country.
That these Miami villages were also of great strategical value from the
military standpoint, and that this fact was well known to President
Washington, has already been mentioned. The French early established
themselves there, and later the English, and when the Americans after
the Revolution took dominion over the northwest and found it necessary
to conquer the tribes of the Wabash and their allies, one of the first
moves of the United States government was to attack the villages at this
place, break up the line of their communication with the British at
Detroit, and overawe the Miamis by the establishment of a strong
military post.
To the last, the Miamis clung to their old carrying place. Wayne
insisted at the peace with the Miamis and their allies, at Greenville,
Ohio, in 1795, that a tract six miles square around the newly
established post at Fort Wayne should be ceded to the United States,
together with "one piece two miles square on the Wabash river, at the
end of the portage from the Miami of the Lake (Maumee), and about eight
miles westward from Fort Wayne." This proposal was stoutly resisted by
the Little Turtle, who among other things said: "The next place you
pointed to, was the Little River, and you said you wanted two miles
square at that place. This is a request that our fathers, the French or
British, never made of us; it was always ours. This carrying place has
heretofore proved, in a great degree, the subsistence of your younger
brothers. That place has brought to us in the course of one day, the
amount of one hundred dollars. Let us both own this place and enjoy in
common the advantage it affords." Despite this argument, however, Wayne
prevailed, and the control of Kekionga and the portage passed to the
Federal government; that ancient Kekionga described by Little Turtle as
"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 north to the south, and from the east to the west."
Returning to the Potawatomi, it will be seen that this tribe, which
originally came from the neighborhood of Green Bay, was probably from
about the middle of the eighteenth century, in possession of most of the
country from the Milwaukee river in Wisconsin, around the south shore of
Lake Michigan, to Grand River, "extending southward over a large part
of northern Illinois, east across Michigan to Lake Erie, and south in
Indiana to the Wabash." The Sun, or Keesass, a Potawatomi of the Wabash,
said at the treaty of Greenville, that his tribe was composed of three
divisions; that of the river Huron, in Michigan, that of the St. Joseph
of Lake Michigan, and the bands of the Wabash. In the year 1765, George
Croghan, Indian agent of the British government, found the Potawatomi in
villages on the north side of the Wabash at Ouiatenon, with a Kickapoo
village in close proximity, while the Weas had a village on the south
side of the river. This would indicate that the Potawatomi had already
pushed the Miami tribe south of the Wabash at this place and had taken
possession of the country.
Far away to the north and on both shores of Lake Superior, dwelt the
Chippewas or Ojibways, famed for their physical strength and prowess and
living in their conical wigwams, with poles stuck in the ground in a
circle and covered over with birch bark and grass mats. The Jesuit
Fathers early found them in possession of the Sault Ste. Marie, and when
General Wayne at the treaty of Greenville, reserved the post of
Michillimacinac, and certain lands on the main between Lake Michigan and
Lake Huron, Mash-i-pinash-i-wish, one of the principal Chippewa
chieftains, voluntarily made the United States a present of the Island
De Bois Blanc, at the eastern entrance of the straits of Mackinac, for
their use and accommodation, and was highly complimented by the general
for his generous gift. A reference to the maps of Thomas G. Bradford, of
1838, shows the whole upper peninsular of Michigan in the possession of
the Chippewas, as well as the whole southern and western shores of Lake
Superior, and a large portion of northern Wisconsin. One of their
principal sources of food supply was wild rice, and the presence of this
cereal, together with the plentiful supply of fish, probably accounts
for their numbers and strength. In the beginning of the eighteenth
century, they expelled the Foxes from northern Wisconsin, and later
drove the fierce fighting Sioux beyond the Mississippi. They were the
undisputed masters of a very extensive domain and held it with a strong
and powerful hand. One of their chiefs proudly said to Wayne: "Your
brothers' present, of the three fires, are gratified in seeing and
hearing you; those who are at home will not experience that pleasure,
until you come and live among us; you will then learn our title to that
land." Though far removed from the theatre of the wars of the northwest,
they, together with the Ottawas, early came under the British influence,
and resisted the efforts of the United States to subdue the Miamis and
their confederate tribes, fighting with the allies against General
Harmar at the Miami towns, against St. Clair on the headwaters of the
Wabash and against Anthony Wayne at Fallen Timbers on the 20th of
August, 1794.
The rudest of all the tribes of the northwest were the Ottawas, those
expert canoemen of the Great Lakes, known to the French as the
"traders," because they carried on a large trade and commerce between
the other tribes. They seem to have had their original home on Mantoulin
Island, in Lake Huron, and on the north and south shores of the
Georgian Bay. Driven by terror of the Iroquois to the region west of
Lake Michigan, they later returned to the vicinity of L'Arbe Croche,
near the lower end of Lake Michigan, and from thence spread out in all
directions. Consulting Bradford's map of 1838 again, the Ottawas are
found in the whole northern end of the lower Michigan peninsula. Ottawa
county, at the mouth of Grand river, would seem to indicate that at one
time, their towns must have existed in that vicinity, and in fact their
possessions are said to have extended as far down the eastern shore of
Lake Michigan as the St. Joseph. To the south and east of these points
"their villages alternated with those of their old allies, the Hurons,
now called Wyandots, along the shore of Lake Erie from Detroit to the
vicinity of Beaver creek, in Pennsylvania." They were parties with the
Wyandots and Delawares and other tribes to the treaty of Fort Harmar,
Ohio, at the mouth of Muskingum, in 1789, whereby the Wyandots ceded
large tracts of land in the southern part of that state to the United
States government, and were granted in turn the possession and occupancy
of certain lands to the south of Lake Erie. The Ottawa title to any land
in southern Ohio, however, is exceedingly doubtful, and they were
probably admitted as parties to the above treaty in deference to their
acknowledged overlords, the Wyandots. Their long intercourse with the
latter tribe, in the present state of Ohio, who were probably the most
chivalrous, brave and intelligent of all the tribes, seems to have
softened their manners and rendered them less ferocious than formerly.
Like the Chippewas, their warriors were of fine physical mould, and
Colonel William Stanley Hatch, an early historian of Ohio, in writing of
the Shawnees, embraces the following reference to the Ottawas: "As I
knew them, (i. e., the Shawnees), they were truly noble specimens of
their race, universally of fine athletic forms, and light complexioned,
none more so, and none appeared their equal, unless it was their tribal
relatives, the Ottawas, who adjoined them. The warriors of these tribes
were the finest looking Indians I ever saw, and were truly noble
specimens of the human family." The leading warriors and chieftains of
their tribe, however, were great lovers of strong liquor, and Pontiac,
the greatest of all the Ottawas, was assassinated shortly after a
drunken carousal, and while he was singing the grand medicine songs of
his race.
But the wandering Ishmaelites of all the northwest tribes were the
Shawnees. Cruel, crafty and treacherous, and allied always with the
English, they took a leading part in all the ravages and depredations on
the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia during the revolution and led
expedition after expedition against the infant settlements of Kentucky,
from the period of the first pioneers in 1775, until Wayne's victory in
1794. These were the Indians who kept Boone in captivity, made Simon
Kenton run the gauntlet, stole thousands of horses in Kentucky, and who
for years attacked the flatboats and keel boats that floated down the
Ohio, torturing their captives by burning at the stake.
General William Henry Harrison, in speaking of the migrations of this
tribe, says: "No fact, in relation to the Indian tribes, who have
resided on the northwest frontier for a century past, is better known,
than that the Shawnees came from Florida and Georgia about the middle of
the eighteenth century. They passed through Kentucky (along the
Cumberland river) on their way to the Ohio. But that their passage was
rather a rapid one, is proved by these circumstances. Black Hoof, their
late principal chief (With whom I had been acquainted since the treaty
of Greenville), was born in Florida, before the removal of his tribe. He
died at Wapocconata, in this state, only three or four years ago. As I
do not know his age, at the time of his leaving Florida, nor at his
death, I am not able to fix with precision the date of emigration. But
it is well known that they were at the town which still bears their name
on the Ohio (Shawneetown, Ill.), a few miles below the mouth of the
Wabash, some time before the commencement of the Revolutionary war; that
they remained there some years before they removed to the Scioto, where
they were found by Governor Dunmore, in the year 1774. That their
removal from Florida was a matter of necessity, and their progress from
thence, a flight, rather than a deliberate march, is evident from their
appearance, when they presented themselves upon the Ohio, and claimed
the protection of the Miamis. They are represented by the chiefs of the
latter, as well as those of the Delawares, as supplicants for
protection, not against the Iroquois, but against the Creeks and
Seminoles, or some other southern tribes, who had driven them from
Florida, and they are said to have been literally sans provat et sans
culottes."
[Illustration: Location of the Indian Tribes of the Northwest. Drawing
by Frank Morris]
Later writers have mentioned that while they originally dwelt in the
south, that one division of the tribe lived in South Carolina, while
another and more numerous division lived along the Cumberland river, and
had a large village near the present site of Nashville. The Cumberland
river was known on the early maps preceding the Revolution as the
Shawnee river, while the Tennessee was called the Cherokee river. This
Cumberland division is said to have become engaged in war with both the
Cherokees and Chickasaws, and to have fled to the north to receive the
protection of the powerful nations of the Wabash.
Notwithstanding the magnanimous conduct of the Miamis, however, they,
together with the Wyandots of Ohio, always regarded the Shawnees with
suspicion and as trouble makers. The great chief of the Miamis told
Antoine Gamelin at Kekionga, in April, 1790, when Gamelin was sent by
the government to pacify the Wabash Indians, that the Miamis had
incurred a bad name on account of mischief done along the Ohio, but that
this was the work of the Shawnees, who, he said, had "a bad heart," and
were the "perturbators of all the nations." To the articles of the
treaty at Fort Harmar, in 1789, the following is appended: "That the
Wyandots have laid claim to the lands that were granted to the Shawnees,
(these lands were along the Miami, in Ohio), at the treaty held at the
Miami, and have declared, that as the Shawnees have been so restless,
and caused so much trouble, both to them and to the United States, if
they will not now be at peace, they will dispossess them, and take the
country into their own hands; for that country is theirs of right, and
the Shawnees are only living upon it by their permission."
From the recital of the above facts, it is evident that the Shawnees
could never justly claim the ownership of any of the lands north of the
Ohio. That, far from being the rightful sovereigns of the soil, they
came to the valleys of the Miamis and Wyandots as refugees from a
devastating war, and as supplicants for mercy and protection. This is
recognized by the Quaker, Henry Harvey, who was partial to them, and for
many years dwelt among them as a missionary. Harvey says that from the
accounts of the various treaties to which they were parties, "they had
been disinherited altogether, as far as related to the ownership of land
anywhere." Yet from the lips of the most famous of all the Shawnees,
came the false but specious reasoning that none of the tribes of the
northwest, not even the Miamis who had received and sheltered them, had
a right to alienate any of their lands without the common consent of
all. "That no single tribe had the right to sell; that the power to sell
was not vested in their chiefs, but must be the act of the warriors in
council assembled of all the tribes, as the land belonged to all--no
portion of it to any single tribe." This doctrine of communistic
ownership was advocated by Tecumseh in the face of all the conquests of
the Iroquois, in the face of the claim of the Wyandots to much of the
domain of the present state of Ohio, and in the face of all of Little
Turtle's claims to the Maumee and the Wabash valleys, founded on long
and undisputed occupancy and possession. It never had any authority,
either in fact or in history, and moreover, lacked the great and saving
grace of originality. For if any Indian was the author of the doctrine
that no single tribe of Indians had the power to alienate their soil,
without the consent of all the other tribes, the first Indian to clearly
state that proposition was Joseph Brant of the Mohawk nation, and Brant
was clearly inspired by the British, at the hands of whom he was a
pensioner.
The savage warriors of the northwest were not formidable in numbers, but
they were terrible in their ferocity, their knowledge of woodcraft, and
their cunning strategy. General Harrison says that for a decade prior to
the treaty of Greenville, the allied tribes could not at any time have
brought into the field over three thousand warriors. This statement is
corroborated by Colonel James Smith, who had an intimate knowledge of
the Wyandots and other tribes, and who says: "I am of the opinion that
from Braddock's war, until the present time (1799), there never was more
than three thousand Indians at any time, in arms against us, west of
Fort Pitt, and frequently not half that number."
Constant warfare with the colonies and the Kentucky and Virginia hunting
shirt men had greatly reduced their numbers, but above all the terrible
ravages of smallpox, the insidious effects flowing from the use of
intoxicants, and the spread of venereal disorders among them, which
latter diseases they had no means of combating, had carried away
thousands and reduced the ranks of their valiant armies.
Woe to the general, however, who lightly estimated their fighting
qualities, or thought that these "rude and undisciplined" savages, as
they were sometimes called, could be met and overpowered by the tactics
of the armies of Europe or America! They were, says Harrison, "a body of
the finest light troops in the world," and this opinion is corroborated
by Theodore Roosevelt, who had some first hand knowledge of Indian
fighters. The Wyandots and Miamis, especially, as well as other western
bands, taught the males of their tribes the arts of war from their
earliest youth. When old enough to bear arms, they were disciplined to
act in concert, to obey punctually all commands of their war chiefs, and
cheerfully unite to put them into immediate execution. Each warrior was
taught to observe carefully the motion of his right hand companion, so
as to communicate any sudden movement or command from the right to the
left, Thus advancing in perfect accord, they could march stealthily and
abreast through the thick woods and underbrush, in scattered order,
without losing the conformation of their ranks or creating disorder.
These maneuvers could be executed slowly or as fast as the warriors
could run. They were also disciplined to form a circle, a semi-circle or
a hollow square. They used the circle to surround their enemies, the
semi-circle if the enemy had a stream on one side or in the rear, and
the hollow square in case of sudden attack, when they were in danger of
being surrounded. By forming a square and taking to trees, they put
their faces to the enemy in every direction and lessened the danger of
being shot from behind objects on either side.
The principal sachem of the village was seldom the war chief in charge
of an expedition. War chiefs were selected with an eye solely to their
skill and ability; to entrust the care and direction of an army to an
inexperienced leader was unheard of. One man, however, was never trusted
with the absolute command of an army. A general council of the principal
officers was held, and a plan concerted for an attack. Such a council
was held before the battle of Fallen Timbers, in which Blue Jacket, of
the Shawnees, Little Turtle of the Miamis, and other celebrated leaders
participated. The plan thus concerted in the council was scrupulously
carried out. It was the duty of the war chief to animate his warriors by
speeches and orations before the battle. During the battle he directed
their movements by pre-arranged signals or a shout or yell, and thus
ordered the advance or retreat. The warriors who crept through the long
grass of the swamp lands at Tippecanoe to attack the army of Harrison,
were directed by the rattling of dried deer hoofs.
It was a part of the tactics practiced by the war chiefs to inflict the
greatest possible damage upon the enemy, with the loss of as few of
their own men as possible. They were never to bring on an attack without
some considerable advantage, "or without what appeared to them the sure
prospect of victory," If, after commencing an engagement, it became
apparent that they could not win the conflict without a great sacrifice
of men, they generally abandoned it, and waited for a more favorable
opportunity. This was not the result of cowardice, for Harrison says
that their bravery and valor were unquestioned. It may have been
largely the result of a savage superstition not to force the decrees of
Fate. Says Harrison: "It may be fairly considered as having its source
in that particular temperament of mind, which they often manifested, of
not pressing fortune under any sinister circumstances, but patiently
waiting until the chances of a successful issue appeared to be
favorable." When the Great Spirit was not angry, he would again favor
his children. One tribe among the warriors of the Northwest, however,
were taught from their earliest youth never to retreat; to regard
"submission to an enemy as the lowest degradation," and to "consider
anything that had the appearance of an acknowledgment of the superiority
of an enemy as disgraceful." These were the Wyandots, the acknowledged
superiors in the northwestern confederacy. "In the battle of the Miami
Rapids of thirteen chiefs of that tribe, who were present, only one
survived, and he badly wounded."
The well known policy of the savages to ambush or outflank their enemies
was well known to Washington. He warned St. Clair of this terrible
danger in the Indian country, but his advice went unheeded. A
pre-concerted attack might occur on the front ranks of an advancing
column, and almost immediately spread to the flanks. This occurred at
Braddock's defeat. The glittering army of redcoats, so much admired by
Washington, with drums beating and flags flying, forded the Monongahela
and ascended the banks of the river between two hidden ravines. Suddenly
they were greeted by a terrible fire on the front ranks, which almost
immediately spread to the right flank, and then followed a horrible
massacre of huddled troops, who fired volleys of musketry at an
invisible foe, and then miserably perished. When St. Clair started his
ill-fated march upon the Miami towns in 1791, his movements were
observed every instant of time by the silent scouts and runners of the
Miamis. Camping on the banks of the upper Wabash, and foolishly posting
his militia far in the front, he suddenly saw them driven back in
confusion upon his regulars, his lines broken by attacks on both flanks,
and his artillery silenced to the last gun. The attack was so well
planned, so sudden and so furious, that nothing remained but precipitate
and disastrous retreat. Out of an army consisting of fourteen hundred
men and eighty-six officers, eight hundred and ninety men and sixteen
officers were killed and wounded. St. Clair believed that he had been
"overpowered by numbers," and so reported to the government. "It was
alleged by the officers," says Judge Burnet, "that the Indians far
outnumbered the American troops. That conclusion was drawn, in part,
from the fact that they outflanked and attacked the American lines with
great force, and at the same time on every side." The truth is, that St.
Clair was completely outwitted by the admirable cunning and strategy of
Little Turtle, the Miami, who concerted the plan of attack, and directed
its operation. Nor is it at all likely that the Indians had a superior
force. They often attacked superior numbers, if they enjoyed the better
fighting position, or could take advantage of an ambush or surprise. A
very respectable authority, who has the endorsement of historians,
says: "There was an army of Indians composed of Miamis, Potawatomis,
Ottowas, Chippewas, Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, and a few Mingoes and
Cherokees, amounting in all to eleven hundred and thirty-three, that
attacked and defeated General St. Clair on the 4th of November, 1791.
Each nation was commanded by their own chiefs, all of whom were governed
by the Little Turtle, who made the arrangements for the action, and
commenced the attack with the Miamis, who were under his immediate
command. The Indians had thirty killed and died with their wounds the
day of the action and fifty wounded."
Of such formidable mould, were the redmen of the northwest, who went
into battle stripped to the skin, and with bodies painted with horrible
stripes of vermilion. So disastrous had been the result of their
victories over the armies of Harmar and St. Clair, and so illy equipped
with men, money and supplies was the infant government of the United
States, that immediately prior to the campaign of General Anthony Wayne,
a military conference was held between President Washington, General
Knox, Secretary of War, and General Wayne, to devise a system of
military tactics that should thereafter control in the conduct of all
wars against the Indians of the northwest.
The development of this system of tactics has been outlined by General
William Henry Harrison, who was an aide to Wayne, in a personal letter
to Mann Butler, one of the historians of Kentucky.
It was determined that in all future contests with the tribes, that the
troops employed should, when in the Indian country, be marched in such
manner as that the order of march could be immediately converted, by
simple evolution, into an order of battle. In other words, that the
troops while actually in the line of march, could be almost instantly
formed in lines of battle. This was to prevent any sudden or unexpected
attack, and this was always liable to occur in the thickly wooded
country. The troops were also taught to march in open formation, each
file to be more than an arm's length from those on the right and left.
The old European system of fighting men shoulder to shoulder was
entirely impracticable in a wilderness of woods, for it invited too
great a slaughter, interfered with the movement of the troops, and
shortened the lines. The great object of the Indian tactics was always
to flank their enemy, therefore an extension of the lines was highly
desirable when entering into action. "In fighting Indians, there was no
shock to be given or received, and a very open order was therefore
attended with two very great advantages; it more than doubled the length
of the lines, and in charging, which was an essential part of the
system, it gave more facility to get through the obstacles which an
action in the woods presented."
A system was also developed whereby, in case the Indians attempted to
flank the enemy, they were met by a succession of fresh troops coming
from the rear to extend the lines. When encamped, the troops were to
assume the form of a hollow square, with the baggage and cavalry, and
sometimes the light infantry and riflemen, in the center. A rampart of
logs was to be placed around the camp, to prevent a sudden night
attack, and to give the troops time to get under arms, but this rampart
was not intended as a means of defense in daylight. "To defeat Indians
by regular troops, the charge must be relied upon; the fatality of a
contest at long shot, with their accurate aim and facility of covering
themselves, was mournfully exhibited in the defeats of Braddock and St.
Clair. General Wayne used no patrols, no picket guards. In Indian
warfare they would always be cut off; and if that were not the case,
they would afford no additional security to the army, as Indians do not
require roads to enable them to advance upon an enemy. For the same
reason (that they would be killed or taken), patrols were rejected, and
reliance for safety was entirely placed upon keeping the army always
ready for action. In connection with this system for constant
preparation, there was only a chain of sentinels around the camps,
furnished by the camp guards, who were placed within supporting
distance."
The outline and adoption of this system of tactics shows that both
Washington and Anthony Wayne were fully aware of the dangerous nature of
their savage adversaries; that they had a wholesome respect for both
their woodcraft and military discipline, and that they regarded the
conquest of the western wilderness as a task requiring great
circumspection and military genius.