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On arrival in 1682,
Wm. Penn sought treaties with the native [Iroquoian speaking] Susquehannock
[aka Conestoga to the English and Andaste to the Dutch] only to find they
were subjugated by the Iroquois Confederacy and were referred by the Susquehannocks
to the Iroquois. The Lenape [aka Delaware and Algonquian speaking]
who were sujugated by the Susquehannock earlier in the century, and
subjugated with them to the Iroquois in 1675, were more numerous than the
Suquehannock, who had been devastated by disease and warfare. Chief Tammanand
[often called Tamany] of the Lenape/Delaware signed the first treaties
with Penn involving the Southeastern corner of the state . These
people : the Delaware; the
Munsee [who are usully identified with the Delaware Nation, though
many historians feel they should be differently catalogued] ; the
Shawnee [who travelled north to the land of their "grandfathers" the
Lenape during the period of their forced emmigration from South Carolina
for harrassment there by the Senecas Iroquois; and the Conestoga
[remnant tribes of the once powerful Susquehannock
devasted by disease and war with the Iroquois Nation] continued residency
in south eastern and central Penna where our German immigrants among the
Swope and Allied Ascendancy encountered them natives subjugated to
the Iroquois [ who still maintained primary residency in upstate
New York]. While the Germans and Scotch Irish of our Swope
and Allied lines met the natives as they pioneered the Penna frontier,
our Howard Allied Surnames
, particularly LOGAN and those
names related, developed the policy of dealing with them.
Continuing residency in the region of Penna under discussion in the migration period of our German ancestors of the Swope and allied Ascendancy, advancing inwards while our policy forming Philadelphians of the Howard allied Ascendancy remained resident there, The Delaware tribes [and Munsee , and the newly arrived neighbors, the kindred Shawnee, as well as the remnants of the Susquehannock known as Conestoga ] continued to live in Pennsylvania in an increasingly coveted region. This page shows how the Iroquois , despite never really living in the area in any number, developed control of the east & southcentral portion of Pennsylvania, a region of relevance to the tribes above mentioned, and our American Immigrants of Pennsylvania studied in these pages. The region of these non Iroquian people has importance to our earliest white settlers of Pennsylvania beyond the Philadelphia region [our Germans of the Swope Allied Ascendancy ] arriving after Logan and the allied group which are predominantly Quaker and Philadelphia bound , found in the Howard and Allied Ascendancy . Still, this study holds special meaning in relation to direct ancestor James Logan, William Penn's steward in his colony and, on Penn's death, the loyal employee of Penn's heirs. With the death of William Penn, the proprietary policy of brokering with the natives resident [See Treaties with the Natives of Pennsylvania] and not those claiming domination over them in regions far removed, was changed. Conrad Weiser and James Logan played key roles in this evolution encouraged by the Iroquois Confederacy and particularly Chief Shikellamy. As in all the relevant pages in the Native Tribes of Southeastern and Southcentral Pa, see Map of the Tribes of the [now] US Northeast at Time of Contact for understanding of the ancestral homelands as well as Map of Old Indian Paths in Penna for an understanding of subsequent settlement & Map of the King's Territories in North America dated 1715, in which the Susquehanna river yields to lands west designated merely, "Iroquois". For those interested in Native Americans of coastal Virginia, visit The Powhatan Confederacy page, part of the larger study of Virginia, its history, & our forebears in that place. Page Contents Follow |
See Also under
the Title Page Natives of Eastern and Southeastern
Pennsylvania the following dedicated pages:
The Susquehannocks
of Pa * The Mingos * The Shawnees
* The Munsees*
The Delawares*
and
Treaties
of Penn and Heirs with the Natives of Pennsylvania
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aaa Tribes in Pink are Algonquian speakers and Tribes in Maroon Iroquian speakers. The Huron and Algonquin Tribes mentioned in the following text lived north of the Iroquois in now Canada. It was the Algonquin Tribe that introduced the Iroquois to firearms by leading the French Champlain into Iroquois territory in 1606 and joining the French in war against the Iroquois there. As shown in the map, the Iroquoians of the north of the United States were surronded by the more numberous Algonquian speakers. aaa The Iroquois Federation, sorrowfully recognizing the stunning effect of this weapon, and willing to befriend the Dutch and English in order toobtain it, soon became adept in its use, and the fear of all peoples for 1,000 miles., not least of all the nearby French, who had first introduced them to its terrible effect. |
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The
Hau de no sau ne : "People of the Longhouse" [Iroquois Confederacy to the
French & the Five, later Six Nations, to the English]
Theirs is the
oldest participatory democracy in world history. The Iroquois
Constitution is shown
to be the basis for our own democratic system
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Although residents
through Colonial History in now New York State between the Adirondacks
and Niagara Falls, no discussion of the Indians of Pennsylvania can occur
without mention of the Haudenosaune , best known not by their own
name but by the name the French gave them: The Iroquois. This name is of
unknown origin, but is thought to have derived from "the Algonquin
[for] Irinakhow (real snakes), snake being the term by which the
Algonquin tribes denoted hostile tribes of alien stock". 31Iroqu
(Irinakhoiw) , is shown by some to be rattlesnake in other Algonquian dialects.
The Iroquois were of the larger Iroquoian Language Group, and were also known as the Iroquois Confederacy, or The Five [later Six] Nations which comprised the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas and , after 1722, the Tuscaroras. The concept of participatory democracy was created by the original five, and knowledge of it by our founding fathers ensured the form of government we enjoy today-though our founders changed it in one very important way: Among the Iroquois, only women elected and only men served. According to some historians, the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy is at least three centuries older than most previous estimates and extends back to 1142. [See research by Barbara Mann and Jerry Fields of Toledo University, Ohio which date the eclipse mentioned in Iroquois tradition to 1142 in Dating the Iroquois Confederacy by Bruce E. Johansen , published in Akwesasne Notes New Series, Fall -- October/November/December -- 1995, Volume 1 #3 & 4, pp. 62-63. and reproduced with permission at The 6 Nations , Oldest Particaptory Democracy on Earth website The Ascendancy of
the Iroquois Confederacy
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| Introduction
to Firearms:
The French had plenty of opportunity to hear of these people referred to as snakes in the Algonquian languages, for in 1609 and under Champlain, they allied with the Algonquin people in an invasion of the Iroquois country. This event, which led to victory "for the Algonquins by the help of the French firearms, was never forgotten or forgiven by the Iroquois, who became from that day the constant and unrelenting enemy of the French, and to this fact was largely due the final fall of Canada.....Learning to their sorrow the power of firearms, in their first encounter with Champlain, they made eager efforts to buy guns from contraband Dutch traders with such success that by 1640 a large proportion of their warriors were well equipped and expert gunmen, enabling them to start upon a career of conquest which made the Iroquois name a terror for a thousand miles. Even among savages they were noted for their cruelty, cannibal feasts and sickening torture of captives being the sequel of every successful war expedition, while time after time the fullest measure of their awful savagery was visited upon the devoted missionary.. "31 |
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Their Manner of Subjugation, The Region They Came to Dominate
Although the Iroquois remained resident in their homelands their use of ferocity, warfare, subjugation, adoption for conquered tribes , and the use of emmisaries sent to take up residency among the conquered to assure compliance with treaty and the covenant chain enabled the Iroquois to become the most powerful of natives in a much larger area than that in which they lived and involving Kentucky, lower Michigan, southern Ontario, southwestern Quebec, northern New England, and the Hudson and Delaware Valleys down through Pennsylvania to the Chesapeake. The Powhatans of coastal Virginia to its furthest southern reaches called them Massawomeck. After 1660, the further southern Cherokee found themselves attacked by members of the Iroquois Federation when the Shawnee were driven south by the Iroquois and the Seneca Iroquois pursued them to South Carolina 32. This is a most impresive people."Through conquest and migration, [The Iroquois] gained control of most of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. At its maximum in 1680, their empire extended west from the north shore of Chesapeake Bay through Kentucky to the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; then north following the Illinois River to the south end of Lake Michigan; east across all of lower Michigan, southern Ontario and adjacent parts of southwestern Quebec; and finally south through northern New England west of the Connecticut River through the Hudson and upper Delaware Valleys across Pennsylvania back to the Chesapeake. With two exceptions - the Mingo occupation of the upper Ohio Valley and the Caughnawaga migration to the upper St. Lawrence - the Iroquois did not, for the most part, physically occupy this vast area but remained in their upstate New York villages. "16
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| Below, a closeup of a 1715 map of the King's Posessions . |
The Erie, or Cat Nation, belonged to the Iroquoian linguistic group,
lived in central and western Pennsylania, New York State as far
east as the Genesee River31, and in Ohio
along the shore of Lake Erie as far west as the Maumee River31.
In 1655 the Iroquois of New York State
"destroyed the Erie Nation. The Iroquois had the advantage of guns,
provided by the English and Dutch settlers in the East, and those Eries
who could not escape to
the West were killed or captured. For fifty years after that massacre
no Indians dared migrate into the Ohio country. These same New York Indians
in 1649 invaded
Ontario, driving out the Hurons, who eventually moved into the Maumee
Valley, where they became known as the Wyandots." 31
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The sixth nation involved in the Iroquois Confederacy are the Tuscaroras, who have named for them a chain of mountains in western Penna, and a valley in Southern Pennsylvania's Franklin County which obtained its name from their history. These Iroquoian people went north in a series of migrations from 1712 to 1802.and from their ancestral homeland in the North Carolina Coastal Plain involving the Virginia border south to the Cape Fear River and west to the Piedmont. When the first white settlers appeared in North Carolina, they found this Iroquoian peoples amidst the predominantly Algonquian natives. "Their villages were on the lower Neuse, the Trent, the Tar, the Pamlico and other streams-in general, they were scattered through the region south of the present Raleigh. There were at least fifteen Tuscarora towns, with a population, as given in 1711, of 4,000....[ With encroachment and broken promises] "Tuscarora enmity was aroused; a con-spiracy was formed, and massacres occurred. In the years 1711 to 1713 there were two outbreaks, which are spoken of as the two Tuscarora wars. The first "war" began with the capture of Lawson , surveyor-general of North Carolina, and of the Baron de Graffenried, by some 60 Tuscaroras...Sept., 1711. Lawson was given a trial before an Indian council and was put to death. This was in September, 1711. In the same month they, and. several neighboring tribes, massacred about 130 of the whites Colonel Barnwell came from South Carolina to help tile suffering colonists, and drove the Tuscaroras into one of their palisade towns about 20 miles from present Newbern. Here there was a battle, in which the Tuscaroras got the worst of it, so that they accepted terms of peace as offered by Barnwell terms which, according to the Indians, he at once broke. Certain it is that some of the Tuscaroras, falling at this time into the hands of the whites, were sent away into slavery." 33 part one |
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The Tuscaroras , like the original members of the Iroquois Confederacy , were adept in torture. These methods were chronicled by John Lawson in his book of Carolina History .Although the exact manner of his death is unknown, Lawson was given a trial before an Indian council 33 and was killed. It is thought Lawson died in the manner he described in his History, stuck all over with pitch pine splinters threaded into his flesh by the women , pushing just hard enough to bring the blood, with the splinters finally set on blaze by the tribe. "At the time, Lawson may have been the best English friend the Tuscarora had. From his first encounters, he seems clearly to have respected them. And in his writings, he lauded their natural graces, admired their courage, and blamed his fellow Englishmen for their destruction. " 20
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Lawson's "History"
of course remains important today chronicling a people in their ancestral
homeland. In vengaence, and probably with some joy at the chance
to thoroughly unseat these natives and fully capture their land,
"using all their military might, the English inflicted grievous wounds
on the Tuscarora nation, killing many and capturing over 1,000 Tuscarora
and selling them into slavery. War weary, most of the nation's survivors
left North Carolina in 1722 to take refuge among the Iroquois nations to
the north, becoming the sixth nation in the Confederacy."'30
Thus the Tuscarora
were part of the refugee tribes associated with the Confederacy as part
of the Covenant Chain, streaming through Pennsylvania to the Iroquois capital
of Onandaga in upstate New York in the 1720s , the situation of which
occasioned Shikellemy's taking up residency in the Susquehanna Valley.
"Path Valley, situated in the northwestern part of Franklin County Pennsylvania, is parallel with the main, or Cumberland Valley, but separated from it by the Kittatinny and Blue Mountains, two ranges terminating near Loudin in Jordan's and Parnell's knobs. The Tuscarora Mountain bounds it on the west. The entrance to the main valley is very narrow. The west branch of the Conococheague, flowing south, drains Path Valley, which gradually widens as it extends northward. At the northern end a spur of the main ridge, called Knob Mountain, projects southward about eight miles, dividing the valley. The eastern folk, in which flows the main stream and which is very narrow, is called Amberson Valley, while the wider portion, or Path Valley, is drained by a tributary called Dry Run, which starts near Doylestown. At this place another stream has its rise, called Tuscarora Creek, which flows northward, cuts through Tuscarora Mountain, near Concord, follows the western side of that mountain through Juniata county and empties into the Juniata river at Port Royal, forming Tuscarora Valley. The two valleys are a continuous route, with a water course gap through the mountain, running north from the Cumberland Valley to the Juniata. The mountain limiting Path Valley on the west, the valley in Juniata county on the east, the valley itself, and the creek flowing through it, take their names from and will preserve for all time the memory of the Tuscarora tribe of Indians who were the original owners of the country of which the section forms a part.....The Tuscaroras in North Carolina engaging with the whites in a war in March, 1713, were defeated and for greater protection from their conquerors fled northward and joined the Five Nations in 1715, receiving land from the Oneidas, where Wincheser now is, some near Martinsburg, on the creek that still retains their name, and large numbers in Tuscaror Valley, Juniata county, which is a continuation of Path Valley, their principle castle being near Academia....The Tuscaroras did not all come north at once, but in detached fragments, covering a period of fifty-five years. During that time there was more or less mingling together of those north with those who located at points south. The main castle being at Milligans, in what is now Juniata county, attracted the various sections of the tribe to that place. It was by going backward and forward of the Tuscaroras that the path was formed which gave to the valley the name it has ever since borne. Originally is was called Tuscarora Path Valley, but subsequently the word Tuscarora was dropped, for after 1754 it is known simply as Path Valley, the continuation of the valley in Juniata county being known as Tuscarora Valley.
The Indians seldom diverge from a straight track. By reference to ancient or modern maps it will be seen that Path Valley was the logical route from the south to that portion of New York in which the Five Nations were located. In the retreat from North Carolina, to form an alliance with the five Nations, the Tuscarora's first entered and passed through Path Valley, some locating in Tuscarora Valley, as we have already seen.
It would, of course, be impossible, in the absence of any allusion to the subject in the records, to even conjecture the number of Indians who made their home in Path Valley prior to its purchase in 1754. There is no account of any Indian town in the valley, but that they were there, transiently at least, in considerable force and prized the territory highly, is apparent from the vigorous and successful efforts they made by civil process to dislodge the early white settlers.
In 1753 there was evidently an important meeting of the Indians held in Path Valley, from the fact that John O'Neil, writing from Carlisle to Governor Hamilton, under date of May 27, 1753, refers to the opportunity which presented itself to him of learning the Indian character by at-tending a great Indian talk in Path Valley, the particulars of which Le Tort would furnish the governor. Whether Le Tort, who was the Indian interpreter at Carlisle, and for whom the stream running through that town was named, ever did so or not cannot be ascertained from any of the records.
Path Valley was a popular place for Indian
traders, more especially after the locating of the Tuscaroras in that section,
and early maps show it to have been dotted here and there with the paths
over which these traders trod on their way to the wilderness where civilization
had not as yet penetrated. These paths were numerous but the principle
one was that running from Shippensburg through Roxbury Gap, then across
Path Valley to Aughwick and on to Kittanning. Another ran by way of Fannettsburg.
" PATH
VALLEY BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. Hon. A. N. Pomeroy. April 28, 1898.compiled
from information supplied by the Coyle Free Library in Chambersburg , PA
and provided to Tuscaroras.com by Linda Carter
More than a year before the massacre and "evidently looking to a removal from North Carolina, and a location in a less hostile neighborhood, the Tuscaroras in 1710 ...had sent an embassy to the Government of Pennsylvania. At Cones-toga, June 8th, they were met by two white commissioners, and by Conestoga and Shawanese chiefs.... The Tuscaroras further said at this time that they were under command of the Five Nations, and were their sub-jects, "and that wherever they should please to tell them to go and reside, there they would make their dwelling," and the arrangement was confirmed with twenty large belts and twice three strings of wampum".
After this the sachem Decanasora, in full
meeting not only of the sachems but of all the inhabitants," etc., assembled
at Onondaga, said:
The fugitive Tuscarora asked for a cessation
of hostilities, and made overtures for peace which have been recorded as
follows:
''By the first belt, the elder women and
the mothers besought the friendship of the Christian people, the Indians
and the Government of Pennsylvania; so they might fetch wood and water
without risk or danger. By the second, the children born and those about
to be born implored for room to sport and play without the fear of death
or slavery. By the third, the young men asked for the privilege to leave
their towns without the fear of death or slavery to hunt for meat for their
mothers, their children, and the aged ones. By the fourth, the old men,
the elders of the people asked for the consum-mation of a lasting peace,
so that the forest (the paths to other tribes) be as safe for them as their
palisaded towns. By the fifth, the entire tribe asked for a firm peace.
By the sixth, the chiefs asked for the establishment of a lasting peace
with the Government, people, and Indians of Pennsylvania, whereby they
would be relieved from those fearful apprehensions they have these several
years felt.
By the seventh, the Tuscarora begged for
a cessation from murdering and taking them,' so that thereafter they would
not fear 'a mouse, or anything that ruffles the leaves.' By the eighth,
the tribe, being strangers to the people and Government of Pennsylvania,
asked for an official path or means of communication between them." (Bureau
of American Ethnology, "Handbook of American Indians!' Part II. p.843)...
The Tuscarora belts - sign of their supplication-were
sent by the Conestogas to the head council of the Five Nations at Onondaga;
and here their story becomes a part of that of New York State...A portion
of the Oneidas' territory was assigned to them, bounded by the Susquehanna
on the south, the Unadilla on the east, the Chenango on the west. How many
made up the first band that came, seems nowhere stated. They did not all
leave North Carolina at once, nor did they all come through to New York.
In 1720 some of them were living In Virginia, and complaints reached New
York's governor Burnet of robberies committed by straggling bands of Tuscaroras
and others of the Iroquois. Two Tuscaroras came to Governor Burnet with
a war belt from the Gover-nor of Virginia (as they said), asking that the
Five Nations should declare war on the Catawbas. About this time the New
York tribes reported to Burnet that French Indians (i. e., tribes in allegiance
to tbe French in Canada), were living with the Tuscaroras ''near Virginia
and go backwards and forwards....In 1722 the Tuscaroras, having been formally
incorporated into the league, were sharing in councils with the English
at Albany. Others of the tribe had settled with the Iroquois of Conestoga
in what is now Lancaster County, Pa.; and still others pitched their lodges
with Shawanese and Mohawk at Oquaga, now Windsor Broome County, .N Y......In
1768 The Tuscaroras had 140 fighting men-and probably more than twice as
many women and children-in one vi1Iage six miles from the principal Oneida
village There were still several Tuscarora settlements in tile Susquehanna.
Valley, those who had stopped &t Tamaqua, Pa., in 1713 appear to have
removed after two years. These were adopted by the Senecas as children."
It remains to trace briefly the fortunes of some of these people who had
remained in North Carolina, where their number had been estimated-probably
over-estimated at from 3,000 to 4,000. Sir William Johnson even reported
that in six North Carolina towns they numbered 5,000 or 6,000; but subsequent
records do not account for such numbers. In 1766, 160 Tuscaroras, just
from North Carolina, came in on Sir William Johnson and were sent to New
York villages.
In 1767 there was another fragmentary migration, many Indians of various tribes, including the Tuscarora, being attracted to the Moravian Mission at Friedenshuetten, on the Susquehanna near Wyalusing. The missionaries re-ported that they were lazy "and refuse to hear religion." Some of them who had camped near the river, were so alarmed at a snowfall, the first they had ever seen, that they begged the missionaries to give them refuge.
Various companies of them corning into the Colony of New York, sites were assigned them. In the northern part of the Oneida territory, already mentioned, they were allotted to Ganasaraga near present Sullivan, Madison County; and to Kaunehsuntahkeh exact site uncertain. Of the migration of 1766, Sir William Johnson wrote to the Earl of Shelburne, December 16th of that year:
This moment an interpreter arrived here
with several Tuscarora chiefs returned from North Carolina whither they
went last spring in order to
bring the remainder of their tribe out
of danger from that government, which they have now done to the number
of 160, and they have produced to me certificates of their quiet behavior
and decorum,, under the seals of the magistrates of the several districts
thro which they passed;
notwithstanding which, by the account
the interpreter and they give me, as also from the letters I received by
them, I find that on their way, their
lives were several times attempted by
the frontier people, who assembled for that purpose, to prevent which for
the future. one of my officers, that way, was necessitated to but the Crown
to the charge of an- attendant white man, and that on their return, having
sold part of .there lands in Carolina and purchased sundry horses, wagons
etc. for carrying some effects, they were again used ill at Paxton in Pennsylvania
and robbed of several horses, etc., valued at £55; of this the Tuscarora
chiefs complained to several of the Six Nations-, and I have just now with
difficultyprevented them from making a formal complaint to the whole Confederacy
on promising them that it should be inquired into....
The actual migration of the Tuscarora,
then, as we have shown, from North Carolina to New York State, occurred
at various times from 1712 to 1802 Now began a series of efforts to dispossess
them in New York State and remove them to various places in the West. Into
the intricate history of these attempts it is not here designed to enter.
About 1818 it was proposed to purchase lands in the neigh-borhood of Green
Bay, Wisconsin, held by the Menomonees and Winnebagoes, and transfer to
them certain New York tribes, the Tuscarora among them. The scheme came
to naught. Later, their removal to the Indian Territory was undertaken,
and in May, 1846, about 40 were induced to embark on a lake Erie steamboat
Some 200 Tuscarora, Senecas and others, finally reached the promised land
of the Indian Territory. Within a year, a third of them had died from privation
and disease. The Government, how-ever benevolent its designs, had failed
in giving propercare to its incapable wards; and the misconduct of agents
turned the attempt into a cruel and fatal fiasco, the story of which may
be traced in treaties and memorials through many years.33
Shickellamy is believed to have been born to a French father and a Cayuga
mother. The matrilineal tradition of the Cayuga
tribe led to his being raised by his mother within the Indian tribe. He
was taken captive by the Oneidas when he was about two
years old and spent his formative years with that tribe. As he grew up,
Shickellamy exhibited the character and mental capabilities
to be an administrator. He was therefore chosen by the Iroquois in 1728
to negotiate with the colonial officials on matters affecting
the Indians and the encroaching white settlers. He continued in the function
as the principal Indian negotiator in the Pennsylvania
region until his death at Shamokin on 17 December, 1748. Of his four sons,
the second born was Tachnechdorus. The name
Tachnechdorus, in the Indian language, means "spreading oak". Tachnechdorus'
birthdate is not known, but being the second
eldest son of Shickellamy who died in 1748, and serving as one of the negotiators
at the Albany Congress of 1754, he was probably
born circa the 1720s or 1730s. His younger brother was named Tahgahjute,
but was commonly known to the white settlers as James
Logan (nicknamed for the secretary to William Penn). Tachnechdorus, who
was nicknamed John by the white settlers, was
mistakenly referred to as John "Logan" through an erroneous analogy to
his younger brother's "white" name.
Tachnechdorus/John was also often referred to simply by the name of "Logan",
and that is how he will be referred to in the
discussion that follows." The
Indian Occupation Of Mother Bedford
(Page 8)
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Despite a primary residence for the Iroquois in their upstate New York heartland, one famous Iroquoian, Chief Shikellamy [nee Soyechtowa] moved to the Susquehanna Valley in 1728 in official capacity and he is credited with shifting Penn heir policy away from treaty with the Delaware, to treaty with the Iroquois Six Nations. At the time of his move from New York , eastern Pennsylvania was volatile, but the Susquehanna Valley was nearly a tinderbox, seeing increased white settlement, formenting anger of Delaware and Shawnee regarding pressures to relinquish their lands, and the steady stream of Indian refugees from the more southern states moving slowly towards the Iroquois capital, having asked, and recieved , permission from The Confederacy to move through Pennsylvania, establishing temporary camps along the way. Both James Logan [Most powerful man in the colony] and Conrad Weiser [Indian Ambassador] understood that the Iroquois were obligated to provide protection to persons supporting The Confederacy and seeking its protection. |
In 1728 Shikellamy and his family "took up residence at Shikellamyís Town, about 10 miles north of Pennsylvaniaís eighteenth-century Indian capitol Shamokin, at the Forks of the Susquehanna [But with ] rumblings of upheaval on the eastern frontier, Shikellamy moved his family to Shamokin" 21 [ present day Sunbury, Penna] . Shikellamy was appointed vice-regent of the Six Nations by the Onondage Council, exercising control over all Indian affairs in the Susquehanna Valley. The status of land transference and the suppressed role of the Lenape [aka Delaware] to the Iroquois during the release of their land by the Iroquois in 1737 receives deserved controversy involving suspected white misunderstanding of the term "woman" used by the Iroquois to describe the relationship of the Iroquois to them, and the perhaps over stated actual total dominance implied in most text discussing the treaty and its participants [see foot note one] . It is also clear that despite maintaining mixed tribe residence in some Penna cities later, the Delaware did not hold sacred a covenant with the Iroquois, particularly after the forced loss of their land-Tachnechdorus [eldest son of Shikellamy and later known as the Mingo's Chief Logan] told the Pennsylvania Council in 1756 that Logan and his family were living near Shamokin and were in jeopardy from hostile Delawares.26
Shikellamy , as a Chief of the Iroquois and member of its council, and through the changing Indian policy he encouraged in Conrad Weiser and James Logan of Philadelphia, assured Iroquois control of the land and all the tribes that lived there, including that of the Delaware and Shawnees. and any remnants of the Susquehannocks, now known as Conestogas living in greatly reduced numbers and by then in complete subjuation to the Iroquois for some 30 odd years. "Permission to move, hunt and live within these open spaces by all tribes was at the pleasure of the Six Nations and subject to approval by Iroquois Council through Shikellamy." 21 .By absorbing his father's handling of Indian affairs and by gaining intimacy with the white agents, Chief Logan became a trusted friend of the whites and on moving to Ohio was elected Chief of the Mingo. Chief Logan's younger brother , with whom he is often understandably confused, maintained residency near Harrisburg in 1773.
Chief Shikellamy's famous son the Mingo Chief Logan, whose name derives from his father's affection for James Logan, is discussed in more detail in the Mingo Indians of Pennsylvania Page.
According to Tuomi
J. Forrest , and referring us to Francis Jennings for the information,
the actual relationship between the Iroquois and the Lenape has been misunderstood,
and the situation of the various treaties with these peoples confused as
a result. "Penn and his agents began the process of buying land from its
Native 'holders'. These holders were various Delaware chiefs, and not as
legend
has it the Iroquois.
Despite the fact that this (mostly) New York State Confederacy of the 'Five
Nations' had defeated the Delaware,
they did not have
the power to sell the land. As Francis Jennings points out, this misreading
of the situation resulted from the fact
that the Delaware
played the role of peacemaker among various quarreling tribes. As Native
women often mediated disputes, the Delaware held the position of the 'woman'
in this arrangement. Europeans wrongly assumed that the 'woman' position
signified
a lack of rights
and lack of power. However, they were correct in assessing that the Iroquois
held the most power, though Penn
thought that politics,
at least dealing with Indians,were local so he favored the less militarily
powerful Delaware. " 3
By the time of the
Walking Purchase in the 1730s, the Iroquois had a representative Chief
residing in the Susquehanna Valley who devised with Conrad Weiser and James
Logan to deprive them of their land at a profit to the Iroquois.
"The Lenape (Deleware)
word for Iroquois is Mengwe. Literally this translates as the glans penis.
Assuming the Lenape were not being derisive, then this term may come from
the seventeen and eighteenth social situation.....In order to assure that
the Lenape behaved themselves, Onondagah sent colonies of Iroquois
to live among them. These colonists became the Mengwe or Mingos".15
These are a people
associated with Pennsylvania and Ohio history during the time of the Lenape
removal further west as a result of the finality of the Iroquois
in 1742, forcing the Lenape to adhere to the treaty the Iroquois
made with Logan and signing away Delaware [and Shawnee / Munsee ]
Lands in 1738.
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Topic Contents for Pages of Native Americans of Eastern and Southcentral Penna:
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Although residents
of now New York State between the Adirondacks and Niagara Falls,
no discussion of the Indians of Pennsylvania can occur without mention
of the Hau de no sau ne , best known not by their own name
but by the name the French gave them: The Iroqois, derived from the name
for these people given by the Algonquin Indians who suffered much for them
and who called them Iroqu (Irinakhoiw) ["rattlesnakes"]. Also
known as the Iroquois Confederacy, or The Five [later Six] Nations,
the original five included the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas,
and Senecas. The sixth nation, the Tuscaroras, migrated into Iroquois country
in the early eighteenth century and became part of the Confederacy in 1722,
though they were non voting members. The Tuscaroras, who have named for
them a chain of mountains in western Penna, migrated north from their ancestral
homeland in the North Carolina Coastal Plain, involving the Virginia
border south to the Cape Fear River and west to the Piedmont . They, like
other members of the Confederacy, were famous for torture "
In 1711, the Tuscarora Indians of North Carolina murdered John Lawson,
sticking him all over with pitch pine splinters before setting him ablaze....
one by one, the women thread these needles into his flesh, pushing just
hard enough to bring the blood, to press past the strange white skin to
the devil underneath. .....At the time, Lawson may have been the best English
friend the Tuscarora had. From his first encounters, he seems clearly to
have respected them. And in his writings, he lauded their natural graces,
admired their courage, and blamed his fellow Englishmen for their destruction.
" 20
Despite a primary residence in their upstate New York heartland, one famous Iroquoian Chief , who moved to the Susquehanna Valley in 1728 in official capacity , is credited with shifting Penn heir policy away from treaty with the Delaware, to treaty with the Iroquois Six Nations. At the time of his move eastern Pennsylvania was volatile, but in the Susquehanna Valley the climate was much more so, seeing increased white settlement, the anger of Delaware and Shawnee regarding pressures to relinquish their lands, and the steady stream of Indian refugees from the more southern states moving slowly towards the Iroquois capital, having asked, and recieved , permission from the confederacy to move through Pennsylvania. Along the way, they established temporary camps, and both James Logan [Penn Steward, and most powerful man in the colony] and Conrad Weiser [Indian Ambassador] both understood that the Iroquois were obligated to provide protection to persons supporting the confederacy and seeking its protection. Taking advantage of this situation, and in order to assure peace between the colonials and the natives, Soyechtowa was appointed by the highest governing body of the Confederacy, the Onandaga Council , to act with Iroquois authority over the tribes of Pennsylvania. This official , Soyechtowa, is remembered, and was known among the Delawares as, Shikellamy, pronounced ìShi-KELL-a-mee,î and meaning ìOur Enlightener.î 24 Some historians comment that the federation also sent Iroquois settlers to live amongst their conquered tribes, and such a reference is made of the Mingo in relation to the Lenape , or Delaware, and the Shawnee of Pennsylvania See Footnote One. Chief Shikellamy and his famous son Chief Logan of the Mingos are discussed in more detail in the Mingo Indians entry within this page. Although the Iroquois did maintain primary residence in their ancestral homelands their use of ferocity, warfare, subjugation, adoption for conquered tribes , and the use of emmisaries sent to take up residency among the conquered to assure compliance with treaty and the covenant chain enabled the Iroquois to become the most powerful of natives in a much larger area than that in which they lived and involving Kentucky, lower Michigan, southern Ontario, southwestern Quebec, northern New England, and the Hudson and Delaware Valleys down through Pennsylvania to the Chesapeake. The Powhatans of coastal Virginia to its furthest southern reaches called them Massawomeck. After 1660, the further southern Cherokee found themselves attacked by members of the Iroquois Federation when the Shawnee were driven south by the Iroquois and the Seneca Iroquois pursued them to South Carolina. [See Cherokee History by Lee Sultzman outside these pages] . This is a most impresive people. "The original homeland of the Iroquois was in upstate New York between the Adirondack Mountains and Niagara Falls. Through conquest and migration, they gained control of most of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. At its maximum in 1680, their empire extended west from the north shore of Chesapeake Bay through Kentucky to the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers; then north following the Illinois River to the south end of Lake Michigan; east across all of lower Michigan, southern Ontario and adjacent parts of southwestern Quebec; and finally south through northern New England west of the Connecticut River through the Hudson and upper Delaware Valleys across Pennsylvania back to the Chesapeake. With two exceptions - the Mingo occupation of the upper Ohio Valley and the Caughnawaga migration to the upper St. Lawrence - the Iroquois did not, for the most part, physically occupy this vast area but remained in their upstate New York villages. "16 "During the 17th century, the Iroquois of the Five Nations had devastated the tribes of their language stock around Lake Erie, including the Eries, Mingos, Andastes (Susquehanna), Hurons and the Neutral Tribes. The captives were divided among the Five Nations to increase their population, depleted by the warfare. This warfare was partly to retain hold of the fur trade centered on Albany, and ranged beyond the Mississippi, to the farthest reaches of Lake Superior. ....In the east, the Five Nations reduced the Lenni Lenape, or Delawares, to Iroqois vassalage and disarmed them." 17 The concept of elective representation provided by our constitution is owed to the Iroquois from whom the founding fathers understood the concept, though it was mutated from the form of the Iroquois amongst whom only women elected , and only men served. The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, one of the world's oldest democracies i, according to some historians, at least three centuries older than most previous estimates, [see research by Barbara Mann and Jerry Fields of Toledo University, Ohio which date the eclipse mentioned in their tradition as that which occured in 1142 in Dating the Iroquois Confederacy by Bruce E. Johansen , published in Akwesasne Notes New Series, Fall -- October/November/December -- 1995, Volume 1 #3 & 4, pp. 62-63. and reproduced with permission at The 6 Nations , Oldest Particaptory Democracy on Earth website As a result of these people residing in now upstate New York, the Indians with which our first forebears came in contact in Pennsylvania experienced a complicated situation in which their social and political situations were affected by, manipulated, managed to some degree, and in some cases controlled by the larger Iroqois Nation which dominated them, despite the fact that the majority of Iroquois in the Nation resided far from the places where Penn desired settlement. On to the Susquehannocks , the Mingo, the Shawnee, and the Munsee and Delaware Indians of Pa. to Top of Page |
2. From York
County History Pages of York
County Webpages.
3. Penn
and the Indians
page of site entitled " William Penn. Visionary Proprietor" by
Tuomi J. Forrest
4 Indians, Sources, Critics by Will J. Alpern (Prudential-Bache Securities). Presented at the 5th Cooper Seminar, James Fenimore Cooper: His Country and His Art at the State University of New York College at Oneonta, July, 1984. ©1985 by State University of New York College at Oneonta ["may be downloaded and reproduced for personal or instructional use, or by libraries" ] Originally published in James Fenimore Cooper: His Country and His Art, Papers from the 1984 Conference at State University of New York College -- Oneonta and Cooperstown. George A. Test, editor. (pp. 25-33)
6. SUSQUEHANNOCK
HISTORYpart of First
Nations, Issues of Conesquence pages. Lee Sultzman
7. SUSQUEHANNOCK
HISTORY, Lee Sultzman. Part
of First
Nations Histories
8.Information
on the Susquehannock Indians from Pagewise
9. Delaware History by Lee Sultzman.. Part of First Nations Histories
10. Where are the Susquehannock now? part of the pages of BrokenClaw.com
12. Native Americans Post Contact:, from The Mariners Museum, Newport News, Va pages
13. . Internet School Library Media Center, Monacan Indians page.
14. AN AMERICAN SYNTHESIS The Sons of St. Tammany or Columbian Order . [ the footnotes evident in the text takent from "an American Synthesis" can be accessed at the link given in source
15. Iroquois . By: Joe Wagner, with references provided.
16. The Iroquois. by Lee Sultzman. Part of First Nations Histories
17 William
Henry Harrison and the West , part of Dr James B. Calvert's pages
at University of Denver Website.
At the time of Penn's arrival in 1682,
the Susquehannock were subservient to the Iroquois Confederacy, just as
their enemies and neighbors, the Delaware , were. The Susquehannock were
decimated by war and disease, but the Lenape remained vital.
18. Shawnee's Reservation a detailed site on Shawnee History
19. Shawnee History by Lee Sultzman. . Part of First Nations Histories
20. Marjorie Hudson, Among the Tuscarora: The Strange and Mysterious Death of John Lawson, Gentleman, Explorer, and Writer, North Carolina Literary Review, 1992 [transcribed at East North Carolina Digital History Exhibits]
21. Chief Logan: Friend, Foe or Fiction? by Ronald R. Wenning. The Journal of the Lycoming County Historical Society, Volume XXXVII, Number 1, Fall, 1997
22. Mingo Indians part of The Allegheny Regional Family History Society's Web pages
23. Weiser,
Shikellamy and the Walking Purchase By Al Zagofsky
24. Conrad Weiser from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
25. The Walking Purchase from Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
26. James
Logan , Mingo Indian from The American National Biography, published
by Oxford University Press under the auspices
of the American Council of Learned
Societies.
27. The
Lineage of Mother Bedford from Mother
Bedford , a website devoted primarily to the history of Old-Bedford
County, Pennsylvania during the American Revolutionary War period.
28. Year
1736. part of the webpage entitled "Ben Franklin :A Documentary
History" by J A Leo Lemay , English Department , Professor University
of Delaware, Newark, Delaware.
29. Shawnee' entry from Hodge's Handbook Abstract: The 'Shawnee' entry from Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, edited by Frederick
30. John
Lawson 1714, from The American Philosophical Society Library and Webpage
31 . The Iroquois as found in the Catholic Encylopedia's Indepth Study involving social, cultural , political and religious history
32. Cherokee History by Lee Sultzman. Part of First Nations Histories
33. Our Tuscarora Neighbors by Frank H Severance [ca 1915] part Two
Links:
Native
American Groups , a link to many very useful sites on Natives from
awesomelibrary.org
First
Nations Histories [in which are found many of Lee Sultzman's tribal
descriptions directly linked in sources above]
Native
Languages of the Americas: Algonquin (Algonkin, Anishnabe, Anishinabe,
Anishnabek) describes the language and the proper use of the term Algonquin
and Algonquian. Algonquian is the correct form for the larger language
of which Algonquin is just one.
Algonquian
Language Family (Algic) [lists and provides links to the tribes who
spoke Algonquian
John R. Swanton. (New Jersey) Extract
from The Indian Tribes of North America by John R. Swanton.
Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 145ó1953. [726 pagesóSmithsonian
Institution] (pp. 48-55). Presented in pages of
the
Northern Plains Archive Project web site.
Our
Tuscarora Neighbors [a history in 6 parts ] by Frank H. Severance
On to the
Susquehannocks , the Mingo, the Shawnee,
and the Munsee and Delaware
Indians of Pa. to
Top of Page
Sources for This Page:
1. State Museum of Pennsylvania. Brief Summary of the 1681 Charter.
2. From York
County History Pages of York
County Webpages.
3. Penn
and the Indians
page of site entitled " William Penn. Visionary Proprietor" by
Tuomi J. Forrest
4 Indians, Sources, Critics by Will J. Alpern (Prudential-Bache Securities). Presented at the 5th Cooper Seminar, James Fenimore Cooper: His Country and His Art at the State University of New York College at Oneonta, July, 1984. ©1985 by State University of New York College at Oneonta ["may be downloaded and reproduced for personal or instructional use, or by libraries" ] Originally published in James Fenimore Cooper: His Country and His Art, Papers from the 1984 Conference at State University of New York College -- Oneonta and Cooperstown. George A. Test, editor. (pp. 25-33)
6. SUSQUEHANNOCK
HISTORYpart of First
Nations, Issues of Conesquence pages. Lee Sultzman
7. SUSQUEHANNOCK
HISTORY, Lee Sultzman. Part
of First
Nations Histories
8.Information
on the Susquehannock Indians from Pagewise
9. Delaware History by Lee Sultzman.. Part of First Nations Histories
10. Where are the Susquehannock now? part of the pages of BrokenClaw.com
12. Native Americans Post Contact:, from The Mariners Museum, Newport News, Va pages
13. . Internet School Library Media Center, Monacan Indians page.
14. AN AMERICAN SYNTHESIS The Sons of St. Tammany or Columbian Order . [ the footnotes evident in the text takent from "an American Synthesis" can be accessed at the link given in source
15. Iroquois . By: Joe Wagner, with references provided.
16. The Iroquois. by Lee Sultzman. Part of First Nations Histories
17 William
Henry Harrison and the West , part of Dr James B. Calvert's pages
at University of Denver Website.
At the time of Penn's arrival in 1682,
the Susquehannock were subservient to the Iroquois Confederacy, just as
their enemies and neighbors, the Delaware , were. The Susquehannock were
decimated by war and disease, but the Lenape remained vital.
18. Shawnee's Reservation a detailed site on Shawnee History
19. Shawnee History by Lee Sultzman. . Part of First Nations Histories
20. Marjorie Hudson, Among the Tuscarora: The Strange and Mysterious Death of John Lawson, Gentleman, Explorer, and Writer, North Carolina Literary Review, 1992 [transcribed at East North Carolina Digital History Exhibits]
21. Chief Logan: Friend, Foe or Fiction? by Ronald R. Wenning. The Journal of the Lycoming County Historical Society, Volume XXXVII, Number 1, Fall, 1997
22. Mingo Indians part of The Allegheny Regional Family History Society's Web pages
23. Weiser,
Shikellamy and the Walking Purchase By Al Zagofsky
24. Conrad Weiser from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
25. The Walking Purchase from Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
26. James
Logan , Mingo Indian from The American National Biography, published
by Oxford University Press under the auspices
of the American Council of Learned
Societies.
27. The
Lineage of Mother Bedford from Mother
Bedford , a website devoted primarily to the history of Old-Bedford
County, Pennsylvania during the American Revolutionary War period.
28. Year
1736. part of the webpage entitled "Ben Franklin :A Documentary
History" by J A Leo Lemay , English Department , Professor University
of Delaware, Newark, Delaware.
29. Shawnee'
entry from Hodge's Handbook Abstract: The 'Shawnee' entry from Handbook
of American Indians North of Mexico, edited by Frederick
Webb Hodge (Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin
30. GPO: 1910.)
30. Francis Latham Harriss, Biographical Sketch of John Lawson, Lawsonís History of North Carolina, 1951 from Eastern North Carolina Digital History Exhibits, part of East Carolina University's Joyner Library
31. Chapter
One.The Indian Lands prehistory - 1814. from " Toledo Profile A Sesquicentennial
History", by Tana Mosier Porter. Co Editors: Dr. Charles N. Glaab, James
C. Marshall. Produced by the Toledo Sesquicentennial Commission,
Toledo, Ohio. 1987 Second Printing 1987. Library of Congress
Catalog Card Number 87-50218. ISBN Number 0-9618210-1-9. Copyright ©
1987 by Toledo-Lucas County Public Library. Printing by Buettner
Toledo, Inc, Toledo, OH.
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