Treaties 1682-84 William Penn sought , and obtained, treaties with the native Lenape immediately upon acquisition of the colony. He sought a treaty with the Susquehannock, but found they were subjugated by the Iroquois. Map Image below from Penn and the Indians page of comprehensive website entitled " William Penn. Visionary Proprietor" by Tuomi J. Forrest The Purchase of Lands West of the Susquehanna 1736 from the Iroquois by the Penns which allowed for European settlement of "All the land west of the Susquehanna to the setting sun" The Walking Purchase 1738 which cleared the north eastern and north
central region for European Settlement, alienated, disenfranchised and
cheated the Delaware, and so laid the foundation for their significant
role in harrassing and attacking Pennsylvania's frontier comunities in
the French and Indian War
.
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The Natives at time of contact. By 1682 and Penn's
acquisition and arrival, this map
would be different
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William Penn sought , and obtained, treaties with the native Lenape immediately upon acquisition of the colony. He sought a treaty with the Susquehannock, but found they were subjugated by the Iroquois. Map Image below from Penn and the Indians page of comprehensive website entitled " William Penn. Visionary Proprietor" by Tuomi J. Forrest |
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Penn came twice to his colony, and never tarried long within it. His first voyage was in the fall of 1682, and he left in August of 1684. He returned for a short spell in 1692, and at that time was accompanied by James Logan [our direct via the Howard Ascendancy] , a man of modest means who gained employment as Penn's secretary, functioned as steward of Pennsylvania on behalf of Penn in Penn's absence, and grew to be the wealthiest man in all the colonies at his zenith. It is during Penn's first visit to his colony that Penn supposedly signed a treaty with the Lenni Lenape Indians at Shackamaxon. No copy of this agreement exists, but there is a wampum belt that is said to have been given to Penn by the natives at this time. Colonial Historian "Francis Jennings believes that Penn signed the treaty and never broke it, but that his less scrupulous successors destroyed the document, presumably so that they could renege on its provisions."3. The earliest treaty document to which we can actually refer is the Treaty dated July 15, 1682 , in which Penn brokered with Idquahon and several others amongst the Lenape leadership for land pertaining to them. In 1683 he brokered more land transactions with these native peoples, while evidencing undertanding of the Lenape and the Iroqois Confederacy of New York to whom the Lenape were subjugated. "The treaty of 1701 is both the first full treaty text that remains extant (there exist parts of earlier ones), and the last agreement brokered directly by Penn rather than his agents. It also capped a major power play: 'It conveyed land, controlled trade, and arranged juridical relationships, all at the expense of New York and New York's partners, the Iroquois Five Nations' (Jennings 205). As he had done before, Penn rewarded 'his' Indians. His policies helped make Pennsylvania, in the words of the missionary John Heckewelder, 'the last, delightful asylum' for Native Americans (Jennings, 207). Penn's successors were much less fair and scrupulous in dealing with the Indians. The ink was barely dry on the 1701 treaty when Penn's secretary and family steward, James Logan , began to devise ways to reclaim land set aside for the Susquehannocks and the Delaware. "3 |
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The Purchase of Lands West of the Susquehanna 1736 from the Iroquois by the Penns
The time between right to survey and right to the land west of the Susquehanna lagged nearly 15 years during which period settlement west of the Susquehanna was occuring, but the Penn heirs were not profiting from the settlement, and the area involved dispute with Maryland regarding where exactly the boundary of the two colonies lay. "Sir william Keith...Lt Governor of the
province of Pennsylvania, ...was anxious to hinder these encroachments
on what he believed to be the property of the heirs of Penn....the lands
had not, as yet, been purchased from the Indians by the propretor of Pennsylvania,
and much less by that of Maryland......the policy of Penn ever had been
to grant no rights to lands, and to permit no settlements on them, until
purchased of the Indians.....
"...Part of Chester Countyís western frontier
at the beginning of the 18th century [desired] Settlement along the Susquehanna
was important to Pennsylvaniaís future development not only because of
the boundary dispute with Maryland that precipitated Cresap's War (1731-1736)
but also because the Susqehanna was a trade route that provided direct
accesss from Pennsylvaniaís hinterland to the West and to the Chesapeake,
The heartland of the American colonies. ì10
8. History of York County from its erection to the present time; [1729-1834]
By W. C. Carter & A. J. Glossbrenner.
10. From:Hopkins, Leroy. ìBlack Eldorado on the Susquehanna: The Emergence of Black Columbia, 1726-1861î, Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society. Vol 89, pp 110-132 Transcription available at Link First William Penn and later "his heirs and their representatives, negotiated formally with the Indians, and purchased from them land already nominally theirs . As settlement along the coast grew in size and number, the need for westward expansion became apparent, and in 1722 the Indians were asked for, and gave, permission to survey the land beyond the Susquehanna River. " 2 It was at this time that " a tract about 6 miles wide and 15 miles long and including the site now occupied by the City of York, was surveyed and named Springettsbury Manor, for Springett Penn, the grandson of the Founder. " 2 14 years later " In the summer of 1736 the sachems (i.e. rulers) of the Five Nations met in the country of the Onandagoes (i.e. in the region of the present-day state of New York) and decided to review the treaties that had been made between them and the colonists. They then traveled to Philadelphia and renewed old treaties of friendship with the Penn family. The Treaty of the Five Nations, signed by the twenty-three Indian chiefs present, granted to the Penns, among other boundaries: "all the lands lying on the west side of the said river (i.e. the Susquehanna) to the setting of the sun." 27 Ben Franklin's "Gazettle" informs "Conrad Weiser learned, about 1 September, that a group of Six Nations chiefs were on their way to Pennsylvania. They were guided to James Logan's home at Stenton where, 28 September, the treaty began. Franklin reported the presence of the Indians in the 7 October Gazette. The treaty continued at the Friends' Great Meeting House in Philadelphia and concluded on 14 October, with the two sides renewing the earlier treaty of friendship, 1732. A Treaty of Friendship held with the Chiefs of the Six Nations at Philadelphia (1737) was the first of a series of Indian treaties printed by Franklin. Then the chiefs met privately with John Penn. He reminded them that they had previously sold all the land along the Susquehanna and asked why they had lately laid claims to those lands. On 11 October the Indians confirmed the sale. The Gazette, 14 October, celebrated Pennsylvania's peaceful Indian policy. At Conrad Weiser's home, 25 October, the chiefs also sold land along the Delaware River below the Kittatinny Hills, and a group of four chiefs warned the Proprietors that the Delaware Indians no longer owned any land and were not to be trusted. "28 " Onandagoe , Seneca, Oneida and
Tuscarora nations [of the
Six Nations] signed a new treaty of peace and deeded to the Penns,
'all the river Susquehanna and all land lying on the west side of said
river to the setting of the sun...'. " 2
In 1637, "the Onandagoe, Seneca (see also this alternate Seneca link ), Oneida and Tuscarora [all members of the Iriquois nation] "signed a new treaty of peace and deeded to the Penns, 'all the river Susquehanna and all land lying on the west side of said river to the setting of the sun...' "2
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The Walking Purchase 1738
Image from the Lenni
Lenape webpages
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n 1732, William Penn's son, Thomas, inherited the deed to the Commonwealth
of
Pennsylvania, which at the time stretched from the Delaware River westward to the Susquehanna River, and from the Maryland and Delaware borders northward to roughly the base of Blue Mountain.....To expand the state, Penn met with Delaware Indians in Philadelphia and produced a deed from 1686 which stated that the Delaware Indians sold the white settlers all the land west of the Delaware River, north as far as a man could walk in a day and a half. The Indians were puzzled, held a powwow and eventually agreed to the terms of the deed. Over 100 years later, experts examined the Deed of 1686 and found that
it was in fact a
Three runners prepared and a path was cleared through the forest. At
the end of the race, The Deed of 1686 set the limits of the purchase at
right angles to the line of the walk,
As the colony sought for expansion beyond the territory deeded to Penn by the Indians initially, clear title from the Indians to the land in the upper Delaware and Lehigh River valleys was sought. The Walking Purchase of 1737, for whom our direct ancestor James Logan is primarily responsible, abused the Lenape residing in the region in both the manipulation of Indian alliances forcing the treaty from tthem, and trickery deceiving them in the amount of land involved in the treaty itself. The map at left shows the territory pre and post walking purchase and is again from the Lenni Lenape webpages. Against the wishes of the increasingly confined Lenape, the 6 nations
of the Iroquois, to whom the Lenape were subservient, signed a deed giving
up Lenape interest in the area.
Forced to now western Pennsylvania, the Lenape were welcomed by the French, intent on establishing ownership of the Ohio and Allegheny River Valleys and who , by 1748, were deeply involved in dispute with the Virginia based Ohio Company [with which organization Virginian George Washington became milatarily involved] for dominance in the region. As a result of the collective history above, the Lenape Indians, known as the Delawares to the colonials, were among the firecest in the raids on the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania occuring during the French and Indian War.In the short period between 1748 and 1756, the French used the Indians as a devestating and effective tool against the British. Adams County, at that time still part of York, was greatly affected by these raids, as were its frontier neighbors. |
Top of Page
The Natives of Eastern and South Central
Pennsylvania: Page Contents
IroquoisMingoSusquehannocksShawneeLenni
Lenape [Delaware]
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. sample
chapter of At
the Crossroads Indians and Empires on a Mid-Atlantic Frontier, 1700-1763
by Jane T. Merritt [book content , availability
and sample chapter viewable and obtained via The
University of North Carolina Press]
Not sure where I use the following here: numbered 1 like 1 above, but not used so far that I can see, and if so, should have another number
1. (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.
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