The Chickamauga In The Western Confederacy
NEGOTIATIONS between the Western Indian Confederacy & U.S. Commissioners on the issue of the Ohio River as the boundary of Indian lands
August 1793
E. A. Cruikshank, ed., The Correspondence of Lieut. Governor John Graves Simcoe, 1 vol. I-II, (Toronto: Ontario Historical Society, 1923-1924)
MESSAGE from the WESTERN INDIANS to the COMMISSIONERS OF THE UNITED STATES, August 13th, 1793 (II, 17-20; excerpts] _______________
BROTHERS; You tell us that after you had made peace with the King our Father, about ten years ago, ìit remained to make peace between the U. States, and the Indian Nations who had taken part with the King, for this purpose Commissioners were appointed who sent messages to all those Indian Nations, inviting them to come and make peace,î and after reciting the periods at which you say Treaties were held at Fort Stanwix, Fort McIntosh, and Miami, all which Treaties according to your own acknowledgement, were for the sole purpose of making peace; you then say, Brothers, the Commissioners who conducted these Treaties, in behalf of the United States, sent the papers containing them to the general Council of the States, who supposing them satisfactory to the Nations treated with proceeded to dispose of the lands thereby cededî Brothers, this is telling us plainly what we always understood to be the case, & it agrees with the declaration of those few, who attended these treaties. Vizt. that they went to meet your Commissioners to make peace, but through fear were obliged to sign any paper that was laid before them, and it has since appeared that deeds of cession were signed by them instead of Treaties of peace. . . .
BROTHERS; Money, to us, is of no value, & to most of us unknown, and as no consideration whatever can induce us to sell the lands on which we get sustenance for our women and children; we hope we may be allowed to point out a mode by which your settlers may be easily removed, and peace thereby obtained.
BROTHERS; We know that these settlers are poor, or they would never have ventured to live in a country which have been in continual trouble ever since they
crossed the Ohio; divide therefore this large sum of money which you have offered to us, among these people, give to each also a portion of what you say you would give us annually over and above this very large sum of money, and we are persuaded they would most readily accept of it in lieu of the lands you sold to them, if you add also the great sums you must expend in raising and paying Armies, with a view to force us to yield you our Country, you will certainly have more than sufficient for the purposes of repaying these settlers for all their labour and improvements.
BROTHERS; You have talked to us about concessions. It appears strange that you should expect any from us, who have only been defending our just Rights against your invasion; We want Peace; Restore to us our Country and we shall be Enemies no longer. . . .
BROTHERS; We never made any agreement with the King, nor with any other Nation that we would give to either the exclusive right of purchasing our lands. And we declare to you that we consider ourselves free to make any bargain or cession of lands, whenever & to whomsoever we please, if the white people as you say, made a treaty that none of them but the King should purchase of us, and that he has given that right to the U. States, it is an affair which concerns you & him & not us.
We have never parted with such a power.
BROTHERS; At our General Council held at the Glaize last Fall, we agreed to meet Commissioners from the U. States, for the purpose of restoring Peace, provided they consented to acknowledge and confirm our boundary line to be the Ohio; and we determined not to meet you until you gave us satisfaction on that point; that is the reason we have never met.
We desire you to consider Brothers, that our only demand, is the peaceable possession of a small part of our once great Country. Look back and view the lands from whence we have been driven to this spot, we can retreat no further, because the country behind hardly affords food for its present inhabitants. And we have therefore resolved, to leave our bones in this small space, to which we are now confined.
BROTHERS; We shall be persuaded that you mean to do us justice if you agree, that the Ohio, shall remain the boundary line between us, if you will not consent thereto, our meeting will be altogether unnecessary. This is the great point which we hoped would have been explained, before you left your homes, as our message last Fall was principally directed to obtain that information.
DONE in General Council at the Foot of the Miamis Rapids the 13th day of August, 1793.
NATIONS. MARKS.
Wyandots ............................ Bear.
Seven Nations of Canada ..... Turtle.
Delawares ............................ Turtle.
Shawanoes ........................... Wolf.
Miamis................................. Turtle.
Ottawas................................ Sturgeon.
Chippawas ........................... Crane.
Senecaís of the Glaize .......... Turtle.
Potowatamies....................... Black Fish.
Connoys............................... Turkey.
Munseys............................... Turkey.
Nanticokes ........................... Turtle.
Mohikens ............................. Turkey.
Messasagas .......................... Eagle.
Creeks.................................. Bear.
Cherokees ............................ Elk.
Sent with Strings of Black and White Wampum.
EDITORIAL: The "cherokee" above are the Chickamauga since the Chickamauga alone had been part of this confederacy for many decades, not the cherokee. The cherokee were still in the Lake Erie and Lake Huron regions of Canada as part of the Iroquoian Confederacy when the Chickamauga were already part of the Western Confederacy as evidenced by deer skin maps of the period.
MESSAGE from the COMMISSIONERS OF THE UNITED STATES to the CHIEFS & WARRIORS of the INDIAN NATIONS Assembled at the Foot of the Miamis Rapids.
August 16 th , 1793 [II, 24] __________
BROTHERS; We have just received your Answer dated the 13th Inst. to our speech of the 31st of last month, which we delivered to your Deputies at this place. You say it was interpreted to your nations, and we presume it was fully understood. We therein explicitly declared to you that it was now impossible to make the River Ohio the boundary between your lands & the lands of the United States.
Your answer amounts to a declaration that you will agree to no other boundary than the Ohio. The negotiation is therefore at an end. We sincerely regret that peace is not the result. But knowing the upright & liberal views of the United States, which as far as you gave us opportunity we have explained to you, We trust that impartial judges will not attribute the continuance of the war to them.
DONE at Captain Elliottís at the Mouth of Detroit River, the sixteenth day of August, 1793.
B. LINCOLN Commissioners
BEVERLY RANDOLPH, of the
TIMOTHY PICKERING, United States.
GENERAL ORDER BY GENERAL ANTHONY WAYNE.
October 6, 1794.
[II, 409-410; excerpts] __________ (Enclosed in a letter from Major John H. Buell to General Knox, dated Greenville, 6 October, 1794, and intercepted by the Indians [and delivered to the British].)
HEADQUARTERS, BANKS OF THE MIAMIS,
23rd August, 1794.
The Commander in Chief takes this opportunity to congratulate the Federal Army upon their Brilliant success in the action of the 20th Insít, against the whole Combined Force of the hostile Savages,3 . . . The Indians to all appearances, having totally abandoned their Settlements quite to the mouth of the River, and their Villages and Cornfields being consumed and Destroyed in every direction, even under the influence of the Guns of Fort Miamis, facts, which must produce a conviction to the minds of the Savages that the British have neither the power or inclination to Afford them that protection which they had been taught to expect, . . . The Commander in Chief therefore requests the Army in general and every Commissioned officer in particular from the Generals down to the Ensigns, to accept of his most grateful thanks, for their good conduct, example, and bravery upon the late glorious and important occasion, . . .
JOHN H. BUELL, MAJOR
(C) This document was produced at the request of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on July 18, 2019, to document the History, Anthropology, Culture, Religion, and Archaeology of The Chickamauga Nation.