Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 1.
Chapter 2, pp. 19-28.
19 |
Chapter II. The Miami Proper, 1710-1805
This chapter will deal with the history of the Crane band or, as this band was generally referred to in the literature after 1700, and as we will now designate it, the Miami, proper. The total time span covered in this chapter on the Miami will be from 1710 to 1805. This 95-year span breaks naturally into five periods. We turn now to the first of these periods, from 1710 to 1727. Throughout this period the Miami were more or less French-dominated and French-controlled.
The Period 1710-1727. As was pointed out near the end of Chapter I, in 1708 the majority of the Miamis were settled on the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio, with a small minority near Detroit. In 1711 Philippe de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada sent the French officer, Sieur de Vincennes, to the Miamis in order to persuade "some of them..., especially chiefs and men of importance" to come to Vaudreuil's large Indian conference that summer. Vaudreuil evidently considered the Miamis to be somewhere between Detroit and the St. Joseph River of Michigan, the points of embarkation and termination of Vincennes' search for them. This would put them, probably, in northern Indiana. After Vincennes had found "the place where the Miamis are now settled, " he was to take them to St. Joseph, in southwestern Michigan, and from thence eastward, apparently by the Ottawa River since Vaudreuil specifically instructed that they were not to go via Lakes Erie and Ontario .1 At this date (1711) the French were concerned
1. Historical Collections of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, vol.
33, p. 501;
Dft. Ex.
82.
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 1.
Chapter 2, pp. 19-28.
20 |
about the access of the English to the Western Indians (and vice versa) via the eastern Great Lakes. Vincennes appears to have been successful in his mission; the Miami did attend the council with Vaudreuil.2
At this time the Miami were in the unenviable position of being both feared and disliked. One of the reasons Vaudreuil gave for having the Miami attend his conference was that "the other tribes may not have reason to fear them during their absence." The Fox had killed two Miami at Detroit prior to their departure eastward and the Mississagues, a division of the Chippewas, after returning from trading with the English attacked the Miami upon the latter's return from the conference.3 Miami-Illinois hostilities are also indicated. In 1714, as a part of its anti-Fox program, the Canadian French government considered it necessary to establish peace between the Miami and Wea Indians on the one hand and the Illinois Indians on the other.4 Efforts had been made to make such a peace two years before, in 1712.5
Vincennes, the French peace emissary in 1714, was also instructed to try and persuade the Miami to return to the St. Joseph River of Michigan.6 These attempts by the French to
2. Ibid., vol. 33, p. 503;
Dft. Ex.
82.
3. Ibid., vol. 33, pp. 501, 503; Dft. Ex. 82.
4. Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 15, pp. 303-304, 312-313, 318; Dft. Ex. 64.
5. Historical Collections of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, vol. 33, p. 550; Dft. Ex. 82.
6. Krauskopf, The French in Indiana, p. 46; Dft. Ex. 70.
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 1.
Chapter 2, pp. 19-28.
21 |
have the Miami return to the St. Joseph River were to continue, as we shall see, for several years.7
In a document dated 1715, reproduced in Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, the Miami "of the ouabeche [Wabash]," were reported eight days' journey eastward from the Wea.8 French documents, other than this, refer to this same group of Miami as the "Miami of the Babiche" or "the miamis of the babiche."9 Context of all these documents makes it clear that the Miamis of the "ouabeche" or "of the babiche" were the Miamis living on the Maumee River, not on the Wabash. Warriors from this Maumee River village were being urged to participate in the 1715 attack on the Fox; however, measles were epidemic in the village and it was feared by the French that this would hamper Miami participation.10 Apparently these fears were realized, since there is no record of any Miami going to the embarkation point of Chicago.
In 1717 the Iroquois attempted to entice the Miami to trade at a new English trading post on the "Oyo River."11 Due to Vincennes' influence the Miami refused to do this.12
7. See below, pp.
22-23, this Report.
8. Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 16, p. 323; Dft. Ex. 64.
9. Ibid., vol. 16, p. 312; Dft. Ex. 64. Krauskopf, The French in Indiana, p. 56; Dft. Ex. 70. Mereness, Travels, p. 75; Dft. Ex. 85.
10. Ibid., pp. 58-59; Dft. Ex. 70.
11. This trading establishment was probably on the upper reaches of the Ohio River or its upper tributaries.
12. Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 16, p. 345, Dft. Ex. 64.
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 1.
Chapter 2, pp. 19-28.
22 |
That same year (1717) trouble was brewing between the Ottawa of the Detroit-Saginaw Bay region, and the Miami. Five Ottawa went to "the river of the Miamis [Maumee] and there slew an Iroquois and his wife, who was a Miami woman, and two children." It cost French officials much effort as well as a large sum of money (over 1574? to settle this affair by the following year.13
At this time (1718) the Miami promised to move back to the St. Joseph River of Michigan, where the French had been trying to get them to go to keep them from the influence of the English. However, on the death of the elder Vincennes in their village in 1719 they decided not to move. French officials, however, did not give up hope of effecting this move.14
The location of the Miamis' village in 1718-1719, at present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana, is made clear in a Memoir "Furnished by Monsieur de Sabrevois in 1718." In this Memoir Sabrevois, formerly commandant of Detroit, noted that the Miami lived on the upper part of the
|
|
River of the miamis [Maumee] . . . Sixty |
13. Historical Collections of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, vol.
33, pp.
592-593, 598; Dft. Ex. 82.
14. Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 16; pp. 382-383; Dft. Ex. 64.
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 1.
Chapter 2, pp. 19-28.
23 |
|
|
of our tribes at Destroit [Detroit] . . . . |
By 1720 some of the Miami on the headwaters of the Maumee had migrated to the St. Joseph River of Michigan. In October of that year Vaudreuil, governor General of Canada reported that
A part of the Miamis, numbering about one hundred men, have gone to Settle on the St. Joseph River, where still others were expected. However, The majority of the Savages of that nation continue to remain in their usual territory, and do not appear at all disposed to go to the St. Joseph River.
Vaudreuil also reported that, due to his withdrawal of traders among the Miamis of the upper Maumee, the latter were inclined to move eastward and settle among the Iroquois, where English trade goods were plentiful. However, he hoped to be able to forestall such a movement by presents and by renewed efforts to persuade them to go to the St. Joseph River of Michigan.16
The French Jesuit-historian, Pierre Fran?is Xavier de Charlevoix, in 1721 visited a Miami village a little below Fort St. Joseph on the St. Joseph River, on the opposite side of the river to the Fort.17 However, by 1721 it is
15. Ibid., vol. 16, p. 375;
Dft. Ex.
64.
16. Ibid., vol. 16, pp. 394-395; Dft. Ex. 64.
17. Charlevoix, Journal of a Voyage, vol. 2, p. 99; Dft. Ex. 78.
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 1.
Chapter 2, pp. 19-28.
24 |
apparent that French policy had changed concerning the removal of the Miami from the Maumee valley. In that year Charles Renaud Dubuisson had been sent to command the Miami as well as the Wea. It is evident from the location of his post, the newly constructed Fort Saint Philippe at the head of the Maumee River, that the majority of the Miami still lived there. Dubuisson was to put a stop to possible English-Iroquois intrigues that might be carried on among the Miami.18
In 1726 there were at least three, and probably four, villages of Miami-Wea-Piankeshaw-speaking people. According to a 1726 Memoir by Jean Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, former Governor of Louisiana, there were but three such settlements, two on the Wabash (Wea and Piankeshaw) and one on the Maumee (Miami). The Maumee River village, Bienville wrote,
retains the name of Miamis at the great village of the Crane, [and] is established on the river of the same name [present Maumee] which has its source in the same latitude as the Wabash and which empties into the lakes of Canada.
Bienville gave no population figures for the Miami, but noted "more than four hundred men," for the Weas, and "at least one hundred and fifty men" for the Piankashaws.19
18. Indiana Historical Society Publications, vol. 18, pp. 142,
172;
Dft. Ex.
79.
19. Rowland and Sanders, Mississippi Provincial Archives, French Dominion, vol. 3, p. 534; Dft. Ex. 107. The Weas were noted as being, in 1726, "two hundred leagues up the Wabash on the left as one goes upstream" and "the new village of Mercata or Piankashaw" as being "several leagues lower down" from the Wea village (idem).
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 1.
Chapter 2, pp. 19-28.
25 |
It is quite probable that Bienville was unaware of a second, small Miami settlement on the St. Joseph River of Michigan, The St. Joseph River post, where Charlevoix had seen Miamis in 1721, was a dependency of Canada and not of Louisiana, and was consequently beyond Bienville's sphere of influence and information. Although the two posts on the Wabash were also dependent on Canada, the government of Louisiana was interested in Indian affairs on the Wabash, and a few years afterward established a post on the lower Wabash River.
1728-1746. By 1728 English traders were contemplating trade among the Miami. In the fall of that year James Letort, a Pennsylvania trader, intended to go to the Miami, but due to rumored Indian uneasiness he postponed his journey.20 It may be noted here that the English generally referred to the Miami as the "Twechtwese [var., Twigtwees] or Naked Indians."21
In 1730 the Miami took part in a French-led, pan-Indian attack on the Fox. According to one contemporary source the commandant of the Miami post on the Maumee River near the present city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, brought 100 Indians from his post to take part in the attack. According
20. Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, vol. 3, p. 295;
Dft. Ex.118.
21. Pennsylvania Archives, first series, vol. 1, p. 227; Dft. Ex. 120.
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 1.
Chapter 2, pp. 19-28.
26 |
to another contemporary source, 200 Miamis participated.22 Beside the Miami from the Maumee, Miami of the St. Joseph River region of Michigan were also represented. The commandant of the St. Joseph post noted that he took all the warriors from his post- Potawatomi, Miami, and Sac- with him to attack the Fox.23
Aside from using them in punitive expeditions against the Fox the French, from the early 1730's onward, were also urging the Miami to raid the Chickasaw.24 In May, 1734, we learn that a party or parties of Miamis had raided the Chickasaw, and in June, 1734, the French commandant of the Miami post reported that all of the Miami warriors from his post except "six old men had gone on the war-path" against the Chickasaw.25 Miami raids on the Chickasaw continued for at least eight more years; attacks were noted in 1736 and 1742.26
Around the time of the onset of hostilities with the Chickasaw a smallpox epidemic was rampant among the Great
22. Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 17, pp. 112,
116;
Dft. Ex.
64.
23. Ibid., vol, 17, p. 113; Dft. Ex. 64.
24. Ibid., vol. 17, p. 181; Dft. Ex. 64. Historical Collections of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, vol. 34, p. 100; Dft. Ex. 82.
25. Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 17, pp. 213-214; Dft. Ex. 64.
26. Ibid., vol. 17, p. 220; Dft. Ex. 64. Indiana Historical Society Publications, vol. 8, p. 109; Dft. Ex. 79. Dunbar and Sanders, Mississippi Provincial Archives, French Dominion, vol. 1, p. 327, vol. 3. p. 767; Dft. Ex. 107.
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 1.
Chapter 2, pp. 19-28.
27 |
Lakes Indians. In 1733 the Canadian Governor-General reported that although the number of smallpox cases was decreasing among the Iroquois, the contrary was occurring in the West. He noted that "the Miamis and Poutouatamis Among other have lost many Persons."27
As a result, apparently, of this smallpox epidemic, the Miamis abandoned their upper Maumee village and scattered in various directions. According to the Governor-General of Canada, a party of Miami
had Established themselves at the Rivi?e blanche probably Little Miami River, see below] and two others; one on the upper part of the Ki?igon River [identification unknown] and the other between the River St. Joseph and the Miamis.
Due to French pressure, however, all of these groups returned to the upper Maumee River region within a year.28
According to an anonymous 1736 list of "the Indian Tribes Connected with the Government of Canada" there were two distinct groups of Miami. One, the smallest (10 men) was on St. Joseph River of Michigan. These belonged to the Crane division. The location of the other Miami settlement, which had 200 warriors (ca. 800 souls), is not given, but we conclude it was on the upper Maumee. Three groups were in
27. Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 17, pp.
172-173, 175, 181; Dft. Ex. 64.
28. Ibid., vol. 17, pp. 185-186, 210; Dft. Ex. 64.
Drs. Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin
Emily J. Blasingham
Dorothy R. Libby:
An Anthropological Report on the
History of the Miamis, Weas, and
Eel River Indians, Vol. 1.
Chapter 2, pp. 19-28.
28 |
this upper Maumee village: "the Hind and the Crane... [and] the Bear."29 Due to the similarity which the Miami word makoki30 bears to the stem of Mengakonkia, one of the six groups discussed in Chapter I, we conclude that Mengakonkias were living in the upper Maumee village in 1736. The third group mentioned, the Hind, may refer to the Kilaticas. Ten years later, in a Memoir on the condition of Louisiana dated 1746, we learn that there were then 300 warriors in the upper Maumee Miami village. This increase of 50 per cent in the population of this village within 10 years is probably due to inadequate information, rather than an actual increase. The Miami had suffered a serious smallpox epidemic in 1733, and population figures should still have reflected, in 1746, the cumulative effects of this epidemic.
1747-1758. By 1747 there were two distinct factions among the Miamis. One was that of Coldfeet (Le Pied Froid), which was pro-French. The other faction consisted of followers of La Demoiselle (called Old Briton by the English), and was pro-British.31
In April of 1747 we find the "Miamis of the Portage," near Fort Wayne, Indiana accused of circulating a report among the
29. Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York, vol.
9, pp.
1056-1057;
Dft. Ex.
83.
30. Indiana Historical Society, Prehistoric Research Series, vol. 1, p. 359; Dft. Ex. 115.
31. Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 17, p. 481; Dft. Ex. 64.
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