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ran east and west from "Point Coupee on the Wabash," and the southern boundary passed through the mouth of White River and from thence ran eastward across the Wabash and towards the Ohio River (7 Stats. 74:75). Thus we see that the Vincennes Tract consisted of a 50-mile or so stretch of the Wabash and the lands adjoining on both sides, for 25 miles above and below Vincennes. The circumstances surrounding the cession of this tract wherein Crooked Legs had wintered, by Hamtranck's permission, in 1790-1791 are discussed in detail in Chapter 6 of this Report. By agreement, two Miamis, "Richerville" and Little Turtle, and two Potawatomis, Tuthinipee and Winnemac, signed the Treaty of Vincennes of June 7, 1803 "On behalf of themselves and Eel River, Weeas, Piankashaws and Kaskaskias, whom they represent" (7 Stats. 74:76).
By 1805, at the end of the period we have been considering in this Chapter, we know on Harrison's authority that the Weas were still living on the Wabash River above a point some 25 river miles north of Vincennes.217 The settlement and post of Vincennes was the trade center for the Weas as well as for the Piankashaws and Eel River Indians.218
What Wea population amounted to at the beginning of the nineteenth century we do not know, but from Harrison's remarks in a letter written in 1801 the population of this group had probably decreased notably during the last decade of the eighteenth century, due partly at least to the all-too-frequent visits of the Weas to Vincennes.
217. Harrison to the Secretary of War, Vincennes, March 3,
1805; Dft.
Ex. 119.
218. Harrison to the Secretary of War, July 15, 1801; Dft. Ex. 150.
219. Idem.
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Summary and Conclusions. From the foregoing material we see that the region near the mouth of Wea Creek, opposite the French fort of Ouiatanon on the middle Wabash, was for a long period of time (1717-1790) the center for Wea summer village life. At this spot on the Wabash all of the Weas had their summer villages and their extensive cornfields for at least 72 years. Through 1790 and most of 1731 the majority of the Weas continued at the same location, but in 1792 moved 18 miles up the Wabash to the mouth of Tippecanoe River where they were in June, 1795.
In 1790 a pro-American faction of the Weas shifted residence from the middle reaches of the Wabash in the vicinity of Ouiatanon to the lower Wabash, a move which put this faction closer to the American sphere of influence. Around 1796, after the Treaty of Greenville of 1795, the remainder of the Weas also removed from the mouth of Tippecanoe River on the middle Wabash to a locale above Point Coupee on the lower Wabash about 25 miles north of Vincennes. Thus the lower Wabash above Vincennes became the new center for Wea village life after 1795. This major shift of the Wea villages from the middle to the lower Wabash was doubtless due in large part to the United States having failed to set up, after 1795, a post and a trader at Ouiatanon, as the Weas had requested at the Treaty of Greenville in 1795.
There were, then, three locations at which the Wea had summer villages during the entire period 1710-1805. These three locations were 1) at the mouth of Wea Creek opposite Ouiatanon (1717-1791); 2) at or near the mouth of the
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Tippecanoe River (1792-1795); 3) above Point Coupee (1790-1805).
However, like all Eastern Woodland peoples, the Weas spent the summer, only, in their villages. During the winter months they dispersed in small family groups, leaving their villages to hunt at favorite "wintering grounds." Any discussion of Wea locations during the period 1710-1805 therefore necessitates reaching as definite conclusions as possible as to where the Wea hunted during the winter months.
Most of the Wea wintering grounds were not far removed from the Wea summer villages. Judging from Henry Hamilton's 1778 Journal, the most informative source available, the Wea went no more than 30-35 miles distant on the Wabash from their villages, for their winter hunting. This 30-35 mile stretch of river that the Weas hunted on was above, not below, Ouiatanon; in 1778-1779 when Hamilton visited them, all the Weas he met as he descended the Wabash were encountered north of Ouiatanon, from a point ca. 14 miles below the mouth of Eel River to the vicinity of Ouiatanon. One very productive Wea hunting camp was located on the Wabash only a few miles above Ouiatanon, and well below the mouth of the Tippecanoe.
Away from the banks of the Wabash itself we conclude, from Hamilton's material and from other data, that the Weas hunted during their long residence on the middle Wabash chiefly to the south and east of the river, up to 15 or 20 miles from the south bank. Because of their neighbors the Kickapoos, Mascoutens, and later the Potawatomis who
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maintained villages across the river north of the Weas' villages on the middle Wabash the Wea probably did little or no hunting on the north side of their stretch of the Wabash.
Wea population during the 18th century ran close to 1,000 souls. A hunting range 15-20 miles in depth and extending for 30-35 river miles in length from notably stable summer villages such as those the Weas occupied opposite Ouiatanon for many years presupposed two things, namely, a) that the country within this range be extremely rich in game, and b) that food other than game, notably corn, be produced in abundance each summer at the villages.
Both these conditions were met, in the case of the Weas. Ouiatanon, as one traveler remarked, was "deservedly noticed as the pride of the Wabash." In 1718 the Wea village there was reported to have had more than five miles of fields where "indian corn, pumpkins and melons" were being raised, and the Wea village was described as being situated above "prairies, stretching farther than the eye can reach, and abounding in buffalo.'' This abundant supply of game continued; in 1778, sixty years afterward, it was still possible for only "a few Indians" at a Wea hunting camp on the Wabash a few miles above Ouiatanon to kill "an amazing amount of game" In August of 1791 the Weas' fields opposite the French settlement at Ouiatanon, despite having been destroyed in June of that year, were again "in high cultivation," several of them being "well ploughed." The American Army officer who destroyed the crops in these fields for the second time in
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August, 1791, did not foresee starvation for the Weas as a result of his action, but merely predicted that Wea men would be kept busy (and thus unable to engage in raids against the Americans) "subsisting their squaws and children during the impending winter" on game. At Ouiatanon and at two points above Ouiatanon, on or near the Wabash, it was noted as late as June, 1795, that game existed in abundance.
Where the Weas of Crooked Legs' band hunted after they removed to the lower Wabash in 1790 is indicated by Crooked Legs' request to Hamtramck, that he and his band be allowed to winter during 1790-1791 in the vicinity of Vincennes. But where, exactly, the members of this band and finally, the rest of the Weas hunted after this date we do not know. All indications are however that it was in the vicinity of the lower Wabash region. The fact that the Treaty of June 7, 1803 did not provide that the Weas or other Wabash Indians could use the Vincennes Tract for hunting until the United States disposed of those lands does not necessarily indicate that these Indians had never hunted over the Tract in the past. The omission may have been due to unfamiliarity with the former native use of the region on the part of the two Miami and two Potawatomi signers of the 1803 Treaty, who represented the Weas, Piankashaws, Eel Rivers and other Indians in the 1803 Treaty at Fort Wayne.
In summary, our final conclusions as to the two areas used and occupied by the Weas during the period 1710-1805 are as follows. From 1717 through 1795 the Weas lived and/or hunted along a 30-35 mile stretch of the Wabash extending northeastward from the mouth of Wea Creek to about 14 miles
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below the mouth of Eel River, and extending eastward 15-20 miles from the south bank of the Wabash between Wea Creek and Eel River. In 1790-1791 some of the Weas used the lower Wabash region (from Point Coupee southward to Vincennes?) for winter hunting. These two regions which the Weas used at different times during the period 1710-1805 were at least 150 river miles distant from each other, but both lay along the same large river.
Two special points bearing on the extent to which the Weas may have "controlled" lands used and occupied by other groups, which lay along the north bank of the Wabash at Ouiatanon, and lay west of the mouth of Tippecanoe River, remain to be considered.
The first of these two points concerns native use and occupancy of the north bank of the Wabash and adjacent lands west of the north bank at Ouiatanon.
There is no doubt from the historical record that for 50 years prior to 1791 Kickapoos and Mascoutens together, and finally Kickapoos alone, occupied and used the north bank of the Wabash at Ouiatanon and the lands west of the north bank, both for summer villages and cornfields, and for winter hunting grounds. Their presence at Ouiatanon proper antedated that of the Weas' known presence on the Wabash opposite Ouiatanon by less than a quarter of a century, and the French considered all three groups- Weas, Mascoutens, and Kickapoos- as being
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