(pg. 8-17)
(See associated table and table 1 continued)
By a treaty concluded at Greenville, Ohio on August 3, 1795 the greater portion of the eastern and southern limits of the state of Ohio together with a small section of the adjacent portion of Indiana were ceded to the United States. The limits of this cession are indicated as No. 11 on Royce's maps and were described in the treaty as follows:
"Beginning at the mouth of the Cayahoga river and run thence up the same to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence down that branch to the crossing place above Fort Lawrence; thence westerly to a fork of the Great Miami river running into the Ohio at or near which fork stood Loromie's store and where commences the portage between the Miami of the Ohio and St. Mary's river, which is a branch of the Miami, which runs into Lake Erie; thence a westerly course to Fort Recovery, which stands on a branch of the Wabash then southwesterly in a direct line to the Ohio, so as to intersect that river opposite to the mouth of Kentucke or Cuttawa river; and the said Indian tribes cede and relinquish forever all claim to lands lying eastwardly and southwardly of said general boundary line."
The cession also included a number of small tracts in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. Attention, however, may be first directed to the large land cession whose boundaries are given above.
A search through the literature revealed the presence of some forty-seven Indian villages (aside from the Moravian settlements of Salem, Onadenhutten, and Shoenbrun) of sufficient importance to be recorded and located in the contemporary records. Nearly half of these are indicated on Royce's map though the tribal affiliation of all of these villages are not given in this source. Table 1 summarizes the data in regard to the villages and a word of explanation may be given at this point. Each village in the land cession is numbered for convenience in recording. Though one name is selected for sake of reference it should be kept in mind that often many synonyms exist, the most common or proper term being selected. Location is tabulated according to County and river system (if available) on which the site is found. In some instances sites are simply described as being on a particular river. Where this river is completely within the area under consideration, these sites are included although more precise geographic locations are not available. Tribal affiliation is given in the next column. Where several tribes are indicated, the village was a mixed village containing these various tribes. One qualification is made in regard to tribal affiliation. At all times it is not possible to speak with absolute certainty in regard to tribal affiliation though this may be given with a high degree of probability. However, where the tribal name is followed by an asterisk (*), tribal affiliation cannot be given with absolute certainty. The final column, time range, is intended to indicate the period of occupancy of the village. Such a time range can only be given for the specific years in which the village is reported in existence. In most cases it will have existed both prior and subsequent to the date reported. Since few parties were penetrating this region during the time under consideration, in many cases only a single year in which some individual or party visited the village can be reported.
The tribal affiliation of the villages reveals the following pattern. Of the forty-seven villages, twenty-seven were occupied by the Delaware, either alone or in conjunction with other tribes. Sixteen villages were occupied by the Shawnee, numerically the second most important tribe in the areas. Only a few villages are reported representing an occupation by Huron (3), Iroquoian (6) and Miami bands. The Delaware villages tend to be concentrated in the eastern portion of the state, primarily on the Muskingum River and its tributaries with some in the far northeast and east and a few farther west on the Hocking River, and extending even to the Miami River. The southwestern portion of the state appears to have been largely dominated by Shawnee groups, the villages being found both on the Miami River and the Scioto and its tributaries. A few Huron and Iroquoian bands are found scattered over the larger area and the Miami are also represented in the far western portion of the state although they seem to have largely occupied villages that were subsequently occupied by other groups just prior to the period of land cessions, the Miami having withdrawn farther to the west. Similarly, there is mention of an old Ottawa village being occupied by the Delaware.
The Huron bands in this area would appear to have been relatively few in number and represent southern offshoots of the peoples in the lake area frequently referred to as the Wyandot. The Iroquoian tribes represented in the villages include the Mahican, a group which moved westward from New York and Pennsylvania in the historic period, the Caughnawaga who moved westward as late as 1763, and the Mingos, a term applied by the Delaware, and during the colonial period by the Americans, to a band of Iroquois who by 1750 were settled on the upper Ohio and gradually moved westward down the Ohio and then over to the Scioto. Both the Shawnee and the Delaware similarly represent recent migrants to the region. The Delaware when first encountered occupied the entire basin of the Delaware River in eastern Pennsylvania and southeastern New York together with most of New Jersey and Delaware. In 1751, apparently by invitation of the Huron, they began to form settlements in eastern Ohio and in a few years the greater part of the Delawares were located on the Mukingum and other streams of this region. They appear to have been accompanied on this move by the Mahicans previously mentioned. The Shawnee of the Ohio region represent a northward movement of the western Shawnee who had previously been found largely in Tennessee and Kentucky. Quarrels with the Chickasaw and Cherokee appear to have driven them northward in the early years of the eighteenth century reaching the north bank of the Ohio River around 1730. Again the Huron or Wyandot appear to have given them permission to settle in the region.
It will be noted that in the discussion of the Indian occupation of this region, no mention has been made of the presence of Potawatomi villages. No evidence has been found that any such existed in the area. Potawatomi utilization of the area under consideration is probably to be limited to their participation in occasional war parties in the region during the American Revolution. Potawatomi participation in the land cession is doubtless due to several of the other clauses in the treaty. One such clause confirmed the title of lands. "at all other places in possession of the French people and other white settlers among them, of which the Indian title has been extinguished by grants to the French and English governments." (Royce, 1899, p. 656)
This general clause would clearly require ratification by the Potawatomi, as would also several more specific clauses. Other tracts of land ceded included areas at the mouth of the Chicago River and a substantial grant at Detroit. Both of these regions contained important Potawatomi settlements and would require ratification of the tribe to confirm the previous cessions of the group. Documentation of the Potawatomi occupation of these latter regions is presented in connection with the land cessions of the surrounding areas.
The picture of Indian occupation as sketched in the preceding pages is well illustrated, in terms of contemporary documents, in the Thomas Hutchins map of 1778. This map, published under the title, "A New Map of the Western Parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina..." has been printed as Plate XXIX of Indian Villages of the Illinois Country (Vol. II, Scientific Papers, Illinois State Museum, Part I, Atlas, compiled by Sara Jones Tucker; Springfield, Illinois, 1942). The map shows the Ohio country in considerable detail, indicating the position of Indian villages, and according to Hutchins' own statement, was based on personal experience in the area. He states:
"Those parts of the country lying westward of the Allegheny mountain, and upon the rivers Ohio and Mississippi, and upon most of the other rivers; and the lakes (laid down in my Map) were done from my own surveys, and corrected by my own observations of latitudes, made at different periods preceding, and during all the campaigns of the last war (in several of which I acted as an Engineer) and since in many reconnoitring tours, which I made through various parts of the country, between the years 1764 and 1775." (Thomas Hutchins. A Topographical Description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina. London, 1778, i-ii.)
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