(pg. 80-85)
The year 1795 can be regarded as an important turning point in Indian affairs in the northwest. Though peace with England was established in 1783, the war with their Indian allies was not to be concluded as easily. The difficulty in securing peace was perhaps due to a new factor in the complex relations with Indians on the frontier. While both French and British relations with the Indians were frankly exploitative, they at least allowed the Indians to maintain their mode of life with but minimal modification and encroachment on their territory in the far northwest was largely limited to the establishment of trading posts. The trading posts were a desired feature for they brought items of white production desired by the Indians. Contacts with the American colonists was in large part with a different element, settlers who wanted to acquire Indian lends and exploit the lands themselves. A treaty establishing peace between the Indians and the Americans must, therefore, not only involve a cessation of hostilities but it must also clarify the boundaries of lands to be exploited by the whites and lands to be used by the Indians. Perhaps this problem of land was not the primary factor that made it difficult to achieve peace, but it was certainly a factor to become increasingly important.
The attempt to establish peace through negotiations at Fort McIntesh on January 21, 1785, was without success because of the continued hostility of the tribes. The Potawatomi were not even among the tribes present at this conference. A second attempt was made at Fort Harmar on January 9, 1789. This treaty was negotiated with the Wyandot, Delaware, Chippewa and Ottawa as in the previous case and they are the ones to be compensated for land cessions, primarily in Ohio. The Potawatomi, however, were included in the negotiations to the extent that article 14 of the treaty (American State Papers. Class II, Vol. 1 Indian Affairs p. 7. Washington, 1832) specifically establishes a peace treaty with both the Potawatomi and the Sauk. The absence of the Potawatomi in these early and abortive attempts at land negotiation appears significant in showing that the Potawatmi were not regarded as the occupants or owners of land in the Ohio region. Certainly there is no evidence indicating the presence of Potawatomi villages in such an easterly location.
Even after the negotiations at Fort Harmar, the Potawatomi continue to appear in the ranks of the Indian tribes maintaining hostilities with the Americans. There is some evidence to suggest that they are somewhat reluctant allies of the anti-American group. Antoine Gamelin, by order of Major Hamtramck, was sent in April, 1790 to carry speeches of Governor St. Clair to the Wabash and Miami. While in one of their villages on May 2 he mentions that
"...a few days after I passed by their village [on his first trip], seventy warriors, Sauteux and Outawais, from Michilimackinac, arrived there; some of them were Poux, who, meeting in their route the Sauteaux and Outawais, joined them. 'We told them what we heard by you; that your speech is fair and true. We could not stop them from going to war. The Poux told us, that, as the Sauteaux and Outawais were more numerous than them, they were forced to follow them'"(American State Papers. Class II, Vol. 1-- Indian Affairs, p. 94, Washington, 1832).
Continued efforts to bring in the tribes, including the Potawatomi, to negotiate a peace, resulted in a similar explanation in an Indian speech to Major Hamtramck, delivered by Lagesse, a Potawatomi chief:
"Me, Lagesse, the first and great chief of the Pattawatamies, take upon myself to answer for all the nation here represented. We are very glad to hear from you, but sorry we cannot comply with your request; the situation of our affairs in this country prevents us. We are every day threatened by the other Indians, that if we do not take a part with them against the Americans, they will destroy our villages. This alone, my Father, makes it necessary for all the chiefs to remain at home" (Ibid., p. 241).
In 1793, United States commissioners again attempt to draw up a treaty with the dissident tribes. The Indians themselves attribute, in a document presented to commissioners, the lack of success to the fact that they are acting as a "whole confederacy" and that previously not all of the tribes had been represented. This same point of view had been taken in a document sent to the Congress of the United States as early as December 18th, 1786. "All treaties carried on with the United States, on our parts, should be with the general voice of the whole confederacy." The constituent members of the confederacy appeared to vary. The group which met at a Huron village near the mouth of Detroit river in 1786 consisted of "The Five Nations, Hurons, Ottawas, Twichtwees, Shawnees, Chippewas, Cherokees, Delawares, Potawatomies, and the Wabash Confederates." The second group in 1793 was an even more heterogeneous assemblage, the message being signed by the "Wyandots, Seven Nations of Canada, Delawares, Shawnees, Miamies, Ottawas, Chippewas, Senecas of the Glaize, Pattawatamies, Connoys, Munsees, Nantekokies, Mohicans, Messasagoes, Creeks, Cherokees." Perhaps the momentum toward unified action among the tribes in the northwest. At any rate, no agreement can be reached on the boundary between Indian and white land so that again the attempt at making a treaty is a failure.
Eventually this resistance is broken down and prolonged negotiations by General Anthony Wayne at Greenville, Ohio begun on June 16th and ending August 10th, 1795 result in the Treaty of Greenville which established peace on the frontier and the first of a long series of land cessions to the Americans in the northwest. Negotiations here involved an extremely large number of Indians, 1,130 in all being listed and of these 240 were Potawatomi. The Potawatomi are not, as the earlier attempts at treaty negotiation indicated, primarily involved in the land cessions except perhaps in several small tracts where western forts are located. Nevertheless, they do receive compensation. Perhaps the policy of united front was an important factor in their receiving this compensation. A factor was certainly that throughout the proceedings of the conference, the Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawtomi, maintained that "we three are faithful allies, and one of us speaks for the whole, when in council." (Ibid., p. 568). Yet even though the three tribes are close allies and speak as one, cooperation even between the specific Potawatomi bands represented at the conference seems to be at a minimum.
The lack of unity among the Potawatomi comes out clearly in a speech of The Sun, a Potawatomi chief. The Sun states that his village is located "a day's walk below the Wea towns on the Wabash"(Ibid., p. 580). This is also the first indication we have of Potawatomi villages in this water. They are evidently a relatively small group, for in his speech The Sun states:
"We, the Pattawatamies present, are in three classes. One from the river Huron, one from St. Joseph's, and that to which I belong from the Wabash; and as you intend to give the goods designed for us in bulk to that nation, I am afraid the division amongst ourselves will be attended to with difficulty and discontent. I pray you, father, to make the division among us, and thus preserve proportion and harmony"(Ibid.).
The Potawatomi band of the Huron felt equally insecure and distrustful. Okia, a chief from this group spoke as follows:
"I come from the river Huron, near Detroit. My fathers have long possessed that country. The other Pattawtamies present live on the St. Joseph's and in that direction. All my old chiefs are dead; you therefore see young chiefs only from my towns, who are unaccustomed to speak in council. You told us you would deliver the presents in bulk to the Pattawatami nation. In this case, I am afraid my people will not get a due proportion, and I am too proud to complain to you, should they be unfairly distributed; therefore, as I live detached from the others, and intend to return home with the Chippewas, by the way of fort Defiance, I beg my father would let me have my proportion separately..."(Ibid., p. 581).
Since these three Potawatomi bands are the only groups mentioned , it seems unlikely that all of this tribe are directly represented at the council. It also seems probable that in the troubled period immediately preceding the conference some Potawatomi had moved down on the Wabash, but that they are not yet settled there in any great strength.