Indian Biography; Vol. 2 (of 2): Or, An Historical Account of Those Individuals Who Have Been Distinguished among the North American Natives as Orators, Warriors, Statesmen, and Other Remarkable CharactersThatcher, B. B. (Benjamin Bussey)
History
Indian Biography; Vol. 2 (of 2): Or, An Historical Account of Those Individuals Who Have Been Distinguished among the North American Natives as Orators, Warriors, Statesmen, and Other Remarkable Characters
Thatcher, B. B. (Benjamin Bussey)
Indians of North America -- Biography; Indians of North America -- History
with the English, and continued openly hostile, notwithstanding the peace
of 1783, until the famous victory of General Wayne, in 1795.
Their reputation as warriors suffered nothing during all this long series
of hostile operations. The first settlers of Kentucky were molested and
harassed by them, more than by any other tribe. Boone, who was taken
captive by them in 1778, saw four hundred and fifty of their warriors
mustered at one place,--still called Chilicothe,--ready for a foray among
the white settlements, which soon after ensued. Marshall, in his History
of Kentucky, gives the particulars of an expedition against them, the
season after this, in which, "many of the best men in the country were
privates;" the invaders were defeated and driven off, and nearly two
hundred of them pursued with considerable loss, by about thirty of the
Shawanees. "Of all the Indians who had been marauding in the country," the
same writer observes elsewhere, "the Shawanees had been the most
mischievous, as they were the most active." Loskiel represents the tribe
in question as "the most _savage_ of the Indian nations."
An incident, showing the disposition which they manifested, even at this
period, (1773,) towards their American neighbors, may throw some light
upon their character, and upon subsequent events. The celebrated
missionary, Zeisberger, visited some of their settlements, during the year
last named, in the hope of establishing a mission among them. At one of
their villages, he met with the head-chief of the tribe. The latter gave
him his hand and addressed him: "This day," said he, "the Great Spirit has
ordered that we should see and speak with each other, face to face." He
then entered into a long detail of the practices of the white people,
describing their manner of deceiving the Indians, and finally affirmed
that they were all alike,--all hypocrites and knaves. The Missionary made
some reply to these charges, but the Chief was "so exceedingly exasperated
against the white people," adds Loskiel, "that brother Zeisberger's
exhortation seemed to have little weight with him." He at length gave the
Preacher permission to visit the other Shawanee towns, taking care to
suggest, as a parting word of comfort, that he must rely upon having his
brains beat out very speedily. Thirty years previous to this, when Count
Zinzendorff himself went among the Wyoming Shawanees, to convert them,
they rewarded that pious pilgrim for his labor of love, by conspiring to
murder him; but, by a fortunate accident, he escaped safe from their
hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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