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
"When I was a child, I played with the butterfly, the grasshopper and the
frogs. As I grew up, I began to pay some attention and play with the
Indian boys in the neighborhood, and they took notice of my skin being a
different color from theirs, and spoke about it. I enquired of my mother
the cause, and she told me that my father was a residenter in Albany. I
eat still my victuals out of a bark dish--I grew up to be a young man, and
married me a wife, but I had no kettle or gun. I then knew where my
father lived, and went to see him, and found he was a white man, and spoke
the English language. He gave me victuals while I was at his house, but
when I started to return home, he gave me no provision to eat on the way.
He gave me neither kettle nor gun, neither did he tell me that the United
States were about to rebel against the government of England.
"I will now tell you, brothers, who are in session of the legislature of
Pennsylvania, that the Great Spirit has made known to me that I have been
wicked; and the cause thereof was the revolutionary war in America. The
cause of Indians having been led into sin, at that time, was that many of
them were in the practice of drinking and getting intoxicated. Great
Britain requested us to join with them in the conflict against the
Americans, and promised the Indians land and liquor. I, myself, was
opposed to joining in the conflict, as I had nothing to do with the
difficulty that existed between the two parties. I have now informed you
how it happened that the Indians took a part in the Revolution, and will
relate to you some circumstances that occurred after the close of the war.
Gen. Putnam, who was then at Philadelphia, told me there was to be a
council at fort Stanwix, and the Indians requested me to attend on behalf
of the Six Nations, which I did, and there met with three commissioners,
who had been appointed to hold the council. They told me they would inform
me of the cause of the revolution, which I requested them to do minutely.
They then said that it had originated on account of the heavy taxes that
had been imposed upon them by the British government, which had been for
fifty years increasing upon them; that the Americans had grown weary
thereof, and refused to pay, which affronted the king. There had likewise
a difficulty taken place about some tea, which they wished me not to use,
as it had been one of the causes that many people had lost their lives.
And the British government now being affronted, the war commenced, and the
cannons began to roar in our country. General Putnam then told me at the
council at fort Stanwix, that by the late war the Americans had gained two
objects: they had established themselves an independent nation, and had
obtained some land from Great Britain to live upon, the division line of
which ran through the lakes. I then spoke, and said that I wanted some
land for the Indians to live on, and General Putnam said that it should be
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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