The Land of the Miamis: An Account of the Struggle to Secure Possession of the North-West from the End of the Revolution until 1812Barce, Elmore
History
The Land of the Miamis: An Account of the Struggle to Secure Possession of the North-West from the End of the Revolution until 1812
Barce, Elmore
Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1750-1815; Miami Indians; Northwest, Old -- History
We now come to a circumstance which refutes much that Tecumseh
afterwards claimed. In his famous meeting with the Governor at Vincennes
in August, 1810, and speaking of the treaty of 1809, he said: "Brother,
this land that was sold, and the goods that were given for it were only
done by a few. The treaty was afterwards brought here, and the Weas were
induced to give their consent because of their small numbers. The treaty
at Fort Wayne was made through the threats of Winnemac; but in the
future we are prepared to punish those chiefs who may come forward to
propose to sell the land." The record of the official proceedings, made
at the time, show, however, that immediately upon the close of
Harrison's last speech of September twenty-ninth, that Winamac arose to
reply, but upon noting that fact all the Mississinewa Miamis left the
council house in contempt. Not only was the treaty of 1809 concluded by
a larger number of Indians than were present at Greenville, Ohio, in
1795, but the influence of Winamac with the Miamis seems to have been of
a very negligible quantity.
The truth is that the final consummation of the pact of 1809 was brought
about by the ready tact and hard common sense of Harrison himself. On
the morning of the thirtieth of September, the very day the treaty was
signed, it was thought by all the officers and gentlemen present that
the mission of the Governor was fruitless. No solution of the obstinacy
of the Mississinewa chiefs had been discovered. Nothing daunted,
Harrison resolved to make one more attempt. He took with him his
interpreter, Joseph Barron, a man in whom he had the utmost confidence,
and visited the camps of the Miamis. He was received well and told them
that he came, not as a representative of the President, but as an old
friend with whom they had been many years acquainted. "That he plainly
saw that there was something in their hearts which was not consistent
with the attachment they ought to bear to their great father, and that
he was afraid that they had listened to bad birds. That he had come to
them for the purpose of hearing every cause of complaint against the
United States, and that he would not leave them until they laid open
everything that oppressed their hearts. He knew that they could have no
solid objection to the proposed treaty, for they were all men of sense
and reflection, and all knew that they would be greatly benefited by
it." Calling then, upon the principal chief of the Eel River tribe, who
had served under him in General Wayne's army, he demanded to know what
his objections to the treaty were. In reply, the chief drew forth a copy
of the Treaty of Grouseland and said: "Father, here are your own words.
In this paper you have promised that you would consider the Miamis as
the owners of the land on the Wabash. Why then, are you about to
purchase it from others?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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