The history of the white man's laid claim to all the land from the treatment of the red race nowhere exhibits a darker record of heartless cruelty, of preconcerted treachery and wanton, unprovoked murder than is furnished in this story of the massacre of Gnadenhutten. When we read that for scores of years afterward white settlers in various parts of the country lived in constant danger of attacks from the Indians, can we wonder at the fact? Rather we should wonder, knowing what the nature of the savage was, that there ever again should be peace between the white man and the red. The close of the Revolutionary War left the western country, from the great lakes on the north to Florida on the south and the Mississippi on the west, in the possession of the United States. Prior to that time the question of the ownership of that vast region was a vexed and much disputed topic, which had given rise to much international controversy. France, making the discoveries of Marquette and La Salle the basis of her title, claimed the whole Mississippi Valley as a part of New France. Later, by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the entire region from the lakes to the gulf became a part of the French province of Louisiana. Not until the treaty of Paris, at the close of the French and Indian war in 1763, did France relinquish her claims to the territory east of the Mississippi and west of the Allegheny mountains. England, from the earliest period of discovery and settlement of the Atlantic coast by British subjects, Atlantic to the Pacific, and all the royal charters granted to the several original colonies defined their boundaries as extending from sea to sea. In later years one ground of England's claim to the West was a treaty made at Lancaster, Pa., in 1744, between British agents and the Six Nations, by which the latter, who claimed to own all the Ohio Valley, ceded their title to the king. By act of the British Parliament in 1774 the whole of what was afterward the Northwest Territory of the United States was made a part of the Canadian province of Quebec. On the strength of their charters several of the thirteen original colonies claimed dominion west of the Alleghenies. We have seen that Virginia organized the county of Illinois, including the whole Northwest, in 1778-79. But she began to assert her claims even earlier, organizing the county of Botetourt in 1769, with the Mississippi as its western limit. But her government of the region from 1769 to 1779 existed rather in name than in fact. New York was the first of the States to surrender her claims to a part of the West. Under her charter, granted by Charles II in 1664, New York claimed western territory which prior charters had given to Massachusetts and Connecticut. On the 1st of March, 1781, she ceded to the United States all her right, title and jurisdiction in lands beyond her present western boundaries. Virginia had better grounds for her claims than any other State, rest adhered to her side, and manfully fought for her interests throughout the war. ing her title upon charters issued by King James I in 1606, 1609 and 1612, upon the conquest of the western country by General Clark, and her subsequent exercise of civil authority therein. Nevertheless she speedily followed the example set by New York, and on the 1st of March, 1784, conveyed to the United States all her lands northwest of the Ohio, reserving a small tract, known as the Virginia Military District, in South-eracy, consisting of the Mohawks, ern Ohio. In the same year Massachusetts ceded her claims without reservation, and the action was formally ratified April 18, 1785. Connecticut made, as Chief Justice Chase expressed it, "the last tardy and reluctant sacrifice of State pretensions to the general good," on the 14th of September, 1786, ceding to Congress all her "right, title, interest, jurisdiction and claim" to ands northwest of the Ohio, with the exception of the Connecticut Western Reserve; that tract she was allowed to hold and dispose of, and she did not yield her claims of jurisdiction over it until May 30, 1800. Thus, in a brief time after the territory passed from British to American control, all the various conflicting and embarrassing State claims were amicably adjusted and the way prepared for stable and effective government in the Northwest. The close of the Revolution and the treaty of peace left the United States to deal with the Indian question alone, Great Britain even neg lecting to make any provision for the Six Nations, who had steadfastly It has sometimes been said that republics are ungrateful. Be that as it may, what ought to be said of the ingratitude of a great kingdom which treats a powerful confederation of people as friends and allies for years, uses them to fight its own battles, then basely deserts them? This savage confed Onondagas, Senecas, Tuscaroras, Cayugas and Oneidas, for more than a century had claimed the ownership of the Ohio Valley. One of the first acts of the infant Republic was the making of a treaty with the Six Nations. Congress appointed Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee as commissioners, and the treaty was concluded at Fort Stanwix, October 22, 1784. Cornplanter and Red Jacket, two of the ablest of the chiefs of the Six Nations, were present at the treaty, the former counseling peace and the lat ter war. Lafayette, the noble French ally of the Americans, was also present, and warmly urged upon the Indians the importance of making peace with the United States. The most important provision of the treaty, so far as the West was concerned, was the surrender by the allied tribes of all claim to lands in the Ohio Valley. The treaty of Fort McIntosh was concluded January 21, 1785, between George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee, commissioners of the United States, and representatives of the Indian tribes of the Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas and Chippewas. The treaty provided for the surrender to the United States of all prisoners then held by the several tribes, and the Indians declared themselves under the pro tection of the United States Government, and of no other power whatever. The third article of the treaty declared: "The boundary line between the United States and the Wyandot and Delaware nations shall begin at the mouth of the river Cuyahoga and run thence up the said river to the portage between that and the Tuscarawas branch of the Muskingum; thence down the said branch to the forks at the crossing-place above Fort Laurens; then westwardly to the portage of the Big Miami, which runs into the Ohio, at the mouth of which branch the fort stood which was taken by the French in 1752; then along the said portage to the Great Miami or Ome River,* and down the southeast side of the same to its mouth; thence along the south shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of Cuyahoga, where it began." “ARTICLE 4TH.—The United States allot all the lands within the said lines to the Wyandot and Delaware nations to live and to hunt on, and to such of the Ottawa nation as now live thereon, saving and reserving for the establishment of trading posts six miles square at the mouth of the Miami or Ome River, and the same at the portage of that branch of the Miami which runs into the Ohio, and the same on the Lake of Sandusky, where the fort formerly *The Maumee. stood, and also two miles square on each side of the lower rapids of Sandusky River, which posts and the lands annexed to them shall be to the use and under the government of the United States." The United States agreed that the Indians might punish as they pleased any person attempting to settle on the reserved land of the Wyandot and Delaware nations. The Indians signing the treaty surrendered all claims to lands east, south and west of the limits specified in the third article. Articles 7 and 8 reserved to the United States the posts of Detroit and Michillimackinac (Mackinac) and small tracts about them. Article 9th declared that if any Indian should murder or rob any citizen of the United States the tribe to which he belonged should deliver him up to the authorities at the nearest post. The concluding article was as follows: "ARTICLE 10TH.-The commissioners of the United States, in pursuance of the humane and liberal views of Congress, upon the treaty's being signed, will direct goods to be distributed among the different tribes for their use and comfort." The Shawnees, at a treaty held at Fort Finney, at the mouth of the Great Miami, January 31, 1786, surrendered their claims to land in the Ohio Valley. George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and Samuel H. Parsons were the commissioners who negotiated the treaty. (General Parsons was afterward one of the pioneer settlers at Marietta and one of the territorial judges. He was drowned in the Big Beaver River November 17, 1789.) James Monroe, from Virginia, afterward President of the United States, accompanied General Butler on his way to Fort Finney as far as Limestone, now Maysville, Ky., where they arrived in October, 1785. The party, according to General Butler's journal, stopped at the mouth of the Muskingum and left fixed in a locust tree a letter recommending the building of a fort on the Ohio side. The terms of the treaty confined the Shawnees to territory west of the Great Miami. They gave hostages for the return of all citizens of the United States then held by them as prisoners, and acknowledged the sovereignty of the American government over all territory ceded by the British. The treaty was soon disre garded by the Shawnees, who began to be dissatisfied with its provisions almost as soon as they had yielded their assent to them. Congress now changed its tactics, and instead of assuming that the treaty with Great Britain had made the American government the absolute owner of the Indian lands, began to recognize the Indians' rights to the territory. In July, 1787, $26,000 was appropriated for the purpose of extinguishing Indian titles in the West and making a purchase beyond the limits fixed by the previous treaties. Under this policy the treaty of Fort Harmar (1789), the treaty of Greenville (1795) and others of later date were concluded. The Fort Harmar and Greenville treaties are described in another chapter. CHAPTER II. INDIANS OF THE OHIO VALLEY. A GLANCE AT ABORIGINAL OHIO- A HUNTER'S PARADISE - THE MOUND BUILDERS AND THEIR WORKS THE ABORIGINES - ORIGINAL TRIBES IN OHIO- THE IROQUOIS AND THEIR CONQUEST OF THE COUNTRY- THE DELAWARES OF THE TUSCARAWAS AND THE MUSKINGUM - INTERESTING TRADITIONS-NOTED CHIEFTAINS THE SHAWNEES AND THEIR HISTORY-THEIR HOSTILITY TO THE WHITES - OTHER INDIAN NATIONS -THE MANNER OF SAVAGE LIFE-JAMES SMITH RELATES HIS EXPERIENCE - HOW HE WAS CONVERTED FROM A WHITE MAN TO AN INDIAN-LIFE IN THE WILDERNESS HUNTING THE ELK AND THE BUFFALO WAR SONGS AND DANCES-COURTSHIP AMONG THE SAVAGES HUNTING ADVENTURES. FOR NOR many years prior to the advent of the white man. a large part of the valley of the Upper Ohio was almost wholly destitute of human inhabitants, and occupied by the Indians only now and then as a hunting-ground. Dr. Hildreth estimates that this unpeopled tract was from forty to sixty miles in width on both sides of the Ohio, extending from the site of Pittsburgh to the mouth of the Great Miami. In all this vast region there were few if any spots that were permanently occupied, with the exception of Logstown, in western Pennsylvania, and a Shawnee village at the mouth of the Scioto. Over the hills and through the valleys roamed the elk, the deer and the buffalo. Beasts of prey abounded also, and the silence of the forest was frequently broken by the hoarse cry of the bear, the shriek of the panther or the bark of the wolf. The streams abounded in fish and were the haunts of valuable fur-bearing animals, such as the mink, the otter and the beaver. paradise. It was a hunter's Yet there was a time, farther back than the written history of America extends, when all the valley of this great river was the seat of a great race of semi-civilized people. But no pen has recorded their history; their achievements in war and peace have never been told, and even their manner of life is unknown. Speculation as to their origin and fate has so far proved fruitless. But upon the shores of lakes, streams and rivers, from the western base of the Alleghenies to the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains, they have left countless mementoes of themselves to remind future generations of the antiquity of human life in America. The relics of this curious and mysterious race known to us only as the MoundBuilders, are especially numerous in Ohio, existing in almost every part of the state. The ancient mounds at Marietta and at many other places in the valleys of the Ohio and the Muskingum are but few of many monu |