AN ETHNOHISTORY OF THE SUSQUEHANNA-OHIO INDIAN ALLIANCE, 1701-1754 By ...

379 Pages·2016·4.33 MB·English

"IS IT NOT OUR LAND?" AN ETHNOHISTORY
OF THE SUSQUEHANNA-OHIO
INDIAN ALLIANCE,
1701-1754
By
MALCOLM B. BROWN
Bachelor of Arts
Lycoming College
Williamsport, Pennsylvania
1982
Master of Arts
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Indiana, Pennsylvania
1992
Submitted to the Faculty of the
Graduate College of the
Oklahoma State University
in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for
the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
December, 1996
C O P Y R I G H T
By
Malcolm B. Brown
December, 1996
ii
"IS IT NOT OUR LAND?"
AN ETHNOHISTORY OF THE SUSQUEHANNA-OHIO
INDIAN ALLIANCE,
1701-1754
Dissertation Approved:
Dissertation Advisor
f"
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Dean of the Graduate College
iii
PREFACE
"Is it not our land? What Right has Onontio [the
Governor of French Canada] to our Lands? I desire you may
go home directly off our Lands."
-The Seneca sachem Tanaghrisson,
1751 Logstown Conference
While I was growing up in central Pennsylvania my
Mother told me stories of the Indians who once inhabited the
area, and of the fabled "Tulpehocken Trail," which she said
ran just south of where we lived. This important trail,
often used by the Indian interpreter Conrad Weiser and his
Iroquois friend Shikellamy; connected my home town of
Sunbury, Pennsylvania with the colonial capital of
Philadelphia. When I was in my early teens I discovered a
portion of the trail when climbing nearby Kershner's Hill,
and on it a pristine piece of wampum apparently dropped by
some Indian traveler over two hundred years before. My
father had also excited my curiosity by taking me to search
for arrowheads on the cornfields of Packer's Island on the
Susquehanna River, which had been part of the Delaware
Indian village of Shamokin. These misty views of the past
never left me, and after doing other things for a few years
I found myself once again immersed in the study of the
Indian peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands.
This dissertation describes the birth, consolidation,
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and decline of the Susquehanna-Ohio Indian Alliance, an
inter-cultural alliance among the various native peoples of
the Susquehanna and Ohio valleys. This includes the peoples
of the Iroquois Confederacy (including the Tuscarora), the
Delaware (Lenape), Shawnee, Wyandot, and Miami nations, and
other minor groups. It will tell the story of these peoples
in the first half of the eighteenth century, and attempt to
answer the most important questions concerning them: Who
were they? What were they like? Where and how did they
live? Finally, and most important, why are they no longer
in the Susquehanna and Ohio valleys?
The focus of this dissertation is a multicultural
analysis of the Indian peoples of the Susquehanna-Ohio
Indian Alliance using ethnohistorical methods. History can
be defined as the study of the process of change among human
individuals and populations using written and other primary
records as the basic source of information. Yet
ethnohistory is somewhat different, an interdisciplinary
hybrid. According to one of its most prolific
practitioners, "ethnohistory is essentially the use of
historical and ethnological methods and materials to gain
knowledge of the nature and causes of change in a culture
defined by ethnological concepts and categories. 111 Another
1James Axtell, "Ethnohistory: An Historian's Viewpoint,"
Ethnohistory 26 (Winter 1979): 2.
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more anthropologically-oriented definition of ethnohistory
is: "an advancement of the understanding of culture or
cultural process by analysis of human group behavior through
time using protocols of an historic nature, preferably
analyzed for purposes other than those originally intended
by the authors, and in categories based upon modern
ethnographic field investigation."2 Such a methodology
forms the core of modern research into the lives of non-
European peoples often misrepresented in the past by
ethnocentric writers. This work hopes to avoid such
cultural traps which have plagued earlier writers (despite
the sincere attempts of some of them to be fair) by the
rigorous use of ethnohistorical techniques and analysis. 3
I would like to thank the following for their help in
my academic career and in the preparation of this
dissertation. Dr. L.G. Moses, my advisor and friend, has
never lost confidence in me and has been a continual source
of inspiration and encouragement over the years. The other
members of my advisory committee, Dr. Michael Smith, Dr.
Donald Brown, and Dr. Richard C. Rohrs, offered patience,
encouragement, and invaluable advice. Dr. Ron Petrin took
2Robert C. Euler, "Ethnohistory in the United States,"
Ethnohistory 19 (Summer 1972): 201.
3A bibliographical essay addressing this and other
historiographical issues can be found in the Appendix.
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me on an eye-opening voyage into the historiographical realm
and provided me with the funding and physical facilities for
completing this dissertation. Dr. Mary Jane Warde prevented
me from making some major interpretive errors early in the
research phase. My fellow graduate students, Pam Koenig,
Cliff Coppersmith, Amy Carriere, Julie Jones, Rich Faillace,
David Amstutz, and David Tait functioned as an ever-patient
sounding board for my ofttimes half-baked ideas over the
years. Sandy Rife, the Director of the Pennsylvania's
Lycoming County Historical Society, and her friendly and
helpful staff provided immeasurable help to an unknown
scholar just beginning work on his dissertation. Special
thanks go to Dr. Jim Bressler, the Society's archeologist,
for his tour of the Otstonwakin village site. Dr. Stephen
Griffith of Lycoming College, my undergraduate mentor, and
his wife Ricki were considerate hosts always ready with a
word of encouragement. Gerald and Carrie Hause and their
children of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania provided a base of
operations for my fieldwork in Pennsylvania. Special thanks
go to their stalwart son, James, who literally blazed a
trail through the undergrowth for me so that I could view
the Chillisquaque village site. My friend Chuck Slaton of
Perry, Oklahoma, and my parents-in-law, Howard and Faye
Smith of Owasso, Oklahoma gave much needed help along the
way. Our department secretary, Susan Oliver, provided
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invaluable help and advice during the printing of the
dissertation. Jane Johnson, the department graduate
secretary, gave a never-ending store of friendly advice and
took the time to proofread the manuscript. My late Mother,
Martha Snyder Brown, bequeathed to me a love of literature
and an unrelenting interest in early American History. My
late Father, Malcolm Putnam Brown, taught me the virtues of
hard work at an early age and unceasingly encouraged me to
pursue my academic avocation despite the harpings of the
"Idols of the Marketplace." My sisters, Beverly Hill and
Barbara Mccusker, provided continual support and
encouragement over the years. My children, Michael, Robert,
Carrie, Jeremiah, William, Abigail, Christopher, Jacob, and
Matthew, unselfishly shared me with my work. My ever
patient wife, Linda, sacrificed greatly for six long years
so that I could pursue my academic dream, and should also
receive special recognition for producing the map. Finally,
He whom the Iroquois call the "Master of Life" has protected
and instructed me throughout my life and unfailingly guided
me in the conception and writing of this work.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I . INTRODUCTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
II. AN ETHNOGRAPHIC OVERVIEW OF THE SUSQUEHANNA-OHIO
PEOPLES ................................................ 23
III. BEGINNINGS: THE SUSQUEHANNA VALLEY IN THE EARLY
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
IV. THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE SUSQUEHANNA-OHIO INDIAN
ALLIANCE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
V. THE ALLIANCE AT CROSS-PURPOSES ..................... 205
VI. WAR AND DISSOLUTION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
VII. CONCLUSION ....................................... 298
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................... 320
APPENDIX·. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 6 0
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
DHSNY Documentary History of the State of New York
EAIDTL Early American Indian Documents, Treaties, and
Laws
EJCCV Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial
Virginia
IESYW Illinois on the Eve of the Seven Years' War, 1747-
1755
Jesuit Relations
Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the
State of New York
Pennsylvania Archives
Pennsylvania Colonial Records
Papers of Sir William Johnson
Papers of William Penn
Susguehannah Company Papers
Wilderness Chronicles of Northwestern Pennsylvania
Collections of the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin
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