The Indian World of George Washington

by Colin G. Calloway

  Dinwiddie appointed Joshua Fry, Lunford Lomax, and James Patton as treaty commissioners. Educated at Oxford, Fry had migrated to Virginia, where he became a professor of mathematics at the College of William and Mary and a surveyor; in partnership with Peter Jefferson, the future president’s father, he prepared a map of Virginia. Lomax, like Fry, was a member of the House of Burgesses. The Irish-born Patton was a militia colonel and land speculator.42 Montour attended as interpreter; Croghan offered his services in the hope that Virginia would give him what Pennsylvania would not: recognition of a dubious grant from the Indians of 200,000 acres near the Forks of the Ohio.43 Dinwiddie knew the Ohio Indians had objections to the Treaty of Lancaster: “They say they do not understand Pen and Ink work, and that their Interpreter did not do them Justice.” Nevertheless, he instructed the commissioners to insist on implementing that treaty and establishing a settlement on the Ohio.44 In May 1752 Gist led the commissioners to Logstown.

  Several days after the commissioners arrived, they reported in their journal of the treaty, Tanaghrisson and other chiefs “came down the River with English Colours flying.” They then spent almost a week “employed in their own Business” (read: kept the commissioners waiting) before the council began.45

  The Virginians produced a copy of the Treaty of Lancaster, in which the Iroquois had ostensibly recognized “the King’s Right to all the Lands in Virginia as it was then peopled, or hereafter should be peopled, or bounded by the King.” They requested confirmation of the deed and approval for building a settlement on the southeast bank of the Ohio River. Gist assured the Indians that in making a settlement the British intended to establish ties of friendship and provide goods to the Indians at much cheaper rates; “the King, our father, by purchasing your Lands, had never any Intention of takeing them from you, but that we might live together as one People, & keep them from the French, who wou’d be bad Neighbours.” The Shawnees and Delawares were not fooled. They refused to recognize the Iroquois’ cession at Lancaster and agreed only to a trading house at the Forks, not a settlement.46

  The commissioners dispatched Montour “to confer with his Brethren, the other Sachems, in private” and persuade them of the benefits of a settlement to their trade and security. Gist, Croghan, and Montour met with Tanaghrisson in private one evening at Croghan’s house—a meeting the historian Francis Jennings characterized as “the boys in the back room.” What was said there is unclear, but Tanaghrisson secretly confirmed the Lancaster Treaty. He encouraged the Virginians to build “a Strong House” at the Forks, and the Pennsylvanians to build another somewhere on the river, to act as a bulwark against the French and keep the Indians supplied with the guns, ammunition, and other commodities they needed.47

  Tanaghrisson was playing the angles. He was not about to acknowledge in open council that the Iroquois had ceded the Ohio country to Virginia. “We are willing to confirm any Thing our Council has done in Regard to the Land,” he explained, “but we never understood, before you told us Yesterday, that the Lands then sold were to extend further to the Sun setting than the Hill on the other Side of the Allegany Hill [in other words, the crest of the Appalachians], so that we can’t give you a further Answer now.” He would have to defer to Onondaga to confirm the cession. Carefully evading the thorny issue that was the crux of the meeting, Tanaghrisson managed to present himself as a friend to the English, a loyal representative of Onondaga, and a defender of Ohio Indian rights and lands.48 He also had to ensure that the Virginians did not bypass him and deal directly with the Shawnees and Delawares as those tribes asserted their growing independence from the Six Nations.

  The Six Nations and Delawares had a complicated history. The Iroquois claimed dominance over the Delawares, ritually making them metaphorical “women” by denying them authority to make war without Iroquois approval. The Delawares acknowledged themselves under Iroquois protection and agreed not to wage war without Iroquois approval, focusing instead on making and maintaining peace, a role they had traditionally exercised among eastern tribes and for which women held great responsibility in Iroquois society. Calling the Delawares “women” defined the symbolic relationship. But the meaning attached to the Delawares’ metaphorical womanhood shifted. Europeans misread it as demeaning. In time, as Iroquois sold Delaware lands without consulting them, Delawares found it demeaning as well.49 The Iroquois browbeat the Delawares into acquiescing in colonial land thefts such as the notorious Walking Purchase in 1737, when Pennsylvanians defrauded the tribe of lands in the Lehigh and Delaware Valleys.

  At the Logstown conference, Tanaghrisson acted as if the Iroquois still had authority over the Delawares, but it was little more than an act. Colonial powers always struggled with the decentralized and diffused political structures of Native societies and adopted a “take me to your leader” approach when doing business in Indian country. They appointed certain Native leaders to act as brokers and called them “kings,” although they were never that. As William Penn observed, so-called Delaware kings exerted significant influence, but in a society that operated by consensus, “they move[d] by the Breath of their People.” Their powers were “rather persuasive than coercive,” noted an English traveler, and the Moravian missionary David Zeisberger explained that a Delaware chief “may not presume to rule over the people, as in that case he would immediately be forsaken by the whole tribes, and his counselors would refuse to assist him.”50

  The previous Delaware “king,” Alumapees, had died in 1747. Who would now speak for the Delawares? The commissioners noted in their journal: “At this Time the Delawares had no King, but were headed by two Brothers, named Shingas & the Beaver, who were Dress’d after the English Fashion, & had Silver Breast Plates [gorgets] & a great deal of Wampum about them.”51 In the course of the treaty Tanaghrisson performed his role as the Six Nations representative and designated Shingas as “king” of the Delawares, “with whom all public business must be transacted between you and your brethren the English.” In Shingas’s absence, his brother Tamaqua (the Beaver) stood proxy for him. Tanaghrisson placed a laced hat on his head and presented him with “a rich jacket & suit of English Colours,” which the commissioners had given him “for that Purpose.”52 In reality, Tanaghrisson may have done little more than confirm the Delawares’ choice, although Delaware people later insisted that the Virginians, not the Indians, made Tamaqua “king” and that the real leader was a chief named Neetotehelemy or Netawatwees, also known as Newcomer.53 As for Shingas, his subsequent actions would demonstrate that he was neither an Iroquois puppet nor Tanaghrisson’s “man.”

  Disaster struck a week or so after the Logstown conference ended. In June 1752 a French-Ottawa officer named Charles-Michel Mouet de Langlade, along with about 240 Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi warriors, attacked and destroyed the Miami town of Pickawillany, where Pennsylvanians operated the largest trading post west of the Appalachians. The Miami (Piankashaw) chief Memeskia, also known as Old Briton for his attachment to the English, had told Céloron to leave the country in 1749.54 Now, Langlade’s warriors killed Memeskia, boiled and ritually ate his body in front of his people, and drove the English traders back across the mountains.55 The raid sent shock waves through Indian country. Runners carried wampum belts and speeches as the Miamis, Shawnees, and Delawares looked to the Iroquois and English to meet their obligations as allies in the Covenant Chain and provide support and protection.56

  Meanwhile, alarmed by the activities of Virginian and Pennsylvanian traders and land speculators in the region, the French decided to build a chain of forts to protect the water route along the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers. Ange de Menneville, marquis Duquesne, the governor of New France, dispatched the sixty-year-old veteran Pierre Paul de la Malgue, sieur de Marin, with two thousand men to carry out the fort-building campaign. Claude-Pierre Pécaudy de Contrecoeur, who had served as second-in-command in Céloron’s expedition in 1749, was placed in command of Fort Niagara on the southern edge of Lake Ontario, by way of which men, sup
plies, and equipment for the new forts were moved into the Ohio country. The first fort, Presque Isle at present-day Erie, Pennsylvania, was completed by May 1753. An Indian who came to Logstown from Montreal reported that the French troops marching toward the Ohio set the whole earth trembling.57 Indian messengers brought word that the French were building canoes and coming to expel the English traders. The British commander at Fort Oswego, hearing inflated reports of the size of the French and Indian force heading south to build forts, warned that if the English did nothing to stop it, they could “bid adieu to the Indians on the Continent,” as the French would “be Masters of them all” and extend their dominions throughout in America.58 For generations, the French had cultivated and maintained alliances in Indian country through accommodation, ritual, gift exchange, and kinship ties. Now they sought to assert control over the Ohio country by force rather than diplomacy.59

  In February 1752 Shawnee Indians had sent a message and six strings of wampum to the governor of Pennsylvania. “All the Nations settled on this River Ohio and on this side [of] the Lakes are in Friendship and live as one People,” they said, “but the French, who are directed by the Evil Spirit and not God, trouble us much.” They cheated and threatened the Indians and had recently killed “thirty of our Brothers the Twightwees” or Miamis. Now the Shawnees were preparing to strike back and requesting assistance. But Pennsylvania’s Quaker-dominated assembly could offer no help, “because you well know the Principles of the People here who have the disposition of the Publick Money are entirely averse to any such measures,” Deputy Governor Hamilton explained to Croghan.60 And Virginians were more interested in acquiring the Ohio country than in helping the Indians defend it against the French.61

  In May 1753 Croghan, his brother-in-law and former business partner William Trent, and several other traders met with the Indians at Pine Creek, about twenty miles above Logstown. They wanted to know if the Indians would oppose the French and if it was safe for traders to remain among them. The Indians wanted to know if the English would help them defend their lands against the French or if they just wanted the lands for themselves. Trent assured Tanaghrisson that Virginia regarded the Ohio country as belonging to the Indians and would supply them with arms and ammunition if the French attempted to settle or build forts there. The Indians said “it was an affair of great Consequence” that required careful consideration. After counseling with his fellow chiefs through the night and into the early afternoon, Tanaghrisson gave Trent a carefully worded reply: if the French came peacefully, the Indians “would receive them as Friends, but if they came as Enemies they would treat them as such.”62

  A month later, however, Tanaghrisson and Scarouady sent another message to the governor of Virginia, saying, “We do not want the French to come amongst Us at all, but very much want our good Brothers the English to be with us, to whom our Hearts are good and shall ever continue to be so.”63 At another council at Logstown in July and August, called by Trent to strengthen the chain of friendship, assert Virginia’s intention to build a trading house on the Ohio, and urge the tribes to unite in the face of the French threat, Tanaghrisson and Scarouady declared “that the Half King shall go and warn the French off our Land.”64 The Delawares had warned the French at Niagara not to come farther into the Ohio country; when the French ignored that warning, a council at Logstown had sent another. This would be the third. Iroquois protocol required giving three warnings before going to war.65

  Onondaga watched developments in the Ohio country with concern. Returning from Onondaga to Pennsylvania in the spring of 1753, Montour reported that the Six Nations chiefs urged the governor of Virginia to use his influence to prevent war, especially in the Ohio country, which was their best hunting ground. They “were against both the English and French building Forts and settling Lands at Ohio, and desired they might both quit that Country, and only send a few Traders with Goods sufficient to supply the wants of their Hunters.” What was more, the chiefs at Onondaga “did not like the Virginians and Pennsylvanians making Treaties with these Indians, whom they called Hunters, and young and giddy Men and Children; that they were their Fathers, and if the English wanted anything from these childish People they must first speak to their Fathers.”66 The Six Nations exaggerated their authority over the Indians of the Ohio country.

  The French pushed a road south and built a second post at Fort LeBoeuf, on a branch of French Creek (present-day Waterford, Pennsylvania) in July. At the Indian village of Venango on the Allegheny River (present-day Franklin, Pennsylvania), they ousted the resident trader and gunsmith, John Fraser or Frazier, fortified his trading post, and began construction of Fort Machault. In the face of this intrusion, and amid Indian fears that the French and English were in cahoots to divide the land between them, Tanaghrisson and Scarouady fashioned a strategy for keeping both out of the Ohio country. They did not want to hand control of the region to Britain; rather, they wanted British allies and trading partners to counterbalance French influence, which threatened both Onondaga’s and their own influence among the resident tribes.67 The Indians needed European traders, not European garrisons and settlements.

  While Tanaghrisson went to warn off the French, Scarouady headed east to persuade the Pennsylvanians and Virginians to stay away. Tanaghrisson traveled north to Fort Presque Isle and warned the commander, the sieur de Marin, to advance no farther toward “the Beautiful River,” the Ohio. At the Logstown conference Tanaghrisson had told the English that he could make no decision without consulting the Onondaga council; now he told the French that he and the Ohio Indians would act independently of Onondaga: “The river where we are belongs to us warriors. The chiefs who look after affairs [i.e., the Onondaga council] are not its masters. It is a good road for warriors and not for their chiefs.” Implicitly denying the authority of the Six Nations in the Ohio country, and claiming to speak “in the name of all the warriors who inhabit the Belle Rivière,” he said he had come to find out the French intentions “so that we can calm down our wives.” The Indians had told the English to withdraw, and they were telling the French to do the same. “We shall be on the side of those who take pity on us and who listen to us.” Handing Marin a wampum belt to halt their progress and cease construction of the forts, he declared: “This is the first and last demand we shall make of you, and I shall strike at whoever does not listen to us.”68

  Marin was not intimidated. He dismissed Tanaghrisson’s threat, refused to accept his wampum belt, and responded with threats of his own. “You seem to have lost your minds,” he retorted. As for Tanaghrisson’s demands and his claims to speak for all the tribes of the Ohio, “I despise all the stupid things you said. I know that they come only from you, and that all the warriors and chiefs of the Belle Rivière think better than you, and take pity on their women and children.” Marin had no intention of disturbing the Indians, but he had every intention of carrying out the king’s instructions and would crush anyone who stood in his way. Although Tanaghrisson reasserted that he was sent by the Ohio nations and that it would be up to them to decide what they would do, Marin may have not have been far off the mark in his assessment of Tanaghrisson’s standing: when Shawnee delegates spoke to the French the next day, they distanced themselves from the half king and his hard line, and the Onondaga council did not countenance his position.69

  Tanaghrisson had delivered the final warning. “This is the third refusal you have given me,” he reminded Marin. It was an ominous statement, implying there could be no turning back. “The great Being who lives above, has ordered Us to send Three Messages of Peace before We make War,” Scarouady explained to the Pennsylvanians. “And as the Half King has before this Time delivered the third and last Message, we have nothing now to do but to strike the French.”70 Tanaghrisson’s bold front was more bluff than reality, however. According to one report, he returned from his confrontation with the French commander with tears in his eyes, but they were likely tears of frustration rather than of anguish at impending w
ar. Another said, “This Chief who went like a Lyon roaring out destruction, came back like a Lamb.” Tanaghrisson did not speak for the Six Nations, who wanted to remain neutral, or for Delawares, whose villages lay in the path of the French invasion and perhaps favored accommodation over defiance. As evidenced by the Shawnees’ repudiation of him, the tribes for whom he claimed to speak were far from united behind him. There would be more warnings and wampum belts before diplomacy gave way to war.71

  Dinwiddie wrote alarming reports to fellow colonial governors and dispatched messengers to the Catawbas, Cherokees, and Six Nations, urging them to make common cause with the English against cunning enemies who pretended to embrace them “but mean to squeeze You to Death.” He invited Miamis, Mingoes, Shawnees, and Delawares to Winchester, Virginia, in September 1753, where they were urged to mend their differences with the southern tribes and unite in face of French aggression. He tried to work with Governor James Glen of South Carolina to recruit allies from the Catawbas and Cherokees. But Glen suspected Dinwiddie of pushing the Ohio Company’s agenda and was intent on maintaining control over negotiations with the tribes; when Dinwiddie asked for help, Glen and his council refused, and relations between the two governors continued fractious.72

  In October 1753 the French were reported to be on the move, in two hundred canoes, to build their final fort in the system at the Forks of the Ohio.73 Marin fell ill and died that month, and the fort-building campaign halted for more than half a year. Disease, drought, and fatigue, rather than Tanaghrisson’s threats, caused the delay, giving the English time to mount a response.