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A True Account From Dodge's Diary 1650:
Red Men


by Dodge

Complied by: Brenda Haffner-Lindley; © ca. 1998


(pg. 16-17) Iroquois, early 17th cent., vanquished Alg., etc. neighbors of New England, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 1649—Iroq, drove Hurons or Wyandots (lived on W. side of peninsula formed by Lakes Huron, Erie, Ontario) down Ottawa river to Quebec, and some sought refuge with Chippewas, beyond Lake Superior. 1655-The dispersion of the Andastes, by the Iroquois, was not accomplished till 1672. Assisted by a tribe called, by the French Chaouanons, who were doubtless a detachment of the Shawnees, they resisted bravely, till overborne by superior numbers. [Andastes were located about the headwaters of the Allegheny in NE Pa.]

(pg. 17) There is every reason to believe that it was the intention of the Five Nations to subdue, disperse, or assimilate all the tribes of the Ohio Valley. There is no evidence that they were successful in carrying their conquests beyond the lake shore. That occasional incursions were made, is true; and equally true, by French authority, that reprisals were made upon them by the Miami and Illinois; that, in 1680, repulsed, on the banks of the Maumee, by the Iroquois, with a loss of 30 killed, and 300 prisoners, they rallied, intercepted them in their retreat, retook their prisoners, and killed a considerable number; that, in 1770, the Miami nation was very numerous, and the Illinois, within the memory of many of the first white settlers numbered 4000 warriors; that these tribes have no traditions of subjugation, or reference to its records of negotiations and treaties. In citations of authority, Gen. Harrison, as Governor of Indiana Territory, and Indian Commissioner, living among the Miamis, may safely be placed against Governor Clinton.

(pg. 18) Historic Period of White Immigration(a) Wyandots--in old Erie territory south shore of Lake Erie, and, chiefly, country N. of Lake Erie, opp. Detroit. Villages extended up Sandusky river to the summit level.

(pg. 19) Had master influence over the Algon. tribes--called by them (even by Dels.) "Uncles." More warlike, intellig, advanced, never fled alive.(b) (pg. 20) Ottawas on W. shore of Lake Huron, north portion of Michigan peninsula. Later they settled, in detached bands, near the waters of the Maumee and Sandusky, along the Lake [Erie] Shore, and upon the Cuyahoga. Not very notable tribe, except for Pontiac, 1763; mother is Ojibwa, father Ottawa. (c) Delewares. Found early settlement of Middle At. States, on Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. In Ohio period, occupied Valley of the Muskingum and the country E of the Scioto river. Present Del. Co., Ohio, on whetstone or Olentangy River. [see card also, Cultural Unaloofnes of Delaware.] (d) Shawnee,

(pg. 23) next come those American Arabs, the Shawnees, Shawaneese, or Shawanoes. At the period of the settlement of Va., they were doubtless the occupants of what is now the State of Kentucky, from the Ohio River up to the Cuberland basin, to the country of the Cherokees. Driven from this delightful land, probably by the Cherokees. Driven from this delightful land, probably by the Cherokees and Chickasaws, a portion of them sought refuge with the Susquehannocks, in Pa.; the main body, by invitation of the Andastes and Miamis [Andastes oaverwhelmed by Iroq, 1672], crossing the Ohio, to assist in conflicts with the aggressing Five Nations. Upon the extermination of their allies, the Andastes, in 1672, they again scattered in a southerly direction; a remnant making a forcible settlement on the headwaters of the Carolina rivers, from which they were expelled by the Catawbas. Hundreds of

(pg. 24) them in straggling bands, hovered about the borders of territory occupied by the Creeks and other southern Indians. In 1698, they began to find their way to their old haunts in Pa., where the larger portion of the tribe seems to have gathered, and from which they emigrated to the Scioto about the middle of the eighteenth century. It is possible that many of them remained there [at the Scioto] since the defeat of the Andastes.

(pg. 25) Benjamin Drake, author of the Life of Tecumseh, claims for them [Sh.] a residence in Pa. when John Smith first arrived in America. And Jefferson, in his notes on Va., says they were waging war, at that time, with the Mohicans of Long Island. The cause which led to their removal from the Wyoming Valley proves the universality of one element of humanity. Some Delaware "ladies" (their lords being absent) went out, with their children to gather wild fruits. On the rivers margin, they met some Shawnee mothers, with their children, on the same errand. A sh. child caught a fine, large grasshopper, and soon the juvenile Sh. and Del. were quarreling over it. Of course, the mothers engaged in the fray, and equally of course, their husbands, on their return, took up the quarrel. The result was war and immigration.

(pg. 25) Miamis. Powerful tribe. Area:--country drained by rivers Miami and Maumee, or Miami of the North. Iroquois tried to push through a warpath to W. here; Miami stayed them. Three tribes, Miamis or Twigtees, Piankeshaws, Weas. Little Turtle gave their limits: "My forefather kindled the first fire at Detroit; from thence he extended his lines to the headquarters of the Scioto; from thence to its mouth; from thence, down the Ohio to the mouth of Wabash; and from thence to Chicago, over Lake Michigan."

(pg. 26) Illinois. Situated on Illinois river. Numerous. Five divisions when discovered by French. Weakened by feuds and divisions.




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