History
Notes No. 3
The Indian Wars: Setting the Stage
Bob Terwillegar
June 2004
Before we write
about the Indian Wars we need to set the stage by telling what had
happened in this area and what was about to happen
Overview:
The Indians and the Land
The history of the
settlement of Kentucky and Ohio cannot be studied separately from the
whole of
the prior settlement of North America.
There are underlying themes and patterns that originated at the
time that Columbus
or the earlier Vikings discovered the continent, and these themes
and patterns have not yet ended.
The Europeans believed
a myth that this
was a New World, virgin land, waiting for settlement. The natural
resources were obvious; less obvious were the cultures of the native
inhabitants
using those resources. The Native Americans (Indians) were looked
upon as savages, primitive, uncivilized. The
Spanish enslaved the Indians, often under the guise of missionary
conversion. The English,
who, like the Spanish came to settle, mostly
considered Indians to be inferior people and used them to obtain
furs
and fight battles. The French often lived with the Indians and, as
Francis Parkman said, "embraced and cherished" them. Nevertheless,
the French were after the furs and the fish.
The general approach
of all Europeans was either to convert and educate the Indian so
they
might become "civilized and European," or to remove them
from the path of "manifest destiny" and "westward
expansion." The
English generally ignored the Indians in the hope they would "go
away." Treaties were used to give a semblance of legality to
land seizures. The Indians of the
Ohio Valley became pawns in the struggle
between the French and the English and later between English and
the States for the furs and land. They were used, as needed, and
in the
end discarded and pushed out.
There were, of course,
individual Indians and
Europeans who stood out, who undoubtedly respected each other.
Many individuals recognized the problems and tried to find solutions,
but these solutions
were seldom fruitful. The English and later the United States
established boundaries to protect Indian lands from settlement, but
these boundaries
could not be enforced. Both Washington and Jefferson believed
that co-existence was possible and that there was enough land for all.
In the end, however,
the pressure to settle proved to be impossible to stop.
The French
and the Iroquois
In the one hundred
plus years prior to 1650 the French explored this country and lands
west of here from the
north. The traders were looking
for furs; the missionaries were looking for converts; the leaders
were looking for empire; the explorers were just looking.
The Native
Americans
they found here were mostly the Erie, who lived in northern Ohio.
In 1650 the Iroquois, who lived in New York, swept through Ohio destroying
and driving out the Erie. They did this because they enjoyed a
lucrative trade in furs with the English. Since fur supplies were dwindling
in
New York, they wanted to expand their territory. Consequently,
the
Iroquois dominated Ohio for the next fifty years.
During that time,
the French explored the Mississippi, the Great Lakes and points west
and north to Hudson Bay. They established Fort Pontchartrain (Detroit),
Fort Miami (Ft. Wayne), New Orleans, St. Louis, and many other smaller
outposts. They were also well established throughout Indiana, Illinois,
and down the Mississippi. Champlain's extensive explorations helped
to establish the French north, west, and south of the Lakes. He even
traveled down the Ohio River to the site of Louisville.
Champlain's
unfortunate decision to help some friendly Huron Indians in a battle
with the
Iroquois caused the subsequent enmity between that confederation
of tribes and
the French. From that time on the Iroquois continually harassed
French outposts and missionaries.
The English
Until
the late 1600's the English concentrated on the East Coast: building
cities, farming the land, establishing governments.
The westward boundaries
of the colonies, beyond the Appalachians were vague and overlapping.
There were a few individuals who pushed over the mountains to look
at what was there, and some realized the potential, but there
was little
desire for settlement.
By 1700 that attitude
was diminishing, and by 1730 the English, traveling mostly through
Pennsylvania, down the
Monongahela River, and onto the
Ohio River, had penetrated deeply into territory that had once
been exclusively French. By 1740 two important English trading posts,
Logstown, on the
Ohio, and Pickawillany, near present Piona had been established.
Along with many others, an enterprising Pennsylvania trader, George
Croghan,
began making serious inroads into French profits.
Next time in History
Notes No 4 we will continue through the wars. |
