The English on the East Coast have a barbarous system of killing Indians when ever they meet them.
The English impose a forty pound bounty on Indian scalps.
1750 - 1779
INDIAN HISTORY 1780 - 1799
INDIAN HISTORY Return to INDIAN 1700 - 1999 INDEX
The French never conquered the People.
"Englishmen, though you have conquered the French, you have not conquered us".
The Indians are not the slaves of the English.
"When the whites win a fight, it is victory and
when the Indians win it, it is a massacre"
L. Frank Baum
1750
The plains Cree had acquired the horse, most likely from the Blood or even the Blackfoot. This year the French renewed their practice of placing bounties on Beothuk scalps and provided arms to the Micmac (Mi'kmaq or Mi'Kmaq) and by this date few Beothuk existed. The Jesuits named the Ojibwa at Sault Ste Marie 'Saulteurs' meaning people of the falls. Ojibwa war parties originally from LaPointe have cleared the Dakota from Mille Lac, Leech, Winnipeg (Winnibigoshish) and Red Lake areas.
North Dakota is occupied by the Assiniboin and Cree in the north, the Crow to the west, the Arikara to the south and the Yanktonai, Dakota and Cheyenne to the east. The Hidatsa and Mandan occupy the central region. All but the Mandan and Arikara come from eastern forest regions likely Minnesota. The Dakota are pressing the Ojibwa and even attacking their villages on Lake Superior. Some contend the hundred-year war started and that the Dakota Sioux would be pushed beyond the Mississippi into the Dakota's and they would be called the Dakota Sioux. Other accounts suggest the Chippewa victory over the Dakota Sioux established themselves at Mille Lacs, Sandy, Cass, Winnibigoshish, Leech and Red Lakes. The Dakota Sioux skirmishes from 1736 to date ended this year. The Shoshoni, Uto-Aztec from the southwest used Writing-on-Stone, Milk River, Alberta for vision quests.
Father Vivier, a missionary living among the Illinois says the current belief by the Jesuits is that the savages are hardly believed to be men. This is the prevailing attitude held in France because of the Jesuit Relations and allied documents being circulated in Europe. He said this thinking is in error. They are gentle and sociable by nature. They have wit and seem to have more than our peasants, as much, at least, as most Frenchmen. Neither rank nor dignity among them, all men seem equal, to them. An Illinois would speak as boldly to a king as to the lowest subject. They never interrupt you in conversation. They do not get angry while conversing. They have many qualities not found in civilized peoples. They live in great peace. Their numbers have fallen by three thousand over the past sixty years. A written record by the Illinois found by the missionaries indicates a population of 5,000 in 1690 and only 2,000 today.
The French harassed the Miami People of Pickawillany because of their successful trading post operations with the English. They plundered pack trains, committed murders and took prisoners of the trade. They could not provoke the Miami into war so began to plan an attack on their peaceful prosperous village.
Native American's, near Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh), were lighting fire to an oil slicked creek in a religious ceremony.
The Illinois are believed to number some 2,000 people. They live in cabins generally containing 15 to 20 people. They live in great peace which is due to the fact that each person is allowed to do as he pleases. From the beginning of October to the middle of March , they hunt at forty to fifty leagues from their village. In March the women sow the maize.
The first known Europeans to visit the Kuikro an advanced culture of central Brazil was slavers. The Kuikro numbered in the tens' of thousands in 19 known villages all connected by roads some as wide as 165 feet (50 meters). The roads were curbed running for 3-5 miles between villages. They built moats, parks, bridges and cultivated fields. Researchers concluded the Peoples of the Amazon River Basin had a very complex and sophicated civilization
1751
It is reported that Benjamin Franklin cites the Peoples governing traditions especially the Iroquois league as a model for his Albany plan of Union. Unknown to most Americans and Europeans in the twentieth century, the League of Nations and the United Nations would also be modeled after the system used by the native savages.
George Crogham and Montour two English traders requested permission of Demoiselle (killed June 21, 1752) of the Piankeshaw Miami People and commander of a major trading post and village called Pickawillany at the confines of the Loramie Creek and Great Miami River, in Ohio to construct a stockade which was granted. Pickawillany presently employed 50 British traders and the village contained over 400 families.
November: Luis Oacpicagigua a Pima led an attack against the Spanish at Saric, Arizona killing 18 Spanish soldiers.
1752
Tomau of the Menominee is born and died July 8, 1818 Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The Abenakis people responded to an official delegation from Boston and stated that they are free people and allies of the French King.
The English entered into treaty (alliance) with some Micmac (Mi'kmaq or Mi'Kmaq) at Halifax acknowledging the Peoples right to the free liberty of hunting and fishing, right to trade to the best advantage and to provide regular gift distribution, the first of the treaties to do so.
Fort Mose, Spanish La Florida is rebuilt having been destroyed in 1740 by the British from Caroline. The fort is built with stone fortification and the black settlers formed a militia unit to defend their settlement against their former masters.
June: Charles Langdale born 1729 of New France with a force of Ojibwa and Ottawa (Odahwaug) moved against the Miami trading center Pickawillany near present day Pioua, Ohio killing the Miami commander and founder Demoiselle and thirteen warriors plus an English trader and captured three other traders. This unprovoked attack is to prevent the Miami from trading with the English. Ohio is named by the Iroquoian Oheo meaning beautiful.
1754
The Iroquois and Delaware town of Kuskuski along Beaver Creek in Lawrence County in Pennsylvania had a population of some 1,000 people.
The Cree reported that theAssiniboine who call themselves Nako'ta, had many horses at this time. Some unknown People kills the five traders at Henley House. Some say they are killed because they had taken two women as concubines against their will.
The Archithinue (Blackfoot) lived primarily on buffalo and never eat fish.
(I)-Anthony Henday encountered the horse as far east as Buffer Lake, Saskatchewan and concluded they obtain their horses from the Blackfoot and Gros Ventre. The Assiniboine were not using the horse until he encountered them at Sounding Creek, Alberta
December, (I)-Anthony Henday (1750-1762 H.B.C. service) out of York Factory near the Red Deer River asked the Parkland People who are in the Blackfoot territory why they didn't trap wolves. They said the Archithinue People would kill them if they trapped in their country. The Parkland People were middlemen in the trading business and resented Henday speaking so much about trapping.
1755
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) warned General Bradock of a possible ambush by the People on his objective to capture Fort Duguesne. The General responded, the savages may be formidable to your raw American militia however upon the King's Regulars and disciplined troops, it is impossible that they should make any impression. His Virginia officers like Washington, Gage and Gates warned him not to attempt to take wagons on the campaign. He ignored their advice. Three hundred axe-men led the way clearing a path toward the Fort. He did send scouts ahead to prevent ambush but on July 9, six hundred ignorant savages attacked General Bradock's army. Of his 1,748 men, 800 are killed and 400 wounded near Fort Duguesne. The foolish General is mortally wounded. Some four hundred and fifty retreated and escaped unharmed. Before he died his only comment is who would have though it and we shall better know how to deal with them next time. The savages are not impressed with the best of the King's Regulars. They just stood out in the open waiting to be cut down, like gentlemen they had said. The British officials proclaimed each Indian scalp of enemy tribes is worth forty pounds. How they could identify an enemy scalp is not recorded.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) noted that it would be a very strange thing, if six (Iroquois) Nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming a scheme for such a union (democracy) and yet that a like union should be impracticable for ten or a dozen English Colonies, to whom it is more necessary. It is noteworthy that the Algonquin Nations had a similar system of governing that also also included minority groups like the Iroquois Wendat.
The Ministry of War issued a directive to the allied nations of America stating the People are jealous of their liberty and one could not without committing an injustice take away from them primitive rights of property to the lands on which providence has given them birth and located them.
Sieur de Vaudreuil is ordered that he must leave to certain nations the liberty to wander and go about the lands of the colony provided that they do not receive foreigners, for the last point is the most essential.
The People knew the fine words are hollow and neither side believed them. The Micmac (Mi'kmaq or Mi'Kmaq) chose to play both sides for bounties and the French and English in mounting vengeance raised the scalp bounties.
The Cross Lake (Ponemah) Ojibwa are living at the Narrows (Ponemah Point) and around Miquam Bay. The Ojibwa are living on the south side of Red Lake but some are now living on the north side.
May 14: (I)-Charles Lawrence (1709-1760) as lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia (1756-1760) issued the infamous Scalp Proclamation with the consent of His Majesty's Council, a reward of £30 for every male Indian prisoner; or for a scalp twenty-five pounds. This wicked man stated October 14, 1754 he would protect the innocent and was the guardian of liberty. He is the one who conceived and ordered the removal of the Acadians in 1755 and drafted plans to prevent their return. It is noteworthy this proclamation is still on the books and the Canadian Government has refused to rescind it.
1756
The English report that at Knapp Bay north of Churchill River the Chipewyan massacred more than forty Eskimos for no other reason than that two of their elders had died of a mysterious illness the previous year.
April 9: The British Board of Commissioners established a bounty or premium
for Indian scalps.
It does not specify how you determine the age or gender from a scalp?
Indian male scalps over 10 years $130 each
Indian female scalps no age specified $50 each
Indian live female or male child under age 10 years $130 each
1757
Little silver boxes were given to the Ottawa's saying they contained medicine but actually contained smallpox. Andrew Blackbird's account : "This smallpox was sold to them to shut up in a showy tin box, with strict injunctions not to open the box on their way homeward". The English blamed the French and the French blamed the English for this evil act. Traci points out (also see 1763) that the Ottawa's were fighting for the French so they were unlikely to evoke an epidemic on their allies, so it is most likely the English were the guilty party.
Russian fur traders and hunters plundered Aleut villages on Kanaga Island and burned them to the ground.
August: Fifty men from Cumru and other townships near Reading, Pennsylvania set out in expedition of bringing in some Indian scalps.
1758
Sawcunk a village and trading center of the Delaware People is located on the Ohio River near the mouth of the Beaver Creek (Beaver, Pennsylvania). The French traders abandoned this trading center this year.
1759
Henley House is again reopened by the Hudson Bay Company and again attacked by twenty men, the chief factor is killed and the rest fled to Fort Albany.
1760
Article forty of capitulation of Montreal ensured the savages or allies of his most Christian Majesty, shall be maintained in the lands they inhabit; if they chose to remain there; they shall not be molested on any pretense whatsoever, for having carried arms, and served his most Christian Majesty; they shall have as well as the French, liberty of religion, and shall keep their missionaries. However, Jeffrey Amhurst, the British Commander-in-Chief for America believed the best way to deal with savages is through strict regulations and punishment. Intermingling and intermarriage between races, a common practice during the French tenure, is now discouraged. Jeffrey began the introduction of the English cast system that has proven highly effective in destroying civilization and corrupting the moral fabric of other nations.
The English King George III became more and more distressed with the increasing high-handedness of his American subjects towards the People. He issued judgments against the lords of America, commanding that they encroach no more on the ancient homelands of the Indian Peoples. The Americans were disenchanted with their monarch as it conflicted with their expansionist and land clearing plans. This was one of the major reasons for the American Revolutionary War. It is noteworthy that the English Americans would become the next major group to be land cleared from the United States.
Nancy Ward (1738-1822) was called Beloved Woman by the Cherokees and sat on their Council of Chiefs. She was in command of a successful battle with the Creeks. She married a white Man (likely Metis) this year but managed to put her Cherokee interests first.
Reverend Eleazer Wheelock, ran a school called Moor's Indian Charity School, in New Hampshire, at Lebanon and boasted that he could make Christian Englishmen out of Red Heathens. The Mohawk considered Wheelock as boastful with bad manners.
The People are well aware that English actions seldom aligned with English words and the word Englishmen are equated with the words 'Snake People,' those who poisons the minds and souls of other people while proclaiming themselves civilized.
Le Have is a Micmac (Mi'kmaq or Mi'Kmaq) village in Lunenberg County, Nova Scotia. Minas is a village of the Micmac (Mi'kmaq or Mi'Kmaq) in Nova Scotia. Miramichi a Micmac (Mi'kmaq or Mi'Kmaq) village is located on the right bank of the Miramichi River, New Brunswick where it enters the St. Lawrence River.
The northern Ojibwa band is composed of between twenty and forty members whereas the more southern bands are between one and two hundred. Some speculate this is directly related to mobility and food supply. These Ojibwa are doing considerable trade with Fort Albany.
The Dakota over the next ten years abandoned their last stronghold at Leech Lake, Minnesota and moved to the headwaters of the Red and Minnesota Rivers.
Between 1760 to the 1860's Americans landed some 425,000 African slaves mostly into Brazil and Cuba. This does not include the North American People exiled into the slave trade. American slave ports included Newport, Providence, Bristol and Rhode Island. It is noteworthy that the religious nonconformists had little scruples in dealing in the slave industry.
The Muskhogean Nation consisted of the Choctaw, Creeks, Chickasaw and Seminole and at the time of settlement their numbers exceeded 50,000 people. The general custom was to bind the head of children to achieve a flat head. The name flathead was a name commonly used to identify them especially the Choctaw People.
Sequoia (Sequoya) a Cherokee is born Taskigi, Tennessee and would develope a Cherokee alphabet in 1821 so his people could read and write. The Redwoods of California are named after him "Sequoia".
The Nez Perce People acquired the horse, adopted the tepee and traveled 3-4 hundred miles to the Montana buffalo hunt from the junction of Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
1761
St. Mary mission (Sault Ste Marie) is considered a thriving settlement and one of the most western French settlements providing staging access to Lake Superior, Fort Michilimackinac that provides staging access to Lake Michigan. The Ojibwa have controlled this strategic position for centuries.
Peshewah aka John B. Richardville a Miami is born 1761 Fort Wayne, Indiana, died August 13, 1841, and Russiaville, Indiana is named after him.
The Mobile People of the Muskhogean nation were mainly farmers and traders who traded from Florida to Louisiana and north to Ohio. It is believed the Mobile People originated near Choctaw Bluff, Clark County, Alabama. Mobile meaning doubtful were known from 1708 and became lost to history about this time.
The Ojibwa orator who met Alexander Henry at Fort Michilimackinac expressed the frustration, anger and independent spirit of all people of North America when he said "Englishmen, though you have conquered the French, you have not yet conquered us." "We are not your slaves." "These lakes, these woods and mountains, are left to us by our ancestors. They are our inheritance and we will part with them to none." It is noteworthy that one estimate stated that by the year 2000, if current trends continue, fifty percent of the people in Western Canada would have Indian heritage.
September 9: William Johnson, British Superintendent of Indian Affairs in a speech at Fort Detroit is believed by some to have sparked the Pontiac War of 1763 with his inflammatory comments. It is alleged he regarded the defeated Wyandot (Huron) a Iroquois People as the leaders of the Western Confederacy. This speech angered the Ojibwa, Ottawa and Potawatomi Algonquian Confederacy. Minavana an Objibwa spokesperson who lived near Fort Michilimackinac began planning the conquest of the Fort by winning the confidence of George Etherington commander of the fort. Alexander Henry tried to warn Etherington but he wouldn't listen.
1762
The Belchar proclamation ordered the removal of all persons illegally settled on native land in Nova Scotia and reserved the northwest coast from Musquddoboit River to Baie Des Chaleurs for the Micmac (Mi'kmaq or Mi'Kmaq). During the next twenty years most settlers largely ignore this order.
Nimham of the Wappinger People who lived along the Hudson River traveled to England to try to recover their lands from the English without success. He was killed at the battle of Kingsbridge August 3, 1778.
Russians participating in the Pushkareff expedition take Alaskan native women prisons as slaves. On the voyage to Russia, all but two slaves are murdered.
1763
The Spanish gave Florida to the British and departed Florida with 83 Christianized survivors out of a Timucua population of 15,000 people.
The Fur Companies preferred to deal with the same leader year after year when ever possible. The People however did not follow this European tradition but had a Captain for hunting, a captain for trading, a Camp Captain etc. and these could change from year to year based on elections. The Hudson Bay Company however encouraged a perpetual Chief concept by enhancing one individual through gift giving. They provided a suit of clothing called the 'Captain's Outfit' to make the trading captain's stand out from the rest of the savages. It included a coarse cloth coat, either red or blue, lined with baize regimental cuffs and collar. The waistcoat and breeches are of baize. The hat is laced and ornamented with feathers of different colors. The trading lieutenant is also presented with an inferior suit. In later years the North West Company also followed this practice but added a flag as another symbol of leadership. Once the People accepted these European symbols of political authority and allegiance, the trading companies attempted to use the symbols to manipulate the People. In this way the Peoples democratic process practiced since antiquity began to change. The European King concept began to be an integral part of native culture. Everyone wanted to be Chief and the notion of hereditary Chief (King) was not far behind. A totally democratic caring sharing society is transformed into an European hereditary Kingship society that continues to this day. Truly a 'Paradise Lost' as some Europeans called it. It is noteworthy the Peoples children the Metis did not lose this ancient democratic process that would continued into the later nineteenth century.
Shingabawassin a spokesperson for the Ojibwa is born this year along the St. Mary's River, Michigan where he spent most of his life. He tried during his life time to have a special reservation set up for the Metis or mixed blood Peoples.
The Ojibwa and Metis began to displace the Assiniboine and Cree from the Red River region. It would appear the Assiniboine and Cree began to abandon this area leaving a void.
Article four of the definitive treaty of Paris permitted the inhabitants of Canada, French and others to emigrate and protected their property rights. International law held the principle that laws and civil rights of subjects acquired by conquest or cession continued in force unless repugnant to the Crown's sovereignty. The Fort Mose in Florida is abandoned because the former black slaves who had been free since 1687 knew they would be forced back into slavery by the British.
The English penetrate into the interior to occupy the French Forts.
The Royal proclamation recognized the Great Lakes area as Indian country, that only the State could negotiate for control. The land is occupied until the 1780's by the Anishinabeg (the true men or true human beings) namely the Ojibwa, Ottawa (Odahwaug) and Algonkin, all three Algonquian peoples. The People consider treaties as pacts of friendship and mutual assistance.
A Royal proclamation in Canada says only the Crown can acquire land from the First Nation Peoples.
The council of the Wabash and later the Wendat proclaimed the French never conquered the People nor did they purchase a foot of Indian Country nor have they a right to give it to the English. We gave them liberty to settle for which they always rewarded the People and treated us with great civility while they had it in their power, but as they became your people, if you expect to keep these posts, we expect to have proper returns from you.
The English say they have no use for the Ojibwa. The People go to war for five weeks and the English soldiers and settlers are destroyed. Ninivois (Ninivay) a Potawatomi spokesperson of the Fox People fought with Pontiac in the siege of Fort Detroit.
Kadowaubeda aka Broken Tooth aka DeBreche (1750-1828) of Sandy Lake son Biauswah II, was at the taking of Michilimackinac. He married Obenegeshipequag. His sons were Mongozid (Loons Foot), Kahnindumawinjo/Kanandawawinzo and Suqutaugun and daughters Charlotte who married Charles Oakes Ermitinger, Nancy (Keneesequa) born 1793 married 1822/23 Samuel Ashmun and a daughter who married Hole in the Day. He was principle spokes person at Sandy Lake before 1805. The name DeBreche attributed to him is likely one of his sons as it was used at the signing of treaty in 1837 at Fort Snelling after his death.
The Pontiac War of Resistance included the following besieged Forts:
Sandusky, taken May 16, 1763,
St. Joseph, taken May 25, 1763,
Miami, taken May 27, 1763,
Ouatanon, taken June 1, 1763,
Michilimackinac, taken June 4, 1763,
Presqu' Isle, taken June 15, 1763,
Le Boeuf, taken June 18, 1763,
Venango, taken June 20, 1763,
L'Arbe Croche, abandoned June 21, 1763,
Sault Ste Marie, partly burned,
Ligonier, (Pitt), unsuccessfully attacked,
Detroit, defended.
Niagara, defended.
Eduard Augustus?.
The English say it is a pity to expend men against the Indians and they introduce germ warfare. At Fort Pitt a peace delegation of Indians are given smallpox in gifts of little silver boxes being told it was medicine but not to be opened until they return to their villages. Tens of thousand of Indians are murdered under a flag of truce by the barbaric English. A British Commander justified the action by saying by sending germs instead of soldiers he said he is saving the lives of 'better men'. Traci suggest this reference to a little silver box likely is being confused with an incident six years earlier in 1757, with the Ottowas. The gifts given were "two blankets and an handkerchief out of the smallpox hospital" as stated by William Trent. See 1757. The United States Government, later would deliberately send smallpox-infected blankets to Indians forced to live on reservations, resulting in the deaths of thousands.
The Indian Alliance received acknowledgement that the Indians are owners of the lands.
The Ojibwa Three Fires Alliance of the Ottawa (Odahwaug), Potawatomi, and Saulteaux refused to take sides in what they considered an European conflict. They sent warriors to support Pontiac this year and would support Tecumseh in 1812 but never entered into an European alliance. Had they done so Canada might in fact still be French.
The Europeans burned the Moravian village of Wechquetank northwest of Bethleham, Pennsylvania.
June: After the fall of Fort Michilimackinac an Indian army headed by the Delaware surrounded and demanded surrender of Fort Pitt. The commander, Captain Ecuyler refused but as a gesture of good will distributed smallpox infested blankets to the People. Smallpox raged among the Delaware, Ottawa (Odahwaug) and Ojibwa camps all summer into 1764. The English adopted the French process to maintain the native allies by paying tribute through annual distribution of presents. The boundary lines of Indian Territory are incorporated in the Royal proclamation of October 7, 1763.
1764
Captain Mekiss and his gang killed three English and Four French traders from Montreal demanding a reward from Humphrey Marten Fort Albany for killing those enemies of the Hudson Bay Company. The next season Mekiss killed several more peddlers saying they will not suffer their country to be stole from them. If this be true there must have been justification that was resolved because Mekiss is trading with the French within two years.
Mahoning is a village of Delewares located near Youngstown, Ohio.
Yowani a town of Choctaws near Shubuta, Clarke County, Mississippi were land cleared to Texas and Louisiana to make room for the Americans.
Thomas Hutchins Geographer or Surveyor-General of the United States made an estimate of the fighting men in the Principle Northern and Western tribes of Canada and the United States based on one man for every five Indians.
Algonquins of Ottawa River 300
Canawahrunnas (Iroquois) 200
Wyandots near Lake Erie 300
Nepissings of Ottawa 400
Ottawas of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan 900
Sakies, S. of Green Bay 400
Mechecaukis, south of Green Bay (Fox) 250
Kickapoos of the Wasbash River 300
Mascoutins, south of Green Bay 500
Ouisconsins of that river 550
Six Nations of New York 1,550
Miamis of the Lakes 350
Peanquichas, on the Wabash 250
Ouchtenons of the Wabash 400
Peorias 800
Kaskasquias of Illinois River 600
Delaware Loups of the Ohio 600
Shawanese of the Sioto 500
Mississaugues of Lake Huron and Lake Superior 2,000 also called Messesagues or River Indians
Chippeways (Ojibwa) of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan 5,000
Puans of Green Bay 700 also Folle Avoine or Wild-Oat Indian
Folle Avoines of Green Bay 350
Powtawatamis, St. Joseph and Detroit 350
Scioux (Fond Du Lac Superior, Scioux of the Woods) 1,800
Scioux (of the Prairies) 2,500
Conawaghrunas, near Falls of St. Louis 200
Nipissins, head of the Ottawa River 400
Algonquins, head of the Ottawa River 300
1765
Moses Norton of the Hudson Bay Company complained of the difficulties of getting the far Indians in to trade. The English expected the natives to come to them whereas the French went to the natives. The Americans like to claim that Alexander Henry of New Jersey who had entered into partnership with Cadotte of Sault Ste Marie became the first post war British trader on Lake Superior. He noted the Chippewa of Chagouemig is a handsome well-made people and much more cleanly, as well as much more regular in governing of their families, than the Chippewa of Lake Huron. The women have agreeable features, and take great pains in dressing their hair, that consists in neatly dividing it on the forehead and top of the head and in plaiting and turning it up behind. The clothing of both men and women is dressed deerskin. These Voyagers wintered on Madeline Island.
Some English traders were buying discarded guns from the army, filling the cracks in the barrels with molten lead, and reselling the guns to young Indians. At the first firing the guns exploded, often maiming a hunters hand. One trader Ezra Buell admitted that he kept up a campaign of rumor and slander against the Mohawk for years until the Mohawk left the valley.
The Dakota Sioux withdrew from the Red Lake region. This was after a bloody encounter near the mouth of the Sandy River around Big Stone with the Ojibwa. The Cross Lake (Ponemah) Ojibwa killed nearly the entire Dakota Sioux war party. The Dakota had previously laid in ambush and killed an Ojibwa trapper and wounded another near the mouth of the Battle River and had fled leaving them both for dead.
British officers at Fort Pitt deliberately supply hospital blankets infected with smallpox to cold and starving People of the sovereign nations living in the Ohio Valley after the defeat of Pontiac. The resulting epidemic kills hundreds.
1766
Governor Hugh Pallisar commenting on the Beothuk, our barbarous system of killing prevails amongst our people towards the Natives, whom our people always kill, when they can meet them. Other English blamed the extermination of the Beothuk on the French and the Micmac (Mi'kmaq or Mi'Kmaq). Henley House is rebuilt this year.
William Pink at Prince Albert met the PwSymaWock People who had 16 tents and a great number of horses that were like the SynNapoits that come down to the Bay. These people cannot paddle in canue (canoe).
April: Thirty five ( 35) Ojibwa from Chagouamigon are killed before the Dakota Sioux are driven away. The Ojibwa numbered 400 whereas the Dakota are 600.
1767
Henley House is again attacked by Ojibwa claimed to have been incited by the peddlers but the People are driven off.
1768
Kiasutha a war leader of the Seneca (some say Iroquois) sided with the French against the English. This year he advocated peace with the English and attended meetings at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this year.
Noka (Old Noka) of the bear clan, an Ojibwa of Wisconsin and Michigan led his people against Mdewakanton at Crow Wing, Minnesota this year.
1769
The Franciscan established their first of 21 Spanish missions in California between 1768 and 1823. The first Mission is established called San Diego de Alcala (Saint James) by Father Junipero Serra. The native Yuman People were forced (enslaved) to work at agriculture and were called Dieguenos. The land and herds of sheep were theoretically owned by the Indians but the real control was retained by the Franciscan fathers and the strategy was to indenture the People to the land and the Church as was the practice in Europe.
Gaspar de Portola Spanish expedition recorded a major earthquake 30 miles southeast of Los Angles, California.
The Indian population of California is estimated as one million.
William Tomison reported that the Cree were selling good guns to the Assiniboine for 36 made beaver. The Nor'Westers were charging 20 made beaver and the Hudson Bay Company 10 made beaver. Even half-wore guns sold for 25 made beaver. It would appear the H.B.C. was not aware that the English guns were considered an inferior product seldom lasting a whole season.
July 3: Father Francisco Palou at the famous port of San Diego reported seeing grapes and roses. He said he had seen Indians in great numbers making a good substance on various seeds and by fishing. They treated us on our journey with much confidence and good-will as if they had known us all their lives. He traveled up and down the California coast establishing missions. He was considered as a kind and generous man who opposed prejudice and demanded fair treatment for the Natives.
1770
Most Great Lakes People preferred doing business with the French families, like Cadots (Cadotte) St. Germain and Grignon, who had intermarried with them and had Metis families. Five Algonkin bands settled permanently at Sault Ste Marie living primarily on fish and would be absorbed into the Ojibwa culture.
The plains Ojibwa appear to have been the last People of the prairies to acquire the horse and by this year they are being used. Earlier use may have gone unrecorded. The Ojibwa at this time dominated Northern Minnesota and Northern North Dakota. Few Dakota, except for some hunting and small raiding parties, were seen in these areas for any length of time after this date.
1771
Inland trade from Fort Albany ended this year having been completely replaced by the Montreal peddlers.
1772
A great smallpox epidemic swept the prairies killing most of the people. Unexplained the bison, moose, red and other deer also disappeared in the woods and on the Great Plains. The People at Cumberland House also reported a decline in swans, geese and duck with the gulls no longer frequenting the lakes in previous numbers.
1773
The Potawatomi who speak the Chippewan dialect and lived in Wisconsin and along Lake Huron were after 1812 removed to Iowa and Kansas.
San Antonio a Tigua village attracted several Spanish Missions one being called San Antonio de Valero or better known as the Alamo, Texas. The land was divided this year but not to the Tigua but rather the del Alamo de Parras Company. This was the center of the battle in March 6, 1836 between Mexico and the Americans
Sawanogi was a town of Shawnee and Creek People living along the southern side of the Tallapoosa River in Macon County, Alabama.
The Moravians were moved to Schoenbrunn a former town of the Munsee People located near New Philadelphia, Ohio. In 1782 they were moved to Sandusky, Ohio and this village was burned.
The dumping of tea into Boston Harbor by colonists in American Indian dress to protest British tax policy is a celebrated event in American history. But if it were repeated today, the Boston Tea Party would fall within the FBI's definition of terrorism which includes property destruction as a means of political coercion..
1774
The Quebec Act of 1774 takes a political as well as cultural form ensuring that French Canadians retain the rights to their own religion and civil law that represents a basic long standing and understandable mistrust of the English.
The rebel commander George Washington of Virginia preaches the eradication and land grabs from the Indians. The People called him Conotacarious meaning devourer of villages.
Don Juan Bautista de Anza visits the Imperial Valley of Southern California and the Salton Sea is a dry lake bed. They call it the Valley of the dead.
1775
During the period from 1743 to 1775 some Europeans believed the Cree
Nation culturally and linguistically aligned into four major groups:
Northern Cree
Moose Cree or Monsoni Cree
Swampy Cree or Muscagoe Cree
Plains Cree
The Plains Cree is in transition having originated as Thickwood Cree. The Muscagoe or Swampy Cree occupies the North end of Lake Winnipeg and their culture is becoming dependent on the Hudson Bay Company. Many of their women are taken as concubines by the employees of the Hudson Bay Company because as wives they are forbidden. The Red River Thomas clan is claimed to have originated from this Muscagoe or Swampy Cree Band.
Alexander Henry at Rat Portage refused rum to the Pillager Ojibwa who are descendents of the Awause Ojibwa.
Samuel Hearne at Cumberland Housde was plagued by a shortage of alcohol and trade goods. He said we undersell the Canadians by far in some articles whole our goods last, yet when brandy is out, the Indians leave off trading.
Joseph Brant aka Thayendanegea (1742/43-1807) a war leader of the Mohawk tribe married to Oneida died 1771, visited England 1775-1776 with Guy Johnson to propose an alliance with King George. The People will go to war with the British if King George will promise to safe guard the Peoples lands after the war is over. The King agrees to the terms and conditions to safe guard Indian lands in America.
The Iroquois Oneida and Tuscarora entered into a treat with the Americans this year.
The Iroquois suggested to the English they form a confederacy like their own. They had previously provided the same advice in 1744.
The Spanish Governor of New Mexico complained that the Comanche stole their horses faster than they could be supplied from Spain. He said we ourselves lacked enough horses to pursue them. The horses quickly spread throughout American and the People began the process of selective breeding them to suit their own purposes.
About this year the Muskhogean People of Flordia such as the Yuchi, Upper Creeks and Creeks became known as the Seminole People. Seminole means runaway or Peninsula People.
Shabonee a Potawatomi and nephew of Pontiac was born this year in Illinois and died July 17, 1859.
The Assiniboine who call themselves Nako'ta are scattered along both the North and south Saskatchewan Rivers and the Assiniboine River to the headwaters of these rivers. They are a Siouan speaking peoples. The Rocky Mountain aka Stoney Mountains Assiniboine are commonly known as the Stony Indians.
1776
Alexander Henry the elder noted that despite over a hundred years of trading with the Hudson Bay Company the Assiniboine of the parklands in central Saskatchewan had only one kettle (Hudson Bay Pot) in the whole village. The kettles were highly prized by the Assiniboine but were always in short supply. In one village Henry had the only kettle in the whole camp. The H.B.C. said the reason was they lacked the transportation capabilities to deliver the goods. Common trade goods included knives, beads, flints, steels, awls, and other small articles. Guns, blankets, axes, gun powder and shot were exchanged in much smaller quantities due to an inferior product. The bow and arrow was still considered the prefered weapon of the hunt. When we think of the H.B.C. we think of blankets and kettles but this is is not supported in the trade item of the first 100 years of operation.
The Assiniboine at this time had an abundance of horses for trade.
December: Sergeant Juan Pablo Grijalva at San Francisco observed a savage that ran up and kissed Mara Angela Chumasero, on the mouth, who is the wife of Domingo Alvisa. The filthy beast had actually kissed her. I have seen soldiers take their pleasure with Indian women, but never have I heard of such a thing right before the eyes of our soldiers. The Spanish savages felt they had the right to flog the Indians for minor infractions, of Spanish rule, and to kill them if they resisted. The lash brings reason even if they don't know why they are being flogged. Father Francisco Palou (1722-1789) was saddened and he wept for the atrocities committed by the Spanish against the People. Father Palou was unaware of his role in the atrocities by classifying them as little children, opened the door for flogging for disobedience. The Indian slaves were compelled to do excessive work, handcuffed, imprisoned, and beaten for the most trival offences. Any attempts to obtain freedom by flight, they were hunted down and punished with tenfold vigor. The women and children were used for the pleasure of the Christian soldiers.
1777
John Long at Pays Plat on the north shore of Lake Superior traded with one hundred fifty Ojibwa and the rest are Wasses. North of Lake Nipigon is about three hundred Ojibwa while at Sturgeon Lake lived the Masquash tribe.
Joseph Brant aka Thayendanegea (1742/43-1807) returns to America and finds the Iroquois split. The Iroquois confederation is split among the pro-British, Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca and the pro-American being the Oneida and Tuscarora. The pro-British faction enters into the war.
The Santa Claira Mission is established this year and the Indians who live in the area are called the Santa Clara Indians.
1778
The Assiniboine is using the tar sands for ages to caulk their canoes and this year they showed Peter Pond where the oil is oozing out and how to use it to repair canoes.
The aboriginal people of the Great Lakes had very fine and extensive fields of corn, beans, squash, pumpkin, melon, cucumber, potatoes and other vegetables surrounding their towns. They also had apple and peach orchards, some quite old, indicating a long-standing fruit culture. These accounts are from the diaries of European soldiers. It is this way of life that was entirely destroyed by the advancing Europeans. The European gain is inevitably the Peoples loss. One of the general themes running through early Canadian culture is that every time the People attempted to improve their agriculture practices the European would create new rules to impede their growth. If the People out performed the European then they would have to admit they are more civilized and that is an unacceptable notion.
John Kipling of Gloucester House reported that the Ojibwa Metweash had warred with Natives of Lake St. Ann (Nipigon) and had killed a great number of men women and children. This story is a possible fabrication to impress the English.
The Dakota attacked the Ojibwa at Leech, Cass and Sandy Lakes in Minnesota but were defeated at the mouth of the Crow Wing River.
March 30: James Cook (1728-1779) concluded the Nootka are mild and inoffensive, quick to trade and strictly honest in the process. He concluded they were very keen traders getting as much as they could for everything they had; always asking for more.
In the spring: A party of Shawne captured Daniel Boone of Kentucky and were so proud that they took him to Detroit to show him off. They were offered 100 pounds for his release but they refused and took him to their village at Chillocothe, Ohio. They offered him adoption into the tribe which he accepted but later escaped.
George Washington to ensure the American Indians didn't swing the balance of power in the American Revolution, authorized the first US-Indian treaty, with the Delaware Peoples. Hundreds of treaties followed, but settlers ignored the treaties and continued to steal Indian Lands.
July: George Washington begins an annihilation program against the Iroquois. The English Americans are ordered to burn the Iroquois villages and crops and destroy this troublesome nation.
September: there is not a single village remaining of the four Iroquois nation and they would become yet another group of displaced settlers driven into Canada. Brant warriors fight on for two more years but the tide has turned.
October 11: Satanta a spokesperson of the Kiowa born 1830 committed suicide while in prison having been captured by General Custer. He was known as the Orator of the Plains.
1779
James Cook (1728-1779) landed the Hawaii Islands and named them the Sandwich Islands. He was killed by the Hawaiians.
General George Washington started a genocide war against the American Indians. Washington declared that the immediate objective are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements. The country is not to be merely overrun but destroyed. One of the Cayuga towns destroyed was Chonobote where 1,500 peach trees was cut down. The towns were laid in ashes and a broader extent of country ruined than has ever been the case in the history of America. It is estimated that 160,000 bushels of corn was destroyed.
General Sullivan invaded the Iroquois territory, indiscriminately punishing them by burning crops and destroying villages. These attacks on the hitherto neutral Onondaga and Cayuga brought them over to the Canadian side. Newtown a Seneca village near Elmira, New York is burned by Sullivan. One thousand Iroquois warriors retaliated by burning and pillaging American farms throughout the immense territories between the Ohio and Mohawk rivers. VanSchaick destroyed the neutral Onondaga village forcing them into war. It is reported that VanSchaick shamefully treated his women captives. Generally speaking the Iroquois treated their women captives with more compassion during the war.
Mahusquechikoken a village of Seneca, Delaware and Munsee under Iroquois rule is destroyed by troops of Broadhead. The village was located along the Allegheny River near Venango, Pennsylvania. Middle Town of the Seneca located three miles north of Chemung, Sullivan County, New York is destroyed this year.
Joseph Brant aka Thayendanegea (1742/43-1807) marries Catherine Mohawk.
August 31: Runonvea an Iroquoian town located near Bif Flats, Chemung County, New York was burned by General Sullivan.
August: General Clinton burned Shawiangto a village of the Tuscarora located near Windsor, Broome County, New York.
INDIAN HISTORY Return to INDIAN 1700 - 1999 INDEX