The Wild Frontier (29 page)

The Shawano tribe captured a Muskohge (a group of tribes later known as the Creeks) warrior called Old Scrany and prepared for the usual fiery torture. Scrany showed no concern. He told them he was a noted warrior who had gained most of his martial prestige at their expense and was going to show them while dying that he was still their superior as he was in battle. He added he could punish himself more exquisitely than “all their despicable ignorant crowd” could possibly do. He finally said if they would untie him and hand him a red-hot barrel, he would show them. When given the barrel, he seized it, brandished it from side to side, made his way through the crowd, leaped from a very high bank into a stream, and made his escape. “He proved a sharp thorn in their side afterwards to the day of his death.”
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The Shawano also captured the warrior Anantooeah. He appeared to be as unconcerned as Old Scrany. And like Scrany he stated that they did not know how to punish a noted enemy, but he was willing to teach them if they would give him a pipe and tobacco. He then lit the pipe and sat down naked with no apparent concern on the women’s burning torches. A Shawano head warrior stood up, said it was plain Anantooeah was not afraid of dying, and he would not have died except that he was now spoiled by the fire. “And then by way of favour,” commented Loudon, “he with his friendly tomahawk, instantly put an end to all his pains.”
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The Seneca were at war with the Catawbas. Seven Seneca warriors surprised a Catawba warrior who was hunting. He ran to a hollow rock he knew 4 or 5 miles away. While he was running, however, he managed to kill the 7 with his rifle. But he was captured by others and taken to the Seneca village for the fire torture. The women and children beat him severely at each town through which he passed. As he was being taken to the stake, he broke away, dived into a nearby river, and swam underwater until he reached the other shore. He climbed the steep bank on the other side. Many Seneca were in the water after him, many on land in pursuit of him, bullets were flying all around him, yet, Loudon reported, “his heart did not allow him to leave them abruptly, without taking leave in a formal manner…. He first turned his backside toward them, and slapped it with his hand … and darted off.” He ran for 2 days, pursued by several Seneca. He then discovered 5 of the pursuing Seneca and waited until they were asleep. He took one of their tomahawks and killed them all. “He chopped them to pieces, in as horrid a manner as savage fury could excite, both through national and personal resentment,
—he stripped off their scalps … [and] set off afresh with a light heart.” He went to the place where he had killed the first 7 Seneca, “digged them up, scalped them, burned their bodies to ashes, and went home in safety with singular triumph.” The Seneca met in war council and decided to leave him alone.
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The Chickasaw had also been at war with the Muskohge. A Chickasaw warrior went into Muskohge territory alone to revenge the death of a relative. He concealed himself for almost 3 days under the top of a fallen pine tree. He could see the ford of a river where the Muskohge sometimes passed. A Muskohge young man, woman, and girl came by. The warrior shot the young man, tomahawked the other 2, then scalped all 3 in full view of a Muskohge town. He was pursued and ran back to his tribe, a distance of 300 miles, in less than 3 days.
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Elizabeth Blackwell was found by Indians with badly frozen legs in the mountains. They nursed her, and after her legs were amputated in the east, she returned to the tribe. Another woman who had been captured from a train was brought on horseback into the Indian camp. When an Indian attempted to lift her from the horse, she shot him. The Indians cut her body in gashes, filled them with powder, then set fire to her. Blackwell was so distressed by the woman’s suffering that she asked them to kill the woman immediately, and they did.
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N
OT LONG
after the Revolution, Britain and France were at war again, this time in the War of 1812. In the years leading up to the Americans’ involvement in the war, they furnished the French with a vast quantity of military supplies; as a consequence, Britain started seizing ships headed for France. Congress prohibited the importation of many goods from Britain. The Embargo Act of 1807 ended all trade with foreign countries. Merchants persuaded Jefferson to end the act as it applied to all countries except Britain and France.
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Napoleon persuaded Madison to remove the embargo on France but retain it against Britain. There were skirmishes on the high seas between American and British ships. At the same time, expansion by settlers into the Northwest Territory, according to Douglas Brinkley, “sparked ominous Indian uprisings.” Hawks demanded preparation for a new war, and on June 1, 1812, Madison asked Congress to declare war on Britain.
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The Creek Red Sticks prepared for war against the settlers in 1813, said James Wilson, by chanting, “War now. War forever. War upon the living. War upon the dead; dig up their corpses from the grave; our country must give no rest to a white man’s bones.”
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The British burned Washington in 1814, but later that year the American navy won a decisive victory over the British on Lake Champlain; this defeat so upset the British that they retreated to Canada. A peace treaty was entered into later the same year at Ghent in Belgium.
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The War of 1812 was uncommonly important because after the peace treaty was signed, General Andrew Jackson
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—unaware of the treaty—fought and won the Battle of New Orleans. A makeup army composed of Tennessee and Kentucky riflemen, free blacks, and various other irregulars kept firing on advancing British troops. The British suffered 2,037 casualties, while Jackson had only 21. Jackson became a national hero and later became president. He had a great influence on American Indian policy. The war also proved that the Revolution had been no fluke—once again, Americans had managed to defeat Europe’s best army.
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During the first year of the war, Fort Dearborn (now Chicago) surrendered. When the troops and civilians left the fort, the Potawatomi Indians struck. A total of 35 whites were killed, many by torture.
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That same year, British colonel Henry Proctor had besieged Fort Meigs on the Maumee River with Tecumseh and his men. The fort was relieved by men from nearby Fort Defiance, so Proctor pulled back into Canada, although Tecumseh wanted to stay and fight. On the way to Canada, Tecumseh’s men scalped 20 prisoners Proctor had taken.
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(Wilson claimed that Tecumseh also scrupulously avoided unnecessary killing.
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How it can be said that the 1788 revenge atrocity on Drake Creek and this atrocity were necessary is difficult to explain.)

Many lives were lost when hundreds of settlers took shelter in Fort Mims because of earlier Indian depredations. The fort was really the fortified home of Samuel Mims, a Creek half-breed. In 1813, about 1,000 Red Stick Creeks under Red Eagle attacked the fort. The commander, Major Daniel Beasley, had ignored warnings given by black slaves that there were Indians nearby and had left the gates open. The fort was taken. About 400 settlers were massacred; only 36 escaped.
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Soldiers themselves were not above such behavior. A scout for Andrew Jackson in 1813 in the Creek War, the famous Davy Crockett, bragged in his autobiography that in one skirmish against the Indians,
“we shot them like dogs; and then set the house on fire, and burned it up with the 46 warriors in it.”
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In 1813, William Wells, the chief federal Indian agent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, intercepted a British message about a troop movement. He thought he could help, so he collected 30 Miami warriors and started out. His force was attacked by Potawatomi. His 30 Miami fled except for those who joined the Potawatomi. Wells killed at least 2 Indians, then was cut apart. The Potawatomi took out his heart and ate pieces of it while it was still warm. His head was cut off, put on a spear, and shown to American prisoners.
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Early on in the war, in 1813, British and Indians occupied the village of Frenchtown (now Monroe, Michigan) on the Raisin River. Kentucky militiaman Private Elias Darnell described the battle there. He kept a journal that was published shortly after his captivity was ended.
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The militia formed the line of battle and advanced on the town, which they soon took. Twelve Indians were slain and scalped. The next day, a militia party went out to bring in the soldier dead. All but one had been scalped and stripped. The British were reinforced. American commanding general Winchester was captured and surrendered the entire American army. The new American commander, Major Madison, would not agree to capitulate until British colonel Proctor promised that prisoners would be protected from Indians and the wounded taken care of. An Indian who spoke English said his company had gone after retreating militiamen, who surrendered, gave up their guns, and pleaded for quarter, but most of them were killed because the Indians tomahawked them without distinction.
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Darnell was helping take care of the American wounded, who included his brother Allen, when Indians rushed in, took the blankets and best clothes, and ordered them out. The Indians then burned the houses where the wounded had been, even though it was January. Those who were unable to get out were burned to death. Those who did get out were shot, tomahawked, scalped, and mangled by the Indians. A number of prisoners were marched toward the town of Maiden but were unable to keep up and were massacred by the Indians. The next day, the road was strewn for miles with bodies. Darnell marched with the Indians. Two wounded fell behind. The Indians shot and scalped one. The other ran up to them and begged that he not be shot, but he was shot and scalped. Darnell’s brother Allen was also killed for lagging behind.
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The Indian who had charge of Darnell decided to befriend him. He gave him food, a knapsack, and a gun and offered him a female Indian
and shelter. The third night, while the Indian was asleep, Darnell escaped and went to Fort Maiden, which was east of the Detroit River. He found the house where American prisoners were held by the British and entered it, feeling that “Providence had smiled on my attempt to extricate myself from the Indians.”
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There had been 960 Kentucky militia at the Raisin River. No less than 850 of them were massacred. Only 33 escaped alive. This “served to arouse American anger and resolve.” Bil Gilbert concluded that

The Battle of Fort Meigs in 1813 in central Ohio followed the pattern of the Raisin River Massacre. Indians under Tecumseh captured several prisoners. Just as had happened at Raisin River 4 months earlier, the Indians began massacring the prisoners. Tecumseh learned of this, galloped to the stockade, and physically drove the Indians from the prisoners. Forty had been killed before he got there. Because of this incident, the settlers started thinking of Tecumseh as the Noblest Savage.
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Tecumseh was never seen alive after the 1813 Battle of the Thames. There was speculation that a corpse that was found was his, but 6 people who had known him could not make a positive identification at the time. Many rumors and stories arose later. One was that troopers took pieces of his skin for souvenirs, but it is not known if this is true.
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A
TROCITIES CONTINUED
after the war ended. A band of the Pawnee tribe
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had a ritual. A war party would go into enemy country, where it would kill and scalp, but the purpose of the raid was to bring back an adolescent girl unharmed. She was treated like a queen, with her every

wish fulfilled for a time. Then a scaffold was erected, she climbed upon it with hands and feet bound, a priest would rush upon her, cut out her heart, and offer it to the gods. (Another version says 3 priests would murder her using a torch, an arrow, and a knife, then every male would shoot arrows into her body, which was left where she was killed to fertilize the earth.)
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One year, when a young Comanche girl was to be sacrificed, a future chief named Petalesharo grabbed her before she was led to the scaffold and rode away with her. After he got her back to her people, he returned to his tribe. It was decided to discontinue the ritual after that.
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N
OT ALL
atrocities occurred on the frontier. Some happened after statehood had been attained. Indiana became a state in 1816, but in 1824 on Fall Creek, near Indianapolis, 9 friendly Indians (Miami and Seneca) were murdered. The settler murderers were caught, and goods were given to the victims’ families by the Indian agent by way of reparation. Indiana governor Thomas A. Hendricks argued for quick prosecution to try to convince the Indians that the government did not countenance the crime, and the secretary of war and the commissioner of Indian affairs both supported prosecution of the case. All the defendants were tried (the bloody shirts of the Indians were literally waved in the courtroom) and convicted. One later escaped from jail, one convinced the judge that his father was responsible for his attending the murders, and the rest were hanged.
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