WHITE RIVER, INDIANA
“The ultimate emigration of the Brothertown Indians to another location in the far West was foreseen by Samson Occom before his death. He looked about him on the beautiful hills and valleys of the Oneidas, and with prophetic gaze saw them thickly peopled by the whites. Doubtless he had many conversations on the subject with his friends, and prominent among them was Hendrick Aupaumut, the chief of the Stockbridge tribe. He it was who became the forerunner of the New York Indians in their subsequent removal westward.”[2]
In the diary of Samson Occom Captain Hendrick is mentioned many times. Occom held services one week with the Brothertown Indians at David Fowler’s house and the next week with the Stockbridge Indians at Captain Hendrick’s. As the Rev. Occum did not speak the Muh-he-con-nuk language, he received valuable assistance from Captain Hendrick, who translated his sermons to those that did not understand Occum.
Among the many entries mentioned in the diary are, “Wednesday, Nov., 9, 1785. Breakfasted with Cap’ Hendrick & Soon after Eating, I Sot off for Home….” [3] “Saturday, Nov., 4, 1786. Put up at Cap’ Hendrick’s in the Evening we had a meeting….” [4] “Thursday, July 12, 1788. Put up with Captain Hendrick and lodged.” “Sabb. , July 15, 1787. …after meeting went back to my lodgings and Just before Sun Set went to meeting again, and Cap’ Hendrick and Peter Peet (Pauquunnuppeet) rehearsed in the Indian language the Discourses I delivered in the Day, because many of the People Coud not readyly understand, What I Deliverd in English, and in the Evening went back to Cap’ Hs…”[5]
Captain Hendrick Aupaumut was born about 1757. He came from a long line of chiefs, as Cutting Marsh states it, “He was the head chief of the nation and was a descendant of the royal family of chiefs.” [6] He received his education in the Stockbridge, Massachusetts school established by the elder John Sergeant. He enlisted on June 23, 1775, in the first company of Indians under Captain William Goodrich. Later, he was serving as a Lieutenant for Captain Ninham’s company of Indians. By 1778 he had the rank of Captain and the attention of General George Washington.
During the Revolutionary War, the Six Nations in New York, were divided, with some siding with the British and many of the western tribes also sided with the British. After the war, it was thought that the Stockbridge and Oneida, sitting in the Delaware councils “might allay the passions of these hostile tribes by holding councils and making treaties with them. Captain Hendrick, chief of his tribe, who had taken such a prominent part in the War of the revolution, was brought to the attention of the authorities as a suitable envoy or ambassador to these hostile Indians. We find Secretary of War Knox writing to the Rev. Samuel Kirkland on March 11, 1791:
“I have just received your letter of the 22nd of May, for which I sincerely thank you. I highly approve of Captain Hendrick being employed, and will make good any reasonable allowance to him for his services. Let him call on Col. Pickering of Wyoming, who will furnish him with clothing and necessaries for the purpose. I shall be glad to hear you have pushed forward Captain Hendrick and Chief Peter.”
So early as the year 1791, this chief, accompanied by several of his nation and Good Peter, the aged father of the faith among the Oneidas, went on a mission for the government. They held a treaty with the chiefs of the Six Nations at Newtown, N.Y., June 27, 1791, and then proceeded west. General St. Clair, in a letter dated Aug. 4, 1791, says, “Hendrick Aupaumut has gone to the Miamis from Col. Pickering. For measures taken for his safety, see my orders to the officiers commanding at the outposts, and a proclamation to the inhabitants.” At this time the hostile Indians would not listen to the proposals presented. The next spring, however, negotiations began again. The Rev. Cutting Marsh in a letter to Indian Agent Col. George Boyd, written from Statesburg (now South Kaukauna, WI) recounts many incidents in connection with Captain Hendrick’s life. Letter dated Aug. 23, 1838, “Of his singular adroitness, an instance may be mentioned (in connection with his many trips to the hostile Indians on behalf of the United States). When he arrived among the Indians he told them of his errand. They wished time for consultation, etc. There were three British officiers around, who were stirring up the Indians to make war upon the frontier settlers, and were suspected by Captain Hendrick of using their influence to thwart his purposes. The Indians replied, “You say that you are our friends; we are glad and hope that you are, and, if so, we want you to go out with us and help destroy these white people (Americans) who live near us and are intruding upon our lands, and then we shall know that you are friends indeed. Captain Hendrick replied, “We are your friends, and are willing to help you all we can, but the path is very long in which we have come, our feet are sore, now if you will go and cut off those troublesome intruders at a distance, we, in the meantime, will kill those that are about here’ (Meaning the British officers.) The next morning not a British officier was to be seen about, for every one had absconded during the night.”[7]
The ostensible purpose of his journeys to the western Indians was to quell the hostile Indians and to introduce Christianity among them; but he seems also to have done some prospecting, with a view of locating a large tract of land on the White river, now in Indiana, which was, many years before, given to the Stockbridge tribe by a treaty with the Miami Indians.[8] He hoped to move his people from New York state to the region where they might finally live in peace.
A council was held there in 1802 with the Delawares who had removed there, Hendrick Aupaumet led the Stockbridge delegation.[9] A friendly compact was then made between them. For two years thereafter Captain Hendrick was engaged in perfecting this relationship in behalf of the Oneidas and their wards, the Indians of New Stockbridge and Brothertown, [10] who, for a time after their removal to New York, had been so closely united under Occom’s pastorate as to form one church.
In December, 1808, Captain Hendrick was in Washington accompanied by a number of the chiefs of the western Indians, and at this time President Jefferson confirmed the matter of the grant of land to the Stockbridge Indians by the Miamis.
The Miamis invited the Stockbridge and Delaware “to come and dwell with them in their Western home.”[11] The invitation had been extended by the Delawares, whom, “after an Indian fashion, the Stockbridges called their grandfathers.”[12]
Stockbridge letter to "Esq. Tuchy and other Peace Makers and
Chiefs of the Brothertown Indians," July 8, 1808: "The Brothertown Indian chiefs in behalf
of their Tribe to the Stockbridge Indians Due, to 4400 mostly blue wampum to
make and compleat a large belt sent in May last to Capt. Hendrick by Jacob Tonk
and others to be delivered by said Hendrick in a speech to the west Indians,
the purport of which will be to form a union with the Stockbridge Indians to
consult the peace, friendship and happiness of said western Indians, and to
confirm a gift of said western Indians of a large country of land to the
Stockbridge and Brother Indians, to be thereafter confirmed by the general
government." Ask for #21 for the
wampum. Signed Joseph Shauquethqueat,
Solom Q. Hendrick and Bartholomew Calvin.
-attached note from Brothertown Peacemakers (John Tooky, John Skeesuck,
and Samuel Scipio) to Brothertown Superintendants to pay the same. Notes that the meeting with western Indians
at White River took place last May.[13]
By a vote of the town on April 4, 1809,
the Brothertown Indians appointed John Tuhie, Sr., John Scheesuch [Skeesuck],
Sr., Henry Cuship, and Jacob Fowler as delegates to communicate with the
Delawares.[14] The Brothertown appointees delivered the
following speech on July 3, 1809, which was read in the town meeting:
Speech of the said delegates, July
3, 1809, to the Delawares, and the rest of the Wawponohkies, as follows:
"BROTHERS - We sent our salutation to you last
year, with a promise that we would pay you a visit, we are very glad that the
Good Spirit has enabled us to sit with you at this council-fire today.
"BROTHERS: - Our ancestors and your forefathers were in friendship with
each other, but the covenant which they have made with your forefathers has
been forgotten by us. Nevertheless, when we heard you were in trouble, we were
sorry, and when you were promoting peace among yourselves and your neighbors,
we rejoiced.
"BROTHERS: - Our forefathers have had the same fate your ancestors have
met with, they have had a long war with the white people. Our people were then
numerous, but after many years of storm or war, they made peace, then they
found their numbers much lessened, and the white people possessed of their
native country, as they have done to your forefathers, and for that reason we
have had to move from place to place, as you have also done.
"BROTHERS: - Although we live a great distance from you and in among the
white people, ever since we were in being, still we feel our minds drawn
towards people of our own color.
"BROTHERS: - We now take hold of your hand, to renew that friendship which
subsisted between our ancestors and yours, which has been forgotten for a great
length of time, this friendship is extended to the whole of the confederacy, on
our part we shall teach our children how to maintain this friendship, that it
may last to the latest of our generations.
"BROTHERS: - We take your council-fire to be the front door at which we
should enter at first, and here we put down our talk and request you to
communicate the same to the whole of the confederacy.
(One belt of wampum delivered.)
"BROTHERS :- As you have a sad experience for many years past, you
understand well what poverty is, therefore, we now lay our case before you, as
we have not land enough to contain all our people in the east, we should feel
happy if you would consider us: May the Great Good Spirit enable us to keep
this friendship always bright." [15]
(Delivered a white belt of wampum, with three black streaks on it, containing
ten rows of wampum.)
Answer to the above:- White River, July 3, 1809
"At a General Council held by the Wawponohkies (to wit) :-Delawares,
Mohiconick, Monssy, Wescoopsey, and Nanticoke Nations, at which time Working
Pomseon, a principal chief of the Delaware Nation, delivered a speech to the
deputies of the four towns which stand on the banks of the Grand River and
River De Trench, also to the Mohekons, and the remnant of the seven tribes of
Indians who reside at Brothertown, in the State of New York, as follows:- [16]
"GRAND-CHILDREN, BROTHERS, AND FRIENDS: - I am
happy to see you. I salute you all. It is a happy thing that we are met
together so many of us, the remnant of the Wawponohkies, to deliberate upon the
welfare of our respective tribes."
"Grand-children: - While we were sitting by the side of this river, in a
dismal situation, about twelve months ago, our grand-children, the chiefs and
head warriors of the Miamies, arrived and sat where you now sit, and we were
sitting where we now are, our business with them was to settle the difficulties
which did arise on account of this land."
"Grand-children :- With great satisfaction I now mention to you that last
fall the Miamies and ourselves have removed all cause of uneasiness, and we
have had a confirmation by the President of the United States, whereby we are
assured we may live on these lands without molestation."
"Grand-children Brothers, and Friends: - Be it known to you that you have
the same privilege as we have to this land, we can not point out a particular
spot for to live on, but you may take your own choice wherever you should be
suited on undivided land along this river, there you may build your
fire-place."
"Grand-children, Brothers, and Friends: - All our chiefs, head warriors,
and young men send their salutations to your chiefs, heroes, and young men: Be
it known then that our union is full and complete, and established to-day;
therefore, let your eyes be fixed on this place, that your minds may not be
fluctuating as heretofore, but easy and settled. This speech is to you all, as
we have become one people."
(Different strings of wampum delivered. Two strings of white wampum to the
Brothertown people.)[17]
The Brothertown leadership sent the following responsive correspondence to the Delaware on June 6, 1811, accepting their offer of land and setting forth their plan to move to land on the White River in 1812.
To the tribes Composing the Confederation of the wit (i.e.) Dellawars, Mohiconick, Monsey, Wsoopsey & Nanticoky Nations.
Fathers, Brothers & friends: We are sorry that we can not
go & see you and talk to you face to face this Spring but it is so with us
at this time that we can not see you this Spring – therefore we sent
send you our talk and the sentiments of our hearts to you on paper by
our Brothers, the Muhheconiks –
Fathers & Brothers: We rejoice to hear in our
hearts to hear that the clouds of misunderstanding between the Delewares &
Miami’s have been blown away and that they enjoy the clear sky & sunshine
of peace & friendship to set in –
Fathers & Brothers – Though the path is so long between us and you, and the many sufferings we have - we hope to see you again and talk to you face to face.
Fathers & Brothers – By the help of the great & good spirit we expect either next fall or in spring that some of our Chiefs and young men will go to see you again and smoke the pipe of peace with you.
Brothers – We thank you for good offers you have been pleased to make us of the privoledg [sic] of having lands in your country for us to live upon and we expect in the course of this face or in the offering to with your consent to make choise [sic] of a spot to build our fire place.
Grand Fathers & Brothers – The Chiefs head men & young men of the seven tribes, to wit, Mohegans, Farmingtown, Montock, Pequot, Stonington, Narraganset and Nehanticks now inhabiting the town of Brothertown send this salutation to the Chiefs head warriors and young men of the Confederation of the West.
Fathers Brothers & friends may. We hope that the great & good spirit will enable us to better strengthen the chain of friendship that we may become the children of one man –
In behalf of the above named Nations, we here unto set our hands at Brothertown this 16 June 1811.[18]
For three years previous to 1808, Tecumseh and his twin brother, called the Prophet, had been traveling among the Indians from Florida to Canada, preaching the doctrine of an Indian Empire, the formation of one great Indian Confederacy to oppose and destroy the whites. The prophet had in 1808 established himself at Tippecanoe, in the Indiana Territory. General Wm. Harrison, who was the governor of the Indiana Territory and Superintendant of Indian Affairs, held councils and negotiated treaties with neighboring tribes in hopes of dissuading them from joining Tecumseh. Finally the Battle of Tippecanoe was fought on November 7, 1811. The Prophet was given a crushing defeat and his village burned to the ground.
The War of 1812 soon followed The war once again deterred our ancestors from moving to White River and some of the Brothertown men, along with the Stockbridge, enlisted in the United States service. On the conclusion of peace, efforts were resumed to remove the Stockbridge and Brothertown to White river country. The Brothertown voted, on January 13, 1817, for five representatives to go to the White River area “in pursuit of a tract of land sought for by their (our) delegates sent there in the year 1809, and to get a title to it.”.[19] On May 31, 1817, the five Brothertown representatives and their attorney, agent, and captain made sail for their journey by boat from Oneida Creek at Deansboro, New York to White River, Indiana.
The boat crew consisted of chiefs and leading men of the Brothertown tribes, as follows: Paul Dick, Jacob Dick, Thomas Isaacs, Charles Isaacs, and Rudolphus Fowler. There were also two Indian women aboard, Sarah Dick and Betsy Isaacs, wives of chiefs. The only white person in the company was Thomas Dean, their attorney, agent, and captain, then only 34 years old. [20]
The Stockbridge tribe also were preparing to remove. Two families went in 1817 and more the next season. On the twenty-fourth of July, 1818, Rev. John Sergeant assembled the tribe in anticipation of this pilgrimage. The old church then dismissed and formed into a new body eleven of their number, for whom he transcribed the Confession of Faith and Covenant in English, adding in their own language a Covenant especially adapted to their circumstances.[21] On the fifteenth of August following, some having gone and more than being ready to depart, another meeting was held, at which the chief, Hendrick Aupaumut, in a “large speech” presented to them from the old church a copy of Scott’s Bible “to read on Lord’s Days and at other religious meetings.” So they said farewell, and were gone to return no more.
Jedidiah Morse acting as government agent for Indian welfare was very anxious to have Captain Hendrick go with him to assist in further negotiations for their removals. The Rev. John Sergeant wrote Morse on June 28, 1818, as follows, -“I should be unwilling to have Captain Hendrick go next spring to assist you in your plan, if it could be avoided, as I fear the tribe will go to destruction without him, he grows old.”
Some Brothertown families went with this latter company, which soon overtook the first. Among them were Elder Isaac Wauby and some of his followers, and Samson Occom, a grandson of the minister. Pually Fowler, having married Timothy Jordan of the Stockbridge, traveled west with her husband’s tribe.
(The area where the Union Mission Church was located would be near the meeting of three rivers; the Wabash, Patoka and White River. Today the actual settlement area would be in the middle of the bridge going across to Mount Carmel, Illinois.)
The White river pilgrimage proved a failure. Before all Brothertown representatives arrived in the White River territory, the United States government and the Delaware Tribe negotiated a treaty by which the Delaware surrendered their land. The most significant and far-reaching treaties were those negotiated in September and October of 1818 at St. Mary's, Ohio. [22] Commissioners signed these pacts with the Potawatomies, Weas, Delawares, and Miamis. In essence, the agreements provided for the complete cession of the middle third of Indiana in return for compensations, annuities, and some individual land grants. Only in the cases of the Miamis and the Weas did the treaties specify land grants to the tribes; in the case of the Delawares, the government promised specific western territories and allowed the Indians to remain on their present lands until 1821. Most of the Delawares left Indiana between 1818 and 1821 after ceding their lands in the Treaty of St. Mary's (Ohio). It was estimated that the White River Delaware numbered 800 people at the time of their removal to present-day Kansas and Oklahoma.
The land ceded the Stockbridge Nation by the Miamis was also taken by the government. On learning of the failure of their plans, the Stockbridge, Brothertown and Oneida, immediately sent emissaries to Green Bay, then in Michigan Territory, to negotiate the purchase of a tract of land from the Menominee Indians. They made an inital purchase of a tract of land consisting of six thousand acres, beginning at the foot of the Kaukauna rapids on the east or south side of the Fox river extending up to Little Chute and back in the country for two and a half miles. There was a clause in the sale allowing the Indians three years to remove from Indiana, some Indians stayed there those three years, then made their way in 1822 to Kaukauna, others tried to go back to New York.
Thomas Isaacs, Charles Isaacs, and Betsy Isaacs moved west with the Delaware to Indian Territory near Kansas and Oklahoma.[23] Rhodolphus Fowler, Paul Dick, Jacob Dick, Sarah Dick, and Thomas Dean (attorney and agent of the Brothertown Tribe, who also acted for the Stockbridge and Oneida tribes)[24] returned by schooner to Buffalo, New York and then traveled to Brothertown.[25] Many Stockbridge continued on west, along with some of the Brothertown, first spending several years in Indiana, penniless and near starvation. Immediately after the conclusion of the treaty of 1821, with the Menominee tribe in Michigan Territory, the remnant began their wearisome trek to Green Bay to join the main party, who had made preparations to leave their New York homes. They had only Indian trails to follow, large streams to cross, and scarcely enough food to last them on their way. In 1822 they arrived at Kaukauna. Albert G. Ellis wrote, “the small immigrant party of some 50 Stockbridges which came on this year, located late in the fall at Grand Kakalin.” Sickness had wasted their numbers. Elder Wauby and others had died. .Thus after 4 years of disappointments and hardship they had at last arrived at a place they could call home.
A teacher, in a school in the town of Howard, Brown County, Wisconsin, wrote the following letter, in the John C. Adams papers at the Wisconsin Historical Society.
“(I was) teaching school in the town of Howard, Brown County, when over one hundred of these Indians passed on the highway and such a miserable looking (?) to behold. They seemed poverty stricken, and most of them, destitute of clothing, hardly covering their body. It was between ten or eleven o’clock forenoon when passing the schoolhouse, so I stepped out and spoke to them, and found that they could speak English quite well, better than the average Indian tribes. I ask them, where they came from, they told me they came from the East, from what part they would not tell. Then they asked me how far the Stockbridge and Brothertown settlements was. I told them, sixty or seventy miles in Calumet Co. I asked them if they were connected with those tribes, they answered they had met with them often in the Eastern States. After this talk started they pursued their course due west. They found the settlement after, as I heard. They did not sojourn there long. Went west and know not where. That is the last I ever seen or heard of the Munsey Indians. I am sorry that my information is meager.”
On another sheet of paper, same handwriting was a note with the following information:
“In regard to the Delaware Indians hoping you will be able to obtain the right information from some one residing at or near Fond du Lac or Brown County. I will ever be at your service where required. More Anon. You will please notice, in my narrative taken when at my place, that I inadvertently omitted to state to you that in the year 1848-49 I taught school in the town of Howard, Brown Co. for nearly two years. P.P. Pierre.
These were a Band of Muncee Indians living in Canada who probably walked the same trail the Brothertown and Stockbridge stragglers had walked from White river.
After returning to New York, several Brothertown members petitioned President James Monroe, the Senate, and House of Representatives for reimbursement for the money they expended in procuring the land promised by the Delaware in Indiana.[26]