Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1784, 425; Treaty of Fort McIntosh in 1785, 438; Treaty of Fort Finney in 1786, 442. I. Further Particulars of the Eries, Neutrals, and Andastes, IV. The Locality of the Canesadooharie, V. Contemporary Accounts of the Indian Hostilities in 1774, VII. Incidents in the Life of James Dean, VIII. Netawatwes, and other Delaware Chiefs, X. Surrender of the Moravian Tract to the United States, HISTORY OF OHIO. CHAPTER I. THE FATE OF THE ANCIENT ERIES. A PERIOD of two centuries prior to 1850, comprises our knowledge of that region of the American Continent, which is bounded by Lake Erie on the north, and the Ohio River on the south; and even within that brief segment of time, many statements rest upon vague tradition. An attempt to ascend beyond 1650, would involve a profitless discussion of the probable origin of the Indian race. We shall decline the inquiry, whether the lost tribes of Israel yet linger in the aborigines of the American woods; or whether the latter are an off-shoot from the Tartars of Asia; or, abandoning the unitary theory of the race, whether the Creator has not given to the continent of America its peculiar inhabitants. These are ethnological problems, which are aside from the purpose of the present volume. The Ohio of 1650 we assume to have been a forest wilderness, principally occupied by a tribe of Indians, called the ERIES, whose villages skirted the shores of the lake so designated. There is some conflict of opinion, whether the Eries were not confined to the eastern shore of the lake, but the preponderance of authority is in favor of their occupation of the southern shore. Dewitt Clinton, in his celebrated Historical Discourse upon the Indians of North America, speaks of "the nation of the Eries or Erigas on the south side of Lake Erie." Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan friar, whose travels in New France were published in 1698, mentions the return of the Iroquois to their villages, bringing Erie Indians as captives "from beyond the lake." Brant, the distinguished Mohawk chief, in a letter to Timothy Pickering, dated Nov. 20, 1794, alludes to the Eries as "a powerful nation formerly living southward of Buffalo creek." Charlevoix, the historian of New France, may be cited as an authority that the nation of Eries lived where the State of Ohio now is. The recent discovery of ancient earthworks, and two inscriptions in the pictographic character, on Cunningham's Island (now Kelley's Island, a township of Erie county, Ohio), are supposed by Schoolcraft to indicate that the archipelago of islands in the western part of Lake Erie, was one of the strongholds of the tribe.1 1) Kelley's Island has an area of about 3000 acres, and is situated ten miles north of the mouth of Sandusky Bay. It consists of a basis of horizontal limestone, of the species common to Lake Erie, rising about fifteen feet above the water level. The surface, where it is exposed, discloses the polish created by former diluvial or glacial action-a trait which is so remarkable on the rocks of the adjoining shores of Sandusky. This is covered with a fertile limestone soil, and at the earliest period, all, except the old fields, bore a heavy growth of hard wood timber. On the south shore of the Island are two crescent-shaped embankments, apparently intended to inclose and defend villages; (a third circumvallation is situated inland.) One has a front of 400 feet, and the other of 614 feet, on the rocky and precipitous margin of the lake. Within these enclosures have been found stone axes, pipes, perforators, bone fish hooks, net sinkers, and fragments of human bones. In the vicinity is a rock, 32 by 21 feet on the surface, in which a great variety of figures and devices are deeply sunk. The summit of the rock is elevated eleven feet above the water. "It is by far the most extensive and well-sculptured, and well preserved inscription of the antiquarian period, ever found in America. Being on an islet sepa It is generally admitted that the Eries were a member of the Iroquois family, as distinguished from the Algonquin tribes. In 1650, the Iroquois, as the confederated Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas were called by the French, occupied what is now New York and Northern Pennsylvania; the Hurons or Wyandots, and a kindred Neutral Nation, held the peninsula between Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario; the Eries were seated on the southern shore of Lake Erie; while the Andastes possessed the valleys of the Alleghany or Upper Ohio River,—but all were generically Iroquois, speaking dialects of the same lingual stock. The Western tribes were singly more powerful than either of the New York tribes, except perhaps the Senecas; but the Five Nations (afterwards increased to Six by the accession of the Tuscaroras) had formed their celebrated alliance at least as early as 1605, and, by the strength of union, become the terror of their less sagacious neighbors. Before proceeding with our immediate topic-the fortunes of the Eries, Hurons and Andastes-we will briefly classify the other Indian tribes, as they were found by the first discoverers of the continent. rated from the shore, with precipitous sides, it has remained undiscovered till within late years. It is in the pictographic character of the natives. Its leading symbols are readily interpreted. The human figures, the pipes, smoking groups, the presents and other figures, denote tribes, negotiations, crimes, turmoils, which tell a story of thrilling interest, in which the white man or European plays a part. There are many subordinate figures which require study. There are some in which the effects of atmospheric and lake action have destroyed the connection, and others of an anomalous character. The whole inscription is manifestly connected with the occupation of the basin of the lake by the Eries-of the coming of the Wyandots — of the final triumph of the Iroquois, and the flight of the people who have left their name to the lake."-History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian tribes of the United States: by H. R. Schoolcraft, LL.D. Illustrated by S. Eastman, U. S. A. Part second, 86–7. |