Newsgroups: freenet.shrine.songs
\nFrom: aa300 (Jerry Murphy)
\nSubject: History of Ohio Natives
\nDate: Wed, 24 Jan 90 15:34:46 EST<\/p>\n
NATIVE AMERICANS OF THE OHIO VALLEY<\/p>\n
Traditionally, our studies of the history of an area go back only to that point
\nin time when it was settled by the immigrants who came over from Europe, or the
\nmovement inland by their descendants.<\/p>\n
A large part of this is due to the lack of a written language by the former
\nowners of the land in the area, or by purely racial bigotry. But the North
\nAmerican continent has been inhabited and “settled” for several centuries by
\ngroups of people Christopher Columbus mistakenly labeled as ‘Indians’, thinking
\nhe had reached India. <\/p>\n
In fact, the natives of this continent have been here so long, they have evolved
\ninto several dozens of completely different people, sharing dozens of different
\nlanguages, traditions, ways of life, and even physical characteristics. Numerous
\nlarge volumes have been written about the various Native Americans, but this
\nbrief story will center on those who lived and worked in the same area as the
\nCleveland Free-Net, the first system of public access computing of many, we
\nhope.<\/p>\n
Many centuries ago, most of this continent was under the influence of the ice
\ncap which covered the area. A person could walk on the ice all the way from
\ncentral Asia, across what we now know as the Bering Sea, and all across the top
\nhalf of North America; in fact, many did. They propagated not only east to the
\nAtlantic, but southwards as well, eventually peopling the whole hemisphere.
\nBefore the age of rapid travel and instant communications, many of these groups
\nof people must have shared common roots, as evidenced by so many similarities
\nin their ways of life, their deities, some of their languages, etc. The Inuit
\npeople speak a common language all across the top half of the continent, from
\nAlaska to Greenland, even today. Further south, languages and most traditions
\nand ways of life adapted to the territory in which they found themselves,
\nusually pursuing food or escaping their enemies.<\/p>\n
What little we know of the earliest people of the area comes from the few things
\nwe have found that they left behind, principally in their graves. Only a very
\nfew have been found, and it is difficult to gain a true perspective from such
\nlimited sources. “Ohio’s Prehistoric Peoples”, written by Martha A. Potter, and
\npublished by the Ohio Historical Society in 1968, gives us some insight into the
\nearliest time periods. The book includes drawings which compare their arrow
\nheads, tools, pipes, and other artifacts.<\/p>\n
The very earliest time period in which it is possible to identify inhabitants of
\nthe Ohio valley is that between 9000 and 6000 BC, when the Paleo-Indian people
\nwere here. All we know about them is that they used a fluted-edge tool made of
\nflint in their hunting and gathering. The ice cap had ‘just’ retreated, and
\nanimals had likely moved back into the area some 11,000 years ago. The Archaic
\npeople were the next we can identify, between 6000 and 1500 BC. In addition to
\nflint tools, they used primitive stone tools. Perhaps they started fishing in
\nthe great lake. The Glacial Kame people came along next, probably descendents
\nof the earlier peoples. They were the first to use copper for making tools and
\njewelry, 2500 – 1000 BC; notice the overlap in time frames. All of this is
\nbased on just a few graves that have been found.<\/p>\n
Carbon dating of the few materials which survived that far back allow iden-
\ntification of the Adena people, 1000 BC – 700 AD. They were the first farmers
\nin the area, and built huts in settlements. They also built the earliest
\nmounds, including the Serpent. Again an overlap; the people first found on the
\nHopewell Farm in Ross County lived here between 300 BC and 700 AD. They not
\nonly built mounds, but heroic-proportioned earthen works, and are known as the
\nHopewells. Next came the Cole people, named for the finding on the Walter S.
\nCole site in Delaware County, who lived there between 800 – 1300 AD. Each
\nof these peoples probably evolved from the other as time went by. There are
\ndifferences in the artifacts they left behind, as well as differences in
\nlocations and types of burials; hence the differences in name. Part of the
\nevolutionary cycle was likely due to changes in the atmosphere which led to
\ndifferences in vegetation and animal life, not to mention the evolution in
\nfinding and utilizing raw materials for tools, shelter and clothing. We come to
\nthe last of these pre-historic peoples in the time frame of 1000 – 1654 AD; in
\nsouthern Ohio we had the Fort Ancients, and in the north we had the Eries.
\nThese were the first who apparently used the bow and arrow in this area. <\/p>\n
All of these various peoples used flint in their spearheads and other tools.
\nWhile there was a large supply of flint in Coshocton County, the more famous
\nflint came from Flint Ridge in Licking and Muskingum Counties; this flint was of
\na higher quality, and had various colors. But not all of the flint was found
\nhere in Ohio; some came from across the lake in Ontario, as we shall soon see.
\nNow we come to the historic period. We come to the time period of the 15th –
\n17th centuries, where there are some reasonable records and artifacts. Large
\nnumbers of Native Americans inhabited the entire eastern seaboard, the Saint
\nLawrence valley, the Great Lakes area, and all points south and west. Principal
\nvillages were close to sources of drinking water, and near land that could be
\ncleared, tilled and planted, as well as near the areas where animals that
\nprovided food and skins could be located. They had to compete with one another
\nfor these various necessities, and tribal warfare was not uncommon. When they
\ndefeated an enemy tribe, they frequently tortured, killed or maimed most of the
\nmembers of the defeated group. But it was not uncommon for them to adopt some
\nof the defeated people as their own, either for chattels or for mates; they were
\nwell aware of the need not to marry a close relative, and most tribes specifi-
\ncally forbade marrying someone from their own clan or sept.<\/p>\n
Living along the northern shore of Lake Erie, as we now know it, and west into
\nthe area we now call southeastern Michigan, and northwestern Ohio, were the
\npeople that French explorers named Neutral, so named because they took no part
\nin the wars between the Huron and Iroquois. In fact, they were not only hunters
\nand farmers, they also had a monopoly on flint from their quarries near Point
\nAbino in southern Ontario, and were experienced traders. Their principal allies
\nincluded the Wenrohronon. (aka Wenro’s) The Wenrohronon lived in a small area
\nin what we now call New York state, along the south shore of Lake Ontario. The
\ntribal name meant “people of the place of the floating scum”; they had oil in
\ntheir local water. Their alliance with the Neutrals fell apart in 1639, and
\nthey then sought protection with the Huron.<\/p>\n
The Huron were the greater traders, and lived all over southeastern Canada,
\ntaking over most of Ontario and Quebec provinces. They called themselves
\n“Wendat”, meaning islanders or peninsula dwellers. The word survives today as
\nWyandotte. Their first documented experience with white men was with Jacques
\nCartier, along the St. Lawrence river, in 1534. At this time, they were at war
\nwith the Iroquois, and were subsequently driven from the area to Huronia, where
\nSamuel de Champlain found them in 1615. Champlain helped them mount several
\nattacks against the Iroquois, but they were eventually defeated by them, in
\n1648-50. Fleeing from the Iroquois, the Huron moved west and north, living
\namongst the several peoples around the northern and western parts of the Great
\nLakes. In 1745, a large party of Huron moved into the area we now call Sandus-
\nky. Except for a brief move to White River, Indiana, they ranged all over Ohio
\nin the coming years, finally allowing the Shawnee from the south, and the
\nDelaware from the east, to move into Ohio in the mid-18th century as neighbors.
\nPrior to this, though, they were friendly with the Erighs (Eries).<\/p>\n
This tribe of people, called the “Cat People”, lived all along the south shore
\nof Lake Erie, to which they gave it’s name. Their neighbors to the west were
\nthe Neutrals and the Miamis, and later the Wyandotte (Huron). To the east were
\nthe dreaded and powerful Iroquois. To the south, they knew the Honniasont, and
\nsouthwest the Shawnee. Because of their alliance with the Huron, they were
\ndefeated as a people by the Iroquois in 1656. Their bows and arrows were no
\nmatch for the guns provided to the Iroquois by Dutch traders. The Iroquois
\nwanted the hunting grounds of Ohio. The mountains they were raised in were no
\nmatch for the fertile, and relatively flat, lands of Ohio and the Can-tuc-kee
\nas the Shawnee called it. (Kentucky).<\/p>\n
The Miami had been pushed around long enough by the time the wars with the
\nwhites got them so heavily involved. They had begun in the area near Green Bay,
\nWisconsin, and migrated, or escaped, to the south and west, and then east, such
\nthat they had people scattered between Chicago and Detroit, and all along the
\nborder between Ohio and Indiana. Named after them are the rivers Miami, Little
\nMiami, and Maumee. In conjunction with the Shawnee and several other tribes,
\nthey participated in, and lost, the Battle of the Fallen Timbers in 1794, which
\nled to the treaty of Greenville in 1795, when most of eastern and southern Ohio
\nwas taken from the red men, and opened up to white settlers. The Army General
\nwho had won this battle, marching out of his Fort Defiance, was “Mad” Anthony
\nWayne. His aide was William Henry Harrison.<\/p>\n
The Shawnee, meaning “southerners”, migrated into the area from Tennessee.
\nTheir 5 tribes included the Piqua, Chillikothe, and Kispokotha, as well as 2
\nothers. Their principal areas of settlement were southern Ohio, and reached
\ninto western Pennsylvania, mostly along the Ohio river and her tributaries.
\nWhen the white men started pushing west over the Appalachians, the Shawnee were
\nmost adamant about repelling the invasion. One of their earlier war chiefs was
\na Kispokotha adoptee, a white man who took the name Blue Jacket (d. 1810); he
\nhad been born Marmaduke van Swearingen, and is possibly related to the van
\nSweringens who developed the Nickel Plate Railroad, Shaker Heights, Ohio, and
\nthe Terminal Tower complex. ‘Duke’ was from the same area of Virginia as the
\nancestors of our more modern van Sweringens. Later, the great chief Tecumseh led
\nthe Shawnee and thousands of other native Americans in trying to repel the
\nspread of white men into their lands; he died in 1813.<\/p>\n
Another famous chief was an Ottawa named Pontiac, who came from the area we now
\nknow as Detroit, Michigan. The Ottawa had been located in the area of Canada
\nnorth of Lake Huron, but ranged far to the east, in concert with the Huron
\nNation. Champlain visited them on Georgian Bay in 1615. Following the defeat
\nof the Huron by the Iroquois, they were forced west and south, settling in the
\nareas around Lakes Michigan, Huron, St. Clair and Superior, where they went into
\nthe fur business, trading with the French for needed goods. They were principal
\nallies of the French during the French & Indian Wars.<\/p>\n
Also in Ohio from time to time, and playing major roles in the various wars and
\ntreaties, were the Illinois, Chippewa, Kickapoo, Mosopelea and Potawatomi. But
\ntheir principal homelands were elsewhere. And in southeastern Ohio in later
\nyears were the Indians who confederated as the Mingoes; they were of these
\nand other further east tribes and nations.<\/p>\n
Supporting the British all this time were the Iroquois, who had wanted to stay
\nout of it all, but were forced into defending their lands against the hated
\nFrench (and their enemies of old who were aligned with the French). The
\n“Iroquois” is perhaps a misnomer; there was not just one tribe known as the
\nIroquois. In fact, the Iroquois were a confederation of five separate nations,
\nlater six, principally from the state of New York, but who operated in a very
\nlarge area, as far south as the Potomoc, and as far west as the Mississippi.
\nTheir principal hunting grounds were in Ohio. From east to west, they included
\nthe Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca; later they were joined by the
\nTuscarora. Legend has it that they were once warring with one another, but were
\nunited into a League of Nations by Hiawatha and Dekanawida. They had a demo-
\ncratic form of government, with two ‘houses’ and a judiciary. While I have not
\nyet found written documentation from the period among European sources, (there
\nwas no written language then among the Iroquois, and only word of mouth trans-
\ncripts of their legends survive), they did have a constitution, rumored to date
\nfrom somewhere around 1390, give or take 100 years. You will find it in the
\nsection of Free-Net with other documents that preceeded The Constitution of the
\nUnited States.<\/p>\n
As referenced in “The Genius of the People”, it is said that their constitution
\nbegan with the phrase: “We, the people, to form a union…”; it was this
\nconstitution that John Rutledge of South Carolina used as a basis for coordinat-
\ning the several details of the Philadelphia debates into what we now call the
\nConstitution of the United States. But that Iroquois constitution, reproduced
\nelsewhere in The Freedom Shrine, does NOT contain this phrase, nor anything like
\nit. There are many other references to this form of government among the
\nIroquois, as well as contacts between the Framers and members of this confedera-
\ntion. See the speech elsewhere in this Freedom Shrine by Dr. Donald Grinde. See
\nalso the lengthy bibliography, from which came most of these details.<\/p>\n
GERALD E. MURPHY (c) 1988<\/p>\n
