Tag: Shawnee

Minute Book 3: 1729-May Part 2: A possible Shawnee and Mohican migration; the French prepare to attack, but where? A Smith for the Senecas.

The next entry In Library and Archives Canada’s digital copy of the original minutes, starts here on p. 284. It contains the minutes of a meeting between the commissioners and two messengers from the Six Nations, who informed the commissioners that three hundred “Makinders and Shawhownus” (probably meaning Mohican and Shawnee) wanted to settle in Iroquoia with their families, a large number of people. The Haudenosaunee asked the English to send one or two representatives to Onondaga to attend a general meeting of the Six Nations, which was scheduled to be held in about a week to discuss this matter. The messengers laid down seven hands of wampum, a sign that this was an official and important matter. The messengers also brought word about news from Kahnahwàke that the Governor of Canada had assembled two thousand troops for a military expedition which he was going to lead in person. The target was being kept secret.

Commissioner Myndert Schuyler went in person to inform the governor about the situation. The Commissioners also dispatched Lawrence Claessen to Onondaga by way of Oswego, with a letter informing the commander there, Captain John Price, to be on his guard. Claessen was told to encourage the group of Mohicans and Shawnees that wanted to join the Six Nations and invite two leaders from each group to come to Albany “and Enter into the Covenant Chain, according to the Promises they made upon their last Treaty with his Excellency.” He was also to find out whether Oswego was the target for the French attack, and ask the Six Nations to help Commander Price to prevent any such attack. Lawrence returned on May 23rd and said that in reality the southern nations were only sending some sachims to renew their old covenants with the Five Nations. He had no new information about the plans of the French.

The Commissioners also sent their own Indian messengers to Kahnawà:ke to find out more about the French plans. On May 14th they returned. Their contact at Kahnawake had told them that the Governor of Canada was definitely planning an attack, even though there was an official peace, because the French King had ordered the governor to take steps to deal with the construction of the fort at Oswego. The French were frustrated because they were losing out to the English in the fur trade, and wanted to prevent furs going to the English either by Oswego or by “Corlaers Lake,” i.e. Lake Champlain. The precise target of the attack was still a secret, but people at Kahnawà:ke expected it to be against either Oswego or Albany. The Commissioners passed this information on to Governor Montgomerie and asked that the Legislature take steps to preserve them in case of an attack.

On May 29th five principal sachims from “the Castle Called Onnah in the Sinekes Land” came to renew the Covenant Chain with the English. They brought the belt of black wampum that was a symbol of their agreement, as well as a silver dollar with a black ribbon attached that stood for the death of King George the First and the succession to the throne of George the Second. They wanted to exchange the dollar for a different token, but the Commissioners would not agree, because it was the same as what had been used to announce the succession to other nations. The sachims of Onnah also asked to have a gunsmith in their castle. The Commissioners agreed to send someone to the Seneca country for the coming winter but not to Onnah specifically. The smith would go to “the Castle called Canassedaha” where the smith’s tools were already located.

“Onnah” is probably the town called “Onaghee,” or “Onahe” located at present day Hopewell, N.Y. “Canassedaha” is probably Kanadesaga near present day Geneva N.Y. See Beauchamp’s Aboriginal Place Names of New York, p. 158-159.

Minute Book 3: 1727-October: Oswego Accounts; Arossaguntigook (St. François/Odanak) Traders; Laurence Claessen’s Journal

The Commissioners of Indian Affairs spent a lot of money in 1727 on building boats, renting wagons, and hiring workers to build the fort at Oswego and supply the garrison and workers there with provisions.  They wrote Governor Burnet on October 5th to say they were in the process of getting final accounts from the “Country people” and would submit it all. They also informed him that a detachment of soldiers had finally left Schenectady for Oswego along with five civilians who would stay until April.

Arossagunticook Hunters Come To Trade

Diplomacy from earlier in the year continued to pay off. A group of people from Asigantskook sent messengers to verify that the road to Albany was still open. In all likelihood “Asigatskook” refers to the mission community known then as St. François and now as Odanak, where many Abenakis lived. They said their people were hunting near Wood Creek on Lake Champlain and would like to come to Albany to trade, but it was difficult to transport deer skins at this season (probably because of the low water) and they had many elders with them who would not be able to make the trip. They asked to be supplied with necessaries at Saratoga as cheaply as they would be at Albany and offered to bring their furs and deerskins to Albany in the Spring, when travel was easier.  The commissioners welcomed them and invited them to trade but said they could not provide goods as cheaply at Saratoga as at Albany because they would have to pay to transport them there. They suggested that the hunting party send their young men to bring the skins down or hire horses to transport them.  It would all be affordable because “goods are much Cheaper then Ever they had been” at Albany.

1727-10-12

Laurence Claessen’s Journal

At the end of October the commissioners gave the governor an English version of Laurence Claessen’s journal of his trip to the Six Nations in September to tell them.  The record includes a full copy. Claessen visited the Mohawks, Oneidas, and Tuscaroras and acquainted each nation with the news that King George II had succeeded George I as king of Great Britain.  Proceeding to the Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, he did the same thing, but here he found that warriors were preparing to go out to fight at the request of the new Governor of Canada (the Marquis de Beauharnois). Claessen did not say who they were proposing to fight, but it was probably one or more of various nations to the south who were known as Flatheads. On behalf of New York’s Governor William Burnet, Claessen gave them gifts and urged them not to listen to the French or leave their homes to fight.  He managed to persuade most of them not to go on the grounds that the French were just looking for a chance to take possession of the new building at Oswego. Moreover when he returned to Onondaga, the sachims there who had agreed with the Schuyler brothers to ask other nations in Canada not to help the French were keeping their word and setting out on a trip to convey the message.

When Claessen arrived in the Seneca capital Canosedeken, which here is spelled “Canosade,” the diplomat and interpreter “Jean Coeur” had been there just two days earlier promoting the French trade goods now available at the new building at Fort Niagara, including inexpensive blankets, guns, fine shirts, stockings, and brandy. There was also a French smith living in Seneca country with his wife, children, and servant, who was trading for furs. And Claessen learned that there was a French settlement on the Susquehanna River “a little abovre Casatoqu” whose inhabitants stayed in touch with Canada by way of a small river that flowed into Lake Ontario above Niagara Falls.

The enlarged French fort at Niagara and the new English fort at Oswego had expanded the European presence in Iroquoia along with the potential for violent conflict. The Six Nations had said all along that this was a problem. It was one of the reasons that they objected to the location of Fort Oswego when Governor Burnet first proposed it in September 1724. In Seneca Country Claessen was told that the Seneca leaders who had recently gone to Canada to condole the death of Governor Vaudreuil and confirm Beauharnois as the new governor had urged the French not to create a disturbance or shed blood, even though the English and the French were “very Jealous of one another about their buildings at Osweege & Jagara.” Instead, if they wanted to fight each other, they should “decide it at Sea.” Beauharnois asked them to tell the English to move the new building at Oswego further up the river from Lake Ontario to leave a clear passage on the lake for French traders. Their response is not recorded.

One more interesting detail from this journal is that the French were trying to persuade the Schawenos (Shawnee) living at Niagara to leave; it is not clear why.

In Library and Archives Canada’s digital copy of the original minutes, the first entry for October 1727 starts here on p. 204a.