Indian removals in Indiana
Between 1803 and 1809, future President William Henry Harrison negotiated more than a dozen treaties on behalf of the federal government that purchased nearly all the Indian-owned land in most of present-day Illinois and the southern third of Indiana from various tribes.
[1] In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, some of these Algonquians returned from the north, where they had sought refuge from the Iroquois during the Beaver Wars.
These native tribes lived in agricultural villages along the rivers and exchanged furs for European goods with French traders, who began to arrive in region in the late 1600s.
[7] After the Indian tribes in the region, dissatisfied with British policies, launched Pontiac's War, the Crown issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which forbade American colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains—an act which proved ineffective.
[8] After the American Revolutionary War, Great Britain and the newly independent United States signed the 1783 Treaty of Paris, in which Britain ceded to the Americans a large portion of their land claims in North America, including present-day Indiana, but the native tribes who occupied the land argued that they had not been represented in the treaty negotiations and ignored its terms.
[9] Further negotiations were held to establish compensation for the loss of tribal lands, while American military expeditions were called to control Indian resistance.
[10] With the loss of British military support and supplies after their withdrawal from the Northwest Territory, the defeat was a turning point that lead to land cessions and the eventual removal of most Native Americans from present-day Indiana.
The Shawnee removed east to Ohio; the Delaware established villages along the White River; and the Miami at Kekionga moved to the Upper Wabash and its tributaries.
Harrison intended to expand settlement beyond the small population centers of Vincennes and Clarks Grant through a series of land cession treaties.
Harrison's tactics to obtain land cessions from the Indians included aggressive negotiations with the weaker tribes first, and then divide and conquer the remaining groups.
[30][31] Under the terms of the Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809) Harrison purchased an estimated 2.5 million acres (10,000 km2) of land, now a part of present-day Illinois and Indiana, from the Miami.
[32] The Shawnee, who were not included in the negotiations, inhabited the western tract of land that the Miami ceded to the federal government sold were angered by its terms, but Harrison refused to rescind the treaty.
Although the Miami, Delaware, and Potawatomi remained in Indiana, most of the Wea band and the Kickapoo removed west to Illinois and Missouri.
On August 30, Benjamin Parke concluded negotiations with the Kickapoo to cede their land in Indiana, which included most of present-day Vermillion County, in exchange for goods worth $3,000 and a ten-year annuity of $2,000 in silver.
[49]) Many of the leading politicians in the state, including Jonathan Jennings and John W. Davis, took active part in the trade and made significant profits in the enterprise.
In exchange for land cessions to the federal government, the Native Americans usually received annuities in cash and goods and an agreement to pay tribal debts.
Treaty provisions of land allotments to individuals and families and funds for fences, tools, and livestock were intended to help the Indians assimilate as farmers.
During treaty negotiations Lewis Cass described the federal government's rationale for Indian relocation: "[Y]ou have a large tract of land here, which is of no service to you–You do not cultivate it, and this is but little game on it....
[56] In exchange for Indiana land north of the Wabash River, with the exception of some reserved lands that assured their continued presence in the area, the Miami agreed to receive livestock, goods, and annuity payments, while the Potawatomi received annuities in cash and goods, and funds from the federal government to erect a mill and employ a miller and blacksmith, among other provisions.
White settlers also argued that the native tribes had rejected earlier efforts to adapt to "civilized society", and suggested that removal west would allow them to progress on their own timetable, away from some of the more negative changes in their lives, most notably the consumption of liquor.
Towns near the reservation lands depended on increased tribes' annual annuities as an ongoing source of revenue, especially the Indian traders.
[67] In theory removals were supposed to be voluntary, but negotiators put considerable pressure on tribal leaders to accept relocation agreements.
Fourteen treaties made in 1834, 1836, and in 1837 ceded additional tracts of Indiana land in exchange for payments in cash and goods that amounted to $105,440.
Under the terms of treaties made in 1836, the Potawatomi were required to vacate their land in Indiana within two years, including the Yellow River band.
Col. Pepper, the federal government's treaty negotiator, believed that Father Deseille was interfering with their plans for removal of the Potawatomi from Indiana, and ordered the priest to leave the mission at Twin Lakes or risk prosecution.
The difficult journey of about 660 miles (1,060 km), in hot, dry weather and without sufficient food or water, lead to the death of 42 people, 28 of them children.
[83] Under the terms of the Treaty of the Wabash (1840), another large tract of the Miami Reservation was ceded to the federal government for $550,000, including annuities, payment of tribal debts, and other provisions.
The group left Peru, Indiana, and traveled by canal boat and steamboat to reach their reservation lands in Kansas on November 9, 1846.
Under the provisions of the Preemption Act (1838), the squatters who were heads of families and single men aged twenty-one or older were allowed to claim up of up to 160 acres; the right was later extended to widows.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century other Native American groups migrated to Indiana, a large portion of them were Cherokee.
