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Tutelos at Prophetstown, Indiana
Prophetstown, Indiana was a multi-tribal village in West Central Indiana from 1808–1811. It was headed by the Shawnee, led by Tecumseh and his brother “the prophet” Tensk-wau- ta-wa. It was located at the junction of the Tippecanoe and Wabash Rivers of what is today Tippecanoe County, Lafayette Indiana. Some of those present were individuals and groups of Pottawatomi, Kickapoos, Shawneee,Wyandottes,Ottawas, Senecas, Winnnebagos,, Miamies, Sacs, Foxes and Chippewas. Some estimate that there were over a thousand warriors with family present. Tecumseh and his brother used the encampment as a means to rally and build a front of warriors from all tribes to resist invasion of the Europeans and the theft of land. The US government strongly opposed the building of such an alliance and attacked the camp in November of 1811 (commonly called “the battle of Tippecanoe”). It was burned and many of those presents were killed. But only a small number were routed from the area.
A very brief historical reference from The American Anthropologist (1892) Vol. 5:52 does shed some clarity on the question–Did Eastern Siouans fight with Tecumseh in 1812? Here is the Quotation:
“It may be of interest to state that Rev. J.O.Dorsey has found in the Indian Bureau at Washington a document of four pages, pretty well faded, which describes a meeting of Winnebago with Tutelo Indians at Prophets’town, close to Tippecanoe, Indiana, in the year 1809. It is stated that the parties were able to understand each other’s language. A.S. Gatschet.” [Bess-this quote from the American Anthropologist is not online, so one has to get hold of a paper copy at a library]
A.S. Gatschet (1832-1907), who reveals the existence of these records, was a leading linguist working for the Bureau of American Ethnology. J. O. Dorsey was the government’s top linguist specializing in Dakotan languages also working in the field of ethnology some years before Gatschet. Therefore this reference shows that:
1. Tutelo/Saponi were with Tecumseh on the side of the British in the war of 1812, since the battle at Prophetstown in Nov. 1811 was the opening phase of that war. The most trustworthy histories indicate that the multi tribal elements defeated at Prophetstown were regrouped by Tecumseh and taken to another theater of war, to Detroit and to Canada It was here that Tecumseh was eventually martyred and his native bands were defeated.
2. The Tutelo at Prophetstown may indeed be the source of some of the “Blackfoot of Southern Illinois” that have been mentioned on this list. This group of Blackfoot are located in the region of Coles, Shelby, Effingham, Layfayete, Jefferson and Edwards counties, Illinois; that is, toward the South East border of Illinois adjacent to Indiana. It turns out that Prophetstown is about 100 miles from Coles County, Illinois. Not very far away. So it is quite possible that some of the Tutelo at Prophetstown migrated to Illinois after the attack on Prophetstown in 1811 and or after the defeat of Tecumseh’s forces at the Thames in 1813.
3. Since, according to Gatschet’s report, the Winnebago and Tutelo could understand each others’ language as late as 1809, despite a significant territorial separation. This strongly confirms that,
a. the ancestors of the Tutelo and Winnabago at Prophetstown must have traveled and visited each other, periodically in pre-European times, in order to maintain the common core features of the Dakotan (Siouan) language shared by both groups.
b. a reexamination and analysis of the Winnebago language might provide some new insights into the development of Tutelo
Bess Veney
well Bess, you keep knonwing/discovering things I am interested in.
John Richey b 1797 Va died 1861 Powhatan, Lawrence County, Arkansas, was married 1817 to Mary (Polly) Wood in Gibson Co., Indiana. Gibson County is near the Southern Tip of Indiana and not far from Illinois or kentucky. All their children were born there, and the whole bunch of them then moved first to Strawberry township and later to Powhatan, Lawrence County, Arkansas.
We know somewhere between 1797 (when John was born as stated on his census) and 1817 (where it is recorded John and Mary were married) they moved to Indiana, and 1844-1845 moved to Arkansas. But we don’t know exactly when they left Virginia for Indiana.
vance hawkins
Gibson county Indiana is extremely close to the place where the “Blackfoot of Illinois” are said to reside. The western border of Gibson is on the Wabash River. On the other side of that river is Edwards and Wabash counties of Illinois, which according to Redhawk on this list, are within the territory of the “Blackfoot of Illinois”. According to the local history of Gibson, when the European settles came to this area, there was a Shawnee village on the Patoka river, which flowed into Wabash river. Also there were Mimi “Indians” (Piankashaws) located in the county. Given its location near the junction of the Wabash, White and Ohio rivers, many other unnamed tribes passed through the county, so when your John Richey came to this area, sometime between 1797-1817, he would have been living among lots of native people. The Tribes did not leave this area until 1834-1840, and some bands were still around after 1850. Bess.
My gr-grandfather, Francis Marion Harris, was born in Wabash County, IL in 1855. His Harris/Severance side had left Path Valley PA sometime before 1840 and showed up in Wabash County in the 1850’s. I believe there’s some evidence of a stay in Ohio. His mother’s side, Ulm/Smith, were from VA and/or WV. They were in Ross County, Ohio ca 1816.
Everywhere the family was, there’s some evidence of eastern Blackfoot, but where they appear in the record is always a day late and a dollar short of anything tangible. Aggravating.
Where did this phrase “Blackfoot of Illinois” originate? Is it derived from some old documentation, or is it a modern attribution? Does anybody know?
What’s intriguing is the question of whether the mixed blooded, assimilated people were aware of what their full blooded, traditional kin were doing in Tecumseh’s camp, or if they’d lost touch that much. What a tense situation.
Anybody else see that old movie, Red Dawn, about the invasion of America by the Communists, how a high school footbal team turns into guerrillas and live in hiding, slipping into the occupied towns to visit/assist friends and family when they can?
How much contact/communication was there between the free people living on the run and the people behind enemy lines, adapting to the occupation? I don’t believe my family began denying their mixed blood amongst themselves until the 20th century. There’s a hundred year span there where it’s very difficult to grasp what their consciouscness was about this.
This heritage has seemed lost in time for modern generations, but what was it like in the 19th century? Or are we imagining too much? Were they just living like none of it mattered? Or is the answer that some were in denial, and some weren’t, often under the same roof.
I only learned of the Southern Illinois Blackfoot from this and the Yahoo Blackfoot list. I am not sure if there is any documented account of it. There may or may not be. But the oral accounts that have come to my attention indicates that there are a group of people who claim not only an a individual connection to such ancestors but a group connection located today in southern Illinois. I don’t think they are making it up. I have also come across another reference to “Blackfoot Indians” in that region, but this time in Pike County, Indiana which is adjacent to Gibson County mentioned earlier. This reference is more developed, it is expressed in the name of an old cemetery called BLACKFOOT in Monroe twp. and in the name of the church called BLACKFOOT at the same location. The church is alleged to have been erected in the “late1700’s”. And the “Blackfoot Community” attached to this church was said to be around in 1857. The original members were settlers from Kentucky who were on there way to Illinois. They said they named the church after the “Blackfoot Indians” of that location who befriended them. It is also noteworthy that a Mary Richey (1779-1850- the wife of Simpson Ritchey) is buried in the Blackfoot Cemetery. This family may or not be related to our John Richey. For more on this subject check out this site: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~c1debbi/Mason/blackfootchurch2.htm
Bess
I don’t believe anybody’s making this up, either, obviously. Sorry if I sounded that way. I’m just trying to pull together concrete documentation. We’re to the point where a lot of information has been gleaned, but we need to make it presentable.
Any possibility of getting an accounting of the people first buried in that cemetery. It may tell us something.
There is also the possibility that the Blackfoot in that area were from the Algonquin Blackfoot out west. There is some documentation of warriors coming east to fight in those wars. There is someone from the Yahoo group who I’m hoping will jump into this who has both types of Blackfootin his family, from that region.
Bess, are your ties to this Southern Illinois group?
My line does not go through this part of Illinois or Indiana. I don’t have anymore information on the Blackfoot Cemetery or the Blackfoot Church in Pike County, IN. I just came across this site only a few days ago. Presently, my time limitations won’t allow me to devote anymore efforts in this area for awhile. I’m sure, others on this list can pursue this lead and dig up more by going to the Pike County, IN. USGENWEB site. The Blackfoot cometary in Monroe Twp. is listed there.
I want to clarify another point. I am not making contributions to this list for the purpose of making a summary presentation down the road on the general subject of the Eastern Blackfoot. Nor aim I providing information for others to make a general presentation on the Eastern Blackfoot. My main purpose is to aid individuals on the list in finding material (genealogical and historical) to narrow down the sphere of investigation, to aid in backing up their oral claims of native ancestry in the Southeast, in general and Eastern Siouan, in particular. Even though their is some documentation on the Veney line, I also seek the same assistance for myself from the list.
On reviewing one of the previous posts, there seams to be a little confusion about the content of my statement on the relation of the Tutelo at Prophets’town to those people claiming Blackfoot ancestry living in Southern Illinois, who self identify as the “Southern Illinois Blackfoot”. Let me restate my point, with a few additional facts, to undo any confusions.
In my earlier note I concluded that “the Tutelo at Prophets’ town may indeed be the source of some of the ‘Blackfoot of Southern Illinois’ that have been mentioned on the list”. And I went on to say ” ..it is possible that some of the Tutelo at Prophets town migrated to Illinois after the attack on Prophets town in 1811 and or after the defeat of Tecumseh’s forces at the Thames in 1813″. This statement is straightforward. Note the stress on the work “some”. Which implied that other claims of Blackfoot from that quarter my have a different tribal root. There was no suggestion that all claims of Blackfoot identity in Southern Illinois had to be traceable to the Tutelo. Rather, I said some may be and left the door open to other sources should new evidence arise. This position is quite valid when one considers the following:
First, the Tutelo at Prophets’town were relatively close to Southern Illinois (with in 100 miles). This is further supported by the fact that the area of Southern Illinois with which we are discussing is integrated firmly with the area around Prophets’ town by a common waterway. Such waterways were the typical mode of transport at that time and greatly facilitated such movement Both areas are a part of the Wabash drainage system–Prophets’town sat on the Wabash River and Southeast Illinois was bisected by the Little Wabash River, which emptied into the Wabash down stream.
Second, Two of the most significant tribes at Prophets town, the Kickapoo and the Winnebago both had villages in the region of what became Effingham and Coles Counties, Ill., before and after the battles at Prophets’town.( 1811-13). It is said by local historians that many of the warriors at Prophets’ town returned to their established villages in the outlying areas, located in the parries and woodlands of Illinois and other parts of Indiana after the suppression of Prophets’ town. Therefore, one can easily imagine, some of the Tutelo returning with fellow fighters of these other tribes to Southern Illinois, etc. Given that the Winnebagos were the only other Siouans at Prophets’stown, most likely Tutelos, stayed close to them. According to William Henry Perrin, the editor of “the History of Effingham County Illinois” (.Baskin Historical Publisher, Chicago 1883), the Kickapoo lived in effingham and surrounding counties. He also noted, “South of the Kickapoos were the Winnebagoes and Delawares.”, page12.
Consequently, I stand by my original conclusion. I am aware that there is some oral history that says Sihasapa warriors (from the Dacota) came East and were possibly the ancestors of present community of Blackfoot in Southern Illinois. Well good. That does not contradict my statement, since my conclusion recognizes that possibility alongside the Tutelo. If I find some documents supporting the movement of the Sihasapa I will gladly make that known. And of course, the same applies to the Siksika (the Algonquin Blackfeet). But of the various possibilities on hand, the Tutelo stand on the firmest ground at the present time. Without question the document above from the American Anthropologist affirming the presence of Tutelo at Prophets’town establishes the Tutelo at the right place, at the right time to be the ancestors of some “Blackfoot indians” in Southern Illinois.
Bess.
Bess, what surnames are you looking for, and where were they living, and during what time frame?
vance
As Linda suggested I’m attempting to join this discussion…unfortunately I seem to be somewhat incompetent in doing so. I am known as RedhawkSH07 in the yahoo forum. Oh well, hopefully I will do this reply properly as opposed to my last few attempts. Bess’s information is exactly correct from my point of view and knowledge of the region. Tecumseh’s United Tribal movement brought refugees and allied tribes together in a way which historians (victorious white historians) have either ignored or purposely covered up. The facts surrounding these villages and settlements which were spread across the Old Northwest territory are just coming to light today after old records and correpondence are being reexamined by interested parties. There has been a concerted effort to deny the existence of Indian communities throughout the region to this day. My belief is that the Tutelos of the East and Blackfeet Sioux who accompanied their brother Dakotas Under Chief Six met at Tippecanoe, rediscovering their shared language and history. Indeed they were able to communicate and find common ground just as the Winnebago and others were able to with the Eastern Siouan speakers. When Tecumseh deployed the allied warriors he kept groups who spoke the same language together for war parties, protecting villages and escorting supplies. This would mean that the bonds first formed by common language would grow. The likelihood that these “reunited” tribal groups would settle with each other and adopt a common name (a name which existed both in the East and Western Sioux ranges in this case Blackfeet), would seem likely. Tecumseh divided his warriors on the basis of skills also. The Dakotas (Santee and Mdewakatons) were sent to Michigan territory for the major battles expected near old Fort Detroit and Amehurst, while groups such as the Blackfeet Sioux(Sihasapa Lakotas), known for their incredible tracking and riding skills, would likely have been detailed for messenger and escort duties. The Eastern Siouian groups would, becuase of the familiarity with white communities, have been detailed as spies and messengers. I would go a step farther in saying that the Eastern Indian groups would have been the core of the supply effort as well. With their eastern base they could buy and move supplies without white communities knowing who they were supplying. The Dakota warriors who came East and fought with Tecumseh, survived in great part and returned home, while the Lakota’s (Blackfeet in great part) disappeared from knowledge of their Western relatives. Where did they go? They went with the rest of Tecumseh’s refugee families who they had sworn to protect. Many of these retired to the Miami Reserve as it was called by the US Gov. This was an area of 2.7 million acres which included all of the western half of the Wabash water shed. This area in what is now SW Indiana and SE/Central Illinois was not opened to white settlement until 1830. My family was there from 1813 on. Perhaps many of your own were too. In the following 20 years many of the Ohio Shawnee/Delaware/Wyandott/Seneca/Tutelo and others came through this reserve and joined it’s communities. Many had been admirers of Tecumseh but did not join him outright even if they secretly supported his efforts. Many were widows and children who had lost their husbands to the war. They moved west hoping to find their family memebers but found instead a growing Indian community structure in Illinois territory. The records I have found at Indiana Univ private collections speak of the fear that the new Indiana residents had when these groups passed through and the fear that they would reorganise under one of Tecumsehs “chiefs” in this territory. One aim of the US Gov agreement with the “Old settlers(1817 agreement)” of the Cherokee was to give land in the “Indian territory of Illinois to Cherokee to dilute this growing threat. The Cherokee would be given US citizenship and 160-640 acres in this Reserve if they gave up they homes, businesses and land in NC/SC/GA. Many came (again part of my family) and became neighbors of the “established tribes”. The Piankashaws, Kaskaskia, Kickapoos and other “Origianal tribes” along with the newer refugee communities. These communities accepted these newcomers but would not make agreements with the US Gov on their behalf. This created the mess which the US could not resolve without force. The Treaties would be negotiated over and over with many tribes refusing to give ground even if one had. They all claimed the same overlapping lands. This effort was carefully choreographed by these same tribes to frustrate the US efforts. Tecumseh would have been proud). This continued for 2 decades. The result was the US army coming in the middle of the night and carrying off most of the remaining Indians at rifle point to Kansas and Missouri. Since then offically there were and are no Indians in the region. “Officially”. I was born there in 1962 and my family has never left. We still claim to this day a foothold of land in Fayette county IL…but that is another very long story.
Thank you for your participation here. I am learnin a lot from everyone.
I live in SW Oklahoma & we have Kiowa nieghbors. They (Kiowa) claim to have lived in the Black Hills long before the Lakota showed up there on those hills a couple of hundred years or so ago. They (the Kiowa) were booted out of their “Sacred Hills” by the more powerful Lakota about that time. The Kiowa then followed the Buffalo to the Southern Plains where they went and became allies of the Comanche, and the 2 tribes are still inseperable, for the most part. But the first historic records of the Kiowa put them in Southern Canada, so they traveled a lot to get here.
So you are right, the Lakota were originally further East, I’d assumed they were around the Great Lakes, but I really didn’t know. But I knew they were latecomers to the Norhtern Plains.
vance hawkins
Redhawk
There is a lot of good material in your answer. It will take me some time to digest it all. So I will be asking many questions over the next months and making additional comments.
I share your assessment of the political meaning of Tecumseh’s movement, but you have provided us with a much more concrete and lively expression of it than I have been familiar with. You have a good grip on the local situation which you obtained from the stories handed down from your ancestors and coupled this well with your historical research. The strength of this assessment is the recognition of the sharp contradiction between the oppressed and the oppressor, between the merchant capitalist ( traders, settlers etc.) and our native ancestors that could not but end in fierce resistance. This situation drove our ancestors to take the noble and progressive stand they did. Our knowledge of this struggle always gives us strength today to advance our current struggle against the monopoly capitalist who continue the humiliation and oppression of native Americans.
I agree with your overall position on the insolvent of the Dakota and the Lakota Sihassapa in Tecumseh’s movement based on your oral history and the oral traditions of Dakota researchers out west. I only emphasized the Tutelo connection in my previous comments because it is this group which is overlooked and ignored when talking about Prophets’town and the war of 1812. It fact I have seen a documented reference to Tecumseh’s visit to the Osage Indians (Siouan) in the Missouri Valley (1808-09) in which he tried to get them to send warriors to Prophets’town. Since Tecumseh was already in the area of the western Siouan tribes, it is only reasonable to assume that he extended his trip further North to the Dakota and Lakota to solicit their participation. Even in the absence of written accounts( at this point), your oral traditions are what are decisive in this case, especially since this tradition has been established in an organized way for nearly a century, with many people contributing. As to some of the specific forms and character of the interaction between the Tutelo and the western Dakotas and Lakotas at Tippecanoe, I reserve judgement until further investigation.
How has the family history gone? Have you had any results in tracing your lines and that of other members of your “Blackfoot community” into the Tippecanoe region of Indiana? On the basis of your previous comments, identifying several surnames, I did a limited search. I was able to locate CLIMER/ CLYMER, BURNETT and CARY surnames in a few Tippecanoe County, IN records( 1820s). Found also is an important lead on a Burnett family in Tippecanoe county that played an important role in the events around Prophets’town. This family is documented as being Native American in one of its lines descending from the Pottawattiamie tribe. These results suggest that persons with these surnames at Tippecanoe could well have been the specific lines of the ancestors of the community of Blackfoot in southern Illinois. Of course only a more thorough examination of these records can reveal if this connection is sound. Could you restate the surnames that you are looking for (Illinois blackfoot) so that I and others can be sure we are not overlooking some.
Thanks for giving a narrower description of the location of the Miami Reserve along the Wabash River. It is now possible to study more carefully any link ups with contemporary (1812-13) or later movements of the Eastern blackfoot to your area. In fact, documents show that some Saponi/Tutelo/Nottoway mixed families left NC/VA between 1810-1850 and ended up in the immediate vicinity of this Miami Reserve. They came to Vigo, Sullivan, and Vermillion Counties, Indiana. Some of their surnames were BASS, NEWSOME, ARTIS, HAITHCOCK (HAISCOX), STEWART, COUZEN, BEATY, WILSON, RILEY, PATTERSON, RUSSELL and LEWIS. Have you ever come across these names in the Miami Reserve? Are Vigo, Sullivan, and Vermillion counties bordering the Wabash River in Indiana within or adjacent to this Miami Reserve? Does this Miami Reserve encompass the same land spoken of in the recent suite (Sept 2,000) filed by the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma in St. Louis District Court, demanding a return of this land to their control? Could this suite be a source of genealogical information for families we are discussing?
Given the closeness in time and place one only hopes that we, eventually, are be able to find some documents that tie in these families– Bass, Newsome, Haithcock,–with some of your lines in Illinois.
Thanks Bess.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~c1debbi/Mason/blackfootchurch2.htm
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~c1debbi/Mason/blackfootchurch.htm
http://www.brainygeography.com/features/AR.church/blackfootchurch.html
The Phillips County, Arkansas Blackfoot Church is a new oneI hadn’t seen before. I see no other reference to it, either.
vance
It is kind of fun to click on the link for Mason when you go to this Blackfoot church web site. I have that name in my line. Someone named Curry (a name in my Blackfoot ancestor’s cemetery) posted a plot map there of the families. If you click on it, you find several names we have seen on this forum, Wood, Richey, Green, Mason, Fergusen, and others.
Techteach
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