George Washington met several times with Native American tribal leaders throughout his life as both a British and Colonial diplomat in the Ohio River Valley. Washington was first assigned as a British diplomat to the Iroquois Confederacy during the French and Indian War in 1753. In the inter-war period, Washington met with several Native Tribes in the Ohio River Valley in 1770. Both during and after the Revolution, Washington and his cabinet met several times with native tribal leaders to discuss the ongoing hostilities between colonial settlers and Native American Territories. These events would help Washington influence early Native American policy in the face of territorial wars and genocides.
The Ohio River Valley area follows the Ohio River and extends through the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. During the French and Indian War, this area was claimed territory by France, England, and a large confederation of Native Tribes known as the Iroquois Confederacy. The tensions there would escalate into a full-blown war in 1754.
During the Revolutionary War, this area was the front of Patriot conflicts with the Iroquois Confederacy and their British allies. At this time, an “Iroquois Civil War” occurred, with the Seneca and Mohawk Indians allying with the British and the Oneida, Tuscarora, and Delaware tribes allying with the Patriots.
While Washington had dealt with Native Americans throughout his life in Virginia, his first meeting with tribal leaders in an official capacity came in 1753, when he was asked to head diplomatic talks with French forces near the Ohio River in Virginia. He first met with three tribal leaders, including a Seneca chief named Tanacharison – called “Half King” by the British – in an Indian village called Logtown. Washington’s travel group to the French consisted of Christopher Gist, Jacob van Braam, four porters, and three Indian chiefs including Half King, Jesakake, and White Thunder, and their hunter.[5] They visited the Indian village of Venango to try to convince the Indians living there to side with the British before continuing on.[6]
They were unsuccessful in convincing the French and Indians to leave the Ohio River Valley, and Washington was generally considered to be belligerent and awkward in dealing with native tribal customs and feelings.[7] Washington continued to meet with tribal leaders; with the help of Indian experts and Half King, Washington was able to broker an alliance between the Delaware and Shawnee tribes and the British.[8] During this time, Half King gave Washington the Indian name "Caunotaucarius", meaning Town-taker or Town-destroyer.[9] Indian tribes would use this name for Washington whenever they interacted with him politically.
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) began in part when Half King encouraged Washington to preemptively attack an approaching French encampment led by Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, which turned into a major political incident.[10] It is possible that Half-King manipulated Washington in order to exploit the subsequent war, however he would fall ill and die shortly after the event.[11] [12]
The resulting battles and losses George Washington saw helped him better understand native customs and warfare. By the time he returned to the Valley in 1770, he was comfortable navigating Iroquois customs.
After the French and Indian War in the fall of 1770, Washington, his friend Dr. James Craik, and servants traveled to view lands Washington received for helping with the War.[13] Washington saw these lands as valuable in agriculture and for mineral resources such as coal but also on this trip Washington renewed ties with Native Americans whom he previously met. Washington got a message from the chiefs of both the Conengayote and other Iroquois. Many of these chiefs remembered Washington from his previous visit in 1753, while others had not met him but only heard of him. Washington and Dr. Craik once again went to meet with the Conengayote however, they went on a canoe trip along the Ohio River with an interpreter, a Native American Guide, and a warrior and were able to go to many different Native American Villages. During this time there were rumors that Indians had killed two traders down the river.[14] They were also able to view sixty Indians going to raid the Catawba tribe. Later after passing the mouth of the Kanawha Washington’s group was able to find another Indian Hunting party.
Washington recognized the leader of this party as Guyasuta, an Indian that had accompanied him in 1753. Guyasuata was now one of the Six Nations Chiefs, having fought in both the French and Indian War and The Pontiac War. By this time, Washington had a reputation as an experienced Native American fighter who had invaded the Ohio country with the British and fought against many Indian raids, but despite all this Guyasuata was still able to have his group join the party and even offered unto them his buffalo meat. In the morning Guyasuata described to Washington that Indians desired to trade with Virginia and asked him to describe to the governor their friendly intent toward white settlers.
Washington later would come across Guyasuata and his hunting camp again on his return journey, and was greeted with kindness and invited into the Indian ceremonies. Washington would discuss with Guyasuata about determining where to find rich planting soil for plantations. On November 17 Washington and his group were able to stop in Mingo Town; This made time for Washington to write about his observations about the many camps that the Natives had along the river. He described how Natives would go in family groups to hunt for food and frequently move their camps to where they were hunting. He also noted that the Natives that lived along the Ohio River did not view white settlers in a positive light as they were more uneasy and jealous.
During the Revolution, Washington was the most experienced Patriot to help broker treaties with native leaders in the Ohio River Valley. The Iroquois Confederacy had fractured, with the Seneca and Mohawk Indians allying with the British and the Oneida tribe considering allying with the Patriots.
In 1775, Congress was concerned about a British alliance with the Iroquois League in the Ohio River Valley, that there were several British agents in the territory – many of whom were loyalists colonists, and that the territory served as a safe haven for deserters and draft doggers.[15] They established three committees for negotiating with the different tribes in the area and by 1776 had appropriated $30,000 to pay for tribal gifts and travel expenses.[2]
Washington was then called in to broker a military alliance with the remaining Iroquois tribes: the Oneidas and the Tuscaroras. Recalling his time fighting alongside the Seneca chief Half King, Washington suggested that Colonial armies should fight alongside their Native Allies, stating that "Such a body of Indians, joined by some of our woodsmen would probably strike no small terror into the British and foreign troops, particularly the new comers."[16] In 1777, Washington met with an Oneidas chief and Reverend Samuel Kirkland in his Morristown, New Jersey headquarters, where they formally declared their alliance; They would later join in the Battle of Oriskany to battle loyalist forces supported by Seneca and Mohawk Indians. The Oneida Tribe would remain firm supporters of the Patriots throughout the Revolution, fighting in the Western Front of the war.
The British Loyalists and their Iroquois allies responded with a string of terror strikes along the New York and Pennsylvania frontier.[17] Congress ordered Washington to send a retaliatory force. Washington assigned Major General John Sullivan in 1778 to destroy Iroquois infrastructure and prevent further attacks. He specified that the army was “to lay waste all the settlements around, with instructions to do it in the most effectual manner, that the country may not be merely overrun, but destroyed.”[18] Known as the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign, the soldiers found the Iroquois much less equipped and defended than they were led to believe, military discipline broke down, and a genocide ensued. Sixty Iroquois towns were annihilated, with the Patriot soldiers encountering nearly no resistance, ranging from large capitols to small farming hamlets.[19]
After the Revolution, Colonists pushed into the Ohio River Valley and into Indian lands. Congress argued that because the Iroquois had supported the British they had forfeited the rights to western lands, even if only a portion of the tribes had fought for Loyalists.[20]
In 1787, the Confederation Congress enacted the Northwestern Ordinance, officially opening the Ohio River Valley to settlement. The document assured that “(Indian) land shall never be taken from them without their consent… they never shall be invaded or disturbed.”[21] However, the United Colonies had no way to enforce this law, and illegal seizure of Indian land continued unabated. Henry Knox, Washington’s Secretary of War, feared that continued illegal incursion into Native territories could cause another Indian coalition, which potentially could ally themselves with Spain in the South.[22] Seneca Chiefs would write to Washington protesting the move, citing that these seizures violated the 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix which had seized large portions of Seneca land in return for protection of their remaining lands.[23] On February 4, 1793, George Washington hosted a dinner in his home on Market Street in Philadelphia. Guests included Thomas Jefferson, Henry Knox, Edmund Randolph, and also six Indian men and two Indian women with interpreters who had traveled long distances to the event. These Indians represented the nations of Piankashaw, Peoria, Potawatomi, Kaskaskia, and Mascouten; Before the meal, they prepared speeches that they would read to Washington, strings of wampum, and a calumet pipe of peace.
On February 11 Washington would host another dinner, this time with chiefs of the six Iroquois nations. Before the meal, Washington thanked the chiefs and other Indian guests for diplomatically spreading messages to the Western tribes. During the yellow fever outbreak, these dinner meetings were put on pause and people fled the city for a time.
These visits continued the next year on June 14, 1794, wherein the dinner consisted of thirteen Cherokee chiefs once again in his home in Philadelphia. Many of the chiefs made speeches they had prepared and everyone drank and smoked. Four weeks later Washington met with a group of Chickasaws to ask them to act as scouts against tribes in the north of Ohio. These dinner meetings were regular events for the President.
To keep order between the Indians and colonists there were several treaties put in place to establish boundaries between their two territories.[24] However, these treaties were often broken by the colonists leading to violence. After the Revolutionary War, warfare between Natives and colonists was frequent.
To combat this violence George Washington and Henry Knox urged Congress to pass the First Trade and Intercourse Act that would result in the federal government being the only group that could deal with Indian affairs and purchase Indian land. The goal of this act was to assimilate the Indians to be a part of the colonist civilization.[25] The federal government funded this by enticing the Indians with domesticated animals and farming resources. In 1808 Thomas Jefferson told southern Indian leaders their people should become farmers and develop the land in the hope that they would be assimilated and be part of the labor force.
Humanitarian efforts such as sending missionaries to Indians and services for making farming tools in exchange for Indian lands were excuses to force Indians out of their lands. White colonists were set on the idea that American civilization would spread across the nation and that Native people would inevitably die out due to this expansion.