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A Clash Of Cultures

Since the first encounters, Indian-white relations have been largely characterized by hostility and violence, causing the term "Indian wars" to gain wide currency. The Indian Wars were a result of a clash of cultures that led to many short, bloody battles. There were rare stories of unprovoked American Indian attacks on innocent families that brought about outrage by the rest of the country. These violent acts led to the United States military retaliating against the tribe responsible.

After the American Revolution, the most pressing Native American problem facing the new government was the unwillingness of the tribes of the Northwest to acquiesce in the settlement of the Ohio valley. After unsuccessful expeditions under generals Josiah Harmar (1790) and Arthur St. Clair (1791), Gen. Anthony Wayne defeated the tribes of the Northwest Territory at the battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. By the Treaty of Greenville (1795) they agreed to give up their lands in Ohio and move to Indiana.

The battle of Fallen Timbers took place in NW Ohio at the rapids of the Maumee River just southwest of present-day Toledo. The Native American defeat hastened the collapse of indigenous resistance in the area, secured the northwest frontier, and demonstrated the strength of the new national government.

Settlers soon began to encroach on Native American lands in Indiana, provoking the Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, and his brother, the Shawnee Prophet, to organize a powerful native confederacy. In 1811, William H. Harrison defeated the Shawnee Prophet at Tippecanoe. Tecumseh allied himself with the British in the War of 1812 and was killed in the battle of the Thames (1813), which ended the threat from Native Americans in the Northwest Territory. During the War of 1812 the Creek also rose and were defeated (1814) by Andrew Jackson.

The Tippecanoe river is in the lake district of NE Indiana and flows SW to the Wabash River, near Lafayette. The Native Americans, encouraged by their chief, Tecumseh, and by the British, became threatened by the continued U.S. advance into their territory. At the time of Harrison's expedition, Tecumseh was away and his brother, the Shawnee Prophet, led the group. They attacked U.S. forces at dawn but were repelled; their village was subsequently razed by Harrison's forces. Claimed as a U.S. victory, the battle was at best indecisive; the power of the Shawnees was broken, however, despite the subsequent American retreat.

The engagement fought on the Thames River was near Chatham, Ontario. Gen. William H. Harrison led an American force of about 3,000 against a British army of approximately 400 regulars commanded by Gen. Henry A. Procter, reinforced by 1,000 Native Americans under Tecumseh. After the British were driven from Detroit, Harrison followed their retreating army into Ontario and up the Thames River until General Procter was forced to give battle. A cavalry charge broke the British ranks, and the Native Americans offered the only real resistance. After Tecumseh was slain in battle it completely destroyed the native confederacy he had raised against the United States. U.S. control in the Northwest was restored.

The Creek were a Native North American confederacy. The peoples forming it were mostly of the Muskogean branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock. The Creek received their name from early white traders because so many of their villages were located at rivers and creeks. They lived primarily in Alabama and Georgia and were settled, agricultural people. There were more than 50 towns, generally called tribes, in the confederacy, which was formed chiefly for protection against the tribes to the north. Certain villages were set aside for war ceremonies, others for peace celebrations. Each had its annual green corn dance. This festival was a time for renewing social ties and was a period of amnesty for criminals, except murderers. The Creek Confederacy was not ruled by a permanent central government. The structure was a combination of democratic and communal principles. Decisions by the national council were not binding on towns or individuals who wished to dissent. Nevertheless, civil strife was almost unknown among them. Private ownership of land was unknown, but crops were privately owned to a degree. Each owner was required to contribute a certain portion for public use.

The Creek impressed the first European explorers by their height, their proud bearing, and their love of ornament. They were hostile to the Spanish and therefore friendly to the British in colonial days, but, frightened by white encroachment and fired by the teachings of the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, they rebelled in the Creek War of 1813–14. They massacred a large number of American settlers at Fort Mims, and Andrew Jackson won part of his reputation by defeating them at the battle of Horseshoe Bend. By a treaty signed in 1814 the Creek ceded approximately two thirds of their land to the United States, and subsequent cessions further reduced their holdings. Eventually they were moved to the Indian Territory, where they became one of the Five Civilized Tribes. A treaty signed by the confederacy in 1889 permitted white settlement of their lands, and there was great bitterness among the Creek. In 1990 there were over 45,000 Creek, most of them living in Oklahoma.

After 1815 a policy of removing the indigenous population to reservations across the Mississippi River was pursued by the U.S. government with such success that by 1860 the great majority of the tribes had been relocated. Often, however, this was accomplished only after a struggle. The attempt to remove the Seminole from their lands in Florida resulted in a number of wars; the most notable Seminole War involved the celebrated Osceola. Similarly the refusal of the Sac and Fox to be removed led to the Black Hawk War of 1832.

The Seminole War began in 1835, it proved to be the most costly of the Indian wars in which the United States engaged. Lasting for nearly eight years, it cost the lives of thousands of Seminole and 1,500 U.S. soldiers, as well as at least $30 million. Finally defeated in 1842, the Seminole consented to move to Oklahoma, where they became one of the Five Civilized Tribes. A few Seminole remained isolated in the Everglades.

In 1832 the U.S. government signed a treaty with the Seminoles, who lived in Florida, providing for their removal to Oklahoma in 1835 in exchange for a small sum of money. However, opposition to the treaty soon appeared among the Seminoles; under the leadership of, Osceola, the Seminoles organized small raiding parties that attacked the American troops. The U.S. army was rendered helpless by the raiding tactics of the Native Americans and suffered heavy casualties. Although Osceola was captured in 1837 and died in prison a few months later, resistance continued. When Gen. William J. Worth became (1841) commander of U.S. forces, a new strategy was adopted. The Seminole's crops were systematically burned and their villages destroyed. As winter approached and starvation was imminent, the Seminoles surrendered. A peace treaty was signed in 1842 and the Native Americans were removed westward.

In the early 1830s, Osceola was living close to Fort King, near the site of Ocala, Florida. Although not a chief, he rose to a position of prominence among the Seminole and led the young warriors who denounced the treaties of 1832 and 1833, which provided for the removal of the Native Americans to the West. In Dec., 1835, Osceola's warriors killed Wiley Thompson, the Indian agent in charge of the removal. U.S. troops under General Jesup drove his band southward into the Everglades, but Osceola, skillfully using guerrilla tactics, resisted capture. Fighting ceased early in 1837, only to break out again in June. Overtures for peace were sent to Osceola, and he agreed to meet with Jesup in St. Augustine under a flag of truce. Jesup, never intending to discuss peace, had Osceola seized and imprisoned at Fort Moultrie, S.C.

The conflict between the Sac and Fox and the United States in 1832 was known as the Black Hawk War. After the War of 1812, whites settling the Illinois country exerted pressure on the Native Americans. A treaty of 1804, which had no real claim to validity, provided for removal of the Sac and Fox W of the Mississippi. A Native American leader, Black Hawk (1767–1838), who was born in the Sac village near the site of present Rock Island, Ill., and who had fought for the British in the War of 1812, denounced the treaty and resisted removal. Years of intermittent skirmishing followed. In 1831 the whites used force to impose a new treaty that compelled the Native Americans to retire from their lands. In Apr., 1832, Black Hawk, with some 400 braves and their families, returned to Illinois. Not receiving the support he expected, he admitted defeat, but when one of the peaceful emissaries he sent was shot down in cold blood, the outraged Black Hawk successfully attacked a larger white force, then retired into what is now Wisconsin. A large force of volunteers was gathered under Gen. Henry Atkinson. The last battle of the war took place on the Bad Axe River, where Black Hawk was attacked by these troops and a Sioux war party. Trapped, he displayed a white flag, but this was ignored and almost all of his band, including women and children, were wiped out. Black Hawk himself escaped, surrendered to the Winnebago, was turned over for imprisonment, and was released in 1833 to return to the pitiful remnant of his tribe and his family in Iowa.

The Black Hawk War of 1832 resulted in the deaths of 70 settlers and soldiers, and hundreds of Black Hawk's band. As well as the combat casualties of the war, a relief force under General Winfield Scott suffered hundreds dead and deserted. The war also resulted in the settlement of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. It ended the threat of Native American attacks in northwest Illinois and allowed the region to be further settled.

Abraham Lincoln, the future US president, served in Reynolds' militia during the time of the Black Hawk War, but never saw action. Zachary Taylor, another future US president, commanded the troops under General Atkinson during the war. Jefferson Davis, future president of the Confederacy, was on leave during most of the war but returned in time to escort the surrendered Black Hawk, son Whirling Thunder, Neapope, White Cloud and others to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri in September 1832. Davis gave an interview in 1887 in which he indicated he was at the Battle of Wisconsin Heights, but this assertion today has been largely discredited.

The Black Hawk War was similar to other frontier wars fought in the United States in that in provided a boost to several political careers. Besides the notable involvement of Lincoln and Davis, four Illinois governors served during the war: Thomas Ford, John Wood, Joseph Duncan and Thomas Carlin. The conflict also helped in the political careers of a future governor in both Michigan and Nebraska as well as boosting at least 7 U.S. Senators. In 1836, Henry Dodge was appointed governor of the Wisconsin Territory.

Henry Atkinson, however, did not fare as well following the war and spent the last decade of his life at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis. Most of those affiliated with the conflict, subordinates and superiors believed that Atkinson had handled the prosecution of the war badly. U.S. President Andrew Jackson was looking for someone to blame for the conflict even as it was ongoing. After the war Congressional reports glossed over Atkinson's failings but privately others still criticized him. Zachary Taylor stated he believed that had Atkinson's regulars met with Black Hawk in the war's first battle instead of the militia under Isaiah Stillman the war could have ended without a single shot being fired. Historians generally believe that a more decisive action by General Atkinson, charged with prosecuting the war, in stopping Black Hawk's Band from moving up the Rock River may have prevented the war. Zachary Taylor made similar observations shortly after the war ended.

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