HISTORY: Historic Huntingdon, 1767-1909, Chapter 2, Original Inhabitants, Huntingdon County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Nancy Lorz Copyright 2007. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm _____________________________________________________________________ Historic Huntingdon, 1709-1907. Huntingdon Old Home Week, September 5-11, 1909. Souvenir Edition. Huntingdon, Pa.: Historical Committee of the Old Home Week Association, 1909. _____________________________________________________________________ 21 CHAPTER II. The Original Inhabitants of the Juniata Valley - Unlawful Intrusion Upon Their Lands - Efforts of the Government to Restrain the Intruders. The Indians found in the valley of the Juniata by the white pioneers were Monseys and Conoys of the Lenape nation, Nanticokes of the same original stock, Shawnees and Tuscaroras. Some Mingoes of the Iroquois nation made their home afterwards for some time in Kishacoquillas Valley. In an account dated 1731, appended to the depositions of Jonah Davenport and James LeTort, Indian traders, mention is made of Indian towns on the river as follows: OHESSON upon Choniata, distant from Susquehanna sixty miles. Shaw- anese. Twenty families and sixty men. Kissakahquelas. ASSUNNEPAHLA, upon Choniata, distant about one hundred miles by water and fifty by land from Ohesson, Delawares. Twelve families and thirty- six men. Trading posts had been fixed at an early day in the valley, where goods were bartered with the natives for furs and skins, but settlements could not be lawfully made prior to the extinction of the Indian title by treaty of 1754. Notwithstanding the fact that before the treaty the lands were expressly withheld from occupancy by the whites, they, regardless of treaty stipulations and the reserved rights of the aboriginies, pushed forward beyond the purchase-lines, and began settlements here and there as inclina- 22 tion led or choice lands and abundance of game attracted them. The first complaint by the Indians about intrusions upon unpurchased lands in this valley is described in the following paragraphs: At a meeting of the proprietary, Thomas Penn, the Lieutenant Governor, and members of the Provincial Council, with Shekallamy, a chief, and Indians of the Six Nations, held at Philadelphia on the 19th day of June, 1733, through the interpreter, Conrad Weiser, Shekallamy, after disposing of other items of his mission, asked "whether the proprietor had heard of a letter which he and Sassoonan sent to Jno. Harris, to desire him to desist from making a plantation at the mouth of Choniata, where Harris has built a house and is clearing fields." They were told that Harris had only built that home for carrying on his trade; that his plantation, on which he has his houses, barns, etc., at Paxtan, is his place of dwelling, and is not to be supposed he will remove from thence; that he has no warrant or order for making a settlement at Choniata. Shekallamy said that though Harris may have built a house for the convenience of his trade, yet he ought not to clear fields. To this it was answered that Harris had probably cleared as much land only as would be sufficient to raise corn for his horses. Shekallamy said "He had no ill to John Harris, it is not his custom to bear any man ill will, but he is afraid that the warriors of the Six Nations, when they pass that way, may take it ill to see a Settlement on lands which they have always desired to be kept free from any persons settling on." He was told in answer that care should be taken to give the necessary orders in it. John Harris, father of the founder of Harrisburg, was a native of Yorkshire, England, and settled on the bank of the Susquehanna sometime before the year 1726. He carried on an extensive trade with the neighboring Indian tribes, bartering his merchandise for furs and skins. In the pursuit of his business he appears to have established a 23 branch trading house at the mouth of Choniata, of which encroachment the ever sensitive aboriginies uttered the complaints detailed in the above paragraphs. Conrad Weiser, who appears as interpreter for the Indians at the meeting on the 19th of June, and who subsequently became an active and valuable intercessor between them and the whites, was born in Germany in 1696, but at an early age emigrated to America, and settled about the 1714. His numerous letters, interspersed in our records and archives, indicate him to have been a man of unusual acuteness, through knowledge of Indian character, and strictly upright in the business committed to him. His place of residence was in what is now Berks county, and the inscription of his letters written when at home, "Tulpyhockin," indicates that it was at or near the creek bearing that name. He was the grandfather of Rev. H. A. Muhlenberg, once minister to Austria. Weiser is first noticed as interpreter at a meeting of the Council held at Philadelphia, December 10, 1731, to which he accompanied Shekallamy and another Indian, messenger sent to the Six Nations. A part of the business of the Chiefs of the Six Nations at the conference of 1742, which began on the 30th day of June, had reference to the consideration for releasing their claim to all the land in the province on both sides of the river Susquehanna lying eastward of the Endless Hills, called by the Delawares the "Kekkachtananin Hills." The Indians having at a previous meeting received payment for the lands lying eastward of the Susquehanna, the goods delivered on this occastion were for the lands on the west of that river. Rude and uneducated as the Indians were, they were not insensible of the value of their lands nor ignorant of the fact that the goods received in exchange therefor were either tawdry finery or articles of little use and soon destroyed or consumed. Canassatego, an Onondaga chief, on this occasion said, "We know our Lands are now become 24 more valuable; the white people think we don't know their Value, but we are sensible that the Land is Everlasting, and the few goods we receive for it are soon worn out and gone; for the future, we will sell no lands but when Brother Onas (Penn) is in the Country, and we will know beforehand the Quantity of Goods we are to receive." The whites still persisted in their desire to push their settlement westward, probably for the double purpose of seeking game and securing good soil for cultivation. From the same speech from which we have made the last extract, Canassatego, in speaking of the lands westward of the Endless Hills, thus complains: "Your People daily settle on these Lands and spoil our Hunting. We must insist on your removing them, as you know they have no right to the northward of Kittachtinny Hills." In these transactions the duplicity and greediness of the white man are prominently exhibited, and the Indians - sole and rightful proprietors of the soil - set examples of truthfulness and integrity which the European intruders might have imitated with credit to themselves. They are already aware that however justly the proprietaries and their officers deal with them, and desire to restrain the incursions of the whites into their territory in quest of game or for the purpose of settlement, the government is either too weak or not inclined to protect them and their rights, and that soon they will be driven from their domain by the advancing column of civilization. And this work to be accomplished by the formality of a deed, in exchange for which they will receive a few worthless trinkets, or by the gradual and certain increase of settlers on the frontier who restrict the limits and assist in the destruction of game, their only means of subsistence. Need we be surprised then to learn of some atrocious act committed by the red man upon the whites when they are daily harrassed by settlers and traders coming uninvited among them and dealing out potions of poisonous rum, defrauding them in trade, and occupying their lands? 25 The provincial government doubtless honestly desired to comply with the demands of the Indians, and to carry out in good faith the mutual contract made with them, but the cupidity of the daring white pioneer impelled him to pay little heed to the proclamation, or to his own personal safety in resisting its commands. At a council at Shamokin, held April 9, 1743, the orator on the part of the Indians, in addressing "Brother Onas" through Conrad Weiser, said, "The Dutchman on Scokooniady (Juniata) claims a right to the land merely because he gave a little victuals to our warriors, who stand very often in need of it. This string of wampum serves (the speaker then took two strings of wampum in his hands) to take the Dutchman by the arm and to throw him over the big mountains within your borders. We have given the river Scokooniady (Juniata) for a hunting place to our cousins, the Delawares, and our brethren the Shaw-anese, and we ourselves hunt there sometimes. We, therefore, desire you will immediately by force remove all those that live on the said river of Scokooniady." From time to time the Indians repeated their complaints against the intruders with little avail. The white people cared little for paper proclamations, and less, if anything, for either the presence or rights of the natives. Finally affairs reached such a crisis that the government must either enforce its laws or by passiveness invite savage revenge. Richard Peters and Conrad Weiser were accordingly sent out with authority to view the frontier, and dispossess any persons found on unpurchased territory. None of these settlers had ventured farther west within the limits of Huntingdon county than the Tuscarora Valley in Dublin and probably Tell townships. The recollection of this official visit is perpetuated in the name of the village of "Burnt Cabins" situated in Fulton county, near the line of Huntingdon, in the vicinity of which some of the cabins stood, probably those of Falconer, Delong, Perry and Charlton. 26 In August and September following the occurrences detailed in Secretary Peter's report, related to the burning of the cabins, Weiser was among the Indians of New York, delivering a message to them from the proprietary government. The Onondaga chiefs were anxious to know what action had been taken towards removing the settlers on their lands near the Juniata and thereabouts, and expressed great satisfaction in learning from Weiser the result of the visit of the secretary and the officers of Cumberland County and that the governor had thus heeded their complaints about the intruders. The summary measures adopted by the provincial authorities in 1750 seemed to have the intended effect, for there does not appear to be any further complaint from the Indians about unauthorized intrusions in this region. Four years afterwards, in July, 1754, the Indian title was purchased and the lands were formally opened for appropriation by warrant or actual settlement.