The Ottawa Response to U.S.
Colonialism in the Maumee Valley: 1820-1839
By Steven A. Littleton
Colonialism in the Maumee Valley: 1820-1839
By Steven A. Littleton
On the evening of March 3, 1826 a young Ottawa man by the name of James Clark picked up his axe and left the Presbyterian mission along the banks of the Maumee River. Clark was part of a group of young Ottawa men who had entered the forest this evening to cut wood for the mission. As Clark made his way through the forest he came upon a large log and sat down, he removed a religious tract from his pocket that had been given to him by the Christian missionaries and he began to read. Clark remained in the forest long after the other Ottawa woodcutters had returned to the mission, reading the religious tract and attempting to understand the meaning of Christianity for a young Ottawa like himself. After some time, James Clark fell to his knees and began to pray for mercy. Not long after this, Clark returned to the mission grounds, entered the blacksmith’s shop and again fell to his knees and begged for mercy. After praying alone for nearly an hour, mission staff and residents entered the shop to investigate the source of the loud, wailing prayers, which could be heard throughout the mission grounds. As friends and family members joined him in the shop, James continued to pray and was joined by other young Ottawa men in asking for forgiveness of their sins until 10 o’clock that night. The next day, much to the delight of the mission staff, James Clark began to proselytize among the younger Ottawa, encouraging them to ask for forgiveness for living sinful lives. Also to the delight of missionaries, James spoke to the Ottawa in English, asking those Ottawa that understood him to seek God’s mercy.
The account of James Clark demonstrates the changes taking place in Native American societies throughout the Great Lakes region in the first part of the 19th century. These changes are not unique, as they would be repeated again and again in many other indigenous societies throughout North America for the rest of the 19th century and well into the 20th century. The Maumee Mission, where James Clark and perhaps 12 Ottawa families lived in 1826 was a colonial institution brought to the Maumee Valley by members of the Western Missionary Society and sponsored by a Presbyterian church in Pittsburgh. Following the defeat of the Northwest Indian Confederacy in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, the conquest of the Ohio Country was complete. The Treaty of Greenville granted ownership of nearly three-fourths of present-day Ohio to the United States while at the same time dividing the rest of the state, in the northwest, among the defeated indigenous inhabitants, members of the Ottawa, Delaware, Wyandot, Seneca, and Shawnee tribes. Soon a flood of white settlers would be unleashed on the Ohio Country and with these colonists would come new cultures, religious views, and economic systems. These colonial institutions were thought to be the seeds for a future great society of Euro-Americans.
By studying the colonial institutions of the Euro-American settlers of the Maumee Valley, a better understanding of the causes for the change in Ottawa culture, religion, and economy during the period 1820-1839 will be gained. Recent historiography of Native Americans has tended to stress Indian agency and resistance to colonialism; this article will continue that trend by discussing the agency of the Ottawa Indians in making formulated responses to the colonial efforts of white settlers aimed at their culture, religion, and economy. This article will differ from some, if not most, of the recent histories of Native Americans by showing that the decisions of the Native Americans in the long run were not successful in meeting their goal of remaining close to their traditional homeland in Michigan Territory. The impact of the colonial institutions of white settlers was almost always an inexorable force when it was brought to bear on Native Americans.
The first colonial institution that will be examined is the mission. Before a discussion of the Maumee Mission to the Ottawa is begun, it is necessary to describe some of the traditional religious beliefs of the Ottawa, to understand what the missionaries were working to change. In 1830, the Reverend Cutting Marsh arrived in the Maumee Valley on a tour of the west. His destination was Wisconsin, but he spent nearly a year in the vicinity of Northwest Ohio recording his insights on Ottawa spiritual and religious beliefs. The Indian agent Benjamin F. Stickney also spent time interviewing the Ottawa and recording their spiritual beliefs and tribal history. The records left regarding Ottawa spiritual beliefs by these two individuals provide an excellent example of ethnocentrism in their evaluation of the culture and religion of the Ottawa.
While interviewing the Maumee River band of Ottawa during the 1820s, Benjamin Stickney recorded some of their traditional religious beliefs. According to the religious beliefs of the Ottawa, the creator created two pairs of humans, one of which was white skinned and the other was red skinned. From here, the Ottawa told Stickney about the creator switching ribs with the men and women of each color to stimulate their sexual interests. While the couples slept apples were placed on the ground next to them in order to tempt them. What is most striking about these beliefs is their similarity to the Mosaic account of the bible. The methods used by Stickney in obtaining these beliefs are unknown, however, it is likely that the Ottawa were merely reciting what they remembered of the white people’s religion. When further pressed to share their religious beliefs, Stickney discovered that the Ottawa came from the island of Michillamackinac. On this island, the creator had planted a tree with four great branches pointing to the four cardinal points. Each branch was controlled by a spirit and represented a power: north was cold, the south was in control of heat and drought, the east had control of the rising sun with its light and warmth, and the west controlled thunder and lightening. A confederacy of three Indian tribes was united around this tree: the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pottawatomie.
According to Marsh, one of the fundamental tenets of Ottawa spirituality was the belief in transmigration, that when a person dies they are reborn in another body and retain all of the knowledge they accumulated during their previous lives. The Ottawa also believed that a person was reborn in a different tribe, which sometimes meant that enemies in previous lives could sometimes be reborn as members of the same tribe, which occasionally occurred. Marsh was present when two Ottawa chiefs discussed their past lives, Lan-nig-wa-bi and Wa-gah. These two individuals recognized each other from previous lives as chiefs of the Lakota and Pottawatomie tribes respectively, in their past lives, Wa-gah was killed in battle by Lan-nig-wa-bi. The Ottawa also believed that the human soul did not leave the body until after burial. During the preparation of the body for burial it was common for relatives and friends of the deceased to provide instructions on how to behave in the afterlife, to not hurt humans and who they would meet in their next life. In burying the deceased, the Ottawa would place provisions in the grave that might be needed on the journey to the afterlife, usually something to eat, weapons, moccasins, and some of their best clothes. Beliefs in witchcraft were also common among the Ottawa, according to Marsh. During the Battle of Fallen Timbers, a group of Ottawa warriors witnessed an angry spirit take the form of a turkey and stand next to them on what has been known as Turkey Foot Rock ever since. To appease this spirit, it was common for the Ottawa to leave a sacrifice of tobacco on the rock while passing by the battlefield on which it stood. It is clear from reading Marsh’s diary that he believed in the necessity of moral and enterprising men in order to settle the Maumee Valley, the Ottawa inhabitants of the region did not seem to him to be very good seeds to plant for a future great city in the Old Northwest.
From this examination of Ottawa spiritual beliefs we can discern what exactly the missionaries sent to the Maumee Valley by the Western Missionary Society wanted to change. Members of the Western Missionary Society were motivated by a desire to convert the Ottawa to Christianity through sincerity, authority, example and kindness. They sincerely believed that God commanded the Gentiles to “go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in”. Whether or not this group or any of the missionary societies understood that their religious institution was a component of the colonial forces bent on suppressing Native American religion is debatable. Almost certainly their perspective on this issue differed greatly from ours today, believing that rather than injuring the Ottawa, they were actually saving their souls. This type of devotion to the missionary spirit actually made the destruction of Ottawa religious practices worse due to the extended support systems of financial backers that could be counted on in the push to bring the gospel to indigenous peoples. Financial support for the Maumee Mission was essential to the success of the missionaries work and they went to many lengths to secure such funding. One major practice employed by mission staff to secure funding was to publish their successes in religious journals. Mission staff wrote up their success stories, such as the narrative of James Clark and other Ottawa who had converted to Christianity. These stories were both accounts of how missionary donations were being wisely spent and pleas for continued support. In one article entitled Juvenile Missionary Spirit, the article discusses the efforts of school children to save what little money they could spare for the purchase of school and religious texts for the Ottawa Indians. The admonition present in this article that was directed at adult church members to keep donating their money in light of how hard their children were working was probably quite obvious to the magazine’s readers.
The significance of these examples is that they are illustrative of the abilities of the Western Missionary Society to tap into donations that were freely given by individuals secure in the knowledge that their money was being sent to a good cause, the conversion of “the heathen Ottawa”; and because these donors were happy and supportive of the goals of the Western Missionary Society, they would continue to donate in all likelihood for as long as it took the Maumee Mission to achieve its goals.
The Western Missionary Society established the Maumee Mission in October, 1822. By the end of October the mission staff was selected, consisting of 21 members, two of which were clergy. In November of 1822 the missionaries left Pittsburgh for the Maumee Valley, with the group crossing Lake Erie by sailboat. Armed with the conviction that it was their Christian duty to proselytize among the Ottawa, the missionaries would begin the construction of the mission compound later that month on an island located in the Maumee River. Many changes could be expected for those few Ottawa families who would eventually come to live at the Maumee Mission. The mission also considered their duties to include the education of the Ottawa people, especially the children, in subjects such as reading, writing, English, arithmetic, geography, and religious instruction. From these courses of instruction the danger of the Maumee Mission to the Ottawa can again be seen. Colonialism generally entails the extension of socio-cultural as well as religious and economic practices onto the conquered population. Due to the fact that very few Ottawa actually utilized the Maumee Mission and its offered services it cannot be considered the most powerful colonial force encountered by the Ottawa in the Maumee Valley; however, some Ottawa did take advantage of the mission’s services, with about 90 children being educated over a ten year period from 1823 to 1833. In 1833, with approximately 600 Ottawa remaining in northwest Ohio, perhaps as many as ten or twelve Indian families were living at the mission and taking instruction from the mission staff in religion, education, and agriculture. While the mission was not a pervasive part of the remaining Ottawa’s lives, they still found this colonial institution to be something that needed to be resisted. The Ottawa were offered the use of mission lands, 700 acres, with the clause that they must give up their wandering ways, farm the land and take religious instruction from the mission staff. This offer, which was designed to facilitate the Ottawa goal of remaining in Ohio, was refused outright. We can see in the actions of the Ottawa an example of resistance to colonial institutions, a clear act of Indian agency; however, one that would ultimately be unsuccessful. The Ottawa refused the help of the Maumee Mission in meeting their goal of resisting removal west of the Mississippi, but the tactics employed by the Ottawa to resist colonial forces and remain in their Maumee Valley homes would eventually not be enough to avoid removal. The Ottawa exhibited agency in their attempts to avoid the colonial force of the mission, and in this they were successful. The Ottawa accepted those things freely given to them by mission staff, for example: food, new farm foods, and presents of clothing; however they rejected out of hand other things that were offered when the price of accepting them was too much to bear in terms of its impact on their religion and culture. This was the most effective method for resisting the colonial institution known as the Maumee Mission.
If the Maumee Mission was the major colonial force confronting Ottawa religion, then fur traders, intermarriage, and diseases were three major forces that assaulted traditional Ottawa culture throughout the early 1800s, until the remaining members of the tribe left the Maumee Valley. It would be beneficial to first discuss “traditional” Ottawa culture. Ottawa culture demonstrated the ability and desire to import new technologies and methods of production even in the face of pressure brought on by colonial forces. Like most Native American tribes, the Ottawa began to adapt new technologies such as metal implements and weapons soon after trade relationships were established with Europeans. Traditionally the Ottawa were agriculturalists, dating back to when the tribe inhabited Manitoulin Island in the Georgian Bay region of Canada. Culturally speaking, the Ottawa were renowned wood workers who were able to craft many different items from wood, including boxes for the storage of maple syrup (referred to as mococks), canoes, and even sails. During the period in which the Ottawa resided along the Maumee River in Ohio, roughly 1750-1839, it was common for white settlers to see two types of dwellings constructed by this tribe: log homes of hewn wood approximately eight feet in length by six and one half feet wide and more commonly, the bark wigwam. This was a conical lodge constructed by placing wooden poles into the ground in a circular fashion and lashing the tops together with plants or bark strips. In addition to these cultural traits, the Ottawa also practiced a certain degree of hunting and gathering, which will be discussed more in depth in the section on the economics of the Ottawa.
One of the forces of colonialism that caused changes in Ottawa culture included the arrival of increasing numbers of fur traders and the establishment of fur trade posts, which provided increased access to trade goods for many Ottawa hunters and their families. This particular force of colonialism, directed at traditional Ottawa culture led to a growing dependence on European trade goods. This effect can be seen in every history of the trade relationships between Native Americans and Europeans. As trade goods acquired an increasingly centralized role in Native American cultures, the dependence on those goods attained a certain level of immediacy; the desire to acquire certain trade goods such as metal items became a need.
Intermarriage and sexual relationships with white settlers also had the impact of creating a social group of mixed bloods within Ottawa society, most of this population could be described as progressive in terms of their views relative to traditional Ottawa culture. The traditional single social class that marked Ottawa villages also began to change with the creation of a second social class comprised of mixed-bloods. The major difference between these two social groups became an argument between traditionalists and progressives in the shaping of attitudes and relationships with white settlers in the Maumee Valley. Another closely related effect began to be felt as some Ottawa, mostly the mixed blood population, began to live away from the rest of the tribe as nuclear family units. Some of these nuclear family units began to work as canoe guides, interpreters and carpenters for white settlers. As members of the Ottawa tribe continued to live apart, this contributed to the erosion of their traditional culture.
With the arrival of so many colonists/settlers to the Maumee Valley, diseases were spread throughout the tribe as contact between the Ottawa and Euro-Americans increased. The Ottawa suffered from infectious diseases such as smallpox, rheumatism, ulcers, measles, whooping cough and syphilis, brought to the Maumee Valley by white settlers. Living on the confines of small reservations along the Maumee River, these diseases and illnesses were spread quickly, eventually taking their toll on the traditional segment of the Ottawa that remained together in larger kinship units than those that chose to live away from the tribe in smaller nuclear units.
The Ottawa response to colonial forces directed at their culture and social organization again demonstrate Indian agency, for example the acceptance of an increasing reliance on trade goods. Following the treaties of dispossession of the early 19th century, the Ottawa were forced to find new ways to clothe and house themselves as well as to acquire nourishment for their survival. One of the strategies employed by the Ottawa was to accept trade goods such as farm implements and new agricultural techniques. The division of Ottawa society between mixed bloods and traditionalists was a conscious choice on the part of those individuals that believed the best way to remain in the Maumee Valley was to allow their children to be educated at the Maumee Mission or to carve out a niche for themselves in other ways, such as interpreters, carpenters, and guides. In formulating a response to the arrival of infectious diseases, the Ottawa were left with few choices, however. To avoid the threat of disease, most Ottawa could either move farther away from white settlement in the Maumee Valley or they could leave the Northwest Territory altogether and go to Indian Territory during the 1830’s.
Another major area of Ottawa life attacked with the arrival of colonial forces to the Maumee Valley was their economy. It would be beneficial to first discuss what the “traditional” Ottawa economy was like. The best way to describe the traditional Ottawa economy is cyclical. Specific subsistence tasks were performed during each season of the year, and each season’s tasks can be further broken down into specific gender tasks. Going back to the period when the Ottawa lived on Manitoulin Island, the tribe practiced this cyclical economy. The only major difference between their economy in the 17th century and the one that most settlers described in the early 19th century has to do with geographic influences. Beginning in the summer months, the Ottawa would conduct trade with settlers, a subsistence task that was for the most part carried out by the women of the tribe. Women gathered forest products for this trade such as huckleberries, strawberries, honey, plums, and apples, while men would hunt deer to provide items such as venison hams. Women would also sell their handicrafts such as moccasins with braided porcupine quills and painted wooden baskets. Summer months were also spent fishing by the Ottawa; and in some cases these fish, which were dried along the Maumee River, were part of the trade with settlers. In late summer, at some point in September, the Ottawa would travel to Galbraith Island, in the center of the Maumee River, to gather wild rice that grew there. The Ottawa would harvest the rice by hitting the stalks with a wooden stick, knocking the rice into the bottoms of their canoes. This rice would then be stored for use during the winter or it could also be traded to settlers in the valley; this rice brought diversity and further sustained the Ottawa diet.
During the months of fall and winter, the economic activities of the Ottawa changed to hunting. Hunting required a migration to the interior lands located in present day Henry and Fulton Counties, Ohio. On other occasions, hunting migrations would travel to the east, toward Sandusky, Ohio. The beginning of October was the time for these migrations away from the village sites along the Maumee River and Maumee Bay. The dried corn that had been preserved during the summer months and other fruits and vegetables that had been saved during the summer would be consumed during the winter. The Ottawa would not take food for the horses, an economic innovation they had adapted from the whites, as the horses were able to graze on forest grass. These seasonal migrations would continue throughout the early 19th century, even as more land was purchased by white settlers and Ottawa hunting areas were further restricted.
The hunt during the winter months met the subsistence needs of the family units, usually no more than nine family members living in a dwelling during the winter season, but it also served the purpose of collecting furs for trade with the whites. During the winter months the Ottawa lived in wigwams with their nuclear family units in their hunting grounds. During this season the women would perform the task of gathering forest products for their families use and consumption. Some of these products included hickory nuts and wild plums that were knocked down by the strong winds that came during late fall.
As other authors of Ottawa history have noted, little is known of Ottawa hunting and trapping techniques. The Wyandot Indians, who also lived in northwest Ohio, until 1843, hunted in contiguous zones with the Ottawa. The two tribes occasionally came into contact with each other, as the Reverend James B. Finley noted in his book Life Among the Indians during a winter hunt in 1823. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the two tribes shared similar hunting and trapping techniques, as well as other subsistence activities including the manufacture of maple sugar. According to Finley, some Indian trappers could set up to 300 traps in an area ten miles extent, and the Indians would check those traps twice a week, hunting from trap to trap. In this fashion, an Indian hunter could expect to yield some 300 to 600 raccoons in one trapping and hunting season. Indian raccoon traps were referred to as “dead falls” and were made of saplings set over a log next to a pond or marshy place.
The trade in furs also formed a significant part of the Ottawa economy. Fur traders would visit Ottawa hunting camps to buy furs and deliver trade goods such as whiskey, blankets, and metal tools. The fur trade in the Maumee Valley between the Ottawa and American fur companies took place primarily during the winter before the animals lost their thick coats in the spring. During the winter hunts the furs that were collected and prepared were either stored until spring or they would be traded to traveling fur traders who visited Indian encampments during this season. The Ottawa would trap and hunt wolf, bear, deer, elk, beaver, otter, mink, raccoon, martin, fox, lynx, wildcat, and muskrat; the skins of these animals would then be exchanged with white fur traders for calicoes, red and white blankets, wampum, knives and other metal blades, and camp kettles. Other trade staples that might be exchanged with the Ottawa included silver ornaments such as arm gorgets and hatbands.
The means of transporting the furs sold to the traders depended on the season. When navigating the Maumee and its tributaries proved untenable, the furs would be placed on the backs of ponies and transported over Indian trails, away from the Black Swamp region and shipped to the eastern markets. The competition between fur traders to secure trade necessitated these winter trips to Indian encampments, as Dresden Howard related in several unpublished memoirs at the end of the 19th century. According to Howard, it was normal for representatives of the major fur companies to send runners to the Indian winter camps to secure trade deals. These runners were to make use of whatever influences they might possess. As the hunting grounds of the Maumee and its tributaries were depleted and the Ottawa relinquished the last of their Ohio holdings, their role in the fur trade was significantly diminished, and new areas became the major producers of furs and skins.
In 1755 James Smith, an eighteen year old who was hired as part of a road construction crew in the Pennsylvania wilderness, was captured by a group of Ohio Indians near Fort Duquesne. Smith spent the next two years of his life with members of the Wyandot and Ottawa tribes near present day Sandusky, Ohio. Smith’s memoirs provide a source of knowledge in regards to the winter hunting season among the Ottawa in Ohio before the disruption of the tribe’s hunting economy in the 1830’s. According to Smith, the Wyandot and Ottawa held a council late in 1755 and determined to sail east across Lake Erie to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River to hunt bear, turkey, and deer and to trap beaver. The Indians sailed across Lake Erie in their birch bark canoes; the party of Ottawa had sails five feet wide and fifteen feet long made of flat reeds that were stitched together. Upon arriving at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, the Indians buried their canoes to preserve them from the rain, snow, and frost of winter. They then hunted throughout the eastern half of present day Ohio for the rest of the winter. When spring came they returned to their village sites near Sandusky. The Indians would repeat these voyages each year, generally choosing a different hunting site each season. As their territory shrank, as it had when Reverend Finley went on his hunting trip with the Wyandot Indians in the 1820’s, the Indians remained much closer to their village sites.
At the end of the winter hunting season, the Ottawa would depart their hunting lands and arrive in their sugar making camps for spring subsistence activities. The Ottawa would generally arrive at their sugar camps around the first of March. The maple sugar process, from tree to finished product was the work of the women in the Ottawa economy. The production of maple sugar took place for a period of between four and six weeks. A tomahawk was used to cut the tree to allow the sap to flow out into bark troughs. The troughs, made of joined bark peelings taken from maple trees, were used to direct the flow of sap. The smaller troughs used to collect the sap from the tree could hold about two gallons; these smaller troughs were emptied into a much larger trough, which resembled a bark canoe. The maple sap was boiled in large kettles, sometimes with Indian game placed in the boiling sap, before it was packaged and ready for Indian consumption or trade, which could be located as far away as Detroit.
At least one pioneer witness to this process claimed that maple sugar was produced in considerable quantities, as the demand for this product was high. When the process was complete, the maple sugar was loaded into wooden mococks, with the rough dimensions of 18 inches long, 10 or 12 inches wide and 16 or 18 inches high. Mococks were manufactured out of elm bark that was bent into shape and fastened together with strips or threads made out of more elm bark. The mocock could hold about 50 or 100 pounds of maple sugar. Most of the maple sugar that the Ottawa produced during the spring was kept for their own consumption, as an emergency supply of food when game was scarce, a fairly frequent occurrence throughout the 1830’s in the Maumee Valley. Maple sugar’s value came from its portability and its versatility. Maple sugar mixed with a small amount of parched corn supplied enough caloric energy to sustain a person through hardship. The other benefit of maple sugar was its portability, as a small quantity could be carried without overburdening a person. Pioneers and white fur traders recognized the usefulness of this emergency supply of food and they would regularly trade with the Ottawa, paying between three to five cents a pound to obtain a supply, especially after 1830.
Maple sugar production was the primary economic activity during the early spring season, but there were other tasks that needed to be accomplished in anticipation of the summer season. While preparing the maple sugar, women would begin the process of stretching the skins collected by the Ottawa men. Birch bark canoes were constructed to carry the load of furs and maple sugar to markets as far away as Detroit. During the spring season the cargoes would enter the Maumee River, navigate the rapids and some Ottawa would return to their village sites along the river, while others would head north to Detroit.
From this description of the Ottawa economy in the Maumee Valley, it can be seen that very few changes had taken place in the traditional structure of their economy from the time they had originally lived on Manitoulin Island. They continued to follow a cyclical lifestyle, they continued to trade with other groups of Indians and Europeans; the only major change to this traditional subsistence economy was the increased collection of furs and skins for eastern markets and the incorporation of new technologies that made their new work easier. The real challenge to the Ottawa economy would come after they became a dispossessed people in 1833. When a subsistence economy loses access to hunting lands or their agricultural lands along the river, they will no longer be able to support themselves. New economic activities would be attempted and traditional ones were modified as the economy of the Ottawa was disrupted by the forces of colonialism brought to the valley by an increasing number of white settlers.
The major economic changes that were brought on during the period of examination had a great deal to do with the development of transportation infrastructure and increased land speculation. The effect of the development of increasingly reliable transportation facilities such as the Wabash and Erie Canal and the Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad was that more and more settlers were able to arrive to the Maumee Valley and as these colonists purchased land, former areas that the Ottawa had ceded to the government became permanently closed to the use of the tribe. It was during this period of restricted land use that the Ottawa were forced to create new ways of meeting their subsistence needs by either abandoning traditional economic practices such as farming and fishing or developing ancillary activities into primary ones. These colonial forces were related, as transportation links to eastern markets were improved, land speculation increased as investors hoped to buy land close to the construction of the various canal and railroad access points. For the most part, this meant that a great deal of the land along the Maumee River was snatched up quickly during the 1830s.
As white settlers purchased more of their former farmlands, the Ottawa were invited to live at the Maumee Mission. One stipulation placed on the Ottawa was that the men would have to become farmers, something that at least a few Ottawa men agreed to, however, in the long run, most Ottawa decided that the agricultural lessons of the missionaries carried too high a price and eventually the mission was shut down. The fact that the male Ottawa were willing to learn how to become farmers indicates another adaptation within their economy: changes in the sexual division of labor. An occupation that was once the traditional work of females would become the work of both sexes and eventually, within the Maumee Valley, of neither sex as agriculture was becoming an increasingly tenuous subsistence task.
Hunting was the second subsistence activity that was altered by contact with colonial forces. Of the many settler accounts that survive today, opinions were mixed as to how over hunted the lands of the Maumee Valley were by the final removal of the Indians in 1839. Arguments in favor of the removal of the Ottawa cited the lack of game in the country, an area that abounded with animals just a decade earlier; to these people, if anyone deserved to hunt for their subsistence needs in the valley it was certainly the white settlers. Other accounts exist that affirm sizable game populations continued to thrive in the Maumee Valley into the 1850’s. Regardless of how many deer or bear remained in northwest Ohio into the 1830’s, it is clear that white settlement made hunting more difficult, which caused the Ottawa to adapt the way in which they performed this particular subsistence task. Another subsistence task that is closely related to hunting and was part of the Ottawa economy for centuries was fishing. Fishing ceased to be a significant part of the Ottawa subsistence economy as more of their territory was ceded to the United States along the Maumee River and at the mouth of the river on Maumee Bay. By the time most of the Maumee Band of Ottawa was relocated to reservations west of the Mississippi, they ceased to fish altogether for practical reasons.
While colonial forces impacted many parts of the traditional Ottawa economy, some parts continued to function beyond 1839. Some of the subsistence tasks still being practiced by a small number of Ottawa included maple sugar production, handicraft production, limited hunting and fishing, and fur trade activities. While the government attempted to remove all of the Indians from the Maumee Valley, a small number managed to elude removal agents and remain on their former lands. At least one family of Ottawa Indians continued to live along the Maumee River up to the year 1850. The economic activities of this family demonstrate the results of Ottawa adaptations to colonial forces for their survival and how certain activities were developed into more specialized tasks. According to Dresden Howard, the last Ottawa man in the Maumee Valley was Tee-na-beek, who lived there with his wife and children. Tee-na-beek continued to live the life of a hunter and fur trader; so in some ways their economy was similar to the traditional Ottawa economy. A division of labor along gender lines continued to exist for Tee-na-beek and his wife, although the wife was allowed more autonomy to trade with whites. Tee-na-beek’s wife continued the Ottawa tradition of female laborers by dressing the skins captured during the winter and early spring hunt; she made maple sugar at a certain time of the year, and she performed a task that was altogether new for the Ottawa economy: she was a toy maker. In this particular case, Tee-na-beek and his family chose to develop their wood working ability into a means of providing their family with much needed food and clothing from the white settlers. By developing these formerly ancillary activities, Tee-na-beek and his family demonstrated the conscious role played by the Ottawa in shaping their own destiny. In addition to toys, Tee-na-beek’s wife also made baskets and moccasins for trade with the white settlers; following the death of her husband in 1850, she joined the rest of the Maumee band of Ottawa who immigrated to Walpole Island in Canada.
New economic activities were created in response to changes wrought by colonial forces; these include: land cessions and annuity payments, farm laborers, theft, raising livestock, and healing sick white settlers. The first of these new activities, land cessions and annuity payments, became a regular source of revenue for the Ottawa beginning with the Treaty of Detroit in 1807. In this treaty, the Ottawa ceded some of their Maumee Valley lands in exchange for permanent reservations of land and an annuity payment of $4,000 a year. The Ottawa were not the only tribe in the Old Northwest to experiment with land cessions in order to meet subsistence needs. According to historian Helen Hornbeck Tanner, by 1830 many tribes east of the Mississippi were using land cessions to meet subsistence needs, which became more difficult as their remaining lands became over hunted for the fur trade. Over time, the Ottawa that inhabited the Maumee Valley witnessed their annuity payments shrink, this was largely the cause of many Ottawa leaving the valley either with government agents during the mass removals of 1837-39 or on their own, to join relatives in Canada. As more Ottawa left the valley, the annuity payments shrank to a small fraction of what they had been before 1830; in 1837, an Indian agent in charge of disbursing funds to the Maumee band of Ottawa reported that he paid out the $1,700 annuity to four hundred thirty three members of the tribe. Each member of the tribe received about $4, hardly enough to sustain a person when the dispossession of the people is taken into consideration. Henry Schoolcraft witnessed first hand the decisions made by Great Lakes Indians to cede their land, a decision he attributed to the lack of game. What is interesting about Schoolcraft’s assessment of Indian reasons for land cessions is his lack of understanding for their true motivation. Schoolcraft believed that the Indians were ceding their lands in order to pay for the transition to a settled life of agriculture. Most Indians ceded their land to pay their outstanding debts to creditors and to provide themselves with a form of economic security, not as a prelude to adopting the agricultural methods of white settlers in order to adhere to a different cultural definition of “civilization”.
Ottawa Indians began to work as laborers, hired by local white settlers or by members of the Presbyterian mission, as a way to meet their subsistence needs. The exact year when the Ottawa began to work as laborers for local white settlers is not known, but records show that by the 1830’s, the Ottawa were taking jobs as laborers. Given the condition of the land in northwest Ohio, which was generally covered by dense forest, and the lack of white labor to clear the land for agriculture, as well as the commencement of canal projects in the region, the Ottawa had many jobs to choose from if they wanted to labor for their subsistence needs.
Not all of the new economic tasks were innovative, some were very simple and involved taking what was needed to prevent starvation and disease. Settler accounts from the 1830’s discuss theft as an Ottawa economic task, as a means of meeting basic survival needs. John Cowdrick, one of the early settlers to mention Indian theft mentions that the Ottawa would not steal “unless very hungry, and then take no more than they would eat at the time”. These actions do not reveal a degraded quality of the Ottawa people; rather, they reflect the choices a dispossessed people were forced to make to keep from starving. Other settlers have attested to the character of the Ottawa people, including a settler named Collister Haskins. Haskins stated that the Ottawa were always quick to pay back their debts when trusted with goods or money, and they were kind neighbors. Above all, the choice to steal to meet economic needs demonstrates that the Ottawa were becoming less able to support themselves in the Maumee Valley and as the 1830’s progressed, they became increasingly marginalized, both economically and demographically, which made it harder to meet their subsistence needs through traditional methods.
Beginning in the 1820’s and 1830’s, most of the Indians in the Old Northwest began to adopt livestock and other animals to meet their economic needs. Pigs were one of the first animals that most Indian groups adopted as a source of food. They foraged for food in the forest and they were relatively low maintenance, which made them ideal for northwest Ohio. White settlers were quick to point out that the act of adopting white forms of livestock did not infer civilization. The Reverend Cutting Marsh, while proselytizing Indians near Maumee in December, 1829, recorded his disgust with an Ottawa chief who had allowed chickens, dogs, and pigs to inhabit his dwelling; this incident prompted Marsh to wonder “when shall these poor wanderers be civilized?” It seems as if the Ottawa could do no right in the eyes of their critics; if they didn’t have livestock they were viewed as uncivilized and when they did have livestock they were seen as irresponsible in their care of the animals. In addition to pigs, Indians adopted cattle, poultry, dogs (which would occasionally be eaten), and horses. Horses were an important adaptation for many Indians; they provided a means of transporting more goods to the markets that were inaccessible by canoe and they made the job of transporting bulky items much easier.
Some Ottawa medicine men were able to use their knowledge of curing sickness brought on by the conditions of the Black Swamp. While this is the least documented of the new subsistence tasks, it is one of the most interesting for a number of reasons. It is interesting to see members of the colonizing race seek medical assistance from the spiritual leaders of a race they have deemed to be uncivilized and deficient. In one example from Lower Sandusky in the 1830’s, medicine men from the Wyandot and Pottawatomie tribes regularly offered their services to cure the white settlers who suffered ague. While John Waggoner claims that he knew of no medicine man that ever charged for his services, it is likely that even the most good natured among them would not turn down an offering of food as thanks for their services. In this way, a medicine man could meet subsistence needs; the fact that much of the dense swamp was not sufficiently drained until the 1850’s is another indication that for those Ottawa willing to make the effort, sickness and disease was a common problem that would have provided them with work for several years.
The economic changes made by the Ottawa to their traditional economy do not indicate acceptance or even understanding of colonial forces. In fact, some of the Ottawa attacked the symbols of colonialism when the opportunity presented itself. In September 1830, a group of Ottawa Indians was camped along the Portage River near Perrysburg in Wood County. Their campsite was adjacent to the fields of Thomas Cox and John M. Jacques. At some point during their stay, the Indians set fire to the prairie, which caused the destruction of six tons of hay belonging to Thomas Cox and several hundred rods owned by John M. Jacques. The primary concern of the plaintiffs in this situation was that the Indians had promised to pay for the damaged goods in the amount of $25, but were never seen again. There are several explanations that could help explain why the Ottawa set fire to the prairie near Perrysburg. The most obvious explanation is that they were setting a fire to flush animals out of the forest, however the lands that were ignited were not forest lands and the Indian agent who wrote the report from which this information is drawn states unequivocally that the Ottawa knew that by setting the fire, they risked burning the goods of Cox and Jacques. The most logical explanation, then, would be that the fire was set with the intention of destroying a symbol of the colonial forces being imported to the Maumee Valley. Based on their actions at Perrysburg in 1830, it would seem that some Ottawa were not content to allow the unhindered spread of white farms, which they associated with the loss of land rights and destruction of subsistence tasks.
The experience of the Ottawa with colonialism was not unique, rather it is illustrative of the experiences of most Native Americans as colonists entered their lands and brought changes in the forms of new religious ideas, vastly different cultural traits, and economic systems. What makes the Ottawa’s experience interesting is the fact that they played a central role in determining their fate by developing strategies to combat the influence of colonialism. It is true that in the long run the Ottawa were unsuccessful in their desire to remain in the Maumee Valley, but that experience reminds us today that the Indians were not merely foils of white settlers, rather they were human beings behaving as any group would when confronted with the threat of widespread change to their society.
