Page:Messages and Letters of William Henry Harrison Vol. 1.djvu/115

Rh chiefs (but who are really governed by an artful fellow called the Owl and Long Beard whom you once saw at the seat of government) utterly abhor both Wells and the Turtle. On this occasion however they may have been induced to join in the clamor from the expectation of deriving some advantage from it. After a careful and a dispassionate consideration of the subject I can see no reason to alter the opinion I had formed that neither the Miamis nor the Potawatomis have any just claim either in common or otherwise to any part of the Tracts ceded to the United States by the Delawares and Piankeshaws. The Delaware claim to that particular tract was derived from Present occupancy and from a grant said to have been made to them upwards of thirty years ago by the Piankeshaws. When the French first descended the Wabash the Piankeshaws were found in the possession of the country on either side of that River from its mouth at least as high up as the Vermilion and the possession of it has never been disputed excepting by the Delawares who claimed under the Piankeshaws and the Weas who have occupied the country above Point Coupee since their Towns at Ouiatenon were destroyed by Generals Scott and Wilkinson in the year 1791. That the Piankeshaws are a Tribe of the large confederacy which obtained the appelation of Miamis from the superior size of the particular Tribe to which that name more properly belonged is not denied. The tie however which united them with their brethren has become so feeble that for many years past the connection has been scarcely acknowledged. For a considerable time antecedent to the Treaty of Greeneville the Piankeshaws found it necessary to adopt a different policy from that which was pursued by the Tribes their Allies. Three considerable bodies of men led into the heart of their country by General Clark between the years 1779 and 1786convinced them that their union with the Miamis could not afford them the safety and protection which was no doubt the object of it and several conferences were held between General Clark and his officers and their chiefs which resulted in the establishment of peace between them and the United States. The proceedings at one of these Conferences is presented in Imlays History of Kentucky Vol. 2nd page 79 and no mention is made of the Miami Nation.