Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/781

 DELAWARES 777 Easton in 1757, and the rest after the fall of Fort Duquesne. The Delawares then centred at Wyalusing and other points on the Susque- hanna, the Christian Indians with their mis- sionaries apart. A number soon after settled on the Muskingum, while the Munsees halted on the Alleghany. Smarting under a sense of wrong, many Delawares, led by a prophet, took part with Pontiac, and were among those who besieged Detroit, Fort Pitt, and other frontier posts. They were totally defeated by Bou- quet at Bushy Run in August, 1763, Teedyus- cung, their chief, being killed. The whites then ravaged the Delaware towns on the Sus- quehanna. The Moravian converts, who had taken no part in the war, fled to Philadelphia ; and they were already in New Jersey, on the way to New York, when that colony refused to admit them. After remaining nearly a year at Philadelphia, they returned to the Susque- hanna. The hostile Delawares, under Custa- loga and Turtle Heart, made peace on the Mus- kingum in 1764, and with Oroghan at Fort Pitt in 1765 ; the great prophet, in the name of the Great Spirit, directing them to lay down the hatchet. A general emigration followed, and by 1768 the Delawares ceased to exist east of the Alleghanies. The Moravians emi- grated with their flock, and on the Ohio the number of Christian Indians increased ; but the hostile feeling prevailed, and Delaware bands kept the field till they were completely broken in the bloody battle at Pleasant Point, in September, 1774. When the revolutionary war began, this party, won over by the Eng- lish, renewed hostilities, although a part of the nation, with Capt. White Eyes, Capt. Kill- buck, and Capt. Pipe, made a treaty with con- gress at Fort Pitt in 1778. The Christian In- dians had been settled on the Muskingum in 1772 by the great council of the Delaware nation, and formed three towns, Gnadenhutten being that of the Delawares. They took no part in the war, but kept cultivating their fields till 1781, when the English captured their towns and removed them to Sandusky. A part of these Indians, returning to their old homes to save some of their crops, were attacked by the Americans, who massacred 90 ; the rest fled to Huron river and to Canada. The treaty of Fort Mclntosh in 1785, renewed at Fort Harmar in 1789, guaranteed to the Delawares the lands between the Cuyahoga and Miami, up to Lake Erie, and ordinances of 1785 and 1787 reserved lands on the Muskingum for the Christians; but difficulties arose, and these Delawares formed the town of Fairfield, on the Thames, in Canada, on lands granted by the English government; only a small band returned to the Muskingum. The rest of the tribe were still hostile in heart, and had 480 warriors near Grand Glaize, 400 of whom, under Buck- ongehelas, were with the Miamis in the defeat of St. Clair, in November, 1791. Upon Wayne's victory they made peace at Greenville in 1795 ; after which the government, by a series of treaties, obtained the cession of the lands claimed by them between the Ohio and Wabash and elsewhere. In 1808 there were 800 at Wapeminskink and other towns on White river, a small band on Whitewoman creek near Sandusky, a few on the Muskingum, and a large body at Fairfield. In the war with Great Britain the Delawares refused to join Tecumseh, but preserved then- fidelity to the United States. They joined the United States in a curious treaty at Greenville, July, 1814, in giving peace to the hostile tribes. The body in Canada suffered, Fairfield being de- stroyed by the Americans in 1814. In 1818 the Delawares ceded all their lands to the Uni- ted States by the treaty of St. Mary's, and re- moved to White river, Missouri, to the number of 1,800, leaving only a small band in Ohio. Another change soon followed. Some went south to Red river; but the mass of the na- tion, by treaty of Oct. 24, 1829, were settled on the Kansas and Missouri. They numbered about 1,000; were brave, enterprising hunters on the plains, cultivated some land, and were friendly to the whites. By this time the Baptists and Methodists had missions and schools among them, the Moravians still caring for the old Christian band. Some Munsees and Delawares from Wisconsin joined them in 1844, and some were with the Shawnees. In the west they met the experience of all; they suffered from the Sioux and other wild tribes, and from lawless whites. They sold to the United States in 1853 all the lands granted them except a suitable reservation in Kansas, applied the money judiciously, improved their farms, and built a Methodist church. They were unaffected by the Kansas troubles, ex- cept a few who were among the Shawnees; and during the civil war, when they numbered 1,085, they sent to the United States army 170 out of their 201 able-bodied men, and proved efficient soldiers and guides in operations against the south and the Sioux. They had now given up most of their Indian ways, had abandoned wigwams for comfortable houses, and, though too indolent, still advanced in agriculture. In 1866 their reservation was cut up by the Pacific railroad, and they finally sold the whole to the Missouri railroad, and early in 1868 settled on lands on the Verdigris and Cane, which they had acquired from the Cherokees. Here the main body of the Dela- wares still are ; a party who went to the Peo- rias having returned, and small bands only still lying without among the Wichitas and Kio- was. They adopted a code of laws in 1866; but a treaty made with the United States in that year having authorized them to become citizens, they elected to do so, received and divided the funds held for their benefit, took lands in severalty, and ceased to be regarded as a tribe. To the last the old clan division of Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf was retained, and will probably survive for a time. The lan- guage of the Delawares is one of the best