Allen County, Indiana Genealogy

True Indian stories : with glossary of Indiana Indian names by Dunn, Jacob Piatt, 1855-1924 Publication date 1909 on Archive.org
Almost 20 more titles under subject Indians of North America -- Indiana

Logan, Shawnee chief by the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Publication date 1954, on Archive.org. Also in Pamphlet 7 of a series.
Logan the Orator was a Cayuga orator and war leader born of one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. After his 1760s move to the Ohio Country, he became affiliated with the Mingo, a tribe formed from Seneca, Cayuga, Lenape and other remnant peoples.Copied from Wikipedia.
FOREWORD: The following letters were written to an unknown correspondent and were signed only with initials. These communications were previously published in the DAILY INDIANA JOURNAL on December 4 and December 8, 1852.

The Indians of Delaware County, on page 34 of Series 7 Pamphlets by the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Publication date 1954, on Archive.org.

General Harmar's campaign [1790] by the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Publication date 1954, on Archive.org.
FOREWORD: General Josiah Harmar's ill-fated campaign in 1790 was the first of three historic expeditions against the Indians in the Old Northwest. The defeat of General Arthur St. Clair followed in 1791, and the victory of General Anthony Wayne in 1794. The first article in this pamphlet identifies the exact sites of the Indian villages around the three rivers. The destruction of these villages was one of the objectives of Harmar's campaign. The journal of one of Harmar's soldiers and admirers provides a firsthand account of this expedition and is printed as the second article. The third article is a speech delivered by James McGrew at a meeting of the Maunnee Valley Monumental and Historical Association on August 15, 1888.

St. Clair's defeat 1791 on page 56 of Series 7 Pamphlets by the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Publication date 1954, on Archive.org. Hear a reading of St. Clair's Defeat by Phil Schempf by Anonymous. See November 4, 1791 on our Timeline.
FOREWORD: Several survivors of St. Clair's Defeat wrote vivid accounts of their experiences during that terrible battle. These personal reports detail one of the worst defeats ever suffered by an American army. Encouraged by victories over the forces of Generals Harmar and St. Clair, the Indians preyed upon the defenseless frontier. Therefore, the success of General Wayne's expedition, undertaken in 1792 to subdue the redskins, was of primary importance to the development of the West. The first of the three articles in this pamphlet contains the accounts which Henry Howe included in his HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO, first published in 1847. Sources of quotations used in Howe's COLLECTIONS are not always clear, but the material is considered of sufficient historical significance to warrant reprinting without exact citations. The second item appeared in the INDIANA HERALD on April 13, 1864. The third article is a brief newspaper report which was published in the INDIANA STATE JOURNAL on September 27, 1851.

Dark and Bloody Ground on page 196 of Pamphlets by Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Publication date 1953, on Archive.org.
FOREWORD In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, hundreds of settlers on the American frontier experienced tragic encounters with the savages. On June 8, 1833, the INDIANA JOURNAL printed the following article vividly narrating the misfortunes of James and Eliza Morgan in Kentucky. Personal details add interest and suspense to the story. The Boards and the Staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County reprint this newspaper account because of its historical significance. Similar harrowing experiences were endured by many other frontier families. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation have been changed to conform to current usage.

The phrase “A dark and bloody ground…” a 2023 look one-hundred-ninety years after the 1833 event.

November 28, 2023 post by Cumberland Gap National Historical Park  on Facebook:

“A dark and bloody ground…”

These words, used by the Cherokee leader, Dragging Canoe, to describe Kentucky before the arrival of white settlers. It was falsely construed by many Americans to mean that the land was not settled at all until Daniel Boone came along.

This myth ignored the Shawnee Nation, who settled in the area and claimed the land south to the Cumberland River. In addition, the Cherokee Nation, a rival of the Shawnee, also lived in the area around the Cumberland Gap. Members of the Cherokee Nation contend that they had settlements in what is now Kentucky long before any Europeans arrived on the scene. By the 1600s, however, their populations had declined so severely from disease that they were forced to abandon these settlements. After moving south, the Cherokee continued to use the Gap and the Wilderness Road for hunting, trade, and war.

In 1775, a land speculator named Richard Henderson made an unauthorized treaty with Cherokee leaders—among them Chief Attakullakulla—at Sycamore Shoals. The treaty gave the Cherokee 10,000 pounds of trade goods in exchange for 20,000,000 acres of land between the Ohio, Cumberland, and Kentucky rivers. Attakullakulla’s son, Tsiyu Gansini (Dragging Canoe), objected to the treaty, arguing it would lead to the end of the Cherokee people. He and many Cherokees resisted, waging a war against colonists that lasted until the 1790s. At the conclusion of this war, the Cherokee gave up Kentucky and much of Tennessee.

These events were just the beginning of the Cherokees’ tumultuous struggle to remain in their ancestral lands until they were ultimately forced westward by the Indian Removal Act of 1830. #NativeAmericanHistoryMonth #Cherokee

Image: Oklahoma History Center

218 page A mission to the Indians, from the Indian committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, to Fort Wayne, in 1804 by Hopkins, Gerard T; Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends; Tyson, Martha Ellicott, 1795-1873, Publication date 1862 on Archive.org.
See shorter 24 page version below:

24 page A Quaker pilgrimage : being a mission to the Indians from the Indian Committee of the Baltimore Yearly Meeting to Fort Wayne, 1804 by Godfrey, Alene Publication date 1959 on Archive.org.

The Massacre at Pigeon Roost page 306 in Pamphlets Volume 7 by the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Publication date 1953, on Archive.org.
FOREWORD Fort Wayne was relatively undisturbed by the outbreak of the War of 1812. Although the Indian allies of the British opened hostilities elsewhere, most of Indiana remained quiet. That quiet, however, was shattered by the attack on Pigeon Roost in Scott County, September 3, 1812. While a group of Indians murdered the inhabitants of the little hamlet, others were gathering to lay siege to Fort Wayne. The following accounts of the Pigeon Roost massacre vary in some details. Messrs. Paine and Moffit in the first account maybe the same persons referred to as Payne and Coffman in the second account. Likewise, the names Collins and Dewalt appear as Collings and Devault in the second account. These items are reprinted as published, except that the staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County has reconciled grammar, punctuation, and spelling with current practice.

Why the War of 1812 Was a Turning Point for Native Americans The conflict was their last, best chance for outside military help to protect their homelands from westward expansion. By Vincent Schilling posted Nov 16, 2022 at History.com. 

The Massacre of the Moravian Indians on page 326 in Pamphlets Volume 7 by Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Publication date [195-], on Archive.org.
FOREWORD The massacre of the Moravian Indians was an evil and violent deed for which frontier Americans paid with their own blood and which resulted in the revulsion which succeeding generations have felt for them. The following narrative recounts the almost unbelievable story of the massacre and the hideous experiences of Captain Crawford and others who bore the brunt of Indian vengeance. It first appeared as an article in the INDIANA JOURNAL on August 31, 1833. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation have been changed to conform to current usage.

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