Dear Cousins, My internet problems are stilll not resolved and now I've got a $644 bill with the phone company for the new service I never got! OY! Isn't technology wonderful? I'm still getting on long enough to get messages after four or five tries to connect, and that's about it. I'm determined to have this resolved by the first of May so I can get pages loaded to the website. I have an historical overview of Northeast and New England settlement which I hope will answer questions about the North Eastern tribes (First the Five Nations, then called the Six Nations), how they might have been in Illinois and the connection to Quakers. In the meantime, and ever so briefly, the Six Nations (Onandagas, Mohawks, Oneidas, Senecas, Iroquois, and Tuscarawas) ranged over the area of Northeastern US and southeastern Canada to the Great Lakes. You may remember in the 1960's the Kinzua dam being built in NW NY, and flooding Seneca lands where (among others) the great Seneca leader, Cornplanter was buried. George Washington had signed the original treaty guaranteeing the Senecas this land. Until the mid-18th century French fur traders and trappers were the principal white influence among the Six Nations. As a French-English struggle for control of "western" lands began developing, the Indians well understood it was their land that was being contested. Ultimately they joined forces with the French in what became the Seven Years War, or the French Indian war. Christopher Gist had undertaken to explore the Ohio River Country for the Virginians who had formed the Ohio Land Company. In the dead of winter in 1752-3 Gist guided George Washington on a spying trip along the Monongahela beyond (now) Pittsburgh to see what the French were up to, and determine their strength. It was an amazing trip in every aspect, revealing much about the character of both men, and the abilities it took to survive on the frontier in the 18th century. More about that in my article! There are published journals for both men, and they make wonderful reading. Additionally, there are maps, and names of people and places in this frontier wilderness. Washington's map was for the purpose of building forts. The Indians ranged up and down the Appalachians, hunting, trading, living, fighting. The barrier created by the mountains had essentially created a symbolic dividing line -- a frontier -- between European settlers and the "wild" Indians and the wild western lands. The French were Catholic and the religious presence they brought into the equation was Catholic. The English were Protestant. The Indians embraced the French during the "official" war in the mid-century. The English defeated the French and their Indian allies in the north. The actual hostilities with the southern Appalachian tribespeople went on and on and was not truly over until well after the Revolutionary War -- around 1800. The final solution to the Indian problem was determined when Andrew Jackson ignored the Supreme Court's ruling on the matter and marched the SE Indians along the Trail of Tears to "Indian Territory" throughout the late 1830's and early 1840's. William Penn had established equitable relationships with the Delaware (Lenape) Indians The Delawares were of Iroquoian stock, but were not warriors. Penn's Quakers were of course, not fighters either. This resulted in a fairly harmonious arrangement, and when the Quakers began migrating into other regions they took their rules of fair treatment along with them. It was the aim of all religious elements to "civilize" the Indians -- turn "savages-heathens" (unknowing of God) into proper Christians. When the French/Catholics were out of the picture, the Quakers often stepped in to minister to the Indians, act as their "agents," help them in negotiations, etc. They first became missionaries and then much later in the 1800's often served as the actual the Indian agents on the reservations. Love, Your Cousin, Carolyn Carolyn McDaniel cmacdee@teleport.com ========================================= --- Visit American Crossroads --- http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~amxroads