Through the Eyes of the First Treaty People

Through the Eyes of the First Treaty People

By Nicky Kay Michael, PhD

March 1782, led by Captain David Williamson, Pennsylvania militiamen brutally massacred approximately ninety-six peaceful Mahican, or Munsee Lenape at Gnadenhutten effectively ending a dream of thousands of Indigenous refugee survivors to live peacefully within the fledgling United States. A mere four years earlier in 1778, the United States signed the country’s first Treaty with the Delaware Indians, a sovereign Nation, ensuring peaceful relations, protection against infringements and violence, and an all-Indian state with a representative in Congress. As a result of this massacre, the main body of Lenape (Delaware) refused missionaries for over fifty years and were reduced to starvation and relocations, although Moravian missionaries continued their efforts among the Munsee. They lived a life on the move, continued their long-term alliance with their Shawnee relatives, and warred against the Americans. Delaware warriors brutally retaliated against Pennsylvania’s militia, capturing their men, torturing and burning Colonel William Crawford in September 1782. Although Crawford was not among Williamson’s men, the massacre and American actions sparked these retaliations. Delaware Nation, President Deborah Dotson commented on Treaty relations saying, “We were doing what we were supposed to, allowing Americans to pass through our lands. The Americans did not follow the Treaty.” No matter their circumstances, Delaware continued to fight for their existence until their final removals to Indian Territory, modern day Oklahoma, in the 1860s.

Primary education often teaches a history of North American “Indians” or “Native Americans,” in spurts. Students are exposed to Columbus and then quickly move forward 275 years later to 1778 and the United States promises of peace and protection to “the Indians,” and the treaty-making process. Today, many history books will at the very least acknowledge the hundreds of broken treaties which followed suit though rarely will mainstream history books or teachers explain what happened to our tribal people who signed that first treaty. While some inclusive teachers and Professors realize the full impact of the treaty relationship and aspire to teach their students, they are then hampered by time and bureaucratic requirements of what is most important in US history. To the Indigenous peoples, this Treaty is of high importance. Yet, how many people could answer the question, who was this first treaty with and whatever happened to the people? Even the best legal and history books often gloss over what happened to the First Indigenous Nation to sign with the United States, even while acknowledging this act set the precedence for the US Trust relationship to all Tribal Nations. More surprising is that the original Treaty of Fort Pitt has been tucked away at the National Archives, hidden from view for decades. Much like the Treaty itself, the Delaware, also known by “the people” or “Lenape” in their language, remain tucked away, hidden from view of modern Americans today, with no united land base to call their own. Today’s Lenape are far from their homeland of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. Six painful removals relocated the Lenape through four-hundred years of European colonization.

On May 15, 2018, the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC unveiled the 1778 Treaty of Fort Pitt. Delaware tribal leaders from the Stockbridge Munsee (Wisconsin), Canadian First Nations Moravian Delaware Nation (Moraviantown, Ontario), and Munsee Delaware (Muncy, Ontario), Delaware Nation (Anadarko, Oklahoma) and Delaware Tribe (Bartlesville, Oklahoma) were invited and each sent representatives except Stockbridge. Each of these Nations descend from the Lenape peoples whose leaders signed the agreement.

The event itself lasted most of the day, initiating by Lenape leaders gathering for breakfast. We were then escorted to the basement to literally lift the veil off the Treaty. When lifted, the emotion was palpable. Fighting back tears, each of us was invited to come close to what was ours; to touch the paper which still holds the dreams and wishes of our ancestors and the actual handwriting of those leaders who fought to the death so our Lenape people should live on. When approaching I asked if we could put tobacco for our ancestors with the Treaty and was told they had traditional tobacco if we wanted to use this. I was even more relieved to see one of our Osage relatives from Oklahoma answer my question with thoughtful consideration about the meaning of this. Although we could not take photos or go “live” on social media, a photographer met my requests for pictures of the signatures, especially for White Eyes’ descendants and Killbuck, my ancestor. Captain Pipe was the third signature. Even as I write this, the weight of a culture over ten thousand years old seems to culminate in these three signatures.

The costs for the trip were hundreds of dollars for me to attend so I was reluctant given our limited budget. Yet, with some surprising urging of tribal members, I agreed to go. As a PhD in History who spent the last thirty years studying and writing Lenape history, the entire event was surreal, a dream to meet with the very documents I had only written about; to know and be in the same air as a small surviving piece of them. I have to admit I felt guilty though because there were many of our people who also wanted to be there, especially those descendants of White Eyes.

After we all had time to gather ourselves and view the Treaty, we were taken upstairs to where our Treaty would be displayed. Executive Director of the Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian, Kevin Gover spoke first, introducing our Treaty, the unmet provisions, and the context of the precedence it set for the US Trust relationship with American Indians. Our Canadian Moravian-Lenape relative Brent Stonefish, sang an honor song and the cover was again lifted off of the document. The archivist cautioned against flashes because light disintegrates the paper. Moravian Delaware Nation Chief, Denise Stonefish spoke first thanking the Smithsonian and recognizing all the Lenape who was there. Delaware President Dotson spoke to our gratitude of this event and recognition of what the Treaty meant to Lenape people. She had nervously prepared a long speech for days but at the moment felt the genuine words of grateful acceptance was what the moment called. Chief Chester Brooks of the Delaware Tribe dedicated the event to the three signers, addressing the history of each leader. Captain Pipe, Konieschquanoheel-Maker of Light, was a war leader. Lenape people considered their leading men of war as “Captains” and Pipe was one of the best. He also marked Crawford’s face black for death. Killbuck, who was fiercely loyal to traditional Lenape ways, was another warrior who actively refuted any Moravians missionaries. Chief Brooks pointed out that shortly after White Eyes, Koquethagechton, signed the Treaty, he was murdered. While American soldiers told our people he died from smallpox, our ancestors knew they killed him.

Today, Lenape people are divided into three federally recognized Tribal Nations in the US and two First Nations in Canada. The survivors of America’s first Treaty Tribe were pushed westward and north with additional Treaties and removals. The main body, Delaware Tribe went through Missouri and Kansas and then into Oklahoma, plopped on top of the Cherokee Nation. The federal government arranged for their final residence to be swallowed up by the civilized Cherokees. However, the Delaware fought for another one-hundred and fifty years to retain their independent nationality. In the process, they had to relinquish any thoughts to trust land within the boundaries of what was the original Cherokee Nation. They remain landless in trust jurisdiction but have sought claims in Kansas, lands adjacent to the Cherokee Nation. Delaware Nation, formerly called the Absentee, split off from the Delaware shortly after White Eyes murder approximately 1784. They went down to Texas and lived among other refugees Indigenous, particularly the Caddo. They also became part of a larger network of southern Plains Tribes, Comanche and Kiowa. The Absentee were eventually forcefully removed to Anadarko Oklahoma. The Stockbridge Munsee were the northerners of the Lenape. They originally lived in New York and were strongly impacted early by missionaries. Munsee (Mahican) went straight to a reservation in Wisconsin in the early 18th century. Another Munsee branch, Delaware Nation resides in Moraviantown, Ontorio, and laud from the Gnadenhutten massacre. The massacre influenced their movements into Michigan and then Canada. The Munsee Delaware are the other Canadian branch.  Three of the Lenape (Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe, and Munsee Delaware) fought alongside the Tecumseh in the war of 1812 continuing to fight for a dream of an all-Indian state. 

In the ten years of teaching college and university students, both Native and Non-Native alike express the feelings of being lied to in their first thirteen years of primary education. More than one was moved to tears during class, expressing dismay from learning of destroyed societies, maimed cultures, and outright exterminated marginalized people. Some students feel wracked with the guilt of their ancestors and benefits they received as a result of enslavement of Indigenous, Manifest Destiny, Extermination, and Removal policies. As a Professor, nothing makes me feel better than the validation Native students feel when a Professor in front of the class not only tells their story of Indigenous lives, but more will insist that all students walk out of the course knowing that millions of Indigenous peoples lived in civilizations before the European invasion and that the first US Treaty began with the Delaware peoples. They will also know that the Treaty of Fort Pitt promised the Delaware a seat in Congress and that they would be the head of an all-Indian state.

Those who attended:

Delaware Tribe of Indians: Chief, Chet Brooks, Bonnie Jo Griffith, Benita Shea, Charles Randall, Nicky Kay Michael, Nathan Young IV

Delaware Nation: President, Deborah Dotson, Sue Stone

Delaware Nation Moraviantown: Chief Denise Stonefish, Brent Stonefish, Gordon Peters