Why Don't We Tell the Beginning of the Story?
Native Americans Were Here First

by Rich Meyer

A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. However, it is the storyteller who decides where the narrative begins.

I worked with Mennonite Central Committee in southern Africa in the early 1980s. At that time, the official version of South African history began in the 17th century, and it began with an unpopulated land, belonging to no one. This beginning then set the stage for the story of the settling of the land by European immigrants. 1

More recently, I have been studying the history of Israel/Palestine. As a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams I work with Israelis and Palestinians to protect the homes of West Bank Palestinians from demolition by the Israeli government. These demolitions are in part an attempt to bring the facts into line with the Zionist movement story of this land, which begins like this: "A land of no people for a people with no land." Over 400 Palestinian villages were obliterated and more today are "unrecognized" in an attempt to tell the story in a particular way. 2

Where do we begin our stories? Consider these two quotes from different articles in one recent Mennonite Historical Bulletin: "Kuntz owned the farm for 50 years, renting it to various tenants. He had bought it from Peter Gfeller, and in 1856 Gfeller had bought it from the original owner, John B. Neuenschwander." 3

Early accounts describe Potawatomi people as...

Or this: "The migration of the Amish and Amish-Mennonites to this northern part of Michigan occurred at the turn of this century. The land had been cleared of timber by the lumber companies in the latter part of the 19th century, and the companies were encouraging people to buy and settle the land. First, Amish migrants from Indiana . . ."4

Where we choose to begin telling our story creates a version of the story, in these cases a version that rather abruptly cuts out earlier actors, ignoring their story.

In the first case above, Peter Gfeller bought the land in question from John Neuenschwander less than a decade after the United States government created the title deed at a land sale in Des Moines. The land sale was held a few years after the Army took possession from the Sauk and Fox Indians. This in turn was only two years after the United States Army built Fort Des Moines for the express purpose of protecting the Indians from encroaching white settlement, in an attempt to minimize conflict. 5

What Have We Lost?

A quick survey of articles in the Mennonite Historical Bulletin reveals that about one-third touch on the origins of Amish-Mennonite (or related) settlements in the Americas. What does it do to our story to omit mention of the displaced Indian tribes, the treaties by which they were dispossessed, or where their descendants might be found today? 6

First, we are often not aware of the proximity in time between the dispossession of the Indians and the establishment of Mennonite communities. How often were we the immediate beneficiaries? How often did we discreetly enter the story of the land a few years later? Perhaps in most cases, speculators bought the land from the government, and Mennonites bought the land a few transactions later. To become aware, we will have to tell the stories from an earlier point of view.

This is not an attempt to determine "original" ownership. The concept does not seem helpful to me. It is about understanding the relationships of our forbears and our communities' founders to the dramatic cultural conquest taking place around them at the time. 7

In the second article quoted above, the Amish and Mennonites entered at the turn of the century, onto land that the Chippewa ceded at the Treaty of Isabella in 1864. But John Neuenschwander of Polk County, Iowa clearly arrived there before the dust had settled from the retreating Indians. 8

James Juhnke (9) notes that hundreds of Mennonites joined the invading boomers when the Indian Territory was opened in 1889 and after. Enough arrived so that by the time Oklahoma became a state in 1907 there were 37 white Mennonite congregations there. He cites two cases where early Mennonite missionaries to the Indians staked private claims in the land rush, and subsequently resigned from direct mission work. 10

We were in many places unquestionably such a part of the encroaching white settlement that the Indians and, on occasion, the federal government saw us as a threat to the Indians. 11

Unless we, the storytellers, make this vital connection, our readers will not consider how our possession was tied to the Indians' dispossession. It is only when we see this connection that the next questions come to mind: How did our forbears relate to the Indians? How did they think of land rights and land tenure? Did they perceive an injustice in what was happening to the Indians?

Second, omitting all mention of our Indian predecessors contributes to the ongoing denial of their existence and claims. In the same way that white South Africans and Zionists did not want to acknowledge the existence of prior inhabitants and their claims to the land, the United States government is at best inconsistent in recognizing the claims of Indian nations.

In the young United States, commissioners dealing with Indians prior to 1787 operated under the theory that the United States had conquered the Indians in the Revolutionary War and therefore already held title to the land. Stiff resistance by an intertribal confederacy convinced Congress that reliance on a claim of conquest would result in a long, bloody and expensive war.

Backing away from that claim in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Congress declared that Indian "land and property shall never be taken from them without their consent." The Treaty of Fort Harmar in 1789 confirmed that the United States now explicitly recognized the principle that the Indians had a right to their land. 12

President Andrew Jackson's message to Congress December 6, 1830

However, a succession of broken treaties and acts of Congress abrogating treaties demonstrated ambivalence about how to relate to Indian nations that continues to this day. The fundamental confusion has been over whether Indian tribes are nations, with collective rights and a measure of sovereignty, or simply protected classes of citizens. The most basic conflict was about different understandings of land tenure. Congress finally insisted with the Dawes Severalty Act (1887) that the Indians accept private individual ownership of land. Juhnke called this "a strategy for tribal destruction." 13

Passage of the Dawes Act indicated the sense of Congress that the Indians were not a nation apart, but rather, were subjects for whom Congress could legislate. More recently, in "settling" treaty claims in Alaska (1971), Maine (1980), South Dakota (1980), and Massachusetts (1987), Congress and the courts have imposed monetary settlements. In these acts there is both an assertion of jurisdiction and an abrogation of treaty rights.

Menominee's refusal to "enroll for removal."

Third, leaving the Indians out of our stories leads to leaving them out of our lives. If we recognize their story, and our connection with their story, then perhaps we will recognize them when we meet them in our newspapers, on our streets, and in our churches.

Our relations with Indians are a present possibility, not just an historical footnote. After we acknowledge that the Potawatomi once lived in Elkhart County, maybe we can acknowledge that they are still alive today, on reservations from northern Wisconsin to Oklahoma. When we open ourselves to the present reality of Indians, learn to know them and their concerns, we may discover shared agenda, new agenda, or conflict. 14

We need to address the problem of beginning our reports on our settlements without making the connection to the loss of the previous inhabitants. To do this, we may need to become familiar with some different resources or research in some new places.

Learning to Tell More of the Story

Imagine that the Historical Committee would adopt a policy that all Mennonite Historical Bulletin articles touching on the origins of Amish-Mennonite communities must include mention of the tribes displaced, the articles of cession by which they were dispossessed, and where their descendants might be found today. (Editor's note: Short of making it a policy, the Historical Committee directed the editor to include such data whenever possible.) Where would you learn this? Would this send you to unfamiliar sources? How would you as a church historian research this part of the story?

Let me list some of the resources available to you which are useful in this research:

1. Any local title deed abstract will give you some important dates. Here is the first item on the abstract for the farm where I live: "United States of America, to Seymour Moses. . . By Certificate of Entry, May 21, 1833, No. 2101." The second item continues, "In consideration of full payment under Certificate No. 2101, Give and Grant the Northeast Quarter . . . of lands subject to sale at Fort Wayne, Indiana . . ."

2. Your county historical society may have most of the information you need. The Elkhart County Historical Society has a significant collection, maps, and a five-page paper on Native American Culture in Elkhart County, Indiana. Knowledgeable museum staffs are available to guide groups to local Indian sites. At the very least, you should be able to ascertain the names of the tribes that lived in your area. 15

3. Your local library may have reference books, books in circulation, or specific collections relevant to Indian inhabitants of your area. The Goshen Public Library provided useful materials in all of these categories. From the reference shelves I was shown a Handbook of American Indians (16) that listed 37 treaties with the Potawatomi by date and place of signing. On the shelves I found a book that included a map of thirteen major Potawatomi land cessions by date and location, (17) and in the "Indiana" room I found the Journal of an Emigrating Party of Pottawattomie Indians, 1838. 18

4. Kappler's Indian Treaties contains the full text of every United States Indian treaty. Every treaty of cession includes a description of the land being ceded. From these descriptions I am able to locate all of Goshen, Indiana, (and my home) in the land ceded by the Treaty of Carey Mission, September 20, 1828.

5. If you are unable to locate Kappler's Indian Treaties (19) but you know what treaty you want, the Avalon Project of Yale University will put the text of any treaty on their website. Go to www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm or search for "Avalon" in the "Education" category. From the home page of the Avalon Project there is a link to "Major Collections," and then in an alphabetical listing to "Treaties Between the United States and Native Americans." The treaties on-line are listed by date. If the treaty you want is not available, linking to "E-mail comments" from the home page will let you send your request to william.fray@yale.edu. In my experience, only two days elapsed until the answer to my request was available on-line.

6. Indiana roadside historical markers are all on a searchable database. This means you can search for any word, and find the locations and complete text of all roadside historical markers containing that word. A search for "Potawatomi" turns up seven roadside markers in seven different counties. Go to www.statelib.lib.in.us/www/ihb/ihb.html or search for "Indiana Historical Marker." I have not found equally useful sites for any other states, although Ohio is working on providing this information. 20

7. The Bureau of Indian Affairs maintains eleven area offices. Contact the area office for your region. Russell Publications sells United States maps showing federally-recognized and state-recognized tribes with lands. Contact them at http://www.indiandata.com/, e-mail russell@indiandata.com, or 9027 North Cobra Drive, Phoenix AZ 85028.

The Story Continues

There is certainly room for more research and reporting on the relationship of Mennonites and Native Americans. Mennonite interaction with Native Americans has gone through many phases since the days of frontier conflict (e.g. the "Hochstetler massacre" of September 1757) and displacement. Mission schools, hospitals, and churches were established, and MCCers have entered native communities on a variety of assignments. Some of these stories have been well-documented, some have not. At the time of this writing, representation of Native American Mennonites in the leadership structures of the new Mennonite Church is still under discussion.

I have dealt here only with the United States experience. In Canada there is a growing awareness, reflected in increasing use of the term "first nations," and in the recognition that native land claims represent the rights of a prior nation that suffered an uncompensated loss. The United States, in both official policy and public opinion, is less willing to recognize native claims. South Dakota Governor William Janklow recently dismissed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 on the grounds that all of the people who signed the treaty are now dead! 21

Today there are Mennonites serving with a Christian Peacemaker Team in Pierre, South Dakota. They are monitoring the city, state and federal government responses to an encampment of Lakota on Sioux treaty land. The CPTers are living with the Lakota who are protesting an attempted land grab by Governor Janklow and South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle. South Dakota is trying to get 100,000 acres of Sioux treaty land that has been in the control of the United States Army Corps of Engineers for the last 50 years. Daschle has put legislation to transfer the land to South Dakota in two bills to date. The House of Representatives voted to repeal Sen. Daschle's first attempt, but the conference committee did not adopt the repeal language in the final version. 22

In assigning a team to work with the Lakota, Christian Peacemaker Teams has in effect suggested that Mennonites view the injustice of United States disregard for Indian treaties in the same category as Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes and Mexican government support of paramilitaries in Chiapas. 23

CPT asked supporters to call on Congress to repeal the land grab legislation, and raised the issue in a vigil under the Arch of Westward Expansion during the Mennonite General Assembly in St. Louis. 24

Where do our stories begin? As storytellers, North American church historians must answer this question. Let us see how our stories change, and how our stories change us, when we consider how we have entered the story of the Indians. 25

Rich H. Meyer, Goshen, Indiana, is a farmer and mechanic who works half-time for Christian Peacemaker Teams. Since researching the forced removal of the Potawatomi from northern Indiana he has led educational field trips and given elementary school programs on this
subject.
______________________________________

Endnotes:

1. Tsotsi, W.M., From Chattel to Wage Slavery, Lesotho Printing and Publishing Co., Maseru, Lesotho 1981, p. 15, citing the State Dept. of Information, Multi-national Development in South Africa, the Reality, Pretoria 1974, p. 22.

2. Wagner, Donald E., Anxious for Armageddon, Herald Press, Scottdale, Pa. 1995, p. 92. This phrase credited to Theodor Herzl and Israel Zangwell. The population of Palestine was about 500,000 (94% Arab) when they introduced this phrase at the First Zionist Congress, 1847.

3. Currie, Roxana, "Log Cabin Captures a Moment in History," Mennonite Historical Bulletin, Vol. LVII No. 4, October 1996, p. 8.

4. Stoesz, Dennis, "Ora Troyer: Steward of His Community's History," Mennonite Historical Bulletin, Vol. LVII No. 4, October 1996, p. 1.

5. World Book, Vol. 5, World Book, Chicago 1991, p. 165.

6. It is also true that some Mennonite Historical Bulletin articles have included relevant information on relations with Indians. For example, see the article by Greg Hartzler-Miller in the October 1997 MHB, Vol. LVIII No. 4, p. 5.

7. Juhnke, James C., "General Conference Mennonite Missions to the American Indians in the Late Nineteenth Century," Mennonite Quarterly Review, Vol. 54, April 1980, p. 118-119.

8. These tribes may have been displaced by settlers (including Amish/Mennonite?) more than once. The Sauk and Fox Indians were forced out of Wisconsin by the French in the 18th century, then out of Illinois in the early 19th century by the federal government to make room for white settlers there.

9. Juhnke, p. 132.

10. According to Juhnke, the mission board's objection was not that the missionaries had compromised themselves by taking land which originally belonged to Indians, but that land interests and speculation kept them from devoting their full attention to genuine mission work. In other words, the mission board was more concerned with its own loss than with the Indians' loss. In support, Juhnke cites The Mennonite, January 1897, p. 31.

11. Some treaties included specific commitments by the United States to restrain white settlement. From Article 5 of the Treaty of Greenville (1795): "The United States will protect all the said Indian tribes in the quiet enjoyment of their lands against all citizens of the United States, and against all other white persons who intrude upon the same." Article 6: "If any citizen of the United States, or any other white person or persons, shall presume to settle upon the lands now relinquished by the United States, such citizen or other person shall be out of the protection of the United States; and the Indian tribe, on who land the settlement shall be made, may drive off the settler, or punish him in such manner as they shall think fit . . ." The Indian land to be so protected in this treaty included from what is now Wayne and Holmes counties in Ohio to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River.

12. Wallace, Anthony F.C., The Long Bitter Trail, Hill and Wang, New York 1993, p. 32.

13. Juhnke, p. 199.

14. Shared agenda: I met and worked alongside Anishinabe trying to close the United States Navy ELF (Extremely Low Frequency) transmitter in Wisconsin. For me, ELF represents our nation's sinful commitment to nuclear first-strike capability. For the Indians, the environmental damage of the ELF antenna situated between their reservations is a crime against the earth. (I imagine there were similar political forces at work in placing the ELF facility between Indiana reservations as in locating landfills predominately in minority communities.)
New agenda: an anti-racism team at Assembly Mennonite Church in Goshen, Indiana, is raising questions about the use of "Redskins" as the name of the Goshen High School sports teams.
Conflict: church leaders in Indiana have led the opposition to plans by tribal groups for gambling facilities. But have there been face-to-face contacts between the church leaders and the tribal leaders?

15. In this regard I acknowledge with gratitude the invaluable service of Cliff Pequet, a volunteer with the Elkhart County Historical Society.

16. Hodge, Frederick Webb, Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 30, Handbook of American Indians, Part 2 (North of Mexico), Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 1910.

17. Edmunds, R. David, Potawatomis: Keeper of the Fire, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 1978.

18. Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 21 No. 4, Department of History of Indiana University, with the cooperation of the Indiana Historical Society and the Indiana State Library, Bloomington, Ind., December 1925, p. 315.

19. Kappler, Charles J., LL.M., ed., Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, Vol. II (Treaties), Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 1904.

20. Verhoff, Andrew J., Historical Agency Consultant, Local History Office, Ohio Historical Society, e-mail message of September 9, 1999: "As of yet, the texts of Ohio's historical markers are not on OHS's web site, but we have plans to put them up before Ohio's Bicentennial in 2003 (sooner rather than later)."

21. Friesen, Ron, Loveland, Colorado, e-mail report of Wednesday, July 14, 1999, Ron Friesen, CPT: ". . . Governor Janklow has said that since neither he nor anyone living today signed that treaty that it was null and void.. . . ." Janklow's quote of March 22, 1999, as reported to CPT by Lakota youth present: "I didn't sign any treaty, you didn't sign any treaty, none of us here signed any treaty."

22. A wealth of information on current and recent legislation is available at http://thomas.loc.gov/.

23. In both of these international contexts in which CPT is working, United States support is seen as an important factor in the persistence of the injustice being addressed.

24. July 24, 1999.

25. I have used varied vocabulary---Indians, Native Americans, members of first nations---because I have heard the people I am identifying ask for all of these in different contexts. It is my assumption that preferred terminology will vary from place to place and over time, as it has in the past. I attempt to allow individuals and groups to name themselves, and if the labels I have used offend, I apologize.

 

 

 

Early accounts describe Potawatomi people as...

- stocky
- liked practical jokes
- women modest
- most activities (games) had spiritual significance
- wore hair long except during war when they shaved their head except for a         small scalp lock
- women, single braid down their back; considered tribal historians
- both made jewelry, excelled in beadwork
- polygamous, single male marrying two or more sisters
- cross-cousin marriage encouraged
- domed wigwams (woven brush); winter more tightly constructed
- farmed wild rice, maple syrup, corn
- men expected to develop close relationship with sisters' sons
- grave a hollowed out tree or four foot grave (illus. low lying box)
- believed departed soul traveled to the west, assisted by Chibiabos
- entrance of French: dependence on trade goods enriched and destroyed         Potawatomi culture

(Notes from "Trail of Death: The story of the forced removal of Potawatomi Indians from Indiana to Kansas in 1838" Video, 1992, 27 Minutes, Color. Available from Wayne Harvey Video Publications, South Bend, Indiana, 219-234-5670.

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President Andrew Jackson, second annual message to Congress, Dec 6, 1830: "It gives me great pleasure to announce to congress that the benevolent policy of the government steadily pursued for nearly thirty years in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation. Two important tribes have accepted to provisions made for the removal at the last session of congress and it is believed their example will induce the remaining tribes also to seek the same obvious advantages. Doubtless, it will be painful to leave the graves of their fathers. But what do they do more than our ancestors did or their children are now doing." (Notes from "Trail of Death: The story of the forced removal of Potawatomi Indians from Indiana to Kansas in 1838" Video).

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When a government agent demanded that Menominee and his people leave their homelands, the chief refused, saying: "The President (Martin Van Buren had become president in 1837, following Andrew Jackson) does not know that your treaty is a lie, that I never signed it. He does not know that you made my young chiefs drunk and got their consent and pretended to get mine. He does not know that I refuse to sell my lands, and still refuse. He would not by force drive me from my home, the graves of my tribes and my children who have gone to the great spirit, nor allow you to tell me your braves will take me, tied like a dog, if he knew the truth. My brother the president is just, but he listens to the words of the young chiefs who have lied, and when he knows the truth he will leave me to my own. I have not sold my lands; I will not sell them. I have not signed any treaty and will not sign any. I am not going to leave my lands and I don't want to hear anything more about it."

On Aug 30, 1838 General John Tipton arrived with a band of 100 armed volunteers. They surrounded the village (south of present-day Plymouth, Indiana), took Menominee captive and forced the remaining Potowatomis to "enroll for removal." On September 4, more than 850 Natives were marched at gunpoint toward Kansas. Memonimee was locked in a caged wagon. "What becomes of him, no one knows." (Notes from "Trail of Death: The story of the forced removal of Potawatomi Indians from Indiana to Kansas in 1838" Video, and Edmunds, R. David, The Potawatomis, Keepers of the Fire, University of Oklahoma Press, 1978, p. 267.)

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