Premiums for Indian Scalps

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The History of Warren County, Ohio

Premiums for Indian Scalps

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Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 28 Oct 2004

Sources:
The History of Warren County Ohio
Part III, The History of Warren County
Chapter IV. Pioneer History
(Chicago, IL: W. H. Beers Co, 1882; reprint, Mt. Vernon, IN: Windmill Publications, 1992)
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The long war which was ended with Wayne's treaty at Greenville was a cruel one. The Miami country was known as the " Miami Slaughter-House." The depredations of the savages led the settlers into some measures of defense which it is not pleasant to record. It is perhaps not generally known that men of high standing formed a committee to publish a notice offering premiums for Indian scalps. Warren County was included in the district within which young men were offered inducements to range the woods "to prevent savages from committing depredations on defenseless citizens." Early in the spring of 1794, a subscription paper was in circulation at Columbia to provide premiums for scalps of Indians. And in the Centinel of the Northwest Territory of May 17, 1794, a committee, consisting of L. Woodward, Darius C. Orcutt and James Lyons, of Cincinnati, and William Brown, Ignatius Ross and John Reily, of Columbia, publish a notice offering rewards for Indian scalps taken between the 18th of April and the 25th of December, 1794, in a district beginning on the Ohio ten miles above the mouth of the Little Miami, extending ten miles west of the Great Miami, and twenty-five back into the country, above where Harmar's trace crosses the Little Miami, and in a direct line west. Rewards were offered as follows:

"That for every scalp having the right ear appendant, for the first ten Indians who shall be killed within the time and limits aforesaid, by those who are subscribers to the said articles, shall, whenever collected, be paid the sum of $136, and for every scalp of the like number of Indians, having the right ear appendant, who shall be killed within the time and limits aforesaid by those who are not subscribers, the Federal troops excepted, shall, whenever collected, be paid the sum of $100; and for every scalp having the right ear appendant of the second ten Indians who shall be killed within the time and limits aforesaid, by those who are subscribers to the said articles, shall, whenever collected as aforesaid, be paid the sum of $117; and for every scalp having the right ear appendant of the second ten Indians who shall be killed within the time and limits aforesaid by those who are not subscribers to the said articles shall, whenever collected, be paid the sum of $95."

Wayne's decisive victory over the Indians on the 20th of August, 1794, put a a check to their depredations, but did not at once reduce them to absolute submission. The first settlements in Warren County were begun in 1795. During the winter and spring of this year, six months after Wayne's victory, there were occasional reports of murders of white men by the Indians. In February, two white men were killed near the mouth of the Great Miami, and in March, one man was killed and eight horses stolen in the village of North Bend. On the 7th of May, the Indians stole nine horses from Ludlow's Station, only five miles from Cincinnati, and, though pursued, made their escape. The treaty of peace at Greenville, concluded August 3, 1795, put an end to the murder of white men by Indians in the Miami settlements, but horses continued to be stolen by them. Judge Symmes thought that white men who bought horses from the Indians were to blame, as the Indians would steal horses to take the place of those they had sold. The Judge wrote to Gen. Dayton, in 1796, that he wished Con-

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gress would make it a penal offense for a white man to buy a horse from an Indian, as no Indian would walk when he could steal a horse.

Sometimes, however, a white man would steal a horse from the Indians, and we have the record of the conviction of at least one man for this offense. In March, 1790, at Cincinnati, the seat of justice for the whole Miami region, Daniel McKean, lately arrived from New Jersey, was found guilty of stealing a horse from an Indian. He was sentenced to pay the red man $1, and to receive thirty-nine lashes in the most public streets of the town, and bear on the front of his hat, during the infliction of the punishment, a paper, with the inscription, in large letters: "I stole a horse from the Indians."


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This page created 28 Oct 2004 and last updated 15 March, 2005
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