September

September in Native American History      By Phil Konstantin (copyright 1996-2013)

September 1st
1640: A treaty agreement cover land cessions between the Mohegan and Connecticut will be reached today.
1866: Manuelito and twenty-three of his Navajo followers surrender to the army at Fort Wingate.
September 2nd
1779: General John Sullivan, and his force of 4,500 men continue their attacks on Indians in New York who he suspects are British Allies. His forces level Catherine’s Town.
1862: Santee Sioux engage in another fight in the Minnesota Uprising. Called the “Birch Coulee Battle,” it happens three miles north of Morton, Minnesota. The Minnesota forces are led by Major Joseph Brown. The Sioux are led by Big Eagle, Mankato, and Red Legs. The army has been on a burial detail. At dawn, the Sioux attack. The soldiers lose thirteen killed and forty-seven wounded.
September 3rd
1523: Maya King Ahkal Mo’ Naab’ II is born. Eventually, he rules over Palenque, Mexico
1680: Don Antonio de Otermin is the Governor of the province which contains modern Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Pueblo Indians staged a revolt in August. Otermin enters Isleta Pueblo and discovers it is abandoned.
September 4th
1854: A peace treaty is signed with the Modocs of Tule Lake. They are out of supplies, by this time. The fighting started on August 18, 1854.
1863: The Concow-Maidu had ancestral homes in the Butte County area of northern California. Eventually, they were forced to move to different lands. Many die or are killed along the way to these distant, hostile places. One group of 461 Concows leaves Chico, but only 277 will survive the two-week trip to Round Valley.
September 5th
1785: Georgians continue to trespass on Creek lands. Chief Alexander McGillivray writes Congress demanding that they protect his people from the settlers which previous treaties has promised.
1814: Today sees the start of the two day battle of Credit Island, near present day Davenport, Iowa. Major Zackary Taylor, and 334 American soldiers are making their way up the Mississippi River attacking British positions with considerable success. They encounter a force of 1000 Indians and British. The allied army forces Taylor to withdraw to safety in Saint Louis.
September 6th
1689: Two hundred Indian survivors of King Philip’s War have found refuge with the local Indians around Cochecho (modern Dover), New Hampshire. Boston wants the Indians back in Massachusetts. Local settlers have signed a treaty with the local Indians. In what local legend calls a mock battle, forces under Richard Walderne (Waldron) surround the local and refugee Indians. They remove the 200 refugees and march them back to Boston. In Boston, most of the Indians are killed or become slaves.
1861: A Yamparika Chief and another Comanche sign a treaty with Union representative at Fort Wise, Colorado.
September 7th
1778: Today through the 17th, the Shawnee attack Boonesborough. Captain Antoine Dagneaux de Quindre, with eleven soldiers, and 444 Shawnees, including Chief Blackfish (Chinugalla), demand the surrender of Boonesborough. Daniel Boone is commanding the sixty American sharpshooters in the fort. After losing thirty-five warriors to the Kentucky fighters, the Indians quit on the 20th. Boone’s forces report only four men killed in the fighting. Some sources put the settlers’ numbers at thirty men, and twenty young men, with a few women and children. The losses are also reported at thirty-seven Shawnee, and two settlers.
1957: An Act of Congress gives the Chilkat Indians mineral rights to their lands near Klukwan. They are one of only a very small number of Alaskans with this provision.
September 8th
1535: Cartier reaches Stadacone, where the modern city Quebec is located.
1756: Colonel John Armstrong, leads approximately 300 Pennsylvania soldiers against the Delaware village of Kittanning, in retaliation for their attack on Fort Granville on July 30th. Delaware Chief, Captain Jacob, is trapped in his house. He is ordered to surrender, and he refuses. His house is set on fire, and he is burned to death. Armstrong estimates Delaware losses at 40 killed, and his own at 18. He recovers many English prisoners.
September 9th
1836: Alexander Le Grand is appointed by Texas leader David Burnet as Indian Commissioner. He is charged with negotiating a peace treaty with the Comanches and the Kiowas.
1850: The “Robinson Treaty with the Ojibewa Indians of Lake Huron Conveying Certain Lands to the Crown” is signed in Canada.
September 10th
1683: Susquehanna Chief Kekelappan sells William Penn half of his lands between the Susquehanna and the Delaware River.
1874: Captain Wyllys Lyman, and sixty men from the Fifth Infantry, are escorting a supply wagon train for Colonel Nelson Miles at the Washita River, Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma), when they are attacked by Indians. The soldiers remain barricaded for several days, until relief arrives from Camp Supply, in the panhandle of Indian Territory. One soldier is killed, three other whites, including Lieutenant Granville Lewis, are wounded during the fight. First Sergeant John Mitchell, Sergeants William de Armond, Fred S. Hay, George Kitchen, John Knox, William Koelpin and Frederick Neilon, Corporals John James, John J. H. Kelly, and William Morris, and Private Thomas Kelly, Company I, will earn the Congressional Medal of Honor for “gallantry in action” during this engagement. Some sources list this as occurring on September 9th.
September 11th
1693: As part of a series of attacks on neighboring cities in Guatemala, Maya warriors from Naranjo attack Tuub’al.
1855: A treaty is signed between the United States and the Mohuache Band of Utah Indians.
September 12th
1675: In Maine, according to settlers’ records, the Abenaki attack John Wakely’s farmhouse in Falmouth. Seven people are killed, two are taken captive.
1874: Major William Price, and three troops of the Sixth Cavalry with a few “mountain howitzers”, have a battle with a sizable group of Indians between the Sweetwater and the Dry Fork of the Washita River, in Texas. Two Indians are reported killed, and six wounded. Fourteen of the cavalry’s mounts are killed or wounded. Twenty of the Indians horses are captured. Army scouts Amos Chapman and William Dixon will be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for “gallantry in action.” In a related action, Private John Harrington, Company H, is transporting dispatches from the battle scene when he, and several other couriers, are attacked by 125 Indians. “He was severely wounded in the hip and unable to move. He continued to fight, defending an exposed dying man.” For his actions, Private Harrington would be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Private Peter Roth, Company A, Corporal Edward Sharpless, Company H, Private George W. Smith, Company M, and Sergeant Zachariah Woodall, Company I, would also earn the country’s highest award during the same fight. Private Smith will succumb to his wounds the next day. This is sometimes called “The Buffalo Wallow Fight.”
September 13th
1759: The Battle of Quebec takes place. The French lose.
1815: William Clark, Auguste Chouteau, Ninian Edwards hold a conference at Portage des Sioux, Missouri (St. Charles County). They get Missouri Sauk and Foxes to promise not to join up with the Rock Island Sauks or to fight the U.S.
September 14th
1726: According to some sources, a land cession agreement is reached by representatives of Great Britain and the Cayuga, Onondaga and the Seneca Indians.
1777: Spanish Governor Galvez issues an act, in New Orleans. He orders the military, and Spanish subjects to “respect the rights of these Indians in the lands they occupy and to protect them in the possession thereof.”
September 15th
1655: Esopus Indians attack New Amsterdam in sixty-four war canoes. This retaliatory raid is for the killing of an Indian woman by a settler for stealing peaches. It is called “The Peach War” by many, and casualties are slight on both sides as the Dutch drive the Indians out of the settlement. Leaving New Amsterdam, the Indians attack Staten Island and the Pavonia settlements in modern Jersey City, New Jersey. Here the casualties are considerably higher. Fifty settlers are killed, and almost 100 are captured.
1858: The Butterfield Overland Mail route begins operation from St. Louis, Missouri and Memphis, Tennessee, through Fort Smith, Arkansas, to San Francisco, California. Contrary to many movie storylines, the mail is attacked by the Apaches only one time.
September 16th
1684: Naumkeag Indian, and son of former Sachem Wenepoykin, James Quannapowit petitioned the English of Marblehead Massachusetts on July 14, 1684. He complained they were givng out lands which rightfully belonged to him. A deed is finally signed by all parties in order for the English to hold “rightful title” to the land.
1893: 100,000 people participate in the “run” for land in the recently purchased Cherokee Strip of Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma). The Cherokees were pressured into selling the land to the Federal Government.
September 17th
1778: The Delaware sign a treaty (7 stat. 13). Delaware Principal Chief Koquethagechton (White Eyes) is appointed as a Colonel at the treaty signing. He works to see the Delaware Nation become the 14th American State. The treaty is signed in Pittsburgh, by three Chiefs: White Eyes, The Pipe, and John Killbuck, and Andrew and Thomas Lewis.  (Web Editors Note: Sakima Koquethagechton is assassinated in the 1st Government cover up to eliminate peace & a Native State.  Senator Caleb Boggs from the state of Delaware discovers the evidence -in our lifetime)! 
1868: In Colorado, Brevet Colonel G.A. Forsyth (Ninth Cavalry), and fifty scouts are following the trail of Indians who have been marauding near Sheridan City. As they approach the “Arickaree” Fork of the Republican River, they are attacked by 700 Indians. The soldiers move to an island which is 125 yards long by fifty yards wide. The army claims killing thirty-five Indians, while losing only six, including Lieutenant F.H. Beecher and Surgeon Moore. Forsyth, and his men live on horseflesh until the 25th, when a relief column of “buffalo soldiers” arrives. Roman Nose dies in the fighting. This is called the “Battle of Beecher’s Island” by the soldiers.
September 18th
1813: After the “massacre” at Fort Mims, Alabama, by the “Red Stick” Creeks, the word of the Creek uprising spreads. In Nashville, Tennessee, Governor William Blount calls on the State Legislature to “teach these barbarous sons of the woods their inferiority.” The cry for vengeance rings throughout the area. In a few weeks, Andrew Jackson begins his campaign against the Creek.
1823: Thirty-one Seminoles sign a treaty (7 stat. 224) on Moultrie Creek in Florida, with the United States. Six Chiefs are given large estates to get them to agree to the treaty. Those chiefs were: John Blunt, Eneah Emathla, Emathlochee, Tuski Hadjo, Econchattemicco, and Mulatto King. The Seminoles give up lands north of Tampa Bay, and return runaway black slaves. They receive an annuity of $5000. The lands set aside for the Seminoles are poor, at best. The Americans are represented by James Gadsden.
September 19th
1737: Today is the start of the walking for the “Walking Purchase” from the Delaware. The walkers are Solomon Jennings, Edward Marshall, and James Yates. The “walkers” barely stay below a run. By the next day at noon, Edward Marshall has covered sixty-five miles. Yates, who passes out from the exertion, dies three days later. Jennings gives up the first day and is sickly for the rest of his life. Many Indians complain the “walk” does not live up to the spirit of the agreement.
1827: At Fort St. Joseph, present-day Niles, Michigan, a treaty (7 stat. 305) is signed by Lewis Cass, and the Potawatomi Indians. Tribal lands are ceded, old boundaries are redrawn, and the Indians receive an annuity.
September 20th
1654: A deed for Indian land is recorded in New England. It says, “This writing witnesseth that I Ratiocan Sagamor of Cow Harbor, have sold unto Samuel Mayo, Daniel Whitehead and Peter Wright my neck of land which makes the east side of Oyster Bay, and the west side of Cow Harbor on the north side bounded with the sound, called by the Indians Camusett.”
1805: Today through October 9th, Lewis and Clark meet with the Nez Perce in the Weippe prairie, east of Weippe, Idaho
September 21st
1638: The Treaty of Hartford is signed. After losing their battle with the English, and their Indians allies, the Pequots surrender. The surviving members of the tribe are given as servants to the Indian allies of the English.
1904: Chief Joseph (Hinmaton-yalatkit or Hein-mot too-ya-la-kekt) dies.
September 22nd
1528: Having completed five boats, two days ago, Panfilo de Narvaez loads the remaining 242 men of his expedition and leave to search for his sailing ships. They have been pursued by Apalachee Indians for some time. Most of Narvaez’ force is lost at sea. Cabeza de Vaca lands on Galveston Island, in Texas, on November 6, 1528.
1711: The Tuscarora Indians, under Chief Hencock, join the Coree, Pamlico, Machapunga, and Bear River Indians in an attack on the white settlements on the Trent and Pamlico Rivers in North Carolina. Almost 130 white adults, and half that many children are killed. The war springs from whites settling in Indian lands, and Indian retaliations. A Swiss promoter, Baron Christoph von Graffenried orders the Indians removed, when he discovers them on lands he has obtained from the Crown, at New Bern, in western North Carolina.
September 23rd
1519: Hernán Cortés and his army arrive at the gates to the Mexican city of Tlascala. A large crowd turns out to the the Spaniards.
1839: The Cherokee Nation’s Supreme Court is established.
September 24th
1819: Lewis Cass negotiates a treaty (7 stat. 203) for the United States with the Chippewas. For $1000 a year, the services of a blacksmith, and provisions, the Chippewa give up a large section of land. The treaty is signed in Saginaw, Michigan.
1853: Command of Fort Phantom Hill, north of Abilene, Texas, changes hands from Lieutenant Colonel Carlos A. Waite to Major H.H. Sibley. The fort is often visited by the local Comanches, Lipan-Apaches, Kiowas and Kickapoos.
September 25th
1714: The five Iroquois Nations send the Governor of New York, a letter. They tell the Governor, that the Tuscaroras join the Iroquois Confederacy. Long ago, they had moved away. Now, they return.
1793: Near Knoxville, Tennessee, a group of around 300 Chickamaugas, including Captain Bench, Doublehead and John Watts, attack Alexander Cavett’s fort. Cavett, and three other men are guarding ten women and children. After a few Chickamaugas are killed, John Watts calls for a parley. He promises not to kill the settlers, if they surrender. Finding their situation hopeless, the settlers give up and open the fort. Against the wishes of Bench and Watts, Doublehead kills all of the settlers except one boy saved by Watts. The boy meets his own death a few days later by another angry Indian.
September 26th
1675: Troops under Virginia Colonel John Washington and Maryland Major Thomas Trueman surround the main base of the Susquehannock Indians. They are there to discover if the Indians are responsible for attacking colonial settlements. Trueman calls out the Susquehannock for a conference under a flag of truce. Five Chiefs come out of their fortified position to talk. They deny being involved in the attacks. Trueman has them led away and killed. Trueman gets off with a minor fine from the Maryland Assembly for this act.
1706: Miskouaki, an Ottawa from Mackinaw, meets with the Marquis de Vaudreuil. He tells him the Miami and the Ottawa have bee fighting each other near Detroit.
September 27th
1719: Charles Claude du Tisne (Du Tissenet) is in northern Oklahoma near the Arkansas River. He claims the territory for France. Eventually a trading post is built here, near Newkirk.
1827: According to some historians, today marks the end of the “Winnebago Expedition.” After the “Red Bird War”, which started on June 29, 1827, Winnebago Chief Red Bird surrenders, in response to the army’s threat to destroy the entire tribe. Red Bird is found guilty of murdering several settlers and rivermen; but, he dies in prison before he is sentenced.
September 28th
1542: Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo lands at San Diego Bay, California.
1867: In the final day of a three day fight, the First Cavalry, Twenty-Third Infantry and Boise Indian scouts, fight with a combined force of Paiute, Pit River and Modoc Indians in Infernal Canyon, near Pitt River, south of modern Alturas, California. A total of one officer, six soldiers, and one civilian are killed. Eleven soldiers are wounded. Indians losses are twenty killed, twelve wounded and two captured.
September 29th
1769: The expedition to explore the central California coast led by Gaspar de Portolá has camped near modern Monterey. Along the Salina River, members of the expedition encounter a small Indian hunting party.
1806: Zebulon Pike holds a grand council with the Pawnee. Pike estimates 400 Pawnee warriors attend. He hopes to win their allegiance to the United States, rather than Spain.
September 30th
1730: In British Court in London, seven Cherokee leaders sign the “Articles of Agreement” with the Lords Commissioners. It is a formal alliance covering allegiance, peace and the return of captives.
1865: According to a report dated today, the following numbers of Indians were present at the Fort Sumner, New Mexico reservation in September: 402 Apache, 7,318 Navajo.