A Piankeshaw village, obscure to most historians and scholars may be a major player in the history of the Wabash tribunal, the White River. Some evidence from historic military records and Indian Claims Commission Reports more links a Piankeshaw Village to a White River, Indiana location The earliest historical accounts include a reference to "Fairplay Township that state very clearly," "Scattered over the ground", "Piankeshaw Village had stood in former years before the white man came ..." and, which perched at vegetables The worms and woods of the warfare and of the domestic usefulnees ... and the trash of the land from which the brush and sod had been cleared, and upon which the former inhabitants had grown their crops of corn, and perhaps vegetables The village had contained several hundred wigwams, judging from the amount of open ground where it stood and the statements of the earliest white settlers ... The Indians often came t "the cabins of the first white settlers for amnesty, whiskey or food and bought with them to barter - furs, wild meat and curious trinkets of their own manufacture."
A British fort was promised by the representatives of the Crown to the Piankeshaw led villages if they relocated to the White River. The Piankeshaw, Wea, Illini and Miami who had been living in the Wabash valley for decades became easy prey for British envoys who only further into the White River Valley. "The British suggested they even even build & # 39; , a Piankeshaw leader was the only known active anti-French "rebel" in the region. Piankeshaw and many Miami broke with their French alliance and began to exert random attacks on the French. a village or villlages along the White River in what is now Fairplaly Township. Claims commission reports, these villas held as many as 600 inmates between 1751-1753 as they awaited the full support of the British.
The British never fulfilled their promises and by the end of 1752 after the destruction of the English trading houses at Pickawillany on the Great Miami River in Ohio and the withdrawal of the English from the area, "the rebel Piankeshaw led by Le Gros Bled sent a collar of wampum to the Wea asking them to intercede with de Ligneris for them and most of the White River Village Indians returned to the western edge of Indiana and the Wabash corridor.
An Anthropological Report on the Piankashaw Indians, Dockett 99 (a part of Consolidated Docket No. 315; Dr. Dorothy Libby) Summary of Piankashaw Locations (1708 - ca. 1763) (pages 58 - 62)
"Piankashaws may have been located on the Wabash River as early as as 1708, and certain certainly living in a village in the vicinity of Ouiatenon, near the location of the present-day city of Lafayette, Indiana, by 1718. An effort was made by the French to attract the Piankashaws to settle on the Kankakee River in 1720 and 1721, but only a few of them moved there and these stayed only a short time.
By 1726, the Piankashaws had moved some distance downstream from Ouiatenon and were established in a village near the mouth of Vermilion River, a western tributary to the Wabash River. This village was called "Mercata or Piankashaw" and it was estimated that at least 150 men, representing approximately 600 persons resided there. Vincennes, moved to the lower Wabash, taking with him some Vermilion River Piankashaws, who settled near the post he established in the vicinity of the present-day town of Vincennes, Indiana in the First Street neighborhood. At the same time, a larger number of Piankashaws remained in their village on the Vermilion River.
Des pite a smallpox epidemic which killed a number of them some in the French-inspired attacks on Chickasaw Indians in 1732 and 1733. In 1734, the Piankashaws of Vincennes Vincennes "piankashaws / pg. 59 / continued their intermittent raids on the chickasaws, but after his death in 1736 while taking part in one of these attacks, the number living at the post Other Piankashaws returned to the older village at Vermilion River. "Piankashaws remaining at Vincennes were described as having reduced to 15 or 25 men (representing a population of ca. 60-100 persons) in June of 1737;
Piankashaw Indians are being referred to in the Vincilis River between 1743 and 1747. Vincennes River between the 1743 and 1747. It is showing by the fact that in 1749 Piankashaws were reported to have left Vincennes completely During the winter of 1749-1750 some Piankashaws traded with the English at Pickawillany on the Great Miami During the winter of 1749-1750 an epidemic again killed a number of Piankashaws, they and Piankashaws Indians may have wintered in that area. Piankashaws chiefs joined the pro-English Indians. burned their village (probably the Vermilion River one) to drive away the bad medicine which they thought the French had sent them. All during 1750 rumors and reports of Piankas haw activities and collaboration with the French on the Wabash and in the Illinois country. And, in fact, some Piankashaws did meet with George Croghan and sign a treaty of friendship with the British in November of 1750.
By 1751, forty Piankashaws were reported to be at Vincennes, but this is a visiting group or members of a permanent village there is not clear. It is clear that at least a few Piankashaws were living in the Vincennes area again. In this year Also, at least one Piankashaw chief of the Vermilion River village was reported to have corrected English overtures of friendship. By October of 1751 the Vermilion Piankashaws appeared to be won over by the English, but they still lived at Vermilion River. By February of 1752 many of the Piankashaws around Vincennes joined the Vermilion Piankashaws, who was told to be moved, at least temporarily, to the plains between the Wabash and Illinois rivers. A rumor was reported that they, together with some Illinois and Osage Indians, were going to build a fort in the central Illinois area where the Fox Indians had been attacked by the French twenty years earlier.
It seems evident, however, that by February of 1752 many of the Piankashaws were established on White River in central Indiana about 2 days journey from Ouiatenon and from Vincennes, in a settlement inspired by English Traders, together with some Weas, Miamis, and Delawares . The Piankashaws at this White River location was reported to number 140 men, representing ca. 560 persons. By the end of 1752, after the destruction of the English inspired settlement of Pickawillany on the Great from Miami River and the withdrawal of the English from the area, the rebel Piankashaws made peaceful overtures to the French commandants at Ouiatenon and at Vincennes. 1753, the French had pardoned the Piankashaws who by this had had gone to Ouiatenon. (Goodspeed & # 39; s History of Greene and Sullivan Counties, Indiana 1884 supports this as well)
/ pg. 61 / Soon after this, the errant Piankashaws probably returned to their Vermilion River and the vicinity of Vincennes. It is possible also that number of Piankashaws remained in the vicity of Ouiatenon. In 1762 one hundred Piankashaw warriors In a council held by the British at Ouiatenon in that year a Mascouten spoke for both the Mascoutens and the Piankashaws. In Hutchins & # 39; description written in the same (written a population of ca. 400 persons) The Indians living on the Vermilion River were dependent on Ouiatenon for trade , and it seems probable that references to Indians depend on on Ouiatenon include them. Therefore the one hundred Piankashaw warriors could have lived at either location at this time.
All during the French period of sovereignty in the west, along with other indian groups, by the commanders of the Illinois country as visiting them and various Illinois Indian groups. These visits involved trips for supplies, or occurred during raids on southern Indians, visits to relatives (by intermarriage), and hunting expeditions.
One other additional source puts the Piankeshaw village on the White River. The source is Commandant, Vaudreul to Rouille, September, 1752 from the Collections fo the Illinois State Historical Library, vol.
"The Piankeshaw up to now have backwards themselves as they have given back to them themselves as they have given a small part of their repentance and fearing our resentment, have retired for the larger part on White I have ordered M. de Macarty to extirpate this settlement, opposing force to force if there is a need of coming to that extremity in order to forestall in that As the town of the tribe, the young men told Le Chat they were two short days "from the journey from the drinks from the river. The English had led them to hope that they would be fried them abundantly and that in Le Petit Pat Cott, chief of the seven cabins of Illini, which left the hunt this summer to go to the rebels, wave back to St. Louis. Ange, the belt he had received, with protests of attachment to the French which at best are dubious. "
The historical documents are clear; the evidence from reports is that it is a piankeshaw led village with British ties in the valley of the White River located two days from Vincennes and Ouiatenon., That with, what is missing is hard archaeological evidence. Back in the 1970 & # 39; s, Indiana Archaeologist, Curtis Tomak did a site survey and concluded that there was not much evidence to support the theory of a village at that location. The village site or sites on the identical former site of the village. The village site or sites It is now 30 years later and new technologies and techniques may have a need to do another, more intense se Piankeshaw Village Site in Fairplay Township.
