Peter Chartier
Peter Chartier was a fur trader of mixed Shawnee and French parentage. Multilingual, he later became a leader and a band chief among the Pekowi Shawnee. As an early advocate for Native American civil rights, he joined other chiefs in opposing the sale and trade of alcohol in indigenous communities in the Province of Pennsylvania. He first tried to limit the sale of rum in Shawnee communities but also expanded that effort to other indigenous peoples.
Because of conflict with the English provincial government, in 1745 he accepted a French commission and left Pennsylvania with his band. Beginning with more than 400 Pekowi Shawnee, he migrated over the next four years through parts of modern Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama and Tennessee. He and his people eventually resettled in the Illinois Country of New France, near a French colonial community. He and some of his warriors later fought on the side of the French against the English during the French and Indian War.
Chartier is memorialized in numerous place names, including communities, rivers and school districts such as the Chartiers Houston and Chartiers Valley School Districts.
Early life and family
He was born Pierre Chartier, the son of a French colonist Martin Chartier. Martin Chartier and Sewatha Straight Tail, a daughter of Straight Tail Meaurroway Opessa and his wife, of the Pekowi Shawnee.Pierre Chartier was born in 1690 at French Lick on the Cumberland River in northeastern Tennessee, near the present-day site of Nashville, Tennessee, where his father ran a trading post.
His mother gave Pierre the Shawnee name of Wacanackshina, meaning "White one who reclines". Around 1697 his family moved to Pequea Creek in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Pierre Chartier married his first cousin, Blanceneige-''Wapakonee'' Opessa, daughter of Opessa Straight Tail and his wife, about 1710. They had three children together: François "Pale Croucher", René "Pale Stalker", and Anna. In 1717, Governor William Penn granted his father Martin a 300-acre tract of land along the Conestoga River in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.. Together the father and son established a trading post in Conestoga Town. In 1718 they moved to Dekanoagah on Yellow Breeches Creek near the Susquehanna River. Martin Chartier died there in April of that year.
Chartier's father's funeral was attended by James Logan, a future Mayor of Philadelphia. Immediately afterward, Logan seized Martin Chartier's 250-acre estate, saying that Martin owed him a debt of 108 pounds, 19 shillings, and 3 and 3/4 pence. Logan had Peter Chartier and his family evicted, and also expelled a community of Conestoga who were living on the property. He later sold the property to Stephen Atkinson for 30 pounds.
Career as a trader
Logan permitted Chartier to maintain his trading post on the land as a tenant. Eventually Chartier opened another post at Paxtang on the Susquehanna River.. Although Chartier eventually became a wealthy landowner, his experience with Logan embittered him. It was one of the reasons he turned against the Provincial Government.On 3 November 1730 Peter Chartier was licensed by the English court in Lancaster County to trade with the Indians in south-western Pennsylvania. By 1732 Chartier, who was tri-lingual in Shawnee, French and English, had become well known as a negotiator between the Shawnee and the traders who came to sell them goods.
The Quaker trader Edmund Cartlidge wrote to Governor Patrick Gordon on 14 May 1732:
In September and October 1732, Chartier and Cartlidge served as interpreters during a conference in Philadelphia attended by Opakethwa and Opakeita, two Shawnee chiefs, with Thomas Penn, Governor Gordon, and the 72-member Pennsylvania Provincial Council. Also with Chartier and the two chiefs was Quassenung, son of Shawnee chief Kakowatcheky. The minutes of the conference record that both Opakethwa and Quassenung died of smallpox during their visit to Philadelphia.
Conflict with the colonial government
Alcohol abuse and Native Americans in Pennsylvania
Beginning around 1675, traders had been selling rum in Shawnee communities. Several violent deaths were attributed to its influence. In October 1701 the Pennsylvania Assembly had prohibited the sale of rum to Native American people.Because the law was poorly enforced in the frontier society, and the penalty was light—a fine of ten pounds and confiscation of any illegal supplies—traders continued to use rum to barter for furs. Traders soon began selling rum on credit in order to extort furs and skins and labor from the Shawnee.
By the early 1700s the effects of alcohol abuse were damaging Shawnee communities. Rum, brandy and other distilled beverages had become important trade items, frequently served in diplomatic councils, treaty negotiations, and political transactions and had become part of Native American gift-giving rituals. The adverse effects of alcohol among Native Americans included an erosion of civility, an increase in violence and widespread health problems. Alcohol made men less reliable hunters and allies, destabilized village economics, and contributed to a rise in poverty among Native Americans.
Native American leaders objected to the widespread use of alcohol. The minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania for 16 May 1704 record a complaint submitted by Chief Ortiagh of the Conestoga Indians:
Attempts to control the sale of alcohol
On 24 April 1733 the Shawnee chiefs at "Allegania" sent a petition to Governor Gordon complaining that "There is yearly and monthly some new upstart of a trader without license, who comes amongst us and brings with him nothing but rum..." and asking permission to destroy the casks of rum: "We therefore beg thou would take it into consideration, and send us two firm orders, one for Peter Chartier, the other for us, to break in pieces all the so brought."On 1 May 1734 several Shawnee chiefs dictated a letter to a trader, probably Jonah Davenport: it listed the names of fifteen traders who either had no license or had shown undesirable behavior, such as frequent disputes or violence. Chartier was among seven who were listed as in good standing. The chiefs would allow those men to bring up to 60 gallons of rum a year to their communities, as long as they had a valid license. Chartier was described as "one of us, and he is welcome to come as long as he pleases... to bring what quantity he pleases..." The letter concludes, "And for our parts, if we see any other traders than those we desire amongst us, we will stave their and seize their goods." The Shawnee believed that control over the sale of rum would reduce problems resulting from its abuse.
Prohibition of rum in Shawnee communities
By 1737 Chartier had become chief of the Pekowi Turtle Clan, with whom he was living. He decided to prohibit the sale of rum in Shawnee communities in his area, and persuaded other chiefs to do the same.In a letter of 20 March 1738, addressed to Thomas Penn and Acting Governor James Logan, three Shawnee chiefs stated:
Chartier and ninety-eight Shawnee signed a pledge that accompanied the letter: it agreed that all rum should be spilled, and four men should be appointed for every town to prevent rum or strong liquor being brought into their towns for four years. Governor Patrick Gordon sent Chartier a reprimand over this issue. Traders continued to take rum into Shawnee communities, including several traders whom the Shawnees had specifically requested be barred from their territory.
For several years the French government had been trying to win the support of indigenous communities as part of their competition with the British in North America. In 1740 the Governor of New France, Charles de la Boische, Marquis de Beauharnois, invited Chartier and other Shawnee leaders to meet in Montreal to discuss relocating to Detroit and forming an alliance. In a letter of 25 June 1740 Chartier declined, promising to visit Montreal the following year.
Tensions with the Pennsylvania government escalated in 1743. On 6 June three traders testified to the Pennsylvania Provincial Council that two other men had been killed, and that they had been told by the Shawnee to leave their territory or risk death. The governor regarded the Shawnee actions as provocation to violence. He wrote to the Pennsylvania Assembly alleging that Chartier's Shawnee ancestry resulted in his having a "brutish disposition... and it is not to be doubted that a person of his savage temper will do us all the mischief he can."
In 1743 Chartier moved to Shannopin's Town, a Lenape village. He established a trading post on the Allegheny River about twenty miles upstream from the forks of the Ohio near the mouth of Chartiers Run, at what became Tarentum. It was known as Chartier's Town at the time, and Chartier's Old Town after it was abandoned in 1745. Several Shawnee communities from the Chalahgawtha, Pekowi and Mekoche bands later resettled near Chartier's Town.
Chartier's flight from Pennsylvania, 1745
Frustrated in his efforts to control the rum trade, Chartier decided to lead his band away from the area. In April 1745 Chartier accepted a military commission from the French. With some 400 Pekowi Shawnee, he left their settlement and headed southwest.In July 1745 traders James Dunning and Peter Tostee appeared in Philadelphia. They claimed to authorities that they had been robbed on the frontier on 18 April:
George Croghan, another trader, later testified that Chartier had set free a Black servant, possibly a slave, who was traveling with Dunning and Tostee.
The Pennsylvania provincial council issued an indictment against "Peter Chartier of Lancaster County... Labourer , being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil... falsely, traitorously, unlawfully and treasonably did compass, imagine and intend open war, insurrection and rebellion against our said Lord the King." Chartier's landholdings in Pennsylvania, totaling some 600 acres, were seized and turned over to Thomas Lawrence, a business partner of Edward Shippen, III.
Chartier led his Shawnee band to Logstown, where he attempted to persuade chief Kakowatcheky to join him, but was refused. Chartier and his people proceeded to Lower Shawneetown on the Ohio River, where they took refuge for a few weeks. Chartier and his people recognized that, by defying the Provincial Governor and accepting French patronage, they had to leave Pennsylvania, which was under British control. In June an anonymous Frenchman visited Lower Shawneetown, sent by Paul-Joseph Le Moyne de Longueuil, commandant at Detroit, to take charge of captives Chartier was presumed to have taken when he robbed traders Dunning and Tostee. Chartier had released the traders after robbing them, however.
The Frenchman observed Chartier trying unsuccessfully to persuade the leaders of Lower Shawneetown to accept French alliance:
This Frenchman watched the Shawnee who had accompanied Chartier performing a two-day "Death Feast," a ceremony conducted before abandoning a village.
File:Black Hoof.jpg|thumb|right|Black Hoof was a member of Chartier's nomadic Shawnee band. From the History of the Indian Tribes of North America.
The Shawnees were accustomed to relocating. On 24 June 1745 the group left Lower Shawneetown, traveled down the Ohio River as far as the Great Miami River and in August proceeded south to Kentucky. Some historians state that he established a new community called Eskippakithiki, while others believe that this is probably inaccurate, and that Chartier never actually lived there, although "a band of Shawnee may have established the village in 1750 or 1751 and it may have been abandoned in 1754 due to attacks by the Catawbas." According to Charles Augustus Hanna :
Fighting with Iroquois and Chickasaw and an outbreak of smallpox led them to move south to the Coosa River in 1748, where they founded the village of Chalakagay, near what is now Sylacauga, Alabama. Black Hoof, then a child, was with this band and recalled the journey in later years when he was a chief. In May 1749 Antoine Louis Rouillé, the French Foreign minister, wrote: " band, after ascending a part of the river of the Cherakis, decided to go and join the Alibamons, where it appeared to have behaved well."
The Pennsylvania government continued to offer a bounty for Chartier as late as 1747, when James Adair tried to catch him in South Carolina. Adair later wrote: