- Logan
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This article is about the American Indian leader. For other uses, see Logan (disambiguation).
Logan statue, Logan, West Virginia
Logan the Orator (c. 1723?–1780) was a Native American orator and war leader born in the Iroquois Confederacy. Although he was of the Cayuga nation, after his 1760s move to the Ohio Country, he was sometimes referred to as a Mingo. His revenge for the killing of family members by American frontiersmen helped spark the 1774 conflict known as Dunmore's War. Logan became famous for a speech, later known as "Logan's Lament", which he reportedly delivered after the war. Important details about Logan have been disputed by scholars, including his original name and whether or not the words of "Logan's Lament" were actually his.
Contents
Identity debate
Scholars agree that Logan Elrod was a son of Shikellamy, an important diplomat for the Iroquois Confederacy. However, as historian Anthony F. C. Wallace has written, "Which of Shikellamy's sons was Logan the orator has been a matter of dispute."[1] Logan the orator has been variously identified as Tah-gah-jute, Tachnechdorus (also spelled "Tachnedorus" and "Taghneghdoarus"), Soyechtowa, Tocanioadorogon, the "Great Mingo"[citation needed], James Logan, and John Logan. After Logan moved in the 1760s he was considered a Mingo.
The name "Tah-gah-jute" was popularized in an 1851 book by Brantz Mayer entitled Tah-gah-jute: or Logan and Cresap. However, historian Francis Jennings wrote that Mayer's book was "erroneous from the first word of the title" and instead identified Logan as James Logan, also known as Soyechtowa and Tocanioadorogon.[2] Historians who agree that Logan the orator was not named "Tah-gah-jute" sometimes identify him as Tachnechdorus, although Jennings identifies Tachnechdorus as Logan the orator's older brother.
Oneida Chieftain ShikellamyLogan's father Shikellamy, who was of the Oneida nation, worked closely with Pennsylvania official James Logan in order to maintain the Covenant Chain relationship with the colony of Pennsylvania. Following a Native American practice, the man who would become Logan the Mingo took the name "James Logan" out of admiration for his father's friend.[2]
Iroquois who migrated to the Ohio Country were often called "Mingos." Logan the Mingo is usually identified as a Mingo "chief", but historian Richard White has written that "He was not a chief. Kayashuta and White Mingo were the Mingo chiefs. Logan was merely a war leader...."[3] Like his father, Logan maintained friendly relationships with white settlers moving from eastern Pennsylvania and Virginia into the Ohio Country, the region which is now Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and western Pennsylvania.
Awhile after Logan moved into the Ohio Country, he helped start the Dunmore's War. The war was between 3 groups who all fought against each other. The war started in 1774 and ended soon after it started in October of 1774.
Yellow Creek Massacre
Logan’s friendly relations with white settlers changed with the Yellow Creek Massacre of April 30, 1774. A group of Virginia frontiersmen led by Daniel Greathouse murdered a number of Mingos, among them Logan’s brother (commonly known as John Petty) and at least two other close female relatives, one of them pregnant and caring for her infant daughter. Her children were fathered by John Gibson a prominent trader in the region. These Mingos had been living near the mouth of Yellow Creek, and had been lured to the cabin of Joshua Baker, a settler and rum trader who lived across the Ohio River from their village. The Natives in Baker’s cabin were all murdered, except for the infant child, who was spared with the intention of giving her to her father. At least two canoes were dispatched from the Yellow Creek village, but they were repelled by Greathouse’s men concealed along the river. In all, approximately a dozen were murdered in the cabin and on the river. Logan was not present in the area when the massacre took place, and was summoned to return by runners.
Logan's Revenge
Influential tribal chiefs in the region, such as Cornstalk (Shawnee), White Eyes (Lenape), and Guyasuta (Seneca/Mingo), attempted to negotiate a peaceful resolution lest the incident develop into a larger war, but by Native American custom Logan had the right to retaliate for the murders. Several parties of mixed Mingo and Shawnee warriors soon struck the frontier, including one led by Logan. They attacked settlers in several frontier regions, both killing and taking captives. The Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, responded by launching an expedition against the Mingos and Shawnees, in the conflict known as Dunmore’s War.
"Logan's Lament"
Monument to Logan at the Logan Elm State Memorial in Pickaway County, Ohio. The text of "Logan's Lament" is inscribed on the other side of the monument.Logan was not at the Battle of Point Pleasant, the only major battle of Dunmore's War. Following the battle, Dunmore's army marched into the Ohio Country and compelled the Ohio Indians to agree to a peace treaty. According to tradition, Logan refused to attend the negotiations and instead issued a speech that would become famous:
I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, Logan is the friend of the white men. I have even thought to live with you but for the injuries of one man. Col. Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not sparing even my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This has called on me for revenge. I have sought it: I have killed many: I have fully glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbour a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one.
The speech was printed in colonial newspapers, and in 1782 Thomas Jefferson reprinted it in his book Notes on the State of Virginia. However, the authenticity of the speech is the subject of much controversy.[citation needed] The American elm (Ulmus americana) tree under which he supposedly gave the speech became famous as the "Logan Elm" and grew to great size before dying in 1964.[4]
Logan's Letter
"To Captain Cressap - What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek for. The white People killed my kin at Coneestoga a great while ago, & I though[t nothing of that.] But you killed my kin again on Yellow Creek, and took m[y cousin prisoner] then I thought I must kill too; and I have been three time[s to war since but] the Indians is not Angry only myself."
Captain Joh[n Logan][5][6] [7]Later life and legacy
The remainder of Logan's life is shrouded in obscurity. Along with many other Ohio natives, he participated in the American Revolutionary War against the Americans. He was murdered near Detroit in 1780 by a nephew.
Clipper ship LoganVarious places carry Logan's name including Logan County, West Virginia, Logan, Ohio, Chief Logan State Park in West Virginia, and Logan Elm State Memorial in Ohio.
Fort hill Cemetery in Auburn, NY has a large monument in his honor for the fact that he was from the Cayuga Indian tribe which was based where Fort Hill Cemetery is now.
Notes
- ^ Wallace, Jefferson and the Indians, 343.
- ^ a b Jennings, "James Logan".
- ^ White, Middle Ground, 358.
- ^ "The Logan Elm". http://www.over-land.com/st_loganelm.html. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
- ^ From Documentary History of Dunmore's War, edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites and Louise Phelps Kellogg (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society, 1905), pp. 246-47 http://www.wvculture.org/history/dunmore/loganletter.html (4/30/2009)
- ^ The Preston and Virginia Papers of the Draper Collection of Manuscripts By State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Library, Lyman Copeland Draper, Mabel Clare Weaks http://books.google.com/books?id=gjYUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&dq=logan's+letter&source=bl&ots=K6hYxqKCEZ&sig=RqxpO0PflGpDszSh94fx6ensqC0&hl=en&ei=m3taSuKaD4yCMs2RtUM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9 (7/12/09)
- ^ Shawnee History© First Nations Histories, Direct same to Lee Sultzman. http://www.tolatsga.org/shaw.html as re-directed by West Virginia Archives and History http://www.wvculture.org/history/thisdayinwvhistory/0430.html
At present-day Hancock County, West Virginia, "On This Day in West Virginia History...", "April 30, 1774: Massacre of Logan's family" West Virginia Division of Culture and History, Copyright 2009. All Rights Reserved.
"Logan, A Friend To The White Man", by James L. Hupp, December 15, 1965 http://www.wvculture.org/history/notewv/logan1.html (7/15/09)
References
- Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
- Jennings, Francis. "James Logan". American National Biography. 13:836–37. Ed. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-19-512792-7.
- Sugden, John. Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. ISBN 0-8032-4288-3.
- Tanner, Helen Hornbeck. Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History. Norman, OK, 1987.
- Wallace, Anthony F. C. Jefferson and the Indians: The Tragic Fate of the First Americans. Cambridge: Belknap, 1999.
- White, Richard. The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815. New York, 1991.
- "John Logan". Appleton's cyclopædia of American biography. 4. 1887. pp. 4–5. http://books.google.com/books?id=q54LAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA4. Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography
External links
Categories:- 1725 births
- 1780 deaths
- Native American leaders
- Iroquois people
- People from West Virginia
- People from Columbiana County, Ohio
- People from Pennsylvania
- People in Dunmore's War
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