Radio Script #1267

Little Talks on Common Things
March 15, 1981

From the beginning of New England settlements there was always the problem of getting along with the Indians. Between 1650 and 1760 the Massachusetts government negotiated treaty after treaty with various tribes, only to see them repeatedly broken, especially as the French came to have more and more influence on the Indians of Maine.

With the outbreak of King Philip’s war in 1675 conditions became steadily worse. That destructive war so united the tribes from Connecticut to the St. Croix that settlement became for a time completely impossible. Every settlement from the Piscataqua to Casco Bay was destroyed. Beginning with the new settlements farthest to the east, one by one the new towns were abandoned, and after the burning of Falmouth (now Portland) in 1678, people fled westward, first to Saco, then to Wells and York, and finally across the Piscataqua into New Hampshire.

As time went on, Mass governors could not successfully summon tribal leaders to Boston, but had to make long, arduous journeys to hold councils nearer the tribal quarters. So several governors came to Kittery, Saco, Falmouth and even to Georgetown and Pemaquid. There the governor met with any tribal leaders who could be induced to assemble, and there were always a few who refused to show up.

In every such conference, the Governor listened to the Indians’ statement of their grievances, welcomed their new vows of allegiance to the British king, and promised them protection against invasion by the hostile Mohawks from the west. He would also arrange for trading posts where they could exchange their furs at fair prices for British goods, especially the much prized gunpowder and rum.

Preserved at the Maine Historical Society in Portland are a number of those old treaties, including the verbatim account of negotiations as recorded by the governor’s secretary. We must acknowledge that those records are definitely one-sided, because the Indians had no written language. When a chief made his mark to a treaty he did so because he believed the Governor’s Indian interpreter’s statements as to what was in it. By 1700, however, the tribal leaders had become rather well sophisticated in their dealings with white men, and they became harder and harder to deceive.

One of those preserved records concerns a treaty attempted, not with much success, at Georgetown during several days in August, 1717. There the secretary to Gov. Dummer, made a careful account of what took place. The account begins with these words: “His Excellency, Gov. Dummer, arrived at Georgetown in His Majesty’s Ship Squirrel. The Indians, gathered on a nearby island, sent word to His Excellency that they would call upon him at a time he would set. He told them to come at three o’clock that afternoon. He ordered a British flag to be displayed in front of his tent near Mr. Waterman’s house, and he sent another flag for the Indians to bring with them when they came. At the appointed time the Indians arrived, displaying the flag in the foremost canoe. His Excellency, attended by his council, awaited them seated in his tent.”

The secretary goes on to recount how, through his interpreter, the governor greeted the assembled chiefs. “Tell them,” the governor said, “that with great fatigue and some danger I have come this long journey to see them. Tell them that I have seen many treaties between them and the English government. The last was at Piscataqua four years ago under my predecessor, Gov. Dudley. He then accepted their submission, and gave them assurance of justice, friendship and protection, promised them fair commercial dealings, and ready market for their furs.

“Tell them also that the great and good King George is now their king as well as ours, and he will always treat them as his fellow subjects. They must at all times remember that they are under allegiance to King George, and never listen to those who tell them that they owe allegiance to the French or any other king.

“Tell them that the English settlements lately made in the eastern lands have been promoted largely to help the Indians, not to hurt them. They will greatly benefit by having trade brought nearer to them. I have given orders that traders shall be just and kind to the Indians. If at any time the Indians meet with fraud or unfair dealing, let them make complaint to any officer of mine, and I will see that they have redress. Now tell them that I am ready to hear what they have to say.”

The Indians were wary and wanted time to consider what the governor had said. So their spokesman said they would reply on the following day. They agreed to return at nine o’clock the next morning. When the meeting time arrived, the Indians said the Treaty of Piscataqua was a thing of the past and they were through with it. That was why they wanted a new treaty. The governor did, however, pin them down to admitting certain items in the Treaty of Piscataqua as still valid. The Indian spokesman then said, “We will be obedient to King George if we are not molested on our own lands.” The governor agreed that there would be no such molestation if the English were not molested on their lands. It became at once clear that the unsettled question was which were Indian and which were English lands.

The governor pointed out that complaints were not all on one side. He had been repeatedly told that Indians had taken things from the English: meat out of pots, blankets out of cabins. Indians had interfered with plantings, stolen cattle, and sometimes had even killed settlers. The Indians then insisted for more time to consult among themselves, and the meeting was recessed until three o’clock that afternoon.

When the session was resumed, the Indian spokesman said: “We are willing to cut off our lands as far as the coast at Pemaquid. He then reminded the governor that it was agreed at Casco that no additional forts should be built east of the Kennebec.

At that point the governor for the first time showed a bit of temper. He said: “King George builds any forts he pleases in his own dominions, and the French do the same in theirs. The forts that the King has built in these eastern parts are to protect both the English and the Indians against the French.” The Indian spokesman then said: “We cannot understand how our lands have been purchased. When we gave them over to the English, it was not by sale but by our own free gift.” In reply the governor exhibited certain deeds and had them interpreted to the Indians.

The Indians then admitted that sale might be true of certain lands west of the Kennebec, but did not apply to any land on the east side of the river. The Indians then insisted on returning to the subject of the forts. King George must not, they demanded, place any new forts on the east side. The governor was equally insistent. Whenever a settlement was made, he would order a fort built if he thought it necessary for the settlement’s defense.

That caused the Indians to take abrupt departure, and they left in anger. That same evening an Indian brought to the governor a letter that had been sent to the Indians by Father Rasle at Norridgewock. The letter said that the French governor at Quebec had lately been in France and had asked the French king whether he had in any treaty given Indian lands to the English. The King assured the French governor that he had never done so, and he was always ready to come to the defense of the Indians if their lands were encroached upon by the English.

When Gov. Dummer read that letter, he was incensed. He rejected it as utterly unworthy of notice. He said that Father Rasle was known to be a notorious liar and had probably made up the whole story. The next morning the Governor reboarded the Squirrel, determined to return to Boston, but before the ship could weigh anchor, a group of Indian chiefs came on board with apologies for their ill-mannered departure the previous afternoon.

They now wished to continue the conference. The Governor agreed, on condition that the Indians abandon all pretense to ownership of English lands. With that understanding, the conference was resumed. The Indian spokesman said that the Treaty of Casco allowed the English to put further settlers where they had already established settlements. “We confirm that agreement”, he said. “The English may continue to settle as far as they already have settlements. We desire to have peace.”

The Indians expressed high regard for the interpreter, Philip Jordan, and desired that he remain near them, where they could easily reach him with messages for the governor. To that request the governor consented. The Indians asked that a gunsmith be available to repair their guns. The governor replied, “If you will pay for the work, I will see that Georgetown has a gunsmith.”

The governor then produced a copy of the agreement made at the Treaty of Piscataqua four years previous, but he could not budge the Indians on two points; their opposition to many new forts east of the Kennebec, and any extension of English settlements east of those already made. So the conference ended with no resolution of those important points of conflict in 1717.

Five years later in 1722 fighting broke out anew and in 1724 came two important English conquests. The Boston government financed two attacks by Maine militia. One resulted in the Battle of Lovewell’s Pond near Fryeburg, where the Saco tribe was so dispersed that they never fully recovered. The other was the sending of a militia company from Falmouth to attack the Indian village at Norridgewock. In that engagement, Father Rasle and many Indians were killed, and most of the others fled to Canada. The Indian village at Old Point was never rebuilt.

In 1727, at the Treaty of Falmouth, the remaining western and central Maine Indians agreed never again to attack white settlements, to return all captives, and allowed the English to settle anywhere in the eastern parts of the Province of Mass Bay except on lands of the Penobscot and Norridgewock tribes not previously conveyed to the English. The Indians held rights to hunting and fishing on all lands however owned. The Falmouth Treaty made no mention of the controversial issue of the forts.

Thus, even before the French and Indian War of the 1750’s the Maine Indians had become widely scattered. As a result, the English settlements spread so rapidly that by 1771 four of them, in what is now Kennebec County, were incorporated into the towns of Winthrop, Hallowell, Vassalboro and Winslow.

And with that reference to old Indian treaties, we must say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1981