Daily stories of Pennsylvania

by Frederic Antes Godcharles

Sir William Johnson, of New York, was a zealous friend of the Iroquois, while Conrad Weiser and George Croghan, of Pennsylvania, were strongly prejudiced against the Delaware and Shawnee. The problem which the Provincial Government of Pennsylvania had to solve was how to keep peace with the Iroquois and at the same time prevent the Delaware and the Shawnee who were then becoming independent of the Iroquois, from going over to the French.

The Delaware were conscious they had been unjustly deprived of their lands by the Pennsylvania authorities, aided by the Iroquois. They had been driven from the Delaware to the Susquehanna, and many had been forced even as far west as the Ohio, and now that France and England had commenced to struggle for the possession of that region the Delaware felt they were to be again driven from their home. They were revolting not only against the English, but against their masters, the Iroquois.

At this critical time, when the border settlements in Western Pennsylvania were being ravaged by hostile bands of Delaware and Shawnee, and when the English were making preparations for an expedition to take Fort Duquesne, Tedyuskung took his stand as a friend of the English.

Christian Frederic Post had been sent on a mission to the Ohio Indians, and Conrad Weiser and others were working to retain the friendship of these Indians. The many squatters along the Juniata River and the illegal sale of land at Wyoming made by the Mohawk to the Connecticut settlers complicated the situation and made the work of these emissaries much more difficult and trying. Then the Indians who had been in conference at Albany in 1754, found when they returned home that lands had been sold to the Proprietors which they did not comprehend.

Washington suffered defeat at Fort Necessity and this was followed by the terrible Braddock disaster; which with the evil effects of the rum traffic among the Indians and the almost total neglect by the Province of Pennsylvania had almost entirely alienated them from the English cause.

Then began the several attempts to win them back, but the passage of the Scalp Act and the declaration of war against the Delaware caused this tribe to rise in rebellion against the Province and also against their hated title of “women,” given them by the Iroquois.

Such was the situation when the great council was called at Easton, July, 1756, at which Tedyuskung appeared as the champion of the Delaware. Governor Morris opened the council with a speech, in which he warmly welcomed the chief. Tedyuskung replied: “The Delaware are no longer the slaves of the Six Nations. I, Tedyuskung, have been appointed King over the Five United Nations. What I do here will be approved by all. This is a good day. I wish the same good that possessed the good old man, William Penn, who was a friend of the Indian, may inspire the people of the Province at this time.”

The first session was followed by a grand feast and reception, during which King Tedyuskung and Chief Newcastle were sent to give the “big peace halloo” to the Indians and invite them to a larger conference, which was held at a later time.

Tedyuskung left Easton, but loitered about Fort Allen, where he became drunk and disorderly, and so incensed Lieutenant Miller that the whole outcome of the peace conference was, for a time, endangered.

During this drunken spree Tedyuskung was blamed for having dealings with the French, but no evidence was produced to prove the charges; yet Governor Morris dispatched Chief Newcastle to Sir William Johnson to learn if the Iroquois had deputized Tedyuskung to act for them. This they denied.