The Rise of Federal Title

The failure of federal efforts to reform title meant that federal officials in the territories found themselves, unwillingly, adjudicating conflicting claims to ownership, often in ad hoc, unplanned fashion outside of courts. This chapter describes three sets of adjudications of territorial land rights. The first involved conflicting assertions of different Native nations to ownership, as federal officials, as part of their effort to “extinguish” Native title, had to decide which nation owned which land. The effort led them to try to understand Native land laws in an effort to parse these claims. The second required wading into the land rights of the French habitants of the Illinois Country, where territorial officials similarly attempted to understand past French land law to confirm preexisting claims to title. The third concerned veterans of the Revolutionary War, who were promised land in the U.S. Military District in the Northwest Territory. Frequently defrauded out of their rights, these holders of the so-called bounty lands appealed to the U.S. Secretary of War to protect their title. In all three cases, the result was that federal officials distilled the territories’ plural sources of ownership into a single federal title issued under federal authority. This decades’ worth of difficult and unheralded legal and administrative work became the foundation for the federal land system, especially when the Harrison Land Act of 1800 codified the resolution to long-standing heated debates about the public lands.

The Indigenous Roots of the American Revolution

Euro-Americans existed firmly on the periphery of an Indigenous North America in 1763, hubristic claims of continental sovereignty notwithstanding. Nowhere is this reality more clear than in the Ohio Valley and Illinois Country. Try as it might, the post-1763 British Empire could not assume jurisdictional control over this space. Even to begin to try was a task requiring significant investment—both in terms of more systematic Indigenous diplomacy and in terms of reforming colonial political structures unfit to accommodate imperial western policy. North American officials understood the problems quite well and were willing to spearhead reform. Between 1763 and 1775 they supported increased investment to defray North American expenses. They called for programs that would end colonial corruption, something they feared undermined Indigenous diplomacy and made a mockery of the rule of law. Ultimately, they concluded that centralizing Indian affairs offered the best means by which to stabilize North America. Colonials (generally) and speculators and their surveyor corps (specifically) powerfully disagreed, however, seeing Indian country as an untapped resource and imperial restraints as threats to local autonomy. They rejected the idea of centralizing power over Indigenous affairs and used the rhetoric of British constitutional liberty to reframe corrupt behavior into something it emphatically was not.

1680–1682: Everything Is Difficult

This chapter examines the arrival of French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, at Kaskaskia. Of the Roman Catholic religious orders that labored in New France during the time of La Salle, the Jesuits were the most influential. With the Jesuits now situated as sole representative to King and Cross at Kaskaskia, and by extension the Illinois Country, Claude-Jean Allouez and his Jesuit associates were prepared to do whatever was necessary to keep secular influences away from the lands and the people whose souls the order worked so diligently to save. This included turning the Illinois Indians against La Salle. Without the support of the Illinois, there was little chance that La Salle's enterprise could succeed, because the explorer's royal patent permitted him to trade only in bison hides, and the Illinois were bison hunters. In addition, it appears that Allouez was prepared to turn Native American against Native American. The chapter then considers why the Iroquois attacked the Illinois at Kaskaskia, and what the implications were for La Salle and French policy in the West.

1684: The Iroquois Lay Siege to the Fort

This chapter focuses on the six-day Iroquois siege at Starved Rock. This attack on Fort St. Louis is an important event in French history in the West because, in the eyes of the Illinois Indians, it diminished the power of the French, both as protector and trade partner—the very reasons that the tribes had been drawn to the upper Illinois River Valley. The siege, which underscored French weaknesses, occurred during a time of social and commercial instability in the region. The near-success of the Iroquois validated their strength and encouraged their arrogance. It was clear that if the Iroquois could wrest the Canadian fur market from the French and control it themselves, then the Western tribes would trade with the Iroquois. The Iroquois would then trade those furs to the English. Had the outcome been reversed and Fort St. Louis had fallen to the Iroquois, the English would have achieved a major victory by gaining a greater role as a supplier of goods to the Western Indians. In the end, however, the repulse of the Iroquois at Starved Rock kept the important Franco-Native American trade alliance intact, and securely maintained French control of the gateway to the Mississippi through the Illinois Country.

1730–1776: We Leave, Never to Return

This chapter describes the events in Starved Rock from 1730 to 1776. By 1732, nearly all Peoria Indians were living at villages in the Illinois Valley, at either Starved Rock or at Lake Peoria. For the Illinois, especially the Peoria and possibly some Cahokia living at Starved Rock, it appeared that the Mesquakie threat had been extinguished. Rather than continue their campaign of genocide against the Mesquakie, the French administration decided to utilize its resources where they were needed most—in the lower Mississippi Valley against the fierce Chickasaw tribe, who were allies and trade partners of the British. Meanwhile, in Europe, the French became embroiled in a conflict with the British known as the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), a conflict that spilled over to North America, where it is commonly and incorrectly called the French and Indian War. By 1777, the Potawatomi were firmly ensconced in the Illinois Country. Like the Potawatomi, the Mascouten and Kickapoo Indians also moved into Illinois. None of these groups, however, established themselves at Starved Rock.