Post by Robert Braun on Sept 6, 2002 14:49:36 GMT -5
Just finished A Gathering of Rivers: Indians, Métis, and Mining in the Western Great Lakes, 1737–1832 by Lucy Eldersveld Murphy. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. xviii + 233 pp. Illustrations, maps, tables, bibliographic notes, index. $47.50.)
Dr. Murphy must have an enemy—a nemesis to hold out to her readership as the embodiment of “white guy” evil. She has found it in Col. Henry Dodge.
Dr. Murphy’s reasoning is that Dodge was the most flagrant violator of Indian land rights. She asserts this thesis with the fully informed knowledge that Dodge’s particular dealings in the region are by far among the best documented—thus making the usual skewering of Dodge a straightforward task. Dodge also dared to challenge the authorities in areas where boundaries and jurisdiction was far less defined than the U. S. Indian Agents or the military believed... or could prove.
My concerns are not with Dr. Murphy’s assessment of Dodge. Her findings are typical of pro-native investigators who read the historical record regarding Dodge without delving any further—which Dr. Murphy has clearly done. What is inexcusable is the fact that Dr. Murphy most probably had the bulk of resources at her disposal with which to render a more balanced appraisal of American movement into the lead-rich lands south of the Wisconsin River, yet she failed to provide the kind of assessment that she offered elsewhere in her work.
First—there is little evidence that Dodge was, by his nature, naturally disposed to hate native people. Despite numerous family members having been killed by Indians, and he himself nearly murdered by Indians as an infant (he and his mother were saved in time by Moses Henry—for whom Dodge was named) there are several examples that prove Dodge was both thoughtful and controlled. His saving of a band of Miamis from certain slaughter at the hands of his volunteers during the War of 1812 is a great story of the “western-theater” segment of that conflict. So too is the recounting of a young Shawnee lad who threatened Dodge with a rifle. Rather than kill the lad, he wrested the weapon from his grip in a display of personal bravery. During Black Hawk’s War, Dodge was in frequent and close council with Indian people, especially the Winnebago. Dodge’s reasonable dealings via “arrest” of White Crow and other Winnebago after trying to rouse the ire of local bands, has yet to be compared with the obtuse treatment of U. S. Indian Agent Henry Gratiot at Phrophet’s Town at the hands of Black Hawk and his warriors. Reagrding active military action against the Sauk, Fox and Kickapoo in Summer 1832, the facts show that Dodge personally killed only one Indian during the conflict—being the grey-haired principal Kickapoo warrior at the Battle of Bloody Lake “Pecatonica.”
Dr. Murphy must have an enemy—a nemesis to hold out to her readership as the embodiment of “white guy” evil. She has found it in Col. Henry Dodge.
Dr. Murphy’s reasoning is that Dodge was the most flagrant violator of Indian land rights. She asserts this thesis with the fully informed knowledge that Dodge’s particular dealings in the region are by far among the best documented—thus making the usual skewering of Dodge a straightforward task. Dodge also dared to challenge the authorities in areas where boundaries and jurisdiction was far less defined than the U. S. Indian Agents or the military believed... or could prove.
My concerns are not with Dr. Murphy’s assessment of Dodge. Her findings are typical of pro-native investigators who read the historical record regarding Dodge without delving any further—which Dr. Murphy has clearly done. What is inexcusable is the fact that Dr. Murphy most probably had the bulk of resources at her disposal with which to render a more balanced appraisal of American movement into the lead-rich lands south of the Wisconsin River, yet she failed to provide the kind of assessment that she offered elsewhere in her work.
First—there is little evidence that Dodge was, by his nature, naturally disposed to hate native people. Despite numerous family members having been killed by Indians, and he himself nearly murdered by Indians as an infant (he and his mother were saved in time by Moses Henry—for whom Dodge was named) there are several examples that prove Dodge was both thoughtful and controlled. His saving of a band of Miamis from certain slaughter at the hands of his volunteers during the War of 1812 is a great story of the “western-theater” segment of that conflict. So too is the recounting of a young Shawnee lad who threatened Dodge with a rifle. Rather than kill the lad, he wrested the weapon from his grip in a display of personal bravery. During Black Hawk’s War, Dodge was in frequent and close council with Indian people, especially the Winnebago. Dodge’s reasonable dealings via “arrest” of White Crow and other Winnebago after trying to rouse the ire of local bands, has yet to be compared with the obtuse treatment of U. S. Indian Agent Henry Gratiot at Phrophet’s Town at the hands of Black Hawk and his warriors. Reagrding active military action against the Sauk, Fox and Kickapoo in Summer 1832, the facts show that Dodge personally killed only one Indian during the conflict—being the grey-haired principal Kickapoo warrior at the Battle of Bloody Lake “Pecatonica.”
