Beyond Manhattan: A Gazetteer of Delaware Indian History
[Robert S. Grumet (2014)] Nimhams were among the many Stockbridge Indian families who lost kinsmen who joined the Continental Army to fight against the British during the Revolutionary War. Finding themselves a minority in their own community after the war ended, most of the town’s Indian residents relocated to the New Stockbridge community (see in New York in Part 2 above) established on Oneida land in 1785. Joined there by Delaware Indians who gave up their reservation at Brotherton (see Indian Mills in New Jersey South in Part 1) in 1801, they were ultimately forced farther west, where many of their descendants today Monongahela River just below Pittsburgh. Beyond Manhattan, Robert S. Grumet 121 OHIO Among the Delaware leaders who signed the Treaty of Greenville (see below) giving up much of Ohio a year later, Buckongkehelas ALUM CREEK (Delaware, Franklin, and Morrow counties). John moved farther west to the White River valley in present-day IndiBrickell (in J. Williams 1842:55), a Pennsylvania youth who lived ana. He died there at his home in what is today the Old Town Hill as an adopted captive among Delawares in western Ohio between section in the City of Muncie (see in Indiana below) in 1805. 1791 and 1795, observed that they used the name “Secklic Seepung or Saltlick Creek,” when referring to the Scioto Valley stream today BRICKEL (Franklin County). Brickel Street in the City of Columcalled Alum Creek. Whritenour notes hat Secklic is an Anglo- bus bears the family name of John Brickell, who moved to the area Lenape composite linking sikey, the Delaware word for salt, with just two years after he was released from captivity among the the English word “lick.” Both words refer to the stream water’s as- Delaware Indians in 1795. His intimate portrait of his life as an adopted son of the noted war captain Big Cat (in J. Williams tringent quality. 1842:43-56) provides a unique glimpse into Delaware Indian doASHTABULA (Ashtabula County). Mahr (1957:154) thought that mestic life at a critical point in their history. this name sounded like a Delaware Indian word, *ash’t’pe’l’w, “there is always enough, moving,” that ostensibly identified the CAMPBELL (Summit County). Mary Campbell Cave, a rock shelAshtabula River as a good place to fish. The name first appeared ter in the Gorge Metro Park above the banks of the Cuyahoga River on colonial maps as the Riviere Ousaibolu in the 1778 Hutchins (see below), and Campbell Street, a local thoroughfare that runs just map. Today, the 40-mile-long Ashtabula River flows through to the north of the park, are located in the City of Cuyahoga Falls. in English, pooshies in Delaware is a Dutch loan word for cat), Buckongkehelas led Delawares fighting alongside warriors led by Blue Jacket and Miami chief Little Turtle to notable victories COSHOCTON (Coshocton County). Mahr (1957:145) suggested that Goschachkung, a Moravian spelling of the name, resembled against American armies in 1790 and 1791. the way that a Unami word, *kosh’ochk’nk, “where there is a river Buckongkehelas was also on the field when troops belongcrossing,” and a Munsee cognate, koch’kochkink, may have ing to the American Legion commanded by General Anthony sounded to a German listener. He went on to propose that the EngWayne (see Logtown in Pennsylvania West above) defeated the lish spelling, Coshocton, produced a name that sounded much like associated with Delaware Indian occupation in Ohio. The densest concentration of these places occurs in the adjoining Muskingum Valley (see below) counties of Delaware and Tuscarawas where Delaware Indian people located some of their major settlements. The name of Delaware does not, however, adorn present-day places in adjacent Coshocton County where the largest number of these Delaware Indian communities was located. Some places bearing the name, such as Delaware Avenue located in the city where the Treaty of Greenville (see below) was signed in 1795, mark Delaware participation in major events that took place in locales where Delawares did not live. The City and Township of Delaware, Delaware Lake, Delaware Run, the Delaware Valley Joint Fire District, and a number of streets, roads, parks, and other features named Delaware in Delaware County, are located in a part of the state where Delawares neither established a major settlement nor participated in a notable event. Particularly dense clusters of places named Delaware counties mark locales where Delawares lived with Shawnees, Nanticokes, Mingos, and other Indian expatriates on Miami Indian land along the upper reaches of the Maumee River (Tanner 1978). Many Delaware warriors from these communities followed their war leader Buckongkehelas (see Bokengehalas above), who together with warriors led by Miami leader Little Turtle and Shawnee leader Blue Jacket, defeated the two American armies sent to drive them away in 1789 and 1791. Finally defeated by the third army led by General Anthony Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers (see below) on