Segments of the Delaware Nation began migrating into the present state of Indiana about 1770 and in 1800 the majority of the tribe, including its principal chiefs, was established along the upper course of the west fork of bite River. The Delawares remained in Indiana until 1820 whereupon they were removed to Missouri Territory and thence to Kansas in 1830. The tribe ceded its Kansas land to the United States in 1867 and merged with the Cherokee Nation. The White River band was the core of the Delaware Nation throughout its Indiana, Missouri, and Kansas phases and this study is an ethnohistoric synthesis of the White River Indiana Delawares. The study focuses upon the tribe's continuum of dispersal, disunity, and cultural and social disintegration and, it analyzes the chieftaincy of William Anderson (1806-1830) with regard to his attempts to revitalize the Delawares into a viable tribe.The Delawares in 1800 mirrored the effects of over two centuries of contact with and resistance to Anglo-American settlement. The wars and the resultant depopulation and dispersal had created a disorganized and dejected society. The tribe's White River residence did however unite a major portion of its divergent groups and, it produced a capable chief in William Anderson.The decade preceding the Delawares' removal from Indiana to their settlement in Kansas in 1830 was a difficult period for the tribe and it was only through the efforts of William Anderson that the White River Delawares remained a cohesive band. This period was highlighted by Anderson's attempts to create a unified and viable nation free from white influences. His goals were revitalistic and predicated upon a past which had not existed for the tribe and they were thus only partially fulfilled. By emphasizing a hunting subsistence Anderson established his nation's right to exist west of the Mississippi River. His consolidation of the tribe's political structure gave the White River Delawares a strong native leadership during a crucial phase of their tribal existence. Anderson's death in 1830 created a leadership vacuum which was filled by the tribe's council and that body thereafter consistently refused to continue Anderson's goals and policies.The Delawares' thirty-seven year residence in Kansas was marked by continued cultural and social decay, tribal dispersal, disunity, and an almost complete alteration of its subsistence base from a hunting and simple-gardening economy to that of an agricultural existence. The tribe was powerless to halt these events and, despite its friendship and service to the United States, was incapable of stopping the ever encroaching tide of white settlers. It was apparent to theDelaware council in 1863 that another removal farther to the west was advisable. The decision was reached in July, 1866 and the resultant treaty and land cession terminated the entity known as the Delaware Nation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/176143 |
| Date | January 1972 |
| Creators | Ferguson, Roger James |
| Contributors | Anson, Bert |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | iv, 216 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
| Coverage | n-us-in |
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