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CHAPTER 7 Hammering Out a Federal Republic, 1787–1820 225

demanding, meant repudiating the clan,
the very essence of Indian life. To pre-
serve “the old Indian way,” many Native
communities expelled white missionar-
ies and forced Christianized Indians to
participate in tribal rites. As a Munsee
prophet declared, “There are two ways
to God, one for the whites and one for
the Indians.”
A few Indian leaders sought a mid-
dle path in which new beliefs over-
lapped with old practices. Among the
Senecas, the prophet Handsome Lake
encouraged traditional animistic rit-
uals that gave thanks to the sun, the
earth, water, plants, and animals. But
he included Christian elements in his
teachings — the concepts of heaven
and hell and an emphasis on personal
morality — to deter his followers from
alcohol, gambling, and witchcraft.
Handsome Lake’s teachings divided the
Senecas into hostile factions. Led by The Treaty of Greenville, 1795 Coming at the conclusion of several years of punishing
warfare, this treaty was the first meaningful diplomatic agreement between the United States
Chief Red Jacket, traditionalists con- and the Native peoples of the trans-Appalachian west. The Western Confederacy ceded most of
demned European culture as evil and Ohio to the United States in exchange for a recognition of Indian ownership of lands beyond the
demanded a complete return to ances- cession, a large gift of merchandise, and the promise of an annual payment of federal funds. The
tral ways. United States also received permission to establish army posts at strategic locations in Indian
Most Indians also rejected the country. This painting, attributed to an officer on General Anthony Wayne’s staff, shows Wayne
and William Henry Harrison at the head of the American delegation, while Little Turtle speaks for
efforts of American missionaries to turn the Western Confederacy. Captain William Wells, kneeling nearby, acted as translator and scribe
warriors into farmers and women into for the proceedings. Chicago History Museum/Getty Images.
domestic helpmates. Among eastern
woodland peoples, women grew corn, beans, and squash — the mainstays of the Indi-
ans’ diet — and land cultivation rights passed through the female line. Consequently,
women exercised considerable political influence, which they were eager to retain.
Nor were Indian men interested in becoming farmers. When war raiding and hunting
were no longer possible, many turned to grazing cattle and sheep.

Migration and the Changing Farm Economy EXAM TIP
Native American resistance slowed the advance of white settlers but did not stop it. Compare the frontier culture of the
Nothing “short of a Chinese Wall, or a line of Troops,” Washington declared, “will Federal Period in the U.S. to the
restrain . . . the Incroachment of Settlers, upon the Indian Territory.” During the frontier culture of the Colonial Era in
1790s, two great streams of migrants moved out of the southern states, while a third North America.
flowed from New England.

Southern Migrants One stream, composed primarily of white tenant farmers and
struggling non-slaveowning families, flocked through the Cumberland Gap into Ken-
tucky and Tennessee. “Boundless settlements open a door for our citizens to run off
and leave us,” a worried Maryland landlord lamented, “depreciating all our landed
property and disabling us from paying taxes.” In fact, many migrants were fleeing
from this planter-controlled society. They wanted more freedom and hoped to pros-
per by growing cotton and hemp, which were in great demand.
Many settlers in Kentucky and Tennessee lacked ready cash to buy land. Like the North
Carolina Regulators in the 1770s, poorer migrants claimed a customary right to occupy
“back waste vacant Lands” sufficient “to provide a subsistence to themselves and their
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