Chief Senachwine

The War Chief Who Wasn’t – War Chief Senachwine
By Kit Zinser

One year before his death, Chief Senachwine predicted that the Potawatomi Nation and all Native Americans would become extinct.  

What follows is an account of how Chief Senachwine (Potawatomi: Znajjewan meaning Difficult Current) and the Potawatomi tribe interacted with frontier settlers near Washington town boundaries.

If we hearken back to the late 1700s, a settlement on the Illinois River at Ft. Clark (later Peoria) flourished with French traders. The tribes trusted the French up and down the river but looked askance at the British and white frontiersmen. Blacksmiths and wagon makers lived in harmony with the Indians, who sometimes adopted white customs, which was an advantage to the fledgling government.  Most traders accumulated great wealth by floating goods from Canada to Cahokia.  However, tentative relationships existed since both sides saved face many times with false accusations and rumors that led to skirmishes and sometimes bloody conflicts.  The government used the Indian attack and victory on Ft. Dearborn (now Chicago) to push tribes West.  The Kickapoo and Potawatomi joined forces and attacked Ft. Clark (Peoria), killing military men and families as they left the compound.  Black Partridge (a Potawatomi chief) had maintained an alliance with the military and warned them of the impending attack.  The military went about government business, attacking many villages up and down the Illinois River valley.  Partridge’s grandchild and daughter were killed in one of these attacks. He shifted alliances and convinced the peaceful Senachwine to join forces or face extinction.  Senachwine didn’t believe in offensive wars but saw that the US government would not back down. Betrayals and treachery led to retaliation for the retaliation. In 1812, sensing futility for his nation, Senachwine traveled with Governor Ninian Edwards to discuss and finally sign a treaty.  

Chief Senachwine, designated War Chief of the Potawatomi Tribe, dwelt with his people in and near what became Washington Township. Well respected, Senachwine stood an imposing figure – tall, lanky, and resplendent in buckskin and eagle feathers as he counseled warriors within the Potawatomi nation. A preacher who went by the name of Wigby resided in Senachwine’s village.  The chief had three wives, yet the preacher convinced him to be baptized.  His intelligence and compassion were respected throughout the area.  Among the whites, he was generally well regarded as he extended the hand of friendship. William Holland received that hand of friendship.

Lawson Holland, son of William Holland, recalls some of their curious traditions. Gathering turtles:  braves rode side by side with a blanket stretched between two horses. As they plodded through the stream, the blanket scooped up turtles.  The turtles were put in a steaming kettle, and turtle meat was consumed for days.  One time a year, a deer must be killed without breaking a bone, including roasting and eating the deer.  The remains were then gathered, wrapped in the deer hide, and buried.  In the covenant of marriage, women were charged with completing all village work – skinning and dressing and cooking games, building teepees, taking care of papooses (term used to refer to children), preparing and sewing skins, generally supporting the braves during celebrations and feasts.  Men provided the game.  The exchange between warrior and woman was corn for a deer foot.  Members of the tribe displayed ornamental wealth with pierced noses, ear hoops, bells dangling from a belt, and cuffs of bells around ankles.  In the winter, the dead were entombed, standing up around which poles were stuck in the earth.  To be expected, peril and danger were never far away.

A mere three years before William Holland founded Washington, young Lawson recalled an encounter with a renegade band. William Holland entertained two guests for dinner.  One gentleman walked outside to smoke his pipe.  At that moment, a young brave stepped out of the forest near the fire and demanded the pipe.  The man refused, and the brave buried his tomahawk in the man’s skull. Holland rushed from the cabin and grappled with the angry brave.  A war whoop brought more warriors from the timber.  Holland and his surviving guests were surrounded.  A brief skirmish followed, and Holland managed to extricate himself as a warrior recognized previous friendly exchanges with Holland.  The small group left without further problems….and without the pipe. Controlling young braves was a problem even for Senachwine.

Within the Indian nation, Senachwine counseled warriors and other chiefs, especially the war-mongering Blackhawk. Whites were again becoming alarmed.  In 1823, Senachwine asked to speak to the whites.   His speech lasted four hours.  In part, here are his noble words:

“When you palefaces came to our country we took you in and treated you like brothers. We furnished you with corn and gave you meat that we killed, but you palefaces became numerous and trampled upon our rights which we attempted to resist, but was whipped and driven off.  This is returned evil for good.  The graves of my forefathers are just as dear to me as yours, and had I the power, I’d wipe you from the face of the earth.  I have 800 good warriors, besides many old men and boys that could be put in a fight, but this takes up a remnant of these tribes since the last war. I believe I could raise enough braves, and taking you by surprise could clean the State.  I know I could go below your capital and take everything clean. But what then?  We must all die in time. You would kill us all off.” ……………………………..…..”Some of my men say in our consultations, let us rise and wipe the palefaces from the face of the earth. I tell them no – the palefaces are too numerous.  I can take every man, woman and child I’ve got and place them in the hollow of my hand and hold them out at arm’s length. But when I want to count you palefaces, I must go out in the big prairie where timber ain’t in sight and count the spears of grass and I haven’t then told your numbers.”

Holland’s friendly dealings with Senachwine lasted for at least ten years, and Lawson remembers him as "despondent. ” Senachwine’s words certainly seem to support Holland’s observation.

In 1831, Senachwine met with other chiefs regarding Chief Black Hawk and his desire to war with the whites.  The online essay “Potawatomi War Chief (1744-1831) Chief Senachwine” quotes him as saying:  

“Resistance to the aggression of the whites is useless; war is wicked and must result in our ruin.  Therefore, let us submit to our fate, return not evil for evil as this would offend the Great Spirit and bring ruin upon us.  My friends, do not listen to the words of Black Hawk for he is trying to lead you astray.  Do not imbue your hands in human blood…”

Senachwine died in the summer of 1831 and is buried on a bluff above his former village site in Putnam County. In 1832, the Blackhawk War ensued after Chief Blackhawk ignored Senachwine’s counsel. The result:  the Potawatomi were deported to reservations in Kansas and Nebraska.

Four years after his death, 23 warriors traveled 500 miles to the great Chief’s grave.  Faces blackened, heads covered, the mourners danced the “Dance of the Dead” for several days.  A few days after their departure, the grave was looted.  The men came back and reburied valued artifacts and bones.  In 1937, a monument was placed by the Sons of the American Revolution at the spot believed to be the grave site of War Chief Senachwine, about a half mile north of the village of Putnam.

And that is my next pilgrimage.