Logan (Iroquois leader)

Logan the Orator (c. 1723 – 1780) was a Cayuga orator and war leader born of one of the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. After his 1760s move to the Ohio Country, he became affiliated with the Mingo, a tribe formed from Seneca, Cayuga, Lenape and other remnant peoples. He took revenge for family members killed by Virginian long knives in 1774 in what is known as the Yellow Creek Massacre. His actions against settlers on the frontier helped spark Dunmore's War later that year.
Logan became known for a speech, later known as Logan's Lament, which he reportedly delivered after the war. Scholars dispute important details about Logan, including his original name and whether the words of Logan's Lament were his.
Scholars agree that Logan was a son of Chief Shikellamy, an important diplomat for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. But, as anthropologist Anthony F. C. Wallace has written, "Which of Shikellamy's sons was Logan the orator has been a matter of dispute." Logan the orator has been variously identified as Tah-gah-jute, Tachnechdorus (also spelled "Tachnedorus" and "Taghneghdoarus"), Soyechtowa, Tocanioadorogon, the "Great Mingo", James Logan, and John Logan.
The name "Tah-gah-jute" was popularized in an 1851 book by Brantz Mayer entitled Tah-gah-jute: or Logan and Cresap. However, historian Francis Jennings wrote that Mayer's book was "erroneous from the first word of the title." He identified Logan as James Logan, also known as Soyechtowa and Tocanioadorogon. Historians who agree that Logan the orator was not named "Tah-gah-jute" sometimes identify him as Tachnechdorus. But Jennings identifies Tachnechdorus as Logan the orator's older brother.
Logan's father Chief Shikellamy, who was Oneida, worked closely with Pennsylvania official James Logan to maintain the Covenant Chain relationship with the colony of Pennsylvania. Following a prevailing Native American practice, the young man who would become Logan the Mingo took the name "James Logan" out of admiration for his father's friend.
With the disruption of warfare, disease, and encroachment, some Seneca, Susquehannock, and Cayuga among the Haudenosaunee migrated to the Ohio Country, as did Lenape. Joining in a process of ethnogenesis, they became known as the Mingo tribe. Logan the Mingo is usually identified as a Mingo "chief", but historian Richard White has written that "He was not a chief. Kayashuta and White Mingo were the Mingo chiefs. Logan was merely a war leader." The Haudenosaunee and other Native American tribes tended to have peace chiefs and war chiefs, or leaders. Like his father, Logan generally maintained friendly relationships with white settlers who were moving from eastern Pennsylvania and Virginia into the Ohio Country: the region that is now Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and western Pennsylvania.
John Logan's Father was the Haudenosaunee Chief, Shikellamy of the Oneida Tribe. His mother was Neanoma a Cayuga, and step-mother was Tutelo. Shikellamy and Neanoma were married in New York State. A historical marker in Danby, New York, designates the "possible birthplace of Chief Logan (Tah-Gah-Jute)," and then quotes Logan's famous speech.
John Logan was also known as Tachnechtoris, "The Spreading Oak" or John Shikellamy. He had 3 known brothers and one sister. John was the oldest of the siblings. His next brother was known as Tah-gah-jute, Sayughtowa, "The Beetling Brow", or James Logan. James later in life was referred to as "Logan, the Mingo." His brother, Arahhot or "Unhappy Jake" was killed in the war with the Catawbas in 1744. John Petty or Sogogeghyata, was the youngest of his brothers and bore the name of a Shamokin Indian Trader. John Logan's sister was known as the widow of Cajadies who was known as "the best hunter among all of the Indians" who died in November 1747.
Children, by tradition, took the clan or tribe of the mother. The Shikellamy children were of the Cayuga Tribe.
Statement of Jesse Logan, aged 106 years old and Great Grandson of Chief Shikellamy Cornplanter Reservation, Penn October 9, 1915:
Logan's friendly relations with white settlers changed after the Yellow Creek massacre of April 30, 1774. A group of Virginia Long knives led by Daniel Greathouse murdered a number of Mingo, among them Logan's brother (commonly known as John Petty) and at least two other close female relatives, one of them pregnant and caring for an infant daughter. Her children's father was John Gibson, a prominent trader in the region. These Mingo had been living near the mouth of Yellow Creek, and had been lured to the cabin of Joshua Baker, a settler and rum trader who lived across the Ohio River from their village. The Mingo in Baker's cabin were all murdered, except for the infant mixed-race child, who was spared with the intention of giving her to her father. At least two canoes were dispatched from the Yellow Creek village to aid their members, but they were repelled by Greathouse's men concealed along the river. In all, approximately a dozen Mingo were murdered in the cabin and on the river. Logan was not present in the area when the massacre took place, and was summoned to return by runners.
Influential tribal chiefs in the region, such as Cornstalk (Shawnee), White Eyes (Lenape), and Guyasuta (Seneca/Mingo), attempted to negotiate a peaceful resolution lest the incident develop into a larger war, but by Native American custom Logan had the right to retaliate for the murders. Several parties of mixed Mingo and Shawnee warriors soon struck the frontier, including one led by Logan. They attacked settlers in several frontier regions, both killing and taking captives. One known as the Spicer Massacre in Greene County, Pennsylvania. The Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, responded by launching an expedition against the Mingo and Shawnee, in the conflict known as Dunmore's War.
Logan was not at the Battle of Point Pleasant (October 10, 1774), the only major battle of Dunmore's War. Following the battle, Dunmore's army marched into the Ohio Country and compelled the Ohio Indians to agree to a peace treaty.
According to tradition, Logan refused to attend the negotiations and instead made a speech that became legendary:
First published in The Virginia Gazette in 1775, the speech was more widely popularized when Thomas Jefferson reprinted it in his book Notes on the State of Virginia (1782). In 1822 the speech inspired the John Neal novel Logan, which also featured Logan as a main character. The American elm tree in Pickaway County, Ohio under which Logan was said to have given the speech became known as the Logan Elm. It grew to great size before dying in 1964.
The remainder of Logan's life is shrouded in obscurity. Logan continued his attacks on white settlers and associated himself with British-allied Mohawks during the American Revolution. He died in an altercation near Lake Erie in 1780. He was reportedly assassinated by his own nephew, urged on by other Mingo who were concerned at Logan's erratic behavior. Years later, the nephew stated that he had agreed to kill Logan "Because he was too great a man to live."
Numerous places carry Logan's name, including: