The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1957-08-22
The Good Indian

| Wishe Ku-an-We was a good Indian
once on a time but later was one
of the worst. Son of Cayuga chief,
Skikellimus, and a Delaware Indian
woman, his name was a Shawnee
Indian word and means "big wind. F"
He was born in 1742 at Shamokin,
Pennsylvania, then an Indian village
itself.
| A great admirer of Col. Benjamin
Logan, of Kentucky, then part of
Virginia, Wishe Kuanwe named him.
self after him and to this day the white
people added John" and thus he
became Logan, chief of the Mingos,
celebrated for his his bravery,
eloquence and nobility throughout
America. He was the original of the
old Currier and Ives etching ''The
Noble Red Man" which hung in thou
sands of homes all over the land
in bygone years. Well call him
Logan-the name he himself so pre-
ferred.
For awhile Logan lived at 'the
Big Spring." in Mifflin County,
Pennsylvania, near Reedville, and
supported his family by hunting deer,
bears, dressing skins and selling them
to the white people. Then he moved
into the Alleghenies. He took no part
in the French and Indian War, which
ended in 1850, other than as peace
maker and always was a friend of the
white people-that is until the murder
of his family by them in 1774 on the
east bank of the Ohio River opposite
the mouth of Yellow creek about II
miles above Steubenville.
A party of Indians were camped on
the west side of the river across from
"Greathouse' party" of whites on the
east bank. Five Indian men, a woman
and baby crossed to the east bank
where the white men gave them rum
and three of the warriors got pretty
drunk. The other two and the woman
refused to drink The sober Indians
were challenged to shoot at mark
and agreed. AS soon as their guns
were emptied the white men shot
them down. The woman tried to flee
but she too was shot dead In a near
by cabin a man waited with toma-
hawk and there killed the three
Indians too drunk to fight or get
away. The baby found its way from
hand to hand until it was given to its
supposed white father, George
Gibson, a Carlisle, Pennsylvania,
Indian trader.
The remaining Indians at the mouth
of Yellow creek on the Ohio side of
the river attempted to escape down
river and passed along the west side
of Wheeling island to land at Pipe
creek. There they were overtaken by
whites and one Indian was killed and
! one of the white men badly wounded.
During the foregoing massacres
Logan knew nothing of the happening.
He was at Wheeling attending a
council and there speaking for the
white men in trying to get the Indians
to forsake the warpath and not to
attack them. 1t was while he was
speaking that the fugitives arrived
and reported that Logan's father.
brother and sister were murdered by
the whites-the massacre on the Ohio
opposite Yellow creek.
Logan stopped his speech, took up
his tomahawk and declared that he
would mot ground it again" until
he had taken ten for one. On this
he made good-he took 30 scalps dur
ing the summer of 1774. He soon
joined the Mingos and shortly after
wards became their chief. The
Mingos were not tribe or nation
but were band of desperadoes made
up of the worst element from all
tribes. When an Indian was too bad to