From: Holly Z
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 00:38:07 EDT

The following is a commentary on my great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Chief Tarhe:

Life Among the Indians or Personal Reminiscences and Historical Incidents
Illustrative of Indian Life and Character
by Rev. James B. Finley,
pp.  523 - 529
The Crane, or Tarhe

Among the great chiefs of the north-west, there was none greater than Tarhe, or the Crane.  He was head chief of the Wyandott nation, and belonged to the Porcupine tribe.  He was always cool, deliberate, and firm.  His wisdom in council, as well as him bravery in war, gave him great influence among all the neighboring tribes.  He was tall in person, well made, and his very countenance was strongly marked by the great virtues for which he was distinguished through a long and honorable life.  All who knew him, whether white or red, deeply venerated his character.  He was affable and courteous, kind and affectionate in his feelings, stern and unyielding in his integrity. As a warrior, he was among the bravest of the brave; but, Indian as he was, no stain of cruelty, barbarity, or injustice, rests upon his character.

Prior to the battle of General Wayne, on the Maumee, in 1794, the Deer tribe had furnished the head chief of the nation; but in that battle this tribe was nearly annihilated.  Then the old usage was set aside, and the great Tarhe was called to preside over the destinies of the Wyandott nation.  A better selection could not have been made.

The only thing I ever hear in the least discreditable to this chief, was the story of his agency in the execution of the doomed chief, Leather-Lips, for the supposed crime of witchcraft.  This man was a chief of some distinction, had attained sixty-three years of age, and was warmly attached to the American cause.  This made it desirable on the part of the Prophet that he should be put out of the way.  He was accordingly accused of witchcraft.  Mr. Thatcher says:

"Orders were given to an influential chief - the Crane - of the same nation with the convict, in the Prophet's service, who, with four other Indians, immediately started off in quest of him.  He was found at home, and notified of the sentence which had been passed upon him.  He entreated, reasoned, and promised, but all in vain.  The inexorable messengers of death set about digging his grave by the side of his wigwam.  He now dressed himself with his finest war-clothes, and, having refreshed himself with a hasty meal of venison, kneeled down on the brink of the grave.  His executioner kneeled with him, and offered up a prayer to the Great Spirit in his behalf.  This was the last ceremony.

The Indians withdrew a few paces, and seated themselves around him on the ground.  'The old chief,' says the original describer of this most horrid >scene, 'inclined forward, resting his face upon his hand, his hand upon his knees.  While thus seated, one of the young Indians came up, and struck him twice with the tomahawk.  For some time, he lay senseless on the ground, the only remaining evidence of life being a faint respiration.  The Indians all stood around him in solemn silence.  Finding him to breathe longer than they expected, they called upon the whiter - one or two of whom were spectators - to take notice how hard he died; pronounced him a wizard - no good - then struck him again, and terminated his existence.  The office of burial was soon performed.'"

Mr. Thatcher and his informant were wholly mistaken as to the agency of Tarhe in this matter.  His whole character, and especially his known opposition to the schemes of the Prophet, furnish a strong presumption against the story. As an act of justice to one of the best men, and especially to a chief of my own tribe, I give the views of the late lamented President Harrison upon the matter.  He says, in a letter to the editor of the Hesperian: "I observe in your magazine that the chief, Tarhe is declared, upon the authority of Mr. Thatcher, to have been the leader of the five warriors, who were sent to execute the 'Doomed Chief,' in the year 1810.  This is, beyond doubt, a mistake.  I knew Tarhe well.  My acquaintance with him commenced at the treaty of Greenville in 1795.  His tribe was under my superintendence in 1810.  All the business I said I never knew a better man, and am confident he would not have been concerned in such a transaction as is ascribed to him in the article shown referred to.  In support of this opinion, I offer the following reason:

    "1.  The execution of the 'Doomed Wyandott Chief' is attributed, and no doubt correctly, to the Shawnee Prophet, and his brother, Tecumseh.  To my knowledge, Tarhe was always the opponent of these men, and could not have been their agent in the matter.
    2.  The accusation of witchcraft was brought by these Shawnee brothers, and the accused were exclusively those who were friendly to the United States, and who had been parties to treaties by which the Indian titles to lands had been extinguished.  In both these respects Tarhe had rendered himself obnoxious to the former.
    3.  Tarhe was not only the Grand Sachem of his tribe, but the acknowledged head of all the tribes who were engaged in the war with the United States, which was terminated by the treaty of Greenville; and in that character the duplicate of the original treaty, engrossed on parchment, was committed to his custody, as had been the grand calumet which was the symbol of peace.
    4.  He united with his friend, Black-Hoof, the head chief of the Shawnees, in denying the rank of chief either to the Prophet or Tecumseh; and, of course, he would not have received it of them.  If the 'doomed warrior' had been sentenced by the council of his own nation, the Crane - Tarhe - would not have directed the execution; but, as was invariably the custom, it would have been committed to one of the war-chiefs.  The party sent to put the old chief to death, no doubt, came immediately from Tippecanoe; and if it was commanded by a Wyandott, the probability is that it was Round-Head, who was a captain of the band of Wyandotts who resided with the Prophet, and was, to a great extent, under his influences."

This good chief has long since gone the way of all men, and yet it is due that justice should be done him, and his true character pass down to the generations to come.

It is related that at the commencement of the last war with England, Tarhe was called to a council by the British officer commanding at Malden, in Upper Canada, as many of his nation lived in Canada.  The object was to see what part the nation would take in the war then pending.  The council met at Brownstown, in the state of Michigan.  Several speeches were first delivered, and great promises made by the British agent about what their great father, King George, would do for them, if the nation would fight the Americans; and he closed by presenting Tarhe with a likeness of King George.  Holding it in his hand, the chief arose and said:

"We have no confidence in King George.  He is always quarreling with this white children in this country.  He sends his armies over the great water, in their big canoes, and then he gets his Indian friends her to join with him to conquer his children, and promise if they will fight for him, he will do great things for them.  So he promised, if we would fight Wayne, and if he whipped us, he would open the gates of his fort, on the Maumee, and let us in, and open his big guns on our enemies; but when we were whipped, and the flower of our nation were killed, we fled to this place, but instead of opening the gates, and letting us in, you shut yourselves up in your ground-hog hole and kept out of sight, while my warriors were killed at your gates.  We have no confidence in any promise you make.  When the Americans scratch your backs with their war-clubs, you jump into your big canoes, and run home, and leave the poor Indians to fight it out, or make peace with them, the best they may."

He then took the likeness of George Washington from his bosom, and said: "This is our great father, and for him we will fight."  Then taking the likeness of King George in his left hand, he drew his tomahawk, and with the edge struck the likeness.  "And so we will serve your great father."

This so excited the British officer that it is said he turned black in the face.  He replied that he would make the chief repent that act.  "This is my land and country," said Tarhe; "go home to your own land, and tell your countrymen that Tarhe and his warriors are ready, and that they are the friends of the Americans."

Thus broke up the council that night.  Arrangements were made to cross the river, and take all the Wyandotts prisoners, and all they could catch were taken and carried to Canada, and compelled to fight against their own nation. Tarhe returned to his home, at Upper Sandusky, and with his warriors sided with the Americans, and all their force, till the battle of the Thames; numbers of them were in the army of General Harrison at the time when he fought the last battle with the British and Indians.

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