curate commentator, speaking of the early frontiersmen, says: "They
eagerly craved the Indian lands; they would not be denied entrance to
the thinly-peopled territory wherein they intended to make homes for
themselves and their children. Rough, masterful, lawless, they were
neither daunted by the powers of the red warriors whose wrath they
braved, nor awed by the displeasure of the government whose solemn
engagements they violated."

The Treaty of Greenville had given the undisputed possession and
occupancy of all the lands above Vincennes and vicinity, and embraced
within the limits of the territory ceded by the Treaty of Fort Wayne, to
the Indians. They were given the authority by that pact to drive off a
squatter or "punish him in such manner as they might think fit,"
indulging, however, in no act of "private revenge or retaliation." No
trader was even allowed to enter this domain unless he was licensed by
the government.

It is needless to say that no fine sense of right and justice existed
either in the mind of the white land-grabber or in that of his red
antagonist. Many unlawful invasions of the Indian lands were made.
Moreover, many of the fur traders along the Wabash were of the lowest
type of humanity. They employed any and all means to cheat and defraud
the Indians by the barter and sale of cheap trinkets and bad whiskey and
often violated every principle of honesty and fair-dealing. This kind of
conduct on the part of settlers and traders furnished ample
justification in the minds of the ignorant savages for the making of
reprisals. Many horses were stolen by them, and often foul murders were
committed by the more lawless element. This horse-stealing and
assassination led in turn to counter-attacks on the part of the whites.
In time, these acts of violence on the part of the vicious element in
both races spread hate and enmity in every direction. This kind of
history was made. "A Muskoe Indian was killed in Vincennes by an Italian
inn-keeper without any just cause. The governor ordered that the
murderer should be apprehended, but so great was the antagonism to the
Indians among all classes, that on his trial the jury acquitted the
homicide almost without any deliberation. About the same time, two Wea
Indians were badly wounded near Vincennes by some whites without the
slightest provocation. Such facts exasperated the Indians, and led to
their refusal to deliver up Indians who had committed like offenses
ag