| Chief Logan |
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| 1725 births | |
| logan, chief | |
| 1780 deaths | |
| native american leaders | |
| iroquois people | |
| people from west virginia | |
| people from ohio | |
| people from pennsylvania | |
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Chief Logan (c. 1725 – 1780 ) was a Mingo American Indian leader in the era before the American Revolutionary War , whose revenge for the brutal killing of his family members by American frontiersmen helped spark the 1774 conflict known as Dunmore's War . Logan became famous for a speech, later known as "Logan's Lament", which he supposedly delivered after the war. Important details about Logan have been disputed by scholars, including his name and whether or not the words of "Logan's Lament" were actually his. IDENTITY DEBATE Little is known about Logan's life before 1774. Scholars agree that Logan was a son of Chief Shikellamy , an important diplomat for the Iroquois Confederacy . However, as historian Anthony F. C. Wallace has written, "Which of Shikellamy's sons was Logan the orator has been a matter of dispute."Wallace, ''Jefferson and the Indians'', 343. Logan the orator has been variously identified as Tah-gah-jute, Tachnechdorus (also spelled "Tachnedorus" and "Taghneghdoarus"), Soyechtowa, Tocanioadorogon, Talgayeeta, 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" and instead identified Logan as James Logan, also known as Soyechtowa and Tocanioadorogon.Jennings, "James Logan". Historians who agree that Logan the orator was not named "Tah-gah-jute" sometimes identify him as Tachnechdorus, although Jennings identifies Tachnechdorus as Logan the orator's older brother. Logan's father Shikellamy, variously identified as a Cayuga or Oneida , worked closely with Pennsylvania official James Logan in order to maintain the Covenant Chain relationship with the colony of Pennsylvania . Following a Native American practice, the man who would become Logan the Mingo took the name "James Logan" out of admiration for his father's friend. Iroquois who migrated to the Ohio Country were often called "Mingos." 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...."White, ''Middle Ground'', 358. Like his father, Logan maintained friendly relationships with white settlers moving from eastern Pennsylvania and Virginia into the Ohio Country, the region which is now Ohio , West Virginia , Kentucky , and western Pennsylvania. YELLOW CREEK MASSACRE That all changed with the Yellow Creek Massacre on 3 May 1774 , in which a group of Virginia frontiersmen led by Daniel Greathouse brutally murdered about a dozen Mingos, among them Logan's mother, daughter, sister, and cousin, at the mouth of Yellow Creek near present-day Wellsville, Ohio along the Ohio River . The bodies of the murdered Indians had been scalped, which among Native Americans meant that war had been declared. 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, and he intended to do just that. The chiefs managed to have Logan agree to take out his vengeance only on Virginians, not Pennsylvanians. Leading a war party of 13 Shawnees and Mingos, Logan attacked settlements west of the . Some of Dunmore's contemporaries, and some subsequent historians, have suspected that Dunmore had a hand in provoking the Yellow Creek Massacre with the intention of seizing the Ohio Country from the natives before the rival colony of Pennsylvania did so. "LOGAN'S LAMENT" . The text of "Logan's Lament" is inscribed on the other side of the monument.]] Logan was probably not at the Battle Of Point Pleasant , 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 issued a speech that would become famous: The speech was printed in colonial newspapers, and in 1782 Thomas Jefferson reprinted it in his book '' Notes On The State Of Virginia .'' The authenticity of the speech is the subject of much controversy, however. The tree under which he supposedly gave the speech became famous as the " Logan Elm ". LATER LIFE AND LEGACY The remainder of Logan's life is shrouded in obscurity. Along with many other Ohio natives, he participated in the American Revolutionary War against the Americans. He was apparently murdered around Detroit in 1780, possibly by a nephew. Logan Elm High School in Circleville, Ohio is named after Chief Logan, and there is a park named Logan Elm Park in the same county. Chief Logan High School was the former name of a high school in Lewistown, PA. In 1989, Chief Logan mergered with Kishacoquillas High School and became Indian Valley High School . NOTES REFERENCES
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