Kakowatcheky (c. 1670 - c. 1755 or 1758), also known as Kakowatchiky, Cachawatsiky, Kakowatchy, or Kakowatchey, was a Pekowi Shawnee chief believed to be among the first to bring Shawnee people into Pennsylvania. For about fifty years he and the Shawnees lived together with European colonists in Pennsylvania until the mid-1740s when many Shawnees and other Native Americans migrated to the Ohio River Valley.
In 1743, Kakowatcheky moved to Logstown, on the Ohio River, where he may have continued to live until 1755 or later, that being the last year in which his name appears in the Pennsylvania records. Colonel James Patton of Virginia visited Logstown in June 1752 and refers to him in his journal as being then bedridden. His chieftainship extended for more than sixty years.Charles Augustus Hanna, The Wilderness Trail: Or, The Ventures and Adventures of the Pennsylvania Traders on the Allegheny Path, Volume 1, Putnam's sons, 1911
Arrival in Pennsylvania Nothing is known of his early life, including his exact date of birth. He may have been born in Ohio. John Heckewelder in his brief history of the "Shawanos" refers to "Chief Gachgawatschiqua," who he says led his people from Ohio and settled at the forks of the Delaware River.John Heckewelder, History, Manners, and Customs of The Indian Nations who once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighbouring States, Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1881. He does not provide a date, but Charles Augustus Hanna estimated that this occurred around 1694.
Kakowatcheky led an unknown number Shawnees from the Ohio River Valley to eastern Pennsylvania, together with the Dutch trader and explorer Arnaut Viele. The migration occurred after Viele had traveled from Albany, New York to the Susquehanna River, then to the Allegheny River which he navigated to the Ohio River, which he followed west until he reached the Wabash River. After more than a year living with the Shawnee and other tribes in Ohio, Viele returned to Albany in September, 1694, accompanied by Kakowatcheky and his Shawnees, who then settled in Pennsylvania.
New York's governor, Thomas Dongan was anxious to acquire new Native American allies to support the English colonists against the expansion of New France. The trade in animal skins and furs was a major part of the colonial economy and the Shawnees' skill as hunters was highly prized. Kakowatcheky recognized that by moving east, he was bringing the Shawnees into Iroquois territory, but within a few years he and Opessa Straight Tail had persuaded the English that the Shawnee presence was of economic as well as military value, influencing the Pennsylvania Provincial Government to grant the Shawnee and a few other tribes favored status through a multilateral treaty in 1701.
1701 treaty On 23 April, 1701, Opessa and chiefs of the Susquehannock, Piscataway and Onondaga tribes signed a treaty with William Penn ceding lands along the Potomac River to the English in return for protection and trade privileges.Eshleman, Henry Frank, Lancaster County Indians; annals of the Susquehannocks and other Indian tribes of the Susquehanna territory from about the year 1500 to 1763, the date of their extinction, Pennsylvania Historical Society, 1909Charles Augustus Hanna, The Wilderness Trail: Or, The Ventures and Adventures of the Pennsylvania Traders on the Allegheny Path, Volume 2, Putnam's sons, 1911 By this treaty "it was settled that no Indians be suffered to settle on the Susquehanna or Patomack save those already noted [Shawnee, Mingoes and Gawanese]." Opessa and the other chiefs agreed by their "hands and seals," with each other, with William Penn and his successors, and with other inhabitants of the province, "to be as one head and one heart, and to live in true friendship and amity, as one people."Bowden, James, The history of the Society of Friends in America, Toronto: London C. Giplin, 1850 Soon after the Treaty of 1701 many Shawnee migrated from South Carolina to the lower Susquehanna and the upper Delaware, where they settled near the Forks, at a village called Pechoquealin (now Smithfield Township, Monroe County, Pennsylvania).George P. Donehoo, "The Shawnee in Pennsylvania," Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, vol 7, No 3:178-87; January, 1924; Western Pennsylvania Historical Society
Conflicts with colonial settlers Under the name "Cohevwickick" Kakowatcheky is referred to in the New Jersey Colonial Records, 30 May, 1709, as one of the sachems of the Shawhena Indians.
In 1727, because of various conflicts with the traders in the Province, and because of the unrestricted sale of rum, the Shawnee began migrating west towards Ohio, to escape from the oppressive control of the Iroquois as well as from problems with the Pennsylvania Provincial authorities.
In early May 1728, Kakowatcheky, who was the head of the Shawnees living at Pechoquealin, heard a rumor that the Catawbas from North Carolina had entered Pennsylvania with the intention of attacking the Indians along the Susquehanna. Kakowatcheky then led eleven warriors to discover if there was any truth to this rumor. When they came into the neighborhood of Manatawny in the northern part of Berks County, Pennsylvania, they had run out of provisions and tried to force the settlers to give them food and drink. The settlers did not know these Indians (and were unaware of the rule of Indian etiquette requiring neutrals to provide passing warriors with food on request), and believing the chief of the band to be dangerous, the women and children fled in terror.Chester Hale Sipe, The Indian chiefs of Pennsylvania, or, A story of the part played by the American Indian in the history of Pennsylvania: based primarily on the Pennsylvania archives and colonial records, and built around the outstanding chiefs, Butler, Pa.: Ziegler Print. Co., Inc., 1927
A group of about twenty settlers took up arms and approached the Indians, sending two men to speak with Kakowatcheky, who, instead of receiving them civilly, drew his sword and commanded his men to fire, which they did, wounding five of the settlers. The other settlers returned fire, wounding Kakowatcheky, who fell, but then got up and ran into the woods, leaving his rifle behind. The identity of these Indians was not known to the settlers until May 20th, when two traders from Pechoquealin came to Governor Gordon and delivered a message from Kakowatcheky, explaining the unfortunate affair, sending his regrets, and asking the Governor for the return of the gun which he had dropped when wounded. The Governor replied with a reprimand for Kakowatcheky's aggressive behavior: It was not becoming [for] any of our friends to come into the Christians' Houses with Guns, pistoles and Swords, painted for War, and to take away the poor People's Provisions by force with great threatnings to those that opposed them. This is not a behaviour becoming [of] friends, nor what we expected of the Shawanese. The English thought these men were foreign Indians come from the French or Spaniards. They went out with some few Arms to defend themselves, but spoke civilly to them and inquired who they were...All the English that went out affirm the Indians fired five Shott before they fired one. And there are Five of our People Sorely wounded...It is well that no lives were lost on either side. These eleven Indians through their foolish behaviour have caused great Confusion...The Governor will take care to inquire for the Gun & other things the Indians have lost, and they may have them again if they are found...The Governor will be glad to see Kakowatchy at Durham some time this year...He will then treat him as his Friend & Brother.
Governor Gordon then went to Manatawny and personally pleaded with those settlers who had left their plantations to return. Having sent Kakowatcheky the gun he had dropped, as well as the tomahawks dropped by his eleven warriors when they fled from the band of twenty settlers, the governor requested that the Indians under his authority be more careful in the future. On 26 May, the Governor, accompanied by thirty residents of Philadelphia, met the Indians at a council at Conestoga where he conferred with Conestoga, Shawnee, Conoy, and Delaware chiefs, and gave them presents. As it turned out, the invasion by Catawba warriors had been a false alarm.
Towards the end of that same year, Kakowatcheky and the Shawnees under him left the upper Delaware for Wyomink and the Shawnee Flats on the north branch of the Susquehanna (just below the present town of Plymouth, Pennsylvania) in Luzerne County at Skehandowana (Iroquois for "Great Flats").
As early as 1732, Kakowatcheky was thinking about moving to the Ohio River Valley, as many Shawnees had already started migrating westward. One reason for this was dissatisfaction with the Iroquois, whose control over the Shawnee had been rigid. Tyoninhogarao, a Seneca chief, visited Kakowatcheky in Wyomink in August, 1732 and told him that "the Iroquois never intended to hurt the Shawanese; that he should not look to Ohio, but turn his face to them."Samuel Hazard, ed. Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, vol 3, 1717-1735; Harrisburg, Theophilus Fenn. J.Severns, 1840.
Kakowatcheky's son Quassenung was attending a conference in Philadelphia when he contracted smallpox and died on 26 January, 1733.
1739 treaty On 27 July 1739, Cacowatchike (Kakowatcheky), Newcheconneh, Tamenebuck, and Meshemethequater, chiefs of the Shawnees, with 25 other Shawnees, came to Philadelphia from Wyomink and Allegheny, and held a council with Governor Thomas Penn. Colonial authorities were concerned at the migration of Shawnee and Lenape communities from Pennsylvania to the Ohio River valley, where it was feared that they would become allies of New France. Secretary James Logan told them,
since your nation first left their settlement near Pextang, on the west side of the Susquehanna, and retired to so great a distance as the River Ohio, or Allegheny, this Government has ever been desirous of a conference with some of your chiefs. Some of your older men may undoubtedly remember that about forty years ago a considerable number of families of your nation thought it fit to remove from the great river that bears your name, where your principal correspondence was with those of the French nation.
The Indians were then reminded of the obligations entered into between their chief, Opessa, and William Penn, in 1701. A new treaty was concluded at this council, in which it was declared that the Shawnees had moved to the Allegheny from their former home on the Susquehanna. This treaty was signed on behalf of the Shawnees on the Juniata River and Susquehanna River by Kaycowockewr (Kakowatcheky), chief of those at Wyomink, and by Newcheconner and Tomenebuck, for the Shawnees of Allegheny. Population pressure from increasing numbers of European colonists had reduced the availability of game for hunting, creating problems for the Indian populations which subsisted largely on game during the winter months. This westward shift of Shawnee communities led to the migration of many to the Ohio River Valley.
Encounter with Count Zinzendorf In October 1742 the missionary Count Zinzendorf, founder of the renewed Moravian Church, together with Andrew Montour and Conrad Weiser, visited Kakowatcheky at his community of Wyomink with the intention of converting them to Christianity. Zinzendorf, unable to get the Indians to even listen to