9. ON END - John Kinzie, Thomas Forsyth, and War’s Cry
You are listening to Middle America.
Scouts Honor “Prison Bars” 0:00-1:15 (delay on ending to transition to other music)
9A
It was only a few weeks into the first semester of my senior year at college. I got up about fifteen minutes late, after turning off multiple alarms. The room was still dark, as my second-floor bedroom had an A/C unit jammed into the window preventing nearly all sunlight from entering.
This hadn’t been my room for long. I spent my first two years at school living on campus in the dorms with my pal, Max. As a junior, I moved into a house off campus with six other undergrads. All six of the roommates, including Max, were a year ahead of me in school, so during my senior year I threw in with another house of punk and art kids about a block-and-a-half away.
This second off-campus house was a party house, and as I pulled on some dirty pants from the floor, the carpet of the shared upstairs space crunched under my feet. I stumbled to the bathroom where I pried my eyes wide to insert contact lenses. The towels reeked of oil, spicy food, and stale sweat from the recent return of one roommate and her crust punk boyfriend. They had spent the last month dangerously hopping trains out west. Their showering was welcome, for sure, but their use of my towel post-shower made me cringe.
With my contacts in place, I glanced down at the time on my flip phone. I cursed under my breath upon seeing that I would surely be late for my morning studio drawing class. In a flash, my shirt, shoes, and backpack were on. I threw my heavy Huffy mountain bike up onto my shoulder and then out onto the streets of Peoria.
My vision was still blurry, and I grimaced as I stood pumping the bike pedals back and forth on my way. I made up time but was still five minutes late to class. Not too big a deal, as this wasn’t my first time rolling in behind schedule.
But, wait.
The hallway was quiet. As I entered the studio room, the lights were on and easels out, but the room sat empty of both my professor and classmates. I wandered about across the paint-stained concrete floors and past the full-wall mirror, inspecting the various stools and benches circled in the room. There were tackle boxes of art supplies still lying about. I had obviously missed or forgotten something. It started to look like I was in for more trouble than I had bargained for by sleeping in.
The halls remained empty as I strolled through the familiar building, peeking through dark classroom windows and into empty studio spaces. The snack and soda machines hummed in the small corner social nook. Finding no one, I returned to my classroom and surveyed the gathered work in my art locker.
Finally, around twenty minutes into class time, a fellow student walked in.
“Where is everyone?” I pleaded. “What did I miss?”
“Oh. … Wow. … You were late again. Eh, Wend?”
I gave a side glance of mock shame.
“Class is canceled. We’ve all been in the teacher’s lounge watching the news on TV. Two planes have crashed into the World Trade Center buildings in New York. The U.S. is under attack.”
Angry Gods “Undertow”
9B
As President James Madison declared war on the United Kingdom on June 18, 1812, 48-year-old John Kinzie was on the run.
Ten years earlier, French-Canadian-born Kinzie and his half-brother Thomas Forsyth had traveled west to avoid conflicts with American traders. Upon reaching where Chicago now stands, they set up a trading business under Detroit-based collaborator William Burnett. The younger Forsyth eventually married and moved south to Peoria Lake, but Kinzie and family remained near the mouth of the Chicago River. They became some of the earliest non-native permanent residents of Chicago as they purchased a home from another partner of William Burnett’s: Jean La Lime (like La Leem or La Limb).
La Lime and Kinzie likely had a long history together, with Kinzie having worked with William Burnett as early as 1777 and La Lime having been associated with Burnett since 1792. At Chicago, La Lime was an interpreter and go-between for the American soldiers at Fort Dearborn and the nearby native tribes. Kinzie acted as the civilian leader of the village that surrounded the fort and was made a Justice of the Peace early on by the governor of the Indiana Territory.
By 1810, Kinzie was having disagreements with American military leaders at Fort Dearborn. This seems to have played into the relationship between Jean La Lime and John Kinzie, as many historians believe La Lime became an informant on Kinzie’s corrupt business dealings. Kinzie then committed what some consider to be Chicago’s first murder by stabbing La Lime to death and then skipping town on June 17, 1812, the day before war was declared.
The War of 1812 had far-reaching consequences on the frontier, with both the British and the Americans working to bring native peoples to support their side of the conflict. When Kinzie fled north to escape prosecution for murder, he wound up near the native villages at Milwaukee. Here, he found that the Potawatomi camps were under the influence of the British trader Robert Dickson and were planning to attack several American fortifications, including Fort Dearborn. Learning of these plans, John Kinzie returned to Fort Dearborn where an inquest under Captain Nathan Heald miraculously exonerated Kinzie, ruling the murder of Jean La Lime as self-defense.
Meanwhile, British troops and Wisconsin Potawatomis overtook the American Fort Mackinac, which was located at present-day Mackinac Island, Michigan. The British had only relinquished Fort Mackinac to the Americans in 1796. Resumed British control at Fort Mackinac in 1812 meant that the Americans were no longer able to restock supplies at Fort Dearborn via Lake Michigan.
With no way to resupply, the Americans at Fort Dearborn needed to retreat to Fort Wayne in Indiana. The order to evacuate was sent on July 29th and received on August 9th. Potawatomi Chief Winimac was loyal to U.S. forces and had carried the message to Captain Heald. Winimac met with Kinzie afterward to advise an immediate withdrawal of the village surrounding the fort. Unfortunately, Heald did not believe the speedy retreat to be possible on such short notice.
Up to this point, the Potawatomis had been split on the subject of staying neutral or taking a side in the War of 1812. But, the British had promised firearms to the tribe, so when the Americans destroyed their excess firearms before fleeing Fort Dearborn, the Potawatomi warriors became incensed. Then, when on August 14th the Potawatomis learned of the American defeat at the hands of Potawatomis during the Battle of Brownstown south of Detroit, they were finally swayed to the British side.
On the morning of August 15th, both John Kinzie and a sometimes Peoria-based Potawatomi chief named Black Partridge warned Captain Heald of the danger in leaving Fort Dearborn now that six days had passed since Winimac’s warning. Both men were ignored. At least ninety-six Americans fled with a small escort of Miami warriors. Five hundred Potawatomi warriors tracked them. At the first sign of battle, the Miamis fled, leaving the Americans surrounded. At least seventy-nine American men, women, and children were killed. Upon a ceasefire, Captain Heald agreed to pay one hundred dollars to the Potawatomis for every remaining life.
During the night that followed, many of the prisoners were tortured and murdered by the Potawatomis as payback for previous American cruelties. Heald and his wife were tortured and then turned over to the British at Fort Mackinac. John Kinzie and his family were transported east, his step-daughter Margaret having only been saved by Chief Black Partridge pretending to drown her in Lake Michigan during the attack. Margaret’s husband Lieutenant Linai Helm was taken by the Potawatomis on a separate path, south to Kankakee.
Minsk “To You There Is No End”
Minsk “To the Garish Remembrance of Failure” -2:46
9C
I passed two of my roommates, Caleb and Patricia, on my ride back home. They were driving a rickety used car, and I wildly waved them down.
“All classes are canceled,” I called. “Somebody flew a plane into the World Trade Center. Everything is going to hell. I’m heading back to turn on the TV at home.”
While still looking confused and clearly debating whether or not to trust me, the two of them continued on before circling the block back toward our house.
Back at home, Caleb, Patricia, and I gathered on brown thrift store couches, leaning into the news playing on the tube television set outside my bedroom. After moving the antennae around a bit, we were able to make out a shot of smoke billowing from two skyscrapers that, until that morning, I hadn’t even known existed.
As the three of us sat bug-eyed trying to gather what was going on with the towers, another report came in and the aerial shot changed to one of the Pentagon in D.C. It too was now emitting smoke from one corner where a hijacked passenger jet had crashed into its exterior wall.
The reporters were calling the crashes terrorist attacks. Domestic passenger flights had been hijacked and turned into weapons. The entire nation had witnessed acts of war, but we were all blind as to the identity of our aggressor.
My chest began to tighten.
It seemed that we would not be escaping war.
Would there be a draft? I was certainly the right age.
Holy hell. Would I be headed into the service?
I understand that this was a privileged question to ask, but I was and am the best pacificist that I can be. Any military service would go against my beliefs. I appreciate the sacrifice that others make by serving in our military, but I wish their service to be largely uneventful.
As I watched the video of the aftermath of the three plane crashes, I also listened to the commentary by reporters, witnesses, experts, and random viewers. Racist speculation began to roll in over the air waves. A collective rage was flailing about as people sought somewhere to lash out.
Patricia pulled herself away from the TV set and began to cook in the kitchen downstairs. At the smell, my crust punk neighbors rolled out of their tiny closet turned bedroom. Soon after, Patricia and the downstairs roommates returned with dumpster-dived food for all to share.
The group of us lounged about the room for hours that day. The towers eventually collapsed along with the walls of the Pentagon. A fourth plane crashed into a Pennsylvania field after a clash between hijackers and passengers. More than twenty-six hundred people were killed in the attacks, and a nation of 285 million people wanted revenge.
In one morning, the fate of the world had shifted. The question that we had yet to contend with was, “How were we to proceed now that the world stood on end?”
Sadly, we would witness the loss of more than 480,000 lives in the coming years due to the resulting wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Scouts Honor “Living On Theories”
9D
Following the Fort Dearborn Massacre, Chief Black Partridge came into contact with John Kinzie’s half-brother Thomas Forsyth at Peoria. Like Kinzie, Forsyth was adept at relations with the native people and had close contact with an American territorial governor. When Chief Black Partridge informed Forsyth of his nephew-in-law Lieutenant Linai Helm being held near Kankakee, a ransom was arranged. Using the $100 authorized by General George Rodgers Clark, along with Black Partridge’s own pony, rifle, and gold ring, Lieutenant Helm’s freedom was bought.
Tragically, while the peace-loving Black Partridge was negotiating the release of Fort Dearborn’s second-in-command, the Illinois governor Ninian Edwards led a militia up the Illinois river from Edwardsville. These Illinois Rangers took vengeance upon native villages for what the Potawatomis did at Fort Dearborn. During this trek, Black Partridge’s Peoria village was destroyed. A daughter and a grandchild of his were murdered along with twenty-some other women and children.
But, the tragedy doesn’t end there.
In October, soon after Governor Edwards’ expedition, one Captain Thomas Craig of Shawneetown led another force of American militiamen up the river. Finding the countryside barren after the Governor’s rampage, he docked his ships at Lake Peoria.
Now Peoria, in 1812, was still of French population and was going by the name of La Villa de Maillet. The inhabitants claimed American citizenship, but their origins and language were still carryover from the trade routes feeding into New France (or Canada). The French approach for 131 years had been to respect the local customs of the native peoples.
But, this was not the American way. When Captain Craig’s men surveyed the Old French Village at Peoria Lake, they found the inhabitants too sympathetic to the native Potawatomi peoples, especially after the American defeat at Fort Dearborn. However, French Americans like Thomas Forsyth understood that Black Partridge was one of only two Potawatomi chiefs that had remained peaceful with the Americans leading up to the Fort Dearborn incident.
Captain Thomas Craig and his men returned to their ships to camp for the night on the docks. After nightfall, the militiamen claimed that they were fired upon by the villagers. The militiamen then looted and raided the village, putting the 41 men, women, and children in shackles. They burned half of the buildings. The French American villagers were then transported south to St. Louis in chains.
This would mark the end of the French habitation of Lake Peoria. Years later, the American government would pay reparations to villagers like Thomas Forsyth for their treatment and for the destruction of their property.
In addition, the Americans had finally pushed the peaceful Chief Black Partridge too far. When the American Fort Clark was constructed in September of the following year, Black Partridge led a force of 400 warriors in an attack upon its walls.
Jared Grabb Among Thieves “Absent Parties”
9OUT
Thank you for listening to Middle America.
The featured music for this episode was “To You There Is No End” and “To the Garish Remembrance of Failure” by Minsk. Everything else was created by Jared Grabb with help from Thomas Satterfield, Anthony Abbinanti, Neal MacCannell, Justin Miller, Nate Kappes, Brent Levitt, Pat Nordyke, Mark Perez, Dustin Addis, Jeremiah Lambert, Nick Schone, Chris Anderson, and Brett Conlin. You can see a full listing of the music used in today’s episode on the episode’s page.
Editing assistance was provided by Becca Taylor.
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Much love to you all. Thank you for sharing in this. Until next time…