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Waweyapiersenwaw – the last principal War
Chief of the Shawnee Tribe.
The Whirlpool, he was one of the greatest
native American leaders, perhaps more
so than Tecumseh, a pupil of his. He originally bore the Shawnee Indian
name Sepettekenathe, Big Rabbit. Before 1778, he had chosen to use
Waweyapiersenwa, which was recorded by Jasper Yates and Col. John
Montgomery (Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 5, pp.
484-485.) as one of the tribal representatives present at the signing of
the Treaty of Fort Pitt in that year.
The same name is affixed to the
Treaty of Green Ville in 1795. A third name, Sasesequa was passed by
James Galloway in his letter to Benjamin Drake in 1839 (Draper
Manuscripts, BJ245-259.).
Most common however, was Blue Jacket,
used by Indian and white alike, which is how Minister David Jones
described him in a visit to Shawnee villages along the
Scioto River in 1772 – 1773.
Blue Jacket Notes about modern authors of history who fail to document the
veracity of their statements and others who concoct events that
did not occur, insisting that readers believe their proffering.
Hubbard-Brown, Janet, 1995, The Shawnees, Chelsea House
Publishers, New York Philadelphia, 112 p.
The above book is a history of the Shawnee Indians which
includes a totally false account of Blue Jacket, the last
principal war chief of the Shawnee Tribe. Parts of the book depict
a fair description of Shawnee history, but the treatment of Blue
Jacket is a devastating indictment of the heritage of this great
man. Here, p. 44-46, 48 and 79-80, he is depicted as a white man
named, Marmaduke van Swearingen, rather than the Shawnee Indian
that he was, which is totally unsupported by any evidence in any
historical writings. It makes readers wonder how much of the rest
of the book is false.
The reference from which the writing about Blue Jacket was
taken, is: Eckert, Alan W., 1993, A Sorrow in Our Heart, Bantam
Books, New York, 862 p.
Eckert gained notoriety for writing blatant un-truths about
Blue Jacket with his books the 1967, The frontiersmen, and his
1969, Blue Jacket, war chief of the Shawnees.
See: Sugden, John, 2000, Blue Jacket, Warrior of the Shawnees,
University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 350 p., esp. p. 1-6.
October 13, 2002. G. Carlyle Hinshaw. 1713 Baron Dr., Norman OK
73071
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