Blue Jacket, or Weyapiersenwah (c. 1743 – 1810), was a war chief of the

Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...

people, known for his militant defense of Shawnee lands in the

Ohio Country The Ohio Country (Ohio Territory, Ohio Valley) was a name used for a loosely defined region of colonial North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and south of Lake Erie. Control of the territory and the region's fur trade was disputed i ...

. Perhaps the preeminent American Indian leader in the

Northwest Indian War The Northwest Indian War (1785–1795), also known by other names, was an armed conflict for control of the Northwest Territory fought between the United States and a united group of Native Americans in the United States, Native American na ...

, in which a pantribal confederacy fought several battles with the nascent United States, he was an important predecessor of the famous Shawnee leader

Tecumseh Tecumseh ( ; (March 9, 1768October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the Territorial evolution of the United States, expansion of the United States onto Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...

Early life

Little is known of Blue Jacket's early life. He first appears in written historical records in 1773, when he was already a grown man and a war chief. In that year, a British missionary visited the Shawnee villages on the

Scioto River The Scioto River ( ) is a river in central and southern Ohio more than in length. It rises in Hardin County, Ohio, Hardin County just north of Roundhead, Ohio, flows through Columbus, Ohio, where it collects its largest tributary, the Olent ...

and recorded the location of Blue Jacket's Town on Deer Creek (present-day

Ross County, Ohio Ross County is a county in the Appalachian region of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 77,093. Its county seat is Chillicothe, the first and third capital of Ohio. Established on August 20, 1798, ...

Struggle for the Old Northwest

Blue Jacket participated in

Lord Dunmore's War Lord Dunmore's War, also known as Dunmore's War, was a brief conflict in the fall of 1774 between the British Colony of Virginia and the Shawnee and Mingo in the trans-Appalachia region of the colony south of the Ohio River. Broadly, the war incl ...

and the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

(allied with the British), always attempting to maintain Shawnee land rights. With the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War, the Shawnee lost valuable assistance in defending the Ohio Country. The struggle continued as white settlement in Ohio escalated, and Blue Jacket was a prominent leader of the resistance. He was present during the 1790 Harmar campaign and may have been one of the leaders who organized the defense. On November 3, 1791, the army of a confederation of Indian tribes, led by Blue Jacket and Miami Chief

Little Turtle Little Turtle () (1747 July 14, 1812) was a Sagamore (chief) of the Miami people, who became one of the most famous Native American military leaders. Historian Wiley Sword calls him "perhaps the most capable Indian leader then in the Northwes ...

, defeated an American expedition led by

Arthur St. Clair Major-General Arthur St. Clair ( – August 31, 1818) was a Scottish-born American military officer and politician. Born in Thurso, Caithness, he served in the British Army during the French and Indian War before settling in the Province of Pe ...

, governor of the

Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from part of the unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolution. Established ...

. The engagement, known as the Battle of the Wabash or

St. Clair's defeat St. Clair's defeat, also known as the Battle of the Wabash, the Battle of Wabash River or the Battle of a Thousand Slain, was a battle fought on 4 November 1791 in the Northwest Territory of the United States. The U.S. Army faced the Northweste ...

, was the crowning achievement of Blue Jacket's military career and the most severe defeat ever inflicted upon the United States by Native Americans. Traditional accounts of the battle tend to give most of the credit for the victory to Little Turtle. John Sugden argues that Little Turtle's prominence is primarily because of Little Turtle's self-promotion in later years. Blue Jacket's triumph was short-lived. The Americans were alarmed by St. Clair's disaster and raised a new professional army, commanded by General

Anthony Wayne Anthony Wayne (January 1, 1745 – December 15, 1796) was an American soldier, officer, statesman, and a Founding Father of the United States. He adopted a military career at the outset of the American Revolutionary War, where his military expl ...

. On August 20, 1794, Blue Jacket's confederate army clashed with Wayne at the

Battle of Fallen Timbers The Battle of Fallen Timbers (20 August 1794) was the final battle of the Northwest Indian War, a struggle between Indigenous peoples of North America, Native American tribes affiliated with the Northwestern Confederacy and their Kingdom of Gre ...

, just south of present-day

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...

. Blue Jacket's army was defeated, and he was compelled to sign the

Treaty of Greenville The Treaty of Greenville, also known to Americans as the Treaty with the Wyandots, etc., but formally titled ''A treaty of peace between the United States of America, and the tribes of Indians called the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanees, Ottawas ...

on August 3, 1795, ceding much of present-day Ohio to the United States. In 1805, Blue Jacket also signed the

Treaty of Fort Industry The Treaty of Fort Industry was a successor treaty to the Treaty of Greenville, which moved the eastern boundary of Native Americans in the United States, Indian lands in northern Ohio from the Tuscarawas River and Cuyahoga River westward to a li ...

, relinquishing even more of Ohio. In Blue Jacket's final years, he saw the rise to prominence of

, who would take up the banner and make the final attempts to reclaim Shawnee lands in the Ohio Country.

Van Swearingen legend

In 1877, decades after Blue Jacket's death, a story was published which claimed that Blue Jacket had actually been a white man named Marmaduke Van Swearingen who had been captured and adopted by Shawnees in the 1770s, around the time of the American Revolutionary War. This story was popularized in historical novels written by

Allan W. Eckert Allan Wesley Eckert (January 30, 1931 – July 7, 2011) was an American novelist and playwright who specialized in historical novels for adults and children, and was also a naturalist. His novel ''Incident at Hawk's Hill'' (1971) was initially m ...

in the late 1960s.Sugden, p. 2 An outdoor drama based on the Van Swearingen story, ''Blue Jacket, White Shawnee War Chief'', was performed in

Xenia, Ohio Xenia ( ) is a city in Greene County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Located in southwestern Ohio, it is east of Dayton, Ohio, Dayton and is part of the Greater Dayton, Dayton metropolitan area as well as the Miami Valley region. As o ...

, beginning in 1981. Performances of the play ended in 2007. Beginning with historian Helen Hornbeck Tanner in 1978, a number of historians have argued that Blue Jacket and Van Swearingen were not likely to be the same person. The historical record indicates that Blue Jacket was much older than Marmaduke Van Swearingen and was already an established chief by the time Van Swearingen was supposedly captured. Furthermore, no one who personally knew Blue Jacket left any records referring to him as a white man. According to Blue Jacket biographer John Sugden, Blue Jacket was undoubtedly a Shawnee by birth.

DNA testing Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...

of the descendants of Blue Jacket and Van Swearingen has given additional support to the argument that Blue Jacket was not Van Swearingen. After an initial test in 2000, results of a DNA test using updated equipment and techniques was published in the September 2006 edition of ''The Ohio Journal of Science''. The researchers tested DNA samples from four men descended from Charles Swearingen, Marmaduke's brother, and six who are descended from Blue Jacket's son George Blue-Jacket. The DNA from the two families did not match, and so the study concluded that, "Barring any questions of the paternity of the Chief's single son who lived to produce male heirs, the 'Blue Jacket with-Caucasian-roots' is not based on reality."C. Rowland, R. Van Trees, M. Taylor, and D. Krane
Was the Shawnee war chief Blue Jacket a Caucasian?
The Ohio Journal of Science. 2006;106(4):126–129.

Notes

References

*Sugden, John. ''Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees''. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. .

Early life

Struggle for the Old Northwest

Van Swearingen legend

Notes

References

Further reading