Discourse of Pachgantschihilas, head war chief of the Delaware Nation

 Address to the Christian Indians of Gnadenhutten in early 1781:

" Friends and kinsmen! Listen to what I say to you ! You see a great and powerful nation divided ! You see the father [Great Britain] fighting against the son, and the son against the father! —The father has called on his Indian children, to assist him in punishing his children, the Americans, who have become refractory ! I took time to consider what I should do—whether or not I would recieve [sic] the hatchet of my father, to assist him ! —At first I looked upon it, as a family (quarrel, in which I was not interested ! —However, at length it appeared to me, that the father was in the right ; and his children deserved to be punished a little !—That this must be the case, I concluded from the many cruel acts his offspring had committed from time to time, on his Indian Children ; in encroaching on their lands, stealing their property, shooting at, and murdering without cause, men, women and children ! —Yes ! even murdering those, who at all times had been friendly to them, and were placed for protection under the roof of their fathers' house*—the father [the government] himself standing centry [sic] at the door, at the time. 

*Alluding to the Conestoga Indians, who were placed for protection in public building—(the jail) a mansion erected by authority, (by the fathers' orders).

" Friends and relatives ! Often has the father been obliged to settle, and make amends for the wrongs and mischiefs done to us, by his refractory children [the American people], yet these do not grow better  !  No ! they remain the same, and will continue to be so, as long as we have any land left us ! Look back at the murders committed by the long knives (Virginians) on many of our relations, who lived peaceable neighbours to them on the Ohio ! Did they not kill them without the least provocation ?—Are they, do you think better now than they were then ?—No, indeed not and many days are not elapsed since you had a number of these very men near your doors, who panted to kill you, but fortunately were prevented from so doing by the great Sun [col. Daniel Brodhead], who, at that time, had by the great spirit been ordained to protect you !

" Friends and relatives ! you love that which is good, and wish to live in peace with all mankind, and at a place where you may not be disturbed whilst praying ! —You are very right in this ; and I do not reproach you in having made the choice ! —But, my friends and relatives ! does the place you at present are settled at, answer this purpose ! —Do you not live in the very road the contending parties pass over when they go to fight each other ! —Have you not discovered the footsteps of the long knives, almost within sight of your towns, and seen the smoke arising from their [militia] camps ! —Should not this be sufficient warning to you ; and lead you to consult your own safety ! We have long since turned our faces towards your habitations, in the expectation of seeing you come from where you now are, to us where you would be out of danger; but you were so engaged in praying, that you did not discover our anxiety for your sakes !" 

"Friends and relatives!—Now listen to me and hear what I have to say to you.—I am myself come to bid you rise and go with me to a secure place ! Do not my friends, covet the land you now hold under cultivation. I will conduct you to a country [the Miami country] equally good, where your fields shall yield you abundant crops ; and where your cattle shall find sufficient pasture ; where there is plenty of game ; where your women and children, together with yourselves, will live in peace and safety ; where no long knife shall ever molest you ! —Nay ! I will live between you and them, and not even suffer them to frighten you ! —There, you can worship your God without fear ! —Here, where you are, you cannot do this ! —Think on what I have now said to you, and believe, that if you stay where you now are, one day or the other, the long knives, will in their usual way, speak fine words to you, and at the same time murder you !"

Indian hating

[...] an occurrence had taken place, which, of itself, was enough to break the hearts of the missionaries, and especially that of the faithful and pious servant of God, David Zeisberger. It was the unexpected arrival at Goschochking, of a number of disaffected persons from Pittsburg, led on by Alexander M'Kee, Matthew Elliot, and Simon Girty, all three, very suspicious and dangerous characters : the first of whom had been an Indian agent of the British government, but permitted by the United States to go at large, on parole.— The second was the same person who, as noticed before, came into Lichtenau, in 1776, with a cargo of goods, and was taken prisoner at Waketameki, and subsequently brought to Detroit ; and had afterwards been heard to boast of the clandestine manner in which he had procured his liberation from the British, though at the same time he had a British captain's commission in his pocket. The third, Simon Girty, was a depraved wretch, who formerly had been employed as an Indian interpreter. These men, well known to the Indian nations, had, wherever they passed through Indian villages, but particularly at Goshochking. propagated abominable falsehoods respecting the war, and the situation the people were in beyond the mountains, (in the Atlantic States) ; adding : " That it was the determination of the American people, to kill and destroy the whole Indian race, be they friends or foes, and possess themselves of their country ; and that, at this time, while they were embodying themselves for the purpose, they were preparing fine sounding speeches to deceive them, that they might with the more safety fall upon and murder them. That now was the time, and the only time, for all nations to rise, and turn out to a man against these intruders, and not even suffer them to cross the Ohio, but fall upon them where they should find them ; which if not done without delay, their country would be lost to them forever!"    

A Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren Among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians From its Commencement in the Year 1740, to the Close of the Year 1808 by John Heckewelder (pp. 170-71)                         

  The whole country on the Ohio river, had already drawn the attention of many persons from the neighbouring provinces ; who generally forming themselves into parties, would rove through the country in search of land, either to settle on, or for speculation ; and some, careless of watching over their conduct, or destitute of both honour and humanity, would join a rabble, (a class of people generally met with on the frontiers) who maintained, that to kill an Indian, was the same as killing a bear or a buffalo, and would fire on Indians that came across them by the way ; —nay, more, would decoy such as lived across the river, to come over, for the purpose of joining them in hilarity; and when these complied, they fell on them and murdered them. Unfortunately, some of the murdered were of the family of Logan,* a noted man among the Indians.

A Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren Among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians From its Commencement in the Year 1740, to the Close of the Year 1808 by John Heckewelder (pp. 130-31) 

Indian hating

 I have yet to take notice of a class of people, generally known to us, by the name of " backwoods men," many of whom acting up to a pretended belief, that " an Indian has no more soul than a buffalo ;" and that to kill either, is the same thing; have from time to time, by their conduct, brought great trouble and bloodshed on the country. Such then, I wish to caution, not to sport in that manner with the lives of God's creatures. Have we not every reason to believe on scripture authority, that God bestowed souls on all men without regard to colour or complexion, ? Think ye then, of what you are doing by holding forth such wicked language among yourselves, and before your children, for the purpose of encouraging murder! Believe, that a time will come, when you must account for such vile deeds ! When those who have fallen a sacrifice to your wickedness, will be called forth in judgment against you : nay, when your own descendants will testify against you!—will say: we were taught by our parents to believe this ! —we were told, when we had killed an Indian, that we had done a good act ! —had killed a wild beast, &e.

A Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren Among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians From its Commencement in the Year 1740, to the Close of the Year 1808 by John Heckewelder (pp. x-xi)