Who really was Chief Logan, who spoke under the Logan Elm in 1774? A speaker at a recent event says history has him wrong.
Dorine Soiret, a direct descendant of Chief Cornstalk, came from the Los Angeles area to speak on her research into another leader of the Shawnee. The Camp Charlotte chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution held a symposium and commemoration of the events on the Pickaway Plains on their 250th anniversary.
Soire says she is the seventh great-granddaughter of Chief Cornstalk, who was the chief of the Shawnee when the western frontier was aflame that year.
He told his people not to go to war with the Virginians, but they insisted and so he led them – through the Battle of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Then they realized it was a war they could not win, with troops approaching their capital towns in what is now Pickaway County.
Chief Logan did not want to be a part of the peace talks, so he walked down a trail to a huge elm tree and gave a short but memorable speech to an interpreter. But beyond that, Soire says history has it wrong.
She said that in her research into her heritage, she became interested in in Logan, and came across inconsistencies about him. It turns out there were two Chief Logans at the time.
She says one was a member of the Oneida in Pensylvannia who could not speak English well, Chief James Logan – but there was little reason for him to be involved in the events hundreds of miles away.
Another was a member of the Shawnee who could speak English well – and whose family was wiped out in three separate massacres by Whites. Chief John Logan engaged in what Soiret calls a “mourning war.”
Others were staying quiet, as asked by a Delaware chief, while Logan exacted revenge – but Whites attacked Indian towns, leading to what is called Dunmore’s War, when the royal governor of Virginia marched troops into the Pickaway Plains.
That led to the October 19th Treaty of Camp Charlotte, which established peace…for a few years. The Camp Charlotte chapter of the SAR invited Soiret to speak at their event to help understand the treaty and surrounding events.
Hear Soiret in her own words in the video interview below. She says her scholarly book should be on Amazon shortly: “Logan’s Lament – An Indian Identity Crisis.”