SURVIVING CLEVELAND:
Native Peoples Ignored and Trivialized, 1796-1996

CIRCA 1996: The Cleveland Museum of Natural History uses the inaccurate title, 'Cleveland Before Cleaveland' for their exhibit focusing on the time before the European/United States settling of this area.  The Western Reserve Historical Society presents an exhibit ‘Peoples of Cleveland,’ celebrating the diversity of the Cleveland community, while at the same time setting up risers next to the restored “Chief Wahoo” sign for people to have their picture taken with this giant racial caricature of an "Indian.' The Cleveland Bicentennial Commission, wishing to avoid the fiasco of the 175th anniversary reenactment of the landing of Moses Cleaveland, at which participants from the Native community refused to let the actor portraying Cleaveland land, instead requests that the Native community supply their parade with a real “Indian,” riding a horse, and wearing a headdress.

1)         There, of course, was no Cleveland before Cleaveland.  To phrase the title this way ignores indigenous peoples as societies with thousands of years of histories, important in their own right and with their own identities. 2) With full knowledge that Native organizations in Cleveland believe the “Chief Wahoo” caricature symbolizes racism against their peoples, the WRHS hypocritically ignores the requests and feelings Native peoples and participates in legitimizing this form of racism with their picture taking promotion. 3) Those on the Bicentennial Commission who made this request ignorantly asked local Native peoples to dress up as a Hollywood stereotype of the Plains Indians, and not to represent themselves as who they really are.

The above examples are typical of the subtle, and not so subtle, racism and ignorance that indigenous peoples in this area encountered from the founding of this city until now. The founders of this city followed the tradition of ignoring indigenous peoples and their rights which began in the 17th century when the King of England claimed this area for his own, before a single European had even stepped foot on it. In, 1783, the end of the Revolutionary War, Great Britain ceded this area to the United States, again ignoring the indigenous peoples who lived here.  Encountering armed resistance to their encroachment, the United States in 1787 recognized that Indian peoples held ‘title’ to the land, but still considered the land part of the US When the government met with resistance to their policy to legally “extinguish” Indian title to the land, some unscrupulous government agents used unauthorized tribal leaders, bribes and alcohol to create illegal “treaties.” These treaties were contested by the legitimate tribal governments.

Neither side was willing to compromise.  The Connecticut Land Company, for whom Moses Cleaveland eventually led his survey party, purchased this land from the State of Connecticut BEFORE Indian title to the land had been extinguished.  In the 1780's an expedition by George Rogers Clark sacked and burned Shawnee villages on the Miami River, “torturing, murdering and scalping” their Indian victims.  This led Ohio tribes to refuse negotiation and demand all United States settlements be removed from their land, and escalated brutal warfare on both sides.  Despite handing the United States government their biggest defeat in the history of Indian-US warfare, when in 1791 Miami and Shawnee warriors defeated General St. Clair, the defeat of an allied force of Native peoples at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, led to the imposition of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, which ceded most of what is now Ohio, including the land where Cleveland was founded.

Indigenous peoples camped on the West bank of the Cuyahoga assisted the early settlers in surviving during their first years here, and included Chippewas (Objibwe), Ottawas and Senecas.  A man known as “Chief Seneca” was particularly helpful to the settlers, and remained in Cleveland until 1809, when he moved to Holmes County, where he was shot to death by a white settler.  The settler claimed self-defense and was set free.  In 1812 an indigenous person named John O’Mic was the first person hung in Cleveland.  He and two others were accused of murder.  One alleged accomplice committed suicide, the other was set free due to his youth.  O’Mic was tied to the rafters of a house for two months while waiting his execution, which was attended by a throng of settlers who came from miles around.  While he drank a glass of whiskey offered to him by his executioner, the rope was cut and his neck was snapped.

By the time of the policy of forced removal of indigenous peoples in the 1830's, there were, apparently, no more indigenous peoples left in the city of Cleveland to remove.  Louis Sockalexis, a Penobscot who played baseball for the Cleveland Spiders, was the next indigenous person to enter Cleveland folklore.  Despite the current Cleveland baseball team's insistence that “Chief Wahoo” and the “Indians” honor the legacy of Sockalexis, the name and logo actually perpetuate the legacy of racism that he encountered here.

Sockalexis began his career in 1897, seven years after the massacre of Native people at Wounded Knee.  He was subjected to a flurry of racial slurs and war whoops every time he stepped on the field.  The papers lauded his strength, but questioned his cognitive ability.  As the Washington Post put it in 1897, “The critics still insist that a child of the forest is slower to think than the white man.” “The Plain Dealer introduced Sockalexis to its readers with a poem, which read in part, “Yea, the glamour of his war paint will delight the crowd/ Though it be but common store paint laid on thick and loud/ And a sense of the romancing methods of his race/ Will be felt when he is dancing on the umpire's face.” Sockalexis succumbed to alcoholism, which ended his career after only seven games in the 1899 season.

The current baseball team has changed its name three times, the last time to the “Indians.” “Indians” is a racial term which refers to hundreds of distinct indigenous societies and cultures.  The team did not mention Sockalexis at the time it was named, nor did they name the team after his Penobscot heritage nor his name.  The bright red face, hook nose, and buck teeth of the logo do not remotely resemble Sockalexis, nor any real indigenous person but is an example of the same kind of racial stereotyping he encountered in Cleveland.