As the Delawares moved west, they became more acquainted with the goods, weapons, and customs of white people. They began selling furs to traders in exchange for much-desired cloth, guns and ammunition, saddles, jewelry, face paint, and household items. The Delawares' fur-trade experience made them much sought-after as trappers in the Rocky Mountains by the American Fur Company.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in Civil War Times magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

In the 1840s, after the decline of the Rocky Mountain fur trade, Delawares worked as guides, scouts, interpreters, and hunters for western explorers, military and surveying expeditions, and wagon trains on the overland trail west. They were often recruited to serve as liaisons and cultural mediators with other Indians who were less inclined to deal peacefully with the government.

By the early 1850s, the rampaging frontier had once more caught up to the Delaware people. In 1854, building lots were laid out on Indian lands near Fort Leavenworth, even though no treaty regarding this Delaware land had been signed and no land company had obtained legal title to the ground.

In many ways, the pressure on the Delaware people was the direct result of sectional conflict. From the time Kansas became a territory in 1854, pro- and anti-slavery forces battled over its political future in a contest that became known as "Bleeding Kansas." The Delaware, Shawnee, Wyandotte, and other immigrant tribes found themselves dragged into the conflict surrounding them. When free-state forces in the town of Lawrence, Kansas, were surrounded by an estimated 1,500 pro-slavery men in December 1855, the Delaware and Shawnee offered their warriors to defend the town.

As each side in the "Bleeding Kansas" struggle encouraged settlement by its supporters, Delaware lands were overrun. By 1857, more than 1,000 white people were trespassing on the Delaware Reserve. The following year, Delaware leaders complained to U.S. authorities: "Thieves have come in and are constantly stealing our horses, and in many instances have stripped some of our people of almost everything they owned."

As early as 1856, many rural Indians found it prudent to take refuge in nearby towns to avoid the roaming bands of "border ruffians" who preyed on unfortunate travelers and isolated cabins. In one incident that year, a group of pro-slavery rangers captured four free-state men on the road between Leavenworth and Lawrence, Kansas. They took their prisoners toward Kansas City, Kansas, to the house of Tonganoxie, a Delaware who had fled the dangerous area. The pro-slavery men took over the house and held their prisoners there until almost midnight. Then they marched the men back toward Leavenworth. Only two miles from Tonganoxie's house, they began shooting, killing one man and wounding two. Tonganoxie must have been very grateful that he had not been at home.

A year earlier, the U.S. government had requested that the Delawares remain neutral in the sectional conflict. Caught between two growing fires, they were forced to choose sides by 1861.

Black Beaver chose the Union. By the time of the Civil War, Black Beaver–Suck-tum-mah-kway–was a prominent Delaware and one of the most accomplished Indian scouts in North America. Born in Belleville, Illinois, in 1806, he was the son of a chief, Captain Patterson. In 1834, he served as a guide and interpreter for U.S. Army officers in dealings with the Comanche, Kiowa, and Wichita Indians on the upper Red River in Arkansas. For 10 years in the 1830s and 1840s, Black Beaver worked for the American Fur Company. In the era of the mountain men, wrote Southwestern explorer Randolph Marcy, Black Beaver "visited nearly every point of interest within the limits of our unsettled territory. He had set his traps and spread his blanket upon the headwaters of the Missouri and Columbia; and his wanderings had led him south of the Colorado and Gila and thence to the shores of the Pacific in Southern California."

When the Rocky Mountain fur trade declined in the 1840s, Black Beaver turned to guiding wagon trains west. During the Mexican War of the late 1840s, he raised a company of Delawares and Shawnees known officially as Black Beaver's Spy Company, Indian, Texas Mounted Volunteers. He was captain of the company. After the war he continued to serve the U.S. Army under contract as a scout.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to