Логан сөйлеуші: Ирокез басшысының тарихы

Native American orator and war leader

Logan the Orator (c. 1723–1780) was a Cayuga orator and war leader born of one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. After his 1760s move to the Ohio Country, he became affiliated with the Mingo, a tribe formed from Seneca, Cayuga, Lenape and other remnant peoples. He took revenge for family members killed by Virginian Long knives in 1774 in what is known as the Yellow Creek Massacre. His actions against settlers on the frontier helped spark Dunmore's War later that year. Logan became known for a speech, later known as Logan's Lament, which he reportedly delivered after the war. Scholars dispute important details about Logan, including his original name and whether the words of Logan's Lament were his.

Scholars agree that Logan was a son of Chief Shikellamy, an important diplomat for the Iroquois Confederacy. But, as anthropologist Anthony F. C. Wallace has written, "Which of Shikellamy's sons was Logan the orator has been a matter of dispute." Logan the orator has been variously identified as Tah gah jute, Tachnechdorus (also spelled "Tachnedorus" and "Taghneghdoarus"), Soyechtowa, Tocanioadorogon, the "Great Mingo", James Logan, and John Logan. The name "Tah gah jute" was popularized in an 1851 book by Brantz Mayer entitled Tah gah jute: or Logan and Cresap. However, historian Francis Jennings wrote that Mayer's book was "erroneous from the first word of the title." He identified Logan as James Logan, also known as Soyechtowa and Tocanioadorogon. Historians who agree that Logan the orator was not named "Tah gah jute" sometimes identify him as Tachnechdorus. But Jennings identifies Tachnechdorus as Logan the orator's older brother. Logan's father Chief Shikellamy, who was Oneida, worked closely with Pennsylvania official James Logan to maintain the Covenant Chain relationship with the colony of Pennsylvania. Following a prevailing Native American practice, the young man who would become Logan the Mingo took the name "James Logan" out of admiration for his father's friend. The Iroquois and other Native American tribes tended to have peace chiefs and war chiefs, or leaders. Like his father, Logan generally maintained friendly relationships with white settlers who were moving from eastern Pennsylvania and Virginia into the Ohio Country: the region that is now Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and western Pennsylvania.

Logan's friendly relations with white settlers changed after the Yellow Creek massacre of April 30, 1774. A group of Virginia Long knives led by Daniel Greathouse murdered a number of Mingo, among them Logan's brother (commonly known as John Petty) and at least two other close female relatives, one of them pregnant and caring for an infant daughter. Her children's father was John Gibson, a prominent trader in the region. These Mingo had been living near the mouth of Yellow Creek, and had been lured to the cabin of Joshua Baker, a settler and rum trader who lived across the Ohio River from their village. The Mingo in Baker's cabin were all murdered, except for the infant mixed race child, who was spared with the intention of giving her to her father. At least two canoes were dispatched from the Yellow Creek village to aid their members, but they were repelled by Greathouse's men concealed along the river. In all, approximately a dozen Mingo were murdered in the cabin and on the river. Logan was not present in the area when the massacre took place, and was summoned to return by runners.

Influential tribal chiefs in the region, such as Cornstalk (Shawnee), White Eyes (Lenape), and Guyasuta (Seneca/Mingo), attempted to negotiate a peaceful resolution lest the incident develop into a larger war, but by Native American custom Logan had the right to retaliate for the murders. Several parties of mixed Mingo and Shawnee warriors soon struck the frontier, including one led by Logan. They attacked settlers in several frontier regions, both killing and taking captives. One known as the Spicer Massacre in Greene County, Pennsylvania. The Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, responded by launching an expedition against the Mingo and Shawnee, in the conflict known as Dunmore's War.

To Captain Cressap What did you kill my people on Yellow Creek for. The white People killed my kin at Coneestoga a great while ago, & I thought nothing of that. But you killed my kin again on Yellow Creek, and took my cousin prisoner then I thought I must kill too; and I have been three time[s to war since but] the Indians is not Angry only myself.|Captain John Logan

The remainder of Logan's life is shrouded in obscurity. Logan continued his attacks on white settlers and associated himself with British allied Mohawks during the American Revolution. He died in an altercation near Lake Erie in 1780. He was reportedly assassinated by his own nephew, urged on by other Mingo who were concerned at Logan's erratic behavior. Years later, the nephew stated that he had agreed to kill Logan "Because he was too great a man to live."