Chief Hopocan was a reverse indicator. He was never on the right side, or at least the victorious side of history. If this were baseball he would have been batting 0 for 3.
In the French and Indian War, that saw 60,000 French fighting the English Army and two million, then loyal, American colonists, Hopcan decided to go with the French. History shows us how poorly that one turned out for the Indians.
In the Revolutionary War those same American colonists had been raiding his villages so he decided to switch sides and go with the English. Again, not the best of decisions. In both wars Chief Hopocan lost what the American colonists really wanted, real estate. If you stop and think about it all war is really fought over only one thing, real estate. Someone else has land and you want it. You can argue for ideological differences as a cause of war, BUT PLEASE DON’T DO IT HERE. However real estate is really at the heart of the matter. All of the cost and suffering of war could be circumvented by real estate brokers, dickering over price and terms with each other.
The Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 against the US forces of General “Mad” Anthony Wayne was also lost by the Indians. This was Hopocan’s last foray into politics with the whites. At the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 the Indians were forced to sell off large chunks of Ohio, most of Indiana. and the part of Illinois that became Chicago. The Indians were “paid” $20,000 worth of horses, utensils, blankets and worthless bling.
Hopocan then died in Indiana at the ripe old age of 93. SO, when I see this photo of Hopocan with an American flag in his hand, I just have to laugh. The old chief would not be amused.
Happy Fourth of July, Everyone !!! Frank Jr.
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55Paula Mills Kallio, Sharon K McGalliard Thomas and 53 others
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Great story. I grew up by “the Indian”