National and International Dimensions

In its beginning, United States Indian policy was rather haphazard. Although there were exceptions, during the American Revolution, most Native American tribes chose neutrality. But after independence the nation functioned under the Articles of Confederation. This established a weak central government. It did empower the Confederation Congress the authority to regulate affairs with Native American tribes. Yet the central government often failed to enforce its authority. And with the British presence diminished, tribes in the Ohio valley and Tennessee experienced increasing encroachments from American land speculators and traders.

Feeling vulnerable, tribes in the Northwestern Territory such as the Wyandot, Delaware, Shawnee, Miami, Ottawa, Chippewa, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, and others sought relief. They relied on British merchants and the military in Canada to supply arms and ammunition. In the South, British merchants in Florida also participated in arms trade.

As a result, violence erupted throughout the Ohio valley, Tennessee, and southern Georgia. Isolated frontier farms and settlements became targets of raiding parties. The United States sent ill-trained and equipped troops to establish order. Yet these steps failed to stem attacks. In November 1791, a force of regular army and militia met disaster at the Battle of the Wabash in western Ohio. Of 1,400 soldiers, officers, and civilians, including men, women, and children, around 1,094 were casualties. For the number involved, this remains one of the worst defeats in the history of the United States Army.

Because foreign agents, especially British, wooed tribes with trade goods and arms, the frontier became less secure. And United States Indian agents often failed to placate tribes. Thus, a cash-strapped treasury and small army, caused the Washington administration to launch the Federal Factory System.

The term factory may be misleading to modern readers. This was the name used in that era to describe trading posts operating at government expense with a government-appointed agent. Eventually, there were as many as twenty-eight factories conducting trade with Native Americans in the wilderness. They operated until they were abolished in 1822.

This essay focuses on the Sulphur Fork Factory, located near the confluence of the Sulphur and Red rivers in what is now southern Miller County, Arkansas. Used in preparation was “For Peace, Civilization, and Expansion: The United States Factory System, 1796-1822, a master’s thesis by Michael Edward Green submitted to the graduate school faculty at Texas Christian University in May 2012.

Also consulted was The History of Texas by Robert A. Calvert and Arnoldo De Leon. Most of the primary information came from the Letterbook of the Natchitoches- Sulphur Fork Factory, 1809-1821, Broadmoor Branch, Shreve Memorial Library, Shreveport, Louisiana. The Letterbook reflects problems involved with factory personnel. Sources also concern international relations; that is, how Americans related to foreign influence and/ or perceived threats.

A careful reading reflects the relocation of tribes from the Ohio valley. This was partially due to American encroachment on Native lands in the Ohio valley and competition between tribes over hunting areas.

Natchitoches, founded in 1714 and four years before New Orleans, became a military outpost and French colonial settlement. Its location at that time on the bank of the Red River enhanced commercial opportunities for trade with Native Americans. Natchitoches existed successively under the flags of France, Spain, and the United States. Natchitoches-based merchants exchanged European goods for pelts to tribes in present Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas.

In 1803 the United States acquired the vast Louisiana Purchase, doubling the size of the nation. Yet the northern and southern boundaries were not clearly defined. Spain claimed Texas and the entire southwestern part of the present United States. Thus, the ownership of western Louisiana and eastern Texas remained unclear. And Spanish authorities were wary of American efforts, private or government sponsored, to sever Texas from Spain. In 1801 Philip Nolan left Natchez, Mississippi on a mission to capture mustangs in Texas for horse traders in Louisiana. Nolan passed through Natchitoches and then passed near Nacogdoches. Spanish authorities finally killed him in the vicinity of McLennan County. Yet papers on his body raised Spanish suspicions of his involvement in a plot to seize Texas.

Then in 1806 an expedition under Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis set out from Natchitoches to explore the Red River. Captained by Richard Sparks, United States army infantrymen provided security. But after arriving at Spanish Bluff in Bowie County, a superior force of Spanish troops forced the expedition to turn back.

In 1812 Lieutenant Augustus W. Magee, a former United States army artillery officer, led an ill-fated invasion of Texas. His forces captured Nacogdoches and marched approximately 300 miles to occupy San Antonio and Goliad. He proclaimed Texas as an independent republic, but the plot soon fizzled for lack of support.

It was not until the Adams-Onis Treaty in 1819 that the boundary with Spain was negotiated. According to the agreement, the western boundary of the State of Louisiana became the Sabine River north to the 32nd parallel, then the line turned north until the intersection with the Red River, north of present Texarkana. Turning west, the boundary extended to the 100th meridian and north again to the Arkansas River. Until then, the western Louisiana and Texarkana region was part of a disputed international boundary.

In 1805 the United States had established a factory near Natchitoches. It was one of first government trading posts west of the Mississippi. The trading house existed there until 1818, when it relocated to the Sulphur Fork. Trade goods consisted of gun flints, powder, shirts, blankets, scarlet cloth, calico shawls, stitching thread, rifles, ivory combs, needles, iron pots, and cow bells. The factory system combined efforts of the federal government and benevolent Americans, who sought to civilize Native Americans.

It was hoped that the trading establishments would supply goods at fair prices in exchange for pelts. In the process, Native Americans would receive tools and farming implements needed to facilitate the change from hunting cultures to settled agricultural peoples. Thus, they would be less vulnerable to corrupt whites, especially whiskey traders and unscrupulous and governmentally unsanctioned frontier merchants.

Such policies hopefully would encourage friendly relations with the United States government and discourage ties with Spain.

When British forces gathered before New Orleans in late 1814, General Andrew Jackson appealed to the Indian agent at Natchitoches for Native allies to come to his aid. Jackson requested the agent to entice area Native Americans with calicoes and blankets. Although some Native units from the Southeast served in Jackson’s army, it is doubtful that any from the Natchitoches area enlisted in time to arrive for the famous battle.

But some whites on the frontier opposed factories. For example, local merchants viewed the trading posts as competition. As early as December 1813 the police jury of Natchitoches Parish sent a letter to President James Madison, requesting the removal of the agency. The administrative police jury was the principal governmental entity of the parish. And a letter dated 14 April 1817 mentions a site at Sulfur Fork “between Sulphur Fork and Saline Creek” as a suitable option.

To be continued.