They described him as an Indian, his children half-bloods

Putting a face to the man This painting by Isabel Smucker of West Liberty hangs on a wall in the home of historian Donna Spencer of Huntsville, who has spent decades researching Blue Jacket. Miss Smucker used the description of Blue Jacket from the written account of Oliver Spencer. Blue Jacket is said to have worn a blue jacket as well as a red coat given to him by the British. This is not an authentic portrait. No authentic portraits of Blue Jacket are known to exist.

By Brian J. Evans
Examiner Staff Writer

When a party of Shawnee Indians stole horses in Kentucky in 1787, the famous Shawnee War Chief Blue Jacket was captured by Daniel Boone.

He eventually escaped.

The famous warrior was a leader in some of the most famous Indian-white battles, including Point Pleasant in 1774, Harmar's defeat in 1790, St. Clair's defeat in 1791, Fort Recovery in 1794 and Fallen Timbers in 1794. Some historians argue he was the principal Indian leader in the last four of those battles.

Accounts have been written about these and other battles. His participation in them has been documented.

In not a single one of these accounts is he mentioned as being a white man turned Indian chief.
Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, Antoine Gamelin and General Wayne knew Blue Jacket, but on not a single occasion has any researcher found a single reference in which he was referred to as a white man, a white captive or a white man turned Indian chief, Huntsville historian Donna Spencer reported.

On July 4, 1792, Oliver Spencer was taken prisoner by the Indians at the age of 11. On July 21, he was taken to visit Blue Jacket.

In a written account of the visit, the boy described the chief as being "the most noble in appearance of any Indian (he) ever saw. His person about six feet high, was finely proportioned, stout and muscular; his eyes large, bright and piercing; his forehead high and broad; his nose aquiline; his mouth rather wide, and his countenance open and intelligent, expressive of firmness and decision; he was considered one of the most brave and accomplished of the Indian chiefs ..."

The youth described many things about Blue Jacket, but he did not once mention Blue Jacket was a white man turned Indian.

This sort of evidence leads many historians to believe the controversial story simply put - doesn't add up. It is widely accepted among historians that the Marmaduke Van Swearingen tale was wrong.

All evidence, with the exception of Thomas Jefferson Larsh's 1877 publication that Marmaduke Swearingen was Blue Jacket, indicates the famous war chief was born a Shawnee Indian - not a white man.

Blue Jacket married white or partly white women. One of them, the white captive Margaret Moore, gave birth to two children, Joseph Moore and Nancy Stewart. Both of whom are mentioned in official historical documents, as well as in the reminiscences of old pioneers, and they are referred to as half-bloods, part Indian and part white.

"Now, as the mother was white, we can only conclude that such testimony - coming from Indians and whites who knew them - clearly identifies the father as Indian," commented Dr. John Sugden, an author and historian who lives in England.

In 1810, when the Shawnees gathered to collect treaty annuities, plots of land were granted to Joseph and Nancy.

In the records, the Shawnees described one of the siblings as a "half breed of their tribe" and the other as "a half blood of the said tribe." In 1813, a white official with the Shawnees also described Joseph as "a half Indian."

On page 328 of a biographical sketch titled Early Recollections of Nancy Stewart in The History of Champaign and Logan Counties, published in 1872 by Joshua Antrim, Mrs. S.M. Moore remembered both Margaret and Nancy and remarked upon the contrast between them. The daughter having "decidedly Indian features" and the mother being white.

If the offspring were of recognizably mixed bloods, acknowledged to be so by Indians and whites, and their mother was white, the father, Blue Jacket, it follows, must have been Indian, Dr. Sugden noted.

To go even further, no evidence indicates that Blue Jacket knew more than a few words of English.

If Mr. Larsh's tale was correct, and the famous war chief Blue Jacket was white, captured at the age of 17, he would have spoken fluent English.

He used interpreters, as Dr. Sugden noted, when dealing with white officials. Jacques Lasselle was with him at the Treaty of Greeneville, and Stephen Ruddel, a white captive, at a meeting in Chillicothe in 1807.

Again, the evidence is fairly conclusive. There are no mentions of him being a white man, no evidence that he spoke English and there is a minimum 20 year difference between the births of Marmaduke Swearingen and Blue Jacket.

"Academic historians have known for quite a while that Blue Jacket was a full-blooded Native American, but the myth of his white ancestry persists in popular culture, and that is not really surprising. Going back to colonial times, Americans have often attributed intelligence or leadership qualities in individual Native Americans, and African Americans, too for that matter, to 'white blood,'" commented Dr. Roger Nimps, a professor of American and Ohio history at The Ohio State University in Lima.

If Blue Jacket was a white man, it is likely someone would have said so at the time. Yet, not one of the many references to him, by Indians, army officers, white captives, missionaries or pioneers are there any references of him being anything other than an Indian.

At the time, there were some cases of whites being raised by the Shawnees and attaining positions of importance.

Perhaps the most notable was James Rogers, captured during the Revolutionary War, Dr. Sugden noted. He lived with the Shawnees and eventually became a head man of a Shawnee village in Missouri. The first thing people said about James Rogers, when they encountered him was that he was of white origin, Dr. Sugden reported.

Nathan Boone recollected that Jimmy Rogers was "a white man prisoner who never abandoned the Shawnees ..." and the Rev. John Ficklin informed John Peck in 1818 that "Mr. Rogers was originally a white man, taken prisoner in boyhood ..."

Although it is pure speculation, Dr. Sugden and Kansas history buff Jerry Winkleman both believe it was possible Mr. Larsh was mixing up Blue Jacket and Rogers when he came up with his story of the white captive turned Shawnee chief. That has yet to be confirmed.

One thing is indicated from this and other evidence: It was highly unlikely that Marmaduke Swearingen and the famous war chief Blue Jacket were the same person. The evidence collected strongly indicates the famous Indian chief Blue Jacket who led the Indians against white expansion couldn't have been a white man.

At the same time, there remain questions, "If Blue Jacket was born an Indian, then what happened to Marmaduke Swearingen?" and "Could there have been more than one man called Blue Jacket?"
Those answers have yet to be found.

The next article will examine the research of a Fairborn historian, which includes a DNA comparison between Oklahoma Bluejackets and members of the Swearingen lineage.