Cokundiawatha

War Chief of the Mohawks, Robert Griffing

The Grave on the Hill

In Defiance Ohio, on the side of the North Side Hill, formerly Scalp Level, there is a Grave Marker. The Marker, a large Granite rock, says, Cokundiawtha Mohawk Chief 1790. That's all.. There is much more to the story.

 Cokundiawatha was a war chief of the Mohawk nation and fought with his tribe and the British against the Americans. As his tribe and the British were defeated, Cokundiawatha and his family moved west to the confluence of the Maumee and Auglaize Rivers. There they joined with Chief Blue Jacket and the Shawnee...

Cokundiawatha's family consisted of his Wife Cooh-Coo-Cheeh, a princess of the Wolf Clan, their sons. White Loon,  Black Loon, Wawpunno, and a daughter Quatsy. They were not the only non Shawnee at "The Glaize" in the year 1790. There were Chicamauga Cherokee, Delaware, Seneca, Cayuga, and Mohawk referred to collectively as Mingo spread amongst several towns near the Confluence, of the Miami of the Lake, Bean Creek, and The Auglaize.
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In October of 1790 Colonel Josiah Harner and his 400 militia and  Major Wyllys and his 60 regulars marched north from Cincinnati, seeking the Miami town of Kikionga. Which was where present day Ft. Wayne Indiana is today. On October 22 the American army entered Kikionga destroying everything they could find, harvested food, houses and anything that would be useful to the Natives.. Thinking the Indians had fled in fear they pursued the combined army of Miami Shawnee, Mingo and others. There were two battles that day, both defeats for the Americans.. In the second battle the Indians stopped their retreat and faced their pursuers in the swamp to which they had been led. Throwing down their guns the Natives attacked the Americans with tomahawks. It was while in the process of tomahawking an American soldier that Cokundiawatha received a fatal wound from a bayonet. The Natives call this the Battle of the Pumpkins for the scalped heads of the 187 dead Americans resembled pumpkins, steaming in the cold autumn air...

Cokundiawatha died on his return trip to the Glaize and was buried some 20 miles up the Maumee from home.When hearing the news Cooh-Coo-Cheeh and her sons went and retrieved her husband and returned to bury him next to the old war trail on the north side of the Maumee. She then built a cabin there, directly across the trail from her husbands Grave. It was that cabin that White Loon and Black Loon brought Oliver Spencer,  two years later.
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Cokundiawatha was buried sitting up, looking west, for that was where the Happy hunting ground lay, with his rifle, tomahawk and everything he would need in his next life by his side..Over his grave there was a pole placed with the face of a man, painted red and marks on the pole for each of the warriors scalps. On special occasions there was a long pole erected hanging over the grave of Cokundiawatha, with 19 scalps of all colors hanging from it.as reported by Oliver Spencer and William Wells.

So the next time you're driving out 424 to Pontiac Park and Independance Dam, just imagine Cokundiawatha sitting there looking west. With his warpaint on and his weapons by his side, and his scalp pole with 19 scalps of all colors flying in the wind... and wonder why did they misspell his name on the stone, I think they just ran out of room and fudged it.. John C Cheek

Sources: The Captivity of Oliver Spencer by Oliver Spencer
Black Snakes Path: William Heath