MyeerahZane's Journals
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Myeerah Zane's Life
Historical
| NOAH ZANE McCOLLOCH ...held several offices in the County of Logan. He has been Auditor, and Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, and Clerk of the Supr... |
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Log Cabin of Myeerah Zane
Welcome
to
My Log Cabin!
Isaac & Myeerah Zane Arriving In Wheeling, Virgina For A Visit
by
Hal Sherman of Englewood, Ohio
Khwe Khwe Akwataru'
Hello to all!
(That's in my native language, Wyandotte)
 I am
Myeerah Zane
(prounounced, "my-EAR-uh"). My name means, "Walks in the Water." I am the only daughter of Chief Tarhe the Crane (prounounced, "tar-HAY") of the Wyandotte Tribe in the
Ohio country of the Old Northwest Territory of the USA. That's my father to the left, as well as the upper right. My father came from the Porcupine Clan. The French traders called him "The Crane," or "Monsieur Le Grue," because of his tall, thin, elegant appearance; his name actually means, "At the Tree." My father was a warrior for peace. He realized
our people could only survive if we remained at peace with the Whites, whom we called "Long-Knives," whether they were French, British, Americans, or other Europeans.
There is a legend that
Viking explorers
intermixed with the Wyandottes before they came to Ohio, and so we were reknowned for having
pale skin. The Wandottes immgrated south from eastern Canada to the Detriot area, then to northwestern Ohio. There are Wyandottes in the Detroit area, and Canada and Ohio to this day, as well as west of the Mississippi River in Kansas and Oklahoma.
There is a recent archeaological theory that proposes that Native Americans were descended from Europeans that migrated to the Americas via Greenland.
Above is a painting showing trading with the French in the ancestral lands in Canada of the Wyandotte Nation. The French Traders that met our ancestors called them,
"Hurons," which referred to savage-looking bushy hair. (See below.) So, actually, it is a racist term in one sense, although people had no idea of that concept back then. However, on this site, I am using both terms interchangeably to refer to my tribe, because historically we have been known by either name. Also, please note: The spelling of my Tribe's name for ourselves, Wyandotte, can also be spelt "Wyandot" or "Wyandott" or even "Wendat," depending on how the Whites heard it. Lake Huron of the Great Lakes was named for my people by the French exploring in the region during the Seventeenth Century.
A Huron-Wendat Coiffure from
Musée Canadien Des Civilisations
Below is where our people were located in about 1600 AD, when we first met the Whites.
However, meeting with the Whites a second time had a terrible effect on our tribes, as it did for so many other Native Americans... Smallpox wiped out most of our people throughout the period of 1600 - 1750 AD. My people had no resistance to the diseases that had ravaged Europe for centuries. This was true for all Native Americans beginning with contact with Christopher Columbus' crews in 1492 AD. In our part of the world, it was initial contact with the French and Dutch, then the British, that wiped out many tribes. Previous contact with the Vikings centuries before did not have the same devastating effect for some reason. Perhaps it was because the difference in technology between the two cultures was less extreme, and the Vikings did not bring horses to America. The presence of horses in America had a most profound effect on Native American cultures.
From
Arrival of the Spanish
This may surprise you: My mother was a French noblewoman, the daughter of
Le Chevalier La Durant.
(The title "Le Chavalier" was a knighthood -- the Knights of Malta -- that the youngest sons of French nobility often were given.) They met at Fort Detroit and fell in love. She was NOT an Indian captive, as some have said. My father called her,
"Ronyouquaines."
She never told me her Christian name. Of course, I called her Maman. She said she belonged to her Indian family now. She said she had more freedom to be herself now that she belonged to my father and me. She was reknowned for being very beautiful and kind. I have been told I strongly resemble her. It is from her that I learnt some French. With a European mother, I had very fair skin, so I was called, "The White Crane," which honors both my parents.
I am the wife of
Isaac Zane,
also called,
"The Great White Eagle." (There is the text of the monument erected for him in my Courtyard and links to more information, too.) He founded Zanestown in the Mad River Valley, which later was named Zanesfield, Ohio. It is in Logan County, Ohio, northwest of the state capital at Columbus. Isaac Zane was the younger brother to the famous Zane brothers:
Ebenezer and Jonathan Zane, who cut the Zane Trace (the first National Road) and founded Zanesville, Ohio. His baby sister
Betty Zane, shown left, saved Fort Henry in the last battle of the American Revoltution, saving the lives of the Patriots and risking her own life to do so. She was only a teenager when she did this. Her adventures were related in the novel Betty Zane by our descendent Zane Grey. I learnt English from my husband Isaac. Does it surprise you that I am trilingual?
William Penn meeting Natives
Artist Unknown
The first Zane to come to the Americas was
Robert Zane, who came to Pennsylvania in 1672 AD. His first wife and son Nathaniel's mother, Margaret Hammond Zane, died at sea enroute. God rest her soul. He went to "prepare ye the way" for reknowned fellow
Quaker Leader
William Penn. William Penn was granted the lands of the Pennsylvania colony as repayment of a loan made to
King Charles II of Great Britain. Robert Zane was my husband's
great-great-grandfather.
In Europe before that, the Zane family immigrated from Normandy to the British Isles about 1066 AD with
King William I of England, also known as
"William the Conqueror." Before becoming Quakers in the Seventeenth Century, the Zanes lived for generations in Yarcombe, Devonshire, England, in the southwestern part of the country. Before emmigrating to England, the Christian Zanes first left the area of Denmark for the duchy of Normandy to escape the Vikings in the Ninth Century AD.
I have chosen "Tecumseh" as an American family name because of his interactions with various members of my family. The great Shawnee war chief was the biggest rival with my father in terms of impact on American history in the Ohio Valley area in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries.
Chief Tecumseh
Unknown Artist
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago
Ironically, the great Shawnee Chief,
Tecumseh (seen above), was often opposed by my father, Chief Tarhe. Tecumseh proposed that we drive out the Whites to survive, and fought on the side of the British during the War of 1812. Opposing the Americans ended up killing Chief Tecumseh and further decimated his tribe. My father, however, knew that the Whites were as numerous as snowflakes in a blizzard. Having a white wife and white adopted son (my husband, Isaac Zane, who became chief upon his death), my father knew the only way of survival for our people was through peace with white civilization. Chief Tarhe the Crane kept the Ohio Tribes' copy of the 1795 Treaty of Greenville and enforced it, as well as other agreements and treaties amongst the tribes. In the painting Chief Tarhe by Hal Sherman on this page (upper right), my father wears the medallion commemorating the Treaty of Greenville (enlargement below). I like this painting because I feel it shows my father's wisdom and strength.
The crossed arrows mean friendship!
I lived in the Mad River Valley near modern Bellefountaine, Ohio from 1757 - February 1816. Isaac died in October the same year, also in Zanestown (now modern Zanesfield, Ohio). My father died in Cranestown, near Upper Sandusky, Ohio. There are signs near Zanesfield, Ohio that call me a princess! Why? Because my father was elected the Great Sachem (head chief of the Ohio tribes) and negotiated the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 & renewed it in 1814, among other treaties. My husband Isaac Zane translated for the Whites during many treaties. Isaac and I are buried behind Myeerah's Inn in Zanesfield, near a stone marking the spot. The local Dr. Sloane Library houses a painting of me. In your times, every Memorial Day weekend there is an outdoor pageant featuring local history, including my father, Isaac, and other Native American and local White pioneer heroes like
Simon Kenton. (His portrait by Hal Sherman is in my Courtyard.)
From Historical Collections of Ohio
By Henry Howe
A modern view of where we lived
Zanesfield, Mad River Valley
by
Tom Harbrecht
From
Story of a Place Called Goshen: Logan County, Ohio
by Oswald K. Reames (1961)
"At the time of the arrival of the first Goshen Quakers, the Indian captive Isaac Zane and his mixed blood family were living at the site of Zanesfield, (Ohio), a former Indian town. Cabins built by the Indians yet standing were used by the Quakers until cabins could be erected. Among the known families using these Indian huts with dirt floors were the families of Joseph and Henry Dickinson, Quakers, and James Hill and Samuel Todd, Methodists. Their arrival at the breaking out of the War of 1812 led to their taking advantage of the block houses erected for the protection of the boarder settlers. After the war closed, the Dickinson brothers established homes nearby.
"The families of Todd and Hill continued to live at the site that became known as Zanestown. The establishing of homes by these Quaker and Methodist families may have been responsible for there being a town of Zanesfield. When the War of 1812 ended Quaker emigration to the upper Mad River country began again. Not all the Quakers became members at Goshen, but its membership increased until it became the largest religious community in the county..."
My Comment:
My husband Isaac Zane's family were Quakers, and had been for generations. (In fact, Isaac and I were married in both a Huron ceremony and also later in a Quaker ceremony.) So, it was only natural for him to welcome other Quakers and Protestants into this region as neighbors. His petition to the US Government (link is in the Courtyard on next page) was to keep the land that my father had given him at our marriage after the repartitioning of Ohio due to the Treaty of Greenville. My father's mark as Great Sachem, and Isaac's mark as interpreter for the Whites are both on the Treaty, and Chief Tarhe enforced it amongst the Tribes.
From
The First Christmas Carol
According to Huron tradition, their first Christmas Carol was written by a Jesuit missionary priest, Fr Jean de Brebeuf, around 1640-41. The Hurons had a particular devotion to Christmas. Fr Brebeuf wrote about the devotions they had. He said that they built a small chapel of fir tree and bark in honour of the manger at Bethlehem. This became the 'stable' where Jesus was born. Some travelled as much as two days to be there for the Christmas celebration.
The Huron Carol has become a well known and much loved carol today. The original was written in the Huron tongue, with a symbol like a figure '8' to represent a vowel sound not common in the English tongue.
This sound was 'ou' .
Estennialon de tson8e Jes8s ahatonhia
Onna8ate8a d'oki n'on8andask8aentak
Ennonchien sk8atrihotat n'on8andilonrachatha
Jes8s ahatonhia
The original words were written in French and Huronian. The carol we all sing today was an interpretation of the original, and not a translation. There were five verses. The first verse is as follows:
Chrétiens, prenez courage,
Jésus Sauveur est né!
Du malin les ouvrages
A jamais sont ruinés.
Quand il chant mervielle,
A ces troublants appas
No prâtez plus l'orielle:
Jésus est né, In excelsis gloria!
At the third verse, the chiefs would process solemnly towards the little chapel, bearing gifts for the christchild:
Voici que trois Rois Mages,
Perdus en Orient,
Déchiffrent ce message
Encrit au firmamente:
A'Astre nouveau les hante
Ils la suivront lá-bas,
Cette étoile marchante:
Jésus est né: In excelsis gloria!
SOURCE:
The Christmas Archives
"American Indian Christmas Customs"
By Maria Hubert
http://www.christmasarchives.com/amerind.html
Viewed August 8, 2006
Read
The English Translation of
The Huron Carol
This is how women in my tribe dressed during my lifetime.
The Potawatomi are a branch of the Hurons.
Potawatomi Virgin Mother
© By
Fr. John Giuliani
As you wander through my humble log cabin, please take advantage of the many links on each page! The Courtyard focuses on my father, Chief Tarhe the Crane; also his widow, Caty Sage; my husband, Isaac Zane, the White Eagle of the Wyandottes; Chief Tecumseh of the Shawnee Nation; Wyandotte Treaties, and Ohio historical artist Hal Sherman. At the bottom of the Courtyard is a mini-gallery of Hal Sherman's paintings. In my Library are links to local Ohio Valley history, biographies of me and other Zane family members, as well as to Wyandotte and other Native American websites. The Library also has links to Genealogy sites of my family and other Ohio Families of the frontier days. The Study has links to some of my many descendents as well as their photographs, and photos of places named after the Zanes. My Journal (to the upper left on this page) has more facts about my life and times.
Potawatomi Camp Scene, Crooked Creek
By George Winter
Peace To You and Yours!
Click below to reach me.
Wyandot Pouch
From Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma
Links to Hal Sherman's paintings are located in the Courtyard.
Please visit these sites!
Also, a BIG
Thank You
to Hal Sherman for all his help in developing this site,
including providing historical sources.
I highly recommend this site!
Created by my good friend
Eugene A. Kirkland of Columbus, Ohio
The United States Navy's PT Boats
of World War II
Gene has also written a very well researched book about this subject.
I also highly recommend this site!
Tehuti's Per on the Web
She is an excellent writer and this site has links to her work.
DEDICATION
This site is dedicated to the Native Americans of the USA and the First Peoples of Canada, who fought so passionately to survive in the face of European conquest. Also, to the memory of Isaac and Myeerah's great-great-great granddaughter, Catharine Elizabeth Newell Haddix (1915 - 2005) of Canton, Texas, USA. (Her portrait is shown in my Study.) And, finally, to the many descendants of Isaac and Myeerah Zane, past, present and future.
DISCLAIMER
This site was created by the five times great granddaughter of Myeerah and Isaac Zane. They were real people living in the Ohio country of the Old Northwest Territory before and after The American Revoltution, as did Chief Tarhe the Crane and others mentioned on this site.
Sources written before the Twenty-First Century any may contain language to particular ethnic groups that some may find offensive today. It is essential that history not be “judged” using a modern day point-of-view. The views of the past must be taken in context of how people generally thought “back in the day.” Instead of bashing our ancestors, stop to consider how far we, as a society, have progressed and how much farther we have yet to go.
Please Note:
I am not a professional genealogist. While I have tried my best, my research is certainly not up to the standards to which such a genealogist would adhere. Almost all my primary data is from published works or correspondence and/or conversations with Newell descendants of Chief Tarhe. I have made some effort to seek out and examine corroborating records such as birth certificates, marriage licenses, etc., such as I could obtain via my family, The Columbus Metropolitan Library, Ridgemont Library, The Mormon Family History Center in Dublin, Ohio, The Dr. Sloane Library in Zanesfield, Ohio, the county records of Logan and Hardin counties, the Internet (mainly through
Ancestry.com) and just plain luck. I have maintained records of the sources of my information as much as possible. I will provide those sources to individuals who wish to further validate the data for their own use.
Also Note:
Many of my sources are secondary, so much of this information may be unproven. I am striving for historical accuracy wherever possible. Also, in 2003, some of my primary records were destroyed, so I am partly doing this from memory, and still finding supporting documentation as I go.
CREDITS
All images on this site are the work of talented others. The artist and name of the work are noted when known.
Literary Sources:
Frain, Roger. Warrior of Peace. Miami, Ohio: Oxford University, (date unknown).
Reames, O. K.
History of Zanesfield, and Sketches of the Interesting and Historical Places of Logan County, Ohio. Originally published about 1912 (Zanesfield, Ohio: Zanesfield Area Bicentennial Committee, 1976. Reprint).
Some information for the persons and terms on this site is
from
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Other sources are shown as links throughout the site.
Isaac & Myeerah Zane Arriving In Wheeling For A Visit is by Ohio artist
Hal Sherman and is used with his permission. It hangs in the Logan County Historical Society Museum in Bellefontaine, Ohio. Other paintings in my Courtyard and in my Library are all © Hal Sherman and used with his permission. Hal Sherman provided photos of Nancy Zane McColloch and Noah Zane seen in my Study. He graciously gave me his copy of History of Zanesfield, and Sketches of the Interesting and Historical Places of Logan County, Ohio. by O.K. Reames that was originally published about 1912 (Zanesfield, Ohio: Zanesfield Area Bicentennial Committee, 1976. Reprint). Hal also provided the photo of Myeerah's Trail sign, shown in the Library. The photographs of Newell family members are from the Newell family history collection. The Self Portrait of Catherine L. Newell is © 2006 Catherine L. Newell and used with her permission. Except for Catherine's painting and the photograph of actor Billy Zane, all persons shown on this site are deceased.
The image of Chief Tarhe the Crane in the Library has been in the Newell family history collection for over 15 years. It came from the genealogy section of the Dr. Sloane Library in Zanesfield, Ohio. I don't know the artist, but it is the most common depiction of him on the Web. It originated from
The Ohio Historical Society
, as did his image in the Courtyard. The photo of Chief Tarhe's monument is © Wyandot County, Ohio web site, and is used with their permission.
The other images of Chief Tarhe or his artifacts were the results of
Google and Yahoo searches. The image of Chief Tarhe in the Study was from a photo provided by the Indian Lake Chamber of Commerce.
The photo of his spoon in the Study, as well as the Wyandot moccasins and the Wyandot pouch on the Entrance page, all came from The Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma.
Other images on this site were the the results of
Google and Yahoo searches on the following names: Myeerah, Zane, Tarhe, Wyandot, Wendat, McColloch, Newell, Caty Sage, Sally Frost, Huron, Tecumseh and Zane Grey. Additional images on this site were the the results of
Google and Yahoo searches on most Ohio counties. Avatar was created with an image I received through an email Christian support group. The background and dividers are from the same group. Other graphics are courtesy of
and
I am constantly updating this site as new information is obtained.
Please check back often for changes!
Thank you!
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I got this
arrangement
from
Merit Sithathor,
She bought it
for me at
The Unique Businesses
In Kemet.
Get a
Flower Arrangement too!
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Wyandot Moccasins
From Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma
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