A Dressed Skin of the leg and thigh of an Indian, killed in the march of General Sullivan into the Western country, during the late war

Object Status:

Unlocated

Primary Source Reference:

Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia), 29 June 1790

Additional Source Text:

Also listed in Herald of Freedom (Boston), 13 July 1790.

Notes:

Gen. John Sullivan (1740-1795) led an expedition in 1779 against Loyalists and four Nations of the Haudenosaunee that had sided with the British during the Revolution. The expedition devastated Iroquois crops and towns and took a great toll of Native Americans from battle, exposure, and starvation.

American soldiers were known to have skinned dead Native Americans from the hips down to make leggings. (Frederick Cook, ed., Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan Against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779 [Auburn, N.Y., 1887], pp. 8, 244)

Zebulon Potts (1746-1801), a Revolutionary War veteran, was a Pennsylvania State Senator.

Specimen Type:

Skins

Peale's Scientific Name:

Homo sapiens Americanus, Lin.

Current Scientific Name

Homo sapiens