George Bluejacket

George Blue Jacket, son of George Blue Jacket and Spouse Unknown, was born about 1802, probably in Blue Jacket’s Town in southeast Michigan Terr. and married (519) Mary Blackhoof. George died Nov 1867 in Johnson Co. Kansas. George Blue Jacket's Indian name was Na-wah-tah-thu.

George wrote "An Indian's Own Story" in 1829 in Wapaughkonnetta, Ohio. In that manuscript he stated: "I was born two winters after the Gim-o-wane Al-ag-wa at our Peq-uaw town on Big Miami Se-pe (river)." The event was the "rain of stars" and the place was Piqua and the two do not fit together. The date is well documented. The magnificent Leonid Meteor Shower was observed on November 12, 1799 by botanists Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt of Germany and Goujaud Aimé J. A. Bonpland in Cumana, South America and Andrew Ellicott, who was aboard ship at the edge of the Gulf Stream off Florida. The periodicity of the Leonids is such that every 33 years are those times when "stars rain" in November. Upwards of 100,000 meteors per hour can be seen for a short time every 33 years, excepting some when the elliptical orbit just misses the Earth’s atmosphere. This phenomena has been traced back as far as 902 AD. As a result, George’s birth can be either 1802 or 1803.

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In 1802-03, George’s family was farming among the Wyandots on the south bank of the Huron River in southeast Michigan Terr. His next sentence reads: "My father was Head-Chief then at that town" (Pea-quaw). In his manuscript, George did not distinguish the use of "father". He called his father "father" and his grandfather, Blue Jacket, "father". He called the Piqua Agency agent, John Johnson, his "White Father." George Blue Jacket, son of Blue Jacket, was not a Head-Chief, but Chief Blue Jacket was the leader of Blue Jacket’s Town just north of the Huron River, near Brownstown when his grandson was born. Blue Jacket died in about 1808, before the Huron area Shawnees moved back to northwest Ohio.

The 1857(c) Roll shows him as 42 years old (2 years older than Charles who was born in 1816). Did he know more in 1857 about his early life? Did he remember less? Or, did the scribe enter 42 rather than 55 for whatever reason? What a difference 1857 minus 1829 brings. George is referred to in Henry Harvey's "History of the Shawnee Indians", date of publication 1854. It says he is the brother of Charles. (mw) George was a signer of the Treaty of 1854