3-31-2026 12:40pm

Part 6 - Yellow Hawk Swoops In - Reverend David Jones 2 Visits

February 1, 1773 – February 5, 1773 A JOURNAL OF TWO VISITS MADE TO SOME NATIONS OF INDIANS

In early February of 1773, Reverend David Jones is in the Shawnee town of Chillicothe, where a single conversation would quietly settle the course of his visit.

A man called Othaawaapeelethee—Yellow Hawk—arrived with others to meet him, at the house of gunsmith and trader Moses Henry (more about Moses Henry below). With them stood John Gibson, a trader and interpreter long acquainted with the Shawnee. After brief formalities, Yellow Hawk asked directly what business had brought Jones among them.

Jones answered plainly. Jones had come to speak of God and to share what Jones believed had been revealed for all people. Jones’s appeal followed a clear line of reasoning: if truth had once been given, that truth applied equally, and it was an act of kindness to guide another back to the right path. Jones framed the point simply

— “Brother, you have missed your way”—

and offered to stop if the words proved unworthy. The argument was careful and measured, built on logic, analogy, and restraint.

Yellow Hawk’s reply followed a different course. He explained that when God first made all people, different ways of living were given—one for white men and another for Indians. Yellow Hawk stated that Shawnee people had long lived according to their own way and remained content to continue in it. From Yellow Hawk’s perspective, there was no need to hear more and no benefit in testing what had already been settled.

Yellow Hawk’s position reflected more than theology. In the years surrounding this exchange, pressure on Shawnee lands and communities was steadily increasing. Yellow Hawk had also seen nearby mission towns, including Moravian settlements, where conversion was often accompanied by changes in settlement patterns, daily routines, and long-held customs. What Jones presented as spiritual instruction, Yellow Hawk understood as carrying wider consequences, reaching into daily life and gradually shaping custom and identity.

Jones, in the role of a missionary, drew a distinction between belief and practice, emphasizing that the message concerned eternal matters rather than outward habits. Yet the divide remained clear. Jones spoke of a single universal truth, while Yellow Hawk upheld continuity, defending a way of life that sustained Shawnee people and family.

When Jones urged Yellow Hawk to hear first and judge after, the answer came back steady: it signified nothing to make trial. The matter, in Yellow Hawk’s mind, was already settled.

With that, the exchange ended - not in argument, but in refusal. Jones ceased pressing the matter and prepared to depart. Though he first considered continuing on to the Wyandots, he soon judged it not expedient and altered his course, even as the larger tensions of the frontier remained unresolved.

To read more about Moses Henry - check out Dr. Gordon's article in -

The Jacobsburg Record - Volume 35, Number 1 March 2008 starting on page 6.

Link will open pdf file - https://www.jacobsburghistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/March-2008-.pdf