Frances Slocum

Frances Slocum (March 4, 1773 – March 9, 1847) (Ma-con-na-quah, "Young Bear" or "Little Bear") was an adopted member of the Miami people. Slocum was born into a Quaker family that migrated from Warwick, Rhode Island, in 1777 to the Wyoming Valley in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. On November 2, 1778, when Slocum was five years old, she was captured by three Delaware warriors at the Slocum family farm in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Slocum was raised among the Delaware in what is now Ohio and Indiana. With her marriage to Shepoconah (Deaf Man), who later became a Miami chief, Slocum joined the Miami and took the name Maconaquah. She settled with her Miami family at Deaf Man's village along the Mississinewa River near Peru, Indiana.

In 1835 Slocum revealed to a visitor that she was a white woman who had been captured as a child, and two years later, in September 1837, three of Slocum's siblings came to see her. They confirmed that she was their sister, but Slocum chose to stay with her Miami family in Indiana. Slocum fully assimilated into the Native American culture and was accepted as one of its members. On March 3, 1845, the United States Congress passed the joint resolution that exempted Slocum and twenty-one of her Miami relatives from removal to Kansas Territory. Her Miami relations in Indiana were among the 148 individuals who formed the nucleus of the present-day Miami Nation of Indiana. She is buried at Slocum Cemetery in Wabash County, Indiana. Tributes named in her honor include Indiana's Frances Slocum Trail; the Frances Slocum State Recreation Area on the banks of the Mississinewa Lake near Peru, Indiana; Maconaquah High School in Indiana; Frances Slocum Elementary School in Marion, Indiana; Frances Slocum Elementary School, Fort Wayne Indiana; and Frances Slocum State Park in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania and Mocanaqua, Pennsylvania.

Frances Slocum was one of ten children born to Jonathan and Ruth (Tripp) Slocum. The exact date of Frances's birth is uncertain, but it is believed to have been March 4, 1773. The Slocum family, who were Quakers and pacifists, emigrated from Warwick, Rhode Island, to the Wyoming Valley in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, in 1777.

Soon after their arrival, violence erupted in eastern Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River valley. Although the Slocum family remained in the settlement, many others fled during the Battle of Wyoming in July 1778, when British forces and Seneca warriors destroyed Forty Fort near Wilkes-Barre, killing more than three hundred American settlers. The Slocum family survived the battle, and felt their Quaker beliefs and friendly relations with the natives would protect them. However, on November 2, 1778, while Jonathan was away, three Delaware warriors attacked the Slocum family farm near Wilkes-Barre. Ruth and all but two of her children escaped into the nearby woods, but the Delaware captured five-year-old Frances, her disabled brother, Ebenezer, and Wareham Kingsley, a young boy whose family was living with the Slocums. Ebenezer was released at the farm, but Frances and the Kingsley boy were taken captive. Slocum never saw her parents again. Natives killed her father and grandfather on December 16, 1778. Slocum's mother, who died on May 6, 1807, never gave up hope that her daughter would be found.

The Delaware gave Slocum to a childless Delaware chief and his wife. They named her Weletasash, after their youngest daughter who had died, and raised her as their own. Not much is known about Slocum's early life among the Delaware. She later recalled that they migrated west through Niagara Falls and Detroit, before settling near Kekionga (the site of present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana).

Slocum was briefly married to a Delaware sometime around 1791 or 1792. The tradition among the Miami is that he did not treat her well, and due to domestic violence, she returned to her Delaware parents. Her first husband is said to have migrated west with the Delaware tribe.

Slocum's second marriage, sometime after 1794, was to She-pan-can-ah, known as Deaf Man to the white men because of his deafness. She-pan-can-ah was a Miami warrior who later became a Miami chief. She first encountered him while traveling through the forest, finding him badly-wounded. With the assistance of her Delaware parents, she brought him to their village, where he stayed at their home and regained his health. Frances eventually married him. The couple had four children: two sons, who died at a young age, and two daughters, Kekenakushwa (Cut Finger) and Ozahshinquah (Yellow Leaf), who both survived to adulthood. When Frances joined the Miami she took the name Maconaquah (Little Bear).

Sometime after the War of 1812 the Miami tribe, which included She-pan-can-ah and Maconaquah (Slocum), moved to the Mississinewa River valley in north central Indiana. Little more is known about Slocum's life among the natives. Most of the available information focuses on her later years after she was reunited with her white relatives near Peru, Indiana, in 1837.