She was born on March 4, 1773 in Warwick, Rhode Island, United States, the descendant of Anthony Slocum who was one of the early settlers at Taunton, Massachussets, in 1637, and became the ancestor of Samuel, Henry Warner Slocum and Margaret Olivia (Slocum) Sage. Frances Slocum was one of ten children born to Jonathan and Ruth (Tripp) Slocum. In 1777 the Slocums with their seven children removed to the upper Susquehanna frontier near Wyoming.
Career
Disregarding the warning of the Wyoming massacre in July 1778, the Slocums fell victims to an attack by Delaware on November 2, when, in the absence of the adult males, Frances was captured. She was adopted by a Delaware family to take the place of a dead daughter, Weletawash, whose name Frances was given. Her home changed with the fortunes of the Delaware, and she accompanied her family from the Sandusky, to Niagara, to Detroit, and finally at the close of the Revolution to the Maumee on the site of what became Fort Wayne.
She spent the rest of her life at her husband Deaf Man's Village on the Wabash near what is now Peru, Indiana, to which she and her husband moved about the year 1810. The country of the defeated Miami nation was gradually surrounded by white settlements, and by the treaty of St. Mary's in 1818 the tribe was confined to a reservation on the Wabash; and she and her family shared in the annuities paid by the United States to her adopted nation.
In 1835 a chance traveler found her living among the Miami, communicated with the postmaster at Lancaster, Pa. , and established her identity. When visited by her white relatives in 1837, she and her family were not dependent upon the hunt and the chase but lived the agricultural life. They had over fifty horses, one hundred dogs, seventeen head of cattle, and many geese and chickens. She preferred, with the permission of the United States government, to remain with her family on the Wabash, when the tribe was removed to the west in accordance with the treaty of 1840. She would not, however, return to her relatives on the Susquehanna.
She died among her Indian children and grandchildren.
Achievements
Personality
She knew no English and spoke the Miami tongue and adhered to the Miami ways of life. Mentally alert, she was an able administrator of her home establishment both before and after her husband's death. Although short of stature, she was exceedingly sturdy, a fact symbolized by her Miami name, Maconaquah, which means "little bear. "
Connections
At Fort Wayne she married a Delaware named Little Turtle. When he went west after the defeat of Wayne, she remained behind. She then married a Miami named Shepancanah, or Deaf Man, by whom she had four children.