Notes:Shingiss Street

To do

• Source:Delaney says, "Shingiss, Uptown, is named for an Indian whose treachery led the colony of Pennsylvania to offer a $1,000 reward for his scalp."
• Source:Fleming-history@125–126: "Pursuing the Watson narrative further, there is corroborative testimony as follows: ¶ '. . . But when war began between England and France in 1754, and Washington and Braddock were successively defeated, there can be no doubt that aggressions upon Indian rights by force and fraud and, in general, the extension of the settlements by the whites, became popular subjects of inquiry and explanation at their great council fires. Even the history of the running walk might then be patiently listened to, and it is said that leave was given by the Six Nations to their cousins the Delawares and Shawanees, to strike the white people off the lands they had been wronged out of. They therefore fell upon the back inhabitants of Northampton county in all the inhuman and cruel manner of Indian warfare, these terrible depredations continuing for eighteen months, and strange as it may appear to many in retrospect, notwithstanding the evident cause of the war, a reward of one hundred pounds was offered by the governor in the public papers for the head of Captain Jacobs, and fifty pounds for the head of Captain Shingask, two Indian warriors.[12]' ¶ [12] See 'Register of Pennsylvania,' Hazard; Vol. V, p. 211. ¶ A just vengeance was wreaked on Captain Jacobs, for he was killed in the attack on Kittanning by Armstrong in 1756. Shingask is better known in our history as Shingiss, as his name has been commemorated in a Pittsburgh street. Heckewelder, who knew him, says that Shingask was his proper name in the Lenape language. He says also that Shingiss was a complete savage, 'small in stature, but in point of courage and activity and savage prowess, he was said never to be excelled by any one, and were his war exploits all on record, they would form an interesting though shocking one.[18] ¶ [18] 'Narrative, etc.,' John Heckewelder; p. 64; quoted by Craig, 'History of Pittsburgh, (Ed. 1917); p. 8. ¶ Washington met Shingiss on the Ohio while on his mission in 1753, and in his journal calls him King Shingiss. Hanna says he was one of three brothers—the Beaver, or King Beaver; and Pisquetomen, Post's companion, the other. Croghan in his journal refers to Shingiss frequently as 'Shingass.' Post dined with Shingiss at Saukunk, and traveled with him when Post was on his first mission to the Ohio in 1758. Shingiss said he knew the English had set a great price on his head, though he had never thought to revenge himself; he had always been kind to any prisoners that were brought in, and he assured the governor that he would do all in his power to bring about an established peace, and wished he could be certain of the English being in earnest. Shingiss protected Post from some drunken Indians, and his care of Post saved Post when in great peril, and by so doing made successful Post's task of withholding the Delawares from going over completely to the French. However, all the story of Post and his mission pertains most particularly to the capture of Fort Duquesne and the founding of Pittsburgh in November, 1758, and will find place in the account of Gen. Forbes' operations of that time, in proper order of sequence of events. The other Delaware chiefs who belong to the Colonial and Revolutionary periods of our history will receive mention as their deeds and associations may demand.[14] ¶ [14] Consult Post's Journals under date August 28, 1758: 'We set out from Saucunk in company with twenty for Kushcushkee. On the road Shingas addressed himself to me and asked if I did not think that if he came to the English they would have him, as they had offered a great reward for his head. He spoke in a very soft and easy manner. I told him that was a great while ago and wiped clean away; that the English would receive him very kindly.' ¶ Post was diplomatic to great degree. He had a delicate mission to perform, and a crisis to avert. He sought, as will be shown, to restrain the Delawares and Shawanese [sic] from further alliance with the French and to keep them at least neutral. He could not have safely told Shingiss otherwise."
• Source:Fleming-history@148–149: "Names that once caused terror have been perpetuated in our city. Notable instances are Shingiss, Chartiers, Pontiac and Osceola, the latter without local significance and wholly from the standpoint of euphony. The name charms from its richness of vowel sounds. Pontiac and Shingiss made bloody history here. The admiration that attaches to these names simply as names is not an admiration to be commended. ¶ In the list of street names, instances of individual commemoration may be cited in Aliquippa, Hiawatha, Kilbuck, Osceola, Pontiac, Shingiss and Tecumseh—of these, three only, concerned in our local history. Nations and tribes are called to mind in Catawba, Cherokee, Chippewa, Comanche, Dakota, Delaware, Erie, Huron, Iroquois, Miami, Mingo, Mohawk, Modoc, Oneida, Natchez, Ottawa, Pawnee, Seneca, Sioux, Shawnee, Susquehanna, Tuscarora, Winnebago and Wyandot; localities are brought in view by Itasca, Iowa, Juniata, Kanawha, Kearsarge, Kenesaw, Lehigh, Niagara, Ontario, Ossipee, Penobscot, Pocussett, Sandusky, Sciota, Shamokin, Wichita, and Wyoming; other Indian terms in our streets are Sachem, Tomahawk and Wampum. ¶ Undoubtedly some of these names, especially the geographical ones, have been applied through fancy. It is the old story of the rose and its perfume. Among these are some names that are distinctively family; others both family and tribal; of these latter Dakota and Sioux, Natchez, Huron, Cherokee. In the application of the names to the various streets contiguity of location has never been considered; Natchez street, for instance, is on Mt. Washington; Cherokee street on Herron Hill; Oneida street on Duquesne Heights, and Seneca in the Soho district, several miles away from Oneida. Natchez street's name, however, came from the Mississippi town, once a famous place and well known to Pittsburgh steamboatmen."