Clark Memorial mural #2

The mural, "CAHOKIA: PEACE OR WAR WITH THE INDIANS", represents Clark offering to the Indian tribes of the then Northwest, two belts; red for war and white for peace. The war of the American Revolution had begun and the thirteen colonies on the Atlantic seaboard had declared their independence. The English plan of war combined campaigns along the coast with raids, chiefly from Detroit, by English partisans and Indians against the whole frontier. It seemed that the latter movement would exterminate the settlers in the "Great Valley," or drive them back east of the mountains.

George Rogers Clark conceived the desperate, but brilliant plan of a far-reaching, offensive expedition for the occupation of the posts held by the English north of the Ohio River. After overcoming the most disheartening difficulties and disappointments, he had led a force of less than two hundred Virginians and Kentuckians from Corn Island (Louisville) to the posts on the east side of the Mississippi below St. Louis. He took them entirely by surprise and without resistance occupied Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher, and Cahokia.

At this time the only settlers in the Old Northwest were the French. England had won this region only recently, in the French and Indian War and by the Treaty of Paris. Before the outbreak of the Revolution it had been part of the Province of Quebec. In 1778 France had entered into and alliance with the United States and the French on the Mississippi and Wabash, apprised by Clark of this alliance, gladly changed their allegiance to "Virginia and the Continental Congress."

The Indians of this region, however, far outnumbered all the French settlers; the English and Clark's force put together. If, in 1778, as Clark reached Kaskaskia and Cahokia, they had combined against him, his little force would have been quickly destroyed. With bravado and apparent unconcern about the choice the Indians might make, Clark told them about the war between the United States and England, stated with apparent assurance that the Americans, the "Big Knives," were going to drive the English out, and told the Indians to decide whether they would fight the Americans or remain neutral.

His demeanor, his firmness, and his personal force decide the issue, which, had it reached the decision of arms would have been fatal. The Indians chose the white belt. During the rest of the war, while many of the Indians joined the English in raids upon the frontier, all of them held Clark in such awe that his presence and even his name was worth an army of occupation. His dealings with the French and with the Indians marked him as one of the great statesmen of the Revolutionary period.

Ezra Winter, Artist