ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPA1GN PRODUCTION NOTE University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Brittle Books Project, 2014.COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION In Public Domain. Published prior to 1923. This digital copy was made from the printed version held by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was made in compliance with copyright law. Prepared for the Brittle Books Project, Main Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by Northern Micrographics Brookhaven Bindery La Crosse, Wisconsin 2014<3>T7 (H2_4- f o n t iie ABORIGINES OF THE OHIO VALLEY Gentlemen of the Historical Society of Ohio : No opinion has been more generally entertained in every civil- ized community, than that which asserts the importance of the study of history, as a branch of education. And although there ar,e few, if any, who would controvert this proposition, it will scarcely be denied, that there is no study at this day, so much neglected. We everywhere meet with men possessed of much intelligence, great scientific attainments, high standing in those professions which require profound study and deep research, who have neglected to inform themselves, not only of the circum- stances which influenced the rise and progress, the decline and fall of the most celebrated nations of antiquity, but who are ex- trejriely deficient in the knowledge of the history of their own country. If we search for the causes which have produced this state of things, one, perhaps the most efficient, will be found in * This pamphlet discusses several important topics in the history of the native tribes of our continent, with spirit and ability. * * * We have no doubt, that they will be generally interested in learning the views of one, whose long official connexion with the Indian tribes, in peace and in war, and whose familiarity with the topography of the region in question, give to his opinions the authority of observation and experience, as far as they, are applicable to the matter in hapd. -It is a source of real satisfaction, and affords relief under the disgust with which a well-regulated mind contemplates the ferocity of our party contests, to find an individual, situated like the ^uthor of this essay, devoting a portion of his time and his pen to the calm consideration of a subject, whose interest is purely historical. There are cer* tainly but few individuals, whose life, from early youth, has been passed in the arduous active service of the field, and in maturer years amidst the labors and cares of high and responsible official station, who could sustain with more credit a discussion like that contained in the pages under review.—E. Everett, jn Arorth-American Reviezu, July, 1840. 70321(54 HARRISON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. the great increase of works of fiction, and the fascinating charac- ter -with which they have been clothed, by the great geniuses who have been employed upon them. It is the perusal of these which occupies the attention of the wealthy and fills the«leisure moments of the man of business. I am loathe to give another reason for this decline in the taste for historical reading, because.it indicates, also, a decline in patri otism. I allude to the inordinate desire for the accumulation of riches, which has so rapidly increased in our country, and which, if not arrested, will ere long effect a deplorable change in the character of our countrymen. This basest of" passions, this "meanest of amors," could not exhibit itself in a way to be more destructive of republican principles, than by exerting an influence "on .the xourse of education adopted for our youth. The effects Upon the moral condition of the nation would be like those which would be produced upon the verdant valley of our State, if some quality inimical to vegetable life, wrere to be imparted to the sources of the magnificent river by which it is adorned and fer- tilized. * It is in youth, and in early youth, that the seeds of that patri- otism must be sown, which is to continue to bloom through life. No one ever began to be a patriot in advanced age; that holy fire must be lighted up when the mind is best suited to receive, with enthusiasm, generous and disinterested impressions. If it is not«then "the ruling passion" of the bosom, it will never be at an age when every action is the result of cool calculation, and the basis of that calculation too often the interest of the individ- ual. This has been the prevailing opinion with e.very free people throughout every stage of civilization, from the roving savage tribe to the numerous and polished nation, from the barbarous Pelasgi to the glorious era, of Miltiades and Citnon, or the more refined and luxurious age of Pericles and Xenophon. By all, the same means'were adopted. With all, it was the custom to pres- ent to their youth the examples of the heroic achievements of their ancestors, to inspire them with the same ardor of devotion to the welfare of their country. As it regards the argument, it matters not whether the history was written or unwritten, whether in verse or prose, or how communicated; whether by national annals, to which all had access; by recitations in solemn assem- blies, as at the Olympic and other games of Greece ; in the songs of bards, as amongst the Celts' and Scandinavians; or in the speeches of the aged warriors, as was practised by the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanees, and other tribes of our own country. Much fiction was, no doubt, passed off on these pccasions asABORIGINES OF THE OHIO VALLEY. 5 real history; but, as it was believed to be true, that was sufficient to kindle the spirit of emulation in the cause of patriotism among those to whom these recitations, songs, and; speeches were ad- dressed. \ . In the remarks I have made, it is by no means my intention to deny the good effects which have been derived from some of the works of fiction, and that they have greatly assisted " To raise the genius, and to hef than it has ever been in any other,—has been in after times occupied by a poster- ity, certainly as little able to conceive or execute the works of Ictinus and Phidias, as the Wyandots or Miamis to contrust the mounds of the Muskin- gum orvScioto. And yet we must suppose that, for the last eighteen centu- ries, the civilized population of every part of Europe has been far less exposed to all the causes of degeneracy* than the aboriginal*population of this conti- nent, destitute as it was of the art of writing, the great preserver of all other arts. We behold the descendants of that very Mexican or Peruvian popula- tion, which is generally supposed to be the race by whom these works were originally constructed,* and who are known to have been competent, at the time of the conquest and for several preceding ages, to the erection of struct- ures, more permanant than any of which remains are found in the North- western States and Territories of our Union, reduced at the present day to a condition, in which they are equally incapable to plan or execute any such works;—a curious specimen of a native civilization not furthered and im- * proved, but crushed and destroyed, by a n^ore advanced supervening foreign civilization. xIn fact, the entire question as-to the original settlement of our continent seems destined to baffle the resources of human investigation. To say noth- ing of the inference fairly to be deduced from the Scriptures, that sound phi- losophy, which teaches us to prefer the simplest explanations of existing * Delafield's Inquiry, p. 16. . t Morton's Crania Americana, p. 260.ABORIGINES OF THfe OHIO VALLEY. *5 from the intimate connection which has subsisted between them and us, since the treaty of Greenville, .in 1795, it may -,be pre- sumed that we are as well acquainted with their history as we could be, when our reliance must be placed on their statements,, and traditions, or by comparing those with the few facts %which: could be collected from other sources. The tribes resident within the bounds of this State, when the phenomena, bids us look to an emigration from northeastern Asia, as the source of the population of this continent; and the most judicious writers are disposed, with Humboldt, to date that emigration from the fifth'or sixth cen- tury of our era; a period at which it is known* that the nations of north- eastern Asia were in extensive agitation and movement. But this solution of the great difficulty is met at the threshold by popular and pretty obvious objection, that although a lapse of twelve or thirteen centuries is by no means sufficient to destroy all affinity of language between races descended from the skme stock, we find no resemblance whatever, beyond that which may -be ascribed to casual coincidence, between , the vocabularly of any of the native languages of America and that of any of the languages of the elder continent Wherever in Europe or Asia we have the means of instituting the comparison, we find the tribes of men exceedingly tenacious of th.§ radical and substantial parts of a language. There is probably no instance in which a vocabulary has wholly disappeared, except where the race speaking it has been wholly destroyed. We shall, however, by no means escape this difficulty by assuming, with some of the. French philosophers of the last century and their disciples, a primitive plurality of the races of man. Apart from the objections to this assumption, which arise from the cosmogony'of the Scriptures, and other difficulties which might be stated, this very difficulty of language exists in an' unmitigated form. Ths dialects of the native tribes of North and South America are exceedingly numerous, but are probably capable of being reduced to.a small number of families. Of these families, however, Mr. Gallatin, in his masterly treatise on the Indian tribes of North America, has enumerated twenty-nine. Although, in the opinion of Mr. Du Ponceau, which is adopted by Mr. Gallati;i, there is a general poly synthetic structure, in all the American languages which have been examined, in which they resemble each other and differ from, the ancient and modern languages of the elder continent, there is yet a large number of families of languages On o\ir continent, which appear to be utterly destitute of resemblance with each other, as far as the vocabularly is concerned. This is even not unfrequently the case with tribes, who were found by the first settlers adjacent to each other. It is evident that-, on the theory above alluded to, of an original plurality of the races of human family, this difficulty would present itself in undiminished force; and thaf it is no more difficult, on the theory of a common origin, to conceive of an entire dissimilarity, between the languages respectively of the American and Asiatic continent, as produced by a non-intercourse and geographical separation of ten or twelve centuries, than to conceive of a like dissimilarity, between the different families of languages of the. American tribes,:which has disclosed itself on the examination of their vocabularies, as the effect of a similar cause. This difficulty, therefore, if deemed decisive against an Asiatic origin of the American races, would go the slength Of requiring an original creation for every family of languages \ a proposition too extravagant to be discussed. —E.- Everett, in N.-A\ Rev,< July, 1840.X6 HARRISON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE., first white settlement commenced, were the Wyandots, Miamis, Shawanees, Delaware^, a remnant of the Moheigans, (who had united themselves with the Delawares,) and a band of the Ottawas. There may also h^ve been, at this time, some bands from the Seneca and Tuscaroras tribes of the Iroquois or Six Nations, remaining in the northern part of the State. But whether resi- dent or not, the country for some distance west of the Penn- sylvania line, certainly belonged to them.. From this, their western boundary, (wherever it might be, but certainly east of the Scioto,) the claims of the Miamis and Wyandots commenced. The claims of the latter were very limited, and can not well be admitted to extend further south than the dividing ridge between the waters of the Scioto and Sandusky Rivers, nor further west than the Auglaise; whilst the Miamis and their kindred tribes' .are conceived to be the just proprietors of all the remaining part of the country northwest of the Ohio, and south of the southerly bend of Lake Michigan and the Illinois River. I am aware that this is not the commonly received opinion, and that a contrary one was promulgated more than eighty years ago, and sustained by the efforts of some of the most distinguished men of our country. A subject which has engaged the attention of our immortal Franklin, and into the discussion of which, we are told, *"the late DeWitt Clinton, of New York, entered with much ardor," will certainly not be deemed unworthy our attention on this occasion; even if it did not form a part of the history of the country which we,have embraced in our plan. The proposition against which I contend, asserts the-right, at the period of \vhich I am speaking, oj^ all the country watered by the Ohio, to the Iroquois, or Six Nations, in consideration of their having con- quered the tribes which originally possessed it. This confederacy, it is said, possessed "at once the ambition of the Romans for con- quest, and their martial talents for securing it." Like that celebrated ancient people, too, they manifested,' in the hour of victory, "a moderation equal to the valor which they displayed in it;" the conquered nations being always spared,, &nd either incorporated in,their confederacy, or subjected to so small a tribute as to amount merely to an acknowledgment of the supremacy of their conquerors. That under the guidance of this spirit, and this policy, they had extended their conquest westward to the Missis- sippi; and south to the Carolinas, and the confines of Georgia, a space embracing more than half o/ the whole territory of the Union, before the acquisition of Louisiana and Florida. I have npthing to do, at this time, with the conquests in other directions, but I shall endeavor to prove that their alleged subjug^ticp ofABORIGINES OF THE OHIO VALLEY. 17 the northwestern tribes, rests upon no competent authority; and that the favored region which we now call our own, as well as that possessed by our immediate contiguous western sisters, has been for many centuries as it now is, "The larid. of the free and the home of the brave." I neither deny the martial spirit of the Iroquois, nor the mag- nanimity of their policy to some of the tribes whom they subdued; both are well established. But I contend, that whilst they had a fair field for the exercise of all that they possessed of the former, in a \far with an ancient tribe of Ohio, they had no opportunity for the display of the latter, from the indomitable valor of the comparatively small nation which had dared to oppose itself to the extension of their power. That a portion of the country was subdued, both parties admit; as they do, also, that if the termi- nation of this war enabled the Iroquois somewhat to extend the limits of their empire, they found it a desert, without a warrior to adopt into their nation, or a female to exhibit in their triumphant returns to their villages. I will now proceed to state grounds upon which rest the claims of the Iroquois, to be considered the conquerors of the country to the Mississippi, and between the Ohio and the lakes. The history of the Iroquois, of Six Nations, was written by Cadwallader Colden, Esq., of New York, who was a member of the king's council, and surveyor-general of the province, twenty- five or thirty years before the revolutionary war. I have never seen this work, and shall be obliged to use the account of its con- tents, as far as relates to the claims of conquests made by the Iroquois, given by Mann Butler, in his recent history of Kentucky. According to the authorities quoted by this gentleman, the posi- tion occupied by the Iroquois, when the French settlement was made in Canada, was "on the banks of the St/ Lawrence, above Quebec, and that from thence they extended their conquests on both sides of the Lakes Ontario, Erie, and Huron. In this career of conquest, with a magnanimity and sagacious spirit, worthy of the ancient Romans, and superior to all their contemporary tribes, they successively incorporated the victims of their arms with their own confederacy." He goes 011 to say, condensing the account given in a work printed by Dodsley, in 1755, entitled "Present State of North America," as follows:—"In 1673, these tribes are represented as having conquered the Ollinois, or Illinois, residing on the Illinois River, and they are, likewise, at the same time said to have conquered and incorporated the Satanas, Chawanons or Shawanons, whom they had formerly. driven from the lakes. 218 HARRISON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. To these conquests they are said, by the same high authority, to* have added the Twightwas, (Tewietewes), as they are called in the journal of Major Washington. About the same time, they carried their victorious arms to the Illinois and Mississippi west- ward; and to Georgia, southward. About the year 1711, they incorporated the Tuscaroras, when driven from Carolina." "The tribe in question," says Governor Pownal in his administration of the British colonies, "about the year 1664, carried their arms as far south as Carolina, and as far west as the Mississippi, over a vast country which extended twelve hundred miles in length, and about six hundred in breadth, when they destroyed whole nations, of whom there are no accounts remaining among the British. The rights of these tribes to the hunting lands of Ohio, meaning the river of that name, may be fairly proved by the conquest they made in subduing the Shawonoes, Delawares, Tiwictewees, and Ollinois, as th£y stood possessed therof at the peace of Ryswick, in 1697." In support of these pretensions, he further quotes a paper from the pen of Dr. Franklin, who, upon the authority of Lewis Evans, a gentleman who was said by the Doctor to be possessed of great American knowledge, asserting that "the Shawonoes, who were formerly one of the most cotisid- able nations of these parts of America; whose seat extended from Kentucky southwestward to the Mississippi, have been subdued by the confederate, or Six Nations, and the country since became their property." But it seems that, notwithstanding the bold assertions of the above-named authors, it became necessary, at a council held in the year 1744, to apply to the Six Nations them- selves, to know the extent of their claims. That it was favorable enough, may be reasonably supposed. Their particular answer will be quoted below. At another treaty with the Six Nations, held at Fort Stanwix, in New York, in 1768, the Indians were again called upon to state the extent of their claims upon the Ohio. This they are said to have done in the following words, addressed to their agent, Sir William Johnson:—"You, who know all our affairs, must be sensible that our rights go much further south than the Kenhawa, and that we have a very good and clear title, as far south as the Cherokee River, which we can not allow to be the right of any other Indians, without doing wrong to our posterity, and acting unworthy of those warriors who fought and conquered it." Upon the strength of this declara- tion, the title of the Iroquois to the valley of the Ohio was pur- chased for 10,476 13s. 6d. sterling, for the crown. * * The French authorities now accessible to us make it quite certain thatABORIGINES OF THE OHIO VALLEY. 19 It will at once be perceived, that the mass of testimony in favor of the extensive conquests of the Iroquois, rests upon their own assertions. A fair offset to them will be found in the account which the northwestern Indians have given of their own history. But before I have recourse to this, I will endeavor to clear the way by examining the only two authorities which have been adduced in support of the pretensions of the Iroquois. The first and most important is to be found in Colden's History of the Six Nations. That author, upon the authority, he says, of certain ancient French authors, declares, that in 1672, the Iroquois had conquered the Ollinois, or Illinois, the Chowetans, or Shawanees, whom they had formally driven from the lakes, and in 1685, thir- teen years after, the Tiwictewees, or Miamis. Mr. Butler, in the introduction to his history, gives an account of the early voyages, of discovery, to the west of Lake Michigan, made under the governor of Canada. The first of these was made by Father Marquette. His principal object was to find the great river of the west, of which they had often heard, but by accounts so uncertain, that it was a matter of dispute, whether it poured its mighty mass of water into the Gulf of California, that of Mexico, or into the Atlantic Ocean, on the coast of Virginia. This father pro- ceeded with a party, in two canoes, in the year 1673, to the west side of Lake Michigan; and coasting it southwardly to the Bay des Puans, (Green Bay,) ascended to the Fox River the Portage, communicating with the Wisconsin, and down the latter to the Mississippi. Pursuing their voyage on that river as low down as the Arkansas, whence they returned up the river, and, by a fort- unate circumstance, under the guidance of some of the natives, entered the Illinois River; (of the existence of which they had no previous knowledge,) and ascending it, reached the southerly bend of Lake Michigan, and returned to Green Bay by a better and shorter route. It was on this voyage that the French of Canada appear to have first heard of the Illinois River or the Illinois Indians. And yet it is asserted, that previously to this year, their near neighbors, with whom they had an intimate and the Iroquois conquered the Illinois as early as 1680; and probably made incursions into the territory inhabited by the latter prior to that date. La- Salle, in that year, found the Indians between Lakes Michigan and Erie, living in daily dread of the fierce Iroquois, who evidently had already visited that region. And Tonty, in September, 1680, was among the Illinois when an Iroquois army utterly defeated them, and ravaged all their settlements along the Illinois River, even to the Mississippi. See authorities cited in Parkman's LaSalle. Chaps, xiv, xv, and xvi.—Edw. G. Mason.20 HARRISON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. every-day intercourse, had penetrated to the great river, to search for which, was the principal object of the voyage, and upon its banks had subdued a powerful nation; which, from information I received from a credible eye-witness many years afterward, were estimated to possess four thousand warriors. There were two other routes than that taken by Marquette, by which the Iroquois might have reached the Illinois. By descending the Alleghany River, which flowed through their own country, and then by the Ohio to the Mississippi. But one more direct and easier was fur- nished by the ascent of the Miami of the Lake, and the descent of the Wabash to the mouth of Tippecanoe, the head navigation of which is not very distant either from Lake Michigan or the Illinois River. If any expedition of this kind had taken place, it must have been known to the French of Canada, and that route would have been taken by Father Marquette, rather than the comparatively difficult and circuitous one of Lake Michigan, the Fox and Ouisconsin Rivers, The above account of the conquests of the Iroquois, fixes that of the Tiwictewees, a tribe of the Miamis, in the year 1685; that is, thirteen years after the con- quest of the Illinois tribes of the same nation. This story would have been more credible if the periods of these conquests had been reversed, and that of the Tiwictewees, assigned to the earlier era, as it is well known that that tribe of the Miamis was always the most easterly of their nation, and hence they must have been put out of the way before their brothers of the Illinois could be struck.* In the above quotation, the conquest of the Shawanoes is said to have happened simultaneously with that of the Tiwicte- wees. But there is nothing said of their location at that period. From the construction of the sentence in the narrative, it seems to be intended to convey the idea that it was upon the same expedition that it was effected, and that the tribes were contigu- ous or rather upon the same line of operation, (one of them being first conquered, and then the other.) And such was pre- cisely the fact as to the position of these tribes at another period —but that period was one hundred years after that which is given by the supposed French writer. The other authority to which I referred, as sustaining the Iroquois pretensions, is the admission made by the Cherokees, who attended the treaty of Stanwix, in 1766. These chiefs are represented to have laid some skins at * The Iroquois did not find it necessary to put the Miamis out of the way before they attacked the Illinois, because with masterly diplomacy they per- suaded the Miamis to join in their invasion of the territory of the Illinois. See Parkman's LaSalle, chap, xvi, page 205.—Edw. G. Mason.ABORIGINES OF THE OHIO VALLEY. 21 the feet of the head men of the Iroquois, saying, "that they were theirs, as they had killed the animals from which they were taken, on this side of the big river " This "big river," the author who records the anecdote, (Judge Haywood, in his History of Ten- nessee,) asserts to be the Tennessee, "as that was the way in which the Cherokees were accustomed to designate it." Now, if all the statements here made be true, and I doubt not that they are, so far from admitting the inference to be correct, I think the very reverse would be the construction put upon what they said, by every person who is acquainted with the method of speaking peculiar to the Indians. It was a remarkable peculiarity of these people, before their manners and mode of expression were some- what modified by their intercourse with the whites, that they were always averse to refer to either men or things by their appropriate names, even if they were acquainted with them. They preferred to describe a man, or a river, or a town, by some quality or remark- able feature, rather than designate the object by a name. When alluding to one of their own nation, in his presence, they would say, instead of his name, "that man with a pipe in his mouth,"— "that man with a lame leg," etc., etc. If a hunter, encamped upon a branch of the Scioto, had killed a deer upon that river, he would say, upon being asked, that he had killed it upon the "big river." And the same phrase would be used if the question was asked on the Scioto, near to its mouth, if the deer had been killed on the banks of the Ohio. When, therefore, a big river was referred to, for the purpose of marking the spot where any particular event occurred, it must be always understood to mean the largest river near to them. Having crossed the Ohio on their route to Fort Stanwix, they never could have intended to refer to the Tennessee as the "big river," when they must have well known that it was a tributary to the former. I will now proceed, gentlemen, to give you a condensed account of the information I received, in the course of a long intercourse with the northwestern tribes, commencing at the treaty of Greenville, in 1795, and which constitutes one of the grounds upon which I restrict the conquest of the Iroquois in the valley of the Ohio, to a line, at any rate, east of the Scioto. No better opportunity could be afforded than that which I possessed, to obtain correct information in relation to the ancient history, and the territorial claims of the several tribes and nations, because it was derived from discussions in councils, where conflicting par- ties were represented, and encouragement given to elicit a full exposure of all the facts and circumstances which could have any influence in support of their respective pretensions. I will add,22 HARRISON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. too, that there was no motive that could influence an agent of the Government to countenance the unjust pretensions of any tribe, and reject those which were better founded. All of them had placed themselves under the exclusive protection of the United States, and all had bound themselves to make no sale of any part of their lands to any other civilized power. Rejecting, then, the accounts which have been given by the pens of a few individuals, (more intent upon exalting the fame of a particular nation, than upon giving a true history,) who assert the early conquest of the half-civilized nation which once inhab- ited Ohio, by the united efforts of the Leni Lenapes, or Dela- :wares, and Mingwe or Iroquois, on their passage from the north- west part of our continent, to the shores of the Atlantic; I com- mence my narrative at the time when the position of all the great tribes or nations which have ever advanced any claim to the fair and fertile country between the lakes, the Ohio, and Mississippi, was as follows:—The chronology I can not precisely fix, but it was at a period, centuries after the possession of the country by the authors of the ancient works which we have mentioned, or those who conquered them, as the then possessors had not the least knowledge or tradition relative to the one or the other. There are circumstances, however, which induce me to fix the time some- what about the middle of the seventeenth century. At that time, then, the Mingwe, or far-famed Iroquois, remained in their origi- nal seats, compressed between the inhospitable region of Labrador and the great Lenape (or, as we call them, Delaware) nation, which confined them on the south. Westwardly, they had made some conquest, and with the sagacity, which has caused them to be compared to the conquerors of the world; in the commence- ment of their progress, they adopted the conquered tribes into their confederacy. I am ignorant of the northern boundary of the Lenapes at this period. It is probable that it had been con- siderably pressed in by the Iroquois. They still, however, pos- sessed the greater part of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl- vania. Ascending the lakes and leaving the Iroquois territory, the Wyandots or Hurons, presented themselves. A large portion of this nation were, at that time, north of Lake Erie; but the greater part occupied the country from the Miami Bay eastwardly, along what is now denominated the Western Reserve, and extending across the country southwardly, to the Ohio. Westward of this territory commenced that of the Miami Nation, or rather confed- eracy, possessing a larger number of warriors, at that period, than could be furnished by any of the aboriginal nations of North%'h ABORIGINES OF THE OHIO VALLEY. 0 America, before or since. Their territory embraced all of Ohio, west of the Scioto,—all of Indiana, and that part of Illinois, south of the Fox River and Wisconsin, on which frontier they were intermingled with the Kickapoos and some other small tribes. Of this immense territory, the most beautiful portion was unoccu- pied. Numerous villages were to be found on the Scioto and the head waters of the two Miamis, of the Ohio. On the Miami of the Lake, and its southern tributaries, and throughout the whole course of the Wabash, at least as low as Chippecoke, (the town of Brush Wood,) now Vincennes. But the beautiful Ohio rolled its "amber tide" until it paid its tribute to the Father of Waters, through an unbroken solitude. At that time, before, and for a century after, its banks wrere without a town or village, or even a single cottage, the curling smoke of whose chimney would give the promise of comfort and refreshment to a weary traveler. If such an appearance should have presented itself to one who was awrare of his situation, it would have been the signal of flight, well knowing that it must proceed from some sequestered dell, and that the fire from which it proceeded had been lighted by a party of warriors, who, having interposed the river between them- selves and those who might have commenced a pursuit on the line of their retreat, might 'consider themselves safe in indulging in the luxury of a cooked meal, and a dry couch, after a laborious and protracted march, in which privations of every description, consistent with their success and safety, were enjoined by the rigid rules of their discipline. No traveler, acquainted with the Indian character, would seek the hospitalities of such a fire-side. Whatever might have been the result of their expedition, the interview would prove fatal to him. If it had been successful, the appetite for blood would be inflamed, rather than satisfied, and if otherwise, the scalp of an unfortunate stranger might be substituted for the similar trophy which their bad fortune or bad management had not permitted them to tear from the head of their acknowledged enemy. We left the Mingwe, or Iroquois, strengthened by the incorpora- tion, into their confederacy, of some conquered tribes, but not yet able to burst through the impediments which opposed their progress to the west and south. Their success, however, in the latter direction, was soon equal to their utmost hopes. We pos- sess none of the details of the war waged with the Lenapes, but we know that it resulted in the entire submission of the latter, and that to prevent any further interruption from them in their ex- tensive schemes o conquest, they adopted a plan to humble and degrade them, as novel as it was effectual. To those who are24 HARRISON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. acquainted with the general character of the American Indian and to those particularly who know the conduct of the Delawares,., when under the command of the renowned Bocanghelas, in their wars against the United States, and that of the gallant Nicoming^ who commanded a band of forty of his countrymen in our service in the war of 1813, it will seem almost impossible that the fact which I am about to relate, can be supported upon good author- ity. But the best authority can be adduced in support of it, since it is acknowledged by all the parties who were concerned in it. Singular as it may seem, then, it is nevertheless true, that the Lenapes, upon the dictation of the Iroquois, agreed to lay aside- the character of warriors, and to assume that of women. This, fact is undisputed, but nothing can be more different than the account which is given of the manner in which it was brought about, and the motives for adopting it, on the part of the Lenapes. The latter assert that they were cajoled into it by the artifices of the Iroquois, who descanted largely upon the honor which was to be acquired by their assuming the part of peace-makers between belligerent tribes, and which could never be so effectual as when done in the character of the sex which never make war. The Lenapes consented, and agreed that their chiefs and warriors from thenceforth should be considered as women. The version of this transaction, as given by the Iroquois, is, that they de- manded, and the Lenapes were made to yield to this humiliating concession, as the only means of averting impending destruction. The Rev. Mr. Heckwelder, in a communication to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, labored, with more zeal than success, to establish the Delaware account. But even if he had succeeded in making his readers believe that the Delawares, when they sub- mitted to the degradation proposed to them by their enemies, were influenced, not by fear, but by the benevolent desire to put a stop to the calamities of war, he has established for them the reputation of being the most egregious dupes and fools that the* world has ever seen. This is not often the case with Indian sachexns. They are rarely cowards, but still more rarely are they deficient in sagacity and discernment to detect any attempt to- impose upon them. I sincerely wish I could unite with the worthy German, in removing this stigma upon the Delawares. A long and intimate knowledge of them, in peace and war, as enemies and friends, has left upon my mind the most favorable impressions of their character for bravery, generosity, and fidelity to their engagements. The Iroquois being thus freed from any apprehension of an attack, from their ancient enemies, upon their southern border*ABORIGINES OF THE OHIO VALLEY. 25 prepared to force the barrier which had so long opposed their westward progress. This was not a barrier of mountains—not a rampart of earth or stone, but one similar to that which protected for ages, the open streets and avenues of Sparta—a rampart of warriors' bosoms, equal in bravery, and in the love of their coun- try, to any which that far-famed State, or either of her distin- guished rivals, ever sent to the field. From the position which I have ascribed to the Hurons, or Wyandots, it will be perceived that I allude to that celebrated tribe. There is much difficulty in fixing the chronology of many of the most important events ia the history of the Indians, at the period to which I now refer. There are no means by which we can ascertain when the war between the Iroquois and the Hurons commenced, or how long it lasted. Whether it was carried on before they were both fur- nished with European arms, or after they had become acquainted with the use of them, and both had been supplied by the Euro- pean nation, to which they severally adhered, can not be correctly ascertained. There are circumstances, however, which induce me to believe that they had long fought with weapons of their own manufacture; but that the great battle which terminated the contest, was made more bloody and disastrous from the use of firearms. If that was the case, it must have been after the year 1701, which was the epoch of the alliance between the British and the Iroquois. Previously to that event, the French had been extremely cautious in placing the destructive arms of the Euro- peans, in the hands of the Indians. But, as by means of the British, the Iroquois had, in a few years, become completely armed, the French authorities were obliged to change their policy in this respect, and it was through them that the Hurons were enabled to meet the Iroquois upon terms equal as to arms, although the disparity of numbers was greatly in favor of the latter. The Wyandots assert that the last great battle was fought in canoes upon Lake Erie, ^nd that all, or nearly all, the warriors of both nations perished. Although the actual loss of the two nations, in this battle, is said to have been equal, the conse- quences-were far from being so. The smaller and weaker party, were unable again to bring into the field a force, which in point of numbers, could bear any reasonable proportion to their ene- mies. After standing at bay for some time, they yielded to the storm which they had not the physical force to resist, and retired to the shores of Lake Michigan. The history of this remarkable tribe is not ended with this change of situation. They returned after some years, to their original seats, and in all the subsequent wars of this country, continued to manifest their superiority over26 HARRISON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. the other tribes, who, upon every occasion, yielded to them the palm of bravery. The display of martial courage and high patriotic feeling, on the part of the youth of a nation, has frequently been the result of fortuitous causes, which, ceasing to operate, their effect is soon dissipated, and the national character again sinks to its former level. Such was the case with Thebes. By the example and precepts of Epaminondas and Pelopidas, the bosoms of the Theban youth were lighted with unwonted fires, which rendered them invincible. But with the death of these great men, the spirit of the nation again sank, and the presence of the sacred band was no longer the signal of victory. With Sparta it was otherwise. That unbending spirit, that proud superiority, which the Spartan youth displayed in every situation, and which induced him to seek a death in the service of his country, as the most -enviable distinction, was the result of impressions fixed upon the mind in the earliest periods of life, and continued through the stages of minority. Other lessons might occasionally be taught, but this being always present to the mind of the youth, the love of country, and the obligation to die whenever her service required the sacrifice, suppressed or weakened every other pas- sion of the soul, ancl it reigned triumphant. This accounts for the uniform character of the Spartan warriors, through a long lapse of ages. And this, too, was the source of the bravery which I have assigned to the Wyandots, in the commencement of the eighteenth century, and which I knew them to possess at its •close. To die for the interest or honor of his tribe, and to con- sider submission to an enemy the lowest degradation, were daily lessons impressed upon the dawning reason of the child, and continued through all the stages of youth. Facts, in support of what is here asserted, will be given in a subsequent part of the narrative. The departure of the Wyandots gave the long-wished-for op- portunity to the Iroquois to advance into Ohio. And that they did advance as far as the Sandusky, either at that period or some time after, is admitted. But there is no evidence whatever, to •show that they made a conquest of the Miamis; other than their own assertions, and that of the British agents, residing among them, who obtained their information from the Indians them- selves. Whilst the want of such acknowledgments on the part of the Miamis, a number of facts, susceptible of proof, and with all the inconsistencies and, indeed, palpable absurdities, with which the Iroquois accounts abound, form such a mass of testi- mony, positive, negative, and circumstantial, as should, I think,ABORIGINES OF THE OHIO VALLEY. 2/ leave no reasonable doubt that the pretensions of the latter, to the conquest of the country from the Scioto to the Mississippi, are entirely groundless. In the accounts which the Miamis gave of themselves, there was never any reference to a war with the Iroquois, whilst they declared that they had been fighting with the southern Indians, (Cherokees and Chickasaws,) for so many ages, that they had no account of any period when there was peace with them. At the treaty of Greenville, and at all the sub- sequent treaties, made for the extinguishment of their title to the extensive tract which I have assigned to them above, no sugges- tion was made of any claim of the Iroquois to any part; and there were, upon most of those occasions, those present, who would have eagerly embraced the opportunity to disparage the character of the Miamis, by exhibiting these as a conquered and degraded people. The Iroquois were not represented, at the treaty of Greenville, but previously to its being held, they took care to inform General Wayne, that the Delawares were their subjects—that they had conquered them and put petticoats upon them. But neither claimed to have conquered the Miamis, nor to have any title to any part of the country in the occupancy of the latter."' * In the Discourse of DeWitt Clinton before the New York Historical Soci- ety, where the extensive conquests of the Five Nations are painted in strong colors, after stating that the date of these conquests is uncertain, he says, "The Illinois fled to the westward, after being attacked by the confederates, and did not return until a general peace; and were permitted, in 1760, by the confederates, to settle in the country between the Wabash and the Scioto Rivers.* Pownall's "Topographical Description" is given as the authority for this statement; and, on turning to Pownall,*!* we find he asserts it on the authority of "Captain Gordon's Journal," who, instead of 1760, uses the ex- pression "sixteen years ago." Whether Captain Gordon's Journal was writ- ten m 1774, we do not know. We rather suppose, that Governor Clinton inadvertently took the statement to be that of Pownall himself, whose " Topo- graphical Description" was written in 1775. But it is incredible, that the Five Nations claimed a right to dispose of the territory between the Wabash and Scioto as late as the middle of the last century, and that the tribes of the great western league were settled there, at so recent a period, by their per- mission. As the Indians of the Five Nations were careful to inform General Wayne of their ancient conquest of the Delawares, and as any claim adverse to the Miamis was likely to be viewed with favor by the United States at the treaty of Greenville, great importance is justly attached by General Harrison to the circumstance, that no such claim was then alluded to. Though the Five Nations were not a party to the treaty of Greenville, there were those present who would gladly have revived such a tradition, to the disadvantage of the Miamis, had any such tradition then existed. We regard this consid- eration as of a decisive character.—E. Everett, in N.-A. RevJuly, 1840. * DeWitt Clinton's Historical Discourse, p. 28. t Ibid., p. 42.28 HARRISON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. The French had establishments in the Illinois country in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and, upon the authority of the learned and Rev. Dr. Brute, present bishop of Vincennes, Mr. Butler, in his recent History of Kentucky,* asserts that Vincennes was a missionary post, so early as the year 1700. At that period the Miami Nation is represented by all French accounts as very numerous, and in the undisputed possession of all the country I have claimed for them. I have myself seen a very old and respectable citizen of St. Louis, who recollected when five tribes of the nation, who went under the appellation of Illinois tribes, could bring into the field four thousand warriors; and yet they did not compose the strength of the nation, which was to be found strung along the banks of the Wabash and its tributary streams, and no doubt far into Ohio. In the year 1734, M. de Vincennes,, a captain in the French army, found them in possession of the whole of the Wabash, and their principal town occupying the site of Fort Wayne, which was actually the key of the country below. This officer was the first Frenchman who followed the route of the Miami of the Lake, and the Wabash, in passing from Canada to their western settlements; and, in doing so at this time, throws some light upon the chronology of some of the events to which I have referred. Long before this period, the French must have known of the shorter and easier route, and no reason can be assigned for their never having used it, but from its being the seat of war, on some portion of it, which rendered it unsafe. This war I suppose to be that between the Wyandots and Iro- quois; and, although I would fix its termination earlier by some years than the expedition of Vincennes, yet, being an experi- ment, it is probable that it required some time to ascertain its entire safety; nor is it at all impossible, that the Tiwictewees (always the most eastern of the Miami tribes) were not upon the most friendly terms with the Iroquois. Indeed, the probability is, that there was war between them, but not of a decisive charac- ter, and if any conquests were made, or any part of the territory of the Miamis conquered, it must have been of trifling extent; if victories had been gained, their effects were evanescent, and of no use to the conquerors. Vincennes, in 1734, found them (the Miamis) in the possession of the entire Wabash; and, in 1751, the Tiwictewees wsre visited at their towns, on the Scioto, one hundred and fifty miles from the mouth, by Mr. Gist, of Virginia, whose Journal has been lately published by Mr. Sparks, * A History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. By Mann Butler, A.M. Louisville, Ky., 1834.ABORIGINES OF THE OHIO VALLEY. 29 amongst the Washington papers. Mr. Gist remarks, that they were there "in amity with the Six Nations," and adds, that they "appeared to him to be a very superior people" to their supposed conquerors. Amongst the inconsistencies to be found in the declaration of those who support the pretension of the Iroquois on this side of the Ohio, I shall at this time mention but one. After broadly asserting the claim of conquest to the Mississippi, it seems, that, in 1781, Colonel Croghan, who is represented to have been an agent with the Iroquois for the thirty years preced- ing, limited their right "on the southeast side of the Ohio, to the Cherokee (Tennessee) River, and to the Big Miami, a stony river on the northwest side." Even this reduced claim to the territory within one State, will not be admitted; as it has been shown, that the Tiwictewees were in full possession of the Scioto, upward of one hundred miles above the Miami, where they were visited by Mr. Gist, and presented nothing to indicate a conquered people. I have no doubt that their pretensions to extensive conquests on the southeast side of the Ohio, are also untenable. Dr. Franklin asserts, that at a treaty held in 1744, the chiefs of the Six Nations, upon being questioned as to their title, made this reply, "that all the world knew that they had conquered the nations living on the Susquehanna, the Cohongoranto, (now Potomac,) and back of the Virginia mountains." The Doctor further asserts, upon the authority of Mitchell, the author of a work which had been published at the solicitation of the British board of trade and plantations, "that the Six Nations had extend- ed their territories ever since the year 1672, when they subdued and were incorporated with the Shawanoes, the native proprietors of those countries." Besides which "they claim a right of con- quest over the Illinois and all the Mississippi, as far as they extend." I have already disposed of the Illinois portion of these pretended conquests, and I will now show that the whole account of the subjugation of the Shawanoes by the Iroquois, is still more clearly destitute of foundation. No fact, in relation to the Indian tribes, who have resided on our northwest frontiers for a century past, is better known, than that the Shawanees came from Florida and Georgia about the middle of the eighteenth century. They passed through Kentucky (along the Cumberland River) on their way to the Ohio. But that their passage was rather a rapid one, is proved from these circumstances. Black Hoof, their late prin- cipal chief, (with whom I had been acquainted since the treaty of Greenville,) was born in Florida, before the removal of his tribe. He died at Wapocconata, in this State,*only three or four years ago. As I do not know his age, at the time of his leaving30 HARRISON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. Florida, nor at his death, I am not able to fix with precision the date of the emigration. But it is well known that they were at the town which still bears their names on the Ohio, a few miles below the mouth of the Wabash, sometime before the commence- ment of the revoluntary war; that they remained there some years before they removed to the Scioto, when they were found by Governor Dunmore in the year 1774. That their removal from Florida, was a matter of necessity, and their progress from thence, a flight, rather than a deliberate march, is evident from their appearance, when they presented themselves upon the Ohio, and claimed the protection of the Miamis. They are represented by the chiefs of the latter, as well as those of the Delawares, as supplicants for protection, not against the Iroquois, but against the Creeks and Seminoles, or some other southern tribe, who had driven them from Florida, and they are said to have been literally sans provat et sans culottes. As during this rapid flight, was the first and only time that the Shawanees had ever been in Kentucky, the story of their having been conquered, and their right to the country obtained by the Six Nations, in consequence of that conquest, nearly a century before, must be considered an entire fabrication. This history of the Shawanees was brought forward at a council held at Vincennes, in the year 1810, to resist the pretensions advanced by the far-famed Tecumthey to an interference with the Miamis in the disposal of their lands. However galling to this chief, the reference to these facts might have been, he was unable to deny them, as will be seen by an examination of the proceedings of this council, preserved in McAffee's history of the western war. These facts prove most clearly, that the Six Nations never did acquire a title to the country between the Kentucky River and the Tennessee, by the subjugation of the Shawanees, unless it was when that tribe was passing through it nearly a century subsequent to the period in which it is said to have taken place. If it should be asserted that the Shawanees might have occupied the country in question before the year 1674, and have been then driven off by the Iro- quois, and sought refuge in Florida, from whence they again returned after a lapse of seventy or eighty years, the answer is, that they give no such account of themselves, nor are there any traces in the country itself, to show that it had been occupied either by the Shawanees or any other tribe, for some ages at least before the period fixed for its conquest by the Iroquois. All the early voyagers on the Ohio, and all the first emigrants to Ken- tucky, represent the country as being totally destitute of any recent vestigages of settlement. Mr. Butler, in his History ofABORIGINES OF THE OHIO VALLEY. 31 Kentucky, remarks in the text, that "no Indian towns, within recent times, were known to exist within this territory, either in Kentucky or the lower Tennessee;" but in a note he says, "there are vestiges of Indian towns near Harrodsburg, on Salt River, and at other points, but they are of no recent date." The same author, and all others assert, "that this interjacent country, between the Indians of the south, and those northwest of the Ohio, was kept a common hunting ground or field of battle as the resentments or inclinations of the adjoining tribes prompted to the one or the other." The total absence of all vestiges of set- tlement, of a date as late as the period of the alleged conquest, is conclusive testimony against it, the process by which nature restores the forest to its original state, after being once cleared^, is extremely slow. In our rich lands, it is, indeed, soon covered again with timber, but the character of growtn is entirely different, and continues so, through many generations of men. In several places on the Ohio, particularly upon the farm which I occupy, clearings were made in the first settlement, abandoned, and suffer- ing to grow up. Some of them, now to be seen, of nearly fifty years' growth, have made so little progress towards attaining the appearance of the immediately contiguous forest, as to induce any man of reflection, to determine, that at least ten times fifty years would be necessary before its complete assimilation could be effected. The sites of the ancient works on the Ohio, pre- sent precisely the same appearance as the circumjacent forest. You find on them, all that beautiful variety of trees, which gives such unrivaled richness to our forests. This is particularly the case, on the fifteen acres included within the walls of the work, at the mouth of the Great Miami, and the relative proportions of the different kinds of timber, are about the same. The first growth on the same kind of land, once cleared, and then aban- doned to nature, on the contrary, is more homogeneous—often stinted to one, or two, or at most three kinds of timber. If the ground had been cultivated, yellow locust, in many places, will spring up as thick as garden peas. If it has not been cultivated, the black and white walnut will be the prevailing growth. The rapidity with which these trees grow for a time, smothers the attempt of other kinds to vegetate and grow in their shade. The more thrifty individuals soon overtop the weaker of their own kind, which sicken and die. In this way, there are soon only as many left as the earth will well support to maturity. All this time the squirrels may plant the seed of those trees which serve them for food, and by neglect suffer them to remain,—it will be in vain; the birds may drop the kernels, the external pulp of32 HARRISON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. which have contributed to their nourishment, and divested of which they are in the best state for germinating, still it will be of no avail; the winds of heaven may waft the winged seeds of the sycamore, cotton-wood and maple, and a friendly shower may bury them to the necessary depth in the loose and fertile soil— but still without success. The roots below rob them of moisture, and the canopy of limbs and leaves above intercepts the rays of the sun, and the dews of heaven: the young giants in possession, like another kind of aristocracy, absorb the whole means of sub- sistence, and leave the mass to perish at their feet. This state, of things will not, however, always continue. If the process of nature is slow and circuitous, in putting down usurpation and establishing the equality which she loves, and which is the great characteristic of her principles, it is sure and effectual. The pre- ference of the soil for the first growth, ceases with its maturity. It admits of no succession, upon the principles of legitimacy. The long undisputed masters of the forest may be thinned by lightning, the tempest, or by diseases peculiar to themselves; and whenever this is the case, one of the oft-rejected of another family, will find between its decaying roots, shelter and appropri- ate food; and springing into vigorous growth, will soon push its green foliage to the skies, through the decayed and withering limbs of its blasted and dying adversary—the soil itself, yielding it a more liberal support than any scion from the former occu- pant. It will easily be conceived what a length of time it will require for a denuded tract of land, by a process so slow, again to clothe itself with the amazing variety of foliage which is the characteristic of the forests of this region. Of what immense age, then, must be those works, so often ♦ referred to, covered, as has been supposed by those who have the best opportunity of exam- ining them, with the second growth after the ancient forest state had been regained? But, setting aside all that has been advanced adverse to the claims of the Six Nations to be the extensive conquerors that they have so long been considered, there are, I think, insuperable arguments to be found against it, drawn from the nature of man in every age, and from the state in which they were at that period. They have been compared to the Romans,—but in what did the resemblance consist? Like that celebrated people they might have been ambitious of extending their influence, and, like them, constant in adhering to a course of policy adapted to secure it. But there the parallel must end. The ingredient in the composi- tion of a Roman army, to which all their conquests are justly attributed, they did not, and in the state of society to which theyABORIGINES OF THE OHIO VALLEY. 33 were advanced, they could not possess. I allude to that bond by which an army of many thousands are brought to a harmony and unity of action, as if they were possessed of but one spirit and one mind. Without this, no distant foreign conquests ever have been or ever can be made. In every considerable collec- tion of men in arms in every state of society, the elements of fac- tion, disunion, and final dissolution are always to be found. If the warriors of the Iroquois did not possess this spirit in a superior degree, they greatly differ from the kindred tribes of this country, with whom I have been acquainted. To have conquered the numerous tribes between their frontier and the Mississippi, in the short period assigned, an army of many thousands would have been requisite. How would an army of that size be sup- ported? The game of the forest flies before the march of an army, and the state in which these Indians were at that time, being without beasts of burden (and having a natural horr r of exercising that quality of the Roman soldiers themselves), they would be unable to apply the superabundance of one day to the wants of another. The power to move men in masses, to be efficient, is one of the highest evidences of civilization. The manner of making war amongst the North American Indians was totally different. They endeavored to wear away their enemy, by surprising and butchering, now a family, less frequently a hunting camp, but rarely a village. If the hostile parties were in juxtaposition, as the Sacs and Foxes and the Illinois Miamis, a few years would determine the contest. But if they were sepa- rated by a large tract of unoccupied territory, as the northwest and southern Indians, ages might pass over without any thing decisive being effected. An erroneous opinion has prevailed in relation to the character of the Indians of North America. By many, they are supposed to be stoics, who willingly encounter deprivations. " The very reverse is the fact; if they belong to either of the classes of phi- losophers which prevailed in the declining ages of Greece and Rome, it is to that of Epicureans. For no Indian will forego an enjoyment or suffer an inconvenience, if he can avoid it, but under peculiar circumstances: when, for instance, he is stim- ulated by some strong passion —but even the gratification of this, he is ever ready to postpone, whenever its accomplishment is attended with unlooked for danger, or unexpected hardships. Hence their military operations were always feeble—their expedi- tions few and far between, and much the greater number aban- doned without an efficient stroke, from whim, caprice, or an aver- sion to encounter difficulties. 334 HARRISON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. But if the Indian will not, like Cato, throw from him "the pomps and pleasures," with which his good fortune furnishes him —when evils come which he cannot avoid, when "the stings and arrows of outrageous fortune" fall thick upon him, then will he call up all the spirit of the man into his bosom, and meet his fate, however hard, like "the best Roman of them all." With all these facts before me, I can not persuade myself, that the Six Nations ever extended their conquests in the manner that has been stated. Their attempts to conquer the numerous and war- like tribes on the Mississippi, would have been rendered abortive in one of the two ways mentioned in the apothegm of Henry the IV., in relation to Spain:—"If a small army should be sent, they would be defeated: if a larger one, it would starve." The exten- sive conquests made by the shepherds of Scythia, during the mid- dle ages, both in Asia and Europe, oppose no argument against the theory I have attempted to establish. There is no point of com- parison in the situation of a people who, to an abundance and variety of the domestic animals which furnish food and clothing, add the possession of the horse, superior to any of them, and equally useful in peace as in war, and those who have none of these aids. At the general peace of Utrecht, in 1712, the French were made to acknowledge the Iroquois as being under the exclusive protection of Great Britain. As a counterpoise to the strength which the alliance with these tribes brought to their rival, the former power soon employed themselves in securing the friend- ship of the more western tribes. But although these great rival powers became parties in the war which was kindled in Europe, upon the death of the Emperor Charles the VI., their subjects in the interior of the American continent, as well as the Indian tribes, were suffered to remain in quiet. But in that which was commenced in 1755, both parties claimed the assistance of their respective Indian allies. The Six Nations gave their powerful aid to the British, whilst the northwestern Indians ranged them- selves on the side of the French, and contributed largely, by their assistance, to the defeat of General Braddock, and to procrasti- nate the fall of Fort Du Quesne, and other western posts. The peace of Paris, in 1763, terminated the war between France and Britain, and the entire cession of all the French dominions in North America, to the latter power, seemed to promise a lasting peace with the Indians. Such, however, was not the case. One year of bloody war, after the British had gained possession of all the western posts, desolated the frontiers, and the important for- tress of IvIIchillimackinac was taken, and Detroit, Fort Pitt, and.ABORIGINES OF THE OHIO VALLEY. 35 Niagara, had nearly suffered a like fate. In these enterprises, the Indians of Ohio, the Wyandots, Delawares, and Shawanees, acted a conspicuous part. A treaty of peace was at length effected, through the instrumentality of the Six Nations. It was not, however, kept with go6d faith by the Indians, who continued to commit occasional depredations upon the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, throughout the ten following years. In the year 1774, a grand expedition under the command of the titled Governor of Virginia (Lord Dunmore) against the Indi- ans of Ohio, resulted in the celebrated battle of Kenhawa by the left wing of the army, whilst that under the immediate orders of the Governor penetrated to within a short distance of the Shawa- nees towns on the Scioto, where a precipitate treaty was con- cluded, and the Governor hastened to his capital, to provide against a storm of a different character; of the approach of which he had seen evidences not to be misapprehended. In the year 1775, Great Britain (determined to compel her colonies to submit to her arbitrary mandates, with that reckless- ness of means for which she has ever been remarkable, whenever a purpose of aggrandizement, or vengeance, was to be secured,) by the influence of the traders, by large donations, and larger promises, engaged all the northwestern Indians i^i her cause, with a view to the devastation of the frontiers. Attempts were made by Congress to avert this calamity, by convincing the Indians, that they had 110 interest in the quarrel, and that the wiser path was to observe a perfect neutrality. Nothing can show the anxiety of Congress to effect this object in stronger colors, than the agreement entered into with the Delaware tribes, at a treaty concluded at Pittsburg, in 1778. By an article in that treaty, the United States proposed that a State should Be formed, to be composed of the Delawares and other tribes, and contracted to admit them, when so formed, as one of the members of the Union. But this, as it might perhaps have been Afterward con- sidered, enviable distinction, weighed but little in the eyes of the Indians, compared to the present advantages of arms and equip- ments, clothing and trinkets, which were profusely distributed by the agents of Great Britain. * With the breaking out of the Revolution, in 1775, commenced an Indian war, which outlasted that with the mother country by twelve years, and for all that period not only obstructed the settlement of the territory northwest of the Ohio, but inflicted on the,frontiers the heart-sickening cruelties of a sav- age warfare. Such was the fruit of the detention of the western posts ; and of the insidious policy of the Canadian Government, in preventing an accom- modation between the United States and the northwestern tribes. Much36 HARRISON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. It is not my design to detain you with any of the details of this war, or that which immediately followed the war of the Revo- lution, and which continued to the peace of Greenville, in 1795, -—the latter either belongs to the history of the adjacent States, or to the general history of the United States'—but to give a gen- eral idea of the Indian tribes who have been once the residents and proprietors of our State, abstracted as much as possible from our own history. No doubt can be entertained, that, although constrained to acknowledge the independence of the United States, the Government of Great Britain still indulged the hope, that at some distant period it would be able again to reduce them to subjection. No other reason can be assigned for the close connection which they continued to keep up with the tribes within our territorial boundary, and their constant and liberal supply to them of the means of committing depredations upon our settlements. For the first few years, the military equipments light has been thrown on this important and not well-understood chapter of our history, in the late valuable " Life of Thayendanegea," by Colonel Stone. The papers of this celebrated Mohawk chieftain, placed at the disposition of his industrious biographer, have cleared up several doubtful points. With the other documents submitted to Colonel Stone's inspection, among the papers of Brant, is a certified copy of the celebrated answer of Lord Dor- chester to a speech of the Indians of the seven villages of Lower Canada, assembled at Quebec, as deputies from all the nations who attended the great council of the Miamis in the year 1793. This speech, at the time, was believed to be authentic by General Washington and by Governor Clinton of New York, to whom a copy was sent by Washington, in order to the settle- ment of that point. Chief Justice Marshall pronounced it spurious, without stating the grounds of his judgment; and in this opinion he is followed by Mr. Sparks. Its authenticity, however, was admitted at the time by the British minister, in a letter to the Secretary of State, who had made it the subject of a remonstrance. Colonel Stone seems to put the matter beyond doubt. "I have myself," says he, "transcribed the preceding extracts from a certified manuscript copy, discovered among the papers of Joseph Brant, in my possession." * Few events in the history of the country have exercised a more powerful influence on its progress, than the victory of General Wayne over the com- bined forces of the northwestern confederacy, on the 20th of August, 1794. This event, followed as it was by the treaty of Greenville, threw open the floodgates of emigration into the territory beyond the Ohio. The modesty of General Harrison has not only led him to suppress all mention of the fact, that he was himself, as an aid of the commander-in-chief, among the foremost in the dangers of that decisive conflict;—that he was even present in the battle could not be gathered from his brief allusion to it. He confines him- self exclusively to a tribute of well-deserved commendation of the command- ing General.—E. Everett, in N.-4- Rev., July, 1840. * Stone's Life of Thayendanegea, Vol. II. p. 369.—Marshall's Life of Washington, Vol. V. p. 535.—Sparks' WrUingz of Washington, Vol. X. p. 394.—Wait's American State Papers, Vol. III. p. 60, 3d edition.ABORIGINES OF THE OHIO VALLEY. 37 were more cautiously supplied. But after the failure of the expe- dition under General Harmar, and the total defeat of our army, in November, 1791, under the command of General St. Clair, the Government of Great Britain believed the propitious moment had arrived, so ardently wished for, to wipe off the stain which had been fixed upon their military renown, in the former war with America, and again to replace in the diadem of their sovereign, what was denominated by the greatest of her statesmen, "the brightest jewel that it had contained." The mask was not, how- ever, entirely thrown off. For, in the spring of 1793, Great Britain tendered her services as a mediator of peace with the hos- tile tribes. The offer was accepted, and three of our most distin- guished citizens were commissioned, under the guarantee of safety, by the British, to meet the Indians at the rapids of the Miami of the Lake. This conference resulted in a conviction of the insincerity of the British, and that there was no hope of effecting a peace upon any honorable terms, but by first convinc- ing the Indians of our military superiority.'" A lesson of this sort was in preparation for their use, under the auspices of one of the heroes of the revolution. The delay of a second summer, produced by the abortive negotiation, was employed by him to make its success more certain. On the 20th of August, 1794, within the bounds of our own State, and within view of the scene of the council, of the previous year, the eyes of the Indians were opened to the fallacies of British promises, and to their entire inability to resist an American army, when properly directed. The aid furnished them by the British, being open and palpable, fully sufficed to show their entire disregard of the principles of neutrality, but was still behind their promises, and the expecta- tions of the Indians. In despite of the opposition of the British agents, the Indian chiefs applied to the commanding general for an armistice. This being granted, was followed, in the succeed- ing year, by a general peace. The tribes which had been united in the war against the United States, were the Wyandots, Dela- wares, Shawanees, Chippewas, Ottawas, Potawatomies, Miamis, Eel River tribes, and Weas. The three last constitute, indeed, but one tribe, but in consideration of the country which was ceeded by the treaty, being really their property, this division of their nation was admitted by General Wayne, the commissioner, in order to give them a larger share of the annuities which were stipulated to be paid by the United States. The above-mentioned tribes, could not have brought into the * See note C, in the Appendix.38 garrison's historical discourse. field more than three thousand warriors at any time, during the ten years preceding the treaty of Greenville; although, a few years before, the Miamis alone could have furnished more than that number. The constant war with our frontier, had deprived them of many of their warriors; but the ravages of the small-pox were the principal cause of this great decrease of their numbers. They composed, however, a body of the finest light-troops in the world. And, had they been under an efficient system of dis- cipline, or possessed enterprise equal to their valor, the settle- ment of the country would have been attended with much greater difficulty than was encountered in accomplishing it, and their final subjugation delayed for some years. The Wyandots, the leading tribe of the confederacy, and that to whose custody the great calumet, the symbol of their union, was intrusted, had authority to call a council of the chiefs of the several tribes, to consult upon their affairs. But there was no mode of enforcing their decision, and the execution of any plan of operations, that might have been determined on, depended entirely upon the good pleasure of those who were to execute it. At one time it was thought, indeed, that they had adopted the very judicious plan of cutting off the convoys of the army, by a constant suc- cession of detachments. This was, however, soon abandoned. And under the influence of the confidence which they had ac- quired, as well in their valor as their tactics, from their repeated success, they again determined to commit the fate of themselves and their country to the issue of a general battle. This was all that was wanted by the American commander. By this fatal determination, they had already prepared the wreath of laurels which was to adorn his brow by their complete and total discom- fiture. The tactics which had been adopted for the American Legion, had been devised with a reference to all the suhtilties,. which those of the Indians were well known to possess. It united with the apparently opposite qualities of compactness and flexibility, and a facility of expansion under any circum- stances, and in any situation, which rendered utterly abortive the peculiar tact of the Indians in assailing the flanks of their adver- saries. The correctness of the theory, which dictated this plan, was proved in the trial, and confirmed the truth of the senten- tious motto of a military society, even where Indians are the enemies:—" Scientia in bello, pax J' It may be proper that I should say some thing more as to the character of the now scattered and almost extinct tribes which so long and so successfully resisted our arms, and who for many years after, stood in the relation of dependants, acknowledgingABORIGINES OF THE OHIO VALLEY. 39 themselves under our exclusive protection. Their character as warriors, has been already remarked upon. Their bravery has never been questioned, although there was certainly a consider- able difference between the several tribes, in this respect. With all but the Wyandots, flight in battle, when meeting with unex- pected resistence, or obstacle, brought with it no disgrace. It was considered rather as a principle of tactics. And I think it rmay be fairly considered as having its source in that peculiar temperament of mind, which they often manifested, of not press- ing fortune under any sinister circumstances, but patiently wait- ing until the chances of a successful issue appeared to be favorable. With the Wyandots it was otherwise. Their youth were taught to consider any thing that had the appearance of an acknowledg- ment of the superiority of an enemy, as disgraceful. In the battle of the Miami Rapids, of thirteen chiefs of that tribe who were present, one only survived, and he badly wounded. * As it regards their moral and intellectual qualities, the differ- ence between the tribes was still greater. The Shawanees, Dela- wares, and Miamis, were much superior to the other members of the confederacy. I have known individuals among them of very high order of talents, but these were not generally to be relied upon for sincerity. The Little Turtle, of the Miami tribe, was one of this description, as was the Blue Jacket, a Shawanee chief. I think it probable that Tecumthey possessed more integrity than any other of the chiefs, who attained to much distinction; bat he violated a solemn engagement, which he had freely contracted, and there are strong suspicions of his having formed a treacher- ous design, which an accident only prevented him from accom- plishing. • Sinister instances are, however, to be found in the conduct of great men, in the history of almost all civilized nations. But these instances are more than counterbalanced by the num- ber of individuals of high moral character, which were to be found amongst the principal, and secondary chiefs, of the four tribes above mentioned. This was particularly the case with Tarhe, or the Crane, the grand sachem of the Wyandots, and Black Hoof, the chief of the Shawanees. Many instances might be adduced, to show the possession on the part of these men, of an uncommon degree of disinterestedness and magnanimity, and strict performance of their engagements, under circumstances which would be considered by many as justifying evasion. But one of the brightest parts of the character of those Indians, is their sound regard to the obligations of friendship. A pledge of * See note D, in the Appendix.40 HARRISON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. \ : this kind, once given by an Indian of any character, becomes the ruling passion of his soul, to which every other was made to yield. He regards it as superior to every other obligation. And the life of his friend would be required at the hands of him, (or his tribe,) who had taken it,' even if it had occurred in a fair field of battle, and in the performance of his duty as a warrior. An event might have occurred in the late war with Great Britain, and their allies, in which a most striking exemplification of this principle would have been exhibited. In the autunm of 1793, the chief, Stiff Knee, of the Seneca tribe, who had been the friend of General Richard Butler, who had fallen on the fatal 4th of November, I79I, joined the army of General Wayne, for the purpose of avenging his death. The advance upon the enemy having been arrested, from the lateness of the season, and th^ troops placed in cantonments for the winter, impatient of delay, the chief ear- nestly solicited the General to be permitted to go with a detach- ment to attack one of the positions of the enemy. This request was, of course, refused. To satisfy him, and to prevent his going alone, the General informed him that an ample opportunity of vengeance would be offered in the spring. But the soul of the warrior could not brook this delay. To the officer with whom he lodged, he expatiated upon the unsupportable weight by which his mind was oppressed, at the postponement of the day of retribution for the death of his brother, whose spirit was con- stantly calling 011 him for vengeance. Upon one of these occa- sions, he said, that, denied an opportunity of performing this sacred obligation, nothing remained but to convince his friend how readily he would have died for him, and before his arm could be caught, he plunged a poignard in his bosom. I am satisfied that this is not the proper time to enquire how far the United Stales have fulfilled the obligations imposed upon them by their assuming, at the treaty of Greenville, the character of sole protectors of the tribes who were parties to it, a stipula- tion often repeated in subsequent treaties. But I will take this- opportunity of declaring, that if the duties it imposed, were not faithfully executed, during the administration of Mr. Jefferson, and Mr. Madison, as far as the power vested by the laws in the Executive would permit, the immediate agents of the Government are responsible, as the directions given to them were clear and explicit, not only to fulfill with scrupulous fidelity, all the treaty obligations, but upon all occasions, to promote the happiness of these dependant people, as far as attention and expenditure of money could effect these objects.ABORIGINES OF THE OHIO VALLEY. 41 (From the North American Review, 1840.) We are left by our author to learn the last important chapter in the history of most of the Indian tribes, once conspicuous m the valley of the Ohio, from other pens than his own. Beyond a brief allusion, in the concluding paragraphs of the Discourse, to the conduct of the celebrated chieftain Tecum the, at the council of Vincennes, in 1810, there is 110 reference to those momentous- events and struggles, in which General Harrison himself performed the most conspicuous part. This celebrated Indian chieftain, wha may with propriety be placed by the historians on the same page with King Philip, Pontiac, and Brant, was the son of a Shawanoe father and Cherokee mother, a descent which admirably adapted him to achieve that project, which, to some extent, is supposed to have been contemplated by the other eminent Indian chief- tains whom we have named, that of bringing all the Indian tribes into one grand confederacy. This policy, as far as it extended,, was the secret of the strength of the Five Nations. It is even, affecting to hear these poor children of nature, by their speaker Canassatego, at the council of Lancaster, in 1744, recommending Union to the American colonies. At the session of the fourth of july of that year, the eloquent Onondago warrior used this- remarkable language: • "We have one thing further to say, and that is, we heartily recommend union and good agreement between you and your brethren. Never disagree, but preserve a strict friendship for each other, and thereby you, as well as we, will become the stronger. "Our wise forefathers established union and amity between the Five Nations; this has made us formidable; this has given us weight and authority with our neighboring nations. "We are a powerful confederacy; and, by your observing the same methods which our wise forefathers have taken, you will acquire fresh strength and power; therefore, whatsoever befalls you, never fall out with each other."'1' If this is the language of barbarism, what is civilization! * Colden's History of the Five Nations; in the Papers annexed, p. 149.42 HARRISON'S HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. While we write these lines, the intelligence reaches us, that, in virtue, rather let us say by force, of one of those monstrous impo- sitions called Indian treaties, negotiated, in the present instance, against the wishes of fourteen-fifteenths of those whose lands it cedes, the last remnant of those sagacious and formidable tribes, whose representative, in 1744, uttered these counsels of friend- ship and wisdom, are^about to be driven from their last foothold in New York, and transported to a "new home" west of the States ,of Arkansas and Missouri. Whatever doubts may rest on the question discussed in the address before us, whether the vic- torious arms of the Five Nations were ever pushed to the Missis- sippi, no doubt, unhappily, will be left to the future historian, that they are now to be driven across that river, by their civilized, humane, and Christian neighbors; and this by force of a treaty, of which the President of the United States remarks, in commu- nicating it to Congress, "that improper means have been em- ployed to obtain the assent of the Seneca chiefs, there is too much reason to believe." That their condition will be improved by the rempval is an opinion, we know, entertained by persons of integrity and honor, and we devoutly hope that it may be real- ized. But this opinion, however confidently entertained, and however likely to be justified by the result, furnishes no apology, so long as their right to occupy their reservations is admitted, for forcing them to quit their homes, under the forms of a mock treaty, concluded against the wishes, however unenlighted or mis- guided, of a great majority of the tribe.—Edward Everett.APPENDIX. , NOTE A. The object of Themistocles was to induce the council of war to adopt his opinion of fighting the Persians, in the narrow strait which separates the island of Salamis from the main, which would prevent them from being surrounded by the immensely superior fleet of the latter. The commander of the Spartan squadron, and those of the other states within the Isthmus of Corinth, were desirous to retreat to the shores of Peloponnesus, in the vicinity of which the army of the Peloponnesian Greeks had been assem- bled, for the purpose of guarding the isthmus, which afforded the only land entrance to that portion of the country. Themistocles endeavored to convince the council, that if they abandoned the favorable position which the straits of Salamis afforded, and attempted a retreat to the coast of Peloponnesus, they would be pursued by the Persians, and obliged to fight in the open sea, which would enable the enemy to surround their comparatively small force, and that defeat would be inevitable. The Grecian fleet being destroyed, the Persians would be enabled to turn the position of the army, which would be deprived of all the advan- tages in defending it. He was, also, afraid that the fleet would separate, each squadron repairing to the harbor of the state to which it belonged, preferring (as is the case in all confederacies, where there is no con men head in the government, with power to enforce obedience to its decrees,) the interest of the individual member to which it belonged, to the common good. The debate became warm; and the Spartan commander losing his self-com- mand, raised his staff to strike his opponent. The noble Athe- nian, full of confidence in the measures he had recommended, for the destruction of their common enemy, and of enthusiasm in the cause of liberty and civilization, attempted neither to avert the blow, or resent the indignity. His remark, " strike, but hear me," seemed rather to invite it, as the price of the attention of his enraged commander, to arguments which he knew could not be answered. Eurybiades, awed by the indomitable firmness of the Athenian, calmed his passion, submitted himself to the mighty genius of his rival, and Greece was saved.44 APPENDIX. NOTE B. The circumstances which militate most against the supposition of the identity of the Aztecs, with the authors of extensive ancient works in Ohio, is the admitted fact, that the latter entered the valley of Anahuac, from the Northwest, that is, from California, which is much out of the direct route from the Ohio to Mexico. A strong argument in favor of it, is the similarity of the remains which are found in that region (California), as well as in Mexico itself, with those in the valley of the Ohio. I am not informed whether there are any such in the intermediate country between the lower Mississippi and California. But if there are none, it will serve rather to confirm and strengthen my opinion, that the fugitives from the Ohio, were, like those from Troy, a mere rem- nant, whose numbers were too small to erect works pf so much labor, as those they had left behind had required; but, after their strength had been increased, by a residence for some time in California, the passion for such works returned with the ability to erect them. The similarity, in point of form and mode of construction^ between the works now to be seen in all the countries I have mentioned, (Ohio, Mexico, and California,) proves that they must have been erected by the same, or a kindred people, derived from the same stock, and if the latter, the separation took place after the custom of such erections had commenced. If the opinion is adopted, that the Aztecs were never in Ohio^ but had pursued the direct route from Asia (whence it is believed they all came) to California, along the coast of the Pacific Ocean, and that the authors of the Ohio erections, were from the same continent and stock, the question may be asked, Where did the separation take place? Was it before they left Asia, or after their arrival upon the American continent? Are there any works simi- lar to those in Ohio, Mexico, and California, to be found in the northeast of Asia, or between the Pacific and the Rocky Mountains, or on the route which that branch of the nation would have pur- sued, which bent their course towards the valley of the Ohio? If these questions are answered in the negative, it will thus go far to prove that the practice of constructing such works originated in the latter, and that those who erected them were the same people who afterwards sojourned in California, and finally settled in the valley of Anahuac, or Mexico. If we adopt the opinion, that they were totally a distinct people, or were different branches of the same original Asiatic stock, we must believe also that they each fell into the practice of erecting extensive works, of the sameAPPENDIX. 45 form, and of the same materials, (in a manner not known to be practised by any other people,) without any previous knowledge to guide them, and without any intercourse. This, to say the least of it, is very improbable. If 'the Aztecs were not the authors of the Ohio works, we can only account for the ultimate fate of those who were, by supposing that they were entirely extirpated, preferring, like the devoted Numantians, to be buried under the ruins of their own walls, to seeking safety by an ignominious flight. I find no difficulty, from the facts mentioned in the text, in adopting the opinion, that these people were conquered by those who were less civilized than themselves. An. enlightened nation, whose military institutions are founded upon scientific principles, and which relies upon its own citizens for protection, will never be subdued by savages, nor by those who have made little progress in civilization. They may be beaten in a battle, indeed in many battles, as was the case with the barbarians of Gaul and Germany, who first broke through the boundaries of the Roman Republic; and in our day and nation, when the northwestern Indians defeated our armies in two successive campaigns, as they had previously done those of Great Britain. But their triumphs will be termi- nated as soon as the causes which produce them are ascertained, and a change is effected in the plan of operations, or in the mode of forming the troops to meet the exigency, as was the case in the former under the direction of Caius Marius, and in our own under the direction of Anthony Wayne. But it is quite otherwise, with those who have made such small progress in civilization, as to be unable to make war upon fixed and scientific principles. I have assigned to the nameless nation of our valley the character of an agricultural people, and this is precisely the state (without military institutions) in which a nation is most weak, and most easily con- quered, by those who still depend upon the chase for food, or who have advanced still further, and draw their subsistence from flocks and herds of their own rearing. The labors of agriculture serve to form the body to endure the toils and hardships incident to a military life. There is something, too, in that kind of employ- ment, which serves to kindle a spirit of independence in the bosom, and nurture the feelings of patriotism. Hence, it has happened, that agricultural nations, which had engrafted a system of military instruction upon the ordinary education of youth, have always been the most renowned in war, and most difficult to be conquered. " Hanc olim veteres vitam coluere Sabini, Hanc Remus et frater; sic Fortis Etruria crevit,46 APPENDIX. Scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma, Septemque una sibi muro circumdedit arfces." 2d. Georgics, 532. But whilst the occupation of the husbandman furnishes the best materials for making good soldiers, as well from the qualities it imparts to the mind, as the strength and activity which the body receives from constant exercise and nutritive aliment, it teaches nothing of the military art. The hunter, on the contrary, is already a soldier, as far, at least, as individual qualities can make him so. But the pastoral life (not that which the poets have furnished, the pictures drawn from their own imaginations, but that which authentic history describes,) furnishes, not only men suited to war, by their personal qualities, but armies which have acquired, from their congregated mode of life, a degree of discipline, and a knowledge of the most important operations of war. There is nothing in the employment of the agriculturist, or artisan, which bears any resemblance to military duty. The citizens employed in such labor (exclusively) cease to be soldiers, and the agricult- ural or manufacturing nation, which adopts no system of military instruction for its youth, must depend upon the employment of mercenaries for its protection, or it will become a prey to the first invader. The German or Scythian hordes, which obtained from the fears, or the weakness, of the Roman emperors, settle- ments within their borders, were unable, after a few years, to resist the new swarms from the same hives, which pressed upon them, and which adhered to their original mode of life and man- ners. But the most extraordinary instance of the superiority of savages, in war, to an agricultural people who neglect military institutions, is furnished by the history of our own parent Isle, in the application of the Britons for assistance to a Roman emperor, after the abandonment of their Island by troops of the latter. It is impossible for language to convey, at once, a more dastardly spirit, and consciousness of extreme imbecility, than that used by the British deputies, on this occasion. "The Caledonian sav- ages," say they, "drive us to the ocean, and the ocean again repels us back upon our enemies." The fate of our predecessors, in the occupancy of our fine country, was, no doubt, long procrastinated by their patience of labor, and knowledge in the art of fortification. By similar means, and by the application of a chemical discovery, to the purposes of their defence, the tottering fabric of the lower Roman Empire, was for many ages sustained, and long after the* "naked and trembling legions" had declined to meet their barbarous * Their defensive armor was laid aside in the reign of the Emperor Gratian.APPENDIX. 47 adversaries in an equal field. The Ohio fortresses were not erected for defence against a casual invasion. The size of their walls, and the solidity of their contraction, shows that the danger which they were intended to avert, was of constant recurrence. But whilst their persons were safe, behind bulwarks impregnable to savages, they might behold, from their summits, the devastation of their ripened fields. The seed time, indeed, as well as that of the harvest, might be marked by a crafty foe; and thus the hopes of reaping even a portion of the gifts of autumn, be destroyed by want of opportunity to perform the indispensible labors of spring. It appears, however, that no exertion was omitted to avert their impending fate. The work to which I have referred, at the mouth of the Great Miami, was a citadel, more elevated than the Acropolis of Athens, although easier of access, as it is not like the latter, a solid rock, but on three sides as nearly perpendicular as could be, to be composed of earth. A large space of the lower ground, was, however, enclosed by walls, uniting it with the Ohio. The foundation of that, (being of stone, as ^ell as those of the citadel,) that forms the western defence, is still very visible where it crosses the Miami, which, at the period of its erection, must have discharged itself into the Ohio much lower down than it now does. I have never been able to discover the eastern wall of this enclosure, but if its direction from the citadel to the Ohio, was such as it should have been, to embrace the largest space, with the least labor, there could not have been less than three hundred acres enclosed. The same land, at this day, will produce under the best cultivation, from seventy to one hundred bushels of corn per acre. Under such as was then, probably, bestowed upon it, there would be much less, but still contribute much to the support of a considerable settlement of people,, remarkable beyond all others, for abstemiousness in their diet.* If we had the means of investing closely the causes which led to the disasters of this nation, one, not the least in effect, would, I think, be found in their abominable religion, which taught the pro- pitiation of the Deity, not by the sacrifice of the firstlings of flocks and herds, which, being the gift of God to man, he might again offer to his Maker, in gratitude for blessings received, or to obtain others which he sought, but by the immolation by man of his fellow man; that only creature of all that were created, whom the Creator reserved for himself, to fulfill his purposes, and min- ister his glory. * When the Spaniards, under Cortes, were subsisted by the hospitality of the Mexicans, and other South American Indians, they complained that one Spaniard would consume more in one day, than would suffice ten Indians.48 APPENDIX. - It is a little remarkable, that whilst the savages (those in the liunter state) throughout the American continent, should acknowl- edge the superintendence of the world by one God, and that a God of mercy and love; those who were a little farther advanced in civilization, who congregated'together in cities and villages, and who drew their subsistence from the fruits of the earth, pro- duced by their own patient labor, should clothe the god or gods whom they worship, with attributes and passions, which are only to be appeased by a sacrifice of blood, and that blood poured out from the bosoms of their fellow men. It would seem, then, that the first advances in civilization, were equally unfavorable to liberty, and to the proper understand- ing of the obligations due from man to his Maker.. In the first stages of society, the political institutions are few and inefficient, and whatever force they may possess, is applicable, rather to their foreign, than their domestic transaction. Each individual is the guardian of his own rights, and acquiring from it a high idea of his personal independence, is willing to respect the equal claims of others. If the social ties are few, they are proportion- ally strong: and the scene of attachment to the tribe or nation to which he belongs, is never felt in greater force in any future stage of civilization. An injury offered to any individual belonging to it, from one of another tribe, would be considered his own, and Ms life would be willingly risked to redress or avenge it. His ideas of religion are derived from the spark which God has fur- nished to every bosom, and from the great book of nature, which is constantly spread before him. As these lights are in possession of all, he is willing that all should form their opinions from them, to suit themselves. But these feelings and sentiments, so univerr sal in the hunter state, seem soon to disappear, when men begin to congregate in towns, and especially when the idea of individ- ual property is established. In such a state of society, disputes and collisions will constantly ^rise, and it becomes necessary that the hitherto independent individual, should surrender some por- tion of his rights, the more certainly to secure those which he reserves. But in his inexperience, the guards with which, he attempts to protect the latter, are too feeble to resist the assaults which are made upon them. By one set of his former equals, whom he has contributed to elevate to power, the whole of his political rights are usurped, and he becomes a slave; by another, his conscience is taken into keeping, and he is a monster. Strange, but true as strange, that as men progress in the arts, which enable them to live with more ease and comfort, they should lose the dignity of character and independence which had- APPENDIX. ' 49 distinguished them in the earlier stagfes of society. That they, who were once jealous of their liberties, should become .the will- ing instruments for enslaving others; who had seeft, in the opera- tion of nature's god, nothing but love to mankind, and the grant of equal power to all, should admit the pretensions of men like themselves, to speak in the name of the Creator, to claim the right to punish supposed breaches of his will; and worse than all, to clothe him with the forms,-the cruelty,'and ferocity of the most savage monsters of the desert. But such was the conation of the Mexicans, when first visited by the Europeans, and such, no doubt, was that of the Aztecs in the valley of the Ohio. The temples of Circleville, Grave Creek, and Newark, no doubt, annu- ally streamed with the blood (if not of thousands, like those of Cholula and Mexico,) of hundreds of human beings. At the period of the arrival of the Spaniards in Mexico, the profusion of victims demanded for sacrifice, was supplied by pris- oners taken in war. Dr. Robertson objects to the account given by all the early Spanish historians, as to the number of these vic- tims, upon Jh©-g$D^n4-of* the-effect it would have upon popula- tion. He adopts the opinion of Las Casas, that if there had been such a waste of the human species, the country never could have attained that degree of populousness for which it was remarkable.* This reasoning is hot, however, sufficient to over- throw the positive assertion of so many coternporary historians. For many years before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Mexicans had been engaged in successful wars; and as it was the inviolable practice to sacrifice every prisoner, the number might have reached, for several years preceeding the arrival of Cortes, even the highest number which the historians referred to, have mentioned, without conflicting with their assertions, as to the populousness of'the country. For, in relation to the latter, these writers must have referred not to the conquered nations, but to the conquerors, or those, the Tlascalans for instance, who had not submitted to the Mexican power. It is asserted by Captain Cook, in his. third voyage, that the practice of sacrificing human victims pervaded all the islands of the Pacific Ocean; and that it produced a very decided effect upon the population.t The want of prisoners of was, was supplied from their own people. When this distin- guished navigator was last at Otaheite, a civil war was raging. The party attached to the head chief or king, had been unsuccess- ful. After each* disaster, sacrifices of this kind were offered to their god, to obtain more favorable results. One of the chiefs, * Vol. iii., page 198-9. 5 + Cook's Voyage, vol. i., page 348. 4 '■ . : 'APPENDIX. upon being questioned upon the subject, defended the propriety of the practice, because, as he said, it propitiated the deity, who "fed upon the souls of the sacrificed," and repelled the charge of inhumanity, "because the victim was selected from the poorest of the people," the very class which forms the strength of every nation; which fights its battles, and protects its independence. But for the indisputable evidence which we have upon this sub- ject, it could scarcely be believed, that the rulers of any people, could ever adopt a practice, at once so cruel, and so destructive in its consequences—producing the necessity of a double draft upon their population, to supply the losses of the battle field, and the demands of their own priesthood. Such, no doubt, was the practise with the Mexicans, and the nation of whose history I have attempted to present some gleanings, and it will serve to* strengthen my conjecture, that the fate of the latter was hastened by their laboring under the double curse of an arbitrary govern- ment, and a cruel, bigoted, and bloody religion. NOTE C. The ultimatum of the Indians, was to make the Ohio the boun- dary between the United States and themselves. NOTE D. When General Wayne assumed the position of Greenville, in 1793, he sent for Captain Wells, who commanded a company of scouts, and told him, that "he wished him to go to Sandusky and take a prisoner, for the purpose of obtaining information." Wells (who, having been taken from Kentucky when a boy, and brought up amongst the Indians, was perfectly acquainted with their char- acter) answered, that "he could take a prisoner, but not from Sandusky." "And why not from Sandusky?" said the General. "Because," answered the Captain, "there are only Wyandots there." "Well, why will not Wyandots do?" "For the best of reasons," said Wells, "because Wyandots will not be taken alive."WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. On the banks of the James River, in Charles City County, Va., is a plain mansion, around which is spread the beautiful estate of Be7-keley, the birthplace of a signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and of one of the Presidents of the United States. The former was Benjamin Harrison, and the latter was his son, William Henry Harrison, who was born on the 9th of February, 1773. At a suitable age he was placed in Hampden Sydney College, where he was graduated; and then, under the supervision of his guardian (Robert Morris), in Philadelphia, prepared him- self for the practice of the medical art. At about that time, an army was gathering, to chastise the hostile Indians in the North- west. Young Harrison's military genius was stirred within him, and having obtained an ensign's commission from President Washington, he joined the army at the age of nineteen years. Hewas promoted to a lieutenancy in 1792; and, in 1794, he fol- lowed Wayne to conflicts with the North-western tribes, where he greatly distinguished himself, He was appointed secretary of the North-western Territory in 1797, and resigned his military com- mission. Two years afterward, when only twenty-six years of age, he was elected the first delegate to Congress from the Terri- tory.* On the erection of Indiana into a separate territorial government in 1801, Harrison was appointed its chief magistrate, and he was continued in that office, by consecutive reappoint- ments, until 1813,t when the war with Great Britain called him to a more important sphere of action. He had already exhibited his military skill in the battle with the Indians at Tippecanoe, in the autumn of 1811. He was commissioned a major-general in the Kentucky militia, by brevet, early in 1812. After the surren- der of General Hull, at Detroit, he was appointed major-general in the army of the United States, and intrusted with the command of the North-western division. He was one of the best officers in that war; but, after achieving the battle of the Thames, and other victories in the lake country, his military services were con- cluded. He resigned his commission, in 1814, in consequence of a misunderstanding with the Secretary of War, and retired to his farm at North Bend, Ohio. . He served as commissioner in negotiating Indian treaties; and the voice of a grateful people * It included the present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan.. Gen- eral St. Clair was then governor of the Territory. + He had also held the office of commissioner of Indian affairs, in that Territory, and had concluded no less than thirteen important treaties with the different tribes.52 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. afterward called him to represent them in the legislature of Ohio, and of the nation. He was elected to the Senate of the United States, in 1824. In 1828, he was appointed minister to Colom- bia, one of the South American Republics. He was recalled, by President Jackson, on account of some differences of opinion respecting diplomatic events in that region, when he returned home, and again sought the repose of private life. There he remained about ten .years, when he was called forth to receive from the American people the highest honor in their gift—the chief magistracy of the Republic. He was elected President of the United States by an immense majority, and was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1841. For more than twenty days he bore the unceasing clamors for office, with which the ears of a new president are always assailed; and then his slender constitution, pressed by the weight of almost threescore and ten years, sud- denly gave way. The excitements of his new station increased a slight disease caused by a cold, and on the 4th of April, just one month after the inauguration pageant at the presidential mansion, the honored occupant was a corpse. He was succeeded in office by the vice-president, John Tyler. William Henry Harrison (born 9 Feb., 1773, Charles City County, Virginia), Ensign 1. infy, 16 Aug., 1791; Lieut. 1. sub- legion, rank from June, 1792, Aid-de-camp to Maj.-Gen. Wayne, and distinguished in his victory on the Miami, 20 Aug., 1794;'— in 1. infy, Nov., 1796; Capt, May, 1797; resigned 1 June, 1798. [Secretary of North-west Territory, June, 1798; Representative in Congress from Ohio,'1799 t0 1800; Governor of Indiana Ter- ritory, 13 May, 1800 to 1813]; commanded as Governor of Indi- ana Territory in battle of Tippecanoe, 7 Nov., 1811;—Brigadier General, 22 Aug., 1812; Major-General, 2 March, 1813, and com- manded Western army; commanded in defence of Fort Meigs, April and May,. 1813, and commanded in battle of the Thames, U.C., 5 Oct., 1813; resigned 31 May, 1814. Received the "thanks of Congress," of April 4, 1818, for "gallantry and good conduct in defeating the combined British and Indian forces under Maj.-Gen. Proctor, on the Thames, in Up. Canada, on the 5 Oct., 1813, cap- turing the British army, with their baggage, camp equipage, and artillery," and the presentation of a gold medal "emblematical of this triumph." [Repr. in Congress, 1816 to 1819;—U. S. Senator from Ohio, 1825 to 1828; Env. Extr. and Min. Plenipo. to Colum- bia, 24 May, 1828; President of the United States, 4 March, 1841, and died at Washington, D.C., 4 April, 1841.—Dictionary of the Army of the United States-. By Chas. K. Gardner. New York, 1853.THE FORT-WAYNE MANUSCRIPT: an old writing (lately found) containing Indian Speeches and a Treatise on the Western Indians. Edited and Annotated BY HIRAM W. BECKWITH, Danville, III.INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. The Fort Wayne manuscript, or rather that part of it contain- ing the Indian Speeches delivered in the two Councils held Sept. 4th and Oct. 2d, 1811, at Ft. Wayne, Ind., and hitherto unpub- lished, is a missing link of much interest and value in the border history of the Northwest. To illustrate the place it occupies in the chain of events and explain the relations it sustains to them, it becomes necessary to recur briefly to the condition which the Indian affairs in the Indiana and Illinois Territories were in, shortly before and at the time when these Ft. Wayne conferences were held. About the year 1805, the peaceful relations, established by the treaty of Greenville in 1795, between the white and the red -people became seriously disturbed through the conduct of two Shawnee brothers, "Te-cum-thea"* and "Lo-la-wa-chi-ca"—"The Loud Voice", otherwise and better known as " The Prophet * It is stated by Gov. Harrison in his Memoirs, edited by Moses Dawson, that "Te-cum-the" is the Indian pronunciation of the name; while Judge James Hall, in his "Memoir" of Gov. Harrison, and Dr. Benjamin Drake, in his "Life of Tecumshe", as he spells the name, state its meaning to be the M Crouching Panther". The latter author says, " that on assuming the sacred office of Prophet, ' Lau-le-was-i-kaw' changed his name to 'Lens-kwau-ta-wau,' meaning the open door, because he had undertaken to point out to the Indians the new life which they should pursue." In the text we have followed the orthography and the interpretation of the name as given by Gov. Harrison at a time when he was directly referring to it, in connection with a speech deliv- ered by the Prophet on the occasion of his two weeks' visit with the Governor at Vincennes, in August, 1808. The Prophet and Te-cum-the—for whom the former was merely the mouth-piece—avowed that his voice should be heard, as in time it was, among all the tribes, from the gulf to the most northern lakes and westward to the mountains. Hence the significance of the name Loud Voice.56 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. The Prophet claimed a mission from the Great Spirit to reform the manners of the red people, and to revive all those customs, that had been discontinued by their two common and frequent intercourse with the white people. All the innovations in dress,, food, arms, and manners derived from the whites were to be discarded; in reward for which they were promised a restoration of all the comfort and happiness enjoyed by their ancestors, of which they had so often heard their old sages speak, on condition,, however, of an implicit obedience to the will and orders of the Prophet. He pretended to foretell future events, declared him- self invulnerable to the weapons of his enemies, and promised, like immunity to those of his proselytes who would devote them- selves wholly to his services. Roving for a while among the surrounding tribes, making a convert here and there, the brothers took quarters at Gen. Wayne's old cantonment at Greenville, Ohio, and soon gathered with them about one hundred Shawnee warriors from the several bands of that nation, living in scattered villages on the head-waters of the Au Glaize, White River, the Mississinewa, and elsewhere, together with a few followers recruited from other tribes. Within a few- months the number of Shawnees were reduced by desertions to about forty or fifty, and the residue of the Prophet's followers were chiefly composed of the riff-raff of other tribes, many of whom had fled for their crimes. The Prophet's band remained at Greenville through the years. 1806 and 7, increasing, the while, in its number of excited, relig- ious fanatics, ready, it was feared, for any enterprise on which the Prophet or his brother might be inclined to lead them, and great fears were entertained by the' inhabitants of the border white settlements for their own safety. Complaints were accord- ingly made, in response to which Capt. Wm. Wells, then Indiara agent at Fort Wayne, sent Anthony Shane, a half-blood Shawnee* to Greenville with a copy the President's letter contained in a communication from the secretary of war; the substance, of which was that Te-cum-the and his party, being upon grounds lately purchased by Gov. Harrison from its rightful owners, should remove to some point beyond the general boundaries stipulate^INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 5/ in the treaty of Greenville in 1795. The counciT-fire being lighted, Shane stated the object of his mission, and invited the brothers to a conference at Fort Wayne. Whereupon Tecumthe, without consulting the opinions of those around him, arose and said to the messenger: "Go back to Fort Wayne, and tell Capt. Wells that my-fi.re is kindled on the spot appointed by the Great Spirit above; and if he has any communication to make to me, he must come here" The excitement increased, and in a letter from Capt. Wells to Gov. Harrison, of date May 25, 1807, it was stated that, within a short time then past, not less than fifteen hundred Indians had gone or returned through Ft. Wayne in their visitations to the Prophet and Tecumthe at Greenville. And, in the month of August of that year, persons living in the north and western parts of the Indiana Territory, and familiar with the state of Indian affairs, estimated the number of Indians at Ft. Wayne and Green- ville, who were supposed to be under the. influence of these Shawnee brothers, at seven or eight hundred men, most of whom were armed with new rifles, and well provided with ammunition, supplied from Canada. The governor of Ohio, being officially advised of these facts, took measures to rid his State of such a dangerous assemblage. Gov. Harrison, of the Indiana Territory,, also took an active and efficient part in the common purpose to disperse the Prophet and his adherents. The result of these combined efforts was, that early in the year 1808 the Prophet and his partisans moved from Greenville, and, to the future and very great annoyance of Gov. Harrison, as well as to all the inhabitants claiming his protection, took Up their residence in the Indiana Territory, on the west bank of the Wabash, a short distance below the mouth of the Tippecanoe River, where they established the village known to fame as " The Prophet's town". Tecumthe and the Prophet claimed that the new grounds upon which they thus settled had been granted to them by the Potta- watomies and Kickapoos; these latter, however, had no title at all, being only squatters themselves, having years before, and by sheer force of superior numbers, intruded themselves into the domain of the Miamies, to whom all that part of the Wabash country rightfully belonged.58 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. The Prophet had little influence among the immediately-adjoin- ing tribes such as the Miamies, Delawares, Shawnees, and some of the Pottawatomies, whose chiefs and elder men knew he was an impostor, and would have nothing to do with his plans, in the execution of which they only foresaw harm to themselves and their families. It was with the remote tribes that his fame was blazoned, and to whom his miracles without number were com- municated. . The party attached to him, relying on his promises of food and raiment by divine interposition, neglected to hunt or plant, and were often starving for want of subsistence, while reports were spread abroad that they were enjoying every luxury and ease. Thus were the upper-lake Indians, and those between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi, and especially the Winneba- goes and the Kickapoos of the Illinois Prairies, deluded by fabu- lous reports, industriously circulated among them by Tecumthe and other emissaries of the Prophet. Tecumthe combined in his character great subtility, cunning, and an indomitable perse- verance; and while his brother remained at home he was itiner- ating among the most distant tribes, and making proselytes to his and his brother's schemes. Keeping himself and his ulterior aims in the background, it is now known that he was the principal means by which the extravagant stories of his brother's super- natural powers were propagated. The general discontent among the Indians, caused by the scarcity of game, the rapidly-advancing skirmish line of white settlements—the sure forerunner of ,a denser population—upon their hunting-grounds, and, perhaps, more than all, the threatened war with Great Britain, were eagerly seized upon by Tecumthe, and hastened the time when he thought he might come out from under the shadow of the Prophet, and declare his long-kept pur- pose of forming a confederation of all the Indian tribes; abrogate all treaties previously made with the United States relative to the cessidn of lands; drive the whites eastward and south beyond the Ohio River, and ever after hold the conquested territory as the common property of the victors, with no right of a disposal of any part of it, except with the given consent of alL It was a revival of the plan ilndert^ken by Pontiac at the conclusion ofINTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 59 the French-Colonial War; and |tgain espoused by the confederated Northwestern tribes soon after th€ establishment of peace between the United States and Great Britain in 1784.* Matters grew daily worse at the Prophet's .fown, which had now become the common refuge of all the Indian vagabonds in the country; horse-thieves and pilferers of other property; wild blades who would, every now and then, surprise a pioneer's cabin, standing remotely out beyond the well-defined lines of white settlements, and cowardly murder the indwelling women and chil- dren, found welcome shelter at the Prophet's town, and a ready friend and paliator for their crimes in the person of either Tecum- the or bis brother. Gov. Ninian Edwards, of the Illinois Terri- tory, made frequent complaints of depredations committed upon his settlements along the Mississippi, incited from or by perpe- trators harbored at this plague-spot on the Wabash. Inhabitants of the lower Embarrass and "in the neighborhood of Vincennes could only go about their work with their rifles always in hand; and the town itself was, time and again, threatened with destruc- tion. Indeed, several peaceful Indians of the Delaware and Piankeshaw tribes warned the Governor of the great danger to themselves as well as to the whites, and said they intended to flee beyond the Mississippi to escape the storm that was threatening from the Prophet's town. * In the meantime, Gov. Harrison—in whom the people of the Indiana and Illinois Territories had unbounded confidence—con- tinued his unremitting efforts to secure their peace and safety. His correspondence with heads of the departments at Washing- ton abundantly shows that during the whole period covered by the events under consideration he kept the Government fully advised of the movements of the Prophet and Tecumthe, and as often suggested the necessity .of active measures to arrest the mischief they were doing. He labored with a zeal then little understood, though now fully appreciated, and largely succeeded in keeping the bulk of the surrounding tribes from the contamina- tions of the Shawnee brothers, and in this way did much to save * " He boasted [through his medium, the Prophet] that he would follow the footsteps of the great Pontiac;" vide Gov. Harrison's Memoirs.6o INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. the settlements intrusted to his care from the terrible consequences that otherwise woujd have followed. He sent frequent messen- gers to the Miamis and Pottawatomies, demanding that they should drive the Prophet and his horde away from the domain claimed by these two tribes; but they, in their ignorance and terror at the threats of the Prophet, did not dare to resort to force. They could only look on silently and abide. the result of events. No threats or persuasions would induce the Prophet to leave, who, with his brother, now additionally stimulated with words of encouragement of British-Canadian agents, threatened open war. The Governor again sent a messenger to the Prophet's town, to whom Tecumthe denied an intention of making war, but most solemnly declared that it was not possible to remain friends of the United States, unless they would abandon all idea of making settlements further to the north and westward. " The Great Spirit," said he, "gave this great island to his red children; he placed the whites on the other side of the big water; they were not contented with their own, but came to take ours from us. They have driven us from the sea to the lakes; we can go* no further. They have taken upon themselves to say this tract belongs to the Miamis, this to the Delawares, etc.; but the Great Spirit intended it as the common property of all. Our Father [Gov. Harrison] tells us that we have no business upon the Wabash, that the land belongs to other tribes; but the Great Spirit ordered us to come here, and here we will stay." Seemingly the general government did not comprehend the situation, or was indifferent to the results that would follow from the course to which affairs in the western territories were rapidly drifting. At last matters culminated, on the 31st of July, 1811, when a public meeting was called at Vincennes, at which it was resolved, in substance, that no security to life and property could be had other than by breaking up the combination of the Shawnee Prophet on the Wabash; that it was impolitic and injurious to the inhabitants of the United States as to those of the Indiana Territory to permit a formidable banditti, constantly increasing in numbers, to occupy a position which enables them to strike the border settlements without the least warning; that the combina-INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 61 tion headed by the Shawnee Prophet was a British scheme, and that the latter's agents constantly inciting the Indians to hostili- ties against the United States. A committee, consisting of lead- ing citizens, among whom was the venerable Francis Vigo, was selected to prepare an address to President James Madison, embodying the resolutions passed at the meeting. The address was forwarded. The Government, it appears, had anticipated the request; .for the secretary of war, in two letters addressed, July 17th and July 20th, 1811, respectively, to Gov. Harrison, advised him that the 4th Regiment, U. S. Infantry, with a com- pany of riflemen, making in all five hundred men, under command of Col. John P. Boyd,* had been ordered forward from Pittsburg, and were to be at the disposal of the Governor, with the precau- tionary restriction, however, that the force was not to be used in the suppression of the banditti under the Prophet, "unless such a course should be rendered absolutely necessary, as circumstances at that juncture rendered it especially desirable to the President that hostilities (of any kind, or to any degree not indispensably required) should be avoided." The Governor, having his plans matured, his militia and other troops in hand, once more prepared a speech, addressed to the several Indian tribes, calling upon them to disperse the Prophet's band, and calling upon its members to immediately return to their respective tribes; requiring from the Miamis an absolute disavowal of all connection with the Prophet, and, they being the owners of the land he occupied, to prevail upon them to express to him their disapproval of the Prophet and his adherents from longer remaining there. One of these speeches was taken to Fort Wayne by Capt. Tousant Dubois, and its explanation to the tribes assembled there in council called out the speeches of September * John P. Boyd, born in 1768; appointed from Massachusetts [was in the Mahratta service in the East Indies; rose to the rank of commander of 10,000 cavalry] colonel 4th Infantry, 7 Oct., 1808; commanded a brigade in Battle of Tippecanoe and distinguished himself, 7 Nov., 1811; brigadier-general, 26 Aug., 1812; led his brigade in the capture of Ft. George. U. C., 27 May, 1813; disbanded, 15 June, 1815. Afterward naval officer of Port of Boston. Died at Boston, Mass., 4 Oct., 1830.—Gardner.62 INTRODUCTORY" CHAPTER. 4th and October 2d, 1811, found in the Ft. Wayne manuscript.* The prelude of the war of 1812 was fairly upon us, although the formal declaration of it was made in the following June. The portion of the Ft. Wayne manuscript following the Indian speeches shows the author of it to have been a well-informed and candid writer. His statements of facts, dates, names, etc., har- monize in the main with creditable works since in print—the most notable variance from them being his account as to the number of Indians engaged at the battle of Tippecanoe. He must have had an intimate and long acquaintance with the Indians; and the information preserved in his manuscript as coming to his knowl- edge from them as to their military engagements with the whites^ is, for the most part, not only new, but valuable historical matter. Among the authorities consulted or drawn upon in the colla- tion of the preface and notes, as well, also, the foot-notes running through the printed text of the Ft. Wayne manuscripj;, the follow- ing may be named: ."The American State Papers"; "U. S. Treaties with the Indian Tribes"; "Life of Tecumshe", by Dr. Benj. Drake; Harvey's "Shawnee Indians"; Hall & McKinney's "History N. A. Indians"; "History of Ohio", by Caleb Atwater; Howe's "Ohio Historical Collections"; "History of Indiana", by the late John B. Dillon; "Historical Notes of the Northwest", * It may be added that these missives had no more effect in arresting the climax than if the paper on which they were scribed had been thrown upon the sea. The frenzied mob at the mouth of the Tippecanoe could hardly await the advancing tread of Gov. Harrison's army. The Governor, although complained of by some of his officers for not assaulting the town upon sight, the soldiers being eager for battle, kept rigidly within the letter and spirit of his instructions, and declined a resort to force until every effort toward a peace- ful solution of difficulties had been exhausted. With the power to compel an obedience to his orders, he again demanded the occupants of the village to disperse. It being nearly night, a suspension of hostilities was agreed to, with a view to a friendly conference on the following morning. The Prophet, fearing the issue, or supposing he couid effect a surprise, set his maddened warriors upon the Governor's encampment, under cover of darkness, made more dense by a drizzling rain, that fell dank and chill upon the silent though wakeful army, on the morning of November 7, 1811. A terrible defeat, the burning of the village, and the loss of the Prophet's power, was the result of his rash act.INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER, 63 by the same author—both works being of the highest historical value for their accuracy of statement; Judge John Law's "History of Vincennes"; Mann Butler's "History of Kentucky"; "History of the War [of 1812], and Views of the Campaigns of the North- western Army", by Samuel R. Brown; "History of the Late War in the Western Country", by Capt. Robt. M'Affe; "Memoirs of Gen. Harrison", by Moses Dawson; "Memoir of Gen. Harrison", by Judge James Hall; "Life of Gov. Ninian Edwards" [of Illi- nois]; The Indian Vocabularies respectively of Col. John John- son; Prof. Edwin James; Thos. L. McKenney (of the Indian Department); Henry R. Schoolcraft; Capt. John Carver; Alex- ander McKenzie^ David Zeisberger's and Edward F. Wilson's several Grammars and Dictionaries of the Delaware and O'Jebway languages; Albert Gallatin's "Synopsis of the Indian Tribes of North America". All which are acknowledged as sources of original and reliable information.The manuscript from which the following pages were set was received in April, 1882, from S. A. Gibson, superintendent of the Kalamazoo Paper Company, Kala- mazoo, Mich., and was written in the same hand at different times, on twenty-eight pages of foolscap paper, apparently as old as the dates thereon. Each page has an anchor water-mark. Mr. Gibson took these pages, evidently torn from a book, from a large bundle of simi- lar papers that had been recently received at the mills from Fort Wayne, Ind.—F.Speeches delivered in General Council, at Fort Wayne, on the 4th day of September, 1811, by the different Chiefs of the Miamie Tribe of Indians, in Answer to a Speech from his Excellency, Wm. H. Harrison, Governor of Indiana Territory. SPEECH OF LAPRUSIEUR,* ORATOR FOR THE WEAS, A BRANCH OF THE MIAMIE TRIBE OF INDIANS. William H. Harrison, Governor of Indiana Territory, Listen to what I have to' SAY: You now tell us that we are on a wrong road, a road that will lead us to destruction. You are deceived. When I was walking along, I heard you speak respecting the Shawanoe (Prophet). You said we were of his party. I hold you and the Shawanoe both by the hand; I hold him slack. You have both told me one thing: that if I would adhere to you, that my people (the women and children) would be happy. The hearts of the Mia- mies are good. The Great Spirit has placed them on the choicest spot of ground; and we are now ankiously waiting to see which of you tells the 'truth. Now, Father, for the first time your eyes are open. When you * LePousser [French], A-she-non-qua in the Miami dialect, signifying the Speech Maker, the Persuader, or Talker. At the Treaty, held October 26, 1809, at Vincennes, this chiefs name is signed Lapousier [the article La and the word Pousser run together as in the Ft. Wayne manuscript], while at the "Treaty of Peace and Friendship," between the U. S. and the Miamis and other hostile tribes in the war of 1812, executed at Greenville, Ohio, July 22, 1814, his name appears thus, "La-passiere or A-she-non-qua." Vide11 His- tory of the War" [of 1812], by Sam'l R. Browfi; vol. ii; Appendix, where the text of the Treaty is supplemented with the signers' names interpreted and carefully spaced so as to preserve the correct sound in their pronunciation. The Weas, for whom A-she-non-qua was a leading orator, were a band of "the Miami tribe having tlieir principal village on the east bank of the Wabash, below Lafayette, and above Attica, Indiana, and known in early history as Ouitanon, or the Wea-town. The name is yet preserved, and the identity of the neighborhood retained, in its bestowal upon "Wea-Prairie" and "Wea- Creek." Vide Chamberlain's Indiana Gazetteer. 566 INDIAN SPEECHES AT FORT WAYNE. cast them on your children you see they are poor; some of them are ev?n destitute of the necessaries of life. We want ammuni- tion to support our women and children; this has compelled us to undertake our present journey. Father, we have not let you go; we yet hold you by the hand; nor do we hold the hand of the Prophet with a view to injure you. I therefore tell you that you are not correct when you supposed we joined hands with the Prophet to injure you. Father, I listened to you a few days ago, when you pointed out to me the depredations of murder committed by the Indians on- the Mississippi. I' told you that I and my people had no wish to join in acts of that kind. I told you that we both loved our people, and that it gives us pleasure when we see them standing around us; that we should deprive ourselves of this pleasure if we commenced a war with each other, as a war would be the destruction of both parties. You always *told me that our great Father, the President of the United States, has placed you here for good purposes; that his heart is good toward his red children ! How then does it happen that our Father's heart is changed toward his red children. Father, you have called upon us to fulfil the Treaty of Green- ville.* In that treaty it is stipulated that we should give informa- tion if we knew of any hostile design of a foreign power against each other. I now tell- you that no information from any quarter hfks reached our ears to injure any of your people (except from yourself). . You have told us that the thunder begins to roll. Father, your speech has overtaken us here. We have heard it, it has not scared us; we are not afraid of what you say. We are going on to that country which has been frequented by Tecumseh, and we shall be able to know, in the course of our journey, * The Treaty of Greenville, concluded August 3d, 1795, at Fort Greenville [upon the site of Greenville, County-seat of Darke Co., Ohio], was the finale of a bitter warfare waged by the Indians against the encroaching advances of civilized society upon their hunting-grounds. The struggle began before the Revolutionary War had ended, and closed with the memorable victory of Gen. Wayne over the confederated tribes of the [then] Northwest Territory, at the foot of Maumee Rapids [near South Toledo, Ohio], upon the 20th of August, 1784. No longer able to contend, the Sachams and war-chiefs of the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanees, Ottawas, Chippewas, Pottawatomies, Miamis, Kickapoos, etc., etc., met Gen. Wayne in council at Greenville, and executed the Treaty; containing, among other matters, in its 9th article, the stipulation to which A-she-non-qua here refers in reply to Gov. Harrison's complaints that it had not been enforced against the malcontents assembled at, or gathering from every direction to, the "Prophet's Town."SPEECH OF LAPRUSIEUR. 6; whether he has told us lies or not: that all the Indians are of the same opinion that he is; but when we return, we shall be able inform you whether what Tecumseh has told us be true or not. ■< Now, Father, you hare heard what I have to say; you will hear it well what comes from me. Father, you have told me twice you were angry with rtie. I went to see you with my warriors with me when we were sitting face to face, and toes to toes; you told me that the Indians on the Mississippi had struck your people, and I said nothing to you. You tell us that you sent a messenger after us; that we insulted your messenger, yourself, and our great Father. This is twice you have said you were angry with us! We have looked for the cause, but can find none. Father, we, the Miamies, are not a people that are passionate: we are not so easily made angry as it appears you are! Our hearts are as heavy as the earth! Our minds are not easily irri- tated. We don't tell people we are angry with them for light causes; 'we are afraid if we did fly in a passion for no cause we should make ourselves contemptible'in the eyes of others. We therefore hope you will no more say you are angry with us, lest you should make yourself contemptible to others. We have told you we would not get angry for light causes. We have our eyes on our lands on the Wabash, with a strong determination to defend our rights, let them be invaded from what quarter they may. When our best interests are invaded, we will defend them to a man, and be angry but once. Father, now consider what your children, the Miamies, have said to you. You have offered the war-club to us; you have laid at our feet and told us we might pick it up, if we chosed. We have refused to do so; and we hope that this circumstance will prove to you that we are people of good hearts. We hope, Father, you will not be angry any more with us, we will not be angry with you. This is all I have to say to you at present.* * When considered with reference to the guarded manner in which the Indian is accustomed to avow hostile purposes, A-she-non-qua's speech is a notable specimen of defiant oratory. Firy and bold, it reflects the feelings and desperate purposes of Te-cum-the and his deluded followers, and is in singular contrast with the utterances of Little Turtle and other speakers, who, with cooler heads, foresaw the calamity that would come upon their people in the end, if the threatened war was precipitated. Gov. 'Harrison, in an official letter dated from Vincennes, September 17, 1811, referring to this council, says: " * * * succeeded in getting the chiefs together at Fort Wayne, though he found them all preparing to go to Maiden. [Amherstburgh, Canada,68 * . INDIAN SPEECHES AT FORT WAYNE. SPEECH OF SILVER HEELS, A MASSASSINWAY CHIEF.* He informed his people that he conceived it greatly to the interest of his nation that a decisive answer should be given to their great Father's speech; that he had asked for it, and he was entitled to receive it; that for himself he had always detested the Prophet and his party; and that the interest of their nation required that the Miamies should have no connexion witbhim; that in case a'misunderstanding should take place between the United States and the Prophet, it is the interest of our nation to remain neutral, and hold our Father by the hand. My chiefs and warriors now present, I hope this will be the answer that you will send to our great Father, the President of the United States. near the mouth of Detroit River, in the upper part of which village was Fort Maiden, under whose protecting guns most of the vessels for the British Upper-lake service were built, and the principal depot from which supplies for the fur-trade and presents to the Indians were distributed.] The result of the council discovered that the whole tribes—including the Weas and Eel Rivers, for they are all Miamis—were about equally divided in favor of the Prophet and the United States." "La-pousier, the Wea chief, whom I before men- tioned to you as being seduced by the Prophet, was repeatedly asked by * * * [Capt. Dubois] what land it was that he determined to defend with his blood; whether it was,that which was ceeded by the late treaty [of September 30, 1809, whereby the Indians had yielded their claim 10 three several large bodies of land in Indiana and Eastern Illinois] or not, but he would give no answer. * * * reports that all the Indians of the Wabash have been, or now are, on a visit to the British agents at Maiden. He has never known one-fourth as many goods given to the Indians as they are now " receiving, etc. * On the Miss-iss-sin-e-wa River, commencing at its mouth near Peru, Indiana, and extending up the stream a number of miles, were, at intervals, several Miami villages, over one of which Silver Heels was a presiding chief. On the 14th of December, 1812, a mounted expedition of 600 men, commanded by Col. John B. Campbell, of the 19th Regiment, U. S. Infantry, left Day- ton, Ohio, to destroy these towns; three of which he burned, and destroyed a large amount of other property, including many horses and cattle. Eight warriors were killed, and forty-two prisoners, counting >vomen and children taken. The emergency of the hour fully justified G(Jv. Harrison in ordering this movement. He especially requested Col. Campbell to spare the lives pf Silver Heels, the White Loon (and other chiefs whom he names), "who had undeviatingly exerted themselves to keep their warriors quiet and to preserve their friendly relations with us." Vide Gov. Harrison's instructions to Col. C. and the latter's official report to the former.ADDRESSES OF OSEEMIT AND CHARLEY. 69 ADDRESS OF OSEEMIT, A PUTTAWATAMIE CHIEF.* I do not want what I am now going to say to be written down; but I think it is the interest of my nation that I should make some few observations. It appears to me that some of nvy younger brothers, residing on the Wabash, have got in a wrong road; that our Father has told them of it, and it is not too late for them to return. We, the Puttawatamie chiefs, have told our young men not to listen to the Prophet, but, notwithstanding, some of them were foolish enough to believe what he said. ADDRESS OF CHARLEY, AN EEL-RIVER CHIEF.f Laprusieure has come forward and made a speech, without consulting or knowiug the opinion of the Indians, which I con- ceive to be very improper. . * At the Treaty of Fort Wayne, concluded September 30, 1809, this chief is designated as "Ossemeet, brother to Five Medals"; while his name appears to the great Treaty signed at Chicago, August 29, 1821, as "Os-see-meet." The name is probably derived from, or is a corruption of, the word " Osh-e- may-un", />., younger brother, and expressive of the idea that his claims tp consideration were because of this relationship to the " Five Medals", who was a noted sacham and warrior. See note to the latter's speech, p. 73. + A chief of that subdivision of the Miamis who were called Eel-Rivers (and Eel-Creeks), for the reason that their ancient and principal village— known by the Indians as Ke-na-pa-com-a-qua, to the early French writers as L'Anguille [the Eel], and to the Americans as the "Eel-River Town"—was situated on this stream, some six miles above its confluence with the Wabash at Logansport, Ind. However, it is evident, from Gov. Harrison's instruc- tions to Col. Campbell, already referred to, that Charley lived in one of the villages on the Miss-iss-sin-e-wa, which Col. Campbell was ordered to destroy; for among those wh.ose lives were to be saved is named that of " Charley, the principal of the Eel-River Tribe." This chief figures at several of the treaties, on behalf of his tribe, both before and after the war of 1812, as " Ka-Tun-ga", aKe-tan-ga" (with the addition of "Charley"); and, in some instances, as simply Charley. His aboriginal name—the signification of which is nowhere given—appears distilled through uneducated French or American interpreters, or written down by careless secretaries, and is neither Indian, French, or English, but savors of the corruption of all. His people were swept over to the British by the current of events imme- diately following Gen. Hull's surrender of Detroit, and which carried with it nearly all the other Northwestern tribes. The failure of the attack upon Fort Harrison, near Terre Haute, Ind., September 4, 1812, and upon Fort Wayne €arly in this month, together with the energy Gov. Harrison displayed in7° INDIAN SPEECHES AT FORT WAYNE. SPEECH OF LITTLE TURTLE, A MIAMIE CHIEF.f Governor Harrison : Father, your speech by Mr. Dubois was communicated to us organizing the militia of Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky, all ablaze with enthu- siasm, to recover the prestige and territory lost by the unexplainable conduct of Gen. Hull at Detroit, thoroughly alarmed those of the Miamis who had taken sides with Te-cum-the and the British. Accordingly we learn, from an official letter of Gov. Harrison, dated Franklinton, O., October 13, 1812, that: "Before I left St. Mary's for Defiance, some Miamis had arrived, via Fort Wayne, with a flag and a message from their chiefs, begging for peace. I had no time then to listen to their speech, and, on my return hete, I found the Owl [a distinguished chief, who had long been a confidential friend of the Governor], Charley, the Eel-River chief, the Turtle's son, and several others who had joined them. They came prepared to palliate or deny the hostility of their tribe, as one or the other might best suit their purpose. * * * " Charley survived the war, and was living as late as October 6, 1818, when he, with other "chiefs and warriors of the Miami nation of Indians", executed the Treaty of St. Mary's; and he was dead before October 23, 1826, when, at the treaty held at the mouth of the Miss-iss-sin-e-wa, a reservation of "five sections of land, above the old village on the north side of Eel River," was made in favor of his son "Little Charley". Vide Indian Treaties with the United States. * Misch-e-can-o-quoh, or the Little Turtle, agreeably to the best received authorities, "was of mixed origin"—his mother being a Mohegan woman and his father a Miami chief—born about the year 1747, at the latter's village on the upper waters of Eel River, some twenty miles west of Ft. Wayne. He planned and won decisive victories in the two engagements against detachments of Gen. 11 ai mer's army, near Ft. Wayne, in October, 1790; was conspicuous as the leader in the attack, on the morning of November 4, 1791, upon the forces of Gov. St. "Clair, that resulted in the terrible disaster known in history as " St. Clair's Defea> and which was without.a parallel in Indian warfare until the disastrous engagement of Gen. Custer, on the Little Big-Ilorn River of the Upper Missouri. He was also in the action of June 30, 1794, in the severe attack upon Major McMahori's escort of ninety riflemen and fifty dragoons, under the walls of "Fort Recovery" a military post erected in December, 1793, upon the ground where St. Clair had been defeated. Satis- fied that the Indian confederation could not successfully contend with Gen. Wayne, he advised them to listen to the latter's overtures for peace. Over- ruled in this, lead his own warriors in the battle of August 20, I794> known as the "Battle of the Fallen Timbers", in which Gen. Wayne achieved a decisive victory. From this time forward, the Little Turtle was the open and abiding friend of the United States. He would before this have broken awaySPEECH OF LITTLE TURTLE. 71 yesterday.* Father, your children, the Miamies of the Wabash, are all glad of what you say. These are the sentiments of the Indians: Father, you have asked us whether we are prepared to take part with the Prophet, or still hold you fast by the hand. This question causes us to believe that a misunderstanding has taken place between you and some of our people that have visited you lately; it also appears that you have made known your intentions to the Puttawatamies, respecting the Prophet. You have told the Puttawatamies and other Indians residing on the Wabash to from the malign influence operating from Canada through its agents and traders> but he was powerless to carry his people with him until after they had suffered serious reverses. At the Treaty of Greenville, he shone as the brightest light in the assembled orators, gathered at this great council-fire from the entire Northwest, to plead the cause of their tribes and of their starving women and children. After the conclusion of peace, Little Turtle resided at his village,- where the Government had built him a comfortable house. " He took," says Gov. Har- rison, "great interest in everything that appertained to civilized life, and pos- sessed a mind capable of understanding their advantages, in a degree far superior to any other Indian." In his character he combined, in an eminent degree, the qualities of the military strategist, the wily diplomat, the orator, and the philosopher, winning distinction in all. He died of gout, July 14, 1812, on the side of the St. Marys River, opposite Ft. Wayne, in the orchard yard of his son-in-law, Capt. Wm. Wells, from whose house, at his own request, he had been removed to the open air. Her was buried upon the spot with military honors, by the troops of the garrison, and with his remains were deposited the sword and large silver medal pre- sented by President Washington, and his other war implements and ornaments. Vide "History of the War"; "Memoirs of Gen. Harrison"; Brice's%Fort Wayne; etc., etc. * Capt. Toussant Dubois, of an ancient family of Vincennes, near which he also resided. An Indian trader, and for many years a confidential messenger and spy for Gov. Harrison, who reposed great confidence in his energy, fidelity, and intelligence. As captain of a company of spies and guides, he rendered conspicuous services in the Tippecanoe campaign of October and November, 1811. He became a large owner of lands on the Embarrass River, within the present limits of Lawrence County, Illinois, as assignee of original claimants under grants reserved to the ancient inhabitants of Vincennes. Vide Harri- son's Memoirs; Dillon's Indiana; American State Papers, etc. The late Jesse K. Dubois, long State treasurer of Illinois, and well known throughout the State for his genial and sterling qualities, was a descendant of the subject of this note.72 INDIAN SPEECHES AT FORT WAYNE. leave him; you have told the Miamies the same; these are things that surprise us. The transactions which took place between the Indians and white people at Greenville are yet fresh in our minds. At that place, we told each other that we would in future be friends, doing all the good we could to each other, and raise our children in peace and quietness. These are yet the sentiments of your children, the Miamies. Father, you have told us you would draw a line; that your children should stand on one side and the Prophet on the other. We, the Miamies, wish to be considered in the same light by you, as we were at the treaty of G?eenville, holding fast to that treaty which united us, Miamies and Puttawatamies, to the United States. # « Father, listen to what I have to say; it is our request that you pay particular attention to it: We pray you not to bloody our ground, if you can avoid it. In the first instance, let%the Prophet be requested, in mild .terms, to comply with your wishes; and avoid, if possible, the spilling of blood. The lands on the Wabash are ours. We have not placed the Prophet there; but, on the contrary, have endeavoured to stop his going there. He must be considered as settling there without our leave. Father, I must again repeat that you said you should draw a line between your children and the Prophet. We are not pleased at this, because we think you have no reason to doubt our friend- ship toward you. I have not said much to you, but I think I have said enough for the present; my words are few, but my meaning great. I shall close by requesting you will pay particu- lar attention to what I have said. This is all, Father, I have to say; I have said it in the presence of your messenger, the com- manding officer, your people, and all mine. SPEECH OF OSEEMIT, A PUTTAWATAMIE CHIEF. I have said that I am here alone; I have come to attend to the interest of my women and children; I have thought it my duty to do so, as the other chiefs of my nation are absent. When I heard the words of my Father, we, the Puttawatamiesr inhabiting the Lakes, from Chicago around to the east, are of the same opinion as those of the Miamies, just delivered by the Little Turtle; notwithstanding some of our foolish young men have killed some of the whites. We, the chiefs of our nation,, have told our young men not to listen to any bad birds that are flying in the air; but some of them have been led astray, inas- much as they have not followed our advice, and have imprudently involved themselves in difficulties. We, the chiefs of the Putta-ADDRESSES OF WHITE LOON AND LITTLE TURTLE. 73 watamies, are determined that their faults shall not be charged to our nation. We, the Puttawatamies and Miamies, have been friends from our infancy. We shall continue to be so; their sen- timents are ours, and ours theirs. Father, what we said to each other at the treaty of Greenville is fresh in our memories. We there told each other that improper conduct of individuals should not reinvolve us in difficulties; this must also be fresh in your memories, as you wrote it down, and I hope it will long be remembered Hy both of us. I have noth- ing further to say.* ADDRESS OF WHITE LOON, A WABASH CHIEF.f You have heard what my uncle, the Little Turtle,-has said; and my opinion is the same. LITTLE TURTLE ADDRESSED THE MIAMIES. I told my people, when they were going to see the Governor, not to say anything respecting the land; that they had signed the paper closing the sales of the land, and that the treaty for that land was a fair and honorable one. I also told them to have nothing to do with the Prophet, that the Prophet was an enemy of Governor Harrison's, and Harrison of his; that if they formed any kind of connexion with the Prophet, it would make Governor Harrison an enemy of theirs. . Fort Wayne, 2d October, 1811. SPEECH OF FIVE MEDALS, A PUTTAWATAMIE CHIEF..! Addressed to his Excellency, William H. Harrison, Governor of * Os-see-meet here protests that he is delegated with no authority; th.at hty had only come to town to make purchases for his family; and that, inasmuch as the other chiefs having the right to represent his aation in council were absent, he deemed it his duty to communicate his and their views. t Wap-a [White] Man-gua [Loon], and by this name he signed the Treaty of Greenville. His village was one of the three burned on the Miss-iss-sin-e» wa by Col. Campbell. X A celebrated war-chief of the River St. Joseph of Lake Michigan, whose village was upon the Elkhart Tributary of that stream, in Northern Indiana. He is recognized under various names, viz.: at the Treaty of Greenville as " Wau-gshe"—from " IVau-gese the Odjibwa name for a favorite silver orna- ment in the shape of and called a "Half-Moon"—at the second Treaty of Peace executed at Greenville, July 22, 1814, he is written down as uO-nox-a, or Five Medals"; while, at the Treaty of Spring Wells, near Detroit, in 1815, his name is affixed to the parchment as " Noun-geesia, or Five M«dals*74 INDIAN SPEECHES AT FORT WAYNE. Indiana Territory ; delivered in the presence of Topenapa,* the Head Chief of the Puttawatamie Tribe of Indians, and also in the presence of the mlami chief, little turtle, and others. Father and friend: We your children, the Puttawatamies and Miamies, now take you by the hand as friends, and thank the Great Spirit above in enabling us to do so. Father, you have spoke to my brothers, the Miamies, and also to the Puttawatamies. Your words reached my place of residence during my absence, consequently I was not able to understand what you said as well as I wished, therefore I came to Fort Wayne. Father, on my arrival at this place, I sent for my friend, the Little Turtle, in order that I ♦might know to a certainty what you had said; I have seen him, and he has given me the information I asked for, and further states that he has himself already answered you; and it only remains for me now to answer you. Father, I now tell you the opinion of your children, the Putta- watamies and Miamies; we are but one people, and we speak with but one voice, therefore, 1 now request you to pay particu- lar attention to what I say, as I now speak the sentiments of them all. When our chiefs arise in the morning and see the clear sky; when they see the beautiful streams of water that are running, which is to be used by their women and children in peace and quietness; when they see the beautiful green woods around them, which was made for their use, and their women and children enjoying these blessings in peace and quietness, they thank the Great Spirit fo.r his goodness toward them, and pray to him that he may continue these blessings forever. Father* the words which you are now listening to are the senti- ments of your children. We wish to live in peace with all the world; and request of you to have pity on our younger brothers that reside on the Wabash. Father, after I heard your words, I looked down the Wabash, The two are synonomous,'the first being compounded from "Noun", Five, and "Gee-sia", medals or ornaments, in the Pottawatomie dialect, allowing for a somewhat defective spelling, that fails to fully preserve the sound of the word as the Indian would pronounce it. He wore upon his person medals presented to him by both British and American authorities, with other orna- ments, from which he came to be designated as " The Five Medals ". * To-pen-ne-bee, principal chief of the Pottawatomie nation, the protector of Mr. Kinzie's family at the Chicago massacre, narrated in Mrs. Kinzie's 4§ was an army of eight hundred men, consisting of Miamies, Shawanoes, Puttawatamies, Delewares, Ottaways, Chippaways, and Wyandotts, with a number of white men from Detroit. The Indians were governed by British influence, and consequently made but little resistance. The Indians had twenty-four killed and fifteen wounded. The Indians that fought the troops under the command of ter of the U.-S. Land-Office; U.-S. senator in 1805-6; governor of Kentucky, 1820-4; and a Democratic Member of Congress, in place of John Breckin- ridge, resigned, in 1805, and in 1831-3, serving on the Committee on Military Affairs.—Gardner, Drake. * 1794, June 30. Defence of Fort Recovery by its garrison of riflemen and voluntary cavalry, under Maj. Wm. McMahon of the 4th sub-legion (who was killed), against a vastly superior force of Miami Indians. Our loss was 22 killed and 30 wounded.—Gardner. + Alexander Gibson, Virginia; captain Infantry, Nov. 21, 1782; in 4 sub- legion, Dec., 1792; distinguished in command of garrison of Fort Recovery, in victorious repulse of Indians, Nov. 30, 1794; in 4th Infantry, Nov., 1796; resigned Nov. 15, r8oo.—Ibid. + Anthony Wayne, born Jan. I, 1745, in Chester Co., Pennsylvania. Brig.- general in Revolutionary army, Feb. 21, 1877; representative in Congress from Georgia, 1791-2. Major-general and general-in-chief of the army, March 5, 1792; commanded in the victory over the Indians in the battle of the Maumee Rapids, Aug. 20, 1794. Died, Dec. 15, 1796, on the shore of Lake Erie in Pennsylvania. —Ibid. § 1794, Aug. 20. Battle of the Maumee Rapids, at the "Fallen Timbers," fought by the army under Maj.-Gen. Anthony Wayne, against 2000 Indians, who were defeated and completely routed. Our loss was 33 killed and 100 wounded. —Ibid.86 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Governor Harrison,* on the 7th of November, 181 1,+ were com- posed of Shawanoes, Puttawatamies, Kickapgos, Wynebagoes, Taways, and a few Muscoes, amounting in all to one hundred and fifty, agreeable to the most correct information that could be procured from the Indians that were in the action. The Indians lost twenty-five men killed in the action. The number of wounded has not been ascertained. This is the last action that was fought between the Indians and the whites. The Indians and whites lived in peace and friendship from the treaty of Greenville, which was held in 1795, until the first raising of the Shawanoe Prophet, which was in 1807, from that time until the 7th November, 1811, the time that the Prophet's fol- lowers fought the troops under the command of Governor Harri- son; that treacherous and nefarious scoundrel has been fostered by the British Government, and caused a considerable number of the North-Western Indians to be unfriendly toward the United States, and occasionally committed depredations of murder on our Western frontiers. There appears to have been no separate cause for each cam- paign of the Indians against the whites. The war that began in 1774, which was the first that took place between the Indians and the Americans, and which was caused by the repeated ill- treatment the Indians received from the frontier settlements of the whites, was kept up by the Indians, owing to the great influ- ence the British had among them. This influence was kept up by the annual supply of arms and ammunition, which the Indians received from the British Government. From this it is evident that if the United States had got pos- session of the Military Posts on the Lakes, which the British Government was to deliver up to them in 1783, there would have been no Indian war after that time. THE EMIGRATION OF THE NORTH-WESTERN INDIANS, AND THEIR GENERAL CONDUCT. The Miamie Nation are the oldest inhabitants of this country. * For record of Gen. Harrison, see page 52. + 1811, Nov. 7. Battle of Tippecanoe River, near its confluence with the Wabash, fought by Battalion of the 4th infancy, 200 strong, Kentucky and Indiana militia, about 450, under Gov. Wm. H. Harrison of Indiana Terri- tory against over 600 Indian warriors under "The Prophet." Our loss was 62 killed, 126 wounded; the Indian loss exceeded 150 killed,—leaving from 36 to 40 dead on the field.—Gardner,MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 87 From whence they emigrated is not known. The Eel Rivers, Weeas, Piankeshaws, and Kaskaskees are all branches of the Miamie tribe, and all speak the same tongue. The Delewares emigrated to this country from the East, and are called by other Indians, JElanabah, or people from the sunrise. The Shawanoes emigrated to this country from West Florida. The Wyandotts, Chippaways, Ottaways, Puttawatamies, and Kickapoos emigrated from the North and North West. The Wynebagoes and Melomenees, who at present inhabit the west side of Lake Michigan, emigrated from the West. The Socks, Foxes, Johwees, and Nottawessies also emigrated from the North West. There is a material difference in the language of the different nations of Indians; yet there is but little or no difference in their customs and manners; they are warm friends, but most inveterate enemies. The men are trained up to hunting and going to war, whilst all the laborious work is left for the women to do. Each nation is divided into villages, and each village has one or more chiefs attached to it, according to its size, who keep their subjects in order by persecution, as arbitrary power is never made use of by them (except in cases of murder). The influence of a chief seldom extends further than his own village. Both the male and female children are nurtured in such a man- ner as is best calculated to endure the greatest hardships. They are compelled to bathe their bodies in cold water every day, and fast for a certain length of time. The length of time a child has to fast is regulated by its age. A child that is eight years old will fast half a day, and one that is twelve or sixteen will fast a day. The person that is fasting has its face blacked, and is not permitted to wash it until the time of fasting is out. The face of the male is blacked all over; that of the female on the cheeks only. The male quits this practice at the age of eighteen, it is then said by the parents , that his education is complete, and he is then old enough to be a man. His face is then bilked for the last time, and he is taken a mile or two from any house, where he has a small hut built for him out of bushes or weeds. After this, he is addressed by his father or guardian in the following words: My son, it has pleased all the Great Spirits that live above the clouds, and all those that live on the earth, that you should live to see this.day; they have all witnessed'your conduct ever since I first blacked your face; they know whether you have at all times strictly adhered to the advice I have given you; and I hope they will reward you accordingly. You must now remain here, until myself or some of your friends come to you.88 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. The man then returns home, takes his gun and goes a huntings while his son is left five or six days, and sometimes eight days,, without anything to eat or drink. When the father or guardian has procured meat enough for a feast, he invites some of his- neighbors to come and partake of what he has. They accom- pany him to where his son has been staying for several days; the boy is then taken home, where he is immersed in cold water, his head shaved all over except a small spot on the top; victuals are then given hirn, which have been prepared in a separate vessel for that purpose. After he is done eating, a looking-glass is given him, and a bag of vermilion or paint; he is then told by the company that he is a man. After this, he is considered as such by the people of the village. They frequently go to war before being declared men in this manner, and they are respected according to their merit. Immediately after a boy's face is blacked, which generally takes place at daybreak, he takes his bow and arrows and goes to the wood, from whence he does not return until the usual time of washing his face and eating comes on. I have accompanied boys for several years at different times, when their faces were blacked, and I never knew a single instance of their eating or drinking while in this situation, of without the knowledge of their parents. Their minds are operated on by fears, as they are made to believe that if they eat or drink while their face is black, such an offence would be followed by immediate punishment from the Great Spirit, who watched strictly over all their actions. . When an Indian girl arrives at the age of puberty, and her monthly discharges or catamenia comes on, she is separated from the family, and a small hut is built for her, some distance from the house where her parents reside. She is put in the hut pre- pared for that purpose, where she remains until the menstrual discharge ceases; during which time no person is allowed to visit or keep company with her. Victuals are cooked in a separate kettle at a fire built out of doors for that purpose. All her cook- ing utensils and clothing are considered unclean until they are washed and purified for the purpose of using herself and being made use of by others. When this disease leaves her, she is directed to bathe herself in cold water; after which, a sweat-house is built, and she is taken into it by her mother, or some other female friend, and is scarified on her legs and arms with a piece of sharp flint; after this, she is sweated and purified for an hour or two, and then admitted into the family. This practise prevails among all ages of the women, when their systems are in the condition above mentioned. It is in this man-MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 89 ner that the systems of the Indians are prepared to bear hunger and all inclemencies of the different seasons. If a woman is pregnant when traveling, and her time of parturi- tion should come on, she will stop at the first convenient stream of water, where she will be delivered of her child. She will then wash the child all over in the cold water, and wrap it up in her blanket or any old clothing she may have along; she will then wash herself, and jn two hours be ready to proceed on her journey. Polygamy is universally admitted among the Indians. A man may have as many wives as he pleases, and can change them as often as it may suit his own views. Young men are instructed by their parents to get as many wives as they can, but never to have connexion with a married woman, and by no means to involve himself or his friends in a quarrel with their neighbors. Marriages are performed in three different ways. 1st. If the male and female agree, they may cohabit with each other without any further ceremony. 2d. When a young man loves a girl, and she will not consent to have him without he first obtains the con- sent of her parents, which must be done with a present adequate to the character of the girl. If his present is received by the girl's friends, the marriage is fixed; if the present is returned, it is understood that they are not willing for the match. 3d. This is considered by much the most honorable and binding on the par- ties concerned. When an Indian has a son that he wishes to be married to a good and a virtuous woman, he assembles his friends and relations, and consults with them what woman his son shall marry. When a choice is made, the relations of the young man collect what presents they think are sufficient for the occasion, and take them to the parents of the girl or intended bride; they make known their business, leave the articles, and return home without an answer. The relations of the girl then assemble together, and consult each other on the subject. If they agree to the match, they collect suitable presents, dress the girl in her best clothing, and take her to the persons that made application for the match, where she and the presents are left. The marriage is then con- sidered complete, as all the ceremony for the occasion has been regularly.gone through. But if the friends of the girl or herself do not approve of the proposals, the presents that were given by the young man's relations are returned, which is considered a refusal. MILITARY DISCIPLINE. When a warrior wishes to go to war, he informs one or two of his most intimate friends o'f his intentions and asks them to join9° MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. him. The war party is then formed by their inviting as many men as they wish the party to consist of. Their intentions are kept secret from all the rest, as the person that is to command the party wishes such men only as will at all times obey his orders. After the party is completely organized, they leave the village secretly in the night. When they encamp, the captain or com- mander places the oldest men in front of the camp, and the youngest in the rear; the former do all the hunting for the party and keeps out a strict watch for the enemy* the latter do all the cooking, making of fires, mending moccasins, etc. Each party has a small budget, wrhich they call the war budget, which contains something belonging to each person in the party, that represents some wild animal, (that is to say,) a snake's skin, a buf- falo's tail, a wolfs head, a mink's skin, or the feathers of some extraordinary bird. This budget is considered sacred, and is always carried by some person chosen for that purpose, who always marches in front and leads the party to the enemy. He is never passed on the march by any of the company while he has the budget on his* back. When the party halts, the budget is laid on the ground in front of them, and no person is permitted to pass it without orders from the property authority. No person is allowed to sit or lay his pack on a log, neither is any one allowed to talk of women while they are going toward the enemy. When a four-legged animal is killed by the party, the heart is care- fully preserved by a person appointed for that purpose. When they encamp, a fire is built alongside of the war budget, and the heart cut in small pieces and burned in it. The sticks or spits upon which they roast their meat is split half down the middle, and then the meat is placed in the split; the stick is to be sharp- ened at but one end, which is to be stuck in the ground. No person is allowed to step across the fire, or walk round it in any other way than that in which the sun traverses. It will readily be imagined that the order observed among the Indians when going to war is completely calculated to prevent accident or surprises, and keep up good discipline. When the enemy is to be attacked, the war budget is opened, and each man takes out his skin, or corpenyomer, or war bag, and ties it on that part of his body which he was directed to do by his ances- tors in such like cases. When an Indian attacks his enemy, he is generally stripped naked (except what is called his breech-cloth and moccasins). His body is painted in different colors, though generally red. After the action is over, each person returns his war bag to the commander of the party, who takes the same skin or cloth thatMANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 91 they were formerly wrapped in, and carefully wraps them up again, and gives the budget to the man that took the first prisoner or scalp, who leads the party home in triumph. This is considered as a record of his bravery in the nation, and consequently great honor is attached to it. Should there be more than one of the enemy killed or taken prisoner, the person that gets the first scalp or takes the first prisoner is entitled to the first honor. When the party returns home, the war budget is hung in front of the door of the person that carried it on the march against the enemy. It is suffered to remain there thirty or forty days, and some One of the party goes every night and sings and dances where it hangs; particularly those that have taken a prisoner or scalp. When the person that commanded the party thinks proper, he assembles the party, and a feast is prepared by them for all the people of the village. They sing and dance all night. Those of the party that did the enemy most damage serves out the feast to the assembly. After this is over, the war budget is opened by the commander, and'each person of the party takes out his cor- penyomer or war bag, and the p£rty is dissolved. THEIR RELIGION AND MODE OF WORSHIP. Every Indian family has one or more of the skins or images above mentioned, which is called in the Miamie language Corpe- nohor Corpenyomer. It is those instruments that they consider sacred, and accordingly worship them. They say when the Great Spirit formed them, that he placed those things in their posses- sion and told them if they would worship them that they would live to an immense age, and always remain happy; consequently, some one member of each respective family pays reverence to those divine images monthly. After singing all night such songs as he has been instructed to do on such occasions by his ances- tors, which may be called religious songs; he then prepares a kettle Of victuals and a few pipes of tobacco, and invites his neighbors to come and partake of v^hat he has prepared for the occasion. When the company has collected, he tells them the cause of his calling them together. The company then proceeds to eating, with a great deal of ceremony too tedious to mention. Each person will throw a small piece of the victuals in the fire before he puts any in his mouth. There are but few Indians that will give an opinion respecting a future state. They say that those things are only enquired after by fools and the' white people. Some of them have told me that92 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. they believed there were two other worlds. One was intended as the place of residence for the spirits of the good people on this earth; and the other for the spirits of those that were bad, and that the bad ones were always assisting the evil spirit to do ill, while the good ones resided with the good spirit, and remained in peace and quietness. I once asked a very distinguished chief what he supposed was necessary to constitute a good and a great man. He replied, that a good father, a good husband, a good neighbor, a good warrior, and a lover of his nation, was all in his opinion that was necessary for a man to possess, to fulfil the expectations of the Great Spirit, who placed us on this earth; though, the Indians generally appear to care but little about a future state. They are only anxious to live to an old age, in this world. CEREMONIES AMONG THE INDIANS WHEN ONE OF THEM DIE. When an Indian dies, his relations black their faces and fast fpr a certain time, which time is regulated by the head of the family. When it is known that an Indian has died, the neighbors assem- ble and bury the dead, after which the heads'of such families that are friendly disposed toward the deceased person and their sur- viving friends, take some article of clothing, and address the friends of the deceased in the following words: Friends: We are sorry that it has pleased the Great Spirit to call one of your family from you, though this is not uncommon among us people of this world. Our friend has only gone on the journey, a few days before us, which we shall all have to travel; we have therefore come to invite you to mourn no longer, and to cover the body of our departed friend. After this, they all return home. The articles of clothing are left and preserved for the person that may be adopted in place of the deceased. • THEIR MODE OF ADOPTING A LIVING PERSON IN PLACE OF ONE THAT HAS DIED. When an Indian loses one of his relations, he believes that if his place is not filled by adoption, that more of his friends will die. If the deceased is a male, one of his most intimate male friends is chosen to fill the vacancy. If a female, one of her most inti- mate female friends is also chosen to fill the vacancy. If the deceased is a person of respectability, it frequently happens thatMANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 93 two persons are chosen to fill the vacancy. After everything is prepared, the person, or persons, to be adopted is sent for, wher^ the ceremony begins. If the deceased was a warrior, the adop- tion is exhibited by the warriors of the village, who assemble at the house of the deceased. They commence by dancing the war-dance and singing the war- song in rotation. The warriors go through all the different ma- noeuvres that is customary when engaged with an enemy; after which, each one reports to the assembly the number of actions he has been in, and the number of scalps and prisoners he has taken. During the time the warriors are dancing, they occasionally give the same yells and repeat the same words they did when they were in battle. All the while there is a constant yelling kept up by the assembly. When a warrior has gone through such of his exploits as he thinks proper, he hands the war-club to some other warrior, and sits down. The other rises up and repeats as many of his war exploits as he thinks proper. In this way the dance is continued until each warrior of the village is called on to relate his war exploits. Some are called on two or three times during the dance. The assembly is then dismissed by the speaker of the friend of the deceased, telling them that the hearts of the relations of the dead are glad. The person or persons adopted sits among the relations of the deceased during the dance. After the dance is over, they are invited by their new relations to a private place, wliere they receive everything that belonged to the deceased, also the articles that were given by neighbors by way of a donation in adoption. They are then told that they are one of the family, and must con- sider themselves as such, and that they are entitled to the same authority and respect in the nation that the person was when living, whose place they fill. When a common man or woman or child dies, the adoption is Exhibited by a few persons of both sexes, by playing at some favorite game of the deceased. If it was a man that died, by shooting at a mark, running a foot-race, or some other game. If a woman, by playing some game she was fondest of. THEIR CUSTOM WHEN VISITING THE GRAVE OR GRAVES OF THEIR DECEASED RELATIONS. When an Indian goes to the grave of his deceased friend or relation, he addresses himself to the grave, as though the corpse in it was living. He relates every misfortune that has happened in the family since the death of the person whom he supposes he94 « MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. is speaking to; after* which he leaves a piece of tobacco, some victuals, or spirituous liquor, if he has any, and departs. The , Indians are an indolent race of beings, consequently they are fond of any kind of amusement that will serve pass away their time and make them merry. They are very fond of gam- bling and dancing. They have a variety of games to play at, too tedious to mention, though the game at Moccasin is most gener- ally practised among them. They are remarkably honorable in their gambling debts, and will strip the shirt off their backs to pay a debt incurred by gambling. They also have a variety of dances. The morning dance commences in the evening and con- tinues until the following morning, at which time there is a feast prepared for the company. The outward dance is performed by a certain sect of Indians, which is supposed to possess super- natural powers, so that they can destroy their neighbor's property or life at any time they please, without being discovered by the person to whom the injury is done or any one else. All persons that enter this society are admitted with the strictest ceremony. It is common for each person who dances to have an otter skin. The eldest members of the society place themselves in the mid- dle of the floor, and the dance is then opened by their singing the songs of the society. A circle is instantly formed around those that are singing, and each person has an otter skin in his hand when he commences dancing. After a few minutes has elapsed, some one of the company makes a noise like an otter, shakes his skin, and walks or dances around on the inside of the circle. He then, with a sudden motion, points his skin at some one of the company, who screams out, and falls down as though he had been shot *vith a ball; in a few minutes he recovers, and handles his skin in turn, pretending to laugh up the ball he was shot with, when it appears that the bullet is in his mouth; he then puts the nose of the otter skin to his mouth, when it is# sup- posed that his peace is loaded; he then goes around the circle as before, and shoots at who he pleases. In this way, the dance is continued until the managers of the society think proper to break it up. No member can quit the dance until the whole company is dismissed. The members of this society were formerly treated with great respect by their neighbors; but on the contrary, they are at pres- ent treated.with as much disrepect as they formerly were respected. The begging dance is generally performed by the young men and boys, who dress like warriors and go about through the vil- lages singing war songs. It is customary for the head of every family, whose house they dance at, to give them something. This-MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 95 is the dance that is generally performed when they visit a white person. There are a number 0f * * * * * the whites do, though they are not so tenacious of it S.s the whites. They are much more hospitable to their friends, neigh- bors, and visitors than the whites. The Indians' have little or no laws, no coercive power, nor any kind of government. Their most important combats are the internal sensation of right and wrong. When an Indian commits a crime which is not punishable by death, he is treated with con- tempt and excluded from society. The Indians believe that thunder, lightning, and all other natu- ral disturbances of this world, are distinct and independent powers or beings, and consequently worship them accordingly. The Pow-wowers or Priests were formerly in high estimation amongst the Indians, as it was believed that they were the agents of the different great powers or spirits that govern the universe, and that they had power to kill or save, as they pleased. Those supposed inspired beings generally act as doctors, and it is not uncommon for them to extract a hair ball on the whisker of a bear, a wTolf, or a panther, from the body or joint of their patients (or at least make them believe so). They go through the village early in the morning, preaching and telling the people what appears most advisable for them to employ themselves at during the day.% Those Pow-wowers, Priests, or Doctors are not "so much respected at present as they were formerly. ' The present mode of burying the dead among the Indians appears to have existed through all ages, tribes, and conditions. Some lay the dead body on the top of the earth and make a crib or pen over, them with logs, and cover it with bark; others dig graves as white people do, they then lay the corpse in the grave, cover it with bark, and then all over with earth; others again will make a coffin out of strong boards, in which they will place the corpse, and hang it up in the top of a tree. It is customary for them to bury as much of the deceased's property with the dead body as can conveniently be placed in the grave or coffin with them. They frequently put a piece of bread or meat and a carrot of tobacco under the head of the person to be interred, as they believe they will be in need of some refreshment on their journey. They generally celebrate the death of a distinguished chief or warrior by drinking, feasting, dancing, and singing. The Indians are subject to all the different diseases that the whites are (the gout not excepted).THE MOUND BUILDERS. Ferdinand de Soto and his army were the first to discover the mounds. Mention is frequently made of them by the historians of the expedition. This mention is incidental, and so connected with the account of the people and the various incidents of the expedition as to escape notice, yet the descriptions correspond closely with the works as they were found. Some of the villages were surrounded by stockades, and were so situated as to be used for defenses or for fortifications, but a large number of them are also described as having elevated mounds which were used by the caciques for their residences and as observatories from which they could overlook the villages. It is not unlikely that some of the more prominent of these mounds may be identified. There are many of such mounds described in the narratives. One such is mentioned in Georgia, one in Alabama, and one in Mississippi. One mound is described around which there was a terrace wide enough to accommodate twelve horsemen. On an- other mound the platform was large enough to accommodate twelve or thirteen large houses, which were used for the residence of the family and the tenants of the cacique. This was not far from New Madrid, in Arkansas. It was upon tjie terrace of one of these mounds that De Soto stood when he uttered his re- proaches against his followers, having found out the dissatisfaction and revolt which had arisen among them. This was after he had passed the Mississippi River, and about the time when he be- came discouraged in his fruitless expedition. The narrative shows that these prominent earthworks were associated univer- sally with village life. Sometimes the dwelling of the cacique would be on the high mound which served as a fortress, the only ascent to it being by ladders. At other times, mention is made of the fact that fj-om the summit of these mounds extensive pros- pects could be had, and many* native villages could be brought to view. The villages are described as seated "in a plain, be- tween two streams; as nearly encircled by a deep moat, fifty paces in breadth, and where the moat did not extend was defended by a strong wall of timber/' ''near a wide and rapid river, the largest they discovered in Florida"—this was the Mis- sissippi. "On a high artificial mound on one side of the village stood the dwelling of the cacique, which served as a fortress." Thus throughout this whole region, from the seaboard at Tampa Bay, in the States of Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, these ancient villages appeared, occupied by the various tribes, such as Creeks, Catawbas, Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Quapaws, Kansas, and possibly Shawnees. They were situated on all the larger streams in the more favor- able localities, and the sites of many of them can be identified at the present time.—American Antiquarian.SOME ACCOUNT OF THE INDIAN TRIBES FORMERLY INHABITING INDIANA AND ILLINOIS. Bv HIRAM W. BECKWITH, Danville, III.THE ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS* THE ILLINOIS. THE several Indian tribes, which from time to time occupied parts of Illinois, so far as we have written accounts of'them, were the Miamis, Illinois, Winnebagos, Sacs and Foxes, Kicka- poos, Pottawatomies, and, at short intervals, the Winnebagoes and Shawnees. They, with the exception of the Winnebagoes, who were of the Dakota or Sioux stock, were classed among the Algonquin-Lenape nations on account of the similarity, of their dialects and to distinguish them from the Iroquois tribes on the east, the Choctaws, Cherokees, Chickasaws, and others south of the Ohio River, and the Dakotas west of the Mississippi. The different tribes living in Illinois will be referred to in the order of priority of time in which written accounts refer to their respective names. The Illinois Indians were composed of five subdivisions: Kas- kaskias, Cahokias, Tamaroas, Peorias, and Metchigamis, the last being a foreign tribe residing west of the Mississippi River, who being reduced to small numbers by wars with their neighbors, abandoned their former hunting-grounds and became incorporated with the Illinois. The first historical mention of this tribe is found in the "Jesuit Relations for the year 1670-1," prepared by Father Claude Dablon, from the letters of priests stationed at LaPointe on the southwest of Lake Superior.t At this place, * A more detailed account of these tribes, together with a narration of their manners, customs, and implements (illustrated) will be found in Beckwith's "Historic Notes on the Northwest." + " The point" of land extending out into Lake Superior and beyond which are the Apostle Islands, so named by the early Jesuits, because there are or were twelve of them in number. The construction of the mission chapel of the "Holy Ghost" was begun at the Pointe by Father Claudius Allouez in 1665; and the place was afterward known by the Jesuits as "Lapoint du SaintIOO ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. prior to 1670, the French had a trading-post, to which the Indians came for many miles, to barter their peltries for knives, hatchets, kettles, guns, ammunition, clothes, paints, trinkets, and other articles of European manufacture; and as the Indians that first came to LaPointe from the south called themselves Illinois, the French called them ever afterward by this name. Father Dablon states in the "Relations for the year 1670": "As we have given the name of Ottawas to all the savages of these countries, although of different nations, because the first who have appeared among the French were Ottawas, so also it is with the name Illinois, very numerous, and dwelling toward the south, because the first who came to the Pointe of the Holy Ghost for commerce, called themselves Illinois." In the Jesuit Relations and in the writings of other French authors, the name Illinois is variously spelled as " Illi-mouek", "Ill-i-no-u-es", " Dl-i-ne-wek'', "Allini-wek'', and "Lin- i-wek". The terminations ones, 7vek, ois, and ouek were almost identical in pronunciation. Lewis Evans, the great geographer in colonial days, spelled the name Will-i-nis. Major Thomas For- syth, for many years trader and Indian-agent in the Illinois Terri- tory, and stationed at the then French village of Peoria, says the "Illinois confederation call themselves Linni-wek, and by others they were called Min-ne-way." Father James Marquette, who, with Louis Joliet, came up the Illinois River in 1673, and Father Louis Hennepin, who descended the same stream in 1679, and both coming in direct contact with the natives dwelling upon the borders of its waters, giving them opportunities of knowing where- of they wrote, in their journals of their respective voyages spell the name Illinois.* Father Marquette, as well as Father Henne- pin, give in their journals the signification that the Illinois Indians gave to their name. The former in his narrative journal observes: "To say Illinois is, in their language, to say 'the men', as if other Indians compared to them were mere beasts." "The word Illi- nois/' says Father Hennepin, "signifies a man of full age in the vigor of his strength. This word Illinois comes, as has already been observed, from Illini, which in that language signifies a Esprit" [the point of the Holy Ghost], By the Algonquin tribes and the ungodly fur-traders, who seriously interfered with the good father's mission work, the locality was called " Che-goi-me-gon or [the place of] " The Sandy Point", which, as is usual with aboriginal names, is highly descriptive, and characterizes its physical features in contrast with prevailing rugged shores of Lake Superior. Upon this tongue of land, in modern atlases, is shown the City of Bayfield, county-seat of Bayfield County, Wisconsin. * Pronounced Ill-i-noi, the terminal s being silent.THE ILLINOIS. perfect and accomplished man." Originally the word Illinewek, or Linnewek, had only a general meaning, and was a word used boast- ingly by other tribes of the great Algonquin family when speaking of themselves. The Delawares, considered the oldest branch of this family, called themselves " 'Lenno-Lenape', which," says Albert Gallatin, in his synopsis of Indians tribes of North America, "means original or 'unmixed men'; perhaps, originally, 'manly men'." In the Delaware language Lenno means a man and Nape means a male. Again, the tribes that occupied the country about the southern extremity of Hudson Bay, and who belonged to this same family of aboriginals, says Dr. Robertson: "call themselves, as many other Indian tribes do, 'men', 'E-ith-i?i-yook\ or 'In-ir-i-wrik', prefixing occasionally the name of their especial tribes. Thus the true name of the ' Mon-so-nies' or Swamp Indians who inhabited Moose River is 'Mon-so-a-Eith-yu-yook', or 'Moose-deer-men;." Later, and, as' it were, by the uniform concurrence of nearly all writers, when referring to the original occupants of this country, the name Ul-i-mouek, Ill-i-ne-wek, Len- i-wek, and Il!-i-ni was applied only to the Illinois Confederation. From the earliest accounts wTe have, the principal stream of this State was called "The River of the Illinois"; and a wide region of country, lying north of the mouth of the Ohio and upon both sides of the Mississippi, was called "The Country of the Illinois", and "The Illinois". These designations appear in the records and official letters under the administrations and owner- ship of this region under both the French and Spanish Govern- ments. Fox example, letters, deeds, and other official documents bore date at "Kaskaskia of the Illinois", "St. Louis of the Illi- nois", "Chicago of the Illinois", "Vincennes of the Illinois", etc. While the Revolutionary war was in progress, Gen. Geo. Rogers Clark df Virginia (though a resident of Kentucky, which was then a county of that colony) wrested the territory, now em- braced within the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, from the British Government. Afterward and in the spring of 1779, Col. John Todd, commissioned by Virginia as its lieutenant, went to Vincennes and Kaskaskia and organized Gen. Clark's conquest into a county of Virginia, to which was given the name of "Illinois County". Later this domain became the property, by cession of the several states claiming interest, of the United States. On the 4th of July, 1801, the Act of Con- gress for the division of the Northwest Territory went into effect, by the terms of which all that part lying to the westward of the west boundary line of the State of Ohio was constituted a sepa- rate territory, under name of "Indiana Territory",- and so remained102 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. until when by Act of Congress, February 3, 1809, all that part of it lying west of the Wabash River, and a line drawn due north from Vincennes to the British possessions, was organized into a separate territory, tp be called the "Illinois Territory". Still later, October 5, 1818, was passed an Act for the admission of the Illinois Territory as a state into the Federal Union, to be desig- nated as the "State of Illinois". Such, agreeably to approved authorities, is the origin of the word Illinois; and such are the various uses it has served. A great State perpetuates the name, in memory of a populous and powerful race of redmen, once living in its borders, but now utterly perished from the earth. From all accounts, it seems the Illinois Confederation claimed the extensive county bounded on the east by the ridge that divides the waters flowing into the Illinois from the streams that drain into the Wabash, between the headwaters of Saline Creek and a point as far north on the Illinois as the Desplaines, reaching still northward to the debatable ground between themselves, the Win- nebagoes, the Sacs and Foxes, and the Kickapoos; and extending westward of the Mississippi. Their favorite and most populous villages were upon the Illinois and its two principal branches, the Desplaines and the Kankakee. The area of the original country of the Illinois was soon reduced by continuous wars with their neighbors. The Sioux (Da-ko-ta) pressed them from the west; the Sacs and Foxes and Kickapoos, confederates, encroached upon their territory from the north; while war parties of the fierce Iroquois, coming from the east, rapidly decimated their numbers. These destructive influences were doing their fatal work, and the power of the Illinois was waning when they first came in contact with the French. Their sufferings rendered them pliable to the voice of the missionary; and, in t^eir weakness, they hailed with delight the coming of the Frenchmen, with his promise of protection assured with gifts of guns and powder. The Illinois drew so kindly to the priests, the coureurs des bois, and soldiers that the friendship between the two races never abated; and when, in the order of events, the sons of France had departed from Illinois, the love of the natives for the departed Gaul was handed down as a precious memory to their children. The military establishments at Detroit, Mich., and at Starved Rock, 111.,* for a while checked the incursions of the Iroquois * Under his letters patent, granted by the king of France to the seigniory of "The Country of the Illinois," LaSalle [so called after the name of the landed estate, near Rouen, France, belonging to his family, but whose primalTHE ILLINOIS. 103 and stayed the calamity that was to befall the Illinois. We give a condensed account of some of these campaigns of the Iroquois into the Illinois country, as embraced in extracts which are taken from a Memoir 011 Western Indians, by M. DuChesneau, Intendent of Canada, and successor to Jean Tallon, dated at Quebec, September 13, 1681: "To convey a correct idea," says this French officer, " of the present state of all those Indian nations it is necessary to explain the cause of the cruel war waged by the Iroquois for these three years past against the Illinois. The former are great warriors, can not remain idle, and pretend to subject all other nations to themselves, and never want a pre- text for commencing hostilities. The following is their assumed excuse for the present war: going about twenty years ago to attack the Foxes, they met the Illinois, and killed a considerable number of them. This continued during the succeeding years, and finally having destroyed a great many,, they forced them to abandon their country and seek refuge in very distant parts. The Iroquois, having got rid of the Illinois, took no more trouble with them, but went to war against another nation called the ' An-dosr, tagues/ [the Eries or Cats, so-called, and who were entirely des- troyed, by the Iroquois]. Pending this war, the Illinois returned to their country, and the Iroquois complained that they had killed forty of their people while on their way to hunt beaver in the Illinois country. To obtain satisfaction, the Iroquois resolved to make war upon them. Their true motive, however, was to gratify the British at 'Ma-nat-te? [New York] and 'Orange' (Albany], of whom they are too near neighbors, and who, by means of presents, engaged the Iroquois in this expedition, the object of which was to force the Illinois to bring their beaver to them, so that they may go and trade it afterward to the British; also to intimidate the other Indians, and constrain them to do the same thing. name was Rene—Robert Cavelire] erected a fort and trading-post on the eminence of this rocky height, situated on the south side of, and overlooking, the Illinois River, some eight miles below Ottawa. The fort was called "Fort St. Louisin honor of his patron Louis IV, and the place Le Rocher [the Rock]. The now generally received name of "Starved Rock" is derived from an alleged starving to death of a party of Indians corraled there by a remorse- less enemy of besiegers. The occurrence is without authority to support it, other than several vague (though charming) traditions drawn from the "won- der-stories " of as many different tribes. One of the most interesting of these, both in matter and the manner of treating it, is preserved in a paper on " The Last of the Illinois," from the able pen of Hon. Judge Caton, and published in Number Three of Fergus' Historical Series.104 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. 4'The improper conduct of Sieur de La Salle, governor of Ft, Frpntenac, has contributed considerably to cause the latter to* adopt this proceeding; for after he had obtained permission to d^cover the great river Mississippi, and had, as he alleged, the grant of the [country of the] Illinois, he no longer observed any terms with the Iroquois, and avowed that he would convey arms and ammunition to the Illinois, and would die assisting them.;r We break the thread of Chesneau's official letter to say to the reader that it must be remembered that LaSalle was not exempt from the attacks of that jealousy and envy which is inspired in the souls of little men toward those who plan and execute great undertakings. We see this spirit manifested in this letter. La Salle could not have done otherwise than supply fire-arms to the Illinois Indians; they were his friends and the owners of the country, the trade of which he had opened up at great hardship and expense to himself. Proceeding with Chesneau's letter: "The Iroquois despatched! in the month of April, of last year, an army consisting of between five and six hundred men, who approached an Illinois village [near the present site of Utica, LaSalle Co., 111.], where Sieur Henry de Tonty, LaSalle's principal officer, happened to be with some Frenchmen and two Recollect Fathers [the catholic priests, Fathers Gabriel Ribourde and Zenobe Membre, whom the Iro- quois left unharmed]. One of these, a most holy man [Father Ribourde] has since been killed by the Indians. But they would listen to no terms.of peace proposed to them by Tonty, who was slightly wounded at the beginning of the attack; the Illinois, having fled a hundred leagues, were pursued by the Iroquois, who killed and captured as many as twelve hundred of them, includ- ing women and children, having lost only thirty men.* The victory achieved by the Iroquois rendered them so insolent that they have continued ever since that time to send out divers war parties. The success of the last is not yet known, but it is not doubted they have been successful, because they are very warlike, while the Illinois are but indifferently so. Indeed, there is no doubt, and it is the universal-opinion, that if the Iroquois are allowed to- proceed, they will subdue the Illinois, and in a short time render themselves masters of all the Ottawa tribes, and direct the trade to the British, so that it is absolutely essential to make them our friends or to destroy them." The building of Fort St. Louis upon the heights of Starved Rock by LaSalle, in 1682, gave" confidence to the Illinois and. * In this foray, the Iroquois drove the fugitive Illinois beyond the Mississippi.THE ILLINOIS. lOf their scattered remnants who had again returned to their favorite village. They were followed by bands of Weas, Pi-an-ke-shasj; and Mi-am-ies, near kinsmen of the Illinois, and by the Shaw- nees and other tribes of remoter affinity; and soon a cordon of populous towns arose about the fort. The military forces of these villages at the colony of LaSalle, in 1684, was estimated at three thousand six hundred and eighty fighting men, the Illinois furnishing more than one-third of this number. Thus were the Iroquois barred out of the country of the Illinois, who, for a season, enjoyed a respite from their old enemies. The abandonment of Fort St. Louis as a military post, in 1702, was followed by a dis- persion of the tribes and fragments of tribes, except at the Illinois village, where a straggling population retained possession. The Kaskaskias learning, in the year 1700, that France was making a military establishment and colony near the mouth of the Missis- sippi, started thither. They were intercepted on the way, and persuaded to halt above the mouth of the Ohio, and soon there- after made themselves a permanent home 011 the banks of a stream which since then has borne their name, the Kaskaskia. The Iroquois came no more, having war enough on their hands nearer home; but the Illinois were constantly harrassed by other enemies, the Sacs and Foxes, the Kickapoos, and the Pottawato- mies. Their villages at Starved Rock and at Peoria L&ke were besieged by the*Foxes in 1722, and a detachment of a hundred men, commanded by Chevalier de Artaguiette and Sieur de Tisne, was sent from Fort Chartres to their assistance. The Foxes hav- ing lost more than a hundred of their men, abandoned the siege before the reinforcements arrived. "This success [says Charle- voix, the great French historian] did not, however, prevent the Illinois, although they had lost only twenty men, with some women and children, from leaving the Rock and Pim-i-toey [Peoria Lake] where they were kept in constant alarm, and to proceeding to unite with those of their brethren [the Kaskaskias] who had settled upon the Mississippi. This was a stroke of grace for most of them, the small number of missionaries prevent- ing their supplying so many towns scattered far apart; but, on the other side, as there was nothing to check the raids of the Foxes along the Illinois River, communication between Louisiana and New France [Canada] became much less practicable." The next fifteen years show a further decline in their numbers. In an enumeration of the Indian tribes connected with the Gov- ernment of Canada, prepared in the year 1736, the name, loca- tion, and number of fighting-men of the Illinois are set down as follows: "Mitchigamias, near Fort Chartres, two hundred andIO6 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. fifty; Kaskaskies, six leagues below, one hundred; Peorias, and the Rock, fifty; the Cahokias and Tamarois, two hun- dred;" making a total of six hundred warriors. The killing of Pontiac, some thirty years later, at Cahokia, whither he had retired after the failure of his bold efforts to rescue the country from the British, was laid upon the Illinois, a charge which, whether true or false, hastened their destruction. In an official letter to the secretary of war, of date March 22, 1814, Gen. Wm. H. Harrison says, "When I was first appointed governor of the Indiana Territory [May, 1800}, these once powerful tribes were reduced to about thirty warriors, of whom twenty-five were Kas- kaskias, four Peorias, and a single Mitchigamian. A furious war between them and the Sacs and Kickapoos reduced them to that miserable remnant which had taken refuge among the white peo- ple in the towns of Kaskaskia and St. Genieve." Since 1800, by successive treaties, they ceded their lands to the United States, and were removed to reservations, lying southwest of Kansas City, where, in 1872, they had dwindled to forty persons—men, women, and children, all told. Thus have wasted away the original occupants of the larger part of Illinois, and portions of Iowa and Missouri. In their single village near Starved Rock, says Father Membre, who was there in 1680, "there were seven or eight thousand souls;" and, in 1684, their warriors were set down at twelve hundred. In the days of their power, they nearly exterminated the Win-ne-ba-goes. Their war-parties penetrated the towns of the Iroquois in the valleys of the Mohawk and the Genesee. They took the Mitchi- gamies under their protection, giving them security against ene- mies with whom they were unable to contend. They assisted the French in their wars against the Cherokees and the Chicka- saws; and in the bitter struggle between the American colonies and the mother country on the one side, and Canada and France on the other, the Illinois tribes gave bountifully of their braves, who fought heroicly and to the last in the loosing cause of their Father O-ni-to [the king], across the great water. This people who had dominated over surrounding tribes, claim- ing for themselves the name of Illini or Linneway, to distinguish their superior manhood, have disappeared from the earth; another race, representing a higher civilization, occupy their former do- mains; and, already, even the origin of their name and the places of their villages have become the subjects of antiquarian research.THE MIAMIS. IO7 THE MIAMIS. THE people known to us as the Miamis formerly lived beyond the Mississippi. Their migration from thence eastward through Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, around the southern bend of Lake Michigan to Detroit, thence up the Maumee, and down the Wabash, and eastward through Indiana into Ohio, as far as the Great Miami, can be followed through the writings of officers, missionaries, and travelers connected with the French. Referring to the mixed village of Mascoutins and others upon Fox River, near its mouth, in Wisconsin, Father Claude Dablon, who was there in 1670, says the village "is joined in the circle of the same barriers of another people named Ou-mi-a-mi, which is one of the Illinois nations, which is, as it were, dismembered from the others, in order to dwell in these quarters." "It is beyond this great river [the Mississippi, of which the father had been speaking in the paragraph preceding that quoted] that are placed the Illinois of whom we speak, and from whom are detached those who dwell here with the Five Nations [Mascoutins, or Kickapoos] to form here a transplanted colony." From these quotations, there remains little doubt but that the Miamis were a branch of the great Ill-i-ni. This theory is not only declared by all French authorities, but is sustained by many British and American writers, among the latter of whom may be named Gen. Wm. H. Harrison, whose long acquaintance and official relations with the Northwestern Indians, especially the sev- eral sub-divisions of the Miami and Illinois tribes, gave him opportunities of which he availed himself to acquire an intimate knowledge concerning them. He says, "Although the language, manners, and customs of the Kaskaskias make it sufficiently cer- tain that they derive their origin from the same source with the Miamis; the connection had been dissolved before the French had penetrated from Canada to the Mississippi." This assertion of Gen. Harrison that the tribal relations between the Illinois and Miamis had been. broken prior to the exploration of the Missis- sippi Valley is sustained with great unanimity by all other authori- ties, and is illustrated in the long and disastrous wars waged upon the Illinois by the Iroquois, Sacs and Foxes, Kickapoos, and other enemies, in which there is no instance given where the Miamis ever offered assistance to their ancient kinsmen; on the contrary, they often lifted the bloody hatchet against them. The Miami confederation was subdivided into four principal bands, since known under the name of Miamis, Eel-Rivers, Weas,ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. and Piankeshaws. French writers, and some of the colonial traders, have given names of two or three other subdivisions ot the bands named; their identity, however, can not be clearly traced, and they figure so little in the accounts which we have of the Miamis that it is not necessary to specify their obsolete names, The Miamis, proper, have by different writers been called "Ou- mi-a-mi", "Ou-mi-am~wek", "Mau-mees", "Au-mi-am-i'7 (which has been contracted to Au-mi and to "O-mee"), and "Min-e- am-i". The Weas, whose name more properly is "We-we-hah", is called "8y-a-ta-nous", "Oui-at-a-nons", and "Ou-i-as" by the French, and in whose orthography the "8y" and "Ou" are equiv- alent in sound nearly to the letter of the English W. The British and colonial officers and traders spelled the word "Oui-ca-ta-non;;, " Way-ough-ta-nies", " Waw i-ach-tens'', and "We-hahs". The name Piankeshaws, in early accounts, figure as "Pou-an-ke-ki-as", "Pe-an-gui-chias", "Pi-an-gui-shaws", "Py-an-ke-shaws", and "Pi- an-qui-shawsThe Miami tribes were known to the Iroquois of New York as the Twigh-twees, a name generally used by the British as well as by the American colonists when referring to any of the Miami tribes. In the year 1684, at LaSalle's Colony, at Starved Rock, the Miamis had populous villages, where the Miamis, proper, counted thirteen hundred warriors, the Weas five hundred, and the Pian- keshaw band one hundred and fifty. At a later day,. 1718, the Weas had a village "at Chicago, but, being afraid of the canoe- people [the Chippeways and Pottawatomies], left it, and passing around the head of Lake Michigan to be nearer their brethren' farther to the east/'5 Father Charlevoix, writing from this vicinity, in 1721, says: '4Fifty years ago, the Miamis [/. e. the Wea band] were settled on the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, in a place called Chicago, from the name of a small river which runs into the lake, the source of which is not far distant from that of the river of the Illinois [meaning the Desplaines, which is the name by which it was often called in French authorities]. They are at present divided into three villages, one of which stands on .River St. Joseph, the second on another river [the Maumee] which bears their name and runs into Lake Erie, and a third upon the River Ouabache, which empties its w|f|$rs into the Mississippi. The last are better known by the appellation of Ouyatanons." In 1694, the governor of New France, in a conference with the Western Indians, requested the Miamis of the Pe-pe-ko-kia band who resided upon the Maramek [Kalamazoo River, in Michigan] to remove and join their tribe located on the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan; the governor giving it as his reason that he wished theTHE MIAMIS. 109 several Miami bands to unite, "so as to be able to execute with greater facility the commands which he might issue."- At that time the Iroquois were making war upon Canada, and the French were trying to induce the western tribes to take up the tomahawk in their behalf. The Miamis promised to comply with the gov- ernor's wishes; and "late in August, 1696, they started to join their brethren on the St. Joseph. On their way they were attacked by the Sioux, and lost several men. The Miamis of the St. Joseph learning this hostility, resolved to avenge their slaughter. They pursued the Sioux to their own country, and found them entrenched in a fort with some Frenchmen of the. class known as conreurs des bois [bush-lopers.] They nevertheless attacked them repeatedly, but were repulsed and were compelled to retire after losing several of their braves. On their way home, meeting other Frenchmen carrying arms and ammunition to the Sioux, they seized all they had, but did them no harm." The Miamis were greatly enraged with the French for supply- ing the 'Sioux with fire-arms. It took all the address of Gov. Frontenac to persuade them from joining the Iroquois. Indeed, they seized Nicolas Perrot, the French trader, who had been com- missioned to lead the Maramek band to the River St. Joseph, and would have burned him alive had it not been for the intercession of the Foxes in his behalf. This was the beginning of an aliena- tion of kindly feeling of the Miamis toward the French, which was never restored; and from this period, the movements of the tribe were observed by the French with jealous suspicion. The country of the Miamis extended west to the watershed between the Illinois and Wabash Rivers, which separated their possessions from those of their brethren, the Illinois. On the north were the Pottawatomies, who were slowly but persistently pushing their line southward through Wisconsin and around the west shore of Lake Michigan, as we shall see when coming to treat of them in a subsequent chapter. Unlike the Illinois, the Miamis held their own until placed on an equal footing with tribes eastward of them, by obtaining pos- session of fire-arms. Their superior numbers and bravery enabled them to extend the limits of their hunting-grounds eastward into Ohio, far within the territory claimed by the Iroquois; and says Gov. Harrison, they "were the undoubted proprietors of all that beautiful country watered by the Wabash and its tributaries, and there remains as little doubt that their claim extended as far east as the Scioto." With implements of civilized warfare in their hands, they maintained their tribal integrity and independence; and they traded with and fought against the French, British, and110 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. Americans by turns, as their interests or passions inclined; and madp peace with or declared war against other nations of their own race as policy or caprice moved them. More than once they compelled the arrogant Iroquois to beg from the governors of the American colonies that protection which they themselves had failed to secure by their own prowess. Bold, independent, and flushed with success, the Miamis afforded a poor field for mission- ary work, and the Jesuit Relations and pastoral letters of the French priesthood have less to say of the Miamis than of any other westward tribe, the Kickapoos alone excepted. Referring to their military powers, Gen. Harrison says of them that, "saving the ten years preceding the Treaty of Greenville [1795], the Miamis alone could have brought more than three thousand war- riors in the field: that they composed a body of the finest light troops in the world, and had they been under an efficient system of discipline, or possessed enterprise equal to their valor, the settlement of the country would have been attended with much more difficulty than was encountered in accomplishing it and their final subjugation would have for years been delayed. But con- stant wars with our frontier had deprived them of many of their warriors, the ravages of the small-pox, however, was the principal cause of the great decrease in their numbers." It was only the Piankeshaw band of the Miamis, however, that occupied portions of Illinois subsequent to the dispersion of La Salle's colony about Starved Rock. The principal villages of the latter were upon the Vermilion River, and at and in the vicinity of Vincennes, Ind. Their territory extended eastward to the Ohio River and west- ward to the ridge that divides the waters flowing respectively into the Kaskaskia and the Wabash. They were found by French officers in populous towns upon the Vermilion as early as 1718; later, they pushed the degenerating Illinois band's to the vicinity of Kaskaskia and neighboring villages, and hunted and dominated over the territory to the Mississippi, as high up, nearly, as the mouth of the Illinois. After the conquest of the Northwest Territory by the colonies and the mother country, and the subsequent overthrow of Pontiac, the British Government sent out George Croghan to obtain the consent of the Indians to the occupation of Kaskaskia and other forts erected by the French in the western country. Croghan was captured by a war-party of Kickapoos, near the mouth of the Wabash, and taken prisoner to Vincennes; from thence he came overland, following the Great Trail leading to Detroit, through the prairies, along the crest of the dividing ridge before named,.THE MIAMIS. Ill crossing the Vermilion River west of Danville. He describes that part of the hunting-ground of the Piankeshaws between Vin- cennes and the Vermilion of the Wabash. That the reader may- know how the Illinois country appeared to an .eye-witness in 1765. who wrote down his observations at the time, we quote the fol- lowing extracts from Col. Croghan's daily journal, of June 18th to the 22d, inclusive: "We traveled through a prodigious large meadow [prairie] called the Piankeshaw's hunting-ground. Here is no wood to be seen, and the country appears like an ocean. The ground is exceed- ingly rich and partially overgrown with wild hemp. The land is well watered and full of buffalo, deer, bears, and all kinds of wild game. * * * We passed through some very large meadows, part of which belongs to the Piankeshaws on the Vermilion River. The country and soil were much the same as that we traveled over for these three days past. Wild hemp grows here in abundance. Game is very plenty. At any time, in a half an hour, we could kill as much as we wanted.* * * We passed through a part of the same meadow mentioned yesterday; then came to a high woodland, and arrived at Vermilion River, so called from a fine red earth found there by the Indians, with which they paint them- selves. About a half of a mile from where we crossed this river is a village of Piankeshaws, distinguished by the addition of name of the river." ? Next to the Illinois, the Piankeshaws were the most peacefully inclined toward the whites. Early intermarriages of their daugh- ters with French traders, at Vincennes, and elsewhere, and with whom this tribe lived on terms of social equality, begat a genera- tion that united them all in a common interest. It was, therefore, that General Clark, in his conquest of the Illinois country, found little trouble in. transferring this friendliness of the Piankeshaws at Vincennes and the Vermilion towns to the American cause, the same as he had previously done at Kaskaskia and the neigh- boring mixed French and Indian villages upon the Mississippi. The Piankeshaws, barring individual exceptions, took no part in those bloody wars against the whites that followed the Revolution- ary struggle. It was not they, but war-parties of the Kickapoos, Pottawatomies, and other northwestern tribes that terrorized over * There must have been more than one hundred persons in this cortege to provide food for; as the party alone by whom Croghan and his associates were captured, numbered eighty warriors. Hence, it would require a good deal of meat, doubtless their only means of sustinance, to supply their daily wants.112 ILLINOIS, AND INDIANA INDIANS. the white settlements, crystalizing along the Ohio, the Wabash, and their tributaries, and in southwestern Illinois. In the retalia- tory raids of the Americans into the Indian territory, the innocent Piankeshaws often suffered avenging blows that should have fallen upon the guilty ones. The pioneer, burning with a sense of his wrongs, only considered that all redskins were Indians, and, without stopping to inquire whether they were of a friendly tribe or not, remorselessly slew upon sight any one of them whom he discovered. This state of affairs grew so bad that the Pianke- shaws appealed. to the Government, and General Washington issued his proclamation, especially forbidding the Piankeshaws from being harmed by the white people. The capital of the Miami tribe, from earliest times, was at Ft. Wayne. As far back as the year 1700 they were there, and shortly before had assisted Canadians in making the "Portage"—the land carriage from the St. Marys across to Little River, a tributary of the Wabash. The near proximity of the headwaters of the Mau- mee, flowing eastwardly into Lake Erie, and Little River and the Wabash, flowing westward and south into the Mississippi, gave great importance to this Portage, making it the key to and giving it control of the communication between the vast area of country lying upon either side. The Miamis well knew this, and held possession until forced, at last, to yield it to the United States, in 1795,' by the terms of the treaty at Greenville. At that treaty, Little Turtle, the great orator of the Miamis, protesting against its surrender, said: "-Elder brother [meaning Gen. Wayne], when our forefathers saw the French and the English at the Miami vil- lage [as Ft. Wayne was then known], that glorious gate which your younger brothers [the Miamis] had the happiness to own, and through which all the good words of our chiefs had to pass [that is, messages between the several tribes], from north to south, and east to west, the French and the English never told us they wished to purchase our lands from us." "The next place you pointed out to us was the Little River, and said you wanted two miles square at that place. This is a request that our fathers, the French or British, never made of us; it was always ours. This carrying place has heretofore proved, in a great degree, the subsistence of your brothers. That place has brought us, in the course of one day, the amount of twelve hundred dollars. Let us both own this place, and enjoy in common the advantages it affords." Gen. Wayne was inexorable; ancj, by the terms of the treaty, a piece of land six miles square, near the confluence of the Rivers St. Marys and St. Joseph, at Ft. Wayne, and a piece two miles square at the confluence of Little River with the Wabash, was ceded to the United States.THE MIAMIS. 113 The Miamis at Ft. Wayne were regarded as the senior band of the tribe, from their superior intelligence and numbers;9and to whom the other bands, except the Piankeshaws, at a later day, deferred in all matters of peace or war or affairs affecting the common interests of the tribe. The other branches of the great Miami family had extensive villages and cultivated fields on the Mississineway, near and above Peru, Indiana; along Eel River, near Logansport and above; upon the Wea plains, below Lafay- ette; upon Sugar Creek; and upon the beautiful prairie strip in the neighborhood of Terre Haute. Subsequent to the Treaty of Greenville, their demoralization was rapid in its progress and terrible in its consequences. So much so, that when the Baptist missionary, the Rev. Isaac McCoy, was among them between the years 1817 and 1822, and drawing his conclusions from his own observation, he declared that the Miamis were not a warlike people. At the villages on Sugar Creek, Eel River, and the Mississineway, and particularly at Ft. Wayne, it was a continuous round of drunken debauchery when- ever whisky could be obtained, of which men, women, and chil- dren partook alike; and life was often sacrificed in personal broils, or by exposure of the debauchees to the inclemency of the weather. By treaties, entered into at various times from 1795 to 1845, the Miamis ceded their lands in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and removed west of the Mississippi; going in villages or by detach- ments from time to time. In 1838, at a single cession, they sold the U. S. Government 177,000 acres of land in Indiana, which was only a fragment of their former possessions, still retaining large tracts. Thus they alienated their heritage piece by piece to make room for the incoming white population, while they gradu- ally disappeared from the valleys of the Wabash and Maumee. Few of them clung to their reservations, adapted themselves to the ways of the Americans, and their descendants are now to be met with in or about the cities that have sprung up in the locali- ties named. The money received from the sales of their lands proved a calamity, as the proceeds were wasted for whisky. The* last of the Miamis to go westward was the Mississineway band. This remnant, comprising in all about 350 persons, in charge of Christmas Dazney,* left their old homes, where many of * His name was also spelled Dazney, DaShney, and Daynett, the latter being the French orthography. He was born Dec. 25, I799> at the so-called "Lower Wea Village", or "Old Orchard Town", or "We-au-ta-no[The Rising Sun], within the southern suburbs of the present City of Terre Haute, 8114 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. them had farm houses and had made considerable progress in agriculture, in the. fall of 1846, going to Cincinnati. Here they were placed on a steamboat, taken down the Ohio, up the Missis- sippi and Missouri, and landed, late in the season, at Westport,, near Kansas City. Ragged men and nearly naked women and Ind. His father, Ambroise Dagney, was a native Frenchman, of Kaskaskia, and servpd throughout the Tippecanoe campaign, in Capt. Scott's Company of Militia, raised at Vincennes. He received a severe flesh wound at the battle near the Prophet's T(jwn; lived for many years with his daughter,. Mary Cott, formerly Mary Shields, on a reservation secured to her by the Treaty of St. Mary's, Oct. 2, 1818, and situated at the ancient Indian village near the "Vermilion Salines", some four miles west of Danville, 111., where he died and was buried, in 1848. He was well known to the early citizens of Danville, and of the Wabash Valley from Danville to Vincennes. Upon all convivial occasions, which were by no means infrequent, he. indulged his. fondness for telling over the many thrilling incidents and dangerous experi- ences of his wild nomadic life, as hunter, trapper, boatsman, guide, and soldier. He boasted the fact of a personal acquaintance with Gov. Harrison, whose memory he held in the highest esteem; and anathematized with volu- at>le profanity, all " bad Ingunsas he called those who were unfriendly to the whites. Ambroise Dagney's wife—the only one he ever had, and the mother of Christmas Dagney and Mary Cott, was Me-chin-quam-e-sha, [The Beautiful Shade Tree], a sister of Jocco, or Jack-ke-kee-kah, [The Tall Oak], head chief of the Wea Band of Miamis, whose old and principal village was the one we have named near Terre Haute. Later, this band went higher up the Wabash to a secondary village near the mouth of Sugar Creek. Under the instruction of Catholic teachers, the son, Christmas Dagnay re- ceived a good education. He spoke the English and French languages with great fluency, and was master of the dialects of the several Indiana and Illi- nois Indians. He served for many years at Fort Harrison [on the east bank of the Wabash, near and above Terre H^ute], and elsewhere, as Government 'interpreter and Indian agent, filling these various (positions of confidence and trust efficiently and honestly.* Feb. 16, 181^ he was married to Mary Ann Isaacs, an educated Christian woman, of the Brothertown, N.Y. [Mohegan] Indians, whose acquaintance he had made while she was spending a few weeks on a visit at the Mission House of Rev. Isaac McCcy, then situated on Raccoon Creek, near Rosedale, Park Co., Ind. Mr. McCoy performed the marriage ceremony, as he says, "in the presence of our Indian neighbors, who were invited to attend; and we had the happiness to have twenty-three of the natives partake of a meal prepared for the occasion.w Christmas Dagney died in 1848, at Cold Water Grove, Kansas, and his widow subsequently married] Baptiste Peoria, mentioned *in a note further on.THE MIAMIS. 115 children, forming a motley group, were huddled upon the shore of a strange land, without food or friends to relieve their wants and exposed to the bitter December winds that blew from the chilly plains of Kansas. From Westport the Mississineways were conducted to a place near the present village of Lewisburg, Kansas, in the county since named Miami. They suffered greatly and nearly one-third of their number died the first year. Mrs. Mary Babtiste Peoria, then wife of Christmas Dazney, the agent having these unfortunate people in charge, and who accompanied her husband in this work, stated to the writer "that strong men would actually cry when they thought about their old homes in Indiana, to which many of them would make journeys bare-footed, begging their way and submitting to the imprecations hurled upon them from the door of the white man as they asked for a crust of bread. I saw fathers and mothers give their little children away to others of the tribe for adoption, and then singing their funeral songs and join- ing in the solemn dance of death. Afterward go calmly away from the assemblage, never again to be seen alive." In 1670, the Jesuit father, Claude Dablon, introduces to our notice the Miamis at the village of Maskoutench; where, as we have already shown, the chief was surrounded by his officers of state in all the routine of barbaric display, to whom the natives of other tribes paid the greatest deference. Advancing eastward, in the rear line of their valorous warriors, the Miamis pushed their villages through Illinois into Michigan and Indiana, and as far into Ohio as the river still bearing their name. Coming in collision with the French, the British, and the Americans; reduced by constant wars; and decimated, more than all, by vices con- tracted by intercourse with a superior race, whose virtues they failed to emulate, they make a westward turn; and having in the progress of time described the round of a most singular journey, we at last behold the miserable remnant on the same side of the Mississippi from whence their warlike progenitors had come nearly two centuries before. The Wea and Piankeshaw band had preceded the Mississine- way to the westward; they too had become reduced to about two hundred and fifty persons. They, with the Miamis and remain- ing fragments of the Kaskaskias, the latter containing under that name what yet remained of the several subdivisions of the old Illini confederacy, were collected by Baptiste Peoria and consoli- dated under the title of The Confederated Tribes.* This little * This remarkable man was the son of a daughter of a sub-chief of the116 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. confederation sold out their reservations in Miami County, Kan- sas, and retired to a tract of reduced dimensions within the Indian Peoria Tribe, and was born, according to the best information, in 1793, near the confluence of the Kankakee and Maple, as the DesPlaines River was called by the Illinois Indians. His reputed father's name was Baptiste, a French Canadian and trader, among the Peoria Band. Young Peoria was called Batticy, by his mother; later in life, he was known as Baptise "the Peoria", and finally, as Baptiste Peoria. The people of his tribe gave the name a liquid sound, pronouncing the name as if it were spelled Paola. The county-seat of Miami Co., Kansas, is named after him. He was a man of large stature, and possessed of great strength, activity, and courage; and, like Keokuk, the great chief of the Sac-and-Fox Indians, a fearless and expert horseman. Having a ready command of the French and English languages, and being familiar, as well, with the several dialects of the Pottawatomies, Shawnees, Delawares, Miamis, Illinois, and Kickapoos; these qualifications as a linguist soon brought him into prominence among the Indians, while his known integrity as readily commended his services to the United States. From the year 1821 to 1838, he was employed in assisting the removal of the above tribes from Indiana and Illinois to their respective reservations west- ward of the Missouri. His duties in these relations brought him in contact with many of the early settlers on the Illinois, the Kaskaskia, and the Wa- bash Rivers and their constituent streams. He represented his tribe at the Treaty of Edwardsville, 111., September 25, 1818. By this treaty, at which there were present representatives from each of the five Tribes comprising the Illinois or Illini nation, it appears that for a period of years anterior to that time, the Peoria band had lived and were then living separate and apart from the others. Baptiste Peoria was in the service of the General Government for nearly thirty years, in the Indian Department; and in 1867, became head chief of the consolidated Miami and Illinois tribes, and went with them to their newly- assigned reservation in the north-east part of the Indian Territory, where he died at an advanced age, Sept. 13, 1873. Some years before, he married Mrs. Mary Dagney, widow of Christmas Dagney, and to this lady is the author indebted for copies of the "Western Spirit", and the "Fort Scott Monitor", newspapers published at Paola and Ft. Scott, Kansas, respectively, containing biographical sketches and obituary notices of her late husband, from which this note has, in the main, been collated. It may well be said that Baptiste was "The Last of the Peorias". By precept and example he spent the better portion of a busy life in persistent, efforts to save the fragment of the Illinois and Miamis by encouraging them to adopt the ways of civilized life. His widow, Mary Baptiste, nee Dagney, survives,-and is living in her elegant homestead at Paoli, Kansas, in com- ortable circumstances.THE MIAMIS. 117 Territory. Since this last change of location, in 1867, they have made but little progress toward a- higher civilization. Those that remain of the once numerous Illini and Miami tribes are now reduced to less than two hundred persons, and for the most part are a listless, idle people, possessing none of the spirit that had inspired the breasts of their ancestors. THE KICKAPOOS. The Kickapoos and Mascoutins are treated here as but one tribe, for the difference between them was only nominal at best.' The name is found written in French authorities as "Kic-a- poux", "Kick-a-pous"Kik-a-poux", "Kik-a-bou", "Quick-a- pous", and "Kick-a-pous". Some authors claim the name to have been derived from the Algonquin word Nee-gig [the otter, or the spirit of an otter]. Prof. Henry R. Schoolcraft, a recog- nized authority on the ethnology of the northwestern tribes, alluding to the Kickapoos,..says, they are "an erratic race, who, under various names, in connection with the Sacs and Foxes, have, ill good keeping with one of their many names, which is said, by one interpretation, to mean 'Rabbits-Ghost' [Wah- boos, with little variation in dialect, being the word for rabbit], skipped over half the continent, to the manifest discomfort of both German and American philologists and ethnographers, who, in searching for the so-called 'Mascontens', have followed, so far as their results are concerned, an ignis fatuns This tribe has been long connected with the history of the Northwest, in which they acquired great notoriety, as well for the wrars in which they were engaged with other tribes, as for their presistent hostility to the white race throughout a period of nearly one hundred and fifty years. They are first noticed by the French explorer, Samuel Champlain, who, in 1612, discovered the "Mascoutins residing near the place called Sak-in-am",—-.or, rather, Sac-e-nong, meaning, in Chippeway, the country of the Sacs, which, at this time, comprised that part of the State of Michigan, lying between the head of Lake Erie and Saginaw Bay, on Lake Huron. In 1669-70, as seen in an extract from Father Allouez, quoted in the chapter relating to the Miamis, the Kickapoos and Mascoutins were found in connection with the Miamis, near the mouth of Fox River, Wisconsin. In the same letter, Father Allouez says that "four leagues from thisI 18 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. mixed village are the Kickabou, who speak the same language with the Mascoutench".* This people were not pliant material in the hands of the mis- sionaries. In fact, they appear to have acquired early notoriety in history by seizing Father Gabriel Ribourde as he was walking near the banks of the Illinois River, absorbed in religious medi- tation, and whom they "carried away, and broke his head", as Henry de Tonti quaintly expresses it, in referring to this ruthless murder. Again, in 1728, as Father Ignatius Guignas, compelled to abandon his mission among the Sioux, 011 account of a victory which the Foxes had obtained over the French, was attempting to reach the Illinois, he, too, fell into the hands of the Kicka- poos and Mascoutens, and for five months was held a captive, and constantly exposed to death. During this time he was con- demned to be burned, and was only saved through the kindly intervention of an old man in the tribe, who adopted him as a son. While a prisoner, his brother missionaries of the Illinois relieved his necessities by sending timely supplies, which/Father * The Mascoutins, in the works of French authors, appear as "Mascou- tench", "Mackkoutench", " Machkouteng", " Masqutins", and "Maskou- teins ". English and American called them " Masquattimies ", " Mascoutins "Musquitons", "Musquitos", a corruption used by American colonial traders, and "Meaows", which was the English synonym for the French word prairie, before the latter had become naturalized into the English language. The derivation of the name was a subject of discussion among the early French missionaries. Father Marquette, with some others who followed the Huron Indian rendition of it, says, "Maskoutens in Algonquin may mean Fire Nation", and this is the "name given them"; while Fathers Allouez and Charlevoix (whose opportunities to know were better), together with the still more recent American authors, claims that the word signifies a prairie or "a land bare of trees". The Ojebway word for prairie is " Mush-koo-da". Bands of the same tribe on the upper Mississippi, on the authority of Dr. James, call it Mtis-ko-tici. Its derivitive or root is Ish-koo-ta, skoutay, or scote (ethnologists differ as to its orthography), and which is the algonquin word for fire. The great plains westward of the Wabash and the lakes, was truly " a land barren of trees", kept so by the annually recurring fires that swept over through the tall grass in billows of flame and smoke; and this dis- tinguishing feature is aptly preserved in the name the Indians gave it. Major Forsyth, long a trader at Peoria, in his manuscript account of the Indian tribes of his acquaintance, quoted by Dr. Drake in his Life of Black Hawk, says, "The Mascos or Mascoutins were, by French traders of a more recent day, called gens des prairies [men of the prairie], and lived and hunted on the great prairies between the Wabash and Illinois Rivers".THE KICKAPOOS. 119 Guignas used to gain over the good will of his captors. Having induced them to.make peace, he was taken to one of the Illinois missions, where he was suffered to remain or parole until Nov., 1729, when his captors returned and took him back to their own country; since which it seems nothing has ever been heard of him. The Kickapoos early incurred the displeasure of the French by depredations south of Detroit. In 1712, a band of them, living in a village near the mouth of the Maumee River, in com- pany with about thirty Mascoutens, were about to make war upon the French Post at Detroit. They took prisoner one Lang- lois, a messenger, on his return from the Miami country, whither lie was bringing many letters from the Jesuit fathers of the se'v- eral Illinois villages, as well, also, despatches from Louisiana. The mauraders destroyed the letters and despatches, which gave much uneasiness to M. Du Boisson, commandant at Detroit. As a result of this act, a canoe, laden with Kickapoos on their way to the villages near Detroit, was captured by the Hufbns and Ottawas, residing near by, and who were allies of the French. Among the slain was the principal Kickapoo chief, whose head, with three others of the same tribe, were brought to Du Boisson, who informs us "that the Hurons and Ottawas committed this act for the alleged reason, that the previous winter the Kicka- poos had taken some of the Hurons and Iroquois prisoners, and also because they had considered the Kickapoo chief a "true Outtagamis"; that is, they regarded him as one of the Fox nation. From the village of .Machkoutench, on Fox River, Wis., the Kickapoos seemed to have passed to the south, extending their right flank in the direction of Rock River, and their left toward the southern trend of Lake Michigan. Prior to 1718, they had villages on Rock River and in the vicinity of Chicago. Indeed, Rock River appears as Kickapoo River on cotemporaneous French maps. In 1712, the Mascoutins entered the plot formed for the cap- ture of the post of Detroit; their associates repaired to the neighborhood, and, whereas they were awaiting the arrival of the Kickapoos, they were attacked by a confederation of Indians, who were friendly to the French and had hastened to the relief of the garrison. The destruction that followed this attempt against Detroit, was, perhaps, one of the most remorseless, in which white men fcfok a part, #of which we have an account in the annals of Indian warfare. The French '.nd Indian forces, after protracted efforts, compelled the enemy/to abandon their position and flee to Presque Isle, opposite Hog Island, near120 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. Lake St. Clair, some distance above the fort. Here they held out for four days; their women and children, in the meantime,, actually starving, numbers of whom were dying every day from hunger. Messengers were sent to the French commander, beg- ging for quarter, and offering to surrender at discretion, only craving that the remaining survivors might be spared the horrors of a general massacre. Perpetual servitude as the slaves of vic- tors; anything rather than a wholesale destruction. The Indian allies of the French would listen to no terms. "At the end of fourth day", says the French commander, "after fighting with much courage, and not being able to resist further the Muscotins surrendered at discretion to our people, who gave them no quar- ter. Our Indians lost sixty men, killed and wounded. The enemy lost a thousand souls—-men, women, and children. All our allies returned to our fort [at Detroit] with their slaves [cap- tives], and their amusement was to shoot four or five of them every day. The Hurons did not spare a single one of theirs". From references given, it is apparent that this people, like the Miamis and Pottawatomies, were progressing south and eastward. This movement was probably caused by the Sioux, whose fierce warriors were pressing them from the northwest. As early as 1695, the Foxes, with the Kickapoos and ]V^scoutins, were meditating a migratioij toward the Wabash as a place of security. From an official document sent from Quebec, relating to the occurrences in Canada during that year, the department at Paris is advised "that the Sioux, who have mustered some two thou- sand warriors for the purpose, would come in large numbers and seize their village. This has caused the Outagamies to quit their country and disperse themselves for a season, and afterward to return and save their harvest. They are then to retire toward the Wabash and form a settlement so much the more permanent, as they will be removed from the incursions of the Sioux, &nd in a position to easily effect a junction with the Iroquois and Eng- lish, without the French being able to present it. Should this project be realized, it is very apparent that the Mascotins and the Kickapoos will be of the party, and that the three tribes, forming a new village of fourteen or fifteen hundred men, would experience no difficulty in considerably increasing it by attracting other nations thither, which would be of most pernicious con- sequences7* That the Mascoutins, at least, did go soon after this toward the lower Wabash, is shown by the fact of their presence about Juchereau's trading-post, which erected near the mouth of the Ohio, in the year 1700. It is questionable, how- ever, if either the Foxes or Kickapoos followed the MuscoutinsTHE KICKAPOOS. 121 to the Wabash country, and it is evident that the Mascoutins, Wild survived the epidemic that broke out among them while at Juchereau's post, returned to the north. The French having effected a conciliation with the Sioux, we find that, for a number of years subsequent to 1705, the Mascoutins were again back among their affinities, the Foxes and Kickapoos upon their com- mon hunting grounds in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Later, and by progressive approaches, the Kickapoos worked further southward, and established themselves in the territory lying between the Illinois and Wabash Rivers, and south of the Kankakee. This migration was not accomplished without oppo- sition and blood shed in punishing the Piankeshaws east and south to the Wabash, and the Illinois tribes south and west upon the lower waters of the Kaskaskia. We are without authentic data as to the period of the time when this conquest was con- sumated. At the treaty, ocncluded at .Edwardsville, 111., July 30, 1819, between- Augusta Chouteau and Benjamin Stephenson, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the prin- cipal chiefs and warriers of the Kickapoo tribe, the latter ceded the following lands, residue of their domain until then undis- posed of, viz.: "Beginning on the Wabash, at the upper point of their cession made by the second Article of their Treaty at Vin- cennes, on the 9th day of December, 1809;* running thence northwestwardly to the dividing line between the State of Illinois and Indiana; thence north along said line to the Kankakee; thence with said river to the Illinois River; thence down the latter to its mouth; thence with a direct line to the northwest cor- ner of the Vincennes tract, as recognized in the Treaty with the Piankashaw tribe of Indians at Vincennes, on the 30th day of December, 1805;+ and thence with the western and northern * The beginning point here referred to is "on the Wabash", at the mouth of the Big Vermilion River. By previous cessions it appears that the acknowledged territory of the Kickapoos extended down the Wabash nearly as far as Vincennes. Vide 9th Article of the Treaty of September 30, 1809, concluded at Ft. Wayne, between the United States and the Delewares, Pot- tawatomies, Miamis, and Eel River tribes; Treaty of Vincennes of Dec. 9, 1809, between the United States and the Kickapoos. + The boundaries of "the Vincennes tract" were settled by the terms of the treaty at Ft. Wayne, July 7^ 1803, between Gov. Harrison of the Indiana Territory (which, at that time, embraced all of the present States of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin), and the several Deleware, Shawnee, Pot- tawatomie, Miami, Eel River, Wea, Piankeshaw, Kickapoo, and Kaskaskia tribes within his jurisdiction. The first Article of this treaty also explains122 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. boundaries of the cessions heretofore made by the said Kickapoo tribe of Indians,* to the beginning. Of which last described tract of land, the said Kickapoo tribe claim a large portion by descent from their ancestors, and the balance by conquest from the Illinois nation, and uninterrupted possession for more than half a century The claim of the Kickapoos to the country referred to does not rest alone upon the assertion of the Kickapoos, but is supported by officers of the French, English, and American governments, when they respectively asserted dominion over it. Under date of April 21st, 1752, M. de Longueil, commandant at Detroit, incorporates in an official report upon the condition of Indian affairs in his department, that he had received advices from "M. de Lingeris, commandant at the Oy-a-ta-nons,+ who believes that great reliance is not to be placed on the Mascoutens, and the reasons that led to its consumation. It is as follows: " Whereas, it is declared by the 4th Article of the Treaty of Greenville, that the United States reserve for their use the post of Vincennes, and all the lands adjacent, to which the Indian titles have been extinguished. And, whereas, it has been found difficult to, determine the precise limits of said tract as held by the French and British Governments; it is hereby agreed, that the boundaries of said tract shall be as follows: Beginning at Point Coupee. [" cut-off" or noted hend in the river some eighteen miles above Vincennes], on the Wabash, and tunning thence, by a north seventy-eight degrees west, twelve miles [into Illi- nois]; thence [south by west] by a line parallel to the general course of the Wabash, until it shall be intersected by a line at right angles to the same, passing through the mouth of White River [about eighteen miles below Vin- cennes]; thence, by the last mentioned line [east by south], across the Wabash and toward the Ohio River, seventy-two miles; thence by a line north twelve degrees west, until it shall be intersected by a line at right angles with the same, passing through Point Coupee, and, by the last mentioned line, to the place of beginning." The boundaries of "th.e Vincennes tract", as thus defined, appear on many of the early maps, and displays a tract of land in the shape of a parallelogram, some thirty-six miles wide, by seventy-two long, lying, for the most part, on the east side of the Wabash and in Indiana, an average width of about ten miles, only, off of the west end of it being in Illinois, the northwest corner of which, referred to in the text, is about twenty miles north, and some ten miles west of Vincennes. * By previous treaties, the Kickapoos had ceded to the United States their claims to the territory from "the Vincennes tract" as high up the Wabash as the mouth of Pine Creek, Warren Co., Ind., and extending west of the same stream an average width of thirty miles. + Fort Ouiatanon situated on the west bank of the Wabash River, a.few miles above Attica, Ind.THE KICKAPOOS. ,123 that their remaining neutral is all that is to be expected from them and the Kickapoos." Later, and after the northwest terri- tory had been lost to France and ceded to Great Britain as the fruit of the French colonial war, and after the failure of the Indian confederation under Pontiac to reconquer the same terri- tory, Sir William Johnson, having in charge the Indian affairs of the western nations, sent his deputy, George Croghan, to the Illinois to pacify the Indians "to soften their antipathy to the English, to expose the falsehood of the French, to distribute presents, and prepare a way for the passage of troops "* who were preceding westward to take possession of Fort Chartes and other military establishments within the ceded territory. Croghan left Fort Pitt on May t7th, 1765, starting down the Ohio in two batteaux, having with him several white persons, and a number of Deleware, Iroquois, and Shawnee Indians, as deputies of tribes inhabiting the upper waters of the Ohio, with whom Croghan had already concluded treaties of reconciliation toward the British. On the evening of the 6th of June, Croghan reached the mouth of the Wabash. They dropped down the river six miles, "and came to a place called the, old Shawnee village, some of that nation having previously lived there". He remained here the next day, occupying his time in preparing and sending despatches to Fort Chartes. We quote from his journal: "On the 8th, at daybreak, we were attacked by a party of Indi- ans, consisting of eighty warriors of the Kickapoos and Musqua- timies, who killed two of my men and three Indians, wounded myself and all the rest of my party, except two white men and one Indian; then made myself and all the white men prisoners, plundering us of everything we had. A deputy of the Shawnees, who was shot through the thigh, having concealed himself in the woods for a few minutes after he was shot—not knowing but that they were southern Indians, who were always at war with the northward Indians—after discovering what nation they were, came up to them and made a very bold speech, telling them that the whole northward Indians would join in taking revenge for the insult and murder of their people. This alarmed those sav- ages very much, who began to excuse themselves, saying, their fathers, the French, had spirited them up, telling them that the Indians were coming with a large body of southern Indians to take their country from them and enslave them; that it was this that induced them to commit this outrage. After dividing the plunder (they left a great part of the heaviest effects behind), they set o£f with us to their village of Ou-at-to-7ion in a great hurry, * Vide Parkman's History Conspiracy of Pontiac.124 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. being in dread of a large party of Indians, which they suspected were coming after me. Our course was through a thick woody country, crossing a great many swamps, morrasses, and beaver ponds."* From the data given, taken with the well-established historical fact that the Kickapoos approached the Wabash from the northwest, it is evident that, prior to 1752, they had driven the Illinois tribes from the hunting grounds lying eastward and south of the Illinois River. In this conquest they were assisted * The war party continued up the river the 9th, 10th, nth, 12th, 13th, and 14th; and on the 15th reached Vincennes. "On my arrival there", says Croghan, "I found a village of eighty or ninety French families, seated on the east side of the river, being the one of the finest situations that can be found. The country is level and clear, the soil very rich, producing wheat and tobacco. I think the latter preferable to that of Maryland or Virginia. The French inhabitants hereabouts are an idle, lazy people, a parcel of rene- gades from Canada, and much worse than the Indians. They took a secret pleasure at our misfortunes, and the moment we arrived they came to the Indians, exchanging trifles for their valuable plunder. As the savages took from me a considerable quantity of gold and silver, the French traders ex- torted ten half Johnies from them for one pound of Vermilion. Here is likewise an Indian village of t^ie Pyan-ke-shaws [in their language called 4 Chip-kaw-kay5, rendered the town of Brushwood. Dillon's History of Indi- ana,] who were much displeased with the party that took me, telling them that 4 our and your chiefs are gone to make peace, and you have begun a war for which our women and children will have reason to cry.' * * * Port Vincent is a place of great consequence for trade, being a fine hunting coun- try along the Wabash, and too far for the Indians, which reside hereabouts, to go enter to the Illinois, or elsewhere, to fetch their necessaries." On the 17th, Croghan and his captors crossed the Wabash, and came up through the prairies referred to in the chapter on the Miamis, and on the 23d entered a large bottom on the Wabash, within six miles of Fort Oui-a-ta-non, Croghan further says: " The Kickapoos and Musquatamies, whose warriors had taken us live nigh the fort, on the same side of the river, where they have two vil- lages." Croghan's Journal continues a daily account of his movements np the Wabash to Ft. Wayne, down the Maumee, and up the lakes to Detroit, and from thence to Niagara Falls; and gives a fair insight into the appear- ance and topography of the extensive country he traversed as it then appeared, and illustrates the temper of the Indians who inhabited it. The original manuscript diary was obtained by Mr. Featherstonhough, and first published in his "American Journal of Geology", and in December, 1831, a reprint of 100 copies was issued in pamphlet form. It may also be found in the appen- dix of Mann Butler's valuable History of Kentucky, in either of the editions of 1834 or 1836.THE KICKAPOOS. 125 by the Sacs and Foxes, and Pottawatomies, who made a common cause of warfare upon the Illinois tribes. " Tradition (says the Pioneer Historian of Illinois, the Rev. John M. Peck) tells us of many a hard fought battle between the original owners of the country and these intruders. Battle Ground Creek is well-known on the road from Kaskaskia to Shawneetown, twenty five miles from the former place, where the Kaskaskias and their allies were dreadfully slaughtered by the united forces of the Kicka- poos and Pottawatomies."* Within the limits of the territory defined by the treaty at Edwardsville in 1819, the Kickapoos, for generations before that time, had many villages. The principal of these were Kickapo- go-oui, on the west bank of the Wabash, near Hudsonville, Craw- ford Co., 111., and known, in the early days of the Northwest Territory, as Musquiton [Mascoutine]; another on both sides of the Vermilion River, at its confluence with the Wabash. This last village was destroyed by Maj. John F. Hamtramck, in Oct., 1790, whose military forces moved up the river from Vincennes to create a diversion in favor of Gen. Harmer, then leading the main attact against the Miami town at Fort Wayne and other Indian villages in that vicinity. Higher up the Vermilion were other Kickapoo towns, particularly the one some four miles west of Danville, and near the mouth of the Middle Fork. The remains of one of the most extensive burial-grounds in the Wabash Valley, still attest the magnitude of this once populous Indian city; and, although the village site has been in cultivation for over fifty years, every recurring year the ploughshare turns up flint arrow-points, stone-axes, gun-flints, gun-locks, knives, silver brooches, or other mementoes of its former inhabitants. These people were greatly attached to the country watered by the Ver- milion and its tributaries; and Gov. Harrison found a difficult task to reconcile them to ceding it away. In his letter to the secretary of war, of Dec. 10, 1809, referring to his efforts to in- duce the Kickapoos to part with it, the governor says he "was extremely anxious that the extinguishment of title should extend as high up as the Vermilion River, but it was objected to because * " An Historical Sketch of the early American settlements in Illinois, from 1780 to 1800. Read before the Illinois State Lyceum, at its Anniversary, August 16, 1832. By J. M. Peck." Published in No. 2 of Vol. 1, of The Western Monthly Magazine for February, 1833. Other accounts fix the date of this last great battle about the year 1800, and ascribe its planing and exe- cution to the great Pottawatomie warrior and medicine man known as Wah- bun-ou We-ne-ne or " The Juggler126 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. it would include a Kickapoo village. This small tract of about twenty miles square* is one of the most beautiful that can be conceived, and is, moreover, believed to contain a very rich cop- per mine. I have myself frequently seen specimens of the cop- per; one of which I sent to Mr. Jefferson in 1802. The Indians were so extremely jealous of any search being made for this mine, that traders were always cautioned not to approach the hills which were supposed to contain the mine." + The Kickapoos had other villages on the Embarras, some miles west of Charlestowg, and still others about the headwaters of the Kaskaskia. During the period when the territory west of the Mississippi belonged to Spain, her subjects residing at St. Louis "carried on a considerable trade among the Indians east- ward of the Mississippi, particularly the Kickapoos near the head- waters of the Kaskaskia." J Further northward they had still other villages, among them one toward the headwaters of Sugar Creek, a tributary of the Sangamon River, near the southwest corner of McLean County. § The Kickapoos had, besides, vil- lages west of Logansport and Lafayette, in the groves upon the prairies, and finally, a great or capital village near what is well- known as " Old Town" timber, in West Township, McLean Co., 111. These last were especially obnoxious to the pioneer settlers, of Kentucky, because the Indians living or finding a refuge in them, made frequent and exasperating raids across the Ohio, where they would murder men and women, and carry off captive children, to say nothing of the lesser crimes of burning houses, and stealing horses. So annoying did these offences become, that several expeditions were sent out in retaliation. That, com- * It extended up the Vermilion River a distance of twenty miles in a direct line from its mouth. + The specimens referred to were doubtless "drift copper", now supposed to have drifted in from their native beds in the neighborhood of Lake Superior. Since the settlement of the Vermilion county by the whites, many similar specimens have been found. Only within the present year, 1883, some work- men, while engaged in digging a cellar in Danville, unearthed, from near the surface of the ground, a piece of pure copper, weighing eighty-seven pounds. It was secured by Dr. J. C. Winslow of Danville, for Prof. John Collett, state geologist of Indiana, who has deposited it in the State Cabinet at Indi- anapolis. X Sketches of Louisiana, by Maj. Amos Stodard. § This village was burned in the fall of 1812, by a part of Gov.* Edwards' forces, while on their march from Camp Russell to Peoria Lake. Vide Gov. Reynolds' My Own Times.THE KICKAPOOS. 127 manded by Gen. Chas. Scott, in the month of May, 1791, de- stroyed the Kickapoo town near Oui-a-ta-non [referred to in con- nection with the capture of Croghan]. In the month of August of the same year, a second expedition, lead by Gen. Jas. Wilkinson, left Kentucky on a similar mission. In the instructions given by Gov. St. Clair (then the executive head of the military as well as of the civil affairs of the Northwest Territory) to Gen. Wilkinson, we find the following: "Should the success attend you at L'Anguile,* which I wish and hope, you may find yourself equal to the attacking the Kickapoo town situated in the prairie not far from Sangamon River, which empties itself into the Illinois River. By information, that town is not distant from L'Anguile more than three easy days' marches. A visit to that place will be totally unexpected, and most probably attended with decided good consequences; neither wrill it* be hazardous,Tor the men, at this season, are generally out hunting beyond the Illinois country. Should it seem feasible from circumstances, I recommend the attempt in preference to the towns higher up the Wabash, and success there would be followed by great eclat." The general did not reach the great Kickapoo town. His troops,.jaded by forced marches, and the effectual destruction of the Eel River village, and encumbered with prisoners,t "launched westward through the boundless prairies", only to become "environed on all sides with morasses, which forbade his advancing". They were compelled, toward the end of the day, to return. - On their way back, however, they struck the Kickapoo town west of Lafayette, and destroyed it. The people of Kentucky were not the only sufferers from depredations of this tribe. From their towns near the Wabashr the Kickapoo war parties lurked upon the skirts of the settle- ments on the American Bottom from Kaskaskia to Cahokia, bent on the murder or capture of any unprotected person that fell in their way, excepting alone those of French blood, who, with their property, were, with rare exceptions, exempt from molestation. So strong was the regard of the Kickapoos, in common with all other Algonquin tribes, for the Frenchman. * The Eel River town on Eel River, some six miles above Logansportr Ind., and which was to be attacked. + His prisoners consisted mostly of women and children, and numbered thirty-four in all. His instructions, like those issued to Gen. Scdtt, required him to take all women and children they could, and turn them over to the officer in command at Ft. Washington (now Gincinnati), in the hope that by thus paying the Indians back in kind, they would cease their cruel forays- upon helpless and unoffending non-combatants.128 • ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. Mr. Peck's historical sketch of the early American settlements in Illinois, before quoted, is largely taken up with narrations of the killing and capture of white settlers in the neighborhoods named, and the destruction or the plunder of their property. We summarize a few paragraphs from his address, by way of illustration: "The Kickapoos were numerous and warlike, and had their principal towns on the Illinois and the Vermilion of the Wabash. They were the most formidable and dangerous neighbors to the whites, and, for a number of years, kept the settlements [on the American Bottom] in continual alarm." The address then takes up a narration of yearly events from 1783 to 1795, showing the sufferings and dangers to which the white population was ex- posed on account of Indian depredations, inflicted in the main by Kickapoos. Among the most notable captures was that of Wm. Biggs, in 1788. On the morning of March 28 of that year, while he, in company with young John Vallis, was going from Bellefountaine to Kahokia, they were surprised by a war party of sixteen Kicka- poo Indians. Vallis was wounded ih the thigh, and, being mounted on a fine horse, was soon. beyond reach of the flying bails, and made his escape only to die, however, of his wounds. Four bullets were shot into Biggs' horse; and the animal became so frantic with pain, and frightened, more than all, with the yells of the savages, that it became unmanageable; Biggs' "gun was thrown from his shoulder, and twisted out of his hands"; in try- ing to recover his gun, and being incumbered "with a large bag of beaver fur, which prevented him from recovering his saddle, which had neither 4girth or crupper', it turned and fell off of the horse, and Biggs 'fell with-it'." The rider held on to the horse's mane, and was soon upon his feet, making ineffectual attempts to remount, as his terrified horse dragged him along for some "twenty or thirty yards", when his "hold broke, and he fell on his hands and knees, and stumbled along four or five steps before he could recover himself." "By the time I got fairly on my feet", continues the narrator, "the Indians were about eight or ten yards off me. I saw there was no other way to make my escape but by fast running, and I was determined to try it, and had but little hopes at first of being able to escape, I ran about one hundred yards before I looked back—I thought almost every step I could feel the scalping-knife catting my scalp off. I found that I was gaining ground on them, I felt encouraged, and ran about three hundred yards further, and looking back, saw that I had gained about one hundred yards, and considered myselffHE KICKAPOOS. 120 tjuite out of danger." MggS' hopes, however, were not well grounded. The morning afid before setting out from home on his journey, he had himself in a heavy under- coat, over which was a greatcoat, securely tied about the waist With a large, well-worn silk handkerchief, tied, in the hurry of the foment, in a double hard knot. Anticipating a long race, he •endeavored to divest himself of all surplus garments; the knotted handkerchief would not untie; he pulled his arms out of the sleeves of his greatcoat, which, trailing on the ground, would ^wrap around his legs and throw him down", so that he "made no headway at running". His pursuers, seeing his predicament, renewed the chase with more vigor, and soon overtook and secured him. His captor, says Biggs, "took the handle of his tomahawk, and rubbed it on my shoulder and down my arm, which was a $0ifceji that he would not kill me, and that I was his prisoner." At the risk of "traveling further out of the record" of the gen- eral scope of this chapter, we quote a few more extracts from Mr. Biggs' Narrative, as they admirably illustrate some of the caprices and traits of Indian character. At the first evening's encamp- ment, and the Indians having finished their eating, one of them :sat, "with his back against a tree, with his knife between his legs. I, says Biggs, was sitting facing him with my feet nearly touching liis. He began to inquire of me what nation I belonged to. I was determined to pretend that I was ignorant and could not understand him. I did not wish them to know that I could speak some Indian languages, and understood them better than I could speak. He first asked me, in Indian, if I was Mat-to-cush {that is, in Indian, a Frenchman); I told him no. He then asked me if I wras a Sag-e-nash (an Englishman); I told him no. He again asked if I was a, She-mol-sea (that is, a long knife or Virginian); I told him no. He then asked me if I was a Bos- tonely* (that is an American); I told him no. About a minute afterward, he asked me the same questions over again, and I answered him yes I He then spoke English, and catched up his knife, and said, 4 You are one d— son of a b——\ I really thought he intended stabbing me with his knife. I knew it would not clo to show cowardice. I, being pretty well acquainted with their manners and ways, jumped up on my feet, and spoke in Indian, and said, 'Man-e-t-wa, Kien-de-pa-way' (in English it is, •'No! I am very good'); and clapped my hands on my breast * Mr. Biggs' interpretation is a little too broad. Boston-e-ly an epithet .obtained by the Indians from the Canadian French, who applied it to the New Englanders or Yankies. 9IJO ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. when I spoke, and looked very bold. The cither Indians all set up such a ha! ha! and laughter, that it made him look very fool- ish,, and he sat still .and became quite sulky." The Kickapoos took their prisoner across the prairies of Illi- nois, reaching their village on the west bank of the Wabash, near old: Fort Weaoatanon (which, at the time of this occurrence, was merely a trading-post), on the tenth day of his capture. Remain- ing several weeks with the Kickapoos and at the trading-post, Mr. Biggs effected his release through the kindly interference of the traders at the latter place, prominent among whom was an Englishman, Mr. McCauslin, and Mr. Bazedone, a Spaniard, with whom Biggs "had an acquaintance in the Illinois country", and who paid the Indians iii trade an equivalent of $260 for his ran- some, for which sum Biggs "gave his note, payable in the Illinois country." Later, he passed down the Wabash and the Ohio, and up the Mississippi, in a pirogue or large canoe, and safely reached his family. Mr. Biggs was greatly liked by his captors and their kinsmen, who complimented for his bravery, his fleetness of foot, his shapely limbs, long and beautiful hair, and handsome physique. They adopted him into their tribe, giving him the name of Moh- cos-se-a, after the name of a chief who had been killed by the whites the year before. After which he "was to be considered one of that Kickapoo family, in place of their [slain] father." He was also offered, in marriage, a handsome Indian girl, a relation of the same family, who, encouraged by her parents, exhausted her arts, in a manner of becoming modesty, to win his consent; Mr. Biggs protesting that he was already a married man, the father of three children, whose mother was his wife, and that it was against the laws of his country for a man to have more than one wife at a time. This Indian girl had prepared his first regu- lar meal after his arrival at the Wabash. Says Biggs, "it was hominy, beat in a mortar, as white as snow, and handsome as I ever saw, and very well cooked. She fried some dried meat, pounded very fine in a mortar, in oil, and sprinkled it with sugar. She prepared a very good bed for me, with bear-skins and blank- ets." She brought him aJhot water in a tin cup, and shaving soap, and more clean water in a basin", and a cloth to wipe his hands and face after the process of shaving was done with. "She then told me to sit down 011 a bench. I did so. She got two very good combs-—a coarse and a fine one. It was then the fashion to wear long hair. Mine was very long and thick, and much tangled and matted—I traveled without any hat or anything else on my head, and that was the tenth day it had notTHE KICKAPOOS, been combed. She combed out my hair very tenderly, and then took the fine one and combed and looked my head nearly one hour. She went to a trunk and got a ribbon, and greased my hair very nicely. The old chief [father of the girl, as we learn elsewhere] gave me a fine regimental blue cloth coat, faced with yellow buff cloth; the son-in-law gave me a very good beaver Mackinaw hat. These they had taken from some officers they had killed. Then the widow squaw took me into her cabin and gave me a new ruffled shirt and a very good blanket." All these he put on, and, at the request of the donors, he walked the floor to their delight. The girl followed him to the abode of the widowed and orphaned family to whom he had been given, and which was in another neighborhood, where she took her place at his cabin door, silently waiting, in the hope he would relent and invite her in. "She-stood by my door for sometime after dark—I did not know when she went away. She stayed two days and three nights before she returned home. I never spoke to* her while she was there. She was a very handsome girl, about 18 years of age, a beautiful full figure, and handsomely featured, and very white for a squaw. She was almost as white as dark com- plexioned women generally are; and her father and mother were very white skinned Indians." * To resume. In the desperate plans of Tecumthe, the Kicka- poos took an active part. This trib$ caught the infection at an early day of those troubles; and in 1806, Gov. Harrison sent Capt. Wm. Prince to the Vermilion towns with a speech addressed to all the warriors and chiefs of the Kickapoo tribe; giving Capt. Prince further instructions to proceed to the villages of the prai- * Mr. Biggs had been one of Gen. Clark's soldiers in the conquest of the Illinois, and liking the country, early after the close of the Revolutionary War, he returned and settled at the Bellefountaine, the name of an early set- tlement in Monroe Co., 111., ten miles north of Kaskaskia. He held several territorial and state offices, and filled them with honor and ability. In 1826, shortly before his death, he published " a narrative " of his capture by and his experience while with the Kickapoos. It is a pamphlet of twenty-three pages, printed with poor type on very common paper. But few copies were issued, and scarcely any of these seem to have been preserved. It was only after a search of several years that the writer ^Vas so fortunate as to get sight of one. Gov. Reynolds, in his Pioneer History of Illinois, gives a fair sketch of Mr. Biggs. That given in the text is condensed or quoted directly from the "Narrative", and' differs from J. M. Peck's, as it makes no mention, whatever, of the Ogle Brothers being in company with Biggs and Vallis at the time of the capture.132 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. rie bands, if, after having delivered the speech at the Vermilion towns, he discovered there would be no danger to himself in pro- ceeding beyond. The speech, which was full of good words and precautionary advice, had little effect; and "shortly after the mission of Capt. Prince, the Prophet found means to bring the whole of the Kickapoos entirely under his influence." [Vide Memoirs of Gen. Harrison. We produce extracts of Gov. Har- rison's "talkVreferred to, to show the style of such addresses. Gen. Harrison, being an adept in this kind of literature, could suit such papers to the occasion, and draft them within the range and to the understanding of the people for whom they were in- tended, better, perhaps, than any other agent the Government ever had in the troublesome field of Indian diplomacy. "Wm. H. Harrison, Gov., etc., Supt. of Indian affairs, etc., etc., to his chil- dren, the chiefs and warriors of the Kickapoo tribe." My chil- dren : I lately sent you a message by one of your warriors, but I have not yet received an answer. The head chief of the We-as has, however, been with me, and has assured me that you still keep hold of the chain of friendship, which has bound you to your father since the treaty made with Gen. Wayne [referring to the Treaty of Greenville, of 1795]. "My children, this information has given me great pleasure, because I had heard that you had suffered bad thoughts to get possession of your minds. "My children, what is it you wish for? Have I not often told you that you should inform me of all your grievances, and that ?you should never apply to your father in vain. "My children: Be wise, do not follow the advise of those who would lead you to destruction; what is it they would persuade you to?—to make war upon your fathers, the Seventeen Fires? [The United States, then seventeen in number.]—What injury has your father done you?—If he has done any, why do you not complain to him and ask redress?—Will he turn a deaf ear to your complaints? He has always listened to you, and will listen to you still; you will certainly not raise your arm against him. "My children, you have a number of young warriors, but when compared to the warriors of the United States, you know they are but as a handful. My children, can you count the leaves on the trees, or the grains of sand in the river banks? So numer- ous are the warriors pf the Seventeen Fires. "My children, it would grieve your father to let loose his war- riors upon his red children; nor will he do it, unless you compell him; he had rather that they would stay at home and make corn for their women and children; but he is not afraid to make war; he knows that they are brave.THE KICKAPOOS. 133 "My children, he has men armed with all kinds of weapons; those who live on the big waters [the sea coast] and in the big towns, understand the use of muskets and bayonets [of which last the Indians had become very much afraid since their disas- trous encounter with Gen. Wayne in the engagement on the Maumee, in 1794, where the bayonet was used with terrible effect], and those who live on this side the mountains [the Alle- ghanies] use the same arms that you do [long range rifles]. "My children: The Great Spirit has taught your fathers to make all the arms and ammunition which they use; but you do not understand this art; if you should go to war with your fathers, who would supply you with those things? The British can not; we have driven them beyond the la&es, and they can not send a trader to you without our permission. "My children, open your eyes to your true interest; your father wishes you to be happy. If you wish to have your minds set at ease, come and speak to him. My children, the young man [Capt. Prince] who carries this is my friend, and he will speak to you in my name; listen to him as if I were to address you, and treat him with kindness and hospitality.'' The Kickapoos fought in great numbers and with frenzied courage at the battle of Tippecanoe. They early sided with the British in the war that was declared between that power and the United States the following Ju#e; and sent out many war parties, that kept the settlements in Indiana and Illinois in constant pefil; while other warriors of their tribe participated in almost every battle fought during this war along the western frontier. As a military people, the Kickapoos were inferior to the Mia- mis, Delawares, and Shawnees, in movements requiring large bodies of men; but they were preeminent in predatory warfare. Small parties, consisting of from five to twenty or more, were the usual number comprising their war parties. These would push out hundreds of miles from their villages, and swoop down upon a feeble settlement, or an isolated pioneer cabin, and burn the property, kill the cattle, steal the horses, capture the women and children, and be off again before an alarm could be giv^n. While the Pottawatomies and other tribes, in alliance with the British, laid siege to Ft. Wayne, the Kickapoos, assisted by the Winnebagoes, were assigned to the capture of Ft. Harrison.* * Finished Oct. 28, 1811, and situated on the east bank of the Wabash, about two miles above the lower Wea Town of " Wa-au-ta-no", and a mile or more above the present City of Terre Haute, Ind. It was erected by the forces under Gov. Harrison, while 011 their way from Vincennes to the Proph-134 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. They nearly succeeded, and would have taken it but for the most heroic and determined defence, that gave its commander, Capt. Zachary Taylor, a national renown. The plan of the attack was matured by the Kickapoo war chief, Pa-koi-shee-can,* who, in person, undertook the execution of the most difficult and dangerous part of it. First the Indians loi- tered about the fort, having a few of their women and children with them, to induce a belief that their presence was friendly, while the main-body of warriors were secreted at a distance wait- ing for favorable developments. Pretending they were in want of provisions, the men and women were allowed to approach near the fort, and were thus given opportunity to inspect the fort and its defences. A dark night, giving the appearance of rain, favored the plan which was at once executed. The warriors were brought to the front, and women and children sent to the rear. Pa-koi-shee-can, with a large butcher knife in each hand, threw himself at length upon the ground. He drove a knife, held in one hand,, into the ground, and drew his body up against it; then reached forward with the knife in the other hand, and driv- ing that into the ground, again drew himself along. In this way, like a snake in the grass, he approached the lower block-house. He heard the -sentinels on their rounds on the inside of the pali- sade. As the guards advanced toward that part of the works where the lower block-house was situated, Pa-koi-shee-can would lie still; and when tha guards made the turn and moved in the opposite direction, he again crawled nearer. In this way the crafty savage gained the very walls of the block-house. There was a crack between the logs of the block-house,t and through this opening th*e Kickapoo placed a quantity of dry grass, bits of wood, and other combustibles, brought for the purpose in a blanket, tied pouch fashion upon his back. While the prepara- tion for this incendiarism was in progress, the sentinels, in their et's Town, during the memorable Tippecanoe campaign; and, by unanimous request of all the officers, christened after the name of their commander. It was enclosed with palisades, and officers and soldiers barracks, and defended at two angles with two block-houses, similar to that seen in illustrations of old Forts Wayne and Dearborn. * The Blackbury Flower, abreviated by the French to La Farine [The Flower], the name by which he was generally known among the white people. f Gen. Harrison also mentions this fact, and adds that this building was used for the storage of whisky and salt; that, the cattle had licked the chink- ing out to get at the salt, and that the opening between the logs was made in ^lis way. ,THE KICKAPOOS. 135 rounds on the opposite side of the block-house, passed within a few feet of the place where the fire was about to be lighted. All being in readiness, and the sentinels at the further side of the enclosure, Pa-koi-shee-can struck a fire with his flint, and thrust it within, and threw his blanket quickly over the opening, to pre- vent the blaze from flashing outside, alarming the garrison before the building was well on fire. When assured that the fire was well under way, he fell back and gave the signal, when the attack was immediately begun by the Indians at the opposite extremity of the fort with great fury. The lower block-house burned down in spite of all the efforts of the garrison to prevent it; and, for a while, tfye Indians were exultant, feeling assured of a complete victory. Capt. Taylor constructed a barricade with material taken from another building; and, by the time the block-house had consumed, the Indians, to their great disappointment, discovered a new line of defence, closing the breach through which they had expected to effect an entrance. [The Indian account of the attack 011 Ft. Harrison, as above given, was first published in 1879, in the writer's "Historic Notes", etc. It is in harmony with official reports, except that the latter, for want of information 011 the part of those who wrote them, contain nothing as to plans of the Indians, nor how the block-house was fired. The account given in the text was narrated to the writer by Mrs. Mary A. Baptiste, as it was told to her by Pa-koi-shee-can himself. This lady, with Christmas Dagney, her first husband, were at Ft. Har- rison in 1821, where the latter was assisting in the disbursement of annuities to the Indians then assembled there to receive them. The business and spree that followed, occupied two or three days. Pa-koi-shee-can was present with some of his people, to receive their share of the annuities; and the old chief, having leisure, edified Mr. Dagney and his wife with a minute account of his attempt to take the fort, pointing out the positions and move- ments of himself and his warriors. As he related the story, he warmed up, and indulged in a great deal of pantomime, which gave force to, as it heightened the effect of, the narration. The particulars are given substantially as Mrs. Baptiste repeated them to the writer. She had never read an account of the engagement.] We find no instance in which the Kickapoos were allied with either the French or the British, in any of the intrigues or wars for the control of the fur trade, or the acquisition of disputed territory, in the Northwest. They did not mix or mingle their blood with French or other white people; and, as compared in this regard with other tribes, in the voluminous treaties with the Federal Government, there is a singular absence of land reserva-Ijd' ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS, 'tionS in favor of half-breed Kickapoos. Unlike, the Illinois, the Miamis, and other tribes living upon the lines of the early com- merce of the country, or whose villages were marts of the fur trade, the Kickapoos kept at a distance, and escaped the demor- alization which this trade, and a contact with its unscrupulous- emissaries, inflicted upon the tribes coming within their baneful! influence/" As compared with other Indians, the Kickapoos were industrious, intelligent, and cleanly in their habits, and were better armed and clothed. As a rule, the men were tall, sinewy, and active; the women lithe, and many of them by no means lacking in beauty.t Their dialect is soft and liquid when con- trasted with rough, guttural language of the Pottawatomies. With the close of the war of 1812, the Kickapoos ceased their hostilities toward the whites, and a few years later, disposed of the residue of their lands in Illinois and Indiana, and, with the exception of a few bands, emigrated west of the Mississippi. Gov. Reynolds says of them, "They disliked the United States' so much, that they decided when they left Illinois, that they would not reside within the limits of our Government, but would settle in Texas.J;t A large body of did go to Texas; and when the Lone Star Republic became a member of the Federal Union, these Kickapoos retired to New Mexico; and later, some of them went even to old Mexico. Here, on these frontier bor- ders, ;these wild bands have, for years, maintained the reputation of their sires, and enterprising race. Col. R. B. Marcy, in 1854, found one of their bands upon the Chocktaw reservation, near the Witchita River. He says of the A, *4 They, like the Dela- wares and Shawnees, are well armed with good rifles, in the use of which they are very expert, and there are no better hunters or warriors upon the borders. They hunt together on horseback, and after a party of them have passed through a section of coun- try, it is seldom that any game is left in their trace. They are intelligent, active, and brave, and frequently visit and traffic with * Says Maj. Stoddard, in his Sketches of Louisiana, "There is a striking difference between those Indians who live in the neighborhood of the whites and those who reside at a distance from them. The former, especially if accustomed to a long intercourse, have wonderfully degenerated. They have gradually imbibed all the vices of the whites, and forgotten their own virtues. They are drunkard^Mid thieves, and act on all occasions with the most con- sumate duplicity." ' The observations of Maj. Stoddard are corroborated by Gov. Harrison, Judge Jacob Burnett, and other eminent men, speaking from their own experience. » t Gov. Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois.THE KICKAPOOS. 137 the prairie Indians, and have no fear of meeting those people in battle, providing the odds are not more than six to one against them."* * The Kickapoos of the Vermilion, comprising the bands of Mac-ca-naw, or Mash-e-naw (The Elk-Horn), Ka-an-a-kuck, and Pa^koi-shee-can, were the last to emigrate. They lingered in Illinois upon the waters of the Embarrass, the Vermilion, and its northwest tributaries, until 1832 and 1833; when they joined a body of their people upon a reservation set apart for their use west of Fort Leavenworth, and within the limits of Brown and Jackson Counties, Kansas, where the survivors and the descen- dants* of those who have died now reside upon their farms. Their good conduct, comfortable homes, and well - cultivated fields, attest their steady progress in the ways of civilized life. The wild bands have always been troublesome along the south- western borders; every now and then their depredations form the subject of some item of current newspaper notices. For years the Government failed in its efforts to induce these bands to remove to some place within the Indian Territory, where they might be restrained from annoying the border settlements of Texas and New Mexico. Some years ago, a part of the semi-civilized Kickapoos in Kansas, preferring their old, wild life, left their reservations, and joined the bands to the Southwest. After years' wanderings in quest of plunder, they were persuaded to return, and in 1875, settled in the Indian Territory, and supplied \V\th the necessary implements and provisions, to enable them to go to work and earn an honest living. In this effort toward reform, they are now making commendable progress.t In 1875, civilized Kickapoos in the Kansas Agency numbered 385; while the wild or Mexican band numbered 420, as appears from the official report on Indian affairs for that year. Their numbers were never great, as compared with the Miamis, or Pottawato- mies; however, they made up for this deficiency by the energy of their movements. In language, manners, and customs, the Kickapoos bear a very close resemblance to the Sac and Fox Indians, whose allies they generally were, and with whom they have, by some writers, been confounded. % * Marcy's "Thirty Years of Army Life on the Border." + Report of Commrs. on Indian Affairs. X Corroborative of this, Geo. Catlin, in his admirable work on the North American Indians, says, "The Kickapoos had long lived in alliance with Sacs and Foxes, and their language Was so similar, that the two seemed to be almost one family.n Dr. Jediah Morse, Albert Gallatin, and other American authorities could be cited to the same effect, were it at all necessary.*138 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. THE W1NNEBAGOS. In, "The Jesuit Relations", for the years 1653 to 1670, inclu- sive, this tribe are alluded to under various names, as Ouimbe- goue, Ouimpegouec, and Ouinibegout%—the French "Ou" being nearly synonymous in the sound of its pronunciation with the English letter W,—and was a name given them by the Algon- quins, with whom the meaning was Fetid, translated by the French as Puants. The Algonquin tribes called the Winnebagoes, say the missionary fathers, by this name because the latter came from the westward ocean, or salt water, which the Indians designated as the "Fetid Water".* The Winnebagoes called themselves Hochungara [O-chun-ga-ra], or Ochungarand, which is to say, 011 the authority of Dr. Schoolcraft, "the trout nation, or Horoji [fish eaters]." They were of the Dacota, or Sioux stock, to whose language their own assimilated as nearly as it differed radically from-that of their Algonquin neighbors. Their incur- sion into the ancient territory of the Illinois was strenuously opposed by the latter; and the disputed boundary line between the two shifted north or south, as the fortune of war favored the one or flie other. The final chances, however, were with the Illinois, whose greater numbers and equal bravery were more than a match for their adversaries, who, for the most part, were driven well back within the present limits of Wisconsin, and where, in more modern times, they have been regarded as a tribe * The Winnebagoes were first met with by the Jesuit fathers, near the mouth of Fox River—originally called the Kan-kan-lin—at the head of Green Bay, Wis. Their presence here gave to the waters of Green Bay the first name, by which it was designated in the Jesuit Relations, and the early maps, " Lac-des-Puants", and "Z contain the remains of Indian warriors, killed in ancient battles. Its notoriety dates back of all written history, however early, of this part of the Northwest, and gathers about it the charms of many traditions. t Published in Vol. 1, of the "Wisconsin Historical Collections." X Fort Crawford, Wis., on the left bank of the Mississippi, just above the- the mouth of the Wisconsin, and so named in honor of Wm. H. Crawford, Secretary of War. Previous to this, June, 1814, during the war of 1812, Prairie du Chien was captured, from emissaries of the British, by an expedi- tion sent up the Mississippi by Gov. Wm. Clark of Missouri, under command of Capt. Z. Taylor; and sixty of the latter's men, in charge of Liei^ Perkins,, remained there ar^d erected a fort, which they named Fort Shelby.THE WINNEBAGOES. river in boats as far as the portage at Fort Winnebago,* Generals •Dodge and Whitesides, with companies of volunteers, following along each side on land, and scouring out the lurking savages, A force from Green Bay concentrated on the same spot; and the Indians beheld, with dismay, a formidable army in the midst of their country. The result was a' treaty of peace, and the giving up of Red Bird [a Winnebago chief], who had, a year previous* massacred a family near Prairie du Chien." While these events were taking place on the -Mississippi and* in Wisconsin, then a part of the Territory of Michigan, matters" were by no means quiet in northern Illinois. The inhabitants at* Foft Dearborn, alarmed at the quite apparent unfriendly demeanor* of the Indians frequenting that Post, and from which the United States military forces had been withdrawn, dispatched messengers to the Pottawatomie village of Big-Foot, at Geneva Lake, to learn the purposes of the Winnebagoes, and ascertain if Big-Foot's band intended joining "them. The Report brought back was not favorable, and the excited citizens, at the suggestion of Gurdon S. Hubbard, looked toward the Wabash for assistance. Accord- ingly, Mr. Hubbard, leaving Chicago about four o'clock in the evening, following an Indian .trail, a distance of a hundred and twenty-seven miles, through an uninhabited country, reaching the settlements two miles soyth of Danville in the early afternoon of the next day. Within the next twenty-four hours, the Vermil- ion-County Battalion, as the inhabitants capable of bearing arms * Erected near the head of Fox River, at the Portage, or land carriage, between it and the Wisconsin, which, at t;he time referred to, was right in the heart of the "Winnebago country". This "carrying place" is a noted spot in the discovery and exploration of the Northwest. Here Father Mar- quette and Louis Joliet, on the loth day of June, 1673, with the assistance of their two friendly Miami guides, transported their canoes a distance of "twenty- seven hundred paces" from the scarcely-discernible channel of Fox River, choked as it was with a rank and tangled growth of wild oats, to the broad current of the Wisconsin; down which they voyaged, says the good father, "alone in an unknown country, in the hands of Providence"; and we may add, on a journey Jrhat immortalized him an unsought fame, and first gave the Mississippi River the name it bears, and (to that part of the stream above the mouth of the Arkansas) a place in geography. Mrs. John H. Kinzie, in her "Wau-Bun"—a volume replete with valuable historical matter entertainingly arranged, relating to "The Early Day in the Northwest "—gives a beautiful sketch of Fort Winnebago, drawn by her own pencil, as it appeared in 1831, while she resided there, her husband having charge of the Indian agency at that station.- '144 ILLINOIS AND INDIANA INDIANS. were called, were assembled at Butler's Point, the then county- seat; and a volunteer force oPfifty men organized; and on the next day—having dispersed, in the meantime, to their homes to cook up five-days' rations—were on their way to Fort Dearborn, where they and Mr. liubbard arrived on the seventh day after his departure. Several days later, word was received of the suc- cess of Gen. Cass' movements, and the termination of hostilities.* In the so-called Black-Hawk War, in Illinois and Wisconsin in 183?, "it was feared", say Judge Jas. Hall and Col. Thos. L. McKenney, in their History of the Indian Tribes of North America, "that the Winnebagoes, inhabiting the country immedi- ately north of the hostile Indians, would unite with them, and, forming a powerful combination, would devastate the defenceless before our Government could adopt measures for its relief. The opportunity was a tempting one to a savage tribe naturally dis- posed to war, and always* prepared for its most sudden exigen- cies; and many of the Winnebagoes were eager to rush into the contest. But the policy of Naw-caw was decidedly pacific, and his conduct was consistant with his judgment and his professions. To keep his followers from temptation, as well as fo pl^ce them under tne eye of an agent of our Government, he encamped with them near the agency, under the charge of Mr. [John H.] Kinzie, expressing on all occasions his, disapprobation of the war, and his determination to avoid all connection with those engaged in it The Indian tribes are often divided into parties, having their respective leaders, who alone can control their partisans in times of excitement. So among the Winnebagoes; a few restless and unprincipled individuals, giving loose to their propensity for blood and plunder by joining the war parties, while the great body of the tribe remained at peace, under the influence of their vener- able chief." Immediately on the close of the Black-Hawk War, by a treaty concluded Sept. 15, 1832, at Ft. Armstrong, at Rock Island, 111., the Winnebagoes ceded to the United States all of their lands lying south and east of the Wisconsin River and* the Fox River of Green Bay; and, by a subsequent treaty concluded Nov, 1, 1837, they parted with the residue of their lands lying east of the Mississippi. By the terms of this last treaty, they were to remove beyond the river named within eight months thereafter, an engagement they did not comply with until some three years * A more detailed account of the Winnebago War, as it manifested itself in the vicinity of Chicago, will be found in Number Ten of Fergus' Historical Series.x THE WINNEBAGOES. \ I45 after. After being unceremoniously changed about from one reservation to another, by the United States Government, with little regard for its solemn stipulations, to suit caprices and avarice ,of the ever-encroaching white immigration, we find the Winneba- goes, in 1865, settled (let us trust permanently) 011 the Omaha Reservation in Nebraska, where the superintendent of Indian affairs, in his report for that year, says of them: "This tribe K characterized by frugality, thrift, and industry to xan extent unequaled by any other tribe of Indians in the Northwest. Loyal to the Government, and peaceful toward their neighbors, they are entitled to the fostering care of the General Govern- ment" It seems that the shifting of them about for a number of preceding years had .their means of education and religious instruction; for, in December^ 1864, we fin<3 they addressed the. President as follows: "It is our sincere desire to have agairr established among us such schools as we see in operation among 5^unr^rnahic~children. Fathei^ as soon as you find a permanent home for us, will you-not do this for us? And, father, as we would like our children taught the Christian religion as before, we would like our schools placed under the care of the Presby- terian Board of Foreign Missions. And last, father, to show you our sincerity, we desire to have set apart for its establishment, erection, and support, all of our school funds, and whatever more is necessary." Again; the Government agent, in his report for 1866, says, concerning the Winnebagoes: "There has returned to the tribe, within the few past weeks, about one hundred soldiers, who have served, with credit to themselves and to their tribe, in defence of their county. I consider the Winnebagoes one of the best tribes of Indians in the country, and, with proper treatment, they will soon become a self-sustaining, prosperous people." In 1863, their fighting men were estimated at three hundred and sixty. The census report of their numbers in 1865 gave them nineteen hun- dred, omitting those still remaining in-Wisconsin. "They are a vigorous, athletic race, and received from the Sioux the name of O-ton-ka, which is said to mean 'the large and strong people'."* They have given a name to a lake, a fort, a town, and county in Wisconsin, and to a county in northern Illinois. * Geo. Gale's "Upper Mississippi."This book is a preservation facsimile produced for the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. It is made in compliance with copyright law and produced on acid-free archival 60# book weight paper which meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (permanence of paper). Preservation facsimile printing and binding by Northern Micrographics Brookhaven Bindery La Crosse, Wisconsin 2014