YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

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BLACK HAWK
MA-KA-TAI-SHE-KIA-KIAK
(Black Sparroiv-tanvk)

Photogravure from the original painting from life by R. M.
Sully, now in possession of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

THE HISTORY OF NORTH AMERICA
VOLUME TWO THE INDIANS OF NORTH
AMERICA IN HISTORIC TIMES

BY
CYRUS THOMAS, Ph. D.
. \ *
ARCH-ffiOLOGIST IN THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY
Author of: Study ofthe Manuscript Troano; Notes on Certain Maya
and Mexican Manuscripts ; The Cherokees and Shaivnees in Pre-
Columbian Times; Numerical Systems of the Mexican and Central
American Tribes; The Mayan Calendar Systems, etc., etc.
IN CONFERENCE WITH
W J McGEE, LL. D.
CHIEF OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY, ETC., ETC.

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY BT
GEORGE BARRIE & SONS, PHILADELPHIA

Copyright, 1903, by George Barrie & Sons
Entered at Stationers'1 Hall, London.

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
This volume, the second in The History of North
America, is of peculiar value in that it is the only work
upon its subject which furnishes a comprehensive view of
the history of the Indians of North America from the year
in which Christopher Columbus greeted the aborigines of
the islands of the Caribbean Sea down to the present date.
The importance of the present volume is enhanced by the
method of treatment followed by the author. He has writ
ten the history of the Indians as it stands apart from that
of the white race. He has scrupulously noted all points of
contact and every phase of relation between the races, but
has always considered the Indians in their racial individuality
and not as one of the components of a mixed population.
The author's narrative is not only a compendious account
of the history of the Indians of North America within the
period to which this volume is devoted, but one that is free
from the coloring that has, too often, been given to the
subject by general histories, and is at the same time devoid
of the narrowness of treatment that necessary spatial and
subjective limitations have given to monographic studies.
The author, Cyrus Thomas, Ph. D., Ethnologist to the
United States Government, is peculiarly fitted to write
upon Indians. He has given more than fifty years of his
life to the study of American ethnology and archaeology,
and from the vantage point of experience can look back
upon a vista of Indian history that extends for more than

vi THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
threescore years. The essence of the product of his life
of research is embodied in the present volume, in the
preparation of which the distinguished author has been
enthusiastically aided by his associates in the United States
Bureau of American Ethnology, with the result that The
Indians of North America in Historic Times embodies the
latest, as it does the fullest, information upon its subject.
The illustrations of the volume have, equally with the
text, been the subject of solicitous care; and they have been
prepared, under the direct supervision of the editor and the
author, in greater part by De Lancey Gill, staff artist of
the Bureau of American Ethnology. The ethnological
maps, which are a feature of the volume, are meritorious,
and have been drawn for this work under the personal
direction of Dr. Thomas.
The field of this volume is exceedingly attractive. The
author has been stimulated to his best efforts by the knowl
edge that the history of the Indians of this continent has
never been satisfactorily told. The interest of the reader
is won and held by the novelty — and it may be the
romance — of the subject. Centuries had waned before the
ships of Columbus breasted the waves that for aeons had
barred from Europeans the shores of the great continents
which by unhappy accident have been named for one who
had small part in their discovery or exploration ; centuries
had elapsed before the reckless- valor of the Conquistadores
subjected the civilization of the ancient races of the New
World and despatched to the Iberian peninsula fleets of
mighty galleons laden with treasures by which the crowns
of Castile and Aragon were regilded and Spain given a
new place among nations; centuries, too, had vanished
before the French strove to form in the New World the
empire that they almost won, but which was wrested from
them by the Teutonic conglomerate that we call the Anglo-
Saxon race; centuries by the tens, and perhaps hundreds,
had passed over the country that stretched from the frozen
shores of the Arctic to where the Gulfs of Darien and

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION vii
Panama chafe at the barriers that prevent the commingling
of their waters; and during all this lapse of years, un
known to the dwellers of the eastern continents, billions
of men lived and died in what \ -e now call North
America. These inhabitants formed nations and tribes;
these differed among themselves as they were affected by
habitat, environment, and circumstance. To the extreme
North were the ice roamers ; to the East and Middle North
the forest dwellers; to the West the plain wanderers and the
mountain tribes; and on the shores of the Pacific the fish
eaters and canoe paddlers.
All these left few traces of their prehistoric life. For
evidences of the earliest history we must turn to the
Southwest and the South, and there we find memorials of a
civilization that won even the admiration of those who
overthrew it. From the remains of the Southern civiliza
tion the historian is able to construct a narrative which,
though broken in sequence, still presents an informing view
of the Indian history that preceded the landing of the
Genoese : a landing that forms the natural line of de
marcation by which the history of the Indians of North
America is segregated into two grand divisions, the first
of which antedates the arrival of Columbus, and the second
stretches from his landfall until the present day. To each
of these divisions of Indian history a separate volume has
been devoted in The History of North America. One
of the volumes, yet to issue, is to treat of the Indians in
the earliest years to which their history is traceable, and
the other, the present volume, is concerned with Indians in
historic times.
It has been said that the Indians of North America have
no history prior to the coming of the white man ; be that
as it may, it is certain that since that coming the history of
the Indians has been such as to make it of vital importance
in the study of the development of the North American
people. A realization of this importance has inspired the
author throughout his work. But he has never allowed

viii THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
enthusiasm to override judgment. We find in the volume
little sentiment and less imagination. The Indian is not
pictured as he has been too often by enthusiastic poets
and romancists; neither is he set forth as he has been by
traducers and vilifiers. He is the Indian as he is, not as
he might be.
The difficulty of adherence to strict impartiality has, from
the nature of the subject, been great, but Dr. Thomas has
successfully accomplished it. We find that he has judi
cially and in a well-nigh austere style given to the world a
volume that is as correct as it is succinct — a volume that
will for long remain the authoritative history of the Indians
of North America in historic times.
Guy Carleton Lee.
"Johns Hopkins University.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE
It is an inevitable consequence of the increase of popu
lation and of human progress that civilization and savagery
must come in contact; and as the higher culture is the
stronger in the process of evolution, its customs and activi
ties must survive as the fitter. The close of the prehistoric
age and the beginning of the historic were abrupt and
sharply defined. The veil which shut out from the Old
World the knowledge of the New is suddenly taken away
and a new race revealed. There is no dovetailing here, as
in the Old World, of the historic into the prehistoric era.
Omitting from consideration the appearance of the Norse
men on the northeast coast, which left no impress, the
landing of Columbus on the island of Guanahani, on Friday,
the 1 2th of October, 1492, is the point in time through
which the line between the two eras runs. The history
of America has no dawn — it bursts upon the world as the
risen sun.
It is at this time and place that the history of the natives
of America begins. Taking this as our starting point, the
first historical document referred to is the first letter writ
ten by the great discoverer after this noted event, and the
geographical plan followed has been somewhat in the order
of colonization or attempted occupancy. This, after passing
from the islands, required us to begin on the continent with
Panama and move thence northward, following the Atlantic
coast after leaving Mexico. Although the method of treat
ment has been largely by geographical districts, yet when
ix

x THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
possible an effort has been made where a tribe or group has
been taken up to follow it to the conclusion. This course
has been thought advisable for the following reason. The
object in view has been to write a history of the Indians
of North America in historic times, which should present an
accurate general account of the aboriginal race within the
limits prescribed. With the entrance of the white race
into the New World began the struggle between the races.
To follow up this struggle and find the result, to trace the
waxing of the one and the waning of the other, is one
primary object of such a history, and it has been our con
stant endeavor to keep this in view. But the contest
between the races is not the sum of Indian history; more
over, this might be, and to a large extent has been, written
from the side of the white race.
As the customs and government of a people are impor
tant factors in their history, these have been introduced to
the extent consistent in a general and comprehensive his
tory; but this has been done more especially in regard to
the northern tribes.
It was not until in very recent years that the importance
of studying the history, habits, arts, etc., of the aborigines of
America was fully appreciated. Not only is this important
in working out the problems of history, philology, sociology,
and anthropology generally, but as to the bearing it has
had. in bringing about the present political, social, and other
conditions in the nationalities of the American continent.
There are perhaps comparatively few persons who have
carefully followed up the thought: What would have been
the course and length of time consumed in colonizing the
New World had it been uninhabited at the time of the dis
covery ? Whatever the difference would have been on that
supposition from what did occur must be attributed to the'
native population. Native influence has affected every gov
ernment on our continent, and left an impress upon its
political machinery and its institutions. It has also been
felt in some degree even in matters of daily life- as in the

AUTHOR'S PREFACE xi
introduction of certain food items and their names, now in
constant use. The map of North America is dotted over
with Indian names ; the statute books and legislative records
of the colonies and governments are heavily sprinkled with
items relating to the Indians. Nor have they disappeared
from the continent, but are largely in evidence in almost
every section except the eastern half of the United States,
and form the basis of population in many sections.
It is therefore unnecessary to offer any apology for pre
senting this volume to the public ; the History of North
America would be incomplete without it or an equivalent.
The variation from the usual method followed consists in
bringing the Indian history together in narrative form, with
such accompanying comments as seem desirable, instead of
scattering it through the national history, as written from
the standpoint of the white race ; and also in considering the
Indians, to a considerable extent, by tribes, groups, and
stocks. For the purpose of reference, alphabetic lists of
the various stocks and'of the tribes, in part, have been given
in Appendices at the end of the volume.
Thanks are due to Professor McGee, sometime of the
United States Bureau of American Ethnology, for much aid
cheerfully given in the preparation of this volume.
Cyrus Thomas.
Washington, D. C.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGES
Editor's Introduction  v— viii

Author's Preface  ix-

xi

I Aborigines of the West Indies and Central
America  3— 27
Columbus and the natives of the Antilles. Ethnic boundary
between North and South America. The Panama tribes and
Spanish invasion. The tribes of Nicaragua. Spanish cruel
ties. The civilized tribes of Guatemala. Alvarado's war
on the natives. The Cakchikels and Kiches. Torture and
butchery. The friars pacify the Indians. Conquest of the
Itzas by Ursua. The Indians of Chiapas proffer allegiance ;
rebel ; conquered by the Spaniards. The Tzental rebellion
in 1 71 2. Indian population. Intermixture of races. Indus
trial condition.

II Tribes of Mexico  29-51
The native stocks. The civilized and wild tribes. The tribes
encountered and conquered by Cortes : Totonac, Tlascalan,
Aztec ; fierce battles with the natives. Aztec civilization.
Montezuma. Conquest of Zapotecapan and Miztecapan.
Nuiio de Guzman's expeditions of blood and rapine. Natives
of Yucatan. Conquest by Montejo. Indians of Nochistlan
defeat Alvarado. Pueblo Indians of New Mexico ; con
quered by the Spaniards ; their revolts. Spain's Indian policy
as set forth in her laws and ordinances. The freedom of
Indian slaves enforced.

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

CHAPTER

III The Indians of Florida and the Eastern
Gulf States  53-°8
Florida the goal of adventurers. The Apalaches ; their
province ; their ethnic position ; their renown and their his
tory. The French attempt at colonization. Saturiwa ; he
aids the French. Outina courted by Laudonniere. Tribal
organization of the Timuquanan stock not definite, chiefly
confederate groups. The principal head chiefs. The names
of chiefs applied to towns and provinces. The Tequesta.
The Calusa. "Ais Indians." The province under Menen-
dez. The priests pacify the Indians. Customs of the Florida
Indians. The Timuquanan languages indicate a distinct
stock. The Seminoles ; the Seminole war. The Yamacraws
and Tomochichi. The Uchees visited by De Soto; their
territory ; remove to Chattahoochee River.
IV The Indians of the Southern Atlantic Col
onies. (I) Virginia and Maryland . . 69-90
Raleigh' s colony and the Indians of Albemarle Sound. In
dian stocks represented in Virginia. The Indians and the
settlers of Jamestown. Smith captured by the Indians ; saved
by Pocahontas. Powhatan. Opechancanough; he plans and
carries out the massacre of 1622. English attack on the
Indian settlements, 1624.. Indians suddenly attack the Eng
lish settlements, 1644. Capture and death of Opechan
canough. Acts of Assembly assigning certain lands to
Necotowance and his people, and regarding the sale and
purchase of Indian lands. Bacon defeats the Indians. The
Richahecrians [Cherokees] invade the colony. Manahoac
and Monacon tribes. The Nottoway and Meherrin Indians.
Virginia's Indian policy. The Powhatan confederacy. The
whites arrive in Maryland ; first meeting with the Indians.
Relations of the Indians and Maryland colonists. Act of
the Assembly of 1638. Opechancanough' s plotting causes
discontent among the Maryland tribes. Nanticokes and Wi-
comicos in open hostility. The proprietor sets apart lands for
the small tribes. Laws of Maryland relating to Indian lands.
V The Indians of the Southern Atlantic Colo
nies. (II) The Carolinas and Georgia . 91-107
The groups and tribes of the Carolinas. Relation of the
Tutelo to the Siouan stock. The minor tribes ; lack of
union ; harassed by the Iroquois ; final dispersion. Indian

CONTENTS xv

CHAPTER

enslavement by South Carolina. History of the Catawbas.
The Tuscaroras make war ; their departure to the north.
The Yamasis rebel ; their destruction. The Cherokees ;
first notice of, 1540 ; first official mention, 1693 ; Governor
Nicholson makes treaty with them; they commence hos
tilities, 1 76 1 ; Colonel Grant defeats them; peace made;
again commence hostilities, 1776; troops from South and
North Carolina and Virginia destroy their towns ; treaty
made, May 20, 1777. Policy of the Carolinas regarding
purchases of Indian lands. The Georgia policy.
VI The Indians of New Jersey and Pennsyl
vania  109—130
Peaceful relations of the Indians and the New Jersey colo
nists. Chief Wilted Grass. Delawares' tradition of their mi
grations ; bark record of. Divisions of the Delawares. The
Indians of New Jersey. Delawares made " women. " Wil
liam Penn's policy. Dispute with the Indians regarding
deeds. War with the Delawares regarding land purchases.
Tedyuscung, the great Delaware chief; conference at Eas-
ton [1757] and peace treaty; the diplomacy of Tedyus
cung. The massacre at Wyoming. The Delawares in
Pontiac' s war. Migration of the Indians to the west. Gov
ernment and customs of the Delawares. The Susquehanna
Indians. The acts of Pennsylvania in regard to Indian lands
and rights.
VII The Indians of New York .... 1 31-154
Verrazano's visit to New York Bay. Henry Hudson's visit.
The Indians of Long Island: the "Manhattans"; the
Montauks. The massacre of the Indians at Pavonia. The
tribes on Hudson River. The Wappingers ; their massacre by
the colonists, near Stamford. The Mohegans. The Iroquois ;
their alliance with the Dutch; decide in 1744 to remain
neutral between the French and English. Senecas, Onon-
dagas, and Cayugas in 1757 side with the French. Senecas
join in Pontiac' s conspiracy. Iroquois divided in their alle
giance during the Revolutionary War. Joseph Brant appears
as a leader against the Americans ; the battle of Oriskany ;
Brant and the war on the "Old New York Frontier" ;
General Sullivan's expedition ; the Indians retire to Niagara;
Mohawks remove to Canada.

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

VIII The Indians of New England . . . I55_I79
The three dominant tribes. Tisquantum. Massasoit ; his
treaty with the Plymouth settlers. Corbitant's uprising.
Conspiracy of Massachusetts chiefs. Land titles of Plym
outh and Massachusetts colonies. Attack of Narragansetts
upon Massasoit. Disputed ground. Pequods and Mohe-
gans ; Uncas rebels against Sassacus. Connecticut discov
ered by Dutch ; trading post established. Wopigwooit killed
by Dutch. Sassacus offers Connecticut to English. Murder
of Stone and Norton. Expedition to Block Island. Nar
ragansetts decline to join Pequods against English. Mian-
tonomah makes treaty with English. Depredations of the
Pequods ; colonists, Mohegans, and Narragansetts combine
against Pequods ; burning of Sassacus' s fortress ; swamp
fight ; fate of Sassacus ; division of Pequod prisoners. Begin
ning of trouble between Uncas and Miantonomah ; dispute
at Hartford ; the Narragansetts. Uncas prosperous. Mian
tonomah summoned to Boston ; makes war upon Uncas and
is defeated ; his death. English come into contact with
tribes west of Connecticut River. History of those tribes.
IX The Indians of New England — (Contin
ued)  181-209
Tyranny of Uncas. Mohegan history continued ; seventy
years' lawsuit. Pequod history continued. Alexander.
Wetamoo. Philip becomes chief; makes secret preparations
for war ; called to Taunton. Praying Indians. Murder of
Sassamon. Raid upon Swansey. Awashonks. Burning
of Dartmouth Village. Fight in Pocasset Swamp. Ambush
at Wickaboag Pond. Brookfield besieged. Narragansetts
aid Philip. Great " Swamp Fight. ' ' Burning of Philip' s fort.
Mrs. Rowlandson. King Philip's defiance. Capture of
Canonchet. Philip' s ruse ; decline of his fortunes ; his death.
The Abnakis ; their tribal divisions ; Baron de Saint-Castine.
Abnakis make war upon the settlers of Maine and New Hamp
shire ; treaty of peace ; hostilities recommenced ; another
treaty made ; ten years' war begun ; treaty of Falmouth.
Subsequent history of the various Maine tribes.
X The Indians of the St. Lawrence . . 211-276
The stocks and tribes of the St. Lawrence and lower lake
region. Early history of the Iroquois. Arrival of Cham-
plain on the scene ; his first expedition ; his second expedition

CONTENTS xv ii
CHAPTER PAGES
The Iroquois ; their craft and treachery ; they drive away
the Weanohronons ; attack Three Rivers ; war upon the
Hurons ; defeat and disperse them ; destroy the Neuter
nation; result of their wars; send [1653] proposition for
peace to the French ; exterminate the Eries, and begin war
upon the Susquehannas. De Courcelle marches into the Mo
hawk country. Denonville's expedition against the Seneca
towns. The Iroquois renew hostilities. Frontenac destroys
Onondaga and Oneida villages [1696] . Iroquois government
and customs. The Beothuks. The Micmacs. The Male-
cites. The Montagnais. The Nascapes. The Nepissings.
XI The Indian History of the Ohio Valley;
or, the Border Wars  237—260
Ohio inhabited by no native tribes in the latter half of the
seventeenth century. Cherokees early occupants of the upper
Ohio valley. Troubles between the French and English.
Disastrous effects of Braddock's defeat. The struggle for
Fort Du Quesne ; captured by General Forbes. Indian popu
lation north of the Ohio. Pontiac lays his plot and notifies
the tribes ; Detroit the first point of attack ; plot to gain the
fort discovered ; the war begins '; the fort besieged ; relief
arrives ; siege abandoned ; the siege and gallant defence of
Fort Pitt ; Bouquet marches to its relief ; battle of' Bushy
Run ; the great council at Niagara ; treaty of peace ; death
of Pontiac.
XII The Shawnees and the Miamis . . . 261—282
The Shawnees previous to settlement on the Scioto ; date of
removal to the Scioto ; early tradition given by Perrot ; early
expedition of the Iroquois against the tribe ; notices of, by
Marquette ; actual location on the Cumberland ascertained
by the French ; at war with the Iroquois ; defeated by the
Cherokees and Chickasaws ; subdued by Bouquet ; Dun-
more' s war. Massacre of the Gnadenhutten Indians. Death
of Crawford. Tecumseh's war ; battle of Tippecanoe ;
death of Tecumseh. The Miamis.
XIII The Indians of the Old Northwest . 283-304
The territory defined. The tribes embraced. First appear
ance of the French in this region. Council at Chequamegon.
Saint-Lusson takes formal possession. The Winneba-
goes ; their history ; their removals. The Chippewas ; their

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

CHAPTER

PAGES

traditions ; first item of their history ; unite with the Sioux
[1695] in an attack on the Foxes ; at war with the Sioux, the
latter being pushed westward ; their last great battle with
the Foxes ; their reservations and population. The Pota-
watomies ; their division into bands. The Foxes enemies of
the French ; they join the Ottawas and Hurons in an expedi
tion against the Sioux. The Sauks ; they incorporate the
Foxes. Black Hawk ; the treaty of 1804; the commence
ment of the Black Hawk war ; the Indians defeated ; Black
Hawk delivers himself to the United States authorities ; peace
restored. The Illinois tribes ; their brief history ; their de
struction by other tribes.
XIV Indians of Alabama, Mississippi, and West
ern Georgia  305—324
The Indian tribes of these states. The Muskhogean divi
sions and tribes. The Creeks ; their migration legend ; wars
with surrounding tribes. The Alibamus. The Tuskegees.
Governor Oglethorpe treats with the Creeks. Alexander
McGillivray. Creeks hostile during the Revolutionary War ;
make war on the white settlements. Weatherford ; the Fort
Mimms massacre. General Jackson defeats the Creeks and
compels them to sue for peace. The Alibamu tribe. The
Seminoles of Florida ; the Seminole war. The Choctaws ;
their two divisions. The Chickasaws ; inveterate enemies of
the French ; the French twice attack them in vain. The
Mobilians and Tehomes. The Houmas. The Natches In
dians ; friendly to the French for first thirty years of inter
course ; they massacre the French settlers ; are destroyed as
a tribe by the French ; their customs and their temple.
XV The Sioux and Tribes of the Plains . 325-345
The Sioux ; their habitat ; tribal divisions. The Dakota
group ; early notice of; adhere to the English in 18 12 ; the
outbreak of 1862 ; treaty of 1867 ; Sitting Bull ; destruction
of Custer's troop; uprising of 1 890-1 891 ; character of the
Sioux. The Assiniboins. The Mandans ; their traditions ¦
their migrations. The Minnitarees. The Arikaras. The
southern Siouan tribes ; their traditional origin and migra
tions. The Iowas. The Otoes. The Ponkas. The Omahas.
The migrations of these tribes. The Osages. The Quapaws ¦
their early and traditional history. The Arapahoes and
Cheyennes.

CONTENTS

XVI Tribes of the Far Northwest . . . 347-362
The two primary ethnic divisions of North America. The
Crees ; their various names and territorial limits ; their pris
tine home ; essentially a woods people. The Plains Crees ;
their history uneventful. The Maskegons, or " Swampy
Crees." The Monsoni, or " Moose " Indians. The Black-
feet Indians ; their former country ; their movement south
ward. The Athapascans ; their geographical extension. The
tribes of the northern group ; their history relates chiefly to
their petty strifes with other tribes, and dealings with the
Hudson' s Bay Company. The form of government. Selec
tion of chiefs. The Kutchins. The Sarcees. The Eskimo ;
the long coast line occupied by them.
XVII The Shoshones and other Rocky Moun
tain Tribes  363—379
The Shoshonean family ; the principal tribes of which it is
composed. "Digger Indians." Shoshones proper; their
chief seat. The Bannocks. The Utes ; their geographical
limits ; their divisions. The Paiutes. The Paviotsos. History
of the Shoshones ; the relations of the different groups with
the whites ; intimate with the Mormons ; only once in con
flict with them ; Shoshonean depredations ; General Crook
quells these disturbances. The Modoc war. War with the
White River Utes. Treaties. Characteristics and customs
of the Shoshones and the Bannocks. The Comanches. The
Apaches. The Navajos.
XVIII The Indians of the Northwest
Coast  381-398
The Northwest coast furnishes no important historical episodes.
The numerous tribes of this section. Theories regarding them.
Northern Californians superior to central and southern tribes.
Californians not a martial race. Differences between the tribes
north and south of Mount Shasta. Dwellings. First knowl
edge of them. The Spanish missions ; cruelty of the priests.
California settlers and the Indians. Indian population. Natives
of Oregon. Tribes of the lower Columbia ; their physical
characteristics and customs. Tribes between Columbia River
and Cape Flattery. Tribes about Millbank Sound. Flatheads,
or Salish Indians. Walla Wallas. Klikitats. Cannibalism.
Hudson' s Bay Company. The three northern groups : Tlingit,
Haida, and Tsimshian ; physical characteristics. Totemism.
Haida villages. Elevated houses. Mortuary customs.

xx THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
CHAPTER PAGBS
XIX The Indian Policy of the United
States  399~4J3
Policy and treatment distinct. Indian title not considered in
contests between foreign powers. Discovery the basis of
claim to territory ; decision of Supreme Court on this point.
The nature of the Indian title to the land. Right of regu
lating trade with the Indians first given to Congress. Indians'
right of occupancy. Extinguishment of Indian right by
treaty. Further treaties with Indians prohibited by act of
March 3, 1 87 1. Methods of establishing reservations. Allot
ment of lands to Indians. Treatment of Indians by govern
ment agents.
XX The Indians as a Race and as a Factor in
American History  415-432
Caution against theory. Classification of American abo
rigines. Two races or divisions. Indian superior to the
white man in few if any respects. Physical differences.
Mental capacity. Children in many respects. Feminine
physiognomy of the males. Highest mental attainment. In
the Stone Age at the discovery. Social organization. Gov
ernment. Morgan's view of Aztec organization erroneous.
Classification by language. Geographical distribution of
stocks. Religion. Sun worship. Moral character. A
factor in American history. Accelerated discovery. Led
to the discovery of gold mines. Brought into use important
plants. Marked lines of travel.
Appendix I  433—440
List of linguistic families and tribal languages of Mexico and
Central America.
Appendix II  441-443
List of Indian stocks north of Mexico.
Appendix III  445-450
List of Indian reservations in the United States in 1902 and
the number of acres contained in each.
Chronological Table  aci— 4.C8
List of Illustrations  . .. ,,,
• • • 459-404

THE INDIANS OF
NORTH AMERICA IN HISTORIC
TIMES

THOMAS

CHAPTER I
ABORIGINES OF THE WEST INDIES AND
CENTRAL AMERICA
Our history begins with the landing of Columbus on
the island of Guanahani, where the first sight of natives
of the New World was obtained. It is probable that the
Genoese admiral was not greatly surprised at the sight of
these tawny natives. He had embarked from Spain inspired
with the belief that by sailing westward across the Atlantic
the first land encountered would be the East Indies ; hence,
when he reached land, he believed he had arrived at the
islands of the Asiatic coast, and that it was but a short
distance to Cathay, the China of Marco Polo.
Columbus, though he knew it not, was now in a New
World ; the scenery he beheld was new, and the inhabitants
who received him with joyful surprise were people of a
hitherto unknown race. That we may learn the impres
sion made upon his mind, we will draw our information from
his description as given in what appears to have been his
first letter, dated February 15, 1493, written to Luis de
Sant' Angel. He states in this that, although he [had so
far] found the islands to be well peopled, he met with only
small hamlets along the coast. Two of his men, sent into
the interior to learn if there were a king or any great cities,
returned after three days' travel and reported that they had
found many small villages and a numerous population, but
no ruling authority. He then remarks that the people " all
go naked, men and women, just as their mothers bring them

4 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
forth, though some women cover one part with a leaf of a
plant, or a cotton something [pad or little apron] which
they make for that purpose. They have no iron or steel,
nor any weapons ; nor are they fit thereunto ; not because
they are not a well-formed people and of fair stature, but
that they are most wondrously timorous." No other weap
ons are mentioned than reed stems, in the ends of which
were fixed " little sharpened stakes." They are described as
"artless and generous with what they have," giving freely
to the Spaniards what they had need of. With the excep
tion to be noted, he found the people of the various islands
to be very similar in appearance, manners, and language ; all
these, he says, " understand each other." The men appeared
to be content with one wife, except the chief, who was
allowed a plurality. He describes the people as comely,
"not black like those in Guinea, but have flowing hair."
The people thus described, as is known from information
since obtained, belonged to the Arawakan stock, which is
still represented in South America. Of the other class he
speaks as follows : " I have not found nor had any informa
tion of monsters, except of an island which is here the
second in approach to the Indies, which is inhabited by a
people, whom in all the islands they regard as very ferocious,
who eat human flesh. These have many canoes with which
they run through all the islands of India, and plunder and
take as much as they can." They were evidently Caribs
who, pushing out from the mainland of South America, as
the Arawaks had probably done long before, had planted
here a colony.
It seems from his statements that cotton was actually
cultivated, though no mention is made of fabrics manufac
tured from it, except the little aprons worn by the women,
which are not known to have been woven.
In another place, speaking of the people of a neighboring
island, he says they were more domestic and tractable than
those of San Salvador, and also more intelligent as he judged
from their way of reckoning for the payment of cotton

WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA 5
purchased from them. When he reached what is now
Nuevitas del Principe, in Cuba, he learned from some men
whom he had sent into the interior to reconnoitre that the
houses of the natives at this point were the best they had
seen. "They were made like alfaneques [pavilions], very
large, and appeared as royal tents without arrangement of
streets, except one here and there; and within they were
very clean and well swept and their furniture well arranged.
All these houses were made of palm branches and very
beautiful. . . . Our men found in these houses many
statues of women and several heads fashioned like masks
and well made. I do not know whether they have these
for their beauty or as objects of worship." — (Navarette
Col., i, 42.)
Other things mentioned as found among them were nets,
fishhooks, and fishing tackle. Tame birds were also no
ticed about their houses, and dogs which did not bark.
Another discovery, mention of which must not be omitted,
was the use of tobacco by smoking.
The appearance of the white-visaged strangers in their
curious craft was a complete surprise to the simple natives,
who looked upon them as visitants from the sky. They
proclaimed them, according to the Admiral's statement, as
" people from heaven," a belief, however, soon to be changed
to one widely different.
There is yet another side to this first intercourse between
the two races which was fraught with momentous conse
quences to the natives, and destined, almost before the first
surprise had vanished, to cause a complete reversal of senti
ment and a change of relations. In his first letter, from
which the above quotation is made, Columbus uses the
following language:
And in conclusion, to speak only of what has been done in this
voyage, which has been so hastily performed, their Highnesses may see
that I shall give them as much gold as they may need, with very little
aid which their Highnesses will give me ; spices and cotton at once, as
much as their Highnesses will order to be shipped, and as much as they

6 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
shall order to be shipped of mastic, — which till now has never been
found except in Greece, in the island of Xio [Scio] , and the Seignory
sells it for what it likes ; and aloe wood as much as they shall order to
be shipped ; and slaves as many as they shall order to be shipped, — and
these shall be from idolaters.
Unfortunately, history compels us to state that it was the
great discoverer who introduced into America the traffic in
human flesh, the dark blot on civilization scarcely yet ef
faced. He even went so far as to assert that the true riches
of the Indies were the Indians themselves. The result
foreshadowed in these declarations was soon to be fully
realized. In 1495, he sent home five hundred Indians from
his own captures, to be sold as slaves in the Seville market;
and in the same year Bartholomew Columbus sent three
hundred more to Cadiz. The traffic grew apace ; so rapidly,
indeed, that when De Ayllon's first expedition [1520]
touched at the Lucayan Islands they were found already
depopulated, and the slave-hunting crews passed on to the
mainland in search of captives, determined not to return
with empty vessels. It is no wonder then that the natives
soon learned to look upon the strangers whom they at first
regarded as visitants from the sky as coming from the abode
of evil spirits.
Turning now to the mainland and taking the countries
somewhat in the order of discovery and settlement, we
begin with the natives of the various provinces of Central
America, proceeding from the southern extremity northward.
The aborigines of Central America, if considered ethnic
ally, would be divided into two comprehensive groups — those
whose linguistic and other characteristics indicate southern
affinities, and those which belong, by their language, customs,
and characteristics, to the northern continent. Although
the northern continent extends geographically to Isthmus
of Panama, — or, strictly speaking, to Gulf of Uraba, or
Darien, — ethnically the dividing line between the two con
tinents corresponds more nearly with the southern boundary
of Nicaragua — or possibly includes in the southern group

WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA 7
the tribes of eastern Nicaragua and northern Honduras,
judging by the linguistic data.
The tribes inhabiting Veragua and Costa Rica, except
the peninsula of Nicoya, at the time of the Spanish con
quest belonged linguistically to the great Chibchan stock
of Colombia. The Panama district, or region between
Chagres River and Gulf of Uraba was occupied chiefly
by the Cuna Indians — known under such various names as
Darien Indians, Cunacunas, Cuevas, Coybas, Chucunacos,
Bayanos, Tules, San Bias Indians, etc. (See 28, Map A,
Part I.)
It was in this region, and the adjoining section of South
America immediately to the east, that the first attempts
were made by the Spaniards to plant colonies on the main
land of the New World. That area in the Panama section,
then known as " Castilla del Oro " [The Golden Castile] ,
was under the generalship of Diego de Nicuesa, who located
first in the country of the Cuna [Cueva] .
The miserable failure and pitiful death of Nicuesa must
be passed without further notice. The successful march
to the South Sea and conquest of the Indian villages along
the route by Vasco Nunez de Balboa, who had married the
daughter of Careta, the cacique of Cueva, though attended
with some unnecessary cruelty, forms the cleanest page of
the early history of Castilla del Oro.
The next to come upon the scene as commander was
Pedrarias. The Indian history of Panama during his ad
ministration might be written in three words — blood, torture,
slavery. His journeys through the Isthmus were marked
with blood and fire. Gold and slaves were the only products
of the country which the invaders sought. The Indians
who were not carried off as slaves abandoned their fields
and homes and fled to the rugged sierras, whence they
constantly annoyed the whites, waylaying the roads and
lines of travel. Starvation was their chief ally against
their cruel foes; the Spaniards, crazed with the thirst for
gold, neglected the tillage of the soil, and, the fields of the

8 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
natives having been destroyed, famine thinned their ranks
more than did their conflicts with the Indians.
By the close of the sixteenth century the influence of
the friars in lessening the cruelty of the rulers began to be
felt, and many of the Indians were brought into peaceful
relations with the whites. In 1726, numbers of them
joined the Panama government in its fight with the French
filibusters. Nevertheless, many maintained their hostile
attitude, and, although the Isthmus was the seat of the first
Spanish settlement on the American continent, the natives
of Darien were never completely subdued, and the tribe is
not yet extinct.
Passing to the west of Chagres River we enter that
division of Panama known as Veragua, which extends to
Chiriqui Lagoon and the southeastern boundary of Costa
Rica. The natives of this district at the time of the Span
ish advent consisted of a number of small tribes belonging
to two different linguistic stocks, both different from those
east of Chagres River — one the Doraskean (27, Map A,
Part I.), the other the Chibchan (26, Map A, Part I.). The
tribes of the first were located chiefly in the southern and
eastern part of the district. Those of the latter — some
four or five, forming the Guaymie division of the Chibchan
family — were located chiefly between Chiriqui Lagoon and
the sierra.
The early history of this section consists of little more
than the accounts of Spanish raids on the natives in search
of gold and slaves. This appears to have been the chief
business of Pedrarias and his agents while he was in control
as Governor of Panama.
The chief incident in the early history of this section
which relates to the Indians is the successful resistance to
Spanish invasion maintained for nine years by chief Urraca
and his tribe. His home was in the sierra, near the centre
of the district, and defended by the natural ruggedness of
the mountains. The first expedition against him, under
Espinosa and Francisco Pizarro, was defeated in open

WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA 9
battle. The vanguard of Espinosa was cut off to a man,
and the remainder of his troop would have shared the same
fate but for the bravery of Hernando de Soto, afterward
leader of the Florida expedition. Pedrarias in person led a
second expedition. After five days' battling he returned to
Panama with no better success than had attended the first
expedition. For nine years the warfare continued, but the
brave old chieftain, who, as we shall see a little further on,
aided others in their struggle against the oppressors, had the
good fortune to die a natural death, surrounded by his people,
instead of being torn to pieces by Spanish bloodhounds.
In 1535, Felipe Gutierrez made a third attempt to colo
nize Veragua, which ended in failure in a single year.
Besides the decimating effect of the climate, the usual
Spanish oppression brought on hostilities with the natives.
A neighboring cacique [Durura] received the adventurers
kindly, entertained them courteously, and placed at their dis
posal his entire wealth. But this did not satisfy their thirst
for gold : the customary cruelties commenced. Durura was
made prisoner and threatened with torture and cruel death
unless more gold was forthcoming. The wily chief, by a
cunning play upon their cupidity, drew the Spanish force
into an ambush, and, though killing but eight of their num
ber, he burned their camp, made his escape from their hands,
and then with his Indians' withdrew to the mountain fast
nesses, taking all their provisions with them. The Spaniards
were left without food, and many of them died of starvation
before reaching the seacoast.
The tribes about Chiriqui Lagoon, having learned the
fate of those natives who resisted the invaders, submitted
without resistance when Benito Hurtado attempted, in 1525,
to establish a colony there. For two years relations were
peaceful, but Spanish oppression caused a revolt in which
the brave chief Urraca aided the insurgents. A long and
bloody war followed, with alternate success. It is probable
these were the Indians known afterward as the Valiente, a
name indicative of their bravery.

10 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Although the Indians of the sierras had not been entirely
subdued, yet by 1 54 1, as we learn from Benzoni, the slave
raids and slaughter by the Spaniards had thinned the coast
population of Panama and Veragua to such a degree that
in many places there were long stretches without a single
native inhabitant.
As already stated, the tribes of Costa Rica belonged
ethnically to the Chibchan family. The principal ones —
including in part the Guaymie already mentioned — were
the Guatuso in the northern part of the state, about Rio
Frio; the Guetare, extending north and south through the
central part of the state ; and the Talamanca group, located
chiefly along the eastern coast, but extending across the
sierra to the southern coast.
Although the southern coast had been visited by Hurtado,
it was not until 1544 that an attempt to colonize Costa
Rica was made by Gutierrez. Notwithstanding his avowed
purpose of treating the natives humanely, the thirst for gold
soon overcame his scruples, and the customary Spanish
cruelty was adopted, followed, as usual, by hostilities on
the part of the Indians. The attempt was a failure and the
country was abandoned.
It is not until 1562 that anything further is recorded in
regard to the Indians: "It is now two years," wrote the
officers at Cartago, " since we entered this province with
Juan de Caballon, and it is with the greatest difficulty that
we have held out against the rebellious natives, who could
not be converted and brought to obedience by peaceful
means." Although the efforts of the Spaniards to subjugate the
natives of this province by arms were only partially suc
cessful, the attempts at pacification by the Franciscan friars
were followed by better results. The labors, especially of
Betanzos, who made himself master of twelve languages,
and travelled over the entire province accompanied only by
a little boy, met with remarkable success. But few con
flicts between the natives and European settlers are noted

WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA n
after 1570 ; one outbreak of a single village occurred in 1586,
and an insurrection of the Talamanca occurred in 16 10, in
which a number of the settlers on the coast were massacred.
Besides their wars with the Spaniards, the tribes of different
lineage, unable for the common welfare to suppress their
tribal feuds, were usually in a state of petty warfare with
one another.
Of the tribes encountered by the Spaniards in the six
teenth century in Costa Rica and the Isthmian provinces, a
large number are now extinct, and of the others small rem
nants only remain. In regard to those of the latter region
the information is incomplete. The Doraskean tribes are
practically, if not entirely, extinct. The Guetare have long
been extinct, their language being entirely lost. A small
remnant of the Talamanca group is still found in southern
Costa Rica, and a settlement of the Guatuso exists on
Rio Frio. The Rama, a tribe of the Doraskean family,
formerly occupied the southeastern section of Nicaragua
between Blewfield and San Juan. Although once quite
numerous, they are now reduced to a single small band
residing on a little island in Blewfield Lagoon.
The story, like others which will follow, is a sad one.
Spanish cruelty and Spanish oppression had accomplished
here the same result as elsewhere ; and though we pass now
to the more important provinces further north, the history
is still one of blood and devastation.
The native population of Nicaragua and Honduras
formed, at the time of the Spanish conquest, a heteroge
neous group, consisting of a number of different ethnic
elements. No less than ten linguistic stocks were here
represented, seven of which were wholly included. (See
List of Linguistic Families, Appendix I.) Without attempt
ing to account fully for this interesting fact, it may be stated
that here was the meeting point of the southern and north
ern elements, and here, living in close association, were
both semi-civilized and savage peoples. Some of the tribes
were intrusive elements from distant outside stocks, as the

12 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Niquiran tribes, of the great Nahuatlan family of Mexico;
the Dirian, Mangue, and Orotinan tribes, of the Chiapane-
can family of Chiapas ; and the Carib settlement along the
northern coast of Honduras, an offshoot of the great Carib
stock of South America.
Extending from western Nicaragua through the central
part of Honduras into the southern corner of Guatemala
were the Lenca Indians (21, Map A, Part I.). Although
these Indians constituted the largest tribe of Nicaragua and
Honduras, very little has been recorded in regard to their
history; and they are not mentioned by name in Hubert
Bancroft's History of Central America. An expedition was
undertaken by Captain Machuca, in 1548, for the purpose
of conquering the natives of Tegucigalpa, who were of
Lencan lineage. However, the guides proved treacherous,
and the soldiers soon found themselves surrounded by hordes
of savages, from whom they at length succeeded with great
difficulty in extricating themselves, and retreated to San Juan
River, abandoning the attempt.
The most noted Lencan chief, as well as the most noted
leader of this part of Central America, was Lempira — a
name signifying "Lord of the Mountains." He had bid
defiance to the great Tonatiuh [Alvarado] and was long a
terror to the Spanish settlers, as well as to his native enemies.
His stronghold in the mountains, named the " Rock of Cer-
quin," was in the present department of Gracias. Juan de
Chaves, who was left in command by Alvarado, attacked
the chief's fortress with all the force he could muster, but
failed to capture it. Captain Carceres was then sent by
Montejo, who had been made governor of the province, to
make another attempt to subdue this defiant savage; but a
continuous siege of six months, though with all the force
that could be gathered from the surrounding districts was
unavailing. Treachery, however, accomplished that in
which open warfare had failed. While pretending to open
peace negotiations, Carceres directed a concealed soldier to
fire upon Lempira. The artifice succeeded. The Indians,

WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA I;J
panic-stricken at the death of their chief, made no further
resistance, most of them giving themselves up to the Span
iards. Be it said, however, to the credit of Montejo, who,
it seems, was not a party to this treachery, that he ordered
the captives released, and by a humane policy induced them,
and those who had fled, to return to their homes.
About 1560, Comayagua, which had been planted in the
heart of the Lencan territory, became the chief religious
centre of Honduras; and in 1589 a convent of the Fran
ciscans was founded at Tegucigalpa, indicating that the
Indians were by that time becoming pacified.
The Xicaques, whose territory bordered Tegucigalpa on
the north, having disturbed the peace by frequent raids
on Olancho Valley, were subdued by Captain Escota in
1 66 1, and a large number of them gathered into settle
ments in Honduras. Missionaries were introduced, and by
1679 a large portion of them were brought under Christian
influence. Something of the history of northern Honduras, where
Truxillo was the seat of government during the early days
of Spanish possession, may be inferred from the fact that
the chief business of the settlers appears to have been slave
capturing. We are informed that the Indians of this sec
tion were kidnapped and sold by shiploads among the
islands and in Nicaragua ; so that in the vicinity of Truxillo,
where formerly were native towns with from six hundred
to three thousand inhabitants, there were, in 1547, not two
hundred Indians left, those not taken having fled to the
mountains. At Naco, — possibly in the Choi territory, —
which previously contained, as it is said, a population of ten
thousand souls, there remained in 1536 only forty-five.
The town of La Haga, containing nine hundred houses, had
but one inhabitant left, all the rest having been captured
and sold into slavery. It is possible that some of these
natives belonged to the tribe known as Xicaque.
In the narrow strip of land between Lakes Managua
and Nicaragua and the Pacific Ocean, and extending from

14 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Bay of Fonseca to Gulf of Nicoya, were gathered tribes
of three different families : one representing the great Na-
huatlan or Mexican stock, three the Chiapanecan (17,
Map A, Part I.), and one — the Subtiaban (25, Map A,
Part I.) — being distinct within itself. The Indian history
of this section begins with the visit of Gil Gonzales, who,
coasting north, met first with Nicoya, chief of the peninsula
in Costa Rica which has received his name. This chief
gave the Spaniards a friendly reception and willingly parted
with his gold, even to that which had been moulded into
idols. On the border of Lake Nicaragua, Gonzales was
kindly received by the chief from whom the lake and
state have derived their names. If the statements of the
early chroniclers are to be accepted, this chieftain was one
of the most remarkable savages of his age, a true native
philosopher. When Gonzales sent word to him to acknowl
edge allegiance to the Catholic king and to accept the truths
of their religion, or prepare for battle, he replied to the
messengers: "Tell those who sent you that 1 know not
their king, and therefore cannot do him homage; that I
fear not their sharp swords, but love peace rather than war;
gold has little value, they are welcome to what I have. As
to the religion they teach, I will talk with them, and if I
like it I will adopt it." Gonzales and his accompanying
friar, Bobadilla, were hard pressed with questions by this
native philosopher. " Did these men come hither from
heaven ? " he at length inquired. " They came from heaven,"
was the reply. " But how," continued the chief, " directly
downward like an arrow, or riding on a cloud, or in a circuit
like the rainbow?" The question remained unanswered.
However, in a few days all was changed. The Spaniards
passed on to visit a powerful cacique named Diriangen,
who came out in great state to meet them. Five hundred
unarmed men came first, each bearing a turkey ; after them
came ten banner bearers, then followed sixteen women
nearly covered with plates of gold; next, five trumpeters;
and lastly, the chief men bearing a richly adorned palanquin

WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA 15
in which sat the chief. When asked to acknowledge alle
giance to the Spanish king and accept the Catholic faith,
he proved less tractable than Nicoya, and asked three days
for consideration. Before the three days had expired, the
Spaniards were attacked and for a time hard pressed; but
the assailants, unable to contend with firearms and cavalry,
were at length repelled. The retreat of the Spaniards to,
their vessels was a continued fight with Nicaragua's war
riors, who had suddenly changed to enemies. They quit
the country and returned to Panama, leaving the Indians
masters of the field.
Nevertheless, the scourge which was to fall upon them
was close at hand. Salcedo, Governor of Honduras, was
already on his way from Truxillo to Leon, every step of his
progress crimsoned by the blood of natives; and Pedrarias,
the " Timur of the Indies," was leaving Panama to assume
authority in Nicaragua. The history of the country for
the next few years, so far as it relates to the natives, can
be told in general terms in a few words, as tribal lines were
for the time blotted out with blood.
Pedrarias, immediately on his arrival in Nicaragua, de
spatched Rojas across the country to search for mines and
to plant settlements on the eastern coast, as ordered by the
king. But the real object of the journey was revealed
when the branding iron, intended only for rebels and
criminals, was taken from the chest. It was in truth a
slave-hunting expedition; the natives were captured indis
criminately, whether peaceful or rebellious, and all who fell
into his hands were branded and sent as slaves to Leon.
Captives were secured by iron collars around the neck,
chained in gangs, and forced to carry heavy burdens. To
prevent delay, the heads of those who fell from exhaustion
were stricken off and thus released from the collar, that the
others might move on. The Leon market was glutted
with human chattels; the overplus was shipped to other
marts; and Panama was made a place of public auction.
Not only were they drawn from the outlying districts, but

1 6 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
also from the friendly lake settlements. The regions which
Gil Gonzales found teeming with inhabitants were, in three
years, reduced to uninhabited wilds. As a new display of
refined cruelty, Pedrarias gave a kind of gladiatorial exhibi
tion, at which eighteen captured chiefs were, one by one,
brought into the arena and torn to pieces by bloodhounds —
of which torture Oviedo, the great Spanish historian, who
tells the story, was a witness.
Soon after the events described, Las Casas, Bishop of
Chiapas and friend of the Indians, appeared upon the scene.
By his pulpit denunciations of the Spanish oppressions,
and by threatening the leaders and soldiers with the ban
of the Church, he succeeded for a time in checking their
cruelties; but the death of his coadjutor, Bishop Osorio, left
him powerless to contend against the authorities, and he
abandoned the country. In 1542, he placed in the hands
of the emperor the manuscript of his well-known work
on the cruel treatment of the natives. It was chiefly
through the statements in this work and his appeal in
behalf of the Indians, that new laws for their protection
were formed, by which their further enslavement was for
bidden. AH ecclesiastics, religious societies, and officers of
the Crown were ordered to free their slaves, and inspectors
were appointed to watch over the interests of the natives.
These acts resulted in some reformation, though the dis
tance from the seat of authority rendered it easy to avoid
full compliance. Henceforth the Indian history of this sec
tion is connected chiefly with the labors of the missionaries
among them.
Passing northward to San Salvador and Guatemala, we
enter into the territory of the so-called civilized nations : a
region whose surface is dotted over with the ruins of tem
ples and other stone structures, showing a progress in the
arts which has excited the wonder and admiration of anti
quaries, and given rise to numerous theories regarding a
former cultured race which has disappeared. However, in
vestigation has succeeded in demonstrating that the authors

WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA I7
of these works were the ancestors of the natives found in
habiting the country at the arrival of the Spaniards. This,
in fact, is the region of the most advanced native culture
of America.
The people occupying the region embraced in these two
states and Yucatan belonged, at the time of discovery, to
two great stocks, — the Pipils of San Salvador and southern
Guatemala to the Nahuatlan (2, Map A, Part I.), and the
other tribes of Guatemala and Yucatan to the Mayan family
(8, Map A, Part I.). The leading tribes of the latter, includ
ing two located in what is the present state of Chiapas,
were the following: the Cakchikel, in southern Guate
mala; Choi, in eastern Chiapas and northern Guatemala;
Chorti, in the valley of Rio Motagua and western Hon
duras; Ixil, in central Guatemala; Itza [of Peten], in
northern Guatemala; Kekchi, on Rio Cahabon, Guate
mala ; Kiche and Cakchikel, in southern Guatemala ; Mam,
in western Guatemala; Maya, in Yucatan and Campeche;
Pokomam, in southern Guatemala; Pokonchi, in central
Guatemala; Tzental, in Tabasco and Chiapas; Tzotzil,
in northern Chiapas ; and the Tzutuhil, about the southern
shore of Lake Atitlan. The dialects of these Mayan tribes
differ but slightly from one another, and their calendar and
numeral systems, which were still in use at the time of the
conquest, were substantially the same in all ; and from these,
although the inscriptions and codices have not been fully
deciphered, enough has been ascertained to show that they
are of Mayan origin.
The Cakchikel and Kiche tribes appear to have been
in the ascendency in Guatemala at the time of the con
quest, the two being at that time at war with one another
in the struggle for supreme control. (List of Linguistic
Families, Appendix I.)
In 1522, the messengers of Alvarado appeared before
Belehe Qat, the Cakchikel chief, at his capital, Patinamit.
Anxious to obtain such powerful aid against their foes, the
Cakchikel monarch sent, in return, ambassadors to Cortes

i8 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
loaded with rich presents and instructed to tender alle
giance and to propose alliance. It is stated by some of
the early authorities that the Kiche ruler also despatched
messengers to the conqueror with similar propositions and
presents. Notwithstanding these friendly propositions, warfare com
menced at the very border of Guatemala. The Zapotitlans,
probably of the Mam tribe, although doubtless aware of
the destruction of Soconusco by this crimson hurricane
which was sweeping through the land, preferred to face
the storm rather than wear the shackles of slaves. Their
bravery was in vain.
Shall we follow the storm as it sweeps onward ? A few
of the incidents must suffice as samples of the rest.
The bane of the Indians — the want of union among
tribes, who preferred to nurse their petty feuds rather than
combine to oppose the greater evil, — was the ally here, as
elsewhere, of the Spaniards. Kicab Tanub, chief of the
Kiches, proposed to the Cakchikel and Tzutuhil rulers to
unite their forces in opposing the progress of the invaders;
but the proposition met with a haughty refusal ; the Cakchi
kel ruler, indeed, declared openly for the Spaniards, hoping
to see them humble his Kiche foes. Kicab, having sud
denly died while gathering his forces, was succeeded by his
son, Tecum Umam, who hastened forward the preparations
his father had begun. If we accept the statement of the
early writers, we must believe his army well-nigh equalled
in numbers that of Napoleon when he marched on Russia;
Juarros makes the number two hundred and thirty thou
sand; but the Spanish authors understood well the art of
increasing the numbers of the foe to enhance the honor
of the victor. Whatever may have been the real number,
firearms and Spanish cavalry soon scattered the hosts, and
Spanish swords cut down the fugitives. When the city of
Xelahuh was reached it was found abandoned, the natives
having fled to the mountains. While the Spaniards were
remaining at this point, resting after the fatigue of battle,

WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA ig
they were attacked by the Kiche army led by Tecum Umam.
Vain effort, brave chief! Your flint-tipped arrows, fire-
hardened javelins, and slung pebbles are no match for Span
ish arquebuses, Spanish swords, and metal-pointed lances.
Though your warriors fight with undaunted bravery regard
less of danger, naught but defeat and death await your
effort to preserve your native freedom. One last desperate
struggle, chief against chief, — Tecum against Tonatiuh, —
the Spaniard's horse is slain, but his lance pierces the heart
of the Indian chief.
Although the effort was a useless waste of lives, the son
of Tecum Umam determined on one more struggle for
freedom. Artifice was tried; pretending a desire for peace,
Alvarado was invited to Utatlan, the Kiche's capital, to re
ceive their tokens of submission, and to partake with them
of a feast prepared for the occasion. The invitation was
accepted, but native craft was matched in vain against
European skill in the same trade. The tables were turned,
and Oxib Quieh and the allied chiefs soon found themselves
entrapped and in the hands of the conquerors. Their fate
was sealed, they served as fuel for the flames. Their
city was burned and their country devastated. The Cakchi
kel chief, despite the opposition of his people, sent his soldiers
to assist in running down the fugitives. For a time the
struggle ceased, submission was tendered, and peace made;
but the captives taken in the war were branded as slaves;
the royal fifth was handed to the treasurer and sold at
auction, that money might be turned into the royal treasury.
Kiche freedom was at an end. The people were turned
over by the conquerors to the control of the priests, to be
instructed in their religion.
The Cakchikel chiefs were now to learn that it would
have been better had they joined their kindred in the struggle
for freedom, and, had fate so decreed, gone down with them
in the effort. Their eyes were opened to the fact that
friends and foes were in the end treated alike by the Span
iards. When they saw their chief city appropriated to the

20 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
use of the invaders, their lands partitioned among the sol
diers, and their people compelled to be servants and burden
bearers, they sadly regretted their folly. Their temples
and palaces were stripped of their gold and silver orna
ments, and the king was ordered to have all the gold of his
towns and villages brought in and laid at the feet of the
conqueror; even their golden crowns were demanded, and
Alvarado had the brutality to tear, with his own hands,
the golden ornaments from the nostrils of three nobles
brought into his presence. Despair brought on revolt; for
a time success rewarded the effort, and the Spaniards were
driven from Patinamit. The gleam of hope was of short
duration; reinforcements having arrived from Mexico, fire
and sword soon made the country a scene of desolation.
The Pipils of Salvador appear to have been in rebellion
in 1526, and were not reduced until after several battles
had been fought and many Indians slain. It was at this
time that the great rebellion of the Indians of Guatemala
occurred. According to Juarros (ii, 289), the whole land,
from Cuzcatlan, in Salvador, to Olintepec, in Guatemala,
a distance of ninety leagues, was in arms. Brasseur de
Bourbourg (Hist. Nat. Civ., iv, 690) mentions the following
tribes as taking part in this uprising: the Pokomam, Po-
konchi, Kiche, Cakchikel, Pipil, and Xinca. Besides occu
pying most of Salvador, the Pipil tribe had two colonies in
Guatemala, one on the Pacific coast and one in the eastern
interior. The Xinca (18, Map A, Part I.) was a small tribe
in the extreme southeastern part of Guatemala, and consti
tuted a distinct family without any known affinity. The
greater portion of the Spaniards, as well as the Indian allies,
residing in the territory over which the rebellion extended
were slaughtered; those who escaped fled to Quezaltenango.
Retribution was swift. Alvarado, who was at that time
putting down the rebellion in Salvador, having completed
this work, pushed forward to Guatemala. Fighting his way
through the numerous bands which tried to check his
progress, he reached Patinamit, where the combined forces

WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA 2I
of the confederates, amounting, it is stated, to thirty thou
sand warriors, had determined to make their chief stand.
The result was the usual one: the Indians were defeated
with heavy loss. Alvarado then made offers of peace to
the chiefs, but they gave no response.
About this time, 1530— 1550, the missionaries, among
them Las Casas, undertook the work of pacifying and
Christianizing the natives. However, submission brought
little relief. The conditipn is summarized by Hubert Ban
croft as follows:
Cruel as was the treatment of the natives in every part of the Spanish
provinces, nowhere was oppression carried to such an extreme as in
Guatemala. Here little distinction was made between the allies and
the conquered races ; even the faithful Tlascaltecs, who, after the con
quest, had settled with the Mexican and Cholultec auxiliaries at Almo-
longa, being enslaved, overworked, and otherwise maltreated, until in
1547 there were barely a hundred survivors. The natives of Atitlan,
who had never swerved in their allegiance to the Spaniards, were treated
with equal severity. After sharing the hardships of their military cam
paigns, they were compelled to supply every year four or five hundred
male and female slaves and every fifteen days a number of tributary
laborers, many of whom perished from excessive toil and privation. —
(Hist. Cent. Am., ii, 234-235.)
And of the unpacified tribes he adds:
No words can depict the miseries of these hapless races. Wholesale
slaughter, hanging, and burning, torturing, mutilating, and branding,
followed the suppression of a revolt. Starvation, exhaustion, blows,
fainting under intolerable burdens, groans of despair, and untimely
death, were their lot in time of peace. During Alvarado's time the
waste of life was wanton and most sickening. In the field, starving
auxiliaries were fed on human flesh, captives being butchered for food ;
children were killed and roasted ; nay, even where there was no want
of provisions, men were slain merely for the feet and hands, which
were esteemed delicacies by the anthropophagous races. Nor were the
marital relations of the natives any more considered than if they had
been by nature the brutes which the Spaniards made of them in practice.
Households were rendered desolate, wives being torn from husbands
and daughters from parents, to be distributed among the soldiers and
seamen, while the children were sent to work at the gold-washings,

22 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
and there perished by thousands. Thus the work of depopulation pro
gressed, and it is asserted by Las Casas that during the first fifteen or
sixteen years of the conquest the destruction of Indians in Guatemala
alone amounted to four or five million souls.
The authorities, political and ecclesiastical, were at last
aroused to an effort to stop these abuses; new laws were
made for the protection of the Indians, and this action was
followed by some feeble efforts to enforce them. This
attempt, however, was strongly resisted by the settlers, who
lived almost entirely upon the labor of the Indians; never
theless, the work of reformation had begun. Las Casas
succeeded without any military assistance in pacifying the
warlike inhabitants of Vera Paz, though his work was crip
pled by the imposition, by the provincial authorities, of heavy
tribute upon them.
The natives of the region of Lake Peten in northern
Guatemala, known as Itzas, hemmed in by rugged sierras,
had remained undisturbed during the period of the struggles
in Guatemala, save by the visit of Cortes in his passage
to Honduras and the attempts of the priests to plant mis
sionaries in their midst. Their reduction was finally under
taken in earnest by Martin Ursua, and was accomplished
in 1697.
The Lacandones, wild natives of the mountain region
of the upper Usumacinta River, against whom numerous
expeditions were sent, remained unsubdued. The recorded
history of the Tzental tribe is enlivened by an authentic
account of one of the most romantic events connected with
the conquest of the American aborigines ; /. e., a revolt,
in 1712-1713, led by an Indian maiden of the ruling clan,
who was known to the Spaniards as Maria Candelaria
and who has been styled the "American Joan of Arc."
The meagre record of this revolution discloses the theme
of a native epic which has held the attention of many
students, including the anthropologist Brinton, who made
it the subject of an imaginative work adapted for dramatic
presentation. The revolt proved of short duration; it ended,

WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA 23
like others, in lavish bloodshed and the breaking of the tribal
spirit. Although Yucatan and Chiapas belong geographically to
modern Mexico, the native tribes and their relations to the
Conquistadores may be considered in this connection.
The first contact of the Spaniards with the natives of
Yucatan was during the voyage of Francisco Hernandez
in IS17- The navigators were astonished to see, for the
first time, strong edifices constructed of stone, and to per
ceive that the inhabitants were so richly and tastefully
clothed. They judged correctly from these indications that
they had reached a country whose people were more highly
cultured than any they had hitherto encountered. At Cam-
peche they saw the first evidences of human sacrifice, that
dark blot on the native civilization.
The peninsula at the time of the conquest was some
what densely populated; the natives, though divided into
some three or four tribal organizations or family groups,
spoke the same language — the Maya [proper] . Hence the
name Mayas. The crumbling ruins of stately stone edifices
which dot the surface of the country tell, by their artistic
finish, of the high degree of culture reached by the people of
this region, equalled only by that of the adjoining province
of Guatemala.
The attempt at settlement which was begun in 1539 was
finally successful, though the colonists were for a time in
constant conflict with the natives, especially those of Cam-
peche. It is stated that during these first conflicts the
slaughter of the Indians was so great that they often fought
behind a wall of their own dead. Tiho, the site of the
modern Merida, having been selected as the place of settle
ment, had first to be baptized with blood. The combined
forces of the unfriendly tribes gathered suddenly about the
encampment at this point, thinking to overwhelm the small
Spanish .force with the weight of numbers. The Spaniards,
aware of the advantage of surprise, without waiting to be
attacked, rushed at once upon the foe, the contest lasting

24 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
until sunset before the natives yielded. The armor and
weapons of the natives could make no headway against
Spanish means of offence and defence. So great was the
carnage that the Spaniards were often compelled to climb
over heaps of the dead in pursuit of the living. It would
be more appropriately described as a slaughter than a battle.
This conflict decided the fate of Yucatan. Although there
were frequent subsequent rebellions, and the conquest of
the country was not completed until several years later,
this battle at Tiho was the last united effort of the natives
at resistance. Of all the people of the peninsula, the Kupules in the
eastern section proved the most obstinate. They, having
leagued with some neighboring villages, rose in revolt in
1546, but were soon subdued, though not until nearly all
the Spaniards on the ranches of this eastern section had
been slain, often with refined cruelty.
After 1546, missionary influence began to be felt, and in
a few years had brought the Indians very largely under
ecclesiastical control. However, ecclesiastical tribute being
as burdensome as governmental tax, a number of local
revolts occurred at intervals; as one in 16 10, another in
1636-1639, others in 1653, J669, 1670, and 1675. The
Indians were also largely concerned in the rebellion of
1 839-1 84 1, which was a contest for state independence.
The rebellion of 1847 was a war OI" races, the outgrowth
of the hatred of the Mayas for the Spaniards. The rebels
massacred without mercy, and the government, in suppress
ing the uprising, showed but little more humanity. The
restless Mayas, seemingly unwilling to come under any
governmental authority, were again in open revolt in 1868;
and scarcely a year before this sentence was penned, Mexi
can soldiers were engaged in suppressing an outbreak of this
uneasy population.
The Chiapanecs, having learned of the conquest of
Montezuma's capital by the Spaniards, and of the wonder
ful success of these white-faced invaders, proffered to

WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA 25
Cortes their allegiance, which was accepted. But when
the deceived natives learned that owning allegiance meant the
giving up control of their lands to be assigned to Spanish set
tlers, and themselves becoming slave laborers for others on
their own ranches, the spirit of resentment was aroused and
in 1524 open revolt resulted, during which many settlers
were slain. Luis Marin was sent against them, but the
Chiapanec warriors, protected by thick cotton armor, and
armed with formidable pikes, managed to offer such a strong
resistance to the Spaniards, that, although the latter were
nominally conquerors, they were so badly crippled as to be
unable to effect a permanent settlement, and abandoned the
country. The conflicts in this brief war [1524— 1527] were
unusually obstinate and fierce.
The rebellion of 1526 closed with one of the most tragic
events recorded in Indian history. Having fought until
they could no longer wield their weapons, scorning to
yield themselves as slaves, the entire population of the
town [of Chiapas] rushed to the verge of a cliff which
overhung Mazapan River, and thence husbands and wives,
and parents and children, locked in close embrace, hurled
themselves headlong, thousands of them being crushed and
mangled upon the rocks below or falling headlong into the
swift-running river. The Spaniards attempted to interfere,
but of all the multitude only two thousand could be saved.
These were removed to a plain a league down the river,
and from this settlement sprang the town of Chiapas de
los Indios, which became in time a populous city.
From this time forward there was no further revolt of
the tribe, and the tranquil condition which followed brought
prosperity to the province.
The population of Chiapas was computed in 181 3 at
over 100,000, of whom 70,000 were Indians, the rest
Spanish and mixed.
In this hasty glance at the history of Central America,
only the more important events and general results could
be referred to. These, however, are sufficient to show

26 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
that, as a general rule, to which there were some excep
tions, the contest between the races ceased by the close
of the sixteenth century. From that time forward the his
tory of the Indians is absorbed in the social, religious, and
industrial history of the country, of which but little has
been recorded until recent years. (For a list of the stocks
and tribes of Central America, see Appendix I.)
The modification of the population by immigrant whites
and by the intermixture of races is best understood from
the census reports. According to the census of 1778, the
number of inhabitants in Guatemala was 430,859. Of
these, 15,232 were whites; 27,676 Ladinos [or mixed];
and the Indians and negroes together 387,951. Bishop
Garcia Pelaez, writing in 184 1 and basing his conclusions
on the census of 1837, gives the population of Central
America as follows: Spaniards and white Creoles, 87,979;
Ladinos, 619,167; Indians, 681,367; total, 1,388,513.
The population of Guatemala in 1886 was estimated at
750,000 Indians, 430,000 Ladinos or mestizos, 10,000
whites, 8,000 negroes, and 2,000 foreigners. Formerly,
caste distinctions were rigidly maintained, but these are rap
idly disappearing under the liberal laws inaugurated in 1 87 1.
Although the larger portion of the Ladinos belong to the
laboring classes and small farmers, many of them are me
chanics and traders, and quite a number have attained high
positions in Church and State; some have become distin
guished for their talents and acquirements, and the republics
of Mexico and Guatemala have elected at various times
full-blooded Indians as presidents.
In regard to the little that is known of their social and
political organization, the following may be stated as prob
ably correct. Descent appears, as a general rule, to have
been counted in the male line, the eldest son coming into
authority at the death of his father — whether it passed from
the elder to the younger brother is uncertain. There seems,
however, to have been some limitation to this rule; as
among some of the Mayan tribes of Guatemala, the nobles

WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA

2J

had the power of selecting from the royal family the one
who should succeed to the chieftaincy. In some parts of
Nicaragua the people lived in communities, each forming
a kind of government in itself, the authority residing in a
council of "old men," who were elected by the people.
These elders elected a war chief, whom they had power to
remove, or even punish with death, in case it was deemed
necessary for the welfare of the community.
A statement by Torquemada (Monarq. Ind., ii, 419) in
dicates the usual division among the Guatemalan tribes into
gentes, by which degrees of kinship were governed. He
says that the Indians of Vera Paz recognized no relation
ship on the mother's side, and did not hesitate to marry
their half-sister provided she was by another father. This,
although clearly implying the gentile system, shows that
descent was in the male line.

CHAPTER II
TRIBES OF MEXICO
To follow Cortes through his brilliant, though heart
less, conquest is a temptation difficult to be resisted; but
this is Spanish rather than Indian history, and, moreover,
much of the tale is told in another volume of this series.
Our task must be to follow the natives along the less studied
lines, and, though these may be less tinctured by the halo
of romance, they may serve to bring more prominently into
view some of the underlying elements of population out of
which modern Mexico has, at least in part, been formed.
The recent advance in culture and government policy of
our neighboring republic increases the desire to learn the
story of her development, in which the Indian element has
been an important factor, both negative and positive.
The natives of Mexico consisted of two classes, the dis
tinction being based on the degree of culture ; the one
including the so-called civilized nations, and the other the
savage or uncultured tribes. However, this division did
not in all cases correspond with the ethnic or linguistic
lines dividing the stocks, some of them including tribes
both of the lowest and most advanced culture. This ad
vanced culture, including that of Central America, was
embraced in one continuous region, extending from the
latitude of central Mexico to the western border of Hon
duras and from sea to sea, including in whole or in part
some ten or eleven different linguistic stocks. This fact
29

30 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
leads to the conclusion that this higher culture was largely
due to local influence.
The advance among the different tribes was in some
respects along the same lines, but in other respects the lines
of chief progress differed. The calendar and numeral sys
tems were substantially the same in all the civilized tribes;
but the Mayan people were the decided leaders in archi
tecture, sculpture, and symbolic writing, the Zapotecs being
second in architecture, and the Aztecs second in sculpture
and symbolic writing. Notwithstanding the very general
opinion to the contrary, the Aztecs were not great builders,
few if any of the monuments being due to them; but they
were decidedly the leaders in political organization, and
through this became the chief power of Mexico and Cen
tral America, the realms of the tribe at the time of the con
quest extending from Sinaloa to Guatemala on the Pacific
coast, and from Mexico City to Tabasco on the Gulf side.
The leading stocks in Mexico were the Nahuatlan (2,
Map A, Part II.), extending from the northern border of the
republic down the western half to the latitude of the City of
Mexico, across the central area to the Gulf coast and down
the latter to the border of the peninsula of Yucatan, surround
ing in its western area the independent Tarascan group (10,
Map A, Part II.), and in the central area the Otomian (7,
Map A, Part II.); the Zapotecan (11, Map A, Part II.),
occupying a considerable area in Oaxaca and Tehuantepec ;
and southeast of the latter and extending into Chiapas, the
Zoquean family (1 3, Map A, Part I.), neighbors ofthe Mayan
tribes. The region north of the Otomis and extending well
up to Rio Grande del Norte was formerly occupied by a
heterogeneous population, designated by early writers by
the indefinite term Chichimecas, of whom but little of his
torical value has been recorded, and whose ethnic relations
were not ascertained before they became extinct. (See
"Unclassified" in Appendix I., and 5, Map A, Part II.)
Of the minor stocks, it is necessary to mention only the
Totonacan (9, Map A, Part II.), located chiefly in the state

TRIBES OF MEXICO ^i
of Vera Cruz ; the Huasteca, a Mayan tribe on the Panuco ;
and the Serian, of Sonora (4, Map A, Part II.), the lowest
in the culture scale of the republic. (For a list of the lin
guistic families and tribes of Mexico, see Appendix I.)
The Totonac Indians, among whom Cortes disembarked
on his expedition to Mexico, were a people of advanced
culture. According to Herrera, author of Historia general de
los hechos de los Castellanos en las islas y Tierra Firme del Mar
Oceano, the houses of Cempoalla, their capital city, were
of brick and mortar, and each was surrounded by a small
garden, at the foot of which a stream of fresh water was
conducted. In these were grown fruit trees; and around
the city were fields of maize. Altogether, he adds, it was
like a terrestrial paradise. According to their tradition, they
had occupied this region — which they called Totonicapan —
for some seven or eight centuries ; most of which time they
had been independent, but were brought under the Aztec
yoke some two or three generations previous to the arrival
of the Spaniards. Groaning under the heavy taxes imposed
by the Mexican monarch and the insults heaped upon them
by the tax gatherers, they were easily persuaded to transfer
their allegiance to the Spanish sovereign and unite their
forces with those of Cortes in his march to the Mexican
capital. With the incidents connected with the arrival of
the Spaniards and the part they took in the expedition
against Montezuma's capital, the history of the Totonacs
virtually closes, save what relates to their domestic life.
Nevertheless, they lived on as a people, and Professor
Frederick Starr (Notes upon the Ethnography of Southern,
Mexico, 86) estimates the present population at 100,000,
and. speaks of them as an industrious agricultural people.
Following Cortes in his march to the capital, the next
tribe he encountered on the route selected was the Tlas-
calan, whose territory, lying immediately east of the plain
of Anahuac, was hemmed in by surrounding ranges of hills.
He was led by the Totonac chief to believe that he would
be accorded a friendly reception because of the intense

32 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
hatred of the Tlascalans toward Montezuma, who had tried
in vain to subdue them. But the hope was doomed to dis
appointment; for, when the army reached the territorial
boundary, marked by a strong stone wall, the messengers
sent forward to ask a free passage through the country re
turned with a haughty answer denying the request. This,
to Cortes, was a declaration of war.
The battles fought with the brave natives of the province
were among the most obstinate contests experienced during
the invasion, the success and even the very life of the army
hanging, at times, in a doubtful balance. Many were the
hearts, we are told, that quaked in the first attack, believing
their last moment had come. "For we were in greater
peril," says Bernal Diaz, a participant, " than ever before."
" None of us will escape," exclaimed Teuch, the Totonac
chief. But Marina, Cortes's maiden interpreter, calm and
confident, replied : " The mighty God of the Christians,
who loves them well, will let no harm befall them." Ma
rina's confidence in her hero's success was not misplaced;
notwithstanding band after band of the thirty thousand
assailants was hurled against the little army of invaders,
native weapons, though bravely wielded, were no match for
Spanish arms, Spanish armor, and Spanish impetuosity. The
vast host was dispersed and the Spaniards were masters of
the situation.
Once more the intrepid natives gathered in battle array,
their army of warriors determined to test again the invul
nerability of the white-faced strangers. They struggled
in vain. Submission soon followed, the Cross replaced in
the temples the hideous deities of the Indians, and the Mass
was substituted for the revolting sacrifice. Thereafter the
Tlascalans became the most faithful as well as the most
efficient native allies of the Spaniards. They were with
them at the sack of Cholula, took part in all the fierce con
flicts in and around the City of Mexico; and when Cortes
was forced to abandon it, received him and his shattered
army with open arms in their own homes ; and though their

f i?

¦h; 0 .

Si

TRIBES OF MEXICO 33
own forces had been greatly thinned, gathered a new army
to assist him in renewing his attack on the royal city.
When the conquest was completed, their services were
remembered by Cortes; and though not rewarded to the
extent they deserved, — for without their aid not a Spaniard
would have survived, — their people were made exempt from
tribute, and their lands left entirely to their own control.
They were also granted other privileges and exemptions,
and official titles were bestowed upon their leaders. Their
capital was made the seat of the first diocese; and their
alcalde mayor, elected by themselves, was made their gov
ernor. Sixty years later, we find them forming settlements
about the mining regions of the north among the Chichim-
ecas, with whom they lived on terms of friendship, and at
the same time were faithful guards of the mining interests.
As an incident in their subsequent history, we read of a
bread riot in 1692 in Tlascala, the details of which are so
like those of our own day that a description is unnecessary.
In 181 1, during the revolutionary struggle for indepen
dence, the city of Tlascala was attacked, and a number of
Tlascalan towns and their districts devastated. In 181 2,
another attack was made by the revolutionists on the city,
whose inhabitants were firm adherents to the royalist party ;
but the assault failed and the forces of Morelos were com
pelled to retire.
The present state of Tlascala includes practically the same
area as the old province of Cortes's time, and contains 1,595
square miles. The population in 1895 was 166,803, almost
entirely Indian, the current speech being the Aztec, which
was their native language. The present governor, Prospero
Cahuantzi, is an Indian of pure blood. — (Starr, op. cit., 14.)
The people are largely agriculturists, but many are engaged
in various manufactures, as pottery, bagging, belts, etc.
The Aztec tribe formed not only the most powerful na
tion, but also the chief representative of Nahuatlan civili
zation at the coming of the Spaniards. Mexico City, —
the ancient Tenochtitlan, — located then on an island in one

o, THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
of the cluster of lakes occupying the centre of the valley of
Anahuac, was their seat of authority, the place of the royal
residence. Although a feeble folk at the outset, they had
gradually reached out, until the kingdom over which Monte
zuma II. held sway extended from Rio del Fuerte in Sinaloa
to Tabasco and from gulf to ocean.
A brief description of the capital city, as seen at the time
of the conquest, will serve as some indication of the cul
ture of the inhabitants. The place selected consisted of
some small islands in the western part of the chief lake
of the cluster. Here the fugitives who had chosen this
retreat erected first a temple of rushes, around which the
settlement grew, spreading in the course of years over
the islets and on piles and filled ground as additional space
was required. Successive sovereigns vied in their efforts to
enlarge and beautify the place as success in war increased
their power and wealth.
Two great avenues paved with hard cement traversed
the city, one from north to south, the other east and
west, crossing in the centre, dividing it into four quarters.
The one running north and south extended by causeways
across the water in each direction to the mainland, and the
other to the mainland on the west. These causeways, sup
ported on piles and rubble, were of sufficient width to allow
ten horsemen to ride abreast ; and were provided at intervals
with bridges for the passage of boats. Near the city were
wooden drawbridges, by which passage to and from the
causeways could be cut off. A fourth causeway supported
the aqueduct which conveyed water into the city.
The buildings were of two widely different sorts: one,
the dwellings of the people, being of one story in height,
sometimes, however, placed on terraces. Every house
stood by itself, being separated from the others by narrow
lanes or little gardens and inclosing an open court. This
uniformity was relieved by the structures of the other sort,
which consisted of numerous temples raised high above the
dwellings, on mounds, the great temple of the god of war

TRIBES OF MEXICO 35
towering over all. According to the statement of one of
the early writers, who participated in the conquest, there
was in the palace of Montezuma a single room of sufficient
dimensions to contain three thousand persons. Such was
the capital city of the Aztecs as described by the historians
of the Spanish conquest.
The bravery and fighting qualities of the Aztecs are fully
shown in their conflicts with Cortes' s army. Unfortunately
for them, their king was then — whatever he may have been
in his early days — a dreamy despot ruled by superstition
and priestly influence and withal a coward, at least where
omens intervened. Cortes and his army were permitted to
enter the city without any show of resistance, and Monte
zuma even humbled himself to welcome them; yet what
had occurred, and the fact that the Spaniards were accom
panied by hosts of the bitter enemies of his people, should
have been sufficient evidence of their intentions. When
he saw the critical state of affairs approaching, instead of
meeting it bravely as his brothers and counsellors advised,
he quietly and submissively allowed himself to be made a
captive. Though he could stand by the blood-begrimed
altar and see, without a qualm, the hearts torn from hun
dreds of unfortunate captives, and even take part himself
in the horrible sacrifice, yet, when there was the least
danger of his own blood being spilled, he preferred to go
into captivity and fawn on his captor. It is said that in
his early days he had proved himself a brave warrior on
more than one battlefield, and because of this and other
high qualities he was, though only in his thirty-fourth year,
chosen in preference to an elder brother. It is certain,
however, that he exhibited none of these high qualities in
his dealings with the Spaniards, but, on the contrary, his
vacillating course seemed to have as its chief object the
preservation of his own imperial person. He may have
been learned in the lore of his' day and race, but it was the
lore of superstition and priestcraft; and his retention of
power and dominion was due to immense armies whose

36

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

maintenance drained the resources of his people. ' As a
recent writer has truly remarked : " Duty and honor were
overcome by superstition and absorbing love of power and
life." His acts throughout were those of the caitiff.
Though resistance might have been in the end ineffectual,
it would have preserved his honor, and his subjects would
have been better reconciled to defeat. He was slain by his
own people in an outburst of indignation at his fawning
obsequiousness to the Spaniards.
The terrible conflicts which followed in this city and on
the causeway in the notable " noche triste " afford ample
proof of Aztec bravery and tenacity of purpose ; and they
also furnish proof that control had passed into more ener
getic hands. Cuitlahuatzin, the younger brother of Mon
tezuma, though a fratricide, proved himself a determined
enemy of the invaders, and an able leader in the fierce
conflicts which followed the death of Montezuma.
The terrible battle of Otumba, when the escaped Span
iards were on their retreat to Tlascala — a battle which
will be ever memorable because of the great disparity of
the opposing forces ; and the long and fierce struggle in the
final capture of the city, where Quauhtemotzin, the nephew
of Montezuma, was the brave and unyielding leader of the
native hosts, must be passed over without further comment.
We only add, in the words of another: "For seventy-five
consecutive days, says Cortes, the siege had been wreathing
its coils midst almost hourly scenes of bloodshed, wherein
nearly one thousand Spaniards and two hundred times that
number of allies had taken part." Of the Spaniards the
loss did not exceed a hundred, but of the allies twenty
thousand fell. The loss to the Mexicans, according to
conservative estimates, was one hundred thousand. Bernal
Diaz, speaking of the sight presented the day after the sur
render, says : " I swear that the lake and houses and abodes
were so full of human bodies and heads of dead men that
I am unable to convey an idea thereof; for in the streets
and courts of Tlatelulco there were no other things, and we

TRIBES OF MEXICO 37
could walk only amidst dead bodies." However, it must
be remembered that these are estimates of the Spanish
historians, which must be taken with some allowance.
The Aztec empire was at an end; henceforward it was
to be absorbed into the Mexican colony of Spain, until
Mexico should become an independent republic.
The culture of the Aztecs was, in some respects, the
most advanced of any native American tribe. While they
were inferior in regard to architecture and symbolic writing
to the Mayan tribes, their political system and form of gov
ernment had made the nearest approach to that of civilized
life of any native people of North America. Their sym
bolic and picture writing was but little behind that of the
Mayas, and in the minor arts they were in advance of
the latter. In vivid contrast, however, with this remark
able , progress toward civilization was the custom and cruel
method of offering human sacrifices under the guise of re
ligion, yet really, as is maintained by able authority, to
provide animal food for certain privileged classes. There
can be no satisfactory explanation of the vast number of
persons sacrificed, except on this supposition.
According to Professor Starr (op. cit., 334), there are at
present people of Aztec blood, speaking the Aztec language,
from Sinaloa in the north to Chiapas in the south; while
the states of Guerrero, Mexico, Morelos, and Puebla are
in a large part still occupied by them. He estimates the
number of Indians of pure blood in the republic who speak
the Aztec language, including the Tlascalans, at 1,500,000.
Aztec traditions state that the Otomi Indians were the
earliest inhabitants of Central Mexico. Though residing
chiefly in what are at present the states of Guanajuato and
Queretaro, their settlements appear to have extended into
the valley of Anahuac. As a whole, the Otomis were rude
and barbarous in their mode of life and customs, but those
along the line of contact with the civilized tribes of the
lake region appear to have made considerable advance in
culture.

3 8 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
The first notice we have of them is in the account of the
siege of Mexico City, when they offered aid and supplies
to Cortes. The offer was gladly accepted, and soon there
appeared, from the western mountain border of the valley,
twenty thousand of their sturdy warriors loaded with supplies.
The next we hear of them is in 1522 [or 1 531?], when, in
connection with a body of Mexicans as allies of the Span
iards, they made an expedition, under command of San Luis
de Montanez, against the Chichimqcas, defeating the latter in
one of the most singular battles ever fought. They found the
enemy, twenty thousand strong, posted on a hill. " Oh, you
brave warriors perched on a hill," cried San Luis; "come
down and fight if you are not cowards." "Very fair, in
deed, you renegades and dogs of the Spaniards," answered
Coyote, chief of the Chichimecas ; " lay aside your borrowed
weapons and we will come down." It was then agreed that
each party should lay aside all their arms and fight without
weapons, and that the conquered should be subjects of the
victors. With hands, feet, and teeth this strange battle was
fought, the allies coming out victorious; and many of the
Chichimecas, we are informed, were then and there baptized
by Padre Juan Bautista, who had accompanied the army.
The history of the Otomis, so far as recorded, and as a
distinct tribe or family, is very brief. Fifteen years after they
had joined Cortes, missionaries had penetrated into their
mountainous country, apparently without opposition, and
though the work of conversion was slow the perseverance of
the Augustinian padres was ultimately rewarded with a fair
degree of success. Nevertheless, some of the Otomis were
more than once in conflict with the authorities, and though
defeated were not brought into complete subjection for sev
eral years. The tribe, it must be remembered, was large
and composed of many bands, some of them so wild and
barbarous that they were classed with the Chichimecas.
The Otomis occupied a very large territory, and to-day
the area over which they extend is second only to that over
which the Aztec language is spoken.

TRIBES OF MEXICO 30,
The Zapotec and Miztec — or Mixtec — tribes, form
ing together the Zapotecan family or stock (11, Map A,
Part II.), were located chiefly in the present state of Oaxaca.
The remarkable ruins of Mitla, which have attracted the
attention of antiquaries because of their peculiar features
and the evidence they furnish of advanced culture, are
located in the Zapotec country, and are attributed to this
people. It is even held by some authors who have studied
the ethnology and antiquities of Mexico and Central Amer
ica that the native culture of these regions received its first
impulse in the Zapotec nation. That the so-called Native
Calendar was one of the primary elements of this culture
is susceptible of demonstration, and that it had its origin
among the Zapotec tribes is the apparent result of recent
investigation and study. That the Zapotecs were a people
of advanced culture is, at any rate, generally conceded.
The first contact of this nation with the Spaniards was
in 1522, when Captain Briones, by direction of Sandoval,
invaded their country. Underestimating their strength and
bravery, his overconfidence received a severe check, and he
was forced to return to his commander and acknowledge
his defeat. However, when Sandoval appeared with an
increased force the cacique threw open his gates in token
of submission, which course was followed by other rulers.
This, however, was by no means the end of the conflict ;
though some towns had yielded, the Zapotec and cognate
tribes were yet unsubdued. In 1523, Rodrigo Rangel en
tered their territory to demand submission and tribute, only
to meet with defeat; but returning in 1524 with an in
creased force, he compelled submission for the time being.,
and returned with a large number of captives to be sold
into slavery.
The Zapotecs and Mijes — the latter a tribe of the Zo-
quean stock — having taken part in the revolt of 1527, a
double expedition was sent against them, one division under
Diego de Figuero, the other under Alonso de Herrera.
The former contented himself with plundering graves for

40 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
the buried treasures, and an occasional descent on a town
to levy contributions. The latter leader and a number of
his party were slain by the natives. These Indians were
again in revolt in 1 53 1, during which most of the Spanish
miners of the district were slain. Another rebellion oc
curred in 1550, at which time it was claimed by the natives
that Quetzalcoatl, the great deity, had appeared to free
them from their thraldom. However, these revolts were
soon suppressed and the people finally submitted to Spanish
rule. The total Zapotec population was given in 1876 at
230,600 persons. The group, in addition to the two chief
tribes, — the Zapotec and Mixtec, — includes some seven
minor tribes. (See Appendix I.) One peculiarity of the
Zapotecs is the variation in speech of the different settle
ments, which was noticed as early as 1578 by Juan de Cor
doba, who was then a missionary among them and composed
a grammar of their language ; he says that among all those
who speak this language, even those purely Zapotec, there
is no village whose language does not differ to some degree
from others. The most complete quinary-vigesimal system
of numbers found in any native American language was
that of the Mazateco, one of the tribes of this group.
The Zapotecs are described as the most pleasing Indians
of Mexico, the beauty of the women being specially noted
by travellers. They are intelligent, industrious, and pro
gressive, and the tribe has produced men eminent as polit
ical leaders, soldiers, and scholars ; President Juarez was a
full-blood Zapotec.
In the various revolutions which occurred in the subse
quent history of Mexico between contending political fac
tions, the tribes which have been mentioned were ranged
sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, or, as
happened in more than one instance, part of the tribe on
one side and part on the other, their assistance more than
once sufficing to turn the scale in the contest.
Of the oppressive measures and cruel treatment received
by the Indians at the hands of the conquistadores, none

TRIBES OF MEXICO 4I
exceeded those inflicted by Nufio de Guzman, governor
of the Panuco province. Pedrarias and Alvarado used op
pression and cruelty to procure gold and slaves, but Guz
man seems to have acted from an innate delight in causing
suffering. His work of devastation began in his own province,
occupied chiefly by the Huasteca, a tribe of the great
Mayan group. The natives were treated with an absolute
disregard of justice. Their houses and lands were ravaged
and everything of value carried away. He even caused
several natives to be hanged because they had omitted to
sweep the roads before him. In order to raise funds for
his proposed expedition to Jalisco, he seized the natives of his
own province and began to export them as slaves. The
terror-stricken inhabitants fled to the forests and mountains,
but slave-hunting parties were put upon their trails to ferret
them out. Caciques were tortured to force them to reveal
the hiding places of their people. Ten thousand natives
were carried away and sold as slaves.
During his temporary control as Governor of Mexico,
at the least manifestation of discontent, whole towns were
declared in rebellion, subdued by force of arms, and the
inhabitants sold as slaves. So many Indians were branded
and exported that some districts were well-nigh depopu
lated, those not taken abandoning theii homes and fleeing
to places of safety.
During his march through Michoacan and Nueva Galicia,
chiefs were tortured and burnt when unable to furnish more
gold, or when they were unfortunate enough to incur his
special displeasure; towns were destroyed and the country
through which the army passed was made a desert. Tan-
gaxoan, chief of the Tarascans who occupied Michoacan,
though friendly to the Spaniards, allowing the army un
opposed passage through his country, furnishing thousands
of burden bearers, and giving up all the precious metals in
possession of his people, was, apparently from the very
love of cruelty, tortured day after day and then given to

42

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

the flames. Numbers of his faithful allies even, the Tlas
calans and Aztecs, were tortured and remorselessly slain
because they murmured at the hardships they had to
undergo. The expedition was throughout a trail of blood
and smoking ruins, and withal a decided failure from the
material standpoint.
But little is known of the history of the Indians of the
northern central districts, most of whom became extinct
at an early day. The Indians of Zacatecas, consisting of
Zacatecs, Cascanes, and other so-called Chichimec tribes,
appear to have been uninterrupted after the visit of Chiri-
nos, one of the officers in Guzman's expedition of 1530.
They seem to have taken a part in the Mixtec rebellion
of 1 54 1; after this for a year or two they continued to
raid the settlements of the Spaniards and friendly Indians.
In 1546, Juan de Tolosa, husband of Leonor Cortes de
Montezuma, daughter of Cortes and granddaughter of Mon
tezuma, with four Franciscan friars and a band of Juchipila
Indians, made the first settlement in the province, and by
mild measures brought the Indians into friendly relations.
The cause of their extinction has not been given, possibly
through the raids of the Apaches, or possibly from being
forced to work in the mines.
The northern tribe which has given most trouble to the
Mexican government is that division of the Cahita group
[Nahuatlan stock] known as the Yaquis, in Sinaloa. They
were in rebellion in 1868, in 1885— 1886, and again in
1901-1902. The northwestern section of Mexico included other
tribes of whose history comparatively little is known, as
they lay outside of the lines of trade, and were for a long
time beyond the borders of Spanish settlements. Of these
it is only necessary to notice here the Opata and the Seri.
The latter occupied the Gulf coast immediately north of
the Yaquis, and the neighboring island of Tiburon. They
were a wild and savage tribe, isolated not only ethnically
from other Indians, but in habits avoiding intercourse with

TRIBES OF MEXICO 43
other tribes or with the whites. The missionaries found
their efforts of but little avail in dealing with this people.
A state of petty warfare was carried on at intervals between
them and the whites for two centuries. They are now re
duced to a remnant, according to Professor W. J. McGee,
who visited and made a study of them in 1894 and 1895,
numbering not more than two hundred and fifty or three
hundred persons.
The Opata, whose territory adjoined the Seri on the east,
were from the first a tractable people. They received the
missionaries willingly, and even in the time of Perez Ribas
[1640— 1660] a number of missions were established in'
their country. They have been almost uniformly friendly
toward the Spaniards.
The probable origin of the tribes of Mexico and Central
America, their development, the incidents of the conquest,
and their subsequent history, form the most interesting
portion of the history of the natives of America. Here, in
a region which has no physical advantages over the fertile
area of that portion of the United States east of Rocky
Mountains which now supports the most enlightened and
powerful nation of the entire continent, we see the native
population climbing, unaided by extraneous influence so far
as known, the culture scale to the very threshold of civili
zation. And, what is equally difficult to account for, this
advance, as before stated, is not bounded by ethnic lines,
but rather by geographical limits.
The problem yet awaits a satisfactory solution; we have
faith, however, to believe that the many-sided attacks which
are now being made upon it by antiquarians and ethnolo
gists will ultimately result in at least partially solving the
mystery. At present it can only be safely affirmed that this
being the region of the maize plant, agriculture was devel
oped, which was conducive to sedentary life and advance in
culture. The Spaniards, in their eager and almost frantic search
for gold, were pushing their investigations in every direction

44 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
where regions remained unexplored. Rumors had reached
them of a province north of Mexico abounding in the
precious metals and dotted over with cities, in one of
which, it was said, an entire street was wholly occupied by
goldsmiths. Friar Marcos de Niza had made an attempt to
reach the " Seven Cities of Cibola," of which rumor had
spread to the south ; and though unable, on account of the
hostile attitude of the natives, to enter either, he had given
a glowing account of the wealth of the people. These
accounts were sufficient to send off the too credulous Span
iards in search of these visionary eldorados ; and Coronado,
'whose expedition is described in another volume, was soon
on his way with an army despatched by Mendoza, then
Viceroy of Mexico, to bring this northern country, first
known as New Granada and afterward as New Mexico,
under subjection to Spanish rule.
A large portion of the people of this region, — now em
braced in New Mexico and Arizona, — though less advanced
than those of southern Mexico and Central America, had
reached a somewhat higher cultural state than the other
Indians of the United States and most of the tribes of
northern Mexico. They were an agricultural people, who
dwelt in stone and adobe houses, and cultivated and manu
factured cotton to some extent. Some of their so-called
" pueblos," or communal houses, were several stories high
and contained a sufficient number of rooms to house all the
people of a village.
It was toward this region that Coronado and his army
were making their way when Friar Marcos returned to
Mexico with his glowing account of the wealth of this
new eldorado, where cities were to be seen equalling in
size and magnificence Montezuma's capital. When they
reached the first of these cities [July, 1540], the only one
which the imaginative friar had seen, notwithstanding the
gifts of trinkets and offers of friendship made by the com
mander, their reception was a hostile one ; flights of arrows
instead of joyous welcomes greeted them. The place was

TRIBES OF MEXICO 45
captured and the Spaniards installed, though not until after
a fierce struggle, in which Coronado was wounded. During
the night the Indians stole away, leaving the victors in
undisputed possession.
Efforts were made, through a few of the inhabitants who
returned to the village, to effect a reconciliation and estab
lish peace; but these overtures were ineffectual, for in a
day or two the villages of the valley were abandoned, the
Indians having withdrawn to Thunder Mountain.
Alvarado, who had been sent out by Coronado to explore
the country, reported that he had ascertained the names of
eighty villages in the Rio Grande valley. But the Span
iards, though they had succeeded in reaching the country
sought, and soon had taken possession, were sadly disap
pointed with the result. They had indeed found an agri
cultural people who dwelt in stone and adobe houses, and
cultivated and manufactured cotton to some extent; but
the great cities of which they had received such glowing
accounts had dwindled to small villages, and the gold and
silver vessels they expected to find had vanished. Had the
army passed from Florida to the Pueblo region, it is prob
able, unless wholly blinded by the thirst for gold, they
would have been pleased; but coming from the more civil
ized southern sections, the villages were insignificant in
their estimation, the country poor, and the people mere
savages. They were hoping to find another Peru, hence
their disappointment was bitter.
With the stay of the army here, oppression by the Span
iards began ; food and clothing were forcibly taken, females
were violated, prisoners were ruthlessly slaughtered. The
result of this course was easily seen. The natives, where
unable to resist the invaders, abandoned their villages and
fled to the mountains. To every offer of reconciliation
and peace they referred to the broken faith of the Spaniards.
The people of Tiguex, the chief resting place of the army,
galled to resistance by these oppressions, rebelled ; and when
Coronado advanced against them, his army was at first

4 6 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
repulsed and a siege of fifty days followed. In the end, most
of the inhabitants were slain, and all the villages of that
province were taken and plundered and the inhabitants
killed, enslaved, or driven from their homes.
With the return of the army to Mexico, this first enter
prise of the Spaniards in the northern section came to an
inglorious ending.
Twenty years later, 1582-1583, Espejo, a private citi
zen, accompanied by only a friar and fourteen soldiers,
wandered peacefully through the country from village to
village without opposition, accomplishing substantially as
great results, remarks a modern author, "as had Coronado
with his grand armies, his winter's warfare on the Rio
Grande, and his barbarous oppression of the unoffending
natives." It was not until the closing years of the sixteenth cen
tury [1595— 1599] that the actual occupation of the coun
try by the Spaniards began. In 1598, Onate, armed with
the king's grant and accompanied by a number of colonists,
entered the Pueblo country and at Santo Domingo was met
by seven chiefs, representing some thirty-four towns, who
acknowledged allegiance to the King of Spain. With the
exception of an outbreak on the part of the people of
Acoma, their defeat and the destruction of their village,
there are few items relating to the Indians until the re
volt in 1 640 ; in truth, this period is well-nigh a blank in
the history of this region ; it appears, however, that peace
generally prevailed.
At length, the Indians, growing restless under the strict
discipline of the priests in compelling the discontinuance
of their native ceremonies, and seeing many of their men
carried off to the mines and reduced to slavery, began to
plan a general uprising. The first attempt was made in
1640, but the revolters were soon overpowered by the
prompt measures of General Arguello, then governor of
the province. The Apaches appear in this revolt as allies
of the Pueblo Indians.

TRIBES OF MEXICO 47
After this the fire was smothered for a time, but not
wholly extinguished. The exactions of the priests, of
whom there was a most liberal supply in that country,
estranged and embittered the natives ; and when the authori
ties undertook to enforce compliance with the priests' re
quirements, by imprisonment, flogging, slavery, and even
death, the flame of indignation burst forth in open rebellion
in 1680. It was the design of the natives, urged on by
their most active and influential leaders, to utterly extermi
nate the Spaniards ; and with the exception of a few of the
loveliest women and girls retained as captives, the massacre
was indiscriminate; neither priest, soldier, nor colonist,
neither old nor young, man nor woman, was spared. Gov
ernor Otermin, with the citizens of Santa Fe, the refugees
from other towns who had succeeded in reaching the city,
and probably a few soldiers, less than two hundred fighting
men in all, defended the place for five days; but the host
of besiegers being constantly augmented by the arrival of
other bands, they were forced to retreat to the south. The
revolt was completely successful, every Spaniard not slain —
save a few female captives — being driven from the country.
The number of white victims was over four hundred, in
cluding twenty-one missionaries. The latter were especially
sought out and slain with savage cruelty. They were the
chief objects of the Indians' hatred, for they were looked
upon as the chief cause of Spanish oppression. On the
attempted return of the Spaniards next year, the pueblos
south of Isleta were found depopulated, the inhabitants
having fled to the mountains, leaving their stores behind.
Isleta submitted only after a sharp contest, and the Span
iards applied the torch to this and all other pueblos they
passed save three, which, though abandoned, were so well
supplied with provisions that Don Domingo, the leader,
decided to spare them.
Several years elapsed, after the failure of Otermin to
subdue the rebellious inhabitants and to reconquer New
Mexico, before another attempt at subjugation was made.

4 8 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Meanwhile, the Indians remained in undisturbed possession
of the country, and were fast relapsing into their barbar
ous manners and customs. Don Diego de Vargas Zapata
Lujan was selected in 1692 by the Viceroy of Mexico to
renew the attempt. He met with no opposition until he
reached the vicinity of Santa Fe, where the Indians of the
surrounding pueblos had gathered to oppose his further
progress. After a fierce contest lasting a whole day, the
Spaniards succeeded in dispersing them and entered Santa
Fe. With the fall of this place, the neighboring pueblos,
twelve in number, made submission, and were visited and
taken possession of in the name of the King of Spain,
and delivered over to the care of the priests to be reduced
to spiritual obedience. Seven hundred and sixty-nine per
sons, as the records state, were received into the bosom of
the Church. The other pueblos yielded after some desul
tory warring, in which one portion of the inhabitants aided
the Spaniards against the other portion.
In 1696, another rebellion broke out in fourteen pueblos.
Thirty-four Spaniards and five priests were slain, churches
were burned, and the sacred vessels desecrated. The result,
however, was disastrous to the Indians, as more than two
thousand of their number perished in the mountains whither
they were driven, while as many more deserted their villages
and joined the wild tribes, leaving the country in many parts
nearly depopulated. From this time forward the submission
of the Indians may be regarded as permanent.
In the account given of the settlement by the Spanish
of the northern region, now embraced in New Mexico
and Arizona, reference has been made chiefly to the natives
usually known as the Pueblo tribes. These natives are, or
were until a recent date, more nearly in their original con
dition than any other tribes of the republic, and have, with
their communal houses and retention of many of their an
cient customs, afforded a rich field for antiquarian research.
Nevertheless, a complete history of this region brings to
notice other tribes which in after years come more or less into

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TRIBES OF MEXICO 40
prominence, and with which the United States government
— when discovery of mines and settlement of the territo
ries began — was brought into practical relations. Of these,
the tribes mentioned below appear to have figured to some
extent in the early history of Arizona and New Mexico.
While peace was maintained with the Pueblo Indians,
there was almost constant friction between the Spaniards
and some of the unsettled tribes living in and around the
territory almost up to the time the United States assumed
control. Among these were the Comanches and Apaches.
The Pima Alto, or Upper Pimas, in the region of Rio
Gila, were among the Indians encountered by the Spanish
explorers in their expeditions in search of the cities of
Cibola. Their relations with the Spaniards were friendly
from the first and continued so, offering an easily cultivated
field to the missionary laborers — an opening which was not
neglected, as is proved, had history failed to record the
fact, by numerous remains of early missions, scattered
through the section. As evidence of the friendly relations
with the whites, it is only necessary to mention the fact
that for six years Father Kino travelled back and forth
throughout the length and breadth of the Pima country,
often alone, yet without serious molestation. But two re
volts are mentioned — one in 1695, apparently brought on
by the oppressive acts of Captain Mange's soldiers. The
other outbreak was in 1750, when two missionaries and
one hundred Spaniards were killed.
The Navajos were in friendly relations with the authori
ties, at least in a general way, up to 1700; however, after
that date they were in repeated conflict with the colonists,
chiefly through the efforts of the latter to protect the
Pueblos from their raids. They were almost constantly at
war with the Utes. The cognate Apaches, consisting of a
number of bands under different names, were alternately at
peace and at war, sometimes attacking the Pueblos, then
joining the Spaniards in an expedition against the Ute and
Comanche Indians.

50 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
The two last-mentioned tribes, the Mojave and other
tribes of the section, save the Hopi [Moqui] , did not come
into prominence until later. The Hopi Pueblos managed
as a general rule to avoid being drawn into the conflicts
between the other Pueblos and the Spaniards, and after the
conflict at the first meeting were generally on friendly rela
tions with the latter. Some of the Hopi Pueblos took part
in the uprising of 1680, while others remained friendly and
protected their padres.
The Pueblo tribes, though quite similar in their manners
and characteristics, pertained to four different linguistic
stocks, to wit : the Hopi, to the Shoshonean division of the
great Nahuatlan family ; the Zuni, to the Zunian ; the people
of Acoma, Cochiti, and a number of other Rio Grande
pueblos, to the Keresan stock; and the people of Taos
and some of the lower pueblos, to the Tafioan. The fact
that they had reached a more advanced stage of culture
than other tribes of the same latitude and northward has
been mentioned. They continued to live, until recently, in
little communities, distinct from the Spanish population,
governed by their own local customs and laws. Each
village was distinct from the others, there being no official
or political bond of union between them. Their officers
were a governor, a justice of the peace, — or alcalde, — styled
cacique, a fiscal, or constable to execute the laws, and a
"council of wise men." Besides these there was a war
captain, who had charge of military affairs. They were a
quiet and orderly people, industrious and frugal, devoted to
agricultural pursuits, having at the time of the conquest ad
vanced to that stage in which irrigation was adopted as an
aid in furnishing the necessary supply of water. In addition
to maize, beans, pumpkins, etc., they were already culti
vating cotton and weaving it into cloth; and the females
were adepts in the manufacture of pottery.
It is unfortunately true that the wise policy and humane
purposes of a government, as set forth in its laws, de
crees, and ordinances, are often rendered ineffectual in their

TRIBES OF MEXICO 5I
practical application by the failure, on the part of those to
whose hands their execution is intrusted, to carry them out
in the spirit and manner intended. There are perhaps few
more conspicuous examples of the difference between the
enactment and execution of laws, where an important
principle is involved, than that of the expressed policy of
the Spanish government in regard to the natives of its
American colonies and the actual policy adopted by those
appointed to carry it out.
The treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards, as given
in the preceding statements, is shown to have been generally
oppressive and in many cases cruel and even barbarous;
yet an examination of the laws of Spain and the ordinances
of the king shows that these acts were not only unwarranted
thereby, but in direct conflict therewith.
The first real effort for the betterment of the natives
was begun in 1551, when Velasco put into effective opera
tion the royal orders to this end. One hundred and fifty
thousand male slaves, besides a great number of women
and children, were set at liberty. A decree of Philip II. in
1587 confirmed to the various pueblos, or villages, eleven
hundred varas square of land, which was subsequently in
creased to a league square. However, it was the theory
of Spain that the Indians held no higher title to the land
than that of possession, without the right of alienation.
The decree of the Royal Audience of Mexico of Feb
ruary 23, 1 78 1, prohibits the Pueblo Indians from selling,
renting, leasing, or in any other manner disposing of their
lands to one another or to third parties without the consent
of the said Royal Audience.
The geographical positions of the linguistic families of
New Mexico and Arizona are shown in Map C and ex
plained in the list which accompanies it.

CHAPTER III
THE INDIANS OF FLORIDA AND THE EASTERN
GULF STATES
As we have travelled northward on the western slope to
the limit of native population brought to notice at an early
date, and approximately to the limit northward of Spanish
conquest, we turn now to the Atlantic side, and commencing
with the Indians of Florida and the eastern Gulf states will
proceed northward somewhat in the order of discovery and
settlement, though without being limited thereby, the object
in view being to trace to its close, or to the present, the
history of each group reached before passing to another.
Florida, which extends furthest southward, had been the
goal of numerous explorers; the fabled fountain which
renewed the youth and vigor of the aged, and the rich
mines of "Apalatacy Mountains," had been for a time the
attractions which lured thither the eager adventurers ; but it
was not until after the first half of the sixteenth century
had passed and European nations had made the first attempts
to form settlements on the eastern coast that the history of
the Indians of this province really begins. Not until Jean
Ribault and Rene Laudonniere attempted, in 1564— 1567,
to plant a French colony in Florida were the two races
brought into practical relations one with the other on the
Atlantic shore of the United States. Although this region
was destined to come into possession of Spain and form
one of the colonies of that nation, this was not to be until
France had led the way in the enterprise. When the French
53

54 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
appeared upon the scene, the Indians of Florida, notwith
standing the frequent visits of Europeans to the peninsula,
were, excepting those of the northwest section encountered
by Narvaez and De Soto, practically unknown.
Among the latter, the most important tribe, and the one
which most severely harassed the troops of Narvaez and,
with the exception of the people of Mauvila, offered the
fiercest opposition to the advance of De Soto's army, was
the Apalache. The province of this tribe embraced the
region about what is now known as Appalachee Bay, and
probably included the greater part of Chattahoochee River
basin. The chief town of the tribe, also called Apalache,
was located a short distance north of the bay, not far
from the site of Tallahassee, the capital of the state; and
the boundary between this province and the territory of the
Timuquanan family at the time of De Soto's passage is
supposed to have been Aucilla River.
For a time the ethnic position of this warlike tribe was
considered doubtful, the name having been used by the
early writers in such widely different senses as to render its
proper application uncertain; but a careful study by lin
guists of local names and the little left on record in regard
to its history subsequent to De Soto's visit has resulted in
the settled conviction that it pertained to the great Musk-
hogean family of the Gulf states. Dr. A. S. Gatschet,
who devoted considerable time to the study of this linguistic
group, concludes that this tribe, together with the Hitchiti
and Mikasuki, formed a dialectic group of the family, dis
tinct from the well-known Creek division. Their history
is brief; however, it is known that even before their fierce
contests with Narvaez and the adelantado's army they had
become famous among the surrounding tribes for their in
trepidity and valor; and although Narvaez, like De Soto,
fought his way through their territory, both were harassed
by them at every step ; they even burned their own towns
to prevent them from being used by the Spaniards as resting
places. The people were agriculturists, living chiefly upon

FLORIDA AND THE EASTERN GULF STATES

55

the products of the soil; and when De Soto's army arrived
in the province, they found cultivated fields on every side
bearing plentiful crops of maize, beans, pumpkins, and
cucumbers. Notwithstanding their early renown, but little has been
recorded concerning their subsequent story. It is known
that in 1638 they were at war with the Spanish colonists,
but were soon defeated by the Governor of Florida and
forced to retreat to their own country, and that in 1688
several of the chiefs oppressed with taxes joined in a letter
of complaint to Charles II. of Spain concerning the exac
tions of their governors. In 1705, most of the tribe, be
cause of the frequent raids upon their settlements by the
Alibamu, fled to the French colony on Mobile River and
were granted seed for planting, and settled by Bienville
between the Mobilian and the Tehome tribes. The tribe
is now extinct.
When, on the 25th of June, 1564, the French, under
the command of Rene Laudonniere, landed at the mouth
of St. John's River, then called River May, where Ribault
had landed before him, they were welcomed with joyful
greetings by the same chief who had met them with friendly
demonstrations at their first visit. It was in the territory
of this chief, named Saturiwa, whose dominion included the
country about the mouth of St. John's River and extended
northward along the coast nearly to the Savannah, and
whose authority was acknowledged by thirty subchiefs, that
they had planned to form their settlement. Although this
native ruler was somewhat surprised at the bold proceed
ings of these white-faced visitants when he saw them com
mence the erection of a fort, yet the work was allowed
to proceed without objection, and pledges of friendship
and mutual assistance were exchanged. However, a little
later, when the French governor refused to aid him in
his war with Outina, a powerful chief whose province lay
further up the river toward the interior, Saturiwa was much
offended at Laudonniere for having failed to keep his pledge.

5 6 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Notwithstanding this threatened breach, the French governor
managed to renew friendly relations ; and when Dominique
de Gourgues came, three years later, to take vengeance
on the Spaniards for destroying the Huguenot settlement,
Saturiwa eagerly aided him with all his forces. The cru
elty of the Spaniards under Menendez had made him their
implacable enemy.
Outina — or Olata Utina — was courted by Laudonniere
because it was believed he held the road to "Apalatacy
Mountains," where it was reported gold could be obtained.
This chief lent a willing ear to these overtures, because
adjoining his territory, in the direction of these mountains,
lay the province of Potanu, a paracousy — or head chief —
with whom he was at war, and against whom he hoped
to engage the French; which, by shrewd management, he
ultimately accomplished.
Although we enter now upon the beginning of that era
when the intercourse between the races was to be contin
uous, but little more has been recorded in reference to the
other tribes of Florida at that early date than their names
and brief notices of some of their chiefs. Here and there
an incident is mentioned which serves to break the monot
ony, but the narratives of the explorers are chiefly devoted
to the search for the eldorado where gold was to be ob
tained in rich abundance; to the struggles to obtain food,
and the contests with other European adventurers for pos
session. What little is ascertained in regard to the Indians
is gathered chiefly from the memoirs and accounts of the
short-lived French colony ; those of the Spanish occupancy
and permanent settlement which followed; and from the
personal narrative of Fontaneda and brief notes by Barcia.
To these, however, must be added the work on the Lengua
Timuquana by Francesco Pareja, which has come down as
a precious waif to modern linguists. From these and sub
sequent investigations it is now known that the eastern and
most of the central portions of Florida were occupied by
various tribes belonging to the Timuquanan stock.

FLORIDA AND THE EASTERN GULF STATES

57

Although Las Casas tells us that when Europeans began
to visit Florida they found it peopled by numerous well-
ordered and civilized nations, the modern writer (Brinton,
Florida Penin., iii) who comments on this assertion by the
statement that, on the contrary, they found the land sparsely
peopled by a barbarous and quarrelsome race of savages,
rent asunder into manifold petty clans, goes rather too far
toward the other extreme. That the natives were divided
into petty clans is true, as was generally true of the coast
Indians northward to the Potomac; nevertheless, there seems
to have been some kind of organization. Instead of well-
defined tribes there were confederacies, each governed by a
paracousy, or head chief; the subdivisions, usually corre
sponding with the towns, were each governed by subchiefs.
The prevailing language, however, was the Timuqua, of
which, according to Pareja, there were some six or seven
dialects. Laudonniere mentions, in the course of his narrative,
five head chiefs, as follows : the three — Saturiwa, Utina,
and Potanu — already referred to, and Onethcaqua and Hos-
taqua. To these should be added, unless it be another
form of one of the names given, that of Urribarracuxi, — or
Hurripacuxi, — mentioned by De Soto's chroniclers, whose
territory embraced most of the western part of the penin
sula. In later times the cacique of this province resided at
a village on Old Tampa Bay, called Tocobaga or Togo-
baja. Fontaneda (Ternaux, Compans Recueil, xx, 20) names
the chief in his day Toco-Baja-Chile. It is possible that
the Hostaqua mentioned here should be identified with the
Westos of South Carolina, as their name is given as " Ous-
tack" as early as 1672 by John Lederer, who, though an
unreliable authority, must have heard it. If this identifica
tion be correct, it will indicate that the Timuquanan stock
extended northward to Savannah River.
When the French first went to visit Utina, they stopped
on the way, and were entertained by Mollua, a subchief,
who mentioned as his friends and allies Cadecha, Chilili,

58 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Eclauou, Enacappe, Calany, Anacharaqua, Omittaqua, Ac-
quara, and Muquoso, all subchiefs and vassals of Utina.
It is somewhat puzzling to find in this list Muquoso,
evidently the friendly Mucoso of De Soto's chroniclers;
and Acquara, another name mentioned by them as belong
ing to the western confederacy. However, it proves that
the Timuquanan territory extended to the west coast of the
peninsula. As the early writers failed to mark the distinction between
the names of chiefs and the names of tribes or provinces,
that of the chief being used for both, we know the tribes
or confederacies, and the people thereof, only by the names
given the chiefs. The same thing applies generally to the
minor divisions, the names of the subchiefs being the same
as those of the towns they governed. It is only by bearing
in mind this loose method of the early authors in the use
of names that we can properly interpret their writings.
That wars were being constantly carried on between the
head chiefs and peoples of the different provinces is shown
by what has already been mentioned, and additional evi
dence might be adduced; but wars between the towns or
subchiefs of the same confederacy seem to have been rare,
the latter, as abundantly proved by the records, always
responding promptly to the call of the provincial ruler for
the assembling of his forces.
Besides the members of the Timuquanan family and the
Apalache tribe, there were some two or three small tribes
located about the southern extremity of the peninsula which
do not appear to have been ethnically related to the Timu
quanan group. One of these, the Tegesta, or Tequesta,
occupied the Atlantic side ; the other, the Calusa, dwelt on
the Gulf side. It is probable that Ponce de Leon's landing
place on his second expedition was in the territory of one
of these tribes, most likely the latter. The name Calusa,
according to Fontaneda, signifies "cruel village," being so
named, he asserts, " because the inhabitants are barbarous
and very skilful in the use of arms." He includes as one

FLORIDA AND THE EASTERN GULF STATES 59
of their villages Tampa, but at the time of De Soto's visit
this appears to have been under the authority of Ucita, a
Timuquanan chieftain.
In addition to these there was a tribe of people called "Ais
Indians," living on the east coast about Cape Canaveral.
Their territory formed the northern part of the province
of Tequesta, and though considered distinct they may have
been related to that tribe. Muspa is given as the name of
a small tribe located near Boca Grande, from whence they
were driven to the Keys; however, the name Muspa is
included by Fontaneda in his list of Calusa towns ; but
some, at least, of this author's statements must be received
with caution.
After the French had been finally expelled, and the
Spaniards came into full control under Pedro Menendez
de Aviles as adelantado, there was — so far as the history
of that period has been recorded — almost constant friction
between them and the Indians. There seems, however, if
Williams ( The Territory of Florida, 175) be correct, to have
been a brief period of quiet soon after Menendez entered
earnestly upon the work of building up the Spanish colony.
Having appointed De las Alas as his substitute while absent
in Spain, the latter despatched embassies to all the tribes
for some distance to the west and north of St. Augustine,
now established as the seat of authority. " In this he was
so successful," says the writer quoted, "that all the tribes
east of the Appalachicola River received into their towns
Spanish garrisons, and many Spanish families to instruct the
Indians." This harmonious condition, if it existed, lasted
but for a short time, as it appears from a statement by
Torquemada (Mon. Ind. Lib., xix, cap. xx) that about the
time St. Augustine was sacked by Drake [1568], the sol
diers, owing to the hostile attitude of the Indians, did not
dare to leave the fort even to hunt and fish.
Nevertheless, by persistent efforts of the Church, increase
in the number of priests, and the adoption of more persua
sive measures, beneficial results began to show themselves

60 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
about 1595, and ultimately the natives were converted. A
considerable season of rest seems to have followed, but
Spanish oppression caused a revolt about 1687 ; and in 1706
the native Timuquanans, being greatly reduced in numbers,
yielded to the attacks of the Yamasi Indians, the last remnant
withdrawing to Mosquito Lagoon in what is now Volusia
County. With this their history ends, and soon thereafter
they became extinct as a people. Before the curtain drops
on this close of the first scene in the great drama, let us
record one brief and simple statement which appears like a
bright spark amid the dying embers. We are informed
that the successor of Saturiwa, the true and faithful friend
of the French, was Casicola, "lord of ten thousand In
dians" and ruler of all the land "between St. Augustine
and St. Helena." — (Brinton, Fl. Pen., 120.) But numbers
availed them not, the folds of the destroyer were fast tight
ening about them, and, ere the century had passed, the
places which knew them once knew them no more ; tyranny
and oppression had accomplished their work. They come
before us more as a vision than as a living reality. The
only links which connect them with the present are the
fragments of their language which have been preserved —
precious relics of the past from which we may gather some
faint echoes of their thoughts and ambitions.
Through the repeated attacks by the Spaniards, slave
capturing, and the incursions of Muskhogean bands, the
other small tribes of southern Florida were ultimately ex
terminated, the only monuments of their former existence
being found in a few local names.
The customs of the Florida Indians were, in general, the
same as those of the Indians of the southern coast and Gulf
states. Their towns were usually surrounded by wooden
stockades made of upright posts fixed in the ground, having a
single opening where the ends overlapped, which, according
to the figures given in De Bry, was precisely the form of the
village fortifications along the Carolina and Virginia coasts.
However, the houses in Florida, according to Le Moyne's

FLORIDA AND THE EASTERN GULF STATES 6 1
figures, were, with the exception of the chiefs' dwellings
and the council houses, circular in form with thatched
roofs, while those further north were oblong.
A statement in Laudonniere's account of the second
voyage indicates that succession to the chieftaincy was, at
least in some instances, determined by election and not
always by descent. Having on one occasion taken Utina
prisoner in order to bring him to terms, the subjects of the
latter, supposing he would be slain, decided to install a suc
cessor. "The father-in-law of Utina set one of the king's
young sonnes upon the royal throne ; and tooke such paynes
that every man did him homage by the maior part of the
voyces. This election had like to have been the cause of
great troubles among them. For there was a kinsman of the
king's neere adioyning, which pretended a title to the king-
dome, and indeede he had gotten part of the subjects ; not
withstanding this enterprise could not take effect, forasmuch
as by common consent of the chiefs, it was consulted and
concluded, that the sonne was more meete to succeed the
father than any other."
The cruel treatment by the Indians of their prisoners and
the shocking mutilation of the slain are described with par
ticularity by the narratives and rather too vividly, though pos
sibly truly, drawn by the pencil of Le Moyne. The details
are too gross and inhuman to be given. Our sympathies
may be with the natives when ill-treated by the whites ; but
the closing scenes of their' conflicts, such as that pictured
by Le Moyne, have a tendency to cool such feelings.
It is probable that the advent of the French was, on the
whole, injurious to the Indians of Florida rather than bene
ficial. Notwithstanding occasional conflicts, the French
here, as elsewhere, had the art of making friends of the
Indians with whom they were forced to enter into rela
tions. Their intercourse with the tribes of Florida, though
thus generally friendly, had a tendency to embitter the latter
against the Spaniards ; and hatred was left as a legacy to the
latter when the French departed.

62 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
The Timuquanan group presents some interesting ques
tions difficult to answer entirely satisfactorily. That the
group constitutes a distinct stock in itself is unquestionable,
if language be taken as the test; but in what direction
its affinities lie, so far as a linguistic stock may be said to
have affinities, has not as yet been pointed out. In other
words, lying nearest the West Indies, which was peopled
from South America, the question arises : Is this group also
of South American origin, or was its priscan home in the
north ? Dr. Gatschet, who made a careful study of the re
maining data relating to the family, decided that it shows no
radical affinity either to the Muskhogean stock of the South
ern states, or to the Cariban or Arawakan stocks of South
America and the West Indies. But the data furnished by
him, and other data which might be added, point rather to
the south than to the north as the original home of the
stock. So far as the vocabularies are concerned, the Timu-
qua presents more resemblances to the languages of South
America, especially to the Arawak, than to those north of
Florida; even the brief comparison made by Dr. Gatschet
in his paper on the language read before the American
Philosophical Society [1880], to which other examples
might be added, shows this. While their manners and
customs were in a general sense similar to those of the
Indians of the Southern states, there were some respects in
which they differed from all the surrounding tribes. Several
authorities, as Hervas, Payne, etc., have claimed that the
Caribs made early settlements in Florida, yet there are
reasons for the now generally accepted view that these In
dians were of northern origin, though there is some evidence
of contact with South American stocks. This belief in a
northern origin seems to be strengthened by the results
recently obtained in exploring the mounds of the Florida
coast. The destruction of the Timuquanan and other original
tribes of Florida was not the end of Indian history in the
peninsular province. One of those occasional though

FLORIDA AND THE EASTERN GULF STATES

63

rather infrequent occurrences, the formation of a new tribe
out of heterogeneous elements, took place in the peninsula.
When the formation commenced is uncertain; possibly the
fugitive elements, chiefly from the Muskhogean group, began
to seek hiding places in this region as early as the close of
the sixteenth century, but it was not until the eighteenth
century that they came prominently into notice. This
body, which was known as the Seminoles, consisted at first
of Creek refugees who had been driven from the tribe be
cause of crime or insubordination, or had left the organiza
tion for the purpose of leading a wilder and freer life than
was possible in their own tribe. The number was increased
by the refugee Yamasis, whom Governor Craven had driven
from South Carolina into the arms of their enemies, the
Spaniards of Florida, after the revolt of 17 15. Additions
were also made from the Hitchiti towns and by negroes who
had escaped from their masters and fled to the Everglades
for concealment. A considerable number was added by
those who, unwilling to surrender to General Jackson after
his conquest of the Creeks, fled to Florida.
In 1 81 7, border warfare broke out between the Semi
noles and the settlers on the frontiers of Georgia. General
Jackson was sent against them. However, this war, chiefly
because of international complications, was soon ended.
The peninsula having come into the possession of the
United States in 1821, the next step was to rid it of
the Indians who occupied the land. It was decided that
this should be done by honest purchase. A treaty was
made with the Seminoles, by which the latter agreed to,
relinquish the greater part of their lands and retire to the
centre of the peninsula, the government agreeing on its
part to pay them certain annuities, to take them under
its care, and to protect them in their rights. The Semi
noles further agreed to remove to the west at the expiration
of twenty years after the date of the treaty. Before the
completion of the twenty years, the call by the settlers for
their removal became so urgent that another treaty was

64 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
made, by which, in consideration of additional payments,
they agreed to move in three years, one third each year.
However, when the time for departure arrived they sud
denly disappeared with their women and children, the latter
being removed to a place so well hidden that all efforts of
the whites to locate it were futile.
Outrages upon the settlers now began to be perpetrated
by the Indians, and were carried on to such an extent that
war upon them became necessary. Major Dade was sent
against them with two companies, in December, 1835, only
to be exterminated, but three of the number remaining to
tell the tale of the disaster. General Gaines followed, and
one officer after another was sent in rapid succession to
bring the war to a close; but the strength of the Semi
noles seemed to increase as the war progressed. Runaway
negroes, criminals, and outlaws from other tribes fled to the
Everglades to join in the carnival of strife and blood; an
other attraction was the renown of the great Seminole
chieftain Osceola. The raids upon the settlements were
now so constant and destructive, that the people, panic-
stricken, fled to the forts and other strongholds for protec
tion. They were reduced to such straits that Congress
deemed it necessary to come to their relief. General
Jessup, one of the several officers sent to the peninsula to
reduce the hostiles to submission, goaded almost to despera
tion by the public clamor for the speedy conclusion of the
war, condescended to an expedient that will ever rest as a
blot upon his otherwise honorable record. Believing Osce
ola to be the life and soul of the rebellion, he managed to
bring about a conference on October 21, 1837, which was
attended by this chieftain and seventy-five of his followers,
under a flag of truce. Taking advantage of the oppor
tunity, he caused the unsuspecting chief and his followers to
be seized and made prisoners, regardless of the sacredness
of the pledge under which they had ventured to the confer
ence. The betrayed chief, through confinement and grief,
died within a year from the date of his capture. The

Aztec drawing showing the Spanish conquest of the Indians. From u
event during the expedition of Nuno de Guzt

irrie &

he so-called Lienzo de Tlascala canvas. This portion represents an
ivht

FLORIDA AND THE EASTERN GULF STATES 65
storm of denunciation which followed this act of treachery
compelled the withdrawal of General Jessup.
General Zachary Taylor was next placed in command,
and several other officers followed in rapid succession, until
the command was placed in the hands of General William
J. Worth, who finally succeeded in bringing the long-
drawn-out contest to a close. The end came in 1842,
after an almost continuous war of ten years, an expenditure
of forty million dollars, and the loss of hundreds of valuable
lives. Yet the strength of the tribe at its most prosperous
day did not exceed some eleven or twelve hundred warriors.
They were, with the exception of a small remnant,
removed to the reservation provided for them in Indian Ter
ritory. The number, according to the census of 1890, was
2,739, of which two hundred were still in southern Florida.
It is a somewhat singular fact that this conglomerate group,
composed at first of the worst elements of the native
population of the southeastern section, has become an
organized body and advanced toward civilization to such
an extent that it is now counted by the Indian Bureau as
one of the "five civilized tribes" of Indian Territory that
are no longer under control of the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs. It is most appropriate to notice in this connection the
Indians of southern Georgia, or at least two tribes of that
section which came into temporary prominence. One of
these, the Yamacraw, was a little tribe of Muskhogean affin
ity ; the other, the Uchee tribe, constituted a distinct family.
Although having no direct connection with the Florida
Indians, they form the intermediate step geographically in
passing to the great Muskhogee group proper.
The tribe of Yamacraw — the people of the celebrated
chief Tomochichi — was one of brief existence. Their loca
tion, when they first became known to the whites, was on
the banks of Savannah River, near the site of the pres
ent city of Savannah. The formation of the tribe ap
pears to have antedated the appearance of Oglethorpe and

66 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
his colonists but a few years. It was made up of Lower
Creeks who had followed Tomochichi when he — for some
unknown reason — separated from his parental tribe, and of
a number of Yamasis who had left their tribe. The evi
dence is clear that the tribe was not in existence in 1 721,
and equally clear that it was in existence in 1732, and con
sisted at that time of some thirty or forty men, indicating a
population of one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred
and sixty. In 1721, Tomochichi was still with his tribe,
as he was one of the contracting parties to the "Articles of
Friendship and Commerce," between Robert Johnson, Gov
ernor of South Carolina, and some of the Upper and Lower
Creek towns, and signed on behalf of the town of " Palla-
chucolas " [Apalatchukla] .
The history of the tribe consists of little more than the
history of Tomochichi. He was the firm and always true
friend of the whites, Governor Oglethorpe being his model.
Though unable, because of age and infirmity, to accom
pany Governor Oglethorpe in his remarkable journey to
Coweta in the heart of the Creek country, he, through mes
sengers, obtained beforehand the promise of a favorable
reception by the Creek chiefs. His death occurred in
1739, he being aged about ninety-seven years. His loss
was mourned with equal sincerity by the Indians and
whites. Very little is known in regard to the tribe after this;
it is possible that some of the Creeks returned to their tribe,
while the others joined the Yamasis and suffered their fate.
Another and more important body of Indians was that
known as the Uchee or Yuchi tribe, occupying the region
on both sides of Savannah River for some distance along
its middle reach. According to the classification of Major
J. W. Powell, they constituted a distinct stock or family,
which he named Uchean. It was this tribe that De Soto
found in 1540, under control of a caciqua, or chieftainess,
with the seat of her government at Cutifachiqui, on Savan
nah River. The territory of the tribe appears to have
extended at that time as far north as the headwaters of the

FLORIDA AND THE EASTERN GULF STATES 67
Savannah and for some distance below the site of Augusta,
though in 1729 their territory extended southward nearly
to the old town of Ebenezer, and as far west as Ogeechee
River. The next indirect reference to them is in Juan de
la Vandera's narrative [1569]; but no particulars are given,
except that the ruler was a female, probably the same one
who had entertained De Soto twenty-nine years before.
Subsequently they abandoned their ancient seat and moved
west to the country about Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers.
This change of location appears to have been brought about
through the marriage of a Creek [Cusseta] chieftain to three
Uchee women, whom he brought to his town, where he
induced the whole tribe to settle.
The main Uchee town was located on Chattahoochee
River. William Bartram, who saw it in 1775, describes it
as the largest, most compact, and best situated Indian town
he saw during his travels over the Southern states.
This tribe does not appear to have figured in history to
any notable extent as distinct from the Creeks. Although
maintaining rigidly their separate organization, they always
united with the latter against a common enemy, but do not
appear to have warred separately against the whites, nor did
the United States ever make any separate treaty with them.
When the Creeks were removed to the west of the Missis
sippi, they were removed with them, though they occupied
a separate town on Arkansas River.
The people called "Apalaches " with whom the colonists
of South Carolina had some contests were Uchees, and
not the Apalaches of northwestern Florida. The so-called
" Savannas " and " Savannucas " located on the lower Savan
nah River were also Uchees.
The people of this tribe, which at an early day was prob
ably the strongest organization in Georgia, were apparently
the most advanced in culture of any natives of the Southern
states. Benjamin Hawkins, United States agent among the
Creeks, in his Sketch of the Creek Country [1799], says
the Uchees were more civil, orderly, and industrious than

68 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
their neighbors, the Lower Creeks ; the men more attached
to their wives, and these more chaste. Some of the finest
specimens of pottery found in the Southern states have been
obtained from the sites of their towns on the Chattahoo
chee. Hawkins estimated the number of their warriors
in 1799 at two hundred and fifty, giving a total population
of about one thousand persons. Major J. W. Powell, in
the Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of American Eth
nology [i89i],givesthenumberof those in Indian Territory
as somewhat over six hundred.

CHAPTER IV
THE INDIANS OF THE SOUTHERN ATLANTIC COLONIES
(i) VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND
In attempting to follow the history of the Indians in
their relations with the whites, the political history of the
colonies is only incidental thereto, and only enters into
the scope of such history so far as it directly affects these
relations. Arbitrary or political boundary lines established
by the colonies or the controlling government bore but
little relation to tribal limits or the boundaries of native
provinces, and were but slightly regarded by the Indians
until the power of the white colonists had come into the
ascendency. We find it necessary, therefore, in order to
avoid breaking the history of the natives of the different
sections into disconnected fragments, to take up these sec
tions separately. It is true that any grouping with relation
to areas will bring together native elements belonging to
different stocks; nevertheless, there are more direct histor
ical relations between the parts of different stocks which
have long resided in the same region than between portions
of the same family which have been long separated. It is
apparent that the Powhatan confederacy, which belonged to
the great Algonquian family, was far more intimately con
nected, historically, with the Iroquoian and Siouan tribes in
the same region than with the Cheyenne or Ojibwa tribes
of the same stock living in the distant Northwest.
The natives included in the division here designated
"The Southern Atlantic Colonies" were the Powhatan
69

70 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
and other Algonquin tribes of Virginia and Maryland ; that
portion of the Siouan stock which formerly resided in Vir
ginia and the Carolinas ; and the Iroquoian tribes of Virginia
and North Carolina which came in contact with the British
settlements on the southern coast.
The first attempt to plant a colony on the shores of this
part of North America was made by expeditions sent out by
Raleigh. Of these it is only necessary for us to notice here
what relates to the natives; we turn, therefore, to Hariot and
With, or White, the historian and the artist of the expe
dition of 1585, to learn from them what information they
obtained in regard to the Indians of the region in the vicinity
of Roanoke Island, where the settlement was to begin.
While it is evident that White used his imagination to a
considerable extent in drawing his figures, yet they bear on
their face strong indications of being based on fact, and
have subsequently been confirmed in so many particu
lars, that they are now generally accepted as setting forth
substantially what they attempt to show. In his map,
he places the province of Weapemeoc at the north along
the coast; Chawanok to the northwest on Chowan River;
Secotan at the south on the coast; and the Mangoaks in
the interior to the west, — names and positions subse
quently confirmed. He also locates most of the towns
named in the narrative, which are figured as surrounded
with stockades of upright posts planted in the ground, the
only opening being formed by the overlapping at the ends.
The houses are represented as oblong, with rounded roofs;
the walls were formed of posts and crossbeams covered with
bark. The clothing of the natives consisted of mantles and
aprons of deerskin. According to Hariot, they not only cul
tivated maize and tobacco, but also beans, apparently the
so-called butter beans, peas, — probably another variety of
beans, — pumpkins, melons and gourds, which they included
under the one name, " macocquer," and the sunflower.
A recent writer, speaking of the natives of this section,
says: "The great peculiarity of the Indians consisted in

VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND

71

the want of political connection. A single town often
constituted a government; a collection of ten or twenty
wigwams was an independent state." — (Bancroft, Hist.
U. S., i, 98.) That the political condition of the Indians
of the coast regions from the Savannah to the Potomac has
been and still is, to some extent, a problem difficult to solve
is true. We have in a preceding chapter alluded to the
loose confederacies of Florida, but in a large portion of
the region now under consideration it seems that the union
was almost entirely broken. Nevertheless, we gather from
the narratives some indications of combination; for exam
ple, it is stated in the account of the first voyage that three
of the chiefs, though independent, were in league, although
the fortified towns indicate a state of warfare. It is now
known that these small tribes belonged to the Algonquian
family; and judging by data obtained in regard to them, they
appear to have been more nearly related to those of the
Powhatan group than to any other division of the family,
and possibly had formerly been included in it.
We pass now from the tentative stage of British occu
pancy to the permanent. Although Raleigh's attempts to
found an empire on the western continent had failed, the
fire he kindled was not wholly extinguished ; and before he
died the great work of his life had been accomplished — an
English colony had been firmly planted on the American
continent. In the letters patent granted by James I.,
April 10, 1606, to Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers,
and others, the following is the only reference to the In
dians in the copy given by Stith (Appendix to the History
of Virginia) :
We, greatly commending, and graciously accepting of their Desires
for the Furtherance of so noble a Work, which may, by the Providence
of Almighty God, hereafter tend to the Glory of his Divine Majesty,
in propagating of Christian Religion to such People, as yet live- in
Darkness and miserable Ignorance of the true Knowledge and Wor
ship of God, and may in time bring the Infidels and Savages, living
in those Parts, to human Civility, and to a settled and quiet Governr
ment. . .

72 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
When the whites appeared on the scene, the eastern
portion of Virginia, from the coast back to the line of
waterfalls from the Potomac to Albemarle Sound, was
occupied by numerous small Algonquin tribes; those north
of James River to the Potomac and beyond this to the
Patuxent in Maryland were included in the Powhatan con
federacy, or at least were under the sway of Powhatan at
the time of the settlement at Jamestown. West of these,
extending to the Blue Ridge, were a number of tribes be
longing to other stocks; as the Manahoac group or con
federacy, immediately south of the Potomac ; and south of
these, the Monacan and other Siouan tribes. The only
other family represented was the Iroquoian, by the Man-
goak, or Nottoway, and the Meherrin tribes in the southern
part of the state. Whether the Algonquin Indians south
of James River were in any way connected politically with
those of the Powhatan confederacy is not known.
With the exception of a slight attack by a few straggling
natives before the final landing of the immigrants who set
tled Jamestown, the first reception was a friendly one,
though not accompanied by any exuberant expressions of
joy at the meeting. Shortly after the site for the settle
ment had been selected, Captain Newport, who had com
manded the ships, and John Smith, accompanied by twenty
others, ascended James River to the residence of Powha
tan. The village, which was his residence at that time,
consisted of twelve houses and was situated on a hill over
looking the stream, a short distance below the present site
of Richmond. A royal residence for an "emperor" who
held sway over " thirty-two nations " ! The voyagers were
kindly received and hospitably treated by the wily chief,
who, no doubt, fully apprised of all that had happened, had
determined upon his plan of action. The hint appears to
have been understood by his people; for on their return
the English were accorded a kind welcome wherever they '
stopped, by which they were lulled into fancied security,
though the constant watchfulness of Smith secured them

VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND 73
against treachery; yet during their absence the settlement
at Jamestown had been attacked by the Indians in full
force, and was saved rather by a favorable .accident which
frightened them than by the valor of the besieged. A
crossbow shot from one of the ships chanced to cut off
a branch of a tree, which fell among the Indians, who were
so terrified by this, to them, strange phenomenon that they
fled in all directions, probably imagining that it was the
result of the invisible power they believed the English
possessed. It is probable that Powhatan, being apprised of the
coming of Newport and Smith, had planned this attack
during their absence.
Newport having sailed for England, the colonists, in
addition to the evils resulting from disunion, and bad man
agement, were soon reduced to the utmost straits for pro
visions. Fortunately, and as Stith, strong in faith, puts it,
" God wrought so wonderful a Change in the Hearts of
the Indians, that they brought such Plenty of their Fruits
and Provisions, as no Man wanted." But it was chiefly by
the indomitable will and tireless energy of Smith that the
colony was not only saved from disruption, but procured
provisions from the Indians when the supply ran short.
At length, while exploring the country along the Chicka-
hominy, by the failure of his companions to carry out his
instructions, they were ambushed by Opechancanough,
brother to Powhatan, and all slain except Smith, who was
taken prisoner. By displaying a pocket compass and
amusing the Indians with an explanation of its powers,
and trying to explain to them, by signs and the little knowl
edge of their language he had obtained, the movements of
the heavenly bodies, he escaped immediate death and was
carried in triumph through their towns.
And first, they carried him to those that dwelt on Youghtanund, or
as it is now called Pamunkey River : For the main river, which is since
named York River, was then called Pamunkey, altho' the country of
Pamunkey, over which Opechancanough was king, lay in the fork

74 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
of the river, and his chief seat was nearly where the Pamunkey town
now is. From the Youghtanunds, they led him to the Mattaponies,
the Piankatanks, the Nantaughtacunds on Rappahannock, and the
Nominies, on Pat<5wmac River : And having passed him over all those
rivers, they brought him back, thro' several other nations, to Opechan
canough' s habitation at Pamunkey, where, with frightful howlings, and
many strange and hellish ceremonies, they conjured him three days to
know, as they told, whether he intended them well or ill. — (Stith, 53.)
After making the tour of most of the tribes acknowl
edging the authority of Powhatan, Smith was brought before
this chief at Werowocomico [Gloucester County] , at that
time his principal residence. Here occurred Smith's rescue
from death by Pocahontas, which has been so often told.
Even the staid and sober historian Burk, whose epitomized
account we copy rather than the more profuse one by
Smith, cannot refrain from the tincture of romance.
A consultation of the emperor and his council having taken place,
it was adjudged expedient to put Smith to death, as a man whose
superior courage and genius made him peculiarly dangerous to the
safety of the Indians. The decision being made known to the attend
ants of the emperor, preparations immediately commenced for carrying
it into execution, by means as simple and summary as the nature of
the trial.
Two large stones were brought in, and placed at the feet of the em
peror ; and on them was laid the head of the prisoner : Next a large
club was brought in, with which Powhatan, for whom, out of re
spect, was reserved this honor, prepared to crush the head of his cap
tive. The assembly looked on with sensations of awe, probably not
unmixed with pity for the fate of an enemy whose bravery had com
manded their admiration ; and in whose misfortunes, their hatred was
possibly forgotten.
The fatal club was uplifted : The breasts of the company already
by anticipation, felt the dreadful crash, which was to bereave the
wretched victim of life ; when the young and beautiful Pocahontas,
the beloved daughter of the emperor, with a shriek of terror and
agony, threw herself on the body of Smith. Her hair was loose,
and her eyes streaming with tears, while her whole manner bespoke the
deep distress and agony of her bosom. She cast a beseeching look at
her furious and astonished father, deprecating his wrath, and imploring
his pity and the life of his prisoner, with all the eloquence of mute but
impassioned sorrow.

VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND

75

The remainder of this scene is honorable to the character of Pow
hatan : It will remain a lasting monument, that tho' different principles
of action and the influence of custom have given to the manners and
opinions of this people an appearance neither amiable nor virtuous,
they still retain the noblest property of the human character, the touch
of pity and the feeling of humanity.
The club of the emperor was still uplifted ; but pity had touched his
bosom, and his eye was every moment losing its fierceness : He looked
round to collect his fortitude, or perhaps to find an excuse for his weak
ness in the faces of his attendants : But every eye was suffused with the
sweetly contagious softness. The generous savage no longer hesitated.
The compassion of the rude state is neither ostentatious nor dilatory ;
nor does it insult its object by the exaction of impossible conditions ;
Powhatan lifted his grateful and delighted daughter ; and the captive
scarcely yet assured of safety, from the earth.
Notwithstanding the general acceptance of this romantic
tale, it has been seriously questioned, with a considerable
show of reason for the doubt; however, if stripped of its
embellishments and reduced simply to one of those fre
quent instances where Indian women have saved the lives
of white prisoners, the story may be accepted as true. The
rescue of Juan Ortez, whom De Soto found in the wilds
of Florida and made his interpreter, will then form an exact
parallel, as he was on the point of being put to death when
he was saved by the "lovely" daughter of a chief.
Although, according to Stith, the hereditary provinces of
Powhatan were only Powhatan and Arrahattucks, to which
he had added Werowocomico and Chiskiac, between Wil
liamsburg and York, he had, by conquest, reduced under
his power the numerous tribes that inhabited the spacious
country between James River, from its mouth to the falls,
and northward to the Patuxent, in Maryland.
A desultory warfare with some intervals of peace con
tinued up to 1 613, when Pocahontas was married to John
Rolf with the consent of her father and of her uncle Opa-
chisco, the latter witnessing the ceremony and giving away
the bride. Thereupon peace was confirmed between the
whites and the Indians; and the Chickahominies, a bold
and independent people who had manfully resisted the

76 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
efforts of Powhatan to subdue them, now voluntarily sub
mitted to English authority, with the proviso that they
should be allowed to retain their laws and form of govern
ment, which offer was gladly accepted.
Powhatan died in 1618. Pocahontas, who had gone to
England and, for a time, was the curiosity and idol of the
Londoners, had died during the previous year. Powhatan,
whose original name was Wahunsonacock, was, in some
respects, a prominent figure in the Indian history of our
country; however, the brief sketch of his character by
Stith is more nearly correct than Burk's eulogium: "A
prince of excellent sense and parts and a great master of
all the savage arts of government and policy. He was
penetrating, crafty, insidious, and cruel; and as hard to be
deceived by others as to be avoided in his own stratagems
and snares. But as to the great and moral arts of policy,
such as truth, faith, uprightness, and magnanimity, they
seem to have been but little regarded by him." However,
as a leader and ruler he must have possessed considerable
ability. He is described as in person tall and well pro
portioned, exceedingly vigorous, and possessing a body
capable of undergoing great hardships; but his counte
nance was clouded with an air of sadness. Starting with
control, by inheritance, of two small tribes which were
surrounded by numerous other small tribes or bands, he
succeeded in bringing the latter under his authority, and
held a firm and almost despotic sway over them until his
death. Proud of his position, he maintained it with dignity
even under the most trying encounters with the civilized
whites. A single incident in Powhatan's life will serve to illus
trate his character as portrayed by Stith. For some reason,
which Smith says was unknown, he became offended at
the people of " Payankatank," or Piankatank, who were his
neighbors and subjects. Determining to punish them, he
sent several of his men to lodge with them on the night
he meant to fall upon them. Then secretly surrounding

VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND 77
:hem while they were sleeping in their wigwams, he broke
;n upon them and commenced a horrid slaughter. Twenty-
four men were killed and scalped, as if hereditary foes, and
the women and children were carried away prisoners. The
scalps of the slaughtered Indians were exhibited at Powha
tan's village upon a line between two trees as evidence of
his prowess, and the captured chief and his wife were made
the "emperor's" servants.
He was succeeded by Opitchapan, his second brother,
but the latter being decrepit, inactive, and wanting in en
ergy, the helm of power was really in the hands of his
younger brother, Opechancanough, who was an energetic
and ambitious man and an adept at dissimulation. Ope
chancanough had another qualification, however, which
endeared him to his people — his deep-rooted and deadly
hatred of the English; this had been kept in restraint by
Powhatan, but after his death Opechancanough immediately
began to lay his plans for the destruction of the objects of
his hatred. Four years had nearly expired, when the storm
which had been brewing under his secret machinations broke
forth. Nearly all the tribes of the confederacy were engaged
in the conspiracy, yet not a single man betrayed the confi
dence reposed in him or uttered a word to excite suspicion ;
friendly dealings with the colonists proceeded as usual up to
the morning of the day which had been fixed for the con
templated attack. The hosts had silently gathered at the
appointed places. The signal was given at midday, March
22, 1622, when instantly the various bodies rushed forth
from their places of concealment, shouting the warwhoop,
and began the work of death. All they met were merci
lessly massacred without regard to age or sex, their savage
cruelty extending even to the bodies of the slain, which they
mangled and mutilated. In one hour, three hundred and
forty-seven men, women, and children, including six mem
bers of the council, were slain. Chance alone saved the
colony from extermination; a converted Indian named
Chanco having made known the plot to his employer the

78

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

night before, the latter spread the news as far as he was
able to do in the short time allowed.
On several plantations, however, which the information
given by Chanco had not reached, the Indians were repulsed
by the courage of the proprietors, in some instances by the
firing of a single gun.
Though fortunate for the colonists, yet, as we read the
incidents of this outbreak, we are astonished at the want
of courage and the complete cowardice of the Indians, a
fact which illustrates the character of these Indians and
serves to explain their actions on other occasions. Com
pare their conduct in this respect with the bravery and ob
stinate courage of the Indians of the Apalache, Mauvila,
and other tribes that resisted De Soto's army. Even the
Indian women of the south, as the chronicler informs us,
exhibited greater bravery.
As the colonists found it impossible to follow the Indians
and punish them in their hiding places, they adopted the
same policy that the latter had practised. Pretending a
desire for reconciliation and peace, they invited the Indians
to a conference, with assurances of safety and forgiveness.
The offer was accepted and the conference held. Return
ing to their former habitations, the Indians entered upon
their usual vocations, relying upon the assurances of recon
ciliation. By this means the English acquired a knowledge
of the "Indians' principal places of residence and quieted
their apprehensions." Having waited quietly and in appar
ently friendly relations until the crop had grown to maturity
and was about ready to be harvested, they decided that
the time had arrived for retribution. The various villages
were suddenly attacked without any warning, and an in
discriminate slaughter took place, " without regard," says
one authority, "to age, sex, or infancy." — (Burk.) Stith
says a great number of them were slain, among whom
were some of their " kings." Their houses were burned
and their crops destroyed. The colonists were avenged,
but with the loss of honor. The next year, the Assembly,

VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND

79

as if to still further disgrace the colony, issued an order that
the inhabitants of every plantation should fall upon their
adjoining savages.
Desultory war continued between the natives and the
colonists the greater portion of the time up to 1644, when
the Indians, having learned of the dissensions of the English,
resolved on one more attempt to exterminate them. They
hoped that by destroying the cattle and corn they might
waste by famine those they failed to murder by surprise.
The same moving spirit was directing this attempt that had
planned the massacre twenty-two years before. Opechan
canough, though now enfeebled by age, had not abated in
the least his hatred of the English. On the 18th day of
April, 1644, the time appointed for the attack, the Indians
suddenly fell upon the frontier settlements. But hardly
had the bloody work begun, when, as it is supposed, the
thought of their inability to complete it and of the conse
quences to themselves likely to follow, or possibly because
of some evil omen, they suddenly abandoned their purpose
and fled to a distance from the colony. Three hundred of
the settlers fell victims in this onset. The English, now
thoroughly aroused, took prompt measures for defence, and
at once began a vigorous war against the natives. Ope
chancanough, who, because of age, was unable to escape
with the others, was easily captured, and soon thereafter
died in captivity, possibly, as reported, from wounds inflicted
by a soldier. He was succeeded by Necotowance, who,
desirous of obtaining rest for his people, entered into a
treaty of peace with the colonists and was assigned certain
lands for himself and his people. According to an act of
the Assembly, October 10, 1649, it was decreed:
Act 1, Art. 2. That it shall be free for the said Necotowance
"King" of the Indians and his people, to inhabit and hunt on the
north side of Yorke River, without any interruption from the English.
Provided that if hereafter, It shall be thought fitt by the Governor and
Council to permitt any English to inhabit from Poropotanke downe-
wards, that first Necotowance be acquainted therewith.

go THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Art. 3. That Necotowance and his people leave free that tract of
land between Yorke River and James River, from the falls of both the
rivers to Kequotan, to the English to inhabit on, and that neither he
the said Necotowance nor any Indians do repaire to or make any abode
upon the said tract of land, upon pain of death.
Notwithstanding the bitter state of feeling between the
Virginia settlers and the Indians, the Assembly was not
wholly forgetful of the welfare of the latter; and in order
to secure their possessions against being encroached upon
by the whites, laws were passed in 1655, 1657, and 1658,
forbidding individual purchases of land from the Indians and
making all such purchases null and void, and also forbidding
settlement on Indian lands.
Numerous disputes having arisen between the English
and Indians in regard to land purchases, and frequent com
plaints having been made by the latter of encroachments
upon their territory, the following general law was passed
in 1660:
Act 138. Whereas the mutuall discontents, complaints, jealousies
and ffeares of English and Indians proceed chiefly from the violent
intrusions of diverse English made into their lands, The governor,
councell and burgesses . . . enact, ordaine and confirme that for
the future noe Indian king or other shall upon any pretence alien and
sell, nor noe English for any cause or consideration whatsoever pur
chase or buy any tract of land now justly claymed or actually possest
by any Indian or Indians whatsoever ; all such bargaines and sales here
after made or pretended to be made being hereby declared to be in
valid, voyd and null, any acknowledgement, surrender, law or custome
formerly used to the contrary notwithstanding.
By the act of October 10, 1665, the bounds of the Indian
territory on the south side of James River were fixed as fol
lows : " From the heads of the southern branches of Black-
water to the Appomatuck Indians, and thence to the Manokin
town." These were afterward more accurately defined.
After the death of Opechancanough, no chief of sufficient
influence and authority to hold the Indians in confederation
having arisen, an interval of peace followed. Several of the
tribes retired westward ; and those which remained, reduced

VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND 8 1
in numbers and wanting concert and broken in spirit, lin
gered on the frontiers and exchanged with the settlers their
superfluous products.
The peace, however, was not destined to be continuous,
as it was again broken in 1676. This disturbance is said
to have been caused by a petty act of dishonesty; the Doegs,
a small tribe, charged a planter with cheating them, and in
retaliation stole his hogs. The Indians were pursued and
some of them killed. They, in return, invaded the English
settlement and killed four persons. Thereupon two Eng
lish officers raised a small company and followed the enemy
into Maryland and by mistake attacked a village of the
friendly Susquehannas, killing fourteen. A desultory war
on the frontiers now followed. The Indians, driven from
Maryland, passed southward over the headwaters of Rappa
hannock and York Rivers, killing on the way such settlers
of the frontier plantations as they found, until they reached
the headwaters of James River. Here the Indians engaged
in the outbreak, having gathered in a fort, determined to
make a stand. Bacon, who had a plantation in the vicinity,
and whose overseer had been slain, attacked them with a
company he had collected. The fort was taken by assault,
and a desperate slaughter ensued; the Indians, being huddled
close together and encumbered by their old men and their
women and children, were able to make but slight resistance.
Those not slain during the assault were taken prisoners —
and, as the historian tells us, "a termination was given
forever to the hopes of the Indians in this quarter." The
accounts of this conflict are not only imperfect, but differ
widely in details, therefore only that portion which appears
to be reliable has been given.
Another and, as it appears, a final treaty of peace was
made with the remaining natives, who had become aware
of their inability to offer further resistance to the growing
power of the colony.
What Virginia Indians, besides those of the Powhatan
confederacy, were engaged in these outbreaks is not fully

82 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
known; there was, however, one incursion against which
some of the Powhatan Indians joined the English. In
1656, a body of Indians called Richahecrians [Cherokees],
to the number of six or seven hundred, descended from
the mountains and settled themselves near the falls of
James River. The colonists took measures at once to
remove them. Colonel Hill was sent out for this purpose
with one hundred men, aided by Totopotomoi, the Pa
munkey chief, with a like number of Indians. These
forces were defeated, and Totopotomoi and the greater
part of his followers slain. John Lederer (Discoveries, 10,
reprint) mentions the Mahocks and Nahyssan [Tutelo],
both Siouan tribes of Virginia, as joined with the Richa
hecrians in the same battle against the colonists. By what
means the retirement of the Richahecrians was brought
about does not clearly appear, but we infer from one of
the acts of the Assembly that it was by purchase.
The Manahoac Indians occupied the region about the
headwaters of the Rappahannock, and were first met by
John Smith, in 1608, who had a slight conflict with them,
but this was soon followed by a reconciliation. Nothing
important has been recorded in regard to them, and they
appear to have dropped out of history at an early date;
Drake (Indians, 12) says "extinct long ago."
The first notice of the Monacon and confederated tribes
was also by Smith; they then occupied the country along
James River above the falls; their principal village, Rasau-
weak, was situated in the fork of James and Rivanna Rivers.
They are spoken of as barbarous, subsisting chiefly on the
products of the chase and wild fruits. It is probable that
they took part in the warfare between the whites and In
dians from 1622 to 1645. In 1670, Lederer was received
with friendly demonstrations at their village, known as
" Monacon Town," situated on James River about twenty
miles above the site of Richmond. In 1699, when a colony
of French Huguenots took possession of this point, they
had disappeared.

VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND

83

The members of the Iroquoian stock residing in Virginia
were the Nottoways — the Mangoaks of the Raleigh ex
peditions — and the Meherrins. The former occupied the
country along Blackwater and Nottoway Rivers in south
eastern Virginia. The latter, who dwelt along the lower
stretch of Meherrin River, were late comers into this region,
being a remnant of the Susquehanna, or Conestoga Indians,
who fled from their home in the north about 1675. The
history of these tribes, so far as given, relates chiefly to their
contests with the Saponi and some of the other Siouan tribes.
Burk (i, 312) summarizes the dealings of the London
Company with the Indians in reference to their lands, as
follows :
At the coming of the English, the Indians naturally enjoyed the best
and most convenient stations for fishing, and the most fertile lands :
But in proportion as new settlers came in, they rapidly lost those ad
vantages. In some cases the colonists claimed by the right of conquest,
and the imaginary title conferred by the king's charter. In general,
however, they acted on better principles, and purchased from the heads
of tribes, the right of soil, in a fair and [as far as was practicable] in a
legal manner. ' In the treaty entered into between Sir G. Yeardley and
Opechancanough, we find a sweeping clause, granting to the English
permission to reside and inhabit at such places on the banks of certain
rivers, which were not already occupied by the natives. 'Tis true, the
circumstances of the parties admitted not a fair and legal purchase ; and
after the massacre, the Indians were stripped of their inheritance without
the shadow of justice.
However, the particular transactions on which this ver
dict is based, as will appear from the items of history given
herein, are not satisfactory on this point. It is only after
the dissolution of the company in 1624, and the records
of the General Assembly are reached, that the policy of
Virginia in regard to the Indian title in the land appears.
The acts mentioned above indicate a desire to provide
homes for the friendly natives, and to prevent their being
robbed of their acknowledged possessions, but it does not
appear that the government deemed it necessary to purchase
their possessory right.

84 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
The political organization of the Powhatan Indians, to
which allusion has been made, is not fully understood.
The confederacy is said to have consisted of thirty-two
tribes; but were these "tribes" in any true sense? So far
as known, all appear to have used the same language, few
if any differences in dialect being mentioned. George Ban
croft, using the works of Smith and Jefferson as his basis,
estimates the aggregate number of warriors of these tribes
at twenty-four hundred, an average of about eighty to a
tribe. It is evident these must have been very small organi
zations, yet they seem to have had definite territories, or at
least understood boundaries, each with its chief. However,
the confederacy was limited by the controlling power of
Powhatan, and, so far as known, was established and held
together by his personal prowess. There does not appear
to have been, as has been shown, any warring between the
elements composing the Florida confederacies, but this rule
certainly did not hold good in Virginia, at least at the initia
tion of Powhatan's control; yet when Opechancanough
planned the attacks of 1622 and 1644, the various tribes
of the confederacy seem to have been united, at any rate
for the purpose in view.
The descent of the chieftaincy, both of the confederacy
and, as a rule, of the tribes, was by inheritance in the
female line ; that is, having passed from brother to brother
and sometimes to the sisters, it descended to the sons of
the eldest sister, etc. In one of the lists of signatures
of chiefs to treaties, the names of two females appear,
showing clearly that it was not contrary to their political
system for a female to be the ruler. There were, however,
some differences in regard to the controlling power. The
Chickahominy or Pamunkey tribe, one of the strongest of
the Virginia Algonquins, was governed by a body of elders ;
and when, after the marriage of Pocahontas, they entered
into a treaty of peace with the English, eight chief elders
made themselves responsible for the execution of the stipu
lations on the part of the tribe. It is therefore probable that

VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND 85
Totopotomoi, who is spoken of as chief of the Pamunkey,
was merely the war chief.
After the fatal encounter with Bacon's troop, the tribes
seem to have gradually dropped out of history, a few slender
remnants, as the Pamunkey, lingering around their ancient
haunts ; the others, retiring before the advance of the white
settlements, gradually became extinct.
The subsequent relations between the Virginia authorities
and the Indians were with tribes living beyond the bounds of
the colony, whose history belongs to another chapter. It is
necessary to mention here only a single item of this history.
The continual raids of the Iroquois on the Indians of
Virginia and Carolina having become a source of much an
noyance to the authorities, a treaty of peace was concluded
at Albany, New York, in 1722, chiefly through the efforts
of Governor Spotswood. This treaty was by the Iroquois
and their allies on the one side, and Virginia and her tribu
tary Indians, including those of Carolina, on the other side.
The Blue Ridge and Potomac River east of the range were
made the boundaries between the parties.
As the Indians of Maryland belonged chiefly to the Pow
hatan confederacy, attention will be called to them before
considering the tribes of Carolina.
The charter of June 20, 1632, by Charles II., granting to
Cecilius Calvert, Baron of Baltimore, the province of Mary
land, is somewhat peculiar in being a complete transfer of
title from the Crown to the grantee, allegiance alone being
required. By it the king's right of granting lands in the
province was fully and completely transferred to Lord Balti
more and his heirs and assigns, without any reservation or
exception in regard to the natives. It allowed him full and
complete authority to deal with them in his own way.
Having appointed as his representative his younger
brother, Leonard Calvert, the latter, accompanied by some
three hundred emigrants, landed, on the 27th of March,
1634, on the north bank of the Potomac and planted
themselves in the Indian town of Yoacomaco, probably

86 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Wicomico, which they named St. Mary's. This, however,
was with the consent of the inhabitants, who granted them
the immediate use of half the village as a place of shelter,
•promising to leave the whole place to the English as soon
as they had planted and gathered their corn, an agreement
which was faithfully carried out. The governor, as soon
as he had landed, in order to pave the way to peaceful rela
tions, presented to the chief and principal men of the village
" some English cloth, axes, hoes, and knives," which they
received with pleasure. That this was considered a purchase
is asserted by Chalmers (Annals, 207), who says Calvert
" purchased the rights of the aborigines for a consideration
which seems to have given them satisfaction . . . and
lived with them on terms of perfect amity till it was inter
rupted by Clayborne." It must be admitted, however,
that the agreement was facilitated by an anticipated attack
by the Susquehannas, whom the Indians of Wicomico
greatly feared; and also that, so far as appears from the
history, neither the extent of territory nor the metes and
bounds were indicated.
The relations of the Maryland Indians with the white
settlers, though interesting, furnish no incidents like those
of the Indians of Virginia. There was considerable fric
tion between the races, but this consisted more in petty
depredations than in hostile outbreaks.
At the time of settlement the principal tribes were the
Nanticoke, on the eastern shore, which, according to Boze-
man, spoke the same language as the Powhatans and were
probably included in the confederacy; the Choptank, on
Choptank River; north of them the Ocinie, not clearly
identified, and the Susquehanna; west of the bay, the
country along the Patuxent, and west to the Potomac as
high as, and possibly a short distance beyond, the present
site of the city of Washington, was occupied by the Pow
hatan tribes — as the Patuxent, Mattapanian, Wicomico,
Lamasconson, Highawixon, and Chapticon, probably sub
divisions of the Piscataway [Conoy] tribe. That portion

VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND

87

of Maryland west of the area occupied by these Indians
does not appear to have been inhabited by any known
tribe ; if ever occupied, it had probably been cleared by the
incursions of the Susquehanna and other Iroquoian tribes,
as Griffith (Sketches, 20) mentions an incursion of the
"Janadoas" [Oneidas] in 1661.
As the relations of the Indians and Marylanders are set
forth chiefly in the acts of the Assembly, we refer to the
most important of these. By Section 3 of the Act of
March 19, 1638, it was decreed that:
No subject of his majesty's the king of England, or of any other
foreign prince or state, shall obtain, procure, or accept of any land
within this province from any foreign prince or state, or from any
person whatsoever, [the native owners of the land excepted,] other
than from the lord proprietary or his heirs or some person claiming
under him or them. — Neither shall he obtain, procure, or accept of any
land within this province from any Indian to his own or the use of
any other than of " the lord proprietary or his heirs, nor shall hold or
possess any land within this province by virtue of such grant, upon pain
that every person offending to the contrary hereof shall forfeit and lose
to the lord proprietary and his heirs all such lands so accepted or held
without grant of the lord proprietary or under him."
It is probable that this law was enacted at this time
because Lord Baltimore's title to some of the lands of the
province was disputed by William Clayborne and those
claiming under him. This claim was based upon a royal
license he had obtained to trade with the Indians, and an
alleged purchase from the Indians [Susquehannas ?] of the
Island of Kent.
The proceedings of the Assembly in 1638— 1639 and the
military preparations which immediately followed indicate
that the harmony which had hitherto existed between the
natives and colonists was at an end. Symptoms of a gen
eral discontent among all the tribes inhabiting the shores
of Chesapeake Bay were now manifest. Bozeman, whom
we have followed in the preceding statement, supposes that
Opechancanough was already preparing the minds of the
Indians for the massacre of the whites which took place

88 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
not long afterward. — (Hist. Maryland, ii, 1 6 1.) During
this period of discontent there were some minor outbreaks.
The Susquehannas, irritated by the efforts of the authorities
to stop their raids on the Piscataway and Patuxent Indians,
began hostilities against the colonists ; but history notes the
fact that the Patuxents, who had given such a kind wel
come to the colonists at their first landing, remained firm
friends, and were, by an act of the Assembly, taken under
the protection of the Colonial Government.
By 1 64 1, the Indians having become troublesome by
their depredations, chiefly on live stock, but in some sec
tions by more serious acts of hostility, the governor deemed
it necessary to issue his proclamation notifying the whites
to be on their guard and harbor no natives, "on pain of
such punishment as by martial law may be inflicted."
Although the records fail to give the particulars, it would
appear from the governor's proclamation of the following
year that the Susquehannas, Wycomeses, and Nanticokes
were in open hostility against the colonists. The Nanti
cokes, the most warlike tribe in the bounds of the colony
with the exception of the Conestogas [Susquehannas],
having committed some murders in Virginia, were punished
by the Marylanders, which increased their animosity toward
the colony. The Conestogas were also giving trouble at
* this time by their frequent incursions into and depredations
' on the frontier settlements.
The attacks by the Nanticokes and Wicomicos on the
eastern shore had, by 1647, become so persistent that Cap
tain John Price was sent with a company of men into their
country, commissioned, " by his utmost endeavor, skill and
force, by what means he may, in destroying the said natives,
as well by land as by water, either by killing them, taking
them prisoners, burning their houses, destroying their corn,
or by any other means as in his best discretion he may
judge convenient." — (Council Proceedings, 1626-1637, 161.)
History fails to inform us of the result of this expedition.
However, as comparative quiet followed for some years, it

VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND 89
is presumed the threat, or the expedition, if it was actually
undertaken, had the desired effect.
In 1652, the Maryland authorities entered into a treaty
with the Susquehanna Indians, by which the latter ceded to
the colony all their claim on the lands from Patuxent River
to Palmer's Island on the west side of Chesapeake Bay,
and from Choptank River to the northeast branch which
lies to the northward of Elk River on the east side of said
• bay. As the western side of this cession is not defined, it
is probable that the Maryland authorities extended it to
Alleghany Mountains, as no other cession covered this part
of the state.
^ In 1 65 1, the white population of that part of Maryland,
including St. Mary's County and a part of Charles, had
increased to such an extent as to expel the aborigines
thereof from their lands. They consisted of the following
subtribes or bands : the Mattapanian, Wicomico, Patuxent,
Lamasconson, Highawixon, and Chapticon — probably sub
divisions or bands of the Piscataway [Conoy] tribe. Lord
Baltimore, being informed of their distress, caused a certain
tract of land about the headwaters of Wicomico River to
be set apart for their use.
As there does not appear to have been any further diffi
culty between the colonists and the Indians living within
the bounds of Maryland, it is only necessary to state, as
indicating the policy of the colony, the purport of one or
two important acts. By that of April 21, 1649, lt was
declared that all purchases of land from Indians except by
authority under the great seal of the lord proprietor should
be null and void.
Bozeman remarks, in regard to this act, that : " The prin
ciple upon which it was founded seems to have been adopted
by the United States in the disposition of all the territories
conquered or purchased by them from the Indians."
The final acts were those of March 12, 1786, and
January 18, 1799, relating to the purchase of the lands of
the remaining Nanticoke and Choptank Indians.

9o

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

Previously, when the French had incited the Indians on
the western frontiers to active hostility, the Assembly passed
an act " for taking and detaining able-bodied men," which
among other provisions authorized "ten pounds and after
wards fifty pounds to be paid for each Indian prisoner or
scalp, being the skin of the crown of the head, to any
person except Soldiers or Indian allies." — (Griffith, Sketches,
56.) However, the history of this frontier war will be
found elsewhere.
It is necessary only to add that the remaining Nanticoke
and Choptank Indians left the state and retired to the north,
the former stopping awhile at Shamokin, in Pennsylvania,
afterward moving thence and finally crossing into Canada.

CHAPTER V
THE INDIANS OF THE SOUTHERN ATLANTIC COLONIES
(ii) THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA
The Indian history of the Carolinas, although intimately
connected with that of Virginia, is in some respects pecul
iar; as, on the one hand, it relates to numerous small
communities of but little strength and of whom but little
is known, while, on the other hand, it includes the relations
of the English with the most important tribe of the southern
colonies, a tribe whose history overshadows that of all the
rest. It is peculiar also in the fact that their native popu
lation embraced representatives of the four chief stocks
of the United States — the Algonquian, Iroquoian, Siouan,
and Muskhogean — and probably also of the less important
Uchean and Timuquanan families.
The history of the minor tribes, although they were the
first with whom the colonists came in contact, is involved
in much doubt, being gathered almost wholly from inci
dental notices and linguistic data; and of some the names
alone remain to tell us of their former existence. How
ever, considerable light has recently been thrown upon the
subject through the discovery by linguists of the relation of
most of these minor tribes, and also of the Catawba, to the
great Siouan group of the northwest.
The groups and tribes embraced, in whole or in part, in
the bounds of these colonies were the following : the eastern
Siouan group, which, as we have seen, extended into west
ern Virginia, and included, among the Carolina tribes, the
9i

92 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Catawba, Cheraw, Waxhaw, Saponi, Tutelo, and others;
the Algonquian family, represented by some three or four
small tribes about Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds ; and the
Iroquoian stock, in the Tuscarora and Cherokee tribes —
the former on Neuse River in northeastern North Carolina,
and the latter in the mountain region along the western
border. A number of the small tribes in the southern and
southwestern parts of South Carolina are supposed to have
been related in part to the Muskhogean group and in part
to the Timuquanan family, though their affinities are yet a
subject of some doubt.
In 1883, Dr. Horatio Hale, the noted linguist, announced
to the American Philosophical Society his discovery that the
Tutelo language was related to the Dakotan [Siouan] stock,
a conclusion which has since been universally accepted. An
aged Indian, the last remaining Tutelo of full blood, was
residing, in 1870, at Tutelo Heights, now a suburb of
Brantford, Canada ; from him Dr. Hale obtained a vocabu
lary of his native language. The remnant of his ancestral
tribe, driven from its home in the distant south, had wan
dered in search of peace and rest to this northern region,
and here, with its expiring breath, revealed the tribe's rela
tion to the noted warriors of the plains of Minnesota and
Dakota. Building on this basis and using the scattered historical
data and linguistic evidence, ethnologists have succeeded in
tracing the Siouan elements located in Virginia and the
Carolinas. These occupied, in addition to western Vir
ginia, as mentioned above, the basins of Roanoke, Tar,
Cape Fear, Yadkin, and Catawba Rivers in North Carolina,
and the central portion of South Carolina. The tribes of
the group — omitting the two Virginia confederacies and the
Catawba — were, according to the most recent classification
(Mr. James Mooney's Siouan Tribes ofthe East) the Tutelo,
Saponi, Cheraw, Keyauwee, Eno, Shoccoree, Woccon,
Waxhaw, Sugeree, Occaneechi, Waccamaw, and a few
others of less importance. Besides the members of this

THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA 93
jroup, there were a number of small tribes in southern
South Carolina, as the Edisto, Westo, Cusso, Stono, Cusabo,
and Etiwaw, and the more important Yamasi. Most of
these probably belonged to the Muskhogean and Uchean
families; but the Westo and Stono, and possibly others,
were more likely related to the Timuqua.
The crowding of so many non-Siouan fragments into the
southern part of South Carolina may possibly be accounted
for on the supposition that they were bands which had
broken away from the parent stocks, because they were, in
consequence of their exposed position, persistently harassed
by neighboring tribes. If the Westo, Stono, and Cusabo
tribes, residing in the ancient Chicora province, were, as
seems probable, related to the Timuqua, this will serve to
explain the final departure of some of them to Florida,
after the Yamasi war. W. J. Rivers (Hist. South Carolina,
40 et seq.), speaking of these minor tribes of the interior and
coast region, says that among the broken and dispersed na
tions the towns were reduced to an insignificant number of
inhabitants; yet they were independent of one another in
government, the leading man "insensibly becoming king,"
though neither as lord nor dictator. " The greatest personal
influence, however gained, ruled them in all undertakings
and emergencies. This influence might extend from town
to town; one extraordinary man might become a king or
an emperor of the whole nation, and one town a kind of
capital of the whole confederacy." Precisely, it would
seem, as Powhatan became the so-called "emperor" of the
east Virginia tribes. But the alliance of towns, according
to the author quoted, looked not to peace, but to war.
However, the small tribes of the Carolina colonies were
feeble and seldom confederated to a sufficient extent to
combine their full power, either for resistance or aggres
sion. In fact, the diversity of dialects, their estrangements,
and the frequent strifes among themselves, prevented any
formidable combination except when the stronger tribes
united with them. It was this want of union which at

94 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
first saved the English colonists from any serious attacks
by them.
The real key to their many changes and rapid decay — at
least of the Siouan tribes — is to be found in the constant
harassing of their settlements by the Iroquois. Lawson,
who traversed the two colonies in 1701, tells of the stories
repeated by Indians and traders of the injuries inflicted by
the "Sennagers" [Senecas], and of the numerous grave-
mounds heaped over the bodies of their victims. Although
Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, obtained, by a treaty
concluded at Albany, New York, in 1722, a cessation of
these raids, it was too late to save these feeble tribes; the
ruin had already been wrought. The closing scene of one
drama will serve as a type of all.
Before 1701, the Tutelo and Saponi tribes had been
driven out of Virginia and had settled on the Yadkin in
North Carolina, having been joined by the fragments of
the Occaneechi, Keyauwee, and Shoccoree. A few years
later [17 1 1— 1 715], they were again in Virginia, at Chris-
tanna, near their former home, still pursued by their invet
erate enemies, the Iroquois, who sought them even under
the guns of the fort. Restless and dissatisfied with their
proximity to the whites, after peace was established they
followed [1740] their old enemies to their northern home,
preferring their protection to that of the English.
The Saraw, or Cheraw as they were usually called, the
Keyauwee, Eno, Shoccoree, and some sixteen other tribes,
decimated and reduced to mere remnants, placed them
selves under the protection of their kinsmen, the Catawbas.
"Those," says Rivers, "that did not sink into complete
decay on their own lands, migrated to other places, or em
braced the protection of the Catawbas, whom so many
remnants had joined, that in 1743 twenty dialects were
spoken among their small band of warriors." — (36.) The
Saludas, whose affinities have not been determined, aban
doned their home on Saluda River and removed to Pennsyl
vania. It is possible these were a band of Shawnee Indians

THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA 95
that had remained after the departure of their brethren to
the north in 1700. The small tribes along the coast south
of Charleston "had dwindled into insignificance prior to
1707." — (Rivers, 38.)
Most, if not all, of these minor tribes are now extinct.
The presence of the whites in their vicinity seems to have
acted with a baneful influence, though there was seldom
any warring between them. How far the enslavement of
the Indians by the South Carolinians, the dark blot on
South Carolina's Indian history, contributed to the decay
of these small tribes can only be surmised.
Charleston was but four years old when the traffic in
Indian slaves began. The Stono Indians, whose hunting
grounds adjoined the surrounding farms which the English
had opened on the west of the city, not using the proper
care to distinguish between the tame geese, turkeys, and
stock of the planters, and the wild birds and animals of the
forest, freely made game of them. This brought on hos
tilities; but the colonists not immediately interested being
slow in aiding those who were, Governor West resorted to
the plan of fixing a price upon every savage who should
be taken and brought alive into Charleston.
The result is given by a comparatively modern South
Carolina writer thus : " Numerous adventurers now volun
teered their services, and the war, after a protracted struggle,
was brought to a close by the overthrow of the refractory
Stonoes, and the lucrative transportation of many of them to
the West Indies. The plan succeeded. It was applied
to succeeding Indian wars — even to those waged between
hostile tribes and the red allies of the English." — (J. H.
Logan, Upper South Carolina, 192.) Such a policy was
destined to act injuriously on public morals and to bring
trouble and injury to the colony.
In a report on the condition of the colony in 1708 by
Sir Nathaniel Johnson and others, it is stated that, out of a
population of 9,580, there were 4,100 negro slaves and
1,400 Indian slaves. In the same report, where mention is

96 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
made of the exports by the colony, it is stated that : " We
have also commerce with Boston, Rhode Island, Pennsyl
vania, New Jersey, and Virginia, to which places we export
Indian slaves, light deerskins dressed, etc." Many were also
sold in the West Indies. It is probable that these slaves
were drawn, in part, from the small tribes, though it is
certain that a portion was obtained from other nations.
Although there was some desultory warring between the
colony and the coast Indians, their exception from the opera
tion of the act of 1707 regarding traders, mentioned below,
leaves the impression that the rapid decay of these tribes
may have been due in part to slave capturing.
As early as 1707, the flagrant abuses of the Indian traders
had become so notorious that the Assembly found it neces
sary to take some step to remedy them. A Board of
Commissioners was appointed to have entire charge of the
subject. By them it was made one condition of the trader's
license and bond that he should not seize or enslave any free
Indian. Notwithstanding this prohibition, the trade contin
ued and Indian slaves were brought to Charleston and openly
sold in the market. The condition in this respect was worse
after the appointment of the Board than before ; utterly un
principled men were allowed trading privileges and made
Indian agents, and slaves were brought from tribes as far
distant as the Cherokees. Be it said, however, to her credit
that North Carolina took no part in this nefarious traffic.
Although this traffic may have contributed in some de
gree to the rapid diminution of these small tribes, the chief
cause was probably the incessant raiding of their settlements
by the Iroquois, supplemented by intertribal feuds.
The chief tribe of the Eastern Siouan group, as already
stated, was that including the Catawba Indians, who gath
ered under their protecting wings the smaller members of
the group when they had been reduced to wandering rem
nants by their inveterate foes. Although the tale, like that
which has been related, is a sad one, it had one pleasing
feature, which will appear as we proceed.

¦Ma-rxyrdovn of an Indian. Afte

r a copperplate in. Las Casas'';;

C^^acc^t ofthe Spanish cruelties to the natives. From

THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA gj
According to a tradition recorded by Schoolcraft in his
Indian Tribes of North America, which he says he found in
an old manuscript preserved in the office of the Secretary
of State of South Carolina, the Catawbas came originally
from the north, driven southward by the Conewangos
[Iroquois] and the French, about the year 1650. After
relating their temporary halts in Kentucky and Virginia, it
brings them finally to Catawba River, where they were
attacked by the Cherokees and a fierce battle was fought,
each party losing a thousand men ! Peace was made, and
Broad River adopted as the boundary between the tribes.
That this tradition must in part be rejected is evident, as
the tribe was located in its historic seat before the date
mentioned; nor could the French have joined in their ex
pulsion. However, as it is generally conceded that the
Catawbas came from the north, and must have passed
through Kentucky or Virginia or both, and that Kentucky
River was sometimes called the Cuttawa by the Shawnees,
which, according to Mr. Mooney (op. cit.), was the old war
trail of the Catawbas, it is possible that the tradition has
some elements of fact in it. The writer who gives the tradi
tion appears to have adopted the theory that it accounted
for the disappearance of the Eries, and to have fixed upon
a date to accord therewith.
If the identification of the Issa of La Vandera [1569]
with the Catawbas, as has been suggested, be correct, this
will be the first recorded notice of the tribe. However,
the route of Captain Juan Pardo's expedition [1566-1567] ,
which La Vandera describes (Collecc. Var. Doc's Hist. Fla.,
i., 1857, 15 et seq.), is so indefinitely given as to render it
impossible to locate the Issa with any certainty. All that
can be said is that if the expedition passed through their
place, the Catawbas were then more to the south and west
than their historic seat.
The next mention of the tribe is by John Lederer [1670] ,
if his " Ushery " is correctly identified with them. How
ever, as it appears from a careful study of the narrative

g8 THE INDIANS. OF NORTH AMERICA
of this traveller to be quite probable that he was never in
Carolina, that portion of his, second expedition south of
Roanoke being especially questionable,, his information re
garding this, section must have been obtained from the
Indians. Therefore, the locations given and his statements
in regard thereto are unreliable.
In 1701, Lawson, in his journey across the colonies,
visited the tribe to which he applies the names Esaw and
Kadapau. Although these are merely synonyms of Ca
tawba, he applies them to two divisions or bands of the
tribe which were at that time living a short distance apart.
He was received in a friendly manner by them, and allowed
to pass back and forth freely ; and it may be added here that,
with the exception of one instance hereafter mentioned,
the people of this tribe, though of sufficient strength to
have given the colonists of the Carolinas much trouble,
were uniformly on friendly relations with them. The state
ment of a recent writer that "the Catawba Indians present
a wonderful example of faithfulness and devotion to the
American people," can hardly be considered exaggerated
praise. In 1 712, more than a hundred Catawba warriors accom
panied Colonel Barnwell, of South Carolina, in his expedi
tion against the Tuscaroras, and fought bravely on the side
of the English. However, in 1 71 5, these Indians, otherwise
uniformly friendly to the whites, yielding to the influence
of surrounding tribes, and possibly to Spanish bribes or
promises, joined the Yamasis and other tribes in the up
rising of that year. During the border wars brought on
by the French, they went to the assistance of the Colonial
army. In 1757, during the war with the Cherokees, they
offered their services to the Governor of South Carolina,
which were gladly accepted, and, as Simms informs us, at
the battle of Etchoe " assisted materially in gaining the vic
tory, after one of the fiercest battles with the red men on
the records of America." They also aided the Colonists
in the Revolutionary War.

THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA 99
About 1764, a treaty between the tribe and South Caro
lina was made, by which a tract of one hundred and forty-
four thousand acres was set apart to them on the Catawba
River, as a permanent residence.
The history of the tribe up to 1760, other than that of
their relations with the whites, is chiefly a record of petty
warfare between them and the Iroquois, and other tribes, as
the Cherokees and Shawnees. After the Revolution, they
appear to have gradually melted away.
The history of the Tuscaroras is brief, being centred
almost entirely in a single episode. Rivers states, on what
authority is unknown, that before they came to North Caro
lina they resided between Savannah and Altamaha Rivers,
within the bounds of what is now Georgia. However, their
original home must have been with their kindred [Iroquois]
of the north, but at the advent of the whites they were
seated in North Carolina along the lower Neuse River.
Their intercourse with the colonists was friendly up to the
year 1 7 1 1 , when they joined with other Indians in a terrible
massacre of the unsuspecting whites. Although no express
reason was named by them for this outbreak, it is probable
that the cause of their discontent was the increasing number
of GraafFenriedt's Swiss and Palatinate colonists, although
these had paid for all the land they occupied. The tribe
entered into a conspiracy with the Pamlico Indians to attack
the settlers on the Roanoke. "The Cothechneys, who
lived in the present county of Greene, engaged to come
down and join the Cores [Corees] and attack the planters
on the Neuse and Trent Rivers. Bath was attacked by
the Mattamuskeets and Matchepungoes." — (Wheeler, Hist.
North Carolina, 37.) On the 1 ith of September, 1 71 1, one
hundred and twelve of the settlers on the Roanoke and the
Chowan fell under the murderous tomahawk. " The car
nage," says Wheeler, " was continued for three days, until
fatigue only disabled the savage foe." The utmost cruelty
marked the inroad of the savages; old and young, males
and females, all sharing the same fate. It was during this

100 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
massacre that the surveyor and historian Lawson was slain ;
Graaffenriedt escaped by humiliating concessions.
The North Carolina forces, aided by troops from South
Carolina, hastened to the rescue, and on January 28, 1712,
attacked the Indians, who had fortified themselves on the
banks of the Neuse, killing and wounding, in all, four hun
dred. Peace was made, which, however, proved to be but
temporary, as the war was renewed in 1713. Colonel
Moore, of South Carolina, was placed in command of the
forces sent against them, and attacking them [March 20] at
their fort near Snow Hill signally defeated them, killing two
hundred and taking eight hundred prisoners. Now com
pletely subdued, most of those not captured fled northward
and, joining their kindred, became the "Sixth Nation" of
the Iroquois confederacy. In June, 17 18, a treaty was en
tered into with those who remained in the south, and a tract
of land on the Roanoke, in the present Bertie County, was
granted them. These ultimately followed their brethren to
the north.
It was but two or three years after the close of the war
with the Tuscaroras, when the Yamasis, who had sent some
of their warriors to assist the English in quelling the out
break of the former, were, in turn, the chief conspirators
in an attack upon the colonists, which taxed the utmost
energy and vigilance of the latter to withstand.
These Indians appear to have shifted their settlements
back and forth from the confines of Florida to the southern
part of South Carolina. Fairbanks (Hist. St. Augustine, 125)
says: "The Yamasees, always peaceful and manageable,
had a principal town, Macarisqui, near St. Augustine. In
1680 they revolted, because the Spaniards had executed
one of their principal chiefs at St. Augustine; and in 1686
they made a general attack on the Spaniards and became
their mortal enemies." In 1687 and 1706, they made in
roads on the Christianized Timuquas. In 1 701, Lawson
mentions the Savannah Indians as "a famous, warlike,
friendly nation of Indians, living at the south end of Ashley

THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA ioi
River." — (Hist. N. Carolina, i860, 75.) Dr. Gatschet seems
to identify these Indians with the Yamasis, though they were
probably Uchees.
After deserting the Spaniards, the Yamasis removed to
South Carolina in the neighborhood of Port Royal, living in
friendly relations with the colonists until 17 15. However,
by intrigues and presents the Spaniards succeeded in en
listing them in their interest. The Cherokees, Catawbas,
and Congarees were drawn into a conspiracy to exter
minate the English settlers. The contemplated attack on
the unsuspecting whites began on the morning of April 15,
1 7 15. The usual atrocious deeds were repeated, some
four hundred victims falling in the murderous assault. A
force of volunteers led by Governor Craven attacked them
and drove them over the Savannah. For a time they kept
up a desultory war with the colonists. According to Bar-
tram (Travels, 139), the final blow was given to the tribe
by the Creeks in " a last decisive battle " on St. John's River,
Florida. The broken remnants were ultimately merged with
the Seminoles, and the Yamasi, as a distinct tribe, disappears
from history after the middle of the eighteenth century.
The Cherokee Indians are in some respects the most
remarkable natives of the United States. Like their con
geners the Iroquois, they were brave, warlike, and cruel,
and like them possessed that cohesiveness which gave them
great tribal power of aggression and resistance; in fact,
their tenacious life and recuperative powers as a tribe have
scarcely a parallel in the native history of our country.
Decimated by their wars with the whites, their towns de
stroyed and their fields laid waste, and compelled to flee to
the mountain fastnesses with their wives and children, they
return after peace is made to their wasted homes, and in a
few years are as strong in numbers and as prosperous as
before. In 1715, they numbered eleven thousand, and in
1735 eighteen thousand souls. Three years later, they
were reduced one-half by the ravages .of the smallpox ; and
by this calamity and the losses sustained in their conflicts

102 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
with the whites and the neighboring tribes, fifty years later
their population did not exceed seven or eight thousand;
yet we learn by the census of 1883 their number then was
twenty-two thousand. Thus it appears that while other
tribes, even though on peaceful relations with the whites,
— as the Catawbas, — gradually sank into decay in the pres
ence of this foreign race, as plant life under the deadly
upas, the Cherokees seemed to gather increased vigor by
such relations.
Physical environment may have tended to increase both
their physical and mental powers, for their local habitat was
peculiar; stretching from the headwaters of the streams on
one side of the Blue Ridge to those on the other, the active
exercise, pure air, and crystal waters were conducive both
to physical and mental vigor. Be this as it may, their later
history has shown their capability of mental acquirements
and of political organization.
The first notice on record of the Cherokees is found in
the chronicles of De Soto's expedition, which mention them
under the names "Chalaque" and "Achalaque." The
place where they were encountered [1540] appears to have
been on or near the upper waters of the Savannah, and one
of the chroniclers speaks of both their country and them
• in rather unfavorable terms : " the poorest country of maize
that was seen in Florida ; " these Indians, he says, " feed
upon roots and herbs which they seek in the fields, and upon
wild beasts, which they kill with their bows and arrows, and
are a very gentle people. All of them go naked and are
very lean." As De Soto did not pass through the main
Cherokee country, it is probable that this was their extreme
southern settlement, or a roving band; at any rate, this
discovery furnishes proof that the Cherokees had reached
their historic seat as early as 1540. The tradition and
other data which bring them at an earlier date from the
Ohio, though apparently based on fact, belong to prehistoric
times. Their next appearance in history is when, in 165.6,
as the Richahecrian Indians, they appeared in Virginia and

THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA j.03
ravaged the country to the falls <of James Riyer, as hereto
fore stated.
The first formal notice of the tribe was in 1693, when
twenty of their chief men, coming down from their mountain
home, visited Charleston with proposals of peace and friend
ship, and at the same time solicited the aid of the governor
against the Esaws {Catawbas] and Congarees [Coosawsi1],
who had captured and carried off a number of their people
to be sold into slavery. The Savannah Indians, it appears,
had taken several people of the above-mentioned tribes and
sold them to the colonists or traders as slaves. The ex
treme eastern settlements of the Cherokees at this time were
between Catawba and Broad Rivers, in the limits of the
present Chester and Fairfield districts of South Carolina.
Although frequently mentioned in the interval, nothing
is stated in regard to the relations of these Indians with the
whites until 171 2, when two hundred and eighteen of
the tribe accompanied Colonel Barnwell in his expedition
against the Tuscaroras. In 17 15, they were in league
with the Yamasis and other tribes in their war on the colo
nists. Their strength at this time is indicated by a census
taken by order of Governor Robert Johnson, of South Caro
lina, immediately after this uprising, by which it appears that
they had thirty-two towns with an aggregate population of
11,210 persons, of whom about four thousand were war
riors. Though a temporary peace with the whites followed,
their disposition would not permit them to remain quiet.
Joining their forces with the Chickasaws, they made a united
attack upon the Shawnees residing on the lower Cumberland
River and drove them from that section.
In order to bring about more permanent peaceful rela
tions with the various tribes, Governor Nicholson, of South
Carolina, invited them to a general convention. This
proposition was accepted; and after presents were distrib
uted and the peace pipe had been smoked, boundary lines
were agreed upon and an agent appointed to superintend
their affairs. A little later [1730], it becoming known that

104

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

the French were planning to unite Canada and Louisiana,
Great Britain, in order to counteract this, endeavored to
enlist the Indians in her interest. With this purpose in
view, Sir Alexander Cumming, as commissioner, entered
into a new treaty with them, including a special agreement
that they should not trade with any other people than the
English. It was at this time that Moytoy, at the sugges
tion of the English, was appointed head chief, and desig
nated " emperor," of the entire Cherokee nation. Another
treaty, having the same object in view and including the
cession of certain lands to the English, was made in 1755
between Governor Glen and the tribe.
Notwithstanding these efforts to maintain peaceful rela
tions, hostilities commenced on the part of the Cherokees;
Fort Loudon, on the Little Tennessee, was captured by
them, and this was followed by a general invasion of the
frontier of Carolina, and an indiscriminate butchery of men,
women, and children. Between two and three hundred
men, besides women and children, perished in this massacre.
After an indecisive expedition against them under Colonel
Montgomery, which served only to stimulate them to in
creased aggression, Colonel Grant was despatched against
them in 176 1. He encountered the enemy in full force at
Etchoe, where they had fought Montgomery in the previous
expedition. " For three hours did the engagement continue,
until the persevering valor of the whites succeeded in ex
pelling the Indians from the field. . . . Their granaries
and cornfields were destroyed, and their miserable families
driven to the barren mountains. The national spirit was, for
a while, subdued, and they humbly sued for peace, through
the old and friendly chief, Attakullakulla." — (Simms.) The
proposition was accepted, and a treaty of peace was entered
into. By this treaty, the boundary between these Indians
and the white settlements was declared to be the sources of
the great rivers flowing into the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1768, Mr. Stuart, the British superintendent of In
dian affairs, concluded another treaty with the Cherokees,

THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA j.05
wherein it was agreed that the southwest boundary of Vir
ginia should be a line " extending from the point where the
northern line of North Carolina intersects the Cherokee
hunting grounds about thirty-six miles east of Long Island
in the Holston River; and thence extending in a direct
course, north by east to Chiswell's mine on the east bank
of the Kenhawa River, and thence down that stream to its
junction with the Ohio." This treaty was made in con
sequence of appeals from these Indians to stop further
encroachments on their lands by the white settlers.
In 1776, the Cherokees, instigated, as was charged, by
the British, attacked, in different parties, the settlements of
east Tennessee and adjoining portions of North Carolina,
killing a number of persons. In consequence of these
hostilities, General Williamson, in the same year, marched
an army from South Carolina and destroyed the Cherokee
towns on Keowee and Tugaloo Rivers. General Ruther
ford led another force from North Carolina, and Colonel
Christian a third from Virginia, and destroyed most of their
principal towns on Little Tennessee River. These severe
measures succeeded in bringing them to terms, and on May
20, 1777, a treaty was concluded between them and the
states of South Carolina and Georgia, by which the Chero
kees ceded to these states a considerable area on Savannah
and Saluda Rivers, comprising all their lands in South Caro
lina east of Unica Mountains. In the same year a treaty
was concluded with them by Virginia and North Carolina,
by which they ceded their lands on Holston River as low
down as Cloud's Fork.
It will be seen from these brief notes that the Indian
history of the Carolinas was one of alternate changes from
harmony to hostility, though not marked by any long-
continued wars. The want of harmony in the colonial
governments during much of their early existence left but
little opportunity to adopt and" carry out a correct policy in
their dealings with the natives, even if the desire to do so
existed.

106 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
As a very general rule in the history of our country, one
leading cause of Indian hostility to the whites has been the
encroachment upon their lands by the latter, a necessary
consequence of colonization. Hence, the lack of a uni
form and liberal policy on the part of a colony in obtaining
lands from the natives had a tendency to increase the irrita
tion. The only true basis of any correct policy in refer
ence to the lands was the admission from the outset that
the possessory right was in the natives, and that this should
be obtained from them by satisfactory means, but only
through the ruling authority claiming the actual title.
The proprietors of the North Carolina colony do not
appear to have had any settled policy in this respect; in
fact, the Indian title, though nominally acknowledged, ap
pears to have been considered of but little importance by
them, its extinguishment being left to the individual grantees,
an evil practice and always a source of trouble and disputes.
The colonial authorities attempted in 17 15 to modify this
practice by an act making it necessary that individual pur
chasers should first obtain consent of the governor and
council. The fourth section of this act is as follows :
And whereas there is great reason to believe that disputes concerning
land have already been of fatal consequence to the peace and welfare
of this colony, Be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That
no white man shall, for any consideration whatsoever, purchase or buy
any tract or parcel of land claimed, or actually in possession of any In
dian, without special liberty for so doing from the Governor and Council
first had and obtained, under the penalty of twenty pounds for every
hundred acres of land so bargained for and purchased, one 'half to the
informer and other half to him or them that shall sue for the same ; to
be recovered by bill, plaint or information, in any court of record within
this government ; wherein no essoin, protection, injunction, or wager
of law, shall be allowed or admitted of
This clause was reenacted in the law of 1748, omitting
the words " without special liberty for so doing from the
Governor and Council first had and obtained," and redu
cing the penalty to « ten pounds." The act as modified
would therefore appear to have been an absolute prohibition

THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA 1Dy
of individual purchases ; yet we find the British government
in 1 76 1, after it had appointed special Indian agents, issuing
instructions to the governors and agent of the southern
department, forbidding purchases of lands from the Indians
without having obtained license for this purpose.
The policy adopted by South Carolina in respect to the
Indian title in the lands appears to have been in the main
just, and based — at least impliedly — on an acknowledg
ment of their possessory right. The land where Charleston
was built was purchased by and in the name of the proprie
tors, March 10, 1675. By another deed, dated February
28, 1683, the caciques of the Wimbu Indians ceded " a strip
of country between the Combahee and Broad Rivers ex
tending back to the mountains." Deeds were also obtained
from the caciques of the Stono, Combahee, and Kissah
Indians, and from the " Queen of St. Helena."
However, the lands purchased by these two colonies
from the Indians constituted much less than a moiety of
the territory embraced in their bounds. This was doubt
less due to the fact that, with the exception of the Cataw
bas and the Cherokees, the tribes were of minor importance
and unsettled. The Tuscaroras and Yamasis forfeited their
claims by rebellion.
It is only necessary to say in regard to the policy of the
Georgia colony, that by recognizing the right of the Indians,
and adopting a mild and conciliatory course, Governor
Oglethorpe obtained the lands he desired and, with slight
exceptions, avoided conflicts with the Indians.

CHAPTER VI
THE INDIANS OF NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA
Coming to the land of William Penn, the friend of the
Indian, we should expect to hear but few and faint echoes
of bloody strife and battle cries. Nevertheless, the colo
nists of Pennsylvania did not escape conflict with the tawny
natives, and more than one locality is still pointed out as the
scene of slaughter. However, Indian wars were less frequent
and of shorter duration in Pennsylvania than in most of the
other colonies. But it is to New Jersey we must look as the
colony where open conflicts between the natives and white
settlers were fewest. The words of Shawuskukhkung, or
Wilted Grass, one of the last Delaware chiefs, to the Legis
lature of New Jersey may be repeated with pleasure here :
Not a drop of our blood have you spilled in battle — not an acre of
our land have you taken but by our consent. These facts speak for
themselves, and need no comment. They place the character of New
Jersey in bold relief and bright example to those states within whose
territorial limits our brethren still remain. Nothing save benisons can
fall upon her from the lips of a Lenni Lenape.
There may be some who would despise an Indian benediction ; but
when I return to my people, and make known to them the result of my
mission, the ear of the Great Sovereign of the universe, which is still
open to our cry, will be penetrated with our invocation of blessings
upon the generous sons of New Jersey.
Notwithstanding these facts, which made some of the
few bright spots in Indian history, the natives who once
inhabited these states are seen no more in the valleys of the
Delaware and the Susquehanna.
109

HO THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
At the time the Europeans began to settle in this section,
the eastern part of Pennsylvania and all, or nearly all, of
New Jersey, as now limited, were occupied by the people
of a single tribe known as the Lenni Lenape, and in mod
ern times as the Delawares. This tribe, whose traditional
history reaches further back in the past than that of any
other native group east of Rocky Mountains, appears to
have been one of the oldest and, at some former period,
one of the most powerful organizations of the Algonquian
stock, being looked upon by other members of the family
as ancestor or " grandfather," as they designated the tribe.
According to their tradition, preserved orally, and also
scratched or painted on bark or wood, as interpreted by
Dr. Horatio Hale, they came from some point north of
the Great Lakes. Although their line of march, as given
in this tradition, cannot be traced with certainty, the most
consistent rendering appears to be that which brings them
across the water line at Detroit River or, more likely, at
Straits of Mackinaw; thence southward through Michigan
and eastward through Ohio, dropping offshoots as they pro
ceeded. In Ohio they were opposed by the Tallega, prob
ably the Cherokees, in which contest they were aided by
the Iroquois or Hurons. From there they passed eastward
over the mountains to their historic seats.
The tribe consisted of three divisions or subtribes: the
Unami, or Turtle division ; the Unalachto, or Turkey divi-
sicn; and the Minsi, corrupted to Munsee, or Wolf division.
The territory of the Minsis, who occupied the most north
ern region of the three divisions, extended from Catskill
Mountains to the headwaters of Delaware and Susque
hanna Rivers, and eastward to the Hudson, their council
seat being at Minisink. The other divisions occupied
the remainder of the Delaware territory to its western
and southern boundaries, and eastward to the seacoast.
The Unalachto territory, which lay immediately south of
the Minsi area, joined the latter somewhere near Stony
Point.

NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA m
As the Munsee territory lay almost wholly in New York,
and as the history of the Indians of this division, so far as
given, relates almost entirely to their intercourse and con
tests with the first settlement in that state, it will be given
in the chapter on the Indians of New York.
The first relations of the Delaware Indians — limiting
the term to the two southern divisions — with the whites
were with the Dutch of New Netherlands, and the Swedes
who tried to plant themselves along Delaware River and
Bay. These, however, were chiefly in regard to the pur
chase of land; for both colonies, though contesting the
right of possession, based their claims on purchases from
the, Indians. The latter at one time made complaint
against the Swedes, but the difficulty was settled by their
chief Noaman, and some presents from the Swedes. There
are accounts of some early conflicts between the Indians
of New jersey and the Dutch; but Philip Carteret, who
had been appointed governor by the proprietors, thought it
the wisest policy to purchase the lands from the Indians
before attempting settlement upon them. The cost, he
contended, would be inconsiderable in comparison with the
damage which might ensue from a neglect to do so, as the
Indians about the English settlements, though few in num
ber, were strong in their alliances. He therefore ordered
that all newcomers wishing to settle were to purchase of the
Indians, or, if the lands had already been purchased, they
were to pay in proportion to what had been paid by the
first purchaser to the Indians. " The event,'1 says Samuel
Smith, in his history of New Jersey," answered his expecta
tion ; for, as the Indians parted with the lands to their own
satisfaction, they became [instead] of a jealous, shy people,
serviceable, good neighbors, and though frequent reports
of their coming to kill the white people sometimes disturbed
their repose, no instance occurs of their hurting them [the
English] in those early settlements."
We find no full account of the chieftaincies [clans] of
the Unalachto, or Turkey division of the tribe. That,

112 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
however, of the Unami, Turtle division, is given by
E. M. Ruttenber, in his History of the Indian Tribes of the
Hudson River, as follows : the Nivisinks, on the Highlands
south of Sandy Hook; the Raritans, along the valley and
river which bear their name; the Hackinsacks, in the val
leys of Hackinsack and Passaic Rivers ; the Aquackanonks,
about the site of Paterson; the Tappans, whose territory
extended from the vicinity of Hackinsack River to the
Highlands; and the Haverstraws, north of the Tappans,
boundaries not given, but their territory extended eastward
to the Hudson. The Indians of New Jersey are, by some
authors, classed as a separate division of the Delawares, but
the most consistent theory seems to be that which makes
them merely the portions of the Unami and Unalachto
living east of Delaware River, as given by Ruttenber.
There is but little more to be stated in regard to the In
dians of New Jersey. In 1756, during the Indian troubles
in Pennsylvania, the Legislature of New Jersey appointed
commissioners to examine into the treatment the Indians
had received, and to make report. Upon the receipt of this
report, the Legislature, in 1757, passed an act which reveals
the grievances complained of. By this act a penalty was
laid upon persons selling strong drink so as to intoxicate
the Indians, and it declared all their sales or pawns for
drink void; that no Indian should be imprisoned for debt;
that no traps weighing more than three and a half pounds
should be set; and made void all sales and leases of lands
not obtained as directed in the act. By a subsequent act,
an appropriation was made for purchasing of the Indians a
general release of all lands claimed by them in New Jersey.
One-half of this appropriation was to be used for making
a settlement for the Indians residing in the province of
Raritan River. This arrangement was carried out and
confirmed by the Indians.
The last act of the drama was when chief Wilted Grass,
whose words have already been quoted, applied to the Legis
lature for remuneration on account of his tribe's rights

Ethnological Map B. Showing linguistic families in Eastern section. From the original made for
this work under the direction of Professor Thomas.

NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA 113
of fishing and hunting on unenclosed lands, which had been
reserved in the various agreements with the whites. The
population of the tribe at this time [1832] was reduced
to forty souls. The justice of the claim was conceded,
and the Legislature promptly directed the payment to the
Indians of two thousand dollars, in full relinquishment of
their claims.
Passing to the Delawares of Pennsylvania, we find the
same divisions represented here as in New Jersey, each
having its several chieftaincies as in the latter state; but
the history of the tribe in this state differs, as will be seen
as we proceed, from that of the New Jersey section in sev
eral respects. Before entering upon this subject, however,
there is one item relating to the tribe as a whole to which it
is necessary to refer in order to understand some important
points in their history.
It is repeatedly stated in historical works that the Iro
quois, at some indefinite time in the past, had conquered
and brought the Delawares into subjection, " making them,"
according to the Indian method of expressing it, " women."
This means that the subjugated tribe, though not always
paying tribute, had no right to make war on another tribe,
to remove from their country, or to dispose of their lands,
without the consent of the victors. It was admitted by
the Delawares that they were "made women"; of this
there is clear and decisive evidence; but it is denied by
them that it was by conquest, as they assert that it was
through deceit on the part of the Iroquois in inducing them
to voluntarily accept this position as a means of maintain
ing peace with the whites. This view is maintained by
Rev. John Heckewelder in his History, Manners, and Customs
ofthe Indian Nations, and by Ruttenber in his History of the
Indian Tribes ofthe Hudson River. Be this as it may, there
are strong reasons for doubting the opinion that they were
brought into this condition before the arrival of the whites.
The reasons for the last assertion may be briefly stated
as follows: The Iroquois do not appear to have assumed

j. 1 4 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
an important position among the Indian tribes until after
Cartier's visit [1534], tradition giving them a subordinate
position as compared with the Algonquins ; hence it is alto
gether unlikely that they had subjugated the Delawares, then,
undoubtedly, one of the strongest tribes of the east, sending
out colonies to the east and south, one closely cognate
branch pushing up to the very doors of the Mohawks. If
the Delaware tradition on this point be untrue, it is strange
that the Iroquois did not make women of other tribes
which they conquered ; at least, it does not appear to have
been acknowledged by any other tribe. Moreover, the
known facts contradict the assumption that they had re
mained passively obedient to the Iroquois all this time, and
up to the memorable occasion when Canassatego, an Iro
quois chief, during the meeting at Philadelphia in 1742 in
regard to the claims of the Delawares to certain lands
they — the Pennsylvania colonists — had wrongly deprived
them of, made the following, oft-quoted statement : " How
came you to take upon you to sell land? We conquered
you, we made women of you; you know you are women
and can no more sell land than women ; we charge you to
remove instantly ; we don't give you liberty to think about
it ; we assign you two places to go to, either Wyoming or
Shamokin. Don't deliberate, but remove away; and take
this belt of wampum." It was notorious, however, that this
was a scene arranged between the Governor of Pennsylvania
and the Iroquois. In 1 660, the " Munsees " [Minsis] , one
division of the Delawares, could boldly exclaim to their
dependants at Esopus, in the presence of the Mohawk
ambassador : " This is not your land ; it is our land ; there
fore repeat not this." — (O'Callaghan's New Netherland, ii,
417.) In 1663, a body of six hundred Senecas attacked
the fort of the Munsees on Delaware River, and were
put to flight and pursued northward for two days. The
Mohawks, who were called in to help the Senecas, even
applied to the English, when they came into control, to
make peace for them "with the nations down the river,"

NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA II5
that is to say, the Delawares. Some of the Munsee chief
taincies were in acknowledged subjugation in 1680. It
appears certain, therefore, that the Delawares were not
"made women" until after 1660. Dr. D. G. Brinton, in
his The Lenape and their Legends, fixes the date about 1725,
and says it was in consequence of the refusal of the Dela
wares to join the Iroquois in an attack on the English
settlements. This, however, is extremely doubtful, as it
must have been at an earlier date.
But little is known in regard to the early history of the
Delawares of Pennsylvania. According to their own state
ments they formerly made war upon the Cherokees, who,
they said, then lived on Ohio River and its branches. This,
though apparently reliable, must have been at a very early
date, and may refer to their contests with the Tallega
[Cherokees] during their migrations eastward. We know
that some of the Cherokees were in their southern historic
seats in 1540. The only suggestion as to the date of the
migration is given by Rev. Charles Beaty in his "Journal of a
Two Months' Tour, the first recorded notice of the tradition
[1767]. In this, he says their tradition is that they "came
to Delaware River, where they settled three hundred and
seventy years ago." This would make the date of their
settlement in the closing years of the fourteenth century.
They state that they were frequently at war with the Iro
quois. However, after William Penn began to plant his
colony on the Delaware, they entered into peaceful relations
with these settlers, which remained unbroken for nearly
seventy years. Although there were occasional complaints
by both parties, there was during all this time no warring
between the Delawares and the Pennsylvania settlers.
Penn adopted at the outset the policy of entering upon
no land until it had been purchased from the Indians, a
policy which gained their good will and maintained it while
he remained in authority. Although his dealings with the
Indians have been so much praised and held up as models
of justice, yet it must be admitted that some of them will

116 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
not stand the test of justice and equity under closer scrutiny.
They will scarcely bear throughout a favorable comparison
with the acts of the New Jersey colony.
The deeds were not only indefinite, but left wide openings
for fraud. Take for example the deed of June 23, 1683,
wherein the lands granted were those "lying betwixt Pem-
mapecka and Neshemineh Creeks, and all along upon
Neshemineh Creek, and backward of the same, and to run
two days' journey with an horse up into the country, as the
said river doth go." This is a sample of several others
obtained near the same date. Can it be said that such a
description of land in a deed, written by the purchaser,
as "two days' journey with an horse," where one of the
parties is composed of untutored Indians who had but little
acquaintance with Europeans, was entirely compatible with
the claim of sincerity and a desire to be strictly just?
Although the geography of the region may have been but
little known, Mr. Penn knew well enough how to have added
restrictions and limitations in the deed so as to have ren
dered it much more definite. The deed of 1686, said to
have been drawn by Penn, was one of the causes of the
war which broke out seventy years later. By this deed,
the boundaries of the land conveyed were described as
" beginning at a certain tree above the mouth of Neshamony
Creek ; thence by a course west-northwest to the Nesham
ony; thence back into the woods as far as a man could
walk in a day and a half; and to the Delaware again, and
so down to the place of beginning."
By the agreement at Philadelphia, September 17, 1718,
the several deeds conveying lands between Delaware and
Susquehanna Rivers were taken up and a new deed was
made, giving, as more definite boundaries, "all the said
lands situate between the two said rivers of Delaware and
Susquehannah, from Duck Creek to the mountains on this
side Lechaiy." Notwithstanding this new deed, Penn's
successors, sixty years after the making of the original deed
of 1686, went on to survey the tract according to the

NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA l T j
latter. A road was prepared for the walk and a swift pedes
trian selected so as to accomplish as great a distance as
possible. The line from the extremity of the walk, which
was thirty miles north of Lechaiy Mountains, the limit
fixed by the deed of 1718, instead of taking the most
direct course to Delaware River, was extended north
east for a hundred miles, striking this river at the mouth
of Laxawaxen Creek. A million acres of land were thus
embraced, when, by a fair and just construction, even had
the early deed been in force, the amount would not have
exceeded three hundred and fifty thousand acres. The
lines of this survey, and of another obtained from the
Six Nations, covering lands of the Delawares, were, as we
shall see, wiped out with the blood of white settlers. It
was the complaint on the part of the Delawares of the
unfairness and fraud in this survey that was under discus
sion at Philadelphia in 1742 when Canassatego made the
statement quoted above.
Although the statement of Canassatego was contradictory
in itself, — for the sale by the Delawares in 1686, if they
had no right to sell land, was void, and gave the English no
title to it, — yet the command was obeyed and the Dela
wares removed to the places designated, some going to
Wyoming Valley, where in 1694 a party of Shawnees,
consisting of about one thousand, had settled among the
Munsees, and where in 1730 a band of Mohicans had also
settled, and another portion to Shamokin, now Sunbury.
A little later [1 748] , a remnant of the Nanticokes, under
their chief sachem White, settled at Conestoga on Delaware
River. However, the embers which had been so long smoulder
ing at length burst into a blaze.
Whatever of doubt hung over their right of possession to the lands
from which they [the Delawares] had been ejected, there was none in
regard to those to which they had been assigned. The Five Nations had
given them the latter, and they were theirs. In the sale to the Con
necticut company, these lands were included ; in that to the agents of the

118 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Pennsylvania proprietaries, their more western hunting grounds were cut
off without their consent. Remembering that by precisely similar means
they had been despoiled of their former homes, they resolved to fight to
the last in defense of their rights ; to revenge this last and crowning
outrage, and to wipe away with blood the well-remembered wrongs
which had rankled in their bosoms for years. The chiefs of the east
met those of the west in council at Alleghany, rehearsed the wrongs
which they had suffered, and declared that wherever the white man had
settled within the territory which they claimed, there they would strike
him as best they could with such weapons as they could command ; and,
that the blow might be effectually dealt, each warrior-chief was charged
to scalp, kill and burn within the precincts of his birthright, and all
simultaneously, from the frontiers, down into the heart of the settle
ments, until the English should sue for peace and promise redress." —
(Ruttenber.) Aware of their weakness while warring as separate divi
sions, they resolved to remodel their government. Accord
ingly, the three subtribes or divisions — the Munsees, Unami,
and Unalachto, also called Lenape — joined together in a
league and elected Tedyuscung as head chief over the whole
body. Those who had been sachems before now willingly
resigned their positions, contenting themselves with a place
in the council. As soon as this action was noised abroad,
Tedyuscung found his forces augmented by the addition of
a number of Mohicans and Shawnees. As the first results
of the outburst cannot be better given than in the graphic
account by Ruttenber, we quote his statements :
October came, and no sooner had the biting frost reddened the maple
and hardened the yellow corn in the husk, than, with their allies, painted
black for war, in bands of two or four abreast, they moved eastward
with murderous intent ; and the line of the Blue mountain, from the
Delaware to the Susquehanna, became the scene of the carnival which
they held with torch and tomahawk during many coming months. The
defenseless settlers were harassed by an unseen foe by day and by night.
Some were shot down at the plow, some were killed at the fire-side ;
men, women and children were promiscuously tomahawked or scalped,
or hurried away into distant captivity, for torture or for coveted ransom.
There was literally a pillar of fire by night and a pillar and cloud by
day going up along the horizon, marking the progress of the relentless
Indians, as they dealt out death, and pillage, and conflagration, and

NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA ng
drove before them, in midwinter's flight, hundreds of homeless wan
derers, who scarce knew where to turn for safety or for succor in the
swift destruction that was come upon them.
The attacking force appeared in two distinct yet united organiza
tions — that of the eastern Lenapes, under the lead of Teedyuscung ;
that of the western, under Shingas. Both were equal in determination,
though perhaps unequal in strength, the western being the most formi
dable in numbers, in position, and in the direct aid which they could
obtain from the French. The defeat of Braddock in July was the
signal for the aggressive action already outlined in general terms. The
western organization was first to strike. On the 16th day of October
they fell upon the whites of John Penn's creek, four miles south of
Shamokin. Here they killed or took captive twenty-five persons ; and
it was only the twenty-third of the month when all the settlements
along the Susquehanna, between Shamokin and Hunter's mill, for a
distance of fifty miles, were hopelessly deserted. Early in November,
the Great and Little Cove were attacked and the inhabitants either put
to death or taken prisoners, and the settlements totally destroyed.
These blows were promptly seconded by the eastern organization
under Teedyuscung. Assembling his allied Lenape, Shavonee, and
Mahican warriors at Nescopec, he marked out the plan of the cam
paign for the coming autumn and winter. Its operations were to be
restricted to the "walking purchase," within which it was resolved to
chastise the English first, by waging against them a war of extermina
tion. From their lurking places in the fastnesses of the Great Swamp, the
wronged warriors, led by Teedyuscung in person, sallied forth on their
marauds, striking consternation into the hearts of the settlers. Falling
upon the farms along the Susquehanna and Delaware, they fired the
harvested grain and fodder in barns and in barracks, destroyed large
numbers of cattle and horses, and killed thirteen persons. On the 24th
of November, the Moravian mission at Gnadenhutten was surprised and
ten of its converts scalped, or shot, or tomahawked, or burned to death
in their dwellings. This was but the prelude to the tragedy which was
to be performed. Along the northern line of the tract which had been
so fraudulently surveyed, the tide of devastation rolled its blackening
current. Within a month, fifty farmhouses were plundered and burned,
and upwards of one hundred persons killed on the frontiers on both
sides of the Kittatinny, or endless hills. "All our border country,"
writes a chronicler of the day, "extending from the Potomac to the
Delaware, not less than one hundred and fifty miles in length and
between twenty and thirty in breadth, has been entirely deserted, its
houses reduced to ashes, and the cattle, horses, grain and other pos
sessions of the inhabitants either destroyed, burned or carried off by
the Indians ; while such of the poor planters who, with their wives, chil
dren and servants, escaped from the enemy, have been obliged, in this

I2o THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
inclement season of the year, to abandon their habitations almost naked,
and to throw themselves upon the charity of those who dwell in the
interior of the province."
Alarmed at the destruction of life and property, and
well aware that the French, with whom the English colo
nies were at war, were the instigators and abettors of this
onslaught, the Governor of New York appealed to Sir
William Johnson to call together the Six Nations and ask
them to put a stop to the hostilities of the Indians. After
one or two conferences and the despatch of messengers to
the Delawares, a meeting was finally brought about at
Otsiningo, an Indian town on the Susquehanna. The
object of the English was to use the supposed power of
the Six Nations over the Delawares to compel them to
desist from further attacks on the whites. The result is
best told in the command of the speaker for the former,
and the reply of the speaker for the latter. " Get sober,"
said the former, "get sober; your actions are those of a
drunken man." But the days when the Lenape stood
cowering in the presence of the Mengwe had passed. " We
are men," replied the Lenape, " we are men and warriors.
We will acknowledge no superiors upon earth. We are
men, and are determined to be no longer ruled over by you
as women. We are warriors, and are determined to cut
off all the English save those that make their escape from us
in ships. So say no more to us on that head, lest we make
women of you as you have done of us."
During these events, Pennsylvania had declared war
against the Delawares and Shawnees, and sent out a force
of three hundred men, under charge of Benjamin Franklin,
to build a fort at Gnadenhiitten or Shamokin, and to restore
the fugitive Moravian Indians and their missionaries to their
lands. Johnson, who doubted the wisdom of this action,
was endeavoring to bring about peace without forcible meas
ures. He finally succeeded in getting Tedyuscung to attend
a conference at Easton with Governor Dinny. It was here
that this chief displayed his remarkable ability, in the skill

NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA 12i
with which he conducted his side of the controversy, though
he had to contend with one who was his superior in a
polemic contest.
When asked by the governor what he meant by " fraud "
in his statement that they had been deprived of their lands
" by fraud," his answer was plainly and boldly given :
When one chief has land beyond the river, and another chief has
land on this side, both bounded by rivers, mountains and springs, which
cannot be moved, and the proprietaries, ready to purchase lands, buy
of one chief what belongs to another, this likewise is fraud." In regard
to the lands on the Delaware, he said his people had never been satisfied
since the treaty [release] of 1737. The boundary of the land then sold
was to have gone only " as far as a man could walk in a day and a half
from Nashamony creek," yet the person who measured the ground did
not walk, but ran. He was, moreover, as they supposed, to follow the
winding bank of the river, whereas he went in a straight line. And
because the Indians had been unwilling to give up the land as far as
the "walk" extended, the governor sent for their cousins, the Six Na
tions, to come down and drive them from the land. When the Six
Nations came down, the Lenapes met them for the purpose of explain
ing why they did not give up the land ; but the English made so many
presents to the Six Nations that their ears were stopped. They would
listen to no explanations ; and Canasateego had abused them, and called
them women. The Six Nations had, however, given to them and the
Shaivanoes the lands upon the Susquehanna and Juniatta for hunting
grounds, and had so informed the governor ; but notwithstanding this
the white men were allowed to go and settle upon those lands. Two
years ago, moreover, the governor had been to Albany to buy some
land of the Six Nations, and had described the boundaries by points of
compass, which the Indians did not understand, by which the deeds
were made to include lands both upon the Susquehanna and the Juniatta
which they did not intend to sell. When all these things were known
to the Indians, they had declared that they would no longer be friends to
the English, who were trying to get all their country away from them.
He had come now to smoke the pipe of peace with them, arid hoped
that justice might be done to his people.
He also gave instances of forged deeds under which
lands were claimed that had never been sold, adding " this
is fraud." All that was accomplished at this meeting was an agree
ment to a truce, with the understanding that a peace would

122 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
be made upon the basis that Tedyuscung and his people
should be allowed to remain upon their lands in Wyoming,
and that another meeting should be called at which all
the parties interested might be present and settle the de
tails. This was held at Easton in July of the following
year [1757]. At this conference Tedyuscung insisted upon
having his own secretary; this Governor Morris at first
refused, but, being informed by George Croghan that to
deny this request would result in breaking up the meeting,
yielded the point; and Charles Thompson, who had taken
the minutes at the previous meeting, was appointed. As
Tedyuscung's speech on this occasion explains the causes
of the Indian complaints more fully than appears elsewhere,
it is given here as recorded by his secretary:
The Complaints I made last Fall I yet continue. I think some
Lands have been bought by the Proprietary or his Agents from Indians
who had not a Right to sell, and to whom the Lands did not belong.
I think also when some Lands have been sold to the Proprietary by In
dians who had a Right to sell to a certain Place, whether that Purchase
was to be measured by Miles or Hours Walk, that the Proprietaries
have, contrary to Agreement or Bargain, taken in more Lands than
they ought to have done, and Lands that belonged to others. I there
fore now desire you will produce the Writings and Deeds by which you
hold the Land, and let them be read in publick and examined, that it
may be fully known from what Indians you have bought the Lands you
hold, and how far your Purchases extend, that Copies of the whole may
be laid before King George, and published to all the Provinces under
his Government. What is fairly bought and paid for I make no farther
Demands about. But if any Lands have been bought of Indians, to
whom these Lands did not belong, and who had no Right to sell them,
I expect a Satisfaction for these Lands. And if the Proprietaries have
taken in more Lands than they bought of the true Owners, I expect
likewise to be paid for that. But as the Persons to whom the Proprie
taries may have sold these Lands, which of Right belonged to me, have
made some Settlements, I do not want to disturb them, or to force them
to leave them, but I expect a full Satisfaction shall be made to the true
Owners for these Lands, tho' the Proprietaries, as I said before, might
have bought them from Persons that had no Right to sell them. As
we intend to settle at Wyomen, we want to have certain Boundaries
fixed between you and us, and a certain Tract of Land fixed, which it
shall not be lawful for us or our Children ever to sell, nor for you or

NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA 123
any of your Children ever to buy. We would have the Boundaries
fixed all around agreeable to the Draught we give you [here he drew a
Draught with Chalk on the Table] , that we may not be pressed on any
Side, but have a certain Country fixed for our Use and the Use of our
Children for ever. And as we intend to make a Settlement at Wyomen,
and to build different Houses frorrl what we have done heretofore, such
as may last not only for a little Time, but for our Children after us ;
we desire you will assist us in making our Settlements, and send us
Persons to instruct us in building Houses, and in making such Neces
saries as shall be needful ; and that Persons be sent to instruct us in the
Christian Religion, which may be for our future Welfare, and to instruct
our Children in Reading and Writing ; and that a fair Trade be estab
lished between us, and such Persons appointed to conduct and manage
these Affairs as shall be agreeable to us.
The governor endeavored to have the subject referred to
Sir William Johnson for final decision. The Indians re
fused to agree to this, but consented that all the papers,
including copies of the deeds, should be transmitted by him
to the King of England. The results were that the ignominy
of being considered women was formally removed from the
Delawares ; and all that Tedyuscung had contended for was
granted by the king. This was a complete triumph for
Tedyuscung ; the diplomacy of the Indian warrior had pre
vailed over that of Pennsylvania's governor and all the
unfair and unprincipled artifices to which he had resorted
to gain his ends. Tedyuscung's unfortunate propensity for
intoxicating drinks was used to its full extent to balk his
purpose, but without avail ; he knew his claims were just,
and all his efforts were given to the one great struggle to
obtain them. Peace was made, and Pennsylvania com
menced again that rapid growth which has placed her so
near the front among the states of the Union, though the
clouds were not all dispersed.
The treaty by Tedyuscung, though favorable to the
Delawares remaining in Pennsylvania, was displeasing to
the Delawares and Shawnees of Ohio, and to the Senecas
who had backed Tedyuscung in his efforts. The Sene
cas were probably dissatisfied because the Connecticut
settlers in Wyoming were not forced to remove. These

124 rHE INDIANS 0F NORTH AMERICA
Indians, ostensibly on a mission of peace, visited Wyoming
in April, 1763, and, after lingering about for several days,
one night treacherously fired the house of the unsuspecting
chief, which, with the veteran himself, was burned to ashes.
Remaining on the ground, they inspired the followers of the
murdered chieftain with the belief that the work had been
done by the Connecticut settlers. Stimulated by these
representations, the infuriated Delawares fell upon the
unsuspecting whites and massacred about thirty, drove off
their cattle, rifled their stores, and at night applied the torch
to the dwellings and barns. We quote the sequel as given
by Ruttenber:
The fall of Teedyuscung accomplished the purpose which its perpe
trators had designed, — the Lenapes were consolidated in interest, and
the alliances of the Senecas made complete. The governor of Penn
sylvania sent troops to the scene of conflict, but the immediate partici
pants in the massacre anticipated their arrival and withdrew to Tioga,
while the Moravian Indians, who had taken no part in the transaction,
removed to Gnadenhiitten. Failing to reach the guilty, a band of law
less whites determined to punish the innocent, and with a hatred born
of the pernicious teachings of Church, banded together to exterminate
the whole Indian race, "that the saints might possess the land." Sixty
in number, these maddened zealots fell upon the Canestogoes, a small
clan of Oneida dependants residing upon their reservation in the most
inoffensive manner, hacked their chief to pieces in his bed, murdered
three men, two women and a boy, and burnt their houses. But few
of the Indians were at home, being absent selling their little wares among
the people. On their return, the magistrates of Lancaster collected them
and placed them in one of the public buildings for protection. Thither
they were followed by the fanatics, the building broken open and the
massacre commenced. "When the poor wretches saw they had no
protection, and that they could not escape, and being without the least
weapon of defense, they divided their little families, the children cling
ing to their parents ; they fell on their faces, protested their innocence,
declared their love for the English, and that in their whole lives they
had never done them any harm, and in this posture they received the
hatchet. Men, women and children, infants clinging to the breast,
were all inhumanly butchered in cold blood."
The Moravian Indians at Gnadenhiitten fled to Philadelphia and were
followed thither by their maddened persecutors, whose numbers now
swelled to an insurgent army. The governor called the troops for the
protection of the fugitives ; the Indians begged that they might be sent

NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA 125
to England. An attempt was made to send them to the Mohawk
country ; but after proceeding as far as Amboy, they were recalled.
Another season of terror ensued, and the governor hid himself away in
the house of Dr. Franklin. The Quakers were alone equal to the occa
sion, and firmly resisted the intended bloodshed. Persuaded to listen to
the voice of reason, the insurgents at length abandoned their murderous
purposes and returned to their homes, and the besieged Indians again
sought rest in the wilderness.
The, Delawares took part in Pontiac's war, " the ruined
mills, deserted cabins, and fields waving with the harvest,
but without reapers," bearing testimony to the too faithful
performance of their part of the work of destruction east
of the Alleghanies. There are traditions of warring be
tween these Indians and the Catawbas of South Carolina,
but the evidence is too fragmentary and uncertain to be
relied upon.
As the further history of this tribe relates to transactions
west of the Ohio and beyond the bounds of Pennsylvania
and in connection with other tribes, it will, save a brief
account of their wanderings, be given in another chapter.
As already seen from what precedes, a part of the tribe
had moved beyond the mountains toward the west and were
residing in the valley of the Ohio during the war upon the
Pennsylvania settlements. In 1681, Penn put down in
writing the following words to be made known to the
Indians at their first meeting with his agents : " The king
of the country where I live hath been pleased to give me a
great province therein, but I desire to enjoy it with your
love and consent, that we may always live together as
brothers and friends, else what would the great God do to
us, who hath made us, not to devour and destroy one
another, but to live soberly and kindly in the world." Yet
sixty years had not gone by before the pressure of the in
creasing white population began to crowd the tawny natives
from their homes and haunts.
We are told that soon after 1683 — the second year of
Penn's colony — the Indians began to diminish by disease
and migration. As early as 1690, a band of the Munsees

126 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
left for the far west, to unite with the Ottawas in Canada.
Before the first quarter of the eighteenth century had
passed, the pressure by the whites began to be felt, and the
Indians most desirous of wider range were seeking homes
on the headwaters of the Ohio in western Pennsylvania.
Their first cabins are said to have been built there in 1724.
As this little settlement was evidently strong in 1756, it
must have received accessions from time to time. All that
remained in the Delaware valley were, as we have seen,
ordered by the Iroquois, at the treaty of Lancaster in 1742,
to leave their ancient homes, of which they had, at least in
part, been deprived by fraud, and remove to Shamokin and
Wyoming on the Susquehanna. There must have been
some movements at this time to the Ohio, as Conrad
Weiser reported the number of warriors of the western
settlement in 1748 as one hundred and sixty-five. In
1 75 1, by invitation of the Wyandots, they began to form
settlements in eastern Ohio; and in a few years, — the
movement being accelerated by the Wyoming massacre, —
the greater part of the tribe, including the Munsees, had
settled upon the Muskingum and other streams in eastern
Ohio, together with part of the Mohicans. The latter
having been forced out by the same pressure, a part of them
accompanied the Delawares in this migration and afterward
became consolidated with them.
But the Delawares soon found that this was only a tem
porary resting place ; the axe, the plow, and the sickle were
following close on their footsteps ; and receiving permission
from the Miamis and Piankishaws to settle in their country,
between Ohio and White Rivers in Indiana, they removed
thither, where at one time they were settled in six villages.
Having received permission in 1789 from Carondelet, Gov
ernor of Louisiana, to settle in his territory, a band took
advantage of the offer and removed in 1793 to what is
now eastern Missouri; from there they afterward passed
onward with a band of Shawnees to Arkansas, the two
bands finally making their way to Texas in 1820. In the

NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA

127

meantime [1 791], the missionary Zeisberger conducted his
colony of Christian Indians from Ohio to Canada, and
founded the town of Fairfield on Retrenche River.
The main body of the tribe, settled on Whitewater River,
Indiana, made an attempt to rekindle here the national
council fire, under the head chief Tedpachxit. Although
the tract on which they located was granted them " in per
petuity" by the treaty of Vincennes in 1808, it was but
ten years later when, at the treaty of St. Mary's, they
ceded the whole of their lands "without reserve" to the
United States, the government agreeing to remove them
west of the Mississippi and grant them other lands there.
This body numbered at the time about one thousand souls,
of whom eight hundred were Delawares, the rest being
Mohicans and Nanticokes. By 1835 the greater part of
the tribe had been gathered on their reservation in Kansas,
from which they were afterward [1867] removed to Indian
Territory, where all except a very few who did not remove
west of the Mississippi — less than one hundred — are now
incorporated with the Cherokees. The Canada band —
numbering one hundred and twenty-three in 1866 — is set
tled with the Iroquois on Grand River, Ontario. The total
number of the tribe in 1895 was about twelve hundred,
exclusive of the Munsees.
Having thus traced the history of the Lenapes, the ques
tion may be asked: Had the policy outlined by Penn, as
given above, been carried out strictly in practice, would the
general result have been different ? Our answer must be :
No. The progress of diminution and removal would prob
ably have been slower, and the bloodshed less, but the
general result would have been the same. The peaceable
relations between the Indians and colonists of New Jersey
did not save the former; they had melted away or disap
peared from their haunts, while their congeners of Pennsyl
vania were yet battling for their claims. The only hope
of continued peaceful relations was the rapid civilization or
absorption of the savages, neither of which was possible

I28 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
The policy outlined by Penn, though commendable, was
visionary, save under exceptional conditions.
Of the government of the Lenapes it may be said that
each totem — that is, each division, the Turtle, Turkey, and
Wolf — recognized a chieftain, called sachem. According
to Morgan? tne office of sachem was, in later years, heredi
tary in the gens, but elective among its members. But
Loskiel, on the authority of Zeisberger, says that the chief
of each totem was chosen by the chiefs of the other totems.
By common and ancient consent, the chief of the Turtle
division was head chief of the whole Lenape nation. These,
however, were peace chiefs, who could neither declare war
nor lead the army ; the latter function belonged to the war
captains, who were selected because of their prowess in
war or known ability as leaders.
The people of the tribe, when first encountered by the
whites, depended largely upon the cultivation of the soil
for their food supply. Their dwellings were not long com
munal houses like those of the Iroquois; each family had
its separate residence, which is described as a " wattled hut,
with rounded top, thatched with mats woven of the long
leaves of maize or flags." The manufacture of pottery of
a rude description was carried on to a limited extent; but,
on the other hand, their bead work and feather mantles and
manner of dressing skins excited the admiration of the early
voyagers. The arms used were the war club, the toma
hawk, bow and arrow, and spear. Greater advance in
symbolic writing appears to have been made by them than
by any other tribe east of the Mississippi, except possibly
the Micmacs. It seems to have been their custom in early
times to have a common ossuary for each gens. Ruttenber
mentions a Munsee burial ground on the east bank of the
Neversink covering an area of six acres. In all of these
ossuaries which have been opened, the skeletons were found
in a sitting or doubled-up posture.
The Susquehanna Indians, also known as Andastes and
Conestogas, may be considered as belonging to Pennsylvania,

NEW JERSEY AND PENNSYLVANIA I2g
though their territory extended into Maryland and their
principal residence was for a time in the latter province.
They were first seen by Captain John Smith on his voy
age to the head of Chesapeake Bay. Abraham L. Guss
(Early Indian History on the Susquehanna) expresses the
opinion that Smith was on the borders of Pennsylvania
when he met these Indians, whom he designates "Susque-
sahanocks." They are spoken of by him as giantlike in
size ; and it is stated that sixty of them " came down with
presents of venison, tobacco, pipes three feet long, baskets,
targets, bows and arrows." The writer above quoted gives
as the supposed extent of their territory at that time : from
the site of Baltimore, in Maryland, to Juniata River, and
as far west in Maryland as Westminster. They were
related to the Iroquois, and hence pertained to the Iroquoian
stock, and were first known to the French of Canada as
Andastes, though the location given is very indefinite ; how
ever, the investigations of J. G. Shea have shown that they
were identical with the Susquehannas, and that the name
" Conestogas " is merely a, variant of " Andastes."
But little is known of their history. Their name appears
in one or another of the forms given above at different times
and places, but it is impossible to trace consecutively their
waning fortunes. We hear of them engaging to assist
Champlain and his allies in their expedition [1615] against
the Iroquois strongholds; when the Hurons were battling for
life with the same savage foes, they again tendered assist
ance, but the offer was allowed to pass unheeded. These
propositions, however, were borne in mind by the Iroquois,
and were repaid with heavy interest; for in 1657 tnev
turned their arms against their kinsmen on the banks of
the Susquehanna, and, though the latter contended bravely
for nearly twenty years, they were finally overthrown in
1675. The greater number were then incorporated with
their conquerors ; while others, retreating southward, were
nearly all massacred by the Maryland and Virginia troops.
The last remnants, not incorporated in other tribes, were

130

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

butchered at Conestoga, in Pennsylvania, by the " Paxton
Boys" in 1763.
In closing the history of the Indians of Pennsylvania, it
may be stated that the policy of the colonial government in
regard to the rights of the Indians in the lands was, not
withstanding what has been stated above in regard to the
forms of the deeds and methods of measurement, correct in
principle. The possessory right of the Indians was acknowl
edged, and it was recognized that this should be extinguished
by purchase or other means satisfactory to them. The
complaint was not against the theory adopted, but the
method of carrying it out after William Penn's retirement
from control.
By the close of the eighteenth century, or, at least, before
the year 18 10, all the land within the bounds of Pennsyl
vania, including the addition forming Erie County, had been
purchased from the Indians.

CHAPTER VII
THE INDIANS OF NEW YORK
Verrazano, the first white man to touch the borders
of what is now New York State, sailed, as is generally be
lieved, into New York harbor in 1524. The soil was still
clothed with the primitive forest growth, save where inter
rupted by the village areas of the native inhabitants. The
wondering natives crowded the shores to gaze upon the
strange visitors, expressing in their pantomimic fashion their
pleasure at the meeting. But lowering clouds and threat
ening storm hurried the white-winged vessel away from
their sight. It was more than three-quarters of a century
later when in 1609 the harbor was again visited by the
white man, this time by Henry Hudson, whose name has
been perpetuated in that of the stream whose waters mingle
here with those of the ocean. However, our interest at
present lies not with the navigators, but with the natives
whom their visits brought to the knowledge of Europeans.
The Indians of Long Island appear to have been scattered
over its area in small communities, each having its chief
and district, and tribal or subtribal organization, somewhat
after the manner of the Powhatan confederacy mentioned
in a previous chapter. These minor tribes formed together
the group known as the Montauk confederacy, from the
ruling chieftaincy of the same name. The principal tribes
whose names have been preserved were the Canarsees, who
claimed the lands now included in Kings County, and a
part of Jamaica; the Rockaways, who were scattered over
!3J

132

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

the southern part of Hempstead; the Merricks, from Near
Rockaway to the west line of Oyster Bay; the Marsa-
peagues, at Fort Neck and thence eastward to Islip; the
Matinecocks, from Newtown to Smithtown; the Nessa-
quakes, between Stony Brook and the tidal river which still
bears their name; the Setaukets, at Little Neck; the Mon-
tauks, with their central seat upon Montauk; the Shin-
necocks, about Sag Harbor and the south shore of Peconic
Bay ; and some four or five others of minor importance,
located at different points upon the island.
Though it may appear somewhat strange, yet the histo
rian is unable to give, with positive certainty, the particular
tribe or subtribe occupying Manhattan Island at the time
ofthe Dutch settlement. The name " Manhattans " has
been applied to them, which seems to be confirmed by the
name of the island, were it not for certain other facts which
cast a doubt upon this conclusion. That this name was
applied to Indians in that immediate section is admitted
and easily proved by numerous references ; yet the evidence
is conclusive that it was not used by the Indians as desig
nating a chieftaincy, but as a generic term including not
only the native occupants of Manhattan Island, but also
those, in part, of Long Island and the banks of the Hudson
immediately north. " With the Manhattan," says Van der
Donk, " we include those who live in the neighboring places
along the North River, on Long Island, and at Neversink."
— (Ruttenber, 77.) Another early authority, referring to
Long Island, says : " It is inhabited by the old Manhatesen ;
they are about two hundred or three hundred strong, women
and men, under different chiefs whom they call sakimes
[sachems] ." Another speaks of those on the east side — of
the river — as Manhattans. The most probable conclusion,
therefore, is that which makes them a branch of theWap-
pinger tribe, whose territory extended north from the site
of New York City along the Hudson.
Returning to the Indians of Long Island, the story we
have to tell is not a long one. All the natives of the

THE INDIANS OF NEW YORK

*33

island, whom we may designate Montauks when speaking
of them generally, were offshoots of or related to the
Mohegan tribe, a member of the Algonquian family, and
were, at the arrival of the Dutch, in some way not clearly
defined, subordinate to them. During the wars of the
Mohegans, the Montauks were subjugated by the Pequods,
but after the destruction of that nation in 1637 the Mohe
gans again asserted their authority over them. About that
time, or soon thereafter, the Montauks accepted the protec
tion of the English of New Haven and paid tribute to them.
After the terrible massacre of the Indians at Pavonia
[Jersey City] , which will be noticed more particularly
hereafter, the Montauks joined with the other tribes in
assisting the Weckquaesgeeks in retaliating upon the whites
for this massacre of their people. The onset was sudden
and unexpected; the victims were murdered while at work
in their fields; the women and children were carried into
captivity; "houses and bouweries, haystacks and grain,
cattle and crops, were all destroyed."
The planting season now being at hand, the Indians of
Long Island, who had previously rejected the overtures
of peace made by Governor Kieft, who had become sen
sible of his error in bringing on a war, sent delegates to
New Amsterdam asking that negotiations might be opened
looking to a cessation of the war. The negotiations were
conducted through Penhawitz, the recognized head chief of
the Montauk confederacy, and a treaty of peace concluded.
The peace, which had been made with the other hostile
tribes at the same time, was of short duration ; for ere the
year had closed, hostilities had again commenced, though
there does not appear to be any evidence that the Long
Island Indians were engaged. Nevertheless, an expedition
was led against them by Underhill. A hundred and twenty
Indians were killed, the whites having one man killed and
three wounded. Seven prisoners were turned over to the
tender mercy of Underhill, who, according to the account
given, killed three in a cellar, towed two through the water,

J34

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

and carried two to Fort Amsterdam, who were butchered in
the presence of Governor Kieft in a manner too barbarous
to be related here. This governor, if the account of this
brutal murder be true, was more of a savage than the
Indians. Peace, which proved permanent, was finally con
cluded through the mediation of Whiteneymen, chief of
the Matinecocks.
A band of Montauks, together with some Mohegan,
Pequod, and Narragansett Indians, under the leadership of
Samson Occum, a Mohegan missionary, took up their resi
dence in Oneida County, New York, in 1788, but sub
sequently, under the name of Brothertons, removed to
Wisconsin. Reservations were assigned to those remaining
on the island. On the Shinnecock reservation there were, in
1896, about two hundred of the tribe, the last survivors of the
Long Island Indians, but much degraded by negro admixture.
The last one of pure blood died in 1894. The reservation
embraces the land formerly held in common between Canoe
Place and Shinnecock Hills. In 1703, it was deeded to
the town of Southampton by the Indian sachems, and the
same day was leased by the town to the Shinnecocks for one
thousand years, at a yearly rent of one ear of Indian corn.
The two principal tribes on the Hudson were the Mo-
hegans and the Wappingers, the latter being a tribal division
of the former. The territory of the Wappingers, whose
history is to be noticed next, following the order of geo
graphical position, extended north and south on the east
side of the Hudson from the north side of the Highlands
to the island of Manhattan, and eastward nearly, if not
quite, to Connecticut River.
The Wappinger tribe, which was a more compact organi
zation than the Montauk confederacy, was, like the latter,
composed of a number of subtribes, or chieftaincies. These,
as given by Ruttenber in his History of the Indian Tribes of
the Hudson River, were as follows :
The Reckgawawancs, often mentioned by historians
under the name Manhattans; their principal village was

THE INDIANS OF NEW YORK

*35

on the site of Yonkers, and their territory extended east
ward to Broncks River. The Weckquaesgeeks, whose
principal village was on the site of Dobb's Ferry; their
territory probably extended from Norwalk on the Sound to
the Hudson. The Sint-Sinks, whose name is perpetuated
in the town of Sing-Sing. The Kitchawongs, whose terri
tory extended from Croton River north to Anthony's Nose.
The Tankitekes, occupying the area embraced [1872] in
the towns of Darien, Stamford, and New Canaan, in Con
necticut, and Poundridge, Bedford, and Greenbush, in
Westchester County. The Nochpeems, occupying the
highlands north of Anthony's Nose. The Siwanoys, a large
division known as one of the " seven tribes of the seacoast ";
their territory extended from Norwalk to the vicinity of
Hell Gate. The Sequins, also a large chieftaincy, located
on the west bank of Connecticut River. The Wappingers
were located on the north side of the Highlands. This chief
taincy was recognized as the head of the tribal organization.
There is but little history of these several chieftaincies
as distinct from that of the tribe. The Indians who came
into conflict with Hudson in 1609 appear to have been of
the Reckgawawanc, or Manhattan, chieftaincy. In this case
it is evident, from the account given in Hudson's Journal,
that the conflict was brought on through a want of forbear
ance and. prudence on the part of the English rather than
through an intention on the part of the Indians to make an
attack. In fact, the killing of a number of the natives was
an unnecessary act of cruelty. From that time until the
end of Dutch dominion, there was antagonism between
the whites and Indians of the immediately surrounding
regions. The hostility thus aroused by a want of prudence
and the dictates of humanity was increased rather than
allayed by the subsequent actions of the colonists.
Minor acts of depredation followed by retaliation were
committed on both sides, but led to no open hostilities until
Kieft had succeeded to the directorship. The war which
now followed involved other Indians with the Wappingers.

136 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
In 1643, a party of eighty Mohegans with firearms made
a descent upon the Manhattan Indians for the purpose of
collecting tribute which had been withheld. Surprised and
unable with their inferior arms to cope with their adver
saries, after seventy of their number had been slain the
remainder of the Manhattans fled to Fort Amsterdam,
begging for protection. The Dutch kindly cared for them
for fourteen days ; but becoming again alarmed they fled to
various points, some going to Pavonia, now Jersey City,
and others to Rechtauk, now Corlear's Hook, the latter
occupying some cabins which had been erected by the
Reckgawa wanes. Kieft, deeming this an opportune moment
to strike the blow he had been contemplating, ordered that
the Indians should be attacked simultaneously at two points,
Pavonia and Corlear's Hook. The plan was executed on
the night of February 25th. We give the details in the
words of one who speaks of what he witnessed:
I remained that night at the governor's, sitting up. I went and sat
in the kitchen, when,' about midnight, I heard a great shrieking, and I
ran to the ramparts of the fort, and looked over to Pavonia. Saw
nothing but firing, and heard the shrieks of the Indians murdered in
their sleep. I returned again to the house by the fire. Having sat
there awhile, there came an Indian with his squaw, whom I knew well,
and who lived about an hour's walk from my house, and told me that
they two had fled in a small skiff ; that they had betaken themselves to
Pavonia ; that the Indians from Fort Orange had surprised them ; and
that they had come to conceal themselves in the fort. I told them that
they must go away immediately ; that there was no occasion for them
to come to the fort to conceal themselves ; that they who had killed
their people at Pavonia were not Indians, but the Swannekens, as they
call the Dutch, had done it. They then asked me how they should get
out of the fort. I took them to the door, and there was no sentry
there, and so they betook themselves to the woods. When it was day
the soldiers returned to the fort, having massacred or murdered eighty
Indians, and considering they had done a deed of Roman valour, in
murdering so many in their sleep ; where infants were torn from their
mothers' breasts, and hacked to pieces in the presence of the parents,
and the pieces thrown into the fire and in the water, and other sucklings
were bound to small boards, and then cut, stuck, and pierced, and
miserably massacred in a manner to move a heart of stone. Some were
thrown into the river, and when the fathers and mothers endeavored to

THE INDIANS OF NEW YORK

*37

save them, the soldiers would not let them come on land, but made
both parents and children drown, — children from five to six years of
age, and also some old and decrepit persons. Many fled from this
scene, and concealed themselves in the neighboring sedge, and when
it was morning, came out to beg a piece of bread, and to be permitted
to warm themselves ; but they were murdered in cold blood and tossed
into the water. Some came by our lands in the country with their
hands, some with their legs cut off, and some holding their entrails in
their arms, and others had such horrible cuts, and gashes, that worse
than they were could never happen. And these poor simple creatures,
as also many of our own people, did not know any better than that they
had been attacked by a party of other Indians, — the Maquas. After this
exploit, the soldiers were rewarded for their services, and Director Kieft
thanked them by taking them by the hand and congratulating them. — -
(David P. de Vries in Coll. Nevj York Hist. Soc, 2d Ser., i, 115-116.)
That such deeds would not be allowed to pass without
retaliation, all the New Netherlanders, save Kieft and his
colleagues, fully expected. The excitement of these events
had scarcely passed ere the work of revenge commenced
and the Dutch settlers began to pay the penalty with their
blood. The outlying colonists were the first to feel the
blow, and fled to Fort Amsterdam for protection, upbraid
ing the director as the cause of the calamities which had
befallen them. The temporary peace of 1643, already
mentioned, delayed the war for a brief space, but ere the
year had passed the Wappingers again commenced hostili
ties. Trading boats were seized, the occupants slain, and
their goods carried off; settlements were attacked, the houses
pillaged and burned, and the inhabitants who failed to make
their escape were slaughtered or else carried into captivity.
It was at this time that Ann Hutchinson, a woman of some
note, who had been banished from Massachusetts with
Roger Williams, was killed, and her plantation on Pelham's
Neck destroyed. "From the Neversinks to the valley of
the Tappans, . . . was once more in possession of its
aboriginal lords." Fort Amsterdam was the only place of
refuge, and to this shelter the frightened colonists fled.
There, we are informed, women and children lay concealed
in straw huts, while their husbands and fathers mounted

138 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
guard on the ramparts above. The colonists were now
forced to experience the bitter results of Kieft's unwise
and cruel policy; the foe was at the very doors of their
last and only place of refuge. We find it stated, in the
old Colonial records, that the Indians " rove in parties con
tinually around day and night on the island of Manhattans,
slaying our folks not a thousand paces from the fort, and
'tis now arrived at such a pass, that no one dare move a foot
to fetch a stick of fire wood without a strong escort." The
Wappingers of Connecticut River, who had but recently
learned the truth in regard to the massacre of Pavonia and
Corlear's Hook, sent their warriors to assist their brethren
in the work of revenge. It was well then for the Dutch
that the Indians failed to realize their own strength and the
weakness of the colony : fifteen hundred men to two hun
dred and fifty, with only a wall or two between them.
Aid was asked of New England; and though the official
reply was a negative, assigning as a reason that it did not
appear that the Dutch were justifiable in their course, some
English volunteers, led by the notorious Captain Underhill,
whose savage treatment of the Long Island Indians has
been mentioned, came to their assistance. With this addi
tion to their force, the work of retaliation commenced. The
expedition to Long Island has already been noticed. Another
was sent against the Weckquaesgeeks, which accomplished
but little save the burning of two strongholds. The third,
led by Underhill against the same Indians, was more suc
cessful. The attack was on a village in the vicinity of
Stamford. Piloted by an Indian through the snow and over
the stony hills, they arrived in the evening about three miles
from the village. Halting until ten o'clock at night, they
hurried forward, hoping to find the inhabitants asleep and
unprepared, though the full moon lighted up the scene.
In this they were disappointed; the Indians, who had as
sembled here in considerable numbers, were holding their
annual festival, and were wide awake and on their guard.
" So that," remarks the narrator, " ours determined to charge

THE INDIANS OF NEW YORK

139

and surround the houses sword in hand." The carnage
began, and in a brief space of time one hundred and eighty
Indians lay dead on the outside of the houses. The others,
having crowded into the dwellings, defended themselves
as best they could, discharging their arrows through the
openings. But defence was of no avail ; the torch soon ren
dered their shelter untenable. They attempted to escape,
but, seeing that it was only to be cut down by the besiegers,
returned to their burning houses, choosing to perish in the
flames rather than to cast themselves upon the tender mer
cies of the whites. " What was most wonderful," says the
narrator, " is that among this vast collection of men, women,
and children, not one was heard to cry or scream." Five
hundred perished; "our God," piously adds the chronicler,
"having collected together there the greater part of our
enemies to celebrate one of their festivals, from which
escaped no more than eight men in all, of whom even those
were severely wounded."
The result of this severe punishment was an application
by the Indians for a treaty of peace. This was effected,
be it said as one act worthy of praise, through the inter
vention of Underhill. The Sint-Sink, Weckquaesgeek,
Nochpeem, and Wappinger Indians presented themselves
at Fort Amsterdam in 1644, and pledged themselves to
cease hostilities, the Dutch agreeing not to molest them.
A treaty of peace was thereupon concluded. This was
soon followed by a like treaty with the other hostile chief
taincies, and thus terminated a war which had been waged
for more than five years.
Although this peace inspired the colonists with the hope
that hostilities were to end, this expectation was doomed to
disappointment. However, as the war was now shifted
to another quarter, and other tribes were the chief par
ticipants, we will first follow briefly the fortunes of the
Wappinger tribe.
The year following the treaty of peace had not passed
before these Indians were again in difficulty with the Dutch,

140

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

which resulted in a few deaths on each side ; but Stuy vesant,
who was then director, managed to heal the breach. In
1663, they acted as intermediaries between the Dutch and
warring Indians in obtaining an exchange of prisoners.
The next year, rumors reached the director that the English
were trying to engage the Wappinger and some other tribes
in a general revolt, but the effort failed, if, in fact, it was
made. In 1689, they joined the English in their war with
the French, sending all their males able to bear arms to the
field, except a few who it seems had joined the French.
In 1756, those of Dutchess County, with a number of
Mohegans from the upper Hudson, removed to the Iroquois
country, being assigned lands at Otsiningo near the Nanti
cokes. Here, it seems, they enjoyed some years of peace
and prosperity ; ministers of the Gospel came among them,
through whose influence they made such advance that the
Mohawks sent their children to their schools for instruction,
" and the Oneidas were proud to hail them as brothers."
They, together with the Mohegans, joined the Americans
in the Revolutionary struggle. Active in the campaign of
1777, they joined Washington again in 1778, and were de
tached with the forces under Lafayette to check the depre
dations of the British on their retreat from Philadelphia.
But it is unnecessary to follow them through the scenes of
that war. When the conflict ended in victory for the Re
public, they returned to their home in New York ; but being
absorbed into the Brotherton association, they moved with
its members to Wisconsin and became extinct as a tribe.
Proceeding northward up the Hudson, next above the
Wappingers dwelt the Mohegans, or Mahicans, their terri
tory extending from the border of the country of the former
northward to some distance above Albany, partly on the
west side, but chiefly on the east side of the Hudson, ex
tending eastward to Connecticut River. There were two
chief divisions of the Mohegan group : the one here spoken
of — the western — as living along the Hudson and eastward
to Connecticut River, and the other, the eastern Mohegans,

THE INDIANS OF NEW YORK j^i
located in the eastern part of Connecticut, near the Pequods.
Ruttenber and some more recent authorities, seemingly to
avoid confusion, have applied the name "Mahicans" [or
Mohicans] to the western division, and Mohegan to the
eastern division of the tribe. However, as the names are
synonymous, " Mohegan " will be retained here, the refer
ence in this chapter being only to the western or larger
division. It is generally believed, and apparently with good
reason, that most of the New England tribes, especially
those of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island,
were offshoots from or congeners of the Mohegans. As
the Wappingers and Montauks were also related to these
groups and were descendants from the same ancestral stem,
we are perhaps justified in classifying the Delawares and
Mohegans as cognate tribes.
The first recorded notice of the western Mohegans is that
of Hudson's visit, when he sailed up the river now bearing
his name, in 1609. At a point near Katskill he met a
"very loving people and very old men"; they brought him
maize, pumpkins, and tobacco, and used him well. At
another point, Schodac or Castleton, they were also very
friendly. There is one remark by Hudson in regard to
these Indians worthy of notice because of its reference
to some of their customs. He says he went ashore in
one of their canoes, with an old man who was chief of a
tribe — or chieftaincy — consisting of forty men and seven
teen women. Those he saw were in a house constructed
of oak bark, circular in form, with an arched roof. It
contained a quantity of corn and beans of the preceding
year's growth, while there lay outside, ready for drying,
"enough to load three ships, besides what was growing in
the fields." Mats were brought to sit upon, and food was
served them in wooden bowls.
But little has been recorded in reference to the chief
taincies or subdivisions of the Mohegans as distinct from
the general history of the tribe. However, the following
are mentioned, using the old orthography : the Mahican [or

142

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

Mohegan] ,Wiekagjock, Meckkentowoon,Wawyachtonock,
and Westenhuck. Each of these bands or subtribes had a
chief sachem, chosen from the descendants of the royal
line on the mother's side. This sachem was assisted in the
government by councillors, also by three other officers, one
denominated " the Hero," another " the Owl," and another
"the Runner." The councillors were elective; the Hero
was the war chief; the Owl, the orator; and the Runner,
the messenger. The totems among these bands or sub-
tribes were the Bear, the Wolf, and the Turtle.
When the Dutch formed a settlement at Albany, the
Mohegans, together with the Iroquois, made a covenant of
friendship with them; and in 1645, during the difficulties
with the Indians about Fort Amsterdam, Kieft visited Fort
Orange and renewed this treaty with them and the Mo
hawks. They were at war with the Mohawks in 1656, but
Stuyvesant succeeded in establishing peace between them
in 1662.
War again commenced between them and the Mohawks
in 1664; the Mohegans, who began hostilities, ravaged the
whole country on the east side of North River, and so
weakened the Mohawks that the latter in 1669 asked pro
tection from the French. In 1680, they sold most of their
lands on the west side of the Hudson to Van Rensselaer,
and soon thereafter tracts on the east side of the river.
Their attack on the Manhattans for neglect to pay tribute
has already been mentioned. In 1660, three of their chiefs
visited Fort Amsterdam for the purpose of bringing about a
treaty of peace between the Dutch and the Esopus Indians.
In 1726, a considerable number of them removed to
Wyoming, in Pennsylvania, and settled by the Munsees
and Shawnees. A portion of them, as has been men
tioned, removed with the Wappingers to Otsiningo in the
Iroquois country; others kept their council fires burn
ing in the valley of the Housatonic, and when the great
struggle by the Colonies for freedom came on, cast their lot
with Washington's party and fought bravely to the end,

THE INDIANS OF NEW YORK 143
even the great white chief bearing testimony to their valor.
In 1785, they removed to Oneida and Madison Counties,
New York. Here they remained until 1821, when they re
moved to Wisconsin, where, with other New York Indians,
they had purchased a tract of land from the Menominees
and Winnebagoes.
Our history brings us now to the Iroquois, the Romans
of the New World, a native confederacy whose deeds and
prowess have fixed the boundary line between the two lead
ing powers represented in America, and loosened the hold of
another on her possessions in North America. However,
it is not the intention to treat of them in this chapter further
than bears upon their relations with the New York Colonial
Government and their early contests with southern tribes;
their relations with the French and their native allies will
be given in another place. Their history in this colony
begins with them as a confederacy known as "The Five
Nations," or five tribes located east and west along the
central part of New York in the following order, begin
ning at the east: first, the Mohawks, on Mohawk River;
then the Oneidas, Onondagas, and Cayugas ; and lastly, the
Senecas, at the western end of the series. The villages
of the Mohawks were chiefly located in the valley of
Mohawk River, on the south side. The principal towns
of the Oneidas were around and in the vicinity of Lake
Oneida. The Onondagas were seated in the valley of
Onondaga River and on the adjacent hills. The settlements
of the Cayugas were on the eastern shore of Cayuga Lake,
and the ridge to the east. The Senecas, who formed the
most populous tribe of the confederacy, were scattered over
the areas now embraced in the counties of Ontario and
Monroe, and lilrimately over the greater part of western
New York.
The first notice of the Iroquois received by the settlers
in the south was through Captain John Smith on his visit
to the head of Chesapeake Bay. Here he was informed by
the Susquehannas he met there that they were harassed by a

144

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

warlike people called Massawomecks, who made all the In
dians fear them. These, as is now universally conceded,
were the Iroquois, who continued their warring upon the
" down river people " [Susquehannas] , though their kindred,
until, as we have seen, naught is left to tell us of their exist
ence save their fragmentary history gathered from the early
records and their name perpetuated in that of Pennsylva
nia's chief river. The Iroquois were also at war in 1671
with the Shawnees in the Ohio valley, whom they claim to ;
have conquered and brought under subjection, though this
is doubtful. Their frequent expeditions against the Cataw
bas and the smaller tribes of Virginia and the Carolinas have
been alluded to in the chapters on the "Southern Atlantic
Colonies," and their contests with the Shawnees will be
noticed in a later chapter.
After the destruction of the Huron and Neuter tribes, the
Iroquois turned their arms against the Eries, or Cat nation.
The latter tribe, which appears to have been a member
of the Iroquoian stock, was located immediately south of
Lake Erie, their territory extending into western New York
nearly or quite to Genesee River — the western frontier of
the Seneca territory. Their history consists of little more
than their name, the statement of their existence, and of
their destruction about 1655 by the same besom which
swept from the land so many other peoples. Their destruc
tion by the Iroquois was so complete that inquiring his
torians have earnestly sought them in other tribes and under
other names in vain. They dash across the horizon of
American history as a meteor which is seen for a moment
and then disappears. It is said that their warriors were
brave, fought with poisoned arrows, and were long a terror
to the neighboring Senecas ; nevertheless, th^ir brief history
is only a single episode in the history of the Five Nations.
The Iroquois tribes, soon after the Dutch planted their
settlement at the mouth of the Hudson, entered into an
alliance with them, which continued without a serious
breach by either party until the latter were superseded by

Candelaria, "The Belle of Seri."
Gulf of California, Sonora, Mexico.

Palowatiwa.
Type of Zunian, Zuni, New Mexico.

From photographs supplied by the Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington.

146 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
territory. However, nothing more than a petty warfare
resulted. Braddock's defeat was most disastrous to the
English, as will appear in a future chapter; for the Indians,
ever desirous of being on the winning side, could easily
change their alliances to follow the shifting of the winds of
fortune. The Senecas, Onondagas, and Cayugas, doubting
the final success of the English, in 1757 threw off the dis
guise of friendship they had professed for the latter, and sent
messengers to the French, declaring for peace and agreeing
to remain neutral between the contending powers. The
arms of Pontiac's conspiracy were even then reaching out to
gather in the hosts for the one great effort to crush the Eng
lish colonies; the Senecas joined the movement with one
thousand warriors ; but the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas,
Cayugas, and most of the Tuscaroras remained firm to their
covenant as neutrals. Sir William Johnson threw his power
ful influence into the scale, and, New Jersey and Connecti
cut joining him, an army eleven hundred strong was soon
upon the heels of the faithless Senecas. Seeing the threaten
ing clouds gathering about them, and the visions of burning
homes and wasted fields, the Senecas turned again and, by
a deputation of four hundred of their best men, sought of
Johnson peace, with a promise to cease hostilities and war
no more against the English.
The American Revolution was the critical period in the
history of the Iroquoian confederacy. When the struggle
between the colonies and the mother country began, the
minds of the tribes, — except the Senecas, — like the heart
of their great counsellor, were torn with contending emo
tions. They had been throughout the firm friends of the
English; now the house was divided against itself, English
had turned their weapons against English. Their great
father across the water sought their aid against his rebellious
subjects, while the latter, pleading the justness of their
cause, only asked them to remain neutral and not embroil
themselves in the great family quarrel. The strain upon
Johnson was too great to be borne; he was hurried to his

THE INDIANS OF NEW YORK i^y
grave by mental distress, if not, as many believed, by his
own act. The Iroquois were uncertain and divided as to
the course they should pursue. Thus urged by both
parties, they, at first, resolved in general council at Onon
daga to have nothing to do with the hatchet, " but to support
their engagements," in other words, to remain passive,
taking part with neither side; and again, at Albany, decided
upon the same course, though it is doubtful whether all the
tribes were represented at the latter meeting. Nevertheless,
Joseph Brant [Thayendanegea] , whose name, unfortunately,
soon became too well known, and a large portion of the
Mohawk tribe remained firm in their adherence to Guy
Johnson, son-in-law of Sir William Johnson, the represen
tative of the British interests after the death of Sir William.
Molly Brant, a sister of Joseph, was the second wife — or
mistress, as the marriage is questioned — of Sir William, and
Joseph for some time previous to his death had acted as his
secretary, hence the strong tie between the families.
Brant, who had been carried to England and feasted and
honored in order to bind him to the interests of the Royal
ists, succeeded, on his return, in gathering together an army
of some five hundred warriors, recruited chiefly from the
Mohawks but partly from other tribes, though still main
taining nominally the position of neutrals. However, when
actual hostilities began, the agreement to remain neutral was
brought to the final test. The Onondagas, Cayugas, and
Senecas, and all the Mohawks, except a single band known
as the Praying Mohawks, declared themselves on the side
of the king, the Oneidas and Tuscaroras being the only
tribes that remained firm in their position as neutrals. It
is stated that not more than eight hundred warriors of the
confederacy were at any one time under the British; but
this estimate differs from that of a British agent, as given
by Joshua V. H. Clark in his Onondaga. According to this
estimate, the British had in their service 300 Mohawks, 300
Onondagas, 400 Senecas, 230 Cayugas, 150 Oneidas, and
200 Tuscaroras, making 1,580 in all. This, however, is

148 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
probably erroneous in that it includes the larger part of the
Oneida and Tuscarora warriors, who refused to take active
part with the English.
At the beginning of the campaign they were joined with
troops which, acting in connection with Burgoyne's army
as he moved down from Canada, were sent to attack the
fortified points more remote from his route. The Indians,
led by Brant, were united with the forces under St. Leger.
Their first attack was on Fort Schuyler, formerly Fort
Stanwix. At this time the Indians with Brant numbered
about seven hundred. The chief part taken by the Indians
was at the battle of Oriskany, near by, where General
Herkimer, coming to the relief of the garrison with a force
of some eight hundred or a thousand men, was ambushed
by them and Colonel Butler's Rangers. For a time the
division, being thrown into disorder, was threatened with
annihilation. General Herkimer, though his leg was shat
tered by a musket ball, continued in command of his forces.
" Never," says William L. Stone in his Life of Joseph Brant,
"did brave men stand a charge with more dauntless cour
age, and the enemy, for the moment, seemed to recoil — just
at the instant when the work of death was arrested by a
heavy shower of rain which suddenly broke upon the com
batants with great fury."
The battle, which was suspended for the moment, was
renewed as soon as the storm had passed. "The parties
once more rushed upon each other with bayonet and spear,
grappling and fighting with terrible fury. . . . Such a
conflict as this could not be continued long; and the Indians,
perceiving with what ardor the Provincials maintained the
fight, and finding their own numbers sadly diminished, now
raised the retreating cry of ' Oonah ! ' and fled in every
direction, under the shouts and hurrahs of the surviving
Provincials and a shower of bullets. Finding, moreover,
from the firing at the fort that their presence was neces
sary elsewhere, the Greens and Rangers now retreated pre
cipitately, leaving the victorious militia of Tryon County

THE INDIANS OF NEW YORK 149
masters of the field." — (Stone.) The Indians lost about
one hundred men in the battle. During the fight, the be
sieged colonists made a sortie from the fort, led by Colonel
Willet, completely routing the besiegers under Sir John
Johnson and capturing their camp and equipage.
The battle of Oriskany was the beginning of the border
war of the "Old New York Frontier"; here began the
hostilities that desolated the Susquehanna, Delaware, Scho
harie, and Mohawk valleys. The war, so far as the Iroquois
were concerned, was no longer for the purpose of assisting
the British to crush the rebellion, but for revenge. After the
battle of Oriskany, Brant, angered at the Oneidas because
they had refused to accede to his overtures, taking a party
of his warriors, fell upon them, burned their wigwams,
destroyed their crops, and drove away their cattle. Retalia
tion was swift; for hardly had he retired, before the
Oneidas ravaged the estate of Molly Johnson, widow of
Sir William, drove her and her family from home, and
carried away her goods and cattle. Next they attacked the
Lower Mohawk settlement, compelling the inhabitants to
fly to Canada for safety.
The defeat of Burgoyne at Bennington had the effect of
greatly dampening the ardor of the Indians in their support
of the royal cause; moreover, the army discipline was dis
tasteful to them, hence they began to drop away. Some
of them joined the colonists; and when the final sur
render of the British army came, few if any Indians re
mained in its ranks. However, Brant managed to hold a
considerable force so long as he led them on in warfare
after the Indian fashion. His attacks were carried on, at
least in part, in cooperation with the British officer, Colonel
John Butler; but it is unnecessary to follow the bloody trail
in all its harrowing details; a brief notice of some of the
chief incidents must suffice. On May 30, 1778, Brant
reached Cobleskill with three or four hundred men ; there
the tomahawk and torch began their work of death and
destruction. On June 18th, Springfield was destroyed,

150

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

then Androstown, and other settlements on Otsego Lake.
A party of two hundred and fifty, partly Tories, swept
down the valley of the Delaware as far as Minisink, killing
some of the settlers, taking others as prisoners, and driving
off the cattle, sheep, and other stock to Oghwaga, their
rallying point. The terrible massacre at Wyoming, the
echoes of which have floated down a century and a quarter,
cannot be charged directly upon Brant, for he was absent
at the time; the leader on this occasion was the greater
savage — Colonel John Butler. However, seven hundred
Indians, mostly Senecas, of Brant's band, were present to
add brutality to the bloody episode. Throughout the valley
the torch and tomahawk completed the work of desolation.
It was here that Catherine Montour, a half-breed known
as Queen Esther among the Senecas, assumed the role of
executioner, and, taking a maul and tomahawk, passed
around the ring of prisoners, who had been arranged at her
bidding, deliberately chanted the death song, " and murdered
her victims to its cadences in consecutive order." Forts,
houses, barns, grain, and cattle were destroyed ; the homes of
five hundred settlers were laid waste, their occupants made
fugitives, and their dead left unburied. Indians were used
as the executioners, and the blood of innocent and peaceful
settlers shed, to compel Washington to weaken his forces at
the front. It is not strange then that one so humane should
state in his instructions to General Sullivan, in his expedition
against the Iroquois, that "the immediate objects are the
total destruction and devastation of their settlements."
Next we hear of Brant at German Flats; and though
the inhabitants found shelter in the forts, their homes were
reduced to ashes. Cherry Valley was next to feel the
storm, and, though Brant was present with his Indians, on
this occasion the chief savage was a white man — Walter
Butler ; even Brant himself was constrained to include him
among those " more savage than the savages themselves."
However, the day of retribution was close at hand; a
storm from the east was rising over the " Long House,'

THE INDIANS OF NEW YORK I5I
which was destined to break asunder, beam and post, and
scatter the fragments, never to be united again in a single
structure. General Sullivan was on his way to the Iroquois country
to chastise the Indians for the numerous depredations and
cruel massacres of which they were guilty. The first con
flict was at Newtown, where Brant with his Indians, and
the Tories under Sir John Johnson and the Butlers, had
decided to make a stand, and had thrown up embankments.
Though the royal forces were defeated and forced to make
a hasty retreat, the losses on both sides were small. It was
through Brant's skilful leadership that the British army
was saved from destruction. "Such was the commanding
presence of the great Indian captain," writes a contem
porary, " and such the degree of confidence he inspired,
that his undisciplined warriors stood their ground like
veterans for more than half an hour as the shot went
crashing through the tree tops, or plowing up the earth
under their feet, and shells went screeching over their heads
or bursting in their ranks, while high above the roar of the
artillery and the rattle of small arms could be heard the voice
of Brant, encouraging his men to the conflict, and over the
heads of all, his crested plume could be seen waving where
the conflict was likely to be most sharp."
Immediately after this battle, Sullivan began the work
of destroying the Indian towns. Among these were the
following: one, two miles above Newtown, with eight
houses; Kanawaholla, with twenty; Catherinetown, with
some thirty or forty good houses; Kendaia, with twenty
houses of hewn logs, some of them painted; Kanadesaga,
with fifty houses, and thirty others near by ; Skoiyase, with
eighteen houses ; Shenanwaga, with twenty houses ; Kanan-
daigua, with twenty-three elegant houses, some of them
framed; Honeoye, with twenty houses; Kanaghsaws, with
eighteen houses ; Gathsewarohare, with twenty-five houses,
mostly new; Little Bard's Town, the great Seneca castle,
with one hundred and twenty-eight houses, mostly large and

152 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
elegant, and also some six or seven along the shores of
Cayuga Lake.
These statistics are necessary to a full appreciation of the
devastation carried out in the Indian country by Sullivan's
expedition. But the destruction of these towns, all of
which were reduced to ashes, was only a part of the damage
inflicted. At each town were cornfields with ripening
crops, at most were orchards whose trees were loaded with
fruit ; the corn was destroyed, the fruit trees cut down, the
stores of food burned, the cattle, hogs, and other stock
driven off or killed. In all, forty Indian towns were
burned; fully one hundred and sixty thousand bushels of
corn, including that in the fields and granaries, were de
stroyed, besides the fruit trees cut down, and the vegetable
gardens ruined. The punishment inflicted by Sullivan was
indeed terrible ; and Stone, the historian, adds " the Indians
were hunted like wild beasts, till neither house nor fruit-
trees, nor field of corn, nor inhabitant, remained in the whole
country." The fierce and devastating cyclone, as it swept
westward, turned' aside as it reached the Oneida and Tus
carora towns, leaving them untouched. A single village of
the Mohawks, that of the Praying Mohawks, was spared.
When Sullivan departed, the Indians returned to gaze
upon the blackened ruins of their desolated homes. Mary
Jemison, the captive, says there was not enough left to
feed a child. Homeless now in their own land, most of
the Indians retired to Niagara, where the English built huts
around the fort for them to pass the winter in; however,
hundreds sickened and died before the season was over.
Brant, with his broken forces, returned, in connection with
Johnson, and for a time kept up a petty warfare, but was
ultimately driven out by Colonel Marimus Willet. It was
in this campaign that the younger Butler [Walter] received
at the hands of an Oneida Indian the due reward of his
savage career: his scalp adorned an Indian's belt.
When the war closed with the surrender of Cornwallis,
this border country was a scene of desolation. " The sites

THE INDIANS OF NEW YORK I5o
of former villages, Indian as well as white-man villages,
had become forlorn and blackened scenes." The " Long
House " was broken, never to be rebuilt. The figure was
remembered and the symbol retained ; however, it was only
a memento of that which had been but had vanished.
It remains for us only to follow the scattered fragments
of the confederacy whose name once carried terror over a
large portion of eastern North America; the history of their
long contest with the French who settled on the St. Law
rence will be told in another chapter.
As early as 1749, Abbe Picquet established a small set
tlement of Christianized Iroquois at Ogdensburg, which
rapidly increased, so that in 1754 it numbered three thou
sand six hundred persons. This settlement was afterward
removed to Kahnawaga and St. Regis, where this branch
still resides. In 1783, a band of Mohawks formed a settle
ment on Bay of Quinte; but the greater number of the
whole people removed to Grand River, where the Canadian
government granted them an extensive tract of land. Of
those who did not remove to Canada, some Onondagas emi
grated to the West, while others remained in their old home,
a few taking up their residence with the Senecas.
Most of the Senecas remaining in the state were granted
reserves; the Oneidas and Tuscaroras were established in
or near their ancient seats. The Cayugas were scattered,
and finally a remnant removed to Indian Territory.
The total number of Iroquois living in 1890 was as
follows: in the United States, 7,378; in Canada, 8,483;
making in all 15,861 — a larger population than that con
tained in the league during any period of its ascendency.
The three great chiefs of the Iroquois confederacy whose
history belongs to the south of the St. Lawrence, and to
later times, were Brant, Red Jacket, and Cornplanter. The
first was undoubtedly the greatest of the three in every re
spect except oratory. The second — Red Jacket — was great
in nothing except oratory, being a coward and an inveter
ate boaster. Cornplanter could boast of no great deed, but

154 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
was brave in action yet always on the side of peace in the
councils. The Munsees originally lived about the headwaters of
Delaware River. They were divided into some six or seven
chieftaincies, were brave and warlike, sometimes in conflict
with the Dutch, and then with the Senecas. Increasing
white settlements forced them from their lands, some going
to the Mohawks in 1756. The larger portion moved first to
Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, and not long afterward to Alle
ghany River; from there they drifted westward with the
Delawares to Indiana, where most of them were incorpo
rated with the latter; others joined the Chippewas and
Shawnees, and they became extinct as a tribe.
Although the colonial government of New York recog
nized the possessory right of the Indians to the land, and,
under both Dutch and English rule, held to the policy that
this right should be purchased before taking possession, yet
the method of carrying out this policy was not always
uniform or wise. The great error in the early history of
the colony was the custom of granting permits to individ
uals to make purchases of the Indians, a method which,
wherever followed, has always resulted in contests in the
field or in the courts, or in appeals to the legislatures for
relief. The end of this ill-advised and unfortunate course was at
last at hand. Orders, proclamations, and instructions had
been promulgated by the English government for the pur
pose of remedying this, but a practical method of solution
was not reached until 1765. It was then proposed that a
well-defined dividing line between the whites and Indians
should be marked out, and that the whites should be abso
lutely prohibited from settling beyond it under any pretence.
This agreement was perfected at the treaty of Fort Stanwix
in 1765.

CHAPTER VIII
THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND
About the year 1620, and probably for some time pre
vious to that date, the section of country now known as
New England was inhabited by numerous bands of Indians
belonging chiefly to the great Algonquian family. Of the
twenty or more different tribes in southern New England,
three seem to have gained preeminence at this period.
These were: first, the Pokanoket confederacy, of which
Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags, was the head, his
sway extending over the tribes living between Narragansett
and Massachusetts Bays. The second was the Narragan
sett tribe, inhabiting the region west of Narragansett Bay
south of the Nipmuck country, including the present state
of Rhode Island and part of Connecticut. Two chiefs,
Canonicus and Miantonomah, seem to have held a sort of
joint sway over these Indians, though the sachemship was
in the former. The third of these dominant groups was the
Pequod tribe, which, it seems, had, shortly before the arrival
of the Pilgrims, swept down from some inland section to
the border of the sea and spread terror among the neigh
boring tribes. The sway of the Pequod sachem extended
to all the Indians of Connecticut west of the Thames, and
for a time over most of those of Long Island. Sassacus, the
greatest and last sachem of the Pequods, could, it is said, at
the summit of his greatness boast of a following of no less
than twenty-six chiefs. 155

156 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
To the north of Massasoit's domain dwelt the Massa-
chusett Indians; west of this tribe and northwest of the
Pokanokets, scattered over a large extent of country, were
several small bands generally known as the Nipenet, Nip-
muck, or Inland Indians.
More than a hundred years of occasional and intermittent
intercourse between the two continents had, by the begin
ning of the seventeenth century, given the red man of the
New World a better understanding of the character of his
white brother of the Old. Explorers, adventurers, fisher
men, and colonists seeking homes, had come and gone
before his eyes, and some of his own race had crossed
the sea to the land of the sunrise and returned. One of
these returned wanderers, Tisquantum, or Squanto, figures
somewhat prominently as an interpreter in the early history
of the Plymouth colony. He is said to have been one of
the savages captured by Hunt in 1 6 14 and sold into slavery
in Spain. Managing to escape from his owners, he met a
London merchant, who protected him and returned him to
America upon Captain Dermer's vessel in 1619. Once
more on his native shore, Squanto sought for his own
people, only to find the tribe almost extinct. A short time
before his return a terrible pestilence had very nearly de
populated the country about Massachusetts Bay. Finding
himself thus bereft of his own kindred, he appears to have
joined the followers of Massasoit.
The kidnapping operations of the early adventurers Hunt
and Weymouth were undoubtedly well known to most of
the coast tribes, and, consequently, subsequent visitors to
New England were looked upon with hatred and suspicion
by the Indians of the ravished districts. It was probably
from this cause that for several days after the arrival of the
Puritans not an Indian was seen by them. On two occa
sions several natives were espied, who appeared greatly
frightened at the sight of white men and immediately dis
appeared in the forest. On the 28th of December, about
five o'clock in the morning, a band of Nauset Indians

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND I5y
surprised a company of the English at Namasket, where they
had landed and encamped for the night. For a time a sharp
contest was waged between the two parties, but the Indians,
finding their leader injured, finally withdrew. Three months
passed by without any further contact between the two
races; and though we know from the records how the
colonists employed their time, we can only judge from sub
sequent events what course was pursued by the sachem
within whose domains the English finally settled. The
smoke of the Indians' camp fires, five or six miles distant
from the settlement, indicated the close proximity of the
savages, and perhaps a sharp surveillance of the white men's
movements, which were doubtless promptly reported to Mas
sasoit. From his subsequent action we judge the Wam-
panoag chief to have been favorably impressed toward the
white strangers ; and as the attitude now assumed by his
enemies, the Narragansetts, had grown menacing, Massasoit
was looking about him for a potent ally to aid him in re
sisting these enemies ; and seeing the settlers had shown no
evil intentions, and knowing from their sturdy defence at
Namasket that they were not afraid to fight and were,
besides, possessed of powerful weapons, their friendship ap
peared desirable to him. This disposition on the part of
this chief became manifest when, a few days thereafter, he
visited the English and remained for several days with the
new colony, and before his departure entered into a treaty
of alliance with them, both offensive and defensive.
It was stipulated in this treaty that neither Massasoit nor
any of his people should do any hurt to any of the English
settlers ; if any member of his tribe violated this agreement,
such offender was to be sent to the English that they might
punish him. That if anything belonging to the settlers was
taken by his people, he would cause it to be restored; and,
on the other hand, the settlers should cause to be restored
anything taken by any of their members from the Indians.
The English also agreed to aid Massasoit should any other
Indians war against him unjustly, and he agreed to aid the

158 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
English should any war against them. Massasoit further
agreed to send word to his neighboring confederates, notify
ing them of this treaty, that they might not molest the
settlers, but should likewise agree to these conditions of
peace. It was also stipulated that when any of the Indians
visited the colony they should leave their weapons behind
them ; and that the tribe should accept King James as their
sovereign. Such was, in substance, the first treaty entered into by
the Pilgrim Fathers with the natives of the new world in
which they had planted their colony; a treaty on which,
in all probability, their existence as a colony for a time
depended. Had Massasoit been hostile and marshalled all
his forces against them, it is doubtful whether the attack
could have been successfully resisted. However, the treaty
was apparently satisfactory to both parties, and does not
appear to have been broken by either during the sachem's
lifetime. As to the land upon which they had planted, the
English were informed by Massasoit that it was unoccupied,
the inhabitants being dead, and therefore they were privileged
to take possession of it.
Canonicus, chief of the Narragansett Indians, jealous of
the alliance of his ancient enemies with the white intruders,
had been seeking to draw away some of Massasoit's people
from their fealty. He found a willing listener in Corbitant,
of Mettaposit [Gardiner's Neck] . This Indian was a clever
politician, ambitious, and strongly opposed to the white
invasion. Boldly denouncing Massasoit as a traitor to his
people, he sought to depose him, and gathered about him
self a following sufficiently strong to defy his chief and
cause the latter to seek safety in flight.
Evidently the very situation dreaded by Massasoit now
presented itself and gave the harassed sachem an opportunity
to test the fidelity of his new allies. Fortunately for him,
their interest lay in the same direction as his own; and
suddenly descending upon the village where Corbitant was
said to be fomenting rebellion, the English quickly put an

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND I59
end to the treasonable ambition of the treacherous sachem,
who soon found it good policy to become reconciled to
Massasoit, and, through his intercession, with the Plymouth
colony. He, with eight other sachems, on the 13th of
the following September, signed a treaty of submission to
King James; and Canonicus, who was desirous, openly
at least, of reconciliation, sent a messenger to treat for
peace. That Canonicus was not sincere in these overtures was
soon made manifest. Learning from some source of the
arrival of another vessel bearing more of the unwelcome
English, and obtaining in some way information that they
brought no firearms with them, he thought it a fitting
opportunity for another attempt to rid the country of the
white men. However, being a " fair-minded foe," as the old
chronicler asserts, — but it was more likely done to test their
courage or cause them to display their strength, — he sent
them warning in the shape of a bunch of arrows bound
with a serpent's skin. Squanto, who had joined the English
as interpreter and guide, explained the message for the
Plymouth governor, and the latter returned the skin filled
with balls and powder. The promptness of the reply
quieted, for a time, this chief's warlike intentions, and the
skin was finally returned to the colony unopened.
In the spring of 1625, a widespread conspiracy arose
among the natives against the white settlers. The imme
diate cause of the disaffection was the arrival, at a place on
Massachusetts Bay called Wessagusset, of sixty or more
idle and dissolute adventurers from the Old World. They
were unlike the Plymouth allies of Massasoit, and their
unjust and lawless actions toward the Indians exasperated
the latter beyond endurance.
At the head of this plot was Obtakiest, a Massachusetts
chief whose dwelling place is not definitely known, but
which was probably somewhere in the neighborhood of
Weymouth. Though evidently not the instigator of the
plot, he seems to have been coerced into taking an active

160 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
part therein by his people, five of his principal warriors
being eager to carry it into effect.
The conspiracy was an extensive one, including the
people of Agawam [Ipswich], Paomet [Truro], Succo-
net [Falmouth] , the sachems of Mattechiest [Yarmouth] ,
Manomet [Sandwich], and Nauset [eastern Cape Cod],
and even the Indians of Capawack Island [Martha's
Vineyard] . The conspirators' plan was first to wipe out
entirely the settlement at Wessagusset, and then, in order
to prevent a bloody revenge being taken, to massacre the
Plymouth colonists.
Massasoit was repeatedly urged to join the conspiracy, as
many of his petty sachems had already done; but holding
faithfully to his treaty with the English, he steadily refused.
In fact, so opposed to the scheme was he that he revealed
the conspiracy to the whites in his gratitude for services ren
dered him by them. Being forewarned, the English were
consequently forearmed, and, briefly stated, the result of the
conspiracy was disaster to the conspirators. Pecksuot, the
ringleader, and several other Indians were set upon by Cap
tain Standish and some of his men in a house at Wessagus
set [Weymouth] , and in the encounter all the savages were
killed except one, a mere youth, who was taken alive and
hanged later. After this success the whites sent a message
to Obtakiest, telling him to take warning from the overthrow
of his warriors and to refrain from any further treachery.
Obtakiest returned an answer, by a squaw, saying that
he would gladly make peace with the colonists ; but that he
had no men to send to treat about the matter, as all had
forsaken him, and that he daily moved from place to place
in dread of further vengeance by the whites. The sachems
of Mattechiest, Manomet, and Nauset also forsook their
homes for fear of the English, and lived in the swamps and
like unhealthy localities until they died of starvation or
disease engendered by their manner of living.
In 1632, a short conflict took place between the Narra
gansett and Wampanoag tribes, an attack being made by

William Bartram.
1739-182.3.
After the original by Charles IV. Peale, no-™ in Inde
pendence Hall, Philadelphia

George Catlin.
1 796—1 872,
From the original, painted by himself when tnventy-
eight years of age.

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND 161
Canonicus, sachem of the former tribe, upon Massasoit,
who fled for refuge to an Englishman's house at Mount
Hope and sent for assistance to his white allies. Captain
Standish, the leader of the Plymouth military company,
quickly brought his men to Massasoit's aid. The trouble
was soon ended, with little bloodshed, the Narragansetts
withdrawing in fear of the English; moreover, news had
reached them that the Pequods were invading their country.
To commemorate this victory over his enemies, Massasoit
changed his name to Owsamequin — a custom quite common
among the natives.
Returning from his encounter with Massasoit and his
allies to his own domain, Canonicus found himself engaged
in a fierce struggle with the Pequods over the disputed land,
then known as Misquamicut, which lay between Pawcatuck
River and Wecapaug Brook, Rhode Island. However, in
reality this territory belonged neither to the Narragansetts
nor to the Pequods, but to a remnant of the Nihantics.
The original territory of the last-named tribe extended
from Wecapaug Brook westward to Connecticut River, and
northward from the coast about twenty-five miles. When
the Pequods descended upon and conquered the Indians of
Connecticut, the greater part of the Nihantic territory was
seized by the invaders and the original inhabitants nearly all
destroyed. The western remnant, which was restricted to
a small area upon the coast of Rhode Island Sound, between
Nihantic and Connecticut Rivers, became thenceforth sub
ject to the Pequods ; while the eastern Nihantics, occupying
the disputed tract already described, allied themselves with the
Narragansetts. The renown of the Pequod warriors being great among
the Indians, Canonicus called to his aid not only the Rhode
Island Nihantics, who, of course, were interested in the
outcome, but a number of the Massachusett chiefs and
probably some of the Nipmuck sachems. The struggle
was maintained with varying success until the year 1635,
when the contest was ended in favor of the Pequods, their

1 62 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
territory being extended ten miles eastward. This victory
opened an impassable breach between the two tribes, and in
the subsequent "Pequod War" told very heavily against
Sassacus and his people. After the conclusion of that war,
the land so long in dispute eventually passed back into the
hands of the Narragansetts, when the Pequod captives were
allotted to the various tribes. The so-called "Pequod
War," so disastrous in its results to the formerly all-
powerful Pequods, was the first serious conflict between
the Indians and whites of New England.
Before narrating the struggle, some account of the be
ginnings of Connecticut history is necessary to an under
standing of the situation. The section claimed by the
Pequods as their dwelling place reached from Wecapaug
Brook, eastward, to Nihantic River on the west, including
the ten-mile stretch taken from the Nihantics, and from the
coast on the south to the country of the Nipmucks in
the north; the southern Nipmucks, those occupying the
territory of Tolland and Windham Counties, being subject
to the Pequod sachem.
The Pequods and the Mohegans of Connecticut were
probably offshoots from the Mohegans of New York State,
who had left their home somewhere on the upper Hudson
and descended upon the less warlike tribes of the Con
necticut River valley.
Connecticut had been discovered in 1 6 14 by three Dutch
navigators, probably not many years after the Pequod in
vasion; and soon after this discovery trade relations were
established between the Dutch and the Indians, which
gradually grew to such importance that the former were
desirous of securing its benefits to themselves exclusively.
In 1633, Governor Van Twiller, of New Netherlands, sent
agents to the Indians along Connecticut River to pur
chase a tract of land and establish a trading post there.
Not recognizing any claims of the original possessors of
the river territory, application was made to the usurper
Wopigwooit, the father of Sassacus, and a large tract

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND 163
of land was purchased from him, upon a portion of which
the city of Hartford now stands.
In the fall of the same year, an Englishman named
Holmes sailed up Connecticut River and settled upon the
site of the present city of Windsor. The title to the land
which he bought there was not obtained from Wopigwooit,
however, but from the former owners, whom Holmes
brought back in his vessel that they might take possession
of it and sell it to him. This proceeding was the cause of
one of the many complaints which the Pequods held against
the English. The purpose of the Dutch in purchasing
land of Wopigwooit was to secure, if possible, a peaceful
trading place, free to the Indians of any and all tribes alike,
where no warrior was to interfere with another — a plan
that for a time succeeded very well. But finally, some
of the Pequods, coming one day to the post to trade, met
there other Indians who were their enemies, and, for
getting or despising all promises or conditions, fell upon
these Indians and killed them. Highly indignant at this
proof of the Pequods' bad faith, the Dutch managed in
some way to kill Wopigwooit and several of his men.
The consequences following this act of the Dutch were
a breaking-off of trade relations between the whites and
Indians, a year or more of hostile attacks upon each other,
and most probably the murder of Captains Norton and
Stone, two English traders, and their men, who not long
after the murder of the Pequod sachem ascended Connecti
cut River for the purpose of trafficking with the natives.
Besides carrying on hostilities with Canonicus over the
contested ten-mile territory, Sassacus, the son and suc
cessor of Wopigwooit, was now at enmity with his Dutch
customers, and his people could not trade in safety any
where. He therefore, in October, 1634, sent a messenger
to the governor of the Massachusetts colony to treat for
the friendship of the settlers there. As an inducement to
bestow their favor upon his tribe, he made them an offer
which he could not keep and which he, as after events

164 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
proved, did not intend to fulfil; or, perhaps, to give him
the full benefit of the doubt, he did not by any means com
prehend the importance to his own nation of the offer he
had made. This offer was nothing less than an agreement
to surrender to the Massachusetts colony all the Pequods'
rights to the land the latter had conquered, provided the
colonists would settle a plantation among them. This
agreement was the fatal step that led to the ruin of the
Pequods by the English, in which the latter were assisted
by a near relative of the Pequod chief. This person was
Uncas, a Mohegan sachem related to Sassacus, not only by
blood but by marriage, his wife being the daughter of the
latter. Ambitious and unscrupulous, he was ready to further
his own interests and advancement at the cost of friends or
enemies alike.
Notwithstanding the close relationship existing between
himself and Sassacus, Uncas rebelled against him, even
entering into open warfare with him at one period. Being
defeated in the contest, he fled to the Narragansetts, but, at
length begging forgiveness, was permitted by Sassacus to
return to his home on promise of future loyalty. His
promise was soon broken, and three or four times thereafter
he rebelled, was exiled for his treachery, then pardoned,
only to play false and be again banished. Not daring, at
last, to again seek reconciliation with his offended kinsman,
Uncas retired further into the interior of the country, where
he succeeded in fomenting dissatisfaction among some of
the Mohegan clans dwelling there. This dissatisfaction re
sulted finally in a dismemberment of the Pequod territory;
and at the opening of the Pequod war he hastened to ally
himself with the enemies of Sassacus, and assisted in the
overthrow of his relative and former chief.
Acts of hostility on the part of the Indians and retaliation
by the whites succeeded in fanning into a flame the sullen
and smoldering jealousy of the Indians, who began to look
with dark forebodings upon the ever-increasing tide of white
immigration into Connecticut, both from the older colonies

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND ib$
and from Europe. Having, perhaps, some faint premoni
tion of the red man's ultimate fate should the increase
continue, the Pequods determined to make a strenuous
endeavor to expel the colonists from America forever.
Shrewd enough to see that, if anything was accomplished
against the whites, the combined resources of all the native
tribes would be required, envoys were sent by them to the
Narragansetts to offer the latter a treaty of alliance. This,
however, was prevented through the persuasions of Roger
Williams. The Governor of Massachusetts, acting probably upon
the suggestion of Mr. Williams, sent for Miantonomah,
with whom he entered into a treaty on the following terms :
Neither party was to make peace with the Pequods without
the consent of the other, nor to harbor them. Murderers
were to be delivered over to be put to death, and fugitive
servants returned. The Narragansetts were to furnish
guides, and the English were to notify them whenever the
latter marched against the Pequods. The Indians were not
to visit the English settlements during the war without
being accompanied by some Englishman or known Indian.
Free trade also was to be established between the nations.
As a confirmation of his friendly intentions, Miantonomah
promised to send a present to the colony within two
months' time. In the early part of the next year the present,
consisting of forty fathoms of wampum and a Pequod's
head, was delivered at Boston.
The stand taken by the Narragansetts and Wampanoags,
who remained faithful to the treaty made by them with the
Plymouth colonists, had its effect upon the more distant
tribes, and left the Pequods without support in the proposed
contest. After Captain Endicott's return from his expedition to
Block Island, where he had been sent to quell a disturbance,
the Pequods commenced a series of depredations and cruelties
upon the smaller settlements and outlying farms. Near the
mouth of Connecticut River a fort, called Saybrook, had

1 66 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
been built by some Englishmen as a defence against both
Dutch and Indians. Well fortified and commanding the
river, it seemed especially obnoxious to the savages, and
was so closely watched by them as to make it dangerous
for anyone to venture outside. On several occasions, mem
bers of the garrison who had so ventured were suddenly set
upon and destroyed with horrible tortures. Emboldened by
these successes, the Pequods surrounded the fort, burned
the hay and outhouses, and killed the cattle. Holding the
garrison in a state of siege, they taunted and mocked them,
challenging them to come out and fight.
The reports of these outrages growing every day more
alarming, the English throughout the three colonies agreed
to unite their forces to suppress this common enemy.
Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies sent two hundred
men, and Connecticut one hundred and ninety ; besides
these, two hundred Narragansetts and sixty Mohegans were
permitted to join the English armies. The joint invasion
took place about the middle of May. Uncas, with his
sixty or seventy Mohegans, casting in his lot with the Con
necticut troops, embarked with them at Hartford and sailed
down to the mouth of the Connecticut, near Saybrook.
Arriving at this point, the Mohegans, at their own request,
were put on shore to proceed by land to the fort. On their
way thither they met twenty or thirty Pequods, with whom
they had a sharp encounter in which seven Pequods were
killed. Captain Mason, who commanded the Connecticut troops,
fearing that a surprise of Sassacus's stronghold would be
impossible from tbe river, as the Pequods kept guard over
this approach night and day, decided to march through the
Narragansett country and fall upon them from the rear.
What is now the site of Groton was then the place of
residence of the Pequod chief. Here, upon a commanding
eminence, he had erected his principal fortress ; near Mystic
River he had another stronghold, built, like the first, upon
a prominent rise. An attack was first contemplated upon

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND

167

both forts, but finally it was decided to make a combined
assault upon the Mystic River fortress.
Miantonomah quite readily granted the English permis
sion to pass through his land, but seemed very sceptical in
regard to their courage proving equal to their boasts, and
asserted that they would never dare invade the Pequod
territory. Seeing, however, that the English persisted in
their determination to attack this stronghold, many Narra
gansetts and Nihantics joined them.
The surprise was complete ; but the Pequods did not lose
their courage, and endeavored to make up by valor what they
had lost in watchfulness. The besieged savages greatly
outnumbered their assailants, and, battling for life, the fight
for a time raged fiercely.
Finally, the English, fearing the outcome, which at times
looked doubtful, set fire to the village. The inhabitants,
forced by the fire from their hiding places into the open,
were either instantly despatched without mercy or driven
back into the flames, and, in the blindness of terror, men,
women, and children perished in their burning dwellings.
In one hour nearly four hundred Indians were killed, about
fourteen only surviving, part of whom were captured, the
rest escaping.
As morning dawned, the English drew off with their
wounded. Their Indian allies, who had not ventured into
the fort to fight their dreaded enemies, now stood trembling,
aghast at the awful destruction brought upon these enemies
by the whites.
Before the little army had gone very far from the scene
of ruin they had wrought, they saw three hundred Indians
approaching from the other Pequod fort. As these warriors
came in sight of the burned fortress and beheld all its hor
rors, they were frantic with rage and grief. They stamped
their feet, tore out their hair, and howled in the agony of
despair; but their next thought was vengeance, and they
came down upon the victors like a whirlwind. Their furi
ous onslaught was soon checked by the bullets from the

1 68 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Englishmen's guns, and, thus repulsed, the Indians took
refuge behind trees and rocks, but did not cease to torment
and harass the whites until they reached the shelter of their
vessels at Pequod Harbor.
The power of the Pequods was broken; and a council
was held by those remaining, to determine upon some course
of action. Sassacus favored continued resistance, but the
majority decided to leave the country. The torch was
therefore set to their remaining fortress and wigwams, and,
breaking up into small bands, they fled into the forests.
Laboriously and almost in a state of starvation, depending
only upon the clams they could dig for food, some of the
miserable fugitives moved westward, but, finding themselves
encumbered with their women and children, returned to
their country and hid among the swamps. The fate of this
nation was now decided upon, and that fate was to be exter
mination. English, Narragansetts, and Mohegans all agreed
to this decision and joined in its accomplishment. A great
number of the fugitives sought refuge in a large swamp
near Fairfield, but this last hiding place was betrayed by one
of their own tribe to the English, who, with their Indian
allies, surrounded the swamp. A number of Indians from
the vicinity had, in fear of the English, also fled to the
swamp; but, seeing the danger from flying bullets and
arrows, and never having been guilty themselves of injuring
the English, they sent a deputation to the besiegers begging
that their lives might be spared. The English were willing
to grant the petition, and agreed to spare the lives of all who
were innocent of English blood, and who would surrender.
Not only the sachem and people that made the petition,
but many companies of Pequod women and children and
old men took advantage of this offer and surrendered, the
warriors only remaining to fight to the bitter end.
All night the besiegers kept watch about the swamp, and
all night the besieged sought for an unguarded moment in
which to break through the barrier and make their escape.
Toward morning a dense fog wrapped the scene in obscurity,

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND

169

and the Indians, believing their opportunity had arrived,
made a bold rush upon one part of the line, but were
repulsed; and in the ensuing struggle all but sixty of the
two hundred or more warriors were either killed or taken
prisoners, the sixty managing to escape.
Sassacus, with twenty or thirty of his warriors and a
large quantity of wampum, had, without waiting to take
part in the battle, fled to the Mohawk country. Even here
the Pequods found no safety; for, before the close of the
year, the scalps of Sassacus, his brother, and five other
Pequod chiefs, were sent to the Governor of Massachusetts
by the Mohawks, whose cupidity had perhaps been awak
ened by the value of the treasure carried off by Sassacus.
thus causing them to fall upon and despatch the refugees.
Two thousand Pequods are said to have perished in the
several engagements of the war, and one thousand were
taken captive. Of this nation, once so powerful, only
hopeless slaves and a few scattered bands of wretched fugi
tives remained. Many of the prisoners taken during the
war were kept by the English as bondservants, a small
number being shipped to the West Indies to be sold into
slavery there. Their glory departed, their proud spirit
broken, the fugitives became an easy prey to their enemies,
and the Narragansetts and Mohegans continually sent the
heads and hands of their conquered foes to the English.
Hunted, harassed, despairing, of the two hundred or more
not yet destroyed, some took refuge with their former tribu
taries, some fled to Long Island, and some to Hudson River.
Many threw themselves upon the mercy of their enemies, the
Mohegans, the Narragansetts, and the eastern Nihantics; a
number even went to the English at Hartford and implored to
be received as servants, that their lives might thus be saved.
It was a custom among the Indians to adopt into a tribe
prisoners of war captured by them ; and prisoners so adopted,
especially if of a kindred tongue and blood, very easily
adapted themselves to the new order of things. Uncas, be
fore the war, had been at the head of a small band of other

170

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

exiles, and being of the same blood eagerly and secretly
received the fugitives and incorporated them into the body
of his followers, until his clan had grown with remarkable
rapidity to formidable proportions.
According to the terms of the treaty between the Narra
gansetts and the English, the former could not receive the
refugees, and the few who sought succor among them were
handed over to the English as agreed upon. Discovering
that Uncas was craftily accomplishing what they had hon
estly refrained from doing, the Narragansetts reported his
proceedings to the whites. He managed, however, to satisfy
the authorities and stop further proceedings.
The Pequods guiltless of shedding English blood were
divided among the Narragansetts, Nihantics, and Mohegans,
eighty being allotted the first, twenty the second, and one
hundred to Uncas, for which captives annual tribute was
to be paid to the English, and the land formerly belonging to
the conquered tribe surrendered to English control. Uncas,
however, put in a counterclaim to this territory, and part
of it was subsequently allotted to him.
Notwithstanding the division of the Pequods among
the various tribes and the appropriation of their land by the
whites, numbers of them, more especially those subject to
Ninigret, gradually gravitated back to their former country,
and settled near the Nihantic territory, but upon land
claimed by the English. A force of the whites, accom
panied by a band of Mohegans under Uncas, surprised the
poor, homesick stragglers of this Pequod village; but as
most of the fighting was left by the whites to Uncas's
band, very little blood was shed, seven Pequods being cap
tured, the others getting safely away.
A brother of Miantonomah came forward at this juncture
to beg for the prisoners' lives, upon the plea that the cap
tives were his brother's men. This petition the English
had no objection to granting, but instead of sending the
captives to the Narragansett chief they turned them over to
Uncas.

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND 171
De Forest describes the Narragansetts as being "more
civilized, more ingenious, and more disposed than any of
their neighbors to undergo the fatigues of manual labor.
Their wigwams were more than ordinarily comfortable,
their canoes and utensils neatly constructed, and in all the
ruder arts of life they had made greater advances than any
of the surrounding tribes." Bitterly hostile toward their
enemies and those whom they believed had wronged them,
— an attitude which in the savage moral code appears
perfectly just and proper, — they were equally consistent
in living up to their promises of friendship and alli
ance, so long as they believed themselves justly dealt with ;
but once betrayed, their confidence was with difficulty
regained. The English, with the exception of Roger Williams and
a few others who took up a residence in the territory of
Canonicus, seem always to have been less favorably inclined
toward the Narragansetts than toward the Mohegans and
the Wampanoags, though their prejudice in this respect ap
pears to have been somewhat unfair. The cau,se of this
may have been the reception and succor given by Canonicus
to Williams and his companions in exile, when they had
been thrust out by the Massachusetts colony.
Canonicus was at first very much opposed to the idea of
a permanent white settlement in New England, but, as time
passed, he seems to have recognized the dawn of a new
order of things and bowed to the inevitable. When the
exiles told him their story, he had compassion on them and
granted them "all that neck of land lying between the
mouth of Pawtucket and Moshasuck River, that they might
sit down upon it and enjoy it forever," and this grant was
recognized and established by Canonicus and Miantonomah
in March, 1637, by a "Confirmatory Deed."
The settlement of Providence by Roger Williams, even
though it may have been the cause of the older colonies'
prejudice against this tribe, nevertheless opened the door to
negotiations between these colonies and the Narragansetts.

172

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

The kindness of Canonicus was greatly appreciated by
Williams, and the latter often spoke warmly of the sachem's
generosity to himself. He has also borne testimony to the
harmony which existed between the older chief and his
nephew Miantonomah, as follows: "Their agreement in
the government is remarkable. The old sachem will not
be offended at what the young sachem doth ; and the young
sachem will not do what he conceives will displease his
uncle." Miantonomah appears to have been endowed with many
of the same characteristics that made Canonicus distin
guished among the natives, but the nephew possessed more
of the fire of youth and was, perhaps, a little more disposed
than was his uncle to gain his ends by intrigue.
The Narragansetts had been faithful to their agreement
to deliver up Pequod prisoners to the English; Uncas had
not been so scrupulous in this respect, yet the latter pros
pered in the sunshine of the white man's favor, while the
former were looked upon askance. Was it a matter, then,
for indignant surprise upon the colonists' part that Mian
tonomah preferred to be his own avenger and punish Uncas,
rather than leave the question of the justice of his cause to
the biassed Englishmen?
A part of the lands of the Pequods having been surren
dered by the Connecticut colony to Uncas, and his territory
having been further increased by his marriage with the
daughter of the sachem of the Hammonassetts, which
brought him into possession of a goodly stretch of land along
Connecticut River, his importance was greatly increased.
However, this sudden rise in the fortunes of Uncas brought
a corresponding gloom and depression upon the spirits of his
rivals, Miantonomah, Ninigret, and Sequasson. The last-
named chief, sachem of some of the Connecticut River
tribes whose territory had been taken from them by the
Pequods, had hoped after the overthrow of the latter that
he would recover his former power and prestige. The
result was a conspiracy on the part of Miantonomah and

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND 1 73
Sequasson to destroy Uncas; it does not appear, however,
that they were joined in this plot by Ninigret; it is prob
able he followed his usual policy of remaining neutral, as he
had done in the Pequod war and subsequently did in King
Philip's war.
The Pequods and Mohegans, well knowing the hatred
with which the Narragansetts regarded them and their
sachem, strove to bring Miantonomah into still greater
disfavor with the English by declaring that it was his ambi
tion to become head chief of all the New England Indians.
They accused him, moreover, of being guilty of exactly the
same treachery that had resulted in the downfall of Sassa
cus; that is, of stirring up the Indians to rise unanimously
against the English, and of sending presents of wampum
to the Mohawks to entreat their favor and aid. Though
the governor and his council gave no credit to these sus
picions, yet Miantonomah was summoned to appear at
Boston to refute them. This he agreed to do, provided
Roger Williams might accompany him; but the Massa
chusetts authorities would not permit this, nor would they,
when Miantonomah, submitting, made his appearance there
unaccompanied by his friend, allow him any interpreter
save a Pequod Indian. Knowing at what a disadvantage
he would be placed in using this man as a mouthpiece by
which to lodge complaints against Pequods and Mohegans,
Miantonomah refused to enter into a parley with the gover
nor and returned to his home.
Two years after this visit, he was again called to Boston
to answer to similar charges coming, as before, from Con
necticut. He seems to have cleared himself of these
accusations and, at the same time, urged that his detractors
might be punished. " We spent the better part of two days
in treating with him," says Governor Winthrop, " and in
conclusion he did accommodate himself to us to our satisfac
tion, only some difficulty we had to bring him to desert the
Nihantics, if we had just cause of war with them. They
were, he said, as his own flesh, being allied by continual

*74

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

marriages, etc." He at last agreed not to interfere in behalf
of the Nihantics, if they did the colonists wrong and would
not give satisfaction for the offence.
The accusations which had been lodged against him,
emanating, as Miantonomah must naturally have con
cluded, from the Mohegans, only increased his hatred for
their chief. Not long after his return home, an attempt
was made upon the life of Uncas by some person unknown ;
but suspicion soon fell upon a Pequod, a subject of Uncas,
who was discovered to be in possession of an unusually
large amount of wampum, for which he could not satisfac
torily account. Seeing that he was suspected, the Pequod
fled to the Narragansett country, thus in the mind of the
Mohegan chief clearly implicating Miantonomah as the in
stigator of the deed. Upon complaint of Uncas, Mian
tonomah was once more compelled to go to Boston and
take the accused party with him. The story told by the
Pequod was not believed ; the authorities declared themselves
convinced of his guilt, and decided that he should be handed
over to Uncas. Against this Miantonomah protested, but
at last agreed to surrender the man to the Mohegans, pro
vided he were allowed first to take him back to the Narra
gansett country. This was granted; but the Pequod was
never delivered, as the followers of Miantonomah put him
to death on the way home.
Shortly after this, trouble arose between Uncas and
Sequasson, Miantonomah's relative and ally ; Miantonomah
decided to make open war upon Uncas, and notified Gov
ernor Haynes of Connecticut and the authorities of Massa
chusetts of the Mohegans' treatment of Sequasson, at the
same time inquiring whether they would be offended with
him if he carried out his warlike intentions against Uncas.
Both the Massachusetts and Connecticut authorities allowed
him to take his own course and apparently washed their
hands of the matter, awaiting to see who would be the
victor in the contest before espousing the cause of either
side. In the conflict which ensued, Uncas proved himself

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND

175

a better strategist than the Narragansett sachem, and the
Mohegans were victorious. Miantonomah was captured,
but Uncas, not knowing exactly what disposition to make
of his prisoner, took him to Hartford to consult with the
authorities there as to the captive's fate. The governor
and council would not take the responsibility of deciding
so important a matter, as they said there was no open war
between themselves and the Narragansetts, and they learned,
besides, that the English of Rhode Island were very much
excited over the capture. After a meeting of the commis
sioners of the United Colonies, Miantonomah's death was
secretly agreed upon, and he was delivered into the hands
of his hated and triumphant rival to be disposed of. Car
ried back to the Mohegan country, he was executed by
Uncas upon the spot where he had been taken prisoner;
and the protection of the English was promised his execu
tioner, should the Narragansetts attempt retaliation for the
murder. This deed occurred in 1643; and Miantonomah
was buried on the spot where he had been executed, to
which the settlers gave the name it still bears, that of
"Sachem's Plain."
The Narragansetts, as the English had anticipated, did
not tamely submit to what was in their eyes a great outrage,
but continually harassed the Mohegans and managed at last
to stir up the Nihantics to assist them. So hotly did they
press upon their enemies that Uncas was at last compelled
to take refuge in one of his forts, where for a while he
lived in a state of siege, but was eventually relieved by the
English. The heads of the contending parties were called
to Boston, where, through English influence, a truce was
patched up between them; but the wrath of the Narragan
setts burned too hotly to allow them to be restrained, and the
attacks upon the Mohegans continued until the Plymouth,
Connecticut, New Haven, and Massachusetts colonies com
bined their forces and sent an expedition against them. Re
membering the fate of the Pequod nation, the Narragansett
Indians were terror-stricken at these warlike preparations;

176 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
and eventually they, and the Nihantics, sued for peace and
together signed a formal peace treaty in 1645. The terms
of the treaty were very hard upon the Indians; and two
years later disputes again arose between the whites and this
unhappy tribe over the wampum tribute demanded by the
English, which Ninigret and Pessacus, brother and successor
to Miantonomah, had failed to pay. Canonicus, the vener
able chief sachem of the Narragansetts, does not seem to
have played an active part in these troublesome events,
though there is no doubt that he felt very deeply the unjust
murder of his nephew, whom he survived eleven years.
The sceptre of the Narragansetts was broken after King
Philip's defeat, hereafter mentioned. Canonchet, the son
of Miantonomah, was the last sachem of the Narragan
sett tribe proper; and after he was captured in 1676 the
remnant of the tribe consolidated with the Nihantics,
under the sway of Ninigret. Miantonomah, as he had in
formed the Governor of Massachusetts, was allied by many
ties of marriage to the family of Ninigret ; but Mr. William
F. Tucker, in his Historical Sketch of Charlestown, says:
"The Ninigret [Nihantic] tribe never were the real Narra
gansetts, whose name they bear. It is a libel on their glory
and on their name to have assumed it. Not one drop of the
blood of Canonicus, Miantonimo, or Canonchet ever coursed
in the veins of a sachem who could sit neuter in his wigwam
and hear the guns and see the conflagration ascending from
the fortress that was exterminating their nation forever."
By thus remaining neutral in the momentous struggle
between the colonies and the Indians under Philip, Ninigret
secured to himself and his heirs the tribal land near Charles-
town. Aptly described by Dr. Mather as an "old crafty
sachem," he seems to have preserved both his pride, of
which he possessed an inordinate amount, and his property
as well, without being obliged to fight for either. How
ever, in 1659, notwithstanding his pacific tendencies, he
had been drawn into conflict with the Montauks of the
eastern part of Long Island.

Reverend John Heckewelder, 1743-18 23, missionary to the Indians
and author of many works on Indians. From the original painting in
possession of the American Philosophical Society.

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND 177
After the coalition of the Nihantics and Narragansetts,
the new tribe thus formed continued under the name
Narragansett; but the subsequent sachems were descended
from Ninigret, the last recognized chief of the race being
George Ninigret, who was accidentally killed in his twenty-
first or twenty-second year. After his death the tribe was
ruled by a governor and council, who were elected. Much
of the land belonging to the tribe had been sold to the
whites during the latter half of the eighteenth century, and
many of the Narragansetts had migrated to New York,
joining the Indians there. At the present day not a pure-
blood Narragansett exists; and if any of the tribe remain,
the Indian blood has been so mingled with that of the negro
that all trace of the original Narragansett has vanished.
As late as 1879 or 1880, there were about thirty families
of half-breeds living on their reservation at Charlestown.
Neither Narragansetts nor Nihantics appeared to be im
pressed with the white man's religion. One missionary,
who requested from Ninigret the privilege of preaching to
his people, was advised by the proud old chief to "go and
make the English good first." The following description of
the Narragansett burying ground, quoted from Rev. Freder
ick Denison's Westerly and its Witnesses, forms a fitting close
to the history of this people:
Of the old pride and power of the Indian kings and warriors, only
their mouldering sepulchers now remain. The royal burying-ground
of most ancient date is located in Charlestown, about a mile north of
Cross's Mills, on a piece of pleasant table land, near fifteen feet above
the surrounding high ground. The spot is one hundred and twenty-
five yards in circumference, and commands a beautiful view of the
adjacent country and the sea. The natives evidently, in this case, had
a choice ideal in reference to a place of burial. Royal graves were
privileged above others. On this inviting plateau, in a mound one
hundred feet long, thirty feet wide, and three feet high, and in the
spaces around it, are the remains of the kings, queens, members of
the Royal family, and chiefs of the Narragansett nation.
Having followed the fortunes of the Narragansetts to
the end, let us return to trace the history of the various

178 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Connecticut tribes, with the exception of the Pequods and
Mohegans. The destruction of the Pequods as a tribe so
appalled the savages, that for forty years after the event not
one of the other tribes dared to engage in a serious contest
with the English. And not only did this mean for the
settlers a cessation of daily and hourly dread of massacre
and destruction, but a sure establishment of the Connecticut
colony and an opportunity to widen its borders. This,
be it said to the credit of the colonists, they in most in
stances accomplished by honest purchase, sometimes paying
thrice over for their lands rather than cause dissatisfaction
among the native possessors. Thus extending their terri
tory, the Englishmen came to know something of the tribes .
west of Connecticut River : the Tunxis along the banks of
Farmington River, the "River Indians," — the Wangunk,
Podunk, Poquonnoc, and Sicaogg clans or tribes, — and
those known as the Mackmoodus Indians. Along the
coast dwelt the Hammonassett, Quinnipiac, Wepawaug,
and two or three other small tribes or bands. The history
of one of these tribes is very nearly the history of all.
The English were invited to dwell among them, that the
savages might enjoy their protection, thinking, in their
ignorance of European civilization, that the home-building
white and the hunting red man could each live his own life
in his own manner upon the same land. The result, with
few exceptions, was the usual one, — the extinction of the
tribes. Although the majority of the Connecticut Indians
remained neutral during Philip's war, some of the smaller
bodies were broken up at that time and the remnants joined
other tribes, especially the Tunxis, who seem to have been
for a time a "city of refuge" for the broken bands. In
1 76 1, a considerable number of Tunxis Indians joined the
Stockbridges, of Massachusetts; a few still lived as late as
1804, but the tribe is now extinct.
At different times, reservations were set apart for the
various clans near their ancient dwelling places, but their
numbers grew less and their land gradually passed into the

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND \~,g
possession of the English. The Wepawaugs, one of the
most populous and important tribes of western Connecti
cut, who frequently had encounters with the Mohawks, sold
much of their territory to the settlers for ten blankets, six
coats, one kettle, and a number of hatchets, knives, hoes,
and looking glasses, and the aid of the English against their
foes. In 1659 an^ 1680, reservations were set apart for
them — one on the site of the present city of Bridgeport,
the other at Huntington. Part of the tribe joined the Six
Nations, and another part migrated to Scatacook.
The remnants of older tribes collected at Scatacook, at
New Milford, at Salisbury, and at Sharon, forming them
selves into new ones. Many of the New Milford Indians
became Christianized under the teachings of Moravian mis
sionaries; and when the Moravians left Connecticut for
Pennsylvania some went with them, while others connected
themselves with the Scatacooks.
The Sharon Indians gradually disposed of their land, and
afterward were greatly dissatisfied and distressed to find
themselves homeless wanderers. After many complaints
1 to the authorities, and seeing but little hope of redress, all
migrated from Sharon before the Revolution, possibly join
ing the Stockbridge tribe, as many of the Salisbury Indians
had done.
A large number of the Scatacooks were also converted
by the Moravians; but because of persecutions from those
who saw their trade in intoxicants decreasing through this
Christianizing influence, the missionaries and their converts
moved to Pennsylvania and settled at Bethlehem, whence, as
the climate disagreed with the Indians, they returned to their
Connecticut home, where they gradually fell into intemperate
habits and rapidly declined in numbers. It is probable that
the tribe is entirely extinct. Such is the sad history of the
Indians who once had their homes in Connecticut.

CHAPTER IX
THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND— (Continued)
Returning now to Uncas, the remainder of his history
and of the history of his people will be briefly given. As
the power and influence of this chief increased, his ava-
riciousness and tyranny also grew, and consequently he not
only alienated from himself the allegiance of his subject
Pequods, but by depredations committed by marauding bands
of Mohegans upon his Nipmuck subjects drew upon him
self the enmity of their tribe. By successfully abducting and
delivering into the hands of the English an outlawed chief
tain who had sought refuge with the Pocomtooks, Uncas
brought upon himself the wrath of this tribe also, and a
large number of warriors met at Pocomtook to make plans
for attacking him. The Narragansetts and Nihantics, it
was rumored, subsidized the Pocomtooks to attack Uncas,
and it was believed they intended taking an active part in
the struggle themselves. Messengers with presents had been
despatched to the Mohawks to beg their assistance, and an
army of two or three thousand of the allies was said to be
ready to move against the Mohegans. The Connecticut
colony was greatly alarmed at the news of this warlike
demonstration, and sent envoys to Pocomtook to frighten
the hostile Indians from their purpose by announcing their
intention of defending Uncas. As the aid expected from
the Mohawks failed them, the Pocomtooks abandoned their
project; and the Narragansetts and Nihantics did not dare,
181

1 82 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
upon their own responsibility, to defy the whites and attack
the Mohegans by themselves. This was in August, 1 648 ;
and nine years later, in 1657, the Mohegans were again
threatened by the Pocomtooks, the Norwootucks, — another
Massachusetts tribe, — and the Narragansetts and Nihantics;
but, as usual, they were defended by the English and their
enemies put to rout. Uncas, because of his domineering
and treacherous disposition, was at swords' point with nearly
all the Connecticut tribes, and because of his tyranny many
of his Pequod subjects had forsaken him in 1648 and would
not return even when ordered to do so by the New Haven
commissioners. In 1 66 1, he robbed and murdered some of the Quabaug
Indians of eastern Massachusetts, who were subjects of
Massasoit, and was called to account by the people of Massa
chusetts; but as he paid no attention to their complaints,
the matter was turned over to the New England commis
sioners. Having grown proficient in the art of making
excuses, Uncas managed to satisfy the commissioners; but
Wamsutta, or Alexander, the son of Massasoit, was greatly
displeased over the matter and, according to some accounts,
made warlike demonstrations against him.
With all his devotion to the English, Uncas would have
none of their religion. William Hubbard, in his Narrative
of the Indian Wars in New England from 160J to 16JJ,
speaking of him, says : " It is suspected by them that knew
him best, that in his heart he is no better affected to the
English or their religion, than the rest of his countrymen,
and that it hath been his own advantage that hath led him
to be thus true to them who have upheld him as formerly
against the Pequods, so of late against the Narragansets."
However, it is recorded that he did once toward the close
of his earthly career confess his belief in the truth of the
Christian religion, but it is not known whether he con
tinued so to believe until the day of his death, which
occurred in 1682 or 1683. He was succeeded by his son,
Oweneco; and his descendants governed the tribe until the

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND 183
year 1769, when Ben Uncas died, the last of the Mohegan
sachems. In spite of his deceitfulness, Uncas is to be remembered
with gratitude for remaining true to the English in the
bloody war of 1675-1677. Though it is probable that
numbers of the Pequods and Mohegans took part in that
memorable struggle, yet the main body of the tribes remained
faithful to the colonists.
The Mohegan Indians were perhaps the most favored
by the white people of any of the New England tribes;
yet, notwithstanding this favor, their numbers have grown
steadily less, and there are probably but few of their nation
living to-day. Uncas sold much of the land under his con
trol to the Connecticut settlers, and in 1659 tne original
settlers of Norwich bought from him a tract nine miles
square for the township of Norwich. One of these settlers
was a man named John Mason, an especial friend and ad
viser, says De Forest, of the Mohegans; and in the same
year, Uncas and Wewaqua, in the presence of witnesses,
deeded all the rest of their lands, without exception, to
Mason, to his heirs and to his assigns forever. On account
of this action of Uncas, a lawsuit of seventy years' duration
was carried on between the Mohegans and the Connecticut
colony — the Indians contending that the land was only
placed under Mason's protection, while the colony insisted
that Mason was only their commissioned agent, and that
the purpose in obtaining the deed was to annul any remain
ing title the Mohegans might have held to the land. Mason
himself seems to have been vacillating in his own construc
tion of his responsibility, and tried to serve both sides, giving
to the colony in 1660 a deed of surrender to most of the
land, and then in 1671, near the close of his life, signing
another deed, which made over to the Mohegans a large
tract of land which was to be theirs, and upon which an
entailment was placed that would prevent their disposing
of it by gift or purchase. Here the Mohegans resided until
about the year 1680; but, not considering the rest of their

184 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
territory to have lawfully passed out of their hands, Uncas's
successor continued to make numerous sales of land out
side of the limits of the " Sequestered Lands," as that tract
reserved to them by Mason was designated. So much con
troversy was occasioned over these sales that, although a
decision was rendered in 1 72 1 in favor of the colony, it was
thought necessary to pass a new act, as the former act of
the Assembly forbidding private purchase of land from the
natives had been repeatedly broken. The new act was
passed in 1722, and imposed a fine of fifty pounds upon
anyone who should thereafter make such purchase, or should
sell lands which were already so acquired.
About the year 1726 there sprang up two rival claimants
to the Mohegan sachemship, both being descendants of
Uncas. This contest gave an additional element of con
fusion to the already complicated litigation over the land
titles. In June, 1738, a decision was made by the court
convened at Norwich, which was favorable to the colony;
but the Mohegans were left in possession of a fertile tract
containing about four thousand acres, and the rights of
one of the rival claimants to the sachemship recognized.
An appeal from this decision was made to the Crown, and
after a long controversy the case was finally decided in
England in favor of the colony about the year 1766.
In 1799, the land still held by the Mohegans was appor
tioned off by the Legislature to individual families, who
were probably few even at that time, as nine years later
there were only eighty-four persons in the Mohegan commu
nity. Some of the tribe became Christianized and followed
Samson Occum, a famous native missionary, who removed
to New York, and joined either the Brotherton or the Stock-
bridge clan in 1768. Uncas lies buried in the "royal bury
ing ground" of the Mohegans, near Norwich, Connecticut;
and the ladies of Norwich raised a fund by which, on July
4, 1842, a monument was erected to his memory.
We must now return to the Pequods and learn the
ultimate fate of that broken and unfortunate tribe. The

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND

185

Paucatuc band, after several removals, were in 1683 estab
lished at Stonington, Connecticut, upon a reservation of
two hundred and eighty acres; and those at Ledyard were
at this period upon their reservation of two thousand acres.
The same old story must again be told, of the white man's
encroachment upon the tribal lands, the natives' gradual
descent into intemperance, licentiousness, poverty, and deg
radation, the decline of numbers, the mixture of white or
negro blood with the pure stock, until there is probably not
one pure-blood Pequod alive. In 1829, or about that time,
a few members of the tribe joined the Stockbridges ; about
twenty-eight were living at Ledyard in .1848, and probably
fifteen or sixteen at Stonington.
Thus, as is seen, the fate of those tribes remaining true
to the English and, as will appear, of those joining Philip's
rebellious forces was much the same in the end. King
Philip's disastrous war, lasting for two years or longer, was
the crisis of the struggle between the white and red races
of New England. The bold and courageous leader of the
insurrection, whose Indian name was Pometacom, was
the second son of Massasoit. His father, the one Indian
sachem whose friendship seemed to be the most unselfish
of the New England chiefs, had died about the year 1661 ;
and in losing Massasoit, the people of Plymouth lost their
best safeguard against the enmity of the jealous and sus
picious savages by whom they were surrounded. For
nearly half a century following the meeting of Massasoit
with the Plymouth colonists and the signing of the treaty
of alliance made between them, the English had greatly
increased, and were continually purchasing land from Mas
sasoit or his eldest son, Alexander — or Wamsutta; but for
the majority of these purchases, the settlers, up to the
time of Massasoit's death, held no written deeds or convey
ances of land. Of the few made which are extant, there is
one under date of 1649 for ancient Bridgewater, signed by
Owsamequin [Massasoit] himself; one for old Dartmouth,
November 29, 1652, signed by Wamsutta only; another

1 86 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
of March 9, 1653, bearing the signatures of both father
and son; and on September 21, 1657, a written ratification
of the sale of Hogg Island was given by Massasoit to the
purchasers of that property. Wamsutta, it appears, had
sold Hogg Island without first having obtained his father's
permission, and was as ready to sell the lands of his wife,
Wetamoo, without her consent as he was those under his
father's control.
Alexander had been invested with the chieftainship upon
the death of his father in 1 66 1, but died within that year
or the next, either in a "fit of violent passion," as one
writer states, or, as Wetamoo and many of the Indians
believed, of poison administered by the whites ; but for this
suspicion there seems to be no just ground. However,
the royal Wetamoo was deeply incensed at the treatment
of her husband and burned to avenge his death, and, in
consequence, took an active part in the stirring scenes that
occurred not many years after. She was a " royal princess,"
as the old narrators term the title, in her own right, being
the squaw-sachem of Pocasset, and is said to have been
able to lead into the field against her enemies nearly three
hundred warriors.
Upon Philip's accession to the sachemship, he seems to
have been as indiscreet as his predecessors in parting with
his territorial possessions, and, in consequence, the red
man's ranging ground became more and more contracted,
In the period that elapsed between his accession and the
opening of the war of 1675, the years had not been idle
ones for the sachem of the Wampanoags. As early as
1670, the Indians were making secret preparations for the
struggle, but Philip shrewdly attempted to keep up the pre
tence of friendship with the colonists. The English settlers
were not wholly ignorant of his movements, and took alarm
at this indication of a dangerous conspiracy among the In
dians. Philip was therefore peremptorily commanded to
come to Taunton to explain his conduct and, at the same
time, answer for the murder of an Englishman by one of his

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND ^7
subjects. The murderer was a Nipmuck Indian, and, as
most of the Nipmuck tribe seem to have been subject at
this time to the sachem of the Wampanoags, or under his
influence, he was applied to for redress.
Philip seemed reluctant to comply with the command
issued to him, but, finding at length that he could not
longer put the English off with excuses, attended with a
band of armed warriors, painted and decorated as if for
a warlike expedition. He came on the 10th of April, 1671,
to a place within four miles of Taunton. From this place
he sent a message to the English governor, informing him
of his arrival and requesting him to come there to treat
with him. The governor would not lower his dignity by
complying with the summons of a native sachem, so he
sent Roger Williams and some others with friendly mes
sages, urging the Indian chieftain's attendance at Taunton.
Leaving the greater part of his warriors at some distance
from Taunton, keeping there also the messengers as host
ages, Philip, with a few of his painted braves, proudly
advanced toward the village. Commissioners from the
Massachusetts colony had arrived at Taunton to consult
with the Governor of Plymouth and King Philip, and the
" meeting house " was agreed upon as the place of confer
ence. Agreeable to a demand of the haughty sachem, one-
half of the building was reserved for him and his followers,
the other for the English. Philip attempted to account for
his warlike preparations by saying they were in anticipation
of an attack by the Narragansetts, though, as was proved at
the time, the Wampanoags and Narragansetts were on more
friendly terms than they had ever been before. During the
conference, when requested to enter into a treaty, the sachem
haughtily declined, saying to them : " Your governor is but
a subject of King Charles of England; I shall not treat
with a subject ; I shall treat of peace only with the king, my
brother; when he comes, I am ready." Having had many
of his excuses proved false to his face, he at length became
so confused that he forsook his proud bearing and confessed

1 88 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
the plot, made many fair promises, agreed to do all in his
power to bring the guilty Nipmuck to justice, and, with
four of his followers, signed a treaty of submission to King
Charles, in which, to remove all suspicion, they promised to
deliver up their firearms.
It is very evident that Philip had no intention of keeping
the treaty, even when he signed it ; the surrendering of their
arms was carried out so far as Philip and his immediate
followers were concerned, but the arms of those not at the
conference were not delivered up so promptly. In spite
of his fair promises, he was seeking to entice the sachems of
other tribes throughout the whole of New England to join
his contemplated enterprise. Comprehending more clearly
than most of the Indians the power of the English, and
the perilous nature of the undertaking he was about to
enter into, he yet saw it was the only alternative left to his
race, unless they were willing to be gradually effaced or
driven from their ancient territory.
Though true to his alliance with and friendship for the
English, the father of Philip had been greatly opposed to
the introduction of the Christian religion among his people,
and would not accept the new creed himself;' and in this
respect his famous son resembled him, being bitterly hostile
to any change in the religion, manners, or customs of his
race. Mr. Gookin, author of the Historical Collections of
the Indians, papers written previous to 1675, at one time
was hopeful of his conversion, and says, in speaking of the
Wampanoags: "There are some that have hopes of their
greatest and chiefest sachem, named Philip. Some of his
chief men, as I hear, stand well inclined to hear the Gospel,
and himself is a person of good understanding and knowl
edge in the best things." However, these sanguine anticipa
tions were never realized so far as Philip was concerned;
but some of the New England Indians, especially those of
Massachusetts and Plymouth colonies, received the Gospel
and were afterward known as " Praying Indians." As the
good influence exerted among these Indians had some effect

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND ^9
in the stirring scenes of 1675, a short sketch of the mis
sionary efforts made in their behalf and the results thereof
will be necessary before continuing the account of the war.
The General Court of Massachusetts had in 1644 passed
an act, which was somewhat vague in its instructions, em
powering the courts of the various counties to take meas
ures for the advancement of religion and civilization among
the Indians. A year or two before the passage of this act
of the Court, Thomas Mayhew had begun his labors as a
missionary among the Indians of Nantucket and Martha's
Vineyard. This, however, was a private enterprise, as was
also the work of Rev. John Eliot, begun among the Indians
of Massachusetts colony in 1 646 ; the latter was an earnest,
religious man, and, wishing to have as little hindrance as
possible in his way, not only learned the language of the
Indians, but translated the Bible into their tongue as well.
A number of religious communities of Indians were gathered
at various native villages, which were known as "praying
towns." The aggregate number of Indians in these re
ligious communities Drake estimates at about eleven hun
dred and fifty, but adds that: "There is not, however, the
least probability that even one-fourth of these were ever
sincere believers in Christianity."
Among Mr. Eliot's converts were three or four who were
very strongly attached to the English ; and these, suspecting
the intentions of Philip, went to the colonists and gave
them warning of the threatened outbreak. One of these
converts was an Indian named Sassamon, who had been
taught to read and write, and had for a short time acted as
a sort of secretary or interpreter for Philip. When he
informed the Plymouth governor of the hostile intentions
of the Indians, he also enjoined secrecy upon them as to
the name of their informant, declaring that if he was known
to be the betrayer the Indians would kill him. The secret
was evidently not well kept, as in the spring of 1675 Sassa
mon was found to have been drowned under such very
suspicious circumstances that it was evident he had been

190

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

murdered. Several Indians were suspected; and at last
three were taken, tried, and convicted, and were executed
in June, 1675. This occurrence only hastened matters
and brought on the conflict sooner than Philip desired, as
his preparations were not entirely completed.
Having nothing less to expect from the English should
he fall into their hands than a similar condemnation and
execution, as reconciliation was now out of the question,
Philip began the bloody game of war in earnest. In June,
almost immediately after the murderers of Sassamon had
been executed, the people of Swansey — the English settle
ment nearest to Mount Hope, which was Philip's residence
— were alarmed by the threatening attitude of the Indians
near them. Their houses were plundered, their cattle de
stroyed or driven off by the Indians, on Sunday, the 20th,
but no white person's life, it appears, was taken on that
day by the savages, though an Indian is said to have been
shot by an exasperated Englishman who was provoked to
the deed by the depredations of the red men. This seems
to have been the very outcome foreseen and desired by the
Indians in their raid upon the settlement, as there was a
superstitious belief among them that the side losing the first
life would be successful. The war being thus opened, four
days later the village was again attacked and many of the
inhabitants murdered. Troops were immediately raised in
Boston and Plymouth, and hurried to Swansey as soon as
the news of the massacre was received.
The savages, exultant and flushed with their success at
Swansey, were waiting in ambush everywhere for any who
unwarily ventured abroad, and as the troops advanced they
fired upon them from under cover. They then fled, hotly
pursued by the soldiers, and took refuge in a swamp. One
hundred and twenty men marched to Mount Hope to take
Philip ; but, too shrewd to be surprised as the Pequods were,
he had sent the women and children to take refuge with
distant tribes, while he and his warriors kept within reach
of cover in the forests. Thus missing Philip, the soldiers

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND IO/i
destroyed the Indians' dwellings, trampled down their corn
fields, and left Mount Hope Neck a barren waste.
Rumor next located the wary sachem, after his flight
from Mount Hope, at a place called Punkateeset, and a de
tachment of nineteen men under Captain Benjamin Church
was sent to take him. To reach the point where Philip
and his warriors were ambushed, the soldiers were obliged
to pass through the domains of Awashonks, squaw-sachem
of a small tribe called the Sogkonate Indians, who had pre
viously given Captain Church promise of her adherence to
the English, and also through the territory of Alexander's
widow, Wetamoo, who was squaw-sachem of the Pocasset
tribe. The latter " royal squaw," although again married,
still held a grudge against the English on account of the
death of her first husband, and was only too willing to
listen to the persuasion of her warriors and join the cause
of Philip. Awashonks also yielded, though reluctantly it is
true, to the solicitations of her braves, and turned against
the whites. Philip's change of base was therefore very
advantageous to him, as with these additions to his forces
he was stronger than ever when Captain Church, close
upon his trail, arrived at the site of the present town of
Tiverton. Here, still following the trail, the soldiers came
into an open space in the woods. Suddenly they were
startled by the sound of firearms. Finding they were greatly
outnumbered, they retreated toward the shore, where they
were rescued by the timely arrival of a sloop which had
been sent to succor them.
An act of bad faith on the part of the colonists tended
toward the estrangement of the friendly natives. Dart
mouth Village had been burned by the savages, who, after
their work of destruction, fled into the forest. Captain
Church marched hastily to the rescue, but did not arrive in
time to save the village; however, he took captive about
one hundred and fifty Indians who, upon promise of kind
treatment by the whites, surrendered themselves. To Cap
tain Church's disgust and indignation, the authorities at

1 92 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Plymouth, utterly disregarding the promises given, sold these
captives into slavery.
In July of this year [1675], Philip and his warriors,
having managed so far to elude the soldiers and at the same
time harass and terrorize many of the settlements, at length
intrenched themselves in a swamp at Pocasset. The forces
of the colonies had by this time become so augmented that
they decided to surround the swamp entirely and thus,
as they confidently expected, capture the evasive chief.
When the troops arrived at the edge of the swamp and
caught sight of a few Indians whom Philip had, with shrewd
cunning, sent to lure his enemies into the marsh, they
rushed upon them impetuously and were in this way drawn
into the ambush prepared by the Indians. The darkness
of approaching night and the denseness of the foliage made
all so obscure that friends could hardly be told from foes,
and it is probable that some might have fallen pierced by
the bullets of their comrades; at all events, about fifteen
colonists were slain. Believing that Philip could not escape
from the swamp, the soldiers who had so unwisely rushed
into danger beat a retreat, leaving but a small force to keep
watch on the chieftain's movements. Knowing that the
Indians had no stores of provisions with them, the colonists
hoped they would soon be starved out, and for thirteen days
kept guard about the swamp. Philip in the meantime was
busy constructing rafts and canoes by which to escape, and
under cover of night he and his warriors passed safely over
the water and into the Nipmuck country without being
discovered by their enemies.
At the outset of the war, messengers had been sent to
the Nipmucks to secure their interest to the colonists.
Though the older sachems were willing to promise friend
ship, the younger ones were not so amicably inclined, and
the result of the expedition was by no means satisfactory
to the colonists ; and now, as Philip was in the doubtful ter
ritory, the authorities of Massachusetts made haste to send
other envoys to treat with the Nipmuck Indians in order

1 94 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
this afire, they ran it against the house, but providentially a
heavy shower of rain fell and extinguished the flames, thus
saving the inmates of the building from a dreadful fate;
shortly afterward, the troop arrived and relieved them.
About eighty Indians were killed in this encounter.
War was now raging in earnest, and the settlements
along the Connecticut valley were the next point of attack.
Hadley, Deerfield, and Northfield were next to suffer; and
the success of Philip's forces in these attacks, combined
with the bold leader's persuasions, so influenced the natives
of the valley that many, even of those who were called
and believed to be Christian Indians, forsook the white
man's cause and eagerly engaged with Philip in his attempt
to exterminate all the foreigners in New England.
When the settlers fled from Deerfield they left there a
quantity of grain partly threshed, and to prevent this from
being either captured or destroyed by the Indians Captain
Lathrop and a picked force of eighty or ninety men were
sent to guard the carts and secure the grain. As they
were returning with the crop, they were surprised and set
upon by about eight hundred Indians, and the captain and
nearly all the troop were slain, only about eight or ten
escaping. Because of this sanguinary event, the small
stream near which it occurred has since been known as
"Bloody Brook." Springfield and Hatfield were the next
points of attack, but the repulse received at the latter village
discouraged further depredations there, and the scene of
war was transferred for a time to Rhode Island. As might
have been expected, the Narragansetts were anything but
faithful to a treaty they had been coerced into making with
the troops from Boston, and they had, in fact, all along
been giving aid and succor to Philip's followers. They had
now, with the exception of Ninigret and his immediate fol
lowers, in reality become his allies, and with this reinforce
ment the Indian uprising assumed so formidable an aspect
that it was evident the combined power of all the New
England colonies would be required to subdue the savage

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND 1.95
hosts. Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut colonies
sent their forces into the field ; and those of the last-named
colony were greatly augmented by a large body of Mohe
gans, who were true to the whites throughout the struggle.
As winter was drawing near and Philip could not hope to
accomplish much at this season of the year, he established
himself in winter quarters upon an island in a great swamp
in South Kensington, Rhode Island. The fortress he erected
here was superior to the generality of Indian forts, being
surrounded by a double row of palisades, and made still
more secure by a great abatis, or hedge of fallen trees with
their branches pointing outward ; outside of these was a deep
ditch. Within the fort were erected about five hundred
wigwams, and within these were piled, one upon another,
baskets and tubs of grain, ensuring the Indians an abun
dance of provision and at the same time rendering the wig
wams bullet proof. Three thousand Indians are said to
have been assembled here, but whether Philip himself was
within the fortress at the time it was attacked by the English
is not positively known.
At one corner of the palisade was the place of entrance,
where a gap one log in length had been left, and across the
ditch at this point the long slender trunk of a tree had been
felled, the breastworks here being only about four or five feet
high. This pass was in turn defended by a well-constructed
block house. But for the treachery of one of Philip's own
men, an Indian named Peter, there is little doubt that the
English would have become entangled in the morass, been
surrounded, and destroyed. Had such a catastrophe oc
curred and the victorious Indians been left to carry forward
their plans of the war, it is difficult to say what would have
been the fate of the New England colonies.
In storming the fort it was necessary for the soldiers to
cross, single file, upon the slender log, facing a storm of
arrows and leaden hail from the Indians' bows and muskets.
The valorous and determined attack of the white men and
the heroic defence of the Indians on that eventful day,

j. 9 6 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
December 18, 1675, deserve a place on record beside that
of the momentous " last day at Gettysburg." The Massa
chusetts troops led the attack, but those in the van were
swept from the bridge like grain before the sickle ; yet their
places were instantly filled by others, and another party,
which had been seeking for a place of entrance, succeeded
in some unexplained manner in wading through the ditch,
climbing over the hedge, and scaling the wooden palisades.
Bewildered by this sudden attack from another quarter, the
savages were for a moment diverted from their defence of
the bridge ; and the besiegers took advantage of the momen
tary pause in the firing to rush upon the panic-stricken
defenders, and forced at last an entrance through the breast
works. After a fierce hand-to-hand encounter with those
warriors who, with the courage of desperation, had turned
again to meet this onslaught of their foes, but were at last
beaten down, a way was cut through the palisades, and the
whites entered the fortress. For three hours the fight raged
fiercely inside the palisades, but the English gained slowly,
and then tarnished the glory they had won in fair fight by
setting fire to the wigwams and thus wantonly causing the
death of hundreds of women and children. Many of
the warriors escaped to a cedar swamp near by, and there,
in the cold, without shelter or provisions, hid themselves
while the English finished their work of death and retreated
with their dead and wounded. The bloody tragedy of the
fall of the Pequod fort had been repeated, but upon a more
terrific scale, and seven hundred Indians were killed out
right, while many others were fatally injured. The English
had eighty killed and one hundred and fifty wounded.
This conflict, so disastrous in its results to the Indians,
had taken place in the Narragansetts' territory, and a major
ity of the victims were of this tribe. So appalled were they
by the calamity which had overwhelmed them, that they were
upon the verge of abandoning Philip. Unconquerable and
resolute still, undaunted by even so great a disaster as had
overtaken his forces, with about two thousand warriors yet

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND 197
faithful to him, he did not by any means count himself de
feated. The first and most pressing question that presented
itself to him for solution was that of a food supply, as his
people, since the loss of their corn in the conflagration of
the fort, had nothing to subsist upon but groundnuts, and
in consequence suffered acutely. The Nipmucks and Nar
ragansetts who had survived the "Swamp Fight," and who
still followed the Wampanoag sachem, were, according to
his directions, scattered in small bands throughout the coun
try, carrying terror and destruction along their path. The
village of Mendon was laid in ashes by one party, and Lan
caster by another party led by King Philip himself on the
10th of February, 1676. Nipmucks, Nashaways, and Nar
ragansetts were engaged in the attack upon Lancaster, and
between forty and fifty whites were killed or taken captive.
Among the latter was a Mrs. Rowlandson, who has left an
account of her captivity. The treatment she received was
very harsh, varied occasionally with unaccountable periods
of kindness. During part of the period of her captivity she
happened to be in the same camp as King Philip, and at
that time the treatment she received was uniformly better.
She was finally ransomed and returned to her home. With
indomitable energy, Philip constructed another fortress in a
swamp within the Nipmuck country and gathered here the
women and children survivors from the former fort.
During the spring and summer of 1676, the country
from Narragansett Bay to Andover, Massachusetts, was
the theatre of many bloody tragedies. Chelmsford, Groton,
Sudbury, Marlborough, Medfield, Warwick, and Providence
were ravaged and many of the inhabitants slain, and, in the
Connecticut valley, Springfield and Northampton suffered.
"At Medfield," says J. S. C. Abbot (History of King Philip),
" the defiant chief left a letter of challenge and warning as
follows : ' Know by this paper that the Indians that thou
hast provoked to wrath and anger will war this twenty-one
years, if you will. There are many Indians yet. We
come three hundred at this time. You must consider the

198 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Indians lose nothing but their life. You must lose your
fair houses and cattle.' " This letter was probably written
for the sachem by some Christian Indian who had deserted
his white friends and gone over to Philip's cause.
Many of the Christian Indians, perhaps the majority of
them, were faithful to the English, and, understanding
woodland fighting as no white man could, were invaluable
as scouts and guides ; and had the settlers of Massachusetts,
Plymouth, and Rhode Island at the beginning of the troubles
adopted the same policy as the rulers of Connecticut and
been less unreasonably distrustful of the friendly Indians,
not denouncing them as traitors, much bloodshed might
have been prevented and Philip, from lack of support,
earlier conquered. The Court of Connecticut had, in the
fall of 1 67 1, issued an order restraining the settlers from
committing any injury upon their Indian allies. With the
aid of these allies, — Pequods and Mohegans, — Connecticut
succeeded in keeping her territory comparatively protected.
The Narragansett chief Nanuntenoo, or Canonchet, son
of the unfortunate Miantonomah, was captured at this time
in his camp by four companies of English and three of
Indians, respectively Nihantics, Pequods, and Mohegans, the
latter company being led by Oneko, the son of Miantono-
mah's bitter enemy. The capture of Canonchet was made
by a Pequod Indian, but all three of the native companies,
to glut their vengeance, took part in the execution of the
heroic and unflinching chief. The English condemned him
to be shot, and left the execution of the sentence to the
Indians. The Pequods shot him, the Mohegans cut off his
head and dismembered his body, and the Nihantics made
the fire and burned his remains. This capture was effected
in April, 1676, and not long thereafter the fortunes of
Philip began to decline. It was believed at one time that
he was in Canada, endeavoring to win over the tribes of
that region to his cause; and it was known that he sought
to draw the Mohawks into the conflict with the whites, but
in this attempt he failed and brought down upon his own

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND

19,9

head the retaliation he had intended should fall upon the
English. In his desire to alienate this powerful tribe from
the whites, he had fallen upon a party of Mohawks and,
as he believed, killed them all, leaving tokens that would
delude their friends into the belief that the deed had been
committed by the English. One of the victims, however,
recovered and made known the true state of the case to
his friends, who forthwith retaliated upon the guilty parties,
killing fifty of Philip's men. This was the beginning of
the end, and, reverses of fortune overtaking him one after
another, many of his followers began to desert him and
surrendered by hundreds to the colonists. His numerous
hosts dwindled to a few miserable, hunted bands of des
peradoes; and he fled from swamp to swamp, striving to
reach once more Mount Hope, his former home. Weta
moo, who had followed faithfully his fortunes in success and
defeat, was accidentally drowned at this time in Tehticut
River, while trying to escape from the English. Philip also,
as a hunted deer, was flying before his dreaded adversary,
Captain Church, who was close upon his trail.
With his wife and son, his sister and his male relatives all
prisoners in the hands of the English, his followers dwindled
to a mere band, and his schemes forever blasted, there was
little left to spur him on to further resistance, save the
instinct of self-preservation, and an unconquerable pride
which would not think of surrender. The end, however,
was at hand. His hiding place was revealed by a traitorous
follower, and he was slain, August 12, 1676, while hope
lessly battling against overwhelming numbers.
About one hundred and thirty Indians were killed or
taken prisoners at this time, and not long after seven hun
dred men were conquered by Captain Church. Among the
last to surrender was Anawan, an old warrior who had fol
lowed the good Massasoit in happier days and had long
outwitted and escaped the intrepid Captain Church. Ana-
wan, with about sixty other warriors, was discovered in a
swamp near Rehoboth. Hither Captain Church was led

200 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
by an Indian whom he had previously captured. Coming
upon the warriors unexpectedly, Church took them captive,
and with his men on guard the captain lay down beside the
old warrior to spend the night, but, as may be imagined,
neither slept. After regarding each other in silence for
some time, Anawan rose up and walked away, but returned
just as the captain was growing uneasy, and brought with
him a broad belt, a headpiece, and a broad neckband, all
made of wampum, and presented them to his captor with
the following speech : " Great Captain ! You have killed
king Philip, and conquered his country. I believe I and my
company are the last, who war against the English. So, I
suppose, the war is ended by your means. These things
are, therefore, yours. They are the royalties of king Philip,
with which he adorned himself, when he sat in state. I think
myself happy in presenting them to Capt. Church, who has
so fairly won them." King Philip's war was ended.
Of the few hundred warriors who, hunted and desperate,
were yet too proud to yield, some fled northward and east
ward through the wilderness; a large number, escaping
together through the trackless forest, crossed the Hudson
to the Mohawks, with which tribe they were finally merged.
Some of Massasoit's lineal descendants, though not of
Philip's line, were living in Massachusetts as late as 1878.
After the war with Philip had ended, the English, be
lieving the Indians were now subdued, began to turn their
thoughts to their ruined homes and wasted fields, hoping
once more to enjoy a reign of peace and prosperity; but
these pleasing visions were dispelled by the rumors of a new
war raging in the districts of Maine and New Hampshire.
As this war introduces to us a new confederacy of tribes, we
will give the account of this struggle in connection with
the history of that confederacy, which we have designated
Abnaki. While the colonists of New England were contending
with the natives for a foothold on American soil, the In
dians on their eastern border proved a source of almost

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND 20i
constant annoyance and trouble for many years. These
natives, known under the general name Abnakis, — " People
of the East or Sunrise," — were a rude, warlike people, firmly
attached to the French and, as a general rule, bitterly hos
tile to the English settlers. The territory over which they
spread at the advent of the whites was extensive, including
a large part of New Hampshire, all of Maine, and east
ward to St. John's River, New Brunswick, and indefinitely
northward to the vicinity of the St. Lawrence.
The group was a kind of loose confederacy consisting
of several tribes whose names frequently appear in various
forms in New England history. Of these the more im
portant were as follows : the Penobscots [or Tarrentines] ,
probably the most numerous and influential tribe of the
group, occupying the country on both sides of Penobscot
Bay and River; the Passamaquoddies, located in the valley
of the lower St. Croix River and in the vicinity of Passa-
maquoddy Bay; the Wawenocks, settled on the seacoast,
their country extending from St. George River to the
Sheepscot; the Norridgewocks [Canibas or Kennebecs],
an important tribe, occupying the valley of the Kennebec
from tidewater to its sources; the Assagunticooks [or
Androscoggins] , a tribe of considerable strength, inhabiting
the whole valley of the Androscoggin; the Sokokis [Sacos
or Pequakets] , a small tribe, seated about the upper Saco
River; and the Pennacooks, the most western tribe of the
group, whose territory extended from Merrimac northward
over a large part of New Hampshire. In addition to these,
the confederacy included the Malecites [Etchemins] about
St. John's River, New Brunswick.
The first contact of these Indians with the whites appears
to have occurred at an early date in American history, as it is
probable that one of the points at which Verrazano stopped
during his voyage along the eastern coast, in 1524, was
in the country of one of the western tribes of this group.
His reception was by no means a friendly one. He de
scribes the people as "so rude and barbarous that we were

202 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
unable by any signs we could make, to hold communication
with them. They clothe themselves in the skins of bears,
lynxes, seals and other animals." They seem to have been
in a state of irritation and of hostility to the whites, from
which fact the inference has been drawn that this section
had been previously visited by Europeans who had given
cause of offence. However, Captain John Smith, who
extended his explorations, in 1 6 14, to this part of the coast,
furnishes the most reliable early description of the people.
He mentions several of their villages, among which, not
withstanding the forms he gives, we can recognize the
Penobscot, Sokoki, Kennebec, Norridgewock, and other
tribal names. He says the Indians of that region regarded
the chief of the Penobscots as the greatest sachem among
them. The reason for their adherence to the French and oppo
sition to the New England settlers is readily understood.
The Jesuit and Capuchin missionaries had been in com
munication with them from 161 1 until the English began
to occupy this section, and had won them over to the
French interest. This attachment was strengthened by
frequent visits to Quebec. The alliance, however, brought
upon them the enmity of the Iroquois, who, though attack
ing wandering parties, seldom ventured into their country.
Charlevoix says: "The only part of New France where
the Iroquois had not dared and never dared to carry their
victorious arms, was the country occupied by the Abenaqui
nations." But this does not appear to be entirely correct,
as the Abbe Maurault gives an account in his Histoire des
Abenakis of one attack made by them, in 1 66 1, on the
Norridgewocks of Kennebec valley. The frequent attacks
on travelling parties by these marauders had by this time
forced the Jesuits to abandon their Abnaki missions.
It was a little more than half a century after the Pilgrim
Fathers landed at Plymouth before the Abnakis commenced
open hostilities against the Maine and New Hampshire set
tlements. But during this period there was an internal feud

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND 203
in their group, which had some bearing on their relations
with the whites and forms one item in their history. When
Acadia, as the whole region was called at an early day, was,
after the death of Governor Razille [1647] , divided between
Charles d'Aulnay and Charles la Tour, the former was
given the country of the Penobscots, and the latter the
country of the Malecites of St. John's River. It was not
long before these French rulers managed to embroil the
tribes of one division in a war with those of the other
division, which was carried on for several years. And
there is little doubt that the English encouraged and to
some extent aided the Malecites.
A singular episode in the history of the Indians of this
region is the role played among them by the Baron de Saint-
Castine. Coming among them about 1 66 1, and seeming
to be fond of their wild, free life, he married the daughter
of a sachem, and, if the tales regarding him be true, added
some four or five others to the household. Be this true
or false, he managed so to ingratiate himself with the In
dians as to gain complete control over them. He fixed
his home at the mouth of Penobscot River, built there a
fortress, and taught the Indians how to use firearms, which
were soon placed in their hands. Emboldened by these
aids, and encouraged by the French, when King Philip's
war broke out in 1675 they commenced open hostilities
against the English, which continued at intervals for seventy
years. While Saint-Castine was in control, he was con
sidered the most dangerous enemy with whom the New
Englanders had to contend. Divers campaigns were under
taken to capture him; and though his fortress on the
Penobscot was taken and plundered, he managed to elude
their grasp and fled into the wilderness, and shortly after
ward [1708] passed over to France, leaving his half-breed
son in control. The father, with his Abnakis, had para
lyzed for thirty years the trade and prosperity of the eastern
New England settlements; and the son, when he came
into control, continued hostilities with the same bitterness

204 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
that had been manifested in the raids during the time his
father was the directing spirit.
It was thought at the time, from the coincidence of the
outbreak of the eastern Indians with the commencement
of Philip's war, that it was in accord with a plot for a gen
eral uprising of the Indians of New England against the
English; but subsequent investigation failed to confirm this
opinion. The hostilities which began in 1675 consisted at
first of acts of petty depredation and an occasional murder.
These, however, were soon followed by raids on a larger
and more destructive scale. "When once these Indians,"
remarks the Rev. William Hubbard, in his History of the
Indian Wars of New England, " had imbrued their hands in
English blood, they were emboldened to the like bloody
attempts in other places."
During the year 1676, the country, from Piscataqua
River to the Kennebec, was raided by bands of savages,
burning houses and slaying the inhabitants wherever they
found them unprotected or unprepared to offer resistance.
From the beginning of August to the end of November,
over fifty English were slain, though the Indians, as they
afterward confessed, lost over ninety of their men in the
various skirmishes in which they were engaged. Daniel
Neal, in his History of New England, summarizes these
events as follows: "Several little skirmishes past between
them in the first three or four months of the war, wherein
the English lost 50, and the Indians 90 of their people;
but these were but the beginnings of greater desolations,
for in the spring of this year the Indians came down out
of the woods in vast numbers and broke up all the English
plantations to the north of Wells, destroying all the country
with fire and sword ; " — then follow accounts of the specific
acts. He adds further that " these excursions of the enemy
alarmed the whole Province and obliged the inhabitants of
Sheepscot River, Kennebeck River, Sagadehock and the
adjacent parts to desert the open country and retire within
the government of the Massachusetts."

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND 205
Though the Massachusetts colonists were engaged at this
time in their great struggle with Philip and his Indians, their
government despatched several expeditions against these
eastern savages, though with little success. They appealed
to the Mohawks to turn their arms against the Abnakis,
but, with the exception of a few volunteers who took up the
hatchet, the appeal was unheeded. However, the English
at length succeeded in capturing a body of four hundred
Indians. Neal's brief account is in the following words :
" On the 6th of September [the Massachusetts forces] sur
prised about 400 Indians as they were plundering Major
Walderen's house at Quochecho, and took them all pris
oners." This statement corresponds with that by Hub
bard, yet it is asserted by Samuel G. Drake in his notes to
Hubbard's History that these Indians were taken during a
meeting, under a flag of truce. Seven or eight who had
been guilty of murdering whites were executed; about two
hundred who were connected with the warring Indians were
sold into slavery ; the remainder, who were peaceable Penna-
cooks, were released and allowed to return to their homes.
Although Wonnolancet, chief of the Pennacooks, and his
tribe were acquitted of complicity in any of the depre
dations on the English settlements, he felt aggrieved at the
treatment he had received, and with a part of his people
removed to Canada in 1677.
Notwithstanding this advantage gained by doubtful means,
the English "were sick of the war," and eagerly caught at
a proposition of peace coming from the Indians. A treaty
was thereupon entered into with the agent of the chief of
the Penobscots, which was soon thereafter confirmed by the
latter, but does not appear to have been agreed to by any of
the other tribes. However, after several fruitless attempts
at treaties, peace was at length concluded by Andros as
governor of Pemaquid in 1678, but on humiliating terms.
The Indians, on their part, agreed to restore the prisoners in
their hands, and to refrain from further molestation of the
white settlements; the English, on their part, strange to say,

206 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
submitted to the humiliating agreement to pay annually as
a quitrent a peck of corn for each English family.
This treaty brought but a brief respite for the harried
colonists. In 1679, the eastern Indians, urged on by
French intrigue, commenced hostilities on an increased
scale. Settlements and towns were attacked; the inhabit
ants, where unable to find security by flight, were massacred
or taken captive, and their dwellings laid in ashes. These
Indians appear to have been chiefly Norridgewocks and
Assagunticooks, though from the numbers in their bands,
estimated at from six to nine hundred warriors, it is prob
able that some of them were Penobscots. The governor
of the colony, being appealed to for help, despatched four
companies to their aid. A band of some seven hundred In
dians were, on November 2d, making an attack on New-
chewannick, near the mouth of Kennebec River, when Major
Bradford with his company came upon the scene. The
battle with the Indians was long and severe, and the issue
for some time doubtful. But a body of cavalry being sent
to the rear caused the Indians to take flight and leave the
English masters ofthe field. The loss in killed and wounded
on the side of the whites amounted to ninety, while the loss
to the Indians was estimated at treble this number.
This dearly bought victory, instead of curbing hostilities,
only intensified the hatred of the savages toward the English
settlers. The valley of the Casco was now the chief
place of attack, thirty inhabitants of the village of Casco
being slain at one onslaught. But the avengers were al
ready on their trail. At the break of day on December 3d
of the same year, Major Bradford and Major Wallis, with
their forces, came upon the encampment of Indians, some
eight hundred strong, on the Kennebec. The Indians
" fought with all the fury of savages, and even assailed the
English from the tops of lofty trees, which they ascended
for the purpose. They were in possession of but few fire
arms, but hurled their tomahawks with inconceivable exact
ness, and checked the progress of the cavalry with long

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND 207
spears." — (Trumbull.) Nevertheless, they were forced to
flee to the forest for refuge, but with their band broken and
shattered. Two hundred were left dead upon the field,
and double that number were mortally wounded. The
English loss was forty-five killed and ninety-five wounded.
The loss of the Indians in the two engagements, which
fell chiefly on the Norridgewocks and Sokokis, amounted
to fully one thousand. They were now completely hum
bled, and expressed a desire to bury the hatchet and to be
at peace with the English. As the desire was reciprocal, a
treaty of peace was entered into. Thus was ended what
has been called King William's War.
For a time, the settlements of Maine and New Hamp
shire were allowed to cultivate their fields in peace and
quiet; but the spring of 1703 had not opened before the
eastern Indians, accompanied by a number of Frenchmen,
descended upon the settlements from Wells to Casco, spar
ing neither age nor sex. The killed and captured English
during this raid amounted to one hundred and thirty. The
Indians continuing to raid the settlements, the General
Assembly passed an act giving forty pounds for each Indian
scalp. This brought in a few bloody trophies, but accom
plished nothing in the way of checking hostilities.
Warfare continued for ten years, by far the most dan
gerous and harassing attacks being those of small parties
skulking under the edge of the forest, or lying in wait for
opportunity to murder unawares. The conclusion of the
war between France and England in 1712 caused the In
dians to tender propositions for a cessation of hostilities. A
meeting was called by Governor Dudley at Portsmouth, and
a treaty drawn up and signed, which is very often mentioned
in the histories as the end of the war between the eastern
Indians and the Colonists. Hostilities did not, however,
entirely cease; and in 1725 another treaty was entered into,
after which a long peace followed ; but in the year following
the declaration of war between England and France in 1 744,
hostilities again began, and continued until 1749, when a

208 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
final treaty was entered into at Falmouth on October 15th
of that year.
Trumbull closes this period of his History of the Indian
Wars with the following remark:
From this important period, which being the 1 5th day of October,
1749, ought the peace and prosperity of the now flourishing states of
New England to receive their date. It was at this period that her hardy
sons quit the sanguinary field, and exchanged their implements of death
for such as were better calculated for the cultivation and tillage of their
farms. The forests, with which they were encompassed, no longer
abounded with fierce and untutored savages ; the Indian death-song and
war-whoop were no longer heard ; the greater part of the Indians that
survived the many bloody engagements had sought peace and retire
ment far westward ; and the prisoners which the English had captured
were liberated, on condition of resorting to and remaining with them.
They proved faithful to their promise. . They took possession of the
country bounding on the great lakes, and in possession of which their
descendants remain to the present day."
Some of the Abnakis were engaged with the French at
the battle of the Monongahela when Braddock was de
feated, and continued in their s'ervice most of the time until
the close of the French and English war. These were the
Indians who had removed to Canada. During this time
their settlement at St. Francis was destroyed by the English
troops under Captain Rogers. Out of the three hundred
inhabitants of the place, two hundred were killed, and the
village burned. The Abnakis who had removed to Canada
were engaged with the French during their war with the
English, and joined the latter in their war with the United
States. After the peace of 1 749, which was signed by the Penob-
scots, the latter ceased hostilities, and in 1780 ceded to the
Massachusetts government all their lands on the west side
of Penobscot River, and all on the east side from tidewater
up to Mantawomkeektook River, "reserving to themselves
only the island on which the old town stands and those
islands on which they now have actual improvement."
After the treaty of 1 749, the Wawenocks, Norridgewocks,

\The^rejftl^n£ciaJirt or CA&4U/Tiii
New England
*Ana the looker ofthe def troy-ma
Jtfy- CytyM<\Ur&lr - >.

Plan ofthe Indian fort or palisado ofthe Pequods in New England, from Underbill's News fro.
America, printed in 1638. After the original in the New York Public Library,- Lenox Branch.

THE INDIANS OF NEW ENGLAND

209

Assagunticooks, and Sokokis removed to Canada, whither
the Pennacooks, as already stated, had previously retired.
The Passamaquoddies remained in their ancient habitat ; and
the greater number of the Malecites remained in their New
Brunswick territory.
In 1880, the Penobscots and Passamaquoddies in Maine
numbered, together, about 625. The number ofthe Canada
Abnakis, located at St. Francis and Becancour, at the same
date was 369; and the Malecites in Quebec province and
New Brunswick, 880.

CHAPTER X
THE INDIANS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE
The history of the Indians of the St. Lawrence and the
lower lakes is but little more than an account of the long
series of wars of the Iroquois on one side, and the French
and their Indian allies — the Hurons and Algonquins — on
the other side. Yet it is a remarkable fact that the Indian
history of the banks of the St. Lawrence and the shores of
the Great Lakes forms the chief episode of the contest
between two great European powers, England and France,
for possession of North American territory. But for the
Iroquois, it is more than probable that the international
boundary line between British possessions and the United
States would have been quite different from that agreed upon
at the Treaty of Paris, 1783.
At the time of the arrival of the whites in this region,
two great Indian stocks occupied the entire country. The
numerous tribes of the Algonquian family were spread out
from the Atlantic shore to the great plains beyond the
Mississippi, and from Hudson's Bay to Pamlico Sound.
However, this great Algonquin sea was interrupted by the
Iroquoian group gathered about the shores of Lakes Erie and
Ontario. How the tribes were distributed and where
located at the time of Jacques Carrier's visit [1534] is not
known with certainty, as the data given are not sufficient
for positive identification; moreover, when Champlain ap
peared on the scene in 1608 he found it greatly changed
211

212 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
from the conditions at the time of Cartier's visit. The
comparative quiet, which the latter's statements imply, no
longer existed; war had broken out between the tribes;
Hochelaga and Stadecone, the chief villages of which Car-
tier speaks, the former on the site of Montreal, and the
latter on the site of Quebec, had been destroyed and their
inhabitants forced to seek security elsewhere. It is evident
from the few words of the language given by Cartier that
Hochelaga and Stadecone were, at that time, occupied by
people of the Iroquoian stock, apparently Hurons. How
ever, the location of the Iroquois tribes at that time is not
positively known; but it seems most probable from all the
evidence that they were then in their historic seats south of
Lake Ontario, where Champlain found them in 1608. At
the time of the latter's arrival, the north side of St. Law
rence River, and of Lake Ontario, so far as occupied, was
in possession of Algonquins, the Algomequins, from whose
name we have the modern form "Algonquin," being located
then on Ottawa River.
Other Algonquin tribes of this region, to which reference
will be made, were : the Montagnais, located on Saguenay
River, and often mentioned as the "Lower Algonquins";
the Micmacs, of Acadia [Nova Scotia]; the Nascapes,
in the Labrador peninsula, north of the Montagnais; the
Nepissings, on Lake Nepissing, at the head of Ottawa
River; and the Ottawas, along Ottawa River and on Mani-
toulin Island in Lake Huron.
The tribes of the Iroquoian family in this region, when
first known to Europeans, were those of the Iroquois con
federacy located in what is now the state of New York,
from Hudson River to the vicinity of Niagara River, as
mentioned in Chapter VII. West of this confederate group
was the Neuter nation, occupying both banks of Niagara
River; and west of them, on the northern side of Lake
Erie and extending to Lake Huron, were the Hurons. Of
the latter there was a subdivision named the Tionontatis,
but known also as the Petun or Tobacco tribe, located

THE INDIANS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE 213
between the Hurons proper and the Neuters. The Eries,
often mentioned as the Cat nation, dwelt immediately south
of Lake Erie, in what is now northern Ohio.
The early history of the Iroquois is involved in consider
able uncertainty, if we give heed to certain traditions which
are believed to be based on fact, as most historians have
done. According to these, the Iroquois formerly lived north
of the St. Lawrence, near Montreal, where they were in
subjection to the Algonquins. A tribe of the former, de
voted to agriculture, lived among the latter near Trois
Rivieres, with the agreement to supply these with a certain
portion of their crops, the Algonquins in return supplying
them with game and protecting them against their enemies.
In winter the Iroquois attended the Algonquins to the
chase, but only for the purpose of carrying home and skin
ning the game, curing the flesh, and dressing the skins —
duties usually devolving on the women of hunter tribes.
Six young Iroquois, who followed as many Algonquins as
attendants, disregarded the rule which forbade their en
gaging in the chase itself; after a prolonged period of failure
on the part of their masters, they requested leave to try
their own luck on the hunting path. This was contemptu
ously refused; the Iroquois, nevertheless, disregarded the
refusal and disappeared, returning to camp in due time
laden with game. Fatigued with the chase, they slept
soundly; and the Algonquins, fired partly by jealousy,
partly by anger at the breach of order, massacred them in
their sleep. Unable to obtain satisfaction for this murder,
which was upheld as a lawful execution, the Iroquois
nation bound themselves by an oath to exact a bloody
revenge. That the Iroquois at an early day lived north of the
St. Lawrence is probably true, and that the tradition,
though largely mythical, may have some elements of truth
in it is possible; but to accept it in its general tenor we
must suppose the Iroquois were then but a feeble folk and
that their subsequent increase in numbers and strength was

214

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

rapid. To this, however, we may find a parallel in the
quick growth in power of the Aztecs when they fixed their
home at Tenochtitlan. Nevertheless, the data available are
not sufficient to verify or disprove the tradition; but we
can safely assume that the destruction of Hochelaga and
Stadecone was due to the raids of the Iroquois who were
then located south of the St. Lawrence, and that the tradi
tion given above, if it contained any elements of truth,
related only to a small separated band of Iroquois.
It was not until Champlain had pushed his way to the
interior, and the attempt was made to plant upon the banks
of the St. Lawrence a French colony, that the real history of
the Iroquois begins. The history of the colony for the first
sixty years of its existence is, in fact, chiefly a history
of the Iroquois Indians during that period. When this
explorer arrived, he found, as before intimated, the tribes
north of the St. Lawrence in a state of uneasiness, with
evidences of oppression by other savages of superior power.
The arrival ofthe French was therefore hailed by these tribes
with joy, for they hoped by engaging these timely comers
in their interest, and by alliance with them, to be enabled
to conquer the Iroquois — their enemies and oppressors.
There gathered at or near Quebec, where Champlain
wintered, a party composed of Hurons, Algonquins, and
Montagnais, intending to march against the Iroquois. These
besought the French leader to join them in their expedition.
He, desirous of binding to his interest the natives with
whom his plans were to bring him into constant contact,
without considering the probable effect of his act or ascer
taining the strength of the enemy against whom he was
asked to lend his aid, rashly agreed to the proposal, little
imagining that he was by so doing opening a warfare that
would continue for well-nigh a century and prove to be the
keenest thorn in the side of his colony. However, on
the other hand, it bound to the French interests the Hurons
and the numerous Algonquin tribes which inhabited the
lake regions to the northwest — the great fur country.

THE INDIANS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE 215
The first expedition [1609] was up Sorrel River and
along Lake Champlain, to the point since identified as the
modern Ticonderoga. Here, unexpectedly, they met a war
party of Iroquois, of some two hundred warriors. As night
was approaching, by a singular agreement between the op
posing parties, the battle was deferred until the following
morning. It is unnecessary to give the details of the en
gagement. Although Champlain was accompanied by but
two Frenchmen, French firearms, carrying unseen death,
so marvellous to these natives, soon decided the contest
in favor of the allies. When the Iroquois beheld two
of their leaders fall at one report of these strange weapons,
their courage wavered, and when others in their midst began
to drop they fled in dismay. A second expedition was made
with the same allies along the same course the following
year. A party of one hundred Iroquois was discovered
intrenched near the bank of Sorrel River. They were
defeated and most of them slain, but not without an
obstinate resistance.
The breach was made, and henceforth war was to be
the only intercourse between the Iroquois on one side and
Champlain and his allies on the other. This intrepid
warrior, now seemingly aware of this fact, consented to
the proposition of his allies, who, elated by the success
in the previous engagements, were desirous of carrying the
war into the stronghold of the enemy. Crossing Lake
Ontario at its lower extremity, they proceeded southward
around Lake Oneida to the border of one of the smaller
lakes. The enemy was found intrenched in a strong
hexagonal fort, — if Champlain's figure and description are
to be trusted, — formed of four rows of palisades. It was
before this fortress that the invaders appeared on Octo
ber 10, 1 61 5. The attack was unsuccessful, and after five
days of vain endeavor the besiegers withdrew, bearing the
wounded leader in a basket hung on the shoulders of his
men. This was his last expedition against the people of
the Five Nations. A party of Andastes [Susquehannas] had

2i6 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
been engaged to assist in this attack, but failed to reach the
place until after the allies had departed.
Although the Iroquois were bold and brave in warfare,
they were adepts in craft and treachery, and owed their
triumphs as much to the latter as to open hostility. It was
a favorite policy with them to attack their enemies in detail,
and while destroying one portion to cajole the rest. After
the failure of Champlain and his allies, there was com
parative quiet for a time; but the Iroquois, thirsting for
revenge, resorted to a stratagem which ultimately resulted
in the destruction of the Huron tribe. This was to divide
the tribe and then annihilate its members in detail. They
began by a formal treaty of peace. Their envoys went to
Quebec and began negotiations, which in the spring of 1624
resulted in a large concourse from the Huron, Algonquin,
Montagnai, and Iroquois tribes assembling at Three Rivers
"to light their council fires and confirm the pact." Then,
under various pretexts, they attacked one after another of
the Huron towns which were remote from the centre,
" persuading the rest," says Charlevoix (History of New
France), "that these were only private quarrels in which
they had no interest." Huron blindness appears to have
been too complete to allow them to perceive the crafty
design of their enemies until it was too late to offer effectual
resistance. It was during this period that the Iroquois con
ceived, it is said, the idea of exterminating the French
before they had time to fortify themselves more strongly,
and with this view divided into three parties; but their
purpose was thwarted, after they had ravaged one or two
localities. In 1636, they threw off the peace mask, and
appeared in arms in the midst of the Huron country; but
in this instance they also failed of success, as the few
French who had followed the missionaries hither offered
such bold resistance that the invaders were forced to retire.
It was about this time, or a year or two later, that the
Iroquois fell suddenly upon a small tribe or settlement of
Indians adjoining the Neuters on the east, committing a

THE INDIANS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE 21 7
fearful massacre, and compelling all who escaped with life
to flee elsewhere for refuge. These were kindly received
and cared for by the Hurons. Charlevoix says he was
unable to ascertain the name of this people, but we learn
from some passages in the Jesuit Relations that they were
known as the Weanohronons, or Wenrohronons, and that
they were then located in the extreme western portion of
New York. They were probably related to the Hurons,
and seem, as a tribe, to have dropped from history after
this raid.
The Iroquois, who chafed under quietude, managed, by
blockading the ways of travel, to keep the other Indians
in a constant state of alarm. So daring were they — having
learned of the weakness of the French colony — that five
hundred of them came to Three Rivers, where the gov
ernor then was [August, 1637], insulted him and carried
off before his eyes, without his being able to prevent it,
thirty Huron Indians who were coming down to Quebec
with furs for sale. In 1648, a band, chiefly of the Mo
hawk and Seneca tribes, invaded the Huron country in the
absence of its warriors, sacked one of the chief towns, and
scattered its people; and in the following spring, fell upon the
town of St. Ignace, laying it waste and committing sad havoc
among its inhabitants. Among those who were taken at the
latter village and suffered death at the hands of the victors
were the Catholic priests Fathers Lallemant and Brebeuf.
- As one incident of this war against the Hurons, which
shows the intense hatred that burned in the breasts of the
Iroquois against this people, we quote the following from
Charlevoix's History of New France:
Three hundred Huron and Algonquin warriors having taken the
field, a small body of adventurers in the van came upon a hundred Iro
quois, who attacked them, but who, notwithstanding the advantage of
numbers, failed to capture more than one man. Satisfied with even this
trifling success, and fearing to engage a larger party if they advanced,
they were about to retieat, when the prisoner told them that the band to
which he and his comrades belonged was much weaker than their party.
Deceived by his story, they resolved to await the allies at a point where,

2i 8 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
as their captive assured them, they intended to pass, taking no precaution
except to throw up a kind of intrenchment to prevent a surprise.
The Hurons and Algonquins soon appeared ; and the Iroquois,
desperate at being thus duped, wreaked a fearful but not unexpected
vengeance on him who had involved them in such a disaster. The
majority then counselled flight ; but a brave, raising his voice, said :
" Brothers, if we resolve to commit such an act of cowardice, at least
wait till the sun sinks in the west, that he may not see us." These
few words had their effect. They resolved to fight to their last breath,
and did so with all the courage that could be inspired by hate, and the
fear of dishonor by fleeing from enemies so often vanquished ; but they
were opposed to men who were not inferior to them in courage and
were here three to one.
After a very stubborn fight, seventeen or eighteen Iroquois were left
on the field, their intrenchment stormed, and all the survivors disarmed
and taken. — (Charlevoix, History of New France, vol. ii, 121-122.)
But why should we dwell on the harrowing details?
Although the Huron warriors fought bravely and not always
without success, yet their want of foresight and craft left
them at a disadvantage ; and one after another of their fif
teen towns fell before the invaders, or were deserted by
their inhabitants, who fled further into the interior for safety.
During the progress of this war the Andastes [Susque
hannas] proffered assistance to the Hurons, but the short
sightedness of this people prevented them from taking
advantage of any favorable turn of affairs presented them;
the offer was allowed to pass, and the opportunity lost.
But not so with the Iroquois, who, laying the offer up in
memory, afterward made it cost the Andastes severely.
The reason for the success of the Iroquois is not to be
attributed to their greater bravery or to their superior craft;
for it was due in a large degree to the use of firearms,
with which the Dutch of New York began to supply them
shortly before the commencement of the war on the Huron
settlements. Some firearms were placed in the hands of
the Huron warriors by the French, though few in compari
son with those obtained by the Iroquois. The disparity in
this respect gave the latter a great advantage, which no
exhibition of bravery could overcome.

THE INDIANS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE 219
Before the complete destruction of the Huron tribe as an
organization, a considerable body of the scattered refugees
joined together and sought an asylum on the island of
St. Joseph, in Lake Huron. But the evil fate which had
hitherto followed them failed not to find their place of
refuge; this time, however, not in the form of bloodthirsty
savages, but those twin destroyers that make no distinctions
— famine and pestilence; the terrible details of which had
better remain untold. It is said that many of the wretched
beings in the frenzy of despair turned upon the missionaries
who had followed them in their flight, exclaiming: "The
Iroquois are foes to us and know not God, and do every kind
of wrong to their fellow men; but they prosper neverthe
less. It is only since we renounced the customs of our
fathers that our mortal foes have prevailed against us.
What avails it that we give ear to the Gospel, if ruin and
death be the shadows that follow its footsteps." — (Jesuit
Relations, 1 643-1 644.)
When the final dispersal of the tribe came, some fled in
one direction and some in another. Those on St. Joseph
Island, joined by others, made their way to Quebec and
sought the protection of the French. "The Hurons," says
M. Ferland, speaking of this party, "remained in the isle
d'Orleans till the year 1659; but continuing to be harassed
by the Iroquois army, ever ready to attack and kill them,
even in their place of retreat, they decamped and set up
tents on an open space within Quebec itself, wherein they
dwelt for several years. When peace was concluded with
the Iroquois after M. Tracy's expedition, the Hurons left
Quebec, and settled four or five miles distant from the
city." — (Garneau, Hist. Can., i, 159, 3d Edn.) The other
fragments of the nation scattered in various directions, seek
ing protection among other tribes, some of whom thereby
brought upon themselves war with the Iroquois. One band
fled to the Susquehannas of Pennsylvania, another to the
islands of Green Bay, but only to be pushed further west
by their untiring pursuers. Onward they fled until they

220 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
reached the Iowas of the plains, but, longing for the forests,
turned northward to the region of the Sioux. Provoking,
by their restless disposition, that tribe which had given them
shelter, they turned south again and found a temporary
resting place on an island in the Mississippi, below Lake
Pepin. We next hear of them with a party of Ottawa
fugitives at La Pointe on Lake Superior, but the feud with
the Sioux compelled them to leave this point. In 167 1,
they were on the north shore of the Straits of Mackinaw,
and in 1680 La Salle found them along Detroit River.
Others made peace with the Iroquois, and were absorbed
into that nation.
"The Huron country," says Mr. Winsor (Cartier to
Frontenac), "never again knew the traces of this people,
and only the modern archaeologist, wandering between the
latter-day villages of an alien race, finds in the forests the evi
dences of the former occupants."
The Neuter nation hoped by remaining passive during
the bloody drama to escape the consequences of active
participation, hence the name bestowed upon them. This
hope was vain; the sweep of the maelstrom was too fierce
for them to avoid being drawn into the vortex. In a few
years they had melted away, as the frost before the rising
sun. History was so intent on following the fortunes of the
two chief actors that the Neuters had dropped into oblivion
except for a few brief notices which Shea has summarized
in a note to his edition of Charlevoix (ii, 271).
Before proceeding, let us pause a moment and make a
brief summary of results. In the Jesuit Relation of 1653,
one of the missionaries writes as follows : " The war with
the Iroquois has dried up all sources of prosperity. The
beaver are allowed to build their dams in peace, none being
able or willing to molest them. Crowds of Hurons no
longer descend from their country with furs for trading.
The Algonquin country is dispeopled ; and the nations be
yond it are retiring further away still, fearing the musketry
of the Iroquois. The keeper of the Company's store here

THE INDIANS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE 221
in Montreal has not bought a single beaver-skin for a year
past. At Three Rivers, the small means in hand have been
used in fortifying the place, from fear of an inroad upon it.
In the Quebec store-house all is emptiness."
Not only had the Huron villages been destroyed and the
nation scattered in fleeing fragments to the east, west, and
south, but the Indian country all along the waterway from
Montreal to Georgian Bay had been depopulated and be
come a wilderness. Even the passage from the falls above
Montreal to Tadoussac had become so unsafe, that the fur
trade stations from Three Rivers to Saguenay were virtually
abandoned. Nor were the savage conquerors satisfied with
this work of devastation ; they had pushed their way up the
Saguenay amid the dark forests in search of victims, driving
onward the upper Montagnais to the shores of Hudson's
Bay. " Everywhere north of the St. Lawrence and Ontario,
Algonquin and French alike shuddered at the name of the
confederates. The missionaries had withdrawn from their
outposts, and they told in the settlements of the horrible
sufferings which their brothers had undergone at the Iroquois
stake." — (Winsor, 175.) Hennepin in 1678 estimated that
they had destroyed two million persons; this, however, in
cluded the result of their wars and raids in the south and
west heretofore noticed.
The effect of this success of the Iroquois upon the
business of the French colony was, as has been stated, to
bring it to a standstill, but this fails to tell of the personal
sufferings of the colonists. The success of these savage
marauders inspired them with contempt for the French, as
the following incidents, which are mentioned in the his
tories, show. They attacked the fugitive Hurons under
the guns of Montreal ; killed the governor of Three Rivers
in a sortie he made against them; attacked the laboring
colonists in their fields, murdered isolated individuals, and
desolated the country with their pillagings. They carried
on this system of hostilities with such untiring perseverance,
that, as a writer of that time informs us : " Hardly do these

222 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
savages let us pass a day without alarms. They are ever
at our skirts; no month passes that our bills of mortality
do not show, in lines of blood, indications of the deadly
nature of their inroads." It was no longer safe for the
colonists to go about their affairs without being armed.
Often the inhabitants had to intrench themselves in their
houses or abandon them. Hand-to-hand fights between
small parties of whites and squads of hovering Indians took
place almost every day, and occasionally several times in
the same day.
In 1653, wnen the colony was in the depressed condition
described as the result of the war waged by the Iroquois,
these Indians, from some motive which was not at first
understood, sent an embassy to the French to treat for
peace. Although the latter had but little faith in the per
manency of such agreement, they accepted the proffer and
entered into a treaty. It was at this time that the Iroquois
had commenced their war upon the Erie and Susquehanna
tribes. These Indians, it. seems, had begun to act as inter
mediaries in the trade between the western tribes and the
Dutch, thus depriving the Iroquois of the profits of this
commerce as middlemen. Moreover, it is probable that the
attempt of the Susquehannas to aid Champlain in his last
expedition had not been forgotten. Although the French
expected but little quiet from this peace agreement, they
deemed it wise to use the time it might last in improving
their condition ; hence, when they understood the real object
of the Iroquois, they encouraged them in their warring with
the two tribes, hoping that it would at least prolong their
own peace.
This respite was of short duration; for the Iroquois,
whose thirst for blood could not be restrained, soon re
newed their depredations and were even secretly plotting
an attack on Quebec. The Onondagas, professing extreme
friendship for the French, petitioned M. de Lauson to form
an establishment in their country. The offer was unwisely
accepted, and in 1656 Captain Dupuis was sent thither,

THE INDIANS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE 223
with fifty followers, as pioneers of the undertaking. But
they had hardly begun to form their settlement, when the
Onondagas became jealous of them and resolved upon their
destruction. The plot was revealed by a dying Indian ; and
it was chiefly by the shrewd management of a Frenchman,
who had been adopted by an Indian, that they succeeded
in making their escape. According to the Jesuit Rela
tion [1657], the real object of the Onondagas in asking for
this settlement, professing at the same time an earnest desire
to be Christianized, was to obtain firearms and to get the
French workmen to repair those which were out of order,
"and this obtained," adds the writer, then to "massacre
them all."
Again it became unsafe in the French settlements to
labor in the fields unarmed or to travel without an escort;
the Huron settlement on the island of Orleans was raided
by a band of Mohawks, the governor insulted by Mohawk
delegates; and a palisaded post at the foot of Long-Sault
was attacked unawares by a party of five or six hundred
Iroquois, and the seventeen French and fifty Indian allies
slaughtered. These hostilities continued until 1662, when
three of the tribes — the Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca —
entered into another treaty of peace with the French, though
the latter put little faith in their promises.
The Mohawk and Oneida Indians, who had not joined
in the treaty of peace, continued their hostile operations.
For the purpose of impressing the Iroquois with the
power of the growing colony, De Courcelle, in January,
1666, though midwinter, undertook a reconnaissance ofthe
Mohawk country. As the Indians had obtained knowledge
of the approach of the French army, their villages were
found deserted. The army was therefore forced to return
without striking an effective blow. This was followed by
another expedition against the Mohawk towns during the
same year, under command of Tracy. The commander's
hope of surprising the first town they approached was dis
appointed by the indiscreet haste of some Algonquin allies,

224

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

who thereby gave the alarm. Only a small number of old
men, women, and children, who were unable to follow the
rest in their flight, were found; these were made prisoners.
" They found," says the record, " well-built cabins neatly
adorned. Some were a hundred and twenty feet long and
wide in proportion, all covered with boards within and
without." — (Charlevoix, iii, 91.)
The first towns were reduced to ashes. Two others were
further off; the first of these was found deserted; it was
only as they approached the second that they saw any indi
cations of resistance. But the bold display of the French
frightened the savages, who fled, although this town was
defended by a triple palisade twenty feet high, with four
bastions. All the towns were destroyed, not a single cabin
was left standing; the country was devastated. Although
the Indians had escaped with their lives, the effect upon
them was equal to a defeat in battle ; their surprise at the
French force was evident from the fact that this tribe, one
of the boldest of the confederacy, was unwilling, even when
in its chief stronghold, to test the strength of the invaders.
As a result, a Mohawk embassy came to Quebec the fol
lowing year to sue for peace, and a treaty was made which
brought quiet to the colony for twenty years.
The discoveries of the French in the west, and their
increasing intercourse with the tribes of this distant region,
aroused the jealousy of the Iroquois and New Yorkers, lest
the fur trade should be diverted to the French. This would
lose the trade to the English, and the profits to the Iroquois
as middlemen. The latter adopted their usual method of
preventing such diversion, and there is little doubt that the
former encouraged them.
In 1684, the Iroquois were again in active hostility
against the French allies. War parties of the Senecas were
moving westward, followed, it is said, by English traders
desirous of reaping profit through extended trade relations
with the Shawnee and other western tribes. This expe
dition was directed against the Illinois Indians and against

THE INDIANS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE 225
Fort St. Louis, which the French had established on Illinois
River to defend their allies of this region. De Baugis, who
was in command of Fort St. Louis, and De Tonty, who was
present when the attack was made, succeeded after several
days' resistance in repelling the assailants.
The French were now convinced that it was necessary
to deal the confederates a heavy and sudden blow if they
hoped to retain their prestige. However, La Barre, who was
then governor of the colony, was unequal to the occasion,
though strongly urged to vigorous action by the colonists.
The Iroquois, who seemed to understand the man they had
to deal with, when they saw approaching their territory the
army of French and their allies, which public sentiment had
compelled La Barre to gather, managed by a patched-up
peace to induce him to withdraw. And yet the treaty failed
to cover the chief point at issue, the Senecas refusing to
refrain from destroying the western allies if they found it
possible to do so. La Barre appeared to be ignorant of or
wholly insensible to the fact that the real contest was with
Dongan, Governor of New York, a man of superior ability.
The affairs of the colony when La Barre was superseded
by Denonville as governor [1685] were in an unsatisfactory
condition. It was not until 1687 that Denonville was in a position
to march against the Five Nations. Intending to direct his
attack against the Senecas, who were the chief transgressors,
and of the five tribes the worst disposed toward the French
at this time, he landed at Fort Frontenac as his base of
operations. On July 1 2th the army began to march inland; ere the
day was over, the van, consisting chiefly of Indian allies,
was attacked by an ambush of three hundred Senecas, but
these were dispersed by the regular troops, who soon came
upon the scene. Next day, when they arrived at the Indian
town, they found it deserted and in ashes; only the gran
aries remained standing; these were given to the flames,
the standing crops destroyed, the live stock slaughtered,

226 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
and the country ravaged for ten days. No opposing force
appeared, the whole population having abandoned the coun
try, some taking refuge with the Cayugas, while others fled
across the mountains southward, leaving the stragglers, it is
said, to die on the way. For some unexplained reason, the.
governor, instead of following up this success and attacking
other cantons, dismissed a part of his army and turned his
face homeward.
Although this was a heavy blow to the Indians, the result
failed to meet expectations. The French had hardly de
parted before the fugitives returned to their accustomed
haunts, and the confederates, instead of being humbled, re
newed hostilities with increased vigor. "Their invasions,"
says Garneau (i, 288), "now attained a more sanguinary
and devastating character than ever before. Their reprisals
on the frontier were terrible, and put the whole colony in
a state of consternation. With unappeasable rage in their
hearts, these barbarians desolated all western Canada with
fire and hatchet." In 1688, they retaliated by falling upon
the settlement at Lachine, where three or four hundred
were killed or taken prisoners. Again, in 1689, twelve
hundred strong, they ravaged the vicinity of Montreal up to
the very fortifications, carrying off two hundred prisoners.
The losses on the side of the French amounted to a total
of one thousand ; and although Frontenac, in the same year,
sent a force of six hundred against them, destroying three
villages and taking three hundred prisoners, the Five Nations
remained virtually masters of all Canada, from Montreal to
Lake Huron. In 1696, Frontenac, in personal command
of the French forces, overran the Onondaga and Oneida
territory, destroying the villages and crops. This final
stroke resulted in a peace which continued until Canada
was acquired by the English in 1763.
No history of the Iroquois, though but a brief sketch,
would be complete without reference to at least the more
important features of their governmental system, and to
their customs and characteristics. These, together with their

THE INDIANS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE 227
early acquisition of firearms, furnished the key to their suc
cess as a people.
At the time of Champlain's appearance on the scene
[1609], the permanent possession or local habitat of the
Iroquois tribes extended east and west, as already stated,
across what is now the state of New York from Hudson
River to the Genesee, and forty years later to the Niagara.
This country was spoken of by the natives as the " Long
House," or, in their language, " Kanonsionni " or " Hodeno-
saunee," the door being at the west end. At this end
dwelt the Seneca tribe, who were termed in this symbolical
representation the doorkeepers; next to them on the east
were the Cayuga; and following in the same direction, the
Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk tribes. A modification
resulted on the admission of the Tuscaroras into the con
federacy in 1 7 14; these, occupying a district in the south
part of the Oneida territory, became the sixth member.
Although the relative positions of the five original tribes
were the result of actual settlement preceding the forma
tion of the League heretofore mentioned, the theoretic
arrangement was in consequence of it, the one continuous
house being a symbol of union. As the Onondaga family
or tribe, in the original arrangement, occupied the central
position, it was here that the great or general council of the
confederacy was held, and where the common fire was
kindled. The confederacy was called " Kayanerenkowa," or
"great peace." In addition to the objects mentioned— —offen
sive and defensive purposes — the confederation included the
idea of closer social union on the basis of intertribal rela
tionship, thereby consolidating them into a more homoge
neous body. Morgan (League of the Iroquois, 92) seems to
accept the boast of the Iroquois that the great object of
their confederacy was peace — " to break up the spirit of per
petual warfare, which had wasted the red race from age to
age." It is evident from the part of their history already
given that this claim must be taken with many grains of
allowance.

228 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
The political organization was in some respects peculiar.
Although the confederacy consisted originally of but five
tribal members, the government rested in a general coun
cil composed of fifty representatives, who were hereditary
chiefs. These, however, were not distributed equally
among the tribes or according to population. Nine were
allowed from the Mohawk tribe, nine from the Oneida,
fourteen from the Onondaga, ten from the Cayuga, and
eight from the Seneca, though the last was the most popu
lous member of the confederacy. Notwithstanding this
disparity in the number of representatives in the general
council, it was held that the several tribes " occupied posi
tions of entire equality in the League, in rights, privileges,
and obligations"; for questions were not decided by a
majority vote of the representatives in the council, as each
nation had an equal voice in the decision.
Chadwick (Long House) says there were five classes of
chiefs, the head chiefs, warrior chiefs, pinetree chiefs,
war chiefs, and honorary chiefs ; but this statement taken in
full applies to very modern times, as "honorary chiefs" is
a mere name imposed with certain formalities, and the
head or peace chiefs and war chiefs were the only regular
officers of this class. The head chiefs, or sachems, — as
Morgan terms them, — composing the general council were
the original councillors, and were not chiefs in the true
sense of the term, their power to act officially being only
in concert with their compeers. Their function was, how
ever, dual. In the general council they acted as representa
tives of the whole confederacy and not of a particular tribe ;
but within the limits of their own tribe the same sachems
formed the ruling bodies. Thus the nine representatives
of the Oneidas to the general council formed, when apart
from the others and within their own territory, the council
and ruling body of that tribe; in other words, the councils
of the different tribes when brought together according to
the rules of the League formed the great council. The
government was therefore oligarchical in form.

THE INDIANS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE

229

These sachemships were hereditary, the descent being in
the female line; and each of the fifty had a special title
assigned it, which was assumed by the person installed,
and thereafter became his individual name. Hence, from
generation to generation the persons holding a particular
sachemship had the same name; thus the first sachem of
the Onondagas has from time immemorial been known by
the name Atotarho, or Tododaho. The functions of these
sachems related to civil affairs. However, notwithstanding
the statement of authorities to this effect, there appear to
have been occasions when the confederate council took
upon itself the decision of questions relating to war. As
an instance may be cited the question as to taking sides with
the English or the Colonists in the Revolution. Finding
it impossible to come to an agreement, the council finally
decided to suspend the rule requiring unanimity, and leave
each tribe to act on its own responsibility. Morgan also
admits that the war on the French, "which they waged
with such indomitable courage and perseverance for so many
years," was resolved upon by the sachems in general council,
as was that against the Eries. It is apparent, therefore,
that the powers of the general council included that of
deciding for or against war, though no individual sachem
by virtue of his position assumed command of the military
forces; only two exceptions to this rule are recorded sub
sequent to the first — and possibly mythical — Atotarho.
"Next to the sachems in position," following Morgan,
" stood the ' chiefs,' an inferior class of rulers." Chadwick
gives them the name "warrior chiefs."
In the later days of the confederacy another class of
officers, known as " pinetree chiefs," came into existence.
They were sometimes designated " self-made chiefs," though
they had a seat in the council. These were men whose
abilities or acquirements brought them into prominence and
rendered them useful members of the council, where they
held the same status as sachems, but the office generally
died with the individual. The celebrated Joseph Brant was

230 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
only a pinetree chief; in this case, however, the office was
made hereditary.
War chiefs, though regular officers, held their positions
but temporarily and while acting as leaders in war enter
prises. Of the less important tribes of the eastern section with
whom the French had more or less intimate relations, the
following may be mentioned:
The Beothuks, constituting, according to Major J. W.
Powell (Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn., 57), a distinct
family, — probably first seen by Cabot in 1497 and subse
quently met with by Cartier in 1534, — resided on the island
of Newfoundland. It is probable that at the time of
Cabot's discovery they occupied the whole island; but a
century and a quarter later they appear to have abandoned
the southern portion on account of continued attacks by the
Micmacs and of European settlements, retiring to the north
ern and eastern sections. About the commencement of the
eighteenth century, the southwestern portion of the island
was colonized by the Micmacs. In consequence of the
warfare waged against them by these Indian and European
invaders, the Beothuks rapidly wasted in numbers, and their
territory was soon limited to a small area about Exploits
River. The tribe was finally lost sight of about 1827,
having become extinct; or possibly a few survivors may
have crossed to the Labrador coast and joined the Nascapes,
with whom they had always been on friendly terms.
At the time the French made their first attempts to plant
settlements on the coast region along the south side of
Gulf of St. Lawrence, there were three tribes of Indians
in possession of the area embraced in the present Nova
Scotia — then Acadia — and New Brunswick. These were
the Micmacs, called by the early explorers the Souriquois,
inhabiting Nova Scotia and a part of the gulf coast of New
Brunswick, also the neighboring islands; the Malecites,
located along St. John's River; and the Passamaquoddies,
extending from St. Croix River to Passamaquoddy Bay.

THE INDIANS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE 231
These three tribes belonged to the Algonquian family and
were most closely related to the Abnaki Indians of Maine,
and are often classed as a part of that group, especially the
last two, as noticed in a previous chapter.
The first contact of the Micmacs with the French was
when Cartier visited the coast of Nova Scotia in 1534.
However, continued intercourse between the two peoples
did not begin until some seventy years later, when in 1604
Sieur de Monts attempted to plant a colony on the coast at
Port Royal. The French were kindly received by them,
and permitted to settle upon their land without objection ; and
thus were commenced friendly relations between them,
which, notwithstanding the struggles and misfortunes of
the colony, were maintained throughout with a few unim
portant interruptions. The history of these Indians for the
next eighty years, save their contests with other tribes, con
sists chiefly of the assistance rendered the French in their
conflicts with the English of Boston. This firm friend
ship of these Indians for the French was largely due to
the numerous marriages of Frenchmen to Micmac women.
The wife of the Baron de Saint-Castine already mentioned,
a prominent character in the early history of this region,
was a daughter of one of the chiefs.
At the time of their discovery the Micmacs appear to
have been at war with the Eskimo, passing in their canoes
to the north shore of Gulf of St. Lawrence to attack
them. They also made war upon the Beothuks of New
foundland, driving them from the southern and western
sections and planting a colony there. They were brought
under the influence of Catholic missionaries at an early
day. The office of sachem or chief has never been heredi
tary among them, this officer having been elected, generally,
from among those with large families.
It is said that these Indians and some of the allied tribes
had in use, at the time of discovery, a system of hiero
glyphic or symbolic writing. This system, it is asserted,
had made such a near approach to true writing that the

232

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

Indians were accustomed to send to others pieces of bark
marked with these signs and receive in return answers
written in the same manner. Three books written with
these characters, consisting of prayers, masses, and a cate
chism, two of them done by an Indian, are reported to be
in existence ; these two Rev. Eugene Vetromile ( The Abnakis
and their History, 1866) says are in his possession.
The Malecites, or Maliseets, were the same as the Etche-
mins of the early writers. Biard, in his Relation (p. 14),
estimates the Etchemins at that time [161 1?] at one thou
sand persons, and the Micmacs at two thousand. How
ever, as there is but little history of the Malecites and
Passamaquoddies separate from that of the Abnakis, it has
been given under the latter in a preceding chapter.
The whole of the immense territory of the Labrador
peninsula, equalling in size the British Isles, France, and
Prussia combined, is, or at least was in i860, thinly peopled
by nomadic bands of Montagnais, Nascapes, Mistassins,
and Swampy Cree Indians, and along the northern coasts
by wandering Eskimo.
The Montagnais, who are mentioned as among the allies
of Champlain in his expeditions against the Iroquois, were,
in fact, a group of closely related small tribes living, at the
time the French entered upon the scene, along the north
shore of the St. Lawrence from the vicinity of Quebec
almost to Straits of Belle Isle, and back northward to
the watershed dividing the waters of the St. Lawrence from
those of the streams flowing northward. These tribes
are frequently mentioned by the early French writers as
Bersiamites, Chisedecs, Tadousacs, Papinachois, etc., and
collectively as the Lower Algonquins.
The Montagnais of Canada must be distinguished from
the tribe of the same name in the Rocky Mountain region
of British America, belonging to the Athapascan stock.
Their history during the struggles of the colony is too
completely involved in that of the other Algonquins to be
separated therefrom in a general history. When not forced

THE INDIANS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE 233
to fly to the northern wilds by the attacks of the Iroquois,
they usually gathered during a part of the year about the
mission at Tadousac, which place began to be visited by
missionaries at an early date, but the permanent mission
was not established there until 1640. During the winter
the missionaries usually followed their flocks upon their
hunting expeditions toward the northern interior. The
mission records speak of the attendance of the Montagnais
at this station at various times up to 1782. Mention is
also made of their almost constant wars in early days, and
even in later years, with the Eskimo, who bordered them on
the east. These were usually brought on in contests for
control of the estuaries of rivers known to be favorite
haunts of the seal, and most of the conflicts between them
have occurred about these places. Nevertheless, a deadly
enmity between the two peoples has existed from time
immemorial. We are also informed that when the feeble
nation known as Attikamegues, or White Fish, dwelling in
the forests north of Three Rivers, had been hunted out
by the Iroquois and well-nigh exterminated, the remnant
fled to the embrace of the Montagnais, their near relatives.
Parkman, speaking of the Montagnais (The Jesuits in
North America, xxiii, 1867), says: "They were of the
lowest Algonquin type. Their ordinary sustenance was
derived from the chase; though often, goaded by deadly
famine, they would subsist on roots, the bark and buds of
trees, or the foulest offal." Gabriel Sagard, the first to
write of the Huron nation, seems to have entertained the
same opinion in regard to them.
In 1812, their number was estimated at 1,500; in 1857,
at 1,100; in 1884, they were officially reported as number
ing 1,395 souls, located at Betsiamits, Escoumains, Grand
Romaine, Lake St. John, and Mingan, Canada. According
to the Canadian Indian report for 1888, they numbered at
that time 1,919, showing an increase.
These Indians are described as having characteristics and
customs similar in many respects to those of the western

234

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

Crees, with whom they are closely related ethnically. They
count descent in the female line. Cartwright, describing
them in 1786 (Sixteen Tears on the Coast of Labrador), says
they traverse the interior in the summer by the assistance of
canoes covered with birch rinds, and with rackets, or snow-
shoes, in the winter. Although the gun was at that time
their chief weapon, they made use of the bow and arrow to
kill the moose. As they never stay long in a place, " they
never build houses, but live the year round in miserable
wigwams, the coverings of which are deerskins and birch-
rinds." The Nascape territory, or range, lay north of the Mon
tagnais country, chiefly on the headwaters of the streams
running north, especially those of Koksoak River, which
empties into Ungava Bay. Mr. Henry Y. Hind, who
visited the interior of Labrador in 1861 (The Labrador
Peninsula), describes the country of these Indians as ex
tending from Lake Mistassini to the Atlantic coast of the
Labrador peninsula, a distance exceeding eight hundred
miles. Their home is the interior tableland, it being only
in recent years that they have visited the coast and shores of
the Gulf and River St. Lawrence in considerable numbers.
The nomadic character of these Indians is indicated
by the reply given to Hind when he inquired of a native in
the interior their position at that time. He said fourteen
families were at Petichikapau ; that the others were beyond,
toward Eskimo Bay [Hamilton Inlet] and Northwest River;
and far away toward Ungava Bay, and on the other side
toward Hudson's Bay.
It is the belief prevalent among them that they were
driven to their present northern locality by the Iroquois,
who formerly waged war against them. But their locality
at that time is not given; however, they assert that their
original home was in a country to the west, north of a great
river, and to the east of them lay a great body of salt water,
the position being apparently to the west of Hudson's Bay.
When they reached their present habitats they found no

THE INDIANS OF THE ST. LAWRENCE 235
inhabitants save the Eskimo, who resided along the coast,
chiefly along Hudson's Strait. For a while they remained
in friendly relations with these coast Indians, but quarrels
at length ensued and brought on war, which lasted for many
years. Since the advent of white traders in that region
peace has been restored.
There seems to have been but little intercourse between
the French and the Nascapes during the control of the
former, the names of these Indians appearing but few times
in the history of the colony. It is possible that the Indians
seen by Gasper Cortereal in 1499, seven of whom were car
ried by him to Portugal, were of this tribe, as the description
given will not apply to the Eskimo.
In the report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs of
Canada for 1858 is the following statement regarding the
Nascapes and Mistassins:
To the tribes above enumerated we may add the Misstassins and
Nasquapees, on the Lower St. Lawrence. The latter are akin to the
Montagnais, and number about 2,500, of whom 1,500 are still pagans.
This tribe acknowledge a Superior Being, who they say lives in the sun
and moon. In this respect their legends correspond with the Ottawas.
To this Deity they sacrifice a portion of everything they kill. They are
clothed altogether in furs and deer skins, and are described as being most
filthy in their habits. Their only weapons are the bow and arrow, and
they resort to the use of the drill for the purpose of igniting their fires.
The Nepissings, with the exception of a brief period,
have resided, since they were first brought to the notice of
the whites by Champlain in 161 5, about the lake of the
same name at the head of Ottawa River. From their ad
diction to the practice of magic, they received the name of
"Sorcerers," and are frequently referred to in the early
.records by this name. In the seventeenth century they
ranged northward, in their hunting and marauding expedi
tions, to the vicinity of Hudson's Bay. It has been supposed
that their earliest habitat was on the banks of the St. Law
rence; but there is no evidence to support this view, which
probably arose from the fact that about the close of the war

236 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
between the Hurons and the Iroquois they descended to the
St. Lawrence and remained there for a brief period.
The voyager Jean Nicolet lived among them for a time
previous to 1632. The next we hear of them is in 1637,
when they were visited by the missionaries Gamier and
Chastelain, whose only reward was much suffering and the
privilege of baptizing a few dying infants. In 1650,
the Iroquois succeeded in penetrating to their northern home,
and, having massacred a large number of them, forced the
rest to seek safety by flight to more northern regions. Pre
ferring, from being long accustomed thereto, the waterside,
they chose as their retreat the shores of Lake Alimbe-
gong [Nepigon], where they remained until 1667, when
they returned to their accustomed haunts about the waters
of Lake Nepissing.
Their history appears to have been, to a large extent,
embraced without distinction in that of other Algonquin
tribes. In 1662, during their forced retirement, while
on one of their expeditions they joined a party of Saul-
teurs [Chippewas] in a successful attack upon a band of
Iroquois encamped on the shore of Lake Superior near its
lower extremity. Shortly after this, they united with the
White Fish Indians, the Montagnais, and a band of Mic
macs, constituting a party of four or five hundred warriors,
to make an attack upon the Iroquois. This project, how
ever, soon came to naught because of their inability to agree
upon a leader. It does not appear that they were attacked
after 1 67 1 by the Iroquois. The Nepissings were always
firm friends of the French.
According to the report of the Commissioner of Cana
dian Indian Affairs for 1897, there were then living on the
reservation at Lake Nepissing one hundred and ninety-three
persons of this tribe, but there were others at other points,
the numbers of which are not given under the tribal name.
Those on the reserve at Lake Nepissing are all Roman
Catholics, and have an excellent church, and also a school
under a female teacher.

CHAPTER XI
THE INDIAN HISTORY OF THE OHIO VALLEY; OR,
THE BORDER WARS
It is a singular fact that the valley of the Ohio, one of
the most productive and attractive sections east of the Mis
sissippi, one in which the evidences of a former population
are most abundant, was inhabited by no native tribe at the
time it first became known to Europeans and for a con
siderable period thereafter. The Indian history of the
region is peculiar in the fact that it is not the history of
any distinct tribe or tribes, but of the meeting of the clans,
the battles of the nations. It is only when we go back
to the traditionary era, or come down to later years when
tribes, feeling the pressure of the growing white settlements,
retired hither to find less disturbed hunting grounds, that
any Indians had their homes in this section. The area now
included in West Virginia has never, within the range of
history, been the permanent home of a single Indian tribe ;
bands have resided temporarily within its limits, but it was
not the pristine habitat, the fixed seat, of any known tribe.
The state of Ohio, except along its lake border, was without
native settlements, from its discovery by Europeans until
after the commencement of the eighteenth century; and
the same was true of that part of Pennsylvania west of the
Alleghanies. Neither history nor tradition tells of any tribe
which had its seat in the area now included in the state of
Kentucky — save possibly the extension along the Cumber
land of the Shawnee settlements. 237

238 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Colonel M. F. Force, long a resident of Ohio and a
careful student of the early history of that section, remarks,
in his paper entitled Some Early Notices of the Indians of
Ohio : " In the latter half of the seventeenth century, after
the destruction of the Eries by the Five Nations, in 1656,
what is now the State of Ohio was uninhabited. The Miami
Confederacy, inhabiting the southern shore of Lake Michi
gan, extended southeasterly to the Wabash. The Illinois
Confederacy extended down the eastern shore of the Mis
sissippi to within about eighty miles of the Ohio. Hunting
parties of the Chickasaws roamed up the eastern shore of
the Mississippi to about where Memphis now stands. The
Cherokees occupied the slopes and valleys of the mountains
about the borders of what is now East Tennessee, North
Carolina, and Georgia. The great basin, bounded north by
Lake Erie, the Miamis, and the Illinois, west by the Missis
sippi, east by the Alleghanies, and south by the headwaters
of the streams that flow into the Gulf of Mexico, seems to
have been uninhabited except by bands of Shawnees, and
scarcely visited except by war parties of the Five Nations."
During the first half of the eighteenth century, tribes from
other sections pushed into its limits across its three open
borders, — east, west, and south.
It is in this region that the prehistoric merges into the his
toric, the traditional into the real. Although its interior was
the last region east of the Mississippi to be penetrated by ex
plorers, the blended rays of history and reliable tradition reach
back to a date which precedes that of De Soto's expedition, and
enable us to judge perhaps more correctly of the early move
ments of tribes in the interior than any other available data.
Brief mention has been made [Chapter VI.] of the tradi
tion of the Delawares regarding the migration which brought
them into their historic seats. Following this tradition,
it is apparent that they passed through Ohio from west
to east, encountering during their passage the Tallega, or
Talegwi, with whom for a time they engaged in a fierce
war, ultimately driving these enemies southward. It is now

INDIAN HISTORY OF THE OHIO VALLEY 239
generally conceded that the people mentioned as the Tallega
or Talegwi were Cherokees ; hence, if the tradition be ac
cepted, we must locate the Cherokees at an early date in the
valley of the upper Ohio. The Cherokees had a tradition
that they formerly lived on the Ohio, or upper Ohio, and
migrated thence to their home in western North Carolina
and east Tennessee. Nor is this without further corrobora
tion, as Loskiel, writing in 1778, says that about eighty years
before his time, on the whites settling on the coast, the Dela
wares came to Ohio, drove the Cherokees away, and settled
on Beaver Creek. The date given is clearly erroneous, but
the tradition indicates a remembrance on the part of the
Delawares of having driven the Cherokees from Ohio.
The tradition is given at an earlier date and more con
sistently by Rev. Charles Beaty in his Journal of a Two
Months' Tour [1767]. In this — as stated in a previous
chapter [VI.] — he says, their tradition is that they "came
to Delaware River, where they settled three hundred and
seventy years ago," which would carry back the date of
their settlement to the closing years of the fourteenth cen
tury. Although their progress from the Ohio to the Dela
ware must have required several years, ample time is allowed
for the settlement of the Cherokees in their historic seats
before the date of De Soto's expedition [1540].
These traditions have been referred to as furnishing some
grounds for believing that the upper Ohio Valley was, at an
early date, occupied by the Cherokee tribe, a member of
the Iroquoian family. The Eries, another branch of the
same stock, passed to the south side of Lake Erie either
before or soon after their expulsion. It is therefore prob
able that the section vacated by the Cherokees remained
practically uninhabited until tribes began to enter it in his
toric times. The supposition that it was occupied at an
early day by the Shawnees, who were driven out by the
Iroquois, will be referred to in another chapter.
Another tribe mentioned which belongs to the traditional
era is the Akansea — known at a later date as Akansa or

240

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

Quapaw, of Arkansas, living on the Ouabache [Wabash],
From the fact that the name "Ouabache" was sometimes
applied to the lower Ohio, this tradition — which appears to
be based on fact — is made to do duty as evidence that the
Akansea — or Quapaw, a Siouan tribe — formerly resided
on the upper Ohio. That this is evidently an error will
be shown hereafter when the history of the Quapaws is
given. In entering upon the actual history of this region it is
necessary to drop for a time tribal distinctions, as the story
is of the gathering of the clans in their efforts to stop the
tide of white immigration that was sweeping westward.
But the beginning of the struggle relates not so much to the
history of the Indians as to the contest between the two
great European powers in which the prize sought was the
controlling influence in North America. The chess board
embraced the great areas drained by the St. Lawrence and
the Ohio, and armies were the pieces with which the game
was to be played. Montreal, Niagara, and the upper Ohio
were the points of vantage; the control of the Ohio hung
chiefly upon the retention of the point where the Alle
ghany and the Monongahela unite their waters to form the
"Beautiful River." The Indians were the accessories in
this great contest.
During the years 1751 to 1753, the Indians of Ohio,
alarmed at the movements of the French, which indicated
taking possession of their country, sent appeals to the Eng
lish to come to their defence. The Weas and Piankishaws
signed articles of peace and alliance with the English, the
Shawnees sent in their warning message, and the Miamis
declared their adherence to the English and hurried an
express messenger across the mountains to Dinwiddie,
Governor of Virginia, with the warning: "We must look
upon ourselves as lost, if our brothers the English do not
stand by us and give us arms." Delay in heeding these ap
peals allowed the French to seize upon the vantage points,
and when the conflict came the colonists were accompanied

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INDIAN HISTORY OF THE OHIO VALLEY 241
by but few Indian allies; while those who had joined the
French — Ottawas, Abnakis, Ojibwas [Chippewas], Hu
rons, and Conewangos — turned the scale, and Braddock was
slain and his army defeated. Of his eighty-six officers
only twenty-three remained unhurt, and of twelve hundred
soldiers who crossed the Monongahela more than seven
hundred were killed or wounded.
The results of this defeat, attributable chiefly to the total
inefficiency of General Braddock, were disastrous, for the
border settlements of the provinces had to endure the mis
eries of an Indian war. The tribes who had stood aloof,
watching the issue of the contest, wavering as to the party —
French or English — with which they should cast their lot,
hesitated no longer. Their appeals to the English had been
neglected, and even the offers of some to join Braddock's
army had been rejected. "It is not in Indian nature," re
marks Parkman, "to stand quiet in the midst of war; and
the defeat of Braddock was a signal for the western savages
to snatch their tomahawks and assail the English settlements
with one accord; to murder and pillage with ruthless fury,
and turn the whole frontier of Pennsylvania and Virginia
into one wide scene of woe and desolation." Some of the
results which occurred east of the mountains have already
been mentioned.
Throughout the territory now included in West Virginia
and along the western border of Pennsylvania, murders
were committed by small roving bands with such alarming
frequency as to keep the settlers in constant fear, and to
drive many to seek refuge in the forts or other places of
security; those in the more exposed localities abandoned
their homes and stock to the mercy of the savage invaders.
The Delawares of the Ohio, who had been friendly to the
English before Braddock's defeat, and whose service had
been rejected by that self-willed, inefficient leader, were
now assisting the savage Shawnees in their work of murder
and devastation. The border became a waste, the silence
broken only by the warwhoop of the Indians.

242 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
The time had come for an upward turn of the wheel of
fortune; but the progress was interrupted by blunders. In
1757, Colonel Armstrong, at the head of about three hun
dred volunteers, made an incursion into the Indian country
and attacked a town, probably Delaware, killing forty, and
rescuing eleven prisoners. The next step, however, was
one of ill fortune. The site of Fort Du Quesne and the
surrounding area seem to have been for a time fatal ground
to the English. The retention of this fort as the key to
the Ohio valley was necessary to the control of that vast
area. General Forbes was placed in command of the forces
despatched to retake the fort. Major Grant was sent for
ward to reconnoitre. Having reached a hill near the fort
during the night and posted his men, he awaited the dawn.
The silence which reigned in the fort was imputed by this
too confident officer to the terror inspired by his appearance
on the scene, and with more parade than prudence he ordered
the reveille to be sounded. But the calm, unfortunately for
himself and troop, proved to be the precursor of a storm
which burst forth with resistless fury. Hardly had the alarm
been sounded before the French and Indians rushed from
the fort, spreading death and dismay among the provincial
troops, who were unable to withstand the fierce onset of
the savages that led in the attack with deafening yells. The
rout of the English was complete; no quarter was given by
the Indians, who brooked no control, but exercised every
cruelty that savage ferocity could inflict upon those who
fell into their hands. Major Grant and Major Lewis —
second in command — saved themselves only by surrendering
to French officers. Twenty officers and two hundred and
seventy-three privates were killed and taken prisoners in
this fatal action. When General Forbes reached the fort,
he found it abandoned. Taking possession, he repaired
and garrisoned it, and renamed it Fort Pitt, in honor of the
statesman so prominent at that day in the British Parliament.
The moral effect of the capture and garrisoning of this
fort was greater than a defeat in single battle of the French

INDIAN HISTORY OF THE OHIO VALLEY 243
in this region would have been. Not only did it diffuse a
general joy through the colonies, but it caused the ever
fickle savages to hesitate and forecast the probable issue.
Even before the fort was captured, the approach of the
army under General Forbes caused the Indians of Ohio to
waver in their attachment to the French ; and during the
autumn they sent deputies to Easton, where a great council
was held and a formal peace was concluded. The close
of the struggle of the two great powers was at hand, and
in 1763 Canada passed under English control and French
dominion in North America was ended.
Before proceeding with the Indian history of the Ohio
valley and adjoining regions, we quote from Parkman's
Conspiracy of Pontiac the following statement in reference to
the Indian population of this region at the close of the war :
So thin and scattered was the native population, that, even in those
parts which were thought well peopled, one might sometimes journey
for days together through the twilight forest, and meet no human form.
Broad tracts were left in solitude. All Kentucky was a vacant waste,
a mere skirmishing ground for the hostile war-parties of the north and
south. A great part of Upper Canada, of Michigan, and of Illinois,
besides other portions of the west, were tenanted by wild beasts alone.
To form a close estimate of the numbers of the erratic bands who
roamed this wilderness would be impossible ; but it may be affirmed
that, between the Mississippi on the west and the ocean on the east,
between the Ohio on the south and Lake Superior on the north, the
whole Indian population, at the close of the French war, did not greatly
exceed ten thousand fighting men. Of these, following the statement
of Sir William Johnson, in 1763, the Iroquois had nineteen hundred
and fifty, the Delawares about six hundred, the Shawanoes about three
hundred, the Wyandots about four hundred and fifty, and the Miami
tribes, with their neighbors the Kickapoos, eight hundred ; while the
Ottawas, the Ojibwas, and other wandering tribes of the north, defy all
efforts at enumeration.
His further statement in regard to the distribution of the
tribes in this region may be added to complete the picture:
" Detached bands of the western Iroquois dwelt upon the
head waters of the Alleghany, mingled with their neighbors,
the Delawares, who had several villages upon this stream.

244

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

The great body of the latter nation, however, lived upon the
Beaver Creeks and the Muskingum in numerous scattered
towns and hamlets. . . . The Shawanoes had sixteen
small villages upon the Scioto and its branches. Farther
toward the west, on the waters of the Wabash and the
Maumee, dwelt the Miamis, who, less exposed, from their
position, to the poison of the whiskey keg, and the example
of debauched traders, retained their ancient character and
customs in greater purity than their eastern neighbors.
This cannot be said of the Illinois, who dwelt near the
borders of the Mississippi, and who, having lived more than
half a century in close contact with the French, had become
a corrupt and degenerate race. The Wyandots of San
dusky and Detroit far surpassed the surrounding tribes in
energy of character and social progress."
Although this is intended only as a broad and general
statement, and any omissions are covered by the concluding
sentence of the paragraph : " It is needless to pursue farther
this catalogue of tribes," etc., — the reader, taking it in con
nection with the previously quoted paragraph, is, unless ac
quainted with Indian history, liable to draw therefrom an
erroneous conclusion. That the statements in their broad
sense are substantially correct — as is true in general of the
statements of this able writer — is admitted, but to what
extent the unnamed tribes are included under the Miamis
and Kickapoos is uncertain. Johnson does not mention the
Illinois in his enumeration, yet we learn from the report
of Lieutenant Fraser (1766, Indiana Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. ii,
No. 2, 1894) that "the Illinois Indians are about six hun
dred and fifty able to bear arms." The Mascoutens and
Potawatomies are omitted, though the former may possibly
be included under " Miamis and Kickapoos." Sir William
Johnson, as we have seen, estimates the fighting men of
the Miami tribes and the Kickapoos at about eight hundred;
whereas, if we refer to Croghan's Journal, 37, and take
his estimate, including the Mascoutens and Potawatomies,
we find it reaches to nineteen hundred fighting men, and

INDIAN HISTORY OF THE OHIO VALLEY 245
Bouquet's estimate (Bouquet's Expedition, 1545) raises the
number to thirty-two hundred. The estimate by George
Imlay ( Topographical Description of the Western Territory)
agrees more nearly with that of Johnson, being equivalent to
about twelve hundred warriors ; though this applies to a little
later date, when the tribes had suffered further decrease
during the Pontiac war and subsequent hostilities.
These items are noted simply to emphasize the fact that
Dr. Parkman's statements in this regard must be accepted,
so far as population is concerned, only in the broad and
general sense in which they seem to be given. That there
were broad areas without inhabitants is true, but this was
true in many other regions, for it was usual to find the
population grouped at certain favorite points.
The conclusion of the war and treaty of peace between
France and England, with the loss to the former of its
territory, was, in the minds of the Indians, a heavy blow
to their hopes and future prospects. They could hardly
realize, notwithstanding the many rumors to that effect,
that their French father, who had furnished them powder
and ball, besides numerous trinkets and baubles, was for
ever divested of his power in America. The Algonquins
were wedded to the French, and a change of the ruling
power was distasteful to them. The stories of the many
French traders, who wandered from tribe to tribe plying
their avocation, which received assurance from the French
still holding posts in the west, that the vessels of their
father across the water would soon be moving up the Mis
sissippi and the St. Lawrence to stop the tide of English
immigrants who were preparing to cross the Ohio and pos
sess their lands, were believed by the Indians. The deep-
rooted hatred of the Indians for the English was intensified
by these stories, and when they beheld them taking pos
session of the forts and posts they looked upon this as the
first step of the programme. They were ripe for revolt;
it needed only a strong mind, an able leader, and an artful
schemer to blow the smoking embers into a blaze. The

246 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
occasion, in human affairs, usually brings forward the one
needed for the object in view; the rule did not fail to hold
good in this instance, — a leader was found in the person
of Pontiac.
Although the Indians of the Northwest were ill prepared
at the close of the French war to engage in a war with
the English, it must be admitted that the latter gave them
grounds for fighting. The French cherished them, treated
them as equals, lived side by side with them in harmony,
and pleased them with gifts and display. They were
traders, and not agriculturists; their object was the acquisi
tion of wealth by trade, and not by the acquisition of land.
The English were husbandmen and sought land for homes
and farms, and when obtained looked upon them as their
exclusive territory; and when the Indians invaded these
limits they were treated with a haughty opposition and
ordered away. But the chief cause of discontent among
the tribes was the intrusion of settlers upon their lands, at
all times a fruitful source of Indian hostility. Pontiac,
whose mind could grasp more fully than his people the
probable result of the transfer of control, warned them of
the danger of allowing the English to make permanent
settlements in their country, and counselled them to unite
in one great effort against this common foe. It is not
probable that he entertained the prevailing idea of the In
dians, that they, unaided, could drive the English from the
country, for he knew too well their military skill and power.
He believed the stories constantly dinned in his ears by the
remaining French, that a mighty army of their countrymen
was on its way to regain possession of their lost territory.
A wild enthusiast, as has so often happened in the history
of the world, arose among the Delawares at the proper
moment to aid in fanning the flame and in furthering the
designs of the arch conspirator. He claimed to have re
ceived his commission from the Great Spirit; and preached
the simplicity of former times when peace and plenty pre
vailed, and warned them if they would be acceptable to

INDIAN HISTORY OF THE OHIO VALLEY

247

the Great Spirit and expect success against their enemies
they must return to their primitive habits. He urged them
to cast aside the weapons and clothing they had received
from the whites, and take up again the bow and arrow and
spear, and dress as in former times, as this was to be the
starting point of success. His teachings were listened to
with eager ears, and people in bands came from distant
points to hear him. For the most part, his suggestions
were much regarded by the Indians; but they were well
aware that the weapons -of the white man could not be dis
pensed with. Though his words may have had but little
reason in them, they served well Pontiac's purpose to arouse
the nations and bring them to his aid in the great effort he
was planning. The time for slipping the leash and begin
ning the onslaught was fixed; May following [1763] was
agreed upon as the opportune moment. Messengers bearing
war belts and tomahawks stained red had been sent to all
the tribes from the upper lakes to the lower Mississippi.
The response was general, the hatchet was taken up and
aid pledged; and, with few exceptions, the Algonquins east
of the Mississippi and south of Ottawa River, the Wyan
dots, and the Senecas, and even some of the tribes of the
lower Mississippi, joined the movement.
Although so many had entered the plot, complete secrecy
of their design was maintained, and though, when enraged
by English insolence, now and then they would threaten the
officers with revenge, no warning of the impending danger,
with a single exception, was given until the plot burst forth
in death and devastation.
The scheme agreed upon was to attack the several Eng
lish forts — Pitt, Detroit, Presque Isle, Miami, and others —
simultaneously, the Indians of each section to attack the
fort in their vicinity ; then, the garrisons having been mas
sacred, the frontiers were next to be ravaged, and thus
the work was to progress. The great mass of the Indians,
having performed the war dance and wrought themselves
into a state of frenzied enthusiasm and thirst for blood, no

248 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
doubt looked forward to a victorious march to the sea,
marked with blood and ruin. Pontiac, who was an Ottawa
chief, directed his efforts against Detroit. Near the fort
were three large Indian villages ; one, of the Potawatomies,
located a little below the fort on the same side ofthe river;
one, of the Wyandots, on the Canada side ; and that of the
Ottawa band, where Pontiac had his home, on the same
side some distance up the river.
Early in March, 1763, Ensign Holmes, in command of
Fort Miami [Fort Wayne] , had been informed by a friendly
Indian that the warriors in a neighboring village had lately
received a war belt, with directions to them to destroy him
and the garrison. The commandant convened the In
dians and openly charged them with their design. They
confessed the truthfulness of the report, but declared the plot
had originated with a neighboring tribe, and promised to
abandon it. This was communicated to Major Gladwyn,
commandant at Detroit, who regarded it as an ordinary out
break that would soon pass and took no further notice of it.
The time for carrying the plot into effect was now at
hand. The last preceding council of the Indians was held
at the Potawatomi village, where, as subsequently ascer
tained, Pontiac fully unfolded his plan. It was his intention,
as he informed the assembled chiefs, to demand a council
with the commandant concerning matters of great impor
tance, which he believed would be granted, and himself and
his principal chiefs would thus gain admittance, to the fort.
They were all to carry weapons concealed beneath their
blankets. While he was in the act of addressing the com
mandant he would give a certain sign, upon which the
chiefs were to raise the warwhoop and shoot the English
officers. In the meantime, the other Indians waiting about
the gate, on hearing the yells and firing within the build
ing, were to assail the unsuspecting soldiers. Thus Detroit
would fall an easy prey.
The scheme was well laid, and might have been carried
out with success but for the intervention of a Chippewa

INDIAN HISTORY OF THE OHIO VALLEY 249
girl. She had probably attended the council or had seen the
preparations and learned the particulars of the plot. Having
been flattered by the attention paid her by Gladwyn, she
made known to him the impending danger. " To-morrow,"
she informed him, " Pontiac, with sixty of his warriors, will
come to the fort. All will have short guns hidden under
their blankets, which will be drawn close about their necks
so as to hide the guns. Pontiac will ask to hold a peace
council, and will make a speech and then offer you peace
wampum. Then the warriors, who will have their hands
on their guns, will make a quick jump and fire, killing all
the English officers. Then come all the Indians outside,
and kill all but the French — leave no English alive."
The night passed without any disturbing incident save
the whoop of the warriors as they mingled in the dance;
but the day soon brought evidence of the truthfulness of the
Chippewa girl's story. Canoes in unusual numbers were
seen making their way across the river, and the open ground
about the fort began to be covered with warriors fancifully
decorated. Ere the morning had passed, Pontiac and his
companions reached the fort. All were wrapped to their
throats with colored blankets. Gladwyn, who had pondered
well the situation, had determined on his course of action:
he decided that he would admit them. When they entered
the gate and gazed about them, surprise was apparent even
on their immobile features, and uneasy glances betrayed
their suspicions; the entire garrison was on duty, with
sabres and bayonets glistening, ready at every point for
instant action. Gladwyn and his officers, with swords
at their sides and pistols in their belts, calmly awaited
their entrance. Before the Indians had taken their seats
upon the mats prepared for them, Pontiac indicated his ap
prehensions by inquiring why " the father's young men were
standing in the street with their guns." "I have ordered
the soldiers under arms for the sake of exercise and disci
pline," was the reply through the interpreter. The wily
chief, with the wampum belt in his hand, began his oration ;

250

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

but when he reached the point where it was to be delivered,
Gladwyn waved his hand for a pause in the proceedings —
and at the same moment the garrison drum beat a thunder
ing roll, and the guards in the passage rattled their arms as
they brought them into position for action; and the com
mandant and his officers clasped their swords, ready, if need
be, to meet the premeditated onslaught. The plans of the
great chief were foiled, and he stood before the little, but
determined, band of whites as if overcome by a sudden
shock. The meeting was over, and the deputation returned
crestfallen. The mask was now thrown aside ; the dwellings of two
English residents near the fort were visited and the inmates
massacred, and two officers were waylaid and killed near
Lake St. Clair. It is unnecessary, however, to note the
intervening incidents ; the attack on the fort began with all
the force and vigor the savages were able to command. For
several weeks the little garrison held the tawny host at bay,
"during all which no man lay down to sleep, except in his
clothes, and with his weapons at his side." The besieged
as well as besiegers were for a time saved from famine by
the Canadians. Ere the contest ended, news began to flow
in from other points in regard to the progress of the great
plot. A fleet of boats, which had been moving up the lake
to supply the western posts with provisions and recruits,
was captured by a band of Wyandots and most of the men
killed or made prisoners, and the latter were doomed to
suffer torture and death. Now came the news to Major
Gladwyn and his besieged garrison that the fort at Sandusky
had been captured and burned and the troops massacred.
Then came the information that Fort St. Joseph had fallen ;
and next, news of the massacre of Fort Michilimackinac.
Of all the bloody narratives that shocked the trembling
garrison of Detroit, the last was perhaps the most thrilling.
But the cup of sorrow had not yet been drained to the
dregs ; following this dreadful news came that of the fall of
Ouiatanon, the small fort on the Wabash, and the capture

INDIAN HISTORY OF THE OHIO VALLEY

251

of the garrison. Gladwyn hardly had time to read the
letter bearing this information before news of the loss of
Fort Miami reached him. The fall of Presque Isle was
next in order. News of this disaster arrived on the 20th
of June, and two days afterward a horde of savages passed
by the fort with the scalps of the slain fluttering from their
belts. The next to share this fate were the forts at Le
Boeuf and Venango. Detroit and Fort Pitt alone remained
in the hands of the English.
The news of these disheartening events, following so
closely one after the other, were well calculated to cast
gloom over the besieged garrison at Detroit; but defence
was their only hope, and each man, from the commandant
down, stood ready to do his duty. A schooner at length
arrived, bringing the much needed supplies and additional
troops, and also the important news that peace had been
concluded between England and France. The landing,
however, was not without strong resistance by the Indians ;
but by the stratagem of the commander, in keeping the
larger portion of his men concealed and thus deceiving
the Indians, he succeeded in dispersing them and landing
his forces and supplies. Pontiac, thwarted in his design of
preventing relief, turned his anger against the French for not
giving him active assistance. He upbraided them for this
lack of aid, and announced his intention, unless they joined
him, to turn his arms against them as siding with the Eng
lish. This threat, however, failed to have any other effect
than to enlist on his side a few half-breeds and traders.
While events were thus passing in Detroit, Captain
Dalzell was on his way with twenty barges, bearing a further
supply of ammunition and provisions and two hundred and
eighty men. These were landed after a skirmish with the
Indians, in which the English lost twenty men in killed and
wounded. Strengthened by this additional force, the be
sieged garrison unwisely decided to sally forth and attack
the Indian camp. Although the force succeeded in regain
ing their quarters, it was not until fifty-nine of the number

252

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

were lost in killed and wounded, the heroic Dalzell being
among the killed. The little run known before as Parent's
Creek has since the night of that bitter contest been called,
in commemoration of the event, " Bloody Run." The loss
of the Indians in this engagement did not exceed twenty.
September was now drawing to a close, and the savages,
having continued the siege since May, were becoming
wearied and disappointed at their unsuccessful efforts.
Moreover, news had reached them that Major Wilkins
was approaching with a large army to destroy them, while
nothing further was heard of the promised army the King
of France was sending to aid them. As their ammunition
was well-nigh spent, and winter with all its hardships was
close at hand, they decided to sue for peace, intending,
however, to renew the strife in the spring. Wapocomoguth
the head chief of the Missisaugas, a Chippewa, was chosen
as mediator. Gladwyn, though fully aware of the hollow-
ness of their professions, yet desirous of an opportunity to
secure provisions for the winter, consented to a truce,
stating that he was not empowered to enter into a treaty of
peace. This arrangement included the Missisauga, Chip
pewa, Potawatomi, and Wyandot tribes, but not the Otta-
was, as they had not asked for peace. The latter, urged on
by Pontiac, their leader, refused to humble themselves as
their brothers had done, and continued hostilities.
Although this desertion by his allies was a severe blow
to the hopes of Pontiac, another fell at this time which put
an end to his expectation of capturing Detroit, and, for the
time being, to his great plan. A French messenger came
to his camp in October, with a letter from M. Neyon,
commandant at Fort Chartres, the principal post in Illinois.
This letter assured him that all the stories which had been
told him in reference to the approach of a great French army
were false ; that the French and English were now at peace
and regarded one another as brothers, and advised him
to abandon the siege. This last stroke blasted the remain
ing hope of the great Ottawa chief. Chafing under bitter

INDIAN HISTORY OF THE OHIO VALLEY 253
disappointment, he left the scene of his long struggle, and,
accompanied by his principal chiefs, retired to the Maumee,
where he began to lay his plans for renewing the war in
the spring. The garrison at Detroit was at last allowed a
season of rest. The territory for miles around the fort was
now almost deserted, the besiegers having departed for the
hunting grounds.
Considering the matter from his standpoint, the wily
chief had made a blunder in lying so long about the fort
at Detroit. Had this siege been abandoned and his force
thrown against Fort Pitt or spread in scattering bodies along
the line of settlements, the injury inflicted upon the English
would have been much greater than it was. Indian warfare
was poorly adapted to sieges, and such attempts were very
rarely of lengthened continuance, this case being the longest
known in the history of our country. The capture of the
fort, as Pontiac was well aware, would have been a serious
blow to the English cause, and would doubtless have pro
longed the war. The heroic defence by Major Gladwyn and
his beleaguered garrison no doubt prevented much destruc
tion which would have occurred had the Indians gathered
about the fort been turned loose upon the frontiers.
Though the incidents of the war are too numerous for
all to receive notice here, there are some which claim our
attention. While Detroit was the scene where the great
actor in this bloody drama was playing his part, transactions
at other points were of thrilling interest in the story of the
fierce strife. While the hosts of savage warriors were gath
ered about Detroit, the clouds began to thicken about Fort
Pitt. This stronghold, the key to the Ohio valley, was an
eyesore to the Indians, which they wished and hoped to
blot out of existence. No determined attack had yet been
made, but the bands were trending toward this meeting
point, marking their way with smoking ruins and slaughtered
tenants. On the 22d of June, a party of warriors appeared upon
the plain behind the fort. After driving off the horses

254 TH£ INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
and killing a number of cattle, they opened a brisk fire
upon the fort, killing two men, but upon the discharge of
the howitzers fled in confusion. They soon appeared in
another quarter and kept up the firing during the night.
About nine o'clock next morning, several Indians approached
the fort, when one of them, a Delaware, addressed the
garrison as follows :
My brothers, we that stand here are your friends ; but we have bad
news to tell you. Six great nations of Indians have taken up the hatchet
and cut off all the English garrisons excepting yours. They are now
on their way to destroy you also. My brothers, we are your friends,
and we wish to save your lives. What we desire you to do is this :
you must leave this fort, with all your women and children, and go
down to the English settlements, where you will be safe. There are
many bad Indians already here, but we will protect you from them.
You must go at once, because if you wait till the six great nations
arrive here you will all be killed, and we can do nothing to protect you.
Captain Ecuyer, who fully understood the game they
were playing, made the following reply:
My brothers, we are very grateful for your kindness, though we are
convinced that you must be mistaken in what you have told us about
the forts being captured. As for ourselves, we have plenty of pro
visions, and are able to keep this fort against all the nations of Indians
that may dare to attack it. We are very well off in this place, and we
mean to stay here. My brothers, as you have shown yourselves such
true friends, we feel bound in gratitude to inform you that an army of
six thousand English will shortly arrive here, and that another army
of three thousand is gone up the lakes to punish the Ottawas and the
Ojibwas. A third is gone to the frontiers of Virginia, where they will
be joined by your enemies, the Cherokees and Catawbas, who are
coming here to destroy you ; therefore, take pity on your women and
children and get out of the way as soon as possible. We have told
you this in confidence, out of our great solicitude lest any of you should
be hurt, and we hope that you will not tell the other Indians, lest they
should escape from our vengeance.
This story of three advancing armies, which Captain
Ecuyer had invented and related in serious tones as a
piece of friendly advice, fell like a thunderclap upon the
ear of his dusky auditors. They left the place in haste, and

INDIAN HISTORY OF THE OHIO VALLEY 255
meeting a large band of warriors they knew were approach
ing related to them the news they had heard; the purpose
of attacking the fort was for the time abandoned. It was
immediately after this episode that the evil news which
had poured in upon the besieged at Detroit began to reach
the garrison at Fort Pitt. A soldier who had escaped from
Presque Isle told of the capture of that post, and of the
ruin of the little forts of Le Bceuf and Venango, which
he had passed on his way hither. From Le Boeuf, eight
survivors reached Fort Pitt ; but not one of the garrison at
Venango survived to tell the story of its fall.
By this time the storm had burst in all its fury on the
western frontiers of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.
Everywhere the warriors were destroying plantations, burn
ing homes, and slaughtering men, women, and children.
Roving parties were everywhere ; in fact, the Indian seemed
to have become ubiquitous. Those pioneers who were wise
in time hurried with their wives and little ones to the forts
and stronger settlements, pressing onward night and day, to
escape the merciless pursuers who followed in their wake.
The border towns swarmed with wretched fugitives, who
brought such tales of woe that' the cheeks of the listeners
paled with horror.
Colonel Bouquet was now on his way to relieve Fort Pitt,
about which the Indians had again gathered in great num
bers; and they also had possession of the country between
it and Ligonier. Having relieved Forts Bedford and Ligo-
nier, he hurried on toward Fort Pitt, but was destined to
pass through a bloody ordeal before it was reached. While
entering the region which had proved such fatal ground
to expeditions in the past, his force was suddenly attacked
by a large body of Indians at Bushy Run, and would have
been entirely defeated had it not been for a successful
stratagem employed by the commander for extricating his
men from the dangerous position in which they were placed.
After sustaining a furious onslaught from one o'clock until
night, and for several hours the next morning, a feigned

256 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
retreat was ordered, with a view to draw the Indians into
open ground and a closer contest. Previous to this move
ment, two companies of infantry and grenadiers were placed
in ambuscade. The plan succeeded; the result was pre
cisely what the commander anticipated. When the apparent
retreat was observed by the savages, they thought themselves
sure of victory, and pressing forward with renewed vigor
and yells of triumph fell into the ambuscade and were dis
persed with great slaughter. The loss on the side of the
English was severe, amounting to more than one hundred
in killed and wounded. The loss sustained by the Indians
was acutely felt by them, as, in addition to the number of
warriors who fell during the engagement, several of their
prominent chiefs were among the slain.
The hopes of the Indians, who had the reduction of
Fort Pitt so much at heart, were blasted, as the added force
and ample supply of the munitions of war placed its con
quest beyond their reach.
While the events which have been mentioned were occur
ring, Sir William Johnson was laboring with the Six Nations
to secure their friendship in behalf of the English, at least
to the extent that they would remain neutral. For this
purpose he invited the warriors to meet him at Johnson
Hall. The council, which opened September 7, 1763, was
largely attended by people of the Six Nations, and, although
reluctantly given, he obtained the promise of those present
to remain friends of the English and also to make war
against the tribes in arms against them. He also induced
some of the Canadian tribes to send a deputation to the
western Indians, requesting them to lay down the hatchet;
and the Iroquois also sent deputies to the Delawares for
the same purpose. However, the Senecas, who were then
in arms against the English, refused to attend the council.
In the autumn of 1763, Sir William Johnson, still pur
suing his efforts to bring about a cessation of hostilities, sent
messengers to the tribes in all parts of the Northwest, warn
ing them that in the spring a large army was coming to

Powhatan surrounded by his wives. After the drawing on Captain
John Smith's map. From the original in the British Museum.

INDIAN HISTORY OF THE OHIO VALLEY 257
destroy them, and urging all who desired peace to meet him
at Niagara. The failure of the Indians to capture Forts
Pitt and Detroit, and their sufferings during the early part
of the winter, disposed them to give a hearty acceptance to
this proposal; and many warriors from various tribes set
out for the place of meeting.
The number of savages assembled at this meeting was
unusually large, and was also representative of various tribes.
In addition to the host of Iroquois who had congregated
about Fort Niagara, there were delegations from the Chip
pewas, Ottawas, Missisaugas, Menominees from the north,
Conewangos from Canada, and Wyandots from Detroit.
The Sauks and Foxes and the Winnebagoes had sent their
deputies; and even the Osages, a tribe living beyond the
Mississippi, had their representative in the general meeting.
Although so many tribes indicated their desire for peace by
attending the council, the Delawares and Shawnees mani
fested their hostility to the English by remaining away from
the meeting and sending a haughty message to Johnson.
The Senecas, who had recently made a preliminary treaty
with Sir William Johnson, and promised to be at Niagara
to ratify and complete it, failed to appear, and had even
leagued themselves with a band of hostile Delawares. A
message was sent to them, threatening that unless they came
at once to Niagara the English would march against them
and burn their villages. This proved effective, as these
formidable warriors appeared at the meeting, bringing with
them a number of prisoners they held. Treaties of peace
were concluded with the tribes separately, and the meeting
finally closed with the smoking of pipes, shaking of hands,
and distribution of presents. With the submission of the
Delawares and Shawnees, brought about by Bouquet's expe
dition into their country, the Pontiac war was at an end,
though Indian hostility had not ceased to manifest itself.
The fire, though burning lower, was destined to break forth
again into a blaze. The battle between civilization and
savagery in the valley of the Ohio had not yet been fought

25 8 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
to a finish. However, before entering upon the second
chapter of the Indian history of this region, let us follow
the great Ottawa chief to the termination of his career.
Although his great scheme of conquest had failed and
his allies had deserted him, his spirit was yet undaunted
and his thirst for revenge on the English unquenched. As
all hope of conquest in the east had vanished, he turned his
steps toward the west. The French still held the forts in
this section and at the south, and there were Indian nations
there who as yet had not tried their arms against the hated
English. Here was still an opportunity for ambition. It was
with such thoughts that he left his home on the Maumee
and turned to the west. But the opening of this new
scheme can best be given in the words of Parkman:
While Laclede was founding St. Louis, while the discontented set
tlers of the Illinois were deserting their homes, and while St. Ange was
laboring to pacify his Indian neighbors, all the tribes from the Maumee
to the Mississippi were in a turmoil of excitement. Pontiac was among
them, furious as a wild beast at bay. By the double campaign of
1764, his best hopes had been crushed to the earth; but he stood
unshaken amidst the ruin, and still struggled with desperate energy to
retrieve his broken cause. Oh the side of the northern lakes, the move
ments of Bradstreet had put down the insurrection of the tribes, and
wrested back the military posts which cunning and treachery had placed
within their grasp. In the south, Bouquet had forced to abject sub
mission the warlike Delawares and Shawanoes, the warriors on whose
courage and obstinacy Pontiac had grounded his strongest confidence.
On every hand defeat and disaster were closing around him. One
sanctuary alone remained, the country of the Illinois. Here the flag
of France still floated on the banks of the Mississippi, and here no
English foot had dared to penetrate. He resolved to invoke all his
resources, and bend all his energies to defend this last citadel.
Here he received encouragement from the French fur
traders. They repeated the old falsehood that the French
and English had not made peace, and that a French army
would soon appear to drive out the intruders. It was his
last rallying point, and he bent all his efforts to arouse the
inhabitants to revolt. Ambassadors were despatched to
the south, to stir up the tribes of that section, and to plead

INDIAN HISTORY OF THE OHIO VALLEY 259
with the French commandant at New Orleans to lend his
aid to the movement. But the mission was fruitless; they
received no encouragement, and took their departure scowl
ing and enraged with disappointment. The failure of this
embassy was the final blow to the chieftain's plans; it was
then that all hope of success departed and the dream of his
life forever vanished. Impatient under uncertainty, his reso
lution was soon taken; he would make peace with his con
querors, though the hope of a more fitting opportunity for
striking the fatal blow was perhaps not entirely abandoned.
Croghan, who was on a mission to the west, was now
approaching Fort Chartres. He was met by Pontiac, at
tended by his numerous chiefs and warriors, who gave
his hand to Croghan in token of submission and accom
panied him on his journey eastward. Arriving at Detroit
on the 1 7th of August, they found encamped about the fort
— the scene of the chieftain's great struggle for victory — an
immense gathering of Ottawas, Potawatomies, and Chip
pewas. These readily responded to his invitation to a
council; but they came together no longer with any inten
tion of urging one another to hostile action, for all such
thoughts had vanished from their minds; their desire now
was for peace. Pontiac declared himself for peace, and sent
to Sir William Johnson the calumet, with the assurance that
he had taken the King of England as his father in presence
of the nations there assembled. He promised Croghan to
go in the spring to Oswego, and, in behalf of the tribes
lately composing his league, conclude a treaty of peace with
Sir William Johnson. This promise was faithfully kept.
In April, 1769, he visited the Illinois Indians at Cahokia,
and, after a drunken carousal, was treacherously slain by a
Kaskaskia Indian, who had been hired to commit the deed
by an English trader. Thus ended the career of one of the
greatest native chieftains of our country.
Parkman gives his character briefly as follows :
The fact that Pontiac was born the son of a chief would in no degree
account for the extent of his power ; for, among Indians, many a chief's

260 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
son sinks back into insignificance, while the offspring of a common
warrior may succeed to his place. Among all the wild tribes of the con
tinent, personal merit is indispensable to gaining or preserving dignity.
Courage, resolution, wisdom, address, and eloquence are sure passports
to distinction. With all these Pontiac was preeminently endowed, and
it was chiefly to them, urged to their highest activity by a vehement
ambition, that he owed his greatness. His intellect was strong and
capacious. He possessed commanding energy and force of mind, and
in subtlety and craft could match the best of his wily race. But,
though capable of acts of lofty magnanimity, he was a thorough savage,
with a wider range of intellect than those around him, but sharing all
their passions and prejudices, their fierceness and treachery. Yet his
faults were the faults of his race ; and they cannot eclipse his nobler
qualities, the great powers and heroic virtues of his mind. His memory
is still cherished among the remnants of many Algonquin tribes ; and
the celebrated Tecumseh adopted him for his model, proving himself
no unworthy imitator.

CHAPTER XII
THE SHAWNEES AND THE MIAMIS
Before continuing the history of the border wars in the
region north of the Ohio, a brief account will be given of
the Shawnees, who played such "an important role in the
struggles in this western region that followed the breaking-
out of the Revolutionary War.
As has been heretofore stated, the region now embraced
in the state of Ohio was practically uninhabited subsequent
to the destruction of the Eries in 1655 until after the com
mencement of the eighteenth century. In the early part of
the latter century, a portion of the Wyandots extended their
settlements into the northwestern part of Ohio, the Miamis
pushed their borders into the western portion, and the
Shawnees settled in the Scioto valley. The Delawares, as
already stated, moved to the valley of the Muskingum ; and
detachments of the Five Nations, chiefly Senecas, settled in
the northern and eastern borders.
The history of the Shawnees, until their removal to
Ohio, is involved in considerable uncertainty, as they re
sided at some distance from the routes usually traversed by
the French traders and explorers, so far as these have been
made known. Their removal to Ohio is supposed to have
taken place about 1750, though it is possible they had begun
to settle on the Scioto before that date.
Parkman says : " From various scattered notices, we may
gather that at an early period they occupied the valley of the
261

262 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Ohio; that, becoming embroiled with the Five Nations,
they shared the defeat of the Andastes, and about the year
1672 fled to escape destruction." This opinion is based
chiefly on the fact that the records show that they were
fighting with the Iroquois on the Ohio in 1672, and were
next heard of on Cumberland River. However, the fact
that they were fighting the Iroquois on Ohio River is no
more proof in itself that they resided there than that this
region was the home of the Iroquois. It is probable that
the Shawnees were then living in their historic seat on Cum
berland River, near the present site of Nashville, Tennessee,
and that those who met the Iroquois were war parties. It
is possible, judging from an older tradition, that at a very
early date, while on their way southward to the Cumberland,
they stopped for a time on the Miami.
Ramsey, who seems to have derived his information from
original sources, gives the following data bearing on the
subject. The Cherokees had a tradition that when they
crossed the Alleghanies to the west — that is, from the
Carolina side — they found the Shawnees at war with
the Creeks. This must refer to a very early date, as the
Cherokees had towns on the west side of the mountains at
the earliest notice the whites had of that region; but this
tradition does not indicate the habitat of the Shawnees,
though it states that there were no Indians residing at that
time in east Tennessee except a Creek settlement on the
Hiawassee. We are informed by the same author that
General Robertson, who was familiar with the Indians of
Tennessee, learned from them that the Shawnees occupied
the country from Tennessee River to where Nashville now
stands and north of the Cumberland as early as 1665.
" M. Charleville, a French trader from Crozer's colony at
New Orleans, came, in 17 14, among the Shawnees then
inhabiting the country on the Cumberland River, and traded
with them. His store was built on a mound near the
present site of Nashville." As stated in Chapter V.,
the Cherokees, uniting with the Chickasaws, made war

THE SHAWNEES AND THE MIAMIS

263

upon this tribe and finally drove them from their home in
Tennessee, compelling them to seek refuge elsewhere.
This, which was the final breaking-up of their settlement
at this point, must have occurred, according to the history
of the Cherokees, subsequent to the Yamasi war of 1715.
That it took place previous to 1750 is evident from the
fact that Christopher Gist, in his journey down the Ohio
in that year, found them, or a large part of them, settled
on the Scioto.
Tracing back the history of the tribe by means of inci
dental notices, we find that they were driven from their
Tennessee home about the year 1740. And by similar
data we are justified in concluding that they were residing
in this historic seat previous to 1672.
The notice of them which carries back their history to
the most remote era indicated — could it be accepted — is
that by Nicolas Perrot in his M'emoire, written probably
between 1700 and 17 18. In this he says, evidently basing
the statement on a tradition he had received from the In
dians, that the Iroquois, unable to resist the attacks of the
Algonquins, fled to the shores of Lake Erie, where the Shaw
nees — or Chaouanons, as the French named them — lived,
who waged war against them and drove them back to the
shores of Lake Ontario. "After warring with them and
their allies for a time, the Iroquois finally chased them
toward Carolina, where, or in the vicinity, they have ever
since remained." If there be any truth in this tradition,
which is not probable, it must apply to a period long
anterior to 1672, the date assigned by Parkman to their
expulsion from Ohio. R. P. J. Tailhan, editor of Perrot's
M'emoire, in his comment on this passage, assigns this move
ment of the Iroquois to the latter half of the sixteenth cen
tury, though he expresses the opinion that the Shawnees
were inhabiting the valley of the Ohio as late as 1673.
Although the first part of this statement appears to be
mythical and is inconsistent with known facts, and would,
if accepted, necessitate a war of a hundred years or more

264 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
between the Iroquois and Shawnees, yet it has again and
again been repeated by subsequent writers.
There is a statement in the Jesuit Relation of 1662 which,
although containing some exaggerations, bears internal in
dications of substantial correctness. Lallemant, then at
Montreal, writes as follows regarding the war expeditions
of the preceding year : " Turning a little more to the west,
than towards the south, another band of Iroquois sought a
nation that lives four hundred leagues from this place, whose
only crime is, they are not Iroquois. This nation they call
Ontoagaunha, which means, people who do not know how
to talk, on account of the corrupted Algonquin used by
them. If we believe the Iroquois who returned, and the
captives whom they brought, that is a country which, free
from the rigor of our winters, enjoys a climate always tem
perate, a perpetual spring and autumn. The soil is so
fertile, we could almost speak of it as the Israelite spies
described the Promised Land. Indian corn there grows to
such a size that one might take it for trees; it bears ears
two feet long, with grains like grapes. The elk and beaver
being inhabitants of cold countries are not found there. But,
instead, deer, buffaloes, wild boars, and the large animals,
which we are not acquainted with, fill the beautiful forests,
that are like orchards, most of the trees being fruit trees.
The woods abound with every variety of gay plumage,
especially little parroquets, which are so numerous that we
have seen some of the Iroquois return thence with scarfs
and girdles made of them. Serpents are found there, six
feet long, but harmless. The men, however, are not so
harmless, for they have a poison, with which they infect
the springs, and even rivers, so skilfully, that the water
loses none of its clearness, though entirely polluted. Their
villages lie along a fine river that empties into a great
lake, as they call the sea, where they have commerce with
Europeans, who worship God as we do, use rosaries, and
have bells to summon to prayers. From their account we
suppose these Europeans are Spaniards."

THE SHAWNEES AND THE MIAMIS 265
That the Ontoagaunha Indians are identical with the
Chaouanons, or Shawnees, is expressly stated in the Relation
of 1672. This account, therefore, refers to the Shawnees;
and, although there is some exaggeration, it is apparent that
it must apply to a region south of the Ohio or possibly to
the extreme lower part of that river; that it does not apply
to the upper Ohio, or to a prairie section, is evident. What
Europeans they had intercourse with, or whether only
through intermediate tribes, is unknown; moreover, the
reference to "rosaries" and "bells to summon to prayers"
must be taken with some grains of allowance. Colonel M.
Force, in his paper on the Indians of Ohio, places the
Shawnees, at the time of this expedition of the Iroquois, on
the Cumberland.
The statement by Father Marquette is quite consistent
with that of Father Lallemant. He says that while he was
at La Pointe, on the southern shore of Lake Superior, in
1670, he met there a party of Illinois. He was informed
by them that they were visited the preceding summer [1669]
"by a nation whom they call Chaouanons, who live to the
east-southeast of their country. The young man who
teaches me the Illinois language saw them, and says they
had glass beads, which proves that they have communication
with Europeans. They had made a journey of thirty days
to reach the country of the Illinois." The direction of the
Shawnee towns from the Illinois, who at this time were on
or near Illinois River, would have been about the same,
whether located on the lower Ohio or on the Cumberland,
but the distance to the lower Ohio would not have justified
the time given for the journey from one to the other, even
allowing for a large error in the estimate. The direction
given, and distance estimated by days' journey, would, it
must be admitted, agree with the supposition that the tribe
was then located on the upper Ohio; but this conclusion
would be wholly inconsistent with the statement by Father
Lallemant in the Relation of 1662. The assumption that
the tribe was then living on the Cumberland is the only one

266 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
consistent with these two apparently reliable statements,
after making due allowance for the disposition on the part of
the Indians who gave the information to the two missionaries
to somewhat overdraw their pictures.
The riddle regarding the location of this mysterious people
was solved by the French by the close of the seventeenth
century. Jacques Gravier, in the account of his passage
down the Mississippi in 1700, remarks in regard to the Oua
bache [lower Ohio] : " It has three branches : one coming
from the northwest [north] , and flowing behind the country
of the Oumiamis [Miamis] , is called by us the St. Joseph,
but by the savages Oubashie; the second comes from the
country of the Iroquois, and this is called the Ohio; the third,
on which the Chaouanoua live, comes from the south-south
east. The stream formed by the junction of these three
flows into the Mississippi, under the name Oubache." Here
the Shawnees are located, on the Cumberland, where it is
probable they had their tribal home during all the historic
period previous to their expulsion therefrom about 1740.
The opposite view, that is, that the pristine home of the
tribe was in Ohio, has been adopted by the majority, in
fact by nearly all the modern writers, but they generally give
it no higher sanction than as "very probable." That the
first part of the tradition given by Perrot, which represents
the Iroquois as flying before the Algonquins to the shores
of Lake Erie and being driven back by the Shawnees to
Lake Ontario at some very distant date, will be rejected by
historians of the present day is more than probable. The
conclusion must therefore be based upon other evidence.
This appears to be found in the fact that the Iroquois were
at war with the Shawnees from 1662 to 1672, and that this
warring was, in part, along Ohio River. The statement by
Father Marquette that the Shawnees were "not at all war
like " is known, from the subsequent history of the tribe, to
be incorrect. That the Iroquois, who had come into pos
session of firearms, could easily defeat them in 1662 —
apparently in their southern home and before they had

THE SHAWNEES AND THE MIAMIS

267

received such arms — is no doubt true, but this is no evi
dence of their lack of courage. The frequent presence of
Shawnee parties on the Ohio is accounted for, not only by
the general custom of Indians to wander to distant points
in search of game or booty, but also, in this case, by their
habit of going to the region of Kanawha River for the pur
pose of making salt. Moreover, it is clear from the records
that the Iroquois were still warring with them in 1692 and
1694, while, according to all authorities, their tribal home
was on the Cumberland.
Although the attempt has been made in the preceding
remarks to locate the seat of the Shawnees during the years
preceding their defeat and dispersion by the Cherokees and
Chickasaws, about 1740, their history would be incom
plete without allusion to fragments which, during this
time, had left the parental home and wandered off to seek
more satisfactory quarters. A party was induced by La
Salle [1680— 1681] to remove to Illinois and settle near his
fort [St. Louis] . Joliet, writing of his last voyage, says
they have been there only since they were drawn thither by
M. de La Salle.
Some Munsees, returning in 1692 from a visit to the
Shawnees, brought a number of the tribe with them, who
asked permission of the authorities to settle among the
former. This was allowed by the council on condition
that they should first make peace with the Five Nations;
which was done, and the migration took place in 1694.
The number of this migration is given as three hundred
by one authority, and as one thousand by another; what
ever the true number may have been, it is known that they
were living in the forks of Delaware River in 1733. A
portion of the tribe, which had been living for a number of
years on the upper Savannah River, removed, about 1700,
to Pennsylvania and settled near the Conestogas, then living
in what is now Lancaster County. These are the Indians
to whom William Penn in his treaty of 1701 applied the
name "Potomac Indians."

268 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Another statement in regard to the early movements of
the Shawnees, difficult to account for, is made by M. Peri-
cault. He says that in 1714, falling in with a party of
Taensas Indians, near the Natches, he took them with him
to Mobile, where Bienville, then Governor of Louisiana,
gave them the place formerly occupied by the Chaouanons
and Taouatches, near the fort. Nothing further in regard
to this band is known; it is probable, however, that they
returned to the valley of the Cumberland.
There appears to have been a Shawnee settlement about
the locality of the present Winchester, West Virginia, prob
ably between 1700 and 1730. This band must have re
moved from this locality before 1 733, when the whites began
to settle there. It is probable they went to the Ohio.
Having, so far, devoted attention to the question of the
locality of the tribe and its offshoots, we turn now to what
we may term the active history of the Shawnees. Of this
there are but scattering and brief notices previous to 1750.
That they were in almost constant warfare with the Iro
quois from 1662 to the close of the seventeenth century is
evident from the data presented. Yet it is stated on French
authority that a hundred warriors of this tribe were in com
pany with the Iroquois who made an attack on the Illinois
Indians in 1680. About a year later, a body of the same
tribe formed, as before stated, a settlement near the Illinois,
and was induced by La Salle to enter into an alliance with
the Illinois, Miamis, and Mascoutens for common defence
against the Iroquois. Again, we find a party of them in
1699, m connection with the Chickasaws, attacking the
Cahokia Indians, — a little tribe belonging to the Illinois
group, — living on the east bank of the Mississippi, opposite
the site of St. Louis. Although the Shawnees who settled
on Delaware River about the close of the seventeenth cen
tury had made peace with the Iroquois and entered into
friendly relations with the English, the main body of the
tribe, which removed to the Scioto valley, adhered to
the French interest.

THE SHAWNEES AND THE MIAMIS 269
In 1 73 1, they — or one division of the tribe — sent dele
gates to Montreal to inquire of the Governor of Canada
where he wished to locate them, which was probably the
first step toward the removal to Ohio. It seems from
statements in the New Tork Colonial History that a part of
these Indians had already settled on Alleghany River, a short
distance above Pittsburg. This band was known as " Char-
tier's tribe," from the name of their chief. These Shawnees
were at this time evidently undecided whether they should
continue in the French interest or take sides with the Eng
lish. The visit to Montreal to inquire of the governor where
they should locate — meaning, in the Ohio region — was an
acknowledgment of French sovereignty over that region.
The criminal blunder of the English colonies in failing
to cultivate the friendship of the Shawnee tribe and of the
Delawares cost them many precious lives, which might
have been saved had the advice of Sir William Johnson and
George Croghan been promptly followed. Immediately
after the expulsion of the tribe from its Cumberland home
by the Cherokees and Chickasaws, it appears to have been
split for a time into three groups before finally settling down
on the Scioto. One of these groups — the two bands on
the Delaware — was pledged to the English and on terms of
friendship with the Iroquois.
The second group was the band on Alleghany River,
which seems to have been wavering at this time between
the French and the English. The third group consisted
of the first settlers on the Scioto, who located their village
at the mouth of the river. It was probably this band or
party that sent delegates to the Governor of Canada, but
where the division was located at that time is uncertain.
Most of the scattered fragments ultimately drifted to this
locality. When the French began to move down the Ohio in
1753, the Indians, especially the Senecas, Cayugas, and
Shawnees, looked upon this action with much distrust, as
they were opposed to their building forts on this river,

270 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
though they had expressed a willingness for the English to
do so. The reason for this, so far as the Shawnees were
concerned, was not that they had greater love for the Eng
lish than for the French, for the opposite was probably true,
but because trade was more profitable with the former.
When the French obtained possession of the fort at the
junction of the Alleghany and the Monongahela, which they
named Du Quesne, the vacillating Shawnees, desirous of
being on the winning side, threw their force to the French
interest, and formed part of the army that defeated General
Braddock in 1755. It is supposed to have been a chief of
this tribe, who, observing Colonel Washington in the thickest
of the fight unscathed by the shower of bullets which were
levelling his companions on every side, singled him out as
the target for his rifle, and bade other warriors do the same.
The disastrous defeat of the English on this occasion was
due in part to the Shawnee warriors.
The chief assailants of Fort Pitt during Pontiac's war
were Shawnees and Delawares, and the same Indians formed
the horde which played such sad havoc at Bushy Run.
Their defeat in this action, though the damage inflicted
upon the English was severe, served to cool the ardor
of the Shawnees in the effort to drive the white settlers
from the country. But, ever restless unless in the turmoil
of war, they decided to turn their arms against the Creeks
who had remained faithful to the English. However, this
expedition proved a failure.
The time for a change in the policy of the Indians had
arrived. The French had yielded up their American pos
sessions to the English; Pontiac's war was at an end; and
Colonel Bouquet was marching through Ohio with an army
of sufficient strength to enforce his demands. Peace with
the colonies or the abandonment of their country was their
only hope of salvation. A council with Bouquet was asked
for by the Indians, which request was granted; but this
officer, knowing well the Indian character, determined to
hold it on the Muskingum, in the heart of their country.

THE SHAWNEES AND THE MIAMIS 271
Being notified by the Indians that their warriors were
encamped a few miles distant and ready to enter into nego
tiations, he appointed the meeting for the following day,
October 17, 1764, but it was delayed by the weather until
the 20th. In his address on this occasion, scorning the
terms "fathers" and "brothers," he boldly charged them
with the crimes they had been guilty of, and concluded by
giving them twelve days to deliver the white prisoners they
held, requiring hostages in the meantime for security.
This speech fell with telling effect upon his auditors;
they saw they had now to deal with one determined to
enforce his demands to the utmost particular. Within
the specified time most of the prisoners were brought to the
camp, and hostages were retained until the remaining ones
were delivered. At the closing meeting, after the stipula
tions, so far as then possible, had been carried out, Bouquet
informed them that he must refer them to Sir William
Johnson as the only one authorized to make treaties. As
an assurance that this would be done, he required that host
ages should be left in his hands. The engagements were
faithfully carried out, and the treaty concluded. Here the
curtain drops on the last scene of this bloody drama, and
now we leave for a time the direct history of the Shawnees
and follow up the story of the border wars in the Ohio
valley. Although by the treaty of Fort Stanwix, in 1768, the
Ohio and Alleghany Rivers were made the dividing line
between the territories of the whites and the Indians, it was
but a short while before the westward tide of white emigra
tion broke over this barrier and began the formation of
settlements in the Indian territory. Petty acts of hostility
on the part of both races occurred. About this time the
short outbreak known as "Cresap's" or "Dunmore's" war
occurred, brought on by the unwarranted and unjustifiable
action of the white settlers. It was during this outbreak
that the family or relations of Logan, a friendly Indian,
were slain. In order to quell these disturbances, which

272

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

had aroused the Indians to open warfare, two large bodies
of troops were raised in Virginia — one led by General
Andrew Lewis, and the other by Lord Dunmore. The
former was to move down the Kanawha to its junction
with the Ohio; and the latter, striking the Ohio higher
up, was to move down it to the same point. It was the
intention of Dunmore to march thence with the whole
force against the Shawnee villages on the Scioto. How
ever, this plan was changed by the unexpected arrival of
a host of Indians at the mouth of the Kanawha, where
General Lewis had arrived with his fifteen hundred men and
was awaiting the appearance of Lord Dunmore's troops.
The sudden appearance of this force of Delaware, Iro
quois, Wyandot, and Shawnee warriors, under their most
noted chiefs, among whom were Logan and Cornstalk, com
pelled General Lewis and his army to battle for their lives
before the arrival of their compatriots. The battle, in which
the Indians were led by Cornstalk, the Shawnee chief, was
long and fierce, lasting the entire day. The fate of the
Virginians was more than once in doubt; but at the most
critical moment, when hard pressed, the arrival of the divi
sion under Colonel Field saved the day. It was believed
that the Indians in this engagement considerably outnum
bered the whites. The loss on the side of the latter was
seventy-five killed and one hundred and forty wounded.
Among the slain were Colonel Lewis, a brother of the
general, Colonel Field, and six captains.
While General Lewis, anxious to avenge the death of his
brother and the other officers, was preparing to continue
his march to the Shawnee villages, he received word from
Lord Dunmore that a treaty of peace had been made with
the Indians, who met him on his way to the Scioto.
It was while the articles of this treaty were being dis
cussed that Logan is supposed to have delivered his famous
and oft-quoted speech, though he was not at the confer
ence, and the speech was written down from his dictation.
This chief was the son of Shikillemus, a noted warrior

THE SHAWNEES AND THE MIAMIS 273
of the Cayuga nation, whose residence was at Shamokin.
Logan is represented by Heckewelder as a man of talents
and a friend of the whites. In the year 1774, a number
of his friends, including his sister and niece, were sacrificed
by the indiscriminate vengeance of a party of whites under
the command, as he supposed, of Captain Michael Cresap,
but in reality led by one Greathouse. The immediate cause
of the outrage was the report that a number of whites, who
were looking for a place to begin a settlement, had been killed
by the Indians. The destruction of the Indian village, —
Bulltown on the Little Kanawha, — which had taken place
in 1772, was probably one of the items in the list of Indian
charges. However, the encroachment of the whites on
their lands was doubtless the primary cause of their resent
ment. We close the account of this outbreak with a brief
quotation from Joseph Pritts's Border Life, regarding Logan's
life and speech:
Whether this be really the speech of Logan, or was put in his mouth
by the ingenuity of some poetic fancy, I shall not pretend to decide.
It is certainly characterized by the laconic and figurative style of the
Indians. I cannot, however, see in it that "tender sentiment" and
"sublime morality" which the historians of Virginia say it possesses.
Certainly there is nothing either tender or sublime in the declaration of
savage vengeance, and the confession of having glutted himself with
the blood of his enemies. The end of this bloody warrior corresponded
with his life. After "having killed many and glutted himself with
blood," he went to Detroit, on his return from which place he was
murdered. After the return of peace had compelled Logan to forbear
the use of the tomahawk and the hatchet, the renowned warrior had
become an abandoned sot. The immoderate use of brandy had stupe
fied his mental powers, and mingled with the ferocity of the savage,
the delirious ravings of the drunkard.
The war of the Revolution was to some extent a puzzle
to the Indians, who could not understand why Englishmen
should be fighting against those of their own lineage. We
have seen the result among the Six Nations, some of whom
became the friends of one party and some the friends of
the other. Although the border and western Indians were

274

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

disposed to side with the English, the severe chastisement
inflicted on the Iroquois by General Sullivan, and the
march by Colonel Broadhead up Alleghany River against
the Mingoes and Munsees, had the result of bringing the
Delawares, Wyandots, and part of the Shawnees to Fort
Pitt on a treaty of peace in 1779. During the summer an
expedition was sent against the Shawnees who had not
joined in the peace treaty, but it failed to accomplish the
purpose intended.
One of the most brutal outrages that occurred during
this time of increasing hostility between the races was the
slaughter, by the whites under Colonel Williamson, of
the unresisting Christian Indians of Gnadenhiitten in 1782.
But we refrain from repeating the sickening details. Forty
men, twenty-two women, and thirty-two children were
ruthlessly slain. During the same year, another expe
dition was organized, to invade the Moravian Delawares
and the Wyandots on the Sandusky. The commander was
Colonel William Crawford. No Indian was to be spared;
friend or foe, every red man was to die. The number of
troops in this expedition amounted to nearly five hundred.
When they reached the Sandusky they found the towns
deserted, but the Indians, not far distant, were on the alert.
A battle ensued, and the whites were forced to retreat. In
their retreat many left the main body, and nearly all who
did so perished. Crawford was taken prisoner and burned
at the stake. The crime he would have committed was
expiated in full and overflowing measure before it had been
accomplished. The miscreant and doubly savage white
man — Simon Girty — was a willing witness of this horrid
scene. The storm which had been brewing now burst upon the
exposed settlements. Investigation showed that between
the years 1783 and October, 1790, the Indians had killed,
wounded, and taken prisoners fully fifteen hundred persons,
including men, women, and children, besides stealing upward
of two thousand horses and other property.

THE SHAWNEES AND THE MIAMIS 275
General Harmar was now [1790] despatched against the
hostile savages. He advanced into their country from Fort
Washington, on the site of Cincinnati. The Indians every
where fled on the approach of the army, burning their own
villages as they receded. The expedition was a complete
failure. General Arthur St. Clair succeeded Harmar. He
began his march from the same point, with a force of two
thousand men, but only to return in a short time defeated
in battle, leaving six hundred and thirty-one dead on the
field. Seven of his cannon, two hundred oxen, and many
horses were captured, but no prisoners were taken. Simon
Girty was one of the active participants on the side of the
Indians in this battle.
The number of Indians in this engagement was estimated
at four thousand. They were led by a remarkable person
age — a Missisauga chief, who had been in the British service
during the Revolutionary War. He planned and conducted
the attack in his own way, though contrary to the advice
of the other chiefs, and checked the pursuit, saying they
had "killed enough Americans." His costume must have
given him a picturesque appearance. Fully six feet in
height, he wore Indian hose and moccasins, a blue petticoat
that came halfway down his thighs, and a European waist
coat and surtout. His head was bound with a kind of cap
or headdress reaching halfway down his back, and almost
covered with plain silver brooches, to the number of more
than two hundred. Each ear was adorned with two rings,
the upper part of each being formed of three silver medals
about the size of a dollar. The lower portion was formed
of silver coins the size of a quarter-dollar, hanging down
quite a foot, besides which he wore three nose jewels. He
was of such a morose disposition that he was disliked by
all his associate chiefs; but they knew he understood the
art of war better than any of them, and so gave him full
charge. The next officer to be placed in command of an expe
dition against the hostile natives was General Anthony

276 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Wayne. Like General Grant, he had strong faith in num
bers and ample preparations, and hence delayed his march
until he was able to start with four thousand fully equipped
men. Moving with great caution, and taking every care to
avoid surprise, he reached St. Mary's on the 2d of August,
1 794, where he built Fort Adams and garrisoned it. He
then crossed the Auglaize and marched down it, through
deserted villages, to the Maumee, where he built Fort De
fiance. Following down the latter stream to the head of
the rapids, he there erected Fort Deposit. When he began
preparations, he sent Colonel Hardin and Major Truman to
the Indians with overtures of peace, but both were treach
erously murdered. Even after this, when a battle was
imminent, he again sought to win peace by treaty; but the
Indians, taking this course as a proof of timidity, returned
such a haughty reply by his commissioners that he deter
mined to delay the blow no longer.
The battle, though obstinately maintained for a time by
the Indians, was a complete victory for General Wayne's
forces. The panic-stricken savages were chased with great
slaughter to the British fort at Maumee, several miles distant.
The commander of this post had promised the Indians, in
case of defeat, to open the gates and give them protection.
But this was not done ; and while the hordes huddled about
the gates, clamoring for admission, they were cut down
without mercy. The blow was a decisive one. The for
midable confederation of tribes was overthrown so utterly
that they did not recover for twenty years.
Nothing being left on the battle ground to destroy, Gen
eral Wayne returned to Auglaize and laid waste all the
Indian towns and fields within fifty miles of the river. He
gave the savages to understand that their only alternative
was peace or destruction. On the 3d of August, 1795,
eleven hundred chiefs and warriors met the United States
commissioners at Fort Greenville, where a treaty of peace
was signed. This was, perhaps, the most important treaty
ever made between the United States and Indians regarding

THE SHAWNEES AND THE MIAMIS 277
the cession of lands, and moved the dividing line one long
step further toward the west.
The Indians who signed this treaty represented the Wy
andot, Delaware, Shawnee, Ottawa, Chippewa [Ojibwa],
Potawatomi, Miami, Eel River, Wea, Piankishaw, Kicka-
poo, and Kaskaskia tribes.
For fifteen years after the treaty there was comparative
quiet on the border, and consequently the white settlements
spread rapidly toward the west. During this time a num
ber of treaties were made, by which the Indians ceded large
areas in Indiana and Illinois to the United States. Although
these cessions were not the result of force and were made
upon satisfactory consideration, yet many of the leading
Indians began to show uneasiness at the encroachments of
the whites and the prospect of being forced westward.
Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief, and his brother Ellskwatawa
were the leaders in the resistance against the invasion by
the whites. Tecumseh, who was one of the most extraor
dinary characters among the Indians of our country, is thus
described by Dr. Trumbull in his Indian Wars:
He was the most extraordinary Indian that ever appeared in history.
He would have been a great man in any age or nation. Independent,
of the most consummate courage and skill as a warrior, and with all the
characteristic acuteness of his race, he was endowed by nature with
the attributes of mind necessary for great political combinations. His
acute understanding, very early in life, informed him that his country
men had lost their importance ; that they were gradually yielding to
the whites, who were acquiring an imposing influence over them.
Instigated by these considerations, and perhaps by his natural ferocity
and attachment to war, he became a decided enemy to the whites, and
imbibed an invincible determination (he surrendered it with his life) to
regain for his country the proud independence she had lost. For a
number of years he was foremost in every act of hostility committed
against those he conceived the oppressors of his countrymen, and was
equally remarkable for intrepidity as skill in many combats that took
place under his banner. Aware, at length, of the extent, number, and
power of the United States, he became fully convinced of the futility
of any single nation of red men attempting to cope with them. He
formed, therefore, the grand scheme of uniting all the tribes east of the
Mississippi into hostility against the United States. This was a field

278

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

worthy of his great and commanding genius. He commenced in the
year 1S09 ; and in the execution of his project, he displayed an un-
equaled adroitness, eloquence, and courage. He insinuated himself
into every tribe from Michillimackinack to Georgia, and was invariably
successful in his attempts to bring them over to his views.
Tecumseh and his brother, known as "the Prophet,"
with other leading men, formed a union of the tribes at a
council at Greenville, by which it was intended to prevent
the whites from making further settlements upon their
lands. It appears that the objects Tecumseh and his brother
had in view were : first, the reformation of the tribes, whose
habits and customs unfitted them for intelligent efforts ; and
secondly, to bring about such a union of the tribes as would
make the purchase of their lands by the United States im
possible, and would at the same time give to the Indians a
formidable strength that would receive national respect; in
other words, an Iroquois League on an extended scale.
In their attempt to awaken the Indian spirit to an appre
ciation and approval of the great project, they began with
the praiseworthy effort of reforming the Indians from their
habits of intemperance, in which it is said they made con
siderable progress among the Indians along the lakes.
A summary of results, chiefly as a continuation of
Shawnee history, suffices to show the steps that led to the
war incited by Tecumseh. Governor Harrison agreed to
hold a council with Tecumseh at Vincennes in August,
1 8 10. Nothing was effected thereby except that the breach
was widened. Governor Harrison, now aware that a battle
was close at hand, determined it should take place in the
heart of Tecumseh's stronghold, his headquarters being at
Tippecanoe, though Tecumseh was absent at the time
among the southern Indians. The Indians, who were led
by "the Prophet," were defeated in the battle which oc
curred on November 7, 181 1. Although not present, the
defeat at Tippecanoe broke Tecumseh's power; his plans
were overthrown, and his dream of a grand confederacy
passed away forever.

THE SHAWNEES AND THE MIAMIS 279
The war of 1 8 1 2 between the English and the United
States having commenced, the disappointed chieftain cast
his lot with the former. As his history now merges into
that of the national conflict, it only remains for us to
record his death, which occurred while he was fighting
bravely in the battle of the Thames, his Indians bearing
the brunt of the onset, while Procter, the English leader,
was saving himself by cowardly flight. Thus ended the
career of the most noted Indian chief who has figured in
the history of our country; and with his death ends the
story of the border wars of the Ohio valley.
A few more items in regard to the Shawnees remain to
be added before turning to the history of other tribes.
About 1745, or shortly previous thereto, a band of the
tribe, numbering, as it is stated, four hundred and fifty in
dividuals, removed to "New Spain" [Mexico]. Henry
Harvey expresses the opinion, in his History of the Shawnee
Indians, that this band was the one found wandering " north
of the head-waters of Mobile River." Another party had
moved, about the same time, to a tract of land on the west
side of the Mississippi near Cape Girardeau, which had
been given them by Carondolet, the Spanish governor.
This land was ceded to the United States in 1825, and in
lieu thereof a tract was granted them in Kansas. Ulti
mately, most of the tribe were removed to Indian Territory.
Another tribe which took part in most of the leading
events of the border warfare in the Ohio valley was that
known usually under the name Miami, though the early
English writers generally mention these Indians as the
" Twightwees." The French authors name as divisions of
this tribe or confederacy, the Piankishaws,Weas, Atchatcha-
kangouens, Kilatikas, Mongakoukias, and Pepikokias. Of
these, the first two were in later years recognized as dis
tinct tribes ; but the others ceased to be known as divisions,
and their names dropped from history.
The earliest recorded notice of these Indians is found
in the Jesuit Relation for 1658, where they are mentioned,

280 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
under the name " Oumamik," as residing at that time near
Green Bay, Wisconsin. The first time the French came
into actual contact with them was when Perrot, the perse
vering explorer, visited them in 1669 and 1670. They
were then living about the headwaters of Fox River. In
1 67 1, a part, at least, of the tribe was living with the
Mascoutens in a palisaded village not far from the same
locality. Soon after this date they began to withdraw from
the Mascoutens and move eastward, forming settlements
at the southern extremity of Lake Michigan and on Kala
mazoo River in Michigan. It is at this time that the
Ouiatenon offshoot, or Weas, as they were designated in
later years, come into notice, and it was this little tribe that
had a village on the site of Chicago at the time of Mar
quette's visit. The Miamis proper had a settlement at the
same time near by on St. Joseph River, where La Salle
found them.
Judging by the extent of country over which this tribe
was spread a few years later, it is safe to assume that those
found located in Wisconsin at the first contact with the
whites formed but a portion of the tribe, and that other
portions were already in the region of northeastern Illinois
and northern Indiana. As the tribe and its allies, the
Piankishaws and Weas, were found at a later date located
on the Wabash, in Indiana, and in northwestern Ohio, it
seems that they had in historic times moved from their
more northwestern localities, though it is possible, indeed
probable, that a part of the tribe had never lived west of
Michigan. As it appears that all the northern Algonquin
tribes we have mentioned, so far as their early migrations
can be traced, have entered the United States territory from
the north side of the lakes, it is probable the Miamis came
from the same region. Most likely they entered first into the
lower Michigan peninsula, and, in whole or in part, moved
west into Wisconsin, as did the Sauks, through pressure from
other more eastern tribes. Later, as they increased in num
bers and strength, they gradually moved toward the east.

THE SHAWNEES AND THE MIAMIS 28l
When Vincennes was sent by Governor Vaudreville, in
1705, on a mission to the tribe, they were found principally
occupying the territory northwest of the upper Wabash.
There was, at least for a time, a Miami village at Detroit,
but of what extent is unknown. In 1711, they, includ
ing the Weas, were collected chiefly in three villages, — one
on the St. Joseph, one on the Wabash, and one on the Mau
mee. Pressed by the Potawatomies and Kickapoos, they
abandoned the country northwest of the Wabash, the Weas
and Piankishaws settling on this river; while the Miamis
proper moved east into Ohio, forming settlements on the
Miami and perhaps as far east as the upper Scioto. They
were occupying these localities in 1721 and continued in
possession of them until the peace of 1763, when they
retired to Indiana.
The Miamis took a prominent part in the contests in the
Ohio valley up to the close of the War of 1812. At their
first entrance into history, they were friends and allies of
the French; and consequently were constantly at war
with the Five Nations. Near the middle of the eighteenth
century they made peace with the Five Nations, and with
the English by the treaty of Lancaster in 1748. The Pian
kishaws and Weas, who were not included in this treaty,
tendered through Croghan propositions of alliance with the
English, which were unwisely rejected by the Assembly of
Pennsylvania. Soon after 1812, the Miamis began to dis
pose of their territory to the United States, and by 1827
most of it had been ceded and the larger portion of the tribe
moved to Kansas, and thence into Indian Territory, where
the remnant still resides. A part of the tribe, known as
Meshingomesia's band, continued to reside on a reservation
in Wabash County, Indiana, until 1872, when the land
was parcelled out to the survivors, numbering about three
hundred persons.
With this we close our sketch of the Indian history of
the valley of the Ohio, the scene of some of the most stir
ring events in the conflicts of the native population with

282 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
the colonists in the later colonial days and with the people
of the United States in the early years of the Republic.
Pontiac and Tecumseh stand prominent in the Indian ranks
as their heroes in the fierce and long-drawn-out contest.
The baptism of the infant Republic was one of blood ; but
civilization, as must ever be the result, triumphed over
savagery. The fertile area which once served only as
hunting grounds for a scant savage people teems now with
cities, towns, and busy, active, civilized life, supporting
a population twenty-fold greater than the whole aboriginal
dwellers in the United States in their palmiest days.

CHAPTER XIII
THE INDIANS OF THE OLD NORTHWEST
We have adopted as the most appropriate title for the
region treated of in this chapter, "The Old Northwest,"
the title given by Dr. B. A. Hinsdale to his historical sketch
of the same region. All the tribes embraced in the terri
tory indicated by our title — which includes also the sec
tion immediately north of Lake Superior — belong, with a
single exception, to the Algonquian stock, the principal
ones being the Chippewa, Cree, Menominee, Ottawa,
Potawatomi, Sauk and Fox, Wea, and Miami. The single
exception is the Winnebago tribe, a branch of the Siouan
family. South of these, but more or less connected with
them historically, were the Mascouten, Kickapoo, and Illi
nois tribes, all of Algonquian lineage. All these, except
the Crees and a part of the Chippewas, lay south of Lake
Superior and east of the Mississippi, mostly in the present
areas of Wisconsin and Illinois. All the Algonquin tribes
about the upper lakes were, at an early day, frequently
designated by the French as "Upper Algonquins"; and
the name Ottawa, or its equivalent, was also applied in a
general sense to include the same tribes.
Although the French on the lower St. Lawrence had
received some information in regard to the Indians of
the upper lake region prior to Jean Nicolet's visit in
1634 [or 1639], he was the first white man, so far as is
positively known, to reach the borders of the present state
283

284 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
of Wisconsin. Having threaded his way along the water
thoroughfare to the head of Green Bay, the first Indians
of this interior region he encountered were the Winne
bagoes, who spoke a language unknown to him, although
he was well versed in various Algonquin dialects. It was
through this visit that the French began to gain positive
knowledge in regard to the natives and the geographical fea
tures of this northern section, the heart of the fur country.
It is stated that he made a treaty of peace in the name of
the French government with several tribes. This, how
ever, could have been nothing more than a mere informal
agreement. From the year 1660 onward, the Catholic orders carried
on the work of planting and maintaining missions among
the tribes of this northwestern section. Among these faithful
missionaries were the well-known pioneers Menard, Allouez,
Marquette, and Dablon. Some of the missions, as those
at St. Xavier, Michel, Chequamegon, and Sault Ste. Marie,
became important points in the early Indian history of that
region. As friendly relations with the French existed from
the first with all these tribes except the Sauks and Foxes, the
missionaries were, in general, kindly treated.
At the time the French arrived at Sault Ste. Marie, the
Indians residing there were bands or clans of Chippewas, to
whom the French applied the general name " Saulteurs," or
"Falls Indians." The three clans which had their head
quarters here were the Noquets, the Chippewas [proper],
whose name has since been applied to the entire tribe, and
the Maramegs. At the time Allouez arrived in the coun
try [1665], he found the Indians greatly excited in regard
to a new war they were about to wage against the Sioux, the
inveterate enemies of the Chippewas. A general council was
called at Chequamegon to consider the subject, in which
Allouez was invited to take part. To this council came
the Potawatomies from the shores of Lake Michigan; the
Sauks and Foxes, and the Hurons ; the Illinois from the south
also came with their tale of former greatness and present

THE INDIANS OF THE OLD NORTHWEST 285
diminished state through wars with the Sioux on the one
hand, and with the Iroquois on the other. The Sioux also
were there from the west. The eloquence of the father,
together with the "three words" and "three presents"
from M. de Tracy, appears to have calmed the rising storm.
Five years later, M. Talon, then Intendant of New
France, commissioned Saint-Lusson to take formal pos
session, in the name of the King of France, of all the
northwest country. For this purpose Perrot was directed
to notify the tribes to convene at Sault Ste. Marie the
following season. The meeting took place in May and
June, 1 67 1, and the act of taking possession on June 14th
of that year, when, according to the commissioner's state
ment, fourteen tribes were represented. The ceremony
began with an address by Allouez, in Algonquin, in praise
of the mighty king of the French; Saint-Lusson followed
with a brief speech, closing his remarks by inquiring whether
all present consented to what he proposed. When this was
repeated in Algonquin by Allouez, the Indians, we are in
formed, first replied by presents and then by loud cries of
" Long live the king." The simple natives were, no doubt,
highly entertained by the spectacle and the chanting, and
above all by the presents given them, but it is not at all
likely that they understood the signification of the perform
ance. De la Potherie states, in his Histoire de V Am'erique
Septentrionale, that a "proces verbal" was drawn up, and
signed by all the " nations." There is, however, no evidence
confirming this statement, nor do these signatures appear
in the copy given by R. P. J. Tailhan in his notes to Perrot's
M'emoire; neither is there anything in Saint-Lusson's state
ment of the proceedings to indicate that the signatures of
the Indians were obtained.
The propositions to which Saint-Lusson alluded in his
closing words are these : " In the name of the most high,
most powerful, and most redoubtable monarch, Louis XIV.
of name, most Christian king of France and Navarre, we
take possession of said place, Sainte Marie du Sault, as also

286 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
of the Lakes Huron and Superior, the island Caientaton
[Manitoulin] and of all other lands, rivers, lakes and
streams contiguous to and adjacent here, as well discovered
as to be discovered, which are bounded on one side by the
seas of the North and West and on the other side by the sea
of the South."
The reason for giving these details is that they constitute
the only steps taken by the French to extinguish the In
dians' rights to this vast extent of country; nevertheless,
almost all the tribes remained their firm friends, and joined
with them in their wars with the English. Aside from the
burlesque character of these proceedings, so far as the rights
of the natives were concerned, it does not appear that ex
ceeding one-half of the tribes mentioned were represented
at this conference. Charlevoix says expressly that the Illi
nois, Mascoutens, and Kickapoos, who are named in the
list, were certainly not represented.
The tribes of this northwestern region were, with one
exception, generally on friendly terms with the French,
their history for the first few years after the formal taking
possession, by Saint-Lusson consisting, so far as their rela
tions to the French are concerned, almost wholly of their
connection with the missions established by the Jesuit
priests. However, the individual tribes have histories which,
though brief, are of interest ; for here was the heart of that
fur country whose trade the French colonists were so
anxiously seeking.
The first Indians of this region with whom Nicolet, the
pioneer explorer, came in contact were the Winnebagoes.
This tribe, though seated in the midst of an Algonquin
group, pertained to a different lineage, being ethnically re
lated to the Siouan stock, though not to that great division
of the family known as the Sioux, or Dakota. There are
reasons, both linguistic and traditional, for believing that
these Indians represent the original stem or another divi
sion of the family including the Otoe, Iowa, Missouri,
Omaha, and some other tribes. As the evidence on which

THE INDIANS OF THE OLD NORTHWEST

287

this conclusion is based bears upon the early history of all
these tribes, it may be briefly stated here.
The close linguistic relation of these tribes with or
derivation from the Winnebagoes has been shown by such
eminent linguists as Rev. J. Owen Dorsey and Dr. Horatio
Hale. Albert Gallatin says : " The tradition of these five
tribes, Iowas, Missouris, Otoes, Omahas, and Ponkas, is
that at a distant epoch they, together with the Winnebagoes,
came from the north; that the Winnebagoes stopped on
the banks of Lake Michigan, while they, continuing their
course southerly, crossed the Mississippi and occupied the
seats in which they were found by the Europeans." Major
S. H. Long gives, in the account of his Expedition to the
Rocky Mountains, the tradition as he obtained it, thus:
"The parent nation originally resided somewhere north of
the great lakes. On moving southward, a large body se
ceded, staying on the shore of a lake; these became the
Hochangara or Winnebagoes." Hotchungara, which signi
fies "ancient language or speech," is the name they apply
to themselves.
This tradition, which seems to be strongly corroborated,
implies that this tribe did not come to its historic seat
from the west along the southern shore of Lake Superior,
but around the eastern end, the same route, as will appear
later, followed by the Chippewas.
When first encountered by the whites, the tribe resided
in the vicinity of Green Bay, their settlements probably
extending to the region about Lake Winnebago, as the map
of 1 68 1, accompanying Marquette's Journal, notes one of
their villages near the north end of the lake. The earliest
item of their history is the mention of a war between them
and the Illinois Indians, about 1639, in which it is said
they were well-nigh exterminated. This, however, must
be a mistake, at least so far as the date is concerned, as it
was at this time they were visited by Nicolet, who found
them in a prosperous condition. If there be any truth in
the statement, it probably refers to the defeat of a band.

288 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
When Allouez spent the winter of 1669— 1670 at Green
Bay, he found there about six hundred persons of the Sauk,
Potawatomi, Fox, and Winnebago tribes gathered in one vil
lage near the mouth of Fox River, which is evidence of the
friendly relations existing among these tribes at that time.
They are also mentioned as one of the nations present at
the formal "taking possession" by the French in 167 1.
The traditions of these Indians, and also their later his
tory, bear testimony to long-continued enmity toward and
occasional wars with the Chippewas. Their written history,
until the United States came into control, consists chiefly
of casual notices of the part taken by them in the wars
between the French and English and between the English
and the Colonies. They formed part of the Indian force
which aided the French at Fort Du Quesne in defeating
General Braddock in 1755. Some of their warriors joined
Pontiac in the war of 1763. They cast their lot with the
English in the Revolutionary War, and, with other western
Indians, took part in engagements > under the orders of
Major Campbell in the army commanded by General Bur-
goyne. It is stated that some of their men were with the
Indians who were defeated by General Wayne in 1794, but
the name of the tribe does not appear in any of the resulting
treaties. Previous to this, time, they removed from their seat
near Green Bay to Wisconsin River. The exact date of
this removal is not known, but it was after the Sauks and
Foxes had left this river. Some of their warriors, belonging
to a party which had joined Tecumseh, having been killed
in battle, the tribe, which had not taken part in the war as
a tribe, became greatly excited, and desirous of revenge.
Several scalping parties were sent out to white settlements
to retaliate. All that is known is that one of the parties,
when returning, exhibited at Black Hawk's village the scalps
it had taken.
In the war of 1812 the Winnebagoes took part with the
English, and helped to defeat Major Croghan at Michili-
mackinac, Colonel Dudley at the rapids of the Miami, and

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CORPORATION IN ENGLAND
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in N eve- England.

CAMBR1DG:
Printed by Samuel Green and Marmaiukf John/on,
MDCLXI.

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Title-page of John Eliot's New Testament in the Nihantic dialect,
printed at Cambridge in 1661. This is the first New Testament in
any form or language printed in the Western Hemisphere. From the
'very rare original in the New York Public Library, Lenox Branch.

THE INDIANS OF THE OLD NORTHWEST

289

General Winchester at River Raisin. One hundred and fifty
of their warriors joined in the attack on Fort Stevenson,
Lower Sandusky, defended at that time by Major Croghan.
The defeat of the attacking allies was in this instance so
complete that the Indians, disappointed and crestfallen, did
not stop to demand the presents promised by the English,
but started at once for home by way of Fort Dearborn. Not
more than half of those who left their homes ever reached
them again. They promised to remain neutral in the Black
Hawk war, but were constantly giving clandestine aid to
the Sauks and Foxes, and a war party openly assisted them
in one or two battles. Since then they have been uniformly
peaceable. They have been unfortunate in their attempts to find a
resting place secure against the tide of westward-moving
civilization. By treaties made in 1825 and 1832, they
ceded all their lands south of Wisconsin and Fox Rivers
for a reservation on the west side of the Mississippi above
the upper Iowa River. In 1837, they relinquished the title
to their old country in Wisconsin, and in 1840 removed to
their reservation in Iowa, though a part of the tribe had
to be transferred by United States soldiers. In 1846, they
surrendered their Iowa reservation for another in Minnesota.
In 1853, they were removed to Crow River, and in 1856
to Blue Earth, Minnesota. At the breaking out of the
Sioux war in 1862, the people of Minnesota demanded
their removal, in consequence of which they were landed at
Crow Creek, on Missouri River; but, suffering from sick
ness, they fled to the Omaha reserve, only twelve hundred
out of the two thousand remaining when the latter place
was reached. They were then assigned a new reservation
on the Omaha lands.
When the tribe was removed from its original seat, many
of its members who had taken up farms were allowed to
remain. Their numbers were estimated in 1843 at 4i500-
In 1867, there were 1,750 on the Nebraska reservation,
and 700 in Wisconsin. In 1886, there were only 1,222

290

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

in Nebraska, but the number in Wisconsin had increased
to 930.
The Chippewas, at the time of their greatest numerical
strength, formed one of the largest tribes north of Mexico.
Their former range was along the northern shores of Lakes
Superior and Huron, and the southern shores of Lake Supe
rior. Although a strong and populous tribe, they have not
played a prominent role in the history of the Northwest,
owing to their remoteness from the frontier during the
Indian wars.
The tradition of this people in regard to their entrance into
the region where they were first found by the whites, so far
as it can be accepted, finds them at Sault Ste. Marie, with
a faint remembrance of having come from the shores of a
great salt sea, undoubtedly Hudson's Bay.
As the first knowledge obtained by the French of these In
dians related to those residing at the Falls of St. Mary, they
gave them the name " Saulteurs," or " Falls Indians." They
belong, as already stated, to the Algonquian stock, and were
formerly divided into several subtribes, which, however, are
seldom mentioned in history, the names " Chippewas," or
its equivalent " Ojibwas," and " Saulteurs " being usually
applied without reference to the subdivisions. The further
account of them received by the French located them along
the south side of Lake Superior, and speaks of them as
hunters and fishers, and as cultivating maize to a limited
extent. According to La Potherie (Hist. Amer.) after the
defeat of the Hurons by the Iroquois, the Chippewas and
Missisaugas — a subtribe of the Chippewas — retired further
inland. This, however, if correct, can refer only to such
bands as were located on the lake shore, or probably only
to the Missisaugas who were located at the north end of
Lake Huron. At an early date, probably long previous to
that mentioned above, contentions arose between the Chip
pewas and Sioux in regard to their territorial rights, which
resulted in a state of hostility that continued for many
years, and, notwithstanding the peace agreements between

THE INDIANS OF THE OLD NORTHWEST 291
them, would, ever and anon, even down to comparatively
recent times, show itself in attacks and reprisals.
One of the first items in the history of the Chippewas is
the notice of their attack, in connection with other Indians,
upon a party of Iroquois in 1660, most of the latter being
slain. This took place in the vicinity of Sault Ste. Marie,
whither the Iroquois had made their way in pursuit of the
fleeing Ottawas and Hurons. This defeat appears to have
checked the Iroquois raids upon this section, as it seems
that soon thereafter the fear of these raiders subsided in this
region and the fugitives began to move back toward the east.
In 1674, eleven Sioux braves arrived at Sault Ste. Marie,
authorized as ambassadors of their nation to make peace
with the adjacent tribes. These, notwithstanding the mis
sion 'on which they came, and the warrant of safety accorded
ambassadors, even among savages, were set upon and killed
by the Chippewas.
The date when the people of this tribe first obtained fire
arms from the French is not given, but it must have been
about the time of the above-mentioned incident. During
the year 1679 the Chippewas and Sioux were on friendly
terms, and Du Luth, who visited this region at this time,
carried some of the former with him to the country of the
latter. In 1695, the Chippewas and Sioux united in an attack
upon the Foxes; the result, however, was different from
their expectation, as they were sorely defeated by the latter ;
and it was only through the strenuous efforts of Perrot that
the daughter of a Chippewa chief, who was taken captive,
was saved from the flames; the other prisoners were also
released. They formed part of the Indian troop which Du
Luth led in 1684 to aid the French against the Iroquois;
but the object of this expedition, as has been elsewhere
stated, was in a large measure thwarted through the dis
graceful treaty made by De la Barre.
About the commencement of the eighteenth century,
war having again broken out between the Chippewas and
Sioux, the former began to push the latter further and further

292 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
westward, and ere long, led by their noted chief Biauswah,
succeeded in driving them from the country about the head
waters of the Mississippi, carrying their conquests as far as
Leech Lake. The Chippewas adhered to the French during
their wars with the English, taking part in many of the
battles fought during this period. A party from the tribe
" fought in the ranks of Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham,
when this ill-fated general and the heroic Wolfe received
their death-wounds." Warren states, in his History of the
Ojibways, that the " Ojibways of Lake Superior" did not join
Pontiac in his war on the English. Nevertheless, Parkman
(Conspiracy of Pontiac) asserts, on the faith of the Pontiac
manuscript, that two bands of this tribe, one of two hun
dred warriors under chief Wasson, the other of one hundred
and fifty under chief Sekahos, were present at the siege of
Detroit. While the Chippewas were thus pushing back the
eastern Sioux, many of their people, chiefly of the Mis-
sisauga band, had made their way eastward into the
peninsula between Lakes Huron and Erie, the countiy
occupied by the Hurons before they were driven out by
the Iroquois.
The Chippewas and Foxes were enemies from time im
memorial, and many a bloody conflict was fought between
them. Their last important battle was fought at St. Croix
Falls in 1780, where the Chippewas defeated the combined
forces of the Foxes and a band of Sioux, reducing the
former to fifteen lodges, who were then incorporated with
the Sauks and continued thereafter as one tribe. Some of the
tribe took part with Tecumseh in his war with the States
in 18 1 1— 1 8 13; but the number must have been small, as
the majority of the tribe were friends of the United States
during the Revolutionary War and the War of 181 2.
They began to cede their lands to the United States soon
after the treaty of peace with Great Britain, being paities
to the treaties of Greenville [1795], Fort Industry [1805],
and Detroit [1807]. They were also a party to the treaty

THE INDIANS OF THE OLD NORTHWEST 293
of St. Louis [18 16], in which their claim to lands in
Illinois formerly ceded by the Sauks and Foxes was extin
guished. They appear, however, to have been included in
these treaties more to extinguish indefinite claims than to
cede acknowledged rights. In 1 8 19, they ceded, with certain
reservations, a large tract in Michigan about Saginaw Bay ;
and in 1821 joined with the Ottawas and Potawatomies in
the cession of an extensive tract in southwestern Michigan.
These cessions and others hereafter mentioned indicate the
wide range over which this tribe had spread, acquired either
by settlement or conquest.
In order to fix the boundaries between the tribes of
the Northwest and to prevent further warfare between
them on this score, the United States entered into a
treaty with a number of the tribes at Prairie du Chien
on August 19, 1825, in which the boundaries between
the Chippewas and the Sioux and between the former
and the Winnebagoes were determined. As that part re
lating to the Chippewas and Sioux indicates the western
boundary of the Chippewa territory, it is given here as
follows :
Art. 5. It is agreed between the Sioux and the Chippewas, that the
line dividing their respective countries shall commence at the Chippewa
river, half a day's march below the falls ; and from thence it shall run
to Red Ceder river, immediately below the falls ; from thence to the
St. Croix river, which it strikes at a place called the Standing Cedar,
about a day's paddle in a canoe, above the lake at the mouth of that
river ; thence passing between two lakes called by the Chippewas
"Green Lakes," and by the Sioux "the lakes they bury the Eagles
in," and from thence to the Standing Cedar, that "the Sioux Split";
thence to Rum river, crossing it at the mouth of a small creek called
Choaking creek, a long day's march from the Mississippi ; thence to a
point of woods that projects into the prairie, half a day's march from
the Mississippi ; thence in a straight line to the mouth of the first river
which enters the Mississippi on its west side above the mouth of Sac
river ; thence ascending the said river (above the mouth of Sac river) to
a small lake at its source ; thence in a direct line to a lake at the head
of Prairie river, which is supposed to enter the Crow-wing river on its
south side ; thence to Otter-tail lake Portage ; thence to said Otter-tail
lake, and down through the middle thereof to its outlet ; thence in a

294 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
direct line, so as "to strike Buffalo river half way from its source to its
mouth, and down the said river to Red river, thence descending Red
river to the mouth of Outard or Goose creek.
It is seen from this that they had advanced as far west
as Ottertail Lake, in Minnesota. It appears that before
the close of the Revolutionary War, in 1783, they were
in possession of Leech and Red Lakes, and that the Sioux
north of Falls of St. Anthony had been driven west of
the Mississippi. In 1806, General Pike found 1,120 Chip
pewas settled at Leech Lake, and 1,020 at Red Lake. In
order to show the range of the tribe — exclusive of those
north of Lake Superior — at the date of the treaty of 1825
at Prairie du Chien, it is only necessary to state that among
the Chippewa chiefs who signed it were those representing
the following bands : at Sault Ste. Marie, La Pointe, Fond
du Lac, Sandy Lake, Leech Lake, Upper Red Cedar, Red
Lake, Mille Lacs, St. Croix River, Lac Courte Oreille, and
Lac du Flambeau. Notwithstanding this and other treaties,
desultory warfare between this tribe and the Sioux con
tinued up to 1858, when their last battle was fought near
Lake Minnetonka.
While there was some excitement among the Chippewas
at Leech Lake during the Sioux uprising in 1862, it does
not appear that any of the tribe took part in it.
The Indians of this tribe are mostly gathered on reserva
tions in the Dominion of Canada, in Ontario and Mans
toba; and in the United States, in Minnesota, Wisconsin,
and — a few — in Kansas. Those in Michigan have received
allotments in severalty. Those in Canada amount to
20,000 ; while those in the United States, including the
estimated number in Michigan, amount to about 16,600,
the aggregate population of the tribe in 1 900 exceeding
36,000 persons.
Although the tribe is remarkable for its numbers, ex
tended distribution, and vitality, — its population being prob
ably as great now as at any preceding period of its existence,
— it has played a comparatively insignificant role in history.

THE INDIANS OF THE OLD NORTHWEST 295
The division dwelling north of Lake Superior was com
paratively unknown until in recent years. The location
of this northern group being out of the lines of travel,
they seldom came in contact with the whites ; moreover, they
appear to have been mild and harmless, little disposed to
war upon other tribes. On account of this disposition,
the name "Rabbits" was bestowed upon them by their
more warlike southern brethren. They consist of two
divisions, known as the " Men of the Thick Woods " and
the. "Swamp People," names derived from the character
of the country in which they reside.
In their mode of life the Chippewas were comparatively
rude; game and fish, especially the latter, being abundant in
their country, these, together with wild rice, formed their
chief subsistence, but little attention being devoted to the
cultivation of the soil.
The Potawatomies formed an Algonquian tribe closely
related to and possibly an offshoot from the Chippewa tribe ;
or it may be true, as claimed by Warren in his History of the
Ojibways, that these two tribes, together with the Ottawas,
formed originally one group, and that they separated into
distinct organizations at an early day in the vicinity of
Straits of Michilimackinac, because of increasing numbers
and limited territory, or for some other natural cause. The
signification of the name " Potawatomi," " those who keep
the fire," indicating the division of the original group to
which this duty fell, would be in consonance with this
tradition. If the population were considerable, the limited
territory in the region of the Straits would have a tendency
toward causing a division — the Ottawas going to the islands
and the northern shore of Lake Huron, and the Chippewas
and Potawatomies continuing their westward course to Sault
Ste. Marie and the shores of Green Bay.
When Nicolet reached this northwestern region in 1639,
he found the Potawatomies located in the vicinity of Green
Bay. But two years later [1641] the Catholic missionaries,
who visited Sault Ste. Marie during this year, found them

296 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
there, whither they had fled from the Sioux. When the
bands of Ottawas and Hurons fleeing westward to escape
the attacks of the Iroquois reached Green Bay, they were
kindly received by the Potawatomies, who afforded them a
temporary asylum until they passed on to Chequamegon.
Father Allouez met at the latter point in 1665 a band of
Potawatomi warriors numbering three hundred, according
to his estimate. He describes them as "very docile and
friendly disposed to Christianity, besides being more humane
and civilized" than the Indians of other tribes; though
elsewhere they are spoken of as a "warlike people ex
tremely idolatrous and fond of polygamy." They received
firearms through Perrot as early as 1665 or 1666, which
gave them an advantage over other tribes of this sec
tion in their warfare. It is stated that in 1668 they were
all on the islands of Green Bay; but during the winter
of 1669— 1670, Allouez found them, together with the
Sauks, Foxes, and Winnebagoes, about six hundred in all,
wintering in one village at the head of the bay. His esti
mate of numbers, as is apparent, does not agree if all the
Potawatomies were at this village at that time. This, how
ever, may be explained by his statement (Jesuit Relation for
1669— 1671) that "a league and a half away was another
village of a hundred and fifty souls; four leagues distant,
one of a hundred souls; and eight leagues from here, on
the other side of the Bay, one of about three hundred souls."
The mission of St. Francis Xavier, which became one of the
most important in the Northwest, was founded here at this
time, wbere in 1676 a "beautiful church" was built by
Father Albanel.
For some reason not explained, the Potawatomies appear
to have split into some three or four bands about the com
mencement of the eighteenth century; one band was on
St. Joseph River, southern Michigan, in 1721, where it
remained until 1830; another was at Detroit in 1727;
while another remained at its old habitat near Green
Bay. George Imlay, writing a Topographical Description

THE INDIANS OF THE OLD NORTHWEST 297
of the Western Territory about 1790, estimates the number
at St. Joseph and Detroit, taken together, at two hundred
and seventy souls.
Among the Indian allies of the French in their war with
the English, there is mention of at least one band of Pota
watomies, of fifty warriors, who arrived at Montreal in 1 746
to tender their services to the former; and seventy of the
St. Joseph band and eighteen from Detroit are enumerated
among the Indian forces gathered at Ticonderoga in 1757.
Members of the tribe were also represented at Fort Du
Quesne in 1755 when Braddock was defeated; some, again,
were with Pontiac in his attack on Detroit in 1763 and
took a prominent part in the siege.
Although peace had been made between England and
France, the Potawatomies, incited by the French, were
committing robberies and murders on the Wabash in 1772,
and were also represented among the Indian troops de
feated by General Wayne in 1794.
They joined with the Delawares and Miamis in ceding
to the United States, by treaty at Fort Wayne, September
30, 1809, certain lands in Indiana. This purchase angered
Tecumseh against the whites; at least it was made a pre
text by him for commencing hostilities, in which he was
joined by the Potawatomies and the other tribes who signed
the treaty. The Potawatomies again took up arms in the
British interest in 18 12, and joined other tribes in a final
treaty of peace in 1815. As the white settlements rapidly
pressed upon them, they sold their land by piecemeal, chiefly
between 1836 and 1841, and most of them removed beyond
the Mississippi. A small party went to Canada and settled
upon Walpole Island in Lake St. Clair. Those who went
west were removed from point to point, the larger por
tion finally settling in Indian Territory; a part, however,
remained in Kansas.
The Indians who for a time gave most trouble to the
French were those belonging to the tribe called by the
English the Foxes, also known under the name Outagamis.

298 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
The earliest home of this tribe, and also of the cognate
Sauks, to which they can be traced appears to have been in
the eastern portion of the lower Michigan peninsula. They
were chased thence by the Iroquois, or possibly the Neuters,
at some time previous to 1665, as they were located at this
time along Fox and Wolf Rivers in Wisconsin, though it
is stated in the Jesuit Relation for 1667 that it was during
the year 1665 they settled in this section. It was here that
Father Allouez visited them in 1670 and started the mis
sion of St. Mark. This mission was, however, soon
abandoned, on account of the hostile attitude of the Foxes
toward the French. Their number at this time, as given
from actual observation, was four hundred warriors, indi
cating a total population of some fourteen hundred souls.
In 1 67 1, they joined the Ottawas and the Hurons in an
expedition against the Sioux, which resulted in the capture
of a few prisoners and the loss of an equal number of their
own men. They formed part of the allied forces who met
at Long Point in 1683— 1684 to assist De la Barre in his
attack upon the Iroquois, which was not carried out, because
of the treaty entered into with the latter. They were at
war with both the Sioux and the Chippewas in 1 685-1 686.
It was at this time that Perrot, having succeeded in obtain
ing from them the daughter of a Chippewa chief they had
taken prisoner, brought the two tribes together in a treaty
of peace. A few years later, in company with the Miamis,
they were again at war with the Sioux; and in 1 71 2 joined
the Mascoutens and Kickapoos in an attack on Detroit, but
were defeated in the latter engagement by Du Buission, who
called to his aid the Potawatomies and some other friendly
tribes. We next hear of them at war with the Chippewas
on the one side and the Illinois on the other. The French,
in order to put a stop to this warfare, which was detri
mental to their trade, and to bring about peace, called a
council at Green Bay in 1726. However, the promises
made at this meeting were merely formal, as the strife
continued as before.

THE INDIANS OF THE OLD NORTHWEST 299
The exactions of the tribe upon the traders became so
annoying that the French determined to put an end to
them. The statements in regard to the expeditions sent
against them differ quite materially as to dates, incidents,
and leaders. However, it seems clear that the expul
sion of the tribe from Fox River took place about 1746,
when they fled to Wisconsin River. Being greatly reduced
by their constant warfare and recent signal defeats, they
united with the Sauks and were afterward known under
the joint name — Sauks and Foxes, or Sauk and Fox tribe.
This restless, war-loving tribe was for years the chief
disturbing element in the Northwest. There was chronic
warfare between the Sioux and the Chippewas, yet this
affected the other tribes only to a limited extent; but the
Foxes were a continual source of annoyance to the other
Indians and to the French, hence their expulsion was a
source of relief to both.
The Sauks, with whom the Foxes were closely related
ethnically, probably formed the ancestral stem of the group,
whose early home was in eastern Michigan, about Saginaw
Bay. Father Allouez found them at Chequamegon, and
afterward in 1669 on Green Bay, and up Fox River, where
they had a village. They were a restless people, shifting
from point to point, yet appear to have been to some extent
cultivators of the soil. The Sauks, like the Foxes, were
engaged in perennial warfare with the Sioux, joining some
times with one Algonquin neighbor and then with another
in these raids, as well as in defence. They were driven
from their home on Fox River at the same time the Foxes
were expelled, 1746. The Sauks retired to Wisconsin River
and located themselves at Sauk Prairie, where Carver found
them in 1766; the Foxes, although they had entered into
formal union with the Sauks, were then living separately at
Prairie du Chien.
The chief episode in the history of the tribe after the
union with the Foxes was the so-called " Black Hawk War"
of 1832. The Indian leader in this war was the noted

300 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Sauk chieftain Black Hawk, who was born at the princi
pal Sauk village on Rock River in 1767. Although not the
son of a chief, he rose rapidly to distinction through personal
prowess. As early as 1783, he joined an expedition against
the Osages and had the fortune to kill several of the enemy.
For this brave deed he was permitted, for the first time, to
join in the scalp dance. His personal bravery and success
soon gave him a following of more than a hundred war
riors; and in 1786, yet only nineteen years of age, he was
marching at the head of two hundred followers into the
enemy's country. In the battle with the Osages which
followed they killed one hundred, with a loss of only nine
teen of their party. Black Hawk was credited by his party
with having slain a score of the enemy by his own hand.
Further success soon raised him to the position of chief.
On the opening of the War of 1812, the Sauks tendered
their services to the United States, but their offer was
rejected; and British intrigue and British goods soon there
after won the chief and most of his tribe to their interest.
The move proved an unsuccessful one, and after repeated
defeats Black Hawk returned, disappointed, to his village
on Rock River. In 18 16, he and his tribe concluded a
treaty of peace, which brought undisturbed quiet for the
next sixteen years.
The Sauks and Foxes, by the treaty of November 3, 1804,
had ceded their lands east of the Mississippi, including their
home on Rock River, to the United States. This treaty
was distasteful to Black Hawk, and when the removal of
the tribe to the lands assigned them in the west was en
forced this feeling was embittered. In 183 1, he returned
with his followers to their old planting ground on Rock
River, only to find white settlers already occupying their
former homes. A body of volunteers was raised to drive
away these Indians, who had becorhe troublesome. The
first conflict was a defeat for the whites under Major Still-
man, and thus commenced the Black Hawk war. Murders
and reprisals followed; and in June, 1832, the Indians made

THE INDIANS OF THE OLD NORTHWEST 301
an attack on the fort at Buffalo Grove, not far from Dixon's
Ferry. This was defended by one hundred and fifty sol
diers, who succeeded in holding the place, though with the
loss of several men. When the Indians retired, they had
not gone far before they were overtaken by a detachment
under Colonel Posey, which was quickly repulsed.
On the 2 1 st of July, the Indians were attacked by the
troops under General Dodge, on the banks of Wisconsin
River; the engagement resulted in the rout of the Indians
with heavy loss. "A party of Black Hawk's band, in
cluding many women and children, now attempted to
descend the Wisconsin on rafts and in canoes, that they
might escape by recrossing the Mississippi," but in this
attempt they were overtaken by the troops; many were
killed, some were taken prisoners, and others perished from
hunger. Another part of the band, among whom was
Black Hawk, having, it is said, abandoned all idea of con
tinuing the war, but being unwilling to trust themselves to
a capitulation, started across the Mississippi. In this march
many were lost by starvation. Reaching the Mississippi, a
number of women and children undertook to descend the
river in canoes to Prairie du Chien, but many were drowned
and the survivors became reduced to a state of starvation.
While Black Hawk and his party — the women and children
having left them, as stated — were crossing the Mississippi,
they were attacked by a party of soldiers on the steamboat
" Warrior," and twenty-three of the fugitives were killed.
The main body of the Indians who were defeated on the
Wisconsin, having fled to the bank of the Mississippi for
the purpose of passing over, were pursued and attacked
here and slaughtered without mercy. A writer, in an article
published in the nearest newspaper, — the Galena Gazette,
— four days after the battle, which is called a slaughter
rather than a victory, says : " When the Indians were driven
to the banks of the Mississippi, some hundreds of men,
women, and children plunged into the river, and hoped
by diving to escape the bullets of our guns. Very few,

302 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
however, escaped our sharp-shooters." Among the killed on
the Wisconsin shore was a mother, whose infant was feed
ing at her breast when a bullet passed through and broke
the arm of the child and penetrated the heart of the parent.
When discovered, the child was alive, and, receiving the
attention of one of the surgeons, survived the wound.
Black Hawk, seeing that further resistance was hopeless,
allowed himself to be delivered to the United States authori
ties by a friendly Winnebago chief.
Keokuk, who had been Black Hawk's rival, and had ad
vised against a violation of the treaties, now exerted himself
to obtain the latter's release. This, however, did not take
place until after Black Hawk had been taken to Washington
and confined for a brief period in Fortress Monroe.
In looking back from our modern standpoint over this
last struggle of the Indians of the Northwest residing east
of the Mississippi for the retention of their ancient home
steads, the pathetic side becomes apparent, and it is difficult
to look upon the action of the military forces with approval.
When it became evident that the Indians were endeavoring
to cross the Mississippi to the lands assigned them, the
pursuit and slaughter seem to have been wanton cruelty.
However, the unprotected pioneer settlements and the char
acteristic treachery of the Indians account for this heavy
retaliation, the necessity for which we, in this day of peace
and entire exemption from similar danger, cannot appreciate.
The next most important Indians of the region now
under consideration were those of the Illinois group. The
tribes included under this confederate name were the Ca-
hokia, Kaskaskia, Michigami, Moingouena, Peoria, and
Tamaroa; all, with the exception of the Kaskaskia tribe,
comparatively small bodies. However, as they were closely
related and generally treated of by the earlier and even by
some later writers under the generic name Illinois, or Illinois
Indians, the same method will be followed here.
They are first mentioned by the French writers between
1640 and 1658 as living in the vicinity of Green Bay. But

THE INDIANS OF THE OLD NORTHWEST 303
"vicinity" in this connection was a most indefinite term,
and applied, through the very imperfect knowledge of the
country, to tribes fifty or seventy-five leagues distant, as
well as to those in the immediate neighborhood. The
Jesuit Relation for 1660 represents them as living southwest
from Green Bay in sixty villages, and gives the extravagant
estimate of a population of one hundred thousand. When
Allouez visited them three years later, they were reduced
to two villages.
Their exact location when first heard of by the whites
cannot be determined with certainty, as the tribes and bands
were more or less scattered over southern Wisconsin, north
ern Illinois, and along the west bank of the Mississippi.
When Marquette voyaged down the Mississippi in 1673,
he found the Peorias and Moingouenas on the west side,
about the mouth of Des Moines River. On his return he
found them on Illinois River, near the site of the present
city of Peoria. The Kaskaskias were at that time in a vil
lage a little further north on the upper Illinois River, near
the site of the present town of Utica, La Salle County.
The village is reported as then consisting of seventy-four
cabins, and occupied by one tribe only; but a few years
later, 1690— 1694, the missionaries inform us that at that
date it consisted of three hundred and fifty cabins, and was
occupied by people of eight tribes.
The Kaskaskias were at the last-mentioned date in some
what intimate relations with the Peorias. Father Gravier,
who was at their village in 1 700, found them preparing to
move south. And it was chiefly through his influence that
the Peorias were prevented from moving and that the Kas
kaskias stopped in southern Illinois, at the place called after
the latter, Kaskaskia, which became their historic seat. The
Cahokias and Tamaroas were at this time located in their
well-known seat on the east bank of the Mississippi, a little
south of St. Louis.
The Illinois Indians were in early days almost constantly
harassed by the Sioux, Foxes, and other northern tribes, and

304 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
it was probably on this account that they concentrated,
about the time of La Salle's visit, on Illinois River. About
the same time, or very soon thereafter, the Iroquois began
a war upon them which lasted several years and greatly
reduced their numbers; while the liquor which they ob
tained from the French traders tended to degrade them still
further. The assassination of the celebrated chieftain Pontiac by
a Kaskaskia Indian in 1769 brought down the vengeance
of the lake tribes upon the Illinois Indians. " Could
his shade," writes Parkman, "have revisited the scene of
murder, his savage spirit would have exulted in the ven
geance which overwhelmed the abettors of the crime.
Whole tribes were rooted out to expiate it. Chiefs and
sachems, whose veins had thrilled with his eloquence ; young
warriors, whose aspiring hearts had caught the inspiration
of his greatness, mustered to revenge his fate, and from the
north and east their united bands descended on the villages
of the Illinois." A war of extermination was waged which
in a few years reduced them to a mere handful, who took
refuge with the French settlers at Kaskaskia. In 1778,
the Kaskaskias numbered two hundred and ten, living in a
village three miles north of the town of the same name;
and the Peorias and Michigamis together numbered but one
hundred and seventy, living on the Mississippi a few miles
further north. In 1833, the tribes sold their lands in Illinois
and removed west of the Mississippi, the miserable remnant
of the once formidable confederacy finally consolidating with
the Weas and Piankishaws in Indian Territory.
The Illinois were described by Marquette and Allouez
as the most docile and susceptible of Christianity of any of
the western Indians. They were always firm friends of the
French, but in their later years became degraded to the lowest
degree. Such were the predecessors on the broad and beau
tiful prairies of Illinois of the millions of inhabitants that
now occupy them.

: : :

CHAPTER XIV
INDIANS OF ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, AND
WESTERN GEORGIA
The Indians to whom attention is directed in this chapter
are those through whose territory De Soto and his army
of Spanish marauders swept like a storm in 1539— 1540,
marking their pathway with devastation and ruin. The
windstorm passes through the forest, levelling the sturdy
oaks or lofty pines, and is gone; all is again serene as
before, the denizens of the forest seem in a few hours to
have forgotten the danger. So, to some degree, was it with
the Indians through whose territory the adelantado and his
army marched ; a century and a quarter had gone by before
they were again seen ; the storm was forgotten, and De Soto
was a name unknown to them. The Indians he encountered
after leaving the dominion of the Lady of Cutifachiqui,
which extended to northern Georgia, until the Mississippi
was reached, belonged to the Muskhogean stock, which
occupied the larger portion of the area embraced in the
present states of Alabama and Mississippi and the western
part of Georgia. The tribes which resided in these bounds
not included in the Muskhogean family were few and of
limited population. The most important of these were the
Uchees, already noticed; the Natches, living on the bank of
Mississippi River in the southwestern part of the present
state of Mississippi, who, together with the Taensa Indians,
formerly residing on the opposite bank of the Mississippi
near the same latitude, constituted a distinct family known
3°5

306 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
as the Natchesan; and the Tonikas, a small tribe and a
distinct stock, formerly on Yazoo River in Mississippi.
There were also some small tribes on the same river, of
which but little is known. Located on the gulf coast
of Mississippi, near Pearl River, were the tribes known as
the Pascagoula and Biloxi Indians, members of the great
Siouan stock.
The principal tribes of the Muskhogean family were
the Creeks, or Muskhogees proper, the Chickasaws, and the
Choctaws. The Alibamu, Apalache, Koassati, Yamacraw,
and Yamasi tribes also belonged to the same family group.
According to Dr. Gatschet, this family or stock consisted of
four branches or subfamilies. The first, which he desig
nates the Muskhogee branch, included only the one tribe, the
Creeks, or Muskhogees proper. The second, or Apalache
branch, included the extinct Apalaches, the Mikasukis, the
Hitchitis, and parts of the composite groups — the Seminoles,
Yamasis, and Yamacraws. The third, or Alibamu branch,
included the Alibamu, Koassati, and Wetumka tribes. The
fourth, or Choctaw branch, included the Choctaws and
Chickasaws. The Seminole and Yamacraw groups were
composed in part of offshoots from the Creeks.
The Uchees, who, when they first became known to
the whites, occupied both banks of Savannah River from a
point some distance below Augusta well up toward its head
waters, have already been noticed in a previous chapter,
and their history followed up to their incorporation into the
Creek nation, after which they had no separate history,
being known only as Creeks. Nevertheless, they have
retained to the present day their own language, which is
used by them in their intercourse with one another, though
they use the Creek language in their conversation with
others. Of the tribes mentioned above as forming the Musk
hogean family, the most populous, as well as the most
important in the history of the Southern states, was the
Creek nation, or Muskhogee tribe, the name of which has

ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, WESTERN GEORGIA 307
been used to form the family designation. The name
"Creeks" was given to the people of this tribe by the
English traders, because of the large number of creeks in
their country, and, as applied, is equivalent to " the people
of the creeks." They were settled chiefly in northern
Alabama and along the upper and middle Chattahoochee
River. James Adair, in his History of the American Indians,
gives Koosa [Coosa] River as the western boundary of
their country ; but it is apparent from his map, and from
certain statements, that his Koosa is not the Coosa of
modern maps, but is the Tuscaloosa, or one of the branches
of this river — the Black Warrior, or Tombigbee. He places
them on his map between what are now called the Tom
bigbee and the Coosa, and says [1775] that "this nation
extends 140 miles in breadth from east to west according
to the course of the trading path."
The Creeks in historic times occupied a central position
among other affiliated tribes, and, because of their strength
in numbers and their influence on most of the cognate
groups, formed the most important tribe in the Gulf states.
Their custom of incorporating bands or parties from other
tribes, or entire tribes where small, added to their strength
in numbers and widened their relations. Tradition asserts
that generally, when the Creek nation incorporated other
tribes or bands into their confederacy, these incorporated
people soon abandoned their peculiar customs and adopted
those of the Creeks. The Tukabatchees and Tuskegees,
people from other stocks who were absorbed, are said
to have dropped entirely their own language after they
were brought into the confederacy. However, this tra
dition certainly did not apply to all, as several tribes
which were incorporated are known to have retained their
language, some even to the present day, as the Uchee,
Alibamu, etc.
Colonel Benjamin Hawkins says, in his Sketch of the Creek
Country, that "all tradition among the Creeks pointed to
the country west of the Mississippi, as the original habitat

308 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
of these tribes." This tradition in its most complete form
is given by Dr. A. S. Gatschet in his Migration Legends of
the Creek Indians. Although the localities mentioned in the
first part of the tradition cannot be identified with absolute
certainty, it is clear from the whole tradition that the move
ment was from west to east. Yet there are no statements
in the tradition, as given, that place the starting point with
certainty west of the Mississippi.
There is, however, another version of this tradition, the
substance of which is given by William Bartram in his
Travels [1791]. This author visited them in 1 773-1774
and obtained his information directly from the Indians. He
gives the substance in brief form thus : " If we are to give
credit to the account the Creeks give of themselves, this
place [the Oakmulgeefields] is remarkable as being the first
town or settlement, when they set down (as they term it) or
established themselves after their emigration from the west,
beyond the Mississippi, their original native country. On
this long journey they suffered great and innumerable diffi
culties, encountering and vanquishing numerous valient tribes
of Indians, who opposed their march. Having crossed the
river, still pushing eastward, they were obliged to make a
stand and fortify themselves in this place, as their only
remaining hope, being to the last degree persecuted and
weakened by their surrounding foes. Having formed a
government for themselves, and driven off the inhabitants
by degrees, they recovered their spirits, and again faced their
enemies, when they came off victorious in a memorable and
decisive battle. They afterward gradually subdued their
surrounding enemies, strengthening themselves by taking
into confederacy the vanquished tribes. And they say also,
that about this period the English were establishing the
colony of Carolina ; and the Creeks, understanding that they
were a powerful, warlike people, sent deputies to Charles
ton, their capitol, offering them their friendship and alliance
which was accepted, and in consequence thereof a treaty
took place between them which has remained inviolable to

ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, WESTERN GEORGIA 309
this day" [1773]. He adds further, as a part of their his
tory: "They never ceased war against the numerous and
potent bands of Indians, who then surrounded and cramped
the English plantations, as the Savannas, Ogechees, Wapoos,
Santees, Yamasees, Utinas, Icosans, Paticas, and others,
until they had exterminated them. The Yamasees and their
adherents sheltering themselves under the power and protec
tion of the Spaniards of East Florida, they pursued them to
the very gates of St. Augustine ; and the Spaniards refusing
to deliver them up, these faithful and intrepid allies had the
courage to declare war against them, until they entirely
broke up and ruined their settlements, driving them before
them, till at length they were obliged to retire within the
walls of St. Augustine and a few inferior fortified posts on
the sea coast."
The identification of some of the tribes mentioned in this
extract is uncertain. The Savannas, and probably the Ogee-
chees, were Uchees. The Santees formed a distinct tribe.
The cause of the bitter feeling of the Creeks toward the
Yamasis, a cognate people, does not appear to be mentioned
by Bartram or any of the writers who treat of this subject.
It is possible that the Yamasis had received and adopted
some fugitives whom, on account of their troublesome
character, the Creeks had pushed out of their community,
which course angered them ; it is, however, more likely that
the cause of enmity arose from the alliance of the Yamasis
with the enemies of the Creeks.
Among the early contests with other tribes was that with
the Alibamus, residing on Alabama River. This tribe ap
pears to have preceded the Creeks in the settlement of the
country, and had made choice of a desirable locality, of
which the latter were anxious to gain possession.
The Alibamus, driven from their homes by superior num
bers, sought peace and protection under the Wing of the
French, who, having appeared on the scene, encouraged
the proposition and brought about an interview between the
chiefs of the two tribes. In the presence of M. Bienville,

310 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
the commandant [1702], a peace was made, and the
Alibamus were incorporated into the Creek confederacy.
Not long after the incorporation of the Alibamus, the
Tukabatchees, who had been nearly destroyed by the Iro
quois, "wandered from the Ohio country, and," according
to A. J. Pickett (History of Alabama), " obtained permission
from the Muscogees to form a part of their nation. They
were willingly received by the cunning Muscogees, who were
anxious to gain all the strength they could, to prevent the
encroachments of the English from South Carolina." These
wanderers are supposed to have been a band of Shawnees
who had left their country because of the raids of the Iro
quois upon their people. However, if this supposition, which
appears to be based on strong evidence, be correct, they
must soon have dropped their own tongue for that of their
protectors, as we learn from Bartram that at the time of
his visit in 1773 they spoke the Muskhogee, or Creek, lan
guage. However, Woodward declares in his Reminiscences
that they were pure Creeks.
According to the first-named authority, about the time the
event mentioned in the preceding paragraph occurred, or a
little earlier [1700] , a band of Cherokees, or Indians speak
ing the Cherokee language and known as the Tuskegees,
having made their way down into eastern Alabama, were
received by the Creeks with open arms, and permitted to
occupy the territory immediately in the fork of Coosa and
Tallapoosa Rivers. They built their town on the east bank
of the former, and called it after their own tribal name. It
was here that the French afterward built Fort Toulouse.
Although the French began with the first years of the
eighteenth century to plant a colony on Mobile Bay, ulti
mately establishing a fort at the junction ofthe Coosa and
the Tallapoosa, the history of their settlement in this region
contains but little reference to the Creeks. One primary
object in view in planting a colony at this point was to
obtain the trade of the Indians of this southern section,
which had been going to the English of Carolina and

ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, WESTERN GEORGIA 3 1 1
Georgia. The settlement, however, did not entirely escape
trouble with the natives ; but fortunately the two or three
feeble tribes immediately surrounding were either friendly
to the settlers or unable to form combinations with other
more powerful tribes.
The nearest neighbors of the French were the Mobilians,
or the so-called Mobile Indians, near the fort on the bay;
and the Tehomes, a closely related tribe living two leagues
further north. The Alibamus lived the furthest south of
the Indians on Coosa River, and hence were the tribe next
above Fort Louis. This tribe was in frequent conflict with
the French during the early years of their settlement at
this point. Next above them, on the same river, were the
Abikas, a Creek band. It was this band that, in company
with the Cherokees and Cadapouces [Catawbas] , descended
the river in 1708, to the number, it is said, of four thou
sand, in a war expedition against the French. Their in
tention was to destroy the settlement, the whole movement
being the result of English influence and intrigue. The
French, having received timely warning, were on their
guard. For some unknown reason, or from failure of
courage, the invaders, when they had reached the object
of attack, suddenly abandoned their project, and, after
burning a few cabins of the Mobile Indians, retired without
attempting anything further.
There are but few and brief items in addition to what
have been given relating to the history of the Creeks up to
the close of the eighteenth century. In 1722, Captain
Marchand was in command of Fort Toulouse, and during
this year or soon thereafter was slain by his men, who had
mutinied. This Captain Marchand had taken as a wife a
Creek maiden of the clan of the Wind, the most powerful
and influential clan of the Creek nation. One of the chil
dren of this marriage was a beautiful daughter, called Sehoy.
In 1735, there came from a wealthy home in Scotland a
youth of sixteen, named Lachlan McGillivray, anxious to
see the wonders of this land. He landed in Carolina,

312 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
joined the Indian traders, and proceeded to the Creek
country, saw the beautiful Sehoy and married her. When
he had gained a fortune, and Spent nearly fifty years
as an Indian trader and Georgia Royalist in the American
wilds, he left his Indian children and his plantations when
the British left Savannah [about 1782], and returned to
his native land, taking with him his money and trans
portable effects. One of the children thus abandoned was
Alexander, who became noted, wealthy, and powerful in
his influence. After being educated at Charleston, he re
turned to the Indian country, took control of the Creek
nation, and received from the British the rank and pay of a
British colonel in the war of the Revolution; he went to
Pensacola in 1784 and made a treaty with Spain, as "em
peror" of the Creeks and Seminoles. He also concluded
and signed on behalf of the Creeks the treaty with the
United States made at New York, August 7, 1790. He
received from the United States the title and rank of
brigadier-general, with a salary of twelve hundred dollars a
year, and afterward was appointed by Spain superintendent-
general of the Creek nation, with a salary of two thou
sand dollars a year, which was increased in July, 1792, to
thirty-five hundred. His death occurred at Pensacola, Feb
ruary 17,1793.
As his family came into prominence in subsequent events,
we note the fact that Sophia McGillivray, one of his sisters,
married Benjamin Durant, who was of Huguenot descent.
Another Indian trader, Charles Weatherford, of Scotch or
English descent, married his half-sister, who was the daugh
ter of an Indian chief of pure blood. We have here the
names of McGillivray, Weatherford, and Durant, as con
nected with the same family, — persons whose names became
prominent in the subsequent history of the tribe.
The Creeks appear to have been generally quiet during
the second and third quarters of the eighteenth century,
except their warring on the one side with the Cherokees
and on the other with the Choctaws. But in the last

ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, WESTERN GEORGIA 31.3
quarter of the eighteenth century, when the English occu
pation began and calls were made for additional cessions of
land, the usual results followed. In 1773, John Stewart
and the Governor of Georgia succeeded in obtaining from
the Cherokees and Creeks a large area on the headwaters
of Ogeechee River. " This newly ceded territory began to
be rapidly settled, when a party of Creeks attacked Sherrill's
Fort, killed several persons and forced the others to barri
cade an outhouse where they would have been butchered
but for the timely arrival of Captain Barnard with forty
men, who dispersed the enemy." — (Pickett.) However,
the outbreak was soon quieted through the efforts of George
Galphin, who had great influence with the tribe. The
position of the Creeks during the Revolutionary War
was generally hostile to the Americans. Parties of them
would join their former enemies, the Cherokees, in raids
upon the Georgia, Carolina, and Tennessee settlements,
thus keeping the border country in a state of constant
alarm where not entirely abandoned. When Ferguson and
Tarleton with their British forces prepared to invade North
Carolina, they were joined by a body of Creeks under
McGillivray. These continued to carry on a desultory
warfare against the whites until 1795.
When Tecumseh visited the Creek nation in 1 8 1 1 and
pleaded with all his native eloquence the cause in which he
was engaged, the elders were opposed to his designs and
clearly expressed their dissent ; but the fiery young warriors
were unrestrainable, and the Creeks plunged into the war
with the impetuosity natural to their race. Weatherford was
the most conspicuous of their chieftains. In person he
was tall, straight, and well proportioned. "Nature," says
one author, "had bestowed upon him genius, eloquence,
and courage; but his moral character was far from com
mendable." With avarice, treachery, and a thirst for blood,
he combined lust, gluttony, and a love of every species of
criminal carousal. Such, at least, is the character given him
by his contemporaries.

312

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

joined the Indian traders, and proceeded to the Creek
country, saw the beautiful Sehoy and married her. When
he had gained a fortune, and Spent nearly fifty years
as an Indian trader and Georgia Royalist in the American
wilds, he left his Indian children and his plantations when
the British left Savannah [about 1782], and returned to
his native land, taking with him his money and trans
portable effects. One of the children thus abandoned was
Alexander, who became noted, wealthy, and powerful in
his influence. After being educated at Charleston, he re
turned to the Indian country, took control of the Creek
nation, and received from the British the rank arid pay of a
British colonel in the war of the Revolution; he went to
Pensacola in 1784 and made a treaty with Spain, as "em
peror" of the Creeks and Seminoles. He also concluded
and signed on behalf of the Creeks the treaty with the
United States made at New York, August 7, 1790. He
received from the United States the title and rank of
brigadier-general, with a salary of twelve hundred dollars a
year, and afterward was appointed by Spain superintendent-
general of the Creek nation, with a salary of two thou
sand dollars a year, which was increased in July, 1792, to
thirty-five hundred. His death occurred at Pensacola, Feb
ruary 17, 1793.
As his family came into prominence in subsequent events,
we note the fact that Sophia McGillivray, one of his sisters,
married Benjamin Durant, who was of Huguenot descent.
Another Indian trader, Charles Weatherford, of Scotch or
English descent, married his half-sister, who was the daugh
ter of an Indian chief of pure blood. We have here the
names of McGillivray, Weatherford, and Durant, as con
nected with the same family, — persons whose names became
prominent in the subsequent history of the tribe.
The Creeks appear to have been generally quiet during
the second and third quarters of the eighteenth century,
except their warring on the one side with the Cherokees
and on the other with the Choctaws. But in the last

ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, WESTERN GEORGIA 31.3
quarter of the eighteenth century, when the English occu
pation began and calls were made for additional cessions of
land, the usual results followed. In 1773, John Stewart
and the Governor of Georgia succeeded in obtaining from
the Cherokees and Creeks a large area on the headwaters
of Ogeechee River. " This newly ceded territory began to
be rapidly settled, when a party of Creeks attacked SherrilPs
Fort, killed several persons and forced the others to barri
cade an outhouse where they would have been butchered
but for the timely arrival of Captain Barnard with forty
men, who dispersed the enemy." — (Pickett.) However,
the outbreak was soon quieted through the efforts of George
Galphin, who had great influence with the tribe. The
position of the Creeks during the Revolutionary War
was generally hostile to the Americans. Parties of them
would join their former enemies, the Cherokees, in raids
upon the Georgia, Carolina, and Tennessee settlements,
thus keeping the border country in a state of constant
alarm where not entirely abandoned. When Ferguson and
Tarleton with their British forces prepared to invade North
Carolina, they were joined by a body of Creeks under
McGillivray. These continued to carry on a desultory
warfare against the whites until 1795.
When Tecumseh visited the Creek nation in 1 8 1 1 and
pleaded with all his native eloquence the cause in which he
was engaged, the elders were opposed to his designs and
clearly expressed their dissent ; but the fiery young warriors
were unrestrainable, and the Creeks plunged into the war
with the impetuosity natural to their race. Weatherford was
the most conspicuous of their chieftains. In person he
was tall, straight, and well proportioned. " Nature," says
one author, "had bestowed upon him genius, eloquence,
and courage; but his moral character was far from com
mendable." With avarice, treachery, and a thirst for blood,
he combined lust, gluttony, and a love of every species of
criminal carousal. Such, at least, is the character given him
by his contemporaries.

314 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
The mutterings of the storm about to burst upon the
whites had already attracted attention. The outrages of
the Indians became so alarming that the militia of the south
west was called out to meet the danger. A large number
of the inhabitants took refuge in a stockade known as
FortMimms,on Lake Tensas, Alabama, which Governor
Claiborne garrisoned with one hundred and seventy men.
The governor, foreseeing an attack by Weatherford, warned
the officer in charge of the imminent danger, and urged the
utmost vigilance against surprise. The warning was un
heeded ; and when Weatherford and his host appeared a few
days later, they dashed through the open gate and fell upon
the unprepared garrison. The latter, however, fought with
all the bravery of desperation. For a quarter of an hour,
tomahawk, knife, sword, and bayonet did their fearful work.
But the contest of one against ten in a hand-to-hand con
flict was in vain ; the struggle was soon over. The women
and children shut themselves up in the block house, and,
catching up what weapons were within reach, made the last
defence. However, the Indians succeeded in setting the
structure on fire, and the unfortunate refugees were burned
to death — the first holocaust of the war to the demon of
cruelty! Seventeen, only, of the entire garrison escaped,
most of whom were badly wounded.
The war in the south now became general, and General
Jackson took the field in person. Colonel Coffee invaded
the country of the hostile Indians, and, with a considerable
force, encountered the Indians at Tallussahatchee Creek,
November, 1813. The savages fought desperately, but
were defeated, one hundred and eighty-six of their number
perishing in the struggle. Soon after this, Jackson's army
encountered a large body of the enemy at Talladega, where,
after a most bloody contest, three hundred Indians were left
dead upon the field.
The war continued until all the hostile tribes were sub
dued; the most noted battles fought during the campaign
were at Autossee, where some two hundred were slain ; and

ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, WESTERN GEORGIA 315
that of the Horseshoe Bend. At this latter point the In
dians fortified themselves for a last desperate effort, their
number exceeding one thousand. General Jackson, on
March 27, 18 14, attacked the fortification with treble the
number of the enemy. The place was carried by storm,
under a heavy fire from within. More than half the Indians
were killed in the fort, and an unknown number perished
in their effort to escape by crossing the river. "When it
was evident that the whites were victors General Jackson
sent a messenger with a flag of truce to invite surrender,
who was fired upon. After this, no mercy was shown;
until night put an end to the work of destruction, they were
shot or cut down wherever they could be found, and even
on the following morning, a considerable number were fer
reted out from the ' caves and reeds,' where they had sought
concealment, and remorselessly put to death. Several hun
dred women and children were made captives."
In April following, the Indians sued for peace ; but Jack
son insisted that, before proposals could be entertained, their
great chief Weatherford should be delivered up. On hear
ing this, the chief, seeing his cause was hopeless, and
anxious to relieve his people, gave himself up to Jackson.
"I am," he said, addressing the general, "in your power.
Do with me as you please. I am a soldier. I have done
the whites all the harm I could. I have fought them bravely.
If I had an army, I would yet fight. I would contend to
the last; but I have done; my people are all gone. I can
only weep over the misfortunes of my nation." Jackson
bade him go free, and restrain his people from further
violence. Thus ended the Creek war; the Indians retired without
a murmur to the reservations assigned them, and were ulti
mately removed to the west of the Mississippi. Accord
ing to the census of 1890, the number of Creeks on their
reservation in Indian Territory was 9,291. They now form
one of the " five civilized tribes " of Indian Territory, and
are among the most advanced on the road to civilization.

31 6 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
The Alibamus — a small tribe which has given name to
the united waters of the Coosa and Tallapoosa, and to one
of the leading Gulf states — resided in historic times on
Alabama River, in close contact with the upper Creeks.
Their traditional history is involved in the Creek legend of
a migration from the west. They are mentioned therein as
one of four tribes contending for the honor of being con
sidered the most ancient and valorous : an indication that at
some former period they held a prominent position among
the cognate tribes. Whether they occupied their historic
seat at the time of De Soto's passage through the country
is exceedingly doubtful; in fact, it is more than probable
they had not reached this region at that time.
When the French began to select and fix upon points for
settlement and trading posts in Mobile Bay and the coast
regions of Alabama and Mississippi, it was not long before
they came in contact with the Alibamus. We are told that
Bienville " found on the banks and many adjacent islands,
places abandoned by the savages on account of war with
the Conchaques and Alibamons "; nor was it long before the
French became involved in a war with the latter. These
Indians joined the Cherokees, Abikas, and Catawbas in their
expedition against the French and Mobilians in 1708, as
heretofore mentioned. Fort Toulouse was built by the
French in 17 14, ostensibly for trade with the Creeks, but
with a view also of holding the Alibamus in check. After
the cession by the French in 1763 of their possessions in
North America to Great Britain, the fort was abandoned.
Thereupon a part of the Alibamus, numbering thirty war
riors, and in all about one hundred and twenty souls,
removed westward, and established a village about sixty
miles above New Orleans, on Mississippi River. At a later
day they removed further west, into what is now Calcasieu
Parish, Louisiana, where some were still living in 1890;
another part, numbering two hundred persons, settled in
Polk County, Texas; others settled among the Creeks,
in Indian Territory.

ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, WESTERN GEORGIA

3*7

Another one of the chief tribes of the Muskhogean stock
was that known as the Choctaw nation, whose home in
historic times was in the middle and southern sections of
what is now the state of Mississippi. Their settlements in
their palmy days extended from the Mississippi to the Tom-
bigbee and even to the east of it, and consisted of more
than sixty villages. Their origin was, according to their
tradition, the same as that of the Creeks, the two tribes,
together with the Chickasaw and Alibamu nations, forming
the group which migrated from the west.
There can be little doubt that Tuscalusa, the giant chief
met by De Soto in his journey down the Coosa valley, and
his tribesmen, who fought the Spaniards so fiercely at Mau
vila, were people of Choctaw lineage. However, when
the French appeared on the scene, one hundred and fifty
years later, the eastern limits of the tribe appear to have
been somewhat restricted, probably through the pressure of
the growing Creek nation.
Oh account of the vicinity of the French colonies at
Mobile, Biloxi, and New Orleans to their country, the
Choctaws soon, through the desire of both parties to trade
and traffic with each other, came into friendly relations
with the French, and acted as their allies in their wars with
other tribes. For instance, in the French war against the
Natches, in 1730, a large body of Choctaw warriors served
as allies, under a French officer; and on the morning of
January 27th, before daylight, made a furious attack on the
principal Natches village, killing sixty of the inhabitants,
and rescuing fifty-nine French women and children. They
also assisted the French in their war with the Chickasaws
in 1736. Subsequently, the English traders succeeded in
bringing the eastern settlements of the tribe, known as the
" small nation," into conflict with the main body, or west
ern portion, known as the "long tribe"; which continued
until 1763, when, after the destruction of one of the eastern
villages, peace was made between the divisions. The prin
cipal wars with other tribes were those with the Creeks,

320

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

After the United States had gained its independence, the
relations with these Indians were regulated by the treaty of
Hopewell in 1786, whereby the boundaries of their lands
were defined. By treaties in 1832 and 1834, they ceded
their lands east of the Mississippi and agreed to remove to
the west, to the reservation provided for them in Indian
Territory, where they constitute another of the "five
civilized tribes."
There were a number of small tribes, chiefly located in
Mississippi and Louisiana, which were apparently offshoots
from the Choctaws, or at least pertained linguistically and
ethnically to the western division of the Muskhogean
family. These were the Mobilians already mentioned, the
Tehomes or Thomes, Mugulashas, Houmas, Bayogoulas,
and Colapissas.
The Mobilians and Tehomes, when the French began a
colony at Mobile [1701— 1702], erected their lodges in the
vicinity of the fort as the place of greatest security from
the attacks of their enemies. The Mugulashas resided in the
vicinity of the French colonists of Biloxi Bay, but appear
to have been well-nigh exterminated by the Bayogoulas in
1700. The Bayogoulas occupied a village on the west
bank of Mississippi River, " sixty-four leagues distant from
the sea." Their town is described as consisting of one
hundred and seven cabins and two temples. A fire was
kept burning in the centre of each temple, and about the
door of each were carved wooden figures of animals, that
of the opossum being the prevailing form.
The Houmas, or Oumas, lived on the east bank of the
Mississippi, a short distance above the mouth of Red River,
in a village consisting of one hundred and forty cabins,
inhabited by about three hundred and fifty families. They
were friendly to the French. Most of, if not all, these
minor tribes are extinct. Here and there in the earlier
records we find the names of tribes in this southern region,
of which nothing further is known. They appear for a
moment to the white-faced visitants from the Old World

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Sounds represented by Vowels.
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From the copy in the Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington.
ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, WESTERN GEORGIA 321
and then vanish. The earth mounds and other earthen
remains scattered by the hundreds, perhaps thousands, over
the surface of the Southern states are not the only monu
ments of that section; the names of departed tribes, of
vanished nations, perpetuated in the names of streams,
capes, and other natural features, or preserved only in the
historical records, are true, genuine monuments of the past
history of the race in that section.
Ere the chapter is closed, mention must be made of an
other tribe, the Natches, who, though inconsiderable as to
numbers, figure extensively in the history of French rule
on the lower Mississippi. According to their tradition,
which probably has a very slender basis of fact, their nation
was in former days powerful in numbers and extent of ter
ritory, over which their great "Sun" — or chief — exercised
control. It counted, says the tradition, "sixty villages and
eight hundred suns or princes." This would give about
thirteen chiefs to a village, a rather abundant supply. When
visited by Iberville in 1699, they were residing in some
nine or ten contiguous villages along St. Catharine Creek,
near the site ofthe present Natchez, Mississippi; the prin
cipal village, which was the residence of the " Sun," as they
named their chief, was distant only about a league from
Mississippi River.
The history of the tribe is centred chiefly in two events,
— their massacre of the French settlers in their vicinity,
and their subsequent destruction as a nation by the French.
For thirty years after the first intercourse they lived in
friendly relations with the French; and more than one
author of note visited their town and chief, and wrote of
their people, their temples, and their customs.
Their uprising was, as is usual in Indian warfare, sudden
and unexpected. The cause, as has unfortunately too often
been the case, was ill treatment by the whites. "M. du
Chapart, governor of Fort Rosalie, was a man of an over
bearing disposition and vindictive temper, who had made
himself odious to the Indians by different acts of injustice.

322 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Having determined to build a town, he selected, with wanton
cruelty, the site of a village of the Natches, then occupied
by a numerous population of unoffending people. Accord
ingly he directed the chiefs to remove the inhabitants, and
plant them in another place. The Natches, perceiving that
their ruin was resolved on, endeavored to gain time, while
they effected a union among themselves and an alliance
with other tribes. By the promise of a tribute for each hut,
they succeeded in inducing the Commander to postpone the
execution of his resolve until after the harvest. A general
massacre ensued." The French, having had no reason to
suspect their fidelity, allowed them to enter the fort and vil
lage in numbers sufficient to accomplish their bloody design.
More than two hundred French were slain, only two of the
white men, a tailor and a carpenter, being spared. Most of
the women and the negro slaves were made prisoners. A
few persons escaped by taking refuge in the woods, where
they suffered extremely from hunger and exposure.
It was not long before retribution came. The French,
aided by the Choctaws, opened war upon them and ere long
drove them from their homes. They fled across the Mis
sissippi, and erected a fortification about one hundred and
eighty miles up Red River. The French, having obtained
reinforcements, and not satisfied with having obliged them
to flee their country, pursued and attacked them in their
new station, and, after a sanguinary engagement, compelled
those who had not succeeded in escaping to surrender at
discretion. The Great Sun and four hundred of those taken
prisoners were shipped to Hispaniola and sold as slaves.
Most of the women and children were also reduced to
slavery and compelled to work on the plantations. Of those
who escaped, some fled further westward, some took refuge
with the Chickasaws, who kindly received them, and others
sought shelter amid the Creeks. Thus, before the middle of
the eighteenth century had arrived, the " Sun " of the once
noted Natches nation was blotted out forever; the Natches
had ceased to exist as a tribe.

ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, WESTERN GEORGIA 323
The customs of these Indians differed in some respects
from those of any neighboring tribe. In truth, they seemed
to be a somewhat peculiar people, constituting a distinct
linguistic stock; and imagination is but slightly straining
the data in supposing them to be an offshoot from some
more advanced group which had pushed its way into the
territory of the great Muskhogean family.
The following statements by Father le Petit, who speaks
from personal knowledge, will convey a correct idea in
brief of their temples, worship, and peculiar customs :
They have a temple filled with idols, which are different figures of
men and animals, and for which they have the most profound venera
tion. Their temple in shape resembles an earthen oven, a hundred feet
in circumference. They enter it by a little door about four feet high,
and not more than three in breadth. No window is to be seen there.
The arched roof of the edifice is covered with three rows of mats, placed
one upon the other, to prevent the rain from injuring the masonry.
Above on the outside are three figures of eagles made of wood, and
painted red, yellow, and white. Before the door is a kind of shed with
folding doors, where the Guardian of the Temple is lodged ; all around
it runs a circle of palisades, on which are seen exposed the skulls of all
the heads which their warriors had brought back from the battles in
which they had been engaged with the enemies of their nation.
In the interior of the temple are some shelves arranged at a certain
distance from each other, on which are placed cane baskets of an oval
shape, and in these are enclosed the bones of their ancient chiefs, while
by their side are those of their victims whom they had caused to be
strangled, to follow their masters into the other world. Another sepa
rate shelf supports many flat baskets very gorgeously painted, in which
they preserve their idols. These are figures of men and women made of
stone or baked clay, the heads and tails of extraordinary serpents, some
stuffed owls, some pieces of crystal, and some jaw bones of large fish.
One of the principal articles of their religion, particularly
for the servants of the great chief, whose office was heredi
tary in the female line, was that of honoring his funeral
rites by dying with him, that they might go to serve him
in the spirit world. They were strangled with a cord of
buffalo hair.
The Indians of the Muskhogean family and of the other
tribes mentioned in this chapter were, with those along the

324 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
west bank of the Mississippi, noted mound builders, being
equalled in this respect only by the former inhabitants of
southern and central Ohio. Here we have positive history
as to the tribes among which this custom prevailed, for the
building and occupancy of these structures was still going
on at the time of De Soto's expedition ; and some, at least,
were still occupied when the French appeared on the scene.
Albert Gallatin, speaking — in his celebrated Synopsis of
the Indian Tribes — of the tribes of the Gulf states east
of the Mississippi, says :
Whatever opinion may be entertained of the respective population of
the four great southern nations three hundred and one hundred and fifty
years ago, it appears certain that their habits and social state had not,
during that interval, undergone any material alteration. They were
probably as ferocious, but less addicted to war than the northern Indians.
Those of New England, the Iroquois tribes, the Sauks and Foxes, had
perhaps made equal progress in agriculture ; but generally speaking the
southern depended more on the cultivation of the soil and less on hunt
ing than the Algonkin Lenape tribes. We find the Spaniards under
De Soto feeding almost exclusively on maize and complaining of the
want of meat.
The division of towns or villages among the Creeks into
White towns and Red towns, distinguished from one another
by poles of these respective colors, the white denoting peace
towns, the red, war towns, was of considerable importance
in deciding the policy of the nation. Whenever the ques
tion of war or peace was discussed at the general seat of
government, it was the duty of the White towns to bring
forth all the arguments that could be suggested in favor of
peace.

CHAPTER XV
THE SIOUX AND TRIBES OF THE PLAINS
Passing from the forest-covered areas of the Ohio valley
and of Wisconsin to the great treeless and semi-arid plains
of the West, we come into physical conditions so widely
different from those of the forest and well-watered area as
to materially modify the modes and customs of savage life.
Instead of the house or wigwam, covered and lined with
bark, we see the skin-covered tepee, and in place of the
permanent village we find the temporary camp. In other
words, we pass from people of sedentary habits to those of
a semi-nomadic character. This somewhat nomadic char
acter is probably due to the fact that the tribes which were
forced upon the plains had to rely chiefly upon the buffalo
for subsistence; it was therefore necessary to follow the
herds in order to obtain a constant supply of food.
The principal Indians who have made these western
plains their habitat are those known as the Sioux. These
Indians, who form the chief division of the Siouan family,
were known to the early French missionaries and explorers
as " Nadowessioux," which has been abbreviated to the
modern term " Sioux." The name they apply to themselves
is "Dakota." The former name, which signifies "snakes"
or "enemies," was applied to them by the Algonquins, and
indicates the relation in which the two peoples stood toward
each other. The name "Dakota" signifies "friendly" or
"fraternal," and, though but a single word, has embodied
325

326 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
in it evidence that the group embraced a number of cognate
elements. The great Siouan stock or family, of which these Bed
ouins of the west formed the most numerous and important
part, was divided geographically into three very unequal
groups, — the eastern group of minor tribes formerly inhabit
ing Virginia and the Carolinas, which have been noticed in
a previous chapter; a small group represented by the Biloxi,
formerly residing in southern Mississippi; and the great
western group. Before the material changes in location in
consequence of contact with the whites, the last group spread
in scattered bodies through that portion of the Domin
ion of Canada extending from Lake Winnipeg to Rocky
Mountains; and in the United States, through or into the
region embraced at present in Montana, North and South
Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas,
Missouri, and Arkansas. However, the group occupying
this broad expanse embraced several divisions of the family,
one of which — the Dakotan — included the extensive Da-r-
kotas, or Sioux, and the Assiniboins; another included the
Omaha, Ponka, Quapaw, Osage, and Kansa tribes; a third,
the Iowa, Otoe, and Missouri tribes. Besides these were
the Winnebagoes, already noticed, the strangely sedentary
Mandans, in the midst of the semi-nomads, and the Hidatsa,
or Crow Indians.
The missionaries, who at an early date were pushing
their way into the wilds of the Northwest, eager to discover
new tribes of savages on whom to bestow their labors, heard
as early as 1639 or 1640 — probably through Nicolet — of
two nations to the west of the " Great Lake " [Superior]
who were strong in numbers and of warlike disposition.
One they call the Nadvesiv [Nadowessioux] , the other, the
Assinipour [Assiniboin] . This is the first notice of them
by name; it is probable, however, that they are referred
to in the Jesuit Relation for 1632, where it is stated that
two missionaries who visited Sault Ste. Marie during that
year heard of a nation — name not given — "who dwelt

THE SIOUX AND TRIBES OF THE PLAINS 327
eighteen days' journey to the west beyond the great lake,
warlike tribes with fixed abodes, cultivators of maize and
tobacco, of an unknown race and language." The reference
cannot be to Algonquin tribes, but may be to the eastern
Sioux — the Sissetons, Wahpetons, and Wahpekutes — re
siding at that time about the headwaters of the Mississippi,
where Du Luth [1678] and Hennepin [1680] found some
of the bands still residing at the time of their visits. The
statement, however, that they were cultivators of maize is
probably erroneous.
Tradition carries back the history of the group but little
beyond the appearance of the French on the scene. Accord
ing to a Chippewa tradition, they encountered the Dakotas
at Sault Ste. Marie on their — the Chippewas' — first arrival at
this point. A. L. Riggs asserts that most of these Indians
with whom he conversed could trace their history no further
back than to Mille Lacs; but that some could tell of wars
they had with the Chippewas before they came thither, and
trace their history back to the Lake of the Woods. The
same writer adds that all their traditions show that they
came from the northeast and have been moving toward the
southwest. So far, these traditions coincide with those of
other tribes; but beyond this, all, save the fact that they
have been gradually pushed westward by the Chippewas,
seem to be based on conjecture.
The Dakota group consisted of a number of tribes, whose
order of relationship is as follows: A. — Santee, compris
ing : (a) Mdewakantonwan ; (b) Wahpekute ; B. — Sisseton ;
C. — Wahpeton; D. — Yankton; E. — Yanktonai; F. —
Teton, comprising: (a) Brule, or Sitcanxu; (b) Sans Arc,
or Itaziptco ; (c) Blackfeet, or Sihasapa ; (d) Minneconjou ;
(e) Two Kettles, or Oohenonpa; (f) Ogalala; (g) Hunk-
papa. Those residing at Mille Lacs when Du Luth and
Hennepin were in that section were the two Santee bands,
part of the Sissetons, and all or part of the Wahpetons.
Some of the Tetons were located at that time further west
on the upper Mississippi. It appears from these facts that

328 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
some bands and tribes of the group still lingered in the
region of the upper Mississippi as late as 1680, the great
body having previously passed outward upon the plains.
From the time of Le Sueur's visit [1700], the people
of this group became an important factor in the history of
the Northwest. Their gradual movement westward was due,
as already intimated, to the persistent attacks of the Chip
pewas, who had received firearms from the French, while
they were forced to rely almost wholly upon their bows
and arrows. The following extract from the Journal of
Lieutenant Gorell, an English officer, shows their condition
in this respect as late as 1763:
On March 1st, 1763, twelve warriors of the Sous came here. It
is certainly the greatest nation of Indians ever yet found. Not above
two thousand of them were ever armed with fire-arms, the rest depend
ing entirely on bows and arrows, which they use with more skill than
any other Indian nation in America. They can shoot the wildest and
largest beasts in the woods at seventy and one hundred yards distant.
On the fall of the French dominion in North America,
the Dakotas at once entered into friendly relations with the
English. As early as March, 1763, twelve Dakota dele
gates arrived at the fort on Green Bay and proffered to the
English the friendship of their people. During the Revolu
tionary War and the War of 1 81 2, the Dakotas adhered to
the English. There was, however, one chief who acquired
considerable notoriety by siding with the United States in
the War of 1 8 1 2 ; this was Tahamie, called by the French
" L'Original Leve," and by the English " Rising Moose," a
chief of the Mdewakantonwans. He joined the Americans
at St. Louis, where he was commissioned by General Clark.
By the treaties of July, 1815, peace between them and
the United States was established; and by the treaty of
August, 1825, the boundary lines between them and the
United States and between the various tribes and groups
of Indians of the Northwest were defined.
The most serious outbreak of these Indians against the
whites was in 1862. The tribes concerned in this uprising

THE SIOUX AND TRIBES OF THE PLAINS 329
were the Mdewakantonwans, Wahpekutes, Wahpetons,
and Sissetons. That these Indians had grounds of com
plaint must be admitted. Besides the fact that the United
States had failed to carry out certain treaty stipulations
as to land assignments, the following additional charges
have been recorded. The rapacity of the agents, their
deception and swindling of the Indians, the cheating by
which the Sioux were induced to sign the treaties, the
wholesale theft of their lands, the debauchery of their
families by white men, and the abuse to which they were
subjected by traders from whom they were obliged by the
regulations to purchase goods and supplies. This is cer
tainly a lengthy list of ugly charges, yet the present writer
several years ago received evidence of the truth of some
of them to the full extent charged. It is probable that the
struggle in which the government was then engaged was
looked upon by the Indians as a favorable opportunity to
give vent to their hatred of the whites.
The outbreak began, as usual in Indian wars, by attacking
the outlying settlements and murdering the unsuspecting
inhabitants. It is unnecessary to give here the harrow
ing details; a few incidents will suffice as types. These
are selected from the account by Mr. Isaac V. D. Heard,
who was on the ground and acted as recorder of the military
commission that tried the captured Indians.
A gentleman living near New Ulm went to the place, without any
suspicion of danger. On his return, he found that the Indians had
killed two of his children before their mother's eyes. They were on
the point of slaying her infant, when she snatched it from them and
ran to her mother's house near by. They followed, firing at her a
number of times, without success. They killed her mother, her sister,
and servant girl, but, strange to say, she escaped with her infant. On
the father's return, he found one of his boys, twelve years old, still
alive. He was cut, bruised and horribly mangled, but the father
carried him safely to St. Peter's.
Another little boy was brought in still alive with a knife thrust into one
of his eyes. A farmer and his two sons were working in a field, when
all three were shot down by Indians. They then went to the house and
killed two small children in the presence of the mother, who lay ill with

33°

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

consumption. She and her daughter, thirteen years old, were dragged
through the fields to their camp. There, as the mother lay helpless, her
innocent child was outraged before her eyes until the little one died.
In another place, a woman was tomahawked while baking bread,
her infant thrust into the flaming oven. The indignities to which weak,
defenseless women and children were subjected were too horrifying to
be recorded in print. No imagination can conceive them. It is better
that the reader of these pages should not know them. Let it suffice that
no retribution too severe could be visited upon the authors of atrocities
never surpassed in the history of barbarism. — (Ellis, Indian Wars.)
The revolt extended throughout the entire frontier of
Minnesota and into Iowa and Dakota; during the first
week more than seven hundred people were killed, and over
two hundred made prisoners. The authorities were fully
aroused to the necessity for immediate action, but so sudden
and swift had been the storm that there was no time
for organization. Judge Flandreau, who had taken charge
of about one hundred volunteers, marched to New Ulm,
and after a sharp contest succeeded in driving off the Indians
who were attacking that place. Fortunately, there were
several thousand armed men in the state at this time, who had
been summoned by President Lincoln to serve in the Civil
War. These were hurried to the frontier, and mounted
soldiers were called out by the Governor of Minnesota to
assist in quelling the outbreak. Hon. H. H. Sibley was
placed in command, with the rank of colonel.
The panic which reigned in Minnesota at this time, as a
result of the attacks on New Ulm, Fort Ridgely, Birch
Coolie, Acton, Hutchinson, and Forest City, and the mas
sacres of settlers, is shown by the fact that people living on
the outskirts of St. Paul hurriedly moved into the city. The
movements of Colonel Sibley with a large force, and with a
caution which showed a determination to avoid any unneces
sary risk, were evidence to the Indians that the war must
be brought to a close. That they were fully sensible of this
is shown by the fact that scarcely was the force in motion,
before Little Crow, the most prominent leader among the
Sioux chiefs, managed to communicate to Colonel Sibley

THE SIOUX AND TRIBES OF THE PLAINS

331

his desire for peace. The Indians had a large number of
captives, who were in danger of being massacred, and the
object of Colonel Sibley was first to secure the safety of
these and to bring the outrages to an end. By careful
management and a single battle at Wood Lake, in which the
loss to the whites was four killed and about fifty wounded,
the revolt was brought to an end and the lives of the two
hundred and fifty prisoners saved. It is a fact worth stating,
as it shows the slight hold that imposed civilization has
upon the Indian until long continued, that the Sioux engaged
in this rebellion represented all grades of culture. Some
lived in tepees covered with skins or canvas; others, in
cabins or rude houses which they had built ; while another
portion occupied brick dwellings put up for them by the
government. But neither brick houses nor civilized furni
ture and dress restrained or modified their nature.
Their conquest was not yet complete. By the treaty of
1867, the Sioux agreed to give up all the territory south
of Niobrara River, west of the one-hundred-and-fourth
meridian, and north of the forty-sixth parallel of latitude,
and promised to retire to a large reservation in south
western Dakota before January 1, 1876. Meanwhile, gold
was discovered in the Black Hills, in the Sioux reservation ;
and in spite of official warnings, emigrants and gold seekers
flocked thither, and thousands gathered there in eager search
for the precious metal. By way of retaliation, the Sioux
left their reservation and began burning houses, stealing
horses, and killing settlers in Wyoming and Montana.
Generals Terry and Crook marched with a strong force of
regular troops into the country of the upper Yellowstone,
driving back toward Big Horn River several thousand war
riors under Sitting Bull.
Generals Custer and Reno went forward with the Seventh
Cavalry in order to locate the Indians, whom they found in
a large village extending nearly three miles along the left
bank of Little Big Horn River. General Custer directed
General Reno to move to the rear of the village with three

332 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
companies, in order to make an attack in that direction while
he charged the savages in front. The details of that charge
are known only so far as they have been revealed by sur
viving Indian participants, as not an officer or a soldier of
General Custer's party survived to tell the tale. According
to the statement of Gall, a Sioux chief who participated in
the fight, when Reno threw out a skirmish line in an effort
to connect with Custer, the latter and all with him were
dead. Reno, who had been engaged with the Sioux at
the lower end of the encampment, held his position on the
bluffs until General Gibbon arrived with reinforcements
and saved the remnant of the troops. In this disaster, fif
teen officers and two hundred and thirty-two men were
slain. The warriors participating in this engagement were
from the Ogalala, Minneconjou, Brule, Teton, Hunkpapa,
Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Gros Ventre tribes.
General Miles entered the field and started in pursuit of
Sitting Bull and his company, and overtook him near the
head of Cedar Creek. They met under a flag of truce,
which resulted, however, in the determination of each to
leave the decision to the battlefield. General Miles re
solved to attack the savage host at once, though they largely
outnumbered his army. He drove them back so precipi
tately that many of their dead were left on the field. The
pursuit was kept up for nearly fifty miles, when the Sioux,
in their desperate efforts to save themselves, abandoned
everything, even to their ponies.
During October following this engagement, two thousand
of the Indians came in and surrendered to General Miles,
and five chiefs were taken as hostages for the fulfilment by
the Indians of the terms of surrender, which were that they
should go to their various agencies. But the leading spirit
of the revolt was still at liberty; Sitting Bull had separated
from the main body of Indians during their flight and fled to
the north, where he was born, accompanied by other fugi
tives. Another battle with the Indians under Crazy Horse,
which was fought in January, 1877, and a few skirmishes

THE SIOUX AND TRIBES OF THE PLAINS 333
during the summer, ended hostilities for a time, and peace
reigned throughout Dakota and Montana.
Although Sitting Bull, who had fled to the Dominion
of Canada, had returned and surrendered, it was soon ap
parent that he was plotting another outbreak. His arrest
was ordered, in the accomplishment of which the veteran
warrior and bitter enemy of the whites was slain by people
of his own race.
A brief uprising occurred in 1890— 189 1, which, more
by the skilful management of General Miles than by the
force of arms, was soon quelled. The greater number of
the Sioux tribes were among the hostiles at this time.
When General Miles finally succeeded in gathering them
at the reservation, the whites were astonished at their num
ber, which was estimated, including women and children,
at eleven thousand, of whom three thousand were warriors.
The Sioux, looking at the very best side of their char
acter, were true, genuine savages. They may have been
no more cruel in torturing their enemies and their captives
than were the Iroquois and many of the Algonquin tribes;
but their roving, unsettled habits and their reliance upon the
chase for subsistence give to their life and customs a wild,
savage character which is more or less modified among the
sedentary or semi-sedentary tribes, with whom there is a
semblance of home life. General Pike, writing of them
in 1809, says: "I do not hesitate to pronounce them the
most warlike and independent nation of Indians within
the boundaries of the United States." On the other hand,
Mr. J. T. Galbraith, who was the government agent among
the Sioux at the outbreak of 1862, and up to this time
very kindly disposed toward them, speaks of them as
bigoted, barbarous, and exceedingly superstitious, regarding
theft, arson, and murder as the means of distinction. He
says the young Indian is taught from childhood to regard
killing as the highest of virtues. In their dances and at
their feasts, the warriors recite their deeds of theft and
pillage and slaughter as praiseworthy acts.

334

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

Physically, the Dakota Indians do not, as a general rule,
rise to the highest standard, being inferior in stature and
physical proportions to the Foxes. At the time they first
became known to the whites most of the tribes had passed
into gentile organization; that is, descent was counted in
the male line, but the tepee belonged to the .woman. Tra
dition says they had no chiefs until the whites appeared
and began to make distinctions. This, however, seems
doubtful. Closely related to and, in fact, an offshoot from the Da
kota group were the Assiniboins, whose range in the latter
half of the eighteenth century and first half of the nine
teenth, and until gathered on reservations, extended along
Saskatchewan and Assiniboin Rivers, in the British posses
sions, from the forest limit westward well up toward the
spurs of Rocky Mountains. These Indians, who were
called by the early French missionaries and traders the
" Assinipoualaks," or " Stone Warriors," were originally an
offshoot from the Yanktonai tribe of the Dakota group.
This separation is supposed to have taken place as late as
the commencement of the seventeenth century, hence but a
few years before the French began to make their way up
the lakes toward this northwestern region. According to
one tradition, they came into conflict with the Sioux, and
took refuge among the rocks about the shores of the Lake of
the Woods ; hence their name " Stone Sioux " [Assiniboin] .
After their separation from the parent stem, with which
they were henceforth at war, they were taken under pro
tection by the Crees, the chief Algonquin tribe north of
Lake Superior. During this association, which continued
without interruption until comparatively recent years, the
Assiniboins rapidly increased in numbers. They appear to
have gradually moved westward upon the plains, becoming
to a large extent nomadic. A band of this tribe accompanied
La Verendrye in his expedition of 1738 to the Mandan
villages on the upper Missouri, by which the whites obtained
their first knowledge of this region. As the Assiniboins

THE SIOUX AND TRIBES OF THE PLAINS 335
lived beyond the borders of the white settlements, their
history, so far as mentioned, has been that of conflicts with
surrounding tribes. Besides the Dakotas, they were fre
quently at war with the Gros Ventres and the Arikaras,
forcing the latter to abandon their earthen villages located
on the east bank of Missouri River and to select a new
home further west.
At one period in the past, they had pushed their way to
the south side of the Missouri, along the Yellowstone,
but the persistent attacks of the Crow Indians, the Black-
feet, and the Dakotas compelled them, after suffering heavy
losses, to return to their northern range. Previous to the
great smallpox epidemic of 1836, the Assiniboins were
estimated to number from eight to ten thousand, but this
fearful scourge swept away in a single season four thousand
of their population.
The men of this tribe had the singular custom of allow
ing their hair to grow unchecked ; and as it lengthened they
twisted it into locks or tails, frequently adding false hair to
lengthen the tail until in some cases it reached the ground,
but they generally kept it in a coil on the top of the head.
Another tribe belonging to the same Siouan stock as
those described is that known as the Mandan, a people
widely different in several respects from their congeners
the Dakotas and the Assiniboins, and a people about whom
hangs a tantalizing mystery that strongly tempts the theo
rizing spirit. Although dwelling in the same region as the
Dakotas, they were sedentary in habits, living in villages
of earth-covered lodges, cultivating the soil, and drawing
largely therefrom their means of subsistence. They also
manufactured earthenware, differing in all these respects
from the Sioux and the Assiniboins. Why there should be
this difference in fundamental customs between people of
the same stock and living in the same region is a problem
difficult to solve, and one which has received quite different
theoretic answers. However, before alluding to these it will
be well to glance at the brief history of the tribe.

336 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
The traditions regarding the early history of the Mandans
are scant and almost entirely mythical. According to that
best known, "the whole nation resided in one large village
underground near a subterranean lake; a grape-vine extended
its roots down to their habitation and gave them a view ofthe
light ; some of the most adventurous climbed up the vine and
were delighted with the sight of the earth, which they found
covered with buffalo and rich with every kind of fruits;
returning with the grapes they had gathered, their country
men were so pleased with the taste of them that the whole
nation resolved to leave their dull residence for the charms
of the upper region; men, women and children ascended
by means of the vine; but when about half the nation had
reached the surface of the earth, a corpulent squaw who
was clambering up the vine broke it with her weight, and
closed upon herself and the rest of the nation the light of the
sun." — (Lewis and Clark.) Maximilian Wied says : " They
affirm that they descended originally from the more eastern
nations, near the sea-coast." The latter probably alludes
to their congeners in the vicinity of Lake Superior; and as
a tradition has long prevailed in the region of northwestern
Wisconsin of a people called " ground-house Indians," who
lived in partially excavated dirt houses or lodges, this may
be connected with the mythical story of their origin.
It may, perhaps, be assumed as probable that they formerly
resided in the vicinity of the headwaters of the Mississippi,
and from there moved down this stream for some distance
before passing to the Missouri, during which migration they
came in contact with maize-growing people. The fact that,
when first encountered by the whites, they cultivated the soil,
and were lower down the Missouri, would justify the con
clusion that they were at some time in the past in a section
where agriculture was practised.
The history of their migrations, which is tantamount to
their story, begins with their arrival at Missouri River. The
point where they first reached this stream was at the mouth
of White Earth River in South Dakota. From this point

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^2- ^t^^z^ °ofl&- JLs, ^spQ r^f ^

l%~Qf*

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Document signed July a8, 1769, by chiefs of the Six Nations in
acknowledgment of receipt of the sum of ten thousand dollars paid to
them by Thomas and Richard Penn, through Sir William Johnson, for
lands sold under the treaty of Fort Stanwix. From the original in the
New York Public Library, Lenox Branch.

THE SIOUX AND TRIBES OF THE PLAINS 337
they moved up the Missouri to Moreau River. Here they
came in contact with the Cheyennes. From this point
they next moved up stream to Heart River, where they
were residing at the time they were first visited by the
white man — Sieur de la Verendrye, in 1738. In 1750, they
were living in nine villages about this point. Having been
reduced by the attacks of other Indians, they were finally
collected in two villages in 1776, which were still occupied
at the time they were visited by Lewis and Clark, in 1804,
being reduced from sixteen hundred souls to less than one
hundred and fifty. In 1872, a large reservation was set
apart for the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes in Mon
tana, along Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers.
The Mandan villages were assemblages of clay-covered
huts, placed close to one another, without regard to order.
Anciently, these were surrounded with palisades of strong
posts. The huts were circular, slightly vaulted, having a
sort of portico entrance, and in the centre of the roof was
a square opening for the exit of smoke from the central fire.
In the interior were four strong pillars toward the middle,
with several crossbeams, supporting the roof. The outer cir
cumference was formed by from eleven to fifteen posts, four
or five feet high, from which rafters ran to the inner scaf
folding. The outside was covered with a matting of osiers,
over which was placed a covering of hay or grass and over
this a covering of earth. The Mandans cultivated maize,
beans, gourds, and the sunflower.
Closely related to the preceding Indians, and generally
in close association with them, were the Minnitarees, or
Hidatsas, a small tribe having similar habits and customs,
and with a history, so far as known, differing but little from
that of the Mandans. There are some reasons for suppos
ing that the two tribes belong to a group of Siouan tribes
of which the Winnebago may be considered the original
stem. Another tribe which cultivated the soil, resided in
the same section, and had similar customs to the two just
mentioned, was that known as the Arikara; the latter was,

338 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
however, ethnically distinct from the former, being a branch
of the Pawnee or Caddoan family. In this, as in the other
two tribes, each family had a small field or plat of two
or three acres, which was cultivated in maize, beans, and
squashes. During the time of seeding and cultivating, and
until the crop was harvested, the Indians were sedentary,
remaining in their villages; the remainder of the year was
devoted chiefly to wandering over their hunting grounds,
carrying with them their tents of skins, which furnished
them shelter until they returned to their fixed abodes. The
people of these sedentary tribes were not of a warlike dis
position. The area occupied by the Iowa, Otoe, Missouri, Ponka,
Omaha, Osage, Kansa, and Quapaw tribes may be roughly
described as extending from northeastern Nebraska to the
mouth of Arkansas River. The movements in the past
of these tribes, as given in well-authenticated traditions,
and fortified by other proved data, afford, perhaps, the best
available key to the early history of the great Siouan family.
Although these eight tribes have been classified in two
linguistic groups by Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, a recognized
authority on the subject, the first three in one group, and
the last five in another, yet, according to the same author
ity, the two groups were related to one another, and both
to the Winnebagoes. Dr. Horatio Hale asserts, from evi
dence furnished by Mr. Dorsey, "that these tribes speak
of the Winnebagoes [or Hotchungara] as their uncle, and
declare that their own tribes were originally offshoots from
the Winnebagoes," . which derivation, he said, he did not
doubt. A brief notice of one form of the tradition regarding the
early movements of these tribes has been given; but as
originally obtained by Mr. Say, the naturalist, he renders it
as follows, in speaking of the Otoe : " It thus appears, that
their name has been adopted subsequently to the migration
and partition of the great nation, of which they were for
merly but a band. This great nation, they say, originally

THE SIOUX AND TRIBES OF THE PLAINS 339
resided somewhere to the northward of the great lakes, and
on their emigration southwardly, after performing a con
siderable journey, a large band of them, called ' Horage ' or
Fisheaters from their fondness of fish, separated from the
main body, and established their residence on the margin
of a lake. This band is now known by the name of Win-
nebagoe. During the journey of the great nation, another
band separated from them on the Mississippi and received
the name of ' Pahoja ' or Gray Snow, which they still
retain, but are known to the white people by the name of
Ioways, or Aiouez. They have, however, been distinguished
by the name of Pierced-noses, as this was erroneously
believed to be the meaning of the word Pahoja; and it will
be confessed that the distinction is somewhat nice, when we
learn that the true word for pierced nose is paoja.
"Another band seceded from the migrating nation and
established a village at the mouth of the Missouri river;
from which circumstance they received the name of Neo-
tacha or Neogehe, signifying 'those who build a town at
the entrance of a river;' they have been known to us only
by the name of Missouri.
" The Otos also separated from the nation at the Missis
sippi, and pursuing their journey across the country from
that river, struck the Missouri near the confluence of the
Great Nemawhaw."
The tradition, as communicated by an Otoe chief to
Major Bean, Indian agent, and recorded by Maximilian
Wied, is virtually the same, only differing in having the
Missouris receive their name from their stoppage, as is more
likely, at the mouth of Grand River instead of the mouth
of the Missouri. An Iowa chief, while in Washington in
1824 with a delegation, distinctly asserted the former union
of his tribe with "the Winnebagoes and Otoes." Miss
Fletcher, who has spent much time among the Omahas,
heard from them the same tradition.
As this relationship is confirmed by language, — the
Winnebagoes holding the same relation to these western

34°

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

tribes, according to Dr. Hale, as the Mohawks bear to the
western Iroquois nations, — the present writer suggests that
the migrations of the tribes may be traced from some place
north of Green Bay. The theory, therefore, that the
Siouan tribes migrated from some eastern locality, as advo
cated by Dr. D. G. Brinton (American Race, 98. 1891) and
others, does not appear to be based on sufficient grounds.
Nor is there a single early tradition, as first given, that
" points to an eastern origin." That most of the tribes of
the Northwest were forced westward after the introduction
of firearms, some of them upon the plains, is true, but this
furnishes no proof of an eastern origin. That the Sioux
should have migrated from the rich agricultural lands of
the Ohio valley, in large part, to the north side of the
middle lakes and thence west into Wisconsin is incredible.
The supposition of Catlin that the Mandans had reached
the valley of the Missouri by travelling down the Ohio is
mere speculation induced by the fancied resemblance of
the earthworks of Ohio to the turf-covered structures of the
Mandans, and by the fact that the latter cultivated the soil.
The tradition of a Siouan tribe on the lower Ohio will be
referred to on a future page.
The history of the Ponkas is brief, consisting chiefly
of their migrations from point to point, and of a compara
tively quiet and uneventful life on reservations. They ap
pear to have moved up Des Moines River and thence to
the vicinity of Pipestone Quarry, in western Minnesota,
being joined there by the Iowas. After various other
movements, generally in company with the Iowas and
Omahas, they finally settled on the lower Niobrara River,
Nebraska. They built earth lodges, and cultivated the
soil to some extent. The tribe was comparatively small,
not exceeding at any time a population of seven or eight
hundred. The Omahas are closely related to the Ponkas, the dif
ference between their languages being merely dialectic.
From the signification of the name, which is " going against

THE SIOUX AND TRIBES OF THE PLAINS 34.1
the current," or "up stream," Mr. Dorsey, taking into
account an Osage tradition of a movement up Missouri
River, infers that this movement is referred to. According
to his interpretation of the tradition, the Osage, Kansa,
Omaha, and Ponka tribes were yet combined when this
movement up the Missouri began, the fifth tribe, the Qua
paw, having left the main body at the mouth of Missouri
River and not at the mouth of the Ohio. When the
mouth of Osage River was reached, the Osages settled on
this river; the Kansas continued up the Missouri; and the
Omaha and Ponka tribes left the Missouri and, having
joined the Iowas, travelled across Iowa into Minnesota
until they reached Pipestone Quarry, near Sioux Falls.
They were driven from this locality by the Dakota tribes,
and passed into Dakota, going up Missouri River as far
as White River, where the Omahas and Iowas remained
until the Ponkas, who had moved westward to the vicin
ity of the Black Hills, returned. Then the three tribes
moved down stream and separated at Niobrara River, the
Ponkas settling on this stream, and the Omahas going to
Bow Creek, where it is probable they were when noted on
Marquette's map [1673]. The latter subsequently occu
pied the country in Nebraska between Covington on the
north and Nemaha River on the south, about 1800. They
were at Belleveu, in the same state, in 1845, and in 1855
removed to what was formerly Blackbird County, also in
Nebraska. The movement of the Omaha and cognate tribes, as
given above, is, so far as the part preceding 1800 is con
cerned, from the traditions as obtained by Mr. Dorsey.
It is in part confirmed by Le Sueur, who mentions the
Iowas as leaving southeastern Minnesota at the time of his
visit [1700], and going to the region of Pipestone Quarry,
where they were joined by the Omahas. The traveller
Carver mentions having met some Omaha Indians on
Minnesota River in 1766, at which time they were in
friendly relations with the Sioux. When Lewis and Clark

342 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
met the tribe in 1804, they numbered only about three
hundred, having been reduced by the smallpox to less than
one-fifth their former population. According to the census
of 1880 their number was twelve hundred. In 1882, they
became citizens of the United States and ceased to be a
tribe. The primitive dwellings of the Omahas were chiefly
earth-lodges, or more rarely of bark or mats, and skin tents.
The earth lodges were intended principally for summer
use, when the people were sedentary and cultivating their
crops. The skin tents were used when on their hunting
expeditions. The Osages, another tribe of the same division of the
Siouan family as the preceding, having travelled with
the Omahas and Kansas up the Missouri, as stated, sepa
rated from them at the mouth of Osage River. The region
of the latter river was for many years their country. Sub
sequently they moved up Osage River to near its source,
thence they passed southwest into southern Kansas, near
the middle of the state. From there they moved next to the
reservation assigned them in Indian Territory. Accord
ing to the early French explorers, the tribe was residing
in 1686 in seventeen villages located along Osage River.
They are located on the same river in Moll's map of 1 712,
and Lewis and Clark locate them on the same river in
1804. By 181 8 they had passed over to the basin of
Neosho River. Their history, like that of most other
Indians of the west, consists chiefly of their migrations,
and of their warfare and contests with other tribes. It is
known that they were often at war with the Sacs, and it
was chiefly in fights with the Osages that Black Hawk won
the notoriety that placed him at the head of his tribe.
Although the Osages were largely agricultural and dis
posed to be sedentary, they were almost constantly in broils
with the neighboring tribes. The chieftaincy was nominally
hereditary; and their government was in practice oligarch
ical, though it was nominally vested in a council.

THE SIOUX AND TRIBES OF THE PLAINS

343

The most southern Indians of the Siouan group we have
been ¦considering were the Quapaws, whose home, until
they were placed upon a reservation, was in what is now
the state of Arkansas. Our knowledge of this tribe extends
back to the time of De Soto's expedition [i 540-1 541], as
this was the tribe he first came into conflict with after
crossing the Mississippi. Traditionally, the history of these
Indians is connected with that of the other tribes of the
group which, parting from the Winnebagoes, as already men
tioned, moved southwest to their historic homes. There is,
however, an additional, and apparently well founded, tradi
tion relating to this tribe which does not apply to other
members of the group. When the French first came in
contact with this people in the latter part of the seven
teenth century, they were designated by the name "Akan
sea," or " Akansa," which is supposed to have been an older
Quapaw term. When the early French explorers descended
the Mississippi, some of them, particularly Jacques Gravier,
learned from the Indians that the river we now call Ohio
was sometimes — in that part of its course below the mouth
of the Wabash, then known as the Ouabache — called the
Akansea, because, as they affirmed, the tribe had at some
time in the past — it must have been before the time of
De Soto's expedition — resided on this stream.
It was not until about one hundred and thirty years after
De Soto's visit that the French appeared upon the scene.
They found the Akanseas located in several villages in east
ern Arkansas, immediately, or a short distance, north of
Arkansas River. The name "Kappa" — which afterward
became " Quapaw " — was for a time applied to a town and
then to a division of the tribe. Nuttall says that the people
called "Arkansa" by Charlevoix were then [1761] made
up of confederated remnants of ruined tribes.
Soon after this date, as the whites began settlements on
the Mississippi, these Indians moved further up Arkansas
River, ultimately passing on westward into the Caddo coun
try on Red River of Louisiana, where they were residing

344 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
in 1829. In 1877, they were on the reservation assigned
to them in the northeast corner of Indian Territory. * Sub
sequently, most of them moved to the Osage reserve, where
the remaining few are still living.
The Quapaws have not figured to any considerable extent
in history. They were always on friendly terms with the
French, receiving the missionaries with indications of pleas
ure; and they have also been almost uniformly in peaceful
relations with the people of the United States. They had
dwindled in number from about five hundred in 1843 t0
one hundred and ninety-eight, all told, in 1890.
Other peoples of the plains whose history should find a
place in this connection are the Arapahoes and Cheyennes,
the most nomadic tribes of the great Algonquian family.
As the two tribes have long been united, the history of one
is the history of both. They were, until brought upon reser
vations, a restless, wandering people, making their homes
in tents or tepees, claiming as their territory the region about
the North and South Forks of Platte River, but ranging
over the plains from Powder River to the Arkansas. They
lived at the beginning of the nineteenth century in the
Black Hills and upon Cheyenne River in Dakota.
Their separation from their kindred in the northeast and
gradual shifting to the southwest are attributed by Lewis
and Clark to the pressure of the Siouan tribes. What little
is known of their history other than their wanderings relates
to recent years, and to their contests with neighboring tribes
and the whites. "As a tribe they have been broken and
scattered, but in their wild and savage way they fought well
for their country. Their later history has been written in
blood. Innocent settlers have suffered cruel outrages at
their hands; women and children have suffered horrible
deaths at their hands, and burning houses have marked their
pathway of destruction. But they in turn have been hunted
like wolves and been shot down like wild beasts." — (Grin-
nell.) Their number, however, is still considerable, the
report of the Indian Office for 1902 showing the present

THE SIOUX AND TRIBES OF THE PLAINS

345

population of the combined tribes to be a little over five
thousand. The geographical positions of the various families of
the eastern part of the United States, and their outlying
or separated divisions, are, so far as they are included
therein, indicated in Map B and explained in its accom
panying list.

CHAPTER XVI
TRIBES OF THE FAR NORTHWEST
Continuing our examination of the Indian tribes east
of the Rocky Mountain range, there remain those of north
western British Columbia and one or two tribes near the
extreme headwaters of Missouri River to be considered
before passing to the west of the great divide. In follow
ing this course, we are at the same time keeping close in
line with the two great primary ethnic divisions of our con
tinent. The eastern range of Rocky Mountains from the
Rio Grande northward, until Alaska is reached, forms, in a
general way, the dividing line between these two ethnic
divisions, the one important exception to this rule being
found in one of the groups to be noticed in this chapter.
One of the most extensive tribes formerly inhabiting the
region around the southern extremity and southwest of
Hudson's Bay was that known as the Crees, but variously
termed in the early writings the Cristeneaux, Knisteneaux,
Klistenos, etc. The territorial limits of this group do not
appear to have been clearly defined by any explorers who
visited the region before the Indian distribution was dis
turbed by the influx of the whites. However, from notices
of them at different points it is known that their hunting
grounds extended from Moose River, which enters James
Bay, northwest to Churchill or Missinippi River; and west
from the vicinity of Hudson's Bay to the head of Beaver
River and thence south to the hunting grounds of the
347

34»

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

Dakotas. "This statement," says Dr. Brinton, "that
'the Crees dwelt along the southern shores of Hudson's
Bay and followed the streams which flow into it from the
west' is clearly in accordance with the earliest reliable re
ports obtained by the French, and the more exact modern
investigations." This tribe is a typical member of the Algonquian stock,
and, as was suggested more than half a century ago, is
possibly the most direct representative of the original form
of that stock; and, until gathered on reservations, had
remained nearest the pristine home of the group. Because
of the close relationship of the Montagnais and Nascapes
to the Crees, it has been maintained by Mackenzie and
some other writers that the people of this tribe at some
former period resided in the region east of Ottawa River,
from which section they gradually moved westward, push
ing their way to the west side of the bay. The traditions
claimed by some authors to have been current among the
western Algonquins, and mentioned by Sir John Richardson
(Journal of a Boat Voyage) in speaking of the supposed origin
of the Crees, that their ancestors came from the eastern
coast, probably arose from the westward movement induced
by the Iroquois raids and the pressure by the whites, together
with the transfer of the tradition of a residence near salt or
tide water from Hudson's Bay, to which it originally applied,
to the Atlantic Ocean.
The opinion most consistent with the data is that the
pristine home of the Crees was west of Hudson's Bay, and
that the Montagnais and Nascapes are offshoots which in
the past separated from them and moved eastward. As
mentioned in a previous chapter [X.] , the Nascapes have a
tradition that they migrated from the western shore of
Hudson's Bay. Dr. Hayden (Ethnography of the Indian
Tribes of Missouri Valley) says the Crees assert that formerly
they inhabited a district much further north than at the
date he was writing [1865], their range at that former
period being along the borders of Slave and Athapasca

TRIBES OF THE FAR NORTHWEST 349
Lakes to the northern end of Lake Winnipeg, and stretch
ing along the Saskatchewan by a chain of small lakes in
the direction of Hudson's Bay, though never reaching the
latter. The relation of the Crees to the Chippewas is so inti
mate, as shown by language and other proofs, that by some
authorities the latter tribe is spoken of as a division of the
former, and by others, as Dr. Hayden, the former tribe is
counted a division of the latter. Historically, the northern
Chippewas — those north of Lake Superior — and the Crees
might be, and by some explorers have been, treated as one
people; here, however, they are distinguished.
At some time in the not very distant past, as hereto
fore mentioned, the Assiniboins broke away from their
Sioux [Dakota] kindred and sought alliance with the Crees.
The latter received them with open arms and granted them
a home in the Cree territory, and thus was formed a friendly
relation between the two which has continued down to the
present day. Although Sir John Richardson does not give
the Crees credit for great bravery, yet when they had been
strengthened by the addition of the Assiniboins, who were
warlike and brave, they turned their arms against the Black-
feet and allied tribes,- who were then dwelling along the
banks of the Saskatchewan, and drove them to the south
west. The enmity between these combined tribes and the
Blackfeet, as well as between them and the Sioux, with
whom they were in an almost constant state of warfare,
continued down to the time when they were gathered on
reservations. After obtaining firearms, the Crees made frequent war
raids into the very heart of the Athapascan country, even
to Rocky Mountains and as far northwest as Mackenzie
River; but Missinippi River and the line thence east
ward, as mentioned by Mackenzie, was counted as the
extreme limit of their territory, and in their cessions of
land to Canada they never claimed beyond this line. Mac
kenzie further informs us that the general movement of the

35°

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

Athapascan tribes has been from some more northwestern
section, apparently on or near the Pacific coast, and they
were, even as late as his day, looked upon as comparative
strangers in the country they then inhabited. Richardson
(Franklin's Journey to the Polar Sea), writing about 1850,
says: "The Crees, having early obtained arms from the
European traders, were enabled to make harassing inroads
on the lands of their neighbors and are known to have
made war excursions as far to the westward as the Rocky
Mountains, and to the northward as far as Mackenzie's
river, but their enemies being now as well armed as them
selves, the case is much altered." Mackenzie, speaking
of the region of the Missinippi, says the original people of
this area were driven out by the Knisteneaux, but " who this
original people were that were driven from it when conquered
by the Knisteneaux is not known, as not a single vestige of
them remains. The latter and the Chepewyans [Athapas
cans] are the only people that have been known here; and
it is evident that the last mentioned consider themselves as
strangers, and seldom remain longer than three or four years
without visiting their relations and friends in the barren
grounds which they term their native country." From
knowledge obtained since Mackenzie's day, we are justified
in assuming that these unknown people were the Blackfeet
or their congeners, or possibly the Sarcees.
The Crees, though largely nomadic, were, like their con
geners the Chippewas, essentially a woods people, and were
only drawn out upon the plains through the desire to reach
the buffalo herds and obtain an abundant supply of food.
According to Lacomb, the author of a dictionary of their
language, and one thoroughly acquainted with them, they
were, at a period not remote, chiefly about Red River of the
North and largely intermingled with the Chippewas and
Maskegons. The Plains Crees then " separated from their
allies because of the great distance to the buffalo. They
advanced toward the plains on the north branch of the
Saskatchewan river and ultimately expelled the fearless

TRIBES OF THE FAR NORTHWEST 351
Blackfeet, who in olden times had struck their tents on the
north side of that river."
As the people of the Cree tribe have been friendly from
their first intercourse with both the French and English,
and until quite recently were left comparatively undisturbed
in the enjoyment of their territory, their history has few
records ; and these consist almost wholly of notices of their
contests with neighboring tribes, and of their relations with
the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1776 or 1786, — precise
year uncertain, — these Indians, as well as those of neigh
boring tribes, were reduced to less than one-half of their
previous numbers by the smallpox. The same disease again
swept off, one-half the prairie tribes in 1838. In more
recent years, when game became scarce, they lived chiefly
in scattered bands, depending for existence upon trade with
the Hudson's Bay Company. At present they are gathered,
generally in bands, on various reservations.
Their character and characteristics have been reported
in such directly opposite terms, — some authors speaking of
them as degraded, filthy, and dishonest, while others describe
them as neat, faithful, and honest, — that we will not attempt
to decide which is correct, but refer to their industrial pur
suits and manufactures. The utensils and weapons in use
among them before being displaced by those of the whites
were pots of stone, flint implements, knives of the buffalo
hump rib, fishhooks from sturgeon bones, and awls from the
bones of the moose ; the fibres of the root of the pine tree
were, until comparatively recent times, used as twine for
sewing together their bark canoes ; a kind of thread from a
weed they called " sha-a-hupp " was used for making nets ;
spoons were made out of the horns of the moose. They
are described by an old Jesuit missionary [1670] as a people
" without maize or fields, who have no permanent dwellings,
but are wandering incessantly in the great forests in order to
live by the chase." One band is described as living almost
wholly on hares, hence they stay but a short time in any
one place; yet Henry, who was trading in their country,

352 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
informs us in his Narrative that he advanced goods to them
on credit in considerable quantities, and found them honest
and faithful in keeping their promises.
Sir John Richardson, writing about 1850, says:
It is from among the Eythinyuwuk that most of the servants of the
Fur Companies, who have married native women, have selected their
wives ; few of them having chosen Chepewyan females, and no one I
believe an Eskimo maiden. From these marriages a large half-breed
population has arisen, which will ere long work a change in the fur
trade, and in the condition of the whole native population. In character,
the half-breeds vary according to their paternity ; the descendants of
the Orkney labourers, in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company,
being generally steady, provident agriculturists of the Protestant faith ;
while the children of the Roman Catholic Canadian voyagers have much
of the levity and thoughtlessness of their fathers, combined with that
inability to resist temptation, which is common to the two races from
whence they are sprung. Most of the half-breeds have been setded by
the Hudson's Bay Company in the colony of Osnaboya, which extends
for fifty miles along the banks of the Red River of Lake Winnipeg. Of
the six thousand souls, to which the mixed population of this settlement
is said to amount, three-fifths are stated by Mr. Simpson to be Roman
Catholics ; while the valuable property is mostly in the hands of the
remaining two-fifths, who own sixteen out of eighteen wind and water
mills, erected within the precincts of the colony.
The settlement is under the government (it can scarcely be said the
control) of a governor, council and recorder, all nominated by the
Hudson' s Bay Company. The recorder is the civil and criminal judge,
presides at jury trials, and is aided by justices of the peace, and a con
stabulary in the Company's pay. — (Op. cit., ii, 54-55.)
The division of the Crees into the " Woods Crees " and
the " Plains Crees " had no reference to ethnic relations.
There were, however, ethnical divisions, which, so far as
is known to-day, were Crees in the most restricted sense:
Maskegons, or " Swampy Crees," and Monsonis.
Although the Maskegons are sometimes treated as a
distinct tribe, there is scarcely a doubt that the proper
classification of the group is that of' a division or subtribe
of the Crees. The very close relation they bear to the
other Crees is clearly recognized, as is apparent from the
name "Swampy Crees" applied to them by traders. Sir

Indian stone hammer found on the Paca farm, Wye Island, Maryland, and arrow heads from KLittrell County, North
.Cam,il?a- In the collection of Joseph 7~. Je*ines,EsQ.a Philadelphia.

TRIBES OF THE FAR NORTHWEST 353
John Richardson, in the Journal of his Arctic expedition in
search of Sir John Franklin, says the name "Kilistino" was
applied anciently to the Maskegons, whom he considers a
branch of the Crees. On the other hand, Warren, the
author of a History of the Ojibways, classes them as an off
shoot of the Ojibwas [Chippewas] . According to the latter
writer, they, with the Crees and Monsonis, form the north
ern division of the Chippewa group, which is probably cor
rect, using the term "group" in the broad or generic sense,
the only question being as to whether the group should be
considered Cree or Chippewa. However, the whole may
be considered historically as one people, forming in the
aggregate the most populous group of any stock east of
Rocky Mountains.
Since the Maskegons became known as a distinct band
or division, and until brought into reservations by the Cana
dian government, they were scattered over the swampy
region stretching from Lake Winnipeg and Lake of the
Woods to Hudson's Bay, including the basins of Nelson,
Hays, and Severn Rivers; and extending their southern
border to the watershed north of Lake Superior. They
have generally been on friendly relations with the whites,
so far as there has been intercourse between the two peoples.
The Monsonis, or "Moose Indians," formed a small
division of the Crees. The first notice of them is found
in the Jesuit Relations for 1671-1672, according to which
they were then located on the shores of James Bay, about
the mouth of Moose River. They are mentioned as late
as 1884 in the Official Canadian Report on Indian Affairs
for that year, where they are included with the "Indians
of Eastern Rupert's Land."
Belonging also to the Algonquian family are the Black
feet Indians, who should not be overlooked even in a brief
notice of the northwestern tribes. Although presenting
but few important incidents in their history, they have in
several ways come prominently into notice, chiefly, how
ever, through the visits of literary characters to their camps.

354 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Their Indian name, Siksika, is the equivalent of their Eng
lish name, and is applied to a confederacy and also to a
particular tribe. The confederacy or group includes the
Blackfeet proper, the Kino or Blood Indians, and the Pie-
gans. Their country, until they were placed upon reserva
tions, was northern Montana and the adjacent portions of
the British possessions, extending from Rocky Mountains
on the west to the junction of Milk River with the Mis
souri on the east; and north and south from Musselshell
River in Montana to Belly and south Saskatchewan Rivers
in British territory. They are now gathered on reserva
tions in these limits.
Their history and traditions also indicate a northern
origin. When they were first encountered by employes of
the Hudson's Bay Company they were living along Sas
katchewan River and its northern tributaries. Soon after
this, apparently on account of attacks by the Crees, they
began to move south and west, and not long thereafter came
into possession of horses, taken in war from their southern
enemies, among whom were the Crows and Snakes. Up
to this time, that is, early in the nineteenth century, the
Piegans, the most southern tribe of the confederacy, had
seldom crossed St. Mary's River to the south, except during
war expeditions. As soon, however, as they were supplied
with guns by the traders, they moved southward in a body,
driving before them all hostile Indians encountered. By
1816, aided only by the Gros Ventres, who had joined
them, they had conquered a large territory from the Assini
boins, Crows, Snakes, Flatheads, and other tribes. Their
hunting ground extended from the Saskatchewan to the
Yellowstone. According to Grinnell, the Blackfeet had at this time come
into friendly relations with the Crees. It is this author who
says : " Inquiries extended over two or three seasons, estab
lished the existence of a tradition of the northern origin
and a migration from the ancient home, . . . There
are many men [among them] who know that long ago

TRIBES OF THE FAR NORTHWEST 355
this people lived north of Red Deer River, and who are
aware of the later southern migration. Those who go
farthest back claim that the original home of the tribe was
much further north, and that they lived in the country
north of the Lesser Slave Lake and next south of the Beaver
Indians." This tradition is fortified by their terms for the
cardinal points, by the names applied to them by the Crees,
by evidences that they were formerly inhabitants of a tim
bered country, and by the recollection of their first arrival
at Rocky Mountains through or from a timbered region.
Their intimate association with the Sarcees, an Athapascan
tribe, who certainly came from this northern region, is
another link in this chain of evidence.
As these Indians never lived in immediate contact with
white settlements before going upon reservations, there is
little to be said in regard to their history further than that
which relates to their wars with surrounding tribes. The
following from Grinnell's Blackfoot Lodge Tales gives the
closing summary: "They had conquered and driven out
from the territory which they occupied the tribes who once
inhabited it, and maintained a desultory and successful war
fare against all invaders, fighting with the Crees on the
north, the Assiniboins on the east,, the Crows on the south,
and the Snakes, Kalispels, and Kutenais on the southwest
and west. In those days the Blackfeet were rich and
powerful. The buffalo fed and clothed them, and they
needed nothing beyond what nature supplied. This was
their time of success and happiness. Crowded into a little
corner of the great territory which they once dominated,
and holding this corner by an uncertain tenure, a few
Blackfeet still exist, the pitiful remnant of a once mighty
people. Huddled together about their agencies, they are
facing the problem before them, striving helplessly, but
bravely, to accommodate themselves to the new order of
things ; trying in the face of adverse surroundings to wrench
themselves loose from their accustomed ways of life; to
give up inherited habits and form new ones; to break away

356 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
from all that is natural to them, from all that they have
been taught, — to reverse their whole mode of existence.
They are striving to earn their living, as the white man
earns his, by toil."
The Blackfeet were polygamists; nevertheless, until re
cently they observed the custom of not marrying within the
gens. This custom, however, has to a large extent died
out during the last forty or fifty years. When a man
died, his wives became the potential wives of his eldest
brother. His property, except that which had been abso
lutely given to his wives or belonged to them, went to his
sons; or if there were no sons, to his brothers; if there
were no brothers, then to the nearest male relatives on the
father's side. Formerly each gens was governed by its own
chief, and the head chief was chosen by the chiefs of the
gentes. No office was hereditary, the chiefs being selected
because of their bravery and generosity. The power of the
head chief was limited and chiefly advisory.
Although it is said traditionally that in remote times
they made houses of mud, sticks, and stones, the ordinary
skin lodge appears to have long been their only dwelling.
Passing now toward the distant north, beyond Churchill
River to the region about Lake Athapasca and thence to
Great Bear Lake, we come in contact with Indian tribes
belonging to the Athapascan or Dene [Tinneh] stock.
This group, which touches on its northern extremity the
little Eskimo tribes that fringe the Arctic coast, has in one
respect no parallel except in the great Nahuatlan stock
of Mexico and Central America; that is, in regard to its
immense north and south extension, reaching from the
vicinity of the Arctic Ocean to the interior of northern
Mexico. "No other aboriginal stock in North America,
perhaps not even excepting the Algonquins," says Father
Morice, who has passed the greater part of his life in their
midst, " covers so great an extent as the Dene. The Brit
ish Isles, France and Spain, Italy and any two or three of
the minor European commonwealths taken together, would

TRIBES OF THE FAR NORTHWEST 357
hardly represent the area of the region occupied by that
large family. And yet it is no exaggeration to say that few
American races are less known than the Northern Denes,
who in point of territory constitute the main bulk of the
whole nation. West of the Rocky Mountains, they are
to be found from latitude 510 30' to the borders of the
Eskimo tribes, while on the east side of the range they
people the immense plains and forests which extend from
the northern Saskatchewan down [northward] almost to the
delta of Mackenzie River." From east to west they roam
over nearly the entire breadth of land from the Pacific
Ocean to Hudson's Bay. However, the Indians of this
area constitute but one of the groups of this great family.
It is represented by a number of small tribes scattered
along or in the vicinity of the Pacific coast in Oregon and
California; and by the various Navajo and Apache tribes
of Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Brief mention of
the latter tribes has already been made, but there will be
more to say in regard to them further on, our attention
being directed at present to the northern group.
The Indians of this group are of more than ordinary
interest to the ethnologist, as the habitats of the various
offshoots show beyond question, notwithstanding the larger
portion of the northern group is found east of the Rocky
Mountain range, that the family belongs, essentially, to what
we have termed the western or Pacific division.
The Indians of this northern group are divided, according
.to the most recent information, into some thirteen tribes,
three of which, the Chilcotins, Carriers, and Nahanes, reside
in Alaska on the western side of Rocky Mountains. The
Sekanis live in the range. East of the mountains, about Lake
Athapasca, are the Chipewyans [Athapascans proper] and
Cariboo-eaters; the Beavers are located on Peace River;
the Yellow-knives, northeast of Great Slave Lake ; the Dog-
ribs, between Great Slave and Great Bear Lakes; the Slaves,
west of Great Slave Lake; and the Hares, on Mackenzie
River. Furthest north, next to the scattered Eskimo, from

358 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Mackenzie River westward, are the Loucheux — or Kutchins
— the most populous tribe of the entire group. The Sarcees,
already mentioned, were also Athapascans.
The northern Athapascans, or, more correctly, Denes,
had, until recently, very little intercourse with the whites,
the contact being limited to their fur-trading relations
with the Hudson's Bay Company, and an occasional visit of
an explorer. Their history is confined to a record of their
relations with other tribes, and of their own tribes with one
another. It is known that, from the first acquaintance of
the whites with them, they carried on a desultory warfare
with the Crees and other tribes living south of them; and
that those living on the lower Mackenzie River were
almost constantly at war with the Eskimo, though this was
a petty warfare consisting of contests between or attacks
by small bands or parties. Sir John Richardson tells us,
alluding to the several western Kutchin tribes, in his Jour
nal [1850] that by these intertribal feuds "one-half the
population of the banks of the Yukon has been cut off
within the last twenty years."
The form of government, among most of the tribes, was
very crude and imperfect. According to Sir John Richard
son, order was maintained among the Chipewyans solely by
public opinion ; no one was clothed with authority for this
purpose. Superior powers of mind and skill in hunting
sufficed to cause a few to be chosen as chiefs, under whose
guidance a greater or smaller number of families placed
themselves, forming bands; a chief was therefore con-.
sidered great or small according to the number of his
adherents. This relation, however, had no other binding
force than mutual advantage. The chief did not assume
the power to punish crimes or regulate conduct, his duty
being to arrange the movements of his band, choose the
hunting grounds, collect provisions, purchase ammunition,
and act as the medium of intercourse and commerce with
the traders. In later years, previous to the discovery of gold
and to the recent regulations of the Canadian government,

TRIBES OF THE FAR NORTHWEST

359

the title of chief was not fully established until it had
been recognized at the English fort to which the chosen
man was accustomed to resort for trading. Among the
Carriers, or Tacullies, any man might become a chief by
providing occasionally a village feast ; but his authority was
merely nominal, though a malefactor would be secure from
harm so long as he was harbored in the chief's dwelling.
The people of this tribe were largely sedentary and gathered
in regular villages, each village having its own territory,
the boundaries being understood and respected. Slavery
was common among them, and all possessed slaves who
could afford them.
The Nahanes usually passed the summer in the vicinity of
the seacoast, scouring the interior during the winter for furs.
They seem to have had some kind of recognized ruler, as it
appears that at one time they were governed by a woman,
who, it is said, had unbounded influence over her subjects,
though they were considered the most warlike and turbulent
of the northern Denes.
The Kutchins, or Loucheux, are spoken of as the most
noble and manly people of the northern group; neverthe
less, they have hardly any government, their chiefs, who
are elected on account of their wealth or ability, having
limited authority. Crimes, including murder, are com
pounded for. They are divided into gentes, the rule pre
vailing here, as in other tribes of the group, that marriage
must be between a man and woman of different gentes.
The mother, as is usual in such social systems, gives caste
to the children, hence the father can never be of the same
totem as his children. Of the northern group, the most
southern tribe is the Sarcees [Sarsis] , an offshoot from the
Beaver tribe, from which they broke away about a hundred
years ago and lived for a time on the upper Saskatchewan ;
but they finally migrated southward and joined the Black
feet, with whom they have remained.
Before referring to the groups further south, notice of
that singular hyperborean people known as the Eskimo or

36°

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

Innuit will be appropriate here as following the notice of
their nearest neighbors. The Eskimo are a strange and,
it may be truly added, a mysterious people, if to be an
insolvable riddle constitutes a mystery. The questions as
to their original habitat, the cause of their selecting the
inhospitable coasts of the far north as their dwelling place,
and their racial affinities, have been the subjects of frequent
discussions, but with widely different conclusions. For a
time, it was claimed for them that they were the anomalous
race of America, and were not counted as Indians. This
theory has been abandoned by several ethnologists, who
now include them in the " Indian " or " American " race,
as a somewhat widely divergent family. Again, they have
been looked upon by some able authorities as the only
people of the New World clearly identical with any race
of the Old; while, on the contrary, it is asserted that:
" The closest observers report the physical traits of the
Eskimos as thoroughly American and not Asian, as has
sometimes been alleged." Notwithstanding this statement,
concurred in by more than one able authority, the most
.recent tendency of opinion based on later investigations is
toward the view that they are a widely divergent group of
the American race.
The Eskimo are essentially a littoral people, occupy
ing a narrow strip of coast for five thousand miles around
the northern part of the continent. Commencing at
Straits of Belle Isle, they occupy — or have occupied — the
Labrador coast to East Main, Hudson's Bay; both shores
of Greenland, and the islands between it and the conti
nent; and along the west side of Baffin's Bay and Davis
Strait. On the mainland, along the west side of Hud
son's Bay north of Churchill River, thence northward
through the Welcome to Fury and Hecla, Straits; thence
along the Arctic coast to Behring Strait, and along the
Pacific coast nearly to Mount St. Elias. They also oc
cupy the Aleutian islands, and a small offshoot is found on
the Asiatic side. This lengthy strip inhabited by a single

TRIBES OF THE FAR NORTHWEST

361

stock speaking substantially the same language is without a
parallel. The Eskimo were the first native inhabitants of the New
World with whom the European navigators came in con
tact. Greenland, where they were first seen, is said to
have been discovered about the close of the ninth century.
The supposition, which has so generally obtained, that
people of this family at the time of these early visits lived
as far south as Massachusetts, or even as "the mouth
of Delaware river," is not based on satisfactory evidence;
there is, in fact, no justifiable reason for assuming that they
ever lived south of the St. Lawrence.
Dr. Brinton believed them to "belong in history and
character to the Atlantic peoples "; nevertheless, ethnically
and linguistically they appear to be more closely affiliated
to the Pacific group. Their history consists of little more
than accounts of occasional visits of explorers to some part
of their extended country and the information gathered
during such visits. And these relate to the petty warfare
of little tribes with neighboring bands and to their own
domestic history, including their customs, beliefs, etc.
The remarkable uniformity in language and physical
characteristics and customs throughout the vast stretch of
Eskimo territory seems to indicate a comparatively recent
dispersion, for otherwise this uniformity is difficult to
account for. Ratzel (History of Mankind) advances the
following opinion on this point:
After an American population was already fully developed in more
southerly regions, the north got peopled not merely by the advance of
the Indian tribes. A later and special immigration from the border
lands of Asia and America must have exercised an influence there.
Mongoloid features are so recognizable in the character and bodily con
formation of the Eskimo, that attempts have been made to separate him
entirely from the Indian ethnologically. Eskimo, too, are settled on
the northern coasts of Asia, while they first appeared in Greenland
possibly within the historical era, and there is much in their stock of
culture to induce a comparison of them with the Asiatic Hyperboreans,
nay, even to remind us of the European. Nevertheless, we connect

362 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
them here with the Indians, as it seems too hazardous to rank them
with the true Mongoloids. But North-East Asia is unquestionably a
region of transition which finds its continuation in northern America.
The same author describes their physical characters as
follows :
The bodily frame of the Eskimo shows but little variation in differ
ent districts. His skull is long and high. It should be noted that the
Chukchi head is short, the northern Indian of not more than average
length. The facial expression is determined by a strong development
of the jaws and maxillary muscles, and a considerable distance between
the inner angles of the eyes, as well as between the eyebrows and the
apertures of the lids, also by pretty well-marked prognathism. The
slit eyes and the position of the cheek-bones are Mongoloid. The true
Eskimo have black hair, dark eyes, and reddish or yellowish brown
skin. If here and there, especially in Greenland, traces of a fair type
appear, they doubtless proceed from a crossing with ancient Norse or
modern Danish blood. The hair of the head is straight and compara
tively long ; the beard, which is developed almost solely on the chin
and lip, is among the pure Eskimo of scanty growth. The skin is
thick and coarse on hands and face only, elsewhere soft, thin, and
smooth. The reddish tint of the cheeks and strong red of the lips give
a fresh look to the face. The stature is low without being dwarfish.
The Eskimo are noted for their bone carving, in which,
besides lines, dots, lozenges, and circles, they represent in
outline huts, boats, men, and reindeer, in various significant
groupings.

CHAPTER XVII
THE SHOSHONES AND OTHER ROCKY MOUNTAIN
TRIBES
Passing into the great mountain range which divides the
Atlantic from the Pacific area, we enter the territory of
the Shoshonean family, an Indian group which, if judged
by the area over which its various members have spread, is
surpassed by but two families north of Mexico, — the Algon
quian and the Athapascan. It extended from the headwaters
of the Missouri in central Montana to southern Texas,
and from western Kansas to western Oregon, reaching
the Pacific coast in southwestern California. The term
"family" is applied to this group in the sense in which it
is used by Major J. W. Powell in his list of linguistic fami
lies ; however, according to other authorities, and as now
generally conceded, it is but a large division of the great
Nahuatlan stock which includes also the Piman, Aztecan, and
related tribes of Mexico; a vast family, which, including
its outlying peoples, stretches from the banks of Columbia
River to Lake Nicaragua. What a long unwritten history
of the past, of the formation, growth, and disintegration of
groups, and of the slow and gradual movements southward
from the Arctic regions, is sealed up in this fact ? A seal
that will probably never be broken.
The principal members of the Shoshonean group are
the Comanche, Bannock, Ute, Paiute, Gosiute, Paviotso,
Shoshone [proper], and Hopi [or Moqui] tribes. The
character and customs of this group differ widely, owing to
3^3

364 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
the great extent of territory over which it is spread and the
varied climatic and topographic features. The northern and
eastern tribes were generally non-agricultural, relying upon
the chase and native vegetable products for subsistence.
The Comanches and eastern Shoshones were essentially
buffalo hunters, and in general character were fierce and
warlike. The tribes living west of the mountains, as the
Paiutes, Gosiutes, Paviotsos, and western Shoshones, were
quite different in character ; rabbits and small game generally,
fish, roots, seeds, and insects, formed their chief support.
Among them were found various bands or subtribes, to
whom the name " Diggers," or " Digger Indians," has been
opprobriously applied. Although these Indians used bows
and arrows, manufactured pottery to a limited extent, prac
tised a rude agriculture in certain districts, and lived under a
somewhat complex social system, yet they have been con
sidered the most degraded of the race in the United States.
They seem to have retrograded from a somewhat more ad
vanced culture status, and, what is significant as pointing
possibly to some extended cause, a similar retrogression
appears to have taken place among some of the California
tribes since, if not before, the advent of the white man.
The Shoshones proper formed the most northerly division
ofthe family, occupying a large portion of Wyoming; the
entire central and southern parts of Idaho, except the area
held by the Bannocks; a small part of eastern Oregon;
eastern and central Nevada; and a small strip of western
Utah. However, their chief seat was the Snake River
country in Idaho, from which fact, it is said, the name
" Snake Indians " has been applied to them. They were
found by Lewis and Clark in 1803 near the divide oppo
site the headwaters of the Missouri, their towns being on
Salmon River, one of them near the site of Fort Lemhi.
There are strong reasons, however, for believing that their
former home was east of the mountain range, probably on
the headwaters of the Saskatchewan, from which region they
were driven by the Atsinas and Blackfeet as the latter were

THE SHOSHONES

365

being pressed southwestward by the Crees and Assiniboins.
Nor is it improbable that we have in this evidence an indi
cation of the pristine home and the course of migration of
the entire family.
The Bannocks were divided geographically into two por
tions, one claiming the territory between latitude 42 ° and
450 and from longitude 1130 W. to the main chain of
Rocky Mountains; the other portion formerly dwelt in the
southwestern part of Montana. They ranged, however, in
more recent times in southeastern Idaho and western Wyo
ming, where, through constant contact with the Shoshones,
they became, to some extent, incorporated with the latter.
They, as well as the Shoshones, were almost constantly at
war with the Blackfeet before being brought more directly
under control of the government officials.
The several divisions of the Utes were so intimately re
lated one with another socially and historically that it is
difficult to consider them separately. In fact, the names
of these divisions in the historical and sometimes in the
official accounts are used in different senses. The Utes
proper formerly occupied the central and western portions
of Colorado and southwestern Utah, including the eastern
part of Salt Lake and Utah valleys. They extended also
into New Mexico, especially into the valley of the San
Juan. These Indians, who have ever been of a restless,
turbulent, warlike disposition, which was intensified on
coming into possession of horses, have never been disposed
to adopt the sedentary habits of their Pueblo neighbors on
the south, nor have they relied until recently to any extent
upon the cultivation of the soil for subsistence. It is possi
ble that the various divisions, Paiute, Gosiute, Paviotso, etc.,
were originally united in a single confederacy; but moving
southwest into the mountain region, where the natural food
supply was by no means abundant, and increasing in num
bers, they scattered in minor groups over a more extended
area. In the northeastern part of their range, where they
came into contact with the Bannocks and the Shoshones, the

366 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Utes intermarried to a considerable extent with the people
of these tribes, thus bringing them into close relations with
them. The name " Paiute " has been loosely applied to most of
the Shoshonean tribes of eastern Utah, northern Arizona,
southern Idaho, eastern Oregon, and California, whereas
it properly belongs to the Utes of southwestern Utah.
The Paviotsos appear to have formed a kind of confederacy
of small tribes or bands, chiefly in western Nevada, but
extending into Oregon as far north as Lakes Malheur and
Harney and thence into northeastern California. In recent
times they have pushed their way into the region about
Pyramid Lake, in western Nevada. The Gosiutes also
constituted, in comparatively recent times, a kind of con
federacy of some four or five small tribes, inhabiting north
western Utah and a strip in eastern Nevada. These Indians
have been considered by some authorities as a mixture of
Shoshone and Ute elements. They formed one of the very
few Shoshonean groups engaged in agriculture. The Pana-
mints composed a small division nearly related to the Sho
shones proper, residing in eastern California. Another
small division of the family, known as the Tobikhars, con
sisted of several bands formerly about San Gabriel Mission
and Los Angeles, in southern California.
The history of the Shoshonean Indians begins with a
single glimpse, after which two centuries pass before we
hear of them again. In 1542, when Coronado was march
ing in search of the cities of Cibola, and De Soto was
ending his career on the banks of the lower Mississippi,
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was sailing northward along the
coast of the Californias. At the " laguna near Point Mugu,"
— identified by Mr. Henshaw (Wheeler's Geol. Surv. Terr.,
vii, 306) as the vicinity of Buenaventura in the Santa Clara
valley, — a village was observed near the shore, the houses of
which are described as large, built " in the manner of those
of New Spain," though just how this is to be understood is
not clear. The Indians here were clothed with the skins

THE SHOSHONES

367

of animals, and are described as fishermen, living chiefly
upon food obtained from the sea, eating their fish raw.
The narrative says they also ate "agaves," probably a species
of yucca, but makes no mention of maize or other culti
vated products. However, for some ten or fifteen leagues
northward from this point the coast seems to have been
well peopled, more than twenty villages being observed in
that distance. The explorers were also informed that there
were many towns inland and much maize at three days'
distance. The "cows" [buffaloes], of which they said
there were many in the interior, they called " cae "; maize,
they called "oep." From these terms we are enabled to
identify these Indians with considerable certainty as belong
ing to the Shoshonean family. Although the Hopis, or
Moquis, came to the knowledge of the Spaniards near the
time of Cabrillo's voyage, the Utes did not begin to come
into prominence until the commencement of the eighteenth
century, when they came into contact with the Spanish
colonists of New Mexico. In 1769, Father Junipero Serra
began to gather the Indians of the southern part of Alta
California into missions, among whom it is supposed were
some individuals of the Shoshonean stock. However, it is
not until the date of Lewis and Clark's expedition [1803—
1804] that we find extended notice of the Shoshones
proper, who were found by these explorers chiefly along
Salmon River, in what is now Idaho. They received the
travellers with friendly demonstrations; and from that time
forward they came more and more into notice, especially
when the gold seekers began to make their way across
the continent. Different groups of the family have been
described, in regard to their relations with the whites, as
follows : " The Eastern Shoshonis ranging from South Pass
to Bear river and Wind river and known as Koolastekara
or Buffalo Eaters, have been very reliable in their friend
ship toward the Americans, Washikee, their chief, being
noted in this respect. The Salmon river band, mixed Sho
shonis and Bannocks, were unreliable and their friendship

368 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
questionable. The western Snakes about Camas Prairie and
Goose Creek mountain, were on good terms with the Mor
mons but not with other whites. The Bannocks were
traitorous and hostile when opportunity for striking a blow
occurred. On the other hand, the Bannocks who dwelt in
the vicinity of Fort Boisee were generally firm friends of the
Americans; while the so-called Southern Snakes ranging
about Salt Lake, Utah, were the most unfriendly of all these
Indians toward the Americans, but at the same time were
hand-in-glove with the Mormons. However, most of those
along the transcontinental lines of travel committed depre
dations on the emigrants during the gold excitement in
California." Although the Mormons were almost always in friendly
relations with the Indians and especially with those of the
Shoshonean group, and were the instigators of many of
the murders of whites, — as that of Lieutenant Gunnison, —
there was a brief period during which they were at war
with the Paiutes, the only real trouble they ever had with
the Indians. "At that time," writes J. P. Dunn, Jr., in
his Massacres of the Mountains, "there were but two settle
ments in the beautiful borders of Utah Lake, one on the
American Fork, and one on Provo River. The Indians
there, a band of Pah-Utes, did not appreciate good treat
ment, and from begging went to robbing. Finding they
were not punished, they attributed their safety to the cow
ardice of the Mormons, and became so bold as to shoot
people who tried to hinder them from taking what they
wanted. They little dreamed of the claws of the velvet
paw they had been playing with. The people on the Provo
sent for assistance, and one hundred and fifty men went to
them from Salt Lake. They found the Indians posted in
the brush and cottonwoods along the Provo, and fought
them there for two days. Then Sunday came, and the
Saints rested, as is their custom, while the Indians fled.
On Monday secular occupation was resumed. The Indians
at the southern end of the lake were first proceeded against,

Navajo blanket weaving. From the original in the Smithsonian Institution, Washingto.

THE SHOSHONES

3°9

and about thirty of their warriors killed. They then re
turned to their first opponents, who had fled up a canon,
and killed all but seven or eight of their men. Some fifty
women and children were taken prisoners and distributed
among the settlements, but afterwards allowed to join other
bands, if they so desired. After this there was no trouble
that could be dignified by the name of war."
The treatment of the southern Diggers is thus described
by Dunn : " 'Yes ' [says an old trapper] , ' I have often
caught the women and children of Digger Indians and sold
them in New Mexico and Sonora. Mr.  of Tucson
told me a squaw I sold him ran off, and was found dead,
famished for water I suppose, going over from the Pimas
to the Colorado.' . . . The weaker tribes of course
suffered most in this business. The wretched Diggers of
the Salt Lake Basin were especially the victims of it, in an
early day, as was often testified to by travelers; Farnam
says 'These poor creatures are hunted in the spring when
weak and helpless, by a certain class of men, and when
taken are fattened and taken to Santa Fe and sold as slaves.
A likely girl in her teens often brings three or four hundred
dollars. The men are valued less.' "
On the other hand, the Utes pursued precisely the same
practices toward Indians of other stocks, and, what was
still more cruel, frequently reserved their miserable captives
for sacrifice to the manes of their deceased chiefs and
braves. When Walker, or Wacca, a noted Ute chief,
died in 1855, and was buried on a high mountain about
twelve miles southeast of Killmore, Utah, four slaves —
three children and one woman — were buried with him.
Three of them were killed and thrown into the grave; the
other was thrown in alive.
There is but little in regard to the people of this stock
worthy of being called history ; they were too much broken
into small and scattered groups to act as whole tribes or
nations. Their history therefore, with a few exceptional
events, relates to petty strifes, local disturbances, robbing

370 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
white settlers, murdering emigrants, and endless wanderings
from point to point in search of the small game of their
country, and pinon nuts. As a general rule, they were
peaceable, until the gold excitement began in California
and the stream of migration commenced its march across the
continent. It was then that those who escaped the attacks
of the savages of the plains were liable to be plundered and
perhaps murdered by the Shoshonean Indians of the moun
tain districts. A note in Bancroft's History of Oregon gives
a short account of some of these depredations occurring
in 1851 :
Eighteen thousand dollars worth of property was stolen by the Sho
shones in 185 1 ; many white men were killed, and more wounded.
Hutchison Clark, of Illinois, was driving, in advance of his company,
with his mother, sister and a young brother in the family carriage near
Raft River 40 miles west of Fort Hall, when the party was attacked,
his mother and brother killed, and Miss Grace Clark, after being
outraged and shot through the body and wrist, was thrown over a
precipice to die. She alighted on a bank of sand which broke the
force of the fall. The savages then rolled stones over after her, some
of which struck and wounded her, notwithstanding all of which she
survived and reached Oregon alive. She was married afterward to
a Mr. Vandervert, and settled on the coast branch of the Willamette.
She died Feb. 20, 1875. When the train came up and discovered the
bloody deed and that the Indians had driven off over twenty valuable
horses, a company was formed, led by Charles Clark, to follow and
chastise them. These were driven back, however, with a loss of one
killed and one wounded. A brother of this Clark family named
Thomas had emigrated in 1 849, and was awaiting the arrival of his
friends when the outrages occurred. — Oregon Statesman, Sept. 23, 1851.
The same band killed Mr. Miller, from Virginia, and seriously wounded
his daughter. They killed Jackson, a brother-in-law of Miller, at the
same time, and attacked a train of twenty wagons, led by Harpool,
being repulsed with some loss. Other parties were attacked at different
points, and many persons wounded. — Oregon Spectator, Sept. 2, 1851.
Barnes" Oregon and California, MS., 20. Raymond, superintendent
at Fort Hall, said that 3 1 emigrants had been shot by the Shoshones
and their allies the Bannacks. — Oregon Statesman, Dec. 9, 1851;
S. F. Alta, Sept. 28, 1851.
In the spring of 1865, United States troops were called
upon to take the field in Oregon and Idaho, the roads

THE SHOSHONES ^JI
between The Dalles and Boise, between Boise and Salt
Lake, between Owyhee and Chico, and between Owyhee
and Humboldt in California, being unsafe because of the
Indian raids. This opened a warfare that continued until
1868, when General Crook succeeded in bringing it to a
close, but soon to be followed by the Modoc war. It was
during the latter war that Captain Jack, leader of the
Modocs, and his men fired on the peace commissioners
they had consented to meet, while in the very midst of
their consultations. General Canby and Mr. Thomas,
two of the commissioners, were killed, and Mr. Meacham,
another, was severely wounded.
The Utes were, until the outbreak of 1879, almost uni
formly peaceable. Lying between the lines of transconti
nental travel, they were not brought into contact with the
emigrants seeking the gold fields of California. In 1879,
after these Indians, through their friendly and, as may truly
be said, wise chief Ouray, had yielded point after point to
the whites to meet the demands of the hordes of incoming
miners, they were finally pressed into a war which might
have been avoided. The trouble with the White River
Indians, who were chiefly engaged, arose from a disagree
ment with their agent, N. C. Meeker, who was ultimately
killed by them and his family captured. The conflict was
a brief one, the white soldiers, however, suffering severely.
The troops, under command of Major Thornburg, who was
slain early in the contest, were ambushed and surrounded
by a vastly superior force and besieged for six consecutive
days, being finally relieved by General Merritt. The influ
ence of chief Ouray, who was strongly opposed to warring
against the whites, was used to check the outbreak and
restore peace.
The story of the remaining Ute troubles is mainly the
record of the tedious sessions of two commissions. An
adjustment was finally reached on the basis that none of
the Indians should be punished, that the lands desired
by the miners should be ceded to the government, and the

372

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

Indians given other reservations. There can be no doubt
that Ouray, who died before the treaty was concluded, had
prevented a long and bloody war by exerting all his power
and influence in favor of peaceful relations with the whites.
The Shoshones and Bannocks, by the treaty of Fort
Bridger, July 3, 1868, ceded to the United States an im
mense territory, embracing most of eastern Idaho, the
northwestern third of Wyoming, and considerable tracts
in Colorado and Utah, and were gathered on reservations
assigned them in Idaho and Wyoming.
The Shoshones are described as "below the medium
stature ; the Utes, though more powerfully built, are coarser
featured and less agile "; and the women, as clumsily shaped.
On the barren plains of Nevada, and other similar sections
where there is no large game, rabbits' skins furnished, in
the time before the coming of white traders, nearly the only
clothing used by them; the pelts were cut into strips and
netted or woven into kilts and mantles. The Shoshones
and Bannocks of the northeastern section, where larger
game is found, were better dressed, the usual costume being
a shirt, leggings, and moccasins of buckskin, over which
was thrown in cold weather a heavy robe, usually of buffalo
skin. The dress worn at the time of Lewis and Clark's
visit was richer than that of a later date, being composed
of a robe, short cloak, shirt, long leggings, and moccasins.
The Bannock women, according to the writer's observa
tions, were unusually short in proportion to the males.
The dwellings of the Shoshones and Bannocks, though
but tepees suitable to a nomadic people, being conical skin-
covered tents, were superior to those of the Utes. The
habitations of the Indians of Nevada and the greater part
of Utah were primitive in character, consisting of rude
shelters of brush, and sometimes were mere screens of
bushes, semicircular in shape, roofless, and three or four feet
high, serving simply to break the force of the wind. The
food of the poorer tribes and those inhabiting the barren
sections consisted of rabbits, rats, and other small mammals,

THE SHOSHONES 373
pine nuts, berries, roots, reptiles, insects, and fish where
these were to be obtained. Lizards, snakes, grasshoppers,
and ants were roasted and eaten dry, or used to thicken
soup. The writer found at one of their camps in northern
Utah, which had just been abandoned, a sack of roasted
crickets. The tribes of Oregon and Idaho, where game
and fish are abundant, lived well the year round. The bow
and arrow were their chief offensive weapons. Although
each tribe had an ostensible chief, his power was limited
mainly to giving advice; and though he might influence
the tribe, he could not compel obedience; yet chiefs of
strong personality sometimes, as Ouray, gained an almost
unlimited influence over their people. Polygamy, though
common, was by no means universal ; the marriage tie, how
ever, weighed so lightly on Ute husbands that they did not
hesitate to sell their wives into slavery for a few trinkets.
The method of disposing of the dead differed among
the several tribes; though burial in graves was the usual
custom, cremation was practised in some places. In either
case, it was customary to destroy the property of the de
ceased at his death. His favorite horse, and sometimes his
favorite wife, was killed over his grave.
The most noted and also the most formidable tribe of the
great Shoshonean group was that known as the Comanches,
described at an early day by the French as the Padoucas.
Their historical habitat has been chiefly the extensive plains
from Rocky Mountains eastward into Indian Territory and
Texas to about the ninety-seventh degree of west longi
tude. However, their raids, for they were a wandering,
restless people, took them northward to Kansas on the one
side, and southward as far as Durango, Mexico, on the
other. There is some evidence that their earlier home was
further toward the north, and that it was in that northern
section they parted from the parent stock. The Crow
Indians have, or had, a tradition that while they resided
around Bearpaw Mountain in the Blackfoot country, near
the base of Rocky Mountains, the Shoshones possessed the

374 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
more recent Crow country on Yellowstone River, while
the Comanches occupied the modern Shoshone area in the
Snake River region, Idaho. Nevertheless, the various items
of evidence indicate that their progress southward was along
the eastern base of the mountain chain rather than by way
of the Snake River valley in the interior, as we hear of
them about the upper Platte, the headwaters of Niobrara
River, and even further north on the east side of the range.
They were on the headwaters of Kansas River as late as
1724, and later on they crossed to the south side of Red
River. This progress southward of a branch of the Sho
shonean stock is a very interesting item in the history of the
western Indians, as it furnishes an example with which we
may compare the prehistoric movements southward of mem
bers of the Athapascan family. The cause of the movement
southward of the Comanches has been, probably correctly,
attributed to the westward progress of the Siouan tribes.
The Comanches do not appear in the Spanish records
until after the close of the seventeenth century; as early,
however, as 1724 we find them at war with the Apaches;
and in 1746 they were making raids on the Spanish settle
ments, which brought them into war with the latter. How
ever, they were brought into nominal submission in 1783,
but again became troublesome and continued to harass the
district of Texas until it came into possession of the United
States. Their hatred of the Spaniards appears to have been
turned against the people of the United States after the
transfer of the territory to the latter. For a time, emigrants
and traders crossing the plains suffered from their attacks,
which did not entirely cease until the Comanches were
brought upon reservations.
During their early and limited intercourse with the
French, their relations with them were friendly.
Their government was primitive in character, their chiefs
having comparatively little authority, the power being in the
councils. The councils of the bands or divisions, as a rule,
held regular meetings quarterly, and a grand council of the

THE SHOSHONES 375
whole tribe met once a year. It seems that during part, at
least, of their history there was a head chief of the whole
tribe, to whom the minor chiefs were to some extent subject,
although the sovereignty of this head chief does not appear
to have been acknowledged by the southern division of the
tribe in the later years of their free life.
It has been claimed that they were superior warriors to
the noted Apaches; that they and the Cheyennes were the
most expert horsemen of the plains, and, in fact, of all
the North American tribes, has been conceded, nor were
their women far behind them in this respect. Relying
chiefly upon the buffalo for subsistence, and having neces
sarily to follow the herds, they gave no attention to the
cultivation of the soil.
It is a somewhat singular fact that before being placed
on reservations they abstained from the use of intoxicating
liquors (Kennedy, Texas, i, 347, 1841; and Gregg, Com
merce ofthe Prairies, ii, 307). "One of the most interesting
traits of difference " [from other tribes] , says the latter
author, " is to be found in their distaste for ardent spirits ;
but few of them can be induced to taste a drop of intoxi
cating liquors; thus forming an exception, I believe, to the
entire race of the ' red man,' who appears to have a consti
tutional appetite for strong drinks."
Although belonging to another stock, the Apaches, who
join the Shoshonean group on the south, claim further notice
than the brief reference given in a previous chapter relating
to the early history of New Mexico and Arizona. These
Indians, who have played an important role in the history
of the two southwestern territories mentioned, pertained to
the division of that group of the Athapascan family which
roamed over these districts and the region extending into
Chihuahua and Durango, Mexico.
Though generally spoken of as a tribe, this is chiefly on
linguistic grounds, as there has been, in fact, no proper tribal
organization embracing all the subdivisions. The princi
pal ones of the latter were the Chiricahuas, in southeastern

376

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

Arizona; the Gilenos, or Gila Apaches, about the head
waters of the Gila ; Mimbrenos, or Copper Mine Apaches ;
Jicarillas, in the two mountains of northern New Mexico;
the Pinalenos, Arivaipas, Mogollons, Coyoteros, and Tontos.
The earliest notice we have of them is in Onate's Jour
nal [1598] , after which for nearly three centuries they were
at war with the whites, first with the Spaniards and after
ward with the people of the United States, besides which
they were in almost constant broils with other native tribes.
At present, those belonging to the United States are confined
to reservations in Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
During the middle of the eighteenth century the Apaches
were continually troublesome in Arizona, raiding the Pimas
and the Spanish missions; and numerous campaigns were
undertaken against them, though usually with meagre re
sults. In 1786, General Ugarte decided upon more effective
measures, and a more correct policy; and his plan appears
to have been successful ; at least, for twenty years or more
there are but slight indications of Apache depredations in
the history of that section. After the acquisition of New
Mexico and Arizona by the United States, the hatred of
these Indians was turned against the people of the new gov
ernment. It is unnecessary to follow in detail the warfare
that ensued, their raids upon the whites or on other Indians
being almost unceasing for several years. They are spoken
of in 1850 as "incorrigible robbers"; nevertheless, they
were generally on friendly terms with a disreputable gang
of Mexican and American traders, who encouraged their
depredations. In 1862— 1863, active campaigns were car
ried on against them by General Carleton and Colonel Kit
Carson, which resulted in killing numbers of the Indians and
destroying numerous herds of sheep and horses, but not in
bringing the Apaches to terms. It was not until the prose
cution of this object was placed in the hands of General
Crook, in 187 2- 1873, that the work was accomplished and
these restless, warlike savages were quieted and brought
upon reservations.

THE SHOSHONES 377
The Navajo Indians are, as heretofore stated, placed by
linguists in the Athapascan stock, and are supposed to have
broken away from the main group in British America and
wandered, as probably did the Apaches, down the mountain
range to their historic seat in Arizona and New Mexico.
While there can be no doubt as to their linguistic affin
ity, yet, according to their "Origin Legend" as given by
Dr. Washington Matthews (Memoirs of the American Folk
lore Society, v), they were a much mixed race, having added to
the Dene, or Athapascan, stock elements from the Zufiian
and other Pueblo stocks, and also from the Shoshonean and
Yuman groups. The author quoted, who has studied these
Indians with care, believes their physical characteristics
corroborate the legend in this respect. "There is," he
says, "no such thing as a general or prevailing Navaho
type. The people vary much in feature and stature. Every
variety of Indian face and form may be seen among them."
The Navajos are first mentioned in history by Zarata
Salmeron in 1626, who calls them "Apaches de Navaju."
The acquirement of sheep and cattle through the Pueblos,
probably as early as the sixteenth century, formed an im
portant epoch in their history, and materially modified their
mode of life and tended toward giving them more fixed
habits. As a general rule, they were nominally friendly
with the Spaniards up to 1700, though frequently raiding the
friendly Indians, and secretly urging attacks on the former
by other tribes.
Padre Juan A. Niel tells us that among the captives
brought in by the Navajos were two French girls, whom
he rescued; and Hubert Bancroft says that in 1698 the
French almost annihilated a Navajo force of some four
thousand men. This, however, is hardly credible. In 1700,
the Navajos committed depredations on the Spaniards, who
sent an expedition against them and soon concluded peace
at Toas. This peace agreement was repeated in 1709 and
1713, and in each case was soon broken. In the latter
instance, the Indians were followed into their own country

378 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
and defeated by Captain Serna. In 1 744—1 746, these In
dians manifested a great desire to become Christians ; so mis
sionaries were sent among them, who were well received,
and in 1 746 the conversion of five thousand " gentiles " was
reported to the king. Attempts were made, about this time,
to plant missions accessible to them, and Padre Menchero
induced some five or six hundred to move to Cebollita, in
the Acoma region. But all these efforts proved in the end
futile. War soon broke out between the Navajos and
the Utes, and those of the former tribe who had settled at
Cebollita returned to their former habitat.
The Navajos were hostile to the whites in 1803— 1805,
and intrenched themselves in Canon de Chelley, from which
to carry on their warfare, but were brought to terms of peace
by Lieutenant Antonio Narbona in 1805. In 1840, they
were waging a fierce war against the Hopis. In 1 846, when
they first came into actual contact with the United States
government, their intercourse was nominally friendly, and a
treaty was made during that year. Treaties were also made
in 1848 and 1849; however, little respect was paid to them
by the Navajos, who continued to make raids upon the set
tlements and to carry on their warfare with other tribes. In
1865, they were rounded up to the number of seven thou
sand by Generals Carleton and Carson and brought upon
reservations, chiefly at Bosque Redondo, on the Pecos, New
Mexico. This reservation proving unsatisfactory, they were
removed in 1868 to their present reservation in north
western New Mexico and northeastern Arizona, a part of
their original home. Their subsequent progress in self-
sustaining industries can be judged of by the fact that in
1890 their sheep numbered 700,000, goats 200,000; and
that in the same year they sold 1,370,000 pounds of wool
and had about 10,000 acres of land under cultivation.
The Indians of this tribe, both men and women, wear
the hair long, tied, or clubbed up behind. They do not
tattoo themselves, or disfigure themselves with paint, to
the same degree as neighboring tribes. The ordinary dress

THE SHOSHONES 370,
was formerly a hunting shirt of deerskin, or a blanket con
fined to the waist by a belt; buckskin breeches, sometimes
ornamented up the seams with pieces of silver or porcupine
quills. They wore long moccasins, and a helmet-shaped
cap, also of buckskin, surmounted with a plume of eagle
or turkey feathers. The women generally wore a blanket
fastened with a waist belt, also breeches and moccasins.
The Navajo women are noted throughout the Southwest for
the beautiful blankets they weave. The men in recent years
have devoted considerable attention to the manufacture of
silver ornaments, the value of those made in 1890 being
estimated at three hundred and thirty thousand dollars.

CHAPTER XVIII
THE INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST
As it is not possible in a brief chapter to note separately
the character, customs, and history of the numerous small
stocks of California and the coast northward, only those
points more generally applicable will be referred to. It
may be added further that save what pertains to the Span
ish missions, — which belongs chiefly to the history of Spanish
occupancy of the country, — and depredation and petty war
fare between tribes, the Indian history of the region furnishes
no important episodes. No combination of tribes for a great
effort in any respect ever occurred in the historical period of
that section, or, as will be seen, was indeed possible with
the native population in the singular conditions which have
prevailed. Here we encounter one of the most puzzling
features in regard to the distribution of linguistic stocks
found on the American continent. In the comparatively
narrow strip little more than two hundred miles in width,
and extending along the coast from the thirty-fourth to the
forty-eighth degree of north latitude, are, according to the in
vestigations of the Bureau of American Ethnology, no less
than twenty-seven different linguistic families. (See Map C
and Appendix II.)
Adding to these the Athapascan stock, which is repre
sented in this area by some three or four colonies, as the
Hupas, etc., and the Tsimshian, Skittagetan [or Haida],
and Kolushan, coast stocks further north, the entire number
38i

382 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
of families represented is thirty-one, or three more than half
the entire number [fifty-six] north of Mexico as marked on
Major Powell's linguistic map. It will also be seen by
reference to Map C and its explanation that the series, ex
cepting the last three, was backed most of the length of the
strip from north to south by the single Shoshone group,
which is now considered but a section of a still more com
prehensive family. Of these family groups some eighteen
or twenty were within the limits of the state of California
alone. On what theory this crowding of so many small
stocks into this limited coast area is to be accounted for, it is
difficult to decide. It is possible that the physical charac
teristics of the region had some effect in this direction, as
Powers (Tribes of California) seems to hold; nevertheless,
it is evident that this will not fully explain this condition,
in view of the fact that in some portions of the area two
different stocks occupy neighboring localities similar in char
acter, and have adopted to a considerable extent similar cus
toms, yet maintain their linguistic differences. One theory,
which seems to have received some attention, is that these
groups are remnants of broken and depleted stocks which
have been driven into these narrow littoral limits by pressure
of stronger interior tribes in their gradual movement south
ward. The fact that minor offshoots from the great Atha
pascan family have found homes amid these minor stocks
seems to favor this theory. Powers, in the work referred to,
says that the California Indians of the northern sections
"were, at the time of the American advent, being driven
back and crushed out by the stronger and fiercer Athapascan
races. Likewise in the southern part of their habitat this
peaceful race was slowly giving way before the incursions
of the more powerful and warlike Paiutes of Nevada."
Nevertheless, reasons are presented, as will appear further
on, for supposing that the majority of these groups were
always small in numbers.
Hubert Bancroft makes the rather strange statement in his
Native Races that the " Northern Californians are in every

INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST

3§3

way superior to the central and southern tribes. Their
physique and character, in fact, approach nearer to the
Oregon nations than to the people of the Sacramento and
San Joaquin valleys. This applies more particularly to the
inland tribes. The race gradually deteriorates as it ap
proaches the coast, growing less in stature, darker in color,
more and more degraded in character, habits, and religion."
The statement, however, appears to be confirmed by other
authorities; and it is a fact readily seen by reference to the
linguistic map that the large and strong tribes are in the in
terior, while the diminutive and weak ones are crowded
along the coast. Powers says he is inclined to attribute
something of the mental weakness of the California abo
rigines to the excessive amount of fish which they consumed
in their native state ; also, perhaps, to the quantity of bitter
acorns they ate. " It is," he continues, " generally accounted
that fish is rich in brain-food, but it is an indisputable
fact that the grossest superstitions and lowest intellects in
the race are found along the sea-coast."
That the Californians were not a martial race is shown,
says the last author, by the almost total absence of the
shield, and by the extreme paucity of their warlike weapons,
which consisted only of bows and arrows, very rude spears,
and slings. However, the early Spaniards frequently found
to their cost that the Indians were able to use these weapons
with telling effect. Notwithstanding, they were not expert
in the chase, relying for the capture of game very largely
upon snares and traps or other devices.
"If there is one great and fatal weakness in the Cali
fornia Indians," remarks Powers, " it is their lack of breadth
and strength of character; hence their incapacity to organize
wide-reaching, powerful federative government. They are
infinitely cunning, shrewd, selfish, intriguing; but they
are quite lacking in grasp, in vigor, in boldness." This
would seem to indicate inferior mental force, and rather
tends toward the view that these small groups are not
remnants of larger stocks which have been broken and

384 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
driven to the coast, but feeble organizations whose weakness
and minor importance have preserved them from destruc
tion. Nevertheless, the problem is insoluble with the data
at present known.
North of Mount Shasta, according to Powers, the lan
guages are conspicuously harsh, often guttural, and abound
ing in difficult consonantal combinations; while south of
this mountain they are largely vocalic, harmonious, and
musical. North of the mountain the permanent dwellings
are partially subterranean, but south of this line the sub
terranean feature is much less common, the wigwams being
built on the surface of the ground with only a hollow
scooped out sufficiently to bank out the rain in a storm.
"Among the Indians north of Mount Shasta," remarks
Mr. Powers, "a majority of the shamans or physicians are
women; but south they are almost wholly excluded from
the practice of medicine. Those tribes north of the line,
especially the Oregon Indians, are very fond of horses;
while the true Californian Indian does not seek to accu
mulate wealth in horses, but prefers shells, and makes all
his bargains in that medium and has little to do with the
noble brute until you go far enough south to find a touch
of Spanish blood in his veins."
There is considerable variety in the dwellings of the
California tribes. For example, there is the partly sub
terranean abode, the portion above the pit being built of
redwood puncheons. In the snow belt, both of the Coast
Range and the Sierra, the sharp conical form made with
poles or enormous slabs of bark prevails. In the Russian
River and other warm coast valleys, the large round or
oblong structure of willow poles covered with grass is
the principal form. About Clear Lake was a variety of
dwellings with four perpendicular walls made by planting
willow poles in the ground and lashing others to them,
the roof being flat, made of poles covered with thatch.
On the woodless plains of the Sacramento and San Joaquin
the round, dome-shaped, earth-covered lodge was the type

Plenty Horses. Type of Algonquian, Cheyenne. From a photo
graph made for this work by Professor De Lancey Gill, of the Bureau
of American Ethnology, Washington.

INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST 385
principally in use, and, in fact, was the most common type
of California. In the hot and dry Kern and Tulare Val
leys is to be found the dwelling made of such frail material
as tule.
As before stated, the history of the California Indians,
and, in fact, of the Indians of the northwest coast, presents
no remarkable episodes. Among the first notices we have
of them are those in the narrative of the voyage of Juan
Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542, who was followed a few years
later by Sir Francis Drake. But all we learn from the
statements of these early navigators are a few items in
regard to the customs and appearances of the Indians of the
sections they visited. Their history, so far as they can be
said to have any real history, begins with the first planting
of missions at San Diego, by Junipero Serra, in 1769. It
is true that more or less intercourse with the whites existed
many years before this; but the history of the Indians of
California is largely the history of the missions, where a
large number of them were gathered, and of their relations
with the so-called " gentiles," or outside Indians. But the
history of the missions is in part the history of Spanish rule,
hence we can only notice here, in brief and general terms,
the results so far as the Indians were concerned.
For a time the missions increased rapidly in numbers and
the conversions followed in quick succession, and many
neophytes were gathered into these homes. In 1830, there
were twenty-six missionaries in charge of twenty-one mis
sions, but a decrease in prosperity and numbers had already
begun. In 1833, the number of missionaries was still
twenty-six, but during the preceding decade the neophyte
' population had decreased from 18,000 to 15,000, only one
mission — San Luis Rey — showing a gain. As indicating the
tendency at this time to decrease, it may be added that
the cattle had decreased from 156,000 to 140,000; the
horses, from 16,600 to 12,000; and the sheep, from
150,000 to 130,000. The crops raised had decreased in
a still greater ratio. It was about this time [1834] that the

386 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
secularization of the missions began to be enforced ; that is,
they were, according to imperial order, changed into pueblos,
with allotments of the lands, or portions thereof, to the
neophytes. However, the work of the missions, notwithstanding the
bright promises of success with which the Franciscans met
at the outset, was doomed to failure. "Notwithstanding
the admirable character of some of the missionaries," writes
friendly Hittell, an enthusiastic Californian, "and the great
labors they performed; notwithstanding their earnest en
deavors and their unswerving belief that they were accom
plishing good; notwithstanding their building of mission
after mission and their infinite toils in what they conceived
to be harvests of immortal souls, nothing, or substantially
nothing, of all their labors remains. . . . Every great
work in the right path bears good fruit and leaves a benefi
cent impress upon the future. But the work of the mis
sionaries of California was not of this kind. It looked only
to the aggrandizement of a system and dominion that had
long outlived their usefulness. It did not contemplate or
in any proper sense regard the progress of true civilization.
It evolved no germs out of which were to spring higher
and better forms. It was barren and unprofitable."
Nor is it to be wondered at that all this mission work
among the Indians should come to naught, when we take
into consideration the cruel treatment of the neophytes by
many of the missionaries. They not only compelled them
to almost incessant labors, but often neglected to furnish
them with sufficient food to sustain them in a working
condition. For the most trivial offences they handcuffed,
imprisoned, and unmercifully beat them. When the poor,
deceived Indians learned that their former free life with all
its vicissitudes was preferable to such Christianizing as
this, and attempted to gain their freedom by flight, they
were hunted down as criminals and punished with tenfold
rigor. But ill treatment and stripes were not reserved for
the men alone ; women too were stripped and flogged, the

INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST

387

only difference being that the men were lashed publicly,
while the women were removed to an enclosure at such a
distance that their cries and screams could not be heard.
It is no wonder, therefore, that the deluded Indians by
hundreds sought relief from these oppressions by flight to
the " gentile " tribes. This testimony, it is proper to state, is
from members of the same faith as the missionaries whose
acts are condemned.
The general treatment of the Indians by the people of
California was calculated to keep up a constant state of fric
tion. In the early days, the slightest depredations by the
Indians were seized upon as excuses for attacking their
settlements, killing the males, and carrying off the children
to be distributed among the white families and reared as
servants, or, in truth, veritable slaves. Attacks upon the
missions by "gentile" tribes incited by escaped neophytes
were of frequent occurrence, sometimes resulting in driving
off the inhabitants and the destruction of their buildings.
Petty warfare between the whites and Indians continued at
intervals until the latter were gathered upon reservations by
the United States authorities.
Mr. Powers estimates the number of Indians in Cali
fornia, during their palmy days, at 700,000 ! This figure
is probably from six to ten times the correct number. The
Indian population given by the Report of Indian Affairs for
1902 is 15,158. It is probable the number of Indians in
California never reached 100,000, or even three-fourths of
that number.
The natives of Oregon are usually grouped, in part, with
those of California and, in part, with those further north.
However, this grouping is based on the generally observed
customs and physical characteristics, and not on strictly
ethnic or linguistic data, though, exclusive of certain intru
sive elements, agreeing in a broad sense with the ethnic rela
tions. Here, as in California, there is little Indian history
save that in regard to intertribal relations, of which there
are but meagre records, and the incidents of intercourse

388 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
with the whites, which were chiefly in the early days with
passing navigators and the agents of the Hudson's Bay
and Northwest Companies. The tribes (see Map C, and
Appendix II.), like those further south, were small and too
much absorbed in their local prejudices and petty broils to
unite in any great effort of resistance or aggression. No
great leader — as Philip, Pontiac, and Tecumseh, among the
tribes of the Atlantic side — appears to have arisen among
these northwest coast Indians.
Our information regarding these tribes begins with the
accounts given by the early European voyagers to this
region. Behring came down from the more northern re
gions in 1741. In 1774— 1775, the Spanish navigators Juan
Perez and La Bodega y Quadra, coming from the south,
explored the coast to the northward. In 1778, Captain
Cook, having with him Vancouver as his midshipman, made
his celebrated visit to this coast, perpetuating their names
by applying them to islands and waters. Soon thereafter,
vessels of mercantile companies began to explore the coast
in search of trade with the natives, as that under Captain
Meares in 1786, and that under Dixon in 1787. From 1788
to 1803, several American ships representing a Boston com
pany appeared on the coast. Some of the latter were unfortu
nate, as the " Boston," whose officers and men, amounting
to thirty-five persons, were murdered by the Indians at
Nootka. In 1 792-1 794, Captain Vancouver made his noted
reconnaissance of the coast. From 1804 to the purchase
of Alaska by the United States, the history of the coast
north of the United States is largely the history of the
Russian-American and the Hudson's Bay Companies.
The natives formerly dwelling about the lower parts of
Columbia River consisted of four tribes, including the
Chinooks and Clatsops belonging to the Chinookan family.
These tribes, which are reported to have been formerly
more populous and influential, were greatly thinned by
the smallpox, which spread havoc through this region for
several years. After having enjoyed a considerable respite

INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST

389

from the scourge and recruited their numbers to some
extent, they were again, in 1829, visited by a different but
equally fatal malady, which carried off many victims. These
Indians, though in a region where they could procure to a
limited extent the flesh of elks, deer, and waterfowl, relied
for subsistence almost entirely upon fish, chiefly salmon,
which were abundant in the river and neighboring inlets.
Physically, the people of these tribes were a rather
diminutive race. The earlier writers say that their legs
were generally crooked, their ankles thick, and their feet flat,
caused probably by passing so much of their time in child
hood squatting on the calves of their legs and on their heels
in the bottom of their canoes. In their early intercourse with
the whites they were scantily clad, the men being almost
or entirely naked in summer, but wearing in winter a small
robe made of skins of animals and reaching to the middle
of the thigh, sometimes adding a mantle made of matting
thrown over the shoulders. The women wore a similar
robe, which reached only to the waist, to which was appended
a kind of petticoat, reaching from the waist to the knee,
formed of the fibres of cedar bark, or a tissue of silk-grass,
twisted and knotted at the ends ; but in winter they added
a vest of skins. Both sexes allowed the hair, in which
they took great pride, to grow to a great length, sometimes
wearing it plaited, sometimes wound around the head in
fanciful tresses. They had conical hats, with narrow rims,
woven of bear-grass or the fibres of cedar bark, and exhibit
ing, in different colors, various designs relating chiefly to
aquatic life. They appear to have been somewhat warlike,
as they were well provided with offensive and defensive
arms. Some of these tribes of the lower Columbia followed
the custom of flattening the head during infancy, though
it is affirmed by some authorities that the Indians known as
" Flatheads " [Salish] did not follow this custom, their heads
being round and of the natural form.
The Indians formerly inhabiting the coast from Columbia
River northward to Cape Flattery, at the southern entrance

390

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

to Juan de Fuca Straits, belonged to the Clatsop tribe.
They disfigured themselves by running bone rings and other
ornaments through the lower division of the nose, and flat
tened their heads in the same manner as the Chinooks and
Indians of the lower Columbia, and exhibited the same
leading characteristics.
Several small tribes, or rather bands, probably belonging
to the Wakashan family, formerly resided in the vicinity
of Millbank Sound. These differed considerably from the
southern tribes, in the prominence of the cheek bones and
regularity of their features. However, they are described
as dirty from the quantity of oil used on their hair and ver
milion on their faces. These bands had several villages,
which were shifted according to the fishing season and
winter weather. Their winter villages, which were theii
more permanent ones, were composed of strongly built
houses; those of the chiefs being particularly well con
structed. The chiefs of this locality had the custom of
playing the part of a conjurer. In the winter the Indians
would assemble at the house of one of the chiefs for the
purpose of seeing him " imitate the different spirits." The
performance, if correctly described, appears to have been
about the same thing as a juggler's exhibition ; he used dif
ferent dresses and masks, and his preparations were made
behind a curtain stretched across a stage. These Indians
gave the agents and employes of the Hudson's Bay Com
pany stationed here much trouble, attacking the fort on
more than one occasion.
The Flatheads, or Salish Indians, who lived chiefly in the
region stretching south of the lower Columbia, adjoining
the country of the Chinooks, were described half a century
ago as comparatively fair in complexion, well made and
active, with oval faces and a mild and playful expression
of countenance ; generally honest in their dealings, brave in
battle, amenable to their chiefs, of whom Comcomly, who
died in 1 831, was the most noted; fond of cleanliness, and
less given to theft and falsehood than was usual among the

INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST 30^
Indians of this northwestern section. The head chiefship
of the tribe was hereditary; but the war chief was elected,
the selection being made, as usual, because of bravery,
renown, and judgment. The election was annual, and the
chief's authority was limited to the field operations and war
excursions. They seem to have been more than usually
accessible to Christian influence, although polygamy was
not only permitted, but was considered a mark of distinc
tion. Residing more toward the interior than the others
mentioned in this chapter, this tribe is not properly included
among the northwest coast Indians.
The Walla Wallas, of the Shahaptian family, appear to
have been generally friendly to the whites so long as they
were left in peaceable possession of their lands, and tried to
imitate them in raising stock and cultivating the soil. But
the rapid increase of the settlers had, by 1848, rendered the
Indians of Oregon uneasy in regard to their lands, and
they were further irritated by the failure of the United
States government to pay them for the lands they had parted
with, and for which official promise had been made.
The Klikitats, also of the Shahaptian family, were trouble
some through minor depredations committed on the settle
ments in Willamette Valley in 1849— 1850.
Hall J. Kelly (Geographical Sketch of Oregon, 1830) con
tends that the Indians on the north side of De Fuca Straits
were in the past, to some extent, cannibals. He says they were
in the habit of killing and eating a part of those whom the
fortune of war put into their hands, whom they held as
slaves. " One of these unhappy victims was sacrificed
every moon, or as often as the occurrence of their festival
days, in the following manner. A part, or the whole, of
the slaves are collected at the sovereign chief's house, where
they are compelled to join in the music and the dance. The
inferior chiefs sing the war song, dance round the fire,
throwing oil into it to make larger the flame. In the midst
of this hellish mirth, the principal chief, dressed and painted
in savage costume, and in the appearance of a ghostly demon,

392

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

enters blindfolded; in this state he pursues the unhappy
wretches, whose struggles and shrieks to escape his fearful
hold create an awful moment of confusion, and thrill with
horror the heart of stone; the fatal grasp is made ; the knife
is plunged into the heart and the infernal shout announces
the silence of the devoted victim ; it is immediately cut into
pieces ; a reeking parcel is given to each of the guests, who,
like dogs, seize the quivering flesh, and while they devour
it, the blood runs from the mouth warm as in the current
of life." Some indications of this have been observed in
some of the ceremonies of the secret societies, though the
custom, through the influence of the Hudson's Bay Com
pany, had been abandoned at the time Mr. Kelly wrote the
preceding statement.
This company, it is said, found these northern tribes
more troublesome and dangerous than any others encoun
tered by them throughout the northwestern coast. In the
first place, they were by nature fierce and independent ; and
secondly, their warlike mood had by no means been quieted
by intercourse with the Europeans. Brute force had been
the policy of the Russians, who ventured at an early day
thus far southward, many of whom were hardly more Chris
tian and humane than the savages. Nor was their inter
course with the English and American traders, until more
recent times, calculated to gain their friendship.
Alexander Ross (Adventures on Oregon and Columbia River)
mentions meeting a large body of Indians, composed of
Walla Wallas, Shahaptians, and Cayuses, in 1811, at the
point where the Walla Walla enters the Columbia. These
more interior Indians are thus described by him:
The men were generally tall, raw-boned, and well dressed ; having
all buffalo-robes, deer-skin leggings, very white, and most of them
garnished with porcupine quills. Their shoes were also trimmed and
painted red ; — altogether, their appearance indicated wealth. Their
voices were strong and masculine, and their language differed from any
we had heard before. The women wore garments of well-dressed deer
skin down to their heels ; many of them richly garnished with beads,
higuas, and other trinkets — leggings and shoes similar to those of the

INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST

393

men. Their faces were painted red. On the whole, they differed
widely in appearance from the piscatory tribes we had seen along the
river. . . . The plains were literally covered with horses, of which
there could not have been less than four thousand in sight of the camp.
Attention has been called to this statement of a reliable
authority, well acquainted with these Indians, because of the
unusual elegance of their equipment, compared with that of
the Shoshones and Paiutes described in a preceding chapter.
By the middle of the year 1855 all the lands between
Columbia River and the summit of Calapooya Mountain,
and between the Coast and Cascade Ranges, had been pur
chased by the United States, the Indians agreeing to remove
to such localities as should be selected for them. These
peaceable transactions appear to have been speedily followed
by trouble between the Oregon settlers and the Indians.
It was in 1855— 1856 that the Rogue River war occurred;
the Shastas, Umpquas, Klamaths, and others were engaged
in this outbreak. The work of plundering, applying the
torch, and massacre went on from day to day, the gathering
and equipping of troops for the field being slow, and the
hastily called volunteers being unable to keep pace with
the wily savages. But the end was the usual one; the
Indians were finally hunted down and brought to bay, and
those remaining were gathered on reservations.
It is somewhat strange that the three northern groups,
the Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida, have been studied with
more care by philologists and ethnologists than the tribes
of Oregon and California. This has been due no doubt
to two facts; first, that the northern tribes had been less
affected by intercourse with the whites than those of the
more southern sections; and secondly, because the posi
tion of these northern tribes, linguistically, ethnically, and
geographically, rendered them important in the study of
North American ethnology, and hence they have attracted
the notice of scientists.
With a country thickly wooded with pine, fir, spruce,
and hemlock, the forest stocked with game, and the waters

394

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

teeming with the finny tribes, there could be no reason, so
far as the food supply is concerned, that the inhabitants
should become migratory or nomadic in their habits, like
those of the plains and barrens ; and hence, as we would have
judged, they are sedentary and have fixed abodes, changing
only from their winter Or permanent villages to their sum
mer camps. Although, as will be seen, their customs are
somewhat alike, and there is considerable uniformity in
their physical character, yet there are apparent ethnic
variations as we go northward; nevertheless, they differ, as
a group, quite materially from the hunting Indians of the
interior, and still more decidedly from the Eskimo who
adjoin them on the north. Although the Indians from
Columbia River to Mount St. Elias have to a certain degree
ethnic affiliations one with another, the linguistic variations
are very marked, the languages belonging, according to the
classification of the Bureau of Ethnology, to three distinct
stocks, — the Kolushan [Tlingit] , Chimmesyan [Tsim
shian], and the Skittagetan [Haida].
Physically, the Indians of these groups are unquestion
ably superior to the coast tribes further south, the supe
riority in this respect among themselves resting with the
Haidas. Langsdorf, who visited this region in 1805, says
of the Tlingits : " They have in general large fiery eyes ; a
small, flat, broad nose, and large cheek bones ; indeed in all
respects, large and strongly marked features." According to
more recent study, the Indians of these groups are described
in general as having thick, stiff, coarse, straight black hair,
worn short by the men, excepting the shamans, or doctors,
and long by the women. The eyes are generally black or
brown, though gray eyes are sometimes seen. The hands and
feet are small and well shaped, especially among the women.
In complexion both sexes are remarkably light colored, and
this is in no way due to intermixture with the whites.
"In contrast with the fierce, revengeful Tinne," says
Lieutenant Niblack, whose description applies to Indians
of the southern sections of Alaska and differs slightly from

INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST 395
that of Langsdorf, " they are generally mild in disposition.
In physical characteristics they are shorter, the cheek bones
are less prominent, the nose is straighter, and the face round
and fuller."
The assurance of an ample food supply with moderate
exertion has allowed them more than the usual opportunity
obtained by the natives to follow up their tastes and develop
in active form their conceptions. Here this seems to have
been expressed to a large degree along the art lines. The
Haidas and Tlingits appear to have a decided taste for
carving and ornamentation. Ornamentation penetrates to
every spot accessible to it. It is found on almost every
article, from the house and totem post to the oar and fish
hook. By the wretched light of their oil lamps, the Tlingit
women stitch elegant moccasins with sinews, manufacture
durable nets from string, weave baskets and plait hats from
straw or the root fibres of the cedar, and mats from its
bast. The Haida women likewise show their skill in the
articles they weave. But this is exceeded by the skill with
which the men execute fantastically adorned carving in
wood and stone, and ornament dwellings, canoes, and many
other things, even to their own bodies, with equally fantastic
figures in color. The robes of state worn by their chiefs
on certain occasions are literally covered with these weird
figures. And what seems rather strange is that a number
of the designs shown in this region are found repeated
in Mexico and Central America, a resemblance to which
attention has been frequently called, and which is too ap
parent to be overlooked. How are these to be accounted
for? While it might be hazardous to claim, as Swan does,
that the northern group was of Aztec origin, or, as others,
that they were of Japanese stock, yet it is most unsatisfac
tory to those who have studied the subject to dismiss it with
the assertion that the similarities are accidental. Nor can
it be wholly accidental that many of these designs resemble,
even to details, some of those of the Pacific islands. The
explanation has not as yet been satisfactorily given.

396 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
"On the northwest coast,", remarks a recent writer,
"totemism permeates the whole tribal organization. The
ceremonies at birth, initiation, naming, matrimony, feasting,
dancing, funerals, and all other social occasions, all have
for their object, in some way, the identification of the in
dividual with his totem under its specific name. A totem
is simply an organization of consanguineal kindred into a
recognized group or band." Among the Tlingit, Haida,
and Tsimshian tribes, the organization is based on mother
right. Among the southern tribes of British Columbia,
father right is the form of social organization.
Chiefship among these tribes is a title backed only by
a shadowy authority. The family is here the social unit.
The head of that household in the village which through
inheritance, wealth, numbers, and influence predominates
over the others is nominally chief of the village ; his power,
however, aside from influence through wealth, birth, and
family, is largely due to his prowess in war or to personal
and masterful qualities. Now and then a chief may rule a
village with despotic sway, but the power is not so much
due to the headship in itself as to the personal qualities of
the individual.
The permanent villages of the Haidas were formerly,
especially when they were at war with other tribes, built in
strong natural positions, sometimes on rocks detached from
the mainland, but connected by a bridge or by artificial
passageways. The villages discovered by Vancouver on
Kupreanoff Island were all situated on the summit of a
precipice or steep insular rock, rendered by nature almost
inaccessible. These, in addition to their natural advantages,
were strongly fortified with a platform of wood laid on the
most elevated part of the rock, and projecting so far at its
sides as to overhang the declivity. The edge of the plat
form was barricaded with logs of wood placed one upon
another. It is probable that these were chiefly intended as
places of retreat or refuge for the women, children, and aged
persons when the men were fishing or absent for some -other

INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST 397
purpose. The town houses were built of logs or puncheons,
and were of sufficient size to accommodate a number of
families. Poole mentions a house on Queen Charlotte
Island fifty feet square, with ten feet of its height dug in
the ground, which accommodated seven hundred persons —
probably a somewhat exaggerated number. One feature
mentioned by Vancouver was the raised houses; these were
on platforms supported by posts. Some of these raised
buildings, now no longer used, were twenty-five or thirty
feet from the ground, solidly and neatly constructed, an
inclined log with notches serving as a ladder. These ele
vated houses, however, were observed only among the people
immediately south of the Haidas.
The defensive structures here described afford almost the
only indications of the past history of this tribe that remain
to us. They make it apparent that these natives were in a
state of constant warfare with fierce enemies who made
their approaches suddenly by water. Were these bitter
foes the Eskimo whose habitat in former times extended
further south than in recent years ? At any rate, they were
most likely northerners.
Formerly it was the custom of most of the tribes of this
northern section to cremate the dead. However, of later
years there has been a change in this respect, and the
methods of sepulture vary in different localities. Dixon,
who visited this coast in 1787, describes a former mortuary
custom as follows:
The manner in which they dispose of their dead is very remarkable.
They separate the head from the body and wrapping them in furs, the
head is put into a square box ; the body in a kind of oblong chest. At
each end of the chest which contains the body a thick pole, about 10
feet long, is drove into the earth in a slanting position, so that the upper
ends meet together, and are firmly lashed with a kind of rope prepared
for this purpose. About 2 feet from the top of this arch a small piece
of timber goes across, and is very neatly fitted to each pole ; on this
piece of timber the box which contains the head is fixed, and very
sUongly secured with rope ; the box is frequently decorated with two
or three rows of small shells, and sometimes teeth, which are let into

398 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
the wood with great neatness and ingenuity ; and, as an additional
ornament, is painted with a variety of colors, but the poles are uniformly
painted white. Sometimes these poles are fixed upright in the earth and
on each side of the body, but the head is always secured in the position
described. Niblack, in his work already quoted from (Coast Indians
of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia), speaks as
follows in regard to their history : " European civilization
has borne with crushing force on the Indians of the North
west coast. Demoralized and staggered by contact with the
whites, the remnant of the former population is just begin
ning to rally from the blow. Nothing places the Northern
tribes higher in the scale of intelligence than the philosophy
with which they are adapting themselves to their changed
environment, retaining their advantageous native customs,
and accepting from us only what contributes to their com
fort and welfare. The greatest curse to them has been
alcohol." The Indians of the northwest coast, when we consider
their customs, totems, symbols, and figures, as also their
physical characteristics, are of great interest to ethnologists.
So important are they considered in this respect that an ex
pedition of a number of ethnologists and linguists has been
sent to this region to make a careful study of their lan
guages, customs, etc. ; and at the time of this writing are
still engaged in this work.

CHAPTER XIX
THE INDIAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES
In treating of the policy of the United States government
in its dealings with the Indians, it is necessary to draw
distinctly the line between the policy and the method of
carrying out that policy — in other words, between policy
and treatment. The former may be just, equitable, and
humane, while the method of carrying it into effect may be
unjust, oppressive, and dishonest. Attention has been called
in a previous chapter to the wide difference between the
ordinances of the King of Spain and their administration by
the officers appointed for this purpose. And if the state
ments of the officials and non-officials be true, the agents
appointed by the United States authorities to carry into
effect agreements made with Indians have more than once
abused their trust and shamefully defrauded the red men.
The government's policy, to which attention is called here,
must therefore be distinguished from the treatment of the
Indians by the government's agents. That the government
is responsible for the acts of its agents is conceded; but the
policy and treatment, though the government be chargeable
with both, are two different subjects, which must be treated
separately. In all the claims by and contests between the European
nations regarding their rights in the New World, the Indian
title to the soil is nowhere allowed to intervene, it being
conceded by these powers that the nation making the dis
covery had complete dominion over the territory, and the
399

^.00 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
sole right of dealing with the natives regarding their claims
to the soil, and of establishing settlements on it. This was
understood to be a right with which no other European
government could interfere ; it was a right which each gov
ernment asserted for itself and to which all others assented.
This theory and policy were, as is apparent, based upon
the assumption of dominion without any consideration
of the natives. It is on this right and claim — passed
from Great Britain to the United States by the Treaty of
Paris in 1783; from France by treaty of 1803; from Spain
by treaty of 18 19; from Mexico by treaty of 1848 and
purchase of 1853; an(* fr°m Russia by cession of 1867 —
that the United States government bases its claim to
dominion over the territory within its bounds; and this
claim, like that of the European powers, is maintained
regardless of any title in the aboriginal population.
The Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of
Johnson and Graham's lessee vs. Mcintosh (8 Wheaton
343, et seq.), remarks as follows on this point: "Thus all
the nations of Europe, who have acquired territory on this
continent, have asserted in themselves and have recognized
in others, the exclusive right of the discoverer to appropriate
the lands occupied by the Indians. Have the American
States rejected or adopted this principle? By the treaty
which concluded the war of our Revolution, Great Britain
relinquished all claim not only to the government, but to
the 'property and territorial rights of the United States,'
whose boundaries were fixed in the second article. By this
treaty the powers of government, and the right to the soil,
which had previously been in Great Britain passed defini
tively to these states. We had before taken possession of
them by declaring independence ; but neither the declaration
of independence, nor the treaty confirming it, could give us
more than that which we before possessed, or to which
Great Britain was before entitled. It has never been
doubted that either the United States, or the several states,
had a clear title to all the lands within the boundary lines

Types of Yuman Cocopa. From photographs by Professor De Lancey Gill, ofthe Bureau of American
Ethnology, Washington.

INDIAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 401
described in the treaty, subject only to the Indian right of
occupancy, and that the exclusive power to extinguish that
right was vested in that government which might con
stitutionally exercise it. The United States, then, have un
equivocally acceded to that great and broad rule by which
their civilized inhabitants now hold this country. They hold
and assert in themselves the title by which it was acquired.
They maintain, as all others have maintained, that discovery
gave an exclusive right to extinguish the Indian title of
occupancy, either by purchase or by conquest; and gave
also a right to such a degree of sovereignty as the circum
stances of the people would allow them to exercise.
"The power now possessed by the government of the
United States to grant lands resided, while we were colonies,
in the crown or its grantees. The validity of the titles given
by either has never been questioned in our courts. It has
been exercised uniformly over territory in possession of the
Indians. The existence of this power must negative the ex
istence of any right which may conflict with and control
it. An absolute title to lands cannot exist, at the same
time, in different persons, or in different governments."
It follows, therefore, that the absolute title is in the
government, otherwise it must be in the Indians, which
cannot be admitted and is inconsistent with the sovereignty
of the United States. As the land question was the chief
one in the relations of the government with its Indian
population, so it has been the prominent one in the govern
ment's Indian policy, as twenty-four of every twenty-five
treaties made relate thereto. The power of the government
in this respect was limited, to some extent, by the right of
the original states, under the Constitution, to treat with the
Indians within their own jurisdiction.
The first step in determining the policy to be pursued,
whether expressed or only implied, was to decide as to the
nature or character of the Indian right. What this decision
was is distinctly stated by the Supreme Court in the case
above cited, as follows : " It has never been contended that

402

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

the Indian title amounted to nothing. Their right of
possession has never been questioned. The claim of gov
ernment extends to the complete ultimate title, charged
with the right of possession, and to the exclusive power
of acquiring that right." The decision in this case is, of
course, conclusive in regard to the nature of the Indian
title to lands as held by our government. However, this
policy had been outlined by previous Congressional action.
As early as September 22, 1783, while yet acting under
the Articles of Confederation, the following order was
passed by Congress :
Whereas by the 9th of" the Articles of Confederation, it is among
other things declared, that " the United States in Congress assembled
have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the trade,
and managing all affairs with the Indians not members of any of the
States, provided that the legislative right of any State, within its own
limits, be not infringed or violated." And whereas it is essential to
the welfare of the United States, as well as necessary for the mainten
ance of harmony and friendship with the Indians, not members of any
of the States, that all cause of quarrel or complaint between them and
the United States or any of them, should be removed and prevented ;
therefore, the United States in Congress assembled, have thought proper
to issue their proclamation, and they do hereby prohibit and forbid all
persons from making settlements on lands inhabited or claimed by
Indians, without the limits or jurisdiction of any particular State, and
from purchasing or receiving any gift or cession of such lands or claims
without the express authority and direction of the United States in
Congress assembled.
It is also further declared that every such purchase or
settlement, gift, or cession, not having said authority, is
null and void, and that no right or title will accrue from
such purchase, gift, or settlement.
By the eighth section of the act of Congress of March I,
1793, entitled "An act to regulate trade and intercourse
with the Indian tribes," the same principle is enacted into
law, as follows:
And be it further enacted, That no purchase or grant of lands, or
of any title or claim thereto, from any Indians, or nation or tribe of
Indians, within the bounds of the United States, shall be of any

INDIAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 403
validity, in law or equity, unless the same be .made by a treaty or con
vention entered into pursuant to the constitution. And it shall be
a misdemeanor in any person, not employed under the authority of
the United States in negotiating such treaty or convention, punishable
by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not
exceeding twelve months, directly or indirectly to treat with any such
Indians, nation or tribe of Indians, for the title or purchase of any
lands by them held or claimed : Provided, nevertheless, That it shall
be lawful for the agent or agents of any State, who may be present at
any treaty held with the Indians, under the authority of the United
States, in the presence, and with the approbation of, the Commissioner
or Commissioners of the United States appointed to hold the same, to
propose to, and adjust with, the Indians, the compensation to be made
for their claims to lands within such State, which shall be extinguished
by the treaty.
This is repeated in substance in Section 12 of the act
of May 9, 1796, entitled "An act to regulate trade and
intercourse with the Indian Tribes, and to preserve peace
on the frontier"; and also in Section 12 of the act of
March 30, 1802.
It appears, therefore, that the Articles of Confedera
tion expressly gave to Congress the "sole and exclusive
right and power of regulating the trade, and managing all
affairs with the Indians, not members of any of the States,
provided that the legislative right of any State within its
own limits be not infringed or violated." The rights of
the states intervening in this respect had the effect, espe^
cially where tribes lay across the border, to complicate the
problem and hamper to some extent the national policy.
In the formation of the Constitution, the power of Congress
in this respect is briefly expressed as follows : " To regulate
commerce with foreign nations, and among the several
States, and with the Indian tribes." It is apparent from
the use of the word " tribes " that the framers of the Con
stitution had in contemplation the method of dealing with
the Indians as tribes through treaties, which method was in
fact followed for many years. This is clearly shown by
the act of March 1, 1793, quoted above, where it is stated
that no purchase or grant of lands, etc., shall be of any

404

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

validity in law or equity " unless the same be made by a treaty
or convention entered into pursuant to the constitution''
By Section 15 of the act of March 26, 1804, "erecting
Louisiana into two territories, and providing the temporary
government thereof," it is provided that:
The President of the United States is hereby authorized to stipulate
with any Indian tribes owning lands on the East side of the Mississippi,
and residing thereon, for an exchange of lands the property of the
United States, on the West side of the Mississippi, in case the said
tribe shall remove and settle thereon ; but, in such stipulation, the
said tribes shall acknowledge themselves to be under the protection of
the United States, and shall agree that they will not hold any treaty
with any foreign Power, individual State, or with the individuals of
any State or Power ; and that they will not sell or dispose of the said
lands, or any part thereof, to any sovereign Power, except the United
States, nor to the subjects or citizens of any other sovereign Power,
nor to the citizens of the United States. And in order to maintain
peace and tranquillity with the Indian tribes who reside within the
limits of Louisiana, as ceded by France to the United States, the act
of Congress, passed on the thirtieth day of March, one thousand eight
hundred and two, entitled " An act to regulate trade and intercourse
with the Indian tribes, and to preserve peace on the frontiers," is hereby
extended to the territories erected and established by this act ; and the
sum of fifteen thousand dollars, of any money in the Treasury, not
otherwise appropriated by law, is hereby appropriated, to enable the
President of the United States to effect the object expressed in this
section. Here is broached the plan subsequently carried out of
pushing the Indians beyond the Mississippi in order to make
room for the wave of migration that was rolling westward
from the Atlantic coast settlements.
By Article 6 of the treaty of April 30, 1803, by which
France ceded Louisiana to the United States, the latter
promised " to execute such treaties and articles as may have
been agreed between Spain and the tribes and nations of
Indians, until by mutual consent of the United States and
the said tribes or nations, other suitable articles shall have
been agreed upon."
It is clear, therefore, from these legal expressions that
the United States has always conceded to the Indians the

INDIAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES

405

usufruct, or right of occupancy, of such lands as they were
in possession of; yet the United States claimed the ultimate
right to the soil and the exclusive right of treating with the
Indians for the relinquishment of their claims. Though
all the nations admitted some kind of possessory right in
the Indians, the limitations were not the same. Some, as
Spain, limited it to the lands actually occupied or in use ;
while the United States usually allowed it to extend to the
land claimed, where the boundaries between the different
tribes were understood and agreed upon. In fact, this gov
ernment seems to have proceeded upon the theory that all
the land was held by the natives, in the sense given, and
should be purchased from them.
The right of occupancy by the Indians, until voluntarily
relinquished, or extinguished by agreement, or by justi
fiable conquest, being conceded, the next step in forming
a policy was to determine the method of extinguishing
their actual right to such territory as was not necessary
for their actual use.
As their claims were those of tribes or communities, and
not of individuals in severalty, it was necessary that the
government, in treating with them for their rights, should
treat with the respective bodies or tribes. The policy of
the government in this respect was, as already stated, out
lined at as early a date as the formation of the Articles of
Confederation. The colonies and also the mother country
had treated with the Indians as "nations," their chiefs
or sachems often being designated as "kings," and this
idea being retained by the founders of our government was
ingrafted into their policy. By the Articles of Confedera
tion, as heretofore noticed, the " United States in Congress
assembled" had the sole and exclusive right of treating
with the Indians; but under the Constitution, though the
theory and policy adopted have been maintained, there has
been a change as to the authority which may act. The
clause of the Articles of Confederation was not inserted
in the Constitution, either in words or in substance. As

406 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
power to regulate commerce with the Indians is the only
specific mention therein of relations with the natives, the
authority to act must be found in this clause, in that
relating to making treaties, and in the general powers
granted to Congress and the Executive. That our early
lawmakers believed the extinguishment of the Indian titles
should be through the treaty-making power and by means
of treaties is apparent from the act of March i, 1793,
quoted above.
It is stated in this that "no purchase or grant," etc.,
shall be of any validity "unless the same be made by a
treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the Constitu
tion." This power was by the Constitution placed in the
hands of the President, subject to the "advice and con
sent of the Senate," a vote of two-thirds being required.
Treaties imply that the parties executing them are nation
alities, and this implication held good when our govern
ment entered into treaties with the Indian tribes. Now it
appears from the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs for 1890 that:
From the execution of the first treaty made between the United
States and the Indian tribes residing within its limits (September 17,
1778, with the Delawares) to the adoption ofthe act of March 3, 1871,
that " no Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States
shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe, or
power with whom the United States may contract by treaty," the United
States has pursued a uniform course of extinguishing the Indian title
only with the consent of those tribes which were recognized as having
claim to the soil by reason of occupancy, such consent being expressed
in treaties. . . . Except only in the case of the Sioux Indians in
Minnesota, after the outbreak of 1862, the Government has never ex
tinguished an Indian title as by right of conquest ; and in this case
the Indians were provided with another reservation, and subsequently
were paid the net proceeds arising from the sale of the land vacated.
It is seen from this that until March 3, 1871, Indian
titles to land were extinguished only under the treaty-making
clause of the Constitution, and these treaties, though the
tribe may have been reduced to a small band, were usually

INDIAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES

407

clothed in the same stately verbiage as a treaty with a great
European nation, as the following:
Whereas a treaty between the United States of America and the
mimgoes, chiefs, captains and warriors, of the Choctaw nation, was
entered into at Dancing Rabbit creek, on the twenty-seventh day of
September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
thirty, and of the independence of the United States the fifty-fifth, by
John H. Eaton and John Coffee, commissioners on the part of the United
States, and the chiefs, captains and head-men of the Choctaw nation on
the part of said nation ; which treaty, together with the supplemental
article thereto, is in the words following, to wit :
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Andrew Jackson, President of
the United States of America, having seen and considered said treaty,
do, in pursuance of the advice and consent of the Senate, as expressed
by their resolution of the twenty-first day of February, one thousand
eight hundred and thirty-one, accept, ratify, and confirm the same, and
every clause and article thereof, with the exception of the preamble.
In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States to
be hereunto affixed, having signed the same with my hand.
Done at the City of Washington, this twenty-fourth day of February,
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, and
of the independence of the United States the fifty-fifth.
[l. s.] Andrew Jackson.
By the President :
M. Van Buren, Secretary of State.
By the act of March 3, 1 871, the anomaly of dealing
with the native tribes — while under the dominion, and con
sidered wards of the United States — as independent nations,
which method had continued for nearly a hundred years,
was finally discontinued. The effect of this act was to
bring under the immediate control of Congress, as specified
in Article I., Section 8, Clause 3, of the Constitution, the
transactions with the Indians and reduce to simple agree
ments what had before been accomplished by solemn treaties.
The plan of forming Indian reservations was adopted
from the necessity of bringing the tribes more easily under
control of the government, and confining them to defined
limits in order to avoid disputes in regard to bounds. This

408 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
policy has been followed in Canada under both French and
English rule, and was inaugurated by the United States gov
ernment as early as 1786, and has continued to be its policy
to the present day. The earliest reservations were chiefly
formed as the result of cessions of land by the tribes, thus
restricting their limits, but expressly stating in the treaties,
where reference was made to the bounds, that the portion
so limited was "allotted to" or "reserved for" the given
Indians. However, as time proceeded, the method of
establishing reservations was varied, as will be seen from
the following summary of the one hundred and sixty-three
existing in 1890 :
By Executive order, 56; by Executive order under au
thority of Congress, 6 ; by act of Congress, 29 ; by treaty,
with boundaries defined or enlarged by Executive order, 15;
by treaty, or agreement and act of Congress, 5 ; by unratified
treaty, I; by treaty or agreement, 51.
It will be seen by the preceding summary that the method
of establishing reservations has not been uniform, some
being by treaty, some by Executive order, and others by
act of Congress. Those, however, established by Execu
tive order, independent of an act of Congress, were not held
to be permanent before the "general allotment act" of
1887, by which the tenure has been materially changed
and all reservations, whether by Executive order, act of
Congress, or treaty, are held to be permanent. Neverthe
less, the United States claims the ultimate title, and will
recognize no sale thereof except to the government or in
accordance with an act of Congress.
(A list of the reservations in 1902, with the several areas,
is given in Appendix III.)
Allotments of land in severalty could only be made,
previous to the act of February 8, 1887, by treaty or by
virtue of an act of Congress, but by this act general au
thority is given to the President for this purpose. Leases
of land, sale of standing timber, granting of mining privi
leges, and right of way to railroads, are all prohibited to

INDIAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 409
the Indians without some enabling act of Congress. On the
other hand, it is obligatory upon the government to prevent
any intrusion, trespass, or settlement on the lands of any
nation or tribe of Indians, except where the tribe or nation
has given consent by agreement or treaty.
The titles held by Indians which have been recognized
by the government appear to be the following : the original
right of occupancy ; the title to their reservations ; the latter
differs, in most cases, from the original title in the fact that
it is derived from the United States. There have been
some titles, and a few still exist, which are deemed by the
Indian Bureau exceptions to this rule. These are where a
tribe in ceding title to land it has held by original occupancy
reserves from the cession a specified and defined portion
thereof; such portion is held under the original right of
occupancy, with the consent of the government. A third
kind of title is that where reservations have been patented
by the government to the Indian tribes. As examples of
this class of titles, the patents to the Cherokee, Choctaw,
and Creek nations may be cited, for the tracts respectively
defined by the treaty stipulations:
December 31, 1838, to the Cherokee Nation, forever, upon condi
tions, one of which is " that the lands hereby granted shall revert to
the United States if the said Cherokees become extinct or abandon the
same. ' '
March 23, 1842, to the Choctaw Nation, in fee simple to them and
their descendants "to inure to them while they shall exist as a nation
and live on it, liable to no transfer or alienation, except to the United
States with their consent."
August 11, 1852, to the Muscogee or Creek tribe of Indians "so
long as they shall exist as a nation and continue to occupy the country
hereby conveyed to them."
The construction given to these titles by the Indian
Bureau and the courts is that they are not absolute titles
in fee simple with power of complete alienation except
to the United States, nor the same as the ordinary title
by occupancy, but "a base, qualified or determinable fee,

410 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
with only a possibility of reversion to the United States,
and the authorities of these nations may cut, sell, and dis
pose of their timber, and may permit mining and grazing
within the limits of their respective tracts by their own
citizens." However, the act of March i, 1889, establishing a United
States court in Indian Territory, repeals all laws having
the effect to prevent the five civilized tribes in said terri
tory [Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Semi
nole] from entering into leases or contracts with others
than their own citizens for mining coal for a period not
exceeding ten years.
Lands allotted and patented were held by a tenure of a
somewhat higher grade than the titles mentioned; never
theless, their exact nature in this respect does not appear to
have been clearly defined, though it seems that the orders
for allotment usually, if not always, contained a probationary
clause ; that is, a clause stating that if after a trial of fifteen
or twenty years the Indians so receiving allotments should
prove themselves worthy they should receive individually
titles in full and complete fee simple, becoming at the same
time citizens.
Section 6 of the Allotment Act of 1887 provides as
follows :
That upon the completion of said allotments and the patenting of
the lands to said allottees, such and every member of the respective
bands or tribes of Indians to whom allotments have been made shall
have the benefit of and be subject to the laws, both civil and criminal,
of the State or Territory in which they may reside ; and no Teiritoiy
shall pass or enforce any law denying any such Indian within its juris
diction the equal protection of the law. And every Indian born
within the territorial limits of the United States to whom allotments
shall have been made under the provision of this act, or under any law
or treaty, and every Indian born within the territorial limits of the
United States who has voluntarily taken up within said limits his resi
dence separate from any tribe of Indians therein, and has adopted the
habits of civilized life, is hereby declared to be a citizen of the United
States, and is entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities
of such citizens, whether said Indian has been or not, by birth or

INDIAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 4n
otherwise, a member of any tribe of Indians within the territorial limits
of the United States, without in any manner impairing or otherwise
affecting the right of any such Indian to tribal or other property.
It is apparent, therefore, that the general policy adopted
by the United States government in its treatment of its
Indian wards was in the main a just and humane one, if
the basis on which the entire fabric rests can be considered
just. A doubt has been expressed as to whether the United
States or any European power could with perfect honesty
and integrity take, purchase, or obtain in any way the lands
of the natives. The correct theory on this subject is so
clearly set forth by John Quincy Adams in his oration at
the anniversary of the Sons of Pilgrims, December 22, 1802,
that we quote it here as a complete reply to the above
inquiry :
There are moralists who have questioned the right of Europeans to
intrude upon the possessions of the aborigines in any case and under
any limitations whatsoever. But have they maturely considered the
whole subject? The Indian right of possession itself stands, with
regard to the greatest part of the country, upon a questionable founda
tion. Their cultivated fields, their constructed habitations, a space of
ample sufficiency for their subsistence, and whatever they had annexed
to themselves by personal labor, were undoubtedly by the laws of nature
theirs. But what is the right of a huntsman to the forest of a thousand
miles over which he has accidentally ranged in quest of prey ? Shall the
liberal bounties of Providence to the race of man be monopolized by
one of ten thousand for whom they were created ? Shall the exuberant
bosom of the common mother, amply adequate to the nourishment of
millions, be claimed exclusively by a few hundreds of her offspring?
Shall the lordly savage not only disdain the virtues and enjoyments of
civilization himself, but shall he control the civilization of a whole world ?
Shall he forbid the wilderness to blossom like the rose ? Shall he forbid
the oaks of the forest to fall before the ax of industry and rise again
transformed into the habitations of ease and elegance ? Shall he doom
an immense region of the globe to perpetual desolation, and to hear the
howlings of the tiger and the wolf silence forever the voice of human
gladness ? Shall the fields and the valleys which a beneficent God has
framed to teem with the life of innumerable multitudes be condemned to
everlasting barrenness ? Shall the mighty rivers, poured out by the hands
of nature as channels of communication between numerous nations,
roll their waters in sullen silence and eternal solitude to the deep ? Have

412 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
hundreds of commodious harbors, a thousand leagues of coast, and a
boundless ocean been spread in the front of this land, and shall every
purpose of utility to which they could apply be prohibited by the
tenant of the woods ? No, generous philanthropists ! Heaven has not
been thus inconsistent in the works of its hands. Heaven has not thus
placed at irreconcilable strife its moral laws with its physical creation.
Civilization, which can increase ten, yea, a hundred fold
the sustaining capacity of the soil, has the moral right,
though it may often prove as harsh as the surgeon's knife,
to allot the earth in proportion to the population ; that is, to
limit the savage hunter to the bounds necessary to his
existence with labor and proper cultivation.
That the treatment of the Indians by the United States
government, by its agents and by the people, has not always
corresponded with the avowed policy is true; and it is to
be regretted that truth compels the admission that it has in
numerous instances, as shown in the preceding history, been
unjust and in some cases even cruel. But those who are
disposed to magnify these charges and cry out : " A century
of Shame " forget to make allowance for the severe struggle
of the infant colonies to maintain their existence, or to take
into consideration what the government has done for its
"Indian wards" by way of reparation.
By reference to the Report of the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs for the year 190 1 we learn something of the prac
tical measures of the government to compensate the Indians
for the lands they have ceded; and also of the efforts to
prepare them for civilized citizenship.
It appears from this report that the trust funds in the
United States Treasury to the credit of the various tribes —
which funds draw four and five per cent interest — amount
to $355°36,037, the annual interest arising therefrom being
$1,721,913. In addition to this there was appropriated for
their use and the expenses incident thereto for the given
year the sum of $9,736,186, including $3,244,250, or $140
per scholar, for the support of Indian schools. The income
of some of the tribes is sufficient to support them without

INDIAN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES 4I3
labor on their part; as in the case of the Osages. The
Indians of this tribe, amounting to 1,788 persons, of whom
558 [in 1901] were children, possess a fund of $8,311,070
in the hands of the government, drawing yearly $415,553
interest. In addition to this, their income from pasturage
leases amounted in 1901 to $138,296. The annual income
per capita was therefore about $310, or over $1,000 per
family. These facts and others which might be adduced in regard
to the efforts of the government to uplift the native popula
tion within its boundaries should be placed in the balance
in judging of the treatment of the Indians by our govern
ment and people.

CHAPTER XX
THE INDIANS AS A RACE AND AS A FACTOR IN
AMERICAN HISTORY
In attempting to study the Indian character and culture
it is well to put ourselves on guard against following too
implicitly the largely theoretic lines which have been laid
down without sufficient restrictions. Ethnologists and other
students anxious to ascertain criteria by which to classify
into divisions and subdivisions, or to mark the stages of
progress, have often ventured upon assumptions in their
generalizations without sufficient data to establish them as
universal characteristics of the race. The prevalence of a
custom in a large number of diverse tribes is taken as evi
dence that this is one of the phases through which the
entire race passes in the process of development; whereas
we should always be prepared to find exceptions to the rule.
Nevertheless, generalization is absolutely necessary and we
must use it, though with caution.
The natives of America, as a whole, have been variously
grouped by ethnologists : some have classified them as a single
race; a large number have considered them as two races or
primary divisions, the Eskimo forming one, and the remain
ing natives the other; and again, there are those who have
increased the number of divisions. Ratzel affirms that there
is a tendency to return to Blumenbach's old theory of the
two races, though this cannot be said of American authors.
Huxley [1870] and Brinton adhered to the single race
theory, the former placing all American aborigines under
415

41 6 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
his Mongoloid type; Powell, Boas, and some others also
adopted the single race theory. Topinard [1878] gave
the following divisions under his " straight-haired races ":
"Eskimo, Red Indians, Mexico-Peruvians, Gurani-Caribs,
and Mongols," a classification which seems to be based, to
some extent, on culture. The arrangement by J. Deniker
(Races of Man), based, as he claims, on physical characters,
is as follows : two races, the Eskimo forming one, and the
remaining natives the other. The latter he divides into
four subraces, — the North American, the Central American,
the South American, and the Patagonian. This subdivi
sion, however, as is readily seen, is very largely geograph
ical. Nevertheless, a classification of the Indians of North
America into more than two races or divisions, according
to the general arrangement we adopt, leads to confusion,
as the attempt at further division brings into use minor
distinctions and a large number of ill-defined groups. The
theory most likely to be generally accepted is that of a single
race, the Eskimo tribes forming a widely divergent group.
Deniker, speaking of the physical characters of the Amer
ican aborigines, says : " It must be borne in mind that there
exists but a single character common to these American
races, that is the color of the skin, the ground of which is
yellow. This appears to conflict with the current opinion
that the Americans are a red race, and yet it is a statement
of fact." An equally recent writer, speaking of their char
acteristics generally, says they "were indeed more remark
able than has been popularly appreciated. They possessed,
as a rule, strong personality, great physical vigor, quick in
telligence, and dauntless courage. Their brain power was of
a high order and the cerebral quality extremely fine ; capable
through the processes of time of a development second to
none." Such expressions as the last are but the rebound from
the opposite extreme of the mistaken popular estimate. It
has been said that there is nothing an Indian can do that
a white man cannot do as well or better. Possibly the

THE INDIANS AS A RACE ^jy
statement is a little too broad, but a test after reasonable
training would, in all likelihood, prove it to be substantially
correct. It is also hardly correct to say that, as a rule,
they are possessed of "dauntless courage," as they are by
no means equal in this respect to the whites. There have
been, it is true, many instances of individual bravery among
them, but it is very seldom that a body of Indians can be
marched squarely into the face of danger like a troop of
white soldiers. It is time, therefore, that the Indian char
acter should be properly estimated. One type is no more
applicable to all Indians than it is to all whites. They
range from the lowest savages, whose abodes are mere brush
screens, less comfortable than the holes of the foxes, to the
genius that could plan and build the temple of Uxmal.
Notwithstanding the homogeneity assumed in classing all
American aborigines as one race, the variations in somatic
characters are very considerable. Accepting the data fur
nished in Deniker's tables, we find them running through
all his stature groups from the lowest to the highest ; and in
craniometry, they are found in every group except that of
" Hyper-Brachycephals." Virchow, after studying skulls
from different sections of the continent, passed to the nega
tive extreme, — that from the point of view of anthropolog
ical classification there is no real unity among the aboriginal
population of America. Ratzel (History of Mankind) con
cluded that in the color of the skin uniformity prevails so
far that the extreme dark brown of the negro and the white
of the European do not occur; in physiognomy, the distin
guishing marks, besides the size of the head, are the breadth
of the face, caused by the strongly developed cheek bones,
and the lowness of the narrow forehead. The straight
black hair, which has a circular section, has very generally
been considered a distinguishing character.
The mental capacity and mental character of the Indians
must be determined by the advance they have made. How
ever, one fact bearing upon this subject which has not been
sufficiently emphasized is that they were, until modified by

41 8 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
contact and intercourse with the whites, in what we may,
perhaps appropriately, term the childhood state of the race.
That they were children in many of their actions and
thoughts is shown in their ceremonies, plays, and amuse
ments. See them striking the post before starting on a
war excursion, and boasting of the manner in which they
intend to smite the enemy in the coming battle — a purely
childish performance. We see proof of the same fact in
the effort to be the most extravagant in their display and
gesticulations in their dances, plays, and other public func
tions and exhibitions; and also in their love for childish
things. Another curious fact which seems to have a place in this
connection, and which has not heretofore received special
notice, though apparently of considerable interest, is the
prevailing feminine physiognomy of the males, at least of
those of the northern sections. If anyone will take the
trouble to study carefully a hundred or more good photo
graphs of males of pure blood, he will find that two-thirds,
if not a greater proportion, show feminine faces. The full
signification of this fact is not apparent, but it seems to
bear to some extent upon the question of the evolution of
the race.
While it is true that in order to fully understand their
" nature " it is necessary to consider them in many respects
as children, yet it is apparent that their physical develop
ment, the necessity of seeking a food supply, and of provid
ing means of defence against human and animal foes, have
pushed development along certain lines which belong to the
manhood rather than the childhood stage. Even the cul
ture of the most advanced tribes of Mexico and Central
America developed almost wholly along particular lines, and
not generally to a like degree in all lines.
The highest mental attainment among the northern tribes
was probably that which resulted in the League of the Iro
quois, though we fail to see the evidence of such great
mental advance as claimed by Sir Daniel Wilson. The

THE INDIANS AS A RACE

419

social machinery, so to speak, ultimately brought into use
was gradually developed through the necessity for a system,
and was not the product of a single mind. The figures in the
Mexican and Mayan codices and inscriptions show clearly
that the people to whom we ascribe them were Indians and
in some respects yet in the childhood state; but there is
evidence that they had made considerable advance along
mathematical and artistic lines, an advance somewhat aston
ishing in the former instance. This is apparent from a con
sideration of the Mayan time system, which, briefly stated,
was as follows : they recognized the day as the unit in time
counting; also a month of 20 days, each day with its par
ticular name and number; a year of 365 days, divided into
18 months of 20 days each, and a short supplemental month
of 5 days. In counting time they followed the vigesimal
system, except that the second step consisted of eighteen
units of the second order. Thus, taking the day as the unit,
a unit of the second order would consist of 20 days; one
of the third, 360 days; one of the fourth, 7,200 days;
one of the fifth, 144,000; the next higher, or unit of the
sixth order, which also appears to have been used, consisted
of 2,880,000 days, each one of these units having its own
appropriate symbol. As to the number of days comprising
the unit of the sixth order, or " Great Cycle," the writer
differs with Mr. Goodman, the one given being, beyond
question, that of the Dresden Codex. Now, there is clear
and distinct evidence both in the codices and inscriptions
that the priests or scribes who formed these records did, in
some instances, beginning with a certain day of a certain
month named and numbered, count several million days, —
certainly as high as four millions, — giving correctly the day,
month, and year on which this long period terminated. To
reduce the several denominations to units and then change
them into years, months, and days must have required cal
culations beyond a wholly mental process. Yet these people
were Indians, savages in many of their customs, and childlike
in some of their practices.

420

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

It is certainly true that at the discovery of the continent
by Europeans about the close of the fifteenth century, the
natives, although possessed of copper to some extent, were
yet in the Stone Age, the art of smelting and working iron
and other metals into useful implements being unknown to
them. The absence of the larger domestic animals hin
dered very materially the free course of trade, commerce,
and agriculture. Nevertheless, in building and sculpture,
as well as in mathematics and calendar systems, the Mexi
cans and Central Americans had made remarkable advances,
as is proved by the remains of temples and other structures.
In fact, they seem in some respects to have been on the
very verge of civilization, while in other respects they were
genuine savages.
As a rule, the tribes of America were organized on the
basis of descent ; the unit of organization being the clan or
gens. Everybody in a tribe, it is claimed, belonged to a gens
or clan, otherwise he could not be in a tribe. This, how
ever, is basing too broad a statement on incomplete data.
Brinton says truly: "The gentile system is by no means
universal, . . . where it exists it is often traced in
the male line, both property and dignities may be inherited
directly from the father. In fact, no one element of the
system was uniformly respected, and it is an error of theorists
to make it appear so. It varied widely in the same stock and
in all its expressions." — (American Race, 46.) Theoretically,
if not universally in practice, marriage was prohibited in the
same gens ; the husband and wife must be of different gentes.
Each gens was supposed to have its chief and council. This
was theoretically, and very largely in practice, the plan of
social organization among the Indians ; but there were wide
variations from the rule, sufficient to cast great doubt on
the theory that this was one of the phases through which all
peoples passed in the course of development.
Although it is often asserted that government among the
various Indian tribes is similar in character and fundamental
principles, varying in degree of perfection, this is a theoretic

THE INDIANS AS A RACE

421

expression based on incomplete data. It may perhaps be
correctly asserted that "as a rule, the government of the
Indians was a simple democracy. The chiefs were usually
elected — though sometimes hereditary — and held office for
life, or until advancing years caused their resignation."
Still, an examination of the systems of the various tribes
shows almost every grade, from a mere associate band
with hardly a semblance of government, and little cohe-
siveness, to the compact, well-organized confederacy on
the one hand, and the almost despotic rule on the other.
Among a number of the tribes of British Columbia and
Alaska, there was in fact no tribal organization, the term
"tribe" being used in the linguistic sense. Among the
Tacullies, any person might become a chief who would
occasionally provide a village feast. On the other hand,
the Iroquoian League, as we have seen, was a well-defined
though somewhat complicated organization, yet the ma
chinery was so well regulated that it worked with all the
harmony of a modern civilized government. Nevertheless,
the social organization of the people of this confederacy
was based on the gentile system, with descent in the female
line. The nearest approach to civilized government of
the monarchical type was that which prevailed among the
Aztecs. The attempt of Morgan to prove that Aztec
organization was not beyond that of the Pueblos or the
Iroquois cannot be accepted as convincing. For, although
the use by the Spanish historians of such terms as "em
peror," "royal," "nobles," etc., has caused a reaction in the
minds of historians, carrying them to the opposite extreme,
the correct conclusion lies between the two. The term
"chief" applied to Montezuma would scarcely convey to
the ordinary reader a correct idea of his political position
unless accompanied by some explanation or modifier. It
must also be remembered that the Montezuma who received
Cortes was the grandson of Axayacatl, who, in turn, was
the son of the first Montezuma, each of whom was ruler
of the nation, indicating a "royal" line. That these rulers

422 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
were more than simple war chiefs or mere peace chiefs is
certain; the two powers were combined in the one person,
which was contrary to the general rule in Indian govern
ment. Payne (History of America) says the government
was "a military despotism."
Although physical characteristics and other criteria have
been referred to as a means of classifying the native popu
lation of the continent, language appears to form the most
reliable basis and to afford the greatest accuracy. Never
theless, the result in some instances is curious and somewhat
disappointing. To find on the one hand that little bands
living close neighbors or in adjoining valleys in California or
Oregon, and having, so far as a cursory observation shows,
similar habits, speak languages of different stocks, while on
the other hand the "Diggers" and Paiutes of Utah and
Nevada and the Pimas of Arizona belong linguistically to
the same family as the people of Montezuma, is apparently
bringing into relation what seem from every other view to
be incongruous elements, or separating those which should be
associated. It must be remembered that on the one side it
is held by some authors that affinity of language implies
racial identity or unity of origin ; while on the other it is
contended, seemingly correctly, that the conclusion that
affinity of language necessarily implies identity of race or
cognate origin is not warranted. Nevertheless, it does in
dicate contact and is our best evidence as to unity of origin
where not contradicted by positive proof.
The geographical distribution of the families of languages
in North America presents some rather singular features.
The areas covered differ enormously in proportion, some
being confined to very small districts embracing but a few
square miles, while other stocks, as the Algonquian and
the Nahuatlan, stretched over areas greater than the origi
nal "thirteen colonies." In these facts lie buried, perhaps
beyond resurrection, much of the past history of the race.
While the supposition may carry us too far into the specu
lative field, yet we venture the suggestion that it is possible

THE INDIANS AS A RACE a2?
the larger groups were generally of more recent develop
ment than the smaller coast tribes. One example may be
referred to as seemingly in line with this supposition ; that is
the Aztec group, whose traditional history, reaching back to
their entrance into the Anahuac valley not more than eight
or nine centuries ago, has been preserved.
No native American people have been discovered entirely
devoid of religion, using the term in its broad sense. We
find belief among all North American tribes in one or more
higher and numerous inferior spirits or invisible powers.
Numerous attempts have been made by authors to define
or explain the Indian religious beliefs, but in most cases
these have been based upon the study of the beliefs of
particular Indians, and hence they fail to give sufficiently
comprehensive conclusions to apply generally. It cannot,
perhaps, be stated correctly that any tribe had risen to the
conception of a personal supreme Deity, creator of the mate
rial universe, before contact with Europeans ; yet the beliefs
in some sections appear to have shown a strong tendency
toward or a reaching after the idea of one overruling Power.
It is probable that the nearest approach made to this idea
was among the Kiches of the Mayan group, if we can
accept, as of native origin, the first part of the Popul Vuh,
as given by Brasseur de Bourbourg; which is much like the
Hindoo idea of the origin of the world. Yet even in this,
the most advanced mythology of the American aborigines, the
effort fell short of the idea of one supreme Creator and over
ruling Power. But, on the other hand, tribes of the lowest
culture status on the continent had myths and performed
propitiatory rites to appease or engage in their interest the
unknown powers which they believed controlled human
destiny in some way incomprehensible to them.
Many of the American tribes, almost all except the
Eskimo and northern Athapascans, according to some au
thors, worshipped the sun. But the Indian concept under
lying this worship was not the same throughout — the great
thought in American mythology referred to "light," the

424 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
maker of day, the heaven, and hence the frequent reference
to the East. While in some mythologies it would seem
that the sun was the chief or ruling deity, yet usually it
was one among the numerous deities recognized. Among
the Haidas, it seems to have been secondary in importance
to the moon.
However, Indian imagination clothed certain objects with
powers which might work them good or evil. Generally,
each particular power was supposed to have its individuality
or personality, though it might exist in or under various
forms or in various objects; in other words, these different
powers were not conceived of as different manifestations
of one underlying existence. Yet, among some groups, as
perhaps the Iroquoian, there seems to have been a not
clearly understood approach to the idea of different mani
festations of a general power. According to Lieutenant
Niblack, the northwest coast Indians believe "in indwell
ing spirits. The sea, the woods and the air are peopled with
them. All the phenomena of the universe are attributed
to their action." Nor does the idea greatly vary if we
pass to the advanced Aztecs ; personification becomes more
prominent and attributes more defined, but the same general
thought underlies their religious belief. It is impossible,
with our present knowledge, to generalize as to religious
forms, ceremonies, and observances, as these appear to vary
constantly, with no determined basic principle, as we pass
to different localities and from one to another ethnic group.
The great carved stone idols of Mexico and Central Amer
ica are replaced in other sections by doll-like images or still
ruder fetiches. The temples of Central America may be
the outgrowth of the Pueblo estufas; but the wild cere
monies of the northern Indians differ as widely from those
of the civilized tribes as do those of two races. While the
North American Indians are exceedingly superstitious and
generally ruled in their actions very largely by omens, the
wilder tribes, in fact most of those north of Mexico, were
not true idol worshippers to any extent.

THE INDIANS AS A RACE 425
Judged by the true standard, the moral character of the
Indians falls into a rather low grade. Their cruelty is
proverbial, and has been from the days of the early ex
plorers. This reproach lies upon those of all sections and
all degrees of civilization. Cruel to each other in torture
and ordeals, they are still more so to outsiders. The cruel
torture of captives by the Iroquois, Chippewas, and other
tribes of the United States has been the theme of many a
narrative; and the bloody human sacrifices of the Aztecs
well-nigh turn our sympathies to the Spaniards, though they
were hardly less cruel. Though comparatively few, there
was here and there, notably among the less cultured, a tribe
not addicted to such barbarous customs.
The abodes of the natives as regards form and character
were very largely influenced by the physical character of the
different regions. The skin tent of the Sioux and other tribes
of the western plains was of necessity replaced by the igloo
in the icy region occupied by the Eskimo tribes ; and the adobe
or adobe and stone structures in the treeless region of the
Pueblo section were the result of physical conditions, so far
as materials and composition were concerned. Nevertheless,
form, type, and finish were largely the result of culture. The
Paiutes, whose dwellings in many places were little better
than brush screens, lived amid substantially the same phys
ical conditions as the Pueblo tribes, and, so far as any reason
appears, might, if they had been more advanced in culture,
have enjoyed equally as comfortable abodes as the natives
of the Rio Grande valley. This, however, raises the great
question of the origin and development of higher culture
among the aborigines of America. Why was it that the most
advanced culture in North America developed in Mexico and
Central America and not in California or the rich agricultural
areas of Ohio, Illinois, or the Gulf states ? Bancroft (Native
Races, ii) makes the following comment on this point:
I have often wondered why California was not the seat of a primitive
civilization ; why, upon every converging line the race deteriorates as
this centre is approached ; why, with a cool, salubrious seaboard, a hot

426 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
and healthful interior, with alternate rainy and dry seasons, alternate
seasons of labor and leisure which encourage producing and hoarding,
and which are the primary incentives to accumulation and wealth, in
this hot and cool, moist and dry, and invigorating atmosphere, with a
fertile soil, a climate which in no part of the year can be called cold or
inhospitable, should be found one of the lowest phases of humanity on
the North American continent. The cause must be sought in periods
more remote, in the convulsions of nature now stilled ; in the tumults
of nations whose history lies forgotten, forever buried in the past.
Theories never will solve the mystery. Indeed, there is no reason why
the foundation of the Aztec and Maya-Quiche civilizations may not
have been laid north of the thirty-fifth parallel, although no architectural
remains have been discovered there, nor other proof of such an origin ;
but upon the banks of the Gila, the Colorado, and the Rio Grande, in
Chihuahua, and on the hot dry plains of Arizona and New Mexico,
far beyond the limits of Mr. Buckle's territory where "there never has
been found, and we may confidently assert never will be found," any
evidence of progress, are to-day walled towns inhabited by an indusuial
and agricultural people, whose existence we can trace back for more
than three centuries, besides ruins of massive buildings of whose history
nothing is known.
Thus, that California and many other parts of North America could
not have been the seat of a primitive civilization cannot be proved upon
the basis of any physical hypothesis ; and indeed, in our attempt to
elucidate the principles of universal progress, where the mysterious and
antagonistic activities of humanity have been fermenting all unseen for
thousands of ages, unknown and unknowable, among peoples of whom
our utmost knowledge can be only such as is derived from a transient
glimpse of a disappearing race, it is with the utmost difficulty that
satisfactory conclusions can in any instance be reached.
Ratzel, in his History of Mankind, answers, to some ex
tent, these cogitations of the California author as follows :
The question is apt to be easily settled by laying the whole responsi
bility for lights and deficiencies upon natural circumstances. The
question why countries favored in situation, and delicious in climate,
like California and Chili, which are now among the most fertile and
flourishing, did not become the seat of civilizations of their own, must
we answer by another : Was the old American civilization always
limited to narrow strips of plateau and isolated districts ? Possibly,
hidden under the soil of equatorial South America discoveries still await
us, of which at least some traces have come to light. We recall here
the beautiful reflection of Martius : " It is no weak, modest moss, such
as enwraps the wrecks of Roman and old German magnificence as with

THE INDIANS AS A RACE 427
an emblem of gentle melancholy, that has spread itself over the ruins
of past ages in South America ; there perhaps, over the monuments of
peoples long perished, gloomy primeval forests rise, which have long
ago laid even with the ground all that human hands once wrought."
The rock and cave villages of New Mexico and Arizona offer unex
pected evidence for a higher culture in these table-lands. Peru, Mexico,
Yucatan, are countries like Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and large
portions of China and India — only fertile under the condition of sedu
lous irrigation. Much labor and trouble, not always very richly repaid,
had to be expended for a livelihood. The fertilising element was richly
prized, even worshipped. In Mexico, if rain kept them waiting too
long, the priests fasted for some days and went up into a mountain con
secrated to that purpose. Here burnt sacrifices were offered and the
ashes scattered in the air in order to bring clouds and rain. Besides this,
aqueducts for artificial watering were zealously constructed. In the
Peruvian highlands innumerable acequias, often carried on pillars, and
thus crossing streams, nay, even hewn in the rock, take us back to the
time of the Incas. Artificial reservoirs display dams with masonry 80
feet thick at the base. The prince himself started works of this kind,
and nothing else but some such system can explain the dense population
of districts which are now almost uninhabited. An artificial watercourse
which passes through the territory of Chontisana is estimated to be 375
miles in length. The delivery of water was correspondingly regulated.
In Mexico irrigation was not so highly developed ; but in place of it
the "floating gardens" in the lakes round Tenochtitlan show the
industry that was expended upon cultivation. Rafts of faggots, covered
with the rich mud of the lake-bottom, bore flowers and food-plants on
the never-dying soil. At the present day, at all events from Gila to
Tehuantepec, wheat almost always requires irrigation ; while maize can
only get on without it if it is planted so early in the rainy season that it
can get a chance of sufficient moisture to grow in.
Although no entirely satisfactory explanation on this sub
ject has yet been offered, the most reasonable one which
can be adduced with our present knowledge is that the de
velopment of the higher culture in Mexico and Central
America was due, in a large degree, to the discovery and
cultivation of maize, and reliance upon agriculture as the
chief means of obtaining a food supply. Agriculture, it is
claimed, results in bringing the population into a sedentary
condition, which is conducive to mental development and
advance in culture. That this advanced culture in North
America was limited by geographical bounds and not by

428 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
ethnic lines is now well known, since it included several
distinct stocks, and parts only of two other stocks. This
fact, as is readily seen, favors the theory here advanced, but
increases the difficulty of accounting for the origin of the
civilization of Peru.
E. J. Payne (History of America), discussing this subject,
comes to the following conclusion :
The two bases, then, of advancement in America were the domesti
cation of the auchenias [llama, vicuna, paco], limited to the Andes,
and maize-agriculture, which was not only common to the three areas
of aboriginal conquest, but was extensively pursued far outside their
limits, both in the Southern and Northern continents. We have seen
that the herdsmen of the Andes, through the domestication of indige
nous animals, became the founders of the great dominion of Peru : we
now find that cultivators of an indigenous corn founded the advanced
communities of Mexico and Central America. For the recent researches
of naturalists have proved that maize is indigenous to the Pacific dis
trict intervening between the head of the California Gulf and the isthmus
of Panama, the very district in which its cultivation was most extensively
practised, and where local traditions indicated it as the primitive food
of man. Of the two wild American grasses which have been identified
with maize, the Euchlaena Mexicana, and the Euchlaena luxurians or
teosynte of Guatemala, the latter approximates most nearly to the culti
vated corn : and it is consistent with this fact that the Central American
maize, at the time of the Discovery, was reputed to be larger and more
productive than the Mexican, and that Central America, and not Mexico,
appears in tradition as the earliest seat of maize cultivation. The Maya
tribes unanimously ascribed the general use of maize to their culture-
hero Gucumatz, who after a long journey, the object of which was the
discovery of some alimentary plant more substantial than the fruits and
roots on which they formerly subsisted, reached the district of Paxil-
Cayala, where the people were found harvesting ripe maize. The
Mexicans, who adopted this tradition, called the place Tonacateped
(mountain of subsistence). According to another Maya tradition, after
man had been created of earth, it was by means of maize that he was
converted into a being of flesh and blood : and maize was the food
of Nata, the Noah of Mexico, in the hollowed cypress in which he
weathered the deluge.
Although the subject is too broad to be discussed here,
it may be added that the cultivation of maize had spread
northward by the date of the discovery, as has been noted

THE INDIANS AS A RACE 429
in the preceding chapters, almost to the climatic limits of
the species, except on the western side of the continent.
As it extended, it carried with it a tendency to a more
firmly established life, hence a tendency to build more sub
stantial abodes, and to practise certain arts not common
to the hunter state. One of the industries which followed
and was practised over an area of equal extent was the
manufacture of pottery.
That the Indian has been an important factor in Amer
ican history will be conceded, but the extent to which he
has aided the Europeans in settling the continent, notwith
standing his seemingly obstructive methods, does not appear
to have been fully appreciated. Payne (History of America)
has remarked truly : " Upon closer examination it becomes
plain that American history cannot be treated as a simple
expansion of European enterprise on the virgin soil of the
transatlantic continent. Exclusively European causes, al
though they supplied the principal motive force to the
sequence of events, do not suffice to account for the direc
tion assumed by general lines of American history when it is
attempted to trace it from the Discovery as a starting point.
Much less do they explain the different rates and degrees
of progress, and the singular contrasts of transience and
permanence, of weakness and strength, which European
enterprise has exhibited in different parts of America, and
which have produced the varied aspect which the states of
the New World now present." These he asserts "prove
to be connected with causes anterior to the Discovery and
originating in the New World itself."
That the Indians accelerated discovery and aided the
spread of European population over the continent becomes
apparent from a few negative considerations. Let us sup
pose the continent to have been uninhabited, wholly without
human occupants, at the time of the first arrival of the
whites. What would have been the progress of discovery and
settlement ? How long would the Spaniards have been in
discovering the Pacific Ocean, and when would they have

43°

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

learned of the gold of Peru? With no Tenochtitlan, no
Aztec empire to conquer, how long would Spain have been
planting colonies and discovering mines in Mexico and
Central America? These and a hundred other questions
of similar import will frame themselves in our minds at
the mere suggestion of this condition, and upon reflection
satisfy us that the Indians formed a very important factor
in forwarding the exploration of the various sections, and in
the progress of European settlement, notwithstanding their
warring upon the colonists. It is perhaps impossible for us
to surmise with even an approach to correctness the condi
tion, population, and political geography of America at this
day, had it been wholly uninhabited at the time it was
discovered by Europeans. Nevertheless, it is possible to
point out what we may speak of correctly as the prepara
tions by the Indians for the coming of the civilized adven
turers from the Old World, and of the conscious and
unconscious aid they furnished these adventurers in the
progress of their discoveries and their settlements.
One of the most important steps in the preparation for
the coming of Europeans was the discovery and cultivation
of maize. Without this cereal it is doubtful whether the
tribes of southern Mexico and Central America would
have made the advance toward civilization they were found
to have reached at the appearance of the Spaniards on the
scene; and it is certain that without it as a source of food
supply m^re than one of the European colonies would
have been forced to abandon for a time their settlements.
It would perhaps be difficult to form even an approximately
correct opinion of what would be the condition of North
America to-day had maize been unknown. Its bearing
on American history must therefore be taken into considera
tion whenever history is fully treated. Its discovery and cul
tivation by the Indians must be considered one very important
step in the preparation for the coming of the whites.
The Indians also aided in the process of settlement by
bringing other economic plants into use, by bringing to light

THE INDIANS AS A RACE 43 j.
the precious metals found on the continent, and by the dis
covery of many of the mine localities. To the eager search
for gold are to be ascribed the rapid progress of discov
ery and the spread of Spanish population in the New World ;
and to this the natives largely contributed, even by their
often false statements, as they sent the eager adventurers on
new quests and thus brought them to a knowledge of new
regions. They ascertained the best fishing grounds, and in
many other respects prepared the way for occupancy by the
civilized race. The Indians also aided in this respect, often
to their sorrow, by pointing out to the explorers the lines of
travel to other nations of whom they had given the Euro
peans notice. By them the French were guided up the chain
of Great Lakes to the tribes and the fur region of the North
west. The Ottawa route pointed out to Champlain became
for many years the line of trade of the French colony with
the interior. In fact, it was by way of the upper lakes
that the Mississippi became known practically. Indian
trails and lines of travel on land and water became, in
many instances, the lines of white migration and trade. It
was by information obtained from the Indians that the
attention of the Spaniards was directed to the rich treasure
house of Peru.
But the part played by the Indians in American history
reaches beyond what is stated above and even affected
the history of Europe. The Indians had much to do in
deciding the contest between England and France for su
premacy in North America. Historians have claimed, and
justly too, that the Iroquois determined the present boundary
between the United States and Canada. In other words,
they kept the French to the north of the lakes in their
contests with the English; and this line, when the United
States achieved their independence, became the boundary
between them and the Canadian government. The wealth
acquired by Spain in the New World, which swelled her
coffers and raised her to the highest point of importance
attained by her among the nations of Europe, was obtained

432

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

through the Indians. Pizarro and Cortes would, perhaps,
never have figured prominently in history had Peru and
Mexico been uninhabited at the time of the discovery.
Nor does the account stop with this summary. The
history of both North and South America since Europeans
began to settle their coasts has to a very large extent been
colored by the history of the aboriginal element. On this
point, if we limit our examination to the United States,
we shall find that our official records are thickly sprinkled
from the beginning to the present with references to the
Indians. A bulky volume will hardly suffice to contain
only the treaties which the government has concluded with
the tribes. One important bureau is devoted entirely to
Indian affairs, and an annual volume is required to report
its work; and what is true in the United States in this
respect is largely true of the other governments of the con
tinent. It is therefore only when we take these facts into
consideration that we can properly appreciate the influence
of the Indians in the settlement of America and of the part
they have played therein.

APPENDIX I
LIST OF LINGUISTIC FAMILIES AND TRIBAL LANGUAGES
OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA
Where the name of the country is not given in this list Mexico is to be
understood.
ATHAPASCAN
Apache. — In northern Mexico, chiefly in Chihuahua, So
nora, and Durango.
Toboso. — In northern Mexico, chiefly in Coahuila, Du
rango, and Chihuahua. (Extinct.)
CARIBBEAN (Modern)
Moreno. — (The only dialect determined.) Along the
northern coast of Honduras.
CHIAPANECAN
Chiapanec. — In Chiapas.
Dirian. — In Nicaragua, south side of Lake Managua.
Mangue. — In Nicaragua, west and north of Lake Managua.
Orotinan. — In Costa Rica, on Gulf of Nicoya.
CHIBCHAN
Guatuso. — In northern Costa Rica, about the Rio Frio.
Guaymie. — In Panama, from Chiriqui Lagoon to Chagres
River.
Dialects: Guaymie.Muoi. Murire.
NORTENO.Sabanero.Valiente. 433

434 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Guetare. — Extending north and south through central
Costa Rica.
Dialects: Quepo.SUERRE ?
Voto [or Boto].
The following are usually grouped under the generic or subfamily
name Talamanca :
Boruca [or Brunca]. — In southeastern Costa Rica.
Bribri. — In southeastern Costa Rica.
Dialects: Cabecar.Chirripo [or Tariaca ?] .
ESTRELLA. TUCURRIC.
Goto? — On the headwaters of the Rio Grande Terraba,
Costa Rica. (Extinct.)
Terraba. — In southeastern Costa Rica.
Dialect : Tirriei. CHINANTECAN
Chinanteco. — In Chinantla, northeastern Oaxaca.
CUNAN
Cuna. — From Gulf of Uraba and the Rio Atrato on the east
to the Rio Chagres on the west, Panama.
DORASKEAN
Chaliva? — On the upper Changuinaula River, Panama.
Changuina. — Near Bugaba, Panama.
Chumulu. — Near Caldera, Panama.
Dorasque. — On the Rio Puan, Panama.
Gualaca. — Near San Francisco de Dolega, Panama.
Rama. — About Blewfield Lagoon, southeastern Nicaragua.
Teluskie ? — Near the Rio Puan, Panama.
HUAVEAN
Huave. — On Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Pacific coast.

APPENDIX I 43 s
LENCAN
Lenca. — In Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, and
Nicaragua.
Dialects : Chalinga ? — In eastern San Salvador.
Guajiquero. — In central Honduras.
Intibucat. — In central Honduras.
Opatoro. — In central Honduras.
Pupuluca (b). — On the Rio de la Paz, southeastern
Guatemala.
Similiton. — In central Honduras.
MARATINAN
Maratin. — In Tamaulipas, Mexico.
MATAGALPAN
Matagalpa. — Chiefly in Matagalpa and Segovia, Nica
ragua.
Dialect : Cacaopera. — At Cacaopera and Lislique, in north
eastern San Salvador.
MAYAN
Achis? — Formerly in western Guatemala. (Extinct.)
Aguacateca. — In Aguacateca, central Guatemala.
Cakchikel. — In southern Guatemala.
Dialect: Pupuluca (a). — Near Antigua, Guatemala.
Chanabal. — In eastern Chiapas.
Chicomucelteca. — In southern Chiapas.
Chol. — In eastern Chiapas and northern Guatemala.
Chontal (of Tabasco). — In eastern Tabasco.
Chorti. — -In the valley of the Rio Motagua, eastern Guate
mala and western Honduras.
Chuhe. — Near Jacaltenango, western Guatemala.
Huasteca. — On the Rio Panuco, northern Vera Cruz,
Mexico.
Ixil. — In central Guatemala.
Jacalteca. — Adjoining the Chuhe, western Guatemala.
Kekchi. — On the Rio Cahabon, Guatemala.
Kiche. — In southern Guatemala.

436 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Mam. — In western Guatemala.
Maya. — In Yucatan, Campeche, and northern Guatemala.
Dialects: Itza (of Peten). — Northern Guatemala.
Lacandon. — On the upper Usumacinta River.
Mopan. — -Northern Guatemala and central Belize.
Motozintleca. — In eastern Chiapas.
Pokomam. — In southern Guatemala.
Pokonchi. — In central Guatemala.
Subinha? — Locality not given, probably eastern Chiapas.
Tzental. — In Tabasco and Chiapas.
Tzotzil. — In northern Chiapas.
Tzutuhil. — Southern shore of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.
Uspanteca. — Adjoining the Pokonchi on the west.
NAHUATLAN
Acaxee. — In Sierra de Topia, Sinaloa, and Durango.
Aztec. — Chiefly in the valley of Mexico, but extending
from Tabasco on the east coast to Sinaloa on
the west coast.
Dialects: Cuitlateco. — In Guerrero.
Meztitlateca. — In the Sierra of Meztitlan, state
of Mexico.
Tezcucan. — In the valley of Mexico.
Cahita. — In Sinaloa.
Dialects: Mayo. — On the Rio Mayo, Sinaloa.
Tehueco. — On the Rio del Fuerte, Sinaloa.
Vacoregua. — On the Rio del Fuerte, Sinaloa.
Yaqui. — On the Rio Yaqui, Sinaloa.
Concho. — In northern Chihuahua. (Extinct.)
Cora. — In Sierra Nayarit, Jalisco.
Dialects : Huicholo. — In northeastern Jalisco.
Tepecano. — In northeastern Jalisco.
Nio. — On the southern border of the Cahita area. (Ex
tinct.)
Niquiran. — Between Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific,
Nicaragua.

APPENDIX I 437
Opata. — On the headwaters of Yaqui River, Sonora and
Chihuahua.
Dialects: Eudeve. — In Sonora.
Jova. — In western Chihuahua.
Pima. — In Sonora, Chihuahua, and Sinaloa.
Dialects: Bamoa. — In Sinaloa.
Potlapigua. — Along the northeastern border of
the Opata area.
Pipil. — Chiefly on the Pacific coast in Guatemala and San
Salvador.
Dialects : Alaguilac ? — On the Rio Motagua, Guatemala.
(Extinct.)
Tlascalteca. — In San Salvador.
Sabaibo. — Adjoining and related to the Acaxee.
Sigua. — On Chiriqui Lagoon, Costa Rica. (Extinct.)
Tarahumari. — In Sonora, Chihuahua, and Durango.
Dialects : Guazapare. — In the southeastern part of the Tara
humari territory.
Pachera. — In the central part of the Tarahumari
territory.
Tubar. — Near the Guazapare.
Varogio. — Near the Guazapare.
Tebaca. — Adjoining and related to the Acaxee.
Tepahue. — In Sonora. (Extinct.)
Dialects : Cahuimeto. — (Extinct.)
Macoyahuy. — (Extinct.)
Tepehuan. — In Durango.
Tlascalan. — In Tlascala. (Dialect of the Aztec.)
Xixime. — Adjoining and related to the Acaxee.
Zoe. — In Sinaloa. (Extinct.)
Dialect: Baimama. — Adjoining the Zoe. (Extinct.)
OTOMIAN
Jonaz [or Meco] . — In Guanajuato. (Probably extinct.)
Matlaltzinco [or Pirinda]. — In the states of Mexico
and Michoacan.

438 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
Mazahua. — About the southwestern border of the valley
of Mexico.
Otomi. — Throughout central Mexico.
Pame. — In Queretaro and Guanajuato.
PAKAWAN
Comecrudo. — On the lower Rio Grande.
Cotoname. — On the lower Rio Grande.
Pakawa [or Pinto] . — On the lower Rio Grande.
PAYAN
Paya. — In northeastern Honduras. SERIAN
Guayma. — On the north bank of the lower Rio Guaymas,
Sonora. (Extinct.)
Seri. — On Tiburon Island and the opposite mainland,
Sonora.
Tepoka. — On the mainland opposite Tiburon Island.
(Extinct.)
Upanguayma. — Adjoining the Guayma. (Extinct.)
SUBTIABAN
Subtiaba [or Negrandan] . — In the region of the present
city of Leon, Nicaragua.
TANOAN
Piro. — On the Rio Grande, near El Paso.
Tehua. — On the Rio Grande, near El Paso.
TARASCAN
Tarasco. — In the state of Michoacan.
TEQJJISTLATECAN
Tequistlateca [or Chontal of Oaxaca]. — In Oaxaca,
on the Pacific coast.

APPENDIX I 439
TOTONACAN
Totonaca. — In northern Vera Cruz and northeastern
Puebla. ULVAN
(In eastern Nicaragua. The subdivisions of this family are
not satisfactorily given; they are therefore
omitted.) XICAQUEAN
Xicaque [or Jicaque] . — In northern Honduras.
Dialects: Xicaque (of Yoro). — In the Yoro district.
Xicaque (of Palmar). — In the northern part of the
Santa Barbara disUict.
XINCAN
Xinca. — On the Rio de los Esclavos, southeastern Guate
mala.
Dialects: Jupiltepec, Jutiapa, and Sinacantan. — Spoken
at pueblos of the same names respectively.
YUMAN ? (Provisional)
Cochimi. — In Lower California.
Cocopa [or Cocapa] . — At the mouth of the Rio Colorado,
Sonora, and Lower California.
Guiacura. — In Lower California.
Pericu. — In Lower California. (Extinct.)
ZAPOTECAN
Amishgo. — In Guerrero.
Chatino. — In the district of Jamiltepec, Oaxaca.
Chocho [or Chuchon] . — In the district of Coixtlahuaca,
Oaxaca.
Cuicateco. — In the district of Cuicatlan, Oaxaca.
Mazateco. — In the district of Cuicatlan, Oaxaca.
Mixtec. — In Oaxaca and Guerrero.
Popoloca (of Oaxaca). — The same as Chochoi
Salteco. — In Oaxaca.
Trike. — In Tehuantepec
Zapateco. — In Oaxaca.

440 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
ZOQUEAN
Mixe. — In Oaxaca and Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Popoloca (of Puebla). — At and in the vicinity of Oluta.
Tapijulapan? — On the Rio de la Sierra.
Zoque. — In Tabasco, Oaxaca, and Chiapas.
Dialect : Chimalapa. UNCLASSIFIED
Cazcan. — In Zacatecas and Jalisco. (Extinct.)
Guachichil. — In Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, and Za
catecas; was possibly Nahuatlan. (Extinct.)
Guatijiagua. — At Guatijiagua, eastern San Salvador;
probably a dialect of the Lenca or Xinca.
Irritila. — Chiefly in Durango; was possibly Nahuatlan.
(Extinct.)
Musquito. — Along the gulf coast of Nicaragua.
Tamaulipeco. — Apparently a collective term including
various idioms, some unrelated. In Tamau
lipas. (Extinct.)
Xanambre and Pisone. — In Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon.
(Extinct.)
Zacateco. — In Zacatecas ; was probably Nahuatlan. (Ex
tinct.)

APPENDIX II
LIST OF INDIAN STOCKS NORTH OF MEXICO
The following list of Indian stocks or families north of
Mexico is made in conformity with the latest conclusions
of the Bureau of American Ethnology :
I. Algonquian. — Northeastern third of the continent,
from Tennessee to Montana, and to Labrador.
2. Athapascan. — Northwestern part of the continent,
and from the Utah-Colorado line southward into
Mexico.
3. Attacapan. — Southern Louisiana.
4. Beothukan. — Northern Newfoundland; formerly all
Newfoundland. (Extinct.)
5. Caddoan. — Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and North
Dakota.
6. Chimakuan. — Northwestern Washington.
7. Chimarikan. — Northern California.
8. Chimmesyan. — British Columbia, near Dixon En
trance, and the neighboring Annette Island, in
Alaska.
9. Chinookan. — Lower portion of Columbia River.
10. Chitimachan. — Southern Louisiana.
11. Chumashan. — Southern California coast.
12. Copehan. — Northern California.
13. Costanoan. — California, south of the Golden Gate.
441

442 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
14. Eskimauan. — From Prince William Sound, Alaska, all
along the northern coasts, islands, and inlets to Hud
son's Bay, Greenland, and northern Newfoundland.
15. Esselenian. — Southern coast of California.
16. Iroquoian. — Around Lakes Erie and Ontario, and
down the St. Lawrence as far as Quebec ; along the
Susquehanna and its branches as far as the mouth,
and also a belt through northern Georgia, eastern
Tennessee, western North Carolina, and southern
Virginia.
17. Kalapooian. — Western Oregon.
18. Karankawan. — Southern Texas. (Extinct.)
19. Keresan. — Northern New Mexico.
20. Kiowan. — Indian Territory, formerly in the Platte
valley.
21. Kitunahan. — British Columbia and Oregon.
22. Kolushan. — Dixon Entrance to Prince William
Sound, Alaska.
23. Kulanapan. — Northwestern California.
24. Kusan. — Western Oregon.
25. Lutuamian. — Southern Oregon and northern Cali
fornia.
26. Mariposan. — Southern California.
27. Moqtjelumnan. — Central California.
28. Muskhogean. — Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, north
ern Florida, and western Tennessee.
29. Natchesan. — Northern Louisiana and western Mis
sissippi.
30. Palaihnihan. — Northeastern California.
3 1 . Piman. — The Sonoran region of Mexico, and southern
Arizona. Classed as Nahuatlan.
32. Pujunan. — Northeastern California.
33. Quoratean. — Northern California.
34. Salinan. — Southern California coast.
35. Salishan. — Northwestern Oregon, northern Washing
ton, northern Idaho, western Montana, and south
western British Columbia.

APPENDIX II 443
36. Sastean. — Northern California.
37. Shahaptian. — Southeastern Washington, northeast
ern Oregon, and western Idaho.
38. Shoshonean. — Southern Texas to northern Montana
and north of Colorado River, west to Sierra Ne
vada. In southern California through to the Pacific.
Classed now as Nahuatlan.
39. Siouan. — Continuously from northern Louisiana to the
province of Saskatchewan, eastward to the Missis
sippi, and in Wisconsin as far as Lake Michigan,
westward to the eastern boundaries of Colorado and
Idaho. There were also formerly a number of tribes
of this stock in North Carolina, South Carolina, and
Virginia.
40. Skittagetan. — Queen Charlotte Island, northwestern
coast.
41. Takilman. — Southwestern Oregon.
42. Tanoan. — Valley of the Rio Grande del Norte, New
Mexico.
43. Timuquanan. — Florida.
44. Tonikan. — Eastern Louisiana and western Mississippi.
45. Tonka wan. — Western and southern Texas.
46. Uchean. — Georgia.
47. Waiilatpuan. — Northeastern Oregon.
48. Wakashan. — Coast of British Columbia.
49. Washoan. — Eastern California and western Nevada.
50. Weitspekan. — Northwestern California and south
western Oregon.
51. Wishoskan. — Northwestern California.
52. Yakonan. — Coast of Oregon.
53. Yanan. — Northern California.
54. Yukian. — Western California.
55. Yuman. — Arizona, southern California, and Lower
California.
56. Zunian. — Western New Mexico.

APPENDIX III
LIST OF INDIAN RESERVATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES
IN 1902, AND THE NUMBER OF ACRES
CONTAINED IN EACH
ARIZONA TERRITORY
Name of Reservation. Area in Acres.
Colorado River  240,640
Fort Apache  . 681,920
Gila Bend  „ 22,391
Gila River  357,120
Havasupai (Supai)  38,400
Hopi (Moqui)  . 2,472,320
Navajo  9,442,240
Papago  27,566
Salt River  46,720
San Carlos  . 1,834,240
Walapai (Hualapai)  730,880
CALIFORNIA
Hupa Valley  99,051
Mission (22 reserves)  180,623
Round Valley  32,282
Tule River  4°\55 l
Yuma  45>889
445

446 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
COLORADO
Name of Reservation. Area in Acres.
Ute  483,57°
IDAHO
Coeur d'Alene  404,480
Fort Hall  . 447,940
Lapwai  . 32,020
Lemhi  64,000
INDIAN TERRITORY
Cherokee  4,420,071
Chickasaw  . 4,653,146
Choctaw  6,975,460
Creek  3,079,086
Modoc  3,976
Ottawa .  1,587
Peoria  6,851
Quapaw  56,245
Seminole  365,851
Seneca  26,086
Shawnee  2,543
Wyandot  535
IOWA
Sauk and Fox  2,965
KANSAS
Chippewa and Munsee  45T95
Iowa  11,768
Kickapoo  7,604
Potawatomi  19,059
Sauk and Fox  985
MICHIGAN
Isabella  2,373
L'Anse  5,266
Ontonagon  678

APPENDIX III 447
MINNESOTA
Name of Reservation. Area in Acres.
Bois Fort  55,2ii
Deer Creek  295
Fond du Lac  23,283
Grand Portage (Pigeon River) ..... 24,191
Leech Lake  37,683
Mdewakanton  1,101
Mille Lacs  61,014
Red Lake  800,000
Vermilion Lake  1,080
White Earth  703,512
White Oak Point and Chippewa  *4>389
MONTANA
Blackfeet . .  960,000
Crow  3,504,000
Fort Belknap  . 497,600
Fort Peck  1,776,000
Jocko  1,433,600
Northern Cheyenne  489,500
NEBRASKA
Niobrara  32,875
Omaha  151O97
Ponka  27,202
Sioux  32,000
Winnebago  27,495
NEVADA
Duck Valley  312,320
Moapa River  1,000
Pyramid Lake  322,000
Walker River  3l8>8l5

448

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

NEW
Name of Reservation.

MEXICO TERRITORY Area in Acres.
Jicarilla Apache  286,400
Mescalero Apache  474,240

Pueblo

Jemez Acoma
San Juan .
Picuris
San Felipe
Pecos .
Cochiti . .
Santo Domingo
Taos .
Santa Clara .
Tesuque .
St. Ildefonso .
Pojoaque .
Sia ....
Sandia .
Isleta  110,080
Nambe  13,586
Laguna  125,225
Santa Ana  17,361
 215,040
NEW YORK
Alleghany  30,469
CattaraugusOil Spring
Oneida
Onondaga .
St. Regis .
TonawandaTuscarora .

17,510
95,792 17,54517,461
34,7^7 18,763
24,256 74,743i7,3DI!7,36917,47*
i7,293
13,520 i7,5i5
24,187

Zuni

21,680 640
350
6,100
14,640 7,549
6,249
! 50,000 15,211
33,000

NORTH CAROLINA

APPENDIX HI 449
NORTH DAKOTA
Name of Reservation. Area in Acres.
Devil's Lake  98,224
Fort Berthold  884,720
Standing Rock  2,672,640
Turtle Mountain  46,080
OKLAHOMA TERRITORY
Cheyenne and Arapaho  529,682
Iowa  8,685
Kansas  100,137
Kickapoo  22,529
Kiowa and Comanche  480,000
Oakland  11,273
Osage  1,470,058
Otoe  63,419
Pawnee  112,859
Ponka  26,328
Potawatomi  215,679
Sauk and Fox  87,683
Wichita  152,991
OREGON
Grande Ronde  26,111
Klamath  872,186
Siletz  . 47,7^6
Umatilla  79,820
Warm Springs  322,108
SOUTH DAKOTA
Crow Creek and Old Winnebago .... 112,031
Lake Traverse  309,904
Cheyenne River  2,867,840
Lower Brule  200,694
Pine Ridge  3,155,200
Rosebud  2,265,100
Yankton .  268,567^

45°

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

UTAH
Name of Reservation. Area in Acres.
Uinta Valley  2,039,040
Uncompahgre  Partly reopened
WASHINGTON
Chehalis  471
Columbia  24,220
Colville  1,300,000
Hoh River  640
Lummi  1,884
Makah  23,040
Muckleshoot  3,367
Nisqualli  4,718
Osette  640
Port Madison  2,015
Puyallup  500
Quileute  397
Quinaielt  224,000
Shoalwater  i«
Skokomish  276
Snohomish or Tulalip  8,930
Spokane  153,600
Squaxon Island (Klahchemin)  1,494
Swinomish (Perry's Island)  1,710
Yakima  . 587,010
WISCONSIN
Lac Courte d'Oreilles  20,096
Lac du Flambeau  90 666
La Pointe (Bad River)  8?, 816
*edCliff  2,535
Menominee  231 680
Oneida  65,402
Stockbridge  11,803
WYOMING
Wind River  1,754,960

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
date page
1493. Indians of North America described by Co
lumbus  3
1495. Indians sent by Columbus as slaves to Spain 6
1499. North American Indians met by Gasper Cor-
tereal  235
15 1 7. First contact of Spaniards with natives of
Yucatan  23
15 19. Cortes encountered Mexican Indians ... 31
1524. Verrazano met with tribes of Abnakis . . 201
1525. Hurtado attempted to establish a Spanish
colony at Chiriqui Lagoon .... 9
1539. Spaniards settled at Campeche  23
1540. Coronado attacked by Indians of New Mexico 44
Cherokees first encountered by De Soto . . 102
De Soto found Uchees on Savannah River . 66
1540— 1 54 1. The Quapaws found by De Soto in
Arkansas  343
1542. California Indians first noticed  385
1 5 64—1 567. The French attempted to plant a colony
in Florida  53
1585. Indians in the vicinity of Roanoke Island met
by the Raleigh expedition  70
1595-1599. Actual occupation of Mexico by the
Spaniards  46
15.98. Apaches first noticed in history .... 376
1604. Attempt to plant a French colony on coast
at Port Royal  231
45i

452

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

DATE PAGE
1606. Grant to Sir Thomas Gates and others to
establish a colony in Virginia .... 71
1608. Manahoac Indians first met by John Smith . 82
1609. Mohegans first met by Hudson .... 141
Reckgawawanc, or Manhattan, chieftaincy
came into conflict with Hudson . . . 135
1 610. Insurrection of the Talamanca and massacre
of Spanish settlers  11
1 61 3. Marriage of Pocahontas  75
1614. Dutch settled at New Amsterdam . . . . 132
Captain John Smith visited the eastern coast
Indians  202
1618. Powhatan's death  76
1620. New. England occupied by Algonquian family 155
Plymouth Colony founded  156
1622. Virginia Colony overwhelmed by Powhatan
confederacy  77
1625. Conspiracy among the natives of New Eng
land against the whites  159
1626. Navajos first mentioned in history . . . . 377
1634. Leonard Calvert settled in Indian town of
Yoacomaco  85
1634 [or 1639]. Jean Nicolet, first white man to
visit Indians on borders of Wisconsin . 284
1637. Pequod war against Connecticut settlers . . 162
1638. Apalaches at war with Spanish colonists . . 55
Act of Assembly governing the relations of
the Indians and Marylanders .... 87
1 638-1 639. Maryland colonists and the natives at
conflict  87
1639. Potawatomies found located near Green Bay . 295
First historical mention of Winnebagoes . . 287
Sioux tribes located west of Lake Superior . 326
1 640. Mexican Indians revolted against the Spaniards 46
1643. Death of Miantonomah, the Narragansett
sachem  175

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 453
DATE PAGE
1643. Dutch conflict with Indians  136
1644. Indians of Virginia sought to exterminate
colonists  79
1645. Peace treaty at Fort Orange between Dutch
and Indians  142
Narragansett and Nihantic Indians made
peace with the English colonists . . . 176
1647. Maryland colonists attacked by Nanticokes
and Wicomicos  88
1649. Act of Maryland Colony passed regulating
transfer of Indian lands  89
1656. Richahecrian Indians settled near falls of
James River  82
1655, 1657, I058. Laws of Virginia passed regu
lating lands of Indians  80
1659, 1680. Reservations in Connecticut set apart
for Wepawaugs  179
1660. Catholic missions planted in northwestern
section  284
1661. Deathof Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoags 185
Alexander invested with chieftainship of the
Wampanoags  186
Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas entered
into a treaty of peace with the French . 223
1663. Stuyvesant acted as intermediary between
Dutch and Indians  140
1664. Dutch settlement at New Amsterdam super
seded by the English  145
1665. Act passed by Virginia Assembly regulating
limits of Indian lands  80
1669. Mohawks sought protection from the French 142
Sauks located about Green Bay .... 299
1670. Father Marquette met Illinois Indians at
La Pointe  265
1 67 1. The court of Connecticut ordered settlers to
respect Indian allies  198

454

THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA

DATE PAGE
1671. French took possession of northwest country 285
1671— 1672. Crees found located on James Bay . . 353
1675-1676. King Philip's war  186
1678. Peace between Penobscots and English con
cluded by Governor Andros .... 205
1679. Du Luth visited the Chippewas' territory . . 291
Xicaques brought under Christian influence . 13
1680. Hurons found by La Salle along Detroit River 220
Yamasis revolted against Spaniards in Florida 100
1 68 1. Penn's message to the Delawares . . . . 125
1682. Death of Uncas, the Mohegan sachem . . 182
1683— 1684. Foxes and Chippewas joined the French
against the Iroquois  298
1686. Yamasis made war on Spaniards .... 100
Penn's deed of transfer of land of the Dela
wares  116
1687. Revolt of the Indians of Florida against
Spanish oppression  60
The French under Denonville marched
against the Five Nations  225
1689. Wappinger tribe joined the English in war
against the French  140
1692. The Spaniards under Don Diego Vargas Za
pata attempted to conquer New Mexico 48
1693. First notice of Cherokee tribe  103
1696. Pueblo Indians rebelled against Spaniards . . 48
1 700. Dakotas became a prominent factor in history
of the northwest  328
1702. Alibamus incorporated into Creek confed
eracy  310
1703. Eastern Indians and French attacked Maine
and New Hampshire settlements . . 207
1707. Act of Virginia Assembly passed regulating
Indian traders  96
1708. French settlement at Mobile Bay attacked
by Creeks, Cherokees, and Catawbas . 31 1

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 455
DATE PAGE
171 1. Tuscaroras massacred North Carolina colo
nists  99
1 71 2. The Tzental Indians, led by Maria Cande-
laria, revolted against the Spaniards . . 22
Cherokees aided Carolina colonists in war
with the Tuscaroras  103
Catawbas joined the Carolina colonists against
the Tuscaroras  98
1713. Tuscarora war recommenced  100
Navajos defeated by the Spaniards . . . . 377
1 71 5. Carolina colonists attacked by Cherokees,
Catawbas, and Congarees  101
North Carolina established regulations as to
the purchase of Indian lands . . . . 106
1718. Agreement made at Philadelphia defining
boundaries of Indian lands . . . . 116
Treaty made with the Tuscarora Indians . . 100
1722. Treaty of peace concluded at New York
between Iroquois and Virginia and her
tributary Indians  85
1724. Comanches first noticed in the Spanish
records  74
1736. Chickasaws defeated French under D'Arte-
guette and Bienville  319
1738. Assiniboins accompanied La Verendrye to the
upper Missouri  334
1 74 1. Oregon Indians first mentioned . . . . 388
1744. Iroquois confederacy decided to remain neu
tral between English and French . . 145
1746. Comanches attacked the Spanish settlers . . ¦ 374
Five thousand Navajos converted to Chris
tianity  378
1749. Final peace treaty made between eastern In
dians and colonists  207
1751—1753. Indians of Ohio sought aid ofthe Eng
lish against the French  240

456 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
DATE PAGE
1755. Shawnees joined the French against General
Braddock  270
Winnebagoes aided French at Fort Du Quesne 288
General Braddock defeated by French and
their Indian allies on the Monongahela 241
1757. Tedyuscung concluded treaty with Governor
Morris, at Easton, Pennsylvania, settling
land disputes  122
New Jersey Legislature prescribed measures
in protection of Indians  1 12
1760. Pontiac's war  250
1763. Tedyuscung treacherously murdered by Sen
eca Indians  124
Dakotas entered into friendship with the
English  328
Council between Six Nations and English
convened by Sir William Johnson . . 256
1764. Treaty made between Catawbas and South
Carolina apportioning lands to the tribe 99
1768. Treaty of Fort Stanwix defined the boundary
between lands of Indians and whites . 271
Treaty with Cherokees defined southwest
border of Virginia  104
1769. Pontiac assassinated  304
Missions planted among California Indians . 385
Death of Ben Uncas, the last Mohegan sachem 183
1776. Cherokees attacked the settlements in eastern
Tennessee and North Carolina . . . 105
1777. Wappinger and Mohegan tribes under Wash
ington in the Revolutionary struggle . 140
1778. Wyoming massacre  126
1780. Chippewas destroyed the Foxes .... 292
1 78 1. Decree of Royal Audience of Mexico as to
lands of Pueblo Indians  51
11^2t *793, I79°» 1802. Congress reserves power
of control over Indian lands . . . 402—403

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 457
DATE paGE
1784. McGillivray, the Creek "emperor," makes
treaty with Spain  311
1786. Apaches subdued by Spaniards  376
System of Indian reservations instituted by
the United States  408
1786, 1799. Acts of Maryland relating to purchase
of the lands of the Nanticoke and Chop-
tank Indians  89
1790. McGillivray concluded treaty with United
States on behalf of Creeks . . . . 312
General Harmar's expedition against the In
dians  275
1794. Wayne defeated Indians at Maumee . . . 276
1795. Treaty of peace concluded at Fort Greenville 276
1795— 18 16. Treaties made between Chippewas and
the United States, ceding lands . . . 292
1803— 1805. Navajos in hostility to the whites . . 378
1804. Congress provided for settlement of Indians
on lands west of the Mississippi in ex
change for those east of it .... 404
Sauks and Foxes ceded lands east of Missis
sippi to the United States  300
1809. Treaty made at Fort Wayne ceding Indians'
lands in Indiana  297
181 1. Tecumseh, the Shawnee chief, took up arms
against the United States  278
1 81 2. Winnebagoes sided with the English in war
against the United States  288
Dakotas supported the English in war against
the United States  328
18 13. Massacre by Creek Indians at Lake Tensas . 314
Creek war  315
1815. Treaty of peace made by Dakotas with the
United States  328
1816. Sauks made treaty of peace with the United
States  300

458 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
DATE PAGE
1 8 1 7. Border warfare between Seminoles and settlers
on the frontiers of Georgia .... 63
1 82 1. Peninsula of Florida acquired by the United
States  63
1825. Treaty made between the United States and
northwest tribes, fixing boundaries . . 293
1832. Black Hawk war  299
1832, 1834. Choctaws ceded their lands east ofthe
Mississippi  320
1833. Illinois Indians removed to west of the Mis
sissippi  304
1835— 1842. Seminole war  64
1837. Osceola entrapped by General Jessup . . 64
1839— 1841. The Indians of Yucatan took part in
the rebellions for state independence . 24
1848. Trouble with Oregon Indians  391
1855— 1856. Rogue River war  393
1862. Sioux rebellion  329
1862— 1863. Apaches in conflict with United States
troops  376
1865. United States troops engaged against the Sho
shones  370
1868. Mayan revolt against Mexican government . 24
1868, 1885-1886, 1901-1902. Yaquis in rebellion
against Mexican government .... 42
1872— 1873. General Crook subdues the Apaches . 376'
1873. The Modoc war  •. 371
1876. General Custer killed in the Sioux rebellion . 3.33
1879. War with the Utes  371
1887. Congress invested President with authority to
allot lands to Indians in severalty . . 408
1889. Congress established United States Court in
Indian Territory  410
1 890-1 89 1. Dakota rebellion quelled by General
Miles  333

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME II
FACING PAGE
Black Hawk (Ma-ka-tai-she-kia-kiak — Black Sparrow-hawk).
From the original painting from life by R. M. Sully, now in
possession of the Wisconsin Historical Society . . . • . . title
Ethnological Map A, Part I. Showing linguistic families of
Mexico and Central America. From the original made for
this work under the direction of Professor Thomas ... 33
Ethnological Map A, Part II. Showing linguistic families of
Mexico and Central America. From the original made for
this work under the direction of Professor Thomas ... 48
Aztec drawing showing the Spanish conquest of the Indians.
From a facsimile ofthe so-called Lienzo de Tlascala canvas,
the original of which was destroyed during the revolution
after the downfall of Maximilian. This portion represents
an event during the expedition ofNuno de Guzman, in IJJO,
•when the Tlascalans aided the Spaniards in punishing
another tribe, which had hung a Spaniard  65
Martyrdom of an Indian. After a copperplate in Las Casas' s
account of the Spanish cruelties to the natives. From the
original in possession ofthe Philadelphia Library Company. 97
Ethnological Map B. Showing linguistic families in Eastern
section. From the original made for this work under the
direction of Professor Thomas  II2
Ethnological Map C. Showing stocks and families north of
Mexico. From the original made for this work under the
direction of Professor Thomas  I29
459

460 THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA
FACING PAGE
Candelaria, "The Belle of Sen." Gulf of California, Sonora,
Mexico. From a photograph supplied by the Bureau of
American Ethnology, Washington  144
Palowatiwa. Type of Zufiian, Zuni, New Mexico. From a
photograph supplied by the Bureau of American Ethnology,
Washington  144
William Bartram. 1739-1823. After the original by Charles
W. Peale, now in Independence Hall, Philadelphia . . . 161
George Catlin. 1796-1872. From the original, painted by
himself when twenty-eight years of age  161
Reverend John Heckewelder, 1743— 1823, missionary to the
Indians and author of many works on Indians. From the
original painting in possession ofthe American Philosophical
Society  176
Portrait of Tecumseh. From the original drawing in the collec
tion of Colonel Durrett, of Louisville, Kentucky . . . . 193
Plan of the Indian fort or palisado of the Pequods in New Eng
land, from Underhill' s News from America, printed in 1638.
After the original in the New York Public Library, Lenox
Branch  208
Manuscript proclamation of Benjamin Church relating to "scalp
money, prisoners, or plunder." From the original in the
Newberry Library, Chicago  241
Powhatan surrounded by his wives. After the drawing on Cap
tain John Smith's map. From the original in the British
Museum  256
Title-page of John Eliot's New'Testament in the Nihantic dia
lect, printed at Cambridge in 1661. This is the first New
Testament in any form or language printed in the Western
Hemisphere. From the very rare original in the New York
Public Library, Lenox Branch  288
Red Jacket. From the original painting, now in Independence
Hall, Philadelphia  305
Shabbona. From the original painting by E. S. Webber, loaned
to the Chicago Historical Society by C. F. Gunther, Esq. . 305

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

461

FACING PAGE

Alphabet of the Cherokee language, arranged by Sequaya (Sika-
wayi). From the copy in the Bureau of American Ethnology,
Washington  321
Document signed July 28, 1769, by chiefs ofthe Six Nations in
acknowledgment of receipt of the sum of ten thousand
dollars paid to them by Thomas and Richard Penn, through
Sir William Johnson, for lands sold under the treaty of
Fort Stanwix. From the original in the New York Public
Library, Lenox Branch  336
Indian stone hammer found on the Paca farm, Wye Island,
Maryland, and arrow heads from Kittrell County, North
Carolina. In the collection of Joseph Y. Jeanes, Esq.,
Philadelphia   353
Navajo blanket weaving. From the original in the Smithsonian
Institution, Washington  368
Plenty Horses. Type of Algonquian, Cheyenne. From a photo
graph made for this work by Professor De Lancey Gill, of
the Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington . . . . 385
Types of Yuman Cocopa. From photographs by Professor De
Lancey Gill, of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Wash
ington  4°°

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