Auglaize County, Ohio - Chapter 2: Indian Occupation of Ohio, 1905

Chapter 2: Indian Occupation of Ohio

The origin of the North American Indian is unknown. "Many theories have been advanced to account for the red man's presence in the New World, but most of them have been vague and unsatisfactory." Our knowledge of the Ohio Indians does not extend beyond the year 1650. It is difficult to realize that the third state in the Union, now occupied by prosperous cities, villages and cultivated fields, was peopled only two and a half centuries ago by a race of savages, who were not only wild rovers of the forest, but were unskilled in aught, save warfare, and the excitement of the chase.

The Ohio of 1650, we assume to have been a wilderness of vast extent, occupied in the northern part by a nation of Indians, called the Eries, whose villages skirted the southern shore of Lake Erie. The wanderings of the Indians were confined, chiefly, to that portion of the state, as they depended for their sustenance on fish taken from the lake, and game taken from the dense forest skirting the shore.

At that time the Wyandots. (or Hurons) held the peninsula between Lakes Huron, Erie and Ontario, and their hunting excursions extended as far south as the regions about the mouths, of the Maumee river, while a tribe called the Andastes occupied the villages of the Allegheny and upper Ohio.

In 1655 Five Nations or Iroquois, as the French called them, attacked the western tribes, and their extinction soon followed. After the great massacre, the remnant of survivors was incorporated with other tribes, to which they fled for refuge. .

Nothing in Indian history is more imposing than the Confederacy of the Five Nations, the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, and Senecas. This great league of red men exercise#d for many years a fierce kind of despotism over other branches of its own race, sweeping everything before it in battle, crushing the obstinate, and establishing a jurisdiction over an amazing spread of country. Later, the Confederacy was joined by the Delawares and Shawanese, after which it was called the Six Nations. The Shawanese being late arrivals, accepted, after many struggles, the bitter necessity of acknowledging the rule of the Iroquois. They became united, as the Delawares were, by conquest.

"Thus it was at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Ohio was almost unclaimed and uninhabited by human beings, save as it was used as a hunting ground by the Iroquois, or crossed and recrossed by them in their long war expeditions. But they were not able to maintain complete supremacy over- so vast a region. Between 1700 and 1750, Ohio again became occupied by different tribes of savages, as weeds take possession of a neglected field." They sprang from the surviving members of the tribes that had been overcome and dispersed by the Iroquois. A mere enumeration of them must suffice :

1. The Wyandots, who formerly occupied the northern portion of the state along the Sandusky river, now returned and occupied their old hunting grounds.

tribes. These tribes occupied an extensive area in Ohio and Indiana. They were always a restless people, moving from place to place with such frequency that much of their history is wrapped in obscurity. There is scarcely a doubt that they were present at the treaty of peace and friendship negotiated by William Penn in 1683. They must have been considered a very prominent people, from the fact of their having preserved a copy of the treaty in their possession or keeping, as we are informed that, at a treaty held with them by the governor of Pennsylvania in 1722, the Shawanese produced Penn's treaty on parchment to the governor.

Life Among The Ohio Indians

The various tribes of Ohio Indians differed in their social conditions, customs and practices nearly as much as do the barbarous nations of Asia, from whom some writers suppose the Indians have descended.

moving from place to place, as game became scarce, or as they became involved in wars, which made it unsafe for them to remain long in a particular locality.

They usually lived in villages near streams or springs. The structures which formed the villages were wigwams, covered with bark or the skins of wild animals. "In some of the older and larger villages they lived in pole or log houses of a more permanent character. In addition to dwellings of such a character, many villages had what were called long houses, large enough to hold from thirty to fifty families in separate booths or stalls." Figure I shows a frame house of the Senecas, covered with elm bark. Smoke is seen at regular intervals issuing from five holes in the roof. Under each hole is a stone fireplcae in the middle of the hard, earthen floor, and around each fire pit are four stalls, two on each side and opening on the long passageway that runs through the center of the house with an outside door at each end. This house would have twenty-four compartments, of which twenty would hold each a family, while at each end two stalls were generally reserved for storing provisions. A house occupied by a single family had a fire-pit in the middle' of the floor. The foregoing description of an Indian long house is taken from John Fisk's "History of the United States." Nearly all of the Shawanese Indians lived in pole or log houses during the winter months. In addition to the dwellings described, there was, in the chief town of every nation, a building set apart for public purposes, called a council house. This building, as in the example of the long house, was either a frame covered with bark, or a log structure of sufficient dimensions to accommodate a large number of people. In these buildings national and tribal councils were called to debate questions of policy and right.

Clans And Tribes

All the families, living in a long house or an equivalent group of houses, traced their descent from a common female ancestor. Each clan had its own name, - usually that of some animal or bird, as the Wolf, Bear, Turtle, Eagle or Turkey. Such animals or birds were held sacred, and carved images of them, called totems, served as a kind of clan emblem, and were placed over the doors of their houses.

A certain number of clans, - from three or four up to twenty or more, - speaking the same language, constitute an Indian tribe. Every tribe, as a usual thing, elected a head war-chief, and was governed by a council of its clan-sachems.

Religion

The Indians were a superstitious race of people, but did not practice idolatry, so common among the barbarous nations of the Eastern Continent. "They believed in a great spirit, everywhere present, ruling the elements, showing favor to the obedient, and punishing the sinful. He they worshipped ; to Him they sacrificed. But not in temples, for they built none. They also believed in many subordinate spirits - some good, some bad. Both classes were believed to frequent the earth. The bad spirits brought evil dreams to the Indian ; diseases 'also, bad passions, cruel winters, and starvation. The good spirits brought sunshine, peace, plentiful harvests, all the creatures of the chase. He believed that the Medicine Man, or Prophet, obtained a knowledge of these things by fasting and prayer, and then made revelations

In connection with their religious rites they indulged in a great variety of wild barbaric dances. They had the corn dance,, which took place in the spring, and was an important ceremony, for its object was to secure favor of the Great Spirit, that their crops might be bountiful. The green corn dance took place at the time that Indian corn was sufficiently matured for roasting ears. It was a time of dancing, feasting and thanksgiving to the Great Spirit. The replacement dance was another ceremonial engaged in on funeral occasions. Before the dance, a game of chance of some kind was played, and he who won the game, became heir to the possessions of the deceased, after which all joined in a merry dance. The complimentary dance was given in honor of a Medicine Man, after he had, as was believed, effected some cure. But as is well known, the war dance was the one in which they took the greatest interest and delight. Before engaging in the exercise, the warriors painted their faces and bodies in hideous colors, and decorated their heads with the feathers of the eagle, hawk pr other bird. The warrior was fond of hanging about his person numerous trappings ; claws of bears, fangs of rattlesnakes, claws of hawks, bones of animals and scalps of enemies. After spending the night in festivities and dancing the warriors leave the village in the early morning, apparently impressed with the perils of the enterprise, and preserve the most profound silence in their departure.

An immoderate love of play, or games of hazard so common among people unaccustomed to the occupations of regular industry was universal among the Indians. Their games and plays Consisted of running, wrestling, shooting at a mark, racing in canoes along swift rivers or placid lakes, playing at ball, or * engaging in intricate and exciting games, performed with small stones resembling checkers or dice. The Indian under ordinary circumstances was indifferent, silent, and phlegmatic, but as soon as he engaged in play he became animated, impatient, noisy, and almost frantic with eagerness. Under the influence of fierce passion, he would hazard his entire possessions.

-considered to be a noble virtue. The Indian was treacherous and cruel beyond description, and was never so happy as when at the dead of night, he roused his sleeping victims with an unearthly yell, and massacred them by the light of their burning home. "Much, though, as he loved war, the fair and open fight had no charms for him. To his mind it was madness to take the scalp of an enemy at the risk of his own, when he might waylay him in ambush or shoot him with an arrow from behind a tree/' If prisoners were captured they were taken to certain noted localities where they were tortured. In these tortures they exhibited the most diabolical ingenuity in devising the most excruciating torments. We have never seen an estimate of the number of white people, tortured by the Indians during the Colonial and Revolutionary periods of our history, but from the summing up of all accounts, the number must have amounted to several thousand. Among the noted localities where large numbers of prisoners were tortured we note the following: Fort Duquesne,

Chillicothe, Upper Sandusky, Lower Sandusky, the Shawanee towns of Piqua, Wapakoneta, St. Marys, and Fort Wayne. The latcer named place is said to have been the most noted one in the Northwest Territory.

"The extreme point of land just below the mouth of St. Joseph river (near the present city of Fort Wayne) is said to have been the accustomed place of burning the prisoners taken in southern and southeastern Ohio. The records of depravity present no more terrible examples of cruelty than were furnished on this spot. The prisoners who had been captured and reserved for this horrible rite, were bound to stakes, and slowly burned to death. After life was extinct, they were devoured by the savage blood-thirsty fiends in the presence of the whole tribe, who had assembled to witness the awful spectacle. The last poor victim sacrificed in this way, at this place, is said to have been a young man from Kentucky, who had been captured in the latter part of the Revolutionary War."

Domestic Life

During the summer months the Indians lived in their villages, around which the women and children cleared patches and fields in which they planted corn, beans, squashes, Indian cucumbers, pumpkins, melons and tobacco. The cultivation of the crops de- volved entirely upon the squaws and children. The implements used by them were made from sharp bones of animals, tortoise shells, or flat stones. The labor of cultivation must have been much harder for them than for the whites. After the traders came among them they exchanged their furs for hoes and other garden implements. The cultivated products of the Ohio Indians* exceeded in quantity those of any other equal area in North America. The great quantities of grain stored away for food, should game become scarce has always been a subject of surprise to students of our early history. The large quantity of corn and other provisions captured at Loramie's store was a matter of great surprise to General Clark and his officers, when they raided that den of atrocities in 1780. It is recorded further, that when General Wayne moved down the Auglaize river on his way to Defiance, that his army marched through four thousand acres of corn at its confluence with the Maumee. Also, that there were thousands of acres between Defiance and the mouth of the Maumee river.

* Aside from tilling the soil, the squaws prepared the food and did the cooking. Though done in the rudest manner, it included jerking the venison, bear and buffalo meat, drying wild fruits and pumpkins, husking and storing away the corn, and gathering the wood for the fires. In addition to these duties, there were the duties of preparing wearing apparel, moccasins, baskets, and making maple sugar. All of the latter duties being performed in the interim of the more pressing affairs of life. Indians, ordinarily, dined twice a day, - morning and evening. In the hunting season, and times of excitement, the hours for meals were irregular. Where the families of a clan lived in close proximity they cooked and were fed from the same kettle. "The kettle was kept filled with corn, beans, and venison, from which every one partook when he became hungry." *

The only manual labor the men ever did was to make bows, arrows, tomahawks, war clubs, and canoes. The latter were either .made of logs slowly burned out and then smoothed with sharp shells, or of birch bark, which the women sewed together with long strong strips of bark from red elm or basswood trees and smeared the seams with spruce tree gum.

ing fire-hunting, gambling, or fighting a hostile tribe, or devoting themselves to their toilets - painting, tattooing, and otherwise decorating their bodies.

As autumn approached and the leaves began to change color preparations began for the fall and winter hunt. As soon as the nights and mornings became cool, they left their villages for the hunting grounds. Then it became the duty of the women to carrv the luggage. Their mode of proceeding has thus been described : "The master of the family, as a general thing, went ahead, leisurely bearing a gun, and perhaps a lance in his hand. The woman followed with the mats, poles and other necessaries, and not infrequently the household dog perched on the top of all. If there was a horse or pony in the list of family possessions the man rode and the squaws trudged after him. It has been asserted by way of apology by some persons, said to be versed in Indian character, that this unequal division of labor was the result of no want of kind affectionate feeling on the part of the husband. It was rather the instinct of the sex to assert its superiority of position and importance when a proper occasion was afforded. When out of the reach of observation, and in no danger of com- promising his own dignity, the husband was willing enough to relieve his spouse from the burden that custom imposed upon her. Thus their winters were spent in hunting the deer, the otter, the bear and the buffalo. And when they were admonished by budding trees, and- flowers, and grass, and the return of singing birds that spring had come, they gathered again in their villages/'