Peoria County, Illinois - Chapter 1, 1880

The Indians

Following the Mound Builders as inhabitants of North America, were, as it is supposed, the people who reared the magnificent cities, the ruins of which are found in Central America. This people was far more civilized and advanced in the arts than were the Mound Builders. The cities built by them, judging from the ruins of broken columns, fallen arclies and crumbling walls of temples, palaces and pyramids, which in some places for miles bestrew the ground, must have been of great extent, magnificent and very populous. When we consider the vast period of time necessary to erect such colossal structures, and, again, tiie time required to reduce them to their present ruined state, we can conceive something of their antiquity. Tiiese cities must have been old when many of the ancient cities of the Orient were being l)uilt.

The third race inliabiting North America, distinct from the former two in every particular, is the present Indians. They were, when visited by tiie early discoverers, without cultivation, refinement or literature, and far behind the Mound Builders in the knowledge of the arts. The question of their origin has long interested archseologists, and is the most difficult they have been called upon to answer. Of their predecessors tiie Indian tribes knew iiotliing ; tliey liad even no traditions respecting them. It is quite certain tliat tiiey were tiie successors of a race wliicii liad entirely passed away ages before tlie discovery of the New World. One iiypotlu-sis is that tlie American Indians are an original race indigenous to the Western Hemisphere. Those wlio entertain this view think tlieir peculiarities of pliysical structure preclude the possibility of a common parentage witli tlie rest of mankind. Prominent among those distinctive traits is the hair, which in tiic red man is round, in the white man oval, and in the black man flat.

A more common supposition, however, is that they are a derivative race, and sprang from one or more of tlie ancient peoples of Asia. In the absence of all aulhentic hi.story, and wlien even tradition is wanting, any attempt to point out the particular location of tlieir origin must i)r()vc unsatisfactory. Thougii tlie exact place of origin may never lie known, yet tlic striking coincidence of jiiiysicai organization between the Oriental type of mankind and the Indians point unmistakably to some jiart of Asia as tiie place wlicnce they emigrated, whicli was originally peopled to a great extent by tiie children of Sliem. In this connection it has been claimed that the meeting of tlie Europeans, Indians and Africans on tlie continent of America, is the fulfillment of a propliecy as recorded in Genesis ix. '21 : "God shall enlarge Japiielli, and lie shall dwell in the tents of Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant." Assuming the theory to be true that tlie Indian tribes are of Shemitic origin, they were met on this continent in the fifteenth century by the Japhethic race, after the two stocks had passed around the globe by directly different routes. A few years afterward the Hamitic branch of the human family were brought from the coast of Africa. During the occupancy of the continent by the three distinct races, the children of Japheth have grown and prospered, while the called and not voluntary sons of Ham have endured a servitude in the wider stretching valle3's of the tents of Shem.

When Christopher Columbus had finally succeeded in demonstrating the truth of his theory that by sailing westward from Europe land would be discovered, landing on the Island of Bermuda he supj^osed he had reached the East Indies. This was an error, but it led to the adoption of the name of " Indians " for the inhabitants of the island and the main land of America, by which name the red men of America have ever since been known.

Of the several great branches of North American Indians the only ones entitled to consideration in Illinois history are the Algonquins and Iroquois. At the time of the discovery of America the former occupied the Atlantic seaboard, while the home of the Iroquois was as an island in this vast area of Algonquin population. The latter great hation spread over a vast territory, and various tribes of Algonquin lineage sprang ud over the country, adopting, in time, distinct tribal customs and laws. An almost continuous warfare was carried on between tribes ; but later, on the entrance of the white man into their beloved homes, every foot of territory was fiercely disputed by the confederacy of many neighboring tribes. The Algonquins formed the most extensive alliance to resist the encroachment of the whites, especially the English. Such was the nature of King Philip's war. This king with his Algonquin braves spread terror and desolation throughout New England. With the Algonquins as the controlling spirit, a confederacy of continental proportions was the result, embracing in its alliance the tribes of every name and lineage from the Northern lakes to the gulf. Pontiac, having breathed into them his implacable hate of the English intruders, ordered the conflict to commence, and all the British colonies trembled before the desolating fury of Indian vengeance.

Illinois Confederacy

The Illinois confederacy, the various tribes of which comprised most of the Indians of Illinois at one time, was composed of five tribes : the Tamaroas, Michigans, Kaskaskias, Cahokas, and Peorias. The Illinois, IMiamis and Delawares were of the same stock. As earl}' as 1670 the priest Father Marquette mentions frequent visits made by individuals of this confederacy to the missionary station at St. Esprit, near the western extremity of Lake Superior. At that time the}' lived west of the Mississippi, in eight villages, whither they had been driven from the shores of Lake Michigan by the Iroquois. Shortly afterward they began to return to their old hunting grounds, and most of them finally settled in Illinois. Joliet and Marquette, in 1673, met with a band of them on their famous voyage of discovery down the Mississippi. They were treated with the greatest hospitality by the principal chief. On their return voyage up the Illinois river they stopped at the principal town of the confederacy, situated on the banks of the river seven miles below the present town of Ottawa. It was then called Kaskaskia. Marquette returned to the village in 1675 and established the mission of the Immaculate Conception, the oldest in Illinois. When, 1679, LaSalle visited the town, it had greatly increased, numljering 460 lodges, and at the annual assembly of the different tribes, from 6,000 to 8,000 souls. In common with other western tribes, they became involved in the conspiracy of Pontiac, although displaying no very great warlike spirit. Pontiac lost his life by the hands of one of the braves of the Illinois tribe, which so enraged the nations

Starved Rock

Tradition states that a band of this tribe, in order to escape the general slaughter, took refuL,'e upon the high rock on the Illinois river since known as Starved Rock. Nature has made this one of the most formidable militar}' fortresses in the world. From the waters which wash its base it rises to an altitude of 12.5 feet. Three of its sides it is impossible to scale, while the one next to tiie land may be climbed witli difficulty. From its summit, almost as inaccessible as an eagle's nest, the valley of tlie Illinois is seen as a landscape of exquisite beauty. The river near by struggles between a number of wooded islands, while further below it quietly meanders through vast meadows till it disappears like a thread of light in the dim distance. On the summit of this rock the Illinois were besieged by a superior force of tlie Pottawattomies whom the great strength of their natural fortress enabled them to keep at bay. Hunger and tliirst, however, soon accomplished what the enemy was unable to effect. Surrounded by a relentless foe, without food or water, they took a last look at their beautiful hunting grounds, and with true Indian fortitude lay down and died from starvation. Years afterward their liones were seen whitening in that place. «

At the beginning of the present century the remnants of this once powerful confederacy were forced into a small compass around Kaskaskia. A few years later they emigrated to the Southwest, and in 1850 they were in the Indian Territory, and numbered but eighty-four persons.

Manners And Customs

The art of hunting not only supplied the Indian with food, but, like that of war, was a means of gratifying his love of distinction. The male children, as soon as they acquired sufficient age and strength, were furnished with a bow and arrow and taught to shoot birds and other small game. Success in killing large quadrupeds required years of careful stud}' and practice, and the art was as sedulously inculcated in tlie minds of the rising generation as are the elements of reading, writing and arithmetic in the common schools of civilized communities. The mazes of the forest and the dense, tall grasses of the prairies were the best fields for the exercise of the hunter's skill. No feet could be impressed in the yielding soil but that the tracks were the objects of the most searching scrutiny, and revealed at a glance the animal tliat made them, the direction it was pursuing, and the time tiiat had elapsed since it had passed. In a forest country he selected the valleys, because they were most frequently the resort of game. The most easily taken, perhaps, of all the animals of the chase was the deer. It is endowed with a curiosity wiiicli prompts it to stop in its flight and look back at the approaching hunter, who always avails himself of this opj)ortunity to let fly the fatal arrow.

Their general councils were composed of the chiefs and old men. When in council, they usually sat in concentric circles around the speaker, and each individual, notwithstanding the fiery passions tliat rankled witiiin, preserved an exterior as immovable as if cast in bronze. Before commencing business a person appeared with the sacred pipe, and another with fire to kindle it. After being liglited. it was first presented to lieaven, secondly to the earth, tliirdly to tlie j)residiiig spirit, and lastly the several councilors, each of whom took a wliifi". These formalities were observed with as close exactness as state etiquette in civilized courts.

The dwellings of the Indians were of the simplest and rudest character. On some pleasant spot by the bank of a river, or near an ever-running spring, they raised tlieir groups of wigwams, constructed of the l)ark of trees, and easily taken down and removed to another spot. Tlie dwelling-places of the chiefs were sometimes more spacious, and constructed with greater cure, but of the same materials. Skins taken in the chase served them for repose. Thoiigli principally dependent upon huntinjj and fishing, the uncertain .supjily from those sources led them to cultivate small jiatches of corn. Every family did every thing necessary within itself, commerce, or an interchange of articles, being almost unknown to them. In cases of dispute and dissension, each Indian relied upon himself for retaUation. lilood for blood was the rule, and the relatives of the slain man were bound to obtain bloody revenge for his death. This principle gave rise, as a matter of course, to innumerable and bitter feuds, and wai-s of extermination where such were possible. War, indeed, rather tlian peace, was the Indian's glory and delight, - war, not conducted as civilization, but war where individual skill, endurance, gallantry and cruelty were prime requisites. For such a purpose as revenge the Indian would make great sacrifices, and display a patience and perseverance truly heroic ; but when the excitement was over, he sank back into a listless, unoccupied, well-nigh useless savage. During the intervals of his more exciting pursuits, the Indian employed his time in decorating his person with all the refinement of paint and feathers, and in the manufacture of his arms and canoes. These were constructed of bark, and so light that they coidd easily he carried on the shoulder from stream to stream. His amusements were the war-dance, athletic games, the narration of his exploits, and listening to the oratory of the chiefs ; but during long periods of such existence he remained in a state of torpor, gazing listlessly upon the trees of the forests and the clouds that siiiled above them ; and this vacancy imprinted an habitual gravity, and even melancholy, upon his general deportment.

The main labor and drudgery of Indian communities fell upon the women. The planting, tending and gathering of the crops, making mats and baskets, carrying burdens, - in fact, all things of the kind were performed by them, tlius making their condition but little better than that of slaves. Marriage was merely a matter of bargain and sale, the husband giving presents to the father of the bride. In general they had but few children. They were subjected to many and severe attacks of sickness, and at times famine and pestilence swept away whole tribes.

A Life And Death Combat

The most desperate single-handed combat with Indians ever fought on the soil of Illinois was that of Tom Higgins, August 21, 1814. Higgins was 25 years old. of a muscular and compact build, not tall, but strong and active. In danger he possessed a quick and discerning judgment, and was without fear. He was a member of Journey's rangers, consisting of eleven men, stationed at Hill's Fort, eight miles southwest of the present Greenville, Putnam county. Discovering Indian signs near the fort, the cornpan)', early the following nioiiiing, started on the trail. They had not gone far before they were in an ambuscade of a larger part)'. At the first fire their commander. Journey, and three men fell, and six retreated to the fort ; but Higgins stopped to " have another {Hill at the red-skins," and. taking deliberate aim at a straggling savage, shot him down. Higgins' horse had been wounded at the first fire, as he supposed, mortally. Coming to, he was about to effect his escape, when the familiar voice of Burgess hailed him from the long grass. " Tom, don't leave me." Higgins told him to come along, but Burgess replied that his leg was smashed. Higgins attempted to raise him on his horse, but the animal took fright and ran away. Higgins then directed Burge.ss to limp off lus well as he could ; and by crawling through the gra.ss he reached the fort, while the former loaded his gun and remained lieiiind to protect him against the pursuing enemy. When Burgess w.Hs well out of the way, Higgins took another route, whicli led by asnuill thicket, to throw any wandering enemy off the trail. Here he was confronted by three .><avages approaching. He ran to a little ravine near for siielter, but in the effort discovered for the first time that he was badly wounded in the leg. He was closely pressed by the largest, a powerful Indian, who lodged a ball in his thigh. He fell, but instantly rose again, only, however, to draw the fire of the other two, and again fell wounded. The Indians now advanced upon him with their tomahawks and scalping knives ; but as he presented his gun first at one, then at another, from his place in the ravine, each wavered in his purpose. Neither party had time to load, and the large Indian, supposing finally that Higgins' gun was empty, rushed forward with uplifted tomaliawk and yell ; but as he came near enough, was shot down. At this the others raised the war-whoop, and rushed upon the wounded Higgins, and now a hand-to-hand conflict ensued. They darted at him with their knives time and again, inflicting many ghastly flesh-wounds, which bled profusely. One of the assailants threw his tomahawk at him with such precision as to sever his ear and lay bare his skull, knocking him down. They now rushed in on him, but he kicked them off, and grasping one of their spears thrust at him, was raised up by it. He quickly seized his gun, and by a jjowerful blow crushed in the skull of one, but broke his rifle. His remaining antagonist still kept up the contest, making thrusts with his knife at the bleeding and exhausted Higgins, which he parried with his broken gun as well as he could. Most of this desperate engagement was in plain view of the fort ; but the rangers, having been in one ambuscade, saw in this fight only a ruse to draw out the balance of the garrison. But a Mrs. Pursely, residing at the fort, no longer able to see so brave a man contend for his life unaided, seized a gun, mounted a horse, and started to his rescue. At this the men took courage and hastened along. The Indian, seeing aid coming, fled. Higgins, being nearly hacked to pieces, fainted from loss of blood. He was carried to the fort. There being no surgeon, his comrades cut two balls from his flesh ; others remaining in. For days his life was despaired of; but by tender nursing he ultimately regained his health, although badly crippled. He resided in Fayette county for many years after, and died in 1829.