Cass County, Indiana - Chapter 6: Indians, 1913

When Europeans first settled on American soil they found the Indians occupjdng the country. It was then the prevailing opinion among the whites that the Indians were one common family, of similar habits and speaking the same language. This error, however, was soon dispelled with a more extended observation and intimate relations with the new people in different sections of the country.

It was found that there were many tribes and combination of tribes or nations, so to speak, differing radically in language, habits and degrees of civilization.

In a former chapter it was stated that it was the consensus of opinion among anthropologists -that the various peoples inhabiting the American continent in the past, sprang from one common stock, the Mongolian race in eastern Asia. Many thousand years passed away and this primitive people were scattered over the entire continent, some tribes advancing, others retrograding, in the scale of civilization, brought about by various geologic, climatic and sociological conditions. These peoples having no written language, there was no fixed standard, hence we find great variations in oral expressions until the language of the tribes in widely separated sections of the continent became radically different, as well as their customs and habits, owing to environmental influences and other causes. The great difference between the mound builders of the Mississippi valley, the Toltecs and Aztecs of Mexico and South America and many of the nomadic tribes of our western country can thus be easily accounted for and it is not unreasonable to suppose that they all sprang from one common stock. Since the coming of Europeans to America, many examples of our American Indians have been observed, where they erected mounds for different purposes, thus showing some relationship to the mound builders. De Soto, when he landed in Florida three hundred and fifty years ago, had an opportunity to observe the customs of the Indians as they were in their primitive conditions before the contact with the whites had wrought the great change. At the very spot where he landed, supposed to be Tampa bay, they observed the chief's house stood on a high mound near the shore, made by hand, and goes on to relate that **the Indians try to place their villages on elevated sites, but inasmuch as Florida is a flat and level country they erect elevations themselves, by carrying earth and erecting a kind of platform, two to three pikes in height, the summit of which is large enough to give room for twelve, fifteen or twenty houses to lodge the cacique and his attendants. La Harpe, writing in 1720, says of the tribes on the lower Mississippi: ** Their cabins are dispersed over the country upon mounds of earth made with their own hands.'' Similar mounds were noticed in Arkansas by the first European explorers. In southern Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee the sites of thousands of Indian villages were observed, not in or on mounds but marked by little circular saucer shaped depressions, surrounded by a slight earthem ring.

The Natchez Indians also constructed mounds upon which to build their houses. The custom of erecting mounds was not confined to the southern Indians. Colden states that the *' Iroquois made burial mounds, placing the body on the ground then raising a round hill over it.

It was the custom among a large number of the tribes to gather together the remains of all who died during several years and bury them all together, erecting a mound over them. About the beginning of the eighteenth century ''Blackbird," a celebrated chief of the Omaha's returning to his native home after a visit to Washington, died of smallpox. It was his dying request that his body should be placed on horseback, and the horse buried alive with him. Accordingly, in the presence of all his nation, his body was placed on the back of his favorite white horse, fuUy equipped as for a journey with all that was necessary for an Indian's happiness, including the scalps of his enemies.

Turfs were brought and placed around the feet and legs of the horse, and on up the sides of the unsuspecting animal and so gradually the horse and the dead chief were buried from sight, thus forming a large burial mound. (See Catlin's North American Indian, Page 95.) These references show that the Indians of historical times did erect mounds and that there is every reason to suppose they were the authors of the temple mounds of the south; that they lived in permanent villages and knew how to raise mounds and embankments. It would then seem as if this removed all necessity for supposing the existence of an extinct race to explain the numerous remains known as mound bxdlders works. In fact, the more we study the subject, the more firmly we become convinced that there is no hard and fast lines separating the works of the mound builders from those of the later Indians. We therefore think that we may safely assert, that the best authorities in the United States, now consider the mound building tribes were Indians in much the same state of culture as the Indians in the Gulf States at the time of the discovery of America and we shall not probably be far out of the way if we assert that when driven from the valley of the Ohio by more warlike tribes they became absorbed by the southern tribes; indeed, the opinion is quite freely advanced, that the Natchez themselves were a remnant of the mysterious mound builders. Whilst the people inhabiting America prior to its discovery by Columbus in 1492, are supposed to have thus descended from one common stock, yet the Indians, as found by Europeans, were divided into numerous tribes and nations diflfering greatly in habits, customs and language.

**The Algonquins'' was a large and prominent division of the Indians of North America and all the tribes in this section belonged to this grand division.

When the white man first began to settle in Indiana, it was occupied principally by the Miami confederacy of Indians, which had been formed for the purpose of mutual defense against the five nations who occupied territory to the northeast and consisted of the Mohawks, Cayugas, Onondagas and Senecas.

The Miami League was made up of the following tribes: The Twightwees, later known as Miamis, Eelrivers, Weeas, Piankashaws and Shockeys. The Piankeshaws and Shockeys occupied territory along the lower Wabash about Vincennes; the Weeas' principal village was Ouiatenon, west of Lafayette, while the Miamis had settlements along the head waters of the Great Miami, Maumee, St. Joseph of Lake Michi- gan and the upper Wabash and its tributaries. The Pottawattomies or Pouks occupied the northwest part of the state, their lands extending down to the Wabash river at Logansport.

Other tribes of the Algonquin family were the Delawares or Lenne Lennapes, Shawnees, Peorias, Kaskaskias, Ottawas, Chippewas, Missessauges, Kickapoos, Sacs and Foxes. The Miamis and Pottawattomies are the only two tribes that occupied the present territory of Cass county at the time of its first permanent settlement by the whites, and the further consideration of the Indians will be largely confined to these two tribes.

When the first permanent settlers located in Cass county over eighty years ago, they found it occupied by the Miami and Pottawattomie tribes of Indians. While these Indians were wild hunters of the forest, living in a comparatively primitive state of savagery, yet their contact with the whites for one hundred and fifty years in trade and other relations, had changed their character and methods of living to some extent, still it is interesting to study the customs of this mysterious and now almost extinct race, specimens of which are a great curiosity to the people of this generation.

The Red Men of America possessed marked peculiarities of features: high cheek bones; long, straight black hair, of special coarseness; a red or copper-colored complexion; black eyes and tall and erect in stature. Their habits were peculiar as well as their physical construction. They lived by hunting and fishing, with a very limited cultivation of the soil. They^w^re fierce, vindictive, remarkably indifferent, stoical, grave in demeanor, treacherous and cowardly. They would fight but not in the open field or on equal terms, if they could avoid it; they preferred cunning to open, brave warfare. Their method of warfare consisted almost wholly in surprises and they possessed peculiar powers of hiding their trail when on the warpath, or in discovering that of their enemies. They lurked in ambush and would often lie hidden away for days, without food or water, waiting for an opportunity to surprise and slay an enemy. They would always carry off their own dead, not for the purpose of sepulcher, but to conceal their loss from their enemy. They had a stoicism that was absolutely wonderful. They withstood heat or cold with a like indifference. In times of plenty they gorged, in times of scarcity they starved with the same indifference. They endured torture with a sort of ferocious glee. They delighted in inventing new methods of torture to increase the sufferings of their enemies, and nothing could so radically gain their favor or excite their admiration as to bear the most intense suffering without a tremor. It was this characteristic to suffer stoically, that earned them their title to bravery, but it was not real bravery but stoical indifference. Their dress was of the scantiest kind, the men being almost naked and the women wearing a short skirt made of coarse hemp. In cold weather they wore skios of animals rudely stitched together. The men hunted, fished or fought, while the women did all the work and acted as beasts of burden. This did not arise so much from laziness as from a notion of pride, that the man must be a warrior and that work of any kind was beneath the dignity of a warrior. They roamed the woods and had no permanent abiding place for any length of time, although in later years they had villages and were not so nomadic as in the earliest settlements of the country. Their villages were composed of rude houses or wigwams made of poles stuck in the ground and tied together at the top with hickory wythes or raw-hide strings. They were covered with bark or a kind of mat made of flags. In some villages the houses were more pretentious and rude huts were constructed of poles and logs after the manner of the pioneer settler, but nearly all their dwellings were wigwams hastily constructed.

They took no prisoners in battle except to put them to torture and death. Once in a while, however, a victim was saved from torture by being adopted into the tribe by some member who had recently lost a son or husband.

They were haughty and taciturn. Their symbol of peace was a pipe which was lighted and passed around, each one in the peace compact taking a puff at the same pipe. The Indians, whether mounted or on foot, always moved in single file; this habit gave rise to the phrase, ** Indian file." Hundreds of Indians were thus often seen traveling stretched out along the trail for miles. They had a peculiar ''whoop'' by which they made communication along the line when desired. The whoop given by one would be caught up and repeated along the line until the forest would ring with hundreds of voices at one time. ,When the Indian met a white person he would instantly place the gun behind him as if to conceal it from view.

When they visited a settlers cabin they invariably came up to the rear. There being but one door to the cabin, as a rule, an Indian would leave the path leading to the door, go around to the rear, then stealthily walk back around the house and suddenly spring to the door and gave his salute, thus taking the family by surprise. The Indians had a great dislike for a coward. They admired a brave - Indian or white. It was unfortunate for the whites if, when the Indians visited their cabins, they showed signs of fear. Seeing the fear oi the white people, they would menace them with tomahawks and scalping-knives for the purpose of increasing their alarm. When the whites were well frightened the Indians would' often take anything they desired and appropriate it to their own uses. It was necessary for the settlers when Indians came to their cabins to exhibit a bold and defiant spirit, otherwise they would be brow-beaten and robbed.

An amusing incident was told to the writer that illustrates this feature of the Indian character. One day a number of Indians came to a settler's cabin tG buy some provisions. The man was not at home, but the good wife went to the smokehouse to get some bacon. Several squaws followed her in. One of them took a large piece of bacon and started out. She was told she could not have that piece. The. squaw persisted in carrying it off. The white woman seized the piece of meat, jerked it from the squaw and struck her a blow with the bacon that nearly knocked her down. This caused great merriment among the Indian bucks. They gathered around the settler's wife and patting her on the back, said: ** White squaw heap much brave; heap much fight." In selling anything to the Indians for money it was difficult to obtain a fair price. In such a trade they were shrewd, but in bartering for their furs, peltries, baskets, moccasins, etc., they seemed to have no judgment. One so disposed could take great advantage of them. Mr. C, a white man who had established a trading-post in an early day, having just received a supply of needles, told the Indians that the needle-maker was dead, and when the supply he had on hand was gone they would get no more. The result was, he exchanged his needles each for a coon skin, when the skin was worth fifty to seventy-five cents. Another incident showing the reckless and careless use of their property is shown by the Miami chief, Pa-louz-wa, or Francis Godfrey, as he was better known among the whites. He had a large tract of land in Miami county. It is told of him, that being at Lafayette on one occasion, when a steamboat arrived there from the Ohio river, he offered the captain a half section of land, if he would convey him and his party to their homes, som^ three mil^s above where Peru now stands. The offer was accepted and the trip made up the Wabash but the steamer was stranded owing to low water and never returned to Lafayette, but Pa-louz-wa made the deed to the promised half section of land.

This tribe of Indians was originally known as Twightwees, but they became friends of the French in a very early day, and the French called them M Amis (Miamis) as my friends, and they have been known by that name by the early settlers of Cass county and in all treaties with the state and nation.

They were a powerful and warlike tribe and produced one of the most remarkable chiefs and warriors known in American aboriginal history, Me-che-can-noch-qua or ** Little Turtle,'' who could well take rank with the greatest warriors of civilized nations. He was a man of extraordinary courage, sagacity and talents and a physical frame that equaled his courage. He reached the head of his nation at an early age, and from that time until his death, exerted an influence over his tribe never equaled by any other of its chiefs. He displayed great generalship at the head of the allied Indian forces that defeated General Harmar, October 19, 1790, and General St. Clair, November 1, 1791, the most disastrous reverses received by the nation at the hands of the Indians. He was, however, disastrously defeated by General Wayne, at Fort Wayne, August 20, 1794. ** Little Turtle" was ruling spirit in the Miami confederacy that was formed in the latter half of the eighteenth century, between the Twightwees with two hundred and fifty available warriors; the Piankeshaws, with three hundred; the Ouiatanons, with three hundred, and the Shockey, with two hundred, making an army of one thousand and fifty braves that roamed up and down the Wabash valley, a menace and a terror to the early settlers and often carrying death and destruction in their pathway. After the treaty of Greenville in 1795, ** Little Turtle" visited Philadelphia, where he was met and entertained by Volney and Kosciusko. While east his portrait was painted by a distinguished artist. He had warred against the Americans, but when peace was made he accepted it as final and ever afterward remained a steadfast friend of the whites. He opposed the attempt of Tecumseh to form a confederacy against the Americans. He died in 1812 and was buried with great honors at Ft. Wayne.

In the summer of 1912, while making some excavations near Ft. Wayne, the grave of ** Little Turtle" was opened and his bones with his tomahawk and other accoutrements were unearthed and taken charge of by the antiquarians of Ft. Wayne.

The last two chiefs of the Miamis were buried near Peru, in Miami county. The last great war chief was Pa-louz-wa, or Francis Godfrey, as he was known to the whites and next to ''little Turtle" was the most noted chief the Miamis ever had. When his tribe made the final treaty with the government and ceded possession of their lands in Indiana, four sections on the Mississinnewa were reserved for Pa-louz-wa. On this reservation he erected a trading post and became for those days a noted merchant. He died in 1840 and was buried on a high knoll overlooking the Wabash, east of Peru. On his grave a marble shaft has been erected bearing on one side his white name and on the other, ''Late principal chief of the Miami nation of Indians." His funeral was largely attended by Indians and whites and the principal address was delivered by Wa-pa-pin-sha, a noted Indian orator of his tribe. Pa-louz-wa was followed in the chieftainship of his tribe by John Baptiste Big Leg, who was the last chief of the Miamis. He lies buried by the side of Pa-louz-wa and a plain marble slab marks the spot where his bones lie. It bears the following inscription: **Head chief of the Miami and Kansas tribe.'' A brave warrior, a generous man and a good Christian. When the Indians were removed to the West some of the Miamis remained on the Mississinnewa in Miami county, and became good citizens. Several hundred of the Miami Indians are at this writing still living on the Mississinnewa river in Grant and Miami counties. Many of them have intermarried with the whites, attend the public schools and are becoming assimilated with the whites. Gabriel Godfrey, descendant of Francis Godfrey, the great chief, had always lived in Miami county and died there in 1911, at an advanced age.

The Miamis dwelt in permanent villages and thus showed a higher stage of civilization than many of the nomadic tribes farther west. Their villages occupied sites beautifully located on the banks of rivers and creeks, surrounded by rich agricultural lands which they cultivated to a A^ery limited extent, depending mostly on fishing and hunting for sustenance.

History records many cases of white children being stolen by the Indians and carried into captivity. Frances Slocum is a noted case of this kind and having often been in Cass county with her tribe of Miamis and Geo. W. Ewing, who was instrumental in identifying her, being a I'esident of Logansport, a brief sketch of this noted captive is worthy a place in the Wstory of this county.

Geo. W. Ewing was one of the early merchants of Logansport and an Indian trader and was familiar with their language. He became acquainted with Frances Slocum, the widow of She-pa-can-nah or Deaf- Man, the war chief of the Osage village, then an aged woman living with her family on the Mississinewa river, nine miles southeast of Peru. Mr. Ewing recognized her to be a white woman and learned from her that she was stolen from her parents yhen a child five or six years of age, that her parents' name was Slocum and when she was stolen she lived with her parents on the Susquehanna river in eastern Pennsylvania. This is all she could remember about her parents. She had been adopted and brought up by a band of the Delaware Indians and learned their language and had forgotten her childish English and could only speak the Indian language. With this brief sketch of her nativity, Mr. Ewing wrote a letter dated at Logansport, January 20, 1832, and directed it to any newspaper on the Susquehanna river, giving the above details of Frances Slocum 's capture by the Indians. It was several years before he heard from this letter, but in 1837 he received a letter from one Ion J. Slocum written at Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, August 9, 1837, stating that his father had a sister stolen by the Indians when five years old and they had never heard from her. Steps were at once taken to identify this Indian widow and Isaac Slocum, a supposed younger brother, came to Peru in September, 1837, and proceeded with an interpreter to Deaf-Man's village, about nine miles above Peru on the Mississinewa river, the home of She-pa-can-nah or Frances Slocum. Isaac Slocum said he could identify his sister by a sear on the forefinger of her left hand. The brother entered the Indian wigwam, gazed upon the aged and changed form of Frances and involuntarily exclaimed: **Good God ! is this my sister?" Then grasping her left hand, drew her to the light and found the scar, the identical scar he had described.

James T. Miller, the interpreter who accompanied Isaac Slocum, interrogated the Indian woman concerning the scar on her finger and she related the circumstances of its cause, which tallied with that of her brother, and her identity was fully established. Another brother, Joseph Slocum, and a sister, Mary Town, soon were sent for and the two sisters and two brothers, who had so long been separated, were once more united, but a feeling of sadness pervaded the whole party. Frances had been brought up among the Indians, acquired their language, customs and habits and could not converse with her brothers or sister except by an interpreter. Her Indian husband was dead and with two of her children was buried near her own wigwam. She had two daughters with grandchildren living near her and her whole life had been spent with the Indians and she was one of them, as much so as if she had been born an Indian, and she could not be induced to desert her children and Indian life, as they were dearer to her than all earthly possessions, yea, her acquired habits of life and associations were more to be desired than inborn instincts, showing what trainmg can do with any child. Frances

One evening, about dusk in the year 1777, while Frances was playing with other children near her father's house in Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, the hostile Delaware Indians approached them, killed one of her playmates, a boy, and carried her off and she, adopted by an Indian chief, was taken to Niagara, then to Sandusky, and later to Detroit, Ft. Wayne and finally came among the Miami Indians near Peru. She was married about 1797 to ** Deaf-Man'' (She-pa-can-nah), war chief of the Osage village, by whom she had four children, two sons and twa daugh-

Frances Slocum, White Child Born Near Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, 1771, Captured by Indians in 1777 ; Adopted by Them and Married to Indian Chief She-pa-can-nah (Dead Man). Came West to Cass and Miami Counties and Died NE.VR Peru, March 9, 1847

, Her last child died in 1877, but she has many descendants living. Thus ends the story of Frances Slocum 's captivity and death, one of the most remarkable and pathetic of Indian life.

aration of these tribes from the parent family took place at or near Miehilimaekinack in northern Michigan, probably about 1650 and the Poux located on the southern shores of Lake Michigan; the Ottawas dwelt with theuL The Ottawas became dissatisfied and withdrew from their allies and sought a home elsewhere. The Poux told the Ottawas if they did not like their association that they could go, for they, the Poux, could make their own council- fires. From this circumstance, it is said, the name Pottawattomies was derived from the compound word puh-to-wa, signifying a blowing out or expansion of the cheeks, as in the act of blowing a fire, and **me,'' a nation, which means a nation of fire-blowers, literally a people, as intimated to the Ottawas, able to build their own council fires and take care of and defend themselves independently. In 1660, the French missionary AUouez speaks of the Pot> tawattomies occupying territory around Green bay and southward to the country of the Sacs, Foxes and Miamis. Being crowded south by the Poux and other northwestern tribes, they occupied northwestern Indiana and at the beginning of the War of 1812 we find the Pottawattomies settled along the banks' of the Tippecanoe and the north bank of the Wabash river from the mouth of the Tippecanoe to the mouth of Eel river, thus occupying the north and west part of Cass county. Tobeno-beh was probably the first chief of the Pottawattomies known to the whites. He was a mild-mannered sachem, yet intelligent, and governed his tribe from 1790 to 1820. He died a venerable patriarch and was succeeded by Wen-e-megh, usually spelled Winamac. He had great force of character and commanding appearance. He was their leading war chief during the War of 1812 and was a part of the band of enemies with which Logan had his fatal encounter near the banks of the Miami in the fall of that year. Me-te-ah was the last great chief of the Pottawattomies. He was an orator as well as a military chieftain. The principal chief and leading men of the tribe who came to Logansport for the purpose of trading and who were best known to the early settlers of our town were : Aw-be-naw-be ; Ask-kum ; Paw-sis ; Muck-kose ; Che-quah; Co-ash-be; Kawk; Kokem; Shpo-tah; Che-chaw-koase ; Wesaw; Weis-she-o-nas ; Ke- wan-nay; Pash-po-ho; I-o-wak; Nos-waw-kay; 0-kak-mans ; Ben-ac ; Ne-bansh, and Nio-quiss ; and the chief esses, Mishno-quah and Mis-no-go-quah ; the last two of whom with several others, and many scenes of pioneer life have been portrayed on canvas by Mr. George Winter, Logansport 's pioneer artist. Some years prior to the removal of the Indians west, and when Logansport was quite a town, the Indians would come to town to trade or receive their annuity from the government and the Pottawattomies usually camped on the north side of Eel river on the site of West Logan ; sometimes on the hill, then in the woods, now occupied by the First Presbyterian church.

The Miamis camped on the south side and showed a higher degree of business sagacity and moral worth and when through trading would at once depart for their villages up the rivers, but the Pottawattomies would linger in camp near town for some days or weeks, drinking and carousing in drunken orgies.

The territory now within the boundary of Cass county was originally occupied by the Miami and Pottawattomie tribes of Indians when white men first began to settle here. The Miamis having the prior right, being the first and longest occupants, but the Pottawattomies having been permitted to occupy the northwest part of the county for many years seemed also to have an equitable claim. The settled policy of the

United States government has always been never to take, pre-empt, or to receive any lands from the aboriginal possessors except by purchase, and for a valuable consideration and by the consent of the original owners, the Indian tribes occupying the land at the time of purchase.

The first treaty with the Indians aflfecting the title to Cass county territory was made and concluded at St. Mary's, Ohio, October 2, 1818, between Jonathan Jennings, Lewis Cass and Benjamin Parke, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the principal chief and warriors of the Pottawattomie nation of Indians. In consideration of the cession so made the United States agreed to pay a perpetual annuity of $2,500 in silver. This cession includes lands lying in the west and north portions of the county.

The second treaty was perfected near the mouth of the Mississinnewa, on the Wabash river, between the United States commissioners, Lewis Cass, James B. Ray and John Tipton, and the chief and warriors of the Pottawattomie tribe of Indians, concluded and signed on the 16th day of October, 1826, and ratified by congress and proclaimed by John Quincy Adams, president of the United States, February 7, 1827. By this treaty the Pottawattomies ceded lands lying north of the boundary designated in the former treaty.

Third treaty. The Miami Indians having a prior claim to the Pottawattomies to all of Cass county *s lands, the United States by the above last-named commissioners, entered into a treaty with the Miami Indians on the ground near the mouth of the Mississinnewa on October 23, 1826, whereby they ceded their claim to all the land in Indiana north and west of the Wabash river excepting certain reservations therein designated. This treaty was ratified by congress and proclaimed by the president of the United States January 24, 1827.

By a further treaty dated October 23, 1834, between Wm. Marshall, commissioner, and the warriors of the Miami Indians, made and concluded at the forks of the Wabash, the tribe ceded a portion of the big reserve made at the treaty of St. Mary's in 1818, situated southeast of the Wabash river.

The Miamis by a subsequent treaty made November 6, 1838, at the forks of the Wabash by Abel C. Pepper, commissioner on the part of the United States, ceded further lands lying south of the Wabash in Cass county with lands now lying in other counties to the south and east. This treaty was ratified February 8, 1839. The consideration was $335,680. Again on November 28, 1840, the Miamis entered into a treaty with the United States by Samuel Milroy and Allen Hamilton, commissioners, at the forks of the Wabash whereby they ceded to the United States all that tract of land lying south of the Wabash not heretofore ceded, and known as the big reserve, being all their remaining lands in Indiana. This treaty was ratified June 7, 1841.

These lands lying within Cass county were surveyed as follows: That part of the cession of October 2, 1818, in Congressional township 26 north, and the portion in township 27, south of the Wabash river, were subdivided by Henry Bryan in 1821 ; the portion in township 27, north of the Wabash river, by David Hillis, in 1828 ; that in township 28, south of the Indian boundary line, by Austin W. Morris, in 1834. The lands ceded October 16 and 23, 1826, were surveyed by Thomas

Brown in 1828 ; those lying south of the Wabash river in ranges 1 and 2 east, in the western part of the Miami reserve, by H. St. Clair Vance in 1838 ; those south of the Wabash, ceded October 23, 1834, by Chauncey Carter in 1839 ; and the land embraced in the treaty of November 28, 1840, and lying in Cass county, was surveyed in 1846 and 1847, by Abner E. Van Ness.. The Indian reservations both north and south of the Wabash were surveyed mostly by Chauncey Carter.

It has been the policy of our government never to seize or take possession of territory without the written consent and cession of the aboriginal tribes occupying said lands. As many of the Indian tribes, however, were nomadic and constantly changing from place to place so that it was diflScult and next to impossible to exactly locate the meets and bounds of the territory of the diiferent tribes of Indians and frequently the tribes could not agree as to the boundary lines of the respective tribes and nations, hence arose many disputes not only between the United States and the Indians but also among the various tribes.

Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief, disputed the right of the Miamis and Pottawattomies to cede the lands in Indiana to the United States, claiming that the Shawnees and their allies had an interest therein and attempted to form a confederacy, comprising all the tribes in the northwest, into a national compact, stipulating in said compact that no individual tribe could cede any of their lands to the United States, without the consent of the entire league. Tecumseh held that the Great Spirit had given the Indian race all these hunting grounds to keep in common and that no Indian or tribe could cede any portion of the land to the whites without the consent of all the tribes. While on a mission to bring about such a confederacy his brother, Law-le-was-ikaw, the Prophet, precipitated hostilities and attacked Genei^l Harrison at Tippecanoe, on November 7, 1811, but the Indians were defeated and routed, thus forever blasting the hopes of Tecumseh to form his longsought-for and much-beloved project, in which the whole heart and soul of the great Indian chief was absorbed. Tecumseh on learning of what had happened at Tippecanoe was overcome with chagrin, disappointment and anger and accused his brother, the Prophet, with duplicity and cowardice; indeed it is said he never forgave him. On the breaking out of the War of 1812, Tecumseh cast his fortunes with the British and was killed at the battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813. His brother, the Prophet, later went with his people west of the- Mississippi, where he died in 1834,

Writers of Indian history declare that Tecumseh was the greatest and most noted Indian in North America. For all those qualities which elevate a man far above his race; for talent, tact, skill and bravery as a warrior; in a word, for all those qualities and elements of greatness which place him far above his fellows in savage life, the name of Tecumseh will go down to posterity in the west as one of the most celebrated and talented of the aborigines of this continent.

Tecumseh held several conferences with Gten. Wm. H. Harrison, then governor of Indiana territory, at Vincennes, and proved himself an able diplomat and great- orator. It is said of him, at one of these conferences, (Jeneral Harrison invited him to take a seat with him on the platform, saying it was the wish of the Great Father that he should do so, meaning the president of the United States. Teeumseh raised his tall and commanding form to its greatest height, surveyed the crowd, fixed his keen eyes on General Harrison, then turning them to the s^ above and pointing toward heaven with his sinewy arm, indicative of supreme contempt for the paternity assigned him, spoke in clarion tones: **My father? The sun is my father, the earth my mother, and on her bosom I will recline." He then stretched himself on the green sward.

The Indians held that the land was theirs, that they had as much right to go out and hunt and kill game as a farmer of today has to go to his barnyard and slaughter a hog or a beef; that it was as much trespassing and stealing for the paleface to enter their territory and appropriate their land or kill the game thereon, as it was for the red man to pitch his tent in a farmer's field and slaughter his domestic animals.

While the United States recognized the rights of the Indians to the land and aimed to purchase the same by voluntary treaties, yet in many cases they were virtually forced into signing treaties and ceding lands against their will and consenting to exchange their lands for other grounds farther west. Here may be a nice problem for the humanitarian and sociologist to decide how far should a civilized nation go in its endeavor to civilize barbarous and nomadic tribes who live by hunting and fishing? Should they use force and compel them to sell or dispose of their land that it might be made productive and thus sustain a larger number of people? It has been the policy of most civilized nations to take possession of native lands peaceably and by purchase if you can, but if not, then forcibly if necessary in order that the crowded condition of old countries may be relieved and give the poor people an opportunity to till the soil that God has given to man, thus making it possible for all to live, and at the same time having a civilizing and Christianizing influence over savage and benighted people in new countries like America was, when Columbus first reached its shores, and like some parts of Africa and northern Luzon are today. To the writer, no man or set of men, savage or civilized, are justified in monopolizing thousands of acres of land and live only by hunting wild game, when thousands of their fellow creatures are suffering and starving in the densely populated sections of the world, when there is room for all with proper cultivation of the land, and if such men or tribes of men, savage or civilized, endeavor so to monopolize large tracts of wild lands so they may continue to live in primitive ways by hunting, they should be dealt with peacefully and rightfully, if possible, but forcibly and justly if necessary, in order that the land may be more productive to accommodate a larger number of the Lord's poor who are suffering and starving for want of an opportunity to earn a living. No doubt there were many instances where the Indians were unjustly treated by the white settlers and some pitiable examples have been related where they h^ve had to abandon their old hunting grounds for new places farther west.

In a message to congress, December 3, 1830, President Jackson said : **It gives me pleasure to announce to congress that the benevolent policy of the government steadily pursued for thirty years in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching a happy conclusion. Two important tribes have accepted the provisions made for their removal at the last session of congress and it is believed their example will induce the remaining tribes to seek the same obvious advantages. Doubtless it will be painful to leave the graves of their fathers ; but what do they more than our ancestors did or their children are now doing? To better their condition in an unknown land, our forefathers left all that was dear in earthly objects. Our children by thousands, yearly leave the land of their birth to seek new homes in distant regions. Does humanity weep at the painful separation from everything animate and inanimate with which the young heart has become entwined ? It is rather a source of joy that our country affords scope where our young population may range unconstrained in body and mind, developing the power and faculties of the man in their highest perfection. These remove hundreds and thousands of miles at their own expense, purchase lands they occupy and support themselves at their new homes from the moment of their arrival. Can it be cruel in this government, when, by events which it cannot control, the Indian is made discontent in his ancient home, to purchase his lands, to give him a new and extensive territory, to pay the expense of his removal and support him a year in his new abode? How many thousands of our people would gladly embrace the opportunity of removing west on such conditions?''

**My opinion remains the same and I can see no other alternative for the Indians, but that of their removal to the west or a quiet submission to the state laws.''

The last treaty the government concluded with the Pottawattomies was February 11, 1836, by John T. Douglass, on the part of the United States, and the chiefs Chee-chaw-kose, Ask-um, Wensaw, Muk-kose and Qui-qui-to. This was a ratification of all former treaties and a further stipulation that they would remove within two years, to lands beyond the Missouri river, provided by the government, and that the United States would pay the expenses of removal and furnish them one year's subsistence.

The first emigration of the Pottawattomies took place in July, 1837, under the direction of Abel C. Pepper, United States commissioner, and George Profit conducted them to their western home. There were about one hundred taken in this band and Nas-wau-gee was their chief. Their village was located then on the north bank of Lake Muck-sencuck-ee, where Culver Military Acadfimy now stands.

The old chief, Nas-wau-gee, was a mild-mannered man and on the morning of their march to their western home, as he stood on the banks of the lake and took a last, long view of his old home, that he was leaving never to return, he was visibly affected and tears were seen to flow from his eyes.

The last and final removal of the Pottawattomies was made in the fall of 1838. They were unwilling to go and Col. Abel C. Pepper, then United States Indian agent, stationed at Logansport, made a requisition on Gov. David Wallace (father of Gen. Lew Wallace), author of Ben Hur), for a company of militia and Gen. John Tipton, of Logansport, was directed to enlist a company of one hundred men, which he speedily did. The recruits were mostly from Cass county. The names of the men composing this company of militia are not obtainable, but the writer's father, Jacob Powell, and Isaac Newton Clary, pioneers of Bethlehem and Harrison townships, were among the number. Sixty wagons were provided to haul the women, children and those unable to march. There were eight hundred and fifty-nine Indians enrolled under the leadership of Chief Menominee. Their principal village was situated on Twin lake, about seven miles southwest of Plymouth, in Marshall county, where the entire tribe assembled and bid farewell to their old homes, consisting of one hundred and twenty wigwams and cabins, also to the chapel, in which many of them were converted to Christianity by Father Petit, a missionary in Indiana at that time, and many affecting scenes occurred as these red men of the forest for the last time viewed their cabin homes, the graves of their loved ones who slept in a graveyard near their little log chapel. On September 4, 1838, they began their sad and solemn march to the West. Their line of march was south on the Michigan road to Logansport, where they encamped just south of Homey creek, on the east side of Michigan avenue, on the night of the 7th of September, 1838, and that night two of the Indians died and were buried just north of Homey creek where the Vandalia Railroad crosses that creek and on the east side of Michigan avenue, and their bones lie there to this day. General Tipton conducted these Indians along the Wabash river through Lafayette, and on to Danville, Illinois, where he turned them over to Judge William Polke, who took them to their reservation west of the Missouri river. Many of the whites had a great sympathy for this band of Indians and thought that they were wrongfully treated in their forcible removal, although they, by their chiefs, had agreed to move west.

The state of Indiana erected a monument on the site of Menominee's village, in Marshall county, to the memory of this chief and his band of eight hundred and fifty-nine Pottawattomie Indians, and unveiled the same on September 4, 1909, sevelity-one years after their removal, and on this occasion Daniel McDonald, of Plymouth, delivered an address from which we quote some extracts:

**The Pottawattomies were peacefully inclined. They were migratory and came and went as they desired. Their landed possessions were held in common and they owned little personal property of value except it might be ponies, and these were wild and conceded to those expert enough to lasso and tame them. They had no religious belief until missionaries came among them. They had never heard of the Bible or Christ, but had a vague idea that after this life there was an existence away oflf somewhere to which they would go after death, and which was controlled by the * Great Spirit. '

**They knew nothing about the divisions of time into hours, days, weeks, months or years, but reckoned time by suns, moons and four seasons of the year, which they kept track of by certain marks or characters on deer and other skins, or on the inside of birch bark. They knew nothing about Sunday and to them every day was alike. They had but little to do and became naturally lazy. They lived oflf of wild game, fish, fruits and roots that the Great Spirit provided. The squaw did all the labor if any work was to be done ; cared for the ponies and with primitive hoe or shovel made of stone or a stick, cultivated the Indian corn or other vegetables; collected sticks and wood for the fire. They had no written language and no schools. They knew nothing about politics, religion or secret societies. Their lives were spent in hunting, fishing and the chase, and visiting from village to village, but were endowed with a high degree of morality.

**The marriage relation was sacred under their crude regulations. A violation of the marriage vow was punished by banishment or death. They did not worry about tomorrow. They had no calculations for the future. They lived in the present. The Pottawattomies once so numerous are now all gone; not one is left to tell the story. Of all

*'None of them have left any history in themselves to perpetuate the fact that they ever existed. Their village and chapel have all been utterly destroyed, their hunting grounds have been transformed into fields of waving com and wheat ; the wild deer and other wild animals, 80 numerous then, have also passed away, leaving only memories of a vanished race."

A few of the Pottawattomies moved to northern Michigan and some remnants of this once powerful tribe have lived there to recent times. Among their number was Simon Ppkagon, who died January 27, 1899. Just prior to his death he wrote an article for an eastern magazine in which he said: **As to the future of our race, it seems to me almost certain to lose its identity by amalgamation with the dominant race." When Pokagon was asked if he thought that the white man and Indian were originally one blood, he said: **I do not know but from the present outlook they will be."

The index finger of the past and present is pointing to the future, showing most conclusively that by the middle of the century all Indian reservations will have passed away. Then their people will beg^in to scatter, the result will be a general mixing of the races. By intermarriage, the blood of their people, like the waters that flow into the great ocean, will be forever lost in that of the dominant race, and generations yet unborn will read in history of the red men of the forest and inquire, ** Where are theyT' There were bands of Pottawattomie and Miami Indians in Cass and adjoining counties that moved to the West at diflferent times ; sometimes they went voluntarily, at other times they were escorted; the last of the Miamis were conducted- to their reservation west of the Mississippi by Alex. Coquillard, in 1847, and again in 1851.

On October 24, 1912, a dispatch to the Chicago Inter Ocean, from Traverse City, Michigan, stated that **Joe Manitou," a Pottawattomie chief, died there aged one hundred and twenty years.

He was born in a tepee on the banks of the Chicago river and he was the oldest resident of Chicago and northern Indiana. His memory went back to the early years of the last century long before Chicago was even dreamed of, and when Cass county was an unbroken wilderness, unknown to the* white man, this old Indian chief held his war dances on the banks of the Wabash, long before the advent of the pioneer in Cass county.