Huntington County, Indiana - Chapter 2, 1887

IN reference to the Indians of this county, it would seem as a part of their history that white men were inseparably connected with them. About 1805, or near that time, there settled on the banks of the Wabash, about four miles west of the city a colony of Friends or Quakers, whose object was to convert the Redmen and teach them habits of industry; they cleared quite a large farm, upon which they remained for several years, and when subsequent wars broke out these people were apprised of what was coming by some friendly Indians in time to get out of danger; they never returned; and in the course of years the farm was covered with' a grove of timber, while on the ground the corn rows could be easily traced. The Indians occupying the country at that time were a part of what was at that time known as the Miamis, or Twightwees, as they were one time called, and in later years the tribe became divided and a number of other tribes branched off, the Weas (or according to French orthography, Ouias), Kaskiaskas, Piankeshaws and Peorias were known as different tribes, though speaking the same language, and a treaty made between the several Indian tribes and the United States, at Fort Wayne, in 1803, the treaty was signed by Richerville and Me-she-ke-wah-quah (or Little Turtle), on behalf of themselves^ the Weas, Piankeshaws, Eel Rivers and Kaskaskias, whom they represented. In the early settlement of Huntington County, the Miamis were the only Indians known as a tribe, the Eel Rivers and Potawattomies were north and west, while in western Ohio the Wyandots resided. The government of the Miamis was like nearly all Indian tribes. Being governe<5 by chiefs^ the head man was principal chief, and the tribe was subdivided into bands or parties, each of which had its chief, and in their councils those chiefs were the representatives of their respective bands. The office of principal chief was elective (although in some other tribes it is hereditary), and the chief when elected held his position during life. Little Turtle was the principal chief of the Miamis at the time of Gen. Wayne's expedition to the west; he died about 1813, and was succeeded by Pishewa (Wild Cat), but known by white people as John B. Richardville, who died near Fort Wayne on the 13th of August, 1841, at the age of eighty.*

In the fall of the same year Francis La Fontaine (To-pe-ah) a son-in law of Chief Richardville, was elected principal chief of the tribe, and the excitement attending the election was very much like similar occasions among white folks - excitement ran high between the different members of the tribe working for their friends to secure for them the grand position. There were even threats of war to the knife. There was talk of putting some of the candidates out of the way, and a certain clique had gone so far as to make arrangements to " do up " La Fontaine; but a friend of his who learned of the affair rode nearly all night to apprise La Fontaine of the plan. He being thus put upon his guard, the scheme was not worked. There were a number of candidates for the position of chief; the principal competitor of La Fontaine was Brouillette, a man majestic in appearance, quite tall, as straight as an arrow, wore his hair in queue not like the Indians, but after the style of white men of one hundred years ago. Had he been schooled in politics, as his white brethren usually were, he would have made a good politician. He was shrewd, active and cunning, and, although he may not have understood addition and division, he fully understood the importance of silence when occasion required it. La Fontaine went west with the tribe in 1846, at which time they ceased to exist in Indiana as a tribe. He died at La Fayette, on his way home, on the 13th of April, 1847, at the age of thirty-seven, and was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Huntington. Before he became chief he lived in Allen County, but afterward removed to the Forks of the Wabash, where his family lived at the time of his death, and where his daughter, Mrs. Engelman, now resides.

La Fontaine was a very large man, weighing over 330 pounds and tall in proportion, but when a young man was slender, and prided himself upon his ability to outrun any member of the tribe. Among his particular friends was a member of his tribe named Ke-la-co-mo-que-ah, who though not as tall as the chief, was about one hundred pounds heavier, and it is quite probable that his over size saved his life. As he was known to be a friend of La Fontaine, some other Indian whose name the writer has forgotten, think it was Black Raccoon, came to the conclusion that this friend of La Fontaine's must be disposed of, but not daring to make open attack upon him, resorted to the treacherous mode so common among Indians. He pretended to be his friend and engaged in conversation with him, and became so " friendly " that he put one arm around his fat friend's neck, and with the other arm stabbed him. Had he been a man of common siz,e no doubt the blow would have been fatal, but in this case the wound did not get inside the ribs. The Indian was speedily punished for his treachery. As soon as he struck the fat man he found himself held as though in a vise, by the man he tried to kill, who held him with one hand while with the other he drew from his pocket a knife which he opened with his teeth, and proceeded to perforate his assailant, which he did in such a manner that immediately there was an addition made to the list of what Gen. Sheridan calls good Indians.

This same fat Indian, some years afterward, accidently fell in the fire and was badly burned. Some years ago I enquired about him, and was told by an Indian named Gibo, that he was not in very good health, nor as fat as he had been, that on account of falling in the fire he had lost about 160 pounds. I understand that he died a few years ago; that during the last years of his life he became a common sized man, not weighing more than 150 pounds.

Among the Indians whose homes were in this county was White Loon (Wa-po-munquah), Anthony Revard (Sha-pin-emo). Big Leg (ISTe-we-lin-quah), who lived near Roanoke. White Loon and his family are all dead. The family of Revard is still living near Roanoke, consisting of his widow and son, Anthony; she also has a daujjhter living in Kansas. Big Leg went west with emigrants. The Revard family, Mrs. Engelroan and her children, and John La Fontaine, a grandson of the chief, are the only persons of Miami blood now living in the county; in the west part of the county was the residence of Mejineca and family, Black Loon (Wa-cat-te-mun-quah), and Guine. In the southern part was Cah-tah-kemun-quah (or Spotted Loon). Wak-shin-gah and family lived on the Wabash, below the mouth of Rock Creek.

The customs peculiar to the Indians, or at least a great many of them, are not easily to be learned by white folks, as the Indians are a people not much in the habit of telling what they are, but on the contrary keep such matters to themselves as much as possible. Polygamy was allowable among them, but was not often practiced; but very few of them having more than one wife.

They had a ceremony which they called adoption; that is when one member of a family died (particularly children), the parents would select some other child to adopt in place of the lost one; the object or origin of this custom is one of those matters that they keep to themselves. The children adopted did not leave their own people, but return home with them, usually pretty well supplied with presents. One part of the ceremony is called the adoption dance. These dances are in one respect like dances of the white folks; a good place to show their best clothes. On such occasions the young Indian fops would appear in their best, which was usually a fine frock coat with vest to match; leggings, upon which some artistic squaw had spent many an hour to ornament in diamonds, stripes and blocks (all ribbon work), the edges trimmed with beads. This ornamental work was always upon the flap or seam. Whole width of three-fourths cassimer was used for each legging, which were made to fit as tight as a dude's trowsers, which would leave quite a field for oBnamental work. The shirt was also quite a prominent part of the dress of fancy young Indians. This must always be calico of a fine quality, usuarlly a light color with small set figures, made with ruffled front; it was long enough to come to the knees. All below the vest was in plain view if the coat was unbuttoned. For foot wear moccasons were the proper thing, trimmed to match the leggings. When he had each cheek striped with vermillion, like bars in a jail window, and small dots in each square, a stripe down the centre of his nose, a tinge around the eyes, a good supply of rings in his ears and one in his nose, he was in a presentable condition and ready to be seen. The dances were usually out of doors. A track would be made smooth in a circular form, about twenty or thirty feet in diameter, in the centre of which a fire was built. The dance was a continuous promenade around the fire. The men and women danced usually by themselves; the music was supplied by drum which was usually a keg with a deer skin stretched over the end. If the sound was too sharp there was water put in the keg. This drum was beaten with one stick only, and was accompanied by singing of a peculiar kind which cannot be very easily described. While there was not much music in the sound the time was perfect, as was also the movements of the dancers. I tried the dance myself upon one occasion, and they said I was so awkward that I could not keep time, and that wound up my Indian dancing. In these dances some of the Indians who wanted to outdo their neighbors, would have small bells fastened around their ankles to increase the variety of music: the dances were usually kept up until morning, and in most cases whisky played quite an important part.

Another peculiar custom was the manner in which they "treated their children. When infants they were fastened to boards by being strapped to them, upon which they were kept the greater part of the time until they were large enough to notice and want to handle things they see. When the mother wanted to do any work, she would set the board on end against something to support it, and the little papoose would seem to be perfectly contented, and were as good natured as children generally are; over the head of the board was a bow of wood to support and keep off the child's face any screen that might be put there to shade it. If "Little Injun" was a boy, the hoop thus formed would be ornamented with a minature bow and a bundle of arrows; if a girl, instead the bow and arrow it would be ornamented with something else, usually ornaments belonging to the sex. When the children grew larger, the women carried them upon their bacKs, holding them in position by blankets which they wore.

The Indians were superstitiously opposed to killing snakes or wolves, and they had a custom of making peace with snakes at certain seasons, by offerings of tobacco, etc. The cliff of rocks on the north side of the canal near the west line of the county, was for many years known as Tobacco Eock, and tobacco has been seen there by early settlers. It was one of the greatest snake dens in the county until the canal was made, which destroyed their hiding places.

One of the early settlers who lived in the west part of Allen County, Mr. Morrissoe, borrowed a gun from an Indian neighbor known as " Old Zeke, " to go hunting. When he returned the gun Zeke asked him what he killed. Mr. Morrissoe, well knowing the superstition of the Indians in regard to wolves, but not thinking of it at the time, told him he had killed a wolf, at which the old Indian expressed great sorrow, and said that his gun would never shoot straight any more, that it was spoiled; he took it all apart, washed and thoroughly cleaned every particle of it and went through some incantation to remove the spell from it. Mr. Morrissoe, who had lived among the Indians many years, said that it was not an uncommon thing, when Indians killed more game than they could carry home, to leave a part of it, in a certain place where they could get it the next day. If anyone in the evening would suggest that the wolves might eat it, the reply would always be, " they are eating it, " after which they would not go after it, but let it remain there. Another one of their peculiar customs was, cleaning and hanging up in their cabins, the skulls of a certain number of the animals caught in traps, as they seemed to think it would bring them good luck. They had not at that time attained such civilization as to regard a horse-shoe as a mascotte. At the time of the first settlement in this county the Indians lived in houses, usually cabins, and the squaws were as a rule, good housekeepers, their cabins being very nice and clean, and in that respect would compare well with their white neighbors. They ate all kinds of wild meat except a possum, against which they had some superstition. And no doubt many a white man has eaten muskrat, skunk, ground hog or coon, without knowing what it was, as the squaws were generally good cooks, and had a way of preparing such dishes that white folks did not understand. At the close of the winter they all got ready to make sugar, and the nicest sugar that was made was of Indian work, being much whiter than sugar made by the white settlers, because the Indians never boiled it in iron vessels, the sugar water containing an acid that would make the sugar dark when in contact with iron. They usually used either tin or copper in making sugar. These peculiar people have many customs which were not easy to become acquainted with; their reticence was wonderful. They would not give any information to strangers about their peculiar habits; but only to those white men who had lived amongst them for many years and gained their confidence, were posted in their odd ways, they being a class of whites that did pay much attention to recording their observations. People who went to Indians for the purpose of " writing them up, " could get no satisfaction from them, and they were compelled to resort for information to the whites with whom the Indians were acquainted. In many instances these whites instead of telling what they knew, would make up all kinds of balderdash stories they could think of, which would be accepted by the information seekers as facts and be so published, and in that way many of the stories of Indian peculiarities are entirely founded upon the false stories told them. In the foregoing I have given merely what has come under my observation, and which has been entirely written from recollection, as I can find no date from which to obtain any other facts.

Of the pre historic people Prof. Cox says: " Though the present site of Huntington and the ' Forks of the Wabash ' as the junction of Little River with that stream, was familiarly called by the early settlers of the county, was the favorite abode of the savages, yet, strange to say, no traces of the works of the prehistoric mound builder are found in the county, except along Salamonie River, in the southeast corner, opposite Warren, where, on a high eminence in the bend of the latter river, there are two mounds. The first one visited is at Daniel Adsit's. It is about twenty-five feet in circumference and six feet high. A slight excavation had been made into the top, but so far as could be learned no relics were found. There is a shallow trench completely encircling it. From the top the view overlooks the Salamonie and its fine fertile bottoms. The other mound is about a quarter of a mile to the northwest, and in a cultivated orchard belonging to John D. Jones, and near his barn. This mound has been nearly destroyed by the plow, and I was unable to learn that it possessed any peculiar features, or contained any relics. Mr. Jones informed me that he had, from time to time, picked up on his farm, stone axes, pipes, flint arrow and spear points, but could give no special account of the existence of other mounds. Though I followed Salamonie River for many miles above Warren, and made repeated inquiries about mounds, I could not learn of any others in the county. "