Huntington County, Indiana - Chapter 2: Aboriginal Inhabitants, 1914

The Mound Builders - Who Were They? - Thomas' Division of the United States into Districts - Special Features of Each Dis¬ trict - Mounds in Huntington County - The Indians - Distri¬ bution of Tribes when America Was Discovered - The "Six Nations" - The Miami - Their Habits and Customs - Religion and Superstitions - Their Domain - Miami Villages in the, Wabash Valley - Removal West - The Pottawatomi - Traditionsand Character - Treaties - Meta 's Village - Policies in Dealing with the Indians.

Huntington County, in common with all the interior of the United States, was once inhabited by a race of people, of whom the Indians found here by the first white men had not the faintest tradition. And it was not for a quarter of a century or more after the organization of the county that evidences of this ancient race were found within its borders. Then two mounds (mentioned further on in this chapter) were discovered near the Salamonie River, in the southeastern part of the county. Although not so large as some of the mounds found in other sections of the state, they bore unmistakable signs of having been con¬ structed by human hands - how many years ago? These slight relics are enough, however, to show that, long before the New World was known to Europeans, Huntington County was at least a temporary abode of some primitive tribe.

Archaeologists, ethnologists and antiquarians have indulged in a great deal of speculation and research regarding the primitive man in America. Often the question is asked: "Who were the first people to inhabit North America?" But the question is more easily asked than answered. When the first white men came from Europe to this country they found here a peculiar race of copper-colored people, to whom they gave the name of "Indians," but after a time some students of archgeology came to the conclusion that the Indians had their predecessors. Who were they? The archeologist has conferred upon this primitive people the name of "Mound Builders," on account of the great number of mounds or other earthworks they erected, and which constitute the only data from which to write their history. Much discussion concern¬ ing their character and fate has been carried on during the last century through scientific magazines and elsewhere, but a positive solution of the matter seems to be as far away as it was before the discussion com¬ menced.

In 1812 the American Antiquarian Society was organized and during the years immediately following it made some investigations of the pre¬ historic relics left by these ancient inhabitants. But the first work of consequence on the subject of American archajology - ' 'Ancient Monu¬ ments of the Mississippi Valley" - did not make its appearane until in 1847. It was compiled by E. G. Squier and E. H. Davis, who had made an exhaustive study of many of the mounds and earthworks in the region indicated by the title of their work. They advanced the theory that the Mound Builders were a very ancient race of people and that they were in no way related to the Indians found here when the continent wras discovered by Columbus. Eight years later, in 1855, Allen Lapham wrote a treatise on the "Antiquities of AVisconsin," in which he also held to the great age and separate race theory. In fact, most of the early waiters on the subject have supported this hypothesis, and some have gone so far as to arrange the period of human occupancy of the Missis¬ sippi Valley into four distinct epochs, to wit: 1. The Mound Builders; 2. The Villagers ; 3. The Fishermen ; 4. The Indians. This somewhat fanciful theory presupposes four separate and distinct peoples as having inhabited the great valley of the Mississippi, but, unfortunately for the theorist, it is not supported by any positive evidence. Other writers have contended that the early American aborigines were descendants of the lost tribes of Israel and efforts have been made to substantiate this theory. With regard to the Mound Builders, Baldwin, in his "Ancient America," says:

"They are unquestionably American aborigines and not immigrants from another continent. That appears to me the most reasonable sug¬ gestion which assumes that the Mound Builders came originally from Mexico and Central America. It explains many facts connected with their remains. In the Great Valley their most populous settlements were at the south. Coming from Mexico and Central America, they would begin their settlements on the Gulf coast, and afterward advance gradu¬ ally up the river to the Ohio Valley. It seems evident that they came by this route, and their remains show their only connection with the coast was at the south. Their settlements did not reach the coast at any other point." other has followed. In some cases different branches of the same family have successively followed one another. Before the Christian era the Nahoa immigration from the North made its appearance. They were the founders of the stone works in Northern Mexico. Certain eminent scientists have held that the Nahoas belonged to the race that made the mounds of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. Following this people came the Toltecs, and with them the light begins to dawn upon ancient Mexican migration. They were cultivated and constituted a branch of the Nahoa family. * * * In the light of modern discovery and scientific inves¬ tigation, we are able to follow the Mound Builders. We first found them in Ohio, engaged in tilling the soil and developing a civilization peculiar to themselves. Driven from their homes, they sought an asylum in the South, and from there they wandered into Mexico, where we begin to learn something definite concerning them."

Two more widely diverse theories than those advanced by these two writers can hardly be imagined. They present a fine illustration of "When doctors disagree," yet they serve to show the vast amount of speculation on the subject and the uncertainty in which this ancient race is shrouded. There is not and never has been a unanimity of opinion regarding the Mound Builders. While early writers classed them as a hypothetical people, supposed to have antedated the Indian tribes by several centuries as inhabitants of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, the Mound Builders are now regarded as having been "the ancestors and representatives of the tribes found in the same region by the Spanish, French and English pioneers. ' ' Says Brinton :

' ' The period when the Mound Builders flourished has been differently estimated ; but there is a growing tendency to reject the assumption of a very great antiquity. There is no good reason for assigning to any of the remains in the Ohio valley an age antecedent to the Christian era, and the final destruction of their towns may well have been but a few generations before the discovery of the continent by Columbus. Faint traditions of this event were still retained by the tribes who occupied the region at the advent of the whites. Indeed, some plausible attempts have been made to identify their descendants with certain existing tribes."

In the early part of the sixteenth century, De Soto and the French explorers found in the southern part of the present United States certain tribes who were mound builders, their structures differing but slightly in character from those for which great antiquity is claimed by early writers on the subject. The culture of the Mound Builders was dis¬ tinctly Indian in character, and the relics found in many of the socalled ancient mounds differ but little from those of known Indian origin - not nearly so much as the reaping hook of the New England

Puritans differ from the twine binder of the present generation. As these facts have been developed in the course of investigation, archaeolo¬ gists have generally come to accept the theory that the Mound Builders were nothing more than the ancestors of the Indians, and probably not so very remote as formerly believed.

Cyrus Thomas, of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, who made a careful study of the ancient earthworks of the entire country, divides the mounds of the United States into eight districts, in each of which the relics bear some distinguishing marks or characteristics, to wit :

1. The Wisconsin district, which embraces the southern half of Wisconsin, Northeastern Iowa and the northern part of Illinois. In the territory comprising this district there are numerous effigy mounds, i. e., mounds bearing resemblance to some animal, fish or fowl. These are believed by some to have been copied from some beast or bird that served the tribe as a totem, and others incline to the theory that the living animal copied in the mound was an object of veneration or wor¬ ship. Effigy mounds are also found in some of the other districts.

2. The Upper Mississippi district. This district includes Southeast¬ ern Iowa, Northeastern Missouri and Central Illinois. Most of the mounds in this region are conical tumuli, located upon the ridges of the uplands, and possess very little that is of interest to the student of archasology.

3. The Ohio district, which covers the State of Ohio, the eastern part of Indiana and the western portion of West Virginia. In this district fortifications and altar mounds are the distinguishing features, though the ordinary conical tumuli are also plentiful. One of the largest known mounds of this character is the famous mound on Grave Creek, West Virginia, which is about three hundred feet in diameter at the base and seventy feet in height. In the State of Ohio alone some thirteen thousand mounds have been found and many of them explored. Perhaps the finest example of the effigy mound is in this district - the "Great Serpent" in Adams County. It is located on a narrow ridge, almost surrounded by three streams of water. As its name indicates, it is in the form of a ser¬ pent and is 1,348 feet long. Its opened jaws measure seventy-five feet across, and immediately in front of the open mouth is a circular enclosure with a heap of stones in the center. The body of the serpent is from thirty to fifty feet wide and about eight feet high at the highest point. The state has recently purchased the tract of ground upon which this ancient work is situated and converted it into a reserve, in order to protect it from the ravages of the curiosity hunter.

5. The Appalachian district, which includes Western North Caro¬ lina, Eastern Tennessee, Southwestern Virginia and Southeastern Ken¬ tucky. The mounds of this district are rich in relics quite unlike those found in any of the others, such as stone pipes, copper awls, knives and bracelets, mica plates, etc. A large number of human skeletons have likewise been found in these mounds.

6. The Middle Mississippi district, which includes the central por¬ tion of Mississippi, Northern Arkansas, Western Tennessee, Western Kentucky, Southern Illinois and the Wabash Valley in Indiana. In this district the distinguishing feature is the truncated and terraced pyramid mounds, which have been found here in greater number than in any other part of the United States. There are also many conical tumuli and some inclosures resembling fortifications, ditches or canals, and pottery and stone coffins have been found in several of the mounds that have been explored. Near Cahokia, Illinois, is a truncated pyramid 500 by 700 feet at the base, with its summit nearly one hundred feet above the level of the surrounding country.

7. The Lower Mississippi district, which includes the southern half of Arkansas, the greater part of Louisiana and the southern por¬ tion of Mississippi. It was in this district that the Spanish and French explorers above referred to found, upon their early visits to the region, certain Indian tribes who were mound builders. The mounds here are chiefly of the simple, conical type and present no special distinguishing characteristics.

8. The Gulf States district, which embraces the southeastern part of the country. In this district the large, flat-topped or truncated pyramids, inclosures or fortifications and effigy mounds are to be found. One of the finest examples of the effigy mound in the United States is the great eagle mound of Georgia.

Concerning the structure and purpose of the mounds, Brinton says: "The mounds or tumuli are of earth, or earth mingled with stones, and are of two general classes, the one with a circular base and conical in shape, the other with a rectangular base and a superstructure in the form of a truncated pyramid. The former are generally found to con¬ tain human remains and are, therefore, held to have been barrows or sepulchral monuments raised over the distinguished dead, or, in some instances, serving as the communal place of interment for a gens or clan. The truncated pyramids, with their flat surfaces, were evidently the sites for buildings, such as temples or council houses, which, being constructed of perishable material, have disappeared."

While much of the foregoing is not directly applicable to Huntington County, it has been introduced to show the various theories concerning the aborigines who dwelt in or roved over the country long before the white men even knew of the existence of the American continent. At various places in the Wabash Valley and the valleys of its tributaries - the Sixth district in Thomas' classification - there are numerous relics left by the Mound Builders, at least two of which have been found in Huntington County. Prof. E. T. Cox, who was state geologist in 1875, says in his report of that year (page 130) :

"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 savage, yet, strange to say, no traces of the works of the prehistoric mound builder are found in the county, except along the Salamonie river, in the southeast corner, opposite Warren, where, on a high emi¬ nence 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 circum¬ ference and six feet high. A slight excavation had been made in 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 over¬ looks 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 the Salamonie river for many miles above Warren and made repeated inquiries about mounds, I could not learn of any others in the county."

The farm at that time, owned by Daniel Adsit, consisted of the east half of the southeast quarter of Section 30, and the west half of the southwest quarter of Section 29, in Salamonie Township. John D. Jones then owned the northeast quarter of Section 30 in the same township, his farm adjoining Adsit's on the north.

In the fall of 1881 Mrs. Henry Stall, of Clear Creek Township, found near the family residence a peculiar pipe of flint, made of two pieces in the form of a bird and highly polished. Numerous relics in the shape of stone axes, arrow and spear points, etc., have been found on the Stall place, and a few years before the beginning of the Civil war a skeleton was found, indicating that the place had once been an Indian burial ground.

When the first Europeans visited the Western Hemisphere, the con¬ tinent of North America was inhabited by several groups of families of a race to which, the white men gave the name of "Indians," each of which was distinguished by certain physical and linguistic character¬ istics and occupied a fairly well-defined territory.

In the extreme north were the Eskimo, a people who have never played a conspicuous part in history. South of the Eskimo and west of the Hudson Bay were the Athapascan tribes, which were scattered over a wide expanse of territory. Farther south lay the country of the Algonquian group, roughly bounded by a line drawn from the northern¬ most point of Labrador in a southwesterly direction to the Rocky Moun¬ tains ; a line from the Rocky Mountains to the Pamlico Sound on the coast of North Carolina, and by the Atlantic coast on the east. South of the Algonquian country and east of the Mississippi River was the Muskhogean family, the principal tribes of which were the Creek, Choc¬ taw, Cherokee and Chickasaw. The Caddoan tribes inhabited the coun¬ try directly west of this group and across the Mississippi. In the upper Missouri Valley were hardly, warlike Siouan tribes. The Shoshonean family occupied what is now the western part of the United States. Along the shores of Lake Ontario, about the eastern end of Lake Erie and along the upper St. Lawrence Valley, dwelt the brave, warlike Iroquoian tribes, almost in the heart of the Algonquian country.

By far the greater part of the Indian history of the nation centers about the Algonquian family, which was not only the most numerous, but was also distributed over the largest scope of territory, and was so situated that its tribes were the first to come in contact with the white men. This great family consisted of several hundred tribes, the most important of which were the Miami, Pottawatomie, Delaware, Chippewa, Shawnee and Ottawa. At the time Columbus discovered America, the Wabash Valley was inhabited by the Miamis, then the principal tribe of the Algonquian group. Some writers claim that " Nearly all the other tribes of the Algonquian family trace back their ancestry, more or less remote, to the Miamis."

Next in importance were the Iroquis, which have been regarded as the most intellectual, the most skilled in diplomacy, of all the North American Indians. The principal tribes of the Iroquoian group were the Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, Mohawk and Cayuga. At an early date an Algonquian invasion of the Iroquois territory led these five tribes to form a confederacy, which became known as the "Five Nations," and which was a powerful factor in the negotiation of most of the early treaties between the white men and the Indians. Subsequently the Tuscarora, another Iroquoian tribe, was admitted to the confederacy, which then took the name of the "Six Nations."

The tribes that were most conspicuous in the region now including Huntington County were the Miami and Pottawatomie, both of which belonged to the great Algonquian group. Of all the tribes that dwelt in the central part of the United States, the Miami was the most powerful and wielded the greatest influence. The tribal name is said to mean "People of the peninsula," and is believed to be of Chippewa origin, as in early times that tribe and the Miami were closely related. As a tribe the Miami have been variously designated as the Omees, Omanees and Aumiamis by the French, and the Twightwees, Tweetwees and Twa Twas by the English, though the name "Miami" finally came to be generally used.

In the Jesuit Relations for 1658, Gabriel Druillettes refers to these Indians as the "Omamik, " and says they then inhabited the country about the mouth of the Green Bay, in what is now the State of Wisconsin. Ten years later Perrot found at least a part of the tribe living "in a fortified village on the headwaters of the Fox River, with some of the Mascoutens. " Bacqueville de la Potherie, an early French writer, says that in 1667 "this tribe, with the Mascoutens, Kickapoo and part of the Illinois, settled in the Mississippi Valley, sixty leagues from their former habitation." The information conveyed by this statement is somewhat indefinite, as the author fails to point out the location of "their former habitation." mentioned by these early chroniclers were merely subordinate tribes and did not include the main body of the Miami Nation. The French divided the Miami into six tribes or bands, viz. : The Piankeshaw, the Wea, the Atchatchakangouen, the Kelatika, the Mangakonkia and the Pepicokia. The last four have disappeared and the Piankeshaw and the Wea came in time to be recognized as separate and independent tribes. The Eel Rivers, an offshoot of the Miami, lived for some time on a reservation near the present Town of Thorntown, Boone County, but subsequently joined the main body of the Miami on the Wabash River.

Early writers describe the Miami men as "of medium height, well built, heads rather round than oblong, countenances agreeable rather than sedate or morose, swift on foot and excessively fond of racing." They wore costumes consisting chiefly of the loin cloth, but the women wore gowns made of dressed deerskins. The French explorers and Jesuit missionaries speak of the women as "distinguished for their polite manners, mild, affable and sedate character, and their respect for and obedience to their chiefs, who had greater authority than those of any other Algonquian tribe."

Although the Miami depended chiefly upon the hunt or chase for their supply of food, they also raised maize, or Indian corn, and some vegetables. The women spun threads of buffalo hair, which were woven into bags in which to carry their supply of dried meat. The principal form of dwelling was the wigwam, which was constructed by stretching skins of animals over a framework of poles, though many lived in huts roofed with rush mats. They worshipped the sun and the thunder, but they did not have a number of deities as did the Huron, Ottawa and some other Algonquian tribes. Usually the dead were buried in hollow logs. Occasionally, as in the case of some warrior of unusual prowess pr distinction, a solid log was split in halves and hollowed out for a coffin, the two parts being bound together again after the body had been deposited within, and sometimes bodies were interred in the ground without a coffin of any kind. In 1812 General Harrison found in a deserted village, near the forks of the Wabash, a tomb built of logs and daubed with clay. Within this rude mausoleum lay the' remains of some noted warrior with his tobacco pipe, arms and a number of trinkets that his tribesmen deemed essential to his happiness in the land of the Great Manitou.

Thoroughly imbued with the superstitions of their tribe, the Miami believed that each band was watched over and protected by a special Great Spirit, and that the dead were immediately transported to the "happy hunting grounds," where they retained the same appetites as in this life and a greater degree of enjoyment. If a crop of corn failed on account of drought, or for any other reason, the entire neighborhood would frequently remove to another locality to get away from the evil spirit that blasted their corn. They venerated the rattlesnake and under no circumstances would kill one of these reptiles intentionally. Their marriage ceremony was at once simple and effective. When a young brave and a young squaw made up their minds to live together as man and wife, they merely announced their intention, then there was an exchange of presents, the parents of the young people gave their sanc¬ tion to the arrangement and the marriage was complete.

One superstition of the Indians was that if one killed a wolf with a rifle the gun would never be worth anything afterward. The following incident, as related by Thomas Roche, an old settler of Huntington County, illustrates this peculiar belief of the Miami Indian :

"One of the early settlers, who lived in the west part of Allen County, Mr. Morrisoe, borrowed a gun from an Indian neighbor known as 'Old Zeke,' to go hunting. When he returned the gun Zeke asked him what he had killed. The white man, 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, saying that his gun would never shoot straight any more, and that it was spoiled. He took it all apart, washed and thoroughly cleaned every part of it, and went through some incantation to remove the spell from it."

(wrnlf) ; 2, Mongwa (loon) ; 3, Kendawa (eagle) ; 4, Ahpakosca (buz¬ zard) ; 5, Pilawa (turkey) ; 6, Ahseponna (raccoon) ; 8, Monnato (snow) ; 9, Kulswa (the sun) ; 10, Nape (water). Chauvignerie, writing in 1737, says the principal totems were the elk and crane, and toward the close of the eighteenth century the chief totem was the turtle. It was used in signing at the great conference of 1793, and also at the treaty of Greenville two years later. None of these totems is mentioned by Morgan in his list.

About 1671 or 1672 the Miami separated from the Mascoutens and settled about the south end of Lake Michigan, establishing their prin¬ cipal villages at Chicago, on the St. Joseph River and where Kalamazoo, Michigan, now stands. In these Indian settlements Jesuit missions were established by Father Allouez prior to the year 1700. The Indian village where Detroit is now located was established in the early part of the eighteenth century, but the village of Ke-ki-on-ga, at the head of the Maumee River, on the site of the present City of Fort Wayne, continued to be the tribal headquarters. Other villages in Indiana were at Kokomo and the Turtle Village on the Mississinewa River. Not long after the village was established at Detroit, a Wea village - called by the French Ouiatenon - was founded by that tribe on the Wabash River, not far from the present City of Lafayette.

Cadillac founded the French post at Detroit in 1701, and, according to Margry, he soon afterward reported that about 1695 the Sioux made a treacherous attack upon the Miami Indians in that part of the country and killed about three thousand of them - men, women and children being slaughtered without distinction. A little later the Kickapoo, Pottawatomi and other northern tribes came upon the scene and forced the Miami back to the Wabash River. The tribe then made new settle¬ ments on the Miami River, in Ohio, extending as far east as the Scioto, and held that part of the country until after the treaty of 1763, when they removed back to Indiana.

Miami traditions tell of a confederacy that claimed dominion over all the territory now comprising the State of Indiana, Western Ohio, a large portion of Illinois, Southern Michigan and part of the State of Wisconsin. Some historians have produced plausible proof that the alliance of the Miami with some of the other tribes inhabiting the Ohio Valley was formed about the time of the invasion by the northern tribes, after which the " Great Miami Confederacy" became to the Indians of the West what the "Six Nations" were to the East - a power that was not easily overcome and a potent factor in dictating the terms of treaties. For many years the headquarters of this confederacy were at Ke-ki-on-ga (Fort Wayne), whither all the subordinate chiefs came to present their grievances and receive their instructions. When one is familiar with the various changes made by the Miami Indians in their place of abode, the speech of Little Turtle, the great Miami chief, at the Council of Greenville, in August, 1795, becomes better understood. At that council, called for the purpose of concluding a treaty, Gen. Anthony Wayne proposed that the Indians relinquish all claim to the lands east of a line running from the mouth of the Kentucky River northward through Fort Recovery, Ohio, to the Great Lakes. To this proposal Little Turtle replied for his people as follows:

"I hope you will listen to what I now say to you. You have pointed out to us the boundary line between the Indians and the United States. I now take the liberty to inform you that the line, as you would have it, cuts off from us a large section of country which we have occupied and enjoyed from a time the oldest of us cannot remember, and no one - white man or Indian - has ever disputed our rights to these lands, or offered to disturb us in our possession. It is well known by all my brothers present that my forefather kindled the first council fire at Detroit; thence he extended his lines to the headwaters of the Scioto; thence to its mouth; thence down the Ohio River to the mouth of the Wabash, and from there to Chicago and over Lake Michigan. These are the boundaries within which the prints of my ancestors' houses are everywhere to be seen."

After the return of the Miami tribe to Indiana, following the Treaty of 1763, a number of new villages were established along the Wabash. An old document, written in 1765, says: "The Twightwee village on the river called St. Joseph consists of forty or fifty cabins, besides nine or ten French traders." This probably refers to the village later known as Choppatee's, so named from the chief who inhabited it, which the United States Bureau of Ethnology locates "on the west bank of the St. Joseph River, a few miles from Fort Wayne."

No doubt the most important Miami village founded about this time was the Osage village, situated on the west bank of the Mississinewa River, about a mile above the mouth. It was so called from an Osage Indian, whose name appears in treaties as "Osage the Neutral." The site of this village was included in the reservation granted to Chief Richardville by the Treaty of 1838.

A short distance east of the present Town of Roanoke were two villages belonging to or controlled by the Chiefs Chapine and White Loon ; the former was also known as Raccoon Village.

The Village of Black Loon was where the Town of Andrews is now located, where he received a section of land by the Treaty of 1838. He is described as a man of athletic build, weighing 200 pounds or more, very dark, from which fact he took his name. He died from a wound received in a fight with another Indian.

Other villages were Richardville 's, south of Fort Wayne; Godfroy's, near the present City of Peru ; the Village of Ma-co-ma-co, at Kokomo ; Meshingomesia 's, in the northern part of Grant County; Big Majenica's, near the present Village of Belden; Niconzah's, not far from the present Town of Bunker Hill, in Miami County; the Village of Les Gros, from which the present Town of Lagro was named, and Joe Richardville 's, west of La Fontaine, in Wabash County.

Seek's Village, the Indian name of which was Maconsaw, was located on the Eel River, about three miles below Columbia City, and was named for a Miami chief. The village, with its accompanying reserva¬ tion, was ceded to the United States in 1838.

After La Fontaine became principal chief of the Miami Nation, he established his home at the forks of the Wabash, about two miles below Huntington, and a settlement grew around him which was sometimes called a village, but it scarcely attained to that distinction. A similar case is seen in the so-called "Deaf Man's Village," in the western part of Wabash County, which consisted of perhaps half a dozen huts in its palmiest days. The Deaf Man (She-po-con-ah) was at one time war chief of the Miami tribe. He married Frances Slocum, the white woman who was stolen from her home in Pennsylvania in childhood by the Indians and passed her entire subsequent life among the red men.

Near the place where the Battle of Tippecanoe was fought, in 1811, the Miami established a village at an early date. It was afterward occupied by the Shawnee Indians, who were driven out by Wilkinson and the village destroyed in 1791, at which time it consisted of 120 houses. Some years later the village was rebuilt by the Pottawatomi, who in 1808 invited Tecumseh and his brother to make it their head¬ quarters, when the place took the name of Prophet's Town. After its destruction by General Harrison in November, 1811, it was never again rebuilt.

In 1846, after several treaties, the Miami Indians removed to a reservation in Kansas, in which state there is a county named for this once powerful tribe. By the Treaties of 1854 and 1867 they ceded their lands in Kansas and removed to the Indian Territory, where they were confederated with the remnants of the Wea, Peoria, Kaskaskia and Piankeshaw tribes. About the beginning of the present century the chief of this little confederation was Thomas Richardville (Wah-pemun-wah), a grandson of John B. Richardville and a native of Hunt¬ ington County. Through the consolidation and intermarriage of these tribes the identity of the Miami has been almost completely lost.

When the white men began to found settlements in Central Indiana, they found all the country north of the Wabash River inhabited by the Pottawatomi Indians, This tribe was originally one of the strongest numerically of the great Algonquian family. The name "Pottawatomi" signifies "People of the place of fire." According to the Jesuit Rela¬ tions, the tribe was known about 1670 as the "Nation of fire." In early times the Pottawatomi, Chippewa and Ottawa were closely allied, if indeed they were not one tribe, and they are frequently referred to by early writers as "The Three Fires." Tradition says they lived together about the upper end of Lake Huron. After their separation the principal branches of bands of the Pottawatomi were those living on the St. Joseph and Huron rivers, in Michigan, and the Wabash and Eel rivers, in Indiana.

The Pottawatomi have been described as "the most docile and affec¬ tionate toward the French of all the savages of the West." They were naturally polite, more kindly disposed toward the early missionaries and the religion they taught than any other western tribe, though some writers state that they were filthy in their habits, low in their nature, lazy, and would rather fish and hunt than to till the soil. In their religion they worshipped or paid deference to two spirits - Kitchemondo, the good spirit, and Matchemondo, the evil spirit - though Schoolcraft thinks these spirits were the result of the teaching of the missionaries. This author says that in early times the Pottawatomi worshipped the sun and practiced polygamy. When starting on the warpath the tribe appealed to the two spirits for their aid, asking Kitchemondo to give them the victory and Matchemondo to confuse their enemies.

The first white people to come in contact with the Pottawatomi were the French, with whom the tribe remained on friendly terms for many years prior to the peace of 1763, which closed the French and Indian war. These Indians were with Pontiac in the uprising of 1763 and at the beginning of the Revolution they took sides with the British and against the colonists. At the Treaty of Greenville, August 3, 1795, they notified the Miami Indians that it was the intention of the Pottawatomi chiefs to move their people down upon the Wabash. To this the Miami made objection, claiming all that territory; but their objections were without avail, and the Pottawatomi came into Northern Indiana. About the beginning of the nineteenth century they were in full possession of the country about the head of Lake Michigan, extending from the Mil¬ waukee River, in Wisconsin, to the Grand River, in Michigan. From Grand River they claimed the country across Michigan to Lake Erie ; thence southwest over a large part of Illinois, and all that part of Indiana lying north of the Wabash River. Within this territory they had about fifty villages.

The only Pottawatomi village of any importance near Huntington County was that of Metea, which was situated on the St. Joseph River, at the mouth of Cedar Creek, near the present Village of Cedarville, in Allen County. Metea was a chief who was noted for his oratory in council and his bravery in battle. He was one of the leaders of the Indian war party which massacred the families of the garrison and settlers about old Fort Dearborn (now Chicago) as they were retreating to Detroit for refuge at the beginning of the War of 1812. His band of warriors also harrassed the troops that were marching to the relief of Fort Wayne in the fall of 1812, and in one of the engagements he was shot in the arm by General Harrison. At the council held at the mouth of the Mississinewa River in October, 1826, Metea was one of the Pottawatomi chiefs who impressed all present with his passionate eloquence in behalf of his tribe, but the next year he died in a drunken debauch at Fort Wayne. His village, the Indian name of which was Muskwawasepeotan, was sold in 1828.

The Pottawatomi took part in more than forty treaties with the United States. The last important treaty was that of February 27, 1837, when they ceded the last of their lands in Indiana to the United States and soon afterward removed to a new reservation in Kansas. Although the tribe has been regarded as one of the strongest of Algonquian family in numbers, it is probable that the Pottawatomi never could muster more than three thousand or four thousand warriors. In 1908 it had dwindled until the number in the United States was 2,522, including women and children. Of these 1,768 lived in Oklahoma, 676 of what was known as the "Prairie band" lived in Kansas, and 78 of the same band lived in Michigan.

There is a pathos in the manner in which the Indian tribes of North America were dispossessed of the lands where they had roamed at will for generations before the coming of the white man. Untutored chil¬ dren of the forest, as they were, they were unable to cope with the superior race, skilled in the arts of diplomacy and warfare. It may be worth while to note the policies pursued by the European nations to get possession of the Indian domain. As early as 1529 the Spanish government directed Cortez, then captain-general of New Spain, to "give his especial care to the conversion of the natives, allowing none of them to be given to the Spaniards as slaves or servants."

Bishop Ramirez, acting governor under Cortez, conscientiously tried to carry out this command, as well as the instructions of his church; but his efforts were futile. Indians were enslaved, made to work in the mines, treated with great cruelty and their lands were taken from them without even promise of compensation. This was particularly true of the course pursued in Mexico and Central America, and a similar policy prevailed in the Spanish settlements in the southern part of the United States.

It seems that the French had no settled policy in their dealings with the natives. The Jesuit missionaries were interested in the conversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith and the other early French immi¬ grants were chiefly interested in the fur trade. Little or no effort was made by either the missionary or the fur trader to cultivate the land or to dispossess the Indians. The two races lived together as neighbors, the Indians peaceably permitting the French to dwell among them and allowing them enough land to answer their needs without any formal treaty of cession, and the French always recognized the rights of the natives as the original and actual owners of the soil.

England adopted a different system. In the British policy the In¬ dian was not entirely forgotten, as may be seen in some of the early charters; but no provision was made for the conversion, education or support of the Red Men. Charters granted by the English crown usually authorized the colonists, "if God shall grant it, to vanquish and capti¬ vate them; and the captives to put to death, or, according to their dis¬ cretion, to save." (See Lord Baltimore's charter to Maryland.)

Concerning this policy, Cyrus Thomas, of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, says: "Frequent and bloody wars, in which the whites were not always the aggressors, unavoidably ensued. European policy, numbers and skill prevailed. As the white population advanced, that of the Indians receded. The country in the immediate neighborhood of the agriculturalists became unfit for them. The game fled to thicker and more unbroken forests and the Indians followed. * * * That law which regulates, and ought to regulate in general, the relations be¬ tween the conqueror and the conquered, was inapplicable to a people under such circumstances. ' '

Under this policy the Indians were treated by the English colonists as mere occupants, or tenants, to be dispossessed or evicted at will. Although in times of peace the Indians were protected, to some extent at least, in the possession of their lands, they were not regarded as capable of transferring their title to others - the colonists depended upon the crown grants for title to the lands - and in times of war the natives

The United States inherited, or copied, in some degree, the English policy in dealing with the Indians. Article IX of the Articles of Con¬ federation gave Congress the exclusive right to deal with the Indians and control of all Indian affairs, under certain restrictions. After the adoption of the Federal Constitution, an act was passed by Congress and approved by President Washington on March 1, 1793, in which it was provided :

"That no purchase or grant of lands, or any title or claim thereto, from any Indians, or nation or tribe of Indians, within the bounds of the United States, shall be of any validity, in law or equity, unless the same be made by treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the Constitution. ' '

Under this policy treaty followed treaty and the Indian was grad¬ ually crowded farther and farther toward the setting sun. After the treaties with the Pottawatomi and Miami tribes, a full account of which is given in the next chapter, these Indians left their cabins and favorite hunting grounds for a home beyond the Mississippi and bade adieu forever to the scenes of their childhood. About all they have left behind them are the names of some of the streams and towns such as Mississine wa, Tippecanoe, Winamac and Kankakee, which the white man has adopted, and