Buffalo County, Wisconsin - The whole text, 1888 (part 3 of 13)

He did not allude, to be sure, to the Indians or other savages. That kind of people knew nothing of the tyranny of fashion.. Paper collars, tight boots, stove-pipe hats and other ornamental articles, not perhaps of civilization, but of dudeism, were unknown to the happy children of the forest' and the prairie. Vanity, however, was about as rampant among them as among other mortals, and they spent as much time at the preparation of their ornaments as any polished nation at theirs. And how happy so many of them were to be presented with the cast off finery of some white man, and especially the uniform of an officer or even soldier. Don't laugh at the poor Indian for that, because the Indian might in all seriousness believe it was the uniform that conferred the ability to command and to conquer; and how often are all the merits of a man encompassed by the badges of authority he wears ?

But to be serious about the matter, we must investigate the kind of clothing Indians did commonly wear at dififerent seasons of the year, and at particular occasions in the routine of their lives. We must also inquire into the means for furnishing such clothing, or habiliments. The men, we are told, wore little or no clothing in summer, but in winter they wore tunics and leggins. Thus the Hurons; the Neutrals wore absolutely nothing but moccasins when they were visited by the Jesuits Bribeuf and Chaumonot. More northern tribes were compelled to wear more clothing on all occasions, but the breech-clout seems to have been the summer vestment of all the western Indians in the summer excursions for war and chase. On solemn occasions, such as their numerous public feasts, at the reception of an embassy from the Whites, or the conclusion of a treaty with them,- or with some powerful tribe of their own kind, they wore long robes of beaver or otter skins, which were sometimes very v^aluable. Their medi- cine men performed their function in similar habiliments. The material for all their dresses was skins prepared by the well known method of smoke-tanning, if the hair was off, and by some other process if the hair or fur was left on. Moccasins and other articles of clothing were ornamented by the quills of the porcupine dyed in various colors. The inside of their robes of ceremony were painted with figures, usually in a red color, possibly some charm for the protection of the wearer, or a picture record of some of his deeds among the enemies of the tribe. Among the Iroquois the council, at least that of a clan or family was not a ceremonial affair, as Father Isaac Joques assures us that they were lying on their bellies, or on their backs or squatting on their haunches, almost naked, and smoking their pipes, calmly deliberating on affairs of state. He adds that even the Roman senate would not be insulted by the Iroquois council being compared with it. As the Roman senate departed this world about a thousand years before the worthy Father wrote that comparison, and as the Iroquois would not read it, the assertion was safe and harmless. We find, however, that the Iroquois wore beaver skin robes in battle, even in summer time, since in one of Champlain's battles with them, it is remarked that after the defeat of the Iroquois certain traders, who had not done much fighting, robbed the carcasses of the dead warriors of their robes, amid the derision of the surrounding savages.

The dress of the women, (among Hurons,) according to the Jesuits, was more modest than that " of our most pious ladies of France." We will not doubt it, but might reasonably dispute the authority of the " Fathers " in this matter. An exception to this modesty in dress waa made by young girls on festal occasions when they wore nothing but a kilt from the waist to the knee and wampum decorations on breast and arms. The long black hair was gathered behind the neck and sometimes decorated with disks of native copper, probably polished by scouring for the occasion; some gay pendants obtained from the French were used for the same purpose. They all slept in the cloths they wore during the day, and as in winter time they arouched closely around the fire during the night, we may readily conclude, that their clothing was none too warm.

difficult a performance as any that might be required in connection with this article. The cutting, for instance, of the tunic of the males from such parts of the skins as would prove strongest and require least sewing, the connection of the dififerent parts and the placing of the seams so as not to chafe, were considerations of importance. Very little more than straight cutting and plain sewing would be required for female dresses, except regarding the sleeves. There was one essential point which lightened the difficulty; the tunics, robes and such things were made loose, and held together by a belt or girdle about the waist. There is no doubt but that ornaments of painting and embroidery were employed, but as the material of the dresses was very durable, and these often laid aside for a considerable time, it was not very difficult to find time for making new ones. The material for sewing was in most cases the sinews of the animals killed in the chase, and the process must have resembled the work of the saddler rather than that of the tailor, at least before the introduction of steel needles. It may also be suggested that the heavier leather wa s softened by soaking and greasing before being sewed together. The sinews used for thread had to be dried in most cases before they could be used and the filaments were probably separated by soaking, or else by beating while dry. Champlain mentions the use of a fibre, which, on account of its being the envelope of some seed, he calls cotton, but it is for obvious reasons not probable that it was employed in sewing garments of skins. Whether it was worked into garments or parts of such by itself or perhaps in connection with bast or tough rushes, or possibly fibrous roots, we may suppose, but it is not proven. More probable is its use for netting. The Indians of our day or the next preceding generation did not to any great extent adopt the fashions of the White Man, but used the materials for clothing which might be procured by traffic. There is, in fact but little left of the original Indian in the remnant that tramps about among us, and whatever they did not have to abandon of their habits in the way of living, clothing and other things, they divested themselves of voluntarily. Their coppery skin, their love of whiskey and their constitutionarl laziness still adheres to them but whether they alone are to blame for that, we may leave to others to decide.

parties. It looks, other points being equal, like a contract for a division of labor of which the result would be for the promotion of such comfort to all concerned, as they expected to enjoy. The girl could perhaps hunt and fight, but custom was against her doing so; the young man must not be a woman, that is, he must not do a woman's work. Out on a hunt, or on the war-path, it was no disgrace to do some cooking, if circumstances admitted of it, or compelled him to do it, but at home that belonged to the women exclusively. It is true, some of his work, in fact most of it, was such as taxed his energy, endurance and self-denial almost too severely, and his claim for rest at home was excusable. Even on the march, where the woman had to do the hardest and most continous work in carrying baggage, and where the man assisted her only in case of extreme need, the warrior might excuse himself by a plea of constant danger, which required his careful observation of every thing, and also the preservation of all his activity and strength for instant action. But notwithstanding the validity of these excuses at some times, it is not to be denied, but that his laziness, his contempt for any exertion in performing house-hold work was carried to extremes. His pride very complacently supported his idleness, if indeed such support was needed for something customary and unquestionably due to his superior merits, which in his own eyes and those of his associates were sufficient for any prerogatives he might demand.

Naturally the women would get callous in a certain degree to the tasks and sufiferings imposed upon them, not by one man, but by a custom, that was as universal as it was irresistible. Where woman is so largely considered as merely a drudge, a slave, or beast of burden, the tie of marriage is hardly more than a bargain. The custom of buying the daughter from her parents must be considered as giving them an equivalent for such services as she might have rendered them, but which she would in future render to the purchaser, who assumed the position of husband and the obligation to protect her and provide for her, or she for him. In some form or other this purchasing prevailed among Indians. Hence poor Indians usually had but one wife, rich ones and influential chiefs had a plurality. Hennepin, for instance, says that his self-imposed father Aquipaguetin, the wily and powerful chief of the |Mille Lacs Sioux, made him the son of seven or eight women at the same moment, by introducing him to them. Family ties and marital obligations seem to have been more close and strict among western Indians than among the eastern, especially the stationary tribes. The Hurons, for instance, were openly profligate, the Neutrals even disgustingly so, and as there was no respect, there could not be love in any sense, except the lowest. That there was punishment for adultery seems to be true, but this only proves that the Aborigines did not need to learn of the White Men the purpose of making laws: i. e. for being violated, evaded and disregarded. The children born to any family belonged to the mother, or in case of her death to her oldest sister, and in general to her relations. Something, of course, was done to bring them up and to educate them, such as it was. That they enjoyed all the freedom compatible with their bodily security is a matter of course. It appears from the experiences with Indian women as wives of white men, that they were usually good house-wives, loving mothers and faithful to their marriage obligations. This seems to argue that the long continued usages of life were discarded without regret by the weaker sex, as soon as the compulsion maintained by the stronger was withdrawn. It also seems to argue that Indian mothers were always tenderhearted enough to their offspring, since the reverse would have been engrafted upon their nature indelibly, if it had really existed for so long a time.

From the family, which differed from that of civilized peoples most essentially in the fact that children were relations only to the relations of their mother and not to those of their father, we proceed to what, in our time, we would call the state or commonwealth, which among Indians was based on kinship, and that based on the woman, not on the man. Chieftainship, among other things, might be hereditary, but it did not go to the sons of a chief, it went to the son, or successively to the sons, of his oldest or next oldest sister. In the language of Champlain it is expressed as follows :

"A boy might not be the son of his reputed father, but he must be the son of his mother," an observation of peculiar force in an Indian community.

In the article on " Wyandot Government," a short Study of Tribal Society," J. W. Powell sets forth the general principles of Indian society, family life, relationship and government as found? among those tribes, that were at least in some degree organized. Differences and modifications can not be specified, for want of room and other reasons. Definitions will only be given, when he uses a new word, or one used by myself in a different sense. Only the most pregnant sentences will be given.

The Family The Gens

Each gens has the name of some animal, so that in speaking of an individual he is said to be a Wolf, a Bear, etc., and of the whole gens, that they are Wolves, Bears, etc., that is relatives of such a name.

The Phratry

This is the name given to the voluntary agglomeration of two or more gentes into a recognized unit for religious performances, festivals or games, and tlie preparation of medicines.

The Tribe

The tribe is the aggregate of all recognized kindred. Of the four groups thus described, the gens, the phratry, and the tribe constitute a series of organic units; the family or household is not a unit of the gen-^, as the father must belong to one gens and the mother and the children to another.

Civil Government

It consists in a system of councils and chiefs. The council of a gens consists of four women and a male chief, whom they elect. The council of a tribe consists of the aggregated council of the gentes, four fifths being women and one fifth men.

For special purposes grand councils of the gens and tribe are convened, consisting of the regular councils and the heads of households together with the leading men in the gens or the tribe.

Choosing And Installing Counciloks And Chiefs

The heads of households choose the councilors, the sachem installs them. The women choose the chief of the gens and endow him with an elaborately ornamented tunic and point the totem of the gens upon his face; the sachem announces his election. The rank of sachem usually belongs to the same gens for a succession of elections, but the custom may be changed.

One gens claims the office of herald and sheriff of the tribe as hereditary. Among the Wyandots the gens of the Wolf claimed this distinction for its own chief.

" Meetings of the gentile council are very informal, but the meetings of the tribal councils are conducted with due ceremony. When all the persons are assembled, the chief of the Wolf gens calls them to order, fills and lights a pipe, sends one puff of smoke to the heavens and another to the earth. The pipe is then handed to the sachem, who fills his mouth with smoke, and, turning from left to right with the sun, slowly- puffs it out over the heads of the councilors, who are sitting in a circle. He then hands the pipe to the man on his left, and it is smoked in turn by each person, until it has been passed around the circle. The sachem then explains the object for which the council is called. Each person in the way and manner he chooses tells what he thinks should be done in the case. If a majority of the council is agreed as to action, the sachem does not speak, but may simply announce the decision. But in some cases there may be protracted debate, which is carried on with great deliberation. In case of a tie, the sachem is expected to speak. It is considered dishonorable for any man to reverse his decision after having spoken."

This description applies more directly to the proceedings in such cases among the Wyandots, but all reports agree that councils of and with the Indians were always very formal.

Mabriage Regulations

The rights of a husband in his gens were not abridged by his living in and with the gens of his wife. Children, without regard to sex belong to the gens of their mother. Men and women mtist marry within the tribe, but as any person might "be adopted into the tribe by being adopted into a household belonging to it, this was virtually no restriction. Polygamy was permitted, but polyandry was forbidden. The mother and the councilors of the gens had to give their consent. After the betrothal the man makes presents to the mother of the girl according to his ability. Nuptials follow betrothal within the same month. Mutual promises of faithfulness, given before the parents and councilors, are substantially the whole marriage ceremony. To the customary marriage feast the gentes of both parties are to be invited. At the death of the mother the children belong to her oldest sister or nearest relative in the female line. At the death of the father the mother and children are cared for by her nearest male relative until subsequent marriage.

Name Regulations

At the green corn festival the councilors of each gens named the children born in the preceding yeaiT. No one could change his name, but might by good or ill luck acquire a surname or nickname, which would be commemorative of some event or exploit.

Regulations Of Personal Adornment

face, a distinctive chaplet to be worn by tbe cbief and councilor women of the gens when, inaugurated, and subsequently at festival occasions, and distinctive ornaments of all its members, to be used at festivals and religious ceremonies.

Regulations Of Obder In Encampment And Migrations

The camp of the tribe was an open circle or horseshoe. The place of each gens was designated, beginning from the left, and the same order obtained for the households in each gens, the oldest on the left, the youngest on the right. The order of march was analogous.

Property Rights

The wigwam or lodge is the property of the woman and descends to her oldest daughter in case of death. The property of the husband descends to his oldest brother or the oldest son of his sister, except what is buried with him.

His property consists of his clothing, hunting and fishing implements, weapons and other articles used personally by himself, including usually a small canoe. Large canoes were the property of the gens.

Rights Of Person

The gens had the right to the services of all its women in the cultivation of the soil, and of all its male members in avenging wrongs. The tribe had the right to the service of all its male members in time of war.

Rights Of Religion

The phratry was recognized for its purposes. Each gens had the right to worship its tutelar god, and each individual to possess and use his particular amulet.

The Indians, 121 Crimes And Punishment

Crimes are violations of rights. Seeing from the above that there were numerous recognized rights, we might conclude that the following list of crimes is insufficient, but I can not bring myself to believe that the Tionnontates, of which the Wyandots were a remnant, really meant to punish all the crimes enumerated. These crimes are:

If, for instance, the reports of the missionaries among the Hurons are to be trusted, and they are certainly as authentic as Mr. Powell's assertions, the whole nation would have deserved punishment for crime No. 1, in a qualified degree. It is improbable that such a wholesale proceeding ever was, as could have been attempted. As to No. 2, the case was simple enough; restitution could be enforced, and unless enforced, it was not made. Maim-^ ing and murder could not have been considered very serious offenses among people that were intent on fighting their enemies " to a finish" as the sporting phrase is, any hour in the day or night, and they were probably not often committed on members of the same tribe by such. Treason was of much more importance, and the punishment by death certainly deserved and unsparingly administered, if the ofiender did not escape, but traitors are everywhere timid and cautious.

Witchcraft was rampant among all Indians in their primitive condition, and they were almost as eager to punish i,t as Cotton Mather and the Massachusetts Provincial Government, besides the governments of church and state in many a proud country of civilization. The punishment was death by stabbing, tomahawking or burning. The accused, if found guilty, might clear herself by the ordeal of walking uninjured through a circle of fire.

Outlawry Military Government

The military affairs were subject to the military council which consisted of all men subject to military duty, who chose their chief, and his successors in case of death in battle. Gentile chiefs were responsible for military instruction of youths in their gens. Prisoners of war were either killed or adopted into the tribe in the usual way, the captor having the first chance for such adoption.

Fellowship

This was a peculiar intimacy, and mutual obligation of two individual warriors of the same tribe in every concern of life, independent of consanguinity, and to end only with the death of one or both. At the death of one, the other was chief mourner.

Reflections On The Above

Nowhere in North America have a people been discovered, who have passed beyond tribal society to national society based on property, i. e., that form of society which is characteristic of civilization. Some people may not have reached kinship society; none have passed it, Considering his statement of the government of the Wyandots we must not overlook the fact, that the ancient writers, the missionaries of the first half of the seventeenth century, although they are singularly silent on the subject of government, and in their meagre accounts of it do not contradict his own statements, do sometimes by a description of other traits of the nation, of which the Wyandots were the organized reinnant, cast a doubt upon the probability of such a close and well organized government, and especially upon the efficiency of it.

But admitting his theories, we must come to the inevitable conclusion, that this government Was a very complicated affair, imposing restrictions, which the savage mind can not be supposed to have endured without violent opposition! It was too formal and conservative. We can not dispute the authenticity of Lis information, but must remember, that it was given when the' tribe had long been diiven from its original abode or settlement, subjected to_numerous alterations of habitat, and the influence of intercourse with other tribes and the Whites, He may have learned

The power of the chiefs, for instance, was not so absolute as it appears from his statements to have been; at least they always excused themselves with their want of ppwer to compel, if individuals refused to obey. We find this excuse" as early as 1609 when Champlain was among the Hurons, and we find it as late as the Sioux outbreak of 1862. Of course, we may doubt the sincerity of the chiefs, but on some occasions it would have been manifestly to the advantage of their tribe, to have had that absolute power, which they denied to possess. The Dakbtas of Minnesota had in theory undoubtedly a similar organization as the one given in my brief abstract of Mr. Powell's article, and as they were, at least made the claim to be, the owners of the soil upon which we now live, there will be a chance to review this in their separate history.

With regard to the above I can not omit to remark, that, whenever the word " gens " is used the word " clan " may be substituted without much inaccuracy. The words " tribe" and " nation " may be considered as identical or very closely synonymous, when applied to Indians. These three words are Latin, but in the Roman application they did not exactly mean what they are made to express in modern languages.

Among the most serious events of life in any state of society is what may be called sickness, that is an interruption in the regular functions of some one or more of the organs of the body. Among these disturbances we must also include the injuries by wounding, total loss of limbs, and such accidents as would unavoidably happen in any state of civilization, and very frequently must have happened among Indians. It is true the Indian was inured to hardships of many kinds, to sudden changes of weather, to protracted marches, or as much protracted paddling in any kind of weather, sleeping in the open air, and many other exposures, too tedious to mention. Experience has, however, from the earliest times of the intercourse between Whites and Indians, demonstrated, that, other things being equal, an Indian could not in the long run, endure more than a white man. At any rate there was sickness among them. What were their means for combating this sickness? What was, or could be done, for the com|ort of a sick person? RecoUectins; the wretched accommodation, the crowded state of dwellings and sleeping places, we had best leave out the idea of comfort altogether. In some cases, however, we may credit the Indian women with tenderness enough to do the most that could be done in such an emergency. But the means for actually combating the sickness by removing its cause, by eradicating it from the system, were very scarce, and the credit given the Indians for a superior knowledge of medicinal virtues of certain plants, decoctions and combinations, is usually but the trick of a quack to sell his own preparations to the ignorant. Many persons have been imposed upon by thinking that the Indian medicine-man was a physician. Some of that class may have known a few simples and applied them empirically, but that was not their actual . vocation. The cure they were expected to effect, was not by their own knowledge, but by the interference of those occult powers, which among Indians were omnipresent, and the cause of everything. Invocations by any means, mostly by unearthly noises, extraordinary distortions of limbs and body, and similar performances, formed that part of their duty, that was most appreciated by the relatives and comrades of the sick person. The Jesuits and other missionaries called these medicine-men sorcerers. In fact that was what they were expected to be, but unfortunately their supposed powers of interference with the okis and manitous, and other unknown spirits, or natural forces, were no greater than those of other men who pretended to similar things with just as little warrant or actual vocation. If the patient recovered, the medicineman claimed the credit, if he died, the fee was probably not less. All, of course must die, at some time, and there was no exception to that rule even among Indians. So we come to the question; What did the Indians do with their dead? They buried them. But if we would suppose that they always dug a grave and put the body into it, we would be much mistaken. The word burial is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word burgian, that is to hide and to save from destruction. This word is the same as the German bergen, which in combination with the prefix ver means to hide, without prefix however means to save, as goods from a shipwreck. In the conjugation of the word bergen we meet the word geborgen, that is saved or placed in safety. In that sense the Indians did bury their dead. Mr. H. 0. Yarrow, in the " First Annual Report of the Bu-

1st. By inhumation, in pits, graves or holes in the ground, stone graves or cists, in mounds, beneath or in cabins, wigwams, houses or lodges, or in caves.

2d. By embalmment, or a process of mummifying, the remains being afterwards placed in the earth, caves, mounds, boxes on scaffolds, or in charnelhouses.

4th. By surface burial, the remains being placed in hollow trees or logs, pens, or simply covered with earth, or bark, or rocks, forming cairns.

5th. By cremation, or partial burning, generally on the surface of the earth, occasionally beneath, the resulting bones or ashes being placed in pits in the ground, in boxes placed on scaffolds or trees, in urns, and sometimes scattered.

6th. By eerial sepulture, thebodies being left in lodges, houses, cabins, tents, deposited on scaffolds or trees, in boxes or canoes, the two latter receptacles supported on scaffolds or posts, or placed on the ground. Occasionally baskets have been used to contain the remains of children, these being hung to trees.

So far Mr. Yarrow. But in the further elaboration, he gives another mode of burial, which, however, does not seem to be any burial at all, though he styles it "Living Sepulchres". He says: "This is a term quaintly used by the learned M. Pierre Muret to express the devouring of the dead by birds and animals, or the surviving friends and relatives. Mr. Yari-ow is probably correct in the opinion, that this practice was not prevalent among North American Indians. It is nevertheless, true that the Hurons, the Tionnontates, Eries and Neutrals and the Irpquois in general practiced cannibalism on their prisoners of war. The testimony in regard to this comes from the earlier Jesuit missionaries, from Champlain and other reliable sour<;es. "I will eat your heart" was not at all a metaphorical expression among those nations, and resulted but too often in the literal execution of the threat. From what I have been able to learn it appears that inliumation was the practice prevailing among the Eastern Indians, the Algonquins and Iroquois-Huron relationship. But they did not bury their dead immediately. They preserved their bones for a number of yearS) and at the feast of the dead, which occurred at stated periods' every five, sepen or ten years, the bones were together with articles of different kinds, weapons, kettles, robes of beaver etc. deposited in one great hollow or grave, covered with boughs of trees and with logs and then with earth. The Jesuit missionaries were more than once eye-witnesses to these proceedings and have left minute descriptions of the same. Surface burial and aerial sepulture, on the other hand seem to have been the more common practice of the Western Indians, the Dakotas, the Winnebagoes, Chippewas, Sacs and Foxes and Illinois.

From Mr. Yarrow's paper I here insert the translations of Schiller's "Nadowessiers Todtenlied". This translation is said to be byJBulver, and is as close as could be expected.

It is impossible to enlarge upon all the customs of burial mentioned in the paper of Mr. Yarrow, extending as it does not only to the Indians of the United States or the Great Northwest, but to those of Alaska, Central and South America, and to peoples of similar habits and degrees of civilization, or the want of it, in Africa and Australia, of present and past times. But as an example of a burial, romantically conceived, and carried out to the fullest possible extent with the ante-mortem wishes of the dead, we quote here from George Catlin " Manners, Customs, etc., of North American Indians," the description of the obsequies of Blackbird, the great Chief of the Omahas: " He requested them to take his body down the river to his favorite haunt, and on the pinnacle of a towering bluff to bury him on the back of his favorite war-boree,- which was to be buried alive under him, from whence he could see, as he said, " the Frenchmen passing up and down the river in their boats ". He owned, among many horses, a noble white steed, that was led to the top of the grass-covered hill, and with great pomp and ceremony in the presence of the whole nation, and several of the fur-traders, and the Indian agent, he was placed astride of his horse's back, with his bow in his hand, and his shield and quiver slung, with his pipe and his medicine bag, with his supply of dried meat, and his tobacco pouch replenished to last him through the journey to the beautiful hunting grounds of the shades of his fathers, with his flint, his steel, and his tinder to light his pipe by the way; the scalps he had taken from his enemies' heads could be trophies for nobody else, and were hung to the bridle of his horse. He was in full dress, and fully equipped, and on his head waved to the last moment his beautiful headdress of war-eagles' plumes. In this plight, and the last funeral honors having been performed by the medicine-men, every warrior of his band painted the palm and fingers of his right hand with Vermillion, which was stamped and perfectly impressed on the milk-white sides of his devoted horse. This all done, turfs were brought and placed around the feet and legs of the horse, and gradually laid np to its sides, and at last over the back and head of the unsuspecting animal, and last of all over the head, and even the eagle plumes of its yaliant rider, where all together have smouldered and remained undisturbed to the present day."

I cannot close this relation of Indian burials without some reference to related customs among prehistoric people in the Old World. Mounds and regular graveyards are not entirely wanting there, but discoveries have been made of burials in swamps, bogs and temporarily overflowed places, of which I could learn nothing similar in this country. Burials in cairns, that is piles of stones were common to the northern parts of Europe, notably England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland, Denmark and the Scandinavian peninsula. Burial in dolmens or stone-graves, the stones being ar-, ranged to form boxes or rude sarcophagi, seems to have been practised from the Baltic to across the Mediterranean, but by no means exclusively. Cairns seems to have served the same purpose in some parts of the West, notably in the Dakota country, but dolmens seem to be missing entirely in this country, or have so fai; escaped detection. Cremation prevailed among the prehistoric Greeks, but the ashes were covered with mounds, as appears from the Iliad and Odyssee, but whether the pyre and the mound were confined to kings and heroes, while common inhumation was the lot of other mortals, we may surmise, but could hardly prove. The Etruscans, the predecessors of the Romans in the occupancy of the Latin parts of Italy, may or may not have practised the same burial customs as the Greeks, but this is not yet conclusively decided. The Arians had a diversity of ways in this matter, as the " Suttee," still in use among the " Hindustanee " seems to point to cremation, and other circumstances would indicate inhumation. The Parsees still bury in " living sepulchers," exposing their dead to be devoured by vultures in the towers of silence.

With these relations we close the relatioii of the burials, and turn to tha mourning observances among Indians. These observances consisted of wailings, sacrifices, feasts, offering of food, dances, songs, games, graveposts, fires and other ceremonies. Among the Natchez, and probably among some other Indians west of the Mississippi, the favorite wife of a departed chief had to accompany him to the land of the hereafter. Among other nations one or more horses were sacrificed. Sioux, Crows, Blackfeet and perhaps other tribes inflict wounds upon their arms, legs, and other parts of their bodies, amputate a joint of a finger, tear out their hair, cut it short. The description of mourning for a Crow chief in the autobiography of James Beckwourth is very lively and even revolting, but it is probably exaggerated, and possibly all invented. The eastern Indians mourned about one year, and at the feast of the dead, of course, repeated their wailings. Dances and songs were common methods of expressing their grief, sometimes games of a gymnastic character with competition for prizes accompanied the funeral, and there may have been some fervor in all these proceedings if the deceased really was of much consequence to the tribe. Food was offered to the corpse before and after burial for some time; some tribes had the custom of maintaining a fire upon the grave, or under the scaffold, probably some longer or shorter time, according to the rank of the dead, or as convenience might serve. The men do not seem to have been obliged to mourn very long, though it might have suited them weU enough, or at least gome of them, to have an extra spell of idleness on pretense of mourning. Chippewa men signified their mourning by blackening their faces, in other tribes similar customs may have prevailed. Among the Choctaws, a southern tribe, the mourning occupied one moon and during that time the husband or widow went every morning and evening to the grave which was kept (partially at least) open for that length of time. At the end of that moon he or she went in the evening to do some more vehement wailing; that was the last cry. In the mean time neighbors and friends had gathered at the house for a feast of eating, dancing and general revelry in which the mourner was expected to participate, and this expectation was probably met promptly. After that ceremony the relict might mary again as soon as convenient.

Quite different it is among the Chippewas. A widow, especially a young one, is expected to take a stick of wood, something like two to three feet long and about five inches in diameter, dress it in her best clothes, while she must wear her worst, and this is henceforth her husband for at least a yi^ar, though she may at any time, even at the grave, become the wife of an unmarried brother-in-law, if he demands her. This badge of mourning she must carry until some member of her husband's family requests her to deliver it up, when she is released from further mourning and allowed to marry again. If, as might naturally be expected, she gets tired of that rag-baby, and begins to flirt, or even contracts a marriage outside of the prescribed family circle, she is punished by her female relatives, here as among other nations always ready to mind what is none of their business. Funeral feasts, like other feasts of the Indians, were performances of immoderate eating, followed, and sometimes preceded, by dancing as immoderate. The superstitions imputed to the Indians they probably possessed to at least some extent, but very often does the imputation betray the narrowmindedness of the person making it. As to the dances, they occur at every expected or unexpected occasion, and quite likely there was a dance for the dead among them, peculiar, it is probable to every tribe. Their deadsongs were wails, sometimes degenerating into howling, common to all, or many barbarous nations. The games connected with burials were formerly of gymnastic kind among the Iroquois-Huron confederacies, but in other places they seem to have been mere gambling, as among theWahpeton and Sisseton Sioux. This gambling was carried on by throw ing up marked plum stones, but card playing has been substituted for it. They call it the ghost-gamble. The prizes are siliall but many, so as to give each Indian invited a chance to win something. One Indian represents the ghost and plays against each of the others. As soon as one Indian has beaten the ghost at the game, he takes his prize and another is called in. Gambling has been the besetting sin of Indians and all other peoples of barbarous habit, and those just emerging from that state of society. That it still adheres to the human race in the highest degrees of civilization can not be denied, but in states of that character the more dangerous practices of it are prohibited by law. How much, or how little such laws effect, we know. The Indians, if they knew it, might be proud of their successful imitation of their white brethren. But those who wish to get an insight into the game of Bowl and Counters which is a sort of dice- thro wing, will find a satisfactory description of it, in' Chapter XVI of the Song of Hiawatha entitled " Pau-puck-keewis." With the exception of the names of the pieces, the description will probably apply to most Indian tribes. That they are not dismayed at the losses in gambling appears from a notice by one of the early Jesuit missionaries, that some Hurons of his village returned stark naked at night through three feet of snow from such a gambling expedition, laughing and jesting, just as if they had been in luck.

So far we have contemplated the Indians at peace and in their social and civic relations. But with most of them the condition of peace was not very frequently enjoyed, though perhaps, our imagination misleads us in supposing that they were constantly at war. We see from the. treatise nn " Wyandot Government ", that every ablebodied Indian owed military service to his tribe in times of war, but we might still have some doubt, whether in all their warlike expeditions they called on every man to participate. It appears that sometimes only small bands under temporary chiefs went abroad, mostly against hereditary enemies, but occasionally against tribes, with whom their own tribe was at a truce, or at actual peace. It frequently happened that a tribe had to apologize and to make reparation for depredations committed by such predatory bands or single individuals, in order to avoid a general war.

the result of a mistaken policy on the part of the Whites. A notable instance of this is the long series of wars carried on by the Iroquois against the French and all their Indian allies. The policy of Champlain and most of his successors was . to create enmity among the Canadian Indians and those farther south, so as to prevent the diversion of the fur-trade to the Dutch and English settlements. The French themselves were probably friendly enough to the Indians within their own territory, but this policy of theirs accomplished, in the course of time the destruction of those whom they pretended to love and promised to protect. It is true that it also served to diminish and finally almost to annihilate the victors, but at the time this result was reached, the French were no longer in the position to profit by it. When Canada and the Great West had to be surrendered to the victorious British, it was certainly done with the mental reservation, to take it from them again at the first favorable opportunity. It may, however, be admitted that the French government did not by any overt act eneourage the resistance of the Indians, which culminated in the conspiracy of Pontiac, for even if it had wanted to prevent it, .the power to do so was for the time gone. Not so with the personal influence of those French, fur-traders, and their dependents, who remained in the country, and to whom the Indians were wont to look for advice and assistance. This influence remained, and, the Indians being convinced by time that the restoration of the French power in the northern country would no longer be possible, this same influence was enlisted by Great Britain in its war against the United States, and continued after the surrender of the country east of the Mississippi, west of Lake Huron and south of Lake Superior to the United States. The action of the British in retaining the principal forts in the western territories for nearly thirteen years after the peace of Paris of 1783 showed clearly that the transfer was considered only temporary. The actual sufferers by this state of uncertainty were, of course, the Indians, who relied still on the power of Great Britain for protection and considered the forts and the traders as their natural support. When, finally, this illusion was dispersed, most of the French still remained hostile to the United States, and took the first occasion to manifest this hostility by openly assisting the English in the surprise and capture of Mackinaw, Green Bay and

Prairie du Chien. They could rely on the Indians. But indepen dent of political intrigues, the Indians were always in the way of getting involved in war. Their own political organization, so to speak, was founded on the responsibility of the clan for the acts of an individual. They chose to apply this principle to their relation or intercourse with Europeans. If any one of these happened to offend them they retaliated upon the first individual of that race, sometimes, perhaps, because the retaliation of the state or country to which the victim belonged was slow to overtake them. But, whatever may have been the causes of war in the many thousand different cases, it must be conceded that the Indians very readily accepted the offer of it, and were but seldom embarrassed for a cause or pretext. We can not expect that they should always have observed the ceremony of announcing their hostile intentions to their enemies. Their mode of warfare did not favor this way of proceeding. Most of them were undoubtedly personally brave, but they knew the value of a surprise, and that the art of war consists in being the strongest at a given opportunity. The chase of the wild animals, too, had at the time when their weapons were inadequate to killing game at a distance, habituated them to lie in ambush and to approach as stealthily as possible. Their number being never very large, they were prone to prevent the possibility of losses, even if they were sure of a numerical superiority at a given time.

Hence they avoided a pitched battle, if they could, fought from cover, if the situation afiforded any, and were frequently subject to sudden panics. Superstition, also, had a marked influence upon their mode of fighting and their stratagems. It is usually considered that they had no fortifications, but the French and Hurons learned to their surprise and damage, that the villages of the Iroquois were not only fortified, but also provided with such ammunition for defense as the occasion of a siege might demand, and circumstances did afford. Most permanent villages had a palisade, which sometimes was only a single row of posts set into the ground upright, but among the tribes of the Iroquois-Huron relationship the palisades were often double and treble, interlaced at the top and almost a wooden wall, especially as there was often a sheeting of the heaviest bark procurable on the inside of the palisade. A ditch, too, was often around such palisades and, con- sidering their imperfect tools, we must admire their art as well as their perseverence in the construction of such defenses. Very often, however, the savages trusted too much to natural advantages) leaving certain sides of their fortifications unfinished, or entirely nindefended, because approach to them was naturally difficult, or seemed impossible, on account of a deep and rapid stream, or a broad lake or pond, or because the unfinished part formed a rocky precipice. But not only had they learned to build these permanent fortifications, for at the time when better tools, procured from the Europeans, enabled them to execute the work rapidly enough, they fortified even their temporary camps, and fought from a space enclosed with an abattis, or from walls made of logs hasitly thrown together. This may have been the tactics of such tribes as inhabited wooded countries, the tribes of the prairies could but seldom resort to them. Crude and weak as such defenses would appear in modern waifare, they were most decidedly efficient against portable weapons, bows and arrows and even muskets. The soldiers in the war or the Rebellion often made use of similar constructions for purposes of defense. One weak point the Indians presented in their excursions, and, as might be inferred, at home. They never set any guards. They lay down to sleep, all equally tired, and equally sure that no. attack would happen during the night. According to their own custom they were right but in their wars with civilized men they often found themselves outwitted on account of this neglect. As the Indian went into the fight for revenge and his passions excited to the highest pitch, he fought desperately, cruelly and mercilessly. It must, however, be admitted, that the necessity of fighting at close range, brought the alternative of either to kill or to be killed. He might deprive the foe in his front of one M'eapon and then spare his life, but that foe might still attack him with some other weapon; the foe must therefore be killed as soon as possible. To be taken prisoner was, in most cases worse than to be killed, hence the defense was as desperate as the attack. Prisoners were nevertheless taken, usually after the main fight was over, or when defense was impossible and not attempted. The dead were scalped, and cases of scalping those who only seemed dead, must have been frequent.

War-clubs may have been common, but seem to have been the weapon of the strongest and most dexterous. That they were thrown at an enemy, sometimes for a considerable distance, there is no doubt, but the chances to dodge, were probably even with those to hit. Hatchets and axes were also used as missiles, often with great accuracy. Some tribes had learned to poison the points of their arrows. Spears, too, may have formed weapons of some tribes, but their transportation being unsuited to the skulking mode of hunting and warfare of the savages, they were probably used for the defense of the fortifications only. All the points and blades of weapons must at that time have consisted of flinty stones. Specimens are found in abundance in some localities in mounds and graves, and sometimes on the surface. Wounds inflicted with such instruments must have presented ragged edges, and were difficult of healing.

It was not long, however, until the Indians, at first frightened by the firearms of the whites, became in a manner reconciled to them, and very anxious to avail themselves of the superiority dependent upon their use. The oldest arm of this kind was the arquebuse, heavy and strong, usually loaded with two or more bullets and requiring a heavy charge. It must have been fired off by a lighted match and from a rest. That this sort of weapon was still in use at the battle of Luetzen (1632) where Gustavus Adolphus was killed, is a matter of history . The invention of the flintlock, 1650, was the first step to a lighter and more serviceable gun, which was not so heavy, but longer and surer of aim. It was not long until the French were furnished with the musket, for we find that LaSalle's expedition was furnished with them. For a long time there was little or no improvement, but the war of the Revolution developed the fact that the Americans were practised sharpshooters. This shows that rifles had become the firearm of the hunters. The Indians acquired all these portable firearms in succession and became, on account of the natural sharpness of their sight and the constant practice, dangerous experts in the use of the same. It appears that even during Champlain's time (1608 - 1635) the Dutch at Fort Orange furnished the Mohawks, and occasionally some others of the Iroquois tribes, with some firearms, such as they were. During the governorship of Frontenac (1672 - 1682) and 1689 - 1699) the English at Albany continued the prac- tice of the Dutch, and the Iroquois were almost all a,rm6d with guns. In the meantime the English at Hudson's Bay had armed the Knisteneaux in the same way, and the possession of guns and ammunition had become what every savage coveted. It was dangerous to furnish him with it; almost equally dangerous to deprive him of this safe-guard against those of his enemies, who possessed it already, and who might exterminate him, and then attack his Europea'n friends. Hunting, too, had become very difficult without this new instrument for killing. The possession of guns did not make much difference in the system of Indian warfare; tactics in a more precise sense they never had, and their strategic movements had always a close resemblence to those of a hunting party. In the course of time a new element entered into savage warfare and life, which was bidding fair to change both. This was the introduction of the horse. The supply for the Indians came at first from the Spaniards, and at later times from the wild stock, originating in animals that ran away, and multiplied in a wilderness seemingly created for such a purpose. The introduction of horses by the French and English for the purpose of agriculture and transportation may have furnished a few of the northern Indians with these animals at intervals by raids and general stealing, but the numbers cannot have been very considerable. It does, however, not appear that the Indians, even those first in possession of horses, and who soon had an abundance of them, ever formed any cavalry, that is they never trained their horses to military evolutions. They became daring and accomplished horsemen, ranged over an immense expanse of country, executed unexpected attacks and surprises, fought sometimes in a scattered or running fight with the Whites, or among themselves, but never actually and intentionally lased the horse itself as a means of attack. They valued it for its speed and endurance, nothing more. The possession of the horse brought with it the use of the lasso and the lariat, at first for hunting, then for war. The northern Indians were never so well supplied both as to the number and the quality of their horses, as the Indians of more southern climes, with the unbounded range of pasturage almost all the year round. We can not enter upon further particulars of Indian warfare, but We must yet say something of their way of treating prisoners taken in actual fight or by surprise. We see that these were either killed or adopted. The mode of killing was various. In a situation where there was danger of escape or rescue, the killing may have been sudden, followed by scalping. Some tribes never scalped women , though some killed them occasionally, with or without the customary preliminaries of torture. In some cases a few of the prisoners were tortured and killed soon after capture, while the remainder were reserved for the women to exercise their cruel ingenuity upon them, in which, according to the testimony of the men, they excelled the latter, both in tenacity and refinement . This torture, which almost always resulted in death, and som etimes in the flesh of the victim being eaten, was at othei' times terminated by an adoption into the tribe. In the course of tim e through the influence of civilized people much of it was abandoned, but .during the earlier times even women were subjected to it, as, for instance, in the raid of the Iroquois upon the Illinois. Adoption into a family, and hence into the tribe, began to be the more frequent, the greater were the losses by fights, by sickness and other causes, and it has been computed, that of the Iroquois in the beginning of their decline nearly one-half of the fighting men were adopted. Torture and abuse seem to have been more fierce and frequent among the eastern than among the western tribes .

Something remains to be said about the- general character of Indians. That they were arrant thieves, there is no use denying. They were dangerous foes, but very unreliable friends. The solemnity displayed in making treaties of peace served but too often to hide for the time their insincerity and treachery. We must not forget the sins of White Men towards the Indians, and the imperfect knowledge of the savages in regard to the ultimate power of the white race to crush them, If an intuitive dread of such a power often exasperated the savage heart, this dread was finally the only thing that made them adhere to the most solemn agreements. Considering how little of provocation it usually needed to cause an outbreak of savage fury, and how often for some wrong actually inflicted upon some member of a tribe retaliation was executed by individuals of the same, that were not at all concerned, upon white persons, who most probably were ignorant even of the supposed injury, we might almost agree with Gen. Sherman, that the only good Indian is a dead one. It has J)een customary with some people to make heroes of Indian war- riors indiscriminately, but facts do not warrant such a transformation. Exceptions do certainly not make a rule, though they are said to confirm it.

The question, whether the character of the Indians has improved or deterioriated by reason of their contact with civilization and the attempts at conversion and civilizing made at different times and for sometimes conflicting reasons, often under conditions most favorable, is connected with Indian history and the future of that people. The first attempts at conversion and civilizatioTi were scarcely more than pretensions for the opening up of commercial resources. The fur-trader was not an instrument of civilization. The greatest inducement for an Indian to trade was fire-water, and the first care of most traders was to provide a sufficient quantity of the intoxicant, the next to render the Indian as helpless, and himself and his goods as safe as possible. This was openly confessed by Canadian council in their address to the king of France relative to the proposition, made by the Jesuits, to prohibit the importation of brandy into trading establishments. The excuse of the council was probably as true as anything they could hit upon. They said that the sale of brandy was the only thing by which the fur-trade could be prevented from leaving the French and the St. Lawrence, alid going to the English and tha Hudson. Nor was the zeal of the Jesuits in this matter entirely sincere. It is notorious that they trafficked in beaver as much as they could, openly under the plea that this was all they could do for the support of the missions, and in secret pa;rtnership with some traders who were, or were not, lay-members of their order. The charge of their selling brandy was made by an employee of theirs, who was dismissed, because of his alleged falsehoods, but the charge of their trafficking was made openly by Frontenac and his council, by La Salle and his officers, and even the Indians, one of whom, a chief, is said to have remarked in open council, that he had been willing enough to act the part of a Christian as long as the missionaries had been in his neighborhood, but since there were no more beavers, the missionaries, also, had disappeared. This imputation however was not made until the second attempt at converting the Indians, in the latter half of the seventeenth century It was the same order, and there was no less zeal for the establishment of missions than before, but it was less a zeal for the conver- sion of the Indians than for the glory, power and influence of the order. Missionaries and fur-traders were equally averse to colonization. The latter overlooked the fact that they were slaughtering the goose that laid the golden eggs. The former could not expect to retain and exercise the same power over colonists, as they would be able to wield over converted savages. Thus the Indians were deprived of the chance of bettering their condition permanently which could only have come by acquiring agriculture and the rudiments of the common trades or arts, which had become the indispensable concomitants of all colonization. With the reign of William and Mary the struggle between France and England for the supremacy in North America commenced; seventy years of continuous strife, terminating in the final overthrow of the French power in the New World. Poor Indian! Both parties solicited, employed and corrupted him, only to cast him off, when they had to interrupt their quarral, and again to call on him as soon as they were ready to begin anew. What a school to form a character in! Fortunately he had not much to lose in the way of character, and if he was no worse than those who corrupted him, he was perhaps no better.

The influence of the French indirectly brought on the conspiracy of Pontiac, but traders and half-breeds finally submitted to and attached themselves to the British, who certainly held the key to the supplies of trade. Scarcely had these events passed and some sort of order and authority been restored, when the war of American Independence began, and when the Indians again were tempted by both parties. The war being finally over, British obstinacy and secret influence again embroiled the Indians in war with the United States. All these wars meant at the same time wars among the different tribes. Colonization progressed, but was seldom friendly to any tribe, and provocation made it agressive. When in 1816 the United States resumed possession and having in 1803 purchased Louisiana, was acknowledged owner of both sides of the Mississippi, it might have dawned upon the understanding of the duUest, that the only safety of the Indians could be found in submission and adaptation to the ways of living practiced by Whites, but the Indians were too much embittered and excited to see it. Nor w^re the pretended arrangements of the government for inducing them to another mode of life always judicious and honest, much less the greater majority of the men to whom such a task was entrusted. If under all these circumstances the character of the Indian was not improved, if they had adopted new vices, especially of drunkenness and idleness, and if they had grown still more suspicious and vengeful, we ought not to be surprised. One of the phenomena growing out of the character of the Indians are the numerous treaties and landsales concluded between them and the government of the United States. They go to show that for capriciousness the Indians can not easily be surpassed, and that they were at all times keen traders and greedy of large prices. But they were at best very improvident, and always sure to exhaust their resources prematurely. They were clamorous of their wants, but careless of the provisions made to meet them. A curiosity in their treaties are the descriptions of land pretended to be in their possession, and a map of Indiana, which delineates in various colors the boundaries of their land sold with extra grants and reservations is as gay as a man could but imagine, if he had never seen it. The delineation of the boundaries is a desperate task even for a person well informed on such matters, but I will try to give at least one specimen of such in the history of those tribes who used to be domiciled in our neighborhood. That they were but little inclined to respect boundary lines, even if they had agreed to them, we may readily imagine. The game they had to live upon did not always remain inside of such lines, how then could the Indians ?

Having said so much about Indians in general, I can not omit, a trait, which has been observed by many officers and traders, especially in the Great West, which usually means that part of the United States between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean. It is the supposed common sign-language. That such a sort of communication existed, and that most Indians of the Plains and the Rocky Mountains readily fell into the interpretation of signs made by them mutually, need not be disputed. The Kiowas and tribes in frequent contact with them are said to have had a system of such signs almost equivalent to spoken language. Tribes farther distant were naturally not proficient in it, and in some cases the old men were the only ones that remembered any considerable part of it. Some signs were so expressive as to be understood everywhere, as laying down weapons as a sign of peaceable intentions, and a few others of similar effect. The presentation of the peace-pipe, also, was regarded in the same way, whether accepted or not. Many of the supposed signs were preconcerted signalsjjand the paucity of iiiost of their languages was a natural inducement to the use of gestures. It is hardly necessary to say more about the matter.

In the special relation of matters concerning the three tribes of our neighborhood, I intend to follow the arrangement of Judge Gale in his book on the " Upper Mississippi," without goii^g any further than mentioning the names of kindred tribes. His arrangement is thus: 1. The Winnebago Confederacy; 2. The Dakota Confederacy; 3. The Ojibwa Confederacy.

It consisted of the following tribes: Winnebagoes, Menomenees, lowas, Missourias, Osages, Kansas, Quapas, Otoes, Omahas, Ponkas and Mandans, and perhdps some others. None of these tribes, however, lived in our neighborhood except the Winnebagoes. Some mention has been made of these casually at different other places, and need not be repeated here. Their name, in their own language, was 0-chunk-o-raws, and although some authors have classed them among the Dakota family, it is not probable that they really belonged to it. Direct testimony against that supposition is given by Schoolcraft; who quotes the Rev.Wm. Hamilton, previously a missionary among the lowas and author of a grammar of their language, who wrote as follows : There as no more difference between the language of the lowas, Otoes and Winnebagoes, than between the language of a New Englander and a Southerner.

A few words are common to one tribe, and not to the other. They say the Winnebago is the ^rsi language. In the same volume J. E. Fletcher, Esq., Indian agent to the Winnebagoes, writes: The Winnebagoes claim that they are an original stock; and that the Missourias, lowas, Otoes and Omahas sprung from them. These Indians call the Winnebagoes their elder brothers, and the similarity of their languages renders it probable, that they belong to the sam^ stock. Even in 1670 the Winnebagoes told Rev. Father AUoiiez tiiat " there were only certain people of the southwest who spoke as they did." - -It may at this place be proper to remark, that we have a right to conclude, that the name of the

Menomonees does not belong into the roll of this confederacy, inasmuch as the Menomonees were at the time of the residence of Father Allouez among the Winnebagoes the nearest known neighbors to the east of the latter, and the missionary had formerly been among the former, and was well aware of the difference of the two languages. - To the two former testimonies we must add that of Saterlee Clark, an old Winnebago trader, and one of the few who ever learned that language, that he could converse with and understand the lowas, and that the lowas called themselves 0-chunk-o-raws; the statement of Gen Sully, that they spoke the same language as the Omahas; and the statement of James Reed, Esq., of Trempealeau County, to Judge Gale, that he had not been able even to learn the Winneba,go language, on account of its being so deeply guttural, notwithstanding he had many years spoken Sioux, been a farmer and trader amongst them, and had a cousin of the Chief Wabasha for his wife. This we imagine makes a strong case against the assertion that the Winnebago is only a dialect of the Sioux.

The Winnebagoes made their entrance into the annals of civilized men by the visit made to them by Jean Nicolet under the order of Gov. Champlain of New France in 1634. Judge Gale andi some others put the date at 1639, but Prof. C. W. Butterfield in his work: " History of the Discovery of the Northwest by John Nicolei in 1634" proves it to have been five years earlier. (See "Jean Nic-'^ olet " in this work.) For about thirty-eight years we hear but little of them, and when Joliet and Marquette came among them they still occupied the country in which they had been found by Nicolet. It appears, however, from subsequent events that they retreated from Green Bay and the lower part of the Fox River and were succeeded by the Outagamies or Foxes, with whom they seem to have been on terms of amity and peace. The Sacs appear to have been either a clan or gens of the Foxes, or their close allies. It is erroneous to suppose that the Winnebagoes continued to occupy as their own territory, the country in which the French had to carry on war with the Foxes. But that they continued friendly to the French may be true. At least we have sufficient| evidence, that de Caurey or de Carry, a Frenchman,'either a trader or coureur de hois was married to Ho-po-ko-e-kaw, the Morning Glory, and that he died in one of the different battles around Quet , bee, that resulted disastrously to the French, the last of which was that on the Plains of Abraham. About seven years after that event Capt. Carver visited the widow, who was then considered the superior chief of the Winnebagoes, and who treated him with great kindness. After the downfall of the French power, the Winnebagoes adhered to the British interest until 1816, when the Americans returned and took possession of the forts and of the country. In the same year the Portage band, under the chief Ghoo-ke-kaw, the Ladle, commonly called De Carry, concluded a peace with the United States, and agreed to separate themselves from the balance of the tribe until it, also, would make a treaty and deliver up their prisoners. Soon after the withdrawal of British forces and influence the Americans began to flock into the lead region, which the Winnebagoes considered as their own territory. Julien Dubuque had explored the region as early as 1804, for the purpose of working the lead mines, and even Capt. Carver as early as 1766 mentions that he saw great quantities of lead lying about the streets of the Mascoutin village. So far, however, the Indians had managed to hold a monopoly of the production of the metal, and as they were slow and unskilful in the working -of the mines, they could and did expect, that these would remain for an indefinite time very profitable to them.

With all their natural jealousy of the intrusion of the white minerSjthey were in 1822 induced to allow Col. Johnson of Kentucky to work certain mines with the assistance of his slaves. The dissatisfaction was growing, but the 0-chunk-o-raw joined in the great council at Prairie du Chien, held by Gen Lewis Cass on the 19th of August 1825. With regard to this treaty, which was not intended to be observed by the Winnebagoes,the only point relating to them, of any consequence, is the definition of their boundaries as follows:

Beginning at the source of the Rock River near the southern end of Lake Winnebago, and following down the river to the Winnebago village about forty miles above its mouth, thence West to the Mississippi, thence up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Upper Iowa River, thence along the the high bluffs on the eastside of the Mississippi to Black River; thence up Black River, thence, probably on the watershed, to the source of the left fork of the Wisconsin, Lake Vieux Desert; thence down the Wisconsin to the Portage, thence acioss the Portage to Fox River, thence down Fox River to Lake Winnebago and the grand Kau-Kaulin, including in their claim the whole of Lake Winnebago. Within this a tract was secured to the Ottawas along the watershed of the Black River and the Mississippi, about the sources of the small streams running west.

In spite of the solemn promise to maintain eternal peace the Winnebagoes were restless and discontented. In October 1826 Fort Crawford at Prairie du Ghien was abandoned and the troops transferred to Fort Snelling. The foolish pride of the Winnebagoes, . made.them believe that this move had been made out of fear of themselvelves. Fort Winnebago on the Wisconsin was not yet built. When the troops left Prairie du Chien the Commandant took with him two Winnebago prisoners, who were detained for some trifling offence. After a while it began to be talked about among the Indians that the' two prisoners had been killed. The war party among the Winnebagoes used this rumor as a pretext for revenge, and it subsequently leaked out that an alliance had been made with the Pottawatomies east of Rock River, and a general outbreak arranged for during Spring 1827. Judge Gale says that some Winnebagoes had killed eight Chippewas near Fort Snelling and that the commandant, Colonel Snelling, had seized four Winnebagoes and delivered them over to the Chippewas, who instantly killed them. Fort Snelling being above St. Paul, and within the Sioux country, it is scarcely probable that this happened, though the Winnebagoes were bold enough. The first outrage committed was early in spring, during the maple-sugar season. The victims were a Frenchman by the name of Methode, his wife and five children. This was done on Painted Rock Creek or Yellow Creek, about twelve miles from Prairie 'du Chien, and only found out, when Methode after the sugar-season failed to return. One Indian was charged with the outrage, and admitted his own guilt, charging others with participation.

Among the inhabitants of Prairie du Chien the chief Red Bird had been regarded as a protector and the utmost confidence reposed in him. When the rumor of the killing of the aforementioned prisoners had been spread among the Winnebagoes, they did not stop to ascertain whether it was true or not, but their leading chiefs held a council and resolved upon retaliation. Red Bird was called upon to go out and "take meat" as they phrase it. Accordingly he and two others went to the house of Jas . H. Lockwood,who happened to be absent. The Indians loaded their guns in presence of the servant girl, and then entered the bedroom of Mrs. Lockwood, who escaped from them into the store of her brother. There she found Duncan Graham, an old trader, known as an Englishman to all the Indians, and during the British occupation of 1812-16 commandant of Prairie du Chien. The Indians had followed her into the store, but Mr. Graham succeeded by some means to make them leave. Red Bird and his savage accomplices then went the same day to McNair's coulee, about two miles southeast of the village, to the house of Rijeste Gagnier, inhabited by Gagnier and his wife, one boy three years and a girl about eleven months old, their children, and an old soldier named Solomon Lipcap. The Indians were received with customary civiHty and asked whether they wanted anything to eat. They said they wanted milk and fish, and Mrs. Gagnier turned to get it for them, when she heard the click of Red Bird's rifle, which was instantly followed by the discharge of it, the body of her murdered husband falling at her feet. Chi-hon-sic, the second Indian, had at almost the same instant shot Lipcap. Mrs. Gagnier grasped the rifle of We-kau, the third Indian, wrenched it from him, and being from trepidation and excitement unable to use it, took her oldest child, and still holding the rifle, ran to the village to give the alarm. Several armed men went out with her, and brought away the bodies of the two murdered men, and the little girl, who had been scalped by the cowardly We-kau, who probably was enraged at having been deprived of his gun by the mother. The girl recovered and lived to be the mother of a numerous family.

On the same day (June 26th) two keelboats commanded by Capt. Allen Lindsay, which a few days before had ascended the river laden with provisions for the troops at Fort Snelling, passed the mouth of the Bad Axe on their way back to St. Louis.

On the way up some hostile demonstrations had been made by the Dakotas, which induced Capt. Lindsay to ask that his crew should be furnished with arms and ammunition. Col. Snelling, the commanding officer, complied with this request, and the thirty-two men of the crew were provided with thirty-two muskets ^nda'barrel of ball cartridges. The Dakotas occupied the right bank of the river, and Capt. Lindsay and his men were on their guard against any attack from them ; but they had no apprehension of any attack from the Winnebagoes, who occupied the left bank of the Mississippi.

The village of Wabasha, the site of the present city o^ Winona, was the lowest point on the river at which they expected to encounter the Dakotas.- Having passed this point in safetyi and a, strong wind having sprung up,, the boats parted compan}', and one of them, the 0. H. Perry, by the time it reached the mouth of the Bad Axe, was several miles in 'advance of the other-

In the mean time thirty-seven Winnebagoes, inspired by the same common feelings of vengeance, cruelty and hate, which had led to the murder of Methode and his family, and which had on that very day instigated the invasion of the peaceful home of Gagnier and the murder of its inmates by Red Bird, Chi-hon-sic, and We-kau, had, in pursuance doubtless of a common purpose to ex" terminate the whites, concealed themselves upon an island in the Mississippi near the mouth of the Bad Axe, between which and the left bank of the river, it was known, that the two keel-boats would pass on their return from Fort Snelling.

These boats, in model and size, were similar to ordinary canal boats, and furnished considerable protection from exterior attacks? with small arms, to those on board, who concealed themselves below the gunwales. As the " Perry " approached the island where these hostile savages were concealed, and when within thirty yards of the bank, the air suddenly resounded with the bloodchilling and ear-piercing cries of the war-whoop, and a volley of rifle balls rained across the deck. Of the sixteen men on board either from marvelous good luck, or because they were below deck, only one man fell at the first fire. The crew now concealed themselves in the boat below the waterline, sufi'ering it to float whithersoever the current and the high east wind might drive it. The second volley resulted in the instant death of one man, an American named Stewart, who had risen to return the first fire, and his musket protruding through a loophole, showed some Winnebago where to aim. The bullet passed directly through his heart, and he fell dead with his finger on the trigger of his undischarged gun.

to their canoes intending to board her. The crew having recovered from their panic, and seeing that the only escape from savage butchery was vigorous war, seized their arms and prepared to give the enemy a worm reception. In one canoe containing several savages, two were killed, and in their dying struggles upset the canoe, and the rest were obliged to switxl ashore, where it was some time before those who were not disabled by wounds could restore thier arms to fighting order. Two of the Indians succeeded in getting on board the keel-boat, both of whom were killed. One fell into the water, and the other into the boat, in which he was carried down river, but in this hand-to-hand conflict the brave commander of the crew, named Beauchamp, was killed by the first of the two boarders, who in his turn was killed by a daring sailor named Jack Mandeville^called " Saucy Jack " who shot the rash warrior through the head, and he fell overboard, carrying his gun with him. Mandeville now assumed command of the crew, whose numbers had been reduced to ten effective men. He sprang into the water on the sand bar for the purpose of shoving off the boat and escaping from their perilous position, and was followed by four resolute men of his crew. The balls flew thick and fast about them, passing through their clothes; but they persisted and the boat was soon afloat. Seeing their prey escaping, the Winnebagoes raised a yell of mingled rage and despair, and gave the whites a farewell voUey. . It was returned with three hearty cheers, and ere a gun could be reloaded, the boat had floated out of shooting distance, and the survivors were safe, arriving at Prairie du Chien about sunset the next day, the 27th of June.

The casualties of this engagement were, two of the crew killed, two mortally and two slightly wounded, while it was supposed that ten or more Indians were killed and a great number wounded. The other keelboat, under the command of Capt. Lindsay himself reached the mouth of the Bad Axe aboiit midnight. The Indians opened fire upon her, which was promptly returned; one ball only hit the boat, 'doing no damage; the others passed harmlessly in the darkness through which she pursued her way, and arrived safely at Prairie du Chien on the 28th.

In this narrative of the attack of the two boats, I have copied, from M. M. Strong's " History of Wisconsin Territory, " who in turn took most items from an anonymous article on the " Winne- bago Outbreak of IS 27 " of v/hich Mr. Wm. J. Snelling, a son of Col. Snelling, who had come down from the fort with Capt. Lindsay on this trip, is supposed to have been the author.

The inhabitants in and about Prairie du Chien were generally and greatly alarmed. They left their farms and houses and crowded into the old dilapidated fort, where, however, they speedily established a very effective discipline, and organized a force of about ninety effective men and women. They repaired fort and blockhouse as well as they could, brought out and mounted a swivel-gun and the wall-pieces left by the troops, and all the blacksmiths were brought in requisition to repair the condemned muskets. Judge Lockwood fortunately had plenty of powder and lead, which he liberally furnished, so that matters began to look like defense. An experienced voyageur crossed the Mississippi and succeeded in reaching Fort Snelling, whence, upon the report of the situation Col. Snelling, after some delay, came down with two companies of U. S. infantry. An express having been sent to Galena, the people there were greatly alarmed and confused, but no attack followed. On the fourth of July Gov. Cass arrived at Prairie du Chien. Having ordered into the service of the United States the company organized by McNair, the governor hastened in his canoe to Galena. Here a company of volunteers was raised under Capt. Abner Fields, to whom the command of Fort Crawford was assigned, and who proceeded to Prairie du Chien in a keel-boat.and took posses- , sion of the barracks. The two companies were mustered into service by Martin Thomas, Lieutenant of the U. S. army. On the arrival of Col. Snelling he assumed command of the post. In the meantime Gov. Cass proceeded to St. Louis and conferred with Gen. Atkinson, the commander of Jefferson Barracks and of the western military department. Gen. Atkinson moved at once with all his disposable force up the Mississippi. During the intervening time the miners in the lead region had organized a company of mounted volunteers, which numbered over one hundred men, well mounted and armed, commanded by Col. Henry Dodge. Their peculiar duty being the protection of the settlers in their own region against any attack of the savages, they were also ready to pursue them and to give battle.

The Indians, 149

Major Whistler, in command of Fort Howard moved up Fox River with his force, being joined at Little Butte des Morts by about sixty Oneida and Stockbridge Indians under Capt. Ebenezer Childs and Joseph Dickinson. His force arrived on the 1st day of September on the high bluff, on which in the following year the erection of Fort Winnebago was commenced, where he encamped by order of Gen. Atkinson to await the arrival of the General and the forces with him.

The Winnebagoes were now in a desperate plight, being confronted with such forces and Col. Snelling being in command with another strong force at Prairie du Chien. There was no alternative but to appeal to the mercy of their pursuera.

Mr. Strong devotes nearly three pages to the description of the ceremonies, but the facts were, that Red Bird and his accomplices were surrendered to Major Whistler by an unarmed deputation of about thirty Indians led by Car-i-mau-nee, a distinguished chief. Soon after the surrender of these captives Gen. Atkinson and the force of Col. Dodge arrived in the camp. The prisoners were delivered over to Gen. Atkinson, who sent them to Fort Crawford. He met the gray-headed De Kau-ray, who, in presence of Col. Dodge disclaimed for himself and the other Winnebagoes any unfriendly feelings against the United States, and disavowed any connection with the murders on the Mississippi. Gen. Atkinson then discharged the volunteers, assigned two companies of regulars to the occupation of Fort Crawford, and ordering the other regulars to their respective posts, he returned to Jefferson Barracks. Thus ended the Winnebago outbreak.

It might be said that an extraordinary display had been made to put down a rather insignificant ebullition, made by a part of an insignificant tribe, yet, when we reflect on the Indian mode of warfare, on the cause of this outbreak, which rooted in the contempt of the forces among the Winnebagoes, and on the fact, that since the evacuation of the coun-try by the British in 1816 no actual display of the forces of the United States in the West had been made, we cannot but bestow merited praise upon the action of General Cass, Gen. Atkinson and all other commanders in this war. This was the last open outbreak of the Winnebagoes, although their loyalty was more than suspected in the Black Hawk war in 1882, and they were actually compelled to surrender eight of their warriors for having killed white men in the last named war.

I have in the above delineated the boundaries claimed by the Winnebagoes, but it must not be supposed that they respected them very closely. It seems that most of the time they were on unfriendly terms with the Sioux, but from a note I found in the old Minnesota Atlas it appears that they often crossed the Mississippi, and roved about in northern Iowa and southern Minnesota and even asserted their supposed rights by molesting white settlers

In a treaty concluded at Prairie du Chien August 1st, 1829 the tribe ceded their land south of the Wisconsin and west of a line running south from Lake Puckaway by Duck Creek, Fourth Lake near Madison, Sugar river, and Pee-kee-tol-a-ka, by which the United States secured the Winnebago interest in the lead mines. By the treaty of September 15th 1832, after the Black- Hawk war, the Winnebagoes ceded to the United States aU their land south of the Wisconsin and Fox River, for which, besides the consideration expressed in money, the tribe received an interest in the neutral land beyond the Mississippi. In the next treaty they surrendered all their land in Wisconsin and their claims in Minnesota, for which they received land on the Minnesota river.

Owing to injudicious selections, to remonstrances by the people of Minnesota, and other obstacles, they did not settle down in any permanent location until spring 1855, when their chiefs had selected land on the Blue Earth River, south of the Minnesota River. Here they did extremely well in agriculture, had comfortable houses and prospered generally, until the Sioux outbreak in 1862, in which, however, as a tribe they did not participate, though individuals may have been involved. This event, however, was of very serious consequences to the Winnebagoes, as the people of the state, after the disastrous experiences they had had with Indians in the midst of the white population, naturally objected to the presence of any of the race among them. So the government transported Winnebagoes as well as Sioux to a desert on the Missouri, above Fort RandaU. They suffered greatly and very unjustly. In their new reservation on Crow Creek, Dakota, they could not practice agriculture, because the ground was a barren waste; they could not hunt for fear of the other tribe. They left as fast as they could for the Omaha reservation, where, finally, they were settled more favorably and yet remain. It, appears, nevertheless that a remnant of Indians and half-breeds of this tribe never removed from this state, and some of these are yet in the neighborhood of Black River, and receive yet, or used to receive but a few years ago, some annuities. When in 1863 the government threatened to remove the tribe, the old chiefs, De Carry (Kau-ree,) Winneshiek, Dandy , and their families, and some others, fled to Wisconsin. De Carry was the grandson of Ho-poko-e-kaw, the Morning Glory, inentioned above as the chieftess of the tribe about a hundred years ago. He died in poverty in the fall of 1864. He was undoubtedly loyal to the government, and a sincere friend to his white neighbors, at least as far as they deserved it, wMeh they probably not always did. As he had captured Black Hawk and the Prophet in 1832, the United States ought to have given him at least land enough to subsist upon.

The numerical strength of the tribe was variously estimated at 230 warriors in 1736, at 360 in 1763, and by Capt. Carver at about 200. The census of the tribe 1859 was 2,256 souls, but in 1865 it was only 1,900, in which, however, the stragglers in Wisconsin do not seem to have been included.

They appear to be doing better than any other tribe in their new location, and furnished, during the war a number of soldiers, of whom about one hundred returned to their relations in 1866.

Note. - There are yet in this state about 1400 Winnebago Indians, who are mostly living in Jackson and Adams county. Most of them have homesteads of about forty acres each; about onethird have houses of logs or boards, but they prefer their wigwam which is to be found on every farm. Every Indian in the state is entititled to a homestead on some place'upon the public lands, but some can not be reconciled to stationary life. They hunt and fish and remain poor, which however may also be said of those who have settled down, as corn, their only crop, is hardly sufficient for their most urgent necessities. [Prom late newspapers.]

was domiciled within one hundred miles of the boundaries of our county and a very short mention of them is sufl&cient iu this place. Menomonees. The eastern neighbors of the Winnebagoes, though not of their race, being Algonkins. Even their name, which in the Algonkin means " Wild Rice ", indicates that.

Osages or Wa-saw-see. They were located on the Osage river before the rebellion, and some sympathized with it, but the majority remained loyal. They are now m the Indian Territory.

Kansas or Kaws. They are down in Indian Territory. Some traits in their history induce a lingering doubt whether this tribe is not descended from the remnant of the Kaw-Kaws or Neutrals, of the Iroquois relationship, but exterminated, or at least nearly so by the latter. They furnished about eighty soldiers for the Union.

Omahas. This is the tribe with whom 'the Winnebagoes are now united on the same reservation. They are similar in language and habits, and I think they have given up tribal organization.

Mandans. They are on the Missouri, associated with Arickarees and Gros-Ventres, but it is doubtful, whether they belong to them, or to the 0-chunk-o-raws.

This finishes what I thought proper to relate about Winnebagoes and their relations. Like all Indian history theirs is involved in doubts and contradictions, which to clear away or dissolve requires much time, patience, and ethnological research, which can not be expended in a local history.