Clark County, Wisconsin - Chapter 3: The Indians, 1918

Of the Indian history of Clark County before the coming of the whites, but little is known. Apparently this region was ranged from time to time by the Chippewa, Menomonie, Winnebago and Dakota. The first Indians whose knowledge of the water courses of Clark County is attested by documentary evidence were the Huron, the Ottawa and the Dakota, who were probably here in the middle of the Seventeenth century.

The Dakota, the principal division of the Siouan family of Indians, and therefore commonly spoken of as the Sioux, at that time had their headquarters at Mille Lacs, in northern Minnesota, and ranged up and down the Mississippi country. The Ottawa are of the Algonquian family of Indians, and when first found by the whites were living in the vicinity of the Ottawa in Canada. The Hurons belong to the Iroquoian family of Indians, and when first seen by the whites were living southeast of Georgian Bay, in Canada, But the Five Nations of the Iroquois' conquered the Hurons in 1649-50, and the Ottawas in 1650-52. The Tobacco People, a tribe of the Huron, with a band of the Ottawa, fled to Illinois, and later sought permanent refuge and settlement in the region of the Upper Iowa River, nearly on the south line of the present state of Minnesota. Disappointed in finding no forests there, they advanced further up the Mississippi River, possibly to Prairie Island, ten miles long, on the Minnesota side of the main channel of the river, above the present site of Red Wing, in the midst of a beautiful country of forests and prairies, which they chose for their new homes.*

They were received with friendliness by the neighboring Dakotas, but in an evil day, the strangers abused this friendliness, and began hostilities against the Dakotas, whom they thought to be at a disadvantage, owing to their not having firearms. The greater numbers and superior prowess of the Dakotas enabled them soon to harass the Hurons and Ottawas to such an extent that the strangers relinquished their homes and fied to the forests of the upper valley of the Black River, the common ground between the Chippewas, Menomonies, Winnebagoes and Sioux. The Ottawas continued their trip and reached the shores of Lake Superior, at Chequamegon Bay. The Hurons took up their abode near the source of the Black River. For a while they were contented there, but their fighting proclivities were not subdued and they were soon raiding the Dakotas. But the Dakotas soon proved their superiority, and the Hurons followed the Ottawas to the Chequamegon Bay country. Even from there the Hurons continued to raid the Sioux, but were finally so thoroughly subdued that. their weakened numbers gave up the fight and were left in peace.? The date of these events is fixed by the fact that the arrival of the Hurons in the Lake Superior region was probably in 1659-60.

With the departure of these wandering tribes, Clark County continued to be neutral ground, with many a foray of savages, bent on the chase, or on a murderous raid against their enemies.

Certain. Dakota Indians are alleged to have given a deed to Jonathan Carver on May 1, 1767, granting him a large tract of land which included Clark County. The southern boundary of this tract practically coincided with the southern boundary of Clark County. On the strength of this alleged grant claims have been presented to the United States Government, and Carver's heirs and successors have at various times issued deeds of portions of it to speculators and settlers, but Congress has always refused to acknowledge any claim based on this so-called "Carver Grant." *

Clark County was parcelled into three divisions by the Treaty of 1825,° a part going to the Chippewas, a part to the Winnebagoes, and a part remaining as neutral land. At the same time the Menomonies presented a vague claim to that part of the county east of the Black River.

By this treaty it was agreed between the Chippewas and the Winnebagoes, for far as they were mutually interested therein that the southern boundary line of the Chippewa country should begin on the Chippewa River, "half a day's march below the falls" (a short distance below Eau Claire), and run thence to the source of Clear Water (Eau Claire) River, a branch of the Chippewa, thence south to Black River, and thence to a point "where the woods project into the meadows." ® Thus, so far as the Chippewas and the Winnebagoes were concerned, the southern line of the Chippewa territory in Clark County extended along the Eau Claire River to the source, thence south to the Black River, and thence east practically along the line between Townships 25 and 26.

The western line of the Winnebago claim extended up the Black River from its mouth to a point opposite the source of the left fork of the Ouisonsin (Wisconsin) and thence due east to that source. Thus the Winnebagoes claimed that part of Clark County lying east of the Black River and south of the line between Townships 25 and 26. It was, however, stated that the line from the Black River must be left for a time indefinite, owing to the Menominee claim.'

The Menominees had a clause inserted in the treaty saying that they were uncertain regarding their boundaries, owing to the fact that they had previously made cessions to the New York Indians, but in a general way they claimed on the west as far as the Black River, and on the north as far as the Chippewa country, thus overlapping the Winnebago claim.*®

A part of the Dakota claim lay south of a line extending from the mouth of the Black River to the point on Chippewa River, half a day's march below the falls." Thus a large tract of land south of the Eau Claire River, west of the Black River, and east of a line from the mouth of the Black River to a point on the Chippewa River a short distance below Eau Claire, was left without a definite claim.

These lines, it must be remembered, were very vague and were but little regarded by the Indians. ~All tribal Indian claim to Clark County was ceded in 1837.2° ence adds an interesting bit of color to the street life of several of the villages. These Indians are of varying status, some being citizens and property owners, and some being still pensioners of the government. While the Indians have various tracts of land in different parts of the county, the greatest number are in Levis Township, where the names of Andrew Big Soldier, Frank Big Armful, John Whiteheart, Leonard White, Jim Whitebear, Indian George, Martin Foureyes and George Black Hawk appear in the tax lists. Louis Looking Glass, Stanley Buffalo and others appear on the list in Mead. Martin White, an Indian, won a good reputation for soldierly qualities in the Spanish-American War, while a number of Indians from this county are in the service of the National Army at the present time.

1 - At this time the Five Natious consisted of the Senecas, the Cayugas, the Onondagas, the Oneidas and the Mohawks, In 1715 they admitted the Tuscaroras into the league, and beeame the Six Nations.

3 - See: Nicholas Perrot, Memoire (Memoire sur les moewrs, coustumes, et relligion des sauvages de lV'Amerique Septentrionale), reprinted in the original French with notes and translation by Rey. Father Jules Tailhan (Paris, 1864), this in turn being partly reprinted in: Minn. Hist. Colls., II, 202-214. A reprint of the Memoire in part is also to be found: Thwaites ed., French Regime in Wisconsin, Part I, Wis. Hist. Colls., xvi, 14-21. Perrot's narrative has been used to support the contention that it was near the sourees of the Black River that the saintly Father Menard lost. his life while seeking to reach the Huron. Whila Menard's route, and the place of his death are matters of conjecture, historians do not generally accept the theory that Menard ascended the Black River, That portion of Perrot's narrative relating to the Flight of the Huron is as follows (Tailhan's translation in the Minn. Hist. Colls.).

"When all the Ottawas were scattered toward the lakes, the Saulteurs (Ojibways) and Missisakis (who had lived on the north shore of Lake Huron) fled to the north, and then to Kionconan (Keweenaw), for the sake of hunting; and the Ottawas, fearing that they would not be sufficiently strong to resist the incursions of the Iroquois, who would be informed of the place where they had made their settlement, fled for refuge to the Mississippi River, which is called at the present time the Louisianne. They ascended this river to the distance of a dozen leagues or thereabout from the Wisconsin River, where they found another river which is called the river of the Iowas (the Upper Iowa, heading in the southeastern part of Mower County, Minnesota). They followed it to its course and there encountered tribes who received them kindly. But in all the extent of country which they passed through having seen no place suitable for their settlement, by reason that there was no timber at all, and that it showed only prairies and smooth plains, though buffaloes and other animals were in abundance, they resumed the same route to return upon their steps; and, after having once more reached the Louisianne, they went higher up.

"They were not long there without separating to go to one side and the other for hunting. I speak of one party only of their people, whom the Sioux encountered, took, and brought to their villages. The Sioux, who had not any acquaintance with firearms and other instruments which they saw in their possession, themselves using only knives of stone, as of a millstone, and axes of chert cobbles, hoped that these new tribes who had approached them, would share with the commodities which they had; and, believing that they were supernatural, because they had the use of this fire which had no resemblance with all that they had, like the stones and other things, just as I have said, they brought them to their villages, and afterward restored them to their own people.

"The Ottawas and Hurons received them very well in their turn, without, however, giving them large presents. The Sioux came back to their people, with some little things which they had received from the Ottawas, distributed a part to the other villages of their allies, and gave hatchets to some and a few knives or awls to others. All these villages sent deputies to the Ottawas, where, as soon as they had arrived, they commenced, following their custom, to shed tears upon all whom they met, for indicating to them the unrestrained joy that they had in having found them, and to implore them to have pity upon them, by sharing with them this iron which they regarded as a divinity.

"The Ottawas, seeing these people weep upon all who presented themselves before them, considered it in scorn, and regarded them as people much inferior to themselves, incapable even of making war. They gave to them also a trifle, be it knives or awls, which the Sioux showed that they esteemed very much, raising their eyes to heaven and blessing it for having conducted these tribes into their country, who would be able to procure for them so powerful means to make an end of their poverty. The Ottawas, who had some fowling-pieces, fired them, and the noise that they made frightened them so much that they imagined that it was the lightning or the thunder, of which they were masters to exterminate whomsoever they would.

"The Sioux made a thousand expressions of affection to the Hurons and Ottawas everywhere they were, manifesting to them all subservience possible, to the end of moving them to compassion and deriving from it some benefit; but the Ottawas had for them so much less of esteem, as they persisted in placing themselves before them in these attitudes of humiliation. The Ottawas decided finally to choose the island named Pelee for their settlement, where they were some years in peace. They there received often the visits of the Sioux. But a day arrived when the Hurons, being on the hunt, encountered some Sioux, whom they killed. The Sioux, in sorrow for their comrades, did not know what had become of them; they found some days afterwards the dead bodies from which they had cut off the head. They returned to their village hastily to bring this sad news, and encountered some Hurons on the road, whom they took as prisoners. When they had arrived among their people, the chiefs released them and sent them back to their tribe. The Hurons, having so much audacity as to imagine that the Sioux were' incapable of resisting them without weapons of iron and firearms, conspired with the Ottawas to attack them and make war upon them, in order to drive them from their country, and for themselves to be able to extend farther the range of their hunting. The Ottawas and Hurons joined themselves together and marched against the Sioux. They believed that as soon as they ap- peared, they would flee; but they were much deceived, for they resisted their attacks and even repelled them, and if they had not retreated, they would have been entirely defeated by the great number of the horde who came from other villages of their allies for their help. They pursued them even to their settlement, where they were constrained to make a poor fort, which did not permit them to be capable to make the Sioux turn back, even though they did not dare to attack it.

"The continual raids which the Sioux made upon them obliged them to flee. They had acquaintance with a river which we call the Black River; then entered it, and having arrived where it takes its source, the Hurons there found a place suitable for fortifying themselves and establishing their village. The Ottawas pushed farther and marched to Lake Superior, and fixed their abode at Chequamegon. The Sioux, seeing their enemies departed, dwelt in peace without pursuing them farther; but the Hurons were not content to stop there; they formed some expeditions against them, which produced little effect, drew upon themselves on the part of the Sioux frequent raids, and obliged them to quit their fort for going to join the Ottawas at Chequamegon, with a great loss of their people."

4 - For the text of the Carver deed and its story, see: Daniel Steele Durrie, Jonathan Carver and Carver's Grant, Wis. Hist. Colls., VI, 221-270.

5 - Treaty with the Chippewa, Sac and Fox, Menominie, loway, Sioux, Winnebago, and a portion of the Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomie Tribes of Indians living upon the Illinois, negotiated by William Clark and Lewis Cass, Commissioners, signed at Prairie du Chien, Aug. 19, 1825, and proclaimed Feb. 6, 1826, For all treaties see: Richard Peters, Ed., '¢Preaties Between the United States and the Indian Tribes,'' in '' Public Statutes at Large of the United States (Boston, 1861), VIII; also Charles C. Royce, Ed., '' Indian Land Sessions in the United States,'' in Kighteenth Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology (Washington, 1899).

10 - (a) Treaty made and concluded at St. Peters (the confluence of the St. Peters [Minnesota] and Mississippi Rivers) in the [then] Territory of Wisconsin, between the United States of America, by their commissioner, Henry Dodge, Governor of said Territory, and the Chippewa Nation of Indians, by their chiefs and headmen. Signed, July 20, 1837; proclaimed, June 15, 1838, Jbid., 536-538.

(b) Treaty made at the City of Washington, between Joel R. Poinsett, thereto specially authorized by the President of the United States, and certain chiefs and braves of the Sioux nation of Indians. Signed, Sept. 29, 1837; proclaimed, June 15, 1838. Tbid., 538-540.

(c) Treaty made at the City of Washington, between Carey A. Harris, thereto specially directed by the President of the United States, and the Winnebago nation of Indians, by their chiefs and delegates. Signed, Nov. 1, 1837; proclaimed, June 15, 1838, Ibid., 544-546.