USA > Iowa > Buchanan County > History of Buchanan County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 7
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Who can tell but that they tilled this same productive soil ? We have conclu- sive evidence, in the varied assortment of relies found in their mounds, that they were a people of numerous and refined industries and accomplishments, the stone and copper implements, axes, knives and awls, the pottery, pipes and altars, carved and adorned and tablets upon which were hieroglyphies representing let- ters and figures of people, trees and animals, all prove it, and that they even made cloth is proven by the finding of many of their implements wrapped in a coarsely woven fabrie strangely preserved through the innumerable ages that have elapsed.
Whether these people cultivated the soil, erected wooden, stone or dirt dwell- ings, and built towns is not known, as also their number, color, habits, customs and forms of goverment, how and for what purpose were these enduring earth works of various kinds constructed and a thousand interesting details of the his- tory of these earliest inhabitants of lowa must forever remain a mystery. Whence they came, how long they possessed the land and from what canse or by whom exterminated, are unanswerable questions that will never cease to have an absorbing interest and to puzzle all succeeding raees and generations. The old adage. "The survival of the fittest," does not always seem to obtain, judging from the superiority of the handicraft of the Mound Builders to that of their successors, the Indians, whose work, customs, habits, and mode of life seem much more erude and uneivilized, but that " Might makes Right." is a human law is undeniable and that its dire antithesis "Right makes Might," is as inflexible a universal law, or providential rule, whereby " all things work together for good." So we shall assume that the Mound Builders were inferior to those who suc- ceeded them, and that they in their time were superior to a race or races which preceded them, we will concede. That there was a preceding race which occupied perhaps the entire world is claimed by ethnologists from the fact that similar human skulls, resembling those of the gorilla. having thick ridges over the eyes, and an almost total absence of forehead, indicating a low degree of intelligence, have been found throughout the different countries of Europe. in the states of Illinois and Wisconsin, and in Johnson, Floyd, Chickasaw and Dubuque coun- ties of Iowa.
These inhabitants of the earth were low browed, brute-like, small bodied beings who were more like animals than humans and probably but a grade higher in intelligence. But they occupied these lands of ours in ages so remote and so incalculable to any but students of anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, and the other sciences pertaining to antediluvian periods, that we are not expected in a work of this kind to enter into an exhaustive disenssion, or attempt to arrive at definite conclusions concerning them.
Let other historians and scientists who have spent years in study and research figure out who our genealogieal ancestors were and trace the progress of man from the anthropoid, tree hanging ape to the splendid physical and intelligent earth, sea, and sky conquerer of the day. if he can, and it can and has been easily done and in more than anatomical likenesses, in certain traits and char- arteristies they are undeniably similar. All of the monkey tribe are not wild, nor yet in cages : nor are the anthropoids confined to the lower animals; some
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humans are manlike only in form, and not even that in manners, besides some of the progeny of these anthropoid ancestors are still tree-hanging, and others should be; and some of our race show decided ear marks, and occasional traits and tendencies of "animi folli" which are conclusive proof of, at least, dis- tant kinship to the ape. lfe who reads must not be offended at the comparisons, for it is the privilege and principal business of a writer to express his own views of matters, and even though it be matters pertaining to history, fact and fancy are often confused and the historian can but draw his own conclusions, after due deliberation, conscientious study and research, and with as impartial a judg- ment as is possible, and even with all this painstaking and eare mistakes are made and wrong conclusions derived.
In reading numerous authorities on the prehistoric races of people who in- babited this country, we find such varied and contrasting opinions that it is hard to come to any conclusions. Some authorities claim that our present Red- men or Indians are the direct descendants of the Mound Builders with national customs and physical peculiarities changed through the lapse of ages and by various canses and not least of these incessant warfare, and that the fact that they do not build mounds and seem to know nothing of the origin of those struc- tures is not sufficient proof that they are entirely different races of people, as some ethnologists insist.
And this might seem very probable when we consider that each succeeding generation discards old utensils, implements, articles of furniture, and dress, customs, and modes of life which were common to former generations but which now exist only as curiosities and relies of the past, and adopt the modern. And, too, when we consider how family traditions and even important historical events become confused in detail. and sometimes absolutely forgotten, when there is no written reeord made of them, it is not strange that these people who had no very sure means of transmitting their knowledge from generation to genera- tion should lose all remembrance of their tribal traditions and eustoms. What would be our dilemma in this present day when history is making at such an unprecedented speed if it were not for the daily papers, the telephone, telegraph, wireless and cable communications and the careful and complete record kept of all events, local and national, even though of minor importance. No wonder that so much of the early history is shrouded in myth and mystery, and nothing seems to be absolutely authentic, when we consider the utter lack of any but local communication, no railroads, or modern electrie inventions to transmit the facts.
It therefore behooves us to make written records of family reminiscences and leave behind us the unmistakable proofs of our existence for the sake of his- torieal value to future generations and leave behind monuments that no con- quering enemy or disinterested or disloyal progeny can mistake or forget. But to return to the Mound Builders, it seems quite as likely that the remote ancestors of our present North American Indians were the conquerors and not the lineal descendants of the Mound Builders and, therefore, the vast differences in their mode of life, and the utter lack of knowledge of the Indians coneerning them, although many of their implements, such as the spear. arrow-head, stone axes, hammers and pipes, are much the same as those used by the present race for a hundred years or more in the early days after this continent was first discovered.
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And whether conquered, or disintegrated by the lapse of time or succeeded by a differing progeny, the fact remains that their history is shrouded in mys- tery, a blank leaf in the records and chronicles of man-a missing link in the endless chain of evolution which shall forever be missing, unless, and it is not at all improbable, further research and exploration of these mounds and antiqui- ties may reveal additional knowledge of this race of people who preceded the Indians in America. And even though we dispose of that much discussed question, there arise others to puzzle us-one quite as intangible is, "Are the Mound Builders descended from the antediluvian species?" If not, where did they come from, ete? and back and back to the origin of man.
But we know this, that the Indians, either as lineal descendants, or as con- querors, or as mere chance successors to land left vaeant, came after the Mound Builders, and are the first people of whom we have any definite knowl- edge. When this happened is as great a mystery as how it happened, but it must have been hundreds of years before Columbus discovered America. It is generally believed, however, that the Mound Builders were assailed by warlike tribes from the North and West, and that the earth works found along the rivers were erected as protection against the enemies, there can be little doubt. And after resisting these invasions for generations, they were gradually dislodged from their homes and strongholds and forced southward and sought a last refuge in the deep gorges of the eanyons of the southwest. There they were known as the Cliff Dwellers and the once numerons race finally perished from the face of the earth. The Indians. at the time of discovery and ever since, have been divided into numberless tribes, frequently hostile and always migratory.
The ownership of definite territories by the different tribes was a thing unknown. The temporary occupancy of lands favorable to hunting and fishing or for the cultivation of maize ( Indian corn) was usually decided by bloody battles, but the permanent possession of lands with distinet boundaries is an idea which none of these tribes have ever put into practice, except at the dietation of their civilized conquerors.
The United States Government acknowledging, theoretically, the right of the Indians to this domain, has at various times entered into treaties with them, whereby they have ceded certain lands to the Government and accepted others as "reservations," in which they have agreed to confine themselves, and the peaceable possession of which has been guaranteed them by the Government. Thus an ownership more or less permanent has been established and the dis- triets thus reserved have been regarded as the special habitat of the tribes to whom they were assigned.
The Government has entire supervision over the Indians and their lands and tries to protect them against unsernpulous land sharks, bootleggers, and confi- dence men. They are not allowed to sell their land without the consent of the Government, but even with all these precautions, there are many fraudulent and unprincipled transactions made and every advantage taken of these simple, child-like people. The greedy white man after the most ernel and inhuman treatment and mean deception and trickery drove the Indians out of their homes and confiscated nearly all of the land owned by them, yet he is not satisfied and hegrudges them their rich lands, and tries every means to defraud them. Shame upon such civilization.
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY
Buchanan County never having been included within the limits of an Indian reservation, it cannot properly be said ever to have been the special home of any particular tribe ; however, its abundant timber and fine water courses have always furnished sueh excellent facilities for hunting and fishing that the tribes dwelling in this vicinity undoubtedly must often have made it a place of temporary sojourn. And it seems appropriate to this chapter to give a few brief sketches of those tribes, which from the known history of their wanderings, were most undoubtedly at some time or other denizens of this county.
On account of their historieal prominence in giving a name both to the state and one of its principal rivers, although they figured much less prominently in the history of this region than several other tribes, we will begin with the Iowa. This tribe is from the Siouan stock and we first hear of them in 1690 when they were found in the vicinity of the Great Lakes. Their noted chief, Man-haw- gaw, was then at the head of the tribe and under his leadership they migrated westward, crossed the Mississippi and occupied the country about the lower valley
of the river which now bears their name, although for a long time afterwards it was called the Ayona by the earliest French explorers. Theodore S. Parvin is the authority for the Indian legend about the name lowa. He says this tribe separated from the Sae and Fox and wandered off westward in search of a new home ; crossing the Mississippi River they turned southward, reaching a high bluff near the month of the lowa River and looking off over the beautiful valley spread out before them, they halted, exclaiming "loway," meaning "This is the place." Other authorities say it means "Beautiful Land" and still others that it was the Algonquin name "Ajawa" meaning " Across" or "Beyond." Lewis and Clark in the journal of their explorations, in 1804, refer to this tribe as the Avonway. In later years the orthography became changed to Ioway and finally the y was dropped and we have the beautiful and euphonious name Iowa.
The lowa was a migratory tribe, having moved fifteen times back and forth into nearly every section of the state, into Dakota, then into Nebraska, then into Missouri and again into lowa. After many fierce battles they were finally routed from this state by the Sae and Fox, they wandered around from place to place through Southern Iowa and Northern Missouri and finally were located on a reservation in Nebraska and the few who have survived are now in Kansas and Oklahoma.
The Indians, like the gypsies, Arabs, and the Jews, are a wander-lust people who chase a phantom will-o'-the-wisp. They originally called themselves Pa- hn-eha, which signifies "Dusty Nose." The tradition about this name is that when they separated from the original tribe, they settled near the mouth of a river having large sand bars along the shore. The sand and dust from these were blown into their faces giving them dusty noses, hence their name Pa-hu-cha. A grammar of their language, composed by Rev. S. M. Irvin and Mr. William Hamilton, was published at the Iowa mission in 1848. Their language was that of the Dakota family of which they are a part. This tribe was divided into eight clans, known as Bear, Beaver, Buffalo, Eagle, Elk. Pigeon, Snake, and Wolf; each clan having a totem of the animal or fowl they represented and each elan had a particular method of eutting and wearing their hair.
In 1675 their country was said to be twelve days journey west from Green Bay. In 1700 they were in what is now Southern Minnesota and so, judging from
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY
the reputation which they had gained throughout the West, as being great pedestrians, we can easily imagine their roaming these fertile prairies, fishing and hunting in our streams and forests. It is said that many of their early chiefs bore names indicative of their remarkable endurance in walking and they took great pride in their acknowledged superiority in this achievement. One of their later chiefs, who flourished about the year 1825, was named Manehaua, or Great Walker. The celebrated Jesuit historian. Charlevoix, who gives an account of them about this period of their history, alleges that "they were able to travel twenty-five or thirty leagues a day when alone;" figuring that up it means from 115 to 138 miles and as we are but about sixty miles from the Minnesota bound- ary it is not a stretch of imagination to think that these "seven-league booted," or moccasined, Iowa chiefs got up early in the morning, came down into Bu- chanan county for a day's fishing or hunting and walked back home that night.
The Towa was in early times a very powerful and warlike tribe and often was in conflict with Osage, Sae, and Fox as well as those greatest of Indian war- riors, the Sioux. At the beginning of the eighteenth century they numbered about fifteen hundred, but with wars, pestilences, liquor and natural diseases their numbers have been gradually reduced until in the last (the 1910) census, there were left but 334, 246 of whom live in Kansas and 88 in Oklahoma. But this report says that they are "holding their own" and in the year 1906 accom- plished more on their allotments than at any time previous.
In 1807 they defeated the Osage, at that time a powerful tribe, and this seems to have been about the last of their military successes. A few years later, the smallpox ravaged their settlement, destroying more than a hundred of their warriors and nearly two hundred women and children. Twelve years later this same dread disease carried off nearly two hundred more of the tribe. Then in 1819 they were attacked by a superior number of the Sioux and defeated after a desperate battle, in which scores of their best warriors were killed and many of their women and children were captured and carried into captivity. Their last battle was fought with the Sac and Fox in 1824. That fierce tribe led by their chief, Pash-e-pa-ho, assisted by the young chief, Black Hawk, who was then a young man unknown to fame, stole down upon the unarmed and defenseless łowa, who were witnessing a horse race on the river bottom about two miles from their village, and scores were cruelly massaered while making a hopeless attempt to resene their wives and children from their burning homes. Black Hawk and his division were sent to capture and burn the village and although the lowa were nerved to superhuman resistance, they were so handicapped with- out arms, that the remnant of the band left were finally forced to surrender. Their power was broken, their proud spirit crushed, by this disaster and the survivors never recovered from the blow. The renown of this once powerful tribe had departed.
They lingered in despair about the ruins of their village and the graves of their kindred, gloomy and hopeless, and then began a migratory existence through Southern lowa and Northern Missouri and finally ceased as an inde- pendent tribe, to hold any considerable amount of land in the state to which their name had been given. Few of the northern Indians have shown greater aptitude for civilization than the lowa, although the evil influences surround- ing them and other tribes have prevented their making any great progress.
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY
The first treaty of peace between them and the United States was made in the year 1815. Chief Hyingwatha or Hardheart, and some of the subordinate chiefs were the representatives of the Indians. In 1824, another treaty was made, General Clark acting for the United States and the great chief, Mahoskah, or White Cloud, and Manehana ( Great Walker) representing the tribe. By this treaty all the lands of the lowa in what was then known as the Missouri Territory, were ceded to the Government for $5,500.00, $500.00 down and the same sum to be paid annualiy for ten years, the United States agreeing to support a blacksmith at the headquarters of the tribe and to assist them with agricultural implements, horses, cattle, etc. They had at that time several villages on the Des Moines and Iowa rivers, a part of the Sac and Fox being associated with them. As usual, the whites intruded upon their land and led to trouble and complaint. By a treaty formed September 17, 1836, the remnant of the tribe, now numbering nine hundred and ninety-two, left our state forever and removed to a reservation located on the west bank of the Missouri, in the valley of the Little Platte River. But some of them became discontented, and the very next year abandoned the reservation and became vagrants. subsisting by theft or hunting upon the grounds of other tribes. Their numbers have diminished year by year, the chiefs taking the lead in the intemperance from the effects of which vice many died, and many others were killed in the fatal quarrels to which it led.
About the year 1835, the Presbyterians established a mission and manual labor school among these people and kept it up with commendable zeal for more than twenty years. Though much good was accomplished, the effort failed to arrest the steady decay of the tribe and by 1846, they had been reduced in numbers to 706. On March 6, 1861, a treaty was made by which the tribe, now dwindled down to 305 in number, ceded to the United States all their lands except the reservation of 16,000 acres. In 1869, they informally agreed to sell this and remove south ; but afterwards retracted their agreement but consented to give part of their lands to the Sac and Fox, who had parted with their reserva- tion. A fine example of charity and forgiveness on the part of the Towa after the Sae and Fox had so mistreated them. About the time the Presbyterian mis- sion was abandoned, the tribe was placed under the care of Quakers, under whose influence they made considerable advance in eivilization, and became more sober and industrious. In 1872, their sehool numbered sixty-three pupils, more than one-fourth of the entire tribe, and all clad in the garb of civilized life. They had 700 acres of land under cultivation, thirteen frame houses and twenty built of logs. Their produce was estimated to be worth $2,685, and their stock $7,900. The Government of the United States still holds $157,500 as a trust fund for the Iowa ; the interest at five per cent is paid annually to the tribe. It is a remarkable faet and one well worthy of record that in 1864, when they numbered in all only 293, the Iowa loyally supported the Union, and forty-one of them enlisted in the United States military service (almost one-fourth of their entire population) and proved to be good soldiers. The military discipline greatly improved these uneivilized savages, they adopted eivilized dress and customs.
The next tribe which we will give a brief sketch of is the Sac and Fox, which probably belong more distinetly to the state than any other and we are confident
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that they actually trod the soil of Buchanan County-because some of the early settlers told of seeing them here, as late as in the year 1880.
As the name implies, this tribe is a union of what were originally two separate tribes, and the Fox tribe of which we can find the earlier historic mention was also the result of a similar union between two bands, one called Outagamie, which means fox, and the other Musquakie, or men of red elay.
There is evidence to show that early in the seventeenth century the Fox occupied the country along the Atlantic coast, now embraced in the State of Rhode Island. Later they moved to the Valley of the St. Lawrence River, and for ages resided on the south side of Lakes Erie and Ontario, and here is where the French first eame into collision with them. They were great fighters and were continually hostile to the French trappers and missionaries who invaded their territory. They seemed to realize that the white man's gaining a foot-hold meant his eventual occupation of the Indian's land. They were nearly the only tribe with whom the French could not live in peace-and so in the year 1712 they commenced war against them with the determination to either exterminate or expel them. Several other tribes had been induced to join forces with the French and a fierce battle ensned in which the Fox after a desperate resist- ance and the loss of hundreds of their brave warriors were forced to surrender. The French were more magnanimous than the Indians would have been and settled their differences with a treaty of peace with them, but this, however, the restless and untamable Fox soon violated and another expedition was organized against them in 1728 which proved to be a protracted and bloody struggle, waged with varying fortunes and occasional intermissions of truce, and lasting about eighteen years. At length the French and their allies gained a decisive victory in 1746 and the Fox were driven ont of the beautiful valley of the river which still bears their name, a memento of their long supremacy in the region about Green Bay. The remnant of the tribe, reduced to little more than three hundred warriors, retreated to the Valley of the Wisconsin River, where they formed a close alliance with the Sac, in the nature of a confederacy. each tribe, however, reserving the right to declare war or peace without the con- sent of the other. The headquarters of the Fox was at Prairie Du Chien, and the Sac at Prairie du Sae, in Wisconsin. The Fox had villages on the west side of the Mississippi, in lowa, while the Sac remained on the east side. The Fox could muster about three hundred and twenty warriors and the Sae about three hundred. The Sae had long before occupied the region about Saginaw, Michigan, calling it Saukinong. They called themselves Sau-kies, signifying "Man with a red badge," red being their favorite color for personal adornment. The Indian name of the Fox was Musquakies signifying "Man with a yellow badge." The name Fox originated with the French, who called them Reynors. The river in Wisconsin where these Indians had their home was called "Rio Reynor" by the French, as will be seen on the early French maps and when the English wrested that country from France they gave the river its English translation. The early English writers called the tribe "Reynards." In the latter part of the eighteenth century, the Sae joined the Miami in an attack on St. Louis, but the Fox appear to have remained in the vicinity of the lead mines of Galena and Dubuque, for in 1788 they ceded to Julian Dubuque, for mining purposes, the right to a strip of land northward from the little Maquoketa, in Fowa.
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