USA > Iowa > Floyd County > History of Floyd County, Iowa : together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 2
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HISTORY OF IOWA.
the demons whom they worshiped. The head and heart of every captive taken in war were offered up as a sacrifice to the god of battles, while the victorious legions feasted on the remaining por- tions of the bodies. It is said that during the ceremonies attend- ant on the consecration of two of their temples, the number of prisoners offered up in sacrifice was 12,210, while they themselves contributed large numbers of voluntary victims to the terrible belief.
Throughout the Mississippi Valley are found mounds and walls of earth or stone, which can have had only a human origin, and their unknown constructors have been referred to as Mound- Builders. These mounds vary in size from a few feet to hundreds of feet in diameter. In them are often found stone axes, pestles, arrow-heads, spear points, pieces of flint, etc., showing that some of tliem, at least, were used for purposes of burial. Pottery of various designs is very common in them, and from the material of which they are made geologists have attempted to assign their age.
One of the most famous of these relies is a stone fortification in Clark county, Indiana, known as the "Stone Fort. " A place naturally strong for purposes of defense, has evidently been used as a fort, and strengthened so as to become nearly impregnable. On one side the artificial wall is 150 feet long and 75 feet high. On the hill on which this is situated are five " mounds " of earth, in which the usual relics have been found.
Some have thought that the Mound-Builders were a race quite distinct from the modern Indians, and that they were in an ad- vanced state of civilization. The best authorities now agree that while the comparatively civilized people called Aztecs built the cities whose ruins are occasionally found, the Mound-Builders were the immediate ancestors of the Indians De Soto first siw, and little different from the Indians of to-day.
Within a few years many discoveries have been made of remains of our predecessors. Together with many relics of the early in- habitants, the fossils of extinct animals have been unearthed in many places. These animals roamed the forest; and prairies long before the advent of dreaded man. Among the souvenirs of an age abont which so little is known, are 25 vertebræ, averag- ing 13 inches in diameter, and three vertebræ ossified to- gether, which measures nine cubical feet; a thigh-bone five feet long and 12 inches in diameter; and the weight of all these'is 600 pounds. These are believed to have belonged to a Dinosaur
1
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(the literal meaning of which is "terrible lizard "), an animal 60 feet long. When feeding in cypress and palm forests, it could ex- tend itself to 85 feet, and feed on the budding tops of these tall trees.
Other remains are found every year, and additional light thrown on America's early history. It is much to be regretted, however, that the United States Government does not take this matter in hand at the present time; the most valuable relics have found their way to the British museum, or other European depositaries, while others remaining in some one's hands as private property, are lost to the public. The Government should secure all these at any price, and they should be carefully preserved for future study and comparison. This work should be begun at once. Too much has been lost already, and ere long the opportunity to secure and pre- serve what is rightfully ours for all time will be gone forever.
THE INDIANS.
The origin of the Red Men, or American Indians, is a subject which interests as well as instructs. It is a favorite topic with the ethnologist, even as it is one of deep concern to the ordinary reader. A review of two works lately published on the origin of the Indians, treats the matter in a peculiarly reasonable light. It says :
" Recently a German writer has put forward one theory on the subject, and an English writer has put forward another and directly opposite theory. The difference in opinion concerning our aborigi- nals among authors who have made a profound study of races, is at once curious and interesting. Blumenbach treats them in his classifications as a distinct variety of the human family; but, in the three-fold division of Dr. Latham, they are ranked among the Mongolidæ. Other writers on races regard them as a branch of the great Mongolian family, which at a distant period found its way from Asia to this continent, and remained here for centuries separate from the rest of mankind, passing meanwhile, through divers phases of barbarism and civilization. Morton, our eminent ethnologist, and his followers, Nott and Gliddon, claim for our native Red Men an origin as distinct as the flora and fauna of this continent. Prichard, whose views are apt to differ from Morton's. finds reason to believe, on comparing the American tribes together. that they must have formed a separate department of nations from
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the earliest period of the world. The era of their existence as a dis- tinct and insulated people, must probably be dated back to the time which separated into nations the inhabitants of the Old World, and gave to each its individuality and primitive language. Dr. Robert Brown, the latest authority, attributes in his 'Races of Mankind,' an Asiatic origin to our aboriginals. He says that the Western Indians not only personally resemble their nearest neighbors-the Northeastern Asiatics-but they resemble them in language and tradition. The Esquimaux on the American and the Tchuktcis on the Asiatic side, understand one another perfectly. Modern anthropologists, indcel, are disposed to think that Japan, the Kuriles, and neighboring regions, may be regarded as the orig- inal home of the greater part of the native American race. It is also admitted by them that between the tribes scattered from the Arctic sea to Cape Horn, there is more uniformity of physical fea- ture than is seen in any other quarter of the globe. The weight of evidence and authority is altogether in favor of the opinion that our so-called Indians are a branch of the Mongolian family, and all additional researches strengthen the opinion. The tribes of both North and South America are unquestionably homogeneous, and, in all likelihood, had their origin in Asia, though they have been altered and modified by thousands of years of total separation from the present stock."
The conclusions arrived at by the reviewer at that time, though safe, are too general to lead the reader to form any definite idea on the subject. No doubt whatever can exist, when the American Indian is regarded as of an Asiatic origin ; but there is nothing in the works or even in the review to which these works were sub- jected, which might account for the vast difference in manner and form between the Red Man, as he is now known, or even as he appeared to Columbus and his successors in the field of discovery and the comparatively civilized inhabitants of Mexico, as seen in 1521 by Cortez, and of Peru, as witnessed by Pizarro in 1532. The fact is that the pure-bred Indian of the present is descended directly from the earliest inhabitants, or in other words from the survivors of that people who, on being driven from their fair pos- sessions, retired to the wilderness in sorrow, and reared up their children under the saddening influences of their unquenchable griefs, bequeathing them only the habits of the wild, cloud-roofed home of their declining years, a sullen silence and a rude moral code. In after years these wild sons of the forest and prairie grew
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in numbers and in strength. Some legend told them of their present sufferings, of the stations which their fathers once had known, and of the riotous race which now reveled in wealth which should be theirs. The fierce passions of the savage were aroused, and uniting their scattered bands they marched in silence upon the villages of the Tartars, driving them onward to the capital of their Incas, and consigning their homes to the flames. Once in view 01 the great city, the hurrying bands halted in surprise , but Tartar cunning took in the situation and offered pledges of amity, which were sacredly observed. Henceforth Mexico was open to the Indians, bearing precisely the same relation to them that the Hudson's Bay Company's villages do to the Northwestern Indians of the present; obtaining all, and bestowing very little. The subjec- tion of the Mongolian race,-represented in North America by that branch of it to which the Tartars belonged, represented in the southern portion of the continent, seems to have taken place some five centuries before the advent of the European; while it may be concluded that the war of the races which resulted in reducing the villages erected by the Tartar hordes to ruin, took place between one and two hundred years later. These statements. though actn- ally referring to events which in point of time are comparatively modern, can only be substantiated by the facts that, about the pe- riods mentioned, the dead bodies of an unknown race of men were washed ashore on the European coasts, while previous to that time there is no account whatever in European annals of even a ves- tige of trans-Atlantic humanity being transferrel by ocean cur- rents to the gaze of a wondering people. Toward the latter halt of the fifteenth century two dead bodies entirely free from decom- position, and corresponding with the Red Men as they afterward appeared to Columbus, were cast on the shores of the Azores, and confirmed Columbus in his belief in the existence of a western world and western people.
Storm and flood and disease have created sad havoc in the ranks of the Indian since the occupation of the country by the white man. These national canses have conspired to decimate the race even more than the advance of civilization, which seems not to affect it to any material extent. In its maintenance of the same number of representations during these centuries, and its existence in the very face of a most unceremonions, and, whenever necessary, cruel conquest, the grand dispensations of the unseen Ruler of the uni- verse is demonstrated; for, without the aborigines. savage and treach-
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erous as they were, it is possible that the explorers of former times would have so many natural dfficulties to contend with, that their work would be surrendered in despair, and the most fertile regions of the continent saved for the plow-shares of generations yet unborn. It is questionable whether we owe the discovery of this continent to the unaided scientific knowledge of Columbus, or to the dead bodies of the two Indians referred to above; nor can their services to the explorers of ancient and modern times be over- estimated. Their existence is embraced in the plan of the Divinity for the government of the world, and it will not form subject for surprise to learn that the same intelligence which sent a thrill of liberty into every corner of the republic, will, in the near future, devise some method under which the remnant of a great and an- cient race may taste the sweets of public kindness, and feel that after centuries of turmoil and tyranny, they have at last found a shelter amid a sympathizing people.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.
The art of hunting not only supplied the Indian with food, but, like that of war, was a means of gratifying his love of distinction. The male children, as soon as they acquired sufficient age and strength, were furnished with a bow and arrow and taught to shoot birds and other small game. Success in killing a large quadruped required years of careful study and practice, and the art was as sedulously inculcated in the minds of the rising generation as are the elements of reading, writing and arithmetic in the common schools of civilized communities. The mazes of the forest and the dense, tall grass of the prairies were the best fields for the exercise of the hunter's skill. No feet could be impressed in the yielding soil but that the tracks were the objects of the most searching scru- tiny, and revealed at a glance the animal that made them, the di- rection it was pursuing, and the time that had elapsed since it had passed. In a forest country he selected the valleys, because they " were most frequently the resort of game. The most easily taken, perhaps, of all the animals of the chase was the deer. It is endowed with a curiosity which prompts it to stop in its flight and look back at the approaching hunter, who always avails himself of this opportunity to let fly the fatal arrow.
Their general councils were composed of the chief's and old men. When in council, they usually sat in concentric circles around the speaker, and each individual, notwithstanding the fiery passions
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that burned within, preserved an exterior as immovable as though cast in bronze. Before commencing business a person appeared with the sacred pipe, and another with fire to kindle it. After being lighted it was first presented to heaven, secondly to the earth, thirdly to the presiding spirit, and lastly to the several councilors, each of whom took a whiff. These formalities were observed with as close exactness as state etiquette in civilized courts.
The dwellings of the Indians were of the simplest and rudest character. On some pleasant spot by the bank of a river, or near an ever-running spring, they raised their groups of wigwams, con- structed of the barks of trees, and easily taken down and removed to another spot. The dwelling-places of the chiefs were sometimes more spacious, and constructed with greater care, but of the same materials. Skins taken in the chase served them for repose. Thoughi principally dependent upon hunting and fishing, the uncertain supply from these sources led them to cultivate small patches of corn. Every family did everything necessary within itself, com- merce, or an exchange of articles, being almost unknown to them. In case of dispute and dissension, each Indian relied upon himself for retaliation. Blood for blood was the rule, and the relatives of the slain man were bound to obtain bloody revenge for his death. This principle gave rise, as a matter of course, to innumerable and bitter feuds, and wars of extermination when such were possible. War, indeed, rather than peace, was the Indian's glory and de- light,-war, not conducted as in civilization, but where individual skill, endurance, gallantry, and cruelty were prime requisites. For such a purpose as revenge the Indian would make great sacrifices, and display a patience and perseverance truly heroic; but when the excitement was over, le sank back into a listless, unoccupied, well- nigh useless savage. During the intervals of his more exciting pursuits, the Indian employed his time in decorating his person with all the refinement of paint and feathers, and in the manufact- are of his arms and of canoes. These were constructed of bark, and so light that they could easily be carried on the shoulder from stream to stream. His amusements were the war-dance, athletic games, the narration of his exploits, and listening to the oratory of the chiefs, but during long periods of such existence he remained in a state of torpor, gazing listlessly upon the trees of the forest and the clouds that sailed above them; and this vacancy imprinted habitual gravity, and even melancholy, upon his general deportment.
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The main labor and drudgery of Indian communities fell upon the women. The planting, tending and gathering of the crops, making mats and baskets, carrying burdens,-in fact, all things of the kind were performed by them, thus making their condition but little better than that of slaves. Marriage was merely a matter of bargain and sale, the husband giving presents to the father of the bride. In general they had but few children. They were subjected to many and severe attacks of sickness, and at times famine and pestilence swept away whole tribcs.
EXPLORATIONS BY THE WHITES.
FIRST EXPLORERS.
In the year 1541, forty-nine years after Columbus discovered the New World, and 130 years before the French missionaries dis- covered its upper waters, Ferdinand De Soto discovered the Mississippi, at the mouth of the Washita. He, however, penetra- ted no further north than the 35th parallel of latitude, his death terminating the expedition. De Soto founded no settlements, and produced no results except that of awakening the hostility of the red man against the white man, and of disheartening such as might desire to follow up the discovery with better aims. In accordance with the usage of nations under which title to the soil was claimed by right of discovery, Spain, having conquered Florida and dis- covered the Mississippi, claimed all the territory bordering on that river and the Gulf of Mexico. But it was also held by the Euro- pean nations that, while discovery gave title, that title must be perfected by actual possession and occupation. Although Spain claimed the territory by right of first discovery, she made no effort to occupy it; by no permanent settlement had she perfected and secured her title, and therefore she had forfeited it when, at a later period, the Mississippi Valley was re-discovered and occupied by France.
In a grand council of Indians on the shores of Lake Superior, they told the Frenchmen glowing stories of the " great river " and the countries near it. Marquette, a Jesuit father, became inspired in 1669, with the idea of discovering this noble river. He was delayed in this great under taking, however, and spent the interval in studying the language and habits of the Illinois Indians, among
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whom he expected to travel. In 1673 he completed his prepara- tions for the journey, in which he was to be accompanied by Joliet, an agent of the French Government. The Indians, who had gathered in large numbers to witness his departure, tried to dis- suade him from the undertaking, representing that the Indians of the Mississippi Valley were cruel and blood-thirsty, and woald resent the intrusion of strangers upon their domain. The great river itself, they said, was the abode of terrible monsters who could swallow both canoes and men. But Marquette was not diverted from his purpose by these reports, and set out on his adventurons trip May 13; he reached first an Indian village where once had been a mission and where he was treated hospitably; thence, with the aid of two Miami guides, he proceeded to the Wisconsin, down which he sailed to the great Mississippi, which had so long been anxiously looked for; floating down its unknown waters, the ex- plorer discovered, on the 25th of June, traces of Indians on the west bank of the river, and landed a little above the river now known as the Des Moines. For the first time Europeans trod the soil of Iowa. Marquette remained here a short time, becoming acquainted with the Indians, and then proceeded on his explora- tions. He descended the Mississippi to the Illinois, by which and Lake Michigan he returned to French settlements.
Nine years later, in 1682, La Salle descended the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, and, in the name of the king of France, took formal possession of all the immense region watered by the great river and its tributaries from its source to its mouth, and named it Louisiana, in honor of his master, Louis XIV. The river he called " Colbert," in honor of the French Minister, and at its mouth erected a column and a cross bearing the inscription, in French:
" LOUIS THE GREAT, KING OF FRANCE AND NAVARRE,
REIGNING APRIL 9, 1682."
France then claimed by right of discovery and occupancy the whole valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries, including Texas. Spain at the same time laid claim to all the region about the Gulf of Mexico, and thus these two great nations were brought into collision. But the country was actually held and occupied by the native Indians, especially the great Miami Confederacy, the Miamis proper (anciently the Twightwees) being the eastern and
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most powerful tribe. Their territory extended strictly from the Scioto river west to the Illinois river. Their villages were few and scattering, and their occupation was scarcely dense enough to maintain itself against invasion. Their settlements were occasionally visited by Christian missionaries, fur traders and adventurers, but no body of white men made any settlement sufficiently permanent for a title to national possession. Christian zeal animated France and England in missionary enterprise, the former in the interests of Catholicism and the latter in the interests of Protestantism. HIence, their haste to pre-occupy the land and proselyte the aborig- ines. No doubt this ugly rivalry was oft seen by the Indians, and they refused to be proselyted to either branch of Christianity.
The "Five Nations," farther east, comprised the Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Onondagas and Senecas. In 1677 the number of warriors in this confederacy was 2,150. About 1,711 of the Tuscaroras retired from Carolina and joined the Iroquois, or Five Nations, whichi, after that event, became known as the "Six Nations."
In 1689 hostilities broke out between the Five Nations and the colonists of Canada, and the almost constant wars in which France was engaged, until the treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, combined to check the grasping policy of Louis XIV., and to retard the plant- ing of French colonies in the Mississippi Valley. Missionary efforts, however, continned with more failure than success, the Jesuits allying themselves with the Indians in habits and customs, even encouraging inter-marriage between them and their white followers.
SUBSEQUENT SETTLEMENT.
Soon after the discovery of the mouth of the Mississippi by La Salle, in 1682, the government of France began to encourage the policy of establishing a line of trading posts and missionary sta- tions, extending throughout the West from Canada to Louisiana, and this policy was maintained with partial success for about 75 years. The traders persisted in importing whisky, which canceled nearly every civilizing influence that could be brought to bear upon the Indian, and the vast distances between posts prevented that strength which can be enjoyed only by close and convenient inter-communication. Another characteristic of Indian nature was to listen attentively to all the missionary said, pretending to
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believe all he preached, and then offer in turn his theory of the world, of religion, etc., and because he was not listened to with the same degree of attention and pretense of belief, would go off disgusted. This was his idea of the golden rule.
The river St. Joseph of Lake Michigan was called " the river Miamis " in 1679, in which year La Salle built a small fort on its bank, near the lake shore. The principal station of the mission for the instruction of the Miamis was established on the borders of this river. The first French post within the territory of the Miamis was at the mouth of the river Miamis, on an eminence naturally fortified on two sides by the river, and on one side by a deep ditch made by a fall of water. It was of triangular form. The mission- ary Hennepin gives a good description of it, as he was one of the company who built it, in 1679. Says he : "We fell the trees that were on the top of the hill ; and having cleared the same from bushes for about two musket shots, we began to build a redoubt 80 feet long and 40 feet broad, to make our fort more inac- cessible on the river side. We employed the whole month of No. vember about that work, which was very hard, though we had no other food but the bear's flesh our savage killed. These beasts are very common in that place because of the great quantity of grapes they find there ; but their flesh being too fat and Inscious, our men began to be weary of it, and desired leave to go a-hunting to kill some wild goats. M. La Salle denied them that liberty, which caused some murmurs among them ; and it was but unwillingly that they continued their work. This, together with the approach of winter, and the apprehension that M. La Salle had that his ves- sel (the Griffin) was lost, made him very melancholy, though he concealed it as much as he conld. We made a cabin wherein we performed divine service every Sunday, and Father Gabriel and I, who preached alternately, took care to take such texts as were suit- able to our present circumstances, and fit to inspire us with cour- age, concord and brotherly love. The fort was at last perfected, and called Fort Miamis."
In the year 1711 the missionary Chardon, who was said to be very zealous and apt in the acquisition of languages, had a sta. tion on the St. Joseph, about 60 miles above the mouth. Charle- voix, another distinguished missionary from France, visited a post on this river in 1721. In a letter dated at the place, Aug. 16, he says : "There is a commandant here, with a small garri- son. His house, which is but a very sorry one, is called the fort.
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