History of Scott County, Iowa, Part 2

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing co.
Number of Pages: 1280

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HISTORY OF IOWA.

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 Tchukteis on the Asiatic side, understand one another perfectly. Modern anthropologists, indeed, 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 Pern, 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 grief's, 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

HISTORY OF IOWA.

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 puissions of the savage were aroused, and uniting their scattered bands they marehed 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 of 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 actu- 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 transferred 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 unceremonious, 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-

HISTORY OF IOWA.

erons as they were, it is possible that the explorers of former times would have so many natural dificulties 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 republie, will, in the near future, devise some method under which the remnant of a great and an- eient 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 inenleated in the minds of the rising generation as arc 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 seru- 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 conneil, they usually sat in concentric circles around the speaker, and each individual, notwithstanding the fiery passions

HISTORY OF IOWA.

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 elose 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. Though 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- meree, 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 fends, 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, enduranec, 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 heroie; but when the excitement was over, he sank baek 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- ure 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 vacaney imprinted habitual gravity, and even melancholy, upon his general deportment.

HISTORY OF IOWA.

The main labor and drudgery of Indian communities fell upon the women. The planting, tending and gathering of the erops, 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 tribes.

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, elaimed 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 ocenpation. Although Spain claimed the territory by right of first discovery, she made no effort to ocenpy 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 ocenpied 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 Jesnit 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

HISTORY OF IOWA.

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 eruel 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 adventurous trip May 13; he reached first an Indian village where onee 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. Marqnette 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 deseended 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 Freneli 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 elaim to all the region abont 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 Twighitwees) being the eastern and

HISTORY OF IOWA.

most powerful tribe. Their territory extended strictly from the Scioto river west to the Illinois river. Their villages were few and seattering, and their oeeupation was scareely dense enough to maintain itself against invasion. Their settlements wereoccasionally 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 Protestantismn. Henee, 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, Cayngas, Onondagas and Seneeas. In 1677 the number of warriors in this confederacy was 2,150. About 1,711 of the Tnsearoras retired from Carolina and joined the Iroquois, or Five Nations, which, after that event, became known as the "Six Nations."

In 1689 hostilities broke ont between the Five Nations and the colonists of Canada, and the almost constant wars in which Franee was engaged, until the treaty of Ryswiek, 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 eustoms, 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 Franee began to encourage the poliey 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 snecess for about 75 years. The traders persisted in importing whisky, which canceled nearly every civilizing influence that could be brought to bear mpon 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

HISTORY OF IOWA.

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 onr 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 luscious, onr 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 cansed 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 could. 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 snit- able to our present circumstances, and fit to inspire ns 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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from its being surrounded with an indifferent palisade, which is pretty near the case in all the rest. We have here two villages of Indians, one of the Miamis and the other of the Pottawatomies, both of them mostly Christians; but as they have been for a long time withont any pastors, the missionary who has been lately sent to them will have no small diffienlty in bringing them back to the exercise of their religion." He speaks also of the main commodity for which the Indians would part with their goods, namely, spirituous liquors, which they drink and keep drunk upon as long as a supply lasted. More than a century and a half has now passed since Charlevoix penned the above, without any change whatever in this trait of Indian character.

In 1765 the Miami nation, or confederacy, was composed of four tribes, whose total number of warriors was estimated at only 1,050 men. Of these about 250 were Twightwees, or Miamis proper, 300 Weas, or Oniatenons, 300 Piankeshaws and 200 Shockeys ; and at this time the principal villages of the Twightwees were sit- nated at the head of of the Manmee river, at and near the place where Fort Wayne now is. The larger Wea villages were near the banks of the Wabash river, in the vicinity of the Post Oniate- non ; and the Shoekeys and Piankeshaws dwelt on the banks of the Vermillion, and on the borders of the Wabash between Vin- cennes and Ouiatenon. Branches of the Pottawatomie, Shawnee, Delaware and Kickapoo tribes were permitted at different times to enter within the boundaries of the Miamis and reside for a while.

The wars in which France and England were engaged, from 16SS to 1697, retarded the growth of the colonies of those na- tions in North America, and the efforts made by France to con- neet Canada and the Gulf of Mexico by a chain of trading posts and colonies, naturally excited the jealousy of England, and grad- ually laid the foundation for a struggle at arms. After several stations were established elsewhere in the West, trading posts were started at the Miami villages, which stood at the head of the Maumee, at the Wea villages about Ouiatenon on the Wabash, and at the Piankeshaw villages about the present site of Vin- cennes. It is probable that before the close of the year 1719, temporary tradingposts were erected at the sites of Fort Wayne, Oniatenon and Vincennes. These points were probably often visited by fur traders prior to 1700. In the meanwhile the Eug- lish people in this country commenced also to establish military posts west of the Alleghanies, and thus matters went on until they

HISTORY OF IOWA.

naturally culminated in a general war, which, being waged by the French and Indians combined on one side, was called " the French and Indian war." This war was terminated in 1763 by a treaty at Paris, by which France ceded to Great Britain all of North Amer- iea east of the Mississippi, except New Orleans and the island on which it is situated; and indeed, France had the preceding autumn, by a secret convention, ceded to Spain all the country west of that river.

In 1765 the total number of French families within the limits of the Northwestern Territory did not probably exceed 600. These were in settlements about Detroit, along the river Wabash and the neighborhood of Fort Chartres on the Mississippi. Of these families, about 80 or 90 resided at Post Vincennes, 14 at Fort Ouiatenon, on the Wabash, and nine or ten at the confluence of the St. Mary and St. Joseph rivers.

The colonial policy of the British government opposed any measures which might strengthen settlements in the interior of this country, lest they become self-supporting and independent of the mother country; hence the early and rapid settlement of the Northwestern Territory was still further retarded by the short- sighted selfishness of England. That fatal policy consisted mainly in holding the land in the hands of the government, and not allow- ing it to be subdivided and sold to settlers. But in spite of all her eflorts in this direction, she constantly made just such efforts as provoked the 'American people to rebel, and to rebel successfully, which was within 15 years after the perfect close of the French and Indian war.

Thomas Jefferson, the shrewd statesman and wise Governor of Virginia, saw from the first that actual occupation of western lands was the only way to keep them out of the hands of foreigners and Indians. Therefore, directly after the conquest of Vincennes, by Clark, he engaged a scientific corps to proceed under an escort to the Missisippi, and ascertain by celestial observations the point on that river intersected by latitude 36 º 30' the southern limit of the State, and to measure its distance to the Ohio. To Gen. Clark- was entrusted the conduct of the military operations in that quar- ter. He was instructed to select a strong position near that point and establish there a fort and garrison; thence to extend his con- quests northward to the lakes, erecting forts at different points, which might serve as monuments of actual possession, besides affording protection to that portion of the country. Fort "Jeffer-

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History of Scott County, Iowa, Part 2

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing co. Number of Pages: 1280

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing co.
Number of Pages: 1280