History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 17

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company
Number of Pages: 1164

USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 17

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The Catholic school at St. Mary's enumerated an average of ninety-five boys and seventy-five girls in 1863, and in 1866 the total number was two hundred and forty scholars. Of his pupils the superintendent says : " They not only spell, read. write and cipher. but successfully master the various branches of geography. history, book-keeping. grammar. philosophy, logie, geometry and astronomy. Besides this. they are so docile. so willing to improve, that between school-hours they employ their time, with pleasure, in learning whatever handiwork may be assigned to them ; and they particu- larly desire to become good farmers." The girls, in addition to their studies, are " trained to whatever is deemed useful to good housekeepers and accomplished mothers."

The Pottawatomies attested their fidelity to the government by the volunteering of seventy-five of their young men in the " army of the Union."

In 1867, out of a population of 2.400. 1.400 elected to become citizens of the United States. under an enabling act passed by con- gress. Of those who became citizens, some did well, others soon squandered their lands and joined the wild band. There are still a few left in Michigan, while about one hundred and eighty remain in Wisconsin.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE KICKAPOOS AND MASCOUTINS.

THE Kickapoos and Mascoutins, if there was more than a nominal difference between the two tribes, are here treated of together, for reasons explained farther on in the chapter. The name of the Kick- apoos has been written by the French. .. Kicapoux, " " Kickapous," " Kikapoux." "Quickapous," ". Rickapoos," "Kikabu." This tribe has long been connected with the northwest, and have acquired a notoriety for the wars in which they were engaged with other tribes. as well for their persistent hostility to the white race, which con- tinued uninterrupted for more than one hundred and fifty years. They were first noticed by Sammel Champlain, who, in 1612, dis- covered the " Mascoutins residing near the place called Sakinam," meaning the country of the Sacs, comprising that part of the state of Michigan bordering on Lake Huron, in the vicinity of Saginaw Bay .*

Father Claude Allouez visited the mixed village of Miamis, Kick- apoos and Mascoutins on Fox River, Wisconsin, in the winter of 1669-70. Leaving his canoe at the water's edge he walked a league over beantiful prairies and perceived the fort. The savages, having discovered him, raised the cry of alarm in their villages, and then ran out to receive the missionary with honor, and conducted him to the lodge of the chief. where they regaled him with refreshments. and further honored him by greasing his feet and legs. Every one took their places, a dish was filled with powdered tobacco; an old man arose to his feet, and, filling his two hands with tobacco from the dish, addressed the missionary thus :

" This is well, Black-robe, that thou hast come to visit us ; have pity on us. Thou art a Manitou.+ We give thec wherewith to

* Memoir of Louis XIV, and Cobert, Minister of France, on the French Limits in North America: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 378, and note by E. B. O'Callaghan, the editor, on p. 293.

+ Manitou, with very few changes in form of spelling or manner of pronunciation, is the word used almost universally by the Algonquin tribes to express a spirit or God having control of their destinies. Their Manitous were numerous. It was also an expression sometimes applied to the white people,- particularly the missionaries. At first they regarded the Europeans as spirits, or persons possessing superior intelligence to themselves.

153

154

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

smoke. The Nadoñessious and the Iroquois eat us up ; have pity on ns. We often are sick. our children die, we are hungry. Listen, my Manitou. I give thee wherewith to smoke, that the earth may vield us corn. that the rivers may furnish us with fish, that sickness no more shall kill us, that famine no longer shall so harshly treat us." At each wish. the old men who were present answered by a great " O-oh ! " *

The good father was shocked at this ceremony, and replied that they should not address such requests to him. Protesting that he could afford them no relief other than offering prayers to Him who was the only and true God, of whom he was only the servant and messenger. +

Father Allonez says in the same letter that four leagues from this village " are the Kikabou and Kitchigamick, who speak the same language with the Machkonteng."

The Kiekapoos were not inclined to receive religious impressions from the early missionaries. In fact, they appear to have acquired their first notoriety in history by seizing Father Gabriel Ribourde. whom they " carried away and broke his head." as Tonti quaintly expresses it in referring to this ruthless murder. Again. in 1728, as Father Ignatius Guignas, compelled to abandon his mission among the Sioux, on account of the victory of the Foxes over the French. was attempting to reach the Illinois, he. too. fell into the hands of the Kickapoos and Mascoutins, and for five months was held a cap- tive and constantly exposed to death. During this time he was con- demned to be burnt. and was only saved through the friendly inter- vention of an old man in the tribe, who adopted him as a son. While held a prisoner. the missionaries from the Illinois relieved his necessities by sending timely supplies, which Father Guignas used to gain over the Indians. Having induced them to make peace. he was taken to the Illinois missions, and suffered to remain there on parole until November. 1729. when his old captors returned and took him back to their own country :$ after which nothing seems to have been known concerning the fate of this worthy mis- sionary.

The Kickapoos carly incurred the displeasure of the French by

The o-oh of the Algonquin and the yo-hah of the Iroquois (Colden's History of the Five Nations) is an expression of assent given by the hearers to the remarks of the speaker who is addressing them. and is equivalent to good or braro! The Indians indulged in this kind of encouragement to their orators with great liberality, drawing out their o-ohs in unison and with a prolonged cry, especially when the speaker's utterances harmonized with their own sentiments.

+ Jesuit Relations. 1669-70.

# Shea's Catholic Missions. p. 379.

155

MIGRATIONS OF THE KICKAPOOS.

committing depredations south of Detroit. A band living at the month of the Maumee River in 1712, with thirty Mascoutins, were about to make war upon the French. They took prisoner one Langlois, a messenger, on his return from the Miami country. whither he was bringing many letters from the Jesuit Fathers of the Illinois villages, and also dispatches from Louisiana. The letters and dispatches were destroyed, which gave much uneasiness to M. Du Boisson, the commandant at Detroit. A canoe laden with Kicka- poos, on their way to the villages near Detroit, was captured by the Hurons and Ottawas residing at these villages, and who were the allies of the French. Among the slain was the principal Kickapoo chief, whose head, with those of three others of the same tribe. were brought to De Boisson, who alleges that the Hurons and Ottawas committed this act out of resentment, because the previous winter the Kickapoos had taken some of the Hurons and Iroquois prisoners, and also because they considered the Kickapoo chief to be a "true Outtagamie"; that is, they regarded him as one of the Fox nation. *

From the village of Machkoutench, where first Father Clande Allouez, and afterward Father Marquette, found the Kickapoos inhab- iting the same village with the Muscotins and Miamis, the Kickapoos and the Muscotins appear to have passed to the south, extending their flanks to the right in the direction of Rockt River, and their left to the southern trend of Lake Michigan. Referring to the country on Fox River about Winnebago Lake, Father Charlevoix says : "All this country is extremely beautiful, and that which stretches to the southward as far as the river of the Illinois is still more so. It is, however, inhabited by two small nations only, who are the Kickapoos and the Mascoutins." Father Charlevoix. , speaking of Fox River, says: "The largest of these." referring to the streams that empty into the Illinois, "is called Pisticoui, and proceeds from the fine country of the Mascoutins. "Il

* Extract from M. Du Boisson's official report to the Marquis De Vaudreuil, gov- ernor-general of New France, of the siege of Detroit, dated June 15, 1712. This val- uable paper is published entire in vol. 3 of Win. R. Smith's History of Wisconsin, a work that contains many important documents not otherwise accessible to the gen- eral public. Indeed, the publications of the Historical Society of Wisconsin, of which Judge Smith's two volumes are the beginning, are the repository of a fund of infor- mation of great utility, not only to the people of that state, but to the entire North- west.

+ Rock River-Assin-Sepe-was also called Kickapoo River, and so laid down on a map of La Salle's discoveries.

# Narrative Journal, vol. 1, p. 287. Vol. 2, p. 199.

| "The Fox River of the Illinois is called by the Indians Pish-ta-ko. It is the same mentioned by Charlevoix under the name of Pisticoui, and which flows as he,

156

HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

Prior to 1718 the Mascoutins and Kickapoos had villages upon the banks of Rock River, Illinois. "Both these tribes together do not amount to two hundred men. They are a clever people and brave warriors. Their language and manners strongly resemble those of the Foxes. They are the same stock. They catch deer by chasing them, and even at this day make considerable use of bows and arrows. "* On a French map, issued in 1712, a village of Mas- coutins is located near the forks of the north and south branches of Chicago River.

From references given, it is apparent that this people, like the Miamis and Pottawatomies, were progressing south and eastward. This movement was probably on account of the fierce Sioux, whose encroaching wars from the northwest were pressing them in this direction. Even before this date the Foxes. with Mascoutins and Kiekapoos, were meditating a migration to the Wabash as a place of security from the Sioux. This threatened exodus alarmed the French, who feared that the migrating tribes would be in a position on the. · Wabash to effect a junction with the Iroquois and English, which would be exceedingly detrimental to the French interests in the northwest. From an official document relative to the "occurrences in Canada, sent from Quebec to France in 1695, the Department at Paris is informed that the Sioux, who have mustered some two or three thousand warriors for the purpose, would come in large num- bers to seize their village. This has caused the outagamies to quit their country and disperse themselves for a season, and afterward return and save their harvest. They are then to retire toward the river Wabash to form a settlement, so much the more permanent, as they will be removed from the incursions of the Sioux, and in a position to effect a junction easily with the Iroquois and the English without the French being able to prevent it. Should this project be realized, it is very apparent that the Mascoutins and Kickapoos will be of the party, and that the three tribes, forming a new village of fourteen or fifteen hundred men, would experience no difficulty in considerably increasing it by attracting other nations thither, which would be of most pernicious consequence. "+ That the Mascoutins, at least, did go soon after this date toward the lower Wabash is con-

says, through the country of the Mascoutins." Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, p. 176. The Algonquin word Pish-tah-te-koosh, according to Edwin James' vocabulary, means an antelope. The Pottawatomies, from whom Major Long's party obtained the word Pish-ta-ko, may have used it to designate the same animal, judging from the similarity of the two words.

* Memoir prepared in 1718 on the Indians between Lake Erie and the Missis- sippi: Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 889.

t Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 619.

157

OF THE NAME MASCOUTINS.

clusively shown by the fact of their presence about Juchereau's trading post, which was erected near the mouth of the Ohio in the year 1700.

It is doubtful if either the Foxes or the Kickapoos followed the Mascontins to the Wabash country, and it is evident that the Mas- coutins who survived the epidemic that broke out among them at Juchereau's post on the Ohio soon returned to the north. The French effected a conciliation with the Sioux, and for a number of years subsequent to 1705 we find the Mascoutins back again among the Foxes and Kickapoos upon their old hunting grounds in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin.

The Kickapoos entered the plot of the Mascoutins to capture the post of Detroit in 1712, and the latter had repaired to the neighbor- hood of Detroit, and were awaiting the arrival of the Kickapoos to exeente their purposes, when they were attacked by the confedera- tion of Indians who were friendly toward the French and had hast- ened to the relief of the garrison .*

The Mascontins were called "Machkontench,"+ "Machkouteng," " Maskouteins " and "Masquitens," by French writers. The Eng- lish called them "Masquattimes, "# "Musquitons," $ " Mascon- ¿ tins,"" and " Musquitos, " a corruption used by the American colo- nial traders, and " Meadows," the English synonym for the French word " prairie. ""

The derivation of the name has been a subject of discussion. Father Marquette, with some others, following the example of the Hurons, rendered it "fire-nation," while Fathers Allonez and Char- levoix, with recent American authors, claim that the word signifies a prairie, or "a land bare of trees," such as that which this people inhabit. ** The name is doubtless derived from mus-kor-tence, ++ or mus-ko-tia, a prairie, a derivative from skoutay or scote, the word for fire. ## "The Mascos or Mascoutins were, by the French traders of a more recent day, called gens des prairies, and lived and hunted on the great prairies between the Wabash and Illinois Rivers. "$$ That

* History of New France, vol. 5, p. 257.

+ Fathers Claude Allouez and Marquette.

# George Croghan's Narrative Journal.

$ Minutes of the treaty at Greenville in 1795.

Samuel R. Brown's Western Gazetteer.

IT It was some years after the conquest of the northwest from the French before the name "prairie " became naturalized, as it were, into the English language.

** Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 1, p. 287. Father Allouez, in the Jesuit Re- lations between the years 1670 and 1671.

tt Note of Callaghan: Paris Documents, vol. 10.

## Tanner, Gallatin, Mackenzie and Johnson's vocabularies of Algonquin words.

§§ Manuscript account of this and other tribes, by Major Forsyth, quoted by Drake, in his Life of Black Hawk.

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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

the word Muskotia is synonymous with, and has the same meaning as, the word prairie, is further confirmed by the fact that the Indians prefixed it to the names of those animals and plants found exclu- sively on the prairies .*

Were the Kickapoos and Mascoutins separate tribes, or were they one and the same! These queries have elicited the attention of scholars well versed in the history of the North American Indians. among whom might be named Schoolcraft, Gallatin and Shea. Sufficient references have been given in this chapter to show that. by the French, the Kickapoos and Mascoutins were regarded as dis- tinct tribes. If necessary, additional extracts to the same purport could be produced from numerous French documents down to the close of the French colonial war, in 1763, all bearing uniform testi- mony upon this point.

The theory has been advanced that the Mascontins and Kickapoos were bands of one tribe, first known to the French by the former name, and subsequently to the English by the latter, under which name alone they figure in our later annals.+ This supposition is at variance with English and American authorities. It was a war party of Kickapoos und Mascontins, from their contiguous villages near Fort Onitanon, on the Wabash, who captured George Croghan, the English plenipotentiary, below the mouth of that river in 1765.4 Sir William Johnson, the English colonial agent on Indian affairs, in the classified list of Indians within his department, prepared in 1763. enumerates both the Kickapoos and Mascontins, locating them " in the neighborhood of the fort at Wawiaghta, and abont the Wabash River. "$ Captain Imlay, "commissioner for laying out lands in the back settlements,"-as the territory west of the Alleghanies was termed at that period, -in his list of westward Indians, classifies the Kiekapoos (under the name of Vermilions) and the Muscatines, lo- cating these two tribes between the Wabash and Illinois Rivers. This was in 1792. The distinction between these two tribes was main- tained still later. and down to a period subsequent to the year 1816. At that time the Mascoutins were residing on the west bank of the Wabash. between Vincennes and the Tippecanoe River, while their old neighbors. the Kiekapoos, were living a short distance above

* For example, mus-ko-tia-chit-ta-mo, prairie squirrel; mus-ko-ti-pe-neeg, prairie potatoes. Edwin James' Catalogue of Plants and Animals found in the country of the Ojibbeways. See further references on page 35.

t The Indian Tribes of Wisconsin: Historical Collections of that State, vol. 3, p. 130.

# Vide his Narrative Journal.

Colonial History of New York, vol. 7: London Documents, p. 583. | Imlay's America, third edtion, London, 1797, p. 290.

159

KICKAPOOS AND MASCOUTINS ONE PEOPLE.

them in several large villages. At this date the Kickapoos could raise four hundred warriors. * From the authors cited, - and other references to the same effect would be produced but for want of space. -it is evident that the English and the Americans, equally with the French, regarded the Kickapoos and Mascoutins as separate bands or subdivisions of a tribe.

While this was so. the language, manners and customs of the two tribes were not only similar, but the two tribes were almost invaria- bly found occupying continguons villages, and hunting in company with each other over the same country. "The Kickapoos are neigh- bors of the Mascontins, and it seems that these two tribes have always been united in interests. "+ There is no instance recorded where they were ever arrayed against each other. nor of a time when they took opposite sides in any alliance with other tribes. Another noticeable fact is that, with but one exception, the Mascoutins were never known as such in any treaty with the United States, while the Kickapoos were parties to many. We have seen that the former were occupying the Wabash country in common with the latter as far back, at least, as 1765. when they captured Croghan, until 1816; and in all of the treaties for the extinguishment of the title of the several Indian tribes bordering on the Wabash and its tributaries, the Mascontins are nowhere alluded to, while the Kickapoos are prominent parties to many treaties at which extensive tracts of coun- try were ceded. No man living, in his time, was better informed than Gen. Harrison,-who conducted these several treaties on behalf of the United States, -of the relations and distinctions, however trifling, that may have existed among the numerons Indian tribes with whom, in a long course of official capacity, he came in contact, either with the pen. around the friendly council-fire, or with the up- lifted sword upon the field of hostile encounter. In all his volumi- nous correspondence during the years when the northwest was com- mitted to his charge the General makes no mention of the Mascoutins

* Western Gazetteer, by Samuel R. Brown, p. 71. This work of Mr. Brown's is exceedingly valuable for the amount of reliable information it affords not obtainable from any other source. He was with Gen. Harrison in the campaigns of the war of 1812. In the preface to his Gazetteer he says: "Business and curiosity have made the writer acquainted with a large portion of the western country never before described. Where personal knowledge was wanting I have availed myself of the correspondence of many of the most intelligent gentlemen in the west." At the time Mr. Brown was compil- ing material for his Gazetteer, "the Harrison Purchase was being run out into townships and sections," and Mr. Brown came in contact with the surveyors doing the work, and derived much information from them. The book is carefully prepared, covering a topographical description of the country embraced, its towns, rivers, counties, popula- tion, Indian tribes, etc., and altogether is one of the most authentic and useful books relative to "the west," which was attracting the attention of emigrants at the time of its publication.

t Charlevoix' History of New France.

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HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.

by that name, but often refers to "the Kickapoos of the prairies," to distinguish them from other bands of the same tribe who occupied villages in the timbered portions of the Wabash and its tributaries. *

At a subsequent treaty of peace and friendship, concluded on the 27th of September, 1815, between Governor Ninian Edwards, of Illinois Territory, and the chiefs, warriors, etc., of the Kickapoo nation, Wash-e-own, who at the treaty of Vincennes signed as a Mas- coutin. was a party to it, and in this instance signed as a Kickapoo. No Mascoutins by that name appear in the record of the treaty. +

The preceding facts, negative and direct, admit of the following inferences : that there were two subdivisions of the same nation, known first to the French, then to the English, and more recently to the Americans, the one under the name of Kickapoos and the other as Mascoutines ; that they spoke the same language and ob- served the same customs; that they were living near each other, and always had a community of interest in their wars, alliances and migrations ; and that since the United States have held dominion over the territory of the northwest the Kickapoos and Mascoutines have considered themselves as one and the same people, whose tri- bal relations were so nearly identical that, in all official transactions with the federal government, they were recognized only as Kicka- poos. And is it not apparent, after all, that there was only a nom- inal distinction between these two tribes, or, rather, families of the same tribe ? Were not the Mascoutins bands of the Kickapoos who dwelt exclusively on the prairies ? It seems, from authorities cited, that this question admits of but one answer.

The destruction that followed the attempt of the Mascoutins to capture Detroit was, perhaps, one of the most remorseless in which white men took a part of which we have an account in the annals of Indian warfare. As before stated, the Muscotins in 1712 laid siege to the Fort, hearing of which the Pottawatomies, with other tribes friendly to the French, collected in a large force for their assistance.

* The only treaty which the Mascoutins, as such, were parties to was the one concluded at Vincennes on the 27th of September, 1792, between the several Wabash tribes and Gen. Rufus Putnam, on behalf of the United States. Two Mascoutins signed this treaty, viz, Waush-eown and At-schat-schaw. Three Kickapoo chiefs also signed the parchment, viz, Me-an-ach-kah, Ma-en-a-pah and Mash-a-ras-a, the Black Elk, and, what is singular, this last person, although a Kickapoo, signs himself to the treaty as "The Chief of The Meadow's." This treaty was only one of peace and friend- ship. The text of the treaty is found in the American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. 1, p. 388; in Judge Dillon's History of Indiana, edition of 1859, pp. 293, 294, and in the Western Annals, Pittsburg edition, pp. 605, 606. The names of the tribes and of the individual chiefs who participated in it are not given in any of the works cited. They only appear in the copy on file at the War Department and in the original manu- script journal of Gen. Putnam. The author is indebted to Dr. Israel W. Andrews, president of Marietta College, for transcripts from Gen. Putnam's journal.

+ Treaties with the Indian Tribes, Washington edition, p. 172.

161

IDENTITY OF KICKAPOOS WITH THE MASCOUTINS.

The Muscotines, after protracted efforts, abandoned the position in which they were attacked, and fled, closely pursued, to an intrenched position on Presque Isle, opposite HIog Island, near Lake St. Clair, some distance above the fort. Here they held out for four days against the combined French and Indian forces. Their women and children were actually starving, numbers dying from hunger every day. They sent messengers to the French officer, begging for quar- ter, offering to surrender at discretion. only craving that their re- maining women and children and themselves might be spared the horror of a general massacre. The Indian allies of the French would submit to no such terms. "At the end of the fourth day, after fighting with much courage," says the French commander, "and not being able to resist further, the Muscotins surrendered at discretion to our people, who gave them no quarter. Our Indians lost sixty men, killed and wounded. The enemy lost a thousand souls -men, women and children. All our allies returned to our fort with their slaves (meaning the captives), and their amusement was to shoot four or five of them every day. The Hurons did not spare a single one of theirs."*

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History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 17

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903 Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company Number of Pages: 1164

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company
Number of Pages: 1164