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The best available evidence as to the population of the Indian tribes living in Illinois in 1818 is an estimate made by the secre- tary of war in 1815, but unfortunately the figures refer to the tribes as a whole and not merely to the groups living in Illinois.
1For condensed information about the different tribes, consult Hodge, Handbook of American Indians. See also American State Papers, Indian Affairs, vol. 2; Wisconsin Historical Collections, vols. II and 20; Morse, Report on Indian Affairs; Blair, Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Val- ley; Schoolcraft, Narrative of an Expedition; Brown, Western Gazetteer; Michelson in American Anthropologist.
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According to this estimate the Potawatomi were the most numer- ous, having forty-eight hundred souls. The Sauk numbered thirty-two hundred and the Fox twelve hundred, making a total of forty-four hundred for the two tribes. The Winnebago were credited with twenty-four hundred souls but only a few of these lived south of the boundary line. Nearly all of the sixteen. hundred Kickapoo, on the other hand, were within the limits of Illinois. The Kaskaskia tribe had been reduced to sixty souls and the Peoria were not included in the count at all. In each instance it was estimated that about one-fourth of the members of the tribe were warriors.
All these tribes belonged to the Algonkin linguistic group with the exception of the Winnebago, who were of Dakota stock. The material culture, social organization, and religious beliefs of the different tribes were fairly uniform. They were people neither of the forest nor the plain, but lived along the water courses and in the groves much as did the first white settlers. Their time was divided about equally between hunting and agri- cultural life. "They leave their villages," says Marston, "as soon as their corn, beans, etc., is ripe and taken care of, and their traders arrive and give out their credits and go to their wintering grounds; it being previously determined on in council what particular ground each party shall hunt on. The old men, women, and children embark in canoes, and the young men go by land with their horses; on their arrival they immediately com- mence their winter's hunt, which last about three months. . . They return to their villages in the month of April and after putting their lodges in order, commence preparing the ground to receive the seed."2
"Blair, Indian Tribes, 2:148-151. The most detailed accounts of Illinois Indians in the early nineteenth century are to be found in two memoirs dealing with the Sauk and Fox, published in this volume. The first is in the form of a "Letter to Reverend Dr. Jedidiah Morse, by Major Morrell Marston, U.S.A., commanding at Fort Armstrong, Ill., November, 1820," and was first published in Morse, Report on Indian Affairs. The second is "An account of the Manners and Customs of the Sauk and Fox Nations of Indians Tradition," by Thomas Forsyth, Indian Agent, January 15, 1827. Much of the material in the following paragraphs is drawn from these memoirs and from appendix B of the same volume, containing "Notes on Indian social Organization, mental and moral Traits, religious Beliefs, etc." The volume contains also a very comprehensive annotated bibliography. See also Hodge, Handbook of American Indians.
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The principal crop was Indian corn, of which they often had extensive fields. Speaking of the Sauk and Fox near Rock Island, Major Marston says: "The number of acres cultivated by that part of the two nations who reside at their villages in this vicinity is supposed to be upwards of three hundred. They usually raise from seven to eight thousand bushels of corn, besides beans, pumpkins, melons, etc. The labor of agriculture is confined principally to the women, and this is done altogether with the hoe."3 While corn formed the staple of the Indians' diet, they made some use of wild vegetables and roots. They ate meat of many varieties, preference being given to venison and bear's meat. They cared little for fish but ate it when other food was scarce. "They most generally boil everything into soup," says Forsyth in his memoir. "I never knew them to eat raw meat, and meat seems to disgust them when it is not done thoroughly. . . The old women set the kettle a boiling in the night, and about day break all eat whatever they have got, they eat in the course of the day as often as they are hungry, the kettle is on the fire constantly suspended from the roof of the lodge, every one has his wooden dish or bowl and wooden spoon or as they call it Me-quen which they carry along with them when they are invited to feast.""
The ordinary garments of the Indian men were a shirt reach- ing almost to the knees, a breechclout, and leggings which came up to the thigh and were fastened to the belt on either side. In earliest times all their clothing was made of leather, but by 1818 this material had been generally replaced by trade cloth. The shirt and leggings were often dyed a deep blue or black, while the breechclout was usually of red cloth; all were more or less elaborately decorated with bead and quill work. The women wore a two-piece garment, short leggings reaching to the knees, and moccasins; they also employed the customary Indian orna- mentation of quills and beads. Both sexes wore the robe, and later the trade blanket. The men painted their faces in various ways, while the women painted very little or not at all. Except when on the warpath the men of most of the tribes let their hair
3Blair, Indian Tribes, 2:151.
'Ibid., 2:229.
WA-BAUN-SEE, POTTAWATOMI CHIEF [From the Lewis Portfolio, owned by Chicago Historical Society ]
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grow long, wearing the scalp lock braided and a band of otter skin or a woven sash bound around the brows. The women ordinarily wore their hair in a single braid down the back.
The principal manufacturing operations of these tribes were tanning, weaving, and the making of pottery; although the last named industry had practically been given up by 1818. The central Algonkin were not familiar with the use of the loom, but they twisted a twine from the inner bark of the linden, and with this wove excellent bags of various sorts, which they used for a great variety of purposes. These were decorated by weav- ing in geometric designs and conventional representations of animals. They also made reed mats sewed with twine, which were used as covering for the floors, and as roofing for the winter houses. The pottery was of a rather inferior sort, burned in an open fire, or simply sundried, and decorated with a few incised lines. With the coming of the whites, this native ware was rapidly replaced by the trade kettle.
All the tribes living in Illinois used two types of houses, one for summer, the other for winter. The summer houses as described by Forsyth, were "built in the form of an oblong, a bench on each of the long sides about three feet high and four feet wide, parallel to each other, a door at each end, and a passage thro the center of about six feet wide, some of those huts are fifty or sixty feet long and capable of lodging fifty or sixty persons. Their winter lodges are made by driving long poles in the ground in two rows nearly at equal distances from each other, bending the tops so as to overlap each other, then covering them with mats made of what they call puc-wy a kind of rushes or flags, a Bearskin generally serves for a door, which is suspended at the top and hangs down, when finished it is not unlike an oven with the fire in the center and the smoke omits thro the top."5
The basis of the social organization and government of these Indians was the clan, all the tribes being divided into a large number of gentes or groups based on descent in the male line and strictly exogamous. Each clan took its name from some
"Blair, Indian Tribes, 2:227.
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ILLINOIS IN 1818
special animal or thing to which the members thought them- selves related. Thus the gentes of the Kickapoo were Water, Bear, Elk, Bald Eagle, Tree, Berry, Fox, Buffalo, Man, Turkey, and Thunder. The heads of these clans acted as civil chiefs, although the braves or principal men had considerable influence in matters of war and peace. The authority of the chiefs was hereditary, descending to the oldest male of the family, but it was not by any means absolute. So loose was the organization of a tribe that the office of chief entailed more trouble than advantage and was sometimes refused. Indeed the power of an individual chief depended primarily on his personal influence rather than on the prestige of his office. The function of the council appears to have been not so much judicial as administra- tive-the determination of matters of tribal policy-and in its deliberations substantial unanimity was necessary for a decision. "There is no such thing," says Forsyth, "as a summary mode of coercing the payment of debts, all contracts are made on honor, for redress of civil injuries an appeal is made to the old people of both parties and their determination is generally acceded to."6 Atonement for murder was made in the manner customary among primitive people, usually by payments or presents to the relatives of the dead. Even war was a matter of individual initiative rather than of tribal concern. Any indi- vidual might become a war chief for the time being, if he had sufficient influence to induce a party of warriors to follow him.
Most of the tribes were also divided, without regard to clans, into two great phratries, the Blacks and the Whites. This divi- sion was applied to both sexes, and the phratry was fixed at the time of birth. Usually the first child of a Black was a White, the second a Black, and so on, but there was no fixed rule. The explanation given by the Indians for this division was that it tended to promote emulation within the tribe. The two colors always played against each other in athletic games and in gambling. They seem to have had some ceremonial significance also, for at clan feasts the Whites took the south and the Blacks
"Blair, Indian Tribes, 2:186.
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the north side of the lodge; and certain offices were definitely assigned to each.
The religion of the Algonkin Indians was essentially a nature worship, pure and simple. An object around which associations had clustered would become the recipient of adoration, and either the object itself or an interpreted manifestation of the object would be looked upon as a manitou capable of bringing pleasure or inflicting pain. In everyday life the elaborate ritual of the Indians' religion centered about the medicine bundle,-a collec- tion of charms, amulets, or fetishes sometimes thought to have a consciousness of its own and to enjoy offerings. Some of these bundles were used in clan ceremonies connected with the naming of children, others were thought to give magical protec- tion and help in battle, while still others were supposed to aid their owners in various affairs of life, such as hunting, love, friendship, sickness, athletic sports, gambling, and witchcraft. Frequently the same bundle would be used for several purposes, but there was always an elaborate ritual in connection with it.
In addition to the cult of the medicine bundles, the Indians of Illinois in common with other central Algonkin had the society of the Midewin, or grand medicine lodge. This was a secret organization, varying in its minor details with the dif- ferent tribes, but having certain fundamental features common to all. Admission was on the recommendation of some member, or in the place of some member who had died. Membership was open to both men and women, and in some tribes even chil- dren were taken to succeed deceased members. The applicant had to pay a certain fixed sum for admission, and at the same time buy from some member a certain number of formulae and charms. Among several of the tribes the society was divided into four degrees, admission to each one of which had to be bought. The initiation seems to have been little more than a notification to the public that the initiate was qualified to practice magic, the scope of his power becoming greater with each suc- ceeding degree. The badge of the order was a medicine pouch, usually made of the skin of an otter tanned whole, and always containing the megus,-a small white shell which was supposed
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ILLINOIS IN 1818
to be the carrier of the magic power. Usually there were also other magicians and witches, not members of the medicine lodge, whose powers were supposed to result from some special dispen- sation of the manitous.
It is evident that the Indians had nothing that could be called a formal civil government. Most affairs were left to individual initiative; the love of freedom was one of the Indians' chief characteristics; and they suffered their personal liberty to be only slightly limited even by the authority of the chiefs and sachems. This lack of political organization among the Indians inevitably caused many complications in dealing with the whites, complications which were increased by the fact that the whites with whom the Indians first came in contact were generally the most lawless and unruly representatives of their race.
The fur traders, who were always the first to penetrate the Indian forests, were usually hardy adventurers whose one con- cern was to secure as large a profit as they could from their traffic with the savages. The Illinois country had long been a fertile field for these rovers, and the problem of their control had been one of the most serious which had been handed down first by the French to the British, and then by the British to the Americans. The advent of the pioneer farmer, however, was an even more prolific source of friction than the irregularities of the fur traders, for the Indians regarded with the most jealous disfavor the permanent clearance and settlement of the hunting grounds over which their ancestors had roamed in perfect freedom. The whites, on the other hand, regarded the land as theirs by a sort of racial right and considered that they were justified in using every means to wrest it from the abo- rigines.
In 1818, the Indians in Illinois retained but little of the inde- pendence and self-sufficiency of their forefathers. Their agri- culture was of a rude and primitive sort, and they had come to rely upon the white trader for a large number of articles which, once unknown, had become necessities of life; and these they secured in exchange for the returns of their hunts. Their resources not having kept pace with their growing wants, their
1.
KEE-O-KUCK, OR THE WATCHING FOX, CHIEF OF THE SAUK TRIBE AND SUCCESSOR TO BLACK HAWK Painted by J. O. Lewis at the great treaty of Prairie du Chien, 1825 [From the Lewis Portfolio, owned by Chicago Historical Society]
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condition was a rather wretched one; and they were regarded by the government as wards to be cared for as well as possible enemies to be feared. Governor Cass of Michigan territory, speaking of the Indians in 1816, said: "Since the establishment of the National Government provisions have always been gratuitously distributed to them, and more recently goods to a considerable [amount] have been given. Without these annual gratuities, it is difficult to conceive how they could support and clothe themselves. And even with all this assistance their con- dition is wretched, their wants increasing their feelings dispond- ing and their prospects dreary."7
While the Indians of Illinois and the adjoining frontier were comparatively peaceful and quiet in 1818, there was always a dan- ger that they might take up the hatchet and wage war against the whites, and this ever-present danger was never lost sight of by the United States government. A complicating factor in the situa- tion was the influence which the British still exerted over the tribes of Illinois and the great lakes region as late as 1818. The great majority of these tribes had sided with the British in the war of 1812; and, after peace was concluded between Great Brit- ain and the United States, it was necessary to conclude treaties with the Indians likewise. Thomas Forsyth was sent as agent to invite various tribes, including the Chippewa, Menominee, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, and Sauk and Fox, to send deputations to meet with Governor Clark of Missouri territory, Governor Ninian Edwards of Illinois territory, and Auguste Chouteau, who had been appointed commissioners by the president to con- clude treaties of peace and amity.8 In the course of time, formal peace was established between the United States and the various tribes which had taken up the hatchet on the British side in the war, but the problem of British influence still remained. The proposal of the United States government after the close of the war to establish military posts at Chicago, Green Bay, and Prai- rie du Chien aroused considerable opposition among the Indians ; in this they had a certain degree of moral support from the
"Indian Office Papers, Michigan Letter Book, I (1814-1817) :362.
8Draper manuscripts, 2M. 24, 26, 27, 28, and 29.
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British, who naturally were not anxious to see the military forces of their late enemy occupy the frontier region resorted to by the British traders.9
During the period following the war, the British endeavored to preserve the good will of the Indians of the northwest by a lavish distribution of presents at Drummond's Island, not far from Mackinac, and at Malden, at the mouth of the Detroit river. In the summer of 1817, Major Puthuff, agent at Mack- inac, reported that a considerable band of Sauk and Fox from the lower Mississippi, of Winnebago from the Wisconsin river and Prairie du Chien, as well as some Potawatomi and other tribes from the Illinois, had visited Mackinac and Drummond's Island that season. At the latter post, the British had distributed presents, and it was reported that large quantities of arms and ammunition had been given out. Two years later, Governor Cass said in a letter to Calhoun, then secretary of war: "The British Indian headquarters are at Malden at the mouth of this River, and to that place the Indians east of Lake Michigan, many west of that Lake, and those upon the Wabash & Miami Rivers and their tributary streams make an annual journey to receive the presents, which are distributed to them and to confer as they express it, with their British father."10 Needless to say, the practice was most objectionable to the United States, and in 1819, Calhoun gave Governor Cass instructions to prevent any Indians living within the United States from passing into Canada, save as individuals. Still, as late as 1820, certain of the Sauk and Fox living in the vicinity of Fort Armstrong on Rock Island had British medals in their possession and were displaying British flags considerably larger than the American army standards.
"Wisconsin Historical Collections, 19:430. A smouldering hostility to- ward the Americans persisted among certain Indian tribes for some little time after the war. When the Illinois fur brigade arrived in the vicinity of Peoria lake in 1818, the trader in charge of the expedition informed the Indians that Gurdon Hubbard, a young American apprentice just arrived in the Indian country, was his adopted son from Montreal. One young brave insisted that Hubbard was an American and showed him a number of scalps, which he claimed were those of his countrymen. Hubbard, Autobi- ography, 48.
10Indian Office Papers, Michigan Letter Book, 3 (1818-1822) :80.
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The presence of British traders among the Indians of the northwest was also a source of considerable uneasiness to the Americans. In 1818, many of the private traders in Illinois, as well as throughout the entire great lakes region, were British in their political allegiance and in their sympathies; many of them had taken an active part against the Americans in the war of 1812. The correspondence of the time is filled with com- plaints concerning the evil influence of these British traders. Jacob Varnum, who had charge of the government trading factory at Chicago, in 1818, said: "The indiscriminate admission of British subjects to trade with the Indians, is a matter of pretty general complaint, throughout this section of the country. There are five establishments now within the limits of this agency, headed by British subjects."11 Governor Cass likewise had little love for these traders. "They systematically seize every opportunity of poisoning the minds of the Indians," he wrote. "There is no doubt but they report every occurence of any importance to their Indian Department, and the Indians are taught to consider our Government as their enemies and the British as their friends."12 It is very probable that American army officers and Indian agents somewhat overestimated the danger to be anticipated from the influence of British agents and traders with the savages. At the same time, in the light of experience, and in view of the actual situation of affairs on the frontier, the government of the United States was certainly justified in exercising the greatest diligence in its efforts to check all intercourse between the Indians and the British.
The United States government had, then, three ends in view in its administration of Indian affairs upon the northwestern frontier during this period; to preserve peace between the red man and the white settler; to destroy British influence and to render the Indians dependent upon the United States; and, lastly, to improve the condition of the savages or, if possible, to
11Morse, Report on Indian Affairs, 46. In Niles' Weekly Register, 8:263 is printed a list of names of traders who sided with the British in the war of 1812. The correspondence in which the list occurs is dated April 29, 1815. There are included the names of three traders who formerly resided at Peoria ; "Mitchell" La Croix, Louis Buisson, and Louis Bennett.
12Indian Office Papers, Michigan Letter Book, I ( 1814-1817) :365.
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civilize them. There was a rather widely spread feeling that the whites owed a certain moral obligation to the Indians on account of the occupation of so goodly a portion of their best hunting grounds. The government sought to carry out its policy by means of three separate and distinct agencies; the military posts upon the frontier, the Indian department, and the system of government fur trading factories.
The principal military establishments upon the northwestern frontier in 1818 were at Detroit, Mackinac, Fort Wayne, Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, and Chicago. Fort Dearborn, it will be remembered, was destroyed during the war of 1812, but it was reestablished in 1816. There were three other posts in Illinois in 1818, besides the one at Chicago; Fort Armstrong, on Rock Island; Fort Edwards, opposite the mouth of the Des Moines river; and Fort Clark, on the Illinois river near the outlet of Peoria lake. The last-named post was abandoned, however, in the same year. These posts were located at strategic points upon the water communications of the northwest and were designed to overawe the Indian tribes in their vicinity and to act as a check upon foreign interference. In addition, they gave aid and protection to the Indian department and to the govern- ment trading factories.
The Indian department, under the supervision and direction of the United States department of war, had its agencies at Mackinac, Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, Chicago, Vincennes, Fort Wayne, and Piqua. There was a special agent for the Illinois territory, with headquarters at Peoria, besides scattered sub-agents. Before Illinois was admitted into the union, Gover- nor Edwards was ex officio superintendent of Indian affairs in the greater part of the territory and as such directed the adminis- tration of affairs at the different agencies within his jurisdic- tion. Thus the agent for Illinois territory, as well as the one stationed at Prairie du Chien, was prior to 1818 responsible to . Governor Edwards. The agents at Green Bay and Chicago, however, although within Illinois territory, were under the direc- tion of Governor Cass of Michigan territory. The reason for this arrangement was that Chicago and Green Bay were more
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easily accessible from Detroit by way of the lakes than from Kaskaskia. After Illinois became a state, the agency at Prairie du Chien and that for Illinois territory became independent estab- lishments, responsible directly to the war department; Chicago and Green Bay remained under the supervision of Governor Cass.13 In 1818 Charles Jouett was in charge of Indian affairs at Chicago, while Richard Graham acted as "agent for Illinois Territory ;" the two sub-agents within the limits of Illinois were Pierre Menard and Maurice Blondeau.
The Indian agents and sub-agents were entrusted with the duty of supervising the political relations between the various tribes and the United States. They discharged treaty obliga- tions on behalf of the United States government, and acted as the medium of communication with the Indians. They granted licenses for the Indian trade and generally supervised its conduct. One of the most important of the duties regularly performed was the payment of the annuities due the Indians. These were usually paid in goods and were delivered in accordance with treaty stipulations, most often as the price agreed upon for the cession of lands by the Indians. The amounts paid over in this way, however, were very modest. The annuity due the Kas- kaskia in 1818 was one thousand dollars, while an equal amount was paid the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi residing upon the Illinois river. The Kickapoo received only nine hundred dollars.
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