USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > A standard history of Elkhart County, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development, Volume I > Part 7
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
of Indiana. The pious Jesuits held up the cross of Christ and unfolded the mysteries of the Catholic religion in broken Indian to these astonished savages, while the speculating traders offered them fire water and other articles of merchandise in exchange for their peltries, and the rangers, shaking loose every tie of blood and kindred, identified themselves with the savages, and sank into utter barbarism.
The Jesuit missionaries were always cordially received by the Miami tribes. These Indians would listen patiently to the strange theory of the Savior and salvation, manifest a willing belief in all they heard, and then, as if to entertain their visitors in return, they would tell them the story of their own simple faith in the Manatous, and stalk off with a groan of dissatisfaction because the missionaries would not accept their theory with equal courtesy. Missionary stations were established at an early day in all of the principal villages, and the work of instructing and converting the savages was begun in earnest.
The order of religious exercises established at the missions estab- lished among the Miamis was nearly the same as that among other Indians. Early in the morning, the missionaries would assemble the Indians at the church, or the hut used for that purpose, and, after prayers, the savages were taught concerning the Catholic religion. These exercises were always followed by singing, at the conclusion of which the congregation was dismissed, the Christians only remaining to take part at mass. This service was generally followed by prayers. During the forenoon the priests were gen- erally engaged in visiting the sick, and consoling those who were laboring under any affliction. After noon another service was held in the church, at which all the Indians were permitted to appear in their finery, and where each, without regard to rank or age, an- swered the questions put by the missionary. This exercise was concluded by singing hymns, the words of which had been set to airs familiar to the savage ear. In the evening all assembled again at the church for instruction, to hear prayers, and to sing their favorite hymns. The Miamis were always highly pleased with the latter exercise.
THE FUR TRADERS
Aside from the character of the religious services which consti- tuted a chief attraction in the Miami villages of Indiana while the
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early French missionaries were among them, the traveler's atten- tion would first be engaged with the peculiarities of the fur trade, which, during the first quarter of the seventeenth century, was monopolized by the French. This trade was carried on by means of the carriers, or rangers, who were engaged to conduct canoes on the lakes and rivers, and to carry burdens of merchandise from Detroit to the principal Miami villages, where the traders exchanged their wares for valuable furs, which they transported to the nearest trading post affording them the most available market. This traffic was not, however, confined to those whose wealth enabled them to engage vessels, canoes, and carriers for there were hundreds scat- tered through the various Indian villages of Indiana, at almost any time during the first half of the eighteenth century, who carried their packs of merchandise and furs by means of leather straps suspended from their shoulders, or with the straps resting against their foreheads.
Rum and brandy were freely introduced by these traders, and always found a ready sale among the Miami Indians. A Frenchman, writing of the evils which resulted from the introduction of spirit- uous liquors among these savages, remarked: "The distribution of it is made in the usual way; that is to say, a certain number of persons have delivered to each of them a quantity sufficient to get drunk with, so that the whole have been drunk over eight days. They begin to drink in the village as soon as the sun is down, and every night the fields echo with the most hideous howling."
In those early days the Miami villages of the Maumee, those of the Weas about Ouiatenon, on the Wabash, and those of the Piankeshaws, around Vincennes, were the central points of the fur trade in Indiana. Trading posts and missionaries had frequently visited them. A permanent mission, or church was established at the Piankeshaw village, near Vincennes, in 1749, by Father Meurin, ·and in the following year a small fort was erected there by order of the French government. It was in that year that a small fort was erected near the mouth of the Wabash River. These posts soon drew a large number of French traders around them, and in 1756 they had become quite important settlements, with a mixed popula- tion of French and Indian.
The siege of Detroit was conducted by Pontiac himself ; but this post, as also Fort Pitt, withstood the storm of Indian vengeance until the forces of Colonel Bradstreet on the one hand, and Colonel
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Bouquet on the other, brought relief to the tired garrisons. The British army penetrated the Indian country, and forced the savages to a treaty of peace, and on the fifth of December, 1764, a cessation of hostilities was proclaimed.
ENTER THE ENGLISH
From this date until 1774, the Indians who occupied the country northwest of the Ohio River remained at peace with the English, although in the meantime many English colonists, contrary to the proclamation of the king, the provisions of the treaty, and the earnest remonstrances of the Indians, continued to make settle- ments on Indian lands.
When the British extended dominion over the territory of Indiana by placing garrisons at the various trading posts in 1764-65, the total number of French families within its limits did not prob- ably exceed eighty or ninety at Vincennes, about fourteen at Fort Ouiatenon, on the Wabash, and nine or ten at the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's rivers, near the Twightwee village. At Detroit and in the vicinity of that post, there were about one thousand French residents, men, women and children. The re- mainder of the French population in the Northwest resided prin- cipally at Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Prairie du Rocher, and in the vicinity of these villages; and the whole French population, northwest of the Ohio, at that time did not exceed three thousand souls.
HARRISON, GREAT INDIAN TREATY MAKER
When Gen. William Henry Harrison was appointed governor of the Northwest Territory, he was invested with general powers to make treaties with the various Indian tribes, and to extinguish by such treaties the titles of the Indians to the lands within the territory. He was very active in this matter and negotiated several treaties, acquiring with each large tracts of land. In 1802 he got from the Miamis and Pottawattamies large tracts in the vicinity of Vincennes, on the Wabash. In the next year at a treaty negotiated at Vincennes, he secured about one million six hundred thousand acres from the head men of the Delaware, Shawnee, Pottawattamie, Eel River, Kickapoo, Piankeshaw and Kaskaskia tribes. During the same year he negotiated at Vincennes another treaty with the Vol. 1-4
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
Kaskaskias by which the government secured about eight million and six hundred thousand acres, lying on the borders of the Mis- sissinewa and Illinois rivers. In August, 1804, at a treaty con- cluded at Vincennes, the Delawares and Piankeshaws relinquished their claim to the tract of country lying between the Wabash and Ohio rivers, and south of the road which led from Vincennes to the Falls of the Ohio. In 1805 the Delawares, Pottawattamies, Miamis, Eel Rivers and Weas ceded a large tract on the Ohio River, and in December of the same year thie Piankeshaws ceded about two million six hundred thousand acres lying west of the Wabash River. By these treaties the United States had acquired the title to all the Indian lands along the Ohio River from the mouth of the Wabash to the western line of the State of Ohio. In 1809 Governor Harrison obtained from several of the tribes, by a treaty concluded at Fort Wayne, about three million acres, lying principally on the southeastern side of the Wabash River, and below the mouth of Raccoon Creek, in what is now Parke County. Governor Har- rison, by his several treaties had acquired for the government, about twenty nine million seven hundred and ten thousand five hun- dred and thirty acres of land. Tecumseh, and his brother, the Prophet, rejected the treaty of Fort Wayne, and refused to be bound by it. The next treaty was in 1818, when the Delawares ceded all the lands claimed by them in the present boundaries of Indiana, but they reserved the right to occupy the land for three years after signing the treaty. Between that and the year 1840, when the Indian title to the last of the lands claimed by them in Indiana was extinguished, thirty-three separate treaties were ne- gotiated.
It will thus be seen that the process of extinguishing the Indian titles was a slow one, and that the Indians were not finally dis- possessed until after Indiana had been a member of the Union for nearly a quarter of a century. In most of these final treaties certain tracts were reserved by the Indians for favorite members of the tribes, and are yet known as "reservations," although about all the lands have passed to other persons than the descendants of the original beneficiaries. A few descendants of the Miamis still live in Wabash and Miami counties.
As above stated, the Miamis, by treaty of October 23, 1826, ceded all their claim to land in Indiana, lying north and west of the Wabash and Miami ( Maumee) rivers, except six small tribal
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
and six individual reserves or grants, only one of which was in northern Indiana and none in Elkhart County.
FINAL TREATIES
September 23, 1836, various bands of the Pottawattamies ceded the lands reserved for them by the treaty of 1832 (being all their remaining lands in Indiana).
By the Miami treaty of November 6, 1838, a reserve of ten miles square was made (out of the general cession) for the band of Me-to-sin-ja.
By the treaty of November 28, 1840, the United States agreed to convey this tract to Me-shing-go-me-sia, son of Me-to-sin-ia, in trust for the band. By act of Congress approved June 10, 1872, this reserve was partitioned among the members of the band, sixty- three in number, and patents issued to each of them for his or her share. This ended all the Indian tribal titles to lands in Indiana.
ALONG THE PRIMITIVE HIGHWAYS
What is now Elkhart County was along the primitive highways of travel, which were rudely traced before the coming of the white man, between the populous Indian regions of the Northeast and the North and that grand western outlet toward the Mississippi, the Valley of the Illinois. To use a homely illustration, when you "cut across lots" you instinctively select the path of the easiest grades-the line of the least resistance. So it has always been with the migratory routes across the United States, or any other country, whether selected by Indians or whites, afoot, horseback or in wagons ; whether by canal builders or railroad engineers. It is the old story of a study in the saving of labor, which is at the basis of progress and civilization.
What is now Northwestern Indiana was a very important section in the Great Short-Cut from the lands of the Chippewas and the Iroquois, from the territories of the Sacs and Miamis and Potta- wattamies, to the prairies of the Illini and the Sioux.
As Lakes Erie and Michigan obtruded themselves southward from the Great Chain and the most populous and fertile districts of the East were in a latitude not far from their southern extremities, while the teeming prairies of the West lay in substantially the same
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zone, it was inevitable that the continuous migrations induced by wars and racial pressures should be along the comparatively easy grades. By water and by land, generation after generation, these migrations poured along, from East to West, and no strip of soil has been more ceaselessly worn by man and beast than that which lies betwen the foot of Lake Michigan and the banks of the Kankakee and the St. Joseph rivers.
GREAT INDIAN TRAILS
A famous Indian route was known as the Sac Trail, and crossed Northwestern Indiana in a generally southwesterly direction to Joliet, which marked the western limits of the Sac country. From the main Sac trail a branch struck southward near the Lake of the Red Cedars and across Lake Prairie to the rapids of the Kankakee at the present site of Momence, Illinois. Another trail came in from the East and hugged the shores of Lake Michigan, leading to Fort Dearborn, afterward Chicago. The last named was much used by the Pottawattamies. Indians, traders, travelers, scouting parties, military expeditions and frontiersmen passed along these trails before the wagons of the pioneers widened them out with their wheel tracks.
It is an unprofitable matter of conjecture as to how early the dusky children of the Upper Lakes region commenced to make tracks across the country bordering Lake Michigan on their way toward the Mississippi Valley, or when the Iroquois and other eastern tribes begun to push in along their own trails.
THE OLD CHICAGO TRAIL
But it is quite certain that the intrepid and executive La Salle, with his companions and followers, was the first white man to test these Indian trails, which even in his time (1680) were old. The waters and the marshes of the Kankakee, alive with water fowl, muskrats and mink, must have been a welcome sight to the chevalier, who had as sharp an eye for the fur-trade as for exploration and discovery. We also remember how he united the tribes of the Ohio and Illinois valleys against the invading Iroquois, and it must have been largely along these trails, not far from the southern shores of Lake Michigan, that the Miamis, Pottawattamies and other tribes
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of the Middle West migrated, to afterward gather in the Valley of the Illinois under La Salle's leadership and make such an effective stand against their fierce enemies of the East.
THE POTTAWATTAMIES OF THE ST. JOSEPH VALLEY
As the St. Joseph Valley was the acknowledged keynote to the settlement and development of Southwestern Michigan and North- ern Indiana, so was the old Chicago trail-later, the "military road"-the avenue along which the Indian tribes and the first white settlers entered this section of the county. From the advent of the first Frenchmen and Englishmen who penetrated into the central regions of the United States, until the period of Black Hawk's greatest activities, from 1812 to 1832, the Indian trail around the foot of Lake Michigan had been the highway for the red men of Northern America traveling anywhere by land between the regions of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi Valley. When the country became a battling ground between England and the United States, in 1812, and Detroit and Fort Dearborn were recognized as mili- tary keys to the occupancy of interior America, the old Indian trail was still the traveled path between those points and was utilized by both white and red men.
In the war of 1812, Black Hawk was the most powerful native ally of the British. He felt that he had good grounds for deserting the Americans, but found, after he had joined the British, that they were not as powerful as he had been led to believe, and soon re- turned to the home of his people (the Sacs and Foxes). During his absence these. tribes had been removed by the United States govern- ment up the Missouri River, and Black Hawk found that he had been displaced by the more pacific chief, Keokuk. Through the influence of the two, the Sacs and Foxes were divided into war and peace parties, in their relations to the Americans.
After the war of 1812 Black Hawk was in constant communica- tion with the British government, and every year passed along the Chicago trail, at the head of other less noted warriors of the Sac nation, to receive his annuities from his royal patron represented by the authorities at Fort Malden. When the procession began to approach the settlements, runners were sent out to notify the in- habitants along the trail that the main body of dusky warriors was coming and to assure them of the pacific intentions of the Indians.
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It was rarely that any trouble arose ; in fact, for many years previous to the outbreak of the Black Hawk war in 1832, the sole cause of disturbance between the whites and the Indians migrating along the Chicago trail was "fire water," and all the name implies.
In 1831, a joint resolution of the legislature of Indiana, request- ing an appropriation by Congress for the extinguishment of the Indian title to lands within the state, was forwarded to that body, and, in compliance with the request, the necessary provision was made. Three citizens were designated by the secretary of war, to constitute a commission to carry into effect the object of the appropriation. It was considered an object of great importance to extinguish the title of the Miamis to their lands, at that time sur- rounded on all sides by American settlers, situated almost in the heart of the state, and immediately on the line of the canal, then under construction. The prompt and cheerful manner in which the chiefs of the tribe obeyed the summons to the treaty, induced the belief that the negotiation would prove successful; but in their response to the propositions of the commissioners, they positively refused to go westward, or sell the remains of their lands.
The negotiation with the Pottawattamies was more successful. This tribe sold about six millions of acres in Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, including their entire claims in this state.
At the settlement of Elkhart County, the Pottawattamie nation was scattered over a vast territory. A portion remained in Canada. a portion in what is now known as the Upper Peninsula, a portion along the Miami of the Lakes and a portion in the State of Illinois, besides the comparatively small branch which remained on the reservation. The separate branches or sub-divisions were governed by their respective head and subordinate chiefs, agreeable to their national policy and the usages, customs and traditions by which they had always been governed. No national measures could be adopted, or transfer of their hunting grounds be made, without the sanction of the majority of the head chiefs of all the several departments or tribes.
At the time of the first settlement of Michigan, the home of various bands of Indians, notably those of the Pottawattamie, Ottawa and Chippewa, were in the St. Joseph Valley and they were known as the Nottawa-seepe Indians. In 1821, at the treaty of Chicago, when the territory of this section was ceded to the United States, there were several sections or reservations exempted from the pro-
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HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
visions of the general land laws, among them being the Nottawa- seepe reservation in what is now St. Joseph County, Michigan.
From 1823 until 1833 the government agent, Patrick Marantette, tried to get the Nottawa-seepe Indians to relinquish to the govern- ment the lands that had been so long their forefathers' but without much success. This was partially owing to the peculiar conditions of the Pottawattamie nation and the great area of country cov- ered by it, as well as their national customs, laws and usages. To more intelligently understand the situation and the Indian title of the lands of this reservation, a brief review of the Pottawattamie nation in 1830 is necessary.
THE POTTAWATTAMIES IN THE '30S
Part of this powerful Indian nation was in Canada, some in the Upper Peninsula near Marquette, others in the Miami Valley, a portion in Illinois near Peoria, and the small bands in the Valley of the St. Joseph River. Each of these portions had its head men or tribal chiefs, and no measure of national importance, such as selling their hunting grounds, etc., could be made without the sanction or consent of all the head chiefs. As it was difficult to get them all together, the work of inducing them to relinquish these lands was slow.
"The legitimate Pottawattamie chief at this time was Cush-ee- wees, but he had been supplanted by Pierre Morreau, a native of France and belonging to one of the first families of Canada. Meet- ing with reverses in Detroit in early life, he came to the banks of the beautiful winding St. Joseph. Here he wedded a dusky maiden of the forest, and by his superior wisdom and cunning ways soon gained such ascendency over the poor untutored savages that they renounced the sway of Cush-ee-wees, then hereditary sachem, and installed Morreau in his stead. He reigned over them for many years until the oldest son, Sau-au-quett, became of man's estate and took the reins of government from his father, who was now in his dotage. Thus matters stood at the close of the Black Hawk war; when Cush-ee-wee died and was succeeded by Pee-quoit-ah-kissee, a direct descendant of the Pottawattamie sachem. But the tribe having been under the sway of Morreau and his son a long time, the most of the Indians acknowledged Sau-au-quett as their head man.
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In the fall of 1833, the government having almost despaired of getting the Indians to relinquish the Nottawa-seepe reservation, in- duced Sau-au-quett and a few others of his followers to cede the lands to the United States. They were to receive about $30,000 and be allotted land west of the Mississippi, whither they were to go by land with their ponies, dogs and other belongings. After two years' peaceable possession of their reservation, the first payment of $10,000 worth of calico, beads and other trinkets was made on the reservation.
STILL CLINGING TO ST. JOSEPH VALLEY
The first December of the same year ( 1833), for nearly a week the Indians were camping on the bank of the Old St. Joe, casting eager looks at the bright colored calico, blankets, beads, etc., so temptingly displayed by the government agent, but refusing to con- firm the treaty by receiving them, as they had consulted among themselves and had concluded that Sau-au-quett and his followers had no authority to cede their lands.
Governor Porter had issued a proclamation that no liquor should be allowed on or near the reservation, but parties disobeyed the orders and provided the Indians with plenty of fire-water, until at length patience ceased to be a virtue, and Governor Porter com- manded his agent, Mr. Marantette, to break in the heads of the barrels containing the whiskey. This was accordingly done and the Indians in their desire for the liquor drank it from the ground and eagerly lapped the place where it was spilled. Subsequently Mr. Marantette was sued for the value of the liquor and forced to pay several hundred dollars, notwithstanding he was obeying explicit orders of Governor Porter when he broke the heads of the barrels ; nor was he ever reimbursed for this unjust payment of money. The Indians finally accepted the provisions of the treaty and re- ceived their money at the earnest solicitation of Sau-au-quett, who said, "I did sell this land, and I would sell it again for two gallons of whiskey." The bad blood thus engendered among the Indians was only wiped out by the murder of Sau-au-quett, at Coldwater in 1839, by one of his band who opposed the sale.
LAST BAND LEAVES IN 1840
"In 1835, which was the time the Indians were to leave the reservation, they had refused, claiming that the whites had en-
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croached upon their lands and had not lived up to the terms of the treaty. Thus matters went on until 1840, when General Brady with a force of troops compelled them to vacate. The remnants of.this once powerful tribe were taken to the Mississippi, whence they were to cross to the borders of Kansas. All went by land on their horses which were well packed for their journey. When arriving at their crossing on the Mississippi, Mr. Marantette and his assistant observed that some of the tribe were trying to escape. Mr. Marantette immediately sent Governor Porter a message ap- prising him that the Indians were trying to escape, and that the surest and only way to stop them from escaping would be to con- fiscate the horses of the leading conspirators. Receiving an ap- proval from Governor Porter, Mr. Marantette and his assistants crossed them all on barges over to the border of Kansas, returning their horses after crossing where they settled; but finally their lands became so valuable that they sold them and many went to the Indian Territory."
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