USA > Indiana > Allen County > History of Allen County, Indiana, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 5
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Subsequently, with the accumulating successes of the Iroquois, other Indian nations occupying adjacent territory were made to feel the power that subjugated the Eries and Wyandots. At the period of the aggressions just cited, the Andastes, inhubiting territory on the upper part of the Susquehanna River, were added to the conquests of the Five Nations. This necnrred, from the best data at comumand, ahout the year 1676. Within twenty years afterward, the Lenni Lenapes, or Delawares, as they were generally known, a powerful nation, situated on the river of that name, were humiliated by the confederates, and deprived of their ancient position among the native races of America.
Thatcher [Ind. Biog., II, p. 38], speaking of the conquests of the Five Nations, says : " They exterminated the Eries, or Erigos, once living on the
18
HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY, INDIANA.
south side of the lake of their own name. They nearly destroyed the Anderstes, and the Chouanons or Showanons. They drove haek the Hurons and Ottawas among the Sioux of the Upper Mississippi, where they spread themselves into bands, ' proclaiming, wherever they went, the terror of the Iroquois.' The Illinois, on the west, also were subdued, with the Miamis and the Shawanese. The Niper- einians of the St. Lawrence, fled to Hudson's Bay to avoid their fury. The borders of the Outnouis,' says an historian, 'which were thickly peopled, became almost deserted.' The Mohawk was a name of terror to the farthest tribes of New England. * * * Finally, they conquered the tribe of Vir- gina, west of the Alleghanies : and warred against the Catawhas, Cherokees, and most of' the nations of the South."
Prior to this time, the Iroquois had been engaged, frequently, in expedi- tinns against the Algonquins and their allies, the French, with varied suceesses, sminetimes accomplishing by strategy what they failed to do hy foree. Defeats we're not unfrequent, as the fortunes of war are sometimes adverse to apparently superior power in the exeention of designs at variance with justice. During the progress of these early warlike manifestations, many minor elements of' discord were permitted to enter into the management of the belligerent parties, which, though insignificant at first, grew to be the occasion of disastrous consequences. Atuong these, the advantages arising from the trade in furs, especially the heaver, which, being a source of extensive revenue to the parties engaged in it, excited first personal, then national jealousy, and finally war and bloodshed, involving not only the powerful tribes north and south of the St. Lawrence, but the French nation on the one hand as the allies of the Algonquins, and the English with the Iroquois on the other, the sequel of which is yet to be seen.
IROQUOIS-ALGONQUIN WIR.
Immediately following the French settlements in Canada, when trading-posts had been established, a desire to profit by the exchange of merchandise with the Indians for the furs and peltries which they had accumulated, was necessarily incident to the opportunities offered in that direction. As a consequence, there- fore, the French, wbo seemed to exercise a more healthful influeuee over the natives, seeured a monopoly of the trade in heaver, the staple article of eounueree, and a feeling of jealousy was naturally engendered in the minds of the English traders, moving them to the procurement of an alliance with the Iroquois, for counteracting effeet with smaller tribes, in the interest of the French, by whoru their trade was controlled. Numerous instances have been brought to ligbt devel- oping a resort to means not the most honorable to accomplish what had not by other methods heen attained.
The Iroquois, twenty years or more prior to the year 1683, having subju- gated all the ucighboring tribes, turned their attention to trade with the English, the fur trade, especially in heaver, heing better with the English than with the French, as claimed by the former; hence they sought, hy every means at their command, to increase that trade. Thus actuated, they conceived the idea of des- troying the Ontaouax (Ottawas ), who, for more than thirty years before, had been allies of the French, and secured to them alone two-thirds or more of the trade in beaver that was annually shipped to Franee.
As a means in the accomplishquent of their end, the Iroquois, as a pretext, raised au outery against the Outaouas, charging them with having been instru- mental, a few years before, in the murder of an Iroquois Captain at Miehilimaekinae, near an Outaouax fort. With that as an incentive, the whole Iroquois family was soon excited, und declared war against them with the expectation of readily subduing them by superior prowess, and thus intercept the channel through which the French bad secured their large and luerative trade in heaver, and take it themselves.
Calculating, also, that the Outaouax would he assisted by the Algonquins aud Hurons, the Iroquois labored incessantly to win over the Hurons, who had formerly been subject to their influence, with the other allies of the French, Seoucbache and other Huron.traitors interesting themselves, also, to induce the Iroquois to make war against the French. Of all these strifes, the English appear to have been the fomenters, instigated by a desire for the advantages likely to result to them from the trade in that class of furs.
As early as 1681, it was the opinion that if the Iroquois were permitted to proceed in their course, they would subdue not only the Ottawas, who chiefly supplied that department of the trade, the Hurons being already in subjection to them. but the Illinois, allies of the Ottawas, and thus render themselves masters of the situation. diverting the fur trade into English channels. [Col. Doe , 1X. 165-294.]
It was apparent also, that, through the influence of the Iroquois, a half-cen- tury later, the Hurons were ready to and would have massaered all the French at Detroit, had not a Huron squaw overheard the plans of the sehemers and eon- veyed the intelligence to M. de Langueil, Commandant at the post, who, being thus forewarned, made preparations too formidable to be readily overcome. The netion of the Hurons in this instance, too, appear to have been the outgrowth of English influence, from like motives. These last occurrences were in 1746-17, the immediate pretexts for which are stated to have been the outgrowth of the intro- duction of certain English helts, by the Iroquois, among all the adjacent tribes susceptible to such influences.
THE MIAMIS.
Omees, Omamees or Twe Twees-Twa' Twas, next to the Delawares, per- haps, are entitled to be recognized as the leading branch of the Algonquin group, tracing their individuality with the Ottawas and Nipersinians, from the country north of the river St. Lawrence, in the latter end of the sixteenth century,
when the French navigators and traders hegan first to establish posts as the ante- eedents of permanent settlements in New France. Whatever is true of their relationship to the parent stock, whether immediate or remote, it is a fact, never- theless, that many of the primitive characteristics of the generie group are pre- served in the Miami nation.
In common with the primitive Algonquins, the language of the Miamis, in comparison with the Hurons, " has not so much force but more sweetness and elegance. Both have a richness of expression, a variety of turns, a propriety of terms, a regularity which astonishes. But what is more surprising is, that among these harharians, who never study to speak well, and who never had the use of writing, there is not introduced a had word, an improper term, or a vicious eon- I struction ; and even ehildren preserve all the purity of the language in their common discourse. On the other hand, the manner in which they animate all they say, leaves no room to doubt of their comprehending all the worth of their expres. sions and all the beauty of their language."
In preparing for war, the Miamis have a custom, peculiar to themselves. Says Charlevoix : "After a solemn feast, they placed on a kind of altar, some pagods made with bear-skins, the heads of which were painted green. All the savages passed this altar, bowing their knees, and the jugglers led the van, hold- ing iu their hands a sack which contained all the things which they use in their conjurations. They all strive to exceed each other iu their contortions, and as any one distinguished himself iu this way, they applauded him with great shouts. When they had thus paid their first hemage to the idol, all the people daneed in such confusion to the sound of a drum and a Cheahicoue; and during this time the jugglers make a show of bewitehing some of the savages, who seem ready to expire ; then, putting a certain powder upon their lips, they make them recover. When this farce has lasted some time, he who presides at the feast, having at his side two men and two women, runs through all the cabins to give the savages notice that the sacrifiees were going to begin. When he meets any one in his way, he puts both his hands on his head and the person met embraces his knees. The vietims were dogs, and one hears on every side the eries of these animals, whose throats they eut, and the savages, who howl with all their strength, seemu to imitate their eries. As soon as the flesh was dressed, they offered it to the idols ; then they ate it and burnt the bones. All this while the jugglers never cease raising the pretended dend, and the whole ends hy the distribution made to these quacks of whatever is most to their liking in all the village."
" From the time that the resolution is taken to make war, till the departure ol' the warriors, they sing their war-songs every night; the days are passed iu making preparations. They depute some warriors to go to sing the war-song nuongst their neighbors and allies, whom they engage beforehand hy secret negotiations. If they are to go by water, they build or repair their canoes; if it is winter, they furnish themselves with snow-shoes and sledges. The raquets, which they most have to wear on the snow, are about three feet long, and about fifteen or eighteen inches in their greatest breadth. Their shape is oval, excepting the end behind, which terminates in a point. Little sticks, placed across at five or six inches from each end, serve to strengthen them, and the piece which is before us is in the shape of a how, where the foot is fixed and tied with leather thongs. The binding of the raquet is made of slips of leather about a fourth part of un inch wide, and the circumference is of light wood hardened by fire. * * * The sledges, which serve to carry the baggage, and, in ease of need, the siek and wounded, are two little hoards, very thin, about half a foot broad, each hoard, and six or seven feet long. The fore-part is a little bent upward, and the sides are hordered by little hands, to which they fasten straps to bind what is on the sledge. However loaded these earriages may be, a savage can draw them with ease by the help of a long band of leather, which he puts over his breast, and which they eall collars,
" All things being ready, and the day of departure being come, they take their leave with great demonstrations. * Lastly, they all meet at the cabin of the chief. They find himu armed as he was at the first day he spoke to them, and as he always appeared in publie from that day. They then paint their faees, every one aceording to his own fancy, and all of them in a very frightful manner. The chief makes them a short speech ; theu he comes out of his cabin singing his song of death. They all follow him in a line, keeping a profound silenee, and they do the same every morning, when they renew their mareh. The women go before with the provisions, and when the warriors come up with them, they give them their clothes, and remain almost naked-at least as much as. the season will permit.
" Formerly, the arms of these people were hows and arrows, and a kind of javelin, which, as well as their arrows, was armed with a point of bone, wrought in different shapes. Beside this, they had what they call the ' head-breaker .; This is a little eluh, of very hard wood, the head of which is round, and has one side with an edge, to cut. The greatest part have no defensive arms."
Such were their eustous of war, less than 200 years ago, when the use of firearms was far less common than at the present day. They were, however, equal to the demands of the times, and served well their purpos . in in'using a spirit of stubborn hrivery that, with the class of offensive and defensive weapons in use, was most formidable in its effeets.
Among the Miamis-of the last century, also, there were classes of amuse- ments which commanded much of their attention, when not engaged in war or the chase. They had their games of straws, not unlike some of the civilized games of chance of the present day. A bundle of straws, containing an uneven numher, say 201, which were separated into pareels of ten each, except one, which contained eleven. These were divided by the chief among the players, promiscuously. He who selectel the parcel of uneven number, a certain numher of points, the aggregate of which was sixty or eighty. Beside this, there were games of bat and ball, which they played in a manner not unlike the more mod- ern usage.
19
HISTORY OF ALLEN COUNTY, INDIANA.
In a memoir concerning the Indians of Canada, as far as the Mississippi River, being a review of their habits and conditions, in the year 1717, prepared for the proper information of the French Government, upon the subject, the following reference is made to the Indians at Kekionga, at that date.
" The Miamis are sixty leagues from Lake Erie, and number 400, all well formed men, and well tattoocd. The women are numerous. They are hard- working, and raise a species of maize unlike that of our Indians at Detroit. It is white, of the same size as the other, the skin much finer, and the meat much whiter. This nation is clad in deer-skin, and when a married woman goes with another man, her husband cuts off her nose and does not see her any more. This is the only nation that has such a custom. They love plays and danees, where. fore they have more occupation. The women are well clothed, but the men use stareely any covering, and are tattooed all over the body."
Another custom, prevailed among the Miamis, is entitled to especial men- tion-the ceremony preliminary to tbe replacement of a member of the family removed by death. On such occasions a meeting of the family and kindred, with adjacent villagers, assembled at a suitable place. The process was through the agency of a game of chance, where there were several candidates, as was often the case ; otherwise, the replacement was accomplished by substitution. The one selected was, ever afterward, recognized as the legitimate heir, and entitled to receive all the effects of the deceased. The ceremony of selection was always followed by a replacewieut dance, in honor of the occasion.
The beggar danee was sometimes indulged in, but was not a custom among the Miamis, as was the ease with some of the kindred tribes. Its purpose was rather a means to supply, from traders and strangers, the improvised wants of the proposer. " With no other covering on their bodies but a part of a deer or uther skin about their waists, the rest of the body and face painted with some bright colors, with perhaps some gay ornament or feathers about their heads, often several in number, would pass from agency to agency, in front of whose doors they would go through with the liveliest movements of dancing, singing, etc., which, to the spectators, was often very amusing, and who seldom failed to give the red dancers some tobacco, a loaf or two of bread, some whisky. or other article that would be pleasing to them."
Complimentary and medicine dances were frequent, also, and were conducted with reference to the gratification of the party to be complimented, on tbe one hand, or as an initiatory ceremony incident to the introduction of choseu candi- dates into the fraternity of " Medicine Men." These, as most other similar cer- «monies, were followed by a feast and dance, in which the " faculty " engaged with great zest. The candidate, having passed the ordeal, was placed under the instructions of the "Old Doctor, or Medieine Man," and heneeforward devoted bis life to the practice of his profession with whatever skill his application to business was rewarded. The music provided on such occasion, " consisted usually of a deer-skin entirely free from hair, which they stretched in some way, similar to our common drum-head, and upon which their 'music man' would keep time, and hum an air adapted to the Indian's style of dancing.
MIAMIS AT KE-KI-ONG.A.
At what period in their history the Miamis made the Ke-ki-ong-a their " Central City," is not now satisfactorily attainable, but without doubt at a time antedating or cotemporaneous with the early white settlements on the Atlantie Coast. This statement is at variance, no doubt, with the opinions entertained by others, who believe that from time immemorial, " when the memory of man run- neth not to the contrary," their typical band of the Algonquin family, had inhab. ited and possessed tbis, to them classie ground. To establish the opinion, however, from authentie data, or accepted traditions, will be a difficult if not an impossible task. On the contrary, the statement made by Little Turtle, in his address to Gen. Wayne, at the treaty of Greenville, in August, 1795, corroborated and confirmed by the narratives of the early French voyageurs, as Bancroft declares, is wholly inconsistent with such an assumption.
Little Turtle, one of the most intelligent and discreet of the Miami chiefs, thus discourses on the question. Addressing Gen. Wayne, he says : " I hope you will pay attention 10 what I now say to you. I wish to inform you where your younger brothers, the Miamis, live, aud also the Pottawatomics, of St. Joseph, together with the Wabash Indians. You have pointed out to us the boundary line between the Indians and the United States; but I now take the liberty to inform you that the line cuts off from the Indians a large portion of country which bas been enjoyed by my forefathers from time immemorial, without molestation or dispute. Tbe prints of my ancestors' houses are everywhere to be seen in this portion. I was a little astonished at hearing you and my brothers who are now present, telling each other what bus- iness you had transacted together, heretofore, at Muskingum, concerning this country. It is well known to all my brothers present, that my forefathers kindled the first fires at Detroit ; thence be extended his lines to the west waters of the Scioto ; thence to its mouth ; from there down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash ; and tbence to Chicago, on Lake Michigan. At this place I first saw my elder brothers, the Shawanoes. I have now informued you of the boundaries of the Miamis nation, where the Great Spirit placed my forefather long ago, and charged hiw not to sell or part with his lands, but preserve them for his pos- terity. This charge has been handed down to me."
When it is understood that the Miamis are an offshoot of the Algonquin stock, which, at the time their separate existences became known to Europeuns -say about the middle of the sixteenth century-occupied the territory north of the St. Lawrence River, and the line of lakes extending westward, beyond Lake Supe- rior, tbe Esquimaux and Hudson's Bay lying to the northward; that the branches proceeding from the family domain necessarily migrated from beyond the St. Lawrence, the problem will not be of difficult solution-Whence came they ?
The first historical account of' the tribe since known as the Miamis was in the year 1669, in the vicinity of Green Bay, where they were visited by the French missionary, Father Allouez, and subsequently by Father Dablon. From there they passed to the southward of Lake Michigan, in the vicinity of Chi- cago, subsequently settling on the St. Joseph, of Lake Michigan, establishing there a village, another on the river Mituni, of Lake Erie, and a third on the Wabash, as we learn from Charlevoix :
" In 1671, tho Miamis were settled at the south end of Lake Michigan, in a place called Chicagou, from the name of a small river which raus into the lake, and which has its source not far from the river of the Illinois. They are divided into three villages-one on the river St. Joseph ; the second, on another river, which bears their name and runs into Lake Erie, and the third, upon the Ouahache, which runs into the Mississippi. These last are now known by the name of the Ouyatenons " [Weas]. P. 114.
It is highly probable, notwithstanding, that, prior to their location near the Lake des Puans, having separated from their primogenitors, they first assumed the character of a distinct tribe at Detroit, as stated by Little Turtle, and there first kindled their council-fire. That they spread thence to the valley of the Scioto, to the Ohio, to the mouth of the Wabash and thence to Chicago, inhab- iting, from time to time, the vast area circumscribed by the various streams named, thus becoming the recognized proprietors of that extensive domain.
In 1680, the Frognois, after a rest from their earlier conquests, turned their attention to the Illinois, the most important as well as the most accessible of the Western Algonquins. War was decreed in the councils of the chiefs. The chief town of the Miamis lay in their path and was visited by the war party and induced to join in the invasion of the territory of the Illinois, their kinsiuen, notwithstanding it was the probable purpose of these new allies to make them their next vietims. For long years prior to this date, u jealous feeling had existed between the Miamis and the Illinois, which circumstance had manch to do in promoting their alliance with the Iroquois against them, since it offered an opportunity to gratify their desire for revenge. Ahout the middle of September, the Iroquois with their allies were approaching the borders of the Vermilion River in warlike attitude, anxious for the fray. The Illinois, also, having been notified of the advance of this formidable army, mauifested an auxiety to meet the assailants. They were in an open prairie adjacent to the thick woods on the margin of the river. The Iroquois were numerous, and armed for the most part with guns, pistols and swords. "Some had bucklers of wood or rawhide, and some wore those corselets of tough twigs interwoven with cordage, which their fathers had used when fire-armus were unknown." On the other hand, the Illi- nois, about one hundred of tbem with guns, the rest with bows and arrows, were face to face with the enemy in an open prairie, advancing, seemingly anxious to exbilit their prowess, to the charge. They leaped, yelled and shot off bullets and arrows. Tbe Iroquois replied with similar manifestations of anxiety. Not- witbstauding the bostile exhibitions, the fight, brisk and demonstrative at first, yielded to mediating exertions of mutually interested parties, with comparatively lit- tle bloodshed, and the Illinois withdrew. Subsequently the Iroquois crossed over to the Illinois side of the river and took possession of their towns and erected a rude fort for immediate protection. Thus conditioned, they proceeded to finish their work of devastation and havoc at their leisure. A treaty was at length concluded, and soon after broken by preparations " to attack and destroy the Illi- nois women and children in their island sanctuary." The work was slow but destructive, and "a hideous scene was enacted at the ruined village of the Illinois. Their savage foes, balked of a living prey, wreaked their fury on the dead. They dug up the graves ; they threw down the scaffolds. Some of the bodies they burned ; some they threw to the dogs ; some, it is affirmed, they ate. Placing the skulls on stakes as trophies, they turned to pursue the Illinois, who, when the French withdrew, abandoned their asylum aud retreated down the river. The Iroquois, still, it seems, in awe of them, followed them along the opposite hank, each night eneamping face to face with them ; and thus the adverse bands moved slowly southward till they were ucar the mouth of the river. Hitherto. the courpact array of the Illinois had beld their encuies in check ; but now, suffering from hunger and lulled into security by the assurance of the Iroquois that their object was not to destroy them, but only to drive tbem from the country, they rashly separated into several trihes. Some desceuded the Missis- sippi ; some, more prudent, crossed to the western side. One of their principal tribes, the Tamaroas, more credulous than the rest, had the fatuity to remain near the mouth of the Illinois, where they were speedily assailed by all the force of the Iroquois. The men fled and a very few of them were killed; but the women and children were captured to the number, it is said, of seven hundred. Then followed that scene of torture, of which, some two weeks later, La Salle saw the revolting traccs. Sated at length with borrors, the conquerors withdrew. leading with them a host of captives, and exulting in their triumphs over women, children and the dead."*
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