History of Henry County, Indiana, Part 3

Author:
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago: Inter-State Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 996

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EARLY EXPLORERS OF INDIANA TERRITORY.

HISTORY OF INDIANA.

is joined to the neck of an artificial wall, made by piling up, mason fashion but without mortar, loose stone, which had evidently been pried up from the carboniferous layers of rock. This made wall, at this point, is about 150 feet long. It is built along the slope of the hill and had an elevation of about 75 feet above its base, the upper ten feet being vertical. The inside of the wall is protected by a ditch. The remainder of the hill is protected by an artificial stone wall, built in the same manner, but not more than ten feet high. The elevation of the side wall above the creek bottom is 80 feet. Within the artificial walls is a string of mounds which rise to the height of the wall, and are protected from the washing of the hill- sides by a ditch 20 feet wide and four feet deep. The position of the artificial walls, natural cliffs of bedded stone, as well as that of the ditch and mounds, are well illustrated. The top of the enclosed ridge embraces ten or twelve acres, and there are as inany as five mounds that can be recognized on the flat surface, while no doubt many others existed which have been obliterated by time, and though the agency of man in his efforts to cultivate a portion of the ground. A trench was cut into one of these mounds in search of relics. A few fragments of charcoal and decomposed bones, and a large irregular, diamond-shaped boulder, with a small circular indentation near the middle of the upper part, that was worn quite smooth by the use to which it had been put, and the small pieces of fossil coral, comprised all the articles of note which were revealed by the excavation. The earth of which the mound is made resem- bles that seen on the hillside, and was probably in most part taken from the ditch. The margin next to the ditch was protected by slabs of stone set on edge, and leaning at an angle corresponding to the slope of the mound. This stone shield was two and one-half feet wide and one foot high. At intervals along the great ditch there are channels formed between the mounds that probably served to carry off the surplus water through openings in the outer wall. On the top of the enclosed ridge, and near its narrowest part, there is one mound much larger than any of the others, and so situated as to command an extensive view up and down the Ohio river, as well as affording an unobstructed view east and west. This is designated as 'Look-out Mound.' There is near it a slight break in the cliff of rock, which furnished a narrow passage way to the Ohio river. Though the locality afforded many natural advantages for a fort or stronghold, one is compelled to admit that much skill was displayed and labor expended in making its defense as perfect as possible at

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all points. Stone axes, pestles, arrow-heads, spear-points, totums, charms and flint flakes have been found in great abundance in plowing the field at the foot of the old fort."

From the " Stone Fort " the Professor turns his steps to Posey county, at a point on the Wabash, ten miles above the mouth, called "Bone Bank," on account of the number of human bones continually washed out from the river bank. "It is," he states " situated in a bend on the left bank of the river; and the ground is about ten feet above high-water mark, being the only land along this portion of the river that is not submerged in seasons of high water. The bank slopes gradually back from the river to a slough. This slough now seldom contains water, but no doubt at one time it was an arm of the Wabash river, which flowed around the Bone Bank and afforded protection to the island home of the Mound Builders. The Wabash has been changing its bed for many years, leaving a broad extent of newly made land on the right shore, and gradually making inroads on the left shore by cutting away the Bone Bank. The stages of growth of land on the right bank of the river are well defined by the cottonwood trees, which increase in size as you go back from the river. Unless there is a change in the cur- rent of the river, all trace of the Bone Bank will be obliterated. Already within the memory of the white inhabitants, the bank has been removed to the width of several hundred yards. As the bank is cut by the current of the river it loses its support, and when the water sinks it tumbles over, carrying with it the bones of the Mound Builders and the cherished articles buried with them. No locality in the country furnishes a greater number and variety of relics than this. It has proved especially rich in pottery of quaint design and skillful workmanship. I have a number of jugs and pots and a cup found at the Bone Bank. This kind of work has been very abundant, and is still found in such quantities that we are led to conclude that its manufacture formed a leading indus- try of the inhabitants of the Bone Bank. It is not in Europe alone that we find a well-founded claim of high antiquity for the art of making hard and durable stone by a mixture of clay, lime, sand and stone; for I am convinced that this art was possessed by a race of people who inhabited this continent at a period so remote that neither tradition nor history can furnish any account of them. They belonged to the Neolithic, or polished-stone, age. They lived in towns and built mounds for sepulture and worship and pro- tected their homes by surrounding them with walls of earth and

HISTORY OF INDIANA.

stone. In some of these mounds specimens of various kinds of pottery, in a perfect state of preservation, have from time to time been found, and fragments are so common that every student of archæology can have a bountiful supply. Some of these fragments indicate vessels of very great size. At the Saline springs of Gal- latin I picked up fragments that indicated, by their curvature, ves- sels five to six feet in diameter, and it is probable they are frag- ments of artificial stone pans used to hold brine that was manufac- tured into salt by solar evaporation.

"Now, all the pottery belonging to the Mound Builders' age, which I have seen, is composed of alluvial clay and sand, or a mix- ture of the former with pulverized fresh-water shells. A paste made of such a mixture possesses, in high degree, the properties of hydraulic Puzzuoland and Portland cement, so that vessels formed of it hardened without being burned, as is customary with modern pottery."

The Professor deals very aptly with this industry of the aborig- ines, and concludes a very able disquisition on the Bone Bank in its relation to the prehistoric builders.

HIEROGLYPHICS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

The great circular redoubt or earth-work found two miles west of the village of New Washington, and the "Stone Fort," on a ridge one mile west of the village of Deputy, offer a subject for the anti- quarian as deeply interesting as any of the monuments of a decayed empire so far discovered.

HISTORY OF INDIANA.

From end to end of Indiana there are to be found many other rel- ics of the obscure past. Some of them have been unearthed and now appear among the collected antiquities at Indianapolis. The highly finished sandstone pipe, the copper ax, stone axes, flint arrow-heads and magnetic plummets found a few years ago beneath the soil of Cut-Off Island near New Harmony, together with the pipes of rare workmanship and undoubted age, unearthed near Covington, all live as it were in testimony of their owner's and maker's excel- lence, and hold a share in the evidence of the partial annihilation of a race, with the complete disruption of its manners, customs and industries; and it is possible that when numbers of these relics are placed together, a key to the phonetic or rather hieroglyphic system of that remote period might be evolved.

It may be asked what these hieroglyphical characters really are. Well, they are varied in form, so much so that the pipes found in the mounds of Indians, each bearing a distinct representation of some animal, may be taken for one species, used to represent the abstract ideas of the Mound Builders. The second form consists of pure hieroglyphics or phonetic characters, in which the sound is represented instead of the object; and the third, or painted form of the first, conveys to the mind that which is desired to be repre- sented. This form exists among the Cree Indians of the far North- west, at present. They, when departing from their permanent vil- lages for the distant hunting grounds, paint on the barked trees in the neighborhood the figure of a snake or eagle, or perhaps huskey dog; and this animal is supposed to guard the position until the warrior's return, or welcome any friendly tribes that may arrive there in the interim. In the case of the Mound Builders, it is un- likely that this latter extreme was resorted to, for the simple reason that the relics of their occupation are too high in the ways of art to tolerate such a barbarous science of language; but the sculptured pipes and javelins and spear-heads of the Mound Builders may be taken as a collection of graven images, each conveying a set of ideas easily understood, and perhaps sometimes or more generally used to designate the vocation, name or character of the owner. That the builders possessed an alphabet of a phonetic form, and purely hieroglyphic, can scarcely be questioned; but until one or more of the unearthed tablets, which bore all or even a portion of such characters, are raised from their centuried graves, the mystery which surrounds this people must remain, while we must dwell in a world of mere speculation.

HISTORY OF INDIANA.

Vigo, Jasper, Sullivan, Switzerland and Ohio counties can boast of a most liberal endowment in this relation; and when in other days the people will direct a minute inquiry, and penetrate to the very heart of the thousand cones which are scattered throughout the land, they may possibly extract the blood in the shape of metal- lic and porcelain works, with hieroglyphic tablets, while leaving the form of heart and body complete to entertain and delight un- born generations, who in their time will wonder much when they learn that an American people, living toward the close of the 59th century, could possibly indulge in such an anachronism as is im- plied in the term "New World."

THE INDIANS.

The origin of the Red Men, or American Indians, is a subject which interests as well as instructs. It is a favorite with the eth- nologist, even as it is one of deep concern to the ordinary reader. A review of two works lately published on the origin of the Indians treats the matter in a peculiarly reasonable light. It says:

" Recently a German writer has put forward one theory on the subject, and an English writer has put forward another and directly opposite theory. The difference of opinion concerning our aborig- inals among authors who have made a profound study of races is at once curious and interesting. Blumenbach treats them in his classifications as a distinct variety of the human family; but, in the threefold division of Dr. Latham, they are ranked among the Mon- golidæ. Other writers on race regard them as a branch of the great Mongolian family, which at a distant period found its way from Asia to this continent, and remained here for centuries separate from the rest of mankind, passing, meanwhile, through divers phases of barbarism and civilization. Morton, our eminent eth- nologist, and his followers, Nott and Gliddon, claim for our native Red Men an origin as distinct as the flora and fauna of this conti- nent. Prichard, whose views are apt to differ from Morton's, finds reason to believe, on comparing the American tribes together, that they must have formed a separate department of nations from the earliest period of the world. The era of their existence as a distinct and insulated people must probably be dated back to the time which separated into nations the inhabitants of the Old World, and gave to each its individuality and primitive language. Dr. Robert Brown, the latest authority, attributes, in liis " Races of Mankind," an Asiatic origin to our aboriginals. He says that the Western In- dians not only personally resemble their nearest neighbors-the Northeastern Asiatics-but they resemble them in language and traditions. The Esquimaux on the American and the Tchuktchis on the Asiatic side understand one another perfectly. Modern an-

HISTORY OF INDIANA.

thropologists, indeed, are disposed to think that Japan, the Kuriles, and neighboring regions, may be regarded as the original home of the greater part of the native American race. It is also admitted by them that between the tribes scattered from the Arctic sea to Cape Horn there is more uniformity of physical features than is seen in any other quarter of the globe. The weight of evidence and authority is altogether in favor of the opinion that our so- called Indians are a branch of the Mongolian family, and all addi- tional researches strengthen the opinion. The tribes of both North and South America are unquestionably homogeneous, and, in all likelihood, had their origin in Asia, though they have been altered and modified by thousands of years of total separation from the parent stock."

The conclusions arrived at by the reviewer at that time, though safe, are too general to lead the reader to form any definite idea on the subject. No doubt whatever can exist, when the American In- dian is regarded as of an Asiatic origin; but there is nothing in the works or even in the review, to which these works were subjected, which might account for the vast difference in manner and form between the Red Man, as he is now known, or even as he appeared to Columbus and his successors in the field of discovery, and the comparatively civilized inhabitants of Mexico, as seen in 1521 by Cortez, and of Peru, as witnessed by Pizarro in 1532. The fact is that the pure bred Indian of the present is descended directly from the earliest inhabitants, or in other words from the survivors of that people who, on being driven from their fair possessions, re- tired to the wilderness in sorrow and reared up their children under the saddening influences of their unquenchable griefs, bequeathing them only the habits of the wild, cloud-roofed home of their de- clining years, a sullen silence, and a rude moral code. In after years these wild sons of the forest and prairie grew in numbers and in strength. Some legend told them of their present sufferings, of the station which their fathers once had known, and of the riotous race which now reveled in wealth which should be theirs. The fierce passions of the savage were aroused, and uniting their scat- tered bands marched in silence upon the villages of the Tartars, driving them onward to the capital of their Incas, and consigning their homes to the flames. Once in view of the great city, the hurrying bands halted in surprise; but Tartar cunning took in the situation and offered pledges of amity, which were sacredly ob- served. Henceforth Mexico was open to the Indians, bearing pre- cisely the same relation to them that the Hudson's Bay Company's

HISTORY OF INDIANA.

villages do to the Northwestern Indians of the present; obtaining all, and bestowing very little. The subjection of the Mongolian race represented in North America by that branch of it to which the Tartars belonged, represented in the Southern portion of the con- tinent, seems to have taken place some five centuries before the advent of the European, while it may be concluded that the war of the races which resulted in reducing the villages erected by the Tartar hordes to ruin took place between one and two hundred years later. These statements, though actually referring to events which in point of time are comparatively modern, can only be sub- stantiated by the facts that, about the periods mentioned the dead bodies of an unknown race of men were washed ashore on the Eu- ropean coasts, while previous to that time there is no account whatever in European annals of even a vestige of trans-Atlantic hu- manity being transferred by ocean currents to the gaze of a won- dering people. Towards the latter half of the 15th century two dead bodies entirely free from decomposition, and corresponding with the Red Men as they afterward appeared to Columbus, were cast on the shores of the Azores, and confirmed Columbus in his be- lief in the existence of a western world and western people.

Storm and flood and disease have created sad havoc in the ranks of the Indian since the occupation of the country by the white man. These natural causes have conspired to decimate the race even more than the advance of civilization, which seems not to affect it to any material extent. In its maintenance of the same number of rep- resentatives during three centuries, and its existence in the very face of a most unceremonious, and, whenever necessary, cruel con- quest, the grand dispensations of the unseen Ruler of the universe is demonstrated; for, without the aborigines, savage and treach- erous as they were, it is possible that the explorers of former times would have so many natural difficulties to contend with, that their work would be surrendered in despair, and the most fertile regions of the continent saved for the plowshares of generations yet un- born. It is questionable whether we owe the discovery of this con- tinent to the unaided scientific knowledge of Columbus, or to the dead bodies of the two Indians referred to above; nor can their ser- vices to the explorers of ancient and modern times be over-esti- mated. Their existence is embraced in the plan of the Divinity for the government of the world, and it will not form subject for surprise to learn that the same intelligence which sent a thrill of liberty into every corner of the republic, will, in the near future,

HISTORY OF INDIANA.

devise some method under which the remnant of a great and an- cient race may taste the sweets of public kindness, and feel that, after centuries of turmoil and tyranny, they have at last found a shelter amid a sympathizing people. Many have looked at the In- dian as the pessimist does at all things; they say that he was never formidable until the white man supplied him with the weapons of modern warfare; but there is no mention made of his eviction from his retired home, and the little plot of cultivated garden which formed the nucleus of a village that, if fostered instead of being destroyed, might possibly hold an Indian population of some im- portance in the economy of the nation. There is no intention what- ever to maintain that the occupation of this country by the favored races is wrong even in principle; for where any obstacle to advanc- ing civilization exists, it has to fall to the ground; but it may be said, with some truth, that the white man, instead of a policy of conciliation formed upon the power of kindness, indulged in bel- ligerency as impolitic as it was unjust. A modern writer says, when speaking of the Indian's character: "He did not exhibit that steady valor and efficient discipline of the American soldier; and to-day on the plains Sheridan's troopers would not hesitate to attack the bravest band, though outnumbered three to one." This piece of information applies to the European and African, as well as to the Indian. The American soldier, and particularly the troopers referred to, would not fear or shrink from a very legion of demons, even with odds against them. This mode of warfare seems strangely peculiar when compared with the military systems of civilized countries; yet, since the main object of armed men is to defend a country or a principle, and to destroy anything which may oppose itself to them, the mode of warfare pursued by the savage will be found admirably adapted to their requirements in this con- nection, and will doubtless compare favorably with the systems of the Afghans and Persians of the present, and the Caucasian people of the first historic period.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

The art of hunting not only supplied the Indian with food, but, like that of war, was a means of gratifying his love of distinction. The male children, as soon as they acquired sufficient age and strength, were furnished with a bow and arrow and taught to shoot birds and other small game. Success in killing a large quadruped required years of careful study and practice, and the art was as

HISTORY OF INDIANA.

sedulously inculcated in the minds of the rising generation as are the elements of reading, writing and arithmetic in the common schools of civilized communities. The mazes of the forest and the dense, tall grass of the prairies were the best fields for the exercise of the hunter's skill. No feet could be impressed in the yielding soil but that the tracks were the objects of the most searching scrutiny, and revealed at a glance the animal that made them, the direction it was pursuing, and the time that had elapsed since it had passed. In a forest country he selected the valleys, because they were most frequently the resort of game. The most easily taken, perhaps, of all the animals of the chase was the deer. It is endowed with a curiosity which prompts it to stop in its flight and look back at the approaching hunter, who always avails himself of this opportunity to let fly the fatal arrow.

Their general councils were composed of the chiefs and old men. When in council, they usually sat in concentric circles around the speaker, and each individual, notwithstanding the fiery passions that rankled within, preserved an exterior as immovable as if cast in bronze. Before commencing business a person appeared with the sacred pipe, and another with fire to kindle it. After being lighted it was first presented to heaven, secondly to the earth, thirdly to the presiding spirit, and lastly the several councilors, each of whom took a whiff. These formalities were observed with as close exactness as state etiquette in civilized courts.

The dwellings of the Indians were of the simplest and rudest character. On some pleasant spot by the bank of a river, or near an ever-running spring, they raised their groups of wigwams, con- structed of the bark of trees, and easily taken down and removed to another spot. The dwelling-places of the chiefs were sometimes more spacious, and constructed with greater care, but of the same materials. Skins taken in the chase served them for repose. Though principally dependent upon hunting and fishing, the uncertain supply from those sources led them to cultivate small patches of corn. Every family did everything necessary within itself, commerce, or an interchange of articles, being almost unknown to them. In cases of dispute and dissension, each Indian relied upon himself for retaliation. Blood for blood was the rule, and the relatives of the slain man were bound to obtain bloody revenge for his death. This principle gave rise, as a matter of course, to innumerable and bitter feuds, and wars of extermination where such were possible. War, indeed, rather than peace, was the Indian's

HISTORY OF INDIANA.

glory and delight,-war, not conducted as civilization, but war where individual skill, endurance, gailantry and cruelty were prime requisites. For such a purpose as revenge the Indian would make great sacrifices, and display a patience and perseverance truly heroic ; but when the excitement was over, he sank back into a listless, un- occupied, well-nigh useless savage. During the intervals of his more exciting pursuits, the Indian employed his time in decorating his person with all the refinement of paint and feathers, and in the manufacture of his arms and of canoes. These were constructed of bark, and so light that they could easily be carried on the shoulder from stream to stream. His amusements were the war-dance, ath- letic games, the narration of his exploits, and listening to the ora- tory of the chiefs; but during long periods of such existence he remained in a state of torpor, gazing listlessly upon the trees of the forests and the clouds that sailed above them; and this vacancy imprinted an habitual gravity, and even melancholy, upon his gen- eral deportment.

The main labor and drudgery of Indian communities fell upon the women. The planting, tending and gathering of the crops, making mats and baskets, carrying burdens,-in fact, all things of the kind were performed by them, thus making their condition but little better than that of slaves. Marriage was merely a matter of bargain and sale, the husband giving presents to the father of the bride. In general they had but few children. They were sub- jected to many and severe attacks of sickness, and at times famine and pestilence swept away whole tribes.

EXPLORATIONS BY THE WHITES.

EARLIEST EXPLORERS.

The State of Indiana is bounded on the east by the meridian line which forms also the western boundary of Ohio, extending due north from the mouth of the Great Miami river: on the south by the Ohio river from the mouth of the Great Miami to the mouth of the Wabash; on the west by a line drawn along the middle of the Wabash river from its mouth to a point where a due north line from the town of Vincennes would last touch the shore of said river, and thence directly north to Lake Michigan; and on the north by said lake and an east and west line ten miles north of the ex- treme south end of the lake, and extending to its intersection with the aforesaid meridian, the west boundary of Ohio. These bound- aries include an area of 33,809 square miles, lying between 37° 47' and 41° 50' north latitude, and between 7º 45' and 11º 1' west longitude from Washington.

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History of Henry County, Indiana, Part 3

Author: Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago: Inter-State Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 996

Author:
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago: Inter-State Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 996