USA > Indiana > Howard County > History of Howard County, Indiana, Vol I > Part 2
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There is no evidence that the nations of the old and new worlds had any knowledge of each other. They appear, however, to have grown in power and advanced in civilization very much alike. They had the same kinds of mills for grinding their grain. May not the spirit of enterprise and civilization that prevailed in the old world in those centuries before Christ have been world-wide and found its expression in the Mound Builders of the new ?
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What was the manner of their going? The probabilities are that they were driven out by a barbarous, warlike people. For ages they and their ancestors had lived in these rich and fertile valleys; they had builded towns and cities and made homes as dear to them as life itself.
INVADERS.
Antiquarians who have studied the mounds, which were once the fortifications of this people, assert that they were placed and ar- ranged to protect the inhabitants from northern invaders. Signal stations have been traced to the northward, indicating that they kept sentinels posted in times of danger to warn them of the ap- proach of foes by signaling from station to station.
It is further declared that the Mound Builders had their hab- itations from the Ohio river southward to later times than on the north. The remains of many of the mounds indicate that their going had been precipitate; that they had not been given time to gather up their belongings and move out orderly. It seems very prob- able that a savage or barbarous people to the north of them waged war with them probably at intervals for a long time and finally had overcome them and had driven them across the Ohio river, which, for a time at least, was the boundary between them.
In thus disposing of the Mound Builders we must admit that the evidence is purely circumstantial; that no eyewitness has been found whose record bears positive testimony to the facts regarding this people. It is true that there have been found what was pur- ported to be the writings of prehistoric man. Some of these have been determined as impositions, others have not been deciphered. We do not know whether they are false or genuine, and if genuine what their testimony is. We can say positively, however, that there
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was an ancient people who lived here in Howard county, who made considerable progress in the arts and sciences in civilization, who had settled homes, who cleared away the forests and engaged in agriculture in perhaps a crude manner compared with our twen- tieth century methods, and who carried on a limited commerce, using Wildcat and its tributaries as their highway, carrying it in canoes or rude boats made with their very primitive tools, and that after a long occupancy they were driven out by a savage people, who, so far as we know, remained in possession of the country until the coming of the Europeans in recent times.
LITTLE TURTLE'S IDEA.
It would certainly be a matter of very great satisfaction to be able to give the origin of the Mound Builders or their successors, the red men, but we are in complete ignorance, and mere conjecture is idle. The various conjectures found in our school histories attempt- ing to account for the origin of these people are certainly unworthy the place they occupy in teaching the young. That they are or were the descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel is absurd. That they are or were the descendants of the Tartars who crossed by the way of Behring strait and spread out over America was well an- swered by Little Turtle, who, when it was suggested to him that the Tartars and Indians resembled each other, that Asia and Amer- ica at Behring strait were only a few miles apart and that the In- dians were probably descendants of the Tartars, replied: "Why should not these Tartars who resemble us have come from America ? Are there any reasons for the contrary? Or why should we not both have been born in our own country?" The other suggestion that Europeans sailing by way of Iceland and Greenland reached the mainland of America and settled it, becoming Indians, is 110
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better. The better explanation seems to be that the Indian is a dis- tinct type of mankind; that the Mound Builders were the highest examples of this Indian type, and that the Indians peopled this con- tinent in very ancient times.
THE INDIANS.
The inference seems fair that the ancestors of the Indians who dwelt here at the discovery of America by Columbus were the bar- barous and warlike people who drove out the Mound Builders, for when European explorers first became acquainted with the Indians dwelling in that region, which had formerly been the country of the Mound Builders, they found two powerful Indian families- the Algonquin and the Huron-Iroquois.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century the Algonquins numbered a quarter of a million people. The tribes of this great family were nomadic in their habits, roaming from one hunting ground and river to another, according to the exigencies of the chase and fishing. Agriculture was little esteemed. They were divided into many subordinate tribes, each having a local name, dialect and tradition. When the European settlements were planted the Al- gonquin race was already declining in numbers and influence. Wast- ing diseases destroyed whole tribes. Of all the Indians the Algon- quins suffered most from contact with the white man. Before his aggressive spirit, his fiery rum and his destructive weapons the war- riors were unable to stand. The race hias withered to a shadow and only a few thousands remain to rehearse the story of their ancestors.
Within the territory occupied by the Algonquins lived the pow- erful nation of the Huron-Iroquois. Their domain extended over
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the country reaching from the Georgian Bay and Lake Huron to Lakes Erie and Ontario, south of these lakes to the valley of the upper Ohio, and eastward to the Sorel river. Within this exten- sive district was a confederacy of vigorous tribes having a common ancestry and generally, though not always, acting together in war. This confederacy was nearly always at war with the Algonquins. At the time of their greatest power and influence the Huron-Iro- quois embraced no less than nine allied nations. These were the Hurons proper, living north of Lake Erie; the Eries and Andastes, south of the same water; the Tuscaroras, of Carolina, who ulti- mately joined their kinsmen in the north; the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas and Mohawks, constituting the five nations of New York-the Iroquois people.
THE WARRIORS.
The warriors of this great confederacy presented the Indian character in its most favorable aspect. They were brave, patriotic and eloquent, not wholly averse to useful industry, living in respect- able villages, tilling the soil with considerable success, faithful as friends and terrible as enemies. It has been said of them that, know- ing well the advantages of their position on the great waterways which led to the interior of the continent, they made themselves feared by all their race. From Canada to the Carolinas and from Maine to the Mississippi, Indian women shuddered at the name of the Ho-de-no-san-nee, while even the bravest warriors of other tribes went far out of their way in the wintry forests to avoid an encounter with them. Within sixty years from their first acquaint- ance with white men the Iroquois had become the bitterest foes of their nearest kinsmen-the Hurons-and had exterminated them ; also the Eries and Neutrals about Lake Erie and the Andastes of the
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upper Susquehanna, while they had forced a humiliating peace upon the Delawares, the most powerful of the Algonquins, and had driven the Ottawas from their home upon the river which bears their name.
Their government and laws, similar to those of the United States, guaranteed to the people of the tribes the right to manage their local affairs in their own way, subject only to the general and foreign polity of the confederacy. Their union was based upon pure principles of friendship and voluntary adhesion. One of their chiefs, Canassatego, in 1774 delivered a speech to the commission- ers of Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland, announcing the basis of their union. He said: "Our wise forefathers established amity and union between the five nations. This has made us formidable. This has given us great weight and authority with our neighboring nations. We are a powerful confederacy, and by observing the sane methods our wise forefathers have taken, you will acquire fresh strength and power. Therefore I counsel you, whatever befalls you, never to fall out with one another."
LOCAL HISTORY.
The local Indian history of Howard county is confined chiefly to the three Algonquin tribes-the Delawares, Pottawottamies and Miamis. The Miamis held the territory south of the Wabash river from Ohio to Illinois, also a part of the territory north of the Wa- bash from the site of Peru eastward : the Pottawottamies the north- western part of the state to the Wabash river, and the Delawares the territory along the White river ; but on terms of friendship each used the territory of Howard county as hunting and fishing ground. The Delawares were once the most powerful of the Algonquins and dwelt along the Delaware river. They claimed that in the past they held an eminent position for antiquity, wisdom and valor. This
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claim seems to have been well founded, as the neighboring Indian tribes were disposed to concede it. In their wars with the Iroquois they were defeated and reduced to a state of vassalage. In 1744. during the progress of the treaty negotiations at Lancaster, Penn- sylvania, the Iroquois denied the Delawares the right to participate in the privileges incident to the treaty and refused to recognize them as an independent nation, entitled to the right to sell and transfer lands. The Iroquois chief upbraided them for attempting to exer- cise any other rights than such as belonged to a conquered nation or people. Arrogantly he bade them to make no reply, but to leave the council in silence. He ordered them in a peremptory manner to leave the lands where they then resided and go to the Susque- hanna. In silence they went out and not long afterward they left forever their homes and happy hunting grounds on the banks of the Delaware and sought a new home on the Pennsylvania frontier, hu- miliated and very unhappy in the memory of their former high es- tate and greatness. The encroaching white man and the hostile Iro- quois left them no peace in their new home and again in 1751 they started for the far West and founded a settlement on the White river in Indiana. Here a missionary effort was made to introduce Christianity among them. This was frustrated by the Prophet, a brother of Tecumseh, who was then very popular among the In- dians. In the War of 1812 the Delawares refused to join Tecum- seh in his hostilities against the United States, but remained faith- ful to the states. In 1818 eighteen hundred of them, leaving a small band in Ohio, moved westward again and settled on the White river in Missouri. Soon they moved again, some going to the Red river, but the larger number were settled by treaty upon the Kan- sas and Missouri rivers. They numbered about one thousand and were brave, enterprising hunters on the plains, cultivated the soil and were friendly to the whites. The Baptists and Methodists had
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mission schools among them and built a church. They suffered much from lawless whites and hostile Sioux. The Kansas Dela- wares during the Civil war were strong Unionists and sent one hun- dred and seventy out of two hundred and ten able-bodied men into the Union service and proved efficient soldiers and guides to the Union army.
THE POTTAWATTOMIES.
From their home in the northwestern part of the state the Pottawattomies kept pushing out upon the ancient possessions of the Miamis and were familiar objects to the early settlers of Howard county. Of these Indians we quote: "At the beginning of the sev- enteenth century they occupied the lower peninsula of Michigan apparently in scattered bands, independent of each other, there be- ing at no period in their history any trace of a general authority or government. They were hunters and fishers, cultivating a little maize, but warlike and frequently in collision with neighboring tribes. They were finally driven west by the tribes of the Iroquois family and settled on the islands and shores of Green Bay, and the French established a mission among them. Perrot acquired great influence with the tribe, who soon took part with the French against the Iroquois. Owangnice, their chief, was one of the parties to the Montreal treaty of 1701 and they actively aided the French in the subsequent wars. They gradually spread over what is now south- ern Michigan and upper Illinois and Indiana, a mission on the St. Joseph river being a sort of central point. The Pottawattomies joined Pontiac and surprised Fort St. Joseph, capturing Schlosser. the commandant. May 25, 1763. They were hostile to the Ameri- cans in the Revolution and subsequently, but after Wayne's victory joined the treaty of Greenville, December 22. 1795. The tribes comprising the families or clans of the Golden Carp Frog. Crab
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OF HOWARD COUNTY.
and Tortoise were then composed of the St. Joseph, Wabash and Huron river bands, with a large scattering population, generally called the Pottawattomies of the Prairie, who were a mixture of many Algonquin tribes. From 1803 to 1809 the various bands sold to the government portions of lands claimed by them, receiv- ing money and annuities. Yet in the War of 1812 they again joined the English, influenced by Tecumseh. A new treaty of peace was made in 1815, followed rapidly by others, by which their lands were almost entirely conveyed away. A large tract was assigned to them on the Missouri, and in 1838 the St. Joseph band was car- ried off by troops, losing one hundred and fifty out of eight hundred men on the way by death and desertion. The whole tribe then num- bered about four thousands. The St. Joseph, Wabash and Huron bands had made progress in civilization and were Catholics, while the Pottawattomies of the Prairie were still roving and pagan. A part of the tribe was removed with some Chippewas and Ottawas, but they eventually joined the others or disappeared. In Kansas the civilized band with the Jesuit mission founded by DeSmet and Hoecken advanced rapidly with good schools for both sexes. A Baptist mission and school was more than once undertaken among the less tractable Prairie band, but was finally abandoned.
The Kansas trouble brought difficulties for the Indians, made the Prairie band more restless and the civilized anxious to settle. A treaty proclaimed April 19, 1862, gave individual Indians a title to their several tracts of land under certain conditions, and though delayed by the Civil war, this policy was carried out in the treaty of February 27, 1867. Out of the population of two thousand one hundred and eighty, fourteen hundred elected to become citizens and take lands in severalty and seven hundred and eighty to hold lands as a tribe. Some of the Prairie band were then absent. The experi- ment met with varied success. Some did well and improved, others
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squandered their lands and their portion of the funds and became paupers. Many of these scattered, one band even going to Mexico.
THE MIAMIS.
When the Europeans first became acquainted with the Indians the Miamis were a leading and powerful branch of the Algonquin family. The tribe has been known by a variety of names, the first probably having been "Twa Twas." followed by "Twe Twees." "Twighwess," "Omees," "Omamees," "Aumannees," and finally as the Miamis. Bancroft says of them: "They were the most pow- erful confederacy in the West, excelling the Six Nations ( Iroquois). Their influence reached to the Mississippi and they received frequent visits from tribes beyond the river." Mr. LaSalle says: "When the Miamis were first invited by the French authorities to Chicago in 1670 they were a leading and very powerful Indian nation. A body of them assembled near that place for war against the power- ful Iroquois of the Hudson and the still more powerful Sioux of the upper Mississippi. They numbered at least three thousand warriors, and were under the lead of a chief who never sallied forth but with a bodyguard of forty warriors. He could at any time call into the field an army of three thousand to five thousand men."
The Miamis were first known to Europeans about the year 1669 in the vicinity of Green Bay, where they were first visited by the French missionary, Father Allouez, and later by Father Dalton. From this region they passed south and eastward around the south- ern point of Lake Michigan, occupying the regions of Chicago and later establishing a village on the St. Joseph, another on the Miami and another on the Wabash. The territory claimed by this confed- eracy at the close of the eighteenth century is clearly set forth by their chief, Little Turtle, in a speech delivered by him at the treaty
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at Greenville, July 22, 1795, in which he said: "General Wayne, I hope you will pay attention to what I now say to you. I wish to inform you where your younger brothers, the Miamis, live, and also the Pottawottamies 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 now I take the liberty to in- form you that that line cuts off from the Indians a large portion of country which has been enjoyed by my forefathers from time imme- morial without molestation or dispute. The prints of my ancestors' houses are everywhere to be seen in this portion. I was a little as- tonished at hearing you and my brothers who are now present tell- ing each other what business you had transacted together at Mus- kingum concerning this country. It is well known by all my broth- ers present that my forefather kindled the first fire at Detroit ; from thence he extended his line to the headwaters of the Scioto, from thence to its mouth, from thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash river, and from thence to Chicago on Lake Michigan. At this place I first saw my elder brothers, the Shawnees. I have now informed you of the boundary line of the Miami nation, where the Great Spirit placed my forefather a long time ago and charged him not to sell or part with his lands, but to preserve them for his pos- terity. This charge has been handed down to me. I was much surprised to find that my other brothers differed so much from me on this subject, for their conduct would lead one to suppose that the Great Spirit and their forefathers had not given them the same charge that was given to me, but, on the contrary, had directed them to sell their land to any white man who wore a hat as soon as he should ask it of them. Now, elder brother, your younger brothers, the Miamis, have pointed out to you their country, and also our brothers present. When I hear your remarks and proposals on this subject I will be ready to give you an answer. I came with
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an expectation of hearing you say good things, but I have not heard what I expected."
LITTLE TURTLE.
Little Turtle was probably the ablest and most illustrious of the Miami chieftains and has set forth most accurately the claims of the Miamis to territory and their policy of retaining it. The claim he put forth included all of Indiana, a part of eastern Illinois, southern Michigan and western Ohio. It is a noteworthy fact that all the treaties they made in which they sold lands to the United States government were after they had suffered overwhelming defeats.
In the early Indian wars the Miamis were the enemies of the English and the friends of the French. Afterwards in the trouble between the king and the colonies they were generally the allies of the English and the foes of the States. They looked upon the ap- proach of the white man with the deepest distrust, fearing degra- dation, destruction and ultimate extinction. They loved their na- tive forests, worshiped freedom and hated restraint. They feared the advance of invaders and abhorred the forms of civilization. It is said the Miamis were early and earnestly impressed with a fear- ful foreboding of ultimate ruin, and therefore seized upon every opportunity to terrify, destroy and drive back the invading enemy. Their chiefs, their officers and warriors were found in the fiercest battles in the most desperate places. They bared their savage forms to civilized bullets and bayonets and died without a murmur or a groan. In their treatment of the whites they were as savage as they were brave. They often murdered the defenseless pioneer without regard to age, sex or condition with the most shocking and brutal savagery. Not only men but helpless women and children were burned to death or cut to pieces in the most painful manner
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while the warriors and squaws in fiendish ferocity gloated over the misery and suffering of the victim.
As against Anglo-Saxon armies no tribe did more to stay the tide of civilization or the flow of emigration into their venerated for- ests and none record so many victories with so few defeats. Their love for the land of their fathers, for their forest homes burned in their barbarous bosoms with an intensity that pleads some extenu- ation for their savage cruelty. They were a leading power in de- feating General Braddock in 1755, and from that time forward the blood of the Miamis moistened nearly every battlefield.
The following sketches are taken from Drake's "Indians of North America :" We now pass to a chief far more prominent in Indian history than many who have received greater notice from historians. This was Mishikinakwa (by no means settled in orthog- raphy), which, interpreted, is said to mean Little Turtle.
"Little Turtle was chief of the Miamis, and the scenes of his warlike achievements were in the country of his birth. He had in conjunction with the tribes of that region successfully fought the armies of Harmar and St. Clair, and in the fight with the latter is said to have had the chief command, hence a detailed account of the affair belongs to his life.
THE WESTERN INDIANS.
"The western Indians were only emboldened by the battles be- tween them and detachments of General Harmar's army in 1790, and under such a leader as Mishikinakwa they entertained sanguine hopes of bringing the Americans to their own terms. One murder followed another in rapid succession, attended by all the horrors pe- culiar to their warfare, which caused President Washington to take the earliest opportunity of recommending congress to adopt effi-
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cient measures for checking these calamities, and two thousand men were immediately raised and put under the command of General St. Clair, then governor of the Northwest Territory. He received his appointment on the 4th of March, 1791, and proceeded to Fort Washington by way of Kentucky with all dispatch, where he ar- rived on the 15th of May. There was much time lost in getting the troops collected at this place, General Butler with the residue not arriving until the middle of September. There were various cir- cumstances to account for the delays which it is not necessary to re- count here. Colonel Drake proceeded immediately on his arrival, which was about the end of August, and built Fort Hamilton on the Miami, in the country of Little Turtle, and soon after Fort Jef- ferson was built forty miles farther onward. These two forts be- ing left manned, about the end of October the army advanced, being about two thousand strong, militia included, whose numbers were not inconsiderable, as will appear by the miserable manner in which they not only confused themselves but the regular soldiers also.
GENERAL ST. CLAIR'S ARMY.
"General St. Clair had advanced about six miles in front of Fort Jefferson when sixty of his militia, from pretended disaffec- tion, commenced to retreat, and it was discovered that the evil had spread considerably among the rest of the army. Being fearful that they would seize upon the convoy of provisions the general ordered Colonel Hamtranack to pursue them with his regiment and force them to return. The army now consisted of fourteen hundred ef- fective men, and this was the number attacked by Little Turtle and his warriors fifteen miles from the Miami villages. Colonel Butler commanded the right wing and Colonel Drake the left. The militia were posted a quarter of a mile in advance and were encamped in
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two lines. The troops had not finished securing their baggage when they were attacked in their camp. It was their intention to march immediately upon the Miami villages and destroy them. The sav- ages being apprised of this acted with great wisdom and firmness. They fell upon the militia before sunrise November 4th. The latter at once fled into the main camp in the most disorderly manner, many of them having thrown away their guns were pursued and slaugh- tered.
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