USA > Indiana > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, together with historic notes on the Wabash Valley; gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic sources > Part 22
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Fig. 13 was probably intended for an arrow-head, and thrown aside because of a flaw on the surface opposite that shown in the cut.
202
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
It is introduced to illustrate the manner in which the work FIG.13=12. progresses in making such implements. From an exam- ination it would appear that the outline of the implement is first made. After this, one side is reduced to the re- quired form. Then work on the opposite side begins, the point and edges being first reduced. The flakes are chipped off from the edges upward toward the center of and against the part of the stone to be cut away. In this Vermilion co., Ill. manner the delicate point and completed edges are pre- served while the implement is being perfected, leaving the shoulders, neck and shank the last to be finished.
Fig. 14 is formed out of dark-colored, hard, fine-grained flint. Its edges are a uniform spiral, making nearly a half-turn from shoulder
FIG.14=12.
FIG.15=12.
FIG.16=1%.
Vermilion county, Ill.
Vermilion county, Ill. (H. N. Rust's Collection.)
Vermilion county, Ill.
to point. It is neatly balanced, and if used as an arrow-head its wind or twist would, without doubt, give a rotary motion to the shaft in its flight. It is very ingeniously made, and its delicately chipped surface shows that the man who made the implement intentionally gave it the peculiar shape it possesses.
Fig. 15 is made out of fine-grained blue flint. It is unusually long in proportion to its breadth. Its edges are neatly beveled from a line along its center, and are quite sharp. Its well defined shoulders and head, with the yoke deeply cut between to hold the thong, would indicate its use as an arrow-point.
203
ARROW HEADS.
Fig. 16 is a perfect implement, and its surfaces are smoother than the observer might infer from the illustration. Its edges are very sharp and smooth and parallel to the axis of the implement. Its head, unlike that of the other implements illustrated, is round and pointed, with cutting edges as carefully formed as any part of the blade. It has no yoked neck in which to bury a thong or thread, and there seems to be no way of fastening it into a shaft or handle .. It may be a perfect instrument without the addition of either. It is made out of blue flint.
ARROW HEADS.
Several different forms of implements (commonly recognized as arrow heads) are illustrated, to show some of the more common of the many varieties found everywhere over the country. Fig. 17 has uniformly slanting edges, sharp barbs and a strong shank. The material from which it is made is white chert. For shooting fish or in pursuing game or an enemy, where it was intended that the im- plement could not be easily withdrawn from the flesh in which it might be driven, the prominent barbs would secure a firm hold.
Fig. 18 is composed of blue flint ; its outline is more rounded than the preceding specimen, while a spiral form is given to its deli- cate and sharp point.
FIG. 17=12.
Vermilion county, Ill.
FIG. 18=12.
Vermilion county, Ill.
FIG. 19=12.
Vermilion county, III.
FIG. 20=12.
Vermilion county, Ill.
Fig. 19 is composed of white chert. Its surface is much smoother than the shadings in the cut would imply. Its shape is very much like a shield. Its barbs are prominent, and the instrument would make a wide incision in the body of an animal into which it might be forced.
Fig. 20, like Fig. 17, has sharp and elongated barbs. It is fash- ioned out of white chert, and is a neat, smooth and well-balanced implement.
204
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
Fig. 21 is made from yellowish-brown quartz, semi-transparent and inclined to be impure. The surfaces are oval from edge to edge, while the edges themselves are beautifully serrated or notched, as is shown in the cut. It is, perhaps, a sample of the finest work- manship illustrated in this chapter. Indeed, among FIG. 21=12. the many collections which the writer has had oppor- tunities to examine, he has never seen a specimen that was more skillfully made.
Fig. 22 may be an arrow-point or a reamer. The material is white chert. Between the stem and the notches the implement is quite thick, tapering gradu- ally back to the head, giving great support to this part of the implement.
Fig. 23 is an arrow-point, or would be so regarded. Its stem is roundish, and has a greater diameter than the cut would indicate to the eye. The material from which it is formed is white chert.
Vermilion county, Ill.
FIG. 22=12.
FIG. 23=12.
FIG. 24=12.
FIG. 25=12.
Vermilion co., Ill.
Vermilion co., Ill.
Vermilion co., Ill. Vermilion co., Ill.
Figs. 24 and 25 are specimens of the smaller variety of "points " with which arrows are tipped that are used in killing small game. Fig. 24 is made out of black " trap-rock," and Fig. 25 out of flesh- colored flint.
Fig. 26 is displayed on account of its peculiar form ; the under surface is nearly flat, and the other side has quite a ridge or spine running the entire length from head to point. Besides this the head FIG. 26=12. and point turn upward, giving a uniform curve to the implement. If used as an arrow-point, the shaft, in consequence of the shape of the stone, would describe a curved line when shot from the bow. It Vermilion county, Ill. is made of white flint. No suggestions are offered as to its probable uses.
205
·
VARIETIES OF IMPLEMENTS FOR DOMESTIC USES.
IMPLEMENTS FOR DOMESTIC USES.
Fig. 27 is a pestle or pounder. It is made out of common gran- ite. There are many different styles of this FIG. 27 = 12. implement, some varieties are more conical, while others are more bell-shaped than the one illustrated. They are used for crushing corn and other like purposes. The one illus- trated has a concave place near the center of the base; this would the better adapt it to cracking nuts, as the hollow space would protect the kernel from being too severely crushed. In connection with this stone, the Indians sometimes used mortars, made either of wood or stone, into which the articles to be pulverized could be placed; or the corn or beans could be done up in the folds Vermilion county, Illinois. of a skin, or inclosed in a leathern bag, and (H. N. Rust's collection.) then crushed by blows struck with either the head or rim of the pestle. The stone mortars were usually flat discs, slightly hollowed ont from the edges toward the center.
Fig. 28 may be designated as a flesher or scraper. The specimen FIG. 28=12. illustrated is made of white flint. It is very thin, considering the breadth and length of the implement, and has sharp cutting edges all the way around. It might be used as a knife, as well as for a variety of other purposes. It is an unusually smooth and highly finished tool. It and its mate, which is considerably broader, and proportioned more like FIG. 29=12. Fig. 29, were found sticking perpendicular in the ground, with their points barely ex- posed above the surface, on the farm of Wm. Foster, a few miles east of Danville, Illinois. Both of them will Vermilion county, Ill. make as clean a cut through several folds of paper as the Vermilion co., Ill. blade of a good pocket-knife.
Fig. 29 is composed of an impure purplish flint. It is very much like Fig. 28, and was probably used for similar purposes.
206
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
FIG. 30=12. Fig. 30, as the illustration shows, is rougher- edged than the two preceding ones. The side opposite the one shown has a more uneven sur- face than the other. A smooth, well-defined groove runs across the implement (as shown by the dark shading) as though it were intended to be fastened to a helve, although the groove would afford good support for the thumb, if Vermilion county, Ill. the implement were used only with the hand. The material is a coarse, impure, grayish flint. Fig. 31 might be said to combine the qualities of a FIG. 32=1/2. knife, gimlet and bodkin. Its cutting edges extend all
FIG. 31=12.
Vermilion county, Ill.
around, and along the stem the edges are quite abrupt. The implement was origi- nally much longer, but it appears to have lost about an inch in length, its point hav- ing been broken off. The blade will cut cloth or paper very readily. The mate- rial is white flint.
Fig. 32 may be classed with Fig. 31. The material is dark fine-grained flint, and the implement perfect. There is a per- ceptible wind to the edges of the stem. while the edges of the head are parallel with the plane of the implement, and so sharp that they will cut cloth, leather or paper. It was probably used to bore holes and cut out skins that were being manu- factured into clothing and other articles.
Vermilion county, Ill.
FIG.33=12.
Vermilion county, Ill.
Fig. 33 may have been made for the same uses as Figs. 31 and 32. The blade is shaped like a spade, the stem representing the handle. It tapers from the bit of the blade where the stem joins the shoulder, which is the thickest part of the imple- ment, and from the shoulder it tapers to both ends. The bit is shaped like a gouge, and makes a circular incision. It is a smooth piece of workmanship, made out of white flint.
207
STONE IMPLEMENTS.
Fig. 34 has been designated as a "rimmer." The FIG. 34=1/2. material of which it is made is flesh-colored flint. The stem is nearly round, and the implement could be used for piercing holes in leather or wood. Another use at- tributed to it is for drilling holes in pipes, gorgets, discs and other implements formed out of stone where the material was soft enough to admit of being perforated in this way.
Fig. 35. By common consent this implement has Vermilion received the name of "discoidal stone." The one illus- county, Ill. FIG. 35=12. trated is composed of fine dark-gray granite. Several theories have been offered as to the uses of this imple- ment,- one that they are quoits used by the Indians in playing a game similar to that of "pitching horse- shoes"; that they were employed in another game resembling "ten-pins," in which the stone would be grasped on its concave side by the thumb and Vermilion county, Ill. (H. N. Rust's Collection.) second finger, while the fore-finger rested on the outer edge, or rim, and that by a peculiar motion of the arm in hurling the stone it would describe a convolute figure as it rolled along upon the ground. We may suggest that implements like this might be used as paint cups, as their convex surface would enable the warrior to grind his pigments and reduce them to powder, preparatory to decorating his person.
The implements illustrated were, no doubt, put to many other uses besides those suggested. As the pioneer would make his house, furniture, plow, ox yokes, and clear his land with his axe, so the Indians, in the poverty of their supply, we may assume, were com- pelled to make a single tool serve as many purposes as their ingenu- ity could devise.
CHAPTER XX.
THE WAR FOR THE FUR TRADE.
FORMERLY the great Northwest abounded in game and water-fowl. The small lakes and lesser water-courses were full of beaver, otter and muskrats. In the forests were found the marten, the raccoon, and other fur-bearing animals. The plains, partially submerged, and the rivers, whose current had a sluggish flow, the shallow lakes, producing annual crops of wild rice, of nature's own sowing, teemed with wild geese, duck and other aquatic fowl bursting in their very fatness .*
The turkey, in his glossy feathers, strutted the forests, some of them being of prodigious size, weighing thirty-six pounds. +
The shy deer and the lordly elk, crowned with outspreading horns, grazed upon the plain and in the open woods, while the solitary moose browsed upon the buds in the thick copsewood that gave him food and a hiding place as well. The fleet-footed antelope nibbled at the tender grasses on the prairies, or bounded away over the ridges to hide in the valleys beyond, from the approach of the stealthy wolf or wily Indian. The belts of timber along the water-courses
* "The plains and prairies (referring to the country on either side of the Illinois River) are all covered with buffaloes, roebucks, hinds, stags, and different kind of fallow deer. The feathered game is also here in the greatest abundance. We find, particu- larly, quantities of swan, geese and ducks. The wild oats, which grow naturally on the plains, fatten them to such a degree that they often die from being smothered in their own grease."-Father Marest's letter, written in 1712. We have already seen, from a description given on page 103, that water-fowl were equally abundant upon the Maumee.
+ In a letter of Father Rasles, dated October 12, 1723, there is a fine description of the game found in the Illinois country. It reads: "Of all the nations of Canada, there are none who live in so great abundance of everything as the Illinois. Their rivers are covered with swans, bustards, ducks and teals. One can scarcely travel a league without finding a prodigious multitude of turkeys, who keep together in flocks, often to the number of two hundred. They are much larger than those we see in France. I had the curiosity to weigh one, which I found to be thirty-six pounds. They have hanging from the neck a kind of tuft of hair half a foot in length.
"Bears and stags are found there in very great numbers, and buffaloes and roebucks are also seen in vast herds. Not a year passes but they (the Indians) kill more than a thousand roebucks and more than two thousand buffaloes. From four to five thousand of the latter can often be seen at one view grazing on the prairies. They have a hump on the back and an exceedingly large head. The hair, except that on the head, is curled and soft as wool. The flesh has naturally a salt taste, and is so light that, although eaten entirely raw, it does not cause the least indigestion. When they have killed a buffalo, which appears to them too lean, they content themselves with taking the tongue, and going in search of one which is fatter." Vide Kip's Jesuit Missions, pp. 38, 39.
208
209
THE HUNTER'S PARADISE.
afforded lodgment for the bear, and were the trellises that supported the tangled wild grapevines, the fruit of which, to this animal, was an article of food. The bear had for his neighbor the panther, the wild cat and the lynx, whose carnivorous appetites were appeased in the destruction of other animals.
Immense herds of buffalo roamed over the extensive area bounded on the east by the Alleghanies and on the north by the lakes, embracing the states of Ohio, Indi- ana, Illinois, Wisconsin and the southern half of Michigan. Their trails checkered the prairies of Indiana and Illinois in every direction, the marks of which, deep worn in the turf, remained for many years after the disappearance of the animals that made them .* Their numbers when the country was first known to Europeans were immense, and beyond computation. In their migrations southward in the fall, and on their return from the blue-grass regions of Ken- tucky in the spring, the Ohio River was obstructed for miles during the time occupied by the vast herds in crossing it. Indeed, the French called the buffalo the "Illinois ox," on account of their numbers found in "the country of the Illinois," using that expres- sion in its wider sense, as explained on a preceding page. So great importance was attached to the supposed commercial value of the buffalo for its wool that when Mons. Iberville, in 1698, was engaged to undertake the colonization of Louisiana, the king instructed him to look after the buffalo wool as one of the most important of his duties; and Father Charlevoix, while traveling through "The Illinois," observed that he was surprised that the buffalo had been so long neglected.+ Among the favorite haunts of the buffalo were the marshes of the Upper Kankakee, the low lands about the lakes of northern Indiana, where the oozy soil furnished early as well as late pasturage, the briny earth upon the Au Glaize, and the Salt Licks upon the Wabash and Illinois rivers were tempting places of resort. From the summit of the high hill at Ouiatanon, over- looking the Wea plains to the east and the Grand Prairie to the west,
*"Nothing," says Father Charlevoix, writing of the country about the confluence of the Fox with the Illinois River, "is to be seen in this course but immense prairies, inter- spersed with small groves which seem to have been planted by the hands of men. The grass is so very high that a man would be almost lost in it, and through which paths are to be found everywhere, as well trodden as they could have been in the most popu- lated countries, although nothing passes over them but buffaloes, and from time to time a herd of deer or a few roebuck ": Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, vol. 2, p. 200. t Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana.
14
210
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
as far as the eye could reach in either direction, the plains were seen covered with groups, grazing together, or, in long files, stretching away in the distance, their dark forms, contrasting with the green- sward upon which they fed or strolled, and inspiring the enthusiasm of the Frenchman, who gave the description quoted on page 104. Still later, when passing through the prairies of Illinois, on his way from Vincennes to Ouiatanon,- more a prisoner than an ambassa- dor,-George Croghan makes the following entry in his daily jour- nal: "18th and 19th of June, 1765 .- We traveled through a pro- digious large meadow, called the Pyankeshaws' hunting ground. Here is no wood to be seen, and the country appears like an ocean. The ground is exceedingly rich and partially overgrown with wild hemp .* The land is well watered and full of buffalo, deer, bears, and all kinds of wild game. 20th and 21st .- We passed through some very large meadows, part of which belonged to the Pyanke- shaws on the Vermilion River. The country and soil were much the same as that we traveled over for these three days past. Wild hemp grows here in abundance. The game is very plenty. At any time in a half hour we could kill as much as we wanted."+
Gen. Clark, in the postscript of his letter dated November, 1779, narrating his campaign in the Illinois country, says, concerning the prairies between Kaskaskia and Vincennes, that "there are large meadows extending beyond the reach of the eye, variegated with groves of trees appearing like islands in the seas, covered with buffaloes and other game. In many places, with a good glass, you may see all that are upon their feet in a half million acres."# It is not known at what time the buffalo was last seen east of the Mis- sissippi. The Indians had a tradition that the cold winter of 17-, -called by them "the great cold," on account of its severity,- destroyed them. "The snow was so deep, and lay upon the ground for such a length of time, that the buffalo became poor and too weak to resist the inclemency of the weather;" great numbers of them perished, singly and in groups, and their bones, either as iso- lated skeletons or in bleaching piles, remained and were found over the country for many years afterwards. §
* Further on in his Journal Col. Croghan again refers to "wild hemp, growing in the prairies, ten or twelve feet high, which if properly cultivated would prove as good and answer all the purposes of the hemp we cultivate." Other writers also mention the wild hemp upon the prairies, and it seems to have been supplanted by other grasses that have followed in the changes of vegetable growth.
t Croghan's Journal.
# Clark's Campaign in the Illinois, p. 92.
§ On the 4th of October, 1786, one day's march on the road from Vincennes to the Ohio Falls, Captains Zigler's and Strong's companies of regulars came across five buffalo. The animals tried to force a passage through the column, when the commanding officer
211
THE DESTRUCTION OF THE GAME.
Before the coming of the Europeans the Indians hunted the game for the purpose of supplying themselves with the necessary food and clothing. The scattered tribes (whose numbers early writers greatly exaggerated) were few, when compared with the area of the coun- try they occupied, and the wild animals were so abundant that enough to supply their wants could be captured near at hand with such rude weapons as their ingenuity fashioned out of wood and stone. With the Europeans came a change. The fur of many of the animals possessed a commercial value in the marts of Europe, where they were bought and used as ornaments and dress by the aristocracy, whose wealth and taste fashioned them into garments of extraordi- nary richness. Canada was originally settled with a view to the fur trade, and this trade was, to her people, of the first importance - the chief motor of her growth and prosperity. The Indians were sup- plied with guns, knives and hatchets by the Europeans, in place of their former inferior weapons. Thus encouraged and equipped, and accompanied by the coureur des bois, the remotest regions were pen- etrated, and the fur trade extended to the most distant tribes. Stim- ulated with a desire for blankets, cotton goods and trinkets, the In- dians now began a war upon the wild animals in earnest; and their wanton destruction for their skins and furs alone from that period forward was so enormous that within the next two or three genera- tions the improvident Indians in many localities could scarcely find enough game for their own subsistence.
The coureur des bois were a class that had much to do with the development of trade and with giving a knowledge of the geogra- phy of the country. They became extremely useful to the mer- chants engaged in the fur trade, and were often a source of great annoyance to the colonial authorities. Three or four of these peo- ple, having obtained goods upon credit, would join their stock, put their property into a birch bark canoe, which they worked them- selves, and accompany the Indians in their excursions or go directly
ordered the men to fire upon them. The discharge killed three and wounded the others: Joseph Buell's Narrative Journal, published in S. P. Hildreth's Pioneer History. Thirteen years later, in December, 1799, Gov. St. Clair and Judge Jacob Burnett, on their way overland from Cincinnati to Vincennes, camped out over night, at the close of one of their days' journeys, not a great ways east of where the old road from Louisville to Vincennes crosses White River. The next day they encountered a severe snow-storm, during which they surprised eight or ten buffalo, sheltering themselves from the storm behind a beech-tree full of dead leaves which had fallen beside of the trace and hid the travelers from their view. The tree and the noise of the wind among its leaves prevented the buffalo from discovering the parties until the latter had approached within two rods of the place where they stood. They then took to their heels and were soon out of sight. One of the company drew a pistol and fired, but without effect: Burnett's Notes on the Northwest Territory, p. 72.
212
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
into the country where they knew they were to hunt .* These voyages were extended twelve or fifteen months (sometimes longer) before the traders would return laden with rich cargoes of fur, and often followed by great numbers of the natives. During the short time required to settle their accounts with the merchants and pro- cure credit for a new stock, the traders would contrive to squander their gains before they returned to their favorite mode of life among the savages, their labor being rewarded by indulging themselves in one month's dissipation for fifteen of exposure and hardship. "We may not be able to explain the cause, but experience proves that it requires much less time for a civilized people to degenerate into the ways of savage life than is required for the savage to rise into a state of civilization. The indifference about amassing property, and the pleasure of living free from all restraint, soon introduced a licen- tionsness among the coureur des bois that did not escape the eye of the missionaries, who complained, with good reason, that they were a disgrace to the Christian religion."+
" The food of the coureur des bois when on their long expeditions was Indian corn, prepared for use by boiling it in strong lye to re- move the hull, after which it was mashed and dried. In this state it is soft and friable like rice. The allowance for each man on the voyage, was one quart per day ; and a bushel, with two pounds of prepared fat, is reckoned a month's subsistence. No other allow- ance is made of any kind, not even of salt, and bread is never thought of; nevertheless the men are healthy on this diet, and ca- pable of performing great labor. This mode of victualing was es- sential to the trade, which was extended to great distances, and in canoes so small as not to admit of the use of any other food. If the men were supplied with bread and pork, the canoes would not carry six months' rations, while the ordinary duration of the voyage was not less than fourteen. No other men would be reconciled to such fare except the Canadians, and this fact enabled their employ- ers to secure a monopoly of the fur trade."#
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