USA > Indiana > Indiana and Indianans : a history of aboriginal and territorial Indiana and the century of statehood > Part 6
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This Fort Miamis was at the site of Chicago. At that time La Mothe Cadillac was the French commander in the west, and in his Re- lation of 1695, after describing the Indian locations west of Lake Michigan, he says: "The post of Chicagou comes next. This word signifies the River of Garlic, because a very great quantity of it is produced naturally there without any cultivation. There is here a village of the Miamis, who are well-made men; they are good warriors and extremely active. We find next the river of St. Joseph. There was here a fort with a French garrison, and there is a village of this same nation of Miamis. This post is the key to all the nations which border the north of Lake Michigan, for to the south there is not any village on account of the incursions of the Iroquois; but in the depths of the north coast country and looking toward the west there are many, as the Mascoutins, Piankeshaws, Peorias, Kickapoos, Iowas, Sioux and Tintons".19 In other words, the Miamis had begun moving to the east, but had not ventured farther than these two posts at Chicago and La- Salle's old fort at the mouth of the St. Joseph, and south of these "there is not any village". In 1696 Father Pierre Francois Pinet established his mission of L'Ange Gardien just north of Chicago, and there were said to have been two villages of Miamis in its vicinity, numbering three hundred cabins.20
In the meantime the Miamis had become involved in war with the Sioux, and LaMothe Cadillac states that in 1695 the Sioux treacherously attacked them, and killed three thousand of them.21 This prolonged and destructive warfare makes somewhat credible the large early esti- mates of the numbers of these tribes, as compared with those of later date. In 1718, M. De Vaudreuil reported the strength of the Miamis, Ouiatanons, Piankeshaws and Pepikokias, then composing the Miamis nation proper, at fourteen to sixteen hundred warriors. The French estimates of 1736 gave the Miamis only 550 warriors and the Illinois 600.22 The English estimates of 1763 gave the Miamis 800 warriors, and the estimate of Col. Bouquet and Capt. Hutchins, in 1764, gives the Miami tribes one thousand warriors.
As Father Allouez says, all of these tribes of the Illinois and Miamis spoke the same language, but with one material dialect difference which divided them into two nations, as named; but the dialects are commonly
19 Margry, Vol. 5, pp. 123-4.
20 Shea's Catholic Church in Colonial Days, p. 537.
21 Margry, Vol. 5 p. 323.
22 N. Y. Col. Docs., Vol. 9, p. 1052.
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known as the Miami and the Peoria, the latter word having become synonymous with "Illinois". In the Peoria (properly Pi-o'-ri-a) there is no sound of "1", and where that sound occurs in the Miami it is replaced by the sound of "r"; while in the Miami there is no sound of "r", and the substitution is reversed. The cities of Peoria, in Illinois, and Paoli, in Kansas, are continuing memorials of this difference in dialect. The names given by Father Allouez are in the Miami form. Ilinioue means "he is a man", but what a member of that nation called himself was I-ri'-ni-wa. The name Miami is used by the other division but it is not of their language, for they cannot give any meaning for it. It is most probably the name given them by the Delawares, Wemi- amiki, which means "all beavers", or figuratively, "all friends-or relatives". The tribes that were located in Illinois during the English and American periods used the Peoria dialect, and those located in In- diana used the Miami dialect. Of the tribal names, Mascoutin is prac- tically translated in the English name "Fire Nation", and Kickapoo is derived by Schoolcraft from n'gik'-a-boo, or "otter's ghost". These two tribes were not members of the Illinois-Miami nation, but were closely related to it.
Marameg, otherwise written maramak or maramech, is the Peoria word for catfish. The old chroniclers usually made the Miami form malamak, and the Chippewa form manamak. This was a common Algon- quian name for streams, which we have preserved in the Merrimac of New England, and the Maramec of Missouri. Kitchigami means great water, and probably implies residence near one of the great lakes. Kaskaskia is kak-kak'-ki-a, which is their name for the katydid. Pi-o'-ri-a, Pe-o-li-a or Pe-wa-li-a, which are forms of the same word, is the Miami pã-wa'-li-a, or prairie-fire. Ouaouiatanon is presumably wa- wi'-a-tan'-wi, an eddy, literally "it goes in a round channel", with the terminal locative. It is necessarily a place name, but it might refer to any place where there was an eddy, and there is no tradition of what place is meant. George Finley, who is of Piankeshaw descent, thinks that Piankeshaw is from pi-an-gi'-sa, which means "they separated, or went apart, unwittingly", which is very plausible. But the Gravier mss. dictionary, which is preserved in the Watkinson library at Hart- ford, Conn., gives the meaning, "slit ears"; and Godfroy said the idea it conveyed to him was of "something scattered about the ears". Pos- sibly it refers to an old Miami custom of hair-dressing. In the Relation of 1670-1, Father Allouez says that the Ottawas wear their hair "short and erect", and that the Illinois "clipping the greater part of the head, as do the above named people, they leave four great mustaches, one on each side of each ear, arranging them in such order as to avoid incon-
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venience from them".23 The meaning of Pepikokias is lost, as is their identity. They united with the Miamis of Maramech in locating on the Kalamazoo river, in Michigan, about 1700, and it is probable that these two constituted what were known as the Eel River Indians in Indiana.
The Miamis of today have lost even the tradition of their ancient mythology, though they retain some of its ideas and customs. It is known historically that they had the same general beliefs as the other Algonquian tribes; and these are set forth most satisfactorily by Nicolas Perrot, who was almost constantly with these tribes, and especially with the Miamis, from 1665 to 1699. Father Charlevoix took most of his material on this subject from Perrot's memoir. As there is a very general misconception of their beliefs, it is worth while to reproduce here a part of Perrot's statement :
"It cannot be said that the Indians profess any doctrine; it is un- questionable that they do not follow, so to speak, any religion. They observe merely some judaic customs, for they have certain feasts in which they do not use a knife to cut cooked meats, but devour them with the teeth. The women have also the custom when they give birth to children, to be for a month without entering the lodge of their hus- band, and they cannot during this time eat with men, or of what has been prepared by men. For them special cooking is done.
"The Indians have, for their principal divinities, the Great Hare, the sun, and the manitos (diables), I mean those who are not converted. They invoke most often the Great Hare, because they respect and adore him as the creator of the land, and the sun as the originator of light but if they put the manitos in the number of their divinities, and invoke them, it is because they fear them, and ask life of them when they make their invocations. Those among the Indians whom the French call medicine-men (jongleurs) speak to the demon that they consult con- cerning war and the chase.
"They have many other divinities, to whom they pray and which they find in the air, on the earth, and in the earth. Those of the air are the thunder and the lightning, and, in general, all that they can see but are unable to comprehend, as the moon, eclipses, and the whirl- winds of unusual winds. Those which are on the earth consist of all evil and harmful creatures, particularly the serpents, panthers, and other animals or birds similar to griffons.24 They also include those which are extraordinary for beauty or deformity among their kind. Those which are in the earth are the bears, which pass the winter without eat-
23 Jesuit Relations, Vol. 55, p. 217.
24 Champlain reported and pictured the griffon in the fauna of the country, from the descriptions of the natives.
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ing, nourishing themselves only by the substance which they draw from the navel by sucking. They regard in this way all the animals that sojourn in caverns and holes, which they invoke when, in sleeping, they have dreamed of any of them.
"They make for these kinds of invocations a feast of food or tobacco, to which the old men are invited, and relate in their presence the dream
THE GRIFFON (From Oeuvres de Champlain, Quebec Ed. 1870)
which they have had as the cause of the feast, which they owed to the one of whom they had dreamed. Then one of the old men acts as spokes- man, and, naming the creature to which the feast is given he addresses to him the following words: 'Have mercy on him who offers to thee (mentioning each thing offered by name) ; have mercy on his family ; grant to him whatever he needs'. All the assistants respond in unison 'O! O!' many times, until the prayer is concluded; and this word 'O' signifies the same with them as it does with us".
This illustrates the only kind of prayer to the manitos (ma-nět'-o-
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wa'-ki) that the Miamis use at present, or probably used at that time, i. e. supplication accompanying an offering. The fundamental concept of the Miami faith is that there is "no getting something for nothing". This is due to the character of the manitos, for outside of the ideas in- culcated by Christian teaching, they have no conception of any super- natural being that is absolutely good or absolutely bad. All of them can be placated, and will treat you well if placated, but are liable to do you an injury if not placated. And these prayers, invocations and feasts are not to the earthly animals named by Perrot but to the spirit, or manito animals of the same name. The earthly animals are regarded as the descendants of the spirit animal, or as under its special protection, and may receive consideration on that account, but they are not objects for prayer or invocation, and never were. Neither are there now any of the formalities of assemblage mentioned by Perrot. The modern practice, for it still continues to some extent with the old people, and this without regard to their professions of Catholic or Protestant faith, is for the person making the offering to address the manito direct, calling him Ni-mű'-co-mi'-na (our grandfather) or, in abbreviated form, Mâ'-ca. In the address, however, they use "secret words", that I have never been able to learn.
The Great Hare, otherwise known as Michaboo, Manabozho, Nana- bozho Nanaboush, Messou, Oisakedjak, etc., was perhaps the nearest approach to a beneficient supernatural in the Miami theogony. They have lost all trace of him now except in their legends of Wi-sa'-ka- tcak'-wa, who was the incarnation of Michaboo, and who was not a worshipful character as presented in these legends. This is no doubt the result of a prolonged debasement of the original conception. As Brinton aptly puts it: "This is a low, modern and corrupt version of the character of Michaboo, bearing no more resemblance to his real and ancient one than the language and acts of our Savior and the . apostles in the coarse Mystery Plays of the Middle Ages do to those revealed by the Evangelists".25
The Miami theory of creation starts with the proposition that "there was nothing but water before the earth (i. e. the visible earth, the dry land) was created; and that on this vast expanse of water floated a great raft of logs, on which were all the animals of all kinds that are on the earth, of which the Great Hare was chief". The Great Hare told the animals that if he could get some earth from beneath the water, he could make a land large enough for them to live on. The beaver was first induced to dive for this purpose, but after a long stay came up insensible from exhaustion, and unsuccessful. The otter then tried,
25 The Myths of the New World, p. 194.
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but with no better success. Then the muskrat went down, and after a stay of twenty-four hours came up insensible; but in one of his clenched paws they found a grain of sand, from which Michaboo made an island.
They proceeded to occupy this island, which was increased from time to time by Michaboo until it became the continent; and when one of the animals died Michaboo would take its body and make a man of it, as he did also with the bodies of fish and animals found on the shores. This was the ascribed reason for the animal totems of the various clans, and their claimed descent from various animals. It will be noted that Michaboo required matter with which to create anything. The Indians had no conception of creation by fiat, or of making something from nothing. They believed that matter was eternal, and, as Perrot says, "In regard to the ocean and the firmament, they believe that these were from eternity". This creation legend had numerous variant forms.26 In several of these the story of Michaboo appears to be a flood legend instead of a creation legend; and this is true of one recorded even earlier than that of Perrot. In his Relation of 1633, Father LeJeune records the Montagnaise legend of Messou, their Michaboo, who offended certain water manitos; and they brought on the flood, from which he restored the earth.27 But in all of these the deluge was prior to the creation of man by Michaboo; and this fact must be kept in mind in considering the Indian conception of divinity.
It is singular that Michaboo and Mi-ci-bi-si are confused in some authoritative works,28 as they were not only distinct, but also enemies, and both of them are frequently mentioned by travelers. Mi'-ci-bi-si is the Chippewa name of the panther, or as La Hontan puts it: "The Michibichi is a sort of Tyger, only 'tis less than the common Tyger, and not so much speckl'd".29 The Spirit Panther, which bears this same name of Mì'-ci-bi'-si (i. e. the big cat) was "the god of the waters" or "the manito of the waters and the fishes".30 He was supposed to dwell in deep places where the water seems to boil up in lakes and rivers, and' this motion of the water is caused by moving his tail. The Indians offered him gifts to secure his aid in fishing, and to secure protection
26 See Journal of Am. Folk Lore, Vol. 4, p. 193; Report Bur. of Ethnology, 1892-3, pp. 161-209; Emerson's Indian Myths, pp. 336-71; Peter Jones and the Ojibway Indians, p. 33; Kohl's Kitchigami, p. 386; Algic Tales, Vol. 1, p. 166. 27 Jesuit Relations, Vol. 5, p. 155; Vol. 6, p. 157.
28 Brinton 's Myths of the New World, p. 197; Jesuit Relations, Vol. 50, p. 328. 29 Thwaite's La Hontan, p. 345.
30 Jesuit Relations, Vol. 50, p. 289; Vol. 54, p. 155; Vol. 67, p. 159; Blair's Indian Tribes, Vol. 1, p. 59.
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from the dangers of navigation. These dangers were frequent in the use of birch-bark canoes, and whenever the lakes were rough the mis- sionary passengers were grieved by the idolatry of the Indians, who believed in "safety first" when it could be obtained by throwing a little tobacco to Mi'-ci-bi'-si. The French travelers sometimes called this manito L'Homme Tyger, because he was represented as having the face of a man.
The Miami name of this manito is Len'-ni-pin'-ja, or the Man-Cat, and a pool where he is residing is called Lēn'-nī-pin'-ja-ka'-mī. There is one of these places on the Mississinewa river, and there are some startling legends concerning events there. He is also the "spirit" that was supposed to inhabit Lake Manitou, in Fulton County ; and he gives the name to the Shawnese clan to which Tecumtha belonged of Manetuwi Msi-pessi, of which it is said: "The Msi-pessi, when the epithet mi- raculous (manetuwi) is added to it, means a 'celestial tiger,' i. e., a meteor or shooting star. The manetuwi msi-pessi lives in water only, and is visible not as an animal, but as a shooting star." 31 But the activities of this manito are not confined to the water. He corresponds to the "Fire Dragon" of other mythologies; and when they see a meteor, the old Miamis say that it is Len'-ni-pin'-ja going from one sea to another. Godfroy said that the reason he stayed in deep waters was to avoid setting the world on fire; but Finley said that it was to avoid danger of being harmed by Tcing'-wi-a, the Thunder, who is a sort of American Thor. Although not now worshipped, Tcing'-wi-a is still regarded as a manito, but the lightning is considered the effect of his blows. Hence, the Miamis do not say that anything has been struck by lightning, but by Thunder. Finley says that one of Lenni-pin-ja's horns is white, and one blue.
In this connection, it is of interest to refer to the celebrated pictured rocks which were formerly on the Mississippi river just above Alton, but which have now been quarried away. When Father Marquette made his first trip down the Mississippi he had been warned against it by the Menominees, who told him that the great river was "full of horrible monsters, which devoured men and canoes together", and that at one point there was a demon that barred navigation.32 He made light of the warning, but apparently was on the lookout for them; and he saw one, for he says: "We saw on the water a monster with the head of a tiger, a sharp nose like that of a wildcat, with whiskers and straight erect ears. The head was gray and the neck quite black; but we saw
31 Report Bureau of Eth. 1892-3, p. 682.
32 Jesuit Relations, Vol. 59, p. 97.
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no more creatures of this sort".33 A little later, when he reached the pictured rocks, he wrote: "While skirting some rocks, which by their height and length inspired awe, we saw upon one of them two painted monsters which at first made us afraid, and upon which the boldest savages dare not long rest their eyes. They are as large as a calf : they have horns on their heads like those of a deer, a horrible look, red eyes, a beard like a tiger's, a face somewhat like a man's, a body covered with scales, and so long a tail that it winds all around the body passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a fish's tail".
THE PIASA BIRD
MARQUETTE'S MONSTER (Lěn'-nă-pin'-dja, or Man-Cat of the Peorias and Illinois; Mi-ci-bi'-si, of the Northern tribes.)
This rock, which had numerous other pictographs in addition, has been quite a puzzle to antiquarians, and has been known as "the Piasa Rock" since William McAdams published his "Record of Ancient Races in the Mississippi Valley", in 1887, in which he said it was so called. Mr. McAdams was a farmer of the vicinity, who took great interest in prehistoric matters, and he performed a real service by pre- serving two pictures of Marquette's monsters. The best one, which is labeled "Flying Dragon", and inscribed "Made by Wm. Dennis, April 3d, 1825", is reproduced here.34 McAdams says: "The name Piasa is Indian, and signifies in the Illini 'The Bird which devours men' ".
33 Jesuit Relations, Vol. 59, p. 111.
34 Both pictures were reproduced in the Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, with an extended discussion, in 1892-3, p. 640.
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There is no such word in the Illinois, and it would not have that mean- ing if there were. Amos Stoddard came nearer to it seventy-five years earlier, when he wrote: "What they (Joliet and Marquette) call Painted Monsters on the side of a high perpendicular rock, apparently inaccessible to man, between the Missouri and Illinois, and known to the moderns by the name of Piesa, still remain in a good state of preser- vation." 35 That this was the early pronunciation is shown by the following entry in the Executive Journal of Indiana Territory : "Jan- uary 1st, 1807. A Liscence was granted to Eli Langford to keep a ferry on the east side of the Mississippi in St. Clair County above the mouth of the Missouri and two miles from Pyesaw Rock." 36
The Illinois and Miami name is Pa-i'-sa, plural Pa-i'-sa-ki, which is the name of a race of "little men" corresponding to the elves and ko- bolds. They are rather friendly to men, and will not injure you unless you intrude on their preserves. They live under the water usually, and are the same people who were said to make arrow-heads for Indians in the preceding chapter. When an Indian dies, two of them come to guide his spirit over the Milky Way, which is the path of departed spirits to the "happy hunting grounds". The monster represented is Len'-ni- pin'-ja, or Mi'-ci-bi'-si, and his picture was probably believed to have been placed there as warning of the Len'-ni-pin'-ja-ka'-mi, which Mar- quette found at the mouth of the Missouri, five miles farther down. It is probable that the stories of a race of dwarfs in this country originated in Indian legends of the Pa-i'-sa-ki, just as the report of griffons came from their Mi'-ci-bi'-si stories.
In the earliest Peoria and Miami texts and vocabularies, the word used for "God" is Ki'-ci-ma-nět'-o-wa (The Great Spirit-varied in other dialects to Gi'-tci-ma-ni'-to, etc.), and this is still used by some of the Algonquian tribes for the white man's God. With the Miamis it has been dropped so completely that I have never found a Miami who had heard the word, though they all understood its primary meaning at once. In 1797, when Volney obtained his Miami vocabulary, he gave for "God" the alternative, "Kitchi Manetoua or Kajehelangoua". The latter word, Kä-ci'-hi-lan'-gwa, means literally "he who made us all", and unquestionably in its original use referred to Michaboo. But both of these words are now out of use, and Ka-ci'-hi-wi-a, i. e. the Creator, is now used for "God". The explanation of this is that Ki'-ci-ma-nět'- o-wa was the name of the Great Serpent, who was not a beneficent spirit, but merely the most powerful of the manitos, and with rather a
35 Sketches of Louisiana, Phila. 1812, p. 17.
86 Ind. Hist. Soc. Pubs. Vol. 3, p. 138.
.
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worse disposition than most of them. He was an enemy of Michaboo, and altogether corresponded more nearly to the old world conception of the devil than to the conception of God. The Miamis and Illinois were more rapidly Christianized than any of the other western tribes, and, no doubt, when the true character of Ki'-ci-ma-nět'-o-wa was learned by the missionaries, their influence was used to discontinue the use of the
SARAH WADSWORTH (Wi-ka'-pi-min-dja, or The Linn Tree. A Wea woman, native of Indiana )
word. I am confident that the Miamis never had any conception of a divine, omnipotent, beneficent spirit, similar to the Christian, Jewish, or Platonic conceptions of God, until they got it from the missionaries ; and I think this was true of all the Indians.
In his dealings with the manitos, the Miami took no chances; and therefore, in addition to offerings and prayers, if he knows any charms that will prevent injury, he uses them also. In proposing an offering
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one says to another : "A-ko'-lá (smoke) ná-ma'-wa-ta'-wi (let us offer) ki-mä'-co-mi'-na (our grandfather). Grandfather is the most respectful and endearing term that can be used to an elder or superior; in familiar usage it is shortened to Má'-ca. Tobacco, which is especially agreeable to all intelligent manitos, is smoked and puffed out towards the location of the manito, or sometimes thrown on the fire to ascend in smoke or thrown into the water or the air. The word for sacrifice implies throwing.
In addition to tobacco, the old Miamis use a mixture of the common everlasting (Gnaphalium polycephalum), which the Weas call pä'-wä- kř'-ki, and the Miamis pät-sa'-ki (odorous), and the leaves of the red cedar. These are dried, rubbed to powder in the hands, and thrown to the manito. This is accompanied by a prayer : "Ni-ma'-co-mi'-na (our grandfather) lam-pä'-na-ci'-so-la'-mű (do not harm us) ki-tá'-ma-kř-ű'- li-mi-lo'-mű (have mercy on us)". Sarah Wadsworth (Wi-ka'-pa- min'-dja, or Linn Tree) informed me that one day an ugly cyclone cloud was moving down from the North towards their house, in Oklahoma, when she ran out on one side of the house and offered the above incense and invocation; and, unknown to her, Aunt Susan Medicine (Wa'-no- kam'-kwa, or Fog Woman) went out on the other side and did the same. They each also threw out a shovelful of hot coals, which the storm manito cannot cross. The cloud broke in two, and the two parts went around them without injury. The Miamis had a small variety of tobacco, which they raised themselves, that was used for offerings.
Some of the most lasting of their old beliefs are in their funeral customs. With little regard to their Christian affiliations, the Miamis believe in the immortality of the soul; and they do not believe in the existence of a hell. They believe in a "happy hunting ground", which they call a-tci'-pai-a ä'-hi wi-a'-ki-wa'-tci (where the spirit dwells) This delightful spirit land is reached by a long road, including what we call the Milky Way, and which the Miamis call a-tci'-pai-i-ka-na'-wä (the spirit path). This was the original Algonquian belief, as Father Le Jeune recorded it in 1634: "They call the milky way Tchipai meskanau, the path of souls, because they think the souls raise them- selves through this way in going to that great village".37 In their funerals, at least until quite recently, they observed the Indian cere- monial, whether accompanied by Christian services or not. In this some prominent or old person takes position at the foot of the grave, and delivers an address to the dead, which they call pä-ko'-ma-ta. A typical form of this address, which is varied more or less at the will of the speaker, is as follows: :
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