USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume I > Part 36
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The names of the ancient clans of the Wyandot tribe are as follows:
1. Big Turtle.
2. Little Turtle.
3. Mud Turtle.
4. Wolf.
5. Bear.
6. Beaver.
7. Deer.
8. Porcupine.
9. Striped Turtle.
10. Highland Turtle, or Prairie Turtle.
11. Snake.
12. Hawk.
These clan names are all expressed in Wyandot, words so long and hard to properly pronounce that they are omitted here. They are written in what the Wyandots call the Order of Precedence and Encampment, as I have recorded them above. On the march the warriors of the Big Turtle Clan marched in front, those of the Little Turtle Clan marched next to them, and so on down to the last clan, except the Wolf Clan, which had command of the march and might be where its presence was most necessary. The tribal encampment was formed "on the shell of the Big Turtle," as the old Wyandots said. This means that the tents were arranged in a circular form as though surrounding the shell of the Big Turtle. The Big Turtle Clan was placed where the right fore-leg of the turtle was supposed to be and the other clans were arranged around in their proper order, except the Wolf Clan, which could be in the center of the inclosure on the turtle's back, or in front of it where the turtle's head was supposed to be, as it was thought best. In ancient times all their villages were built in this order, and in the tribal council the clans took this order in seating themselves, with the sachem either in the center or in the front of the door of the council chamber.
These elans were separated into two divisions, or phratries. The first phratry consisted of the following tribes :
1. Bear.
2. Dcer.
3. Snake.
4. Hawk.
The second phratry consisted of the following tribes :
1. Big Turtle.
2. Little Turtle.
3. Mud Turtle.
4. Beaver.
5. Porcupine.
6. Striped Turtle.
7. Highland Turtle, or Prairie Turtle.
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The Mediator, Executive Power, and Umpire of the tribe was the Wolf Clan, which stood between the phratries, and bore a cousin relation to each.
All the clans of a phratry bore the relation of brothers to one another, and the clans of one phratry bore the relation of cousins to those of the other phratry.
Their marriage laws were fixed by this relationship. Anciently a man of the first phratry was compelled to marry a woman of the second phratry, and vice versa. This was because every man of a phratry was supposed to be the brother of every other man in it, and every woman in the phratry was supposed to be his sister. The law of marriage is now so modified that it applies only to the clans, a man of the Deer Clan being permitted to marry a woman of Bear, Snake, Hawk, or any other elan but his own. Indeed, even this modification has now almost dis- appeared. If a man of the Deer Clan married a woman of the Porcupine Clan, all of his children were of the Porcupine Clan, for the gens always follows the woman and never the man. The descent and distribution of property followed the same law; the son could inherit nothing from his father, for they were always of different clans. A man's property descended to his nearest kindred through his mother. The woman is always the head of the Wyandot family.
Five of the ancient clans of the Wyandots are extinct. They are as follows: (1) Mud Turtle; (2) Beaver; (3) Striped Turtle; (4) High- land, or Prairie Turtle; (5) Hawk.
Those still in existence are as follows: (1) Big Turtle; (2) Little Turtle; (3) Wolf; (4) Deer; (5) Bear; (6) Porcupine; (7) Snake.
The present government of the Wyandot tribe is based on this ancient division of the tribes. An extract from the Constitution may be of interest. It was adopted September 23, 1873:
It shall be the duty of the said Nation to elect their officers on the second Tuesday in July of each year. That said election shall be con- ducted in the following manner. Each Tribe (clan), consisting of the following Tribes: The Big and Little Turtle, Porcupine, Deer, Bear, and Snake, shall elect a chief; and then the Big and Little Turtle and Porcupine Tribes shall select one of their three chiefs as a candidate for Principal Chief. The Deer, Bear, and Snake Tribes shall also select one of their three chiefs as candidate for Principal Chief; and then at the general elcetion to be held on the day above mentioned, the one receiving the highest number of votes cast shall be declared the Principal Chief; the other shall be declared the Second Chief. The above-named tribes shall on the above named election day elect one or more sheriffs.
The Wolf Tribe shall have the right to eleet a chief whose duty shall be that of Mediator.
In case of misdemeanor on the part of any Chief, for the first offense the Council shall send the Mediator to warn the party; for the second offense the party offending shall be liable to removal by the Mediator, or Wolf and his Clan, from office.
The origin of these clans is hidden in the obscurity of great antiquity. They are of religious origin. We learn something of them from the
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Wyandot mythology, or folk-lore. The ancient Wyandots believed that they were descended from these animals, for whom their elans were named. The animals from which they were descended were different from the animal of the same species to-day. They were deities, zoological gods. The animals of the same speeies are deseended from them. These animals were the ereators of the universe. The Big Turtle made the Great Island, as North America was ealled, by the Wyandots, and he bears it on his baek to this day. The Little Turtle made the sun, moon, and many of the stars. The Mud Turtle made a hole through the Great Island for the sun to pass back to the East through after setting at night. so he could arise upon a new day. While making this hole through the Great Island the Mud Turtle turned aside from her work long enough to fashion the future home of the Wyandots, their happy hunting- grounds, to which they go after death. The sun shines there at night while on his way back to the East .. This land is called the land of the Little People, a race of pigmies ereated to assist the Wyandots. They live in it, and preserve the ancient customs, habits, beliefs, language and government of the Wyandots for their use after they leave this world by death. These Little People come and go through the "living roek," but the Wyandots must go to it by way of a great underground city where they were once hidden while the works of the world were being restored after destruction in a war between two brothers who were gods.
All Wyandot proper names had their foundation in this elan system. They were clan names. The unit of the Wyandot social and political systems was not the family nor the individual, but the clan. The ehild belonged to its elan first, to its parents afterwards. Each clan had its list of proper names, and this list was its exclusive property which no other elan eould appropriate or use. They were necessarily elan names.
The customs and nsages governing the formation of clan proper names demanded that they be derived from some part, habit, aetion or peculiarity of the animal from which the elan was supposed to be de- scended. Or they might be derived from some property, law, or pecu- liarity of the element in which such animal lived. Thus a proper name was always a distinctive badge of the elan bestowing it.
When death left unused any original elan proper name, the next child born into the elan, if of the sex to which the vaeant name belonged, had such vacated name bestowed upon it. If no child was born, and a stranger was adopted, this name was given to such adopted person. This was the unchangeable law, and there was but one proviso or exception to it. When a child was born under some extraordinary eireumstanees, or peculiarity, or with some distinguishing mark, or a stranger adopted with these, the council-women of the clan informed themselves of all the faets and devised a name in which all these faets were imbedded. This name was made to conform to the ancient law governing clan proper names if possible, but often this could not be done. These special names died with their owners, and were never perpetuated.
The parents were not permitted to name the child; the clan bestowed the name. Names were given but onee a year, and always at the ancient
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anniversary of the Green Corn Feast. Aneiently, formal adoptions eould be made at no other time. The name was bestowed by the elan chief. He was a eivil officer of both his elan and the tribe. At an appointed time in the ceremonies of the Green Corn Feast each clan chief took an assigned position, which in ancient times was the Order of Precedence and Eneampment, and parents having children to be named filed before him in, the order of the ages of the children to be named. The council- women stood by the elan chief, and announeed to him the name of each child presented, for all elan proper names were made by the council- women. This he could do by simply annonneing the name to the parents, or by taking the child in his arms and addressing it by the name selected for it.
The adoption of a stranger was into some family by consent, or at the instance of the principal woman of the family. It was not necessary that the adoption be made at the Green Corn Feast. The adoption was not considered complete, however, until it was ratified by the elan ehief at the Green Corn Feast. This ratifieation might be accomplished in the simple ceremonial of being presented at this time to the clan chief by one of the Sheriff's. His elan name was bestowed upon him, and he was welcomed in a few well-chosen words, and the ceremony was complete. Or the adoption might be performed with as much display, ceremony and pomp as the tribal eonneil might, from any eanse, deeree. The tribal council controlled in some degree the matter of adoptions. In ancient times, when many prisoners of war were brought in it determined how many should be tortured and how many adopted.
Lalemant says the original and true name of the Wyandots is Quen- dat.
In history the Wyandots have been spoken of by the following names :
1. Tionnontates,
2. Etionontates,
3. Tuinontatek,
4. Dionondadies,
5. Khionontaterrhonons,
6. Petunenx or Nation dn Petun (Tobacco).
They call themselves : -
1. Wehn'-duht, or
2. Wehn'-dooht.
They never accepted the name Huron, which is of French origin.
The Wyandots have been always considered the remnant of the Hurons. That they were related to the people ealled Hurons by the French, there is no doubt. After having studied them carefully for almost twenty years, I am of the opinion that the Wyandots are more closely related to the Senecas than they were to the ancient Hurons.
Both myth and tradition of the Wyandots say they were "created" in the region between St. James's Bay and the coast of Labrador. All
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their traditions describe their ancient home as north of the mouth of the St. Lawrence.
In their traditions of their migrations southward they say they came to the island where Montreal now stands. They took possession of the country along the north bank of the St. Lawrence from the Ottawa River to a large lake and river far below Quebec.
On the south side of the St. Lawrence lived the Senecas, so the Wyandot traditions recite. The Senecas claimed the island upon which the city of Montreal is built. The Senecas and Wyandots have always claimed a cousin relation with each other. They say that they have been neighbors from time immemorial. Their languages are almost the same, each being the dialect of an older common mother-tongue. They are as nearly alike as are the Seneca and Mohawk dialects. The two tribes live side by side at this time, and each can speak the tongue of the other as well as it speaks its own.
When the Wyandots came to the St. Lawrence, and how long they remained there, cannot now be determined. Their traditions say that they were among those that met Cartier at Hochelaga in 1535. Accord- iug to their traditions, Hochelaga was a Seneca town.
It has been the opinion of writers upon the subject that the Wyan- dots migrated from the St. Lawrence directly to the point where they were found by the French. Whatever the fact may be, their traditions tell a different story. Their route was up the St. Lawrence, which they crossed, and along the south shore of Lake Ontario. They held this course until they arrived at the Falls of Niagara, where they settled and remained for some years.
The Wyandots removed from the Falls of Niagara, the site now occupied by Toronto, Canada. Their removal from Niagara was in consequence of the Iroquois coming into their historic seat in what is now New York. This settlement they called by their word which means "plenty," or "a land of plenty." They named it so because of the abundance of game and fish they found, and of the abundance of corn, beans, squashes and tobacco they raised. The present name of that city is only a slight change of the old Wyandot name, which was pronounced "To-run-to."
As the Iroquois pushed farther westward, the Wyandots became uneasy because of former wars with them and finally abandoned their country at Toronto and migrated northward. Here they came in con- tact with the Hurons, who tried to expel them, but were unable to do so. The French found them in alliance with the Hurons, but record that they had but recently been at war with that people. When the Jesuits went among the Hurons the Wyandots were a part of the Huron Confederacy. Their history from this point is well known.
If it turns out that there is any reliance to be placed in the traditions of the Wyandots, they were found in their historic seat about one hun- dred and five years from the time they were first seen by the French at Montreal in 1535. Their migration from the St. Lawrence, by way of
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the Niagara Falls and Toronto to the Blue Mountains on the shores of the Nottawassaga Bay, occurred after the French first came to Canada.
The Wyandots were involved in the general ruin wrought by the Iroquois.
The Wyandots came to Kansas from Upper Sandusky, Ohio, in the summer of 1843. They stopped about Westport, Mo., and some of them camped on the south and east side of the Kansas River north of the Shawnee line, the land being now in Kansas City, Kansas. By the terms of the treaty made at Upper Sandusky, March 17, 1842, the Wyan- dots were given one hundred and forty-eight thousand acres of land, to be located in the Indian country which became Kansas. The lands there to be had did not snit them. Their reservation was located on the Neosho. They were far advanced toward civilization, and did not wish to live so far from a civilized community. They had attempted to pur- chase a strip of land seven miles wide by twenty-five miles long adjoin- ing the State of Missouri from the Shawnee, but that tribe finally refused to sell. The Wyandots justly complained that they had given both the Shawnees and Delawares homes in Ohio, and now neither tribe really desired to sell them a home in the West. But the Delawares did, at length sell them thirty-nine sections in the fork of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, now the eastern part of Wyandotte County, for forty- eight thousand dollars. They moved on this tract in the winter of 1843-44.
The first Mission ever founded in the world by the Methodist Epis- copal Church was among the Wyandots at Upper Sandusky. This mis- sion was brought bodily to Kansas by the Wyandots. It is now the Washington Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, Kansas City, Kansas. The division in the Methodist Episcopal Church cansed dissension in the Wyandot nation, and the Church South, in that Nation, organized at that time. This Church also is an active organization in Kansas City, Kansas, at this time. This author has in his collection of historical papers the records of the Sandusky Mission and the documents relating to the separation of the Church in Kansas.
By treaty concluded by the Wyandots with the United States at Washington, D. C., January 31, 1855, they dissolved their tribal rela- tions and became citizens of the United States. They took their lands in severalty, and the entire reservation was surveyed and allotted to the members of the tribe as citizens. The titles to the land held in Wyandotte County are based on the U. S. patents to these allotments. The towns of Armstrong, Armourdale, Wyandotte, and old Kansas City, Kansas, were consolidated by act of the legislature into the present Kansas City, Kansas.
The unsettled times in Kansas prior to and during the Civil War worked hardship on many of the Wyandots. They lost their property and became very poor. By treaty made February 23, 1867, the Gov- ernment provided a reservation of twenty thousand acres of land on the Neosho, in what is now Oklahoma, for these Wyandots. They im- Vol. 1-17
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mediately gathered there and resumed their tribal relations. Most of the Wyandot people are now to be found therc.
THE POTTAWATOMIES
The history of the Pottawatomies, even after they were in communi- cation with the Europeans, is difficult and often obscure. Their name signifies People of the place of the fire. They came to be generally
Hongtt
ABRAM BURNETT, CHIEF OF THE POTTAWATOMIES [Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society ]
known as the "Fire Nation." There is reason to believe that the Potta- watomies, the Chippewas, and the Ottawas originally formed one tribe. As one people they lived in that country about the upper shores of Lake Huron. The separation into three parts probably occurred there, and the Jesuits found them at Sault St. Marie in 1640. In 1670 the tribe or some portion of it, was living on the islands at the mouth of Green Bay. They were gathered about the Mission of St. Francis Xavier. The movement of the tribe was to the southward, and by the year 1700, or about that time, they were seated around the south end of Lake Michigan. Some of them lived far down in what is now the
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State of Indiana. They were active in the interest of the French to and through the French and Indian War. In the Revolution they were on the side of the British, and they were against the United States until after elose of the War of 1812. They lacked unity of action always, and when settlers erowded in upon them they seattered in various directions. They sold their lands in small lots and realized little from them. They are yet scattered abroad. By the year 1840 most of them were west of the Mississippi. That portion of the tribe which settled in Iowa became known as the Prairie band, while those in Kansas were known as the Pottawatomie of the Woods. The Prairie band first moved to the Platte Purchase, in Western Missouri, and their agency was near the present City of St. Joseph. From that point they were removed to
OLD POTTAWATOMIE MISSION FIVE MILES WEST OF TOPEKA. BUHLT IN 1849. Now USED AS BARN
[From Photograph by Walcott, Topeka, 1916]
what is now Pottawatomie County, Iowa, their chief settlement being at and about Council Bluffs.
Their Kansas reservation resulted from the treaty of 1837, by which they ceded their lands in Indiana. For these they were to have a tract on the Osage River, just west of Missouri, "sufficient in extent and adapted to their habits and wants." Pursuant to the terms of this treaty a tract of land about thirty-six by forty-two miles in extent was sur- veyed for the Pottawatomies. It was located some eighteen miles west of the Missouri line. Its south line was the north line of the lands assigned to the New York Indians, and passed about nine miles north of the present town of Iola. The north line of the tract ran about six miles south of Ottawa. The reservation contained about fifteen hun- dred square miles. Some of the tribe moved to this traet of land, set- tling along the Osage, and on what eame to be known as Big and Little Osage Creeks. Also on Sugar Creek and on Pottawatomie Creek, in
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Miami County. The Iowa band had not disposed of the lands held about Council Bluffs. It was clear that there never could be a united nation under those conditions.
In June, 1846, a treaty was held with the two divisions of the tribe. It was concluded at the Pottawatomie Agency, near Council Bluffs, on the 5th day of June with the Iowa or Prairie band; and on the 17th of June with the Kansas band, on Pottawatomie Creek. In this treaty there was an attempt to bring together the tribes formed by the ancient division of the Pottawatomies. It provided that the various bands of the Pottawatomie Indians, known as the Chippewas, Ottawas, and Pot- tawatomies, the Pottawatomies of the Prairie, the Pottawatomies of the Wabash, and the Pottawatomies of Indiana, being the same people by kindred, by feeling, and by language, should unite and be consolidated into one people to be known as the Pottawatomie Nation. Their Kansas and Iowa lands were ceded to the United States. In lieu of these lands they were assigned a new reservation in Kansas, described as follows:
"A tract or parcel of land containing five hundred and seventy-six thousand acres, being thirty miles square, and being the eastern part of lands ceded to the United States by the Kansas tribe of Indians, lying adjoining the Shawnees on the south, and the Delawares and Shawnees on the east, on both sides of the Kansas River."
This tract was the east thirty miles of the old Kansas Indian reserva- tion. It lay immediately west of Topeka, and it comprises one of the most fertile tracts in Kansas. The Pottawatomie Nation was to move to this new reservation within two years, and certain annuities were to be paid the individuals of the Nation one year after they had settled there. The Kansas band began to move almost immediately, but it was the full two years before the Nation had assembled on the Kansas River. Some of the Kansas band settled west and southwest of Topeka. There the Baptists established a Mission, some of the buildings of which still stand.
.Jonas Lykins established the Baptist Mission on the reservation of the Pottawatomies. He was the brother of Dr. Johnston Lykins, of con- siderable note in the very early history of Kansas. Jonas Lykins had lived with the Pottawatomies on their reservation on the Osage. The activities of the Baptists there were near the present town of Osawatomie. From that point Jonas Lykins came to the new location, arriving on the 15th of November, 1847. He settled on the northeast quarter of section seventeen (17), township twelve (12), range fifteen (15), in what is now Shawnee County. In the Spring of 1848 he built a large double log- house on the northwest quarter of section thirty-two (32), township eleven (11), range fifteen (15). In 1849 he built a two-story stone house, forty by eighty feet in dimensions, which is still standing. In 1848 the Rev. Robert Simmerwell, his daughter Sarah, and Miss Eliza- beth McCoy, arrived at the Baptist mission. They organized and taught a school for the Pottawatomie children. Mr. Simmerwell was a black- smith, and in 1848 set up a shop to follow his trade. After Lykins. the superintendents of the mission were Mr. Saunders, Mr. Alexander, Rev. John Jackson, and Rev. John Jones.
MRS. FANNIE SIMMERWELL
REV. ROBERT SIMMERWELL
[Copy by Willard of Portrait in Library of Kansas State Historical Society]
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The Catholics also founded a mission among them. This mission was at the junction of the three forks of the Wakarusa. It had been com- menced on Sugar Creek, on the old first Kansas reservation, in 1837, by Father Christian Hoecken. He came north with one of the first parties, and in 1847 began the erection of mission buildings at the forks of the Wakarusa, in 1847. Some twenty log cabins were erected at that point. It was soon discovered that the mission was south of the reservation line, and on the Shawnee land. As the Pottawatomies could not collect their annuities until they had moved on to their own land, they abandoned their houses and moved north of the Kansas River. The Catholic Fathers established themselves at a beautiful site, now the town of St. Mary's. The mission has grown into one of the principal Catholie institutions of the West.
While the Pawnees had agreed to retire beyond the Platte as early as 1834, they seem to have been possessed of a determination to hold the valley of the Kansas River. No sooner had the Pottawatomies settled themselves about the mission at St. Mary's than the Pawnees began attacks upon them, intending to expel them, or at least hoping to make the new home so uneomfortable the Pottawatomies would abandon it. But the old Algonquian stock was ever courageous. The Pottawatomies accepted the challenge. They declared war on the Pawnees, and dug up the tomahawk. The Pawnee force was camped along the Big Blue, down which stream they always came to make war on the enemies in the valley of the Kansas. The Pottawatomies attacked at the Rocky Ford, in what is now Pottawatomie County. A fierce skirmish ensued, in which the superior firearms of the Pottawatomies gave them the advantage. While the Pawnees were not defeated, they did retreat from the field, passing westward to Chapman's Creek, where they made a stand. There they had a better country for the free movements of their horses, in their peculiar tactics. The Pottawatomies pursued, and when they came up with their foes a considerable battle ensued. The Pawnees had only horsemen, and at the Rocky Ford only mounted Pottawatomies had engaged them. The Pottawatomies had determined to settle once for all whether they could live on the Kansas, and had mustered their full strength, many on foot. These latter were stationed in some short bushy ravines under a high steep bank. The Pottawatomie horsemen so maneuvered that the Pawnees were drawn down the prairie along these gullies, when the Pottawatomie footmen lying in ambush there opened fire. The Pawnces were taken by complete surprise. Several of their foremost warriors were slain, but they did not give up the battle, which was fiercely contested with the mounted Pottawatomies, who were now much encouraged. They charged the Pawnees repeatedly, finally putting them to flight. The Pawnees disappeared northward over the prairies, and never more made a foray below the Big Blue. The Pottawatomies were never more molested by them. They lost some forty warriors in this effort to drive out the Pottawatomies. For many years a Potta- watomic chieftain who had distinguished himself in this campaign would decorate himself in true warrior style on the anniversary of the battle
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