USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume I > Part 38
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There was a Moravian mission among these Indians. Little was ever accomplished in the way of Christianizing the Chippewas, however. Their missionary once remarked that he had little hope of meeting any of them in heaven.
There were twenty-three elans among the Chippewas:
1. Wolf.
2. Bear.
3. Beaver.
4. Mud Turtle.
5. Snapping Turtle.
6. Little Turtle.
7. Reindeer.
8. Snipe.
9. Crane.
10. Pigeon Hawk.
11. Raven.
12. Bald Eagle.
13. Loon.
14. Duek.
15. Swan.
16. Snake.
17. Marten.
18. Heron.
19. Bullhead.
20. Carp.
21. Sturgeon.
22. Pike.
23. Piekerel.
MORAVIAN MUNSEES
Another small band of the Christian Indians moved to Kansas and were permitted to settle on the Delaware reservation. They had a town near the Kansas River, near the present town of Muncie, in Wyandotte County. Later they moved to a beautiful location in Leavenworth County, now the National Military Home and Mount Muneie Cemetery. A small band of Stockbridges had been permitted to settle there, also, but these returned to Wisconsin after a residence of a few years. In the Vol. 1-1º
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treaty of May 6, 1854, with the Delaware, the Moravian Munsees, called also the Christian Indians, were assigned a reservation. It included the fine location mentioned above, and consisted of four sections of land. They lived on their reservation but four years after it had been set off to them. By act of Congress they were authorized to dispose of the land. and they sold it to one A. J. Isacks.
KASKASKIA CONFEDERACY
This was not a true confederacy, but an association of tribes which resulted from circumstances over which none had much control.
The Kaskaskias made a treaty at Vincennes in 1803, in which it is recited that they "are the remains, and rightfully represent all the tribes of the Illinois Indians." They ceded more than eight million acres in the heart of Illinois, reserving only three hundred and fifty acres near the old town of Kaskaskia, with the privilege of locating another tract of twelve hundred and eighty acres in the tract ceded. In 1818 the Peorias, part of the Illinois Indians, who had to that time lived apart, united with the Kaskaskias. All of them ceded their lands in Illinois and received a reservation of six hundred and forty acres on the Blackwater River, near St. Genevieve, in Missouri. The Weas and Piankashwas were closely re- lated to the Miamis. They ceded their lands in Indiana in 1818-the Piankashwas earlier-and were moved west of the Mississippi in that year. They were settled near St. Genevieve, also. There these tribes became united with the Kaskaskias and Peorias. But, like the Delawares and Shawnees, they wandered at will in the West. The existence of Peoria and Piankashaw towns on the White River, near the site of the present town of Forsyth, Mo., has been noticed. These towns had been established before 1828. October 27, 1832, a treaty made with the Kaskaskias and Peorias assigned them one hundred and fifty sections of land west of the State of Missouri, on the waters of the Osage River. This reservation was to include a Peoria town which had already been established on the north bank of the Osage, or Marais des Cygnes, a few miles below the present site of Ottawa, Franklin County. The Peorias had arrived in 1827.
On the 29th day of October, 1832, the Piankashaws and Weas were given a reservation extending from that of the Kaskaskias and Peorias to the west line of the State of Missouri, containing two hundred and fifty sections of land. These reservations were in what are now Franklin and Miami counties.
In the treaty made on the 30th day of May, 1854, it is recited "that the tribes of Kaskaskia and Peoria Indians, and the Piankeshaw and Wea Indians, having recently in joint council assembled, united them- selves into a single tribe, the United States hereby assent to the action of said joint council." In this treaty it was provided that the lands should be allotted to the Indians and the surplus land sold for their benefit. Baptiste Peoria was accused of having secured proceeds of the sales of land allotted to pretended parties, who did not exist. The fraud caused
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many lawsuits. These Indians were settled at the Quapaw Agency, in the Indian Territory.
The Presbyterians established a mission among the Weas and Pianka- shwas. It was commenced in 1834, aud seems to have been abandoned in 1838. The Methodists had a mission among the Peorias about the same time. The Baptists established a mission about one mile east of the present town of Paola, and the mission prevailed and prospered. It was commenced about the year 1839. Dr. David Lykins was the missionary in 1844, and he continued to live in that country after the Territory of Kansas had been organized. In some authorities it is said that Dr. Lykins founded the mission about 1840. Later he took an active interest in politics, on the pro-slavery side. He was a member of the first Terri- torial Legislature, and Miami County was first named Lykins County, in his honor.
QUAPAWS
The Quapaws are the Arkansas Indians. They were once a powerful tribe, claiming a vast territory which extended from the Mississippi to head waters of the Red River. As the tract remained at the time of the cession, it was bounded on the north by the Arkansas and the Canadian rivers, on the south by the Red River down almost to Shreveport, thence to the Mississippi River.
The Quapaws represented the southern division of the Siouan family. Mneh of the land ceded by the Osages belonged of right to the Quapaws, and especially that bordering on the Mississippi in Missouri and Arkan- sas. It has already been noticed that this was the tribe called the Esean- jaques by the Spaniards in their early explorations. At that time their possessions west of the Mississippi were not so extensive, the land of the Caddoans approaching that great river closely, especially below the mouth of the Arkansas.
In 1834 the Quapaws were assigned a reservation on the Neosho. It extended north of the south line of Kansas, as later established, some twelve sections of land being found to be in Kansas. This they disposed of in 1867. The Quapaws had never occupied this land, so never lived in Kansas.
OTOES AND MISSOURIS
The Otoes and Missouris are tribes of the Sionan family. They were placed on a reservation in the country about the Nemaha River, in what became Kansas and Nebraska. By a treaty made September 21, 1833. they ceded their country south of the Little Nemaha. The remainder of their lands were ceded to the United States by a treaty made March 15, 1854, and they were assigned a diminished reservation on the waters of the Big Blue River. This tract was twenty-five miles long-east and west-by ten miles wide. It was surveyed to please the Indians from some point ealled by them the "Islands." The south boundary fell two
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miles below or south of the north line of Kansas. They lived there until the white people crowded them out, moving to the Indian Territory in 1881. It required twenty years to quiet the title to this reservation. As usual, the Indians received only a small part of the value of the land.
AUTHORITIES
Some of the principal authorities upon which this chapter is based are indicated in the text. Of those not mentioned there, the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, the treaties made with the Indians, and the article by Miss Anna Heloise Abel in Volume VIII, Kansas Historical Collections, were of most service and most frequently consulted. The article of Mrs. Ida M. Ferris, "The Sauks and Foxes in Franklin and Osage Counties, Kansas." in Volume XI, Kansas Historical Collections, I found of much value.
The Handbook of American Indians, by the Bureau of American Ethnology I found indispensable.
Holcomb's History of Vernon County, Missouri, is scholarly and accurate. It has much on the Osage Indians.
The various maps and manuscripts in the Library of the Kansas State Historical Society contain information not to be found elsewhere.
CHAPTER XI
THE BUFFALO
BY MRS. EDITH CONNELLY ROSS
The history of any plains-state is so inextricably interwoven with the story of the buffalo that the two are incomplete when told separately. The place of the buffalo in the story of the plains is so important that to imagine the two separated is to imagine a new and entirely different history for the plains. They are necessary to each other. Together they were found, together they played their part in pioneer history, and to- gether they disappeared-the buffalo exterminated, the plains metamor- phosed into the well-cultivated farms of to-day. But so elosely were they linked in early plains-history that even to-day the buffalo stands as the symbol of the boundless, free plains, and the pioneer life of the early hunter.
Especially is this true with Kansas history. Kansas has the distine- tion of having been the favorite of all the grazing-land roamed by the mighty herds of the buffalo. She provided an immense, rich pasture-land to the innumerable thousand of wild eattle that covered the prairies. Here grew in generous abundanee the buffalo grass-most fattening and nutritious of stock-feeds. Sustaining beyond most other grasses, it was desired above all else by the buffalo. The Kansas plains were fairly carpeted with this wonderful vegetation. For this reason, Kansas was the Meeca of the buffalo hunter of the day. Here he was certain to find the bison, largest of all American game, in abundance. Here his enter- prise was always rewarded. However the herds might fluetnate in other regions, in Kansas the buffalo was invariably present, until within the last forty-two years. The earliest history of Kansas is linked with that. of the buffalo. Coronado, erossing the Kansas plains in search of the "Seven Cities of Cibola" witnessed a seene familiar to the hunters of three hundred years later-the prairies blackened by huge herds of the buffalo. And probably hundreds of years before the Europeans ever dreamed of the discovery of a new world that same scene had been re- peated many thousands of times on the Kansas prairies.
But of the history of the buffalo before the coming of the Europeans. nothing ean be definitely stated. Had the priests of the Spanish not destroyed the written records of the Aztees, historians would possibly be able to tell much of interest eoneerning the buffalo of the past ages. How- ever, sinee all of this is lost to history, we must be content to begin our story with the first mention of the buffalo by the early explorers.
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The first buffalo ever known to an European was seen by the members of the Cortez expedition in 1521. Fighting their way inland, in that relentless search for gold which was the chief characteristic of the early Spanish explorations, these free-booters eame at last to the Aztee capital, . Anahuac. Here Montezuma, the Emperor of the Aztees, kept in eap- tivity a large menagerie for the use and entertainment of his subjeets. Concerning it, De Solis, the historian, wrote the following account :
In the second Square of the same House were the Wild Beasts, which were either presents to Montezuma, or taken by his Hunters, in strong Cages of Timber, rang'd in good Order, and under Cover; Lions, Tygers, Bears, and all others of the savage Kind which New-Spain produced ;
BUFFALO, GAGE PARK, TOPEKA [ From Photograph Owned by William E. Connelley ]
among which the greatest Rarity was the Mexican Bull; a wonderful composition of divers Animals. It has crooked Shoulders, with a Bunch on its Back like a Camel ; its Flanks dry, its Tail large, and its Neek cover'd with Hair like a Lion. It is eloven footed, its Head armed like that of a Bull, which it resembles in Fierceness, with no less strength and Agility.
Evidently this captive buffalo's appearance made a great impression on the Spanish. And, indeed, compared to the small, sleek cattle they were used to, it must have seemed a veritable monster.
The next appearance of the buffalo in history was in 1530. Alvar Nunez Cabeza, ( C'abeza de Vaca), a Spanish explorer and discoverer, was wrecked on the Gulf Coast west of the Mississippi delta. In his wanderings westward through what is now Texas, he sighted buffalo, and a welcome sight it was to him, for he was literally starving. This was the earliest known discovery of the buffalo in a free state. Of it Cabeza writes :
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('attle come as far as this. I have seen them three times and eaten of their meat. I think they are about the size of those in Spain. They have small horns like those of Morocco, and the hair long and flocky, like that of the merino. Some are light brown (pardillas) and others black. To my judgment the flesh is finer and sweeter than that of this country, (Spain). The Indians make blankets of those that are not full grown, and of the larger they make shoes and bucklers. They come as far as the sea-coast of Florida, (now Texas), and in a direction from the north, and range over a district of more than 400 leagues. In the whole extent of plain over which they roam, the people who live bor- dering upon it descend and kill them for food, and thus a great many skins are scattered throughout the country.
Twelve years later, Coronado, on his famous expedition in search of the "Seven Cities of Cibola" encountered the American bison, Pushing northward and westward, he at length reached the land of the buffalo. ITis first interest in the animal had been awakened by a tanned skin in the possession of one of the Indians visiting the Spaniards. At first he came upon buffalo in small groups, then, later, in the immense herds that ever covered the plains. The Spaniards were interested and amused by hunting, but they soon tired of it and returned to the only occupation that held their keen attention long- the search for gold. Writing of the buffalo, Castaneda, one of Coronado's followers, says :
The first time we encountered the buffalo all the horses took to flight on seeing them for they are horrible to the sight.
They have a broad and short face, eyes two palms from each other, and projecting in such a manner sideways that they can see a pursuer. Their beard is like that of goats, and so long that it drags the ground when they lower the head. They have, on the anterior portion of the body, a frizzled hair like sheep's wool; it is very fine upon the croup, and sleek like a lion's mane. Their horns are very short and thick, and ean scarcely be seen through the hair. They always change their hair in May, and at this season they really resemble lions. To make it drop more quickly, for they change it as adders do their skins, they roll among the brush-wood which they find in the ravines.
Their tail is very short, and terminates in a great tuft. When they run they carry it in the air like scorpions. When quite young they are tawny, and resemble our calves; but as age inercases they change color and formn.
Another thing which struck us was that all the old buffaloes that we killed had the left ear eloven, while it was entire in the young; we could never discover the reason of this.
Their wool is so fine that handsome clothes would certainly be made of it, but it can not be dyed for it is tawny red. We were much surprised at sometimes meeting innumerable herds of bulls without a single cow, and other herds of cows without bulls.
In 1599. Don Juan de Onate, governor of New Mexico, became inter- ested in the buffalo, and sent Vicente de Saldivar to find buffalo and report their habits, appearance, and the chance of capturing and domesticating them. The expedition met large bands of friendly Indians on their trip, and after traveling many leagues, found first one buffalo, a decrepit old bull. This occasioned great merriment among the Spanish. However,
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shortly afterwards, more than three hundred buffalo were sighted, about some pools. Here, too, at these same pools, were Indians, using the beautifully-tanned hides for tents and utensils, and the meat for food. Traveling still further, in their search, the explorers came at last to the main herd of buffalo. Juan Gutierrez Bocanegra, secretary of the expe- dition writes as follows concerning this :
Next day they went three more leagues farther in search of a convenient and suitable site for a corral, and upon finding a place they began to eonstruet it out of large pieces of cottonwood. It took them three days to complete it. It was so large and the wings so long that they thought they could eorral ten thousand head of eattle, because they had seen so many, during those days, wandering so near to the tents and houses. In view of this and of the further fact that when they run they aet as though fettered, they took their capture for granted. It was declared by those who had seen them that in that place alone there were more buffalo than there are eattle in three of the largest ranches in New Spain.
The eorral constructed, they went next day to a plain where on the previous afternoon about a hundred thousand cattle had been seen. Giving them the right of way, the eattle started very nicely towards the eorral, but soon they turned back in a stampede towards the men, and, rushing through them in a mass, it was impossible to stop them, because they are eattle terribly obstinate, courageous beyond exaggera- tion, and so cunning that if pursued they run, and that if their pursuers stop or slaeken their speed they stop and roll, just like mules, and with this respite renew their run. For several days they tried a thousand ways of shutting them in or of surrounding them, but in no manner was it possible to do so. This was not due to fear, for they are remark- ably savage and ferocious, so much so that they killed three of our horses and badly wounded forty, for their horns are very sharp and fairly long, about a span and a half, and bent npward together. They attaek from the side, putting the head far down, so that whatever they seize they tear very badly. Nevertheless, some were killed and over eighty arrobas of tallow were seeured, which without doubt is greatly superior to that from pork; the meat of the bull is superior to that of our eow, and that of the eow equals our most tender veal or mutton.
Seeing therefore that the full grown eattle could not be brought alive, the sargento Mayor ordered that ealves be captured, but they beeame so enraged that out of the many which were being brought. some dragged by ropes and others upon the horses, not one got a league toward the camp, for they all died within about an hour. Therefore it is believed that unless taken shortly after birth and put under the care of our cows or goats, they cannot be brought until the eattle become tamer than they now are.
Its shape and form are so marvellous and laughable, or frightful, that the more one sees it the more one desires to see it, and no one eould be so melancholy that if he were to see it a hundred times a day he could keep from laughing heartily as many times, or could fail to marvel at the sight of so ferocious an animal. Its horns are black and a third of a vara long, as already stated, and resemble those of the bufalo; its eyes are small, its faee, snout, feet and hoofs of the same form as of our cows, with the exception that both the male and female are very much bearded, similar to he-goats. They are so thiekly eovered with wool that it covers their eyes and face, and the forelock nearly envelops their horns. This wool, which is long and very soft, extends
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almost to the middle of the body, but from there on the hair is shorter. Over the ribs they have so much wool and the chine is so high that they appear humpbacked, although in reality and in truth they are not greatly so, for the hump easily disappears when the hides are stretched.
In general, they are larger than our cattle. Their tail is like that of a hog, being very short, and having few bristles at the tip, and they twist it upward when they run. At the knee they have natural garters of very long hair. In their haunehes, which resemble those of mules, they are hipped and erippled, and they therefore run, as already stated, in leaps, especially down hill. They are all of the same dark color, somewhat tawny, in parts their hair being almost black. Such is their appearance which at sight is far more ferocious than the pen can depict. As many of these cattle as are desired ean be killed and brought to these settlements, which are distant from them thirty or forty leagues, but if they are to be brought alive it will be most difficult unless time and erossing them with those from Spain make them tamer.
So far, all the buffalo known to Europeans had been found by the Spaniards. This was entirely natural, for the explorers from Spain operated mostly in the Southwest, in the vicinity of the Great Plains.
The French also met the buffalo in a wild state in the seventeenth century. In 1679, La Salle sent Father Louis Hennepin, a priest and explorer belonging to his retinue, from Fort Crevecoeur to deseend the Illinois and explore the Mississippi River. He passed up the Mississippi and returned to Canada by way of the Great Lakes. On this journey he saw and described the buffalo. Writing of it, he says :
When the Savages discover a great Number of those Beasts together. they likewise assemble their whole Tribe to encompass the Bulls, and then set on fire the dry Herbs about them, except in some places, which they leave free; and therein lay themselves in Ambuseade. The Bulls seeing the Flame round about them, run away through those Passages where they see no Fire; and there fall into the Hands of the Savages, who by these Means will kill sometimes above six score in a day. They divide these Beasts according to the number of each Family; and send their Wives to flay them, and bring the Flesh to their Cabins. These Women are so Insty and strong, that they carry on their Baek two or three hundred weight, besides their Children; and notwithstanding that Burthen, they run as swiftly as any of our Soldiers with their Arms.
Those Bulls have a very fine Coat, more like Wooll than Hair, and their Cows have it longer than the Males; their Horns are almost black, and much thicker, though somewhat shorter than those of Europe; Their Ilead is of a prodigious Bigness, as well as their Neck very thick but at. the same time exceeding short ; They have a kind of Bump between the two Shoulders; Their Legs are big and short, eover'd with long Wooll; and they have between the two Horns an ugly Bush of Hair, which falls upon their Eyes, and makes them look horrid.
The Flesh of these Beasts is very relishing, and full of Juice, espe- eially in Autumn, for having grazed all the Summer long in those vast Meadows, where the Herbs are as high as they, they are then very fat. There is also amongst them abundance of Stags, Deers, and wild Goats. and that nothing might be wanting in that Country, for the Convenience of those Creatures, there are Forests at certain distanees, where they retire to rest, and shelter themselves against the violence of the Sun.
They change their Country according to the Seasons of the Year ; for upon the approach of the Winter, they leave the North and go to
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the Southern Parts. They follow one another so that you may see a Drove of them for above a League together, and stop all at the same place; and the Ground where they use to lie is cover'd with wild Purslain; which makes me believe, that the Cows Dung is very fit to produce that Herb. Their Ways are as beaten as our great Roads, and no Herb grows therein. They swim over the Rivers they meet in their Way, to go and graze in other Meadows. But the Care of the Cows for their Young Ones, cannot be too much admir'd for there being in those Meadows a great quantity of Wolves, who might surprize them, they go to calve in the Islands of the Rivers, from whence they don't stir till the young Calves are able to follow them, for then they can protect them against any Beast whatsoever.
These Bulls being very convenient for the Subsistence of the Savages, they take care not to scare them from their Country; and they pursue only those whom they have wounded with their Arrows; But these Creatures multiply in such a manner, that notwithstanding the great Numbers they kill every Year, they are as numerous as ever.
The Women spin from the Wooll of these Bulls, and make Sacks thereof to carry their Flesh in, which they dry in the Sun, or broil upon Gridirons. They have no Salt, and yet they prepare their Flesh so well, that it keeps above four Months without breeding any Corruption : and it looks then so fresh, that one won'd think it was newly kill'd. They commonly boil it, and drink the Broth of it instead of Water. This is the ordinary Drink of all the Savages of America, who have no Commerce with the Europeans. We follow'd their Example in this particular ; and it must be confessed that that Broath is very Wholsome.
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