A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I, Part 8

Author: Perry F. Powers
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 597


USA > Michigan > A History of Northern Michigan and Its People, Volume I > Part 8


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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Pontiac's plan of organizing the Indians and driving out the whites was well conceived, and showed a mind far in advance of his time. With almost supernatural foresight, he saw the downfall of his race in the coming of the whites. This had not been so apparent when there was only the French to deal with; for they amalgamated with the Indians, and were content to live on equal terms of possession, but when the English came the keen mind of Pontiac recognized them as men who would be masters; never brothers of his race. Had the savage tribes who followed him possessed cohesion and self-control, the story would have been different, and Michigan would have waited long for civilization and peaceful settlement.


As stated in Sawyer's History of the "Northern Peninsula," from which much of the foregoing is condensed: "When Jean Nicolet, with his Huron companions, ascended the St. Mary's river on his famous journey which brought him finally to Green Bay, he passed the nation of Beavers, formerly called Amicways. They lived at one time upon the Beaver islands * near the Michigan shore, but afterward moved to the Manitoulin islands,t a locality to which all Indians in the vicinity attached much importance, believing it was the abode of spirits, a be- lief easily suggested by their natural beauty and the frequent mirage in their neighborhood. The Beaver tribe was no doubt a branch of


* Northwest of Emmet County, but now included in St. James and Peaine townships, Charlevoix county.


t Now is Leland township, Leelanau county.


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the great Algonquin nation, which had separated from the main body in its westward migration. The tribe was esteemed one of the noblest, and claimed descent from the Great Beaver, a Manido next in impor- tance to the Great Hare, which was the principal Algonquin divinity.


"At Sault Ste. Marie Nicolet found a powerful nation. They were called Baouichtigonin by the early French writers (Relations of 1640). There are several variations of this name given in the different Rela- tions. The Iroquois called them Estiaghicks, or Stagigroone; the Sioux called them Raratwaus, and the French called them Saulteurs. All of these names refer to their location near the Falls. The Iroquois word contains also an allusion to their Algonquin descent. (The French traders called all northern Indians Ottawas, or Saulteurs, regardless of tribal distinctions.)


"MEN OF THE FALLS"


"These Men of the Falls were the immediate ancestors of the Chip- pewa or Ojibway nation, one of the largest and most powerful of the northwest tribes. Like the Menominees, they came from the Nipissing country. Their territory when discovered by the whites extended along the St. Mary's river, which they held in company with their kinsmen and allies, the Ottawas, clear across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on Lake Superior, and as far south as the headwaters of the Menominee river. They controlled many islands including Mackinaw, and across northern Wisconsin west to the headwaters of the Mississippi and south to the Chippewa rivers. When first visited by the whites, the Chippe- was were powerful enough to maintain themselves against the Sioux on the west and the Iroquois on the south. * *


"Nicolet has recorded this friendly attitude of the Indians toward the whites at their first meeting, and Fathers Raymbault and Isaac Jogues, who visited Sault Ste. Marie in 1741, corroborated this. They were given a cordial reception, rest and refreshment by the Chippewas. They also obtained much information from these Indians, concerning the Great Lake (Superior), and the fierce tribe called Nadoussioux (Sioux, or Enemies-snake-like-ones), who lived beyond its borders and would not permit the Chippewas to enter their hunting grounds. The history of the Jesuit fathers in Michigan is closely woven into that of the Chippewas and Ottawas.


"The Chippewas were allies of the French in their colonial wars with England which broke out in 1754, after years of bickering. Many of them were in the siege of Quebec; and Montcalm was a great hero to them. Led by Pontiac, whose mother was a Chippewa, under Sieur Charles de Langlade, they helped defeat Braddock in his ill-starred campaign against Fort du Quesne (1775). It was with great difficulty that the English gained their allegiance after the French had been over- come.


"In the period which elapsed between the surrender of the French in 1759 and the treaty of peace of 1763, much ill feeling had been en- gendered among all Indians by their untactful treatment by the Eng- lish. The Chippewas, naturally warlike and full of a deadly hatred for


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the English, fell readily in with the schemes of Pontiac, the Ottawa. In the massacre at Fort Mackinaw in 1763 they took the lead.


"Menominees and Ottawas took no part in the massacre. The French were not molested and were apparently on good terms with the sav- ages.


"The chief who led the Chippewas in this massacre was Mina-va- vana. He was very tall and unusually fierce and stern in aspect. He is often spoken of in history as 'The Grand Sauteur.' It had been part of Pontiac's scheme to destroy the fort at Green Bay, and Chippe- was, Ottawas and Pottawottomies, who formed sort of an alliance known as the 'Three Fires,' were designated for this work, but they were pre- vented by the Menominees from carrying out the plan.


"In the War for Independence the Chippewas sided with the British, any many American scalps hung at their belts. In defense of the In- dians it may be said that the countless cruelties which marked the border warfare, were not usually of their own volition; they were usu- ally instigated by white men who knew perfectly the Indian manner of fighting.


"The Chippewas made peace with the United States government in 1785 and 1789. This did not last long, however, and in 1790 they joined the Miami uprising under Little Turtle, but they were completely de- feated by General Wayne in 1793, and the next year again made a peace-treaty with the United States. Many of the northern Chippewas joined Tecumseh in the Indian confederacy of 1810. They also fought with the British under Colonel Robert Dickson and were in the attack on the Americans at Ford Mackinaw in the war of 1812-14. The Chip- pewas were first recognized formally by the American government as a treaty tribe in the treaty of Greenville in 1794, in which they, with the Ottawas, ceded the island of Michillimackinac and other depend- encies to the United States government."


THE PERIOD OF PONTIAC'S CONSPIRACY


At the time of Pontiac's conspiracy, nearly ninety years after the death of Marquette, the Hurons had settled mainly at Detroit and Sandusky, where they had taken the name of Wyandots. The mission had been transferred from St. Ignace to L'Arbre Croche (the Crooked Tree) south of the Straits. This is also said to be the period at which the Ottawas reached their height of power.


L'Arbre Croche seems to have been used by the French as a general name for the Ottawa settlements along the shore of Lake Michigan, in the western part of what now constitutes the county of Emmet. The village of L'Arbre Croche proper, so named from a crooked pine tree-a conspicuous and convenient landmark for the voyageurs coast- ing in their canoes along the shore-was on the site of Middle village of the present day. Another conspicuous landmark of those days was a huge cross of cedar timber standing on the brow of the bluff at what is now, from the circumstance, called ('ross village. Whether it was erceted by Father Jonois, or some one who preceded him, is not known.


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By whomsoever erected, it stood there for many years, being repaired or renewed by the willing hands of the Catholic Ottawas.


OTTAWAS OF L'ARBRE CROCHE


Dr. M. L. Leach has written the following regarding the part taken by the Chippewas and Ottawas of the Grand Traverse region in the history and development of the northern Michigan covered by this work: "The Ottawas of L'Arbre Croche, under their head chief, Ne- saw-kee, could (at the time of Pontiac's conspiracy) muster two hundred and fifty warriors. Many of them were nominal Catholics. Profiting by the instruction of the missionaries, they had made some advance- ment in civilization, and cultivated the ground to a greater extent than formerly. South of L'Arbre Croche, in the western part of the Michi- gan peninsula, there were other settlements of Ottawas, and there was


DICKINSON - G. - R. MIEn.


PRESENT-DAY ABORIGINES


a strong band in the vicinity of Detroit, under the immediate chieftain- ship of the renowned Pontiac.


"The principal village of the Chippewas in the northern part of the peninsula, was on Mackinac island. The village contained a hundred warriors. There was another smaller village at Thunder Bay, where dwelt their chief, Minavavana. There were also numerous settlements of the Chippewas in the Saginaw valley and on Grand river.


"A part of the Wyandots, as we have already seen, were living at Detroit, and the Pottawattamies occupied the southwestern portion of the peninsula. Theoretically, the peninsula, or, at least, the northern part of it, belonged to the Ottawas and Chippewas, the former claim- ing the western and the latter the eastern portion, the boundary be- tween them being an imaginary line drawn due south from the fort at Mackinaw.


"At the close of the French and Indian war, in accordance with the terms of capitulation agreed to by the French at Montreal, all the mili- tary posts of the northwestern wilderness passed into the hands of the


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English. The Indians throughout the region were the enemies of the English and the firm friends of the French. It was with ill concealed displeasure that they saw the English come among them. The haughty and sometimes brutal treatment received from the latter, so different from the easy familiarity and kindness of the French, instead of tend- ing to allay the irritation, had only the effect of increasing it. The first English traders at Mackinaw, who came after the removal of the French garrison and before the English troops arrived, ventured there at their peril. They succeeded in propitiating the Chippewas, but the Ottawas of L'Arbre Croche, a strong body of whom were at Mackinaw, were bent on mischief. The traders saved their goods, and perhaps their lives, only by arming their followers, barricading themselves in a house, and holding the Ottawas at bay, till the arrival of the troops assured some degree of security.


"Pontiac, an Ottawa by birth or adoption, having won distinction at the head of a numerous body of his braves at the memorable battle of the Monongahela, contributing not a little to the defeat of Brad- dock's army, now smarting under wrongs both fancied and real, and foreseeing the probable ruin of his people before the increasing strength of the English, conceived the bold plan of cutting off all the frontier military posts, almost at a single blow. So well were the arrangements of the wily chieftain carried out that, in a short time, with the exception of the garrison at Detroit, not a British soldier remained in the region of the Great Lakes.


"The fall of Mackinaw, next to Detroit the most important post in the western country, has been a theme of thrilling interest both to the historian and the writer of romance. In the events grouped around the tragic fate of the garrison, the people of the region the history of which we are endeavoring to trace bore a conspicuous part.


"When, towards the end of May, 1763, the Chippewas of Mack- inaw heard that Pontiac had already struck Detroit, they at once re- solved on the immediate destruction of the English at the fort. Their number had recently been largely increased by the arrival of several bands from other localities. Though confederate with the Ottawas of L'Arbre Croche, they determined to proceed independently of the lat- ter, securing all the plunder and glory to themselves.


"It was the fourth of June, the birthday of King George. The Chippewas came to the fort, inviting the officers and men to come out and witness a game of baggattaway. their favorite ball-play, which had been arranged between them and the Sacs, several bands of whom, from the Wisconsin river, were encamped in the vicinity. The unsus- pecting commander allowed the gates to be thrown wide open, and some of the soldiers went out to watch the game. The Indian women col- lected near the entrance. each with a weapon concealed under her blanket. When the excitement of the game had apparently reached its height, the ball received a blow that sent it over the palisade, into the area of the fort. It seemed an accident, but was really a well executed part of the plan of attack. In an instant there was a rush of players through the gateway, as if to recover the ball, but, as they passed the women cach snatched a weapon. and fell upon the nearest unsuspect-


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ing and defenseless Englishman. The bloody work was quickly com- pleted, and a general cry was raised of 'All is finished.' There were at the fort thirty-four officers and soldiers, constituting the garrison, and four traders. Of these, one officer, fifteen soldiers, and one trader were killed. The others were made prisoners. Of the prisoners, five soldiers were soon afterwards killed by an infuriated brave who had not been present at the assault, and took this method of expressing his approval of what had been done, and of his hatred of the English.


"It is uncertain what would have been the fate of the remaining prisoners, had there been no check to the doings of the Chippewas. Probably most of them would have met death by torture. Their lives had not been spared from motives of humanity or clemency. The French had looked coolly on, neither helping the Indians nor offering protection to the English. The latter, however, found a friend in Father Jonois, the Catholic missionary at L'Arbre Croche. But by far the most ef- fectual aid came from the incensed Ottawas. Confederates of the Chippewas, it was their right to be consulted in matters of such moment as the destruction of the English, or, at least, to be invited to join in the execution of the project. Regarding themselves as slighted and wronged, if not insulted, they resolved to revenge themselves by taking the control of matters into their own hands.


"A party of seven Chippewas, with four prisoners, started in a canoe for the Isles du Castor (Beaver islands). When about eighteen miles on their way, an Ottawa came out of the woods and accosted them, inquiring the news, and asking who were their prisoners. As the con- versation continued, the canoe came near the shore, where the water was shallow, when a loud yell was heard, and a hundred Ottawas, ris- ing from among the trees and bushes, rushed into the water, and seized the canoe and prisoners. The astonished Chippewas remonstrated in vain. The four Englishmen were led in safety to the shore. The Ot- tawas informed them that their captors were taking them to the Isles du Castor merely to kill and eat them, which was probably not far from the truth. The four prisoners soon found themselves afloat in an Ottawa canoe, and on their way back to Mackinaw, accompanied by a flotilla of canoes, bearing a great number of Ottawa warriors.


"Arrived at Mackinaw, the Ottawas, fully armed, filed into the fort, and took possession of it. A council of the two tribes followed, in which the wounded feelings of the Ottawas were somewhat soothed by a liberal present of plunder, taken from the whites. The prisoners seem to have been divided, the Ottawas, because they were the stronger party, or for other reasons, being allowed to keep the greater number. The Ottawas soon after returned to L'Arbre Croche, taking with them Capt. Etherington, Lieut. Leslie, and eleven more. They were disarmed but, probably through the influence of Father Jonois treated kindly. Father Jonois performed a journey to Detroit in their behalf, bearing a request to Major Gladwin for assistance, but that officer. beleagured by a horde of savages, could do nothing.


"In the meantime, Capt. Etherington had found means to communi- cate with Lieut. Gorell, commanding the little garrison at Green Bay, requesting him to come with his command immediately to L'Arbre


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Croche. Gorell had the fortune to secure the good will of the Menom- inees, ninety of whom volunteered for an escort. As the fleet of canoes on the way approached the Isles du Castor, warning was received that the Chippewas were lying in wait to intercept them. Immediately the Menominees raised the war song, and stripped themselves for battle. The alarm, however, proved to be false. When the party reached L'Ar- bre Croche, they were received with honor, and presented the pipe of peace. After a series of councils, to which the Chippewa chiefs were invited, the latter reluctantly consented not to obstruct the passage of the soldiers to Montreal. Accordingly on the eighteenth of July, the English, escorted by a fleet of Indian canoes, left L'Arbre Croche, and, going by way of the Ottawa river, reached Montreal the thirteenth of August.


"Parkman, in his History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac," contin- ues Dr. Leach, "says that the name of the Ottawa chief at L'Arbre Croche has not survived in history or tradition. This is a mistake. His name, Nee-saw-kee, is familiar to the Ottawas of to-day. His grandson, Nee-saw-wa-quat, a chief of the Little Traverse Indians, died in 1857.


"From the massacre at Mackinac in 1763 up to the close of the war of 1812, a period of fifty-two years, we are able to gather from history and tradition only meager accounts of events occurring strictly within the limits of the Grand Traverse country. It was not at any time the theater of active war. The Ottawas were still the only inhabitants, ex- cept here and there an adventurous fur-trader, or possibly a zealous Roman Catholic missionary.


"That the Ottawas of L'Arbre Croche were concerned, directly or indirectly, in most of the Indian troubles of the northwestern frontier, occurring during the period alluded to, scarcely admits of a doubt. They were probably represented at the grand Indian council held near the mouth of Detroit river, in 1786. Some of their warriors, no doubt, were present at the battles in which Harmar and St. Clair were de- feated, and some of their braves may have fallen before Wayne's vic- torious army, on the banks of the Maumee. One of their noted chiefs, Saw-gaw-kee, a son of the former head chief Nee-saw-kee, was a firm believer in the Shawnee prophet Waw-wa-gish-e-maw, or, as he is called by the historians, Elkswatawa. It does not appear that either Tecum- ser or the prophet visited L'Arbre Croche in person, but the influence of the prophet was sufficient to induce a deputation of Ottawas from that vicinity to visit the distant Indian villages on Lake Superior, with a message he professed to have received from the Great Spirit, in- tended to rouse them against the Americans.


"When, in 1812, war was declared between the United States and Great Britain, Capt. Roberts, commanding the British post on St. Jo- seph's island, was able in a short time to gather round him a thousand Indian warriors, for the capture of the American fort on the island of Mackinac. It is probable that nearly the whole force of the Ottawa warriors of L'Arbre Croche and the scattered bands around Grand Traverse Bay, was engaged in that enterprise. The affair ended in the complete success of the British, happily without the shedding of blood. Two years later, when the Americans, under Col. Croghan, attempted


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AMONG THE RICE SWAMPS OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN


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to retake the fort, they were foiled mainly by the large force of Indians the British commander had again been able to gather to his standard. In this attempt the Americans suffered severe loss. The most shocking barbarities were practiced on the bodies of the slain. They were liter- ally cut to pieces by their savage conquerors. Their hearts and livers were taken out, and cooked and eaten, and that too, it is said, even in the quarters of the British officers. More than forty years afterwards, when the Indians had become friendly towards the Americans, and the settlements of the latter had reached the Grand Traverse country, Asa- bun, an Indian of Old Mission, used to be pointed out as one who had been seen running about with a human heart in his hands, which he was devouring. Another, a chief by the name of Aish-qua-gwon-a-ba, was credited by the settlers, whether justly or not, with keeping a num- ber of scalps, the trophies of his prowess at Mackinac, carefully hidden away in a certain trunk. If, as their tradition asserts, the Ottawas were at the height of their power and glory at the time of Pontiac's war, a later period was the golden age of those at L'Arbre Croche, with ref- erence to the prosperity that comes from peaceful pursuits.


OTTAWAS OF GRAND TRAVERSE


"The principal and most permanent settlements of the Ottawas were at Cross village, Middle village, Seven Mile Point, and Little Trav- erse; but between the first and last of these places, wigwams, singly and in groups, were scattered at intervals all along the shore. A few families had their home at Bear creek, on the south side of Little Trav- erse bay. There were gardens on the height of land, a mile or more back from the shore, not far south of the present village of Norwood. and a camping place, frequently occupied, on the shore. There were gardens on the peninsula in Grand Traverse bay and a village at Old Mission. West of the bay, a small band had their home on the point afterwards known as New Mission, and another on the shore of Lake Michigan, at or near the site of the present village of Leland. Their dwellings were of various sizes and shapes, and were constructed of a variety of materials. The most substantial and permanent consisted of a frame of cedar poles, covered with cedar bark. One of these, called o-maw-gay-ko-gaw-mig, was square or oblong, with perpendicular walls. and a roof with a slope in opposite directions, like the simplest form of frame houses among white men. Another, the ke-no-day-we-gaw-mig. had perpendicular end walls, but the side walls in the upper part were bent inward, meeting along the middle line, thus forming the roof in shape of a broad arch. Houses of this kind were sometimes fifty or sixty feet long, and had places for three fires. The ne-saw-wah-e-gun and the wah-ge-no-gawn, were light but very serviceable houses, consist- ing of frames of poles covered with mats. The former was cone- shaped ; the latter regularly convex at the top. The mats, ten or twelve feet long and three or four wide, were made of the long, slender leaves of the cat-tail flag (Typha), properly cured and carefully sewed together. When suitably adjusted on the frames, with the edges lapping. they made a serviceable roof. Being light, and, when rolled up, not incon-


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venient to carry, they were used for traveling tents. Houses of mats were often used for winter residence in the woods, and were not un- comfortable. The ah-go-beem-wah-gun was a small summer house for young men, usually constructed of cedar bark on an elevated platform resting on posts, reached only by ascending a ladder. Winter houses in the woods were sometimes built of slabs, or planks, of split timber. They were often cone-shaped, and were made tight and warm. They were called pe-no-gawn. In the woods, even in winter, they sometimes lived in temporary wigwams of evergreen boughs, which they managed to make comfortable.


"The Indian houses were without windows. The fire was built upon the ground, in the center if the lodge was small ; or there was a row of fires down the middle line, in a long ke-no-day-we-gaw-mig. A hole in the roof, above each fire, served for the escape of the smoke. A raised platform, a foot or a foot and a half high, covered with mats, along the sides of the room, served for a seat during the day and for a sleeping place at night. The mats, some of them beautifully orna- mented with colors, were made of rushes found growing in shallow lakes, ingeniously woven together with twine manufactured from the bark of the slippery elm.


"In their gardens the Ottawas cultivated corn, pumpkins, beans, and potatoes. Apple trees, the seed for which was originally obtained from the whites-either the Jesuit missionaries or the fur traders- were planted in every clearing. Wild fruits, especially choice varieties of wild plums, were grown from seed introduced from their distant southern hunting grounds. At the time of the present writing, fruit trees of their planting are found growing wild in the young forests that have sprung up on abandoned fields. The gardens were frequently some distance from the villages. The owners resorted to them at the proper season, to do the necessary work, living for the time in portable lodges or in temporary structures erected for the occasion. Though they hunted more or less at all times, winter was the season devoted more especially to that pursuit. Then the greater part of the popula- tion left the villages, and scattered through the forest. The chain of inland lakes in Antrim county, having its outlet at Elk Rapids, was a favorite resort, on account of the facilities for fishing, as well as for hunting and trapping. Many plunged into the deeper solitudes of the forest, and fixed their winter abode on the Manistee, the Muskegon, or the Sauble. Others embarked in canoes, and coasted along Lake Michi- gan to its southern extremity, from there making their way to the marshes of the Kankakee and the hunting grounds of northern Indiana and Illinois. Several families had their favorite winter camping place on the northeastern shore of Boardman lake, within the present corpo- rate limits of Traverse City. Here the women and children remained, while the hunters made long trips in the woods, returning to camp, with the spoils of the chase, several times during the winter. One principal advantage of the location was the abundance of pickerel in the lake- an abundance that seems fabulous to the white fisherman of the present day. They were caught with spears, through holes cut in the ice, and were an important addition to the winter supply of food. Vol. 1-4




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