USA > Michigan > Bay County > History of Bay County, Michigan, and representative citizens > Part 3
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Then the Black-Robe chief, the Prophet, Told his message to the people, Told the purport of his mission. The Song of Hiawatha.
One must have read that immortal epic poem of Longfellow, to appreciate the beauti- ful story of the earliest meetings of the pale faces and red men on the shores of the Great Lakes, to picture in one's mind the weird scene of an Indian camp-fire in the wilderness, the wigwams of the chiefs, the shore lined with birch canoes, so necessary for the inhabitants of these regions, the solemn warriors smoking
the pipe of peace with the strangers they called "brothers," the eloquent address of Father Marquette, with a world-redeeming message, alas, so little understood by these children of the forest, whose one all-absorbing command- ment for ages had been the old Hebraic dic- tum: "AN EYE FOR AN EYE; AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH." What a pity that the spirit of Pere Marquette did not always pervade the intercourse of the two races in these fair re- gions !
As no permanent mission was established south of Mackinaw, we can know but little that is authentic of these first meetings here, of Indians and explorers or missionaries. Un- doubtedly the cross and lilies of France were duly raised over this rich valley, as they were all along the shores of Lake Huron. It was rare indeed in the rush of events of the closing years of the 19th century that a tribute was paid to the memory of the devoted men who opened to civilization wide reaches of fertile but unknown regions. Such a worthy tribute has been paid to the peer of all these explorers of the trackless Northwest, in naming one of the great highways of commerce, that trav- erse the vast region he was the first to really explore, the Pere Marquette Railroad, in honor of Father Marquette.
Almost two centuries had elapsed since the discovery of this country ere the first white explorers penetrated to this secluded spot, and even then they were satisfied with tracing the general courses of rivers and the trend of the coasts of the Great Lakes. This done. there comes another long period, during which the copper-colored children of the woods ruled supreme over their beloved hunting grounds. And it is the recital of their primitive exist- ence, their feuds and wars, their hunts and ex- peditions, their religion and traditions, that lend to the annals of Bay County their roman-
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tic interest. Residents of this county and State annually travel thousands of miles to visit some romantic spot of the Old World and an earlier civilization. Few realize the wealth of legendary and historic narratives, that find their scenes on the shores of Saginaw bay and river.
This chapter on the Indians who once in- habited these hunting grounds would not be complete without a passing reference to the race in general. Columbus thought he had discovered the Indies of Asia when he sailed to the West Indies in 1492, hence the inhabi- tants of the New World were called "In- dians." Diligent research on the history and migrations of the primitive races of the world has failed to reveal the origin of this copper- colored race. To the red man of this Western Continent the chase was everything, and the illimitable hunting grounds, forest and prai- rie and stream, were the Indian's earthly par- adise and the type of his heavenly home here- after.
The American aborigines belonged to sev- eral distinct families or nations, and the tribe of Hurons which inhabited Michigan at the time of Father Marquette's exploration be- longed to the Algonquin nation, which at that time was estimated to number 250,000 souls. They were nomadic in their habits, roaming from one hunting ground to another, accord- ing to the exigencies of fishing and the chase. Agriculture was but little esteemed. The Al- gonquins were divided into many subordinate tribes, each having its local name, dialect and traditions.
Of all the Indian nations, the Algonquins suffered most from contact with the white men. Wasting diseases destroyed whole tribes, and are to-day taking off the pitiable remnants of a once proud and powerful race. Before the aggressive spirit of the pale faces,
before his fiery rum and his destructive weap- ons, the race has withered to a shadow, and only a few thousand remain to rehearse the story of their ancestors.
Personal independence, a willfulness of ac- tion and freedom from all restraint, were their most striking characteristics, as their local tra- ditions clearly prove. The authority of the chief extended no further than to be foremost in battle and most cunning in savage strategy. No man gave him his authority, and no man took it away. In the solemn debates of the coun- cil, where the red orators pronounced wild har- angues to groups of motionless listeners, only questions of expediency were decided. The painted sachems never thought of imposing on the unwilling minority the decision which had been reached in council.
War was the all-absorbing passion of the red men. Revenge was considered the noblest of virtues, and hence all their interminable wars were undertaken to redress some griev- ance, real or imaginary, and never for con- quest. The fight in the open, like the combats of the legions of the Old World, was un- known in Indian warfare. Their military strategy consisted of cunning and treachery, and their fighting was limited to surprise, am- buscade, and massacre. The vanquished sel- dom asked for mercy and never received it. Barbarous captivity, ransom, or burning at the stake were the lot of prisoners captured in war, and the diabolical ferocity of the savage warrior's nature invented ever new tortures.
Confederations formed at times among the tribes, when some emergencies demanded them, seldom outlived the great sachems who had formed them. In times of peace the red man was unsocial, solitary, a gloomy spirit of the woods. The wide forest was to him better than his wigwam, and his wigwam bet- ter than the village. The Indian woman was
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a degraded creature, a drudge, the beast of burden for the lodge, and the social principle was correspondingly low. In matters of re- ligion, the Indians were a superstitious race, but seldom idolaters. They believed in a Great Spirit, everywhere present, ruling the elements, showing favor to the brave and obe- dient and punishing the sinful. They called Him the Great Manitou. They worshiped, but never built any temples. They also believed in many subordinate spirits, some evil and some good. and their medicine men after fast- ing and prayer made revelations of this spirit world. The religious ceremonies of the Hu- rons were performed with great earnestness and solemn formality, and one of their favor- ite meeting grounds for centuries was on the western bank of the Saginaw River, about three miles from its mouth.
In the matter of arts the Indians were bar- barians. Their houses were wigwams or hovels. Some poles set up in a circle, con- verging at the top, covered with skins and the branches of trees, lined and sometimes floored with mats made by the women, a fire in the center, a low opening opposite a point from which the wind blew-such was the aborig- inal abode of our Indians, even as late as 1865, when one of the last great tribal coun- cils was held on the outskirts of what was then the village of Wenona.
Indian utensils were few, rude and primi- tive. Poorly fashioned earthern pots, bags and pouches for carrying provisions, stone hammers for pounding parched corn, were the stock and store. A copper kettle was a price- less treasure. The warrior's chief implement was his hatchet of copper or stone, which he al- ways carried. This hatchet was rarely free from the stain of blood. His bow and stone- capped arrow proved ample weapons for of- fense and defense. Old settlers still relate how
some famous chiefs in this very valley shot an arrow capped with iron clear through a full grown deer, at a distance of 200 yards.
The Indian's clothing was a blanket thrown loosely over his shoulders, and fastened about the middle with leather thongs. The material for his moccasins and leggings was stripped from the red buck, elk or buffalo. Fangs of rattlesnakes, claws of hawks, feathers of eagles, bones of animals, and even the scalps of ene- mies he killed, were hung about his person. He painted his face and body, especially when pre- paring for the war-dance, with all manner of fantastic and glaring colors.
Indian writing consisted only of quaint hieroglyphics rudely scratched on the face of rocks or cut in the bark of trees. Pontiac, a great chief of this region, and thought by many to have been the greatest man his race ever pro- duced, was the only leader who ever had a com- missary department among the tribes, with a system of making requisitions, by rudely draw- ing the article wanted upon a piece of hide, with his totem, the beaver, affixed. This requisi- tion usually brought the desired article. But the artistic sense of the savage could rise no higher than a coarse necessity compelled the flight.
The dialects of the North American races have a resemblance among themselves, but have no analogy with the languages of other nations, unless it be with the monosyllables of the nomadic tribes of Central Asia. The In- dian tongue had but few words, and abstract ideas rarely found expression. The Hurons of this vicinity had no word for "hunting." but one word signified "to-kill-a-deer-with-an- arrow!" There was no word for brother, but one word signified "elder brother" or "younger brother."
The Hurons were light and tall in build, agile, lean and swift of foot. Eyes, jet black
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HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
and sunken; hair, black and straight; beard, black and scant; skin of a copper-colored, red- dish-black or cinnamon hue; high cheek bones ; forehead and skull variable in shape and pro- portions ; hands and feet small; body lithe but not strong; expression of the features more often sinister, than dignified or noble. Such was the Indian as the early settlers found him in these parts.
The Indian dance was a passion with them, but it was not the social dance of civilized na- tions, but rather the dance of ceremony, the dance of religion and of war. Sometimes the warriors danced alone, but frequently the women were accorded their one privilege, when they too would join the mystic circle, swinging round and round, chanting the weird, monoto- nous songs of their tribe.
The amusements of these children of the forest consisted of feats of daring, excellence in feats of strength, such as wrestling, shooting at a mark, running, jumping, racing in their swift canoes, playing at ball, and some gam- bling games with stones resembling dice, on which the passionate warrior would often haz- ard his entire possessions.
The pipe was the warrior's inseparable com- panion. The pioneers in these parts often saw them sitting and smoking for hours, apparently lost in a dream under the fascinating influence of their pipes. No race on earth has ever been so debased by strong drink.
The fire-water of the pale faces has done more to exterminate the Indians than all other agencies! The amount of spirits and liquor Poor Lo would absorb has only been limited by the amount he could secure. Such is a rough sketch of the aboriginal red man, who WAS rather than Is!
That this was once one of the most thickly populated hunting grounds of the aborigines, is still attested, not merely by the traditions of
Bay County's pioneers, but also by the settle- ments of remnants of once powerful tribes at Indiantown, near Kawkawlin, at Saganing, near Pinconning, and at Quanicassee, just across our county's eastern border. Such is the logic of events that right or wrong, the weaker race has withered before the onward march of the Saxons. By the beloved rivers and in the solitude of the great forests the rest- less sons of the West will soon be seen no more! One by one they bid farewell to the hunting grounds of their ancestors. Let our people do what in their power lies to brighten the days still remaining of earth to the survi- vors of the primitive race that once called this vast continent their very own. To-day little more than their names remain on lake and hill and stream, and even these in the rush of events we pass unnoticed by !
And yet what a wealth of anecdote and ro- mance gather about the earliest inhabitants of this valley. A few of these personal reminis- cences will be better understood and appreci- ated, since we have reviewed Indian character, life and habits.
What is known to-day of the great tribe of the Sauks, who have given the title to Sagi- naw bay, river and valley, is derived entirely from the traditions handed down among the Indians of this part of the State from genera- tion to generation. About 1835 there lived in an Indian shack on the bay shore, on the site of what is now Tobico, an old Chippewa chief, named Put-ta-gua-sa-mine, over whose battle- scarred head had passed more than 100 years- a wrinkled but active human oak in the prime- val wilderness. He was as active as the aver- age man is at 50, and his faculties were un- dimmed. Since early youth he had been the historian of his tribe. Some 80 years before, his grandfather had told him the traditional story of his tribe, and the extermination of
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their bitterest foes, the Sauks, formed the most stirring chapter of his nation's legends. He had repeated it a thousand times around their camp- fires, tepees and councils, lest the braves of the nation should forget the glorious deeds of their ancestors, and their traditions and history be lost forever. He had appointed Nau-qua-chic- a-me as his successor, and verified his historic tales by the other old Indians of his tribe living in that vicinity. The late Judge Albert Miller, William R. McCormick, James Fraser, John Riley, Joseph Trombley, his brother Medor Trombley, two uncles of theirs,-Gassette Trombley and Leon Tronibley,-James M. McCormick, Benjamin Cushway, and others of the early pioneers, often heard the Indian's re- cital, and no record of this vicinity would be complete without this, the most ghastly inci- dent of the aborigines' traditions. The old warrior could repeat the tale a hundred times and not vary a hairbreadth in his recital.
The Sauks' main village lay on the ridge extending along the west bank of the river for about five miles from the bay. While the In- dians roamed at will over all the Southern Pen- insula of Michigan, still their favorite hunting ground was in this valley. Here it was they assembled for their tribe councils, their sun- dances, their feasts and their games. This vil- lage was never quite deserted. The old and in- firm, the sick and wounded invariably came and lived here, for it offered every facility for their simple lives. Sometimes defeated in bat- tle against distant tribes, the Sauks invariably rallied to the defense of this valley, and no foe ever passed its outer defenses and lived. From this stronghold they sallied forth to fight their Chippewa neighbors on the north, the Potta- watomies of Southern Michigan, and they even carried war against the Ottawas in Canada, until those troubled tribes could bear their ag- gressions no longer.
Some three centuries ago these three tribes called in the Menominees and Dakotahs of the West, and parts of the Six Nations of New York somewhere near where Port Huron is now lo- cated, and it was decided to destroy the Sauks and make their lands a general hunting ground for all these tribes.
Early the following spring the warriors of these several tribes assembled at Mackinaw, while another force was gathered on the east- ern shore of Lake St. Clair. When all was in readiness, the Mackinaw confederates started down Lake Huron in bark canoes, the most im- posing flotilla undoubtedly that sailed these lakes until Commodore Perry met and van- quished the English fleet at Put-in-Bay nearly three centuries later, for, it was rare indeed that these feudal tribes ever acted together.
Apparently the Sauks knew nothing of the conspiracy, and with the breaking of a hard winter they had scattered to their several haunts, the largest number apparently remain- ing in this valley. Their enemies, true to their savage natures, planned to surprise this village. The fleet of canoes loaded with the dusky war- riors stole along the west shore of Saginaw Bay, lay concealed in the wilderness near To- bico during the day and the next night divided to attack both sides of the Saginaw River at daybreak.
The Sauks slept in fancied security, little dreaming what a horrible death awaited them. With the first streak of gray across the dense forest, the savage horde broke from the woods near where the lower wards of the West Side are now located, and began a ruthless massacre. The Sauks living further up stream, hearing the whoops of the enemy, tried vainly to stop the latter's victorious rush. Finding them- selves outnumbered, they slowly retreated, fighting every foot of the way, and finally sought refuge on the East Side, where the
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HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
upper wards of Bay City now stretch along the river.
This was just what their wily enemies had foreseen, for now the second force of confeder- ates came rushing out of the forest that stretched from the bay for miles and miles to the south. On the ridge south of Lafayette avenue, the Sauks made a desperate stand, and a number of mounds have been uncovered where skulls and skeletons, thrown indiscrimi- nately together, attest that hundreds fought and died here, and were buried in common graves.
Those that survived this slaughter retreated to the little island south of Stone Island, which they quickly fortified. The attacking force had left their canoes on the bay shore, but even the elements conspired against the doomed tribe of Sauks. A cold wave, so peculiar to this lake region, swept down from the north that night, covering the narrow arm of the river with ice, over which at the break of another day the mer- ciless enemy charged, and completed the mas- sacre. For ages after, numberless skulls lay scattered and buried on this fateful spot, which has ever since been called Skull Island. The tradition of the Chippewas recounts that 12 of the bravest Sauks, with their families, were saved from this final slaughter, as trophies of the great victory.
The force on the St. Clair now advanced up the Shiawassee and Flint rivers, where they joined forces with the victorious warriors from the Saginaw valley, and the other tribes of the Sauk nation were hunted to their death. On the Cass, Tittabawassee, Shiawassee and Flint rivers, the same bloody drama was renewed. Great battles were fought near, the sites of the present cities of Flint and Flushing, where to this day mass graves of warriors are unearthed. The crushed skulls, the mark of the deadly tom- ahawk, arrow and battle-axe, show plainly that
the bloody traditions of these Indians are but too well founded.
A few escaped the massacre on the Sagi- naw, and the scattered tribes were undoubtedly warned on their more southern hunting grounds. But the confederates were all about them, and escape was impossible. Realizing that death was inevitable, the Sauks showed that at least they could die bravely, and some of the weird war-chants of the Indians of the lake region still recite the heroic deeds of the doomed race. Warriors, women and even chil- dren joined in the fight, and while their race was practically exterminated in the course of several weeks of fighting, the fugitives being hunted down like wild beasts by their infuri- ated enemies, still the victory was dearly bought.
When the man hunt through Lower Michi- gan had been completed and the confederates had assembled in council on the very site of Bay City, they had wearied of the slaughter, and the captives, kept for torture more terri- ble than any death in battle, were spared, and by mutual agreement sent west of the Missis- sippi, where the Sioux tribes took them under their protection in recognition of their heroic fight in the face of overwhelming odds. The rich hunting and fishing grounds, the main cause of the massacre, were thrown open for the common use of the tribes that had taken part in the expedition.
So passed the Sauks from the valley and the territory they loved so well.
In 1823, Major Long, of the United States Army, found the survivors of the Sauks on the St. Peters River, evidently descendants of the 12 families that were banished to the far West. In his official report, regarding their original haunts, he says, that these Sauks had a tradi- tion that they did not always live in those parts, but that their ancestors lived on Saginaw Bay
1
TRINITY PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, Bay City, E. S.
MADISON AVENUE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND PARSONAGE, Bay City, E. S.
S. JAMES' CATHOLIC CHURCH AND PAROCHIAL RESIDENCE, Bay City, E. S.
WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Bay City, W. S.
FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, Bay City, W. S.
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AND REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS.
and Lake Huron, where the Great Spirit had created them, and given them wonderful hunt- ing grounds until their tribe sinned against Manitou the Great, and were by the evil spirits driven from their happy hunting grounds.
In their far Western reservation, the In- dian tribe which gave its name to the great bay, river and valley, in the very heart of Mich- igan, has dwindled to a mere shadow, and, ac- cording to the last report of the Indian com- missioner, will soon be totally extinct.
Their conquerors have fared but little bet- ter, and their dearly bought victory was almost barren of results. For hardly had the allied Indian tribes decided to keep the conquered ter- ritory along the shores of the Saginaw as a common hunting ground, before the supersti- tious Indian found that the spirits of the slaughtered Sauks haunted the valley. for many Indians who came to hunt and fish in these parts were never more heard of. Quite likely a few Sauks escaped the massacre, too few for open war, and that they took bloody revenge on all their enemies who came to the shores of Saginaw Bay. The neighboring creeks, the trackless forest and the wide reaches of the bay offered a safe shelter to the fugitives and, knowing the country better than the wan- dering hunters, the skulking Sauks had the ad- vantage over much superior numbers in that kind of savage warfare.
As late as 1840, a Chippewa chief named Ton-dog-a-ne told William R. McCormick and other visiting traders, that he had himself killed a Sauk in an acidental meeting of hunting par- ties, while he was still quite young. Fifty years ago the Indians frequently ceased hunting, be- cause they had seen a place in the woods where the spirit of a Sauk had built his camp-fire and slept. The early settlers laughed at the In- dians' superstititious fears, but nothing could induce them to enter the woods at such a time.
Another Indian tradition handed down by the Chippewa chief, Wa-sha-be-non, who lived to be nearly 100 years old, and who had heard it from his grandfather, told how this haunted hunting ground had been made a sort of penal colony to which every Indian who com- mitted a crime under the Indian's crude code of laws was banished or to which he fled, rather than face the tortures and punishment inflicted by his tribe. To the average Indian this was the worst punish- ment that could be inflicted, but the criminal colony undoubtedly soon found that it was not
at all a bad place to camp, to hunt and to fish, for the colony increased and thrived despite
the avenging spirits said to be hovering over "O-Sauk-e-non," the doomed "Land of the Sauks." The mixing of warriors from many tribes brought with it in time a mixed Indian dialect, in which the language of the Chippe- was, as the most numerous, predominated.
The picturesque and romantic interest in this valley center about these red children of the forest, and their contact with the earliest white trappers, traders and settlers, and innum- erable stories are told by these pioneers, a few of which will round out this chapter on the aborigines, who once owned and lorded it over this valley.
The Hurons, to which race all of the tribes living about the Great Lakes belonged, were not very highly esteemed by the Indians of the East, the Six Nations. The French traveler and explorer, De Tocqueville, about the year 1830, started for the Wild West of those early days, the heart of Michigan, and sought the services of an Indian guide at Buffalo. An old Mohawk warrior cautioned him to beware of the native Indians of Michigan, and particularly in the haunted regions of "O-Sauk-e-non." The proud Mohawk called them a thievish race, vagabonds and skulkers, whom none could
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HISTORY OF BAY COUNTY
trust, and the members of the party were so impressed with his recital of their treacherous deeds in the War of the Revolution and War of 1812, that an Ottawa warrior from Canada guided the party to the banks of Saginaw Bay, from where the savant made his scientific and geographical observations. He did not find the Indians of this region as bad as pictured. He gave them credit for many virtues which the pale faces would do well to imitate, among them being strict honesty. He found this vir- tue among all the tribes of the West, where they were not corrupted by intercourse with the pale faces. He found no bolts or bars in their habitations, and cites many instances of their integrity. An Indian was given a hand- ful of tobacco, and in his tepee found a quarter of a dollar among the leaves. Early next morning he hurried to the donor and handed back the money. Being told that inasmuch as it had been given to him, he might as well have kept it, the Indian pointed to his breast and said : "I got a good man and a bad man here; the good man say it is not mine, and I must re- turn it; the bad man say, he gave it to you and it is your own now; the good man say, that is not right, the tobacco is yours, but not the money ; the bad man say, never mind, you got the money, go buy some drink; the good man say, you must not do so, and I don't know what to do, and think to sleep over it, but the good man and the bad man talk all night and trouble me much; so now I bring the money back, and feel very, very good again." Of the Chip- pewa chief, Put-ta-gua-sa-mine, he wrote the following : "At a visit to his shack on the great bay of Saginaw, while the pipe of peace was going the rounds, I told him that I was pleased he did not drink the firewater of the white men, but that it grieved me to find his people drank so much of it. The Indian sage replied promptly : 'Ah, Uh,' with a suggestive
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