History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 7

Author: D.W. Ensign & Co. pub; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Johnson, Crisfield
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D. W. Ensign & Co.
Number of Pages: 821

USA > Michigan > Van Buren County > History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 7
USA > Michigan > Berrien County > History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 7

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The field of the Thames was the last battle-ground of the Pottawattamies. Their utter defeat on that day, and the death of Tecumseh, had extinguished forever all hope of successful resistance to the Americans. They, like the other tribes, sued for peace, and receiving the mercy which they had no right to expect, gave hostages for their future good conduct, retired to their villages,-sullen at first, but thoroughly subjugated,-and never raised the tomahawk again.

CHAPTER IV.

THE POTTAWATTAMIES OF THE ST. JOSEPH AFTER 1815.

The St. Joseph Indians as they were found by the Protestant Mission- aries in 1822-The Effects of Fire-Water apparent in their Poverty and Wretched Condition-Their Superstition and Strange Festivals -Pottawattamie Chiefs and their Villages-Sobriety and Humanity of the Chief Pokagon-His Conversion to the Catholic Faith-Im- proved Condition of the Indians during the First Part of the Mis- sionaries' Stay among Them-Their Later Relapse to a Worse State than ever-Departure of the Missionaries-Consent of the Potta- wattamies to Emigrate from their Homes in the St. Joseph Valley -Pokagon and other Catholic Indians refuse to go-Final Removal of the Rest of the Tribe to Lands beyond the Mississippi.

BETWEEN the time of the subjugation of the Michigan tribes, following the death of Tecumseh, and the time when actual settlement began to be made by whites within the territory that is now embraced in the counties of Ber- rien and Van Buren, there intervened a period of about fifteen years. During the last half of this period, the Rev. Isaac McCoy spent the greater part of his time among the Pottawattamies of the St. Joseph Valley, and some idea of their condition and mode of life is gained from his pub- lished narrative, or journal, covering the time of his labors here. There had been, for many years, at least two trad- ing-posts established among them on the river (Burnett's, at near the mouth, above where St. Joseph village now stands, and Bertrand's, at the old village of Bertrand, on the east side of the river, in the present township of Niles), and the access which they thus obtained to the white man's whisky had resulted to them, as it has to all other tribes, in advancing them far on the road to demoralization and wretchedness.

In the very first entry made by Mr. McCoy with refer- ence to this region, he relates that on the 16th of May, 1822, " we reached the French trading-house [Bertrand's*] at Parc aux Vaches by traveling through the rain. I was

sorry to hear that many of the chiefs, whom I desired to see in reference to our settlement in that country, had gone to Lake Michigan to engage in a drunken frolic; a trader having arrived at that place with a quantity of whisky. . . . On the 23d we passed three drunken Indians, lying asleep in the weeds, and also passed many others who were intoxicated." Again, he quotes from a letter written to him, during his temporary absence, by Mr. Lykins, one of his associates at the St. Joseph, to the effect that the Indians in the vicinity had been in a continual state of intoxication for twenty-eight days, and that the traders appeared to have enough liquor on hand to keep them in that condition during the entire spring and summer. This debauchery resulted in frequent murders, of which a large number were committed every year among them, and all, with scarcely an exception, were caused by drunkenness.

The extreme poverty and destitution which prevailed among the Indians at the time when Mr. McCoy first came among them is shown by this entry : "I did not see among them a particle of either bread or meat, excepting a few pigeons which they had killed with sticks. Some deer might have been taken, but they were destitute of powder and lead, and had not anything with which to purchase those articles. Excepting roots and weeds, their only food at this time consisted of corn and dried beans, of which their stock was exceedingly small." It is difficult to under- stand, however, why they were unable to get powder and lead with which to secure the necessaries of life (game), when they apparently found so little difficulty in obtaining whisky from the traders.

In regard to their dwellings, he makes this allusion : " In our excursion [his preliminary visit to the country in the spring of 1822] we called at two lonely little huts, one made of bark and the other of flags. Here I met with a chief from a neighboring village, who, with the rest of the company, appeared delighted with the prospect of our set- tling near them, and by many rude expressions of friend- ship welcomed me to their country. The wigwam of flags was circular, about ten feet in diameter, and about seven feet high in the centre. The smoke from the fire in the middle of the hut escaped through an opening above. The door was closed by a deer-skin attached to the upper part." And the condition of its inmates he describes as even more wretched than that of the habitation.

" The vicinity of our place," says Mr. McCoy, " had been occupied by the Putawatomies from time immemorial. Formerly the tribe, then numerous, generally resided here in one extensive settlement. Many had been buried on the shore of the St. Joseph and in the neighborhood." A principal village of the tribe is mentioned as being situated five miles from the mission. Elsewhere he mentions that " On the 18th [May, 1822] I rode to Menominee's and Pcheekos' villages," and " We halted and conversed a while with the people at Rum's village, and at night pitched our tents amidst a fall of rain ;" but does not describe the pre- cise location of any of these settlements, except the ancient and abandoned one first named. " About the Indian vil- lages," he says, " or where villages had once been situated,

* He had come from Fort Wayne, Ind., and consequently entered the valley from the southward.

t The west side of the river near West Niles.

THE POTTAWATTAMIES OF THE ST. JOSEPH AFTER 1815.

we often found blue grass,* which affords some grazing at all seasons. On our journey we availed ourselves of a prac- tice, common to us, of seeking those grassy places, though at the expense of turning out of our way. We lodged in one of the bark huts, but the dreariness of those places in winter can hardly be conceived by one who has not visited them ; not an individual is to be seen about them, nor any domestic animals, nor anything which is to be employed for the future use of the unsettled owners on their return at the commencement of warm weather."

The Pottawattamies of that late day appear to have been as firmly held in the bonds of superstition as were their an- cestors in the time of La Salle and Marquette. In regard to this Mr. McCoy relates the following incident. In the fall of 1826 a large company of these Indians had been col- lected on the St. Joseph, to attend a treaty-council on the Wabash. " After their company was formed, which con- sisted of four or five hundred souls, they set out for the treaty-ground, compelled by circumstances to travel slowly. Within the first three days' journey their most expert hunters, to the number sometimes of fifty, with their utmost diligence were unable to kill a deer. They saw game, and often shot at it, but killed nothing. The consequence was that they began to be distressed for food. Soon after the company halted to encamp on the evening of the third day, Saugana, a well-known chief, fell asleep and slumbered soundly through the night. On the following morning he informed the company that in a dream a person had ac- quainted him with the cause which rendered their hunting unsuccessful, which was an error in Chebass, a celebrated chief, who had been the principal agent in prevailing on them to set off on the journey, and had neglected to make a sacrificial feast before they started. He had started on this journey, the dreamer said, as a white man would, with- out making any religious preparation ; and for this derelic- tion of duty the whole company had been rebuked by the Great Spirit, to realize the scarcity of food. In order to propitiate the Deity, Chebass must fast that day, and twelve men, neither more or fewer, with faces blacked,-indica- tive of hunger and want and of their devotion,-must pro- ceed to their hunting; six of them on each side of the trail along which the company had to travel. By the time the sun had risen to a height pointed out in the heavens (we would say about nine o'clock), Saugana said they would have killed four deer. Such, he assured them, would be the fact, because he had seen in the vision four deer lying dead. The hunters set off according to instructions, killed the four deer within the time spoken of, and brought them to the company. A general halt was called. The four deer, including head, legs, and feet, were all boiled at the same time, and feasting immediately followed, in which all participated, excepting Chebass. The feast was considered his, and on that account it was necessary for him to fast until the sun had gone down. Several speeches were made during the festival. About noon of the same day the com-

pany resumed their march, and on the following day they killed five deer and one bear, and during the two or three remaining days of their journey they had plenty."

An account of a Pottawattamie festival, at which he was present, is thus given by the reverend missionary : " In the summer of 1825 I attended an Indian festival, which, ac- cording to custom, they accompanied with dancing. .. . The aged chief Topinabe led in the ceremonies. He de- livered a speech of considerable length, without rising from his seat, with a grave countenance, and his eyes almost closed. He then sat and drummed with one stick, and sung at the same time, while his aid at his side rattled a gourd. At length four women appeared before him and danced. A while after this he arose, delivered another speech, then, drumming and dancing, turned, and moving slowly round the dancing hall, was followed by all the party. When he had performed his part in leading, others went through the same ceremonies, and these were repeated until every pair had twice led in the dance. These exercises were accompanied with many uncouth gestures and strange noises. Three large kettles of meat, previously boiled, were hanging over a small fire near the centre of the house, and occasionally a man would stoop to the kettle and drink a little soup. One fellow, assuming a frantic air, attended with whooping, lifted out of a kettle a deer's head, and holding it by the two horns, with the nose from him, pre- sented it first upwards, and afterwards towards many of the bystanders, as he danced round hallooing. The droppings of the broth were rather an improvement than an injury to the floor, it being of earth, and now becoming pretty dusty. At the conclusion, which was after sun-setting, each brought his or her vessel, and received a portion of the food. Che- bass, a chief, sent to me and invited me to eat with him, and I having consented, he placed his bowl on the earth beside me and said, 'Come, let us eat in friendship.' After eating, another speech was delivered, the music followed, all joined in the dance with increased hilarity, and most of them with their kettles of meat and broth in their hands, and, at length breaking off, each went to his home." Mr. McCoy mentions this as one of their religious festivals, but in his description of it there seems to be very little to indi- cate that character.

The chief Topinabe, mentioned above as the leader of the festival ceremonies, and who, as before noticed, was the representative of the Pottawattamies at the treaty of Green- ville, in 1795, was the ranking chief of the tribe for a period of forty years. His village at the time mentioned was lo- cated on the present farm of David Gitchell, in section 5 of the township of Bertrand. This village was established by the old chief in or about 1825. Mr. McCoy, in his narra- tive of events in that year, says, " I on one occasion went with two young men to the new settlement formed near our place by Topinabé, the principal chief, and his party, where we found the inhabitants engaged in a horrid bacchanalian revel. After searching among them awhile, I found a keg of spirits, but I had scarcely taken hold on it before it was seized by the drinking Indians, and I was under the neces- sity of leaving it in their possession." It is evident from this that the village had been recently located at that place. It was afterwards known as "Swoptuck."

* He evidently alludes to the well-known blue grass of Kentucky, and there is no probability of his being mistaken in it, as he was en- tirely familiar with the blue grass region of that State. But it is a little curious that the location of an Indian village should bring it in where it had not before existed.

HISTORY OF BERRIEN AND VAN BUREN COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

Topinabé is spoken of as being a man of ability and a brave and cunning warrior ; and there is little doubt that this is true of him, otherwise he could not have remained so long the acknowledged leader of the tribe. But during the latter years of his life he became addicted to the use of whisky, and was its abject slave. At the treaty of Chi- cago, in 1821, where he represented the tribe in the matter of a proposed cession of lands to the United States, he was advised by the commissioner, Gen. Cass, to keep sober, if possible, so as to secure a good bargain for himself and his people ; but the characteristic reply of the Pottawattamie sagamore was, " Father, we do not care for the land, nor the money, nor the goods ; what we want is whisky; give us whisky." He was then very old, and from that time his progress towards complete degradation was rapid. One of the assistants of Mr. McCoy in the St. Joseph Valley in reporting to him the situation of affairs there in May, 1826, said, "Since we wrote you last, I suppose the Indians have not passed a single day without drinking. Poor old To- pinabé (principal chief) is said to be near his end from in- toxication." And, finally, the death of the old chief is mentioned by Mr. McCoy, as follows : " On the 27th of July, 1826, a poor, destitute Indian woman was murdered, about a mile and a half from our house, by Pottawattamies, under circumstances too shocking to be related. About the the same time, Topinabe, the principal chief, fell from his horse, under the influence of ardent spirits, and received an injury of which he died two days afterwards .* Both these deaths are attributed to the whisky-sellers."

The chief Pokagon (spelled also Pocagin), whose rank in the tribe was second only to that of Topinabé, was wholly different from his superior in the matter of whisky drinking. He is mentioned as " a Putawatomie chief of respectability" by Mr. McCoy, who, in another part of his narrative, says, " Many of the Indians manifested a dislike to the traffic in ardent spirits, fraught with ruin to them- selves, though they seldom possessed fortitude enough to withstand the temptation to drink. On the 20th of August (1824), Pocagin, a chief, and many others came to inform us of liquor in their country, and expressed a wish to go and seize it. We could not hope that Indians in such cases would be governed by sound discretion, and therefore dis-

suaded them from their purpose." The missionary also relates an incident, showing that Pokagon possessed also feelings of humanity which were very unusual among the Pottawattamie Indians. After mentioning that a large body of Sauk Indianst had passed along the St. Joseph Valley, on their return from Detroit, in August, 1827, he says, " A few days after the Sauks had passed on, Pocagin and his wife visited us, bringing with them an Indian boy, ap- parently about eleven years of age, supposed to be a Naudo- wisse (Sioux), whom they had purchased of the Sauks. Pocagin having heard that in divers villages of the Puta- watomies the Sauks had been offering a person for sale, went to them and proposed purchasing. He gave for the boy three horses, saddles and bridles, and other property, equal in value to a fourth horse. The boy had been taken prisoner by the Sauks, and illy treated. Several scars on him were pointed out to us, occasioned by the blows of a cruel old woman, to whom he had belonged. In making the purchase, it seemed that Pocagin had been actuated in a good degree by humane motives. In evidence of the sin- cerity of our commendation of this praiseworthy act, we presented the boy with a couple of garments, of which we perceived he was still in want." It was certainly very re- markable to find a chief of the ferocious Pottawattamies giving the value of four horses to save an unfortunate pris- oner from cruel treatment.

Mr. Edward B. Cowles, who was once a pupil of Mr. McCoy, says of this chief that he was " the reality of the noble red man of whom we read. He was a man of con- siderable talent, and in his many business transactions with the early settlers was never known to break his word."

Each chief of note appears to have had his separate vil- lage. That of Pokagon was located on the Jacob Troup farm, in the south part of the township of Bertrand, on " Pokagon Creek," about one mile from the St. Joseph River. The village is laid down on the survey of the Michigan and Indiana State line, made in 1827. The Chicago road was also surveyed through it. The chief's house was on the north side of the stream, in section 16 of the township. On an eminence in section 22, on land now owned by William Copp, was located the Indian cem- etery, where some of Pokagon's people were buried, though he himself was not. A part of the old cedar cross which marked the burial-place was standing there in very recent years.

This village of Pokagon was established after Mr. McCoy came among the Indians, and is thus mentioned by him : " Pocagin and his party had commenced a village about six miles from us [probably it was about that distance by the route then traveled], and manifested a disposition to make themselves more comfortable. It was one of our places of preaching. In the spring of 1826 we were about to afford them some assistance in making improvements, when one of those white men who are commonly hanging about the

* This statement of the time and manner of Topinabe's death-a statement made by a man of undoubted veracity, who was well ac- quainted with the person whose death he records, and who was living in the midst of the Indians at the time-would seem to be sufficient proof that the old chief died in July or August, 1826, if it were not for the unexplained fact that the name of To-pen-e-bee appears at the head of the Indian signatures to the treaties of 1828, at Carey Mis- sion, of 1832, at Tippecanoe River, and of 1833, at Chicago, the latter being the last in which his name is found. It is known that there was among the St. Joseph Indians another Topinabe, a much younger man (but whether a son of the old chief or not is not known), and it is, of course, possible that he may have been the Topinabe whose name appears in the above-mentioned treaties ; but it is hardly likely that he could have been a chief of sufficiently exalted rank to assume the place of the veteran who had sat in every treaty-council in which his tribe had been represented since 1795, and to entitle his name to take precedence of those of the other chiefs present. Much pains has been taken to ascertain the exact date of Topinabe's death, but without success. The strongest probability, however, seems to be that it was the old chief Topinabe who signed the treaties of 1828, 1832, and 1833.

1 Large bodies of Sauks passed through this region every year, on their way to and from Malden, Canada, where they went to receive the small annuities given them by the British government for their services against the United States in the war of 1812-15. On these journeys they frequently had prisoners and scalps with them. Mr. McCoy says they were addicted to cannibalism, even at that late date.

THE POTTAWATTAMIES OF THE ST. JOSEPH AFTER 1815.

Indians for the sake of flaying them, like crows around a carcass, interfered, and made a contract for making improve- ments. This ended in disappointment to the Indians. Po- cagin applied to us, and in November we hired white men to erect for them three hewed-log cabins, and to fence twenty acres of prairie-land. We saw that justice was done to the Indians in regard to price and the good performance of the work, and we subsequently employed our team and hands to plow up the new prairie-land for them. We also pre- sented to them some stock hogs, and loaned them a milch- cow, for their encouragement to raise stock." Pokagon was a convert to the Catholic religion, and continued in that faith during his life. He used all his powers to prevent the final emigration of his tribe, and was one of the few who did not accompany them to the West. He died at Silver Creek, in Cass County, and there his bones repose.

Weesaw was the war-chief of all the Indians of the St. Joseph. He was a great lover of gorgeous dress, and of all forms of Indian pomp and show. One of his three wives was Topinabe's daughter, and she was the favorite, on whom he bestowed the most and the choicest of the tawdry finery which he was able to procure. She was almost constantly with him, and on their visits to the white settlements always took precedence of the other wives, by walking next behind her lord, the others following her. Weesaw's village was located on the south side of the St. Joseph River, on or near the corner-point of sections 15, 16, 21, and 22, in the township of Niles, some two miles below the central part of the city. An Indian burial-ground was situated in the bend of the river, a short distance below the village. Wee- saw was a lover of strong drink, and was killed by his own son in a drunken brawl.

Chebass was a chief of the tribe, and evidently one of high rank, as appears from the fact that he was one of the distinguished guests invited by Mr. McCoy to his New Year's dinner in 1823, which was soon after his arrival in the Indian country. The good missionary says, " On the 1st of January we deemed it expedient to invite Topinabé and Chebass, principal chiefs, and some others, to partake of a frugal meal with us, some attention having generally been paid to the 25th of December and the 1st of January by white men among them, most of whom have been French Catholics, from whom the natives derived a knowl- edge of these holidays." In July, 1827, a son of Chebass, probably in a drunken fit, brutally murdered the son of an Indian named Owl, and set fire to the dwelling of a Pot- tawattamie named Shakwaukshuk. " One of Shakwauk- shuk's wives," says the missionary, " was a sister of the mur- derer. She very unconcernedly said that her brother had become so troublesome that the Indians were about to look for him and kill him. A few hours afterwards the chief Chebass called on us and said he was in great distress; that a council was to be held on the following day, when the family of the murdered man would demand vengeance on his son, who had participated in the murder. He said he would take a horse to the council as an atonement for the offense. The culprit and the price of atonement would be placed near each other, and the avengers could make their choice of one or the other. He awaited the decision in an agony of hope and fear, and equal to his anxiety must have 5

been his joy when it was decided that the offender should not be executed."

Chebass appears to have been among the progressive por- tion of the Pottawattamies, as the reverend missionary tells us that " in the spring season of this year [1824] Chebass, one of the principal Putawatomie chiefs, and two other families, commenced improving their lands in a manner that was really promising. Three log cabins were erected, and two considerable fields fenced with rails. In this labor, and in plowing the fields, we afforded them some assistance." The location of Chebass' village has not been definitely ascertained.

Another chief (probably of lower degree). was Saugana, the same one whose remarkable dream was believed by the Indians to have provided food for the party on its way to the treaty of the Wabash, in 1826. Very little mention is made of him except that when, in 1827, the Pottawattamie chiefs were approached by emissaries from the Winnebagoes inviting them to join in a war of extermination against the whites, he was one of the most positive and indignant reject- ers of the proposal ;* and that when intelligence arrived that the Winnebagoes had actually commenced hostilities, Saugana, with fifteen other chiefs and head men, visited the missionaries, to whom he, as chief speaker, made this re- assuring address : " Our brother, we are sorry to hear that some Indians have been fighting with the white people. This is not good, and we will not join them ; we will re- main at peace; we are happy that you have come to live among us, and that you are our friend, the same as one of us. . . . You will know everything that passes among the - whites. If anything should occur that we ought to know for our safety, we desire you to inform us, and advise us what to do. We will understand all that occurs among the Indians. If we hear anything of danger to you we will inform you. Finally, I can say no more than do you take care of us, and we will take care of you."

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History of Berrien and Van Buren counties, Michigan. With biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 7

Author: D.W. Ensign & Co. pub; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Johnson, Crisfield Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, D. W. Ensign & Co. Number of Pages: 821

Author: D.W. Ensign & Co. pub; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Johnson, Crisfield
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D. W. Ensign & Co.
Number of Pages: 821