History of Genesee County, Michigan, Her People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 17

Author: Edwin Orin Wood
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Federal publishingcompany
Number of Pages: 861

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Art. 1. The Chippewa Nation of Indians, in consideration of the stipulations herein made on the part of the United States, do hereby, forever, cede to the United States the land comprehended within the following lines and boundaries: Beginning at a point in the present Indian boundary line, which now runs due north from the mouth of the great Auglaize river, six miles south of the place where the base line so called, intersects the same; thence west sixty miles; thence in a direct line to the head of Thunder Bay river; thence down the same, following the courses thereof, to the mouth; thence northeast to the boundary line between the United States and the British Province of Upper Canada; thence with the same, to the line established by the treaty of Detroit, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seven; thence with said line to the place of beginning.

Art. 2. From the cession aforesaid, the following tracts of land shall be reserved, for the use of the Chippewa Nation of Indians. * ** * * * * .

One tract of five thousand and seven hundred and sixty acres, upon Flint river, to include Reaume's village, and a place called Kishkawbawee.

Art. 3. There shall be reserved for the use of each of the persons hereinafter mentioned and their heirs, which persons are all Indian by descent, the following tracts of land.

* *

* * *

For the use of Nowokeshik, Metawanene, Mokitchenoqua, Nondashemau, Petabona- qua, Messawakut, Chebalk, Kitchegeequa, Sagosequa, Annekeltogua and Tawcumego- qua, each six hundred and forty acres of land, to be located at or near the Grand

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Traverse of the Flint river, in such manner as the President of the United States may direct.

Art. 4. In consideration of the cession aforesaid, the United States agree to pay to the Chippewa Nation of Indians annually, forever, the sum of one thousand dollars in silver, and do also agree that all annuities due by any former treaty to the said tribe, shall be hereafter paid in silver.

Art. 5. The stipulation contained in the treaty of Greenville, relative to the right of the Indians to hunt upon the land ceded, while it continues the property of the United States, shall apply to this treaty, and the Indians shall, for the same term enjoy the privilege of making sugar upon the same land, committing no unnecessary waste upon the trees.

* * * *

Art. 7. The United States reserve the right to the proper authority to make roads through any part of the land reserved by this treaty.

Art. 8. The United States engage to provide and support a blacksmith for the Indians, at Saginaw, so long as the President of the United States may think proper, and to furnish the Chippewa Indians with such farming utensils and cattle, and to employ such persons to aid them in their agriculture as the President may deem expedient.

The names of the Indians who signed this treaty included the name, "Reaume," meant for Ne-o-me, and the village referred to as Reaume's village, was the village of Ne-o-me. Mix-e-ne-ne, brother of Ne-o-me, also signed the treaty, his name appearing as "Meckseonne." Ton-e-do-gaunee appears on the treaty as "Fonegawne," and Kaw-ga-ge-zhic appears as "Kog- kakeshik.".

Of the eleven reserves made for persons named, "all Indian by descent," six are names of women, as the ending, "qua," the Chippewa word meaning woman, denotes. The other five are masculine names in the same language.

THE TRIBAL RESERVATION.

Of the tribal reservation of five thousand seven hundred and sixty acres of land, to include the village of Ne-o-me, and the place called Kish- kawbawee, there could be no dispute. No caviler could suggest that the tribe was any other than the Chippewas of the Saginaw, and so the United States on the next season after the treaty was made surveyed the same and set off for the tribe the reservation, partly in the present county of Genesee and party in Saginaw, to include the two villages named.

In Genesee county, the reservation contained all of section 4, the east half of section 5, the west half of section 3, the north half of section 9, the northeast quarter of section 8, and the northwest quarter of section 10, all in the town of Montrose. This reserve in Genesee county was a rectangular

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piece of land, containing one thousand nine hundred and twenty acres, with the Flint river running approximately through the center of it.

This reservation was known by the Chippewa name for the Flint river, Pewonigowink, and afterwards the town containing it, was given the name of the town of Pewonigowink; but this was later changed to Montrose. Upon this same land afterwards the Flint River Agricultural Society estab- lished its fair grounds and held its fairs, and in later times it had been known as the Taymouth fair.

A celebrated place is known as the Old Indian field, where travelers up and down the river were accustomed to camp. This was on the Pewonigo- wink reservation in Saginaw county. It is said that the Indians planted their own corn on this field for years; but finally the grub worms destroyed their crop for two or three years in succession, when they abandoned the field, believing that the Manitou had cursed it. These Indians were extremely superstitious and believed in evil spirits, especially the ghosts of the Sauks, who in their traditions were murdered by their ancestors under circumstances of great cruelty. Ephraim S. Williams, the Indian trader of Saginaw and Flint, tells of their fears as follows :

"It has been mentioned that the ancient Chippewas imagined the coun- try which they had wrested from the conquered Sauks to be haunted by the spirits of those whom they had slain, and that it was only after the lapse of years that their terrors were sufficiently allayed to permit them to occupy the 'haunted grounds.' But the superstition still remained, and in fact it was never entirely dispelled. Long after the Saginaw valley was studded with white settlements, the simple Indians still believed that myste- rious Sauks were lingering in their forests and along the margins of the streams for the purposes of vengeance; that 'Manesous,' or bad spirits in the form of Sauk warriors, were hovering around their villages and camps and the flank of their hunting grounds, preventing them from being suc- cessful in the chase and bringing ill-fortune and discomfiture in a hundred ways. So great was their dread that when (as was frequently the case) they became possessed with the idea that the 'Manesous' were in their imme- diate vicinity, they would fly as for their lives, abandoning everything- wigwams, fish, game and all their camp equipment-and no amount of ridicule by the whites could induce them to stay and face the imaginary danger. Some of the Indians whose country joined that of the Saginaws played upon their weakness and superstition and derived profit from it by lurking around their villages or camps, frightening them into flight and then appropriating the property which they abandoned. There was a time

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every spring when the Indians from Saginaw and the interior would con- gregate in large numbers for the purpose of putting up dried sturgeon, which made a very delicate dish when properly cooked, and was much used in those days in the first families of Detroit. We used to purchase con- siderable of it for our use. The Indians would select the best, flay them, hang them across poles in rows, about four feet from the ground and two feet apart, then a gentle smoke was kept under them until they were per- fectly dry, then packed up in bales of perhaps fifty pounds each. When their bales were put up for summer use, then the poor lazy, worthless Indians from a distance who had an eye to supplying themselves with provisions which they never labored to obtain, would commence in different ways to excite their fears that the 'Manesous' were about the camp, until at last they would take to their canoes and flee, often leaving almost everything they possessed. Then the 'Manesous'-thieving Indians from the bands who had cunningly brought about the stampede for the sake of plunder-would rob the camps of what they wanted and escape to their homes with, per- haps, their supplies of fish for the summer, and often of sugar and dried venison. I have met them fleeing as above; sometimes twenty or more canoes; have stopped them and tried to induce them to return, and we would go with them; but no, it was the 'Manesous,' they said, and nothing could convince them differently; away they would go, frightened nearly to death. I have visited their camps at such times and secured their effects that were left in camp from destruction from wild animals. After a while they would return and save what was left. During these times they were perfectly miserable, actually afraid of their own shadows.

"Similar scenes were enacted by their hunting parties in the forests of the Shiawassee and the Flint, and at their summer camps, the beauti- ful inland lakes of their southern border. I have had them come to me from places miles distant, bringing their rifles to me and asking me to examine and re-sight them, declaring that the sights had been moved; and in some cases they had, but by themselves in their fright. I always did, when applied to, re-sight and try them until they would shoot accurately then they would go away cheerfully. I would tell them they must keep their rifles where the 'Manesous' could not find them. At other times when they had a little bad luck hunting or trapping, they became excited and would say that the game had been over and in their traps, and they could not catch anything. I have known them to go so far as to insist that a beaver or otter had been in their traps and had gotten out; that their traps were bewitched or spellbound, and their rifles charmed by the

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'Manesous,' so they could not catch or kill anything. They then got up a great feast, and the medicine man, or conjurers, through their wise and dark performances, removed the charm and all was well; traps and rifles did their duty again."

Ne-o-me continued to live at his village on the reservation after the treaty of Saginaw was made. The pictures of Indian life given above will aid in understanding the life he led. He continued to be a close friend of the trader, Jacob Smith, until Smith died in 1825. Ne-o-me died in 1827, and was succeeded by Ton-e-do-ganee, the war chief, who had become second chief to Ne-o-me. As the name of the new chief in his language means a furious dog, perhaps he was better adapted to ruling these super- stitious people of Pewonigowink than was the amiable Ne-o-me. In this succession of the new chief, we may see the fulfillment of the long deferred ambition of the war chief, of which the romantic tale tells when he dra- matically announced to Ne-o-me and Chessaning the fact of the sister's elopement with the French trader.

At the treaty of Saginaw, Cass was obliged to give up his attempt to provide for the removal of the Chippewas to some point west of Lake Michigan. The reservations for the Indians at that treaty were small and insignificant as compared to the great extent of the ceded territory of over six million acres. But even these insignificant and relatively unimportant tracts were envied by the settlers, and Cass never gave up his intention of removing the Indians. In pursuance of the general policy of his govern- ment, various treaties were made with the different tribes by which they were induced to move to the westward, on lands given them in lieu of their Michigan reserves.

The Chippewas of our locality had become divided into three bands, the Swan Creek band, the Black River band and the Saginaw band. These were regarded as separate and distinct from the northern Chippewas. In March, 1836, a treaty was made by the United States, on the one hand, and the Chippewa nation and Ottawa nation on the other, by which cession of their lands were made. The benefits of this treaty, however, were con- fined to the Chippewas of the upper peninsula and the region between the Grand river and the "Cheboigan." It was not intended that the affairs of the three bands above named should be involved in this treaty. On May 9, 1836, a treaty was made by the United States, through Henry R. Schoolcraft, commissioner, and the Swan Creek and Black River bands of the Chippewas, by which they gave up their reservations and in return were to receive thirteen sections of land west of the Mississippi river, or

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northwest of St. Anthony falls. Among the chiefs who signed this treaty was Kay-way-ge-zhig (unending day), the father of David Fisher, who lived many years in Gaines near the Crapo farm; he died, respected by all who knew him, on April 26, 1884, and is now buried on the Crapo farm. Of all the Chippewas who once held title to this county, his family were probably the last residents. His Indian name was Wah-e-lenessah and he was probably the last chief within this county. A great-great-granddaughter of his is now living in the city of Flint.

On January 14, 1837, at Detroit, was consummated the treaty between the Saginaw band of the Chippewas and the United States. This treaty was also negotiated by Schoolcraft, as commissioner for the United States. Among the provisions of this treaty, the Saginaw band ceded to the United States all the reservation on the Flint river, or the Pewonigowink reserva- tion. By this cession the last vestige of tribal lands within the county of Genesee was surrendered. The Indians had the right to live on certain reservations further north, for five years, and were then to remove to a western location to be selected for the purpose by a delegation of the Indians, who were to make a personal examination of the same. The place was to be in proximity to kindred tribes who had already moved there. It was contemplated that if such location could be satisfactorily made, the Chip- pewas should then form a "re-union" with such kindred tribes and move thereto.

The lands ceded were to be sold by the United States government and the moneys received for them were to be used for the benefit of the Indians. Tonedogaunee, successor of Ne-o-me, signed this treaty, with twenty-six other chiefs of the Saginaw band, of the Chippewas. It is also significant that ten of the chiefs who signed it were to receive each the sum of five hun- dred and one dollars, and Tonedogaunee was one of these.

On December 20, 1837, a further treaty was made between this band and the United States, with Schoolcraft acting as commissioner. The coun- cil was held "on the Flint River," and this was the only instance of a treaty being made here; it was at the present site of our city of Flint, or the Grand Traverse of the Flint, that the Indians gathered for council and made the treaty. The delegation of Indians who had, under the stipulations of the earlier treaty of January, visited the western location and selected a place for their future home, had reported, and this council was to give tribal sanc- tion to the report of the delegation. The reservation selected was "on the headwaters of the Osage river, in the country visited by the delegation of

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the tribe during the present year, to be of proper extent, agreeably to their numbers, embracing a due proportion of wood and water, and lying con- tiguous to tribes of kindred languages." To this treaty were signed the names of Tonedogaunee and Kau-gay-ge-zhig, the latter as having been a party to the treaty of the Swan Creek Indians, whose son was David Fisher of Genesee county. John Garland, major of the United States army; Henry Connor, the interpreter and sub-agent, T. B. W. Stockton; G. D. Williams, commissioner of internal improvements, South Michigan; Jonathan Beach, Charles C. Hascall, receivers of public moneys; Albert J. Smith, Robert J. S. Page, Wait Beach, Rev. Luther D. Whitney and T. R. Cummings signed as witnesses.

Another treaty was made by the government of the United States and the representatives of the several bands of Indians within the Saginaw dis- trict, at Saginaw, on the 23rd day of January, 1838. By its provisions, which were in the nature of additional safeguards to the Indians in securing the proper sums for the sale of the lands ceded, the United States agreed that the sales should be conducted the same as other sales of public lands; that the lands should be put up for sale by the register and receiver of the land office at five dollars per acre, and should not go at less than that price for two years: after that the price of lands unsold should be two and a half dollars per acre. The object of this agreement was to quiet the fears of the Indians that a combination might be made to get the lands for a small sum. This treaty seems to have been the last that in any way affected Genesee county.

RESERVATIONS TO INDIVIDUALS.

The difficulties of carrying into effect the provisions of the treaty of Saginaw, 1819, so far as they effected Genesee county, arose from disputes as to the identity of the persons for whose use the reservations "at or near the Grand Traverse of the Flint," were made.

There were eleven of these. They were surveyed by the government in the early part of 1820, and the survey showed each reservation with the name of the person for whom it was reserved. Six of these were located along the north side of the river, each of six hundred and forty acres. They were irregularly bounded, by the river on the south, the other three bounds being right lines, but not parallel. They were numbered from east to west: Number one, for Taw-cum-e-go-qua; number two, for Meta-wa- ne-ne; number three, for Annoketoqua; number four, for Sagosequa; num-

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ber five, for Nondashemau; number six, for Messawawkut. The five reserves south of the river were similarly surveyed, with the river for their northern boundary, and numbered from east to west: Number seven, for Nowokezhik; number eight, for Mokitchenoqua; number nine, for Che-balk; number ten for Petabonequa; and number eleven, for Kitchigeequa. These are all Indian names; those ending in "qua" are feminine, the others mascu- line. All the persons named were, by the treaty, to be "Indians by descent," words which would seem to be unequivocal and quite incapable of misappli- cation.

To treat these various reserves seriatim: Number one, for the use of Taw-cum-e-go-qua, was the subject of long and strenuous litigation, the issue of the dispute depending on the identity of the Indian woman, Taw- cum-e-go-qua. Two Indian women were brought forward, each as the per- son so named in the treaty. One of these was a girl, of tender age at the time of the treaty of 1819. She was the daughter of sub-chief Mixenene and was present at the treaty with her father and his family. She was also a niece of Ne-o-me, the head chief. Being a full-blooded Indian, she came within the treaty provision. She lived with her parents on the reservation at Pewonigowink until she grew to maturity and married an Indian by the name of Kahzheauzungh. They had three children. In 1841, she sold her interest in the reservation to John Barlow and Addison Stewart and later their rights passed by certain conveyances to George H. Dewey and Rufus J. Hamilton. Of all the claims put forth by various persons to the Indian reserves, theirs seemed the best. They had acquired by purchase the title from an Indian woman who it was conceded bore the name for which the reserve was made. She was an Indian by descent. Her relationship was such with the ruling chiefs who made the treaty, that she was the logical person for whom such provision would naturally be made.

Even with all these equities, the title of Dewey and Hamilton was con- tested. A trader by the name of Bolieu, the same who was called Kasseqaus by the Indians, and who figures in one of the romantic tales, had married an Indian wife, and their daughter, Angélique Bolieu, whose Indian name was said to be Tawcumegoqua, was claimed to be the true beneficiary of the first reserve. She had been sent to a school and educated, and afterwards mar- ried a man named Coutant, by whom she had two children, a son and daughter. Her husband dying, she married Jean Baptiste St. Aubin. She was of middle age, and married, when the treaty was made in 1819, and she died about eight years after that date, leaving her two children. She had

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never had possession of the reserve, although it was said she had claimed it as her property. After her death, her two children, Simon Coutant and Angélique Coutant Chauvin, conveyed the reservation to Joseph Campau of Detroit. This was in October, 1833. In 1839 other deeds were made in confirmation of these decds of 1833, and Joseph Campau, claiming the reserve, took possession by placing tenants on the same. A patent was issued to Campau by the United States government.

These two conflicting claims to the reserve came into court on a suit by Dewey and Hamilton against Campau. At the first trial, Campau was successful. The case then went to the supreme court. where it was affirmed. This case was determined on a technical defect in the deed and the merits involved were not decided. Dewey and Hamilton then secured other deeds that obviated the technical defects and another suit was begun, which was transferred to Saginaw county for trial because of the influences that might operate in Genesee county to prejudice the jury. The growth of population in Flint, which had become a city before the suit was instituted, made the reserve a tempting prize. The best legal talent of the state appeared for the litigants. Moses Wisner, (at one time governor of Michigan, the father of the late Judge Wisner of Flint), M. E. Crowfoot and J. Moore, repre- sented Dewey and Hamilton. S. T. Douglass, W. M. Fenton, J. G. Suther- land and Chauncey P. Avery were attorneys for Campau. The trial of this suit at Saginaw in 1860 resulted in a verdict to the effect that Tawcume- goqua, daughter of Mixenene, was the person of that name for which reserve number one was intended, and that Dewey and Hamilton, who had acquired her rights in the same, were the owners of it and entitled to its possession.

This suit went to the supreme court and the decision of that court, in the Ninth Michigan Report at page 381, et seq., contains a great deal of historical interest. "Evidence was adduced," says the Reporter, "tending to prove that at the time of the treaty of Saginaw, and for many years prior and subsequent thereto, a band of Chippewa Indians resided at the village of Pewonigowink, on the Flint river, and about ten miles below the Grand Traverse of that river, in the place where the present city of Flint is located; that during all the time referred to, Neome was the chief of this band; that Tonedogane was the principal warrior, or second chief of the band, and succeeded Neome in the chieftianship on his decease; that one Mixenene was also a member of this band, and a brother of Neome, and that Mixenene had a daughter named Tawcumegoqua, who was about six years of age at the time of the treaty, and was a member of Neome's family; that Neome

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also had three children-two females, Segosaqua and Owanonaquatoqua, the former about ten or twelve years old at the time of the treaty, the latter a woman grown, and one boy, Ogibwak, who was about fifteen years of age, and a grandson, Metawanene; that all the children named were full blood Indian children ; that at the time referred to, Jacob Smith had a store near the Grand Traverse of the Flint river, in which he carried on trade with the Indians of that vicinity, and was a man of considerable influence among them; that Neome, his children and said grandchild, and his band, including Tonedogane and also Mixenene and his little daughter Taw- cumegoqua, were present at the treaty; that on the night prior to the last council, at which the treaty was read over, agreed to and signed, Jacob Smith came to Neome's tent and advised him to get special reservation of land for his children and promised to assist him in doing so; that at the grand council held the next day between the Indians and General Cass, Neome came forward before General Cass, with his three children, Owan- onaquatoqua, Sagosaqua and Ojibwak, and said grandchild Metaquanene being with him, and Jacob Smith standing by his side, and asked for reserva- tions of land for these children; that General Cass assented, and that the names of the children were written down, and that it was talked of and understood at the treaty that these children got special reservations of land;

* * that for thirty years or more, subsequent to the treaty, Neome's band continued to reside at Pewonigowink, upon the reservation described in article 2 of the treaty as 'one tract of five thousand seven hundred and sixty acres upon the Flint river, to include Rheaume's (Neome's) village, and a place called Kishkawbee'; and that during a portion of this time the Indian children above named, including Tawcumegoqua, resided with the band upon this tribal reservation, and a portion of the time Tawcumegoqua, with her family, and another family of said band resided on the premises in question." The court affirmed the judgment of the court below, and so the verdict of the jury giving the land to Dewey and Hamilton stood. The result appears to have been eminently just.

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History of Genesee County, Michigan, Her People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I, Part 17

Author: Edwin Orin Wood Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Federal publishingcompany Number of Pages: 861

Author: Edwin Orin Wood
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Federal publishingcompany
Number of Pages: 861