History of Genesee county, Michigan. With illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 4

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Everts & Abbott, Philadelphia, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Abbott
Number of Pages: 683

USA > Michigan > Genesee County > History of Genesee county, Michigan. With illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 4

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The second line mentioned in the description of the tract here ceded-that is, the line running due north from the mouth of the Auglaize River, and a prolongation of it to the Straits of Mackinaw-was afterwards adopted by the United States surveyors as the principal meridian line of the lower peninsula of Michigan. The territory ceded by the Indians at the treaty of Detroit embraced all of Michigan lying east of that line as far north as the centre of the present county of Shiawassee, and extending from thence in a northeastwardly direction to the shore of Lake Huron, at a point a little above the northern boundary of the county of Sanilae ; including all that is now in the county of Gen- esee, except the northern and western part of the township of Montrose and the northwestern corner of Vienna. Within this ceded territory the Indians reserved several tracts for their own uses (none of them, however, being within the present limits of Genesee County), and they were also to have the privilege of hunting and fishing, under the same conditions as stipulated in the treaty of Green- ville.

During the war of 1812-15, the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pottawattamie tribes sided with the British, and by this aet, and their general conduet through that struggle, were considered to have justly forfeited the lands reserved to them. Nevertheless, the government magnanimously determined not to enforce the forfeiture, but to adopt a conciliatory and friendly policy towards them; and in September, 1815, Gen. Wm. Il. Harrison, Gen. MeArthur, and John Graham, Esq., on the part of the government, held a council with them at Springwells, near Detroit, where, on the Sth of that month, a treaty was concluded, by which it was agreed that " the United States give peace to the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pottawattamie tribes. They also agree to restore to the said Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pottawattamie tribes all the possessions, rights, and privileges which they enjoyed or were entitled to in the year 1811, prior to the commence- ment of the late war with Great Britain ; and the said tribes upon their part agree to place themselves under the protec- tion of the United States, and of no other power what- soever." And, at the same time, the treaty made at Green-

# In its relinquishment of these lands, however, the government excepted the post of Vincennes, on the Wabash, the post of Fort Marsac, towards the mouth of the Ohio, and lands at other places, actually in the occupation of French or other white settlers, tu which the Indian title had before been extinguished.

INDIAN TREATIES AND CESSIONS OF LAND.

ville in 1795, and subsequent treaties between these tribes and the United States, were confirmed and ratified.

TREATY OF SAGINAW-1819.

Soon after the close of the war with England, the atten- tion of emigrating farmers from New York and New Eng- land began to be directed towards the newly-opened agri- cultural regions of Michigan, and it was not long before it became evident to the comprehensive mind of Governor Cass-the most able as well as the most influential man in the Territory-that broad as was the domain acquired by the treaty of 1807, it would soon be found too narrow to receive the immigration which had already begun to spread westward and northward from Detroit. He at once applied his tireless energies to the task of securing a fur- ther cession of' lands from the Indians, and, being ex officio Indian commissioner for Michigan, he laid the matter be- fore the President, and received anthority and directions to negotiate a treaty for the extinguishment of the aboriginal title to adjoining territory on the north and west.

The result of his labors was the assembling of the sachems and chiefs of the Saginaw Chippewas, with a few of those of the Ottawa nation, in council at the present site of Saginaw City, in September, 1819. Early in that month, Governor Cass, accompanied by a cavaleade composed of his secretaries, interpreters, and other assistants, set out from Detroit, and proceeded by way of Royal Oak, Pontiac, and the Grand Traverse of the Flint, to Saginaw, where they arrived on the 10th, and there found the warriors and chiefs already assembled, and assembling, for the eouven- tion. The attendance, however, was less numerous than had been expected; and when it was found that some of the Indian bands and villages were unrepresented, runners were sent out in haste to such localities to give further notification, and to urge the absent chiefs to come in and join in the couneil.

Under instructions from Gen. Cass, suitable preparations had been made for the occasion. Mr. Louis Campan, who had for three years been established at Saginaw as an In- dian trader, had made an addition to his trading-house suf- ficient in size to furnish quarters for the governor, and also a commodious mess-room for him and his retinue. Near the bank of the river had been creeted the council-house. It was a rude structure,-more a bower than a honse,-and inadequate to afford shelter against inelement weather, but sufficient to furnish a shade for the general and the attend- aut chiefs, and to give some degree of dignity to their de- liberations. Moored in the stream were two small vessels, a sloop and a schooner, which had come round from Detroit, bringing subsistence stores, goods intended for Indian pres- ents, and a company of the Third United States Infantry, under command of Capt. C. L. Cass, a brother of the gov- ernor. The presence of these troops was considered Deces- sary, in view of the possibility of violence on the part of the assembled Indians.

When all preparations were complete, the white and red dignitaries assembled in the council-house, near the centre of which, upon a low platform of hewn logs, sat the com- missioner, Gen. Cass, accompamed by his secretaries, R. A. Forsyth, Jr. (who was also acting commissioner ), John I.

Leib. and D. G. Whitney ; Capt. Cass ; Capt. Chester Root, of the artillery ; Lieut. John Peacock, of the 3d Infantry ; Whitmore Knaggs, Indian trader and sub-agent, and, on this occasion, principal interpreter ; Archibald Lyons, an Indian trader; Henry Connor, interpreter (known among the Indians as Wabishkindebay-meaning " White Hair"); Louis Beanfait, William Tucky, and John Hurson, inter- preters, and many others ; while all around were grouped the dark faces of the Chippewa and Ottawa chiefs.

The council being opened with due formality, Gen. Cass proceeded to inform the Indians of the objects for which they had been assembled. He told them, through his in- terpreters, that the Great Father at Washington was carn- estly desirons of promoting the welfare of his red children, and anxions to preserve and perpetuate the friendly and peaceful relations which had existed between their tribes and the government since the close of the war; that the tide of white emigration was pressing irresistibly towards their domain ; that their streams were each year growing less prolific; that the steady advance of civilization would drive the game to the remoter hunting-grounds; and that for these and other weighty reasons it was manifestly the part of wisdom for them, the chiefs and notables of the tribes, to advise their people to abandon, or at least to depend less on, precarious hunting and fishing as a means of subsist- ence, and to give their attention to the pursuits of agricul- ture upon fertile and ample tracts of their own selection, to be reserved for their perpetual use from the territory which it was now the desire of the government to purchase from them, at a fair and generous price, for the use of the white emigrants who wished to come and settle among them as friends and neighbors.

The opening address of the commissioner was replied to by several of the chiefs ; those most conspicuons by their speeches being Ogemawkeketo, Mishenenanonequet, and Kishkawko; the last named being an exceedingly wily and troublesome man, though really a Canadian Indian, an in- terloper among the Chippewas, with no proprietary interest in their lands or right to a voice in the questions before the council. But he had managed by some means to obtain considerable influence among the Saginaws, and his violent speech against the cession produced an effect adverse to the cherished objects of Gen. Cass. Here, however, his influ- enee against the proposed treaty ended, for at the close of this day's council he had fallen completely into the power of John Barleycorn, and during eight or ten days following remained in almost helpless intoxication.

The master-spirit among the Indians was Ogemawkeketo (" chief speaker"), who, though at that time seareely more than twenty-one years of age, was possessed of remarkable powers of oratory ; and his speech on this occasion was an eloquent outburst of indignant remonstrance, which was never afterwards forgotten by those who heard it. Ad- dressing Gen. Cass, he said, " Our people wonder why our white brethren have come so far from their homes. Our English Father never asked us for our lands. Our Amer- ican Father wants them. Your people gather in our country, and press in on our hunting-grounds. Our lands are melting away like ice when the waters grow warm around it. Our women reproac us. Here are their

HISTORY OF GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

homes, and the homes of our children. Shall we sell the ground where they spread their blankets? You do not know our wishes. We have not invited you here. Your young men have called us to meet you and kindle the council-fire, and we have come; not to give you our lands, but only to smoke with you the pipe of peace."

To counteract the effect of such a speech it was necessary for the commissioner to show firmness and self-possession. In his reply Gen. Cass said in effect that the Great Father at Washington, in the then recent war, had inflicted chas- tisement not only on the English king, but also on them, his Indian allies, and that they, the Chippewas, by their hostility to the United States during that war had justly forfeited all their lands to the government, but that not- withstanding this the Great Father had no desire to take the lands from them without paying a proper and generous equivalent ; and that, in case a treaty should be made with them, it was not in contemplation to take the homes of their women and children, but to secure to theni ample tribal reservations on which they could spread their blankets in peace, and not only live without fear of molestation from the incoming whites, but receive valuable assistance and instruction in their agriculture. But when the day's de- liberations closed the Indians still remained intractable and defiant ; and the commissioner, after having told them in a friendly manner to go to their wigwams "and smoke and talk over the matter together," withdrew with his company to their quarters, in a state of anxiety and disappointment in anticipation of a not improbable failure of the negotia- tions.

The conneil was not convened on the following day, nor for several days thereafter. The Indians remained sullen and unyielding, and the prospect was looking very unfavor- able for the consummation of the treaty, when a powerful influence, which had hitherto been quiescent, or adverse to the plans of the commissioner, began to be exerted in favor of the treaty. This was the influence wielded by Jacob Smith, the Indian trader. It is related that he had a per- sonal acquaintance with every one of the principal chiefs who were present at this council ; that there were few, if any of them, to whom he had not at some time extended some favor or act of friendship, either in entertaining them at his different places of business, or relieving their neces- sities by advances of blankets and food. And among these chiefs, too, sat old Neome, steadfast and unwavering in his friendship, and willing and anxious on this, as on every occasion, to be guided by the wishes of his white brother, Wahbesins.

In view of these facts, it is not hard to realize the extent of the power which was held (and exercised) by Jacob Smith to shape the action of the Indian council,-a power far greater, in that direction, than that of the commissioner, or of Kishkawko, or even of the chief orator, Ogemawke- keto. It might have been supposed that Gen. Cass, who was personally acquainted with Smith, and well knew his pre-eminent qualifications as interpreter and negotiator with the Indians, would have selected and retained him in that capacity in this council, but such was not the fact, and his neglect to do so is regarded as proof that the commissioner regarded him with feelings of distrust. It was supposed

by many that the inflexible opposition manifested by Oge- mawkeketo, Neome, and the other chiefs was incited by him, and this supposition does not seem entirely improbable. But however this may have been, it is certain that all the efforts of the authorized interpreters and agents of the gov- ernment, continued during several days succeeding the first council, were wholly unavailing, and no favorable word or sign of yielding could be wrung from the chief's, until old Neome received through Mr. Knaggs, the interpreter, the promise that the wishes of his friend, Wahbesins, should be consulted, and his demands acceded to, in regard to the res- ervations to be granted by the terms of the proposed treaty. This was agreed to by the interpreters (of course with the private assent of Gen. Cass), and the arrangement was definitely made that, in addition to the reservation of ample tracts for the use of the several Indian bands, there should be made eleven reservations of six hundred and forty acres each, to be located at and near the trading-house of Jacob Smith, at the Grand Traverse of the Flint River; these reservations to be granted to a corresponding number of individuals, under Indian names, which were handed in, written upon slips of paper, to Gen. Cass .*

Several days after the first meeting, the chiefs were again convened in the council-house, where a considerable amount of discussion ensued ; but as a principal difficulty had been surmounted by the granting of Wahbesins' demand, and the consequent propitiation of Neome and the chiefs, and as Gen. Cass had ceased to press the original proposition of the government to remove the Chippewas beyond the Mississippi, or at least to the westward of Lake Michigan (finding that it was impossible of accomplishment, and that to insist on it would be to endanger the success of the en- tire negotiation), there was but comparatively feeble oppo- sition to the treaty, which was finally agreed on and vir- tually concluded at this sitting ; all that remained to be done being to engross it in due form, and to affix to it the signa- tures of the commissioner, the chiefs, and the witnesses.

For the ceremonious signing of the treaty, the chiefs were convened in council for the third and last time. Among them appeared Kishkawko, who had now partially recovered from the debauch which from the close of the first day until now had kept him confined to his wigwam, and prevented his participation in the later deliberations. The attendance at this council was much greater than on either of the previous occasions, being estimated at no less than two thousand chiefs, warriors, and braves, while a great concourse of Indian women and children were crowded together on the outskirts of the assemblage. The ceremony of signing was conducted with decorum and dignity, and was made as imposing as possible. The first name written upon the instrument was, of course, that of Lewis Cass, United States Indian Commissioner, and underneath were

# In a trial hefore Chancellor Manning, held in 1843, touching the title to one of the tracts reserved by this treaty, Robert A. Forsyth testified that upon this occasion he had been private secretary to Gen. Cass, and, acting in that capacity, bad copied the draft of the treaty ; that " Jacob Smith handed to the commissioner the names of certain persons for whom reservations were to be made ;" that he " saw but two lists of the names; Jacob Smith handed in one, and Henry Campan or Louis Beaufait the other."- Walker's Chancery Reports ; Stockton cs. Williams, February, 1843.

INDIAN TREATIES AND CESSIONS OF LAND.

placed the totemie signatures of one hundred and fourteen chiefs and head men of the Chippewas and Ottawas (though there were very few of the latter, and the whole number have usually been mentioned as Chippewas). The sub- scribing witnesses were the commissioner's secretaries, Leib and Whitney; Acting Commissioner Forsyth; Capts. Cass and Root ; Lieut. Peacock ; G. Godfroy, sub-agent ; Messrs. Knaggs, Tucky, Beaufait, and Ilurson, interpreters; John Hill, army contractor; Barney Campan, V. S. Ryley, J. Whipple, Henry I. Hunt, William Keith, A. E. Lacock, Richard Smyth, John Smyth, B. Head, Conrad Ten Eyck, and Louis Dequindre. Thus the treaty was concluded and executed Sept. 24, 1819.

When the ceremony of signing was over a large amount of silver money was brought out and placed in huge piles on the table before the commissioner, to be by him dis- tributed among the chiefs and representatives of the several bands. Many of these chiefs were indebted in considerable sums to the trader Louis Campau, who had received their promise that when the payment was made to them his claim should be liquidated, at least to the amount of fifteen hundred dollars. He had already notified Gen. Cass of this agreement, and was now anxiously waiting, hoping to receive the money from the commissioner without having it pass through Indian hands at all. But there were also present three other traders, who were not pleased at the prospect of having so considerable a part of the Indians' money appropriated to the payment of their old debts. One of these three was Jacob Smith, who at once set about the task of persuading the half-intoxicated Kishkawko and some of the other chiefs to demand that the entire sum duc them should be paid to the Indians, to be applied by them as they saw fit. Ilis diplomacy was entirely successful, and when the commissioner explained to the chiefs that Campau was expecting to receive his dues, and asked if they consented to the arrangement, they replied that they were his children, under his protection, and expected that he would pay the money into their hands. The general could not disregard their expressed wishes in this particular, and he therefore directed that the money be paid to them. Upon this, Campau, seeing that his money was lost, and believing Smith to be the cause of his discomfiture, leaped from the platform where he had been standing, and struck the latter two stunning blows in the face. Quick as light- ning Smith turned on his assailant, but Henry Connor and Louis Beaufait interposed between the belligerents and stopped the fight, much to the disgust of Campau, who was smarting under a sense of what he believed to be gross injustice in the non-payment of his claims, and furious at being denied the privilege of taking vengeance on the man who had circumvented him.

When all the business of the day was closed, Gen. Cass directed that the fire-water should be allowed to flow, and under this order five barrels of government whisky were opened, and the liquor was dealt out to the Indians. Upon seeing this, Campan, still filled with wrath at the treatment he had received, and blaming the general ahnost as much as Smith for it, ordered up ten barrels of his own whisky, knocked in the heads, and posted two men with dippers to supply the Indians as they came up. Of course the seene

of intoxication that ensued was indescribable. At about ten o'clock, the governor, having become thoroughly alarmed at the infernal orgies that surrounded the trading-house in which he was quartered, sent his private secretary, Forsyth, with orders to Campan to shut off the supply of liquor ; but the trader only deigned the grim reply, "You com- meneed it, general !" Then a platoon of the 3d Infantry was detailed to guard the store-house. Soon after they had been posted, a new arrival of Indians demanded whisky, and, upon being refused and held at bay, rushed on the guard to foree an entrance, during which attempt one of them received a bayonet wound in the leg. In an instant the war-whoop was sounded, and in a few minutes more swarms of savages, infuriated with liquor and tomahawk in hand, came rushing towards the store. "Stop the liquor, Louis !" screamed the Governor of Michigan Territory, as he stood in the door of his quarters with a night-eap on his head. " We shall all be murdered ! Stop the liquor, I say !" " Certainement, mon général," replied Campau, "but you begun it, and you allowed Smith to rob me. I'll keep you safe, but remember you commenced it, mon général." Ile appeared to think that the satisfaction of thoroughly fright- ening Gen. Cass (who he said had allowed Jacob Smith to rob him) was cheaply enough purchased by the expendi- ture of ten barrels of whisky.

By the combined efforts of the interpreters and traders the Indians were at length pacified, and they retired to their wigwams to sleep off the effects of their intoxication. After they had entirely recovered from their debanch they became perfectly friendly and tractable, and even after the commissioner and his staff of assistants had departed for Detroit, they sent the orator-chief, Washmenondequet, to overtake him, and express to him their pleasure and satis- faction at the result of the council.

The area of the territory ceded by the treaty of Saginaw was estimated at about six millions of acres ; its boundaries, as described in the treaty, being as follows : " Beginning at a point in the present Indian boundary line [identical with the principal meridian of the State] which 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 [this corner being abont three miles northeast of the present village of' Kalamazoo]; thenee 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 De- troit in the year 1807; and thence with said line to the place of beginning.'

From this cession various tribal reservations were made for the use of the Chippewas, viz. : on the cast side of the Au Sable, a tract of 8000 acres, including an Indian village; 2000 acres on the Mesaquisk ; 6000 acres, to include an Indian village, on the north side of the Kawkawling; 640 acres on the same river, "for the use of the children of Bokowtonden ;" 9640 acres, in three tracts, on the Huron (Cass) River; an island in Saginaw Bay; a tract of 2000 acres " where Nabobask formerly stood ;" 1000 acres " near the island in Saginaw River ;" 2000 aeres " at the mouth

IIISTORY OF GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

of Point Augrais River ;" 10,000 acres at Big Lick, on the Shiawassee, and 3000 acres on the same river at a place called Ketchewandaugenink ; 6000 acres at Little Forks, on the Tetabawasink (Tittabawassee) River, and 6000 aeres, near the same stream, " at Blackbird's town ;" 40,000 acres " on the west side of the Saginaw River, to be hereafter lo- eated ;" and individual reservations of lands on the Saginaw to John Riley, Peter Riley, James Riley, and to "The Crow," a Chippewa chief. The tracts reserved on the Flint River, were "one tract of 5760 acres, to include Reanm's [Neome's] village, and a place called Kishkawba- wee," and the eleven reservations at the Grand Traverse of the Flint, granted as before mentioned to persons under names furnished by Jacob Smith and Louis Beaufait.

It has been mentioned above that the cession made by the Indians in the treaty of Detroit, in the year 1807, covered all of the present county of Genesee, excepting a small fraction in the northwestern corner, therefore in- cluding, of course, all the lands at the Grand Traverse, and fau' to the northward of it; so that these lands, having already been ceded to the United States, were really not within the possible scope of the Saginaw treaty, nor within the power of the Chippewas to sell. But the Indians did not so understand it. They had no means of knowing precisely where the diagonal line terminating at White Rock (as named in the treaty of 1807), would fall, and they believed that the northern boundary of that cession passed considerably to the southward of the most sontherly bend of the Flint; when, in reality, it crossed that stream nearly ten miles by its course north of the present village of Flushing, leaving all of the river which is south and east of that point within the territory previously ceded to the United States. The fact, however, that they believed themselves to be still the sole possessors of the beautiful valley of the Flint, is proof that they had never intended to include it in the cession of 1807. Whether Gen. Cass knew that this region was comprehended within the limits of that cession-or, indeed, whether the northern boundary described by the treaty of Detroit was ever accurately run-does not appear ; but if the commissioner was aware of the fact, he did not, and could not, insist on the right of the government to the lands at the Grand Traverse. Only by tacitly admitting the Indian proprietor- ship in those lands could he have secured Jacob Smith's consent to the treaty, and without that consent it is not probable that the treaty could have been concluded.

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History of Genesee county, Michigan. With illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 4

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Everts & Abbott, Philadelphia, pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Abbott Number of Pages: 683

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Everts & Abbott, Philadelphia, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Abbott
Number of Pages: 683