History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan, Part 15

Author: Durant, Samuel W. cn
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : D.W. Ensign & Co.
Number of Pages: 772

USA > Michigan > Eaton County > History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan > Part 15
USA > Michigan > Ingham County > History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan > Part 15

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

In speaking of the appearance and deportment of the Ojibwas, Schoolcraft remarks :

" The Chippewas (Ojibwas) are an active, generally tall, well-de- veloped, good-looking race of men. The chiefs of the band of St. Mary's, Lake Superior, and the Upper Mississippi, are a manly, intel- ligent body of men, with a bold and independent air and gait, and possessing good powers of oratory. Of stately and easy manners, they enter and leave a room without the least awkwardness or em- barrassment; and if one did not cast his eyes on their very picturesque costume, and frontlets, medals, and feathers, he migbt suppose himself to have been in the company of grave elders and gentlemen."

Mr. Schoolcraft thinks that the four principal Western tribes, Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawattomies, and Wyandots, were present iu considerable force at Braddock's defeat on the Monongahela. It is a singular fact that the majority of the Indian tribes or nations have generally taken arms in behalf of the losing power in America,-with the French in 1755-60, and with the British in 1775 and 1812.

The ancient capital of the Ojibwas, according to School- craft, was at La Pointe, or Che-go-im-e-gon (Chaquamegon), Lake Superior. One of their important villages was at the Sault Ste. Marie in 1822, when Col. Hugh Brady of the United States Army built Fort Brady at that place.

Among the famous chiefs of the Ojibwas were Noka, Bianswa, Waub-Ojeeg, On-daig-wee-os, Chig-sein-e-gon, and Shin-gob-was-sin.

The falls or rapids at the outlet of Lake Superior the Ojibwas called Pe-wa-teeg, " place where shallow water falls." The name Penetanguishine in Ojibwa is Pe-nuh-

* Medicine in the Indian vernacular signifies anything mysterious or beyond their comprehension. Hence, a white man who could show anything incomprehensible to the Indians, or tell them of mysterious things, was named a " great medicine" or " medicine-man," meaning a master of mysteries, a magician.

t This term they seem to have also applied to the Iroquois and all enemies. The word most probably means enemy.

# The Rev. Joncs thinks the Indians arc descended from the Asiatic Tartars, but this belief, of course, is the result of his education.

¿ Henry R. Schoolcraft married O-shau-gus-co-day-way-gua, daugh- ter of Mr. John Johnston a Scotchman or Irishman, who settled among the Indians of Lake Superior about 1785-86 and married a daughter of the famous Ojibwa chief Wa-ba-jick, formerly residing at La Pointe, Lake Superior .- M' Kenney.

HISTORY OF INGHAM AND EATON COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

dau-wung-o-sheeng, " place of caving sand bank." Tecuu- seh they called Te-cu-mo-sah, " he who walks over water." In the Ojibwa tongue the word Ottawa is O-dab-wah, and Pottawattomie is Pood-a-wah-du-me.

A curious and interesting account of this people is given in the narrative of John Tanner, who was captured by the Saginaw Chippewas about 1795, and lived among them for many years .*

In this connection it may be interesting to introduce a new song, said to have been composed by the great Ojibwa war chief, Waub-Ojeeg or Wa-ba-jeek. A translation is giveu in Schooleraft's and other works.t

WAR SONG OF WAUB-OJEEG, OR THE WHITE FISHER.

"On that day when our heroes lay low, lay low, On that day when our heroes lay low ;

I fought by their side, and thought ere I died, Just vengeance to take on the foe, the foe, Just vengeance to take on the foe.

" On that day when our chieftains lay dead, lay dead, On that day when our chieftains lay dead ;

I fought hand to hand at the head of my hand, And here on my breast have I hled, have I bled, And here on my breast have I bled.

" Our chiefs shall return no more, no more, Our chiefs shall return no more;

And their brothers in war who can't show scar for scar, Like women their fate shall deplore, deplore, Like women their fate shall deplore.

" Five winters in hunting we'll spend, we'll spend, Five winters in hunting we'll spend ;

Then our youth, grown to men, to the war lead again, And our days like our fathors will end, will end, And our days like our fathers will end."

The Pottawattomies, who are generally supposed to be- long to the same stock as the Ojibwas, when first met by the French were mostly dwelling in the vicinity of Green Bay and on the islands at its entrance. A band of them was located near the Sault Ste. Marie when that point was first settled in 1668. Gradually they seem to have moved southward along the western shore of Lake Michigan, and about 1700 their eastern flank was on the St. Joseph River, from which they spread northward and eastward towards Grand River and the central portions of the peninsula. Their principal centres of population were in Berrien, St. Joseph, and Kalamazoo Counties. They were removed from the State by the United States government in 1840.

The Ottawas in early times probably inhabited the valley of the Ottawa River in Canada, from whenee they were driven by the powerful Iroquois about 1650. Of this nation were the people afterwards known as the Hurons and Wyandots. Bands of them lived about the Straits of Mackinac, at l'Arbe Croche, and in the valleys of the Sagi- naw River and its branches.

In later years their principal habitat was in the valley of Grand River. These three nations were more or less inter- mingled, and can scarcely be said to have had any perma-

nent place of abode. At various periods all three of them probably occupied the counties of Ingham and Eaton for hunting purposes, and during the sugar season. It is hardly probable that they cultivated much land in this region unless it may have been in later years on the small prairie-like openings in Eaton County, and on some of the open river bottoms.

The Indians who principally inhabited or occupied this region belonged to the Saginaw tribes of Chippewas or Ojibwas. There were no very important villages or trails in Eaton or Ingham County except the village of Okemos, the chief, where the white man's village of the same name now stauds, and a principal trail following substantially the valley of Grand River. They had numerous camping- places during the hunting and fishing seasons, and while making their annual supplies of maple-sugar in the spring.

OKEMOS.

The most noted Indian who lived in this region after its settlement by the whites was Okemos, a celebrated chief of the Saginaw-Chippewas. The chief was called both a Chippewa and an Ottawa, and may have been of mixed blood. The Indians were much mixed up in this region.

The following interesting sketch we find in the columns of the Lansing Republican for Feb. 11, 1879 :

" We have already alluded to the valuable donations made by O. A. Jenison to the State Pioneer Society, which held its annual meet- ing in this city last week. Ia presenting the ambrotype of the old Indian chief, Okemos, Mr. Jenison gave the following facts in regard to the picture and this old Indian, whom many of Lansing's first citizens well remember:

"Okemos sat for this picture, to my certain knowledge, in 1857, and it has never been out of my possession from that day to this. The date of the birth of Okomos is shrouded in mystery, but the re- search disctoses the fact that he was born at or near Knagg's Station, on the Shiawassee River, where the Chicago and Northeastern (now Chicago and Grand Trunk) Railroad crosses that stream.}

" At the time of his death he was said to be a centenarian, but that is a period few persons are permitted to reach. Ia a sketch of his life, giveo in tho Lansing Republican in 1871, it is said he probably took the war-path in 1796. This is the earliest I find of him in any written history. Judge Littlejohn, ia his ' Legends of the Northwest,'? introduces him to the reader in 1803.

" The battle of Sandusky, | in which Okemos took an active part, was the great event of his life; and this it was that gavo him his chief- tainship, and caused him to bo revered by his tribe. For a detailed description of that memorable and bloody fight I am indebted to B. 0. Williams, of Owosso, who was for many years an Indian trader, spoko the Indian language, and received the story direct from the lips of the old chief. In relating the story Okemos said,-

" ' Myself and cousin, Man-a-to-corh-way, with sixteen other braves, enlisted uador tho British flag, formed a scouting- or war-party, and, leaving the upper Raisia, made our rendezvous at Sandusky.

"'One morning, whilo lying in ambush near a road lately cut for the passage of the American army and supply wagons, we saw twenty cavalrymen approaching us. Our ambush was located on a slight ridgo, with brush directly in our front. We immediately decided to attack the Americans, although they outnumbered us. Our plan was to first fire aad cripplo them, and then make a dash with the toma-

* This volume, together with many other interesting works upon the Indiaas of the Northwest, may be found in the State Library.

t This copy of tho song is from Cot. MeKeaacy's work, translated by John Johnston, who married a daughter of the chief.

# This statement is questioned by some.

¿ This work is pure fiction, with the exception of goographical and individual names.

| What is horo called a battle was a skirmish between advanced parties acar Fort Stephenson at Lowor Sandusky. The siege of that post by Proctor occurred from July 31 to Aug. 3, 1813. Official records give no account of any serious battle in that vicinity.

INDIANS AND TREATIES.

hawk. We waited until they approached so near that we could count the buttons on their conts, when firing commenced.'

" The cavalrymen, with drawn sabres, immediately charged upon the Indians. Okemos and his cousin fought side by side, loading and firing while dodging from one cover to anether. In less than ten minutes after the firing began, the seand of a bugle was heard, and, casting their eyes in the direction of the sound, they saw the road and woods filled with cavalry. Okemos, in his description, says,-

"' The plumes on their hats looked like a fleck of a thousand pigeons just hovering for flight.'

" The small party of Indians wos immediately surrounded, and every man cat dewn. All were left for dead on the field. Okemos and his cousin cach had his skull eloven, and their bodies were gashed in a fearful man- ner. The cavalrymen, be- fore leaving the field, in order to be sure life was extinct, would lean for- ward from their horses and pierce the chests of the Indians even . intu their lungs. The last Oke- mos remembers was that, after emptying one saddle, ond springing towards an - other soldier with clubbed rifle raised to strike, bis head felt as if being pierced with a red-hot iron, and he went dewa from a heavy sabre-cut.

" All knowledge ceased frem this time until many moons afterwards, when he found himself being nursed by the squaws of his friends, who had found him on the battlefield two or three days afterwards. The squaws thought all were dead, but, upon be- ing moved, signs of life were discovered in Oke- mos and his cousin, who were at once taken on lit- ters to a place of safety, and, by careful nursing, were finally restored to partial health.

"The cousin always remained a cripple. The iron constitution of Okemos, with which he was endowed by nature, enabled him to regain comparative health; but he never took an active part in another battle, this last one having satisfied him that ' white man was a heap powerful.'

"Shortly after his recovery he solicited Cel. Godfroy to intercede with Gen. Cass, and he and other chiefs made a treaty with the Amer- icans, which was faithfully kept.

" Okemes did not obtain his chieftainship by hereditary descent, but this honor was conferred upon him after having passed through the battle just described. For bis bravery and endarance his tribe considered him a favorite with the Great Spirit, wbe had preserved his life through such a terrible and trying ordeal.

" The next we hear of Okemos, he had settled with his trihe on the banks of the Shiawassee,# near the place of his birth, where, for many years, up te 1837-38, he was engaged in the peaceful avocations of hunting, fishing, and trading with the white man. About this time the smallpex broke out among his tribe, which, together with the

influx of white settlers, whe destroyed their hunting-grounds, seat- tered their bands.

" The plaintive, soft notes of the hanter's flate, made of the red alder, and the sound of the tom-tom at council-fires, were heard no more along the banks of your inland streams. For years before the tomahawk had been effectaally buried, and upon the final breaking up of the bands, Okemos became a mendicant, and many a hearty meal has the eld Indian received from the early settlers of Lansing.

"In his palmuy days I sheald think his greatest height never exceeded five feet fear inches. He was lithe, wiry, active, intelli- gent, and possessed un- doubted bravery. He was not, however, an eloquent speaker, either in council or private conversation, always mumbling his words and speaking with some hesitation.

" Previous to the break- ing up ef his band, in 1837-38, his usual dress consisted of a blanket- coat, with belt, steel pipe- hatchet, a tomahawk, end a heavy, long English hunting-knife, stuck in his helt in front, with a large bone handle prom- inent outside the sheath. llc had his face painted with vermilion on his cheeks and forchead and over his eyes; a shawl wound around his head, tarban fushion, together with the legging usually worn by Indians, which, during his lifetime, be never discarded.

" None of his biegrn- phers have ever attempted to fix the date of his birth, contenting them- selves with the general conviction that he was a handred years old. I differ from them for these rea- sons,-viz .: Physically endowed with a strong constitution, natarally brave and impetaons, and inared to Indian life, we are led to believe that he took the war-path early in life, and his first introduction to our notice is in 1796. I reason from this that he was born aboat 1775, in which case he lived abent eighty-three years.f Again, the old settlers of Lansing will remember that. up to the latest period of his having been seen on our streets, his step was quick and elastic to a degree that is seldom enjoyed hy men of that sge.

" He died at his wigwam, a few miles from this city, ¿ and was buried Dec. 5, 1858, at Shim-ni-con, an Indian settlement in Ionia County. His coffin was rude in the extreme, and in it were placed a pipe, tobacco, a hunting-knife, birds' wings, provisions, etc.

" He surrendered his chieftainship a few years previoas to his death to his son John, but never forget that he was Okemos, once the chief of a powerful tribe of the Chippewas, and the nephew of Pontiac."

" The statement that he lived upon the Shiawassee is disputed by somc.

t It is possible that Mr. Jenison has overestimated, rather than otherwise, his age. The celebrated Joseph Brant ( Thay-en-dan-e-gea), chief of the Mehawks, accompanied his father in the campaign of Lake George when only fourteen years of age; and quite probably Okemos may have taken the war-path when under twenty years of age .- ED.

# Near De Witt, in Clinten County.

OKEMOS.

HISTORY OF INGHAM AND EATON COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

His permanent village was where the village of Okemos now stands, on the Cedar River, in the township of Merid- ian, in Ingham County. Shim-ni-con, another Chippewa or Ottawa village, was situated on Grand River, in the township of Danby, above Portland.

Mr. Freeman Bray, who settled where the village of Okemos now stands, about 1839, and who knew the chief and his people well, furnishes some additional facts. In the main he agrees with Messrs. Williams and Jenison, thoughi he differs from them in some respects.

He says Okemos was either part Tawas (Ottawa) or closely allied to them by marriage. He hardly thinks he ever lived on the Shiawassee River,-certainly not after 1840. When Mr. Bray settled where the village of Okemos now is, the chief had his principal village there, and was at the head of a mixed band of Tawas,* Pottawattomies, and Chippewas. All the Indians who took part with the British in the war of 1812, Mr. Bray calls " Canada In- dians." The band had a burial-ground on land now owned by Mr. Cook, and used to caché their corn on the knoll where the school building now stands. Mr. Bray says the Indians planted corn for two or three years after he settled at Okemos, on land which he plowed for them and allowed them to nse.

The band remained in the vicinity until about 1845-46, when they became scattered. Many of those belonging to the Ottawas and Pottawattomies were picked up by the United States authorities and transported beyond the Mis- souri River. On one occasion a band of some 500 were encamped near Mr. Bray's place, and had among them a number of sick, including several squaws. Mrs. Bray as- sisted to take care of one of these, a young woman appa- rently in the last stages of consumption, and afterwards her mother visited the old ground and made Mrs. Bray a present as a recompense for what she did for the sick one.

While this large band were encamped near, Mr. Bray says a couple of Indians without arms of any kind made their appearance suddenly from the south. On the same day they borrowed a few pounds of nails of Mr. Bray, and the next day they had all disappeared. It appeared they had borrowed the nails to make litters on which to trans- port their sick and aged. The two men were fugitives from a detachment of United States troops, and came to warn the band that the soldiers were after them. They were exceedingly reluctant to leave the country.

Okemos, or his people, had another village at Shim-ni- con, in Ionia County, but the principal one was where the village of Okemos now stands. After about the year 1845 the band became so reduced by death and the scattering of its members that the chief had a very small following, and became eventually a wandering mendicant, traveling around the country and living on the charity of the whites. He had a large family, as did many of the Indians, but they seemed to die of disease very rapidly. There are two of the sons of Okemos still living,-John, who succeeded his father as chief of the band, and Jim. The latter is now a farmer located some twenty-five miles from Stanton, in Montcalm or Gratiot County. John always drank consid-

erable, and never was anything but an Indian. Mr. Bray relates that on one occasion he came to his place and stayed over-night with him. In the morning they had griddle- cakes, and Mrs. Bray had made a large quantity of nice syrup from white sugar. This so pleased the Indian that he kept the women busy for a long time making cakes for him. He still visits his old home about once in two years. His last visit was in 1879. John has a son who is a suc- cessful farmer. His father says he is no Indian, for he will not hunt.

Old Okemos in his wanderings around the country was generally accompanied by a troop of pappooses whom he called his children. He was everywhere well treated by the whites. Mr. Bray says he would never say anything about his former life, except he had been drinking. He says he was scarcely ever drunk, but took enough to loosen his tongue, when he would become very communicative.

His account of the fight where he was so severely handled by the American cavalry near Sandusky differs in many particulars from that given by B. O. Williams, of Owosso. Mr. Bray says he told it to him a great many times, and always told it the same.

Mr. Bray's recollection of it is that there were about 300 Indians together. They heard that a strong force of cav- alry or mounted men was coming, and a council of war was held to determine whether they should attack it. Okemos was not in favor of it, but told the assembled chiefs and warriors that if they said fight he would fight. It was decided to fight.

Okemos, Korbish, and other chiefs led their men into a marsh where there was high grass, in which they concealed themselves and awaited the approach of the Americans. The chief said there was " a heap of them," and he dis- tinctly remembered how the leader looked with his big epaulets. When the Indians fired Okemos said they seemed to have shot too high, and he thought they did not kill a man. He said the commander instantly drew his sabre, and, giving the command to charge, they were among the Indians so suddenly that they had no time to reload, and the sabre speedily did its bloody work. The chief received a tremendous cut across his back, which Mr. Bray says remained an open sore all his life. When he came to him- self he looked around and could see no living being. He made a noise like an owl, but no one answered. He then imitated a loon, when some one replied to it, and he found the chief, Korbish, and one other alive among the crowd of dead. Ile thought they were the only ones who were not killed out of the 300. They got into a boat and floated down the Sandusky River, and finally escaped, though they had to pass within sight of an American fort, perhaps the one at Lower Sandusky. It was the only open fight Oke- mos ever engaged in, though Mr. Bray says he would boast often, when in liquor, of how many Americans he had killed and scalpcd. Ile was accustomed to waylay the ex- press-riders and bearers of dispatches between Detroit and Toledo. His custom was to listen, and when he heard one coming to step behind a convenient tree, and as he passed suddenly spring upon him from behind and tomahawk him. Mr. Bray thinks the chief lived to be over one hundred years of age, and says when in his prime he was about five

* The common rendering of Ottawa.

INDIANS AND TREATIES.

fcet six or seven inches high and straight as an arrow. Ile was never what might be called a drunkard, but had a spree occasionally. He agrees with Mr. Jenison that he died in 1858, near De Witt, in Clinton County, and was buried at Shim-ni-con, in Ionia County.

In 1852, Mr. Bray made the overland trip to California from St. Joseph, on the Missouri River, taking boat to that place from St. Louis. When about seventy miles below St. Joseph he met, at a landing on the river, a number of the Indians whom he had formerly known in Michigan. They recognized him at once, and urged him to come with them to their reservation and stay with them a week, saying they had plenty of corn and provisions and he should be wel- come, and also offered to furnish him and his companions with guides to set them on the trail when they departed. He says he would have accepted their offer if he could have got his wagons, goods, and team out of the boat ; but they were mostly in the hold and could not be got at, and he went on to St. Joseph.

Mr. Bray confirms the universal statement that. the squaws performed all the menial labor. Large numbers of the Indians were accustomed to visit Okemos each re- turning year for the purpose of feeding their dead at their village burial-ground ; and the last thing before they were removed from the county was to come and bid them good- by.

There are a great many statements concerning the chief Okemos, and each varying more or less from all the others in respect to his extraction, his account of the various bat- tles and skirmishes in which he was engaged, his physique, his habits, his place or places of residence, and his death and burial.

Rufus Hosmer, Esq., a prominent writer and former res- ident of Lansing, gives, in a communication to the Lansing Republican, in 1871, some interesting reminiscences of the old chief, from which we have taken a number of items.

Mr. Hosmer thinks Okemos was nearly a hundred years old at the time of his death. He believes the chief fought against St. Clair in 1791, and Wayne in 1794, and lo- cates St. Clair's defeat on the eastern shore of Lake Erie .* He gives a very different account of the fight near San- dusky, where Okemos was severely wounded, from those of others, and claims like the rest to have had it from the lips of the chief.

According to his account, the British and Indians were approaching Fort Stephenson, at Lower Sandusky, Ohio, in the latter part of July, 1813, the British by way of Lake Erie and the Indians by land, which was no doubt the fact. Gen. Harrison, knowing that Gen. Proctor would approach by water, naturally concluded that he would bring siege artillery for the investment of the fort, which being only a border stockade he knew could not long hold out against him, and he therefore sent an order to Maj. Croghan to evacu- ate if he could still do so with safety. The major, who was only about twenty-one years of age, was a gallant fellow and a good soldier, but he knew what Harrison did not, -that the whole surrounding country was swarming with

Indians, and that to attempt to withdraw his small force of about 200 men would end, as a similar attempt, did at Fort Dearborn (Chicago) just one year before, in the slaughter or capture of his command. It was even doubtful if he could get a reply through the lines to his commander, and he purposely wrote a pompous note stat- ing that he had plenty of men, munitions, and provisions, and could hold the place against Proctor and his army, expecting it would fall into the hands of the enemy ; but the messenger succeeded in getting through and handed the note to Gen. Ilarrison, who was naturally somewhat astonished at its tone, and immediately ordered Capt. Ball to take a strong squadron of regular dragoons, proceed to Sandusky, and ascertain what Maj. Croghan meant. It was this body of men whom Okemos and his confederates encountered.

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History of Ingham and Eaton counties, Michigan, Part 15

Author: Durant, Samuel W. cn Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia : D.W. Ensign & Co. Number of Pages: 772

Author: Durant, Samuel W. cn
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : D.W. Ensign & Co.
Number of Pages: 772