History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 17

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott
Number of Pages: 761

USA > Michigan > Kalamazoo County > History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan > Part 17

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).

Henry R. Schoolcraft was probably the first writer to give accounts and descriptions of these peculiar relics of an earlier race in Michigan. They were mentioned in a French work as early as 1748.

Schoolcraft gave drawings and careful descriptions of them in 1827, and speaks of them as " forming by far the most striking characteristic antiquarian monuments of this district of country."

In 1839, John T. Blois, a citizen of this State, published in the " Gazetteer of Michigan" detailed descriptions, with diagrams, of one variety of the beds.

Bela Hubbard, Esq., of Detroit, divides the beds into eight classes, which he describes as follows :

"1. Wide convex beds, in parallel rows, without paths, composing independent plats. Width of beds, twelve feet; paths, none; length, seventy-four to one hundred and fifteen feet.

" 2. Wide convex beds, in parallel rows, separated by paths of same width, in independent plats. Width of bed, twelve to sixteen feet ; paths, the same ; length seventy-four to one hundred and thirty-two feet.

"3. Wide parallel beds, separated by narrow paths, arranged in a series of plats longitudinal to each other. Width of beds, fourteen feet ; paths, two feet ; length, one hundred feet.

"4. Long, narrow beds, separated by narrower paths, and arranged in a series of longitudinal plats, each plat divided from the next by semicircular heads. Width of beds, five feet ; paths, one foot and a half; length, one hundred feet ; height, eighteen inches.

"5. Parallel beds, arranged in plats similar to Class 4, but divided by circular heads. Width of beds, six feet ; paths, four feet; length, twelve to forty feet; height, eighteen inches.

"6. Parallel beds, of varying widths and lengths, separated by narrow paths, and arranged in plats of two or more, at right angles (north, south, east, and west), to the plats adjacent. Width of beds, five to fourteen feet; paths, one to two feet ; length, twelve to thirty feet ; height, eight inches.

"7. Parallel beds, of uniform width and length, with narrow paths, arranged in plats or blocks, and single beds, at varying angles. Width of beds, six feet ; paths, two feet; length, about thirty feet; height, ten to twelve inches.

"8. Wheel-shaped plats, consisting of a circular bed, with beds of uniform shape and size, radiating therefrom, all separated by narrow paths. Width of beds, six to twenty feet; paths, one foot ; length, fourteen to twenty feet."

The area covered by these cultivated plats varied, in different localities, from five to as many as three hundred

acres .* These remarkable " gardens" were found by the first settlers about Schoolcraft, on Prairie Ronde, on Toland's Prairie, near Galesburg ; on the burr-oak plains of Kala- mazoo village, and elsewhere.

Henry Little, Esq., states that they covered as many as ten acres lying to the south of the Kalamazoo mound. Among these last were specimens of the wheel form. They were overgrown with burr-oak trees, of the same size as those scattered over the surrounding plain.

"On the farm of J. T. Cobb, section 7, town of Schoolcraft, the beds were quite numerous as late as 1860. There must have been fifteen acres of them on his land. The 'sets' would average five or six beds each. Neighbors put the number of acres covered with them in 1830, within the space of a mile, at one hundred." t

Hon. E. Lakin Brown corroborates these statements.

The circular one in the diagram is from information furnished by Henry Little and A. T. Prouty, of Kalama. zoo. The triangular pointed one is from a drawing by H. M. Shafter, of Galesburg. Roswell Ransom, James R. Cumings, and A. D. P. Van Buren have also contributed interesting information upon this subject. The diagrams are copied from the American Antiquarian for April, 1878, in an article contributed by Bela Hubbard, Esq.

Mr. Van Buren furnishes some account of the " beds" first found on section 13, Comstock township, on lands pur- chased by C. C. White for William Toland, the first settler in the township. The beds in this locality covered some five acres, and were of the same general description as those before spoken of, and included parallelograms, circles, and triangles. Mr. Van Buren says J. R. Cumings remembers plowing some of these gardens, and says that the beds were so high above the intervening paths that the plow in cross- ing the latter ran out of the ground. He estimates the height from bottom of paths to top of bed, or ridge, at eighteen inches.

The antiquity of these " garden-beds" is a question about which there are different opinions. They were found in several instances covering the ancient mounds, and from this circumstance some writers have arrived at the conclu- sion that they were the work of a people who occupied the country long after the " Mound-Builders" had disappeared. This hypothesis may be the correct one, but is not necessa- rily so. There are people living to-day who have seen the burial-places of white men, if not cultivated, at least abandoned and turned into pasture lands for sheep and cattle. The burial-ground of the Strang Mormons at Voree,į Walworth Co., Wis., was occupied, in 1873, as a barn-yard. Even if the mounds were the sacred burial- places of those who erected them, it is quite possible that within a few generations they may have been occupied for purposes of agriculture, in common with the surrounding fields. But it is quite within the bounds of probability that the people who cultivated the " garden-beds" may have known as little of the builders of the mounds as the red Indians who succeeded them.

# Statements of Schoolcraft and Blois.

t Hubbard. The first diagram represents this class. It was fur- nished by Messrs. Prouty and Cobb.

# A Mormon colony planted by James J. Strang after the death of Joseph Smith at Nauvoo, Ill., about 1845.

HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

Both classes of antiquities date far beyond the knowl- edge of the savages, and were evidently the works of a more civilized race.

In examining human skulls taken from mounds near Spring Lake, Ottawa Co., Mich., Professor W. D. Gunning advanced the opinion, from the forms of the skulls, the ac- companying relics (copper hatchets, needles, broken pottery, etc.), and from other evidence, that these remains date back two thousand years or more.

Mr. Bela Hubbard advances the opinion, in reference to the " garden-beds," that they may have been cultivated until within three or four centuries of the present time,-as that period would have sufficed for the growth of the largest forest-trees found upon them. It is altogether probable that the mounds were first constructed, and that their age is not overestimated by Professor Gunning. Nothing re- sembling the garden-beds has ever been found, or certainly ever described, in the region where the mound-building architecture reached its culmination,-though the same system may have been in vogue at a much earlier day. The Michigan people may have belonged to a later period, or they may have been a colony from the central regions of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

RELICS.

These consist of hatchets and spear-heads of stone and copper, heavy stone axes, flint spear- and arrow-heads, chips of flint and chert, chisels, gouges, plumb-bobs, pottery, pipes, and many other things which are picked up in all parts of the country. In addition to these are the bones of human beings, mingled with fragments of charcoal, burnt animal bones, etc., all pointing to a race, or a succession of races, which has passed away.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE POTTAWATTOMIE INDIANS .*

Nationality and Original Habitat-Removals-Wars-Treaties-Mas- sacre at Chicago-The Match-e-be-nash-e-wish Reservation-Vil- lages and System of Cultivation-Removal in 1840-Missions.

ACCORDING to the historian George Bancroft, and other prominent writers, Francis Parkman among the number, the Pottawattomie tribe or nation belonged to the great

* Of the origin of the Indian races of America no certain account can be given. Different nations gave each a different account, and each generally claimed to be the most important race of men in the world. When asked who they were, the Iroquois were wont to reply, "the Ongwe-Honwe," or men superior to all others. The Delaware Indians called themselves the Lenni Lenape, or original men. The savages of the vast plains of Illinois when interrogated as to their origin answered, "We are Illeni," or men ; as much as to say we are the only men; and a distinguished chieftain of a Wisconsin tribe, when the importance of his people was called in question, haughtily answered, striking his breast, " I am a Menominee !"

The Algonquins called themselves Nethowack ; the Athabascans, Tinne; the Esquimeaux, Innuit; and the ancient peoples of Central and Southern America called themselves "the children of the sun." The Zulus of South Africa say that their national name signifies heaven, and they call themselves "the Celestials." The Pottawatto- mies called themselves " Nitch-e-nobbies," and the name, no doubt,

Algonquin subdivision of the American copper-colored race. They were cousins-german to the Ojibwa nation (now commonly written Chippewa), who occupied the greater part of the upper peninsula of the present State of Michigan at the date of the earliest French discoveries. Both the Ojibwas and Pottawattomies were met by Charles Raymbault and Isaac Jogues in the fall of 1641, at which time they visited the northern shores of Lake Huron and the country around the Sault St. Marie.

In 1660 they were again probably encountered by Father René Mesnard, in his journeyings along the southern coast of Lake Superior; and Father Claude Allouez passed through the same region in 1666. In 1668 the first permanent mission in the State was founded at the Sault, and in May, 1671, was held the great council at this point, at which all the Western Indians were ostentatiously taken under the protection of France. The Pottawattomies were present in force at this council, and occupy a prominent position in the records of the event.

In those early days they are believed to have been located in the neighborhood of Green Bay and on the islands at its opening into Lake Michigan. They were familiar to Marquette, Dablon, and Allouez, who visited them in 1668-71, and the two last named of whom founded a mission among them on Green Bay in 1669-70, called St. François Xavier. They were prominent among all the nations who came to trade with the French at the Sault St. Marie, at Mackinac, at Green Bay, and at Detroit. At the great council held at the Sault, in 1671, they rep- resented, besides their own nation, the powerful nation of the Miamis, who dwelt south of Lake Michigan. They befriended Marquette and Joliet on their way to the Mis- sissippi in the spring of 1673, and in the next year a band of them accompanied Marquette on a visit from Green Bay to the country of the Illinois, and remained with him in his encampment near Chicago for several months during the following winter, 1674-75.

They welcomed La Salle when, in September, 1679, his vessel-the " Griffin"-cast anchor near one of their islands in Green Bay, and one of their most famous chiefs became the fast friend of the great explorer. The furs with which his vessel was loaded for her return trip were no doubt largely purchased from them ; and when La Salle and Hen- nepin continued their voyage in canoes towards the south- ern portion of the great lakes, they found friends among the Pottawattomies, from whom they purchased corn and other supplies when nearly wrecked and in a starving con- dition. This treatment was the more wonderful when we consider that the Outagamies, t whom they found in the neighborhood of Milwaukee, were treacherous and hostile.

When the gallant Tonti retreated from the little fort- Crèvecœur-at the foot of Peoria Lake in the spring of

signified among them what Illeni and Ongwe-Honwe did among the savages of Illinois and New York.

The principal copper-colored races found in North America were the Esquimeaux, in the Arctic regions, the Algonquins, in the region of the great lakes and the St. Lawrence River, the Dacotahs, in the West, and the Mobilian nations, in the South. The belief is gaining ground that the American races were indigenous to the soil, but their beginnings we can only conjecture.

t The modern Foxes.

THE POTTAWATTOMIE INDIANS.

1680, and after passing a terrible experience among the Illinois and Iroquois Indians, in the region of Ottawa, Ill., at length, late in the autumn, reached the Pottawattomie villages, sick and nearly starved, he was received in the most friendly manner by the chief who had welcomed La Salle. The same chief welcomed Hennepin on his return from his explorations and captivity among the Sioux of the upper Mississippi in the same year.

They probably began their migration from Green Bay about the beginning of the eighteenth century, and grad- ually moved southward to the vicinity of Chicago, and thence around the head of Lake Michigan to the region subsequently occupied by them in southwestern Michigan, which included at least all the country stretching from the head-waters of the St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rivers to the lake on the west.

When La Salle first visited the mouth of the St. Joseph River, late in the fall of 1679, he found the Miami nation in possession of the region, and named the river the " Mi- amis" on this account. In 1721, when Charlevoix visited the mission of the St. Joseph, he found the Pottawattomies occupying the country, from which they were removed by the United States authorities in 1840, after an occupation of nearly a century and a half.

At some period, probably succeeding their arrival in Michigan, the Pottawattomies formed a sort of quasi con- federation with their kindred, the Ojibwas and the Ottawas, the latter of whom had been driven fifty years earlier from their ancient home on the Ottawa River of Canada. This league, while resembling somewhat that established among the nations of New York, was of a looser order, and the tribes or nations composing it dwelt at long distances from each other,-the Ottawas mostly near the Detroit River and among the lakes of Oakland County, the Ojibwas in the vicinity of Mackinac and the outlet of Lake Superior, and the Pottawattomies along Lake Michigan, from Chicago to the mouth of Grand River. At times the latter nation had several villages in the neighborhood of Detroit, and it would seem that when the Mascoutins, Outagamies, and others attacked that post in 1712, one or more of these nations were occupying villages in the vicinity, for the beleaguered garrison was saved by them from probable destruction.

In 1721 we find M. de Tonti, then in command at De- troit, instrumental in uniting the Pottawattomies, Ottawas, Chippewas, and Hurons in a league against the savages dwelling to the westward of Lake Michigan. The four nations mentioned were the fast friends and allies of the French down to 1760, when all the French possessions in Canada passed into the hands of the English.

The mission of St. Joseph, at the mouth of the river of that name, was probably established by the Jesuits in the beginning of the eighteenth century .* When first estab- lished it is probable that the Pottawattomies had not yet occupied the surrounding region.

When the Ottawa chieftain Pontiac organized his grand

* In the Michigan Pioneer Selections it is stated that the Jesuits founded, about the year 1700, a mission at the mouth of the river and another a mile south of the present city of Niles; and that at each place a small fort was erected.

confederation of Indian nations, the Pottawattomies took up the hatchet against the English, and figured conspicu- ously during the siege of Detroit. It was probably a band of their warriors who captured the post of Ouatenon, on the Wabash, in May, 1763, and they may have assisted at the capture of Fort Miami about the same time. At the open- ing of the siege of Detroit they were present under their war-chief, Nin-i-vay, to the number of one hundred and fifty. Their chiefs accompanied Pontiac to the famous council in the fort at Detroit, and their warriors took part in the terrible fight at " Bloody Run," and were the first to call a parley to agree upon terms, though they treacher- ously broke their promises and engagements afterwards.

They were present by their chiefs at the great council held by Col. Bradstreet, at Detroit, in September, 1764, and were among those who transferred their allegiance from the French to the English on that occasion. They also sent deputies to meet Sir William Johnson at Oswego, in July, 1766. During the Revolution they adhered to the British interests, and joined in most of the war-parties and forays against the border settlements of the Americans from 1778 to the signal defeat of the confederated Indian tribes. at the Maumee Rapids by Gen. Wayne, in August, 1794.

In 1789 they attended and signed the treaty of Fort Harmar. They formed a part of the force which defeated Harmar in 1790, and were probably present in force at the disastrous defeat of St. Clair, in November, 1791.

In September, 1792, they made a treaty at Vincennes with Commissioner Putnam, on behalf of the United States; but this treaty was soon broken, and we find them figuring extensively at a council held at the Maumee, Rapids in 1793, during the advance of Gen. Wayne from Cincinnati. This council accomplished nothing; and we next find the Pottawattomies gathered, with the other Northwestern na- tions, about the British post on the Maumee, and ready to oppose Wayne's advance.

On the 5th of June, 1794, the general's scouts, under Capt. Gibson, captured two Pottawattomie warriors, be- tween whom and Gen. Wayne the following colloquy en- sued :

WAYNE .- " When did your nation receive the invitation from the British to join them and go to war with the Americans ?"

POTTAWATTOMIES .- " On the first of the last moon ; the message was sent by three chiefs,-a Delaware, a Shawanee, and a Miami."

WAYNE .- " What was the message brought by those Indian chiefs, and what number of British troops were at Roche de Bout (fort of the Rapids) on the first of May ?"

POTTAWATTOMIES .- " That the British sent them to invite the Potta- wattomies to go to war against the United States ; that they, the Brit- ish, were then at Roche de Bout, on their way to war against the Americans; that the number of British troops then there was about four hundred, with two pieces of artillery, exclusive of the Detroit militia, and had made a fortification around Col. McKee's house and stores at that place, in which they had deposited all their stores of ammunition, arms, clothing, and provisions, with which they promised to supply all the hostile Indians in abundance, provided they would join and go with them to war."

WAYNE .- " What tribes of Indians, and what were their numbers at Roche de Bout on the 1st of May ?"

POTTAWATTOMIES .- "The Chippewas, Wyandots, Shawanese, Tawas, t Delawares, and Miamis. There were then collected about one thou- sand warriors, and were daily coming in and collecting from all these nations."

t Meaning probably the Ottawas.

HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

WAYNE .- " What number of warriors do you suppose were actually collected at that place at this time, and what number of British troops and militia have promised to join the Indians to fight this army ?"

POTTAWATTOMIES .- " By latest and best information, and from our own knowledge of the number of warriors belonging to those nations, there cannot be less than two thousand warriors now assembled ; and were the Pottawattomies to join, agreeably to invitation, the whole would amount to upward of three thousand hostile Indians.# But we do not think that more than fifty of the Pottawattomies will go to war. The British troops and militia that will join the Indians to go to war against the Americans will amount to fifteen hundred, agree- ably to the promise of Governor Simcoe."

WAYNE .- " At what time and at what place do the British and In- dians mean to advance against this army ?"

INDIANS .- " About the last of this moon or the beginning of the next they intend to attack the legion at this place. Governor Simcoe, the great man who lives at or near Niagara, sent for the Pottawatto- mies and promised them arms, ammunition, provisions, and clothing, and everything that they wanted, on condition that they would join him and go to war against the Americans; and that he would com- mand the whole.

" He sent us the same message last winter, and again on the first of the last moon, from Roche de Bout ; he also said he was obliged to us for our past services, and that he would now help us to fight, and ren- der us all the services in his power, against the Americans.

" All the speeches which we have received from him were as red as blood, all the wampum and feathers were painted red, the war-pipes and hatchets were red, and even the tobacco was painted red.

"We received four different invitations from Governor Simcoe, in- viting the Pottawattomies to join in the war; the last was on the first of the last moon, when he promised to join us with fifteen hundred of his warriors, as before mentioned. But we wished for peace, except a few of our foolish young men."

"Examined and carefully reduced to writing at Greenville, this 7th of June, 1794."+

It is not certain that any of the Pottawattomies were engaged in the battle against, Wayne, but it is at least quite probable that a small band of their " foolish young men" participated.

According to the statement of a Canadian who visited Wayne's camp at Fort Wayne, Governor Simcoe, Col. McKee, and Brant, the celebrated Mohawk chief, arrived at Fort Miami on the 30th of September, and the Governor invited the chiefs of all the nations to meet him at the mouth of the Detroit River and hold a treaty.

According to the statement of Blue Jacket, the Shaw- anese chief, the Indians were inclined for peace after the defeat on the Maumee, but upon this invitation of the Gov- ernor they concluded to meet him. At the council the Governor told them not to listen to the Americans, but to keep a good heart and propose a truce until the spring, when a general gathering would make them strong enough to renew the war. Brant also gave them the same advice.

But the utmost efforts of the British officials could not bring the Indians to the agreement. Some were for war, some were divided, and "the Chippewas and Pottawattomies went home, sore from the late action." Wayne's rapid movements and skillful fighting were too much for them, and they no doubt made up their minds during the follow- ing winter that they had best agree upon terms of peace with the Americans, and trust to the pleasant words of the British no longer. Indeed, on the 28th and 29th of De- cember the chiefs of the Pottawattomies, Chippewas, Otta-

was, and Miamis came to Fort Wayne with peace messages for Col. Hamtramck, the commander of that post.

At Greenville, Ohio, on the 30th of July, 1795, was finally signed a treaty of peace between the United States, represented by Gen. Wayne, and the hostile Indians, by which the latter ceded nearly two-thirds of the State of Ohio, a considerable portion of Indiana, and a large num- ber of small reservations within their remaining territory, among which latter were a strip six miles wide along Lake Erie and the Detroit River; the post of Mackinac; the island on which it stood ; the island of Bois Blanc, and a piece of land to the north of the straits, six by three miles in extent; a piece six miles square at Chicago ; another of the same extent at Fort Wayne; one of twelve miles square at the Maumee Rapids, and various others. The Indians were to be allowed the privilege of hunting upon the ceded lands, and the government and people of the United States were to freely navigate the lakes and streams within the Indian territory.

The consideration which the tribes received from the United States was twenty thousand dollars in goods, dis- tributed at the treaty equitably among them, and an annuity of nine thousand five hundred dollars in goods thereafter forever.

The annual payments were to be divided among the con- tracting nations as follows: to the Wyandots, the value of $1000; to the Delawares, $1000; to the Shawanese, $1000; to the Miamis, $1000; to the Ottawas, $1000; to the Chippewas, $1000; to the Pottawattomies, $1000; and to the Kickapoos, Weas, Eel Rivers, Piankeshaws, and Kaskaskias, the sum of $500 each.

This treaty did not materially lessen the territory of the Pottawattomies ; their largest cession was probably the six- mile tract at Chicago. The Shawanese, Wyandots, and Del- awares were heavily mulcted in Ohio, and this, of course, compelled them to crowd westward among the other nations.

From the date of the treaty of Greenville until the year 1807 we hear very little of the Pottawattomies. The In- dian nations of the Northwest were generally peaceable, until the advent of Tecumseh, the great Shawanese chief, who began his preparation for a confederation of all the Indians as early as 1803, but did not actually come into collision with the whites until the fall of 1811.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 17

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott Number of Pages: 761

Author: Durant, Samuel W. comp
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia. Everts & Abbott
Number of Pages: 761