History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 19

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

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In September following, a village of the Pottawattomies, on the bluff near the head of Peoria Lake, was destroyed, together with a number of its warriors, by a force of three hundred and fifty men, partly United States rangers and partly Illinois volunteers.

The Pottawattomies were present in strong force around Detroit at the commencement of hostilities with Great Britain, or very soon thereafter, though there does not ap- pear to be any positive evidence that they were present at Hull's surrender. The message received at Fort Dearborn from Tecumseh, urging them to come east and join his forces, would indicate that they had not yet heard of the declaration of war, but were anticipating it. Capt. Heald estimates their numbers (warriors) at Chicago, at the date of the massacre, at five hundred.

Their next appearance in force was most probably in January, 1813, at the fight of Frenchtown, on the river Raisin, where the city of Monroe now stands. A Cana- dian writer states that at the battle of January 22d, against Winchester, there were two hundred Pottawattomies present ; and in the disgraceful massacre permitted, if not authorized, by the infamous Col. Proctor, of the British army, they probably took a full share. To the honor of Tecumseh, the Shawanese chief, who was not present at this affair, it is said that he upbraided Proctor in most bitter terms for his inhumanity. His presence alone stayed the hands of the savages from further deeds of blood.

In the course of Proctor's operations around Fort Meigs and Sandusky Bay, the Pottawattomies, no doubt, were following the lead of Tecumseh, and in the desperate fight with Dudley's Kentuckians, opposite Fort Meigs, when Harrison was besieged by Proctor, in May, 1813, they did their share of the bloody work. They were also in front of Fort Meigs again in July following, and at Fort Stephen- son in August of the same year, when Proctor's assaulting column received such a disastrous repulse at the hands of the youthful Major Croghan.

A respectable portion of the Pottawattomies participated in the battle of the Thames, at the Moravian towns in Upper Canada, on the 5th of October, 1813, where the British and Indian power in the Northwest was completely broken. The fall of Tecumseh disheartened the confeder- ated Indians, and the Pottawattomies, in July, 1815, made a treaty of peace with the United States. This treaty was made at the Portage des Sioux, a few miles above the mouth of the Missouri River, and the commissioners on the part of the United States were the Governor of Missouri, the Governor of Illinois, the superintendents of Indian affairs of Missouri and Illinois, and Auguste Choteau, of St. Louis.

By the treaty of Chicago, elsewhere noted, the Pottawat- tomies ceded to the government all their lands lying south of Grand River, with the exception of five small reservations, one of which was in Kalamazoo County, and covered the

ground now occupied by Kalamazoo village. This was designated in the treaty as the " Match-e-be-nash-e-wish Reserve." What this Indian title signified, whether it was the name of a tribe of the Pottawattomies, of a chief, or of a village which stood within the limits of the reserva- tion, we have not been able to determine; neither have we been successful in finding out how long the reservation was occupied by the Indians, nor to whom and for what con- sideration it was disposed of.

It must have been in the hands of the government when the first entries of land were made in Kalamazoo, which were in November, 1830, by Stephen H. Richardson and Titus Bronson, who purchased the southwest quarter of sec- tion 15, which is now in the heart of Kalamazoo village. The township (2 south 11 west) was surveyed in 1827 by John Mullett, and the reservation, in June, 1829, by Orange Risdon. The fact of its being surveyed would indicate that it had recently come into possession of the government .* Another, known as the Nottawa-Sepee Reservation, included one hundred and fifteen sections, lying partly in Kalamazoo and partly in St. Joseph County. The portion included in Kalamazoo County covered sixty sections, including the entire township of Brady, a strip two miles wide on the west side of Wakeshma, and a like strip on the east side of Schoolcraft township.

In the month of September, 1833, a treaty was held by Governor Porter at the Pottawattomie village which stood on the Nottawa-Sepee reservation, within the limits of St. Joseph County, at which the chiefs, by the influence of trinkets, military trappings, and other articles to the amount of about ten thousand dollars in value, were in- duced to cede all their remaining lands, which were in- cluded in that reservation, to the United States. The Indians were to retain peaceable possession of the reserva- tion for two years, at the end of which time they were to remove to a new reservation west of the Mississippi. When the time came (in 1835), they manifested so much reluct- ance and opposition that it was not until five years later that they were finally removed.

The Indians had villages on Gull Prairie, and on To- land's Prairie, where Galesburg now stands, and also at Kalamazoo, on Prairie Ronde, in the present town of Port- age, and in other parts of the county. Some of these were, probably, tolerably permanent, while others were of a more transient character.

The village (or villages, for there may have been several) located on the site of Kalamazoo was a prominent one, for here was perhaps the best fishing-ground within the limits of the county. The largest fish of Lake Michigan could ascend the river to this point, and in the spring and early summer the pastime of taking a supply for future use was indulged in by the Indians, with every demonstration of rejoicing. Evidence of a large native population at this point is in the fact that three considerable burial-grounds

* From a chapter in the history of Hillsdale County it appears that the Indians exchanged, in September, 1827, all their reservations made at the Chicago treaty of 1821, for a consolidated reservation, called Nottawa-Sepee, in St. Joseph and Kalamazoo Counties, and the Matchebenashewish tract was probably given up at that time. A portion of the Nottawa-Sepee reservation was in Kalamazoo County.

THE POTTAWATTOMIE INDIANS.

were found within what are now the limits of the village of Kalamazoo.

There were traditions among the Indians of terrible wars and exterminating conflicts between the Ottawas and the Sioux or Saukies, on the banks of the beautiful Kekala- mazoo, one of which is perpetuated in a poem by V. Has- call, a former resident of Kalamazoo, which will be found in another chapter of this work. Here, also, the Potta- wattomies and Ottawas-for they seem to have been min- gled more or less in all this region-held their solemn coun- cils, their war-dances, and their annual feasts.

The Pottawattomies are described as having been more domestic than warlike in their habits. They delighted in bedecking themselves in finery and gew-gaws, and had a great love for ponies, which they caparisoned with all the pride of a Bedouin when preparing his Arab barb for the field. They were good hunters, and when once fairly en- listed in war exhibited the same bravery which rendered the Iroquois so renowned.

The Ottawas, frequently called the Tawas, came origi- nally from the great river of Canada which still bears their name, from whose rugged and picturesque region they were expelled by the terrible Iroquois, about the middle of the seventeenth century. They occupied the country, more properly speaking, lying in the Grand River Valley of Mich- igan, but the lines between the Indian nations and tribes who were friendly to each other were not very clearly de- fined ; and they occupied the country frequently in com- mon, hunting and fishing together. This was particularly the case with the Ottawas and Pottawattomies, who dwelt amicably together. The former, to whom the great war- chief Pontiac belonged, were perhaps the most warlike and the finest in physique of all the Indians of Michigan. Among the prominent chiefs of the Pottawattomies in later days were Bawbeese and Noonday ; the former having his principal village within the present limits of Hillsdale County, and the last named making his headquarters at or near Kalamazoo. It is said that when the county was first visited there were no less than sixteen distinct trails con- verging at Kalamazoo. This fact alone would be ample evidence that here was an important Indian centre.

Mr. Volney Hascall in a letter to the Ladies' Library Association, written some years since, speaks of a curious circle in a grove of trees on Genesee Prairie, where the In- dians performed their dances and celebrated their harvest, festivities.

They cultivated quite extensive areas of land in various parts of the county, notably around Kalamazoo and in the adjoining town of Portage. The fields in the last-named locality, which are still known as the " Indian fields," cov- ered probably a hundred acres: They had been long occu- pied by the Pottawattomies for a village and planting-grounds, and were cultivated for several years after the arrival of the first white settlers. This village is said to have been the largest in this region, and the Indians claimed that it was selected as a place of secure retreat for their women and children during the last war with Great Britain-1812-15.

The field labor was all performed by the squaws, as was customary with nearly all the tribes on the continent, the bucks, or warriors, confining their physical labors to war-

like pursuits and hunting and fishing. A good story is told by one of the early settlers of Northern Illinois, who encountered on Fox River the same nation of Indians whom the early settlers found occupying the valley of the Kala- mazoo. He was preparing his ground and planting his first crop of corn. A young but ambitious chief, who watched his operations closely, seemed much interested. The settler, thinking to do him a kindness, offered to prepare for plant- ing and give him all the ground he would personally take care of. The chief accepted the generous offer, and ap- peared promptly on the ground the following morning with a half-dozen squaws armed with the necessary implements for planting the corn. The white man saw at a glance that the chief had misunderstood his meaning, and proceeded to explain to him that he must do the work himself ; where- upon the noble son of the forest, drawing himself up proudly, answered the nonplussed settler, " Ugh ! Indian hunt game; squaw hunt corn !"

Raising grain and vegetables, taking care of the house- hold, or working at any ordinary employment was con- sidered, under Indian customs, menial employment, alto- gether beneath the dignity of a warrior, and, in fact, utterly degrading; and any one among the male members of a tribe who gave himself to such pursuits was considered in- ferior, and contemptuously called a " squaw" by the plumed and painted warriors, who looked upon the bloody business in which they delighted as the most respectable and honor- able known to the Indian, and one which all should aspire to. Cooper, in his " Oak Openings," the scene of which is laid in the Kalamazoo Valley, illustrates this feeling finely in his character of Onoah, or " Scalping Peter."

The Indians remained in this part of Michigan until 1840, when they were removed beyond the Mississippi River by the United States government. Hon. H. M. Rice, since prominent in Minnesota politics, had charge of the removal, and performed his duties with fidelity and the utmost kindness to the emigrants, who very reluctantly left their homes among the lakes and oak-openings and silver streams of Michigan.

Col. Thomas A. H. Edwards was actively engaged in gathering the scattered bands together at Kalamazoo pre- paratory to departure.

On their way westward they encamped for several days on the grounds north of the Central Railroad Depot in Kalamazoo, where they were visited by many of the inhabi- tants, who went to have a last look at the former owners of the soil, destined never again to be occupied by the " Hunter Race."

At Kalamazoo they were joined by other parties of In- dians from the north and west, and when all had assembled, chiefly Pottawattomies and Ottawas, they took up their line of march for the then far West beyond the " Father of Waters." Their tents and household goods were loaded on the backs of their ponies, of which they had in later years become possessed of a considerable number, while the able- bodied men, women, and children, accompanied by their dogs, followed on foot. The sick and aged were carried on the ponies, and the " pappooses" on the backs of the squaws. There was great reluctance among them to leaving the homes of their ancestors, and even their chiefs and warriors

HISTORY OF KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

were greatly apprehensive of danger from the Sioux in the country to which they were going. They were guided and guarded by a detachment of United States regulars.

Upon their departure from Kalamazoo, as they passed the dwelling of Judge Ransom, for whom they entertained great respect, they all doffed their ornamental head-gear, and elevated their right hands in token of a last good-bye. A few scattering individuals only remained, and from hence- forth the country which once knew them was to know them no more forever. Notwithstanding the long and bloody history of these wild children of the forest, it is with a tinge of sadness that we, even at this day, contem- plate their sorrowful departure, for they possessed human feelings, and the ties which bound them to this beautiful region were deeply rooted.

" Ye say they all have passed away, That noble race and brave ; That their light canoes have vanished

. From off the crested wave ; That in your grand old forests There rings no hunter's shout,- But their name is on your waters, Ye may not wash it out."

In 1874, according to the State census, there were ten thousand two hundred and fifty Indians living within the State of Michigan, consisting of the following nations :

Ottawas and Chippewas living together. 5,500

Chippewas of Lake Superior. 2,000

Chippewas of Saginaw, etc. 2,000

Chippewas of Grand River. 500

Pottawattomies

250

Total. 10,250

The few remaining Pottawattomies are located in Cal- houn, St. Joseph, Berrien, and Van Buren Counties. All the tribes have adopted the dress and customs, more or less, of the whites, and to a great extent given up the chase. A few receive annuities from the government, but by far the larger number depend wholly on their own exertions for a livelihood. Portions of them are settling down to agri- cultural pursuits, and five or six hundred of their children attend the public schools.

There is a small reservation, containing about one hun- dred and sixty acres of land, still occupied by the Potta- wattomies, in the southern part of Calhoun County. They number now about fifty souls. A mission, called the " Notta- way Mission," was established at this place in 1840. Rev. Mr. M. Hickey was in charge of the mission and school attached, assisted by Mr. Crane and Miss Hickey as teachers.

Old John Ma-gwa-go was chief of this band, and a white man named Holcomb, who had married Murchee, a sister of the chief, lived with them. An intelligent squaw, named Mary, who had been educated at Albion, acted as interpreter for the tribe. Her husband's name was Men-ne- do-ka. The belle of the tribe was Pont-sig-na, a daughter of the wife of Holcomb by a former husband; she also had been educated at Albion. The following notice is from the Detroit Post :

"The Rev. Henry Jackson, the Indian who died at Holland, was the government interpreter and business agent of the Pottawattomies, who have a reservation about twenty miles south of Battle Creek, on the Nottawa Creek, in Athens township, and was well known to many of our citizens. This band of Indians on the Nottawa-Sepe are the last of the Pottawattomies of Michigan, and now number about fifty

men, women, and children. Phineas Bamp-ta-nay-by is the present chief. Jackson was much thought of by the Pottawattomies, and his death is greatly mourned by them. Jackson did not live with the Pottawattomies ; only came here when business required. He made his home with the Ottawas, at Wayland, Allegan Co. Jackson, whose Indian name was Bam-me-no-de-no-kaid, signifying 'Storm Cloud,' was a Chippewa, instead of a Pottawattomie, and came here from Canada, where he was born, brought-up, and educated as a Wesleyan Methodist. He was well educated, and a very intelligent man. He once delivered a lecture in the Seventh-Day Adventists' church, in this city, upon 'The Manners and Customs of the Chippewas,' which drew a large audience, and which proved a highly entertaining and instructive lecture. He was probably better acquainted with the his- tory and traditions of the Indians of Michigan than any other per- son in the State, and it is to be regretted that some of our State historians, or the secretary of the State Pioneer Society, did not secure these traditions and histories in writing before his death."

The following paragraphs are furnished by Mr. Van Buren :

"I well remember Jackson, or 'Storm Cloud.' He was a forcible speaker, earnest and pathetic in his appeals to his red brethren. His English education, and the knowledge which he had gained in his in- tercourse with the whites, had aided him much in his labors. One Sabbath morning I had gone with a party of young ladies and gen- tlemen from the school district north of the Mission, where I was then teaching. We arrived at an early hour, and, entering the log chapel, seated ourselves and awaited the gathering of the dusky con- gregation. Soon a young Indian came in, and, taking down a long tin horn, which hung behind the door, he stepped out in front of the chapel and wound it so loudly and musically that we could hear the twanging notes reverberating through the dim arcades of the sur- rounding forest and dying away in the distance. Repeating the echoing calls a number of times, h'e stepped back into the chapel and hung up the horn in its place.

" The children of the forest now began to assemble in their rude place of worship. Quietly, with the stealthy Indian tread, old and young came in and took their seats. No noise-not even a whisper. Nothing but the silence characteristic of their natures. The whole gathering was the very impersonation of a hushed and solemn re- ligious assembly."

The following letter* from A. H. Scott, dated St. Joseph, Mich., Jan. 9, 1880, is to Mr. Henry Bishop, and is in answer to questions touching the Indians in this county at an early day. It will be found of great interest to many of our readers to whom the aborigines of this section were unknown :

"Your letter, dated December 25th, came to hand, and I have felt it a duty to give the information desired in regard to the Indians of Kalamazoo County during the years of its first settlement by the whites, as far as my memory will serve me. I came to Kalamazoo County early in June, 1833, as a member of the family of James Smith, in company with his brother, Addison. Hosea B. Huston and E. Lakin Brown carried on the merchandising business under the name of Smith, Huston & Co., and had two stores, one at Schoolcraft and the other at Kalamazoo (or rather at Bronson, as it was then called). I soon picked up enough of the Indian language to enable me to trade with them. They then owned a reservation of land ten miles square, which took in the eastern part of Gourd-Neck Prairie, and had a small village or collection of wigwams in the grove just east of the prairie, on the farm now owned by James N. Neasmith, Esq. The wigwams were all built with a frame of poles, covered with elm- bark, with the exception of the wigwam of the chief (Sagamaw), which was built for him by his friends, the early white settlers, of logs and covered with oak shakes. You wish me to inform you ' how they received the first settlers, how they lived, and how much they mingled with and how they traded with the white man.'

"1st. I think as a class they received the early settlers very kindly, and were inclined to live peaceably with them.

"2d question. How they lived. Deer were plenty in those early days, and, as they were good hunters, they had no difficulty the

* From the Telegraph of Jan. 14, 1880.

THE POTTAWATTOMIE INDIANS.

greater part of the year in supplying themselves with meat. They also used the flesh of raccoon, muskrats, etc., for food. Fish were plenty in the rivers and lakes. They understood how to catch them both with spear and hook. They raised some corn on land that some of the early settlers plowed and fenced for them. In their season wild fruits, such as blueberries, blackberries, etc., were obtained by them for food, and also to 'swap' with the white man for flour, salt, sugar, etc. 3d question. 'How much they mingled with the white man ?' In our stores and the dwellings and cabins of their acquaintances they made themselves very much at home. The squaws and pappooses would come in in crowds and sit down on the floor (never taking a chair) till they were so thick that you could hardly find a place to put your foot. They turned out en masse on all public days, and at horse- races and shows. They were greatly delighted with circuses. Shoot- ing-matches and foot-races they took a great interest in. 4th ques- tion. How they traded with the white man ? The trade with the Indian at that early day was mainly an exchange (or, as they called it, swap) of their furs, venison, dressed deer-skins, moccasins, blueberries, blackberries, cranberries, etc., for flour, salt, tobacco, powder, lead, sugar, and all the articles that the Indians used to clothe themselves I never knew an Indian offer to sell to white people any part of the carcass of a deer except the ham. The price for a ham of venison was always two shillings, no more, no less, no matter how small or large it was. Whenever we sold a squaw any goods that had to be made up into any of their garments a needle and thread for each gar- ment must be given ; only the goods for one garment would be bought or swapped for at a time. It required a good knowledge of their ways and much patience to be a successful dealer with the Indians. We frequently sold them goods on credit, and found them about the same kind of paymasters as the ordinary white man ; some paid promptly, some after a long time, and some never paid. They would have been splendid customers if they had been blessed with plenty of money ; but they were poor and thriftless, and I may with truth say a 'vaga- bond race,' and, consequently, their trade was of no great value. They received an annual payment from government, which was mainly in necessary goods for their use and comfort, and a small amount of sil- ver money. The money was very soon gone, and in most cases did them no good, but the goods furnished them by government was just what they needed, and added greatly to their comfort.

"In regard to personal characteristics of any noted Indian, etc., I would say that the best specimen of an Indian that I ever saw in those early days was Sag-a-maw, the chief of all the Pottawattomies in and about Kalamazoo County. He was a man of great good sense, of noble bearing, of great integrity, and in every way a dignified gentle- man. He was called a great orator among his people. He was a true friend to the whites. I have heard him make speeches to his people, and, although I could not understand him, his manner and voice were very interesting, and the effect of his speech on his people was very great. He was the only Indian that I ever saw who was polite and attentive to his squaw. When they came to the store at School- craft to do their trading, he would help her off of her pony, and when they were ready to return he would place his hand on the ground by the side of her pony, and she would place one foot in it, and he would lift her with apparently great ease into her saddle, and no white man could have shown more respect and politeness. If he wished for any credit at the store, he had it and paid promptly. Any Indian that he told us it was safe to trust was sure to pay us. He always told us never to trust his son, Cha-na-ba, who was a very worthless fellow. . . . In regard to the number of the Indians that lived in Kalama- zoo County and vicinity at that early day, I can make no estimate that would be of any value. They were continually coming and going and scattered about in little squads. In regard to the effect it had on the character of the Indian in his contact with the white race, I have no doubt but it was bad.

"He seems (as many writers have said) to take in all the vices of the white man and reject all his virtues. Whisky (the great demoral- izer of the white man) was and is the principal factor in the destruc- tion of all that is good in the Indian character, when he comes in contact with the white race. The longer the Indians remained here among the whites the more worthless they became. Game became scarce, they were too indolent to work, and they became drunkards and beggars. The great end and aim of most of them was to get whisky to get drunk with, and, as its cost was only about twenty-five cents per gallon, they generally got all that they wanted. When they purchased whisky they openly announced that they were going to get

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History of Kalamazoo county, Michigan, Part 19

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