USA > Michigan > Monroe County > History of Monroe County, Michigan : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests Volume I > Part 7
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THE RED MAN'S FAIRIES AND BROWNIES
Mrs. Schoolcraft was a woman of vivid fancy, who readily responded to the influence of mental and social culture, and found in them the means of perpetuating the legends of her people, and giving form to the Indian Paw-puck-e-wis, or fairy, which is scarcely less interesting than his prototype across the water. The Paw-puck-e-wis of the Indians
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"delighted to sport upon the headlands and cliffs in the moonlight, and to toss balls of silver into the still waters of the lake. White men called them meteors or shooting-stars, but the Paw-puck-e-wis knew better and laughed at the bewildered beholders."-"In the woods" continues Mrs. Schoolcraft, "they returned the call of the hunter, laughed when he laughed and repeated the shouts from hill to hill until the woods seemed alive with humans. At times they would huddle themselves together in the hollow of some great cave in the rocks and as a war party marched by in paint and feathers, loudly echoed their whispers, so that the whole party fled in dismay and terror." One can easily recognize in this the Echo and the Pan of the old mythologies.
Long before the appearance of the white man on this side of the water, the forests, the lakes, and the streams were peopled with the creation of a fancy as wild, as picturesque, and not less grotesque than that of the elfin of the Germans, or the brownies and fairies of Scotland; but differing from the artificialty of the fairies which must be referred to the remnants of old Saxon traditions, household and fire-side spirits, transformed and changed by the grotesque and wayward fancy of the northern mind. The Puk-wud-jees of the Indians, fresh, primitive and exulting have more analogy with Pan and frolicsome fauns and satyrs.
SUPERSTITIONS OF EARLY SETTLERS
There can be little doubt that the early settlers on the New England coast, ancestors, many of them, of those sturdy pioneers of the River Raisin valley, were inoculated with a species of half-religious, half- superstitious belief which cropped out in the superstition of witchcraft, showing its most revolting aspect, and permitting deeds from which true, enlightened minds should have shrunk in horror. It is to be deplored that the blind superstition of those unhappy days in the New England colonies excited its baneful influence to the exclusion of a regard for the faith of the Indian, not as a subject for curious and interesting research, but as a part of a diabolical device to be rooted out and de- stroyed. As a consequence, too few of their beautiful and poetic tradi- tions have come down to us, though the careful observer will not fail to detect many vestiges in the history of later times.
WORSHIP OF THE GREAT SPIRIT
The full blooded Indian of the pioneer days was probably descended from the original inhabitants of this continent, or, in other words, from the survivors of that people, who on being driven from their fair pos- sessions, retired to the wilderness and reared their children under the saddening influence of their unquenchable griefs, bequeathing them only the habits and customs of the wild, cloud-roofed homes of their exile-a sullen silence and a rude moral code, leaving them in ignorance of the arts and sciences which may have marked the long ago period of their prosperity. In the contemplation of this phase of a subject which has for most persons a fascination that cannot be easily shaken off, is it not more agreeable and perhaps as satisfying, after all, to allow one's fancy wide range in its pursuit through the purple haze of mystery,-the ever delighting charms of poesy and legend-rather than to enter upon a futile, wearying search for the far-away realities?
We have nothing in the red-man's devotion to an overruling spirit more impressive than the sacrificial rites of the "Sacred Fire," nor more interesting, as a suggestion of a descent from the fruitful Persian stock. It is perhaps not surprising that the element of fire should be
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selected as the object of worship by nations whose leaning towards the semi-religious or supernatural, required something tangible and visible for their support. To them this mysterious agent was sufficiently power- ful in its effect and striking in its operation to appear as an emanation from the deity.
It is not known positively, that this custom of keeping alive the sacred fire existed among other tribes than the Ojibways, the Ottawas, the Shawnees and the Natchez, but it is settled as certain, that these tribes practised and believed in the rites as fire-worshippers, and that evidences have been discovered in the past that the region which we inhabit about the Great Lakes was the scene of the perpetual fire kindled upon the rude altars of stone and, without relying too implicitly upon the tales related of the tribes by the earliest French settlers and missionaries and Coureur des Bois, it is not difficult to believe from current accounts that they were firm and conscientious believers in the efficacy of an eternal fire.
TRADITION OF THE SACRED FIRE
The tradition which has become more or less familiar is as follows: "Many of thousands of winters ago, all the inhabitants of the earth with the exception of a single family, were destroyed by floods, and darkness and lack of food. This one family managed to keep up a great wood fire for warmth and for preparing food, and so survived for a considerable time. But in consequence of the continued cold and darkness, even this last remnant of human existence was about to perish. In this emergency, a young girl of the family, suddenly inspired by the idea that she might save her race by an act of self-sacrifice, threw herself upon the fire which served the despairing sufferers for light and heat. The body was speedily reduced to ashes; but the next moment she arose in the eastern sky apparently unharmed and surrounded with halos of surpassing glory. The darkness began to disappear before this new luminary, the earth began to assume its original aspect and the family was saved.
This wonderful girl became the chief of the tribe and it was decreed that the nearest female relative should be her successor. The worship of the sun which she had rivalled at her resurrection, was established at once, and in addition to this a fire to be called the 'Living Sacrifice of the Sacred Fire' was kept perpetually burning, and it was the belief of the survivors that so long as this fire blazed upon their altars they should be peaceful and happy. On the spot where the self-sacri- ficed maiden was re-incarnated when the fire from heaven descended and enveloped her body in glory, they built their mound to indicate that their wanderings were at an end. It was upon this, when the 'festival of the forests' was held, that the priestess of the sun showed herself to the people, arrayed in robes of white and girdled with a gem sparkling belt about her waist. She assisted in the greeting of her ancestor (the sun) and as he ascended into the eastern sky, his first rays fell upon the figure of the sacred princess, which circumstance was hailed by the worshippers as a recognition of sympathy and an acknowledged relationship between the real sun and his queenly rep- resentative."
This astonishing legend is that which remains the most clearly, in the superstitions, which pass for religious beliefs in the tribes which we have named. The Chippewa tribes inhabited the region around Lake Superior, and here died in great poverty an object of charity, some years ago, their last hereditary chief, Kaw-baw-gum. Offshoots from this tribe found their way southward to the River Raisin. and here finding the climate agreeable, game, fish and furs in abundance,
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they stayed, making friends with the Pottawatamies and Shawnees and Ottawas, preserved a general attitude of amity ; and it was perhaps these who introduced the religious rite of the Sacred Fire in these regions. Whether this was continued as zealously as was the case with the parent stock, or not, does not appear, but the discovery of stone altars and mounds in the known vicinity of their villages seem to prove that the Sacred Fire was here an established institution, for an un- known period, finally disappearing before the advance of white men into their domain.
FADING OF THE MICHIGAN POTTAWATAMIES
The poorest land in southern Michigan is a strip occupied by the remnant of the tribe of Pottawatamie Indians whose diminishing num- bers are struggling against even this small modicum of civilization. This tract of land is inhabited by probably two hundred and fifty persons, and lies just beyond and contiguous to the richest farming and fruit lands in the state, offering the most striking contrast to the lands of the red man, where fertile fields and large and thriving orchards lie beside land only half reclaimed from a state of nature. This pitiful remnant of a once powerful tribe-powerful enough to drive the warlike Illinois before them to "Starved Rock" where they camped stoically about its base and calmly waited until the last of their enemy's warriors had perished. These are the Pottawatamies which swarmed the southeastern portion of Michigan and which the early French pioneers found in possession of the valley of the Rivière aux Raisins, who were the staunch followers of Tecumseh and who proved to be the only really friendly tribe that hov- ered around the settlements. They were troublesome, but not terrible ; they were thieves, but not cold-blooded murderers. Now they are a poor, miserable, shiftless and broken people. They are fairly good Indians now, as Indians go, by force of circumstances. They till their farms just as much as they must as an alternative from starvation; they wear the clothes of civilization, drink fire water as of yore, cling to their old lan- guage and confess their sins to the good father, for the Pottawatamies have been good Catholics since Pere Marquette established a mission among them at Green Bay and, withal, have a sociable habit of not under- standing English when it suits them.
VISIT TO CHIEF CHENAGAR.
A visitor to one of the chiefs but a few years ago gives me a descrip- tion of this visit :
"Recently I drove out to the house of Chief Chenagar, to find no one at home but the chief's squaw, a big, dark, full-breed Indian woman, who smiled until her high cheek bones met her eyebrows, to the obliteration of her little black beads of eyes.
" 'Where is the chief ?' I asked.
" 'Her gone. There her tracks,' pointing to some big holes in the ground that disappeared in a straight line across the field. But that was all the information I got regarding his destination.
" 'When will he be back ?'
" 'Her gone. There her track.'
"But she held the door open and smiled, and I walked in. The house was as clean as a Yankee's, with bare floors scrubbed to a snowy white- ness. The walls were adorned with Catholic images and pictures. The
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chief's wife squatted on the floor to fix the fire, and remained there with her hands clasped around her knees.
" 'Where are the children ?' I asked. 'Gone to school ?'
"Something like sadness fitted across her face for an instant.
" 'No pappoose ! Married seven years, no pappoose !'
" 'Why don't you steal one ?'
"'Him bad steal,' she said, quickly looking up at a picture of the Virgin and crossing herself. 'Pottawatamies no more pappoose. Her all die. Her no more come.'
"Then she lapsed into stolid silence, paying no attention to my expressions of sympathy. But she smiled often, and struggled with a little English in an effort to be friendly.
"At the next cabin I stopped there were three or four children of vari- ous ages, who were all indulging in little hacking coughs that told all too plainly the fate of the race. There were three women there also, and in a fifteen minutes' call I got just one word out of all of them. As I drove into the yard a young squaw snatched a little brown baby up off the ground and disappeared into the house, while a brave sat on a sawbuck and whittled a stick. He did not even look up as I passed him and knocked at the door. It was opened one inch.
"'May I come in? I'm cold,' I said. The door was opened a few inches wider and I squeezed in. One squaw left a sewing machine and gazed at me, her elbows akimbo; another was sewing. They all smiled. " 'Whose baby ?' I asked, pointing to the little one on the floor.
" 'Nmph,' in concert. Then I made a remark about the weather and received the same answer. They all smiled. The children stood off in the corners and grinned while I carried on an animated conversation to myself. At last I roused them by a bit of information, telling them that Congress had just allowed them a long-pending claim for $190,000.
" 'Nmph !' said the three women excitedly.
" 'You're going to get that money soon. It will make you all rich. What will you do with it ?'
"They looked at each other expressively, and then the oldest uttered the unanimous sentiment :
" 'Firewater !'
"By which I understood that it would mostly be spent for liquid re- freshments. I gave the baby a penny, and he tucked the copper coin under his copper-colored cheek. I couldn't get within three yards of the other children and not another word could I get out of the women. The brave slunk around behind the house as I came out of the door.
"Like the Miamis the Pottawatamies came originally from the region of Green Bay, Wis. There Father Marquette found them in 1673 and founded a mission among them; there Tonty, La Salle's lieutenant, took refuge among them after the massacre of the Illinois Indians on the Great Meadow below the rock. They were extremely friendly to Tonty and Father Ribourde, who accompanied him, because of their love for the French. One of their chiefs at that time was wont to say with the boast- fulness that characterized the Algonquins :
" 'I know of but three great captains in the world-myself, Frontenac and La Salle.' "
DRIVING THE MIAMIS
Twenty years later the Pottawatamies were found to have dispossessed the Miamis of the St. Joseph basin, in southern Michigan, extending from near Chicago to the mouth of the Grand river. This region they held in undisputed possession for a century and a quarter, getting themselves mixed up in all the trouble that was brewing. They were the implacable
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enemies of the Iroquois and the English, and the loyal lovers of the French and of Pontiac, the great chief. They were never the equals of the Iroquois, either in the council or in warfare, but were cruel, hardy, brave and vindictive, and the most steadfast friends as they proved in 1712, when by their timely arrival they saved the French garrison at Detroit from being massacred.
In the French and Indian war they fought bravely for the French, and were not disposed to give the country over to English rule after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1763. In excuse for the trouble which fol- lowed Parkman says: "The English were ruffians of the coarsest stamp, who vied with each other in rapacity, violence and profligacy. They cheated, cursed and plundered the Indians, offering, when compared with the French traders, the most unfavorable example of the character of their nation."
The character of these new occupants of the country was the direct cause of the conspiracy of Pontiac, in which the Pottawatamies were con- spicuous, and after the assassination of the great chief at Cahokia in 1779 they avenged his death in a singularly cruel manner. The assassination was charged directly to the Illinois Indians, and all the tribes of the lakes united to punish them. The Pottawatamies finally pursued a little band of eighty Illinois to the Rock of St. Louis and besieged them until they died of starvation. But the death of Pontiac broke their spirit, and they made peace with the English-a peace that was kept for fifteen years, until General Anthony Wayne was called to put an end to their disturb- ances in 1794.
LAST BATTLE AT TIPPECANOE
Again they united with the tribes under Tecumseh, and were con- quered by General Harrison at Tippecanoe in 1811. That was the last time they did any fighting. The spirit of warfare in them was broken forever, and they had not even the strength to resist an attempt to remove them beyond the Mississippi in 1833. Old Chief Pokagon got a grant of land in Cass county, Michigan. But the deeds to this land were held by the chief, and after his death it was sold by his heirs. Since then the tribe has bought small farms or rented them, the different members stay- ing together, preserving the language, electing a chief and interpreter, whose principal duties were to correspond with a claim agent in Wash- ington.
This part of the tribe, while they did not go to the Western reserve, still claimed the annuity promised them in that event. Thirty-nine thousand dollars was allowed by the government in 1866; $190,000 addi- tional has also been allowed, of which the agent got $40,000. But as there are probably only about thirty families in all, this would make the whole tribe comfortable for life if it were wisely spent. The money received in 1866 was soon lost in dissipation.
This remnant of the tribe is rapidly dying out. Dissipation, civiliza- tion, and intermarriage together are proving too much for them. The deaths annually outnumber the births, and a Pottawatamie of more than fifty years of age is a rarity.
Except that they live in houses and wear manufactured clothing they follow a primitive life. The Indian tongue is used in all households, and the wooden mortar and pestle are employed to make their hominy. The children attend school irregularly, the constraint being distasteful to them and seemingly injurious to their health. Father Cramer has faith- fully worked among them, keeping them within the folds of the church.
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CHAPTER IV WESTERN PIONEERS OF NEW FRANCE
FRENCH SEAMEN-FRENCH COLONISTS-FRENCH INDIAN FUR TRADE- FAIR DEALINGS WITH THE INDIANS-THE WOOD RANGERS-VISITORS TO UPPER LAKE REGION-MISSIONS AND SETTLEMENTS-ENGLISH IN- TRUDE INTO NORTHERN FUR COUNTRY-DETROIT, AN ENGLISH CHECK -LAND GRANTS-SOLID FRENCH BUILDINGS-EARLY FRENCH INDUS- TRIES-LEGEND OF THE OLD PEAR TREES-THE FRENCH IN THE PON- TIAC WAR-SOCIAL TRAITS.
The first thing that strikes most readers of colonial history is the marked difference between French and English colonies in their begin- nings and in their later fortunes. This difference is not in all respects easy to be accounted for, although some matters are quite obvious. A brief reference to some of the colonial antecedents may not be out of place.
The discovery of America was followed by a great revival of the spirit of adventure, which very soon led to colonial enterprises in all parts of the world. Spain for a long time took the lead in these adventures. Her colonies were all dependent provinces, either governed by viceroys or by other despotic authorities, and the colonists had little if any advan- tage over their fellow subjects in Spain. No other power made a more respectable showing upon the sea and none had better soldiers or mari- ners. The glory of the newly established colonies in America fluctuated with the fortunes of the mother country, and frightful abuses prevailed among them. When they became independent, more than a century ago, they were for a long time no improvement on what preceded them. They did not pay that regard to private freedom and constitutional restraint which is necessary to prosperity. The despotism of numbers is quite as dangerous as that of rulers. Despotism in some shape has never dis- appeared.
FRENCH SEAMEN
The French adventurers preceded the English in effective work, al- though they were not far apart. At that time the French sailors were admirable mariners, and it is questionable whether, in spite of the great English captains of that day, whose deeds have become famous, they did not, on the whole, surpass their island neighbors in the general quality of their seamanship. The principal adventurers were Normans, of the same stock with their English rivals and closely resembling them. While it is not, in mixed blood, easy to determine which line predominates, we can readily perceive in the dashing spirit of the great sea captains the same characteristics which a few centuries ago sent the norman ships and spread the Norman conquests over every part of the known western world. The Normans of France and England kept up their intercourse and retained similar ways long after the conquest; and even as late as the earlier years of Queen Elizabeth it was not thought unlikely that Vol. 1-3
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their governments might be made similar. The old customs of Normandy were so nearly those of England that the same commentators expounded both, and their maritime usages were practically identical.
FRENCH COLONISTS
The French, as colonists, in the proper sense of the term, were in advance of the English and began with a more definite purpose to estab- lish their commercial supremacy. The English were very bold explorers, but most of them had far more of the spirit of buccaneering and free- booting, and far less humanity in dealing with the natives. Before any permanent English colonies were well established they became involved in domestic difficulties with their home government, it having ceased to favor such enterprises or pay much regard to them; and their neglected infancy was one of the reasons why they at last became so independent of trans-Atlantic management as to outgrow it altogether.
AN OLD FRENCH HOMESTEAD
Between the beginnings of French colonization and the time when the English colonies began to increase, French institutions had been tend- ing more and more toward centralization. At the time when the first set- tlements were made in Michigan the absolutely personal government of Louis XIV had become supreme and was as active in this region-then known as New France-as it was in France itself. The king was also zealous in enforcing religious uniformity. While there was considerable jealousy between the two great clerical orders of the new colony, the Jesuits and the Recollets, or Franciscans, they held between them sub- stantial authority over all religious matters. For various reasons both the religious and secular officials were opposed to the settlement of remote posts. A system of personal oversight was maintained over every man who came into the country, and there is no instance recorded and prob- ably none existed where anyone ever settled down in the wilderness as a squatter or pioneer and cleared a farm for himself. There were no farm- ing settlements except under restricted and fixed regulations and every one who went into the woods, licensed or unlicensed, went as a roving adventurer, and not as a settler. The number of these roving people must at times have been as great, or nearly as great, as that of the fixed inhabit-
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ants. In this-contrary to our later experience-the Canadian colonists differed radically from the English. The latter, in the early days, seldom became hunters or trappers in any great numbers. Even after the ces- sion of New York by the Dutch, the English exploring expeditions con- tained more Dutch than English rovers, and the Dutch were much more successful in dealing with the Indians, who got along very well with them and with the French, but not so well with the Englishmen.
FRENCH-INDIAN FUR TRADE
The French policy was chiefly directed, so far as the back country was concerned, to managing and controlling the fur trade and its supple- mentary branch of a return barter with the Indians. All of this trade was a monopoly, confined to favored persons or companies and at no time open to general competition. As a matter of universal experience, such monopolies always raise up a formidable irregular trade, and in this region the persons concerned in the illicit business were those of the highest rank and importance, who generally managed to protect their own emissaries and associates and procure for them sooner or later such advancement as was possible in the colony.
The immigrants that came in considerable numbers from various parts of France, but chiefly from Normandy and the northern and northwest- ern provinces, were to an unusual extent men of intelligence and some enterprise. Men of all ranks and conditions swarmed in-mostly those who were anxious to better their doubtful fortunes and many who were restless under the restraints of the intolerable burdens on French indus- try. A great many veteran officers and soldiers were discharged or re- tired and found it difficult to live in comfort upon their unprofitable estates. The policy of the country had made trade an honorable calling, and the impoverished noblesse, who could not always get a footing in the companies or a share in the legitimate trade of the country, found them- selves, in a measure, compelled to resort to some kind of enterprise to earn a living. The result was that quite early in the colonial times the whole country was visited and explored by intelligent adventurers, whose knowledge of its condition, though for obvious reasons never officially published, enabled the subsequent explorers to proceed more boldly and directly in the line of their journeys.
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