History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II, Part 4

Author: Mills, James Cooke
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Saginaw, Mich., Seemann & Peters
Number of Pages: 838

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HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY

obliterated all traces of the mounds and fortifications, the human remains have been scattered to the winds, and only the relies and implements of a remote age, perhaps of an ancient race, remain.

On the Flint River mounds are numerous, but only at Taymouth do they occur in this county. On the old Indian fields - the land given in an early day to the old pioneer, James McCormick, by the Chippewa chiefs, are four large mounds. They are situated on the bluffs at the bend on the left bank of the river, and there are several others on the flats below. The human bones unearthed here were very much decomposed, especially those on the flats; and a great variety of stone implements were plowed up at different times and carried off by relic hunters. On the Shiawassee River at Chesaning, and at the forks of the Bad River in St. Charles, are still to be seen the remains of several mounds, but no record of exploration of any of them has been made, although many relics have undoubtedly been taken from these sites.

Caches and Corn Pits

In his writings on aboriginal remains, Harlan 1. Smith states that "it is very probable that there exist ancient quarries, where chert nodules of the sub-carboniferous series were formerly obtained, as this rock, which is the material of which chipped implements are most frequently made, outcrops in many places, not only along the bay shore, but also near the head waters of the tributaries of the river." A number of caches have been discovered in various locations of which records are preserved, but how many more have been plowed out and scattered without even a mention, is impossible to estimate. The blades found in caches were perhaps made at the quarries and transported to the villages by canoe, since most caches as yet found have been near navigable water. They were there stored or buried in moist earth, which kept them in a workable condition, where they could easily be obtained and worked into the various specialized forms as such implements were required for use.

On the north bank of the Tittabawassee at its mouth a cache was found by Edward S. Golson, April 26, 1890. It was at a point where a sluggish brine spring - from time immemorial a deer lick, and since the advent of white men resorted to by their stock - had by persistent tramplings caused the bank to be broken further and further back from the river, so that the high water of spring formed a continually enlarging blind cut, extending back into the prairie for about twenty-five rods. The cache was found in the east bank of this cut, about four feet below the surface, and yielded eighty- three symmetrical chipped blades of chert, which were later presented to the Peabody Museum at Cambridge. Opposite this cache, on the east bank of the Saginaw, another deposit of the same nature was unearthed by Mr. Golson in 1892. The remains were about two feet below the surface, and consisted of fifty-nine blades of chert now preserved by the family.

Two miles above Green Point another collection of one hundred chipped blades, known as the Merrill Cache, and at the Frazer Mound site a cache consisting of over three hundred blades, mostly of four different patterns, have been brought to light. Among the latter is one pattern of large leaf- shaped blades about eight inches long with delicate notched stems; another, similar implements about three inches long ; and a third, small blades not yet worked up, while the last consists of a few of the three-inch blades specialized to form arrow heads. Only a few feet away another cache yielded one large black leaf-shaped implement of chert, and thirteen rubbed stones, but there is no record of their shape or probable use.

PRE-HISTORIC RACES

Near the south bank of the Cass River two miles above its mouth, a cache was found very near the surface, consisting of twenty-two blades of various forms, and a dozen pieces of chert, the material of which the blades were formed. Nearly opposite this cache, in the marshy ground of the vicinity, another deposit was found, and named the Wille Cache. It com- prised one hundred and seventy-five triangular-shaped blades and two celts, the blades averaging an inch and a half in length. Three miles above Bridge- port, on the north bank of the Cass River, seventy blades leaf-shaped of dark blue chert, and numerous chips and flakes, have been uncarthed: and was named the Cass Cache No. 1.

The Armstrong Cache was discovered while plowing in a level field about half a mile north of the Frazer Cache, and not far from the little settle- ment of Shields. The implements were carefully removed, and an inventory showed sixty-six chipped leaf-shaped blades, nearly all five and a half inches in length and one and a half to one and three-fourths inches wide, remark- ably uniform in shape; and many were of black flint or chert. while others were grey in color. About twenty years ago Duane Lincoln, while plowing in James Township at a point about twenty rods back from the St. Charles road, which here runs east and west, struck with his plow a store of chert blades, which he carefully gathered up filling a ten-quart pail. At present only one specimen, three inches long and one and a half inches wide, leaf- shaped of grey chert, remains. This is practically a type of the whole lot, although a few were somewhat specialized by slight notches at the base.

The rapid settlement of the county has destroyed nearly all evidence of cultural pits used by the aborigines for the storage of corn, smoked meats and provisions in general, but in Taymouth Township, on lands owned by S. Pettit, may be seen the depressions caused by the sinking of the old structures. They were simply excavations in the ground from five to ten feet in diameter, which were carefully lined with bark, and supported by a framework of poles or small logs, and roofed with the same materials. Their origin undoubtedly dates from a pre-historic period, although the remains which were discovered in various places by the early settlers may have been of a much later time, since the bark which lined the pits was often still intact, but crumbled to pieces upon being touched. It is evident from the structure of these pits that they were used by the aborigines as a winter storage of provisions and such game as they put away, to safeguard them from wild beasts and stragglers in the forest.

During the hunting seasons, when the natives left their camps for weeks at a time in quest of game. these cultural pits which they built with such care served as a safe place in which to conceal their rude vet useful stone implements, their perishable pottery ware, their cooking utensils, and such articles as they wished to preserve from theft. When absent from their wigwams or cabins, a pole or piece of wood placed against the door signified the fact to any visitors. Among their own people and friendly tribes, this simple notice was always held inviolate, but their enemies and strangers generally had no regard for the rights of private possession, and would often despoil their camps. Consequently, when they went away. it was their custom to conceal in the ground whatever of their belongings they needed to preserve.

In Section twenty-one. Albee Township, about eighty rods from a shallow pond near Misteguay Creek, other remains of this character may still be seen, consisting of a series of corn pits. West of the Village of Freeland, on land owned by the late John P. McGregor, formerly a part of the Red Bird Reservation, numerous pits discovered at different times have now become almost entirely obliterated by cultivation of the soil.

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY

Workshops

The workshops, or quarries, where primitive man casually made his fint implements, are referred to by Mr. Smith as the "Andrews Workshops" and the "Albee Workshops." From these places it is supposed most of the material for their utensils originated, but there is not a village site that does not yield more or less of fragments from articles made there. At the east side entrance of Rust Park, and in Albee Township. near Misteguay Creek, fragmentary remains were quite numerous, while at Peon-i-go-wink and again at Me-no-quet's Village, but a few specimens have been observed. There is little evidence that the aborigines specialized in the simple arts practised by them, although it is probable that individuals skilled in stone cutting may occasionally have pro- duced implements for trade or gift. Early records are lamentably deficient in description of the pro- cesses of their handiwork, and much has been lost by lack of interest in observing and recording simple facts. The remains of these workships consist of finished implements, chipped blanks, broken pieces of utensils and refuse. Chert nodules have been collected from these sites in all forms, some weigh- ing four or five pounds. In James Township, on a sandy morainal ridge over which formerly ran an Indian trail, is a "blow-hole" about eighty feet long. ECourtesy of American Mu- seuin of Natural History. New York] PIPE MADE OF SAND- STONE From Mowbray Camp site. natural size. forty wide, and four feet deep, which has revealed bushels of flint chips, arrow and spear heads, and other relics. This place was examined by Mr. Dustin in the summer of 1914, and five leaf-shaped blades, five broken specialized blades, and one peculiar shaped blade, perhaps an unfinished arrow- head, were the rewards of his search. The sands drift at the lightest winds, and a few days before his visit, four good arrow-points and a spear-head were picked up by boys.

Aboriginal Stone Weapons

Ethnologists, in classifying the material remains of aboriginal races, separate all stone articles into three divisions: flints, celts, and miscellaneous. Under the term "flints" are classed all implements made of chert, chalcedony, agate, quartz and agatized wood, and covering such articles as arrow-points. spear heads, knives and small articles used for piercing and cutting. These have been treated of in the preceding pages.

Under "celts" are heavier articles such as stone mauls, hammers, axes, hatchets, pestles, chisels and skinning stones. These implements and weapons were usually fashioned from sienite, greenstone, basalt, granite, or volcanic rocks brought hither by the glacial ice sheet, and thickly strewn along the ancient beaches in the southern portion of the county, or cropping out in the banks of the Flint River. In private collections in city and county are various examples of weapons, such as hammer stones, some of which are pitted so as to be grasped more firmly; and others of convenient natural forms, easily handled, and which would be impossible to identify were it not for the battering and wear they show from long use. Then there are skinning stones, scrapers and chisels, worked to proper shapes and rubbed and polished to a fine finish: heavy grooved stone mauls, fine hatchets or tomahawks not grooved, and grooved axes, some of unusual forms. Stones

PRE-HISTORIC RACES

bearing deep grooves are sometimes found, which it is evident were used as rubbing or polishing implements in finishing arrow-shafts or ornamental articles. Other abrasive stones were used in polishing axes, chisels, and other celts, one of this character, nearly two inches square and ten inches long, being of peculiar form, but quite symmetrical, and appears to be of hard sandstone slightly tinged with iron.

FRAGMENTARY SPECIMENS OF PIPES [from the Dustin collection]

From left to right (about one-third actual size). Very small pipe of argillareous stone: Typ- ical Miemac pipe, gray sandstone; Pipe of gray sandstone; Iroquois pipe of pottery ware; Mound pipe, pottery; Pipe of gray conglomerate sandstone: Monitor type (stem only): Modi- tied Micmac type, argillacrous stone: Fragment of bowl of black shale; Unfinished pipe of yellowish stone; Stem of Atlantic Coast type, pottery ware.

Ancient Pipes

Of the "miscellaneous" group there are pipes fashioned from the same materials from which the pottery was made, one collection in Saginaw con- taining a dozen or more specimens. Occasionally a catlinite pipe is found, probably of Dakotan origin and left here in trade or captured in savage war- lare. They are often of singular form and beauty, and were highly prized by their owners. The pottery pipes are usually short and rather clumsy in appearance, although exhibiting some degree of skill in the making. In the Dustin collection are a number of pipes, bowls and pieces of stem, repre- senting no less than nine distinct types, including both Mound and Micmac examples. One is a perfect pottery pipe, without ornamentation of any kind, measuring on the outer curve from top of the bowl to end of the stem five and one-fourth inches, and in diameter of bowl one and a half inches. This interesting specimen was found in the summer of 1913 lying beside the skull of some old warrior, about two feet below the surface of the ground not far from Shields, near the western line of Saginaw Township.

Another excellent example of primitive handiwork is a bowl from which the stem has been broken, of the Iroquoian type. The bowl tapers to the stem, and there are three ornamental lines around the top of the bowl, which is an inch and a quarter in diameter, and an inch and a half to the curve of the stem. The pottery ware is rather fine in texture, and appears to contain a tempering material. A third specimen is only the lower part of the bowl. the base nearly perfect, but the keel is broken off through the thong hole. The material is grey sandstone of fine texture. The stem hole is perfect, and the conical base of the tobacco bowl shows the marks of the rude drill em- ployed in fashioning it.

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY

Ornaments and Charms

Ancient generations of Indians wore stone ornaments or charms, and of these there are many examples in this section of the State. They were usually made of slate, a banded variety being a favorite, and took various forms such as a shuttle, a butterfly, or other curious designs. It would seem that these odd forms possessed an esoteric significance, and may have been used much as certain societies employ symbols to convey various moral and spiritual lessons. Among other curious forms are those known as bird stones, well finished and polished effigies of sitting birds, perfectly sym- metrical in form. It is quite possible that these animal forms were the "totems" or symbols of the various clans, of which the Chippewas had inany.

PRIMITIVE ORNAMENTS AND CHARMS

(from the Dustin collection]

From left to right (about two- thirds actual size) Figure of bear (totem of banded slate. Tablet of same material, with three parallel grooves, of unknown use Figure of beaver (totem) of red pipe-stone. Tablet of banded slite.

CHAPTER II THE INDIANS OF SAGINAW VALLEY

Aboriginal Tribes in Michigan -Advent of the Ottawas-Their Assimilation with the Chippewas- Habits and Customs - Mode of Life - Spirit of Revenge - The Sauks and Onottawas- Derivation of "Saginaw"- Battle of Skull Island - Extermination of the Sauks - Chippewas Fear Revenge - Legend of the Lone Tree - Retributive Justice of the Savage - Anecdotes of Chippewa Chiefs and Braves.

L IKE all the vast territory of the Northwest, the land now embraced in the State of Michigan was once in possession of native Indian tribes. which very properly belonged to the third race inhabiting North America, but distinct from the former races in every particular. The primitive language which was most widely diffused, and the most fertile in dialects, was known to the French by the name of Algonquin ; and was the mother tongue of those who greeted the colonists of Raleigh at Roanoke, and of those who welcomed the Pilgrims to Plymouth. It was heard from the Bay of Gaspe to the valley of the Des Moines; from Cape Fear to the land of the Esquimaux, and was spoken, though not exclusively, in a territory that extended through sixty degrees of longitude, and more than twenty degrees of latitude.

Of the Algonquin nations, as fugitives from the basin of the magnificent river whose name commemorates them, were the Ottawas, who fled to Saginaw Bay and took possession of the whole north of the peninsula as of a derelict country. To the south of them were the Miamis, whose principal mission was founded by Allouez on the banks of the St. Joseph. They were more stable than the Shawnees in the valley of the Cumberland, who con- nected the southeastern Algonquins with the west; and their traditions preserve the memory of their ancient limits. "My forefather," said the Miami orator, Little Turtle, at Greenville, "kindled the first fire at Detroit ; from there he extended his lines to the head waters of the Scioto; from thence to its mouth and down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash ; and from thence to Lake Michigan. These are the boundaries within which the prints of my ancestors' houses are everywhere to be seen." And the narra- tives of the French explorers confirm his words.

The forests beyond Detroit were at first found unoccupied, or, it may be, roamed over by bands too feeble to attract a trader or win a missionary. Between the lakes the Ottawas found a dense forest wilderness extending to the straits, abounding with game and with lakes and rivers teeming with fish. Beyond to the west and south of Lake Superior was the great nation of the Chippewas, or, as some wrote, the Ojibwas, the Algonquin tribes of whose dialect, mythology, traditions, and customs we have the fullest accounts. They held the country from the mouth of Green Bay to the head waters of Lake Superior ; and adopted into their tribes many Ottawas, and were themselves often included by the early French writers under that name. Thus the two nations, by association and alliance, gradually - became assimilated, and occupied the same territory along the upper lakes. As generations passed and they multiplied in numbers and in power, the Chippewa tribes predominated and history attached their name to the united nation. Two hundred years after, indeed, in our State papers the parties to

HISTORY OF SAGINAW COUNTY

various treaties are spoken of as the United States on one side, and the Chippewas on the other, although there appear among the signatures the names of chiefs and headsmen who were of Ottawa descent.

In their natural environment the savages were proud of idleness, and did little but cross their arms and sit listlessly ; or engage in games of chance, hazarding all their possessions on the result; or meet in council; or sing ; and eat, play, and sleep. Their greatest toils were to repair their cabins, fashion a boat out of a tree by means of fire and a stone hatchet, and make ready the instruments of war and of the chase. Woman was the laborer and bore the burdens of life. The food raised from the earth was the fruit of her industry. With no implement but a shell or the shoulder-blade of a buffalo, she planted the corn and beans, drove the blackbirds from the field, broke the weeds, and, in due time, gathered the harvest. She pounded the parched corn, dried the buffalo meat, and prepared for winter the store of wild fruits. She brought home the game which the warriors killed, she bore the wood, drew the water, and spread the feasts. When the chief laid the keel of a birchen canoe, it was the woman who stitched the bark with split ligaments of the pine root, and seared the seams with resinous gum. When the warrior prepared the poles of the wigwam, it was the woman who built it, and in journeyings bore it on her shoulders. The Indian squaw was his slave, and the number of his slaves was a criterion of his wealth.

The aborigines depended for food on the chase, the fisheries, and agri- culture. They kept no herds; and never were shepherds. The moose, the bear, the deer, besides smaller game and fowl, were pursued with arrows tipped with harts-horn, or eagle's claws, or pointed stones. With nets and spears fish were taken, and for want of salt were cured by smoke. Wild fruits and berries in abundance were found in their season, and girls with baskets of bark gathered the fragrant fruit of the wild strawberry. Wheat and rye would have been a useless gift to the Indian, since he had neither plow or sickle; but the maize sprang luxuriously from a warm, rich soil with little aid from culture, oustripping the weeds and bearing, not thirty or fifty, but a thousand fold. Maize was gathered from the field by hand, with- out knife or reaping tools, and when dried could be preserved for years. It became nutritious food by a simple roasting before a fire, and a little of its parched meal, with water from the brook, was often a dinner and supper. With a small supply of it in his leathern girdle, the warrior, with his bow and arrows, was ready for travel at a moment's warning.

Famine often gave a terrible energy to the brutal part of their nature. What could have been more miserable than the tribes of the north in the depths of winter, suffering from want of food, driven by the intense cold to sit huddled in the smoke around the fire in the cabin, and to fast for days, until, compelled by faintness to reel into the woods and gather moss or bark for a thin concoction to relieve the extremity of hunger? Want stiffled their affections, with the result that the aged and infirm met with scant tenderness ; and the hunters, as they roamed the wilderness, often deserted the old warriors to their fate. If provisions failed, the feeble dropped down by the trail and were lost, or life was shortened by a blow. The fate of the desper- ately ill, and those wounded in battle and the chase, was equally sad; and those who lingered, especially the aged, were often neglected, and sometimes, with the compassion of the savage, were put to death.

The clothing of the natives was, in summer, only a piece of skin, like an apron, tied around the waist, but in winter they resorted to the protection of a bear-skin, or robes made of skins of the fox and the beaver. Their feet were protected by soft mocassins, to which were bound snow-shoes, on which they could leap like a roe. Of the women, a mat or a skin, neatly

THE INDIANS OF SAGINAW VALLEY

prepared, tied over the shoulders, and fastened to the waist by a girdle, extended from the neck to the knees, leaving the head, arms, and legs uncovered. Their summer garments, of moose and deer skins, were painted of many colors; and the fairest feathers of the turkey, fastened by threads made of wild hemp and nettle, were curiously wrought into mantles. The claws of the grizzly bear formed a proud collar for the war chief; a piece of an enemy's scalp, with a tuft of long hair, glittered on the end of his war pipes. The skin of a rattlesnake worn round the arm, and the skin of a polecat bound round the leg, were emblems of noble daring. The warrior was also tatooed with figures of animals, of leaves and flowers, and painted with lively and shining colors. His dress was often a history of his deeds.

The wild man hated restraint, and loved to do what was right in his own eyes; and, since he was his own protector, and as there was no public justice, every man became his own avenger. In case of death by violence, the departed shade could not rest until appeased by a retaliation. His kindred would go a thousand miles for the purpose of revenge, over hills and moun- tains ; through swamps full of vines and briars, over broad lakes, rapid rivers, and deep creeks, and all the way endangered by poisonous snakes, exposed to the extremities of heat and cold, to hunger and thirst. Blood once being shed, mortal strife often involved tribe against tribe, which continued for generations, unless peace was restored by atoning presents in sufficient measure to cover up the graves of the dead.

The Sauks and Onottawas

Such were the nature and general characteristics of the Algonquins, and of those tribes which inhabited the basin of the Saginaw, three hundred years ago. Of the earliest tribes which tradition takes into account, the Sauks and Onottawas occupied the beautiful country from the bay to the upper tributaries of the river. Along the Saginaw the Sauks made their homes, built their camp fires, held their councils and smoked the calumet. They roamed the forests which abounded with game, they paddled their light bark canoes on its clear, smooth waters, and they fished the quiet pools. Their largest village was at the confluence of the rivers which formed the main stream, or Green Point as the place has been known for years; and there was a smaller village on the bluffs of the Tittabawassee, above the present settlement at Paines. On a gentle rise of ground along the Saginaw, six miles from its mouth, they had another large village in which were enacted some of the most stirring scenes in their traditional history.

The Sauks were, indeed, so imperishably identified with our early history. traditional though it is, that their name has became indissolubly linked with our own. From their dialect the name Saginaw is unquestionably derived. It is a perversion of "Sa-gin-a-we, Sa-gin-a-gi, or Sang-e-nah," which freely translated means, "land, or place, of the Sauks." According to tradition the total number of Sauks living in this valley, at the beginning of the seven- teenth century, was about sixteen hundred, a considerable population for a small section.

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History of Saginaw County, Michigan; historical, commercial, biographical, Volume II, Part 4

Author: Mills, James Cooke Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Saginaw, Mich., Seemann & Peters Number of Pages: 838

Author: Mills, James Cooke
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Saginaw, Mich., Seemann & Peters
Number of Pages: 838