History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, Part 3

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D.W. Ensign & co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Michigan > Clinton County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 3
USA > Michigan > Shiawassee County > History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan > Part 3

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At or near all their villages, on the Maple, the Looking- Glass, and the Shiawassee, there were corn-fields, which they planted year after year with the same erops. The largest of the corn-fields in all this region were those in the vicin- ity of Shermanito's village on the Shiawassee, now Ches- aning, Saginaw Co., a little north of the Shiawassee County line. Fields of considerable extent were situated midway between Vernon and Shiawassee Town. Smaller ones were found near the villages and camping-grounds on the Look- ing-Glass, the Grand, and Maple Rivers, as also at Keche- wondaugoning, on the Shiawassee. At the latter place there was a small Indian orchard of stunted and uncared-

HISTORY OF SHIAWASSEE AND CLINTON COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

for apple-trees, and similar ones were found at several places in both counties. The Indians carried on their agri- culture in a careless, slovenly, and superficial way. Of course they were ignorant of the use of plows, and the few implements which they had were of the rudest and most primitive kind. They had plenty of poor and serawny ponies, but these were wholly uncared for, and were never made use of except for riding. From laek of care, and the planting of the same fields for many years in succession, these had become overgrown with grass, weeds, and sumach- busbes, so that the crops obtained were very meagre, and but for the almost boundless stores of food furnished by the streams and forests, the people must have been constantly in a state bordering on famine.

It was their custom during the autumn to move from the vicinity of their fields, proceeding up towards the heads of the streams, making halts at intervals of six or eight miles, and camping for a considerable time at each halting- place for purposes of' hunting and fishing. Upon the approach of winter they floated back in their canoes (car- rying them round rapids and obstrnetions), and betook themselves to their winter quarters in comparatively shel- tered places within the shelter of the denser forests. From there the young men went out to the winter hunting- and trapping-grounds, through which they roamed till the ap- proach of spring, when all, men, women, and children, eu- gaged in sugar-making until the sap ceased to flow ; and after this process was finished they again moved to their corn-fields, and having planted and harvested, and fished and hunted up to the head-waters of the streams during the summer and autumn, they again returned to their forest camps or villages to pass the winter as before.

The manufacture of sugar was one of the principal In- dian industries, if the term industry can be properly applied to anything existing in an Indian community. They pro- duced large quantities of this article, and of as good quality as is made by white people. Having completed its manu- facture for the year, they packed it in mokoks (vessels or packages neatly made of birch-bark) and buried it in the ground, where it was kept in good condition for future use or sale. Their sugar-making resources were, of course, al- most unlimited, for noble groves of maple abounded every- where. There were extensive ones in the vicinity of the Big Rapids of the Shiawassee, and many others of perhaps equal extent along the valleys of the Maple, the Looking- Glass, and other streams ; and, in fact, through nearly every part of the territory of Clinton and Shiawassee Counties.

The Chippewas, like all other Indians, were extremely superstitions ; indeed, they appeared to be more marked in this peculiarity than were most of the other tribes. It has already been mentioned that the ancestors of the later Sagi- naw Chippewas imagined that the country which they had wrested from the conquered Sauks was haunted by the spirits of those whom they had slain, and that it was only after the lapse of years that their terrors became allayed sufficiently to permit them to occupy the "haunted hunt- ing-grounds." But the superstition still remained, and, in fact, it was never entirely dispelled. Long after the valleys of the Saginaw, the Shiawassee, and the Maple became

studded with white settlements, the simple Indians still believed that mysterious Sauks were lingering in the forests and along the margins of their streams for purposes of vengeance ; that munesous, or bad spirits, in the form of Sauk warriors, were hovering around their villages and camps, and on the flanks of their hunting-parties, prevent- ing them from being successful in the chase, and bringing ill fortune and discomfiture in a hundred ways. So great was their dread that when (as was frequently the case) they became possessed of the idea that the munesous were in their immediate vicinity, they would fly, as if for their lives, abandoning everything,-wigwams, fish, game, and peltry,-and no amount of ridieule from the whites could convince them of their folly, or induce them to stay and face the imaginary danger. "Sometimes, during sugar- making," said Mr. Truman B. Fox, of Saginaw, " they would be seized with a sudden panic, and leave everything, -- their kettles of sap boiling, their mokoks of sugar stand- ing in their camps, and their ponies tethered in the woods, -- and flee helter-skelter to their canoes, as though pursued by the Evil One. In answer to the question asked in re- gard to the cause of their panie, the invariable answer was a shake of the head, and a mournful 'an-do-gwane' (don't know)." Some of the northern Indian bands, whose country joined that of the Saginaw Chippewas, played upon their weak superstition, and derived profit from it by lurking around their villages or camps, frightening them into flight, and then appropriating the property which they had aban- doned. A few shreds of wool from their blankets left stick- ing on thorns or dead brushwood, hideous figures drawn with coal upon the trunks of trees, or marked on the ground in the vicinity of their lodges, was sure to produce this result, by indicating the presence of the dreaded munesous. Often the Indians would become impressed with the idea that these bad spirits had bewitched their firearms, so that they could kill no game. " I have had them come to me," says Mr. Ephraim S. Williams, of Flint, "from places miles distant, bringing their rifles to me, asking me to examine and resight them, declaring that the sights had been removed (and in most cases they had, but it was by themselves in their fright). I have often, and in fact always did when applied to, resighted and tried them until they would shoot correctly, and then they would go away cheerfully. I would tell them they must keep them where the munesous could not find them. At other times, having a little bad luck in trapping or hunting, they became excited, and would say that game had been over and in their traps, and that they could not catch anything. I have known them to go so far as to insist that a beaver or an otter had been in their traps and got out ; that their traps were bewitched or spell-bound, and their rifles charmed by the munesons, so that they could not catch or kill anything. Then they must give a great feast, and have the medicine man or con- jurer; and through his wise and dark performances the charm is removed and all is well, and traps and rifles do their duty again. These things have been handed down for generations."

A very singular superstitious rite was performed annually by the Shiawassee Indians at a place called Pindatongoing (meaning the place where the spirit of sound or echo lives),

INDIAN HISTORY OF THE TWO COUNTIES.

about two miles above Newburg, on the Shiawassee River, where the stream was deep and eddying. The ceremony at this place was witnessed in 1831 by Mr. B. O. Williams, of Owosso, who thus describes it: "Some of the old In- dians every year, in fall or summer, offered up a sacrifice to the spirit of the river at that place. They dressed a puppy or dog in a fantastic manner by decorating it with various colored ribbons, scarlet eloth, beads, or wampum tied around it ; also a piece of tobacco and vermilion paint around its neek (their own faces blackened ). and after burn- ing, by the river-side, meat, coru, tobacco, and sometimes whisky offerings, would, with many muttered adjurations and addresses to the spirit, and waving of hands, holding the pup, cast him into the river, and then appear to listen and wateh, in a mournful attitude, its struggles as it was borne by the current down into a deep hole in the river at that place, the bottom of which at that time could not be discovered without very careful inspection. I could never learn the origin of the legend they then had, that the spirit had dived down into the earth through that deep hole, but they be- lieved that by a pro- pitiatory yearly offering their luck in hunting and fishing on the river would be bettered and their health preserved."

Once a year, soon after sugar - making, nearly all the Indians of the interior repaired to Kepayshowink (the great camping-ground), which was at the place where Saginaw City now stands. They went there for the purpose of engaging in a grand jubilee of one or two weeks' duration, engaging in dances, games, and feats of strength ; and as they were usually able to obtain liquor there, these gatherings often brought about quarrels and deadly fighting. " If an injury had been done to one party by another it was generally settled here, either with property, such as arms, ponies, or blankets, or by the price of life. If the injury had been one of an exceedingly aggravated nature, a life was demanded, and stoically and unflinchingly yielded up by the doomed party." Many an inveterate Indian feud reached a bloody termination on the "great camping- ground" at Saginaw.

Although the Red Cedar band, of which Okemos* was the leader, had its settlements several miles south of Shi- awassee and Clinton Counties, yet a brief mention of the old chief is not out of place in the history of these counties, for it was in one of them that he first saw the light, and in the other that he died; and the territory of both of them was roamed over as a hunting-ground for many years by him and his followers in common with the bands whose villages and fields were within its boundaries.

Okemos was born at or near the Grand Saline, in what is now Shiawassee County, at a date which is not precisely known, but which has been placed by some historians at about 1788. That this date is nearly the correct one seems not improb- able, for reasons which will presently be given. He was of Saginaw Chippewa stock, his people having been of the Shiawassee bands of that tribe. It has been said by some that he was the nephew of the great Pontiac, but there is little reasou to believe that such was the case, though it is not strange that he should, in the spirit of genuine Indian boast- fulness, be more than willing to favor the idea that he sustained that relation to the redoubt- able Ottawa chieftain.

OKEMOS.

How and where the earlier years of Okemos were passed is not known. His first ap- pearanee as a warrior was at Sandusky in the war of 1812, and his participation in that fight was the prin- cipal event of all his life. On that occa- siont eighteen young Chippewa braves, among whom were Okemos and his cousin Manitocorbway, and who were serv- ing as scouts on the side of the British, had come in from the river Raisin, and were crouching in ambush not far from

# Okemos, or Ogemaw, meant, in the Chippewa language, " Little Chief," and Che-ogemaw, " Big Chief." Whether the name " Little Chief," as applied to this Indian, had reference to his small stature (as he was very short) or to the extent of his power and anthority as a chief, does not appear.

+ The account here given of the participation of Okemos and his consin Manitocorhway in the fight at Sandusky is written from facts furnished by B. O. Williams, Esq., of Owosso, who had a minute account of it from the two chiefs themselves, with both of whom he was well acquainted.

HISTORY OF SHIAWASSEE AND CLINTON COUNTIES, MICHIGAN.

the fort of Sandusky, waiting to surprise the American supply-wagons or any small detachment that might pass their lurking-place. Suddenly there appeared a body of twenty American cavalrymen approaching them directly in front. The red warriors promptly made their plans, which was to wait till they could count the buttons on the coats of the troopers, then to deliver their fire and close on them with the tomahawk, fully expecting that in the disorder produced by their volley they would be able to kill most of them and take many scalps. But they had reckoned with- out their host. When the flash of their guns disclosed their place of concealment the cavalrymen instantly charged through the cover upon them, sabre in hand. Almost at the same instant a bugle-blast echoed through the woods, and a few moments later a much larger body of horsemen, warned of the presence of an enemy by the firing, came up at a gallop to the help of their friends. The Indians, en- tirely surrounded, were cut down to a man, and, gashed and pierced by sabre-thrusts, were all left on the field for dead. Most of them were so, but life was not quite extinct in Okemos and Manitocorbway, though both were wholly in- sensible, and remained so for many hours. At last Okemos returned to consciousness, and found that his cousin was also living and conscious. Together these two managed to crawl to a small stream near by, where they refreshed themselves by drinking, and washing off the clotted blood, and then, crawling, rolling, dragging themselves painfully and slowly along the ground, they at last reached the river, found a canoe, succeeded in getting into it, pushed off into the stream, and relapsed to a state of insensibility, in which condition they were not long afterwards discovered and rescued by Indians of their own or a friendly band. When at last they again returned to consciousness they were sur- prised at finding themselves in charge of squaws, who were faithfully and tenderly nursing them. Finally, both recov- ered, but Okemos never wholly regained his former vigor, and Manitocorbway was little better than a cripple during the remainder of his life. Each had been gashed with a dozen wounds; the skulls of both had been cloven, and they carried the broad, deep marks of the sabre-cuts to their graves.

Okemos was but a common warrior in the fight at San- dusky, but for the high qualities and endurance which he showed at that time he was made a chief, and became the leader of the Red Cedar band of Shiawassee Chippewas. He obtained, through the intercession of Col. Godfroy, a pardou from the government for the part which he had taken in favor of the British, and he never again fought against the Americans. The same was the case with his kinsman, Manitocorbway.

After the close of the war Okemos made a permanent settlement with his band on the banks of the Cedar River, in Ingham County, a few miles east of Lansing. There were the villages of Okemos, Manitocorbway, and Shing- wauk,-the latter two being also chiefs. Their settlements were all located in the vicinity of the present village and railroad station of Okemos, and there the band remained till finally broken up and scattered.

Through all his life Okemos was (almost as a matter of' course) addicted to the liberal use of ardent spirits, and in

his later years (notably from the time when his band be- came broken up and himself little more than a wanderer) this habit grew stronger upon him, yet he never forgot his dignity. He was always exceedingly proud of his chief- ship, and of his (real or pretended) relationship to the great Pontiac, and he was always boastful of his exploits. But he sometimes found himself in a position where neither his rank nor his vaunted prowess could shield him from deserved punishment. Upon one such occasion, in the year 1832, he appeared at the Williams trading-post on the Shiawassee, and, backed by twelve or fifteen braves of his band, demanded whisky. B. O. Williams, who was then present and in charge, replied that he had no liquor. " I have money and will pay," said Okemos. . "You had plenty of whisky yesterday, and I will have it. You re- fuse because you are afraid to sell it to me !" " It is true," said the proprietor, " that I had whisky yesterday, but I have not now, and if I had, you should not have it. And if you think I am afraid, look right in my eye and see if you can discover fear there." The chief became enraged, and ordered his men to enter the trading-house and roll out a barrel of whisky, saying that he himself would knock in the head. " Go in if you wish to," said Williams, care- lessly, " my door is always open !" But the braves were discreet, and did not move in obedience to their chief's order. Then Okemos grew doubly furious, but in an in- stant Mr. Williams sprang upon him, seized him by the throat and face with so powerful a grip that the blood spirted ; he snatched the chief's knife from his belt and ordered him to hand over his tomahawk, which he did without unnecessary delay. He was then ordered to leave the place instantly, and never, as he valued his safety, to be seen at the trading-house again. Disarmed, cowed, and completely humbled, he obeyed at once, and moved rapidly away followed by his braves, who had stood passively by without attempting to interfere in his behalf during the scene above described.

Some time afterwards Mr. Williams visited the settle- ments of the Red Cedars for purposes of trade, and made his headquarters at the village of Manitocorbway, whom he held in high esteem as an honest, peaceable, and straight- forward Indian. While there a messenger came to him from Okemos,-whose village was not far off,-requesting him to come there and trade with him. He had not in- tended to go to Okemos' village, and was not disposed to do so even upon this invitation ; but at the earnest solicitation of his friend Manitocorbway he finally went, and was re- ceived by Okemos with marked deference and respect. The chief had previously dealt at Baptiste's trading-post, on Grand River, below Jacksonburgh, but from this time all his trade was taken to the Williams station on the Shiawassee. This incident illustrates that Indian trait of character which invariably led them to give their warmest friendship and admiration to those who had boldly defied and chastised them, instead of allowing themselves to be brow- beaten by their threats and insoleuce.

After the breaking up of his band on the Cedar, Okemos had never any permanent place of residence. It is said that he then resigned his chiefship to his son,* and this * This son, John Okemos, is now a farmer in Montcalm Co., Mich.

INDIAN TREATIES AND CESSIONS OF LANDS.

may be true, but if there was such a pretended " resigna- tion" it was wholly nominal and without effect, for he had ceased to have a following, and therefore had no real chief- ship to resign. It has also been stated that in his latter years he degenerated into a vagabond, a common drunkard, and a beggar, but this is wholly incorrect. lle was cer- tainly fond of liquor, and occasionally became intoxicated, but never grossly or helplessly so, nor was it a common prac- tice with him. Neither was he a beggar; for, though small presents were often bestowed upon him, it was never done on account of solicitation on his part. That he was regarded with a considerable degree of respeet is shown by the fact that he was not infrequently entertained as a guest at the houses of people who had known him in his more prosperous days. This was done by citizens of Lansing, Coruna, and Owosso ; among the latter being the brothers A. L. and B. O. Williams, the two earliest white acquaint- ances of the chief in all this region.

Okemos died on the 4th of December, 1858, at his camp on the Looking-Glass River, in Clinton County, above the village of De Witt. His remains-dressed in the blanket coat and Indian leggins which he had worn in life-were laid in a rough board coffin, in which were also placed his pipe-hatchet, buckhorn-handled knife, tobacco, and some provisions ; and thus equipped for the journey to the happy hunting-grounds, he was carried to the old village of Pe- shimmnecon, in Ionia County, and there interred in an ancient Indian burial-ground near the banks of the Grand River.

The age of Okemos is not known. Some writers have made the loose assertion (similar to those which are fre- quently made in reference to aged Indian chiefs) that he was a centenarian at the time of his death, while others have reduced the figure to between eighty and eighty-five years. In one account of him his birth is placed in the year 1788, as before mentioned. Mr. B. O. Williams was told by both Okemos and Manitocorbway that the Sandusky fight was the first in which they had ever been engaged, and that both of them were at that time young and inex- perienced warriors. This, with the fact that until the end of his life Okemos was lithe in body and elastic in step, showing none of the signs of extreme old age, renders it probable that the year mentioned was nearly the correct date of his birth,* which would give him the age of seventy years at the time of his death.

Of the character of the Indians of this region, and their melancholy fate, Mr. B. O. Williams says, " They were hospitable, honest, and friendly, although always reserved until well acquainted; never obtrusive unless under the influence of their most deadly enemy, intoxicating drink. None of these spoke a word of English, and they evinced no desire to learn it. . . . I believe they were as virtuous and guileless a people as I have ever lived among, previous to their great destruction in 1834 by the cholera, and again their almost extermination during the summer of 1837 by

the (to them) most dreaded disease, smallpox, which was brought to Chesaning from Saginaw,-they fully believing that one of the Saginaw Indians had been purposely inoc- ulated by a doctor there, the belief arising from the fact that an Indian had been vaccinated by the doctor, probably after his exposure to the disease, and the man died of suiall- pox. The Indians always dreaded vaccination from fear and suspicion of the operation.

" The Asiatic cholera of 1832 did not reach the interior of Michigan, but in 1834 it seemed to be all over the country, and was certainly atmospheric, as it attacked In- dians along the Shiawassee and other rivers, producing con- vulsions, cramps, and death after a few hours. This began to break up the Indians at their various villages. The white settlements becoming general, and many persons selling them whisky (then easily purchased at the distilleries for twenty-five cents per gallon), soon told fearfully on them. When the smallpox broke out in 1837 they fled to the woods by families, but not until some one of the family broke out with the disease and died. Thus whole villages and bands were decimated, and during the summer and fall many were left without a burial at the camps in the woods, and were devoured by wolves. I visited the village of Che- as-sin-ning-now Chesaning-and saw in the summer-camps several bodies partially covered up, and not a living soul could I find, except one old squaw, who was convalescent. Most of the adults attacked died, but it is a remarkable fact that no white person ever took the disease from them,t although in many instances the poor, emaciated creatures visited white families while covered with pustules. Thus passed away those once proud owners of the land, leaving a sickly, depressed, and eventually a begging, debased rem- nant of a race that a few years before scorned a mean act, and among whom a theft was scarcely ever known. I do not think I possess any morbid sentimentality for Indians. I simply wish to represent them as we found them. What they are now is easily seen by the few wretched specimens around us."

CHAPTER II.

INDIAN TREATIES AND CESSIONS OF LANDS- INDIAN EMIGRATION.

Treaties of 1795 and 1807-Cession of Territory East of the Prin- cipat Meridian-Treaty of Springwells in 1815-Treaty of Saginaw (1819) and Cession of Lands West of the Meridian-Indian Reser- vations-Plans for Indian Emigration-Removal of Pottawattamie Refugees.

Ir is a principle which has been recognized by the gov- ernment of the United States from the time of its formation, that the Indians had possessory rights in the lauds which they occupied, but that those rights could pass from them only to the government, and that this could only be done by their own voluntary act in public and open council held

+ It is a singular fact, also, that although the disease was so oxeccd- ingly fatal to the Indians on the Shiawassee, and in less degree to those in the valley of the Looking-Glass, it was not communicated to the Maple River Indians at all, and they remained wholly unharmed by it.

$ This would make Okemos about twenty-five years old at the time of the Sandusky fight; and, from the statement which both he and Manitocorbway made to Mr. Williams, it is almost certain that his age could not have been more than that (and was most probably a few ycars less) at the time of the fight.

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History of Shiawassee and Clinton counties, Michigan, Part 3

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia, D.W. Ensign & co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia, D.W. Ensign & co.
Number of Pages: 716