USA > Michigan > St Joseph County > History of St. Joseph county, Michigan, with illustrations descriptive of its scenery, palatial residences, public buildings, fine blocks, and important manufactories > Part 3
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The evidences found in St. Joseph county of this ancient people, consist of garden plats or beds, mounds and fortifications. That they are ancient, is testified by the growth of trees, similar to those of the surrounding forest, upon the mounds and fortifications and beds, since the same were constructed, as large, apparently, as many of the older ones in the forest. In the town- ship of Lockport there are garden beds still visible, bearing the same general characteristics as those described by Schoolcraft higher up the val-
ley, as follows : " Many of the lines of the plats are rectangular and par- allel. They consist of low ridges, as if corn had been planted in drills. They average four feet in width and twenty-five of them have been counted in a space of one hundred feet. The depth of the walk between them is about six inches."
In Colon there are several mounds, some of which have been excavated by E. H. Crane, a professor of taxidermy and embalming and archæologist, who resides at Colon, of whom we have obtained much of the information here given of the remains in St. Joseph county. Mr. Crane opened two mounds on the farm of Phineas Farrand, in which he found all the charac- teristics of the works of the mound-builders, but no bones; the soil of which they were composed being porous and not capable of preserving the latter. He found flints-small ones-and in one, a fire-place. In a mound he opened on H. K. Farrand's farm, he found some remnants of bones, a very beauti- fully wrought celt, and some flints; and in one opened on George Teller's farm he found flints and celts. Mr. Crane has found in the mounds he has al- ready opened in the county, nearly every form of implement known to the mound-builders, some of them very unique and handsomely wrought, and others in the rough, or first stage of work, as well as the partially-prepared · blocks of stone, for working.
Within three hours' ride of Colon village, there are no less than six forti- fications of these ancient people. One of them is distinctly visible yet, and is in a square form, fronting on the St. Joseph river, with an avenue leading to the rear to Bear creek. Others in Leonidas had breastworks three feet high when first discovered, with circular entrenchments, and pathways leading into the same, and sally-ports, showing method and skill in their construction. Some of these fortifications had three breastworks or circles, the gateway being at a different place in each, so that an enemy forcing an entrance, must still fight the besieged behind his entrenchments before he could force the second or third entrance. On these breastworks, trees are, or were, growing four feet in diameter, of the same character as those of the surrounding forest in which the entrenchments are now found. Mr. Crane opened a mound on the banks of Sturgeon lake, which he calls a " sacrificial fire-place," in which he found the bones of all the animals and fish now known to St. Joseph county, besides some of the extinct animals. He, however, believes this deposit was made by the modern Indians, who in former times used to offer such sacrifices, by building a fire-place and a fire therein, and throw on their offerings of flesh, fish and fowl, and immediately cover the whole with earth, and the charred remains would preserve the bones. Mr. Crane also found in a mound he excavated in Burr Oak, cop- per utensils and the usual flints. These relics are found all over the county, and are to be seen in every cabinet the people have taken the trouble to gather. Dr. Nelson I. Packard, of Sturgis, has some very fine flints, but Mr. Crane has the finest selection, he having paid more attention to the subject.
THE NOTTAWA INDIANS.
The home of the bands of the Pottawatomie, Ottawa and Chippewa In- dians, comprising the bands known as the Nottawa-seepe Indians, was in the St. Joseph valley. At the treaty of Chicago, in 1821, when the terri- tory of Southwestern Michigan was ceded to the United States, several reservations were excepted from the general sale of lands, among them one called the Nottawa-seepe reservation, which embraced one hundred and fifteen sections of government surveys, and included all of what is now known as the township of Mendon, a portion of the western part of Leoni- das, eastern part of Park, and the townships and parts of townships lying directly north of these in Kalamazoo county. On this reservation the Nottawa Indians resided, having their different villages scattered through- out its area. One was in Leonidas, another in Mendon, near the trading- post on the opposite side of the river from the present site of Mendon village. The reservation comprised some of the choicest lands in St. Joseph county, taking in a portion of Nottawa prairie, the oak-openings of Mendon, Leonidas and Park, and the heavy-timbered lands to the north; and the settlers looked with longing eyes upon the Indians' home, and desired to possess it for themselves. The Indians of Nottawa-seepe were principally Pottawatomies, with a few Ottawas-commonly called Tawas-and fewer Chippewas.
At the settlement of the St. Joseph country the Pottawatomie nation was scattered over a vast territory-a portion remained in Canada, a portion in what is now known as the Upper Peninsula, a portion along the Miami of the lakes, and a portion in the State of Illinois, besides the small branch which remained on the Nottawa reservation. These separate branches or sub-divisions were governed by their respective head and subordinate chiefs, agreeably to their national policy, and the usages, customs and traditions by
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
which they had always been governed; no national measures could be adopted, nor transfer of their hunting-grounds be made, without the sanc- tion of a majority of the head-chiefs of all the several departments or tribes. The Nottawa Indians at this time acknowledged the sway of Pierre Mor- reau, once an accomplished and educated Frenchman, a native of France or a descendant of one of the old French families of Canada. "In early life he commenced his fortunes in Detroit, but meeting with ill success, sought a se- cluded spot on the banks of the St. Joseph, and remained till he exhausted the remnant of his stock of goods, and then married an Indian woman, adopted the Indian habits and costume, and into his character of savage seemed to have merged every reminiscence of civilization, and to have lost the last vestige of its manners and habits. By his wisdom in council and prowess in war he won the position of chief-sachem or head-chief in this tribe or branch of the Pottawatomies. When the settlements began to gather around the Nottawa prairie he was a superannuated old man, de- crepid, infirm and disfigured." He was a man of powerful frame, about six feet in height, notwithstanding, and conversed fluently in the French tongue, but was ignorant of the English. Morreau, by his Indian wife, had seven children. who attained to adult age-Sau-au-quett, the oldest of four sons, Monice, Isadore, Wan-be-ga and three daughters, Betsy, Win-no-wis and Min-nah. "Cush-ee-wees was the legitimate chieftain of the tribe, who was supplanted by Morreau, and after the latter became so dissipated and imbe- cile as to be no longer able to exert his power as chief, his son Sau-au-quett disputed the right to govern with the supplanted chief. Sau-au-quett was a wily, shrewd man, and possessed great powers as an orator, while the latter was modest and unassuming; and both parties had their adherents, but the warmest friends of Sau-au-quett admitted he had no just claims to the chief- tainship, and yet were unwilling to submit to the government of Cush- ee-wees. Sau-au-quett was six feet three inches in height, straight and well- proportioned, of a commanding presence and an imposing and winning address, which was the secret of his great power over the tribe, and which being improperly used, precipitated the whole tribe into ruin." The settlers, or some of them, supplied the Indians with strong drink, which served to increase their dissensions, and sank them into the most abject poverty and dissipation. They ceased to hunt for game and furs, traded their horses and guns, and even their blankets, for whisky, and left their children to starve in the wigwams. In this crisis of their wretchedness they were constantly plied by the settlers and the agents of the government with overtures for the cession of their reservation to the United States. And in the then con- dition of the Indians, their removal from the vicinity of the settlers was indeed a consummation devoutly to be wished, for the echoes of their mid- night revels and drunken orgies were borne on every breeze to the quiet threshold of the settler's cabin, and when in their drunken fits, which were neither few nor far between, they were inconveniently familiar and in- solent, although when they were sober they were quiet, inoffensive and neighborly. A few only of the settlers had contributed to the degradation of the red man, but many were sufferers in consequence thereof, and the government was unceasing in its efforts to procure the cession of the terri- tory and the removal of its occupants. But the acquisition of the title to the reservation was no easy matter to compass. The immediate occupants were ready enough to surrender their rights, but their consent could pass no title to the land, nor could any title be had to the land except with the assent of a majority of the chiefs of the whole nation, who were scattered over an area of nearly five hundred miles.
This was the condition of this branch of the nation at the time the Indian war, known as the Black Hawk war, broke out in 1832, and sounded an alarm throughout the length and breadth of the whole northwestern frontier. The southern line of the Nottawa reserve traversed Nottawa prairie from east to west, near its centre, between north and south, and that portion of the prairie south of the reservation line was among the first lands to be located in the northern part of the county. Along the southern margin of the reservation, and in the shadows of the beautiful groves and islands in this portion of the prairie, the cabins of the emigrants were scattered, when the news came to them that Black Hawk, at the head of his fierce and re- lentless warriors, was sweeping onward through Illinois, laying waste the settlers' possessions, murdering their wives and little ones, and declaring he would drive every pale face from the ancient possession of his people.
It is not to be wondered at that the settlers felt sensations of alarm, and that the mother drew her child closer to her bosom, as they were aroused from their slumbers by the wild shriek of the besotted Pottawatomie, in his midnight carousals across the prairie. A panic of fear seized the whole settlement ; some families fled in haste, while others prepared for defence. Goods and valuables were concealed, cattle sold for a trifle or abandoned,
and all farming operations for a time suspended. Several anecdotes are told of those days that exhibit the humorous side of the excitement, but it was no laughing matter then. We give place to one. A family on Sturgis prairie gathered their china-ware and other valuables in that line, and for a place of safe deposit for them, selected the well. The articles were gathered into a tub, and the tub attached to the well-rope and lifted over the curb- the windlass receiving an extra amount of soft-soap as a lubricator. But alas !
"The best laid schemes o' mice and men, Aft gang aglee,"
and just as the receptacle and its precious contents swung clear, the rope parted, and the treasures of the good wife, which she had carefully preserved in a journey of hundreds of miles in a Pennsylvania wagon, over curduroys and through swamps, without the loss of a single cherished saucer, dropped down, down into the depths with a crash and a jingle that told too well that devastation had come to them, whatever might be the final outcome in the future.
But there were some who knew no fear, and did not believe the settle- ments were in any danger, and did much to reassure the fainting and trem- bling hearts of their neighbors. They penetrated the Indian camp and found there was as much fear among the Indians of an attack by the whites, as there was on the other side of the reservation line of an attack from the Indians ; and the preparations of each party to ward off an attack gave rise to misapprehension, which, had it not been for such men as the Schell- hous brothers, Col. Ben. Sherman and others, who felt no fear, a crisis would have been precipitated which would, probably, have caused more or less bloodshed; as it was, however, the excitement passed away a little, and calmer counsels prevailed, and finally peace returned.
The militia, however, were called out (that is, Captain Power's company), on Nottawa prairie, and a draft ordered from its ranks of fifty men, and a fortification decided upon, to be located on the land of Daniel H. Hogan, in the northwest corner of Colon township as now limited, and adjoining the reservation ; a majority of a committee of " ways and means for the pub- lic safety," consisting of Martin G. Schellhous, Jonathan Engle, Sr., Benja- min Sherman, Amos Howe and Alvin Alvord, Sr., having reported in favor thereof, Schellhous and Engle dissenting. The report was received at four o'clock P. M., and the captain ordered his chosen corps of fifty men to repair at once to the site of the proposed fortification and commence operations. The order was promptly obeyed, and before nightfall several furrows had been plowed the whole length of the western traverse or outwork-the plan embracing an area of about five acres-and a ridge of earth two feet high and three feet at its base, seventeen feet long, picketed with divers grubs varying from one to three inches in diameter, loomed up formidably and was named Fort Hogan. Night brought repose, and the drafted soldiery repaired to their homes to rest, under orders to report at dawn of the next day to mount guard, while the remainder of the company should take their places at the works. Morning came, but with it none of the enthusiasm of the day before. About nine o'clock a few only of the original draft ap- peared at the redoubt, and went away again. Thus Fort Hogan was inglori- ously abandoned, and visions of glory that might have clustered around and over its ramparts were incontinently brushed aside and dissipated.
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Through personal assurances of safety from the Schellhouses, Martin G. and Cyrus, Cush-ee-wees, and two or three of the principal men of the Indians, were induced to meet the settlers for a " big talk" or council, and at this interview all misunderstandings between the settlers and Indians were ex- plained and removed. The interview was held at Captain Powers' house, and it transpired that the Indians, instead of being desirous of assisting the Sacs against the whites, were willing and anxious to do the very reverse, and a few of the tribe had actually gone with Captain Hatch, a trader, some days before to join General Atkinson's forces at Chicago. The day after the interview, the news came of the capture of Black Hawk, and " grim visaged war smoothed his wrinkled front" at once, and the military returned to the arts of peace.
But the fright this "rumor of war" gave the people made them more determined to possess the Indian reservation, and the government agents were more active than ever to get a session of it from some one, even if but a semblance of title could be acquired.
Soon after the Black Hawk troubles were quieted, Cush-ee-wees died of pulmonary consumption, and Pee-quoit-ah-kis-see, a lineal descendant of the Pottawatomie sachems, succeeded him. While his authority as head-chief was not questioned, the tribe or band had become so debased that little or no respect was paid by them to their national usages, and other aspirants dis- puted with the new chief the tribal authority. Among these was Muck-a-
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN.
moot, who, without any right to power, assumed the chieftainship, and drew to him certain followers. Sau-au-quett, however, continued to be the master- spirit of the tribe, and exerted a controlling influence over his people, which set at defiance all the pretensions of others.
In September, 1833, Governor Porter met Sau-au-quett and others of the tribe-inferior men-and by blandishments which won their hearts, in the way of gay trappings and military accoutrements, induced them to sign a treaty, ceding to the United States the Nottawa-seepe reservation. The treaty signed, a day for the first payment for the cession was appointed in December following, at Marantette's near Mendon village. In the condi- tions of the treaty was one that the Indians should retain quiet and peacea- ble possession of their reservation for two years before they were removed to a new reservation to be set off for them west of the Mississippi, to which they were to be taken by land, with their ponies and dogs, prepared to pro- vide for themselves as best they could. The day of the "big payment" came, but in the meantime the Indians had been consulting among them- selves, and the Nottawa band repudiated the treaty, holding that Sau-au- quett and the men who signed it, had no authority to sell the land, and they would not confirm the sale by receiving the payment offered. Governor Porter had issued his proclamation forbidding the sale of liquors on or near the reservation, but, notwithstanding, parties did bring it, and sold it, thereby getting the Indians drunk. For some days the negotiations went on without success, and in the midst of them Sau-au-quett came, dressed in his gayest apparel, blue military coat, regulation buttons, an immense chapeau with tall plumes, sword, sash and pistols, and mounted upon his horse caparis- oned in grand style. Swinging his sword above his head, he exclaimed, "I have sold the land! and I would sell it again for two gallons of whisky." Quau-sett stood by his side, and as the chief uttered his last declaration, he sprang forward, and, seizing one of the pistols, aimed it full at the chief's breast, and pulled the trigger. The weapon missed fire, and before Quau- sett could recover himself, Sau-au-quett aimed a sweeping blow with the sword, which, striking on the shoulder of his foe, cut through the blanket which was around him, and a heavy plug of navy tobacco rolled up inside, and so saved Quau-sett's head. Mr. Marantette, who had great influence with the Indians, immediately took Quau-sett in charge, and kept him out of the way. After much delay, the Indians were finally induced, largely by Sau-au-quett, to receive their pay, about ten thousand dollars' worth of calicos, trinkets, blankets, knives, tobacco, pipes, saddles, bridles, guns, hatchets, etc., which were distributed to them under the supervision of Gov- ernor Porter, by Messrs. Marantette, La Borde and Navarre. The Indians were dissatisfied at the payment, claiming that partiality was shown, but they nnally took what was given them, and, as soon as it was possible to do so, squandered it all for drink, or were robbed of it by unprincipled men.
During the deliberations of the Indians, certain persons brought their whisky, not only up to the reservation, but immediately on it, where the council was being held, and, refusing to withdraw, Governor Porter ordered Mr. Marantette to break in the heads of the barrels, which was accordingly done, the Indians falling down on the ground and drinking as much as they could before the earth swallowed it up. Even the heads of the tribe did this worse than beastly thing, much to the disgust of the Governor, who had not been intimately acquainted with the red man on his "native heath." Mr. Marantette was subsequently sued by the owner of the liquor, and a judg- ment obtained against him, which went to the circuit court, and, notwith- standing the facts of the case-the orders of Governor Porter-the judgment was affirmed, which, with his attorney's fees, amounted to several hundred dollars, and Mr. Marantette was forced to pay the sum.
In 1835, the time set for the Indians' removal, they showed signs of rebellion and reluctance to remove according to the terms of the treaty, claiming that the same had been violated on the part of the government, in that, though they (the Indians) were to have peaceable and undisturbed possession of their lands for two years, yet the settlers had begun locating their lands immediately after the payment, which was true. As soon as it was ascertained that the United States had acquired title to the reservation, the settlers, disregarding the treaty stipulation to the contrary, began at once to make claims of choice locations, and it was but a short time before the better part of the lands were located. This movement closed up the trails of the Indians, circumscribed their hunting privileges, and drove off the game; and the cattle of the settlers trespassed on the fields and gardens of the Indians, which were unfenced, and bad blood was engendered on both sides. Negotiations were entered into to get the Indians together, to consent to remove, but no master-spirit was now among them to control them, or rouse their pride. Morreau was dead, Isadore had been poisoned, Sau-au-quett, warned by the death of his brother and of the chief, Sag-a-mo, of Chicago,
was not able to command the people as before, and it was not until the spring of 1840 that the Indians were finally induced to leave their homes, and then only by the appearance on the scene of General Brady and a troop of United States dragoons.
Sau-au-quett, in 1839, had fallen a victim to the never-dying sentiment and desire for revenge, which filled the hearts of some of his tribe. Pamp- te-pe and John Maguago were in hiding, and it was only after the appear- ance of the cavalry, that the Indians saw it was useless to resist longer, and' thereupon submitted to the inevitable, and went away from the home of their people for hundreds of years, for ought we know, to a new one in the west. The women and children, the infirm and unhorsed, were carried in wagons, while those who had horses rode them, and thus passed the remnant of a great nation, which was once the lord of every foot of territory they traversed, to their halting-place in Holdeman's grove, La Salle county, Illinois. Here Maguago and his family, fearing assassination at the hands of some of his tribe, for his acts in securing their removal, secreted themselves until the search for them was given up, when they retraced their way to the reserva- tion, and his descendants are now living in the township of Athens, in Cal- houn county.
At Peoria the faith of the government agents with the Indians was again broken, and, contrary to the agreement that they were to be taken by land to the new reservation, with their ponies and dogs, they were cajoled and driven, at the point of the bayonet, on board of a steamboat, their ponies sold for a trifle, or confiscated, and then down the Illinois to the Mississippi, thence to the Arkansas, up. the Arkansas to the border of Kansas territory, the powerless and impoverished people were taken, and disembarked under the superintendence of Buel Holcomb, now of Athens, the agents not daring to put in their appearance. The lands of the Indians proved to be valuable in after years, and they sold them and removed to the Indian territory, where they still reside.
The death of Isadore or Setone Morreau has been mentioned. He was poisoned by a squaw of a neighboring family, who offered him a drink of whisky, which he refused to take after smelling of it; but, on being taunted by her of cowardice, he drank, and soon after died. Isadore was as cruel as a savage could well be. He killed his own sister, who was known to the set- tlers as Betts, her family calling her Nem-ee-na-os-stabbing her to the heart in a drunken frenzy, about two years after the "big payment" in Colon township.
Sau-au-quett had a little squaw, who was quite a favorite with the old chief, who, when everything was pleasant, and she was not under the influ- ence of liquor, was comparatively amiable, but at other times was a fiend in- carnate. She killed Quau-sett in 1835, the same who attempted to kill Sau- au-quett on the reservation in December, 1833. This murder, however, was condoned by the presentation of a horse, saddle and bridle to the son of the dead man, by Sau-au-quett, in accordance with the Indian custom and laws.
Sau-au-quett was killed at Coldwater in 1839, by one of the tribe who was opposed to the sale of the lands. The old chief was sleeping in his tent, when the murderer crept stealthily into the apartment, and, with one blow, drove his knife through the old man's belt and leather shirt, into his bosom to the handle. The chief sprang to his feet, gave one whoop, and fell to the ground dead. The murderer was arrested by the authorities of the the county of Branch, and held in custody. The friends of the murdered chief demanded the murderer, to be dealt with according to their laws and customs, but were refused. After some negotiation they were appeased by the present of blankets, a pony and equipments, whereupon the friends of the prisoner came and demanded his release, the offence having been con- doned. But they, too, were refused, unless they would consent to remove, with the tribe, at once from the reservation. This they declined to do; but in the spring of 1840, when the Indians were finally removed, the prisoner was released, and went away with them.
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