USA > Michigan > Ingham County > Lansing > Past and present of the city of Lansing and Ingham county, Michigan > Part 69
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"The small party of Indians was im- mediately surrounded, and every man cut down. All were left for dead on the field. Okemos and his cousin each had his skull cloven, and their bodies were gashed in a fearful manner. The cavalrymen, before leaving the field, in order to be sure life was extinct, would lean forward from their horses and pierce the chests of the Indians
even into their lungs. The last Okemos re- members was that after emptying one sad- dle, and springing towards another soldier with clubbed rifle raised to strike, his head felt as if being pierced with a red-hot iron, and he went down from a heavy sabre-cut.
"All knowledge ceased from this time until many moons afterwards, when he found himself being nursed by the squaws of his friends, who had found him on the battle- field two or three days afterwards. The squaw's thought all were dead, but, upon be- ing moved, signs of life were discovered in Okemos and his cousin, who were at once taken on litters to a place of safety, and, by careful nursing, were finally restored to par- tial health.
"The cousin always remained a cripple. The iron constitution of Okemos, with which he was endowed by nature, enabled him to regain comparative health ; but he never took an active part in another battle, this last one having satisfied him that 'white man was a heap powerful.'
"Shortly after his recovery he solicited Col. Godfroy to intercede with Gen. Cass, and he and other chiefs made a tready with the Americans, which was faithfully kept.
"Okemos did not obtain his chieftainship by hereditary descent, but this honor was conferred upon him after having passed through the battle just described. For his bravery and endurance his tribe considered him a favorite with the Great Spirit, who had preserved his life through such a terri- ble and trying ordeal.
"The next we hear of Okemos, he had set- tled with his tribe on the banks of the Shia- wassee, near the place of his birth, where, for many years, up to 1837-38, he was en- gaged in the peaceful avocations of hunting. fishing, and trading with the white man. About this time the smallpox broke out among his tribe, which, together with the
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influx of white settlers, who destroyed their hunting-grounds, scattered their bands.
"The plaintive, soft notes of the hunter's flute, made of the red alder, and the sound of the tom-tom at council-fires, were heard no more along the banks of your inland streams. For many years before the toma- hawk had been effectually buried, and upon the final breaking up of the bands, Okemos became a mendicant, and many a hearty meal has the old Indian received from the early settlers of Lansing.
"In his palmy days I should think his greatest height never exceeded five feet four inches. He was lithe. wiry, active, intelli- gent, and possessed undoubted bravery. He was not, however, an eloquent speaker. either in council or private conversation, al- ways mumbling his words and speaking with some hesitation.
"Previous to the breaking up of his band, in 1837-38, his usual dress consisted of a blanket-coat, with belt, steel pipe-hatchet, a tomahawk, and a heavy, long English hunt- ing-knife, stuck in his belt in front, with a large bone handle prominent outside the sheath. He had his face painted with ver- milion on his cheeks and forehead and over his eyes; a shawl wound around his head, turban fashion, together with the leggins usually worn by Indians, which, during his lifetime, he never discarded.
"None of his biographers have ever at- tempted to fix the date of his birth, content- ing themselves with the general conviction that he was a hundred years old. I differ from them for these reasons, viz: Physically endowed with a strong constitution, natural- ly brave and impetuous, and inured to In- dian life, we are led to believe that he took the war-path early in life, and his first intro- duction to our notice is in 1796. I reason from this that he was born about 1775, in which case he lived about eighty-three years.
Again, the old settlers of Lansing will re- member that, up to the latest period of his having been seen on our streets, his step was quick and elastic to a degree that is seldom enjoyed by men of that age.
"He died at his wigwam, a few miles from this city, and was buried December 5, 1858, at Shim-ni-con, an Indian settlement in Ionia county. His coffin was rude in the extreme, and in it were placed a pipe, tobacco, a hunt- ing-knife, birds' wings, provisions, etc.
"He surrendered his chieftainship a few years previous to his death to his son, John, but never forgot that he was Okemos, once the chief of a powerful tribe of the Chippe- was, and the nephew of Pontiac."
Mr. Bray says Okemos was either part Tawas (Ottawa) or closely allied to them by marriage. He hardly thinks he ever lived on the Shiawassee river, certainly not after 1840. When Mr. Bray settled where the village of Okemos now is, the chief had his principal village there, and was at the head of a mixed band of Tawas .* Pottawattomies, and Chippewas. All the Indians who took part with the British in the War of 1812, Mr. Bray calls "Canada Indians," The band had a burial-ground on low land now owned by Mr. Cook, and used to caché their corn on the knoll where the school building now stands. Mr. Bray says the Indians planted corn for two or three years after he settled at Okemos, on land which he plowed for them and allowed them to use.
The band remained in the vicinity until about 1845-46, when they became scattered. Many of those belonging to the Ottawas and Pottawattomies were picked up by the Uni- ted States authorities and transported be- yond the Missouri river. On one occasion a band of some 500 were encamped near Mr. Bray's place, and had among them a num- ber of sick, including several squaws. Mrs.
*The common rendering of Ottawa.
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Bray assisted to take care of one of these, a young woman apparently in the last stages of consumption, and afterwards her mother visited the old ground and made Mrs. Bray a present as a recompense for what she did for the sick one.
While this large band were encamped near, Mr. Bray says a couple of Indians without arms of any kind made their appear- ance suddenly from the south. On the same day they borrowed a few pounds of nails of Mr. Bray, and the next day they had all disappeared. It appeared they had borrowed the nails to make litters on which to trans- port their sick and aged. The two men were fugitives from a detachment of United States troops, and came to warn the band that the soldiers were after them. They were exceedingly reluctant to leave the coun- try.
Okemos, or his people, had another village at Shim-ni-con, in Ionia county, but the prin- cipal one was where the village of Okemos now stands. After about the year 1845 the band became so reduced by death and the scattering of its members that the chief had a very small following, and became event- ually a wandering mendicant, traveling around the country and living on the charity of the whites. He had a large family, as did many of the Indians, but they seemed to die of disease very rapidly. There are two of the sons of Okemos still living : John, who succeeded his father as chief of the band, and Jim. The latter is now a farmer located some twenty-five miles from Stanton, in Montcalm or Gratiot county. John al- ways drank considerable and never was any- thing but an Indian. Mr. Bray relates that on one occasion he came to his place and stayed over night with him. In the morn- ing they had griddle-cakes, and Mrs. Bray had made a large quantity of nice syrup from white sugar. This so pleased the In-
dian that he kept the women busy for a long time making cakes for him. He still visits his old home about once in two years. His last visit was in 1879. John has a son who is a successful farmer. His father says he is no Indian, for he will not hunt.
Old Okemos in his wanderings around the country was generally accompanied by a troop of pappooses whom he called his chil- dren. He was everywhere 'well treated by the whites. Mr. Bray says he would never say anything about his former life, except he had been drinking. He says he was scarcely ever drunk, but took enough to loosen his tongue, when he would become very communicative.
His account of the fight where he was so severely handled by the American cavalry near Sandusky differs in many particulars from that given by B. O. Williams, of Owosso. Mr. Bray says he told it to him a great many times, and always told it the same.
Mr. Bray's recollection of it is that there were about 300 Indians together. They heard that a strong force of cavalry or mounted men were coming, and a council . of war was held to determine whether they should attack it. Okemos was not in favor of it, but told the assembled chiefs and war- riors that if they said fight he would fight. It was decided to fight.
Okemos. Korbish, and other chiefs led their men into a marsh where there was high grass, in which they concealed themselves and awaited the approach of the Americans. The chief said there was "a heap of them," and he distinctly remembered how the leader looked with his big epaulets. When the In- dians fired Okemos said they seemed to have shot too high, and he thought they did not kill a man. He said the commander in- stantly drew his sabre, and, giving the com- mand to charge, they were among the In-
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dians so suddenly that they had no time to reload, and the sabre speedily did its bloody work. The chief received a tremendous cut across his back, which Mr. Bray says re- mained an open sore all his life. When he came to himself he looked around and could see no living being. He made a noise like an owl, but no one answered. He then imitated a loon, when some one replied to it, and he found the chief, Korbish, and one other alive among the crowd of dead. He thought they were the only ones who were not killed out of the 300. They got into a boat and floated down the Sandusky river, and finally escaped, though they had to pass within sight of an American fort, perhaps the one at Lower Sandusky. It was the only open fight Okemos ever engaged in, though Mr. Bray says he would boast often, when in liquor, of how many Americans he had killed and scalped. He was accustomed to waylay the express-riders and bearers of dispatches be- tween Detroit and Toledo. His custom was to listen, and when he heard one coming to step in behind a convenient tree, and as he passed suddenly spring upon him from be- hind and tomahawk him. Mr. Bray thinks the chief lived to be over one hundred years of age, and says when in his prime he was about five feet six or seven inches high and straight as an arrow. He was never what might be called a drunkard, but had a spree occasionally. He agrees with Mr. Jenison that he died in 1858, near DeWitt, in Clin- ton county, and was buried at Shim-ni-con, in Ionia county.
In 1852, Mr. Bray made the overland trip to California from St. Joseph, on the Missouri river, taking boat to that place from St. Louis. When about seventy miles below St. Joseph he met, at a landing on the river, a number of the Indians whom he had formerly known in Michigan. They recognized him at once, and urged him to
come with them to their reservation and stay with them a week, saying they had plenty of corn and provisions and he should be wel- come, and also offered to furnish him and his companions with guides to set them on the trail when they departed. He says he would have accepted the offer if he could have got his wagons, goods and team out of the boat ; but they were mostly in the hold and could not be got at, and he went on to St. Joseph.
Mr. Bray confirms the universal statement that the squaws performed all the menial labor. Large numbers of the Indians were accustomed to visit Okemos each returning year for the purpose of feeding their dead at their village burial-ground; and the last thing before they were removed from the county was to come and bid them good-by.
On a bleak sixth day of December, 1858, a small train of Indians entered DeWitt, a village of Clinton county, Michigan, having with them, drawn upon a hand-sled, the re- mains of an old chief of the tribe of the Ottawas. The corpse was that of Okemos, and they who accompanied it were his only kindred. They had brought the body from a favorite hunting-ground of the deceased, up- on the Looking Glass river, five miles north- east from DeWitt, where the chief had died on the previous day. They bought tobacco and filled the pouch, powder for the horn, and bullets for the bag. They bought, also, contrary to the usual custom of their race, a coffin, in which they placed the remains ; and then, under the winter sky, took up their silent march toward the Indian village of Shim-ni-con, on the Grand river, twenty-four miles below Lansing, the seat of govern- ment-which had been in later years the principal residence of the chief-there to commit him to his final resting-place, until he should be called to roam in the happy hunting-grounds.
Such an occurrence as the foregoing would
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not be noteworthy, except for the history and character of the deceased, in which con- nection it seems to impress a recollection of scenes of life and qualities of nature fit to be commemorated.
Okemos was Chief of the Ottawas. His volunteer biographer knew him well-as well as a white man usually knows an In- dian-from the winter of 1848 till his death on the 5th of December, 1858. He would have attracted any person's attention not wholly careless of men, or not given up to the idea that Indians are all alike-either stately, dignified, taciturn, and impassive, or drunken, brutal and thievish : for these are the two prevalent ideas of Indian character- the one coming from Cooper or Schoolcraft, the other from any four-corner grocery in the West where the race is not extinct and whisky is sold. One might turn over the pages of Catlin, exhaust a day upon Stan- ley's Smithsonian Gallery, read all about Chincachook, Uncas, and "Tonawand of many dogs," and bring up with Longfellow, and still not find an Okemos. The curious in Indian lore may challenge this spelling of his name, but Okemos was he called by him- self and all who knew him, and so let it stand, although the aboriginal savans may insist upon Oh-ge-mah!
Even the stage has no Okemos, for For- rest and Proctor hold the stage-at least the Indian feature of it-in camparison with whom, stature and size considered, poor Okemos "at his best estate was altogether vanity." Yet one knowing him would opine that he was just such an Indian as these gentlemen would not have preferred as a supernumerary in case of a mock battle, for fear the old man might have made a mis- take, and taken it to be a serious combat.
Okemos divided his life, quite equitably. between two periods, the former of which was spent in fighting, and the latter in tell-
ing thereof. It would be hard to say which he enjoyed most. He boasted-Indians are given to boasting-first of his prowess, next of his descent : albeit he claimed lineage from Pontiac, a fact which we leave those to re- concile who are curious in aboriginal tribes, descents, and biographies. Okemos-his own story for it-was not born upon the Grand river, though for the most part, when not campaigning or hunting, that was his home ; but upon the Shiawassee, not far from what in late years has been known as the Knaggs Reservation. He went early, how- ever, to live upon what was afterwards the great trail leading from the Rapids of the Grand river to Detroit.
The events which follow, should they meet the eye of those who knew the subject of them in life, might challenge their belief so far as relates to his participation in the bor- der warfare between the Indians and the Americans upon the shores of Lake Erie, in the latter part of the last century. In this regard, it is no more than fair to state that all relating thereto is here presented upon the word of the chief himself, unsupported by other testimony, while those incidents which are represented to have occurred in what is familiarly known as the "Last War with England" are given upon the testimony and knowledge of gentlemen of this State, active at the time in, or cognizant of. the scenes represented.
In justification of the past, as well as in reply to such as may doubt the authen- ticity of this account. of the early scenes in the life of this chief, it may well be asked how it happened that he, unable to read. hav- ing no sources of information except by ob- servation, should know anything about St. Clair's campaign and failure, or that Wayne succeeded him and did not fail: and, more especially, how did he learn the different characteristics of the leaders? Yet, most
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certainly he did know of these. He knew of the rout of St. Clair in 1791, and of the triumph of Wayne three years afterwards, and of many facts, details, and incidents now impossible to recall, relating to the suc- cessful campaign of the latter. In reference to the campaign of Gen. Harmar, the scene of which was farther west, he was in ignor- ance.
All these facts, it will be said, as Wamba the Witless remarked of the Saxon treaties, "made an old man" of Okemos. He was an old man, and bore every mark and sign of it. He claimed at his death an hundred years. Perhaps he exaggerated, as his race are wont to do, but those who fought against him in 1813 and '14, and who sub- sequently knew him well as he passed yearly to and from through Detroit, concur in plac- ing him, forty-seven years ago, in full ma- turity-say from forty to forty-five years; which, to be sure, would make him only seventeen in St. Clair's campaign, and twen- ty, or thereabouts, in that of Wayne. It is easy for them to have been mistaken a year or two, as Indians are deceptive in appear- ance as well as white men. The facts stated by the chief, and especially the harmony and unanimity of his story, many times repeated as to its prominent incidents, lead to belief.
The last interview of the writer with this old chief was in the fall of 1858, a short time before his death, in the cars on the De- troit & Milwaukee railroad. He had been upon a visit to a chief living upon the Flint river, in Northern Michigan, and was re- turning to his home at Shim-ni-con. The old man was smoking and talking in the bag- gage car, when the conductor came up for tickets. The old man produced a trip pass which some officer of the road had given him, upon which the conductor inquired pleasantly if he was an editor. The chief did not understand the question, but from
the smile of the bystanders concluded that it meant something offensive, and starting to his feet said in answer, "Big Chief, me- plenty fight once !"
This answer of the chief, brief as it was, told the story of his life. His early days had been eventful, and
"E'en in their ashes glowed their wonted fires."
His passing anger told the story of his temper, his conceit, and his passions. An explanation followed, however, and the old man laughed heartily with the rest. In truth no editor could have given the substance of a life in fewer words.
Okemos, at his death, was a man of great age. It is a trait of the Indian to exaggerate in this respect, as all advanced among them feel a certain pride in that circumstance, but extrinsic and direct evidence of persons now living prove him to have been at least ninety years old, and he claimed for himself more than an hundred years.
Aside from the scenes in which Okemos took an active share, how eventful was the period in which he lived! The old French war, the American Revolution, the career of Napoleon from its opening to its close, the War of 1812, the war with Mexico, the war of the Crimea, and the bloody contests of East India, all occurred within the space of this Indian's life.
Empires rose and fell, governments were changed, potentates, princes, and warriors grew to manhood, achieved fame, and slept with their fathers, leaving the events of their lives to become history, while this Indian ranged the forest, trod the hunting-ground, and paddled his canoe over the waters of his remote and squestered home.
But Okemos was not without his share in some of the active and bloody scenes of the period of his early life. Indeed, a nature so
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fierce, so restless, so ardent, and so thirsty for adventure could not have kept quiet with- in the sphere of the sounds and rumors of conflict. Boasting of the blood and inherit- ing no little executive capacity of Pontiac, early manhood found him eager for the fray ; accordingly he struck the war-path which led to the Erie frontier, as early as 1791, where the prowess of his arm, the strength of his will, and the intuitive sagacity of his mind, soon made him a leader of braves and a chief of the Ottawas.
Upon the eastern shore of Lake Erie Oke- mos fought against St. Clair, whom he despised and derided, and against Wayne, whom he respected and hated. He would have feared him also if it had been possible for him to fear. Many a long winter's even- ing and many a sultry summer's afternoon has he beguiled, while those to whom he was pleased to be communicative-sometimes the writer was among them-listened to his broken, but impassioned and forcible de- scriptions of his skirmishes, ambushes and attacks ; interesting to him in the narration, by the zest in which every circumstance of carnage and ferocity was brought to remem- brance, and to his listeners more especially when the tangent line of his memory would strike (as it did, time and again) upon some sailient point in the history of the period, or in the biography of those leaders against whom he fought.
Unlike most Indian narratives, his were not always upon one side. At times he would recount the manner of his own defeat, and picture forth his own discomfiture or repulse.
A rich, quiet, inward drollery was that- not descending to the undignified demon- stration of a laugh, but checked as it reaches an unctuous chuckle-with which he would recount the effect upon his command of braves of Mad Anthony's mounted swivels,
or "cannon on horseback," as the old chief called them, which that veteran campaigner procured to be cast, to be handled among thick woods and underbrush, and to be made effective in places where more weighty ord- nance could not be employed. In an unex- pected attack upon flank and rear, these novel engines were first brought to bear upon Okemos and his command, and upon the first discharge away went the Indians, each man his own file-leader, double-quick for the marshes, into which they knew horses could not follow. Okemos never admitted that he ran, but compromised, like all great political and military leaders, by saying: "Me hide up, plenty quick."
The ideal of the Indian character and per- son in literature-chiefly fiction, sometimes history-presents a lofty carriage, a digni- fied deportment, colossal proportions, insen- sibility to fear, danger, fatigue, or pain; in short, a condensation of those qualities which the School of Stoics were wont to in- culcate and admire. Perhaps the Indian whose name heads this article had as many of these qualities as ever fell to the lot of one individual of that race. Yet did these exist there with certain lights and shades, certain additions of manner, and certain quaintness of thought and word, that re- lieved him essentially from the great, strid- ing, smileless, impassive aboriginal of novels.
Okemos was a little man; in his prime. and before age and wounds had doubled him up, scarcely over five feet in height. He had little apparent dignity, except when he had occasion to throw himself upon it to check undue familiarity, or to impress obedience or subordination, and then his "austere re- gard of control" was not, like that of Mal- volio, an affectation, but reality,-it was im- perative. fierce and effectual. But the natural mood of the chief was quiet, and his tem- perament decidedly social. For an Indian he
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might be called talkative, though "a lurking devil in his eye" seemed to warn even the most heedless that fun and danger might be only a step apart.
Okemos was a chief, not only by artificial rank in his own tribe, but in his instincts, talents, and courage. No better type could be imagined of mad insensiblity to danger, coupled with coolness and sagacity, than ex- existed in this little warrior.
From the outset of his life, as soon as his foot was upon the war-path, he became the implacable enemy of Americans. He first drew his scalping-knife as a young brave in the frontier campaigns on the east- ern shores of Lake Erie, and, as usual with old men, his clearest recollections were of his first campaign. He fought then tiger-like, and held rank from his first battle.
Okemos, the famous chief of the Ottawas, was the greatest warrior who ever held sway in Michigan. He possessed indomitable courage, was a born fighter, a natural com- mander and leader, a strategist in battle, and had real military genius. In every way he was a remarkable man and a typical Indian.
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