USA > Michigan > St Clair County > St. Clair County, Michigan, its history and its people; a narrative account of its historical progress and its principal interests, Vol. I > Part 8
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CHAPTER VI
OUR FIRST FAMILIES-THE INDIANS
THE ALGONQUIN FAMILY-THE IROQUOIS AND HURONS-THE "NEU- TRALS" DESTROYED-INDIANS OF THE ST. CLAIR REGION-INDIAN RESERVATIONS AND LEADERS-MOUND BUILDERS AND MOUNDS.
When the Europeans first came to the Atlantic shores of North America, they found in possession a dark skinned people whom they called Indians, in the mistaken idea that the search for a short route to the East had been successful, and that those people were inhabitants of outlying parts of India. It needed but little investigation to dis- cover that the Indians, though having some resemblances, differed greatly among themselves in language, physical characteristics and de- gree of civilization.
The name Indian is not only inappropriate, but leads to confusion with the actual inhabitants of India, and for that reason it has been suggested that the name Amerind, composed of the first parts of the words America and India be coined, and used to designate the American Indians.
Upon the basis of language resemblances and differences, the In- dians have been divided into fifty-five great families, some of which are now extinct. In our description of the Great Lake Region we are concerned with but two, of these families, the Algonquian and the Iroquoian.
THE ALGONQUIN FAMILY
The Algonquian family spread over a larger area than any other; they extended from Newfoundland to the Rocky Mountains. and from Churchill river to the coast of North Carolina. They included in the extreme east, the Abnakis, the Micmacs of Nova Scotia, the Massachu- setts, Narragansetts, and Delawares; in the center the Sauks and Foxes, Miamis. Potawatomies; in the north the Ottawas, Chippewas and Mis- sissaugas ; in the west the Blackfoot, Arrapaho, and Cheyenne tribes, and there were in addition other tribes or nations properly included within this family. In endeavoring to classify the tribes now extinct, it must be remembered that the early travelers were generally ignorant of any basis of division, and from the ease and rapidity with which the Indians changed locations, the same tribe might often be designated
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by different names. It is only in the case of those tribes which were sedentary or nearly so in their habits, that we can feel much confidence in the early descriptions.
THE IROQUOIS AND HURONS
The Iroquoian family was much more compact, and not nearly so numerous as the Algonquian. It included the Five Nations in New York (the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas), com- monly called the Iroquois, the Huron, Tobacco and Neutral Nations in Ontario, the Tuscaroras and Cherokees, with a few others.
The Iroquoian tribes were sedentary and agricultural and generally noted for their skill in fortification and house building, as well as their ferocity and endurance in fighting. The Five Nations furnished about the only example known of a real Indian confederation, formed prob- ably about 1470, and its results were very important.
When the French first came up the St. Lawrence river in 1534, they found both banks above Quebec inhabited by an Iroquoian people, but seventy-four years later, when Champlain established Quebec they were all gone, and Algonquins were the only Indians to be seen in that locality.
Early in the time of Champlain's leadership, he came into hostile conflict with the Iroquois, and this produced momentous consequences upon the development of the interior, around the Great Lake region, and on the outcome of the English and French rivalry for the control of the Indian trade.
At the time of Champlain's coming to take charge of French in- terests in New France, the Five Nations occupied all central New York, and west nearly to Niagara river, the Hurons occupied the country at the lower end of Georgian bay where they had villages and cultivated considerable land; west and south of them were the Petuns or Tobacco Nation, and south and east of the latter, extending from St. Clair river through to Niagara river, were the Neutral Nation.
Although related in blood and language to the Iroquois, the Hurons had been from time immemorial at deadly enmity with them, and this finally in 1648-9 involved their practical annihilation as a powerful people, and their being divided and scattered, some incorporated with their victors and some after long and devious wanderings, through many years in the country northwest of Michigan, coming to settle near Detroit and in northern Ohio.
THE NEUTRALS DESTROYED
The Neutrals had for many years successfully maintained neutrality between the Iroquois and Hurons, but not long after the latter's gen- eral defeat, they too were attacked by the Iroquois and their power broken in 1651.
During all this time the lower peninsula of Michigan had been oc- cupied by various Algonquian tribes ; the Potawatomies, Sauks, Foxes, Miamis, and in the northern part, Chippewas and Ottawas. The oldest
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map now known of this region, the map of Nicholas Sanson of 1650, was largely based upon the Jesuit Relations, the published accounts of the Jesuit priests among the Indians, and probably also to some extent upon other information not now known. This map, the first to show all the Great Lakes, indicates the Neutral Nation east of St. Clair and Detroit rivers, and south of Saginaw bay in the Michigan penin- sula, the Nation of Fire or Potawatomies.
The edition of Sanson's map made in 1657 indicates knowledge of the Iroquois war with the Neutrals as the latter nation no longer appears, but just west of the head of St. Clair river are the Conacronon, and be- tween Saginaw bay and Lake Huron the Ariatoeronon, with the Pota- watomies in the center of the peninsula as before. In 1660 Du Creux published in Latin a history of Canada, and accompanied it with a map, somewhat more full in its details of this region than any pre- ceding. Just west of St. Clair river are indicated three tribes, As- sistoius, Ondatonius, Teoronius. In the district east of Saginaw Bay appear the names E. Kandechiondius, and Schenkioetontins.
In 1674 another map by Sanson was published and in this appears west of Lake St. Clair the Conaeronon, making it probable that in the map of 1657 the "c" is a mistake for "e."
The people "Assistoius" of the Creuxins map are undoubtedly the Fire Nation or Potawatomies, who must have been very numerous at the time of the coming of the French. In the Jesuit Relation of 1643, Pere Lallemant, who was writing from the country of the Hurons, says : "These peoples of the Neutre Nation are always at war with those of the Nation of Fire, who are still further distant from us. They went there last summer to the number of 2,000 and attacked a village, well protected by pallisades and strongly defended by 900 warriors, who withstood the assault. Finally they carried it after a siege of ten days. They killed many on the spot and took 800 captives, men, women and children. After having burned seven of the best warriors. they put ont the eyes and girdled the mouths of all the old men whom they after- wards abandoned to their own guidance, in order that they might then drag ont a miserable life. Such is the scourge that depopulates all these countries, for their wars are but wars of extermination. This Nation of Fire alone is more populous than all the Neutre Nation, all the Hurons. and all the Iroquois, enemies of the Hurons put together. It consists of a large number of villages wherein is spoken the Algon- quin language, which prevails still further on."
It seems probable that the Ondatouins was another band or tribe of the same nation. The Teoronius and E. Kandechiondins people have not been identified. The Schenkioetontius were the Foxes. It is pos- sible that the Ariatoeronon of the Sanson map are the Potawatomies, but the Couaeronon are still unidentified.
The dispersal and destruction of the Neutrals by the Iroquois in 1651 was not so complete as that of the Hurons a few years before, but sufficient to destroy them as a united force.
In the Journal of the Jesuit Fathers for 1653 under date of July 31, it is said : "On the 31st, a canoe from Three Rivers arrives which brings us the news of the arrival of three canoes from the country of
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY
the Hurons. * These seven savages have brought news that all the Algonquin Nations are assembled with what remains of the Tobacco Nation and of the Neutre Nation, at A, Otonatendie, three days' jour- ney above the Sault Skia,e toward the south. Those of the Tobacco Nation have wintered at Tea,onto'rai. The Neutres to the number of 800 at Sken'ehio,e toward Te,o'ehanontian. These two nations are to betake themselves next autumn to A,otonatendie, where even now they number a thousand men."
The name of the wintering place of the Tobacco Nation is the Iroquoian word for Mackinac, and that of the Neutres means the place of the Foxes and is probably somewhere in the eastern part of the lower Michigan peninsula. Teo chanontian is another form for the same name as "Teuchsa Grondie," the title of a long epic poem by Levi Bishop of Detroit relating to the Detroit river. The word has a number of different forms, and means the place of many beaver dams. Upon Evans' map of 1755 which was regarded at the time as the most accurate map in existence of the territory it covered, the word appears under the form Tiiuxsonruntie, and extends along the west side of Detroit river, Lake St. Clair and St. Clair river. In the famous Mitehell map of 1755 the name appears along the west side of St. Clair river.
Detroit has unjustly appropriated this word to itself and the De- troit river, and by many writers referenees in the old French authors to the entire distriet between Lake Huron and Lake Erie have been used as if they referred specially to the City of Detroit and vieinity, while in faet until some time after the settlement by Cadillac in 1701 the word "detroit," meaning strait, was used by the original writers to desig- nate the entire water channel from Lake Huron to Lake Erie ; the "de- troit of Lake Huron," the "detroit of Lake Erie," being phrases often found.
From the earliest time this immediate region was noted for its beaver. LaHontan, who spent part of the years 1687-8 at Fort St. Joseph, at the entrance of St. Clair river, produced a map which he attached to a book published by him in 1709, and this map has near Fort St. Joseph the words, "Beaver hunting of the friends of the French." This map also has on the western side of Lake St. Clair Aouittanons, who later in the southwestern part of Michigan and northern Ohio became known as Weas; they were a branch of the Miamis. At the making of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 by Gen- eral Wayne with all the Indians with whom the United States had been at war in the Northwest Territory, Little Turtle, a leading Miami chief, was one of the active participants and at one of the couneil meet- ings he said that his forefathers kindled the first fire at the detroit, thereby elaiming to have been the original occupants of that distriet, and this claim was apparently conceded by Missas a Chippewa chief from St. Clair river ; also a participant, who said that the great calumet of peace which he presented did not come from the little lake (prob- ably Lake St. Clair) but from the great Lake Superior to the north, from which their great chiefs and warriors came. These claims are in
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY
accordance with the LaHontan map, and the fact that the Chippewas were comparatively late comers into this locality.
After the dispersal of the Neuters, the Iroquois were free to direct their attention to the Algonquian nations or such portions as might be remaining in the Michigan peninsula. It will be remembered that the Neuters had long been bitter enemies of the Potawatomies, Sauks and Foxes, and had in 1642 administered to them a crushing defeat. In 1666 the Sauks and Foxes are found at La Pointe in the upper penin- sula, and the Potawatomies around Green bay.
Evidence of the old hostility and the conflicts in this vicinity are found in the names of two rivers, Clinton and Cass rivers. the former name of which was Huron. The Indian name of each of these streams was Nottawayseepee, Nottaway or Nadoweg, an Algonquin word strict- ly meaning adder, and was applied by them to their enemies. Seepee means river, thus the name of the stream meaning river of our enemies, probably indicates the place of some conflict with the Neuters, and when the name thus given came long afterwards to be translated into English, under the impression that "Nottaway" meant to the Algon- quin, the Huron-Iroquois, the name became the Huron river, when properly it should have been the Neutral river, as the Hurons were never in this section of country.
INDIANS OF THE ST. CLAIR REGION
When Cadillac established Detroit in 1701 he introduced a great change in the method of treatment of the Indians. Hitherto the out- lying posts had not been encouraged by the French authorities, but the Indians had been taught to bring their peltry to Montreal as in this way a much closer control could be kept over the trade. Cadillac encouraged the Indians of all tribes to come and settle near his fort, and he promised to protect them from their active enemies, the Iro- quois, who in their forays had penetrated into Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and as far as the Mississippi. One result of this movement on the part of Cadillac was the bringing into this region a new nation of the Algonquian family, the Chippewas, or at first a nation closely allied to them, the Mississaugas; these people, when the French first came to Lake Huron, occupied a portion of the north shore of the lake, and in the early part of the eighteenth century, gradually drifted in and occupied the country formerly occupied by the Neutrals. In 1736 a report of the Indian tribes connected with the French, under the heading "Lake St. Clair, which leads to Lake Huron," states, "At the end of the little Lake St. Clair there is a small village of Missis- sauges which numbers sixty men," and as in this case by men is meant warriors or fighting men there would probably be 300 or 350 people. All maps after that time show Mississaugas located east of St. Clair river.
As early as 1688 the Hurons who were left in the Ontario peninsula complained to the French governor that the Mississaugas had taken their beaver hunting grounds and desired him to remove them.
LaHontan, in the map accompanying his "New Voyages to North
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY
America," shows as the only tribe adjacent to Lake St. Clair on the west of the Aouittanons, a Miami tribe. In a list of the savage nations of Canada, he locates the Mississaugas and the "Outchipoues Alias Saulters," or Chippewas, along Lake IIuron. In 1702 Cadillac reports that the Saulteurs and Mississaugas had united in forming a village on the river. It therefore seems evident that the Chippewas were com- paratively late comers in this region. They probably worked down the west shore of Lake Huron from the Upper Peninsula, and there is a tradition of a desperate conflict between them and some allies of theirs south of Saginaw Bay with the Sauks when the latter were located upon Saginaw river, and the practical destruction of that tribe of Sauks. By the early part of the nineteenth century, the Chippewas were the only Indian nation occupying the eastern part of Michigan north of Detroit or Lake St. Clair, the Mississaugas being by that time generally called and known as Chippewas. In the treaty of 1807 between the United States and several Indian nations, by which the former secured the undisputed rights to the southeastern part of Michigan, this treaty was signed by the Ottawas, Wyandots and Potawatomies, because they had rights and interests around Detroit, and toward and in Ohio, and by the Chippewas, because all the northern part of the territory ceded was recognized as belonging to them. Provision was made for several reservations within the ceded district, and the reservations in this and Macomb counties were occupied and claimed only by the Chippewas, and when, in 1836, these reservations were ceded to the United States, the Indians making the cession are called in the treaty the Black river and Swan creek bands of Chippewas.
We conclude, then, that within historie times this county was oecu- pied by the Neuters, possibly to some extent by the Foxes, Miamis and Potawatomies, and finally by the Mississaugas and Chippewas.
In their native condition the Chippewas were a timber people, living mainly by fishing and hunting. They were first found by the French at the Sault, and hence were called Saulteurs or people of the Sault. They were expert fishers, and while they had no settled habitation to the same extent as the Iroquois, they cultivated maize and a few vegetables.
They were a brave, courageous people, expert in the use of the canoe and the arrow, as upon these they depended for their livelihood in fishing and hunting.
After they came into contact with the white man they felt the same attraction as most other Indians for strong drink, and suffered greatly from it.
Many of the implements used by the Indians in their warfare and domestie life have been found within the county, and a number of their burial places were known when the county was organized. There was one upon the north side of Pine river at its mouth, one on the south side of Black river near the end of Sixth street, and one on the east side of Military street some distance south of Griswold street in the city of Port Huron.
The weapons and tools found in these burial places indicate the same degree of civilization found elsewhere among the Indians before
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY
coming in contact with white men, and their number and kind offer evidence that some of them did not belong to the Chippewas, but to the older tribes, as after the French and English came in contact with the Indians, the latter used iron tools, utensils and guns.
When the electric railway between Port Huron and Detroit was under construction in 1901, in grading through the hill then existing south of Bunce's creek, the skeleton of a man was found several feet below the surface, and with it, a copper hatchet and beads and a double pointed instrument of unknown use. This copper must have come from Lake Superior and indicates the existence of some sort of traffic. The stone arrowheads found here are of flint, which cannot be found nearer than the central part of Ohio, so that a more extended commerce between Indian tribes perhaps existed than has been commonly believed.
INDIAN RESERVATIONS AND LEADERS
When St. Clair county was created it contained two Indian reserva- tions, provided for in the treaty of 1807, one upon Black river, the other upon Lake St. Clair. The Indians did not occupy their reserva- tions throughout the year, but during the hunting and trapping season would move to more favorable locations, returning to this locality for the fishing, which was very good in St. Clair river. About 200 Indians are credited to the Black River reservation, and 150 to the Swan Creek, but this number is probably too high, as Schoolcraft, who was Indian commissioner in this state for several years, estimated in 1839 the total number of both bands at 198.
When the treaty was made in 1836 ceding these reservations, it was signed by Eshtonoquot, Naykeeshig, Mayzin and Keewaygeezhig. The Indian name of the Black river band was Mekadewagamitigweyawinini- wak and of the Swan Creek band Wapisiwisibiwininiwak.
Naykeezhig, or Driving Clouds, was the grandson of Masheash, or Musquash, and the nephew of Nemekas, or Animikans, who was one of the signers of the treaty of 1807. Maskeash was one of the promi- nent chiefs along St. Clair river during the time of the British occu- pancy of this region and signed many of the deeds given by the Chip- pewa chiefs of land in this county at that time. He died shortly after the close of the War of 1812 and was buried on the Indian reserva- tion north of Mt. Clemens.
Naykeezhig, who frequently was employed by Judge Bunce, and was called one of Bunce's Indians, was the unele of Keewaygeezhig, whose name means returning sky, and who also signed the treaty of 1836.
Animikans, or Nimekance-the name is spelled in a great variety of ways-was one of the principal chiefs of the Chippewas and lived to a great age, at least 106 years, dying about 1825 on the Indian reserva- tion at Sarnia, where he had lived for many years. When a compara- tively young man, he had served as a soldier under Patrick Sinclair at the fort built by the latter on St. Clair river just below the mouth of Pine river. As a reward for his services, the English had given him the dress and uniform of an English brigadier general, and this he pre-
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY
served until his death, wearing and displaying it on occasions with great pride. Nimekance was a friend and frequent visitor of Z. W. Bunce, and made him a friendly call, clad in his uniform, within a year before his death.
A granddaughter of Maskeash, well known to the early settlers in this county, was old Mother Rodd, as she was familiarly called. Her portrait, presented by D. B. Harrington, hangs in the rooms of the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society at Lansing. Mother Rodd lived to an extreme old age, considerably over 100 years, and while her home was on the Indian reservation at Sarnia, and she received an annuity from the British government, she had many friends among the Americans, and for many years spent a considerable part of her time here. She made brooms, baskets and mats, and was honest and industrious. In winter she camped in the woods, and in the summer on the bank of the river, gathering berries or making maple sugar to exchange for provisions. She also had a good knowledge of herbs and frequently acted the part of physician. It is related of her that upon one occasion she applied a remedy which modern society seems to be greatly in need of. A young Indian, distantly related to her, had fallen in love with a squaw, although he was already married. Mother Rodd took charge of the case and a visitor to her camp found the young man looking very solemn with his head bent over a vessel contain- ing water, and a heated stone producing steam, and around him was wrapped a large mackinaw blanket. In fact, she was applying the sweat cure to rid him of his disease, and in this case, at least, the method was successful.
Another Indian chief who was well known in the state, and whose portrait is also found at Lansing, was Okemos, who did not belong in this county, but was occasionally here. Okemos was a nephew of Pon- tiac, and was therefore in part, at least, of Ottawa descent, but had been made a chief of the Chippewas because of his daring and bravery on the side of the British near Sandusky in 1813. He was severely wounded and until his death carried a long scar on his head, caused by a saber cut. After the War of 1812 he became satisfied that he had been on the wrong side of the controversy, and took the oath of alle- giance to the United States. In spite of this, however, he tried to obtain an annuity from the British government, which continued for many years to distribute yearly at Malden on the Detroit river, large sums of money and valuable presents to the Indians friendly to them.
When the Americans came to build Fort Gratiot in 1814 they found an Indian on the Black River reservation, whose name is perpetuated in one of the townships of our county, John Riley. He was a half- breed, his father being James Van Slyck Riley, or Ryley, a man of good family from Schenectady, N. Y., and Menaweamegoqua, his mother, a Chippewa woman of Saginaw.
John Riley was a large, athletic man, of commanding appearance, good manners, spoke English well and was fairly well educated. During the War of 1812 the Rileys were friendly to the United States and of great help to them in many directions. It is related by Judge Witherell that when John Riley was a youth he was in Detroit about 1786, and Vol. I-4
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY
was ordered by a British officer to work on the highway. This he refused to do, and the soldiers were about to flog him when he dared them to do it, and the major in command, surprised by his appearance and courage, let him go.
In 1815 he was one of the official Indian interpreters at Detroit. At the treaty with the Saginaw Chippewas made in 1819 there was reserved for the use of John Riley 640 acres of land near what is now Bay City.
When Judge Bunce came to the county in 1817, Riley was living near the northeast corner of the Indian reservation. and he made his home here until the sale of the reservation in 1836. He claimed in a peti- tion to Congress in the year of the sale that in consideration of his ser- vices the Chippewa chiefs had deeded to him in 1825 80 acres of the Res- ervation but his claim was not allowed. After that event he opened a store in the present township of Riley, but trusted his customers too freely and in consequence went out of business, and a few years later moved to Canada, where he died in 1842.
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