History of Houston County, Including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 12

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 547

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The French fort at that time was standing, though much decayed. It was, some years pre- vious to his arrival, garrisoned for a short time by an officer and thirty English soldiers, but they having been captured by the Menominees, it was abandoned.

In company with the traders, he left Green Bay on the twentieth, and ascending Fox river, arrived on the twenty-fifth at an island at the east end of Lake Winnebago, containing about fifty acres.

Here he found a Winnebago village of fifty houses. He asserts that a woman was in author- ity. In the month of October the party was at the portage of the Wisconsin, and descending that stream, they arrived, on the ninth at a town of the Sauks. While here he visited some lead mines about fifteen miles distant. An abundance of lead was also seen in the village, that had been brought from the mines.

On the tenth they arrived at the first village of the " Ottigaumies" [Foxes] about five miles be- fore the Wisconsin joins the Mississippi, he per- ceived the remnants of another village, and learned that it had been deserted about thirty years before, and that the inhabitants soon after their removal, built a town on the Mississippi, near the mouth of the " Ouisconsin," at a place called by the French La Prairie les Chiens, which signified the Dog Plains. It was a large town, and contained about three hundred families. The houses were built after the Indian manner, and pleasantly situated on a dry rich soil.

He saw here many houses of a good size and shape. This town was the great mart where all the adjacent tribes, and where those who inhabit the most remote branches of the Mississippi, an- nually assemble about the latter end of May, bringing with them their furs to dispose of to the traders. But it is not always that they conclude their sale here. This was determined by a gen

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SUPPOSED FORTIFICATIONS NEAR LAKE PEPIN.

eral council of the chiefs, who consulted whether it would be more conducive to their interest to sell their goods at this place, or to carry them on to Louisiana or Mackinaw.

At a small stream called Yellow River, oppo- site Prairie du Chien, the traders who had thus far accompanied Carver took up their residence for the winter.

From this point he proceeded in a canoe, with a Canadian voyageur and a Mohawk Indian as companions. Just before reaching Lake Pepin, while his attendants were one day preparing din- ner, he walked out and was struck with the pecu- liar appearance of the surface of the country, and thought it was the site of some vast artificial earth-work. It is a fact worthy of remembrance, that he was the first to call the attention of the civilized world to the existence of ancient monu- ments in the Mississippi valley. We give his own description :

"On the first of November I reached Lake Pepin, a few miles below which I landed, and, whilst the servants were preparing my dinner, I ascended the bank to view the country. I had not proceeded far before I came to a fine, level, open plain, on which I perceived, at a little dis- tance, a partial elevation that had the appearance of entrenchment. On a nearer inspection I had greater reason to suppose that it had really been intended for this many centuries ago. Notwith- standing it was now covered with grass, I could plainly see that it had once been a breastwork of about four feet in height, extending the best part of a mile, and sufficiently capacious to cover five thousand men. Its form was somewhat circular and its flanks reached to the river.

" Though much defaced by time, every angle was distinguishable, and appeared as regular and fashioned with as much military skill as if planned by Vauban himself. The ditch was not visible, but I thought, on examining more curiously, that I could perceive there certainly had been one. From its situation, also, I am convinced that it must have been designed for that purpose. It fronted the country, and the rear was covered by the river, nor was there any rising ground for a considerable way that commanded it; a few straggling lakes were alone to be seen near it. In many places small tracks were worn across it by the feet of the elks or deer, and from the depth 5

of the bed of earth by which it was covered, I was able to draw certain conclusions of its great anti- quity. I examined all the angles, and every part with great attention. and have often blamed my- self since, for not encamping on the spot, and drawing an exact plan of it. To show that this description is not the offspring of a heated imag- ination, or the chimerical tale of a mistaken trav- eler, I find, on inquiry since my return, that Mons. St. Pierre, and several traders have at dif- ferent times, taken notice of similar appearances, upon which they have formed the same conjec- tures, but withont examining them so minutely as I did. How a work of this kind could exist in a country that has hitherto (according to the gen- erally received opinion) been the seat of war to untutored Indians alone, whose whole stock of military knowledge has only, till within two cen- turies, amounted to drawing the bow, and whose only breastwork even at present is the thicket, I know not. I have given as exact an account as possible of this singular appearance, and leave to future explorers of those distant regions, to dis- cover whether it is a production of nature or art. Perhaps the hints I have here given might lead to a more perfect investigation of it, and give us very different ideas of the ancient state of realms that we at present believe to have been, from the earliest period, only the habitations of savages."

Lake Pepin excited his admiration, as it has that of every traveler since his day, and here he remarks : " I observed the ruins of a French fac- tory, where it is said Captain St. Pierre resided, and carried on a very great trade with the Nau- dowessies, before the reduction of Canada."

Carver's first acquaintance with the Dahkotabs commenced near the river St. Croix. It would seem that the erection of trading posts on Lake Pepin had enticed them from their old residence on Rum river and Mille Lacs.

He says: "Near the river St. Croix reside bands of the Naudowessie Indians, called the River Bands. This nation is composed at pres- ent of eleven bands. They were originally twelve, but the Assinipoils, some years ago, re- volting and separating themselves from the oth- ers, there remain at this time eleven. Those I met here are termed the River Bands, because they chiefly dwell near the banks of this river; the other eight are generally distinguished by the

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

title of Nadowessies of the Plains, and inhabit a country more to the westward. The names of the former are Nehogatawonahs, the Mawtaw- bauntowahs, and Shashweentowahs.

Arriving at what is now a suburb of the cap- ital of Minnesota, he continues: " About thir- teen miles below the Falls of St. Anthony, at which I arrived the tenth day after I left Lake Pepin, is a remarkable cave, of an amazing depth. The Indians term it Wakon-teebe [Wakan-tipi]. The entrance into it is about ten feet wide, the height of it five feet. The arch within is fifteen feet high and about thirty feet broad; the bottom consists of fine, clear sand. About thirty feet from the entrance begins a lake, the water of which is transparent, and extends to an unsearch- able distance, for the darkness of the cave pre- ents all attempts to acquire a knowledge of it.] I threw a small pebble towards the nterior part of it with my utmost strength. I could hear that it fell into the water, and, notwithstanding it was of a small size, it caused an astonishing and ter- rible noise, that reverberated through all those gloomy regions. I found in this cave many In- dian hieroglyphics, which appeared very ancient, for time had nearly covered them with moss, so that it was with difficulty I could trace them. They were cut in a rude manner upon the inside of the wall, which was composed of a stone so ex- tremely soft that it might be easily penetrated with a knife; a stone everywhere to be found near the Mississippi.

"At a little distance from this dreary cavern, is the burying-place of several bands of the Nau- dowessie Indians. Though these people have no fixed residence, being in tents, and seldom but a few months in one spot, yet they always bring the bones of the dead to this place.

"Ten miles below the Falls of St. Anthony, the river St. Pierre, called by the natives Wada- paw Menesotor, falls into the Mississippi from the west. It is not mentioned by Father Hennepin, though a large, fair river. This omission, I con- sider, must have proceeded from a small island [Pike's] that is situated exactly in its entrance."

When he reached the Minnesota river, the ice became so troublesome that he left his canoe in the neighborhood of what is now St. Anthony, and walked to St. Anthony, in company with a young Winnebago chief, who had never seen the

curling waters. The chief, on reaching the emi- nence some distance below Cheever's, began to invoke his gods, and offer oblations to the spirit in the waters.

"In the middle of the Falls stands a small island, about forty feet broad and somewhat lon- ger, on which grow a few cragged hemlock and spruce trees, and about half way between this island and the eastern shore is a rock, lying at the very edge of the Falls, in an oblique position, that appeared to be about five or six feet broad, and thirty or forty long. At a little distance be- low the Falls stands a small island of about an acre and a half, on which grow a great number of oak trees."

From this description, it would appear that the little island, now some distance below the Falls, was once in the very midst, and shows that a con- stant recession has been going on, and that in ages long past they were not far from the Minne- sota river.

No description is more glowing than Carver's of the country adjacent:

" The country around them is extremely beau- tiful. It is not an uninterrupted plain, where the eye finds no relief, but composed of many gentle ascents, which in the summer are covered with the finest verdure, and interspersed with little groves that give a pleasing variety to the pros- pect. On the whole, when the Falls are inclu- ded, which may be seen at a distance of four miles, a more pleasing and picturesque view, I believe, cannot be found throughout the uni- verse."

" He arrived at the Falls on the seventeenth of November, 1766, and appears to have ascended as far as Elk river.

On the twenty-fifth of November, he had re- turned to the place opposite the Minnesota, where he had left his canoe, and this stream as yet not being obstructed with ice, he commenced its as- cent, with the colors of Great Britain flying at the stern of his canoe. There is no doubt that he entered this river, but how far he explored it cannot be ascertained. He speaks of the Rapids near Shakopay, and asserts that he went as far as two hundred miles beyond Mendota. He re- marks:

" On the seventh of December, I arrived at the utmost of my travels towards the West, where I

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SIOUX BURIAL ORATION VERSIFIED BY SCHILLER.

met a large party of the Naudowessie Indians, among whom I resided some months."

After speaking of the upper bands of the Dah- kotahs and their allies, he adds that he " left the habitations of the hospitable Indians the latter end of April, 1767, but did not part from them for several days, as I was accompanied on my journey by near three hundred of them to the mouth of the river St. Pierre. At this season these bands annually go to the great cave (Day- ton's Bluff) before mentioned.

When he arrived at the great cave, and the In- dians had deposited the remains of their deceased friends in the burial-place that stands adjacent to it, they held their great council to which he was admitted.

When the Naudowessies brought their dead for interment to the great cave (St. Paul), I attempted to get an insight into the remaining burial rites, but whether it was on account of the stench which arose from so many dead bodies, or whether they chose to keep this part of their custom secret from me, I could not discover. I found, however, that they considered my curiosity as ill-timed, and therefore I withdrew. * *

One formality among the Naudowessies in mourning for the dead is very different from any mode I observed in the other nations through which I passed. The men, to show how great their sorrow is, pierce the flesh of their arms above the elbows with arrows, and the women cut and gash their legs with broken flints till the blood flows very plentifully. *

After the breath is departed, the body is dressed in the same attire it usually wore, his face is painted, and he is seated in an erect pos- ture on a mat or skin, placed in the middle of the hut, with his weapons by his side. His relatives seated around, each in turn harangues the de- ceased; and if he has been a great warrior, re- counts his heroic actions, nearly to the following purport, which in the Indian language is extreme- ly poetical aud pleasing

"You still sit among us, brother, your person retains its usual resemblance, and continues sim- ilar to ours, without any visible deficiency, ex- cept it has lost the power of action! But whither is that breath flown, which a few hours ago sent up smoke to the Great Spirit? Why are those lips silent, that lately delivered to us expressions

and pleasing language? Why are those feet mo- tionless, that a few hours ago were fleeter than the deer on yonder mountains? Why useless hang those arms, that could climb the tallest tree or draw the toughest bow? Alas, every part of that frame which we lately beheld with admira- tion and wonder has now become as inanimate as it was three hundred years ago! We will not, however, bemoan thee as if thou wast forever lost to us, or that thy name would be buried in oblivion; thy soul yet lives in the great country of spirits, with those of thy nation that have gone before thee; and though we are left behind to perpetuate thy fame, we will one day join thee.

" Actuated by the respect we bore thee whilst living, we now come to tender thee the last act of kindness in our power; that thy body might not lie neglected on the plain, and become a prey to the beasts of the field or fowls of the air, and we will take care to lay it with those of thy predeces- sors that have gone before thee; hoping at the same time that thy spirit will feed with their spirits, and be ready to receive ours when we shall also arrive at the great country of souls."

For this speech Carver is principally indebted to his imagination, but it is well conceived, and suggested one of Schiller's poems, which Goethe considered one of his best, and wished " he had made a dozen such."

Sir E. Lytton Bulwer the distinguished novelist, and Sir John Herschel the eminent astronomer, have each given a translation of Schiller's " Song of the Nadowessee Chief."

SIR E. L. BULWER'S TRANSLATION.

See on his mat-as if of yore, All life-like sits he here !

With that same aspect which he wore When light to him was dear

But where the right hand's strength ? and where The breath that loved to breathe

To the Great Spirit, aloft in air, The peace pipe's lusty wreath ?

And where the hawk-like eye, alas ! That wont the deer pursue,

Along the waves of rippling grass, Or fields that shone with dew ?

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

Are these the limber, bounding feet That swept the winter's snows ? What stateliest stag so fast and fleet ? Their speed outstripped the roe's !

These arms, that then the steady bow Could supple from it's pride, How stark and helpless hang they now Adown the stiffened side !

Yet weal to him-at peace he stays Wherever fall the snows ; Where o'er the meadows springs the maize That mortal never sows.

Where birds are blithe on every brake Where orests teem with deer- Where glide the fish through every lake- One chase from year to year !

With spirits now he feasts above ; All left us to revere The deeds we honor with our love, The dust we bury here.

Here bring the last gift; loud and shrill Wail death dirge for the brave ; What pleased him most in life, may still Give pleasure in the grave.

We lay the axe beneath his head He swung when strength was strong -- The bear on which his banquets fed, The way from earth is long.

And here, new sharpened, place the knife That severed from the clay, From which the axe had spoiled the life, The conquered scalp away.

The paints that deck the dead, bestow ; Yes, place them in his hand, That red the kingly shade may glow Amid the spirit land.

SIR JOHN HERSCHEL'S TRANSLATION.

See, where upon the mat he sits Erect, before his door, With just the same majestic air That once in life he wore.

But where is fled his strength of limb, The whirlwind of his breath, To the Great Spirit, when he sent The peace pipe's mounting wreath? Where are those falcon eyes, which late Along the plain could trace, Along the grass's dewy waves The reindeer's printed pace?

Those legs, which once with matchless speed, Flew through the drifted snow, Surpassed the stag's unwearied course, Outran the mountain roe?

Those arms, once used with might and main, The stubborn bow to twang? See, see, their nerves are slack at last, All motionless they hang.

'Tis well with him, for he is gone Where snow no more is found, Where the gay thorn's perpetual bloom Decks all the field around.

Where wild birds sing from every spray, Where deer come sweeping by, Where fish from every lake afford A plentiful supply.

With spirits now he feasts above, And leaves us here alone, To celebrate his valiant deeds, And round his grave to moan.

Sound the death song, bring forth the gifts, The last gifts of the dead,- Let all which yet may yield him joy Within his grave be laid.

The hatchet place beneath his head Still red with hostile blood; And add, because the way is long, The bear's fat limbs for food.

The scalping-knife beside him lay, With paints of gorgeous dye, That in the land of souls his form May shine triumphantly.

It appears from other sources that Carver's visit to the Dahkotahs was of some effect in bring- ing about friendly intercourse between them and the commander of the English force at Mackinaw.

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CARVER'S PROJECT FOR A ROUTE TC THE PACIFIC.

The earliest mention of the Dahkotahs, in any public British documents that we know of, is in the correspondence between Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Colony of New York, and General Gage, in command of the forces.

On the eleventh of September, less than six months after Carver's speech at Dayton's Bluff, and the departure of a number of chiefs to the English fort at Mackinaw, Johnson writes to General Gage: "Though I wrote to you some days ago, yet I would not mind saying something again on the score of the vast expenses incurred, and, as I understand, still incurring at Michili- mackinac, chiefly on pretense of making a peace between the Sioux and Chippeweighs, with which I think we have very little to do, in good policy or otherwise."

Sir William Johnson, in a letter to Lord Hills- borough, one of his Majesty's ministers, dated August seventeenth, 1768, again refers to the subject :

"Much greater part of those who go a trading are men of such circumstances and disposition as to venture their persons everywhere for extrava- gant gains, yet the consequences to the public are not to be slighted, as we may be led into a general quarrel through their means. The In- dians in the part adjacent to Michillmackinac have been treated with at a very great expense for some time previous.

"Major Rodgers brings a considerable charge against the former for mediating a peace between some tribes of the Sioux and some of the Chippe- weighs, which, had it been attended with success, would only have been interesting to a very few French, and others that had goods in that part of the Indian country, but the contrary has hap- pened, and they are now more violent, and war against one another."

Though a wilderness of over one thousand miles intervened between the Falls of St. An- thony and the white settlements of the English, Carver was fully impressed with the idea that the State now organized under the name of Minne- sota, on account of its beauty and fertility, would attract settlers.

Speaking of the advantages of the country, he says that the future population will be "able to convey their produce to the seaports with great

facility, the current of the river from its source to its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico being ex- tremely favorable for doing this in small craft. This might also in time be facilitated by canals or shorter cuts, and a communication opened by water with New York by way of the Lakes."

The subject of this sketch was also confident that a route would be discovered by way of the Minnesota river, which would open & passage to China and the English settlements in the East Indies."

Carver having returned to England, interested Whitworth, a member of parliament, in the northern route. Had not the American Revolu- tion commenced, they proposed to have built a fort at Lake Pepin, to have proceeded up the Minnesota until they found, as they supposed they could, a branch of the Missouri, and from thence, journeying over the summit of lands un- til they came to a river which they called Ore- gon, they expected to descend to the Pacific.

Carver, in common with other travelers, had his theory in relation to the origin of the Dahko- tahs. He supposed that they came from Asia. He remarks: "But this might have been at dif- ferent times and from various parts-from Tar- tary, China, Japan, for the inhabitants of these places resemble each other. * * *

"It is very evident that some of the names and customs of the American Indians resemble those of the Tartars, and I make no doubt but that in some future era, and this not far distant, it will be reduced to certainty that during some of the wars between the Tartars and Chinese a part of the inhabitants of the northern provinces were driven from their native country, and took refuge in some of the isles before mentioned, and from thence found their way into America. * *

"Many words are used both by the Chinese and the Indians which have a resemblance to each other, not only in their sound, but in their signi- fication. The Chinese call a slave Shungo; and the Noudowessie Indians, whose language, from their little intercourse with the Europeans, is least corrupted, term a dog Shungush [Shoan- kah.] The former denominate one species of their tea Shoushong; the latter call their tobacco Shou- sas-sau [Chanshasha.] Many other of the words used by the Indians contain the syllables che, chaw, and chu, after the dialect of the Chinese."

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

The comparison of languages has become a rich source of historical knowledge, yet many of the analogies traced are fanciful. The remark of Humbolt in " Cosmos" is worthy of remembrance. "As the structure of American idioms appears remarkably strange to nations speaking the mod- ern languages of Western Europe, and who readily suffer themselves to be led away by some acci- dental analogies of sound, theologians have gen- erally believed that they could trace an affinity with the Hebrew, Spanish colonists with the Basque and the English, or French settlers with Gaelic, Erse, or the Bas Breton. I one day met on the coast of Peru, a Spanish naval officer and an English whaling captain, the fonter of whom declared that he had heard Basque spoken at Ta- hiti; the other, Gaelic or Erse at the Sandwich Islands."

Carver became very poor while in England, and was a clerk in a lottery-office. He died in 1780, and left a widow, two sons, and five daught- ers, in New England, and also a child by another wife that he had married in Great Britain

After his death a claim was urged for the land upon which the capital of Minnesota now stands, and for many miles adjacent. As there are still many persons who believe that they have some right through certain deeds purporting to be from the heirs of Carver, it is a matter worthy of an investigation.

Carver says nothing in his book of travels in re- lation to a grant from the Dahkotahs, but after he was buried, it was asserted that there was a deed belonging to him in existence, conveying valuable lands, and that said deed was executed at the cave now in the eastern suburbs of Saint Paul.

DEED PURPORTING TO HAVE BEEN GIVEN AT THE CAVE IN THE BLUFF BELOW ST. PAUL.

" To Jonathan Carver, a chief under the most mighty and potent George the Third, King of the English and other nations, the fame of whose warriors has reached our ears, and has now been fully told us by our good brother Jonathan, afore- said, whom we rejoice to have come among us, and bring us good news from his country.

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History of Houston County, Including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 12

Author: Edward D. Neill Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages: 547

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 547