USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume I > Part 23
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It was this chief who when he was in charge of the Indians under command of Pike, redeemed by the United States from the Pottowato- mies, flogged a young Indian with arms in his hands, because he failed to obey orders. While Cashe-segra was the nominal chief, Clermont, or "The Builder of Towns," was the greatest warrior and most influential man among the Arkansas Osages. Nuttall,103 describing Clermont, says that "he wore a hat ornamented with a band of silver lace, with a sort of livery or regimental coat, and appeared proud of the artificial distinction bestowed on him by the government." He was the lawful chief of the Great Osages, but his historic right was usurped by "White Hairs" while he was an infant. Both White Hairs and Cashe-segra, or Big Foot, were made
102 After his death young White Hairs was chief, but when Bradbury visited the Osages he says this boy was only six years old, and that the tribe was governed "by a regent ."-Bradbury's Travels, p. 38. According to Flint, he derived his appellation "White Hairs" from the fact that he had taken a gray wig, or scratch, from the head of an American at the disastrous defeat of St. Clair. In the mêlée of the battle he had grasped, as he supposed, a man's hair, to hold him, but, much to his astonishment, the man fled and the wig remained in his hand. It instantly to him became a charmed thing, and he afterwards wore it securely fastened to his own scalp. He possessed great ambition, and in St. Louis said that "I felt a fire within me and it drove me to the fight of St. Clair. When his army was scattered I returned to my country, but the fire still burned, and I went over the mountains to the Western sea. I gained glory there. The fire still burns, but I must return and die in obscurity among the forests of the Osage."-Flint's Recollections, p. 155.
103 Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 183. Name is perhaps more properly spelled "Clarmont" in Nuttall.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
chiefs through the influence of Pierre Chouteau.104 Talai, the son of the last chief of the Osages on the Arkansas, being considered too young when his father died, Clermont was selected chief, and his behavior secured the ascendancy, but he was careful not to show any pomp or distinction beyond his rank as superior chief and leader in council.105 Clermont's proper name was "Iron Bird." Nuttall106 says, "among the Osages the right of governing is commonly hered- itary, but not directed by primogeniture."
Like most of the savage tribes, the Osages adorned their ears with pendants, slitting and cutting the cartilage of the ears.107 Like the Kansas and Pawnees, they carefully cut away and shaved the hair of the head, except a lock on the crown, which they plaited and ornamented with rings, wampum and feathers;108 and they decorated and painted with great care and considerable taste.109 Catlin110 says that there is "a peculiarity about the heads of these people that is very striking to the eye of the traveler. This peculiarity is produced by artificial means in infancy, when the infants are carried around on boards slung upon the mother's back. Among the Osages, the head of the child is bound down so tight to the board as to force in the occipital bone, and create an unnatural deficiency on the back part of the head, and consequently a more than natural elevation on the top of the head." This cus- tom, the Osages told Catlin, was practiced by them because "it pressed out a bold and manly appearance in front." It was this peculiarity, "this something on or about the head," that impressed Jaramillo.111
Their necks were generally ornamented with a profusion of wampum and beads, and in summer their shoulders, arms and chests were generally naked and painted in a great variety of picturesque ways. They wore silver - bands on their wrists and oftentimes a profusion of rings on their fingers.
The Osages were a brave and warlike nation. Before going to
104 Pike's Expedition, vol. ii., p. 558. (Cous' Ed.)
105 Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 173.
106 Ibid., p. 173.
107 Long's Expedition, vol. i., p. 126.
108 Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 185.
109 Long's Expedition, vol. i., p. 126.
110 Catlin's North American Indian, vol. ii., pp. 40, 41.
111 See Ante, p. 133.
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ARCHERY
war they practiced rigid fasts, which they continued sometimes for three and seven days; thus they disciplined themselves for disaster and supplicated the favor of heaven.112 But they could not resist the northern Indian nations using the rifle; and hence, with the nations north and east of them thus armed, the Osages were loath to engage in war, although ever ready to fight with those west of them, only armed with bows, arrows, and lances. As an instance of their forbearance, or fear of northern Indians thus equipped, Lieutenant Pike says that, in the autumn of 1808, a hunting party of Little Osages were attacked by a party of Pottowatomies who crossed the Missouri river near the mouth of the Saline, found the women and children defenseless, killed all the women and boys who made resistance, also some infants, about thirty-four in all, and led the remainder into captivity, some sixty in number. Of these, forty-six were afterward recovered by the United States, and sent under the protection of Pike to the village. The men were absent at the time of the surprise, on a hunt, and having found plenty of deer, they did not return home but camped out all night. When they returned they found their families all destroyed or taken pris- oners, yet in obedience to the injunction of the government they forebore to avenge the blow. But in 1819 they formed an alliance with the Saukees and Renards (Foxes), allies of the Pottowatomies, against the Cherokees, presenting them on that occasion with one hundred horses.
While no match for the northern Indians using the rifle, their dexterity in archery and the dexterity of other tribes of the western plains, before the introduction of firearms, was wonderful, and will hardly be deemed possible now. Riding in a full run an athletic Indian at times would discharge the arrow with such certainty and force that, under favorable circumstances, it was known to pass entirely through the body of a buffalo, and actually to fly some dis- tance, or fall to the ground on the opposite side of the animal.113 Their bows were about four feet long, of simple form, made of hick- ory or hop-horn beam wood or bow-wood, with the cord made of twisted buffalo and elk sinew. The hunting arrow was about two feet long, round, with an elongated triangular spear-head, made of sheet-iron, of which the shoulders were rounded and firmly affixed
112 Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 184.
113 Long's Expedition, vol. i., p. 209
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
to the shank by deer sinew. Its flight was equalized by three half webs of the feathers of a turkey neatly secured near its base. The war arrow differed from the hunting arrow in this- that the spear- head was very slightly attached to the wood, so that the arrow could not be withdrawn without leaving the spear-point in the wound.114 The arrows were carried in a quiver made of cougar skin with the tail of the animal dangling from the upper end, and they also had a skin case for the bow.
The Osages, as we have seen, were divided into separate clans and divisions: the Grand or Big Osages, the Little Osages, and the Osages of the Arkansas. The Little Osages separated from the Big Osages about the beginning of the 18th century; the Arkansas Osages separated through the influence of Pierre Chouteau about 1795, because Manuel de Lisa had obtained from the Spanish authorities the exclusive right to trade with the Osages by way of the Osage river, after that trade had been controlled by Chouteau for twenty years. He caused some of the Osages to remove to Arkansas, where he had the trade privilege, and thus greatly injured the trade of De Lisa on the Osage river. Although Chouteau prom- ised the Spanish authorities to cause these Osages to return to their village, they failed to do so. The hunting in the summer was much better along the Arkansas than the Osage, and hence the bold and enterprising young men daily emigrated from the village on the Osage to the village on the Arkansas.
Nor were the Osages slow to resent any invasion of their hunting grounds. Thus when in 1820 the government by treaty ceded and afterwards removed the Kickapoos living in central Illinois to a part of the Osage country, upon the Kickapoos coming to their new hunting grounds on the Pomme de Terre the Osages objected, say- ing that they sold their land to the United States for the whites and not to be given to other Indians who would spread over their hunting grounds. and kill their game.115 They were greatly dissatisfied when the government removed the Cherokees to the west of the Arkansas,116 a country which had formerly belonged to them. This arrangement was made in 1808-9 by the President, and a portion of the Cherokee
114 Ibid., p. 291.
115 By treaty of 1832 the Kickapoos were assigned another tract of land, west of the Missouri river.
116 Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 135.
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MISSIONARY SOCIETY
nation removed westward, exchanging their lands east of the Mis- sissippi for lands on the Arkansas river. They claimed the right of hunting indefinitely westward. "The Osages, not liking these intruders, as they regarded them, broke up their hunting lodges, and plundered them of their peltry. One depredation provoked another, until they came in collision ; murders were committed; and finally the Cherokees made a formal declaration of war. They took up the line of march in the spring of 1817, with two field pieces mounted and drawn by horses, and the men armed with rifles. The Chero- kees were half-civilized, and understood and kept up military dis- cipline. Adopted into their nation were not a few "white skins," and the Shawnees and Delawares. They made a rapid march into the Osage country, surprised them in their villages, made them run, killed a dozen or so, took as many prisoners, chiefly women and children, and for a time held them as hostages.117
The country around the great village of the Osages, says Pike,118 "is one of the most beautiful the eye ever beheld. The Osage river winding round and past the village, giving advantages of wood and water, and at the same time an extensive prairie crowned with rich and luxuriant grass and flowers, gently diversified by rising swells and sloping lawns, present to the warm imagination the future site of husbandry, the numerous herds of domestic animals which are no doubt destined to crown with joy those happy plains."
In this delightful land, in 1821, the United Foreign Missionary Society established a school for the education of the Osages, on the margin of the Marais des Cygnes river, about six miles from the junction of this stream with the Osage, on land granted the society by the Indians in council, the school being situated about seventy- five miles from Fort Osage and about fifteen miles from the Great Osage village. This place was named "Harmony," and was situated within the limits of the present Bates county. Mr. Newton describes the location as follows: "Our limits embrace excellent timber in abundance; first-rate prairie for plowing, pasturing, and mowing ; the only mill seat known in this vast country ; stone coal on the sur- face of the ground and within a few rods of our buildings; and a large ridge of limestone, sufficiently near for convenience. Our river bot- toms are rather low for cultivation, without draining, but our prairies
117 Life of Peck, p. 114.
118 Near the present town of Papinville, in Bates county.
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are high and inclining toward the creeks, which receive and carry off all the surplus water. The soil of our prairies is a dark, rich loam, about two feet thick, beneath which we have clear clay as deep as we have yet penetrated. We shall depend on wells for water for family use. The grass of the prairies varies from two to seven feet in height, and forms an average impediment to travelling, equal to that of snow from eight to ten inches deep." Speaking of " Har- mony," Flint119 says, "This is an interesting missionary station, has many Indians in its school, and is in a very flourishing condition." The buildings were erected near the river's bank with "a spacious and handsome green in front." On the rear a vast prairie, yielding in its uncultivated state from one to two tons of hay to the acre, on either side good timber, an excellent spring of water near at hand, and stone coal and clay of first quality for making brick, would seem to indicate that the location was ideal. In the year it was opened the school had twelve Indian children and was progressing under favorable circumstances. Miss Comstock, one of the teach- ers, reported that the natives visit the school daily, and Sans Neuf, one of the chiefs, expressed great satisfaction when he saw so many children among them. The children, Dr. Pixley says, "are cer- tainly as interesting and as active as the generality of children among the whites, and I have sometimes thought they are more so." Nut- tall120 says the Osages were greatly and sincerely attached to their families. As late as 1874121 descendants of the Osages would come to Missouri from Kansas to cry over those buried here.
But the religious condition of these Osages greatly grieved the good missionaries. Says Dr. Pixley: "Previous to our coming out to this distant country, the public mind had been prepared to sup- pose these Osages a very different people from what they are; but however things may have been presented to our minds about the condition and desires of this people, a better knowledge of their case, from actual observation, does not less excite our pity nor make us wish we had not come out for their instruction. They pray, indeed, if it may be called prayer, as we are told; and even now as the day dawns whilst I am writing in my house I can hear their orgies, where their lodges are set up, more than a mile from me.
119 2 Flint's Mississippi Valley, vol. ii., p. 94.
120 Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 183.
121 Pike's Expedition, vol. ii., p. 390,-note 45.
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RELIGIOUS IDEAS
They begin very high in a sing-song note, as loud as they can halloo, and then run their voice, as long as they can carry breath, to the lowest key. Thus they continue the strain, until they are wrought to a pitch, wherein you will hear them sob and cry as though their hearts would break. I have not yet learned, whether it be some particular individuals, who make this their business, as mourning men and women, or whether they are all adepts in it. In such a case they put mud on their faces and heads, which as I understand they do not wash off till their desire is in some measure answered. But this is more especially the case when they are going off on an expedition to shoot game, or to fight their enemies, or when they hear some bad news, or have lost some friend or relative." It was a custom among them before going to war to practice rigid fasts, which continued from three to seven days, by which they disciplined themselves for disasters and supplicated favor from heaven.122 They also blackened their faces and cried, says Bradbury,123 and the rea- son they gave him for this was, "that they were sorry for the people whom they were going to rob." According to Dorsey, one branch (the Tsicu), when on the warpath painted their faces red with mud upon the cheek below the left eye, as wide as two or more fingers; but the other branch (the Hanka), upon a painted red face placed a spot of mud upon the right cheek, below the eye, as wide as two or more fingers.124 When making overtures of peace they use signi- ficant emblems such as the wings of the swan and wild goose, wampum and pipes, while arrows, war-clubs and black and red painting are used as declarations of war.125
Mr. Sprague says: "It is painful to reflect on the condition of the Indians to whom we have come. The moon they call heaven, to which we are all going at death. The sun they call the Great Spirit, which governs the moon and the earth." Mr. Requa adds: "The moral darkness in which this people are involved is greater than has yet been communicated to the Christian world. It has been commonly reported that they worship God and acknowledge Him as the first great cause of all things. This, however, will, I believe, be found to be a misrepresentation. From the best infor-
122 Nuttall's Arkansas, p. 184.
123 Bradbury's Travels, p. 40.
124 4 Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, 1882-3, p. 165. But see 10 Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 632-3.
125 Hunter's Memoirs, pp. 319 and 323.
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mation I can obtain, it appears that they are an idolatrous race and that they worship the sun, the earth, the moon, the thunder and the stars. They worship these creatures of God, as creators. If asked who made the sun, moon, earth, etc., they cannot tell. Hence, it is evident that they have no knowledge of Him who made the heavens and the earth and all things therein." "It is no uncommon thing," he further says, "to see them start immediately after their morning devotion on some mischievous and atrocious expedition ;. perhaps to murder some neighboring tribe, or steal their substance. I will mention the following as an instance of their readily learning that which is sinful, and their proneness to do evil. Many of them are playing cards around me while I am writing, and uttering in broken English the oaths which are so commonly uttered at the card table. Both card playing and profanity they have doubtless learned from the traders, who pass much of their time in the village." But, although in deep moral darkness, the missionaries found some things among them which "are laudable and worthy of the imitation of all men."
This moral darkness did not discourage Mr. Requa. He devoted many years of his life to civilize these Indians. He established a little village which became known as "Requa's Village," not far from the larger Osage village; and here, by the force of his pious and industrious life and that of his family, he gathered a village of Osages, who followed his noble example in their dealings and modes of life and in agricultural pursuits, which he taught them. Here he instructed them practically how they could raise the comforts and luxuries of life out of the ground, instead of depending upon the uncertainty of the chase.126 With him in this village also lived Beatte, the hunter and guide of the party of rangers with whom Washington Irving made the excursion which he afterward so graph- ically described, to the borders of the Pawnee country.127 Beatte was greatly mortified because Irving in this account erroneously or inadvertently spoke of him as a "half-breed," and when Catlin was at Requa's village he proudly introduced him to his father and mother as "two very nice and good old French people."
During the war of 1812, Sibley writes, "The Osages never for- feited by their misconduct the indulgence of the government, but
126 Catlin's North American Indians, vol. ii., p. 93.
127 Catlin's North American Indians, vol. ii., p. 93.
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THE SAUKEES AND RENARDS
steadily adhered to it in spite of the intrigues of the hostile Indians and the British agents." Occasionally, however, they would rob hunters. Thus, one Ezekiel Williams, a hunter of the Missouri Fur Company, was robbed of all his furs by the Osages of the Arkan- sas on one of the forks of the White river, but afterwards the Indians restored to him his goods and furs. It ought to be noted that this Williams may be the same who had formed a settlement in the Osage country on White river in defiance of the orders of the government. This settlement was broken up by order of General Wilkinson in 1806.
Early in the 18th century the Saukees and Foxes hunted in the country west of the Mississippi, from the headwaters of the Iowa and Des Moines rivers to the Missouri.128 It is not known when they first entered the territory between the Des Moines and Missouri and displaced the Missouris and Osages. The removal of the Missouris from the mouth of the river to Grand river and the gradual migration of the Osages up the Osage, in a south-westerly direction, is no doubt connected with this invasion of the Saukees and Foxes. The Peorias, found by Joliet and Marquette at and near the mouth of the Des Moines, were found afterward near St. Louis, living in a village adjacent to this trading post. So, also, at Ste. Genevieve thirty "Piorias, who seldom hunted for fear of the other Indians, resided among the whites." The Sacs or Saukees, variously known as Sauks, Ousaki, Sachis, Sakis, Sakkis, Saky and Satzi, were found by the French on the St. Lawrence, residing in the vicinity of Montreal, according to Black Hawk.129 Thence they were driven by the Iroquois to Mackinac, and, still being pursued by these enemies, removed to Green Bay, where, according to Black Hawk, they first formed a treaty of alliance and friendship with the Foxes and united in a common village.
The Foxes, variously known as Outagamies, Outagamiouek, Outagemy and Ouagoussak130 and as Musquakees, were by the French given the nom de guerre "Renard," translated into "Fox" by the English, and sometimes "dog" or "wolf," also came from the shores of the St. Lawrence. They, too, were driven west by the Iroquois and first established themselves at a place called Sa-gau-au,
128 Morse's Report, p. 124 et seq.
129 Autobiography of Black Hawk, in Pioneer Families of Missouri, p. 458. 130 58 Jesuit Relations, p. 41.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
in the present state of Michigan, then removed to the Fox river of Green Bay and built a village there, and also one at Mil-wah-kie (good land), on the west bank of Lake Michigan, and, at a later period, one on the Fox river in Illinois. Both the Saukees and Renards belonged to the Algonquin stock.
In April 1669, Father Allouez131 found these two tribes on the Fox river of Green Bay and began a mission among them. He remarks that they were "a people of considerable note in all this region." They then claimed all the country southward to Lake Illinois, now known as Lake Michigan. They were numerous in that district in 1669.132 D'Ablon 133 says that the Outagamies were "a proud and arrogant people." The Jesuit missionaries 134 in 1666 considered the Saukees or Ousaki very "savage," and said of them that when they found a man alone and at a disadvantage they would kill him, especially if a Frenchman. At that time, this tribe was also very numerous.
When these Indians first came in contact with the Europeans, they were rude in manners and intensely warlike, depending on fishing and hunting for subsistence. They lived in rude wigwams covered with bark, skins, and matted reeds, and practiced agriculture in a primitive fashion. They were inclined to a roving disposition, and had no permanent abode, but at a later period, and in the west, they became sedentary and cultivated larger fields of corn, and even engaged in mining lead.
When Father Allouez visited them they lived in separate villages about four leagues from each other, but in 1681 the "Outagamies and Sakkis" resided in the same village.135 They were then con- stantly engaged in war with their neighbors and with the French. In 1717 a French expedition was sent against them, under De Lou- vigny.136 In 1728 another under De Lingery, and in 1734 still another under command of Nicholas Joseph De Noyalles. This latter expe- dition is remarkable, because, starting from Montreal in August of that year, it was directed to the Des Moines country, where some of these Indians had already established themselves and hunted in
54 Jesuit Relations, p. 215.
132 54 Jesuit Relations, p. 207.
133 55 Jesuit Relations, p. 185.
51 Jesuit Relations, p. 45.
62 Jesuit Relations, p. 198.
136 16 Wisconsin Hist. Coll., pp. 348 and 444.
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PERFECTLY UNITED
what is now Missouri. 137 Outagamies guided La Hontan down the Des Moines and the Mississippi and up the Missouri rivers in 1688.138 They were on Turkey river (Rivière d'Inde)139 on the west bank of the Mississippi, thirty miles below Prairie du Chien, and on the Iowa river (Rivière des Ayouais) in 1714,140 even before their expulsion from the Fox river valley in 1734. The whole territory north of the Des Moines along the Mississippi was then claimed by them as their hunting ground. That they claimed the west bank of the Mississippi, at least so far south as the Missouri in 1781 is shown by the fact that two of their chiefs, Huisconsin and Mitasse, were sent as messengers to Cruzat, then lieutenant-governor of Upper Louisiana, and that on that occasion they must have received a Spanish medal seems con- firmed by the fact that such a medal was found in Prairie du Chien.141 In 1777 Cruzat wrote that they were well inclined and never did any harm to the inhabitants of the district; on the contrary, that they aided and protected the people whenever necessary, and that they did this, although they received more liberal presents from the English. In 1782 he reports that they petitioned to place themselves under the protection of Spain.142
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