USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume I > Part 24
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43
Before the final subjugation of these "capricious, turbulent, and enterprising Indians," they were greatly dreaded by the early set- tlers of the west. They alternately engaged in war with the French, English and Americans, as well as all the Indian tribes they encoun- tered. They inhabited many places along the Great Lakes and westward, and the present names of many localities are directly traceable to their occupancy. They were especially identified with the history of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Missouri for over one hundred years.
The Foxes and Saukees were so perfectly consolidated that they could hardly be called separate tribes; they were engaged in the
137 See Note 34, in 68 Jesuit Relations, p. 333, referring to Hebbard's Wis- consin under the Dominion of France, p. 142.
138 La Hontan's Voyages, vol. i., p. 132 (London Ed., 1702); p. 203 .- McClurg Ed., 1905.
139 g Wisconsin Hist. Coll., p. 248.
140 Ibid., p. 250.
141 9 Wisconsin Hist. Coll., p. 123. In 1788 Julian Dubuque secured from them in full council, at Prairie du Chien, the right to mine lead on the west side of the Mississippi, near the present site of the city of Dubuque .- 13 Wis. Hist. Coll., p. 279.
142 General Archives of the Indies, Seville .- Report as to the Indian Tribes on the Upper Missouri and Mississippi.
204
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
same wars and had the same alliances, and were considered as indis- soluble in war and peace.143 Father Allouez,144 in 1668, observed that their language was so nearly alike that what he said in the Outa- gamie (Fox) language was fully understood by the Saukees. "The Sacs and Foxes," says Dr. Cous in a learned note to his edition to Pike's Expedition, "have a curious history, perhaps not exactly paralleled by that of any other tribe whatever. Their names are linked inseparably from the earliest times to the present day. Each has always been to the other what neither of them has ever been to any other Indians, or to any whites-friend." But Pike observed, in 1805, that a schism had appeared among them, because the Foxes did not approve the insolence and ill-will which marked the conduct of the Saukees toward the United States on many occasions. It is likely, however, that this schism originated out of the treaty of 1804. Among their savage brethren these Indians were much more dreaded for their deceit and strategy than for their open courage. For many years they carried on war against the Osages and Missouris, gen- erally assisted by the Iowas, and because armed with guns were generally successful in their forays, and thus made their hunting grounds all the territory north of the Missouri river and east of the Grand river. In 1805, almost immediately after the acquisition of Louisiana by the United States, a band of these Saukees invaded the Osage country, south of the Missouri, and killed the famous Osage chief, Belle Oiseau or Shengawassa, not far from the mouth of the Grand Fork. Belle Oiseau at the time was on his way to Wash- ington with the first Osage delegation.
At the time of the acquisition of Louisiana, one of their principal villages was situated within the present state of Missouri, south of the Des Moines; another village was north of the Des Moines, near the state line, and still another at the mouth of Rock river, near Rock Island, in the present state of Illinois.
Their mode of living was substantially the same as that of the Osages. Atwater describes the dwelling of Quas-quaw-ma to be "forty feet long and twenty feet wide, that six feet on each of the sides within doors, was occupied by the place where the family slept. Their beds consisted of a platform raised four feet from the
143 Pike's Expedition, vol. i., p. 238. Lewis and Clark's Expedition (Cous' Ed.), p. 22, note 49.
144 54 Jesuit Relations, p. 223.
205
AGRICULTURE
earth, resting on poles, tied at that height to posts standing upright in the ground, opposite each other, and touching the roof. On these poles, so fastened to the posts, were laid barks of trees, and upon these barks were laid blankets and skins of deer, bears, bisons, etc. These were the beds. Between these beds was an open space per- haps six or eight feet in width, running the whole length of the wig- wam. In this space fires were kindled in cold and wet weather, and here, at such times the cooking was carried on, the family warmed themselves, eat their food, etc. There was no chimney, and the smoke either passed through the roof or out of the end of the wig- wam." 145 145 They were accustomed to leave their village as soon as their corn, beans, etc., were ripe and taken care of, and the traders arrived to extend credit for their outfits for their winter hunts, it being previously determined in council where the several parties should hunt. The old men, women and children traveled in canoes, the young men going by land with the horses. The winter hunt usually lasted for three months, the traders following and estab- lishing themselves at points convenient for collecting amounts due them, and supplying them with additional goods. In favorable seasons they were not only able to pay the traders, but to purchase for themselves and families blankets, ammunition, etc., during the winter and leaving considerable of the proceeds of their hunt on hand, generally consisting of the most valuable peltries, such as otter, beaver, etc., which they would take home to their villages and sell for such articles as they afterwards wanted.146 When the Jesuit missionaries first came in contact with them, they prepared them- selves for hunting by long fasts, and also made their little children fast, so that they might dream of bear, imagining that if the little children dreamed of bear they certainly would be successful in their hunts.147
They usually returned to their villages in the month of April, and after putting their lodges in order, commenced to prepare their ground for seed. They cultivated, near their principal villages on the Mississippi, over three hundred acres of land, and raised as high as eight thousand bushels of corn, besides beans, pumpkins, and melons, being much more interested in raising crops than were the
145 Atwater A Tour to Prairie du Chien, p. 232 (Columbus, 1833).
146 Morse's Report, p. 125.
147 56 Jesuit Relations, p. 129.
206
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Osages. They even sold corn to the traders. The principal part of this crop they would bury in holes-caches - in the ground, in sacks. The agricultural work was principally performed by the women, and altogether done with the hoe.
In general, the young men would go on their summer hunts while the old men and women remained at home, collecting rushes for mats and bark to make bags for their corn. The women, in 1820, made as many as three hundred floor mats, as handsome and durable as those made by the whites. The twine used in these mats was made out of basswood bark, boiled and hammered, or out of the bark of the nettle, the women twisting or spinning it by rolling on the knee with the hands. Those of the able-bodied men who did not go on the hunts dug and smelted lead at the mines in their territory on the upper Mississippi, and in this work they were also assisted by the old men and the women. 148 Morse reports that they dug from four to five thousand pounds of mineral during a season. That they had absorbed from their association with the whites some ideas is shown by the fact that at one time one of the greatest chiefs of the Saukees, Mo-no-to-mack, had for many years contemplated having their land surveyed and laid off into tracts for each family or tribe.
The males of the Saukees and Foxes were separated into two grand divisions, called Kish-co-quah and Osh-kosh, and each clan had a war chief. When the first child of a family was born it was assigned to the first band, and on the birth of the second child it was assigned to the second band, and so on.149 In 1820 Keokuk was the war chief of the first band among the Saukees. When this band went to war, and on all public occasions, they were painted white with pipe clay. The war chief of the other band was named Na-cala-quoick, and when this band went to war they were painted black. In addition to these chiefs there were many petty war chiefs or partisans, who frequently went out in small parties as volunteers against their enemies, extending their operations south of the Missouri river into the country of the Osages, and generally following the course of the Gasconade or Saline.150
An Indian, says Morse, intending to go to war will commence by blacking his face, permitting his hair to grow long, neglecting his
148 13 Wisconsin Hist. Coll., p. 282.
149 Morse's Report, p. 130.
150 Autobiography of Black Hawk in Pioneer Families of Missouri, p. 462.
207
EXTENT OF TERRITORIAL CLAIM
personal appearance, and frequently fasting, sometimes two or three days. If his dreams were favorable, he thought that the Great Spirit would give him success, and then he usually would make a feast of dog-meat, to part with his favorite dog being the greatest sacrifice he could make. All those who felt inclined to join him would attend his feast. After the feast they would start on the expedition, and if successful, return to their village with great pomp and ceremony. They would halt several miles from the village and send messengers ahead to inform the village of their success, when all of their female friends would dress themselves in their best attire to meet them. On their arrival it was the privilege of the women to take from these warriors all their blankets, trinkets, etc. The whole party would then paint themselves and approach the village with the scalps stretched on small hoops and suspended on long poles or sticks, dancing, singing and beating the drum. The chiefs would then determine whether they would be allowed to dance the scalps (as they termed it) or not. If permitted, the time was fixed when the ceremony should commence and when it should end. In this dance the women joined the successful warriors, and sometimes more than one hundred would dance at once, clad in their most gaudy attire.
The territory between the Des Moines and Missouri and east of Grand river was in their undisputed possession when the United States acquired Louisiana. Before the war of 1812, while occa- sionally guilty of depredations, on the whole, they caused little trouble. Occasionally they would commit murder, often ignorantly and without appreciating the heinousness of the offense. Thus a Saukee Indian in 1809 was tried before the supreme court of the Territory of Louisiana for killing a man by the name of Le Page at Portage des Sioux. He had been induced to commit the crime because he was called a "squaw" by the other Indians, as he had never killed any person. In order to establish his valor and man- hood, he took his gun and went out and killed Le Page, who was at the time quietly working on his barn, not suspecting any danger. The Indian was afterward pardoned by the President at the earnest solicitation of his people. Two other Saukee Indians, named Tidia and Wigam, were also indicted and tried in the United States court of Illinois, for killing some white men on the Missouri. They were convicted; but it is hardly probable that they understood either
208
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
the gravity of the crime or the mode of procedure by which they were being held accountable for what to them evidently appeared only a venial offense.
The trade of these Indians was long controlled by the English, although the Spanish traders of St. Louis secured some of it. After the acquisition of Louisiana it was all absorbed by the merchants of St. Louis.151
The Shawnee and Delaware Indians first settled in southeastern Missouri in about 1784. When Colonel George Morgan came down the Ohio in the fall of 1788 to take possession of the extensive grant which he thought he had secured from the Spanish govern- ment, he found a small band of about twenty Delaware Indians camped in the bottoms, in what is now Mississippi county, on the west bank of the Mississippi. In 1793 Baron de Carondelet first authorized Don Louis Lorimier to establish the "Loups et Chaou- anons," in the province of Louisiana, on the Mississippi between the Missouri and Arkansas, although it appears that the Shawnees and Delawares resided on the west side of the Mississippi prior to this period, perhaps on merely an implied permission of the Spanish authorities. Also, subsequently, Lorimier was authorized by the Spanish government to visit these Indian tribes residing in the United States and induce them to make a settlement in the Spanish posses- sions. In 1794 the Delawares and Shawnees residing in upper Louisiana sent deputies, accompanied by Lorimier, to visit their kinsfolk residing on the Glaize, arriving at Miami Rapids June 17th of that year. It is said that this delegation encouraged their kinsmen by the prospect of war against the United States.152 The Spanish authorities were then anxious to settle the Shawnees and Delawares in upper Louisiana, not only to protect the settlements against the Osage Indians, but also to strengthen the west bank of the Missis- sippi against the Americans.
In a letter written at Cincinnati, under date of June 3, 1797, and addressed to Hon. Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State, Sargent, secretary of the Northwestern Territory, writes: "I seize the occasion to transcribe for you some paragraphs from a western letter. The Spaniards are reinforcing their upper posts on the Mississippi. Gen- eral Howard, an Irishman, in quality of commander-in-chief, with
151 9 Wisconsin Hist. Coll., p. 148.
152 Stone's Life of Brant, vol. ii., p. 375. Dillon's Indiana, vol. i., p. 369.
209
SHAWNEES AND DELAWARES
upwards of three hundred men, is arrived at St. Louis, and employed in erecting formidable works. It likewise appears, through various channels, that they are inviting a great number of Indians of the Territory to cross the Mississippi; and for this express purpose, Mr. Lorimier, an officer in the pay of the Crown, made a tour through all this country last fall, since which time several Indians have been sent on the same errand, and generally furnished with plenty of cash to defray their expenses. A large party of Delawares passed down White river about 6th of May, on their way to the Spanish side, bearing the national flag of Spain, some of them from St. Louis. They (the Spaniards) have, about the mouth of the Ohio on the Mississippi, several row galleys with cannon." 153 The settlements of the Shawnees and Delawares were made principally between the mouth of Cinque Hommes creek and Flora creek, above Cape Gir- ardeau, bounded on the east by the Mississippi and on the west by White Water. In this district, Menard says, these Indians had six villages. Other Shawnees settled on a branch of the Maramec, about thirty miles northwest of the lead mines, in what is now Jef- ferson county. Lewis Rogers, said by Morse 154 to have been "a very respectable and worthy man," was chief of this band of Shaw- nees, consisting of about twenty-four warriors. He said in 1819: "If a good teacher come here and stay with Shawnees, we have for him plenty of corn and plenty of hogs." At a meeting of the prin- cipal men of his village, it was agreed to pay a teacher in cattle and skins, if one could be obtained, to instruct their children in the way of the whites. When told that they must be taught to cultivate the earth, Rogers said, "Shawnees can work some, too, and build him that comes a great big house." "Who will build the house?" he was asked. "All the town will build it," said Rogers. Of Rogers and this band of Shawnees and Delawares, Peck gives an interest- ing account. He says that, in 1819, he met the Rev. John Ficklin, from Kentucky, in St. Louis. He had been sent from the Kentucky Mission Society to certain bands of Indians in Missouri, that he might obtain some of their children to commence an Indian school in that state. This was the beginning of the Indian school subse- quently sustained by the national government, on the farm and under
153 It is said that Don Zenon Trudeau sent emissaries to the Indians, inviting them to establish themselves in the Spanish territory. Wilkinson's Memoirs, vol. ii. Powers' Narrative, appendix.
154 Morse's Report, p. 235.
210
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
the supervision of the late Hon. R. M. Johnson, at the Blue Springs, Scott county. This Mr. Ficklin, says Peck,155 " was a self-sacri- ficing, zealous Baptist preacher, and for a long series of years was a member of Great Crossings Baptist Church, and connected with the Elkhorn Association. With Mr. Short, his traveling companion, he had made an excursion to several places in the territory, where bands of Indians resided, one of which was on the Fourche-à-Cour- tois, in Washington county, another was at Indian town between Bourbeuse and Maramec rivers. Here was a band of Shawnees and Delawares, called Rogers' band, from their chief or head man. Mr. Rogers was originally a white man, taken prisoner in boyhood, and so trained in Indian habits and tactics that in mind, temper, disposition and inclinations he was completely an Indian. He took for a wife a squaw who was the daughter of a chief, and through his influence and his own superior talents he held the office of com- mander in that band. During the series of wars between the Indians and the white people, in their early migrations to Kentucky, Rogers commanded a marauding party on the Ohio river, who displayed their prowess in plundering boats and murdering the owners when they met with resistance. The victory of General Wayne, in 1794, and the treaty of Greenville that followed, put an end to these depre- dations. Previous to this period, however, Captain Rogers had accumulated wealth enough to satisfy the wants of himself and band, and apprehensive lest they might be trailed out by some of the war parties of the whites, prudently migrated across the Great River, and located themselves at Village-à-Robert, afterward called Owen's Station, and now Bridgeton, in St. Louis county. Rogers had not lost all predilections for the lower grade of civilization. He had two sons, James and Lewis, who grew up to manhood, who both volun- teered in the War of 1812, and two or three daughters. One daugh- ter married Cohun, a Delaware brave, and a fine, noble specimen of humanity. He was a man of strong sense, industrious, generous, and a firm friend to his white neighbors. He used to say of his boys, Lewis would speak to the paper, but he believed the Indians would get Jim-that is, that Lewis would learn readily, but that James was a thorough Indian and averse to books. He was wealthy for one in his condition, and offered money to any white man who would marry his daughters, but after the marriage deferred payment of the
155 Life of Peck, pp. III, 112, 113.
2II
ROGERS' BAND
promised dowry, saying he would see if he proved a worthy husband." When and under what circumstances Captain Rogers died Peck says he never learned. But Samuel Conway told Draper that he died five miles from Union on the Bourbeuse 156 about a mile above its mouth, in the forks between the Bourbeuse and Maramec.
His successor in office was Captain Fish, also a white man, who had been taken prisoner when a small boy and had acquired the Indian character so perfectly that a stranger would not have sus- pected his white blood, "a large, heavy-formed man." He married a daughter of Captain Rogers.
This band of Indians cultivated little farms. Captain Rogers, as we have seen, took an active part in getting up a school in the village, and in this the American settlers united with him, and “the white and Indian boys were at their books in school hours and engaged with the bow and arrow and other Indian pastimes during intermission. Amongst these scholars was the late Rev. Lewis Williams, who obtained his education in boyhood in this half-Indian seminary." Peck then continues : "About the time, or a little before the cession of Louisiana to the United States, Rogers and his band removed to the Big Springs at the head of the main Maramec. Here the water suddenly bursts from the earth into a large basin, from which flows a river more than fifty yards in width, and from two to three feet deep. It proved very sickly to the newcomers, and several died. I think probably Captain Rogers was of the number. Supposing they had intruded upon the dominion of a Matchee Mon- ito, or Evil Spirit, they broke up their lodges, came down the country and built their cabins on the borders of Indian prairie, in Franklin county, a few miles south of Union. Captain Fish, the Rogers', and others met Mr. Ficklin in St. Louis, where, on the first day of October, we held a talk about sending their children to Kentucky. Lewis Rogers, who could read and write as well as most of the fron- tier settlers, offered to go, provided he could be permitted to take his wife and all his family with him. To this proposal Mr. Ficklin assented. These Indians were thrifty farmers, and brought the best cattle to the St. Louis market. Next year, in company with Elder
156 Draper's Notes, vol. xxiv., pp. 151 to 204, inc. Samuel Conway was born in St. Clair district in 1799. One Joab Barton, a white man, came with the Shawnees to upper Louisiana; he married a Miss Music, but she left him and afterward married a man named Meaders. Barton lived on the Osage, about 10 miles from Jefferson City, at Lyon's ferry; he died about 1820.
212
HISTORY OF MISSOURI
Lewis Williams and Isaiah Todd, I visited these Indians at their hunting camps, some eight or ten miles above their town. We were treated with great hospitality. They heard favorable accounts from Lewis Rogers, at the school in Kentucky, and consented to send on more of their sons."
Among the Shawnees settled on Apple creek in upper Louisiana was Peter Cornstalk - Nerupenesheguah -son of the celebrated Cornstalk of the Dunmore war; he was a war chief, a fluent and powerful speaker, and, when he came to upper Louisiana, was about thirty years old. At the age of eighty years he was a conspicuous defender of the interests of the Shawnees to their lands west of the Missouri state line.157 Here resided a sister of Tecumseh - Teceik- eapease - who married a Canadian Frenchman, about 1808, by the name of Francois Maisonville, residing at New Madrid.158 There were here also other members of the Tecumseh family. Among the most conspicuous chiefs, according to Menard, was Pepiqua (the flea), and upon his advice the Shawnees relied greatly, believing that he communicated with the Good Spirit, that he was a rain-maker and could stop it. His adviser was Le Grande Orielles. Wappillessee (white bird) was the name of a war chief; another chief was Kis- calawa (tiger-tail), small but well proportioned, who had taken part in nearly all the border warfare in Kentucky, participated in the battle at Blue Lick, and Colonel Todd's defeat, where he commanded the Shawnees, and loved to tell of his exploits. Still another chief of the village, and a friend of Pierre Menard, was Necamee. He was half white. Pacha was the chief of another village. A full brother of Simon Girty was also among them, a perfect Indian in his habits, manners, and dress, and according to Menard, no one could tell that he could speak English, although he did not forget it. A full-blooded Shawnee, called by the white people "Colonel Louis," but by a large portion of the Shawnees "Little White Man," who sided with the Americans in the War of 1812, lived here. He died a few miles from
157 Harvey's History of the Shawnee Indians, pp. 166, 244.
158 Godfrey Lesieur's letter in St. Louis Republican, April, 1872. She died at the age of 35, in New Madrid county, and Francois Maisonville at the age of 50 years; there were no lineal descendants except a granddaughter, uneducated but intelligent, who married Edward Meate, residing near where the village of Portageville is now. Mrs. Meate died, at the age of 40 years, in 1870. A boat- builder named Francois Maisonville, who was with Governor Hamilton on his expedition to Vincennes, should not be confounded with this New Madrid Maisonville.
APPLE CREEK SHAWNEE, BY WARIN .- FROM COLLOT'S DANS L'AMERIQUE
213
VILLAGES ON APPLE CREEK
Ste. Genevieve, in 1826 or 1827.159 Another chief was Metipouiosa, decorated with a medal by Carondelet, in 1794.160
The two largest villages of these Indians, on Apple creek, were known as the large and small "village sauvage." They were about twenty miles north of Cape Girardeau.161 In Spanish times a path, known as the "Shawnee path" or "trace," led from the residence of Don Louis Lorimier, commander of the post, to these villages, and from these villages to Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis; another path, still known as the "Indian road," led also up Apple creek, west. The Delawares resided in separate villages on Shawnee and Indian creeks. But the Delawares and Shawnees were accus- tomed to act together in important matters. Thus, in 1809, we find in the "Louisiana Gazette" this statement: "Rogers, chief of the Maramec Shawnees, tells us that he received a summons from Waubetethebe, Delaware chief, and Thathaway, Shawnee chief, to
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.