USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri (the center state) one hundred years in the Union, 1820-1921, Volume I > Part 50
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Delassus to the Tribes.
In March, 1804, three days after he had absolved the habitants of St. Louis from further allegiance to Spain, Governor Delassus formally told the Indians assembled at St. Louis of the change. He did so at the request of Captain Stoddard. The American captain knew how well Upper Louisiana had fared with the Indians. He appreciated the friendliness that had existed between Spanish authority and the nations of the Missouri. He asked Governor Delassus to make known in his own way to the Indians that they had a new father. The governor complied. To a formal assemblage of Indians in front of the govern- ment house, in the presence of Captain Stoddard and Meriwether Lewis, Gov- ernor Delassus delivered in a very impressive manner this address :
"Delawares, Abenakis, Saquis and others :
"Your old fathers, the Spaniard and the Frenchman, who grasp by the hand your new father, the head chief of the United States, by an act of their good will, and in virtue of their last treaty, have delivered up all of these lands. The new father will keep and defend the lands and protect all of the white and red skins who live thereon. You will live as happily as if the Spaniard was still here.
"I have informed your new father, who liere takes my place, that since I have been here the Delawares, Shawnees and Saquis have always conducted themselves well; that I have always received them kindly; that the chiefs have always restrained their young men as much as possible. I have recommended thee, Takinosa, as chief of the natives; that thou hast always labored much and well to maintain a sincere friendship with the whites and that, in consequence of thy good services, I recently presented to thee a medal with the portrait of thy great father, the Spaniard, and letters patent reciting thy good and loyal Vol. 1-30
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services. For several days past we have fired off cannon shots that we may announce to all the nations your father, the Spaniard, is going, his heart happy to know that you will be protected and sustained by your new father and that the smoke of the powder may ascend. to the Master of life, praying him to shower on you all a happy destiny and pros- perity in always living in good union with the whites."
The American occupation was followed by an act which did much toward retaining Indian good will. In April, 1806, Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike, back from his exploration of the Upper Mississippi, was ordered to get ready for an expedition westward. The object was to escort to their tribes fifty-one Osages and Pawnees. These Indians had been taken prisoners by the Pottawattomies. They had been redeemed by the United States government. They were to be restored to their people with military escort. At the same time that he went on this diplomatic mission, Pike was to conduct an exploration to the far south- west. The Osages and Pawnees never forgot Pike. For many years any St. Louisan was sure of welcome among them.
Manuel Lisa, the Frontier Diplomat.
The faith which St. Louis kept with the Indians from Laclede's day was worth more than an army when war came in 1812. British influence was directed to the border, and was at work among the tribes from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the Upper Missouri long before a gun was fired. To Governor William Clark in St. Louis, Manuel Lisa, far up the river, more than a year before the war, sent word "the wampum was being carried along the banks of the Missouri." The British scheme, Lisa said, was "a universal confederacy"/ of the Indian nations preparatory to an overwhelming movement on Missouri when war came.
A grand character was William Clark in many ways. But even his share in the expedition of Lewis and Clark to the Pacific was not a greater service to his country than his management of the Indian situation in the Northwest during the war of 1812. One of the first acts of Clark was to make Manuel Lisa a sub-agent of the tribes. No man had such influence over the Indians. Lisa was an American by acquisition. He came under the United States flag when Upper Louisiana did in 1804. He was thoroughly American. "I have suffered enough in person and property under a different government," he wrote, "to know how to appreciate the one under which I now live."
"Captain Manuel," as the Indians called him, began the organizing and arming of the tribes to fight, not against "The Republic," as he liked to call the United States, but against the Indian allies of Great Britain. When the war ended Lisa was fairly ready to begin. He had forty chiefs and several thousand warriors ready to go against the British Indians on the Upper Mississippi. The Missouri frontier had been saved from the Indian nations on the Upper Mississippi. Governor Clark sent trusted representatives with messages of conciliation. Among these emissaries was the One-Eyed Sioux, a famous chief who visited St. Louis frequently and was a great admirer of General Pike, the explorer. The One- Eyed Sioux came to St. Louis with the information that a party had been made up to attack the American frontier. He undertook, as Governor Clark's request, to visit a number of tribes and to use his influence against the British. He was
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imprisoned, maltreated and threatened with death by the British, but was true to the confidence Clark placed in him. When the war was over the One-Eyed Sioux came back to St. Louis and was honored. As long as he lived he treasured and showed with great pride the commission he received to represent Governor Clark in his diplomatic efforts with the Upper Mississippi tribes.
The Indian Treaty of 1812.
In May, 1812, General William Clark assembled at St. Louis chiefs of the Great and Little Osages, Sacs, Renards, Delawares and Shawnees and took them to Washington to make a treaty. They made peace with each other before starting. These chiefs were received by President Madison just before the war with Great Britain. They were taken to eastern cities and made much of. The act was wise, for settlers were crowding into St. Louis and scattering in the Missouri country. Long afterwards Elihu H. Shepard, the historian, paid just tribute to William Clark and testified to the lasting results of his Indian policy :
"He was feared and beloved by the Indians. He understood their character almost by intuition, and could foresee their plans and intentions, and was their constant friend and protector from the impositions of white men. When they were all assembled preparatory to leaving on their long journey, their mutual friend advised them to make peace with each other, which they accordingly did for themselves and their respective people, and all buried the hatchet and left their friends at home in peace with all their neighbors. On the follow- ing day, May the 5th, 1812, General Clark departed with all the chiefs of those powerful tribes, each preserving in their features and attire some peculiarity or custom of their particular tribe or nation.
"More than half a century has since transpired, and probably every person engaged in that embassy of six nations is dead, but that act of General Clark alone should make his name immortal. Those six nations still exist and have kept their people on terms of friend- ship with each other to this late day. The object of the embassy was fully accomplished. The Indians arrived at Washington city several days before the declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812, and were presented to President Madison, who hield a council and made a satisfactory treaty with them, after which they were shown through many large cities on their return to St. Louis, and escorted to their homes laden with many tokens of esteem and confidence, which are still preserved and shown to strangers as worthy of veneration and lasting preservation by all lovers of peace and friendship."
"Red Head," the Indians' Friend.
Officially William Clark was "Indian agent." In fact, he was "the friend of the Indian." A part of the life of St. Louis were the pilgrimages of the red men to visit "Red Head," as all of them called him. When rivers ran clear of ice in the spring the canoes began to come. They were beached along the then unoccupied river front above St. Louis. From Morgan street to Bremen avenue there were only five houses. Little camps were formed. At some time of the open season every tribe at peace sent the head men to St. Louis. If the tribe was small a canoe or two was sufficient. Delegations from the larger Indian communities required a flotilla. With the chiefs came their squaws and pappooses. When the camp site was chosen, a member of the party went down to notify General Clark. That meant rations. In the morning the chiefs and their retinues, painted and decked out in full ceremonial dress, came down for the formal council. These assemblages were held in a large hall which General Clark had built near his home. "The Council Chamber," it was called. It served
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the purpose of a museum of Indian dress, manufactures, utensils and curios. These things covered the walls. They added to the impressiveness of the formal receptions. In the council chamber the general met the Indians, exchanged salutations, giving without stint the time which these taciturn people seemed to think the dignity of the occasion demanded. He listened to the speeches. He replied through the interpreters, using the native figures of speech which meant so much to the visitors. He met their aboriginal dignity with the suave courtesy of the Virginian. He was patient and kindly with them. After the talk the Indians looked over the museum, pointing out and commenting on those things best known to the tribe to which they belonged. Week after week . General Clark held these receptions as the successive delegations arrived. In the long history of Indian affairs of the United States there is no line. of policy which is quite similar to this which General Clark adopted. And it may be added that there has been no course of official action which surpassed this in effective results with the red men.
Indian Etiquette in St. Louis.
Having paid the visit of ceremony, the delegation enjoyed for a few days the freedom of the city. Every morning the chiefs and their families painted and put on their feathers and robes. They stopped at house after house, beating upon their drums, singing their chants and doing the dances. Ceremonial from the Indians' point of view, these calls might be, but somewhat disconcerting to the newcomers in St. Louis they often were. Indian etiquette made it proper to raise the latch and walk in without using the knocker or speaking a word. Standing within the Indian looked about him, and, after a few moments' delibera- tion, uttered his "how!" Then followed a handshake with each person in the room. A small gift was expected, and then, as the interest of the involuntary host waned, the proud Indians took the hint and moved up the street. Here and there they came to the house of a hunter or trader who had known them in the wilderness. There the entertainment was elaborated. "Indian coffee"- coffee with just enough of the bean to give color, a very weak imitation-was served. Fat slices of bacon were cooked and handed round. Firewater-hot stuff-was the stirrup cup. Two or three days, perhaps a week or ten days, the visits and the hospitality continued. Then at daybreak the canoes were pushed into the water and the prows were turned up stream. St. Louis saw no more of the head men of that tribe until the following year. So long as General Clark lived this coming and going of the chiefs of a hundred tribes was of yearly occurrence. Westward up the rivers and over the prairies pioneers pushed their picket line of settlement. They slept peacefully. Not a war whoop dis- turbed the night. Red Head's Indian policy was mightier for protection than an army of soldiers would have been.
Governor Clark's Museum.
Schoolcraft spoke of Clark's collection as "arranged with considerable effect." Edward James Glasgow at the age of. eighty-eight told Thwaites, the historian, he well remembered General Clark's Indian museum, which he visited when a boy. General Clark lived at Main and Vine. He had four other houses in the block, fronting Main. One of these houses was the large hall, in which were
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displayed the curiosities, open to the public. The collection included bows and arrows, battle clubs, stone axes, birch bark canoes which were suspended from the ceiling, Indian dresses, decorated with feathers, bones and mastodons.
When General Clark died, his houses were divided among his heirs. The collection was sent for safe keeping to a public museum. After a while the showman shipped his curiosities, including the Clark collection, by way of New Orleans to England. The Clark family learned of it too late to recover. Many years afterwards a member of the family thought he saw some of these things in London. The Duke of Saxe-Weimar visited St. Louis in 1825 and examined with much interest the collection. He wrote of it:
We then went to see Mrs. Clark, who, through the secretary of her husband, Mr. Alexander, exhibited to us the museum collected by the governor on his travels, and since considerably augmented. Mr. Alexander showed us articles of Indian clothing of different kinds, and various materials. Except the leather, the larger part of these materials were American, or rather entirely European in their origin. A single garment alone was made by the Cherokees of cotton which was pulled, spun, wove on a loom, made by an Indian and even dyed blue by them. Besides several weapons of different tribes, wooden toma- hawks, or battle-axes, in one of them was a sharp piece of iron to strike into the skulls of their prisoners; another made of elk-horn, bows of elk-horn and of wood, spears, quivers, and arrows, a spear-head of an Indian of the Columbia river, hewed out of a flint, a water-proof basket of the same people, in which cooking can be performed, several kinds of tobacco pipes, especially the calumet, or great pipe of peace. The heads of this pipe are cut out of a sort of argillaceous earth or serpentine; in time of war the spot where this earth is dug out, is regarded as neutral, and hostile parties, who meet each other at that place, cannot engage in anything inimical against each other. The pipe, which the commissioners of the United States use at treaties with the Indians has a heavy silver head and a peculiarly handsome ornamented wooden stem.
Farther, Mr. Alexander showed us the medals which the Indian chiefs have received at different periods from the Spanish, English and American governments, and the por- traits of various Indian chiefs who have been at St. Louis to conclude treaties with the governor, who is also Indian agent. Among the remarkable things in natural history, we noticed an alligator, eight feet long; a pelican; the horns of a wild goat, shot by the governor in his tour among the Rocky Mountains; the horns of a mountain ram, and those of an elk, several bearskins, among others, of the white bear; buffalo, elk, skunk, which were sewed together in a robe, skins of martens, ferrets, etc., etc .; moreover, several petrifi- cations of wood and animal subjects, among others, of elephants' teeth, a piece of rock-salt, tolerably white, yet not shooting in crystals, as the English; various crystals; a large piece of rock crystal; very handsome small agates, which are here taken for cornelians, etc. Among the curiosities, the most remarkable were two canoes, the one of animal hide, the other of a tree-bark, a peace-belt which consists of a white girdle set with glass beads, two handsbreadths wide; farther, snowshoes, nets which are drawn over an oval frame, also the rackets which they use in playing their game of ball.
The Indians' Reception.
Maximilian, Prince of Wied, while in St. Louis about 1833, attended one of the Indian receptions at the council chamber, and gave this description of it:
General Clark invited us to a small assembly which he was to hold in his house with the Indians. We accordingly repaired thither. This meeting took place in the apartments, which are ornamented with a highly interesting collection of arms and utensils, which the general had secured on his extensive travels with Captain Lewis. The rooms contain, likewise, portraits of the most distinguished Indian chiefs of the different nations. General Clark, with his secretary, was seated opposite to the Indians, who sat in rows along the
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walls of the apartment. We strangers sat at the general's side, and near him stood the interpreter, a French Canadian. The Indians, about thirty in number, had done their best to ornament and paint themselves; they all looked very serious and solemn, and their chief sat at their right hand. The general first told them, through the interpreter, for what reason he had assembled them here; on which Keokuk rose with the calumet in his left hand, gesticulating with his right hand in harmony with his thoughts; he spoke very loud in broken sentences, interrupted by short pauses. His speech was immediately translated and written down. The conference lasted about half an hour. General Clark had intro- duced us to the Indians, telling them that we had come far over the ocean to see them. They all testified their satisfaction in a rather drawling "hah !" or "ahah !" Before and after the sitting all of the Indians passed us in a line, each giving us his right hand, and looking steadfastly into our faces. They then withdrew, headed by their chiefs. The gen- eral had told them that they should persevere in their amicable sentiments as hitherto; and they had expressed the wish that their brothers might soon be set at liberty, because their wives and children at home were suffering hunger and distress. Upon this the general advised them, when Black Hawk and his associates should be set at liberty, to keep a watchful eye over them. On this condition he would intercede for the prisoners.
Keokuk and Black Hawk.
The conference followed the Black Hawk war in Northern Illinois. The Indians had come down the Mississippi to St. Louis, seeking for the release of the prisoners who were confined at Jefferson Barracks. Prince Maximilian described Keokuk :
The chief, or leader of the Indians assembled here was the Saukie chief, Keokuk, a slender man of middle size, with agreeable features, not very different from those of a European, though of a darker color. He wore a colored calico shirt, and on his breast a large medal, which he had received from the President of the United States; and like- wise wore a figured handkerchief around his head, and was wrapped in a green blanket. He carried in his hand a calumet ornamented with feathers. His face was not painted, his ears not disfigured, and it was affirmed that he was not of pure origin. He wore brass rings round his neck and wrists.
The visiting Indians were allowed to go to the Barracks and to see their kinsmen. Prince Maximilian took advantage of the opportunity to witness the meeting : - E
General Clark introduced us to General Atkinson, the commandant of the place. After resting a short time in his house we proceeded to a spacious empty hall in one of the adjoining buildings, where the Indians were already seated in rows. The general sat opposite to them surrounded by the spectators, among whom were several ladies. When all were assembled, Keokuk, with the aid of the interpreter, delivered an address to General Atkinson, who replied; after which the prisoners were introduced. First of all Black Hawk appeared, a little old man, perhaps seventy years of age, with gray hair, and a light yellow complexion; a slightly curved nose, and Chinese features, to which the shaven head, with the usual tuft behind, not a little contributed. These poor men entered with downcast looks; and though no Indian betrayed any lively demonstration of emotion, such feelings were very manifest in many of them. The prisoners gave their hands to their countrymen all round and then sat down with them. Two of the Indians, known as particularly dangerous men, one of them the celebrated Winnebago prophet, who has a repulsive countenance, had chains with large iron balls at their feet. The other prisoners were not chained and we were told that they were taken out every day by the guard to walk. The speeches now recommenced. Keokuk spoke often and interceded for the prisoners. General Atkinson repeated to them pretty nearly what General Clark had
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TWIN OSAGE PAPOOSES
First twins of the tribe allowed to live. Osages considered twins misfortune. Mother and babies were buried alive when Osages lived in Missouri before the whites came.
Courtesy Missouri Historical Society KE-O-KUK
The watchful Fox. Chief of the Sac and Fox tribes. This picture reproduced from an old daguerreotype.
WAH-PAH-SHO-SAH, OSAGE CHIEF
The Osage Indians were closely identified with history of Missouri. Head shaved, leaving a tuft of hair on crown, a tribal distinction.
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already said, on which the Indians again uttered their "hah!" or "ahah!" When the speeches were ended the company withdrew and left the prisoners alone with their country- men to give free vent to their feelings. The sight of old Black Hawk and the whole scene of the prisoners and their friends was affecting.
The Winnebago chief was known better as White Cloud. He was the bad medicine man who encouraged Black Hawk to repudiate the treaty by which Illinois had been given up to white settlement. White Cloud was a Winnebago on his mother's side. He lived on Rock river in Illinois. While he was a prisoner at Jefferson Barracks the medicine man was painted by the artist, Catlin. Soon after the visit of Prince Maximilian, the Indian prisoner Black Hawk was sent on a tour to eastern cities in order that he might be impressed with the strength of the white people.
General Henry Atkinson was prominent in the military life of St. Louis for many years. He was a North Carolinian and rose through the grades to be a brigadier general. He was connected with the expeditions which went out from St. Louis to the Yellowstone in 1819 and 1825. His most notable service was command of the United States troops in the war against Black Hawk when that warrior and his followers invaded Illinois in 1832. After that war General Atkinson was stationed at Jefferson Barracks until his death in 1842. General Atkinson was known among the Indians as "White Beaver."
The Pants Leg Reservation.
The Osage Indians were strongly attached to their Missouri homes. For years after they were removed to the Indian Territory they made it an annual custom to return to Henry County for a visit. Most of the Delawares moved from Indiana and Illinois in 1819 to Missouri, locating near the present site of Springfield. Ten years later they sold their Missouri lands to the government and were expected to go on a reservation near the present city of Leavenworth. Some of the Delawares objected to this change after viewing the promised land because they said the fork formed by the Kaw and Missouri rivers looked too much like the trousers of a white man. They refused to go to what was called at that time "The Pants Leg Reservation," and were sent into the Indian Territory near Fort Sill. During their residence in Missouri the Delawares gave the white people very little trouble. They became allies of the Tehe band of Cherokees and did some fighting against the Osages.
The Story of Colonel Splitlog's Rise.
A Missouri Indian founded a city, developed a mine and built a railroad. Perhaps there is no parallel in any other state to this performance. The Mis- souri Indian was a member of the Wyandotte tribe. He was Chief Splitlog, but after he became a capitalist and made things boom in the southwestern corner of the state, he was better known as Colonel Splitlog. For many years he lived near Kansas City on the Wyandotte Reservation. When his people dissolved tribal relations and accepted a division of their lands from the United States, Splitlog was one of the chiefs who negotiated the treaty. After the tribe dissolved, the Splitlog family remained near the mouth of the Kaw and the ex-chief began to show his ability by steamboating in a small way. As Kansas City grew, the
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Splitlogs were able to sell their land at a good price. They moved to the banks of the Cowskin, or as it was sometimes more elegantly termed, the Elkhorn. The ex-chief kept a store and sold goods to the Senecas. He built a house that was the wonder of the whole Seneca nation. It had two full stories, was handsomely painted and, more wonderful than all, it had a big "observatory" on top. The young members of the family developed musical talent and the old chief bought them a full set of band instruments and hired an instructor. A local manager conceived the idea of a concert tour. The Splitlog boys started out with the old man's blessing and some cash in advance. About the third concert pros- perity proved too much for them. The boys took the town and the town marshal took them. The Splitlog cornet band left Missouri and went back to the nearby reservation.
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