USA > North Dakota > Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history > Part 2
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EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
tried to take it by violence when he in his desperation fired on one of them who was slightly wounded, and their purpose was gained-the whites had drawn the first blood, and war was declared and waged in all its fury.
Of the ninety villages which had been settled by the New England colonists, twelve were utterly destroyed during that war, and forty others suffered from fire and pillage. The isolated settlements were nearly all destroyed, the Indians taking but few captives and these being held for torture or ransom.
The traditions of many families run back to King Philip's war, some of the women and children escaping by being placed in an out-of-door brick oven before which wood was piled when the men were called out for the common defense. When the men returned they found the family safe, but the buildings had been destroyed by fire. In Abbott's "History of King Philip," the author graphically tells the story, and concludes with these words: "But the amount of misery created can never be told or imagined. The midnight assault, the awful conflagration, the slaughter of women and children, the horrors of captivity in the wilderness, the impoverishment and mourning of widows and orphans, the diabolical torture, piercing the wilderness with shrill shrieks of mortal agony, the terror, universal and uninterrupted by day or night-all, all combined in composing a scene in the awful tragedy of human life, which the mind of the · Deity alone can comprehend."
Plymouth and Bristol counties in Eastern Massachusetts witnessed some of the most exciting episodes of the Indian wars, and the conflicts with King Philip and his warriors occurred frequently in this locality. Their woods and the country lying between the present cities have rung many times with the war whoop of savages, and the waters of Mount Hope Bay, and the many lakes, rivers, and large ponds, have assisted in the transportation of countless parties of attack, and of escape, as well as great councils leading to transactions of far- reaching consequence to the country.
King Philip and about five hundred lodges of his people numbering upwards of three thousand, took up their winter quarters in 1675, near South Kingston, R. I., on an elevated tract of land surrounded by an almost impenetrable swamp. It was fortified by palisades, a ditch and a slashing of some rods in width, and here as at Pequot Hill, they had gathered immense quantities of supplies. Decem- ber 19, 1675, they were attacked in this position by a force of about one thousand colonial troops and their camp and supplies entirely destroyed. More than one thousand warriors were slain, and a large number were wounded; few of the women and children escaping, although many of the warriors reached the swamp, and continued their warfare until the bitter end in the summer of 1677.
King Philip, however, was killed August 12, 1676, at Mount Hope, R. I. His body was beheaded and quartered and the parts hung up in trees to be devoured by vultures; his wife and children being sold into slavery. This was the fate of the captives generally. Those for whom there was no market were parceled out among the colonists as servants. The tribes engaged in this war were the Wampanoags, Narragansetts and Nipmucks.
Similar scenes were enacted in the Wyoming Valley, Luzerne County, Penn- sylvania, July 3, 1778, when more than three hundred settlers were slain.
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EXTENDING THE FRONTIER
Before the Revolutionary war, steps were taken to extend the settlement to the west, partly from the impulse to expand, to grow, and partly from a desire to extend the frontier as a measure of protection. This ambition was the leading, moving thought among the great minds of Virginia, and it was sons of Virginia who blazed the way into the trackless wilderness, and took possession of Ken- tucky, "the dark and bloody ground," where the battles were fought and the minds cultured which made apparent the advisability of the purchase of Louisiana, and contributed so much to its development.
As Washington, then a young surveyor and lowly citizen, extended the lines of survey, he was watched by the red men, who dogged his footsteps and scalped his unfortunate assistants who happened to fall into their hands, and often it became necessary to drop the tripod and compass, and take up the rifle and the knife. That which occurred in his case was true in the life of almost all of the frontier surveyors, and the frontier farmer carried the rifle, as well as the hoe, into the field where the work was done.
When the little band of Virginians passed down the Ohio River on their way to the unknown land, muffled oars guided the Indian canoe behind them, and stealthily treading feet followed their footprints on the land. When they sent their representatives back to Virginia, it was the eloquence, the force and the patriotism of Patrick Henry-and the loving sympathy of his wife, Dorothea, "a gift of God" indeed,-which gave to the settlers 500 pounds of powder, to Kentucky a name as a county in Virginia, and the support necessary to the life of that colony.
Startling and fruitful of results were the incidents in the years of warfare which followed. We find in them the chain of forts, the campaign of "Mad" Anthony Wayne, the battle of Tippecanoe and the war with Mexico.
The horrors of Indian war were again visited on the frontier settlers in the Minnesota massacre of 1862, which brought the trail of blood home to Dakota doors, the story of which will be told with considerable detail in this volume, for it is important that the youth of this fair land should know something of what it has cost to establish liberty, to extend the settlements, and to develop the resources of this country, until now there is no frontier.
"But the Prairie's passed, or passing, with the passing of the years, Till there is no West worth knowing, and there are no Pioneers;
They have riddled it with railroads, throbbing on and on and on. They have ridded it of dangers till the zest of it is gone ;
And I've saddled up my pony, for I'm dull and lonesome here,
To go Westward, Westward, Westward, till we find a new Frontier ;
To get back to God's own wildness and the skies we used to know- But there is no West; it's conquered-and I don't know where to go!"
-J. W. Foley, "Sunset On the Prairies."
CHAPTER I-Continued. OUTLINES OF AMERICAN HISTORY
THE FIRST TRADING POSTS-BORDER WARS-FRENCH POSTS-THE ALGONQUINS AND THE IROQUOIS OR SIX NATIONS-INDIAN ALIGNMENT IN THE BORDER WARS- THE TUSCARORAS-A PATHETIC APPEAL-THE CHEROKEES-THE CREEKS, ETC. -ATTEMPTS TO ENSLAVE THE INDIANS-THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS-BUF- FALO AND BEAVER.
THE FIRST TRADING POSTS
"When the cool wind blows, from the shining snows On the long, bald range's crest, I am drunk with song, and the gold days long, And the big, bare sweep of the West.
Life is not fair, but I do not care, If only I get my fill Of wind and storm, and the mellow warm Of the sun, on the sage-brush 'hill !" -M. E. Hamilton, "The Pagan."
In 1608, Samuel Champlain established Indian trade in North America as a business by the construction of a line of trading posts, with headquarters at Quebec. This was the beginning of the fur trade, which, extending along the lakes and to the great Northwest, led to the formation of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany in 1670; to the struggle between the rival trading establishments; to the alignment of the Indians in favor of the French or English, and to the strife along the border.
THE BORDER WARS
The English captured Quebec in 1629, but it was restored to France by the peace of St. Germain en Laye in 1642. In 1654, Port Royal, now known as Annapolis, N. S., was captured by the English, but was restored by treaty.
Compte de Buade Frontenac was appointed governor general of the French possessions in North America in 1672, and under his administration, as early as 1680, the French had built military posts at Niagara, Michilimackinac (Mack- inaw), and in the Illinois country.
Frontenac inaugurated a vigorous war against the Hudson's Bay Company trading posts, and on the English settlements along the frontier. Sir William Phips (or Phipps), governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (1692-1694), in 1690 in an expedition by land and sea from Boston again captured Port Royal, but failed in his attempts to capture Quebec. During Queen Anne's war, 1705 to 1713, Port Royal having been restored to France, was again captured by Col. John Nicholson, in 1710, and renamed Ann-apolis in honor of Queen Anne.
The next year the campaign against Quebec under General John ("Jack") Hill, with 2,000 veterans under Colonel Nicholson, supported by a fleet com-
8
George Washington
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
James Monroe
John Quincy Adams
PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1789 TO 1829
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EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
manded by Sir Howard Walker, failed through disaster to the fleet from a storm on the St. Lawrence River. Queen Anne's war closed in 1713, by the Treaty of Utrecht, and was followed by a few years of peace, between the French and English, the French gradually extending their dominion to the valley of the Mississippi River, forming a chain of forts around the English whose settle- ments were menaced at every point beyond the Alleghany Mountains.
FRENCH FORTS ON THE BORDER
As stated in Francis Parkman's "Half a Century of Conflict," "Niagara held the passage from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie, Detroit closed the entrance to Lake Huron, and Michilimackinac guarded the point where Lake Huron is joined by lakes Michigan and Superior, while the fort called La Baye, at the head of Green Bay, stopped the way to the Mississippi by Marquette's old route of the Fox River and the Wisconsin. Another route to the Mississippi was controlled by a post on the Maurice, to watch the carrying-place between that river and the Wabash, and by another on the Wabash where Vincennes now stands. La Salle's route by way of the Kankakee and the Illinois was barred by a fort on the St. Joseph, and even if, in spite of these obstructions the enemy should reach the Mississippi by any of the northern routes, the cannon at Fort Chartres would prevent him from descending it."
INDIAN ALIGNMENT IN BORDER WARS-THE SIX NATIONS
The Iroquois, known as the "Five Nations" until joined by the Tuscaroras of North Carolina in 1713, were composed of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas, the Tuscaroras making the sixth of the allied nations.
THE ALGONQUINS
The chief tribes of this family group were the Hurons or Wyandottes, Otta- was, Crees, Chippewas, Urees, Miamis, Menominees, Chippisings, Pottawatamies, Sacs, Foxes, Kickapoos, the Powhatan tribes in Virginia, the Mohegans, Pequots, and other tribes of New England, the several tribes being free to exercise their own preference-the Shawnee, Blackfeet and Cheyennes, and various other lesser tribes.
The Algonquin tribes were bounded on the north by the Esquimaux, on the west by the Dakotas or Sioux, on the south by the Cherokees, the Natchez and Mobilian tribes.
THE HURONS
The Hurons were a people of strong militancy; they were first encountered on the St. Lawrence River in the vicinity of Quebec. In their association with friendly Indians they claimed and were usually conceded the right to light the campfire at all general gatherings.
Their confederacy was known in their language as the Sendat, and finally came to be called Wyandots (Wendat). In the treaty of January 21, 1785, they are recognized as Wyandots. This treaty was also with the Delawares, Chippe- was, and Ottawas. It was by the use of firearms obtained from the Dutch that the Iroquois were able to drive the Hurons from the St. Lawrence, when they
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EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
fled to the Michigan peninsula and to Ohio, where they met new foes in the Sioux.
The Recollet Fathers established a mission among the Hurons in 1615; they were succeeded in 1626 by the Jesuits who remained with them until 1648-50.
The French made a treaty of peace with the Iroquois in 1666, which led some of the Hurons to return to Quebec, where the Notre Dame de Foye was founded in 1667. Descendants of the Hurons still reside in that vicinity.
THE IROQUOIS COUNTRY
In 1713 Canada was contiguous to the northern frontier of New England and New York; all of the territory north of the St. Lawrence River belonged to the French; from the great lakes southward the country was claimed by both French and English; the boundary between New England and Canada and New England and New York, occupied by the Dutch, had not been determined, and was the cause of much trouble.
The Iroquois occupied nearly all of the valley of the St. Lawrence, the basins of lakes Ontario and Erie, the southeastern shores of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, all of the present New York, excepting the lower Hudson Valley, all of Central Pennsylvania, the shores of the Chesapeake in Maryland, as far as Choptank and Patuxent rivers ; with the Tuscaroras added the domain extending from the Ottawa River to the Tennessee and from the Kennebec to the Illinois and Lake Michigan.
The Algonquin tribes completely surrounded the Iroquois territory. The Hurons of this family were invariably allies of the French, the alliance growing out of the fact that at the very beginning of French occupation of North America, Samuel Champlain assisted the Hurons in their warfare on the Iroquois, who had been their relentless foes since prehistoric times; their enmity terminating only with the destruction of their confederacy. The Iroquois on the other hand were generally allies of the English. This alignment continued until the treaty of 1763, when the French made a treaty with the Iroquois. Thereafter the Indian alignment depended upon local considerations.
On Jacques Cartier's first voyage in 1534, when he explored the Gulf of St. Lawrence, he met and traded with the Indians on the present coast of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. On his second voyage the year following, he ascended the St. Lawrence as far as Stadacona-which name gave place to that of Quebec or Kebec, given by the Algonquins, meaning a contracted waterway- unopposed by the Indians who supplied him with fish, muskrats, and other articles in exchange for the trifles he had brought with him for barter.
THE BOURGADE OR STOCKADE VILLAGE
Iroquois villages discovered by Cartier and Champlain were of great strength. In 1538, on the second of October, Cartier reached Hochelaga, at the foot of the mountain (Montreal), where he says "over one thousand villagers gathered on the banks to greet them with the fervor of a parent welcoming his child."
"The bourgade was round in shape and compassed by a stockade of three rows of stakes, the middle row perpendicular, the outer row inclined towards
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EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
it. The palisade was two lances high, and at several points adjacent to the palisade were elevated platforms reached by ladders, on which were piled rocks to be used as defensive weapons. The enclosure was entered by a narrow gate. Within were fifty lodges, each fifty paces in length and twelve or thirteen paces in width. In the center stood a common lodge."
Cartier says: "They take no account of the things of this world, being ignorant of their existence."
Champlain, in 1615, writing about the Huron country in the Georgian Bay and Lake Huron region, while resting at the bourgade of Carhagouha, a mission of the Recollet Fathers, says that it "was surrounded for defense with a triple palisade of wood thirty-five feet high," but when he reached the Iroquois villages to the south of Lake Ontario, which resisted his attack and that of his Huron allies, he found another palisaded town "much stronger than the villages of the Allegomantes (Hurons) and others."
At one time when Cartier was concerned by the fancied hostile attitude of the Indians towards him, he protected his fort by a deep ditch, but no attack was attempted. There was a chain of unstockaded Indian villages from Hochelaga up the river to Stadacona.
In 1605, George Weymouth visited Cape Cod, remained some weeks in trade and captured and carried away five Indians intended for slaves, an incident that led to the first encounter by the Pilgrim Fathers.
A PATHETIC APPEAL
The Tuscaroras were hard pressed in North Carolina, many of them having been made captive and sold into slavery. In 1710 they sent a petition to the provincial government of Pennsylvania, attested by eight belts of wampum, embodying overtures for peace. By the first belt, sent by women of mature age, the mothers besought the friendship of the Christian people, the Indians and the government of Pennsylvania, in order to be able to carry wood and water without risk or danger. By the second belt, the children implored room to sport and play without the fear of death or slavery. By the third the young men asked for the privilege of leaving their villages without the fear of death or slavery, to hunt for meat for their mothers, their children and the aged ones. By the fourth, the old men, the elders of the people, asked for the consummation of a lasting peace, so that the forests (the paths to other tribes) might be as safe for them as their palisaded towns. By the fifth, the entire tribe asked for a firm peace. By the sixth, the chiefs asked for the establishment of a lasting peace with the government, people and Indians of Pennsylvania, whereby they would be relieved from those "fearful apprehensions they have for years felt." By the seventh the Tuscaroras begged for "a cessation from murdering and taking them" so that thereafter they would not fear "a mouse, or anything that rustles the leaves." By the eighth, the tribe, being strangers to the people and govern- ment of Pennsylvania, asked for an official path or means of communication.
Their petition was denied by the Pennsylvania authorities; but the fact that it moved the Five Nations to take steps to protect them from further encroach- ments of the white settlers who kidnapped and sold their young people into slavery becoming known in the white settlements, grave apprehension was aroused,
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and confirmed by the Tuscarora war of 1711-13, which followed, beginning with a massacre in which seventy settlers were killed and many wounded.
During the progress of this bloody war Col. John Barnwell lured a consider- able number of Indians to meet him under a promise of making peace, but broke the truce and carried them away to be sold as slaves. May 20-23, 1713, at the palisaded towns in Greene County, North Carolina, 392 were taken prisoners, 504 were killed (192 scalped) and many wounded, making the total loss upwards of one thousand.
Some of the Indians made captive during this war were sold as slaves in South Carolina and some in the northern colonies.
In 1705 the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania enacted a law as follows:
"Whereas the importation of Indian slaves from Carolina, or other places hath been observed to give the Indians of this province some umibrage for sus- picion and dissatisfaction, such importation (shall) be prohibited after March 25, 1706."
June 7, 1712, while the Tuscarora war was being waged, an act was passed by the same body forbidding the importation of Indian slaves but providing for their sale to the highest bidder should any be imported.
INDIAN CIVIL ORGANIZATION-WOMAN'S RIGHTS RECOGNIZED
Among the Iroquois, Hurons and other Indian tribes, the mothers of the tribe were allowed to choose the chiefs, subject to confirmation by the male members, and their consent was required in the enactment of all important measures. They owned the home. The first thought of the women was the care of their husbands, and the children; for them they cut and carried the fire- wood; for them they brought the water, planted, cared for, harvested and stored the crops, they tethered the horses, rowed the boats, built the winter cabins, pitched the summer tepee, the duty of the husband being to defend against the tribal enemies and to supply the meat from the hunting grounds, and to be ready for war at all times.
THE CHEROKEES
The Cherokees were a strong independent branch of the Iroquois occupying the southwestern part of Virginia, western parts of North and South Carolina, the eastern part of Tennessee and the northern parts of Georgia and Alabama.
They joined the Carolina settlers and the Catawbas in their warfare against the Tuscaroras (1711) but formed a part of the Indian league against the Caro- linas in the spring of 1715. This league embraced the tribes occupying the country from Cape Fear to the St. Mary's and back to the mountains, and in- cluded the Creeks, Yamasees, Appalachians, Catawbas, Cherokees and Congarees, in all about six thousand. About one hundred white settlers were slain in the outlying settlements before there was any warning of danger.
Governor Francis Nicholson of South Carolina negotiated a peace with the Cherokees in 1721, and in 1730, Sir Alexander Cumming, on behalf of the British Government, made a treaty with them with a view to counteracting the efforts of the French to unite Canada and Louisiana by a cordon of military posts
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through the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. In 1750, the Cherokees were recon- ciled to the Six Nations, the bloody warfare between them closed, and they became allies of the British and furnished a contingent for the capture of Fort Duquesne (1758) under the command of Col. George Washington, who was a lieutenant-colonel in the command of Gen. Edward Braddock at the battle near the Monongahela River (1755) known as "Braddock's Defeat." In this battle General Braddock was killed and every officer in his command excepting Colonel Washington was killed or wounded. Four bullets passed through Washing- ton's clothing. An Indian chief who participated in the battle informed Wash- ington, fifteen years later, that he had fired a dozen or more fair shots at him and others made special efforts to kill him, but they could not hit him; that they believed that some "Manitou" guarded his life and that he could not be put to death.
In order to supply their needs, the Cherokees on their return to their southern homes took by force from the plantations food which had been refused them, thereby provoking a quarrel which resulted in the death of several whites. To avenge the Indian depredations and to secure the arrest of the guilty parties an invasion of the Cherokee country followed in 1759, under Governor William H. Littleton of South Carolina, with 1,500 men contributed by Virginia and the Carolinas. Dissensions arose in the ranks of the invaders, and as smallpox was prevailing among the Cherokees, Littleton accepted twenty-three hostages to guarantee their good behavior and the surrender of the guilty. The hostages having been placed in Fort St. George at the head of the Savannah River, the Indians attempted their rescue after Littleton's departure and in the assault one of the guards was wounded, whereupon his companions put all of the hostages to death, and an Indian uprising followed, to quell which South Carolina voted 1,000 men and a bounty of £25 for each Indian scalp. North Carolina made the same provision, and authorized holding the captives as slaves. Maj .- Gen. Jeffrey Amherst, who commanded the British forces in America, furnished 1,200 troops, among them the "Montgomery Highlanders." The expedition left Charleston in April, 1760, with instructions from General Amherst to take no prisoners, to put to death all who should fall into their hands, and to lay waste the Cherokee country. These orders were carried out as to a part of the country, and in June, 1761, a stronger force was sent against them under Col. James Grant, governor of East Florida, who enlarged the area of blood and destruction.
MARION AND HIS MEN
"A moment in the British camp, A moment and away, Back to the pathless forest, Before the break of day." -William Cullen Bryant, "The Song of Marion and His Men."
The Cherokee war of 1761 commenced with the report which prevailed in 1759, that the Cherokee Indians were murdering the frontier settlers of Carolina, quieting down only to break out again two years later, when the 1,200 regulars were ordered out on a forced march to their relief. May 14, 1761, they were joined at (District) "Ninety-Six" by 1,200 provincials armed with rifles and
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EARLY HISTORY OF NORTH DAKOTA
famous for their superior marksmanship, and this army of 2,400 men attempted to force their way into the Indian country, through a dark defile in the moun- tains, but the attacking party was received by a concentrated fire from the Indians, poured upon them from every rock and tree, which forced them back to the pro- tection of the main body-following them with hideous yells, and brandishing their tomahawks as long as they dared continue the pursuit.
Then began preparations, aided by other forces of the "Anglo-American" army for waging war in earnest against the Indians, who would naturally fight with desperation to defend the only pass into their country and would follow up a victory with the cruelest slaughter. At sunrise, the British lines having formed in small companies, supporting the provincial riflemen, began to move forward, soon coming in sight of the enemy, who appeared to be restlessly moving backward and forward. The position of the forces and the action in this battle are described by Col. Peter Horry in his "Life of Gen. Francis Marion," a life-long friend and comrade in arms of the author, and in this battle first lieutenant of a provincial company and leader of the party which explored the dangerous pass in the mountains and was repulsed.
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