History of Gage County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religious, and civic development from the early days to the present time, Part 12

Author: Dobbs, Hugh Jackson, 1849-
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Publishing and Engraving Company
Number of Pages: 1120

USA > Nebraska > Gage County > History of Gage County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religious, and civic development from the early days to the present time > Part 12

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The last attack made upon the village above mentioned by Otoe warriors occurred only a few years prior to the Pawnees' removal. A large band of Otoes were then encamped near the mouth of the Nemaha, and had cunningly timed their attack to take place at day-break of the day succeeding that on which the young braves of the Pawnee village had started on a buffalo hunt. The Otoes, bent on securing scalps as well as plunder, had killed a number of people and caused a frightful uproar and

panic in the village, when a brave from the hunting party-which had encamped the even- ing before near the head of Indian creek- came riding into the village; he was at once killed by the Otoes, who also wounded the pony and frightened it so that it galloped back to- wards the camp; its return, riderless and wounded, caused great alarm and called for in- stant action. All the braves of the hunting party, mounted on their swiftest ponies, started at once for the home village, on reaching which, they saw at a glance what had occurred. The enemy had left, but the avengers were not long in striking their trail, which was swiftly followed ; they were overtaken in a large draw near the east side of what is now Island Grove township, - a spot that was pointed out to the writer by old men of the Otoe tribe who related incidents connected with the af- fair as handed down to them. A fierce battle ensued - during which no quarter was given or asked. The Otoes, about thirty in num- ber, were completely surrounded and fought desperately, but were outnumbered two to one ; only one was permitted to escape and report the fate of his companions ; the wounded were scalped, and both dead and wounded were burned, the Pawnees having fired the tall sloughgrass that grew in the draw.

After the Pawnees left the Blue, which is supposed to have been about 1825, the Otoes included the Blue valley in their hunting and trapping circuit, and it was seldom that the tepee of an Otoe family, or perhaps a group of tepees, might not be found somewhere along the river's course. In 1854 a reservation, com- prising two hundred and fifty square miles, the greater part of which is now included with- in the limits of Gage county, was set apart for the Otoes, they having ceded, for a consider- ation to be paid in the form of an annuity, all their lands south of the Platte, except said tract. Of the one hundred and sixty thousand acres comprised in the area reserved, consider- ably more than one hundred thousand acres were included within the limits of the county. The site selected for their village and the agent's residence was a sightly elevation about half a mile east of the river, where a spring,

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

that issued from a limestone ledge, afforded an ample supply of pure water. The town of Barneston now occupies a part of the site. A residence for the government agent was built about one hundred feet north of the spring. It consisted of a one and a half story frame with an ell on the rear, and contained in all six rooms with large basement. There was a latticed porch in front, with a balcony over the same, that commanded a view of the whole village; near the agent's house was a large barn and other outbuildings. A steam grist

cular opening in the roof. There were also a few bark lodges of a type that were common among the Iowas and Sacs and Foxes, but they were of a less durable character than the Siouan type of habitation and were usually regarded as temporary. An agency farm of one hundred acres was broken out adjacent to the village. The white employes included a farmer, carpenter, blacksmith, miller, phy- sician, teachers, etc. All plowing was done with oxen. All supplies were hauled from Missouri river points, usually from Brown-

lage-1869- 70

OTOE INDIAN VILLAGE, 1869-1870

mill, saw mill, blacksmith shop, and residences for the various white employes, were located on Plum creek, about a mile from the agency. The main village consisted of about forty large earth-covered lodges of the type com- monly used by tribes of Sioux origin. Each lodge was circular in form, with an entrance through a projecting passageway opening towards the east, and was usually not less than about forty feet in diameter, inside measure- ment. Usually several closely related fami- lies occupied a single lodge - each having a sleeping booth on a raised platform that ex- tended around the inside space. All cooking was done at a fire of small logs that blazed in the center, the smoke escaping through a cir-

ville. A mission school, under Presbyterian auspices, was established near the reservation soon after the Indians removed there. It was established by the New York Home Mission Society of that denomination, on the north half of Section 1, township 1 south, range eight east, state of Kansas, which tract of three hundred and twenty acres the society had pur- chased, and on which it had caused to be erected a concrete building ninety by forty feet in size and three stories in height with an ell or wing two stories in height. The kitchen and dining room were in the latter and the school rooms and dormitories were in the main building. . The buildings were about six miles from the agency and village, and about

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

a mile and a quarter beyond the limits of the reservation. On May 10, 1857, the Rev. Daniel A. Murdock, with his wife, Prudence, and their seven children, arrived and assumed charge of the mission; three teachers were engaged, as were also a farmer, a carpenter, and a teamster, as well as two interpreters. It was the benevolent design of the society that the education of both sexes should com- bine industrial features. Soon after Mr. Mur- dock's arrival a conference was held with the chiefs, which resulted in an agreement on their part that they would promote the attend- ance of all children of a proper age, and in due time the school opened with an attendance of seventy-two, of whom only two were females. This was very disappointing, as ac- commodations had been provided for as many girls as boys. All pupils arrived almost in a state of nudity, and they were generously sup- plied with clothing at the expense of the so- ciety. Each day was dvided into periods of hours for school-room study, for out-door play, and for farm work, and thus all was pro- gressing favorably when the time arrived for the tribe to start on its annual fall buffalo hunt. The chiefs and heads of families then visited the mission and urgently requested that the boys be permitted to accompany their parents on the hunt, a request that could not be granted, inasmuch as it would practically break up the school for an indefinite time. It was supposed that the Indians had acquiesced in this refusal, when suddenly, on a Sabbath afternoon, all the boys disappeared and were soon en route with their parents to the buf- falo region. The mission people were not only discouraged - but also dismayed, for there was no certainty as to when the chil- dren would return, and it was possible that they might be absent the greater part of the winter. A few weeks after the departure of the children an incident occurred that doomed the school to failure, through fear and dis- trust on the part of the Indians, causing their refusal to permit their children to attend. This incident was nothing less than a raid of hos- tile Sioux Indians upon the Otoe village and the mission property, during the tribe's ab-

sence on the hunt. The circumstances of their raid convinced the Otoes that their chil- dren would have been massacred if they had not accompanied them on the hunt. It seems that the Sioux, finding that the village was de- serted, as any who had not gone on the hunt had fled or secreted themselves, ransacked such caches as they were able to find and then proceeded to the mission, evidently in search of the children. Finding none in sight about the premises, the leader of the band ascended the hall staircase, leading to a dormitory, when he encountered J. E. Tanner, overseer of the farm, who seized him and threw him to the bottom of the stairs, where he landed very heavily. Being unsuccessful in finding any of the children, the two girls having been secreted by the teachers, the Sioux angrily de- parted. This was the last time that a Sioux war-party ever ventured within the limits of the county. The following spring, finding that the Indians still refused to allow their children to attend the school, Mr. Murdock resigned his charge and left the mission in charge of a Mr. Guthery, but after vainly try- ing to win the favourable regard and confi- dence of the Indians he too resigned, and the society, thoroughly discouraged, concluded to abandon as a hopeless job all attempts to edu- cate and civilize the Otoes. The society sold the mission property, and the building was afterward partially destroyed by a tornado.

No further attempt was made toward edu- cating the Otoe children until the summer of 1869, when the administration of agency affairs was placed in the hands of a representative of the Society of Friends, by President Grant. At that time the Otoes and Missouris were, with very few exceptions, "blanket" Indians. Most of the men, both young and old, were accus- tomed during warm weather, to discard even the blanket and wear only a clout or breech- cloth. Hats were never worn, except by the in- terpreter and occasionally by an Indian police- man. It was customary to shave the scalp, leav- ing only a lock from the center of the crown backward, to which an eagle's feather was fre- quently attached. They used much vermil- lion, indigo, yellow ocher, and white clay in

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

facial decoration, and necklaces of woven horsehair curiously wrought with many col- ored bead-work by the Indian women, were worn by both sexes almost universally. The Indian women were very skilful in embroid- ering and decorating moccasins and leggins of deer-skin with bead and porcupine quill work. Most of the older men and women had their ears lacerated with holes, often not less than a quarter of an inch in diameter, not only through the lobe, but also through the rim of the ear from the top downward. Such holes facilitated loading the ears with large clusters of bobs, - an article of adornment made of block tin and sold by all Indian traders. It was usual for the women and girls to put a line of vermillion paint where their hair parted as well as to paint with vermillion the inside of their ears, thus adding to the fine effect of the silvery bobs. Eagle feathers, red-stone pipes, wampum, and beadwork were among their most highly prized possessions - single specimens of either being frequently valued at more than a fine horse.

While the earth-covered lodges of the vil- lage were cool and pleasant as summer habi- tations, they were cold and draughty in win- ter, the heat from the central fire escaping too readily through the great circular opening in the roof. For that reason it was customary for all to live in tepees during the winter, each family selecting a sheltered spot where water and dead wood were obtainable, and where, though often surrounded by banks of drifted snow, they existed with some degree of com- fort until spring. The Indian ponies sought shelter in the timber, where they often de- pended on the bark of the cottonwood for sus- tenance. At the time the writer assumed management of the Indian agency, old Ar-ka- ke-ta was the head chief and the other chiefs were Big Soldier, Wan-na-ga-he, Medicine Horse ( Shunga-mon-co), Buffalo, Pipe Stem, and Little Pipe. Ar-ka-ke-ta was a polygamist, and regarded his wives as valuable assets on account of their usefulness in cultivating the ground, providing fire-wood, and otherwise contributing to his support. He was opposed to man-ual labor, and was what might be

termed an obstructionist, as he opposed all measures likely to promote the advancement of the tribe. In appearance he was decidedly unprepossessing and untidy ; his usual facial adornment was a coating of soot mixed with mud, - which accorded well with a pessimis- tic state of mind that was natural to him. In 1867-1868 a party of the chiefs had visited Washington and negotiated a treaty, under the terms of which they agreed to sell the whole reservation of one hundred and sixty thousand acres at one dollar and fifty cents per acre, and Ar-ka-ke-ta posed on that occasion as a great man ; the mud and soot disappeared from his face; the pessimist became an op- timist, for, in his mental visions of the future, he saw his people rescued from the shackels that civilization was weaving around them, and mingling once more with kindered tribes in the far off Indian territory. When the writer arrived at the agency in June, 1869, the treaty was awaiting ratification by the senate and the tribe was consequently in a very restless condition. It soon became obvious to him that the conditions of the treaty were very prejudicial to the best interest of the Indians and that the consideration was entirely inade- quate, being less than half of what might be considered a fair valuation of the land at that time. He accordingly commenced taking measures to defeat ratification, by calling a council and persuading the head men and a few of the chiefs to sign a remonstrance against ratification, and a repudiation of the action of the party that had visited Washing- ton. This, together with a carefully prepared statement, was taken to Washington by a com- mittee of Friends, and the result was the de- feat of the treaty. The lands afterward sold for nearly ten times what they would have brought under the terms of the treaty.

In 1870, as Indian agent, I removed Ar-ka- ke-ta from the position of head chief and pro- moted Shunga-mon-co ( Medicine Horse) to that position. This was done because of the old head chief's refusal to remove from the village and go to farming when a neat frame house and tract of choice land had been of- fered him. It was important that the head

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

chief should set an example to the young men of the tribe. Medicine Horse was a man of considerable influence and of very striking ap- pearance, - a natural orator whose flowery figures of speech always elicited cries of how! how! how! from the assembled council. He agreed that if appointed head chief he would occupy a frame house, open a small farm, and set a good example to others. When the mat- ter was first broached to him he declared, with pretended seriousness, that he had never done

1870, 1871 and 1872 probably twenty-five fam- ilies had tried the experiment of living in houses and cooking on stoves - at least dur- ing the summer months - the lure of tepee life proving too strong on the approach of winter for some of them. Next in import- ance to Medicine Horse was Big Soldier, who, in face and figure, was a replica of an ancient Roman senator. By means of facial, labial, and finger movements, he was always able to converse without an interpreter, although he

OLD AGENCY MILI.

a stroke of work in his life. but he was im- mediately contradicted by old Chief Buffalo, who affirmed that he remembered seeing him, when a boy, carrying a kettle of water for his mother. At this accusation Medicine Horse pretended to be very angry declaring that the charge was utterly false. In the course of a few days Medicine Horse, assisted by others, was busily engaged in cutting saw-logs and in due time he and his family were ensconced in a neat frame dwelling built of newly sawed cottonwood lumber. Encouraged by his ex- ample others were also persuaded to cut logs, and the agency ox-teams were kept busy haul- ing them to the saw mill. During the years

seldom used an English word. In many ways he was a very remarkable man, and a typical thoroughbred Otoe.

Next in importance to the chiefs were the police, usually consisting of not more than fifteen individuals, chosen and appointed by the agent, whose duty it was to make arrests and otherwise assist in preserving order. They were commanded by a captain and lieutenant, and all provided with United States cavalry uniforms, which, however, were seldom worn except on important oc- casions, such as council meetings, and the execution of orders that required them. to leave the reservation. All of the chiefs were

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

Otoes except Eagle, who was a Missouri In- dian and the recognized "war chief" of the combined tribes ; for many years it had been his province to act as commander on all buf- falo hunts or other adventurous enterprises. He was a man of commanding and dignified appearance, and despite his great age was straight as an arrow and active as a young man. An incident that came under the writ- er's observation while accompanying the In- dians on a buffalo hunt in 1870, illustrates how punctilious old Eagle was in strictly en- forcing an ancient tribal rule that forbids the killing of a straggling buffalo before the camp has been pitched and the hunters are all ready to participate in a combined attack upon the great herd. In this case it was a young chief, Little Pipe, who was the offender. Eagle's face was stern and unrelenting as he ordered the heavy pony lash applied to the culprit's naked back, but before a blow descended the young chief's brother-in-law pushed him aside and presented his own back to receive vicari- ously the punishment that it was feared might degrade a chief. A bloody back soon showed that while the substitution had been accepted no mercy had been shown by the old war chief. This chief's name is worthy of a place in history as the last chieftain of that Indian nation whose name is more frequently men- tioned than is that of any other aboriginal people on the continent ; a people who have given name to one of earth's longest rivers and to one of our nation's greatest and richest commonwealths. In 1869 there were only about eighty Missouris living, and since that time the race has practically disappeared.

It was customary for the Otoes to go on a buffalo hunt twice a year, starting on the summer hunt about the last of June and get- ting back usually some time in August. Late in November they started on the winter hunt, the return from which was wholly dependent on weather conditions and their success in procuring hides and meat .. The depredations by hostile Indians on the Little Blue had made the settlers very distrustful of all Indians, and in order to allay fear on the part of the set- tlers, as well as to protect the Otoes from hos-

tile Indians, the agent obtained from the war department an order directing General Augur to furnish an escort of cavalry for the win- ter hunt of 1869 as well as for the summer hunt of 1870. On the latter occasion the agent and a party of Philadelphians accom- panied the expedition; they encountered a large herd of buffalo on the Sappa creek, in what is now Decatur county, Kansas.

It was an ancient Indian practice among the Nebraska Indians to make sugar from the sap of the box alder,-a practice that the Otoes continued after their settlement on the reservation. Formerly they used no tobacco, but smoked a mixture of dried sumac leaves and red-willow bark that had been in common use among all the western tribes probably for centuries. This old Quivira mixture, with sometimes a little tobacco added but oftener without any, was always adhered to by the Otoes and Missouris. The smoke produced had an acrid though not altogether disagree- able odor and was usually exhaled through the nostrils. The Indians obtained many fine fish from the Blue. They used no fishhooks, but shot the fish as they glided through the clear water, using only bow and arrows for the purpose. When heavy rains raised the water to flood tide they built seine-like bar- riers of willow poles and rods across the mouths of bayous and draws so that the re- ceding waters left many fish, usually of large size, stranded behind such barriers. As long as the waters of the Blue remained clear the river abounded with gars, which often at- tained a large size; specimens four feet in length being frequently caught. Although the white settlers did not consider them edi- ble, the Otoes regarded them very favourably as food. As the country gradually settled up and sediment from plowed fields found its way into the river, the gars disappeared. As late as 1869 a beaver was occasionally caught, and the commoner fur-bearing animals, such as mink, skunk, raccoon, etc., were plentiful, their furs being quite a source of profit to the Indians .. The abundance and variety of plums gathered by the Indian women were surprising. They varied greatly in quality and

HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

size, a tree being occasionally found the fruit from which equalled the choicest sold in our markets to-day. There were still a few wild deer in the county as late as 1870, for at least two fawns were caught by the Indians during that year, and a large antlered buck was seen by the writer a few miles south of Beatrice.

The breaking of the prairie sod caused the total disappearance of a plant, once quite plen- tiful, whose bulbous root was eagerly sought for and highly prized as an article of food by the Otoes. In taste it slightly resembled a chestnut, and when divested of its thick, bark- like skin, it was as large as a hulled walnut. This plant grew to a height of from eighteen inches to two feet and had a branching top. The settlers made no use of it, but to the In- dians travelling on the war-path or the hunt, when short of other food, it afforded security from starvation. It was an emergency food supply that the Indians had no doubt availed themselves of from time immemorial. The Otoes at all times relished it highly, even when they had other food in abundance. The des- truction of the origional sod has caused the disappearance from the county of other plants equally as interesting, but probably of none that occupied as high a place in the Indian's estimation as did this one ..

For more than a decade prior to 1869 no missionary efforts had been made or religious services held among the Otoes and Missouris. They had a religion, if such it might be called, that was not based on creed, bible, or confes- sion of faith, and that had come down to them as an inheritance from a far off past. It was the religion of ancient Quivira. The Great Spirit, Wa-con-da, - the maker of all things was to them no far off deity dwelling in a far off heaven, but an ever present actuat- ing and controlling force in nature and in all natural phenomena; they heard his voice in the thunder and saw the ashes of his wrath in the lightning ; the tornado showed his might and power; the sunshine and the gentle rain, the ripened corn, and every beneficent gift of nature, bore evidence to his favor. How many white professors of religion, seated at a

loaded table, commence eating without giving a thankful thought to the Great Giver of all good : - and yet we have seen an Otoe chief, seated with his family on the ground around a pot of succotash, a mixture of boiled corn and pumpkin, before dispensing it to the mem- bers of his family pour some of it on the ground and stir it into the dirt and ashes so that the dogs could not get it, calling on Wa- con-da to accept it as a thank offering. It was the universal custom in council to pass the pipe from chief to chief, each taking a whiff or two, and exclaiming, as he exhaled the smoke, words that signified an acknowledg- ment of Wa-con-da's presence, - the act be- ing in reality a smoke offering. They knew nothing of the Mosaic law, but old Chief Wan- a-ga-he once declared, striking himself upon the breast, "We know that within us is peace if we do right, but if we do wrong Wa-con-da is displeased and we are unhappy." Kindness toward each other and harmony in families were notable traits of the Otoe character that remind one of Castaneda's statement already quoted - "they are a kind people." As the ancient Jews relied upon their tribal God to aid them in battle with their enemies, so the Otoes relied upon Wa-con-da to aid and pro- tect them on the war-path.

In the fall of 1870 Agent Green discovered that a party of Otoes were preparing for a pony raid on a distant tribe a proceedure that was analagous to going on the war-path, so far as risk and excitement were concerned. The leader of the party, a notorious half-breed, known as Jim White-water (who afterward spent seventeen years in the state penitentiary for an atrocious double murder), had already nearly completed all preliminary arrangements when the discovery was made. For several days the braves whom he had selected for the party had been segregated in a tepee at some distance from the village, undergoing certain preparatory exercises, consisting mostly of chanting and drumming, while Jim sought se- cluded places in the timber along Plum creek where he loudly wailed and called on Wa-con- da to favour the enterprise. This segregation or separation of men from their wives for some

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History of Gage County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religious, and civic development from the early days to the present time, Part 12

Author: Dobbs, Hugh Jackson, 1849- Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Publishing and Engraving Company Number of Pages: 1120

Author: Dobbs, Hugh Jackson, 1849-
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Publishing and Engraving Company
Number of Pages: 1120