History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 6

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742

USA > Nebraska > Richardson County > History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions > Part 6

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The Waukesha silt loam is well adapted to corn, oats, and wheat.

The bottom-land soils are best suited to corn, though considerable hay and some wheat and oats are produced.

CHAPTER II.

INDIAN HISTORY AND PREHISTORIC TIMES.

The Indians, found along the west bank of the Pekitanoui or Missouri river in this county by the first white men who came up the river as voyagers, explorers, trappers, or missionaries or across the plains from the southwest Spanish settlements in New Mexico, who had resided within the present limits of the county so long that they were regarded as the original occu- pants of the country, were the Panias, Paunias, or Pawnees. The Pawnee nation was divided into four tribes, each of which had an Indian name and a white name: Chau-i, Grand; Kitke-hahk-i, Republican; Pita-hau-erat, Noisy; Ski-di, Wolf. These tribes were each divided into bands and lived together in groups and kept together on the march. The Sacs and Foxes and Iowas came later and were the only tribes who were here by removal. The Pawnees appear to have the best claim as the original red Indian inhabi- tants of this section. They were holding it at the time the Spaniards first came out of Mexico and appear from records to have been in possession perhaps for three or four hundred years. They were open prairie dwellers, and are believed to have drifted into the country from the southwest. The Pawnees were a very religious people and given much to the ceremonies of the same; their language and customs marked them as differing much from other tribes and as a whole never were at war with the white people. They were distinct from other Indians who, like themselves, were crowded out of this Missouri river valley country, such as the Iowas, Winnebagoes, Sioux, Sacs and Foxes, all of whom were forced westward from the shores of the Great Lakes by stronger peoples, and the white settler from the East.

In the interregnum between 1825 and 1827 the United States govern- ment established these tribes or parts of them in this county. The Sacs and Foxes, whose homes were on the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, united in the early part of the nineteenth century and began a migration to the southwest and acquired a large territory in Iowa and Missouri. Under a treaty måde between them and the government on September 17, 1836, they made an exchange of these lands for territory west of the river. The territory thus received was for the most part in Kansas and north of the Kickapoo river,

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

but extended north to the Great Nemaha river in this county. By virtue of this treaty the Iowas, Sacs and Foxes became permanent neighbors in this county under what was known, tintil about 1860, as the Great Nemaha agency. Andrew S. Hughes was the first appointed to have charge of this agency. The lands so held were described as being "The small strip of land on the south side of the Missouri river lying between the Kickapoo boundary line and the Great Nemaha river, and extending from the Missouri and west- wardly to the said Kickapoo line and the Grand Nemaha, making four hun- dred sections to be divided between the said lowas and the Missouri band of Sacs and Foxes, the lower half to the Sacs and Foxes and the upper half to the Iowas."

By treaty of May 18, 1854 ( 10 Stats. 1074), the Sacs and Foxes ceded to the United States all of the country above described, except fifty sections of six hundred and forty acres each, to be selected in the western part of the cession. The fifty sections were selected in 1854, having been surveyed and established by John Leonard, a deputy surveyor.

Under a joint treaty of March 6, 1861, with the Sac and Fox and Iowa Indians, all that part of their reservation lying west of Nohart creek and within the boundary as surveyed by Leonard, was to be sold to the govern- ment, half of the proceeds to go to each of the tribes. This cession was sold and the money invested for the Indians.

Under the terms of treaties at various times the boundaries of the tribal lands suffered changes but the last home of the Sacs and Foxes comprised lands as follows : Beginning at the intersection of the south line of the Iowa reserve with Noharts creek, thence along this line to the south fork of the Nemaha, or Walnut creek, thence down this creek to its mouth, thence down the Great Nemaha river to the mouth of Noharts creek, thence up this creek to the place of beginning. The Iowas retained the lands to the east, which lay between the Great Nemaha and Missouri rivers, a very large part of which was in the state of Kansas.

By authority of the act of Congress of August 15. 1876, ten sections of the west end of this reserve were sold with the consent of the tribe, which was given on January 8, 1877. The sale was made through the land office at Beatrice and Charles Loree, of Falls City, had local charge of the same, uncler direction of the land office.

In 1902 what was left of the Iowa reserve consisted of eleven thousand six hundred acres, all allotted. and that of the Sacs and Foxes, eight thousand and thirteen acres, all allotted, except nine hundred and sixty acres. The earlier enumeration of these bands by the government places the figure at

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

nearly a thousand. These Indians being so long isolated on their small reservation and separated from other and larger bands of wild Indians, dropped their roving disposition and were quite friendly with the whites and never gave trouble to the settlers. But few are left in this county at the present day.

In 1860 a remnant of the Winnebagos, who for a long time had lived with the Sacs and Foxes at the Nemaha agency went back to their tribe in Minnesota. WV. P. Richardson, Daniel Vanderslice. Major John A. Burbank and C. H. Norris were in charge of the Nemaha agency during the period between 1850 and 1867, the latter two being residents of Falls City.

On account of their participation in the Black Hawk War in Illinois and Iowa, the Sacs and Foxes were taken in hand by the United States govern- ment and removed to reservations in Missouri and Iowa first, and later to this county.

TREATY OF 1830.

Under a treaty with the various tribes of Sioux and other Indians on July 15, 1830, at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, a strip ten miles wide between the Great Nemaha river in this county and the Little Nemaha river in Nemaha county, being about twenty miles long, was set aside as a reservation for the half-breeds and mixed bloods of the Omahas, Iowas, Otoes and Yankton and Santee bands of the Sioux family of Indians. The Winne- bago Indians, who were a branch of the Sioux, at one time occupied a tract of land in the northeast part of the county having a village on what is known as Winnebago creek in Arago township, this being within the "half-breed" strip or reservation. So it is apparent that the Indians found here in 1853-4, when Nebraska was first opened to white settlers, were, themselves, early arrivals in this part of Nebraska territory and are not to be taken into account when an effort is made to discover what people antedated the Pawnees.

The Sacs and Foxes were of the Algonquin family or Eastern Indians and were distinct from the Iowas, Winnebagoes, Omaha and Sioux family tribes with whom they were closely associated while living in the Great Lake region. "The Hand Book of American Indians", a publication of the United States Bureau of American Ethnology, has the following to say relative to the Sacs :

"The culture of the Sank was that of the eastern or wooded area. They were a canoe people while they were in the country of the Great Lakes, using both the birch-bark canoe and the dug-out. They still retain the dug-out, and learned the use and construction of the bull boat on coming out upon

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RICHARDSON COUNTY. NEBRASKA.

the plains. They practiced agriculture on an extensive scale. Despite their fixed abode and villages they did not live a sedentary life together and fish almost the whole year around. They were acquainted with wild rice, and hunted the buffalo. They did not get possession of horses until after the Black Hawk War in 1832, and they did not become very familiar with the horse and the mule until following their arrival in Kansas after the year 1837. Their abode was the bark house in warm weather and the oval flag reed lodge in winter : the bark house was characteristic of the village. Every gens had one large bark house, wherein were celebrated the festivals of the gens. In this lodge hung the sacred bundle of gens, and here dwelt the priests who watched over them. It is said that some of these houses were of the length required to accommodate five council fires. The ordinary bark dwelling had but a single fire, which was in the center.

"The Pawnees are by many regarded as having attained a higher culture than the Indians who were placed on reservations. They possessed horses sooner, and were great buffalo hunters. No Indians, of course, had guns or horses before the white man came.

PREHISTORIC.

"But back and before the Indians whom the white men ever met, were tribes of men in possession of the Missouri river country, delighting especially to build their houses on the high bluffs where the eye could have a wide sweep over the waters and surrounding country. These old house sites are now hidden from view by the accumulated dust of centuries and to be seen and appreciated must be excavated and dug out of the rubbish heap of time, like buried cities of antiquity."

The articles found in these house sites indicate, so archeologists claim. a higher state of culture and mental development than possessed by the Indians who occupied the ground later, but were less warlike. Some believe that there was a large population, while others hold to the belief that the country could not have been thickly settled even along the river bhiffs, but that the settlements endured over long periods of time. It is most probable that the number was not great, as the means of subsistence was not so easily obtained by the early or primitive peoples. They cultivated the soil and raised crops of some kinds, probably pumpkins, gourds, squash, corn and beans, but as they had no tools with which to cultivate the soil, except bone implements. it is unlikely they could have worked on an extensive scale.

They possessed neither horses nor metal tools, but were hunters, as evi-

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

denced by the fact that many articles used were made of the bones of deer and buffalo and are found among their remains. They were also fishermen, as shown by the bone fish-hooks, and living so long on the river they knew the use of boats and dugouts. They built quite large one-story houses, made pottery and many kitchen and household utensils out of the clay found on the hills.

One of the seats of this ancient tribe was on the Stephen Cunningham farm, about a mile north of Rulo, near the old townsite of Yankton in sec- tions 5 and 8, of township I, north of range No. 18, east of the sixth p. m. The story of its discovery in December, 1913, is as follows and very inter- esting :

AN INTERESTING STORY.

A story had been sent out from Rulo some time previous and given wide publicity in the state press to the effect that the remains of a prehistoric race had been found near that city. The editor of this work together with Mr. A. R. Keim, editor of the Falls City Journal, went to Rulo for the purpose of making a personal investigation. Arriving there we were directed to the. farm of Stephen Cunningham about a mile and a half north of Rulo. The farm at that time was occupied by A. R. Morehouse, a tenant, who was kind enough to give us every assistance required. The land is adjacent to the Missouri river and a good-sized creek, which drains the farm and surround- ing country, empties into the Big Muddy, near the site of the obsolete village of Yankton, which was located on the east side of the farm, fronting the river. The village and all traces of it except cellars over which building had stood have long disappeared, and it is said to have been at its best in the days when steamboats were numeorus on the river. The creek referred to, at the present time, has but little water in it, but the waters from heavy rains and the back water from the Missouri river, at times when it has been high, have washed a deep and wide gorge. It is on the south banks of this ravine and at a distance of about a thousand feet west of a point where it formerly emptied into the Missouri river, that the find of skeletal remains was made. The first find of human bones had been made some weeks prior to our visit : further recent heavy rains brought more bones to view. When we arrived at the scene we found quite a quantity of bones lying around on the ground and were told that the students of the schools at Rulo had visited the scene and removed many good specimens.

However, as some bones were in plain view protruding from the bank. shovels were brought and after a little digging two more complete skeletons

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

were uncovered and plenty of evidence to show that many more might be found in the wall of the ravine. The skeletons were all found with the head to the east and at a depth from the surface of the ground of six or seven feet and were found embedded in a formation of joint clay, which gave no evidence of having been disturbed in centuries. A string of white shell beads were found around the neck of each and all the bones were in a good state of preservation. The oldest inhabitants of that section were interrogated, but had no memory of any burial ground located in this spot and no one could be found who could throw any light on the presence of the skeletons in such a place. One skull and a number of the bones was sent to the Nebraska . State Museum, where they are now placed on exhibition. .

REPORT OF EDWIN H. BARBOUR.

Professor Barbour made the following report of the receipt and examina- tion of the skull, bones and shell beads: "I have received and examined the skull, bones and beads recently received submitted for examination. The shells used for these beads are Paludina decapitsta, so named because the apex of the spire is truncated, suppressed or "cut off". The Paludinas are fresh water gasterpod "shells", which live in lakes and large swamps. The par- ticular specia which were used in making these beads had very thick walls and an inflated body whorl, which gave the shell a rounded appearance, and the thickness gave the bead strength and lasting qualities. We know of no other paludina with equally thick walls. The body whorls are ridged and ornamented in a pleasing way. . Altogether, these shells seem to have been wisely chosen by early Nebraskans. The apertures of these shells are large and by grinding or rubbing the shells, presumably on rough stones, a second hole was made through the body whorl just back of the aperture. Thus, two openings were made and the shell could be easily strung. The shells are used very considerably and it may not be over fanciful, perhaps, to imagine that the necklace may have been graduated much as necklaces of modern beads are graduated, with the larger in front and the smaller ones back.

"The skull and bones appeared to be those of a typical Indian. The forehead is of good size, the frontal eminence well developed, the dome of the skull large, the face erect, with little, if any, protrusions of the muzzle, superciliary ridges very reduced and cheek bones of average prominence, cyes well apart, average cross temples. It appears to be the skull of an Indian of the higher rather than the lower tribes. The tibia is characterized by an uncommonly high crest and pronounced anterior curvature, but this is

PREHISTORIC REMAINS FOUND NEAR OLD YANCTON TOWNSITE.

PREHISTORIC FIREPLACE NEAR YANCTON SCENE OF DISCOVERY OF PREHISTORIC REMAINS

PREHISTORIC REMAINS FOUND NEAR YANCTON.

Note shell beads around neck of smaller skull.

PREHISTORIC OLLA, UNEARTHED FOUR MILES EAST OF FALLS CITY.

PREHISTORIC SKULL AND SHELL-BEND NECKLACE FOUND NEAR THE OLD YANCTON TOWNSITE.

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

not uncommon. The skull seems to be finely preserved, with mandible in place and the dentition complete. Even the hyoids may be seen between the rami of the jaws."

A reporter for the Nebraska State Journal interviewed the professor, after the report was sent out that Spanish coins had been found among the Indian remains and this reporter made the statement that it was now the Professor's opinion on re-examination that the skull represented a low type of Indian. The interview was as follows: "Spanish coins near the place where a number of skeletons were found may have been brought there by Coronado, but the skeletons are not those of followers of the Spanish explorer. This is the decision reached by Professor Barbour of the state museum, after he had examined for the second time the skull sent him from the recent find at Rulo. The skull is typically Indian and a low type of Indian at that. There is not the least possibility that it could be a member of the famous Spanish expedition, which passed through the country, in the early days of American discovery and exploration. The examination showed that the skull had a peculiar triangular shaped bone at the back. The bone is found almost exclusively in Indian tribes. The professor measured the facial angle and discovered that it was by far too low for that of the European and even abnormally low for that of the Indian. This latter does not point to the fact that the skull is that of a specia of mankind lower than that of the Indian. Rather it shows an individual variation in the particular specimen. The skull is that of a middle-aged man. This is proven by the fact that the sutures are well formed and closed. They are not closed tightly enough, however, to be that of a man in advanced years. In making this observa- tion the professor pointed out that the sutures remained partly opened until mature years, to allow the brain a chance for growth and consequently give the individual a chance for intellectual expansion. In the ape family the sutures close early in the life of the individual. As the different races of mankind become more advanced, sutures close at correspondingly later periods of life."

Following closely upon the finding of the skeletons mentioned above came stories of the finding with them of Spanish coins of gold and the story created a sensation in this section and was widely commented upon by the press of this and other states. The story of the "coins" came from parties who had visited the scene in our absence and the matter of their having been "actually found" in the place indicated was never fully authenticated to our satisfaction. We saw the purported coins, which, in fact, were not coins at all, but more in the nature of medals about the size of an American half

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

collar and made of a cheap metal and coated to resemble gold. Upon examination they proved to be emblems of the Catholic Knights of St. George and hore Latin inscriptions. On one side of the coin was a figure of St. George mounted on a horse with a spear in his hand fighting a dragon, and the words "St. Georgius Equitum Patronus." On the reverse side of the coin were the figure of a small sailing vessel of the style of the days of Columbus, the rising sun over the sea and the words "In tempestus Securitas."

REASONS GIVEN FOR AGE OF THE FIND.

Hon. Robert F. Gilder, of Omaha, a member of the Omaha World Herald staff and field archeologist for the Nebraska State Museum, who came here at the instance of myself and made a personal examination of the house site and bones and assisted in some excavations while at the scene him- self, had the following to say :

"I am not prepared to say how old the skeletal parts in the burial are but believe it would not be stretching the truth to place an age on them of one thousand five hundred to three thousand years. I find upon analysis that some of the skull bones I brought home with me are mineralized to a very large degree, that practically all their animal matter has been displaced by mineral matter and that they are very highly mineralized or "fossilized." My reasons for estimating the age of the skeletons are:

First : By finding absolutely prehistoric heads closely associated with the bones. In fact, finding them in place, and highly impregnated or covered with oxide of manganese, giving to some of them the appearance of having real cuticle composed of mineral.

Second: By finding pre-Columbian utensils with the skeletons, viz., two scapula implements, commonly called hoes or digging tools, differing from the modern bone hoes.

Third: By finding an antler implement, not at all unlike a terra-cotta 1 phallus in my possession, not used by any Missouri river Indians.

Fourth : By finding a part of a familiar flint blade closely associated with the bones and other familiar boulders, only found by me in Nebraska's oldest aboriginal house ruins, which certainly have a geological age of from two thousand to five thousand years.

I have not heard of any iron knives or arrow heads being found associ- ated with the skeletons and it is known that the original Americans had metal points prior to metal adornments.

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

PREHISTORIC POTTERY FOUND IN RICHARDSON COUNTY.

The beautiful modern towns and cities we live in with their paved streets, electric lights, telephones, sewers and all modern conveniences, including the automobile, with which we can race across the country and enjoy the view of large improved farms with their beautiful homes, in a way lull us into a sense of believing it was ever thus and that we were the beginning of all in what we call a new country. Such conclusions receive a rude shock when evidence is produced to the contrary and we see that this land was the home of peoples in the distant past of whom we can know but little. We were again reminded of this fact in May of last year (May II, 1916), when a large olla was found nine feet below the surface in the side walls of a drain- age ditch on lot No. 8 of the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 19, township I, north of range 17, east of the sixth principal meridian, which is about three miles cast of Falls City and one mile west of the old village of Preston. The place where found is a United States government tract in the Iowa Indian lands. At this point the Great Nemaha river makes a loop or horseshoe and a drainage ditch had been built across the neck of land running east and west. It was found in the south wall of the large ditch about eight or nine feet below the surface of the ground at the top of the ditch. This piece of ancient pottery was fashioned by hands that had long since laid aside the working tools of life; how long since we do not know.

It has been observed that the making of pottery was not much carried on by nomadic tribes because of the fragility of the vessels, but found its highest development among peoples of sedentary habits. The clay used was mixed with various tempering ingredients, such as sand and pulverized stone, potsherds and shells; the shapes were extremely varied and generally worked out by the hand, aided by simple modeling tools. The baking was done in open or smothered ovens or fires or in extremely crude furnaces. Many ollas found in different parts of the country are highly decorated. Author- ities agree that the tribes of the plains did not practice the art of making pottery except in the most simplest fornis, but those of the ancient tribes of the middle and lower Mississippi valley and Gulf states were excellent potters.

The olla above referred to was found in the flood plain of the Nemaha. It measured eighteen inches in depth and about three feet in circumference and the top opening was twelve inches. It was found in a sub-soil of clay. The entire bottom has received many feet of soil deposit brought down from

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

flood and overflow, but those best acquainted with the country say that not more than three or four feet have been added in this way in the past fifty years they have known the country. The olla was photographed, just as found by L. C. Edwards, in an upright position, as if it had been sitting on a floor. A vase similar was found at the Yankton townsite of the Missouri river bluffs, north of Rulo, but these two are so far as known, the only ones ever found in Richardson county.

The manner in which the olla chanced to see the light of day and tell a tale of partly civilized human life, as it existed in the Nemaha valley, long centuries before the white man saw that tortuous stream's winding course through the broad flood plain fringed with groves and guarded on either hand by the rolling, indented hills, was due to the digging of the cut-off channel for the Nemaha river from the Burlington railroad bridge, a mile west of Preston, in a northeast course, to cut off a sharp bend and shorten the stream. The work was done for the drainage district No. I, of Richard- son county, with a drag line dredge. The line of the ditch was over a tract of land belonging to the Sac and Fox tribes of Indians and is still owned by the tribe, being reserved by the government as a mill site, when all the other lands were allotted. The olla was not exposed by the dredge, although it cut deeper than the position where it was found. The olla was exposed by the erosion and widening of the ditch by the floods of 1915 and was brought so near the slope of the ditch, thus widened, that the action of the frost of the previous winter or spring after the ice went out, cracked and broke it. It was not injured by the dynamite used in blasting to any preceptible degree, but its being found was due to C. G. Buchholz, being in charge of the dyna- mite gang, blowing the ditch deeper. The location would have been favor- able for a fishing camp or a permanent home, as it is protected on all sides by heavy timber and was in a high bend of the river and very seldom over- flowed. The high bluff, within a few hundred feet, would have furnished a good lookout and it was at all times accessible from the south, as the high prairie came right up to the bluff. There was and is a good spring of water within five hundred feet of this ancient house site. The fact that this olla was found in an upright position. ten feet underground, is not strange, as it was supposed to have been the custom of the ancient peoples to whom this belonged, to live in large community or communal houses, or at least to have had one such for community worship or ceremony. Those houses were four or five feet under ground with the remainder above. There is apparently three or four feet of fill from the difference in the nature of the soil. The clay of the Nemaha valley plains originally scoured down when the stream

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History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 6

Author: Edwards, Lewis C Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1742

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742