USA > Ohio > Allen County > A standard history of Allen county, Ohio : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development > Part 21
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"Each Indian," wrote the British agent at Detroit to the home office, "consumes daily more than two ordinary men amongst us, and would be extremely dissatisfied if stinted when convened for business." Con- sider the agent's distress when almost a thousand had already arrived for a treaty, and they were still coming in hungry groups. All those who had charge of Indian treaties bear witness to the same character- istics of these aborigines. They were like grown-up children, and like youngsters they expected to be fed and fed well. Even Little Turtle, one of the wisest of the chiefs, and extremely abstemious in the use of alcoholic spirits, was as uncontrolled as his followers in the matter of eating.
The virtues as well as the vices of these aborigines were those of prim- itive man. The men spent their time in hunting and fighting, while the women performed the household work and cultivated the fields. The squaws did all the menial work. But they had commendable sense of justice among themselves, and they were far better before the white man came in contact with them.
It is no wonder that the squaws, who were frequently comely when young, soon lost all their comeliness and degenerated into smoke- begrimed, withered and vicious hags, whose ugliness and cruelty fre- quently showed itself toward the white captives. About the only actual labor that the warriors would deign to perform was in the making of bark canoes or the dug-outs, called pirogues, in both of which they were very proficient. Before the white men brought horses the squaw on the land the the canoe on water were the Indians beasts of burden. In infancy the males were generally placed on boards, and wrapped with a belt of cloth, or skin, in order to make them straight. In early life they were stimulated to acts of courage and activity. That the men possessed a lively imagination is shown by their speech. One of the astonishing things is the retentiveness of the memory. In a speech made to them, every point was retained, considered and answered distinctly.
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Their history and traditions were all preserved in this same way. They were calm and cool in their deliberations and, when their minds are once made up, are almost immovable.
From the "superior race" the Indians imbibed the vices of civiliza- tion rather than the virtues. "Every horror is produced," says General Harrison, "among these unhappy people by their intercourse with the whites. This is so certain that I can at once tell, upon looking at an Indian whom I chance to meet, whether he belongs to a neighboring or more distant tribe. The latter is generally well clothed, healthy, and vigorous, the former half naked, filthy, and enfeebled by intoxication; and many of them without arms, excepting a knife, which they carry for the most villainous purposes."
Of the vices received from the civilized white man the taste for "firewater" was not the least. For their own selfish purpose the traders cultivated this taste with diabolical persistency. When the red man's head was muddled with liquor, he recognized neither friend nor foe.
INDIAN ARROW HEADS
He did not always consider the color of the skin, for his befuddled brain could not distinguish tints. As a result, there were innumerable murders. of his own kin, as well as of his white friends and enemies. It has been estimated that fully 500 deaths from murders and accidents occurred among the Maumee alone in the decade following the close of the War of 1812, and most of them were traceable to liquor. This is the worst con- demnation that can be brought against the malevolent influence of the whites. A trader at Fort Miami reported (1802) that the Indians were then growing worse year after year. That spring he said that he had known them to lay drunk around the trading stations as much as ten or fifteen days, during which time scarcely a mouthful of victuals would be taken.
Many of the Indian chiefs recognized this evil. Little Turtle did all that he could to eradicate this unnatural and depraved appetite. But the great Wyandot chief Monocue expresses himself in the following telling words: "You, my friends, must leave off bringing your water of death (meaning whisky), and selling to my people, or we never can live in peace, for wherever this comes, it brings fire and death with it; and if you will still give or sell it to Indians, it will take away all their
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senses ; and then, like a mad bear, they may turn around and kill you, of some of your squaws and children; or if you should escape, they will go home, and be very apt to kill a wife, a mother, or a child; for whenever this mad water gets into a man, it makes murder boil in his ear, and he, like the wolf, want blood all the time, and I believe it makes you white people as bad as it makes us Indians, and you would murder one another as we do, only that you have laws that put those people in jail, and sometimes hang them by the neck, like a dog, till they are dead ; and this makes white people afraid. We have no such laws yet; but I hope that by and by we shall have. But I think they ought first to hang all people that make and send this poison abroad, for they do all the mischief. What good can it do men to make and send out poison to kill their friends? Why, this is worse than our Indians killing one another with knife and tomahawk. If the white people would hang them all up that make it and sell it, they would soon leave it off, and then the world would have peace."
The Indians were just as intemperate in their eating as in their drinking. When a hunting party returned home after the long winter hunt, burdened with large quantities of bear, oil, sugar, dried venison, etc., they were improvident both in the eating and the giving away of their spoils. Such a thing as a regular meal was unknown but, if anyone visited a house several times in a day, he would be invited each time to partake of the best. After his etiquette it was impolite to decline food when offered, for refusal was interpreted as a sign of displeasure or anger. Through this lack of foresight they were often reduced to great distress, and sometimes actually perished from hunger and exposure, even though they were capable of enduring great hunger and fatigue. They seem to have believed literally in the injunction to take no thought for the morrow. It was not uncommon for the Indians to be without sustenance for days at a time, but they never seemed to profit by such experiences. They were sometimes compelled to boil the bones thrown from the feasts of their prosperous days, and even to gnaw the skins upon which they slept.
That the Indian was naturally kind hearted and hospitable is testified to by nearly all the early settlers and missionaries. While cruel, crafty and treacherous in dealing with enemies, he could be generous, kind and hospitable among friends, and oftentimes magnanimous to a foe. Although a savage by nature, he was not a stranger to the nobler and tenderer sentiments common to humanity. He was not always the aggressor by any means, for history records no darker or bloodier crimes than some of those which have been committed by our own race against the poor Indians.
The testimony of the missionaries as to the disposition of the Wyan- dots is most favorable. Says Mr. Finley: "I do not recollect that I was ever insulted by an Indian, drunk or sober, during all the time I was with them, nor did any of them ever manifest any unkindness toward me. The heathen party did not like my religion, nor my course in estab- lishing a Church; but still I was respected, for I treated all with kindness and hospitality. Indeed I do not believe there are a people on the earth, that are more capable of appreciating a friend, or a kind act done toward them or theirs, than Indians. Better neighbors, and a more honest people, I never lived among. They are peculiarly so to the stranger or to the sick or distressed. They will divide the last mouthful, and give almost the last comfort they have, to relieve the suffering. This I have often witnessed."
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With a white race, the British, actually offering a bonus for every American or French scalp brought into their posts, and feasting the returning war parties upon rich foods and exciting drinks, the ideas of the "palefaces" and their ideals must have been sadly confused in the poor benighted brain of the ignorant savage.
"Running the gauntlet" was one of the most savage amusements of the Indians. Heckewelder describes this trying ceremony as follows : "In the month of April, 1782, when I was myself a prisoner at Lower Sandusky, waiting for an opportunity to proceed with a trader to Detroit, three American prisoners were brought in by fourteen warriors from the garrison of Fort McIntosh. As soon as they had crossed the Sandusky River to which the village lay adjacent they were told by the captain of the party to run as hard as they could to a painted post which was shown to them. The youngest of the three without a moment's hesita- tion immediately started for it and reached it fortunately without receiv- ing a single blow; the second hesitated for a moment, just recollecting himself, he also ran as fast as he could and likewise reached the post unhurt. The third, frightened at seeing so many men, women and chil- dren with weapons in their hands ready to strike him, kept begging the captain to spare him, saying that he was a mason and would build him a fine large stone house or do any work for him that he would please. "'Run for your life,' cried the chief to him, 'and don't talk now of building houses.' But the poor fellow insisted, begging and praying to the captain, who at last finding his exhortations vain and fearing the consequences turned his back upon him and would not hear him any longer. Our mason now began to run, but received many a hard blow, one of which nearly brought him to the ground, which, if he had failed would have decided his fate. He, however, reached the goal, and not without being sadly bruised and he was besides bitterly reproached and scoffed at all around as a vile coward, while the others were hailed as brave men and received tokens of universal approbation."
The Indian did not greatly esteem some of the American customs for he believed that his own were better. An aged Indian, who for many years had spent a great deal of time among the white people, observed that the Indians had not only a much more easy way of getting a wife than the paleface, but they were also much more certain of getting a satisfactory one. "For," said he, in his broken English, "white man court-court-maybe one whole year-maybe two year, before he marry. Well, maybe, then he get a very good wife-maybe not, maybe very cross. Well, now suppose cross ; scold as soon as get awake in the morn- ing! Scold all day ! Scold until asleep-all one, he must keep him! (The pronoun in the Indian language has no feminine gender.) White people have law against throwing away wife, be he ever so cross-must keep him always (possibly not so true today). Well, how does Indian do, Indian when he sees good squaw, which he likes, he goes to him, puts his forefingers close aside each other-make two look like one-look squaw in the face see him smile-which is all one; he says yes. So he take him home-no danger he be cross! No! No! Squaw know very well what Indian do if he cross. Throw him away and take another. Squaw love to eat meat. No husband, no meat. Live happy! Go to Heaven !"
Many captives were formally adopted into the Indian families. Almost invariably they formed such attachments for their foster parents and relatives that they could scarcely be induced to return to their own people in after years. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to revert to the primitive ways and customs of their foster parents. The
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Indians treated them indulgently, and in exactly the same way as they did their own offspring. There was an old white woman living among the Shawnees, who had been taken a prisoner when very young. Sev- éral years afterwards her friends tried to induce her to return, but in vain. She had then become more of a squaw than any other female in the tribe. Similar instances will be found along every section of our former frontier.
John Brickell was captured by the Indians of Northwestern Ohio at the immature age of nine, and remained with them until he had reached manhood. In accordance with a treaty he was taken to the white encampment to be delivered over to his own people. His own account reads as follows: "On breaking up of spring, we all went to Fort Defiance and arriving on the shore opposite, we saluted the fort
INDIAN PORTAGE
with a round of rifles, and they shot a cannon thirteen times ( for thirteen states). We then encamped on the spot. On the same day Whingy Pooshies told me I must go over to the fort. The children hung around me, crying, and asked me if I was going to leave them. I told them I did not know. When we got over to the fort and were seated with the officers, Whingy Pooshies told me to stand up, which I did. He then arose and addressed me in about these words: 'My son, these are men the same color with yourself, and some of your kin may be here, or they may be a great way off. You have lived a long time with us. I call on you to say if I have not been a father to you; if I have not used you as a father would a son.'
"'You have used me as well as a father could use a son,' was the answer.
"'I am glad you say so. You have lived long with me; you have hunted for me; but your treaty says you must be free. If you choose to go with people of your own color I have no right to say a word; but if you choose to stay with me your people have no right to speak. Now .
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reflect on it and take your choice and tell us as soon as you make up your mind.'
"I was silent for a few minutes, in which time I seemed to think of most everything. I thought of the children I had just left crying; I thought of the Indians I was attached to, and I thought of my people whom I remembered; and this latter thought predominated, and I said, 'I will go with my kin.' He then sank back in tears to his seat. I heartily joined him in his tears, parted with him, and have never seen or heard of him since."
On his return from his captivity Brickell settled in Columbus, and became one of her esteemed citizens. Not every father or foster father of the Caucasion race treats his son with such marked affection, or regrets parting so sincerely as did this simple unlettered red man of the wilderness.
We get another first-hand description of the character of those Indians who either roamed or dwelt along the Maumee, together with the trials and discouragements attending the efforts of the missionaries among them, from the journal kept by Reverend McCurdy, a mussionary along the Maumee: "They have been collecting for ten days past (1808) from different places and tribes, and this is to be the week of their Great Council. Hundreds more are yet expected. The plains are now swarm- ing with them, and they appear to be full of devilish festivity, although they can scarcely collect as much of any kind of vegetables as will allay the imperious demands of nature. They are here almost every hour begging for bread, milk, meat, melons, or cucumbers; and if they can get no better, they will eat a ripe cucumber with as little ceremony as a hungry swine. And, notwithstanding this state of outward wretched- ness and these mortifying circumstances, they are swollen with pride, and will strut about and talk with an air as supercilious as the Great Mogul. Their ceremonies, also, are conducted with as much pomposity as if they were individually Napoleons or Alexanders.
"Their houses, when they have any, are wretched huts, almost as dirty as they can be, and swarming with fleas and lice. Their furniture, a few barks, a tin or brass kettle, a gun, pipe, knife and tomahawk. Their stock are principally dogs. Of these, they have large numbers, but they are mere skeletons, the very picture of distress. These unhappy people appear to have learned all the vices of a number of miserable white men, who have fled to these forests to escape the vengeance of the law, or to acquire property in a way almost infinitely worse than that of highwaymen. They are so inured to white men of this description that it is next to impossible to make them believe you design to do them good, or that your object is not eventually to cheat them. It is vain to reason with them. Their minds are too dark to perceive its force, or their suspicions bar them against any favorable conclusions. Such is their ingratitude, that whilst you load them with favors they will reproach you to your face, and construe your benevolent intentions and actions into intentional fraud or real injury. They will lie in the most deliberate manner and to answer any selfish purpose. They will not bear contra- diction, but will take the liberty to contradict others in the most impudent and illiberal manner."
Edmund Burke, a Catholic priest was sent from Detroit to the Indians living near Fort Miami in 1796. Within the limits of the present village of Maumee, he constructed and occupied a long house as his chapel. Here he resided for a time, ministering to the few Catholic soldiers in the fort and endeavoring to Christianize the Indians in the neighborhood. His efforts met with little success, so that he remained only about a
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year. From that time no priest was stationed in this territory for a score of years. .
The Friends, or Quakers, early became interested in the Indians of Northwestern Ohio. As early as 1793, a commission from that religious body started to attend an Indian council on the lower Maumee River, in company with the United States Commissioners. They reached Detroit but did not succeed in getting any farther. In 1798, a belt of wampum, and ten strings of white beads, with a speech attached, was sent by a number of Indian chiefs to the yearly meeting of the Friends held in Baltimore. Appended to this letter were the names of Tarhe the Crane, Walk-on-the-Water and a number of other chiefs. They invited the Friends to visit the Wyandots and Delawares at their villages on the Sandusky River. When the designated representatives of the Friends arrived at Upper Sandusky in the following year, they found shocking and terrible scenes of drunkenness, and were subjected to indignities. Tarhe himself was not able to meet them for a day or two because of his intoxicated condition. These men returned to the East without any satisfactory result for their long and tedious journey. Nothing was heard from the Wyandots in response to their visit.
The good name of the Society of Friends had spread by degrees to many western tribes. In 1796 Chief Little Turtle visited Philadelphia with Capt. William Wells, his brother-in-law, as interpreter, and endeav- ored to enlist the assistance of the Friends in civilizing the Miamis living at Fort Wayne and in its vicinity. No immediate result followed, but the matter was not dropped. Some agricultural implements were forwarded. At a meeting held in 1804 it was decided to make a visit to the Miamis in order to decide on the best course to follow. Four men were named as a committee for this visit, and they made a little more progress than had any of the other emissaries dispatched to the Maumee Basin. Philip Dennis was left with the tribe as a permanent instructor. This was the first serious effort to instruct the aborigines of the West in agriculture, and it was not very successful. When the novelty had worn away, the warriors refused to work.
At the close of the War of 1812, the work of the Friends commenced among the Shawnees at Wapakoneta in a permanent form. A dam was constructed across the Auglaize River, and a flouring-mill and saw-mill were erected for their instruction and benefit in 1819. The expense of building and operation of the mill was borne by the Society of Friends, while the corn of the Indians was ground free of toll. The women soon learned to bake bread, which was much easier than pounding hominy. The Indians were furnished with plow irons and taught how to cultivate corn, beans, pumpkins, etc. Cows were furnished them and they were taught how to use them. As a result of their work, the Indians in that neighborhood began to improve and to build better homes. They wan- dered after game less and less, and turned to the rearing of domestic animals.
The faithful and devoted Friends worked diligently and faithfully without compensation. Many times they divided the last morsel of food with the needy Indians, whether the subject of their alms were worthy or unworthy. An annual payment of $3,000 did not keep starvation and want away from these improvident people. They taught the Bible and religious ethics by example as well as by word, and they taught the industrial arts to as great an extent as possible. A school in manual training was organized, which was the first school of its kind in Ohio. Friend Isaac Harvey moved there in 1819, and took charge of the work. He was a man of good judgment and good policy, and got on very well with his charges. It was not long until the holdings of the Indians
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around Wapakoneta numbered 1,200 cattle and as many hogs, which speaks very well indeed for the work done among them.
Much superstition existed among the Shawnees. Soon after Har- vey's arrival, it was aroused to an unwonted pitch by The Prophet, brother of Tecumseh. A woman of the tribe named Polly Butler was accused of witchery. One night Harvey was startled by the hasty arrival of Polly Butler, a half-breed, who came with her child to his house asking protection from the Shawnees, who were seeking to put her to death as a witch. "They kill-ee me! they kill-ee me !" she cried in terror. They were taken into the house by Harvey who at once strangled a small dog accompanying them that it might not betray their where- abouts. The next day Chief We-os-se-cah or Captain Wolf came and told Harvey the occurrences and the resulting excitement, whereupon Harvey told him of the sinfulness of such proceedings. We-os-se-cah went away much disturbed in mind, but soon returned and, intimating that Harvey knew the whereabouts of the woman, was told that she was out of their reach; and if they did not abandon her with desire to put her to death, he would remove his family and abandon the mission entirely. We-os-se-cah desired Harvey to go with him to the Council house, where twenty or more chief and head men, painted and armed were in session. Harvey went to the United States blacksmith, an impor- tant man with the aborigines, on account of his keeping their guns and knives in repair, and took him and his son along as interpreters. Upon their entering the Council House, where some of the Indians were already in their war paint, Chief We-os-se-cah commanded the Council "to be still and hear," whereupon he repeated what had transpired between Harvey and himself, which caused great commotion.
"Harvey then addressed them in a composed manner through the interpreter, interceding for the life of the woman who had been so unjustly sentenced to be put to death. But seeing them determined to have blood, he felt resigned and offered himself to be put to death in her stead ; that he was wholly unarmed and at their mercy. We-so-se-cah stepped up, took Harvey by the arm, and declared himself his friend, and called upon the chiefs to desist, but if they would not, he would offer his life for the Qua-kee-lee (Quaker) friend. This brave and heroic act of Harvey, and the equally unexpected offer of this brave chief checked the tide of hostile feelings. The chiefs were astonished but slowly, one by one, to the number of six or eight they came forward, took Harvey by the hand and declared friendship. "Me Qua-kee-lee friend," they would say. They promised if the woman was restored to her people, that she would be protected; and they called on the black- smith to witness their vow-and he became surety for its fulfillment. It required considerable effort to assure the woman of her safety, but eventually she returned to her dwelling and was not afterwards molested.
The Protestant missionary work was begun along the Maumee on or about the year 1802, when the Rev. D. Bacon, under the auspices of the Connecticut Missionary Society. visited this region. With two com- panions he set out from Detroit for the Maumee River in a canoe, and was five days in making the trip. He found here a good interpreter by the name of William Dragoo, who had been with the Indians since he was ten years of age. Upon arrival at the mouth of the river, he found most of the chiefs drunk at a trading post above and then concluded to pass on to Fort Miami, where he stored his belongings. The next day he returned to the mouth of the river, where most of the chiefs were still drunk. Little Otter, the head chief, was a little more sober than the rest, and he replied in friendly terms that Mr. Bacon should have
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