History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 8

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728

USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 8
USA > Ohio > Belmont County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 8

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CHAPTER III.

INDIAN CHARACTER AND PECULIARITIES-NORMAL ABORIGINES CONTRASTED WITH THE PRESENT HORDES ON THE FRONTIERS- INDIAN FOOD AND COOKERY-DRESS AND ORNAMENTS-COURTING AND MARRIAGE-TREATMENT OF WIVES.

THE character of the aborigines of the northern portion of Ameriea, will be regarded, in future times, as one of the most interesting topics eonneeted with its history. Their appearanee, customs and manners were so far distinet from those of other nations known to the eivilized world, and their individual eharaeter had so little in common with the more restrained and law-abiding Europeans, that they were, in the first stages of their aequaintanee with the whites, classed by the latter among those wild and lawless raees known as the savages, who, it was supposed, had few, if any, of the affeetions and higher emotions of humanity, but rather were bound by some mysterious link to the lower and baser passions of the animal ereations. This estimate of their eharaeter, although very far from being a correet one, was yet not totally wrong, for while later experienee shows that, under the advantages of ed- ueation and culture, the American Indian is capable of high attainments, both mental and moral, yet truth forees the ad- mission that many of the baser traits seemed so deeply rooted in their nature as to be ineradieable; among these were the eruelty and treachery which (notwithstanding all that Heeke- welder and other missionaries have written to the contrary), were certainly among their general characteristies, as also, still more notably, was their disposition to drunkenness, which seemed to have been universal.

The red men themselves charged that the viee of intoxiea- tion among them was not only originated, but wilfully fostered by the Europeans, in order that they might be able more easily to over-reach them in trade; and it will be found extremely hard to disprove the allegation. William Penn, in a letter to the "Free Society of Traders," when writing of this weakness of the Pennsylvania Indians, says: "Since the Europeans came into these parts, they (the Indians) are grown great lovers of strong liquors-rum especially-and for it exchange the richest of their skins and furs. If they are heated with liquors they are restless till they have enough to sleep; that is their ery, ' some more, and I will go to sleep,' but when drunk, one of the most wretched speetaeles in the world."

But the current opinion of Indian character is too apt to be formed from the miserable hordes which at present infest the western frontiers, and hang on the skirts of settlements. These are too commonly composed of degenerate beings, corrupted and enfeebled by the viees of society, without being benefitted by its civilization. The proud independence which formed the main pillar of native virtue has been shaken down, and the whole moral fabric lies in ruins. Their spirits are humiliated and debased by a sense of inferiority, and their native eourage eowed and daunted by the superior knowledge and power of their enlightened neighbors. Society has advaneed upon them like one of those withering airs that will sometimes breed des- olation over a whole region of fertility. It has enervated their strength, multiplied their diseases, and superindueed upon their original barbarity the low viees of artificial life. It has given them a thousand superfluous wants, while it has dimin- ished the means of their existence. It has driven before it the animals of the chase, who fly from the sound of the axe, and the smoke of the settlement, and seek refuge in more remote forests and untrodden wilds. Thus the Indians on our frontiers are often found to be mere wreeks and remnants of onee power- ful tribes, who have lingered in the vieinity of settlements, and sunk into a precarious and vagabond existenee. Repining, hopeless poverty, a canker of the mind hitherto unknown to them, eorrodes their spirits, and blights every free and noble quality of their natures. They loiter like vagabonds about the settlements, among spacious dwellings replete with elaborate eomforts, which only render them sensible of the comparative wretchedness of their own condition. Luxury spreads its ample board before their eyes; but Indian hospitality is not there, and they are exeluded from the festival. Plenty revels over the fields that were onee their hunting grounds ; but they are starving in the midst of its abundanee. The whole wilder- ness has blossomed into a garden ; but they feel as reptiles that infest it.

How different was their state while undisputed lords of the soil ! Then their wants were few, and the means of gratifiea-

Shawnesse, d Mohickone, d Coghnawages, d Twightwees, e Wkyonghtanies, f Pyankeshas, f Shockays, f Huskhuskeyes, g Illinois, g Wayondotts, h Ottowas, h

300 250 Miame river, near Fort Miame.

On the ground wbere they live.

Putawatimes, h Chipawas, i Ottawas, i Chipawas, j Ottawas, j

400 } 250 400

Chepawas, k Mynonamiesk, k Shockeys, k

550

Where they live.

Nanticokes, c Mohickons, c Conoys, c Monsays, c Sapoones, c Delawares, c Delawares, d

100) Utsanango, Chaghmett, Oswego, and on the east branch of Susquehannah.

Near Montreal.

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

tion within their reach. They saw every one around them sharing the same lot, enduring the same hardships, feeding on the same aliments, and arrayed in the same rude garments. No roof then rose that was not open to the homeless stranger; no smoke curled among the trees, but he was welcome to sit down by its fire, and join the hunter in his repast.

Hospitality was one of the Indian's distinguishing virtues, and there was no such thing among them as individual starva- tion or want. As long as there was a cup of soup, it was divided. If a friend or stranger called, he was welcome to all their wigwams could furnish. To offer him food was not a cus- tom merely-it was a breach of politeness for him to refuse to eat, however full he might be.

The nature of the Indian was in all respects like the nature of people of any other nation, and if placed in the same circum- stances, he exhibited the same passions and vices. But in his forest home there was not the same temptation to great crimes, nor what are usually termed the lesser ones, among civilized nations, of slander, scandal, and gossip. They knew nothing of the desire of gain, and therefore were not made selfish by the love of hoarding, and there was no temptation to steal where they had all things in common.

It is not just to compare the Indian of the fifteenth century with the European of that age. Compare him with the bar- barian of Britain, of Russia, of Lapland, Kamtschatka, and Tartary, representing him as truly as these nations have been pictured, and he will not suffer by the comparison. How long were the Saxon and Celt in becoming a civilized and Christian people ?

In discussing Indian character, writers have been too prone to indulge in prejudice and exaggeration, instead of the candid temper of true philosophy. They have not sufficiently con- sidered the peculiar circumstances in which the Indians have been placed, and the peculiar relations under which they have been educated. No being acts more rigidly from rule than the Indian. His whole conduct is regulated according to some general maxims carly implanted in his mind. The moral laws which governed him in his original state were few; but he conformed to them all. The white man abounds in laws of religion, morals, and manners, but how many does he violate ?

Regarding their liberality and improvidence, the following is quoted from the language of William Penn, employed in a letter addressed by him to the "Free Society of Traders:"

"They excelled in liberality. Nothing is too good for their friends. Give them a fine gun, coat, or other thing, it may pass twenty hands before it sticks. Light of heart, strong affections, but soon spent. The most merry creatures that live, feast and dance perpetually. They never have much, nor want much. Wealth circulateth like the blood, all parts partake, and though none shall want what another hath, yet exact ob- servers of property. They care for little because they want but little, and the reason is, a little contents them. In this they are sufficiently revenged on us; if they are ignorant of our pleasure they are also free from our pains. They are not disquieted with bills of lading and exchange, nor perplexed with chancery suits and exchequer reckonings. We sweat and toil to live, their pleasures feed them-I mean their hunting, fishing, and fowling, and this table is spread everywhere. They eat twice a day, morning and evening, their seats and table are the ground."

The Indians were certainly a most open-handed people. Among them there was no short-coming-unless it might be cowardice-which they considered so reprehensible as a neg- lect of the requirements of hospitality. The observance of these was, with them, not a virtue but a duty. None among them ever thought that such action was, in any degree, worthy of praise, but a failure to practice it would brand the delin- quent with indelible disgrace.

They would rather prefer themselves to suffer the pangs of hunger than to be remiss in their duty towards the unfortunate, the needy, or to those who were far away from home and people. With then it might be said in truth that-

* * "A stranger is a holy name,

Guidanee and rest, and food, and fire, In vain, he never must require."

But in regard to rights of property, they adopted in a great degree, the doctrines of the Commune.

It was their belief that the Great Spirit made the earth and ocean, the mountains, valleys, forests, lakes, and rivers, and all that in them is, for the common good of mankind; and that whatever lived in the woods and hills, or swam in the rivers and sea, or grew out of the bosom of their mother Earth, was

placed there for all men, and that the idea of exclusive owner- ship in this common property was preposterous and wholly subversive of the benevolent intention of the Creator.

INDIAN FOOD AND COOKERY-1762.

Heckwelder says at that time their principal food consisted of game, fish, corn, potatoes, beans, pumpkins, cucumbers, squashes, melons, cabbages, and turnips, roots of plants, fruits, nuts, and berries.

"They take but two meals a day. The hunters or fishermen never go out in the middle of the day, except it be cloudy. Their custom is to go out on an empty stomach as a stimulant to exertion in shooting game or catching fish.

"They make a pottage of corn, dry pumpkins, beans and chestnuts, and fresh or dried meats, pounded, all sweetened with maple sugar or molasses, and well boiled. They also make a good dish of pounded corn and chestnuts, shellbarks and hickory nut kernels, boiled, covering the pots with large pumpkin, cabbage, or other leaves.

"They make excellent preserves from cranberries and crab apples, with maple sugar.

"Their bread is of two kinds; one made of green, and the other of dry corn. If dry, it is sifted after pounding, kneaded, shaped into cakes six inches in diameter, one inch thick, and baked on clean dry ashes, of dry oak barks. If green, it is mashed, put on broad green corn blades, filled in with a ladle, well wrapped up and baked in ashes.

."They make warrior's bread by parching corn, sifting it, pounding into flour, and mixing sugar. A table-spoonful with cold or boiling water is a meal, as it swells in the stomach, and if more than two spoonsful is taken, it is dangerous. Its light- ness enables the warrior to go on long journeys and carry his bread with him. Their meat is boiled in pots, or roasted on wooden spits or coals."

The original Indian method of making sugar is said to have been in this manner: The sap from the maple trees was gathered and placed in large wooden troughs which they hag- gled out with their tomahawks. Hot stones were then thrown into the sap which was made to boil in this way, and the pro- cess continued until it was reduced to the required consistency.

INDIAN DRESS AND ORNAMENTS AT THE CAPITAL.

Heckwelder further says: "The Indians make beaver and raccoon-skin blankets. Also frocks, shirts, petticoats, leggings, and shoes of deer, bear and other skins. If cold, the fur is placed next to the body; if warm, outside.

" With the large rib bones of the elk and buffalo they shaved the hair off such skins as they dressed, which was done as clean as with a knife. They also made blankets of feathers of the turkey and goose, which the women arranged, interwoven together with thread or twine made from the rind of the wild hemp and nettles.

"The dress of the men consists of blankets, plain or ruffled shirts, leggings and moccasins (moxens). The women make petticoats of cloth, red, blue, or black, when it can be had of traders. They adorn with ribbons, beads, silver broaches, arm spangles, round buckles, little thimble-like bells around the ankles to make a noise and attract attention. They paint with vermillion, but not so as to offend their husbands; the loose women and prostitutes paint their faces deeply scarlet.

"The men paint their thighs, legs, breasts, and faces, and to appear well, spend sometimes a whole day in decorating them- selves for a night frolic. They pluck out their beards and hair on the head (except a tuft on the crown) with tweezers made of muscle shells, or brass wire. The Indians would all be bearded like white men were it not for this pulling out custom."

INDIAN COURTING IN THE VALLEYS.

An aged Indian, who for many years had spent much of his time among the whites, speaking of marriage to Heekwelder, said : "Indian, when he see industrious squaw which he like, he go to him," (they had no feminine gender in their vocabulary, ) " place his two forefingers close aside each other-make him look like one-look squaw in the face, see him smile, which is all and he say, 'Yes;' so he take him home. No danger he be eross; no, no. Squaw know too well what Indian do if he (she) cross. Throw him (her) away, and take another; squaw have to eat meat-no husband, no meat. Squaw do everything to please husband; he do same please squaw ; live happy."

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

INDIAN MARRIAGES.

An Indian takes a wife on trial. He builds a house, and pro- vides provisions. She agrees to cook and raise corn and veg- etables, while he hunts or fishes. If both perform these duties, they are man and wife. If not, they separate. The woman's labor is light in the house. She has but one pot to clean, and no scrubbing to do, and but little to wash, and that not often. They cut wood, till the ground, sow and reap, pound the corn, bake bread in the ashes, and cook the meat or fish in the pot. If on a journey, the wife carries the baggage, and Heckwelder says he " never heard of a wife complaining, for she says the hus- band must avoid hard labor and stiffening of muscles if he ex- pects to be an expert hunter, so as to provide her meat to eat and furs to wear. The Indian loves to see his wife well clothed, and hence he gives her all the skins he takes. The more he does for her, the more he is esteemed by the community. In selling her furs, if she finds anything at the trader's store which she thinks would please her husband, she buys it for him, even should it take all she has to pay therefor."

TREATMENT OF WIVES.

Although it is well known that by the Indian custom all domestic labor is performed by the women, Heckwelder relates the following in regard to the treatment of wives: "I have known a man to go forty or fifty miles for a mess of cranberries, to satisfy his wife's longing. In the year 1762, I was witness to a remarkable instance of the disposition of Indians to in- dulge their wives. There was a famine in the land, and a sick Indian woman expressed a great desire for a mess of Indian corn. Her husband, having heard that a trader at Lower San- dusky had a little, set off on horseback for that place, one hun- dred miles distant, and returned with as much corn as filled the crown of his hat, for which he gave his horse in exchange, and came home on foot, bringing his saddle back with him."

It very seldom happens that a man condescends to quarrel with his wife, or abuse her, though she has given him just cause. In such a case the man, without replying or saying a single word, will take his gun and go into the woods, and re- main there a week or perhaps a fortnight, living on the meat he has killed, before he returns home again ; well knowing he can- not inflict a greater punishment on his wife, for her conduct to him, than by absenting himself for a while-for she is not only kept in suspense, uncertain whether he will return again, but is soon reported as a bad and quarrelsome woman. When he at length does return, she endeavors to let him see by her at- tentions that she has repented, though neither speak to each other a single word on the subject of what has passed.

CHAPTER IV.

INDIAN WARFARE, HUNTING AND ORATORY-LOGAN, CORNSTALK, AND OTHER CHIEFS-LEGEND OF CORNSTALK AT GNADENHUT- TEN-LEGEND OF SLAUGHTER AT THE SENECA CAPITAL IN THE TUSCARAWAS VALLEY.

T is said by some writers that the American Indians were exterminating each other by aggressive and devastating wars, before the white people came among them. But wars are not proofs of barbarity. The bravest warrior was whom they most honored; but this has been ever true of Christian nations; and those who call themselves Christians have not ceased yet to look upon him who could plan and execute most successfully the wholesale slaughter of human beings as the most deserving his country's laurels.

It is also said that the Indian was cruel to the captive, and inflicted unspeakable tortures upon his enemy taken in battle. But, from what we know of them, it is not to be inferred that In- dian chiefs were ever guilty of filling dungeons with innocent victims or slaughtering hundreds and thousands of their own people, whose only sin was a quiet dissent from some religious dogma. Towards their foes they were often relentless, and they had good reason to look upon white men as their enemies.

Again, it is said, the Indian mode of warfare is, without ex- ception, the most inhuman and revolting. But those who die

even from the barbed and poisoned arrow, do not suffer greater pangs or linger in more unendurable torments, than those who are mangled with powder and balls. The tomahawk makes quick work of the dying, but the scene is scarcely as revolting as the civilized battle field, where thousands of wounded and mangled victims lie in heaps over the ground, filling the air with groans for days, until the slower process of death ends their suffering. As for scalping, it is not exclusively an In- dian invention. Prescott says, "it claims high authority, or, at least, antiquity. The father of history, Herodotus, gives an account of it among the Scythians, showing that they per- formed the operation, and wore the scalps of their enemies taken in battle, as trophies, in the same manner as the North American Indians. Traces of the same custom are also found in the laws of the Visigoths, among the Franks, and even the Anglo-Saxons."

The science of warfare was the highest accomplishment of the Indian, but as is the case with all other people, a spirit of ag- gression was only indulged by the stronger nations, to whom alone it was of any advantage. Like hunted deer the poorer and less powerful tribes were often forced to leave their villages as plunder to some marauding band on a foray from a distant locality.

The preparation for the war-path was commonly opened by feasting and dancing, in which the whole tribe took part, and when this was concluded, the war party quickly and silently left the village and entered the forest, with the chief at their head, and the warriors following singly in "Indian file."

The war-dance, so often alluded to in Indian story, is said to be beyond description the most exciting and inspiring of all theatrical scenes. It is the acting of war. The song, which kindles enthusiasm, is first sung, with the same motive and the same effect as the martial music awakes its echoes on Chris- tian plains, and then follows all the pomp and circumstance of war; arrows fly thick and fast, the tomahawk is wielded, the dead and dying strew the battle-field, and by various devices of paint and false scalps, hundreds are bleeding, then follows the shout of victory and the dirge for the slain. Those who have witnessed it represent it as impossible for one who is not an actor to realize that it can be anything less than a real battle. Those who pass through the initiatory process of being trained for warriors at a military school, can imagine and best appre- ciate the influence of the war-dance upon those to whomn war is the only field of glory.

Some of the tribes mixed their war paint with petroleum, which was generally obtained from the oil regions of Pennsyl- vania and West Virginia, but are known to have also gathered it on Yellow creek, Jefferson county, Ohio. Its use was more generally adopted by the Senecas, who dwelt among the copious oil springs throughout the head waters of the Allegheny, and hence the origin of the name Seneca oil. The oil is said to have given them a "a hideous glistening, appearance," adding per- manency to the paint, and rendering it impervious to water.

Among the Iroquois, revenge for a great injury was usually the cause of the beginnings of strife, and their subjugation for the sake of peace, like the Romans of old, was the principle upon which they waged war. There was something in their proud and dignified bearing, in their national policy, and their warlike exploits, like the people who extend their arms into every civilized and uncivilized land.

To be taken captive by the Indians, was, among the early colonists, considered the most terrible of calamities; and it was indeed a fearful thing to become the victim of their revenge. But those who were enduring the actual sufferings of captives, or suffering still more from uncertain evils, thought little of the provocation given by our own people. The innocent often suf- fered for the guilty, and the unprincipled marauders of the frontier committed depredations and acts of atrocity which aroused the spirit of revenge, and drove the Indian to retalia- tion. Thinking pale-faces were all alike, he did not wait until the real offender fell into his hands. We do not desire to paint him so that he will become attractive to civilized people, and there is no need of painting him more hideously than he paints himself.

As regards their possession of qualities, essential to success in war, or the chase, very false ideas have been, and still are entertained. It is customary to think and speak of the Indian, as immeasurably superior to all other human beings in endu- rance, skill in the use of weapons, and in woodcraft, and also as possessing bravery and cunning, which were almost super- natural; whereas, it is the fact that the white man has inva- riably shown his superiority over the savage, wherever the two have been brought together in the same arena.

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES, OHIO.

The Indian was brave so long as he had a shelter, from which he might attack his foe, but that courage offered a very marked diminution, when he was compelled to meet his enemies, as white men do, on the open field, and without cover, and it is an undisputable fact that in all the fights between French and English in America, where Indian allies were engaged on one side or the other (often on both) these red warriors, who were so ready and apt, in using steel in the form of tomahawk, or scalping-knife, always blenched before the gleam of the bayonet.

There has never been a single instance where any incentive of pride-of which the Indian was supposed to possess so much, or of savage vindictiveness, which we know was their most marked characteristic, was found sufficient to hold them stead- fast in the face of an advancing line of glistening steel.

And so it has always been in the science (if it may be so called) of woodcraft. Keen and cunning as they were in follow- ing their enemy's trail by the upturning of a leaf, or the bend- ing of a twig or blade of grass, guiding their way in starless night, through the depths of traekless forests, by the sense of touch upon the trunks of trees ; detecting the proximity of a foe by a knowledge apparently as keen as a bloodhound's scent, and falling upon that foe with steps as noiseless as the passage of disembodied spirits ; in all these the white man, whenever he made these things his study, rivalled and surpassed the savage.

All know the story of that subtlest of Indian haters, Lewis Wetzel, the scout of Ohio, and also the narrative of Simon Kenton, Samuel Brady, and others ; how they swore to be revenged for the destruction of their houses and the slaying of their families by savages, and how, single-handed and alone, for months and years they shadowed the red murderers through the dim woods and along the darkly gliding streams, until their grudge had been glutted a hundred fold; though during that time, whole tribes had bent all their energies and all their cunning to sur- prise and capture them ; but in vain, for the white man was their superior. His eye was keener, his tread lighter, his senses more aeute, his rifle more unerring.

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History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 8

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 728

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728