USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, together with historic notes on the northwest and the state of Ohio > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95
Near the dividing line between sections 4 and 5, township 31 north, of range 11 east, in Kankakee county, Illinois, on the prairie about a mile above the mouth of Rock Creek, are some ancient mounds. "One is very large, being about one hundred feet base in diameter and about twenty feet high, in a conic form, and is said to contain the remains of two hundred Indians who were killed in the celebrated battle between the Illinois and Chippeways, Delawares and Shawnees; and about two chains to the northeast, and the same distance to the northwest, are two other small mounds, which are said to contain the remains of the chiefs of the two parties.
Uncorroborated Indian traditions are not entitled to any high de- gree of credibility, and these quoted are introduced to refute the often repeated assertion that the Indians had no tradition concerning the origin of the mounds scattered through the western states, or that they supposed them to have been erected by a race who occupied the con- tinent anterior to themselves.
These mounds were seldom or never used for religious purposes by the Algonquins or Iroquois, but Penicault states that when he visited the Natchez Indians, in 1704, " the houses of the Suns are built on mounds, and are distinguished from each other by their size. The mound upon which the house of the Great Chief, or Sun, is built is larger than the rest, and its sides are steeper. The temple in the vil- lage of the Great Sun is about thirty feet high and forty-eight in circumference, with the walls eight feet thick and covered with a matting of canoes, in which they keep up a perpetual fire."
De Soto found the houses of the chiefs built on mounds of different heights, according to their rank, and their villages fortified with pali- sades, or walls of earth, with gateways to go in and out.
When Gravier, in 1700, visited the Yazoos, he noticed that their temple was raised on a mound of earth. He also, in speaking of the Ohio, states that " it is called by the Illinois and Oumiamis the river of the Akansea, because the Akansea formerly dwelt on it. The Akansea or Arkansas Indians possessed many traits and customs in common with the Natchez, having temples, pottery, etc. A still more important fact is noticed by Du Pratz, who was intimately
Digitized by Google
-
86
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
acquainted with the Great Sun. He says: "The temple is about . thirty feet square, and stands on an artificial mound about eight feet high, by the side of a small river. The mound slopes insensibly from the main front, which is northward, but on the other side it is some- what steeper."
According to their own traditions, the Natchez "were at one time the most powerful nation in all North America, and were looked upon by the other nations as their superiors, and were, on that account, re- spected by them. Their territory extended from the River Iberville, in Louisiana, to the Wabash." They had over five hundred suns, and, consequently, nearly that many villages. Their decline and re- treat to the south was owing not to the superiority in arms of the less civilized surrounding tribes, but was due to the pride of their own chiefs, who, to lend an imposing magnificence to their funeral rites, adopted the impolitic custom of having hundreds of their followers strangled at their pyre. Many of the mounds, scattered up and down the valleys of the Wabash, Ohio and Mississippi, while being the only, may be the time-defying monuments of the departed power and grandeur of these two tribes.
The Indian manner of making a fire is thus related by Hennepin : "Their way of making a fire, which is new and unknown to us, is thus : They take a triangular piece of cedar wood of a foot and a half in length, wherein they bore some holes half through; then they take a switch, or another small piece of hard wood, and with both their hands rub the strongest upon the weakest in the hole, which is made in the cedar, and while they are thus rubbing they let fall a sort of dust or powder, which turns into fire. This white dust they roll up in a pellet of herbs, dried in autumn, and rubbing them all together, and then blowing upon the dust that is in the pellets, the fire kindles in a moment."
The food of the Indians consisted of all the varieties of game, fishes and wild fruits in the vicinity; and they cultivated Indian corn, melons and squashes. From corn they made a preparation called sagamite. They pulverized the corn, mixed it with water, and added a small proportion of ground gourds or beans.
The clothing of the northern Indians consisted only of the skins of wild animals, roughly prepared for that purpose. Their southern brethren were far in advance of them in this respect. "Many of the women wore cloaks of the bark of the mulberry tree, or of the feathers of swans, turkeys or Indian ducks. The bark they take from young mulberry shoots that rise from the roots of trees that have
Digitized by Google
87
THEIR CANOES.
been cut down. After it is dried in the sun they beat it to make all the woody parts fall off, and they give the threads that remain a second beating, after which they bleach them by exposing them to the dew. When they are well whitened they spin them about the coarseness of pack-thread, and weave them in the following manner : They plant two stakes in the ground about a yard and a half asunder, and having stretched a cord from the one to the other, they fasten their threads of bark double to this cord, and then interweave them in a curious manner into a cloak of about a yard square, with a wrought border round the edges."
The Indians had three varieties of canoes, elm-bark, birch-bark and pirogues. "Canoes of elm-bark were not used for long voyages, as they were very frail. When the Indians wish to make a canoe of elm-bark they select the trunk of a tree which is very smooth, at the time when the sap remains. They cut it around, above and below, about ten, twelve or fifteen feet apart, according to the num- ber of people which it is to carry. After having taken off the whole in one piece, they shave off the' roughest of the bark, which they make the inside of the canoe. They make end ties of the thickness of a finger, and of sufficient length for the canoe, using young oak or any other flexible and strong wood, and fasten the two larger folds of the bark between these strips, spreading them apart with wooden bows, which are fastened in about two feet apart. They sew up the two ends of the bark with strips drawn from the inner bark of the elm, giving attention to raise up a little the two extremities, which they call pinces, making a swell in the middle and a curve on the sides, to resist the wind. If there are any chinks, they sew them together with thongs and cover them with chewing-gum, which they crowd by heating it with a coal of fire. The bark is fastened to the wooden bows by wooden thongs. They add a mast, made of a piece of wood and cross-piece to serve as a yard, and their blankets serve them as sails. These canoes will carry from three to nine persons and all their equipage. They sit upon their heels, without moving, as do also their children, when they are in, from fear of losing their balance, when the whole machine would upset. But this very seldom happened, unless struck by a flaw of wind. They use these vessels particularly in their war parties.
" The canoes made of birch bark were much more solid and more artistically constructed. The frames of these canoes are made of strips of cedar wood, which is very flexible, and which they render as thin as a side of a sword-scabbard, and three or four inches wide.
Digitized by Google
.
88
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
They all touch one another, and come up to a point between the two end strips. This frame is covered with the bark of the birch tree, sewed together like skins, secured between the end strips and tied along the ribs with the inner bark of the roots of the cedar, as we twist willows around the hoops of a cask. All these seams are cov- ered with gum, as is done with canoes of elm bark. They then put in cross-bars to hold it and to serve as seats, and a long pole, which they lay on from fore to aft in rough weather to prevent it from being broken by the shocks occasioned by pitching. They have with them three, six, twelve and even twenty-four places, which are designated as so many seats. The French are almost the only people who use these canoes for their long voyages. They will carry as much as three thousand pounds." These were vessels in which the fur trade of the entire northwest has been carried on for so many years. They were very light, four men being able to carry the largest of them over portages. At night they were unloaded, drawn upon the shore, turned over, and served the savages or traders as huts. They could endure gales of wind that would play havoc with vessels of European manufacture. In calm water the canoe men, in a sitting posture, used paddles; in stemming currents, rising from their seats, they substituted poles for paddles, and in shooting rapids, they rested on their knees.
Pirognes were the trunks of trees hollowed out and pointed at the extremities. A fire was started on the trunk, out of which the pirogue was to be constructed. The fire was kept within the desired limits by the dripping of water upon the edges of the trunk. As a part became charred, it was dug out with stone hatchets, and the fire rekindled. This kind of canoes was especially adapted for the navi- gation of the Mississippi and Missouri ; the current of these streams carrying down trees, which formed snags, rendered their navigation by bark canoes exceedingly hazardous. It was probably owing to this reason, as well as because there were no birch trees in their country, that the Illinois and Miamis were not, as the Jesuits remarked, "canoe nations;" they used the awkward, heavy pirogue instead.
Each nation was divided into villages. The Indian village, when unfortified, had its cabins scattered along the banks of a river or the shores of a lake, and often extended for three or four miles. Each cabin held the head of the family, the children, grandchildren, and often the brothers and sisters, so that a single cabin not unfrequently contained as many as sixty persons. Some of their cabins were in
Digitized by Google
89
WIGWAMS.
the form of elongated squares, of which the sides were not more than five or six feet high. They were made of bark, and the roof was prepared from the same material, having an opening in the top for the passage of smoke. At both ends of the cabin there were entrances. The fire was built under the hole in the roof, and there were as many fires as there were families.
The beds were upon planks on the floor of the cabin, or upon simple hides, which they called appichimon, placed along the parti- tions. They slept upon these skins, wrapped in their blankets, which, during the day, served them for clothing. Each one had his particu- lar place. The man and wife crouched together, her back being against his body, their blankets passed around their heads and feet, 80 that they looked like a plate of ducks. These bark cabins were used by the Iroquois, and indeed, by many Indian tribes who lived exclu- sively in the forests.
The prairie Indians, who were unable to procure bark, generally made mats out of platted reeds or flags, and placed these mats around three or four poles tied together at the ends. They were, in form, round, and terminated in a cone. These mats were sewed together with so much skill that, when new, the rain could not penetrate them. This variety of cabins possessed the great advantage that, when they moved their place of residence, the mats of reeds were rolled up and carried along by the squaws.
" The nastiness of these cabins alone, and that infection which was a necessary consequence of it, would have been to any one but an Indian a severe punishment. Having no windows, they were full of smoke, and in cold weather they were crowded with dogs. The Indians never changed their garments until they fell off by their very rottenness. Being never washed, they were fairly alive with vermin. In summer the savages bathed every day, but immediately afterward rubbed themselves with oil and grease of a very rank smell. " In winter they remained unwashed, and it was impossible to enter their cabins without being poisoned with the stench."
All their food was very ill-seasoned and insipid, "and there pre- vailed in all their repasts an uncleanliness which passed all concep- tion. There were very few animals which did not feed cleaner." They never washed their wooden or bark dishes, nor their porringers and spoons. In this connection William Biggs states: " They plucked off a few of the largest feathers, then threw the duck- feathers, entrails and all-into the soup kettle, and cooked it in that manner."
Digitized by Google
90
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
The Indians were cannibals, though human flesh was only eaten at war feasts. It was often the case that after a prisoner had been tor- tured his body was thrown into "the war-kettle," and his remains greedily devoured. This fact is uniformly asserted by the early French writers. Members of Major Long's party made especial inquiries at Fort Wayne concerning this subject, and were entirely convinced. They met persons who had attended the feasts, and saw Indians who acknowledged that they had participated in them. Joseph Barron saw the Pottawatomies with hands and limbs, both of white men and Cherokees, which they were about to devour. Among some tribes cannibalism was universal, but it appears that among the Pottawat- omies and Miamis it was restricted to a fraternity whose privilege and duty it was on all occasions to eat out of the enemy's flesh ;- at least one individual must be eaten. The flesh was sometimes dried and taken to the villages.
The Indians had some peculiar funeral customs. Joutel thus records some of his observations: "They pay a respect to their dead, as appears by their special care of burying them, and even of putting into lofty coffins the bodies of such as are considerable among them, as their chiefs and others, which is also practiced among the Accan- ceas, but they differ in this respect, that the Accanceas weep and make their complaints for some days, whereas the Shawnees and other people of the Illinois nation do just the contrary, for when any of them die they wrap them up in skins and then put them into coffins made of the bark of trees, then sing and dance about them for twenty- four hours. Those dancers take care to tie calabashes, or gourds, about their bodies, with some Indian corn in them, to rattle and make a noise, and soine of them have a drum, made of a great earthen pot, on which they extend a wild goat's skin, and beat thereon with one stick, like our tabors. During that rejoicing they threw their presents on the coffin, as bracelets, pendants or pieces of earthenware. When the ceremony was over they buried the body, with a part of the presents, making choice of such as may be most proper for it. They also bury with it some store of Indian wheat, with a pot to boil it in, for fear the dead person should be hungry on his long journey, and they repeat the ceremony at the year's end. A good number of presents still remaining, they divide thein into several lots and play at a game called the stick to give them to the winner."
The Indian graves were made of a large size, and the whole of the inside lined with bark. On the bark was laid the corpse, accompanied
Digitized by Google
91
INDIAN SUPERSTITIONS.
with axes, snow-shoes, kettle, common shoes, and, if a woman, carry- ing-belts and paddles.
This was covered with bark, and at about two feet nearer the surface, logs were laid across, and these again covered with bark, so that the earth might by no means fall upon the corpse. If the deceased, before his death, had so expressed his wish, a tree was hollowed out and the corpse deposited within. After the body had become entirely decomposed, the bones were often collected and buried in the earth. Many of these wooden sepulchres were discovered by the early settlers in Iroquois county, Illinois. Doubtless they were the remains of the Pottawatomies, who at that time resided there.
After a death they took care to visit every place near their cabins, striking incessantly with rods and raising the most hideous cries, in order to drive the souls to a distance, and to keep them from lurking about their cabins.
The Indians believed that every animal contained a Manitou or God, and that these spirits could exert over them a beneficial or prejudicial influence. The rattlesnake was especially venerated by them. Henry relates an instance of this veneration. He saw a snake, and procured his gun, with the intention of dispatching it. The Indians begged him to desist, and, "with their pipes and tobacco pouches in their hands, approached the snake. They surrounded it, all addressing it by turns and calling it their grandfather, but yet kept at some distance. During this part of the ceremony, they filled their pipes, and each blew the smoke toward the snake, which, as it appeared to me, really received it with pleasure. In a word, after remaining coiled and receiving incense for the space of half an hour, it stretched itself along the ground in visible good humor. The Indians followed it, and, still addressing it by the title of grandfather, beseeched it to take care of their families during their absence, and also to open the hearts of the English, that they might fill their (the Indians') canoes with rum. This reverence of the Indians for the rattlesnake will account for the vast number of these reptiles met with by early settlers in localities favorable for their increase and security. The clefts in the rocky cliffs below Niagara Falls were so infested with rattlesnakes that the Indians removed their village to a place of greater security.
The Indians had several games, some of which have been already noticed. McCoy mentions a singular occurrence of this nature : "A Miami Indian had been stabbed with a knife, who lingered, and of whose recovery there was no doubt. On the 12th of May a party
Digitized by Google
92
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
resolved to decide by a game of moccasin whether the man should live or die. In this game the party seat themselves upon the earth opposite to each other, while one holds a moccasin on the ground with one hand, and holds in the other a small ball; the ball he affects to conceal in the moccasin, and does either insert it or not, as he shall choose, and then leaves the opposite party to guess where the ball is. In order to deceive his antagonist, he incessantly utters a kind of a sing-song, which is repeated about thrice in a minute, and moving his hands in unison with the notes, brings one of them, at every repetition, to the mouth of the moccasin, as though he had that moment inserted the ball. One party played for the wounded man's recovery and the other for his death. Two games were played, in both of which the side for recovery was triumphant, and so they concluded the man would not die of his wounds."
The Indians had a most excellent knowledge of the topography of their country, and they drew the most exact maps of the countries they were acquainted with. They set down the true north according to the polar star; the ports, harbors, rivers, creeks, and coasts of the lakes ; roads, mountains, woods, marshes and meadows. They counted the distances by journeys and half journeys, allowing to every journey five leagues. These maps were drawn upon birch bark. "Previous to General Brock's crossing over to Detroit, he asked Tecumseh what sort of a country he should have to pass through in case of his pro- ceeding farther. Tecumseh took a roll of elm bark, and extending it on the ground, by means of four stones, drew forth his scalping knife, and, with the point, etched upon the bark a plan of the country, its hills, woods, rivers, morasses, a plan which, if not as neat, was fully as accurate as if it had been made by a professional map-maker.
In marriage, they had no ceremony worth mentioning, the man and the woman agreeing that for so many bucks, beaver hides, or, in short, any valuables, she should be his wife. Of all the passions, the Indians were least influenced by love. Some anthors claim that it had no existence, excepting, of course, mere lust, which is possessed by all animals. "By women, beauty was commonly no motive to marriage, the only inducement being the reward which she received. It was said that the women were purchased by the night, week, month or winter, so that they depended on fornication for a living ; nor was it thought either a crime or shame, none being esteemed as prostitutes but such as were licentious without a reward." Poly- gamy was common, but was seldom practiced except by the chiefs. On the smallest offense husband and wife parted, she taking the
Digitized b Google
.
93
MARRIAGE AND RELIGION.
domestic utensils and the children of her sex. Children formed the only bond of affection between the two sexes; and of them, to the credit of the Indian be it said, they were very fond. They never chastised them, the only punishment being to dash, by the hand, water into the face of the refractory child. Joutel noticed this method of correction among the Illinois, and nearly a hundred years later Jones mentions the same custom as existing among the Shawnees.
The Algonquin tribes, differing in this respect from the southern Indians, had no especial religion. They believed in good and bad spirits, and thought it was only necessary to appease the wicked spirits, for the good ones "were all right anyway." These bad spirits were thought to occupy the bodies of animals, fishes and rep- tiles, to dwell in high mountains, gloomy caverns, dangerous whirl- pools, and all large bodies of water. This will account for the offerings of tobacco and other valuables which they made when passing such places. No ideas of morals or metaphysics ever entered the head of the Indians; they believed what was told them upon those subjects, without having more than a vague impression of their meaning. Some of the Canadian Indians, in all sincerity, compared the Holy Trinity to a piece of pork. There they found the lean meat, the fat and the rind, three distinct parts that form the same piece." Their ideas of heaven was a place full of sensual enjoy- ments, and free from physical pains. Indeed, it is doubtful if, before their mythology was changed by the partial adoption of some of the doctrines of Christianity, they had any idea of spiritual reward or punishment.
Wampum, prior to and many years subsequent to the advent of the Europeans, was the circulating medium among the North Ameri- can Indians. It is made out of a marine shell, or periwinkle, some of which are white, others violet, verging toward black. They are perforated in the direction of the greater diameter, and are worked into two forms, strings and belts. The strings consist of cylinders strung without any order, one after another, on to a thread.
The belts are wide sashes, in which the white and purple beads are arranged in rows and tied by little leathern strings, making a very pretty tissue. Wampum belts are used in state affairs, and their length, width and color are in proportion to the importance of the affair being negotiated. They are wrought, sometimes, into figures ·of considerable beauty.
These belts and strings of wampum are the universal agent with
Digitized by Google
94
HISTORIC NOTES ON THE NORTHWEST.
the Indians, not only as money, jewelry or ornaments, but as annals and for registers to perpetuate treaties and compacts between individuals and nations. They are the inviolable and sacred pledges which guarantee messages, promises and treaties. As writing is not in use among them, they make a local memoir by means of these belts, each of which signifies a particular affair Or a circumstance relating to it. The village chiefs are the custodians, and communicate the affairs they perpetuate to the young people, who thus learn the history, treaties and engagements of their nation. Belts are classified as message, road, peace or war belts. White signifies peace, as black does war. The color therefore at once indicates the intention of the person or tribe who sends or accepts a belt. So general was the importance of the belt, that the French and English, and the Ameri- cans, even down as late as the treaty of Greenville, in 1795,used it in treating with the Indians
.
.
Digitized by Google
.
CHAPTER IX.
THE WAR FOR THE FUR TRADE.
FORMERLY the great Northwest abounded in game and water-fowl. The small lakes and lesser water courses were full of beaver, otter and muskrats. In the forests were found the marten, the raccoon, and other fur-bearing animals. The plains, partially submerged, and the rivers, whose current had a sluggish flow, the shallow lakes, producing annual crops of wild rice, of nature's own sowing, teemed with wild geese, duck and other aquatic fowl bursting in their very fatness.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.