USA > Ohio > Morgan County > History of Morgan County, Ohio, with portraits and biographical sketches of some of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 4
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The Miamis, occupying the country along the Miami and Maumce Rivers, 3
are also supposed by some to have been conquered by the Six Nations, but there is no historical evidence of the fact.
However complete the conquest of the Six Nations may have been, they soon suffered other tribes to occupy the valleys of the chief eastern tribu- taries of the Ohio, and the villages of the red race again appeared on the banks of the Cuyahoga, the Tuscarawas, the Muskingum, the Scioto, the Miamis and the Maumce.
About 1750, when the West began to be known to English-Americans, the principal tribes within the present limits of Ohio were as follows : The Delawarcs, on the Tuscarawas and the Muskingum ; the Shawnees, in the Scioto Valley ; the Miamis, upon the rivers bearing their name ; the Wyandots, sometimes called the Hurons, occupying the country on the Sandusky River and Bay ; the Otto- was, in the valleys of the Maumee and the Sandusky; the Chippewas, along the south shore of Lake Erie, and the Mingocs (of Iroquois lineage), on the Ohio below where Steubenville now is. The territory of each tribe was not fixed by definite boundaries, nor was the seat of densest population of all the tribes permanent. By the time white settlers made their appearance in the valley considerable change had occurred-some tribes having moved westward and others northward,-and it was noted that predatory and war- parties were frequently made up of warriors from several different tribes.
The Delawares were the chief occu- pants of Eastern Ohio, and were virtu- ally in possession of half the present territory of the State, from the Ohio to the lake. The Delawares called themselves the Lenni-Lenape, or orig- inal people, and had various legends
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IHISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO.
proving the antiquity of their origin. According to their traditions the orig- inal home of the Lenni-Lenape was west of the Mississippi, whence they migrated eastward to the region of the Alleghany Mountains, where they be- came involved in a war with a pow- erful race, of giant stature, known as the Allegewi, who sought to stay their further progress. In this war they were assisted by the Mengwe, otherwise known as the Mingoes or Iroquois, who had come from the West with them. The Lenape and the Men- gwe conquered and extirpated the Alle- gewi, and took possession of their country, the Mengwe taking as their territory the country along the great lakes and the St. Lawrence, and the Lenape reserving to themselves the vast tract stretching from the Alleghany Mountains to the Atlantic coast, and eventually settling their densest popu- lation on the Delaware, the Susque- hanna and the Potomac. The Euro- peans having taken possession of the Atlantic coast, and the Delawares hav- ing become embittered against their an- cient allies, the Iroquois, whom they ac- cused of treachery, a western migration of the Delawares ensued, and they took up theis abode in the valley of the Alle- gheny River. There they were again disturbed by the white man, and a part of the tribe obtained permission from the Wyandots to occupy the valleys of the Tuscarawas and the Muskingum, where their chief population soon be- came gathered. The Delawares were not such a fierce race as the Iroquois, and were called women by the latter, who held them in subjection to them- selves. The success of the Moravian missionaries among them proves that they were susceptible to the influences
of Christianity and civilization, and steadfast in friendship to those who treated them kindly.
The Delawares were divided into three tribes-the Unamis, the Unachi- tigo and the Minsi (called also Monseys, or Muncies). Their tribal designations signified respectively the turkey, the turtle and the wolf. Their principal villages were on the Tuscarawas and the Upper Muskingum. So far as is known they had no settlements what- ever in the lower valleys of the Mus- kingum, which was regarded as a part of the great hunting-ground. The name of the river was originally Mooskingom, which, in the Delaware tongue, signified elk's eye. The Tuscarawas took its name from an Indian town of the same name, situated near the site of Bolivar. According to IIeckewelder the signifi- cation of the word was Old Town.
Among Delaware chiefs in Ohio, White Eyes and Captain Pipe were most influential. Others were Neta- watmees, Buckongahelas, Half King and King Newcomer, after whom Newcom- erstown was named. Captain Pipe was a war-chief and mischief-maker; White Eyes was generally on the side of peace, though he was brave and renowned for his valor in war. The two were great and jealous rivals, and there was almost constant intrigue between them. White Eyes was the friend and encourager of the Moravian missions, while Captain Pipe preferred charges against the mis- sionaries, and was implicated in the movement which led to their arrest and the destruction of the settlements. White Eyes died about 1780, and Cap- tain Pipe gained the ascendancy among his people, turning them against the whites and drawing them into war.
The Shawnees, more than any other
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1169748
THE ABORIGINES OF OHIO.
nation, were cruel, relentless and bit- terly hostile to the whites. First on the side of the French, then as allies of the British, they made war upon the Americans. They were the terror of the frontier settlements, and the record of their atrocities in Pennsylvania, Vir- ginia, Ohio and Kentucky would fill volumes. According to their traditions the Shawnees were of foreign origin, and they were accustomed to celebrate annually with festivals and ceremonies the arrival of their progenitors on these sliores. It is generally believed that at a remote period of their history the Shawnees dwelt in the south, and ranged from Kentucky to Florida. They ap- pear to have always been wanderers, and have been styled "the Bedouins of the American wilderness." Afterward they are supposed to have drifted north- ward, and many of them occupied the Scioto Valley until driven from it by the Iroquois invasion about 1672. The shattered and weakened nation then returned southward and occupied the country of North Carolina, until they were forced therefrom and compelled to take refuge among the Creeks. Later, encouraged by the Wyandots and the French, they again returned north of the Ohio, and their campfires once more blazed along the Scioto. The Shawnee tribes were known as the Piqua, Kiska- pocke, Mequachuke and Chillicothe. Cornstalk was their principal chief, and led his warriors on many a hostile ex- pedition. Later, their most renowned chieftain and warrior was Tecumseh, who is said to have had Creek blood in his veins.
The Ilurons or Wyandots had their densest population abont Detroit, and minor settlements on the Sandusky and the Maumee. With the exception of a
village on White-woman Creek they appear to have made no settlements in Central of Southern Ohio. They claimed a remoter origin than any other nation, and even the Delawares did not dispute their claim. Their claim of dominion of the country between the Allegheny and the Ohio Rivers, Lake Erie and the Great Miami was never disputed, save by the Six Nations. The Jesuit mis- sionaries who were among them as early as 1639 estimated their number at ten thousand. They depended less than other tribes on the results of the chase for food, but devoted much attention to the cultivation of the soil, and had extensive cornfields around all their settlements. They were valorous in war, seldom retreated, but usually fought to the death.
The Ottawas in Ohio were few and scattering at the time the whites became acquainted with the region. The re- nowned Pontiac was of this tribe. The Miamis, anciently called the Twigtwees, appear to have been the earliest Indians to occupy the valleys of the rivers named after then. The Mingoes, also known as the Cayugas, had a few small villages in Ohio, one near the present site of Steubenville, and others on the Scioto.
Colonel Morgan, Indian agent, made the following estimate of the number of warriors that could speedily be assem- bled for war in the Northwest in 1778:
The Six Nations, consisting of
Mohawks 100
Oneidas aud Tuscarawas. 400
Cuyahogas (Cayugas). 220
Onondagas 230
Senecas. 650
1,600
Delawares and Muncies.
600
Shawnees, of Scioto .. 400
Wyandots, of Sandusky and Detroit. 300
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO.
Ottawas, of Detroit and Lake Michigan .. . 600
Chippewas, of all the lakes (said to be) .... 5,000 Pottawatomies, of Detroit and Lake Michi-
gan . . 400
Piankashas, Kickapoos, Muscoutans, Ver-
millions, Weotonans, etc., on the Wabash 800 Miamis, or Picts. 300
Mingoes, of Pluggystown. 600
Total .10,600
An interesting statement of the man- ner of life of the savages of the Mus- kingum and Tuscarawas valleys, over a century and a quarter ago, is furnished in a " Narrative" written by James Smith, of Pennsylvania, who was captured by the Indians near Bedford, Pa., in 1755, taken west of the Ohio and adopted into their tribe, remaining among them several years. Smith was a remarkably courageous backwoodsman, and led a romantic and adventurous career. After his capture he was taken to Fort Du- quesne (afterward Fort Pitt), where he witnessed the barbarous atrocities in- flicted upon the white prisoners taken at the scene of Braddock's defeat. Thence he was taken to an Indian town called Tulhillas (otherwise Pluggystown), on White-woman Creek, about twenty miles north of Coshocton, where he re- mained several months. Later he went into the lake country, and remained for several years among the Indians, hunt- ing and fishing. In 1760 he accompanied a war party into Canada, was taken prisoner, and after some time exchanged and returned to Pennsylvania. There he became the leader of a lawless band of squatter settlers styled the Black Boys, who, on one occasion, attacked and destroyed the stores of a trading party who were crossing the mountains on their way to Fort Pitt. Afterward he and a portion of his Black Boys sur- prised and captured Fort Bedford, then held by the king's troops. He accom-
panied Bouquet as a guide on his expe- dition to the Muskingum. He joined the patriot army in the Revolution and became colonel of a Pennsylvania reg- iment. After the war he settled in Kentucky and served there as a member of the legislature. In his " Narrative," speaking of his being taken to Tulhillas, Colonel Smith says :
"The day after my arrival at the aforesaid town a number of Indians collected about me, and one of them began to pull the hair out of my head. He had some ashes on a piece of bark in which he frequently dipped his fin- gers, in order to take a firmer hold, and so he went on as if he had been pluck- ing a turkey, until he had all the hair clean out of my head, except a small spot about three or four inches square on my crown; this they cut off with a pair of scissors, excepting three locks, which they dressed up in their own mode. Two of these they wrapped around with a narrow beaded garter made by them- selves for that purpose, and the other they plaited at full length, then stuck it full of silver broaches. After this they bored my nose and ears and fixed me off with earrings and nose jewels; then they ordered me to strip off my clothes and put on a breechclout, which I did. They then painted my head, face and body in various colors. They put a large belt of wampum on my neck and silver bands on my hands and right arm ; and so an old chief led me out into the street and gave the alarm halloo, Coo-wigh ! several times, repeated quick ; and on this all that were in town came running and stood around the old chief, who held me by the hand in their midst. As I at that time knew nothing of their mode of adoption, and had seen them put to death all they had taken.
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THE ABORIGINES OF OHIO.
and as I never could find that they saved a man alive at Braddock's defeat, I made no doubt but they were about putting me to death in some cruel man- ner. The old chief, holding me by the hand, made a long speech, very loud, and when he had done he handed me to three young squaws, who led me by the hand down the bank into the river until the water was up to my middle. The squaws then made signs for me to plunge myself into the water, but I did not understand them. I thought the result of the counsel was that I should be drowned, and that these young ladies were to be the execu- tioners. They all three laid violent hold of me, and I for some time opposed them with all my might, which occa- sioned loud laughter by the multitude that were on the bank of the river. At length one of the squaws made out to speak a little English (for I believe they began to be afraid of me), and said, ' No hurt you.' On this I gave myself up to their ladyships, who were as good as their word; for though they plunged me under water, and washed and rubbed me severely, I could not say they hurt me much.
"These young women then led me up to the council-house, where some of the tribe were ready with new clothes for mc. They gave me a new ruffled shirt, which I put on, also a pair of leg- gins, done off with ribbons and beads; likewise a pair of moccasins, and garters dressed with beads, porcupine quills and red hair, also a tinsel-laced chapeau. They again painted my head and face with various colors, and tied a bunch of red feathers to one of those locks they had left on the crown of my head, which stood up five or six inches. They reseated me on a bear-skin and gave me a
pipe, tomahawk and polecat-skin pouch, which had been skinned pocket fashion, and contained tobacco, killegenico, or dried sumac leaves, which they mixed with their tobacco; also spunk, flint and steel. When I was thus seated the Indians came in, dressed and painted in their grandest manner. As they came in they took their seats, and for a considerable time there was a profound silence. Everyone was smoking, but not a word was spoken among them. At length one of the chiefs made a speech, which was delivered to me by an interpreter, and was as follows :
". My son, you are now flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. By the ceremony which was performed this day every drop of white blood was washed out of your viens; you are taken into the Caughnewaga nation and initiated into a warlike tribe: you are adopted into a great family, and now received with great seriousness and solemnity in the room and place of a great man. After what has passed this day you are now one of us by an old, strong law and custom. My son, you have nothing to fear ; we are now under the same obligation to love, sup- port and defend you that we are to love and defend one another ; therefore you are to consider yourself as one of our people.'
" At this time I did not believe this fine speech, especially that of the white blood being washed out of me; but since that time I have found that there was much sincerity in said speech ; for from that day I never knew them to make any distinction between me and themselves in any respect whatever until I left them. If they had plenty of clothing, I had plenty : if we were scarce, we all shared alike.
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO.
" After this ceremony was over I was introduced to my new kin and told that I was to attend a feast that evening, which I did. And, as the custom was, they gave mne also a bowl and wooden spoon, which I carried with me to the place where there were a number of large brass kettles full of boiled venison and green corn. Everyone advanced with his bowl and spoon and had his share given him. After this one of the chiefs made a short speech and then we began to eat. " The name of one of the chiefs in this town was Tecanyaterightigo, alias Pluggy, and the other Asallecoa, alias Mohawk Solomon. As Pluggy and his party were to start the next day to war, to the frontiers of Virginia, the next thing to be performed was their war dance and their war songs. At their war dance they had both vocal and instrumental music. They had a short, hollow gun, closed at one end, with water in it, and parchment stretched over the open end thereof, which they beat with one stick and made a sound nearly like a muffled drum. All those who were going on this expedition col- lected together and formed. An old Indian then began to sing, and timed the music by beating on this drum, as the ancients formerly timed their music by beating the tabor. On this the warriors began to advance or move for- ward in concert, like well-disciplined troops would march to the fife and drum. Each warrior had a tomahawk, spear or war-mallet in his hand, and they all moved regularly toward the east, or the way they intended to go to war. At length they all stretched their tomahawks toward the Potomac, and, giving a hideous shout or yell, they wheeled quick about and danced in the same manner back.
" The next was the war song. In performing this only one sang at a time, in a moving posture, with a tom- ahawk in his hand, while all the other warriors were engaged in calling aloud, ' He-uh ! he-uh ! which they constantly repeated while the war song was going on. When the warrior that was sing- ing had ended his song he struck a war- post with his tomahawk, and with a loud voice told what warlike exploits he had done, and what he now intended to do, which was answered by the other warriors with loud shouts of applause. Some who had not before intended to go to war at this time were so animated by this performance that they took up the tomahawk and sang the war song, which was answered with shouts of joy as they were then initiated into the present marching company. The next morning this company all collected at one place, with their heads and faces painted various colors, and packs upon their backs. They marched off, all silent except the commander, who in the front sang the traveling song, which began in this manner : 'Hoo caugh-tainte heegana.' Just as the rear passed the end of the town they began to fire in their slow manner, from the front to the rear, which was accompanied with shouts and yells from all quarters.
" That evening I was invited to an- other sort of dance, which was a sort of promiscuous dance. The young men stood in one rank and the young women in another, about a rod apart, facing each other. The one that raised the tune or started the song held a small gourd or dry shell of a squash in his hand, which contained beads or small stones which rattled. When he began to sing he timed the tune with his rattle. Both men and women danced
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THE ABORIGINES OF OHIO.
and sang together, advancing toward each other, stooping until their heads would be touching together, and then ceased from dancing, with loud shouts, and retreated and formed again, and so repeated the same thing over and over for three or four hours without inter- mission. This exercise seemed to me at first irrational and insipid, but I found that in singing their tunes they used ya, ne, no, hoo, wa, ne, etc., like our fa, sol, la, and though they have no such thing as jingling verse, they can intermix sentences with their notes, and say what- ever they please to each other, and carry on the tune in concert. I found that this was a kind of wooing or courting dance, and as they advanced, stooping with their heads together, they could say what they pleased in each other's ear without disconcerting their rough music and the others, or those near not hear what they said.
"Shortly after this I went out to hunt in company with Mohawk Solomon, some of the Caughnewagas, and a Dela- ware Indian that was married to a Caughnewaga squaw. We traveled about south from this town, and the first night we killed nothing, but we had with us green corn, which we roasted and ate that night. The next day we encamped about twelve o'clock, and the hunters turned ont to hunt, and I went down the run that we encamped on, in company with some squaws and boys to hunt for plums, which we found in great plenty. Ou my return to camp I observed a large piece of fat meat ; the Delaware Indian that could talk some English observed me looking earnestly at this meat, and asked me, ' What meat you think that is?' I said I supposed it was bear meat ; he laughed, and said : ' Ilo, all one fool you; beal now elly
pool,' and pointing to the other side of the camp, he said : 'Look at that skin ; you think that beal-skin?' I went and lifted the skin, which appeared like an oxhide. He then said : ' What skin you think that ?' I replied that I thought it was a buffalo hide. 'You fool again ; you know nothing; you think buffalo that colo'?' I acknowledged that I did not know much about these things, and told him that I never saw a buffalo, and that I had not heard what color they were. He replied : 'By and by you shall see gleat many buffalo ; he now go to gleat lick. That skin not buffalo skin ; that skin buck-elk skin.' They went out with horses and brought in the remainder of this buck-elk, which was the fattest creature I ever saw of the tallow kind.
" We remained at this camp about eight or ten days and killed a number of deer. Though we had neither bread nor salt at this time yet we had both roast and boiled meat in great plenty, and they were frequently inviting me to eat when I had no appetite. We then moved to the buffalo lick, where we killed several buffalo, and in their small brass kettles they made about a bushel of salt. I suppose the lick was about thirty or forty miles from the aforesaid town and somewhere between the Muskingum, the Ohio and the Scioto. About the lick were clear, open woods, and thin whiteoak land, and at that time there were large roads leading to the liek, like wagon roads. We moved from this lick about six or seven miles and encamped on a creck.
"Though the Indians had given me a gun, I had not yet been permitted to go out from the camp to hunt. At this place Mohawk Solomon asked me to go out with him to hunt, which I
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY, OHIO.
readily agreed to. After some time we came upon some freshi buffalo tracks. I had observed before this that the In- dians were upon their guard and afraid of an enemy ; for until now they and the southern nations had been at war. As we were following up the buffalo tracks Solomon seemed to be upon his guard, went very slow and would fre- quently stand and listen and appeared to be in suspense. We came to where the tracks were very plain in the sand and I said, 'It is surely buffalo tracks.' He said, 'Hush, you know nothing; may be buffalo tracks and may be Catawba!' He went very cautious until we found some fresh buffalo dung. He then smiled and said, 'Catawba cannot make so.' He then stopped and told me an old story about the Catawbas. He said that formerly the Catawbas came near one of their hunting camps, and at some distance from the camp lay in ambush; and in order to decoy them out, sent two or three Catawbas in the night past their camp, with buffalo hoofs fixed on their feet, so as to make artificial tracks. In the morning those in the camp followed after these tracks, thinking they were buffalo, until they were fired on by the Catawbas and several of them killed. The others fled, collected a party and pursued the Ca- tawbas; but they in their subtlety brought with them rattlesnake poison, which they had collected from the bladder that lies at the roots of the snakes' teeth ; this they corked up in a short piece of a cane stalk; they had also brought with them small cane or reed about the size of a rye straw, which they made sharp at the end like a pen, and dipped them into this poison, and stuck them in the ground among the grass, along their own tracks, in
such a position that they might stick into the legs of the pursuers, which answered the design; and as the Ca- tawbas had runners to watch the mo- tion of the pursuers, when they found that a number of them were lame, be- ing artificially snake-bit, and that they were all turning back, the Catawbas turned upon the pursuers and defeated them, and killed and scalped all that were lame. When Solomon had finished his story and found that I understood him, he concluded by saying, 'You don't know, Catawba velly bad Indian, Catawba all one devil, Catawba.'
"Some time after this I was told to take the dogs with me and go down the creek-perhaps I might kill a turkey. It being in the afternoon, I was also told not to go far from the creek, and to come up the creek again to the camp, and to take care not to get lost. When I had gone some distance down the creek I came upon fresh buffalo tracks ; and as I had a number of dogs with me to stop the buffalo, I concluded I would follow after and perhaps kill one; as the grass and weeds were rank I could readily follow the track. A little before sundown I despaired of coming up with them ; I was then think- ing how I might get to camp before night. I concluded, as the buffalo had made several turns, if I took the back track to the creek it would be dark be- fore I could get to the camp; therefore, I thought I would take a nearer way through the hills and strike the creek a little below the camp. But as it was cloudy weather, and I a very young woodsman, I could find neither creek nor camp. When night came on I fired my gun several times and halloed, but could get no answer. The next morning early the Indians were out
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