History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 4

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814

USA > Ohio > History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I > Part 4

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In passing, we may note that this map of Charlevoix's marks the Ohio as the "Oyo, or la Belle Riviere," and the country west of the Wabash as the "Pays des Miamis," indicating the reputed habitat of another great tribe. West of these was the Pays des Illinois.

About 1745 the Shawnees retired to the Mi- ami and Muskingum valleys to avoid their south- ern enemies. They were represented at the treaty with the Menguys, and in the alliance against the Cherokees, Catawbas, Muscologees, Chickasaws, and other tribes of the South. Ken- tucky being the usual ground of warfare between these Southern and Northern tribes, it so came to

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

be called, as is believed, the Dark and Bloody Ground.

THE MIAMIS.

Messrs. Kenny and Hall furnish the following facts concerning this tribe :

The Miamis, when first known to the French, were living around Chicago, upon Lake Michigan. It was the chief of this tribe whose state and attendance were depicted by the Sieur Perot in such strong colors. Charlevoix, without vouching for the entire accuracy of the relation, observes that in his time there was more deference paid by the Miamis to their chiefs than by any other Indians.

This tribe removed from Lake Michigan to the Wabash, where they yet [1843] retain an extensive tract of country up- on which they reside. A kindred tribe, the Weas, more properly called the Newcalenons, long lived with the Miamis; but they have recently separated from them and crossed the Mississippi. Their whole number does not exceed three hundred and fifty. Of the Miamis about one thousand yet remain.

This tribe was formerly known to the English as the Twigh- twees. They appear to have been the only Indians in the W'est, with the exception of one other tribe, the Foxes, who, at an early period, were attached to the English interest. The causes which led to this union are unknown, but for many years they produced a decisive effect upon the fortunes of the Miamis.

That strangest of all institutions in the history of hu- man waywardness, the man-eating society, existed among this tribe. It extended also to the Kichapoos, but to how many others we do not know. It appears to have been the duty of the members of this society to eat any captives who were delivered to them for that purpose. The subject itself is so revolting to us at this day, even to the Indians, that it is difficult to collect the traditionary details concerning this institution. Its duties and its privileges, for it had both, were regulated by long usage, and its whole ceremonial was prescribed by a horrible ritual. Its members belonged to one family, and inherited this odious distinction. The so- ciety was a religious one, and its great festivals were cele- brated in the presence of the whole tribe. During the exist- ence of the present generation, this society has flourished and performed shocking duties, but they are now wholly discon- tinued, and will be ere long forgotten.

THE WYANDOTS

claim to be "uncle" to all the other tribes. The Delawares, they say, are grandfather, but still the nephew of the Wyandots. They sometimes are called Hurons, were of Huron stock, with the . Algonquins as their allies, and were driven from their ancestral seat on the St. Lawrence by their hereditary enemies, the terrible Iroquois. In their later homes, however, in Northwestern Ohio and Northeastern Indiana, they were the leading tribe. For ages they had been at the head of a great Indian commonwealth or confederacy, and, though greatly enfeebled by long and bloody wars, their scepter had not yet quite departed. Once they held the great council-fire, and had

the sole right of convening the tribes of the con- federacy around it, when some important event or plan required general deliberation. In the possession of their chiefs an Indian agent at Fort Wayne saw a very ancient belt believed to have been sent to them by the Mexican Emperor Montezuma, with a warning that the Spaniards under Cortez had appeared upon the coast. They were among the last of the tribes to leave Ohio, by which time they had become reduced to but a few hundred. McKenney & Hall's History of the Indian Tribes of North America says:

This tribe was not unworthy of the preeminence it enjoyed. The French historians describe them as superior, in all the essential characteristics of savage life, to any other Indians upon the continent. And at this day [1844] their intrepid- ity, their general deportment, and their lofty bearing, confirm the accounts which have been given to us. In all the wars upon our borders, until the conclusion of Wayne's treaty, they acted a conspicuous part, and their advice in council and conduct in action were worthy of their ancient renown.

THE DELAWARES.

These are the Lenni-Lenape, or " original peo- ple"-certainly a very ancient people, about whom many large stories, if not absolute fables, have been related. When first known to the whites, they resided chiefly upon the tidewaters of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. They early became known to tbe Moravian mis- sionaries, who labored among them with exem- plary zeal and care, and accompanied them in their migrations to the Susquehanna, thence to the Ohio, thence to the Muskingum, where the first white settlements, except a trading-post or two, were made upon the present territory of the commonwealth of Ohio, shared in their horrible calamities, went with them thence to Lake St. Clair and the neighborhood of Sandusky, and re- mained with them till their pious mission was fulfilled. The unconverted or heathen portion of the tribe, after the removal from Ohio, settled on White river, in Indiana, which they occupied until transported beyond the Mississippi, where they were settled upon a reservation in the south- west part of Missouri.

THE OTTAWAS

were faithful adherents and allies of the Wyan- dots, and accompanied them in all their migra- tions. The celebrated Pontiac, hero of the con- spiracy against the British garrison at Detroit so much exploited in history, was an Ottawa chief,

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

born about 1714. They became much scattered in more recent days, but large bands of them re- sided upon the Maumee, and their parties occa- sionally roamed the hunting-grounds of Ken- tucky.

THE POTTAWATOMIES

were also occasionally seen by the pioneers in these regions. They were not Ohio Indians, but had their habitat in parts of Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. Until they became degraded and degenerate, they were the most popular tribe north of the Ohio, remarkable, even with the Wyandots so near, for their stature, symmetry; and fine personal bearing. Their residence did not extend in this direction beyond the White river of Indiana, but they often penetrated south of the Beautiful river, and were probably the chief instruments in the annoyance of the early settlers about the Falls.

THE KICKAPOOS,

who were also among the "Wabash Indians," were simply a tribe of the powerful Shawnees. This nation was originally separated into twelve tribes, each divided into families known by their " totems," as the Eagle, the Turtle, etc. When the period of white occupancy began here, all the tribes had become extinct or intermingled, ex- cept four, of which the Kickapoos formed one. To this day, each of the four sides of their coun- cil-house is assigned to one of these tribes. To the Kickapoo division and the family of "the Panther " belonged the eloquent and brave Te- cumseh and his brother, the Prophet. The Shawnee tongue seems closely related to that of the Kickapoos and of some other Northern tribes.

THE WEAS

were an insignificant band, sometimes called the Newcalenons, whose habitat was upon the small river which bears their name in Western Indiana. They were allied to the Miamis, with whom they long lived. When they crossed the Mississippi, their number scarcely reached four hundred. General Scott's expedition from Kentucky, in 1791, was specially directed against this tribe.

THE CHICKASAWS.

The only great Southern tribe with which this history need deal, is the Chickasaws, who held the entire tract of the Kentucky country west of the Tennessee to the Mississippi.

The Chickasaws formed one of a number of Indian nations found by the whites in the south- ernmost States east of the Mississippi river in the early part of the last century. The Uchees, with the Lower, Middle, and Upper Creeks, con- stituted the formidable Muscogee confederacy ; the other tribes were the Seminoles, the Chero- kees, the Choctaws. the Natchez, the Yemasees, and the Chickasaws. The last-named are de- scribed by Captain Romans, in his Concise Natural History of East and West Florida, pub- lished at New York in 1775, as a fierce, cruel, in- solent, and haughty race, corrupt in morals, filthy in discourse, lazy, powerful, and well-made, expert swimmers, good warriors, and excellent hunters. He contrasts them unfavorably with the Choctaws, whom he praises as a nation of farmers, inclined to peace and industry. The Chickasaws about this time lived on the left bank of the Savannah river, opposite Augusta.

The following facts concerning the Chicka- saws are derived chiefly from the first volume of Mr. Henry R. Schoolcraft's great report to the Government of information respecting the History,- Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States. They are full of interest, and their sources give them authority and permanent value.

The traditional origin and history of this branch of the Appalachian family is retained by the tribe, in their later homes west of the Mis- sissippi. Their old men tell the tale thus: They came from the west, and a part of their tribe re- mained behind. When about to start Eastward they were provided with a large dog as a guard and a pole as a guide. The former would give them notice whenever an enemy was at hand, and thus enable them to make their arrange- ments to receive them. The pole they would plant in the ground every night, and the next morning they would look at it and go in the di- rection it leaned. (Mr. Schoolcraft says this allegory of the dog and pole probably reveals the faith of this people in an ancient prophet, or seer, under whose guidance they migrated.) They continued their journey in this way until they crossed the great Mississippi river, and, on the waters of the Alabama river, arrived in the country about where Huntsville, Alabama, now is. There the pole was unsettled for several days, but finally it settled and pointed in a southwest

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

direction. They then started on that course, planting the pole every night, until they got to what is called the Chickasaw Old Fields, where the pole stood perfectly erect. All then came to the conclusion that that was the promised land, and there they accordingly remained until they emigrated west of the State of Arkansas in the years 1837 and 1838.

While the pole was in an unsettled situation, a part of their tribe moved further eastward and got with the Creek Indians; but so soon as a majority of the tribe settled at the Old Fields, they sent for the party that had gone on east, who answered that they were very tired and would rest where they were a while, This clan was called Cush- e-tah. They have never joined the present tribe, but they always remained as friends until they had intercourse with the whites; then they be came a separate nation. The great dog was lost in the Mississippi, and they always believed that the dog had got into a large sink-hole and there remained; the Chickasaws said they could hear the dog howl just before the evening came. Whenever any of their warriors get scalps, they give them to the boys to go and throw them into the sink where the dog was. After throwing the scalps, the boys would run off in great fright, and if one should fall in running off, the Chicka- saws were certain he would be killed or taken prisoner by their enemies. Some of the half- breeds, and nearly all of the full-bloods, now be- lieve it.

In traveling from the West to the East, they have no recollection of crossing any large water- course except the Mississippi river. During this exodus they had enemies on all sides, and had to fight their way through, but they cannot give the names of the people they fought with while traveling. They were informed, when they left the West, that they might look for whites; that they would come from the East; and that they were to be on their guard and to avoid the whites, lest they should bring all manner of vice among them.

After their settlement in Mississippi, they had several wars, all defensive. They fought with the Choctaws, and came off victorious ; with the Creeks, and killed several hundred of them and drove them off; they fought the Cherokees, Kickapoos, Osages, and several other tribes of Indians, all of whom they whipped. The ex-

pedition of De Soto passed through their coun- try, had sharp conflicts with them, and occupied for a time one of their deserted towns, which the Chickasaws finally burned over their heads in a night attack, destroying all the hogs that were being driven along, many horses, and other property. A large number of French landed once at the Chickasaw Bluff, where Memphis now is, and made an attack upon this tribe, as their traditions relate, but were beaten off with great loss. At one time a large body of Creeks came to the Chickasaw country to kill them off and take their lands. The Indians knew of their coming and built a fort, assisted by Captain David Smith and a party of Tennesseeans. The Creeks came on, but few of them returned to their own land to tell the tale of disaster.

Until the nation removed to the west of the Mississippi, it had a king, who is recognized by name in the treaty made by General Jackson in 1819. The Indian title was Minko, and there was a clan or family by that name from which the king was taken. He was hereditary through the female side. Since the migration the tribe has elected chiefs from different families or bands.

The highest clan next to Minko is the Sho-wa. The next chief to the king was out of their clan. The next is Co-ish-to, second chief out of this clan. The next is Oush-pe-ne. The next is Uin-ne; and the lowest clan is called Hus-co-na. Runners and waiters are taken from this family. When the chiefs thought it necessary to hold a council, they went to the king and requested him to call one. He would then send one of his runners out to inform the people that a coun- cil would be held at such a time and place. When they convened, the king would take his seat. The runners then placed each chief in his proper place. All the talking and business was done by the chiefs. If they passed a law they informed the king of it. If he consented to it, it was a law ; if he refused, the chiefs could make it a law if every chief was in favor of it. If one chief refused to give his consent, the law was lost.

These Indians have no tradition concerning the large mounds in Mississippi ; they do not know whether they are natural or artificial. They found them when they first entered the country, and called them " navels," from the notion that

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

the Mississippi was the center of the earth and the mounds were as the navel of a man in the center of his body.

Beyond the Mississippi, the Chickasaws made an agreement with the Choctaws, by which they agreed to live under the Choctaw laws, in a re- publican form of government. They elect a chief every four years, and captains once in two years. Judges are elected by the general coun- cil. The chiefs and captains in council make all appropriations for any of the purposes of the Chickasaws. The Choctaws have no control of their financial affairs, nor they of those of the Choctaws. Mr. Schoolcraft, writing in 1850, says that, under the new government, they had improved more in the last five years than they had in the preceding twenty years. They had then in progress a large manual-labor academy, and had provided for two more, one for males and one for females. The Chickasaw district lay north of Red river, was about two hundred and twenty-five by one hundred and fifty miles in length and breadth, being large enough for two such tribes,and was esteemed well adapted to all their wants. Mr. Schoolcraft concludes his account as follows :

The funds of the Chickasaws, in the hands of the Govern- ment, for lands ceded to the United States, are ample for the purposes of educating every member of the tribe, and of making the most liberal provision for their advancement in agriculture and the arts. Possessing the fee of a fertile and welt-watered territorial area of thirty-three thousand seven hundred and fifty square miles, over which they are guaran- teed in the sovereignty, with an enlightened chieftaincy, a practical representative and elective system, and a people recognizing the value of labor, it would be difficult to im- agine a condition of things more favorable to their rapid prog- ress in all the elements of civilization, self-government, and permanent prosperity.

The total number of the tribe at this time, in the Indian Territory and elsewhere, was about five thousand.

Mr. Bartram, in his book of Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, etc., pub- lished in London in 1792, makes the following remarks on the physical characteristics of the Southern Indians, including the Chickasaws :

The males of the Cherokees, Muscogulgees, Seminoles, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and confederate tribes of the Creeks, are tall, erect, and moderately robust; their limbs well shaped, so as generally to form a perfect human figure; their features regular and countenance open, dignified, and placid, yet the forehead and brow so formed as to strike you in- stantly with heroism and bravery; the eye, though rather small, active and full of fire; the iris always black, and the

nose commonly inclining to the aquiline. Their countenance and actions exhibit an air of magnanimity, superiority, and independence. Their complexion of a reddish brown or copper color; their hair long, lank, coarse, and black as a raven, and reflecting the like lustre at different exposures to the light.

The Muscogulgee women, though remarkably short of stature, are well formed; their visage round, features regular and beautiful, the brow high and arched; the eyes large, black, and languishing, expressive of modesty, diffidence, and bashfulness; these charms are their defensive and offen- sive weapons, and they know very well how to play them off, and under cover of these alluring graces are concealed the most subtle artifices. They are, however, loving and affec- tionate; they are, I believe, the smallest race of women yet known, seldom above five feet high, and I believe the greater number never arrive to that stature; their hands and feet not larger than those of Europeans of nine or ten years of age; yet the men are of gigantic stature, a full size larger than Europeans, many of them above six feet, and few under that, or five feet eight or ten inches. Their complexion is much darker than any of the tribes to the north of them, that I have seen. This description will, I believe, compre- hend the Muscogulgees, their confederates, the Choctaws, and I believe the Chickasaws (though I have never seen their women), excepting some bands of the Seminoles, Uches, and Savannucas, who are rather taller and slenderer, and their complexion brighter.

With these citations we conclude the account of the Indians who kept Kentucky for genera- tions as a hunting-ground and field for war, and proceed to give some account of the relinquish- ment of their claims to the white man.

THE INDIAN TREATIES.

The Iroquois, or Six Nations, although not in actual occupation of the Kentucky country dur- ing the last century, had some sort of shadowy claim upon it, which they assumed to grant by treaty, and upon which the English found it con- venient to base their claims, as against the French claim by right of discovery. In 1684, and again in 1701, the Six Nations had formally put themselves under the protection of England ; and in 1726, September 14th, a deed was made by the chiefs conveying all their lands to the Crown in trust, "to be protected and defended by his Majesty, to be for the use of the grantors and their heirs."

In June, 1744, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, when the savages had been well plied with liquor, they were induced to sign a treaty by virtue of which they should recognize the king's right to all lands that are, or by his Majesty's appoint- ment shall be, within the colony of Virginia"-a remarkable grant, truly, and one under which tracts of indefinite greatness might have been claimed.

HISTORY OF THE OHIO FALLS COUNTIES.

On the 9th of June, 1752, the commissioners of Virginia met the Indians of some other tribes, probably the Twightwees, or Miamis, at Logs- town, below Pittsburg, and a few days afterwards obtained a ratification of the Lancaster treaty and a guarantee that the Indians would not disturb settlements southeast of the Ohio.

In September, 1753, William Fairfax, of Vir- ginia, made another treaty at Winchester, the particulars of which have never been disclosed. The iniquity of the Lancaster and Logstown conventions and of appliances by which they were obtained, is manifest from the fact that Fairfax is known to have endorsed upon the treaty that such was the feeling among the In- dians that he had not dared to mention to them either of these. A more satisfactory interview occurred at Carlisle the next month, between the representatives of the leading tribes and commissioners of Pennsylvania, of whom one was Benjamin Franklin.

October 24, 1768, an inportant congress of white and Indian deputies met at Fort Stanwix, in Western New York, during which a treaty was made whereby the Indians agreed that the south line of their territories should begin on the Ohio, at the mouth of the Cherokee (Tennessee) river, running thence up the Ohio and Alleghany rivers to Kittaning, thence across to the Susque- hanna, etc. Thus the whole country south of the Ohio and the Alleghany, to which the Six Nations had any claim, was transferred to the British. The Delawares and the Shawnees were also in the congress at Fort Stanwix, and were equally bound by it with the Six Nations, as re- gards the Kentucky region and all other lands granted by it. The Shawnee and Delaware dep- uties, however, did not sign the treaty; but the chiefs of the Six Nations undertook to bind them also as "their allies and dependents," together with the Mingoes of Ohio. It was expressly agreed that no claim should ever be made by the whites upon the basis of previous treaties, as those of Lancaster and Logstown. Upon the Fort Stanwix treaty, for the most part, rested the English title by purchase to Pennsylvania, West- ern Virginia, and Kentucky. True, the Chero- kees had an interest in the Kentucky lands, which was recognized in 1770 by the treaty of Lochaber, and the right of the Southern Indians to those north and east of the Kentucky river was bought

by one Colonel Donaldson about that time. The arrangement at Fort Stanwix, however, finally prevailed, although the Shawnees and other Ohio tribes held it in contempt, and made fierce raids upon the settlers south as well as north of the Ohio, on account of the invasion of their favorite hunting-grounds.

Another treaty was made with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix October 22, 1784, by which the western boundary of their lands was fixed, not reaching beyond the Pennsylvania line, and all claims to the country west of their line were sur- rendered to the United States, which had now achieved their independence. This treaty was confirmed by the Iroquois, in the important con- vention with General Harmar at the Muskingum settlement, or Fort Harmar, January 9, 1789.

Between the two formier meetings and treaties, January 21, 1785, a convention was held at Fort McIntosh, between Generals George Rogers Clark and Richard Butler, and Arthur Lee, com- missioners on behalf of the United States Gov- ernment, with Western Indians alone-the Wy- andots, Delawares, Chippewas, and Ottawas. By the treaty then concluded, a reservation was made to the Wyandots, Delawares, and Ottawas, of a large tract in Central and Northern Ohio, the Indians acknowledging "the lands east, south and west of the lines described in the third arti- cle, so far as the said Indians formerly claimed the same, to belong to the United States; and none of their tribes shall presume to settle upon the same, or any part of it." This treaty was also confirmed and extended by the Muskingum arrangement in January, 1789. The Wabash tribes had not, however, been bound by this or any other treaty, and continued their attacks up- on the Kentucky settlements and voyagers on the Ohio, until pacificated by the victory of Wayne in 1794 and the treaty of Greenville the next year, in which the Wabash Indians partici- pated.

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History of the Ohio falls cities and their counties : with illustrations and bibliographical sketches, Vol. I, Part 4

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co. Number of Pages: 814

Author: Williams, L.A., & Co., Cleveland
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : L. A. Williams & Co.
Number of Pages: 814