USA > Pennsylvania > A pioneer outline history of northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 4
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"' After the failure of the expedition against Fort Duquesne, the white captives were taken to Kittanning, Logtown, and Pukeesheno (Punxsutaw ney). The sachem, Pukeesheno ( for whom the town was called), was the father of Tecumseh and his twin brother, the Prophet, and was a Shawnese. We make this digression to add another proof that Punxsutawney was named after a Shawnese chief as early as 1750.'
"' I went with Captain Brady on an Indian hunt up the Allegheny River. We found a good many signs of the savages, and I believe we were so much like the savages (when Brady went on a scouting expedition he always dressed
* Joncaire.
+ Bezant.
# History of Western Pennsylvania, p. 302.
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
in Indian costume) that they could hardly have known us from a band of Shawnese. But they had an introduction to us near the mouth of Red Bank. General Brodhead was on the route behind Captain Brady, who discovered the Indians on the march. He lay concealed among the rocks until the painted chiefs and their braves had got fairly into the narrow pass, when Brady and his men opened a destructive fire. The sylvan warriors returned the volley with terrific yells that shook the caverns and mountains from base to crest. The fight was short but sanguine. The Indians left the pass and retired, and soon were lost sight of in the deepness of the forest. We returned with three children recaptured, whose parents had been killed at Greensburg. We imme- diately set out on a path that led us to the mountains, to a lodge the savages had near the head-waters of Mahoning and Red Bank.
"'We crossed the Mahoning about forty miles from Kittanning, and entered a town, which we found deserted. It seemed to be a hamlet, built by the Shawnese. From there we went over high and rugged hills, through laurel thickets, darkened by tall pine and hemlock groves, for one whole day, and lay quietly down on the bank of a considerable stream (Sandy Lick). About midnight Brady was aroused by the sound of a rifle not far down the creek. We arose and stole quietly along about half a mile, when we heard the voices of Indians but a short distance below us; there another creek unites its waters with the one upon whose banks we had rested. We ascer- tained that two Indians had killed a deer at a lick. They were trying to strike a light to dress their game. When the flame of pine-knots blazed brightly and revealed the visages of the savages, Brady appeared to be greatly excited, and perhaps the caution that he always took when on a war-path was at that time disregarded. Revenge swallowed and absorbed every faculty of his soul. He recognized the Indian who was foremost, when they chased him, a few months before, so closely that he was forced to leap across a chasm of stone on the slippery rock twenty-three feet; between the jaws of granite there roared a deep torrent twenty feet deep. When Brady saw Conemah he sprang forward and planted his tomahawk in his head. The other Indian, who had his knife in his hand, sprang at Brady. The long, bright steel glistened in his uplifted hand, when the flash of Farley's rifle was the death-light of the brave, who sank to the sands. . .. Brady scalped the Indians in a moment, and drew the deer into the thicket to finish dressing it, but had not completed his under- taking when he heard a noise in the branches of the neighboring trees. He sprang forward, quenched the flame, and in breathless silence listened for the least sound, but nothing was heard save the rustling of the leaves, stirred by the wind. One of the scouts softly crept along the banks of the creek to catch the faintest sound that echoes on the water, when he found a canoe down upon the beach. The scout communicated this to Brady, who resolved to embark on this craft, if it was large enough to carry the company. It was found to be of sufficient size. We all embarked and took the deer along. We had not
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gone forty rods down the stream when the savages gave a war-whoop, and about a mile off they were answered with a hundred voices. We heard them in pursuit as we went dashing down the frightful and unknown stream. We gained on them. We heard their voices far behind us, until the faint echoes of the hundreds of warriors were lost; but, unexpectedly, we found ourselves passing full fifty canoes drawn up on the beach. Brady landed a short distance below. There was no time to lose. If the pursuers arrived they might over- take the scouts. It was yet night. He took four of his men along, and with great caution unmoored the canoes and sent them adrift. The scouts below secured them, and succeeded in arriving at Brodhead's quarters with the scalps of two Indians and their whole fleet, which disabled them much from carrying on their bloody expeditions.'
" In the legend of Noshaken, the white captive of the Delawares, in 1753, who was kept at a village supposed to have been Punxsutawney, occurs the following : 'The scouts were on the track of the Indians, the time of burning of the captives was extended, and the whole band prepared to depart for Fort Venango with the prisoners. . .. They continued on for twenty miles, and encamped by a beautiful spring, where the sand boiled up from the bottom near where two creeks unite. Here they passed the night, and the next morning again headed for Fort Venango.
"' This spring is believed to have been the " sand spring" at Brookville.'"
The Indian wampum, or money, was of two kinds, white and purple; the white is worked out of the inside of the great shells into the form of a bead, and perforated, to string on leather; the purple is taken out of the inside of the mussel shell; they are woven as broad as one's hand and about two feet long; these they call belts, which they give and receive at their treaties as the seals of friendship; for lesser matters a single string is given. Every bead is of known value, and a belt of a less number is made to equal one of a greater by fastening so many as is wanting to the belt by a string.
PUNXSUTAWNEY
Punxsutawney was an Indian town for centuries and, like all other towns of the Indian before the white man reached this continent with fire-arms, was stockaded.
The word " punxsu" means gnat. The land was a swamp, and alive with gnats, mosquitoes, turtles, and reptiles. For protection against the gnats the Indians anointed themselves with oil and ointments made of fat and poisons. Centuries ago the Indians of Punxsutawney dressed themselves in winter with a cloak made of buffalo, bear, or beaver skins, with a leather girdle, and stock- ings or moccasins of buckskin. It might be well to state here that the beavers were of all colors, white, yellow, spotted, gray, but mostly black. The Indian subsisted mostly on game, but when pressed for food ate acorns, nuts, and the
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inside bark of the birch-tree. As agriculturists each was apportioned a piece of land outside of the stockade, which was planted by the squaws in corn, squashes, and tobacco. A hole was made in the ground with a stick and a grain of corn put in each hole. Population among Indians did not increase rapidly. Mothers often nursed their papooses until they were five, six, and seven years old.
Not knowing how to dig wells, they located their ga-no-sote and villages on the banks of runs and creeks, or in the vicinity of springs. About the period of the formation of the league, when they were exposed to the inroads of hostile nations, and the warfare of migratory bands, their villages were compact and stockaded. Having run a trench several feet deep around five or ten acres of land, and thrown up the ground on the inside, they set a continuous row of stakes, burned at the ends, in this bank of earth, fixing them at such an angle that they inclined over the trench. Sometimes a village was surrounded by a double or even triple row of stakes. Within this enclosure they constructed their bark houses and secured their stores. Around it was the village field, consisting oftentimes of several hundred acres of cultivated land, which was subdivided into planting lots; those belonging to different families being bounded by uncultivated ridges.
The entrances to the stockade were anciently contrived so that they could be defended from assault by a very few men.
The Iroquois were accustomed to live largely in villages, and the stock- ades built about these villages protected them from sudden assaults and ren- dered it possible for the houses within to be built according to a method of construction such that they might last for a long time.
At the two ends of the houses were doors, either of bark hung on hinges of wood, or of deer- or bear-skins suspended before the opening, and however long the house, or whatever number of fires, these were the only entrances. Over one of these doors was cut the tribal device of the head of the family. Within, upon the two sides, were arranged wide seats, also of bark boards, about two feet from the ground, well supported underneath, and reaching the entire length of the house. Upon these they spread their mats of skins, and also their blankets, using them as seats by day and couches at night. Similar berths were constructed on each side, about five feet above these, and secured to the frame of the house, thus furnishing accommodations for the family. Upon cross-poles near the roof were hung in bunches, braided together by the husks, their winter supply of corn. Charred and dried corn and beans were generally stored in bark barrels and laid away in corners. Their implements for the chase, domestic utensils, weapons, articles of apparel, and miscella- neous notions were stored away, and hung up wherever an unoccupied place was discovered. A house of this description would accommodate a family of eight, with the limited wants of the Indian, and afford shelter for their necessary stores, making a not uncomfortable residence. After they had
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BY BEAVER.
1901
The above cut shows an Indian stockade (bark houses) cut in two, showing the long house and ga-no-sote within. This is the mode of building the Indian villages of Northwestern Pennsylvania four hundred years ago. Painted for and presented to the author by Mr. Beaver, or the man who runs around, a Seneca Indian
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
learned the use of the axe, they began to substitute houses of logs, but they constructed them after the ancient model.
Our Indians were the Senecas, and they had six yearly festivals. These festivals consisted of dancing, singing, and thanksgiving to the Great Spirit for his gifts. The New Year was an acknowledgment for the whole year, and the white dog was sent to the Great Spirit to take to him their messages. The dog was the only animal they could trust to carry their messages.
I. The Maple Festival, for yielding its sweet water.
2. The Planting Festival.
3. The Strawberry Festival.
4. Green Corn Festival.
5. The Harvesting Festival.
6. New Year or White Dog Sacrifice.
The Indians had no Sunday. Our Indians called themselves Nun-ga- wah-gah, " The Great Hill People," and their legend was that they sprung from the ground. The civil chiefs wore horns as an emblem of power.
The moccasin was an Indian invention, and one of great antiquity. The needle was made from a bone taken from the ankle-joint of the deer, and the thread was from the sinews. The deer-skin was tanned by the use of the brains of the deer. The brains were dried in cakes for future use. Bear-skins were not tanned, but were used for cloaks and beds.
Indian corn was red and white flint. They ground it in mortars and sifted it in a basket, and then baked it in loaves an inch thick and about six inches in diameter. They had a way of charring corn so it would keep for years. They would pick ears while green, roast it, dry it in the sun, mix with it about a third of maple sugar, and pound it into flour. This they carried with them on long trips.
For ropes and straps, raw hide and barks were used; the bark made the best ropes. The inside bark of the elm or bass-wood was boiled in ashes, separated into filaments, and then braided into rope.
Their knives were made of flint and horn-stone. Tomahawks were made of stone. They buried food with their dead.
Their cooking-vessels could not be exposed to fire, hence they used large upright vessels made of birch-bark, in which to boil food. Repeatedly putting stones red-hot into the water in these vessels, forcing them to boil.
The Indian was a great ball-player and fond of games, swift in races; in truth, the Indian was built for fleetness and not for strength ; his life of pursuit educated him that way. Their feathers and war-paint was nothing else than crude heraldry. The squaws did the work, they were more apt than the braves. Paint spread upon the face and body indicated the tribe, prowess, honor, etc., of the individual and family, and the arbitrary methods employed by the squaws made their heraldry hard to understand. The facial heraldry was unique both in representation and subject. Every picture had its signifi-
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cance. If a squaw was in love she daubed a ring around one of her eyes. This meant I am ready for a proposal. This symbol worn by a buck indicated he was in the market, too. When love matters were running smoothly with a squaw she painted her cheeks a cherry-red, and a straight mark on her fore- head, which meant a happy road. A zigzag mark on the forehead meant lightning. In case of a death in the family the squaw painted her cheeks black. Before a battle each warrior had smeared on the upper part of his body a wolf, herron, snipe, etc., to indicate his tribe, so that if he was killed his tribe could recognize his body and come for it.
In 1762 the great Moravian missionary, Rev. John Heckewelder, may have, and probably did, spend a day or two in Punxsutawney. In or about the year 1765 a Moravian missionary-viz., Rev. David Zeisberger-estab- lished a mission near the present town of Wyalusing, Bradford County, Penn- sylvania. He erected forty frame buildings, with shingle roofs and chimneys, in connection with other improvements, and Christianized a large number of the savages. The Muncy Indians were then living in what is now called Forest County, on the Allegheny River. This brave, pious missionary deter- mined to reach these savages also, and, with two Christian Indian guides, he traversed the solitude of the forests and reached his destination on the 16th of October, 1767. He remained with these savages but seven days; they were good listeners to his sermons, but every day he was in danger of being murdered. Of these Indians he wrote,-
" I have never found such heathenism in any other parts of the Indian country. Here Satan has his stronghold. Here he sits on his throne. Here he is worshipped by true savages, and carries on his work in the hearts of the children of darkness." These, readers, were the Indians that roamed over our hills, then either Lancaster or Berks County. In 1768 this brave minister returned and put up a log cabin, twenty-six by sixteen feet, and in 1769 was driven back to what is now called Wyalusing by repeated attempts on his life. He says in his journal, "For ten months I have lived between these two towns of godless and malicious savages, and my preservation is wonderful."
In 1768 the six Indian nations having by treaty sold the land from " under the feet" of the Wyalusing converts, the Rev. Zeisberger was com- pelled to take measures for the removal of these Christian Indians, with their horses and cattle, to some other field. After many councils and much consid- eration, he determined to remove the entire body to a mission he had estab- lished on the Big Beaver, now Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. Accordingly, "on the IIth of June, 1772, everything being in readiness, the congregation assembled for the last time in their church and took up their march toward the setting sun." They were " divided into two companies, and each of these were subdivided. One of these companies went overland by the Wyalusing path, up the Sugar Run, and down the Loyal Sock, via Dushore. This com- pany was in charge of Ettwein, who had the care of the horses and cattle.
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The other company was in charge of Rothe, and went by canoe down the Susquehannah and up the west branch." The place for the divisions to unite was the Great Island, now Lock Haven, and from there, under the lead of Rev. John Ettwein, to proceed up the west branch of the Susquehanna, and then cross the mountains over the Chinklacamoose path, through what is now Clearfield and Punxsutawney, and from there to proceed, via Kittanning, to the Big Beaver, now in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. Reader, just think of two hundred and fifty people of all ages, with seventy head of oxen and a greater number of horses, traversing these deep forests, over a small path sometimes scarcely discernible, under drenching rains, and through dismal swamps, and all this exposure continued for days and weeks, wild beasts to the right and to the left of them, and the path alive with rattlesnakes in front of them, wading streams and overtaken by sickness, and then, dear reader, you will conclude with me that nothing but " praying all night in the wilderness" ever carried them successfully to their destination. This story of Rev. Ettwein is full of interest. I reprint a paragraph or two that applies to what is now Jefferson County,-viz. :
" 1772, Tuesday, July 14 .- Reached Clearfield Creek, where the Buffaloes formerly cleared large tracts of undergrowth, so as to give them the appearance of cleared fields. Hence the Indians called the creek 'Clearfield.' Here we shot nine deer. On the route we shot one hundred and fifty deer and three bears.
" Friday, July 17 .- Advanced only four miles to a creek that comes down from the Northwest." This was and is Anderson Creek, near Curwensville, Pennsylvania.
"July 18 .- Moved on . . .
" Sunday, July 19 .- As yesterday, but two families kept up with me, because of the rain, we had a quiet Sunday, but enough to do drying our effects. In the evening all joined me, but we could hold no service as the Ponkies were so excessively annoying that the cattle pressed toward and into our camp to escape their persecutors in the smoke of the fire. This vermin is a plague to man and beast by day and night, but in the swamp through which we are now passing, their name is legion. Hence the Indians call it the Ponsetunik, i.e., the town of the Ponkies." This swamp was in what we now call Punxsutawney. These people on their route lived on fish, venison, etc.
CHAPTER III
CORNPLANTER-OUR CHIEF-CHIEF OF THE SENECAS, ONE OF THE SIX NATIONS -BRIEF HISTORY-SOME SPEECHES-LIFE AND DEATH
IN the year 1784 the treaty to which Cornplanter, or Beautiful Lake, was a party was made at Fort Stanwix, ceding the whole of Northwestern Penn- sylvania to the Commonwealth, with the exception of a small individual reserve to Cornplanter. The frontier, however, was not at peace for some years after that, nor, indeed, until Wayne's treaty in 1795.
Notwithstanding his bitter hostility, while the war continued, he became the fast friend of the United States when once the hatchet was buried. His sagacious intellect comprehended at a glance the growing power of the United States, and the abandonment with which Great Britain had requited the fidelity of the Senecas. He therefore threw all his influence at the treaty of Fort Stanwix, now Rome, New York, and Fort Harmar in favor of peace. And notwithstanding the large concessions which he saw his people were necessi- tated to make, still, by his energy and prudence in the negotiation, he retained for them an ample and beautiful reservation. For the course which he took on those occasions the State of Pennsylvania granted him the fine reservation upon which he resided on the Allegheny. The Senecas, however, were never satisfied with his course in relation to these treaties, and Red Jacket, more artful and eloquent than his elder rival, but less frank and honest, seized upon this circumstance to promote his own popularity at the expense of Cornplanter.
Having buried the hatchet, Cornplanter sought to make his talents useful to his people by conciliating the good will of the whites and securing from further encroachment the little remnant of his national domain. On more than one occasion, when some reckless and bloodthirsty whites on the frontier had massacred unoffending Indians in cold blood, did Cornplanter interfere to restrain the vengeance of his people. During all the Indian wars from 1791 to 1794, which terminated with Wayne's treaty, Cornplanter pledged himself that the Senecas should remain friendly to the United States. He often gave notice to the garrison at Fort Franklin of intended attacks from hostile parties, and even hazarded his life on a mediatorial mission to the Western tribes.
The following is an extract from a speech of Cornplanter to representa- tives of the United States government appointed to meet him at Fort Franklin, 8th of March, 1796:
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" I thank the Almighty for giving us luck to meet together at this time, and in this place as brethren, and hope my brothers will assist me in writing to Congress what I have now to say.
" I thank the Almighty that I am speaking this good day. I have been through all Nations in America, and am sorry to see the folly of many of the
GY- ANT- WA-KA
Jahn Abeel) The Cornplanter
people. What makes me sorry is they all tell lies, and I never found truth amongst them. All the western Nations of Indians, as well as white people, have told me lies. Even in Council I have been deceived, and been told things which I have told to my chiefs and young men, which I have found not to be so, which makes me tell lies by not being able to make good my word, but I
4
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hope they will all see their folly and repent. The Almighty has not made us to lie, but to tell the truth one to another, for when two people meet together, if they lie one to the other, them people cannot be at peace, and so it is with nations, and that is the cause of so much war.
" General Washington, the father of us all, hear what I have now to say, and take pity on us poor people. The Almighty has blest you, and not us. He has given you education, which enables you to do many things that we cannot do. You can travel by sea as well as by land, and know what is doing in any other country, which we poor people know nothing about. Therefore you ought to pity us. When the Almighty first put us on this land he gave it to us to live on. And when the white people first came to it they were very poor, and we helped them all in our power; did not kill them, but received them as brothers. And now it appears to me as though they were agoing to leave us in distress."-Pennsylvania Archives.
" After peace was permanently established between the Indians and the United States, Cornplanter retired from public life and devoted his labors to his own people. He deplored the evils of intemperance, and exerted himself to suppress it. The benevolent efforts of missionaries among his tribe always received his encouragement, and at one time his own heart seemed to be soft- ened by the words of truth, yet he preserved in his later years many of the peculiar notions of the Indian faith.
" In 1821-22 the commissioners of Warren County assumed the right to tax the private property of Cornplanter, and proceeded to enforce its collec- tion. The old chief resisted it, conceiving it not only unlawful, but a personal indignity. The sheriff again appeared with a small posse of armed men. Cornplanter took the deputation to a room around which were ranged about a hundred rifles, and, with the sententious brevity of an Indian, intimated that for each rifle a warrior would appear at his call. The sheriff and his men speedily withdrew, determined, however, to call out the militia. Several pru- dent citizens, fearing a sanguinary collision, sent for the old chief in a friendly way to come to Warren and compromise the matter. He came, and after some persuasion, gave his note for the tax, amounting to forty-three dollars and seventy-nine cents. He addressed, however, a remonstrance to the governor of Pennsylvania, soliciting a return of his money and an exemption from such demands against lands which the State itself had presented to him. The Legislature annulled the tax, and sent two commissioners to explain the affair to him. He met them at the court-house in Warren, on which occasion he delivered the following speech, eminently characteristic of himself and his race :
"' Brothers, yesterday was appointed for us all to meet here. The talk which the governor sent us pleased us very much. I think that the Great Spirit is very much pleased that the white people have been induced so to assist the Indians as they have done, and that he is pleased also to see the
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