History of Buffalo County Wisconsin 10847607, Part 7

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > Wisconsin > Buffalo County > History of Buffalo County Wisconsin 10847607 > Part 7

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).

Note :- The river Somme, from which a department of France has its name, rises in one of the northern valleys of the Ardennes, north of the Oise, and flows in a north westerly direction into the English Channel southwest of Dover Strait.

ADDENDA.

The reader may already have noticed that I am inclined to consider the Indians, or some of them, as the originators of the monuments usually ascribed to the so-called Mound Builders, and will excuse addition of some new proofs that others, and quite respectable authorities, sustain this view of the matter.

Dr. P. R. Hoy of Racine in a paper read before the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, and contained in Vol. IV of the Transactions, after giving numerous proofs to sustain his statement, says :

"Then the mode of burial is still the same, mostly in a sitting

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

posture, surrounded by their worldly wealth, and supplied with a sufficiency of food to feed the hungry soul on the long road to the happy hunting ground. I should like to see that anatomist who can distinguish the crania (skulls) taken from mounds from those' procured from Indian graves. The skulls from mounds differ just as much and just as little as do those of the present tribes of Ind- ians. I obtained askull of a Pottawatomie chief (it is now in the U. S. A. medical museum at Washington) which is one of the largest known. It is very symmetrical also, the capacity being 1785 cubic centimeters (about I14 cubic inches); maximum length, 188:9 (millimeters), maximum breadth 163.9 mm., circumference 555.6 mm., facial angle 75 degrees; measured and photographed by order of the Surgeon General. I had a second Pottawatomie cran- ium that is as unlike the above as possible, the capacity being 40 cubic inches less, facial angle 70 degrees. In view of the foregoing evidence, the legitimate conclusion must follow, that the "Mound Builders " were Indians, and nothing but Indians, the immediate ancestors of the present tribes as well as many other Indians that formerly were scattered over this country.

Differing in habits of life and language, just as the Indians of the several tribes did before the white man changed them, they continued to build mounds after they had communication with Europeans, since which time mound building, together with many many of the arts of the red man, such as making wampum, flint, stone and copper implements, pottery, etc., have declined and finally nearly or quite ceased.

THIS PAGE IS LOCKED TO FREE MEMBERS Purchase full membership to immediately unlock this page

----

Rijs YoGs

RiJA YOGA

Rig: Boc

RAJA YOGA

Answers

€

RAJA YOGA

Za&cce PC

Never be without a book!

Forgotten Books Full Membership gives universal access to 797,885 books from our apps and website, across all your devices: tablet, phone, e-reader, laptop and desktop computer A library in your pocket for $8.99/month

Continue

'Fair usage policy applies

ON INDIAN HISTORY.

lished right to the precise spot upon which they were met by the intruders. It cannot be my intention, nor is it possible in this book, to discuss the Indian question.

Although the Indian has scarcely disappeared from our im- mediate view and although even long ago white men, the more or less acceptable or reputable representatives of a civilization, of which the nations to which they belonged were unquestionably proud, have been among the Red men, yet we have comparatively few books or documents relating to this intercourse, and of these only a small portion possess any authority or deserve credence. Not that there is not a multiplicity of works on early explorations, on life among the Indians, on their character and circumstances, their habitat and history (supposed), but the great majority of these works are simply copies, real or pretended, of the few origi- nal ones, interspersed with anecdotes and adventures very often totally irrelative of the subject pretended to be discussed in the work. Hence it is uncommonly difficult to give something on the interesting subject of the "Indians" deserving the name of history. As an example of the way history is sometimes treated or mal- treated I need only refer to the history attached to the "Atlas of . the State of Minnesota" published in 1874, in which there is per- haps sufficient information of the Dakotas or Sioux, but not a word of the Chippewas. It is true that Hole-in-the-day (Jr.) did fortunately, not make such an extraordinary disturbance, as his treacherous and bloody contemporary, Little Crow, but why it should be forgotten, that the former remained the steadfast friend. of his white neighbors, while the latter carried murder, rapine and destruction among those on his side of the line, I do not un- derstand. This is only one instance.

* We might go to our own state atlas, issued in 1876 by Wal- ling, and find that all of the history given relates to Green Bay and Prairie du Chien, and to the Langlades and Grignons.

The historian, who is honestly and diligently exploring the fountains of his narrative, must therefore be excused, if he grows cautious even to the verge of scepticism.

DIFFICULTIES IN THE HISTORY OF INDIANS OF NORTHWEST.

We can not know anything about the Indians, except from early explorers; hence the questions arise:

1. Who were these early explorers ?

ON INDIAN HISTORY.

2. What capacity and preparation for the work did they possess?

3. What reliance may be put in their reports ?

4. What reasons may be alleged for or against their cred- ibility ?

In answer to the first question, we must say that they were, first and last, Frenchmen, and that they must be divided into two classes: Traders and Missionaries. Each of these classes had many peculiarities, of capacity, education, opportunity and pur- pose of investigation, and of rendering a full or a more partisan reports. I think it is well to consider them under separate heads. TRADERS.

As the name implies they came to trade with the Indians, that is to exchange commodities for which the Indians might show a desire for the productions of Indian industry. The trader had to look to two essential conditions, profit and security. The ven- ture was great, the profit might be enormous, but that depended on the security of life and property. The trader was usually a man of considerable means, of corresponding influence, and neces- sarily surrounded by a crowd of adventurous dependents, who traveled into remote parts to procure the desirable articles. The principal articles for which the trade was undertaken were the furs of different animals, especially the beaver. From this fact the trade was called the fur-trade. Other articles were incidental aggregations, but the trade in Beaver-skins was for a long time of such importance, that these skins became the standard of value for every thing bought, sold, or exchanged. In order to procure the articles of trade, to conclude bargains, gain possession of ad- vantageous posts and for intercourse in general, it was necessary to learn something, at least enough for the purposes of trade, of the language of every tribe. On this knowledge depended much more than the mere traffic, and it may be imagined that every possessor of a trading post had at least one person about him, who was a competent interpreter. The necessity of remaining sometimes for years at the same post, as well as amorous propen- sities, soon led to family relations between the trading people and the Indians, that is, most traders and dependents married Indian women. We may differ in our opinions about the morals involved in such marriages, but we must all agree, that they afforded op-

ON INDIAN HISTORY.

portunities of acquiring a through knowledge of language, man- ners, conditions, traditions and all the more obscure facts about Indians, such as would not, or but imperfectly, be observed in any other position. As far as opportunities were concerned, the trad- ers were in the most favorable situation; they were among the Indians, they had time, and their very existence depended mostly upon their intimate knowledge of Indian characteristics. But as to rendering a report on their experiences and observations the traders and their dependents were, as a class, but little fitted to produce anything reliable. Most of them were illiterate. some to the lowest possibility. We can not be surprised at that, when we consider that in the sixteenth, seventeenth and even the eight- eenth century popular education in France can not possibly have had any existence, that all literary education was confined to the higher classes the nobility, the clergy and the rich, and not even very creditable among the majority of these. The trader, that is the actual merchant, we may call him "Bourgeois," or " Sieur," or " Seignieur," had some knowledge of mercantile affairs, and may be generally credited with the accomplishments of reading and writing, though it was notorious that some of the class did not possess, and did not even value these accomplishments, which, at least in the immediate traffic, were of but little consequence.

Another cause, which prevented the reports from traders, was the natural tendency of mercantile operations to court secrecy, in order to elude competition. Possibly, though perhaps there was scarcely any occasion for it, reports from this quarter were sup- pressed by the national jealousy between the French and English, which was especially active in the French government of colonies,. and for which there was cause enough, on account of the adjoin- ing New England colonies. So we find that those who were in the best position to know, did not furnish much information, which is the more to be regretted, as there were numerous causes of prej- udice animating the other class of explorers, but which were less potent, or entirely absent among the traders.

MISSIONARIES.

Of these we must remember that they were French, Catholics, Clericals, and Celibates. The first two of these qualifications they had in common with the traders and their dependents, and these same qualifications placed the Missionaries under the gov-

THIS PAGE IS LOCKED TO FREE MEMBERS Purchase full membership to immediately unlock this page

DELVE INTO FANTASY, MAGIC, MYTHOLOGY & FOLKLORE

Forgotten Books Full Membership gives access to 797,885 ancient and modern, fiction and non-fiction books.

Continue

*Fair usage policy applies

ON INDIAN HISTORY.

find in the histories of La Salle and Du Luth. In regard to liter- ary capability and preparation for their labor and especially the task now under consideration, they were widely different, the Jes- uits as a rule far superior to the Franciscans. The Jesuits being known and acknowledged as superior scholastics, we may turn to their opponents, the Franciscans, who were of the two peculiar degrees or sub-orders called Capuchins and Recollects. The Cap- uchins were professed "ignorantes," that is, they considered sec- ular knowledge as detrimental to supernatural virtue. They were an order of mendicants, subsisting ostentatiously upon charity. The Recollects or Recollets were similar, though probably of a different habit or mode of clothing. Of the latter we find that Hennepin, who belonged to that order, was the author of a book, .. hence they probably were themselves or admitted to their ranks, men of scholastic acquirements. Their religious tenets being alike, we may omit their discussion. It is worthy of remark, that there was a pronounced disinclination on the part of the traders towards the ecclesiastics, but more so towards the Jesuits than the Fran- ciscans. Devout Catholics they all were, at least professedly, and educated in the veneration of the priests or monks, and this dis- tinct antagonism is well worth contemplation, though the causes have nothing to do with this matter. As it was, it certainly in- fluenced their mutual relations to each other and the Indians, and possibly colored some of the narratives from either side. And, since the ecclesiastics were almost the only historians, we must bring this antagonism into account in the formation of our judg- ment regarding the Indians.

What has been said relates mainly to the very earliest peri- ods of exploration, and does not locally extend to our part of the country. It is, nevertheless, important as the most reliable source of a knowledge of the original Indian character, and of the habitat of some of the Indian tribes or nations, who subsequently were domiciled upon, or claimed prescriptive possession of, the very soil upon which we are now living. There was always a wide dif- ference in these reports, and although the older ones are certainly preferable, yet we must come to the conclusion, that most of them were written to support certain theories, and that the remarks.of Parkman in regard to later writers on the subject might to a cer- tain degree be applicable to all these histories and not only to the

ON INDIAN HISTORY.

particular investigations concerning the religion of the Indians. He says:

" Many observers have interpreted the religious ideas of the Indians after preconceived ideas of their own, and it may safely be affirmed that an Indian will respond with a grunt of acquies- cence to any question whatever touching his spiritual state. Loskiel and the simple-minded Heckewelder write from a mis- sionary. point of view; Adair to support a theory of descent from the Jews; the worthy theologian, Jarvis, to maintain his dogma, that all religious ideas of the heathen world are perversions of revelation; and so, in a greater or less degree, of many others. By far the most close and accurate observers of Indian superstitions (and character) were the French and Italian Jesuits of the first half of the seventeenth century. Their opportunities were un- rivalled; and they used them in a spirit of faithful inquiry, ac- cumulating facts, and leaving theory to their successors."

With this quotation I may dismiss the missionaries as ex- plorers. I think that in the above the 2d, 3d and 4th of my ques- tions have been, incidentally, but fully, answered.

PRONUNCIATION AND TRANSLATION.

We come now to a source of trouble originating in the dif- ference of languages, the French and the English on one side, and the different tongues and dialects of the Indians on the other. In the transitions from the Indian into the French and from that into the English the names of Indian tribes or nations have been so much disfigured, that it may be set down as a fact, that very often authors spoke of what they did but imper- fectly know, and what might have been something or some- body else. The Indians having no written language in the modern acceptation of the term, the French in writing about any particular nation or about its location and other things con- nected therewith, tried to imitate the sounds of the Indian names and as their language is almost devoid of any gutturals, they could not express such sounds very closely.

It does not possess, for instance, the sound or letter of W, but we find them trying to represent that sound by ou, which, how- ever, in most words of their own language has not a consonant but a vowel sound, the same as oo in boots, and was certainly a poor substitute in such words as Wisconsin = Ouis-con-sin. In

ON INDIAN HISTORY .!

same word the last syllable, according to their own language st be pronounced sang. We find in this one word an example of the transmission of Indian names, which convinces us that our present pronunciation of them is not at all reliable. We find another familiar instance in the word Sioux, in which even ac- cording to their own orthography the letter i is without any func- tion, and that Soux would answer the purpose as to pronuncia- tion, admitting the x as a silent sign of the plural. The difficulty thickens when we come to the interpretations. In such cases, however, the French circumvented the difficulty frequently by adopting the names suggested by localities or by the language of

. adjoining tribes. They, for instance, called the Winnebagoes, whose name in their own (the Winnebago) language is Ochunk- osaw, by a translation, or may be perversion, of the Algonquin word "Winebeg," meaning fetid water, naming them "Puants," that is "Stinkers," and, as the Winnebagoes at first lived near Green Bay, they called the place " Baie des Puants," though per- haps also "Baie Verte." Such instances might be multiplied.

After the conquest of Canada and its surrender to the English these names existed and were forthwith represented in English orthography, always with the evident intention of rendering them pronounceable, or rather easy of pronunciation. Naturally they were subjected to further transformations or di ,figurations. French and English orthography having during the term of a century un- dergone numerous changes, some of which were probably extended to proper nouns, we are at a loss to say which is which in the pro- nunciation of Indian names, and also in regard to their meaning or significance. Another great difficulty in the study of Indian history is the constant displacement of the tribes. So, for ins- tance, we find that after having established a temporary trading post at Green Bay, and having named the locality by the name they chose to give the first inhabitants they had met in the neigh- borhood, we find the French engaged in desperate feuds with the Foxes, a tribe not at all related to the Winnebagoes, but living upon the country actually occupied by the latter at an earlier date, these, the Winnebagoes, still occupying adjoining parts of the country, but whether in league with the Foxes, or with the French, we have to guess.

Similar to these dislodgements, and usually the cause of them

THIS PAGE IS LOCKED TO FREE MEMBERS Purchase full membership to immediately unlock this page

----

Rijs YoGs

RiJA YOGA

Rig: Boc

RAJA YOGA

Answers

€

RAJA YOGA

Za&cce PC

Never be without a book!

Continue

'Fair usage policy applies

9.6

THE INDIANS.

Whenever anybody begins to speak of Indians, that is of the population, which as an aggregate, was found in actual occupa- tion of the islands as well as of the continent of North America, it is supposed, mentally and unconsciously, that he is speaking of a homogeneous body, in which every individual is simply an Ind- ian, a barbarous, undeveloped being, who, for the very want of development, must be like every other individual of his nation and can not possibly be different. Some people, at least, have an idea, or pretend to know, that in Europe we have Russians, Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Dutch, Germans, English, French, Spaniards, Italians, Greeks and Turks, Hungarians, Croatians, Bohemians, and Polanders, besides a number of small national- ities, such as Irish, Gæles, Basques and similar, but for most peo- ple it seems to be incomprehensible that there should be as many if not more, Indian nations as there are European ones. In the same way it might occur to most people, from analogy, that the Indian nations might be grouped by some common distinction of certain ones of them, not possessed by certain others. Without going any deeper than the most obvious differences, we find in Europe three or four principal groups of peoples or nationalities, distinguished from each other mainly by their languages. Philol- ogists may have conclusive proofs of a common origin of most European languages, but the distinctions still exist, between Rus- sian, Polish, Bohemian, and Croatian, as one group, the Slavonic; and the German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, another, the Germanic or Teutonic; the French the Spanish, the Italian and the Greek, as the Grecco-Romanic; the Hungarian or Magyar, Turkish and Finnish as the Tartaric; with several languages, each made up principally of elements thrown together from two groups, as the English, from Germanic and Romanic elements, with a few others not conveniently to be arranged into either group. In a similar manner the Indian languages of this continent may be grouped and the tribes or nationalities arranged into the groups

THE INDIANS.

principally according to their languages or dialects, for in our stage of actual knowledge possessed of any of the Indian languages, defunct, or still existing, it is probably not safe to draw a very sharp line between language and dialect. In the investigations incident to procuring a sufficient knowledge of those Indian tribes or nations, whom I shall have to mention at some length, I have discovered, that in this as in every other matter " doctors disagree."

In regard to such disagreements there is but little chance for a successful appeal, as the material for investigation is rapidly disappearing, and I have therefore concluded to adhere to such distinctions for the formation of the groups, as are least disputed and easiest of understanding, and shall use for the different na- tions or tribes such names as are generally accepted. Leaving out the Southern Indians, those who usually dwelt below the line drawn from the headwaters of the southern branch of the Ohio River, the Monongahela, to the northern end of Chesapeake Bay, and designating those who dwelt up North from that line, and a line formed by the Ohio, the Missouri and the Platte River, and between the Atlantic Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, as Northern Indians, we may, by affinity of language, divide them into the following four groups:

I. Algonquins, originally along the coast of the ocean, along both sides of St. Lawrence River up to the Sorel, thence only on the northside and thence on the eastside of the lakes, probably in the northern peninsula and the greater part of the southern pen- insula of Michigan, thence to the Wisconsin River and below that on the east side of the Mississippi, down to the Ohio and up the Alleghany River to the mouth of French Creek, thence up that creek to Chautauqua Lake not far from the southern shore of Lake Erie, about one fourth of the whole length of that shore west from Buffalo, and from that point east parallel to the former line. The tribes or nations belonging to that group were the following:

a. In the East: Abenakis, Mohigans, Wampanogs, Pequods, Narragansetts, and Micmacs.

b. Upon the St. Lawrence: Montagnais, (somewhere on the lower stream on either side,) Ottawas, on that river and its islands, the Nipissings around the lake of the same name, and further north on the east side of the lake the Ojibways of Sault Ste. Mary.

c. On the Upper Lakes, that is, Lake Superior and Lake Mi-

THE INDIANS.

chigan: North of Lake Superior and towards Hudson's Bay the Knistenau, on the Upper Peninsula some Ojibways, and on the river of the same name the Menomonees.

On the Lower Peninsula the Sacs and Foxes and possibly the Miamis. On the westside of Lake Michigan, south along shore, the Patawattomies, and further west the Mascoutins and Kikapoes, south of them the Illinois, who are supposed to have been a con- federation of numerous tribes speaking Algonkin dialects; farther east in Indiana and Ohio were probably the original quarters of the Miamis.

d. From the headwaters of the Ohio to the Atlantic east, were the Shawanese, the Powhattans and the Leni Lenape or Dela- wares.

II. The Iroquois-Huron-Nation.

They were located within the circle formed by the Algonquin tribes enumerated above, and distinct from them in language, manners of living, government and customs. They consisted of five distinct tribes, the Mohawks, Onondagas, Oneidas, Cayugas, and Senecas. The Eries and the Kat-Kaws or Neutrals spoke the same language or some dialect of it, but did not belong to the confederacy. The same may be said of the Hurons, who lived beyond the Iroquois boundary, on the eastern shores of the straits connecting Lake Huron with Lake Erie, mostly on the shores of Georgian Bay. This group does not materially interfere with Indians living on or in the neighborhood of our territory, and are only remarkable as furnishing a precedent of Indian government and clanship which repeated itself among other groups, notably among the Dakotas.

III. The Dakotas or Sioux. This group of which there will be occasion to speak at length hereafter, was situated mostly on the westside but contiguous to the Mississippi.

IV. The Winnebago Confederation.

This nation may be said to have occupied, in general terms, the country between the Wisconsin, the Chippewa, and the Mis. sissippi rivers. They called themselves O-chunk-o-saw and claimed relationship with the Iowas, the Omahas and the Ponkas. By some writers they are classed with the Dakotas, but they denied the relationship. I find that by a late philologist they are classed with the Dakota stock, their language being by him called Hot-

THIS PAGE IS LOCKED TO FREE MEMBERS Purchase full membership to immediately unlock this page

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.

History of Buffalo County Wisconsin 10847607, Part 7

Author: Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author:
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: