TH

THE INDIANS.

HE Indians having no literature, ana of course no written history of their own, have a remembrance of events more clear and distinct than those who depend upon the written or printed page for their preservation. And any one who has never given the subject attention would be surprised to see how long a time can be covered by tradition, through a single intervening witness between the occurrence and the one relating the incident. To illustrate this point, a man who lost his arm at the storming of Quebec, 1759, repeated the story of that conflict in 1839, the old soldier being ninety-nine years of age. Now should the boy who heard the story live to be ninety and tell it to another of ten, he living eighty years afterward and repeating the tale from one who got it from the man participating in the event, it would be 240 years after the battle, with a single intervening witness. Now the Indians have a language quite complete in words representing natural objects and describing events and names of places, although deficient in terms to describe mechanical works, arts or science, or any of the concomitants of civilization; and their traditions must have a certain amount of value to the historian, and a few of them will be here presented. The name Otchipwe, which the English tongue has transformed into Chippewa, signifies, "the dwellers in a contracted place," evidently applied to these people during their long residence at the foot of Lake Superior, or "Le Sault de St. Marie." It is supposed that this tribe, coming from the northern part of the New England States, struck the great lakes on the north of Lake Ontario, following along Lake Erie, without having touched Niagara Falls, as they make no mention of that, and via the coast of Lake St. Clair and Lake Huron to Mackinaw, or Mee-she-mee-ke-nak the "Great Turtle," as they called the island of Mackinaw. The Oh-dah-wa (Ottawa) branch of the Odjibewa tribe took its course up Lake Michigan (Me-she-gane), the great lodge of the Great Turtle or "Manitou." The main body of the Odjibewas or Otchipwes must have lingered a long time around the shores of Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, until finally reaching the Sault St. Marie, having been in a more or less constant state of warfare on the journey, which must have been much slower than the children of Israel. The scene of their principal traditions is about this place and up to the head of Lake Superior, having gradually moved along the south shore, making frequent excursions down the Sautern or Chippewa River. Another branch, the "Bois Forts," of the Algonquins, as they were called by the English, whose native name was Sha-guan-da-gawin-ena, or "men living in thick undergrowth of timber," proceeded on the north of Lake Superior. Their bands had few warlike experiences compared to those south of the lake, who encountered the Mis-qua-kee, or Sacs, and the Oda-gah-mee, or Foxes, and gradually crowded their way, finally reaching the Apostle Islands. On one of them, Madiline, they located, not daring to locate on the main land for fear of the Dacotas or Sioux. These people were at that time in what might be called a flourishing condition. It was many generations ago. From the colony at Madiline Islands, many bands proceeded to Brule River, and thence down the St. Croix, while to the southeast they spread out to Saginaw and Lake Erie. The reasons for believing the Atlantic Coast the original home of this tribe, are the many names of Eastern landmarks referred to in their language, the affinity of the language itself to the Algonquin. These facts, together with the legends of the Ani-chi-na-be, or Od jib-wa, or Chippewa, lead us to believe in this account.

THE OTCHIPWE INVASION.

During the second decade of the sixteenth century, about the years 1519-20, the Otchipwes or Chippewas gained possession of the district from the mouth of the Kawkawlin to the river— now known as the Clinton—called by the French, Riviere aux Hurons. At this time the great struggle for tribal supremacy took place, and the last Sauk warrior fell before the advancing Chippewas in ths valley of the Siginaw. Throughout all this district, particularly along its rivers and streams, may bu found mounds filled with human bones, scattered round in all directions, showing, unmistakably, that they were cast together without regularity, and telling of fierce and sanguinary battles. So early as 1834, a few aged Indians resided on the shores of Lake Huron;

each of them was questioned regarding the ancient history of his nation, and each of them was not slow to relate the tradition of his tribe, so far as it related to the Chippewa conquest of Northern and Western Michigan. At length the old chief, Puttasamine, was interviewed in the presence of Peter Gruette, a half-breed, well known from Detroit to Mount Clemens, and westward still to Mackinac. Gruette acted as interpreter, and, as a result, the following valuable legendary sketch comes down to us: Puttasamine said the Sauks occupied the whole country, from Thunder Bay on the north to the head-waters of the Shiawasse, and from the mouth of Grand River to that of the Huron, north of Detroit. The rest of the country was occupied by the Pottawatomies, the Lake Superior country by the Otchipwes and Ottawas, the Menomonees round Green Bay, and the Sioux west of the Messipi. The main village of the Sauk nation stood on the west side of the Saginaw River, near its mouth; and from that place were accustomed to rush forth to war with the Chippewas on the north and the Pottawatomies on the south, and also with other nations in Canada. At length a council was called, consisting of Otchipwes, Pottawatomies, Menomonees, Ottawas, and Six Nations of New York, which council assembled on the Island of Mackinac, and where it decided on a war of extermination. The chiefs summoned the warriors, a large army was organized, and, embarking in bark canoes, started down the west shore of Lake Huron. Arriving at Saginaw Bay, the warriors sailed over the waters by night, lay concealed during the day, and so continued their advance until they arrived at a place called Petobegong, about ten miles above the mouth of the Saginaw River. There they disembarked a portion of the army, while the main division crossed the Bay, and made a landing on the east bank of the estuary of the Saginaw, in the night. Next morning, both divisions started up the river so as to attack the eastern and western towns at the same time. The warriors on the west bank attacked the main village, surprised the inhabitants, and massacred almost every man, woman, and child to be found there—the few survivors escaping across the river to another village, which occupied the site of Portsmouth.

The eastern division of the allies came up to the village, which then occupied the site of Bay City, where a desperate battle was fought. Notwithstanding the favorable position held by the Sauks, they were defeated and great numbers slain, the survivors retreating, some into the eastern wilderness, others seeking refuge on Skull Island. Here the refugees considered themselves safe, as the enemy did not appear to possess any canoes; but the season offered the invader that which art denied, for on the next night, the ice was found sufficiently thick to warrant a crossing, which circumstance enabled the allies to advance on the island. Here nothing was left of the Sauks, save twelve women, and those who fled eastward to the river country. The victory was as decisive as it was bloody. The victors reviewed their forces and then divided, some proceeding up the Cass (formerly the Huron), and the Flint; others up the Shiawassee, Tittabawasink, and so spread over the land. The most important battles were fought against other tribes in the neighborhood of the Flint Bluffs, and eastward to Detroit; but of such Puttasamine could recount very little.

After the extermination of the Sauk warriors, the twelve women referred to remained for disposal, and, so important did they appear, that a council of the allies was held to decide their fate. Some were for torturing them to death; others recommended mercy; while others still argued that they should be sent west of the Mississippi. The last proposition was carried, and an arrangement made with the Sioux that no tribe should molest them; that they should be responsible for their protection. The Sioux warriors and women kept their promises faithfully.

The conquered country was divided among the allies, as a common hunting ground; but great numbers of them who engaged in the chase never returned, nor could any tidings of them be found, for which reason it became the settled opinion of the Indians that the spirits of their victims haunted the hunting grounds, and were killing off their warriors. In reality, the disappearance of many a warrior was due to the fact that a few Sauks, who had escaped the massacre, still lingered around the old and well-known hunting grounds, watching for the straggling conquerers, and slaying them whenever opportunity offered.

Tondogong, an Indian chief, who died in 1840 at a very advanced age, has left the record behind that, in his boyhood, about eighty years ago, he killed a Sauk. Even up to the year 1850, the old Indians of the northeastern counties of Michigan believed there was a solitary Sauk still to be seen in the forests of their land; they had seen the place where he had made his fires and slept. For days after such a discovery they would not leave their camp-grounds" there is a Sauk in the woods, and they had seen where he built his fires and slept."

The close of the drama is within the history of our own times.

We have seen the Otchipwes

in all their villages. The sixteenth century had not closed when this tribe boasted of power in number and intelligence; finally the Otchipwe language predominated, until at the present time it is spoken among Indians from the Arctic Circle south to latitude 40°. Puttasamine, or Pattaquasamine, born about the year 1729, stated that the tradition was related to him when a boy, by his grandfather, ninety years previous to 1834; and further that it had been handed down to his grandfather from his ancestors, and it was a custom with him to repeat it often to his people, so that their tradition or history should not be lost.

THE MIAMIS AND POTTAWATOMIES.

Western Ohio, Southern Michigan and the country now comprised in the State of Indiana, were once in possession of the Miamis, one of the branches of the powerful Algonquin tribe, that interposed between the tribes of the Six Nations of the northern lake shores and the Mobilian tribes of the Atlantic slopes. Their claim to this territory was proven in the great conclave at Greenville, Ohio, in 1795, immediately prior to entering into the treaty. On that occasion, Machikinaqua, a chief and orator of the Miamis, addressing Gen. Wayne, said, "My forefather kindled the first fires at Detroit; thence he extended his lines from the head-waters of the Scioto River; thence to its mouth; thence down the Ohio to the mouth of the Wabash; thence to Chicago and Lake Michigan; these are the boundaries wherein the prints of my ancestors' houses are everywhere to be seen." Historians have acknowledged the truth and claim of the Miami chief, confirming many of his statements regarding other peoples inhabiting his territory. The Delaware Indians driven before the incoming European colonists; the Shawanoes from the south forced to move northward by the Aztecs of the southwest or the Mobilians of the southeast, and the Otchipwes and Pottawatomies of the northern regions. Lago, an Indian chief, referring to the immigration of the latter, maintained that a very long time since the Great Spirit sent upon the Pottawatomies a severe winter, and they came over the hard water of Lake Michigan and asked the privilege of hunting until spring; that the Miamis granted it; that they returned home in the spring, and the next winter came back, and would never return to Lake Superior again.

THE HURONS.

This tribe of Indians was also called Wyandots. They were dispersed by the Iroquois in 1649. A fragment of the Hurons settled at Detroit in 1680. The phrase "Quelle* hures" (what heads) was applied by an astonished French traveler to the Wyandots on seeing their fantastic mode of dressing the hair. From hares was derived Huron. After the departure of Jean Nicolet from their territory, now bounded south by Lambton County in Canada, and north by French River and Lake Nipissing, those savages were attacked by the bloodthirsty Iroquois, and driven to new huntinggrounds—some finding a home in Michigan, others in Wisconsin.

Early in the spring of 1712, a number of Foxes and Mascoutins encamped close to the fort at Detroit, holding the country along the St. Clair in check. This post was commanded by M. Dubuisson. His garrison numbered only thirty French soldiers. The Foxes and their allies, the Mascoutins, soon became insolent, calling themselves owners of all the country. It seems to have been a plan laid by them to burn the fort, but their purpose was communicated to the commandant by a friendly Fox. An express was immediately sent to the hunting grounds of the Ottawas and Hurons by Dubuisson for aid. The Chippewas and another tribe, upon the other side of the lake, were invited to join with him in defending his post. The commandant took such measures of defense as his limited force would permit. On the 13th of May, he was re-enforced by seven or eight Frenchmen.. Happily other aid arrived—quite a number of Indians from various nations around, who, joining the Hurons, entered the fort to assist in defending it. This brought matters to a crisis, and firing commenced between the besiegers and the besieged. With undaunted courage, Dubuisson for nineteen days continued to defend his post. The assailants were finally obliged to retreat, their provisions becoming exhausted. Some of the Frenchmen, with the Indians, soon started in pursuit, overtaking the enemy near St. Clair, where they had erected intrenchments. They held their position for four days, fighting with much courage, when they were forced to surrender, receiving no quarters from the victors. All were killed except the women and children, whose lives were spared, and one hundred men who had been tied, but who escaped. There were a few Sacs engaged in this attack on the fort, but more, perhaps, were fighting upon the other side. The Foxes were incensed rather than weakened by the severe loss they sustained near Detroit; and

their hostility continuing, not only against the French but the Indian tribes in alliance with them, caused a proposition to be brought forward by the Marquis de Vandreuil to commence a war of extermination against the Foxes. To this most of the friendly nations readily assented. A party of French troops was raised and put under the command of DeLouvigny, a Lieutenant, who left Quebec in March, 1716. He ascended to Detroit in canoes, with all possible dispatch; there he received re-enforcements, and thence urged his way to Mackinac, where "his presence inspired in all the Frenchmen and Indians a confidence which was a presage of victory." With a respectable force— said to have been eight hundred strong—DeLouvigny entered Green Bay and ascended Fox River, to what point is now uncertain, when he encountered the enemy in a palisaded post, and won what was reported to be a decisive victory.

SUNDRY SKETCHES.

The Nippercineans, who are called the true Algonquins by old writers, resided at Lake Nipissing, while the Otchipwes resided on Superior, and at the Sault de Ste. Marie. Tradition states that these tribes came into collision with a tribe who were their predecessors on occupation of the lake region. This contest took place at Portagunassee, now Drummond's Island, and at Point de Tour, which resulted in the defeat of the aborigines. To those the Otchipwes gave the name Muskodainsug, or people of the Little Prairie. Chusco, the old Ottawa of Mackinac, states that this race were the bone cave builders of Menissing or Round Island, and also of the garden beds in the Grand River Valley, and are supposed to be identical with the Mascoutins. The traditions of the Saginaw Indians in 1821, and of Ishquagonabi, of Traverse Bay, seem to agree in this matter.

When the Wyandots of the St. Lawrence, in the middle of the seventeenth century, formed a close league with the French, and also with the Adirondacks or Algonquins, they were brought into violent hostilities with the New York Iroquois confederacy. This led to a perfect separation, which has ever since existed. The Wyandots asserted seniority in membership, and were certainly living at Hochelaga, now Montreal, when Cartier visited that place in 1534. Driven from the St. Lawrence by the confederates, they fled by the Ottawa River to Lake Huron, and thus became the means of giving their name to that lake, as the French gave them the name Huron, from the style in which they wore their hair. The Iroquois called the lake Coniatare.

The Wyandots, driven from the valley of the St. Lawrence up the Ottawa, and thence to Lake Huron about the middle of the seventeenth century, took shelter on Mackinac Island. There they cultivated large fields in the center of the island, which the French called Lts Grandes Jardins. Hill and dale were cultivated; loose stones were gathered and piled up in heaps, and the island was their happy home. Ultimately they were driven from it by the Ticdouderaghie to Lake Superior. The Iroquois pursued them to St. Joseph's Island, where the Chippewas met the invaders. Again, above St. Mary's Falls—at Nadowegoning, the place of Iroquois bones—the Chippewas succeeded in driving the confederates back.

In 1634, two Jesuits, Breboeuf and Daniel, established a mission on Lake Huron among the Hurons. a party of whom they accompanied on returning from Quebec.

In 1641, Rev. Charles Raymhault arrived at the Sault de Ste. Marie, attended by some Hurons, and there he heard of the powerful Nadowesies, who lived eighteen days' journey westward. Subsequently the Huron country was invaded by the Mohawks, their villages as well as the Jesuit mission houses, burned, and the venerable fathers mentioned subjected to death. This failed to deter the Jesuits, and as a consequence their missions were established by other fathers at Keweenaw and Chegoimegon.

Bishop Laval, of Quebec, commissioned Pere Mesnard to preach to the Indians of Lake Superior and Green Bay. He reached St. Theresa's Bay, supposed to be Keweenaw Bay, where he remained eight months. Ultimately he wished to visit the Hurons of St. Michael's Island, and started for Chegoimegon Bay. At Keweenaw Portage he missed his attendant, who carried the canoe, and lost himself in the wilderness. In later years his cassock and breviary were found among the Sioux, and the traditions of the tribe say that the first white man who visited them was killed.

Pere Claude Allouez reached Lake Superior in September, 1665. He passed Keweenaw Bay, and October 1, 1665, arrived at La Pointe, in the bay of Chegoimegon—the old home of the Otchipwes. He remained on the south shore of Superior for two years. In 1667, he returned to Quebec, and two days after his arrival there, entered on his return journey, accompanied by Pere Louis Nicolas, to labor among his Indian friends from the Sault de Ste. Marie to the Mezsippi.

Peres James Marquette and Claude Dablon arrived at Sault de Ste. Marie in 1668, where they established Ste. Mary's Mission. They visited the surrounding nations up to 1673. In 1669, Pere Marquette conceived the idea of exploring the Mississippi, and in 1673 entered on that duty in company with M. Louis Joliet.

THE CHIPPEWAS.

According to Bishop Baraga, and other lexicographers, the Otchipwes, of the great Algonquin race, were the inhabitants of the Lake Superior district from the beginning of the historic period. The name was first given to a band of Nippercineans, and ultimately was applied to all bands speaking the language of the Nippercineans, who subsequently were driven before the Iroquois to the Sault Ste. Marie. This dialect was the most refined of all the Indian tongues, and won the praise of the great students among the early French missionaries. The old chief village of the tribe was at Chegoimegon, now La Pointe, near the Apostle Islands. There, their principal chiefs— Mvdjekeewis, Wanbojug, Andaigweos, and Gitchee, Waiskee ruled, and kept the fire of the tribe burning perpetually.

Long before the coming of the white man, there was a town at the mouth of the Menomonee River, governed by a great chief. In the interior were four Otchipwe towns governed also by a renowned chief.

The Menomonee chief ordered the river to be stopped at its mouth, so that the sturgeon could not go up the stream. This course resulted in a famine in the Otchipwe villages, which resulted in a war. The Menomonees had as allies, the Sioux, Pottawatomies, Kickapoos, Wabauakees, Winnebagoes, Opauaugoes and Shawnees, while the Otchipwes relied upon the valor of their chiefs and their own renown. This war raged from 1627 to 1650 without intermission. From that time to 1830, the memories of that sanguinary struggle were treasured by the children of the respective tribes. Even the venerable missionaries of the Catholic Church were unable to conciliate the enemies. Within our own times, in 1830, the factions renewed their war of hate, so that the United States Government had to interpose. The treaty of peace between the tribes was solemnly signed in 1857, since which time they have cast aside their discords.

In 1730, the number of Chippewas reported to the French Government was 5,000, exclusive of bands exalted to tribes. When a garrison and Indian agency were established at the Sault in 1822, there were 8,500 reported within the boundaries of that agency. In 1806, Pike reported an Otchipwe population of 12,000; the report to Committee on Indian Colonization in 1825, placed the number at 18,000 including Saginaws. In 1829, they numbered 15,000; in 1832, 9,420, and in 1850, 10,000.

DEATH OF THE INDIAN MEG1SH.

At the beginning of the war of 1812, the Indians of the Shauawa family resided on Bear Creek, near the spot where John Riley shot James Harsen in 1810-11. The family circle claimed five strapping braves, brothers, among whom was Megish, the Britisher, who fell before the American charge at the battle of Lundy's Lane. Old squaw Megish often related the story of his death, always maintaining that her son got between the opposing whites, was fired upon by the Americans, and slain. Capt. Chesby Blake, one of the pioneer lake captains, was then mate of a brig lying at Newburyport, waiting an opportunity to run through the blockading British squadron. He was not afforded a chance, however, and so he, with his crew, joined the American troops, and was present at Lundy's Lane, with a division of Scott's brigade. In 1840, Blake came to Harsen's Island for the purpose of getting out choice lumber for one of the Newbury boats. On this occasion the O'Blake was the guest of Capt. John H. Stewart, of Harsen's Island. In conversation with Aura P. Stewart, he related the story of the death of an Indian at Lundy's Lane, saying, that as the two armies were approaching, and a little while before the action, an Indian was seen running swiftly between the opposing lines. The Captain of the company said: "Blake, can't you kill that Indian?" Blake fired, but without effect; reloading, he took steady aim, fired, and the fleeing savage was seen to leap upward, and then to fall dead. This undoubtedly was Megish, and his executioner was Capt. Blake.

DROWNING OF INDIAN REFUGEES.

At the outbreak of the war of 1812, the British Government secured the services of almost all the Indians from Detroit to Mackinac. A large number accompanied the British troops, and were present at the assault on Fort Sandusky. The defense offered by the Americans under Capt. Crogan was so spirited and destructive, that the British made a hasty retreat toward Maiden,