Kansas and Nebraska : the history, geographical and physical characteristics, and political position of these territories : an account of the emigrant aid companies, and directions to emigrants

Preface

The history of two territories whose first governors have as yet never seen their dominions,— in which, indeed, there is not yet a single town,— may seem to be easily writ¬ ten.

When, however, my attention was directed to the study of the various researches which have been made in the regions now known as Kanzas and Nebraska, I knew that I had a wide range before me.

I have followed up, as carefully as I could, the memoirs of the early French travellers who first opened to the civil¬ ized world the valley of the Missouri. Of more use, in the view in which that valley is now regarded, are the more recent travels of our own countrymen, a body of official reports which deserve very high praise for the skill and gal¬ lantry displayed in exploration, and the care with which their history has been written. I have made such use as I could of the travels of Lewis and Clarke, Capt. Pike, Col. Long, Mr. Breckenridge, Maj. Bonneville, Col. Fremont, Col. Emory, Lieut. Abert, Mr. Parkman, Maj. Cross, Capt.

IY

PREFACE.

Stansbury, Capt. Gunnison, Gov. Stevens, Lieut. William¬ son, and others.

I have used some recent letters published in newspapers, and have been favored with personal narratives of agents of the Emigrant Aid Company.

The interest which is now sending into these territories a large and well-trained population has been roused by the in¬ terest felt in their political condition. I have, therefore, given such a sketch of their political history as the size of the vol¬ ume admitted. I have drawn my materials for a history of the great Missouri debate from the copious contemporary files in the library of the Antiquarian Society. The mem¬ oranda of other political passages in the history of a region, of which the civilized government has not yet begun, are from official documents. So few people have read “ the Nebraska Act,” of which so many have talked, that I have thought it desirable to publish an accurate copy of it, as the constitu¬ tion of the new states.

Since the formation of the Emigrant Aid Companies. I have been deeply interested in their success. The trustees of the Boston company offered me, very kindly, any assist¬ ance in their power; but they are in no sense responsible for my opinions, as expressed here. I should never have undertaken this work, however, but from a wish to assist -in the great enterprise of settling Kanzas at once,— an enter¬ prise which appears to me to open a nobler field for effort than any public undertaking which has called upon our energies for many years. To contribute as I could to the immediate settlement of Kanzas, I have given such hints to emigrants, and special information for their wants, as my materials afforded me.

PREFACE.

V

The map is accurate as far as may be with our present knowledge of the country. It is compiled from more than twenty of the recent surveys made by government.

In my sketch of the Indian tribes I have followed the invaluable treatise of Mr. Gallatin, the spirited sketches of Mr. Catlin, and Mr. Parkman’s interesting journal of his sojourn with the Ogillalah, besides the notices in the travel¬ lers I have named.

It will not be long, I suppose, before historical societies and antiquarian institutes in Kanzas and Nebraska will be collecting materials far more abundant for their history and geography. I shall watch such collections with great interest, as well as with the pride of being the first col¬ lector in the field. Working with the disadvantages of a first collector, I have simply tried to make this book accu¬ rate as far as it goes.

In that view I have held to the spelling Kansas, of most of the travellers and of the Indian department, in prefer¬ ence to Kansas, the more fashionable spelling of a few weeks past. There is no doubt that the z besf expresses the sound, that it has been almost universally used till lately, and that it is still used by those most familiar with the tribe and the river which have, time immemorial, borne this name. Kanzas, too, will soon be a state. Its name then will, at best, too much resemble the name of Arkansas, which was, in fact, derived from it. To keep them by one letter more apart is to gain something.

Worcester, Mass., Aug. 21, 1854.

1 *

Chapter I

Discovery of these regions — Marquette—La Salle—La Hontan— Crozat — The Mississippi scheme — Dutisne the discoverer of Kanzas, . 9

Chapter II

Native tribes—General divisions — The Dahcotah or Sioux race—Paw¬ nees — Pahdoucahs — Arapahoes — Rapids — Blackfeet — Emigrant Indians from the East — Aboriginal Indians—Population and customs of Knistineaux or Crees, Ojibwas, Assineboins, Gros-Ventres, Blackfeet, Mandans, Sioux, Crows, Puncas, Omahas, Ottoes, Pawnees, Kan¬ zas, Osages—The past condition and present prospects of the race, . 17

Chapter VI

Routes of travel — The Pacific railroad — Navigable rivers, .... 139 CHAPTER VII.

Political History. —Sovereignty of Prance, Spain, France, and the United States — Missouri debate — Indian legislation — Platte purchase — Organization of the territories—Nebraska debate,.162

CHAPTER IX. Emigration to Kanzas — The Emigrant Aid Companies,..216

KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.

Chapter I

Discovery of these regions — Marquette — La Salle — La Hontan —

Crozat — The Mississippi scheme—Dutisne the discoverer of Kanzas.

The discovery to the civilized world of the valley of the Missouri was made by Father Marquette. In writing to the Superior of Missions, in 1670, he spoke of this river, from the report he had of it from the Indians. “ Six or seven days below the Ilois ” (Illinois river), he says, “ is another great river, on -which are prodigious nations, who use wooden canoes; we cannot write more till next year, if God does us the grace to lead us there.” Among these “prodigious nations ” was the Kanzas.

His expedition down the Mississippi did not take place so soon as he had hoped. But, in 1673, accompanied by Joliet, he crossed to the Fox river portage, and, on the 10th of June, embarked on the waters of the Mississippi. In the

KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.

course of the voyage which followed, they passed the mouth of the Missouri. In the Algonquin language, this river was called the Pekitanoui, or Muddy river, and it retained that name for some time in the French books and maps.* “We descend,” says Father Dablon, in his narrative of this expedition, “following the course of the river to¬ ward another called Pekitanoui, which empties into the Mississippi, coming from the north-west, of which I have something considerable to say, after what I have remarked of this river.” This “something considerable” is an inti¬ mation which our own time has proved correct, that by this river’s valley would be found an overland route to Califor¬ nia. “ We judged,” he says, “ by the direction the Missis¬ sippi takes, that, if it keeps on the same course, it has its mouth in the gulf of Mexico. It would be very advan¬ tageous to find that which leads to the South Sea toward California, and this, as I said, I hope to find by Pekitanoui, following the account which the Indians have given me ; for from them I learn that, advancing up this river-for five or six days, you come to a beautiful prairie, twenty or thirty leagues long, which you must cross to the north-west. It terminates at another little river, on which you can embark, it not being difficult to transport canoes over so beautiful a country as that prairie. The second river runs south-west for ten or fifteen leagues, after which it enters a small lake,

* A branch of Rock river is still called Pekatonica.

MARQUETTE AND LA SALLE.

which is the source of a deep river, running to the west, where it empties into the sea. I haye hardly any doubt that this is the Red Sea (Gulf of California), and I do not des¬ pair of one day making the discovery, if God does me this favor and grants me health, in order to be able to publish the Gospel to all the nations of this new world, who have so long been plunged in heathen darkness.”

This narrative was published in 1678. It has lately been translated and edited by Mr. Shea, who publishes with it a fac simile of Marquette’s manuscript map, still preserved at St. Mary’s College, Montreal. The Pekitanoui or Mis¬ souri is here laid down, at its entrance. into the Mississippi, and for one hundred miles back. On the map, to the west¬ ward, are the names of several tribes. Of these the Pana and Paniassa are probably our Pawnees ; the Ouemessourit are the Missouri; the Ouchage, the Osages ; the Tontanta, our Tetons; the Moingouena are Moingonans, and the Pewarea, the Peorias ; while the names of the Kansa and Maha tribes are put down as upon our maps.

The expectation of discovering the gulf of California by following up the Missouri, and so crossing to the waters of the Pacific, is alluded to a second time in the same narra¬ tive.

The celebrated La Salle repeated Marquette’s expedition, in 1681 and 1682. He was detained by ice and winter, at the mouth of the Illinois, till Jan. 13, 1682. “Then,” writes Father Membre, in his narrative, “ we set out, and,

KANZAS AND NEBBASKA.

six leagues lower down, found the Ozage (Missouri) river coining from the west. It is full as large as the river Col¬ bert (Mississippi), into which it empties, troubling it so that from the mouth of the Ozage the water is hardly drinkable. The Indians assure us that this river is formed by many others, and that they ascend it for ten or twelve days, to a mountain, where it rises ; that beyond this moun¬ tain is the sea, where they see great ships; that on the river are a great number of large villages, of many different nations ; that there are arable and prairie lands, and abun¬ dance of cattle and beaver. Although this river is very large, the Colbert does not seem augmented by it; but it pours in so much mud, that, from its mouth, the water of the great river, whose bed is also slimy, is more like clear mud than river water. Without changing at all, it reaches the sea, a distance of more than three hundred leagues, although it receives some large rivers, the water of which is very beautiful, and which are almost as large as the Missis¬ sippi.” *

In 1687, La Salle attempted to cross, with a party of sixteen men, from his settlement called St. Louis, on the gulf of Mexico, to the Mississippi, and ascend its stream. In a mutiny among his men, he was killed, but six of the party continued on the expedition, crossing the Red river and de¬ scending the Arkansas to the Mississippi. They then went

* Father Membre in Shea’s History of the Mississippi, p. 166.

FATHER DQUAY’S NARRATIVE.

up to the Canadian frontier in canoes. Father Douay, of this party, thus speaks of the Missouri: —

“ On the north-west, the famous river of the Massourites or Osages, at least as large as the river into which it emp¬ ties ; it is formed by a number of known rivers, everywhere navigable, and inhabited by many populous tribes, as the Panimaha, who had but one chief and twenty-two villages, the least of which has two hundred cabins; the Paneassa, the Pana, the Paneloga, and the Matotantes, each of which, separately, is not inferior to the Panimaha. They include also the Osages, who have seventeen villages on a river of their name, which empties into that of the Massourites, to which the maps have also extended the name of Osages.” * In these Indian names it is easy to recognize the tribes known by us as different divisions of Pawnees and Mahas. Father Douay says, also, that the Arkansas Indians formerly inhabited one of the upper valleys of the Missouri, but were driven down to the valley of the Arkansas river by cruel wars with the Iroquois.

In 1680, La Salle established fort Creve Coeur, on Illi¬ nois river, of easy access from the mouth of the Mis¬ souri, and from this time probably its valley was visited by French traders.

In the somewhat notorious letter of La Hontan, dated Mackinaw, May 28, 1689, he describes an expedition of his

* Father Douay in Shea, as above, p. 222.

KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.

own, which, if it were possible, would have made him the discoverer of Nebraska. He professes to have gone down to the Mississippi by the Wisconsin river, and then sailed westward for several days, by the “ Long river” till he came to the neighborhood of waters flowing into the Pacific. Had he done this, he would have been the first white man in Nebraska.

But the Long river does not exist, and his narrative re¬ futes itself by describing his voyage in detail, as made in January, in the parallel of 46° north latitude. In fact, all rivers of that region are closed with ice for several of the winter months. And the detail of the narrative, therefore, is enough to discredit the story as completely a romance.

His map of the Missouri indicates, however, that he had received from the savages correct general information as to its course, to a point more than a hundred miles west of its mouth, and above the mouth of the Osage river, where, he says, he burned an Indian village.

Not long after, the French establishment at St. Louis was founded. At home the valley of the Mississippi be¬ came one of the regions of romantic speculation. In 1712, Louis* XY. granted the whole valley of the Mississippi to Crozat. In that grant he changed the name of the Missouri to the river St. Philip, which name, however, it never re¬ tained.^ In 1717, Crozat abandoned this grant, and Law’s famous Mississippi scheme was started. A great im¬ pulse at once was given to emigration and exploration.

dutisne’s expedition.

The immense funds raised in France were, in part, devoted to the purposes of the Louisiana colony. Many settlers were sent over, and efforts made to establish additional com¬ munication with the interior. To this gigantic scheme of finance and fraud we owe the discovery of the territory of Kanzas. '

M. Dutisne, a French officer, was sent from New Or¬ leans, in 1719, by Bienville, the governor, into the terri¬ tory west of the Mississippi. He visited the village of the Osage Indians, five miles from the Osage river, at eighty leagues above its mouth. Thence he crossed to the north-west one hundred and twenty miles, over prairies abounding in buf¬ falo, to the villages of the Panionkees or Pawnees. Here were two villages, of about one hundred and thirty cabins, and two hundred and fifty warriors each, who owned nearly three hundred horses. They were not civilized, he says, but readily accessible on receiving a few presents. Fifteen days more westward marching brought him to the Padoucahs , a very brave and warlike nation. Here he erected a cross, with the arms of the king, Sept. 27th, 1719. In his report of his expedition he gives the details which we have quoted, and notices the salines and masses of rock salt found to this day in the region he travelled over.

He found the Osage villages at the spot which they still occupy. If his measurements were exact, his first Pawnee or Panionkee village was near the mouth of Republican Fork. Fifteen days westward travel must have been up the

KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.

valleys of one of tlie forks of Kanzas river; but tbe name of the Padoucah Indians is now lost.

From the time he reached the Osage villages, Dutisne was exploring the territory of Kanzas. A report of an invasion of its Indians by Spaniards, in the same year, probably belongs really to the year 1722; and Dutisne, therefore, may be regarded as the discoverer of Kanzas to the civilized world.

Chapter II

Native tribes — General divisions— The Dahcotah or Sioux race — Paw¬ nees — Pahdoucahs — Arapahoes — Rapids — Blackfeet — Emigrant Indians from the East — Aboriginal Indians — Population and customs of Knistineaux or -Crees, Ojibwas, Assineboins, Gros-Ventres, Blackfeet, Mandans, Sioux, Crows, Puncas, Omahas, Ottoes, Pawnees, Kanzas, Osages ■—The past condition and present prospects of the race.

From the period when thus discovered bj the first white explorers, up to the present time, the valleys of the Mis¬ souri and of its western tributaries, comprising the territo¬ ries of Kanzas and Nebraska, have been constantly visited by white traders, hunters or trappers. The French hunt¬ ers from Louisiana and Canada were the first explorers; but, after the establishment of the British North West Company, its agents dealt with the Indians in these wilder¬ nesses. On the transfer of the Louisiana purchase to the United States, in 1803, the fur trade began to come into the hands of American merchants; and, from that time, there have been American traders among those who resorted to these territories. The great exploration by Capts. Lewis and Clarke, in 1805, 1806, 1807, gave a key to the geog- 2 *

KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.

raphy of the region; but, up to the present moment, a few trading houses, military stations and missionary posts are the only habitations of white men west of the State of Mis¬ souri and of the Missouri river. There is not, at this mo¬ ment, August 1, 1854, a town or village of whites in Kanzas or Nebraska.

The region is still in possession of the Indian tribes. And they, with some changes of position, retain on the whole much the same general divisions and homes as are described to us by their first discoverers. Their population has gen¬ erally diminished.

The most of these tribes belong to the great Dahcotah or Sioux family of the Indian race. This is the same family which inhabited the region between the Missouri and Mis¬ sissippi, now Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. In Ne¬ braska the Mandans, Minetaries and Crow Indians speak a variety of the Dahcotah dialect. Eight other tribes speak it with little variation. Among these are the Ogillalahs, with whom Mr. Parkman made his Indian visit, described with great spirit in “ The California Trail.” Two of these tribes, the Osages and Arkansas, belong only in part in Kanzas. Their homes are farther south. The Arkansas were driven from the Kanzas river not long before the discovery by the French. The Ottoes, with whom the Missouris have joined themselves, and the Omahaws, now live on the west side of the Missouri, near the mouth of the Platte or Nebraska

INDIAN TRIBES.

river. The Puncas, a hundred miles above, use the same dialect.

Of Indians using the Dahcotah language, there are, therefore,

In Nebraska, Mandans and Crows, or Upsarokas, neither of which tribes call themselves Dahcotahs; and Puncahs and Omalias, who acknowledge their Dahcotah origin.

In Kanzas, Ottoes, Kanzas, Osages, Arkansas and Ogillalahs. Farther west than the Ottoes and Omahas, on the Nebraska or Platte river, are the Pawnees, whose language is entirely unlike that of the Dahcotahs, and that of any other Indians known to us. They have occupied the neigh¬ borhood of this position at least since 1719.

Another division of Pawnees are the Ricaras, sometimes called tile Black Pawnees.

South and west of the villages of these tribes, range small bodies, of various names, as Kaskaias and Kioways, who use a different language from any of the others, and may be regarded as remnants of the Pahdoucahs, described by the early explorers, but not now found under that name.

With these the Arapahoes have lately united themselves. They speak a distinct language, however, having emigrated from the hunting-seats of the Rapid Indians, who belong in the north-western parts of Nebraska, between the head waters of the Missouri and Saskachawin. These Rapid (or Fall, or Paunch) Indians are generally found on the Brit-

KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.

ish side of the line. Their hunting-grounds, however, come as far south as the Yellowstone.

The Blackfeet, who occupy the western part of Nebraska, are one of the most powerful Indian tribes remaining. Their hunting-grounds extend as far north as the 52d degree of latitude, and take in all the region of the Upper Missouri and its waters, from the mountains as far east as the 103d meridian of longitude. Their population is estimated, at thirty thousand.

Besides these tribes, which have inhabited this region since its history begins, there are, in the territory of Kanzas, a few small tribes, which have been removed thither by treaties with the United States government. These are the Wyandots, Kickapoos, Sacs and Foxes,- Peorias and Kaskaskins ; Ottowas ; Chippewas ; Weas and Piankshaws, Pottawatomies, Shawnees and Delawares. These are, in number, very insignificant. But they hold, by treaty, the right to some of the best lands in Kanzas, and the officers of the United States government have endeavored, therefore, and with some success, for the last year, to make treaties with them for the purchase of parts of their territory. Of these treaties we shall give some account in a subsequent chapter. It is intended, in all of these treaties, to give to each indi¬ vidual in each tribe his own quota of land, and not to at¬ tempt again their removal to a distant location.

The Shawnees occupy a belt of country immediately south of the Kanzas river, running westward one hundred

INDIAN TRIBES.

miles from the Missouri line, and about fifteen miles in width; a district one-fifth as large as Massachusetts. They are hut nine hundred and thirty in number. Among them are some quite good farmers, a few of whom hold a few slaves.

Immediately south of their reservation are the small reservations of the Weas and Piankshaws, and of the Peorias and Kaskaskias. These are the only tribes who consented to sell, when invited by the Indian commissioner last year. They hold, together, only two hundred and fiftysix thousand acres, and are very few in number.

West of them are the Chippewas, thirty in number, and the Ottowas, two hundred and forty-seven in number. The Chippewas hold eight thousand three hundred and twenty acres, and the Ottowas three thousand four hundred acres only. This is mostly prairie land.

The Wyandots occupy one of the most eligible tracts in Kanzas, which they purchased of the Delawares. It is the fork between the Kanzas and Missouri rivers. They are five hundred and fifty-three in number, and own only twenty-three thousand nine hundred and sixty acres of land.

On the Osage river is a reservation belonging to Sacs and Foxes, removed from the Upper Mississippi.

On the Missouri, just south of the northern line of Kan¬ zas, is a reservation for the Iowas, another for the Sacs and Foxes, from Missouri, and next them, a colony of “ Half-breeds.”

KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.

It "will be seen from this brief catalogue of tbe Indian tribes in Kanzas and Nebraska, that they are very widely scattered over those immense territories ; that they are of different customs and degrees of civilization, and that their origin is from so many different sources that they speak sev¬ eral distinct languages. Their numbers, compared with the immensity of the ground they hunt over, are very small.

Of them all, the Wyandots, Shawnees, Ottowas, and some others of the emigrant Indians, are, in part, civilized. The Wyandots and Ottowas, numbering eight hundred persons, have some simple laws. None of the others have. All of these tribes cultivate their reservations, and have such knowledge of agriculture as enables them to do so.

To name these in order, there is, first, between the Little and Great Nemaha rivers, a colony of sixty half-breeds, who have comfortable houses, large fields well fenced, and a considerable stock of cattle.

Next them, just south of the north line of Kanzas, are a body of Iowas, removed from their old homes. They num¬ ber four hundred and thirty-seven. They have profited but little from the payments annually made to them ; are seduced into a loitering, lazy life, by the emigrants passing to the Pacific; improvident in their habits, and consequently de¬ creasing in numbers. Prom eight hundred and thirty, they have diminished, in sixteen years, to four hundred and thirty-seven; having been all that time receiving annuities from government, and most of it under the care of mission-

INDIAN TRIBES.

aries and government agents. They wear no dress hut the blanket. Their crops are short, and the houses built for them by government have gone to decay.

Of the Iowas and Sacs nineteen girls and seventeen boys were last year at school. They live at the school, under the care of the teacher. There is not in the Iowa reserva¬ tion one adult professing Christianity, and the reports of those in charge of them are truly disheartening.

The Kickapoos are next south of them on the Missouri river; their condition is better than their neighbors’, and the agent seems to consider that it will improve with the stoppage of their annuities, which, by treaty, were to cease last year. Two hundred and eight Winnebagoes have lived on the same agency, but were to remove last spring. Two hundred and fifty Pottawatomies have also homes on the Kickapoo land; but were to remove in the spring to their own reservation south of the Shawnees.

The Delawares, Wyandots and Shawnees hold the lower valleys of the Kanzas, and the rivers which flow into it. Among them are six missionary stations; and four circuit preachers attempt to preach the Gospel to them. Of these stations, the Priends’ Shawnee Labor-school has won an honorable name from its patient and successful care of the children confided to it. It is more than fifty years since the Friends first labored for the civilization of the Shawnees. In this school there are forty-nine scholars, and a good farm is connected with it. About twenty-five scholars are

KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.

at the Delaware school, twenty at the Baptist Mission; and Mr. Johnson, the superintendent of the “ Indian Mission” established in 1851, reports that he has as many as he can take care of. It is understood that they prove effective work-people on his valuable farm.

The Shawnees, Delawares, Pottawatomies and Wyandots, hold the best parts of Kanzas. They are addicted to liquor, which they obtain from traders of their own nation. Half of them, it is said, are drunkards, and the estimate that a quarter part are Christians, made by Mr. Robinson, the agent, must be made with reference to some very low stand¬ ard of Christianity.

South of the Shawnees, as has been said, are the Sacs and Foxes of the Mississippi, the Ottowas, and the Chippewas (of Swan Creek and Black River). There are emi¬ grant tribes also. The Sacs and Foxes numbered, in 1853, two thousand one hundred and seventy-three persons, who draw from the government, annually, seventy-one thousand dollars in money, forty kegs of tobacco, and forty barrels of salt. Twenty thousand dollars of this annuity, with the salt and tobacco, ceases after 1862; the rest is a perpetual payment. They are a roving people, supporting themselves chiefly by the chase; but they have had the sense to agree to “ spill ” all whiskey, or other liquor, brought into their country. This is the tribe in which Keokuk and Black Hawk were chiefs, in their war against the United States.

INDIAN TRIBES.

The Chippewas are but five families, holding thirteen sections of land, and drawing a perpetual annuity of three hundred dollars.

The Ottowas are a farming people, honest, industrious and prosperous. They receive a perpetual annuity of two thousand six hundred dollars. Their land is good, lying on the Osage river. These two little communities have a sur¬ plus of their crop for sale. The Ottowas are increasing in numbers. They are now two hundred and forty-seven, which is forty-two more than they were six years ago. The influence of Rev. Jotham Meeker, supported by the Baptist Union among them, seems to have been of enduring and real value.

These comprise all the tribes removed by the government into the territory of Kanzas. The government cannot fairly be charged with intentional cruelty or neglect to them. The annuities awarded to them by treaty have been large, and have been paid; and attempts have been made to initiate them in the arts of civilized life. _

But it appears to be the universal impression now, among those concerned in the management of these tribes, that the payment of a money annuity to them is anything but an advantage. It renders them improvident, indolent and dissolute. The most energetic officers fail to keep liquor from the tribes. The Indians themselves go for it to the white settlements in Missouri; and the strictest prohibi¬ tion of the trade in it is of no avail.

KANZAS AND NEBRASKA.

In Michigan, and in some of the reservations which have now been named, it has proved that where each Indian family has had its own house and farm, and the same stim¬ ulus has thus been brought to bear as an inducement to labor which acts among the settlers themselves, they really fall into the habits of civilized life, and, in some instances, redeem themselves from those vices which have seemed almost inseparable from savage life on the borders. It is to be hoped, indeed, that, by such a policy, and the care of the new government now to be established in Kanzas, these remnants of the Indian tribes may be saved from a further downward progress, and secured the blessings of improve¬ ment, like that which has been made by two of the smallest communities of their number.