Young folks' Indiana; a story of triumphant progress

Preface

This hook is not a connected history of Indian. i, but a set ach one com-

plete within itself. The purpose in the air ment of the and the selection of the

is to show the wonderful progress of the State, and represent the lite and natural resources that have made Mich | >ible.

These Bimple b1 tre presented t<» the

young people Of Indiana with the hope that

they may lead t<> a higher appreciation of the w our brave-hearted and b1

handed pioneers; and that they may arouse a

r interest in the rich unwritten history of our State.

w II G

Contents

CHAP PAGE

I. In the Mist Land . 7

II. The Children 01 Naturi . 15

II The Children of Nature

THE arrow-heads and stone hatchets, picked up in the fields and woods by the boys and girls of Indiana, suggest many things in connection with the wild, roving life of the American Indian. Each one has its history. Some have gone swift and silent to the heart of the grazing deer; some have spent their force and fury in the breasts of other red men ; and some have stricken down the white settlers in their homes and fields. A shudder creeps over us when we hold one of these wicked looking weapons in our hands and wonder what awful deeds it may have been made to do by its savage owner.

When we read the early history of Indiana, filled with stories of Indian cruelties, conspiracies and wars, it is but natural to think that our state was once the home of the red man. Even the name Indiana carries with it such a suggestion. However, it was not the permanent home, but only the hunting grounds over which the Indian warriors and hunters roamed.

In our forests there was much game, and fur-bearing animals were plentiful. On the rivers and lakes there were geese and ducks in abundance, and the waters were teeming with fish. Indiana was thus a paradise for the Indian hunter. It was very much like the happy hunting grounds to which every Indian hopes to go after death. Here they spent many happy hunting seasons ; here they fought to beat back other hostile tribes and the advancing whites ; and here, too, they robbed and murdered the defenseless settlers.

It is true, that when the first white man came to Indiana there were several Indian tribes located in different parts of the state, each claiming the lands over which it hunted. The Piankashaws occupied that part of the state lying immediately south of the center and east of the Wabash River; the Wyandottes were south of the Piankashaws; the Shawnees extended east of the Wyandottes into Ohio; the Weas were along the Wabash, near Lafayette ; the Twightwees occupied the northeastern part of the state; the Delawares were in the east-central part; the Pottawattamies were found throughout the northern part of the state; the Kickapoos lived in what is now Warren and Vermillion counties; and the Miamis occupied the present counties of Miami, Wabash, and Allen, thus holding the key to the lands along and beyond the Father of Waters.

The Indian fields and gardens were along the streams where was found open ground. Here the women tilled the soil, raised maize, squashes, cucumbers and melons. They also kept the birds from the fields and gardens. They made the canoes, and in season jerked the venison, and gathered the wood and corn. They were real heroines of the forest. They were devoted to their husbands, and for them would suffer any hardship. Their silent love for their children was intense, and the fearless war spirit that made the Indian brave a terror to his enemies was greatly due to the training given by these Indian mothers. The husband supplied the meat and clothing. His task was an easy one, as game, fish, and fur-bearing animals abounded. The hides of the fur-bearing animals were also the chief articles of commerce.

These children of nature took no account of the days. The return of the snow and the first blooming of the flowers told them of the changes of the seasons, and the southward flight of the birds told them of the approach of the hunting time. They knew the weather by studying the face of the sky and the movements of the clouds. They threaded the wilderness unerringly, guided by the sun by day and the

*8

YOUNG FOLKS' INDIANA.

stars by night. When the sun and stars were hidden, they were still directed aright by the thickened moss and bark on the north side of the trees.

At the opening of the seventeenth century, the Algonquins occupied a vast region of North America, including Indiana. Their language was the richest and most generally spoken of any of the Indian languages. At an earlier time, they lived in the far east. When the early civilization began pressing upon them, they left their familiar haunts, and sought in the south and west new hunting grounds and new lands on which to plant their corn. Thus they came to Indiana, filled with a spirit of freedom and of restlessness. The most powerful and most heroic of the Algonquin tribes

were the Miamis.

They were well formed, of medium height, swift of foot, and fond of racing.

They were a tribe of statesmen, warriors, and heroes. From this tribe came Little Turtle, the most famous of all Indian chiefs.

He was a remarkable man for any age and any place, but when we remember that he was untaught except by the forces of the wilderness, we must respect even more his wonderful wisdom and power. He had great courage and unusual sagacity. Under all conditions, he was dignified and courteous. While comparatively a mere boy, he became a leader among his people, and held their confidence until his death. As a warrior, it is said that he might well be classed among the great generals of civilization. He defeated General Harmar on the Miami River in 1790, General St. Clair near the Miami villages in 1791, and almost defeated General Wayne at Maumee Rapids in 1794. He died in 181 2, and was buried with great ceremony at Fort Wayne, near where he had met his first defeat.

It is said that, in the early history of America, the Miamis were migrating eastward when they met the revengeful Iroquois, who had felt the pressure of civilization in the Atlantic Plain, and were seeking hunting grounds farther toward the setting sun. They were driven back by their more powerful enemies, and finally settled in the Ohio valley. This was the chief highway to the lands lying farther west. Through this highway the Iroquois tried many times to open up a war path to the west, but were as many times driven back by the Miamis. Thus the rich hunting grounds of the Ohio valley were often converted into battlefields, on which these two great tribes contended. Doubtless, many of the battles between these rival tribes were fought on Indiana soil, and it may be that some of the arrow-heads and tomahawks that we now find are relics of these battles that occurred in the silence of the forest.

Out of this struggle grew the Miami Confederacy, which had its seat in Indiana. In 1765, the Miamis formed a league of a number of tribes in order to keep back the Iroquois, who had joined with them other tribes, and were continually attacking the Miamis. In Indiana, the Confederacy included the Ouiatenons, at Post Ouiatenon, near Lafayette, consisting of three hundred warriors; three hundred Piankashaw warriors, on the Vermillion River; and two hundred warriors of the Shockney tribe, north of Vincennes.

The great explorer, La Salle, established a post on the Mississippi, where the city of St. Louis now stands, and drew around him a number of Indian tribes to protect the interests of the French nation. At his invitation in 1682, the Miamis withdrew from Indiana and joined La Salle's settlement, and did not return until 17 1 2. The Iroquois took advantage of their absence and overran the territory as far west as the Mississippi. They then set up a claim to all the territory over which they had wandered, but the Miamis would not allow their claim.

At one time the Miamis claimed almost all the territory now within the limits of Indiana. About 1755, they permitted the Delawares, the Shawnees, and the Pottawattamies to settle within their territory. These were three of the most powerful and warlike tribes of the west. Soon after they had settled upon the lands of the Miamis, they set up a joint claim to all the lands upon which they had settled. When the United States government attempted to buy the lands of the Miamis, these three tribes said that the Miamis could not sell without their consent. Tecumseh, the chief of the Shawnees, held that the lands belonged to all the tribes in common, and that no tribe could sell without the consent of all. It was on this ground that he complained so earnestly to Governor Harrison against the purchase of lands lying along the Wabash.

Fort Wayne was one of the most important and highly prized posts of all the west. It was surrounded by rich woodlands, and was the natural gateway both to the south and west. It was a place dear to the Miamis. On the banks of the neighboring streams, many years ago, they warmed themselves in the sun, hunted the wild game in the forest near by, and from here

YOUNG FOLKS' INDIANA.

went forth to battle against the whites, and also against their Indian enemies. Here was heard the eloquence of the Indian orators, and here treaties were made and the peace-pipe was smoked. Here the woods echoed with songs

CHIEFS IN COUNCIL.

of war and songs of pleasure, and here nights were spent in dancing to strange wild music.

A story is told in connection with the history of Fort Wayne which shows the revengeful nature of the Miamis. About the time of the battle of Tippecanoe, a reckless man came into the Miami country and built him a hut on Cedar Creek. He hated the Indians, and often spoke most unkindly of them. He thought there was no good, but a great deal of evil, in them. One night his horse strayed away, and he immediately accused the Indians of stealingit, and declared he would get even by killing an Indian. He was warned against doing such a rash thing, but he was very determined.

One spring day, while he was wanderingthrough the forest with his gun on his shoulder, he saw a lone Indian seated on the bank of the river, fishing. He thought that was his opportunity. The birds could not tell, there was no one else near, and the Indians would not understand the wind, though it should whisper its secret and moan over the dark deed, so he shot the Indian. He then filled his blanket with stones, and rolled the body into the rushing waters of the river. But there was a human eye that saw. From a dark clump of bushes, the Indian's squaw saw the murder of her husband. She made no outcry for fear she would also be killed, but she told her people, and they said, "White man must die."

Spring passed away, the horse was found, the summer came and went, autumn came, and one morning, when the frost was on the grass and trees, the hut of the murderer was found in ashes. He and his family were gone, and none but the avengers and the Great Spirit knew how their lives had been ended.

A number of the Miamis still live near Peru, in Miami County, where they have adopted many of the customs of civilization. Some of them are direct descendants of Godfroy, the last war chief of the tribe, some claim kinship with the famous Little Turtle, and all take pride in the heroic deeds of their ancestors.

The Delawares were next in rank to the Miamis, and were among the most interesting of all the tribes. They were less warlike, and yielded more readily to the influences of civilization. There is a tradition among them that at one time they lived in the far west, from which they migrated to the far east. They drove the other tribes out of the Atlantic plain, and took possession of the choicest lands. Here they lived for a long time. We do not know from what part of the country they came, but history tells us the) 7 were found in the Atlantic plain when America was discovered, and that they joined themselves with the Iroquois against their white enemies. Afterward they quarreled with the Iroquois, and were conquered by them and treated as "women" — were not allowed to take any part in the councils. They were finally driven beyond the mountains and settled in Ohio, where they again became an independent and powerful tribe. Upon invitation of the Miamis, some time after 1751 — histories do not agree as to the date — they removed from their home in Ohio and settled along the banks of White River, in the northeastern part of our state. Here they remained- until their final removal beyond the Mississippi by the government. In 1818, they ceded all their lands in Ohio and Indiana to the United States government, for sufficient and comfortable homes beyond the Mississippi.

The Shawnees were the fiercest and most warlike of all the Indians of the Ohio valley. They came from Georgia, and settled in Ohio, where Tecumseh and his prophet brother were born. They were always at war. In 1795, they lost nearly all their lands in Ohio, but by permission of the Miamis they had secured new hunting grounds in Indiana. We become well acquainted with their warlike spirit through their noted chief, Tecumseh.

The Piankashaws, Weas, Twightwees, and Shockneys, were very weak tribes. They had gone to war so frequently with the more powerful tribes that, when the white man came to Indiana, he found them greatly reduced in number, though not humbled in spirit. Their glory was but a memory of their many battles of the past.

The Pottawattamie s were at one time a very powerful tribe, but the) 7 were so fond of war that they were constantly losing their warriors. They were hunters as well as warriors, and cared but little for agriculture. They were always quite willing to sign treaties, when it was to their advantage to do so, and were just as ready to break their treaties and take up the tomahawk at every opportunity. In the conflict between the colonies and the mother country, they fought on the side of England. They were in the battle of Tippecanoe, and followed Tecumseh to his death on the River Thames.

They sold their lands to the United States in 1832, and moved farther west, but were permitted to hold their surrendered lands as their hunting grounds for a number of years afterward. The game on the prairies and in the forests, the fur- bearing animals around the lakes, and the ducks, geese and gulls on the waters of the lakes, were very inviting to hunters such as the Pottawattamies were. Even as late as 1840, they would come in large numbers into their old territory, with their women, children, dogs and ponies, would pitch their tents and remain while the hunting season lasted. When the hunting season was over they would again return to their new homes. Each year the number grew smaller, until finally none returned. The presence of the white man had driven away the game and destroyed the hunting grounds of the Pottawattamies.

At one time almost a thousand Pottawattamies visited their old burial grounds. Their dead had been laid away in the quiet of the forest, before the coming of civilization. They found new and painful conditions. The graves were unwatched by any friends, and were no longer in the depths of the wood. Farms were being cleared, and the forests through which they had often followed the deer, were fast disappearing. Farm houses were standing on the very spots where, man}^ times, they had kindled their camp-fires. What feelings must have filled the hearts of these wild people as they gazed upon the changes that had come to their former hunting grounds, and then turned their faces westward for the last time, leaving the graves of their friends to the care of their enemies!

The pioneer histories of Indiana are full of the suffering of the whites at the hands of the Indians. Homes were destroyed in a night — the men were tortured and murdered, and the women and children were carried into captivity and cruelly treated. Sometimes the women became the wives of the Indian warriors. One story is told of a woman who became the wife of an Indian. Years afterward she was found by her friends, but would not return with them to civilization, and when carried back, made her escape and returned to her wild life.

Another story is told of the rescue of a child that had been carried away by the Indians nine years before, when it was very young. Most of the friends and all the relatives of the child, except its grandmother, had died under the knife and tomahawk of the Indians. The child was brought to its grandmother, who tried to cause it to remember her and the home from which it had been taken, but everything she said seemed strange to it. The grandmother wept that the child she had so often rocked to sleep had entirely forgotten her. Then a French officer named Bouquet said, "Sing the song you used to sing, " and, with trembling voice, she sang as she had years before sung to the child. For a moment the child listened, then remembering, rushed into her grandmother's arms, and they wept together. Even the hearts of the listening Indians were touched by the scene.

The Ohio valley was to the tribes that possessed it as a land of promise. The Miamis had come from the west and wandered far toward the rising sun, and had seen no country equal to it. When we think of its richness and beauty, we do not wonder that Little Turtle and Tecumseh, and the tribes that followed them to war, fought so stubbornly to free their hunting grounds from the invading white man. Nor is it strange that the Miamis so long fought against the Iroquois to keep them from gaining a foothold in this valley of the "River Beautiful." It is beautiful to us now, with its cities, canals, roads, gardens, fields, and orchards; and to the Indian it was even more beautiful then, with its rolling prairies and their wealth of waving grass, its unbroken forests echoing with song and majestic in their giants of oak, and its unsurpassed rivers muffled in snow or fringed with blooming wild flowers. To us it is rich in its products of mines and soil, to these few tribes of Indians it was richer in its game of forest, lake and river. As we would defend it with our lives to-day against any invading foe, so they defended it then with their liv r es, savagely, it is true, but they were only savages.

YOUNG FOLKS' INDIANA.

Ill

A Fort in the Wilderness.

'OR more than a century after John Smith and his band of English gold hunters settled on the banks of the James in Virginia, the forests and prairies of the northwest territory remained unexplored ; and almost a century passed before any white settlements were formed in this territory. The "Father of Waters" and the "River Beautiful" bore no vessels upon their bosoms, except the light canoe of the Indian war rior and hunter. The numberless herds of buffaloes grazed undisturbed over the plains until after the departure of the hazy days of Indian summer. The wild deer dwelt safe in the deep forests until the coming of the hunting season of the Algonquin and the Iroquois. These warrior nations roamed over this vast territory, and by the very terror of their names long kept it free from white intruders.

At length the dread of the Indian was overcome, the wilderness was threaded, and the voice of civilization was heard by the lake and on the banks of the Mississippi. It was not the conquering Spaniard, whose nation had discovered the New World and the Mississippi; nor the ambitious Englishman, whose people had settled the central Atlantic coast and claimed "from sea to sea," who first faced the dangers of this unknown territory. Neither was the exploration made by the noblemen or warriors of any nation, but by a humble priest of France.

While the fever of discovery and exploration was at its height, the French, under Cartier, discovered the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence River. In 1608, Samuel Champlain founded a settlement on this river, where the city of Quebec now stands. Year by year, exploring parties pushed further westward along the river and around the Great Lakes, even into the State of Wisconsin. Each returning party brought back many stories of the new country, with its wealth and beauty, and many were the men who longed to traverse further the wilderness and bring honor to their country and riches to themselves through the Indian fur trade.

There was one class of men moved by a higher purpose. The Jesuit priests, forgetful of their own comfort and pleasure, desired to tell the story of Christ to the red man, in his far-away wilderness home. Among these earnest men was Marquette, whose soul was enkindled with love for his religion, and for it he was anxious to explore the interior of the new continent and bring the savage dwellers to a better life. He had been to the "Upper Lakes" as a missionary, where he taught the Indians and studied their speech until he was acquainted with six of their languages.

This devoted man joined a party under Joliet, another French Jesuit, and set out to discover and explore the Mississippi. His heart was filled with gratitude for the offered opportunity to bring salvation to the wandering savages of the Mississippi valley. When the forests and plains were most beautiful in their robes of northern spring, the little party entered upon their long, lonesome travels. There were but seven men in all. These were supplied with two canoes, and provisioned with smoked meat and Indian corn. As they threaded the wilderness they made maps of the country through which they passed, and from the Indians gathered much information. They coasted the shores of the lakes and carried their canoes overland, and floated down rivers winding through over hanging forests or wide- stretching prairies, dotted with feeding herds of buffaloes and deer. At length they reached the Mississippi. When night would overtake them, they would land, haul their canoes ashore, light a fire, prepare the evening meal of bison or venison, then, in the depth of the wood or the solitude of the plain, would lie down to sleep and dream. When morning came, they would again launch their frail vessels and again push on. The Indians offered them no harm, but wondered that so small a band of white men would dare to set out upon such a dangerous expedition. And they warned the white men not to attempt to explore the Mississippi, telling them that the country through which it flowed was peopled with savage tribes that put to death without cause every stranger that passed that way. The simpleminded natives also spoke of a demon that made his home in the bosom of the "Father of Waters," whose voice shook the hills and could be heard far away, and that this demon would drag them down to the awful deeps of his home, even should they escape the lurking savages.

But this band of daring men was not to be frightened nor turned back from their important undertaking. Day after day, they floated

YOUNG FOLKS' INDIANA.

down the Mississippi, reveling in the surrounding scenery and sleeping under guard by night. Sometimes they moved on many days without seeing any signs of Indians. When the Indians did approach them, Marquette would

MARQUETTE ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

announce to them that he was a messenger sent by the Father who made them, and that he had come to bring to them peace. The company floated on by the mouth of the Ohio, past the deep forest where the city of St. Louis now stands, and did not stop until it reached the mouth of the Arkansas River. Here the voyage ceased and the expedition returned.

About the same time that Joliet and Marquette were making their explorations, another Frenchman, named La Salle, was learning the language of the Iroquois and planning an expedition which should explore both the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers. He, too, had heard of the roving bands of Indians of this vast territory, but he thought more of the land over which they roamed. His mind pictured a great empire, dotted with beautiful cities, rich in the abundance and variety of its products, and belonging to the King of France, and he determined to open the wslj for the settlement of this wilderness country. He thought that the Mississippi River crossed the continent and flowed into the Gulf of California, and that, through this source, he would be able to find a shorter route to India, and thus add wealth and renown to his own country. He chose Fort Frontenac, at the eastern end of Lake Erie, as the place from which all his operations should be carried on.

Having formed his plans, he returned to France to obtain permission to carry them into effect. The King gave him permission to carry out his plans at his own expense, providing all his explorations were completed within a period of five years. Within that time, he should explore the Mississippi, and take possession of its fertile valley in the name of Louis XIV., and gain control of the Indian fur trade. La Salle was a man of iron will, a strong constitution, and unbounded courage, or he would have turned aside from an undertaking so vast and so difficult.

Supplies of all kinds must be provided, and brave and trusty men must be secured for the undertaking. Between him and the Mississippi lay an unexplored wilderness of wood and plain. Then came the river, with its winding stretch of unsounded waters, along whose banks the Indians prowled and murdered. Boats must be built, lakes must be navigated, streams must be crossed where no bridges were, swamps must be waded in the face of unfriendly Indians, cold must be endured, and men must be controlled in the shadow of the far-away wilderness, where there was no law to govern.

Just above the Niagara Falls, La Salle directed his men to build a boat to be used in his explorations. Trees were felled, bark houses were built to shelter the men, and the first ship-builders of America were soon at work. on the "Griffin." The Indians were away, engaged in the fall hunt, so the workmen were not disturbed in their labors. When the "Griffin" was completed, she was loaded with necessary supplies, was provisioned chiefly from the game of the forest, and armed with five small cannon. In her rested the hope of the stout-hearted La Salle. When all was ready, a cannon was fired, and the rude vessel of the wilderness started upon her first and unknown voyage. She plowed boldly through the waves of Lake Erie, then northward through the Strait of Detroit, across St. Clair Lake, and out upon the broad bosom of Lake Huron.

After breasting a severe storm on Lake Huron, she found safety in a sheltered nook near a Jesuit mission. From this place, La Salle sent the "Griffin" back to Niagara, and with fourteen followers and four canoes, continued his voyage. He never saw the ' ' Griffin ' ' again, and never learned of her fate.

Soon after they had launched their frail vessels, a severe storm arose and threatened them with destruction. They were driven ashore, where they spent two long days and nights in a driving fall rain. They again put to sea, and were again driven to land, where they consumed the remainder of their provisions. They were then compelled to rely upon La Salle's trusty Mohegan hunter for meat. Sometimes they lived on the few haws and berries they were able to find, and sometimes a handful of corn served for a day's rations. Often they were frightened by seeing human footprints in the sand, or by the sudden appearance of bands of Indians on the shore. The nights were long and the days were full of anxiety.

La Salle and his little company found the Kankakee, and paddled down this river in December of 1679. The days were cold, the woods were bare, and game was scarce. They came to a large Indian town, but found it deserted. The Indians were away on their fall and winter hunt. La Salle found their hidden treasure of corn, and so hungry were his men, and so uncertain their voyage, that he determined to take a part of it, though it would probably make enemies of the Indians. They spent part of the winter near where Peoria, Illinois, now stands. Here La Salle anxiously waited for supplies from the "Griffin" in her return voyage. Being disappointed, he returned to Fort Frontenac overland, suffering untold hardships — fording rivers, wading the snow, sleeping on the frozen ground, threading the tangled woods, and resisting the attacks of the Indians.