M G K Ko N s - K W K O R L I T T LE

-
,
BE A R W O M AN .

( Fr a c es S o c u
n l m —T h e Lo s t S i s t er of Wy m i g )
o n .
 T R UE

I ND I A N S T O R I E S

G LO S S A R Y O F I N D I A N A

I N D I A N N A M E S

J A C O B P I AT T D UN N
S E C R E T A R Y O F T HE I N D I A N A A
H I S T O R I C L S OC I E T Y

S E N T I N E L PR I N T I N G C O M P A N Y
I N D I A N A P OLI S I N D I A N A
,

I 9 08
 C O PY R I G HT , 1908

B Y J A C OB P I A T T D UN N
A ll r i gh ts r eser ved
 £1 41 n l , ~

/
I /3
7
'
L U

C O NT E NTS
C H A PTER
I I T OD UCI G T HE I DI A S
. N R N N N

II T H LITTLE T U T LE
. E R

III T H DEAT H OF T HE W ITC HES

. E

I V W H Y T ECU M T H A FO UGH T
.

V T H F ALL OF T HE P O P HET
. E R

V I W ILLI A M WELL S
.

V II T H DEFE SE OF FO T H ARRI SO
. E N R N,

V III T H PI EO ROO ST M A SS A CRE

. E G N

IX T H S E I C E OF LOG A
. E RV N

X T H W A LA M OL U M
. E

XI T H T A GED Y OF T HE FA LL S
. E R

XI I T H L O S T S I S TE OF W YO M I
. E R NG

X III T H T AIL
. E D EA T H
R OP

I DE GLO SS A Y OF I D I A A I D IA N A M ES
N X R N N N N . .
 I LLUS T R A T I O NS

FRA N CE S
GA BRIE L G ODFR OY .

S ITE or FORT WA YN E I N 1 7 90
GREE N V ILLE TR EA TY M ED AL
KI L S OK W A
DELA W A E COU CIL H OUSE
R N

S ITE o W HITE R I E M I SS IO
r V R N

T EC U M T HA
M AP OF I D I A A
N 8 N I N 1 11

T E M S K WA HT A WA H
PLA N or B A TT LE
OF T I PPE CA N OE
T H E P R OP HET S R OC K
’
.

WILLI A M WE LL S
M A P OF C H I CA G O I N 1 8 1 2
FOR T DE AR BORN M A SS A CR E M O N U M E N T
S ITE OF FOR T H ARRI SO N .

D EFE N SE OF FORT H AR R I SO N
M A P OF P I G EO N ROO S T S ETTLE M E N T
PI GEO N R OO S T M O N U M E N T
F O R T W A YN E I N 1 8 1 2
B LA C K HOOP
I LLUSTR ATIO N OF S IG N LA N GU AGE
SA M PLE PA G E OF WA LA M OL U M
T H E F A LL S A T P E N D LETO N
ROC K B LUFFS ON T HE M I S S I S S I N E W A
T HE D EA F M A N S V I LL A GE
’

T HE FR A N CES S L OC U M M O N U M E N T
FOOT OF N A S W A W K E E S H I LL ’

S ITE or M I SS I O N A T T W I N LA K ES
T HE D E S C E N T OE M O N D A M I N
M E TE A H
S ITE OF P O S T OUI A T A N ON
M A P OF T RE A TY S PRI N GS
 T R UE I ND I A N S TOR I E S
C HA P T ER I .

I N T R OD U C I N G T H E I N D I A N S .

N o part of the United S tat es is richer in

the tragedy romance and pathos of I ndian
,

history than the region included in the Old

Territor y N orthwest of the Ohio River It .

might be called the empire of the Algon

quian tribes within our boundaries ; for a l
though they extended far into British Amer
ica ; although there was a large detached
— —
tribe the Blackfeet in the West ; although
”

the L enni Lenape reached away to the Atlan

tic coast most of the Algonquians of the
,

United States were here at the earliest

known period and the Eastern tribes were
,

thrown back here as settlement progressed .

It was here that they made their last stand

for their countr y east of the M ississippi and
put the white man to his best e ffort to con
quer them N o part of the country ever pro
.

du c ed greater Indians than Pontiac T e c um ,

 T RU E I N DIA N S T ORIE S
'
tha The Little Turtle POc h gOn t s he hé
, ,
- - -

16 s and Black Hawk

, .

When the French entered this reg i on their

fir s t task wa s to aid the resident tribes in
driving back the Iroquoi s who had acquired ,

firearms and had almost overrun the coun

,

try to the M ississippi After this was done

.

there was comparative peace until individual

tribes undertook war against the French ;
but the French were always able to hold the
alliance of most of the tribes and by their ,

aid a l most e xterminated the M a s cou t in s at

Detroit in 1 7 12 and the Foxes in northern
,

Il l inois in 1 7 3 0 The French always treated

.

the Ind ians well and made notable e fforts

for their spiritual welfare as well as for their
temporal needs It wa s chiefly to a mission
.

’
ary enterprise that Indiana s first permanent
sett l ement wa s due Father D e B ea u bo i s
.
,

the priest at Kaskaskia and in charge of ,

the re l igious interests of the Illinoi s settle

ments desired to extend his work by the es
,

t a bli s h m en t of a post on the Waba s h and an

assembling of Indians there He gained the .

approval of the Louisiana authorities who ,

a ls o desired an additiona l su pp l y of clergy

 I N T R O D U CI N G TH E I N DIA N S

and an e s tabli s hment of nuns of whom there ,

w er e n on e in Louisiana at the time

s
.

In 1 7 25 D e B ea u boi s was sent t o France

on this mission The Chevalier de Bourg
.

mont had co l lected twenty two chiefs and -

representative Indians to accompany him ,

but just be fore they were to embark the ship

in which they were going sank at its moor
ings and this so frightened them that only
,

hal f a dozen of the Indians could be induced

to make the journey Th e ir vis i t in France
.

was as notable an event in the wor l d of fash

ion as the visit of Pocahontas to England ,

and the account of their presentation at the

court and attendant ce lebrations fil l s thirty
three pages of the court journal Le Mercure ,

de France D e B ea ub oi s succeeded in his

.

undertaking and s ent out to Louisiana the

nuns who founded the celebrated U r s uline
Convent at N ew Orleans and with them ,

Father D Ou t r elea u who was to be the first

’

,
“
M issionary to the Ou a ba ch e O rders .

were also sent for the establishment of a

post The contemplated mission did not su c
.

c eed but in the s ummer of 1 7 3 1 S i e u r de

Vincenne s b rou ght a small party of s oldiers
and a band of Pi ankesh a w s from the Ver
 T R U E I ND I A N S TO R IE S

million River and founded the post which

still bears his name .

By this time the efio r t s of the English to

'

get control of the fur trade had become

more serious and they too had enlisted In
, , ,

dian allies both in the north and in the south .

.

First came the disastrou s Chickasaw cam

p g
a i n of 1 7 3 6 in which
,
Vincennes lost his
li fe ; and a fter that intermittent war fare till
the close o f the French and I ndian war In .

all this the fighting was outside of our r e

gion and not till the B ritish sought to take
,

possession of the N orthwest was it brought

back in Pontiac s war Again there was
’
.

comparative quiet un ti l the war of the Revo

lu t i on which inaugurated the contest of the
,

American and the I ndian in this section for

th e occupancy of the soil Of the period .

then beginning I have sought to present

some authentic stories in the followin g
pages It would require volumes to presen t
.

a full record of individual adventure but I ,

have aimed to give some illustrations of va

rions phases of the conte s t of battles and ,

massacres of hardships of white and I ndian

, ,

captivity .

In doing this I have had especially in

 I N T RO DUC I N G T H E I N DI A N S

mind the preservat i on of the I ndi a n names

o f I n d i a n a in their proper forms and with

their real meanings Th i s will be regarded

.

by many as a presumptuous undertaking ,

an d with s ome reason Several months ago

.
,

i n a letter to me concerning I ndian place

names Gen R H Pratt of Carlisle S c hoo l
, . . .
,

fame said :
,
The subj ect has not specially
interested me for the reason that in my ex ,

p er i en c e
,
not o n e in twenty of the I ndi a n
names in u s e could be recogn ized by any
member of the tribe from which the name
was derived The attempts to perpetuate
.

such names are therefore only sentimental

”
abortion . Th i s is very true and true of In ,

diana names as well as of those elsewhere ,

but there is no question of perpetuating the

names Th e y are here to stay In the defi
. .

ant words of Mrs Sigourney .

“
Th e ir name is on your waters
”
Ye may not wash it out .

And nobody desires to wash them out .

Th at were a waste of energy much better

directed to washing something else The .

practical question is merely whether we shall

continue their use without an e ffort to a sc er
tain their origin and meaning As to this .
,
 T RU E I N DIA N ST ORIE S

the extent of their corruption seem s to me an

attraction rather than an obj ection N obody .

cares much for a puzzle that is readily

so lved in philology or in any other line i But
,

there is at l east passing interest in identi fy

ing any battered and distorted rel ic ; and in
reality our I ndi a n name s are no more cor
r u p t ed than some other s Probably no .

Frenchman would be reminded of his native

“ ”
tongue by P i cket w i r e but that is what the
,

cowboys of Co l orado and N ew Mex ico have

made of the Purgatoire River Probably no .

Frenchman would suspect the Smackover

River of A r ka n s a s of bearing a French
name but that i s what remains of Chemin
,

”
Couvert Our own Mary D elom e has rath
.

er a French air but hardly enough to sug

,

gest that this tributary of the Maumee was

named Marais de l O rme ( Elm Swamp )
“ ’
.

On some of our maps of Laporte County will

“ ”
be found Lake D i shm a u gh which does not ,

look much like French but it was origi nally

,

“ ”
Lac du Chemin though Chamberlain
,

“
made the guess that it had been La c des
”
Moines .

Surely no Hindoo wou l d l ay cla i m to In

”
diana as o f his l angu age but it is from the
,

6
 G A B RIE L G O D FR O Y
—
.

( Wa h
’
-
p a h -na h-ki
’
k h-p wah
- a
or Whit e Blo s so m s .
)
 I N T R O DUCI N G TH E I N D IA N S

dian name if it is of a l iving language for the ,

I ndian s usually perpetuate their own names ,

though occasionally they have their own cor

r u t i on s
p . M ost of the Miami name s I O h
t a i n ed from Gabriel G o d fr oy the be s t M iami ,

interpre ter in I ndiana and Ki lsokw a the , ,

oldest of the I ndiana M iamis and one who ,

speaks very little English For the Pota .

wa tom i I am indebted to Tho m a s T Op a sh an ,

intelligent Potawatomi of M ichigan ; Quash

ma a Chilocco S c hoo l boy and Capt J A
, ,
. . .

Scott of N a dea u Agency Kan s a s who

, , ,

called to his aid M r Blandin the agency i n

.
,

t er p r et er a n d O ld Kack kack ( Ki a k ki a k
,
- -

“
equivalent to the American term chicken ,

”
hawk ; i e any of the larger hawks ) r e
. .
, ,

c en t ly deceased For others I am indeb t ed

.

largely to various friends who made inquiry

of I ndian s .

It is much to be regretted that there is not

in print more available information concern
‘

ing the I ndi an languages and especially o f ,

the Algonquian languages from which so ,

many of our place names are taken Th ere .

is considerable material for the O dj ibw a and

the dialects of the Lenni Lenape but scarcely ,

anything for the langu a ges of the important

9
 T RU E I N DIA N S TO RIE S

Potawatomi S h a wn ee a n d M iami nations

, ,

a n d what little there is is not entirely relia

ble And this is true of many other I ndian
.

lan gu ag es At the last session Of Congress

.

( 1 9 0 7-
8 ) the I ndian a Historical Society
made a n earnest e ffort to secure a s mall a d
d i t i on a l appropriation for the Bureau of
Ethnology for taking up systematic a lly and
specially the preservation of these lan
guages but notwithstanding the c o O pera
,
-

tion of the Bureau the appropriation w a s r e

,

j ec t ed by the House after it had,been made

by the Senate Th ere should unquestionably
.

be an united e ffort by the historical societies

of the country to have this work done When .

we con sider the enormous e ffort that has

been made to res cue the languages of Egy pt ,

Babylon and other ancient countries it ,

should arouse a realization of the importance

of preserving the living langu ages of our
own country while there is yet time and ,

especially so because these are not written

langu ages and if once lost they are lost for
,

ever .

And they are worth preserving not only ,

for the in fluence they have had on our own

langu age but for their intrinsic merit
,
.

I O
 I N T R O D U CI N G TH E I N D I AN S

N ear ly al l of ou r common err or s a s to I nd i an

names are due to the preva l ent impr es sion
that I n di a n l an gu ages are very crude In .

reality they have a very perfect grammatical

system of their own but di ffering in i m
,

portant feat u res from that o f any other

known languages The grammatica l i n fl ec
.

tions o f Algonquian words are more refined

and pre s ent nicer distinctions of meaning ,

not on ly tha n those o f the En gli s h but also ,

than those of an y Eu r op ea n language I f .

anyone doubt s this statement I would refer

“ ”
him to the conjugation o f the verb wau b of
the Odj ibwa a s given by Schoolcra ft in his
,
“ ”
Archive s covering ninety quarto p ages ;
,

and this i s not complete because it does not

,
“ ”
cover what are kn own a s the tran s itions ,

i e the combinations with subj ect and Ob

. .
,

j ec t pronouns which
,
are characteristic o f
these lan guage s And yet c om p licated a s
.
,

this might s eem it is on a very simpl e and

,

rationa l l ingu istic system and s imp ly ex

,

presses thro ugh verbal inflection the same

ideas that we express through var i ou s forms
of circum l ocution .

I doubt that anyone has ever re p roduced

exactl y the I n di a n pronunciation of word s .
 T RUE I N DIA N S T ORIE S

All of the Algonquian languages have some

sounds that are not found in the English lan
guage and none of them have all of the E n g
,

lish sounds In addition to this they all have

.

interchangeable sounds For example the .

,

“ ” “p”
sounds of b or may be used at the will
of the speaker in many words Moreover .
,

there i s an emphasis and accent that white

—
men rarely acquir e i n fact I have never ,

found an I ndian who kne w a white man that

could speak his langu age just a s the I ndian s
speak it However I have endeavored to
.
,

reproduce I ndi a n pronunciation as it sounds ,

to me as nearly as possible in ordinary E n g

,

lish characters with a few additions

,
I .

“ ” “ ”
have represented long a as in fate by
” “ ” “ ” “
ay ,
continental a a s in far by ah ;
“ ” “ ” “
and broad a a s in fall by aw I have .

“q”
used to represent a sound more nearly
“ ”
resembling German ch than any other I
“
know of but having the quality of gh pro
, ,

n ou n c ed in the same way N as a li z ed sounds

.

“ ”
are indicated by a superior n and are pro ,

n ou n c ed a s in the French .

I f the e ffort I have been able to give to the

subj ect shall promote the study and record
of the I ndi a n languages I shall fee l l ar gel y
,

12
 I N T R O D U CI N G TH E I N DIA N S

repaid for it for the o pportunity for this

,

work i s rapidly decreasing In our govern .

mental I ndian schools the study O f I ndi a n

languages is not encouraged and perhaps ,

properly s o from a practica l point of view

, ,

for the primary obj ect is to fit the I n di a n

youth to support themselves and for thi s the ,

use of the English langu age is vital It is .

“
already quite common to find educated In
”
dian s who do not speak their own langu age
at all and obviously the more rapid the proc
,
“ ”
ess o f Americanizing the more rapid th e
extinction of the American languages It is .
,

therefore evident that the work should be

,

undertaken a s speedily a s possible .

Prior to this time there have been two ef

forts a t collecting I ndian place names of I n
diana In his I n diana Gazetteer ( 1849 ) M r
. .

Chamberlain has noted a number of Dela

ware names which were presumably Ob
,

ta i n ed from white men who had some famil

i a r i ty with the Delaware langu age Th e re .

were s everal of such persons in the State at

the time Later Daniel Hough made a more
.

extended e ffort and collected nearly every

thing then available i n print a s well a s mak ,

ing some investigations among the M iami

I 3
 T RUE I N D IA N S T O RIE S

I ndian s The re s u l ts were published in the

.

Geological Report of 1882 in the form of a

map with comments by Judge Hiram Beck
,

with The comments are of no practical

.

value being chiefly attempt s to deduce M i

,

ami and Potawatomi words from O dj ib wa

stems but the map is of material value a l
, ,

though M r Hough s patient work has been

.
’

marred in several instances by mistakes of

the engraver .

I 4
 T RU E I N D I A N S T ORIE S

fl ed the Ea rth and who w as the chief ben efi

,

cent manitou of the Algonquian tribes in the

?
olden time But when it came to translation
the interpreters knew no specific English
name for the painted terrapin and as it is a , ,

little turtle never growing more than six or

,

eight inches across they conveyed the idea a s

,

well as they could by saying The Little

”
Turtle .

The Little Turtle w as rather small o f stat

ure and wa s probably a puny infan t which
, ,

may account for his name for a more ,

sprawling helpless looking creature than a

,
-

newly hatched painted terrapin can hardly be

imagined It has been stated that his mother
.

wa s a Mohegan woman but his gr a n ddau gh ,

ter Kil sO kw a ( Th e Setting Sun ) says that

-
’
-

both his father and his mother were full

blooded M iamis He w a s born near the pres
.

ent city of Ft Wayne about 1 7 5 1 Thou gh

.
,
.

small of stature he w a s both brave and wise

,
.

He had also a remarkable dignity of manner

that commanded respect and although not a ,

hereditary chief he soon rose to a position of

,

leadership His fir s t Opportunity for special

.

distinction came in 1 7 80 .

U p to that time the regi on about the head

16
 TH E L I TTL E T URTL E

waters of the Maumee had not been disturbed

in the war with the Americans but had been ,

a center easy of access to the British from

, ,

which supplies were distributed and warriors

were sent out to h ara ss the frontiers It had .

been an I ndian stronghold for many years .

Before the Miamis dwelt there it wa s oc cu

pied by the Ottawas or Pierced N o ses S O — ,

called because they punctured the cartilage of

the nose a s women do their ears and sus
, ,

—
pended ornaments from i t and the Maumee
wa s in early times known a s the Ottawa
River .

At the s ite of Ft Wayne w as the town of

.

one of their clans or divisions who were ,

—
called Kis ka kOn s or K i ka kons i e
- - -
,
. .
,

Clipped Hair or a s the French called them

, ,

Queues Coupees because they shaved the

,

s ides of their heads and wore their hair in a

bristling band across the head from front to

back Th i s name al w a ys attached to the
.

place but the Delaw a res corrupted it to Ké

,

“ ”
gey un k which would mean Old place if it
-
,

meant anything a n d the M iamis to Ké ki

,
-

’ “ ”
oon gi which would mean cut place if it
-
,

meant anything but both tribes disclaim

,

knowledge of the meaning of t h ese names ,

I 7
 T R U E I N DIA N ST O RIE S

which is very proper because they lost the

real mean i ng long ago Here and at smaller
.

villages in the vicinity the Miamis had dwelt

for nearly a century in apparent security .

But in 1 7 80 a rude shock occurred Out .

from the E a s t there came Colonel Le Balme ,

a Fr ench o fficer who came over with La fay

,

ette and had been serving with the Conti

n en t a l army in N ew England Inspired p er
.

haps by the success of George Rogers Clark ,

he conceived a plan for capturing Detroit

with a force raised in the French settlements .

He won the confidence of the French settlers

on the M ississippi and thirty of them started
,

with him on his expedition At Vincennes

.

he recruited nearly a s many more .

The expedition wa s well managed in the

earlier part The men were mounted and
.
,

they passed up the W a ba s h quickly and quiet

ly making the j ourney from the W ea towns
,

in four days and taking Ké ki oon gi by

,
- -
’
-

surprise Th er e were few I ndi a n s in the

.

town and they fled a s did the British traders

, ,

most of whom were of French birth The i n .

vaders took some plunder from the stores and

then fell back to the Aboite River where th ev ,

18
 TH E L I T T L E T U R T L E

encamped in fancied security But they .

counted without their host .

The alarm spread rapidly and soon ca me to

The Little Turtle who quickly gathered a
,

band of warriors to attack the enemy Find .

ing Ké ki oon gi abandoned they followed

- -
'
-
,

back the trail and in the da rkness of the night

struck the sleeping camp La Balme had not .

even posted s entinels and he and his men ,

were all killed ex cept a young man named

Rhy who wa s carried captive to C anada and
,

handed over to the British authorities He .

said he w a s aid de camp to La Balme and

- -
,

that they had f allen back to the Aboite to

await reinforcements to the number of 400 ,

which were expected but of these nothing ,

further wa s ever heard The news of the de .

struction of the ex pedition against Detroit

wa s received with great satisfaction by the
British and thence forth The Little Turtle
,

wa s the recognized war chief of the M iamis .

It has been surmised by local historians

that the Aboite received its name from this
event the original form being Abattoir
, ,

which w a s later corrupted to the p resent

form Th i s is wholly unfounded as the
.
,

stream is called Riviere a Boite in documents

 T RUE I N DI A N S T ORIE S

and maps of earlier date Boitte or its var i .

,

ant bou ett e is a word used by French fis h er

,

men for minnows that are used a s bait for

l arger fish and their name for the stream wa s
River of M innows The M iamis call it N a .

’ ’
kow é sé pé or S and Creek
- - -
,
.

In the next ten years there wa s an a bu n d

ance of fighting of I ndian raids on the Ken,

tucky settlements and all along the frontier ,

with counter expeditions by the whites It .

has been estimated that between the close O f

the Revolutionary war and 1 7 9 0the I ndian s
killed people and ran o ff horses .

Th ey did the greater damage but they were ,

being gradually forced back and losing their

old homes Many retired to the M iami coun
.

try and in 1 7 8 5 Ké ki oon gi is s aid to have

,
- -
’
-

had a popul ation of warriors of variou s

tribes But the white man wa s growing
.

weary of this petty and harassing war fare ,

and this fee l ing w as increased by the belief ,

supported by very convincing evidence that ,

the British who still held the region about

,

Detroit were furnishing supplies to the I n

,

dians and urging them to war It was de .

cided that a crushing blow must be struck ,

an d in 1 7 9 0 an expedition w a s started
20
 T RUE I N DIA N ST ORIE S

against the M iami town under command of

Gen Josiah Harmar the commander i n chief
.
,
- -

of the American army .

The expedition consisted of men ,

rank and file of whom 3 20were regulars and

,

the remainder militia and volunteers from

Pennsylvania Virginia and Kentucky But
, .

the latter were not up to the frontier stand

ard Many were boys and old men and most
.
,

of them were poorly equipped Th ey were .

almost without discipline and showed a great ,

deal of insubordination There was j ealousy .

a mong the o fficers that extended to the men .

N evertheless the army moved forward The

,
.

advance guard of 600 men under Col Har ,

.

din reached K é ki oon gi on October 1 5

,
- -
’
-
,

and the remainder of the army two days

later Th ey found the place deserted Most
. .

of the men were away on their fall hunt and

the rest had hastily retired .

On the 18 th Colonel Trotter was sent out

with 3 00men thirty of whom were regulars
, ,

to look for I ndian s while the remainder of

,

the force engaged in the destruction of the

villages and crop s Trotter s trip was nu
.
’

successful and on the 19 th Colonel Hardin

,

was sent out with the same command The .

 T RUE I N DIA N ST O RIE S

p a ted would return to th eir villages early i n

,

the morning But The Little Turtle was not

.

surprised A small force of I ndian s a p

.

p e a r ed before the right wing and when at

tacked fled up the St Joseph which the M i .
,

amis called R O chis ah sé pé or Bean River

- - - -
, ,

the division contrary to orders following

, ,

them for several miles .

Th en The Little Turtle with his m a in ,

force fell on the center division which i n

, ,

cluded the regulars The regu l a r s fou gh t

.

bravely but lost so heavily th a t t hey wer e

,

forced to retire up the St Joseph Th e y were . .

on the east side of the stream and the I ndian s

followed mostly on the west S ide pouring in
, ,

a deadly fire from behind trees and other

cover .

At last the remnant met the returni n g mi li

tia and with their united forces they com
,

p e lle d the I ndian s to fall back a n d the sol ,

diers rejoined the left wing at Ké ki oon gi - -

’
-
.

From there they returned to the main army

without pursuit the regulars having lost two
,

o ffi cers and forty eight men and the total loss
-

to the army now reaching 18 3 kil led and

missing besides many wounded a number of
, ,

whom had to be carried on stretchers Hardin .

24
 T HE L I TTL E T UR TL E

desired Harmar to go back with the army ,

but a council of o ffi cers decided that it was in

no condition to do so The I ndian s had suf
.

fer ed large loss of property but were left ,

with the belief that they had driven the

American s back .

The expedition of Harmar was followed

by renewed attacks all along the frontier th e ,

I ndian s being inspired both by the desire for

revenge and the necessity of obtaining sup
plies of food A bitter cry went up from the
.

s ettlers The Ohio company voted to rai s e

.

troops to protect its settlements Virginia .

provided for military expeditions from Ken

tucky which was then part of its domain
, .

Congress directed an expedition under

G eneral St Clair and the erection of forts in
.
,

th e I ndian country to guarantee peace The .

Kentucky expedition s against the Wabash

towns were success ful and early in Septem ,

’
ber St Clair s forces moved northward about
.

twenty fiv e miles fr om Fort Washington and

-

erected Fort Hamilton on the Great M iami ,

River On October 4 they advanced again

.
,

this time fo rty two miles and erected Fort

-
,

Je ff erson On October 24the army again a d

.

va n ced and on N ovember 3 reached a point

,

25
 T RUE I N DIA N ST ORIE S

on the headwaters of the Wabash near where

Fort Recovery was afterward established .

The advance was much dela yed by failure

of the contractors to forward provisions and ,

the army wa s weakened by numerous deser

tions and by sending back one of the best
,

regiments in search of deserters It now .

numbered about men .

Meanwhile the I ndian s had been busy .

Th ey had been kept informed of the Ameri

can plans as made public by their British
friends and of the movements on the frontier
as gathered by their own scouts E fforts had .

been made to unite the tribes i n su fficient

force not only to repel invasion but also to ,

drive the whites from the region north of the

Ohio Foremost in these e fforts were The
.

Little Turtle the Shawnee chief Blue Jacket

,
'

(
'
Wey ah pi
-
er
-
s én wah
-
) and
-
the great Del
aware war chief known in our frontier liter
ature as B u c kon gehela s ( properly pronounced
POch gOn t sh e h é I OS Hec kew elder writes
’ ’
- - - -
.

it Pa ch ga n t sc h ih i la s and translates it A ful

filler ; one who succeeds in all he undertakes .

“
Th i s is figurative ; literally it means Th e
Breaker to
In the latter part o f October these and
26
 T HE L I T TL E T UR TLE

minor chiefs had gathered warriors in

the vicinity of Ké ki oon gi and these as
- -
’
-
,

sembled on the prairie five miles below that ,

place on the St Marys River which the

.
,

’ ’
M iamis called Mah may i wah sé pé way - - - - - -
,

or Sturgeon Creek on account of the large

,

number o f sturgeon that used to run up it in

the spawning season .

Th e r e was a division of sentiment as to

who should have the chie f command that
threatened for a time to become serious .

Some favored The Little Turtle and some

B u c kon geh ela s but the latter was not a man
,

to let personal consideration stand in the way

of success Dawson who voiced General
.
,

“
Harrison s opinion said of him : Th i s man
’

possessed all the qualities of a hero ; no Chris

tian knight w as ever m ore scrupulous in per
forming all his engagements than the r e
”
n own ed B u c kon geh ela s He settled the con .

t r ov er sy by withdrawing in favor of The Lit

tle Turtle on the ground that he was the
younger and more active man .

And now The Little Turtle had no ordi

nary I ndian foray on his hands He had an .

army to deal with and it must be handled as

,

an army for the I ndian s were determined not

,

27
 T RUE I N DIA N ST ORIE S

to await inva s i on and another destruction of

their winter supplies Th ey must be fur
.

n i s h ed with food on their march to meet the

enemy .

The Little Turtle divided his warriors into

squads or mes s es of twenty each and ordered ,

that four from each mess in rotat i on should

, ,

act as hunters for that mess for one day ,

bringing in at noon whatever game they had

obtained The commander was well in formed
.

as to the enemy His scouts had hovered

.

a bout the army for a month stealing horse s ,

and cutting off stragglers at every op p or

t u n i ty In the n ight of N ovember 3 he
.

brought hi s warriors close in around St .

Clair s camp and prepared for the attack

’
.

The Americans were summoned to arm s

fo r parade at dayl ight as usual and the wait
, ,

ing I ndian s silently watched their m a n eu

—
vers Half an hour before sunri s e near 6
.

’
—
o clock they were dismissed for breakfast ,

and as they di s persed to their quarters The

Little Turtle gave the si gn al for attack The .

militia outposts were quickly driven in and ,

the I ndi a n s pre s sed a fter keeping under

,

cover and ma i ntaining a continuous rifle fire .

The troops were soon put in position and

28
 TH E L I T TL E T URTL E

discharged repeated volleys at their con

c ea led foes but with little e ff ect Charge
,
.

after charge was made but the I ndi a n s nim ,

bly retired before the bayonets and were back

aga in as soon as the soldiers turned while a ,

destructive fire was poured into the charging

columns from the flanks The I ndian s did .

not show themselves except when raised by a

charge Th ey made special ma ks of the of
.
r

fic er s and artillerymen .

The fight was one sided from the start

-
,

and by half past 8 O clock the army was help

-
’

less The artillery was silenced The men

. .

were huddling in the center of th e camp deaf ,

to orders The I ndi a n s were closing in Most

. .

of the o fficers were dead and those remain ,

ing saw that the only hope was in retreat A

.
.

few brisk charges made an opening to the

road and those who were able to go made
,

their way to it in utter rout And as they fled .

the panic seemed to grow Fortunately the .

I ndian s pursued for only four or five miles ,

but the road for miles beyond that was

strewn with arms and accoutrements of men
who desired nothing to impede their flight .

The Little Turtle had vanquished an

American army 5 0 per cent larger th a n his .

29
 T R UE I N DIA N S T ORIE S

own and had inflicted a loss of 3 7 o fficers and

5 9 3 men killed and 3 1 o fficers and 242 men
wounded He had captured all the enemy s
.
’

artillery camp equipage and supplies valued

, ,

at besides much private property .

He had blocked for the time being the inv a

sion of his country .

Th i s was the greatest victory ever gained

by I ndi a n s over American troops In the .

Siou x victories at Fort Kearny and on the

Little Big Horn the I ndi a n s greatly ou tn u m
bered the whites The N e z Perces under
.
,

Chief Joseph met equal and superior forces

,

of soldiers but their s uccesses were only de

,

fen s es and skilful retreats The only engage .

ment comparable with the defeat of St Clair .

’
was Braddock s defeat and in that the I n ,

dians were aided and ofii c er ed by French

men and wou l d have retreated but for their
,

offi cers while the Americans were not a l

,

lowed by Braddock to fight in their own wa y .

The Little Turtle s victory was over a s u

’

perior force on its own chosen ground and

,

was achieved wholly by I ndi a n military skill .

The defeat of St Clair was a fearful blow

.

to the frontier settlements most of which ,

were at once abandoned except those adj o i n ,

30
 T RUE I N DIA N ST ORIE S

dians stubborn ly refused to treat except on

condition that the Americans retire from
north of the O hi o and make it the boundary
between them .

Wayne went to Pittsburg in June 1 7 9 2 , ,

and began the work of organizing the army ,

but no o ffensive movements were made dur

ing that year or until October 1 7 9 3 when
, , ,

he advanced to a point six mile s beyond Ft .

Je fferson and built Ft Greenville In De . .

c em ber he sent a detachment forward which

took possession of the field of St Clair s de .

’

feat and established Ft Recovery at that .

point At these two posts Wayne wintered

.

his army and prepared for a sure blow in the

,

coming summer .

’
Only one attack was made on Wayne s
forces in 1 7 9 3 On October 1 7 a train of
.

twenty wagons under convoy of two O fficer s

,

and ninety men was attacked seven mile s

,

north of Ft St Cl a ir Most of the men fled

. . .
,

and the two o fficers and thirteen men who r e

mained were killed The I ndian s captured
,
.

seventy horses and took some of the supplies ,

but did not d e s t r ov the remainder .

The w inter passed without material i n

e ident W a yne drilling his troops and m ak
,

32
 T HE L ITT L E T U R TL E

ing everything ready while the I ndian s were ,

striving to bring other tribes to their aid In .

this they were assisted by the British espe ,

c i a lly those at the Roche de Bout ( Rock of

the End ) a place at the lower end of the

,

Maumee rapids so called from a massive

,

rock in the stream Here the British had .

established a fort a fter the close of the

Revolutionary war far within the American
,

lines and here were located the storehouses

,

of Colonel M c Kee an I ndia n trader who

, ,

was one of the most obnoxious of the British

agents in urging the I ndian s to war .

The Little Turtle appeared before Ft .

Recovery on June 3 0 with a force of

m en a large number of whom were whites
,

in disguise Th ey had expected to find the

.

cannon they had captur ed from St Clair and .

to use them in assaulting the fort but they ,

were disappointed The Americans had dis

.

covered their hiding places mostly under ,

logs and they were now mounted in the fort

,
.

But by chance they struck a convoy of ninety

r i fl em en and fifty dragoons under M aj o r
M c M a h on who were returning to the fort
,
.

Th ey at once attacked and overwhelmed this

force kil l ing five ofli c er s and seventeen men
, ,

33
 T RUE I N DIA N S T ORIE S

wounding thirty killing and wounding

,

eighty one horses and capturing 204 T hev

-
.

then attacked the fort and continued their

assault through most of the following day ,

but their rifles were of little e ffect and they

withdrew .

,
A division of sentiment now arose among
the I ndi a n s Th ey had found it impossible
.

to surprise Wayne in camp for his camps ,

were always fortified by surrounding w a lls

of logs and there was no O pportunity to
attack in the open except when the troops
were ready for battle The Little Turtle i n
.

sisted that this was hopeless on account of

Wayne s superior force ; that it was useless
’

“
to try to surprise a chief who always slept
”
with one eye Open and that the on ly way
,

to fight him was to get in behind him and

cut o ff his convoys l eaving him stranded in
,

the wilderness But they had succeeded

.

only twice in striking convoys and one of ,

the successes was accidental The British .

u rged an attack on the army and promised

aid The Little Turtle was overruled and

.

even accused of cowardice The maj ority .

encouraged by their success with St Clair .

,

d ec id ed on a pitched battle and The Little

34
 TH E L I TTL E T U R TL E

Turt l e had no choice but submission to the

deci s ion .

General Scott on July 26 j oined Wayne

at Ft Greenville with
. mounted men
f rom Kentucky and on the 28th the army
,

advanced On August 8 they reached the

.

Grand Glaize and proceeded to bui l d Ft De .

fiance a t the j unction of the A u gla i z e with

the Maumee On the 13 th a prisoner was
.

sent out with a peace message advising the ,

“
I ndians to listen no longer to the bad white
men at the foot of the rapids but to send ,

peace deputies at once if they desired to save

t hemselves and their women and children

from famine and danger .

On the 1 5 th having received no answer

, ,

the army advanced down the Maumee and ,

—
on the 18th having marched forty one mi l es
,

from Ft Defiance the soldiers began erect

.
,

ing a light fortification for the baggage in ,

preparation for active work On the mor n .

i ng of the 20th they advanced about five

mi le s wh en they came to a place know n as
—
,

the Fallen Timbers a thick wood in which

the ground was covered with old trunks of
trees probably bl own down by a tornado
, ,

t Ch pr evente d th e action o f cava l ry Here ,

35
 TR U E I ND I A N S T O R IE S

the I ndi a n s were ly i ng i n ambush to give ,

battle
.

The advance guard was received with so

severe a fire that it was forced to fall back ,

although under orders in case of attack to

, ,

hold its position until the army could come

to its suppo rt But there was no other con
.

fu s ion .

Wayne at once d i spatched his cava l ry on

both fl anks to gain the enemy s rear and ’

ordered his in fantry who were marching

,

with loaded guns and fixed bayonets to a d ,

vance raise the I ndi a n s with the bayonet

, ,

fire at S ho rt range and chase them out of the

,

woods without stopping The movement .

was carried out to the letter In the course .

of an hour the I ndi a n s were driven over two

miles and be i ng refused admission to Ft
, ,
.

— —
M iami the British post they dispersed in
all directions the cavalry not having had
,

time to reach their position .

The pursuit was carried a l most under the

walls of Fort M iami whose commander ,

sent a protest to Wayne against this insult

“

”
to the British flag Wayne replied with a
.

demand for the garrison s remova l from ’

Un ited States territory to which the com ,

36
 TH E LI TTL E T U RT L E

mander declined to acce de But he O ff ered .

no interference to the army which rema i ne d ,

there for three day s destroying the crops ,

and property of the I ndian s and the s tore

houses of Colonel M c K ee which were withi n ,

pisto l shot o f the fort .

The loss of the American s was compara

t iv ely s ma l l being five o ffi cer s and twenty
,

eight men killed and sixteen Ofli c er s and,

eighty four men wounded O f the wound

-
.

ed eleven died The loss to the I ndi a ns was

.

never defi n itely learned b ut i t was much ,

larger than that o f the wh i te s .

On the 24th the army started on it s r e

turn to Ft Defiance l aying wa s te the corn
.
,

fie l ds and village s for fi fty miles on e a ch

side of the river Wayne re ported that the
.

margin s of the Maumee and A u gla i z e were

“ ”
like one continued village f or mi l e s and ,
“
that he n ever before beheld s uch immen s e
fields of corn in any part of America from ,
”
Canada to Florida The work of dest ruc .

tion wa s continued at Ft Defiance a nd the .

,

fort wa s stren gthened for p erma n en t oc

c u p an c
y .

On September 14 the army marched to

Ké ki oon gi and began building the fort Op
’
- - -

37
 T RU E I N DI AN STO R I E S

p o s i tthe I ndi a n town which was named Ft

e ,
.

Wayne by Colone l Ha mtramck who was ,

l eft in command The I ndian dominion of

.

“ ”
the Glorious Gate of the Wabash was end
ed f orever and it is fitting that the name of
,

the man who ended it should remain as a

permanent memorial But the old memories .

l inger a l so and to this day the older M iamis

,

cal l the p l ace Ké ki oon gi - -

’
-
.

The spirit of the I ndi a n s was broken .

Th ey su ffered much during the winter ,

though the Brit ish furnished them extensive

supplies The British gover nor Simcoe aid
.
,
-f

ed by Col onel M c Kee and the Mohawk chief ,

Captain Brant tried t o unite them for fur

,

ther resistance but in vain The action of

, .

the British in refusing a dm lS S lon ev en to

wounded I ndian s at Ft M iami and permit .

ting Wayne s men to destroy good s of both

’

I n dian s and British under the guns of the

fort had convinced them that the Br i tish
,

were afraid of the Americans .

Wayne had been a revel ation to them The .

M iamis named him The Wind ( a lOm

’
-

s eng ) on account of the way he had swept

,

them from the Fallen Timbers ; but the Dela

ware s named him The B l acksnake ( 5 6 k
38
 T RU E I N DIA N ST ORIE S

ach gook ) because they esteem the b l ack

’
-
,

snake the wisest and most cunning of ani

mals and the most destructive to smaller a n
,

i m a ls and birds With very little resistance

.

the I ndi a n s obeyed his summons to a s s emb l e

at Ft Greenville in the summer of 1 7 9 5 and
.
,

on Augu s t 3 a treaty which he dictated wa s , ,

concluded .

The Little Turtle now realized as few ,

others did that a new era had come to his

,

people which called for a change in them

,
.

In the past he had contended again s t the

vices of barbarism and had been the chie f ,

“
agent in suppressing the ancien t s acrificia l
rites ,
including cannibalism which had ,

been practiced among the M iamis as l ate a s

the Revolutionary war .

He now entered on a cam p aign aga i n st the

vices of civilization and an e ffort to gain its
,

advantages Most destructive of the former

.

was intemperance He visited the Legis l a

.

tures of Ohio and Kentucky as well as C on ,

gress and begged for the prohibit i on of the

,

liquor tra ffic among the I ndi a n s In a speech .

,

which was taken down in shorthand at the

“
time he denounced it as an evil that has
,

had so much ruin in it that has destroyed ,

40
 TH E L I TT L E T U R T LE

so many of our lives that it causes our young

,
‘
men to say We had better be at war with
,

the white people Th i s liquor that they i n

.

t r odu c e into our country is more to be feared

than the gun or the tomahawk ; ther e a r e
more of us dead since the treaty of Green
vil l e than we lost by the years of war before ,

and it is all owing to the intr oduction of thi s

’
liquor among us .

While on a visit to Washin gton The L it

‘

tle Turt l e learned of the benefits of inocul a

tion as a preventive of sma ll pox He at .

once had himse l f and the member s of h i s

pa rty inoculated and he also carried this
,

remedy to his peop l e which was the means,

of saving the lives of many of them and o f

the surrounding tribes .

He tried to introduce a civili z ed system

of agriculture among the Miami s and at his ,

request the Society of Friends of Balti

more establish ed a training farm on the
,

Wabash It was l ocated at a place known

.

“ ”
as Th e Boatyard because General VV ilki n
,

son built a fleet of boats there to transport

his baggage down the river Th i s is some .

two mi l es below the present city of Hunti n g

ton the s ite of which was known to the M i
,

41
 T R U E I ND I AN STORI ES
—
a mi s as Wé pé chah
’
-
’
ki
or T he Place
- -
oon g
”
of Flints because there is here a flint ridge
,

running across the limestone from which

'

they obtained abundant s upplies of fli n ts .

The farm was not a success however and , ,

Philip Denis the hard headed Quaker who

,
-
,

was put in charge of it abandoned it at the ,

end of the first season because his I n di a n

pupils gave no co operation beyond sitting
-

on the fence and watching him work .

The Little Turtle also endeavored to pro

mote friendship with the Americans and Op ,

posed British influences which brought him ,

into opposition to Tecumtha Th i s opposi .

tion was much aggravated by his supporting

the treaties made by Governor Harrison for
lands in the southern part of Indiana A S .

the Govern ment had built a substantia l l og

house for him at his town on Eel River and
otherwise encouraged him in his e fforts for
civilization his enemies found m
,
any listen
ers to their insinuations that he had sold
himself to the Americans Th i s feeling was .

worked up to such a point that in 18 10 John

Johnston the Indian agent wrote to Gov
, ,

“
ern or Harrison : Th i s Turtle is con t em p t i
b l e bey ond description in the eyes of the In
42
 TH E L I TTL E T U RT L E

dians . N everthel ess he st i ll reta i ned his i n

fl u en c e with most of the M iamis and very ,

few of them took part in the batt l e of Tippe

canoe After that event his wisdom was
.
,

again genera l ly recognized and he regained ,

much of his former standing .

In hi s l ater years the old chief was much

troubled by rheumatism and gout a n d wa s ,

treated for them by the army surgeons at

Ft Wayne O ne day a n interpreter ra ll ied
. .

him with a suggestion that gout was sup

posed to be a disease of fine gentlemen The .

Little Turtle quickly replied : I have a l

”
ways thought that I was a gentleman .

A n d he was . He had not only a philo

.

S Op h i c mind and a ready wit but also a no ,

table instinct for the proprieties that fitted

him for any social surroundings These .

qualities attracted attention among the

whites wherever he went One who met him
.

while on a trip E a s t in 1807 writes ,

“
Th e Little Turtle and R u sh ev i lle the ,

Beaver and C r o w ( Delawares ) and the ,

two Shawnees were dressed in a costume

,

usually wor n by our own citizens of the

—
time coats of blue c lOth gilt buttons pan
, ,

ta loon s of the same color and bu ff waist ,

43
 T RU E I N DI AN S T OR IE S

coat s ; but they a ll wore l eggings moccasin s ,

and l arge gold rings in their ears The Lit .

tle Turt l e exceeded all his brother chiefs in

—
d ign ity of appearance a dignity which r e
s u lt ed from the character of his mind He .

was of medium stature with a complexion ,

of the pa l est copper shade and did not wear ,

paint His hair was a ful l suit and without

.
,

any admixture of gray although from what ,

he said of his age at Ft Wayne in 1804 be

, .
,

ing then fifty three he must at this time have

-
,

been fifty seven yea rs old His dress was

-
.

comp l eted by a l ong red military sash around

the wa i st and his hat ( a chapeau bras ) was
,

ornamented by a red feather Immediately .

on entering the house he took o ff his hat ,

and carried i t under his arm during the rest

of the visit His appearance and manners
.
,

which were gracefu l and agreeable in an

uncommon degree were admired by a l l who
,

made h i s acquaintance .

“ ”
The R u sh ev i lle here mentioned was The
Little Turtle s nephew Jean Baptiste Rich
’

a r dv i lle who succeeded him as head c h ief of

,

“ '
the M iamis His Indian name was Pi j é
.
-

wah or the Wild Cat He was the son of

, .

T he Litt l e Turtle s sister Tah kii m wah

’
- -
,

44
 TH E L I TT L E T U RT L E

( On the O ther Side i e in po s i tion a s ,

. .
, ,

across a river ) and a scion of the nobl e

,

French house of Drouet de Richardville .

Th i s corruption of his name is quite com

mon and a further twist is found in the
,

name of Russiaville Howard County which , ,

was o r i gi n a llly intended to perpetuate his

memory .

We have a lso attempted to commemorate

a grandson of The Little Turtle in the name
of the town of Coesse in Whitley County , ,

But this is our reproduction of his Potawa

tomi nickname Kfi wa zé or as the Miamis
,
-
’
-
,

“
pronounce it KO wa z i meaning old or
,
- -
, ,

“ ”
as here Old man He was the son of The
.

Little Turtle s s on M a kOt t a m on gwah

’

,
-
’
- -
’
-

( Black Lo o n ) His cousin.Kil s O kw a says ,

- -
,

“
his r ea l name was M ték yah meaning for ’ ’
-
,

” “ ”
est or woods ; but the nickn ame supplant
ed the true name and in the treaties he a p ,
“ ” “ ” “
pears as Co i s a Ko es s ay
- -
or Ko
,
- -
,
”
wa s see
-
.

K iI s O kw a is the daughter o f The Little

- -

Turtle s son W Ok shin gah ( the Crescent

’
-
’
-

—
Moon literally lying Her
’
mother s name wa s N ah wa kah mo kw a -
’
- -
’
-

—
( the First S no w Woman literally the one ,

45
 —
KI LS OKWA TH E S E TT I N G S U N .

( G ndd u ght
ra a f T h L i t tl T u tl )
er o e e r e .
 CHA P T ER III .

THE DE AT H OF T H E WI T C HE S .

It was at the close of May 1801 that the , ,

’
Moravian missionaries came to Wah pi kah - -

m e kunk s tanding where the city of Muncie

’
-
,

now is or rather on the blu ffs across the

,

river from Muncie Th i s was the eastern

most o f the Delaware town s on White River ,

and that wa s the cause o f its name for the ,

'

trails from the east and north and south a ll

struck it fir s t and so it wa s by pr e eminence
‘

-
,

the White River Tow n Th i s is what the .

name means for in the early times the Dela

,

wares adopted the M iami name of the river ,

Wah pi kah m e ki ( White Waters varied

’
- - -— ’
-

to O p ee kO m e kah in the Unami dialect )

’
- - -
’
-

though in later times they commonly called

it Wah pi ha n i which in their own lan
’
-
’
-
,

guage means literally White River .

The missionaries were Brother John P .

K l uge and his wife and Abraham Lucken ,

bach a young man of twenty f our y ear s al l

,
-
,

48
 T HE D EA TH O F T HE W I T CH ES

of whom had been called to the work from

Pennsylvania and had passed the precedi ng
,

Winter with Z ei sb erger at Goshen on the ,

Muskingu m learning the Delaware lan

,

guage Th ey had reached this point from

.

Goshen after a wearisome j ourney o f nine

weeks partly by water down the Ohio then
, ,

up the M iami and Whitewater and across ,

thr ough the woods Th ey were accompanied

.

by two Delaware converts one named ,

Thom a s and the other an old man named

,

Joshua who had formerly lived at the mis

,

sion at Wyalusing ( Place of the Aged War

—
rior the same name wa s afterward given
to a stream in southern Indiana ) .

Th e y were hospitably received b ut the ,

Indians who were pagans pointed ou t a

, ,

p la c e for them to settle some twenty miles

farther down the river The truth is that .

the pagans regarded the Christian Indian s

as a sort of ino ffensive idiots who did not ,

have sense enough to protect themselves

t h e Moravians being non combatants —and -

who might be murdered by whites as t h ei r ,

brethren had been at Salem and G n a denhu et

ten on the Muskingum i f they did n ot have
,

49
 T R U E I N DIA N STO RIE S

a surrounding cordon of Indians of more

w arlike character .

Th i s location was favorably situated for

their l abors being only two miles east of
,

the large town of the chief known to the

whites as Anderson H is Indian name was .

Kok tO wh a n fin d which may be translated

-
’
- -
,

Making a Cracking N oise i e as of a house , . .

,

or a tree about to fall for that is the mean ,

ing of Kok to w ha and the ending n u n d i n

-
’

d i c a t es that the noise is caused by some per

son.

The whites have given the name of Ander

son to the p la Ce but the Indians did not call,

it by the chief s name as they did many ’

other places but gave it the special name o f

,

’
Wah pi mins kink or Chestnut Tree Place
- -
’
-
,
.

Some botanists have doubted that the chest

nut tree is native to Indiana but the earliest ,

s u r v evo r s notes S ho w that they were com

’

mon in some regions The section center .

one and a half miles east of Anderson was

“
marked by a chestnu t thirty inches in dia
meter .

Indeed the location was about the only

,

encouraging feature O f the case for these ,

pa gan D elawares h a d an ancient religion of

so
 an en

ne ither
o d in a

r e ket
g
a mess

t ogether ,

a fter the
foot high
ll along the
c overed first

I S S on top of
'

T r the guests to

n ok i n their pipes
g
n c in of the rest
g .

I r i a bly got up in the

 T R U E I N DIA N S TO RIE S

a ls o for the temp l es or cou ncil houses they -

must erect for worship These were to be .

l ong and large and to b e divided into twelve

,

parts in each of which must be a post with a

,

f ace carved on it and painted red on on e ,

s ide and black on the other r epresenting the ,

twelve ruling manitous In the center there .

must be a post with four faces carv ed on the

four s ides representing the Great Spirit who
,

sees and knows all things .

To the s e hous es the people must enter by

the east doo r and retire in the same way a l ,

ways passing to the right and never going ,

between the center post and the east door .

After entering the Turtle clan or Unami ,

( People Down the River ) commonly known ,

a mong themselves by their totem name Pa ,

ko a n go ( Th e Crawler ) were to be seated

- -
,

on the south side On the west are the T u r .

key clan or U nalachtigo ( People N ear the

,

Ocean ) commonly known among them

,

selves as Chi ke la ki ( from chik e no a tur

- - - - -
,

key ) o r sometimes by their other name of

,

the turkey Pu lla eu ( It Does N ot Chew t e

,
—
ferring to the bird s manner of eating ) On ’
.

the north are the Wol f clan known to us as ,

M onse ys or Munsees but properl y M i n s i or ,

52
 TH E DEA T H OF TH E W I T C H E S

M in th i u ( People o f the Stony Country ) ,

whose totemic name is p tu k S i t or round ’

-
,

foot b ecause they did not make a picture o f

,

a wolf for their totem but only o f its foot

, .

Of these houses on White River Lucken

“
bach says : In each of these towns there wa s
a council house about forty feet in length
-
,

and twenty feet in breadth where they u s ,

u a lly celebrated their sacrificial feasts and

dances These houses were built of spli t

.

wood piled up betwixt posts set in the

,

ground covered with a roof made of laths

,

and the bark of trees and having an en ,

trance a t either end ; but there was neither

floor nor ceiling ; three firep l aces stood in a
s t raight line from end to end with large ket ,

tles suspended ove r them in which a mess

of Indian corn and meat boiled together , ,

was prepared for the guests to eat a fter the ,

d ance was over Platforms one foot high

.

and five feet wide were raised all along the

sides of the house which were covered first
,

with bark and then long grass on top of

that to serve as couches for the guests to
,

sit or re cline upon while smoking their pipes

and witnessing the dancin g of the rest .

These dance s were invariably got up in the

53
 T R UE I N DIA N S T ORIE S

night and sometimes continued for weeks

,

together The whole was concluded by a

.

sacrificial feast for which the men had to

,

furnish the venison and bear s meat and the ’

women the cornbread ; and everything had

to b e prepared in the council house before all-

feasted together amidst the Observance of

certain rites .

And the superstitions of these pagans

were very real to them They regarded .

dreams and V i s i o n s as supernatural vis ita n

tions quite as fully as Pharaoh did They .

believed absolutely and fearfully in witches ,

which is not very surprising when one con

siders that Blackstone ha d defended the E n g
lish laws against witchcra ft less than fifty
years earlier T hey were perversely argu
.

m en ta t i v e conceding that the whi t es had

,

acted very wickedly in crucifying the Savior

when he came to them but urging that they
,

had never treated the manitous thus and ,

that they did not see how they were con

cerned in the O ffense of the whites .

But with all their failings they at lea s t

, ,

preached fairly well for Luckenbach says

,

On such occasions the chiefs usually a d

dress speeches to their people of both sexes ,

54
 T RUE I N DIA N ST ORIE S

and rigidly enforce abstinence from all

gross sins especially drunkenness ( although
,

they themselves are very far from practic

ing what they teach ) while recommending ,

them to practice hos pitality love and con ,

cord as things that are well pleasing to God

, .

Th i s proves that even savages a re capable

of distinguishing between good and evil and ,

are therefore possessed of a conscience that

, ,

either accuses or else excuses them and that ,

”
will j udge them at the last day .

O bvious ly the mi s sionarie s had a hard

task b efore them but at l east they were ,

promised an open field Luckenbach says .

“
that s oon a fter their coming they were vis
i ted and welcomed by the two Oldest Dela
ware chiefs Pa ckan t s chi la s and T etep a ch
,

” “
sit and although both were pagans both
, , ,

of these chiefs assured us they had given

their people permission to visit us and to
hear the Word of God and that they would ,

order them not to molest us in any way nor ,

to pass through our place when the y were

”
drunk These were gratifying assurances
.
,

for the former known to the whites as Buck

,

on geh ela s was the head war chief o f the na

,

tion and Ta ta pach sit somet i mes men

,
- - -
,

56
 T H E DEA T H O F T H E W I T CH ES

t i on edas The Gr a nd Gla i z e K i ng wa s ,

the head chief in time of peace His name .

is given in a n Old Pennsylvan i a treaty as

“ ”
T at abau gsu y the Twisting Vine
, but ,

there is nothing in it l ike the De l aware words

“ ” “
for twisting or vine Ta ta is a Dela .
-

ware double negat i ve making it emphatic

, ,

and the verb pachan ( p och Ou ) means to di -

vide separate s under ; making the litera l

, ,
“
meani ng It can not be divided or pulled
,

apart . S uc h a name would not be applied

to any fragile vine and the one woody twist
,

ing vine in the old Delaware cou ntry was

the American Woodbine of which this is pre ,

s umably the specific name .

Encouraged by the assurances of these

chiefs the m i ssion aries proceeded with the
,

erection of a perm anent dwel l ing They .

lived in hastil y constructed bark huts dur

-

ing the summer but by N ovember they com

,

p let ed a substantia l log cabin sixteen feet

square which gave them comfortable she l
,

ter for the winter .

The work of convers i on did not proceed

with much success and it was not long u n
,

til they discovered th a t they were contendin g

against a n influence even more adverse tha n
57
 T RU E I N DIA N ST O RIE S

the ancient Delaware religi on It wa s a .

spirit of opposition to the whites in al l

things that arose chiefly from the land que s
—
,

tion the continual demand of the white man

for more l and Only half a dozen years had
.

passed since the treaty o f Greenville when ,

the boundaries between American an d In

“ ”
dian were fixed for all time as the Indians ,

understood but immediately a fter the treaty

,

there was a great flood of immigration to the

n ew lands and soon there was talk of more
,

land being needed .

Some of the Indians promptly opposed

this and among them none was more promi
,

nent than the young Shawnee Tecumtha A .

born orator with eloquence as great as that

,

of any man his race has produced and ab ,

so lu t ely fearless he proclaimed everywhere

,

the doctrine that the Indians were one peo

ple that the land was their common inherit
,

ance and that no tribe could give any part

o f it away without the consent of all .

Th i s doctrine was soon widely adopted ,

for in 1802 Genera l Harrison wrote that he

did not believe that he could Obtain land ces
sions without a general assembly of the
“
chiefs for There appears to be an a gree
,

58
 TH E D EA T H OF TH E WIT CH ES

ment amongst them that no proposition

which relates to the i r lands can be acceded
to without the consent of a ll thetribes and ,

they are extremely watchful and j ealous of

each other lest some advantage should be
obtained in which they do not all partici
”
pate.

N evertheless he proceeded to treat with

individua l tri b es From September 1802 to
.
, ,

December 1805 he negotiated seven treaties

, ,

“ ”
with chiefs and head men by which were ,

ceded about square miles of territory

in southern Indiana and Illinois N o tribes .

were repre s ented but those a s serting ancient

proprietary rights although the a n dot s
,

and Shawnees had been assured a part in the

Indian lands at the treaty of Greenville Te .

cu m t h a and his coadjutors denounced these

treaties and the chiefs who made them and

, ,

faction s in all the tribes j oined with them .

At some time prior to 1805 a numbe r of

Shawnee s including Tecumtha and his
,

brother Law le was i ka w ( The Lou d

- - - -

Voice ) came to live with the Delawares on

White River and it was here that Law le
,
-

was i kaw took the name of Tems kwah ta

- - - -

wah ( He W ho Keeps the Door O pen ) and

59
 T RUE I N DIA N STO R IE S

assumed the role of a prophet He was read .

ily accepted in this function and under his ,

t eaching th e tribes were s oon stirred to the

work of purification which con s i s ted chiefly
,

of abandon i ng the clothing and costumes of

the white s and driving out witchcra ft It .

was notable that those accu s ed of the latter

were chiefs who had signed the treaties or
person s who were known a s friendly to the
whites The Indians were taught that the
.

G reat Spirit had made them a di ff erent race

from the whites and that they must keep
,

them s elves distinct The tendency of the

.

n ew religion was to create hostility to the

white man i n all lines .

In the s pring of 1 806 the s ituation became

so unp l ea s ant that the missionaries decided
' ’
to remove Poc h gOn t sh é hé I OS had died
.
- - - -

in 1804 and Ta ta pach sit wa s in disfavor

,
- - -

on account o f friendship to the whites They .

were occasionally visited by drunken youths

who shot and carried o ff their hogs and ,

showed ho s tility in other way s Early in .

M arch Luckenbach and Jo s hua made a trip

to the M i s s i s s i n ewa towns to l ook for a m ore
favorabl e l ocation
—
.

A s they passed through Wah p i kah me - -

60
 $

T HE D EA T H OF T HE W I T CH E S

kun k th ey found the Delawares assembled

in large numbers holding council a s to how
they S hould rid the tribe of witches Follow .

ing the plan of Tecumtha the young men

— —
,

the warriors had taken the reins of govern

r

ment into their own hands ; and following ,

the teaching of The Prophet they had deter ,

mined to rem ove all witche s I f those who .

were accused of witchcra ft would Con fes s

and abandon their practice s they would be
forgiven but i f not they would be turned
,

“ ”
over to Their Grandfather the Fire , .

Immediately after the return o f Lucken

bach and Joshua s even Indians painted
,

black appeared at the cabin of the mission

aries and announced that they had come to
take Joshua before the tribunal O ld Ta ta .
-

pach sit had been arrai gned for witchcra f t

-

and had con f essed on promise o f forgive

,

ness if he would surrender his witch bag

the sack in which Indian medicine men pro
fess to carry the media of their magic He .

had declared that in the previous winter he

had given his witch bag to Joshua who mus t ,

now con front him Joshua went with them

.
,

calm and u n t er r i fied in his consciousness o f

innocence .

61
 TRU E I N DI AN S TO R IE S

T he statement as to Ta ta pach S i t was - - -

true The old chief had probably given way

.

under the weakness of Old age and had hope

lessly involved himsel f and o t hers It was .

s imple enough though weak to admit the

, ,

practice of witchcra ft of which he was en ,

t i r ely innocent ; but when it came to surren

dering or accounting for a wit c h bag that he -

never possessed he was lost He had said

, .

it was hidden at various places but search ,

did not reveal it He then confessed giving

.

it to his wife to his nephew and to Joshua

, ,

bu t these all denied it convincingly and the ,

old chief promptly brought forward some

n ew story .

The old Munsee woman who had been

serving as j udge in such matters declined to
decide these cases Aside from the di ffi c u l
.

ties involved she had had a wonderful vision

,

in which she had devoured a light that a p

p ea r e d to her three times and she construed ,

this to be a divine reflection on her judicial

standing It was therefore decided to hold
.
, ,

the accused until The Prophet who wa s ex ,

p e c t ed the next day should come and

,
decide
as to their guilt in person .

On the nex t day March 17 the mission, ,

62
 T R U E I N DI A N S TO RIE S

arie s were startled by a party of blac k paint -

ed Indians who came to their place with Ta

ta pach sit in custody H astily taking a fir e
- -
.

brand from one of the Indian lodges they ,

passed on to a tree under which the old man

,

had n ow indicated the place where the witch

bag was concealed They dug at the p lace
.

he pointed out but found nothing With

, .

gathering fury they built a fire and threat

ened him with instant death if he did not give
up his poison .

The frenzied dotard pointed out one place

after another and they dug in vain It was .

hopele s s He was sel f convicted His own

‘
-
. .

son s truck him down with his tomahawk .

They stripped him and ca s t his body into the

flames .After finishing their work they
came to the cabin of the missionaries and ,

the son displaying his father s belt O f wam

,
’

“
pum said : Th i s belonged to him who dis
,

carded my mother and his O ldest children

and took him a young wife .

But what of Joshua ? The mi s sionaries

were beginning to feel alarmed about him ,

and ventured some word s in his defense To .

this the ominous reply of the Indians was

that they ought not to speak in hi s behalf ,

64
 THE D E A TH OF T HE W I T CH ES

b ecause he wa s a ba d man who h a d doub t

less brought many persons to death by his
magic power s When the Indians had gone
.

their fears i ncrea s ed as they di s cussed the

situation and in the morning Luck enbach
,

s tarted to Wah p i kah me kunk to do what

- - - -

he c ould for the aid or com fo rt of their

friend About half way there he met the
.

chief Kok to wha n u n d who informed him

- - -
,

that Joshua had been killed at Wah pi kah - -

me kunk on the preceding day

-
The mis .

s i on a ry wa s O vercome by grief and l ament ,

ed that they had s l ain an innocent man ; but

the chief s tern l y answered that he de s erved
his doom an d that other wicked p eop l e who
,

made w ay with their fellow men b y p oison -

or magic would meet the same fate .

To a protest against the barbarity of such

“
executions he replied : You white people
,

likewise try your criminals and whenever ,

you find them guilty you hang them or e x e

cute them i n some other way and we are ,

now doing the same among us Another of .

ou r chiefs ,
Hackin pom ska is now under
- -
,

a rrest on a s imilar charge but hi s fate s till ,

”
remains undecided .

There had indeed been exciting times at

65
 T R U E I N DI A N ST ORI ES
’
Wah pi kah m e kunk on that St Patr i ck s
- - - -
.
’

day The Prophet had returned and had con

.

fronted Joshua in the council hou s e Joshua -

.

protested his innocence U nable to furnish .

any proof against him The Prophet declared

,

that while it wa s true that he did not have

the witch bag of Ta ta pach sit he h a d
- - - -
,

magic powers of his own by which he wa s

able to destroy a man s li fe when he wish ed
’

to o ffer a victim to his god Th i s was equ i v a .

l ent to a j udgment of guil ty The Indians .

conducted Joshua to a large fire which they

had built They formed a ring abou t him
.

and demanded that he confess how many

men he had destroyed by his magic Joshua .

calmly and solemnly avowed his complete i n

nocence .

There wa s a momentary halt An I n dian .

stepped from the circle went to the fire and , ,

lighted the tobacco in his tomahawk pipe A s -

.

he passed behind Joshua he sudden l y sank

the tomahawk in his brain With wild yells .

the others then sprang forward and ra i ned

blows on the S enseles s body Then they .

stripped his body and threw it in the flames ,

where it burned to ashes .

T h er e r emained three other s unde r accu s ~

66
 TH E D EA T H OF TH E W I T C H E S

.
—
at i on The nephew o f Ta ta pach sit was - -

a Ch rist i an Indian commonly known as Billy,

Patterson who had lived among the whites

,

until he acquired considerable skill as a gun

smith He was a strong and courageous
.

man with a queer mixture of religious faith

,

and Indian stoicism and he received The

P rophet s condemnation with composure
’
.

They o ffered him pardon i f he would confess ,

and abandon his magic practices but he a n ,

“
s w er ed with scorn You have intimidated °

one poor old man but you can not frighten ,

me ; go on and you S hall see how a Chris

,

”
tian and a warrior can die He was at once .

burned at the stake Bible in hand pray .

,

ing chanting hymns and defying all the

, ,

powers of evil until his voice wa s stifled his ,

brave soul passed out as from one o f the

martyrs of apostolic times .

The failure to elicit any con f ession or evi

den c es of guilt from him was somewhat dis
quieting When the council had resumed its
.

session and wa s considering the ca s e of Ta

t a pach sit s wife her brother entered the
’
- -

council house went forward took her by the

-
, ,

hand a nd l ed her out of the house He then .

“
retu rn e d and declared in a lo u d voi ce : T he
67
 T R U E I N DIA N S TO R I ES

evil s pir i t has come among us a n d we are

”
killing each other N o further attempt wa s .

made to try the woman and the case of ,

’
Hack ink p om ska
- -
( He Walk s
-
on the
Ground ) was taken up .

Th i s chief was of di fferent stu ff from the

others He did not wait for any additional
.

accusation Advancing to The Prophet he

.
,

denounced him as a liar and an impostor and ,

threatened him with personal vengeance if

he made any charge o f witchcraft against
him Th i s was a very practical test of di
.

vine protection from the Indian point of ,

view to which The Prophet was not pre

,

pared to submit and a fter some discussion ,

-—
Hack ink pom ska was remanded to custody
-

to await further proceedings but without be ,

ing deprived of his standing and a u thor i tv as

a chief N O further action was ta ken agains t
.

him .

The news of these tragedies wa s s l ow in

reaching Governor Harrison at Vincennes
up the trail to Ft Wayn e by runner and .
,

—
down the Wabash by boat reaching him in
April He at once sent a s trong l etter to
.

the Delawares in which he said : Who is,

this pretended prophet who dares to speak

68
 T H E DEA T H O F T HE WITCHES

in the name of the Great Creator Examine ?

him Is he more wise or more virtuous than

.

you are yourselves that he should be selected

,

to convey to you the orders of your God De ?

mand of him some proofs a t least of his be

ing the messenger of the Deity If God has .

really employed him He has doubtless a u

,

th o r i z ed him to perform some miracles that ,

he may be known and received as a prophet .

I f he is really a prophet ask of him to cause

,

—
the sun to stand still the moon to alter its
— —
course the rivers to cease to fl ow o r the
dead to rise from their graves If he does .

these things you may then believe that he

,

has been sent from God Th i s reached the

Indians after they had ended their crusade
against witchcraft but it probably served to
,

l essen somewhat the influence of The

Prophet for in the succeeding troubles the
,

Delawares were generally loyal to the Amer

i c an s .

And the missionaries A fter learning the

?

situation at Wah pi kah me kunk Lucken

- - - -
,

bach decided to go at once before the council ,

which was still in session and ask what was ,

the sentiment as to them He entered the .

council house announced that he had heard

-
,

69
 T RU E I N DIA N S TO RIE S

rumors that the Indians meant to drive the

missionaries away and asked them to ex
,

press their minds freely concerning their fu

ture stay .

The head men replied that the rumors had

not originated wi th them but possibly with
,

some of the young men ; that they had n o

especial preference in the matter and had ,

not in fact called for any white teachers

, , ,

but had merely requested that some of their

relatives at the Mu skingu m move out to
them ; of these however not the families ex
, ,

p e c t ed— the White Eyes and the Killbucks

—but on ly a few others had come The mis .

s i on a r i es were f ree to come or go as they

liked ; no obstacles would be put in their wa y .

The counci l then advised him to consult

Hack ink pom ska and this chief coincided
- - -
,

with the council in the V iew that their serv

ices were not particularly desirable to the
Indians especially in view of the surplus of
,

religion furnished by The Prophet .

On consultation with Brother and Sister

Kluge it was decided to ask the authorities
at Bethlehem permission to leave although ,

this involved a wait of five or six month s .

A messenger was sent and they wa i ted

70
 C HA P T ER IV .

WHY TE CUM T HA FO UG H T .

’
N o Indian s name is more i nseparably
linked to the history of Indiana than that of
“ ”
Tecumseh and none is more familiar to
,

American readers but it is remarkable how

,

litt l e i s definitely kn own about this c eleb r a t

ed man .

As to hi s death there are three conflicting

,

accounts each verified by the statements of

,

alleged eye witnesses As to his birth Mc

-
.
,

Kenney and Hall give a romantic story of

his descent from the daughter of an English
Governor of Georgia or South Carolina who ,

took a fancy to marry a Creek warrior ; but

the historians of those States do not men
tion this unusual event and Benj amin Drake , ,

from whom M c Kenn ey and Hal l state they

had their information say s that this story ,

was concocted by the Prophet to give impor

tance to his family .

Dra ke p rob ably is right in his statement

7 2
 W H Y T E C U M T H A FO U G H T

that Tecumtha wa s born at the old Shawnee

town of Piqua on Mad River Ohio ; that his
, ,

father was P ii ck e S hin wau ( something - -

’
-

that drops ) a Shawnee o f the K i sc op oke

,

clan and that his mother wa s M E thO a tas

,
- - -
’

ke Shawnee of the Turtle totem

, Her name .

sign ifies a turtle laying eggs in the sa nd .

But Drake says the name is properly Te

” “ ”
c u mt h a , and that it means a shooting star .

” “
Other authorities say it means a comet a ,

” “
panther leaping on its prey and an 01) ,

”
s t a c le in th path
e
Frank A Thackery s u
. .
,

p e r i n t en d en t and agent at Shawnee O kla ,

“
writes to me : The proper pronunciation of
this name is T e c um tha with the accent
- -
,

sometimes on the first syllable and some

times on the last depending on the way in
,

which the word is used The meaning of .

‘
the word in the Shawnee language is going
’
crossways and it is used in the sense of a
,

person crossing your path for the purpose of

disputing your passage .

Other Indian authorities give it as cross

” “ ” “ ”
ing over ,
going a c ross flying over any , ,

o f which explains the origin of the common

ly given meanings G a t s chet conj ectured

.

that these meanings might be references to

7 3
 T RU E I N DIA N ST ORIE S

the fact that Tecumtha belonged to the M a n

'
e t ii w i mis si pis si or Spirit Panther to
’
- - - - - -

tem Figuratively this totem stands for a

.

meteor or a comet .

There is little truth in the common ideas

of the cause of Tecumtha s hostility He was ’
.

a Warr ior but he was not like the defiant

,

Seminole who is supposed to have said :

“
I battle for the love I have
”
To see the white man fall .

T ecumtha was also a statesman and his ,

chief end in life wa s to prevent a wrong to

his people The cause o f this originated in
.

the treaty o f Greenville At that time Gen .

eral Wayne forced the assembled tribes to

accept a boundary line which gave most of
Ohio to the whites and threw the Ohio tribes
back into Indiana The O hio Indians W y — .

a n dot s O ttawas Si x N atio ns of Sandusky

—
, , ,

Delawares and Shawnees unanimously

asked General Wayne to divide the land be
t ween the several tribes They said in a .
,

forma l address as S hown by our own o ffi cial

,

records We wish to inform you of the i m

,

propriety of not fixing the bounds of ever y

nation s rights ; for the manner it now lies
’
,

in would bring on disputes forever between

,

74
 W HY T EC U M TH A FO U G HT

the d i fferen t tri b es of Indian s an d we wish

,

to b e by ourselves that we may b e acquaint

,

ed how far we might exten d ou r claims that ,

n o one may intrude on u s ,

n or we upon
”
them .

But General Wa yne dec l ined to do this ,

and with remarka ble disregard o f the point

You Indians be st k now
“
o f the request s aid :
”
y our respective boundaries ,
and urged
“
them : Let no nation or nations invade mo ,

l es t or disturb any other nation or nation s

in the hunting grounds they have heretofore
been accustomed to live and hunt upon with ,

in the boundary which sha l l n ow b e agreed

on.

Th i s dec i s i on they were forced to accept ,

and the r efore the Ohio Indians were thrown

back among the more Western tribes w i th
out having any lands set o ff for them They .

mixed largely with the Indian tribes many ,

of the Delawares and Shawnees making

their homes in the hitherto unoccupied parts
of southern Indiana but they advanced the
,

theory that under the new arrangement the

land be l onged to all the tribes in common ,

and this was generally accepted .

I n 1802 Governor Harri son wrote : There

75
 T R U E I ND I A N S T O RI E S

appear s to b e an agreement amongst them

that no proposition which relate s to their
lands can be acceded to without the consent
”
o f all the tribe s .

But the only treaty i n which he undertook

to get thi s genera l con s ent wa s the on e o f
June 7 1803 and its ces s ions of l and were
—
, ,

very s light four m i les s quare at the s alt

s pring s in s outhea s ter n Il l ino i s and four ,

tract s each one mile s quare on the roads from

Vincennes to Kaskaski a and Cl ark svi ll e for ,

the l ocation of taverns .

I n return f or th i s the U nited State s wa s

to distr i bute 1 5 0 bushels of salt annua l ly
among all the tr i bes and to give free ferriage
,

to all of the Indian s at the ferries that might

be established on these roads Th is treaty .

wa s sign ed by three Shawnees but in no ,

’
other of Harrison s treaties did any Shawnee
join or any Wyandot or any Ohio Dela
, ,

ware and ap p arently they were not consult

,

ed at al l although by 1806 he had negotiated

,

five other treaties for the ce s sion of about

square miles of land in Illinoi s and
southern Indiana .

These treaties were made with the chiefs

”
and head warriors of variou s tr ib es and ,

76
 W HY T EC UMT HA FO U G HT

f ou r of them had on l y five Ind i an s i gn ers

each It wa s the s e treat i es that raised the
.

wrath of Tecumtha and his s ympath i z ers ,

for not on ly did none of the O hio India ns

con s ent to them but none received any part
,

of the compensation although the Ind i an a

,

and Illinois Indians had shared equal ly in

the compensation at the treaty o f Green
ville I t wa s clear that the Shawnee s and
.

other O hio Indian s were being shut out en

t i r ely ; and when the treaties o f 1 80 9 were
made by which
, acres were added
to the cess i ons Tecumtha became defiant and
,

said that the s e treat i es should not b e carr i ed

into e ffect .

It wa s then that Tecumtha came to Vin

c enn es and had h i s dramatic interview with

Genera l Harrison He came to Vincennes

.

on August 12 18 10 with a ret i nue o f 7 5

, ,

warriors and for s evera l day s there were

,

interviews and councils between him and

Governor Harrison On the 20th an open.

air counci l was in progres s before the Gov

er n or s residence
’
Tecumtha made a l ong
.

S peech in which he urged that the treat i es

had been made by but few peop l e and that ,

th ey had no right to dis p ose of the common

77
 T RUE I ND I A N S T O R I ES
.

heritage H e threaten ed vengeance on the

.

chiefs who had sign ed the treat i es i f they

were n ot re s cinded and he charged Harri s on
,

with having incited the troub l e H e s aid .

“
It is you that are pushing them on to do
mischief You endeavor to make di s ti n c
.

tion s You wish to prevent the Indians to

.

do as we w i sh them to unite and l et them ,

consider their l ands as the common property

of the whole You take tribes aside and a d
.

vise them not to come into this measure ;

and unti l ou r design is accompli s hed we do
n ot wish to accept your invitation to go and

see the Pre s ident The reason I tell you this

.

i s you want by your distinction s of Indian

, ,

tribes i n allotting to each a particular tract

,

o f land to ma k e them to war with each other

,
.

You never s ee an Indian come and endeavor

to make the wh i te peop l e do s o You are .

continua l ly driv i ng the red peopl e ; when at ,

last you will drive them into the great lake

, ,

where they can t either stand or work

’
He .

dec l ared that the warriors represented the

wi ll of the Indians and that unles s the ,

treatie s were rescinded he would cal l a great

counci l of the tribes to dea l with the t reaty
ch i ef s .

78
 T ECU M T H A .

(F m
ro t he o n ly kn w n p t i t— p n c i l k tch by Pi
o or ra a e s e erre
l D y un g t d t V i n c nn P b bly t no
an
e ro
u, a o ra er a e es . ro a
x ac t li ken es s R p n t T c u m th i n hi B t i h ri uni
em )
. e r ese s e a s s
or .
 W H Y T EC U M T H A FO U G H T

w i th him Ab ashed by th i s firm stand the

.
,

I n dians s u ll enl y withdrew .

With coo l ing tim e Tecumtha r eal i z ed that

,

he had made a dip l omatic b l under I n the .

morning Barr on visited him in h i s camp and ,

found him ver y desirous of a further inte r

v i ew and an amica bl e s ettlemen t Governor .

Harri son con s ented to the interv i ew on con

dition that Tecumtha wou l d apologi z e for
hi s i nsult and i n the afternoon the counci l
,

wa s resumed With perfect dignity but in

.
,

a r e s pectful manner Tecum tha disclaimed

,

any intention to o ffe r in s u l t and explained

,

that he had perhaps b een misin formed as to

the s entimen ts o f the white people who he , ,

had been to l d were divided in their O pinion

,

as to the treaties ; but he s aid he knew they

a l ready had mo r e land than they could u s e ,

“
as he had sent s ome of his men to recon
n o i t er th e s ett l ements a n d h a d found that the
,

land s toward s the Ohio we r e n ot sett l ed at

all. Governo r H arriso n then ask ed him to
state explicit ly whether the Kickapoo s
woul d accept the i r annuit i es un de r the l at e
treaty and whether the s u rv eyor s who m igh t
,

be s ent to run the boundary l ine under the ,

treaty o f 1809 wou l d be interfe r ed with T o

,
.

81
 T RU E I N DIA N S TO R I E S

this Tecumtha responded that he wa s author

i z ed to say that the Kickapoo s wo ul d n ot a c
cept their annuitie s ; and as to the bound ,
“
arie s I want the present boun dary l ine to
,

continue Should you cro ss it I a ssu re you

.
,
”
it will be productive of bad con s equences .

The counci l was then b rought to a c l ose .

O n the ne x t day Governor Harr i son a c

, ,

companied only by Barron visited Tecum ,

’
th a s cam p where he was politely received
, ,

and another l ong interv i ew wa s hel d bu t ,

without di ff erent resul t Tecumtha restated .

his p osition and when Governor Harrison

,

assured him that his cl aim s wou l d never be

admitted by the President he rep l ied : ,

“
Well as the great chie f is to determine
,

the matter I hope the Great Spirit will put

,

sense eno ugh into his head to i nduce him to

direct you to give up the land It is true he .
,

is so f ar off he wil l not be injured by the

war He may sit sti ll in his town and drink
.
,

his wine while you and I wi ll have to fight

,

”
it out .

This c losed the conferen ce s o f 18 10 but , ,

in June 18 1 1 Governor Harr i son sent a

, ,

message to Tecumtha and The Prophet ,

warning them of the consequences of hos

82
 W HY T EC U M T H A FO U G H T

t i li t i es th i s Tecumth a r ep l ied prote s t

. To ,

ing that no hosti l ities were intended and ,

saying that he would come to Vin c ennes in

hope of a peacea bl e adj u s tment of all di ffer
en c es In July the Indian s bega n to a s sem
.
.

ble about twenty mi l e s north of Vincennes ,

and when Tecumtha j oined them they num

bered about 3 00 of whom on e tenth were
,
-

women and children This gathering caused .

apprehen s ion and Governo r Harrison sent

,

a me ss age di s approving it Tecumtha r e .

p l ied tha t he had on l y twenty four men in -

“
his party and the re s t had come of their
,

own accord ; but that ever yt h i ng should be

sett l ed to the s atisfaction o f the Governor ,

on his arriva l at Vincennes To be pre .

pared f or any emergency the mi l itia of the ,

county am ounting to 7 5 0 men were cal l ed

, ,

out and gu ard s were s ta tioned about the

,

town .

It wa s charged an d gen er a lly be l ieved by

,

the whites tha t Tecumtha contemp l ated

,

treac hery A t this t i me about the only

.

friends the Indians had i n southern Indiana

were the Shaker s who had a s ettlement s ome
,

fifteen mi l es north of Vincennes They had .

a mi ss ion to the Shawnees in 1807 and a p

83
 T R U E I ND I AN S T O R IE S

p a ren t lwere on much the s am e friendl y

y
terms with the Indians as the Quakers have
u sually been The Indians who accompanied
.

Tecumtha assembled near their settlement .

One o f the leading Shaker s made this rec

o rd :

The s e were trying times with us We .

had u s e for a ll the wisdom and patience we

possessed These hungry creature s were
.

about us nearly three weeks singing and ,

dancing to the Great Spirit Some o f the .

time th ere were upward of two hundred a l l ,

peaceable showed no abuse to any one would

, ,

drink no whisky and never to our knowledge

,

took to the value of one cucumber without

l eave N or cou l d we discover in them the
.

l east ho s tile symptoms still declaring their

,

innocence grieved that the people would not

,

—
bel ieve them s aying to the p eOp le : Look ‘
,

see our squaws and children We do not go .

to war s o We only come here because the

.

’
Governor s ent f or us But notwithstanding
.

all this the people moved into forts and into

town bag and baggage a l l around us O h
, ,
.
,

how often did my s oul cry out within me ,

Lord G od $ What can ail this people Surely?

,

the prophecy of Esdras i s fu l fil l ed up on them .

84
 WHY T EC U M T H A FO U G H T
‘
W i t has hid it s e l f f r om them and unde r ,

standing withdrawn i t s e lf into it s s ecret

’
chamb er .

But whether treachery wa s meditated or

n ot Tecumtha was resolute i n his O ppositio n
,

to the treaties It was a hopeless situation

. .

O n th e one s ide Tecumtha contended for the

s ame pri nciple that we maintained in the civil
—
war that the Indian l ands bel onged to a ll
the Indians in common and that no on e tribe
cou l d di s pose of any part of i t without the
consent of all the tribes O n the other hand .
,

Governor Harrison he l d as he stated to the ,

next Leg i slature :

“
Are then the extinguishments o f nat i ve
tit l e which are at once so b eneficial to the
,

Indian the Terr i tory and the U nited States

, ,

to be su sp ended on the account of the in

?
tri gues of a f ew individua l s I s one o f the
fairest portions of the gl obe to remain in a
state of nature the haunt of a few wretched
,

s avages when it s eems destined by the

,

Creator to give support to a l arge population ,

and to be the seat of civi l ization of sc i ence , ,

?”
and of true re l igion
But the existence of the s e two theor i es on
a frontier even without forma l war meant
, ,

85
 T RU E I ND I AN S TO R IE S

troubl e There were s carcely any Ind i an hos

.

t i li t i es in the N orthwest from the treaty of

G r een v i lle u n t i l 1803 but in the decade fol
,

lowing s outhern Indiana was the scene of

many a bl oody tragedy Prowling bands o f
.

warriors fell on defenseless settl ers killing ,

men and carrying women and chi l d ren cap

tive And many of the whites did not hesi
.

tate to kill an Indian at any favorabl e op p or

t u n i ty without regard to his hosti l e o r peace
,

able attitude .

The danger wa s so great and so constant

that the territorial authorities caused block
house s to be built at various points and ,

maintained companie s of rangers who p a ,

trol led the established l ines o f trave l to pro

’
t ec t immigrants . It was Indiana s notable
period of border war fare and when it ended
,

the white man s theory was tri u mphant es

’
—
t abli s h ed by blood and stee l .

Tecumtha did not live to see the end but ,

he never gave up his cherished hope It was .

not without reason that he charged Govern

or Harrison with trying to make war b e
’
tween the Indian tribes for the Go vernor s
policy a l ienated the Ind i ana tribes from Te
cu mth a . They received the annuities and
86
 T R U E I N DI AN S T O R IE S
o ther compen s ation for the l an ds whose sa l e ,

he O pposed and there were very few of them

,

in arms against the American s either at ,

Tippecanoe or in the w a r o f 18 12 .

Rea l i z ing that his forces were not su fli

cient for s uccessful war d i sappointed r e
‘
,

p e a t edly in his e f
f orts to secure India n a l
l ies he hai l ed with j oy the advent o f war
,

with the British and enro ll ed with them On e .

can easily imagine the chagrin with which

he saw the s e allies being driven back by the .

Americans and can understand the bitter

,

ness of his speech to Genera l Proctor at Ma l

den when the l atter was preparing to r e
,

treat His l i fe l ong dream came back as he

.
-

begged Proctor to turn the arms and ammu

n i t i on ove r to the Indian s and l et them s tay

and fight .

“
Listen said Tecumtha when war wa s
, ,

declared our Father s tood up and gave us

the tomahawk and told us that he was then
,

r eady to fight and strike the American s

that he wanted ou r assistance and that we

wou l d certainly get our l and b ack that the
Americans had taken from u s Father .
,

you have the arms and ammunition which

ou r Great Father sent f or h i s red chi l dren .

88
 WHY T EC U M TH A F O U G H T

I f you hav e an idea of going a way gi ve them ,

to u s . You may go and wel come O ur live s

, .

are in the hand s o f the Great Spirit We are .

determ i ned to de f end ou r l and and if it be ,

”
His wi l l we wi s h to leave our bones upon it
, .

And undoubtedly he went into the b attle

of the Thames with that feeling — with the
conv i cti on that the s upreme hour ha d come
when a ll must be won or l ost and gave his ,

l ife as the crowning sacrifice of hi s l ife s c f ’

fort .

And yet this conces s ion of Tecumtha s ’

honesty of purpose is no reflection on G ov

er n o r Harrison bu t only a presentation of
,

the different point o f V i ew Harrison a l .

ways warmly resented every charge o f u n

fairness on his part A t the treaty of 18 14
.
,

he was e s pecia ll y urgent that the Indians

should point out any matter in which he had
ever deceived them or don e th em injustice
’

At that time Harrison s aid a s to Tecum

’
th a s position
“
A fter the treaty was made the Prophet
and hi s brother who had n o r i ght to par
,

t i c i p a t e i n it began to propagate the princi

,

ple that the whole of the l ands on th i s conti

nent were the common prope r ty of a l l the
89
 T RU E I N DIA N STO RI E S

tr i bes a nd that n o sa l e cou l d ta ke pl ace or

would b e va l id un l ess al l the tri b e s were p ar
ties to it Th i s idea i s so a b surd a nd so
.

new too that i t could never b e admitted by

, ,
-

the Seventeen Fi res either on the i r own a c

,

coun t or on that of the tribes who l i ve near

to them and whose right s they have guar
anteed and y ou all know for you were pre s ,

ent at the di s cussion between Tecum s eh and

myself on the subj ect of those l ands that
, ,

this was the on l y claim he wa s ab l e or ever

”
attempted to set up .

Very true Tecumtha o ffered a c l a i m that

.

wa s of no va l ue under our l a ws b ut under ,

this con s truction the Ohio Ind i an s were the

on ly ones who ever surrendered their old
homes to our Government w i thout rece i ving
some terr i tory that they might ca ll the i r own ,

el sewhere Under it they were made ab so

.

lu tely home l ess except as they might b e tol

,

c rated by the other tribe s .

It is not strange that they d i d not take this

view nor that they protested against it
,
.

Looking b ack no w i t i s not hard to do them

,

this just i ce Indeed when contempl ating

.
,

such a l ife a s Tecumtha s , on e may easily ’

90
 TRUE I N DIA N S T O RI E S

All that a m an can gi ve he gave

—
,

His lif e the country of his sire s

From the oppressor s gras p to save
’

—
I n vain quenched are hi s n ation s
’

fires .

Oh, softly fa ll the summer dew ,

The tear s of Heaven upon his sod ,

For he in l i fe and death was true ,

Both to his country and his God ;

For oh if God to man ha s given
, , ,

From hi s bright home b eyond the s ki e s

’
O ne feeling that s akin to Heaven ,

T is hi s who f or his country die s

’
.

92
 C HA P T ER V

TH E F A LL O F T H E P R OP H E T .

N otwithstanding the eloquence magnet ,

ism and high repute o f Tecumtha among

the Indian s there is little room for question
,

that the chief element o f strength in his

confederacy was the influence of hi s brother ,

the Prophet The original name of this m an

—
.

wa s the Loud Voice commonly written

Law le was i kaw or Ol la wa chi c a but
- - - -
,
- - - -
,

more properly La lu e t s ee ka When he as

- - - -
.

sumed the role of prophet at our White Riv ,

er Delaware towns in 1805 he took the name

, ,

’
of T ems kwah t a wah
-
or He Who Keeps
- -
,

the Door Open American writers have com

.

mou ly denounced him as an impostor and a ,

conscious humbug but there is in fact no

,

more reason for questioning his sincerity ,

though he may at times have resorted to

trickery to enhance his reputation than there ,

is for questioning the sincerity o f Mahomet

or Joa n of Arc or our own M rs E ddy A l . .

93
 T R U E I N DIA N ST O RIE S

most all Indians believe in the supernatural

character of visions and dreams and their
common teaching is that if a person will pur
i fy himsel f and fast and pray for a week or
,

so the Manitous will reveal themselve s to

,

’
him A week s fa s ting naturally produces
.

visions which are accepted as s piritua l visi

,

t a t i on s in answer to prayer .

Among the white contemporaries of the

Prophet almost the on ly ones who credited
,

his sincerity were the Shakers who are ,

among the few sects who accept literally

“
the prophecy that your old men shall see
visions and your young men S hall dream
”
dreams . They sent three missionaries to
the Shawnees in 1807 and one of these Rich ,

ard M c N em a r records the Prophet s own

,
’

story of his divine calling as follows :

“
He [ the Prophet ] had formerly lived o n
White River ; had been a doctor and a very
wicked man About two years ago while
.
,

attending on sick peopl e at A tt a wa in a ,

time of general sickness he was struck with

,

a deep and awful sense of his s i ns ; cried

mightily to the Good Spirit to S how him
some way o f escape and in his great distress
,

f el l int o a vis i on in which he appeared to be

,

94
 T H E FA LL O F T H E P ROP H E T

trave l i ng along a road and came to where ,

it forked The right hand way he was i n

.
-
,

formed l ed to happi ness and the l eft t o

, ,

misery .

“
This fork in the road he was told r ep r e , ,

sented that stage of li fe in which people

were convic ted of sin ; and those who took
the right hand way quit everything that was
-

wicked and became goo d But the left hand .

-

road was for such as would go on and be

bad after they were shown th e right way
,
.

They all move slow till they come here but ,

when they pass the fork to the left then they

go swift On the left hand way he saw
.
-

—
three houses from the first and second
were pathways that led into the right hand -

road but no way leading from the third

,
.

This said he is eternity He saw vast crowds

, , .

going swift along the left hand road and -

,

great multitudes in each of the houses u h ,

der di fferent degrees of j udgment and mis

ery He mentioned particularly the punish
.

ment of the drunkard O ne presented him .

a cup of liquor resembling melted lead ; i f he

refused to drink it he would urge him say ,

—
i ng : Come drink you used to love whisky
‘
,
.
’

And upon drinking it his bowels were sei z ed

95
 T R U E I N DIA N S T O RIE S

with an ex quis i te burn ing This draught he .

had often to re p eat At the last house their

.

torment appeared inexpres s ibl e ; un der which

he heard them s cream cr y pitifu l and roar
,

like the falls of a river .

“
He wa s afterward ta ken along the right
hand way which wa s a ll interspersed with
,

flowers of delicious sme l l and showed a ,

house at the end of it where was everything

,

beautiful sweet an d p l ea s ant ; and sti l l wen t

,

on lear n ing more and more ; but i n his first

vision he s aw nothing but the state of the
wicked from which the Great Spirit told him
,

to go and warn his people of their danger ,

and cal l upon them to put away their sins

and b e good Whereupon he began to speak
.

to them i n great distress and woul d weep ,

and tremble while addres s i ng them Some .

believed were greatly al a rmed b egan to con

, ,

fess the i r sins forsake them and set out to

,

be good This spread the a l arm an d brought

.

many others from di fferent tribes to see a nd

hear who were a ffected in like manner But
'

.
,

some of the ch i efs who were very wicked

, ,

woul d not believe and tried to keep the peo

p l e from believi n g and encouraged them on
in the i r former wicked ways Whereupon .

96
 T R U E I N DIA N STO RIE S

pole —i a pole thrust in the bottom o f a

. e .
,

lake or river for holding a small boat ) They .

have been followed by most of the Indian

prophets since then as may be seen in the a d ,

“
mirable study of The Ghost Dance Reli
gion by our Indiana ethnologist James
, ,

Mooney which forms the second volume of

,

the fourteenth annual report of the Bureau

of Ethnology It is the natural hope of a
.

people who feel themselves being crushed by

a su perior power that the Almighty will in
some way interv ene in their behalf if they ,

repent and abandon their sins But this .

also naturally encourages hostility to the s u

perior race among the younger and more
warlike individuals and it certainly had that ,

e ffect in this ca s e .

In the spring of 1808 The Prophet and

his followers moved from Greenville to the
Wabash j ust below the mouth of the Tippe
,

canoe Their town there is commonly called

.

K et h t i p p ec a n u n k which should be K é t a p é
’
- -
,

ko n n unk for it means Tippecanoe town or

-
’

place and the Potawatomi name o f that

,

—
stream is Ké t a p é kon i n M iami Ké t a p
-
’
- - -
'

k m which is the name of the bu ff alo fish

, ,

formerl y abu nd ant in the r i ver T hi s was .

98
 TH E FA LL O F T H E P R O P H ET

in the territory of the Potawatomis who a l ,

ways had a strong tendency to the s u p ern a t

ural as is shown by the names they have
,

left us There is Manitou Lake which they

.
,

believed to be inhabited by an evil spirit .

N ear i t is a tributar y of the Tippecanoe to ,

which the people of the vicinity still give the

proper Potawatomi name of Chip wah n u ck— -
'

or Ghost Hole and which has some connec

,

tion with the mysteries of the lake The St . .

—
Joseph River the principa l stream of their
—
country they called S a h g wah sé pé which ’
- -
’
-
,

’
may be translated Mystery River for s a h g ,

wah means a mushroom or anything that ,

comes up in the night without any seed hav

ing been planted Their legend of the origin
.

of this name is that they once found a strange

Indian sitting on the bank of thi s s tream ,

and no one ever l earned who he was or

whence he came ; so they called him and also ,

’
the stream S ahg wah
,
-
.

Most curious of a ll is the name S h i p she

wana given to a l ake and its outlet stream
,

—
in Lagrange County Wah wé a s s ee ( Ful l
.
-
’
-

—
Moon litera l ly the Round O ne ) a grand ,

son and namesake of the old chief for whom

Lake Wawasee wa s named more commonl y ,

99
 T RU E I N DIA N ST ORIE S
—
known a s Thomas T Op a s h h i s mother ,
old

W ah wea see s daughter having married a

’
,

M iami named T op a sh ( Sweating ; i e as a . .

,

pitcher of cold water collects mo i sture on a

—
warm day ) says this is properly S hfip she— ’

“ ”
wah n o and means Vision of a Lion
’
-
,
.

Whatever a Potawatomi s ees in a vision aft

“ ” ’
er fasting is called wah n 0 and the origi -
,

nal Indian of this name saw a lion T o my .

remonstrance that lions were not found in

thi s country and that the name must have
,

been given long before a Potawatomi ever

“
saw a lion he replied : That is nothing The
,
.

Indians see everything in their vision s They .

saw the whites lon g before they came to this

country They have seen all the animals at
.

the bottom of the s ea that nobody ever saw ,

.

This man saw a fierce wild beast with a big , ,

head and mane and afterward when the I n

,
”
dian s saw a lion they knew it was shii p sh e ’
-
.

At the new home on the Wabash The ,

’
Prophet s religion prospered greatly and its ,

fame spread far and wide Hunter the I n .

,

dian captive and others tell of its spread

,

among the Odj i bwa s and other tribes of the

N orth how they abandoned whisky discard
, ,

ed textile clothing and returned to skins ,

1 00
 T R UE I N DIA N ST ORIE S

that the boundary lines of the treaty of 1809 '

should not be run Finally i n 18 1 1 Gov .

, ,

er n o r Harrison and the national authorities

decided that the safety of the frontiers de

m an ded the breaking up of The Prophet s
’

town .

In September the chief part of the forces

,

for the expedition having been assembled ,

they moved up the Wabash to a point two

miles above Terre Haute where Fort Har ,

rison was built After completing it and

.
,

being reinforced by the rest of the troops

call ed for the expedition proceeded on Octo
,

ber 28 It was composed of nine companies

—
.

of regu lars e ight from the Fourth Regi

ment and one from the Rifle Regiment ; six
companies of infantry from the Indiana mi
litia and Biggers company of Indiana R i fl e
,
’

men ; three companie s of Indiana Mounted

R i fl em en ; two companies of Indiana Dra
goons ; two companies o f Kentucky Mounted
R i fl em en and a company of scouts and
,

spies The companies were small the entire

.
,

force aggregating a little over one thousand ,

of whom one fourth were mounted O n D c

-
.

tober 3 1 having passed Big Raccoon Creek

( Hough S map marks this stream Che que a k - -

1 02
 TH E FA LL OF TH E P R OP H E T
—evidently intended for S he qu i
ah which’
- -
,

is the M ia mi term for a poor or lean rac , ,

coon ) the army crossed the Wabash near

,

the pre sent town of Montezuma From this .

point it kept to the prairie country on the

west side of the river to avoid possibility of
,

ambush On N ovember 2 the army camped

.
,

two miles below the mouth of the Big Ver

million and erected a blockhouse twenty fiv e
,
-

feet square at which a small gu ard was left

,

to prote ct the boats that had been used in

bringing the supplies thus far The army .

then proceeded through the prairies usuall y ,

at some distance from the river and on N o ,

’
v em b er 6 came in sigh t of The Prophet s

town The scouts were sent forward to ask

.

a conference with The Prophet but as some ,

Indians a p peared and seemed to attempt to

cut them o ff they were recalled and the
, ,

army moved forward It had come to about

.

one hundred and fi fty yards from the town

when some Indians came out and asked a halt
and a conference It was agreed that the
.

troops should go into camp over night at

“ ”
what is now known as the battle ground ,

and that hostilities should be suspended u n

t i l a conference could be held on the follow

1 03
 T RUE I N DIA N ST ORIE S

in g day . Governor Harrison says of the

“
camping place It was a piece of dry oak
,

land rising about ten feet above the level of

a marshy prairie in front [ i e to the south .
,

east ] and nearly twice that height above a

,

similar prairie in the rear through which ,

and near to this bank ran a small stream

clothed with willows and other brushwood .

Toward the left flank this bench of land

widened considerably but became gradually
,

narrower in the opposite direction and at ,

the distance of one hundred and fifty yards

terminated in an abrupt point Here the .

troops were disposed in hollow formation ,

the left flanks of fr om and rear lines being

occupied by the regulars and the right by
Indiana militia The left flank was covered
.

by the Kentucky militia back of whom were ,

the dragoons and the right flank by S p en

,

cer s Mounted R i fl em en Although no at

’
.

tack was anticipated all preparations were

,

made fo r it except fortifying the camp and

, ,

Ha rr ison said this was omitted for lack of

axes The men S lept on their arms and ex
.
,

p li c i t orders were given for forming the

lines in case of attack .

There has been some contention as to the

 T RUE I N DIA N ST ORIE S

intent of the Indians and the events of that ,

night but the truth was probably told later

,

by White Loon ( Wah pi m On gwah ) one - -

’
-
,

of the leading chiefs present He said that .

there was no intention to attack until the

Potawatomi chief Winamac ( Cat Fish lit —
er a lly mud fish ) arrived and insisted on it
, .

A council was convened and most of the

chiefs Opposed attack but Winamac de ,

n ou n c ed them as c o wards said it was n ow ,

or never and threatened unless the attack

,

was made to withdraw and take with him the '

Potawatomis who formed ahout ou e third

,
-

of the town Then the attack was agreed

.

to White Loon Winamac and Stone Eater

.
,
'
S
’

( a né-
m a h 6-
n g )
a were
-
put in command-
,

the Indian force being about equal to that

of the whites The Prophet made a speech
.
,

in which he assured them of success saying ,

'

that his charms would protect them from

the bullets of the whites and the warriors ,

went into the battle as confident of super

natural protection as any religious fanat ics
that ever lived .

They had intended to attack on three sides

simultaneously but a sentinel Stephen , ,

Mar s caught sight of them as they crept

,

1 06
 TH E FALL OF TH E P RO P H E T

in close to the lines up the bank from Bur,

netts Creek at the northwest angle and

’

, ,

fired the alarm shot The Indians who were .

close enough attacked at once breaking the ,

lines at some points and in two or three i n

stances penetrating to the tents Mars was .

killed as he fled The recklessness of the as

.

sault showed their faith in The Prophet s ’

p rotection and it took

, two hours of stubborn
fighting to convince them of its futility .

Governor Harrison was quickly at the

point of attack a fter the first firing and fin d , ,

ing the lines at that point somewhat broken ,

ordered up two companies for support By .

that time a heavy firing began at the north

east angle and Harrison turning there
, , ,

found Maj Jo D a v ei s s ( this is the correct

.

—
spelling not D a v i es s as it has been handed
,

down ) anxious to charge the enemy After .

t wo refusals he was given permission to

charge and dashed forward with only twenty
,

men The Indians fell back from the front

.

and gathered on their flanks pouring in a ,

heavy fire that drove back the charging

party with M aj or D a v ei s s mortally wound
,

ed The firing now extended all around the

.

camp an d was especially hea vy on the left

,

1 07
 T RUE I N DIA N ST O RIE S

flank where as on the right flank the In

, , ,

dians could approach on high ground under

cover of the trees The morning was dark .

and cloudy and it had rained intermittently

,

during the night The campfires gave the

.

Indians the advantage in aiming and they ,

were extinguished as soon as possible The .

lines were reinforced wherever needed and ,

held intact So the fight went on in the dark

.
,

from a little after four o clock till daybreak ’

,

when gallant charges were made on the right

and left flanks and the Indians were chased
,

into the marshes where the horsemen could

not follow They did not return
. .

The pur s uit was not extended far for the ,

army had its hands full Thirty seven men .

-

had been killed and 1 5 1 wounded of whom

, ,

twenty fiv e a fterwards died The cattle had

-
.

escaped and had been driven away ; and the

,

troops had recourse to horse fl es h for meat -

.

A report was started that Tecumtha was on

his way to the place with warriors .

N ovember 7 th was occupied with burying the

dead caring for the wounded and throwing
, ,

up breastworks of logs On the 8 th the .

mounted men advanced to the town and ,

found that the Indians had deserted it in

 T R U E I N DIA N ST ORIE S

h a ste leaving almost all their possessions

, .

After gathering up the Copper kettles with ,

what corn and beans they could carry the ,

troops applied the torch and destroyed all

that was left There remained no doubt
.

that the Indians knew they were whipped .

Their force in the fight was probably about

equal to that o f the whites and although re
,

ports as to their loss varied widely it is cer ,

tain that it was no less than that o f the

troops Tecumtha was not in the vicinity
.
,

having gone south to try to secure the alli

ance of the southern tribes and it is very ,

well established that The Prophet had given

’
battle in defiance of Tecumtha s express o r
ders.

He had met defeat a n d it was more than a

,

mere defeat A religion was shot and bay

.

on et ed to death on that field Across Bur .

nett s Creek stands a large boulder known

’

,
’
to this day as The Prophet s Rock Either .

on this or as some say on a blu ff farther to

, ,

the east The Prophet stood as his men

,

fought making his charms and singing his

,

incantations to the Manitous But to his .

appeals the bullets of the frontiersmen gave

back the mockin g answer of E l i j ah to the
 TH E FA LL O F T H E P RO P H E T

p rophets of Baal Cry aloud for p er a d ,

”
venture he sleepeth and must be awaked .

Was he sincere ? Did he expect s u p ern at

?
ural aid Certainly he staked his all on the
outcome And he lost all ; for even his most
.

devoted followers realized that if there was ,

any divine inter ference at that time the stars ,

in their courses fought against T en skwahta

wah .

After the battle he sought to explain the

disaster by saying that his wife had touched
his sacred instruments and destroyed the
charm but in vain His reputation as a
, .

prophet was gone For awhile he took ref .

uge with a party of Wyandots on Wild Cat

Creek ( often called Ponce Passu or Ponceau ,

Pichou corruptions of the French name

,

Panse a u Pichou which is a literal t r an s la

,

’
tion of the M iami name Pi j é wah m O ti $
- - -
’
-
,

’
or Wildcat s Belly ) ; but soon he retired to
Canada and later in li fe joined a band of
,

Shawnees west of the M ississippi where he ,

died in 183 4 Catlin who met him and

.
,

painted his portrait there in 1 83 2 speaks of ,

“
him as doomed to live the rest of his days
in silence and a sort of disgrace ; like all
,

men in I ndi an communitie s who p r etend to

111
 T RU E I N DIA N STO R I E S

gr eat medicine i n any way and fa i l ; as they

,

all think such failure an evidence of the dis

pleasure o f the Great Spirit who always
,

judges right .

112
 T RUE I N DIA N STO RIE S

ly laughed and s aid there was no u s e of try

,

ing to make a s quaw of him ; that he wa s a

brave They nex t tried to make him hoe
.

corn b ut soon found that he dug up much

,

more than he hoed Then the squaws tr i ed .

to wash him in a s tream which i s their proc ,

“
ess o f washing out the white b lood and
”
making an Indian but he got one of them ,

under the water and came near drown ing

her before she was rescued This feat put .

him in s till higher favor and he wa s not ,

troubled therea fter .

Among the children carried into captivity

from Kentucky was William Wells He .

was ca p tured in 17 7 4 by a band of M iami s ,

when about ei ght year s old at the home of ,

the Hon N athaniel Po p e He wa s a sturdy

. .
,

spirited l ad with high courage a n d an apt

,

ness for hunting that quickly made him a

favor i te Heckewelder says he wa s adopted
.

by a M iami n amed G awi a ha tte or the ,

H edgehog but there must be some error in

,

this for G a wi a ha tte i s Delaware and the

, ,

—
M iami word for hedgehog is ah kah w i t '
-
.

The tradition handed down i n the We lls

fami ly i s that he was adopted by The Little
T urt l e Kil s é kwa say s that the M iami s
.
- -

1 14
 W I LL IAM W E LLS

called Wi l liam Wells A p e kon it and that - - -

,

this is th e name of a plant called the wild

.

”
potato which grows in mucky land There
, .

“ ”
are severa l native plants called wild potato
“ “
or Indian potato One is the man of the .

”
earth ( ipomea pandurata ) on e of the ,

morning glory family which has tub ers ,

reaching ten pounds or more in weight An .

other is the Jerusalem artichoke ( helianthus

tuberosa ) which the Shawnees call to p e ka
,
- -
,

“ ’
but our M iamis cal l it o zah p é k6 t tek or ’
- - - -
,

“ ”
yellow flower These grow in dry soil
.
,
’
and a pé kOn i t is what we know as the
- - -

“ ” “ ”
ground nut or wild bean ( apios tube
-

rosa ) which grows in low ground

,
.

Wells grew very fully into Indian ideas .

Heckewelder who knew him well says he

, ,

once came upon him a fter he had shot a

bear and broken its back The bear was
, .

whining piteous l y and Wells was standing ,

in front o f it gravely talking to it and occa

, ,

s i on a lly striking it on the nose with his ram

rod Heckewelder asked him what he had

.

“
said to the bear and he replied : I have u p
braided him for acting the part o f a coward ;
I told him that he knew the fortune of war ;
that one or the other of us must have fallen ;
1 15
 TR U E I N DI A N STO RIE S

that it wa s his fate to be conquered and he ,

ought to die like a man like a hero and not

, ,

like an ol d woman that i f the case had been

rever s ed and I had fallen into the power of
,

my enemy I would not have disgraced my

,

nation as he did but would have died with

,

firmnes s and courage as becomes a true,

warrior .

The Indians accorded Wells the standing

his merits warranted He became a close
.

friend of Little Turtle who gave him hi s ,

daughter in marriage and thereafter they

,

were const ant companions Wells s erved .

with distinction under his father i n l aw in - -

the defeats of Harmar and St Clair yvin .

,

ning admiration by his dash and courage .

It is commonly stated that after the latter

a ffair We l ls seriously reflected on the fact
that he was fighting his own people and ,

might shed the b lood of his own kindred a n d ,

on this account decided to join the whites .

The story handed down in the Wells family

di ffers from this Their version given a s
.
,

coming from Wells himself is that Wel l s ,

and The Little Turtle were in entire accor d

i n their views of the situation and especially ,

a s to the n ece s sity of bringing a b out amica

1 16
 CA PT W I LL I AM W E LLS
.
.

(F m
ro m d lli n p t i t w i n
a e a o or r a , no
p i n f hi g t g t i c
o s s es s o o s r ea - r ea -
n e e,
Mrs T h W M Cl
. os . f OF l. c u er , o
’
a
lon, M o .
)
 W I LLI A M W E LLS

W ayn e . T he
other i s the fact that Wayne ,

a fter reaching the Maumee with his army ,

s ent out messengers to the Indians urging

them to come to him and make peace a l ,

though every e ffort i n that direction thereto

fore had been wholly unavailing .

With the coming of peace Wells rej oined ,

his Indian friends at Fort Wayne His .

friendship with Little Turtle was resumed ,

and he accompanied that great chief on his

various j ourneys acting as his interpreter
,
.

He learned to read and write well and stud ,

i ed all the books he could obtain being aided ,

in this by General Harrison and others He .

served as j ustice of the peace for a number

of years and also as Indian agent at Fort
,

Wayne He aided Little Turtle in keeping

’
the M iamis out of Tecumtha s forces an d ,

there was comparative peace a fter the battle

of Tippecanoe through the early part of
18 12
. In May of 18 12 a large council of
Indians was held on the M i s s i s s i n ewa in ,

which were deputations of Wyandots Chip ,

p ew a s,
Ottawas P ot a w a t omi
, es Delawares , ,

Miamis Kickapoos Shawnees and Winne

, ,

bagos . They all made protestations o f

friendship including Tecumtha himself
, .

1 19
 T RU E I N D I AN S TO RIE S ‘

But on June 18 the U nited State s declar ed

war on Great Britain and thereafter British
,

emissaries were actively engaged i n calling

the Indian s to their aid On July 1 7 the
.

American post at Mackinac surrendered to

a force of British and Indians A large .

force menaced Detroit where General Hull ,

was in command and early in Augu st pur

, ,

suant to directions from Washington from ,

General Macomb commanding the army

,

General Hull directed Captain Heald com ,

manding Fort Dearborn to evacuate the ,

fort i f practicable and in that event to dis

, , ,

tribute all the United States property con

t a i n ed in the fort and in the U nited States
,

factory or agency among the Indians in the

,

neighborhood At the same time Genera l

.

Hull requested Captain Wells then Indian ,

agent at Fort Wayne to proceed to Fort ,

Dearborn with a party of friendly M iamis ,

to escort the garri s on and the whites there

to Detroit .

Fort Dearborn was at the site of Chicago .

It was built in 1803 and stood on the s outh

,

bank of the Chicago river near its mouth .

It wa s a log structure with blockhouses at

,

northwe s t and southeast corners On the .

 T RU E I N D I A N S TO RIE S

north side wa s a subter r a nean pa ss ag e or ,

sally port leading from the parade ground

,

to the river design ed for escape in emer

,

g e n c y
, and for water supply in case of siege .

The whole was surrounded with a strong

palisade of post s set on end It was garri .

son ed by fift four regulars

-
and twelve mi
y
li t i a m en under Capt N atha n Heald . The .

site was historic When first know n by the

.

“ ”
whites , Chi c a gou was a large M iami
town There has been much di s cussion as
.

to the meaning of the name some a ffirming ,

”
that it means the place of the skunk a nd ,
“ ”
others the pl ace of wild onions The rea .

“
son o f this con fusion is that the stern she
”
ka u g enters into both the word for skunk
and the word for onion and in such case the ,

only way to get the exact meaning is from

the reason of the name This was given by .

Lamothe Cadillac in 1 69 5 who said it was ,

called the place of garlic or wild onions ,

on account of the quantity of this plant that

grew there ; and this is confirmed by other
early French writers .

On August 9 in the afternoon the Pota

, ,

wa tom i chief Winamac ( or W i n i m eg

,

Catfi s h ) arrived at th e fort with the orders

,
 W I LL IAM W ELLS

from General Hull for its evacuation Aft e r .

delivering them he went to John Kin z ie a ,

trader at the post and urged that the post

,

be not abandoned ; that the garrison had

ammunition and provisions for a six months ’

siege ; but that if Captain Heald decided to

leave the post the evacuation S hould be made
at once and without notice to the Indians
, ,

who he said were hostile Thi s was com

, ,
.

mu n i ca t ed to Captain Heald but he said his ,

orders were to distribute the goods and he ,

must assemble the Indians for that purpose ,

i f he acted conscientiously And in j ustice .

to Captain Heald it should be remembered

that his course was approved by his su
p er i o
,
r s and that he was promoted soon
a fterwa rd .

The Indians were accordingly notified to

assemble and it was soon observed that their
,

S pirit was hostil e On the 12th Heald held

.

a council with them before the fort The .

other o fficers declined to attend having ,

heard that the younger warriors intended

to assassinate the o ffi cers at this time ; but
remained in the fort and trained the loaded
cannon on the assembly which perhaps pre ,

vented any outbreak a t the time From the .

first the minor o fficers and men opposed

1 23
 T RU E I N DIA N STO R IE S

e vacuating the fort and remonstrated w i th

Heald He said that even i f he desired to
.

stay he lacked provis i ons It was answered

.

that there were cattle enough to keep them

for six months He urged that he had no
.

salt to preserve th e meat It was sugge s ted

.

“ ”
that it be jerked but he insisted that he
,

must obey orders and abandon the post .

It was a trying situation On one side .

the o fficers and men were opposed to leaving

the fort almost to the point of mutiny and
, ,

the traders and friendly Indians agreed with

them ; while on the other hand Heald a p
p e a r ed to be impelled by a conscientious
sense of duty without regard to con s e
,

q u e n c es comparable
,
only to that which led
the Modoc peace commiss ioners into the
death trap of the lava beds He had told the
-
.

Indians on the 12th that they would leave

the fort and divide the goods among them
, ,

and this he finally consented to modi fy on

the urgent advice of Kinzie and others by ,

withholding and destroying the liquor and

the surplus arms and ammunition On the .

1 3 th another council was held with the Indi

ans and the surplus provisions paints
, , ,

clothes and ordinary supplie s wer e divided

 T RUE I N DIA N S T O RIE S

the garrison bega n it s march from the fort

'

Well s with fifteen of his M iamis were in

, ,

advance Then came the soldiers ; then the

.

wagons w i th the women and children the ,

remainder of the M iamis bringing up the

rear Some five hundred Indians marched
.

along with them having promised Heald to

,

act as an escort Wells had blackened his

.

face as these Indians do on the warpath

,
.

As they marched out the musicians ,

played the dead march from Saul sym boli z ,

i n g the evacuation and also unconsciously

, , ,

the tragedy to follow The I ri dian trail they

.

followed led along the lake beach About .

half a mile from the fort there began a ridge

of sand hills about a hundred yards back
from the lake As they reached this point
.

the Indians left them and moved back to the

prairie behind the sand hills and when there ,

hurried forward behind the hills and took

a position for attack A bout a mile farther
.

“
on Wells came riding back crying They , ,

are about to attack us ; form instantly and

”
charge on them His words were followed
.

by a shower o f bullets from the sand hills .

The soldiers formed in line and charged ,

g a i ning the summit of one of the hills They .

1 26
 W I LL I A M W ELLS

fought gallantly but they were only a hand

,

ful surrounded by ten times their number of

savage s The M iamis deserted and went
.

over to the enemy at the outset The sol .

diers continued their defense until half of

their number had fallen when the Indians ,

made signs for a parley Captain Heald .

went forward alone and was met by Black

,

- —
Bird ( M a kah ta p e na she ) who promised
- - -
,

protection to the survivors if they would sur

render Captain Heald accepted the terms
.

and the battle ended .

During the fighting Wells turned back to

the wagons apparently apprehensive for the
,

women and children He came u p to M rs . .

Heald who wa s his favorite niece the

, ,

daughter of his brother Col Samuel Wells ,

. .

He was bleeding at the mouth and nostrils ,

and told her he was fatally wounded but ,

that he had killed seven of the redskins He .

a sked her to tell his wife tha t he had died

fighting for their protection He then

turned back to the fight but soon noticed ,

that the Indians had gained the wagons and

were tomahawking the women and children .

“
Shouting Is that their game butchering
, ,

?
women and children Then I will kill too , ,

1 27
 T RU E I ND I AN S T O RI E S

he turned his horse toward the Indian ca mp ,

where they had left their s quaw s and chil

dren H e wa s pursued by a number o f I n
.

dians but he urged his hor s e on lying flat

, ,

on its neck a s he loaded his gun and turn ,

ing occasionally to fire until a ball killed his ,

horse and he fell under it entangled in the

, ,

stirrup At this point Winamac an d Wau

.

ban see ( T he Looki n g Glass ) ran for ward

-

to save his li fe but as they gor him on his

,

feet another Indian stabbed him i n the back

a n d ended his life The Indian s cut his
.

heart out and ate it un der their idea that in

,

this way hi s courage wou l d be tra n smitted

to them .

In this a ffair twenty S i x regular s twelve -

,

militiamen two women and twelve children

,

were killed The Ki n z i es with Mrs Heald

.
, .
,

M rs Helm and Sergeant Gri ffi th were saved

.

through the good o ffices of Black Partridge ,

—
Sau gan ash ( Englishman commonly known
-
,

as B illy Caldwell ) To pen i bee ( Quiet Sit

,
- - -

—
ting Bear the head chie f of the Pota wa to
—
mis the name appertains to the bear to
tem ) and other friendly Indians Captain .

Heald and Lieutenant Helm both of whom ,

wer e woun ded were also s aved by friendly

,

1 28
 T RU E I N D I A N S TO RIE S

Indians Most of the wounded were killed

.

and the remaining prisoners were dispersed

among the Indians during the wint er Part .

of them were sent to Detroit to be ransomed

in the spring Six are known to have b een
.

killed or to have died of exposure in c a p t iv

-

ity Mr s Burns and Mrs Lee wi t h their

. . .
,

infant children were surrendered later by

,

the Indians as was also the wife of Sergeant

,

Holt .

The fighting and the massacre occurred

practically in the spa ce now bo unded by
Michigan and Indiana avenues and Four
t een t h and Twenty fir s t streets in the city
-
,

of Chicago The sand hills were long ago

.

removed Having plundered the fort on

.
,

the morning after the massacre the Indians ,

set fire to it and destroyed it So ended the .

first Fort Dearborn In 18 16 the fort was

.

rebuilt and the bones of the victims of the

massacre which had lain where they fell
, ,

were then gathered up and buried near the

foot of Madison street Later owing to the .
,

washing of the river and the lake they were ,

reinterred b y the authori ti es of Ch i ca go .

1 30
 CHA P T ER V I I .

THE DE F E N S E O F FORT H ARRI SO N .

When General Harrison marched up the

Wabash to Tippecanoe in 1 8 1 1 Capt Spier
, ,
.

S p encer s company of mounted r i fl em en

’
,

from Harrison County familiarly known as

,
“ ”
the Yellow Jackets ,
started behind the
main force They were a gorgeous body
.
,

wearing yellow j ackets and yellow shirts

with red fringe and with black tipped red
,
-

plumes in their hats According to the

.

j ournal o f John Tipton who was one of ,

them they had a very sociable and pleasant

,

time on the march and on October 3 Tipton

, .

who was one of the most original a nd ar

t i s t i c of spellers that Indian a ever produced
m ade this entry :
“
Thursday 3 d marched at 9 four of our
horses missing three men le ft to hunt them
m a r ch d one mile came to tare holt an oa ld
indian village on the East side of Wabash
on high land near a L a r ge Prairie Peach
131
 T RU E I N D I A N S TO RI ES
'

and a p le trees growing the huts torn down

by the armey that c a mp d here on the 2d
°

two miles further came up with the armey .

horses found Ca m p d on the river on beau

.

”
t i fu ll high ground to build a ga r i s on .

This was the beginning of Fort Harrison .

“ ”
The oa ld indian village stood where the
city of Terre Haute now stands and was ,

commonly called by the same name as Tip ,

ton indicates but it was also sometimes

,

“ ”
called Old Orchard Town and sometimes ,

“
The Lower Wea Town or W e a u ta
”
— ,
-

non .
”
— — —
It was a village of W e ah ta nons ,

who were a tribe of the M iamis The name .

Terre Haute was applied to the locality be

fore the village existed or as the English ,

“
p u t ,it The Beginning of the Highlands ,

for here the bottom lands of the Wabash

begin to narrow as you go upstream and
, ,

this point marked the dividing line on the

Wabash between the French province s of
Canada and Louisiana .

Fort Harrison while primarily a rela y

,

point for the Tippecanoe expedition was de ,

sign ed a s a permanent defense for Vin

c en n es and the frontiers On Sunday O c .
,

“
tober 27 Tipton notes the garr i s on ch r i st
,

1 32
 TH E DE F E N S E OF FO R T H ARRI S O N

W hetzell the celebrated Indian fighter so

'

, ,

he did not send out an investigating party

’
that night but at 8 o clock in the mornin g
,

a corporal was sent out with a small party ,

who soon reported finding the bodies of the

two men shot and scalped ; and they were
,

brought in and buried Late in the evening .

of the 4th old Josey Renard ( a Kic kapoo ,

whose proper name was N a mah toha or - -

,

“ ” “
Standing sometimes translated Man
on his Feet
-
appeared before the fort with
-

about forty Indians under a white flag and

announced that they wanted to have a talk
in the morning and to try to get something
,

to eat a fter which they retired Captain

,
.

Taylor was alert He examined the arms of

.

t h e men to see that they were in perfect

order issued sixteen rounds of ammuniti on

, ,

and as the night was da rk and the sentinels

,

could not see every part of the fort directed ,

the ofli c er of the guard to patrol the inside .

He then went to bed as he was j ust r ec ov

,

ering from an attack o f fever .

Through the surroundin g woods a force

of about 600 warriors crept to the cover
n earest the fort in the quiet night The a t .

tack w a s planned by a Kickapoo chief known

I SS
 T RUE I N DIA N ST ORI E S

as La Farine ( a French translation of his

Indian name P kw a w shi kiln Judge
’ ’
- -

—
Beckwith makes it Pa koi shee can W hich - - -

is their word for wheat ,and also for flour or

bread made of wheat ) According to his .

own story he made up a bundle of dry grass

, ,

twigs and other combustibles which he

, ,

wra pped in a blanket and fastened on his ,

back Then flat on his face he crawled for

.
, ,

ward with a large kni fe in each hand He

,
.

would stick a knife in the ground and pull

himsel f up to it and then stretch out the
,

other arm Ve ry slowly listening to the

.
,

movements of the sentinels and moving only ,

as they went away from him he crept on ,

till he reached the walls of the lower block

house .

Here fortune favored him The lower .

part of the building was used by the post

contractor for the storage of provisions salt ,

and whisky and the cattle had licked several

,

holes under the bottom logs to get at the

salt In these he introduced his combusti
.

bles and with flint and steel soon had them

,

ignited keeping the flame under cover of

,

his blanket until it was well started Then .

he slipped back into the dar kn ess .

1 36
 TR UE I N DIA N STO RIE S

other m i s fortunes two of ou r stoutest men

,

”
j umped the picket s and left .

But young Taylor had the s ame qualities

“
that gained him the title of O l d Rough and
”
Ready in the Mexican war He quickly .

determined on throwing the roof off of the

barracks where they j oined the blockhouse
, ,

drenching the walls with water and throw ,

'

ing a barricade across the op ening made by

the burning building Having convinced
.

the men that this could be done they worked ,

with desperation to accompli sh it Dr . .

Clark the post surgeon who di s tinguished

, ,

himsel f by his bravery throughout the ac

tion led the party that threw off the roof
, ,

and this wa s done with the l oss o f on e man ‘

killed and two wounded The spread of the .

fire wa s checked and a barricade was soon

,
’
thrown acros s the opening a s high a s a man s
head The s e moves saved the fort
. .

While they were in operation a constant

fire was maintained from the fort and the ,

Indians poured in a heavy fire of bul lets and

an immense number of arrows But they did .

not have the advantage they anticipated .

The fire lighted up the surroundings of the

fort and they did not dare to advance to
,

1 38
 TH E DE F E N S E OF FO R T H ARRI S O N

close quarters They kept up their firing

.

’
until 6 o clock in the morning when daylight ,

made the guns of the fort more e ffective and ,

then withdrew out of range But they drove .

up the horses and hogs of the settlers near

the fort which they could not catch and
, ,

shot them ; and they drove o ff sixty five head -

of cattle belonging to the settlers as well as

the oxen belonging to the fort .

There were only two men killed in the

fort One was engaged in throwing the roof
.

off the barracks and failed to get down

,

when directed The other was firing over the

.

pickets and called that he had ki l led an I n

,

dian ; and as he raised his head above t he

,

pickets to look for his victim was himself ,

shot O f the two men who tried to escape

.
,

one was killed about 13 0 yards from the

fort and the other made his way back to
,

the gate and begged for it to be opened .

T aylor thought this an Indian stratagem

and ordered him shot ; but fortunately Dr .

Clark recognized his voice and directed hi m

to lie down behind a barrel that was lying
near the fort He did so and after daylight
.
,

wa s admitted to the fort with a badly broken

arm and some other inj uries In addition .

I 39
 T RUE I N DIA N ST ORIE S

to these two men were wounded but not

, ,

seriously .

The Indians engaged in the attack were

c hiefly Potawatomis Kickapoo s and Win
,

n eb a gos but Taylor says there were also

,

a number of M iamis A French i nterpreter

.

in the fort asserted that he recognized the

Wea chief Stone Eater ( S é n e m a h0n
,
'
- - -
’

gah ) and the M iami chief N egro Legs ( a

, ,

n ic kname ; his name wa s M ii k kwah k0

’
- -

' “
n on gah which may be rendered Bear
-
,
”
Marks a s it means the s cratches on the
,

bark of a tree made by a bear in climbing ) .

The Indian l oss was never l earned as they ,

carried their dead and wounded away with

them but probably it was not l arge
, .

Be fore night o f the 5 th Taylor had closed

up the gap made by the burned blockhouse
by putting up a strong row of pickets which ,

were obtained by pulling down the gu ard

house The fort was now safe from direct
attack but was i n a bad way for provisions
, ,

as the supplies had been burned ; and for

some day s the inmates had to subsist on
green corn which fortunately was abun
,

dant On the l0th Taylor attempted to send

.

me s senger s to Vincennes by river as none ,

140
 T RU E I N DIA N STO RIE S

of h i s men knew the country but they found ,

the Indians watching the river and were ,

forced to turn back On the 1 3 th Taylor

.

sent two more messengers by land who suc ,

c eeded in getting through but relief was a l ,

ready on the way N ews of the attack on

.

the fort had reached Vincennes on the 6 th

by messengers who had started for Fort
Harrison and had been driven back by the
,

Indians T r oop s were assembling at Vin

.

c en n es for the war and on the 1 2th a force

,

of men under Col William Russell

, .
,

started from Vincennes to the relief of the

fort They found no Indians but a party
.
,

of eleven men that followed th em escorting ,

a provision train for Fort Harrison was ,

“
attacked at The N arrows in Sullivan ,

County and defeated with the loss of seven

, ,

men and all the provisions Colonel Russell

,
.

’
left Colonel Wilcox s regiment of Kentucky
volunteers at the fort temporarily and the , ,

I ndians soon disappeared from the vicinity .

The gallant defense o f Fort Harrison had

a most cheering e ffect on the frontiers and ,

praises were showered on Captain Taylor

and Dr Clark from all sides Taylor was bre
. .

vetted a maj or by Gener a l Harrison and his ,

142
 TH E DE F E N S E OF FO RT H ARRI S O N

regular commission as major followed on

May 1 5 18 14 He served against the I n
, .

dians in the N orthwest during the remainder

of the war taking part in the e xpedition of
,

General Hopkins and other movements a l

, ,

ways with creditable mention I t has long .

been felt that his s ervice to this region has

n ot been recogn ized as it should be and on ,

February 25 1908 the Indiana Society of

, ,

the Sons of the American Revolutio n started

a movement to have the site of Fort Harri
son made a national historic park Its pres .

ent owner Mr Ehrmann i s willing to dis

, .
‘

pose o f it for that purpose but for no other , ,

as he feels that if not consecrated the place

, ,

should at le ast not be desecrated It is cer .

t a i n ly to be hoped that the movement will

succeed an d that Fort Harrison Park will
be handed down to future generation s as a
memorial to American valor .

143
 C HA P T ER V II I .

T H E P I GE O N R OOS T M AS S A C R E .

At the northern border of C lark s Grant ’

a s you cross the spur of the Knobs known ,

“ ”
as the Silver Hills into Scott County you
, ,

come to the valley o f Pigeon Roost Creek .

It was so named because there was here one

of those notable gathering places of the wild
pigeons that were so common in the Ohio
valley in early times Great forests of beech
.

trees furnished their favorite food and ,

countless thousands of these birds gathered

to nest and raise their young They were so .

numerous and so easily taken that they were

sold at 25 cents a bushel Whether from the
.

great slaughter of the pigeons or the r e ,

moval of the beech woods the birds di sa p ,

p ea r ed so completely in the last quarter of

the nineteenth century that it was commonly
believed that either they were extinct or they
had migrated to some other c ountry But no .

eviden c e of any such migration has b een

I 4
4
 P I G EO N R OO S T S ET TL EME N T .

1 M n u mon t e W m E C
2 lli n g h u 3. H
o n y C l ling
s o se . . e r o s

R
.

h u d n
.

c g u u n n g u
. .

o 4
se i . h C lli ar h o5 Z b s l oC lli
se . h . e o o s o se ,

d bl c k h u
.

6 D R i ch i h u 7 J h n B i g h u o s o se
g
an o o se . . r . e o se . .
.

8. C ffm n h u
o a 9 oJe er m
se i
. ah P y
.n e h o u s e 1 0 S i v e C
a k . . r r ee

block house .
 TH E P I G E O N ROO S T MA S S ACRE

r i ed daughters of W i l l iam Collings Scat .

t er ed to the north of the settlement were the

homes of the brothers Jeremiah and Elias ,

Payne Isaac Co ffman and Daniel Johnson

, ,

who were a lso relatives the last three hav ,

ing married three sisters named Bridge

water As a measure of precaution there
.

had been three blockhouses erected in the

vicinity ; one near the present town of Vien
na some six miles north of the Pigeon Roost ;
,

on e about eight mile s southeast of this on

Silver Creek and one five miles south of the

,

Pigeon Roost at the home of Z ebulon Co l

,

lings another son of William

, .

On September 3 18 12 the same day that

, ,

the hostilities began at Ft Harrison a war .

,

party of twelve Shawnees crossed White

R iver at the present town of Sparksville and ,

stealthily made their way to the unsuspect

ing settlement They first came to the cabin
.

o f Elias Payne north of Vienna ,

He wa s .

absent and his wi fe and seven children were

,

speedily killed and scalped Keeping away .

from the Vienna blockhouse they passed on ,

-

to the south but on the way they tried to k ill

,

s ome cows belonging to Jeremiah Payne ,

an d when the anim a l s r a n home b ell owi ng ,

147
 T RU E I N D I AN S TORI E S

wi th arrow s stick i ng i n their side s he rea l ,

i z ed the danger and hastily took his wi fe and

chi ld to the blockhouse He then hurried .

’
away to warn his brother s family but found ,

the cabin in flames while scattered house ,

hold goods and strips o f human flesh hung

on trees showed that the Indians had a c
comp l ished their mission here .

The ne x t victims found by the Indians

were Elias Payne and Isaac Co ffman who ,

were hunting bee trees in the woods north

of Pigeon Roost The s avage s crept up on
'

them and O pened fire killing Co ffman and ,

wounding Payne who fled and was pursued

,

for two miles before he was overtaken and

mortally wounded His faithfu l dog a p
.
,

p a r en t ly reali z ing his master s helpless con

dition returned to the Vienna blockhouse
,

and attracted the attention o f Jeremiah

Payne who boldly started out in search of
,

his brother Led by the dog he found Elias

.
,

unconscious and dying and having put him , ,

in as easy a position as possible he went to ,

get help but on his return Elias was dead

,
.

They buried him where he lay and th e grave ,

is still pointed out near the road west of ,

Vienna .

I 4S
 T RUE I N DIA N STO RIE S

there were fortunately two rifle s N orri s .

could not shoot well on account of his wound

ed shoulder but could aid i n loading the
,

guns The daughter Lydia was set to mold

.

ing bul l ets The boy John had started to

.

drive up the cow s and had caught a horse

for that purpose when he saw an India n
,

approaching Dropping the reins he ran for

.

the house but the Indian was gaining on

,

him when his father caught sight of them ,

and at the crack of his ri fle the pursuer fell ,

while Joh n safely reached the shelter of the

cabin .

Collings took the other rifle and as he ,

looked through the cabin loophole saw a big

’
warrior at the door of Henry Colling s home .

It was a hundred yards away but that was ,

easy shooting for a frontier marksma n and

Collings was a good one as the Indians ,

knew for he had often beaten them in shoot

,

ing matches He fired and the Indian dropped

.

dead The Indians now realized that they

.

had trouble on their hands and one of them ,

tried the strategem o f putting on the dress

and shawl of Mrs Henry Colling s and a p
.
,

p r o a c hi n g in that disguise But the keen .

ey e of Co ll ings detected the deception and

1 50
 T H E P I G EO N ROO ST M A SS ACRE

his deadly rifle ended the li f e o f on e more

redskin After that the enemy kept care
.

fully under cover and apparently divided

,

their forces part going westward in search

,

o f easier prey and part remaining to watch

the Collings house But the occupants of
this were alert and vigilant and gave no Op ,

p o r t u n i ty for attack while daylight lasted .

After dark they realized that the situation

was more dangerous as the Indians might ,

succeed in firing the cabin and they decided ,

to slip away from it and get to the block

house south o i them The children and N or
,
.

ris went ahead taking one of t he guns and

, ,

Collings guarded t he rear The first three .

gained the adjoining cornfield without mo

les t a t i on but as Collings passed the corncrib
, ,

an Indian who was concealed behind it fired

at him but without hitting him He raised
, .

his rifle but found that the Indian s bullet

,
’

had broken the lock and the gun cou ld not

,

be fired He called to N orris to bring back

.

the other gun but N orris either did not hear

,

or did not heed and as the Indians did not

,

attempt to come to close quarters he made ,

his way into the corn where he became en ,

t i r ely separated from the others and the I n ,

1 51
 T RUE I N DIA N STO RIE S

dians followed him He passed through the .

corn and through the woods till he came to

the vicinity of Richie s cabin where he hid ’

behind a log He heard the Indians looking

.

for him but they did not find hi s hiding place

, ,

and at daybreak he started for the block

house which he reached without further
,

trouble Meanwhile N orris and the children

.

lost their way in the darknes s and a fter wan ,

dering hopelessly in the woods until they

were exhausted they sat down to rest and
soon fell asleep notwithstanding the peril of
,

their situation When dayl i ght came they

.

got their bearings and found their way to

the blockhouse in safety .

The defense of the Collings house a l ,

though the active part of it lasted less than

an hour served as a check that probably
,

saved many lives for evening was approach

,

ing and the sound of the firing served as a

,

warning to the scattered settlers The I n .

dians who went to the we s t found only one

home where th e people were not on their
guard This was the residence of John Mor
.

ris who was away on militia service and his

, ,

mother his wife and his only child all fel l

,

victims to the tomahawk The cabin of John .

1 52
 T RUE I N DIA N STO RIE S

escape Ben Yount who lived east o f the

.
,

settlement heard the shooting in the after

,

noon and mounting a horse w i th his wife

, ,

b ehind him and each carrying a child the

, ,

family went to the blockhouse on Silver

Creek Dr John Richie also caught the
. .

alarm while working in the field and hast ,

en i n g home took his wife who was ill upo n

, , ,

his back and carried her through the c om

field to the woods Here they spent most
.

of the night in hiding and reached the ,

lower blockhouse in the morning Mrs . .

Betsey Johnson heard S hooting and screams ,

and started to the blockhouse at once It .

was none too soon for she looked back and

,

saw her house in flames but she made her ,

escape unharmed Mrs Beal who lived

. .
,

near the settlement and whose husband was

,

away with the militia heard the guns and ,

fled to the woods with her two children .

They hid in a sink hole until a fter dark and

-
,

then worked their way to the southern

blockhouse where they arrived at 2 o clock
,
’

in the morning .

After Jeremiah Payne had made pro

vision for his own family he mounted h i s
horse and started to Clark County for aid .

I S4
 TH E P I G E O N R OOST M A SS A C RE

N ight had fallen and the road through the

,

woods was a primitive one but as day was ,

breaking he reached Charlestown The .

alarm was spread rapidly and the mounted

r ifl em en of the militia soon began to gather
‘

A force was quickly started to the scene of

the tragedy under command of Major John
,

M c Coy As they marched along they were

.

joined by others to whom the call for aid had

reached and when they ca me to the Pigeon
,

Roost about 2 o clock in the afternoon there

’

were more than 200 men in the party .

Everywhere was desolation and horror .

—
Only one hous e that defended by Collings
wa s s ta n d i n g and about the ruins were m u
,

t i la t ed bodies of women and children The .

only person found alive was Henry Collings ,

who had recovered consciousness and

crawled into a fl a xh ou s e and concealed him
self He lived but a short time after he was
.

discovered At 3 o clock the trail of the

.
’

Indians was found and followed until dark ,

when the M u s c a cki tu ck River was reached .

It was too swollen to cross in the dark S O ,

the party encamped for the night and in ,

the morning having learned that the I n

,

dians started early on the preceding da y ,

1 55
 T R U E I N DIA N ST ORIE S

and probably could not be overtaken the ,

party returned to the Pigeon Roost .

In recent years a curious error has be

come prevalent of writing the name of this
,

“ ”
stream M u s c a t ata ck though this form
,

was unknown in earlier times It is a Dela .

ware word compounded of M Os ch ach geu

,
-
’
-
,

“
which means clear “ ”
not turbi d
, and ,

’
hit ti1k which as a terminal in composition
'
-
, , ,

“ ”
means a stream and is usually applied to
,

small and swift rivers The proper Indian .

name is M o sch a ch hit tii k the - — ' “

-
ch ”
-

—
sounded as in G erman which ma y be
translated Clear river There is no .

“ ”
foundation for the translation Pond river ,

which is commonly given for the name .

On their return the militia gath ered all the

human remains they could find and buried ,

them on the hill O pposite the Collings

house On the next day September 6 they
.
, ,

were rein forced by a company of sixty vol

u n t eer s from Je ff ersonville under Captain ,

M c Fa r la n d and 3 5 0 volunteers from Ken

,

tucky The united forces decided on a retal

.

i a tory raid on the Delaware towns on White

River but owing to disputes over the or
, ,

a n i z a t i on there being severa l m en desirou s

g ,

1 56
 T RU E I N DIA N ST O RIE S

of command the expedition was not made

, ,

and the forces dispersed It was very well .

that they did for the Delawares had noth

,

ing to do with the massacre and had been ,

friendly to the whites during the Tippecanoe

campaign Moreover the presence of the
.
,

m ilitia was appreciated at home for the ,

whole region had been thrown into a panic ,

and a number of people had left their homes

and gone to Kentucky The courthouse at
.

Charlestown was temporarily c onverted into

a fort for the protection of the town .

But gradually the fear wore o ff and the

people returned to their homes Cabins were .

rebuilt at the Pigeon Roost and work r e ,

sumed but the shadow of the tragedy did

,

not rise for many months though there were ,

very few Indian depredations in that neigh

b or ho od thereafter . Z ebulon Collings one ,

of the returning settlers gives this vivid pic

,

ture of their life while the dread was upon

them : The manner in which I used to work
in those perilous times was as follows : On
all occasions I carried my rifle tomahawk ,

and bu tc h erkn i fe in my belt When I went .

to plow I laid my gun on the plowed ground

and st uck u p a s t ick b y i t for a ma rk so t hat ,

1 58
 TH E P I G E O N R OO ST M A S S A C RE

I cou l d get it quic k in case it wa s wanted I .

had two good dog s ; I took one into the

house l eaving the other out The one out
, .

side wa s e xpected to give the alarm which

would cause the other inside to bar k by ,

which I would be awakened having my ,

arms alwa y s loaded I l eft my horses in the

.

stable c l o s e to the house having a port hole,

-

so that I could shoot to the st able door Dur .

ing two years I never went from home with

an y cert a inty of returning not knowing the ,

minute I might receive a ball from an u n

known hand ; but in the midst of all these
danger s that God who never sleep s nor
,

”
slumbers has kept me .

So far as known the Indians carried

,

away on l y two prisoners on this raid One .

was a litt l e girl three year s o f age named ,

G i n sey M c Coy a cousin of M rs Jeremiah

, .

P ayne She was heard of a fterward in an

.

Indian camp on the Kankakee and a party ,

went to recover her but the Indian s had

,

left and no trace of her could be foun d

, .

Many years later her u ncle the Rev I s aa c , .

M c Coy and his wi fe while on missionary

, ,

work among the Indians west of the M i s s is ,

s i pp i fou nd her the wife o f an I ndi an chi ef

, ,

I S9
 T R U E I N D IA N ST O RIE S

with several chi l dren She had remembered .

her name but had become an Indian in fee]

,

ing She consented to return to Indiana

.

and vis it her relatives but after a short stay ,

rejoined her Indian family for the r emainder

of her life .

The other was a boy abou t 10 years of ,

age nam ed Peter Hu ffman He and a n

, .

other lad were in the woods playing when , ,

they discovered some In dians approaching .

Peter hid behind a l og but was discovered ,

while h i s p laym a te who had crawled into a

'

hollow log escaped Peter was sold to some

, .

other Indians and was carried into Canada

, ,

where he was hel d for a number of years .

At length friends got word of this and Will ,

iam Graham a member of the first c on s t i tu

,

t ion a l convention o f Indiana went to Wash ,

i n gt on in his beha l f He interested Jonathan

.

Jennings then representative in the case

, , ,

and they secured the sympathy of President

Monroe who caused correspondence to be
,

opened on the subject with the Earl of Da l

housie then Governor General of Canada
,
-
.

The Governor interested himself in the mat

ter and by the aid of a Catholic priest who
, ,

was well acquainted among the Indians ,

1 60
 T RUE I N DI A N S TO RIE S

now certa i n ly have to die he gave Colone l

,

John s on a long and apparen tly very candid

account of past transaction s s ince the treaty
of Greenville to the present day He said the.

’
Briti s h had supplied The Prophet s party
with arm s and ammunition before the batt l e
of T ippecanoe ; that Tecum s eh s plan for a
’

common property in their l ands had been

strongly recommended and praised by C01
on el El l iott ; and that the British had used

every means in their power since the year

,

1 809 to s ecure the friendship and aid of the

,

Indian s in the event of a war with the

—
Un i ted State s having invited them to
Malden and made them pre s ents for that
purpo s e ; and having also represented to
them that they should receive British aid to
drive the Americans over the Ohio River ,

after which they should live in the houses

of the inhabitants and have their daughters
for wives He said he was convinced that
.

the British had deceived them and that the

,

Great Spirit had forsaken him i n his old age

”
for his cruelty and wickedness .

For n inety year s the grave of the victims

was marked only by a giant sassafras tree ,

over fourteen feet in circumference at its

1 62
 TH E P I G EO N R O O S T M A S S A CRE

b ase ; bu t by act o f Feb r u ary 1 1 19 03 an

, ,

appropriation of was mad e by the

Legislature through the e fforts o f the Hon
, .

James W Fortner of Je ffersonville for a

.
, ,

monument to the victims of the massacre .

On October 1 19 04 the completed monu

, ,

ment a fine shaft o f Bedford limestone was

, ,

dedicated It towers forty four feet above

.
-

the grave companion sentry with the old

,

sassafras which is fast falling to decay ;

,

mutely calling to memory the most fearful

Indian tragedy that wa s ever known to the
s oil o f Indian a .

163
 C HA P T ER I X .

THE S E R V I C E O F LO G A N .

The name of L ogan has three associations

with the Indian history o f Indiana The .

first is through the M ingo chief whose p a ,

thetic speech Who is there to mourn for

,
”
?
Logan has become one o f the gems of the
world s eloquence This speech was d c liv
’
.

ered to John Gibson first Secretary and

,

some time acting Governor of Indiana Ter

r i to ry
. When a young man Gibson was ,

captured by the Indians and was about to

,

be put to death when he was saved by an

,

aged squaw who adopted him as her son

,
.

He lived with the Indians for several years ,

married a sister of Logan and b ecame

versed in several Indian langu ages In 1 7 7 4 .

’
he was with Lord Dunmore s expedition
when some Indians met it under a flag of
truce and asked that some one b e sent to
them who could speak their langu age Gib .

s on wa s sent with them and having met the

, ,

1 64
 T R UE I N D I A N STO RIE S
’
Genera l Lo gan s son i n law He received - -
.

the name o f James Logan and the name fol

lowed him when shortly afterward in an, ,

exchange of prisoners he wa s returned to ,

his peop l e .

Logan became widely and favorably

known to both Indians and whites He was .

a fin e looking fellow six feet tal l and splen

-
,

d i dly formed with courage of the highest

,

quality He was always a firm friend of the

.

whites and on the breaking out of the war

,

of 18 12 he j oined the American army and ,

acted as one of the guides on the march of

Genera l Hull s army to Detroit Soon after
’
.

he was intrusted with an important mis

sion The Indians in the vicinity of Ft
. .

Wayne were giving indications of hostility ,

and it wa s considered desirable to remove

the women and children at that p oint to a
place of greater safety John Johnston the .
,

Indian agent at Piqua knowing Logan well , ,

and having great confidence in him selected ,

him for this duty Logan j ustified his .

choice by bringing from Ft Wayne to Piqua .

,

near ly one hundred miles through the wil

derne s s twenty five women and children not
,
-
,

only in safety but bearing grateful testi

,

1 66
 T RUE I N DIA N S T OR IE S

mony to his delicacy and kindness It i s .

said that Logan s sense of responsibility

’

was so strong that he did not sleep while th e

journey was in progress .

The precaution was timely for after the ,

surrender of Detroit by General Hull on

August 16 Ft Wayne was soon invested by
,
.

a force of about five hundred warriors .

They pretended to be friendly but secret ln ,

formation sent to Antoine Bondie an Indian ,

trader whom it was the desire of M e té ah

,
’
- -

( Kiss M e —a Potawatomi chief who lived ,

at Cedar Creek nine miles above Ft ,

.

Wayne ) to protect put the garrison on ,

guard The situation however was peril

.
, ,

ous There were less than a hundred men

.

in the fort and only two thirds of them were

,
-

fit for duty The commandant Captain

.
,

Rhea was old and was made completely ln

,

competent by intemperance The Indians .

,

finding n o chance for taking the fort by as

sault decided to try treachery and a plan
, ,

was formed by a cele brated Potawatomi

—
chief named Winamac ( Cat Fish not the
one who figured at Fort Dearborn the —
name was common among the Pota wa t
omis ) He gained the confidence of Captain
.

1 68
 T RUE I N DIA N ST ORIE S

Oliver should make an attempt to reach the

fort accompanied by Logan and two other
,

Shawnees known as Captain Johnny and

,

B r i gh tho r n .

They started at dayb reak o f September 3 ,

well mounted and well armed and proceed ,

ing cautiously reached a point four miles

,

east of Fort Wayne before they found any

fresh signs of the enemy Here Logan .

found places where they had recently been

watching the road and abandoning it they
, , ,

cut across to the Maumee which they ,

reached about a mile and a half from the

fort Leaving their horses in the brush they
.

reconnoitered on foot and finding no evi ,

denc e of Indians between them and the fort ,

they remounted regained the road and

, ,

made a dash for the east gate They reached .

it without interruption but found it locked , ,

and none of the garrison at hand The In .

dians had moved around to the west and

south sides in preparation for their a s sault ,

and the garrison was preparing for the con

’
ference Oliver s party slipped down the
.

bank of the Maumee and up again to the,

north side coming around the corner of the

,

fort as Winamac and his party of chiefs

17 0
 TH E S ERV I CE OF LOGA N

came aro u nd the Opposite corner on their

treacherous mis s ion They were completely .

disconcerted by the unexpected arrivals ,

whom they took to be forerunners of a large

force and after sh aking hands an d pro test
, ,

i ng friendship Winamac and his party with

,

drew and Oliver s party wa s admit ted to

,
’

the fort Quickly grasping the situation

.
,

Oliver hastily wrote a letter to Worthing

ton detailing the need o i speedy relief and
, ,

while the bes eiger s were sti ll in con fusion

and indecision the east gate was O pened
,

and Logan Captain Johnny and B r i ght hor n

,

were started with i t to Wor th i ngton s camp ’

.

The enemy di d not discover them until they

were well started and then attempted a ,

pur s uit but the Shawnees escaped them and

,

reached Worthington the next morning .

T he arrival of O l iver s party was remark

’

ably Op portune for it was agreed by the gar

,

rison that there had not been another hour

in th e previous eight days in which they
cou l d possibly have reached the fort in
sa fety .

Immediate ly after their return from the

pursuit the Ind i ans began a furious attack
,

on the fort wh i ch was kept up for seven

,

17 1
 T RUE I N DI A N STO R IE S

days Several times they succeeded in firing

.

buildings with burning arrows but the gar ,

rison always succeeded in extinguishing the

flames and repulsing their assaults The de .

fen s e was resolute and vigilant Captain ,

Rhea was practically deposed from com

mand and his lieutenants Curtis and Os
, ,

t ra n der aided by Oliver and Major Stickney

, ,

the Indian agent took charge of a ffairs

,
.

Several days after Oliver s arrival the be ’

,

s ei ger s gained possession of a trading house -

near the fort from which they demanded the

,

surrender of the fort promising protection ,

in case of surrender and threatening exter

,

mination otherwise They asserted that they

.

had been reinforced by a number of Indians

a n d two cannons with British artillerists
,
.

Meeting a prompt refusal they began a fu ,

r i ou s attack on the fort but the garrison ,

was ready for them Every man was at his

.

post with several loaded gu ns at his side

,
.

The pretended cannon were made of wood ,

reinforced by hoop iron by some British ,

traders who were with them One of these .

burst at the first discharge and the other at ,

the second Lieutenant Curtis who was in

.
,

command directed the men not to fire until

,

17 2
 T RU E I N DIA N S TO RIE S

R apids , destroying Indian villages and prop

er ty as it advanced .

On N ovember 21 General Harrison sent

’ ’
out Black Hoof ( M a ko t t a way kah sha- - - - -

the name is written variously usually ,

dropping the first syllable ) the principal ,

chief of the Shawnees with about twenty ,

warriors including Logan to reconnoiter

, ,

in the direction of the Rapids They en .

countered a superior force of hostile I n

dians and were f orced to retreat The
,
.

p ursuit was so vigorous that they dispersed ,

most of the party going to Fort M c A r th u r ,

while Logan with Captain Johnny and

,

B r i ght h o r n made their way to the cam p o f

,

General Winchester They told their story

.
,

which was generally credited ; but one Ken

tucky o ffi cer expressed doubt of their sin
cer i ty and this so touched the sensibility of
,

Logan that he announced that they would

give proof of their loyalty on the morrow .

The next morning the three Indians left the

camp going toward the Rapids They p ro
, .

c eed ed without incident until noon when ,

they dismounted to rest Here they were .

surprised by a band of seven hostile I n

dians under command of Elliott a hal fbreed , ,

I 74
B LA CK H OO F ( M A KOT T A WA Y KA H S H A )
- - - - - .

F om P t ai t fo m e ly i n N at i on l Galle y )
r or r r r a r .
 T RU E I N DIA N S T ORIE S

wh o held a commission as lieutenant i n the

British service and Winamac the Pota
, ,

wa tom i chief who had figured so promi

n en t ly at Fort Wayne .

Four of the hostile party were mounted ,

and there was no chance for escape With .

quick g rasp of the situation Logan walked ,

boldly up to Winamac with whom he was ,

well acquainted and said that they had

,

tired of the American service and were on ,

their way to give information to the British

commander After some parley this ex p la
.

’
nation was accepted but Logan s party
,

were disarmed and they all started toward

the British camp After traveling a while
.

they so gained the confidence of their cap

tors that their guns were restored to them ,

but later Logan overheard Winamac a dv i s

ing Elliott that the prisoners should be
killed He then determined to take the i n
.

i t i a t i v e and the opportunity soon came when

,

the party stopped to gather some haws At .

a signal Logan shot Winamac and Captain

Johnny shot Elliott B r i ghth orn held his
.

fire until the others had loaded and then ,

mortally wounded a young Ottawa chief

who was with their captors The firin g n ow .

17 6
 T RU E I N DIA N ST O RIE S

he faced death Logan disp l ayed much con

,

cern for his two boys and l eft a dying in

,

j unction to John Johnston the Indian agent , ,

to send them to Kentucky to be educated

among his friends there Johnston tried to .

execute this request but was prevented by

,

their mother who was backed by the Shaw

,

nee chiefs i n her opposition to sending them

so far away The matter was fina l ly com
.

promised by attempting their education at

the agency but the facilities there were
,

slight and the boy s finally rej oined t heir

tribe where they became as wi l d as any of
,

their kindred .

The Indian name of Captain Logan is u s

“
u a lly written S p em i c a L a wba and trans .

“ ”
lated High Horn but it occurs in other
,

forms In the treaty o f 18 1 7 provision is

.
,

“
made for the children of Captain Logan or ,

S p a m ag ela be who fell in the service of the

,

”
United States during the late war The .

“ ”
first word is the Shawnee s p ii m m ii k ’
-
,

“ ” “
which also means above or on top .

This confusion of vowel sounds is very com

mon in Indian names and is very natural
, ,

for the s p elling i s phonetic and it i s often ,

17 8
 TH E S ER V I C E OF LO G A N

almost impossible to determine the short

vowe l s .

In the spring of 1828 there gathered ln

forma lly a t the site of Logansport a litt l e
knot of early settlers and others interested , ,

to se l ect a name for the new to wn which had

j ust been surveyed Gener al Tipton who .
,

admired c l assic titles proposed an a ll eged ,

“
Latin compound said to mean Mouth of ,

the Eel which was the name commonly

”
,

given to the p l ace at that time by the whites .

Another proposed Ke na p e com a qua the — - - - - -

common form of the M iami name of Ee l

River and o f their old town at the mouth of
that stream It is properly Ké n a pé kw0
.
’
- -
’
-

m a kwa i e Eel or literally snake fis h or

’
-
, . .
, , ,
-
,

snake water animal Others proposed v a

-
.

r i ou s names and finally Hugh B M c Keen

,
.
,

a son in la w of Barron the Indian inter

- -
,

preter who had formerly been in the India n

,

trade at Ft Wayn e proposed the name of

.
,

Logan in commemoration of this friend of

,

the whites The suggestion pleased Colonel

.

“ ”
Duret who proposed that port be added
,

to round it out and by common consent the ,

name was adopted And so there was gi v en .

a monument more lasting than stone or

I 79
 T RU E I N D I A N S T OR I E S

bronze to this Indian soldier who died for

the peop l e against whom he had fought as
a child
.

1 80
 TRU E I N D I A N S T ORIE S

commun icat e readily with one another by

the sign lan guage and a l so with the deaf ,

and dumb .This ha s been fully demon

s t r a t ed by the experiments of Profes s or Gal

la u det a n d others O f course in the l atter

.
,

they do not use the common mode of the

deaf and dumb o f spelling out words with
,

letters but use the general idea sign s which

,

the dea f and dumb all use to some e x tent .

Indeed we a ll use them to some e xtent as

, ,

in shaking or nodding the head .

In summer any boy knows what another

,

boy mean s when he hold s up a hand with

the first and s econd fi ngers extended like a
V That is the natura l sign for a valley and
.
,

the contracted S i gn for a stream The I n .

dians comp lete it in the l atter sense by bring

ing a finger tip of the other hand to the
crotch of the V and moving it awa y in a ,

wavy line indica ing the flow of a strea m

,
t

through it s channel From this come s the .

’
common boy s S ign for going swimming .

The name of this Dela ware record

”
Walam O l um indicates the character of
the record In the Delaware langu age
.
,

“ ” “ ”
wa l am means paint and olum means ,

a record stick on which the record us ua l ly

,

1 82
 T RUE I N DI A N ST O RIE S

was made by notches Hence the name .

,

means the painted stick record or as it has , ,

sometimes been translated Painted Rec ,

”
ords o r Painted Sticks or as Professor
, , ,

Brinton sugges ts The Red Score because

, ,

walam i s sometimes used spec i ally for red

paint or vermilion
, .

For the preservation of these pi eto

graphs the world is indebted to the cele
,

b r a t ed R a fin es qu e ( Constantine Samuel R a
fin es qu e Schmaltz ) whose name is some
-
,

what familiar I n Indiana because he was ,

one of the most picturesque of the charac

ters attracted to N ew Harmony He was .

of French German parentage but was born

-
,

in Turkey in 1 7 84 He was in the United

, .

States from 1802 to 1805 and returned in ,

18 1 5 l iving here till his death in 1842 He

, .

was an all round scientist who published a

-
,

l arge amount of matter but was discredited ,

by contemporary scientists who doubted his ,

remarkable discoveries and it is only in r e ,

cent years that the real value of his work

has been recogn ized And this is what hap .

pened as to the Walam Olum for it was ,

not until after his death that it was given

to the public .

1 84
 T RU E IND I AN S TOR IE S

T he r ecord beg in s w i th an accoun t of the

cr ea tion of the world which is followed by
,

a n account of the deluge and thi s by the ,

story of the Delaware nation and it s v a rious

chiefs The open ing words are as fol low s :
.

1
. At first in that place at al l time s
, , ,

above the earth .

2. On the e a rth was an extended fog ,

and there the gr eat Manito was .

3. At first forever lost in space every

, , ,

where the great M anito was

,
.

4 He made the extended l and and the

.

sky.

5. He made the sun the moo n the star s, , .

6. He made them all to move evenly .

7. Then the wind blew violently and it ,

cleared and the water flowed o ff far and

,

strong .

8. And groups of islands grew newly ,

and there remained .

This i s so similar to the first chapter of

Genesis that one might naturally suppose it
the source of the ideas but archaeologists ,

agree tha t the Walam Olum is an entirely

independent and original record Its lan .

“
guage is not missionary Delaware but of ,

an earlier ch aracter ; and the line of

1 86
 TH E W A LA M O LU M

thought quickly le aves the Bible l i n e T h e .

great Manito ( Ki ta n i to ) m a de on ly th e
things that were good for mankind ; an d
—
then came an evil Manito M a ska n ako the ,

—
great serpent w h o made all the bad things ,

mosquitoes gnats and flies ; he brought

,

quarrel ing and unhappiness and bad wea th ,

er and sickness and death ; and then to cap

, ,

the climax he brought a great flood to

,

dro wn man and the other animals But his .

evil design was thwarted by N a n a bu sh an ,

Algonquian deity who was a sort of patron

saint of men who created the great turtle
,

and gathered man and the anima l s on its

back with the aid of the Manito daughter
,

( Manito dasin
-
) unti l the deluge subsided ,

as recounted in the accompanying extract .

The picture record brings the history down

to the discovery of America and ends with
these words :
“
At this time from north and south the
, , ,

whites came .

“
They are peaceful they have great ,

”
things ; who are they ?

But there is another chapter o f the Dela

ware text bringing the story down to the
,

removal of the Delawares from Indiana in ,

1 87
 T RUE I N D I A N S T ORIE S

1820, written by one of the I n diana De l a

w ares and as one of the earliest known pro
,

du ct i on s of an Ind i ana author is of specia l

note It is as follows
—
.

S ON G V I T HE M OD E R N C H R O N I C L E .

1 .A l as alas $ We now know who they

,

are these W a p s i n i s ( Eas t people )

, ,

who c ame ou t o f the sea to rob us of

~

our lands Starving wretches $ they

.

came with smiles but soon becam e ,

snakes ( or enemies ) .

2 . The W a lu molu m was made by Lek

b ibit ( The Writer ) to record our glory .

Sha ll I write another to record our

fall? N o $ O ur foes have taken care
to do that ; but I speak what they
know not or concea l .

3 .We have had many other chiefs since

that unhappy time There were three .

before the friendl y M ikwon ( M iquon

or Penn ) came M a tt a n i ku m ( N ot
Strong ) was chief when the W i n akoli
*

( Swedes ) came to W i n a k i N ahumen

( Raccoon ) when the S i n a lw i ( Dutch )
came and I kwa h on ( Fond o f V omen )
,
V - -

‘
N o te b y R a fin eeq u e M a tta n i k u m was c ef i n 1645 hi He i s
ll h l l
.

ca ed M a t te- o r n b y H o m w h o , b y a. b u n d e r , h a s mad e h i s n a m e
h l i h
.

a t S we d s h Ho rn i s n o t Le n a p i M a t ta n i k u m m ean s N o t- orn ed ,
h h l h i li l h
. .

”
w i t ou t o r n s , e m b em o f a v n g t t e s t re n gt ,

1 88
P i c tographr
.

i I . A ma nga ne k ma kd op a nnek
a lend y u wc k m et zi p a nnek .

12 . Ma n i to das i n-
mo ko l-wi c he
ma p ,

Palpa l paya t payat wem i c he

map .

13 . N a nab o u s h N a nab o u s h we
m i moko m ,

W i n i mo ko m li nn i mo ko m t u
I amo ko m .

I 4 Li nap i ma t u lap ma t u lape

. i --

wi tap itawi .

W i s ha nem t u lp eW i p ata ma n
i s .

t u lp c wi p o u lt o n wu li to u .

I 6 . Ks hip eh c le n p enk wi h i le n ,

Kwa m i p o kho s i twa li kh o ,

M a s ka n waga n pa lli wi p a l
li wi
S AM P L E P A G E

1 90
 E ngli s h .

11 . T h ere w e re ma ny mo nster fis h es wh i c h , ate s o me of

t h em .

12 . T he M an i to d a u ghter xmi
co ng, h el ped wi t h her canoe ,

h el p d e a ll, a s h
t ey ca me and ca me .

13 .
[ A ]
nd a ls oN a nab u s h Na nab u s h t he gra nd fa t , he r o f
a ll t he gra nd fat e r o f be i ngs t he gra nd fat
, h , h er of

men , t he gra nd fa t h e r o f t he t u rt l e .

14 . T he men t h en were to get h er o n t he l l i ke

t u rt e , to
t u rt esl .

15 . Fri g tened
h l e t h ey p rayed o n the
on t he t u rt , l
t u rt e
t h at wh at was sp o i l ed h o u l d b e res to red s .

16 . T he wate r ran o ff, the ea rth d i ed t he l a kes were at

r ,

res t , a ll wa s s i l ent , a nd t he m i gh ty s nake d ep a rted .

OF TH E W A LA M O LU M .

19 1
 T RUE I N DIA N ST ORIE S

But in the north were the children of

Lowi S a ki m a ( King Louis ) who were
-
,

our good friends friends of our ,

friends foes of our foes yet with

, ,

D oloj o wished always to war .

We had three chiefs after M ikwon

—
came S ka li ch who was another Ta
,

m en en d and S a su n am W ikw ikh on

,
-

( Our uncle
-
the builder
-
) and
-
T u t a m i ,

( Beaver taker ) -
who was killed
,
by a
Yan kwako ( English snake ) and then ,

we vowed revenge .

N eta ta wi s ( First new being ) became - -

chief of all the nations in the west .

Again at T a lligew i nk ( Ohio or place ,

o f T a llegw i ) on the River Cuyahoga ,

near our old friends the T alam a ta n s ,

.

And he cal l ed on all them of the east

( to go to war ) .

But T a desku n g was chief in the east

at Mahoning and was bribed by,

Yankw i s ; then he wa s burnt in his

cabin and many of our people were
,

killed at Hickory ( Lancaster ) by the

land robber Yankwi s
-
.

Then we joined Lowi in war against

the Yankwi s but they were s trong ,

192
 T RUE I N DIA N ST OR I E S

Gen era l Wayne ) who made s trong ,

war .

We next made peace and settl ed lim

its and our chief was Hackin gpou s
,

kan ( Hard walker ) who was good -

,

and peaceful He would not join our .

brothers the S h a wan i s and Ottawas

, ,

and D oloj o in the next war .

Yet after the last peace the Kichi ,

kani Ya nkw i s came in swarms al l

-

around us and th ey desired also ou r

,

lands of W a p a h a n i It was us eless to .

resist because they were getting

,

stronger and stronger by joining fires .

Ki t ht i lka n d and L a p a n i b i t were the

chiefs of our two tribes when we
reso lved to exchange our l ands and r e ,

turn at last beyond the M a s i s p ek ( M is

s i s s i pp i River ) near to our old co un ,

t ry .

We shall be near our foes the Wakon

( Osages ) but they are not
,
worse than
the Ya n kw i s a kon ( English snakes ) ,

who want to possess the whole Big

island .

Shall we be free and happy then at , ,

4
19
 TH E W A LAM O LU M

th e n ew W a p aha n i ? We want res t

a ndpeace and wisdom , .

A l ittle explanation may make this more

“
intelligi bl e In the n inth ver s e Tame
n c nd mean s a ff able or a greeabl&li ter a lly
.
,
”

beaver l ike The reference i s to the cele

-
.

b r ated chie f who was the ori ginal of St .

“ ”
Tammany In the tenth verse T a li gewi
.

should perhaps be A lli gew i though Brinton ,

thinks that the Ta l ega were Cherokees The .

T a la m a ta n s were Hurons or Wyandots ,

otherwise known as D elem a tten os In verse .

“ ”
11, Mahoning is the Delaware word for
“ ”
deer lick In ver s e 13 Alimi i s ev i dent ly
-
.
,

an error a s it was the na me of George

,

White Eye s a descendan t of the original

,

Captain White Eyes of the R evolu t i on a r v ,

“
period The latter s name wa s Kogu etha
.
’

“
g e c h t on which
,
means large white s pace
”
showing in the eyes In ver s e 16 the .
,

name Ha ckin gp ou ska n ”

accordi ng to ,

Heckewelder s hould be Hackink Pomskan , ,

“ ”
a nd mean s to walk on the ground He .

was the ch i ef who was charged with witch

craft by The Prophet but defied him and , ,

“
escaped unharmed In ver s e 18 Ki tht i l .
,
”
kand i s W i ll iam Anderson and Lap a ni ,

I 9S
 T RU E I N DIA N S TO R I E S

bit i s the chief whose name i s attach ed to

“
the treaty of 18 18 as La hp a n i h le or B i g ,

”
Bear .

The extract gives a forcible presentation

of the sad feelings with which the Dela
wares left their homes i n Indian a and t heir ,

forebodings a s to their new home in the

“
West They were not destined to find rest
.

”
and peace They located fir s t in Kansa s
.

and remained there until 186 7 when the ,

neighboring whites became so annoying

that they sold their lands and with the con
, ,

sent of the Government bought lands in the

,

Cherokee country in Indian Territo ry Here .

they did well until the Dawes commission

apportioned the Cherokee l ands in severa l ty ,

and with the inscrutable intelligence that

,

occasionally invades Indian a ff airs made ,

no provision for the Delawares who had ,

bought their l and s of the Cherokees with ,

the consent and approval of the Government .

N ow the remnant are begging Congre s s

, ,

a n d have been for severa l years to do the ,

simple justice of giving them what rightful

ly belong s to them according to our own
l aw s and in conformity w i th eve ry dictate of
honesty and decency .

1 96
 T RU E I N DIA N STO R I E S

removed and the rock ledge has been par

t i a lly cut to drain lands above and the fall ,

is now not very striking in appearance .

’
The M iami name of the stream i s Ch a nk
“ ”
t iI n oon gi or
’
Makes a N oise P l ace and
'
- - - -
, ,

the unu s ua l occurrence of a place name for

a stream i s due to the reference to these
same falls The site of Indianapolis being
.
,

at the mouth of Fall Creek wa s also called ,

’ ’
Ch ank tfin oon gi by the M iamis and the
- - -
,

name is a l so sometimes given to I n d i an a p o

lis The falls were noted among the I ndians
.

on their own account ; and in the period o f

white settlement the place has become nota
ble for two events that occurred there the —
mobbing of Frederick Douglass in the days ,

o f slavery agitation and the conviction and ,

execution of certain white men for the mur

der of a party of Indians .

After the Delawares moved west from I n

diana their villages on White River wer e
,

partially occupied for several year s by In

dians from the northern part of the State ,

and their lands were common hun ting

grounds until the progres s of s ettlement
drove out the game In the spri ng of 1824 .

a sma ll party of Indian s camped on the

1 98
 T HE T RA G ED Y O F T HE F A LL S

headwaters of Lick Creek some eight miles ,

east of the falls and about a mile northeast

,

of the present village of Markleville There .

were two men in the party one a Shawnee ,

known as Lud low and the other a Miami

, ,

who went by the name of Logan With .

them were three women two boys about ten ,

.

years of age and two girls who were young

,

er The men were engaged in hunting and

.

trapping and the whole party was quiet and

,

ino ffensive But they had been very suc

.

c es s fu l in their hunting and had a large ,

quantity of furs in addition to a good supply

,

of kettles and utensils for making ma p le

sugar ; and their property excited the greed
of a white man named Harper living in the ,

vicinity
. He was a frontiersman of the
reckless class who often boasted of the num
,

ber of Indians he had killed and open ly ,

maintained that it was no worse to kill an

Indian than to kill a wild animal He se .

cured the alliance oi James Hudson another ,

trapper of somewhat better character and ,

these two took into their plot Andrew Saw

yer and John T Bridge brothers i n law
.
,
- -
,

two settler s who were clearing farms near

by.

1 99
 T RUE I N D IA N S TO R I E S

On Monday March 22 these four men

, , ,
’
accompanied by Bridge s son John a strip ,

ling of nin eteen years and a boy named ,

Andrew Jones appeared at the Indian camp

, ,

profes s ing to be in s earch of s ome lost

horses The Indians readily con s ented to
.

aid in the search and Ludlow started in one

,

direction followed by Harper and the Mi

, ,

ami in another followed by Hudson the

, ,

rest of the party bringing up the rear After .

going a short distance Harper shot Ludlow

in the b ack instantly killing him At the
, .

report of his gun Hudson S hot the M iami ,

Logan in the same manner The five men

, .

then returned to the camp and O pened fire

on the helples s survivors S awyer and each .

of the Bridges shot a squaw and Sawyer ,

then shot the oldest boy but did not kill him
,
.

The other children were killed but it was ,

not definitely learned by whom as all the ,

party were shooting Seeing that the boy.

he had shot was not dead Sawyer seized ,

him by the legs and dashed his brains out

on a log The murderers plundered the
.

camp of everything of v alue and mutilated ,

the bodie s of their victims to c reate the i m ,

2 00
 T RUE I N DI A N ST O RIE S

William Conner visited the Indians and as

sured them that the Government would pun
ish the murde rers .

But meanwhile the settlers had been

, ,

moving Parties were at once formed to

.

apprehend the murderers a nd suspicion ,

q uickly fell on the guilty parties Harper .

managed to escape but within a week the

,

others were under arres t and had mad e p a r

tial confession while sufficient evidence had
,

been obtained to demonstrate their guilt A .

session of the Circ uit Court occurred at P en

dleton in April and on the 9 th of that month
,

the four prisoners were indicted for murder ,

but on account of the illness of the presiding

judge their trials were set for the October
term Meanwhile the prisoners were con
.

fined ln the new j ail a structure of hewn

,

logs fitted closely together with one door ,

and no windows and surrounded by a stock

,

ade of heavy posts set in the ground On .

July 20 the prisoners all escaped but they ,

were soon recaptured and a fter that they ,

were heavily ironed and guarded day and

night by a specially appointed body of men
p a i d by the Indian Department .

A t that t i me the circuit courts of Ind iana ,

202
 T HE T RA G ED Y OF T H E F A LLS

were co m posed of three members a p r es i d ,

ing j udge who was learned in the la w and

, ,

two associates who were not and whose ,

function was presumably to temper the law

with common sense The presiding judge
.

was William W Wick a young man but an

.
, ,

excellen t lawyer who afterward became

,

quite prominent in the State The associate .

j udges were Adam W i n s ell the v illage ,

blacksmith and Samuel Holliday both pio

, ,

n eer s o f e x cellent character .

The members of the bar used occasionally

to have a little quiet diversi on with the as
sociate judges and on October 7 the court
, ,

having been opened in the absence of the

presiding judge the attorney s for the de
,

fendants asked for a writ of habeas corpus ,

for the release of their clients After a .

somewhat perplexing argument Judge Win ,

“
sell disposed of the matter by saying It
would do you no good to bring out the pris
oners I ironed them myself and you w ill
.
,

never get them irons o ff until they are tried ,

”
habeas corpus or no habeas corpus On .

the arrival of Judge Wick th e prisoners

were arraign ed and asked for separate
,

trials and on the next morni ng the trial of

,

29 3
 T R U E I N DIA N S T OR I E S

Jame s Hudson began The court was held .

in the cabin of Wi l liam M c Ca r tn ey there ,

being no courthouse The prosecutor was .

Harvey Gregg a prominent l awyer of ear l y

,

times and the Indian Department had em

,

ployed to assist him Gen James N oble and .

,

his s on i n l aw Philip Sweetser both able

- -
, ,

l awyer s General N oble was U nited States

.

Senator from Indiana from 18 16 to his

death in 183 1 and was considered the
, ,

strongest j ury lawyer of the Indiana bar .

The defense was represented by William R .

Morris Calvin Fletcher Bethuel F Morris

, , .

and Martin M Ray all excellent lawyers

.
, .

The jury was typica l of the frontie r It .

was noted that every juryman wore mocca

sins and carried a hunting kni fe The evi .

dence was brief consisting chiefly of the te s

,

t i m ony of the boy Andrew Jones The facts , .

were practically undisputed and the de ,

’
fendants attorneys devoted most of the day
to the recita l of Indian atrocities on the
frontier b ut the appeal to prej udice was of
,

no avail The case went to the jury that

.

night and in the morning it returned a ver

,

dict o i murder Hudson was called up for

.

sentence and Judge Wick delivered an i m

,

204
 T RUE I N DIA N ST O RIE S

such o bj ections as that the grand j ury had

been chosen by the clerk instead of the Coun
t y Commissioners and that the clerk had i n
,

t en t i on a lly included men not qualified to

serve as trial j urors It hesitated a little
.

over the fact that the defense had not been

allowed to ask the j urors whether they b e
li eved that a conviction was necessary for
the protection of themselves and their fam
i li es from the Indians ; but decided that a l ,

though such a belief would disqualify a

“
juror the j uror could not be asked to testi
,

”
fy to his own depravity .

On the night of N ovember 1 3 the same

-

day on which the Supreme Court made its

—
decision Hudson managed to escape from
the j ai l and was assisted over the stockade
,

by his fellow prisoners

-
In his e ffort to
.

elude the pursuit he waded Fall Creek where

it was quite deep and as the night was cold
, , ,

he became so chilled by his wet c lothing that

he was unable to go on He crawled into
.

a hollow log for shelter but his feet were ,

exposed and were so badly frozen that he

could not walk Here he was found com
.
,

p le t ely helpless ,
and taken back to j ail O n.

January 12 the sentence was executed The .

206
 T RU E I N DIA N ST ORIES

s ca ffold wa s erected at the edge of the bot

t om la n d north of the j ail The neighboring .

hillside was cover ed with spectators from

all the country round including several In
,

dians who had come to see i f punishment

,

would actually be made Hudson had to be .

helped to the sca ffold being in such pitiable

,

condition as excited the sympathy of those

who saw him He made full con fession be
.

fore his death This i t is said was the first

.
, ,

instance of a white man being executed for

the murder of an Indian in the U nited
States Certainly it was the first case in this
.

region Men were arrested and tried re

.

p e a t ed ly in territori al times for murdering

Indians but the juries always refused to
,

convict although by treaty we were bound

,

to punish such o ffenders Governor Harri .

son complained o f thi s repeatedly in letters

to the Government and in messages to the
Legislature It was the more shameful be
.

cause the Indians either surrendered their

o ffenders or punished them In 18 1 1 hav .
,

ing demanded of the Delawares the surren

der of an Indian charged with robbery Gov ,

“
er n o r Harrison wrote They said they
wo u l d n ever deliver up another man u nti l
208
 T RU E I N DIA N ST ORIE S

the crime by the older men On May 12 the .

elder Bridge was convicted of murder On .

May 1 3 Sawyer was tried for killing the In

dian boy The prosecution dwelt on the
.

atrocity of the o ffense and M r Smith hold

,
.
,

ing the bloody shirt of the lad before the

jury urged on them that although the
, ,

shooting of the squaw might be m a n s la u gh;

ter the brutal ki lling of the wounded boy
,

could be nothing but murder A verdict of .

murder was returned and on the following

,

morning the three men were sentenced to

be hanged on June 3 It was a pathetic
.

scene as the elder Bridge gray and already

,

bent with age stood with his brother i n law

,
- -

and his favorite son to receive the sentence .

They were haggard from their long con fin e

ment and dej ected by the certainty of their
,

fate The tears ran down their faces and

.

the crowded courtroom was filled with their

’
groans and sighs Judge Eggleston s face
.

was pale and his voice quivered The sol .

em n conclusion of the sentence And may ,

”
God have mercy on your souls could ,

scarcely be heard .

On June 3 the sentence was executed in

the presence of a larger assemblage than
 TH E T RA G ED Y OF TH E FA LL S

before Again there were a number of I n

.

dians in attendance Sawyer and the elder .

Bridge were brought out first and hanged

from the same sca ffold on w hich Hudson
had died But there was an added horror
. .

Sawyer was a powerful man and at the fatal

moment by a desperate e ffort he broke the
, ,

cords that fastened his arms and clutched

the rope above his head Then ensued an .

awful struggle while the S heri ff and his as ,

s i s t a n t s pulled down his arms and refastened

them When both men were dead they were

.

cut down and laid in their co ffi ns and young

Bridge was helped up the sca ffold by the
sheri ff The black cap was pulled down
.

over his face Then there was a stir in the

.

crowd and Governor Ray mounted the s c a f

fold and announced the pardon of the youth ,

which was received with a general cheer .

But when his face was uncovered his blank .

stare showed that executive clemency had

come too late Reason had fled *
The a p
. .

proval of the spectators gave way to regret

that the pardon had been delayed so long .

Tradition has it that an Indian chief present

was asked if they were satisfied and that he
‘
B ri d ge s s u b seq u e n t ly i
r e ga n ed his rea so n a n d li ved i
t o q u te a
r ipe a ge .
 T RU E I N DI A N ST ORIE S

replied Indian want no more white man

,

weighed .

There can be no doubt that these tragic

events made a deep impression on the fron
tier where they were the chief topics of con
,

versation for many days The crime was so .

cold blooded and unprovoked that it aroused

-

the condemnation of almost every one .

There were then two newspapers published

at the village of Indianapolis The Indiana .

“
Gazette denounced it as one of the most
outrageous transactions that has occurred
”
since the settlement of the State The .

Western Censor characterized it as murder

scarcely excelled in atrocity by the savages
”
themselves The general sentiment was no
.

less pronounced and even the respite of Hu d

son wa s O penly condemned i n the popular ,

demand for swift and full punishment for

the murderers The sentiment that was
.

awakened was wholesome and there was

very little occa sion for complaint of lawless
ness during the remaining years in which
the remnant of the Indian tribes resided in
the State .
 T RUE I N DIA N ST O RIE S

tribe Their name for the pla ce was I H hé

.
-

'
pis sin noong or the Straight Place be
- -
, ,

cause the Wabash at this point is straight

for about two miles .

Seventy years ago following the Indian ,

trail up the M i s s i ss i n ew a you would soon ,

have reached the home and trading house of -

Francois G od fr oy a French half breed who ,

-
,

was the last war chief of the M iamis They .

called him P lOn s wah or mo fe broadly ’ ’

-
,
’
Pah lOn s wah but there is no such M iami
- -
,

word as this and indeed he had no , , ,

Indian name It was merely their e ffort to .

pronounce Francois for they have no sound ,

“ ” “ ”
o f f or r in their language but su b st i ,
“p” “ ”
tute a for the former and an 1 for the
latter .

Still farthe r up you would pass the curious

rock cli ffs where the river has cut its way
,

deep in the N iagara limestone ; and still

higher some ten miles from the mouth of
,

the stream where the hills begin to come

,

close to the river you would come to the ,

’
Deaf M an s Village It was not much of a
—
.

village only three log cabins one of them ,

—
a queer two story a ffair and was the home -

—
of a M iami chie f named S he pah can nah
’
-
U ’

-
,

214
 T RUE I N DIA N ST ORIE S

or The Awl i e the instrument with which

,
. .
,

the Indians punched holes in skins when

sewing them together In his later life he .

lost his hearing and was then named Ka ,

kip shah or The Deaf

’
-
, .

To this village one evening in January , ,

1 8 3 5 came Col George W Ewing an In

,
. .
,

dian trader from Logansport cold tired and , ,

hungry He was hospitably received at the

.

'
principal cabin by old M uk kOn s kw a ( Lit - -

’
tle Bear Woman ) the widow of S he pah -

c a n nah who was an old acquaintance Aft

-
, .

er a hearty supper they sat by the cheer ful

O pen fire and chatted in the M iami language .

The other members of the household

dropped O ff to bed and these tw o were left
alone The conversation became broken
. .

She was evidently agitated He rose to .

“
retire but she said :
,
NO I have some .

thing on my mind I am Old and weak I . .

shall not live long and I must tell it I can ,

.

”
not die in peace if I do not .

He sat down again and a long silence fol ,

lowed she staring at the fire and he strange

, ,

ly drawn by her crown of reddish auburn

hair with a peculiar light brown streak at
,

—
the back of the head remarkable hair for
216
 T RU E I N DIA N S T O RIE S

ground It wa s the M iami war chief S he

.

pah c an nah They took him home and

’
- -
.

nursed him to health He became the hus .

band o f Frances and he was a good hus ,

band She felt that she must tell M On ky0t

.
’
-

( Bald Head the name given by

,
the M iamis
to Ewing ) but he must not tell others ; her
,

relatives might come and take her away

from her home and her children .

The old woman had acquired the Indian s ’

dread of the white man s power and it wa s ’

for this reason that she had guarded her se

cret so long Ewing assured her that he
.

would protect her and when she had fi n ,

“
i sh ed her story she said : There now I , ,

can die O h you don t know how this has

.
,
’

troubled me Something all the time w hi s

.

—
pered in my ear you must do i t you must ,

do it ; and now it is done The great load .

I have carried over fifty years is o ff my

shoulders I am a free woman
. .

In the morning having convinced the old ,

woman that she would not be carried away

against her will Colonel Ewing resumed ,

his way determined on an e ffort to find her

,

relatives He had no clew to their location

.

beyond the fact that they had lived near the

218
 TH E LOS T S I S T E R OF WY O M I N G

Susquehanna and at a venture he wrote to

,

the postmaster o f Lancaster Pa reciting , .

,

the facts as he had them and suggesting in ,

quiry through the newspapers for a family

named Slocum from whom a child had been
,

stolen by the Indians about the time of the

Revolutionary war The postmaster was
.

proprietor of the Lancaster Intelligencer but ,

for some reason did not publish the letter It .

lay in the o ffice for two years when a new ,

editor came in the person of John W Forney .

,

afterward well known to the whole country .

He at once published the letter and luckily it ,

appeared in a special edition containing

some temperance documents that was mailed
widely to cler gymen A Copy came to the .

Rev Samuel Bowman an Episcopalian min

.
,

ister who had been stationed at Wilkes

,

Barre when young and was familiar with

,

the pathetic Slocum history He at once for .

warded the paper to surviving members of

the family and it came to them as a voice
,

from the dead .

And well it might It was in the summer

.

of 1 7 7 7 that Jonathan Slocum had come

from Rhode Island with his family includ ,

ing his father i h law Isaac Tripp and set

- -
, ,

219
 T RUE I N DIA N ST OR I E S

t ledin the beauti fu l Wyoming valley at the ,

site of Wilkes Barre They were Quakers

-
.
,

and by kindly treatment won the friendship

of the Indians who came about them They .

escaped inj ury in the fearful massacre of

July 1 7 7 8 and were so confident of their
, ,

safety that they remain ed in their home after

most of the settlers had abandoned the val
ley or gathered in forts But their c on fi
dence was not well founded .

On N ovember 2 1 7 7 8 three Delaware I n

, ,

dians a pproached the house The m en were .

away but two neighbor boys were near the

,

door grinding a knife The elder boy who .

,
’
wore a soldier s coat was at once shot by ,

one of the Indians M rs Slocum and most. .

of the children fled to the woods Frances .

,

a girl of five years and a lame brother took

,

refuge beneath the staircase in the house .

The Indians went through the house and

took a few things that attracted their desires .

Then noticing the children beneath the

,

stairs they pulled them out and started away

,

’
with them At this the mother s love over
.

came her fear and leaving the underbrush

, , ,

where she had been concealed she ran for ,

ward to plead for her children When she .

220
 T R U E I N D I A N S T O R IE S

but have known it Frances was quickly sup

,

plied with comfortable moccasins and with ,

native dress that appealed to her childish

vanity as well as her sense of comfort In .

dians are indulgent to their children and an ,

adopted child is usually favored as much as

their own But the mother could not know
.
,

and to her came only the haunting face the ,

”
cry of Mamma l Mamma l and the imagi
nation o f hardships o f every kind ; but worst
of all those poor bruised feet with no one to
, ,

care for them .

The days dragged by wearily but her cup ,

of sorrow was not yet full But six weeks .

had passed when both her husband and her

father were killed by Indians while working
in a field near the fort and she was left to
,

su ffer alone Imagination shrinks from the

.

contemplation of her woe but in it all the

,

fate of Frances weighed most heavily As .

to the others the loss was hers for to her ,

faith they were in a better and happier li fe ,

but where was the child ? There was no

peril no hardship that her mind did not con
,

jure up for to her Frances was always alive

,

alive and su ff ering She must be found

.

a n d rescued .
 T R UE I N D I AN S T O R I E S

It was impossible to do much while the

war continued but in 1 7 8 4 as soon as hostil
, ,

ities ceased two of the older sons pushed

,

forward to N iagara and made inquiry in

every direction for their sister They .

o ffered a reward of 100 guineas for her r e

turn but i f the Indians knew where she was
, ,

they would not tell In 1 7 8 7 they made a n

.

other journey into Ohio whither the tide of ,

settlement had turned enlisting the sympa ,

thy and aid of Indian agents and traders ,

and o ffering a reward of $ 5 00 for their sis

’
ter s return but a fter several months of
,

fruitless search they turned back ba ffled and

disheartened In 1 7 89 there was a large
.
,

gathering of Indians at Tioga Point ( Ath

ens, to surrender captives whose r e
turn had been demanded by the Government .

There the aged mother went also braving ,

the hardships o f the long j ourney through

the wilderness that a mother s instinct
,
’

might not be wanting to know the child if

she should be there But she was not among .

the captives there and the sorrowing woman

,

went back again to her life of dread and sus

p ense In 1 7 9 1 the brothers accompanied
.
,

’ ’
Proctor s expedition to the Co rn p lan ter s
2 24
 T R U E I N D I AN S T O RI E S

them Letters of inquiry and appeals for i n

.

formation were continued whenever Op p or

t u n i ty arose N early twenty years after the
.

’
mother s death there came to the East the
strange story of the Wyandot mission o f —
the invasion of the Wyandot town at San
dusky by a lone negro apostle without ,

money supplies or friends who had finally

, ,

learned their language converted a number ,

of the Wyandots to Christianity established ,

a Methodist church and started the tribe on ,

the road to civilization And with this came .

a report that one of the converts Between ,

- —
the Logs ( Té ar r on t u o s he was of the
- -
’
- -

bear totem and the name refers to the man

,

ner of a bear crouching between two logs )

had a white wife who had been taken captive,

when a child Possibly this might be

.
.

Frances and so in 18 26 one of the brothers

, , , ,

accompanied by a nephew made the long ,

journey to U pper Sandusky only to find that ,

their e ffort was again fruitless .

But even a fter this long series of d i sa p

pointment the letter of Ewing revived their
h Op e and an interchange of letters w i th him
,

almost assured them that the lost was at last

found Arrangements were quickly made
.

22 6
 THE LOS T S I S T E R O F WYO M I N G

for a journey to the M i s s i s s in ewa by two of

—
the brothers and a sister all now over sixty
y ears of a ge a n dh
in September 1 8 3 7 they , ,

started on this last search The details of .

the j ourney are not material They came .

’
to the Deaf Man s Village accompanied by ,

James T M iller an interpreter and James

.
, ,

B Fulwiler of Peru They were received

.
, .

’
by M u k kons kw a with all of an Indian s
- -
’

stoical show of indi fference Could this .

wrinkled old Indian woman be the fair child

whom they had sought so long ? Her hair -

alone appealed to memory They asked to .

see the forefinger of her left hand It had .

been crushed and the nail was gone .

“ ”
?
How did that happen they asked .

My brother struck it with a hammer in

the S h Op a long time ago before I was car
, ,

”
ried away was the answer
, .

This brought certainty for this had oc ,

curred about a year before her loss She .

told the story again through the interpreter .

Her memory o f her father and the family ,

of the coming of the Indians and of her

capture all agreed with theirs But her
,
.

name was forgotten .

“ ”
Was it Frances ? one asked .
 T R U E I N DI AN S T O R IE S

There was an instant show of emotion in

her stolid face which gave way to a smil e
,

“
as she finally answered Yes Franca , ,

Franca .

It was indeed the long lost sister but there -

,

were no tears o f joy no fond embraces ,

.

They told their part of the story the moth ,

’
er s grief and the long search They con .

v i n c ed her that this gray haired woman was -

her sister who ran away to the fort with her

little brother when the Indians came and ,

that one of these old men was that brother .

She was interested but she was an Indian as

,

completely as i f born one She did not u n .

d er s ta n d their language and they did not

understand hers The meeting was almost
.

pain ful in its fa ilure of anticipations but the ,

constraint wore o ff somewhat as they con

versed through the interpreter and she ,

agreed to visit them on the following day in

Peru .

— —
In the morning i t was Sunday Frances
c ame to the new hotel in the little town a c ,

companied by the daughters Ké ki n ak ish - -

’
-

“ ’ '
wah ( Cut Finger ) an d O sah wah shin '

- - -

’
kwa ( Yellow Lea f ) and the former s hus
,

’
band T a quah ké ah ( Autumn ) a French
,
- - -
,

228
 T R U E IN D I A N STO R I E S

t wo daughters a s on in l aw three grand

,
- -
,

children and everything to make me com

,

fo rt a ble ; why should I go and be l ike a fish

”
out of water ?
’
But won t you at least go and make a
visit to your old home and when you have ,
”
seen us return again to your chi l dren ?
,

asked one o f her brothers .

“
I can not ; I can not I am an old tree . .

I can not move about I was a sap l ing when

.

they took me away It is all gone past I

. .

am a fraid I should die and never come back .

I am happy here I shall die here and l ie in

.

that graveyard and they will raise the pole

,

at my grave with the white flag on it and ,

the Great Spirit will know where to find me .

I should not be happy with my white rela

t i v es
. I am glad enough to see them but I ,
”
can not go I can not go I have done
. . .

Her position was supported by her da u gh

t ers and Captain Brouillette who was a man ,

of good habits and one of the few Indians

,

who had adopted civilized methods of farm

ing ; and the brothers and sister themselves
finally concluded that perhaps she was right .

And so the meeting that had been dreamed

o f for year s came to an end Frances went .

23 0
RAN CE S SLO CU M M O N UM EN T
F .
 T R UE INDI AN S T O R IE S

back to her Indian home and the others ,

turned back to the East satisfied that they ,

had at least performed their mission and ,

’
complied with their mother s dying reque s t .

There were l etters of course and vi s it s

, ,

from various Eastern relative s ; and in 1846 ,

at the request of Frances her nephew the , ,

Rev George Slocum came to live near her

.
, ,

and give her his counsel and assistance Most .

of the M iamis had then been removed to the

West under the treaty of 1840 but by a
, ,

special resolution of Congress Frances and ,

her children were permitted to remain in

their old home There on March 9 1 847
.
,

she peacefully passed a way and was laid to ,

rest in the little family graveyard on the hill

near by .

Half a century rolled away but she was ,

not forgotten Her story had become one

.

o f the features of our frontier legends I n .

189 9 James F Stutesman of Peru called

.
, ,

the attention of the surviving member s of

her family to the fact that her grave was u n
marked A family monument organization
.

was at once formed and on May 1 7 19 00 in

, , ,

the presence of a large number of whites and

Indians of the vicinity and of members of ,

23 2
 CHAPTER X III .

T H E TRA I L OF D EA T H .

When the Potawatomis made their l ast

l arge cessions of land in northern Indiana ,

in 18 3 2 they retained a number of small

,

reservations for little bands that did not

wish to go west of the M is s issippi Half a .

dozen of these were scattered a l ong the Tip

p e c a n o e river beginning at
, its head with
that of M es kwah bilk s band whose vil l age
- -
’

was where the village of Oswego ( an Iro

“ ”
q u o i s word meaning Flowing Out usu -

ally applied to the mouth of a stream ) now

.
—
stands M es kwah b ii k is the Potawatomi
-

word for Copper literally red metal or stone ;

, ,

but To pash says it is also applied to a red

-

sky at sunrise and that it was in this sense

,

’
that it was used in this chie f s name The res .

e r v a t i on farthest down the river was that of

—
M eh m o t way ( Cat Bird
’
-
The word also .

“
means He comp l ains or he cries out with ,

”
pain ) and others j ust ab ove Rochester ,
.

234
 T HE T RA I L OF D EATH

O ther re s e rvations were grouped about

— — —
Lake Ma x inkuckee ( M o g sin ké ki accent '
-

—
on the s econd syllabl e o r Big Stone coun
'
try ) O f the s e the largest wa s that of Aub
.

’ ’
be n a u b be s band southeast of the lake
- -
, ,
’
covering thirty six sections Au b be n a ub
-
.
’
- -

“
be is equ iva l ent to our slang term rubber
” “ ”
neck for it means l ooking backward a s a
, ,

person or animal looks back over the shoul

der when going away from you E a s t of the .

lake wa s the re s ervation and vi ll age of N 5 5

’
waw kee ( the Feathered Arrow the word
- —
“ ” “
also mean s a feather or one who feathers ,

”
arrow s N orth of these at Twin Lakes , ,

wa s a re s erve of twenty two s ections for the -

bands of Me n o m i nee ( Wi l d Rice ) N o

-
’
- -
,
’
taw ka ( Hearing or Listening ) Ma ko t
’
-
, ,
-

ta m wha ( B l ack Wolf ) and other s

-
’
.

In the year 18 3 6 these reservation s were

relinquished to the U nited States by a series
o f treaties and most of the Indians were r e

moved in 183 7 The Indian s were not very

.

willing to go and the treaties were the cause

,

of much feel ing In A u bb en aubbe s band it

.
’

resulted in the killing of the o l d chief by his

—
son Pii k shii k ( Fa l ling D own the name is
-

23 5
 T R U E I ND I A N S T O RI E S

somet i mes written Pau ko Shuk ) P uk sh uk

- -
.
-

was then made chi ef and started with the

band to the We st but escaped on the way
, ,

and came back to his old country where he ,

dragged out the few remaining years of his

wretched existence By August 6 183 8
.
, ,

most of the Indians had gone except M en om

in c e and his band Menominee had not
.

signed the treaty and refused to go A coun .

cil was held at his village attended by C01 , .

Abel C Pepper the Government agent and

.
, ,

a number of Indians and whites of the vicin

ity Menominee was obdurate When all the
. .

argument had been completed he arose and ,

said to the council

T he President does not know the truth
“
.

He like me has been imposed upon He does

, ,
.

not know that you made my young chie fs

drunk and got their consent and pretended ,

to get mine He does not know that I have

.

refused to sell my lands and still refuse He

,
.

would not by force drive me from my home ,

the graves of my tribe and my children who

,

have gone to the Great Spirit nor allow you ,

to tell me your braves will take me tied like

a dog i f he knew the truth My brothers
,
.
,

the President is just but h e l istens to the

,

23 6
 T R U E IN D I A N STO R IE S

word of young chiefs who have l ied ; and

when he knows the truth he will leave me
to my own I have not sold my lands I will
. .

not sel l them I have not signed any treaty

.
,

and will not sign any I am not going to .

leave my lands and I do not want to hear

,

”
anything more about it .

The situation was em barrassing M en om .

— l
in c e was an exemplary man a religious
man who exhorted his followers to abstain
,

from liquor to be honest and peaceable

,
.

The Rev Isaac M c Coy for eighteen years

.
,

a Baptist missionary among the Indians of

northern Indiana bears testimony to this A
, .

number of the band were also exemp l ary for ,

this vil l age was the place of a Catholic mis

sion and the testimony of the missionaries
,

can not be questioned A chapel had been .

built in 183 0 It was a log structure thirty

.
,

by twenty feet standing on a l ittle eminence

,

on the bank of the largest of the four little

lakes in the immediate vicinity The west .

half of the structure was two stories high ;

the upper one which was reached by a l adder
,

from below being used as quarters for the

,

pri est It was of Indian construction and

.
,
“
not of the best Father Petit says : In more
.

23 8
 TH E T R AI L OF D EATH

than one p l ace we can see day l ight through

the walls My fireplace is l arge enough to
.

contain a quarter of a cord of wood I have .

no carpet and the boards of my floor are so

,

s l ightly fastened that they yield to the pres

sure of the foot like the keys of the piano
’
to the musician s fingers .

At this p l ace in connection with neighbor

,

ing charges Father de Seille o ffi ciated for

,

seven years ; and on his death in 18 3 7 Bis , ,

’
hop Brute sent Father Petit to take his place .

Benjamin Marie Petit was a native of

Rennes born in 18 1 1 After a bril l iant
, .

course in college he studied for the bar and

, ,

practiced success ful ly for a time ; but in the

year 183 5 he felt himself called to the min
i s t ry in mission work In this he was en
.

’
c o u r a ged by Bishop Brute who happened to ,

be in Rennes at the time He began his .

theological studies at Paris and concluded ,

them at Vincennes Ind his ordination b e,

.
,

ing somewhat hastened by the death of

Father de Seille Father Peti t at once em
.

t er ed on his charge and soon became deeply

,

interested in his Indian p arishioners He .

was not only a man of culture and deep reli

g i o u s fervor b ut a
, l so of most tender heart
2 39
 T R UE I ND I AN STO R I E S
.

and keen sympathy His l etters are full of

.

praise for his Potawatomi converts In one .

,

written about a month after he had begun

work among them after describing their di l
,

i gen c e in church duties he says ,

“
Many are in the habit of frequent com
munion and when deprived o f this consola
,

tion by the death of M de Sei l le they p ra c .

,

ticed spiritual communion with the most edi

fy i n g fervor I have a l ready bapti z ed eight
.

een adu l ts The spirit of proselytism is a d

.

mirable among these children of the forest ;

all the new l y baptized who belonged to an ,

other vil l age brought with them others of

,

their friends in order that they might be

taught their prayers and c atechism I could .

scarcely give you an idea of the attachment

of my good Indians We were orphans they .
‘
,
’

say and in the dark ; but you appeared l ike

,
‘

a great light and now we live You take the

, .

place of our dead father and we shall do ,

nothing without your advice I do not ho l d .

’ ‘

’
the hearts of others in my hand said an old ,

man as he c l asped my hand while big tears

, ,

filled his eyes but mine wi ll never forget

,
‘

what y o u ha ve to l d u s If we have an y .

240
 T R U E I ND I AN STO R IE S

deli berate ly to work up the disturba nce so

that the Governor would be compell ed to r e
”
move them Cer tain i t is that Waters
.

c l aimed that some ten day s after the council

the Indians chopped his door and threatened
his li fe This was fol l owed by the burning
.

of ten or twelve Indian cabins Then Waters .

and others petitioned Governor Wallace for

protection Colonel Pepper the I ndian
.
,

agent made a requisition for one hundred

,

men to keep the peace and Governor Wal l ace

at once appointed Genera l John Tipton to
raise that number of volunteer s and take
charge of the situation He acted so .

promptly that as Governor Wallace re

,

ported in about forty eight hours after the

,
-

requisition was authorized the requisite f orce

was not only mustered but was tran s ported
into the midst of the Indians before they
”
were aware of its approach .

This was true Part of the Indian s were

.

in the chapel at prayer when Tipton an

n ou n c ed his arrival by a vol l ey of mus k etry .

It was e ffective notice Father Petit s ay s of

.

the old mother of Black Wolf whom he ,

“
found sick at South Bend l ater The poor ,

creature had been so frightened at the dis

242
 TH E T RAI L OF DEATH

charge o f musketry ordered by Genera l Tip

,

ton when he made prisoners of the Indians

, ,

that she ran to the woods where she hid ,

herse l f for s i x days without having any

,

nourishment during all that time She .

had wounded her foot and could not wa l k .

Hap pily an Indian who was looking for his

, ,

horses fo und the poor fugitive and p l acing

, , ,

her on one o f the horses brought her to a ,

French f amily near South Bend where I ,

heard her confession .

There wa s no parleying with Tipton H e .

was not a cruel man but he under s tood that

,

he was s ent to remove the Indians and he ,

“
l eft no room for mistake He s ays : Many .

of the Indian men were a ss embled n ear the

chapel when we arrived and were not per,

m i tted to l eave camp or s eparate until mat

ters were amicab ly s ettled and they had ,

agreed to give peaceabl e po ss es s ion of the

”
l and so l d by them . The few arms the In
dians had were ta ken from them Squads of .

soldiers were s ent in every direction to b ring

in straggler s and by Septemb er 4 Tipton
,

had gathered 8 5 9 young a n d ol d for r e

, , .

moval I t had not b een arranged that Father

.

Petit shou l d accompany them He a ss emb led .

243
 T RU E I ND I A N STO R IE S

them in the chape l for a fina l serv i ce and ,

“
to r emove the decorations He says : At the
.

moment of my departure I a s semb l ed all my

children to speak to them for the last time I .

wept and my auditors sobbed aloud It was

,
.

indeed a heartrending sight and over our ,

dying mission we prayed for the succe s s of

those they would establish in the new hunt
ing grounds We then with one accord sang
.

’
‘
O Virgin we place our confidence in thee
,
.

It wa s often interrupted by sobs and but ,

few voices were abl e to finish it I then left .

”
them . On September 3 the Indians paid a
last vi s it to their dead at the little graveyard ,

and hel d an impressive service accompanied ,

by genera l lamentation that was i n desc r ib

,

ably pathetic as they bade farewell forever

,

to the resting places of their l ost ones .

Early on the morning of September 4 the

order to march was given and the Indians ,

started on their long journey The soldiers .

destroyed all the huts and cabins to remove

any temptation to return And now the .

physical discomforts a l most caused forget

fulness of others The season had been u n
.

usua lly hot and dry The dust floated in

.

cl oud s Many of the ordinary sou rc es o f

.

244
 T R UE I ND I A N STO R I E S

water supply had dried up and others w ere

,

almo s t unfit for use Malaria ] fevers were

.

unusually preva l ent among bo th whites and

Indian s On September 1 6 a Laporte County
.

“
correspondent wrote : Death disease and ,

drought are dealing distress around us We .

had within a few weeks past more than four

times a s many deaths as in all the four years
since the first commencement of the settle
ment of this county Deep River ,
’
through its whole length across Robinson s
Prairie is entirely dry . Cedar Lake
[ now a popular resort ] a beautifu
,
l sheet of
water two mi l es in l ength and on e in breadth ,

has fal l en so low that it has stagn ated ,

turned green with a very o ff ensive smell

,

that has a ffec ted the health of the sett l ers

upon its borders most seriously Cattle be .

gin to s u ffer for food and water in many

”
places .

For the sick and feeble Indians the rough

traveling in the wagons provided for their
use was almost unendurable Even by the .

time they reached Logansport their camp

was described as a scene of desolation ; on
”
a l l sides were the sick and dying T h ev .

fared worse than the soldiers of whom Tip,

246
 THE T RA I L OF DEA T H

ton says : I was compelled to discharge on e

or more every day and permit them to r e
turn home on account of bad health .

On they went through the Wabash valley ,

the su ffering increasing until General Tip

ton united with the Indians i n an urgent cal l
to Father Petit to join them His health .

was so delicate that his friends urged him

not to go but he obtained permission from
,
’
Bishop Brute and hurried after them com
, ,

ing up with them at Perryville He says .

“
On Sunday September 16 I came in sight
, ,

of my poor Christians marching in a line , ,

and gu arded on both sides by soldiers who

hastened their steps A burning sun poured
.

its beams upon them and they were envel ,

oped i n a thick cloud of dust After them .

came the baggage wagons into which were ,

crowded the many sick the women and chil ,

dren who were too feeble to wa lk

Al most al l the babies exhausted by the heat
, ,

were dead or dying I baptized several new

.

ly born happy little ones whose first step

-
,

was from the land of exile to heaven .

And this was no exaggeration A letter .

to the Terre Haute Courier dated Septem ,

b er 1 7 183 8 which w a s widely copied in the

, ,

247
 T R UE IN D I AN S T O R IE S

State papers tells of their arrival at Dan

,

ville Ill and is notable for its t one o f s eem

’

, .
,

ing apology for sympathy with the su ff erers .

“
The writer says : Their movements are im
p ed e d much by sickness and those various ,

accidents to which an emigrating party of

8 00 old and young may be supposed liable
, , .

A lt hou gh th er e are fifty or sixty sick in the

°

camp this proportion is said to be less than

,

that which exists in the county around Dan

ville and other portions of the Wabash in
, ,

proportion to population Some .

a ffecting scenes have taken place in the camp

since and before th e Indians were got under
way One Chi eftain had a mother upward
.

of a hundred years old over which a con ,

su lt a t i on was held whether or not it would

be better to put her to death before she

started as no hopes of her l ong surviving
,

( particularly under the fatigues o f emigra

tion ) could reasonably be entertained For .

tu n a t ely humane counsels prevailed and the

, ,

poor creature died and was buried a fter a

journey of four days Others have
.

been compelled to leave a wife a fter them

in one place and a child in another in con
, ,

sequence o f sickness ; and some have had to

248
 T R U E I ND I AN S TO R IES

they marched on into the parched prairies of

I llin oi s c ros s ed the M is s is s ipp i and on to
, ,

the O s age River where they arrived after a

,

journ ey o f two month s over the trai l of

death 1 5 0 fewer by death an d desertion
, , ,

tha n when they started .

I n hi s re port of the remova l Gen era l Tip ,

“
ton sa ys of Father Petit : It i s but j ustice to
him to s ay that he has both by e x ample and ,

p recept p roduced a very favorable chan ge in

,

the mora l s and indu s try of the India n s ; that

his untiring z eal in the cau s e of civi l i z ation
has been and will continue to be eventua lly
beneficia l to the s e un fo rt u nate Pota wa t
omi s when they reach their new abode
, .

But Father Petit was not to remain with

them He found Father Hoeken waiting to
.

take charge of them but he wa s s o weak ,

ened by the journey that si x week s passed be

fore he could turn back as directed by B ish
’
O p Brute O ne hundred and fi fty mi l es on
.

horseback brought him to St Loui s but he .

,

cou l d go n o farther He found kindly s helter

.

—
with the Jesuits there his l ast shelter A .

’
month l ater Bishop Brute received a letter
'

from the rector of the Jesuit s in which he

“
said : What a great los s ha s your di oc e s e
2 50
 TH E T R AI L OF DEATH

sustained in Father Petit $ He arrived here

on t he 1 5 th of Ja n ua r reduce d to a mos t
y ,

pitiable state by the fever ; eleven running

sores on di fferent parts of his body his per ,

son covered with the tint of the j aundice and ,

i n the last stage of debility G od certainly .

gave him strength which his bo dy did not

possess in order to reach St Louis
, . .

On the night of the l0th of February they

came to tell me that he was near his end As .

I entered he raised his head and inclined it , ,

saluting me with a smi l e upon his dying l ips .

I asked him if he su ffered much He a n .

s w er ed by casting an expressive gl ance at

’
the crucifix You wi s h to say I replied that
,
‘
, ,
‘

?
He su ffered much more for you Oh yes ’ ‘ ’
, ,

he answered I p l aced the crucifi x to his

.

lips and he kis s ed it twice with great ten

, ,

der ne s s During his agony we recited the

.

prayers for the dying which he followed

, ,

his eyes constantly fixed upon us He sweet .

ly expired about midnight age twent y s even,

-

”
years and ten months .

Father Petit s memory is cherished In

’
.

18 5 6 the clergy of N otre Dame brought his

remain s from St Louis and reinterred them
.

by tho s e o f Father De Sei l le One of them .

25 1
 T R U E I ND I AN STO R I E S

writes : We consider these two p recious

morta l remains a double so u rce o f blessing
for the ground they sanctify It does us .

good to kneel between those two revered

tombs so eloquent in their silence We feel
, .

very little inclined at any time to pray for

them but we love to recom mend ourselves
,

”
to their intercession And the Indian s are
.

not forgotten In 19 05 Daniel M c D on a ld

.
,

of Plymouth who is thorough l y conversant

,

with the story of their wrongs and has ,

called public attention to it introduced in ,

the Indiana Legislature a bill for an appro

p r i a t i on to erec t a monument to the Pota
wa tom i s at Menominee village and rebuild ,

the Indian chape l He made an eloquent.

plea for this memorial to the Indians we had

mistreated but his bill did not pass at that
,

session U ndaunted he continued his e ffort

.
, ,

and in 1907 his bill became a law The com .

mission provided for by this act is now pre

paring for its work for which it is author ,

i z ed to receive outside donations in addition

to the appropriated by the State and ,

in due time a fitting memorial will be made

to the s e people who it must be confessed
, , ,

su ffered hard treatment at the hands of ou r

forefathers .

25 2
 I N DE X GLOSS ARY

A NO KA —Town in Cass County is a . Anoka

“ ”
Sioux adverb signifying on both sides , ,

but in this form is used only in composi

tion As a separate word the Siou x u s e
.
,
‘ ”
a nog
-
.

A P E K ON I T — M iami name of Captain Wil

“
l iam Wells sometimes translated Indian ,

” “
potato It i s the M iami name of the wild
.

” “ ”—
bean or groundnut
, api os tu ber os a .

Pronounced a pé kon i t - -
’
-
.

—
A S H K U M Reservation and vi l lage of a
Potawatomi chief of that n a me in M iami ,

County The name is variously translated

.

“ ” “ ” “
to continue more and more more
, ,

of the same kind ”

— the idea being the
same in each case .

A T C H E PO N G Q UA W E — A creek tributary to ,

the S a lom i n ee in Jay County now kn own , ,

as Butternut Creek named in the treaty of ,

St Mary s ( Oct 6 18 18 ) to l ocate a

.
’
.
,

reservation for the children of Lang l ois .

’
The name is compounded of a t ché pong - -
,

“
the M iami for snapping turtle and -
,

“
wah w e an egg Probably the latter
-
,
.

should be plural and the name would be ,

—
better written a t ché p ong kwah wah ’
-
’
-
.

A UB B E E N A U B B E E — Township in Fu l ton
2 54
 I N D E X GLOSS A R Y

County and reservation of a P otawatomi

,

chief of that name The name means .

Looking Backward i e as a per s on or ,

. .
,

animal looks back over its shoulder when

moving away from you P ronounced .

a w b b é nawb bé
’ ’
- - -
.

—
B LA C K H A WK Postoffi ce in Vigo County ,

named for the celebrated Sauk chief M a

kah t a m e sh é ki a k ki ak
’
- -
’
-
The name -
'
-
.

means B l ack Sparrow Hawk but by u ni ,

versal usage it is made Blac kha wk

—
.

B LA C K LO0N Reservation in Ca ss County

’
for a M i am i named M a kah t a m on - - -
’

gwah i e B l ack Loon

—
. .
, .
,

B U C K ON G E H E L A S Commonest form of the

name of the great Del a ware wa r chief -
,

and of the town in which he liv ed on

White River I t occurs in many forms
.
,

ranging from B ucken geli s to Poken ch elah

and Pa ckan gaheli s It is proper ly pro .

’
n ou n c ed P o ch g6n t shé hé l o s and -
’
- - -
,

means Breaker to Pieces .

CA K I M I — A P otawatomi woman for whose

children the re s ervation on the Wa b ash
River b e l ow the Tipp ecanoe now known
, ,

as the B u rnett Reserve was made by th e ,

treaty of 18 18 She w a s a si s ter of T 6

.
’

25 5
 I NDE X GLOSS AR Y

i bé
’ ’

p n - -
( Qu i et Sitt i ng Bear ) wh o w a s ,

head chief of the Potawatomis at the be

ginning o f the l ast century The Potawa .

tomi pronunciation is Kaw ké me and -

’
-
,

“
the meaning is Run Away from Home .

—
CA L U M ET Two streams of northwe s tern
Indiana tributary to Lake M ichigan
, ,

Grea t and Littl e Ca l umet The name is a .

corruption of what was formerly written

Ca l o mick Ki llom i ck Ken om i c k Ken
- -
, , ,

n ou m i c which represent dialect vari a tions

,

of the same word varying from Ken ,

’
n om kyah in the Potawatomi to G é kél é
’
- - -

m ii k in the De l aware and si gni fy ing a ,

body of deep still water Ca l umet is n ot

, .

an Indian word but of F rench origin ,

.

—
CA Y U GA Posto ffi ce in Vermillion County ,

named for the N ew York l ake and city .

—
The name is Iroquois sometimes given
—
as Gwa u géh and is said to mean the
- -
“

”
p l ace of taking out i e the beginning ,
. .
,

of a portage .

—
C ED A R C R EE K Stream in Al len County ,

tributary to the St Joseph River The . .

name is a l iteral translation of the Pota

wa tom i name M es kwah wah sé pé The
’ ’
- - - -
.

town of the Potawatomi chief M e té ah '

- -

25 6
 I N D E X GLOSS ARY

known a s Gar l ic k Creek during the

'

French p eriod .

C H I N Q UA Q UA — Reservat i on i n Cass County .

’
The n ame is a corruption of Shin gwah -

'

kwah which the M iami s a p p ly in di s c r i m

,

in a tely to evergreen tree s s uch as the ,

pine the cedar the tamarack etc

, , ,
.

—
C H I C H I PE OUT I PE Given by Father Petit
a s the Potawatomi name of the Catholic
mi ss ion at Twin Lake s in Mar s ha l l Coun
ty b ut not translated by him The first
—
.
,
’
word is probably S h é shé p a their word- -

“ ”
for duck .

C H I P P E CO K E — Common form of the name

of the Indian village at Vincennes The .

’
M i ami name o f the p l ace wa s Chip kah -

ki oon gi or P l ace of Root s but the l ast

’
- -
, ,

two syll ables are sometime s dropped

—
.

C H I P PE WA N A U N G Place on Tippecanoe
River in Fulton County where treaties ,

were made with the Potawatomis in 1 836 .

“
The Indians say this mean s Chippewa
”
Place but give no rea s on for the name
—
.
,

C H I P WA N I C Tributary of the Tippecanoe ,

near Manitou Lake i n Fu l ton County,

.

P eople of the vicinity gi ve the name i t s

25 8
 I N D E X GLO S S ARY
—
proper P otawatom i pronunc i at i on Chip
’ “ ”
wah n ii k The word means Gho s t hole
-
. .

—
C H OP I N E Two Indian reservations one in ,

Whitley County and one in Allen County '

The name varies to Ch a p p en e S ha p p een ,

.

It is a French nickname properly Chop ,

ine meaning a pint measure that was a p

, ,

plied to two M iamis Old Chopine wa s .

’ “ ”
M a kwah kyah
-
or -
Beaver Head ,
.

Young Chopine was Pé c ong gah or -

’
-
,
“ ”
Striking .

—
CoE s s n Town in Whit l ey County This i s .

the Potawatom i nic knam e of a M iami

band chief The M iamis pronounce i t
.

Ko wa z i and it appears in various trea

- -
,

ties as Coisa Koes s a y Kow a s s ee etc , , ,

.

The Potawatomi pronunciation is Ku

’ “
wa zé and the word means old
-
,
or a s , ,
“ ”
here o l d man
, He was a son of M 5 .

kah t a m on gwah or Black Loon and a

- -
’
-
, ,

grandson of Little Turtle His M iami .

“ ”
name was M t ék kyah meaning forest ’ ’
-
, ,

“
or woods .

—
C O R N S TA LK Postoffi ce in Howard County ;
“ ”
a ls o
- Pete Cornstalk Creek a small ,

s tream in the same county These are .

memorials of an o l d M iami of the Thorn

25 9
 I N D E X GLOSS ARY

to wn b and who l ived in th i s vicinity

, .

“ ”
Cornstalk was merely a nickname used
by the white settlers Hi s p roper name .

’ “
wa s Ah s o n zo ng which means s un
- -
,

shine
—
.

D EE R C R EE K Tributary of the Wabash ,

emptying below Delphi It i s ca ll ed Pas .

s ea n on g Creek in treaties and this name ,

is sti l l sometimes given to Deer Creek

Prairie O pposite its mouth This is the
, .

M iami name of the stream compounded ,

’
of ah p a s syah a fawn and the terminal
- -
, ,
“
l ocative ; literally The P l ace of the
”
Faw n
—
.

D E LA W A R E N ame of Ind i ana county town ,

and s everal townships referring to the ,

Delaware Indians The word De l aware is .

not Indian but refers to their former re s

,

idence near the Del aware R iver which ,

wa s named for Lord De La Warr Gov ,

er n or of Virginia They cal l themselve s

.

Lenni Lenape ( lén u i lén ah pay ) which ’

- -
’
-

“ ” “
may be translated viri l e men true ,
“ ”
men or men o f men The western A l .

i
’
o
g q n u a n s u s ually called them Wah pi -

“ ”
n a ch i or E a stla n der s ; and s ometime s
’
-
,

260
T HE D E S CE N I
’ ‘

OF —
M O ND AM I N S P I R I T OF T HE MAI Z E .

( By c T
. . W ebb er .
)
 IND E X GLOSS ARY

mi l es in width Thi s may be correct

. .

“
Lawi is the Delaware for middle ;
“
s c h i n geu means level pem or p eem , ,

“ ” “ ”
has the force of near or adj oining ;
”
and hanni is a river .

—
E E L R I V E R Tributary of the W a bash emp ,

tying a t Logansport This name and the .

,

— —
French n a me L A n gu i lle are t ra n sla
’

tions of the M iami name of the s tream

which is Ké n a pé kw6 ma kwa The
- -
’
- - -
.

final vowel is very slightly sounded or not ,

at all The valley of this stream was the

. .

chief residence of the M iamis kn own to

”
the Americans as Eel Rivers who prob ,

ably included what were known to the

French as Pe pi ko ki a s and M iamis of
- - -

M a r a m ech
—
.

E E L R I V E R Tributary of White River emp ,

tying i n Greene County Chamberlain .

gives th e Indian name of the Eel River

of the Wabash as Sh o a maque but prob - -
,

ably confuses that stream which was not ,

in the Delaware cou n try with this one , ,

which was ; for sh0 a maque is evident ly - -

intended for the De l awa r e name of the

eel s chach a m a k i e slippery fish
,
- -
, . .
,
.

—
E LK H A RT Tributary of the St Jose ph s of .
’

263
 I NDE X GLOSS ARY

Lake M ichigan ; a l so city and county

named for the river The name was .

former ly written Elk Heart or E lksh ea rt , ,

“
which like the French name Coeur de
, ,
”
Cer f is a l iteral trans l ation of the Pota
,

wa t omi name of the s tream M e s héh

’
-

wéh ou deh ik
’
- -
The same name was
-
.

given to a Potawatomi vi ll age that was

located on the stream The name refers .

to an island at its mouth which resem ,

’
bled an elk s heart in shape .

—
FA LL C R EE K Stream of central Indiana ,

tributary to White River The name is a .

translation of the De l aware name which ,

“
Chamber l ain gives as Soo sooc p a hal - - -

”
00 or Spilt Water
, S okp eh ellak or s ook .
,

p e h ellu k i s the Delaware

,
word for a w a

t er fa ll and the name refers to the falls at

,

Pendleton The M iami name of the

.

“ ' ’
stream i s Ch a nk ti1n oon gi or Makes a
'
- - -
,

”
N oise Place whi ch refer s to the same ,

fal l s
—
.

FLA T B E LLY A large reservation in Kos

c i u sko and N oble counties for the band ,

of Pé p é kee chi of which the English

- -
'
-
,

name is a literal translation The reser .

vation extended to W a wa s see or Turkey ,

264
 IN D E X GLO S S AR Y

wa s u s ed in the treaty of St M ary s .

’

“
as Esle a l A i lle to locate a res
’
,

er v a t i on to the children of Antoine

Bondie
—
.

I N D I ANAPO L I S The M iamis called the site

o f the city Ch a nk tfin oon gi
’
from its
- -
’
-
,

location at the mouth of Fal l Creek and ,

also som etimes give the same name to the

city It means Makes a N oise Place
. .

—
I LL I NO I S French form of the word i llini
“
wek or men which was the name the
, ,

Illinois Indians gave to t hemselves .

—
I RO Q U O I S River tributary to the Kankakee
, ,

and township in N ewton County Charle .

voi x says the word is a Gallicism derived

“ ”
from hiro I have S poken a word by
, ,

which the Iroquois were wont to conc l ude

their speeches and kowe an exclamation
, ,
.

The Bureau of Ethno l ogy derives it from

“
an Algonquian word meaning real a d
”
ders . The name refers to an ancient bat
tle said to have occurred on the stream in ,

which the Illinois routed a party of Iro

qu o i s .

—
J O S I NA C R EE K A small stream i n Wabash
and Grant Counties tributary to the Mis,

s i s s i n ew a The word is an erratic corrup

.

266
 IND E X GLOSS A RY

t i on of T O s a n yah the common M i ami

’
- -
,

a bbr evi a t i on of M et fi si n y a h whi c h i s

fi ’
-
,

“ ”
the equivalent of our word Indian Met .

os a n y ah s vil l age was at the mouth of the

’

stream which on s ome maps is marked

,

“ ”
M etoc i ny a h Creek .

—
KAN K A K EE River of northern Indiana
p o s t o ffic e in Starke County ; and town
ships in Laporte and Jasper counties Fa .

ther Charlevoi x gives the name as Thea

kiki which he says the Canadians had cor
,

r u p t ed to K i a k i k i This is the Potawatom i

.

name which Rev Isaac Mc c oy make s

,
.

“
Tiau ka keek and which the Indians
-
,

— ’
pronounce T éh yok ké ki It means low -
“ ’
-
.

” “
l and or swampy county Father Ma .

rest wrote the name Hu a kiki which is a

“
,

“ ’
corruption of the M iami M a whah ké - -

”
ki , meaning wol f county Both names
appear on old map s Kankakee is p resu m .

ably a further corruption of K i a kiki The .

”
name a ppeared later as Qui que que - -
,

“ ”
and Quin qui qui ; the French p ron u n
- -

c i a t i on of the latter being practically the

same as Kankakee .

KE K I O N G A — Common form of the name of

the Indian village which stood at the s ite
267
 I N DE X GLOSS ARY

of Ft Wa yn e I t i s a corrupt i on o f Ki
. .

kii kOn or Kis ka kon which wa s the or

-
,
- -
,

i gi n a l n ame The Ki s ka kon s a tribal di

.
,

vi s ion of the Ottawas had a village here ,

before the M iamis and the Maumee was ,

then known as Ottawa R iver The M i .

ami s corru pted the name to Ké ki oon gi ’

- -
’
-
,

which they still apply to Ft Wayne The . .

Delaware s made it Ke gey u n k Ki ka kon - -

.
- -

“ ”
mean s clipped hair and wa s given to ,

the s e Indians because they S haved the

side s of the head and tr i mmed the remain
ing scalp lock like the mane of a Roman
-

horse The French called them Queues

.

Coupee s .

K E N A P A C OM A Q UA —Common form o f the

name of the large Miami town at the
mouth o f Eel River which was de s troyed ,

by Gen Wilkinson in 1 7 9 1 The name is

. .

Ké n a pé kw o m a kw a
’ ’
- - -
but the final
- -
,

vowel is sounded lightly if at all It ,

.

“ ” ”
mean s eel ; literally snake fish -

—
.

K EN T U C KY Stream in southern Indiana .

The name comes origina l ly from the large

tributary of the O hio from the s outh ; and
its meaning is uncertain becau s e the orig ,

inal form of the word is not known nor ,

268
 I N DEX GL OSS AR Y

closely associated with the M a sco u ti n s ,

“
whose name is variously inter p r eted Fire
” “ ”
N ation or Prairie N atio n on account ,
“ ”
of the similarity of the words for fire
“ ”
and prairie in the Al g onquian dialect s .

—
K I T H T I P P E C A N U N K Popular form of the
name of The Prophet s Town and the old ’

Indian town that stood at the same place .

“ ”
I t means Tippecanoe Town and is ,

formed by adding the terminal locative to

the name of the Tippecanoe River which ,

is Ké t a p kw on in M iami and Ké t a p é
-
’
-
,
- -

kon in Potawatomi ; and these are names

o f the bu ffalo fish .

—
K I LL B U C K Creek in Madison County ; also
De l aware village on White River com ,

“ ”
mo n ly known as Buck s town and ’
,

named for Charles Killbuck wh o lived ,

there Killbuck has become a Delaware

.

family name the original bearer of which

,

died about 1 7 7 6 His son who was known

.
,

both as Killbuck and G elelem en d ( The

Leader ) was very prominent in R evolu
,

t i on a ry times He became a Moravian

.

convert and was baptised William Henry

, ,

in honor of a friend of his father He .

died at P i tt s burg in 18 1 1 aged 80years ,

.

27 0
 I N DE X GLOSS A RY

K I LS O K W A —The oldest Indian living in I n

diana in 1908 born in 18 10 She is a

,
.

daughter of W a hk shin gah ( The Cres-

’
-

—
cent Moon literally Lying Crooked ) who ,
’
was a son of Little Turtle Her mother s .

name was N ah w a kah m o kw a which

-
’
- -
’
-
,

“
she translates The First Snow ”
—literal
ly it means the one that comes first in any
thing She says her own name means
.

“ ”
The Setting Sun but literally it appears
,

“
to mean only The Sun or
“ ’
Sun Woman Kil s O kw a married a
.
- -

Frenchman Antoine R eva r r e and no w

, ,

lives near Roanoke with her son Antony

’
R ev a r r e whose Indian name is Wah pi
,
-

m on gwah or White Loon

’
-
, .

—
KoK OM o County seat of Howard County
also a creek n ear it Said to have been .

the name of a M iami chief of the Thorn

town band but there is no such name
,

“
sign ed to any treaty unless it be Co come -

”
wah which appears in the treaty of 18 3 4
,
.

It has been translated Black Walnut ,

“ “
Bear Chief and Young Grandmother
, ,

for none of which is there any basis Both .

G o dfr oy and K i ls okwa say there was a

Thorntown Indian named KO kah mah -
’
-
,

27 1
 I N DEX GL OSS A RY

and that the name re fers to him G od fr oy .

“
says this name means He Goes Under ,

as in diving ; and that it may be translated

“ ” “ ”
Something Diving or The Diver , .

—
LA G R o Town in Wabash County The .

name is a corruption of Le Gros the ,

French nickname of a M iami chief who

’
lived here His M iami name was O sah
.
-

m O n ée which is presumably a M iami cor

-

—
,

“
ruption of O sah la m o n ee the M iami ’
-
’
- -

name of the bloodroot and the original ,

name of the Salamonie River which ,

empties opposite the town See Sala .

monie .

—
L ITT L E D EE R C R EE K Stre am in M iami
’
County The M iami name is Ah p a s
.
-

syah which is their word for a fawn

,
.

—
L ITT L E M U N S EE A Delaware town on
White River about 4miles east of Ander ,

son ( S E 1 4of Sec 1 7 Range 8

. .
-
It .
,

was located on the site of the old Moravian

M ission For meaning o f name see
.
,

“
Muncie .

—
L I TT L E R I V E R Tributary of the Wabash to ,

which portage was made from the Mau

mee in going to the Wabash The M iami
,
.

’
name of the stream is Paw wé k6m s é pé - - - -
,

27 2
 I NDE X GLOSS A R Y

ing bad and atun a channel w i th the

, , ,

terminal locative ; and says the reference

“
is to Hell Gate Tooker makes it island
.

” “
of hills Other translation s are small
.

” ” “
island , beauti ful view and place ,

where wood is gathered for bows and ar ~

”
rows . The last refers to a growth of
hickory said to have been on the island .

The chances favor Heckewelder s view as ’

,

Manhattan was not originally an island ,

for the Harlem and Spuyten D uyv el

Creek were not connected at low tide .

—
M A J EN I CA Pos toffic e in Huntington Coun
ty ; also creek They are named for the
.

M iami chief M on j é mi kyah which -

’
- -
,
“
means big body or rather big frame , ,

for it refers to the size of the entire per

son .

—
M A K K A H T A H M OW A Y Common form of
name of a Potawatomi chief who had a
joint reservation with Menominee at Twin
Lakes in Marshall County The name is
,
.

pronounced M a kah t a m wah the final

- — ’
- -
’

—
syllable varying to m wéh and the mean ’

“ ”
ing is Black Wolf
—
.

M AN I T O U Lake in Fulton County This is .

—
the Potawatomi m a né t o the Miami -
’
-

27 4
 IN D E X GLOSS ARY

form being mah n a t o -

’
- - —
wah and refers to
a supernatural monster said to inhabit the
.
fi
lake M a n é to signifies merely a S pirit
-
,

and good or bad qualitie s are indicated by

adj ectives .

- —
M A U M B E River of northeast Indiana tr ib ,

utary to Lake Erie The name is a cor .

ruption o f M e ah m e approaching the In

-
’
-
,

dian pronunciation and abandoning the ,

French spelling It was formerly called .

“ ”
the M iami of the Lake and still earlie r ,

as the Ottawa River on account of the ,

residence of that tribe on its banks John .

“
Johnston gives C a gh a ren du te or - - - -
,

”
Standing Rock as the Wyandot name of ,

the stream This name refers to a large

.

rock near the foot of the rapids known ,

as Roche de Bout .

—
M A R A M E C H One of the bands or divisions
of the M iamis It is the Peoria word for
.

“ ”
catfish sometimes written m a r a m ek or
, ,

m a r a m a k The M iami form is m e a l lO

’
- -
.

m ak sometimes written m a la m ak ; and the

,

Potawatomi and Odj i b wa forms are man

“
amak or m an u m a i g The term M iamis
, .

”
of M a r a m ech refers to their l ocation ,

probably on a stream of that name of ,

27 5
 I N D E X GLOSS A R Y

which there were several The most i m .

portant was the Kalamazoo of M ichigan , ,

on which these Indians lived f or some

years They were probably the same band
.

“
as those later known as Eel Rivers .

—
M A X I N K U C K EE Lake in Marshal l County .

The name has been written in various

ways The Potawatomi pronunciation is
.

“
M og sin kee ki and the meaning is Big
-
’
- -
,

”
Stone Country There were several
.

terminal moraines about the lake which ,

have made extensive rock bars in it .

Many of the bowlders that formerly lay on

the shores have been gathered up and used
for foundations and retaining walls Old .

fishermen claim that there is one enormous

bowlder in the south end of the lake that
comes within five or s i x feet of the sur
face of the water and is an especially ,

good fishing place ; but it is rare that any

of them can locate it .

—
M A Z A Q U A Reservation in Cass County to ,

a M iami chie f whose name appears in va

r i ou s forms but is properly pronounced

M e zé kwah It is their word for hail or

’
- -
.

hailstones .

—
M E M OT W A Y Reservation for band of a
27 6
 I N D E X G LOSS AR Y

of a primitive Algonquian form corre ,

spon d i n g to the Delaware m c h i n gwe and

’
,

“ “
meaning large ; or it may be shing
” ”
g w ah mean
, i ng leave s which is used ,

by the Miamis in composition although ,

they use s hé pah kwah a s a separate word

- -
.

The burr oak is the largest of our oaks

-
,

with the largest leaves and is a fine shade ,

tree
—
.

M E S Q UA B U C K Reservation at Tippecanoe
Lake in Ko s ciusko County a n d village
, ,

which stood at the site of Oswego both ,

named for the Potawatomi chief to whom

they bel onged and who is pop ul arly r e,
“
membered in the vicinity as Squaw
”
Buck .The name is M es kwah bii k ’
- -
,

“
which is the Potawatomi name for cop
per and i s Some time s used for red pipe
,
”

stone T Op a sh says it is also u s ed to s i gn i

.

fy the red color of the sky at sunrise or

sunset and that it was applied to this chief
,

in this sen s e .

—
M ET EA Postoffice in Cass Co un ty named
for the Potawatomi chief M e té ah Mc — ’
- -

Coy calls him Meteor His village was on .

’
the St Joseph s about nine miles above Ft
.
,
.

Wayn e at the mouth of Cedar Creek and

, ,

27 8
 ME T E A H ( KI SS M E )
- -
.

(F ro m Por
t i t f m ly i N ti n al Gall y )
ra or er n a o er
 I N D E X GLOSS ARY
’ ’ ’
wa s called M u s kwa h wah s é p e O t an - - - - - -
,

or Cedar Creek Town A ccounts of him .

will be found in Keating s N arrative of ’

Maj or Long s Expedition in 1823 in M c’

Kenney and Ha l l s Indian Tri b es ; and in ’

local hi s tories of Allen and other counties

—
.

M E T OS A N YA H Re s ervation and creek i n

Wa b ash and Grant counties The name .

’
is commonly abbreviated to T O s an y ah - -
,

and has been corrupted to Josina It is the .

exact equivalent of our new coi n ed word -

“ ”
Amerind i e American Indian Liter
,
. .
, .

ally and no doubt originally it means

, ,
“ ”
the Living but a fter the comi ng of the
,

whites it would naturally be applied to

”
that portion of the living that were na
tive to Amer i ca It i s often used as a p er .

sonal name for both males and females ,

“ ”
and is translated Indian .

—
M I A M I County town severa l townships , ,

and streams all named for the M iami na

tion of Indians The proper pronuncia .

—
tion is M e ah m e i n the plura l M e ah
-
’
- -
'

m e ah ki
-
’
-
,
— —
or M e ah m e Ok but i t is -
’
-

hopelessly corrupted to M i am mi The -

’
-
.

M iamis do not know the meaning of the

word and it is never translated by the old
,

280
 IND E X G LOSS ARY

call Florida a peninsula The Florida

“ ” “
M iami is no doubt a corruption of Ma
”
y a i m i the ,name of one of the ancient
tribes of that region The M iami nation .

included the tribes known as Ou i a t a n on s ,

P i a n kesh a w s T w i gh t wees Eel Rivers

, , ,

and at an earlier date the tribes known

,

“
a s Illinois See these names ; also Mara
.

”
mech .La Poth er i e says of the M iamis
“
They travel but rarely by Water but are ,

great walkers which has given them the ,

”
name of M etou s c ep t in i ou eks or pilgrims .

—
M I C H I GAN Lake and city M ichigan is .

probably of Odj 1bwa origin ; compounded

“ ”
of mi shi meaning great and s a gie
-
, ,
-

“
gan meaning lake
,
.

—
M I S H A WA K A Town in St Joseph Cou n tv . .

The name is a corruption of the Pota wa to

mi m shéh wah kek a contraction of
’ ’
- -
,

“
m s héh wah kee ki or country of dead
’ ’ ’
- - -
,

“
trees ; in our common phrase a deaden
”
ing . There was at this point a tract
of dead timber caused by fire or storm ,
.

—
M I S H I K I N OQ K W A M iami name of the cele
b r a t ed Little Tur tle ; also his village on Eel
’
River sometimes called Turtle s Town
,
.

The pronunciation i s l\ l i shi kin Oq kwa l

’
- - -
’
-

282
 I N DE X GLOSS ARY
“ q”
the representing a sound of gh
“ ”
similar to the German ch The literal .

“ ” ’
meaning is Great Turtle s Wife but spe ,

c ific a lly it is the name of the painted ter

rapin ( c hr ys emys p i c ta ) which is the com ,

monest of the turtle family in this region .

It is also the most gaudily colored which ,

explains the literal name The Great Tur ,

tle being the chief b en efic en t deity of the

Algonquian tribes As the painted terrapin
.

is small not growing over six or eight

,

inches across the early interpreters who

, ,

did not know a special name for it called ,

”
it the little turtle a n d the name has ,

become permanent .

—
M I S S I S S I N E W A Tributary of the Wabash ,

emptying at Peru The name is also some

.

times given to a Miami town at its mouth ,

otherwise kno wn as Osage town The .

’ ’
M iami name is N a mah chis sin wi - - - -
,

which as applied to the stream is trans

”
l ated much fall in the river Literally .

it means an ascent or as one mixed blood, ,

-

“
explained it a con s i der ble s lope up but
,
’
,

not as much as a hill It is formed from .

’ “
the verb n a mah chis sing meaning it
- - -
,

”
s l ants
. The name w a s fo r mer lv written ,

2 83
 I N D E X GLOSS ARY

a s it is still commonly pronounced in the

neighborhood M a s sis sin é way ,
- -
’
- -

—
.

M ODO C Posto ffi ce in Randolph Count

named for the tribe o f northern California
which achieved notoriety by the massacre
of the lava beds It is said that the name .

was given to them by the hostile tribe of

the S h a s t eec a s and that it means ,
“ ”
enemies .

—
M O H A WK P08 t0ffic e in Hancock County
~
,

named for the Iroquois The meaning is .

“ ”
uncertain but is supposed to be cannibal
, ,

as that interpretation was given it in 16 7 6 ,

“
when they were mentioned as M a u gwa
”
wogs or Mohawks i e man eaters
, , . .
,
-
.

—
M ONON Posto ffi ce and township in White
County ; also creek tributar y to the Tippe
canoe M O n on is a Potawatomi word
.
’
-

“ ”
exactly equivalent to tote as used in the ,

South If you carry anything the act is

.

monon I f you accompany a person it is

.

’
monon If you drive one s carriage or
.
,

take him in your own it is monon ,

.

—
M O TA Reservation and town of a Pota wat
omi chief in Kosciusko County The .

name is pronounced m o tay and means a ’

-
,

j ug or a big bottle
, .

284
 I ND E X GLOSS A R Y

first reached by the trails from the north ,

—
east and south and took th i S name by ,
‘

pre eminence The town originally stood a

-
.

short distance farther up the river ; and

it is said in local histories that it wa s then
“ ”
called Ou t a i n i n k and that this means ,

“ ”
Old Town This is evidently due to a
.

misunderstanding of the Delaware word

“
uten ink which means site of the town
-
, ,

“
or place where the town wa s but has ,

been mistaken for the name of the town

that was there .

—
M U S CA C K I T U C K River of so uthern Indi
ana tributary to the east fork of White
,

River ; often improperly written M u s c a t a

tack Chamberlain says of it
. In I n
dian Mesh caque tuck or Pond River
- -
,

from i ts many stagnant places in low

”
water . This is erroneous There is no .

“
such Indian word for pond There are .

”
no stagn ant places in the M u sc a c ki tu ck
even n ow and it was a larger and steadier
,

stream when the Indians knew it before

, ,

the forests were removed The ending .

“ ” “ ”
tuk or hit tii k is never app l ied to
-

stagnant water and of itself implies water

,

in motion The name is D ela wa r H om

.

286
 IN D E X GLOSS A R Y
’
pounded o f m o sch a ch geu meaning - -
,
” “ ” ’
clear not turbid and hit ti1 k mean
’
-

—
, , ,

ing a stream usu ally a small and rapid

river —
Hence M o sch a ch hit tuk the -
’
- -

—
.
,
“ ”
ch s ounded as in German o r Clear
River
—
.

M U S K E LON G E Lake in Kosciusko County ,

four miles south of Warsaw There has .

been much discu s sion as to the proper

—
form of the word mu s kellonge m a sc al ,

,
—
longe maskinonge et c which is due to ,

—
di fferent dialects the Odj ibwa and cog
nate tribes having no and substituting
“ ”
n for it Its meaning is the same in
.

—
Indi an as in English o r literally the “

”
great pike .

4
NAN C Y T O W N Common name of Delaware
-

village on White River about 9 miles we s t ,

of Anderson ( S E 1 4 of Sec 5 Range . .

-
.
,

7 It wa s also known as N antico but ,

properly as N a n tikoke being named for

’

James N a n t ikoke who lived there N anti , .

koke is the name of one of the Delaware

s ub tribes and according to Brinton
-
, , ,

“
mean s tide water peopl e referring to
-
,

their ancient residence between Che s a

peake Bay and the ocean .

287
 I NDE X GL OSS A R Y
—
N APPANEE Town in Elkhart County ,

named for the Canadian town which how , ,

“p ”
ever is spelled with one
, The name is
.

“ ”
the word for flour in the language of
the Missisauga Indians who according, ,

to their chief Pa u das h are a branch of

,

the Shawnees who were dr i ven north

,

from the Ohio Val l ey by the Iroquois .

The Canadian name refers to a grist mill

built in early times at the falls of the N ap
a n ee or A pani River
, .

NA S WA W K E E — Reservation in Marshall
County bordering Lake Maxinkuckee
,
.

The hill r ising from Maxinkuckee land

' ’
ing is still known as N a s waw kee s Hill
- -
,

the Government having built him a house

there The common spelling varies from
.

N a swa ka to N ees wa u gh gee but the Pota ,

wa tom i pronunciation is N a s waw kee

’
- -
.

“
It means primarily a feather but also
“ “
a feathered arrow or one who feathers
,

arrows The portrait of this chief in the

“
N ational Gallery was marked N a swa -

”
g (
a T h e Feathered Arrow ) and that is
presumably the meaning intended in his
name .

—
N E A H L ON G Q UA H Common form of name of
288
 I NDE X GLOSS ARY

O sage the N eutral The M iami s called .

’
him Wah shah shie which i s their name
- -
,

for the Osage tribe

—
.

O H I O County named for the river La

, .

“
Sal l e wrote of the river in 1680 the Iro ,

q u o i s call it Ohio and the Ottawas O l

,
i gh
i n c i p ou
-
Ohio is an Iroquois exclama
.

“ ”
tion s igni fying beauti ful Oli gh in .

c i p ou is apparently the s ame as the old

Delaware name A llegew i sipo whic h -

,

probabl y means river of the T alegewi or

Ta l ega a tribe with whom the Delawares
,

were at war anciently John Johnston .

says that the Wyandot s called the river

“
O h e z uh meaning
- -
,
somethi ng great
and that the Shawnees ca l led it Ki skep i la
“ ”
sepe or Eagle River
,
Hough gives the .

“
Del aware name as Pa l awa the pee or - -
,

”
Turkey River On the oldest French
.

maps the Ohio at its mouth is marked

, , ,

Ou abo u ski a u Ou abou s t ikou

,
or Oua ,

bou ski gou These are dia l ect forms of

.

Wah bah shik ki the Miam i name of the

- -
’
-
,

Wabash The tribes of thi s region treated

.

the Wabash as the main stream and the ,

O h i o a s tributar y to i t ; and the French

29 0
 I N DE X GLOSS A R Y

followed their nomenclature until about

17 50 .

—
O S C EO LA Po stoffice in St Joseph County .
,

named for the celebrated chief of the Sem

i n oles ( Rebels or Wanderers ) The name .

“ ”
is that of the great medici n e drink of
the Creeks of whom the Seminoles are an
,

o ff shoot and of the mixed military and

,

religious ceremony in which it is used .

’ ’
The name is more properly Os y 0 h fil la - - - -
,

and is taken from a prolonged note yo ,

h ii l la that is used in the ceremony The

’
-
,
.

whites commonly call this drink black

”
drink but the Creeks call it white
,

drink from the froth on the black liquid

, .

It is a decoction of the leaves of the cas

sena or yaupon ( flex v omi t or i a ) which ,

the whites call Appalachian Carolina or , ,

South Sea tea A ( I nscription of the cere .

mony will be found in Schoolcra ft s Ar ’

chives Vol 5 p 266 , .

,
. .

—
Os wE G o Town in Kosciusko County at the
outlet of Tippecanoe Lake The name is .

“
I q u oi s Beauchamp says : Os we go
.
- -
,

Osh w a kee Swa geh are among the

- -
,
-
,

forms of a well known name It means

‘ ’
flowing out or small water flowing i nto,
‘

29 1
 I NDE X GLOSS A R Y

that which is large The name belongs .

to the river but was applied to the lake

,

by the On an da ga s in which case it meant

,
”
the lake at Oswego The Indiana town .

is on the site of the Potawatomi village of

M es kwah bii k
’
- -
.

—
OT S E G o Township in Steuben County The .

name i s Iroquois taken from the N ew ,

“
York lake Beauchamp says : Ote s a ga
.
— -

is Ot s ego Lake and traditionally i s sup

,

po s ed to refer to a large stone at its out

let In the last century the name also a p
.

p ea r ed as Os ten h a which
-
A Cusick
-
, .

tells me i s something about a s tone Coop .

er in the preface to Deerslayer says tha t

, ,

the s tone above mentioned still retained

” ’
the name of the O tsego Rock Cooper s .

story the scene of which was about this

,

l ake was an e ffe cti ve a gency for making

,

the name popular .

—
O TTA W A The earliest known name applied
to the M aumee River on account of this ,

tribe living on its banks Ottawas or its .

,

short form Tawas is commonly said to ,

mean traders but Lamothe Cadillac in ,

“
his memoir of 169 5 says : I will say only ,

that the word Ou taou a s signifies in ou r

29 2
 I N D E X GLOSS A R Y

from the Detroit River for i n 168 7 D u , , ,

“
r a n t a ge speaks o f the Shawnees and M i
amis for a long t ime proprietor s of the
,

said country of the Detroit River and Lake

Erie from which they had retired for some
,

time for their greater utility i e to La . .

,
’
Salle s colony on the Illinois The name .

i s probably not of M iami origin for in ,

’
their language wa h wé ah appears to be - -

”
restricted to the meaning round while ,

“ ” ”
curved or crooked are denoted by
’
wah kakwh ; thus the full moon is wah
-

’ “ ”
w é ah sit i e
- -
the round one and the
, . .
, ,
’
crescent moon is wa hk sh i n gh wa h i e - -
,
. .
,
“ ”
lying crooked Post Ou i a t a n on wa s lo
.

c a t ed in the west half of the east half of

Sec 27 T p 23 N R 5 W The site

.
, . .
, .

is crossed by the east and west cen

ter line part lying in the N E
, . .

quarter and part in the S E quarter It . . .

is immediately west of a ravine and dry

run which separates it from Sand Ridge
,

Church and cemetery Excavation on the .

east side opened the mixed French I n ,

dian and British burial ground of the fort ,

a number of relics from which are pre

served a t Purdue University The local .

29 5
 I NDE X GLOSS A RY

D A R ha s un fortunate l y p u t up a me
. . .

mor i a l tabl et about a qu arter of a mile

from the real site The Indian town was .

on the s ou th side of the river a l ittle lower ,

down on what is now ca l led Wea Prairie

—
.
,

O wA s c o Posto ffi ce in Carro l l County The $

.

name i s Iroquois taken from the lake in ,

“
N ew York and i s said to mean floating ,
”
bridge
—
.

PA TOKA River in s o uthwe s tern Indiana ,

tributary to the Waba sh ; a l so town and

island in Gibson County and township in ,

Pi ke County named for the river The ,

.

river is s aid to have b een named for a

M u squ aki e or Fo x chief who l ived in the ,

vicinity more than a cent u ry ago There is .

a p ostofli ce and town s hip o f the s ame name

in Marion County Ill There i s record , .

of a Fo x chief in Illinois whom the whites

called Patoka but the Indians s ay the ,

name i s properly Pah t a kO t o ( Pa ta go -

’
- - - -

to ; Pat a c a to ) He was also called Tah

- - -
.

n a k0 m e and was of the Wolf clan to

’
- -
, ,

wh i ch the name Pah t a kO t o refers M r -

’
- -
. .

W C Kohlen berg superintendent of the

. .
,

Sac and Fox agency writes of the name ,

“
It refer s to the height of the water on the
29 6
 I N D E X GLOSS A R Y

his new post a nd e s tab lished the village

,

’
known as Chip kah ki or Chip kah ki - -
,
-
’
-

’
oon gi The meaning of P i a nkesha w is
-
.

uncertain but G od froy says that the idea

,

it conveys to him is of something scattered

about the ears The M iami pronunciation
.

- —
is pé fin g gish ah ’
-
.

—
P I PE C RE E K Stream in Cass County and ,

township named for the stream This is .

a literal translation o f the M iami name of

— —
the stream P wa h kah nah a pipe for -
’
-

tobacco .

—
P I N J E W A H M iami name of Jean Baptiste
Richardville their last head chief The
,
.

“ ”
—
n of the first syllable is nasal the pro
“
n u n c i a t i on being Pi j é wah
’
It was or - -
.

i gi n a lly the name of the wildcat but is now ,

commonly used for the domestic cat He .

was a hal f breed his father being a scion

-
,

of the noble French house of Drouet de

Richardville and his mother Tah kli m
,
-

—
wah ( On the Other Side i e in place ) . .
, ,

a sister o f Little Turtle .

—
P ON C EA U P I C H O U Handed down as the
n ame of Wildcat Creek a tributary of the ,

Wabash It is an American corruption

.

o f Pan s e au Pichou the French name of ,

29 8
 I N DEX GLOSS A R Y

the stream which is a literal translation of

,

“
the M iami name Pi j é wah m o ti or -
’
- -
’
-
,

Belly of the Wildcat : The name is o f ten

written Po nce P assu in local histories On .

old French maps it is commonly marked

Riviere Panse a la Panse or de l a Panse
, ,
.

—
PO TA W ATO M I One of the most numerous
of the Indiana tribes Keating give s the .

pronunciation as PO t a waw to m e and - - -

’
-
,
“
says it means we are making a fire but ,

Q u a s hm a gives me the pronunc i ation a s

’
PO t a t
-
me-
The name is probably
-
.

from the Odj ibwa Po da wand um eeg or ,

- - - -
,

those who keep the fire The Potawatomis .

,

Odj ibwa s and Ottawas were very closely

related if not originally one people and
, ,
“ ”
called themselves The Three Fires The .

M iami name o f the Potawatomis is Wah

’
h O na hah but they often use the nick
- -
,
’
name P O t o sh
,
-
The French nicknamed
.

them Pous ( French for lice ) b ut the ,

meaning is accidental and the name mere ,

ly an abbreviation as the French made ,

”
the first syllable of their full name Pou .

The Potawatomis became largely inter

mixed with other tribes a t an early date ,

especially with the Sauks and Foxes .

299
 I NDEX GLOSS A R Y

P R OP H E T S ’
—
T OW N Indian town on the north
side of the Wabash be l ow the mouth of .
,

the Tippecanoe at which Tecumtha and ,

The Prophet gathered their follower s .

The Indian name of The Prophet has many

dialect variations due to his association ,

with so many tribes M r Frank A . . .

Thackeray superintendent and special

,

agent at Shawnee Oklahoma writes me , ,

“
The brother of Tecumseh ( The Prophet )
is best known among the Shawnees by the
‘

name of Tems kwa ta wa The meaning - - -

.

‘
of this word is one who keeps Open
”
door f
—
RA C C OON Big Raccoon Creek i s a stream
of western Indiana tributary to the W a ,

’
bash On Hough s map it is marked Che
.

que a k which is evid ently intended f or

-
,

’ ’
the M iami nickname Ché kwi ah or S h e - -
,

“
kwi hah They say this means a poor
-
.

’ ”
coon but can give no intelligible rea son
,

for it The M iami word for raccoon is

a s ay p on
-
Kil s é kw a thinks that S h e
’
.
- -

’
kwi hah has some relation to she kwa
- -

tah or taking marrow out of bones The

, .

Indians used to crack bones and extract ,

the marrow for food .

300
 N D E X GLOSS ARY

name wa s common ly pro

R ichardville
’
n ou n c ed and often w r itten R u sh er ville
, ,
- -
.

The county was originally named Richard

ville for this chief but the name was
, ,

changed to Howard in honor o f G en .

Tilghman Howard .

—
S T J O S EP H S R I V ER The principal tributary
.

of Lake M ichigan from northern Indiana

and southern M ichigan The Pota wa to .

’
m i s i n whose country it was call it S a hg
, ,

’
wah sé bé which may be translated Mys
- -
,

” ’
t ery River S a hg wah is practically
.
-

equivalent to our term mushroom

” “ ”
growth or spontaneous growth i e ,
. .
,

something that springs up without any

known seed T op a s h says that the name
.

came from a Potawatomi legend of a

strange Indian who was found on the ,

bank of this stream and no one ever ,

learned who he was or whence he came ,

.

’
Hence they called him S a hg wah and -
,

gave this name to the stream .

—
S T J O S EP H S R I V E R The north branch o f
.

the Maumee Kils Okwa says that the M i .

ami name of this stream is K0 chis ah

’
- -

sé pé or Bean River
-
, .

—
S T M A R YS R I V E R The south b ranch of the
.

3 02
 1 IND E X GLOSS A RY

Maumee John John son said that the

.

Shawnee name of this stream was Coko

’
theke sepe or Kettle River On Hough s
—
.
,

map it is marked Ke ke ong se p e evi - - - -

den t ly a corruption o f Ki ka ko n sé pé
’ ’
- - - -
.

See Keki on ga The M iami name is Mah .

’ ’
may i wah sé pé way
- -
or - -
Sturgeon -
,

Creek the reference being to the fact that

,

the sturgeon formerly resorted to the

Maumee and its tributaries in great num
bers in the spawning season .

—
S A LA M ON I E Tributary of the Wabash ,

emptying O pposite La Gro The spelling .

—
is diverse ranging from S a lli ma ny and
S oli m on y to Salamonia in the name of a
town in Jay County which is named for
the stream The M iamis call the stream
.

O sah m o n éé Both this and the Amer

’
- - -
.

“
ican name are corruptions of O sah l a ’
- -
’

m o nee the M iami name of the blood

-
,

root ( s a ngu i n a r i a Ca na dens i s ) Literally .

the word means yellow paint ”

—from
“
’
—
O sah wek yellow ( inanimate ) and l a
- -

—
,

m o nee paint The plant is so called be

-
.

cause the Indians made a yellow paint or

dye from it The name is identical with.

that of the Miami chief who l i ved Opp osite

3 03
 I N DE X GLOSS ARY

its mouth and whom the French called Le

,

Gro s He may have been named from the

.

stream or the stream from him

, .

—
S H A N K I T U N K Stream i n Ru sh County ,

tri butary to Flat Rock I f the name is not .

”
much corrupted it means Woody Place ,

f rom the Delaware tch a n i geu meaning ,

“ ”
woody and the termina l l ocative Pos
, .

s ibly however it is corrupted from tch a n

, ,
“
g
-
hit t-
ii k which would
,
mean Woody
”
Creek
—
.

S H A W NEE Creek township a n d prairie in,

Fountain County named for the Indian ,

tribe a b and o f which lived in tha t vicinity

, ,

having a town at or near the village of

Shawnee in Tippecanoe County They .

’
were probably Chartier s band which ,

moved to that region from the Al l egheny ,

in 1 7 45 The name of the tribe in all the

.
,

“
Algonquian dialects means Southern ,

” ’
ers The Miami form is shah wahn wa h
.
- -
.

—
S H E P A H CA N N A H The Miami husband of
Frances Slocum and the name of his vil ,

lage on the M i ss i s s i n ewa S hé pah kan .

-
’
-

nah is the name o f the awl used by the

—
M iami s in s ewing skins an instrument
five or s i x i nches long made of metal , ,

3 04
 I N D E X GLOSS A RY

n a tur e o f T a tab a u gs u y or The Twi s tin g

Vine but there is nothing in the name
approaching the Delaware words for
“ ” “ ” “
twisting or vine Literall y tata is
.

’
an emphatic negative and the verb p o ch ,

On means to divide by force or pull apart ,

.

Such a name would not be given to any

frail vine and the one notably twisting
,

woody vine of the Delaware country is the

American Woodbine ( lom c er a gr am) of
’

which T a ta p a c h ske or T a ta p ac h s i t is
, ,

presumably the specific Delaware name .

—
T E C U M S E H Postoffi ce in Vigo County ,

named for the celebrated Tecumtha The .

“ ” “
name means going across or cro ss ing ,
”
over . The common interpretations of
“ ” “ ” “
a comet , a shooting star a panther ,
”
leaping on its prey etc are probabl y , .
,

derived from illustrations of thé mea n ing .

—
T H OR N TO W N Town in Boone County on ,

site of old Indian village at the center of

“ ”
the Thorntown Reserve of 18 18 which ,

was relinquished in 18 28 and the Indians ,

removed to Eel River The M iam i name .

of the Indian town and the reservation was

Kah wé Ok ki oon g i e Pl ace Of Thorn s
- -
’
- -
, . .
,

or T horn town .

306
 I N DE X G L OS S ARY

—
T I P P E CA N OE R iver tr ib utary the W a ,
to
bash ; a l so posto ffi ce lake county and , , ,

townships named for the river The M i

ami name of the stream i s Ké t a p kw on -
’
-
,

the name of the bu ffalo fish which was ,

formerly abundant and is stil l common ,

in the river and its tributary lakes Mc .

Coy gives the Potawatomi form as Ke

“ ”
t a p e kon O ur word Tippecanoe i s a
’
- -
.

corruption of Ké t a p é k6 n n 0n g ( i e -
’
- - -
. .
,

Keta p ekon town or place ) the name of , ,

the Indian town be l ow the mouth of the

“ ”
river Canoe is not a word of the N orth
.

American Indians There was a band o f .

“
M iamis whom the French called Tepi
”
cons and this is probabl y a cor ruption
,

of the name of the river .

T OR E A H — Reservation in Allen County to ,

M iami chief commonly known as Francois

Lafontaine T he M iami pronunciation is
.

T O pi ah and Kils okwa sa y s it mean s

’
- -
,
“ ”
Frost on the Bushes or Leave s , .

—
T OPE K A P os tofli ce in Lagrange County ,

named for the city in Kansas The word .

“ ”
is commonly said to mean potatoe s or , ,

“ ”
as Kansas j esters allege small potatoes ,
.

Thi s i s i ndefin ite as a ppl i ed to I ndi an

 INDE X GLOSS A RY

foods The Kansas Historica l Society

adopts Dunbar s explanation that it is the
’

“
Shawnee name of the root of a species
o f s unflower found on the lowlands of the
”
Kansas River The only native plant
.

answering to this description is the Jeru

salem artichoke ( ha li a n thus t u ber os u s ) ,

the tuberous roots of which were a com

mon f ood of the Indians wherever found ,
.

—
T R A I L C R EE K A tributary of Lake M ich
igan emptying at M ichigan City This
,
.

name and the French name Riviere du

, ,

Chemin are translations of the Pot a w a to

,

mi name M e eh way sé hé way The o l d

,
-
’
- - - -
.

Indian trail from N i l es to Chicago fol

lowed this stream .

—
T W I G H T W E E s Commonest form of the
name given by the English to the M iamis
living about Fort Wayne The English .

took the word from the Iroquois and its ,

”
original form was Twich twich ch
—
-
,

sounded as in German or T w i gh twi gh -

.

“ ”
This is very like the word for snipe
in some of the Iroquois dialects and ,

may have been adopted by them in

derision of the crane totem of the M i
amis to which this band be l onged O n
, .

3 08
 I N DEX GLOSS ARY

s tream Vermillon Jaune or Red —

Ye ll ow which exactly trans l ates the In
dian name and very well de s cribes the
,

co l or The N ationa l Board of G eogr a p h i

.

“ ”
ca l N ame s undertook to reform the S pel l
i ng of thi s word by dropping one but
as the s pelling is established by the Indiana
law creating the county i t cannot legally
be changed in this way O ur M iamis now .

“ ”
do not use the word osan im un but call ,

“
vermilion li m O m éé which i s the gen
-
’

,
“ ” ’
eral word f or paint or s ometime s n a ,

—
p é kong l a mé m éé which mean s red
- -
’ “
,
”
pa i nt
—
.

W A B A S H The pr i nc i pa l river of Indiana ,

with county city an d to wn ship s named for

,

it The name is a contraction of the M i

.

ami name of the stream which is Wah ,

bah s hik ki or as more common l y pro

- -
’
,
“ ” “p”
n ou n c ed wah pah shik ki
,
-
b and -
’
-

being convertible in the M iami a s in most ,

Algonqu i an langu age s The name is an .

“ ”
inflect i on of the M iami adj ective white ,

which in i t s simplest ( inanimate ) form i s

’
wah peek Wah bah shik ki i mplie s that
-
.
- - -

the obj ect to which it is applied i s b right ,

or pu re white i n an i mate and na t u ra l

, , ,

3 10
T A HKI N G G A HM E OO N G I .

T r eaty G u d
ro n at W aba sh .
 IN DEX GLOSS A R Y

such as a bright white stone or shell In , .

this case the name refers to the limestone

bed of the upper part o f the stream If .

the noun qualified stood for something

artificial that was pure white such as ,

cloth or paper the adj ective form would

, ,

have to be Wah pah kin gi The some - -

’
-
.

what common theory that Wabash means

“ ”
a cloud driven by the equinoctial wind

evidently originated from mistaking an i l

lustration for a definition .

—
\V A B A S H County seat of Wabash County .

The M iami name of the location was Tah

king gah m e oon gi or Running W a
-
’
-
“
-
’
-
,

”
ter Place ; the reference being to a cele
b r a t ed spring variously known as Para
,

dise Spring Hanna s Spring and Treaty

,
’

Spring The last name was given because

.

the treaty of 1826 was held here The .

spring was located about one hundred

yards west of the Big Four depot on the ,

north side of Market street but when the ,

street was improved the old spring was

closed and the water piped across the
,

street to a drinking fountain This is now .

boxed up and the water carried on to the

,

Big Four round house The accompany .

312
 I ND EX GLOSS A R Y

O dj ibwa equivalent a i s ebu n which Schoo l,

craft derives from ais ( a shell ) and ebu n

( it was ) giving
, a legend that the raccoon
was made from a shell by the Great
Spirit .

\ V A WA S E E — Lake and p os toffic e in Kos

c i u sko County named for a Potawatomi
,

chief . His grandson Thomas T op a sh, ,

who has the same Indian name says it is ,

p r o n ou n c ed W a h w é a s -
s ee-
It ’
is the
-
Pota
.

wa tom i name of the full moon and liter ,

“ ”
ally means the round one The name .

originally belonged to a small lake s ome

five mile s southwest of the present W a
lage ; and the present Wawasee which is ,

partly artificial being made by the dam at

,

Syracuse which united several small lakes

formerly connected by Turkey Creek was ,

known as Ni ne M ile Lake or Turkey Lake .

The change was made by C01 Eli Lilly .

,

who arranged with the railroad and postal

authorities to name the station and post
o ffice Wawasee Many of the people o f
.

the neighboring county still use the older

names .

—
WA W PE C ON G Pos tofli c e in M iami County .

T h e name is a corruption of wah pé ko n

’
- -
,

314
 I N DE X GLOSS A RY

which means white bone The reason .

for selecting the name is not known .

—
W E A Creek postoffi ce and prairie in Tip
,

p ec a n o e County The name is commonly .

’
pronounced wé a w The French form was .

ouia These are abbreviations of Wah we

.
-

’
ah tung ong or Oua oui a ta non See
- - — ,
- - -
.

Ou i a t a n on G o d fr oy says that the Wea

.

village which was located on the prairie

, ,

wa s called W i ah ton oon gi or W ea h ’

- - -
’
-
,

tunong Town .

—
W E S A w Reservation and creek in M iam i
County named for the M iami chief for
,

whom the reservation was made The .

’
word wé saw is the M iami name of the
-

gall bladder of an animal

-
.

—
W H I T E R I V E R The largest tributary of the
Wabash in central Indiana It was orig
, .

i n a lly in M iami territory and their name ,

“
for it is Wah pi kah m e ki or White
’ ’
- - - -
,

”
Waters The Delawares at first used
.

the same name varied in the Unami dia ,

l ect to O pee co me cah as the Unami - - - -

,

” “
use o p eek instead of wah peek for
- — ”

“
white ; but l ater they commonly called
’
the s tream Wah pi h é u i or White - - -
,

”
R iv er On two of t he oldest French
.

3 5
1
 I N DEX GLOSS A RY

maps White R iver is marked Ou a p ika

” “ ”
minou and O i a p i gam i nou These are .

evidently attempts at the M iami name in ,

“ ”
which the engraver ha s mistaken the k
“ ”
of the final syllable for an n .

—
W I NA M A C County seat of Pulaski County ,

named for a Potawatomi chief whose ,

name appears as W ena mea c W en a m eck , ,

Wyn em a c W i nn i m eg etc This is the

, , .

Potawatomi name of the catfish derived ,

’ “ ”
from w ee n 11 d meaning muddy, and
'
-
,
“ ”
m ilk a fish indicating the preference of
, ,

mo s t species o f catfish for muddy water .

Winamac is a common Potawatomi name ,

and appear s in the early French records

as Ou en emek The one for whom this.

town was named figured at the Fort Dear

born massacre as friendly to the whites ,

and was usually so though he was said to ,

have been with the hostiles at the battle of

Tippecanoe He made several visits to
.

Washington and died in the summer of

,

1 821 There is a sketch of him in Thatch

.

er s Indian B iographie s
’

—
.

W I N NEB A GO A n Ind i an town on Wil dcat

Creek destroyed by the troops under Gen
,

eral Hopkin s in 18 12 named for the W i n ,

3 16
 I N D E X GLOSS ARY
—
Cedar Lake i n Starke County but now ,

monop olized by the Winona Assembly for

—
Winona Lake formerly Eagle Lake
near Warsaw The name is the same as the
.

Wenonah of Longfellow s Hiawatha W i ’

.

’
n o nah is a Sioux female proper name
-
, , ,

signifying a fir s t born child If the fir s t-

.

'
born is a boy the name given is Ch a s kay
,
-
,

and in that case there can be no Winona

in the family When sex is not desired to
.

“
be indicated the Sioux word for fir s t
”
born is t o kah pah which is the numeral
-
’
-
,

first and is also used as a comparative ,

meaning the elder or larger o f t wo In this .

’
s ense it is the counterpart o f h é kah t a - -
,

which means the younger or smaller The .

name W inona was first i n t rodu c ed to the

'

'

’
reading public by Keating s pathetic a c
count in his N arrative of Long s Expedi
,
’

tion of the Sioux maiden who committed

,

suicide because her relatives sought to

make her wed against her will Since then .

it has been a popular name for Indian

girls with American writers .

—
W YA L U S I N G Stream in Jennings County ,

tributary to the east fork of White

R i ver T he n ame comes f rom Penns yl
.

31 8
 I N D E X GLOSS A RY

vania wher e it is given to a small tribu

,

tary of the Susquehanna It was also the .

Delaware name of the Moravian Mission

of Fr i eden shu etten ( Tents of Peace )
which was located near the mouth of t his
stream As to the meaning Heckewelder
.
,

“
says : Wyalusing Creek M ch wih i llu s i nk
.
’

( properly ) is at the dwelling place o f the -

hoary veteran An ancient warrior hav

.

ing resided on that creek about one mile

above the town wa s the cause of this place
”
be i ng so named ln remembrance of him
,
.

—
W Y AN D O TT E Posto ffi ce in Crawford Coun
ty and formerly one in Tippecanoe Coun
,

ty . The latter adj oins what is known as

the Richardville reservation on which was ,

“ ”
located The Wyandot Town where the
Miami treaty of 1828 was made The .

name is from the tribe Heckewelder says.

it was A hou a n da te but early chroniclers

,

usually wrote it Yen da t or W en da t

.

.
,

Opinions di ffer as to the meaning but ,

Horatio Hale is probably right in his vie w

“ ”
that it means People of One Speech .

“
The French called these Indians Hur
on s ,
r ef err i ng to their ha i r whi ch they ,
 IN D E X GLOSS A R Y

wore like the O ttawa s in a bristling band

across the head from front to back .

—
YE LLO W R I V E R Stream in northern Indi
ana tributary to the Kankakee Brinton
, .

identifies this with the W i sa wan a ( Yello w

River ) of the Walum O lum but R a ,

fin es qu e thinks the W i sa wa n a was the

M issouri The Potawatomi name of the
.

Indiana stream is Way th o w kah mik

-
’
- -
,

which mean s Yellow Waters .

3 20
I n di an a : A R edemp ti o n from S la very
(A m i C mm w l th S i ) er ca n o on ea er es

BY J A COB PI A T T D UN N

T he s to ry u i fu lly t ld H m li f i
i s b ea t o . o e e p
s r e r es e nt d e .

Cutm s o s an d d d m th d
r es s f l b
an e o s o a or ar e d esc r ib ed .

W h ve a e a g nu i n h i t y f th fi t p p l
e e s or o e rs eo e of th a t g r ea t

gi n —P
re o .
”
u bli c Op i n i o n .

Dun h t u k
Mr . th nli n f g nu i n i t
as s r c on e e o e e n er e t s
and d i gn i ty w hi ch un th u gh th h i t y f th t r s ro e s or o e s a t es
—
,

f mdor eth i l f
ont h N th w t T i t y N
e so o e or es err or . . Y
.

I nd e p e nd en t .

E x c pt i n g P of J h n ton Conn ecti c ut we m ay p ro

e r . o s
’
s
‘ ’
,

n ou thi la t v lu m t h m t schol ly o f th
nce s s o i s e e os ar e s er e
—
.

It ta i n
c er ly a nk i n t h v y fi s t g
r a d T he C i ti
s e er r r e . r c .

It is a os —
m t i n t t i n g b k z ll th u gh er es oo a ro it th e
r ea d er s
’
c l t tt n t i n i
os es l l a —
g d y gi v n T h
e o s a e . e S c h oo l
J o u r na l

Hi s um i i n v y
vol e s e er r es p ec t on e o f th e m os t v lu
a able

o f a n ex ee c d i n gly v lu bl a a e s er es i .
—B
”
os to n T ra vele r .

P u bli s h ed by Hou ghto n M i tfl i n cb C0 ,

‘ ’
. P ri c e For
s a le by a ll d ea lers .