Indians

It is supposed by archaeologists, that two, if not three, races have successively occupied the soil of this continent, - the Mound Builders, the races that reared such cities as are found in Central America, and the Indians, who are distinct in every particular from the two former races, being, when discovered, without cultivation, refinement or literature. Of their predecessors they know nothing. Some supose the Indians are indigenous, others as of Asiatic origin. In Michigan the great tribes were the Algonquins and the Iroquois, the latter of whom were a great and extensive alliance of tribes of a common origin, waging almost continuous warfare against the whites, especially the English. Such was the nature of the conspiracy of Pontiac and of King Philip's war. The art of hunting supplied them with the means of living, as well as with excitement and distinction. The name Ottawa (ot-taw-wah), the meaning of which is trader is of the tribe that occupied the northern portion of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, from the Owashtenong or Grand River northward. Driven out of Canada in 1600, they, in turn, drove out the Sacs and Foxes, who settled in Green Bay. South of Grand River lived the Muscotay or Prairie Indians, with whom the Ottawa lived in peace, until, instigated by the Pottawatamies, they exterminated the Muscotays. The Pottawatamies were in Northern Illinois and Indiana, also holding Michigan as far north as the St. Joseph River. Ottawa County remained in joint possession of the Ottawa and Pottawatomies until the advent of the whites, and the extinction of their titles to the land, under treaties with the Federal Government. These TREATIES occurred as follows: In 1785, 1787, 1795; and in 1807 a land office was estabnlished at Detroit. In 1807 a treaty was made by which was ceded to the United States, lands, west and north of Detroit to the western line of what is now Saginaw, Shiawassee, Washtenaw and Lenawee Counties, embracing all the counties now formed out of that portion of the state, between that western line and Lakes Huron, St. Clair, Erie and Detroit River. In 1819, by the treaty of Saginaw, the ceded land was extended sixty miles of what is now the principal meridian of the state survey, reaching into Kent County, and thence to Thunder Bay River, and along that river to Lake Huron; and in 1820 these lands were brought into market. By the treaty of Chicago, in 1821, with the Ottawas, Ojibeways and Pottawatamies, the tract of Michigan lying west of the cessions of 1807 and 1819, and reaching from the southern boundary of the state to the Grand River, and its most northerly source, was secured to the United States. By treaty at Grand Rapids, in 1835, and the establishment of a land office at Ionia in 1836, the lands north of Grand River were brought in market in 1839. Then, in 1855, a treaty was made by which the tribes mentioned surrendered their land on Grand River, and agreed to select a reservation to the north, and accordingly in 1857-58 they shipped their shattered bands, seventeen in all, at Grand Haven, on board the steamer Ottawa and Charles Mears, a large propeller, owned by Mr. Mears, came to Pentwater, the young men riding their ponies along the beach, and made their way from Pentwater to their reservation in "Injun" Town. They had selected a region twenty-four miles from north to south, and six miles across, now the four towns of Elbridge and Crystal in Oceana County, and Eden and Custer, in Mason County, being Towns,15-16, 16-16, 17-16 and 18-16. The bands who lived on the Muskegon, did not wish to journey far, and so they chose a town up that river, now Holton - Town 12-15. These towns were high and rolling in many parts, in other portions were broad and deep river valleys; all was fertile, and covered with noble pine, or hardwood. Crystal streams of purest water everywhere penetrated the forests. these were alive with grayling, perch and bass, and besides this they fertilized the land, and afforded pure water to refresh man and beast. These towns lay withi a few miles of the lake, whither the Indian could go down and fish, and exchange his maple sugar to the trader at the mouth of the Pentwater. Here was a happy hunting ground for the peaceful bands of the once powerful "Ottawas." the feeble remnant of the Pottawatamies, and the still weaker Chippewas, who sold out their rights on Grand River. This reservation - still spoken of as "Indiantown" - was chosen with care and wisdom. It was away from white men for many miles, and it would be, they fondly hoped, many years ere they would be pressed out by the fatal encroachments of the ever-restless palefaces. Let our readers picture to themselves the life of an Indian in these forest glades, that are now beuatiful farms with waving fields of grain. The wild beast disputed with him the right of possession. Wolves were so numerous that it is related that one Bourget, the advanced scout of the commissioners in building the state road from Muskegon to Grand Haven, on his journey killed and received bounty money for 100 wolves, which he shot at night while he camped surrounded by a camp-fire; his custom being - famous hunter as he was - to initiate the howling of the wolves, and shoot them when they approached in the darkness, their fierce eyes glaring like twin balls of fire. the earliest records of the county contain accounts on every page for the payment of from $8 to $10 for every wolf scalp brought in. The species of wolf was the large gray kind, about as large as a Newfoundland dog. The early settlers tell almost uniformly of hearing them howling and seeing their footprints. Some yet exist in Colfax. Bears, too, were numerous, being of the common black species, and some remain even yet. We hear of some carrying off hogs in Crystal and Colfax. Bear skin and bear meat were objects of interest to our red men. Besides wolf and bear there were numerous herds of the red and fallow deer, which found the wilds and brooks of Oceana an earthly paradise. Many are the "deer" stories told by the early settlers in all parts. Scarcely one but has been a mighty hunter, a Nimrod in those days; - Dr. Hawley, of Hesperia, gave over counting his after they numbered fifty, and Giles Townsend, of Newfield, is never tired of fighting his deer battles "o'er and o'er again." Gay, of Crystal, Sayles of Elbridge, and indeed all the white men that first came in, hunted the "merrie" deer. These deer were a source of food supply to the early Indian. Besides wolf and bear and deer and beaver, were countless numbers of marten, coons, mink, muskrat, otter and fisher and other trapped game. The lynx and wild-cat also prowled in these woods, and, in short, nature presented here a model hunting-ground. The waters were full of choice fish; the air was full of edible birds, and wild duck and pigeon, in their season, darkened the air "from morn till noon and dewy-eve;" the foret glades were full of the animals of the chase, and wild berries grew, as they do to-day, in countless profusion; the soil was easily tilled, and produced in abundance, to the simple cultivation of the squaws and the men enfeebled by age, plentiful harvest of potatoes and Indian corn. In fact, Nature seems here to have emptied her cornucopia upon these red sons of the soil. Such was the land chosen by the Aborigines, and the whites who have nearly supplanted them in their birthright, have reason to feel happy in their selection of a settlement. It may be interesting to know how the Indians supported themselves in this land. We have told how bountiful Nature was, and as there were but seventeen small bands, not exceeding 1,800 in all, it will be easily understood that there was no surplus population to feed. In Summer they peeled Hemlock bark, - mainly for Charles Mears, of Pentwater, - picked berries and fished, and in the Fall they secured their potatoes and corn, then went to the hunt and to trapping. In early Spring they made astonishing quantities of maple sugar, some nearly as white as good coffee sugar, this being chiefly done by squaws and the extremely old men and the children, when the men were off hunting and trapping. Harvey S. Sayles, whose wife was an early Indian teacher, was also a trader, and came in 1860, being the first permanent white settler in the Indian reservation. He is much beloved by the natives, and was called by them Nanabush - a spirit whom it was dangerous to offend. The first log house with a ridge roof was built about 1858, by an Indian chief - Shaw-be-co-ung, - which is still standing on Mr. Gay's farm in Crystal Valley; and the second log house was built by Mr. Sayles, in February, 1860, on the same lot. This Shaw-be-co-ung was a chief of the Ottawas, another being Joseph Pa-ba-ma. These two were selected at a council of head men and chiefs, at or near Detroit, July 31, 1855; Gen. Cass acting as Indian agent for the northwest territory, and George W. Manypenny, as Indian Commissioner from Washington. They then made the treaty referred to, by which they gathered up the different bands from around Grand Rapids, and moved them north of Muskegon River. The general order to cause patents for lands to individual Indians to be issued, was dated July 9, 1870, and signed by the secretary of the interior. When the Indian got the title to his land, there were forty acres for each unmarried man, eighty acres for each head of a family, and eighty for orphan children, deeded to the eldest for the benefit of the whole. The government engaged to build schoolhouses, three to be in Elbridge, two in Crystal; also to supply competent teachers; also to supply a blacksmith, build him a shop, and give him tools, with an annual salary of $600. This arrangement lastest for about six years, until the funds gave out, and then blacksmith and teacher and interpreter had to shift for themselves. The Indians moved up in 1857 and 1858, and with them came Seth T. Robinson, now of Lowell, Mich., as interpreter, and John R. Robinson, now a missionary at Isabella Mission (son of the celebrated Rix Robinson and an Indian wife,) was a trader in Indiantown. The teachers, interpreters and other officers being appointed until 1861 by the Democrats, the Indians generally voted with that party, but in 1860 many of them changed their allegiance to the Republicans, especially in Crystal, where Mr. Sayles lived. There, every vote, twenty-eight in all, was Republican, while in Elbridge there were 100 Democratic votes to fourteen Republican. This would indicate in the two towns 142 votes in all. AN INDIAN SCARE To show the state of feeling that existed on the eve of the war of secession, we may mention a well authenticated incident. The Methodist Episcopal missionaries have always been zealous and active among the aboriginies, and these simple children of the forest were holding a camp-meeting on the Claybanks, in the Fall of 1860, ahouting with real camp-meeting zeal, thowing in a good old-fashioned war whoop to add zest to the occasion. Some travelers passing by heard them, and carried exaggerated reports down to Newaygo, Grand Rapids, etc., to the effect that Sayles and his family had been massacred, that John Bean, Jr., was scalped, and that the Indians, having been joined by the Lake Superior tribes, were were going to make common cause with the South, march on the white settlements and regain their lands on the Grand Rover. So great was the alarm that the people of Newaygo sent to Grand Rapids for aid, and had a mounted guard night and day at the bridge to prevent the hostile Indians from "bathing in brains their murderous tomahawks." In the meanwhile, the poor Indians were enjoying religion at Claybanks, and when they learned of the panic of the pale-faces the chiefs rode over and reassured the excited people of Newaygo. The Ottawas have always been a peaceable lot since the whites have come among them, and have never been more sinned against than sinning. They were generally very honest and honorable, - not much addicted to theft or lying. HOW THEY CAME TO OCEANA. The Indians assembled at Grand Haven early in the Fall of 1857, and were transported to the number of perhaps 700 or 800 with their goods to Pentwater by the side-wheel steamer Ottawa, owned in Grand Haven. When they landed, as many of them came from inland towns, they were much struck by the great sand hills, and camped for a time around Pentwater Lake before going up to their reservation. It was a remarkable sight to see how they would disport in the sand hills - to see two nearly nude figures lock arms and roll over and over from the top until they could land in the water. They found at that early day around Pentwater plenty of hunting and fishing. In the summer of 1858 the propeller C. Mears, owned by Charles Mears, brought the balance of the Indian bands from Grand Haven to Pentwater - about 500 or 600, making in all 1,300. The men rode their ponies along the beach. The principal chiefs were Peshosiky, whose other name was Henry Clay, or the great orator; Cob-moo-sa, i. e., Great Walker; Shaw-be-oo-ung, or "Wings;" meaning that he could soar as an orator; Pa-ba-ma, who was a Catholic and a lay reader; Cob-moo-sa being a pagan to the day of his death, which happened when he was over 100 years old. Shaw-be-co-ung was an Episcopalian, and was a good talker. Louis Genereau, was an interpreter and was half French. He was a Methodist Episcopalean, but changed in his old age to Catholic, and married Pa-ba-ma's widow. Joseph Elliott, who was Generean lived in Elbridge, was a full-blooded Indian and an interpreter. He was a Methodist, and it is said that he preached with considerable fluency. He gave the first sermon ever preached in Pentwater in C. Mear's boarding-house, the "boys" to the number of 100 being present, and paying in pork and potatoes as their tithe. On occasion of a revival once in Pentwater, it is related of the old chief Mash-kaw, who still lives in Mason County, that he became excited and went round pounding on the heads of each one of the anxious seat, at the same time exclaiming in Indian "Pound the devil out of them." As showing the number of wild pigeon that came into Pentwater when the Indians were there, it is said that for nearly a mile along the shore the Indians beat them down in windrows with brush, the squaws in the meanwhile picking up the birs, and white men, tired of shooting, took to killing with the butt of their guns. The "meemee", or pigeon, was a drug that day. On one occasion the superstition of the Indians was apparent, when they all suspended operations at the sight of a white pigeon. Neither will they kill a white deer, and eating of the white dog is a part of the pagan rites to this day. In Elbridge there are some pagans yet, who have their dances and eat of the white dog. As an evidence of the amount of trade done with the Indians in those early days, Mr. Richmond, the county clerk, relates that in one season he purchased at Pentwater six tons of maple-sugar and 1,500 gallons of syrup. In one day he has bought as high as fifty bushels of huckleberries, fifty carcasses of deer, and at one sale has had 300 mink and muskrat skins, ten or fifteen bear skins, twenty wolf, and buck-skins by the ton. The Indian school-houses were built by contract for the United States Government by C. Mears, and the teachers were James Selereg, who died about 1860, Mrs. H.S. Sayles, David K. Foster ( a half-breed), D.W. Crosby, Rev. D.R. Latham, John Bean, Jr., and John Smith, a full Indian. The blacksmith shop was in Crystal Valley, and the smiths were Mr. Burrett, Jared H. Gay, and one Reilly, an Irishman from Detroit. The Indians drew an annuity which varied in amount, being one year as low as $4.25 and another year as high as $25.75, but the average was from $12.00 to $15.00, which lasted them for spending money about a couple of weeks, and was often mortgaged in advance. PA-BA-MA. Pa-ba-ma, the noted chief is described as a man of medium height, keen of eye, spare and dark. When young he was one of the wildest of his tribe, but when about middle age he was converted to Christianity. He is said to have been a man of ability, and could preach a telling sermon. He was for years town treasurer of Elbridge and kept everything straight, but in a peculiar Indian fashion by hieroglyphics and in the Indian tongue. He had some education, and being quick of observation, pocked up considerable of the white man's lore. He was the head of the Catholic bands, and read on Sundays. He was a monogamist and had no issue. His widow married Louis Genereau. He died in 1870, a man of about sixty years of age. the school in his, or Sayle's district, was taught first by Mr. Haley, next by Mrs. Sayles, and lastly by Miss Foote of Lansing, who each served two years. LOUIS GENEREAU. Louis Genereau was not a chief, but was a noted Indian. He was a man of great strength, and in his younger day had committeed, under the influence of fire-water and passion, some deed of murder, throwing a relative on the fire and allowing him to roast to death. Various stories are afloat as to the cause of the act, - one that in a trial of speed his pony beat that of his cousin, who rushed up and stabbed Genereau's pony. However this may be, he went to states-prison, whence he was released for bravely resisting the escape of the rest of the prisoners. He had a farm in Elbridge in the Elliott neighborhood, and one of his sons served in the war and died after his return. He grew obese in his old age, weighing about 800 pounds. A Methodist Episcopalian, he embraced Catholicism in his old age, married Pa-ba-ma's widow and was buried in the Catholic Cemetery. There are in Elbridge four burying-grounds for Indians, one for Catholics and one for Protestants, and two for pagans - one at Evans and the other at Colliers. COB-MOO-SA About 300 or 400 hundred Indians centered at the mouth of Flat River, and their last chief was Shogwogeno, and Cob-moo-sa was a sub-chief, and was an old man of most majestic appearance, his manner of walking giving him the name of "Grand Walker." When the Indfians moved off to their reservation, he remained behind for a time, reluctant to leave the graves of his fathers and the scenes of his early days. To the last he remained an Indian, living in a wigwam and firmly wedded to paganism with its attendant customs. It is true he received the last rites of the Catholic church before death, but this was when he was in his dotage. To Mr. Campau he said: "I am an Indian, and can be nothing else. I wish my people and my children to be civilized. I know that your ways are superior to ours, and out people must adopt them or die. But I cannot change; the young can adopt new ways, but the old cannot. I shall soon pass away, living and dying an Indian. You can bend the young tree, but not the old oak." Bent and broken by age, he did at last join his people, and died in 1872. Cob-moo-sa was a man of mark, owing his position mostly to his majestic mien and his eloquence. His personal appearance was majestic, and before age had bowed him he walked the earth as a king of men. But each passing year took away his kingly bearing, and he soon became a bowed and shuffling old man, and when last seen in Grand Rapids had so far humbled himself as to wear a white man's coat, and walked the streets as one whom death had neglected. This lingering behind of old Cob-moo-sa gave rise to the following, published in one of the Grand Rapids papers: COB-MOO-SA's LAMENT. My step is the tread od a warrior no more; The days of my pride and glory are o'er; No more shall I follow the foeman's track; My bow, my nerves and my heart are unstrung; My death song alone remains to be sung. The braves of my clan have sunk to their rest; Their children have gone to the North and the West; The forest have fallen, the land is sold; Our birthright has gone for the Christian's gold, And manhood has passed from the Indian brow, Since he gave the land to the white man's plow. The lord of the forest is lord no more; The pride of his manly soul is o'er. The fields where he won his youthful fame, On the track of the foe, or in quest of game, Are his no more. Unmanned he goes To brood o'er the Indian's doom and woes; His doom he sees in the towering halls, He doom he reads as the forest falls, His doom he hears in the Sabbath chime, His doom he reads in the march of time; Will it shame thy heart, proud white man, say, To shed a tear as we pass away? As for me, I go not where my kindred have gone; By the grave of my father I'll linger alone. The oak may be rent by the lightning of heaven; The storm-wind may blow it, its stem may be riven; But with trunk sero and blasted, and shorn of its boys, Still grasping the earth, it proudly decays. As a son of the forest I lived in my pride; As a son of the forest my forefathers died. Till I go to the land where the bright waters shine, I live by their graves, and their grave shall be mine; I linger not long, my nerves are unstrung; My death song is ready, it soon will be sung. Cob-moo-sa is described as of a quiet, sly temperament, with round chest, smooth face, head sloping back to a high peak tufted with hair, and with large eyes, that took in all the surroundings at a glance. He abstained from the vice of his people, the love of strong drink. When over a centruy old he fell on a red-hot stove and was burned to death. A postoffice is still called by his name, and his sons live in Elbridge still. RELIGION. Numbers of the Indians of Oceana County are still pagans, and keep up the rites of their forefathers. They had one custom identical with that of the Jews - houses of purification. They be;ieve also in a spiritual future state - think that they and everything else will be spiritual; that they will hunt in the land of souls, but it will be the spirits of the animals; that even the briers and thorns will be spiritual. Everything will appear to be real, yet nothing will be so. They are very superstitious, governed by dreams and signs in the heavens. they go to war, make peace, commence or abandon journeys, marry, or resolve not to marry, just as they may chance to interpret a dream or judge a sign in the heavens to be favorable or otherwise. They inflict wounds on their bodies when in deep sorrow. The believe the spirit lingers still with the body until decomposed; hence offerings at the graves. DOG FEAST AND DANCE. A wabana is a dance, the ceremonies attending which are understood to be offerings to the devil, after which a feast is eaten - of the flesh of a white dog is considered the choiciest offering. The exercises begin in the morning by the thumping of an Indian drum, which resembles a tambourine with rattles in it, held in one hand by a string, while it is struck with a slow thump, thump, then more quickly with a kind of double stroke, accompanied with singing, the Indians seated on green boughs as near the walls of the tent as they can get. they are all silent, serious and still as if at a funeral, the drumming and singing never ceasing for an instant. Then perhaps a little girl rises and dances in the center of the circle. The dancing of the females is peculiar, never lifting their feet from the ground, but placing them close together. After the little girl, perhaps an old woman rises and dances. Then enters an unusually tall Indian with a wild and fierce countenance, dressed in skins; looks around the tent, uttering at every expiration of his breath, "Ch! ch! ch!" when another Indian enters as if to make him surrender something. Presently they each take a drum, and going round the tent half bent and stepping to the time, they beat the drum in the faces of the Indians. After several times circling round, one of them commences an address to the devil, or Evil Spirit, imploring his compassion upon them. The delivery of the speech is attended with the mosty violent gesticulations and contortions of the body, so that the perspiration rolls down his face. The orator then goes round the tent as before, attended by half a dozen Indians, all singing and half bent, keeping time to the beating of the drum. These ceremonies are kept up all night, and at sunrise the feast is brought in. It is in large kettles, and it is a rule that nothing shall be left. GRAVES. The Indian graves are first covered over with bark. Over the grave a shelter like an Indian lodge is built; poles stuck in the ground, bent over and fastened at the top, and covered with bark. An opening is left like that of a lodge. Before this door a post is planted, and if the dead was a warrior, painted red. Near this post a pole ten feet long is planted; from the top of this pole is suspended the ornaments of the deceased, or the scalps he has taken. This will account for the mounds which are commonly observed where the Indians have had villages. These mounds are eight or ten feet in diameter, and from two to three feet high. In them are found human bones and skulls. Appearances indicate that the Indian put their dead in huts and covered them with earth. there was a large Indian burying-ground on the Claybanks, on the Hanson place, and several mounds were observed near the mouth of Stony Lake. Very few of the Indians have been able to retain their farms, as they were very improvident, borrowing, like white men, and paying high rates of interest. By ways that were dark, and tricks that were vain, the Caucasian in many instances got possession of the property of these simple children of Nature for a mere song. Almost without exception the Indians have lost all of their farms, and those who still have them are heavily encumbered. As to their habits, they are the antipodes of the whites, and it is proverbial that while it is easy to make an Indian of a white man, it is almost impossible to make a white man out of an Indian. INDIAN SIMPLICITY. On one occasion the Indian agent, Rev. Mr. Fitch had great trouble in settling with the Indians, at Pentwater, as they claimed they ought to have more, and after holding a big council, at which they smoked and talked without end, they informed the agent that they would not accept what he offered them. This Indians had no reason to make this ado, but were as unreasoning as children, when they took a notion. Mr. Fitch was anxious to get through his business, and get up north, as the snow was already two feet deep, and he feared greater storms yet. So he ordered of C. Mears two fat oxen, worth $150, ten bushels of potatoes, fifty head of cabbages, five bushels of onions and other "garden sass." Going out on the banks of Pentwater Lake, then covered with woods, he ordered the Indians to drive in notched stakes and put on cross poles. On these he suspended all the large sugar kettles he could find. Then he sent messages to call to a feast, prepared by the Great Father, at Washington. A bugler was called on to blow his horn, and the crowd asembled, provided with dishes of all sorts and sizes. Fitch then ordered the Indians to shoot and dress the cattle, and in less than half an hour the beef was cooking. With a pitchfork from the store of pieces of beef were fished out, and the feast spread on long tables of boards hastily set up. After grace, they were invited to partake of the liberal provision of the Great Father, and in a short time nothing but bones remained. The Indians, under the genial influence of a good dinner, were easily settled with, receiving without a murmur the amount originally offered, less the cost of the dinner, and the agent went on his way rejoicing.