Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers Part 28

I invested him with a silver medal for the act, and gave him a chief's flag, with goods and cutlery, &c. to the value of above fifty dollars.

My attention was now turned to Detroit: "You are elected," says a friend, "a member of the council. It is essential you should be here as speedily as possible. Leave everything to Audrain, and come down. You can return before the busy season."

_27th_. I left the Sault this day, for Detroit, to attend the Legislative Council. Patches of snow still lined the banks of the St.

Mary's, and fields of ice were yet in Muddy Lake. It was not until entering the St. Clair, and pa.s.sing down beyond the chilling influences of Lake Huron, that spring began to show striking evidences of her rapid advances, and on reaching Detroit, the state of horticulture and fruit trees betokened a quite different and benign climate. The difference in lat.i.tude, in this journey, is full four degrees, carrying the voyager from about 46-1/2 to about 42-1/2. This fact, which it is difficult to realize from the mere inspection of maps, and reading of books, it is important at all times to bear in mind, in setting a just value on the country and its agricultural advantages.

On reaching the city, and before the organization of the legislature, I received a letter from the Hon. John Davis, President of the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society, suggesting the publication of my researches on Indian language.

"Mr. Pickering concurs with me, that it is very desirable to have this publication effected. Some tracts of this description have been occasionally published in the collections of our society, and we have no doubt that this course would be pursued with your work, if such should be your wish, and no preferable mode of publication should occur."

_29th_.--I received from the Rhode Island Historical Society, a copy of their publication of Roger Williams' Key to the Indian languages. This tract was greatly needed by philologists. The language commented on is clearly of the Algonquin stock. Dr. Edwards, in his "Observations on the Mukhekanieu," demonstrates that the old Mohecan, as spoken on the Housatonic, was also of this type.

He says, indeed, that the difference in all the New England languages spoken by the nations were merely dialectic. What I have heard of Eliot's Bible of the Natic, or Ma.s.sachusetts language, favors the same conclusion. All this shows that the ancestors of the present lake tribes who speak these dialects, must have overspread all New England. History is thus taught by language. The lake tribes have only this tradition respecting the fact, that they came from the _East_.

_30th_.--Dr. A.F. Homes transmits me a diploma of membership of the Montreal Natural History Society.

_May 14th_.--Mr. Reynolds recurs to the subject of the Ex. Expedition, which he announced to me on the 5th of February. "It is probable," he observes, "that an expedition to the South Sea will sail from the City of New York in September next. I wish, and so do several members of the national cabinet, that you would join it, and be the head of the scientific corps. Your salary shall be almost anything you ask, and your relation to the general government shall not be prejudiced by a temporary absence. The expedition will be absent about eighteen months or two years. Will you not feel some ambition in being connected with the first American expedition of discovery?"

_20th_.--Death is ever busy, thinning the ranks of our friends and relatives. Mr. Shearman, of N.Y., communicates the death of my niece, Margaret Catharine (S.) at Vernon, New York. She was a young lady of pleasing manners, and many fine personal and mental traits. She conversed on her fate with perfect composure, and selected hymns to be sung at her funeral.

I accomplished my pa.s.sage to Detroit I think on the 21st of May, being twenty-four days from St. Mary's, without counting the trip in that season one of unusual length, and without any serious mishaps, which is, perhaps, remarkable, as all our lake vessels are ill found, and I attribute more of success to good luck, or rather Providence, than to any amount of seamanlike precaution. It is, indeed, remarkable that a hundred vessels are not every year lost on the upper lakes where one now is, by being ill supplied or equipped, or through foolhardy intrepidity.

_28th_.--A friend sent me the ma.n.u.script of his poem of "Sanillac" to read, and to furnish some notes. The subject of the Indian is, certainly, susceptible of being handled by the Muses, in a manner to interest and amuse; and I regard every attempt of the kind as meritorious, although it may be the lot of but few to succeed. The writer on the frontier, who fills up a kind of elegant leisure by composition, not only pleases himself, which is a thing n.o.body can deprive him of, but dodges the coa.r.s.er amus.e.m.e.nts of bowling, whist, and other resorts for time-killing. He forgets his remote position for the time, and hides from himself the feeling of that loneliness which is best conquered by literary employment.

_30th_. Mr. Reynolds again writes, pressing the matter of the contemplated expedition, and the prospect it opens for discovery, and its advantage every way. He couples his offer with most liberal and exalted sentiments, and with the opinions of distinguished men, whose approval is praise. But notwithstanding all, there is something about the getting up and organization of the expedition, which I do not altogether like; and there is considerable doubt whether Congress will not cripple it, by voting meagre supplies and outfits, if they do not knock it in the head.

The expedition itself is a measure of the highest national moment, as it is connected with scientific discovery, and reflects the greatest credit on the projectors. The experiments of Dr. Maskelyn denote a greater specific gravity in the central portions of the globe, than in its crust, and consequently do not favor the theory advocated by Mr. R., of an interior void. Yet we are advertised, by the phenomena of earthquakes, that this interior abounds with oxygen, hydrogen gas, caloric, and sulphur; and that extraordinary geological changes are effected by their action. It does seem improbable that the proposed expedition will trace any open connection "with such an interior world;"

but it may acc.u.mulate facts of the highest importance. I am not, therefore, insensible of the high honor of this offer, and however I may glow with the secret ardor of discovery, and the honor of place, my present engagements, domestic and public, have woven about me such a web, that it is impossible suddenly to break from it. On full consideration and reconsideration, therefore, I declined going.[48]

[Footnote 48: The expedition was, in fact, checked by various causes, and the project lingered for some years. At length, the expedition started under the orders of Captain Charles Wilkes, United States Navy.]

_June 1st_. Major Delafield, of New York, transmits a box of duplicate specimens of mineralogy from England.

"The box you forwarded for the Lyceum has not yet been sent to the rooms. The catalogue I will present in your name to-night. The several objects will prove extremely interesting. The lake tortoise we have been endeavoring to obtain for a year past, to complete a paper relative to these animals. Cooper is in Philadelphia editing the second volume of _Bonaparte's Ornithology_. He will be disappointed in not receiving the grosbeak,[49] of which I had spoken to him."

[Footnote 49: A new species discovered by me at Sault St. Marie.]

The study of Natural History presents some of the most pleasing evidences of exact.i.tude and order, in every department of creation, and adds to life many hours of the most innocent and exalted enjoyment. It drops, as it were, golden tissues in the walks of life, which there is a perpetual enjoyment in unraveling.

_10th_. Mr. Reynolds writes again, without having received my last reply, respecting the exploring expedition. He says: "Mr. Southard, Secretary of the Navy, has expressed his deep regret that you will not be able to find it convenient to go on the expedition."

Mr. Reynolds again writes (June 22d): "I had a conversation to-day with the Secretary of the Navy, in relation to your joining the expedition.

He informs me that the President, as well as himself, was anxious that you should do so; and that in case you did, an a.s.sistant Agent might be appointed to do your duties, as United States Agent, and thus reserve your office until your return."

Nothing, certainly, could exceed this spirit of liberality and kind appreciation.

No reasons for altering my prior decisions appeared, however, weighty enough to change them.

_July 1st_.--The legislative council organized in due form, being sworn in by the governor. The first a.s.semblage of this kind in the Territory met, I believe, four years ago. Prior to that era, the governor and judges were authorized to adopt laws from the "old" States, which led to a system rather objectionable, and certainly anomalous, so far as it made the judges both _makers_ and _expounders_ of the laws; for it was said, I know not how truly, that they picked out a clause here and there, to fit exigencies, or cases in hand, and did not take whole statutes. It was said that when the judges, in the exercise of their judicial functions, got to a "tight place," they adjourned the court, and devoted their legal ac.u.men to picking out clauses from the statutes of the old States, to be adopted, in order to meet the circ.u.mstances; but these stories were, probably, to be received a little after the manner of the slanderous reports of the Van Twiller administration, of Knickerbocker memory. It is certain that their honors, Judges Woodward, Griffin, and Witherall, the latter of whom was generally voted down, have acquired no small popular notoriety as judicial and legislative functionaries, and they must figure largely in the early annals of Michigan, especially should this territory ever prove so fortunate as to have a Cervantes or an Irving for its historian.

I found the members of the council to be nearly all of the old residents of Michigan, one a Frenchman, several sent in by French votes, one or two old volunteer officers of Hull's day, one an Indian captive, and three lawyers by profession. When a.s.sembled they presented a body of shrewd, grave, common-sense men, with not much legal or forensic talent, perhaps, and no eloquence or power of speaking. There were just _thirteen_ men, only one of whom was a demagogue, and had gained his election by going about from house to house and asking votes. The worst trait in the majority was a total want of moral courage, and a disposition to favor a negligent and indebted population, by pa.s.sing a species of stop laws, and divorce laws, and of running after local and temporary expedients, to the lowering of the tone of just legislation. I had no const.i.tuents at home to hold me up to promises on these heads. I was every way independent, in a political sense, and could square my course at all times, by pursuing the right, instead of being forced into the expedient, in cases where there was a conflict between the two. This made my position agreeable.

I was appointed chairman of the committee on expenditures, and a member of the judiciary, &c. I directed my attention to the incorporation of a Historical Society; to the preparation of a system of township names derived from the aboriginal languages; and to some efforts for bettering the condition of the natives, by making it penal to sell or give them ardent spirits, and thus desired to render my position as a legislator useful, where there was but little chance of general action. As chairman of the committee on expenditures, I kept the public expenditures snug, and, in every respect, conformable to the laws of congress. The session was closed about the first of July--early enough to permit me to return to St. Mary's, to attend to the summer visits of the interior traders and Indians.

_10th_ While engaged in the council, a friend writing from New York, who is a close watcher of political movements, alludes to the sudden and lamented death of Governor Clinton, last winter, and its effects on the political parties of that State. Heavy, indeed, is the blow that removes from the field of action a man who had occupied so wide a s.p.a.ce in the public esteem; and long will it be till another arises to concentrate and control public opinion as he did. To me, as a personal friend, and one who early counselled and directed me in my investigations in natural history, it is a loss I feel deeply. Politicians spring up daily, but men like him, who take a wider view of things, belong to their country.

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

Official journal of the Indian intercourse--Question of freedmen, or persons not bonded for--Indian chiefs, Chacopee, Neenaby, Mukwakwut, _Tems Couvert_, Shingabowossin, Guelle Plat, Grosse Guelle--Further notice of Wampum-hair--Red Devil--Biographical notice of Guelle Plat, or Flat Mouth--_Brechet_--Meeshug, a widow--Iauwind--Mongazid, chief of Fond du Lac--Chianokwut--White Bird--Annamikens, the hero of a bear fight, &c. &c.

_1828. July 6th_.--My return to the Agency at the Sault was in the midst of its summer business. Indians and Indian traders from remote interior positions, were encamped on every green spot. No trader had yet renewed his license from the government to return. It would be difficult to indicate a place more favorable than this was, to observe the manners and customs of the Indians, and the peculiar questions connected with the Indian trade. I amused myself a few days, by keeping minutes of the visits of the mixed Indian and metif mult.i.tude.

_12th_. Antoine Mauce, Alexis Blais, and Joseph Montre, freedmen, of Indian blood or connections, ordered from the Indian villages last fall, presented themselves for a decision on their respective cases.

Mauce stated several facts in extenuation of his offence. He said he had served as a boatman in the Indian trade ten years, had married an Indian wife and raised a family, and during all this time, with the exception of short visits to Mackinac with his _bourgeois_, had resided in the Indian country. On the expiration of his last engagement he went to St.

Peters, and while there, made eight canoes for Mr. Bailly, from whom he got the few goods that were seized at Sandy Lake by Mr. Johnston. He had intended, however, to go to Mr. Johnston for a license, and he had used the goods, in a great measure, to procure a mere support for his family.

He had left Sandy Lake last fall, pa.s.sed the winter at La Pointe, and had come down early in the spring, and, as he had lost a great deal of time, and performed a very long journey, leaving his family behind him, he requested that he might be allowed to return with a permit to trade.

I told him that his remaining inland, after the expiration of his engagement, was contrary to instructions. That, being a Canadian by birth, he could not be licensed as a trader. That he might go inland in his old capacity of a boatman, should any American citizen be willing to employ him, and give a bond for his future conduct, and that I should refer the final decision upon his goods and peltries to Mr. Johnston, on account of my imperfect knowledge of some circ.u.mstances necessary to a correct decision.

Alexis Blais pleaded ignorance of the instructions which were given to traders. He had no other object in remaining inland than to get a livelihood. He came out as soon after being notified as his health would allow. And he supposed, had he been willing to serve Mr. Aikin at Sandy Lake, or to give him the avails of his hunt, no complaints would have been made against him. No goods or peltries were found in his possession, and he did not desire to return to the Indian country. I informed him that the construction put on the Indian laws prohibited any white man from following the pursuits of a hunter on Indian land; that it also forbids the residence of boatmen at Indian camps or villages, after they have served out their engagements, &c.

Joseph Montre is a metif, step-son of Mauce. Says he was born and brought up in the Indian country, and has subsisted by hunting. Is unacquainted with the laws, but will follow the directions given him. I took pains to impress upon his mind, through the medium of an interpreter, the situation in which he was placed with respect to our government and laws, and the steps it would be necessary for him hereafter to pursue.

CHACOPEE (The Six), a minor chief, from Snake River, on the St. Croix, visited the office, accompanied by seven young warriors. He brought a note from the Sub-agent at La Pointe, in which he is recommended as "a deserving manly Indian, attached to the U.S. Government." As he had been several days without food on his voyage through Lake Superior, I directed a requisition to be made out for him and his young men, and told them to call on me after they had appeased their hunger.

Neenaby (the person who hitches on his seat), of Sault St. Marie, lodged a complaint against Mr. b.u.t.terfield and one of his runners (_i.e._ persons employed to look after credits given to Indians, or carry on a petty traffic by visiting their camps). He states that, in making the traverse from Point Iroquois across the straits of St. Mary, he was met by young Holiday, who lashed his canoe alongside, and, after giving him a drink of whisky, persuaded him to land on the Canada sh.o.r.e, where they are out of reach of the trade and intercourse laws. They landed at _Point aux Chenes,_ where H.'s tent was found pitched, who invited him into it, and gave him more drink. H. then went to the Indian's canoe, and brought in his furs. Something was then given him to eat, and they embarked together in H.'s canoe, taking the furs, and leaving his own canoe, with his wife, to follow. On reaching St. Marie's he was conducted to Mr. B.'s store, and told to trade. He consented to trade six large and two small beavers, and twenty muskrats, for which he acknowledged to have received satisfaction. He was freely supplied with whisky, and strongly urged to trade the other pack, containing the princ.i.p.al part of his hunt, but he refused, saying he had brought it to pay a credit taken of Mr. Johnston. This pack, he says, consisted of six large and two small beavers, two otters, six martins, ninety muskrats, and four minks. As an equivalent for it, they proceeded to lay out for him, as he was told and shown next morning, a blanket, hat, pair of leggins of green cloth, two fathoms strouds, one barrel of flour, one bag of corn, and three kegs of whisky. He, however, on examining it, refused to receive it, and demanded the pack of furs to go and pay his credit. Decision deferred for inquiry into the facts.

_12th_. Chegud, accompanied by a train, &c., made a visit of congratulation on my return (after a temporary absence).

_14th_. Revisited by Chacopee and his young men. He addressed me in a fine manly tone and air. He referred to his attendance and conduct at the treaties of Prairie du Chien and Fond du Lac, as an era from which it might be known that he was attached to our government and counsel.

The object of his present visit was to renew the acquaintance he had formed with me at those places, to say that he had not forgotten the good advice given him, and to solicit charity for his followers. He presented an ornamented pipe as an evidence of his friendship.

_15th_. Visited by Monomine Kashee (the Rice Maker), a chief from Post Lake in that part of the Chippewa country bordering on Green Bay. He was accompanied by Mukwakwut (Satan's Ball in the Clouds), and five other persons composing their families. In the speech made by this chief, whose influence and authority are, I believe, quite limited, he said that his visit to me had been produced by the favorable impressions he had received while attending the treaty of _b.u.t.te des Morts_ (Wisconsin). That he had preserved the words which had been uttered in council by his American fathers, and was happy that all cause of difference with their neighbors, the Winnebagoes and Menomonies had been taken away by fixing the lines of their lands, &c. He presented four stands of wampum to confirm his professions of good will. His companion also got up, and spoke for several minutes, and concluded by requesting "that his father would not overlook him, in distributing any presents he intended to make them." He presented a pipe. After he was seated, I asked, as I was penning these minutes, the signification of his name, Mukwakwut, as the meaning did not appear obvious. He smiled and replied "that in former times his ancestors had seen devils playing ball in the air, and that his name was in allusion to the ball."

_16th_. Visited by Tems Couvert (the Lowering or Dark Cloud), a noted war chief of Leech Lake, upper Mississippi. He states that Mr. Oaks took from him, two years ago, nine _plus_,[50] and has not yet paid him, together with a medal, which last was not returned to him until his arrival at Fond du Lac this spring. He also states that Mr. Warren took from him, while he was at La Pointe on his way out, a pack of thirty obiminicqua [51] (equal to thirty full-sized, seasonable beavers), and has not, as yet, offered him anything in payment.

[Footnote 50: _Plus_, Fr. A skin's worth.]

[Footnote 51: _Obiminicqua_, Alg. The value of a full beaver skin.]

Shingabowossin (the Image Stone), Shewabeketon (the Jingling Metals), and Wayishkee (the First-born Son), the three princ.i.p.al chiefs of the Home Band, with seventy-one men, women and children, visited me to congratulate me on my safe return from Detroit. The old chief inquired if there was any news, and whether all remains quiet between us and the English.

Guelle Plat, or Ashkebuggecoash (the Flat Mouth), of Leech Lake, upper Mississippi, announced his arrival, with sixty persons, chiefly warriors and hunters. He brought a letter from one of the princ.i.p.al traders in that quarter, backed by the Sub-agent of La Pointe, recommending him as "the most respectable man in the Chippewa nation." He is said by general consent to be the most influential man in the large and powerful band of Leech Lake, comprising, by my latest accounts, seventeen hundred souls.

His authority is, however, that of a village or civil chief, his coadjutor, the Lowering Cloud, having long had the princ.i.p.al sway with the warriors.