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Tradition of Pontiac's conspiracy and death--Patriot
war--Expedition of a body of 250 men to Boisblanc--Question of
schools and missions among the Indians--Indian affairs--Storm at
Michilimackinack--Life of Brant--Interpreterships and Indian
language--A Mohegan--Affair of the "Caroline"--Makons--Plan of names
for new towns--Indian legends--Florida war--Patriot war--Arrival of
Gen. Scott on the frontiers--Resume of the difficulties of the
Florida war--Natural history and climate of Florida--Death of Doctor
Lutner.
1838. Jan. 1st. OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DETROIT,--In the
recent trip to Flint River, Mr. Henry Conner told me one day that he
had been acquainted with the Indian person who, in 1763, informed
Major Gladwyn, the commanding officer at Detroit, of Pontiac's
conspiracy.
The affair had other motives than Carver imagines. She thought more
of saving the life of Major Gladwin than of saving the whole
Anglo-Saxon race. She had been a very handsome person in her youth,
being nearly white, though of Indian blood. Owing to her
gallantries, her husband had bit off her nose. When an old woman,
she became intemperate, and, on one of these occasions, at a sugar
camp on the Clinton River, she fell backward into a boiling kettle
of sap, and thus perished. Truly "the way of the transgressor is
hard."
He stated the tradition respecting Pontiac's death as it was related
by a chief who well knew the facts. The English made great efforts
to conciliate a man of such powerful abilities and influence, and
endeavored to enlist him as an ambassador among the Western Indians
to bring them into their interests. Pontiac used deception in
appearing to fall in with their views, and went on this business to
the country of the Illinois, which was then about to be surrendered
to them. They took the precaution to send with him, as an associate,
a chief called Chianocquot, or the Big Cloud, who was strongly
attached to their interests. When Pontiac reached the region of the
Illinois posts, instead of persuading the Indians to peace and
friendship with the English, he advised them not to surrender the
country, and, in his addresses to them, he used the most persuasive
arguments to dissuade them from permitting the surrendry at all, and
gave vent to his natural feelings and sentiments in favor of the
French and against the English.
This had been his policy at Detroit. He appeared instinctively to
dread the advance of the English race, or, perhaps, really foresaw
that their arts and industry, against the adoption of which he so
vehemently inveighed, would uproot and crush the aboriginal race.
Chianocquot was roused to anger by this duplicity and dispatched him1.
Mr. Conner continued: Pontiac's village and residence near Detroit
was Peach Island and the main shore directly abreast of it,
north-east. In the summer he lived on the island, and in the winter
on the main land.
Pontiac was offended at the Indian who, during the siege, killed
McDougel, and would have put him to death for the act had the
murderer not fled. The man who did it had been absent, and did not
know that this officer had received permission to return to the
fort.
4th. Walter Lowrie, Esq., Secretary of the Presbyterian Board
of Foreign Missions at New York, writes that the Executive Committee
have determined to establish a mission and school among the
Chippewas and Ottawas of Lake Michigan as early in the spring as
suitable men can be procured.
8th. The Canadian, or patriot war, is now at its height. The
city has been kept in a perfect turmoil by it for weeks. The setting
fire to outbuildings or deserted houses almost every dark night,
appears to be connected with it. One dark night I stumbled and fell
on an uneven pavement on a part of Jefferson Avenue, and immediately
a voice cried "Hurrah for Canada!" There was an intense excitement
among the lower classes in its favor, which it required a high
degree of moral energy in the lovers of law and order to keep down.
This morning a conservative force of 250 volunteer militia embarked,
at two P.M., in a steamer for Amherstburg (the Malden of the war of
1812), to demand the surrendry of the State arms recently taken from
their place of deposit--the city jail. This demand is to be made of
the patriot refugee force from Canada, who are about to take post on
the island of Boisblanc, at the mouth of the Detroit River. It was a
well-armed force, with muskets and cartridge-boxes well filled; but
it was found that, on the way down the river, their cartridge-boxes
had been relieved, by persons friendly to the patriots on board, of
every particle of ammunition. The detachment returned about eleven
o'clock at night, having proved wholly unsuccessful in the object of
the movement.
Mr. Ball, a representative in the local legislature from Kent
County, called this day to inquire into the propriety of
establishing a sub-agency at Grand Rapids, on Grand River, for the
ostensible benefit of the Ottawas in that quarter. The question of
the division of funds between schools established for a part of the
same people at Gull Prairie, under the care of Mr. Slater, and the
separate school at Sault Ste. Marie, in Chippewa County, in the care
of Mr. Bingham, both of which are under the general direction of the
Baptist Missionary Board at Boston, was considered and approved, and
letters written accordingly.
These efforts, at detached points, to improve the race must, we are
inclined to believe, eventually fail. Two races so diverse in mind
and habits cannot prosper together permanently; but the hope is that
temporary good may be done. An Indian who is converted and dies in
the faith, is essentially "a brand plucked out of the fire," and no
man can undertake to estimate the moral value of the act. A child
who is taught to read and write is armed with two requisites for
entering civilized life. But the want of general efficient efforts,
unobstructed by local laws and deleterious influences, cannot but,
in a few years, convince the Boards that the colonization of the
tribes West is the best, if not the only hope of prosperity to the
race as a race.
9th. Lieut. E. S. Sibley, U.S.A., sets out to pay the Grand
River Indians. I commissioned Charles H. Oakes, Esq., to witness the
pay rolls. Mr. Conner returns the same day from attending the
payments of the Swan Creek and Black River bands. He reports the
Indians on the American side of the lines not disposed to engage in
the present unhappy contest in the Canadas. Exertions, he affirms,
have been made by the British authorities to induce the Chippewas
living in Canada, opposite to the mouth of Black River, to engage in
the conflict against their revolted people, but without success.
They threatened, if matters were pushed, to flee to the American
side. He states, also, that a council to the same effect had been
held with the Canada Indians opposite Peach Island, at the foot of
Lake St. Glair, which resulted in the same declaration.
12th. The appraisement rolls transmitted to Washington by
Messrs. Macdonnel & Clarke, the appraisers appointed under the 8th
article of the treaty of 28th March, 1836, were judged to be too
high; and the subject was referred for revision to Maj. Garland and
myself. I this day transmitted a joint reply of the major and
myself, stating how impossible it would be to revise so complex a
subject without opportunities of personal examination in each
case--a business which neither of us desires.
16th. Received the first winter express from Mackinack,
transmitting reports from the various persons in official employ
there. They report a great storm at that place on the 8th and 9th of
December, 1837, in the course of which the light-house on Boisblanc
was blown down, and other damage done by the rise of water.
18th. Received the Senate's printed document, No. 1,
containing the President's annual message and all the Secretaries'
reports. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs recommends the abolition
of sub-agencies, and the raising of the pay of interpreters--two
measures recommended in my annual report. The department is very
much in the hands of ignorant and immoral interpreters, who
frequently misconceive the point to be interpreted. Could we raise
up a set of educated and moral men for this duty, the department
would stand on high grounds. Surely, a sort of normal institute
could teach the principles of the Indian grammar, as well as the
Greek. There is no sound without a meaning, and no
meaning conveyed without an orthographical rule. They do not
gabble at random, as some think. Their modes of utterance
are, it is true, often defective, but they are not without
grammatical laws, I inquired into this matter at my first
entrance into the Indian country of the Algonquins, sixteen years
ago. I found that verbs had eight classes of conjugations, and ten
including the broad vowels; five declensions of nouns, and two sets
of pronouns, one to be placed before and the other at the end of the
verb and substantive. That all substantives could be changed into
verbs; that there were a stock of adjective and prepositional
participles, and that the mode of forming compounds and derivatives
was varied, but all subject to the most exact rules. They have a
very accurate appreciation of sound and its varied meanings,
and are pushed to use figures to help out or illustrate a meaning;
but the excessive refinements of syntax, for which some contend, are
theories in the minds of unpracticed collaborators.
18th. I wrote to Mr. Palfrey, E.N.A.R., declining to review
Stone's "Brant," and apprizing him of the preparation of an article
on the "North-west," by Mr. I. Lanman. "I take this occasion to say
that I have received the proof-sheets of some hundred and fifty
pages of Col. Stone's Life of Brant. It is a work somewhat
discursive, and involves some critical points in Indian history and
customs. I should not feel willing to commence a notice of it,
without having the whole before me. The hero of the work hardly
exerts influence enough on the revolutionary contest to justify the
attempt of piling on him so much of the materials of that momentous
contest, and I think, moreover, there is a perceptible attempt made
to whitewash a man who lived and died with no slight nor
undeserved opprobrium."
19th. Hendrick Apaumut, a Mohegan chief, of Wisconsin,
applied for aid, in money, to facilitate his journey to Washington.
What the Indians lack, in their business affairs, is system and
method; foresight to plan, and stability to carry into effect.
Received a copy of the message of the President, communicating the
thrilling circumstances of the recent massacre on board of the
ill-fated steamer "Caroline," and the gross outrage of national
rights committed by the burning of that boat and the destruction of
her crew. Palliatives for the act will undoubtedly be plead; but the
act itself will probably make a hero, in the estimation of his
countrymen, of Mr. McNab, if it does nothing more.
22d. The friends of education in Michigan, having assembled
in convention, issue a circular calling attention to that vital
subject, and recommend a "Journal of Public Instruction" to the
patronage of the people. There can be no fear of our institutions as
long as education is cherished.
24th. Maconse (the Little Bear), chief of the Swan Creeks,
writes to Gov. Mason that it is reported some of his people are
about to join the Canadian authorities to put down the partial
revolt. The Governor, probably thinking I would better know how to
deal with him, sends the letter to me. The fellow, whose moral code
is not very high, only meant to give himself a little consequence by
it. Both he and his people will take good care to keep out of harm's
way.
24th. Gov. Mason informs me that he has communicated to the
Legislature of Michigan my plan for a system of Indian names
communicated to him on the 12th instant, for the new counties and
towns, founded on the idea of the avoidance of the number of dead
letters reported as annually received at Washington, from their
misdirection. This misdirection is supposed to arise chiefly from
great repetition of old township, city, county, and village names.
Let any one take up a gazetteer or post-office list who wishes to
see this. Names that are sonorous and appropriate are rejected; but
there is hardly a county in any of the new States without their
Springfields, and Fairfields, and Oxfords, and Warwicks without
number. Where they do not abound taste is often put to shame. Mud
Creek, and Jack's Corner, and Shingle Hollow are doubtless
appropriate names compared to some. But cannot we supply a remedy
by drawing on the aboriginal vocabulary?
26th. Completed the revision of a body of Indian oral
legends, collected during many years with labor. These oral tales
show up the Indian in a new light. Their chief value consists in
their exhibition of aboriginal opinions. But, if published,
incredulity will start up critics to call their authenticity in
question. There are so many Indian tales fancied, by writers, that
it will hardly be admitted that there exist any real legends.
If there be any literary labor which has cost me more than usual
pains, it is this. I have weeded out many vulgarisms. I have
endeavored to restore the simplicity of the original style. In this
I have not always fully succeeded, and it has been sometimes found
necessary, to avoid incongruity, to break a legend in two, or cut it
short off.
The steamer "Robert Fulton" arrived at Detroit, with three companies
of U.S. troops, under the command of Col. Worth, to keep up
neutrality, put down the wild "patriot movement," and prevent
disturbances on the frontier.
27th. Mr. Trowbridge tells me that he has heard of the
arrival of our minister to France (Gen. Cass), at Port Mahon, with
his family, on his return to Paris, from his Mediterranean tour. He
had carried out a letter to Com. Elliot, from the President, to
offer him every facility in this trip to visit the sites of Oriental
cities.
30th. Transmit to Washington a plan and estimates for
building a dormitory at Mackinack, under the provision of the treaty
of March, 1836. Such a building has been long called for at that
point, where the Indians are often sojourners, without a place to
sleep, or cook the provisions furnished them.
Feb. 1st. The Knickerbocker Magazine says: "That the
Indian oratory contains many attributes of true eloquence. With a
language so barren, and minds too free for the rules of rhetoric,
they still attained a power of touching the feelings, and a
sublimity of style, which rival the highest productions of their
more cultivated enemies."
7th. Mr. Palfrey, in a letter of this date, observes: "I have
only to repeat that, in the preparation of the article (on Stone's
'Brant'--which I hope you will not think of giving up), I trust you
will not hesitate to introduce, with the utmost freedom, whatever
your respect for the truth of history, and distaste for the tricks
of bookmaking, may dictate."
11th. General Jessup writes to the department that, "we have
committed the error of attempting to remove the Seminoles, when
their lands were not required for agricultural purposes, when they
were not in the way of the white inhabitants, and when the greater
portion of their country was an unexplored wilderness, of the
interior of which we were as ignorant as of the interior of China."
He recommends a line of occupancy west of the Kissamee and Okee
Chubbe, which they may be allowed to occupy.
20th. W. Lowrie, Esq., S.P.B.F. Missions, in a letter of this
date, says: "I was glad to see your suggestion to the government in
relation to a cabinet and library in the Indian office."
22d. Charles E. Anderson, Esq., of New York, announces his
intention to visit Europe. "I will not leave here until the 15th of
March, at least, when I shall take out my wife with me, and
anticipate much gratification in presenting her to such a pattern of
goodness and true feminine excellence as Mrs. Cass. Anything you
wish to forward I will attend to with pleasure, and when in Paris
will not forget the interesting subject of your letter, and will
inform you what books may be obtained respecting the early history
of the country."
26th. Gen. Scott this day arrived at Detroit, with a view to
quiet the disturbances on the lines, and see to the proper
disposition of the troops along the chain of lakes to effect this
end. I immediately called on him, and offered him any of the
peculiar facilities, which are at the command of the Indian
department, in sending expresses in the Indian country, &c.
27th. Major H. Whiting, U.S.A., writes from St. Augustine,
Florida: "I have been favored with your letter of a month since, it
having, I dare say, made all due diligence the post office
arrangements admit. But the time shows the sort of intercourse I am
doomed to have with my Detroit friends. I consider that the country
ought to feel under obligations to one who serves her at such a
sacrifice. Indeed, she can make us no adequate return, but to allow
me to return--the only return I ask. When, however, that
favor will be granted is past my guessing. You ask when the war will
terminate? You could not puzzle any of us more than by putting such
a question. We are more at our wit's end than the war's end. And yet
I do not see that anything has been left undone, that might have
been done. The army has moved steadily toward its objects. But those
objects are like a mirage, they are always nearly the same distance
off. What can we do in such a case?
"The army for the last few weeks has been operating in a country
that is more than half under water. It has often been difficult to
find a spot dry enough for an encampment. If the troops do not all
come out web-footed, it is because water can't make a duck's leg.
"I am on the lookout for specimens. I have one small alligator's
bones, and have laid in for those of a larger one, an old settler,
no doubt going back to Bartram's days. Alligators here have suffered
more than the Indians in this war. I should judge that several
hundreds have been killed from the boats as they pass up and down.
They all have a bed just in the bank of the river, where they sleep
in the sun, and the temptation is too great for any rifle, and they
generally wake up a little too late. Mineral specimens here are not
various. I have collected a few in order to show my friends, who can
draw inferences from them. Shells have had a principal hand in the
formation of this peninsula. They form the ninety-ninth part of the
rock in this quarter. It is a most convenient formation, being
worked almost as easily as clay, and yet it makes substantial walls.
Frost, I presume, would play the deuce with it. But that is a thing
not much known here. I have not yet had the pleasure to fix my
northern eye on a piece of ice this winter, though there has been a
cream thickness of it once or twice. A pitcher frozen over here
makes more noise than the river frozen over at Detroit. The frogs
have piped here all winter--happy dogs. I have been out at all times
and in all places, and I don't think my nose has been blue but once
since I have been here--I have not been blue myself once. I have not
yet been to Ponce de Leon's spring. But there are some springs here
of a wondrous look. They are so transparent that the fish can scarce
believe themselves there in their own element. The Mackinack waters
are almost turbid to them. They have a most sulphurous odour, and
might renew a man's youth, but it must be at the expense of all
sweet smells. I would rather keep on than go back on such
conditions.
"In the fight which Lieut. Powell had with the Indians, a Doctor
Lutner was killed, who was a scientific man, and had joined the
expedition to botanize, &c. He had already done something in that
way, and would have done much more. Such a life is a great loss."
1: Nicollet, in his Hydrographical Report
in 1841, has placed this tradition in its proper light. He gives a
somewhat different account of Pontiac's death, which he states to
have taken place when he was in liquor, and the blow was insidiously
given.
A Kaskaskia Indian, it seems, was hired for a barrel of rum by an
Indian trader to commit the act. The blow he inflicted by his club
fractured the skull of his victim, who lingered a while, but
eventually died of the wound. This was at Fort Chartres, in
Illinois.
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Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the
Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers, 1851
Thirty
Years with the Indians
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