CHAPTER XV.

THE POTTAWATOMIES.

WHEN the Jesuits were extending their missions westward of Quebec they found a tribe of Indians, called Ottawas, living upon a river of Canada, to which the name of Ottawa was given. After the dispersion of the Hurons by the Iroquois, in 1649, the Ottawas, to the number of one thousand, joined five hundred of the discomfited Hurons, and with them retired to the southwestern shore of Lake Superior.* The fugitives were followed by the missionaries, who established among them the Mission of the Holy Ghost, at La Pointe, already mentioned. Shortly after the establishment of the mission the Jesuits made an enumeration of the western Algonquin tribes, in which all are mentioned except the Ojibbeways and Piankeshaws. The nation which dwelt south of the mission, classified as speaking the pure Algonquin, is uniformly called Ottawas, and the Ojibbeways, by whom they were surrounded, were never once noticed by that name. Hence it is certain that at that early day the Jesuits considered the Ottawas and Ojibbeways as one people.+

In close consanguinity with the Ottawas and Ojibbeways were the Pottawatomies, between whom there was only a slight dialectical difference in language, while the manners and customs prevailing in the three tribes were almost identical. This view was again reasserted by Mr. Gallatin: "Although it must be admitted that the Algonquins, the Ojibbeways, the Ottawas and the Pottawatomies speak different dialects, these are so nearly allied that they may be considered rather as dialects of the same, than as distinct languages."

This conclusion of Mr. Gallatin was arrived at after a scientific and analytical comparison of the languages of the tribes mentioned. In confirmation of the above statement we have the speeches of three Indian chiefs at Chicago in the month of August, 1821. During the progress of the treaty, Keewaygooshkum, a chief of the first authority among the Ottawas, stated that "the Chippewas, the Pot

*Jesuit Relations for 1666.

† Albert Gallatin's Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, p. 27.
Jesuit Relations.

Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, p. 29.

We sepa

tawatomies and the Ottawas were originally one nation. rated from each other near Michilimackinac. We were related by the ties of blood, language and interest, but in the course of a long time these things have been forgotten," etc.

At the conclusion of this speech, Mich-el, an aged chief of the Chippewas, said: "My Brethren, --I am about to speak a few words. I know you expect it. Be silent, therefore, that the words of an old man may be heard.

"My Brethren,-You have heard the man who has just spoken. We are all descended from the same stock,— the Pottawatomies, the Chippeways and the Ottawas. We consider ourselves as one. Why should we not always act in concert?”

Metea, the most powerful of the Pottawatomie chieftains, in his speech made this statement:

"Brothers, Chippeways and Ottawas, we consider ourselves as one people, which you know, as also our father* here, who has traveled over our country.

Mr. Schoolcraft, in commenting on the above statements, remarks: "This testimony of a common origin derives additional weight from the general resemblance of these tribes in person, manners, customs and dress, but above all by their having one councilfire and speaking one language. Still there are obvious characteristics which will induce an observer, after a general acquaintance, to pronounce the Pottawatomies tall, fierce, haughty; the Ottawas short, thick-set, good-natured, industrious; the Chippeways warlike, daring, etc. But the general lineaments, or, to borrow a phrase from natural history, the suite features, are identical.+

The first mention that we have of the Pottawatomies is in the Jesuit Relations for the years 1639-40. They are then mentioned as dwelling beyond the River St. Lawrence, and to the north of the great lake of the Hurons. At this period it is very likely that the Pottawatomies had their homes both north of Lake Huron and south of it, in the northern part of the present State of Michigan. Twenty-six or seven years after this date the country of the Pottawatomies is described as being "about the Lake of the Ilimouek."+ They were mentioned as being "a warlike people, hunters and fishers. Their country is very good for Indian corn, of which they plant fields, and to which they willingly retire to avoid the famine that is too common in these quarters. They are in the highest degree idolaters, attached to ridiculous fables and devoted to polygamy.

*Lewis Cass. + Schoolcraft's Central Mississippi Valley, pp. 357, 360, 368. Lake Michigan.

+

We have seen them here* to the number of three hundred men, all capable of bearing arms. Of all the people that I have associated with in these countries, they are the most docile and the most affectionate toward the French. Their wives and daughters are more reserved than those of other nations. They have a species of civility among them, and make it apparent to strangers, which is very rare among our barbarians."+

In 1670 the Pottawatomies had collected at the islands at the mouth of Green Bay which have taken their name from this tribe. Father Claude Dablon, in a letter concerning the mission of St. Francis Xavier, which was located on Green Bay, in speaking of this tribe, remarks that "the Pouteouatami, the Ousaki, and those of the Forks, also dwell here, but as strangers, the fear of the Iroquois having driven them from their lands, which are between the Lake of the Hurons and that of the Illinois."+

In 1721, says Charlevoix, "the Poutewatamies possessed only one of the small islands at the mouth of Green Bay, but had two other villages, one on the St. Joseph and the other at the Narrows."

Driven out of the peninsula between lakes Huron and Michigan, the Pottawatomies took up their abode on the Bay de Noquet, and other islands near the entrance of Green Bay. From these islands they advanced southward along the west shore of Lake Michigan. Extracts taken from Hennepin's Narrative of La Salle's Voyage mention the fact that the year previous to La Salle's coming westward (1678), he had sent out a party of traders in advance, who had bartered successfully with the Pottawatomies upon the islands named, and who were anxiously waiting for La Salle at the time of his arrival in the Griffin. Hennepin further states that La Salle's party bartered with the Pottawatomies at the villages they passed on the voyage southward.

From this time forward the Pottawatomies steadily moved southward. When La Salle reached the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan there were no Pottawatomies in that vicinity. Shortly after this date, however, they had a village on the south bank of this stream, near the present city of Niles, Michigan. On the northern bank was a village of Miamis. The Mission of St. Joseph was here established and in successful operation prior to 1711, from which fact, with other incidental circumstances, it has been inferred that

* La Pointe.

† Jesuit Relations, 1666-7.

Jesuit Relations, 1670–71. § Detroit.

the Pottawatomies, as well as the mission, were on the St. Joseph as early as the year 1700.*

Father Charlevoix fixes the location of both the mission and the military post as being at the same place beyond a doubt. "It was eight days yesterday since I arrived at this post, where we have a mission, and where there is a commandant with a small garrison. The commandant's house, which is a very sorry one, is called the fort, from its being surrounded by an indifferent palisado, which is pretty near the case in all the rest, except Forts Chambly and Catarocony, which are real fortresses. We have here two villages of Indians, one of Miamis and the other of Pottawatomies, both of them mostly Christians; but as they have been for a long time without any pastors, the missionary who has lately been sent them will have no small difficulty in bringing them back to the exercise of their religion." +

The authorities for locating the old mission and fort of St. Joseph near Niles are Charlevoix, Prof. Keating and the Rev. Isaac McCoy. Commenting on the remains of the old villages upon the St. Joseph River at the time Long's expedition passed that way, in 1823, the compiler states that "the prairies, woodland and river were rendered more picturesque by the ruins of Strawberry, Rum and St. Joseph's villages, formerly the residence of the Indians or of the first French settlers. It was curious to trace the difference in the remains of the habitations of the red and white man in the midst of this distant solitude. While the untenanted cabin of the

66

* Some confusion has arisen from a confounding of the Mission of St. Joseph and Fort St. Joseph with the Fort Miamis. The two were distinct, some miles apart, and erected at different dates. It is plain, from the accounts given by Hennepin, Membre and La Hontan, that Fort Miamis was located on Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the St. Joseph. It is equally clear that the Mission of St. Joseph and Fort St. Joseph were some miles up the St. Joseph River, and a few miles below the "portage of the Kankakee" at South Bend. Father Charlevoix, in his letter of the 16th of August, 1721,- after having in a previous letter referred to his reaching the St. Joseph and going up it toward the fort,- says: We afterward sailed up twenty leagues before we reached the fort." Vol. 2, p. 94. Again, in a subsequent letter (p. 184): "I departed yesterday from the Fort of the River St. Joseph and sailed up that river about six leagues. I went ashore on the right and walked a league and a quarter, first along the water side and afterward across a field in an immense meadow, entirely covered with copses of wood.' And in the next paragraph, on the same page, follows his description of the sources of the Kankakee, quoted in this work on page 77. Here, then, we have the position of Fort St. Joseph and the mission of that name and the two villages of the Pottawatomies and the Miamis, on the St. Joseph River, six leagues below South Bend. In Dr. Shea's Catholic Missions, page 423, it is stated that "La Salle, on his way to the Mississippi, had built a temporary fort on the St. Joseph, not far from the portage leading to the The-a-ki-ke"; and Mr. Charles R. Brown, in his Missions, Forts and Trading Posts of the Northwest, p. 14, says that "Fort Miamis, built at the mouth of the St. Joseph's River by La Salle, was afterward called St. Joseph, to distinguish it from (Fort) Miamis, on the Maumee.' In this instance neither of these writers follow the text of established authorities.

+ Charlevoix' Narrative Journal, pp. 93, 94.

Indian presented in its neighborhood but the remains of an old cornfield overgrown with weeds, the rude hut of the Frenchman was surrounded with vines, and with the remains of his former gardening exertions. The asparagus, the pea vine and the woodbine still grow about it, as though in defiance of the revolutions which have dispersed those who planted them here. The very names of the villages mark the difference between their former tenants. Those of the Indians were designated by the name of the fruit which grew abundantly on the spot or of the object which they coveted most, while the French missionary has placed his village under the patronage of the tutelar saint in whom he reposed his utmost confidence."*

The asparagus, the pea-vine and the woodbine preserved the identity of the spot against the encroachments of the returning forests until 1822, when Isaac McCoy established among the Pottawatomies the Baptist mission called Carey, out of respect for the Rev. Mr. Carey, a missionary of the same church in Hindostan. "It is said that the Pottawatomies themselves selected this spot for Carey's mission, it being the site of their old village. This must have been very populous, as the remains of corn-hills are very visible at this time, and are said to extend over a thousand acres. The village was finally abandoned about fifty years ago (1773), but there are a few of the oldest of the nation who still recollect the sites of their respective huts. They are said to frequently visit the establishment and to trace with deep feeling a spot which is endeared to them."+

On a cold winter night in 1833 a traveler was ferried over the St. Joseph at the then straggling village of Niles. "Ascending the bank, a beautiful plain with a clump of trees here and there upon its surface opened to his view. The establishment of Carey's mission, a long, low, white building, could be distinguished afar off faintly in the moonlight, while several winter lodges of the Pottawatomies were plainly visible over the plain.”+

Concerning the Pottawatomie village near Detroit, and also some of the customs peculiar to the tribe, we have the following account. It was written in 1718: §

"The fort of Detroit is south of the river. The village of the Pottawatomies adjoins the fort; they lodge partly under Apaquois,

*Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, pp. 147, 148.

+ Long's Second Expedition, vol. 1, p. 153, McCoy's History of Baptist Indian Missions.

Hoffman's Winter in the West, vol. 1, p. 225.

& Memoir on the Indians between Lake Erie and the Mississippi. Paris Documents, vol. 9, p. 887.

Apaquois, matting made of flags or rushes; from apee, a leaf, and wigquoiam, a hut. They cover their huts with mats made of rushes platted. Carver's Travels.