TERRITORY OF THE KICKAPOOS.

167

In 1819, at a treaty concluded at Edwardsville, Illinois, they ceded to the United States all of their lands. Their claim included the following territory: "Beginning on the Wabash River, at the upper point of their cession, made by the second article of their treaty at Vincennes on the 9th of December, 1809; thence running northwestwardly to the dividing line between the states of Illinois and Indiana; thence along said line to the Kankakee River; thence with said river to the Illinois River; thence down the latter to its mouth; thence in a direct line to the northwest corner of the Vincennes tract, and thence (north by a little east) with the western and northern boundaries of the cessions heretofore made by the Kickapoo tribe of Indians, to the beginning. Of which tract of land the said Kickapoo tribe claim a large portion by descent from their ancestors, and the balance by conquest from the Illinois Nation and uninterrupted possession for more than half a century." An examination, extended through many volumes, leaves no doubt of the just claims of the Kickapoos to the territory described, or the length of time it had been in their possession.

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"The

With the close of the war of 1812, the Kickapoos ceased their active hostilities upon the whites, and within a few years afterward disposed of their lands in Illinois and Indiana, and, with the exception of a few bands, went westward of the Mississippi. Kickapoos," says ex-Gov. Reynolds, "disliked the United States so much that they decided, when they left Illinois that they would not reside within the limits of our government," but would settle in Texas. A large body of them did go to Texas, and when the

are given by Capt. M'Affe in his History of the Late War in the Western Country, p. 155. The garrison at Fort Harrison was cut off from communication with Vincennes for several days, and reduced to great extremity for want of provisions. They were relieved by Col. Russell. After this officer had left the fort, on his return to Vincennes, he passed several wagons with provisions on their way up to the fort under an escort of thirteen men, commanded by Lieut. Fairbanks, of the regular army. This body of men were surprised and cut to pieces by the Indians, two or three only escaping, while the provisions and wagons fell into the hands of the savages. Vide M'Affe, p. 155. At the mouth of Raccoon Creek, opposite Montezuma.

Following the northwestern line of the so-called Harrison Purchase.

The state line had not been run at this time, and when it was surveyed in 1821 it was discovered to be several miles west of where it was generally supposed it would be. The territory of the Kickapoos extended nearly as far east as La Fayette, as is . evident from the location of some of their villages.

§ By the terms of the fourth article of the treaty of Greenville the United States reserved a tract of land on both sides of the Wabash, above and below Vincennes, to cover the rights of the inhabitants of that village who had received grants from the French and British governments. In 1803, for the purpose of settling the limits of this tract, General Harrison, on the 7th of June, 1803, at Fort Wayne, concluded a treaty with the Miamis, Kickapoos, Shawnees, Pottawatomies and Delawares. This cession of land became known as the Vincennes tract, and its northwest corner extends some twelve miles into Illinois, crossing the Wabash at Palestine.

Pioneer History of Illinois, p. 8.

Lone Star Republic became one of the United States the Kickapoos retired to New Mexico, and subsequently some of them went to Old Mexico. Here on these isolated borders the wild bands of Kickapoos have for years maintained the reputation of their sires as a busy and turbulent people.

*

A mixed band of Kickapoos and Pottawatomies, who resided on the Vermilion River and its tributaries, became christianized under the instructions of Ka-en-ne-kuck. This remarkable man, once a drunkard himself, reformed and became an exemplary christian, and commanded such influence over his band that they, too, became christians, abstained entirely from whisky, which had brought them to the verge of destruction, and gave up many of the other vices to which they were previously addicted. Ka-en-ne-kuck had religious services every Sunday, and so conscientious were his people that they abstained from labor and all frivolous pastimes on that day.t

Ka-en-ne-kuck's discourses were replete with religious thought, and advice given in accordance with the precepts of the Bible, and are more interesting because they were the utterances of an unedu-' cated Indian, who is believed to have done more, in his sphere of action, in the cause of temperance and other moral reforms, than any other person has been able to accomplish among the Indians, although armed with all the power that education and talent could

confer.

Ka-en-ne-kuck's band, numbering about two hundred persons, migrated to Kansas, and settled upon a reservation within the present limits of Jackson and Brown counties, where the survivors, and the immediate descendants of those who have since died, are now residing upon their farms. Their well-cultivated fields and their uniform good conduct attest the lasting effect of Ka-en-ne-kuck's teachings.

The wild bands have always been troublesome upon the southwestern borders, plundering upon all sides, making inroads into the settlements, killing stock and stealing horses. Every now and then

*In 1854 a band of them were found by Col. Marcy, living near Fort Arbuckle. He says of them: "They are intelligent, active and brave; they frequently visit and traffic with the prairie Indians, and have no fear of meeting these people in battle, provided the odds are not more than six to one against them." Marcy's Thirty Years of Army Life on the Border, p. 95.

†One of Ka-en-ne-kuck's sermons was delivered at Danville, Illinois, on the 17th of July, 1831, to his own tribe, and a large concourse of citizens who asked permission to be present. The sermon was delivered in the Kickapoo dialect, interpreted into English, sentence at a time as spoken by the orator, by Gurdeon S. Hubbard, who spoke the Kickapoo as well as the Pottawatomie dialect with great fluency. The sermon was taken down in writing by Solomon Banta, a lawyer then living in Danville, and forwarded by him and Col. Hubbard to Judge James Hall, at Vandalia, Illinois, and published in the October number (1831) of his "Illinois Monthly Magazine."

their depredations form the subject of items for the current newspapers of the day. For years the government has failed in efforts to induce the wild band to remove to some point within the Indian Territory, where they might be restrained from annoying the border settlements of Texas and New Mexico. Some years ago a part of the semi-civilized Kickapoos in Kansas, preferring their old wild life to the ways of civilized society, left Kansas and joined the bands to the southwest. These last, after twelve years' roving in quest of plunder, were induced to return, and in 1875 they were settled in the Indian Territory and supplied with the necessary implements and provisions to enable them to go to work and earn an honest living. In this commendable effort at reform they are now making very satisfactory progress. In 1875 the number of civilized Kickapoos within the Kansas agency was three hundred and eight-five, while the wild or Mexican band numbered four hundred and twenty, as appears from the official report on Indian affairs for that year.

*

As compared with other Indians, the Kickapoos were industrious, intelligent, and cleanly in their habits, and were better armed and clothed than the other tribes. The men, as a rule, were tall, sinewy and active; the women were lithe, and many of them by no means lacking in beauty. Their dialect was soft and liquid, as compared with the rough and guttural language of the Pottawatomies. + They kept aloof from the white people, as a rule, and in this way preserved their characteristics, and contracted fewer of the vices of the white man than other tribes. Their numbers were never great, as compared with the Miamis or Pottawatomies; however, they made up for the deficiency in this respect by the energy of their

movements.

In language, manners and customs the Kickapoos bore a very close resemblance to the Sac and Fox Indians, whose allies they generally were, and with whom they have by some writers been confounded.

*Report of Commissioner on Indian Affairs for the year 1875.

+ Reynolds' Pioneer History of Illinois.

Statement of Col. Hubbard to the writer.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE SHAWNEES AND DELAWARES.

THE SHAWNEES were a branch of the Algonquin family, and in manners and customs bore a strong resemblance to the Delawares. They were the Bedouins of the wilderness, and their wanderings form a notable instance in the history of the nomadic races of North America. Before the arrival of the Europeans the Shawnees lived on the shores of the great lakes eastward of Cleveland. At that time the principal Iroquois villages were on the northern side of the lakes, above Montreal, and this tribe was under a species of subjection to the Adirondacks, the original tribe from whence the several Algonquin tribes are alleged to have sprung,* and made "the planting of corn their business."

"The Adirondacks, however, valued themselves as delighting in a more manly employment, and despised the Iroquois in following a business which they thought only fit for women. But it once happened that game failed the Adirondacks, which made them desire some of the young men of the Iroquois to assist them in hunting. These young men soon became much more expert in hunting, and able to endure fatigues, than the Adirondacks expected or desired; in short, they became jealous of them, and one night murdered all the young men they had with them." The chiefs of the Iroquois complained, but the Adirondacks treated their remonstrances with contempt, without being apprehensive of the resentment of the Iroquois, for they looked upon them as women.

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The Iroquois determined on revenge, and the Adirondacks, hearing of it, declared war. The Iroquois made but feeble resistance, and were forced to leave their country and fly to the south shores of the lakes, where they ever afterward lived. "Their chiefs, in order to raise their people's spirits, turned them against the Satanas, a less warlike nation, who then lived on the shores of the lakes." The Iroquois soon subdued the Satanas, and drove them from their country.†

* Adirondack is the Iroquois name for Algonquin.

+ Colden's History of the Five Nations, pp. 22, 23, The Shawnees were known to the Iroquois by the name of Satanas. Same authority.

WANDERINGS OF THE SHAWNEES.

171

In 1632 the Shawnees were on the south side of the Delaware.* From this time the Iroquois pursued them, each year driving them farther southward. Forty years later they were on the Tennessee, and Father Marquette, in speaking of them, calls them Chaouanons, which was the Illinois word for southerners, or people from the south, so termed because they lived to the south of the Illinois cantons. The Iroquois still waged war upon the Shawnees, driving them to the extremities mentioned in the extracts quoted from Father Marquette's journal. To escape further molestation from the Iroquois, the Shawnees continued a more southern course, and some of their bands penetrated the extreme southern states. The Suwanee River, in Florida, derived its name from the fact that the Shawnees once lived upon its banks. Black Hoof, the renowned chief of this tribe, was born in Florida, and informed Gen. Harrison, with whom for many years he was upon terms of intimacy, that he had often bathed in the sea.

"It is well known that they were at a place which still bears their name on the Ohio, a few miles below the mouth of the Wabash, some time before the commencement of the revolutionary war, where they remained before their removal to the Sciota, where they were found in the year 1774 by Gov. Dunmore. Their removal from Florida was a necessity, and their progress from thence a flight rather than a deliberate march. This is evident from their appearance when they presented themselves upon the Ohio and claimed protection of the Miamis. They are represented by the chiefs of the Miamis and Delawares as supplicants for protection, not against the Iroquois, but against the Creeks and Seminoles, or some other southern tribe, who had driven them from Florida, and they are said to have been literally sans provant et sans culottes [hungry and naked].§

After their dispersion by the Iroquois, remnants of the tribe were found in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, but after the return of the main body from the south, they became once more united, the Pennsylvania band leaving that colony about the same time that the Delawares did. During the forty years following that period, the whole tribe was in a state of perpetual war with America, either as British colonies or as independent states. By the treaty of

* De Laet.

† Vide p. 49 of this work.

Shawneetown, Illinois.

Gen. Harrison's Historical Address, pp. 30, 31. This history of the Shawnees, says Gen. Harrison, was brought forward at a council at Vincennes in 1810, to resist the pretensions of Tecumseh to an interference with the Miamis in the disposal of their lands, and however galling the reference to these facts must have been to Tecumseh, he was unable to deny them.