Chapter XV: The Vanishing of the Red Man

The Treaty of Paris of 1783 which closed the Revolutionary War gave the new nation whose birth it marked the Mississippi River for its western boundary, and a line through the middle of the Great Lakes and extended thence to the Mississippi, as its boundary on the north. Until Wayne's victory over the northwestern tribes in the battle of Fallen Timbers, in August, 1794, however, the grip of the red man upon the territory north of the Ohio River was practically unbroken. Certain treaties had been made, it is true, carrying cessions of land to the whites in this region,[863] but their validity was contested by powerful tribes and factions among the Indians, and the tide of white settlement was still confined to the country closely bordering upon the Ohio River. By the Treaty of Greenville, a year after his victory over the Indians, Wayne secured the cession by them to the United States of about twenty-five thousand square miles of land, comprising roughly the southern half of the present state of Ohio together with a long and narrow strip of land in southwestern Indiana.[864] At the same time, however, the Indian ownership of the remainder of the Northwest, aside from certain reservations which were specially excepted, was conceded. The extinguishment of the Indian title, thus formally recognized, to the soil of the Northwest required two score years of time and the negotiation of dozens of treaties. Its consummation marked the passing of the red man from the imperial domain of the old Northwest.

[Footnote 863: See _supra_, pp. 109-10.]

[Footnote 864: For a further account of the terms of the treaty see pp. 124-25.]

From the beginning of his term as governor of Indian Territory, Harrison pursued the policy of procuring by treaties of cession the Indian lands. This policy was pressed by him, and later by other representatives of the national government in the Northwest, at every suitable opportunity. To the omnipresent land hunger of the whites the development of the agitation led by Tecumseh, and his brother, the Prophet, was primarily due. The treaties negotiated by Harrison at Fort Wayne in September, 1809, by which almost three million acres of land was conveyed to the whites, especially angered Tecumseh, who threatened to put to death the chiefs who had signed them.[865] His purpose to form an Indian Confederacy to stay the farther advances of the whites and the alienation of the lands belonging to the Indians was boldly avowed to Harrison at Vincennes in August, 1810. He viewed the policy pursued by the United States of purchasing the red man's lands as "a mighty water ready to overflow his people," and the confederacy he was forming among the tribes to prevent any individual tribe from selling without the consent of the others was the dam he was erecting to resist this mighty water.[866]

[Footnote 865: _Supra_, p. 191.]

[Footnote 866: Drake, _Tecumseh_, 129.]

Tecumseh's dam, however, proved ineffectual to accomplish its purpose. As well might he seek to turn back the waters of the Mississippi as to stay permanently the westward tide of white settlement. By treaty after treaty the red man's birthright was pared away, until he had lost possession of practically all of the old Northwest. The methods pursued in the negotiation of all these treaties were similar. They will be sufficiently illustrated in the account of the two Chicago treaties of 1821 and 1833.

About the middle of the year 1804 the Sac Indians murdered three Americans who had settled above the mouth of the Missouri River.[867] Governor Harrison journeyed to St. Louis to demand from the representatives of the tribe to which the murderers belonged satisfaction for the offense. Advantage was taken of the situation to obtain from the Sacs and Foxes a cession of lands. By a treaty concluded November 3, 1804, in return for an insignificant consideration,[868] the two tribes ceded over fifty million acres of land in Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin to the United States. The portion of the cession east of the Mississippi included all the land between that stream and the Illinois River and its tributary, the Fox, extending northward to a line drawn from the latter stream to a point on the Wisconsin, thirty-six miles above its mouth. But this magnificent cession was ultimately to cost the Americans far more than the paltry sum stipulated in the treaty. Black Hawk and others of his faction among the Sacs protested that the chiefs who made the cession had acted without the authorization or knowledge of their people,[869] and the disputes engendered over the terms of the cession furnished the principal cause of the Black Hawk War.

[Footnote 867: Dawson, _Harrison_, 58 ff.]

[Footnote 868: Goods to the value of $2234.50 were given to the Indians, and the payment of an annuity of $1,000 was promised.]

[Footnote 869: Black Hawk, _Life_, 27-28.]

In August, 1816, the Indian title to that portion of the Sac and Fox cession lying north of a line drawn due west from the southern extremity of Lake Michigan was revived.[870] At the same time the United States secured possession of a strip of land lying along Lake Michigan ten miles north and ten miles south of the mouth of the Chicago River, and extending thence in a general southwesterly direction to the Fox and Illinois rivers, so as to give the whites control of the route by the Chicago River and Portage to the Illinois. Control over this strip of land was desired to facilitate the building of the proposed canal. "Of all the Indian treaties ever made, this will be remembered when all others, with their obligations, are forgotten."[871] The sectional surveys of the country lying on either side of the zone included in this cession of 1816 were made at different times. The section lines were not made to meet each other, and diagonal offsets along the entire length of the Indian grant resulted. So long as the present system of land surveys endures, all sectional maps of this portion of Illinois will be disfigured by the triangular fractions which resulted from this error in the original surveys.

[Footnote 870: Treaty of August 24, 1816, _Treaties ... from 1778 to 1837_, 197.]

[Footnote 871: Blanchard, _The Northwest and Chicago_, I, 491.]

The various treaties by which the United States acquired the Indian title to the land of the Northwest were held at such places as best suited the convenience of the parties to the transaction. Two notable ones were concluded at Chicago, the first in 1821, the second twelve years later. Fortunately for the historian the scenes attending the negotiation of each of these treaties have been described by witnesses possessed of unusual narrative skill.

The purpose of the Treaty of 1821 was to secure from the Pottawatomies a considerable tract of land in southern Michigan extending from Grand River southward to the northern boundary of Indiana. The United States Commissioners, Governor Cass and Solomon Sibley, accompanied by Henry R. Schoolcraft as secretary, left Detroit for Chicago July 3, 1821.[872] The route from Detroit to Chicago usually followed at this time was the overland trail, which necessitated a journey of about three hundred miles; the alternative was to go by schooner or other vessel around the lakes, which entailed a journey twice as long. Cass's party pursued neither of these routes, however. Partly because of business on the Wabash, partly from a desire to explore the country, it was decided to travel in a large canoe by way of the Maumee and the Wabash rivers to the Ohio and thence to and up the Illinois to Chicago.[873]

[Footnote 872: Schoolcraft, _Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley_, 15 ff.]

[Footnote 873: _Ibid._, 9.]

Several weeks later the party was at Starved Rock on the Illinois. Here the canoe was abandoned because of the impossibility of proceeding farther by water and the journey was continued on horseback. The last few miles of the way the travelers were almost constantly in the company of parties of Indians, dressed in their best attire and decorated with medals, feathers, and silver bands; all, like Cass's party, were making their way to Chicago to participate in the negotiations over the treaty.[874] The gaudy and showy dresses of the Indians, with their spirited manner of riding and the jingling caused by the striking of their ornaments, created a novel and interesting scene. Since they were converging upon Chicago from all parts of an extensive circle of country, the nearer Cass and his associates approached the more compact the assemblage became, and they found their cavalcade augmented and the dust, confusion, and noise increased at every bypath which intersected their way.

[Footnote 874: _Ibid._, 335.]

In all three thousand Indians gathered at Chicago to attend upon the work of treaty making. To accommodate this assemblage an "open bower" had been erected on the north side of the river under the guns of the fort to serve as the council house.[875] At the first formal session of the council, which occurred on August 17, Cass set forth in a short speech, the delivery of which was punctuated at every point by the "hoah," indicative of attention, the object of the government in calling the red men together. Without in any way indicating their attitude, the chiefs adjourned for deliberation. Two days later they were ready with their answer, which was delivered by the Wabash chieftain, Metea, the greatest orator of the Pottawatomies. With a mixture of boldness and humility he advanced a number of reasons for aversion on the part of the red men for making the cession desired, and concluded with a flat refusal of Cass's proffer. Speech-making in profusion followed, interspersed with frequent adjournments, in the course of which day after day passed away. From the point of view of the Indians there was no reason for hurry. They were being entertained and fed at the expense of the government, and it was natural that they should improve the opportunity to the utmost. Not only was the occasion an enjoyable one, but by assuming a recalcitrant attitude and prolonging the council a better bargain might be driven.

[Footnote 875: Schoolcraft, _op. cit._, 337 ff.]

Some misapprehensions concerning the terms of a former treaty were effectually dispelled by the commissioners, the wavering and the stubborn were won over, and on August 29 the treaty was concluded.[876] The Ottawa tribe was to receive an annuity of one thousand dollars forever, while the Pottawatomies were to be paid five thousand dollars annually for twenty years. On behalf of the Ottawas the government agreed, also, to expend fifteen hundred dollars annually for ten years for the support of a blacksmith and a teacher and the promotion of the arts of civilization. In similar fashion the sum of one thousand dollars was to be expended annually for fifteen years for the maintenance of a teacher and a blacksmith among the Pottawatomies.

[Footnote 876: For it see _Treaties ... from 1778 to 1837_ 297 ff.]

The foregoing provisions were of general application. The treaty contained in addition a list of special reservations of tracts of land which were granted to individuals, usually of mixed descent. The story of the influences responsible for these provisions of the treaty afford a view of the methods by which the terms of such cessions in the Indian treaties of this period were ordinarily devised. The provisions for supporting the work of instructing and civilizing the Indians were due to the exertions of Rev. Isaac McCoy, the founder of Carey's Mission among the Pottawatomies, near the modern city of Niles. Unable himself to come to Chicago, he sent a representative to urge upon both the commissioners for the United States and the Indians the recognition of his project for establishing a mission among the latter.[877] Of more importance, he enlisted the support of Colonel William A. Trimble, who had recently resigned his office in the army and become a United States senator from Ohio. On his way to Chicago to attend the council he stopped at Carey's, and having listened to McCoy's unfolding of his plans and his need of aid to realize them, promised to exert his influence in the missionary's behalf at Chicago. Largely because of this championship, apparently, the provisions already recounted for the support of blacksmiths and teachers among the tribes involved in the cession were made. Shortly afterward McCoy received the appointment as teacher of the Pottawatomies, and his associate, Mr. John Sears, the similar appointment among the Ottawas, while the selection and control of the blacksmiths was also confided to McCoy.[878]

[Footnote 877: McCoy, _History of Baptist Indian Missions_, 113.]

[Footnote 878: Cass to McCoy, July 16, 1822, _ibid._, 145 ff.]

"To bring about such an arrangement as this," wrote McCoy, "had cost us much labor, watchfulness, and anxiety. Others, in their intercourse with the Indians, had money and goods with which to purchase their consent to measures to which they otherwise felt disinclined; but we had neither money nor consciences that could be thus used."[879] The significance of this statement becomes evident upon examination of the list of special reservations provided for by the treaty. The traders and their half-breed families and their descendants, shrewder and more influential than the full-blooded Indians, provided for their future welfare by procuring the reservation to themselves of generous tracts of land. That these special grants of land were obtained by the use of improper methods and influences, as McCoy has charged, can scarcely be doubted.[880] One of the witnesses to the treaty was Jean Baptiste Beaubien, the Chicago trader. It can hardly be deemed a mere coincidence that among the grants to individuals are included one half-section of land to each of his sons, Charles and Madore, by his Ottawa squaw, Mahnawbunnoquah, who had by this time been dead for many years. To the chieftain Peeresh, or Pierre Moran, who guided Cass's party from Starved Rock to Chicago,[881] and whose racial affiliations are sufficiently indicated by his name, was granted one section of land at the mouth of the Elkhart River, while two more sections were reserved for his children. "To William Knaggs, or Waseskukson, son of Chesqua, one-half of a section of land," reads another clause of the treaty. Reference to the list of witnesses who signed it reveals the name of "W. Knaggs, Indian Agent," and this individual acted as interpreter during the negotiation of the treaty.[882] Pierre Le Clerc, or Le Claire, the half-breed who had assisted in negotiating the surrender of the defeated Fort Dearborn garrison in August, 1812, now received a section of land on the Elkhart, and his brother, Jean B. Le Clerc, half as much. Another participant in the Fort Dearborn massacre, Jean Baptiste Chandonnai, whose activities as a trader at Chicago and elsewhere have already received our attention,[883] was granted two sections of land.

[Footnote 879: McCoy, _op. cit._, 113-14.]

[Footnote 880: The policy of bribing the leaders among the Indians was deliberately adopted by the agents of the government, including such men even as Lewis Cass. On January 1, 1821, Alexander Wolcott, the Chicago agent, thus addressed Cass relative to the contemplated Indian treaty and the expenses of his agency for the ensuing year: "To induce the Pottawatomies to sell their lands, particularly the district of Saint Joseph's to which they are much attached it will be requisite to bribe their chief men by very considerable presents and promises; and that should be done, in part at least, before the period of treating arrives, so that time may be given for its effects to spread through the body of the nation In short, it appears to me that a small portion of the sum appropriated to the treaty can be disposed of in the best and most efficient manner in conciliating and securing before hand the principal men of the nation" (Indian Department, Cass Correspondence, Wolcott to Cass, Jan. 1, 1821). Cass in reply expressed his approval of the proposal.]

[Footnote 881: Schoolcraft, _op. cit._, 321.]

[Footnote 882: _Ibid._, 365.]

[Footnote 883: _Supra_, p. 277.]

Among the most highly favored recipients of special grants by this treaty were the traders Burnett and Bertrand, and their families. Burnett had married KawKeemee, the sister of the Pottawatomie chieftain, Topinabee, and Bertrand had also married a squaw. The success of these families in securing special favors for themselves from the Indians and the government is evidenced by the recurrence of their names in many treaties. Both Burnett and Bertrand were present at Chicago and exerted their influence in support of the commissioners at a critical stage in the negotiations.[884] John Burnett received by the treaty two sections of land, and four of his children one section each, near the mouth of the St. Joseph River. To the wife of Bertrand was given one section of land, and to each of her five children one half-section. To John La Lime, son of Nokenoqua, a half-section of land was granted. Presumably he was the son of the Fort Dearborn interpreter slain by John Kinzie in 1812. The latter was now sub-Indian agent, and assisting in the negotiation of the treaty. Whose influence was responsible for the special grant to young La Lime can only be conjectured.

[Footnote 884: Schoolcraft, _op. cit._, 352-53.]

The fatal love for liquor which was working the ruin of the Indians was significantly manifested during the course of the negotiations over this treaty. To their honor the commissioners determined not to supply the Indians with liquor until the negotiations should be concluded. This did not meet the approval of the latter, however, and in his speech of August 22 Metea gave expression to their dissatisfaction.[885] Cass answered him with a spirited rebuke, repelling the implication of parsimony and showing that the liquor had been denied the Indians out of regard for their own welfare, that they might be able to keep sober and protect their interests in the negotiations. He concluded by painting the baneful influence of whisky upon them, and appealing to them to wait, if they were determined to drink, until a proper time. The rebuke was effective in quieting their importunities upon the subject until the negotiations were concluded a week later. Then their pent-up thirst for the liquor, which they had stipulated should accompany the distribution of goods, overcame their power of self-control. The aged Topinabee pleaded with Cass for the "milk" he had brought for them, but was told that the goods were not yet ready to be issued. "We care not for the land, the money, or the goods," he rejoined; "it is the whisky we want--give us the whisky." The whisky was shortly provided, and within twenty-four hours ten shocking murders had been committed.[886]

[Footnote 885: _Ibid._, 350.]

[Footnote 886: Schoolcraft, _op. cit._, 387-88; McCoy, _op. cit._, 116, 146-47.]

The in-rush of white settlers which followed the close of the Black Hawk War made necessary the early removal of the Indians from northern Illinois. The Pottawatomies and allied tribes still held title to a large tract of land between Lake Michigan and Rock River and extending northward from the line drawn due west through the southernmost point of Lake Michigan. With a view to securing the cession of this land and the removal of its owners to some point west of the Mississippi, the last and greatest Indian council ever held at Chicago was convened in September, 1833. It was meet that every warrior of the tribes concerned in the proposed negotiation should attend the grand pow wow, bringing his squaws, papooses, ponies, and dogs with him, and accordingly several thousand Indians assembled.[887] From far and near, too, gathered "birds of passage" of the white race, representing every gradation of character from rascality to respectability.

[Footnote 887: Latrobe (_Rambler in North America_, II, 201) says the number was estimated at five thousand. Shirreff says (_Tour through North America_, 227) "it was supposed nearly 8,000 Indians were assembled." Porter says (_Earliest Religious History of Chicago_, 71) that on the appointed day "Indians began to pour in by thousands." All three writers were in Chicago while the treaty was being negotiated.]

The Chicago of September, 1833, was "a mush-room" village of a few score houses.[888] Most of them had been hastily erected since the preceding spring and were small and unsubstantial.[889] "Frame and clapboard houses were springing up daily," wrote Latrobe, the English traveler, who visited Chicago while the council was in progress, "under the active axes and hammers of the speculators, and piles of lumber announced the preparation for yet other edifices of an equally light character."[890] The one business street of the place was South Water Street, along which a row of one-story log houses sprawled westward from the reservation, its monotony only slightly broken by the two or three frame stores which the village at this time boasted.[891] The unwonted concourse of visitors in attendance upon the treaty taxed the accommodations of the place to the utmost. There were "traders by scores and hangers-on by hundreds."[892] According to one observer, a stranger to America, a "general fair" and "a kind of horse market" seemed to be in progress.[893] Large wagons drawn by six or eight oxen and heavily loaded with merchandise were arriving and departing. In the picturesque language of Latrobe there were "emigrants and land speculators numerous as the sand, horse dealers and horse-stealers--rogues of every description, white, black, brown, and red---half-breeds, quarter-breeds, and men of no breed at all; dealers in pigs, poultry, and potatoes; men pursuing Indian claims, some for tracts of land, others for pigs which the wolves had eaten;--creditors of the tribes, or of particular Indians, who know they have no chance of getting their money if they do not get it from the government agents; sharpers of every degree; peddlers, grogsellers; Indian agents and Indian traders of every description, and Contractors to supply the Pottawatomies with food."[894]

[Footnote 888: Shirreff (_op. cit._, 226) gives the number of houses as about one hundred and fifty. Latrobe (_op. cit._, II, 206) speaks of "the half a hundred clapboard houses."]

[Footnote 889: Latrobe, _op. cit._, II, 206; Hoffman, _Winter in the West_, I, 199, 202; letter of Charles Butler in Andreas, _History of Chicago_, I, 129-30.]

[Footnote 890: Latrobe, _op. cit._, II, 209.]

[Footnote 891: Porter, _Earliest Religious History of Chicago_, 70.]

[Footnote 892: _Ibid._, 71.]

[Footnote 893: Shirreff, _op. cit._, 228.]

[Footnote 894: Latrobe, _op. cit._, II, 206.]

The few primitive hotels were, of course, utterly unable to accommodate comfortably the crowds of strangers who clamored for board and lodging. Latrobe characterizes his hotel, which was, apparently, the Sauganash, kept by Mark Beaubien, as "a vile, two-storied barrack," within which "all was in a state of most appalling confusion, filth and racket."[895] The public table was such a scene of confusion that the traveler felt compelled to avoid it. The French landlord was "a sporting character" and "everything was left to chance, who in the shape of a fat housekeeper, fumed and toiled around the premises from morning to night."

[Footnote 895: _Ibid._, II, 209.]

The character of the impression which the traveler forms is determined as much by his standard of judgment as by the conditions he actually encounters. Latrobe was a cultivated English gentleman, habituated to another manner of life than that which prevailed upon the American frontier. The picture drawn by Shirreff, himself a sturdy farmer, of Chicago's inns in September, 1833, is perhaps fairer than that of Latrobe; yet even when measured by his more lenient standards the conditions described seem crude enough.[896] His hotel was so disagreeably crowded that the landlord could not positively promise a bed, although he would do his best to accommodate his guests. His house was "dirty in the extreme, and confusion reigned throughout," but the traveler temperately observes that the extraordinary circumstances of the village went far to extenuate this. The table was amply supplied with substantial provisions, although they were indifferently cooked and served "still more so." At bedtime the guest was assigned to a dirty pallet in the corner of a room ten feet square which contained two small beds already occupied. But he was not to enjoy even this poor retreat without molestation. Toward morning he was aroused from a sound sleep by "an angry voice uttering horrid imprecations," accompanied by a demand to share the bed. The lighted candle in the hands of the speaker showed that the intruders were French traders. Shirreff checked their torrent of profanity with a dignified rebuke, which caused them to withdraw from the room, leaving him in undisturbed possession of the bed.

[Footnote 896: Shirreff, _op. cit._, 228-29.]

The thousands of savages congregated to barter away their birthright presented an extraordinary spectacle.[897] Although several different tribes were represented, their dress and appearance depended upon individual caprice and the means of gratifying it, rather than upon tribal customs and distinctions. Those who possessed the means generally attired themselves in fantastic fashion and gaudy colors. As a rule the warriors were attired more gaily and were more given to dandyism than were the squaws. All of the men, except a few of the very poorest, wore breechclouts and blankets. Most of them added to these articles leggings of various colors and degrees of ornamentation; while those who were able disported themselves in loosely flowing jackets, rich sashes, and gaudy shawl or handkerchief turbans. The squaws wore blue or printed cotton cloths and the richer ones had embroidered petticoats and shawls. The various articles of clothing of both men and women were covered with gewgaws of silver and brass, glass beads, and mirrors, such as had from time immemorial been supplied to the Indians by the traders. The women wore ornaments in their ears and occasionally in their noses, while the faces of both sexes were bedaubed with paint, blue, black, white, and vermilion, applied according to more or less fanciful designs.

[Footnote 897: For the picture that follows I have drawn on the works of Latrobe, Shirreff, and Porter, already cited.]

On every hand the camps of the natives were to be seen. The woodlands and prairies surrounding the village, and the sand hills along the lake shore, were studded with their wigwams, while herds of ponies browsed in all directions. Along the river were many groups of tents, constructed of coarse canvas, blankets, and mats, surrounded by poles supporting meat, moccasins, and rags. The confined area within was often covered with half-rotten mats or shavings, over which men, women, children, and baggage sprawled promiscuously.

The treaty-making offered to the red man an opportunity of indulging in an extended carousal. Supplied with food by the commissioners and with liquid refreshment by the traders, for the present his cup of contentment overflowed. Gossiping, gambling, racing, and loafing were the order of the day. "Far and wide the grassy Prairie teemed with figures; warriors, mounted or on foot, squaws, and horses. Here a race between three or four Indian ponies each carrying a double rider, whooping and yelling like fiends. There a solitary horseman with a long spear, turbaned like an Arab, scouring along at full speed; groups of hobbled horses; Indian dogs and children, or a grave conclave of grey chiefs seated on the grass in consultation."[898]

[Footnote 898: Latrobe, _op. cit._, II, 210.]

Of one of these "grave conclaves" a story has been handed down which smacks strongly of the age of chivalry.[899] Two finely built young men who were the best of friends, the sons of two chiefs, Seebwasen and Sanguanauneebee, were courting the same young squaw, the daughter of Wampum, a Chippewa chief from Sheboygan. The lovers had proposed to decide the question as to which should possess the girl by fighting a duel. Their fathers had submitted this proposition to a council for decision. The result of the weighty deliberation was that the youths should fight to the death, the survivor to take the girl. They were brought before their elders and informed of this decision. Their ponies were brought forth, their manes and tails were decked with ribbons, and the saddles and the duelists themselves with beads, brooches, and other ornaments. After the ponies had been driven once or twice around the council place, the duelists and their friends set out for the place of encounter, swimming their horses across the river, and drew up at an open spot on the north side. Crude flags attached to poles stuck up in the sand gave notice that a fight to the death was impending, while guards were placed to clear a ring for the encounter. Outside the ring, alone, her arms akimbo and her attitude one of indifference, stood the girl over whom the duel was to be waged. The time was an hour before sundown, and four or five hundred spectators, Indians and white men, were gathered around.

[Footnote 899: For it see _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XV, 460-63. The story as at present preserved was told to the secretary of the Wisconsin Historical Society by the son of the Milwaukee trader, Jacques Vieau, who attended the negotiation of the treaty.]

One of the duelists wheeled to the right and the other to the left. Then their horses were brought sideways together, head to tail and tail to head. As the signal was given each fighter drew his long-bladed knife. A hubbub arose among the spectators as they clashed, the squaws rending the air with their cries. Thrust followed upon thrust, the blood spurting forth as each blow was given. The bloody work could not continue long, of course. Soon Sanguanauneebee's son cried out in his death agony and toppled over backward, his arm raised for a blow, his opponent's knife in his spine. A moment later Seebwasen's son fell over and died. The girl, bereft of both her lovers, at last manifested some concern, and wrung her hands in frenzy. The assemblage dispersed and the primitive tragedy was ended.

It is painfully evident from a study of the treaty and of the descriptions of the scenes attending its negotiation which have come down to us, that the public sentiment of the frontier had become demoralized by the opportunities for dishonest gain afforded by the cession of the lands belonging to the red man. Unscrupulous individuals were never lacking to take advantage of these opportunities, and others, who under a proper system of administration of affairs pertaining to the Indians would have scorned corrupt practices, permitted their honesty to be undermined by the influence of the example of their fellows in the mad scramble for plunder. The Treaty of 1833 afforded the last, and at the same time the greatest, opportunity at Chicago for individuals to enrich themselves at the expense of the Indians or of the government of the United States. Since both the red man and the government submitted meekly to the process, a carnival of greed and graft ensued.

A set of temporary plank huts had been erected on the north side of the river for the accommodation of the commissioners and their dependents, and a "spacious open shed" had been constructed, also on the north side, to serve as the council house.[900] The commissioners were Governor George B. Porter of Michigan, Thomas J. V. Owen, Indian agent at Chicago, and William Weatherford. About the middle of September they assembled the chiefs in a preliminary council and Governor Porter explained the purpose of the assembly, urging upon them the wisdom of acceding to the government's wishes. The chiefs received the proposal without enthusiasm, disclaiming any desire to part with their lands. The request that they return a prompt answer to the government was negatived with equal decision. The next day they indulged in a "begging dance" through the streets of the town. Half a hundred painted Indians on horseback followed some thirty naked savages on foot, as they danced, whooped, and shouted from the fort down South Water Street, stopping before each door to receive whisky, tobacco, or bread. To the pioneer minister of the gospel who reports the scene they appeared like the very incarnation of evil. Several days passed. In vain the signal gun from the fort boomed out its daily notice of the assemblage of the council, for the chiefs would not assemble. At length, on the afternoon of September 21 they were induced to come together. The council fire was kindled and the commissioners and interpreters gathered at one end of the chamber, while twenty or thirty chieftains occupied the other. The relative positions of the groups of white and red men representing the two races seemed to typify their relation to each other: "The glorious light of the setting sun streaming in under the low roof of the council-house, fell full on the countenances of the former as they faced the West--while the pale light of the East hardly lighted up the dark and painted lineaments of the poor Indians whose souls evidently clave to their birthright in that quarter."[901]

[Footnote 900: For the further account of the negotiations I have drawn upon the works of Latrobe, Shirreff, and Porter, as before; chiefly, however, upon Latrobe.]

[Footnote 901: Latrobe, _op. cit._, II, 214.]

For a few days longer the Indians refused the proffered terms. At length, urged by the agents and traders, the chiefs one after another submitted to the inevitable, until, on September 26, the treaty was concluded. The real significance of the submission cannot be better stated than in the words of the talented Latrobe, who was a keen-sighted spectator of the proceedings. "The business of arranging the terms of an Indian Treaty," he observed, "lies chiefly between the various traders, agents, creditors, and half-breeds of the tribes, on whom custom and necessity have made the degraded chiefs dependant, and the Government Agents. When the former have seen matters so far arranged that their self-interest, and various schemes and claims are likely to be fulfilled and allowed to their heart's content--the silent acquiescence of the Indian follows of course; and till this is the case the Treaty can never be amicably effected."[902]

[Footnote 902: _Ibid._, II, 215. An editorial in the first number of the first newspaper published in Chicago, commenting on the difficulties encountered by the commissioners in the early stages of the negotiations, says: "The various and clashing interests of the Traders were powerfully operating, and altogether seemed, for some days, to render doubtful the accomplishment of this great and vastly important object" (_Chicago Weekly Democrat_, November 26, 1833).]

The treaty[903] provided that the Pottawatomies and allied tribes should cede their lands to the west of Lake Michigan and their remaining reservation in southwestern Michigan, supposed to contain about five million acres, to the United States, and within three years' time remove beyond the Mississippi River. In return they were to receive five million acres of land in the West for their new home; the United States was to transport them thither and pay the cost of their support for one year after their arrival; and the expenditure in their behalf of sums of money aggregating almost a million dollars was agreed upon. These provisions were regarded as very liberal on the part of the United States.[904] In comparison with similar treaties of the time this view was doubtless justified; but an examination of the disposition of the money which the United States was to pay confirms Latrobe's account of the influence by which the terms of the treaty were shaped. Except for a few minor bequests the entire sum appropriated was devoted to six principal purposes which fall naturally into two groups of three each. The sum of three hundred and twenty thousand dollars was devoted to the payment for twenty years of an annuity of sixteen thousand dollars. For the erection of mills, blacksmith shops, and houses, the employment of physicians, blacksmiths, and mechanics, and the promotion of civilization generally, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars were set aside; while the sum of seventy thousand dollars was devoted to educational purposes and the encouragement of the domestic arts.

[Footnote 903: For it see _U.S. Statutes at Large_, VII, 431 ff.]

[Footnote 904: Porter, _op. cit._, 72.]

This group of provisions, which were calculated to redound to the advantage of the red man, requires no discussion. The second group, from which he derived little or no advantage, calls for extended consideration. It was agreed that goods and provisions to the value of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars should be distributed to the Indians, one portion at the conclusion of the negotiations, the residue during the ensuing year. The sum of one hundred and ten thousand dollars was devoted to the satisfaction of "sundry individuals in behalf of whom reservations were asked, which the Commissioners refused to grant." A list of the persons thus favored, together with the amount granted to each, was appended to the treaty as Schedule A. Finally, provision was made for the payment of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars to various individuals to satisfy claims made by them against the tribes concerned in the treaty, "which they have admitted to be justly due." The list of claimants with the amount allowed in each case constituted Schedule B of the treaty.

It was in connection with the contents of Schedules A and B that the most striking display of greed and dishonesty occurred. Judged by the standards of the time, some of the requests for reservations were doubtless proper; measured by the same standards, too, some of the claims advanced were probably valid; yet there is no room to doubt that a large proportion of the grants to individuals under these two heads were improperly made. "It was an apportionment," remarks Andreas of the one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars granted under Schedule B, "of the ready money of the tribes among all the whites who could bring a claim against an Indian. The honest debtor and the unjust and dishonest claimant absorbed the fund. How large a portion of it represented robbery, theft, and perjury will never be known until the great book is opened at the last day."[905]

[Footnote 905: Andreas, _History of Chicago_, I, 126-27.]

Doubtless this is true, yet the impropriety of many of the claims allowed is patent even today. The story of "Snipe" and his claim for pay for hogs which the wolves had eaten is probably fairly typical of the groundlessness of most of these claims. "Snipe," whose real name, unfortunately, has not been recorded, was a farmer from the St. Joseph country, who came to Chicago in the same stage which brought Latrobe and Shirreff, to prosecute a claim against the Indians, which on his own statement of the case was improper.[906] He had intended to make a great deal of pork that season, but upon collecting his hogs from the woods, where they had run for five months, he could number only thirty-five instead of fifty-five. The Indians had been hunting hogs, he stated, and he expected the government agents to allow his claim for the twenty which were missing.

[Footnote 906: For the story of "Snipe" see Latrobe, _op. cit._, II, 188-89; Shirreff, _op. cit._, 220.]

Due provision was, of course, made for the influential chiefs, who were frequently half-breeds, and either themselves engaged in the Indian trade or the descendants of traders. To Billy Caldwell and Alexander Robinson life annuities of four hundred and three hundred dollars respectively were granted. In addition, each was to be given ten thousand dollars, although before payment this sum was cut in half in each case. Besides these provisions Caldwell's children were granted six hundred dollars, and the children of Robinson four hundred. Pokagon, the St. Joseph River chieftain, received two thousand dollars. The families of Burnett and Bertrand, the St. Joseph traders, were well provided for. The various members of the latter family alone received grants aggregating thirty-nine hundred dollars. Jean Baptiste Chandonnai received one thousand dollars under schedule A, and two thousand five hundred under Schedule B. Joseph La Framboise, a Chicago half-breed who ranked as chief, was the recipient of numerous favors. By the Chicago Treaty of 1821 he had been granted a section of land. Now, aside from a life annuity of two hundred dollars, he received one grant of three thousand dollars and he and his children another of one thousand. Numerous other bequests were made to individuals bearing the name of La Framboise, whose precise relation to Chief Joseph it does not seem worth while to attempt to determine.

Another pioneer Chicagoan whose Indian affiliations now proved valuable to him was Antoine Ouilmette. By the Treaty of Prairie du Chien of July, 1829, he had been given eight hundred dollars for losses sustained at the time of the Chicago massacre, and by the same treaty his wife and children were granted two sections of land a few miles north of Chicago.[907] Now he again received the sum of eight hundred dollars. Whether this was in payment of the same damages already recompensed by the Treaty of Prairie du Chien is not recorded, but in view of the identity of the sums involved, and the way in which the claims of others against the Indians which had long since been settled were repaid at this treaty, the supposition that such was the case does not seem at all improbable. To one daughter, Mrs. Mann, was given one thousand dollars and to another, Mrs. Welch, two hundred dollars; a third daughter, Josette, also received two hundred dollars, although this was probably at the instigation of John H. Kinzie. Finally, still another allowance of two hundred dollars was made to Ouilmette's "children."

[Footnote 907: _U.S. Statutes at Large_, VII, 321, 604.]

Since the identity of "Snipe" is unknown, it is not possible to say whether his effort to secure compensation for his hogs "which the wolves had eaten" was successful. That a large number of traders and other persons were influential enough to gain more than generous recognition at the hands of the commissioners, however, is quite apparent from a study of Schedules A and B. Thus Jean Baptiste Beaubien obtained recognition on more than one count. His sons, Madore and Charles, were granted three hundred dollars each under Schedule A. His wife, Josette, received five hundred dollars under the same schedule, and her children, of whom, presumably, he was the father, received one thousand dollars. In addition to these grants, both Madore and his father received sums of money in payment of claims against the Indians.

But few of the traders who shared in the distribution of the public funds can receive individual mention. The disappointment of James Kinzie over the denial of his request for a reservation might be supposed to have been measurably assuaged by the five thousand dollars granted him in lieu thereof. Since Kinzie was of pure American descent, it is difficult to justify this grant on any ground of recognized propriety. The same may be said of the aspiration of Robert A. Forsyth for a reservation, which he was forced to forego for the more paltry donation of three thousand dollars. A claim which he preferred for the same amount under Schedule B was allowed, however, as well as another claim for thirteen hundred dollars, and in addition to all this he was made trustee of grants to various individuals amounting to many hundred dollars more.

It can hardly be regarded as a mere coincidence that the names of many of those who signed the treaty as witnesses on behalf of the United States should be enrolled in the list of beneficiaries under it. Thus, of those already mentioned, Robert Forsyth, James Kinzie, and Jean Baptiste Beaubien were witnesses of the treaty. William Ewing was secretary of the commission, and to him and G. W. Ewing a claim of five thousand dollars was allowed. Luther Rice and James Connor acted as interpreters. Rice received two thousand five hundred dollars under Schedule A, while various sums were granted to individuals bearing the name of Rice, whose relation to the interpreter there is now no means of determining. Connor was allowed a claim of twenty-two hundred and fifty dollars; and in conjunction with another man of the same name received seven hundred dollars under Schedule A. Thomas Forsyth witnessed the treaty and was allowed payment of a claim of fifteen hundred dollars. "J. C. Schwarz Adj.M.M." likewise witnessed the treaty, and "John C. Schwarz," who was doubtless the same person, received forty-eight hundred dollars by it. In like manner "Laurie Marsh" signed the treaty and a claim of "Lowrian Marsh" for thirty-two hundred and ninety dollars was recognized by it. George Hunt, another witness, who had been engaged in the Indian trade at Chicago a short time before, was given nine hundred dollars in satisfaction of a claim and seven hundred and fifty dollars in lieu of a reservation which he had requested. B. B. Kercheval, still another signer of the treaty, secured fifteen hundred dollars. Gholson Kercheval, who was the sub-Indian agent at Chicago, was one of the few witnesses, aside from the commissioners and the officers of the garrison, who received nothing from it. A year later, however, October 1, 1834, by an amendatory treaty signed at Chicago by a small number of chiefs he was granted two thousand dollars for services rendered the Indians in the Black Hawk War.[908]

[Footnote 908: _U. S. Statutes at Large_, VII, 447.]

It is, of course, conceivable that this payment was a proper one, even though the propriety of requiring the friendly Pottawatomies to pay for the services of the captain of the Chicago militia company in the Black Hawk War is not at this late day apparent. The largest single beneficiary by the treaty under Schedule B was the American Fur Company. Robert Stuart had come on from Mackinac to attend the negotiations and look out for the interests of his company in connection therewith.[909] Of the success of his mission some indication is afforded by the fact that over one-tenth of the total sum of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars awarded to individuals in payment of claims against the Indians went to the American Fur Company.[910] In addition to this, of the sum allotted to Jean Baptiste Chandonnai under Schedule A, one thousand dollars were, by his "particular request," to be paid to Robert Stuart, agent of the American Fur Company. While engaged in the Indian trade at Chicago fourteen years before, Chandonnai had received goods from the American Fur Company on credit, for which he afterward refused to pay. A part of the debt thus repudiated had been secured through Kinzie's influence. Apparently advantage was now taken of the opportunity presented by the cession of the Pottawatomie lands to secure payment of the remainder, ostensibly from the Indians but in reality from the government. The impropriety of requiring either party to pay the debts of Chandonnai is self-evident. Notwithstanding his "particular request," Chandonnai evidently could not be trusted himself to pay the debt, with the money of the government given into his possession, and so it was arranged it should pass directly from the agent of the United States to the American Fur Company.

[Footnote 909: Stuart was among those who signed the treaty. For his attendance upon it see Porter, _op. cit._, 72; also Porter (Mary), Eliza Chappell Porter, 100.]

[Footnote 910: Robert Stuart, as agent of the company, received seventeen thousand dollars, and James Abbott, also on behalf of the company, twenty-three hundred dollars.]

The dubious character of the claims presented and allowed at this treaty is still further exemplified by the role played in it by the heirs of John Kinzie. Both of his sons, John H. and Robert A. Kinzie, attended the negotiation and signed the treaty as witnesses. The latter was at the time proprietor of a trading establishment at Chicago. John H. Kinzie, the elder brother, had a wide acquaintance throughout the Northwest, with the Indians and whites alike. He had been at different times in the employ of Robert Stuart of the American Fur Company, secretary to Governor Cass, and sub-Indian agent at Fort Winnebago.[911] He had recently resigned the latter position, laid out the land pre-empted by the family into town lots, and thrown in his fortune with that of the nascent Chicago. The interests of the Kinzie heirs, therefore, were advocated by influential spokesmen. Even the welfare of numerous half-breed dependents of the family was provided for. To the old family servant of John Kinzie, Victoire Porthier,[912] and her children, the sum of seven hundred dollars was given under Schedule A. Her brothers, Jean Baptiste and Thomas Mirandeau, and her sisters, Jane and Rosetta, received among them the sum of twelve hundred dollars with the provision that John H. Kinzie should act as trustee of the fund. Thomas is the "Tomah" of _Wau Bun_, the lad who had been taken by Kinzie to Fort Winnebago the preceding winter to become a member of his household.[913] That Jean Baptiste had also been a servant of the Kinzies at Chicago is stated by the author of _Wau Bun_.[914] Another member of John Kinzie's household for whom a grant of money was secured was Josette, the daughter of Antoine Ouilmette. Like "Tomah" she was a mere child.[915] She had been a member of Kinzie's household since the spring of 1831. She was granted two hundred dollars and Kinzie was appointed trustee of the fund.

[Footnote 911: A sketch of Kinzie's career written by his widow is printed in Andreas, _op. cit._, I, 97-99.]

[Footnote 912: For her connection with Kinzie see _ibid._, I, 105.]

[Footnote 913: Andreas, _op. cit._, I, 105; Kinzie, _Wau Bun_, 376.]

[Footnote 914: Kinzie, _Wau Bun_, 376.]

[Footnote 915: She was ten years old in 1831 (_ibid._, 233).]

Of the one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars paid out under Schedule B, over one-eighth was given to the four sons and daughters of John Kinzie and to his stepdaughter, Mrs. Helm. To the latter the sum of two thousand dollars was granted, while twenty thousand dollars were divided in equal portions among the former. In addition to all this, a second claim of Robert A. Kinzie for twelve hundred and sixteen dollars was allowed. Although there is no record in the treaty of the grounds on which the various demands presented were based, the improper character of these claims seems obvious. Whatever the basis of the smaller claim of Robert Kinzie may have been, the twenty thousand dollars apportioned in equal amounts among the four brothers and sisters must have been claimed by virtue of some inheritance from the father. The facts that two of the claimants were women, who of course had never engaged in the Indian trade, and each of whom had been for some years the wife of a government official; that the claims of all were equal in amount; and that Robert Kinzie presented a second claim, which was allowed, all point to this conclusion. A claim for damages at the hands of the Indians inherited from John Kinzie must necessarily have been based on the losses he sustained in connection with the Chicago massacre. The losses of Kinzie and Forsyth at that time had been severe, and Forsyth at least had made strenuous efforts to obtain compensation from Congress for them.[916] Whatever ground there may have been for compensation from this source, there was none whatever for claiming it from the Indians in connection with the cession of their lands. The losses sustained were due to acts of war, for which, at the close of the War of 1812 mutual forgiveness and oblivion had been pledged in the treaties between the United States and the various northwestern tribes.[917] John Kinzie lived until 1828, and was for several years interpreter and sub-Indian agent at Chicago. He assisted in negotiating various treaties,[918] yet notwithstanding ample opportunity he apparently made no effort to secure compensation from the Indians for his losses. In the space of a few months after his death, however, his family twice secured from the government, through the medium of an Indian treaty, the sum of thirty-five hundred dollars. By the treaty with the St. Joseph River Pottawatomies negotiated at Carey's Mission in September, 1828, Robert Forsyth was granted the sum of twelve hundred and fifty dollars and the widow and heirs of John Kinzie thirty-five hundred. The allowance to the latter, it was stated, was "in consideration of the attachment of the Indians to her deceased husband, who was long an Indian trader, and who lost a large sum in the trade by the credits given to them and also by the destruction of his property."[919] It was further explained that this money was in lieu of a tract of land which the Indians gave to John Kinzie, and upon which he lived.

[Footnote 916: See, _e.g._, his letters to the Secretary of War in _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XI, 351-55; also his letters to Captain Heald, January 2 and April 10, 1813, _supra_, notes 613 and 632.]

[Footnote 917: See, _e.g._, the Treaty of Portage des Sioux, July 2, 1815, with the Illinois River Pottawatomies. Article I provides that "every injury or act of hostility by one or either of the contracting parties against the other shall be mutually forgiven and forgot." About a dozen treaties concluded at this time with the various tribes contain this same provision _American State Papers, Indian Affairs_, II, 2 ff.]

[Footnote 918: Treaty with the Wyandots and other tribes concluded at St. Mary's, September 17, 1818; treaty with the Delawares at the same place, October 3, 1818; treaty with the Miamis October 6, 1818; treaty with the Pottawatomies at Chicago in 1821.]

[Footnote 919: For the treaty see U.S. Statutes at Large, VII, 317-19. For the schedule of sums granted to individuals see _ibid._, 603-4.]

It is unnecessary to speculate upon the question of the location of this land, for the Indians were powerless to alienate their land to individuals, a fact which was, of course, well known to the commissioners who negotiated the treaty. It is worth noting, however, that two of the signers of the treaty were Alexander Wolcott, son-in-law of Kinzie, and Robert Forsyth, the beneficiary of the smaller grant. Less than a year later, at the treaty concluded at Prairie du Chien with the Ottawas, Pottawatomies, and Chippewas, in July, 1829, the heirs of Kinzie again claimed and received the sum of thirty-five hundred dollars. The claim this time was "for depredations committed on him [Kinzie] by the Indians at the time of the massacre of Chicago and at St. Joseph's, during the winter of 1812."[920] The treaty stipulated that the sums paid to claimants were "in full satisfaction" of the claims brought by them against the Indians. Alexander Wolcott assisted in negotiating this treaty also, and both he and his brother-in-law, John H. Kinzie, signed it. Thus in 1829 the heirs of Kinzie obtained "full satisfaction" from the Pottawatomies and allied tribes for the losses sustained in 1812, despite the fact that by solemn treaty between the United States and the Indians mutual forgiveness and oblivion for the hostile acts of each had been decreed. But the payment in full in 1829 was as little successful in disposing of the matter as the treaty of 1815 had been, for the self-same claimants utilized the opportunity presented by the Pottawatomie cession of 1833 to raise themselves to comparative affluence by extracting, ostensibly from the Indians but in reality from the government, the sum of twenty thousand dollars more.

[Footnote 920: For the treaty see _ibid._, 320-22; for the schedule of claims see _ibid._, 604.]

Nor is the grant of two thousand dollars to Mrs. Helm by the Treaty of 1833 less dubious in character. Lieutenant Helm had come to Fort Dearborn in the summer of 1811 in straitened financial circumstances.[921] Since his pay was but twenty-five dollars a month, he can scarcely have increased his fortune materially in the ensuing period of a little over a year. In fact, during this time, his account with the government factory steadily increased, and when the store was closed by Irwin in July, 1812, was one of the largest on the factor's books.[922] In the nature of things he could not have lost any great amount of property at the time of the massacre. Whatever it was, however, Mrs. Helm had already been compensated for it. By the Treaty of Prairie du Chien of July, 1829, she received eight hundred dollars "for losses sustained at the time of the capture of Fort Dearborn, in 1812," with the stipulation, of course, that this payment was "in full satisfaction" of all claims. Like her half-brothers and sisters, however, she now again received compensation, and her claims, like theirs, had waxed greater with the passage of time and the increase of opportunity for collecting them. The ignoring of Lieutenant Helm's interest in the money collected for the destruction of his property was due to the fact that in the summer of 1829 Mrs. Helm obtained a divorce from him.[923] The decree provided that she should hold in her own right, as a part of the alimony allowed her, all of the money or other property granted to her as one of the heirs of John Kinzie in the late treaty of Prairie du Chien. Although the latter antedates the granting of the divorce decree by almost eleven weeks, it is evident that Mrs. Helm's spokesmen at the negotiation of the treaty had arranged its terms, as far as they related to her, with this provision of the decree in view.

[Footnote 921: See _supra_, p. 177.]

[Footnote 922: Indian Trade Department, Chicago Petty Ledger, MS volume in Pension Building.]

[Footnote 923: McCulloch, _Early Days of Peoria and Chicago_, 108.]

A few days after the treaty had been concluded the distribution of goods to the Indians for which it made provision was begun. Of the one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars' worth of goods which the Indians were to receive, eighty thousand dollars' worth were distributed at this time, in addition to the payment of the annuity in cash. But little reflection is required to show that the Indians themselves profited little by the wealth bestowed upon them. The greater part of it quickly passed from their hands to the coffers of the traders, much of it in exchange for bad whisky; and the red man was probably more injured than benefited by the mess of pottage for which he had surrendered his birthright.

Jeremiah Porter, the pioneer preacher, has left a vivid description of the proceedings which accompanied the payment to the Indians.[924] The money and goods were paid to heads of families according to the number in each household. The money was paid in silver half-dollars, and some heads of families received four hundred of these coins, which were thrown into the corner of their dirty blankets and "carried off in triumph." The scenes attending the payment were full of excitement. The distribution was continued on Sunday the same as during the week. "Thousands of human beings--some sitting, some standing, others lying on the grass in all imaginable positions, some riding, some fighting, and one bleeding to death, the main artery of his arm being cut off, while his murderer stood a prisoner, struggling in the arms of a female avenger of blood"--such were the scenes enacted that Sabbath day. Meanwhile the minister preached to his little flock from the text, "And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, and fell asleep."

[Footnote 924: Porter, _Earliest Religious History of Chicago_, 72-74.]

In preparation for the payment the traders had ordered large quantities of whisky, anticipating a golden harvest. To their chagrin, however, a strong south wind prevailed for many days, so that no vessels could come up the lake while the Indians were here. Temperance men and Christians rejoiced, while the traders were correspondingly disappointed. In consequence of this "Divine protection" of the Indians, they carried away from Chicago a large amount of the silver which, but for the contrary wind, would have been wasted in revelry and debauchery.[925]

[Footnote 925: Porter, who wrote many years after the event, states that the amount paid in silver was fifty thousand dollars, and estimates that the savages took away thirty thousand dollars among them.]

Two years passed when in the summer of 1835 the natives assembled at Chicago to receive the last payment of their annuity and to prepare for the long journey to their new home beyond the Mississippi. Chicago had long been a favorite resort with the Pottawatomies. Here they had come to hold their councils and to receive their annuities. Here almost a quarter of a century before they had gained their most signal triumph over the race that was crowding them ever westward. Since the last great gathering two years before, the sprawling village had developed into what, to the unsophisticated red man, must have seemed a veritable metropolis. The signs of civilization which it presented to their wondering gaze, although crude enough from the point of view of the twentieth century, must have brought home to them the realization that their birthright had passed into the possession of a mightier race; already they were strangers in the land of their nativity.

As on happier occasions of meeting, however, the Indians danced and sang and drank and fought. Several thousand had assembled,[926] and much the same picturesque and motley scenes were presented as had attended the gathering of 1833. "Some were well dressed, well mounted, and dignified," wrote Porter. "These were, I suppose, civilized and Christianized Indians from St. Joseph. Others were ragged, dirty, half-naked, and drunk, singing their fiendish songs.... Thousands are around us. I can hardly raise my eyes to my window without seeing them in some form--men racing on horseback or women riding by with their heavy panniers full of flour, or beef, or children. Many of the horses have bells on them that are ringing all day. Some of the men and some of the women also have bells on their limbs which ring with each step they take."[927] "A more motley group eye never beheld," wrote the reporter for Chicago's only newspaper, the _Weekly Democrat_. "Their clothing is of every color, bright red predominating, and bedizened with bracelets, ribbons, and feathers." The reporter dismisses the entire subject of the gathering in a single paragraph, however, in the course of which he nonchalantly imparts the information that "On Monday, we understand that one was tried by his tribe for the murder of a squaw, and sentenced to death. He was shot by the chief a short distance from town."[928]

[Footnote 926: Jeremiah Porter wrote in his journal at the time, "thousands are around us" (Chicago Times, December 19, 1875). The _Chicago Weekly Democrat_, August 19, 1835, estimated the number present at from two thousand to four thousand. John Dean Caton, who was a resident of Chicago and deeply interested, in the Indians, puts the number (_Miscellanies_, 139) at live thousand.]

[Footnote 927: Journal of Jeremiah Porter, in _Chicago Times_, December 19, 1875.]

[Footnote 928: _Chicago Weekly Democrat_, August 19, 1835.]

Before quitting forever their ancient council ground the warriors indulged in a last great war dance. The matchless charm of Irving has immortalized the Moor's farewell to his beloved land. More dramatic in its picturesque savagery, and worthier far of the life he had led, was the Pottawatomie's farewell to Chicago. Driven westward by the advancing tide of civilization, in the final moments of their expiring tenure of their homeland the warriors gave a demonstration of their devotion to their ancient ideals, by staging before their conquerors such an exhibition of savagery as appalled the stoutest hearts.

As many warriors as could be mustered, about eight hundred in number, assembled in the council house on the north side of the river.[929] Their only covering was a strip of cloth about the loins and a profusion of paint of brilliant colors with which the face and body were hideously decorated. Their hair, long, coarse, and black, was gathered into a scalp lock on top of the head and profusely decorated with hawk and eagle feathers, some strung together so as to extend down the back nearly to the ground. Led by a band of musicians, the procession moved westward from the council house along the bank of the river until the North Branch was reached. Crossing this on the old bridge, it turned to the south along the West Side to the bridge across the South Branch, not far from Lake Street. This was crossed in turn, and the procession moved eastward on Lake Street and came to an end in front of Fort Dearborn.

[Footnote 929: For the ceremony I have drawn upon the graphic description of Caton (_Miscellanies_, 141-45), who was an eye-witness of the proceedings.]

Grant Park and Michigan Avenue, where the Fort Dearborn garrison marched to destruction one hundred years ago]

Every effort was made to render the dance, which to the participants was "a funeral ceremony of old associations and memories," impressive and solemn. The procession moved slowly, the warriors advancing with a continual dance. In front of every house along their course a stop was made and extra feats were performed. The musicians produced a discordant din of hideous noises by beating on hollow vessels and striking sticks and clubs together.

The Sauganash Hotel at that time stood on the corner of Lake and Market Streets, where a quarter of a century later Abraham Lincoln received that nomination for the presidency which involved the nation in civil war. From its second-story parlor windows a group of spectators, chiefly ladies, gazed out upon the strange exhibition. From this vantage point John D. Caton, a future chief justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois, looked down upon the dance. It was mid-August, the morning was very warm, and the exertions of the warriors caused the perspiration to pour forth almost in streams. "Their eyes were wild and blood-shot," writes Caton, "their countenances had assumed an expression of all the worst passions which can find a place in the breast of a savage; fierce anger, terrible hate, dire revenge, remorseless cruelty, all were expressed in their terrible features. Their muscles stood out in great hard knots, as if wrought to a tension which must burst them. Their tomahawks and clubs were thrown and brandished about in every direction with the most terrible ferocity, and with a force and energy which could only result from the highest excitement, and with every step and every gesture they uttered the most frightful yells, in every imaginable key and note, though generally the highest and shrillest possible. The dance, which was ever continued, consisted of leaps and spasmodic steps, now forward and now back or sideways, with the whole body distorted into every imaginable unnatural position, most generally stooping forward, with the head and face thrown up, the back arched down, first one foot thrown forward and then withdrawn, and the other similarly thrust out, frequently squatting quite to the ground, and all with a movement almost as quick as lightning. Their weapons were brandished as if they would slay a thousand enemies at every blow, while the yells and screams they uttered were broken up and multiplied and rendered all the more hideous by a rapid clapping of the mouth with the hand."

The impression produced upon the spectators by such an exhibition can readily be imagined. Many of those who had gathered at the Sauganash were recent arrivals from the East and knew nothing of the Indians but what they had been told of their butcheries and tortures. Others, like Caton himself, had been for some time familiar with the red men. But the spectacle tried the nerves of even the stoutest, and all felt that one such sight was sufficient for a lifetime. From the Sauganash parlors, whose windows faced the west, the parade was visible some time before it reached the North Branch bridge, and from this place all the way to the bridge across the South Branch and down Lake Street to the hotel itself. As they came upon the bridge, the wild band of musicians in front redoubled their blows to increase the noise. When the head of the column had reached the front of the hotel, "leaping, dancing, gesticulating, and screaming, while they looked up with hell itself depicted on their faces, at the _chemokoman_ squaws in the windows, and brandished their weapons as if they were about to make a real attack in deadly earnest, the rear was still on the other side of the river, two hundred yards off; and all the intervening space including the bridge and its approaches, was covered with this raging savagery glistening in the sun, reeking with streamy sweat, fairly frothing at their mouths as with unaffected rage, it seemed as if we had a picture of hell itself before us, and a carnival of the damned spirits there confined, whose pastimes we may suppose should present some such scene as this."

Thus did the red man play his savage role to the end. It was a brave show which he enacted that summer morning, but it was nothing more. For him the scepter of power had departed, and this was his final farewell. A few weeks later he took up his weary journey toward the sunset, and Chicago knew him no more. The red man had vanished, and Chicago and Chicago's future were committed to the care of another and mightier race.

APPENDICES