IV. INDIAN TREATIES.
Among
the treaties made between the government and the various tribes of Indians then
occupying this part of the Northwest Territory a number of reservations
were set off to various bands of the different tribes. Those who occupied the
territory now known as Marshall County were the Pottawattomie tribe of Indians;
they were divided into bands and governed by chiefs.
The
largest reservation was called the "Me-no-mi-nee reserve." It was
located beginning about a mile west and north of Plymouth, near where the
Catholic cemetery is located. The east line ran directly south to a point about
a mile south of Wolf Creek Mills, thence about three miles and a half west,
thence north to the north line and east to the starting point. It contained
twenty-two sections, or 14,080 acres in all, and embraced within its boundaries
Pretty Lake, Twin lakes, and a considerable portion of Yellow river southwest
of Plymouth. The most noted Indian village in the county (Menominee) was
located on this reservation near Yellow river and near Twin lakes. Here a
treaty was negotiated which will be noted further on.
There
was another small reservation containing several sections located on
Maxinkuckee lake, beginning a short distance south of where Mr. Van Schoiack
formerly lived, thence north along the water's edge of the lake to about where
the Peru point now is, thence east far enough to take in the town of
Maxinkuckee. It was called Neeswaugee and Quashqua reservation. All the summer
cottages from a short distance north of the Peru clubhouse, now the Brownell
cottage, to the division line between Mr. Van Schoiack and Mr. Edwards are in
what was once this reservation.
Adjoining
the Neeswaugee and Quashqua reservation on the south and extending south a
considerable distance into Fulton County was what was called the Aubenaube
reservation. Next to the Menominee it was the largest reservation in the
county. It contained ten or twelve sections in this county and quite a number
in Fulton County. It extended east from the lake five or six miles.
Immediately
east of Aubenaube reserve was what was called Mankekose reserve, containing
four or five sections. These are all the Indian reservations in the county of
which any record has been kept.
On
December 4, 1834, a treaty between William Marshall, commissioner on the part
of the United States, and Comoza, a chief of the Pottawattomies and his band,
was concluded on the banks of this lake, which is spelled in the document
"Mux-ee-nie-kuc-kee." By this treaty the Indians ceded to the United
States two sections of land reserved for them by the second article of the
treaty between the United States and the said Indians on the Tippecanoe river
October 26, 1832, and they further agreed to yield peaceable possession within two
years, and in consideration of the sum of
36 HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
$400
in goods and an annuity of $400 for one year. The treaty was signed by William
Marshall, Neeseeawquet, Comoza, Ah-he-pah-am-sa, Pawpee, and was witnessed by
J. B, Duret, secretary of the commission, and by Cyrus Taber and Joseph Barron,
interpreters.
Another
treaty was made August 5, 1836, at the camp near Yellow river known as the
Menominee village, near Twin lakes, between Abel C., Pepper on the part of the
United States, and Pe-pin-a-waw, N a-ta-ka and Mac-a-ta-ma-ah, chiefs and
headmen of the Pottawattomie tribe of Indians and their bands. By this treaty
the Indians ceded twenty-two sections reserved for them, for which the
government agreed to pay the Indians the sum of $14,080 in specie after the
ratification of the treaty. It was further agreed that the chiefs and headmen
and their bands should remove to the country west of the Mississippi river
provided for the Pottawattomie nation within two years. At the request of the
band entering into this treaty it was stipulated that after its ratification
the United States should appoint a commissioner who should be authorized to pay
such debts of the band as might be proved to his satisfaction to be just, to be
deducted from the amount stipulated to be paid for the land ceded.
The
treaty was signed by Abel C. Pepper as the agent of the United States, and the
following Pottawattomie chiefs:
Pee-pin-a-waw,
Pash-po-ho, Pah-siss,
Qua-taw,
Pam-bo-go, W
ee-wis-saw ,
Na-ta-ka,
I-o-wah, Ma-che-saw,
Kan-kaw-kay,
Co-qua-wah, Nas-waw-hah,
Mac-a-taw-mo-way,
Mup-a-hue, Mas-saw,
Pis-saw,
See-co-ese, Ash-kum,
Wi-aw-koos-say,
O-kah-maus, Me-shaw-ki-to-quah,
Nas-waw-kay,
Nu-bosh, Ku-waw-nay.
Te-cum-seh,
J o-quiss,
These
names were taken down by the interpreter, as the Indians did not know how to
spell or write, and the interpreter spelled them according to the sound as well
as he could, and it is not strange that there should be many ways of spelling
different names and places bearing Indian names. The reader will undoubtedly
see in Kan-kaw-kay, our present Kankakee; in I-o-wah, the state of Iowa; in
Ku-waw-nay, the town of Kewanna, in Fulton County; Nas-waw-kay, and Nas-waw-hah,
brother chiefs were what finally came to be in English "N
ees-wau-gee."
None
of the foregoing chiefs, except Pee-pin-a-wawi Na-taw-ka and Mac-a-taw-may-ah,
had any interest in the twenty-two sections named in the treaty. The securing
of their names to the treaty was more as a blind to make it appear that they
really had some interest in the reservation than for any other purpose. This
was done because Chief Me-no-mi-nee, the principal owner of the reservation,
refused to sign the treaty or become a party to it in any way. The names of
these chiefs were readily secured, because most or all of them were indebted to
the white traders and schemers for articles which they had sold the land, and
for which they could get no pay unless they were connected with the treaty and
filed their claims with the commissioner and had them paid out of the amount
the government was
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. 37
to
pay the Indians for the twenty-two sections of land ceded. This was the final
result of it. The white traders secured the allowance of their claims which
were paid out of the amount the government agreed to pay for the reservation,
and the Indians received just that much less. And to make the matter worse the
government agents dickered with these three principal Indian chiefs for the 14,000
acres of land at $1 an acre instead of $1.25, the regular price. So in this
way the Indians were cheated out of $3,500, besides the fraudulent claims that
were allowed and paid out of the amount agreed to be paid for the Reservation.
Before the two years expired in which the Indians had to vacate the
reservation, the white traders and schemers had sold the Indians enough whisky,
tobacco, beads, red calico and trinkets of no practical value (in fact, a
detriment to them), at exorbitant prices, to eat up all the government had paid
them for the reservation, and when the time came for them to be driven away
west of the Mississippi river they had not a cent of the $14,080 left.
No wonder Menominee, who had not disposed of his interest in the reservation,
when the government agents and soldiers came to forcibly remove him west of the
Mississippi cried aloud in the agony of his heart: "My God, has it
come to this?"