L I B RAR.Y 
 
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 UNIVERSITY 
 
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 IU_ HIST. SURVEY 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/pokagons105buec 
 
THE POKAGONS 
 
 BY 
 
 CECILIA BAIN BUECHNER 
 Northern Indiana Historical Society 
 
 Indiana Historical 
 
 Society Publications 
 
 Volume 10 
 
 Number 5 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY 
 1933 
 
A special edition of this pamphlet, 200 copies, with four additional illustra- 
 tions and paging 1-62 has been printed for the author. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction 285 
 
 The Potawatomi of the Lake Shore 290 
 
 Leopold Pokagon 294 
 
 Simon Pokagon 316 
 
 Appendixes : 
 
 I. Hazel Eyes' Lullaby, Words 331 
 
 II. Translation of the Lord's Prayer 331 
 
 III. The Red Man's Greeting 331 
 
 IV. Address delivered at Elkhart, Indiana, October 
 
 9, 1894 33S 
 
 V. Bibliography of Simon Pokagon's Writings and 
 
 Speeches 339 
 
 (281) 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chief Leopold Pokagon 294 
 
 Vicinity of Pokagon Village 296 
 
 Father Badin's Baptismal Record 300 
 
 Pokagon's Wagon 305 
 
 Silver Creek Church Built in 1859 312 
 
 Present Silver Creek Church 312 
 
 Simon Pokagon 31^ 
 
 Queen of the Woods, Music and Words 321 
 
 Rush Lake Church, 1929 326 
 
 Graves of Simon Pokagon and His Family 326 
 
 Birch Bark Booklets and Box 331 
 
 ( 283 ) 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 In writing this sketch an effort has been made to collect 
 and combine the fragments of history concerning the Pokagons, 
 hoping thus to make it more accessible and to aid in its preser- 
 vation as well as to pay tribute to Leopold and Simon Pokagon, 
 who merit a place of honor in Indian history and are richly de- 
 serving of our homage and recognition. 
 
 Though the Indians were generally regarded as warlike in 
 the early days, it must be granted that they received the first 
 advances of the white man in a friendly manner and did not 
 take up arms until they saw clearly that either their visitors or 
 themselves must be driven from the soil which was their own, 
 the fee of which was derived from the Great Spirit. Deep 
 pathos is revealed in this struggle, for that nation is yet to be 
 found that will not fight for its home, the graves of its fathers 
 and its family altars. The Indians did not know the value of 
 the land nor understand the true meaning of the treaties which 
 took it from them ; nor did they have a historian to relate their 
 side of the story. In many instances the atrocities recorded 
 against them were never committed : it was the policy of writers 
 and those in authority among the whites not only to magnify 
 Indian crimes, but sometimes, when they were wanting, to draw 
 upon the imagination for accounts of such deeds of ferocity 
 and blood as might best serve to keep alive the strongest feelings 
 of indignation against the helpless Indian as an excuse to take 
 hls lands ' 1 Such exaggerated tales of Indian horrors spread 
 
 the Indian ^VaTnY^A ° f ^P^ant-Thayendanegea, including 
 the Indian Wars of the American Revolution, Vol. i, p xvi (New 
 
 Jl°n r X f ); KmZ1C ' ^ J ,° hn H " Wan-Bun', the Early Day in the 
 sSrtT ' PP ' 4 nn 3 " 9 ! (New , T Yo > ^6) ; Dunn, Jacob P.f True Indian 
 "/£«♦'♦•' "*??• 4 "^ ( Indlan apolis, 1909); Stuart, Benjamin F 
 Deportation of Menominee and his Tribe of Pottawattomie Indians " in 
 Indiana Magazine of Historv Vol 18 nn m -8 . r£"i S • • 
 THeUfe Z AdveLres Tfekl&F . T» <£ £ 'VaSE' 
 
 Condon of the North American Indians .... Vol. I, p. 3 (London, 
 
 (285) 
 
286 The Pokagons 
 
 panic and were often used by the first settlers to keep others 
 from encroaching upon the claims they were so eager to hold 
 for themselves and their children. 2 
 
 A letter written by a militia leader in 1832 from White 
 Pigeon, St. Joseph County, Michigan, reads : 
 
 The injury done to this part of the territory by the exaggerated re- 
 ports of danger from the hostile bands of Indians will not be cured for 
 two years to come, and the unnecessary movements of our militia are 
 calculated to spread far and near this alarm. 3 
 
 Isaac McCoy, a Baptist minister sent by the government to 
 
 the Potawatomi in accordance with the Treaty of 1821, claims 
 
 that the Indians were neither strongly predisposed to the 
 
 pursuit of hunting nor of war, and that it is a great mistake to 
 
 believe the contrary. He further states : 
 
 If the Indians are a warlike people, they are made so by extraneous 
 causes, and not hereditarily. But the Indians are not a warlike people. 
 The whole history of our settlements in America, and of our operations 
 in forcing them from their countries, to which they were strongly at- 
 tached, shows that they were not a warlike people. 4 
 
 Pitezel, another missionary, writes that "in extenuation of 
 the cruelty of the Indians toward others, it may be stated that 
 they have seldom been the aggressors, and have often suffered 
 much before they have sought for revenge." 5 
 
 As true children of the forest they lacked initiative, also 
 the balance and poise which centuries of civilization had given 
 to the white man, but from the first they were generous and 
 hospitable. In November, 1682, a ship arrived at West Jersey 
 with three hundred and sixty passengers ; "their provisions 
 being nigh gone, they sent ten miles to an Indian town near 
 Rankokus creek, for Indian corn and pease." The chief of the 
 tribe treated them kindly and directed the Indians who had 
 
 2 Cox, Sand ford C, Recollections of the Early Settlement of tJu> 
 Wabash Valley, pp. 51-53 (Lafayette, i860) ; History of St. Joseph 
 County Indiana . . ., p. 133 (Chicago, 1880) ; McDonald, Daniel, A 
 Twentieth Century History of Marshall County Indiana, Vol. 1, p. 24 
 (Chicago, 1908) ; Millard, A. L., "Historical Sketch of Lenawee County," 
 in Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. 1, pp. 234-35. 
 
 3 Quoted in Fuller, George N., Economic and Social Beginnings of 
 Michigan . . ., p. 60 (Lansing, Mich., 1916). 
 
 4 McCoy, Isaac, History of Baptist Indian Missiotis . . ., p. 21 (New 
 York, 1840). 
 
 5 Pitezel, John H., Lights and Shades of Missionary Life . . ., 
 p. 404 (Cincinnati, 1857). 
 
Indiana Historical Society 287 
 
 provisions to bring them in. This was done ; plenty was re- 
 ceived, and the Indians carried their contribution down to the 
 canoes for them. 6 
 
 David McKee, speaking of the Indians, said : ''They always 
 feed the hungry without regard to pay. In a natural state they 
 are models of benevolence." 7 George Catlin, after living with 
 them eight years, said : "I feel bound to pronounce them by 
 nature, a kind and hospitable people." 8 Lanman in his History 
 of Michigan said: "In their dispositions the Indians of the 
 lakes are peaceable, and they will meet you in the forest with 
 the French words of salutation, Bon Jour/' 9 
 
 McCoy tells how Leopold Pokagon, though having meager 
 
 supplies, shared them with McCoy's family, and how 
 
 an old Putawatomie widow, our nearest neighbour, who had herself not 
 a particle of any thing to eat except her small stock of corn and beans, 
 sent the family sweet corn enough for a plentiful meal for our whole 
 family 
 
 Our kind widow had a few days before given information of our 
 scarcity to some of the neighbouring Indians, and on this same day four 
 other women and a boy brought us, on their backs, about three bushels 
 of potatoes. 
 
 A few days later, McCoy states that "two Indians brought us 
 
 about two bushels of corn." 10 
 
 The Soul of the Indian, by Dr. Charles A. Eastman, 
 Timothy H. Ball's Northwestern Indiana from 1800 to 1900, 
 and Stone's Life of Brant are enlightening and edifying ac- 
 counts of the true nature of the native Americans of whom 
 Benjamin Franklin said, "Savages we call them because their 
 manners differ from ours." William Penn's treaty with the 
 Indians was sacredly kept for more than forty years and is a 
 splendid example of fair and honest dealings, typical of the 
 original settlers of this country. 
 
 Airs. C. Gordon Ball, whose father, George Winter, lived 
 
 6 Smith, Samuel, The History of the Colony of Nova-Caesaria, or 
 New-Jersey . . ., p. 151 (Burlington, N. J., 1777). 
 
 7 Quoted in Blanchard, Rufus, The Discovery and Conquests of th.: 
 Northwest . . ., p. 371 (Chicago, 1880). 
 
 8 Catlin, North American Indians, Vol. 1, pp. 9-10. 
 
 8 Lanman, James H., History of Michigan, Civil and Topographi- 
 cal . . ., p. 310 (New York, 1839). 
 
 10 McCoy, Baptist Indian Missions, p. 182. 
 
288 The Pokagons 
 
 with the Wabash Valley Potawatomi and painted many valuable 
 pictures depicting Indian life and customs, tells how interesting, 
 kind, and hospitable her father always found them. The 
 writer's experience has strengthened this impression ; everyone 
 approached in the preparation of this work has been very kind, 
 courteous, and willing to give information, lend clippings and 
 pictures, or aid in every possible way. This is especially true 
 of Mrs. Julia Pokagon Quingo, granddaughter of Chief Simon 
 Pokagon. 
 
 On many occasions Chief Leopold Pokagon proved himself 
 to be a true friend and a good neighbor to the white race. Pie 
 made a determined effort to keep his people peaceable and quiet 
 after the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. Unlike many of the 
 aborigines, he wisely chose to imitate the virtues of the white 
 man instead of succumbing to his vices. He guarded his tribes- 
 men against the dreaded "fire-water," and in no place in the 
 Indian Agency ledgers of Colonel L. M. Taylor do we find the 
 chief or his sons charged with the troublesome drink. Deeply 
 religious, he aided and encouraged the early missionaries in 
 every possible way and made a determined effort to Christian- 
 ize the members of his band. On two occasions he built the 
 first church in a community. During a council held at Carey 
 Mission, May 22, 1832, with General Joseph W. Brown, 
 Pokagon said : "I am a professor of religion, and anxious for 
 all my brethren to join me ; and am anxious to be at peace with 
 all men." 11 
 
 Though grieving sorely, Pokagon left his cherished and 
 picturesque village peacefully, within the time stipulated in the 
 Chicago Treaty of 1833. Simon, his youngest child, carried 
 on his father's work and gave his entire life as mediator for his 
 race and in service to the priests who were helping them. 
 
 There are many records of Indian faithfulness to the white 
 men : not a few proved to be trusty guides and helpers in the 
 wars ; so numerous are the tributes and recorded deeds of kind- 
 ness chronicled by the early missionaries and pioneers who 
 
 "Pokagon, Simon, Ogi-maiv-kive Mit-i-gwa-ki (Queen of the 
 Woods) . . ., p. 249 (Hartford, Mich., 1899). 
 
Indiana Historical Society 289 
 
 knew the original savage, that one is forced to conclude that 
 Pokagon was not altogether an exception. 
 
 Of the few Lake Shore Potawatomi remaining today, re- 
 spected and treated well by their white neighbors, all are earn- 
 ing their own livelihood and proving themselves industrious 
 citizens. Pitezel, the missionary, thinks there was a want of 
 opportunity to develop their existing talents, 12 and Esarey 
 claims : 'They have taken on enough of the white man's thrift 
 and culture to convince anyone that the whole tribe might, 
 under more fortunate circumstances, have been saved to civiliza- 
 tion." 13 
 
 In this sketch no effort has been made to embellish or gloss 
 over defects by overemphasizing virtues. Numerous con- 
 temporary quotations have been used in support of the authen- 
 ticity of the study; they emphasize the worth of the two ex- 
 traordinary aborigines whose lives are herein sketched. 
 
 Without the aid and courtesies extended by the authorities 
 at the University of Notre Dame this story would have been 
 incomplete and lacking in the proof that ties it to the vague 
 annals and the silent shores of the receding past. Much credit 
 is due to The Very Reverend Tames A. Burns, C. S. C, Pro- 
 vincial of the Congregation of the Holy Cross in the United 
 States, who read the manuscript and made valuable suggestions. 
 
 * 2 Pitezel, Lights and Shades of Missionary Life, p. 400. 
 13 Esarey, Logan, A History of Indiana, Vol. 1, p. 385 (Fort Wayne, 
 1924). 
 
THE POTAWATOMI OF THE LAKE SHORE 
 
 The Potawatomi, often called the "Canoe Men" by the 
 Indians and early explorers, were first found living on the 
 west shore of Lake Huron. When the Iroquois swept over 
 their territory, they sought temporary refuge at Sault Ste. 
 Marie, and from there many migrated south and located on the 
 islands at the entrance to Green Bay. Here they first came in 
 contact with the Jesuit missionaries who found them well dis- 
 posed toward the Faith. About 1680 they began moving 
 farther south and established themselves on the St. Joseph River 
 in territory formerly held by the Miami. They came in large 
 numbers and soon spread over a vast area stretching from the 
 vicinity of Chicago northward to the mouth of the Kalamazoo 
 River, eastward to include the headwaters of the Grand River, 
 and southward into Indiana and Illinois. 1 
 
 The Catholic missionaries did not neglect the Potawatomi 
 in their new home. We have evidence that a resident mission 
 was contemplated on the St. Joseph River as early as 1686, 2 and 
 it is commonly stated that Father Claude Allouez established a 
 mission there two years later. 3 However, the Reverend George 
 Pare claims the statement rests more upon inference than upon 
 evidence. 4 In 1690 Father Claude Aveneau was sent to the St. 
 
 ± ^ H °- dge \ r Frederick W. (ed.), Handbook of American Indians North 
 of Mexico Vol 2, pp. 289-90 (Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of Ameri- 
 can ethnology Bulletin 30, Washington, 1910) ; Lanman, History of 
 Michigan, p. 308; Thwaites, Reuben G. (ed.), The Jesuit Relations and 
 Allied Documents. Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries 
 in hew France 1610-1791, Vol. 55, p. 183 (Cleveland, 1896-1001) ; Kellogg, 
 Louise Phelps, The French Regime in Wisconsin and the Northwest 
 pp. 70, 87, 94, 95, 176, 271 (Madison, Wis., 1925). 
 
 Margry Pierre, Decouvertcs et Ztablisscmcnts des Francois .... 
 Vol. 3 5, p. 35 (Paris, 1876-86). 
 
 d Hodge (ed.), Handbook of American Indians, Vol. 1, p. 884; Shea, 
 John Gilmary, History of the Catholic Missions among the Indian Tribes 
 of th e u ™ted States. 1529-1854, p. 375 (New York, 1855). 
 
 t Pare, George, "The St. Toseph Mission," in Mississippi Valley His- 
 torical Review, Vol. 17, pp. 27-32. Dr. Milo M. Quaife and Father Pare 
 edited the Baptismal Register of the St. Joseph Mission. It is published 
 in ibid., Vol. 13, pp 201-39. 
 
 (290) 
 
Indiana Historical Society 291 
 
 Joseph Mission, 5 and from that time on there is a fairly definite 
 record of the various priests who worked there. 
 
 The site of the mission has never been accurately determined 
 but it was probably the same as that noted by Charlevoix in 
 1721. From his description the location would be from one to 
 three miles south of the present city of Niles, Michigan. He 
 also states that the Miami had a village on one side of the river 
 and the Potawatomi one on the other side, and that the chapel 
 was on the Potawatomi side. Fort St. Joseph was also on that 
 side. 6 
 
 In 1712 Father Marest reported the mission as being in a 
 splendid condition and the most important of all the missions 
 on the lake excepting that at Michilimackinac. 7 This flourish- 
 ing condition meant, no doubt, that the Potawatomi were favor- 
 ably inclined toward religious instruction. 
 
 The Potawatomi were well advanced in civilization, though 
 they bore the marked characteristics of the Algonquian race of 
 which they were a part. They were brave and hardy warriors, 
 sanguinary, cruel and implacable as enemies, often treacherous 
 as many of the American Indians were at this period of our 
 history. On the other hand they were often steadfast and 
 faithful friends as they notably proved themselves to be toward 
 the French in the spring of 1712 when the garrison at Detroit 
 was attacked. 8 
 
 After 1721 the mission began to decline. In 1764 the Jesuits 
 were recalled from America in accordance with a French decree 
 and the history of St. Joseph as a mission was practically ended. 
 The inhabitants of the community witnessed many turbulent 
 events during the next few years. The British victory over the 
 
 5 Ferland, Jean Baptiste, Conrs d'Histoire du Canada, Vol. 2 n ^6 
 (Quebec, 1865). 
 
 6 Beeson, L. H., "Fort St. Joseph," in Michigan Pioneer and Historical 
 Collections, Vol. 27, pp. 179-86; McCoy, Daniel, "Old Fort St. Joseph," 
 in ibid., Vol. 35, PP. 545-52; Hinsdale, Wilbert B., Archaeological Atlas 
 of Michigan, Map 4 (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1931). 
 
 7 Copley, A. B., "The Potawatomi," in Michigan Pioneer and His- 
 torical Collections, Vol. 14, p. 258. 
 
 s Lanman, History of Michigan, pp. 44-46: Roy, Pierre-Georges, Sieur 
 de Vincennes Identified, pp. 44-71 {Indiana Historical Society Publica- 
 tions, Vol. 7, No. 1, Indianapolis, n. d.). 
 
292 The Pokagons 
 
 French in the Seven Years War brought the western posts 
 under British command. In 1781 the Spanish launched an 
 expedition against Fort St. Joseph and captured it. Following 
 the American Revolution and the War of 1812 the United 
 States established their control over the region. 
 
 In 1822 the Baptist mission of Isaac McCoy was established 
 one mile west of the present city of Niles. This was in ful- 
 fillment of a provision in the treaty made at Chicago the pre- 
 ceding year. The Potawatomi granted the United States one 
 mile square of land on condition that certain improvements and 
 appropriations of money be made for their educational interests 
 and for other purposes. By arrangement with the Baptist 
 Board of Missions, the Reverend Isaac McCoy was to serve 
 in the twofold capacity of missionary and government agent, 
 the Board to pay part of the expenses. 
 
 The St. Joseph Valley had been practically abandoned as a 
 missionary field for nearly half a century after the Jesuits 
 were withdrawn. Yet, through all that time, these children of 
 the forest preserved the Faith as transmitted by the Jesuit 
 Fathers. McCoy relates how, "supposing it would please us, 
 they frequently told us that they still recollected portions of 
 prayers which they had been taught, and two or three old 
 persons told us that 'they had had water put on their faces/ as 
 they expressed it." 9 
 
 McCoy describes the poverty and wretched condition of 
 the Indians, and the shocking, degrading influence of the 
 whiskey which the traders had brought among them. One story 
 he relates would lead us to believe that the Potawatomi of that 
 day were as superstitious as were their ancestors of Marquette's 
 and La Salle's time. About four hundred of the St. Joseph 
 Indians had started on the slow, tiresome journey to the treaty 
 council held on the Mississinewa River in 1826. During the 
 first three days they became very weakened and exhausted as 
 they failed to capture any game. On the third night one of 
 the chiefs had a dream in which he was told that the reason 
 
 9 McCoy, Baptist Indian Missions, p. 237. 
 
Indiana Historical Society 293 
 
 they had been unsuccessful in hunting was because Chebass, 
 one of the chiefs, had neglected to make a sacrificial feast 
 before they started, and then he was told how they were to 
 proceed to propitiate the Deity. The next morning the one who 
 had the dream gave detailed instructions as to how the hunt was 
 to proceed and the hunters were rewarded by capturing four 
 deer. A general halt was called and a wonderful feast was 
 indulged in by all excepting Chebass, for as the feast was 
 considered his it was necessary for him to fast until the sun 
 had gone down. In accordance with instructions, during the 
 remaining days of their journey they were very successful in 
 the hunt and had plenty of food. 10 
 
 Another incident related by McCoy describes an Indian 
 festival in the summer of 1825 and mentions the aged war 
 chief Topenebee. He was the ranking war chief of the tribe 
 for a long period and represented the Potawatomi at the Treaty 
 of Greenville in 1795. Though a man of ability and a brave 
 and cunning warrior, he became an abject slave to whiskey. 
 At the Treaty of Chicago, when Lewis Cass advised him to 
 keep sober if possible so he could secure a good bargain for 
 himself and for his people, his characteristic reply was, "Father, 
 we do not care for the land, nor the money, nor the goods: 
 what we want is whiskey; give us whiskey!" 11 
 
 His degradation was pathetic and finally, in the latter part 
 of July, 1826, McCoy writes that while under the influence of 
 liquor he fell from his horse and was so injured that he died 
 two days later. 12 
 
 ™McCoy, Baptist Indian Missions, pp. 305-6. 
 
 "Quoted in Hodge (ed.), Handbook of American Indians Vol 2 
 P- 785. ' ' ' 
 
 '^McCoy, Baptist Indian Missions, p. 286. It is commonly stated 
 that Topenebee lived until 1840, but David R. Leeper, in the South Bend 
 Times of March 3, 1808, states that McCoy is correct and that it was the 
 old chief s son of the same name who signed the treaties in 1828, 1832 
 and 1833. Father Badin, in a letter of June 9, 1832, mentions Topenebee 
 as about twenty-eight years of age and chief of the whole Potawatomi 
 nation. In another letter written on June 20 of the same year Father 
 Badin again refers to young Topenebee and calls him the principal chief 
 
LEOPOLD POKAGON 
 
 Leopold Pokagon was the civil chief of first rank in the 
 Potawatomi tribe. Tradition claims that he was not a Potawa- 
 tomi by birth, but a Chippewa who had been captured by Zawnk, 
 a war leader under the great Chief Doopnubii, in a war of ex- 
 termination in the West, and had been presented to Topenebee 
 as a slave. The name Pokagon is really Pugegun and means a 
 rib. When captured he was wearing a rib from one of his 
 Potawatomi victims on his war bonnet, in place of the cus- 
 tomary eagle feather, to show his contempt for the Potawatomi 
 in general. Hence the origin of the name given to him by his 
 captors. He was soon regarded as stern, courageous, and brave, 
 and was accordingly adopted into the tribe. He married a 
 daughter of Sawawk, the brother of Topenebee. 1 
 
 Each important chief had a separate village. That of Poka- 
 gon was located in what is now the southeast part of Bertrand 
 Township, Berrien County, not far from the Old Sauk Trail 
 and about six miles north and west of the present city of South 
 Bend. 2 On a high knoll in section 22, not far from the west 
 bank of the St. Joseph River, is the Indian cemetery where 
 some of Pokagon 's people are buried. Mr. Copp, the present 
 owner of the land, always regarded the spot as sacred and would 
 not permit its cultivation. The tall standard of the cedar cross 
 which marked the site still stands. Until quite recently a carv- 
 ing of 1807 could be seen on it. 3 
 
 Fox, George R., "Place Names of Berrien County," in Michigan 
 History Magazine, Vol. 8, p. 35 ; Ellis, F., History of Berrien and Van 
 Bur en Counties, Michigan, p. 33 (Chicago, 1880). 
 
 "Hodge (ed.), North American Indians, Vol. 2, p. 274; maps of 
 Indiana and Michigan in Royce, Charles C, Indian Land Cessions in the 
 United States (Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American 
 Ethnology, 1896-97, part 2, plates 27 and 37, Washington, 1899) ; map in 
 Royce. "Cessions of Land by Indian Tribes to the United States : illus- 
 trated by those in the state of Indiana," in First Annual Report of the 
 Bureau of American Ethnology, 1879-80, pp. 249-62 (Washington. 1881). 
 
 3 Bartlett, Charles H., Tales of Kankakee Land, pp. 216-17, 221 (New 
 York, 1907). 
 
 (294) 
 
CII LEF LEOPOLD POKAGON 
 
 [From a painting in the possession of the Northern Indiana His- 
 torical Society, South Bend, Indiana. Painted in 1838.] 
 
Indiana Historical Society 295 
 
 Nothing remains of the village today except a few frag- 
 ments of the old stone steps which were at the entrance to the 
 log church, but viewing the old location one easily realizes the 
 wisdom of the choice. Hidden from the highway, on a gentle 
 rising hill at the head of Pokagon Creek, they were in very 
 truth monarchs of all and undisturbed in their forest home. 
 
 McCoy's account of Pokagon 's Village is an interesting and 
 enlightening record. 
 
 Pocagin, a Putawatomie chief, and his party, had commenced a 
 village about six miles from the mission, and manifested a disposition 
 to make themselves more comfortable. It was one of our places of 
 preaching. In the spring of 1826, we were about to afford them some 
 assistance in making improvements, when one of those white men that 
 are commonly hanging about the Indians, for the sake of flaying them, 
 like crows around a carcass, interfered, and made a contract for making 
 improvements. This ended in disappointment to the Indians. Pocagin 
 again applied to us, and in November we hired white men to erect for 
 them three hewed log cabins, and to fence twenty acres of prairie land. 
 The Indians promised to pay them, and for the payment we became 
 security. We saw that justice was done to the Indians in regard to 
 price and the good performance of the work and we subsequently em- 
 ployed our team and hands to plough up the new prairie land for them. 
 We also presented to them some stock hogs, and loaned them a milch 
 cow for their encouragement to raise stock. 4 
 
 The so-called villages of the local tribes were simply groups 
 of huts disposed without order and without plan. There were 
 no shelters for stock or outbuildings of any sort. Their huts 
 were known as wigwams and were usually frail frameworks 
 of poles covered with bark, flags, or mats with strings of bark 
 or hide to hold the parts in place. The lodge or tepee of the 
 prairie and plains, set up cone-shaped with tanned skins sewed 
 together into a single piece for a covering, seems not to have 
 been adopted by the forest Indians, although they also used the 
 central fireplace. McCoy describes one of the better class that 
 he saw on the St. Joseph. 
 
 The wigwam composed of flags was circular, about ten feet in 
 diameter, and about seven feet high in the centre. The smoke from the 
 fire in the middle of the hut escaped through an opening above. The 
 door was closed by a deer skin attached to the upper part. 8 
 
 The season of occupancy lasted about half the year. During 
 
 this time the villagers were occupied with their agricultural 
 
 'McCoy, Baptist Indian Missions, p. 292. 
 *Ibid., p. 139. 
 
296 
 
 The Pokagons 
 
 pursuits and various amusements, and a more noisy, jolly 
 gathering could scarcely be imagined. But throughout the 
 winter hunting season the villages were wholly deserted, and 
 presented a far different aspect. McCoy writes: 
 
 The dreariness of those places in winter can hardly be conceived 
 by one who has not visited them : not an individual is to be seen about 
 them, nor any domestic animals, nor any thing which is to be employed 
 for the future use of the unsettled owners, on their return at the com- 
 mencement of warm weather. 6 
 
 Though Pokagon and Isaac McCoy were on the most 
 
 VICINITY OF POKAGON VILLAGE 
 
 [X, Pokagon Village; +, first Catholic cemetery; V, La Salle's 
 Landing. Fort St. Joseph was two and one-half miles north of Old 
 Sauk Trail on river road.l 
 
 'McCoy, Baptist Indian Missions, p. 329. 
 
Indiana Historical Society 297 
 
 friendly terms and McCoy was preaching at Pokagon Village, 
 the chief was far from being satisfied with these religious 
 ministrations and his band were never persuaded to send their 
 children to the school maintained by the Baptist mission. 7 
 
 The Pokagons were particularly distinguished for their 
 devotion to the traditional teachings of the Jesuit Fathers. 
 They wanted a "Black-robe" and nothing else would satisfy 
 them. The Indians of that region, in general, cherished a de- 
 cided bias in the same direction. The priests were nearly al- 
 ways French and the Frenchmen have ever evinced, beyond 
 all other nationalities, a peculiar fitness for winning and retain- 
 ing the good will of the Indians, while the priests seemed to 
 have found this tribe more tractable and easily managed than 
 were most of the tribes of the Northwest. All the ceremonies 
 of the Catholic Church attracted the Indians. The Bible alone 
 could not suffice for them, for, as they said, that was not made 
 for them ; they could not read. 
 
 Two Sisters of Charity who were sent as missionaries to 
 work with the St. Joseph Indians wrote : 
 
 I could not believe that such piety existed among them. On the 
 contrary I always believed them to be a very barbarous people that had 
 neither laws nor religion; but I am now convinced of their sincerity and 
 Simplicity. 8 
 
 Lanman, visiting Michigan in 1837 and writing of the 
 influence of the Catholic missionaries, said : 
 
 The spirit which was frequently exhibited by them, was not that 
 which pines within iron bars and frowns on innocent enjoyment ; not the 
 religion which exhausts itself in forms and rubrics, in making professions 
 and counting beads, a religion which showed itself in words rather than 
 in action. But it was a spirit which softened the character and con- 
 trolled the conduct, circulating through the whole moral system as the 
 biood through the veins of the human body. It was a religion which 
 waved its snow-white banner— emblazoned with the star that glowed with 
 clear brilliancy upon the plains of Judea— above the strife of savage 
 passions and encountered hardships, trials, and even death itself to 
 benefit barbarians. 9 
 
 During the time the St. Joseph Valley was without religious 
 
 'Annates de la Propagation de la Foi, Vol. 6, p. 158 (Quebec, 
 
 "Sisters Magdalene Jackson and Lucina Whitaker to Bishop John F 
 Keze, February 4, 1834. Unpublished letter in Archives of Nazareth 
 Academy, Kalamazoo, Michigan. 
 
 "Lanman, History of Michigan, p. xi. 
 
298 The Pokagons 
 
 influence or guidance except for the occasional visits of priests, 
 the Indians taught each other and tried hard to preserve the 
 religious influence they had previously enjoyed. McCoy tells 
 about the zealousness with which the Indians regarded the 
 teachings of the Jesuit Fathers and describes their pilgrimages 
 to Vincennes and Kaskaskia ; some even went as far as Quebec 
 to perform the Easter observances. Pokagon married one of 
 his daughters to Alexander Mousse, a Catholic half-breed of 
 Canada whose father was French and whose mother was an 
 Indian of the Ottawa tribe. 10 Mr. Mousse often spoke of his 
 religion to the Potawatomi who were yet heathens and adored 
 the Great Spirit whom they did not know. 
 
 Finally the Potawatomi of the St. Joseph Valley attracted 
 the attention of the Reverend Gabriel Richard, vicar-general of 
 the Bishop of Cincinnati. He sent Father John Frederic Reze, 
 who arrived in July, 1830. 
 
 As soon as the Pottawatomies knew that a Black-gown was really 
 there, all began to gather around his cabin, pitching their tents hard 'by, 
 not to lose his words. Many solicited baptism. All sought to show their 
 desire to embrace the religion which had been preached to their fathers. 
 Reze baptized Pokagon, the head chief, and twelve others whose past 
 conduct seemed to promise perseverance. At the end of the ceremony. 
 they held a council to decide on a place for a chapel. They finally 
 decided to ask the Baptist ministers stationed there to give up the mission- 
 house to a Catholic missionary since the Baptists had decided to go with 
 the Indians who were leaving for Kansas. 
 
 Father Reze obtained a signed statement from four of the chiefs : 
 then accompanied by Pokagon and some other savages they went to call 
 at the mission, hoping to obtain possession of it. To get decently rid of 
 Pokagon they promised to give up the place within a month but during 
 that interval they were not idle and apprized the Government agent what 
 was going on. Consequently, an order arrived for the Government agent 
 to take possession of the establishment and the agent wrote to the Cath- 
 olics ... a letter threatening against whoever wished to make himself 
 master, or even to advise the savages on this subject. 11 
 
 Catholic religious workers were so few and the field so 
 large that Reze's residence could not be permanent. He soon 
 left and Pokagon was then inconsolable and journeyed to 
 
 "Probably Miss Nancy Pokagon. Both her name and Mr. Mousse's 
 appear on Colonel Taylor's Indian Ledger. Mr. Mousse was an in- 
 valuable help to the early missionaries for whom he interpreted. He 
 assisted Father Badin and was with Father Deseille when he died at the 
 altar. He is buried in the Silver Creek Cemetery. Kelly, Rt. Rev. E. D., 
 Life of Father Baroux, pp. 28, 40, 60. (Ann Arbor Press [1913]). 
 
 "Annates de la Propagation dc la Foi, Vol. 6, pp. 148, 159. 
 
Indiana Historical Society 299 
 
 Detroit to intercede for another priest. All were moved by the 
 earnestness of his appeal to Father Richard. 
 
 Father Father, I come to beg you to give us a Black-gown to teach 
 us the word of God. We are ready to give up whiskey and all our 
 barbarous customs. Thou dost not send us a Black-gown, and thou hast 
 often promised us one. What, must we live and die in our ignorance? 
 If thou hast no pity on us men, take pity on our poor children who will 
 live as we have hve'd, in ignorance and vice. We are left deaf and 
 blind, steeped in ignorance, although we earnestly desire to be instructed 
 in the faith. Father, draw us from the fire— the fire of the wicked 
 manitou. An American minister wished to draw us to his religion but 
 neither I nor any of the village would send our children to his school! nor 
 go to his meetings. We have preserved the way of prayer taught our 
 ancestors by the Black-gown who used to be at St. Joseph. Every 
 night and morning my wife and children pray together before a crucifix 
 which thou hast given us, and on Sunday we pray oftener. Two days 
 before Sunday we fast till evening, men, women and children, according 
 to the tradition of our fathers and mothers, as we had never ourselves 
 seen Black-gowns at St. Joseph. 12 
 
 In answer to this plea Father Stephen T. Badin arrived in 
 August, 1830. Twenty-four were soon enrolled for instruction 
 and baptism. 
 
 Badin's first labor was to restore the prayers which had become 
 he found, greatly corrupted ; too old to learn the language, he neverthe- 
 less began to take down from Pokagon's lips, the prayers and com- 
 mandments as preserved by traditions. Pokagon and his wife, heirs of 
 the Catholic traditions and virtues of the tribe, were his greatest consola- 
 tion by their piety, zeal, and devotedness. All showed great docility and 
 earnestness. Inspired by the zeal of the missionary, Pokagon wished in 
 some way to become his coadjutor. Although of an advanced age he 
 learned the prayers and essential truths of religion with avidity and in 
 a few weeks was able to give instruction to the more ignorant and to 
 assist in many ways the efforts of the priest in preparing the Indians 
 for baptism. 13 
 
 Excerpts from Father Badin's letters will best tell the story 
 of his work among the Pokagons. 
 
 I resolved to buy ground to restore the church establishment in- 
 dependent of any emergency. Having arrived on the spot it was easy 
 for me to convince myself that unfortunately my fears were going to 
 be realized, so with the aid of Divine Providence I have bought a house 
 which I have consecrated to make a chapel, a 50 acre plot of ground 
 two miles from the chapel, adjoining the Indian territory and the Hamlet 
 of Pokagon. It is built in the Woods and has cost me only $80 It is 25 
 feet long and about 19 feet wide and resembles a little the stable of 
 Bethlehem. 
 
 The respectable Chief Pokagon is in charge of my chapel. He 
 summons his band morning and evening for their prayers which they 
 
 u lbid., Vol. 4, p. 546. 
 "Ibid., Vol. 6, p. 160. 
 
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 OF FATHER BAD IN 
 
 (301) 
 
302 The P'okagons 
 
 attend with a respect, an attention and a modesty that is hardly found 
 amongst us, if not at the home of the religious and the really pious 
 persons. Their calm appearance, simple and mild, the look of innocence 
 and the kindness which shines on their faces, is not at all in accord with 
 the idea that we ordinarily have of the Indians. 
 
 Accustomed to a hard life, they fear neither the penance nor the 
 fasting which all impose upon themselves voluntarily, even the infidels, 
 for to honor the Master of Life and to invoke quite ordinarily their 
 Manitous, their spirits or their demons who manifest their will through 
 dreams. Many took the bad spirit rather than the good or great spirit, 
 because the latter, they said, certainly would do them no harm, but they 
 fear the others very much and their offering of the sacrifices is to 
 appease them and to turn them away from doing evil. 
 
 They are inclined to go to confess, although they cannot do it without 
 an interpreter ; they receive all the consolations and the instructions in 
 the sacred tribunal. During my absence they wished to confess to my 
 interpreter who is a very pious woman, also zealous for their salvation 
 as she instructs in the religion and eloquently expresses herself on all 
 that which concerns the faith, the customs, the ceremonies and the 
 discipline of the church. She is 68 years old and she has spent more 
 than thirty at the school of my venerable friend, Father Richard. I do 
 not know of a priest more industrious, more penitent, more patient, more 
 learned, more genuinely pious than she is in all this country. We never 
 omit religious duties at the rising and the setting of the sun, then we 
 teach reading every day to all whom we can collect. Miss Liquette,. old 
 as she is, does the same every day after mass. Her activity is equal to 
 her charity and zeal. It is a subject of admiration for me to hear her, 
 and to notice the powerful impression her discourses make on the hearers. 
 They are catechized every day after mass. Miss Campaux also wins the 
 respect of all the Indians for her piety and the zeal with which she 
 fills all the work that she is giving for the progress of the religion with 
 the Indians. 
 
 One day when I was hearing confession at Pokagon's home, I ob- 
 served, during a moment of relaxation, that he was preparing to leave 
 the house. I said to him, smiling, you are going away, so it appears ; 
 are you afraid to go to confess? "God Forbid," responded he very 
 seriously. "I hate sin too much to fear confession which destroys the 
 sin." He is a man full of good sense, of an honest heart, of a good 
 memory and whose natural eloquence, with the gestures and the voice 
 of an orator, is such that I have seen a number of Indians, attentive, 
 grave and silent during more than an hour when he is addressing them 
 on religion. Pokagon is constantly at work for both soul and body ; 
 he is truly a Christian orator and understands and practices well his 
 religion and is much respected by all his American neighbors. 
 
 After having had a long visit and said the prayer with me, he has 
 had enough natural talent to compose, without any assistance, a tune 
 resembling our chant, and to which he has adapted the Creed and the 
 Decalogue, in order to teach it more agreeably to his family and his 
 neighbors ; He is about 55 years old and only three years ago he began 
 to change his views towards religion, having always lived very far from 
 a priest, since Father Richard lived t8o miles from his village. It is due 
 to his wife that the spark of faith is preserved here despite the destruc- 
 tion of the Jesuits whose instructions she was never able to receive being 
 only 45 years old. So it is that she has received the baptism and 
 nuptial blessing only last year through the ministry of Father Reze. 
 Today both are humanized and sanctified by religion in a manner that 
 
Indiana Historical Society 303 
 
 astonishes all those who have known them before. It seems that a 
 natural instinct or good judgment also teaches them that the Holy Spirit 
 and Faith comes with the hearing since they cannot read. 
 
 Chief Pokagon had lost six or seven children long before he had 
 any idea about religion. However, touched by all these ravages of 
 death, he secretly made the resolution to fast in order to appease the 
 Great Spirit, the Master of Life, to whom he also regularly addressed 
 prayers of his own fashion, inasmuch as he was ignorant of even the 
 Lord's Prayer. During four entire years he continued his fast every 
 day, even on Sundays the same in spite of the extraordinary fatigue of 
 the chase, though he knew not. Since that time he has received but one 
 child so to make up for that he has adopted eight orphans and three 
 widows. Although our charitable Chief Pokagon had scarcely enough 
 wheat to feed until Christmas Day the 22 persons of his family and the 
 many visitors who besiege us to be instructed in the faith, Jacques, a 
 sick young man seventeen years of age, was welcomed to stay with me. 
 The savages make many days journey, it does not matter the time, the 
 snow or the rain, to receive religious information. 
 
 During all the time of my so j urn near them, I have lived with 
 Chief Pokagon. I have spent with great satisfaction many days and 
 nights in his cabin, lying on a mat and eating with a good appetite his 
 boiled corn and beef. What makes this kind of life bearable is to see 
 the attention and the docility of these good folks, the fervor and the 
 modesty with which they pray, the humility and the simplicity of these 
 men of thirty, forty years or more, who come morning and evening 
 from their huts to kneel down at the feet of their chief, to learn their 
 prayers like the children. 
 
 If one could know the good savages that I have the happiness of 
 instructing, one would be able to defend and to love them. When they 
 renounce in baptism all the splendor of Satan, I ask myself at the same 
 time, where should they find it? Their language does not furnish the 
 words to curse or blaspheme. All these vices which dishonor our village 
 and our country are naturally few in the men. After all they have not 
 the money to corrupt themselves. You know the charm of their piety, 
 so naive, so true ; their modesty and their silence in the church, their 
 attention at the catechism and at the exhortation of the priests proclaim- 
 ing their sentiments of respect for the Master of Life, the fear and the 
 love with which their friends are searching for Him. As I do not 
 baptize them until after sufficient proof, I am very sure of their fidelity 
 to complete their promises made to God, so that their life is truly 
 Christian and worthy of the frequent communion to which I admit them 
 willingly to maintain charity in them, and to increase their fervour and 
 their gratitude for the gift of faith which they have had the honor of 
 receiving preferably to all of the other savages and to other people who 
 are surrounding us. 
 
 Many other reasons attach me to them ; I do not find in the wigwams 
 vices uncommon in the palaces and in the cities ; I find on the contrary 
 here, virtues unknown to civilized people and even in greater numbers 
 of Christians. The savages observe to the letter by virtue or by 
 inclination this lesson of the Saviour : "Be not anxious for the morrow," 
 for they haven't that avarice which is idolatry worship, as St. Paul said. 
 They have not the ambition for honors, nor the taste for unholy pleas- 
 ures. One finds no display in their furnishings nor on their tables ; no 
 flattery upon their lips, no hypocrisy in their devotions, no weariness or 
 inattention to the sermon, no thoughtlessness, or conversation, curiosity, 
 
304 The Pokagons 
 
 or vanity at church. They have much respect for the priests, and all 
 of this belongs to godlike worship. They are patient, generous, hospita- 
 ble, charitable, and in reality more chaste, although in appearance much 
 less modest than the Americans and the French in their manners and 
 their dress. 
 
 The chimney in my cabin smokes so much that it sometimes ex- 
 tinguishes the fire; then the floor is so badly joined, also the door, that 
 we have wind passing in abundantly. The roof is half open in many 
 places and today is covered with a foot of snow which protects us 
 against the cold, but in time of rain or thaw we submit to a strong 
 dribbing, and sometimes to showers. My bed was a mat and a few 
 covers; in September I finally obtained a straw bed, still I enjoyed it 
 not two nights. To practice hospitality I gave it to a friend who has 
 passed many months at the village. My table is a bench four feet long 
 and ten thumbs high; it is little, but sufficient for two persons who 
 have but one dish to put there. Sometimes we are without food when the 
 hunt has not been good, then we have recourse to the mush or beans ; 
 it's the same when we need bread, but always in one way or another we 
 live by the Grace of God. I enjoy myself very much, I never looked 
 better and I have never been more content because God in His Mercy 
 gave me the grace of not laboring in vain. 14 
 
 In spite of the fact that Father Badin was so destitute he 
 had not even an altar stone on which to say mass, the work of 
 conversion progressed. By January he counted three hundred 
 Christians, all of whom confessed regularly. Because of the 
 care he exercised before receiving them into the Church, the 
 influence of the converts was soon felt, and many desirous of 
 renouncing their dissolute habits came to ask instruction and 
 baptism. That Father Badin was fully engrossed in this work 
 and always admired the Pokagon band of Potawatomi is shown 
 by the many complimentary allusions he made to them and by 
 the fact that he resented their being called "savages." In his 
 letters he makes frequent mention of their honesty, sincerity, 
 and "admirable patience" under the treatment accorded them 
 by the white settlers, and says that the "spirit of piety has 
 brought forth also industry in many who are marvelling at the 
 prospects offered by their cornfields which are more luxuriant 
 than even those of their American neighbors." 
 
 In reporting to Bishop Edward Fenwick in October, 1832, 
 Father Badin relates the following incident : 
 
 On the 9th day of last June 1832 a man named Topinabe, about 
 twenty-five years of age, chief of the whole Poutouatamy nation, in 
 a drunken fit killed Nanako, a man justly esteemed. The murderer 
 
 "Annates de la Propagation de la Foi, Vol. 4, p. 546, Vol. 6, pp. 154, 
 
Indiana Historical Society 305 
 
 surrendered himself at a Council held at Carey on the nth of June, and 
 looked with resignation for punishment from the drawn glittering 
 knives of the brothers and friends of Nanako. A sinister silence followed 
 after some peaceful speeches of Pokagon. My interpreter, an old lady 
 of 68 years of age, Madame Campaux, much respected and beloved by the 
 Indians, after many unsuccessful attempts to avert a vengeance, which 
 probably would have provoked many other murders, disarmed the men 
 by generously offering her own life in these words, addressed to the 
 sullen and indignant brothers of the deceased. "Kill me, I stand here 
 to be killed in lieu of Topinabe." The brother, stunned by this unex- 
 pected effort of charity, consented to delay inflicting the deadly blow 
 and having been also brought by the agent [Colonel Stewart], from the 
 council to a private conversation, he resolved to refer the decision to a 
 certain chief, his near relative, and to a pretended prophet on the 
 Wabash who gave a bloody answer. 15 But before coming to the dreaded 
 execution, several long talks were held with me, when I made it so 
 sensible that the prophet was not the Son of God, as he pretended to be 
 that they laughed at his impostures and at their own credulity. Finally 
 a council was held on the 29th of June, to whom I addressed the follow- 
 ing letter and it was agreed that Topinabe would be redeemed by mak- 
 ing certain presents to the family of the deceased and all the red with 
 some white brethren contributed to assist the chief in paying the price 
 of his redemption. It may be remarked here that Topinabe has come 
 to me on the 17th of June and falling on his knees promised me in the 
 presence of_ God to drink no more whiskey, and he has been faithful 
 to his promise. 
 
 He inclosed the letter which he had sent to the Indians upon 
 this occasion. The closing paragraph was as follows : 
 
 One word more : open your ears — no man, by killingTopinabe, your 
 Chief, could restore Nanankoy to life, nor give happiness to his soul in 
 the other world ; but great mischief would be done by adding sorrow 
 to sorrow, and tears to tears. I, your father, am confident that all wise 
 men among your white friends will say that what I am writing here 
 to my children of the Poutouatamy nation is right and true. May the 
 Great Spirit bless you all ! 
 
 Stephen Theodore Badin, 
 Makateconia. 16 
 
 The Belgian missionary, Father Louis Deseille, followed 
 Father Badin in 1833. Pokagon quickly understood and ap- 
 preciated the merit and virtue of this new priest and at once 
 began aiding him in all possible ways. 
 
 lJ Father Badin probably refers here to Kanakuk, a Kickapoo prophet 
 who counted many of the Potawatomi among his disciples. See Hodge 
 (ed.), Handbook of American Indians, Vol. 1, p. 650; Mooney, James, 
 The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890 {Fourteenth 
 Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology . . ., 1892-93, 
 part 2, pp. 692-700, Washington, 1896). 
 
 16 The draft of this letter used for the quotation is in the Notre 
 Dame Archives. A revised form was apparently sent to Bishop Fen- 
 wick and is published in American Catholic Historical Researches, Xew 
 Series, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 23-24 (January, 1908). 
 
306 The Pokagons 
 
 Pokagon's little log church was the first to be erected in 
 Bertrand Township, Berrien County, Michigan. 17 Though 
 chronicles of the early days are few, the little log church which 
 occupied a commanding place on the high hill in a clearing of the 
 large oak forest has often been mentioned in the reminiscences 
 of pioneers and the accounts of travelers. Dr. Simon Gabriel 
 Brute, first bishop of Vincennes, visited this region in 1835 
 and left an account of his tour from which the following 
 excerpt is taken. 
 
 m From Chicago we went around the end of Lake Michigan to the 
 River St. Joseph and the mission of the Rev. Mr. De Settle at the 
 Indian Village of Pokegan, situated just outside of our Diocese and in 
 that of Detroit. This mission was established many years ago by the 
 venerable Air. Badin. Mr. De Settle has lived for three or four years at 
 Pokegan's Village. He has there and in the neighbourhood more than 
 650 Catholic Indians baptized [probably including the other stations 
 visited by De Settle]. A large number of their huts are built around 
 the Chapel, which is constructed of bark with a Cross erected behind 
 and rising above it, and filled with rudely made benches. The Indians 
 begin and end their work without hammer, saw, or nails; the axe bein°- 
 their only implement, and bits of skin or bark serving to fasten the 
 pieces together. The room of the missionary is over the Chapel, the 
 floor of the one forming the ceiling of the other. A ladder in the 
 corner leads to it, and his furniture consists, as did the prophet's, of a 
 table and chair, and a bed, or rather a hammock swung on ropes. 
 Around the room are his books, and the trunks which contain the articles 
 used in the Chapel, as well as his own apparel. He spends his life with 
 his good people, sharing their corn and meat, with water for his drink 
 and tea made from the herbs of his little garden. He abjures all spirits! 
 as all the Catholic Indians are forbidden to touch that which is the 
 bane of their race, and he would encourage them by his example. I at- 
 tended at the evening Catechism, Prayers, and Canticles, and in the 
 morning said Mass, at which a large number assisted. 18 
 
 David R. Leeper interviewed several persons who attended 
 
 church at the chapel. Among them was Nathaniel Hamilton, of 
 
 Buchanan, Michigan, whose exceptional opportunities coupled 
 
 with his clear memory, render him an authority rarely found 
 
 in such cases. Mr. Hamilton said in substance : 
 
 Came to South Bend with my father, Alanson Hamilton and other 
 members of the family in June, 1834. Saw the Pokagon Village that 
 season. We moved to what is now known as the James Badger farm, 
 near the village, in April, 1835, my father having selected and marked 
 this claim in 1833. Was at the Pokagon Village many times. We hauled 
 
 "Coolidge, O. W., History of Berrien County, Michigan p 207 
 (Chicago, 1906). 
 
 ls Quoted in Bayley, James R., Memoirs of the Right Reverend 
 Simon Wm. Gabriel Brute . . ., pp. 83-85 (New York, 1876). 
 
Courtesy Chas. Scribners' Sons. 
 
 pokagon's wagon 
 
Indiana Historical Society 307 
 
 our water from the Pokagon spring. I often sold milk and bread to 
 the chief's family, and their children were my playmates. Thought the 
 chief a most excellent man. His cabin was on the south side of the 
 creek, a little southwest of the main spring. Squaw Village was back 
 on the prairie, 80 to 100 rods westward of the square brick residence, 
 west of the present road, and known as the Isaac Tripp place. 
 
 This village consisted of a number of miserable pole, bark, and 
 other sorts of huts where the squaws lived in summer, planting and 
 tilling their scanty crops of corn, potatoes, beans, squashes, pumpkins, 
 etc. Corn was known as squaw corn, a white flinty variety, having an 
 occasional blue grain in the ears. No team was used; hoe only imple- 
 ment used in preparing the ground and tilling the crop. Corn hills 
 rounded up like old-fashioned sweet potato hills, and placed with utter 
 disregard to rows or uniform distances apart. Went to church at chapel 
 pretty regularly. Services generally once a month. Was the only place 
 we could attend meetings conveniently. Priest tall and somewhat gray- 
 haired. Chapel built of small round logs. French woman for inter- 
 preter 19 
 
 The site of the Pokagon chapel is still plainly distinguishable [1898]. 
 A bare spot several rods in extent within a considerable patch of second 
 growth oaks, indicates the place. In leveling for the foundation a bank 
 about three feet high was cut on the north side. The boulders that 
 supported the building were removed and put into the basement of the 
 Keller barn in 1862, but depressions or pits in the surface about a foot 
 deep, plainly show their former positions under the building. There are 
 two rows of these pits, 26 feet apart, with four pits in each row, in- 
 dicating a building about 26 feet wide and 56 feet long, the longer way 
 extending east and west. It was doubtless, like the Chapel at Lake St. 
 Mary's, a double log cabin of the usual design, with a porch running 
 crosswise through the center. Similar pits show there was probably also, 
 some sort of an attachment on the center of the south side. A red oak 
 tree with the foundation area near the southeast corner girds four feet 
 and ten inches, four feet from the ground, from which we may infer 
 that the building ceased to be many years ago, probably at about the 
 time the village was vacated. The spot is a most sightly one, being 
 on the crest of an eminence overlooking a long sweep of the creek, 
 flanked by winding ravines, and sloping away gracefully all around 
 except at the rear where a narrow neck joins it to the level of the 
 adjacent lands. It is about 150 paces from the large spring in the north 
 prong of the creek which is here a mere string of bushy bogs. 20 
 
 "I remember old Chief Pokagon well," said the venerable 
 Jacob Ritter in a conversation about early times in St. Joseph 
 County. 
 
 I came to this part of the country in 1830. Pokagon then had his 
 village down on the little creek just west and a little south of Bertrand 
 near the "Old Sauk Trail." He was the head of a small band of 
 Potawatomies and quite a man among the Indians. He delighted to 
 
 19 Angelique Liquette. She died at Alexis Coquillard's in South 
 Bend in 1837 or 1838 and was buried in the little Badin cemetery now 
 bordering Angela Avenue, west of Dixie Way. Mrs. Alexis Coquillard 
 took her place as interpreter for the priests, going from place to place 
 on horseback. South Bend News-Times, March 15, 1808. 
 
 "Ibid., March 15, 1898. 
 
308 The Pokagons 
 
 show his importance as a chief and was very proud. I recollect well 
 the first time I saw him. It was some kind of a festival day for the 
 Catholics and as I was working on my farm a few miles west of the 
 Indian Village on Portage Prairie, I saw coming along the trail ... a 
 queer looking outfit that would not fail to attract attention. Seated in 
 a high wooden cart, drawn by a little pony was a big red man decked 
 out with feathers in his hair and a gay colored blanket thrown about 
 his shoulders. Following the chariot were a few plain Indians on foot. 
 I knew of course, that this was some big man among the tribe and I 
 watched with great interest his approach until he drew near to me. 
 
 When about twenty feet away he halted and stood bolt upright in 
 his cart making one of the finest tableaux of an Indian Chief in full 
 dress that I had ever seen. He said nothing and neither did I, as I was 
 waiting for him to speak if he had anything to say and it seemed as if he 
 was waiting for me to open the conversation. I didn't know but he ex- 
 pected me to come and salute him and help him down out of his carriage, 
 but I did not feel like doing it. He did not show any signs of battle, nor 
 did the other Indians who grouped around him when he stopped. I was 
 not at all scared, but I could not make out what the fuss was for, so I 
 just merely kept my eye on the big Indian in the cart and he kept his 
 gaze firmly fixed on me. Finally, after he had stood there stiff . . . 
 for a few minutes, he gradually drew his right arm from under his 
 cloak, straightened to his full height, smote upon his breast two or three 
 times and grunted out, "Me Pokagon, Me Pokagon Chief." Then he 
 sat down, hit his pony a crack and went on, looking neither to the right 
 nor to the left. He was evidently going through the country in state 
 to make an impression on the white settlers. I got well acquainted with 
 Pokagon afterwards and found him to be a very good neighbor. 21 
 
 Joshua D. Miller, another citizen who settled in St. Joseph 
 County in 1830, said : 
 
 I know all about that Pokagon Village for I used to play with the 
 little Indian boys. . . . The village of five or six good log houses and a 
 lot of wigwams made of poles and bark, was grouped around a big spring 
 that was the source of what was called the Pokagon Run, a little creek 
 about a mile long that emptied into the St. Joe River. . . . 
 
 The Pokagon band was composed of all good Indians. There was 
 a log church on a hill overlooking the village and Father Badin, the 
 Catholic Missionary used to hold services there. Old Chief Pokagon 
 was a good Indian and made his people go to church. The village was 
 nice and clean and the villagers raised enough corn and other things 
 over on the prairie a half mile or so away, to keep themselves well 
 provided. Pokagon was the leading chief of all the Potawatomi bands 
 and they depended greatly on his judgment. Topenebee was the great 
 war chief, while Pokagon was the great civil chief. Topenebee's village 
 was a few miles farther up the river nearer the Carey Mission, not far 
 from Niles. My father was present when all the bands for miles and 
 miles around gathered there at the time of the Black Hawk War in 
 1832 to take some action about joining in with Black Hawk. The White 
 settlers were very much afraid the Potawatomi would join with the 
 Sauk and kill every white person in this part of the country. They 
 began to collect and build stockades to protect themselves. One was 
 built on Terre Coupee prairie near where the old town of Hamilton 
 
 11 South Bend Tribune, March 6, 1897. 
 
Indiana Historical Society 309 
 
 now stands, one on Dan Miller's farm near Mount Pleasant, and an- 
 other in South Bend about where the Stand Pipe is now. 
 
 I don't know what would have happened then if it hadn't been for 
 Pokagon. The Indians were cross and surly. . . . Several of the 
 chiefs spoke and of course it was all in the Indian language and the 
 whites could not understand much of it, although it was interpreted into 
 English by a half-breed. After all the chiefs had had their say, Pokagon 
 arose to speak and immediately the big assemblage, all confusion before, 
 was all attention now. 
 
 Pokagon was a natural orator. He was a man not so very tall but 
 with a heavy set, solid frame and very regular, intelligent features. 
 He spoke with great deliberation, making graceful, easy, effective 
 gestures. The council tent was breathless as he proceeded with his 
 speech, warning his people of the consequences of going to war with the 
 whites at this time and of the utter folly of uniting their fortunes with 
 an adventurer like Black Hawk. Pokagon pleaded with such eloquence 
 that he carried his dusky audience with him and the Potawatomi kept 
 away from Black Hawk except a scattering few who sneaked away and 
 were never seen again about this region. 
 
 Pokagon was a power among the Indians and he was smart enough 
 to take care of himself. The government couldn't drag him and his 
 band off to Kansas with the rest. He staid here, traded his land and his 
 village and farm on Portage Prairie for some land over in Michigan and 
 he and the whole band moved over there in 1837. I saw little of them 
 after that, but some of the log houses of the old village were standing 
 not over fifteen or twenty years ago. 22 
 
 So Pokagon, seemingly free from the stains of Indian weak- 
 ness, was regarded by all who knew him as temperate, honest, 
 upright, peaceful, and submissive. Though exacting in matters 
 of duty and honor, he was in reality of a very sympathetic 
 nature. McCoy relates an incident that would impress one as 
 being quite unusual for an Indian of his time. A large band 
 of Sauk Indians passed by the Pokagon Village on their return 
 from Detroit in August, 1827. 
 
 A few days after the Sauks had passed on, Pocagin and his wife 
 visited us, bringing with them an Indian boy, apparently about eleven 
 years of age, supposed to be a Naudowisse (Sioux) whom they had 
 purchased of the Sauks. Pocagin having heard that in divers villages 
 of the Putawatomies the Sauks had been offering a person for sale, 
 went to them and proposed purchasing. He gave for the boy three 
 horses, saddles, and bridles, and other property equal in value to a 
 fourth horse. The boy had been taken prisoner by the Sauks, and illy 
 treated. Several scars on him were pointed out to us, occasioned by 
 the blows of a cruel old woman to whom he had belonged. In making 
 the purchase, it seemed that Pocagin had been actuated, in a good degree 
 by humane motives. ... In evidence of the sincerity of our com- 
 mendation of this praiseworthy deed, we presented the boy with a 
 couple of garments, of which we perceived he was still in want. 23 
 
 22 South Bend Tribune, March 6, 1897. 
 23 McCoy, Baptist Indian Missions, p. 314. 
 
310 The Pokagons 
 
 Some authorities claim that Pokagon helped in the Fort 
 Dearborn Massacre in 1812 but this seems to be an error. His 
 loyalty to the whites on all other occasions makes his friendship 
 in this particular event seem the natural position for him to have 
 taken. After the Indians signed the Treaty of Greenville, 
 Pokagon seems to have always advised his people to be true 
 to their allegiance and rely on peaceful means to right their 
 wrongs. 24 At this time Topenebee was friendly and recorded 
 as well as traditional history credits Pokagon with stronger 
 loyalty and regard for the pioneers than was shown by 
 Topenebee. It is only natural that the head chief's name should 
 be mentioned in contemporary writings rather than that of 
 Pokagon who was only civil chief under him. 
 
 Simon Pokagon claimed that his father was with Sawawk 
 and Topenebee in northern Michigan and rode in great haste 
 when they learned the attack was on. They were too late to 
 prevent the attack, but Pokagon and two other chiefs counseled 
 regarding terms of surrender and also, under cover of dark- 
 ness, helped the wounded commandant, Captain Nathan Heald, 
 to escape to the lake shore and from there, with other survivors, 
 across the lake to St. Joseph, and up the river to the old Indian 
 villages. After a few days the Healds were conducted to Mac- 
 kinac by a friendly Indian, but the Kinzies remained at the 
 Indian villages until the following November when Mrs. Kinzie 
 and the children were taken to Detroit and delivered to the 
 British Indian agent as prisoners of war. 25 
 
 Chief Pokagon always contended that if there had been no 
 "fire-water" there would have been no Fort Dearborn Massacre. 
 The revolting event was due wholly to criminal recklessness. 
 
 ^History of St. Joseph County, pp. 334, 522. 
 
 25 Pokagon, Simon, "The Massacre of Fort Dearborn at Chicago," in 
 Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 98, pp. 649-56; Kinzie, Wau-Bun, 
 pp. 210-47 ; Blanchard, Discovery and Conquests of the Northzvest, pp. 
 267-84; Fuller, George N. (ed.), Historic Michigan . . ., Vol. 3, pp. 
 119, 162; Helm, Linai T., The Fort Dearborn Massacre, written in 
 1814 . . ., edited by Nelly K. Gordon, pp. 52-53, 74-76 (Chicago, 1912). 
 Milo M. Quaife, in Chicago and the Old Northzvest 1673-1835, pp. 220 ff. 
 (Chicago, 19T3), speaks of the friendly Potawatomi but does not mention 
 the name of either Topenebee or Pokagon. See also Mason, E. G., 
 "Flaws in the Pokagon Tale," in Chicago Tribune, February 8, 1897. 
 
Indiana Historical Society 311 
 
 The older Potawatomi chiefs were all against the attack but 
 the young braves were so indignant when they found that 
 Captain Heald had broken faith with them and destroyed all 
 the ammunition and whiskey, that it was impossible to prevent 
 the attack. 
 
 Pokagon proved his allegiance to the white man in various 
 ways and attempted as best he could to be like the friends whom 
 he admired so much. When Johnny Appleseed came to his 
 village he hitched an ox and horse to his "flaming chariot" and 
 drove him to the Tippecanoe River. All marvelled at the craft- 
 manship of this wagon. The hay-rack bed was placed on hick- 
 ory axles and the solid wheels, hewed, burned, and scraped 
 out of white oak cross sections were painted a bright red. No 
 one could understand how he copied the idea of the Oriental 
 pattern for his wagon. When questioned he remained silent 
 and chose not to discuss it. 26 
 
 As the white settlers began to come in large numbers to the 
 region of northern Indiana and southern Michigan there was 
 a demand for the land held by the Indians. The government 
 had been gradually acquiring their lands in the Northwest and 
 wanted to make treaties extinguishing the Indian title to the 
 remainder of the lands and remove the Indians west of the 
 Mississippi River. 
 
 The Pokagon Village was ceded to the government by the 
 treaty made at Chicago in September, 1833. 27 Pokagon was the 
 last to sign and then he did so only upon the urging of Colonel 
 Taylor. As he took the pen and walked to the table, tears ran 
 down his dusky cheeks and on to his buckskin jacket, and he 
 said, "I would rather die than do this." 28 
 
 Though suffering keenly and failing to see any justice in 
 being forced to move, Pokagon held to his Christian faith, for 
 he was fully convinced that it was much better to endure a 
 
 26 Bartlett, Tales of Kankakee Land, pp. 225-26; Atkinson, Eleanor, 
 Johnny Appleseed, pp. 244-45, 261 (New York, 191 5) ; Pershing, Henry 
 A., Johnny Appleseed and His Time, pp. 22,7-39 (Strasburg, Va., 1930) ; 
 South Bend Tribune, March 6, 1897. 
 
 27 Kappler, Charles J. (ed.), Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties, 
 Vol. 2, p. 410 (Washington, 1904). 
 
 ^South Bend News-Times, March 15, 1898. 
 
312 The Pokagons 
 
 wrong than to commit one. He did not blame the government 
 for the wrongs heaped upon his people but seemed to under- 
 stand that the trouble was due to the scheming, conniving Indian 
 agents and settlers who were seeking their lands for the sake 
 of speculation. Blanchard says : "They were the unwitting in- 
 struments by which several hundred white claimants brought 
 charges against the government either for property said to 
 have been destroyed or stolen by them, or for services done the 
 state in times of Indian disturbances." 29 
 
 Pokagon had watched the white settlers encroaching upon 
 his prairie domain and foresaw what would be the ultimate 
 outcome. Fully realizing that the Indians must submit to the 
 inevitable, he began to enter land in Michigan in 1836. By the 
 treaty concluded on the Tippecanoe River in October, 1832, 
 Pokagon and his wife had each been granted one section of 
 land. 30 From the sale of his section he purchased 712.8 acres 
 surrounding Long Lake, in what is now Silver Creek Township, 
 Cass County. 31 Following the Chicago Treaty Pokagon re- 
 quested that he and his band be permitted to remain in Michi- 
 gan and his request was granted because of their peaceful 
 attitude. It was also agreed that all annuities payable to them 
 under former treaties and that arising from the sale of the 
 reservation on the St. Joseph River should be paid to them at 
 L'arbre Croche on Little Traverse Bay. 32 
 
 About 1837 the migration into Cass County was made. The 
 occasion was one of deepest sorrow for the Indians and many 
 of the old settlers regretted their departure. 33 In their new 
 home, which was located about six miles north and west of 
 Dowagiac, the Indians organized the first Catholic Church in 
 that community. It was a little low building, twenty by thirty 
 feet, built of hewed logs, and with rough-cut benches and dirt 
 floor. It was located on the highest hill on the northern shore 
 
 29 Blanchard, Rufus, The Discovery and Conquests of the North- 
 west . . ., Vol. i, p. 587 (Chicago, 1898). 
 
 30 Kappler (ed.), Laws and Treaties, Vol. 2, p. 373. 
 
 31 Harmon Abstract Record, Cassopolis, Michigan. Section n, 296.34 
 acres, section 14, 268.23 acres, and section 21, 148.23 acres. 
 
 3 "Kappler (ed.), Laws and Treaties, Vol. 2, pp. 411-13. 
 
 ^History of St. Joseph County, p. 335. 
 
SILVER CREEK CHURCH, BUILT IN 1859 
 
 PRESENT SILVER CREEK CHURCH 
 Chief Leopold Pokagon and his wife are buried beneath this church.] 
 
Indiana Historical Society 313 
 
 of Long Lake. 34 The Indians struggled to build the church 
 alone, but did not know how to raise it. Finally some of 
 the white neighbors took pity and helped them finish it. 
 
 Chief Pokagon spent his few remaining years in a charac- 
 teristic attempt to settle his people in their new home and help 
 them make adjustments to new neighbors and a strange environ- 
 ment. In spite of the energy and hopefulness which had always 
 marked his action, it must have seemed a gigantic task to make 
 a new beginning. 
 
 Pokagon saw himself isolated in a lonesome forest, and the remem- 
 brance of calamities which had come upon him and his people over- 
 whelmed him. He saw ... on every side the land which he had sold, 
 tilled and inhabited by people whose homes augmented his vexation. The 
 Chief could not be comforted in the presence of such reverses; his life 
 had become miserable; he ardently desired to depart from this world of 
 corruption and iniquity, so that he might see the Great Spirit whom he 
 loved and served so faithfully ever since he had known Him. His 
 desires were soon gratified as God called him from this earth on July 
 8th, 1 841, at the age of 66. This grand old Chief had served his people 
 as best he could for 42 years and as a mark of respect he was lain to 
 rest beneath the new log church that he loved so well. 35 
 
 Following the death of Chief Leopold Pokagon, his eldest 
 son, Paul, ruled as chief ; then the next son, Francis, followed. 
 At the time of the latter's death the Indians had become citizens 
 and elected their chief by vote. 
 
 Chief Pokagon had allowed each family to choose its own 
 portion of land, to build a cabin, and live there. He had bought 
 the land in his own name, using money obtained from the sale 
 of his own section of land, but he evidently intended that each 
 family should have its own portion. Unaccustomed to legal 
 procedure and not foreseeing any difficulties, he did not give 
 them title to these lands before his death. However, while very 
 sick, he called the heads of families to his bedside and asked 
 whether each wanted his own little plot or whether they wished 
 to continue in the tribal manner. Not comprehending any 
 other ~~tier of ti ^ m %, they chose to continue as a tribe, and 
 did n^., tnerefore, receive individual deeds to their particular 
 plots. 36 Many supposed that the new homes had been pur- 
 
 34 Glover, Lowell H. (ed.), A Twentieth Century History of Cass 
 County, Michigan, p. 372 (Chicago and New York, 1906). 
 35 Kelly, Life of Father Baroux, pp. 67-68. 
 38 Personal communication with William Augusta, Silver Creek. 
 
314 The Pokagons 
 
 chased with funds derived from the sale of the old Pokagon 
 Village, but Baroux states that Pokagon had used this money 
 to buy provisions to feed the tribe during the winter. 37 
 
 When the widow of Chief Pokagon wanted these families 
 to give her money for the taxes they could not understand why 
 they should do so, and when the son who was acting as chief, 
 at the instigation of a state agent who was his neighbor, deter- 
 mined to force them to pay the price of property which they 
 considered their own, they were not willing to listen to demands 
 which seemed unjust. The tribal troubles became more and 
 more serious until, in 1851, the disgruntled members resolved 
 to move eight leagues away, to Rush Lake in Van Buren County. 
 Here they chose William Sinagaw for their new chief. With a 
 small pittance they had received from the Silver Creek estate 
 and some tribal money they bought new property, each family 
 receiving a portion of land in his own title. About two-thirds 
 of the Silver Creek band withdrew and moved to Rush Lake ; 
 the remaining one-third acquired five acres of land near the 
 Silver Creek Church and town hall. 38 
 
 Another sorrow depressed and discouraged the Silver Creek 
 settlement in 1851. The widow of the departed chief became 
 ill and died. Father Baroux's story is our only record. 
 
 Like him, Chief Pokagon, she was baptized and preserved her first 
 fervor to the end. In her last illness she prepared for death with the 
 most edifying resignation. I, myself, was ill at the time. Several times 
 during the day she sent to see if it were possible for me to rise and go 
 to hear her confession and administer the last sacraments. The evening 
 of her death, message after message was sent. I was unable to refuse 
 such ardent entreaties. I was so weak that it was necessary to help me 
 to get into a cart. I lay down upon a little straw and thus proceeded to 
 the presence of the dying woman. After receiving the last sacraments 
 and thanking me she told me she was glad to leave this world and join 
 those who had preceded her. 
 
 All the savages love to visit those who have reached the threshold 
 of eternity; they love to hear and meditate on their last words. It is 
 like a sacred charge which they keep in their families. All were eager 
 to visit for the last time the wife of their chief for whom they justly 
 grieved. Simon Pokagon, the youngest of the children, wrote the last 
 
 "Kelly, Life of Father Baroux, pp. 81-82. Schedule A, supple- 
 mentary to the Chicago Treaty of 1833, granted $2,000 to Pokagon "in 
 lieu of Reservations of Land." Kappler (ed.), Laws and Treaties Vol 
 2, p. 412. 
 
 ^Llartford Day Spring, October 2, 1915. 
 
Indiana Historical Society 315 
 
 recommendations of his mother and these were preserved as a precious 
 will. He gave me a copy. 
 
 First word. I am going to see my dead children to whom I will 
 
 be united. 
 Second word. It is dangerous to love this world. God has opposed 
 
 it. 
 Third word. My children, love God with all your heart, all your 
 
 mind, and all your strength. This is the first and the greatest 
 
 commandment. 
 Fourth word. God wills to see me. 
 Fifth word. My children, you must all go to confession and baptize 
 
 your children. 
 Sixth word. The Great Spirit is in Heaven. He is a Good Father 
 
 to us. 
 
 After having pronounced these last words she rendered her soul to 
 God at eight o'clock in the evening, Oct. 3, 1851. 
 
 I have never seen anything more touching than the last moments of 
 a savage. It is always the same spirit of faith which animated them. 
 What has impressed me the most is that perfect calm, admirable resigna- 
 tion, that ardent desire with which they leave the world to go to God. 
 They are animated by all these saintly dispositions because their life 
 has been entirely spiritual and wholly detached from the goods of the 
 world. 39 
 
 Father Baroux came to the Silver Creek community in 1846. 
 The next year he remodeled the original church and supplied 
 pews. In 1859 a new wooden church replaced the log one. 
 Father Baroux had narrowly escaped drowning while returning 
 from India in 1857. At that time he made a vow that if his 
 life was preserved he would build a church in honor of the 
 Sacred Heart of Mary at Silver Creek. Two years later he 
 returned to America and fulfilled his vow. 40 
 
 ^Kelly, Life of Father Baroux, pp. 83-85. 
 
 ^Father Baroux to Father Sorin, March 24, 1890. Manuscript letter 
 in Archives of University of Notre Dame. 
 
SIMON POKAGON 
 
 Before the Pokagons removed from their village in the St. 
 Joseph Valley a son, Simon, was born to Leopold Pokagon. 
 Each spring the Indians retired to the sugar camps near the 
 present village of Pokagon in Cass County to make maple sugar 
 and plant corn. Here in the spring of 1830 Simon Pokagon 
 was born. The site is about one-half mile west of the town of 
 Pokagon and north of the largest mound in the vicinity. 1 
 
 The first few years of Simon's life were spent at the old 
 Pokagon Village near Bertrand, where he enjoyed hunting 
 and fishing with Joseph Bertrand. He was fond of going to 
 South Bend to look on at the public dances which were held in 
 the old American House on the Coonley Corner. 
 
 He was always there when a dance occurred, and looked steadily 
 on as the white lads and lasses whirled through the mazy, dreamy waltz, 
 the schottische or the reel, all through the night, or as long as the 
 festivities continued. On one of these occasions, towards midnight, 
 when the crowd was quite hilarious, the orchestra, two fiddles and a 
 fife struck up a lively jig and spontaneously everybody took the floor 
 and indulged in a genuine old "hoe-down." 
 
 Simon stood in a corner like a bronze statue, gazing placidly on 
 while the other boys and girls were dancing as merry as could be. 
 "Come on Sime," shouted one of the fellows as he passed the Indian 
 boy, and without further invitation Simon suddenly darted out into the 
 middle of the floor and joined in the jubilee. This wholly unexpected 
 movement gave renewed impetus to the fun and shouts of delight filled 
 the air ; never before had the ballroom of the old tavern experienced 
 such a boisterous scene. 
 
 For a little while Simon kept within the bounds of propriety, swing- 
 ing his partners on the corners according to rule, but soon he became 
 excited and captivated with joy. He sasshayed up and down the hall, 
 in and out among the dancers, paying no attention to time or figure and 
 often touched his head to the low ceiling in his wild jumps. Gradually 
 the others left the floor and Simon had the main portion of the room to 
 himself. He was thrilled and could not stop ; he went through all the 
 movements of the genuine Indian war dance, whoop and all, while the 
 company shouted and applauded with inexpressible delight. Xot until 
 he had become completely exhausted did Simon give up the dance ; then 
 he staggered out the door and quietly proceeded home. 2 
 
 ^bner Moon of Dowagiac, Michigan, who acted as attorney for 
 Simon Pokagon, and Dana P. Smith of Paw Paw, Michigan. The 
 latter became interested in the Indians while making the archaeological 
 survey for the government in Cass County ; he gained their confidence 
 and was often called upon to advise them. 
 
 2 South Bend Tribune, March 17, 1894. 
 
 (3i6) 
 

 (W 
 
 I 
 
 SIMON l'OK.UiON 
 
Indiana Historical Society 317 
 
 Until he was twelve years of age, Simon knew only the 
 native language ; then, eager for a good English education, he 
 studied four or five years at Notre Dame, one year at Oberlin, 
 Ohio, and two years at Twinsburg, Ohio. He was often spoken 
 of as the best-educated and most distinguished full-blooded 
 Indian in America. 
 
 After leaving school he served as interpreter and at one 
 time managed a tribe of two or three hundred Indians. How- 
 ever, only the title of chieftain descended to him. When the 
 last treaty allowance was paid in 1865 the reason for tribal 
 organization ceased and the Indians were placed upon the same 
 basis as other citizens. Elections were held afterwards every 
 two years to choose a secretary for the band. For many years 
 this election was held at Rush Lake near the old Indian church. 
 They met there under a big beech tree and those favoring 
 certain leaders gathered around their choice to be counted. 
 It was a simple custom but it was faithfully observed and Simon 
 Pokagon was chosen many times. 
 
 Soon after returning from college, Simon, accompanied by 
 his mother and his old friend, Joseph Bertrand, retired to the 
 wilderness to fish and hunt. 3 Here in the land of the Ottawa, 
 near Black River, he met Lonidaw Sinagaw whose English 
 name was Angela. 4 Her parents were living at Menominee's 
 Village at Twin Lakes, Indiana, when the Potawatomi there 
 were surrounded while at worship, imprisoned, and marched 
 away to Kansas. 5 Angela's parents became separated at this 
 time and the mother escaped and hid in the swamp. She had 
 been the foster sister and playmate of Simon's mother in child- 
 hood while the father was Chief Sinagaw, a subchief under 
 Leopold Pokagon, later becoming the first chief of the Rush 
 Lake band. The mothers had been separated since this terrify- 
 ing experience until brought together by their children's friend- 
 ship. Eventually this chance meeting of Simon and Lonidaw 
 
 3 Pokagon, Queen of the Woods, pp. 49-61. 
 
 4 Ibid., p. 66. 
 
 *Ibid., pp. 79-82; Dunn, True Indian Stories, pp. 241-43; McDonald, 
 History of Marshall County, p. 24; Stuart, "Transportation of Pottawat- 
 tomies," in Indiana Magazine of History, Vol. 18, pp. 260-61. 
 
318 The Pokagons 
 
 developed into a warm and devoted admiration and after spend- 
 ing another year in school Simon hastened back to the land of 
 the Ottawa to claim her for his bride. They established their 
 home on the shore of Long Lake (Sa-gai-gan). 6 
 
 To this happy union came four children, Cecilia, William, 
 Charles, and Jerome. On December 1, 1871, the mother died. 
 She was only thirty-five years of age according to the inscrip- 
 tion on the monument which was erected at her grave. Though 
 the four children were small, the father tenderly cared for them 
 himself until they were large enough to send away to school 
 at the Haskell Institute. On their return he again organized 
 the home and cared for them unaided until they were grown. 
 About this time he took for his second wife, Victoria, a refined, 
 educated woman who proved to be a real helpmate, making a 
 kind stepmother and devoted wife. 
 
 A granddaughter, Julia Pokagon Quingo, remembers her 
 grandfather as being very kindhearted and possessing a cheer- 
 ful disposition which was plainly visible in his kindly face and 
 friendly handclasp. Mrs. Quingo relates that he devoted his 
 entire life to assisting the priests and acting as interpreter and 
 mediator for his people. He would move from place to place, 
 wherever he seemed to be most needed. At home he was kind 
 and gentle and always very devoted to his children and grand- 
 children. They were always eager to have him return from 
 town for he never failed to bring them candy ; but as he enjoyed 
 seeing them sing and dance, they always had to perform before 
 he would give it to them. He was inclined to be quiet and re- 
 tiring and was not very talkative around home or at a council, 
 but when he did speak his remarks were persuasive, direct, and 
 to the point. He hated rambling discussion at a council or in 
 any kind of business dealings and would quickly bring the 
 group back to the point under discussion. At home he loved to 
 sit and reflect quietly and write ; when tired he would relax by 
 gently rocking and humming to himself and later poring over 
 a book. He loved music most of all and in his free moments 
 he was always humming or singing church hymns. After his 
 
 6 Pokagon, Queen of the Woods, p. 162. 
 
Indiana Historical Society 319 
 
 home was established he lost interest in hunting and in later 
 life never resorted to this form of recreation. 
 
 The following sketch was written by Mrs. Harriet H. Hayes 
 who knew Simon Pokagon from the time of the World's Fair 
 when she served as a member of the Fort Dearborn Committee. 7 
 
 Simon Pokagon, hereditary chieftain of the Potawatomi of near 
 Hartford, was first brought into national and international prominence 
 when he was an _ especially invited guest of honor at the World's 
 Columbian Exposition, 1893, on "Chicago Day" to meet foreign potentates. 
 He gave a noonday address standing on a high platform in the World's 
 Fair grounds, the old Liberty Bell of the United States suspended above 
 him. The multitude of school children invited to hear him was 
 augmented by many eagerly listening parents and grandparents, the 
 latter whose first school days were in old Fort Dearborn. Pokagon will 
 never be forgotten by anyone who saw or heard him that day. The old 
 hereditary chieftain of the Potawatomi of the Lake-Shore region of 
 Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan was dressed as an American business 
 man. His tall erect form when swayed by his sincere oratory caused 
 his refinement and actual culture to be evident to all. 
 
 Needless to say his joy was beyond words when he was greeted by 
 two old Chicago gentlemen of his own age, Alexander Beaubien, son 
 of Jean Baptiste Beaubien of the Astor Fur Trading Company of 
 Chicago, and Fernando Jones of the Chicago Title and Trust Company 
 who had been his boyhood playmate whenever his father had visited 
 Fort Dearborn, taking his little son with him. 
 
 Chicago in those years had less than one hundred white people 
 including the children, and six thousand Indians living in near-by villages. 
 Fernando Jones's greeting to Pokagon on "Chicago Day" was the 
 Indian call of "approaching in peace," that ear-splitting, rattling, guttural 
 sound, so often heard in Fort Dearborn's years. As Pokagon listened 
 in startled wonderment, Mr. Jones's tall form finally emerged from the 
 thickly packed multitude that had assembled to hear Pokagon's address. 
 Pokagon's memory greeted Mr. Jones with a joyful "Optogeshik" 
 (orator). 
 
 Thus three old men, all past seventy years of age, were now stand- 
 ing like great forest trees, representing the three races of early Chicago — 
 Indian, French, and American — meeting each other as brothers on this 
 momentous and marvelous "Chicago Day" of 1893 
 
 In the early evening of this day, Simon Pokagon represented his 
 father in a historical tableau of a floating pageant. He portrayed Chief 
 Leopold Pokagon of the long ago when delivering the legal document to 
 the United States military officials for the government's purchase of 
 the land surrounding Fort Dearborn for many miles. . . . This tableau 
 was seen by the throng of World's Fair visitors through powerful search- 
 lights whose rays were thrown out from the shore and thus flooded 
 with light the floating barge, a big war canoe of birch bark which slowly 
 swung along the chain of lagoons in Jackson Park. . . . 
 
 The gorgeous coloring of the ancient Indian regalia of a great chief, 
 with his immense headdress of long eagle feathers standing erect like 
 a crown, and the similar costumes worn by Pokagon's official escorts, 
 stood out like a picture from the palette of an Old World master, a 
 
 7 This sketch was written especially for this publication. The 
 original is in the library of the Northern Indiana Historical Society. 
 
320 The Pokagons 
 
 climax of riotous colors when seen against the contrasting military blue 
 and buff of the United States officers of 1803 and 1816 who received 
 the long-folded document being delivered by Lake Michigan's eastern- 
 shore Indians of the United States. . . . 
 
 The first float of this historical pageant portrayed the historical 
 scene of the buying of the land around Fort Dearborn. The pictures 
 with a woodland background and other historic scenes followed like 
 chapters in a book and portrayed the events of succeeding years in 
 historical sequence, but far more vividly and interesting to the eye and 
 ear of the onlookers than any fairy story ever written. Thousands 
 witnessed this spectacular pageant of many floats and while three 
 generations marvelled at the magnificence and beauty, one, the oldest 
 one, again lived in memories the early and thrilling history of this won- 
 derful land of ours, as told by government annals and historians of old. 
 m During the two years following the World's Fair, Pokagon often 
 visited in the homes of several old gentlemen in the summer and autumn. 
 He had been regally entertained on "Chicago Day" at the World's Fair 
 by Chicago's mayor, the elder Carter Harrison, and national officials. 
 After this event, when citizens of his own age sent special invitations 
 for week-end visits, he came and enjoyed meeting their friends, espe- 
 cially the younger folks, the school children of many nations now' united 
 as one race in this great industrial city of Chicago. 
 
 Later when a large school near Jackson Park asked Pokagon to 
 write a song for their mid-winter entertainment, he enthusiastically and 
 promptly responded with the romance-words "Queen of the Woods," at' 
 the same time requesting that the melody when composed should sound 
 like the swaying of the breeze among the pines in the primeval forest 
 Thus the Ray School of Hyde Park, a grammar school near the Uni- 
 versity of Chicago, had a song of their own from Pokagon, and it was 
 sung by a tall boy in Indian costume. 
 
 When the program opened the audience was thrilled to see old Mr. 
 Jones come into the room. Though seventy years of age he had braved 
 weather twenty degrees below zero and at night to come several miles 
 by street car to wear an Indian suit bought by him from the Chicago 
 Indians, in 1835 when he was fifteen years of age. This suit can now 
 be seen at the Chicago Historical Society. Mr. Jones, Pokagon, and Mr. 
 Beaubien passed to another world soon after this famous school concert, 
 Pokagon dying a few weeks later. The children gave several concerts, 
 and a new generation of junior American citizens honored early Chicago 
 and the Lake-Shore Indians of Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, the 
 Potawatomi of old. Pokagon had greatly enjoyed helping with and 
 reading about this interesting school concert of the "Songs of Many 
 Nations." 
 
 The Indian costume worn by Pokagon in the tableau of the Indian 
 transfer of the Chicago land to the United States had been made to 
 order especially for this occasion at the World's Fair. Pokagon had 
 never worn Indian garments since very early childhood, and after the 
 entire state of Michigan had been canvassed for an old-time Indian 
 costume, it was discovered that not one Indian suit of bygone years could 
 be found; neither could they find a "War Bonnet," the official head- 
 dress always worn at great ceremonials. Therefore, when Pokagon's 
 photograph was taken in this attire ... his face looked unnatural in 
 the high feathered crown. A portrait that represented him as he looked 
 in his home during the last summer of his life was painted by E. A. 
 Burbank for the Field Museum and a duplicate for the Ayer's Room of 
 Indian history in the Newberry Library, Chicago, at the request of 
 
Queen of the Woods. 
 
 Words by Pokagon II, Hereditary Chief of Pottawatomies. 
 {To be sung like the swaying of the breeze among the trees of the forest) 
 
 Solo. 
 
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 1. Now listen,dear children, there's 
 
 2. The flowers looked up and 
 
 3. As she skimm'd o'er the lake in her 
 
 4. In the wild rose and dewdrop no 
 
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 much I would tell you of a dusk - y eyed maiden of long, long a - 
 smiled as she passed, And joined with the birds in the songs which they 
 "birch - en ca - noe,Herdeer,whiteassnow,onthe shore-trail would fol- 
 jew - els she lack'd, And full well she knew where the red ber - ries 
 
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 The Pokagons 
 
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 go ! To whom squirrels would chat,in the best way they could, And all 
 sang.And wherev - er she went, in her sun-shin - y mood, The 
 low, As she sang the sweet songs of days of child-hood, While the 
 grew, I wooed and I won this fair maid so good. And 
 
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 (FioZin oft^ato or/uJJ orchestral accompaniment with Chorus.) 
 
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 hail the fair maid-en as Queen of the wood! 
 
 chil - dren all hailed her as Queen of the wood ! . 
 
 winds and the waves murmur'd "Queen of the wood ! " \ ****** of the woods ! 
 
 Po - kagon's bride was then Queen of the wood! 
 
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Indiana Historical Society 
 
 323 
 
 „ _ , , Repeal Chorus. 
 
 f ff~ (ech o.)* fff* rit. ~ 
 
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 Queen of the woods! All Hail, all Hail! Qneen of the woods! 
 
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 itftwic 6y Jlfrs. #. #. ffayw, a student of Indian melody. 
 Copyright, 1912, by H. H. Hayes. 
 
 Edward E. Ayer , the donor. These portraits of Pokagon show his high 
 intelligence and his kindly and ideal old age. 
 
 Charles E. Engle of Hartford, Michigan, a young lawyer who came 
 from I\ew England to the wilderness of Michigan, was a close and 
 trusted friend of Simon Pokagon. One afternoon he became lost in 
 the woods and traveled footsore and weary for hours before finding 
 a clearing When he knocked on the door of a little log cabin, a tall 
 young Indian opened the door. As Mr. Engle asked for directions to 
 some near-by settlement for the night's shelter he noticed that the Indian 
 had been reading a Greek Testament which he held in his hand with the 
 open page in sight. Mr. Engle, amazed, asked how such a classical 
 book had found its way into the western wilderness. Pokagon smilingly 
 replied, modestly, that he had studied it at Oberlin College when the new 
 school had offered young Indians an educational opportunity with the 
 sons of white pioneers. Mr. Engle and Pokagon became very devoted 
 friends and both lived to old age in the closest and most congenial 
 companionship. 
 
 Pokagon, besides having a fine academic education, was a great 
 lover of music and sang well in Latin, English, and the Indian languages. 
 He was also a talented organist for many years in the little Catholic 
 Church in the country near his hereditary farm home, a few miles from 
 Hartford, he leading the Indian choir in the Latin masses as interpreted 
 by himself into their own language. 
 
 When Pokagon died, Chicago at once offered his family a burial 
 lot in Graceland Cemetery near the grave of John Kinzie ; but Michigan 
 claimed Pokagon for his last resting place. It was also proposed that 
 the citizens erect a monument in Jackson Park or a spot near the site of 
 
324 The Pokagons 
 
 old Fort Dearborn, commemorating his worthy historical ancestry, but 
 this was never done. Chicago newspapers filled columns with memorial 
 notices of his long life's useful work as an educator and inspirational 
 leader among the Michigan Indians ; he often represented them at 
 the national capital in pleas to Congress and to succeeding presidents 
 of the United States. Mr. Engle always accompanied him as legal ad- 
 viser for the Potawatomi, his services being given free of charge. 
 
 Simon Pokagon was a true champion of his race, main- 
 tained a love and devotion for his own language, and was very 
 much concerned about the future of his people. It grieved 
 him to see them crowded westward, unable to cope with the 
 modern trend of civilization. He frequently spoke of the false 
 representations in history concerning the Indians and was 
 pained and grieved over their degradation. That he visioned 
 the magnitude of the problem is shown in an article published 
 in the Forum in which he said : 
 
 You might as well march your warriors into the jaws of an active 
 volcano, expecting to shut off its fire and smoke, as to attempt to beat 
 back the westward trend of civilization. You must teach your sons 
 everywhere that the war-path will lead them but to the grave. 8 
 
 That he keenly realized the lack of regard many had for his - 
 
 people is shown in the following excerpt : 
 
 Let us carefully consider if Mis-ko-au-ne-ne-og' (the red man) 
 possesses, or is devoid of, loyalty, sympathy, benevolence, and gratitude, — 
 those heaven-born virtues requisite for Christian character and civiliza- 
 tion. But, in doing so, let us constantly bear in mind that the character 
 of our people has always been published to the world by the dominant 
 race, and that human nature is now the same as when Solomon declared 
 that "He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbor 
 cometh and searcheth him." In our case we have ever stood as dumb 
 to the charges brought against us as did the Divine Master before His 
 false accusers ; hence all charges alleged against us in history should 
 be cautiously considered, with Christian charity. There have been, and 
 still are, too many writers who, although they have never seen an Indian 
 in their lives, have published tragical stories of their treachery and 
 cruelty. Mothers, for generations past, have frightened their children 
 into obedience with that dreaded scarecrow, "Look out, or the Injuns 
 will get you!"; creating in the infant mind a false prejudice against 
 our race, which has given birth to that base slander, "There is no good 
 Injun but a dead one." It is therefore no wonder that we are hated by 
 some worse than Satan hates the salvation of human souls. 9 
 
 Simon Pokagon mentions in many of his writings and ad- 
 dresses the wanton disregard shown the graves of his ancestors 
 by the whites : 
 
 . . . the burial-places of our fathers have been laid waste by 
 
 8 "The Future of the Red Man," in Forum, Vol. 2\, p 704. 
 •Ibid., p. 698. 
 
Indiana Historical Society 325 
 
 the dominant race, and their graves robbed of their bones and those 
 implements which were buried with them according to our ancient 
 custom Ihe only excuse, outside of curiosity, yet given by white men 
 lor such acts of inhumanity has been the desire that they may better 
 understand the physical development of our forefathers and their ancient 
 history, claiming they were able to read in the battle-axe and spear of 
 stone and in the arrow-head and knife of flint found in our burial-places 
 that we were savages from the beginning. 
 
 With my hands uplifted before heaven I have always most solemnly 
 protested against such wanton acts of inhumanity, declaring most 
 emphatically that it is far better for their people to interest themselves 
 in what our people now are and what they may become than to theorize 
 on what they may have been. 10 
 
 His devotion to his people, his high ideals, and keen under- 
 standing of human nature are well expressed in his various 
 published works. His Queen of the Woods has the tang, the 
 zest, and the woodsy flavor of life. It is pulsing with sympathy, 
 heartfelt emotion, and sensitive feeling; a quaint mixture of 
 information, fact, history, pathos, romance, and poetry com- 
 bined ; a plaintive, yet uncomplaining plea for justice and an 
 eloquent and stirring plea for temperance. Lofty sentiments, 
 wise philosophical thoughts, and serious reflection temper and 
 vivify all his writings. It is to be regretted that all his manu- 
 scripts were destroyed in the fire which burned his home one 
 year before he died. 11 Pokagon's hope and confidence in educa- 
 tion, patriotism and loyalty to the government, and his ideas 
 for the solution of the problems concerning the future of his 
 race are well expressed in an article published in the Review of 
 Reviews. Concerning the pension system, he wrote : 
 
 It kills energy and begets idleness, the mother of vice. It certainly 
 will prove a fatal blow to our people if long continued. ... It is too 
 much like fattening animals. It forms a nucleus where unprincipled 
 lazy white men gather whose only aim is to satisfy the greed of appetite 
 and the lowest passions of their nature. Most of them, through marriage 
 become 'squaw men," drawing rations from the tribe to whom their 
 wile belongs And so it is our people are imposed upon, and becoming 
 mixed with the vilest of white men, who are much worse than savages 
 as is shown by the devil that is born and developed in the half-breeds.' 
 As a solution for some of the evils Pokagon suggested the 
 following : 
 
 Break U P as soon as possible the last vestige of tribal relations. 
 
 10 Pokagon, Simon, "Indian Native Skill," in Chautauquan Vol 26 
 No. 5, p. 540. * • 
 
 "The Niles Sun Star of February 9, 1897, tells about Pokagon's home 
 
326 The Pokagons 
 
 Teach them to know that they owe allegiance to no man on earth except 
 the great chief of the United States. Make each one a present of a 
 beautiful United States flag. They take easily to object lessons, and 
 will soon learn to love the Stars and Stripes, and take great pride in 
 feeling its image in their hearts. They must be taught that they cannot 
 longer live as their fathers did, but must live as white men do, or else 
 lie down and die before the cruel march of civilization. I have sent 
 many children to the government Indian industrial schools, among whom 
 were my own and grandchildren, and have carefully watched the work- 
 ings of these schools, and was indeed proud to visit them as they met on 
 the World's Fair grounds and exhibited the works which astonished the 
 teachers of white schools. Hence I believe those government schools 
 were conceived by the Great Spirit, and born in the hearts of noble 
 men and women, and fully believe when a great majority of the 28,000 
 children between six and sixteen who are still unprovided for shall be 
 gathered into the school, and when the reservations are broken up and 
 the people scattered in homes of their own, that then and not until then 
 will the great Indian problem be solved. 12 
 
 All Pokagon's contributions to the literary field portray the 
 earnest and studious thought he was giving to the problems of 
 his race. He realized fully that the Indians were not success- 
 fully coping with the inroads of civilization, and while no bitter- 
 ness was in his heart, yet his poignant grief and disappointment 
 are patiently reflected. 
 
 Often in the stillness of the night, when all nature seems asleep 
 about me, there comes a gentle rapping at the door of my heart. I open 
 it; and a voice inquires, "Pokagon, what of your people? What will 
 their future be ?" My answer is : "Mortal man has not the power to 
 draw aside the veil of unborn time to tell the future of his race. That 
 gift belongs to the Divine alone. But it is given to him to closely judge 
 the future by the present and the past." 13 
 
 One of the last public appearances of Pokagon was at 
 Holland, Michigan, in 1897, on the occasion of the fiftieth an- 
 niversary of the settlement of the Dutch in the Northwest. 
 He spoke in the afternoon at the City Park and in the evening 
 at a banquet at the Ottawa Beach Hotel. His addresses were 
 typewritten and he read them in a low quavering voice. At the 
 banquet he broke down and his son finished the toast. 14 
 
 The editor of the Review of Reviews upon learning of his 
 
 illness, wrote : 
 
 Simon Pokagon is one of the most remarkable men of our time. 
 He has been connected in an official capacity with the work of the 
 
 12 "An Indian on the Problems of His Race," in Review of Reviews, 
 Vol. 12, p. 695. 
 
 "Pokagon, "The Future of the Red Man," in Forum, Vol. 23, p. 698. 
 14 Chicago Tribune, May 7, 1899. 
 
RUSH LAKE CHURCH 
 
 [When last repaired, the Roman effect of architecture was changed 
 to Gothic. The above photograph was taken in 1929.] 
 
 ^9k££ BEftfc*-. 
 
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 H IB' JB* HHHHHI 
 
 
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 ^9 
 
 GRAVES OF SIMON POKAGON AND HIS FAMILY 
 
 [Monument back of Rush Lake Church marks Angela Pokagon's 
 grave. Simon's grave is to the right, unmarked, while the trees mark 
 the graves of their three sons.] 
 
Indiana Historical Society 327 
 
 Government's Indian industrial schools, and his great eloquence, his 
 sagacity, and his wide range of information mark him as a man of 
 exceptional endowments. To know such a man as Simon Pokagon is to 
 understand the remarkable ability of some of the Indian chieftains whose 
 names occur in the earlier annals of our country. The average reserva- 
 tion Indian does not seem to bear out the romantic traditions of the 
 "noble red man;" but under more favorable circumstances, in the earlier 
 days, the fine qualities of the Indian were no myth, but a fact recognized 
 and acknowledged by many a white pioneer. 15 
 
 His death occurred on January 28, 1899, from pneumonia. 
 He was buried by the side of his first wife in the cemetery of 
 the Rush Lake Church. It was his request that no monument 
 be placed over his grave. 16 Nineteen months later his second 
 wife died and was buried in the same cemetery. The graves 
 of his four children are also there. 
 
 The following notice of his death appeared in the South 
 Bend Tribune : 
 
 The death of Simon Pokagon occurred Friday, January 28, 1899, 
 at his home in Lee Township, Allegan County, a few miles north of 
 Hartford. After an eventful career of nearly seventy years, the last 
 hereditary chief of the Potawatomies, Simon Pokagon, has been gathered 
 to his fathers. He died Friday at his cheerless cabin home in a desolate 
 region of southern Michigan after many weeks of intense suffering. 
 Pokagon was given up to die two months ago, and for weeks the 
 faithful ones of his tribe have sacrificed fuel and necessary home 
 supplies that the last days of this chief might be spent in comfort. 
 
 Pokagon's life had been one of sacrifice. He was no warrior. 
 There was no fighting blood in his veins. He belonged to a peaceful 
 band of the famous tribe and followed in the foot-steps of his father 
 as a Christian teacher, an advocate and defender of the red man's rights. 
 He had received a liberal education and was something of an orator as 
 well as a writer. At one time he was in fair circumstances and an 
 honored member of a rich rural community near Hartford, Michigan. 
 
 Pokagon's chief employment for years has been the looking after 
 the annuities due his people under the treaties, but withheld on account 
 of disorders among them which made a settlement almost impossible. 
 The amount due was $118,000 which was to be divided among 272 
 families ; not long since this money was received and divided. 17 
 
 ir ' Review of Reviews, Vol. 16, p. 320. 
 
 16 Flower, B. O., "An Interesting Representative of a Vanishing 
 Race," in Arena, Vol. 16, p. 248. 
 
 17 The amount as awarded by the Court of Claims in 1894 was 
 $104,626. United States, Statutes at Large, Vol. 28, p. 450. This 
 amount was due the Pokagon band because after removing to their new 
 home they had not shared in all the annuities provided by the various 
 treaties signed by the whole Potawatomi tribe before 1833. Numerous 
 petitions were presented to Congress in an effort to get the claim paid. 
 See 40 Congress, 3 session, Vol. 9, Executive Documents, Report No. 
 6t ; 41 Congress, 3 session, Vol. 1, House Miscellaneous Documents, 
 Report No. 32 ; 42 Congress, 2 session, Vol. 3, House Miscellaneous 
 Documents, Report No. 137; 43 Congress, 1 session, Vol. 1, House 
 Miscellaneous Documents. Report No. 45; 43 Congress, 2 session, Vol. 1, 
 
328 The Pokagons 
 
 Although he had handled so much land and money, Pokagon died 
 penniless and homeless. He was not, however, friendless and the 
 physicians and other citizens of Benton Harbor, Michigan, exerted them- 
 selves to the last to relieve his suffering and save his life. Of late 
 years the old Chief was reduced to actual want by neglecting his own 
 affairs for those of his band and a fire not long ago destroyed his 
 dwelling and all of his valuable relics and papers. 
 
 After many years of determined effort Pokagon succeeded in 
 securing for his people the annuity that had rightly been theirs ever 
 since his father signed the treaty that ceded his childhood home and 
 much surrounding land to the government in 1833; but he shared equallv 
 with all the others in the distribution of the money, his portion amount- 
 ing to only about $400. 
 
 The old Chief's first home was about six miles north of South 
 Bend near the St. Joseph River. For this place he always had great 
 affection and it was his dream of late to be able to buy the old village 
 to build a home and pass the remainder of his days there. But when his 
 money came from the Government there was not enough to meet the 
 obligations he had incurred in securing it, so the old Chief's dream 
 was never realized and he was compelled to suffer for the plain 
 necessities of life at the end. He was wholly a dependent upon charity. 
 The story of Chief Simon Pokagon's life, if correctly written, would 
 make one of the most interesting, as well as one of the most thrilling 
 and pathetic tales to be found in all Indian History. 18 
 
 For some time the district around Rush Lake had been 
 without religious direction. During the time of Father J.' 
 Joos's pastorate the Rush Lake Church was abandoned and 
 most of the congregation transferred to Hartford and Water- 
 vhet ; the solid walnut pews and altar were transferred to the 
 new Watervliet church. This did not meet with the approval of 
 every one and especially not with the Indians of Rush Lake. 
 Many became lax in church attendance, among them, Simon 
 Pokagon. Finally when he married a divorced woman for his 
 second wife, he excommunicated himself. However, because 
 of his past services and interest in the church, permission was 
 given for his burial in the Catholic Cemetery at Rush Lake 
 and for the services of a priest. Through an error made in 
 telephoning, Father Joos was misinformed about the place of 
 the services and drove fifty-two miles through a severe blizzard 
 without being able to render the last sacred rites. After wait- 
 ing for an hour or more for the arrival of the priest, the funeral 
 cortege proceeded to the cemetery. 19 
 
 House Miscellaneous Documents, Report No. 5 ; 45 Congress, 2 session, 
 Vol. 1, House Miscellaneous Documents, Report No. 8; 50 Congress, 1 
 session, Vol. 10, House Miscellaneous Documents, Reports Nos. 3281 
 and 3502. 
 
 ls South Bend Tribune, January 28, 1809. 
 
 ^Detroit Free Press, February 6, 1899. 
 
APPENDIXES 
 
Courtesy Mrs. H. H. Hayes 
 BIRCH BARK BOOKLETS AND BOX 
 
Hazel Eyes' Lullaby 1 
 By Simon Pokagon 
 O, close your bright eyes, brown child of the forest, 
 And enter the dreamland, for you're tired of play; 
 Draw down the dark curtain with long, silken fringes, 
 An-na-moosh 2 will attend on your mystical way. 
 
 Chorus : 
 
 Hush-a-by, rock-a-by, brown little pappoose, 
 
 O, can you not see, if you give the alarm? 
 
 Zowan 3 beside you, is willing and eager 
 
 To guard and defend you, and keep you from harm? 
 Wind-rocked and fur-lined, covered o'er with bright blanket, 
 Your Cradle is swung 'neath the wide-spreading trees, 
 iV^f r , e , the sin S in S of birds and chatting of squirrels 
 Will lull you to rest midst the hum of wild bees. 
 
 Chorus : 
 
 Your father is hunting to bring home the bear-skin, 
 
 While mother plaits baskets of various hue, 
 
 No-co-mis 4 is weaving large mats of wild rushes, 
 
 And Nonnee 5 sends arrows so swift and so true. 
 
 II 
 
 The Lord's Prayer in Algonquin 
 
 Translated by Simon Pokagon 
 
 Nossimaw wawkwing, kitchiwa Kiaia anosowin. Ki ogimawwin 
 
 ondass, Ki inendam aia apine ogid Aki binish pindg Wawkwing Mie;iwe 
 
 kinawind law gigig nind pakwegigan, dash bonendam kinawind nind 
 
 matchi binish ki bonendam igiw tchi matchii gige kinawind; dash 
 
 wamshima kinawind ka-awia tchijo-bigewin maka ikonaw kinawind 
 
 tchi matchi, sa kin aia ogimawi-win, dash gash kiewis, dash kitchitwawin 
 
 sa apine dash apine, Migeing. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The Red Man's Greeting 6 
 Shall not one line lament our forest race, 
 For you struck out from wild creation's face? 
 Freedom— the selfsame freedom you adore, 
 Bade us defend our violated shore. 
 
 In behalf of my people, the American Indians, I hereby declare to 
 you, the pale-faced race that has usurped our lands and homes, that we 
 have no spirit to celebrate with you the great Columbian Fair now being- 
 held in this Chicago city, the wonder of the world. 
 
 No; sooner would we hold high joy day over the graves of our 
 departed f athers, than to celebrate our own funeral, the discovery of 
 
 ^Written by special request for the Cradle Songs of Many Nations. 
 A dog. Their dog. "Grandmother. 
 °Little brother. 6 First called "The Red Man's Rebuke." 
 
 (33i) 
 
332 The Pokagons 
 
 America. And while you who are strangers, and you who live here, 
 bring the offerings of the handiwork of your own lands and your hearts 
 in admiration, rejoice over the beauty and grandeur of this young 
 republic, and you say, "Behold the wonders wrought by our children in 
 this foreign land," do not forget that this success has been at the 
 sacrifice of our homes and a once happy race. 
 
 Where these great Columbian show-buildings stretch skyward and 
 where stands this "Queen City of the West" once stood the Red Man's 
 Wigwam ; here met their old men, young men and maidens ; here blazed 
 their council fires. But now the eagle's eye can find no trace of them. 
 Here was the center of their wide-spread hunting grounds, stretching 
 far eastward, and to the great salt Gulf southward, and to the lofty 
 Rocky Mountain chain westward. All about and beyond the Great 
 Lakes northward roamed vast herds of buffalo that no man could 
 number, while moose, deer and elk were found from ocean to ocean ; 
 pigeons, ducks, and geese in near bow-shot moved iti great clouds 
 through the air, while fish swarmed our streams, lakes and seas close to 
 shore. All were provided by the Great Spirit for our use ; we destroyed 
 none except for food and dress. We had plenty and were contented and 
 happy. 
 
 But alas ! the pale faces came by chance to our shores, many times 
 very needy and hungry. We nursed and fed them, — fed the ravens that 
 were soon to pluck out our eyes and the eyes of our children, for no 
 sooner had the news reached the Old World that a new continent had 
 been found, peopled with another race of men, than locust-like, they 
 swarmed on all our coasts, and, like carrion crows in spring that in 
 circles wheel and clamor long and loud, and will not cease until they 
 find and feast upon the dead, so these strangers from the East made 
 long circuits, and they, turkey-like, gobbled in our ears, "Give us gold, 
 give us gold. Where find you gold, where find you gold?" 
 
 We gave for promises and gew-gaws all the gold we had, and 
 showed them where to dig for more. To repay us they robbed our homes 
 of fathers, mothers, sons and daughters; some were forced across the 
 seas for slaves in Spain while multitudes were dragged into the mines 
 to dig for gold and held in slavery there until all who escaped not, died 
 under the lash of the cruel task-master. It finally passed into their 
 history that, "the Red Man of the West, unlike the Black Man of the 
 East, will die before he'll be a slave." Our hearts were crushed by such 
 base ingratitude and, as the United States has now decreed, "No China- 
 man shall land upon our shores," so we then felt that no such barbarians 
 as they, should land on ours. 
 
 In those days that tried our father's souls, tradition says, a crippled, 
 grey-haired sire told his tribe that in the visions of the night he was 
 lifted high above the earth, and in great wonder beheld a vast spider 
 web spread out over the land from the Atlantic Ocean toward the setting 
 sun. Its net-work was made of rods of iron; along its lines, in all direc- 
 tions rushed monstrous spiders, greater in strength and far larger than 
 any beast of earth, clad in brass and iron, dragging after them long 
 rows of wigwams with families therein, outstripping in their course the 
 flights of birds that fled before them. Hissing from their nostrils came 
 forth fire and smoke, striking terror to both fowl and beast. The Red 
 Men hid themselves in fear, or fled away while the white men trained 
 these monsters for the war path as warriors for battle. 
 
 The old man who saw the vision claimed that it meant that the 
 Indian Race would surely pass away before the pale faced strangers. 
 He died a martyr to his belief. Centuries have passed since that time 
 and we now behold in the vision, as in a mirror, the present network of 
 
Indiana Historical Society 333 
 
 railroads and the monstrous engines with their fire, smoke and hissing 
 steam with cars attached, as they go sweeping through the land g 
 
 The cyclone of civilization rolled westward; the forests of untold 
 centuries were swept away; streams dried up; lakes fell back from their 
 ancient bounds and all our fathers once loved to gaze upon, Tas de- 
 whS;i de r aC 1 ^. m f. rcd . except the sun, moon and starry skies above 
 which the Great Spirit in His wisdom, hung beyond their reach 
 fh, K 01 Vi e "I ","? cIo , ud ro ] Ied while before its lightning and thunder 
 he beasts of the field and the fowls of the air withered like grass before 
 the flame, were shot for the love of power to kill alone and left to 
 spoil upon the plains Their bleaching bones now scattered far and 
 near, in shame declared the wanton cruelty of the pale faced men The 
 storm, unsatisfied on land, swept our lakes and streams while before its 
 clouds of hooks, nets, and gleaming spears, the fish vanished from our 
 waters like the morning dew before the rising sun. Thus our inheritance 
 was cut off and we were driven and scattered as sheep before the wolves 
 A or was this all. They brought among us fatal diseases our fathers 
 hT\ S, ' i Ur me , dl S me " len tried in vain to check the deadly plague 
 but they themselves died and our people fell as fall the leaves before 
 the autumn blast To be just, we must acknowledge there were some 
 good men with these strangers who gave their lives for ours and in 
 great kindness taught us the Revealed Will of the Great Spirit through 
 His Son Jesus, the mediator between God and man. But while we were 
 being taught to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and 
 strength and our neighbors as ourselves, and while our children were 
 taught to lisp Our father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name" 
 bad men of the same race whom we thought of the same belief shocked 
 our Faith m the revealed will of the Father as they came among us 
 with bitter oaths upon their lips, something we had never heard before 
 and cups of fire-water ' in their hands, something we had never seen 
 before. They pressed the sparkling glasses to our lips and said, "Drink 
 and you will be happy We drank thereof, we and our children, but 
 alas! like the serpent that charms to kill, the drink habit coiled about 
 the heart strings of its victims, shocking unto death, friendship, love 
 honor, manhood; all that makes men good and noble; crushing out all 
 ambition, and leaving naught but a culprit vagabond in the place of a man 
 Now as we have been taught that our first parents ate of the for- 
 bidden fruit and fell, so we as fully believe that this fire-water is the 
 hard cider of the white mans devil, made from the fruit of that tree that 
 brought death into the world and all our woes. The arrow, the scalping 
 knife and the tomahawk used on the war paths were merciful compared 
 with it ; they were used in our defense, but the accursed drink came 
 like a serpent in the form of a dove. Many of our people partook of it 
 without mistrust, as children pluck the flowers and clutch a scorpion in 
 their grasp, only when they feel the sting, they let the flowers fall 
 a. rf ^ tures children had no such power, for when the viper's fan°"s 
 they felt, they only hugged the reptile the more closely to their breasts 
 while friends before them stood pleading with prayers and tears that 
 they would let the deadly serpent drop. But all in vain. Although they 
 promised so to do, yet with laughing grin and steps uncertain, like the 
 tool, they still more frequently guzzled down the hellish drug Finallv 
 conscience ceased to give alarm, and led by deep despair to "life's last 
 brink and goaded by demons on every side, they cursed themselves, they 
 cursed their friends they cursed their beggar babes and wives they 
 cursed their God and died. ' 
 
 You say that we are treacherous, vindictive and cruel ; in answer to 
 the charge, we declare to all the world, with our hands uplifted before 
 
334 The P'okagons 
 
 high Heaven, that before the white man came among us, we were kind, 
 outspoken and forgiving. Our real character has been misunderstood 
 because we have resented the breaking of treaties made with the United 
 States as we honestly understood them. The few of our children who 
 are permitted to attend your schools, in great pride tell us that they 
 read in your histories how William Perm, a Quaker and a good man, 
 made treaties with nineteen tribes of Indians and that neither he nor 
 they ever broke them and during seventy years., while Pennsylvania was 
 controlled by the Quakers, not a drop of blood was shed nor a war 
 whoop sounded by our people. Your own historians and our traditions 
 show that for nearly two hundred years, different Eastern powers were 
 striving for the mastery in the new world and that our people were 
 persuaded by the different factions to take the war path being generally 
 led by white men who had been discharged from prisons for crimes 
 committed in the Old World. 
 
 Read the following, left on record by Peter Martyr who visited our 
 forefathers in the day of Columbus. "It is certain that the land among 
 these people is as common as the sun and water and that mine and thine, 
 the seed of all misery, have no place with them. They are content with 
 so little that in so large a country they have rather a superfluity than a 
 scarceness : so that they seem to live in the golden world without toil, 
 living in open gardens not intrenched with dykes, divided with hedges 
 or defended with walls. They deal truly one with another, without law, 
 without books, without judges. They take him for an evil and mis- 
 chievous man who taketh pleasure in doing hurt to another, and albeit 
 they delight not in superfluities, yet they make provision for the increase 
 of such roots whereof they make bread, content with such simple diet 
 whereof health is preserved and disease avoided." 
 
 Your own histories show that Columbus on his first visit to our 
 shores, in a message to the king and queen of Spain, paid our forefathers 
 this beautiful tribute: They are loving, uncovetous people, so docile in 
 all things that I swear to your majesty there is not in the world a better 
 race or a more delightful country. They love their neighbors as them- 
 selves and their talk is ever sweet and gentle, accompanied with smiles, 
 and though they be naked, yet their manners are decorous and praise- 
 worthy. 
 
 But a few years passed away and your historians left to be perused 
 with shame the following facts : On the islands of the Atlantic coast 
 and in the populous empires of Mexico and Perue, the Spaniards through 
 pretense of friendship and religion, gained audience with chiefs and 
 kings, their families and attendants. They were received with great 
 kindness and courtesy but in return they most treacherously seized and 
 bound in chains the unsuspecting natives and as a ransom for their 
 release, demanded large sums of gold which were soon given by their 
 subjects. But instead of granting them freedom as promised, they were 
 put to death in a most shocking manner. Their subjects were then 
 hunted down like wild beasts with blood hounds, robbed and enslaved 
 and under a pretext to convert them to Christianity, the rack, the 
 scourge and the fagot were used. Some were burned alive in their 
 thickets and fastnesses for refusing to work the mines as slaves. 
 
 Tradition says these acts of base ingratitude were communicated 
 from tribe to tribe throughout the continent and that a universal wail as 
 one voice went up from all the tribes of the unbroken wilderness ; we 
 must beat back these strangers from our shores before they seize our 
 lands and homes or slavery and death are ours. 
 
 Kind reader, pause here, close your eyes, shut out from your heart 
 all prejudice against our race and honestly consider the above records 
 
Indiana Historical Society 335 
 
 penned by the pale faced historians centuries ago, and tell us in the 
 name of eternal truth and by all that is sacred and dear to mankind, 
 was there ever a people without the slightest reason of offense, more 
 treacherously imprisoned and scourged than we have been? And tell us, 
 have crime, despotism, violence and slavery ever been dealt out in a more 
 wicked manner to crush out life and liberty; or, was ever a people more 
 mortally offended than our forefathers were? 
 
 Almighty Spirit of humanity, let thy arms of compassion embrace 
 and shield us from the charge of treachery, vindictiveness and cruelty 
 and save us from further oppression! And may the great chief of the 
 United States appoint no more broken-down or disappointed politicians 
 as agents to deal with us, but may he select good men that are tried and 
 true men who fear not to do the right. This is our prayer. What would 
 remain for us if we were not allowed to pray? All else we acknowledge 
 to be in the hands of this great republic. 
 
 It is clear that for years after the discovery of this country, we stood 
 before the coming strangers as a block of marble before the sculptor, 
 ready to be shaped into a statue of grace and beauty ; but in their greed 
 for gold, the block was hacked to pieces and destroyed. Child-like we 
 trusted in them with all our hearts and as the young nestling while yet 
 blind, swallows each morsel given by the parent bird, so we drank in all 
 they said. They showed us the compass that guided them across the 
 trackless deep and as its needle swung to and fro, only resting to the 
 North, we looked upon it as a thing of life from the eternal world. 
 We could not understand the lightning and thunder of their guns, be- 
 lieveing they were weapons of the gods, nor could we fathom their wisdom 
 in knowing and telling us the exact time in which the sun or moon should 
 be darkened; hence we looked upon them as divine; we revered them, 
 yes, we trusted in them as infants trust in the arms of their mothers. 
 
 But again and again was our confidence betrayed until we were 
 compelled to know that greed for gold was all the "balance wheel they 
 had. The remnant of the beasts are now wild and keep beyond the 
 arrow's reach, the fowls fly high in the air, the fish hide themselves in 
 deep waters. We have been driven from the homes of our childhood and 
 from the burial places of our kindred and friends and scattered far 
 westward into desert places where multitudes have died from homesick- 
 ness, cold and hunger, and are suffering and dying for want of food 
 and blankets. 
 
 As the hunted deer close chased all day long, when night comes on, 
 weary and tired, lies down to rest, mourning for companions of the 
 morning herd, all scattered, dead and gone, so we through many weary 
 years, have tried to find some place to safely rest. But all in vain! 
 Our throbbing hearts unceasingly say, "The hounds are howling on our 
 tracks." Our sad history has been told by weeping parents to their 
 children from generation to generation and as the fear of the fox in the 
 duckling is hatched, so the wrongs we have suffered are transmitted to 
 our children and they look upon the white man with distrust as soon 
 as they are born. Hence our worst acts of cruelty should be viewed 
 by all the world with Christian Charity as being but the echo of bad 
 treatment dealt out to us. 
 
 Therefore we pray our critics everywhere to be not like the thought- 
 less boy who condemns the toiling bees wherever found as vindictive 
 and cruel because in robbing their homes he once received the poisoned 
 darts that nature gave for their defense. Our strongest defense against 
 the onward marching hordes, we fully realize, is as useless as the 
 struggles of a lamb borne high in the air, pierced to its heart in the 
 talons of an eagle. 
 
536 The Pokagons 
 
 We never shall be happy here any more ; we gaze into the faces of 
 our young men and maidens for the joys of youth to cheer advancing age, 
 but alas, instead of smiles of joy, we find but looks of sadness there. 
 Then we fully realize in the anguish of our souls that their young and 
 tender hearts, in keenest sympathy with ours, have drank in the sorrows 
 that we have felt and their sad faces reflect it back to us again. No 
 rainbow of promise spans the dark cloud of our afflictions; no cheering 
 hopes are painted on our midnight sky. We only stand with folded 
 arms and watch and wait to see the future deal with us no better than 
 the past. No cheer of sympathy is given us ; but in answer to our com- 
 plaints we are told that the triumphal march of the eastern race westward 
 is by the unalterable decree of nature, termed by them "the survival of 
 the fittest." And so we stand as upon the sea shore, chained hand and 
 foot, while the incoming tide of the great ocean of civilization rises 
 slowly but surely to overwhelm us. 
 
 But a few more generations and the last child of the forest will 
 have passed into the world beyond, into that kingdom where Tche-ban- 
 you-booz, the Great Spirit, dwelleth ; He who loveth justice and mercy 
 and hateth evil ; He who has declared that the fittest in his kingdom 
 shall be those alone that hear and aid his children when they cry, 
 those that love him and keep his commandments. In that kingdom 
 many of our people in faith believe he will summon the pale-faced 
 spirits to take position on his left and the red spirits upon his right 
 and that he will say. "Sons and daughters of the forest, your prayers 
 for deliverance from the iron heel of oppression through centuries 
 past are recorded in this book now open before me ; it is made from the 
 bark of the white birch, a tree under which for generations past 
 you have mourned and wept. On its pages your sad history has been 
 recorded silently. It has touched my heart with pity and I will have 
 compassion." 
 
 Then turning to his left he will say, "Sons and daughters of the 
 East, all hear and give heed unto my words. While on earth I did 
 great and marvellous things for you, — I gave my only Son who declared 
 unto you my will and as you had freely received to so freely give and 
 declare the gospel unto all people. A few of you have kept the faith 
 and through opposition and great tribulations have labored hard and 
 honestly for the redemption of mankind regardless of race or color. To 
 all such I now give divine power to fly on lightning wings throughout 
 my universe. Now, therefore, listen and when the great drum beats, let 
 all try their powers to fly. Only those can rise who acted well their 
 part on earth to redeem and save the fallen." 
 
 The drum will be sounded and that innumerable multitude will appear 
 like some vast sea of wounded birds struggling to rise. We shall 
 behold it and shall hear their fluttering as the rumbling of an earth- 
 quake and, to our surprise, we shall see but a scattering few in triumph 
 rise and we shall hear their songs reecho through the vault of heaven as 
 they sing, "Glory to the Highest who hath redeemed and saved us." 
 
 Then the Great Spirit will speak with a voice of thunder to the 
 remaining shame- faced multitude : "Hear ye, it is through great mercy 
 that you have been permitted to enter these happy hunting grounds. 
 Therefore I charge you in the presence of these Red Men that you are 
 guilty of having tyrannized over them in many and strange ways. I 
 find you guilty of having made wanton wholesale butchery of their game 
 and fish, I find you guilty of using tobacco, a poisonous weed made only 
 to kill parasites on plants and lice on man and beast. You found it 
 with the Red Men who used it only in smoking the pipe of peace to 
 confirm their contracts in place of a seal. But you multiplied its use, 
 
Indiana Historical Society 2>Z7 
 
 l 0t nu ly Jnu Sr l o] t mg b , t u in ch , ewin - snuffing, and thus forming un- 
 healthy filthy habits arid through cigarettes, the abomination of abomina- 
 tions, taught little children to hunger and thirst after the father and 
 mother of palsy and cancers. 
 
 r 'i^wTrt of tagging after the pay agents sent out by the 
 Great Chief of the United States, among the Indians, to pay off their 
 birth-right claims to home and liberty and native lands, and then sneaking 
 about their agencies by deceit and trickery, cheating and robbing them 
 of their money and goods, thus leaving them poor and naked. I also 
 find you guilty of following the trail of Christian missionaries into the 
 wilderness among the natives and when they had set up my altars and 
 the great work of redemption had just begun and some in Faith be- 
 lieved, you then and there most wickedly set up the idol of man-tchi- 
 man-in-to (the devil) and there stuck out your sign, Sample Rooms 
 Vou then dealt out to the sons of the forest a most damnable drug fitly 
 termed on earth by Christian women as a beverage of hell which de- 
 stroyed both body and soul, taking therefore, all their money and 
 blankets and scrupling not to take in pawn the Bibles given to them 
 by my servants. 
 
 ''Therefore know ye, this much abused race shall enjoy the liberties 
 of these happy hunting grounds while I teach them my will which you 
 were in duty bound to do while on earth. But instead, you blocked up 
 the highway that led to heaven that the car of salvation might not pass 
 over. > Had you done your duty, they as well as you would now be 
 rejoicing m glory with my saints with whom you, flutteringly tried this 
 day in vain to rise. But now I say unto you, Stand back! You shall not 
 tread upon the heels of my people, nor tyrannize over them any more 
 JN either shall you practice with weapons of lightning and thunder any 
 more Neither shall you use tobacco in any shape, way or manner 
 Neither shall you touch, taste, handle, make, buy or sell anything that 
 can intoxicate any more. And know ye, ye cannot buy out the law or 
 skulk by justice here and if any attempt is made on your part to break 
 these commandments, I shall forthwith grant these Red Men of America 
 great power and delegate them to cast you out of Paradise and hurl 
 you headlong through its outer gates into the endless abyss beneath far 
 beyond, where darkness meets with light, there to dwell, and thus 'shut 
 out from my presence and the presence of Angels and the Light of 
 Heaven, forever and ever." 
 
 Is not the Red Man's wigwam home 
 
 As dear to him as costly dome? 
 
 Is not his lov'd one's smile as bright 
 
 As the dear one's of th'man that's white? 
 
 d 
 
 i^num, (I (siCc^oat^ 
 
338 The Pokagons 
 
 IV 
 Address of Simon Pokagon at Elkhart, Indiana, October 9, 1894 7 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : I am indeed glad that I am 
 permitted to address you, the pioneer fathers and mothers, with your sons 
 and daughters who here inherit my fatherland and enjoy the paradise 
 which you have reclaimed from a wild and unbroken forest. I assure 
 you that this country still holds a sacred place in this native heart of 
 mine. Tradition tells me that my tribe, the Potawatomies, migrated from 
 the great ocean towards the setting sun, in search of a happy hunting 
 ground this side of the eternal world. 
 
 In their wanderings they found no place to satisfy and charm until 
 they reached these wide extended plains. Here they found game in 
 great abundance. The elk, the buffalo and deer stood unalarmed before 
 the hunter's bended bow; fish swarmed the lakes and streams close to 
 shore; pigeons, ducks and geese moved in great clouds through the air, 
 flying so low that they fanned us with their wings, and our boys whose 
 bows were yet scarce terror to the crows would often with arrows 
 shoot them down. 
 
 Here we enjoyed ourselves in the lap of luxury; but our camp 
 fires have all gone out ; our council fires blaze no more ; our wigwams 
 and those who built them, with their children, have forever disappeared 
 from this beautiful land and I alone am permitted to behold it. Where 
 cabins and wigwams once stood, now glisten in the sunshine, cottages and 
 palaces erected by another race ; and where we walked or rode in 
 single file, along our woodland trails, now locomotives scream like 
 monster beasts of prey, rushing along their iron paths, dragging after 
 them long trains of palaces, filled with travelers out stripping in their 
 course the eagle in his flight. 
 
 As I stand here and behold the mighty change that has taken place 
 since my boyhood days all over the face of this broad land, I feel about 
 my heart as I did in boyhood when for the first time I beheld the 
 arched rainbow spanning the dark cloud of the departing storm. 
 
 I have been requested to speak somewhat of my own history and 
 people, hence would say that in the fall of 1837 my father, Chief 
 Pokagon with several of our head men went to Washington to see the 
 Great Chief of the United States in regard to our homes in this beautiful 
 land, for it pained our hearts to think of leaving them. They rode their 
 ponies to Wheeling, a city on the Ohio river. Here they left them and 
 went by stage to Baltimore, from there they rode on the cars to Wash- 
 ington, the railroad having been just completed to that place. It took 
 them about three weeks to make the journey. 
 
 Twenty-four years after my father's visit I went along nearly the 
 same route by rail to Washington in less than two days. I went to see 
 the greatest and best chief ever known, Abraham Lincoln. I was the 
 first Red Man to shake hands and visit with him after his inauguration. 
 He talked to me as a father would to his son and was glad that we had 
 built churches and school houses. He had a sad look in his face but I 
 knew that he was a good man, I heard it in his voice, saw it in his eyes 
 and felt it in his hand shaking. I told him how my father long ago 
 sold Chicago and the surrounding country to the United States for three 
 cents per acre and how we were poor and needed our pay. 
 
 He said he was sorry for and would help us what he could to get 
 our just dues. Three years later I again visited the Great Chief; he 
 excused the delay in our payment on account of the war. He seemed 
 
 7 Published in South Bend Tribune, October 10, 1894. 
 
Indiana Historical Society 339 
 
 bowed down with care. At this time Grant was thundering before 
 ™ r ,n !u T ltS fm ? J overthrow ' while Sherman was making his grand 
 
 Z ,t< u % Sea - • S °- m - e ?"? e after this visit we wer e pafd $3^,000. 
 Jn i8 /4 when I again visited the city to get the balance of our pay, I met 
 the great, war chief General Grant. I had expected he would put on 
 military importance, but he kindly shook hands with me and gave me 
 a cigar. We both sat down and smoked the pipe of peace. He thanked 
 ^frino-M loyaIt { v of my P e 5Pi e an d for the soldiers we had furnished 
 during the war. We still had due us from Uncle Sam between one and 
 two hundred thousand dollars. He said that there was a question about 
 our claim; but we got judgment against the government through the 
 C °U *u * vfi a n d u behev : e !t is worth one hundred cents on the dollar 
 and tnat it will all be paid as soon as congress gets through scuffling 
 over the tariff. & & 
 
 I have been requested to state the circumstances of our removal 
 from this state by the national government, but I cannot; my young 
 heart was so touched by the sad story, told me by my mother, that all 
 through youth and manhood I have tried to forget it, and again, could 
 1 remember the same, I have no desire to harrow my own feelings or 
 u lij- u s y recountin S the trying times of other days. But I 
 should dishonor myself on this great occasion, should I fail to declare 
 to you, that there is a monster evil in this beautiful land, born of the 
 white man, that has swept away and destroyed many of our race- and 
 1 now warn fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, that almost unseen 
 this deadly monster stalks abroad, among you at noonday and at midnight 
 It is the serpent of the still. Pokagon hates this loathsome snake.' 
 1 here is no place so guarded or secluded in this land as not to be cursed 
 by it. It crawls about your lawns and farms, along our highways and 
 railways, drinks from your springs and wells, enters your homes, hides 
 ltselt m the folds of your blankets and crawls among your children 
 while they sleep. The war between capital and labor in this country is 
 carried on by this monster, exciting its votaries to ruin and riot urging 
 on to the committal of the basest deeds of violence. 
 
 I was in Chicago during the hottest week of the Debs' rebellion and 
 1 there learned that those who criec} against capital the loudest, drank 
 ot the cursed firewater most freely. 
 
 I must close. I am getting old and feeble, and in all probability 
 none of you will ever see my face again this side of the happy hunting 
 grounds, hence, as a worn out specimen of the forest race, just stepping 
 upon the world beyond, I urge upon you as you value the grand domain 
 you inherited, as you value society, home and all that life holds most 
 dear, to try and do all you can to banish this reptillian monster from 
 your lands. Then heaven will smile upon you and the votaries of 
 temperance and intemperance will shake hands and rejoice together and 
 the sunshine of peace and plenty will lighten with joy and gladness 
 this beautiful land. 
 
 Simon Pokagon's Writings and Speeches 
 Ogi-maw-kive Mit-i-gzva-kl {Queen of the Woods), with an introduc- 
 tion by Charles E. Engle (Hartford, Mich., 1899). An Indian 
 romance centering around the events of Pokagon's life. 
 
 MAGAZINE ARTICLES 
 
 "The Future of the Red Man," in The Forum, Vol. 23, pp. 608-708 
 (July, 1897). v ^ 
 
340 The Pokagons 
 
 "Indian Native Skill/' in The Chautauquan, Vol. 26, pp. 540-42. 
 
 (February, 1898). 
 "An Indian on the Problems of His Race," in The Review of Reviews, 
 
 Vol. 12, pp. 694-95 (December, 1895). 
 "Indian Superstitions and Legends," in The Forum, Vol. 25, pp. 618-29 
 
 (July, 1898). 
 "An Indian's Observation on the Mating of Geese," in The Arena, Vol. 
 
 16, pp. 245-48 (July, 1896). 
 "The Massacre of Fort Dearborn at Chicago," in Harper's New Monthly 
 
 Magazine, Vol. 98, pp. 649-56 (March, 1899). 
 "Our Indian Women," in The Chautauquan, Vol. 22, pp. 732-34 (March, 
 
 1896). 
 "The Pottawatomies in the War of 1812," in The Arena, Vol. 26, pp. 
 
 48-55 (July, 1901). 
 "Simon Pokagon on Naming the Indians," in The Review of Reviews, 
 
 Vol. 16, pp. 320-21 (September, 1897). 
 "Wild Pigeons of North America," in The Chautauquan, Vol. 22, pp. 
 
 202-6 (November, 1895). 
 
 BIRCH BARK BOOKLETS 
 
 Lord's Prayer in Algonquin Language. 
 Potawatomie Book of Genesis. 
 Algonquin Legends of South Haven. 
 Algonquin Legends of Paw Paw Lake. 
 The Red Man's Greeting. 
 
 Queen of the Woods. 
 Hazel Eyes' Lullaby. 
 
 SONGS 
 
 PUBLIC ADDRESSES 
 
 Chicago, Illinois, World's Fair, October 9, 1893. Published in full in 
 Queen of the Woods, pp. 20-23 ; quoted in part in B. O. Flower, 
 "An Interesting Representative of a Vanishing Race," in The Arena, 
 Vol. 16, pp. 243-44 (July, 1896). 
 
 Elkhart, Indiana, October 9, 1894. Published in South Bend Tribune, 
 October 10, 1894, P- 4, col. 3. 
 
 Liberty, Indiana, January 7, 1898. Published in Queen of the Woods, 
 pp. 221-25. 
 
 Holland, Michigan, August 26, 1897. Published in Detroit Evening 
 News, August 26, 1897, P- A, col. 2. 
 
 Menominee Village, Marshall County, Indiana. Published in McDonald, 
 Daniel, A Twentieth Century History of Marshall County Indiana, 
 Vol. 1, pp. 47-48 (Chicago, 1908). Never delivered. 
 
INDEX 
 
 (343) 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adams, John Quincy, honorary 
 member Indiana Historical 
 Society, 15, 94; letters from 
 Jonathan Jennings, 221, 225-26, 
 227-28, 230-31, 248, 259-60 
 
 Allouez, Father Claude, 290 
 
 Alvord, Clarence W., 97 
 
 American Antiquarian Society, 89- 
 9i, 95, 96 
 
 Archaeology, Indiana Historical 
 Society promotes, 39 
 
 Armstrong, John, secretary of 
 war, 189, i89n; letters from 
 Jonathan Jennings, 196-97, 
 200-1 
 
 Atwater, Caleb, 91 
 
 Aveneau, Father Claude, 290-91 
 
 Bacon, Francis, 30 
 
 Badin, Father Stephen, missionary 
 to Indians, 293n, 29811, 299, 
 302-5, 308; baptismal register, 
 300-1 
 
 Badollet, James P., 192 
 
 Badollet, John, 14, 192 
 
 Baker, Conrad, 20 
 
 Baldwin, Elihu, 15 
 
 Ballard, G. M., 13 
 
 Bancroft, George, 15, 94 
 
 Banta, Judge David D., 26, 30 
 
 Barce, Elmore, 33, 34 
 
 Baroux, Father Louis, missionary 
 to Indians, 314-15 
 
 Bartholomew, Joseph, of Clark 
 County, 172, 242, 242n; letter 
 to Jonathan Jennings, 190-91 
 Battel!, Charles L, 44 
 Battle of Tippecanoe, compensa- 
 tion of volunteers and militia 
 of, 186-87, 238-39 
 
 Bayard, James A., of Delaware, 
 125, i37n, 139, i44n 
 
 Beatty, , of Vincennes, 220 
 
 Beaubien, Jean Baptiste, 319 
 Beck, Eva Neal, see Morris, Eva 
 
 Neal 
 Beckes, Parmenas, 168-69 
 Beecher, Henry Ward, 8, 23, 46 
 Beecher, Dr. Lyman, 16 
 Beggs, James, 242 
 Belknap, Jeremy, of Boston, 86, 
 
 87, 89 
 Bell, John, 116 
 Bell, William A., 13 
 Benson, Egbert, 87, 88 
 Benton, Thomas Hart, 115 
 Berrien, John M., of Georgia, 113, 
 
 114, 115 
 Beveridge, Albert J., contribution 
 
 to historical work, 83 
 Beveridge, Catherine Eddy (Mrs. 
 Albert J.), contribution to his- 
 torical work, 83 
 Bigger, James, 196, 197, 198 
 Bingham, J. J., 133 
 Birch bark booklets, written by 
 
 Simon Pokagon, list, 340 
 Black Hawk War, attitude of 
 
 Potawatomi during, 308-9 
 Blackford, Isaac, historical activi- 
 ties, 6, 7, 15, 16, 17, 18, 43, 44, 
 45; candidate for U. S. Sen- 
 ate, 252n 
 Blair, Adam, 159 
 Blake, James, historical activities, 
 
 7, 8, 24, 45, 46, 47 
 Blake, Thomas H., indicted for 
 duelling, 241; (with others) 
 letter to Levi Woodbury, 265- 
 67 
 
 345 
 
346 
 
 Index 
 
 Blythe, Dr. James, 15 
 
 Bolton, Nathaniel, addresses His- 
 torical Society, 18 
 
 Borden, James W., 9 
 
 Bowel, Basil, 273 
 
 Bowman, Miss , 162 
 
 Boyd, Permelia, 41 
 
 Brandon, Armstrong, 247 
 
 Breading, Nancy, 159, 162, 167, 176 
 
 Breckinridge, John C, candidate 
 for vice-president, 126, 134, 
 137, 13811, 141 
 
 Brent, Robert, letter from Jonathan 
 Jennings, 204-5 
 
 Briggs, Herbert, 40 
 
 Bright, David G., 101 
 
 Bright, Jesse D., elected U. S. sen- 
 ator, 24n; article on, 101-45; 
 parentage, 10:; birth, 101-2; 
 U. S. marshal, 103 ; state sena- 
 tor, 103-4; lieutenant governor, 
 104-5; described, 105-6; letter 
 to William L. Marcy, ioon; 
 U. S. senator, 105, 108-18, 121- 
 44; attitude toward acquisition 
 of Mexican territory, 109-10, 
 admission of Oregon, 1 10-12, 
 admission of California, 113- 
 14, compromise of 1850, 115- 
 18 ; relations with Michael Gar- 
 ber, 118-20; attitude toward 
 Fugitive Slave Act, 123, inter- 
 nal improvements, 123-24; 
 president pro tern, of Senate, 
 124-25 ; contested election, 126- 
 30; possible cabinet officer, 
 130-31 ; attitude toward ad- 
 mission of Kansas, i3i-33» 
 secession, 135-37, tariff, 137; 
 expulsion from Senate, 138-45 ; 
 death, 145 
 Bright, Mary Turpin (Mrs. Jesse 
 
 D.), 102 
 Bright, Michael, 103 
 Bright, Rachel Graham, 101 
 
 Broderick, David C., 129 
 
 Brookville (Ind.), price of lots 
 (1814), 206; removal of land 
 office from, 258-59 
 
 Brown, Demarchus, 31 
 
 Brown, Ethan A., letter from 
 Jonathan Jennings, 224-25 
 
 Brown, George, 13 
 
 Brown, Hilton U., 31 
 
 Browning, Eliza G., 27, 31, 36, 46 
 
 Brute, Father Simon Gabriel, visits 
 Pokagon's church, 306 
 
 Bryan, Enoch A., 27, 30 
 
 Buchanan, James, candidate for 
 president, 126, 134; Bright 
 compliments, 132 ; president, 
 135 ; cabinet, 130, 131 
 
 Buechner, Cecilia B., The Poka- 
 gons, 279-340 
 
 Bundy, M. L., 30 
 
 Burns, Lee, 41, 46, 53 
 
 Burr, Aaron, western expedition, 
 182-84 
 
 Bury, John Bagnell, quoted on defi- 
 nition of history, 11 
 
 Butler, Amos W., 30, 41, 46, 53 
 
 Butler, Andrew P., of South Caro- 
 lina, 113, 114 
 
 Cady, Charles W., 16, 45 
 
 Cain, Captain John, 121 
 
 Calendar of letters of Jonathan 
 
 Jennings, 153-56 
 Calhoun, John C, U. S. senator, 
 
 no, 115; letters from Jonathan 
 
 Jennings, 222, 255 
 Call, Jacob, votes for Andrew 
 
 Jackson, 256n ; (with others) 
 
 letter to James Monroe, 258- 
 
 59 
 
 Campaux, Angelique, Indian inter- 
 preter, 302, 305 
 
 Campbell, John L., 13, 19 
 
 Carlile, John S., I44n 
 
 Carr, George W., 13, 23 
 
Index 
 
 347 
 
 Carrington, Henry B., 13, 19 
 
 Carter, William, 30 
 
 Cass, Lewis, historical activities, 
 
 J 3, 93', U. S. senator, 115, 122; 
 
 in cabinet, 131 ; commissioner 
 
 to treat with Indians, 263n, 
 
 267 ; letters from Jonathan 
 
 Jennings and others, 274-78 
 Caswell, Daniel J., 227 
 Catholic missions, in St. Joseph 
 
 Valley, 290-91, 297-99, 302-8 
 Catlin, George, quoted on Indians, 
 
 287 ^ 
 Centennial celebration, Indiana, 33, 
 
 35 
 Channing, Edward, 95n 
 Chase, Ira J., 8, 27 
 Chase, Salmon P., 125 
 Chebass, Potawatomi chief, 293 
 Clark, George Rogers, 40 
 Clark, William, I79n 
 Clark's Grant, new survey needed, 
 
 179-80 
 Clarke, Grace Julian, 32, 36 
 Clay, Henry, 115, 116 
 Clayton, John M., of Delaware, 
 
 113 
 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 115 
 Clinton, DeWitt, 87, 88, 89, 101 
 Coburn, Henry P., 8, 46 
 Coburn, John, historical activities, 
 
 9, 19, 25, 26, 31, 43, 44, 46 
 Cockrum, Colonel William M., 32 
 Coe, Isaac, 8 
 
 Coffin, Charles E., historical ac- 
 tivities, 27, 28, 36, 45, 53 
 Coleman, Christopher B., histori- 
 cal activities, 31, 41, 45, 53 
 Coles, Edward, 13 
 Collett, John, 13, 19 
 Collins, Zebulon, 273 
 Conference of Historical Societies, 
 
 8/, 96 
 Connecticut Historical Society, or- 
 ganized, 92 
 
 Conner, William, 8, 226 
 
 Constitutional Convention, Indiana 
 (1816), 213-14, 215 
 
 Cook, Daniel P., letter to John Q. 
 Adams, 259-60 
 
 Cooley, Judge Thomas M., 26, 27 
 
 Cooper, , T7S 
 
 Coquillard, Mrs. Alexis, 307n 
 
 Cottman, George S., historical ac- 
 tivities, 29, 30, 31, 45, 46 
 
 Craig, Oscar J., of Purdue Uni- 
 versity, 26, 27, 30 
 
 Cravens, John R., 103 
 
 Crawford, William H., 253 
 
 Crouse, F. M., 26 
 
 Crume, Marks (with others), let- 
 ters to Lewis Cass, 274-78 
 
 Curry, W. W., 13, 19, 20 
 
 Dane, Nathan, letter of, published, 
 10; honorary member Histor- 
 ical Society, 15, 94 
 
 Daniel, Richard, 274 
 
 Davis, Jefferson, U. S. senator, 
 115; letter from Jesse D. 
 Bright, 138 
 
 Davis, John, of Massachusetts, 113 
 
 Davis, John W. (with others), let- 
 ters to Lewis Cass, 274-78 
 
 Davis, Thomas T., 184 
 
 Dayton, William, 114 
 
 Deane, Charles, 88 
 
 Defrees, John D., 8 
 
 De la Hunt, Thomas James, 41 
 
 Democratic Party (1843-63), in 
 Indiana, 104-5, 1 18-21, 126-27, 
 130, 133-34; in national poli- 
 tics, 109, 114, 122, 123-24, 126, 
 127, 128 
 
 Democratic State Convention 
 (i860), 133-34; (1862), i44n 
 
 Denby, Charles, reads paper on 
 John Law, 20 
 
 De Pauw, John, 8 
 
348 
 
 Index 
 
 Deseille, Father Louis, missionary 
 to Indians, 2g8n, 305, 306 
 
 Dewey, Charles, officer of Histori- 
 cal Society, 21, 44, 46; candi- 
 date for U. S. Senate, 120; 
 recommended by Jonathan 
 Jennings, 227-28 
 
 Dillon, John B., historical activities, 
 8, 10-13, 17, 18, 19, 24, 26, 35, 
 45, 46 
 
 Dooley, Rufus, 41 
 
 Dooley, Mrs. Rufus, 41 
 
 Doolittle, Rolla, 118 
 
 Douglas, Stephen A., U. S. senator, 
 no, in, 113, 115, 116, 121, 
 122, 124, 129, 132-33; candi- 
 date for president, 134, I40n 
 
 Douthitt, John, 244, 245 
 
 Dowling, Thomas, 9 
 
 Downs, Solomon W., 114 
 
 Drake, James P., 8 
 
 Draper, Lynam C, 95 
 
 Duane, William, letter from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 170-72 
 
 Dubois, Toussaint, 170 
 
 Duncan, R. B., 24 
 
 Dunlap, James, 159 
 
 Dunn, Arthur W., 30 
 
 Dunn, George H., historical ac- 
 tivities, 7, 8, 23, 43, 44, 45 
 
 Dunn, Jacob P., historical activi- 
 ties, 13, 17, 24-25, 27, 28, 31, 
 36, 45, 46 
 
 Dunn, James W., 9 
 
 Dunn, Captain Williamson, 201 
 
 Dunning, Paris C, 8 
 
 Dye, John T., 26 
 
 Earl, Mrs. Elizabeth Claypool, 41 
 Eddy, Norman, 133 
 Elliott, Byron K., 25 
 Elliott, Lucy M., 26, 36, 45 
 Ellis, Abner T., 44 
 Engle, Charles E., 323, 324 
 English, William E., 27, 44 
 
 English, William H., member His- 
 torical Society, 13, 25, 36, 43 ; 
 sketch of, 28-29; bequest to 
 Society, 28-29 
 
 Esarey, Logan, historical work, 32, 
 34-35, 46; quoted on Indians, 
 289 
 
 Essex County (Mass.), historical 
 society, 91 
 
 Eustis, William, letters from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 182-84, 185; 
 secretary of war, i84n, 188, 
 i89n 
 
 Evans, Robert, 214 
 
 Everett, Edward, 15, 94 
 
 Ewbank, Louis, 30 
 
 Ewing, Nathaniel, 161, 171, 172, 
 227 
 
 Farnham, John H., historical ac- 
 tivities, 5, 6, 7, 9-10, 15, 45, 
 47; letter to Francis Vigo, I4n 
 
 Farrington, James, 46 
 
 Ferguson, Benjamin, 236 
 
 Ferris, Ezra, 8 
 
 Fesler, James W., 31 
 
 Finch, John A., 25 
 
 Findley, William, of Pennsylvania, 
 173, 174 
 
 Fitch, Graham N., U. S. senator, 
 127, 128, 129, 134, 136 
 
 Fletcher, Calvin, 8, 23, 46 
 
 Floyd, Davis, connection with 
 Aaron Burr, 183-84, 2i5n; 
 bank director, 242 
 
 Foote, Henry S., 112 
 
 Ford, Lemuel, letter from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 261 
 
 Ford, Worthington C, 88 
 
 Fort Dearborn massacre, part 
 played by Potawatomi Indians, 
 310-n 
 
 Fort St. Joseph, 291, 292 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, quoted on 
 Indians, 287 
 
Index 
 
 349 
 
 Gallatin, Albert, letters from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 176-78, 179-80; 
 mentioned, 189, I92n 
 
 Garber, Michael C, enmity toward 
 Jesse D. Bright, 118, 119 
 
 Geeting, David M., 27 
 
 Georgia Historical Society, organ- 
 ized, 92-93 
 
 Gibson, John, acting governor, In- 
 diana Territory, 196, 197, 207 
 
 Gibson, John, convict, 234 
 
 Giles, William B., of Virginia, 
 203n 
 
 Gooding, David S., 13 
 
 Goodwin, Thomas A., 30 
 
 Goodwin, W. W., 168-69 
 
 Gordon, Jonathan W., 9, 26 
 
 Gordon, William, 86 
 
 Graff, Dr. George B., 12m 
 
 Graham, George, letters from 
 Jonathan Jennings, 249-50, 254, 
 257, 272-73 
 
 Graham, William, of Jackson 
 County, 5, 273 
 
 Gray, , 270, 271 
 
 Green, Norvin, 102 
 
 Greene, Alice, 41 
 
 Greene, Evarts B., Our Pioneer 
 Historical Societies, 81-97 
 
 Griswold, Bert J., 41 
 
 Guernsey, E. Y., 41 
 
 Haines, Matthias L., 27 
 
 Hakluyt, Richard, 88 
 
 Hale, John P., 110, 128 
 
 Hal ford, Elijah, 25 
 
 Hall, James, 14, 93, 94 
 
 Hamilton, Nathaniel, quoted on 
 Pokagons, 306-7 
 
 Hamilton, Paul, i89n 
 
 Hanna, Robert, 225, 254 
 
 Hannegan, Edward A., U. S. sena- 
 tor, 105, 108, no, in 
 
 Harbison (Harberson), John, 172 
 
 Harding, S. B., 30 
 
 Harlan, James, 129 
 Harris, Addison C., 25, 46 
 Harrison, William Henry, honor- 
 ary member Historical Society, 
 13; burial place, 20; charges 
 against, 170-72, 174, 177, 178, 
 201 ; attitude toward Floyd 
 and Prince, 182-83, i84n; 
 resignation as governor, 189 
 Hay, Andrew P., 195, 242, 270 
 Hay, Ann, see Jennings, Ann Hay 
 Hayes, Mrs. Harriet H., sketch of 
 Simon Pokagon, 319-20, 323- 
 24 
 Hazard, Ebenezer, 86, 87 
 "Hazel Eyes' Lullaby," by Simon 
 
 Pokagon, 331 
 Heald, Captain Nathan, 310 
 Henderson, Albert, 26 
 Hendricks, Thomas A., 8, 13, 19, 
 
 20 
 Hendricks, William, candidate for 
 U. S. Senate, 21, 252-53, 271 ; 
 quoted on Jesse D. Bright, 
 103; letter from Jonathan 
 Jennings, 210; candidate for 
 governor, 233 
 Hibbs, Hamilton, 119, 120 
 Hines, Linnaeus N., 41, 46, 53 
 
 Hinton, , killed by Indians, 
 
 185 
 Historical agencies, past and pres- 
 ent, 94-97 
 Historical societies, article on, 81- 
 
 97 
 Hitt, George C, 25 
 Hodgin, Cyrus W., 26, 31 
 Hoggatt, Moses, 172 
 Holcombe, J. W., 26 
 Holeman, Captain William, 206-7 
 Holliday, Reverend F. C, 13, 19, 
 
 23 
 Holliday, John H., historical ac- 
 tivities, 25, 26, 32, 35, 46 
 Holloway, William R., 25 
 
350 
 
 Index 
 
 Holman, Jesse L., 6, 7, 44 
 
 Holman, Judge John, 26 
 
 Holman, William S., 9 
 
 Hooper, William DeM., 25, 45, 46 
 
 Hopkins, General Samuel, 19m 
 
 Hough, Daniel, 13, 19 
 
 Houston, Sam, 115, i29n 
 
 Howard, Tilghman H., 8 
 
 Howe, Daniel Wait, historical ac- 
 tivities, 13, 18, 25, 28, 29, 30, 
 31, 32, 36, 37, 42, 43, 44 
 
 Howe, Sue, 44, 45 
 
 Howe, Timothy, of Wisconsin, 
 141-42 
 
 Howk, Isaac, 7, 45, 271 
 
 Howland, Louis, 30 
 
 Huffman, Benjamin, son kid- 
 napped, 230, 248 
 
 Hurst, Henry, 161, 163 
 
 Huston, , Indians burn home 
 
 of, 185 
 
 Iglehart, John E., 34, 41 
 Illinois Antiquarian and Historical 
 Society, 93 
 
 Illinois Central Railroad, land 
 grant system, 115 
 
 Illinois Grant, see Clark's Grant 
 
 Indian languages, preservation of, 
 3i 
 
 Indiana, centennial, 33, 35 ; state 
 politics (1843-63), 104-5, 118- 
 21, 126-27, 129, 130, 133-34, 
 I44n, I45n; state seal, 217; 
 bookselling in (1817), 218; 
 regulations and standards for 
 weights and measures, 221 ; 
 militia strength (1818), 222- 
 23; location of capital, 226; 
 presidential electors (1820), 
 227 ; governor's dwelling house 
 (Corydon), 229, 22gn-30n ; 
 educational institutions (1822), 
 231 ; Jennings advises on state 
 road in, 273-74 
 
 "Indiana Day," 39 
 
 Indiana Gazette (Vincennes), I75n 
 
 Indiana General Assembly, elects 
 U. S. senators, 104-5, 127 
 
 Indiana Historicai Commission, 
 created, 35 
 
 Indiana Historical Society, centen- 
 nial handbook, 1-79; organ- 
 ized, 5-8, 83-85 ; minutes of 
 first meeting, 5-6 ; first offi- 
 cers, 7; membership fees, 7, 
 15, 16, 32; members (1830- 
 1930), 8-9, 13, 19, 25, 26, 27, 
 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 41 ; honor- 
 ary members (1830-1930), 13- 
 14, 15-16, 27, 30, 53, 94; pub- 
 lications, 10, 12, 24-25, 30, 31, 
 32, 38, 76-79; resources, 16-17, 
 28-29, 36-38; home, 17-18, 37- 
 38 ; admission of women, 27 ; 
 William H. English bequest, 
 28-29; Delavan Smith bequest, 
 37-38 ; services, 38-41 ; roster 
 of officers (1830-1930), 43- 
 46; charter, 47-48; constitu- 
 tion, 49-52; roster of officers 
 (1930), 53; roster of members 
 (1930), 53-74; membership by 
 counties (1930), 75; centennial 
 address, 83-97 ', contacts with 
 other historical organizations, 
 93-94 
 
 Indiana Historical Survey, estab- 
 lished, 34 
 
 Indiana History Conference, spon- 
 sored, 35, 39 
 
 Indiana Journal, Jonathan Jennings 
 to editors of, 255-56, 262 
 
 Indiana Magazine of History, re- 
 lation to Historical Society, 31, 
 32, 39 
 
 Indiana State Department of Con- 
 servation, Historical Society 
 helps promote, 39 
 
Index 
 
 351 
 
 Indiana State Library, building 
 suggested as centennial memo- 
 rial, 31-32; building authorized 
 ( T 9 2 9), 32\ cooperation of 
 Historical Society with, 38 
 Indiana Territory, protection of, 
 192-95, 196-98, 200- i, 204-5, 
 207-9; appointment of U. S. 
 marshal for, 195 ; constitu- 
 tional convention, 213-14, 215 
 Indiana University, department of 
 history supports Magazine of 
 History, 32; history club pro- 
 poses centennial celebration, 
 33 
 Indianapolis (Ind.), Jennings to 
 citizens of, 248; post roads, 
 248-49; removal of land office 
 to, 258-59 
 Indians, commit depredations, 185, 
 186, 190-91 ; treaty negotia- 
 tions with (1832), 274-78. See 
 also Pokagons. 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, elected president, 
 255-56 
 
 Jackson, Francis James, 176 
 
 Jackson, William, 225 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, proclamation 
 on Burr's expedition, 183 
 
 Jefferson County (Ind.), early 
 politics, 103-4 
 
 Jennings, Ann Hay (Mrs. Jona- 
 than), marriage, 180-81 ; visits 
 Mrs. Mitchell, 188, 191; ill- 
 ness, 220, 223-24; death, 262 
 
 Jennings, David, 152, 262 
 
 Jennings, Ebenezer, 152, 165, 168, 
 2i9n 
 
 Jennings, Jacob, 152, 219 
 
 Jennings, Mrs. Jacob, 202 
 
 Jennings, Jonathan, chronology, 
 151; calendar of letters, 153- 
 56; 
 
 letters to: constituents, 212-15, 
 232-34, 236-46, 246-47, 251-52, 
 
 268-70; to , 169, 273-74; 
 
 and see under names of corre- 
 spondents for letters to John 
 Q. Adams, John Armstrong, 
 Robert Brent, Ethan A. 
 Brown, John C. Calhoun, 
 Lewis Cass, William Duane, 
 William Eustis, Lemuel Ford, 
 Albert Gallatin, George Gra- 
 ham, William Hendricks, In- 
 diana Journal, Indianapolis 
 citizens, Isaac Kimberlin, John 
 Kimberlin, Samuel McKee, 
 John McLean, James Madison, 
 Josiah Meigs, Ann Jennings 
 Mitchell, David G. Mitchell, 
 James Monroe, Robert A. 
 New, Stephen Pleasonton, 
 Thomas Posey, Public Ledger 
 (Richmond), James B. Ray, 
 William Russell, Elihu Stout, 
 Edward Tiffin, John Tipton, 
 Western Censor (Indianap- 
 olis), Levi Woodbury; 
 letters from: see under names 
 of correspondents, Joseph 
 Bartholomew, Samuel McKee, 
 Return J. Meigs, Jr., James 
 Wood ; 
 
 proclamations and messages : 
 presidential electors, 227; re- 
 ward for capture of convicts, 
 234-35 ; rental of governor's 
 house, 229; 
 
 advice on marriage, 157-58; in 
 Vincennes, 161-64; reasons for 
 leaving Vincennes, 167; bond 
 for debt, 168-69; election to 
 Congress (1809), 169, 171, 
 1/2-74," accusations against 
 Harrison, T70-72, 174, 177, 201 ; 
 opinion on salt spring, 176-7 7 ; 
 
352 
 
 Index 
 
 recommends James Lemon, 
 177-78; elected to Congress 
 (1811), 178; on resurveying 
 Clark's Grant, 179-80; mar- 
 riage, 180; on gossiping, 181- 
 82 ; recommends Prince and 
 Floyd, 184 ; seeks compensa- 
 tion for volunteers and militia 
 of Tippecanoe Expedition, 186- 
 87, 238-39; on protection of 
 the frontier, 193-97, 200, 207- 
 9; on religion, 199, 264; on 
 paying the militia, 204-5, 207- 
 9, 210, 211, 214; reviews work 
 of Congress (1815-16), 212- 
 15, (1828-29), 268-70; elected 
 governor, 2i5n; on state seal, 
 217; on office of governor, 
 218, 223, 232 ; on surveys in 
 Vincennes district, 224; cor- 
 respondence with governor of 
 Kentucky on fugitives, re- 
 ferred to, 225-26; recom- 
 mends Charles Dewey, 227- 
 28; candidate for U. S. Con- 
 gress, 233-34, 240-41, 246-47, 
 251-52 ; answers charges 
 against, 236-46; on appropria- 
 tions and survey of National 
 Road, 250-51, 256, 257, 259; 
 candidate for U. S. Senate, 
 2 5 2 -53; votes for Andrew 
 Jackson, 256n ; recommends : 
 John Kingsbury, 262-63 I John 
 H. Scott, 263-64; on naviga- 
 tion of Wabash River, 265- 
 67 ; advice on state road, 273- 
 74; commissioner to treat with 
 Indians, 274-78 
 Jennings, Maria, 152, 219 
 Jennings, Obadiah, 157, 159, 212, 
 
 247 
 Jennings, Samuel Kennedy, 161, 
 164, 174, 1/5 
 
 Jennings, Samuel Kennedy, Jr., 216 
 
 Jennings family, genealogical table, 
 152 
 
 Johns Hopkins University, histori- 
 cal work, 95 
 
 Johnson, Andrew, U. S. senator, 
 135-36, 140-41, 143 
 
 Johnson, Hershell V., of Georgia, 
 113 
 
 Johnson, John, i69n 
 
 Johnson, Waldo P., of Missouri, 
 137, I38n 
 
 Jones, Fernando, 319, 320 
 
 Jones, John Rice, 172 
 
 Jones, Thomas, 171 
 
 Jones, William, i89n 
 
 Jordan, David Starr, 26, 30 
 
 Jordan, Lewis, 26 
 
 Julian, George W., 13, 20, 27 
 
 Julian, Jacob B., 19 
 
 Kanakuk, Kickapoo prophet, 305n 
 
 Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 124, 126, 132 
 
 Keenan, Henry F., 19-20 
 
 Kennedy, Anthony, of Maryland, 
 137, I44n 
 
 Kent, James, 15, 88, 94 
 
 Kerr, Michael C, 13 
 
 Ketcham, William A., 26, 30 
 
 Kimberlin, Isaac, letter from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 231-32 
 
 Kimberlin, John, letters from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 231, 260-61 
 
 King, Rufus, of New York, 88 
 
 King, William R., 125 
 
 Kingsbury, John, 262-63 
 
 Kiper, Roscoe, 41 
 
 Knights of Columbus, I40n-4in 
 
 Knoblock, Otto M., 41, 46, 53 
 
 Kohlmeier, Albert L., 33 
 
 Kossuth, Louis, visit to Madison, 
 Ind., 119 
 
 Lacock, Abner, 206 
 LaFollette, Harvey M., 27 
 
Index 
 
 353 
 
 Lane, Daniel C, 21311 
 
 Lane, Henry S., 8, 19, 20, 46, 130, 
 
 140 
 Lanier, James F. D., 8-9 
 Lanman, James H., quoted on In- 
 dians, 287, 297 
 Latham, Milton S., of California, 
 
 137, I44n 
 Law, Judge John, historical ac- 
 tivities, 7, 8, 14-15, 17, 43, 44, 
 45, 46; sketch of, 20-23 
 League, Green B., 225 
 Lemon, James, 168-69, 177-78 
 Levering, John, 26, 30 
 Lilly, William H., auditor of state, 
 
 217-18 
 Lincoln, Thomas B., letter of in- 
 troduction to Jefferson Davis, 
 138, 143 
 Lindley, Harlow, 30, 41, 44 
 Line, A. B., 43 
 Linton, William C, 6, 267 
 Liquette, Angelique, 302, 307n 
 Livingston, Edward, 15 
 Lockwood, George B., 29 
 Lockwood, Virgil, 30 
 Lord's Prayer, in Indian language, 
 
 33i 
 Lyle, Aaron, 189, 203 
 Lynch, Rev. T. H., 19 
 
 McCarty, William M., U. S. sena- 
 tor, 130 
 
 McClure, William M., 13-14 
 
 McCoy, Isaac, asked to address 
 Historical Society, 15; mis- 
 sionary to Indians, 286, 292, 
 296-97, 299 ; quoted on Indians, 
 286, 287, 293, 295-96, 298, 309 
 
 McCray, Warren T., 8 
 
 Macdonald, Ebenezer, report on 
 militia, 222-23 
 
 McDonald, Joseph E., 26, 30 
 
 Mace, Daniel, 9 
 
 Mace, William H., 26, 30 
 
 McFarland, William, 214, 239, 253 
 Mcintosh, William, 170, 172 
 McKee, David, quoted on Indians, 
 
 287 
 McKee, Samuel, letter from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 187; letter to 
 Jennings, 187 
 McKinney, James, 46 
 McLane, Robert M., letter to 
 
 Howell Cobb, i3on-3in 
 McLean, John, elected honorary 
 member of Historical Society, 
 15; letter from Jonathan Jen- 
 ings, 247-48 
 McNamee, Dr. Elias, 172, 220 
 Madison, James, letters from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 184-85, 215 
 Madison (Ind.), bar, 102; early 
 
 politics, 103-4, 118-20 
 Madison Courier, opposes Bright, 
 
 118, 119 
 Madisonian, Bright's party organ, 
 
 118, 119 
 Maguire, Douglass, 46 
 
 Mahan, Miss , 159, 162 
 
 Maine Historical Society, organ- 
 ized, 91 ; publications, 91-92 
 Malott, Volney T., 27 
 Mangum, Willie P., of North 
 
 Carolina, 115 
 Mansfield, Jared, 179 
 Manson,, M. D., 13 
 Marcy, William L., letter from 
 
 Jesse D. Bright, io6n 
 Markle, Augustus R., 41 
 Marshall, Alexander, 91 
 Marshall, John, 86 
 Marshall, Joseph G., 9, 19, 23-24, 
 
 102, 104-5 
 Martindale, Charles, 26, 46 
 Maryland Historical Society, 93 
 Mason, James M., of Virginia, 115, 
 
 129 
 Massachusetts Historical Society 
 84, 88, 95, 96 
 
354 
 
 Index 
 
 Matthews, Claude, 8, 27, 30 
 
 Maxwell, Dr. David H., 231 
 
 Mears, George W., 46 
 
 Meek, Alexander A., 227 
 
 Meek, John, 216 
 
 Meigs, Josiah, letter from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 224 
 
 Meigs, Return J., Jr., letter to 
 Jonathan Jennings, 249 
 
 Merrill, Samuel, 7, 8, 43, 45 
 
 Michigan Historical Society, 93 
 
 Militia, Indiana Territory, pay- 
 ment of, 204-5, 210, 2ii, 214 
 
 Militia laws, Indiana, distribution 
 of, 215-16, 217 
 
 Miller, Joshua D., quoted on Poka- 
 gons, 308-9 
 
 Mills, J. J., 26 
 
 Mitchell, Ann Jennings (Mrs. 
 David G.), letters from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 167-68, 180-82, 
 188, 191-92, 202-3; death, 264 
 
 Mitchell, Ann Maria, 152, 254 
 
 Mitchell, Dr. David G., biographi- 
 cal note, I57n; letters from 
 Jonathan Jennings, 157-59, 
 159-67, 172-76, 178, 185-86, 
 188-89, 198-99, 202, 203-4, 206, 
 209-10, 211-12, 218-19, 223-24, 
 235-36, 246, 252-54, 261-62, 264 
 
 Mitchell, John, 261 
 
 Mitchell, Samuel, quoted, 89 
 
 Mitten, Arthur G., 41 
 
 Moncrief, J. W., 26 
 
 Monroe, James, in Madison's cab- 
 inet, 189; letters from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 190, 192-96, 
 207-9, 258-59 
 
 Montgomery, Dr. H. T., 41 
 
 Moore, Harbin H., 229n-30n 
 
 Moore, William H., 244 
 
 Moores, Charles W., historical ac- 
 tivities, 30, 3i, 36, 42, 43, 46 
 
 Moran, Thomas F., 30 
 
 Morgan, George, 203 
 Morrill, Lot M., of Maine, 139 
 Morris, Bethuel F., 7, 44, 47 
 Morris, Eva Neal, 41, 46, 53 
 Morris, Gouverneur, 88 
 Morris, Mrs. Harvey, 41, 46, 53 
 Morris, General Thomas A., 26 
 Morrison, Alexander F., 272 
 Morrison, Mrs. Frank A., 46 
 Morrow, Captain, 212 
 Morss, S. E., 30 
 Mount, James A., 8 
 Mousse, Alexander, 298 
 Murphy, Charles B., Political Ca- 
 reer of Jesse D. Bright, 99-145 
 
 Nanako, murdered by Topenebee, 
 304, 305 
 
 National Road, appropriation for, 
 250-51, 256, 257, 269-70; sur- 
 vey of, 259 
 
 Nesmith, James W., I44n 
 
 New, John C, 26 
 
 New, Robert A., secretary of state, 
 2i5n; letters from Jonathan 
 Jennings, 215-18, 219-20, 228- 
 29; report on weights and 
 measures, 221 
 
 New Hampshire Historical Society, 
 organized, 92 
 
 New York Historical Society, or- 
 ganized, 84, 88, 89, 96 
 
 Ni'black, William E., 27, 30 
 
 Nicholson, Meredith, 31 
 
 Noble, James, U. S. senator, 267n, 
 271; (with others) letter to 
 James Monroe, 258-59 
 
 Noble, Noah, 8 
 
 O'Donaghue, Bishop D., 32, 44 
 Ohio Historical and Philosophical 
 
 Society, organized, 93 
 Old Line Guard, established, 134 
 Oliver, D. H., 13 
 
Index 
 
 355 
 
 Otto, William T., 9 
 
 Owen, Robert Dale, 15, 120, 121 
 
 Palmer, Herriott C, 46 
 Parke, Benjamin, officer of His- 
 torical Society, 7, 43, 47, 85; 
 career, 9, 10; mentioned, 239, 
 240 
 Parker, Woodbridge, 244 
 Parr, Enoch, 249 
 Paul, John, 231 
 
 Pearce, James A., I29n, i37n, I44n 
 Pennington, Dennis, 8 
 Pennsylvania Historical Society, 
 
 organized, 92, 96 
 Pettit, John, 125, i27n 
 Peyton, Craven, 197, 198 
 Pfrimmer, John G., 172 
 Pilgrimages, historical, of Indiana 
 Historical Society and Society 
 of Indiana Pioneers, 40-41 
 Pintard, John, of New York, 86, 
 87, 88; letter from DeWitt 
 Clinton, 89 
 Pitezel, John H., quoted on In- 
 dians, 286, 289 
 Pleasonton, Stephen, letter from 
 
 Jonathan Jennings, 210 
 Plumer, William, of Maine, 92 
 Pokagon, Angela, marriage and 
 
 death, 317-18 
 Pokagon, Francis, 313 
 Pokagon, Leopold, character of, 
 28S, 307-9; becomes a Potawa- 
 tomi, 294; village, 294-96, 306- 
 8; religious work, 208-99, 302- 
 5, 306, 312-13; record of bap- 
 tism, 300; wagon, 311; atti- 
 tude toward Black Hawk War, 
 308-9, toward Fort Dearborn 
 massacre, 310-11; removes to 
 Cass County, 311-12; death, 
 313 
 Pokagon, Mrs. Leopold, baptized, 
 300; religious faith, 302, 314- 
 
 15; troubles with tribe, 314; 
 death, 314-15 
 Pokagon, Nancy, 2Cj8n 
 Pokagon, Paul, 313 
 Pokagon, Simon, carries on father's 
 work, 288; writes mother's 
 will, 314-15; birth and early 
 life, 316; education, 317, 323; 
 secretary of tribe, 317; mar- 
 riage, 317-18; children, 318; 
 described by granddaughter, 
 318-19; at World's Fair, 310- 
 20; sketch of, by Mrs. H. H. 
 Hayes, 319-20, 323-24; "Queen 
 of the Woods," 321-23; ex- 
 cerpts from writings, 324-26; 
 death, 327-28; efforts to se- 
 cure annuity due Indians, 327- 
 28; "Hazel Eyes' Lullaby," 
 33i ; translation of Lord's 
 Prayer in Algonquian, 331 ; 
 "Red Man's Greeting," 331- 
 37 ; signature, 337 ; address de- 
 livered at Elkhart (1894), 338- 
 39; bibliography of writings, 
 339-40 
 Pokagon, Victoria, 318, 328 
 Pokagons, article on, 279-340 
 Polk, James K., 105, 11 1, 112 
 Polk, Trusten, of Missouri, 137, 
 I38n 
 
 Porter, Albert G., 8, 26, 30 
 
 Posey, Thomas, appointed gover- 
 nor, i89n; letter from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 206-7 
 
 Post roads, authorized by Con- 
 gress, 215, 248-49, 264-65 
 
 Postage, lack of, prevents opera- 
 tions of government, 229; ap- 
 propriation (1822), 229n 
 
 Pbtawatomi Indians, migrations, 
 290; Catholic missions among, 
 290-91 ; characteristics, 291 ; 
 Baptist mission at Niles, 292; 
 
356 
 
 Index 
 
 superstitions, 292-93. See also 
 
 Pokagons 
 Powell, Lazarus W., of Kentucky, 
 
 137, I44n 
 Pratt, Daniel D., 8 
 Prescott, William H., 16 
 Presidential electors, Indiana 
 
 (1820), 227 
 Prince, William, connection with 
 
 Burr, 182-84; president judge, 
 
 216 
 Public Ledger (Richmond, Ind.), 
 
 Jonathan Jennings to editors 
 
 of, 257-58 
 Purchas, Samuel, 88 
 
 "Queen of the Woods," by Simon 
 
 Pokagon, 321-23 
 Quingo, Julia Pokagon, 288, 318 
 
 Rabb, Kate Milner, 41 
 
 Ralston, Samuel M., 8 
 
 Ramsay, David, 86 
 
 Randolph, Thomas, i69n, 171, I78n, 
 22on 
 
 Ranney, Stephen, 223, 235 
 
 Ray, James B., letter from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 262-63 ; com- 
 missioner to treat with Indians, 
 263n 
 
 Ray, James M., 8, 45, 46, 263n 
 
 "Red Man's Greeting, The," by 
 Simon Pokagon, 331-37 
 
 Republican Party, 126 ff. 
 
 Reser, Alva O., 30 
 
 Reze, Father John F., missionary 
 to Indians, 298 
 
 Rhode Island Historical Society, 
 organized, 91 
 
 Rice, Henry M., I44n 
 
 Richard, Father Gabriel, 298, 299 
 
 Ridpath, John Clark, addresses 
 Historical Society, 27 
 
 Ritchie, Thomas, 109 
 
 Ritter, Jacob, quoted on Pokagons, 
 307-8 
 
 Ritter, Levi, 13, 26 
 
 Roache, Addison L., historical ac- 
 tivities, 9, 19, 28, 30, 46 
 
 Rodger, Samuel, 159 
 
 Roll, Charles, 33 
 
 Ross, John F., 235, 246 
 
 Ross, Morris, 27 
 
 Rush, Richard, 189 
 
 Russell, Colonel William, of 
 Seventh U. S. Regiment, 208; 
 letter from Jonathan Jennings, 
 264-65 
 
 St. Joseph Mission, 290-91 
 Sansberry, Charles T., 41, 44, 53 
 Sargent, Winthrop, 91 
 Saulsbury, Willard, of Delaware, 
 
 137, 142, i44n 
 Schoolcraft, Henry R., 93 
 Scott, James, 7, 44, 242, 246, 247n 
 Scott, John, 263-64 
 Scott, Reverend Samuel, 231 
 Seward, William H., of New 
 
 York, 125, 128 
 Shanks, John P. C, 13 
 Sheehan, Mrs. Frank J., 41 
 Sheets, William, 44 
 Shelby, Evan, 242 
 Shields, Patrick, 2i3n 
 Shoemaker, John C, 25 
 Shortridge, A. C, 30 
 Simonson, John S., 245 
 Shoults, Frederick, 200 
 Simonson, S. K., 160 
 Simpson, Bishop Matthew, 23 
 Sinagaw, Indian chief, 314, 317 
 Sinagaw, Lonidaw, see Pokagon, 
 
 Angela 
 Skinner, Hubert M., 26 
 Slaughter, William B., 8 
 Slavery, in national politics, 109 ff. ; 
 
 in Indiana, 118 
 Smith, Clarence H., 41 
 
Index 
 
 357 
 
 Smith, Delavan, member Historical 
 Society, 30 ; bequest to Society, 
 37-38 
 Smith, Hamilton, 9, 44 
 Smith, Oliver H., member His- 
 torical Society, 8; (with 
 others) letter to Levi Wood- 
 bury, 265-67 
 Smith, William Henry, memorial 
 
 library, 37 
 Snepp, Daniel, 41 
 Society of Indiana Pioneers, or- 
 ganized, 35; cooperation of 
 Historical Society with, "39; 
 sponsors historical pilgrimages, 
 40-41 
 Soule, Pierre, of Louisiana, 1 15-16 
 South Carolina Historical Society, 
 
 organized, 93 
 Sparks, Jared, 15, 94 
 Stafford, Samuel, 244 
 Stempfel, Theodore, 30 
 Stephens, Robert, 226n 
 Stephenson, Andrew, 28 
 Stevens, Thaddeus, 22 
 Stockades, built during Black 
 
 Hawk War, 308-9 
 Stoops, Harry, 41 
 Story, Joseph, 15, 94 
 Stout, Elihu, editor of Western 
 Sun, i/5n; letters from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 186, 211 
 Stowe, Calvin E., 16 
 Study, J. N., 26 
 
 Sullivan, Jeremiah, 21, 43, 44, 102 
 Sullivan, Thomas L., 6, 8, 27, 44 
 Sumner, Charles, of Massachusetts, 
 
 I2 5, 139-40, 144 
 Sweetser, Philip, 271 
 
 Tanner, Gordon, 9 
 
 Taylor, Waller, of Jeffersonville, 
 172, 184; (with others) let- 
 ter to James Monroe, 258-59 
 
 Terre Haute (Ind.), early trade, 
 
 265-66 
 Terrell, William H. H., 24, 45 
 Test, Charles H., 13, 23-24, 43, 
 
 256n 
 Thomas, Isaiah, 90-91, 96 
 Thompson, , of Sullivan Coun- 
 ty, 220 
 Thompson, Charles N., 41 
 Thompson, James, 226n 
 Thompson, John H., 227 
 Thompson, John R., T/j/jn 
 Thompson, Maurice, 26, 30 
 Thompson, Colonel Richard W., 
 
 of Terre Haute, 27 
 Thornton, Henry P., 5, 8 
 Thornton, William W., 31 
 Three per cent fund, 254 
 Thwaites, Reuben G., 95 
 Tiffin, Edward, letter from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 226 
 Tippecanoe Battleground, memo- 
 rial, 20 
 Tipton, John, mentioned, 8, 26, 103, 
 226n, 255; letters from Jona- 
 than Jennings, 263-64, 267-68, 
 270-72 
 Topenebee, Sr., Indian chief, 293, 
 
 308, 310 
 Topenebee, Jr., Indian chief, 293, 
 
 304-5 
 Townsend, Abial, 234 
 Townsend, Robert, 234 
 Trumbull, Lyman, of Illinois, 128, 
 
 139 
 Turner, Frederick J., 95 
 Turpie, David, 27, 30, I45n 
 Tutt, Virginia, 41 
 Tuttle, Professor C. A., 28 
 Tuttle, E. C, 13 
 
 United States Congress, Jonathan 
 Jennings reviews work of 
 (1815-16), 212-15; (1828-29), 
 268-70 
 
358 
 
 Index 
 
 United States Senate, discussion on 
 acquisition of Mexican Terri- 
 tory, 109-10, admission of 
 Oregon, 1 10-12, admission of 
 California, 1 12-14, compromise 
 of 1850, 115-18, admission of 
 Kansas, 131 -33 
 
 Universities, as historical agencies, 
 94-97 
 
 Upfold, Reverend George, 44 
 
 Upham, George, of Vermont, 109- 
 10 
 
 Vander Burgh, Henry, 172 
 Vawter, John, 169, I95n, 219, 264 
 Vigo, Francis, letter from John H. 
 
 Farnham, I4n 
 Vincennes (Ind.), described 
 
 (1807), 163-64 
 Virginia Historical Society, 92-93 
 Voorhees, Daniel W., 133 
 
 Wabash River, navigation of, 265- 
 
 67 
 Wallace, David, 6, 8 
 Wallace, General Lew, 26-27, 29, 
 
 133 
 
 Wallace, William, 26 
 
 Washington Union, attempt to ex- 
 clude editors from U. S. Sen- 
 ate, 109 
 
 Weatherly, U. G, 30 
 
 Weathers, John, 232 
 
 Webster, Daniel, 115 
 
 Webster, Homer J., 31 
 
 Weed, Thurlow, 101, 102 
 
 Weller, John B., 125 
 
 Westcott, James, 114 
 
 Western Censor (Indianapolis, 
 Ind.), letter from Jonathan 
 Jennings to editors of, 250-51 
 
 Western Sun (Vincennes), I75n 
 
 Wetherill, Dr. Richard B., of 
 Lafayette, 41, 44, 53 
 
 Whallon, Thomas C., 30 
 Whig Party, in Indiana, 104-5, 120, 
 I26n; in national politics, 109, 
 122, 123 
 Whitcomb, James, 6, 7, 8, 45, 104, 
 
 117, I27n 
 White, Albert S., 8, 104 
 Whitlock, Ambrose, 211, 214 
 Wilkinson, Morton S., 138 
 Willard, Ashbel P., 8, 133 
 Willey, Waitman T., of Virginia, 
 
 143, I44n 
 Williams, Genevieve, 41 
 Wilmot, David, 109 
 Wilson, George R., 34, 4 1 
 Wilson, John R., 13, 25, 28, 46 
 Winsor, Justin, editor, 95-96 
 Wisconsin Historical Society, 93, 
 
 96 
 Wood, James, letter to Jonathan 
 
 Jennings, 197-98 
 Woodburn, James A., historical ac- 
 tivities, 28, 30-31, 32, 43, 44, 
 53 ; "The Indiana Historical 
 Society," 5-42 
 Woodbury, Levi, of Maine, 92; 
 letter from Jonathan Jennings 
 and others, 265-67 
 Woollen, Evans, 41, 43, 46, 53 
 Woollen, William Wesley, histori- 
 cal activities, 13, 24, 25, 43, 45 ; 
 (erroneously William Watson 
 Woollen), 29 
 World's Fair (Chicago), 319-20 
 Wright, Joseph, member Historical 
 Society, 8; political leader, 
 118, 127, 130; appointed to 
 U. S. Senate, I45n 
 Wylie, Andrew, 14, 15 
 Wynn, Dr. Frank B., 29, 33, 45 
 
 Yandes, Simon, 13 
 Young, Jesse, 226n 
 
THE POKAGONS 
 
 BY 
 
 CECILIA BAIN BUECHNER 
 
 Indiana Historical 
 
 Society Publications 
 
 Volume 10 
 
 Number 5 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY 
 
 1933