THE INDIAN HILL INDIANS y Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from CARLI: Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois http://archive.org/details/indianhillindianOOIawr THE INDIAN HILL INDIANS Father Pierre Francois Pinet, of the Society of Jesus and his Mission of the (guardian zAngel, 1 696-1 699 THE MIAMI VILLAGE CHICAGO 1920 The Indian Hill Indians S EARLY as 1696, the land on which the Indian Hill Club is located, was the site of a village of the Miami Tribe of the Algonquin Confederation. The Algonquins were dispersed by the great Iroquois invasion of 1680, but the Miamis, who were only lukewarm in their allegiance to the Confedera- tion, stayed in the Illinois country, while the other Tribes were driven west of the Mississippi River. The greater part of the Miamis afterward settled in Indiana. The few remaining around the Chicago Portage were later exterminated by the Sacs and Foxes, the Kickapoos and the Pottawattomies, who came down from Green Bay and from Michigan. The Miamis were the Indians that the French Explorers and Missionaries [3] The Indian Hill Indians found around Chicago; the Pottawat- tomies were here in the early part of the nineteenth century when the Americans came. Father Pierre Francois Pinet, of the Society of Jesus and his Mission of the Guardian Angel, 1696-1699 On September 14, 1698, Saint Cosme, Montigny, Davion, Vincennes and Tonty left Mackinac for the Illinois country in eight birch canoes. They paddled along the Western shore of Lake Michigan, intending to cross the Chicago Portage into the Des Plaines and thence down the Illinois River. Saint Cosme says: "We were pressed by the season" On October 7, 1698, they reached what is now Mil- waukee, and on Odtober 8th, Racine, where Vincennes left them. Here they were detained by bad weather and did not proceed until Odtober 1 9th. [4] Mission of the Guardian Angel Saint Cosme wrote: "We cabined on the 20th, five leagues from Chicaqw. * * * We had considerable difficulty in getting ashore and saving our canoes. We had to throw everything into the water. * * * We went by land, M. de Montigny, Davion and myself, to the house of the Reverend Jesuit Fathers, our people staying with the baggage. We found there Reverend Father Pinet and Reverend Father Buinateau. * * * Their house is built on the bank of a small lake, having a lake on one side and a large fine prairie on the other. The Indian village is of over one hundred and fifty cabins, and one league on the river there is another village almost as large. They are both of the Miamis." Saint Cosme grieved that the work of the Missionaries was barren of results. "Little fruit is produced/' he writes, "in those who have grown up and hardened in debauchery," but he consoles himself that "the children are baptised, and even the medicine men, [5] The Indian Hill Indians most opposed to Christianity, allow their children to be baptised. They are even very glad to have them instructed, so that it may be hoped that when the old stock dies off there will be a new Christian people! , This letter is interesting both as a human document and because it per- mits the location of Father Pinet's Mission to be pretty accurately con- jectured. Saint Cosme and his companions landed on the Lake Shore fifteen miles north of the mouth of the Chicago River. They went by land to the Mission. The house, he says, was on the bank of a small lake, having a lake on one side and a large, fine prairie on the other. It has been pointed out that the small lake was probably the Skokie, which was then and for many years afterwards a body of water of consider- able size. Saint Cosme says, in addition, that one league on the river there was another Miami village almost as large [6] Mission of the Guardian Angel as the one in which Father Pinet had his church. It is well known that there was a village on the north branch of the Chicago River, near where it joins the Skokie. From the foregoing, Frank R. Grover, in a paper read before the Chicago Historical Society, locates Father Pinet's Mission on the sand ridge near what is now the south end of the grounds of the Indian Hill Club. While the location of the Mission at this place has been disputed, there is no doubt that there was an Indian vil- lage here. The difference of opinion about the location of the Mission is due to the facl that there were two Miami villages. Saint Cosrne speaks of the other as being on a river, a league distant from the one where Father Pinet had his Mission. It is just as reasonable for us to claim Father Pinet as the patron saint of the Indian Hill Club as to concede him to Glen View. Indeed, the probabilities are that his [7] The Indian Hill Indians Mission was in the village which un- doubtedly was located on the Club grounds. The Mission, which was called the Mission of the Guardian Angel, was in existence in 1696, when Saint Cosme visited it. It was broken up the following year, according to Jesuit writers, through Frontenac's hostility, and was afterwards re-established. It was probably abandoned in 1699 or 1700. The Miami Village The Miami Village, as reported by Saint Cosme, consisted of over a hun- dred and fifty "cabins. " These were along a trail which followed the sum- mit of the sand ridge. This trail began at the mouth of the Chicago River and extended to Green Bay. It was after- wards the line of communication of the early settlers between the Chicago Portage and Green Bay, and finally became the Green Bay Road. The Miami Village This Miami village was probably the usual straggling group of Indian lodges. It extended from where the entrance to the Kenilworth Sanitarium now is, as far north as the present village hall. The knoll where the tenth tee is was a lookout station. This spot is marked "Indian Hill" on some of the old maps. There is no doubt that an Indian village was on the Club's property. During the construc- tion work on the course, conclusive evidence of this was discovered. Num- bers of arrow and spear heads, scrapers and stone hammers were found. The quantities of rejected and un-, finished implements and the debris of manufacture are particularly significant. This indicates a certain permanence of residence. Finished and perfect imple- ments are more commonly met with on hunting fields or battle grounds. Wherever the sod has been turned along the ridge, stone flakes have been found. Those chips are as charafteris- [9] The Indian Hill Indians tic of the Indian workman as shavings and sawdust are of a carpenter, and accumulations of them point unmis- takably to the existence of a village where primitive industry was carried on. Curiously, the area where the evidence of Indian work appears, coincides almost exactly with the loca- tion of the Miami village from historical sources. The specimens in this case were all found on the Club's property during construction work. The larger implements are hammer stones and axes. Below them are grouped arrow and lance heads and parts of finished points. The implements in the middle of the case are scrapers and chisels. The remainder are imperfed: or un- finished implements and pieces rejedled during fabrication. [10] F ,fe6 Ml ^ g*<