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After my father's return to
Arbor Croche, he became quite an orator, and consequently he was
appointed as the head speaker in the council of the Ottawa and Chippewa
Indians. He continued to hold this office until his frame was beginning
to totter with age, his memory became disconnected and inactive, and he
therefore gave up his office to his own messenger, whose name was Joseph
As-saw-gon, who died during the late rebellion in the United States
while Hon. D. C. Leach, of Traverse City, was the Michigan Indian Agent.
As-saw-gon was indeed quite an orator, considering his scanty
opportunities. He had no education at all, but was naturally gifted as
an orator. He was quite logical and allegorical in his manner of
speaking. I have heard several white people remark, who had listened to
his speeches through the imperfect interpreters, that he was as good a
speaker as any orator who had been thoroughly educated.
My father was the only man who was friendly to
education. When I was a little boy, I remember distinctly his making his
own alphabet, which he called "Paw-pa-pe-po." With this he learned how
to read and write; and afterwards he taught other Indians to read and
write according to his alphabet. He taught no children, but only the
grown persons. Our wigwam, which was about sixty or seventy feet long,
where we lived in the summer time, was like a regular school-house, with
my father as teacher of the school, and they had merry times in it. Many
Indians came there to learn his Paw-pa-pe-po, and some of them were very
easy to learn, while others found learning extremely difficult.
We were ten of us children in the family, six boys and
four girls. I was the youngest of all who were living at that time. The
eldest boy was one of the greatest hunters among the Ottawas. His name
was Pung-o- wish, named after our great-grandfather, but he was
afterwards called Peter by the Catholic missionaries when he was
baptized into the Catholic religion. One of my brothers who was five or
six years younger than my eldest brother was a remarkably interesting
boy. His name was Pe-taw-wan-e-quot, though he was afterwards called
William. He was quick to learn Paw-pa-pe-po, and very curious and
interesting questions he would often ask of his father, which would
greatly puzzle the old man to answer.
All the Indians of Arbor Croche used only to stay there
during the summer time, to plant their corn, potatoes, and other
vegetables. As soon as their crops were put away in the ground,
[Footnote: The mode of securing their corn was first to dry the ears by
fire. When perfectly dry, they would then beat them with a flail and
pick all the cobs out. The grain was then winnowed and put into sacks.
These were put in the ground in a large cylinder made out of elm bark,
set in deep in the ground and made very dry, filling this cylinder full
and then covering it to stay there for winter and summer use.] they
would start all together towards the south, going to different points,
some going as far as Chicago expressly to trap the muskrats, beavers,
and many other kinds of furs, and others to the St. Joe River, Black
River, Grand River, or Muskegon River, there to trap and hunt all
winter, and make sugar in the spring. After sugar making they would come
back again to Waw-gaw-naw-ke-zee, or Arbor Croche, to spend the summer
and to raise their crops again as before.
In navigating Lake Michigan they used long bark canoes
in which they carried their whole families and enough provisions to last
them all winter. These canoes were made very light, out of white birch
bark, and with a fair wind they could skip very lightly on the waters,
going very fast, and could stand a very heavy sea. In one day they could
sail quite a long distance along the coast of Lake Michigan. When night
overtook them they would land and make wigwams with light poles of cedar
which they always carried in their canoes. These wigwams were covered
with mats made for that purpose out of prepared marsh reeds or flags
sewed together, which made very good shelter from rain and wind, and
were very warm after making fires inside of them. They had another kind
of mat to spread on the ground to sit and sleep on. These mats are quite
beautifully made out of different colors, and closely woven, of well
prepared bull-rushes. [Footnote: To prepare these bull-rushes for mats,
they are cut when very green, and then they go through the process of
steaming, after bleaching by the sun; they are colored before they are
woven. They are generally made about six or eight feet long and about
four feet wide.] After breakfast in the morning they are off again in
the big canoes.
My father's favorite winter quarters were somewhere
above Big Rapids on Muskegon River. He hunted and trapped there all
winter and made sugar. A very mysterious event happened to my brother
William while my folks were making sugar there. One beautiful morning
after the snow had entirely disappeared in the woods, my brother
William, then at the age of about eight or nine years, was shooting
around with his little bow and arrows among the sugar trees, but that
day he never came home. At sundown, our parents were beginning to feel
very uneasy about their little boy, and yet they thought he must have
gone to some neighboring sugar bush, as there were quite a number of
families also making sugar in the vicinity. Early in the morning, my
father went to all the neighboring sugar camps, but William was nowhere
to be found. So at once a search was instituted. Men and boys were out
in search for the boy, calling and shooting their guns far and near, but
not a trace of him anywhere could be found. Our parents were almost
distracted with anxiety and fear about their boy, and they continued the
search three days in vain. On the fourth day, one of our cousins, whose
name was Oge-maw-we-ne-ne, came to a very deep gully between two hills.
He went up to the top of the highest hill in order to be heard a long
distance. When he reached the top, he began to halloo as loud as he
could, calling the child by name, Pe-taw-on-e-quot. At the end of his
shouting he thought he heard some one responding to his call, "Wau?"
This word is one of the interrogatives in the Indian language, and is
equivalent to "what" in the English language. He listened a few minutes,
and again he called as before, and again heard distinctly the same
response, "Wau?" It came from above, right over his head, and as he
looked upwards he saw the boy, almost at the top of a tree, standing on
a small limb in a very dangerous situation. He said, "Hello, what are
you doing up there? Can't you come down?" "Yes, I can," was the answer;
"I came up here to find out where I am, and which way is our sugar
camp." "Come down, then; I will show you which way is your home." After
he came down from the tree, our cousin offered him food, but the child
would not touch a morsel, saying that, he was not hungry as he had eaten
only a little while ago. "Ah, you have been fed then. Who fed you? We
have been looking for you now over three days." The boy replied, "I had
every thing that I wanted to eat in the great festival of the
Wa-me-te-go-zhe-wog." which is "the white people." "Where are they now?"
asked our cousin. "That is just what I would like to know, too," said
the boy; "I had just come out of their nice house between the two hills,
and as I looked back after I came out of their door I saw no more of
their house, and heard no more of them nor their music." Our cousin
again questioned the boy, "How did you come to find these
Wa-me-te-go-zhe-wog here?" And little William replied, "Those Wa-me-te-
go-zhe-wog came to our sugar camp and invited me to go with them, but I
thought it was very close by. I thought we walked only just a few steps
to come to their door." Our cousin believed it was some supernatural
event and hastened to take the boy to his anxious parents. Again and
again little William told the same story when interrogated by any
person, and it is firmly believed by all our family and friends that he
was cherished and fed three days in succession by angelic beings.
When he was about twelve or thirteen years of age the
Protestant Mission School started at Mackinac Island, and my father
thought best to put him to that school. After being there less than a
year, he was going around with his teachers, acting as interpreter among
the Indian camps at the Island of Mackinac. I was perfectly astonished
to see how quick he had acquired the English language. After the mission
broke up at the island, about the time the Catholic mission was
established at Little Traverse, William came home and stayed with us for
about two years, when he was again taken by Bishop Reese with his little
sister, a very lovely girl, whom the white people call Auntie Margaret,
or Queen of the Ottawa. They were taken down to Cincinnati, Ohio, where
they were put into higher schools, and there my brother attained the
highest degree of education, or graduation as it is called.
From thence he was taken across the ocean to the city
of Rome, Italy, to study for the priesthood, leaving his little sister
in Cincinnati. It is related that he was a very eloquent and powerful
orator, and was considered a very promising man by the people of the
city of Rome, and received great attention from the noble families, on
account of his wisdom and talent and his being a native American; and
yet he had a much lighter complexion than his cousin Aug Hamlin, who was
also taken over there and represented as half French.
While he was at Rome, the proposition arose in this
country to buy out the Michigan Indians by the Government of the United
States, and he wrote to his people at Arbor Croche and to Little
Traverse on this very subject, advising them not to sell out nor make
any contract with the United States Government, but to hold on until he
could return to America, when he would endeavor to aid them in making
out the contract or treaty with the United States. Never to give up, not
even if they should be threatened with annihilation or to be driven away
at the point of the bayonet from their native soil. I wish I could
produce some of this correspondence, but only one letter from him can
now be found, which is here given:
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