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09 - Starved Rock- A Historical Sketch by Eaton G. Osman · Starved Rock- A Historical Sketch

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  Speaker 1: Section nine of Starved Rock, a historical sketch by Eton g. Osman.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
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  Speaker 1: Veronica Jenkins. Section nine the sequel, Far as we were informed,
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  Speaker 1: so thick and fast they fell scarce, twenty of their
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  Speaker 1: number at night did get home well. Puritan ballad the Pottawotomies.
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  Speaker 1: The Honorable P. A. Armstrong of Morris, Illinois, who has
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  Speaker 1: written much upon the Indian Wars of Illinois during this century,
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy three, published in the Morris Reformer a
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  Speaker 1: series of articles on the Starved Rock tradition based upon
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  Speaker 1: personal interviews he had sixty years ago with early pioneers
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  Speaker 1: of LaSalle and Grundy Counties, as well as the retiring
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  Speaker 1: red Men, trappers, traders, and other frontiersmen. After sketching the
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  Speaker 1: war which ended with the Rock tragedy, mister Armstrong brings
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  Speaker 1: the conquering tribes together the following spring on its Indian
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  Speaker 1: Creek in LaSalle County, north and east of Ottawa, where
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  Speaker 1: they met to have a jollification over their victory, and
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  Speaker 1: then proceed substantially as follows. On this occasion, weeks were
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  Speaker 1: spent in feasting dancing and merrymaking weeks fraught with the
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  Speaker 1: most direful consequences to the peace and harmony of the allies.
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  Speaker 1: For at this feast, each and every warrior was allowed
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  Speaker 1: and expected to recite in the most exaggerated manner, his
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  Speaker 1: prowess as a warrior, the scalps he had taken, the
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  Speaker 1: dangers encountered, and sufferings endured, commencing in all instances with
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  Speaker 1: big Indian me Jealousies at once sprung up as each
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  Speaker 1: candidate applied for applause, the squaws and papouses naturally siding
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  Speaker 1: with the warriors of their respective tribes, and a feeling
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  Speaker 1: of distrust, if not hate, was soon engendered, which daily increased,
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  Speaker 1: so that when the chiefs came to talk about the
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  Speaker 1: division of the territory they had acquired, each tribe claimed
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  Speaker 1: the lion's share of the territory west of the Illinois River.
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  Speaker 1: They knew nothing, and they all desired that territory watered
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  Speaker 1: by the Illinois River and its tributaries. An amicable division
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  Speaker 1: or adjustment could not be made. The Miamis were by
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  Speaker 1: far more numerous than either of the other tribes, and moreover,
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  Speaker 1: were much better armed, since they had quite a number
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  Speaker 1: of muskets, while the other tribes at none. This rendered
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  Speaker 1: the Miamis very domineering and haughty. They demanded all or
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  Speaker 1: nearly all of the newly acquired territory, which, of course
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  Speaker 1: the other two tribes resisted. Hence an open rupture was
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  Speaker 1: made and a battle ensued upon the very grounds they
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  Speaker 1: had used in feasting. The Potawatomies and Cuckapoos uniting their
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  Speaker 1: forces against the Miamis. Many were slain on both sides,
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  Speaker 1: and after fighting from morning until night, the Miamis took
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  Speaker 1: advantage of the night to withdraw, leaving the allies in
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  Speaker 1: possession of the battlefield. But this battle, a though severe one,
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  Speaker 1: was by no means a decisive one. The losses on
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  Speaker 1: both sides were heavy, and neither were in a condition
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  Speaker 1: to renew the fight for several months, as they were
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  Speaker 1: out of provision and short of clothing and implements of war.
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  Speaker 1: The balance of the summer and following winter were spent
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  Speaker 1: in preparing for a renewal of the contest. The following spring,
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  Speaker 1: the Miamis went down the river and thence to Kaskaskia,
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  Speaker 1: while the Potawatomes and Cuckapoos remained near their previous winter quarters,
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  Speaker 1: collecting provisions and clothing, and constructing bows and arrows and
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  Speaker 1: other implements of Indian warfare. Early in the spring following
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  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy one, the Miamis returned northward to give battle
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  Speaker 1: to their late allies, but now bitter enemies, and were
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  Speaker 1: met near Peoria, where another battle was fought, which, like
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  Speaker 1: the former one, was not decisive, was indeed a drawn battle,
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  Speaker 1: and each party buried their own dead. The evidences of
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  Speaker 1: these two great battles are eighteen seventy three still visible
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  Speaker 1: in the numerous mounds where they buried their dead, which
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  Speaker 1: are still there to mark the spot, and aeroflints and
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  Speaker 1: other implements of Indian warfare had been found in the
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  Speaker 1: neighborhood by the bushel. The war lasted with indifferent success
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  Speaker 1: to either party, for about five years, and many a
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  Speaker 1: hard fought battle attested the bravery of these unfortunate, passion
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  Speaker 1: blinded savages, who left their dead buried in many places
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  Speaker 1: throughout the coveted territory. In the year seventeen seventy five,
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  Speaker 1: they had worked around and nearly back to the place
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  Speaker 1: where their first battle had occurred, with the aline. Harassed
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  Speaker 1: and warned by excessively long marches and repeated and sanguinary battles,
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  Speaker 1: both armies were well nigh exhausted. A proposition was then
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  Speaker 1: made on the part of the Miamis to pick three
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  Speaker 1: hundred warriors from each side and let them commence to
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  Speaker 1: fight at sunrise and continue the fight until either the
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  Speaker 1: one side or the other should conquer. This proposition was
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  Speaker 1: at once accepted by the Patawadabes and Kickapoos, upon the
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  Speaker 1: condition that the weapons on both sides should be the
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  Speaker 1: bow and arrowt tomahawk, knife and spear, or such implements
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  Speaker 1: of warfare as were peculiarly Indian, and that the remnant
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  Speaker 1: of each army should cross to the east side of
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  Speaker 1: the Wabash River, so that no assistance or interference could
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  Speaker 1: possibly be made by either side. This agreement was entered
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  Speaker 1: into with all the solemnity of the high councils of
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  Speaker 1: these respective tribes, and three hundred picked warriors were selected
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  Speaker 1: from each side, who crossed over to the bloody ground
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  Speaker 1: and encamped upon Sugar Creek, which empties into the Wabash River.
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  Speaker 1: The place selected for this terrible duel was a heavy timber,
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  Speaker 1: about twenty miles from the Wabash. The battle was to
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  Speaker 1: commence at sunrise the following morning. The faded morning came
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  Speaker 1: a calm, cool, bright September morn, and with the coming
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  Speaker 1: of the morning sun, the battle commenced. Six hundred stalwart warriors,
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  Speaker 1: engaging in a strife for victory or death. They practiced
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  Speaker 1: every pass and word, to thrust, to strike, to to guard.
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  Speaker 1: Here were the deeds of a thermopylae re enacted. Quarter
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  Speaker 1: was neither asked nor given. Death was the watchword and reply.
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  Speaker 1: Now shielding behind some giant oak, every ruse was resorted
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  Speaker 1: to in the hope of inducing the enemy to expose
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  Speaker 1: his person. Now grappling in a depth struggle, the combatants fell,
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  Speaker 1: never to rise again. The duel raged from sunrise to sunset.
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  Speaker 1: When twelve warriors only remained, five Miamis and seven Potawatamies
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  Speaker 1: and Cuckapoos. The five run, the seven are the victors.
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  Speaker 1: The great chiefs Shikshack, Sugar, Marquette, and Shaddy were among
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  Speaker 1: the seven. The Miamis were conquered and by their agreement
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  Speaker 1: gave up all claim to the hunting ground of the
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  Speaker 1: annihilated Allini and retired east of the Wabash. Thus did
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  Speaker 1: the Potawatames and Cuckapoos become the successors of the Illini,
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  Speaker 1: and soon after this final battle with the Miami, they
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  Speaker 1: divided the territory between themselves, the Cickaboos taking all of
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  Speaker 1: the territory adjoining the Wabash west to the line running
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  Speaker 1: north and south through Oliver's Grove in Livingston County, and
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  Speaker 1: the Potawatames all the territory west of that line. The Potawatames,
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  Speaker 1: having taken undisputed possession of their conquest, made their principal
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  Speaker 1: village on the plain northwest of Starved Rock, near the
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  Speaker 1: present village of Utica, where, among others, the youthful G. S. Hubbard,
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  Speaker 1: later one of the founders of the City of Chicago,
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  Speaker 1: as representative of the American Fur Company, carried on a
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  Speaker 1: trade with them. Here, Unlike the vanished Alinai, the Potawatames
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  Speaker 1: lived in tents nodding cabins. Another important village was called
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  Speaker 1: Wabunzi or Wapanessi, located at the mouth of the Peshtaka
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  Speaker 1: or Poista la Couche Antelope as these Indians called the
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  Speaker 1: Fox River of Illinois and the ancient city of Ottawa.
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  Speaker 1: In eighteen fourteen, however, a treaty was made with the Ottawas,
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  Speaker 1: Chipwas and Potawatamees Kindred tribes by Ninian Edwards William Clark
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  Speaker 1: and August Chateau, by which the Indians gave up their
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  Speaker 1: Illinois lands south of a line running west from Lake
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  Speaker 1: Michigan to the Mississippi. A few years later, eighteen thirty four,
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  Speaker 1: the Patawatamies were removed from Illinois to new lands beyond
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  Speaker 1: the Mississippi, and the Indians part in the history of
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  Speaker 1: starv Rock came to an end forever. End of section nine,
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  Speaker 1: recorded by Veronica Jenkins in Ottawa, Illinois,