Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2013, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Centennial History of Menominee County by Hon. E. S. Ingalls, Menominee: Herald Power Presses; 1876 [page 7] CHAPTER I HISTORIC SKETCH OF MENOMINEE COUNTY, MICH. The history of a new country can reach back but a few years. The unwritten history, if known, would possess a greater inter- est than the written, and could the distant past unfold its record we would read a page of history beside which the times within the knowledge of man would seem tame and commonplace. It is so with Menominee County. Could we go back to the days of pre-historic man, we would probably find history so full of tragic interest that it would seem like romance, and even if we had the history of the early Indian races who made this their homes for many generations, it would undoubtedly furnish us much more of incident than we can ob- tain since the white man first paddled his canoe, or pushed his batteaux into the mouth of the Menominee. We have no knowledge of the pre-historic man except what is gained from the mounds scattered throughout the country, and some remnant of streets and cities that have been exhumed, and occa- sionally fortifications, the remains of which furnish satisfactory evidence that the builders were of a race much more numerous and father advanced in civilization than the races that succeed- ed them and were found here by the white men. Abundant evidence that such a race once inhabited Menomi- nee County is found in the mounds within its borders. But [page 8] these mounds are the beginning and the end of all the history we have of the pre-historic race. When the first white man visited Green Bay the Menominee river was the home of the "Menominee Indians," then very numerous, and Menominee was their most populous locality. The abundance of fish running out of Green Bay into the river; the check they received in climbing the rapids two miles from the mouth; and the abundance of game in the woods around, en- abled them to obtain a living very easily. Their favorable loca- tion, too, on the shores of the bay rich with fish, and at the mouth of the river whose branches enabled them to penetrate the vast regions to the north with their birch bark canoes - these advantages drew large numbers about the mouth of the Menomi- nee. The peaceful character of the Menominee was early no- ted by the white traders, and although they were brave as a peo- ple, yet wars rarely arose between them and other tribes, and violence was seldom committed on those who visited them. -- Tradition tells of but one battle within the limits of Menominee County, and that was between the Indians living near the mouth of the river and those living in the villages near White Rapids and Grand Rapids. The first were Menominees of course, but it is not certainly known whether their opponents belonged to the same tribe or were Chippewas, but the presumption is that they belonged to the latter tribe. The battle was fought near the house of Charles McLeod, and along the banks of the river near Burying Ground Point. The trouble occurred in this way;-- The Indians in the village near the mouth of the river, were living on the fat of the land, that is Sturgeon, which they caught in great abundance on the rapids. But an abundance was not enough, for Sturgeon is the special delight of the red man. The Chief, therefore, ordered dams of stones to be built across the river at the rapids, in order to prevent the fish from ascending the river. This caused great suffering at the upper villages, for the Indians there were largely dependent upon Sturgeon for their subsistence, so the Chief at Grand Rapids sent his son down to ask the potentate at the mouth of the river to tear away the ob- structions, and let the finny monsters wend their way up the stream as usual, stating, at the same time, that his people were suffering for the need thereof. But to this most reasonable re- [page 9] quest the Chief turned a deaf ear, and sent the son back to his father with an insulting message. But Sturgeon his people must have or starve, and this fact, coupled with the insults heaped upon him by the Chief at the mouth of the river, aroused his fighting blood. Calling together his warriors and those from the tribes farther up the river, who were in a like condition, he prepared for war. With "Sturgeon" for a war cry, they set out down the river to punish the inhabitants of the village, that had wronged them by cutting off their supply of food. At early dawn the war whoop broke the stillness of the morning, and as its death telling echoes and re-echoes were wafted upon the morning breeze, it fell with terrible meaning upon the ears of the Menominees at the mouth of the river, and every warrior was quickly in arms and ready for fight, in a warfare that show- no quarter and sought no mercy. The battle was short and sharp. The squaws and children fled to the swamps or crossed the river for safety. The fight raged up and down the river bank and upon the island for two or three hours, when the village fell into the hands of its assailants, and the shore Chieftain was a captive in the hands of his enemies. He was made a victim of the most terrible torture that savage ingenuity could devise, which was ended only by death. The loss was great on either side but much more severe on the side of the down river tribe. The conquerors, foregoing farther bloodshed, tore away the ob- noxious dams, and returned to their homes, followed up by the unsuspecting sturgeon, which were again caught in peace and plenty. The writer received this account from the late John G. Kittson, and he, in turn, obtained the traditions from the Indians living on the river when he came here. The tradition, as handed down, is much more full than is here given, but the object of this record is rather to preserve the fact of its existence than to make a story, and therefore much of the minutae is omitted. The Menominee Indians are fast fading away, and where there were thousands when the white men came it is rare now to find one. When the writer came here, it was very common to see a village of wigwams at the rapids, the occupants busy catching and smoking a season's stock of the staff of life. i.e., Sturgeon, as a supply of provisions to last until the deer were fat enough [page 10] to eat. It was also common to see fleets of bark canoes, loaded down with squaws and pappooses, coasting along the shores of Green Bay. Nearly all of these now live on their Reservations at Keshena and Shawano. Many of them have become civil- ized and have good common schools and churches. A few yet remain around Menominee, but their days are numbered. Like the pines of their native forests they cannot withstand the effects of civilization, and the time is not far distant when there will not be an Indian left on the Menominee to cherish the memory, or even preserve the name of the peaceful tribe that once roamed over these hunting grounds, proud in the freedom of savage life. ==========================================================================