CHAPTER I.

The Dim and Shadowy Past-An Ancient People-What is Known of Them-Mounds and Earthworks-Ancient Manufactories of Stone Arrow-heads-Pottery-Copper Ornaments-Probabilities in Regard to the Occupation of the Grand Traverse Country by the Mound-Builders.

The history of a country differs in some points from the history of a people. The latter traces a people through all their migrations, and portrays their life in the different countries they have occupied; the former confines its investigations to a single country, and treats of all the different peoples that have at any time inhabited it.

In our inquiry regarding the early occupancy of the Grand Traverse country, we soon pass beyond the domain of authentic record, into the dim and shadowy realm of conjecture. When the white man came, he found the Indian here; but the Indian had been preceded by another people. Of that other people there is no tradition, or at most but a very vague and uncertain one. All we know of them is gleaned from scattered and scanty monumental remains, brought to light by accident or the researches of the antiquarian. Yet these remains are sufficient to enable us to construct a theory of their civilization, religion, and civil polity, having a tolerable degree of probability.

This ancient people have been named the Mound-Builders, from the numerous mounds of earth, some of them of immense magnitude, found in those parts of the country they inhabited. They were an agricultural people, having made considerable advancement in the arts of civilization. They manufactured pottery of clay, and various implements, weapons, and ornaments of stone and copper. They constructed extensive earthworks for religious uses. They worshiped the sun. They offered human sacrifices by fire. They offered sacrifices of their most valuable goods, on altars made of burnt clay, and then covered up altar and ashes, and the burned fragments of the offerings with mounds of earth. They laid their honorable dead in shallow graves, and heaped huge mounds of earth above them. The mysterious rites of sepulture were celebrated by the aid of fire, and sometimes a human victim was sacrificed above the grave.*

*The writer has in his possession the fragments of a burned human skull found in a mound in such a situation as to warrant the above statement. Two bodies had been laid in shallow graves, and a mound partly built above them. On a level spot, on the partly-built mound, a body had been burned, and then the bed of ashes, with the burned bones lying upon it, had been covered with earth by the completion of the mound.

Their government, whatever its form, was strong enough to control the mass of the people, and hold together large bodies of men in the service of the State. They built extensive fortifications, in positions well chosen for defense, that, in primitive methods of warfare, must have been wellnigh impregnable. They carried on an extensive internal commerce, exchanging the products of one region for those of another.

Such are some of the facts antiquarians have been able to establish in regard to the ancient people who, long ages ago, had their seat of power in the Mississippi valley, and spread their colonies over the country from the Alleghanies to the Rocky mountains, and from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.

There is indubitable evidence that the Mound-Builders wrought the copper mines of Lake Superior-that the work was carried on by large bodies of men through a period of hundreds of years-but evidence that they established permanent settlements there is wanting. The most reasonable theory is that the laborers spent the summer in the mines, but retired for the winter to a more genial clime; hence it becomes an interesting problem to determine the northern limit of their permanent abode.

It is evident that they had populous settlements in some of the more fertile districts of the southern part of the State. Farther north their remains are found less frequently, and are of a less imposing character. Characteristic earthworks (whether built for defense or for civil or religious purposes is uncertain) are found in Ogemaw county. Mounds are known to exist in Manistee county. That outlying colonies extended north to the Grand Traverse country scarcely admits of a doubt. Around Boardman lake, near Traverse City, several small mounds formerly existed, some of which have been destroyed in the search for relics. Several small burial mounds have been opened within the village limits.

The sites of several ancient manufactories of stone arrow-heads have been found. In excavating for a street, on the bank of Boardman river in Traverse City, such a location was discovered, marked by the presence of great numbers of chips of flint, or hornstone, the refuse of the material used for making the arrow-heads. At Charlevoix the soil for a foot or more in depth on the top of the bluff north of the mouth of the river contains great numbers of these flint chips, together with some unfinished arrow-heads that were spoiled in making and thrown away. Another well-marked site of an arrow-head manufactory is on the farm of John

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Miller, on the north shore of Pine lake, about a mile from the village of Boyne City.*

Fragments of ancient pottery, having the markings common to the pottery attributed to the Mound-Builders, are found at the locality last mentioned, and also within the village limits of Boyne City, as well as sparingly in other places.

At Charlevoix, in excavating a cellar, an ancient grave was opened, in which were found a great number of beautifully-finished flint arrowheads and a quantity of copper beads. In the same locality, some boys amusing themselves by running up and down the steep bank of the "Old River," discovered a piece of copper protruding from the gravelly bank. An examination resulted in the finding of two knives and two bodkins, or piercing instruments, all of copper.

The evidence seems conclusive that the Mound-Builders, the most ancient inhabitants of the territory of the United States of whom we have any knowledge, had extended their scattered frontier settlements into the Grand Traverse country. Here, perhaps, mining expeditions from the more populous south called to make their final preparations for the northern summer trip, and here some of the returning miners were accustomed to spend the winter.

That ancient people have long since disappeared. Of the reason and manner of their disappearance no record remains, except, perhaps, a vague and shadowy tradition, which seems to imply that they retired towards the south before the fierce and savage race that succeeded them in the occupancy of the country.

CHAPTER II.

Migrations of the Ottawas-First Meeting of the Ottawas and Chippewas -The Three Brothers-The Underground Indians-The Mush-quah-tas -An Unpardonable Insult-A Tribe Blotted Out.

When northern Michigan first became known to the white man, the Ottawas, a tribe of the Algonquin family, occupied the region now known as the Grand Traverse country. Their origin as a tribe is veiled in the

*It may be objected that the Indians made and used flint arrow-heads and stone axes, and that therefore the finding of these relics is no evidence of the former presence of the Mound-Builders. I freely admit the possibility that in the cases mentioned the arrowheads were made by the Indians, but I am fully convinced that at least three-fourths of all the stone implements and ornaments found in the United States are the work of the Mound-Builders. In regard to the pottery of the Grand Traverse country, its marking and general appearance place it with the pottery of the Mound-Builders. As to the copper ornaments and implements, the fact is well established that the Indians knew nothing of the copper mines, and did not put copper to any practical use till the white men taught them how.

obscurity of the past. Tradition says that they came from the east, advancing up the Ottawa river, in Canada, and then westward by way of the north shore of Lake Huron and the Manitoulin islands. The reason for the migration is not known. There may have been no special reason beyond the common exigencies of savage life which necessitate removal, or they may have been influenced by the proximity of their fierce and powerful neighbors, the Iroquois, with whom they were always at war. The advance westward was slow and gradual, being interrupted by pauses of varying duration. At the great Manitoulin islands the tribe for a long time made their home.

At Sault Ste. Marie they first met the Chippewas, who inhabited the country bordering on Lake Superior. The two tribes were mutually surprised to find that, though previously each had had no knowledge of the existence of the other, their languages were so nearly alike that they could converse intelligibly. A council was held, the subject was discussed, and the history of each tribe rehearsed, but the tradition does not tell us that the mystery of the likeness of the languages and the probable consanguinity of the tribes was solved.

The Ottawas were brave and warlike. As they advanced westward they fought and vanquished those who opposed their progress; with those that were friendly they smoked the pipe of peace. Friendly intercourse with the Chippewas and Pottawattamies resulted in the formation of a sort of loose confederacy of the three tribes, who styled themselves, "The Three Brothers." During the period of the earlier intercourse of the whites with the Indians of the Northwest these tribes seem to have held undisputed possession of nearly the whole of the Lower Peninsula.

The Ottawas remained for some time established in the vicinity of the Straits before they extended their settlements along the shore of Lake Michigan. During this period, though they were at peace with their immediate neighbors, they gratified their thirst for battle by frequent warlike expeditions against distant tribes. They often passed south around the head of Lake Michigan, and westward beyond the Mississippi, sometimes, it is said, extending their forays almost to the foot of the Rocky mountains. They brought home many western prisoners. Some of these were called by the Ottawas, Underground Indians, on account of their cus tom of digging pits in the ground for dwellings. The Underground Indians were brave and intelligent, and made excellent counsellors. The captors often intermarried with their captives, and the descendants of the latter, in many cases, were closely related to the royal families of the Ottawas. Some of the most noted Ottawa chiefs of later times were descended from the Underground Indians.

At that time a portion of the present county of Emmet was the home of a small tribe, called the Mush-quah-tas. Their principal village was situated in a beautiful valley in the northeast part of the township, now called Friendship. The name of the tribe signifies, "The People Who Roam Over the Prairies." They were of Algonquin stock, as is proved by the fact that their language resembled the Ottawa, while the tribal name and their recognized affinity to the Underground Indians seem to point to a western origin. The Mush-quah-tas were intelligent, peaceable, and industrious, cultivating large fields of corn, and seldom going on the warpath. They had been on friendly terms with the Ottawas since the arrival of the latter in the country, though it is probable that some degree of concealed ill-will existed on both sides. It was a sad day for the Mush-quah-tas, when, by their own foolish act, these friendly relations were disturbed.

There was a small village of the Mush-quah-tas on the lake shore, at what is now called Seven-Mile Point. A small party of Ottawas, returning in their canoes from an expedition against the Sacs, having lost some of their comrades, as they came near the village, commenced wailing for the dead, according to the Indian custom. The Mush-quah-tas, hearing the distant sounds of grief, instead of preparing to join in the mourning, as would have been proper, rashly determined to express in an emphatic manner their disapproval of the marauding expeditions of their neighbors and their contempt for those who engaged in them. Accordingly, as the canoes touched the beach, their occupants were pelted by the young men and boys of the village with balls of ashes wrapped up in forest leaves. The Ottawas retired sullen, burning with the spirit of revenge, and soon reported the occurrence to their own people. To the proud Ottawas, the insult was such as could only be wiped out with blood. A joint council of the Ottawas and Chippewas was held, in which it was determined, if possible, to annihilate the Mush-quah-tas.

Living in the principal village of the Mush-quah-tas, was an old man and his two married sons. Whether the old man, hearing of the affair at Seven-Mile Point, shrewdly surmised that the insulted Ottawas would seek a bloody revenge, or, as the tradition seems to imply, was impressed with a true prophetic presentiment of coming evil, he faithfully warned the people that their village would soon be overwhelmed by enemies, and earnestly counselled retirement to a place of safety. Finding his counsel disregarded, he, with his sons and their families, removed to the shore of Little Traverse bay, fixing his temporary abode near the present site of Harbor Springs.