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Audubon County |
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CHAPTER I.GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY, ETC. (CONT'D)From History of Audubon Co., Iowa (1915)
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THE INDIANS.There is nothing to indicate that the Indians ever made permanent homes in this county. It was not favorable for such resort. The larger rivers, where fish abounded, were better adapted for permanent abodes of the aborigines. We do not find the remains of an Indian town here. Fish never abounded here. The only source of food supply sufficient to sustain a large body of people permanently was elk, deer, and perhaps buffalo at an early period; small game could not be procured in sufficient quantity to sustain a large population. The burning of the grass and herbage annually in the fall destroyed most of the food supply for the sustenance of wild animals during the winter, and probably large numbers of elk and deer migrated during those periods in search of food elsewhere. A limited number only could subsist in the timber and brush lands. The migratory birds did not winter here. But in summer when food for wild animals and birds was abundant, this must have been the Indian hunter's paradise, and the opportunity, no doubt, was improved. Game was abundant and the Indians ate nearly all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as birds, for food. The Indians continued to make hunting trips here annually in warm weather as late as the year 1886. They were Musquakies, from Tama county, known as "Johnny Green's Tribe." The last time Green himself was seen here was in the fall of 1865, when he was very old. He was a brother of Shabbona, who lived at a grove of that name in DeKalb county, Illinois. Shabbona served with the Indian allies of the British in the War of 1812. As many as fifty in a band, bucks, squaws and pappooses, clad in their peculiar array of shirts, leggings, blankets, etc., with numerous ponies and dogs, came to hunt and trap from June until cold weather. They lived in "wickeups," a frame of sapling rods, covered with mats woven food, and were a nuisance on that account. They were excessively fond of "hoggy meat," and not dainty about their food, if not too far decayed. They lived in "wickiups," a frame of sapling rods, covered with mats woven from flags by the squaws. The walls sloped and were open at the top for the escape of smoke when fires were kindled near the center within. They were cozy and comfortable, but not always clean. Later they lived in canvas tents. Some of the Indians were drunkards, but not worse than some white people. Many of them gloried in horse-racing and were not inferior to the whites in that kind of sport. Their favorite camping places were near Walker's place, on Troublesome creek; near the Burton place, on the Botna; near the mouth of David's creek, west of Exira; north of Exira in sections 21 and 27 in Hamlin township on the Botna; at Blue Grass Grove, where the county poorhouse is located; at Luccock's Grove; and the groves on West Botna, in Douglas township, and at other places. The late A. B. Houston, of Exira, once said that the Indians came to his place about 1857, and were making free, without invitation, with his little supply of corn, and broke up the nests of Mrs. Houston's sitting hens, seeking food for themselves and ponies. The Indians were normally hungry. Houston remonstrated with them and they departed grumblingly. In 1871, about harvest time, the Indians made a camp in the timber on the Botna north of Exira, in Hamlin township, and were making havoc with the deer. Several hunters, among them John Huntley, John Dodge, Sant. Anderson, William Evans, the writer, and others, armed and mounted, went to their camp. Huntley acted as leader. He drew the profile of an Indian with charcoal on the bark of a tree; then pointing to the picture said: "Him Indian! Indian kill white man's buck! White man skuddaho (whip) Indian like h--1! Puckachee (go away)!" He then drew a revolver and shot at the picture. The Indians observed him closely an held a consultation among themselves, and one of them, pointing towards the place of sunrise, said: "Morning, Indian puckachee way off." They kept their promise. I have since thought that we treated the poor savages worse than the occasion required; but it was an aggravation for them to come into our settlement and kill game under our noses, when there was plenty by going a little farther away. AN INDIAN APOLLO.About that period I. K. Johnson employed the writer to survey his land (in section 36, Lincoln township), which he was unable to find, and where he afterwards settled. It was late in the fall of the year and, while at work, I observed off to the east a strange performance which excited my curiosity. There was a scarlet object, surmounted by a black spot, moving along the ground and not far distant were two deer gazing at it, alternately approaching and retreating as if trying to discover the nature of the strange sight. I soon concluded that someone was trying to lure the deer within gun-shot. The hunter was enveloped with a red blanket with his black head showing above, a remarkable sight. I had known the trick to succeed with antelope decoyed in that way, but never before or since have seen it succeed with deer. But it worked all right in that case. The deer got into range and the hunter shot and killed one of them, a fine doe, but the other escaped. It was before the days of repeating rifles. I went over to the scene, when, lo and behold, the successful hunter was the Indian, Jo, who greeted me in a friendly manner. He prepared the deer by removing its entrails and bound its feet together, swung it upon his back with the legs across his breast, and started for camp several miles away, which we also reached the same night, it being located in a small grove where Mr. Ellsberry had settled, in Douglas township, and where Johnson, and myself also camped. We heard the bells on the Indian ponies nearly all night. It snowed during the night, but we had improvised a shelter from a wagon-cover spread over a pole placed in the fork of a sapling near a large tree then recently blown down. Next morning I went to the Indian camp and got some venison for breakfast free of cost. When I arrived there the Indians were at breakfast, eating from a large pan of colored beans and corn, cooked with deer meat. One of the Indians performed a ceremony similar to saying grace before eating. The first settlers found the place of sepulcher of an Indian chief named Pymosa, soon after coming here. Possibly he was known to history. If I ever knew, I have forgotten his tribe. The spot was in the timber on the land of Doctor Ballard, in section 31, Exira township, east of the Ballard bridge. The body was found in a sitting position on the ground, decorated with ear-rings, beads, trinkets, etc., enclosed with slabs of wood (puncheons), all being surrounded with a conical stack of saplings and logs to protect the body from wild animals. He had been dead long enough for the flesh to fall from the bones. His skull and some of the bones and decorations were carried away by the whites as souvenirs. His name is preserved in the name of the adjoining township of Pymosa, in Cass county, a fitting rebuke to the settlers of Audubon for the sacrilege and desecration of the red chief's sepulcher and remains. |
