Pioneers of Marion County by Wm. M. Donnel, 1872

Chapter II

The Indians - Language of the Sacs and Foxes - Brief Sketches of their History - Black Hawk Beheaded -
Installation of Keokuk as Chief - Indian Tragedy near Red Rock

Enough has been written on the manners and customs of that somewhat mysterious race of people, the Indians, so that we shall not introduce that subject here, except as it occurs in the reminiscences from time to time. Indian life is so uniform that what relates to one tribe is mainly applicable to the whole nation, for the similarity of complexion, language and habits of the numerous tribes lead us to believe they belong to the same nationality as much as did the twelve tribes of Israel. It is true that there are some differences, but these are not materially distinct, and may be attributed to differences of climate and country. Various causes may have divided the nation into so many tribes, but the most probable cause was the same that operates to divide civilized nations into clans and communities - conflicting interests and quarrels - since which they have maintained the separation under separate leaders. Most of the tribes are noted for their warlike propensity, and if their history could be written, it might show a succession of wars as full of romantic and adventure as those of the ancient Greeks and Romans. From this cause some tribes, once powerful and much dreaded, were reduced to mere remnants or totally extinguished. We venture to say that if it had not been for these divisions into tribes, and the failure of some of their most noted chiefs to unite many of them against a common enemy, our success in subduing them would have been far more difficult.

The Sacs and Foxes who occupied the country included in the purchase of 1842, were enough alike in all general respects to constitute but one tribe. We are told that they occupied the same districts, hunted upon the same hunting grounds, intermarried, and spoke the same language, with but slight difference, no more, probably, than what occurs between eastern and western people in their use of the English.

As a matter of some curiosity, as well as useful instruction, we here give the translation of a few words, of Indian, as spoken by these tribes, as nearly as English letters can be made to convey the somewhat difficult articulation:

Horse, Nack-a-tock-a-shaw; hog, cocasho; ox or cow, nanoos; Desmoines river, koasauqua sepe; White Breast river, waupeka sepe; Skunk river, shecauqua sepe;* e-noch-enoqua, to-day I am going; Ku-che-pen-oach-ne-och-e-pe-i-ale, come a long distance; war, necanty; one, nacote; two, nish; three, ness; four, neaue; five, neollen; six, cautwassick; seven, nawhick; eight, swuassick; nine, sauk; ten, mataus or sweech; twenty, nishwaupetuck; thirty, nessswaupetuck; forty, neaueswaupetuck; fifty, shi-cau-e-collah; sixty, nessswassick-ete-swaup-etuck; one hundred, naquetauk; one thousand, mataus-naquetauk.

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*This word, we are told by good authority, does not apply exclusively to skunk, but means anything that has a strong or offensive smell. The headwaters of the Skunk river were once noted for the vast quantities of wild onions that grew there. Hence Chicago is the same word a little differently spelled and pronounced.
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The history of these tribes may be traced back to a period as early as 1767, the year in which Black Hawk was born. They then occupied the country now known as the state of Wisconsin. At an early age, this celebrated warrior, Black Hawk, by his prowess and skill in war against the Osages, between whom and the Sacs and Foxes a long standing grudge had existed, raised himself to some eminence as a leader and gave these tribes notoriety in military history.

From the time that the government came into possession of the north-western territory, by purchase from the Spanish government, these Indians did not seem favorable to the change, and conceived a dislike to the new proprietors. The treaty of 1804, was not calculated to remove this prejudice, inasmuch as, it was made without the general authority of the Indians. Soon after this treaty, the whites began to erect forts and trading posts along the Mississippi in the disputed territory, which caused a war that continued, with occasional intermissions or truces, brought about by renewed treaties, till the capture of Black Hawk, in 1833.

This renowned warrior spent a pleasant captivity in traveling through the eastern part United States, at the expense of the government, during which time he visited Washington, and had an interview with President Jackson. After having seen much of the magnitude of the government against which he had been from time to time long and vigorously contending for what he conceived to be the just rights of his people, and had thereby an opportunity to judge of its power, he with his son and one or two of his braves who had accompanied him, returned to the west, and was released at Ft. Armstrong - now Rock Island - and immediately retired to private life, from which he no more emerged in hostile array against the whites. His death occurred in 1839, near Fairfield, Jefferson county. Soon after his death his head was severed from his body and conveyed to St. Louis. The object of this mutilation history does not state, but we may conjecture that it was either to preserve it in spirits or to obtain from it a bust or painted likeness of the great chief. We have reason to suppose that the government had no cognizance of an act so unlike her wonted treatment of fallen foes. Our informant thinks that the head may be at St. Louis to this day. But it is not so very probable, for when the Indians discovered this mutilation of the body of their venerated chief, they threatened serious trouble, which nothing could avert but the return of the head; accordingly it, or some other head, was returned, but it is not likely that the Indians could have been easily deceived in the identity of a face they had so long been familiar with. At all events, they became pacified.

After the capture of Black Hawk, and the treaty that followed, Keokuk was made chief of both the Sacs and the Foxes. This chief, little less renowned than Black Hawk for bravery and cunning in war, was yet quite a contrast to the latter in person, and his relations with the whites. Black Hawk was a person of small stature, while Keokuk was a portly Indian, weighing, probably, over two hundred pounds. Whilst Black Hawk was perusing his hostile attempts to check the encroachments of the whites, Keokuk remained either neutral or friendly to the latter. In this he had many adherents, which prevented Black Hawk from bringing a much larger force into the field, as a strong partizan leader he had desired to do. For this reason, and to insure permanent peace with the Indians, the government, through its agents, obtained the appointment of Keokuk to the chieftainship of both tribes.

We have on file a number of sketches illustrative of the character and customs of these people, that occurred during their residence in this county, after its first settlement, but which, for want of room in this chapter, we shall reserve for the miscellaneous department in this work.

We shall, however, take this occasion here to relate an event that transpired near Red Rock, early in the fall of 1844, and which, on account of its horrible details, is still fresh to the memory of those who witnessed it, or lived in the neighborhood at the time.

It is said to have been an occasional custom with the Indians (or at least with those who were thus disposed) to take criminal liberties with such squaws as should happen to be found abroad, unattended by any other person. Any squaw thus found alone was presumed not to be virtuous, and was therefore subject to the licentious attacks of any bad man who, under these circumstances, was not subject to punishment for the crime. The assault was called a feast.

On the occasion of which we speak, a Winnebago brave and his wife, a likely young squaw of the Sac or Fox tribes, had come down the Des Moines river on a trading expedition, and were camped near Jordan’s trading house that stood, as we stated in the preceding chapter, on the south side of the river, some distance above the ferry landing. About this time, two Indians, named Wan-pep-cah-cah and Pac-a-tuke, chanced to be prowling in the neighborhood, and discovered the lady alone in the woods. They thereupon deemed her fit subject for a “feast,” but she escaped and returned to the camp. Toward evening of that day, or the next, these Indians were at Red Rock, from which they could observe the movements of their intended victim at the camp. At about dark they made their appearance at the trading house and attacked the squaw again, as she was preparing to light the camp fire, when she took refuge in the house. Her husband, who was absent at the time, on his return asked her why she had not lighted the fire. She then told him how she had been followed and persecuted by the two bad Indians, who were still without, intending to camp on the ground. Hearing this, Jordan, permitted the brave and his wife to remain in-doors that night.

But the Winnebago was not content to merely escape, for the time being, the unwelcome presence of those “sons of Baliel” - his honor had been compromised in that of his wife. He was deeply incensed, and nothing but a bloody revenge could heal the wound. With this feeling he rose and announced his purpose to go out and kill them. On accosting them, angry words followed, and they both assaulted him probably not knowing that he was armed. He resisted the assault with his hunting knife. Wan-pep-cah-cah received eleven mortal stabs, and Pac-a-tuke, one across the abdomen, letting out his bowels, which he caught with his hands and supported as they fell, and as he sank to the ground in an agonizing death.

This took place about nine o’clock at night. None but the actors witnessed the deed, but the strokes of the knife were distinctly heard within, and the scene next morning was such as to warrant the truth of the above narration.

Next morning several white men collected at the scene of the tragedy, and sent a report of it to a chief named Pasha-paho,* who, with his party of about three hundred, had been down the day before, but returned and camped on what is now called Stortz’s Island, two or three miles above Red Rock. Pashapaho, on hearing the news, immediately sent one of his braves down with peremptory orders to kill the murderer. Apparently no thought was entertained of giving him a trial for his life, nor even inquiring as to how far he might have been justified in the commission of the deed. The order was to kill him.

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*Stabbing Chief.
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The Winnebago remained at the place, apparently trusting in the justification of the act to shield him from the punishment of a common murderer, or else desiring to see what action would be taken in his case. But when he saw Pashapaho’s agent approaching, he comprehended at a glance his intended doom, and made an attempt to escape. But too late. The fleet-footed Fox was too near him when the flight began, and after a chase of only about one hundred fifty yards, he was overtaken, and by the assistance of another Indian, who had just come into the action, apparently as a sort of reinforcement, was overpowered, led back to the house, and his legs bound together above the knees.

The inquiry now was, what they meant to do with him. The reply was that they would to kill him. Against this the white men that were present did not feel called upon to interfere, either by command or persuasion, nor, so far as we have been able to learn, by representing the facts of the case to the Indians. They only protested against the execution being performed there, and insisted that the prisoner should be taken to his own country for that purpose. But this protest was not heeded; the Indian who had come to carry out the orders of his chief, walked into the house, seized a hatchet that belonged to the place, and, as he stepped out again by his victim, who was seated near the door, struck him a heavy blow across the back of the neck, burying the edge of the weapon in the bone. The stroke felled him, but did not render him insensible nor even speechless; and, as it was not followed immediately by others, as though it was the purpose of his executioner to prolong his agony, he partly rose on his hands and pleadingly said: “Strike me again, friends.” Then the other Indian who stood by, actuated either by a sense of pity or an eager desire to see the bloody work go on, said to the executioner in a tone as threatening as his words: “Kill that Indian or I’ll kill you!” In another moment the head of the prostrate victim was nearly severed from the body. This done the Indians went their way, leaving the bodies where they had fallen, either not caring what disposition was made of them, or else taking it for granted that the whites would see to their burial. Messrs. Jordan, Bedell and a few others, when they saw that the savages would have nothing to do in the matter, proceeded to make some arrangements for the interment. Whilst this was going on, the poor woman who had witnessed the last act of the tragedy, the murder of her husband, with what feelings we are not sufficiently advised to describe, performed with her own hands, the last sad rites it was custom of her people to bestow upon the dead in preparation for the funeral. Having procured some red paint commonly used by the Indians to decorate their faces, she painted their cheeks, eyelids and lips very nicely and carefully, and then made an impression of her open hand on each cheek. This service she performed with equal care upon each, foe as well as friend. The three bodies were put into one grave near where the upper ford now is. Since then they have been washed away with the bank that has caved in more or less with the annual freshets, and what remains of this most tragic event may now be scattered and deeply embedded in the sands at the bottom of the Des Moines. The woman, who was the innocent cause of the affair, went to Red Rock. Hearing that the Indians intended to murder her also, she took refuge in the house of Robert D. Russell, where she remained secreted for upwards of a month. By this time the Indians had so far learned the facts of the case that she was finally deemed innocent, and was permitted to come forth and go west with her friends.*

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*Another version of this story is to the effect that two drunken Indians murdered the son of a prophet, and after being arrested, were tried and sentenced to death, the oldest squaw of the tribe being selected to execute the sentence with a tomahawk. Also that the Indians were so much incensed at the traders for supplying the murderers with whiskey, that they sat twenty days in council discussing the propriety of punishing them, but were finally pacified by those who could speak their language. But the foregoing details being from an eyewitness to the last act of the tragedy, may be deemed correct.
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The settlement of Marion County was begun at a period of financial depression. + The monetary crash of 1837 was still felt, and those who came early were by no means rich. They were literally poor men, seeking homes and independence that could not be acquired in a country where real estate was beyond the reach of the day laborer. An opportunity was now granted to those who would brave the privations of frontier life to possess of themselves of an estate that might, if rightly improved, insure independence and even wealth.

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+ The “tightness” of money matters at that period may be conceived by the fact that property, compared to present prices, was remarkably cheap. Twenty-five or thirty dollars would buy a good yoke of cattle, and forty-five would buy ber [sic] one horse.
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Transcribed by Mary E. Boyer, 11/06, reformatted by Al Hibbard 12 Oct 2013.