Great Indian Chief of the West | Page 3

of the tribes into
families--Mode of burying their dead--Idea of a future state--Their
account of the creation of the world--Marriages--Social
relations--Music and musical instruments--Pike's visit to them in
1805--Population--Character for courage.

The word Saukee, or O-sau-kee, now written Sauk or more commonly
Sac, is derived from a compound in the Algonquin or Chippeway
language, a-saw-we-kee, which means "yellow earth." Mus-qua-kee,
the name of the Fox Indians, signifies "red earth." These two tribes
have long resided together, and now constitute one people, although
there are some internal regulations among them which tend to preserve
a distinctive name and lineage. The chiefs, on ceremonial occasions,
claim to be representatives of independent tribes, but this distinction is
nominal. For many years past the principal chief of the Sacs, has been,
in fact, the chief of the Foxes likewise. They are united in peace and
war, speak the same language, claim the same territory, have similar
manners and customs, and possess traditions which represent them as
descended from the one common origin--the great Chippeway nation.
Both tribes originally resided upon the waters of the St. Lawrence. The
Foxes removed first to the west, and established themselves in the
region of Green Bay. Upon a river bearing their name, which empties
into the head of this Bay, they suffered a signal defeat by a combined
body of French and Indians, at a place, since known as La Butte de
Mort, or the Hill of the Dead.[1] Subsequently to this battle, they were
joined by the Sacs, who having become involved in a war with the
Iroquois or Six Nations, were also driven to the westward. They found
their relatives, the Foxes, upon Green Bay, but so far reduced in
numbers, by the attacks of other tribes, that they were no longer able to
sustain themselves as an independent people. The union between these
two tribes, which then took place, and continues to this day, was as
much a matter of necessity as of feeling. The period of their migration
from the St. Lawrence to the upper Lakes cannot be satisfactorily
ascertained. La Hontan speaks of a Sac village on Fox river, as early as
1689; and Father Hennepin, in 1680, mentions the Ontagamies or Fox
Indians, as residents on the bay of Puants, now Green Bay.
From this place, the Sauks and Foxes, crossed over to the eastern bank
of the Mississippi, and combining with other tribes, began to act on the
offensive. The period of this irruption from the north, it is not easy to
determine. Major Thomas Forsyth, who resided for near twenty years
among the Sauks and Foxes, in a manuscript account of those tribes,

now before us, says:
"More than a century ago, all the country, commencing above Rock
river, and running down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio, up
that river to the mouth of the Wabash, thence up that river to Fort
Wayne, thence down the Miami of the Lake some distance, thence
north to the St. Joseph's and Chicago; also the country lying south of
the Des Moines, down perhaps, to the Mississippi, was inhabited by a
numerous nation of Indians, who called themselves Linneway, and
were called by others, Minneway, signifying "men." This great nation
was divided into several bands, and inhabited different parts of this
extensive region, as follows: The Michigamies, the country south of the
Des Moines; the Cohakias that east of the present village of Cohokia in
Illinois; the Kaskaskias that east of the town of that name; the Tamarois
had their village nearly central between Cahokia and Kaskaskia; the
Piankeshaws near Vincennes; the Weas up the Wabash; the Miamies on
the head waters of the Miami of the Lakes, on St. Joseph's river and at
Chicago. The Piankeshaws, Weas and Miamies, must at this time have
hunted south towards and on the Ohio. The Peorias, another band of the
same nation, lived and hunted on the Illinois river: The Mascos or
Mascontins, called by the French gens des prairies, lived and hunted on
the great prairies, between the Wabash and Illinois rivers. All these
different bands of the Minneway nation, spoke the language of the
present Miamies, and the whole considered themselves as one and the
same people; yet from their local situation, and having no standard to
go by, their language became broken up into different dialects. These
Indians, the Minneways, were attacked by a general confederacy of
other nations, such as the Sauks and Foxes, resident at Green Bay and
on the Ouisconsin; the Sioux, whose frontiers extended south to the
river des Moines: the Chippeways, Ottoways, and Potawatimies from
the lakes, and also the Cherokees and Choctaws from the south. The
war continued for a great many years and until that great nation the
Minneways were destroyed, except a few