Three Years on the Plains | Page 3

tree as he passes through a forest, or places stones in
the plains in such a way as to show in what direction he has gone. An
officer saw a large stone, upon which an Indian had drawn the figure of
a soldier on horseback, to indicate to others which way the soldiers had
gone.
Origin of Evil.--They have a tradition handed down that the Great Spirit
said they might eat of all the animals he had made, except the beaver.
But some bad Indians went and killed a beaver, and the Great Spirit
was angry and said they must all die. But after awhile he became
willing that Indians should kill and eat them, so the beaver is hunted for
his skin, and his meat is eaten as often as he suffers himself to be
caught.

DESPOILING THE GRAVE OF AN OLD ONONDAGA CHIEF.
On-on-da-ga was the name of an Indian chief, who died about the year
1830, near Elbridge, a town lying north of Auburn, in the State of New
York. This Indian belonged to the Onondagas, one of the tribes called
"the Six Nations of the IROQUOIS" (E-ro-kwa), a confederacy
consisting of the MOHAWKS, ONEIDAS, SENECAS, CAYUGAS,
ONONDAGAS, and TUSCARORAS or CHIPPEWAS. I was a lad at
the time of this chief's death, having my home in Auburn, New York,
where my father was the physician and surgeon to the State prison. My
father had a cousin, who was also a doctor and surgeon, a man of
stalwart frame, raised in Vermont, named Cogswell. He was proud of
his skill in surgery, and devoted to the science. He had learned of the
death of the Onondaga chief, and conceived the idea of getting the body

out of the grave for the purpose of dissecting the old fellow,--that is, of
cutting him up and preserving his bones to hang up on the walls of his
office; of course, there was only one way of doing it, and that was by
stealing the body under cover of night, as the Indians are very
superstitious and careful about the graves of their dead. You know they
place all the trappings of the dead--his bow and arrows, tomahawk and
wampum--in the grave, as they think he will need them to hunt and
supply his wants with on his journey to the happy hunting-grounds.
They place food and tobacco, with other things, in the grave.
Dr. Cogswell took two men one night, with a wagon, and as the
distance was only twelve miles, they performed the journey and got
back safely before daylight, depositing the body of the Indian in a barn
belonging to a Mr. Hopkins, in the north part of the town. It was soon
noised about town what they had done, and there lived a man there who
threatened to go and inform the tribe of the despoiling of the chief's
grave, unless he was paid thirty dollars to keep silence. The doctor,
being a bold, courageous man, refused to comply with a request he had
no right to make, because it was an attempt to "levy black mail," as it is
called.
Sure enough, he kept his word, and told the Onondagas, who were
living between Elbridge and Syracuse. They were very much
exasperated when they heard what had been done, and threatened
vengeance on the town where the dead chief lay.
The tribe was soon called together, and a march was planned to go up
to Auburn by the way of Skaneateles Lake,--a beautiful sheet of water
lying six miles east of Auburn. They encamped in the pine woods,--a
range called the "pine ridge,"--half-way between the two villages, and
sent a few of the tribe into Auburn for the purpose of trading off the
baskets they had made for powder and shot; but the real purpose they
had in view was to find out just where the body was (deposited in the
barn of Mr. Josiah Hopkins), intending to set fire to the barn and burn
the town, rescuing the dead chief at the same time.
For several days the town was greatly excited, and every fireside at
night was surrounded with anxious faces; the children listening with

greedy ears to narratives of Indian cruelties perpetrated during the war
with the English about Canada, in 1812; and I remember how it was
told of a cruel Indian named Philip, that he would seize little babes
from their mothers' arms and dash out their brains against the wall! No
wonder we dreamed horrid dreams of the dusky faces every night.
At that time the military did not amount to much. There was a company
of citizen soldiers there, called the "AUBURN GUARDS," numbering
about forty men, with a captain whose name I forget, but who became
suddenly seized with