Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs: From Cofachiqui, the Indian Princess, and Powhatan; down to and including Chief Joseph and Geronimo. Also an answer, from the latest research, of the query, Whence came the Indian? Together with a number of thrillingly interesting Indian stories and anecdotes from historyWood, Norman B. (Norman Barton)
History
Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs: From Cofachiqui, the Indian Princess, and Powhatan; down to and including Chief Joseph and Geronimo. Also an answer, from the latest research, of the query, Whence came the Indian? Together with a number of thrillingly interesting Indian stories and anecdotes from history
Wood, Norman B. (Norman Barton)
Indians -- Origin; Indians of North America -- Anecdotes; Indians of North America -- Biography
{Illustration: Waubonsie, Pottawatomie Chief, whose village stood near
Aurora, Ill.}
"Consistency is a jewel," but our Government never displayed any of it in
its dealings with the Indians. Black Hawk's warriors, who arrayed
themselves against the Government, were sent across the Mississippi to a
reservation in the rich land of Southeastern Iowa, while Shabbona's
warriors, who fought bravely as allies of the Government, are banished to a
reservation in distant western Kansas, a somewhat arid and inhospitable
region. Friend and foe are treated exactly alike, when a few greedy white
men covet the Indian's village and cornfields. The ways of our Government
in its dealings with the Indians are past finding out.
When notified by the agent, Shabbona said he did not like to leave his
happy home, but could not think of being separated from his people,
therefore he would go with them. The agent offered to move them at the
expense of the Government, but Shabbona said he did not require it, as they
had plenty of ponies to carry all their tents, and the hunters could supply
them with food while making the journey.
Shabbona's band left their grove in September, but stopped on Bureau Creek
about six weeks, engaged in hunting and fishing. Here he received the
visits from a number of settlers, some of whom were the people he had
warned during the Black Hawk War. These now expressed their gratitude by
bringing into his camp green corn, melons, squashes and fruit of all kinds,
and in return he sent them turkeys and venison.
Shabbona was afflicted with ague at this time and seemed very grateful to
his white friends for their visits and presents. He told them he had hunted
on Bureau thirty years in succession, but this was probably his last hunt,
as he was going to his reservation in the Far West in a few days, where he
expected to leave his bones. He was very sad at the thought of being
compelled to leave the country where he had spent his infancy, youth and
manhood, and be forced in his old age to seek a new home in a distant land.
At the time of his departure for Kansas his band consisted of one hundred
and forty-two persons, old and young, and they had one hundred and sixty
ponies. The journey was resumed late in October.
Soon after Shabbona and his band settled on the reservation in western
Kansas, the Black Hawk band of Sacs and Foxes were moved from Iowa to the
same locality. This band, under the leadership of Neopope, who was second
in command during the war, settled on a reservation only about fifty miles
from Shabbona's, Neopope had often declared he would kill Shabbona, Pypegee
and Pyps for notifying the settlers of danger and fighting against them
during the late war. Shabbona had been warned of these threats, but did not
believe he would ever be harmed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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