Narrative of the Captivity of William Biggs among the Kickapoo Indians in Illinois in 1788Biggs, William
History
Narrative of the Captivity of William Biggs among the Kickapoo Indians in Illinois in 1788
Biggs, William
Indian captivities; Kickapoo Indians
I got no more sleep
that night. I never asked them to loose my ropes any more.
The sixth day we traveled about thirty miles, and had nothing to eat
that day.
The seventh day we traveled about twenty-five miles; they killed a doe
that day. She had two fawns in her, not yet haired. They stopped about
four o'clock in the evening, and cooked the doe and her two fawns, and
eat the whole up that night. They gave me part of a fawn to eat, but I
could not eat it, it looked too tender. I eat part of the doe.
The eighth day we traveled about twenty-five miles, and had nothing to
eat that day.
The ninth day we traveled about fifteen miles. We then arrived at an
Indian hunting camp, where they made sugar that spring. About 11 o'clock
in the forenoon, we had not yet anything to eat that day. The Indians
that lived there had plenty of meat, hominy grease and sugar to eat.
They gave us plenty of everything they had to eat. We were very hungry
and ate like hungry dogs. When we were satisfied eating, the warriors
went into a large cabin and I went with them, and immediately several of
their friends came in to see them, both men and squaws, to hear the
news. It is a custom with that nation for the squaws to demand presents
of the warriors if they have been successful. After some little inquiry
the squaws began to demand presents of the warriors; some would ask for
a blanket, some for a shirt, some for a tomahawk; one squaw asked for a
gun. The warriors never refused anything that was demanded. The manner
in which they made their demand was, they would go up to an Indian and
take hold of what they wanted. When the squaws were done with the
warriors, there came a squaw and took hold of my blanket; I saw how the
game was played, I just threw it off and gave it to her; then there came
up a young squaw about eleven or twelve years old and took hold of my
shirt, I did not want to let that go, as it was very cold day, and I let
on I did not understand what she wanted. She appeared to be very much
ashamed and went away. The older squaws encouraged and persuaded her to
try it again; she came up the second time and took hold of my shirt
again, I still pretended to be ignorant, but she held fast. I knew it
would have to go. One of the warriors then stepped up and told me to let
her have it. I then pulled it off and gave it to her. The old squaws
laughed very much at the young squaw. I was then quite naked and it was
a very cold day; I had nothing on me but moccasins, leggings and
breachcloth. We remained there about 3 or 4 hours. The warriors then
went out to the post to dance, they invited me to go with them to dance.
I did so, they sung and danced around the war-post for half an hour. The
old Indians would sing and dance sometimes out of the ring and appeared
very lively. The warriors then marched right off from their dance on
their journey. We had not got more than about 50 or 60 yards when I
looked back and saw a squaw running with a blanket; she threw it on my
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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