The Chicago Massacre of 1812: With Illustrations and Historical DocumentsKirkland, Joseph
History
The Chicago Massacre of 1812: With Illustrations and Historical Documents
Kirkland, Joseph
Chicago (Ill.) -- History; Fort Dearborn Massacre, Chicago, Ill., 1812
The morning was very warm and the perspiration was pouring from
them. Their countenances had assumed an expression of all the worst
passions--fierce anger, terrible hate, dire revenge, remorseless
cruelty--all were expressed in their terrible features. Their
tomahawks and clubs were thrown and brandished in every direction,
and with every step and every gesture they uttered the most frightful
yells. The dance consisted of leaps and spasmodic steps, now
forward, now back or sidewise, the whole body distorted into every
imaginable position, most generally stooping forward with the head
and face thrown up, the back arched down, first one foot thrown
forward and withdrawn and the other similarly thrust out, frequently
squatting quite to the ground, and all with a movement almost as
quick as lightning. The yells and screams they uttered were broken
up and multiplied and rendered all the more hideous by a rapid
clapping of the mouth with the palm of the hand. When the head of
the column reached the hotel, while they looked up at the windows
at the "Chemo-ko-man squaws," it seemed as if we had a picture of
hell itself before us, and a carnival of the damned spirits there
confined. They paused in their progress, for extra exploits, in
front of John T. Semple's house, near the northwest corner of Lake
and Franklin Streets, and then again in front of the Tremont, on the
northwest corner of Take and Dearborn Streets, where the appearance
of ladies again in the window again inspired them with new life and
energy. Thence they proceeded down to Fort Dearborn, where we will
take a final leave of my old friends, with more good wishes for their
final welfare than I really dare hope will be realized.
The Indians were conveyed to the lands selected for them, (and accepted
by a deputation sent by them in advance of the treaty) in Clay County,
Missouri, opposite Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The Missourians were
hostile to their new, strange neighbors, and two years later they were
again moved, this time to a reservation in Iowa, near Council Bluffs.
Once more the fate of the poor waif, "Move on, move on," was theirs,
and then they halted in Kansas for many years. Their present condition
has been already sketched.
Judge Caton is an ardent, devoted friend of the Indians. He knew many
of them personally, they having been his faithful companions--by night
and day, in summer and winter--in hunting, which was the passion of his
early years. Yet here, we observe, he says sadly, that his wishes for
their welfare go beyond any confident hope he can feel.
APPENDIX K.
THE BRONZE MEMORIAL GROUP.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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