The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1855-02-08
SELECT STORY.
From the New Western.
EURKEY-FOOT, TIE INDIAN MUIR
DEREI.
By j. W. ROBERTS.

= The intelligent reader Of pioneer histo
Try, need not be told, that after the signal
4defeat Of the Indians in 1894, by Gen
Wayne, nearly all the tribes entered into
treaty Stipulations with the United States,
land that state Of peace continued, as
the result Of these treatics--the first, that
of Greenyilla, and the succeeding ones
broughtabout by Governor Harrison up
= to the time of, or TO a period very recent
clly prior to the battle of Tippecanoe-thc
Longest continued peace the western from
differs had then known.
& But, Notwithstanding the fact that the
TRIBES bound themselves to keep the peace,
there were numbers of fractions Indians,
of the baser sort, who set up kind in
dependence, and starting out, on their
own hook, set at defiance the authorities
of our own government and the councils
and chiefs of our own tribes. Of this
number, one of the most distinguished for
infamy and yiliany, was Turkey-Fo oot, a
\ Potomatamie, who had collected about
him band of desperadoes like himself,
of whom he was the leader or chief, and
with them preyed upon the property and
lives of both white and red men.
The earliest accounts we have of this
banditti leader, represent him as a bad
Indian; he seems, from some cause, to
have had a natural inclination TO steal ,and
| an equal disinclination to work hence, it
was almost a necessary consequence that
he should become a thief or robber ; for
even among the sayagcs, a man must hunt
I or do something for livelihood Tur
key-Foot, however, was too much like
some of the modern aristocratS of ciylll-
zed society, to degrade himself by stoop
ing to the performance Of anything that
had the appearance of useful labor; and
so, in his Iazlness, he turned free booter.
1t should be known in this connection,
that though the majority Of the Indians,
and nearly all the chiefs, had consented
to the treaties spoken of, yet there was
quite respectable minority who enter
tanned .yengeful feelings and hostile dis
position towards their pale-faced neigh
borS and that the moral or immoral in
duence of their portion Of the tribes was
made to uphold and protect the lawless
operations of the renegades, at least to
such an extent that the indians did not
feel disposed to end them by taking the
| lives of the perpetrators OF the offences.
After committing numerous deeds of VIC
lcnce, rapine and injustice against both
races, the indignation ofhis own tribe was
excited very highly against him, so that
! it became ncedful for him to avoid them
when in sufiicentnumbers to punish them
for his villainies.
About this time, Gov. Harrison, whose
head quarters were at Vincennes, found
il necessary to send out an agent among
some of the more dissfected of the tribes
many of which were excited continually
by Tecumseh and the Prophet, and Brit.
ish emissaries, who spared no pains to
plant the seeds of discord, hatred and
war in the hearts Of the savages. The
business of this agent was to disabuse the
minds of the Indians rs to some reports
put in circulation by the enemies of the
United States, to arouse them into state
of outbreak and war. The gentleman
sent on this mission, whose name was Par
ker, found great difficulty in disabusing
the minds OF the suspicious Indians, as to
the false statements made to them by the
interested parties already named; and
the more so as some fellow had preceded
him, falsely representing himself as the
agent of our government, who had de-
ciared to the savages, that was the fixed
ard settled policy oftbe United States, to
continue to encroach upon them and their
possessions, until both should be swallow
ed up. .. ..g...
This was false as 10 the intention of our
government at that time though the rep
resentation, in some degree, has since be.
come fact of history, owing, perhaps,
to the unlooked-for and unprecedented
tide of emigration, which has ceaselessly
rolled its waves westward. But after
much earnest labor, Mr.. Parker began to
succeed so we'll in his work, that those in
terested in The continuance of the state Of
excited feeling he was allaying and mould
ing to his purpose, became alarmed lest
he should finally prove entirely success
full in his efforts, and restore tranquility
where they desired fermentation and strife
as the preparation for an open rupture.
70 prevent the c2nsummaiion of this
object, the parties interested appear to
have held a kind of secret council among
themselves, and the result of their delib'
erations was that Parker must be put tc
death. But how? Tecumseh was MOI
yet prepared to bring on state of open
hosiilities, as his grand schemes for uni
versa confederacy of all the tribes were
not yet completed. Mckee, the British
agent, took it on himself to see that the
bloody deed was done, and thus the mat
ter was settled. -
10 succeed in killing Parker, and yet
not commit the Indians, Mckee had only
to call in the aid of Turkey Foot, whose
services he engaged by promise Of re.
ward-he was to kill Parker, and receive
pay for the work Of murder, at the hands
of this agent of acivilized and a Chris
tidnized country
The bargain was struck and in pur-
suance of his part of the contract, Tur-
kev Font took four of his men and started