The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1859-01-04

peacefully, at his wigwam, a few mile
from Lansing, on the Looking glass ant
was buried on Sunday, the 9Th, at tn
Indian settlement csllod Shiminicon, whicl
is in Ionia county, on the Grand River
near Portland, and some twenty miles N
w. from the Capitol. -i
| Okemos has passed most eventfil life
the story Of which, il ftruthfully told, woult
excel imagination, as much as trnth is sait
to be stranger than fiction.
| Okemos WIS very old man, but o
what exact age il is difficult TO say: doubt
less more than an hundred years. The
| events Of the border warfare on Lako Erie
in 1892, were familiar to him, for he wal
a sort Of aboriginal Dugald Dalgetty, and
fought both with and against Saint CIai
and Wayne. a1ia aa Pa
He had frightful scars to show for hi,
| prowess, for a man of undoubted bravery
he certainly was, and ono in particular
showing cicatrix, extending from his
shoulder downward, and transverscly thro
the clavicle and stcrnum, was tho eyidencc
Of a sabre-cut from one Of Mad Anihony's
troopers. He was a war chief no lcss than
sixty six years ago.
Okemos fought at Fort Meigs, and there
received wounds in the head, which, If he
had been a white man, would have made
his obituary an old story, forty.five years
ago, but being an Indian, they simply left
holes in his sknll, into which We have pla
ced three Of our fingers.
Like Tamenund Of Many Days." in
"The Last Of the Moheicans," Okemos
was man of much dignity of manner. and
Though small Of statute, Of an imposing
presence. He realized something Of the
ideal Indian, in his carriage and deport-
ment, if not in his character. Okemos was
familarly known 10 most Of the Lansing
people, young and old, and was won't to
pay this place more or less visits, every
season. Indeed, during the years ls47,
'4s and 40, he for the most part kept lis
wigwam near the village which bears his
name, six miles to the eastward, daring
which years he was in our streets almost
daily,
Okemos was inoffensive and honest; as
sober as Indians generally arc, and always
affable and ready TO communicate tho re-
suit of his rccollections which were more
vivid the farther back he went.
A few months ago, we travelled with
the old chief from Holley Station to st.
Johns, and when asked for his ticket, Oke-
mos stuck pass at tho Conductor, who
asked him if he was an editor. "No,"
said Okemos with great dignity, drawing
his blanket slowly about him, and straight.
ening himself with look of disgust. "Me
Big Chief-Plenty fight once" And so
upon the strength of having made great
fight on both sides, Okemos rode on an
American Railroad, owned by John Bull
free.
Of late years, the flvorite weapons Of
the old Chief have been the knife and fork,
the use Of which was one Of his more nat.
ural accomplishments. How one mortal
hide could be mado to contain all that he
would swollow, when invited to dine, is a
problem TO which the reel in.the bottle is
not cyphc. His rule was to stop when
the fodder gave out.
Okemos usuallp travelled with a band of
Nitchies at his heels, from fiye wears old
and upwards. Ie called them lis own,
and probably believed they were, though
they looked suspiciously unlike in features.
One Of these, man full grown, he called
Dick johnson, in honor Of the slayer of
Tecumseh, and another, against whom he
doubtless bore somo spite, he condemned
through life to beor the name Of General
Cass
Not being troubled with large earthly
possessions, Okemos left no will, and it is
doubtful whether tho very numeeous heirs
will take out letters of Administration
Ho owed only ono debt, that of nature,
which he was rather slow about, and took
his own time, but paid a. last.
Okemos has gone doubtless TO the "hap.
py hunting grounds" whittier will follow
the good wishes of bis old Lansing acquain-
tances. Mry he hunt in peace.
They are wasting away, that old race
Of Red men, who hold once tho soil upon
which Ae live and move, and not many
years, ere " the place that once knew, shall
know them no more forever" Their corn.
fields, their favorite resorts, their hunting
grounds, nay, their verw burial places, will
soon have been forgotten, and cur children
will be compelled to resort TO Cooper or
Bryant to learn Of that race who lived be-
fore them,
"'Ere these bright felds we're shorn and filed,
Full TO their brim the rivers flowed,
The melody Of writer's allied
The rich and boundless grove;
AMI torrents dashed, and rivulets played,
And fountains spouted in the shade"
"Thick coming foncics" throng upon the
brain, as we cootemplatc one, now so late
ly familiar object, who, far off in the for
eat, wild and almost impenetrablc, heard
by snatchcs, and all imperfectly, Of the
war Of the Revolution, waged, carried on
and terminated, duiing his lifetime, of the
old French wor, of the Pontiac war, (Oko-
mos was a neph(w Of Pontiac,) of the bor-
der war on the lakes, and of the war Of
lsl2-all Of them begun and ended after
he come to full maturity, and most Of them
after he was an old man.
To think again nf the reigns Of the Lou
is Of France, from the XIvth downward,
Of the changing fate Of the Bourbons-the
rise and fall Of the Repeblicaus Of France,
the Girondists, the birth and career Of Ma.
poleon, the long war Of tho continent, all