The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-26
A SOCIETY N MAN.EATERS.
ARevolting Religious Custom That Was
Practiced by the Miami Indians.
A Family of Red Cannibals Who Lived Near
Where Fort Wayne Now Stands and
DeyOured Their Prisoners There.

| Even among those who are familiar with the
history and customs of the aborgines there
| are few who know that there were cannibals
| among the Indians. 1t is a matter regarding
which little can be found in the numberless
volumes of literature written about the Indians,
and yet there is little doubt that the horrible
practice once prevailedin an isolated tribe of red
savages who lived near where the city of Fort
Wayne now stands. The territory in
the region of Fort Wayne was held
by the Miamis, and many of the descendants of
this nation still live in the northern part Of the
| State. having fingered under the protection of
the government, on the lands which were long
claimed and defended by their fathers, There
was tribe of the Miamis known as the Mime
ways, and in a fragmentary historical account of
the nation it is stated that as means Of terror
| to their enemies at an early period they formed
what was commonly known as a ''man-eating
| society,"" which, to make it more fearful
was firmly established a hereditary
basis confined to one family alone
whose descendants continued to exercise the
horrible rites and duties of savage cannibaiism.
They lived, it is believed, from such meager in
| formation as can be gathered, along the st. 10
seph river, and their village located near the
mouth of the stream. 1t is a matter of tradition
that the Minneways were the most atrocious In
dians in the Northwest. Their prisoners rarely
escaped death at the stake Maj. Thomas
Forsyth, who lived among the Sauks
and Foxes for many years, says in a
narrative regarding the early wars between
the savage tribes of the Northwest, that he
frequently heard among the Indians ''of GER
tain family among the Miams who were called
man eaters, because they were accustomed to
make a feast of human flesh when prisoner
was killed. For these enormities the Sauks and
Foxes, when they took any of the Minneways
prisoners gave them up to their women to be
buffeted to DEATH" General Lewis Cass, an
authority on matters relating to the savage
tribes Of the Northwest, had knowledge
of the existence of the Miami caunibals,
and in speech which he delivered at
the canal celebration, near the site of the
Catholic cemetery in Fort Wayne, on July 4,
1S43, spoke of the revolving custom; which had
been graphically described to him by white
Skin" the chief of the man eating family AS
have been unable to find any person we'll
informed on matters of aboriginal history who
knew nything of the existence of this abhorred
family, or believed that there had ever been such
give the words of General Cass, to which even
the most skeptical must give some credence
" For many years during the frontier history
OF this place and region" he said in the course
of his address, the line of this canal the Wa
bash and Eriel bloody war path, which
has seen many a deed of horror. And this peace
full town FIT. Wayne has had its Moloch, and
the records OF human depravlty furnish more
terrible examples Of cruelty than were offered at
his shrine. The Miami Indians our predeces-
sors in the occupation of this district had ter
ribe institution whose origin and object have
been lost in the darkness of aboriginal history,
but which was continued to late period, and
whose orgies were held upon the very spot where
we now are. 1t was called the man eating So
c1ety, and it the duty of its associates to eat
such prisoners as were preserved and delivered
to them for that purpose The members of this
society belonged to particular family, aud the
dreadful inheritance descended to all the chill
dren, male and female. The duties it imposed
could not be avoided. and the sanctions of relig-
ion were added to the obligations of immemorial
usage The feast was a solemn ceremony, at
which the whole tribe was collected as actors
or spectators. The miserable victim was bound
to stake and burned at a slow fire,
with all the refnements of cruelty,
which savage ingenuity could invent
There WAS tradtionary ritual which regulated
with revolving precision the whole course OF
procedure Of these ceremonies. Latterly the
authority and obligations of the institution had
declined and presume it has now wholly dis
appeared. have seen and conversed with the
head of the family, the chief of the society
whose name was White Skin-with what feeling
Of disgust | need not attempt to describe. l
well knew an Intelligent Canadian, VINO was
present at one Of the last sacrifices made at this
horrible institution. The victim was q young
American captured III Kentucky, towards the
close Of our revolutionary Here
where we are now assembled in peace
and security, celebrating the triumph Of art and
industry, within the memory of the present gen
Grafton, cOuntrymen have been thus tor
tured, and murdered, and devoured. But, thank
God that council fire is eXtincuished. The i'm
pious feast is over: the war-dance is ended; the
war-song is sung: the war-drum is silent. and
the Indian has departed to find, hope, in the
distant West, a comfortable residence: and
hope, also to find, under the protection. and, If
need be, under the power of the United States,
| a radical change in the institutions and general
improvement in his morals and condition"
The custom of devouring the flesh of prisoners
sacrificed upon the decree of the council was in
Stituted in the Miami tribe sometime early in
the seventeenth century. 1t was never prac
tieed, it is believed, in other tribes 1t origin
ated from superstltiOus belief that such sacri-
fees appeased the Evil Spirit and saved them
from being made the victims of his wrath. The
sacrifices were made with some degree of regu-
| larity, it was believed the appetite desires
of the Evil Spirit required. 1t was not the prac-
tice to devour the flesh of all prison
I ers who captured, nor that the
man eating family subsist on human flesh
| alone, although the appetite, for it, trans
mtted from generation to generation, was
voracious, and the victims consigned to their
jaws were ,greedily devoured. The form of cere-
mony with which this savage religious rite of an
thropophagy was performed was the most revolt
ing that human mind could imagine The canni,
bal family usually numbered from fifty to
seventy five persons, and when ordered by the
tribes council to devour a prisoner who was
usually first burned at the stake by slow fire until
| life extinct they gathered about the doomed
| captive in a circle and chanted the hideous death
song as they enacted the pantomime of picking
to pieces the body of their victim and devouring
the effects nf % tSe 6a tas bn s expired
| slowly roasted to death, the cannibals seized
the body, and the flesh, the heart and the brains
were eaten, just AS so many wolves would
pounce upon the carcass of a victim The spec
tators looked upon the horrible proceeding as