The Yale expositor., 1921-04-14

III CHe lHuldH village SpOhcH Ol
before, where John Riley lived,
were many of his kin. John H.
Riley, his son, destined to take
his place when the old chief was
no more, would never hold the re-
spect and confidence of the white
man, as his father had. He was
an Indian to the backbone and not
the kind to make friends.
John Coon, sOn-in-law of the
chief, was well-to-do, as Indians
were rated in those days, as their
wealth consisted of ponies and
dogs, not wives, like many of the
black races in the far east. Big
amy was something not heard Of
among the tribes, much less di-
vorces. White men might learn
from them manners of more value
than hunting and fishing.
When John Coon saw the white
man building houses with lumber
and plastering them, determined to
have a house also. When asked
how big he was going to build said
it must be 80 x 40 and 100 feet
long, two stories high. every bles-
sed bit of it, and plastered with
white mud.
One day we saw John Cheatham
big Indian of the village, riding
up to our door with something
large and clumsy on his pony. AS
he came nearer, we saw it was a
wild turkey, and he wanted to
sell it for 75c. He took it by one
wing, held it up, and tall as he
was the other wing touched the
floor. He asked mother if he
could have the large wing feathers
and she said yes, but why did he
want them ? Pointing to his
bonnet, or head-gear, he answer
ed, me want him there" When
Mr.. Turk was ready for the oven
he weighed over fifty pounds and
We had no oven large enough to
roast him in, so a fire had to be
built in the fireplace of the log
house we lived in the first year,
before we built the large house
that took John Coon's fancy, and
the many large, nice roasts that
had been done to a turn there,
were beaten by John Cheatham's s
turk.
Tipsico, another Indian l re-
member we'll, an athlete and a
giant in size. How he liked to
show his running and jumping
feats and best of all he liked to get
a white man to wrestle with him,
but the white man had to look out
for his laurels, for Tipsico knew
what he was about.
Now that have told you some
thing about the big Indians, l will
tell you something about a little
one. One day two squaws came
to the house, each with a pappoose
One pappoose was dressed just
like a grown-up Indian, beaded
moccasins, leggings, bright calico
shirt, and like the Chinaman's
shirt, not tucked in, and something
on his head with a feather in it..
When he got down on the floor one
could see how little he was.
Mother asked, no void ? and the
baby's mother said seven months,
and he could walk alone. The
squaws had way of counting
the moons for months and the win
ters for years, and were pretty
good in arithmetic.
Two years after we went to the
North Branch father came home
one night and said they were
sluicing through Brockway's dam
and would be finished there in a
week, and he was going to take us.
all to Port Huron to stay the sum-
mer and we could go to school.
We had never been in or seen a
reel school house t tn t tin and
We wondered what it was like. We
found out later.
Next morning We were up bright
and early, ready to start. We had
a railroad of our own, built the
summer before and we rode one.
mile until We came to the bridge
then We took to the wagons, and
we looked to see what was in the
wagon. A couple of axes, cross
cut saw, handspike, two or three
trunks, satchels and last, but not
least, lunch basket to keep us in
"eats" until we found a place to
get something.
Continuing on our way we soon
came to our old clearing house
Bloomburg's landing. North half
mile we came to Charles Low
rie's house. Lowrie said if we
wanted to go to Brockway We must
ford the river and steer for Chas.
Packers slashing. When we cross
ed the stream, from the high bank
we could see the slashing. Right
there, a year or two after, Hugh
Rose pitched his tent with such