The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-08-01

ESSSA%I Through this canyon of steel and
ESPt[@s5A stone flows an endless stream OF
E:>-sSSss5 hurrying humanity and raucous
traffic. For this is Lake street, the
northern boundary of Chcagos famous Loop
on a summer day in the year 1885.
On summer day hundred years ago this
same Lake street. then little more than dusty
trail along the bank of the Chicago river, was
echOing to a more hideOus dscord than could
be produced by all the modern streets Il
trains, street cars and motor vehicles combined.
Over in the council house beyond the river SUI
Indian warriors had assembled that morning.
Now they had crossed the river and were adj
yancing eastward in Lake street toward Fort
Dearborn.
Their only covering was strip of cloth about
the loins and a profusion of paint of brilliant
cOlOrs with which the face and body were hid
eousy decorated. Their hair long, coarse, and
black, was gathered in a scalp lock on top or
the head and prOfusely decorated with hawk and
eagle feathers, some strung together so as to
extend down the back nearly to the ground. Led
by band of musicians the procession moved
slowly, the warriors advancing with continual
dance In front of every house along their course
a stop was made and extra feats were performed
The musicians produced discordant din OF
hideOus noises by beating on hollow vessels and
striking sticks together" Thus writes Milo NJ.
Quaife in his "Chicago and the Old Northwest.
But an even more graphic description is to fol-
low-the words of a man who witnessed that
scene
On the corner of Lake and Market streets
stood a vile two-stored barrack"-NIark Beau
bien's Sauganash, Chicago's leading hotel"
From it's second-story "parlor' windows, group
of white people, mostly women, looked out upon
a terrifying spectacle. One of the group was a
future justice of the Supreme court of Illinois,
John D. Cation who has left this account OF what
he saw:
ct was mid-August, the morning was very
warm and the exertions of the warriors caused the
perspration to pour forth almost in streams. Their
eyes were wild and bood-shOt, their counte-
nances had assumed an expression OF all the
worst passions which can find place in the
breast of a savage; fierce anger, terrible hate,
dire revenge, remorseess cruelty, all were ex-
pressed in their terrible features. Their muscles
stood out in great hard knots, as if wrought to
a tension which must burst them. Their toma-
hawks and clubs were thrown and brandished
about in every direction with the most terrible
ferOcity, and with a force and energy which
could only result from the highest excitement,
and with every step and every gesture they ut
tered the most frightful yells, in every imagin-
able key and note, though generally the highest
and shrillest possible.
1.-The dance, which was ever continued, con-
sisted of leaps and spasmodc steps, now for
ward and now back or sideways, with the whole
body distorted into every Imaginable unnatural
position most generally STOPPING forward, with
the head and face thrown up, the back arched
down. first one foot thrown forward and then
withdrawn, and the other similarly thrust out,
frequently squatting quite to the ground, and
all with a movement almost as quick as light
ming. Their weapons were brandished as if they
would STAY thousand enemies at every blow,
while the yells and screams they uttered were
broken up and multiplied and rendered all the
more hideous by rapid clapping of the mouth
with the hand.
when the head of the column had reached
the trent of the hotel, leapng, dancing gesticu-
lating and screaming while they looked up with
hell itself depicted their faces, at the che
mokoman' (white man's) squaws in the windows,
and brandished their weapons if they were
about to make real attack in deadly earnest,
the rear was still on the other side of the river,
200 yards off; and all the intervening space,
including the bridge and its approaches, was
covered with this raging sayagery glstening in
the sun, reeking with streamy sweat fairly
frothing at their mouths with unaffected rage,
it seemed as if we had picture of he'll itself
before u.s. and a carnival of the damned spirits
there confined whose pastimes we may suppose
should present some such scene this"
What was the meaning of this orgy of saw
agery by these 500 Pottawatomie Indians? To
answer that question it is necessary to go back
two years. In the early autumn of 1888 the
greatest Indian council ever held in Chicago
gathered there to consider the proposals of the
American commissioners, Gov. George B. Porter
of Michigan, Thomas J. Y. Owen Indian agent
at Chicago and William Weatherford, for the
cesSon of the lands of the POttawatomies.
At first the Indians refused the terms offered
by the commissioners. But after much per-
suasion by the agents and traders one after an
other of the chiefs agreed TO sign the treaty and
it was concluded on September % 1t provided
for the cesSion of the Indian lands west of Lake
Michigan, also their remaining reservation in
southwestern Michigan, tract of about 100000
acres, and their removal within three years
beyond the Mississippi river.
In return the Pottawatomies were TO receive
100000 acres of land in the West; the United
States TO transport them to their new home
and pay the cost of their support for one year;
and various sums of money, totalling almost ST.
100000 were to be expended in their behalf On
the face of 1t these terms were very liberal But
as was so often the case in the white mans deal
fngs with the Indian for his lands, there was
Joker concealed somewhere in the deal