The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1952-12-25

at the mouth of the creek named for
it; San-wa-co-sac, on the Auglalze
River above Defiance; and a larger
one where Maumee now stands.
The Ottawa Indian capital was a
village of pole and bark shacks lining
either side of a crooked street; ket-
ties hung on bars over outside wood
fires; swarms of shrieking Indian
children and yelping dogs-and equal
ly noisy braves and squaws. Chief O.
te-sah, of the Ottawas lived there and
had four sons-each by a different
mother. The boys were No-tin-no, OF
tokee, Waseon and Wasaonquet. The
Ottawas were polygamous.
According to Indian standards line
age in all tribes other than the Shaw
nees descended through the mother
instead of the father and it would be
lbetter to say that the sons of four
| different mothers had the same father
l-O-to-sah. None but an Indian mind
could untangle the relationships of
the four boys, n to another. Of
them, 'Waseon became famous-a
town in Fulton County is named for
him. Wasaonquet became head chief
fof the Ottawas in the Maumee valley
but dissipated and ~squandered until
he again was reduced to ranks. He
finally drank himself to death. No
~tin-no, whose name meant "the calm,"
was a great orator among Indians
but not eloquent. Wauseon in Eng
lish means "far away"
Chief Ottokee, the second son,
weighed 200 pounds and was an elo-
quent orator among Indians and
whites alike.
A Presbyterian Indian school was
opened on the east bank of the Maui
NEE River by Rev. Isaac Van Tassel
in 1921, just a few years before the
Ohio public school law was passed. 1t
was 10 miles above Perrysburg and
three teachers were there.
Ottawa Indian children from six to
16 attended the school and some over
81 also went to it. The school was
open six hours a day and six days a
week, with a long sermon every Sun
day morning in the mission part of it
Many hundreds of young Indians were
| educated there and many became
good farmers and mechanics through
its teaching. The school broke up in
winter, 1835-1836, and Van Tasse1
moved to a farm near Bowling Green
where he died in 1850. His widow
survived him many years and still
was living in Maumee in the 1905.
When the United States was moving
the Indians out of Ohio to Kansas in
the 1905 many of the Ottawas
would not consent to go but remained
in the woods roaming here and there
and stopping only when they found the
white people kind enough to permit
it.
The last Indian speech made in Ohio
was by Ottokee at the council wher
| the treaty was made with govern.
ment agents moving the Indians t.
| the West. He spoke against the
exodus and both he and Wauseon were
among the last to go. Both left il
spring 1888, lived onl va few years
in their Kansas homes, then died whe1
yet in middle age-Wauseon at forty
five.
The Ohio Ottawa lands were around
Sandusky, Toledo, Huron and on thi
' Maumee River. Sandoostee was theil
Sandusky town and Wabach, changed
by the white people to Wabash, wa:
their town at the mouth of the Huron
River. Another Ottawa was where
Milan now stands.
The reservation assigned to the OF
tawa Indians in Kansas was along thu
Usage River, about go miles south o,
Kansas City and not far from late.
Ottowa, named to commemorate tn
tribe. The old block-house and build
ings at the Maumee mission took fir
Monday, May 20, 1879, and wer'
burned to the ground.
! So goes the story of n OF TIT