The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1954-07-29
MARRY l.. - A l. :

| hunting and>no white interference.
The Shawanoese had about $4,000
acres in Auglaize County and the
Senecas had about 10000 acres
around Lewiston. Some Ottawas al
so were involved in the transaction,
with smaller areas.
The government gave the Indians
year to get ready to go and agreed
to support them in the meantime.
They were to gather at Wapakoneta,
then an IndianI town with no white
resident. D. NJ Workman and David
Robb, Indian agents, however, went
with them to the rendezvous.
After weeks of ceremonies, religious
and otherwise, at Wapakoneta came
other weeks in trying to drink up all
the whiskey remaining in the neigh
borhood. The supply did not dimin-
ish-white bootleggers saw to that,
hiding the liquor in the woods where
the Indian agents could not find it.
However the Indians knew where it
was and swarmed like bees around
the cases night and day.
Fearing what the orgies might
lead to, the Indian agents called a
meeting of the chiefs and pointed out
to them that the year of government
support fast was slipping away and
that Indians could not travel we'll in
the winter time. 1t then would be
too late for the Indians to raise n
crop and they would go hungry-out
of bread.
The white agents promised to pay
the bootleggers for the whiskey,
leaving the savages blameless and
the chiefs took their warriors out
into the woods and after one more
glorious drunk tornahawked the head
of every barrel.f
Just one cog Slipped in the raid
that night an Indian brought Robb a
jug of whiskey and got a quarter for
it. Robb went to sleep and next
morning found that the same Indian
had come back, stolen his half-gallon
of whiskey then sold it to the other
Indians at a shilling a dram. Just
before the Indians left he came to
Robb and told him about tit was
too good to keep.
More weeks passed while the In
dians made farewell visits to friends
and said goodbye to the bones of
their ancestors in the Wapakoneta
burying- ground, promising to come
back and visit them again soon. They
tore away the crude fencing from
around the graves and sodded them
with green so that not a trace of a
grave remained.
Then came the dance of the war
riors onlyr-nearly naked, hideous!y
painted and with war clubs swing
ing, the dance was terrible one, the
agents who saw it related. 1t was
the Shawanoese war dance-that
was used just before going into bat
tie. Later they danced the victory
dance-quite a different one in which
the squaws too, took part.
The Indians told Workman and
Robb that they were ready to leave
and got on their horses. The few
who were to ride in wagons got into
them and the nation set out ITO
wards the Setting Sum-" the new chief
solemnly declared. The tribal medi-
cine manin front of them bearing on
his shoulders "the ark of the coven-
ant''-a big gourd with the leg bones
of a deer tied to its neck. The move
ment was slow-like a dead march
and only stopped when the Indians
had to cook supper.
1t was September, 1882, and in the
exodus lwere 700 Shawanoese; $50
Senecasi and few Ottawas. They
were going to the Indian Reservation
on the Kansas River "in the Far
West" When the savages neared
St. Louis some of the tribes died of
cholera. Next year Wapakoneta was
laid out as a white peoples town.