While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
The Delaware and Shawnee warriors were employed by
the Government of Mexico to hunt and kill Apaches.
John T. Irving, Junior, saw peace made between the Delaware
and the Pawnees. It was at Fort Leavenworth, in the year 1833. The Pawnees
claimed all the land between the Platte and Kansas rivers. They regarded
the Delaware as trespassers when they went out over their outlet to hunt
the buffalo, which was the cause of their war on the Delaware hunters.
Irving says the Pawnees had slain many of the Delaware. It was to compose
these quarrels that the Indian Commissioner visited the various tribes and
summoned them to Fort Leavenworth to meet one another in council and bury
the tomahawk. In the council—“The Delaware warrior Sou-wah-nock then rose.
He spoke of the destruction of the Grand Pawnee Village. He did not deny
his agency in the deed. ‘The Pawnees,’ said he, ‘met my young men upon the
hunt, and slew them. I have had my revenge. Let them look at their town. I
found it filled with lodges. I left it a heap of ashes.’ The whole speech
was of the same hold, unflinching character, and was closed in true Indian
style. ‘I am satisfied,’ said he. ‘I am not afraid to avow the deeds I
have done, for I am Sou-wah-nock, a Delaware warrior.’ When he had
finished, he presented a string of wampum to the Wild Horse, as being the
most distinguished warrior of the Pawnee nation. When the slight bustle of
giving and receiving the present had been finished the chief of the
Republican village rose to answer his warrior enemy.
“His speech abounded with those wild bursts of
eloquence which peculiarly mark the savages of North America, and
concluded in a manner which spoke highly of his opinion of what a warrior
should be. ‘I have promised to the Delaware,’ said he, ‘the friendship of
my tribe. I respect my promise, and I cannot lie, for I am a Pawnee chief
”
At night the two tribes were caused to dance together.
No finer description of a savage assembly is
to be found in all history than Mr. Irving's account, which was set out in
the account of the Pawnees, in this chapter.
On the 14th of December, 1843, the Delaware sold to
the Wyandot thirty-nine sections of land off the east end of their reserve
for $48,000. This was to provide the Wyandot a future home.
Fremont provided himself with Delaware guides on one of
his exploring expeditions. Among these was Sagundai, as fearless and
intrepid a warrior as any land ever produced. An emergency arose in
California, and Fremont was compelled to communicate with Senator Benton.
How could he do it? He inquired of his Delaware warriors if they could
return without him, and carry his message. Sagundai strode forth and said
he could go alone. And he did. He escaped death at the hands of savage
tribes a dozen times. He took many scalps from his pursuers. He rode over
deserts and crossed mountains reaching up to the stars. Coming out upon
the Great Plains, he was set upon by a Comanche band. His horse's strength
had been carefully conserved, but here was a supreme test. The Comanche
chief was magnificently mounted on a black horse with haughty head,
flowing mane, and tail that swept the ground. In the pursuit he far
out-rode his warriors. Sagundai saw that he must be overtaken in the race,
and was planning his course of action when his horse stepped in a
prairie-dog hole and broke his leg, throwing his rider in his fall. The
Comanche saw-his advantage and bore down upon the unhorsed Delaware to
dispatch him with his lance. But Sagundai was not at the end of his
resources. He stood aside just in time to avoid the deadly spear. Before
the Comanche could recover from his stroke Sagundai shot him dead, seized
the long dragging lariat and brought up the Comanche horse with a round
turn, mounted him, and fled like the wind. He escaped. Upon his arrival
among his own people, the Delaware held the last war and scalp dances in
their history. These were held where Edwin Taylor now lives, on the hill,
at Edwardsville, in Wyandotte County.
Sagundai regarded the scalp of the Comanche as a sort
of sacred trophy—medicine—and carried it until his death, when it was
buried with him. And the message of Fremont was handed to Senator Benton
in St. Louis by the faithful Delaware.
Black Beaver was another noted Delaware. He
was familiar with every stream and mountain in the Great West. He guided
many military expeditions and private caravans. He accompanied Audubon in
his tours to study American birds. Once they were at Galveston. Audubon
was to take ship there for New York. The next year he and Black Beaver
were to start from New York and tour the country back to the Missouri. The
Delaware had never before seen a ship. He studied those in port some days.
Finally, he asked Audubon if people ever died on board a ship during the
voyage, and was told they did. “What is done with the dead?” he inquired.
“They are cast in to the sea,” said Audubon. After a moment's reflection
Black Beaver said he would never enter a ship, and Audubon lost his
faithful guide.
The Rev. John G. Pratt was sent from the Shawnee
Baptist Mission to found one among the Delaware. The first building of
this mission was erected near the present town of Edwardsville, in
Wyandotte County. Later building and mission were moved up on the prairie
and established near the present town of Maywood. Mr. Pratt remained there
until his death, many years after the departure of the Delaware from
Kansas. Once he and a Delaware attendant were making some repairs on the
poultry-house, and found a large blacksnake snugly coiled in a hen's nest.
Mr. Pratt threw the snake outside and told the Delaware to kill it. “Not
so,” said the Delaware. “It is Manitou, Manitou! Not must kill Manitou!”
It was one of the Delaware's gods, and he could not afford to kill his
god. When the Indian became a Christian he only added that creed. He did
not relinquish his old faith because he had acquired a new one. He kept
both.
By a treaty concluded May 6, 1854, the Delaware
ceded all their remaining Kansas River lands to the United States,
excepting a diminished reserve described as follows: “That part of said
country lying east and south of a line beginning at a point on the line
between the Delaware and the half-breed Kansas, forty miles, in a direct
line, west of the boundary between the Delaware and Wyandot, thence
north ten miles, thence in an easterly course to a point on the south bank
of Big Island Creek, which shall also be on the bank of the Missouri River
where the usual high-water line of said creek intersects the high-water
line of said river.” Four sections of land were also sold to the Christian
Indians, or Munsee, at $2.50 an acre. The Munsee sold the tract to A. J.
Isacks, and the sale was confirmed by act of Congress, June 8, 1858.
On the 30th of May, 1860, the Delaware concluded
another treaty with the United States. By its terms the individuals of the
tribe were to take a certain portion of their diminished reserve in
severalty. Provision was made for about two hundred Absentee Delaware
then in the Indian country, now Oklahoma, and the remainder of their lands
were sold to the Leavenworth Pawnee & Western Railway Company. The
Delaware were not satisfied with their life on separate allotments, and
on July 4, 1866, another treaty was entered into whereby all their lands
in Kansas could be disposed of. The final divestment of the Delaware of
their remaining lands followed ways more devious, and more detrimental to
their rights and interests than was usual under the shameful policy always
pursued by the United States toward the Indians. The Delaware moved to
the Indian Territory and bought a right in the Cherokee Nation, becoming
citizens of said Nation. They were known as Cherokee-Delaware, and live
chiefly about Dewey and Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
