Remembering Our Ancestors Through Genealogy

A History of Iron County Michigan by Jack Hill Published in 1955, "A History of Iron County Michgan" gives the history and other interesting facts about this Upper Peninsula county. The book was originally printed in two columns. In order to improve the readability of the pages on a web browser it was converted to single column by combining every two original lines. With this exception the transcription was done without changes or corrections. Chapter 7 - The Red Men In Iron County

28     HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     Chapter VII   THE RED MEN IN IRON COUNTY   Contrary to popular belief, the Indian did not at any time occupy the lands of Iron County in great numbers. In support of this opinion is the fact that no widespread discoveries of archeological evidence have been made throughout the area during its decade of oc- cupancy by the white man.    Furthermore, the very mode of life of the aborigine combined to preclude it. Like the others of his race, the local Indians were nomads, moving from one likely station to another, sometimes in search of food, at other times to find protection from inclement climatic conditions, avoid his enemies, and to escape the inces- sant plagues resulting from dietary insufficienties and unsanitary liv- ins conditions.    The search for food was his main problem. With the exception of aquatic life, the conditions of the virgin forests of the area were not conductive to an abundance of game.    Predators and starvation maintained the numbers of game ani- mals such as deer, rabbits and game birds at a minimum. The length and severity of the winters was an added deterrent and corn, the staple, could not be satisfactorily cultivated.    It is true however, that occasional excursions were made into the district from prehistoric times, mainly for the purpose of the hunt, to replenish their stocks of dried fish which were readily taken during the spawning seasons and to harvest the wild rice, berries and fruits.    On these trips and means of conveyance was the bark canoe and the Brule, Paint and Michigamme Rivers provided ready ac- cess to all parts of the area. In the reports of the original sur- veyors of 1850, these streams were kept free of logs and debris so as to be navigable to their sources during periods of high waters. With portages, these streams were also used as avenues to more dis- tant point at times.    The tribes represented locally were mainly the Menominees, who were in possession of the southeastern part of the County, and the L'Anse band of Ojibwas or Chippewas who claimed the re- maining area.    Census figures of these tribes prior to 1872 are unreliable. Dur- ing the latter year the Commissioner of Indian Affairs listed the Menominee tribe at 1,362 and the L'Anse band of Chippewas, whose lands comprised the entire west end of the Upper Peninsula, at 1,195. To the east of these were the lands of the combined Chip-- pewa and Ottawa tribes who lived together on the eastern half of the Upper Peninsula, and a large part of the Lower, with a total popu- lation of 6,039.    Some two-thirds of these, however lived in the lower peninsula. It is believed that the normal   HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     29   population of the Upper Peninsula did not exceed 5,000 souls at any time. This population appears to have remained quite unifrom from the time of the first white man to the period of evacuation of the tribes to the western lands.    With the acquisition of firearms from the white man for use in hunting and nets for securing his fish with greater ease, the life of the Indian was greatly improved. As the fur trade progressed to the west, every lake and stream was searched annually for its fur- bearers and activity in the area was considerably increased.    The early fur trade was carried on through L'Anse and the L'Anse-Lac Vieux Desert trail which traverses the northwestern part of the County was used extensively. By the year of 1670, the center of fur trading activities had shifted to the Fox River on Green Bay and the bulk of the furs found their way to this point for the ensuing century.    In 1786, Louis Chappe, an employee of the Fox River Station, established a branch post near the mouth of the Menominee River, near the present site of Marinette Wisconsin. Here he continued to do business until 1822, when being dispossessed by William Farns- worth and Charles Brush of the American Fur Company, he mov- ed to an unknown site some distance up the stream.    Just how many posts were located in Iron County will in all probability, never be known. That some existed is verified by the fol- lowing account of John Harris Foster, a pioneer of Houghton County in Pioneer and Historical Collections of Michigan, Volume 17.    "In one of his confidential moods, old Edouard Sancavaine, a French voyager who had arrived into the Lake Superior area about the year 1810, told the writer how he spent a winter down on the Brule River south of L'Anse. That time was in the year 1812 during our war with Great Britain. A french trader and his squaw occupied a rude camp by that river, surrounded by deep forests. Rumors of war had excited the Indian tribes. The warriors had gone far away to join their British allies; the old men, women, and children had removed further south among the rice lakes of Wis- consin.    No corn or wild rice had been stored for the winter's use. Now the Indians were gone, an occasional supply of beaver tails would not be looked for. The traders only resource was fish, found in the shallow Brule. These must be secured before they migrated, for the ice in the stream would freeze to the bottom. During the mild seasons small suckers from four to six inches long found a home in the Brule.    These were secured by nets, and old Edward diligently employed his time in the face of coming winter, in laying in a supply as part of his duties as an employee of the trader. The fish were pack- ed in long troughs hewn out of solid logs. But it proved to be a poor year for fish. The supply fell short of the usual amount. Winter came on sooner than expected, with great vigor. The cold was intense and the snowfall exceeded that of former years.    The three solitary people of that camp were snowbound and isolat- ed from all the rest of the world. Nothing but gloomy, lifeless forests all around and stretching far away! The absent hunters would not bring in any juicy porcupines, or fat beaver to replenish the larder. Fish was their sole supply of food. Upon frozen fish they lived more or less contentedly for a while. But it appearing to the French trader that the supply was diminishing alarmingly fast he, as a measure of safety, put old Edward on a ration of two suck- ers a day. After a short time he further reduced him to only one small sucker per day. This was the closest gauge to starvation point attainable. But it was unendurable.    Said old Edward. "I begin starve. I think of nothing but fish fish, all the time All nite I dream about him. I wake up and Oh my stomac' feel so bad! I go crazze.   30     HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN   I say, I moost have some of them suckers or I die. I steal sly into that room where Frenchman and squaw sleep and keep fish so I can get him.    "I crawl to trough, tear out fish and eat him raw. The trader he see me. We make fight. I try kill him, but hees squaw she help him; so I was whip bad. But that trader, I s'pose he fraid I go crazee, in morning he let me have plenty sookers. Den I get better. But we were most like dead mens when spring come."    As the settlement of the lands of Michigan progressed, it was necessary to extend the governmental surveys. This work could not be carried on satisfactorily until the Indian title to the lands had been extinguished. Three major treaties were required to clear the lands of the Upper Peninsula.    The first of these was that entered into with the Chippewa and Ottawa in Washington, D. C. on March 28-1836, when all of the remaining lands of these tribes within the Lower Peninsula and that portion of the Upper Peninsula as far west as the Skonaba (Escanaba) and Gitchy Seebing, (Choclate) Rivers was ceded to the Federal Government.    The second treaty was concluded with the Menominees on Sep- tember 3 of the same year. The boundaries of their lands were discribed as an irregular line extending from the mouth of the Brule River to the headwaters of the Escanaba River in the south- central part of the present Marquette County, thence down said river to Green Bay, along the shores of said Bay to the mouth of the Menominee River and up the stream of this river to the point of beginning.    The third treaty was made at LaPointe on October 4-1842 with the Chippewas, when all the remaining lands of the Peninsula thus far not ceded, were relinquished to the United States.    The greater concentration of Indian activity during the period of the Governmental surveys of the years 1840 to 1851 was in the southwest corner of the County, especially along the headwaters of the Brule river.    Captain Thomas Jefferson Cram of the United States Topographical Engineers made the first record of the Indians in the year 1840 while engaged in making a preliminary survey of the State Line from Lac Brule to the Montreal River. The lands had not been ceded to the Government at this time and Captain was intercepted by the Indians at a lake about midway between Lac Brule and Lac Vieux Desert. (This lake was presumably Smoky Lake). Before he could proceed, Captain Cram was compelled to make a temporary treaty with the local Chieftain, Ca-sha-o-sha. Seven years later, surveyor William A. Burt was accosted by a sizable band at Lac Brule while engaged in a resurvey and marking of the boundary lines established by Captain Cram. As the lands had been ceded to the Government during the intervening years, the survey- ing party was permitted to complete the work at hand.    Among the points of general interest in relation to Indian acti- vities in the vicinity are those recorded by Deputy-surveyor Mar- tin M. Hall while making the subdivisions of Township 42, Range 36 in the year of 1851.    The record of Mr. Hall includes a trail and brush fence extending from the shores of Lake Hagerman in the southeast corner of Section 3 to the shores of Lac Brule in the southeast quarter of Section 5; a canoe ferry across the north end of Lake Hagerman.    An abandoned sugar camp in a sugar bush on the extreme north- east corner of Section 2 with a trail leading to the Shores of Ot- tawa Lake; extensive cultivated fields situated near the old Lac Brule dam on the Wisconsin side of the boundary and a canoe landing a short distance upstream from whence a trail led to an ac- tive sugar camp situated in the southeast corner of Section 1, Township 42, Range 37. Along the Brule River, a small burial grounds is situated on the shore of   HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     31   the stream in Section 15 and canoe landings were designated at the mouths of both Hagerman and Bass Lake Creeks. Early settlers of the district report evidence of considerable canoe construction from the bark of the large white birch and the wood of the cedar found along the course of the latter stream.    To the north, in Township 43, Range 36, a trail and brush fence led from the shore of Lake Ottawa in the southeast quarter of Section 25 in a general northeasterly direction for a distance of approximate- ly one mile    The fences referred to were crude affairs which were erected for the purpose of diverting the deer to certain strategic openings where they could be more readily taken with snares during the hunting ex- peditions.    On the earliest maps, Hagerman Lake bears the name Lac Brule, the latter lake not being named at the time. The origin of the name Hagerman is of more recent date and in all probability came from J. J. Hagerman, a mineral and timber investor who secured large land holdings surrounding the Lake during the early develop- ment of the County.    The cause that led to the preservation of the local bands were the repeated resolutions adopted by the State Legislature following the year 1850, in favor of permitting the L'Anse tribe of Chip- pewas to remain on their native lands while other tribes were be- ing evacuated to the west. The wishes of the State were even- tually recognized by the Government and the village lands were subsequently granted to the various bands under the signatures of President Abraham Lincoln at Lac Vieux Desert and President Chester A. Arthur for those at Chicagon Lake.    The main village of Iron County was situated along the south- east shores of Ga-na-ma-go-si-kag or Chicagon Lake, the modern name being a distortion of the Indian word Sagaigon, meaning lake.    This was the permanent area headquarters where the bands periodically congregated from the numerous camping grounds on the larger lakes and streams. Here was located the regional burial grounds. Wide trails extended from the village to the Brule River on the south and to the camping grounds on the Paint River near the Chicagon Slough on the north.    By making several short portages, the Chicago Creek and Slough and the waters of intervening Lake Emily were used as an avenue for canoe traffic between the village and the Paint River. A brush fence used for hunting and snaring deer extended from the Slough to an undetermined point along the east side of Chi- cagon Lake, being about seven miles in length, its intersection with present US-2 being near the center of Section 29, Township 43 Range 33.    This fence was of more recent construction and is recalled by some of the early settlers. It is thought that it was used by the Indians immediately prior to the development of the County. From the reports of Deputy Surveyor Guy H. Carleton who subdivided the Township in 1851, it is gleaned that the village and gardens extended along the shores of the lake for a distance greater than one-quarter of a mile.    That the local bands made their way along the streams to the most remote sections of the County is supported by the report of Deputy- Surveyor Zelotes B. Searls upon completion of the subdivision of Township 46, Range 34, in the year 1852.    Referring to the headwaters of the Net River, Mr. Searls writes, "The principal stream runs through the eastern portion in a southerly direction and has most of the way a sluggish current up which the Indian ascends on their hunting excursions with their canoes except in times of low water." The headwaters of the Mich- igamme River appear to have been used likewise, as the Fence River, a tributary, purportedly received its name from the many fences discovered in the vicinity.    Numerous trails traversed the   32     HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN   County, most of them being of a minor nature. These can be traced somewhat through the field notes of the original surveys, as the in- tersections of the trails with the section lines were ordinarily re- corded. Most of the trails were used by the surveyors at one time or another in the course of their work.    An outstanding one however, was the L'Anse-Lac Viex Desert trail. This was one of the native's main highways connecting Lake Superior with the Mississippi River, through the medium of the Meskousing or Wisconsin River which has its source in Lac Vieux Desert. The trail followed a general southwesterly course from the camping grounds atop the high cliff overlooking the Bay at L'Anse, crossed the Sturgeon River near Sidnaw and entered our County on Section 1, Township 46 Range 37.    From this point, the trail swerved sharply to the west to enter Township 46 Range 37 near Lake Thirteen to pass midway between Paint and Robinson Lakes to the south end of Lake 33. From this point the trail followed a more southerly course, crossing over the west end of present Mallard Lake which did not exist at the time, and entered Gogebic County at the camping grounds near the north end of Tamarack Lake.    Here the trail intersected a tributary of the Ontonagon River on the west while a short portage provided access to the navigable waters of the Paint River to the east. Continuing on, the trail led to the village on the northwestern shores of Lac Vieux Desert. Most of the early explorers, surveyors and mineral cruisers used this trail to gain access to the interior.          Pentoga Was Her Name    Upon the arrival of the first settlers, the leader of the local band was John Edwards, who with his wife Pentoga, spent his time between the local village and that of Lac Vieux Desert. The head of the entire L'Anse tribe was Chief Ontonagon. With the development of the iron mines, the Indians began a gradual movement to more isolated areas to the west. Among those occupying the Chicagon Lake village in 1880 were, Chief Edwards, Tom King the keeper of a halfway house, George Draper and Ben Happyday.    The local tribesmen were peaceful in their relations with the settlers and though ordinarily choosing to remain among their kind, they made regular trading visits to the new mining towns to secure needed provisions and peddle in season their venison, blueberries, and moccasins from door to door. The village at Chi- cagoan Lake was abandoned in 1891 when Chief Edwards dispos- ed of the village lands and moved to Lac Vieux Desert.    The site was acquired by the County in October 1924 and has with intermittent improvement been developed into a fine park, a most fitting memorial to a speedily vanishing race. Occasion- al excursions into Iron River were made by the Lac Vieux Desert and other neighboring bands until about the year 1910.    Annual treks were continued by several families until some ten years later to search the remaining hardwood timber stands for the wild ginseng plant, the root of which was dried and sold, it be- ing highly valued by the Orientals for medical purposes. Among the the other tribes represented in nearby Wisconsin were the Pot- tawattomi.    The writer had opportunity to visit one of the remaining mem- bers of this tribe named John Shapodock, at his cabin on the Pine River during the month of February, 1939. The following ac- count of the interview which was written at the time is, for its his- torical value, included verbatim:    At the turn of the century, there came to the wilderness of northern Wisconsin a Pottawattomi Indian. His mission was two-fold, pri- marily to escape the sorrow of the loss of his squaw and two children, to search for better hunting and fishing grounds, for the coming of the white man to his former home in Waupaca County had de- pleted the supply of fish and game.   HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN     33   This man was John Shapodock. After roaming the virgin areas of Vilas, Forest and Florence Counties for several years, he filed claim to a homestead of forty acres in Forest County. Here in the shadow of the virgin hardwoods, on the west bank of the Pine River to face the sunrise, he constructed his first crude log cabin which has now fallen through decay and been replaced by a frame building in more recent years.    Encouraged by a desire to learn more of the life and customs of the remaining Indians, I decided to visit Mr. Shapodock. With mis- givings concerning my welcome, aggravated by grapevine stories of his hermit existence, I embarked upon my journey.    Following a logging truck road some five miles southwest from Alvin to an active lumbering camp in the vicinity of my objective, I parked my car and proceeded on foot along the ice of the river, It was late afternoon when I released my snowshoes at the door of a small and weathered frame building, located several hundred feet from the river. A small bunch of herbs, tied with a strip of cloth, swayed from a nail on the corner of the structure. Save for a light smoke emanating from the stove pipe that protruded through the roof there was no sign of life.    I knocked loudly. From within came the sound of someone rising and a muffled "Ho, ho." Presently the door opened, and beaming, the old Chief clasped my hand and invited me in.    After motioning me to the lone home-made chair, the chief loung- ed back in his deerskin bed on the floor behind the cast iron box stove.    "Nice place you have here, John," I ventured, as not to ap- pear too brazen in my initial inventory of my surroundings.    "M'm, old shack fall down," and he motioned to the west where lay the ruins of his former log cabin. "Bye'n'bye make new one. Pretty good now. Got tobacco?" he questioned.    Forgetful of the red man's fondness for tobacco, I was unprepar- ed for this request. Fortunately I had a cigar which I handed him." I mix," he ejaculated as he passed for my inspection his scanty stock of home-grown tobacco while he crushed the cigar in the palm of his hand.    After mixing the tobacco and lighting his pipe, he reflected for moment, then abruptly asked, "What day it is."    "Sunday," I replied, "Sunday, February 12th."    "Oh, Sunday, M'm." He repeated as he drew on his pipe meditatively.    From fading memory I recalled the Chief Shapodock who regular- ly trekked by our country school in his way to town for provisions some thirty five years ago. But for his long greying hair and squinting weary eyes, he was much the same.    "You're getting pretty old, John," I ventured as it became increasingly clear to me that I would have to take the initiative in the conversation.    "M'm, pretty old, Maybe seventy-five. Forget to count. Maybe eighty-five. Donno."    "Do you get a pension," I asked.    "M'm, no pension. Donno how old," he retorted as he arose to his knees to stoke the fire and add more wood from a small pile on the opposite side of the stove.    Noting the complete absence of any form of sustenance, I broached the question of his ability to secure adequate food due to in- firmity of his advance years.    "M'm, catch rabbits, porcupine, sometimes deer, chicken (part- ridge). He then explained that the deerskin upon which he lay was that of a doe, illegally shot by hunters during the hunting sea- son, which he had found and utilized.    Much has been said about the weather forecasting abilities of the Indian. For want of a topic of conversation, I tried this, "Pretty cold weather we've been having, John. Do you think it will be   34     HISTORY OF IRON COUNTY, MICHIGAN   warmer from now on,"    "M'm, donno," and he pointed heavenward, "Ask Him, He tell you," and then added, "Bye'n'bye warm weather."    About thirty years ago, Mr. Shapodock was engaged in raising mustangs, a large number of which were used on the early mail route and the transportation of supplies to Alvin, Wisconsin. When asked about the ponies, he said, "White man shoot, me sell um."    Between puffs and draws on his pipe, and with occasional prod- ding, he related his early history in Waupaca County; the death of his squaw and two children from tuberculosis, and his hope of some- how establishing his age that he might secure an old age pension. As I turned to leave at the conclusion of our visit, I noticed be- side the window, on a shelf built between the studdings, what ap- peared to be a small dust covered bible. "You have a Bible, John," I remarked.    "M'm Bible," and pointing to a smoke tinted picture which was partially concealed by the burlap curtain turned back from the window, he humbly uttered, "Godchild and Mother."