ibises, black vultures and Carolina paroquets have been almost, or in a great measure, exterminated. The paroquets which ranged to the great lakes and were so common a feature in the landscape of the pioneer times, have not only disappeared from Indiana, but from almost all the great range from Texas to New York, over which they spread at the beginning of this century, and are, perhaps, now only found in a restricted area in Florida. The day of their extirpation is near at hand. "The passenger pigeon survived the beautiful little parrot until a later day. But nets and guns, a short-sighted people, and inefficient laws have also swept out of existence this graceful bird. THE COMING OF NEW BIRDS AND ANIMALS "To the meadows came such forms as the bay-winged sparrow, field sparrow, grasshopper sparrow, meadow lark, meadow mice, garter snakes, green snakes, bumble bees and grasshoppers-species peculiar to such surroundings. Some parts of this land were wet, and where the drainage was poorest, became swamps and sloughs. There, forms which love such places came. Among them marsh wrens, swamp sparrows and red-winged blackbirds, salamanders, frogs, water snakes, aquatic insects and marsh plants. As the orchard and garden developed, birds well known to us and greatly beloved for their cheery social ways, there made their home and lived upon food brought to the locality by the changing conditions. The number of settlers increased, causing a steady diminution in the numbers of all the larger mammals, especially those used for food, or valuable for fur; of geese, ducks and other water-loving birds. The early settlers had brought with them the black rat. Later another form, the brown rat, which, like the first, was a native of the old world, appeared, following the routes of civilization. It drove out the other rat and has since occupied its place. The shy gray fox disappeared in advance of the incoming pioneer, and the red fox occupied the field left vacant. The hog, a most valuable factor in the development of the West, proved equally valuable as an ally in the warfare against snakes. Largely, through its efforts, were the rattlesnakes and copperheads destroyed. "Removing the timber and breaking the ground began to show its effect upon springs and water courses. Many became dry during the warm season. All life, be it salamanders, fishes, mollusks, insects or plants, that found therein a home, died. As time went on drainage became a feature introduced into the new country. With the draining of our sloughs and swamps other changes came. The birds that lived among their reeds and flags, mingled their voices with those of the frogs, disappeared, and the land, reclaimed tells, in its luxuriant growth of corn, no story to the casual passerby of the former population which occupied it." CHAPTER III LORDS OF THE SOIL EXPELLED IN ALGONQUINS AND IROQUOIS TRADITIONAL ENEMIES-MIAMI CON- Northern Indiana was never subjected to Indian ravages directed against the whites, as that section of the state was mainly occupied by the Miamis, especially the Pottawattamies. The Jesuit missionaries established some of their first missions among the latter tribe. The largest of these was at their chief village, Chitchakos, near the Tippecanoe River. ALGONQUINS AND IROQUOIS TRADITIONAL ENEMIES At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Algonquin family of Indians occupied a vast region of territory in North America. They occupied all that territory from 37° to 53° north latitude and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. Their territory was bounded on the northeast by the Esquimaux, on the northwest by the Athabascan tribes, on the west by the Dacotahs and on the south by the Cherokees and Natchez Indians. This family was made up of numerous tribes, resembling each other in manners, customs and dialects. Within this same territory dwelt some other tribes, differing essentially from the Algonquins. The 42 Algonquins were the hereditary enemies of the Iroquois. Nearly all the tribes found in Indiana were of the Algonquin family. MIAMI CONFEDERATION IN INDIANA When the first white man invaded the soil of Indiana he found here several tribes, sometimes living at peace with each other, but more often at war. Indiana was then the seat of the great Miami Confederacy. This Confederacy has been organized as against that of the Iroquois, or Five Nations. When the Iroquois had reached the Atlantic and found that they could go no farther east, and felt the western tribes still pushing them, they formed a Confederacy of five of the largest tribes, for the purpose of protecting themselves and driving back toward the setting sun those who were following in their wake toward the east. Individual tribes had sought to gain a foothold on the eastern side of the mountains, but had been repulsed by the Iroquois Confederation, and they, too, in turn made a union. Among the principal tribes which formed this Miami Confederacy, in Indiana, where the Twightwees, Weas, Piankeshaws, and Shockeyes. They had fought many and bloody battles with the Iroquois, and had been worsted in the contest, and had been greatly reduced in numbers by the time the white man first invaded their territory. They dwelt in small villages along the various water courses, from the lakes to the Ohio River. The Piankeshaws occupied the territory east of the Wabash and north of the Ohio, as far east as Lawrence County, and as far north as Vigo. The Wyandots had a little section comprising what is now Harrison, Crawford, Spencer, Perry, Dubois and Orange counties; the Shawnees occupied the land east of the Wyandottes into the present State of Ohio, and as far north as Rush and Fayette counties; the Weas had their possessions along the Wabash with their principal villages near where Lafayette now stands; the Twightwees were principally located along the St. Joseph and St. Mary rivers; the Pottawattamies held the whole northern part of the state, and the Delawares the central-eastern part. One branch of the Shawnees had villages in the country to the south and east of that occupied by the Weas. The Delawares, the Wyandots, the Shawnees and Pottawattamies were the strongest of these tribes. THP POTTAWATTAMIES The Pottawattamies were at one time a very powerful and warlike tribe. When any of the tribes made war on the Americans the Pottawattamies were sure to be found taking up the tomahawk. They united with the French as against the British; with other tribes, to fight the British, and with the British as against the Americans. They were at Harmar's defeat, at the overthrow of St. Clair, and were among the fiercest of those who fought Mad Anthony Wayne. Some of them took part in the defeat of Colonel Crawford and danced around his burning body. They joined Pontiac in his conspiracy, and Black Hawk when he opened up the last Indian war east of the Mississippi. They were always among the first to make peace with the whites, and also among the first to take up the tomahawk again. Some of them fought at Tippecanoe and some at the battle of the Thames. They were finally moved west of the Mississippi. They claimed all northern Indiana, and southern Michigan. A few of the tribe still linger in Michigan. MIAMIS, MOST POWERFUL WESTERN INDIAN NATION The Miamis were the most powerful nation or confederation in the West. They had been gradually migrating toward the East, when they met and had to battle with the Iroquois, who were just then being driven westward by the advancing Europeans. They settled in what is now the State of Ohio, and as this was the natural highway to the Mississippi Valley from the East, the Iroquois made many determined efforts to drive them away. The wars between the two nations were frequent and bloody, and as the Iroquois were the first to receive arms from the white man, they usually had the best of it. The Miamis had a varied migratory experience. They were among the finest of all the race of Indians, and proudly called themselves "Men." In fact, that was their real name. They were "men," warriors, statesmen, men above all the other tribes. They were met everywhere in the West; around Superior, the upper Mississippi, and in Ohio and Indiana. They were heroic, warlike. They had long and bloody contests with the Sioux and Sacs and Foxes, until only the Miamis and Weas were left. The rest had been scattered. In 1669 they were mostly found |