Agricul ture that would hold about four gallons each. Indian They had brass kettles that held about fifteen gallons each and other smaller kettles in which they boiled the water. But as they could not at all times boil away the water as fast as it was collected, they made vessels of bark, that would hold about one hundred gallons each, for retaining the water; and though the sugar trees did not run every day, they had always a sufficient quantity of water to keep them boiling during the whole sugar season. The way that we commonly used our sugar while encamped was by putting it in bear's fat until the fat was almost as sweet as the sugar itself, and in this we dipped our roasted venison." The above gives a good idea of the way in which the Ohio Indian obtained his sugar. This same process was afterward learned from the natives by the whites and resorted to by them. This method of obtaining sugar was practised by the majority of the Ohio tribes as well as throughout the whole region of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence. Tobacco was everywhere grown through Indian out the state and was as necessary to the Agricul- Indian life as paint and the tomahawk. ture The Indian possessed no domestic animals except the dog, nor poultry of any kind. And he did not need the latter. The trees and groves were better for the culture of fowls than were the rude wigwams for shelter and protection. It is true that some tribes were in the habit of capturing various species of birds and animals and of taming them as pets, but as a rule not for economic purposes. Thus the Indian lived on Ohio soil. He has left a record that cannot be forgotten. A creature of circumstance he has done the best he could. Though his agriculture was crude and undeveloped in form, yet it points that his civilization was not as low in the scale as many would have it. Shaler 1, 2 advances the reason of slow development of Indian civilization to be due to the fact that the Indian had no domesticated animals as beasts of burden. It is true he had the dog, which was common to all the Indian tribes throughout America. 1 Shaler's United States of America. Page 249. 2 Shaler. Domesticated Animals. Page 218. Its use was for the watch or an ally in Indian Agriculhunting. It was a failure as a beast of ture burden to the red men. Domestication of animals in the thought of Shaler is the last stepping stone to perpetuity. The American Indian never reached it. Ready to place the foot on its solid surface the white man came and the lone Indian had to grasp his weapons of defense, face about and prepare for the foe. "How thoroughly prepared," says the same author, "the Indians were for this step is evidenced by the alacrity with which they welcomed the introduction of the horse, pig, sheep, and domestic fowls. That unaided they would ultimately have domesticated the American bison, cannot be doubted; for the bison though wild and intractable could with proper care and breeding in a comparatively short time be made serviceable as a draft animal and also for its milk. It was of immense importance to the Indian in its wild state, but under domestication it would have proved a powerful factor toward civilization." Ohio was an especially favorite land for the Indian. Fertile soil for the corn plant Indian ture and abundant game on inland lake and river, a land coveted and admired by red men and white men as a garden of second creation. No wonder the white man struggled for it, and the Indian died rather than yield! 38 CHAPTER III PEOPLE OF OHIO The first permanent settlement within the present limits of the state of Ohio was made in 1788. Many years prior to this attempts had been made to get people to emigrate into the valley of the Ohio. But Indian conflicts were many and frightful. The first mention we have of an attempt by white men in the way of exploration was that of Christopher Gist who in 1751 came over the mountains from the East, and crossed the Ohio river at about Pittsburg; striking for the interior of Ohio and following a trail he passed the Muskingum river at Dresden where an Indian town was then located; crossing the Licking and Hocking rivers he traveled down the Scioto to the Ohio and from there down to North Carolina. The Indians received him peacefully and his acts caused the Indians. to feel a kind and friendly disposition toward the white man. No settlement followed, however, as permanent till 1788, when the Ohio company made its purchase |