



Produced by Roger Burch with scans from the Internet Archive.




{Transcriber's Note: Quotation marks have been standardized to modern
usage. Footnotes have been placed to immediately follow the paragraphs
referencing them. Transcriber's notes are in curly braces; square brackets
and parentheses indicate original content.}



{Illustration: Frontispiece--Norman B. Wood.}



                      LIVES of FAMOUS
                       INDIAN CHIEFS

         FROM COFACHIQUI, THE INDIAN PRINCESS, AND
              POWHATAN; DOWN TO AND INCLUDING
               CHIEF  JOSEPH  AND  GERONIMO.

                    Also an answer, from the
                 latest research, of the query,

                   WHENCE CAME THE INDIAN?

                   Together with a number
                 of thrillingly interesting

           INDIAN STORIES AND ANECDOTES FROM HISTORY

                          * * * * *

           COPIOUSLY AND SPLENDIDLY ILLUSTRATED, IN PART,
                    BY OUR SPECIAL ARTIST.

                          * * * * *


                              By
                        NORMAN B. WOOD

Historian, Lecturer, and Author of "The White Side of a Black Subject" (out
   of print after twelve editions) and "A New <DW64> for a New Century,"
   which has reached a circulation of nearly a _hundred thousand copies._

{Illustration: Two Indians in a canoe.}

                         PUBLISHED BY

          AMERICAN  INDIAN HISTORICAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
                   Brady Block, Aurora, Ill.



    Copyrighted in 1906 by American  Indian  Historical Publishing Co.,
                        Aurora, Illinois.
                              * * * * *
                  All rights of every kind reserved.


{Illustration: seal.}



             PRINTING AND BINDING BY THE HENRY O. SHEPARD CO.
                   ENGRAVING BY THE INLAND-WALTON CO.
                             CHICAGO.



                               TO

                      THEODORE ROOSEVELT,

              PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,

        Who has observed closely and recorded justly the
        character of the Red Man, and who, in the words
        of Chief Quanah Parker, "is the Indian's President
        as well as the white man's," this volume is respectfully
        dedicated by


                          THE AUTHOR.



                            CONTENTS

                            * * * * *

                                                               page
Introduction,                                                    11

                          CHAPTER  I.

Cofachiqui, The Indian Princess,                                 21

                          CHAPTER  II.

Powhatan, or Wah-Un-So-Na-Cook,                                  41

                          CHAPTER  III.

Massasoit, The Friend of the Puritans,                           65

                          CHAPTER  IV.

King Philip, or Metacomet, The Last of the Wampanoaghs,          85

                          CHAPTER   V.

Pontiac, The Red Napoleon, Head Chief of the Ottawas and
   Organizer of the First Great Indian Confederation,          121

                         CHAPTER  VI.

Logan, or Tal-Ga-Yee-Ta, The Cayuga (Mingo) Chief, Orator
   and Friend of the White Man. Also a Brief Sketch of
   Cornstalk,                                                  173

                         CHAPTER   VII.

Captain Joseph Brant, or Thay-En-Da-Ne-Gea, Principal
   Sachem of the Mohawks and Head Chief of the Iroquois
   Confederation,                                              191

                         CHAPTER  VIII.

Red Jacket, or Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha, "The Keeper Awake." The
   Indian Demosthenes, Chief of the Senecas,                   237

                          CHAPTER IX.

Little Turtle, or Michikiniqua, War Chief of the Miamis, and
   Conqueror of Harmar and St. Clair,                          283

                           CHAPTER  X.

Tecumseh, or "The Shooting Star," Famous War-chief of the
   Shawnees, Organizer of the Second Great Indian Confederation
   and General in the British Army in the War of 1812,         317

                         CHAPTER  XI.

Black Hawk, or Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, and His War,         363

                         CHAPTER  XII.

Shabbona, or Built Like a Bear, The White Man's Friend, a
   Celebrated Pottawatomie Chief,                              401

                         CHAPTER  XIII.

Sitting Bull, or Tatanka Yotanka, The Great Sioux Chief and
   Medicine Man,                                               443

                          CHAPTER  XIV.

Chief Joseph, of the Nez Perces, or Hin-Mah-Too-Yah-Lat-Kekt,
   Thunder Rolling in the Mountains, The Modern Xenophon,      497

                         CHAPTER  XV.

Geronimo, or Go-Yat-Thlay, The  Yawner, The  Renowned
   Apache Chief and Medicine Man,                              529

                         CHAPTER  XVI.

Quanah Parker, Head Chief of the Comanches, With, an
   Account of the Captivity of His Mother, Cynthia Anne
   Parker, Known as "The White Comanche,"                      563

                        CHAPTER   XVII.

A Sheaf of Good Indian Stories From History,                   589

                         CHAPTER  XVIII.

Indian Anecdotes and Incidents, Humorous and Otherwise,        673

                         CHAPTER  XIX.

Whence Came the Aborigines of America?                         721



                    LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

                              * * * * *

                                                               page
 1 Frontispiece.
 2 Cofachiqui, The Indian Princess,                             19
 3 American Horse, Sioux Chief,                                 29
 4 Powhatan,                                                    39
 5 Captain Smith and Pocahontas,                                49
 6 Pocahontas, or Lady Rebecca,                                 59
 7 Ope-Chan-Ca-Nough,                                           69
 8 Massasoit and Pilgrims,                                      79
 9 Nellie Jumping Eagle,                                        89
10 King Philip, or Metacomet,                                   99
11 Philip Rejecting Elliot's Preaching,                        109
12 Pontiac, The Red Napoleon,                                  119
13 Montcalm  at Massacre of Quebec,                            129
14 Hollow-Horn Bear, Sioux Chief,                              139
15 Major Campbell and Pontiac,                                 149
16 Hollow  Horn,                                               159
17 Starved Rock,                                               169
18 Logan, The Mingo Orator,                                    179
19 Logan and the Two  Hunters,                                 189
20 Joseph Brant, Mohawk  Chief,                                199
21 King Hendrick, Mohawk  Chief,                               209
22 Sir William Johnson and the Mohawks,                        219
23 Leading Hawk,                                               229
24 Red Jacket, Seneca Chief and Orator,                        239
25 Massacre at Wyoming,                                        249
26 Corn Planter, Seneca Chief,                                 259
27 Adolph Knock and Family,                                    269
28 Red Jacket Presenting Deer,                                 279
29 Little Turtle, Miami War-chief,                             289
30 Little Turtle's Warriors Chasing St. Clair's Scout          299
31 Ouray, Late Principal Chief of Utes,                        309
32 Tecumseh, The Noblest Indian of Them All,                   319
33 Tecumseh Rebuking Proctor,                                  329
34 The Prophet, Brother of Tecumseh,                           339
35 Red Cloud, Noted Sioux Chief,                               349
36 Death of Tecumseh,                                          359
37 Black Hawk, Sac and Fox Chief,                              369
38 Buffalo Hunt,                                               379
39 Keokuk, Sac and Fox Chief,                                  389
40 Shabbona, "The White Man's Friend," Pottawatomie Chief,     399
41 Fort Dearborn Massacre,                                     409
42 Annie Red Shirt, Indian Beauty,                             419
43 Waubonsie, Pottawatomie Chief,                              429
44 Plan of Sitting Bull's Tepee,                               440
45 Sitting Bull, Noted Sioux Chief and Medicine Man,           441
46 Sitting Bull's Family,                                      451
47 Chief Gall, Sioux War-chief,                                461
48 Chief One Bull and Family,                                  471
49 Rain-In-The-Face, Noted Sioux Warrior,                      481
50 Sitting Bull's Autograph,                                   486
51 Indian Village,                                             491
55 Chief Joseph, of the Nez Perces, Greatest Indian Since
      Tecumseh,                                                501
53 Buckskin Charlie, War-chief of Utes,                        511
54 "Comes Out Holy," Sioux,                                    521
55 Geronimo, Noted Apache Chief and Medicine Man,              531
56 Group of Apaches,                                           541
57 Naiche, Apache Chief,                                       551
58 Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief,                              561
59 Quanah Parker and Two of His Wives,                         571
60 Comanche Indians Stealing Cows,                             581
61 Needle Parker, Indian Beauty,                               591
62 The Mohawk's Last Arrow,                                    601
63 Lone Wolf, Orator and Principal Chief of the Kiowas,        611
64 Kiowa Annie, Noted Indian Beauty,                           621
65 Se-Quo-Yah, The Cherokee Cadmus,                            631
66 Big Tree, Second Kiowa Chief,                               641
67 Satanta, Kiowa Chief and Noted Orator,                      651
68 Chief Simon Pokagon, Pottawatomie,                          661
69 Dr. Charles A. Eastman,                                     671
70 Dr. Carlos Montezuma,                                       681
71 The Last Shot,                                              691
72 Chief Charles Journey Cake,                                 701
73 Indian Maiden in Japanese Costume,                          713
74 Japanese Maiden in Indian Costume,                          725
75 Map Showing How America Was Peopled,                        737
76 Japanese Man in Garb of Indian,                             749
77 Indian Man in Japanese Garb,                                761



                           INTRODUCTION.

We do not propose to apologize for writing this book, for the reasons that
those who approve would not consider it necessary and those who oppose
would not accept the apology. Therefore, we can only offer the same
explanation as that made twenty-four centuries ago by the "Father of
History" when he said: "To rescue from oblivion the noble deeds of those
who have gone before, I, Herodotus of Halicarnassus, write this chronicle."

We deem it well, however, to mention a few of the many reasons which
impelled us to attempt the somewhat laborious but congenial task of
preparing this work.

First of all, we were gratified and inspired by the kind reception accorded
our first literary venture, "The White Side of a Black Subject,"  which is
now out of print after reaching twelve editions. Added to this was the
still more generous treatment of our second production, "A  New <DW64> for
a New Century." Nearly a hundred thousand copies of this book have been
sold up to date, and the demand is still increasing.

Having done what we could to vindicate the Afro-American, we next began to
consider the First American, when by chance a copy of Thatcher's "Indian
Biography" fell into our hands. We read this book with much interest, and
were impressed  with two facts. First of all, we noticed that while the
author gave the lives of a few chiefs well known to this generation, he
filled the book up with village or sub chiefs, of whom even historians of
this age never heard. Then, too, the book in question was seventy-four
years old.

Thatcher's biography tended to create an appetite for that kind of
literature, and we inquired for other lives of noted Indians, but, strange
to say, could only hear of one other book devoted to that subject. This was
a small  volume  written by S. G. Goodrich, sixty-two years ago, and he
gave only short sketches of perhaps half a dozen Indians of the United
States, but the greater portion of the contents was devoted to the Indians
of Peru and Mexico.

We now concluded that if there were only two books giving the lives of
famous Indians, and both of these published so many years ago, there was
certainly room for another book on the subject, which should be confined to
the Indian tribes of the United States and cover their entire history from
Powhatan to the present time.

We trust we will not be misunderstood. We know that many Indian books have
been written since the date of those mentioned, but they were on "The
Indian Wars," "The Pioneer and the Indian,"  "The Winning of the West,"
"The Manners and Customs of the Indian," "Folklore Tradition and Legend,"
and many other phases of the question. We know that Pontiac, Brant, Red
Jacket, Tecumseh, Shabbona, Black Hawk, Sitting Bull, and perhaps others,
have had their lives written, but in each of these cases an entire book is
devoted to one Indian and his war. Our claim is that we have written the
only book giving in a condensed form the lives of practically all the most
famous Indian chiefs from the Colonial period to the present time.

Lest it be thought that we have an exaggerated idea of our people's
interest in the Indian, we will digress long enough to prove the statement
to our own satisfaction, and we trust also to that of the reader.

Mrs. Sigourney has well said with reference to this point

                "Ye say they all have passed away,
                   That noble race and brave,
                That their light canoes have vanished
                   From off the crested wave
                That'mid the forests where they roamed
                   There rings no hunter's shout,
                But their name is on your waters
                   Ye may not wash it out.

               "Ye say their cone like cabins
                   That clustered o'er the vale
                Have fled away like withered leaves
                   Before the autumn gale.
                But their memory liveth on your hills,
                   Their baptism on your shore;
                Your everlasting rivers speak
                   Their dialect of yore."

We  have  ventured to add  a third verse

                Ye say no lover wooes his maid,
                   No warrior leads his band.
                All in forgotten graves are laid,
                   E'en great chiefs of the clan;
                That where their council fires were lit
                   The shepherd tends his flock.
                But their names are on your mountains
                   And survive the earthquake shock.


The mark of our contact with the Indian is upon us indelibly and forever.
He has not only impressed himself upon our geography, but on our character,
language and literature.

Bancroft, our greatest historian, is not quite right when he says, "The
memorials of their former existence are found only in the names of the
rivers and mountains." These memorials have not only permeated our poetry
and other literature, but they are perpetuated in much of the food we eat,
and every mention of potatoes, chocolate, cocoa, mush, green corn,
succotash, hominy and the festive turkey is a tribute to the red man, while
the fragrance of the tobacco or Indian weed we smoke is incense to their
memory.

On one occasion, according to Aesop, a man and a lion got into an argument
as to which of the two was the stronger, and thus contending they walked
together until they came to a statue representing a man choking and
subduing a lion. "There," exclaimed the man, "that proves my point, and
demonstrates that a man is stronger than a lion." To which the king of
beasts replied, "When the lions get to be sculptors, they will have the
lion choking and overcoming the man."

The Indians are neither sculptors, painters nor historians.

The only record we have of many of their noblest chiefs, greatest deeds,
hardest fought battles, or sublimest flights of eloquence, are the poor,
fragmentary accounts recorded and handed down by their implacable enemies,
the all-conquering whites.

It is hard indeed for one enemy to do another justice. The man with whom
you are engaged in a death struggle is not the man to write your history;
but such has been the historian of the Indian. His destroyer has covered
him up in an unmarked grave, and then written the story of his life.

Can any one believe that the Spaniards, cruel, hard-hearted and remorseless
as the grave, who swept whole nations from the earth, sparing neither men,
women nor children, could or would write a true story of their silent
victims?

Is it not reasonable to believe that had Philip, Pontiac, Cornstalk,
Tecumseh, Black Hawk or Chief Joseph been able to fling their burning
thoughts upon the historic page, it would have been very different from the
published account?

We believe that God will yet raise up an Indian of intellectual force and
fire enough to write a defense of his race to ring through the ages and
secure a just verdict from generations yet unborn.

In the preparation of this work we have honestly tried to do the subject
justice, and have endeavored to put ourself in the Indian's place, as much
as it is possible for a white man to do.

We have prosecuted the self-imposed task with enthusiasm and interest from
its inception to its completion. We fully agree with Bishop Whipple when he
said: "Our Indian wars were most of them needless and wicked. The North
American Indian is the noblest type of a heathen man on the earth. He
recognizes a Great Spirit; he believes in immortality; he has a quick
intellect; he is a clear thinker; he is brave and fearless, and until
betrayed, he is true to his plighted faith; he has a passionate love for
his children, and counts it joy to die for his people. Our most terrible
wars have been with the noblest types of the Indians, and with men who had
been the white man's friend. Nicolet said the Sioux were the finest type of
wild men he had ever seen. Old traders say it used to be the boast of the
Sioux that they had never taken the life of a white man. Lewis and Clark,
Governor Stevens and Colonel Steptoe bore testimony to the devoted
friendship of the Nez PercA(C) for the white man."

One evidence that our Indian wars were unnecessary is seen in the fact that
while our country has been constantly involved in them, Canada has not had
any; although our Government has spent for the Indians a hundred dollars to
their one.

