Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/103

 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 43 The usual relation of the Indians and the white people was one of friendship and good feeling, but some times circumstances arose which led to trouble. Just before the earth- quake of 1811 a war party of Creek Indians, under the leadership of a chief named Cap- tain George, crossed the Mississippi river four miles below Little Prairie. They were on the warpath and showed great hostility toward the whites. They planned the capture of Little Prairie and subsequently New Madrid. They were foiled in their efforts by the ac- tions of a Delaware Indian. He was a friend of the whites, and having discovered the in- tention of the Creeks reported their purpose to Francois Lasieur and Captain George Ruddell. each of whom commanded a com- pany of militia. The militia were ordered out and all preparations made to repel the attack of the Indians. It was just at this time, when the whites and Indians were con- fronting one another, that the first shock of the earthquake was felt. The Indians were so alarmed by this that they fled across the river, and were doubtless among those who were chastised by General Jackson. Lasieur in his writing on the early his- tory of New Madrid [New Madrid Record, 1893) calls attention to the fact that the In- dians were armed with good rifles which they had secured at Kaskaskia, and that they never bought any lead. In fact all Indians of this district were accustomed to secure their supplies of lead from some place in the im- mediate vicinity. The Indians remaining in the town of Chilleteeaux would depart in the morning and return in the evening with bas- kets full of lead ore. They went in the direc- tion of the St. Francois river. The source of their supplies of lead in this part of the district has never been discovered. One of these Indians named Chookalee, or Corn Meal, returned from the reservation to wliidi the Indians had been removed, and in 1837 came to Point Pleasant. He had been in- duced to return by the La Sieurs and had promised to show them the site of the lead mine. Unfortunately he died on the very day of his arrival at Point Pleasant and the se- cret of his mine died with him. One of the famous chiefs of these Indians was Captain ]Ioonshine whose son, Billy Moonshine, ap- peared in the battle of Big River during the Civil war. The Indians of this district were seized during the close of the eighteenth century by a belief in witchcraft. This belief, which was widely distributed among them, led to the same results as the belief in witchcraft among the white people in Salem, Massachu- setts. Many persons among the Indians suf- fered arrest, persecution and even death, be- cause they were accused of being witches. The most trivial circumstance was liable to draw suspicion upon a person, and, once be- ing suspected, he was almost certain to be convicted and put to death. It is difficult to say how far this delusion would have carried the Indians and how many victims it would have required had it not been for the fortu- nate visit of Tecumseh who was at this time organizing the Indians for an assault upofi the whites, and in the course of his journeys for this purpose came to Southeast Missouri. Tecumseh had no belief in wutches, and he was unwilling to see the lives of his people sacrificed to this delusion. He needed the energies of the Indians to assist hira in his purpose. Such was his influence and power that he brought about the cessation of the punishment of those accused of witchcraft. Outside of the Osages, the most trouble- some Indians to the people of Southeast