Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/93

 CHAPTER IV INDIAN HISTORY Importance of Indians in Oue Histoky — Indian Trade — Indians in Southeast Missouri When DeSoto Came — The Capahas — The Siouan Family and its Branches — The OsAGES — Their Homes — Their Farms — Osage Houses — Furniture and Clothing — Polygamy — Weapons — Peculiar Customs op the Osages — Painting op the Body — Their Government — Wars With Other Indians — Defeated by Sacs and Foxes — Their Removal From the State — Delawares and Shawnees — Their History Outside Mis- ouRi — Why the Spaniards Brought Them to Missouri — Character — Their Villages — Tecumseh's Sister — Chilletecaux — Witchcraft Delusion — The Mashcoux Tribe — Treaties With the Indians — Indian Education. Constaut reference has been made in earlier chapters to the Indians, as the aboriginal in- habitants of America were incorrectly named by Columbus, and other early explorers, be- cause they believed America to be the In- dies. These Indians are intei'esting as be- ing the earliest inhabitants of the country and also because they played a considerable part in its history after the white man came here. They were always to be taken into consideration. Whether friendly or hostile, whether disposed to help or hinder those who came, they were always to be reckoned with. It is difficult, perhaps impossible, for us who live in the security of the present, even to imagine the time when the savage warwhoop of the Indians was a sound of terror, often heard and always to be dreaded. AVe cannot reconstruct, except imperfectl.y, the condi- tions of life, here, when trade with the In- dians was one of the prime motives for the coming of white people to this part of the world. Vol. 1—3 And yet, difficult as it is to realize these things, both of these conditions once existed There was a time in Southeast Missouri when every home was in some ways a fortress, when the inhabitants listened for the war- whoop, and when life and property were not safe from the savage attacks of the red men. It is true that the depredations committed here were not so extensive as those suifered by the people of the eastern part of this couutr.y, but they were sufficient in number to form a bloody chapter in our history. There was time, also, when trade with the Indians was very profitable. The western country was once the home of many fur- bearing animals. Perhaps nowhere else in the world did there ever exist such a great number of animals valuable for their fur or for their flesh as in the western part of North America. Until the coming of the white people the Indians had done little to destroy these animals. It is true thej^ lived 33