by Tom Keller
Prehistoric Times To 1900
Our Family Story, A Keller Odyssey, 2004, compiled by Thomas Joseph Keller
As we celebrate our SESQUICENTENNIAL, we should not forget those who came before us & preserved so well the environment we were destined to inherit. The unpolluted Tippecanoe River abounded with fish & the many woodlands with overflowing game. The sky was filled with fowl, such as geese, ducks, pigeons, pheasants, turkeys, quail, etc. of numbers only previously imagined by many. In pre-historic times, the “Mound Builders” occupied this land, leaving evidence of their prior existence within burial mounds and encampments.
This general area of Indiana was the last to be settled by the white man or ravaged as an Indian might say. With much swampland and the proximity to the large lakes and rivers, the area was rather difficult to reach. Also, because this land was less desirable than lands in surrounding counties, the Indians were allowed to remain here a little longer than elsewhere. The Potawatomi tribes were the ones dominating the area. Two of the more famous chiefs were Menominee, located near the Twin Lakes area, & Aubbeenaubbee, located near Leiters Ford, and his alternate village at Bruce Lake.
No matter what terms were agreed upon for the purchase of Indian lands & establishment of treaties, there were those who wanted more lands opened for settlement. The early treaties at least left some glimmer of hope to the Indians that life would be better, often “convinced” they had the best of both worlds. They retained lands with woods, lakes & rivers, sustaining their lifestyle & cherished culture. With each new treaty, they often were manipulated, with the help of liquor, into believing ‘this time’ the white man would keep his word. The Indians never fully comprehended how some white men’s word & honor differed from their own. Treaty or not, the encroachments continued to plague the Indians.
There were many treaties we could use as examples, but we will focus on the ones dated October 26/27, 1832, which led to the ultimate demise of the Indians in our area. There still was a little honor left on the part of the white man as the Potawatomie’s retained possession henceforth of certain lands spread over several counties. Chief Aubbeenaubee (Obanoby) was said to be instrumental in this agreement where he and his band of Indians retained 36 sections of land. Also mentioned were the twenty-two sections retained by Chief Menominee. Each affected band of Indians was listed with the amount of land they would own legally. Indiana Gov. Jonathan Jennings was among those representing the government. (Ref. Ervin Stuntz writings in Fuiton County Historical Society Quarterly No. 39.)
Later, Chief Aubbeenaubee deeply regretted his decision to concede his lands & lost himself in the white man’s ‘bottle’. Skipping many of the details here, the Chief’s oldest son, Paukooshuck, eventually killed his father in 1836/37 & became Chief. Even before his father’s death, Paukooshuck sold Aubbeenaubee’s land for 50 cents to a $1 an acre. Per the Stuntz article already mentioned, “He spent much of his time at the village a mile west of Delong & the village at Bruce Lake, where he was born & spent most of his boyhood. Unlike his father who had made such a good treaty …… Paukooshuck signed a treaty (at the Chippewanong Village north of Rochester at the river) ….. & would move all ….. to Kansas within two years. When it came time to leave, he refused to go & tried to get the Indians to fight. During one of his orations to the tribe he was quoted as saying, “We run country-no taxes, no debts, no New Deal, women do all work. How hell white man do better?”
Essentially, Chief Paukooshuck committed the Potawatomi Nation to leave. When Chief Menominee refused, the “ethnic cleansing” of the area’s Indian population began. The story in history is known as the ‘The Trail of Death’. Despite Chief Menominee’s pleas, interpreted as defiance, they fell on the deaf ears of one Colonel Abdel Pepper. Per John Reidelbach’s “A Century of Achievement” p46, they first assembled at Pretty Lake in Marshall County. Colonel Pepper told the Indians that he would remove them by force if they did not leave peaceably. The Chief responded in substance “The President does not know the truth. He, like me, has been deceived. He does not know that your treaty is a lie, and that I have never signed it. He does not know that you made my chiefs drunk, got their consent and pretended to get mine. He does not ……. would not by force drive me from my home, the graves of my tribe & children who have gone to the Great Spirit ……. I am not going to leave my land.”
By August of 1838 all preparations were complete to remove the Indians by force. Then-Governor, David Wallace, ordered General John Tipton to take an army & do what was necessary to remove the Indians. Col. Pepper planned a decoy by calling the Indians back into assembly at Twin Lake Village. Tipton surrounded them and captured about 400 & many more when others came looking for them. “Detachments of Tipton’s army searched the reservation for others, plundering and destroying their homes and gathering for the journey horses, mules, cattle and other necessary belongings. Some scattering families made their get-away into the wilderness, down the Tippecanoe River. They remained in Pulaski County for another ten years or so, until they were absorbed into the general population.” The Fulton County Historical Society has done an excellent job under the leadership of Shirley Willard in preserving the history of the “Trail of Death”.
A very interesting story in John Reidelbach’s writings is on page 110. Malinda DeMoss Kleckner, daughter of Peter DeMoss, recalled an experience with Indians living along the Tippecanoe River. The DeMoss family lived on a farm at the east edge of what is now Monterey. Malinda recalled they lived in a log house located in the orchard of the Henry Keitzer farm, which was their homestead at the time (1843). There was an Indian encampment on the north side of the river. They were quite fond of her three year old brother and once wanted him to stay overnight with them. Her parents were very apprehensive at first but decided granting their permission was safer than risking the Indians ill will. The next morning her brother was back, completely dressed in nice new Indian attire. Malinda said, “Those Indians were our best neighbors as long as they lived there, providing us with all the fish & game we wanted.”
So how does one summarize the story of the Indians and their fate as we settled this land? Certainly, if more time was taken to understand their culture the outcome could have been different. Perhaps we could swim in the Tippecanoe without fear of some disease. Or maybe we could eat the fish, what few remain that is. Their Great Spirit sounded a great deal like ours! Mother Earth seemed to be respected with a clear understanding of man’s responsibility to her. It is obvious the Indians· were not always the savages they were made out to be. The ultimate question of course is whether this generation would have treated thein any differently than those that went before us. Can the answer lie in just how we are treating each other today, on the streets, in our schools & in our homes?