Grandmother
said the Indians wrote a letter to President Andrew Jackson about other
Indian tribes moving from the east who were moving onto their hunting
grounds, stealing their crops and attacking their villages.. The other
tribes were taking their crops and attacking their villages.
They
spoke of enemies from on all sides moving in on them from the Ohio
Valley and forcing them to move across the great river, where they had
enemies to the north and west. They asked for soldiers to protect them
and keep the peace.
NOTE:
I have found no record of that request, but note that it was not easy
for Indian farmers to keep moving west. According to great grandmother,
they were an agrarian society who made their clothing out of buck skin
and supported themselves by planted maize or other crops. The women and
old men and children, remained behind to tend the crops while the men
went out to hunt. Without protection for their villages and farms, the
men could not hunt, nor could the tribe leave their village
unprotected to go to fish camp.
Traditionally,
after the crops were planted, some of the women and old men stayed to
water and tend the crops while the braves moved on to summer camp where
the hunted and fished. After the hunting and fishing was finished, they
returned to the village in time for harvest time.
Without
protection, they were returning to the village to find it empty, women
and children carried off by marauding tribes from the east and old men
and some children hiding in the woods.
Finding
their villages abandoned, they would have to gather the other tribes
together and pursue the raiders. When the enemy first came, the the
villages could not move rapidly with women and children in tow. When
they got to Iowa, they could move no further. In the west they made
other enemies, tribes whom they encountered along the way. They
mentioned enemies in the west who rode horses. They may have been
referring to a Cheyenne or Sioux Indian tribes.
Great
Grandma told yet another short story that seems related to be related to
the one above:
Other
villages were miles away, so a system of relays watched out for enemies
and delivered messages tribe to tribe.
Warriors
from several tribes banding together, one such war party caught the
enemy, slowed by women with babies and children, rescued the captives
and killed many of the raiders;
"Like
leaves from the trees they fell, and rose nere again." The tribes
banded together to plan a more permanent way to protect their
fish/summer camps and their home villages.
End
