Indians

Our Indian Heritage

As the glaciers of ice that covered most of Michigan slowly receded some 12,000 years ago. It left behind, at the edges of the melting ice, deposits of dirt, clay and rocks it had dug up in its slow grinding process. These terminal moraines became hills, and locked between the hills, the water from the melting ice became lakes and rivers. Fenton, as we know it today, is situated on the edge of a glacial moraine, which accounts for the rolling Tyrone hills to the south and the more than 50 lakes within a 25 mile radius. Behind the melting ice small bands of nomadic people entered into what is now Michigan and Genesee county. Racially they were probably slightly Mongoloid like their predecessors who had crossed the Bering Strait land bridge from Asia a few thousand years before.

These Paleo-Indians were the first Michiganders, moving into the region when the climate was inhospitably cold and damp, and the land was forested with spruce and fir. These hunters followed the trails of mastodon and mammoth, barren ground caribou, deer and elk to the shores of the many lakes and swamps that dotted the landscape. There they waited for unwary animals that existed here, killing them with rocks or spears tipped with fluted points, a distinctive weapon of the Paleo Indians. Then, around campfires they would settle down to enjoy the day’s kill, often spiced with the wild plants they had picked to add to their larder.

Fragmentary remains of both mastodon and mammoth have been uncovered in this part of the State, just as have the remains of Indians. As the climate grew warmer, some 10,000 years ago, the mastodons moved slowly northward like the melting ice. The Paleo Indians with their fluted points followed, while some stayed behind, changing from hunters into fishers and farmers. Their weapons changed, also, the herds of animals being pursued by hunters equipped with unfluted, lancelet and stemmed projectile points. The climate grew more temperate, producing changes in plant and animal life, and an imaginative and versatile culture took over, dominating the scene for 7,000 years.

The Archaic Indians took advantage of the lakes and streams that peppered the area, adding fish, turtles and snails to their diets, developing bone fishhooks, notched net shakers, nets and even fish traps. Dugout canoes appeared about this time also, the area’s waterways providing transportation. The campsites of the Indians consisted of huts made, of saplings arranged over a frame on which were laid sheets of bark, skins and mats. The Archaic Indian developed the ax, gouge and adz; they devised the mortar and pestle for grinding foods and grains.

While the Archaic Indian was emerging, another culture was emerging about 4,000 years ago in the upper Great Lakes. The old Copper Indians were the first to mine and shape copper, hammering and annealing it into weapons and tools. Early in the Woodland period the Michigan Indians began firing clay to make pottery, Archeologists studying these artifacts, have been able to reconstruct a history of the Indians until the early Historic Period.

Around 100 B.C. a remarkable and distinctive Indian cult moved into southwestern Michigan, settling along the banks of the St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, Muskegon and Grand River. The economic base of these Hopewell Indians, as they were called, was agriculture, supplemented by hunting and fishing. The crops they grew were maize (or corn), squash, probably beans and tobacco. Agriculture had a stabilizing effect on the nomadic habits. Tobacco pipes of polished stone were made; cloth was woven by finger technique using fibers from the inner bark of trees; pottery was made for everyday use and for ceremonial vase for burial. By 700 A.D. the Hopewell Indians had died out, due to a combination of wars, disease and pestilence. Into existence came the Late Woodland Indians - groups or nations co-existing in tribes. These were largely farmers.

When the French explorers and missionaries reached the shores of Michigan they found a number of well established tribes. The major tribes were the Chippewas or Objibwa, Potawatomi, Ottawa, Miami, Sauk, Fox, and Mascouten. All spoke dialect of Algonquin. Later the Hurons (the Wyandottes) driven westward out of Ontario by the Iroquois, settled in the region. There were no marked boundaries for the tribes. Frequent warfare between them and later the inducement to trade with the white men kept their borders in a state of flux. To one degree or another the tribes were sedentary, with the exception of the Chippewas who as hunters occupied most of the Upper Peninsula.

At the time when fort Pontchartrain was established on the Detroit River in 1701 there were many Indian trails crisscrossing Michigan. These later became arteries bringing furs to Detroit.

The best known were the Saginaw Trail, now Woodward avenue, the main Grand River trail, and the Shiawassee trail. The Shiawassee trail crossed north of Walled Lake and Milford and down the valley along what is now White Lake road into Livingston county. The Grand River Trail went through what is now Byron toward Lansing.

Probably every schoolchild has heard of Chief Pontiac’s conspiracy and how close it came to destroying the British timetable for trade and colonization of the Great lakes region. However, like most exciting figures of history, his life and death have been romanticized.

There is no historic record that Chief Pontiac ever visited or lived for a time in what is now Oakland county. By the same token there is nothing to disprove such claims, either. It is known that the Indians of this area supported Chief Pontiac during his siege of Fort Detroit in 1763. However, the rumor of his having been buried on Apple Island in the middle of Orchard Lake, near Pontiac, is just a fable. After Chief Pontiac’s uprising failed, the Michigan frontier remained in a state of turmoil for many years. There were Indian raids during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 which may have warned settlers to stay way, but with treaties developed with the Indians, and the grouping of the Indians on reservations the way grew clear for pioneers to come into the area. By the 1830’s nearly all Indian tribes living in this area had been fragmented or dispersed.

In the fall of 1877 workmen engaged in constructing a road around Crane’s Cove on the west side of Long Lake (now Lake Fenton) discovered a skeleton of an Indian. This led to the theory that Indians were not buried in mounds in this area as there was no surface mark to indicate the place of burial. However, a newspaper account in 1903 revealed the existence of a mound near Linden.

Of the Indians who roamed southern Genesee county the Sauks were the most numerous, their domain extending to the headwaters of the Shiawassee river, in Oakland county near Davisburg. They had small encampments or villages at different points on the river and on some of the lakes. The teeming hunting grounds of the Sauks led to inter tribal wars. The Chippewas (Ojibwas) seeing the prosperity of the Sauks, held council with the Ottawas of the north and formed an expedition against the Sauks to occupy their hunting grounds. The principal Sauk village on the Saginaw river was attacked and the people tomahawked. The Sauks fought back but were defeated and massacred, after which the invading army destroyed villages along the Shiawassee, Titawabassee and Cass rivers. A desperate battle was fought on the bank of the Flint river about a half mile south of what is now Flint. The Sauk suffered a severe defeat and retreated down the river to a point near Flushing, where another battle was fought and lost. Bands of the invaders scoured the valleys of the Shiawassee and the Cass routing and overthrowing the Sauks, only a remnant of whom escaped. After the Sauks had been crushed, the victorious allies did not immediately settle the conquered territory, but held it as common ground for their hunting parities.

The first fur traders in this area came up the river, rather than along the trails from Detroit, Jacob Smith was among the earliest traders, arriving at the start of the War of 1812 and settling in what became Flint. Louis Campau established himself as a trader among the Saginaws in 1815. His brother Antoine came about the same time and Baptiste Cochios had a trading post on the Flint river. From the time of the War of 1812 until 1815 fur trading helped open up the country.
 

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