SKETCH OF PETER NAW-GAW-NEE, A CELEBRATED INDIAN OF THE ISABELLA COUNTY RESERVATION.

BY. J. E. DAY.

There has lately died upon the reservation, one of the last of the warriors of the ancient but nearly extinct Chippewa tribe of Indians. He was up to his death one of the living links connecting the civilization of the present with the history of the past. He was the son of Sha-sa-boc (Timber full of holes), and was born near the site of the village of Fenton, at what was known to the Indians as Long Lake near the close of the last century. He was present at the battle of the Thames where Tecumseh was killed, a scout at the age of fifteen. Asthis took place in 1813, our hero must have been born in 1798. Sha-sa-boc was a warrior of note under Pontiac and participated in the siege of Detroit, the massacres on the Wabash, Maumee, and Bloody Run. He was employed by the English as a scout in the warfare against the French previous to the revolution. It was during the bloody scenes of the war of 1812 that young Naw-gaw-nee began the remarkable career so lately closed. Being of almost reckless bravery, and of marvelous endurance, and withal exceedingly fleet of foot, he was chosen to go on many an important mission. Tecumseh, the renowned chief of the Shawnees, and his brother prophet, had raised the war whoop, and sent round the war belt, to the neighboring tribes, urging them to join in a confederacy against the whites. Most of these tribes joined in the league, but the death of their leader at the battle of the Thames, disorganized the band and frustrated their plans. During this time Peter Naw-gaw-nee was frequently at Detroit, and knew Gen. Hull, Lewis Cass and many others, whom he designated only by the cognomen given by the Indians. He remembered Hull as a tall, fine looking man, a lover of games, and often both a witness and an active participant in Indian sports. One day a foot race was arranged between the Wyandots and the Chippewas, in answer to a challenge from the former, and Gen. Hull selected the boy, Peter, to run the race, which he won, and received as his prize $30 and a suit of clothes. After peace was established Naw-gaw-nee lived with his people at Long Lake, and soon became as renowned in the hunt, as he had been in the battle. He could walk erect to his wigwam under the weight of two deer, without fatigue. Bear, moose, and elk, were plenty, and often fell before his gun. About 1820 he made a trip alone to the west, past the site of Chicago to the great river, then down to the Ohio, up this and down the Maumee, seeing only slight traces of the white man's presence. One of the pastimes of his tribe was wrestling for the championship. Gathered on a set day each of the contestants stood by his post or stake, and as each was defeated his post was thrown down. Each was provided with a knife in his belt, and when angry did not hesitate to use it to the disadvantage of his opponent. One day, says Naw-gaw-nee, a brave became angry at his rival and stabbed him in the neck so that he died. He then stood at his post and cried, "who comes next?" The next met the same fate, and others, until the chief put an-end to the carnage. Naw-gaw-iaee was present and participated in the treaties at Detroit and Saginaw, and often met agents and commissioners of the government, as representative of his tribe. He remembered Cass as a portly, bald-headed man, kind to the Indian in peace, but severe in war, and from him received many tokens of favor. In 1848 the government gathered all the remnants of the Pottawatomies and located them on a reservation in Kansas. Some of these were among the Chippewas and the wife of Naw-gaw-nee was one of them. Her husband was employed to hunt these Pottawatomies out and get them on the reservation, but he would not report his wife as one. She, however, became frightened and fled to Canada, and he had to console himself with another dusky lady. He early moved to the northeast, and settled near Saginaw and in 1864 moved to the Isabella county reservation, where he lived up to the time of his death in 1895. Some years ago he was converted to Christianity and has since lived a quiet and peaceable life. In 1882, two sons by the second wife, grown up to be stalwart men, joined a company and went to Europe to exhibit the manners and dress of the American Indians, and having made a successful tour were on their return on board the steamer Servia as steerage passengers. When off the coast of Newfoundland she collided with the steamer Scotia and sunk. By the rule in such cases the first-class passengers had the first chance of being saved, and the lower grades in their order. As a large portion of the boats and provisions had been destroyed in the collision, ill could not be saved, so when a call was made for the second-class passengers the boys got in the boat and were ordered out by the captain. Upon their refusal he struck one and split his skull with a boat ax, and the other was thrown overboard and drowned. This severed the last living link connecting Naw-gaw-nee with the rest of humanity. Wife and family dead, tribal relation lost, and the tribe itself fast passing away. He passed from earth a veritable instance of "the last of the Mohicans.”

 

Annual Meeting 1896

Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections

Lansing, Michigan: Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, 1896