Myths and Legends of Our Own Land, vol 6

Myths And Legends of Our Own
Land, vol 6: Great Lakes

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Title: Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land (Central States and Great
Lakes)
Author: Charles M. Skinner
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6611] [Yes, we are more than
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MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF OUR OWN LAND
By Charles M. Skinner
Vol. 6.
THE CENTRAL STATES AND GREAT LAKES

CONTENTS:
An Averted Peril The Obstinacy of Saint Clair The Hundredth Skull
The Crime of Black Swamp The House Accursed Marquette's
Man-Eater Michel de Coucy's Troubles Wallen's Ridge The Sky
Walker of Huron The Coffin of Snakes Mackinack Lake Superior
Water Gods The Witch of Pictured Rocks The Origin of White Fish
The Spirit of Cloudy The Sun Fire at Sault Sainte Marie The Snake
God of Belle Isle Were-Wolves of Detroit The Escape of Francois
Navarre The Old Lodger The Nain Rouge Two Revenges Hiawatha
The Indian Messiah The Vision of Rescue Devil's Lake The Keusca
Elopement Pipestone The Virgins' Feast Falls of St. Anthony Flying
Shadow and Track Maker Saved by a Lightning-Stroke The Killing of
Cloudy Sky Providence Hole The Scare Cure Twelfth Night at Cahokia
The Spell of Creve Coeur Lake How the Crime was Revealed Banshee
of the Bad Lands Standing Rock The Salt Witch

THE CENRAL STATES AND THE GREAT LAKES
AN AVERTED PERIL
In 1786 a little building stood at North Bend, Ohio, near the junction of

the Miami and Ohio Rivers, from which building the stars and stripes
were flying. It was one of a series of blockhouses built for the
protecting of cleared land while the settlers were coming in, yet it was a
trading station rather than a fort, for the attitude of government toward
the red men was pacific. The French of the Mississippi Valley were not
reconciled, however, to the extension of power by a Saxon people, and
the English in Canada were equally jealous of the prosperity of those
provinces they had so lately lost. Both French and English had
emissaries among the Shawnees when it had become known that the
United States intended to negotiate a treaty with them.
It was the mild weather that comes for a time in October, when
Cantantowit blesses the land from his home in the southwest with rich
colors, plaintive perfumes of decay, soft airs, and tender lights a time
for peace; but the garrison at the fort realized that the situation was
precarious. The Shawnees had camped about them, and the air was
filled with the neighing of their ponies and the barking of their dogs. To
let them into the fort was to invite massacre; to keep them out after they
had been summoned was to declare war.
Colonel George Rogers Clarke, of Virginia, who was in command,
scoffed at the fears of his men, and would not give ear to their appeals
for an adjournment of the meeting or a change of the place of it. At the
appointed hour the doors were opened and the Indians came in. The
pipe of peace was smoked in the usual form, but the red men were
sullen and insolent, and seemed to be seeking a cause of quarrel. Clarke
explained that the whites desired only peace, and he asked the wise
men to speak for their tribe. A stalwart chief arose, glanced
contemptuously at the officer and his little guard, and, striding to the
table where Clarke was seated, threw upon it two girdles of
wampum--the peace-belt and the war-belt. "We offer you these belts,"
he said. "You know what they mean.