History of Saginaw county, Michigan; together with ... portraits ... and biographies ... History of Michigan ...

CHAPTER II.

THE TREATIES WITH THE SAGINAWS.
THE TREATY OF DETROIT.
The only treaty negotiated in the Territory of Michigan prior to
1819 was that of Detroit in 1807, which gave the United States a
possessory title to the southeastern portion of the State of Michigan as at present constituted. Detroit and the territory adjacent
to it became the property of the general Government by right of
conquest, strengthened by an article of the treaty of Greenville,
made in 1795. The treaty of 1807 merely bound the aborigines
to surrender their hunting grounds south of lattitude 43~ 10'
North, and therefore did not comprise the northeastern river region, or deal with that section of the Indian people known as the
Saginaws. To this point the attention of the United States Government was drawn in 1818, and a year later Gov. Lewis Cass was
commissioned to enter the council of that section of the Indian inhabitants and present the articles of treaty for their acceptance,
ceding to the United States all the land north of a line drawn
through the second tier of the northern townships of Oakland,
through the northern tier of the townships of Livingstone, thence
north to the head of Thunder Bay river, and northeast to Lake
Huron, leaving the six-mile tract along the rivers Detroit and St.
Clair unnamed.
THE THIIRST DANCE BEFORE THE TREATY.
A few days before the arrival of Gel. Cass on the great camping ground of the tribe, the Indians of the Chippewa nation resolved upon performing the ceremonies peculiar to their great
feasts. The chief proclaimed a day for holding the white-dog
feast, fixing the commencement of the exercises for Sept. 3, 1819.
Bands of Indians had encamped there for several weeks preparing
for the festival, which was of a propitiatory as well as penetential
character, the peculiarity of the ceremonial being that the dancers
should not eat, drink, or sleep until the proceedings were concluded,-a period ranging from two to four days.
In order to fully carry out the program, it was necessary to
erect a temple. For-this purpose 40 or 50 warriors with their
squaws set out on horseback in search of a center pole. This cavalcade was preceded by the medicine man dressed in an old British uniform, surmounted with a gaudy head-dress. He carried the
"tur-turn," a tin pan and a small cane. The former he beat with
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