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

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

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The male children, as soon as they acquired sufficient age and
strength, were furnished with a bow and arrow and taught to shoot
birds and other small game. Success in killing large quadrupeds
required years of careful study and practice, and the art WaS as
sedulously inculcated in the minds of the rising generation as are
the elements of reading, writing and arithmetic in the common
schools of civilized communities. The mazes of the forest and the
dense, tall grass of the prairies were the best fields for the exercise
of the hunter's skill. No feet could be impressed in the yielding
soil but that the tracks were the objects of the most searching
scrutiny, and revealed at a gloice the animal that made them, the
direction it was pursuing, and the time that had elapsed since it
had passed. In a forest country he selected the valleys, because
they were most frequently the resort of game. The most easily
taken, perhaps, of all the animals of the chase was the deer. It is
endowed with a curiosity which prompts it to stop in its flight and
look back at the approaching hunter, who always avails himself of
this opportunity to let fly the fatal arrow.
Their general councils were composed of the chiefs and old men.
When in council, they usually sat in concentric circles around the
speaker, and each individual, notwithstanding the fiery passions
that rankled within, preserved an exterior as immovable as if cast
in bronze. Before commencing business a person appeared with
the sacred pipe, and another with fire to kindle it. After being
lighted, it was first presented to heaven, secondly to the earth,
thirdly to the presiding spirit, and lastly to the several councilors,
each of whom took a whiff. These formalities were observed with
as close exactness as State etiquette in civilized courts.
The dwellings of the Indians were of the simplest and rudest
character. On some pleasant spot by the bank of a river, or near
an ever-running spring, they raised their groups of wigwams, constructed of the bark of trees, and easily taken down and removed
to another spot. The dwelling-places of the chiefs were sometimes
more spacious, and constructed with greater care, but of the same
materials. Skins taken in the chase served them for repose.
Though principally dependent upon hunting and fishing, the uncertain supply from those sources led them to cultivate small
patches of corn. Every family did everything necessary within
itself, commerce, or an interchange of articles, being almost unknown
to them. In cases of dispute and dissension, each Indian relied
upon himself for retaliation. Blood for blood was the rule, and
the relatives of the slain man were bound to obtain bloody revenge
for his death. This principle gave rise, as a matter of course, to innumerable and bitter feuds, anid wars of extermination where such
were possible. War, indeed, rather than peace, was the Indian's
glory and delights-war, not conducted as in civilization, but war
where individual skill, endurance, gallantry and cruelty were prime
requisites. For such a purpose as revenge the Indian would make
great sacrifices,and display a patience and perseverance truly heroic;