the
possession of the lands northwest of the Ohio. All past treaties were to
be disregarded as impositions and frauds, and the advance of the
paleface permanently checked. The joy of the British agents knew no
bounds. Disregarding all the dictates of conscience and even the welfare
of the tribes themselves, they whispered in the ears of the Wyandots of
Sandusky and began to furnish ammunition and rifles. As a result of this
fatal policy the breach between the United States and the Indian
confederates was measurably widened. The end was Tippecanoe, and the
eternal enmity of the hunters and riflemen of southern Indiana and
Kentucky who followed General Harrison on that day. One of the ghastly
sights of that sanguinary struggle, was the scalping by the white men of
the Indian slain, and the division of their scalps among the soldiers
after they had been cut into strips. These bloody trophies were carried
back to the settlements along the Ohio and Wabash to satisfy the hatred
of all those who had lost women and children in the many savage forays
of the past.

With the death of Tecumseh at the battle of the Thames and the
termination of British influence in the west, the tribes soon
surrendered up their ancient demesne, and most of them were removed
beyond the Mississippi. The most populous of all the tribes north of the
Wabash were the roving Potawatomi, and their final expulsion from the
old hunting grounds occurred under the direction of Colonel Abel C.
Pepper and General John Tipton, the latter a hero of the Battle of
Tippecanoe, and later appointed as Indian commissioner. At that time the
remnants of the scattered bands from north of the Wabash amounted to
only one thousand souls of all ages and sexes. The party under military
escort passed eight or nine miles west of the city of Lafayette,
probably over the level land east of the present site of Otterbein,
Indiana.

Thus vanished the red men. In their day, however, they had been the
undoubted lords of the plain, following their long trails in single file
over the great prairies, and camping with their dogs, women and children
in the pleasant groves and along the many streams. They were savages,
and have left no enduring temple or lofty fane behind them, but their
names still cling to many streams, groves and towns, and a few facts
gleaned from their history cannot fail to be of interest to us, who
inherit their ancient patrimony.

CHAPTER II

WHAT THE VIRGI