Memoirs of Waukesha County. From the earliest historical times to the present with chapters on various subjects, including each of the different towns, and a genealogical and biographical record of representative families in the county, prepared from data obtained from original sources of information.

              MEMOIRS  OF WAUKESHA  COUNTY 59
ward from Green Bay, or were off-shoots of the settlem^its about the head of Lake Michigan, is uncertain. The St. Joseph band were occu¬ pying that country as late as 1830. The Sacs and Outagamies (Foxes) and the Winnebagoes also had claims in the part of Wisconsin under consideration, but all of these tribes bore friendly relations to one an¬ other and the chief appropriation of the country by the Pottawattomies was not disputed by their dusky confreres.
According to Father D. Smet, chronicler of the "Oregon Missions," it was to the tradition of the Pottawattomies that Longfellow was indebted for the foundation of his "Hiawatha." Although Longfellow, iiimself, refers to the legends as from the "Ojibwas" (Chippewas) and *'Dacotahs," it is a well known fact that the poet did not search very carefully into the sources of his material for "Hiawatha," and that he was content with secondary authorities, so that the statement made by Father Smet is altogether within the probabilities, especially as very many of the Indian legends and much of the folk-lore of the different tribes had a common origin.
All of the tribes mentioned were unfriendly to the early settlers. The Pottawattomies were the allies of the French against the Iroquois, and also took part in Pontiac's conspiracy, and under the British dominion transferred their allegiance to the English. Until the Black Hawk war settled for all time the dominion of the whites in Wisconsin, there was more or less animosity expressed at their en¬ croachments. Ebenezer Childs, passing through the country in 1821, found several large settlements of the Pottawattomies in Waukesha county, and most of them were unfriendly, threatening to kill his cat¬ tle, and being deterred only by a show of arms; although another party made known to him the fact that the Winnebagoes were en¬ deavoring to incite the Pottawattomies to war against the whites, and showed a good will toward him by advising him not to pass through their hostile country.
The Pottawattomies ceded all their lands in southeastern Wisconsin to the United States government in September, 1833, with the privilege of remaining upon them for three years. The settlers began to come before the expiration of this time limit, and there was some friction between them and the Indians, the latter demanding damages, some¬ times exorbitant, for injuries done to their field by the cattle; of the settlers.
The tribe was removed to the Missouri river in 1836 and portions •of it were in Kansas and in the Indian territory. .Many of them re¬ turned to Wisconsin, and some became citizens. As late.as' 1864 a large band of them returned to Wisconsin, remaining for a time in the Wisconsin valley near the haunts of the Winnebagoes, under the chief Yellow Thunder. At that time they were oartly civilized and, although still living in tents, had adopted many of the customs of the whites, together with a friendly attitude toward their supplanters. The Pottawattomies gave little trouble to the early settlers, although this part of the state did not escape the curious "Indian scare" that swept across the state in 1862, following the New Ulm (Minn.) mas¬ sacre.    The contagion of this fear which extended from Lake Mich-