The Keithsburg Chronicles
A Brief Discussion on Relations between Peoples in Keithsburg |
Family lore has it that Jonah Pratt killed the last Indian in Mercer County, in the woods just north of Hilltop House. Jonah Pratt and his family were traveling on a horse and buggy through a road in the forest beside what is now the highway that becomes 3rd Street in Keithsburg. They came upon a wounded Indian. Jonah promptly took off the wagon tongue, and beat the Indian to death with it, fearing that he would turn on them when he got better.
It is hard to understand this
deed, in modern times. Why would a man do something like that? I
postulate fear.
I do not know of a case in history
where, given a great disparity between the level of sophistication
between two cultures, the least sophisticated of the two is not either
absorbed or destroyed.
There was a great deal of fear between the two communities, Sauk and pioneer. The clash between the nomad and the farmer/villager is as old as humanity itself. The difference in sophistication between the two cultures was overwhelming. The pioneers were in continuous fear of their children being kidnapped, or enticed to run away; some native tribes were in the habit of coaxing away children from other tribes and adopting them. Obviously, these two differing customs were incompatible with coexistence between the two groups. The Carr children are reported to have spoken Sauk as well as English, indicating their close relations with the local Sauk, and there are stories of their being tempted to run off with the tribespeople, a continuing worry for their parents.
This fear and the basis for it is well documented. In particular, see Frederick Drimmer's collection of diaries,Captured by the Indians: 15 Firsthand Accounts, 1750-1870. There are many excellent diaries preserved of settlers in North American who were kidnapped by the First Nation peoples, and Standing in the Light: The Captive Diary of Catherine Carey Logan, Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania 1763 (Dear America Series), by Mary Pope Osborne, should be mentioned as well.
Modern examples continue in South America, where there is still an unassimilated First Nation population: See Yanoama: The Story of Helena Valero, a Girl Kidnapped by Amazonian Indians, Kodansha Globe Publishers, by Helena Valero et al.
Some tribes, including the modern Yanoama in Brazil, kidnap from other tribes routinely, perhaps fulfilling the biological imperative of enhancing the gene pool. In the case of many tribes, this kidnapping is stylized, almost ritualized, and completely mutually expected.
Most of these diaries report that the children were truly and thoroughly adopted by the tribe that kidnapped them; that they were acculturated and assimilated; they were loved. Most of them were sad when restored to their own civilization. Very many never attempted to escape, and the desire usually waned with time.
