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INDIAN SUPERSTITION BY EPHRAIM S. WILLIAMS
I will mention another incident of an Indian legend which Mr. Brainerd mentions. He says: "There was a hole dug and stoned up, about four feet deep, and two feet or more across, one mile from my place, on the bank of Thread river. Report has it that in 1812 the Indians took a white man prisoner at Detroit, and brought him out here, dug and stoned up this hole, then placed the man in it and burned him. The stones show the effect of fire. I have been at the place often; it could not have been dug for a well, for the Indians never take the trouble to dig for water. "
Mr. Brainerd more than probably formed a wrong opinion of the stone well being made to burn a prisoner in. I think I can-solve the problem more satisfactorily about the use of the well. I have seen many such places. The Indians dig them, stone them up, or throw stones in loose, then build heavy fires in the pit, heating the stones as hot as possible. They then fill the pit over the heated stones, with a certain kind of roots, cover them over tight; the hot stones cook the roots, for several days, which prepares them for food. Some of these roots are very poisonous in their natural state, but after this cooking they make a safe and good food. This, I am satisfied from Experience, was the use made of the well, instead of burning white men, as Mr. Brainerd says. I have eaten the roots spoken of, in the Indian camps, and they were very palatable.
Many of our early settlers formed very strange ideas of the Indian character, and their doings, which has caused so many strange notions about the Indians by the early pioneers, and many of them have been handed down to the present time.
Michigan Indians
Page 7
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