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The Blackhawk War BY HENRY LITTLE, 1875
The Michigan Indians were all well acquainted with the preparations the whites were making for war upon somebody, and should not those Indians be suspicious of the whites, and moved by fear and want of confidence, have forestalled the action of the whites, and compelled them to give up their arms to the Indians ?
It is a poor rule that will not work both ways. The only difference that I can discover in the two cases is, my ox, your bull. It was Mr. "Lo, the poor Indian, " on the one side, and Mr. "High, the rich white man, " on the other. " It is probable that the whites would not have submitted to such treatment as peaceably as did the Indians. At that time there were multitudes of Pottawattomies among, and about us, on every side.
At the north were the Ottawas, who were in close and friendly alliance with the Pottawattomies. If the Pottawattomies had considered the ill treatment of their friends at Prairie Ronde a just cause of war, the two combined tribes might have annihilated all the whites in that part of the territory, at one stroke. Gull Prairie was a weak, isolated settlement in the extreme north part of Kalamazoo county. Twenty-eight miles east there were two families, whore Marshall now stands, hut no white inhabitants between the two places. There were no white inhabitants in Eaton nor in Barry counties. There were five families in Kent county, and two families in Allegan' county. Ottawa and Van Buren counties had no white inhabitants. So that our whole available military strength was to be derived from the few infant, scattered, weak settlements in Kalamazoo and St. Joseph counties.
Michigan
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