Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1875 — An Indian Earthwork. [ARTICLE]

An Indian Earthwork.

A Battle Creek (Mich.) corresponded of the Chicago Tribune gives the following account of the remains of an earthwork that have been discovered on what is known as Gregory’s Point, a point or promontory reaching far into Lake Goguac from the western shore, which lake is about two miles south of the city of Battle Creek. The earthwork is about one-fourth of a mile in length, reaching from shore to shore across the point, and is t about four feet wide across the top, upon which gigantic oaks are at present in full leaf. Many conjectures and surmises are made as to the origin and the purpose of this primitive work. .The most popular opinion afloat is that, at one time the lake was dry, being an immense valley or ravine; and this earthwork was but a roadway through the ravine and across the point. But the nature of the ground Erecludes the idea of a road, as it would e as easy to travel around the point as .it would to travel over it; and if a road, it would have been laid in a straight line instead of curving to the east as it does on the northerly end. Some have supposed it to be an immense mound built by the Mound-Builders, and have dug large holes in the embankment expecting to find some solution of the origin and object of such an extensive piece of engineering. Your correspondent, in company with other gentlemen, wishing to find, if possible, the true cause of such an upheaving of earth, visited the Indian Reservation situated about twenty miles south of here, and interviewed John Mogango, son of Philip Mogango, a descendant from a long line of Pottawatomie Chiefs. We found John ready and willing to converse; and, when questioned concerning the works at Goguac, be and Aurerreodenokade, his tribe-in-

terpreter, voludfeered to accompany us back to Gotmac and explain the whole matter to us. We found, by steady inquiry, that a tradition in the tribe has it that once, many years ago, during the chieftaincy of John’s great-grandfather, Woppokisko, the tribes from the East waged a fierce war against those in the West; and, after a long, weary fight, lasting two great suns, Woppokisko’s people were driven to great extremities, took refuge on this point, and threw this immense embankment up for protection—the warriors remaining on the point and sending the squaws over on what is now known as Ward’s Island; the braves intending in the last extremity to take to their canoes and follow the squaws, as the attacking warriors were not provided with canoes or other means of crossing. But, happily, n this fight Woppokisko’s warriors won the day and were successful in repelling the invading foe, and eventually driving them from this section of country—the terms of peace being made and the calumet smoked in a grove on the spot where the Potter House, in this city, now stands. Woppokisko was ever one of the most powerful Chiefs of the Pottawatomies. But, after his death, the tribe ‘ selected Sawby for their Chief, a brave from a new family, whose descendant is now the ruling Chief at the reservation. Last year there was an attempt to place our informant, John Mogango, in the position of Chief, he being the only descendant of Woppokisko entitled to the place. The effort failed through the treachery of a Chippewa half-breed. Mogango informed us that the whole embankment was thrown up with sticks and shells and by working with their hands in the dirt. It is truly marvelous how such a stupendous work could have been done with such simple means. We measured the stump of an oak growing on top of this embankment and found it to be two feet in diameter. The locality is being visited by a large number of people each day, all eager to express an opinion or a doubt as the case may be.