TOWNSHIP HISTORY.

is said to have been a most desperate one, thousands of warriors,
women and children being slaughtered by the French and their
Allies.
One of the most notable events occurring at the "Hill of the
Dead" was the great council of August, 1827, at which several
thousand Chippewas, Winnebago and Menominees were assem-
bled to meet Gen. Lewis Cass and Col. Thomas L. MeKinney, the
United States commissioners appointed for the purpose of appor-
tioning the lands of the various tribes represented and fixing
their proper boundaries. Chief John W. Quinne, an educated
Stockbridge Indian, with Eleazer Williams, the "Lost Dauphin,"
were present as representatives of the New York Indians, who
had been ceded lands along the Fox river by the Menominees.
There was also present at this treaty a command of United States
regulars and volunteer troops, who had halted en route to the
seat of the Winnebago war. It was during this council (on Au-
gust 7, 1872) that the young Indian Oiscoss, or "Oshkosh," as
the name is spelled in the treaty, was formally selected by the
commissioners and recognized as the head chief of the Menominee
Indians. It is greatly to be regretted that Dr. Increase A. Lap-
ham's wishes, so strongly expressed in regard to the preserva-
tion of this historic monument, should not have been heeded. In
the year 1863 the Chicago and Northwestern railway constructed
a pile bridge across Little Butte des Morts lake and made a deep
cut through this point on the south side of and within thirty feet
of the mound. Subsequently they excavated and removed the
gravel at this place over an area of about five acres to a depth
of about thirty feet, and with it, regardless of tradition or his-
tory, went the "Hill of the Dead." Thus it happened that the
bones and implements of the aborigines entombed therein were
strewn along the railway right of way for miles. After one-third
of the mound had crumbled into the pit made by the busy pick
and shovel, a large pocket of human bones was plainly exposed
near its base. All about the outer surface, in shallow graves,
were the remains of a great number of skeletons, possibly repre-
senting burials of a later date than those found at its base. As I
can find no indication of an aboriginal cemetery in this vicinity
that may be ascribed to the Fox Indians, who resided from 1683
to 1728, or later, within a mile of the mound, I have come to the
conclusion that some of these latter interments were those of
members of that tribe. I am informed, on good authority, that

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