182 



CRANIA AMERICANA 



PLATE XXX, 



MIAMI. 



I received this skull from Dr. J. W. Davis, of Thorntow^n, Indiana, who 

 politely favored me w^ith the follow^ing memorandum of the history of the 

 individual. 



" The man to whom this cranium belonged vv^as a Miami chief of the Eel 

 river village. This fraction of the tribe w^as established on Augar river, a tributary 

 of the Wabash, M^here they held a beautiful section of country known as the 

 ' Thorntown Reserve.' They acknowledged the authority of two individuals as 

 their chiefs, one of whom had received from the whites the name of Captain Jim, 

 This man had acquired a great ascendancy over his people by his bravery, his 

 success in the chase, and his uncompromising hostility to the white faces. By his 

 cunning and eloquence he several times defeated the project of his colleague and 

 rival, who was as anxious to sell the reservation as the whites were to purchase it. 

 In the year 1830 a general council was called once more to deliberate on the 

 propriety of selling their land. The Captain again opposed the sale, and in a 

 long and forcible speech depicted the beauty and fertility of the country they 

 then held, and the folly of parting with it for any consideration. No sooner had 

 he ceased, than his rival denounced him as the enemy of his tribe, and wishing its 

 destruction. The Captain then sprang upon his feet, retorted the charges, and 

 called his colleague a white man's dog^ upon which the latter seized a knife in 

 each hand, and rushed furiously upon his opponent, who, with a single weapon of 

 the same kind, willingly joined in combat. The tragedy was short and bloody. 

 Each belligerent received the stab of his adversary, and both fell dead on the spot. 

 They were buried side by side, with a pole bearing a flag placed between them. 



