Dearborn 



Niagara Falls 



Tradition of the Indian Settlement on Buffalo 



Creek 

 1838 There was a powerful tribe whose village was near the 



Niagara Falls, on the Canada side. For several years the corn 

 crops failed from drought, an frosts, & an epidemic prevailed, 

 which swept off many of the Indians. One day a girl went into 

 the little cave above the falls to bathe, when a rattlesnake 

 attacked her & in her effort to escape, she was carried down 

 the rapids, & precipitated into the abyss below the cataract, to 

 her astonishment s'he was uninjured 6c found herself in a cavern, 

 under the falls, in the presence of the God of Thunder & 

 Lightning, who there created the mist, which ascending into the 

 heavens, formed clouds, from whence the lightnings are launched. 

 He told the girl that the God of Starvation, or Famine, had his 

 residence also, under the falls, & had caused the failure of the 

 crops of corn, as he was a very bad & wicked god; and there 

 was also an immense water serpent under his command which 

 lived in the niagara river and lake Erie ; — this serpent came 

 down often into the little bay, at the mouth of the stream, which 

 falls into the river just above the falls, to cleanse himself of the 

 filth which accumulated on his skin, & that the water was thus 

 poisoned in that little bay; which being the place where the 

 Indians supplied themselves with water for drinking & cooking 

 they were made sick & died. Now said the Thunder & 

 Lightning God, go home to your tribe & tell them to pack up 

 all their property & procede in their bark canoes from the 

 mouth of Chippewa river up the Niagara to Buffalo creek, 

 & form a settlement, where the stream is separated into two 

 branches, & they will raise good crops & enjoy perfect health. 

 The God of Starvation will send the large Water Serpent after 

 you, for the purpose of defiling the water of the creek; but I 

 will follow him in a dark cloud, & when he has advanced a 

 few miles up the creek, I will hurl a thunderbolt at him, & 

 slay him. The Indians made the removal, as recommended, & 

 saw the huge serpent following their canoes; but when they got 



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