The LEGEND of RED WING

The LEGEND of RED WING


The entire Central Section of our good old Hoosier State is extremely rich in Indian lore, Indian history, Indian legend and Indian tradition, and Delaware County comes in for more than its share. It was in Delaware County, so history has it, that the Muncie Tribe of Delaware Indians lived. They were called the Muncie Tribe or Clan, not because there was ever a chief named Munsee, for there never was, but because there was once a great wolf, so the story goes, which stood about 4 feet high and nearly 12 feet long from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. This huge wolf, in his time, killed several Indian hunters as they passed through. Because of this, the country was spoken of as the Wolf Country and when the Tribe of Delaware Indians moved here from Ohio, they became know as the Wolf Indians because they lived in the country inhabited by the great Wolf, and Muncee means, in Indian language, The Wolf.

The Muncie Tribe of Delaware Indians lived upon what is now Old Town Hill, situated about 3 miles southeast of the present city of Muncie on the southern shore of White River. Their hunting ground extended over a large area, both north and south and east of Old Town Hill. Up on the northern shore of White River running far to the east lay the trail which is now know as the Old Indian Trail. This trail is the path over which we walked as we enter Camp Red Wing. Our own Camp.

The Muncie Clan was ruled by a wise and kind old chieftain. He had one child, Princess Red Wing, and although he had prayed to his Manitou and to the Great Spirit for a son to succeed him, the Gods had not seen fit to so bless him and as he came to be an old man, although deeply sorrowed because of his lack of a son, his love for his daughter became greater and greater. He began to cast about him among his Indian Braves for a young man worthy of the hand of his princess. He became very greatly attached to a clean, strong young Indian Brave in whom he counseled and confided at all times and he was secretly but none the less greatly pleased when he saw that his favorite warrior had fallen in love with his Princess Red Wing and that she returned his love. Wisely, he kept his counsel as the romance developed.

In the meantime, Tecumseh and his brother the Prophet had come to live with the Muncie Tribe.

One day, so the story goes, the wise old chief and his Indian braves started upon a hunting expedition, going northward to Fort Wayne and there joining other Indian hunters from other tribes and going upon a three weeks meat-killing hunt, leaving the Prophet, Tecumseh's brother, in charge of the Camp.

Shortly after their departure, a medicine man belonging to a tribe of Indians down near Hagerstown, came into the Muncie Camp. He was a wrinkled up, bent old man but very wealthy, and having paid his respects to the Prophet as head of the camp, he proceeded to establish himself for a lengthy visit. He soon saw the beautiful Princess Red Wing and coveted her for his own, determined to have her for his squaw.

Consequently he entered into negotiations with the Prophet and after some little bargaining, the terms were agreed upon and the prophet announced the betrothal of the Princess Red Wing to the wrinkled old Medicine man.

Red Wing sorrowed deeply because of the arrangement and went into the temple twice daily where she prayed to each of the twelve Manitou and to the Great Spirit which stood in the corner of the temple, that her father and lover might return but standing true to the Indian custom that all authority was vested in the Chief of the Camp whoever he might be, she did not protest. As if in answer to her prayers on the night before the great Wedding Feast was to be solemnized, her father and Indian lover did return to the Camp and she rushed to her father and threw both arms around his neck a thing unheard of among Indians. The wise old chief saw that she was greatly troubled and rebuked her not, but gently took her by the hand and led her aside and asked what was troubling her. Then sobbingly she told him the story. Her Indian lover stood beside her and heard the story and immediately took his tomahawk from its sheath and started to kill the old Medicine Man. However, the wise old chief restrained him and assured the Princess Red Wing and her lover that he would handle the situation. Thereupon, he went to his teepee and sent for the Medicine Man to come there for an audience. The old man cam and after due preliminaries, he was quietly but firmly informed by the old chief that he would never permit the wedding arrangements to be carried out. Upon being informed, tradition has it, the old Medicine Man flew into a rage and dancing and gesticulating wildly, he vowed dire and woeful vengeance upon the old chief, the Princess and upon the entire Muncie Clan. He gathered up his belongings and started southward.

For several short and extremely happy weeks, Red Wing and her lover roamed the forests, hunted and fished together. They had become engaged and the old chief had smiled and blessed then and the wedding was arranged for. The time was rapidly approaching when the entire tribe would have a great seven-day feast in honor of the wedding.

And then one night just at dusk, as Red Wing and her lover were returning to camp along the old Indian Trail and according to the story, as they came near the old meat tree which stands beside the trail in our own camp; that being the only meat tree standing along White River at any place east of Anderson and therefore surely the very tree mentioned in the legend, they heard voices. Not knowing whether it was friend or foe, they left the trail and stole up through the bushes where they hid themselves and listened. Immediately they recognized the wrinkled and bent old Medicine Man and they heard him addressing his warriors and, the story has it, that he told them they would camp beside the trail during the night. Next morning when the great sun greeted the world from the east, they would advance upon the camp of the Muncie Tribe and when within a few hundred yards of the camp, the warriors would hide themselves in the brush upon each side of the old trail while the Medicine Man with two others would go to the teepee of the old chief and there demand the hand of the Princess Red Wing. If they were refuses, the two warriors accompanying the old Medicine Man would cry out loudly and would scalp the old chief killing him then and there. Then when the Indian Braves of the Muncie Tribe came from their tents and started after them, they would flee down the trail.

As the Muncie warriors came down the trail between the two lines of ambushed warriors, they who were hidden would jump upon them, taking them completely by surprise and getting for themselves many scalps. As a reward, the Medicine Man would get the Princess Red Wing and his warriors might have all the wealth of the camp including the hides, robes, furs and anything else they might desire to take.

All of this, Red Wing and her lover heard as they lay hidden beside the old meat tree and they stole away and consulted with each other, the result being that they decided that Red Wing should go through the woods and warn the tribe while her lover remained beside the trail to watch, listen and guard It was a long, dangerous journey, that two miles through the woods and off the trail, but Red Wing, being brave, made the trip and the next morning when the great sun greeted his children on the earth and as the Medicine Man and his warriors were making ready to advance upon the Muncie Tribe, there suddenly came upon them from the west, from the north and from the east a howling avalanche of Muncie Braves and, tradition says the only ones who escaped were those who jumped into the river and made their way across the flood through the wilderness to the southward.

It was a great victory for the Muncie Tribe but for Red Wing it was a victory with a sting for when the rejoicing braves returned to camp, her lover was not among them. He had been killed in the battle and true to Indian custom, he was buried with the others where he fell.

The brave, loyal and true Princess thereafter refused all meat and drink and mourned the loss of her lover until soon, she too, was taken out upon the hillside above the old meat tree and there left in her grave to make her way to the Happy Hunting Grounds there to join her lover.

The Princess Red Wing was a beautiful, true and obedient spirit. She had sacrificed the one to her most dear for the sake of her tribe and greater loyalty hath no one. It is in memory of her that we have named our Camp and it is the spirit of Red Wing which our Scouts find here and follow. We do not lay the spirit of Red Wing down when we leave Camp but we take this beautiful spirit with us; carefully keep it and live up to it throughout the year. Courage, loyalty and self-sacrifice for the sake of others.

FINIS.
* This document is from a manuscript dating from around 1926. This legend was told at the closing of each summer camp campfire. Thomas Tighe collection