History of the Ojibway Nation/Chapter 21
CHAPTER XXI.
ORIGIN OF THE DISTINCTIVE NAME OF PILLAGERS APPLIED TO THE LEECH LAKE BAND OF OJIBWAYS; AND ERA OF THE SMALLPOX.
In the year 1781, the large band of the Ojibways, who had taken possession of Leech Lake (one of the principal sources of the Mississippi), became for the first time known by the distinctive appellation of "Pillagers," Muk-im-dua-win-in-e-wug (men who take by force).[1] They had become noted at this time (and it is a character which they have retained ever since), as being the bravest band of the tribe. Being obliged, continually, to fight with the Dakotas for the country over which they hunted, every man capable of bearing arms became a warrior and had seen actual service. They were consequently filled with a daring and independent spirit, and no act was so wild, but that they were ready and disposed to achieve it.
This band was formed mostly of the noted clans of the Bear, and A-waus-e or Catfish, and at the time which we are now considering, they probably numbered about one hundred warriors. In 1882, Mr. Schoolcraft estimates their total number of souls at eight hundred. In 1836 Mr. Nicollet estimates them as numbering one thousand, and in 1861, according to their payment census list, they number twelve hundred and fifty souls, and their chief estimates the men who are capable of bearing arms at about three hundred. These, it will be remembered, include only the band who make Leech Lake their home, or summer residence; and it is only these that are known by the distinctive name of Pillagers. The large bands residing at the present day at Red, Cass, and Winnepeg lakes, and on Pembina River, are known by the general term of Northern Ojibways.
Notwithstanding the never failing yearly drain which their warfare with the Dakotas have made in their ranks, yet still, from a natural increase, the healthfulness of the country they occupy, and gradual accessions from other villages, this band have increased in numbers and strength, till they now form a most respectable section of the Ojibway tribe. The manner in which they obtained the significant name by which they are now generally known, is told by their old men as follows:—
During the summer of the year which we have designated, the Leech Lake band had moved down towards the well stocked hunting grounds of the Dakotas, and encamped at the entry of a small creek which empties into the Crow Wing River, about ten miles above its confluence with the Mississippi. While making the usual preparations for the performance of their grand medawe rite, a large canoe arrived from the Lower Mississippi, manned by white men, and laden with merchandise. The trader who had, for the first time, come to this far off point of the great river, had started from a great distance below on its waters, for the purpose of trading with the Ojibways. He arrived at their camp very sick, and was not able to enter immediately into the barter for which the Indians were eager. Some of his goods having got wet by rain, were untied by his men, and exposed to the sun to dry. The temptation to the almost naked Indians, who had not seen a trader for a long time, was too great to be easily overcome, and being on the eve of their grand festival rite, when they are accustomed to display all the finery of which they are possessed, caused them doubly to covet the merchandise of the sick trader. They possessed plenty of furs, which they offered repeatedly to exchange, but the trader's men refused to enter into a trade till their master was sufficiently recovered to oversee it. There was no preconcerted plan, or even intention of pillage, when the rifling of the trader's effects actually commenced.
A number of young men, women, and children, were standing around, admiring the goods which had been exposed to dry, and longing for possession, as much as an avaricious white man for a pile of yellow gold, when a forward young warrior approached a roll of cloth, and after feeling, and remarking on its texture, his itching fingers at last tore off a piece sufficient to make him a breech clout, at the same time he remarked, that he had beaver skins in his lodge, and when the trader got well, he would pay his demands. The trader's men stood dumb, and making no effort to prevent the young pillager from carrying off the cloth, others becoming bold followed his example, and tearing off pieces of calico for shirts, cloth for blankets, the goods spread out to dry soon disappeared at a very uncertain credit.
The young pillagers taking their trophies to the lodges, the excitement in the village became general, as each person became determined to possess a share of the trader's remaining bales. The crediting of the goods was now changed to an actual pillage, and the only anxiety evinced by the Indians, men, women, and children, was, who would secure the greatest quantity. A keg of fire water being discovered in the course of the ransacking the sick trader's outfit, added greatly to the excitement and lawlessness of the scene, and the men soon becoming unmanageable and dangerous, the rifled trader was obliged quickly to embark in his empty canoe, and leave the inhospitable camp of the Ojibways to save his life. It is said that he died of the sickness from which he was suffering, at Sauk Rapids, on his way down the Mississippi.
From this circumstance, this band of the Ojibways became known amongst their fellows (who generally very much deprecated this foolish act), by the name of Pillagers, and the creek on which the scene we have described was enacted, is known to this day as Pillage Creek.
At this time the Upper Mississippi bands had no regular trader to winter among them, and they were obliged to make visits each summer to La Pointe, Sault Ste. Marie, and Mackinaw, to procure the necessaries which their intercourse with the whites had learned them to stand in absolute need, such as clothing, arms, and ammunition, and to want, such as fire water. The few traders who had occasionally paid them visits, during this period in their history, had come from the direction of Lake Superior, and the trader who was pillaged, is the first they tell of having come from the Lower Mississippi.
The conduct of the Pillagers in this affair, was generally censured by their more peaceful fellows as foolish and impolitic, as it would tend to prevent traders from coming amongst them for fear of meeting with the same treatment. To make up, therefore, for their misconduct, as well as to avert the evil consequences that might arise from it, the Pillagers on the ensuing spring, gathered a number of packs of beaver skins and sent a delegation headed by one of their principal men to the British fort at Mackinaw, to appease the ill-will of the whites, by returning an ample consideration for the goods which they had pillaged. The British commandant of the fort received the packs of beaver, and in return he assured the Pillagers of his goodwill and friendship towards them, and strengthened his words by giving their leader a medal, flag, coat, and bale of goods, at the same time requesting that he would not unfurl his flag, nor distribute his goods, until he arrived into his own country.
With this injunction, the Pillager chief complied, till he landed at Fond du Lac, where, anxious to display the great consequence to which the medal and presents of the British had raised him in his own estimation, he formally called his followers to a council, and putting on his chief's coat, and unfurling his flag, he untied his bale of goods, and freely distributed to his fellows. Shortly after, he was taken suddenly sick, and retiring to the woods, he expired by himself, as the discovery of his remains afterwards indicated. All of those who had received a portion of the goods also fell sick, one after another, and died. The sickness became general, and spreading to different villages, its fearful ravages took off a large number of the tribe. It proved to be the smallpox, and many of the Ojibways believed, and it is a common saying to this day, that the white men purposely inflicted it on them by secreting bad medicine in the bale of goods, in punishment for the pillage which the Leech Lake band had commit on one of their traders.
This was a serious charge, and in order to ascertain if it was really entertained by the more enlightened and thinking portions of the tribe, I have made particular inquiries and flatter myself that I have obtained from the intelligent old chief of the Pillagers, a truthful account of the manner in which the smallpox was, on this occasion, actually introduced among the Ojibways.
A war party of Kenistenos, Assineboines, and Ojibways, was once formed at the great Kenisteno village, which was at this time located on Dead River, near its outlet into the Red River of the North. They proceeded westward to the waters of the Ke-che-pe-gan-o, or Missouri River, till they came to a large village of the Gi-aucth-in-ne-wug (Gros Ventres), which they surrounded and attacked. Through some cause which they could not at first account for the resistance made to their attack was feeble. This they soon overcame, and the warriors rushing forward to secure their scalps, discovered the lodges filled with dead bodies, and they could not withstand the stench arising therefrom. The party retreated, after securing the scalps of those whom they had killed, among which was the scalp of an old man who must have been a giant in size, as his scalp is said to have been as large as a beaver skin. On their return home, for five successive nights, this scalp, which had been attached to a short stick being planted erect in the ground, was found in the morning to lean towards the west. This simple occurrence aroused the superstitious fears of the party, and when, on the fourth day, one of their number died, they threw away the fearful scalp, and proceeded homeward with quickened speed. Every day, however, their numbers decreased, as they fell sick and died. Out of the party, which must have numbered a considerable body of warriors, but four survived to return home to their village at Dead River. They brought with them the fatal disease that soon depopulated this great village, which is said to have covered a large extent of ground, and the circumstance of the great mortality which ensued on this occasion at this spot, in the ranks of the Kenisteno and Assineboine, has given the river the name which it now bears Ne-bo, or Death River. In trying to run away from the fatal epidemic, the Ojibways of this village spread the contagion to Rainy Lake, which village also it almost depopulated. From thence by the route of Pigeon River it reached Lake Superior at Grand Portage, and proceeded up the lake to Fond du Lac, where its ravages were also severely felt, and where the Pillager party on their return from Mackinaw caught the infection, and taking it to Sandy Lake, but a few of their number lived to reach their homes at Leech Lake, where it is said to have stopped, after having somewhat lessened the number of the Pillagers. The large village of Sandy Lake suffered severely, and it is said that its inhabitants became reduced to but seven wigwams.
The loss of lives occasioned by this disease in the tribes of the allied Kenistenos and Assineboines, amounted to several thousands. And the loss among the Ojibways, as near as can be computed from their accounts at the present day, amounted to not less than fifteen hundred, or two thousand. It did not, luckily, spread generally, over the country occupied by the tribe, and its ravages were felt almost exclusively in the section and villages which have been designated.
- ↑ Henry found "Pillagers" in 1775 at Lake of the Woods.—E.D.N.