History of the Ojibway Nation/Chapter 22
CHAPTER XXII.
CONTINUED PROGRESS OF THE OJIBWAYS ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI DURING THE END OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
As beaver, and the larger animals, such as buffalo, elk, deer, and bear, decreased in the immediate vicinity of Leech and Sandy Lakes, the hardy bands of Ojibways who had taken possession of these beautiful sheets of water, were obliged to search further into the surrounding country for the game which formed the staple of life. It became customary for these two pioneer bands to meet by appointment, every fall of the year, at Gull Lake, or at the confluence of the Crow Wing with the Mississippi; and from thence to move in one collected camp into the more plentifully supplied hunting grounds of the Dakotas.
The camp, consisting of between fifty and a hundred light birch bark wigwams, moved by short stages from spot to spot, according to the pleasure of the chiefs, or as game was found to abound in the greatest plenty. This mode of hunting was kept up from the first fall of snow at the commencement of winter, to the month of February, when the bands again separated, and moved back slowly to their respective village sites, to busy themselves with the manufacture of sugar, amidst the thick groves of the valuable maple which was to be found skirting the lakes of which they had taken possession. As a general fact the women only occupied themselves in the sugar bushes, while the men scattered about in small bands, to hunt the furred animals whose pelts at this season of the year were considered to be most valuable. When sugar-making was over and the ice and snow had once more disappeared before the warmth of a spring sun, the scattered wigwams of the different bands would once more collect at their village sites, and the time for recreation, ball-playing, racing, courtship, and war, had once more arrived. If no trader had passed the winter amongst them, many of the hunters would start off in their birch canoes to visit the trading posts on the Great Lakes, to barter their pelts for new supplies of clothing, ammunition, tobacco, and fire-water.
If any one had lately lost relatives, naturally, or at the hands of the Dakotas, now was the proper time to think of revenge; and it is generally at this season of the year that war parties of the red men prowled all over the north-western country, searching to shed each other's blood.
According to invariable custom, the Ojibway mourns for a lost relative of near kin, for the space of one year; but there are two modes by which he can, at any time, wipe the paint of mourning from his face. The first is through the medium of the Meda, or grand medicine, which, to an Indian, is a costly ordeal. The next is to go to war, and either to kill or scalp an enemy, or besmear a relic of the deceased in an enemy's blood. This custom is one of their grand stimulants to war, and the writer considers it as more fruitful of war parties, than the more commonly believed motive of satiating revenge, or the love of renown.
The spring of the year is also the favorite time for the performance of the sacred grand Meda-we rites. The person wishing to become an initiate into the secrets of this religion, which the old men affirm the Great Spirit gave to the red race, prepares himself during the whole winter for the approaching ceremony. He collects and dries choice meats; with the choicest pelts he procures of the traders, articles for sacrifice, and when spring arrives, having chosen his four initiators from the wise old men of his village, he places these articles, with tobacco, at their disposal, and the ceremonies commence. For four nights, the medicine drums of the initiators resound throughout the village, and their songs and prayers are addressed to the master of life. The day that the ceremony is performed, is one of jubilee to the inhabitants of the village. Each one dons the best clothing he or she possesses, and they vie with one another in the paints and ornaments with which they adorn their persons, to appear to the best advantage within the sacred lodge.
It is at this season of the year also, in which, while the old men are attending to their religious rites, and the lovers of glory and renown are silently treading the war path, the young men amuse themselves in playing their favorite and beautiful game of baug-ah-ud-o-way, which has been described in a former chapter, as the game with which the Ojibways and Sauks captured Fort Michilimacinac in the year 1763.
The women also, at this season of the year, have their amusements. The summer is the season of rest for these usual drudges of the wild and lordly red hunters. Their time, during this season, is generally spent in making their lodge coverings and mats for use during the coming winter, and in picking and drying berries. Their hard work, however, again commences in the autumn, when the wild rice which abounds in many of the northern inland lakes, becomes ripe and fit to gather. Then, for a month or more, they are busied in laying in their winter's supply.
When the rice-gathering is over, the autumn is far advanced, and by the time each family has secreted their rice and other property with which they do not wish to be encumbered during the coming winter's march, they move once more in a body to the usual rendezvous at Gull Lake, or Crow Wing, to search for meat on the dangerous hunting grounds of their enemies. In those days which we now speak of, game of the larger species was very plentiful in this region of country, where now the poor Ojibway, depending on his hunt for a living, would literally starve to death.
As an illustration of the kind and abundance of animals which then covered the country, it is stated that an Ojibway hunter named No-ka, the grandfather of the Chief White Fisher, killed in one day's hunt, starting from the mouth of Crow Wing River, sixteen elk, four buffalo, five deer, three bear, one lynx, and one porcupine. There was a trader wintering at the time at Crow Wing, and for his winter's supply of meat, No-ka presented him with the fruits of this day's hunt. This occurred about sixty-five years ago, when traders had become more common to the Ojibways of the Upper Mississippi. It is from this old warrior and stalwart hunter, who fearlessly passed his summers on the string of lakes which form the head of the No-ka River, which empties into the Mississippi nearly opposite the present site of Fort Ripley, that the name of this stream is derived.
Long Prairie, the present site of the Winnebago agency, was at this time the favorite winter resort of those bands of the Dakota tribe now known as the Warpeton and Sisseton. It was in the forests surrounding this isolated prairie, that herds of the buffalo and elk took shelter from the bleak cold winds which at this season of the year blew over the vast western prairies where they were accustomed to feed in summer; and here, the Dakotas, in concentrated camps of over a hundred lodges, followed them to their haunts, and while they preyed on them towards the west, the guns of the Ojibways were often heard doing likewise towards the east. The hunters of the two hostile camps prowled after their game in "fear and trembling," and it often happened that a scalp lock adorned the belt of the hunter, on his return at evening from his day's chase.
The chiefs of the two camps, and the older warriors deeply deprecated this state of affairs, as it resulted only in the perpetual "fear and trembling" of their wives and children, and caused hunger and want often to prevail in camp, even when living in the midst of plenty. Efforts were made to bring about a peaceable meeting between the two camps, which were at least crowned with success, and it soon became customary, let the war rage ever so furiously during all other seasons. The pipe of peace was smoked each winter at the meeting of the two grand hostile hunting camps, and for weeks they would interchange friendly visits, and pursue the chase in one another's vicinity, without fear of harm or molestation.
The Ojibways assert, that when the two camps first neared each other in the fore part of winter, and the guns of the enemy whom they had fought all summer, and whose scalps probably still graced their lodge poles, were heard booming in the distance, towards Long Prairie, they were generally the first to make advances for a temporary peace, or as they term it in their euphonious language, to create pin-dig-o-daud-e-win (signifying, "to enter one another's lodges"). Their grudge against the Dakotas was never so deep seated and strong as that which this tribe indulged against them, probably from the fact that their losses in their implacable warfare, included not their ancient village sites, and the resting places of their ancestors.
No sooner, therefore, than the guns of the Dakotas announced their vicinity, than the war chiefs of the Ojibway camp would collect their warriors, and well armed, and prepared for battle if necessary, but taking with them the sacred peace pipe, they would proceed at once to find the enemies' camp. Arrived in sight, they would place the bearer of the peace pipe, and the banner carriers in front, and march fearlessly into the camp of the Dakotas, prepared to act according to the manner of their reception. The Dakotas, surrounded by their women and children, whose safety was dear to them, though probably their hearts were filled with gall and thoughts of vengeance, never refused on these occasions to run out of their lodges and salute the Ojibways with the firing of guns, and in great ceremony to smoke from the stem of their proffered peace pipe. During these first and sudden salutations, it is told that bullets often whizzed close by the ears of the Ojibways, as if their new friends were shooting to try how near they could come to the mark without actually hitting. When the peace party has been few in numbers, and the camp of the enemy large, it has been only through the most strenuous efforts of the wiser warriors, that blood has not been shed. The first excitement once over, and the peace pipe smoked, the Dakotas, smoothing down their angry looks, would invite the Ojibways into their lodges, and feast them with the best they possessed.
In this manner were the returns of temporary peace effected between these two warlike people. And when once the "good road" had been broken in this manner, interchanges of friendly visits would become common, and it often happened that during the winter's intercourse of the two camps, a Dakota chief or warrior taking a fancy to an Ojibway, would exchange presents with him, and adopt him as a brother. This the Ojibways would also do. These adopted ties of relationship were most generally contracted by such as had lost relations in the course of their feud, and who, in this manner, sought to fill the void which death had made in the ranks of his dearest friends.
These ties, temporary and slight as they may seem, were much regarded by these people, and it has often happened in the course of their ever renewed warfare, that Ojibway and Dakota has saved the life of an adopted brother in times of trouble, of massacre, and battle; and whenever these ties have been disregarded or grossly violated, the occurrence is told in their lodge tales, in terms to teach the rising generation never to do likewise.
In the course of their history, there are many instances in which these temporary lulls of peace have been suddenly broken by some one or more foolish young men of either tribe, taking advantage of the security in which their former enemy temporarily reposed, and taking the life of some stray hunter. The most important of these instances and those to which the direct consequences have accrued, will be related in the future course of our narrative.
Illustrative of the manner in which these peace lulls were generally broken, and of the strong propensity existing in the Indian character for revenge, I will here introduce a tale which I obtained from the lips of Esh-ke-bug-e-coshe, the chief of the Pillagers:
INDIAN REVENGE.
Esh-ke-bug-e-coshe, the present living chief of the Pillagers[1] relates of his deceased father, whose name was Wa-son-aun-e-qua (signifying, "Yellow Hair"), that he was not a chief by hereditary descent, but that he gained a gradual ascendency over the minds of the fearless Pillagers, through his supreme knowledge of medicine, especially such as destroyed life. He possessed a most vindictive and revengeful temper. Injury was never inflicted on him, but he retaliated twofold; and it is said that persons who fell beneath his displeasure, lost their lives in a sudden and unaccountable manner. His people feared him; and he came to be treated with the greatest respect and first consideration. It happened one winter, that the allied camps of the Pillagers and Sandy Lake band met the camp of the Dakotas at Long Prairie, and as it had become usual, a temporary peace was effected. During the friendly intercourse which ensued between the two tribes, a Dakota warrior of some note, belonging to the War-pe-ton band, gave presents to Yellow Hair, and requested to be termed his brother. The presents were accepted, and these two warriors of hostile tribes treated one another as brethren, during the course of the whole winter. Yellow Hair had partly learned to speak the language of his adopted brother, having formerly taken to wife, a Dakota captive woman, and he now learned to speak it with greater ease and fluency. A lasting peace was discussed between the elders of the two camps, and a mutual understanding was made between them to meet in peace during the summer, at certain points on the Mississippi River.
As the time for making sugar approached, the camps of the two tribes separated, in peace and good-will, and they moved slowly back, each to their village. It happened that Yellow Hair remained behind the main camp of his people, for the purpose of hunting a few days longer in the vicinity of Long Prairie. His camp, consisting of four lodges, was located on the woody shores of a little lake, which lay partly embosomed in a deep forest, while one end barely peeped out on the smooth and open prairie.
On the ice of this lake, the boys of the four lodges were accustomed to go out and play, throwing before them their shosh-e-mans, or little snow slides, and as no fear of an enemy prevailed in the breasts of their parents, they were allowed to go thither, whenever they listed. One morning, after Yellow Hair had started on his usual day's hunt, and the mother of his children was attending to her within-door duties, a plaintive moaning was heard at the door of the lodge, and the mother, rushing forth, beheld the outstretched form of her oldest boy, painfully crawling homewards through the snow, bleeding and scalpless! The Dakotas had done it! The anguish cry of the mother soon gathered the inmates of the surrounding lodges to her side, and with streaming eyes the women lifted the wounded and mutilated boy into the parents' wigwam—then rushing to the lake on the bloody track which marked his course homewards, they beheld their children, three in number, lying dead and mangled, where the tomahawks of the Dakotas had struck them down.
The Ojibway hunter returned at evening from his day's chase, in time to witness the last death struggle of his murdered boy, his eldest son. He listened to the bloody tale in silence—no tear dimmed his eye, for the feelings which harrowed his heart could not be satisfied with such a vent. The stem of his pipe seldom left his strongly compressed lips the whole of that night, and the vehemence with which he smoked was the only outward sign he gave of his emotions.
Early in the morning, the camp was raised, and they moved in the direction of Leech Lake, taking with them the corpses of the murdered children. When he had reached the village site of his people, and placed the body of his boy in its last resting place, Yellow Hair, with five comrades, returned on his trail to seek the murderers of his child. At Crow Wing they found the Sandy Lake Ojibways still collected, moving but slowly towards their village. It was not difficult for their fellows to divine their errand, for the treacherous massacre of their children was the common topic on every one's lips. It was, however, supposed that the bloody deed had been perpetrated by the prairie Dakotas, who had not been present at the peace meetings which had taken place during the winter between the hunting camps of the Ojibways and Warpeton, or lower Dakotas.
Under this impression, the chiefs of the Sandy Lake camp, invited Yellow Hair and his five followers to council, and endeavored by every argument, to dissuade them from following the war-path, as they felt anxious to keep up the peace with the Dakotas. Arguments and speeches, however, appeared to produce no effect, and as a last resort, presents were given them sufficient, in Indian custom and parlance, to "cover the graves of their dead children." The determination of Yellow Hair, was, however, inflexible, but as he perceived that his movements would be watched, he at last silently accepted the presents, and left the camp on his homeward track, pretending to have given up his bloody designs. When arrived at a sufficient distance from the camp to prevent an early discovery of the new trail he was about to make, he left the beaten road, and turning back, he avoided the camp, and proceeded towards Long Prairie. From this place he followed up the return trail of the Dakota hunting camp, hoping to catch up with, and wreak his vengeance on them, before they reached their villages. Arrived at Sauk Lake, he discovered a small trail to branch off from the main and deeply beaten path which he had been following. This he followed, and he soon discovered that those who moved on it consisted of but two lodges, and every one of their old encampments, which the eager warriors passed, proved to them that they were fast nearing their prey.
On the head waters of Crow River, nearly two hundred miles from the point of his departure, Yellow Hair at last caught up with the two lodges of his enemies. At the first peep of dawn in the morning, the Dakotas were startled from their quiet slumbers by the fear-striking Ojibway war-whoop, and as the men arose to grasp their arms, and the women and children jumped up in affright, the bullets of the enemy fell amongst them, causing wounds and death. After the first moments of surprise, the men of the Dakotas returned the fire of the enemy, and for many minutes the fight raged hotly. An interval in the incessant firing at last took place, and the voice of a Dakota, apparently wounded, called out to the Ojibways, "Alas! why is it that I die? I thought my road was clear before and behind me, and that the skies were cloudless above me. My mind dwelt only on good, and blood was not in my thoughts."
Yellow Hair recognized the voice of the warrior who had agreed to be his adopted brother during the late peace between their respective tribes. He understood his words, but his wrong was great, and his heart had become as hard as flint. He answered: "My brother, I too thought that the skies were cloudless above me, and I lived without fear; but a wolf came and destroyed my young; he tracked from the country of the Dakotas. My brother, for this you die!"
"My brother, I knew it not,” answered the Dakota—"it was none of my people, but the wolves of the prairies."
The Ojibway warrior now quietly filled and lit his pipe, and while he smoked, the silence was only broken by the groans of the wounded, and the suppressed wail of bereaved mothers. Having finished his smoke, he laid aside his pipe, and once more he called out to the Dakotas:
"My brother, have you still in your lodge a child who will take the place of my lost one, whom your wolves have devoured? I have come a great distance to behold once more my young as I once beheld him, and I return not on my tracks till I am satisfied!"
The Dakotas, thinking that he wished for a captive to adopt instead of his deceased child, and happy to escape certain destruction at such a cheap sacrifice, took one of the surviving children, a little girl, and decking it with such finery and ornaments as they possessed, they sent her out to the covert of the Ojibway warrior. The innocent little girl came forward, but no sooner was she within reach of the avenger, than he grasped her by the hair of the head and loudly exclaiming—"I sent for thee that I might do with you as your people did to my child. I wish to behold thee as I once beheld him," he deliberately scalped her alive, and sent her shrieking back to her agonized parents.
After this cold-blooded act, the fight was renewed with great fury. Yellow Hair rushed desperately forward, and by main force he pulled down one of the Dakota lodges. As he did so, the wounded warrior, his former adopted brother, discharged his gun at his breast, which the active and wary Ojibway adroitly dodging, the contents killed one of his comrades who had followed him close at his back. Not a being in that Dakota lodge survived; the other, being bravely defended, was left standing; and Yellow Hair, with his four surviving companions, returned homeward, their vengeance fully glutted, and having committed a deed which ever after became the topic of the lodge circles of their people.
- ↑ A.D. 1852.