History of the Ojibway Nation/Chapter 23
CHAPTER XXIII.
ATTACK OF A WAR PARTY OF DAKOTAS ON A FRENCH TRADING HOUSE, ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI, IN THE YEAR 1783.
Esh-ke-bug-e-coshe, the old chieftain of the Pillagers, who is now[1] beyond his seventieth year, relates that when he was a small boy, not yet able to handle a gun, he was present at a trading house located at the confluence of Patridge, or Pe-na River, with the Crow Wing, when it was attacked by a large war party of Dakotas. The different circumstances of this transaction appear still fresh and clear in the old man's memory, and as he is one of the few Indian story tellers who is not accustomed to exaggerate, and in whose accounts perfect reliance can be placed, I have thought the tale worthy of insertion here, from notes carefully taken at the time I first heard the old chief relate it, as an important incident in the course of his adventurous and checkered life.
The trading house had been built late in the fall by a French trader whom the Indians designated with the name of Ah-wish-to-yah, meaning, a Blacksmith. He had venturously pitched his winter's quarters in the heart of the best hunting grounds on lands at that time still claimed by the Dakotas, but on which the Pillagers were now accustomed to make their fall and winter hunts, undeterred by the fear of their enemies, with whom they continually came in deadly contact, while engaged in the pursuit of the game whose fur procured them the merchandise of the whites.
Being located in a dangerous neighborhood, the trader had erected a rude fence, or barrier of logs, around his dwelling, and the cluster of Indian wigwams containing the women and children of his hunters, which stood a few rods from his door, were also surrounded with felled trees and brush, as a defence against the sudden midnight attack which at any moment they might expect from the Dakotas. Ten hunters had left their families at the camp some days previous, to go and trap beaver which abounded in the vicinity. One night, long before they were expected back, they startled the inmates of the wigwams and trading house from their quiet slumbers, by their sudden arrival. They reported the approach of two hundred Dakotas, who would doubtless attack the party, as they had ever proved enemies to the whites who traded with the Ojibways, and supplied them with the guns and ammunition which made them such able opponents, and who thus gave them the means and power of possessing their best hunting grounds.
The ten hunters had, the day previous to their sudden arrival at the camp, discovered the trail of the enemy, over which the peculiar odor of their tobacco smoke still lingered, discernible to the keen sense of the hunter's nostrils, denoting that the party had but just passed on the trail. The course of the Dakotas led directly towards a small hunting camp which was perfectly defenceless, and which contained the relatives of the ten hunters, who determined, if possible, to save them from certain destruction. In order to effect their purpose, they concluded to turn the course of the war party towards the trading house, where from behind the defences, they hoped to beat them off, while at the same time the report of their guns would warn the scattered hunters in the vicinity, of danger, and collect them to their succor. In order to effect this plan, the ten hunters made a circuit and heading the Dakotas daring the night, while encamped, they crossed their course at right angles, and proceeded straight towards the trading house, judging that in the morning, when the war party fell across their tracks (as they would certainly do), they would eagerly follow them up. The hunters had marched all night, and were consequently several hours in advance of the enemy. These hours were employed by the trader and his people in strengthening the barriers around the house. The trees and logs were hauled by main force from around the wigwams, and piled on the defences, and the women, with the children (among whom was the narrator), were invited to take shelter within the house.
The Indian hunters, together with the trader and several "coureurs du bois," numbered nearly twenty men, capable of bearing arms in defence of the post, against a party judged, by the depth and size of their trail, to number two hundred warriors.
The preparations of the Ojibways and their white allies had hardly been completed, when the enemy made their appearance, on the opposite banks of the river. They leisurely made their usual preparations for battle by adorning their persons with paints, feathers, and ornaments; and relying on their numbers, they bravely crossed the stream on the ice, and commenced the attack on the trading house by discharging clouds of barbed arrows, accompanied with a terrific yelling of the war-whoop. Their comparatively harmless missiles were promptly answered with death-winged bullets, by the trader and his hunters, and such of the Dakotas as approached too near the wooden wall, suffered for their temerity.
The western, or prairie, Dakotas had not as yet generally become possessed of the fatal fire-arm, and on this occasion, in the whole party of two hundred warriors, they hardly numbered half a dozen guns. They fought with the bow and arrow, and in this consisted the safety and salvation of the twenty Ojibway hunters and Frenchmen who fought against such immense odds, and who, being all supplied with fire-arms, easily kept off their numerous assailants.
The only manner in which they were annoyed was by the enemy's shooting their arrows into the air in such a manner as to fall directly into the inclosure, on the heads of its defenders. The more timid were thus forced to retreat into the house for shelter, as for many minutes, the barbed arrows fell as thick as snowflakes, and two of the hunters being severely wounded, were disabled from further fighting.
Having exhausted their arrows without materially lessening the destructive fire of the Ojibways and Frenchmen, the Dakotas having lost a number of their men, finally retreated, first dragging away their dead, whom they threw into holes made in the ice, to prevent their being scalped.
Shortly after their departure, the hunters in the vicinity of the trading house, who had heard the firing attendant on the late fight, arrived one after another to the scene of action, till, at sunset, forty men had collected, all eager for pursuing the retreating enemy. The trader, however, humanely dissuaded them from the enterprise, and as they had lost no lives in the late attack, they were the more easily persuaded to forego their intent.
- ↑ A.D. 1852.