History of the Ojibway Nation/Chapter 31
CHAPTER XXXI.
OJIBWAYS OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI.
Half a century since, there flourished as one of the principal leaders of the Ojibway warriors on the Upper Misissippi, a man whose name was Waub-o-jeeg, or White Fisher (namesake to the celebrated chief who, eighty years ago,[1] led his people against the allied Foxes and Dakotas at the battle of St. Croix Falls). Waub-o-jeeg was a warrior of some distinction. He possessed much influence with, and was loved and respected by his people. His lodge was ever filled with the fruits of the successful chase, to which the hungry were always welcome. His social pipe was ever full, and the stem often passed around among his fellows. He was always foremost in defence of his people, when, as it too often happened, the startling war-whoop of their enemies fearfully broke on the morning stillness of their sleeping encampment! A successful and adventurous hunter, a brave and daring warrior, Waub-o-jeeg, who was ever foremost on the dangerous hunting grounds of the Dakotas, at last, in the prime of life, fell a victim to his courage.
A few years after the battle and massacre at Cross Lake, one summer, while encamped near Mille Lac, in company with another warrior named She-shebe (who had distinguished himself on this bloody occasion), a Dakota war party suddenly fell on them early one morning, and being unprepared to resist the attack, they, with their wives and children, were killed and scalped. Waub-o-jeeg suffered death at the first fire; but She-shebe had time to grasp his gun, and as his foes were eagerly rushing forward to finish their work and secure his scalp, he fired in their midst, killing one Dakota and wounding another, according to their after acknowledgment. The death of these two noted warriors, with their families, created a general excitement throughout the villages of the whole tribe, and the relatives of Waub-o-jeeg lost no time in making preparations to revenge the blow on their enemies. Ba-he-sig-au-dib-ay, or Curly Head, chief of the Lower Mississippi, or Gull Lake Ojibways, took the matter especially in hand, and late in the fall he collected the Sandy Lake warriors at Gull Lake. During the summer, Esh-ke-bug-e-coshe, or Flat Mouth, the Pillager chief, had lost a nephew at the hands of the Dakotas, and to revenge his death, he also collected his warriors, and these two noted chiefs met by appointment, and joined their respective forces at Crow Wing, from which place they jointly led one hundred and sixty warriors into the Dakota country.
In those days, the lands which the Ojibways lately sold to the United States government, lying between Long Prairie and Watab Rivers, on the west side of the Mississippi, and now[2] forming the home of the Winnebagoes, were favorite hunting grounds of the Sisseton and Warpeton Dakotas. They were accustomed to rove through it each autumn, congregated in large camps, for greater security against the Ojibways. On this occasion, the war party of Curly Head and Flat Mouth first discovered the Dakota trail, at the western extremity of Long Prairie, near the present site of the Winnebago agency. Following the trail, they discovered a Dakota encampment consisting of about forty lodges, located on the banks of Long Prairie River, which they determined to attack.
The encampment was surrounded during the night, and at a given signal, early in the morning, the Ojibways fell on the sleeping Dakotas. They fired volley after volley into the defenceless lodges, before a single warrior appeared to resist the attack. The sharp yell of defiance was at last heard issuing from the lips of a Dakota warrior, as he rushed bleeding from his lodge, and took a stand to the fire of the assailants. Yell after yell succeeded his, and following his brave example, form after form were seen issuing from the perforated lodges, till nearly sixty Dakotas stood forth to confront their foes, and defend their families. The fight is said to have been close and most fiercely contested. It lasted till nightfall, when all the Dakota warriors but seven had been shot down, and silenced forever. Of these seven men, the most daring acts of valor are related. Retreating into the lodges, they actually kept off the united force of the Ojibways, and finally compelled them to retreat, leaving behind the rich harvest of scalps which they had hoped to reap.
On this bloody occasion the Dakotas sustained a heavy loss of life—fully as great as their enemies had suffered at Cross Lake. Song-uk-um-ig, or Strong Ground, the elder brother of the late celebrated war-chief Hole-in-the-day, first distinguished himself for bravery in this fight. Though but a mere lad, he was one of the few who daringly ran into the very ranks of the Dakotas to secure the scalp of a fallen warrior. This brave man, who died a few years since, could boast in his time, thirty-six eagle plumes on his head-dress, each denoting an enemy whom he had slain, or a scalp which he had secured in battle, the first of which he earned at Long Prairie fight.
As it afterward appeared by following the movements of the remnants of the Dakota camp, their forty lodges had been reduced, by the attack of the Ojibways, to but five. The loss of the Ojibways was seven killed, besides many severely wounded. Fighting from behind the shelter of trees and embankments of earth hastily thrown up, they had suffered a small loss, considering the length and sanguinary nature of the fight. They captured thirty-six horses, which, however, not being used to manage, they eventually destroyed. The bleaching bones of horse and man are still[3] to be seen on the spot where this bloody occurrence took place. From this event may be dated the final evacuation of the Long Prairie River country by the Dakotas. Enticed by the richness of the hunting grounds, they would sometimes return, in force, but after suffering repeated blows at the hands of the Mississippi war-chiefs, Strong Ground and Hole-in-the-day, they eventually gave up possession and all claim on the country which now[3] forms the home of the Winnebagoes.
It happened that on the same day in which the battle at Long Prairie took place, a large Dakota war party levied from another camp, and attacked a party of Ojibway hunters near Pembina, on the Red River of the north. The Ojibways, under the guidance of their chief Ais-sance, or Little Clam, made a fierce resistance, and succeeded in beating them away from their encampment. The favorite son of the Ojibway chieftain was, however, killed, and he was rifled of a large British medal which he wore conspicuous on his breast. Ais-sance, in the excitement of battle, had not noticed the fall of his beloved son, and he became so exasperated when the Dakotas displayed in the midst of battle the scalp and medal of his son, that he rushed furiously in the midst of their ranks, shot down the boasting Dakota, and cutting off his head, retreated holding it up in triumph, and yelling his war-whoop till he reached a secure shelter behind a tree. So struck were the enemy by this sudden and daring act of valor, that they fired not a shot at the brave warrior till he had reached a place of safety.
The Ojibways were so exasperated at the loss of their young chief, that they fought with unusual fierceness and hardihood, and pursued the Dakotas some distance as they retreated, notwithstanding they were many times outnumbered by them. An Ojibway hunter named Ta-bush-aw, whose wigwam stood some distance from the main camp of Ais-sance, arrived too late on the field to join the fight, but determined to have his share of the sport, and withal a scolding wife causing life to be a burden to him, he followed up the retreating war party on horseback, at night, accompanied by another hunter, named Be-na. They headed the Dakotas, and lying in ambush on their route, they fired into their ranks. Be-na, pursuant to the request of his fellow hunter, immediately retreated, while Ta-bush-aw kept up the fight with the whole Dakota war party, till he fell a victim to his bravery.
Instances are not rare, where warriors have sacrificed their lives in this manner, either for the sake of being mentioned in the lodge tales of their people as brave men, to wipe off the slur of cowardice, which for some cause, some one of their fellow warriors might have cast on them, or more often, through being tired of the incessant scoldings of a virago wife, and other burdens of life equally unendurable, as was the case with Ta-bush-aw.
At this time, the Ojibways occupying the sources of the Mississippi and Red River, had forced the Dakotas to retreat west of these two streams. Hunters from Lake Superior, and even from the Ottoways of Mackinaw, had found their way to the Red River of the North, to trap beaver, and chase the buffalo, which abounded in these regions in great abundance. Thus, a formidable body of the tribe had gradually congregated on this remote northwest frontier, who flourished under the alliance of the Kenisteno and Assineboin tribes, to whom, properly, the country belonged. They joined their wars against the Yancton Dakotas; and thus, on an uninterrupted line from Selkirk's settlement to the mouth of the Wisconsin River, over a thousand miles in length, the Ojibways and Dakotas carried on against one another their implacable warfare, and whitened this vast frontier with each other's bones.
For a number of years, on the headwaters of Thief River (which empties into Red River below Otter Tail Lake), a camp of ten Dakota lodges, succeeded in holding the country by evading or escaping the search of the Ojibway war parties. Here, loth to leave their rich hunting grounds, they lived from year to year in continual dread of an attack from their conquering foes. They built a high embankment of earth, for defence, around their lodges, and took every means in their power to escape the notice of the Ojibways—even discarding the use of the gun on account of its loud report, and using the primitive bow and arrows, in killing such game as they needed. They were, however, at last discovered by their enemies. The Crees and Assineboines, during a short peace which they made with the Dakotas, learned of their existence and locality, and informing the Ojibways, a war party was raised, who went in search of them. They were discovered encamped within their earthen inclosure, and. after a brave but unavailing defence with their bows and arrows, the ten lodges, with their inmates, were entirely destroyed. The embankment of earth is said, by Wa-won-je-quon, the chief of Red Lake (who is my informant on this subject), to be still[4] plainly visible. From this circumstance, the Ojibways named the stream (the headwaters of which the Dakotas had so long secretly occupied), Ke-moj-ake-se-be, literally meaning,"Secret Earth River," which the French, pronouncing Ke-mod-ake, meaning Stealing Earth, has been interpreted into Thief River, by which name it is laid down on Nicollet's Map.