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CHAPTER XIV.

 

PROGRESS OF THE OJIBWAYS ON THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI.

 

The Ojibways force the Dakotas from Cass and Winnepeg lakes—Dakotas concentre their forces at Leech Lake—They make a last effort to beat back the Ojibways—Their great war party is divided into three divisions—One division proceeds against Rainy Lake—One against Sandy Lake—And one against Pembina—They are beaten back—Dakotas retire from Leech Lake—Ojibways take possession—Size and natural advantages of Leech Lake—Dangers of the first Ojibway pioneers on the Upper Mississippi—They hunt in a body under the guidance of their chief Bi-aus-wah—Fitful terms of peace with the Dakotas—Bi-aus-wah puts an end by treaty to the practice of torturing captives—The Ojibway hunters pay yearly visits to the French trading posts on Lake Superior—The more northern bands join the Kenistenos on their trading visits to the British towards Hudson Bay.

 

The band or village of the Ojibways, who had dispossessed the Dakotas of Sandy Lake, under the guidance of their chief Bi-aus-wah, continued to receive accessions to their ranks from the shores of Lake Superior, and continued to gain ground on the Dakotas, till they forced them to evacuate their hunting grounds and village sites on Cass and Winnepeg lakes, and to concentre their forces on the islands of Leech Lake, of which, for a few years, they managed to keep possession.

Being, however, severely harassed by the persevering encroachments of the Ojibways, and daily losing the lives of their hunters from their oft-repeated incursions, and war parties, the Dakotas at last came to the determination of making one concentrated tribal effort to check the farther advance of their invaders, and, if possible, put out forever the fires which the Ojibways had lit on the waters of the Upper Mississippi. They called on the different bands of their common tribe living toward the south and west, to aid them in their enterprise, and a numerous war party is