Page:History of the Ojibway Nation.djvu/195

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DAKOTA WAR RAIDS ON THE OJIBWAYS.
185

their bloody propensities being for the time fully cooled down.

The third division of the Dakotas went northward in the direction of Red River, but not finding any traces of the Ojibways about Pembina, all returned home but ten, who resolutely proceeded into the Kenisteno country, till discovering two isolated wigwams of Ojibway hunters, they attacked and destroyed their inmates with the loss of two of their number. This attack is noted from the circumstance that one of the Dakota warriors who was killed, had been a captive among the Ojibways, and adopted as a son by the famous chief, Bi-aus-wah of Sandy Lake. He was recognized by having in his possession a certain relic of this chieftain, which he had promised to wet with the blood of an enemy, to appease the manes of a departed child in whose stead he had been adopted.

During the same summer in which happened these memorable events in Ojibway history, the Dakotas having been thus severely checked and driven back by their invaders, became hopeless of future success and suddenly evacuated their important position at Leech Lake, and moved westward to the edge of the great western prairies, about the headwaters of the Minnesota and Red Rivers.

A few hardy hunters, mostly of the Bear and Catfish clans, gradually took possession of their rich hunting grounds, and planting their lodges on the islands of Cass, Winnepeg, and Leech Lakes, they first formed a focus around which gathered families from Rainy Lake, Sandy Lake, and Lake Superior, which now form the important villages or bands of the Ojibway tribe, who occupy these important lakes at the present day.

According to Nicollet, "The circuit of Leech Lake, including its indentations, is not less than 160 miles. It is next in size to Red Lake, which is said to be two hun-